Fire Hydrant of Freedom

'Fair trade' is a crock

By DALIBOR ROHAC

Last Updated: 3:55 AM, May 13, 2011

NY Post

If you want to help out Third World farm workers, ignore the "Wake up the World" campaign. Don't have a "fair trade" breakfast -- or anything else. The "fair trade" label is a crock.

You're likeliest to see the "fair trade" label at high-end coffee shops and grocery stores -- especially ones with a "progressive" clientele. The certification is supposed to let you enjoy your latte without feeling guilty for exploiting the Ethiopian or Ecuadoran who harvested the beans.

Oh, the likes of Angelina Jolie and Colin Firth endorse it -- but the main value it brings is the consumer's feeling of socially conscious satisfaction.

Fair-trade-certified products -- coffee, bananas, cocoa, etc. from developing countries -- have boomed this last decade. US sales of fair-trade goods rose from $15 million to $48 million from 2005 to 2009.

Most people think "fair trade" guarantees better pay for agricultural workers in developing countries. The Fair Trade USA Web site insists, "We can change the world by changing our breakfast."

Sorry: What the organized fair-trade movement actually does is simply provide selected producers of cash crops in such nations with guaranteed minimum prices for their products. The direct benefits are small and rarely go to the least well-off. Worse, fair trade can hinder economic development.

Consider how it all works.

Again, "fair trade" merely guarantees certain producers a minimum price for a commodity. This gives farmers a safeguard against price drops, which can come in handy if they can't access more sophisticated forms of financial hedging.

But how much does fair trade actually help poor people? Most fair-trade producers are outside Sub-Saharan Africa, the world's poorest region. Mexico has 51 fair-trade cooperatives; Ethiopia has four and Burundi just one.

And the main benefit flows to fair-trade cooperatives -- groups of landowners, not laborers. The certification includes no incentives for the owners to pay higher wages to farmworkers, who tend to be poorer and more vulnerable.

It even tends to exclude the poorer landowners. Certification involves significant up-front costs -- $2,000 to $4,000 -- and annual inspections that require paying sizable fees. In a developing nation, that's a big hurdle.

And the folks shut out of the scheme are worse off. With a minimum price guaranteed, the fair-trade insiders can produce more with lower risks -- increasing the overall size of the crop and thus depressing prices for the folks who couldn't afford to buy their way in.

Even fair-trade supporters must admit that the scheme doesn't solve the problem of underdevelopment. No nation has become rich by earning a slightly higher return on a cash crop. Most developed countries have succeeded by allowing their economies to grow more sophisticated and diversified -- adding areas of production that pay more to workers and owners.

That is, there's more money in making chocolate than in growing cocoa -- and 90 percent of the world's cocoa, but only 4 percent of its chocolate, is produced in developing countries.

But "fair trade" -- guaranteeing a minimum price for certain crops -- locks part of the labor force into basic agriculture, discouraging it from moving "higher up the ladder" to better long-term opportunities in manufacturing, services or more sophisticated forms of agriculture. A study of Guatemala's fair-trade coffee industry by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University concluded that fair trade strongly encouraged production mediocrity.

Finally, "fair trade" encourages a particular business model at the expense of others. To qualify for registration in the fair-trade scheme, farmers need to form cooperatives that satisfy certain requirements of communal decision-making and transparency. Why, exactly -- other than badly dated ideology -- should we prefer landowner cooperatives over private companies that adhere to high standards of workers' welfare and social and environmental responsibility?

Ultimately, only private entrepreneurship and businesses can pull the developing world out of poverty. But entrepreneurs flourish only in a situation of good governance, stable property rights and business-friendly legal institutions. Rather than falling for marketing ploys that use poor people as pawns, we should work to improve the business environment in developing countries.

Low-income countries around the world don't need our pity and handouts; they need economic policies that work. "Fair trade" may mean well, but that's just not good enough.

Dalibor Rohac is a research fellow at the Legatum Institute in London.

Blame the Jews, in 3......2......1

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/meghan-mccain-goes-naked-for-racy-skin-cancer-psa/

Hey Crafty, you might want to skip this since you just flew back from the middle east......   

