Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Chillicothe Ohio Residents Arrested in Connection with Sex Trafficking operation

A former Chillicothe resident and three current residents have been indicted in connection with an alleged sex trafficking operation in Maryland.
According to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Craig Allen Corey II, 23, now of Millersville, Md., and Chillicothe residents Robert Harris, 21, Richard Johnson, 22, and Jacob Tyler, 22, conspired to operate an interstate prostitution business out of Corey's apartment. The four were indicted Sept. 24, and the indictment was unsealed Tuesday following the suspects' arrests.

Count 1 of the indictment alleging a conspiracy accuses the four of using Craigslist and other Web-based services to place classified advertisements to "persuade, encourage, entice and recruit females to serve as prostitutes and promote their prostitution business."

As part of the conspiracy count, the four are accused of using prepaid debit cards and aliases while making the postings, of photographing women in various stages of undress for the postings, of traveling outside of Maryland to facilitate the business, of using a portion of the proceeds to buy illegal drugs to distribute to associates, prostitutes and customers, and other acts.

Among those girls who allegedly were either transported from out of state to Maryland or enticed there were a 16-year-old and 18-year-old from Ohio. Such alleged transportation and enticement with the intent of prostitution between January and April of this year make up the basis for Counts 2 and 3 of the indictment. Count 4, sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, is specific to the situation involving the 18-year-old Ohio girl, while Count 5, sex trafficking of a minor, was filed only against Corey and deals with the 16-year-old's situation.

Count 6, also filed only against Corey, involves distribution of child pornography in connection with the 16-year-old. Count 7, against all four suspects, involves conspiracy to distribute narcotics, while Count 8, only against Corey, involves distribution of the drug BZP.

The grand jury also found that the defendants should forfeit several items of property in connection with the case, including but not limited to money equal to the value of the proceeds of the offenses, a 2006 Chrysler 300 and a 42-inch high-definition television.

The charges came about after an investigation by the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force and a raid of Corey's apartment on April 24.

According to information published in the Capital Gazette in Maryland, Corey was to have his initial federal court appearance this week in Baltimore, while the other three suspects were to appear in Columbus before being taken to Maryland on the charges.

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JMC Ministries Thoughts

Over the past 3 weeks our little area of Ohio has really been hit with alot of what is considered as big city Crime. The sex trafficking topic really is a burden to us here at JMC Ministries, and one of the main things we focus on. The fact that it is coming to our little town in Ohio is very upsetting and just shows how this is a universal problem. If you read the former post we made about How to buy a Child in 10 hours.

It is just disgusting how Craigslist and other social networking sites are being used to do these kind of horrible crimes against women, men, young girls and boys. There is so much good you can do with these kind of sites. For example how JMC Ministries uses it like our Eternal Flame News blog to inform and encourage others. Please pray for our little area of Ohio as we continue to reach out and help those in need and put this information out there for others to know about. so that they also may be able to help.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Federal government bans religious references on ornaments for 2009 Capitol Christmas Tree

Arizona was given the special privilege this year to provide Washington, D.C., with the 2009 Capitol Christmas Tree. Students from elementary, middle, and high schools were given criteria to construct and decorate 4,000 handcrafted ornaments for the 65-foot tree as a coordinated effort with the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, the Apache Natural Resources Conservation District, the Arizona Public Education Department, students, businesses, and the community.

Guidelines for the ornaments include specifications for their size, weight, composition, and the directive that “Ornaments cannot reflect a religious or political theme… Instead share your interpretation of our theme ‘Arizona’s Gift, from the Grand Canyon State.’” It is also stated that the ornaments “will provide wonderful opportunities for Arizona school children to demonstrate what Arizona means to them… Whether they represent our world-renowned landscapes, our diverse cultures, or other aspects of our state, the ornaments will help convey the particular beauty that is Arizona.” But, if students want to convey that Arizona has a religious significance to them, they are denied the opportunity offered to students with non-religious views.
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JMC Ministries Thoughts
How do you have a Christmas Tree without it being about Christ and religious beliefs? This just proves to us that we have no freedoms even when it comes to what we put on a Christmas tree!! The government sends out Criteria literature into our schools and forces our children to follow what they want. If you don't think the government hasn't infiltrated into our school systems they have now. Children are being forced to conform to what the government wants, even on their Christmas tree. What has happened to America? Where has it gone? We don't even recognize it anymore!

Survey: Nearly 17 percent of Ross County Ohio households receive food stamps

CHILLICOTHE -- Ross County ranks among the neediest in the state in the number of households getting food stamps in 2008, according to data made public Tuesday.

One out of 10 Ohio households received food stamps in 2008, an increase from the average of the previous three years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

In Ross County last year, 16.8 percent of households had accepted food stamps at least once in the previous 12 months. That number is 5.7 percentage points higher than the average estimates in 2005 through 2007, according to the surveys.

The 2008 numbers were made available initially only for 38 Ohio counties with populations of more than 65,000. Of those counties, Ross ranked third.

Ross is one of several non-metro counties that are outpacing more populated, urban areas in food assistance rates.

Four of the six counties examined by CentralOhio.com -- Marion, Ross, Muskingum and Richland -- all are in the top 10. Scioto County tops the list with more than one in five households receiving food assistance.

Amy Hanauer, executive director of the advocacy group Policy Matters Ohio, said unlike rural counties, urban areas tend to have pockets of high poverty surrounded by wealth. "When you look at Ohio's rural counties, particularly in southeast Ohio, you see a much higher percentage of the population in poverty," she said.

Looking at the list of counties by percentage of households in receipt of food stamps, Lucas County in northwest Ohio, at No. 7 with 15.3 percent, is the first metropolitan county to appear.

Franklin County, with about 455,000 households and a .3 percent increase in food assistance rates, comes in below the 2008 state average.

"We are seeing some shifts in were the highest foreclosure areas and highest poverty areas," Hanauer said.

She said these numbers are likely to continue to rise as a side effect of high unemployment.

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JMC Ministries thoughts

All we can do is ask you to pray for our part of Ohio. It is a hard time for our area. Crime is even up. In 2 weeks there has been 1 bank robbery, a convient store robbed at gun point, and just 2 days ago the Walgreens was robbed at gun point by a man demanding narcotics like Oxi-codine!

We don't live in a big city, or even a suburb, but people are beginning to get desperate. Please pray for us and all those effected.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

How to Buy a Child in 10 Hours

One Reporter's Journey Reveals An Epidemic of Child Slavery in Haiti

By DAN HARRIS

July 8, 2008

Link to original article and to watch hidden camera video

This deeply unsettling experiment starts on a typical Monday morning on Manhattan's leafy

Upper West Side, where commuters stroll by Starbucks and Central Park.
At 7:10 a.m., I'm off to see how long it takes to buy at child.

It's 45 minutes to Kennedy Airport and an hour or so wait in the terminal, then a 3½-hour flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

A band greets the flight.

By the time my team and I have collected our luggage, gone through immigration and customs, and are loaded into our vehicles, it's about 3:15 p.m.

As we leave the airport, two things become immediately apparent: Port-au-Prince is an amazing, vivid place, and it's also extremely poor. The U.S. State Department warns Americans against visiting here. United Nations peacekeepers patrol the roads while we drive with our own security team: two armed Haitian men in SUVs.

'I Would Like to Get a Child'

By 4:45 p.m., I'm poolside at one of the city's few upscale hotels. I'm wearing a hidden camera built into the strap of a bike messenger-style bag that's around my neck. There's another hidden camera in a leather satchel on the table, right next to the fruit plate and Evian water. My colleagues are manning cameras in hotel rooms overlooking the pool.

Our security guards are sitting discretely nearby.

That's when the man with whom I've arranged a meeting shows up.

He says he's a former member of parliament and that he has connections. In broad daylight, with hotel waiters walking by, he doesn't even flinch when I make a horrific request.

"If I would like to get a child to live with me and take care of me," I ask. "Could you do that?"

"Yes," he says. "I can."

He's speaking in Creole, the most prevalent Haitian language. The man doing the translation, who has set up the meeting, works for us (unbeknownst to the slave trafficker).

The trafficker assures me he's done this sort of transaction many times before.

"A girl or a boy?" he asks.

"A girl probably," I say.

"How old?"

"Maybe 10 or 11."

"Not a problem."

He says he can get me an 11-year-old girl, although he suggests that a 15-year-old might be better, because she'd be more "developed."

I'm thinking: I can't believe I'm having this conversation.

"And this is OK?" I ask. "I won't have any trouble from their parents or anything like that?"

"No, you won't have any problems with their parents."

"Why not?"

"When I give you the child, I will train it for you."

I'm not exactly sure what that means.

A Successful Negotiation

"I'm a little nervous." I say. "I just want to make sure that this is OK, that I'm not going to get in trouble, that this will be smooth, that you've done this before."

"I guarantee my service," says the trafficker, grinning. "I can get you your girl as early as tomorrow."

And now, the negotiation begins.

"So how much will it cost me to get a child?" I ask.

"The last one I gave was $300."

Trying to test the value of human life, I push a little.

"I have a friend who got one for $50."

"No," he says.

"What about $100?"

"$150," he offers.

I accept.

And there it is. It's about 5 p.m. Roughly 10 hours after leaving my office in New York City, I have successfully negotiated to buy another human being -- an 11-year-old girl, whose value is set at just $150.As we conclude our meeting, I want to make sure the trafficker does not act on my request. I ask him to wait a day before doing anything. I assure him I'll call him tomorrow with my final answer. He agrees.

Offering Fake Papers and a 'Pretty' Child

And then, to show that this grotesque sort of deal-making is not a fluke, I have a second meeting, with another trafficker -- a beefy guy with the air of a street thug.

This second trafficker is asking a much steeper price for an 11-year-old girl: $10,000.

"It's something definitive," explains our translator. "After the sale, he doesn't mind what happens to the kid."

"So for $10,000, I can have the child and do anything I want to do is what he's saying?" I ask.

"Yeah, definitely."

As further enticement, the trafficker says he can even get me fake papers that would allow me to take this child back to the U.S. with me. Both traffickers say they have experience providing children to Americans. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, officials have no idea how often this sort of transaction transpires. As the slightly menacing slave trafficker describes this girl he's promising to provide, I hear him use the French word "belle." French, along with Creole, is one of Haiti's official languages.

"Did he use the word 'belle'? Like, pretty girl?" I ask the translator.

"Yeah."

"So he's saying this would be a pretty child?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think he's hinting that the child would be a partner of some sort?"

"Yeah, it's up to you because that kid is yours."

Once again, I can't believe I'm having this conversation -- sitting in the sunshine so casually transacting such diabolical business. Just to make sure I fully understand the offer on the table, I ask, "If I pay $10,000 I essentially own this child?"

"Yeah, it's yours. You do whatever you want."

I've heard enough. I conclude the meeting, once again making sure the trafficker doesn't actually act on my request.

But now comes the craziest part of this wildly disturbing day.

Two waiters sitting nearby call me over. They say they've heard my conversations. At first I think they're going to yell at me or something. I'm bracing for shame. Instead, the waiters offer to sell me a child.

"So you're saying if I want to get a child to live with me, you can help me?" I ask. "Yes," says one of the waiters. "I give you my telephone also."

"About what age?" asks the other watier.

"Maybe 10, 11 years old."

"10 or 11?"

"Yeah," I say. "A girl."

"Ok," says the first waiter, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Ok. I'll help you."

The 'Restaveks'

Having illustrated how horrendously easy it is to buy a child slave in Haiti, let's consider something exponentially more awful: the real scandal here in Haiti is that children are usually just given away.

