Do I smell corruption or do I smell corruption?

September 13, 2012 and December 13, 2012 Oil and Gas Lease Sales Postponed (click here)

Thick basalt flows (click here) overlay the potential reservoirs, making exploration and development costly. With rising gas prices, advances in technology, and the lack of previous development, there has been a dramatic interest in oil and gas leases in Oregon and Washington in the past few years. Half of the revenue derived from leasing and royalties is returned to the state where the leases are located. Currently there are about 140 federal leases representing about 226,000 acres in Oregon and Washington. There are currently no active oil and gas drilling or exploration sites in Oregon or Washington.

The Kochs are attempting to be the defacto ruler of the USA.

July 21, 2014

By Brendan Fisher and Nick Surgery

Newly-obtained documents (click here) show that the billionaire Koch brothers' political giving is much more expansive than has previously been known.

In addition to the hundreds of millions flowing into politics by way of the Kochs' network of foundations and funding vehicles like Freedom Partners, David Koch writes millions of dollars in personal checks to political organizations every year, and funds from the Koch Industries corporate treasury are used to bankroll the right-wing infrastructure the Kochs have developed. Koch Industries, the company David runs with his brother Charles, is the second-largest privately-held company in the country.

In some cases, Koch giving through largely untraceable personal or corporate checks outstrips the known donations made through the Koch family foundations and secretive pass-through groups like Freedom Partners.

Overall, the size of the Koch-funded political universe is vaster than has ever been reported....

...Known donations from David Koch himself include:

• $850,000 to Americans for (Koch) Prosperity in 2003 (making him the top donor that year), $1 million to AFP in 2001, and $1 million to AFP's predecessor Citizens for a Sound Economy in 2000
• $100,000 to the Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2009
• $125,000 to the Massachusetts-based State Policy Network member think tank Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research in 2007 (making Koch the largest single donor that year), and $100,000 to the Pioneer Institute in 2005
• $25,000 to the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom in 2009
• $150,000 to the Bill of RIghts Institute in 2011
• $400,000 to the Institute for Humane Studies in 2007...

July 19, 2014

By Dana Tims

The conversation blew up Friday (click here) after we posted a story looking at two national stories detailing major media ad buys in Oregon by a group affiliated with the conservative Koch brothers.

The stories, which ran in The Washington Post and Politico, said Freedom Partners, on behalf of Oregon Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Monica Wehby, has purchased upward of $2 million worth of ads in at least four Oregon markets -- Portland, Eugene, Bend and Medford.

We called a television station in Medford and talked to the general sales manager, who confirmed that Freedom Partners has bought 13 weeks worth of ads. They'll start running Aug. 8.

Within an hour of our post going up on OregonLive, readers had weighed in with more than 150 comments. As we're preparing this roundup, that number has now nearly doubled....

Cigarette taxes in NY did not kill Eric Garner. Hannity is a sick man.

Eric Garner, right, poses with his children during during a family outing in this undated family photo provided by the National Action Network, Saturday, July 19, 2014.

Eric Garner was a good man with a family he loved and children he was raising to be successful. He was proud of his children. When the nation should be proud of successful minority families, it would seem the profile doesn't fit the stereotypes of police.

July 21, 2014
By Josh Margolin and Mark Crudele

The four EMTs (click here) who responded to the scene where New York City cops had taken Eric Garner down after an apparent chokehold and he died an hour later have been suspended without pay while their actions are being investigated.

The Fire Department of New York, which handles citywide emergency medical dispatch, on Sunday barred them from responding to 911 calls. The latest move is by Richmond University Medical Center, which employs them. The hospital declined to explain the decision.

"The EMTs are suspended without pay while the investigation continues as they are placed on operational restriction," the hospital said in a statement announcing the move. "This restriction means they are not working at this hospital or throughout the 911 system. Richmond University Medical Center continues to fully cooperate as this matter is under investigation."...

While the EMTs are part of the picture, they did not cause the reason for the necessity for EMTs to respond. The responsibility for Mr. Garner's death falls to the police department.

I find the entire circumstance around this man's death extremely strange.

To begin with if this was about Mr. Garner conducting an unlicensed business in selling cigarettes it required the delivery of a summons to the municipal court, not an arrest. If he was conducting a large volume of merchandising of untaxed cigarettes on the streets of NY then where was the ATF? 