A recent New York Times editorial justified the NLRB decision by arguing that unions are suffering from "the flight of companies to 'Right-to-Work' states where workers cannot be required to join a union."

Do they prefer that the jobs migrate to China?

Exactly.

Coptic Christians, left, and Muslims threw stones at each other during clashes in Cairo last weekend.
Sidebar comment:  My readings elsewhere leave me with the thought that the apparent neutrality here on Muslim-Coptic fighting is an example of Pravda on the Hudson's politics getting in the way of the Truth.

"the Muslim-Christian riot" Imagine civil rights protesters being brutalized in the south being described this way. Or Krystalnacht being described as sectarian violence.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/scientist-imam-threatened-over-darwinist-views-2232952.html

Scientist Imam threatened over Darwinist views

 
By Tom Peck and Jerome Taylor

Saturday, 5 March 2011


A prominent British imam has been forced to retract his claims that Islam is compatible with Darwin's theory of evolution after receiving death threats from fundamentalists.


Dr Usama Hasan, a physics lecturer at Middlesex University and a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, was intending yesterday to return to Masjid al-Tawhid, a mosque in Leyton, East London, for the first time since he delivered a lecture there entitled "Islam and the theory of evolution".

But according to his sister, police advised him not to attend after becoming concerned for his safety. Instead his father, Suhaib, head of the mosque's committee of trustees, posted a notice on his behalf expressing regret over his comments. "I seek Allah's forgiveness for my mistakes and apologise for any offence caused," the statement read.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12111831

Salman Taseer was repeatedly shot at close range with a sub-machine gun

The influential governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Salman Taseer, has died after being shot by one of his bodyguards in the capital, Islamabad.

Mr Taseer, a senior member of the Pakistan People's Party, was shot when getting into his car at a market.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the guard had told police that he killed Mr Taseer because of the governor's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law.

Many were angered by his defence of a Christian woman sentenced to death.

Farag Foda (Egyptian Arabic: فرج فوده, IPA: [ˈfɑɾˤɑɡ ˈfoːdæ]), also Faraj Fawda, (1946 - June 8 1992) was an important Egyptian thinker, human rights activist, writer, and columnist.
 
Based in Cairo, he was noted for his critical articles and sharp satires about Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt. In many newspaper articles, he demonstrated weak points in Islamic ideology. Among other things he exposed Egypt's most popular preacher, Abd al-Hamid Kishk, for "telling his audience that Muslims who entered paradise would enjoy eternal erections and the company of young boys draped in earrings and necklaces," and promising them "an eternity of blissful pederasty."[1]
 
He was shot to death in his office on 8 June 1992 by two Islamic fundamentalists from the Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya group. His son and other bystanders were seriously wounded in the attack.
 
Before his death, Farag Foda was declared an apostate and foe of Islam[2]. An Al-Azhar scholar, Mohammad Al-Ghazali, a witness before the court, declared it was not wrong to kill a foe of Islam. Al-Ghazali said: "The killing of Farag Foda was in fact the implementation of the punishment against an apostate which the imam (the state) has failed to implement (undertake)."
 
One of Foda's killers, Abd al-Shafi Ahmad Ramadhan, was sentenced to death on 30 December 1993 and executed on 26 February 1994]. The other was executed for another murder.

all in all, my point was that throughout history Christians in this manner werent any different to Muslims, in fact they were far worse.

The idea that the pre-literate, brutal, pagan european cultures would suddenly become beacons of niceness because they started wearing crosses instead of pre-christian amulets is unrealistic. It took a lot of time, technological advancements (Like the Gutenberg bible) and the spread of literacy and thus the reformation to alter some unpleasant things in the west. Core values from christianity, like the concept of a secular government rather than theocracy took root in western thought. The movement to end slavery in the west grew out of activists motivated by their christian beliefs. The end of segrigation in the US was lead by christians as well. Still lots of slavery in the muslim world and I am unaware of any islamic William Wilberforces or Martin Luther King Jr.s

"Naskh, or abrogation is a term used mostly in exegesis for contradictory material between the Qur'ān and the Sunna. In its historiographical use, naskh usually incorporates the replacement of an earlier tradition with a chronologically newer one."