There are an estimated 300,000 child slaves in Haiti according to UNICEF. This staggering statistic is discussed in E. Benjamin Skinner's "A Crime So Monstrous," a new book about the enormous and often underreported problem of modern day slavery. Click Here to read an excerpt. Skinner has come to Haiti with us. He was the one who gave us the idea to see how long it would take to leave New York City and buy a child slave.

They're called "restaveks" -- a Creole term that means "stay-with." But these children often do more than just "stay with" families; they are usually forced to work from dawn until dusk, and are often underfed, beaten and sexually abused.

To meet some of these restaveks, my team and I traveled into the claustrophobic back alleys of one of Haiti's worst slums, Solino.

Here we find Onise, an achingly beautiful 8-year-old with haunted eyes. Her parents, who live in the countryside, are so poor they simply gave Onise away to a slightly less poor family in Port-au-Prince.

Her owners promised her parents they would pay for Onise's education. But every day, when the other children in the tiny, one-room hovel where the owners live head off to school, Onise stays behind to do housework and run errands.

When we get her alone, she reluctantly tells us about her life.

"When was the last time you talked to your parents?" I ask.

"No," she says. Our translator expands: "She never talks to them."

"Do you miss your parents?"

"Yes," she says, in a nearly inaudible voice.

This child seems dead inside. The insides of her forearms are covered in scars.

"Do they hit you a lot?"

"Yes," she says.

"When you dream, when you think about the things you want to do with your life -- your hopes -- what do you think about?"

"I want to drive a car," she says.

The Promise of School

It is a bleak irony that Haiti is crawling with child slaves. This, after all, is the only nation in modern history to be founded as the result of a slave revolt, in 1804.

It's also a place where parents clearly take great pride in their children's appearance, dolling them up in elaborate school uniforms every weekday morning. Parents here also make massive economic sacrifices to send kids to school, in this country where, for the most part, there are no public schools.

Slave traffickers use Haiti's poverty and lack of opportunity to their advantage.
"They dangle like a diamond necklace the promise of school," says Skinner. As he explains, Haiti's system of child slavery began generations ago. Poor families from the countryside would give their children to wealthy families in the city. The children would do domestic work, but they would also be fed, clothed and educated. It was a sort of social compact.

Even though the system has now morphed into something grotesque, traffickers exploit the false, residual glow of altruism.

"You talk to the traffickers about this," says Skinner, "and they'll often say, 'Well, I'm doing a service to the family that's giving up this child.'"

This bogus sheen of charity is perhaps why we are able to get slave owners to talk to us on camera. (Perhaps it's also because having a slave is so commonplace as to be almost entirely uncontroversial here.)

We meet Onita Aristide in a shantytown precariously perched over a ravine filled with trash and also wild pigs and goats. Aristide is a mother of two who sells sandals in the local market. For four months she's owned a "restavek" nicknamed Ti Soeur (Creole for "little sister.") As usual, Ti Soeur comes from a poor family in the country and spends her days here in the city doing forced labor. She sleeps on the floor of Onita Aristide's tiny home.

"Do you think she has a better life with you than she would have with her parents?" I ask Aristide.

"Yes," she says.

"Why?"

"Because her family is poor and cannot afford to support her."

There are a bunch of hard questions I want to ask this woman, for example, why doesn't she send the girl to school? But the scars on Ti Soeur's arms suggest I should tread lightly.

Knowing Aristide doesn't speak any English, I broach the topic with our translator. "I don't want to push her so hard that she gets angry and takes it out on the kid. Do you think I'm correct?"

"You're correct," he says.

Ti Souer's Hope

We follow Ti Soeur as she goes to fetch water from the communal well. This gives us a chance to ask her questions without her owners hearing.

She's a bright-eyed 11-year-old with short hair. When I ask her questions about the marks on her arm, she says, "The lady did it to me with an electric wire."

As I later learn, this appears to be a standard punishment -- whipping restaveks with the sort of electric cord you might you use to plug in a toaster or a laptop.

"Why would she do that to you?" I ask.

"Because one of the kids in the neighborhood came to see [her] in the house," the translator says.

"So you're not allowed to have any friends?"

"No."

"Do you have any time during the day where you can play, like a normal kid?"

"No. We don't play."

The translator explains, "If she doesn't go and pick up the water, they beat her up. If she doesn't sweep, beat her up."

By the time we visit Ti Soeur at 10 a.m., she's already cooked, cleaned, prepared the family children for school.

"Do you think the situation you're in right now is unfair?" I ask.

"Yes."

"Do you think you'll ever get out of this situation?"

"Yes."

"Do you have hope?"

"Yes."

"Good," I say.

After meeting Ti Souer, we decided to go find her parents, to get a sense of why they would give their child away.

'My Husband Forced Me'

Following a lead, we drive out of the throbbing, chaotic city, hours away, into the lush countryside. It's beautiful out here. We see clouds resting lazily in green valleys. We see women on their way to market, carrying impossibly large loads of goods on their heads.

But you can't miss the deprivation: It's everywhere. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere -- the result of decades of bad, brutal, kleptocratic leadership, and also, many believe, negative interference from outside powers, including the United States.

Haiti's poverty is on full display as we pull up to the house where Ti Soeur's mother lives. It's a shack, housing three families. Nine children live here, including one who we see using a condom as a toy balloon.

Ti Soeur's mother is named Lita Bellevue. After a few pleasantries, I ask her the obvious question.

"Can you tell me how it happened that you gave your daughter up?"

"My husband forced me to do it," she says.

She tells us that Ti Soeur's birth father is dead. Her new husband, who is abusive, forced her to give the child away, she says, because they are too poor to take care of her. However, the husband does not seem willing to part with the two young children he and Lita have had together.

"Can you imagine living without these children?" I ask.

"I cannot live without them," he says, flashing a nervous, toothless grin.

Lita says she's heard rumors that Ti Soeur is being abused by her owners.

