Jon Stewart on the State of the State of Florida, Same-Sex Marriage, and some Oddball News Stories from the “Sunshine State”

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

On Tuesday night, Jon Stewart interviewed Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on The Daily Show. His lead-in to the interview with Rubio—who has sharply criticized court rulings that paved the way for same sex marriages in Florida—was a truly funny segment on the state of the Sunshine State, which included a bit about Duval County clerks’ refusal to perform same-sex marriages at the courthouse. During the segment, Stewart pointed out some of the state’s oddball news stories—including a cockroach eating contest and a pet store owner who beat employees with a reptile.

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Posted in Civil Law, Civil Liberties, Conservatives, Constitutional Law, Courts, Democracy, Equal Rights, Humor, Jurisprudence, Justice, Local Government, Media, Political Science, Politics, Short Video, United States | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Jeremy Scahill and Jon Stewart Call Out the Hypocrisy of World Leaders Who Have Punished Journalists in Their Own Countries Rallying in Paris in Support of Freedom of the Press

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

On Sunday, more than a million people rallied in Paris “in response to the Charlie Hebdo shootings and ensuing attacks that left 17 people dead.” More than forty world leaders were reported to have traveled to France to help lead the march. During an appearance on Democracy Now! on Monday, investigative journalist Jeremey Scahill said that while it was “heartening” to see so many people rallying in support of freedom of the press, he noted the “hypocrisy” of world leaders participating in the Paris march who had actually “waged their own wars against journalists” in their own countries. Continue reading →

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Barack Obama, Democracy, France, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Government, Islam, Media, Political Science, Politics, Religion, Short Video, Society, United States | Tagged , , , , , | 28 Comments

New York City Department of Investigation Releases Report on Police Use of Chokeholds

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

NYPDLogoBy Elaine Magliaro

On Monday, New York City’s Department of Investigation released a 45-page report titled Observations on Accountability and Transparency in Ten NYPD Chokehold Cases. This investigation from New York City’s police inspector general found that “in several cases where officers were found to have used a chokehold, the banned maneuver was the officer’s initial physical response to verbal resistance.” Matt Sledge of Huffington Post said the newly released report mirrors that of “an October report from the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the independent investigative agency.” He said that both investigations had examined substantiated chokehold cases, “and both concluded that the NYPD imposed at most a loss of vacation days as a penalty.”

David Goodman (New York Times) said the report “follows the death in July of Eric Garner on Staten Island after an arresting officer placed him in a chokehold, a tactic that was banned by the Police Department two decades ago. The report looks at officers’ ongoing use of chokeholds and the department’s handling of such actions.” Goodman said that the report was to have been released in December—but was delayed after the killing of two NYPD officers late last month. He also noted that the inspector general’s office was “created by the City Council over the objections of the Bloomberg administration.”

The inspector general’s office—headed by Philip K. Eure—“examined the circumstances and the disciplinary actions that resulted in 10 confrontations between officers and suspects from 2009 to June 2014 in which a separate oversight agency verified that a chokehold had been used by an officer.” In a letter released today, Eure said, “Our targeted analysis revealed troubling deficiencies from the top-down that must be rectified.” Sledge said the investigators found that, time and again, “New York police officers resorted to chokeholds first — often for the crime of merely questioning the officer’s authority. And time and again, the NYPD ignored discipline recommendations from the independent agency that investigated civilians’ chokehold complaints.”

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Posted in Crime, Criminal Law, Law Enforcement, Local Government, United States | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Is It Time To Make Fundamentalism A Crime? Part 4

Posted on January 12, 2015 by mespo727272

By Mark Esposito

The following is the fourth installment in a multi-part series exploring religious fundamentalism and the means of checking its excesses. You can read the first part here and the second part here and the third part here.

imageThere are 1.5 to 2.0 billion Muslims in the world but only enough to fill a minor league baseball stadium find the motivation to join ISIS or al Qaeda and fight global jihad. Why? To understand you must first understand the origins of jihad.