There are also conflicts within the quaran, so naskh was used to address those conflicts. A cynic such as myself would say that liars have a hard time keeping lies straight, and that sociopathic "prophets" get divine guidance that suits their needs from moment to moment.

http://www.meforum.org/1754/peace-or-jihad-abrogation-in-islam#_ftn51

Abrogation in the Qur'an
 
The Qur'an is unique among sacred scriptures in accepting a doctrine of abrogation in which later pronouncements of the Prophet declare null and void his earlier pronouncements.[9] Four verses in the Qu'ran acknowledge or justify abrogation:
 •When we cancel a message, or throw it into oblivion, we replace it with one better or one similar. Do you not know that God has power over all things?[10]
•When we replace a message with another, and God knows best what he reveals, they say: You have made it up. Yet, most of them do not know.[11]
•God abrogates or confirms whatsoever he will, for he has with him the Book of the Books.[12]
•If we pleased, we could take away what we have revealed to you. Then you will not find anyone to plead for it with us.[13]

SNIP-------

Abrogation and Jihad
 
How does the theological debate over abrogation impact contemporary policy formulation? While not all terrorism is rooted in Islam, the religion is an enabler for many. It is wrong to assume that more extreme interpretations of religion are illegitimate. Statements that there is no compulsion in religion and that jihad is primarily about internal struggle and not about holy war may receive applause in university lecture halls and diplomatic board rooms, but they misunderstand the importance of abrogation in Islamic theology. It is important to acknowledge that what university scholars believe, and what most Muslims—or more extreme Muslims—believe are two different things. For many Islamists and radical Muslims, abrogation is real and what the West calls terror is, indeed, just.
 
During the lifetime of Muhammad, the Islamic community passed through three stages. In the beginning from 610 until 622, God commanded restraint. As the Muslims relocated to Medina (623-26), God permitted Muslims only to fight in a defensive war. However, in the last six years of Muhammad's life (626-32), God permitted Muslims to fight an aggressive war first against polytheists,[52] and later against monotheists like the Jews of Khaybar.[53] Once Muhammad was given permission to kill in the name of God, he instigated battle


Rather than go post-al, I'll let you address this before moving on. 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576314953091790360.html

A 100-trillion-dollar bill, it turns out, is worth about $5.

 
Associated Press
 
A man in Harare, Zimbabwe, carried cash for groceries in 2008.
.That's the going rate for Zimbabwe's highest denomination note, the biggest ever produced for legal tender—and a national symbol of monetary policy run amok. At one point in 2009, a hundred-trillion-dollar bill couldn't buy a bus ticket in the capital of Harare.

But since then the value of the Zimbabwe dollar has soared. Not in Zimbabwe, where the currency has been abandoned, but on eBay.

The notes are a hot commodity among currency collectors and novelty buyers, fetching 15 times what they were officially worth in circulation. In the past decade, President Robert Mugabe and his allies attempted to prop up the economy—and their government—by printing money. Instead, the country's central bankers sparked hyperinflation by issuing bills with more zeros.

The 100-trillion-dollar note, circulated for just a few months before the Zimbabwe dollar was officially abandoned as the country's legal currency in 2009, marked the daily limit people were allowed to withdraw from their bank accounts. Prices rose, wreaking havoc.

The runaway inflation forced Zimbabweans to wait in line to buy bread, toothpaste and other essentials. They often carried bigger bags for their money than the few items they could afford with a devalued currency.

Today, all transactions are in foreign currencies, mainly the U.S. dollar and the South African rand. But Zimbabwe's worthless bills are valuable—at least outside the country. That Zimbabwe's currency happened to be denoted in dollars has amplified appeal, say currency dealers and collectors, particularly after the global financial crisis and mounting public debts sparked inflationary fears in the U.S.

"People pick them up and make jokes about when that's going to happen here," says David Laties, owner of the Educational Coin Company, a currency wholesaler based in Highland, N.Y.