July 21, 2014
By Brad Health
...At least 91% of the people agents (click here) have locked up using those stings were racial or ethnic minorities, USA TODAY found after reviewing court files and prison records from across the United States. Nearly all were either black or Hispanic. That rate is far higher than among people arrested for big-city violent crimes, or for other federal robbery, drug and gun offenses.

The ATF operations raise particular concerns because they seek to enlist suspected criminals in new crimes rather than merely solving old ones, giving agents and their underworld informants unusually wide latitude to select who will be targeted. In some cases, informants said they identified targets for the stings after simply meeting them on the street....

Just for the record, the 'idea' of selling single cigarettes to people who cannot afford a pack isn't really the focus of the ATF. Why is it the focus of NYPD? 

...Illicit tobacco trade, (click here) which includes smuggling, bootlegging and related tax evasion schemes, is a major global problem....

Mr. Garner would never be the focus of a federal probe. Why was he the focus for New York? This is hideous. Completely hideous and a man is dead because the police aren't rounding up murderers and those smuggling drugs and tobacco into the country. There were at least seven police involved in the death of Mr. Garner. Really?

The real grim reaper is Wall Street.

It would seem as though Wall Street is already picking over the bones of Malaysian Airlines. It is disgusting to say the least.

There is every indication there may have been people alive in their fall to Earth after the missile hit the Malaysian Airliner. The reports coming from the crash site describes people intact still strapped into their seats with clothing and jewelry.

No one could ever survive the fall. The person falling through the sky IF there was enough oxygen to support them at 33,000 feet when the initial missile exploded would have met death as soon as their seat hit the ground. The velocity alone may have proved too much for the human respiratory system to actually breath.

I was more than impressed that Russia has consented to a UN resolution regarding this tragedy. With all the anger leveled at Russia, it's current leadership is attempting to rise above the anger to bring about an understanding they are willing to be a part of the global consensus to resolve all there is to resolve.

Russia has sincere responsibility to bring about a reality to this event as they were monitoring their border with eastern Ukraine. But, Russia also has to realize the separatists that appear to be the people responsible for this tragedy identify themselves with an overthrow of a sovereign nation in Ukraine. The dissolution of the treaty was an impetus to the separatists current standing, buoyed by the Russian hubris regarding the Crimean Peninsula. Now, while that seems like an insult to Russia, the treaty was an international document.

Russia should build it's way back to status by recapturing the spirit of the treaty and return it's status to secure the borders and economy of Ukraine. If Russia willed the end of the separatist movement by returning an international treaty to it's status it would limit any legitimate reason for the continued conflict and would place Ukraine and Russia on the same side against any violence within Ukraine borders.

July 19, 2014

Red Reed Contributor

After two fatal crashes (click here) in five months, Malaysia Airlines faces a high barrier to continued operations, because history shows that the combination of crashes and financial difficulties has repeatedly contributed to carriers’ demise.

Aviation consultant Bob Mann said Malaysia Airlines’ continued existence was already threatened by poor financial results, particularly following the March 8 disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370.  The crash of Flight 17, shot down over Ukraine on Thursday, “is not going to help,” he said.

Although Malaysia Airlines is highly regarded for its service levels, “there’s a big distinction between service quality and technical merit, on the one hand, and being financially solvent enough to be around,” Mann said....

As far as Malaysian Airlines, it has a future. There are many people employed within an airline once considered a superior flight company. There will be no doubt some struggles until responsibility is assigned to this current tragedy, but, I doubt anyone wants it to fail.

The UN needs to invoke standards as to when a region of the world cannot be trusted for commercial flights. This was obviously a surprise in the missile launch that killed 285 people. It was hardly Malaysian Airlines fault as it was as naive as any other airline in route from Europe that day.

Wall Street needs to find CIVILITY within it's ranks as it would actually prevent financial failure as if it needs to reminded about financial failures. It was believed Wall Street was once lined with gentlemen and gentlewomen whom actually conducted business to benefit people. Not wolves looking forward to destroying economic vitality at every OPPORTUNITY. 

I always believed Wall Street's character descriptions was that of bears and bulls. It would seem as though the real character description is a blood thirsty pack of wolves comprised of Alphas competing for the same territory.

It isn't Hamas that doesn't care. Israel is diluted to believe this is not their problem.

