Is Chalk Really A Weapon Requiring Riot Police?

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times / July 13, 2012)

So, apparently chalk drawing on the street is now a matter of terrorist security such that the LAPD had to come out in full riot gear during the monthly L.A. Artwalk.

Occupy L.A. activists and their supporters accused Los Angeles police of overreacting Thursday to chalk protesters during downtown's monthly ArtWalk, which set the stage for the violent run-in that resulted in 17 arrests.

Cheryl Aichele, 34, an informal leader of Occupy L.A., said police were aggressive early and made their first arrest shortly after 7 p.m. "within 10 minutes of getting where we wanted to be."

"Police were pushing us -- I got pushed into a garbage can -- then we were being pushed into the street," Aichele said. "They would do all these intimidation tactics -- all before 9. They would come in and snatch somebody and pull them away. Or they'd push us. Or yell at us."

One of the guys she saw got arrested "was just walking by, took some chalk and drew a heart and wrote 'police' in it."

"We were being peaceful," she said. "In our meeting beforehand, we said our goals were: Have fun. Stay safe. Speak out. Stand up. Reach out. Make friends. Chalk."

Peter White of the Los Angeles Community Action Network said he was present at 5th and Spring streets as a legal observer and believed the heavy police presence played a role in the conflict.

"I firmly believe it was an over-saturation of the police earlier in the evening, the sort of aggressive behavior earlier, that bled into things that happened later in the night," White said. On Thursday night, people began amassing and drawing and writing with chalk at 6th and Spring streets.

Where Are The Fireworks?

I miss the ability to set off fireworks as I remember as a child, even growing up in SoCal. Yes, we used to be able to have sparklers as children, and the grown ups would set off the bigger fire crackers. Now, at least insofar as Los Angeles County is concerned, fireworks of any type by personal use is illegal.

Pooh pooh to that idea.

I do find it interesting that at this time every year for quite a few years, I watch the history channel on television and re-acquaint myself with how this "united states" of America was formed.

Anyway, hope you all had a fun day off. We had hot dogs here (with chili and onions and the works!). And, of course, it is Eli's birthday so I know my grandson was spending the day with him at his house having a wonderful party!

Want To Feel Good? Watch This Video Of An Autistic Adult Singing The National Anthem

This actually made me cry.





It's an amazing thing to watch when people actually support one another. Things like this remind me that America is really not the hate mongering country that our politicians and corporations would like us to believe. Like how Fox and its minions continue to deceive their viewers into thinking that ALL of America is truly divided. It is not. It is only the dysfunctional government, i.e., congressmen and senators, state and federal levels, and whom they are beholding to (ah, those pesky corporate "persons") that have a reason to ramp up the divisiveness. Average, regular Americans are simply not hateful. It's a minority of our country, and a majority of our politicians that advance this ideology.

H/T to Pics and Random Stuff.

Ooops ... Guess Shutting Down Megaupload Has Other Consequences For Our Government

You know, if any of you out there really still believes that America is a democratically run country/government, I swear I will sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, damn it.

US prosecutors have said that data belonging to Megaupload users and stored by third parties could be deleted as soon as Thursday.

Users have been unable to access data since the file-sharing service was raided.

The warning was made in a letter filed by the US Attorney's Office.

Megaupload's lawyer Ira Rothken told the Associated Press that at least 50 million users had data which could be deleted.

This is data that has absolutely zero to do with any DCMA infringement. After the internet blackout to oppose the tyranny of the bills that were being bandied about in trying to stifle/control the internet, the American government shuts down a site, in New Zealand that affects millions of users, with probably only a small percentage of them subject to a real DCMA take down (as I have already had one on my blog, so I know what they can do).

China is looking awfully good as a new place to live.

Obama Administration Fucks Women Over, Again

Just when Obama was beginning to sound and act like a progressive president, he goes and does this.

Today the FDA announced the Secretary of Health and Human Services – for the first time ever – has invoked her authority to overrule the agency’s decision to approve the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B One-Step for full over-the-counter sale, which would have removed what was widely recognized to be a politically motivated age restriction on its access. This is the first time in history the Health Secretary has ever used this power to overrule an FDA decision. Had the FDA decision gone into effect, women of all ages would have been able to purchase this back-up birth control method without a prescription and without delays at the pharmacy counter.