Jihad is a fluid term in the Muslim world with two simultaneous meanings. To most peaceful Muslims, it means an inner spiritual struggle to understand and develop rightly using both the Qur’an and the Hadith as guides and examples. This is not the external jihad advocated by dedicated Wahhabis. To them, jihad is a permanent global struggle against non-believers who must be subjugated and taxed or destroyed. There is no alternative. Continue reading →

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Art, Atheism, Big Oil, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Constitutional Law, Corruption, Countries, Courts, Crime, Criminal Law, Democracy, Education, Energy Policy, Enlightenment, Equal Rights, Fascism, France, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Government, Heroism, History, Hypocrisy, Jurisprudence, Justice, Law Enforcement, Legal Theory, Liberals, Literature, Murder, Oligarchy, Philosophy, Political Science, Politics, Prison, Propaganda, Psychology, Racism, Religion, Renaissance, Roman Catholic Church, Society, Theism, United States, War, War on "Terror", World History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 109 Comments

OJ Revisited (Introducing the FFS Guest Blogger Program)

Posted on January 11, 2015 by FFS Guest Blogger

Submitted By Blouise

ED. NOTE: In Re the FFS Guest Blogger Program

It is a great pleasure to announce the first publication under our Guest Blogger Program at FFS. The way this works is simple.  If you have an idea for a column you wish to write for us, send either a query and/or a draft of the article to eic.ffs@gmail.com. Our administrators will consider the submission and either refuse or accept (possibly with editorial suggestions) to publish the article. The article may have any byline you wish, either your real name or a nom de plume. If selected, your column may be edited for grammar or layout, but the content is entirely up to you.

Today’s entry is from longtime blog friend Blouise. During the recent discussions of the Ferguson, MO situation, she and bettykath (also a longtime blog friend) started discussing the manipulation of juries in the context of the OJ Simpson trial. Being extremely good guests, they asked if they could start a thread to discuss that matter discretely as to not clutter up the Ferguson thread(s) with OJ talk. Without further ado, here is “OJ Revisited” by Blouise. – Gene Howington, Editor-in-Chief

O.J. Simpson

O.J. Simpson

Back in December of 2014, bettykath and I discovered we shared doubts about the guilt of OJ Simpson in the Brown/Goldman murders. Towards that end, we read the book, “O.J. Is Innocent and I Can Prove It” by William C. Dear, and wished to discuss both our original doubts and points made by the author in his book.

Not wanting to hijack an editor’s thread, I asked Gene if we could have a thread of our own in which the subject of the OJ murder trial could be discussed. He graciously agreed to give us a thread. Continue reading →

Posted in Civil Law, Crime, Criminal Law, Evidence Law, FFS Update(s), Law Enforcement, Media, Murder | 96 Comments

Is It Time To Make Fundamentalism A Crime? Part 3

Posted on January 11, 2015 by mespo727272

By Mark Esposito

The following is the third installment in a multi-part series exploring religious fundamentalism and the means of checking its excesses. You can read the first part here and the second part here.

imageThe discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia in 1939 would have immediate consequences for world geopolitics and for the Wahhabis. Rising concerns about Hitler’s Nazi movement prompted the British to make immediate inroads into the region to secure oil. Prior to the mid-1920s, the Western industrial powers were coal-fired. The UK had that in abundance but industry was changing and demands for petroleum-based products for gasoline and kerosene were increasing by the mid-1930s especially  for automobile and heating fuel.

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Posted in Anti-Semitism, Art, Atheism, Big Oil, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Constitutional Law, Corruption, Countries, Courts, Crime, Criminal Law, Democracy, Education, Energy Policy, Enlightenment, Equal Rights, Fascism, France, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Government, Heroism, History, Hypocrisy, Jurisprudence, Justice, Law Enforcement, Legal Theory, Liberals, Literature, Murder, Oligarchy, Philosophy, Political Science, Politics, Prison, Propaganda, Psychology, Racism, Religion, Renaissance, Roman Catholic Church, Society, Theism, United States, War, War on "Terror", World History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

Regarding Bob McCulloch, the Ferguson Prosecution, and the “Jack in the Box” Case

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Robert McCulloch St. Louis County Prosecutor

Robert McCulloch
St. Louis County Prosecutor

By Elaine Magliaro

Alan Pyke (ThinkProgress) suggests that if you want to have a better understanding of Bob McCulloch and his prosecution in the case of the officer-involved shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson,  Missouri, you should learn more about the 2000 “Jack in the Box” case.

Pyke:

Legal experts have accused Ferguson, MO prosecutor Robert McCulloch of mishandling the grand jury process that failed to yield charges in the August police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. One of the grand jurors in that case has flagged many of those errors in a new lawsuit against McCulloch. The anonymous juror’s suit also cites another case from nearly 15 years ago which suggests McCulloch has a history of demonizing the victims of police shooting, and skewing the evidence in favor of the police.

