Realm of JT

Remedial measures for the next generation: Keep death off the streets.

jting — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:50:49 +0000

Recent news of teen deaths in Cook County, IL and Queens County, NY.

Issues that need to be addressed with potential remedial measures:

1) How are these teens getting guns?

a) The Focus of Gun control laws in NYC and surrounding states.

Current Mayor of NYC, Michael Bloomberg, is the head of Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG). However, what is this organization’s focus in why they want to gun control? Is it proper for them to punish LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS from having guns to protect themselves? One Ohio mayor resigned from the MAIG citing such problem of misdirecting its focus. That is not the issue. Bloomberg stated that MAIG’s catalyst were deaths of police officers. This is not the only issue! Its the entire community. And yes law enforcement officers are part of the whole community.

The issue is controlling those that are using guns for violence. NYC gun laws are very strict already. So, where is the problem arising from? There are more finite issues than just simply having laws that prohibit the citizens from possessing guns. It is shameful that for so many years gun control issue is such a hot debate (not so much anymore since the focus on terrorism) and no one has looked into more issues found below.

b) Gang-related violence issues. Here is another Cook County death of a 16 year old from beating.

1) Discipline from parents

There needs to be more accountability for parents to have their children stay at home and prepare their studies to not just keep them safe at home but to allow them to aspire to be a person better than their neighbor causing trouble.

A) Single parent homes (usually father is not the single parent supporting).

Why is there only one parent supporting the child(ren)?

A story of having no blood-related parental support.

NY claims to have an outstanding foster care program but that really is not the issue. Story of a teen who had gone through foster care, but wants to aspire to be a military paramedic.

2) Education and After school programs to protect the welfare of the youth and the surrounding communities.

There is a heavy stigma with mostly minority students going to a school with security checkpoints. This stigma already disturbs their focus to learn. There is more discussion in class about “did you hear about that shooting/stabbing” opposed to “hey how did you get to that answer for problem #2.”

A good example of why money should not funneled to large scale programs such as the Olympics.

Politicians need to help their respective communities and its community organizers that have been working so hard for it all to fall apart. There needs to be centralized and uniform focus on how to help our youth to aspire to be more than what they see on TV. They need to stay off the streets. Not every student can be an athlete. Thus, there needs to be different after school programs that focus on creativity, team building, etc. The next generation of youth is apathetic to become the next Neil Armstrong or even, Lance Armstrong whom aspired to be significant in their own right. Today, a great number of people (not only the youth) are focused on making the most money and being on top of the world in whatever they want to do whether its becoming the next Kobe Bryant or Lebron James. And especially if they can’t play ball, then they really don’t know what to do. What is available to them?

3) The youth cannot wait for things to come to them.

No comments here. It’s up to themselves.

A story of NYC’s (already) strict gun laws.

New Jersey is getting a new look. Its politicians..

jting — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 06:15:05 +0000

WSJ Article: Sept 9, 2009,

Jersey City Officials Plead

Guilty in Sweeping

Corruption Case

Second News article: WSJ August 28, 2009 New Jersey Corruption Bust Had Deep Roots

How do you gain a politician’s trust back, especially a politician running in New Jersey? It couldn’t be the other way around where a politician is paying voters or could it be a basketball game against President Obama?

Colored line between political corruption and political prejudice

jting — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 06:05:37 +0000

BBC International article for quick facts

There is an unfortunate blend or lemon twist on the facts.

Who is right here? Is there true justice and balance in the courts and a separation of powers in Taiwan as it is supposed to be in the United States? There is not one person that is right here. Is is true that President Chen Shui-bian concedes to “raising” over 1 million dollars?

In December of 2008, there was a panel of 3 judges and somehow the judges changed and former President Chen Shui-bian was put back on trial. In America, that would constitute as double jeopardy protected by the 5th Amendment that does not allow a defendant to be put on trial a second time for the same charge(s) after such defendant has been acquitted at the first trial for the same charge(s).

There are many questions here. But are there any clear answers…

Chen Shui-bian concedes that there may be misguided campaign fundraising rules.

1) What are the rules? 2) In what ways did he obtain the funds? 3) Were those fundraising methods in compliance with Taiwan’s rules?

Sentencing.

(1) Is that the mandatory sentence according to Taiwan’s statutory law based on graft or political corruption?

(2) Were there more policy reasons rationalizing a life sentence in this case?

Taiwan Court rules for changing the judges on the panel.