 .Dealers prescient enough to buy Zimbabwe's biggest notes while they were in circulation are now taking their investment to the bank. Mr. Laties spent $150,000 buying bills from people in South Africa and Tanzania with experience moving currency and other clandestine cargo, including migrants, across Zimbabwe's borders. Sensing that Zimbabwe's last dollars would be "the best notes ever" on the collector's market, he even fronted $5,000 to someone who approached him over the Internet.

"It worked out," he says. "I got my notes."

Frank Templeton, a retired Wall Street equities trader, bought "quintillions of Zimbabwe dollars" through a broker from Zimbabwe's central bank. On eBay, he now does a brisk trade in the bills from his home in the Hamptons, on New York's Long Island. "I like to say Warren Buffett made a lot of people millionaires, but I've made more people trillionaires," Mr. Templeton says. The dealer paid between $1 and $2 for each of the bills in several purchases over about a year, and now sells them for around $5-$6 apiece.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) and Stanford economist John B. Taylor are among the new owners of Zimbabwean bills. Each keeps one in his wallet, brandishing it at opportune moments as evidence of inflation's most extreme possible ramifications. "No self-respecting monetary economist goes around without a 100-trillion-dollar note," Mr. Taylor says with a chuckle.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2005/07/jews-as-depicted-in-the-quran.html

Dear Sheikh! As-Salam `Alaykum. What, according to the Qur’an, are the main characteristics and qualities of Jews?
 Answer: [...]

As regards the question you posed, the following is the fatwa issued by Sheikh `Atiyyah Saqr, former Head of Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee, in which he states the following:

“The Qur’an has specified a considerable deal of its verses to talking about Jews, their personal qualities and characteristics. The Qur’anic description of Jews is quite impartial; praising them in some occasions where they deserve praise and condemning them in other occasions where they practice blameworthy acts. Yet, the latter occasions outnumbered the former, due to their bad qualities and the heinous acts they used to commit.

The Qur’an praises them on the verse that reads: “ And verily We gave the Children of Israel the Scripture and the Command and the Prophethood, and provided them with good things and favored them above (all) peoples.” (Al-Jathiyah:16) i.e. the peoples of their time.

Among the bad qualities they were characterized with are the following:

1. They used to fabricate things and falsely ascribe them to Allah. Allah Almighty says: “ That is because they say: We have no duty to the Gentiles. They speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly.” (Al-`Imran:75) Also: “The Jews say: Allah's hand is fettered. Their hands are fettered and they are accursed for saying so. Nay, but both His hands are spread out wide in bounty. He bestoweth as He will.” (Al-Ma`idah:64)

In another verse Almighty Allah says: “Verily Allah heard the saying of those who said, (when asked for contributions to the war): "Allah, forsooth, is poor, and we are rich! We shall record their saying with their slaying of the Prophets wrongfully and We shall say: Taste ye the punishment of burning!” (Al-`Imran:181)

2. They love to listen to lies. Concerning this Allah says: “and of the Jews: listeners for the sake of falsehood, listeners on behalf of other folk” (Al-Ma’idah: 41)

3. Disobeying Almighty Allah and never observing His commands. Allah says: “And because of their breaking their covenant, We have cursed them and made hard their hearts.” (Al-Ma’idah: 13)

4. Disputing and quarreling. This is clear in the verse that reads: “Their Prophet said unto them: Lo! Allah hath raised up Saul to be a king for you. They said: How can he have kingdom over us when we are more deserving of the kingdom than he is, since he hath not been given wealth enough?” (Al-Baqarah: 247)

5. Hiding the truth and standing for misleading. This can be understood from the verse that reads: “…distort the Scripture with their tongues, that ye may think that what they say is from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture.” (Al-`Imran: 78)

6. Staging rebellion against the Prophets and rejecting their guidance. This is clear in the verse: “And when ye said: O Moses! We will not believe in thee till we see Allah plainly.” (Al-Baqarah: 55)

