Monday, February 9, 2015

News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kurdish-peshmerga-forces-fighting-isis-in-iraq-desperate-for-military-supplies/

Kurds fighting ISIS desperate for U.S. supplies
CBS NEWS
February 9, 2015

Kurdish peshmerga forces battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in northern Iraq say their lives depend on getting military supplies from the U.S, reports CBS News correspondent Holly Williams.

The peshmerga are foot soldiers facing off with the extremists on a 600-mile long frontline in Sinjar province. They have the best track record of defeating the militants, but they're massively out-gunned.

The Kurdish forces say they've clawed back 1,500 square miles of territory from ISIS since December, and they've done nearly all their fighting relying on small-caliber weapons.

"We have lost more than 1,000 peshmergas, and somewhere around 5,000 have been wounded," Kurdish national security adviser Masrour Barzani said.

Barzani told CBS News 70 percent of those deaths could have been prevented if the U.S. would give the peshmerga the hundreds of armored vehicles they want. So far, they've received just 25.

"Of course they all praise the peshmerga and thank us, but that is not enough, we need the equipment," Barzani said. "Let's not forget, this is a war, the enemy doesn't wait. They are not waiting for us, or for our allies to provide us with the right equipment."

The armored cars would even offer some protection against the biggest killer of the Kurdish fighters: car and roadside bombs. In a battle last month, ISIS attacked them with 14 car bombs in just one day.

"These are our heroes, and we need to protect these heroes, and I think they're the heroes of the free world, and it's the responsibility of the international community to protect them," Barzani said.

The reason the U.S. is reluctant to directly equip the peshmerga is that the Kurdish people want independence. Helping them angers the Iraqi government as well as the Turkish authorities, where there's a large Kurdish population. But that leaves the peshmerga desperately under-equipped.




“The Kurdish forces say they've clawed back 1,500 square miles of territory from ISIS since December, and they've done nearly all their fighting relying on small-caliber weapons. "We have lost more than 1,000 peshmergas, and somewhere around 5,000 have been wounded," Kurdish national security adviser Masrour Barzani said. Barzani told CBS News 70 percent of those deaths could have been prevented if the U.S. would give the peshmerga the hundreds of armored vehicles they want. So far, they've received just 25.... "These are our heroes, and we need to protect these heroes, and I think they're the heroes of the free world, and it's the responsibility of the international community to protect them," Barzani said. The reason the U.S. is reluctant to directly equip the peshmerga is that the Kurdish people want independence. Helping them angers the Iraqi government as well as the Turkish authorities, where there's a large Kurdish population. But that leaves the peshmerga desperately under-equipped.”

To the world at large: Please send the heavy weapons and armored vehicles that the Kurds need. They are doing the whole world's fighting at this point, with little help. Our air strikes are of use, but they are not enough. Even their women fight. They deserve more than credit for courage. ISIS has already attacked France, and it will be some other Western nation next time – maybe the US.





Ukraine – Western Europe – Neo-Nazis



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/putin-splits-nato-over-arming-ukraine-against-pro-russia-separatists/

Has Putin driven a Ukrainian wedge through NATO?
CBS/AP
February 9, 2015

WASHINGTON -- President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are trying for a public display of unity despite a potential split over arming Ukrainian fighters to better battle Russian-backed separatists.

That was the unstated point of Monday's meeting at the White House, where Merkel was to brief Mr. Obama on upcoming talks aimed at reviving a peace plan for besieged Ukraine.

At issue is not only Russian President Vladimir Putin's support for the separatists but the revival of the Soviet Cold War strategy of trying to create a critical division between the United States and its NATO allies, Germany in particular.

Merkel and French President Francois Hollande met with Ukrainian leaders and Putin last week and have announced a new summit meeting for Wednesday in Minsk. French and German leaders are to sit down with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Putin in an attempt to breathe life into a much-violated September peace plan. The United States will not be at the table.

That meeting in the Belarusian capital takes place with Merkel and Hollande deeply opposed to arming Ukraine in its bid to push back the separatists that NATO and the United States insist are being armed by Russia, which also has troops fighting in the eastern Ukraine. The White House has let it be known that Mr. Obama, who had resisted calls to send arms, was now considering doing just that.

Opponents of arming Kiev believe that could open a proxy war between Washington and Moscow. Merkel and Hollande insist the only way to end the conflict is through diplomacy.

"It must be possible to find -- not through military conflict but at the negotiating table -- a balance of interests inside Ukraine that guarantees both the integrity of the state and the appropriate scale of autonomy" for the separatists, said German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen.

Secretary of State John Kerry was keen Sunday to dispel the notion of a trans-Atlantic rift, saying U.S. and its European allies are "united in our diplomacy" on Ukraine. Speaking at an international security conference in Munich, he said the U.S. supports the efforts by France and Germany.

"There is no division, there is no split," Kerry said. "I keep hearing people trying to create one. We are united, we are working closely together."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, speaking alongside Kerry, said he considers delivering weapons "not just highly risky but counterproductive."

But Republican Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, insisted in Munich that "we must provide defensive arms to Ukraine."

"If we help Ukrainians increase the military cost to the Russian forces that have invaded their country, how long can Putin sustain a war that he tells his people is not happening?"

Aside from the military cost, Russia has also been struggling with the economic impact of western sanctions and low global oil prices.

At the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, Vice President Joe Biden stopped short of explicitly addressing possible arms deliveries. "We will continue to provide Ukraine with security assistance not to encourage war, but to allow Ukraine to defend itself," he said.

More than 5,300 people have been killed since fighting began in April, according to a U.N. tally, and the bloodshed has markedly increased over the past two weeks.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-hughes/the-neo-nazi-question-in_b_4938747.html

The Neo-Nazi Question in Ukraine
Michael Hughes
Foreign Policy Analyst
Posted: 03/11/2014 12:44 am EDT 
Updated: 05/11/201

The Obama administration has vehemently denied charges that Ukraine's nascent regime is stock full of neo-fascists despite clear evidence suggesting otherwise. Such categorical repudiations lend credence to the notion the U.S. facilitated the anti-Russian cabal's rise to power as part of a broader strategy to draw Ukraine into the West's sphere of influence. Even more disturbing are apologists, from the American left and right, who seem willing accomplices in this obfuscation of reality, when just a cursory glance at the profiles of Ukraine's new leaders should give pause to the most zealous of Russophobes.

In a State Department "fact sheet" released last week the U.S. accused Putin of lying about the Ukrainian government being under the sway of extremist elements. The report stated that right wing ultranationalist groups "are not represented in the Rada (Ukraine's parliament)," and that "there is no indication the government would pursue discriminatory policies."

It isn't too surprising that conservative outlets like FOX News would downplay Russian allegations but the so-called "liberal" press has also contributed to the American disinformation campaign. Celestine Bohlen from The New York Timesconsiders harsh epithets, like the word "neo-Nazi," which Putin has hurled at the demonstrators in Kiev as part of a Russian propaganda effort to tarnish Ukraine's revolutionary struggle against authoritarianism.

Yet after simply Googling the terms "Ukraine" and "Neo-Nazi," the official position of the United States government along with the stance taken by many in the American media both now seem quite dubious, if not downright ridiculous, especially considering that one would be hard-pressed to machinate the lineup that now dominates Ukraine's ministry posts.

For starters, Andriy Parubiy, the new secretary of Ukraine's security council, was a co-founder of the Neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU), otherwise known as Svoboda. And his deputy, Dmytro Yarosh, is the leader of a party called the Right Sector which, according to historian Timothy Stanley, "flies the old flag of the Ukrainian Nazi collaborators at its rallies."