(1) Who were the three original judges on the panel? (2) Who were the new judges on the panel that ended up sentencing Chen Shui-bian to life in prison? (3) What were there backgrounds and if they had any communications with the KMT party?

Below is an article forwarded to me. The article was written by Michael Stainton, President of the Taiwanese Human Rights Association of Canada.

Guilty by verdict, by not by evidence

On September 11 the Taipei District Court issued a verdict and sentence in the bundle of corruption cases centered on former President Chen Shui-bian and first lady Wu Shu-chen. To the surprise of no one, Judge Tsai Shou-hsun found them guilty on all the charges in the Special Prosecutor’s Office December 2008 bill of indictment, and imposed the maximum penalty. President Chen was sentenced to life imprisonment, permanently stripped of his civil rights, and fined two hundred million NT$ (US$6 million). Wu Shu-chen received the same sentence except she was fined three hundred million. Other accused received far lighter sentences.

There are actually several cases here. Readers can be forgiven for not wanting to know all the details. But this case should be of concern because it is one more piece of evidence that the process of democratization in Taiwan is being reversed as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) moves this island ever closer mother China, where a trial like that of President Chen would be normal operating procedure. A brief review of the charges, even without recounting the procedural absurdities and injustices which have marred the process, can show why Chen’s lawyers and foreign Taiwan watchers predicted exactly this outcome.

The first is case is about money laundering. Chen is now convicted of transferring stolen money overseas to avoid detection. However, we still do not know if it was actually stolen. If one has the stamina to read the 202 pages of Chinese in the indictment, one first crawls through some 190 pages detailing a mind-numbing multitude of bank transfers and how Wu Shu-Chen, her children and her brother moved large amounts of cash around the world. In this there is no mention of President Chen being involved. Finally, after the 194th page, the indictment exclaims how could President Chen not have known about all this, and baldly states that he was a knowing and willful co-conspirator. But the only bit of evidence it presents linking Chen to all this is that he once made a phone call to a bank about a problem with one of these accounts. Other evidence of the crimes of President Chen is a brief sermon about how he violated the high principles of his presidential oath of office, and showed a bad and unrepentant attitude by refusing to confess his guilt.

Moving money around the world is only money laundering if the money is illegally obtained and so needs to be laundered, and here the evidence presented in the indictment is equivocal. Most of the money involved was the surplus from the presidential election campaigns of 2000 and 2004. In Taiwan surplus election funds are the personal property of the candidate, and there are no clear laws on its use or requirements that it be held for future elections. Everyone in Taiwan deplores this situation, but the laws have been kept loose for years precisely to facilitate the KMT’s own use of its own immense resources. Along with most of the other bills the Chen administration presented to the KMT-controlled legislature, attempts at legal reforms were deferred, blocked or mutilated by amendments.

In several public statements even before he was arrested Chen apologized that he had not acted wisely or transparently in the use of his election funds, but also pleaded that as president he had neither the time nor legal right to be involved in the financial dealings of his family. Wu managed all their money. It is widely known in Taiwan, even among their friends, that Wu loved money and that in recent years her relations with her husband had become strained. Chen claims that when these accusations became news he questioned her about them and that she was less than honest with him, so that he was not in the loop.

Chen is also accused of misuse of state funds – embezzlement – in relation to the secret foreign affairs and presidential discretionary funds which he used the same way as previous presidents. The difference is that previous presidents were all KMT and so their use did not constitute misuse. More astounding is that the detailed figures of use of these funds and Chen’s bank records gives no evidence that President Chen pocketed any of these monies, but the assumption of guilt was good enough for Judge Tsai.

The third charge is receiving bribes in the case of land acquisition for a high tech science park, and here it is proved that monetary gifts were given to Mrs. Chen who inserted herself into these negotiations. However, all testimony in this case agreed that President Chen had no involvement in the land negotiations or knowledge of the gift. One could reasonably conclude with the prosecutor “how could he not know”, but this begs the question – your knowledge of the wrongdoing of others is not a basis for finding you guilty of their crime.

To make this more interesting, there is a very recent precedent in Taiwan of a bribery case involving a senior politician and his wife. In 2006 the magistrate of Hsinchu County, Zheng Yongjin, was convicted of receiving a bribe from a contractor in pursuit of work on a large project. The “moon cake box” case was the subject of much merriment in Taiwan as the contractor (who sang like a birdie once he was arrested) delivered the money as a gift in a box of moon cakes. This was received at the door of their home by the magistrate’s wife. Mr. Zheng continued to serve as magistrate even after his conviction while he appealed. In December 2008 the appeal court found him not guilty because there was no proof that the magistrate himself received the money or knew it was given by the contractor. You might think this would be a precedent in the case against President Chen, but this shows how little you know about the reborn Republic of China’s justice system. Mr. Zheng is a loyal member of the KMT and was convicted while the party was out of power. In December 2008 the KMT was back in power and the party-state was getting back to normal operation.