7. Hypocrisy. In a verse, we read: “And when they fall in with those who believe, they say: We believe; but when they go apart to their devils they declare: Lo! we are with you; verily we did but mock.” (Al-Baqarah: 14) In another verse, we read: “Enjoin ye righteousness upon mankind while ye yourselves forget (to practice it)? And ye are readers of the Scripture! Have ye then no sense?” (Al-Baqarah: 44)

8. Giving preference to their own interests over the rulings of religion and the dictates of truth. Allah says: “…when there cometh unto you a messenger (from Allah) with that which ye yourselves desire not, ye grow arrogant, and some ye disbelieve and some ye slay?” (Al-Baqarah: 87)

9. Wishing evil for people and trying to mislead them. This is clear in the verse that reads: “Many of the People of the Scripture long to make you disbelievers after your belief, through envy on their own account, after the truth hath become manifest unto them.” (Al-Baqarah: 109)

10. They feel pain to see others in happiness and are gleeful when others are afflicted with a calamity. This is clear in the verse that reads: “If a lucky chance befall you, it is evil unto them, and if disaster strike you they rejoice thereat.” (Al-`Imran:120)

11. They are known of their arrogance and haughtiness. They claimed to be the sons and of Allah and His beloved ones. Allah tells us about this in the verse that reads: “The Jews and Christians say: We are sons of Allah and His loved ones.” (Al-Ma’idah: 18)

12. Utilitarianism and opportunism are among their innate traits. This is clear in the verse that reads: “And of their taking usury when they were forbidden it, and of their devouring people's wealth by false pretences.” (An-Nisa’: 161)

13. Their impoliteness and indecent way of speech is beyond description. Referring to this, the Qur’anic verse reads: “Some of those who are Jews change words from their context and say: "We hear and disobey; hear thou as one who heareth not" and "Listen to us!" distorting with their tongues and slandering religion. If they had said: "We hear and we obey; hear thou, and look at us" it had been better for them, and more upright. But Allah hath cursed them for their disbelief, so they believe not, save a few.” (An-Nisa’:46)

14. It is easy for them to slay people and kill innocents. Nothing in the world is dear to their hearts than shedding blood and murdering human beings. They never give up this trait even with the Messengers and the Prophets. Allah says: “…and slew the prophets wrongfully.” (Al-Baqarah: 61)

15. They are merciless and heartless. In this meaning, the Qur’anic verse explains: “Then, even after that, your hearts were hardened and became as rocks, or worse than rocks, for hardness.” (Al-Baqarah: 74)

16. They never keep their promises or fulfill their words. Almighty Allah says: “Is it ever so that when ye make a covenant a party of you set it aside? The truth is, most of them believe not.” (Al-Baqarah: 100)

17. They rush hurriedly to sins and compete in transgression. Allah says: “They restrained not one another from the wickedness they did. Verily evil was that they used to do!” (Al-MA’idah:79)

18. Cowardice and their love for this worldly life are their undisputable traits. To this, the Qur’an refers when saying: “Ye are more awful as a fear in their bosoms than Allah. That is because they are a folk who understand not. They will not fight against you in a body save in fortified villages or from behind walls. Their adversity among themselves is very great. Ye think of them as a whole whereas their hearts are divers.” (Al-Hashr:13-14) Allah Almighty also says: “And thou wilt find them greediest of mankind for life and (greedier) than the idolaters.” (Al-Baqarah:96)

19. Miserliness runs deep in their hearts. Describing this, the Qur’an states: “Or have they even a share in the Sovereignty? Then in that case, they would not give mankind even the speck on a date stone.” (An-Nisa’:53)

20. Distorting Divine Revelation and Allah’s Sacred Books. Allah says in this regard: “Therefore woe be unto those who write the Scripture with their hands anthem say, "This is from Allah," that they may purchase a small gain therewith. Woe unto them for that their hands have written, and woe unto them for that they earn thereby.” (Al-Baqara: 79)

After this clear explanation, we would like to note that these are but some of the most famous traits of the Jews as described in the Qur’an. They have revolted against the Divine ordinances, distorted what has been revealed to them and invented new teachings which, they claimed, were much more better than what has been recorded in the Torah. It was for these traits that they found no warm reception in all countries where they tried to reside. Rather, they would either be driven out or live in isolation. It was Almighty Allah who placed on them His Wrath and made them den of humiliation due to their transgression. Almighty Allah told us that He’d send to them people who’d pour on them rain of severe punishment that would last till the Day of Resurrection. All this gives us glad tidings of the coming victory of Muslims over them once Muslims stick to strong faith and belief in Allah and adopt the modern means of technology."