"I hear she's being cut all over her arms and her head," she says. "I try very hard to rescue the child, to go see the child, but my husband won't let me."

"When you think about you daughter living this way, how hard is it for you?"

"I feel sick inside," she says.

To help us better understand why parents make these sorts of decisions, we go see Jean-Etienne Charles, a local Pentecostal pastor who preaches against child slavery. He's got a broad, happy face and a thriving church, complete with a school for local kids.

"I do not think that it is because they do not love the child," says Charles of parents who send their kids into servitude. "They love the kids; they love them. But because they think that they cannot take care of them, they turn them to another person."

As a sign of how deeply entrenched this practice is, it turns out that the pastor's family has a girl living with them whom they took on to do domestic work. They have since legally adopted her and are putting her through school, as an example to the families who abuse child slaves.

"I believe that people who do that should be thrown into jail," says Charles. "But the government is not doing anything about it, so that is why the Haitians are doing it."

Now that we've learned that Ti Soeur is stuck between slavery and an abusive, unhappy home, we decide to try our luck with the Haitian government. We go to the Department of Social Services and meet with several senior officials. We show them videotape of Ti Soeur's scars.

"This is unacceptable," says one official. She promises to act as early as possible. We leave feeling confident that Ti Soeur's fate may soon change.

But within days, government officials stop returning our phone calls, and Ti Soeur's case takes some surprising turns.

A Wrenching Scene

We learn that Bellevue, Ti Soeur's mother, has done something brave and extraordinary: she has forced her abusive husband to go and retrieve Ti Soeur from slavery.

With the government seemingly missing in action, we hook up with a social services organization affiliated with the American-based group Beyond Borders.

They work with mother and daughter, reunited as a result of Bellevue's courageous insistence, to get Ti Soeur accepted into a clean, cheerful orphanage.

But it's a mixed blessing for the former child slave.

Her mother is being kicked out of her house, for the crime of having spoken out to her husband. Rather than take Ti Soeur with her into an uncertain, and potentially homeless future, she decided to leave her at the orphanage, where she's safe.

As they're forced to part again, it's a wrenching scene. Ti Soeur is sobbing. She throws herself on the ground, inconsolable.

As we leave her, Ti Soeur seems traumatized, confused and lonely. But she's also, finally, in a place where she'll be fed, educated, safe and free from slavery.

For Haiti's child slaves, this may be as close to a happy ending as you'll find.

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JMC Ministries thoughts

We posted this article because we are friends with Missionaries to Haiti. Kingdom Builders International founders Randy and Patti Cunningham who have been missionaries for 12 years. They have even adopted a boy from Haiti his name is Jude. They work in the trenches literally helping to feed, cloth, educate and provide medical help for the people of Haiti. Reaching out to even Witch Doctors and spending time with them and sharing the Gospel.

Right now even as we write this Randy and Jude are in Haiti on a 2 month mission trip to help feed over 150 people in a small remote village and also to share the gospel.

It is for them that we share this story and get the truth out there about what is happening in Haiti. To view videos of Randy and Patti and learn more about their ministry click on the links below

Kingdom Builders International Video Part 1

Kingdom Builders International Video Part 2

Kingdom Builders International Video Part 3

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Ross County Ohio Easter Seals Employee caught on Camera Abusing Child in her care

Ross County Prosecutor Michael Ater is awaiting additional information to determine whether a caregiver's alleged abuse which was supposedly caught on hidden camera will result in charges being filed.

According to an initial Ross County Sheriff's Office report, deputies responded to an apartment on Cattail Road on a call of suspected abuse by the caregiver of a 16-year-old girl with developmental disabilities.

Officers spoke with the parents of the girl, who told them they suspected their daughter, who suffers from cerebral palsy and mental retardation and shows autistic symptoms, was being abused by her caretaker, a woman employed by Easter Seals.

They told deputies they bought a camera system and installed it in the living room area prior to leaving the apartment Sept. 12 to see if their suspicions were justified.

Upon returning to the home, they discovered their daughter was upset, and said she usually is agitated when the caretaker arrives and leaves the home.

"She flipped out," Pam Allison, mother of the teen, told Gazette partner 10TV News for a story that appeared Tuesday. "(My daughter) pulled my hair, scratched me, left these marks on me."

Reviewing the tape, they observed the caretaker grabbing their daughter by the arms numerous times and, on one occasion, sitting on the teen.

The officer taking the report said he saw the tape and witnessed the caretaker taking a piece of reading material away from the girl and sitting on her. In the videotape, the girl and caregiver appear to wrestle over the magazine.

The tape also shows what the reporting officer said was "(the caregiver) combing (the girl's) hair in an aggressive manner and pushing her head forward."

The parents contacted Easter Seals, and the officer told the agency what he had witnessed. The caregiver's supervisor indicated she would complete a report for the agency and Ross County MRDD. The officer indicated he would forward the report to Ross County Children's Services so it also could be included in the investigation.

The parents indicated the caretaker had eaten their food, taken naps when she was supposed be taking care of their daughter and had made numerous long distance phone calls on their residential telephone, to the point where they had to turn off service to their home phone

Rob Duvall, marketing director for Easter Seals, said the caretaker was fired Tuesday and the office is fully cooperating with law enforcement and Children's Services in the investigation.

Duvall said it is the agency's policy to ensure the safety and security of the families they provide services for.

Ater, before making a decision on criminal charges, is awaiting a copy of the final incident report and the opportunity to view the videotape. The caregiver's name is not being released because charges have not been filed yet.

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JMC Ministries Thoughts

This incident happened just a few miles away from where we live and our Grandparents had lived on Cattail Road for more than 30 years before selling their home.

We are just happy that the parents of this girl saw the warning signs and caught the abuse on camera.

As a State Certified Nursing Assistant for the state of Ohio. I have worked in nursing homes and also have done home health care. It is very upsetting to think that someone would take this kind of a job and not care about the person they were there to help.

