Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Ed Show video: Republican picks strange strategy in pricey Senate race

The Ed Show video: Republican picks strange strategy in pricey Senate raceRepublican picks strange strategy in pricey Senate race

Sen. Scott Brown is putting a lot of energy into criticizing his opponent's ethnic heritage. A new video shows Brown supporters taunting Warren's supporters with war whoops and "tomahawk chop" chants. Brown condemned the video but restated his attack that Warren lied about her ethnicity after she was awarded tenure at Harvard. Ed Schultz talks to Joan Walsh, Editor-At-Large for Salon.com, about why Brown is so fixated on Warren's background and if it's hurting his chances for getting re-elected.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/vp/49172665#49172665


Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Denounces Offensive Actions by Sen. Scott Brown Staffers

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Denounces Offensive Actions by Sen. Scott Brown Staffers
http://www.cherokee.org/PressRoom/33221/Press_Article.aspx 
September 26, 2012
A statement from Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker:

"The Cherokee Nation is disappointed in and denounces the disrespectful actions of staffers and supporters of Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown.  The conduct of these individuals goes far beyond what is appropriate and proper in political discourse.  The use of stereotypical 'war whoop chants' and 'tomahawk chops' are offensive and downright racist.  It is those types of actions that perpetuate negative stereotypes and continue to minimize and degrade all native peoples. 

The individuals involved in this unfortunate incident are high ranking staffers in both the senate office and the Brown campaign.  A campaign that would allow and condone such offensive and racist behavior must be called to task for their actions.

The Cherokee Nation is a modern, productive society, and I am blessed to be their chief.  I will not be silent when individuals mock and insult our people and our great nation.

We need individuals in the United States Senate who respect Native Americans and have an understanding of tribal issues. For that reason, I call upon Sen. Brown to apologize for the offensive actions of his staff and their uneducated, unenlightened and racist portrayal of native peoples."

-Bill John Baker, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation

Voter Registration forms online. REGISTER TO VOTE NOW!!! EVERYONE IS NEEDED!!


Voter Registration forms online. REGISTER TO VOTE NOW!!!
EVERYONE IS NEEDED!!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Scott Brown Supporters Mock Native Americans (See Video)


Scott Brown Supporters Mock Native Americans (See Video)

Scott Brown staffers do "Indian war whoop", "tomahawk chop"





At least two Republican staffers, including a member of Scott Brown’s US Senate office, apparently mocked Elizabeth Warren’s claims to Native American ancestry by making tomahawk chops and war whoops outside one of Brown’s campaign events in Dorchester, according to a video filmed by the state Democratic Party.
In the video, filmed by a Democratic tracker on Saturday outside a Brown event at the Eire Pub, the staffers can be heard whooping and seen making the tomahawk motions amid a crowd of boisterous supporters of both candidates. The state Democratic Party identified the staffers as Brad Garrett, who works for the Massachusetts Republican Party, and Jack Richard, a constituent services lawyer in Brown’s US Senate office.
Also in the video, though not apparently making the war whoops and hand chops, are Jenn Franks, a special assistant to Brown, Greg Casey, Brown’s deputy chief of staff, and Jerry McDermott, a former Boston city councilor who serves as Brown’s state director, according to the Democratic Party.
On Tuesday, Brown said he had not seen the video but “if you’re saying that, certainly that’s not something I condone. It’s certainly something that, if I’m aware of it, I will tell that [staff] member never to do that again.”
Still, he struck a defiant tone when asked if he would apologize for his staffers’ behavior.
“The apologies that need to be made and the offensiveness here is the fact that professor Warren took advantage of a claim, to be somebody – a Native American -- and using that for an advantage, a tactical advantage,” Brown said.
The state Democratic Party said Brown bears responsibility for his staff’s conduct.
“Scott Brown and his staff are launching outrageous and offensive personal attacks to distract from the issues that matter,” said Matt House, Massachusetts Democratic Party spokesman. “The behavior of his staff is completely inappropriate, but the tone of the campaign is set by the candidate.”
The video points to the political peril Brown faces as he steps up his attacks of Warren’s claims to Native American ancestry. War whoops and tomahawk chops – once prevalent among fans of Indian-named sports teams – have become a flashpoint in the sports world because many consider them offensive to Native Americans.
Brown, a Republican, has attacked Warren, a Democrat, over her purported ancestry in their first debate and in a tough new commercial he released Monday. Brown has argued Warren is not in fact Indian –“as you can see, she’s not,” he said during the debate - and has suggested she claimed minority status to advance her career. Warren, who has no documentation of her roots, has argued she did not benefit from her ethnic background, and has pointed to family stories to substantiate her heritage.
Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.
-- 
"When crazy people call you crazy, you know you're sane. 
When evil people call you evil, you know that you are a good person. 
When lairs call you a liar, you know that you are truthful. 
Know who you are and don't let others tell you who you are." - Dave Kitchen