In contrast to Magistrate Zheng who continued to administer the affairs of a Hsinchu county as a convicted criminal, President Chen was arrested as soon as the charges against him were laid, on November 11, 2008 and has been detained as a “major felon” ever since. I discovered what this meant in June when I became the first foreigner to visit him. There are three kinds of visiting rooms – the “regular prisoner visiting room” where face to face visits take place, the “special visiting room” where you can sit on a sofa and have tea together. I visited a Columbus Leo, a Taiwanese Canadian charged with the crime of advocating Taiwan independence, in this room in 1990. I saw President Chen in the “major felon visiting room”, a hot stark cell divided by a wall and thick plate glass. You talk through a telephone, controlled and watched by a guard from a glass wall beside you. Chen was also accompanied by a guard in his half of the cell taking notes during our twenty minute visit.

One might think that the President of the country for 8 years might get the special visiting room, if only for the dignity of the country, but this fails to take account of the fact that Chen was the unabashed President of Taiwan, and we are now back in the old Republic of China, so not the same country. He is getting special treatment though. Even his discussions with his lawyers were recorded (and sometimes leaked) until protests from lawyers associations led the Council of Justices (Taiwan’s equivalent of a Supreme Court) to say this was unconstitutional, but still gave the prosecutors 4 months to clean up its act.

Chen did apply for release on bail, and this was granted once, on December 13 after the Special Prosecutors Office announced the completion of its investigation. But KMT politicians and media raised such a cry of outrage that three days later the judge who granted him bail was removed from the case (and also threatened with impeachment) and the new judge, Mr. Tsai who has just found him guilty of everything, immediately ordered him detained again on the claim that he might flee the country (this though he is accompanied by an ex-presidential security guard at all times), or seek to cover up evidence (despite the fact that the Special prosecutor’s Office began investigating all these charges in 2006) or that he might collude with others to influence their testimony (despite the completion of the investigation). Another later bail application was denied because Chen had not been “cooperative” with the court.

There has not been a show trial or a political sentence like this in Taiwan since the 1980 military trials of the Taiwanese opposition after Kaohsiung Incident. Ironically, Chen Shui-bian was one of the defense lawyers in those show trials. Things have come full circle. After two decades of astounding the world with its vibrant democratization and spunky nationalism in the face of Chinese threats, Taiwan is once again the Republic of China. Under the KMT the justice system once again serves the larger interest of the party.

Missing Yale med student – Annie Le

jting — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:36:36 +0000

Keep a look out for any information that may help local enforcement to find this missing person, Annie Le.

Source of article: Fox News: September 12, 2009

Unidentified evidence has been seized in the search for a missing Yale University graduate student, authorities said Saturday, but they refuted a report that a body had been found.

Annie Le, 24, who disappeared days before she was scheduled to be married, was last seen Tuesday entering a building at the university in New Haven, Conn.

On Friday, Yale offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the missing student.

Le, a California native, was to be married to Jonathan Widawsky, a graduate student in physics at Columbia University. The two met as undergraduates at the University of Rochester. Widawsky has been cooperating with the investigation and is not considered a suspect, authorities say.

Le was last seen about 10 a.m. Tuesday morning on surveillance camera outside a lab in the Yale School of Medicine complex, less than a mile from the main campus.

Le is 4-foot-11, 90 pounds and of Asian descent with brown hair and brown eyes.

Key facts: Her purse, cell phone, credit cards and money were found in her office, a few blocks from the lab. She has not contacted her fiance, family or friends since Tuesday.

Anyone with information on Le’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Yale Police Department at (203) 432-4400.

“Items that could potentially be evidence have been seized. None have yet been associated with Annie Le,” FBI Special Agent Kim Mertz said while declining to confirm reports that the evidence included bloody clothing.

Mertz also told reporters Saturday evening that there was no truth to a report that a body had been found.

“We are not in a position to do conclude whether this is a missing persons case or whether criminality is involved,” Mertz said.

University officials have urged the public not to jump to conclusion.

“The investigation is at a very difficult stage,” University Vice President and Secretary Linda Lorimer said, adding that many agencies are working together to find out what happened to the student.

