Boston Marathon Bombing

 

Now…For the work of finding out who is responsible for this. It is impossible to say at this time whether this is an act of Foreign or Domestic Terrorism. At least to reports at this time, the bombs appear to have been relatively crude devices made from either home made or cobbled together explosives wrapped in nails and screws to function as shrapnel, which suggests they were made with off-the-shelf materials purchased here in the United States. There is still confusion on whether there were more bombs.

Yet another tragedy.

A Tea Bagger “Hoodie”

I’m sure many of you remember the Trayvon Martin case, where a black teenager was identified by his murderer as a “suspicious criminal” for walking home in a hoodie, with the hood up in the rain.

Well…They have finally come up with a Hoodie for malcontent white folks…I guess it beats the Wayne Pierre “solution” of everyone carrying a concealed Anti-Aircraft Missile…

The anti-drone hoodie that helps you beat Big Brother’s spy in the sky

The newest fashion statement for the far right and domestic terrorist set

I am wearing a silver hoodie that stops just below the nipples. Or, if you prefer, a baggy crop-top with a hood. The piece – this is fashion, so it has to be a ”piece” – is one of a kind, a prototype. It has wide square shoulders and an overzealous zip that does up right to the tip of my nose.

It does not, it’s fair to say, make its wearer look especially cool. But that’s not really what this hoodie is about. It has been designed to hide me from the thermal imaging systems of unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles –drones. And, as far as I can tell, it’s working well.

“It’s what I call anti-drone,” explains designer Adam Harvey. “That’s the sentiment. The material in the anti-drone clothing is made of silver, which is reflective to heat and makes the wearer invisible to thermal imaging.”

The “anti-drone hoodie” was the central attraction of Harvey’s Stealth Wear exhibition, which opened in central London in January, billed as a showcase for “counter-surveillance fashions”. It is a field Harvey has been pioneering for three years now, making headlines in the tech community along the way.

It began in 2010 with Camoflash, an anti-paparazzi handbag that responds to the unwanted camera flashes with a counter-flash of its own, replacing the photograph’s intended subject with a fuzzy orb of bright white light.

Ewwwwe…Wait a minute! Do you think I can get that camera flashie thingie mounted on my car tight above the license plate? Now THAT’s a million dollar idea!

Back to the Wing-Dizzies…

There is, I point out, no obvious target audience for anti-drone fashion. He’s unfazed. “The kind of person who would wear it really depends on what drones end up being used for. You can imagine everything, from general domestic spying by a government, or more commercial reconnaissance of individuals.” I suggest perhaps political protesters. “Yeah, sure. Maybe that’s the actual market.”

Harvey is well aware his work can seem a little before its time. “I wouldn’t say many people have a problem being imaged by drones yet,” he deadpans. “But it imagines that this is a problem and then presents a functional solution.”

Reality, to be fair, is not so far behind. Over the next 15 years the US Federal Aviation Administration anticipates more than 20,000 new drones will appear in American skies, owned not just by law enforcement agencies and the military, but also public health bodies and private companies.

Where is the NRA When You Need them …In Mexico

Great new tourist opportunity for the gun hugger types…

An all expense paid trip to Mexico’s norther border region to assist the local vigilantes try and control the drug gangs.

Sadly, the good guys – local citizens who are trying to return law and order to their communities are massively under-armed…

Don’t know what that “pistol” on the right is, but the drug cartels armed with the newest and best from American Gun shops obviously have this poor citizen trying to protect his home and community vastly outgunned thanks to the NRA.

Ergo – the good guys could use a little help from the “Guns and Guts” Norte Americano gun crazies.

How about instead of deporting illegals… We deport the NRA?

Of course the gun-nuts really would have a reason to carry a concealed weapon to protect themselves from folks a bit more dangerous than your average Soccer Mom at the PTA Meeting, Jesus leaving the cross in Church… or that imaginary inner city thug driving 30 miles just so he can “throw down” with the locals in the ‘burbs.

You know, real criminals, with real guns, who do things like this -

The bodies of seven men were found dumped in plastic chairs on a busy roundabout in the Mexican city of Uruapan, authorities have said.
Threatening messages had been nailed to some of the men’s chests using ice picks and the victims had all been shot in the head.
The bodies of the seven men – who have not been identified but are thought to have worked as car washers at crossroads in the city – were placed in sitting positions in the chairs many with their hands and feet bound and bandaging over their heads.

It will not be safe in Mexico until every Mexican carries a machine gun…

And neither will Kindergarten children in the USA.

