What if...

TSA: Mule skinners need background checks, too

The strict adherence to multitudes of regulations results in needless bureaucracy. The state creates needless hurdles to human cooperation, all the while justifying itself in the name of safety.

TSA: Mule skinners need background checks, too
By Mike M. Ahlers
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal anti-terror law that requires longshoremen, truckers and others to submit to criminal background checks has ensnared another class of transportation worker -- mule drivers.

Yes, so-called mule skinners -- in this case, seasonal workers who dress in colonial garb at a historical park in Easton, Pa. -- must apply for biometric Transportation Worker Identification Credentials (TWIC), according to the Transportation Security Administration, which says it is bound by federal law.

The requirement has officials of the Hugh Moore Historical Park perplexed.

"We have one boat. It's pulled by two mules. On a good day they might go 2 miles per hour," said Sarah B. Hays, the park's director of operations.

The park's two-mile canal does not pass any military bases, nuclear power plants or other sensitive facilities. And, park officials say, the mules could be considered weapons of mass destruction only if they were aimed at something resembling food.

In December, Hayes wrote to Rep. Charles Dent, R-Pennsylvania, about the requirement. Dent, in turn, wrote to the TSA requesting a waiver, noting the mode of transportation involved was "mule-drawn canal boats."

In January, the TSA responded, noting the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 applies to all mariners holding U.S. Coast Guard-issued credentials.

"We encourage the crew members... who possess Coast Guard mariner credentials to obtain a TWIC at their earliest convenience to comply with these requirements and not risk suspension or revocation of their other credentials," the TSA wrote.

On Wednesday, the mule skinner debate reached Capitol Hill, when Dent asked new Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about the necessity of conducting background checks on mule drivers. He displayed a photo of two mules, Hank and George, tugging a canal boat in the company of two park employee mule drivers in colonial working attire.

"Now Hank and George, while sometimes are ornery, they are not terrorists," Dent said. Napolitano said she would try to be flexible.

"Obviously this is a picture designed to say 'Hey, isn't it absurd that they be required to have TWIC cards.'" Napolitano said. "Um, let's work with you on this particular case, if we might."

Park officials say four or five park employees typically have Coast Guard credentials to operate the canal boat, and the extra expense of a TWIC card, which is at least an extra $100 on top of fees for Coast Guard credentials, is unwelcome.

"I think the rule was written and the policy was set up for all the big shipping, and they never even considered something outside the normal bounds," Hays said.

Dent said he will work on a "common sense" solution with Napolitano.

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The State Says It's Not Guilty

How convenient. The state has a monopoly over deciding disputes between individuals as well as individuals and the state. Why should anyone be surprised when it decides in it's own favor? Why do we put up with this crap? No person can be trusted with such a power. The state cannot be trusted either.

U.S. says Guantanamo complies with Geneva treaties
Mon Feb 23, 2009 4:56pm EST
By Jane Sutton

MIAMI (Reuters) - The U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay prison camp currently complies with the Geneva Conventions' standards for humane treatment, a top U.S. Navy officer concluded on Monday in a review ordered by President Barack Obama.

Vice-Admiral Patrick Walsh led a team of investigators on a 13-day visit to inspect the camp at the U.S. naval base in Cuba and said he had found no violations of the Geneva treaties' ban on cruel, humiliating or degrading treatment.

The detention operation has been widely seen as a blot on the United States' human rights record and a symbol of detainee abuse and detention without charge.

Walsh said his team interviewed more than 100 guards, interrogators, senior officers and support staff, and more than a dozen captives held at Guantanamo as suspected al Qaeda or Taliban operatives.

He acknowledged his team had not spoken to former prisoners who have claimed they were tortured, nor did they attempt to determine whether the camp had complied with the Geneva standards throughout its seven-year history.

"I was not in a position to look back," Walsh said at a Pentagon briefing. "My mandate was specifically to determine whether the camp was in compliance today, and it is."

His group made several recommendations, chiefly that captives living in one-man cells modeled after maximum-security prisons in the United States be given more opportunities for social interaction and mental stimulation, such as eating and praying with others.

He urged that camp operations be routinely videotaped to provide evidence of how captives are treated.

'THE MENTAL DIMENSION'

Walsh also urged that U.S. officials try to ease detainees' anxiety about their future, which could affect their mental health. Frustration about their future prompted some to refuse food and recreation, he said.

"The mental dimension needs to be part of the dialogue on what it takes to be humane," Walsh said.

He said Obama's January order to shut down the detention operation within a year had been posted throughout the camp and that, "Everyone knows that the camp will close."