In the 3 years that I have been a Nursing Assistant I have seen some very horrifying things people have done to patients. I myself have even had to report patient abuse. I have seen wonderful caregivers, nurses and nursing Assistants. But, I have also seen bad and the bad ones sometimes can give us all a bad reputation to those who have experience abuse either directly or indirectly. Some are just there to get a paycheck not be a servant and help those in need.

Please pray for the young girl that was abused. Because, it may take months, even years for her and even her family to be able to trust another caregiver after what this one person has been accused of doing.

We also need to pray that Easter Seals start hiring compassionate, caring people who will provide the best care for these children.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Deadly Riots in Uganda

link to original article

KAMPALA, Uganda At least 640 people were arrested and 14 killed in fighting in Uganda's capital between government forces and loyalists of a traditional kingdom, police said Sunday.

A man tries to put out a fire on Friday in Kasubi, Uganda, a suburb of Kampala.

A man tries to put out a fire on Friday in Kasubi, Uganda, a suburb of Kampala.

The number of people arrested for suspected roles in the three-day riots could go up because investigations are still under way, said Kale Kayihura, the nation's police chief.

Trials for the suspects will start Monday on charges including taking part in violent acts and unlawful assemblies, Kayihura said.

At least 82 were injured, according to the police chief.

Tensions between President Yoweri Museveni and the Buganda kingdom -- headed by King Ronald Mutebi II, the ruler of the Baganda tribe -- have intensified in recent years.

The violence flared Thursday when the government said it would not allow the king to travel to an area inhabited by a renegade rival group.

After the travel ban, young Bagandans took to the streets, stealing ammunition from a police station and confronting officers, accusing them of harassment.

"The government is wrong to undermine cultural institutions which are the backbone of Uganda's heritage," said Mzamiru Balidha, a resident of Kampala. "Cultural leaders must be left alone since they are not interfering in politics."

Rioters burned tires and cars, set buildings on fire and looted stores. Streets in the capital were strewn with debris over the weekend, including torched cars and burned tires.

Police and the army patrolled deserted but calm streets Sunday as residents tried to return to normalcy after the protests.

"I'm happy to see that there is peace now," said Harry Sagara of Kampala. "Now people can return to work."

Government officials and the Buganda kingdom have been at odds for years, sparring over land, sovereignty and political power.

A government official said Sunday that the two leaders have pledged to meet and address their differences.

"Both the central government and the king are still working out details of the meeting," said Daudi Migereko, the minister of parliamentary affairs.

Bagandans are the dominant ethnic group and one of four ancient kingdoms in the nation. Kings in the east African nation are limited to a ceremonial role overseeing traditional and cultural affairs.

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JMC Ministries thoughts

We have many friends who are missionaries to Uganda, and also some that just have a burden for Uganda. So it is for them we post this article. So that others may be informed just how bad it is over there, and also to see what our missionary friends are dealing with on the front lines for the Lord.

Please pray for their safety and also that peace comes to that country.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

ACORN Exposed by undercover journalists

Quantcast


After Census Severs Ties, ACORN May Face Scrutiny of Housing
Grants
Conservatives have cheered the Census Bureau's decision to sever ties with ACORN because it had lost confidence in the group, but the hidden-camera videos that prompted ACORN to fire four workers this week could raise more questions about the federal funding ACORN receives for housing outreach.
click to read more

WHAT IS ACORN? WHO IS ACORN? AND WHAT ARE THEIR TIES WITH OBAMA?
click to view original article

*What is Acorn?

They would describe themselves as a community action group, that helps low to middle class families with house, loans and other social needs. The problem is, they are also an anti-Capitalist group that has long ago crossed the line in to extremism (think code pink).

This is what Wiki says about ACORN.

On the surface it looks like this group just wants to help people, but it goes much deeper than that. According to Palestinian born journalist Sol Stern, this group is nothing more than a radical group, "leading this city to serfdom".

www.city-journal.org...
If you thought the New Left was dead in America, think again. Walk through just about any of the nation’s inner cities, and you’re likely to find an office of ACORN, bustling with young people working 12-hour days to “organize the poor” and bring about “social change.” The largest radical group in the country, ACORN has 120,000 dues-paying members, chapters in 700 poor neighborhoods in 50 cities, and 30 years’ experience. It boasts two radio stations, a housing corporation, a law office, and affiliate relationships with a host of trade-union locals. Not only big, it is effective, with some remarkable successes in getting municipalities and state legislatures to enact its radical policy goals into law.


The wall street journal also covered this group:
www.manhattan-institute.org...
The movement is not always what it appears to be. Though Acorn touts living-wage laws as a way to lift the working poor into the middle class, the vast body of academic work on wage laws shows that they end up hurting the poor by forcing businesses to eliminate some low-wage jobs. Acorn's own leadership understands this principle perfectly. When California regulators sued Acorn for not paying its own workers the minimum wage, Acorn argued that this would endanger its mission—because it would have to hire fewer workers.


So basically, they drove business out of town with their practices, but called foul when it came back on them.

More about ACORN's radical practices.

This group is being investigated for voter fraud right now. Apparently, their workers registered about 2,000 fraudulent voters for an election.

elections.foxnews.com...
The ACORN workers told state investigators that they went to the Seattle public library, sat at a table and filled out the voter registration forms. They made up names, addresses, and Social Security numbers and in some cases plucked names from the phone book. One worker said it was a lot of hard work making up all those names and another said he would sit at home, smoke marijuana and fill out the forms.


*How does this relate to Obama?

When you here Obama tout his "community organizer" experience. ACORN is what hes talking about. What has he done for this group?