The highest-ranking right-wing extremist is Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Sych, also a member of Svoboda, who believes that women should "lead the kind of lifestyle to avoid the risk of rape, including refraining from drinking alcohol and being in controversial company." This is the philosophy underlying one of his "legal initiatives," according to the Kyiv Post, "to ban all abortions, even for pregnancies that occurred during rape."

The Svoboda party has tapped into Nazi symbolism including the "wolf's angel" rune, which resembles a swastika and was worn by members of the Waffen-SS, a panzer division that was declared a criminal organization at Nuremberg. A report from Tel-Aviv University describes the Svoboda party as "an extremist, right-wing, nationalist organization which emphasizes its identification with the ideology of German National Socialism."

According to this BBC news clip two Svoboda parliamentarians in recent weeks posed for photos while "brandishing well-known far right numerology," including the numbers 88 -- the eighth letter of the alphabet -- signifying "HH," as in "Heil Hitler." This all makes Hillary Clinton's recent comments comparing Putin to Hitler appear patently absurd, as Stanley adeptly points out: "After all, in the eyes of many ethnic Russians, it is the Ukrainian nationalists -- not Putin -- who are the Nazis."

Last week Per Anders Rudling from Lund University in Sweden, an expert on Ukrainian extremists, told Britain's Channel 4 News: "A neo-fascist party like Svoboda getting the deputy prime minister position is news in its own right." Well, except in the U.S.

Even more disconcerting has been the emergence of phone intercepts between high-ranking U.S. and Ukrainian officials which make it look as if the U.S. was basically, in the words of Princeton's Stephen Cohen, "plotting a coup d'état against the elected president of Ukraine." In other words, the U.S., in addition to providing moral support, may have paved the way for extremists to seize power in Kiev. Such a development would counter the American right's condemnation of Obama for not "engaging" in the world. The real problem is actually the administration's over-engagement in this case -- as in meddling in the affairs of another state and trying to rearrange its domestic political machinery to suit Washington's agenda.

This gambit has backfired in a number of ways. Not only has a neo-fascist-laden regime secured power in Kiev but it may have played the U.S. and its allies for fools by insinuating it would become part of the Western sphere when it really had no such designs. As Svoboda political council member Yury Noyevy baldly admitted: "The participation of Ukrainian nationalism and Svoboda in the process of EU [European Union] integration is a means to break our ties with Russia."

Be they radical mujahideen or neo-fascists, Washington certainly has a penchant for bolstering shadowy forces, usually labeling them with risible euphemisms like "freedom fighters," in order to satiate short-term geopolitical needs, despite said factions being inimical to America's true long-term interests.



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29991777

Jews reject Russia claims of Ukraine anti-Semitism
By Masha Kondrachuk and Stephen Ennis
BBC Monitoring
11 November 2014

Photograph – Some 100 Jewish families left rebel-held Donetsk in September after a prominent businessman was murdered

Leaders of Ukraine's Jewish community have come out strongly in support of the Kiev government in its conflict with Russia, rejecting Moscow's accusations that their country is now a hotbed of anti-Semitism.

But some are uneasy about the far-right extremists fighting with Ukrainian volunteer battalions in the east, as well as incidents of "everyday anti-Semitism" in Ukraine.

Russian media and officials have been portraying Ukraine as a hotbed of far-right extremism, including anti-Semitism, ever since former President Viktor Yanukovych was removed from power at the end of February.

In his first public reaction to Mr Yanukovych's downfall, President Vladimir Putin told journalists on 4 March: "We see the rampage of reactionary forces, nationalist and anti-Semitic forces going on in certain parts of Ukraine, including Kiev."

He used similar language in his speech declaring the annexation of Crimea two weeks later, when he said that the "coup" against Mr Yanukovych was the work of "nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites".

The Association of Jewish Organisations and Communities (VAAD) of Ukraine responded with an open letter saying that President Putin's assertions about the rise of anti-Semitism in their country "did not match reality".

Mr Putin's advisers "might have confused Ukraine with Russia where Jewish organisations registered a rise of anti-Semitism last year", it added.

Fascists on both sides

Shmuel Kaminetsky, a rabbi in Dnipropetrovsk, home to one of the country's largest Jewish communities, also rejects the idea that Ukraine is anti-Semitic.

Russian media warn of the threat of Dmitry Yarosh's Right Sector, but the party's electoral support is not high.

Life is "easier and safer" for Jews in Ukraine than in Western countries such as Belgium and France, where radical Islam is on the rise, he said in a recent film about efforts to defend Dnipropetrovsk against the Russian-backed insurgency.

Ever since Mr Yanukovych's downfall, Russian media have played up the threat from Ukrainian far-right organisations, such as Right Sector and the Freedom party.

But neither of these parties has widespread support. In the presidential election in May their leaders obtained a combined vote of less than 2%. They also failed to breach the 5% threshold in the recent parliamentary election.

Still, concerns remain about the presence of far-right extremists in some parts of Ukrainian society, especially the new volunteer battalions, which have played a key role in the current conflict.

VAAD Ukraine director Yosyp Zisels told a news conference in October that the volunteers were fighting "bravely" for Ukraine's "sovereignty and territorial integrity". But he conceded some of them held views that are "Nazi, ultranationalist and racist".

Far-right extremists and fascists were fighting on both sides of the conflict, Zisels said.

Key figure

A key figure in organising and financing the Ukrainian volunteer battalions is Dnipropetrovsk regional governor and businessman Ihor Kolomoisky, an important member of the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community and himself a frequent target of attacks in the Russian media.

Mr Kolomoisky is actively involved with the Fund for the Defence of the Country, which collects money to provide Ukrainian troops with medicines, food and equipment. It also helps to look after people displaced by the conflict.

Some local synagogues have also joined the war effort.

"We are providing comprehensive assistance to servicemen fighting against terrorists and protecting the unity and integrity of Ukraine. We are calling on Dnipropetrovsk's Jews to actively help them," the city's Golden Rose synagogue said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Jewish leaders are increasingly concerned about the fate of fellow Jews in areas controlled by the insurgents, especially after the murder of Jewish businessman Heorhiy Zilberbrod in Donetsk in August.

In September, at least 100 Jewish families fled Donetsk to the government-controlled city of Mariupol, according to Donetsk rabbi Pinkhas Vyshedsky.

Rabbi Vyshedsky himself recently moved his office to Kiev "to help Jews from his city who found refuge in the capital and other parts of the country", Jewish website Chabad.org said.

"Jews are running away from the Russian world to hide under the wing of the fascist Kiev junta? What more can one say?" news website Argument UA commented.

Everyday anti-Semitism

Nevertheless, some Jews are also concerned about their safety in Kiev.

In September, swastikas were painted on the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial in Kiev, where 34,000 Jews were murdered in the course of a week in September 1941.

Commenting on the incident, World Jewish Congress vice-president Boris Fuchsman said: "We often say that there is no anti-Semitism at the state level today, but no-one has rooted out everyday anti-Semitism."

Tzvi Arieli, a former member of the Israeli army, has set up a Jewish self-defence group in Kiev to protect the community against possible anti-Semitic attacks.

"Jews are often among the first to fall victim in conflicts even if they are not directly involved, therefore we need to be able to protect our community in co-ordination with the authorities, of course," he told Jewish newspaper Hadashot.

His group hones its combat skills together with interior ministry units, and is licensed to carry arms.