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-10th-circuit/1166937.html

Thus, the general rule we have followed is that a dog's alert to the presence of contraband is sufficient to provide probable cause.   We decline to adopt the stricter rule urged by Mr. Parada, which would require the dog to give a final indication before probable cause is established.7  “Probable cause means that ‘there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place.’ ” Ludwig, 10 F.3d at 1527 (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983)).   A trained narcotic dog's detection of the odor of an illegal substance emanating from a vehicle creates a “fair probability” that there is contraband in that vehicle.   See id.  (“[A] dog alert usually is at least as reliable as many other sources of probable cause and is certainly reliable enough to create a ‘fair probability’ that there is contraband.”).   We hold that probable cause was satisfied by Rico's alert to the odor of an illegal substance in the vehicle and that it was not necessary for the dog to indicate the exact source of that odor.   Indeed, it might be dangerous to permit a narcotics dog to pinpoint the location of the drugs in certain circumstances, such as here, where the vehicle's occupants were still inside and the dog was trained to indicate by barking, scratching, and biting at the source of the odor.

http://business.financialpost.com/2011/05/10/gold-could-hit-2000-deutsche-bank/

Gold, which reached a record $1,577.57 an ounce on May 2, may surge a further 30 percent by January as investors seek to protect themselves from “economic uncertainty,” according to Deutsche Bank AG.
 
“I’m bullish on gold despite its current levels,” Hal Lehr, Deutsche Bank’s managing director for cross-commodity trading, said in an interview in Buenos Aires. “It could reach $2,000 dollar an ounce in the next eight months.”
 
Investors including George Soros and John Paulson invested in gold as the metal surged over the past year amid a sovereign debt crisis in Europe, economic turmoil in the U.S. and civil unrest in the Middle East. This month‘s record was a sixfold gain since the precious metal’s low in August 1999.
 


Gold fell 1.6 percent on May 4 after the Wall Street Journal reported that Soros Fund Management LLC sold precious-metal assets. Soros’ fund held shares in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange-traded product backed by gold, and the iShares Gold Trust at the end of 2010, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings show.
 
Gold rose for a third day in New York today as concern about Europe’s debt woes spurred demand for precious metals as a protection of wealth. Standard & Poor’s yesterday downgraded Greece’s credit rating for the fourth time since April 2010. Gold for June delivery rose $6.10, or 0.41 percent, to $1,509.3 an ounce at 9:03 a.m. on the Comex in New York.
 
Bullion rose for six consecutive weeks through April 29 as the metal is seen as a hedge against inflation around the globe. Central banks in China, India and the European Union, among others, have increased interest rates in recent weeks as policymakers seek to control consumer prices with tighter monetary policy.
 
The U.S. Federal Reserve has kept the benchmark rate between zero percent and 0.25 percent since December 2008 and pledged to purchase $600 billion in Treasuries through June to stimulate the economy. Standard & Poor’s earlier last month revised its debt outlook for the U.S. to negative from stable.
 
The U.S. Treasury Department projects the government could reach its debt ceiling limit of $14.3 trillion as soon as mid- May and run out of options for avoiding default by early July.

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec01/vol59/num04/The-Right-to-Search-Students.aspx

Reasonable Suspicion
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." Before 1985, doubt existed about whether this right applied to students in the public schools. Schools argued that administrators acted in loco parentis—in the place of the parent—while students were at school. In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the Fourth Amendment applies to students in the public schools (New Jersey v. T.L.O., 1985). The Court concluded, however, that the school environment requires an easing of the restriction to which searches by public authorities are normally subject. School officials, therefore, do not need probable cause or a warrant to search students.

