As the new year approaches, unprecedented global unrest continues to mount. With the New Hampshire primary two weeks away, the military presence in Iraq has officially come to an end, despite reports of approximately five thousand paramilitary contractors being employed to protect US government properties in Baghdad. The conflict is three months away from its ninth year anniversary, and ends shortly before the election process begins involving the president who campaigned on bringing the war to a conclusion.
In Russia, the largest protests since the fall of the Soviet Union are occurring against the decade-plus rule of Vladimir Putin. Putin ceded the presidency to Dimitry Medvedev in 2008, but has since held the number two position of Prime Minister.
Russian President Dimitry Medvedev with the late North Korean head of state Kim Jong Il.
The Chinese village of Wukan is in open revolt against the central government of the PRC since a village representative was murdered in police custody. Police and communist party officials were expelled from the town, prompting the central government to establish barricades preventing food from being brought into the area. Search engine results for Wukan are being heavily censored by the central government to prevent news of the uprising from spreading.
Today the news has circulated around the world that Kim Jong-Il, ruler of what is considered the most closed nation in the world, North Korea, has died from a reported heart attack. Through social media, many who haven’t seen headlines of the flamboyant dictator’s demise receive the news via the many friends discussing it on their facebook news feed.
Outside of Kim Jong-Il’s inner circle, the first people to hear word of his death were the millions of subjects of North Korea, who saw this report from a distraught anchor on the State’s official news network.
As of Monday, December 12, it was confirmed that the court had received homework assignments from both parties in the case of State v. Garret Ean. At the end of the trial, the judge had asked for legal memos to support arguments made by both sides. Though I would have much preferred a ruling on the spot, in retrospect I am glad that the judge gave me a chance to formulate written arguments to demonstrate the State’s lack of a case. Just through questioning John Patti, I was only able to reveal so much about the case. The memo assignment enabled relevant details to be organized into a single presentation.
The prosecutor’s memo struck me with its unnecessary thickness. The memo was organized to the extent that it begins with legal arguments, but more than half of the final documents in the 79 page submission are completely irrelevant details obtained from house and senate hearings on the disorderly conduct statute in 2005. Much like the discovery packet, and a great portion of the Chalking 8 case itself, the State is throwing papers at the problem until one of them addresses the issue. With more Chalking 8 trials on the horizon, the State’s evidence will grow flimsier as the first not-guilty findings begin being issued. Rulings are expected to roll in around the new year.
See my two page memo striking to the root of the matter, and Attorney Greg Muller’s legalese composition below.
Pete Eyre, arrested at the same time as myself and who also has already had his trial, has uploaded both his own memo as well as Greg Muller’s 44 page memo from that case, which addresses different issues than were raised in mine.
Embedded below is the first Free Concord video to be released from Brad and Tommy’s right to carry campus outreach at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. It includes the leadup to their appearance on campus, and highlights from the press conference in front of Rounds Hall. Stay tuned for the chalking fiesta in part two.