“This is a deeply disappointing betrayal from an Administration that had pledged to promote the health and well-being of women and families and be guided by science and medicine,” said Andrea Miller, President of NARAL Pro-Choice New York. “The evidence is clear, the FDA has done more than its due diligence, and women across the nation deserve ready access to a safe, effective second chance to prevent an unintended pregnancy. The decision to overrule the FDA is reminiscent of a troubling era, when the Bush Administration routinely allowed politics to trump science, especially in its interference with the FDA’s deliberations over this product.”

I hate to quote Sarah Palin, but how is that hopey changey thing working out for you?

Anyone Contact You Lately To Discuss Your Prescription Buying Habits?

I once got a telephone call from a "survey" company that concerned my "prescription" drug purchases. Now, I really only have two prescriptions, one for my blood pressure, and one for relief of stress. But, I was rather surprised that this company knew my information, what drugs I took and where I purchased them from. I was aghast that my personal medical history was out there for others to pick at.

Seems I am not alone (subscription required for full reading):

The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a Vermont law that barred the sale of doctors' prescription data to drug companies, ruling the law interfered with the pharmaceutical industry's First Amendment right to market its products.

Data companies such as IMS Health Inc. gather information from pharmacies about which medicines doctors are prescribing and ...

American Current Wars Account For Majority Of World's Refugee Crisis

From Think Progress:

America’s wars are forcing Afghans and Iraqis to flee their homes in greater numbers. According to a recent U.N. High Commission for Refugees study, nearly one half of the world’s refugees are from Afghanistan and Iraq, 3.05 million and 1.68 million, respectively. But neither the United States nor much of the developed world bears the burden of the 10.55 million refugees under the UNHCR’s purview globally. Instead, Pakistan, Iran, and Syria serve as the top host countries. The Economist has charted the numbers:

And why, I ask again, are we not putting war spending cuts into the picture on this debt ceiling craziness going on in Congress?

I seriously hate the fact that our so called elected leaders in the past 12 years have completely isolated America from the rest of the world, and have their fingers in their collective ears. We have children running our country, for God's sake. These people feel the world is still flat, and that they can just keep running in one direction and will never fall off that deep end. Me, (as well as millions of other Americans), I see that deep end, and our current government is on the precipice. God help us all.

Police Arresting People For Dancing At Jefferson Memorial

Wow, this is pretty awful to watch. I don't know if it was a flash mob that went wrong or never got off the ground, but seriously, folks, arresting people at the Jefferson Memorial for dancing?

How much more bizarre does this country have to get for Americans to realize the magnitude of civil liberties that have been slowly taken away from us? Dancing? I think I need to put on the movie "Footloose." I thought we had progressed from that attitude, but now I find out that "dancing" in the eyes of D.C. police is "protesting!"

Another Assissination Attempt By Obama Administration Misses Mark, Yawns At Collateral Damage

" ... one policy where Obama has gone further than Bush/Cheney in terms of unfettered executive authority and radical war powers is the attempt to target American citizens for assassination without a whiff of due process. As The New York Times put it last April:

It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing, officials said. A former senior legal official in the administration of George W. Bush said he did not know of any American who was approved for targeted killing under the former president. . . .

That Obama was compiling a hit list of American citizens was first revealed in January of last year when The Washington Post's Dana Priest mentioned in passing at the end of a long article that at least four American citizens had been approved for assassinations; several months later, the Obama administration anonymously confirmed to both the NYT and the Post that American-born, U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki was one of the Americans on the hit list.

Yesterday, riding a wave of adulation and military-reverence, the Obama administration tried to end the life of this American citizen -- never charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime -- with a drone strike in Yemen, but missed and killed two other people instead:

A missile strike from an American military drone in a remote region of Yemen on Thursday was aimed at killing Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric believed to be hiding in the country, American officials said Friday.

The attack does not appear to have killed Mr. Awlaki, the officials said, but may have killed operatives of Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen.

The other people killed "may have" been Al Qaeda operatives. Or they "may not have" been. Who cares?

Glenn Greenwald puts up a compelling argument against President Obama's singularly unique disregard for the Fifth Amendment (and he being a "constitutional scholar," at that) and his "shoot to kill" orders of American citizens abroad without having been charged with any crime, without having been arrested for any crime, and without the right to American due process.

But the notion that the President has the power to order American citizens assassinated without an iota of due process -- far from any battlefield, not during combat -- is an idea so utterly foreign to me, so far beyond the bounds of what is reasonable, that it's hard to convey in words or treat with civility.