But Mr Arieli rejects the Russian media's portrayal of Ukraine as a country that is hostile to Jews.

"There can be opposing views, but don't say black is white, which is what the propaganda of the neighbouring state often does when it advances the thesis of buoyant neo-fascism in Ukraine," he said.

BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitterand Facebook.

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CBS on Russian Wedge – “At issue is not only Russian President Vladimir Putin's support for the separatists but the revival of the Soviet Cold War strategy of trying to create a critical division between the United States and its NATO allies, Germany in particular. Merkel and French President Francois Hollande met with Ukrainian leaders and Putin last week and have announced a new summit meeting for Wednesday in Minsk. French and German leaders are to sit down with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Putin in an attempt to breathe life into a much-violated September peace plan. The United States will not be at the table.... The White House has let it be known that Mr. Obama, who had resisted calls to send arms, was now considering doing just that. Opponents of arming Kiev believe that could open a proxy war between Washington and Moscow. Merkel and Hollande insist the only way to end the conflict is through diplomacy.... "There is no division, there is no split," Kerry said. "I keep hearing people trying to create one. We are united, we are working closely together." German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, speaking alongside Kerry, said he considers delivering weapons "not just highly risky but counterproductive." But Republican Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, insisted in Munich that "we must provide defensive arms to Ukraine." … "If we help Ukrainians increase the military cost to the Russian forces that have invaded their country, how long can Putin sustain a war that he tells his people is not happening?".... At the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, Vice President Joe Biden stopped short of explicitly addressing possible arms deliveries. "We will continue to provide Ukraine with security assistance not to encourage war, but to allow Ukraine to defend itself," he said. More than 5,300 people have been killed since fighting began in April, according to a U.N. tally, and the bloodshed has markedly increased over the past two weeks.”

Huffington Post on Neo-Nazi Ties – The Obama administration has vehemently denied charges that Ukraine's nascent regime is stock full of neo-fascists despite clear evidence suggesting otherwise. …. The report stated that right wing ultranationalist groups "are not represented in the Rada (Ukraine's parliament)," and that "there is no indication the government would pursue discriminatory policies.".... For starters, Andriy Parubiy, the new secretary of Ukraine's security council, was a co-founder of the Neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU), otherwise known as Svoboda. And his deputy, Dmytro Yarosh, is the leader of a party called the Right Sector which, according to historian Timothy Stanley, "flies the old flag of the Ukrainian Nazi collaborators at its rallies." The highest-ranking right-wing extremist is Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Sych, also a member of Svoboda, who believes that women should "lead the kind of lifestyle to avoid the risk of rape, including refraining from drinking alcohol and being in controversial company." This is the philosophy underlying one of his "legal initiatives," according to the Kyiv Post, "to ban all abortions, even for pregnancies that occurred during rape.".... A report from Tel-Aviv University describes the Svoboda party as "an extremist, right-wing, nationalist organization which emphasizes its identification with the ideology of German National Socialism."... It isn't too surprising that conservative outlets like FOX News would downplay Russian allegations but the so-called "liberal" press has also contributed to the American disinformation campaign. Celestine Bohlen from The New York Timesconsiders harsh epithets, like the word "neo-Nazi," which Putin has hurled at the demonstrators in Kiev as part of a Russian propaganda effort to tarnish Ukraine's revolutionary struggle against authoritarianism..... As Svoboda political council member Yury Noyevy baldly admitted: "The participation of Ukrainian nationalism and Svoboda in the process of EU [European Union] integration is a means to break our ties with Russia."


Jewish Opinion on Nazi influence in Ukraine – Leaders of Ukraine's Jewish community have come out strongly in support of the Kiev government in its conflict with Russia, rejecting Moscow's accusations that their country is now a hotbed of anti-Semitism. But some are uneasy about the far-right extremists fighting with Ukrainian volunteer battalions in the east, as well as incidents of "everyday anti-Semitism" in Ukraine.... The Association of Jewish Organisations and Communities (VAAD) of Ukraine responded with an open letter saying that President Putin's assertions about the rise of anti-Semitism in their country "did not match reality". Mr Putin's advisers "might have confused Ukraine with Russia where Jewish organisations registered a rise of anti-Semitism last year", it added. “Fascists on both sides” – Shmuel Kaminetsky, a rabbi in Dnipropetrovsk, home to one of the country's largest Jewish communities, also rejects the idea that Ukraine is anti-Semitic. Russian media warn of the threat of Dmitry Yarosh's Right Sector, but the party's electoral support is not high. Life is "easier and safer" for Jews in Ukraine than in Western countries such as Belgium and France, where radical Islam is on the rise, he said in a recent film about efforts to defend Dnipropetrovsk against the Russian-backed insurgency.... Still, concerns remain about the presence of far-right extremists in some parts of Ukrainian society, especially the new volunteer battalions, which have played a key role in the current conflict. VAAD Ukraine director Yosyp Zisels told a news conference in October that the volunteers were fighting "bravely" for Ukraine's "sovereignty and territorial integrity". But he conceded some of them held views that are "Nazi, ultranationalist and racist".... Dnipropetrovsk regional governor and businessman Ihor Kolomoisky, an important member of the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community and himself a frequent target of attacks in the Russian media. Mr Kolomoisky is actively involved with the Fund for the Defence of the Country, which collects money to provide Ukrainian troops with medicines, food and equipment. It also helps to look after people displaced by the conflict.... Rabbi Vyshedsky himself recently moved his office to Kiev "to help Jews from his city who found refuge in the capital and other parts of the country", Jewish website Chabad.org said. "Jews are running away from the Russian world to hide under the wing of the fascist Kiev junta? What more can one say?" news website Argument UA commented.... Commenting on the incident, World Jewish Congress vice-president Boris Fuchsman said: "We often say that there is no anti Semitism at the state level today, but no-one has rooted out everyday anti Semitism."

The way it looks to me: Russia has been claiming that Neo-Nazis are in control, or are at least highly involved, in Kiev ever since the Russian-backed President fled the capital. I trust the Huffington Post in many cases, but in this issue I trust the Jewish community much more. I think they know what's happening in the Jewish world and have no reason to lie about anything, whereas Russia and perhaps some very liberal US voices do. True there are Neo-Nazis in Ukraine, but they are not, according to the Jewish community in control, and the Ukrainian Jews have fled the Russian areas for Kiev. I think if we arm Kiev it will not be a foolish or cynical move, and that if Russia is allowed to take over Ukraine they will be aimed at other countries with large Russian speaking minorities next. Putin, particularly, is not to be trusted at all.

NPR radio on their noon news broadcast yesterday said that Russia is presently trying to inflame the pro-Russian sentiments wherever Russian is being spoken. That means much of the Baltic world which we now consider “European” allies of ours more than Soviet Block communist nations. I hate to agree with John McCain, but I think we may have to fight limited wars on both fronts – the ISIS invasion and Russian adventurism. I think Germany and France are backing down because of fear of Russia in general, and of economic issues like where they will get cheap natural gas and oil if Russia continues to raise their prices.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-smarttv-getting-too-smart/

Is SmartTV getting too smart?

By ANNA WERNER CBS NEWS
February 8, 2015

Samsung's SmartTV uses voice recognition technology to enable voice commands. But recent articles about it spiked concern on social media because of something buried in Samsung's privacy policy, which says "if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be captured and transmitted to a third party."

Some experts say this shouldn't be too surprising.