The Court articulated a standard for student searches: reasonable suspicion. Reasonable suspicion is satisfied when two conditions exist: (1) the search is justified at its inception, meaning that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will reveal evidence that the student has violated or is violating the law or school rules, and (2) the search is reasonably related in scope to the circumstances that justified the search, meaning that the measures used to conduct the search are reasonably related to the objectives of the search and that the search is not excessively intrusive in light of the student's age and sex and the nature of the offense.

In New Jersey v. T.L.O., a teacher's report of a student smoking in the bathroom justified a search of the student's purse. Since this landmark decision, several cases have debated what constitutes reasonable suspicion:

Four students huddled together, one with money in his hand and another with his hand in his pocket, does not provide reasonable suspicion (A.S. v. State of Florida, 1997).
An anonymous phone call advising an administrator that a student will be bringing drugs to school, coupled with the student's reputation as a drug dealer, creates reasonable suspicion to search the student's pockets and book bag (State of New Hampshire v. Drake, 1995).
A report made by two students to a school official that another student possesses a gun at school constitutes reasonable suspicion to search the student and his locker (In re Commonwealth v. Carey, 1990).
An experienced drug counselor's observation of a student who appears distracted and has bloodshot eyes and dilated pupils justifies taking the student's blood pressure and pulse (Bridgman v. New Trier High School District No. 203, 1997).
The fact that the search of all but one student in a class fails to reveal allegedly stolen property gives school officials reasonable suspicion to search that student (DesRoches v. Caprio, 1998).
The odor of marijuana in the hall does not provide reasonable suspicion to search all students' book bags, purses, and pockets (Burnham v. West, 1987).

Although the legal standard for reasonable suspicion is clear, the application of it in different contexts is not always as clear. The Court has even noted that

articulating precisely what reasonable suspicion means . . . is not possible. Reasonable suspicion is a commonsense, nontechnical conception that deals with the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act. (Ornelas v. United States, 1996, at 695)


Probable Cause and Student Consent
School officials need only reasonable suspicion to search students in public schools, but sworn law enforcement officials normally must have probable cause to search students. Probable cause to search exists when "known facts and circumstances are sufficient to warrant a man of reasonable prudence in the belief that contraband . . . will be found" (Ornelas v. United States, 1996, at 696). But are law enforcement officials assigned to schools to maintain safety subject to the reasonable suspicion standard or the higher probable cause standard? The answer depends on whether the court views law enforcement personnel assigned to the school as school officials or law enforcement officials.

When the police or school administrators act at one another's request, they run the risk of becoming one another's agents. Such a relationship could change the standard necessary to conduct a student search. Some courts treat police officers as school officials subject to the lower standard of reasonable suspicion when they search students at the request of school administrators (In the Interest of Angelia D.B., 1997). Other courts hold that school officials conducting a search on the basis of information from the school resource officer are acting as agents of the police and are, therefore, subject to the higher standard of probable cause (State of New Hampshire v. Heirtzler, 2000). The mere presence of a sworn law enforcement officer during a search by a school administrator does not trigger the need for probable cause (Florida v. D.S., 1996).

School officials and sworn law enforcement officers may conduct a search without reasonable suspicion or probable cause if the student voluntarily consents to the search. Voluntariness is determined on the basis of the circumstances—including the student's age, education level, and mental capacity—and the context of the search. When consent is granted, officials may conduct the search only within the boundaries of the consent. If a student consents to the search of her purse, for example, an administrator may not search her locker unless the search of the purse provides probable cause or reasonable suspicion to search the locker. School officials and law enforcement officers are not required to advise students that they have a right to refuse to give consent to search. Some school policies or state regulations, however, may require that they advise students of their rights.

Some school policies require students to provide consent to a search or risk discipline. In at least one federal circuit, the court has upheld this policy (DesRoches v. Caprio, 1998). In this case, all but one student consented to a search of their personal belongings. The search of the consenting students revealed nothing. Pursuant to school board policy, DesRoches was suspended for 10 days for failure to consent to the search. The student claimed that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated because the administrator did not have reasonable suspicion to search him. The court held that when the search of all other students in the class failed to reveal the stolen item, the administrator had reasonable, individualized suspicion to search DesRoches. Therefore, his discipline for failing to consent to a legal search was upheld.