I, too, find it hard to convey in words that are civil how horribly wrong this is and why it is just one of many reasons (but a primary one) I do not support the man in the White House. I like him even less than I did Bush, and that really says something.

Read the entire piece here, and feel free to comment.

Obama Administration Still Obsessed About Wikileaks!

The US government continues to exert its privacy violations to other countries and individuals of other countries. And, of course, we at home in America still have our right to privacy ... NOT!

"Icelandic officials have called for an explanation of the US Justice Department's move to access the Twitter account of Birgitta Jónsdóttir."

The US attorney general, Eric Holder, has said he believes Assange could be prosecuted under US espionage laws. Holder said the leaks had endangered US national security. "The American people themselves have been put at risk by these actions that I believe are arrogant, misguided and ultimately not helpful in any way," he said.

Someone PULLEEZZEE take off this man's blindfold and show him the eight year reign of terror begat by one George W. Bush. I do believe the quote: "The American people themselves have been put at risk by these actions that I believe are arrogant, misguided and ultimately not helpful in any way" seems far more relevant to the Bush Administration than it does in any way to WikiLeaks.

And this is on Obama's watch. Hope. Change. Not so much. Obama's record on violating individual personal rights is worse than Bush's. At least we knew Bush was stupid and manipulated by others, but Obama? What's his excuse?

Obama Still On The Trail, Looking More Stumped Than Stumping

President Barack Obama implored voters on Saturday to resist a Republican tide, warning that if the GOP prevails in Tuesday's midterm elections all the progress of his first two years in office "can be rolled back."

I find that a tad disingenuous. All the progress of the first two years? I'm very tired of hearing about all the alleged things this president has done in the past two years. In all actuality, the majority of things that this president has accomplished in the first two years have benefited rich corporations and rich people at the expense of regular Americans. Seriously take a look at his record.

I doubt his last minute push (by last minute, I mean in the last month) will have much of an impact on those that are needed to sway the vote the way we did in 2008. The many broken promises have left us with a sour taste in our collective liberal mouths. But, to a certain extent, it is the way in which Obama has not only continued, but expanded, the Bush oriented foreign policies and the limitations on personal freedoms, all in the name of the "war on terror" that have concerned me the most. Obama, to me, will always just be a rhetorical president. Just as Bush is destined to go down in history as the worst president ever, Obama will most certainly be remembered as a president that failed to deliver, and likely to be the man at the helm when this country truly goes berserk.

Tidbit from the ever on point Glenn Greenwald:

Anyone who ran around hailing Barack Obama as a would-be champion of civil liberties and who has not by now retracted or at least severely qualified that claim is lacking in the Department of Intellectual Integrity, to put that about as mildly as I can consistent with accuracy.

More 9/11 Ground Zero Bullshit

Can any of the stupid people tell me why they are against the building of a prayer center (in which a small mosque will accommodate Muslims and others) "near" ground zero based on the "insult to 9/11 victims" theory, when there were already prayer rooms for Muslims in both the Pentagon and on the 17th floor of the south tower ON THE DAY the 9/11 attacks occurred?

If prayer rooms ORIGINALLY existed at these sites, so Muslims could worship, why is building one now in NYC a show of disrespect to anyone, other than showing disrespect to Muslims? It's not as if this building is housing a large mosque. It's a community center which will also offer prayer services, much like the ones at the Pentagon and which existed prior in the building whose prime real estate space is now being called ground zero.

If Muslims died on 9/11 (and not the terrorists, stupid people) and their houses of worship were allowed at both the Pentagon and the twin towers, I do not understand the vehemence with which certain of the stupid people oppose this building in NYC.

When watching one of the shows on 9/11 (meaning on that day, not about 9/11) I watched this one woman calmly claim that she didn't want a building near ground zero that could possibly be funded by Saudi Arabia. I had to laugh, and then yell at the television set -- "hey, birdbrain, who do you think is one of the largest shareholders of good old Fox Television?" Um, can you say "a Saudi?" LOL! Stupid people and their stupid mantras, always show their stupidity. Stop listening to talking points, lady, and educate yourself.

I think the funniest part of watching the teabaggers who are made up of primarily stupid people, is the chatter they use on and on about their convictions. Most of them can't put a coherent thought together as to why they oppose "this" or "that." And most of them seriously admit they don't really know much about the issues they are against, but they just know they are against them because they saw it on Fox news or heard it on right wing talk radio.

And don't quote me the "majority" are against it mantra. Dick Vader already said American's opinions don't matter.