"Unfortunately this type of surveillance is pervasive in homes and it gets to the main point that you should be able to watch your TV without your TV watching you," said Khaliah Barnes who studies privacy issues for the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

It's not just televisions gathering information in your home. A Federal Trade Commission report last month on "The Internet of Things" like smart locks or smart meters pointed to benefits, but also risks. It said if devices like TVs store sensitive information, 'unauthorized persons could exploit vulnerabilities to facilitate identity theft or fraud."

Shoppers who spoke to CBS News had mixed views on the technology.

"I would not want people to be able to get into my living room. To me the benefit of that service wouldn't outweigh the potential danger," said one shopper.

"I personally love them and I understand why they're collecting that data," said another. "Most of the reason for collecting the data is to improve recognition, improving what the features of the device can do."

The FTC recommended companies build security into their devices at the outset, rather than as an afterthought.

Barnes doesn't believe companies are doing that enough.

"Companies could go further by advocating for privacy enhancing techniques which would minimize or eliminate the collection of personal information," she said.

Samsung told us it takes consumer privacy very seriously and uses industry-standard security safeguards and practices, including data encryption, to secure consumers' personal information. The company says it doesn't keep that voice data, but also points out the voice recognition feature can be turned off by the TV's owner or they can disconnect the TV from the Wi-Fi network.




“Samsung's SmartTV uses voice recognition technology to enable voice commands. But recent articles about it spiked concern on social media because of something buried in Samsung's privacy policy, which says "if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be captured and transmitted to a third party."... It's not just televisions gathering information in your home. A Federal Trade Commission report last month on "The Internet of Things" like smart locks or smart meters pointed to benefits, but also risks. It said if devices like TVs store sensitive information, 'unauthorized persons could exploit vulnerabilities to facilitate identity theft or fraud."... The FTC recommended companies build security into their devices at the outset, rather than as an afterthought. Barnes doesn't believe companies are doing that enough. "Companies could go further by advocating for privacy enhancing techniques which would minimize or eliminate the collection of personal information," she said. Samsung told us it takes consumer privacy very seriously and uses industry-standard security safeguards and practices, including data encryption, to secure consumers' personal information. The company says it doesn't keep that voice data, but also points out the voice recognition feature can be turned off by the TV's owner or they can disconnect the TV from the Wi-Fi network.”

I sincerely doubt that I will ever buy a smart TV unless I win the Lotto, but if I do I will hire a personal techie to go through and disconnect all of my smart devices from the Internet and WiFi. That includes any modern computer that is set up to film me in the nude while I least expect it, or record my voice.

Not only do I not trust hackers who want to put videos of me on YouTube, I don't trust the ever present US government spy networks. Since Edward Snowden's efforts, my view of our country has changed. What I suspected before I know now. It used to be that those who believed something like this was a viable threat were derided as being paranoid rather than wise, but now the situation has changed.

That great Economic entity “The Market” is totally in control on the issue, unfortunately, and therefore we need some laws prohibiting smart devices from tracking our daily lives. We have an expectation of privacy in some places – home, office, car, etc. If the Constitution isn't supplying protection in those areas we need a new right written in the rule of law ASAP.

See the following articles I found just by googling “spy devices home US government.” Sometimes science oversteps its proper boundaries and the US citizen has to step in and file lawsuits, write and call our Legislative representatives and President, give more money to the ACLU and whatever else we can think of. I personally think this is one of those times. The Forbes article below listed our refrigerators, of all things, as having monitoring devices in them. This really is obscene.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/01/19/police-radar-see-through-walls/22007615/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/josephsteinberg/2014/01/27/these-devices-may-be-spying-on-you-even-in-your-own-home/
http://www.paralegaltraining.net/blog/ways-in-which-the-government-might-be-spying-on-you/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/new-hi-tech-police-surveillance-the-stingray-cell-phone-spying-device/5331165




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/friends-of-mockingbird-author-harper-lee-say-shes-aware-of-everything/

Friends of "Mockingbird" author say she's aware of everything
AP February 8, 2015

Photograph – Pulitzer Prize winner and "To Kill A Mockingbird" author Harper Lee smiles before receives the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom in the East Room of the White House Nov. 5, 2007, in Washington.  CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES

MONROEVILLE, Ala. - Retrace the suddenly tangled legal saga of Harper Lee and her legacy, "To Kill A Mockingbird," and a pivotal moment emerges.

As her longtime protector, older sister and attorney Alice Finch Lee turned 100 and stopped practicing law a couple years ago, another lawyer in Alice's small firm became the point person for the "Mockingbird" brand.

Tonja Carter had worked in Alice Lee's office before graduating from the University of Alabama law school in 2006 and becoming Alice Lee's partner. Her ascendance brought more aggressive legal tactics: A lawsuit over the rights to "Mockingbird." Another to stop the town museum from selling "Mockingbird" souvenirs. A note telling a longtime friend of Harper Lee to keep his distance.

Carter, 49, soon became known in the community where she too grew up for jealously protecting the writer from visitors and perceived threats to her business interests.

And it was Carter who was the lynchpin in the stunning Feb. 3 announcement that a sequel to "Mockingbird," titled "Go Set a Watchman" would be published, according to the arm of HarperCollins Publishers that announced it.

Carter found the unpublished novel, written in the mid-1950s but locked away since, and negotiated the deal, the publisher said.

The news baffled many. Harper Lee has been intensely private in the decades since she picked up honors for her 1961 Pulitzer Prize winner. She had told friends and relatives for years that she didn't plan to publish another book.

Speculation quickly swirled over whether the elderly writer's wishes are being honored, particularly after friends and townspeople told The Associated Press they were troubled by her condition when she appeared at her sister's funeral in November.

But others close to Carter and the Lee sisters cautioned against misreading Carter's legal maneuvering.

Connie Baggett, a former newspaper reporter and a longtime friend of Carter, said Friday that the attorney was trusted implicitly by Alice Lee and in turn by Harper, whom locals call by her first name, Nelle.

"She's not some interloper," said Baggett, who came to know Carter and the Lees during two decades of covering southwest Alabama for the Mobile Press-Register. "She's been part of the inner circle for years."

Harper Lee used to split time between New York and Alabama but has lived full-time in Monroeville, halfway between Montgomery and Mobile, since suffering a stroke in 2007. She was last seen publicly at her sister's funeral, where she talked loudly to herself about seemingly unrelated things in a manner that alarmed those present, according to several who were there but insisted on anonymity for fear of upsetting those close to the family.

But historian Wayne Flynt, another longtime friend of the sisters, said he visited Harper Lee the day before the deal was announced, and found her completely lucid, cracking jokes and discussing the works of C.S. Lewis, though she didn't mention her own new book.

"This narrative of senility, exploitation of this helpless little old lady, is just hogwash. It's just complete bunk," Flynt said, adding that he has "no reason to question Tonja Carter's integrity."

It's important to note, Flynt said, that "Alice brought her in, kept her as a partner. She let her work increasingly with Nelle."

The 88-year-old Lee is nearly blind and deaf and lives in an assisted living center in town. Relatives and others close her typically don't comment about publicly about her in deference to the publicity-shy author's wishes.

Carter hasn't responded to the AP's interview requests, but she defended her actions in a series of text messages and emails to The New York Times, the newspaper reported Sunday.

Carter wrote Saturday that Harper Lee is "extremely hurt and humiliated" at the idea that she's been taken advantage of, the newspaper reported. "She is a very strong, independent and wise woman who should be enjoying the discovery of her long lost novel ... Instead, she is having to defend her own credibility and decision making."