Israel has been violating the trust of the Palestinians and the global community for decades now. The last agreement was a "Road Map" in 2003. The original UN partition plan is startling to realize how much land has been lost by the Palestinians. The original partition was from 1947. 

July 21, 2014
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (click here) blamed Hamas on Monday for trying to “pile up the bodies” of its own Palestinian people to generate sympathy while it fires more rockets into Israel — and Hamas responded by pointing the finger back at Israel.

In an interview with NBC News' Brian Williams, Netanyahu said that Israel had no choice but to defend itself and said the Palestinian militants are culpable for mounting civilian casualties.

"They just don’t care," said Netanyahu It’s important to make that clear. They are responsible for all the civilian deaths, which we seek to minimize."...

The whittling away of the Palestinian Territory over sixty-seven years has been astounding and the USA has been right in the middle of it. Every peace process was a more and more allowance to Israel.

I am quite confident everyone knows these maps as well. It is a crime if not a human rights tragedy to realize what blatant power can do to a nation of people.

The Palestinians are being forced to move from their land with a moving border and fence or wall at any whim by Israel. The Palestinian cry for their homeland has been muted by a BRANDING of "Terrorists."

When one considers the impoverishment of these people and their inability to live within their homeland; can it be a branding as terrorists sincerely deserving of their actions? Not anymore. The lack of faith in Israel to settle within borders is a growing concern to the stability of the entire region. What will stop Israel once the Palestinian lands are finally absorbed into it's borders?

I have heard the ranting by Israelis about how after 20 years of occupation any nation of people are entitled to it's borders. Somehow, the land Israel was presented with in 1947 was insufficient and the future would only hold a promise to defeat the rightful inhabitants of more and more of their land. The war and hostilities between these two nations of people GREW over the decades and it isn't Israel that is the aggrieved. 

The USA has been an ally of Israel since it's inception and rightfully so. But, to continue to ignore the problems the Palestinians have faced that have brought them to this precipice is the greatest injustice.

The Palestinians have a right to their homeland and it was President Obama that has called for the return of the 1967 AGREED border swap. That means the Palestinians have a homeland as due Hebrews. 

August 4, 2011
...Israeli officials (click here) said this framework would be a package deal whereby Israel would agree to entering negotiations using the 1967 lines, with mutually agreed upon swaps, as the baseline of talks; and the Palestinians would agree that the final goal of negotiations would be two states, a Palestinian one and Jewish one....

The Palestinians cannot live in mid-air. They cannot live forever on promises while their land disappears before their eyes. The killing has to stop. The peace agreement has to prevail and the border swaps concluded and finalized. We have all had quite enough of the labeling of terrorists while their future disappears as I write this. Israel is wrong. Israel is wrong in every meaning of the word and it has lost the moral stranding to continue their wars against a people unable to defend themselves.

I didn't need a Palestinian to brainwash me. I have watched and listened and supported efforts with Israel as a champion of peace. Israel lost it's moral arguments. They are old words and old images and it is quite enough.

Deaths in Israeli - Palestine conflicts since September 2000.

I agree with Secretary Kerry. Israel simply doesn't bother to engage in policing, it engages in disruption of  lives to drive them from Gaza. The strategy of "...we will continue the assault on Gaza until the rockets stop..." is to provide a reason, not a necessary reason, to remove and/or kill Palestinians while Israel continues it's settlements in West Bank lands.

July 21, 2014
..."It's a hell of a pinpoint operation. (click here) It's a hell of a pinpoint operation," he said during the call, which was broadcast on Fox News Sunday.
While Washington says Israel has a right to defend itself from rocket attacks launched out of Gaza, American diplomats have called on the Israelis to restrict themselves to a precise operation in the ground campaign launched on Thursday.
On Sunday, more than 60 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed as Israel shelled a Gaza neighbourhood and battled militants. Thirteen Israeli soldiers also were killed. Mr Kerry was expected to travel to the Middle East soon to press for a ceasefire.
"We got to get over there," Mr Kerry said in his overheard comments, apparently to an aide. "I think, John, we ought to go tonight. I think it's crazy to be sitting around."...

There was a time when Israel could target militants and kill them once there were known to be hostile to peace policies. I witnessed the exactly measure Israel used without killing innocent people. Today, that technology no longer serves the political narrative in Israel for more Israeli settlements. 

July 19, 2014
By Ben Lynfield
 

The Israeli operation in Gaza (click here) has aroused intense feelings of solidarity among West Bank Palestinians for their Gaza counterparts, fueling anger that could easily be sparked into widespread unrest.
''People can't sit idly and watch their brothers dying in Gaza,'' says Mahdi Abdul Hadi, director of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs. ''What happens in the West Bank now will depend on how far the Israeli army will go ahead with reoccupying and dividing Gaza. It's too early to say but there is anger and frustration among the youth.''
Although there have been localized clashes in the West Bank since the brutal murder of an East Jerusalem teenager, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, was followed by the launch of Israel's Gaza operation, mass protests have been noticeably absent. Although the anger is there, Palestinian security forces' efforts to contain demonstrations coupled with reticence to see a repeat of the violence and chaos of the second intifada seems to have so far curtailed greater action. 
Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority want to see another front of the war open in the West Bank, which is mostly under Israeli military control but contains self-rule enclaves nominally governed by the Palestinian Authority....

More abuse by NYPD. Eric Garner should be alive today.

There have been over 1,000 complaints of New York City police misconduct (click here) in recent years regarding officers’ use of chokeholds, a city agency that is investigating the incidents said days after a man put into hold by police died in Staten Island.
 
The Civilian Complaint Review Board has received charges of about 1,022 instances since 2009 in which New York Police Department (NYPD) officers were accused of using chokeholds. Use of such holds are prohibited by the NYPD’s patrol guidelines, which outline a chokehold as a “any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air.”
Richard Emery, the chairman of the complaint review board, said the agency was “in the unique position of being able to look at the chokehold complaints it has received to attempt to discern why officers continue to use this forbidden practice.”
 
In only nine of the 1,022 instances has the board gathered enough evidence to definitively say a chokehold had been used. In hundreds of other cases, the board did not have enough evidence to make a determination, or the investigations fell apart when the person lodging the allegation could not be reached or stopped cooperating. 

The review board’s study of the incidents was announced on Saturday, two days after Eric Garner, 43, died when officers appeared to use a chokehold - Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has confirmed - in the process of arresting him on a sidewalk in Staten Island.... 

Albequerque is looking for more homeless victims of violence while it's police force is still under surveillance and investigation.

July 21, 2014
By Tracy Connor
The vicious beating death (click here) of two homeless home in Albuquerque, New Mexico — allegedly by three teenagers who claim to have assaulted 50 vagrants in a few months — has detectives trying to track down other victims.

A police spokesman said Monday that investigators are reviewing unsolved homicides and an outreach team is asking transients if they heard about any attacks that may not have been reported, Officer Simon Drobik told NBC News.

"Because of the nature of the violence they committed on these victims, this isn't the first time they done this," Drobik said. "We believe they did commit other crimes like this."...

As the bodies are recovered by their families the question remains to the security of the region with such deadly capacity in the hands of separatists.

Kiev

The train carrying (click here) the remains of the passengers and crew of MH17 left Torez station on Monday evening, Ukraine time, for an airport in the north of the country.
There, the bodies will be transferred to a military aircraft from the Netherlands, and will be flown to that country for forensic examination and identification.
The Ukraine government reached a deal with local separatists to guarantee the train's exit from rebel-held territory, carrying all the bodies so far found at the site - including some partial remains.
However, there remain some concerns that the train may still be delayed, after an attack on rebel-held Donetsk on Monday morning increased tension in the region.
According to the latest figures provided by Ukrainian officials, 282 bodies have been recovered from the crash site, along with 87 fragments of bodies.
It is understood all of these are on board the refrigerated train, which has been waiting to leave Torez station for more than 24 hours while the deal for its safe passage was negotiated.
Eyewitnesses confirmed the train left Torez station at 7pm local time....

...1: The remains of 282 ppl in Torez will be moved by train to Kharkiv where they will be handed over to representatives from the Netherlands.
2: At approx 9pm tonight Ukraine time, the 2 black boxes will be handed over to a M'sian team in Donetsk who will take custody of them.
3: independent international investigators will be guaranteed safe access to the crash site to begin a full investigation of the incident."...

The crash site remains in the depths of violence. It will take awhile to secure the site and interview anyone involved with the recovery of bodies. 

July 22, 2014
Donetsk, Ukraine: The Ukrainian military (click here) on Monday renewed its assault on this rebel-held city, even as international investigators in the region were trying to secure the remains of all 298 passengers and crew killed in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines jet.
Explosions and artillery fire could be heard in central Donetsk from the direction of the city’s train station and airport, and a spokesman for the pro-Russian rebels said there was also fighting near the central market. Portions of the city 40 miles from the crash site were closed off.
“This is a planned offensive,” said a Ukrainian military spokesman, Vladislav Seleznev. The military is trying to push rebels away from the airport, he said. “Aviation and artillery are not aiming at civilian residences. Their only aim is to block the terrorists and fighters.”...

I congratulate State Senator Wendy Davis in calling for funding to support efforts along the Texas border.

At the first indication there was a challenge to the nation to respond to the humanitarian crisis at the USA southern border, State Senator Davis called for Texas funding while seeking reimbursement through federal initiatives. It would seem as though she received her funds and Texas is leading the way in answering the call to protect children from other nations desperate to save their own lives.


July 21, 2014
By Christy Hoppe

The governor’s office (click here) confirmed this morning that Rick Perry will order 1,000 National Guard troops to the Texas border to beef up patrols in South Texas.
But sheriffs along the border said they have not been consulted and question the wisdom of sending military personnel who are not authorized to stop, question or arrest anyone.
“At this time, a lot of people do things for political reasons. I don’t know that it helps,” said Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio, pictured right.
Lucio said deputies, police and the U.S. Border Patrol work well together and that they have been able to handle the small uptick in crime along the border.
“I don’t know what good they can do,” Lucio said of military personnel. “I need people who I can hire who know the community, the language and who can help.”
Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra also told the McAllen Monitor that the Guard troops can’t make arrests and he didn’t know what their objective would be.
“The National Guard — they’re trained in warfare; they’re not trained in law enforcement,” he said. “I need to find out what their actual role is going to be, but I think the money would be better spent giving local law enforcement more funds.”...

This is not rocket science. Governor Perry never spoke with his sherrifs to understand what the sincere SECURITY NEED was.

The current spending by Texas to it's Department of Public Safety is $1.3 million per week. The US House needs to immediately pass the request for funding by President Obama to assist in the efforts of the states to care for child refugees. 

July 19, 2014
By Holly Hennessey-Fiske

...Zamarripa, 27, (click here) is one of 15 reserve deputies brought in to assist the Brooks County Sheriff's Office, whose four deputies have lately found themselves overwhelmed by 911 calls from migrants stranded on the vast ranches that stretch from here to the horizon in all directions.

Then there are the bodies of migrants who didn't make it to retrieve and identify: 42 so far this year.

Most attention to the crisis on the Southwest border has focused in recent weeks on the Rio Grande Valley, where many of the 57,000 unaccompanied children and a large number of families have crossed from Mexico since October, twice last year's total. Many surrender to immigration agents willingly at the Rio Grande, aware that they will be allowed to stay pending immigration court hearings....

Israel has hit a hospital in Gaza. There are no missiles there. Another, Oops?

A family of terrorists, no doubt. 120 militants that posed a risk to Israel should have been arrested with evidence to their crimes and not killed. If Israel justifies it's attacks by the number of killed militants, where does it stop when the dead are 3 innocent Palestinians to 1 militant. This is completely unacceptable. 

Israel did not need to enter Gaza to close tunnels and apprehend any militants coming through the tunnels. A tunnel has two ends.  Those two ends don't migrate to avoid monitoring and arrests. The Palestinian deaths is completely outrageous and unacceptable. Militants are better informants alive than dead. Where does it say being a militant requires a death sentence when all one has done is dig a lousy tunnel?

Where is the ambivalence or confusion in the words, "Ceasefire." 

July 21, 2014

As many as 25 members of one family were reportedly killed when a house in Khan Younis was destroyed overnight

The UN Security Council (click here) has called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.

It comes as US Secretary of State John Kerry heads to Cairo for talks on the crisis amid a mounting death toll.
More than 500 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed since the Israeli offensive began 13 days ago, Gaza's health ministry says.
Twenty Israelis - 18 of them soldiers - have died, Israel says, as it seeks to end rocket fire from Gaza.
Sunday was the deadliest day since the start of Israel's offensive, with 13 Israeli soldiers and more than 100 Palestinians killed.
Israel says it has killed at least 120 militants since Thursday night when it launched a ground offensive, the second phase of a military operation that began on 8 July....