We reported here the story of nine employees of a US Department of Education contractor, who were indicted in federal court in Iowa, for illegally accessing student loan records for Barack Obama. This minor story provided us with a glimpse at what would be in store for election workers in Hawaii, should it be found that they accessed federal databases to peek at Obama’s records.
Mercedes Costoyas, 53, of Iowa City, plead guilty in federal court yesterday (June 16, 2010). With her guilty plea, she could receive up to 6 months in jail and deportation. This was reported in the Quad City Times.
The other 8 defendants have a trial date in July.
Update:
Mercedes Costoyas plead guilty and received probation. She said she was “just curious” and didn’t know it was illegal.
Patrick E. Roan plead guilty and was sentenced to community service and a $25 court fee.
John P. Phommivong plead guilty and was sentenced to 1 year probation.
Andrew J. Lage, Anne C. Rhodes, Patrick E. Roan, Lisa Torney, and Julie L. Kline also plead guilty and received 1 year probation.
Sandra Teague (who by the way is black) was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to 2 years probation (she faced a maximum of 1 year in jail and a $100,000 fine). She also was fired by the company, Vangent.
Information from the Quad City Times.
James,. quick call your buddy Tim Adams, help him escape to witch mountain (located in south berfherland)
No, Birfistan is on the edge of Transylvania: http://newyorkleftist.blogspot.com/2009/08/welcome-to-birfistan.html
If Mercedes is in search of happiness, she should go to Birferobijan.
Believe me, we’d be better off there, than the current mess.
http://www.swarthmore.edu/Home/News/biro/
I don’t know. Stalin messed it up twice, believing in his paranoia that success stories would create rivals to his power.
And it would normally have evolved into a country where the town dwellers were Jewish, and the farmers were Korean. Could have caused problems too.
Did you see that Moldavian woman on p 29? I thought she looked like Orly (‘s mother), but perhaps I am just seeing things which aren’t there.
Paul: Did you see that Moldavian woman on p 29? I thought she looked like Orly (’s mother)
There is a resemblance, but it’s not her mother.
When I wrote that I was thinking:
-an abundance of natural resources
-no threat of war on a daily basis
-did you know there are not any mailboxes in Israel? Guess why.
-the campaign for unrestricted immigration to Israel was a smashing success. Unfortunately, Israel got the Russian mob along with the mass immigration, as well as street thugs like Avigdor Lieberman. That’s right, folks. Lieberman was a bouncer. And he’s from Moldova, just like dear Orly. Birds of a feather.
-Israel doesn’t like to talk about it, but there is a lot of emmigration to places like Costa Rica. You don’t have to worry about every package. There’s one section of Rockville, Maryland with so many Israelis, it’s called The Kibbutz.
-wealthy Israelis own second homes on Cyprus. Guess why.
-in Israel, it is illegal for a Jew to marry a non-Jew. Travel agents are rolling in money from marriage tours to Cyprus. And Cypriot hotel owners are doing a land office killing.
Here’s my Russian heritage: http://newyorkleftist.blogspot.com/2010/02/forward.html
I’m afraid that’s a common myth, but it has no more truth to it than birtherism.
It is not illegal for a Jew to marry a non-Jew. The actual case is that only religious marriages are obtainable in Israel. The state does not perform marriages. At present non of the officially sanctioned religions in Israel perform mixed faith marriages. Thus mixed faith couples must obtain a civil ceremony outside Israel, but such a marriage is legally recognized once they return.
Thus, in Israel, such a marriage is not illegal, it is simply not obtainable
You’re right – I should have clarified it. Inter-faith couples go to Cyprus. The Jerusalem Post is filled with ads from travel agents for marriage tours to Cyprus. Of course, it is recognized there. Everyone is trying to stamp out such marriages, but all it did was enrich travel agents and Cypriot hotel owners, as well as their court fees.
Thus, in Israel, such a marriage is not illegal, it is simply not obtainable. Thus, de facto illegal within Israel. I got carried away, because I got tired of being shouted at for marrying a Chinese Buddhist. I actually was told I was part of a silent Holocaust.
Interestingly, we are welcomed at Chabad here in Philly. Go figure.
True story: Israel’s navy commander is Chinese: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Marom
Sorry to keep harping on this, but considering the blog we’re on, it bears being specific and exact.
It is NOT “de facto” illegal.
In order to be illegal there has to be a law which forbids it. There is no law in Israel which forbids mixed faith marriages, there is simply no way to obtain one. No ability to obtain does not equate to illegal, it only equates to not obtainable.
It is not illegal for me to possess unicorn fingers…. there just is no way for me to obtain them.
So, an individual access some records without permission gets charged. The conspiracy nuts will be all over this story even though nothing was discovered. However, some will ignore an important fact that if Tim Adams was telling the truth he would have been charged already.
Thinking further I wanted to explain why I think it’s important to be specific and exact.
Conspiracy whackos, like the birthers, depend on minutiae to promote their delusions. The actual facts in the “issue” are so obvious to any reasonable person that they can’t be really argued with. The Birthers depend on trying to dredge up doubt with insignificant and microscopic details in the hope that that will be sufficient to deflect attention away from the obvious problems with the conspiracy delusion.
A good example of this is the current thread dealing with what angle photons bounce off an embossed seal made with palm fiber paper in 1961 in Hawaii on the north side of the island with humidity above 96.2% in July…. which apparently proves that the COLB is fake ROFLMAO.
It completely ignores the fact that the COLB has been verified officially six ways from Sunday by actual authorities.
For the same reason you’ll hear Birthers claim that Obama has not complied with reasonable demands to show his long form BC. When you don’t look at specifics it doesn’t seem like a bad claim, until you realize that it’s false. The reason that Obama has not complied with a reasonable demands for his LFBC, is that those demands are not reasnable, by definition. Since there can be no reasonable demand for it, it cannot be complied with. That is the specific and exact part that the Birthers do not want you to pay attention to. Rather they want you to worry about photon angles and palm fibers
It would be more precise to say to there is a de facto ban on a Jew getting married to a non-Jew in Israel. Such a marriage is legal, but the marriage ceremony cannot take place within Israel.
Compare that to Mario’s supposed de facto ban on Americans traveling to Pakistan in 1981.