1. Obama worked with a woman named Madeleine Talbot (ACORN leader), to clean up asbestos. Actually, she did all the work and Obama just took all the credit. In any case, Talbot lead an attempted raid on the Chicago City Council.

article.nationalreview.com...
www.latimes.com...
And what exactly was Talbot’s work with Acorn? Talbot turns out to have been a key leader of that attempt by Acorn to storm the Chicago City Council (during a living-wage debate). While Sol Stern mentions this story in passing, the details are worth a look: On July 31, 1997, six people were arrested as 200 Acorn protesters tried to storm the Chicago City Council session. According to the Chicago Daily Herald, Acorn demonstrators pushed over the metal detector and table used to screen visitors, backed police against the doors to the council chamber, and blocked late-arriving aldermen and city staff from entering the session. As Talbot was led away handcuffed, charged with mob action and disorderly conduct, she explicitly justified her actions in storming the meeting. This was the woman who first drew Obama into his alliance with Acorn, and whose staff Obama helped train.


2. Obama claims to have worked with with blacks, whites and Hispanics with this group, but in the LA times article, the community claims it was mostly blacks.

article.nationalreview.com...
www.latimes.com...
Consider the second charge against Obama raised by the L.A. Times backgrounder. On the stump today, Obama often says he helped prevent South Side Chicago blacks, Latinos, and whites from turning on each other after losing their jobs, but many of the community organizers interviewed by the L. A. Times say that Obama worked overwhelmingly with blacks.


Not that big of a deal, but it goes to show how Obama misleads people about what hes done as a so called "Community Organizer".

3. According to Tony Foulkes (Chicago Acorn leader and a member of Acorn’s National Association Board) Obma trained ACORN "leaders" for "project Vote".

article.nationalreview.com...
Foulkes claims that Acorn specifically sought out Obama’s representation in the motor voter case, remembering Obama from the days when he worked with Talbot. And while many reports speak of Obama’s post-law school role organizing “Project VOTE” in 1992, Foulkes makes it clear that this project was undertaken in direct partnership with Acorn. Foulkes then stresses Obama’s yearly service as a key figure in Acorn’s leadership-training seminars.


So along with the reservoir of political support that came to Obama through his close ties with Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, and other Chicago black churches, Chicago Acorn appears to have played a major role in Obama’s political advance.


What does all of this add up to? If nothing else, it deserves attention from the media. Obama obviously has some close ties to them. Hes trained, protested, organized and has been a lawyer for the organization. The same group that had a hand in his rise to power.

Why has the media been silent on this? How in the world can a person that claims hes for the little guy, train an organization that ends up hurting the poor and is proven to do so? Why is Obama surrounded by so many radicals? How in the world is this not a huge news story?
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JMC Ministries thoughts

We have been watching and reading about ACORN Since the news first started talking about them. However, not many news stations are talking about this issue. Even now that these undercover videos have been exposed. Certain News stations still are not covering it.

Not many people have even heard the name ACORN. So we found the above discussion someone shared on www.abovetopsecret.com. These are the news articles and info they found online about ACORN and we think that they nailed it.

Some may be wondering, because some have even asked this, "why are you covering political articles?" Some went as far as to say, "christians shouldn't get involved in this 'stuff'."

We as JMC Ministries believe we should cover all types of news that we feel Christians and those who stand for moral values need to know about. We are not democrat or republican. We are CHRISTIANS! We stand for the Christian Values our Country was founded on, and when those values are not being upheld we take a stand. This is a democracy government. Not a communist, dictator, or monarchy government. As long as we have these freedoms to stand up and let our voices be heard WE must!

If you study and read the bible you will find many Christians in history changed the world and helped influence great rulers and governments. If they got involved then why shouldn't we? As Christians we are to bring the light in darkness and expose the lies with TRUTH!

"Knowledge is Power" and as long as we know the truth the enemy can't deceive us with the lies.








Savage Attack Leaves Man With Half A Head in Great Britain

link to original story

Two thugs who punched a young man so hard surgeons had to remove half of his skull have escaped charges.

Steve Gator and his mother Nina

Steve Gator with his mother Nina, furious his attackers will escape charges

Steve Gator, 26, has been told the teenagers who ambushed him will not face court after the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case.

The CPS said it did not have enough evidence to proceed but Steve's mother, Nina, expressed her disbelief at the decision.

"Our boy is walking around with half a head - what more evidence do they need?" said Mrs Gator, 47. "I can't believe it."

Mr Gator, of Romford, Essex, was left seriously brain damaged following the attack as he made his way home from work on January 15.

The two thugs started screaming taunts and abuse at him about his cousin but when he confronted them he was hit so hard he fell back and smashed his head on the pavement.

He's just a different boy. His sparkle is totally gone. He used to be so independent but he can't work any more and he can't drive. He's got half-a-head and he's completely lost his confidence.

Nina Gator, the mother of assault victim Steve Gator

He was left in a coma for two weeks and his brain swelled so much surgeons removed the front half of his skull just hours after he was admitted.

He now suffers frequent seizures, has difficulty talking, and lost much of his memory.

Mr Gator now lives with his mother, who is his main carer as he can no longer work.

Mrs Gator said: "He's just a different boy. His sparkle is totally gone. He used to be so independent but he can't work any more and he can't drive. He's got half a head and he's completely lost his confidence.

"There's absolutely nothing protecting his brain now - it's just under his skin. We're waiting for surgery for a new skull plate to be put in."

A Havering police spokesman said they had no plans to look for any other attackers in connection with the case, adding: "We gave the CPS all the evidence available and after reviewing the case they decided not to proceed with it. We adhere to their decision."

Corrine Soanders, the Crown Prosecutor for Havering, said: "Once the CPS had been supplied with all the necessary evidence relevant to this case, a full review showed there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.

"This is a key test which must be met to bring a prosecution and in light of this, the case against the two defendants was discontinued. I apologise to the victim and his family for not conveying this decision to them personally.

"I welcome any questions they may have and will be contacting them shortly to offer further explanation."

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JMC Ministries Thoughts

Do you think that if this happened in America that those teenagers would have gone free for "lack of evidence?"

