LESBIAN COUSIN OF CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS TO ATTEND THE PROP. 8 HEARING

As the Supreme Court convenes to hear the arguments in the Proposition 8 case, it has emerged the lesbian cousin of Chief Justice John Roberts will be attending. Jean Podrasky, from San Francisco, will be sitting in the area reserved for friends and families during Tuesday’s hearing.

Podrasky has a very personal interest in the case, she wants to marry her partner Grace Fasano, and has campaigned against prop 8.

Podrasky has said previously in an interview with Fortune magazine that she would never ask her cousin his views on gay marriage, out of respect. Chief Justice John Roberts and Jean Podrasky only meet occasionally at family functions.

The Supreme Court is expected to make it’s ruling on the prop 8 case in late June, at the same time it delivers it’s verdict on the DOMA case, also being heard this week.

Read More: The Huffington Post

US SUPREME COURT TO HEAR PROP 8 AND DEFENCE OF MARRIAGE CASES THIS WEEK IN WASHINGTON D.C.

This week the US Supreme Court will begin to hear the cases of the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) in Washington D.C.

On Wednesday March 27th, the court will begin to hear the case as to the constitutionality of DOMA. The 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act’s Section 3. The Act’s pertinent part, reads as follows:

In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

DOMA HISTORY
The court will begin to hear the case of Prop 8 on March 27th.

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CYPRUS IS RUNNING OUT OF TIME TO SECURE BAILOUT

The troubled island nation of Cyprus is running out of time to secure a bailout form it’s eurozone partners this weekend. If it fails to secure the bailout the nation will default on it’s debts, and will go bankrupt. Cyprus needs to raise 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) in order to secure 10 billion euros in loans form the eurozone.

Lawmakers in Nicosia have rejected a plan to raise part of the 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion), by taxing private bank accounts. The banks in Cyprus have been closed all week, and the ECB has told Cyprus to keep them closed until Tuesday, in order to prevent a run on the banks. However, Cypriots have spent the week queuing at ATMS to withdraw as much of their money as possible, fearful of what the government may do.

The European Central Bank has told Cyprus they will not continue to provide emergency funding past Monday, if a plan is not in place to secure the 5.8 billion euros.

The uncertainty has caused stock markets to fall throughout Europe. Russia has been angered by the prospect of bank accounts being taxed, as Cyprus is a favourite place for Russians to do business. However, Germans will be unwilling to be seen to bail out wealthy Russian oligarchs. Cyprus and Russia currently do $¼ trillion of business annually, and Cyprus has debt repayments of $53 billion annually to Moscow. The close business ties between the two nations has led many to speculate that Russia will offer to bailout Cyprus, if Europe will not.

Lawmakers are looking at ways to restructure the countries ailing banks. It looks likely that Laiki Bank will close, with it’s assets moved to other banks. Laiki Bank has suffered heavy loses due to it’s exposure to the Greek debt crisis.

Read More: France 24

PROPOSITION 8 SUPREME COURT HEARING: LINE FORMING

The Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments in the first of two cases on Tuesday. The line began at 4 p.m. on Thursday by paid line stander John Spears. The line formed a full 114 hours in advance, which is even earlier than the line for the Obamacare case, which started about 72 hours before the hearing.

The hearings of oral arguments this week will include California’s Proposition 8, which addresses gay marriage, on Tuesday and the Defense of Marriage Act on Wednesday. According to the Supreme Court Hearing List, Proposition 8 is to have about and hour for their arguments and the Defense of Marriage Act Jurisdiction will have 50 minutes and Merits will have an hour for their arguments.

Read More – Huffington Post: Supreme Court Gay Marriage Line Forms Even Earlier Than Obamacare Queue

HUGE SNAKEHEAD SYMBOLIZES INVASIVE-SPECIES PROBLEM IN FLORIDA | MCCLATCHY- DALAI LAMA INVOLVEMENT?

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“We knew right away,” said Gestring, biological administrator of the FWC’s non-native fish research lab in Boca Raton. “It was definitely the largest one we have ever collected.”

The snakehead has caused considerable concern outside Florida, where the discovery of a close cousin to the bullseye, the Northern snakehead, spawning in a Maryland pond in 2002, triggered a media feeding frenzy akin to the one surrounding the Burmese python in the Everglades.