About 240 captives remain at Guantanamo, including five accused of plotting the September 11 hijacked plane attacks that promoted the U.S. war on terrorism. Only one has been convicted of a crime.

U.S. courts and military review panels have cleared a few dozen others for release, including 17 members of China's Muslim Uighur minority who were cleared years ago. But they remain at the base because U.S. officials fear they would be tortured if returned to China, will not bring them to the United States and can not find another nation to take them in.

"They are very exasperated by this process," Walsh said.

Human rights groups disputed Walsh's findings that the camp was in full compliance with the requirement for humane treatment. They said most Guantanamo prisoners were still held in severe isolation and faced psychological and physical abuse and threats of violence from guards.

"They are caught in a vicious cycle where their isolation causes psychological damage, which causes them to act out, which brings more abuse and keeps them in isolation," said Pardiss Kebriaei, a staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents many of the prisoners.

"If they are going to be there another year, or even another day, this has to end."

(Reporting by Jane Sutton, editing by Jim Loney and Patricia Zengerle)

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Dentists Want State To Force Out Competitors

Regulations ultimately are used to protect certain groups from competition. Safety concerns are just pretexts for restricting the market.

Dentists wary of salon teeth-whitening treatments
By DESIREE HUNTER

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — When Kelly Markos started offering teeth whitening in her upscale salon, she thought it would be a nice addition to her lineup of eyelash extensions, temporary tattoos and custom makeup.

But then an inspector for the Alabama Board of Dental Examiners ordered her to stop, accusing her of practicing illegal dentistry.

Markos' ongoing lawsuit with the state has waded into the murky area of regulating teeth-whitening products that are increasingly offered in settings outside the dentist's office, such as salons and mall kiosks.

The dental industry claims it's a health and safety issue; the beauty parlors say the dentists are just trying to brush them out of a lucrative niche.

"As a new business owner, I'm trying to bring something new and innovative to the salon. And then to be threatened to be shut down before I really even had it going was more than a little frustrating," Markos said recently while blow-drying a customer's freshly cut hair. "I believe that this is a cosmetic service and we are on the right side of the law."

But Dr. Leslie Seldin, a dentist for 43 years and now consumer adviser and spokesman for the American Dental Association, said it's hard to know whether those bleaching trays or ultraviolet lights are sanitary or safe.

In some salons, the whitening is sometimes facilitated by people wearing white coats who hand the trays to customers to put into their own mouths or adjust the lights over their teeth.

But the ADA is worried customers might wrongly think salon employees are health care professionals.

"We do not know about what level of sterilization and disinfection is being done. You're dealing with something that is totally unregulated," Seldin said.

Many of the same products are available in stores for customers to use on themselves at home.

"What we ultimately feel this boils down to is a consumer-rights issue, because consumers should have the right to whiten their teeth any way they want to whiten their teeth as long as it's safe," said Paul Klein, vice president of White Smile USA. The Atlanta-based company licenses its whitening products to locations in 23 states, including Markos' salon.

Whitening at a salon or mall shop using bleaching trays or ultraviolet light usually costs about $100 to $200. It can cost up to $400 and more at a dentist's office.

A Montgomery judge has ruled in favor of Alabama's dental board in a lawsuit brought by White Smile USA and Markos, finding that whitening constitutes the practice of dentistry and requires a license.

Birmingham attorney Jim Ward, who represented the Alabama board in the case, said the issue is being addressed in several states, including Wyoming, Louisiana, North Carolina, Minnesota and New Mexico, and that many have reached the same conclusion as the Alabama judge.

Klein said his company has been discussed in New Mexico and Tennessee but there's never been any court involvement until Alabama.

"We feel the state is trying to use their regulatory power to protect a monopoly for the dentists, and we don't think that's right," he said.

Last month, the Tennessee Board of Dentistry, following complaints about mall kiosks, changed its rules to clarify that whitening can only be performed by licensed dentists or hygienists and dental assistants under their direct supervision.

"It's amazing — we never touch the customer's mouth, never touch the customer, period, and we don't see how that could possibly be practicing dentistry," said Klein, who was visibly agitated as he discussed the situation.

Ohio's dental board agreed with Klein last year, finding that while it does have some concerns about unregulated use of the materials, whitening by non-dentists is OK as long as consumers position the light by themselves, put the material on their own teeth, and no one else touches their mouths.

"Simply providing a consumer with the materials to make a tray and demonstrating to them how to apply materials to their teeth for bleaching purposes is not the practice of dentistry," the board said in its decision.

The ADA's Seldin said that he first saw such whitening being done on a cruise about seven years ago, but that the practice has really taken root within the past four or five years.

