Israeli Prime Minister Bibi, Republican Members of Congress…and “Netanyahu’s Greater Republica” (Mark Fiore Political Cartoon Video)

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

Award-winning political cartoonist Mark Fiore said that since Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu has now given “his very own State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, the partisan colonization of the world is in full swing!” Fiore added that Bibi “has clearly thrown his lot in with the Republicans, and virtually every Republican in Congress has jumped on the Bibi bandwagon.”

Fiore:

Gone are the days of a unified bipartisan stance toward Israel. With the Israeli government going Republican, what political party will other nations pick?

Maybe we’re about to enter a domestic arms race, where each party will try to align with their chosen nations.

Fiore said that he was personally “reserving Somalia for Paul Ryan and other Ayn Randers.”

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Posted in Barack Obama, Conservatives, Countries, Foreign Policy, Government, Government Propaganda, Humor, Iran, Israel, Politics, Propaganda, Short Video, United States | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments

FERGUSON UPDATE: Suspect in police shooting in custody

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Chuck Stanley

By Chuck Stanley:

Police in Ferguson, MO report they have apprehended a suspect in the sniper attack on two officers.  Details are sketchy. Lot of gossip on Twitter.  The weapon used has been seized, according to reports. No details on the weapon.  I am on record as suspecting it is a medium caliber rifle, so quite curious as to what it really is.  Presser was scheduled to start at 1:30 PM local time.

From one of the newspapers:

Authorities say they have made an arrest in the shooting of two officers outside the Ferguson Police Department.

St. Louis County Police Sgt. Brain Schellman said the details will be discussed at a 1:30 p.m. Sunday news conference. St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Robert McCulloch and St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar will attend.

Link below the fold to live feed from KDSK, Channel  5 in St. Louis.

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Posted in Crime, Criminal Law, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Missouri, Society | Tagged , , , | 37 Comments

Bill Maher on Spolied Rich Kids and the “Death Tax”

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

During the “New Rules” segment of Real Time with Bill Maher last night, the host of the program talked about spoiled rich kids, the culture of dependency, and the “death tax.”

Maher said, “Someone has to explain to me why Republicans believe that not working and getting free money — you know, like the ‘takers’ — is the worst most corrupting thing that could ever happen to a person, except if you’re rich.” He highlighted “one of the first actions taken by the new Republican Congress this year: trying to eliminate the tax on inherited wealth…” Maher added, “There’s only one thing conservatives believe in more than work and that’s the God-given right of rich people to leave all their money to their kids so they never have to work a day in their lives.” He even suggested that rich folks might consider “inflicting some of the ‘tough love’ they use against poor people on their own children.”

Real Time with Bill Maher: Affluenza and the Culture of Dependency (HBO)

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Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

“Capital New York” Catches NYPD Editing Wikipedia Entries About Eric Garner and Other Police Brutality Victims

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

NYPDLogoBy Elaine Magliaro

Kerry Weill of Capital New York reported early yesterday morning that computers operating on the New York Police Department’s computer network at its 1 Police Plaza headquarters had “been used to alter Wikipedia pages containing details of alleged police brutality…” After “examples of the changes were presented to the NYPD,” a department spokeswoman named Det. Cheryl Crispin wrote in an email to Capital New York: “The matter is under internal review.”

Aviva Shen (ThinkProgress) said that the NYPD had “anonymously edited and tried to delete Wikipedia pages about police brutality victims.” According to reports, the edits “coming from 1 Police Plaza headquarters targeted pages for Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo.”

Shen:

NYPD IP addresses were used to edit the Wikipedia page on the “Death of Eric Garner,” who was killed by police chokehold and inspired massive nationwide protests in the fall. Capital New York found that the department changed “Garner raised both his arms in the air” to “Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke,” and added the sentence “Garner, who was considerably larger than any of the officers, continued to struggle with them,” among other changes. 

Weill said that on the evening of December 3, 2014–just “hours after a Staten Island grand jury ruled not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner–a user on the 1 Police Plaza network made multiple edits…to the ‘Death of Eric Garner’ Wikipedia entry.”

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Posted in Government Propaganda, Law Enforcement, Media, Propaganda, United States | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

NEWSFLASH: Disgraced General David Petraeus Remains a Trusted White House Advisor

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Former CIA Director General David Petraeus

Former CIA Director General David Petraeus

By Elaine Magliaro

Former CIA Director David Petraeus, who is expected to formally plead guilty “to mishandling classified materials” next month, is scheduled to be sentenced on April 27th. Petraeus, who also served as the top U.S. general in Iraq and Afghanistan, “was accused earlier this year of giving classified materials to Paula Broadwell, his mistress and biographer, while he held the top job at the CIA.” Petraeus

Petraeus has acknowledged that he gave Broadwell several notebooks, which “contained highly classified information that he had compiled during his time as a top general, including the identities of covert officers, war strategy, intelligence capabilities, and discussions with President Obama.”

