Extraordinary Rendition 5/6

Song of the day: Firework - Katy Perry

9:41 - Last night i watched the movie Rendition, the movie enhanced my knowledge on the subject in a few ways.

1. They showed some of the torture techniques used such as water boarding, electric shock, dark spaces etc.

2. They showed exactly the command of how someone is picked up.

3. One of the characters said, "This is my first torture." the senator responded, "The United State does not torture." This shows how wrong the act truly is.

10:09 - I just made my flyer to get people to come see what the US government does.

10:21 - I just found an article on the first time CIA agents were found guilty of Extra Ordinary Rendition

Theres the bell, bye.

Extraordinary Rendition 5/4

Song of the Day: Born This Way - Lady Gaga

I JUST LOOOOOVE LADY GAGA!! lolz

Today is movie day...i basically just watched stuff. I started with the Frontline video on the subject and then im re-watching the documentary "Toruturing Democracy"

Sooo im gonna do that now, baii!!

Issues Project - 5/3

Song of the Day: Party in the USA - Miley Cyrus

HAPPY TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY MR. KRAMER!!! WE APPRECIATE YOU.

If you want to learn more about Mr. Kramer and his fabulous work...well your pretty much sh*t out of luck. But he does do some great stuff.

11:42 - hay guys lol ;) im bak

11:43 - To continue my post from yesterday the anaylists first began to talk about the "ticking time bomb theory" this theory is that there is a bomb somewhere, ticking to go off, and the detainee has information of where the bomb is being located that will save the lives of millions of people. I'll put the question really big for emphasis (lol)

IS TORTURE HERE JUSTIFIED??!?

11:52 - So i decided to watch the video on Frontline about Extraordinary Rendition, if you want to watch it too, here you go!!!!!! lol

12:02 - So the video didn't work (lolz) and i decided to find more research. I just found a spead sheet, which you can see here. This is a list of known Renditions. One guy jumps out at me, named Rifa'i Ahmad Taha. Taha was detained on his way to Iran from Sudan (where Luol Deng is from, lol) In a military tribunal, which he was not even allowed to attend, he was sentecned to death. Is that legal? Isn't one of the laws you have the right to face your accusers?

12:15 - Okay this document probably has good information in it but its like 3000000 pages...no wonder the people in government fight so much, they have NO lives!! Look at this.

12:23 - This document is really long and i am going to spend some time to end the class and begin tomorrow reading it. Here is a link if you are interested.

TTFN homies. lol

Issues: Final Project Research 5/2

Song of the Day: New Radicals - You Get What You Give

9:54 - OH EM GEE!! I just found the only source i need. Frontline did an episode on Extraordinary Rendition. When i visited their website i found link upon link about every aspect of Extraordinary Rendition. If your curious to which link i am reffering to, here it is.

10:14 - First article is called "Is Torture Ever Justified?" This is a roundtable discussion between these people:
Juliette Kayyem is a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and is a co-author, along with Philip Heymann, of the report that came out of the Harvard joint project.

Oren Gross is a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and is an expert on the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict. In his writings, Gross advocates a ban on torture, but he would allow the forgiveness after the fact of public officials who used torture in emergency situations. Some call his proposal "OAF," or "outlaw-and-forgive."

Sanford Levinson is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and is the editor of the 2004 book, Torture: A Collection.

Tom Parker is a fellow at Brown University and was an adviser for the Harvard project. For six years in the 1990s, he was a counter-terrorist investigator in Great Britain. He contributed an appendix to the Harvard report on Britain's experience confronting terrorism in Northern Ireland.

David Rivkin is a lawyer in Washington D.C., and has served in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. He writes frequently on law, defense and foreign policy.

Michael Traynor is a San Francisco lawyer who served on the advisory board of the Harvard project. He wrote a letter of dissent to the project's authors disagreeing with their recommendations on coercive interrogations.

The big theory discussed is the so-called "Ticking Time-Bomb Theory"

UH OH, BELL RANG GEE TWO GEE!!