Lee wrote "Watchman" first, the publisher said, describing how a grown-up Scout returns from New York to confront attitudes of the 1950s in her Alabama hometown. Her editor told her to write a different book, set 20 years earlier, describing Scout's understanding of her father Atticus Finch's legal defense of a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman.

That second book became "Mockingbird," selling millions of copies and becoming required reading in schools nationwide. "Watchman" seems destined to build on that phenomenal success when it's released in July; it's already No. 1 on Amazon, based on pre-orders.

"I'm alive and kicking and happy as hell with the reactions of 'Watchman,'" the author said in a statement relayed through Carter and attributed to her Thursday by the publisher.

Carter handled Alice Lee's will following her death. Then, as Harper Lee's attorney, one of their first salvos was a lawsuit in May 2013 against the son-in-law of a former literary agent, which restored control of the copyright for "Mockingbird."

Carter had signed a document in which Lee had reaffirmed her desire to give away the rights, but Carter also fought to restore those same rights to Lee, according to the complaint filed on Lee's behalf by a New York law firm.

Lee then sought a trademark for "To Kill A Mockingbird" items, like the knick-knacks sold in a town museum that includes displays about the book. The museum opposed the trademark request, and then it too was sued by Lee, accused of wrongly selling "Mockingbird" memorabilia without authorization and without paying royalties.

Baggett, whose parents were eulogized by Carter and her husband Patrick following their deaths, said the proliferation of "Mockingbird" related products was part of the reason Carter advised Lee to more aggressively protect her interests and income after her sister's retirement.

"Nelle was fiercely protective of the characters in her book while Alice was handling things," Baggett said. "As things have unfolded, Tonja took action. I can't imagine anyone looking out for the interests of the book and for Nelle who wouldn't do the same."

The lawsuits were settled, but more controversy erupted last year when author Marja Mills published her book "The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee." The former Chicago Tribune writer had moved next door to the sisters in 2004 and documented their quiet lives in the city that inspired Maycomb, the setting in the novel.

Harper Lee released a statement through Carter saying the book wasn't authorized, prompting Alice Lee to send her own hand-written apology to Mills. In it, Alice Lee said Carter had created the statement, and had Harper Lee sign it. "Poor Nelle Lee can't see and can't hear and will sign anything put before her by anyone in whom she has confidence," her sister wrote. "Now she has no memory of the incident."

Alice Lee describes confronting Carter in the letter, provided to the AP by Mills, and said the whole episode left her "humiliated, embarrassed and upset about the suggestion of the lack of integrity at my office."

Alice Lee died at 103 on Nov. 17. It was also in the fall, according to the publisher, that Carter found an unpublished manuscript of "Go Set a Watchman" attached to an original typescript of "To Kill A Mockingbird."

Baggett, who now works for the south Alabama town of Brewton, rejected suggestions by some that Carter was trying to personally profit from legal disputes involving Harper Lee, or the new book.

"I think if there were a motive of greed, family members would have stormed in to put a stop to things," said Baggett. "I have not seen that happening."

It was Carter who filed Alice Lee's will in Monroe County Probate Court. Lee left her estate to relatives and made donations to organizations affiliated with the United Methodist Church, in which she was heavily involved.

Harper Lee was among the relatives who signed documents waiving their right to receive notice of probate proceedings about the will, witnessed by Carter and signed by Alice Lee in 2009 while she was still practicing law on a limited basis. Such waivers are common and typically signal that relatives won't contest the will.

Harper Lee has received honors including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 and the Alabama Academy of Honor in 2001, but even then, she wasn't much for speaking. Asked to make remarks at the state ceremony, she said simply: "Well, it's better to be silent than be a fool."




“As her longtime protector, older sister and attorney Alice Finch Lee turned 100 and stopped practicing law a couple years ago, another lawyer in Alice's small firm became the point person for the "Mockingbird" brand. Tonja Carter had worked in Alice Lee's office before graduating from the University of Alabama law school in 2006 and becoming Alice Lee's partner. Her ascendance brought more aggressive legal tactics: A lawsuit over the rights to "Mockingbird." Another to stop the town museum from selling "Mockingbird" souvenirs. A note telling a longtime friend of Harper Lee to keep his distance. Carter, 49, soon became known in the community where she too grew up for jealously protecting the writer from visitors and perceived threats to her business interests.... The news baffled many. Harper Lee has been intensely private in the decades since she picked up honors for her 1961 Pulitzer Prize winner. She had told friends and relatives for years that she didn't plan to publish another book. Speculation quickly swirled over whether the elderly writer's wishes are being honored, particularly after friends and townspeople told The Associated Press they were troubled by her condition when she appeared at her sister's funeral in November.... "She's not some interloper," said Baggett, who came to know Carter and the Lees during two decades of covering southwest Alabama for the Mobile Press-Register. "She's been part of the inner circle for years." Harper Lee used to split time between New York and Alabama but has lived full-time in Monroeville, halfway between Montgomery and Mobile, since suffering a stroke in 2007. She was last seen publicly at her sister's funeral, where she talked loudly to herself about seemingly unrelated things in a manner that alarmed those present, according to several who were there but insisted on anonymity for fear of upsetting those close to the family. But historian Wayne Flynt, another longtime friend of the sisters, said he visited Harper Lee the day before the deal was announced, and found her completely lucid, cracking jokes and discussing the works of C.S. Lewis, though she didn't mention her own new book.... Carter wrote Saturday that Harper Lee is "extremely hurt and humiliated" at the idea that she's been taken advantage of, the newspaper reported. "She is a very strong, independent and wise woman who should be enjoying the discovery of her long lost novel ... Instead, she is having to defend her own credibility and decision making.".... "I'm alive and kicking and happy as hell with the reactions of 'Watchman,'" the author said in a statement relayed through Carter and attributed to her Thursday by the publisher. Carter handled Alice Lee's will following her death. Then, as Harper Lee's attorney, one of their first salvos was a lawsuit in May 2013 against the son-in-law of a former literary agent, which restored control of the copyright for "Mockingbird."

I certainly hope Harper Lee is alert enough to be aware of the acclaim she is already receiving over her upcoming book, and that she receives all funds that are due to her. There have been stories in the past of writers and musicians who were cheated out of their royalties, and it's always sad. . To Kill A Mockingbird was an exquisitely produced work of fiction, so I can't imagine that Watchman will be anything other than creditable, too. I can't wait until it comes to my library branch here.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rome-may-add-a-red-light-district-for-prostitutes/

Rome may add a "red light" district for prostitutes
AP February 8, 2015

ROME - Rome's mayor and officials are considering a "red light" district to shield prostitutes from exploitation and families from embarrassment.

Prostitution is legal in Italy, and its practitioners are a common sight along several streets in Rome and many other Italian cities.

City officials in the EUR neighborhood, filled with ministries, office high-rises and residential buildings, want to designate certain streets for prostitutes, starting experimentally in April.

Mayor Ignazio Marino told state TV RAINews24 Sunday the aim is to "find a balance" by pinpointing places, such as parks frequented by children and families, where prostitution won't be allowed, and by designating some streets where it will.

Exploitation of prostitution is illegal, as is paying minors for sex.

EUR official Andrea Santoro says designated streets will help ensure prostitutes aren't put there by traffickers. Many women leave homes in Africa and Eastern Europe for Italy after promises of work like waitressing, but instead are forced into prostitution by trafficking rackets.