We can't believe the justice system in Great Britain actually said they couldn't pursue the case due to "lack of evidence" Are you kidding?!!

The fact that teenagers did this NOT adults and are becoming so violent to crack a mans skull with their HANDS it is so astounding. Just their hands!

Take a good look at that picture. That is what our FUTURE generations are doing to pave the way for the future of the world.

Some might say, "well, it didn't happen in America." Yeah it is, things like this are happening here and everywhere around the world. Everywhere Teenagers are becoming more and more violent. More crimes now are committed by teenagers than adults. It is a scary growing trend. We just watched a video today about the growing trend of organized fight clubs for teenagers. Teens get together after school and fighting, video taping it and putting it on youtube. The fight doesn't end until someone is either beaten into submission or knocked unconscious. Don't think this is real? Just look it up on youtube they say there are thousands of videos like that, and we ourselves have seen some of those videos. This story was being covered because one child was beaten so badly they ended up in the hospital and now over a dozen teens are in custody and the videos have been removed from youtube. However, they did say there are thousands more of videos showing teen violence. This happened in America.

We ask that you please pray for the young man who was injured and that some how some way justice is served and those 2 teen boys pay the consequences for their actions. And pray for the future generations of this world. There are so many lost. If we don't show them the way and teach them, how are they to know there is a BETTER way?



Sunday, September 6, 2009

Georgia Pastor and Father to be is killed in undercover drug sting

ATLANTA (Sept. 4) -- Plainclothes officers shot and killed a small-town pastor when the 28-year-old father-to-be resisted efforts to question him about a passenger in his car who was the target of a drug sting, authorities said.
Jonathan Paul Ayers of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia wasn't targeted in the probe that ended in gunfire at a gas station Tuesday, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said. But drug task-force agents opened fire on him after he tried to avoid them, putting his car in reverse and striking one of the officers.
Bankhead said agents approached Ayers after he dropped a woman off at a store in downtown Toccoa, which is about 90 miles northeast of Atlanta. The passenger was the person being investigated by the task force.
A grainy surveillance video from a nearby store shows two drug task-force agents emerge from a black SUV before Ayers' small car backs up. The two men fire into the passenger side of Ayers' car, and then it takes off with the agents running behind it, the video posted on WNEG-TV in Toccoa shows. The station owner would not release the video to The Associated Press.
Bankhead said Ayers died Wednesday, about an hour after he had surgery. He said the agent who was hit by Ayers' car was treated for minor injuries.
Bankhead would not disclose the identity of the woman who was in Ayers' car, but said she's been charged with cocaine possession and distribution.
On Thursday, Ayers' brother-in-law Matt Carpenter said the pastor had nothing to do with drugs
"Any question of his character, particularly involving something like drugs, is just ridiculous," he said.
Carpenter said Ayers and his wife had wanted to live in a town closer to their family, but they settled near the Lavonia church where Ayers felt called to be a pastor.
"They were exactly where they were supposed to be," Carpenter said, adding that they had recently led the small congregation's first mission trip, to Africa.
Carpenter said Ayers' wife, who is 16 weeks pregnant, is grappling with the idea of being a single mom.
"That's why it's hurting us all so badly," he said.
Ayers' wife declined to speak to The Associated Press.



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JMC Ministries Thoughts

It is a tragic loss. We first heard about this on the BMX Radio show. This just shows how dangerous our country is becoming, that when you try to show the love of Christ by just taking someone to a store it may cost you your life. This could have happened to anyone if they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. We need to pray for the officers that killed the young preacher, and especially the preachers wife who is expecting a baby and now has to raise it alone.

If it was us in that situation and a vehicle pulls up like that and pulls guns. Not knowing they were police, not dressed in uniform, in an unmarked vehicle. We would have tried to get out of there as fast as we could. I think that would have been any ones reaction.

You can also see in the video that the plain clothed police pulled up and pulled their guns. There is no evidence that they showed a badge to indicate they were police. Then they just open fire when the preacher tries to get away, and inevitably kills him. If this goes to court we pray justice be served and God's will be done.


Friday, September 4, 2009

What is PROPAGANDA?

From the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, a 742-page and growing work, most recently amended in November (online here); cited in Peter Edidin, "Give a Blood Chit to the Confusion Agent" (New York Times, January 30)

1. "Any thought or idea expressed briefly in a plain or secret language and prepared in a form suitable for transmission by any means of communication."
—Definition of "message"
2. "Any form of communication in support of national objectives designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior of any group in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly."
—Definition of "propaganda," in above cited dictionary
3. "Those overt international public information activities of the united states government designed to promote united states foreign policy objectives by seeking to understand, inform, and influence foreign audiences and opinion makers, and by broadening the dialogue between american citizens and institutions and their counterparts abroad."
—Definition of "public diplomacy," in above cited dictionary

THE LAW

U.S. Senate, April 14, 2005

Editor's note: On April 14, the Senate voted 98-0 to approve an amendment to a supplemental spending bill introduced by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.V.) that would prevent any federal agency from using taxpayer dollars to produce or distribute prepackaged news stories which do not clearly identify that the so-called news was created by a federal agency or funded with taxpayer dollars.
http://www.freepress.net/news/7734

The amendment states:

“Unless otherwise authorized by existing law, none of the funds provided in this act or any other act may be used by a federal agency to produce any prepackaged news story unless the story includes a clear notification within the text or audio of the prepackaged news story that the prepackaged news story was prepared or funded by that federal agency.”


Byrd’s remarks are below:

Mr. President, in every year since 1951, Congress has included a provision in the general government appropriations act which states the following: “No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by Congress.” [Section 624 of P.L. 108-447]

~snip~

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), in an opinion dated February 17, 2005, the Administration has violated the prohibition on “publicity and propaganda.” In a memo sent to Executive Branch agencies, the GAO stated, “During the past year, we found that several prepackaged news stories produced and distributed by certain government agencies violated this provision.” Very simply, according to the GAO, the Administration broke the law.