While the suit doesn’t delve into the details of the 2000 case, known locally as the Jack in the Box shooting, investigations by federal officials and St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporters reveal familiar-sounding details about McCulloch’s strange use of the grand jury process and inflammatory public statements following the ultimate exoneration of police.

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Posted in Courts, Crime, Criminal Law, Equal Rights, Jurisprudence, Justice, Law Enforcement, Media, Missouri, Murder, Propaganda, Racism, Uncategorized, United States | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Hollywood and War: “American Sniper”…a Movie about a Killer Hero

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

American-Sniper-by-Chris-KyleBy Elaine Magliaro

I have neither read Chris Kyle’s memoir American Sniper nor seen the movie based on his book. Kyle was the decorated Navy SEAL who became “the deadliest sniper in the annals of American warfare.” Writing for The Intercept, Peter Maass said that just a few pages into the memoir, Kyle “used an epithet to describe the Arabs on the wrong side of his gun scope.”

Kyle:

“A lot of people, myself included, called the enemy ‘savages.’ I only wish I had killed more. Not for bragging rights, but because I believe the world is a better place without savages out there taking American lives.”

The film American Sniper—starring Bradley Cooper as Kyle—had a limited release in late December. Maass said that even before its national release on January 16th, the movie had become “an Oscar contender.” He said the Los Angeles Times hailed “its action scenes as ‘impeccably crafted,’”—while The New Yorker saluted “Clint Eastwood for making other directors ‘look like beginners.’”


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Posted in American History, Countries, Heroism, History, Iraq, Politics, Propaganda, Society, United States, US Military, USN, War, World History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 221 Comments

Is It Time To Make Fundamentalism A Crime? Part 2

Posted on January 10, 2015 by mespo727272

By Mark Esposito

The following is the second installment in a multi-part series exploring religious fundamentalism and the means of checking its excesses. You can read the first part here.

imageThe clash between fundamentalism and modernity was an inevitable historical fight but we probably should define just what is meant by religious fundamentalism.  At its essence, it is about an unwavering attachment to a set of beliefs about the nature of the world and its purpose. As with all beliefs that are fully subscribed, it results in consequences through human agency that are motivated in large measure by a loyalty to its world view. It has both a dimension of reward (Paradise) and punishment (Hell) for believers and its precepts are rigidly enforced through aggressive and often-times violent means.

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Posted in Anti-Semitism, Art, Atheism, Big Oil, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Constitutional Law, Corruption, Countries, Courts, Crime, Criminal Law, Democracy, Education, Enlightenment, Equal Rights, Fascism, France, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Government, Heroism, History, Hypocrisy, Jurisprudence, Justice, Law Enforcement, Legal Theory, Liberals, Literature, Murder, Oligarchy, Philosophy, Political Science, Politics, Prison, Propaganda, Psychology, Racism, Religion, Renaissance, Roman Catholic Church, Society, Theism, United States, War, War on "Terror", World History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 27 Comments

Is the NYPD Work Slowdown a Bad Thing…Or a Good Thing?

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

NYPDLogoBy Elaine Magliaro

On December 31, 2014, Matt Taibbi published an article at Rolling Stone titled The NYPD’s ‘Work Stoppage’ Is Surreal. The reason for the “virtual work stoppage”—or slowdown—is the anger that many NYPD officers feel toward the mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio.

Taibbi:

Furious at embattled mayor Bill de Blasio, and at what Police Benevolent Association chief Patrick Lynch calls a “hostile anti-police environment in the city,” the local officers are simply refusing to arrest or ticket people for minor offenses – such arrests have dropped off a staggering 94 percent, with overall arrests plunging 66 percent.

If you’re wondering exactly what that means, the Post is reporting that the protesting police have decided to make arrests “only when they have to.” (Let that sink in for a moment. Seriously, take 10 or 15 seconds).

Substantively that mostly means a steep drop-off in parking tickets, but also a major drop in tickets for quality-of-life offenses like carrying open containers of alcohol or public urination.

Matt Taibbi on the Police Slowdown in New York City

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Posted in Civil Law, Civil Liberties, Conservatives, Crime, Democracy, Equal Rights, Government, Justice, Law Enforcement, Liberals, Local Government, Political Science, Politics, Propaganda, Society, United States | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments