News Roundup for 2/20/12

Not the world's best sheriff

-Headline of the Day-
"Deputy accidentally shoots woman in concealed weapons class."

South Carolina's Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright thinks every lady should carry a gun, because his cops suck. No, really. After an attempted rape in his jurisdiction last year, Wright said, "Our form of justice is not making it. Carry a concealed weapon. That’ll fix it."

"Liberals call me and tell me the chain-gang form of justice isn’t working," he went on. "Well, let me inform you, your form of justice isn’t working either."

Yeah, about that. According to the report, "A South Carolina sheriff who has called for women to be armed isn’t backing down after one of his deputies accidentally shot a female student during a concealed handgun class."

Now, maybe it's just my tremendous good fortune, but I've never been shot by a cop. Seems to me that the way things operate in my little corner of the universe is working out just fine, while Chuck's way of doing things is a little bit of a failure.

"At a press conference over the weekend, Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright explained that Deputy Skip Smith should have checked to make sure that Crystal Smith’s .22 caliber pistol was unloaded," the report goes on. He was showing her how hold the gun properly, when it went off, shooting her through the arm and into her side. I'm guessing Skip's got a weird definition of the word "properly."

At least Sheriff Chuck's right about one thing; his cops suck. (Raw Story, with video)


-Separation of church, state, and you-



"And you guys better not try anything gay, either!" (McClatchy)



-Bonus HotD-
"Wall Street Abandons Republicans -- Now Supports Higher Taxes on the Wealthy."

Those with occupations on Wall Street join Occupy Wall Street. At this rate, Republicans will officially be out of friends by July. (Huffington Post)

Stories to Watch: 11/22/11

I'm not posting to Griper Blade this week, to give me more time to do that whole Thanksgiving thing. I'm raising some sourdough right now and I should be able to bake it later tonight. Then I'll freeze it until the big day. My bread has been turning out well lately, so it should be a nice addition to the feast. Now here's the news...


When it comes to climate, the media really are chumps.


Another GOP debate to skip.


Dems are standing by Occupy Wall Street -- even as OWS isn't necessarily standing with them.


David Brooks wrote something stupid again.


A pregnant Seattle protester miscarries after being subjected to police abuse at an Occupy protest. Time for all the "pro-life" types to start freaking out of police brutality -- but we all know they won't. I'm guessing "abortion-by-cop" is going to be A-OK with them.


Finally, Republicans say that businesses are overtaxed and over-regulated. Business owners disagree.

Related articles

• Occupy Seattle protester claims police caused her miscarriage (guardian.co.uk)
• Fox News calls pepper spray a food product (rt.com)
• OWS protesters interrupt Obama's speech (VIDEO) (rt.com)
• Pregnant Woman Blasted with Pepper Spray by SPD Reportedly Miscarries (slog.thestranger.com)

News Roundup for 11/15/11

Armed and dangerous -- no, not the cops...

-Headline of the Day-
"City Claims Occupy Wall Street Protesters Were Stockpiling Weapons, Fights Court Order To Reopen Park."

Them Occupy Wall Street commies got big piles of guns and stuff!

Wait, no. According to the City of New York, currently fighting a legal battle to declare Zuccatti Park a free-speech-free zone, are getting a little creative in their defense. Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway "filed a motion on behalf of the city today opposing a court order requiring the NYPD to allow Occupy Wall Street demonstrators back into Zuccotti Park."

In that motion, Holloway wrote, "It was our understanding that the protesters may have had a significant number of items that could potentially be used as weapons." For the record, that could be pretty much anything. The biggest threat to public safety cited were "cardboard tubes with metal pipes inside," which I guess are more weapony than just metal pipes. Other evidence of a heavily armed protesters includes the aftermath of an October 1st march across the Brooklyn Bridge, where authorities reportedly found "knives, mace and hypodermic needles were observed discarded on the roadway."

OK, I'm going to go ahead and call bullshit on that one. One, who discards a knife? Those things cost money. And cops have been macing protesters, not the other way around. Finally, hypodermic needles? Yeah, that's my weapon of choice, right up there with thumbtacks -- it's New York, those are called "litter." I'm surprised they didn't include used condoms in that list of "weaponry."

There's a lesson to be learned here, of course. If you're going to stockpile weapons (or be accused of it) make sure they're guns.

When the cops come to take your guns away, the NRA will have a hissy. Guaranteed. (Gothamist)


-Racism is dead!-


Click to embiggen

Except when it's not. (McClatchy)


-Bonus HotD-
"Scalia and Thomas dine with healthcare law challengers as court takes case."

You know, it's one thing to have a conflict of interest and it's quite another to go out of your way to create it. The first is called "random stuff that happens in life," the second is called "being a dick about it." (LA Times)

Stories to Watch: 10/27/11

Finally got around to trying an alternative to kneading bread dough today. It's pretty easy, kind of like the way you work pizza dough. Takes a while though -- more than two hours. Still, most of that time it's just sitting in a bowl, so -- physically speaking -- it's a lot easier. I've got the dough in the fridge and I'll rise it and bake it tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. Now here's the news...


Google's Politics & Elections Blog has a post up comparing searches for the Occupy movement and the Tea Party. Bottom line; search traffic for Occupy Wall Street is 66% higher than the Tea Party's traffic ever was.


Another interesting trend in search traffic from the Google report: "Despite big leads in polls and search traffic for Occupy Wall Street, it is almost in a dead heat with the Tea Party for the volume of news coverage. Using Advanced Search in Google News we found that between October 7 and last week, Occupy Wall Street only barely bests the Tea Party when we examine the number of news pieces covering each movement: 29,000 to 22,000." While I don't have any doubt that the 'baggers are over-covered, terms like "Tea Party-backed Senator" and "Rep. X, a Tea Party favorite" probably have a lot to do with those numbers. Wait until we have a few "Occupy Wall Street" senators and representatives to talk about and we'll see if those stats change.


Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, perhaps realizing that calling a police riot "a generally peaceful resolution" to the Occupy Oakland protest was absurd bullshit, issues a second statement saying she stands with the 99%. Mitt "The Weathervane" Romney would be proud.


Boehner says he has "great concerns" that the president is overstepping his constitutional authority to deal with student loans and mortgages without congress. But those concerns aren't so great that he'd take Obama to court and risk being proven as wrong as he obviously is.


Mark this as the moment the Rick Perry campaign began to wind down.


Bad news for the GOP; the economy is recovering much faster than expected. Going to have to sabotage that right pronto.


This is censorship taken to a whole other level; North Korea basically exiles citizens working in Libya, so they won't come home and spread tales of revolution and freedom.


Finally, even millionaires want higher taxes on millionaires. In other words, Republicans are "defending" people who don't want to be defended.

Related articles

• Google Data: 'Occupy Wall Street' Now Tops 'Tea Party' In Recent Searches (mediaite.com)
• Occupy Wall Street Beats Tea Party in Searches on Google (mashable.com)
• Occupy Wall Street already has at least as much support as tea party (dailykos.com)
• Why Occupy Wall Street is not just a leftwing Tea Party | Ana Marie Cox (guardian.co.uk)

Stories to Watch: 10/16/11

Pancake brinner tonight. Life is good. Now here's the news...


99-percenters go global.


Be prepare for a political shitstorm of biblical proportions; a far-left wing activist obtains emails from the Tea Party, then shares them with the FBI so the government can keep tabs on the movement. Oh wait, I read that wrong -- a far-right wing activist got leaked documents about Occupy Wall Street to the feds. Well, then that's just fine. Move along. Nothing to see here.


Police arrest protesters in an NYC Citibank for "trespassing." Protesters say they were trying to close their accounts and were arrested for it. Citibank says "Only one person asked to close an account and was accommodated." Neither the trespassing charge nor Citibank's statement account for video of a bank customer being arrested outside Citibank -- apparently her crime was in talking to protesters holding cameras.


Herman Cain, Koch addict.


Unsurprisingly, Mittens "Pink Slip" Romney is Wall Street's candidate of choice -- which explains why Obama's targeting Romney as a Wall Street shill.


Things do not look good on the climate front.


Fox & Friends continues to be the most ridiculous, brainless morning news circus out there.


Finally, mass arrests in Occupy Chicago protests.

Related articles

• Woman arrested while trying to close her Citibank account (dangerousminds.net)
• This Video of NYPD Arresting a Woman at Citibank Certainly Doesn't Look Good [Video] (gawker.com)
• NYPD Arrests 24 for Attempting to Close Their Citibank Accounts; BoA Threatens Customers Attempting to Close Theirs (slog.thestranger.com)
• Meet the Guy Who Snitched on Occupy Wall Street to the FBI and NYPD [Occupy Wall Street] (gawker.com)

Stories to Watch: 10/15/11

I'm just kind of on cruise control here until tomorrow night, when Walking Dead comes back to AMC after a long, long zombie-free year. Nice of the network to immediately put up WD after the season finale of Breaking Bad, though. Doesn't mess with my schedule. Now here's the news...


Complaints that the 99-percenters are aimless and unfocused die as a detailed document regarding the future of the movement emerges from Zucotti Park.


Meanwhile, the 1% totally underestimate what they're facing.


The Occupy Wall Street movement goes global, making it a lot harder to argue that it's just a front for the Democratic Party.


How eager is Rush Limbaugh to oppose pretty much anything President Obama does? So eager that he'd side with a militarized cult with a record of human rights abuses including "the abduction, rape, maiming, and killing of civilians, including children." This puts him to the right of even Sen. James Inhofe -- which is quite an accomplishment. For the record, Rush Limbaugh is a freakin' awful person and a useless, useless hack.


Herman Cain says he's not as stupid about foreign policy as everyone thinks he is -- he's super-duper wonky-smart about it, but he's keeping that a secret. No, really.


On the subject of the unstoppable Cain Train; Steve Kornacki believes it could be a little as 48 hours before it ends in a trainwreck.


Finally,public support for the death penalty is still high, but moving in the right direction.

Related articles

• Rush Limbaugh, Defender of the Lord's Resistance Army (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• Rush Limbaugh Calls Woman 'Lucky' For Being 'Forced' By Police To Listen To...Rush Limbaugh (mediaite.com)
• In Case You Wondered If Republicans Are Still Crazy (oliverwillis.com)
• Occupy Wall St protests come to London (telegraph.co.uk)

Stories to Watch: 10/14/11

Got some stuff I need to do later and I'm running out of time right now, so tonight's going to be a shorty. Now here's the news...


Another day, another violent police action against the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Police and city governments should probably be aware that every incident like this is a PR coup for the movement. In other words, if you want them to go away, you're doing it wrong.


On the anti-Wall Street front; something's up. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner promises "dramatic enforcement actions" against financial criminals.


Josh Marshall detects a distinct shift away from deficits and toward jobs.


An appeals court blocks parts of Alabama's insane anti-immigration law.


Do regulations kill jobs? The answer is no.


Finally, the rapture preacher is back with a new date for the end of the world.

Related articles

• Occupy Wall Street Cleanup Delayed, What Next? (mtv.com)
• Top 10 Occupy Wall Street Conspiracy Theories (huffingtonpost.com)
• On TIME.com: 'The World Is Watching' Occupy Wall Street Protesters (newsfeed.time.com)
• Occupy Wall Street Face Off with Police [Photos] (wcbsfm.radio.com)

Stories to Watch: 10/13/11

Sorry for the late headlines, but for some reason a windows update was sucking up all my CPU power. Never did that before. I couldn't get anything to work, so I decided to let the updater run its course while I got something to eat. Seems to be working fine. Now here's the [somewhat abbreviated] news...


A Reuters story trying to tie the 99-percenters to George Soros is so weak that even a Reuters blogger can't get behind it.


A Wall Street CEO writes a very strange op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that seems to blame President Obama for ungrateful panhandlers.


Remember how Michael Bloomberg said the Wall Street protesters could stay as long as they wanted? Yeah, that was bullshit. He's trying to run them out again.


Americans support Occupy Wall Street and oppose the Tea Party. This is a fact the 'baggers don't seem to like much.


Can we all stop pretending that Paul Ryan is some sort of economic genius now?


Finally, Ron Paul's got the mange or something.

Related articles

• This Week In Occupy Wall Street Signs (huffingtonpost.com)
• Why Liberals Should Welcome Occupy Wall Street (huffingtonpost.com)
• Mayor Bloomberg Needs To Keep His Word, Let Occupy Wall Street Stay in Liberty Plaza (treehugger.com)

Stories to Watch: 10/10/11

I've pointed it out before, but I think the new movie Real Steel was originally pitched as Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots: The Movie. Prove me wrong. Either way, you couldn't pay me to see it. Now here's the news...


Mike Lupica of the NY Daily News rips Eric Cantor up, down, and sideways for hypocritically calling the 99-percenters a "mob." Cantor is a "a dull young congressman clearly aspiring to be an even duller presidential candidate someday," in Lupica's view. He sounds "like one of the pompous patriots of Cable America and talk radio who have made Occupy Wall Street an attack on capitalism. And if it's an attack on capitalism, that means it must be an attack on them. Rich and white. Generally, their rallying cry goes something like this: I've got mine." There's more fire than substance here, but it's still nice to see.


And, of course, the Wall Street Ministry of Propaganda makes a big deal about what the Iranian Ministry of Propaganda says about the Wall Street protests. Heads up to Fox News: the stuff Iran's government says is usually bullshit and smart people don't pay it no never mind no how.


Michael Bloomberg says that the protesters can stay at Zuccotti Park for as long as they want. That'll probably be a nice change from pepper spray and cracking heads.


Rick Perry's already being written off.


Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbinky plans to run for congress, apparently unaware that his 15 minutes of fame ran out a long, long time ago.


The statistical and demographic information you can glean from the We Are the 99% Tumblr blog is really kind of fascinating.


Finally, you kind of wish they'd make up their damned minds. First the Wisconsin GOP puts up metal detectors in the state Capitol, now they want to allow concealed carry there.

Related articles

• Occupy Wall Street Has Some Bad News For The Rich Residents Of The Upper East Side (businessinsider.com)
• Bloomberg Won't Stop Occupy Wall Street, But He Thinks Winter Will (timesunion.com)
• Here Are The Viral Subway Ads That Slam Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, And The Mets (businessinsider.com)
• Rick Perry Campaign Launches Anti-Mitt Romney Ad (abcnews.go.com)

News Roundup for 10/10/11

Getting someplace

-Headline of the Day-
"Poll: Half the country has heard about the Occupy Wall Street protests."

CNN is out with a good news/bad news poll. The good news is "roughly half" (51%) of the people CNN polled were aware of the Occupy Wall Street protests and the bad news is that, of them, 54% don't have an opinion about them either way. But the bad news breaks down further as good bad news for the 99-percenters and bad bad news for the people backing the suits. CNN reports that "27% say they agree with the movement's overall position on the financial system and social change, with 19% saying disagree with Occupy Wall Street on those issues."

In better news for the 99-percenters, Occupy Wall Street is winning the internet by an extremely wide margin. "Those who use social media were more likely to support the goals of the movement, with a full third of those respondents saying they agreed with the group's overall position," reports The Hill. "Only 14 percent of social media users said they did not support the protesters."

It's a start. Occupy Facebook! (CNN)


-GOP consistency on display-

>
Click to embiggen

No comment needed, I guess. (DailyKos)


-Bonus HotD-
"Almost Twice As Many People Have Heard of Occupy Wall Street As Rick Perry."

Or, "Fun With Mix-and-Match Polling." (Wonkette)

Stories to Watch: 9/26/11

Finally. I needed to get some bandwidth issues taken care of and it took me a lot longer than I thought it would. I think I've got it squared away now, but I'll run diagnostics later tonight to make sure. I'll set them up to run overnight. For once, I'll be productive even while I sleep. Now here's the news...


Greg Sargent takes on the idea of a third party by pointing out that there isn't exactly a third position on most issues for that party to take. Hence, it would be redundant. I'd go a bit farther and point to parliamentary systems where several parties exist; those tend to be narrowly focused parties (dealing almost exclusively with environmentalism, women's rights, copyright reform, etc.) that wind up as part of one coalition or another along the conservative/liberal divide. All we do in the US is skip the coalition building part. You may agree, you may disagree, but it's always nice to see a sound, logical argument. Paul Krugman also takes a stab at the issue.


The House and Senate continue to wrangle over disaster relief spending as the government faces a possible shutdown. David Dayden of Firedoglake makes an excellent case for Democrats sticking to their guns.


Allegations of the use of excessive force get awfully hard to deny in NYPD crowd control during the Occupy Wall Street protests. I want you to stop a moment and consider the political shitstorm that would ensue if police treated 'bagger protesters this way. I guess it's OK to abuse liberals.


Speaking of 'baggers, how racist can they be? How's this?


The DNC capitalizes on the bloodthirsty and hateful nature of the crowds at GOP debates.


Finally, Florida Gov. Rick Scott is just a clown.

Related articles

• Comedian Lee Camp Asks Important Questions About the Police Response to OccupyWallStreet (crooksandliars.com)
• Keith Olbermann calls out Media Blackout on 'Occupy Wall Street' Protest (finaloutlaw.com)
• Liveblog of #OccupyWallStreet: NYPD's Crackdown on the Protest (dissenter.firedoglake.com)