Ashton and Alec tell us how they really feel

Just chiming in to say that I'm ashamed of Ashton Kutcher and Alec Baldwin for tweeting their support for Joe Paterno and lamenting his termination. It's a pretty gross spectacle to see two super-famous rich actors who each have like a billion followers support a guy who knew of Jerry Sandusky's secret fetish (boning down on little boys as young as 10 years old) and simply didn't do anything for fear of losing his job.

Now, Ashton says he'll have his people review his tweets before he posts them. People don't seem to realize how pathetic this is. You're a grown ass man and you can't trust yourself enough to not say something supportive of a guy who enabled a child molester so now you're having your entourage make sure your tweets are copacetic? All couched in "Oh, I'm so busy, sometimes I tweet opinions without having all the facts." Bullshit, Kutcher. You'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard about the Sandusky scandal and Joe Paterno's involvement. But it's nice to know that Ashton thinks his fans/followers are all dumb enough to believe such crap.

Their opinions are symbolic of the way this country feels towards giving sports figures carte blanche to commit sex crimes.  Like the high school in Texas that punished the cheerleader who refused to cheer for the basketball player who raped her. It's disgusting!

JP

Still alive.

Sorry about the lack of updates, Readers. I've been hella busy at my new job! Rest assured I still plan on posting articles, so look forward to them in the near future!

JP

TRAGEDY AT A HOUSTON DAY-CARE; JESSICA TATA, PERPETRATOR OF THE UNTHINKABLE

Thursday, February 24th 2011.

A 23-year old daycare operator named Jessica Tata--who had committed arson when she was a student at Taylor High School in Katy--leaves 7 toddlers alone in her house so she can make 'quick' run to Target.

The woman then returned to her home 20 minutes later to see smoke billowing from the house.

It's at this point that she most likely remembered the stove-top boiler she left cooking before she left. It might also have occurred to her that leaving 7 kids, not one of them over the age of 3, alone in a house with an oven on was a dumb ass move.

Before the fire department could arrive, the fire had destroyed most of the home. Four of the kids died, three were critically injured. After initially promising to help authorities in the subsequent investigation, she turned on her heels and fled to her home country of Nigeria. Apparently this woman thought that having already killed four kids, a minor faux pas like fleeing the country in the midst of an investigation would be overlooked.

She didn't stay there long, thankfully. She was extradited back to Texas so now she can face her crimes like a man, which she resembles. She is currently facing murder charges, to which she has plead not guilty (seriously), and bail is set at $1,000,000


Hopefully Jessica will be saying "Tata" to freedom for the rest of her life.

- JP

Good one, Supreme Court → a quick post

The conditions of California’s prisons are cruel and unusual due to severe overcrowding. This is a violation of the constitutional rights of the prisoners. »The Supreme Court tells the state of california to go ahead and release >30k prisoners early» but no word on how to improve conditions for inmates still imprisoned.

Good one, Supreme Court.

Read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/opinion/24tue1.html

SLAVERY ON THE IVORY COAST; CHOCOLATE CORRUPTION REIGNS IN THE HEART OF AFRICA

Readers, everyone should stop eating Hershey's. 

Most cocoa is imported from West Africa, which is rife with corruption and what's more the ones doing the work on the plantations over there are child slaves. The Harkin-Engel Protocol, or the Cocoa Protocol, is an international agreement aimed at ending child labor in the production of cocoa. It requires that cocoa manufacturers show where their cocoa is coming from and how it's produced. Its been 10 years since it was signed, and out of all major chocolate manufacturers, Hershey's has made the least progress in stopping child slavery. Not only that, but according to IPS News:

Hershey is the only one that refuses to certify their chocolate as organic or fair trade.

In fact, not only does Hershey refuse to certify its sources, it also won’t even list them publicly. When asked by companies like Global Exchange and The International Labor Rights Forum, Hershey refused to provide public information about its cocoa sources in West Africa, period.

But we do know that the majority of Hershey’s cocoa is sourced from West Africa; that the company has no purchasing policies that would prevent labor exploitation of those in West Africa; that it refuses to shift to third-party fair trade certifications (which almost every other major chocolate manufacturer has); and lastly, even when Hershey’s investors asked the company to "institute supply-chain transparency programs for its cocoa," the company refused.

I was already trying to lay off the sweets in order to trim down my ever-expanding waistline, but the fact that any Hershey's candy you eat was at one point touched by an adolescent slave is enough to make me swear off them completely!

 

Sources: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52871

A GENIUS ROTS IN PRISON; FREE STEVEN JAY RUSSELL!

Houston's own Steven Jay Russell is a real-life confidence man. His accomplishments include stealing millions of dollars from various firms while employed under assumed identities and escaping from multiple different prisons. At one point he did so by convincing prison doctors he had died of AIDS. He eventually ended up with an unprecedented 144-year prison sentence.

Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Andrew Fastow, and others at Enron stole billions of dollars from shareholders by misleading Enron's board of directors and audit committee. Lay himself, the Danny Ocean of this corporate caper, only ended up with a 45-year sentence, a slap on the wrist compared to Russell's. And Lay died of a heart attack before he could even see the inside of a cell.

Steven Jay Russell is a genius. An actual, certifiable genius. His IQ is reported to be 163. It is a gross injustice that a man of such intelligence now sits in solitary confinement for crimes which were all totally non-violent. Crimes which serve as examples of the gaping holes in bureaucracy and security of the various institutions he swindled, on top of showing us all what a person with a powerful brain can be capable of. He is unable to put his mind to good use at a time when this country, and truly the world, need it the most.

It would be better if Russell's story ended in a way similar to Frank Abagnale's, depicted in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can. Like Russell, Frank Abagnale was an escape artist who assumed multiple false identities to commit crimes. His specialty of writing forged checks allowed him to steal millions of dollars from banks all over the world. He now works as a consultant for the FBI and advises American businesses on fraud.

This ex-conman gets to apply his skills to making the world a better place, why not Steven Jay Russell?