She said Le’s family, which has asked for privacy, doesn’t think Le would simply run away.

About the same time, she swiped her Yale ID at the facility’s entrance. There was no footage of her leaving the building, in spite of a fire alarm that went off about 12:40 p.m. The alarm isn’t thought to be connected to her disappearance.

The New York Daily News, citing an unnamed police source, reported earlier Friday that detectives had questioned a Yale professor. Le, a doctoral student in pharmacology at the Ivy League university, was supposed to attend the professor’s class Tuesday afternoon, but the course was canceled shortly before Le was reported missing, according to the Daily News.

But Lorimer told the Yale Daily News later that there was no reason to believe a professor is a suspect in the case.

Click here for photos.

Meanwhile, the missing woman’s family canceled her Sunday wedding on Long Island, N.Y., according to a supervisor at the hall where the ceremony and reception were to have taken place.

“The wedding is off,” Nadeen Fotopoulos, a manager at the North Ritz Club in Syosset, told the News. She said 160 guests were supposed to attend.

“It’s very sad,” she told the paper. “The hall will be dark Sunday morning.”

Detectives were spotted Saturday questioning a man outside the lab where Le worked. When they finished talking, the man got in the front seat of an unmarked car and one of the FBI agents got in the back seat. The car then drove away.

Authorities previously said they had no evidence to indicate foul play in Le’s disappearance. More than 100 investigators are working on the case.

Investigators searched her office, the lab facilities where she did research and her apartment.

Investigators were examining security camera footage from some 75 cameras near the building where Le was last spotted.

“They are going frame by frame, looking at every image,” Conroy said Friday.

“Man” up America..Black America

jting — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:01:29 +0000

NY Times Article: Obama Speaks at N.A.A.C.P. Celebration

Regardless of your race, parents need to be responsible for their own children. If they do not want to take responsibility, then they should not be producing children. Parents should be attentive to the kids, but not please them every time they want a video game or snack. Parents and children should cherish the time they have with each other. Time passes quickly and I wish I could have spent more time with my parents.

Families of President Barack Obama + Judge Sonia Sotomayor = hard workers. I don’t believe they spent countless hours playing video games.

An wonderful excerpt from his speech as usual:

“They might think they’ve got a pretty jump shot or a pretty good flow,” Mr. Obama said, “but our kids can’t all aspire to be LeBron or Lil Wayne. I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers. I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court justice. I want them aspiring to be president of the United States of America.”

My advice is to go out on outdoor activities like hiking, (mountain) bike riding, or even playing frisbee in the front yard, or teach your kid what you are good at whether that would be fixing a car, or cooking. Parents must be teachers.

Be Quick, Clean Up.

jting — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:41:46 +0000

Are we really going green? Because it’s hard for people to even pick up after themselves. There have been numerous occassions where I have seen high schoolers throw a gatorade bottle behind them or a couple finish eating out of their ice cream cup and throw that straight to the ground. Is that really necessary? It’s hard enough for people to take the time to distinguish the correct bin to dispense their items from plastic to paper, but shoot am I asking a lot for a person, who dropped their bottle cap, to pick it right back up and throw it away or hold onto it when there is a trash bin 2 feet away?

Well today that happened. And I finally told her what’s up. As I was waiting to cross the street, I heard a bottlecap tumble to the ground. As miliseconds passed, I turned behind me to see a lady, as young as I, holding her mineral water bottle, without hesitation, standing there waiting for the crosswalk sign as I was. Except I began to become frustrated because she absolutely knew she could have simply picked up her own belongings and toss it away especially since she was finished with her drink. I looked at her dead in the eye, then I grabbed the cap and placed it on her hand. I said, “look there is a trash can right there buddy, do us a favor and throw this away.” She actually placed her hand out. Did she throw it away? Who knows. I was not going to watch her do it but, at least, I tried to place some kind of influence on “picking up after yourself.” Goodness sakes. There are trashcans everywhere. Even if you have to hold it for two blocks, it’s not going to hurt your soul. Just be brave. No one is going to judge you for becoming a little more “green.”

Peace.

more Places to visit

jting — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:48:18 +0000

I met a gentleman on the plane back to NY and he recommended me to visit Glen Springs, Colorado and Cinque Terre in Italia.

Here is some info/websites for your benefit.

Glenwood Springs, Colorado

Glenwood Springs Chambers

Its municipal site.