Monday, September 24, 2012

Scott Brown Knows How to Tell Real Native Americans? He Must Be A Psychic.


Scott Brown Knows How to Tell Real Native Americans? He Must Be A Psychic.

When I heard Scott Brown attack Elizabeth Warren for being proud of having Native American in her family, the first thing that entered into my mind was "The Manifest Destiny crowd is alive and well."

As a non federally recognized Cherokee who has more Cherokee than some of the federally recognized Cherokees, I can tell you that appearances are deceiving. My wife is almost full Cherokee and she has a daughter from a previous marriage that has blonde hair and blue eyes. That young lady is about half Cherokee. If people like him want us all to look like a buffalo head nickle "Indian," then maybe we should not believe he is white unless he shows us his papers.

Native Americans are the only race of people who have prove they are native American to be able to say they are Native American.
Personally, I have pages of ancestors who had those precious tribal enrollment numbers. But now days many tribes are purging their rolls so that the resources that they do have will be divided among fewer people.

When Mrs. Warren said she had Native American heritage that is something to be proud of, not looked down on.
Native Americans are survivors who have been through terrible conditions very similar to the Holocaust in Europe and yet Native Americans are surviving and recovering.

The problem with Mr. Brown's statement is that he is assuming that Native Americans get all these wonderful benefits.
Native Americans, until President Obama became president, got very little benefits and they had a corrupt B.I.A. that took the few resources that did "trickle down" to them.

The Manifest Destiny crowd are very similar to the Ayn Rand crowd because they believe that certain people are destine and have every right to take what they want from whoever they want at whatever cost they want including however many lives it may cost.

Over the years, we have seen native Americans made completely dependent to a hostile group that hoped they would died out or be "assimilated" into the general population.

My own wife was taken from her family in Cherokee, N.C. in a 1950s assimilation program that took Native kids from their families and placed them into white families all over this nation.

This Manifest Destiny crowd has always to tell us who is real and who isn't so that they could gradually say we don't exist any more. And they hope that we will lose interest in our heritage and customs.

If Mr. Brown, a professed white man wants to define who we are and how we should look, I suggest that he show me his federal card as a Native American because only federally recognized Native Americans, who have suffered terrible conditions and abuse over many generations just to stay with their people should decide who is and isn't their people.
And the elders that I've met seem to accept you if you are respectful, willing to learn real traditions, and come with a good heart.
And you can be adopted into a tribe for your good works no matter what your race, just like president Obama was adopted into the Crow Nation because he has held regular meeitngs with Native Americans and tries to act to help their issues more than ANY other president.

So my advice to Mrs. Warren is this be loud and proud of your heritage no matter how little it is.
Native Americans are good people with good hearts, who gave this country and many other countries most of the food they eat like corn, beans, peppers, Yams and Chocolate. And the Iroquois Nation's Great Law of Peace was copied to form the basis of the U.S. Constitution.

Now Mr. Brown probably won't like all this because we refuse to be stereotyped. But hey we never did care what the Manifest destiny crowd thought.
LOL
Dave
--
"When crazy people call you crazy, you know you're sane. 
When evil people call you evil, you know that you are a good person. 
When lairs call you a liar, you know that you are truthful. 
Know who you are and don't let others tell you who you are." - Dave Kitchen

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Bubba Burgers Exec Killed As He Changed Tire In McIntosh County, Ga.

Bubba Burgers Exec Killed As He Changed Tire In McIntosh County, Ga.

Here we go again folks. Good Ole McIntosh County, Ga.

Former Jacksonville Bubba Burgers exec killed as he changed tire off I-95

Man, 49, had recently left job at Bubba Burgers.

Posted: September 10, 2012 - 10:02am  |  Updated: September 11, 2012 - 1:57pm
Glynn County police investigators work the homicide scene Monday morning where Richard Hollis, 49, was found dead with the gray Toyota, shown at left, parked on the shoulder of Georgia 99 at Interstate 95.
TERRY DICKSON/The Times-Union
Glynn County police investigators work the homicide scene Monday morning where Richard Hollis, 49, was found dead with the gray Toyota, shown at left, parked on the shoulder of Georgia 99 at Interstate 95.
Richard Hollis, pictured with his wife, Rhonda, was traveling to see his brother, his wife said.  Provided 
Provided
Richard Hollis, pictured with his wife, Rhonda, was traveling to see his brother, his wife said.

Map View

 
Map data ©2012 Google - Terms of Use 
Terrain
Interstate 95 and Georgia 99, Brunswick, Georgia
Reward offered
A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Anyone with any information is asked to call investigator Bill Tomlinson at (912) 554-7802 or Silent Witness at (912) 264-1333. 

When Richard Hollis retired a month ago, the 49-year-old planned for it to stick. His wife said she would wait and see.
But he was shot and killed while changing a tire early Monday beside Interstate 95 in Georgia, bringing a brutal end to the future of the former Jacksonville Bubba Burgers executive.
Police responding to a 7 a.m. call found Hollis dead and leaning against his car on the shoulder of Georgia 99 just east of the interstate interchange, Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said.
A jack was under Hollis’ Toyota Camry and a flat tire he was changing was off the car.
His wallet was missing, his wife said.
Hollis was on his way to see his brother in Raleigh, N.C., his wife, Rhonda Hollis, said at their home off Kernan Boulevard.
“He kissed me. He told me he was going,” she said. “He called me at 4 o’clock in the morning to see that my alarm went off.”
A police dispatcher on the way to work at 5:30 a.m. in Georgia saw him walking around his car, Doering said.
About 6 a.m. another witness saw a small sedan, maroon or red with a round manufacturer’s emblem on the rear, pull away from the side of the road near Hollis’ car and drive onto I-95 headed north.
The description was vague, police said. They did not have a make or model Monday.
Police were called when another passing motorist saw Hollis leaning forward and became alarmed that he was completely motionless.
They called 911, Doering said.
“It’s just so senseless,” Rhonda Hollis said. “He would have given them his wallet, he would have given them his car.”
Generosity was a hallmark for Richard Hollis.
He coached his son Jordan and his son’s friends at baseball, eventually volunteering as an assistant at high schools in Jacksonville and northern St. Johns County. His family said he bought countless pairs of baseball cleats for players who needed them and mentored friends of his son when they might be in a scrape.
“If they were afraid to call their own parents, they would call my dad,” said Jordan Hollis, who has just graduated from college.
“He shaped and molded my son’s character,” said family friend Pamela Lucas-Rhett, one of several people gathered at the Hollis home Monday.
He also bought her son his first car and has helped her pay bills when money was short.
“My nieces and nephews called him Uncle Coach Richard,” she said.
After leaving Bubba Burgers, Hollis was working around the house, walking the dogs and cooking for the first time in 25 years, his wife said. He’d recently prepared a roast but not before calling her at work.
“He asked ‘Do I put it on bake or broil?’ ” she said. She said he was “still surprising me after 25 years.”
Hollis was vice president of operations for Bubba Burgers before leaving, said Andy Stenson, vice president of marketing for Hickory Foods, which owns Bubba Burgers.
“He’ll be greatly missed,’’ Stenson said.
Monday, Hollis’ car was parked facing east on the south shoulder of Georgia 99 at a bare spot where truckers and others frequently pull off the highway.
A tire was leaning against the rear driver’s side of the car as the officers gathered evidence.
terry.dickson@jacksonville.com, (912) 264-0405
dana.treen@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4091

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-09-10/story/former-jacksonville-bubba-burgers-exec-killed-he-changed-tire-i-95#ixzz27G6j0sZX
  

-- 
"When crazy people call you crazy, you know you're sane. 
When evil people call you evil, you know that you are a good person. 
When lairs call you a liar, you know that you are truthful. 
Know who you are and don't let others tell you who you are." - Dave Kitchen

Here's a Story about corruption

 Here's a Story about corruption

The guy who is running for Sheriff trying to replace the current corrupt Sheriff was tazed because he told the officer who was harassing his son that he had not probable cause to detain him. And he didn't. Then they brought a case against him for obstruction. Because we are helping with his campaign they came here and bent up our horse pens and murdered one of our horses. They have a tail on us, spotter planes flying over, etc.. and we have broken no laws
They have arrested people on trumped up charges and put them in jail simply because they stood up to them. The list is too big to put on here. The Savannah, Ga. FBI won't do a thing because the ex GBI guy is tied in with the local corrupt sheriff and is friends with the FBI guy. We have no law and order here. And we hope we can keep fighting to win this election. But they are trying to stop people from voting. There will be pole watchers. But they don't see everything. There is more than I can put here. 

And last night they came and tore up our horse pens again because we spoke out about the corruption here. Then a person who I had known for a while blocked my calls.
Then the person who I answered with the above info blocked me.
Isn't corruption fun and cowardly

They go to their pretend churches and worship a fake Jesus of hate and destruction because the Bible says the enemy comes to steal kill and destroy. Which is exactly what they do where I live.

--
"When crazy people call you crazy, you know you're sane. 
When evil people call you evil, you know that you are a good person. 
When lairs call you a liar, you know that you are truthful. 
Know who you are and don't let others tell you who you are." - Dave Kitchen

Friday, September 21, 2012

Probable Cause and the constitution


Probable Cause and the constitution
In United States criminal lawprobable cause is the standard by which an officer or agent of the law has the grounds to make an arrest, to conduct a personal or property search, or to obtain a warrant for arrest, etc. when criminal charges are being considered. It is also used to refer to the standard to which a grand jury believes that a crime has been committed. This term comes from the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable causesupported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West Speaks at the 20th Annual Four Corners Indian Country Conference

Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West Speaks at the 20th Annual Four Corners Indian Country Conference 
(Side note: Folks this is a repost from Sharon the founder of Save The Sacred Sites Alliance. Just passing on what she asked to be posted)


Pojoaque Pueblo, N.M. ~ Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Thanks, Ken, for that kind introduction.   It’s wonderful to be back in New Mexico, and especially at this beautiful facility on the Pojoaque Pueblo.   It's been a privilege to meet Governor Rivera, and to spend time with my colleagues, the U.S. Attorney for Colorado, John Walsh, and the U.S. Attorney for Utah, David Barlow, who are co-sponsors of this conference.   I also want to recognize and thank conference cosponsors, Bob Cantrall from my Department’s Office for Victims of Crime, and Laura Naranjo from the BIA’s Office of Justice Services.

I’m particularly honored to participate in this Four Corners Indian Country Conference, marking the 20th anniversary of this important gathering.   For two decades, this conference has played a critical role in fostering collaboration among Federal and tribal leaders, social-service providers, law-enforcement officers, judges, and prosecutors.   Every year, you have come together to develop innovative strategies for improving public safety in the tribal communities of the Four Corners Region.   And every year, your commitment persists, in good times and in times of great difficulty.

For your dedication to that extraordinarily important mission, I salute you.   And I bring the thanks of the entire leadership of the U.S. Department of Justice, including Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole.

Today, we come together in an hour of hope, challenge, and opportunity.  

We have reason to hope because over the last three and a half years, President Obama and Attorney General Holder have been unmistakable and unwavering in making Indian country issues in general -- and tribal sovereignty in particular -- a high, Administration priority, consistent with our desire to see all tribes thrive as prosperous, vibrant, and safe communities.
For example, when I was the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, we settled theKeepseagle litigation, a nationwide class action that Native American farmers and ranchers had brought against the U.S. Department of Agriculture for racial discrimination stretching back three decades, finally turning the page on a painful chapter in our Nation’s relationship with tribal nations.

