All language is but a poor translation.
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tw: rape. Steubenville, Ohio residents implicated in rape coverup
(via veaghan-deactivated20130109)
Source: amazing-kayak-adventure
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House guarantees continuing million$ to recruit Bubba, Jr →
Just like planes not worth flying, personnel carriers more dangerous than walking through a minefield – and toilet seats fit for a general’s soft tush – Congress is perfectly willing to throw good money after bad to stay in the good graces of their favorite fundraising pimps.
If National Guard recruiters want to keep sponsoring Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s racing team, the U.S. House is willing to keep providing millions of dollars for the right to back No. 88.
An effort to ban the military from spending $72.3 million on sponsorships was defeated on a bipartisan vote of 216-202 — a victory for Nascar, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association, which lobbied against the proposal.
“I say let the military run the recruiting as they have done successfully for all these years,” said Representative Bill Young of Florida, chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee…
NASCAR’s advertising productivity is plummeting as fast their income, attendance and viewership.
It would be “irresponsible and outrageous” for Congress to continue allowing the Pentagon to sponsor sports while cutting funding for services that aid struggling families and communities, said Minnesota Democrat Betty McCollum.
“We can spend this money a lot better than we are today,” said Georgia Republican Jack Kingston, who offered the defeated amendment.
The Army has said that it doesn’t intend to sponsor a NASCAR team after this year, saying the spending can’t be justified.
you have got to be kidding me
Source: jayaprada
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The U.S. military is operating drones domestically and sharing data with law enforcement →
As many are now well aware, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is pushing for the integration of drones into the national airspace, especially for use bylaw enforcement and unsurprisingly a bill was passed and signed into law doing just that.
This is disturbing to some, for good reason. It has become clear that when you give the federal government an inch,they will take a mile. This can be seen quite plainly in the so-called war on terror and how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has rapidly expanded into a massive agency which regularly violates our rights.
It can also be seen in how some entities will simply give themselves ludicrous powers over the personal information of Americans, such as the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), which not long ago gave itself the power to keep the personal information of Americans – with absolutely no links to terrorism whatsoever – for a whopping five years.
A new report from CBS Los Angeles has revealed some disturbing truths regarding the United States military’s use of drones in American airspace and their sharing of data with various government entities and law enforcement agencies.While it is far from news to most that the military is working with law enforcement in this regard, as evidenced by the launching of a military drone from a military base in order to conduct a domestic law enforcement operation, the documents obtained by CBS Los Angeles reveal some new information.
A non-classified intelligence report written by the U.S. Air Force dated April 23, 2012 reveals that video and other data captured “inadvertently” or “mistakenly” by military drones flying above the United States could quite easily end up in the hands of federal, state or local law enforcement agencies.
Even the local CBS affiliate in Los Angeles realizes that this is far from minor in pointing out that this procedure is means that law enforcement and the military are “doing an end-run around normal procedures requiring police to obtain court issued warrants.”
I have been an outspoken critic of the blending between law enforcement at the federal, state and local levels for quite a while now, and to me this intelligence report is actually not all that surprising.
I see this as par for the course when you’re dealing with a government which refuses to allow states to have law enforcement with any meaningful separation from federal entities.
This refusal can be seen in many ways and a recent striking example was in Massachusetts where the federal government refused to honor the wishes of the governor in implementing the centralized biometrics program which he refused to allow.What might be shocking to some is that this military policy is actually far from new, as CBS Los Angeles points out, it is “a continuation of a policy already a few years old, but is causing more alarm now as drones appear poised to soon become a ubiquitous presence in the U.S. skies thanks to a federal policy to promote their use, first by law enforcement agencies, and then by commercial concerns.”
(via jayaprada)
Source: america-wakiewakie
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Florida woman charged with a felony, turns out the cops lied about the incident
An incidental recording taken while a Florida woman was on the phone with her insurance company shows that the police who arrested her and charged her with a felony for resisting arrest lied in their reports, and then again under questioning.
Here is the cops’ story:
The … ordeal began late-afternoon on Oct. 4, when Fernandes, a four-year CSPD veteran with no previous internal affairs complaints on his record, noticed Mait’s Lexus SUV stopped in the left lane of Royal Palm Boulevard.
Fernandes, 35, pulled up behind her vehicle to see what was wrong. Mait approached his car and told him that two of her tires had blown out, and she needed a tow …
According to police reports and the officers’ sworn depositions, Mait told Fernandes and later Stasnek, who arrived as backup, that she was on Xanax, and that she couldn’t move the car out of traffic — but that she did want to drive it the two miles to her home.Before Stasnek pulled up, Fernandes told Mait to call for a tow, which she did from her passenger seat. But as she waited for a GEICO roadside assistance representative to dispatch a wrecker, things unraveled.
When Stasnek, a four-year member of the force with a clean prior record, approached Mait’s SUV, she repeatedly asked for a driver’s license, the tape shows. Mait refused. In her deposition, Stasnek said she warned the driver repeatedly she “would be disobeying my lawful command and would be arrested for resisting my lawful command.”
At some point, Mait put a hand in the officer’s face to dismiss the request, according to police accounts, which was apparently one insult too many.
The officers hauled her out of her car and tried to arrest her, which they claim she resisted by tensing her body and slamming into Stasnek.
The alleged Xanax didn’t show up in toxicology tests. And then Mait’s attorney got the recording:
The 17-minute recording features a series of exchanges that Catalano says contradict the officers’ sworn testimony, including this back-and-forth between Mait and Stasnek after the female officer asked for ID:
Mait: “Did you not see me on the phone?”
Stasnek: “Did you not see this uniform I have on? Don’t give me any s— right now. Give me your f—ing driver’s license.”
During her deposition, Stasnek was asked by Catalano — who did not tell the officers the encounter had been recorded — if she had used those words. She twice said no.
Catalano also pressed both officers under oath on whether Stasnek had given Mait notice that the driver was disobeying a lawful command. Both officers testified she had — at least twice. The recording catches no such exchange, although it is possible she did during a short stretch when GEICO had Mait on hold.
Late in the recording, while Mait can be heard sobbing in the distance, the officers say the following:
Fernandes: “I didn’t hear anything you said. I was in the back of the car.”
Stasnek: “I did drop the F-bomb.”
Fernandes, laughing: “I didn’t hear that. In my [internal affairs] statement, I’ll say I didn’t hear that. … Don’t worry, I will put everything I heard beforehand.”
If you live in Illinois, you might consider sending this story to those of your state legislators who last week voted down an amendment that would have allowed citizens to record on-duty police officers.
you can’t record an on-duty police officer in illinois? what in the actual fuck.
(via baconbeernboobs)
Source: abaldwin360
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Our growth is generally dependent upon our ability to obtain new contracts to develop and manage new correctional and detention facilities… . The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.
–Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison operator in America, statement to stockholders, 2005.
In other words: ending the Drug War and eliminating federal mandatory minimum sentences is bad for business. Adam Gopnik notes that CCA “spends millions lobbying legislators.” presumably, inter alia, to keep harsh sentencing laws on the books. Then he nails it:
Brecht could hardly have imagined such a document: a capitalist enterprise that feeds on the misery of man trying as hard as it can to be sure that nothing is done to decrease that misery.
(via letterstomycountry)
(via apoplecticskeptic)
Source: letterstomycountry