Issues Final Project

Song of the Day: Till the World Ends - Brittany Spears

12:39 What to chose, what to chose. There are so many issues i could chose. Let's be honest, the world is a messed up place. What about Stem Cells? That seems to be an issue. Lets google it.

12:41
"This primer on stem cells is intended for anyone who wishes to learn more about the biological properties of stem cells, the important questions about stem cells that are the focus of scientific research, and the potential use of stem cells in research and in treating disease. The primer includes information about stem cells derived from embryonic and non-embryonic tissues. Much of the information included here is about stem cells derived from human tissues, but some studies of animal-derived stem cells are also described."

Okay, nevermind, this stuff makes absoltuely no sense.


12:45 I think i have found my topic, what about Extraordinary Rendition? No one really knows about the issue and there is probably a lot of information avalible. I'll have to check this out.

1:00 Did some research, this is definately my topic. I even found a book for one cent on Amazon (plus shipping obvs, lol) It's called Ghost Plane. I am super phyched to read it but i'm going to be nervous that CIA guys are going to come get me in my room, lol :)

1:06 uh oh! Bells gonna ring, until next time, friends!!!

Mock Trial Recap

After the first trial, David Jones v United States i thought the outcome was right. I did not think that this case was in fact a rape. What really pushed me over was the fact that the girl did not immediatly go to police. Her reason was she did not know if she was raped and had no one to turn to. if the issue was that she was scared i do not belive her because the accused was her ex boyfriend who has zero histroy of violence. Had David Jones had a histroy of violence i could see how her life may be in danger in her mind. In todays age, i think the meaning of the word "no" has changed. People today seem more sarcastic and i think she must have showed with actions that she did not want to go any further.

I was happy with the outcome of the second trial. As the defense attorney i was happy with the verdict, obviously, but i was really not sure about the trial as a whole. While Kevin Murphy did say some questionable things, i think that Elyse Roberts handled herself very poorly. The other side mostly tried to get at the emotions of the jurors, but i was grateful for going last because i knew with the last word i could convince the jury to vote in my favor.

I do not think rape is an issue at Deerfield High School. In fact, i don't think i've ever heard of anything closely related to that. I think the second trial's issue of sexual harassment is way more common. Sexual harassment happens all day every day in high school. I would think its more of teenagers being teenagers more than a real problem though. I've never seen a person actually distraught by comments someone made, for if they did i'd step in.

State of the Union Speech

Recently President Barak Obama gave his annual state of the union speech to congress. The first thing i noticed in the speech was that the seating of congress was much different than before. Before this speech, the sides of congress were split by party. In my opinion the state of the union speech was one of the most childish things because of the congress. The side that did not have the majority only clapped for things they agreed with, but this year was different.

Here are some of the main points Obama spoke about.

FREEZING DOMESTIC SPENDING

- Obama said that by freezing annual domestic spending for the next five years the country would be able to reduce the deficit by $400 billion over the next decade. He also mentioned that the freeze will bring cuts to like community action programs and military spending. The freeze would cut about 12% of the deficit, which is projected to be something like 6.2 trillion dollars...but at least there is a start somewhere.

MILLIONARES

- Obama asked millionares to give up their tax break for the good of the country. To be honest i am not sure they should have gotton a tax break in the first place.

INVEST

- I think that Obama really pushed investing. Such as in innovative things like enviormental, education, and infrastructure. In order to help businesses Obama asked congress to lower corporate tax rates for the first time in 25 years...which is awesome.

Obama also made a bunch of pledges such as:

- Provide 80 percent of Americans with high-speed rail access in 25 years.
- Have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
- Have 80 percent of the country's electricity come from clean-energy sources by 2035.
- New investment in biomedical research, information technology and clean-energy technology.
- A continuation of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top incentive program offering competitive federal grants to local school systems.
- "Redouble" efforts to repair America's aging roads and bridges.
- Make a $10,000 tuition tax credit permanent.