Scientists fear that snakeheads, predators that will eat just about anything and are generally larger than most native freshwater fish, could take a big bite out of local populations if they spread unchecked. The fish’s freakier attributes added to the curiosity. Much like the infamous walking catfish touted as a scourge of the Everglades in the 1960s, snakeheads can survive out of water for several days. And like the catfish, a few species purportedly can wiggle across short distances on land on their fins.

Read more here including comments like the one below:
Comments:
” released by aquarium owners…Asian breeders…” probably not…

Probably released by the Dahli Llama and Buddhist monks who asked for and received permission to ” practice their beliefs “. In a pre-announced plan and over a few years, they visited every headway of every major river and lake in the US, chanting over the headwaters at lakes and rivers and shores in a language Americans didn’t understand yet smiled approval over in the many photographed accounts in newspapers. Wisdom?

These men released into the waters, objects; symbols- live and dead, which they ” brought with them and had prayed over ” that their chants and live symbols would ” travel the waterways of America and enter and live in all waters here.”

And so they did.

Similar work of Buddhists covered Central Park in NYC a few years ago; colorful banners were placed throughout the park as ” a work of art “. When the passive display of ” art ” became interactive, the monks began to chant in unison, appearing red robed under hundreds of yellow-gold banner-flags atop high poles.

When the chanting and horn blowing began, which released predetermined notes in a range believed by Buddhists to worship and reach the dead. It was a success. All birds and creeping things left the park. Dogs on leashes lowered to the ground, some howling. It was reported as an unexplainable coincidence.

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SENATE DROPS ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN FROM GUN CONTROL BILL

The Democrat controlled Senate has decided to drop the assault weapons ban in the gun control bill. The leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, dropped the ban from the bill on Tuesday. Californian Senator Dem. Diane Feinstein, who sponsored the measure, said she is “disappointed” that the ban was dropped from the bill, but has said she will offer the ban as an amendment.

ATT00373

Read More: Fox News

CHEMICAL WEAPONS HAVE BEEN DEPLOYED IN SYRIA

The deadly civil war in Syria has taken a turn for the worse with a chemical weapons attack on a southern suburb of Aleppo. The regime have blamed rebels for the attack which has left 25 dead, and many suffering from breathing problems. Russia has also said that it has seen evidence that rebels were responsible for the attack.

However, rebel forces have said they lack the capabilities to deploy chemical weapons, blaming the regime. Western nations have been skeptical of reports that rebels carried out the attack.

With White House spokesman Jay Carney saying, “We are deeply skeptical of a regime that has lost all credibility and we would also warn the regime against making these kinds of charges as any kind of pretext or cover for its use of chemical weapons.”

President Obama has previously warned the Syrian regime against deploying chemical weapons, saying it was a “red line” that could lead to US intervention.

A Reuters photographer in the area has spoken of smelling chlorine in the air after the attack, saying “I saw mostly women and children. They said that people were suffocating in the streets and the air smelt strongly of chlorine.”

Read More: The Telegraph

CYPRUS BAILOUT DEAL MAY SEE BANK ACCOUNTS TAXED

The small European island nation of Cyprus faces bankruptcy if they do not receive a €10 billion bailout from Brussels. However, part of the bailout deal under discussion will see a one off levy on all bank savings. The deal will see small saving up to €100,000 taxed at 6%, and deposits over €100,000 taxed at nearly 10%.

The proposals have angered Cypriots who feel betrayed by Brussels and their government. Many see the levy as a way for the eurozone to access the vast deposits in Cyprus made by wealthy Russians. As well as the proposed bank account tax Cyprus also faces the same strict spending cuts and tax hikes Greece has experienced as part of their bail-out deal.

The Cypriot government was due to vote on the bail-out package today, but the vote has been postponed until tomorrow, over fears the government would lose the vote.

The uncertainty caused by the bailout deal has seen markets slide across Europe and America and many have argued that a tax on savings will see investors pulling their money from Europe in general.

Banks in Cyprus will remain closed until Wednesday, over fears of a run on the banks, as people have been withdrawing as much as they can from ATM’S over the last 24 hours.