More recently, we settled long-standing litigation about the mismanagement of funds and resources held in trust for individual Indians -- the Cobell case -- as well as for Indian tribes, in several dozen other cases.   All told, these settlements of trust cases have resulted in over $4 billion flowing back to 50 tribes and 400,000 individual Native Americans.

There's reason for hope because we’ve also taken steps to ensure that our commitment to Indian country is institutionalized.   In 2010, we established the Office of Tribal Justice, or OTJ, as a permanent, separate component within the Department of Justice.   Tracy Toulou has headed OTJ with distinction for several years and is here with us today.  

We’ve thoroughly revamped and streamlined the process for tribes to apply for Justice Department grants, as we’ve awarded nearly a quarter billion dollars to more than 150 tribal communities in the last two years alone.   These grants cover everything from juvenile justice to community policing to methamphetamine enforcement.

And we’ve established the Tribal Nations Leadership Council, composed of tribal leaders selected by the tribes themselves and charged with advising the Attorney General on issues critical to tribal governments.  

We also have reason to hope because under Attorney General Holder’s leadership, the Justice Department’s commitment to improving public safety has never been greater.   Over the last three years, we’ve deployed 28 new Assistant U.S. Attorneys dedicated to prosecuting crime in Indian country, and nine new FBI positions, including six agents to work on Indian country investigations.   And the FBI’s Office for Victim Assistance has added 12 Indian country Victim Specialist positions.

In addition, under the leadership of Leslie Hagen, who is also here with us today, we’ve launched a National Indian Country Training Initiative, which has already trained more than two thousand Federal, State, local, and tribal prosecutors and criminal-justice personnel.   Just last week at the National Advocacy Center, Leslie launched the first in a series of trainings on sexual-assault investigation and prosecution, with more than 75 tribal and federal law enforcement officers, victim specialists, and prosecutors attending.

So we have reason to hope because progress is afoot in the Justice Department -- progress Native American communities around this country are, I’m told, feeling in important, positive ways.

But as I said a few moments ago, this is also a moment of challenge and opportunity.   We know we have much work left to do in Indian country.   And much of that work has to do with an issue that is very important to the Justice Department, to the Attorney General, and to me:   curbing the alarmingly high rate of violence against Native women.

Rates of domestic violence against Native women in Indian country are now among the highest in the entire United States.   And although we know there is a need for more and better data, what we do know is startling to even the most seasoned prosecutors of sexual violence.

We know that nearly half of all Native American women -- 46% -- have experienced rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, according to a recent nationwide survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We know that one in three Indian women will, at some point in their lives, experience the violence of rape.

We know that before the sun sets on this day, three more women will lose their lives to a domestic-violence homicide somewhere in the United States -- and that on some reservations, Native American women are murdered at a rate more than ten times the national average, according to an analysis of death certificates.

And we know something else:   We know that we can stop this cycle of violence.   We know from our domestic-violence work across the United States, in Indian country and elsewhere, that early intervention that interrupts or deters a pattern of escalating domestic violence is the key to avoiding more serious and deadly violence in the future, and the key to saving more women’s lives.

But what’s different in Indian country is a unique jurisdictional gap that undermines effective law enforcement when it comes to fighting violence against women.   Many of you know what I’m talking about; you confront the so-called “jurisdictional maze” in your jobs every day.   In Indian country, whether a crime falls in Federal or State or tribal jurisdiction depends on the location of the crime, the race of the victim, the race of the perpetrator, and the nature of the crime.  

So as a general matter, unless Congress says otherwise, only the Federal Government has jurisdiction over crimes that non-Indians commit against Indians in Indian country.   Today, an Indian tribe cannot prosecute a non-Indian for domestic violence, even if he lives on the reservation and is married to a tribal member.   That’s the law today, and that’s not right.

And this has real-world consequences.   According to the last census, non-Indians constitute more than 76% of the overall population on reservation and other Indian lands.   Roughly half of all married Indian women have non-Indian husbands.  

So the non-Indian man who beats his partner knowing he can’t be prosecuted by the local, tribal criminal justice system?   He keeps battering that woman.   The Indian woman who suffers through violent episodes knowing that her call to the local, tribal police is unlikely to lead to prosecution?   She stops calling the police for help.   And the only criminal-justice system that has authority to act?   Federal law-enforcement, whose resources may be many hours and hundreds of miles away.  

It was against this backdrop that the Justice Department set out to look for solutions.   We spoke with our Federal prosecutors, with FBI agents, with our Office on Violence Against Women, our Office of Tribal Justice, our Criminal Division, and all the other relevant components of the Justice Department.   We spoke with our colleagues at the BIA and the Indian Health Service.  And most importantly, we engaged in extensive consultations with tribal leaders, on a government-to-government basis, over a period of months.

The message we heard was clear:   That a tribe’s ability to protect an Indian woman from violence should not depend on the race of the assailant; that this was an issue which cut to the very core of tribal sovereignty, as one of the most basic, fundamental functions of any government is to protect its people; and that this issue wasn’t about abstract statistics -- it was about mothers and sisters, wives and daughters, partners and friends.   It was about protecting women, plain and simple.

So last summer, in July 2011, the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Holder, took on this challenge and tried to create an opportunity offered by Congress’s efforts this year to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, or VAWA.   By formally and publicly recommending to Congress new Federal legislation to fill gaps in our criminal-justice system, as well as measures to better protect women in tribal communities from violent crime, the Justice Department pressed forward amendments to VAWA that consisted of three components   – tribal criminal jurisdiction, tribal civil jurisdiction, and Federal criminal offenses.

As for tribal criminal jurisdiction, we recommended new Federal legislation recognizing tribes’ criminal jurisdiction over both Indians and non-Indians who assault Indian spouses, intimate partners, or dating partners, or who violate protection orders, in Indian country.

Now, this tribal criminal jurisdiction had some restrictions.   It would apply only in Indian country, not to off-reservation crimes; would not deal with all types of crimes but instead would focus on domestic violence, dating violence, and violations of protection orders; and would be limited to cases where the victim is Indian and the defendant has some ties to the tribal community, such as living or working on the reservation or being married to a tribal member.  

And importantly, we proposed robust protections for the rights of individual defendants.   A non-Indian prosecuted under this new law would have effectively the same rights in tribal court that he would have in State court if he were being prosecuted for a similar crime.   Those rights include due-process rights and the right of an indigent defendant to free appointed counsel meeting Federal constitutional standards.   And we proposed a new grant program to help some tribes pay for indigent defense counsel, who could then represent indigent non-Indians and Indians alike.

The second feature of our legislative proposal dealt with tribal civil jurisdiction.   Simply put, it would clarify that tribal courts have full civil jurisdiction to issue and enforce protection orders against both Indians and non-Indians.

And the third feature of our legislative package would amend the Federal assault statute.   Under the current law, when an Indian woman suffers an assault, depending on the circumstances, Federal prosecutors often cannot prosecute the case at all, or cannot seek a sentence beyond six months against a non-Indian perpetrator.   Our proposal would fix that gap, and bring Federal law closer into line with modern State criminal codes on domestic violence, adding new felony domestic-violence offenses with five- and ten-year maximum sentences, which would apply to both Indian and non-Indian defendants.

The overarching theme of this three-part legislative package is to focus less on the racial identification of the victim or the defendant, and more on the seriousness and dangerousness of the violence.  

So far, our proposal has been well received in Congress.   After several months of hearings and markups and debate, on April 26 the Senate passed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2012, which included our tribal proposals almost verbatim.   In the floor debate, Senator Udall of New Mexico took a leading role in advocating for those proposals, and the VAWA reauthorization bill passed with bipartisan support, 68 to 31.   Notably, every single woman in the U.S. Senate -- Democrat and Republican -- voted for the bill.

About a month later, the House of Representatives, voting largely on party lines, passed a very different version of the bill.   While the House version included our proposed amendments to creating new domestic-violence felonies, it did not include our proposals on tribal jurisdiction.  However, key Representatives from both parties have now expressed support for those tribal-jurisdiction provisions contained in the Senate version of the bill.  