Some neighborhood groups like the proposal. Paolo Lampariello, from one such group, said there are so many prostitutes on EUR's streets that "women can't enter their homes without being mistaken for prostitutes."

The newspaper Avvenire, of the Italian bishops' conference, scathingly described the designated-streets-for-prostitutes plan as "a hypocritical (and perhaps ideological) operation for urban 'decorum.'"

The city would provide psychological support and health care to prostitutes on the designated streets. Clients of prostitutes working on non-designated streets would risk fines of 500 euros (about $550) under the plan.

Pope Francis decried the "shameful plague" of human trafficking and urged prayer and reflection about the problem.

Marino's political roots are in a centrist faction of the Italian government's main coalition party, the Democrats.



History of prostitution
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The history of prostitution extends to all ancient and modern cultures.[1][2] It has been described as "the world's oldest profession".[3]

Ancient Babylon and Sumer[edit]

As early as the 18th century BCE, ancient Mesopotamia recognized the need to protect women's property rights. In theCode of Hammurabi, provisions were found that addressed inheritance rights of women, including female prostitutes. 

One of the first forms of prostitution is sacred prostitution, supposedly practiced among the Sumerians. In ancient sources (Herodotus, Thucydides) there are many traces of sacred prostitution, starting perhaps with Babylon, where each woman had to reach, once in their lives, the sanctuary of Militta (Aphrodite or Nana/Anahita) and there have sex with a foreigner as a sign of hospitality for a symbolic price.[citation needed]

In the Ancient Near East along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers there were many shrines and temples or "houses of heaven" dedicated to various deities documented by the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus in The Histories[5] wheresacred prostitution was a common practice.[6] It came to an end when the emperor Constantine in the fourth century AD destroyed the goddess temples and replaced them with Christianity.[7]

Biblical information[edit]

Prostitution was common in ancient Israel, despite being tacitly forbidden by Jewish Law. Within the religion of Canaan, a significant portion of temple prostitutes were male. It was widely used in Sardinia and in some of the Phoeniciancultures, usually in honour of the goddess ‘Ashtart. Presumably under the influence of the Phoenicians,[citation needed]this practice was developed in other ports of the Mediterranean Sea, such as Erice (Sicily), Locri Epizephiri, Croton, Rossano Vaglio, and Sicca Veneria. Other hypotheses[citation needed] include Asia Minor, Lydia, Syria and the Etruscans.

The Biblical story of Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38) provides a depiction of prostitution as practiced in the society of the time. The prostitute plies her trade at the side of a highway, waiting for travelers. She covers her face; which marks her as a prostitute. She gets paid in kind, asking for a kid as her fee; a rather high price in a herding society, in which only the wealthy owner of numerous herds could afford to pay for a single sexual encounter. If the traveler does not have his cattle with him, he must give some valuables as a deposit, until the kid is delivered to the woman.

Though in this story the woman was not a real prostitute but Judah's widowed daughter-in-law, who had good reasons of seeking to trick Judah and become pregnant by him, she succeeds in impersonating a prostitute and her conduct can be assumed to be the real conduct expected of a prostitute in the society of the time.

Greece

Both women and boys engaged in prostitution in ancient Greece.[10] The Greek word for prostitute is porne (Gr: πόρνη), derived from the verb pernemi (to sell), with the evident modern evolution. The English word pornography, and its corollaries in other languages, are directly derivative of the Greek word pornē(Gr: πόρνη).[11] Female prostitutes could be independent and sometimes influential women. They were required to wear distinctive dresses and had to pay taxes. Some similarities have been found between the Greek hetaera and the Japanese oiran, complex figures that are perhaps in an intermediate position between prostitution and courtisanerie. (See also the Indian tawaif.) Some prostitutes in ancient Greece, such as Lais were as famous for their company as their beauty, and some of these women charged extraordinary sums for their services.

Ancient Rome

Prostitution in ancient Rome was legal, public, and widespread. Even Roman men of the highest social status were free to engage prostitutes of either sex without incurring moral disapproval,[12] as long as they demonstrated self-control and moderation in the frequency and enjoyment of sex. Latin literaturerefers often to prostitutes. Real-world practices are documented by provisions of Roman law that regulate prostitution, and by inscriptions, especially graffiti from Pompeii. Some large brothels in the 4th century, when Rome was becoming officially Christianized, seem to have been counted as tourist attractions and were possibly even state-owned.[13] Prostitutes played a role in several Roman religious observances, mainly in the month of April, over which the love and fertility goddess Venus presided. At the same time, prostitutes were considered shameful: most were either slaves or former slaves, or if free by birth relegated to the infames, people utterly lacking in social standing and deprived of most protections accorded to citizens under Roman law.[14] Prostitution thus reflects the ambivalent attitudes of Romans toward pleasure and sexuality.[15]

Asia

According to Shia Muslims, the prophet Muhammad sanctioned fixed-term marriage – muta'a in Iraq and sigheh in Iran— which has instead been used as a legitimizing cover for sex workers, in a culture where prostitution is otherwise forbidden.[17] Sunni Muslims, who make up the majority of Muslims worldwide, believe the practice of fixed-term marriage was abrogated and ultimately forbidden by either Muhammad, or one of his successors, Umar. Like the Shia, Sunnis regard prostitution as sinful and forbidden.

In the early 17th century, there was widespread male and female prostitution throughout the cities of Kyoto, Edo, and Osaka, Japan. Oiran were courtesans inJapan during the Edo period. The oiran were considered a type of yūjo (遊女?)"woman of pleasure" or prostitute. Among the oiran, the tayū (太夫) was considered the highest rank of courtesan available only to the wealthiest and highest ranking men. To entertain their clients, oiran practiced the arts of dance, music, poetry, and calligraphy as well as sexual services, and an educated wit was considered essential for sophisticated conversation. Many became celebrities of their times outside the pleasure districts. Their art and fashions often set trends among wealthy women. The last recorded oiran was in 1761. 

A tawaif was a courtesan who catered to the nobility of South Asia, particularly during the era of the Mughal Empire. These courtesans would dance, sing, recite poetry and entertain their suitors at mehfils. Like the geisha tradition in Japan, their main purpose was to professionally entertain their guests, and while sex was often incidental, it was not assured contractually. High-class or the most popular tawaifs could often pick and choose between the best of their suitors. They contributed to music, dance, theatre, film, and the Urdu literary tradition.[18]

Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, prostitution was commonly found in urban contexts. Although all forms of sexual activity outside of marriage were regarded as sinful by the Roman Catholic Church, prostitution was tolerated because it was held to prevent the greater evils of rape, sodomy, and masturbation (McCall, 1979). Augustine of Hippo held that: "If you expel prostitution from society, you will unsettle everything on account of lusts". The general tolerance of prostitution was for the most part reluctant, and many canonists urged prostitutes to reform.

After the decline of organised prostitution of the Roman empire, many prostitutes were slaves. However, religious campaigns against slavery, and the growing marketisation of the economy, turned prostitution back into a business. By the High Middle Ages it is common to find town governments ruling that prostitutes were not to ply their trade within thetown walls, but they were tolerated outside if only because these areas were beyond the jurisdiction of the authorities. In many areas of France and Germany town governments came to set aside certain streets as areas where prostitution could be tolerated. In London the brothels of Southwark were owned by the Bishop of Winchester. (MCCall) Still later it became common in the major towns and cities of Southern Europe to establish civic brothels, whilst outlawing any prostitution taking place outside these brothels. In much of Northern Europe a more laissez faire attitude tended to be found.[19] Prostitutes also found a fruitful market in the Crusades.

20th century

The leading theorists of Communism opposed prostitution. Karl Marx thought of it as "only a specific expression of the general prostitution of the laborer," and considered its abolition to be necessary to overcome capitalism. Friedrich Engels considered even marriage a form of prostitution, and Vladimir Leninfound sex work distasteful. Communist governments often took wide-ranging steps to repress prostitution immediately after obtaining power, although the practice always persisted. In the countries that remained nominally Communist after the end of the Cold War, notably China, prostitution remains illegal but is nonetheless common. In many current or former Communist countries, the economic depression brought about by the collapse of the Soviet union led to an increase in prostitution.[52]

During World War II, Japanese soldiers engaged in forced prostitution during their invasions across East Asia and Southeast Asia. The term "comfort women" became an euphemism for the estimated 200,000, mostly Korean andChinese, women who were forced into prostitution in Japanese military brothels during the war.[53]

Sex tourism emerged in the late 20th century as a controversial aspect of Western tourism and globalization. Sex tourism is typically undertaken internationally by tourists from wealthier countries. Author Nils Ringdal alleged that three out of four men between the ages of 20 and 50 who have visited Asiaor Africa have paid for sex.[54]

A new legal approach to prostitution emerged at the end of the 20th century — the prohibition of the buying, but not the selling, of sexual services, with only the client committing a crime, not the prostitute. Such laws were enacted in Sweden (1999), Norway (2009), Iceland (2009), and are also being considered in other jurisdictions.

21st century

In the 21st century, Afghans revived a method of prostituting young boys which is referred to as bacha bazi.[55]

Since the break up of the Soviet Union, thousands of eastern European women have ended up as prostitutes in China, Western Europe, Israel, and Turkey every year.[56] There are tens of thousands of women from eastern Europe and Asia working as prostitutes in Dubai. Men from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates form a large proportion of the customers.[57]

India's devadasi girls are forced by their poor families to dedicate themselves to the Hindu goddess Renuka. The BBC wrote in 2007 that devadasis are "sanctified prostitutes".[58]

United States

In the United States, prostitution was originally widely legal. Prostitution was made illegal in almost all states between 1910 and 1915 largely due to the influence of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union which was influential in the banning of drug use and was a major force in the prohibition of alcohol. In 1917 the legally defined prostitution districtStoryville in New Orleans was closed down by the Federal government over local objections. In Deadwood, SD, prostitution, while technically illegal, was tolerated by local residents and officials for decades until the last madam was brought down by state and federal authorities for tax evasion in 1980. Prostitution remained legal in Alaska until 1953 (though not yet a US state), and is still legal in some rural counties of Nevada (see Prostitution in Nevada).[60]

Beginning in the late 1980s, many states increased the penalties for prostitution in cases where the prostitute is knowingly HIV-positive. These laws, often known as felony prostitution laws, require anyone arrested for prostitution to be tested for HIV, and if the test comes back positive, the suspect is then informed that any future arrest for prostitution will be a felony instead of a misdemeanor. Penalties for felony prostitution vary in the states that have such laws, with maximum sentences of typically 10 to 15 years in prison. An episode of COPS which aired in the early 1990s detailed the impact of HIV/AIDS among prostitutes; this episode contributed to HIV/AIDS awareness.




“City officials in the EUR neighborhood, filled with ministries, office high-rises and residential buildings, want to designate certain streets for prostitutes, starting experimentally in April. Mayor Ignazio Marino told state TV RAINews24 Sunday the aim is to "find a balance" by pinpointing places, such as parks frequented by children and families, where prostitution won't be allowed, and by designating some streets where it will. Exploitation of prostitution is illegal, as is paying minors for sex.... Some neighborhood groups like the proposal. Paolo Lampariello, from one such group, said there are so many prostitutes on EUR's streets that "women can't enter their homes without being mistaken for prostitutes." The newspaper Avvenire, of the Italian bishops' conference, scathingly described the designated-streets-for-prostitutes plan as "a hypocritical (and perhaps ideological) operation for urban 'decorum.'" The city would provide psychological support and health care to prostitutes on the designated streets. Clients of prostitutes working on non-designated streets would risk fines of 500 euros (about $550) under the plan. Pope Francis decried the "shameful plague" of human trafficking and urged prayer and reflection about the problem.”

Legalized prostitution was discussed by some when I was in my 20s as a way of combating venereal disease, as the legalized prostitute would be required to get medical attention on a regular basis, but there are few actual cases of it in the US. The very entertaining movie “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas” starring Dolly Parton, Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise is a light treatment of a legalized house of prostitution. There are real ones at this time in Nevada, and one interesting personal story told by one of the girls is under the website www.buzzfeed.com/careerconfidentials/my-life-as-a-legal-prostitute.

My only personal experience with seeing a real live prostitute was when my male friend of the time took me to 14th St. in DC at my request. They didn't look at all like I expected – very “trashy” looking – but rather sophisticated in their makeup and dress. The skirt was short, but not overly tight, and I've seen more “trashy” girls in business offices where I was working. Strangely, few male bosses will fire a woman for dressing like that. When I took a Mardi Gras trip to New Orleans in 1973 or so my friend and I were strolling down the street in the French Quarter looking at the scenery. The townhome dwellings there are very beautiful, but one of them did indeed have a red lightbulb over the door. That's the extent of my personal interaction with the world of vice.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2015/02/08/384332798/civil-rights-attorneys-sue-ferguson-over-debtors-prisons

Civil Rights Attorneys Sue Ferguson Over 'Debtors Prisons'
Joseph Shapiro
February 8, 2015


Photograph – Anthony Kimble, who says he couldn't afford to pay his fines, is one of 11 plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Joseph Shapiro/NPR

In a new challenge to police practices in Ferguson, Mo., a group of civil rights lawyers is suing the city over the way people are jailed when they fail to pay fines for traffic tickets and other minor offenses.

The lawsuit, filed Sunday night on the eve of the six-month anniversary of the police shooting of Michael Brown, alleges that the city violates the Constitution by jailing people without adequately considering whether they were indigent and, as a result, unable to pay.

The suit is filed on behalf of 11 plaintiffs who say they were too poor to pay but were then jailed — sometimes for two weeks or more.

NPR got an advance look at the lawsuit, filed by lawyers from Equal Justice Under Law, ArchCity Defenders and the Saint Louis University School of Law. It charges that Ferguson officials "have built a municipal scheme designed to brutalize, to punish, and to profit."

In 2013, Ferguson collected $2.6 million in court fines and fees, mainly on traffic violations and other low-level municipal offenses. That was the city's second-largest source of income, or about 21 percent of its total budget.

The lawsuit challenges the practice of jailing people when they can't afford to pay those fines. When tickets go unpaid, people are summoned to court and usually offered a new payment plan. If they fail to show up or make the new payments, the city issues an arrest warrant.

In 2013, Ferguson, a city with a population of 21,000, issued nearly 33,000 arrest warrants for unpaid traffic violations and other minor offenses. Many of those were for people who lived outside the city.

Ferguson officials did not respond to requests for comment. But the city has made some recent court reforms. In September, the City Council, in its first meeting since the Brown shooting, announced a proposal to cap revenues from tickets. And in December, the city ordered a partial "amnesty." People could pay $100 to get an arrest warrant lifted and then agree to pay their fines on a new payment plan.

