Corruption within corruption trial?

This article, a short one, stated that one of the jurors from Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens' corruption trial was dismissed. The Female juror supposedly left town and flew to California after the death of her father. She hadn't been in contact with the court since Friday (A little fishy if you ask me). The U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said "the court had not heard from her since Friday when she left town." Due to the fact that the juror is dismissed the deliberations will resume on Monday but this time with an alternate juror. This is a pretty huge deal, the new juror could think completely different than the dismissed one. This could be bad or good for Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens. Stevens is charged with lying for years on Senate financial disclosure documents to conceal $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts from a friend, millionaire oil contractor Bill Allen. I have a question that this article didn't cover... What is happening to Bill Allen, is he getting in trouble?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,444125,00.html

First of all I think that it is pretty fishy for a member of the jury to just disappear from a pretty dang important case. I mean there are coincidences of course, and I am not taking away at all from her father and his death. What I am saying is that there could possibly be corruption within Senator Stevens corruption trial. What if he was paying this juror? What if they were going to get caught so she left town? You know got cold feet. I am just saying that, it is weird that she left town at such a crucial time.
Second of all I think that Mr. Stevens is guilty and is a pretty dirty man to do such things. I just think that corruption by itself is horrible but when you are a powerful person in politics/in our government it is even worse. I don't get why someone would do such a thing, but then again I am just a high school student who hasn't really been put in that situation. He also tried to cover up his wrongs with dirty and secret paper work and all that politics stuff that I unfortunately, don't really have a grasp on yet. My mom always told me to just come clean with a lie or a wrong I committed for 2 reasons: one being that in the long run it will be less consequential (although in the short run it might be just the opposite) and the other being your conscience will be guilt free and you won't have to worry about getting caught like, Senator Stevens, always happens. Too bad for Senator Ted Stevens in my opinion it doesn't look to good for him.
As I stated in the summary of the article I read I have a question... Did Bill Allen receive any consequences in this whole ordeal? If anyone could answer my question please leave a comment... otherwise I am going to research it myself. Thanks for your time and keep it real.
~Charlie~

Troubles with Iran's Nuclear Program

This article talks about how senior diplomats from 6 world powers (Britain, China, France, Russia, United States, and Germany) talked on Monday and tried to come up with a plan about Iran's nuclear program. Unfortunately they failed and couldn't come to a consensus. China who is a large part of the world powers had blocked the discussion of this topic for almost two weeks... apparently in retaliation to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. The U.S. had been trying to organize the conference call since the beginning of the month and when they did this is what the diplomats said according to spokesman Robert Wood, "they remain committed to the dual-track strategy and will remain in close contact on developments over the coming days and weeks." The idea is/was to give Iran incentives to give up objectionable parts of its nuclear program but if they don't to apply sanctions. Basically what the dual-track strategy is, is the main element of a slow-moving pressure campaign to persuade Iran to give up objectionable parts of its nuclear program. They haven't quite got it all figured out yet or rather haven't all quite agreed on the same idea according to this article.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,441542,00.html

I think that Iran is acting like a baby or maybe a stubborn toddler at best. What they are doing is wrong and everyone else thinks so too. Basically the only thing that is allowing Iran to continue with its objectionable nuclear programs, is the world powers against them can't decide how to put an end to it's objectionable nuclear programs. I mean I understand the fact that they don't want to give up their programs but the powers aren't asking them to give up their programs completely just objectionable parts. Plus they just got taken off of the black list of terrorist nations why would they push the buttons and argue to keep questionable parts of their nuclear programs? The fact that we might be giving Iran incentives to go along with the plan just doesn't make much sense to me... either they do it or don't. Their incentive should be that they already got taken off the of the black list we shouldn't have to give them more. I don't know much of the whole Iran situation other than what I read in this article but from what I know so far I think Iran should just cooperate. Of course I am just a U.S. high school student and not an Iran diplomat but that is what I think...Take it or leave it.