So we’ll continue to push and we remain hopeful that all of these provisions -- protecting Native women and supporting tribal sovereignty -- will soon become law.   And we at the Justice Department will continue to do everything we can to decrease the numbers of Native American women who fall victim to violence; to strengthen the tribes’ capacity to respond to violent crimes; and to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable.  

Let me close by saying that this is my second extended trip to Indian country in the five months since I became the Acting Associate Attorney General; my fourth since joining the Department of Justice as a member of President Obama’s administration in 2009.   My first trip took me to the Navajo Nation, where I worked on improving outreach to Cold War Warriors and their families so they could more easily access funds to which they were untitled under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

I’ve since visited the Crow and Northern Cheyenne nations, and after I leave you, I will travel nearly 300 miles to meet with leaders and members of the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes, as well as leaders and members of Acoma Pueblo and the Pueblo of Laguna.

And for me, these visits to Indian country are a great privilege.   They are a great privilege for me because they remind me of the rich legacy that First Americans have bestowed upon this country, and that we are a stronger America because of that legacy.

They remind me of the important trust relationship between the United States and tribal nations, and that the struggle for tribal sovereignty and self-determination has too often been waged in the face of disruption and devastation caused by assimilation and termination policies pursued in the not-so-distant past.

They remind me of the Code Talkers, the Cold War Warriors, and the other Native American men and women who proudly wore the uniform and whose continued service today helps secure the freedoms we enjoy here, at this moment and in this place; and that, as important as is our shared history, so too is our common destiny: a future that is left in our hands to shape.
Let us seize this opportunity to shape that future together.

Thank you very much.
Photo of Tony West Acting Associate Attorney General of the United States
--
"When crazy people call you crazy, you know you're sane. 
When evil people call you evil, you know that you are a good person. 
When lairs call you a liar, you know that you are truthful. 
Know who you are and don't let others tell you who you are." - Dave Kitchen

To: Prayer Request: We are asking everyone to say a prayer for "Darkhorse" 3rd Battalion 5th Marines


To: Prayer Request: We are asking everyone to say a prayer for "Darkhorse" 3rd Battalion 5th Marines and their families. They are fighting it out in Afghanistan & they have lost 12 marines in 4 days . IT WOULD BE NICE TO SEE the message spread if more people could pass it on. Nothing has been in the media about these guys because no one seems to care. They are :

Justin Allen, 23; Brett Linley, 29; Matthew Weikert, 29;

Justus Bartett, 27; Dave Santos, 21; Chase Stanley, 21;

Jesse Reed, 26; Matthew Johnson, 21; Zachary Fisher, 24;

Brandon King, 23; Christopher Goeke, 23; Sheldon Tate, 27.



All are Marines that gave their lives for YOU this week.

PLEASE HONOR THEM by forwarding this.

Thanks and may God bless our military.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Tornado Of Fire Caught On Tape In Australia Fire Twister

Tornado Of Fire Caught On Tape In Australia Fire Twister

THERE'S something mean and magical about Australia's Outback. An Alice Springs filmmaker captured both when a whirlwind of fire erupted before his eyes.
Chris Tangey of Alice Spring
s Film and Television was scouting locations near Curtin Springs station, about 80km from Ularu, last week when confronted by a fiery phenomenon.
He had just finished his tour of the station when workers encountered difficulties with a grader. So he went to help them.
A small fire was burning in nearby bushland, so Mr Tangey decided to start filming.
He caught the sight of his life.
A twister touched down on the spot fire, fanning it into a furious tower of flame.
"It sounded like a jet fighter going by, yet there wasn't a breath of wind where we were," he told the Northern Territory News.
"You would have paid $1000 a head if you knew it was about to happen."
The column of fire danced about the landscape for about 40 minutes, he said, as he and the station workers stood transfixed.

There was talk of making a quick getaway, Mr Tangey said. But everyone was too hypnotised to feel scared - and he continued furiously filming.

"The bizarre thing was that it rarely moved," he said.

"These things just stood there because there was no wind to move them ... but it was flickering incredibly fast."

Darwin weather forecaster David Matthews said small twisters were common in isolated areas. But the fiery vortex was highly unusual.

"The flames would have assisted by trying to suck in air and that could have helped generate those circular winds," Mr Matthews said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu-o3aRvtqA