Read More: BBC

VET PSYCHOLOGIST SAVED MANY COULDN’T ESCAPE DEMONS

Capt. Peter J.N. Linnerooth was an amazing Army psychologist who served in Baghdad, Iraq. He was nicknamed “The Wizard” by his colleagues because of his “magic” ability to help people through the most horrific situations by creating a rapport with empathy and a big heart. He had been concerned with the mental health and suicide rate of soldiers even before working with them.

Many soldier leaned on him as he served thousands in the camps and was called on to do a myriad of jobs that he was not trained to do, but did anyway just to help out. He blasted heavy medal music to drown out the outside world while in his office. Yet, when he was able to sleep, he took all of his personal images and those of the soldiers he talked with and dreamt of them vividly.

There were only three mental health personnel for the camp, and he was the only one with a Doctorate of Psychology. While on tour, he ended up on anti-depressants, as did one of his colleagues. He had finally come to the point where he just didn’t know how to handle all of the stories and things he had seen any longer. He went to one of the doctors. The doctor asked if he was going to hurt himself. He responded he didn’t know. He would be leaving as a suicide risk. His own demons and those of others had become too much for him to bear.

In 2007, just a few months short of his 15 month tour, he was sent to Germany and then home. In 2008, after 6 years in the army, he tried to get back into the life he had left behind as a professor, but the trivialness of the concerns of the students and his inability deal with what he had been through made that tough. He nearly overdosed on pills in 2009 in an attempt to just make the pain stop. He realized his mistake and regretted the pain he brought to his wife and kids. He went to marriage counseling to try and save what was left of the life he knew, but he still wasn’t able to talk. His marriage crumbled and ended in divorce.

His behavior at work had brought a friend to suggest a leave of absence so he could get himself together. He headed out to California to get help from his friend Brock McNabb whom was one of the others on the mental health team in Baghdad.

Linnerooth joined McNabb at the Santa Cruz County Vet Center. There he seemed to turn his life around. He lost some weight, shaved his long beard, and spent his evenings talking with McNabb. He kept in contact with his children on the phone nightly and by Skype, sometimes just watching them watch TV. He was helping vets while he himself was also dealing with his PTSD.

In 2010, he started to speak out more on the pressures and stress on military psychologists. He talked to the New York Times and Time Magazine about how there just weren’t enough mantel health experts to deal with all the needs of the soldiers. In the magazine, he also accused the Army of being criminally negligent. He then joined another former Army psychologist, Bret Moore whom he had befriended in Iraq, to write an academic paper about professional burnout. He was finally getting all of the things he had held in so long out of him in a more productive manner.

In July 2011, Linnerooth seemed happy enough and became married for the second time in Lake Tahoe to a woman he had met a decade before. This marriage became strained as well though. He also began missing deadlines for the academic paper. Moore had to go over all of Linnerooth’s work because there was so much anger toward the military as well as his personal life reflected. An American Psychological Association journal published the paper in 2011.

He moved to Reno to be with his new wife and to work for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Unfortunately, as he approached a two-year deadline for a state license required by the VA, he did not go take the test, even at teh urging of McNabb. He felt betrayed once again when the VA was forced to let him go, even though they had stated they would rehire him when he completed the requirements necessary for the position.

Last summer Linnerooth moved back to Minnesota so he could see his children daily. He did travel back to California for the birth of his son with his second wife.

During the holidays things were busy. Texts to his mother thanking her for the kids gifts. Pictures of his infant son sent to his sister. January 1, 2013 was spent with his older son and plans were being made to visit his infant son again.

On January 2nd, a lethal combination of too much alcohol, a fight with his wife, and a gun ended his life at the age of 42. He left a note giving instructions of what he wanted done from there, but nothing about why he had done the unthinkable, committed suicide. It seemed all the demons he had taken on had finally become too much for him to bear.

Mc Nabb stated Linnerooth did not want to die, he just wanted the pain to end. The man whom had taken on the burdens of so many, never learned how to let his own burdens go. He wanted to help others and not be a burden himself. From the time he was a child, his adoptive mother noticed how he would not open up and instead locked himself in his room to deal with things from a very young age.

Linnerooth’s Army buddies came in from all across the country and celebrated him. They placed a Motorhead T-shirt over his urn as they toasted him with rum and scotch. The next day, his family and friends gathered at Fort Snelling National Cemetery to say their final good-byes.

On a cloudless, 4-degree morning in Minnesota, amid taps and a 21-gun salute, Captain Peter J.N. Linnerooth was laid to rest. McNabb presented Linnerooth’s Bronze Star to his older son and reminded him how proud his dad was of him.

