American Buddhist Net

Jul 7, 2008 at 5:45 PM PDT
By KATU Staff

SALEM, Ore. - Relax it and tax it.

That's the motto behind a new cannabis initiative that would allow Oregon's state-controlled liquor stores to legally sell marijuana to adults.

Initiative backers said their plan would send 90 percent of the proceeds from the state's sale of marijuana to Oregon's General Fund, which could lower Oregonians' state tax burden.

Smaller percentages would go to funding drug abuse education and treatment programs.

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Well-worth reading. ABN
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Naomi Wolf Mon Jul 7, 3:52 PM ET

NEW YORK - Sex crime has a telltale signature, even when those directing the outrages are some of the most powerful men and women in the United States. How extraordinary, then, to learn that one of the perpetrators of these crimes, Condoleezza Rice, has just led the debate in a special session of the United Nations Security Council on the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

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July 7, 2008

Leaders of the separatist insurgency in southern Thailand must end the targeting of civilians in their effort to establish an independent state, Human Rights Watch said today.

...On July 4, insurgents beheaded Khan Sangthong, a 55-year-old Buddhist, in Bannang Sta district, Yala province. He was shot, burned, had nails hammered through his hands, and was beheaded. His severed head was placed on a bridge about 60 meters from his body. Over the past four years, more than 20 Buddhist Thais have been beheaded by insurgents across the southern border provinces.

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July 7, 2008

JONESBORO, Ga. -- A 25-year-old Jonesboro woman is dead after police said she told her father she wanted out of an arranged marriage.

Police said they found Sandela Kanwal’s body inside a home in the 9600 block of Utah Drive in Jonesboro. They said Kanwal had been strangled to death by her father, Chaudhry Rashid, 56.

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Firstly, it was an obvious joke. Secondly, the Justice Department often uses “deferred prosecution agreements” to deal with corporate wrongdoing; why not use a similar process to deal with "crimes" like this? Thirdly, members of Congress never sell their votes, right? ABN
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A college student allegedly asked a minimum of ten dollars in exchange for voting at the upcoming presidential election, according to the whim of the highest bidder oneBay. Now he faces up to five years in prison and a $US 10,000 fine.

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Very well-said. Short, reasonable, and right to the point. ABN
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Only cops and crooks have benefited from $2.5 trillion spent fighting trafficking.

By David W. Fleming and James P. Gray
July 5, 2008

The United States' so-called war on drugs brings to mind the old saying that if you find yourself trapped in a deep hole, stop digging. Yet, last week, the Senate approved an aid package to combat drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America, with a record $400 million going to Mexico and $65 million to Central America.

The United States has been spending $69 billion a year worldwide for the last 40 years, for a total of $2.5 trillion, on drug prohibition -- with little to show for it. Is anyone actually benefiting from this war? Six groups come to mind.

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Even experts at the U.S. bioweapons facility at Fort Detrick think that the anthrax which was used in the 2001 attacks came from their facility:

"In an e-mail obtained by FOX News, scientists at Fort Detrick openly discussed how the anthrax powder they were asked to analyze after the attacks was nearly identical to that made by one of their colleagues...

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July 4, 2008

DOVER, N.Y. — Two teenagers who drove to Oniontown after a series of YouTube videos portrayed the hamlet as a run-down, backwoods dump were pelted with rocks by an angry group of young residents, authorities said.

The two 17-year-olds from Mahopac, about 30 miles south of Oniontown, suffered head and face injuries.

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July 5, 2008

YALA - SEVEN people have been killed in four separate shooting incidents in Thailand's troubled southern states, police said on Saturday.

In a drive-by shooting early on Saturday, witnesses said at least five militants in a pick-up truck opened fire on a tea shop in Yala province's Raman district, killing four villagers and wounding four others.

Nearby, in the Bannang Sata district of Yala, a 56-year-old Thai Buddhist man was shot dead and beheaded before his body was set on fire Friday, while his 28-year-old son was seriously wounded.

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Uncle of Missing Vermont Girl Found Dead Allegedly Enlisted Teen Lover as Accomplice

By DAVID SCHOETZ
July 3, 2008

The man suspected in the death of Brooke Bennett and his teenage lover plotted together for weeks to abduct the 12-year-old Vermont girl so that she could be initiated into an organized sex ring, according to shocking federal court documents released today.

Court papers also suggest that Michael Jacques, Bennett's 42-year-old uncle who is charged with her kidnapping, may have been preparing for the likelihood that the girl would never return home.

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Thursday, July 03, 2008

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A missing Vermont girl's uncle brought her home for initiation into a child sex ring to which he belonged, federal officials charge in an affidavit released Wednesday.

A 14-year-old told authorities she helped Michael Jacques, uncle of the missing 12-year-old, take the girl to Jacques' Randolph home on June 25 to be initiated into a sex ring called Breckinridge. The niece has not been seen since that day and police, who had been searching Jacques' home, were seen with metal detectors searching an area of farmland and woods about a mile away from his house Wednesday afternoon.

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Human Rights Defender Released from Prison, but Whereabouts Unknown

July 3, 2008

The Vietnamese authorities should immediately lift any restrictions on the liberty of Buddhist monk Tim Sakhorn, who was released from prison in Vietnam on June 28, 2008, Human Rights Watch said today. Sakhorn’s whereabouts are unknown. He was last seen in the company of government officials.

On June 30, 2007, authorities in Cambodia arrested and defrocked Sakhorn and sent him to Vietnam. On November 8, 2007, a criminal court in An Giang province sentenced Sakhorn to one year of imprisonment on charges of “undermining national unity” under article 87 of Vietnam’s penal code. Sakhorn reportedly had no legal representation during his trial. Human Rights Watch said that the politically motivated prosecution of Sakhorn was a thinly veiled attempt by the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments to stop peaceful dissent by the Khmer Krom minority in both countries.