Individual Versus Random Searches
School officials conduct individual searches when they suspect that a student or a small group of students possesses evidence of a violation of the law or school rules. Such searches are subject to the reasonable suspicion standard. Officials conduct random or blanket searches not because of individualized suspicion, but as a preventive measure. Examples of random searches include the use of metal detectors in school entrances and sweeps of parking lots and lockers. The legality of a random search depends on whether the school has a compelling interest or special need that warrants the use of a search without suspicion. The most common need articulated by schools is the prevention of drug abuse.

Perhaps the most controversial random search is the use of drug-sniffing dogs in schools. The right of school officials or police to use dogs to detect drugs in students' belongings is well established. In fact, most courts conclude that such detection is not a search because the dogs merely sniff the air around the property and that students do not have an expectation of privacy in the air around their belongings.

One federal court has recently held that the use of drug-sniffing dogs on a student's person requires individualized, reasonable suspicion. Prevention of drug abuse, according to this court, does not justify the dog sniffing the person because it intrudes on the expectation of privacy and security (B.C. v. Plumas Unified School District, 1999). This case changed practices in many school districts—those schools no longer use the dogs to sniff around students.

Unless a "harmless bit of fun" is a violation of criminal law, what is your concern? If I was that worried about the net, I'd throw my computers into a blast funace and never go online again. You act as if you are writing samizdat under Stalin.

The academic left, like other elements of the left are more than willing to twist reality until it matches what they think it should be. "Fake but true" should be the official slogan of the left.

After a Green Card is Granted


http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=f1903a4107083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=f1903a4107083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

See the following links on this page to find information on the following:

Renewing a Green Card
Replacing a Green Card
Conditional Permanent Residence and Removing Conditions
International Travel as a Permanent Resident
Maintaining Permanent Residence
Rights and Responsibilities of a Permanent Resident
Voting as a Permanent Resident (The Right to Vote)
Granted a Green Card by an Immigration Judge

A green card is issued to all permanent residents as proof that they are authorized to live and work in the United States. If you are a permanent resident age 18 or older, you are required to have a valid green card in your possession at all times. Current green cards are valid for 10 years, or 2 years in the case of a conditional resident, and must be renewed before the card expires.

A green card can be used to prove employment eligibility in the United States when completing the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. It can also be used to apply for a Social Security Card and a state issued driver’s license. A green card is valid for readmission to the United States after a trip abroad if you do not leave for longer than 1 year. If your trip will last longer than 1 year, a reentry permit is needed.

You have certain rights and responsibilities as a permanent resident. This section will give you a general idea of what these are and provide you with some other useful information related to your immigration status.

You may also wish to read Welcome to the United States: A Guide for New Immigrants, a guide (in English and 10 other languages) containing practical information to help immigrants settle into everyday life in the United States, as well as basic civics information that introduces new immigrants to the U.S. system of government (see the links to the right).

Radical (Or in truth mainstream) islam is not floundering, it's about to have Egypt as part of the new caliphate.

Funny how you incorrectly project racism on AZ republicans while missing the anti-semetic timber in your own eye. Wanting to have local level law enforcement enforce immigration law is hardly racist, or do you like the impact illegal aliens are inflicting on California?

Just wait..... Gold and silver are the future. Just because the EU and the Euro are circling the drain doesn't mean the dollar doesn't face the same fate.

Discovery in civil litigation goes both ways. As you point out, both in the civil and criminal areas, all sorts of records can be accessed. Should we not have records of any transactions? The interwebs isn't a secure environment, assume that everything can be compromised.

Unless you are engaging in criminal conduct on the net, there isn't anything to be concerned about.

Not every critic of Israel is an anti-semite, but if you wanted to find anti-semitism, that's a good place to start looking. Failed ideologies like to project their failures on the successful, nothing new there. Always easier than painful introspection.

Laughing through my tears at that one.