McNabb was given the responsibility of the writing on the headstone. He grappled with how to sum up a man’s life whom had helped so many in 30 characters or less. When the headstone arrived in February, it had the traditional name and military service engraved on it. The epitaph summed up his great deeds to those with the fortune to come his way in few words:
HE SAVED MANY
NOW HE’S HOME.

READ MORE: FOX NEWS

JORGE MARIO BERGOGLIO OF ARGENTINA ELECTED NEW POPE

Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina has been elected the new Pope. Bergoglio, will take the name Pope Francis I.

Pope Francis will be the first non-European Pope in over 1,000 years, and will be the first Jesuit elected to the papacy.

Pope Francis is described as a humble man. His Jesuit roots will bring a renewed focus on social justice.

In his first day in office, Pope Francis shunned security to make a surprise visit to a church in Rome.

Read More: The Telegraph

PUT ME IN CHARGE… WACO TRIBUNE HERALD, WACO, TX

Put me in charge of food stamps. I’d get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho’s, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.

Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I’d do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations.
Then, we’ll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, or smoke, then get a job.

Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks? You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your home” will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried.
If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a “government” job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you.
We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the “common good..”

Before you write that I’ve violated someone’s rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules. Before you say that this would be “demeaning” and ruin their “self esteem,” consider that it wasn’t that long ago that taking someone else’s money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.

If we are expected to pay for other people’s mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices.
The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

NORTH KOREA THREATENS A PREEMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKE AGAINST THE US AS SOON AS MONDAY

North Korea has continued in it’s anti-America rhetoric, today saying they will launch a preemptive strike against the US, as soon as March 11th. North Korea say that American drills in South Korea, due to begin on Monday, are provocation for such a move.

A spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry said: “Since the US is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to ­preemptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest.”

Although it is believed North Korea has enough nuclear material to produce a crude nuclear device, it is not believed they have mastered the technology required to make a nuclear warhead capable of reaching the US.

A few hours after North Korea’s threat the UN security council ruled unanimously to impose tough new sanction on North Korea. The new sanctions are a response to the rogue states recent nuclear testing despite widespread international condemnation.

Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN, said: “North Korea will achieve nothing by continued threats and ­provocations.

“These will only further isolate the country and its people and undermine efforts to promote peace in north east Asia.”

It is hoped the new sanctions will make it harder for North Korea to purchase the materials they need to advance their nuclear program.

Read More: The Mirror

SILVIO BERLUSCONI SENTENCED TO ONE YEAR IN PRISON

Former Italian President has been sentenced to one year in prison for leaking transcripts of police wiretap conversations, which later appeared in a newspaper he owns. The conversations involved a senior member of the centre-left Democratic Party, and were leaked before the 2006 elections. The publication of the documents in the “Il Giornale”,  has been regarded as an attempt to discredit the rival politician.

Mr Berlusconi is set to return to Italian politics after the recent elections. His centre-right group is the second strongest in the Italian parliament.

The sentence will not see Mr Berlusconi behind bars, as under Italian law anyone over the age of 75 who is given a sentence of less than one year does not go to jail, Mr Berlusconi is 76. Mr Berlusconi is also set to appeal the conviction. He is also facing two more charges this month: one for tax fraud, and the other for sex with an under age prostitute.

Read More: The Telegraph

PRESIDENT HAS AUTHORITY TO KILL US CITIZENS ON AMERICAN SOIL SAYS HOLDER

Attorney General, Eric Holder, has said that the President has authority to kill US citizens on American soil using unmanned drones, in “extraordinary circumstances”, like those on 9/11.

President Obama has been critized for his use of “targeted killing” of al-Qaeda suspects overseas. Targeted killing uses unmanned drones to take out individuals who pose a serious threat to US security. The government has used targeted killing to assassinate US citizens in Pakistan and Yemen. Critics argue that targeted killing of al Qaeda suspects has left between 474 and 881 civilians dead, including around 174 children.

Republican Senator Rand Paul has described the latest revelations as “more than frightening”, saying, “It is an affront the constitutional due process rights of all Americans.”

Mr Paul has demanded that the Obama administration clarify it’s position on the subject.

Read More: The Telegraph