~Charlie~

IMF and possible scandal

This article talks about a possible scandal with a chief and his female employee (now ex-employee).IMF, which stands for International Monetary Fund, is involved in a possible scandal. The question is whether or not its chief had an improper relationship with a female employee. This article says that the IMF has hired the law firm Morgan, Lewis, and Bockius to investigate this whole thing. IMF is a key institution in the global financial crisis, so these allegations are important. According to this article the woman's name is Piroska Nagy and now works for the European bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. The chief of IMF is Strauss-Kahn and he said this to reporters "With my full support the IMF is examining an incident which occurred in my private life in January 2008. I have cooperated and am continuing to cooperate with outside counsel to the fund concerning the matter." The article left very little hints as to whether or not all this is true or not.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,440502,00.html

I believe that this whole thing just happened to come out at the wrong time. I do not know if it is true and to tell you the truth do not really care that much. I mean don't get me wrong it is still a big deal but there are bigger fish to fry than mister Strauss-Kahn and Piroska Nagy at the moment. I believe if he is guilty we should deal with i appropriately but move on and try to figure out our global financial crisis. The only reason that this whole thing even came up was because the guy was Chief of IMF a key institution of our global financial crisis. We should give the man a break or at least post-pone all the hubala about him until problems that are of more importance are actually solved. The facts point to this guy being guilty because she left and went to work somewhere else while he made some statements that would lean me towards believing he is guilty. With this said I truly believe that we should focus on the people as a whole and not so much individuals having bad relationships with employees. Sometimes I feel like America loses its way, and little examples like this show that we need to better focus on the actual problems. This has been Charlie Warnes speaking and until next time...Keep it cool.
~Charlie~

Nuclear Disablement by North Korea

North Korea, a communist courntry, was taken off the black list of terrorism by the United States and because of this it has continued its disablement of its nuclear facilities. North Korea agreed to all of the inspections and allowed experts of the U.S. to take atomic samples and conduct forensic tests. North Korea was angry with America because it felt as though we (as in the U.S.) were delaying taking it off of the terror list. Due to North Korea being angry for a while it halted its disablement of nuclear activities. With all that said North Korea is now back on track with its disablement of nuclear facilities and has cooperated with the U.S. very well lately and according to this article and to U.S. officials doesn't deserve to be on the terror list anymore. It seems as though North Korea has taken a couple steps forward and hopefully will keep its momentum going.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,436542,00.html

I read some of "Kinzies Bloggin" at http://kinziehauer.blogspot.com/ and she wrote about the same article and said that she didn't think that North Korea should have been taken off of the terror list and I sort of agree with her. Although they may not be the cleanest or nicest nation they still have been abiding by the rules as of late. What I am saying is that as of right now they may not deserve to be on the terror list but should know that they can always be put right back on it. Kenzie also said that she felt as though North Korea deserved to be taken off of the list too because they began disabling their nuclear facilities once again. We both are mixed on this decision but, I don't know about Kenzie, I feel that so far it was the right one. I mean they even continued to disable their nuclear facilities after they were, in a way, cleared. North Korea has a bad past but hopefully is on its way to correcting it. I believe everyone deserves a second chance and as for North Korea I am not sure if this is its second or more but maybe they deserve another one. This has been the opinion of Charlie and until next time...keep it cool.
~Charlie~

China Cancels some of its Military contacts

Due to the fact that the U.S. planned an arms sale to Taiwan, China canceled some of its senior visits and cooperative military-to-military plans with the U.S. The article I read said that this news was a Pentagon official as of Monday. The article talked about how the U.S. is selling a huge package of arms to Taiwan of which includes guided missiles and attack helicopters. Beijing is angry over the U.S. decision and therefore has canceled or maybe postponed some of its military connections with America. Marine Major Stewart Upton, a Defense Department spokesman, said this in response to the whole dilemma,"China's continued politicization of our military relationship results in missed opportunities."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,433501,00.html

I believe that just because China wants Taiwan to be a part of them, that when we (as in the U.S.) sell Taiwan weapons that China shouldn't freak out. They didn't necessarily freak out, but when the article I read told me that they pulled back some cooperative military-to-military plans and some senior visits due to this arms sale plan I thought it was pretty selfish. Every nation does what is best for itself and that is just the way it is. With that said China is angry that we are selling Taiwan supplies which will help it defend itself from falling back under the communist China again. I am not quite sure but I believe that Taiwan is democratic and that we are a very big reason that it hasn't already fallen under to China. China must also understand that we aren't necessarily military allies but simply economic allies, so with that said we can do what we want. In my opinion China has over reacted but then again I am just a high school senior. What do you think? Until next time I'm Charlie and have a good one.

~Charlie~