Hot springs

Wikipedia

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre Online

NY Times article: 36 Hrs in Cinque Terre dated August 5, 2007

WikiTravel

Le Cinque Terre

YouTube video: Cinque Terre

ENJOY! COME BACK AND POST COMMENTS OF YOUR EXPERIENCE THERE.

Back to work.

jting — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:41:22 +0000

I went back to my marathon training since my break in Denver. During my run, I witnessed my second car accident, since working at the civil court, at or about 8:40 am. Bizarre. A compact car was about to take a right turn on Booth Memorial Avenue and a truck was driving straight, in the same sentence, on Kissena Blvd and side-swipped the compact car in the process. The victim did not sustain instant injuries.

Let’s go Rockies!

jting — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:49:11 +0000

day Four.

Finally, I had the chance to sleep in because there were no plans for adventurous activities whereas the other days we woke up at 5 and 6 in the morning. Today, we got cheap tickets to the Rockies game against the Diamondbacks. Ya, Rockies lost. Oh well. But I felt like cheering for the Rockies more than the Mets. I am a fairweather fan when it comes to baseball.

Afterwards, we grabbed dinner at new restaurant called Ice House Tavern in downtown Denver. AND THEN, went back to pack for my 6 am flight back to NYC. Yay!

day Three. seeking more adventure

jting — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:20:18 +0000

Before getting into the raft

PHASE ONE.

Today we thought that being a celebrity was not enough. Well, Cassie turned out to be a hero. We joined up with random fellow white water rafters with Timberline Tours. We needed several pieces of equipment to include 1) paddle, 2) helmet, 3) wet suit, 4) splash jacket, 5) PFD (life jacket). Our rafting guide’s name was Antony from Cape Town, South Africa. He doesn’t live in Vail, CO permanently, but he has been returning to Vail as a rafting guide for the last 12 summers. During the winters, he has gone to Switzerland to be a ski tour guide.

The group of 6 rafters and the tour guide suited up and rafted down the Eagle River, a class IV stretch. Antony briefed us with some terms such as ‘left back,’ ‘right back,’ ‘forward 2,’ ‘forward,’ ‘back,’ and ’stop.’ He also mentioned ‘dump truck,’ which is when everyone falls out of the raft but the raft itself is still upright. A ‘perfect dump truck’ is when everyone except the tour guide falls out. None of that happened to us today. It seemed like a piece of cake but it was probably because we had a strong and calm group. There were other groups of rafters that went with us and it was a success because no one fell out. But our group did have a close call! The biggest rafter thought he was tough and ended up with practically his entire body outside of the raft during one of the Class IVs. Cassie was able to pull him back in to the raft by grabbing his PFD. If not for Cassie’s heroic efforts, our raft experience could have turned sour. Nevertheless, white-water rafting was a thrilling experience – that I will definitely want to do again. Next destinations for WWR? Whistler, Vancouver..Oregon? Anyway, the day isn’t over.

PHASE TWO.

We stayed in Vail to venture back to the mountains but this time with a mountain bike. We rented bikes from Vail Ski Tech. We grabbed our bikes and went up to the Gondola. We rode our bikes through the Valley Trail. Valley Trail was a 7 mile stretch that really probably would have taken us 30-45 minutes to complete from top to bottom but because the views were beautiful, we stopped every once in awhile to take some scenic shots. Prior to arriving in Denver, Cassie asked me to bring 2 pairs of shoes because one of them will be soaked during the white-water rafting. That definitely occurred. My brand new second pair of shoes turned out to get splashed with mud. Why is this ironic? Because by nearly the second half of our ride, the ease of our ride received some adventure due to the downpouring rain, 10 mph winds (dirt blowing toward our faces), and mud kicking up everywhere! I couldn’t complain. It was the best and “extreme” mountain biking experience I could have wished for.

Maybe next time, I could go on a zipline.

We were going to stay in Vail for its firework show but the rain cleared out the people and decided that our 2 hour drive back to Denver would be more use efficient of our time. I never thought that I would have the chance to have delicious pizza from NY, Chicago, and now, Colorado?! Fortunately, we ate at the original Beau Jo’s – known for its legendary Mountain Pies. We ordered half sausage combo and half Skier Mike’s. Thereafter, we chomped on waffle ice cream cones from one of the several “homemade” ice cream shops called Hop Scotch. I got my favorite flavor – cookies and cream. Even though we decided to leave Vail America Days, we saw about twenty different firework shows whether they were organized by the towns or individually displayed on our way back to the house.

more pictures found on my FlickR account

Legendary Colorado Pizza

90 schilling microbeer..it's alright