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Thursday, July 03, 2008

In a country known for the official silence surrounding its use of the death penalty, people in Japan have been confronted with an image of their execution chamber -- by a recording made 50 years ago.

The execution of the unknown prisoner, recorded at Osaka detention centre in 1955, has given people a rare and gruesome insight into their country's death penalty, which -- apart from the type of rope used -- has changed little since.

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03 Jul 2008

BEIJING, (Reuters) - Hundreds of prisoners in China's quake-hit southwestern province of Sichuan have had their jail terms reduced for courage shown in relief and rescue work when the disaster struck, state media said on Thursday.

A total of 436 prisoners will be released from jail early and more than 1,000 have been praised for "protecting state property and/or rescuing survivors", the official China Daily said.

One prisoner, jailed for murder, was released on probation for carrying a handicapped inmate to safety after May's 7.9 magnitude quake.

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Jul 1, 2008

DENVER (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver will pay $5.5 million to settle 16 lawsuits filed by victims of sexual abuse by priests, both sides said on Tuesday.

"I've expressed an apology on behalf of myself, our clergy, and the whole Catholic community," Archbishop Charles Chaput said in a statement announcing the settlement.

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Not only cancel but sue for losses due to fraud. ABN
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Jun 30, 2008
By Gina Keating - Analysis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A lawsuit filed by a Wisconsin couple against their mortgage lender could have major implications for banks should a U.S. appeals court agree that borrowers can cancel their loans en masse when their lenders violate a federal lending disclosure law.

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July 2, 2008

A man has stormed into a police station in the Chinese city of Shanghai and stabbed at least five officers to death, officials said.

The man was arrested after the attack in the Public Security Bureau office in the city's Zhabei district.

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Images show officer jumping on a suspect, another being dragged in vomit

July. 1, 2008

MEXICO CITY - Videos showing city police practicing torture techniques on a fellow officer, dragging another through vomit and jumping on a suspect created an uproar Tuesday in Mexico, which has struggled to eliminate torture by lawmen.

Two of the videos — broadcast by national television networks and displayed on newspaper Internet sites — showed what Leon city Police Chief Carlos Tornero described as training for an elite unit that must face "real life, high-stress situations."

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July 2, 2008

BEIJING - MORE than 60 children fell ill after drinking water that may have been deliberately poisoned at a primary school in southern China, state media reported.

Thirty-four were still in hospital, suffering from headaches and nausea, and the rest were under observation at their rural school in Guangxi province after drinking the water in their school canteen, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

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Tue July 1, 2008

KENNEWICK, Washington (AP) -- Kennewick, Washington, police report that a pregnant woman was fatally stabbed multiple times in the chest and her nearly full-term baby was cut from her womb. Police have arrested a 23-year-old woman.

The baby boy has been hospitalized at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, in critical condition.

Court documents say 27-year-old Araceli Camacho Gomez, of Pasco, Washington, had her hands and feet bound with yarn and suffered "massive trauma to her stomach area" late Friday night. An autopsy showed she died of the chest wounds, but had other wounds "consistent with the cutting of the body to remove an unborn child."

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June 30, 2008

There is an initiative in the works that could end up on the November ballot that allows for marijuana to be sold to anyone, and anywhere that already sells alcohol. Its being called The Inalienable Rights Enforcement Initiative. From the full text of the measure:

"This initiative will amend the Constitution of California to defend and safeguard the inalienable rights of the People against infringement by governments and corporations, providing for the lawful growth, sale, and possession of marijuana. Marijuana will be taxed through a system of stamps and licenses--a $5 stamp will be required for the sale of an eighth ounce of marijuana and a $50 annual license will be required for the growth of one marijuana plant. To protect participants and encourage participation in the system, such licenses and stamps will be available anonymously in stores where marijuana is sold."

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Tue, 01 Jul 2008

Taipei - A Taiwan Buddhist monk has been sentenced to 80 days in jail for masturbating in public, a newspaper said Tuesday. Chen Poh-ming, 42, masturbated in front of a female guide on February 16 while visiting the Paper Museum in Puli, central Taiwan, the United Daily News reported. He performed the lewd act while wearing a yellow monk's robe.

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By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: July 1, 2008

In the first case to review the government’s secret evidence for holding a detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a federal appeals court found that accusations against a Muslim from western China held for more than six years were based on bare and unverifiable claims. The unclassified parts of the decision were released on Monday.

With some derision for the Bush administration’s arguments, a three-judge panel said the government contended that its accusations against the detainee should be accepted as true because they had been repeated in at least three secret documents.

The court compared that to the absurd declaration of a character in the Lewis Carroll poem “The Hunting of the Snark”: “I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.”

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By MONICA DAVEY
Published: July 1, 2008

GERALD, Mo. — Like so many rural communities in the country’s middle, this tiny town had wrestled for years with the woes of methamphetamine. Then, several months ago, a federal agent showed up.

Busts began. Houses were ransacked. People, in handcuffs on their front lawns, named names. To some, like Mayor Otis Schulte, who considers the county around Gerald, population 1,171, “a meth capital of the United States,” the drug scourge seemed to be fading at last.

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The Associated Press
Published: June 30, 2008

JAKARTA, Indonesia: The curator of a museum in central Indonesia was sentenced Monday to 18 months in jail for helping steal six ancient Buddhist statues and replacing them with replicas to cover up the crime, a judge said.

Suhadi Darmodipuro, who was among four people arrested for the 2006 theft at the Radya Pustaka Museum, said he regretted his involvement in the scam and would not appeal.

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