Jeff Stein of Newsweek reported earlier today that the disgraced general still remains a trusted White House adviser, “despite admitting to sharing highly classified information with his erstwhile mistress Paula Broadwell and lying to the FBI about it.” Stein said that an unnamed White House official had confirmed to Newsweek “that the former CIA director and Iraq war hero has been advising the National Security Council on Iraq and the Islamic State, known as ISIS, since last summer.” Yet, according to the official, Petraeus “no longer has a CIA security clearance.”

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Posted in Barack Obama, CIA, Courts, Crime, DOJ, Equal Rights, Government, Hypocrisy, Jurisprudence, Justice, Law Enforcement, Political Science, Presidents, Treason, United States, US Army, US Military | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

PMJ Strikes Again: Gangsta’s Paradise

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Gene Howington

by Gene Howington

I never tire of finding great new arrangements of good songs, but even more so when it is a song rearranged in an unexpected and clever way. If there was ever rap song suited for a 1920’s style jazz arrangement, it has to be this one. Here is Postmodern Jukebox (featuring Robyn Adele Anderson) doing their rendition of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”.

Certainly Al Capone and Nucky Thompson approved. If you’ve never heard the Grammy winning original, here is the for comparison.

Enjoy.

Posted in Art, Jazz, Music | Tagged | 7 Comments

For Poetry Friday: A prayer for a correctional officer.

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Chuck Stanley

by Chuck Stanley

Correctional officer prayerWhen the CelticLassie read on Daily Kos that former correctional officer ruleoflaw is critically ill, she wanted to send him a message. His story appeared in a diary by SaraR, who is making him a community quilt. SaraR’s community quilts are made with squares, each featuring a special message from commenters. By the time she read about it, SaraR had almost enough quotes to fill the quilt. But the CelticLassie sat at her desk and thought about him for a long time. She finally started writing. She wouldn’t let me see it until she was ready to post it. She insists this is not a poem, that it is a prayer.

Make of it what you will, poem or prayer. Given the events of the past day, with two officers shot by a hidden sniper, it seems fitting. An acquaintance if of hers, from her department, was shot in the face at close range by a deranged man with a .308 caliber deer rifle. Think about the role and responsibilities of any correctional officer. When correctional officers leave for work each day, neither they or their families know if they will walk through the door after their shift, or be carried in a box.

For poetry Friday:   Correctional Officer Prayer

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Posted in Crime, Criminal Law, Heroism, Jurisprudence, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Prison | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

NEWSFLASH: Drunk Secret Service Agents who Crashed into White House Barricade Disrupted Bomb Investigation

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

SecretService-StarLogo_svgBy Elaine Magliaro

I’m sure that most of you have heard about the two Secret Service agents who were suspected of driving drunk and hitting a White House security barricade earlier this month. According to reports, the Department of Homeland Security is investigating the incident that occurred on March 4th. The agents who were involved in the driving incident are “Mark Connolly, the second-in-command on Obama’s detail, and George Ogilvie, a senior supervisor in the Washington field office.”

CNN reported that the two agents who crashed into the White House barricade “were allowed to go home after a supervisor on duty overruled on-duty law enforcement who wanted to arrest the agents and conduct sobriety tests.”

During an interview broadcast on CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Washington Post reporter Carol D. Leonnig, who broke the story, said, “The officers for the Secret Service who monitor the safety of the White House complex and ultimately the president and his family felt that these two individuals may have been intoxicated.” A Secret Service official said that the two agents had been reassigned to non-supervisory, non-operational assignments.”

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Posted in Barack Obama, Countries, Government, Presidents | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Farewell, Ankh-Morpork: Author Terry Pratchett, Dead at 66

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Gene Howington
Novelist Terry Pratchett on Day 2 of the 2012 New York Comic Con, Friday October 12, 2012 © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons

Novelist Terry Pratchett on Day 2 of the 2012 New York Comic Con, Friday October 12, 2012
© Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons

by Gene Howington

Still reeling from the loss of Leonard Nimoy, the science fiction and fantasy community suffered another great loss today with the death of acclaimed fantasy author and humorist Terry Pratchett. For those of you not familiar with his work, he is best known for the Discworld series. The Discworld itself is described as a large disc resting on the backs of four giant elephants, all supported by the giant turtle Great A’Tuin swimming through space. As intelligent as they are funny, his stories always managed to skewer absurdities of the modern world, from the often convoluted nature of bureaucracy to the vanity of celebrity.  And that? Is when science fiction and fantasy are at their best: when they tell us something true about ourselves through a tale set in an often radically different reality. Having published over 85 books in 7 languages, Terry Pratchett is currently the second most read British author in the world. He died from complications of early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease, aged 66, at his home “with his cat sleeping on his bed, surrounded by his family”.

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Posted in Literature, Memorial, United Kingdom | Tagged , | 5 Comments

From the Office of the Missouri Attorney General: Racial Profiling Data for the City of Fegurson for the Year 2013

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

Ferguson1

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Countries, Democracy, Equal Rights, Government, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Missouri, Racism, Society, States, United States | Tagged , , , | 93 Comments