Here is an excerpt from the PBS site:

JOHN STAUBER, Center for Media and Democracy: Well, Judy, first of all, congratulations to the NewsHour for doing this report. And it’s a shame on the networks who were duped this way that they didn’t show up to defend or explain their actions.

What happened here was a psy-ops campaign, an incredible government propaganda campaign whereby Donald Rumsfeld and Torie Clark, the head of public relations for the Pentagon, designed a program to recruit 75, at least 75 former military officers, as your report said, most of them now lobbyists or consultants to military contractors, and insert them, beginning in 2002, before the attack on Iraq was even launched, into the major networks to manage the messages, to be surrogates.

And that’s the words that are actually used, “message multipliers” for the secretary of defense and for the Pentagon. This program continues right up to now.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And is the essence of this that what they did was — what the Pentagon did was illegal?

JOHN STAUBER: Yes, what they did was illegal. Now, the Pentagon might contest that, but we’ve had various laws on the books in our country going back to the 1920s. It is illegal for the U.S. government to propagandize citizens in this way.

In my opinion, this war could have never been sold if it were not for this sophisticated propaganda campaign. And what we need is congressional investigation of not just this Pentagon military analyst program, but all the rest of the deception and propaganda that came out of the Bush administration and out of the Pentagon that allowed them to sell and manage this war.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

"I Pledge to be a servent to Barak Obama" WHAT?!!!!!

"I pledge to be a servant to Barak Obama" Wait a minute did I just hear that right?
Uh I thought the President was to Serve Us. Not Us Serve Him?



A school principal has apologized for showing a video at an assembly that a politically conservative group leader is calling "radical, leftist propaganda."

Children at Eagle Bay Elementary School in Farmington were shown a short video called "I pledge" on Aug. 28. The video opens with an image of President Barack Obama and part of a speech in which he says, "Let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other." The video then features celebrities making pledges about how they will help the president and the world -- and that's where some say the problem lies.

Many pledges, such as supporting local food bank smiling more, and caring for the elderly are noncontroversial. But other pledges, such as "to never give anyone the finger when I'm driving again," "to sell my obnoxious car and buy a hybrid" and to advance stem cell research cross the line, some say.

"Showing the video in a public school is completely inappropriate," said Jennifer Cieslewicz, whose daughter is a first-grader at the school. "I don't believe a video such as this that promotes certain values should be shown to elementary students, especially without parents being aware. "

Chris Williams, Davis School District spokesman, said school principal Ofelia Wade and school PTA leaders decided to show the video as part of an assembly about the school's theme for the year, service. He said the PTA board chose the video and Wade did not see it before it was shown in the assembly.

"It got to a point where she turned to her assistant and said, 'Oops, I wish I would have seen this before. I don't think I would have shown it,' " Williams said. He said Wade could see how some adults might find the video political.

"She acknowledges she was wrong and apologizes for it and says she's sorry," Williams said. Attempts to reach school PTA leaders Tuesdayevening were unsuccessful.

Williams said Wade plans to send a letter home to parents Wednesday about the issue.

Gayle Ruzicka, president of conservative Utah Eagle Forum, said the video was blatantly political. She said other offensive pledges included, "I pledge to be of service to Barack Obama," "I pledge allegiance to the funk, to the united funk of funkadelica," and pledges to not use plastic grocery bags and not flush the toilet after urinating.

"It's very inappropriate to show a radical, leftist propaganda piece that political to children," Ruzicka said. "If parents want their children to learn about those things and do them in the home, wonderful, fine, but it's not the place of the school to show a one-sided propaganda piece to children without parents knowing about it."

Cieslewicz said such values should be decided in the home, not at school.

"They shouldn't be troubling our youth with the woes of the world and making them feel like we're in slavery or they have to worry about how many times they flush the toilet or if they have a plastic water bottle," Cieslewicz said, referring to pledges in the video to "end slavery."

Ruzicka said she contacted local media about the video after receiving complaints from several parents. Ruzicka said she worried the video's messages would confuse children whose parents might choose to use plastic bags when shopping or who want their children to flush the toilet after every use. Also she said she didn't like a pledge "to be of service to Barack Obama" as he is here to serve Americans, not the other way around.

Ruzicka said she'd like to see the school district send a link to the video to all parents before an upcoming back-to-school night so they can voice their opinions and discuss it with their children. Williams said it's unlikely the district will send out a link, but parents are welcome to access the video on YouTube.

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JMC Ministries thoughts

First thing I want to say is, did you ever hear of a man called Adolf Hitler who used propaganda stuff like this to brain wash children and oh yeah turn them into "The Hitler Youth?" If you haven't you should watch the History Channel they show a documentary about it every year it seems.

Now the president wants to talk to K-6 graders across America! Another warning sign! Hitler did the same thing! I mean if I wanted feed back from children I would think you would want to reach out to the older ones like Junior high through who may have more of an understanding what is going on in our Country. Unless you may want to brain wash them! Now we are not saying Obama's intentions is to brain wash and mislead our children. But, history repeats its' self or so I have been told my whole life. Knowing what techniques Hitler used to deceive the people in his country and around the world, and seeing these same techniques being used Possibly by our own Government should send WARNING signs to us all.

Just to show you some proof here is a video I found. It is Hitler speaking to boys and girls thousands at that about being obedient to Germany and what they stand for. He also states that they are the future and must be courageous and uphold what Germany stands for because when He (hitler) and the older ones are dead they must live on. Wait a minute did they just say in that other video "I will be a servent to Barak Obama"? You decide.



Deuteronomy 6:13
Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

Deuteronomy 13:4
It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.

Joshua 24:14
"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

Ezekiel 20:32
" 'You say, "We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone." But what you have in mind will never happen.

Daniel 3:18
But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

Matthew 4:10
Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.' "