"The American Dental Association has a policy but that's not enforceable in any way," he said. "The dental boards and governments of states are going to have to figure out how they're going to handle it."

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Fight For Your Right Not To Party

The authoritarian mind sees no boundaries to their control. Not even your celebrations.

China orders Tibet to celebrate New Year

China has told Tibetans they must hold New Year celebrations after activists called for a boycott in a sign of support for the Dalai Lama.

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Last Updated: 6:02PM GMT 24 Feb 2009

Losar, or Tibetan New Year, falls on Wednesday and is usually an occasion for feasting and communal celebration. This year, however, a growing number of Tibetans have decided to boycott the party as a silent protest.

Tenzin Taklha, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama said: "Usually it's a day of festivity and gaiety when everyone gets together. But this year it's going to be observed as a day of prayer in memory of all the Tibetans who died and all those who are still suffering under Chinese rule."

Many living overseas have already cancelled their parties, but Chinese authorities have told Tibetans at home to celebrate.

Officials have handed out 800 yuan (£80) each to nearly 70,000 poor Tibetans "to enable people in difficulty to enjoy a happy and auspicious Tibetan New Year," according to a government website.

A four-hour-long television gala has also been organised and Ma Zhaoxu, a foreign ministry spokesman, said: "Tibetans will go ahead with celebrations."

Tensions are already high in the region, and China has closed off Tibet to all foreigners, creating a news blackout. Last weekend, 24 people were arrested in Tibetan areas of Sichuan, while Chinese police said they had discovered several pounds of explosives under a bridge in the east of Tibet.

In Kangding, a heavily Tibetan town in neighbouring Sichuan, hundreds of anti-riot police were seen drilling in barracks on the outskirts of the town, wearing protective clothing and carrying batons and guns.

March 10 marks the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's exile from Tibet, and fears are growing that the events of last March, when riots broke out across Tibet, could repeat themselves.

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Ban On Consensual Economic Activity A Big Failure

Embargoes hurt regular people who are then presented with fewer options being denied access to the world economy. Leaders maintain a lush lifestyle at the expense of their citizens.

Senate Report Calls Cuban Embargo A Failure
WASHINGTON DC (CBS4) ―
Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
CBS

The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is suggesting that the U.S. re-evaluate its trade sanctions with Cuba since they have failed to move the country toward democracy.

Senator Richard Lugar, in a written statement dated Monday, said "We must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests."

During his campaign and his initial days in the Oval Office, President Barack Obama has said he would be open to meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro. While he believes the embargo does provide some leverage, Obama has said he would support easting the limits on the amount of money that can be sent to the people of Cuba by their relatives in the U.S.

Lugar's suggestion on re-evaluating the embargo is included in a new report on U.S.-Cuban relations that will be distributed to the Senate this week. The report was written by Lugar's senior staffer, Carl Meacham, who visited Cuba in January.

The report charges that the existing embargo provides the Cuban government a convenient "scapegoat" for their economic difficulties and keeps the U.S. from gaining a "broader understanding of events on the island."

"By directing policy toward an unlikely scenario of a short-term democratic transition on the island and rejecting most tools of diplomatic engagement, the U.S. is left as a powerless bystander, watching events unfold at a distance," the report states.

An end to the embargo would require congressional approval due to a 1996 law which forbids the U.S. from normalizing relations with Cuba as long as Fidel or Raúl Castro is involved in the Cuban government.

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Gang Forbids Victims to Protect Themselves

Notice that they insist on having their citizens unarmed. Why not allow people to arm themselves? These rapists might think twice if they know their victims might be armed. The state will not allow their citizens to be armed, because it doesn't want the competition. Besides, they want their victims to be unarmed to make them easier to control.

Italy passes emergency rape law
Italy's government has rushed through a decree law to crack down on sexual violence and illegal immigration after a spate of rapes blamed on foreigners.

The decree sets a mandatory life sentence for the rape of minors or attacks where the victim is killed.

It goes into effect immediately but must be approved by both houses of parliament within 60 days.

The number of sexual assaults fell last year, but three high-profile rapes last weekend sparked national outrage.

The decree, passed by premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government, also speeds up trials for sex offenders caught in the act, takes away the possibility of house arrest, and gives free legal assistance to victims.

It also establishes rules for citizen street patrols by unarmed and unpaid volunteers.

The move came after groups of self-styled and unregulated vigilantes began patrolling some towns, alarming law enforcement officials.

A series of rapes has shocked Italy in the last weeks and most have been blamed on foreigners, especially Romanians.

Several violent attacks on immigrants have been reported.

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