Last year, NPR's investigative series Guilty and Chargedrevealed that all 50 states add long lists of fines and fees for court services, including the cost of a public defender, and room and board for jail stays. The investigation also found that when the poor struggle to pay those fees — often with penalties that push costs to hundreds or thousands of dollars — they are sent to jail for not paying the fines, even though debtors prisons were outlawed before the Civil War.

City officials say traffic fines protect public safety, and they need to punish the many people who can pay but simply refuse.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit say they were indigent and got caught up in a cycle of increased fees, debt and jailing.

Just over a year ago, Tonya DeBerry was driving her 4-year-old grandson in her daughter-in-law's car. A St. Louis County police officer saw that the license plates were expired and pulled her over. He ran a background check and saw an arrest warrant for multiple unpaid traffic tickets in Ferguson. Among those old violations were tickets for driving with a suspended license — lost for earlier unpaid tickets — and driving with no registration, insurance or proof of inspection.

DeBerry was arrested and handcuffed in front of her grandson. After someone came to pick up the boy, she was taken to jail.

"Just traffic tickets. No criminal act. Nothing," says DeBerry, 52, who doesn't work and depends on a disability check and food stamps. "If you have the money, you would never go through that type of situation. If you don't have the money, it's jail, jail."

She says the jail cell was moldy and dirty. "There was blood on the walls where people cut themselves and wiped the blood."

She spent two nights in a Ferguson jail in January 2014, until her daughter arrived with $300 borrowed from a neighbor to pay her bond. She was then transported to Jennings, Mo. — which is also being sued in a companion lawsuit — where there were more unpaid traffic tickets.

DeBerry still owes a few thousand dollars on those unpaid traffic tickets. She says she worries that she could be picked up again and go back to jail, so she's careful about where and when she drives.

DeBerry says the arrest warrants are a problem not just for her, but also for her son and daughter, who live with her.

Both Herbert Nelson, DeBerry's 26-year-old son, and Allison Nelson, her 23-year-old daughter, are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, too.

Herbert Nelson has been jailed at least four times in Ferguson over the past four years and owes the city a couple of thousand dollars for unpaid traffic tickets. He was last arrested in September and released after his mother borrowed $300 to pay for his bond.

Nelson says jailing him for unpaid tickets is disproportionate to his offense.

"We're not criminals. It's just driving. ... And we're paying these big punishments. It's not fair. It's holding us back. It's like a cycle. Once you put us in trouble for something so petty ... [it's] just digging a hole and putting us in it."

Nelson says he can't work because of the arrest warrants. He painted houses. But when he lost his driver's license, he lost his truck and now can't get to work.

His sister Allison Nelson says she's had to put on hold her dreams to join the Navy. The recruiter says she can't enlist until she clears up her outstanding warrants, which would require paying hundreds of dollars she says she doesn't have.

"This is holding so many of these young black kids back, it's ridiculous," says DeBerry. "They can't even get a job because they can't even get a background check, because they have a warrant for traffic tickets only."

Anthony Kimble, 53 and another plaintiff in the Ferguson lawsuit, says he's been jailed multiple times by Ferguson police, and in February 2013 spent nearly two weeks in jail.

He says when it was finally clear that he could not pay, and no one in his family could help, he was released. He says he was never allowed to shower, was given little food and, by the time he got out, had "lost 12 to 15 pounds."

The lawsuits allege that Ferguson and the nearby town of Jennings violate the Constitution because courts jail defendants without adequately considering whether they have the ability to pay. Also, the courts don't offer alternatives, like more affordable payment plans or the chance to pay off fines by doing community service instead.

"[Judges] routinely fail to make the inquiry into someone's ability to pay, even when it's required by law," says attorney Thomas Harvey, a co-founder of ArchCity Defenders, which provides legal services to the homeless and indigent. "At the very moment anyone says, 'I can't afford this. I'm on Section 8. I have lived in a homeless shelter,' that is raising the issue of indigency before the court, and it's required at that moment for the court to continue that inquiry and not continue to incarcerate someone if they've raised that issue of indigency."

Alec Karakatsanis, co-founder of the civil rights nonprofit Equal Justice Under Law, says the lawsuits, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, ask the federal court to order judges in Ferguson and Jennings to stop "throwing people in jail solely because they're too poor" and to compensate those too poor to pay who have gone to jail.

"We've seen the rise of modern American debtors prisons, and nowhere is that phenomenon more stark than in Ferguson and Jennings municipal courts and municipal jails," he says. "We have people languishing in grotesque conditions, solely because of their poverty."



Debtors prison US, Google comment: Debtors prisons were outlawed in the United States nearly 200 years ago. And more than 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear: Judges cannot send people to jail just because they are too poor to pay their court fines. May 21, 2014



https://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/debtors-prisons

Debtors Prisons
“Across the country, in the face of mounting budget deficits, states are more aggressively going after poor people who have already served their criminal sentences and jailing them for failing to pay their legal debts. These modern-day debtors' prisons impose devastating human costs, waste taxpayer money and resources, undermine our criminal justice system, are racially skewed, and create a two-tiered system of justice.”

There are some half a dozen stories on this subject at the ACLU site above. Go to it and see what they say. Additional articles:
http://www.vice.com/read/whos-getting-rich-off-the-prison-industrial-complex
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Corrections_Corporation_of_America
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/03/627471/private-prisons-spend-45-million-on-lobbying-rake-in-51-billion-for-immigrant-detention-alone/
http://www.whitenations.com/archive/index.php/t-16077.html




Ferguson and Jennings – "[Judges] routinely fail to make the inquiry into someone's ability to pay, even when it's required by law," says attorney Thomas Harvey, a co-founder of ArchCity Defenders, which provides legal services to the homeless and indigent. "At the very moment anyone says, 'I can't afford this. I'm on Section 8. I have lived in a homeless shelter,' that is raising the issue of indigency before the court, and it's required at that moment for the court to continue that inquiry and not continue to incarcerate someone if they've raised that issue of indigency." Alec Karakatsanis, co-founder of the civil rights nonprofit Equal Justice Under Law, says the lawsuits, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, ask the federal court to order judges in Ferguson and Jennings to stop "throwing people in jail solely because they're too poor" and to compensate those too poor to pay who have gone to jail. "We've seen the rise of modern American debtors prisons, and nowhere is that phenomenon more stark than in Ferguson and Jennings municipal courts and municipal jails," he says. "We have people languishing in grotesque conditions, solely because of their poverty."

This does remind me of the books Tom Jones, Oliver Twist, and Hunchback of Notre Dame. We really do need a massive review of two things – debtor's prison and “For Profit Prisons.”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/03/627471/private-prisons-spend-45-million-on-lobbying-rake-in-51-billion-for-immigrant-detention-alone/ is one of five or six articles on For Profit Prisons and Private Prisons. I think we need to do a close reform of the whole prison system. The City of Ferguson, MO is one of the places where many poor people are being put into prison because they can't pay their parking/moving violation tickets or other court fees. In looking it up I saw a number of other instances of “debtor's prison” in modern times, even though according to Google it was outlawed by the Supreme Court some thirty years ago.

This subject makes me really angry. Not only are poor people unable to buy as many or as good quality products, can't afford to pay car insurance, etc., they are being put into prison for something that was declared no longer a crime at all in 1971. I wonder how many homeless people get picked up and jailed because they can't pay fines. We're living in an increasingly unfair and in my opinion, dark and immoral period in the matter of human rights, and this trend of thought in our country is linked with the far right politics that has taken hold. I hope to see something done about these things in the next year or two. I recently joined the ACLU, and I will set up a small monthly payment to them. They do a great deal of good.