Dance With My Father

This is one of the most intelligent and creative programs I’ve heard of for the incarcerated. Daddy-Daughter Dance Day. A day when incarcerted Dads, and their daughters at home can dress up and come together for a little parental bonding. It doesn’t fix the fact that Dad’s irresponsible actions landed him in jail in the first place – but it does preserve a small bit of that “fatherhood” thing so sadly missing in our Country today. Check out the pics in the Article link below.

A father-daughter dance — in jail

The girls ages 6 to 16 sit in order of size in the drab lobby of the Richmond City Jail, their glittery shoes swinging back and forth.

“I don’t like it here,” says Jhaniyika Morman, 6, who covers her eyes, smudging her blue eye shadow and pointing toward the jail’s visitation booths, where inmates are separated from their visitors by thick glass.

“I’m nervous. I hope he recognizes me,” mumbles Alexis Atkins, 9, who has her blond hair curled into long ringlets and keeps zipping and unzipping her hot-pink purse.

Down the hall, through several gates and inside a communal cell with thick blue bars, 12 inmates change from their frayed one-piece jumpsuits into formal attire. They pass belts and shirts of various sizes back and forth between the tight rows of steel bunk beds.

“Anyone know how to do up this here tie?” asks a jittery looking Andre Morman, 42, who has been in and out of jail on drug charges numerous times.

Then the inmates line up, too. They walk down a long hallway and wait in silence to get a glimpse of the girls: their daughters.

For a few hours on this Saturday afternoon, the incarcerated fathers will be allowed to take part in an American tradition, the father-daughter dance. “A Dance of Their Own,” thought to be the only event of its kind in the country, will be in the jail’s small, windowless multipurpose room.

The event in Richmond is just one example of the alternative father-daughter dances springing up around the country amid growing concerns that traditional father-daughter dances are exclusionary. Their detractors say they are outdated, discriminatory and sexist and that they no longer reflect what American families look like. For starters, according to 2011 census data, more than half of all children in this country are raised by unmarried mothers.

Melissa Harris-Perry Calls Out Clarence Thomas

This is a good one. One of the reasons it is critical that Obama win this next election is the opportunity to replace at least 2 justices on the Supreme Court and clean up the cesspool the Rethugs made of that institution.

 

De-Evolution and the Loch Ness Monster in Lousiana

This one is strange – even for the conservative types deep in the Red Zone. Quite obviously it proves Darwin was wrong in that his theory was only half advanced. Not only is there evolution…There is de-evolution as in the case of these nutjobs.

Now Bobby Jindal has been listed in a number of periodicals as the latest, greatest nonwhite hope for the Republican Party. It has been a tradition in the Republican Party since Bush 1, that the VP slot was reserved for someone of no great intellectual wattage. Except in the Bush II Presidency where that was reversed. Bobbity is light years ahead of the Sno’ Ho, but the Swamp Heaux has his own set of problems – one being the historic meltdown when appointed by his party as their spokesman to give the counter-State of the Union Speech on behalf of the Reprobates. Now Bobbity has a second problem – convincing the rest of America that if by some stroke of ill wind he became President – the next move wouldn’t be converting your child’s school to a Religious Whakademia.

Nessie?

Now I’ve already discussed some of the oddities of these Charter Schools being set up in Louisiana , such as the disbelief in Boolean Math (If God had meant you to only count to 2, he would have given you only two fingers instead of two hands!), and Geometry and Trigonometry as the “Devil’s Workshop”….

But some of the cults have even reached for evidence that the fictitious Loch Ness Monster – is a “dinosaur” – disproving Evolution.

Since none of the stories about Nessy I’ve heard actually include her actually eating anyone – we have to assume that the tourism business in Scotland is about to take a leap, as the newly programmed children of Louisiana come to “swim with Nessy” in the Fjord during summer vacation. Of course Godzilla is also ample evidence of the existence of dinosaurs on earth. Jurassic Park…Indeed…

Loch Ness monster cited by US schools as evidence that evolution is myth

THOUSANDS of American school pupils are to be taught that the Loch Ness monster is real – in an attempt by religious teachers to disprove Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Pupils attending privately-run Christian schools in the southern state of Louisiana will learn from textbooks next year, which claim Scotland’s most famous mythological beast is a living creature.

The “Frilled Shark” a true prehistoric creature found only in the deep ocean

Thousands of children are to receive publicly-funded vouchers enabling them to attend the schools – which follow a strict fundamentalist curriculum.

The Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) programme teaches controversial religious beliefs, aimed at disproving evolution and proving creationism.

Youngsters will be told that if it can be proved that dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time as man, then Darwinism is fatally flawed.

Critics have slammed the content of the religious course books, labelling them “bizarre” and accusing them of promoting radical religious and political ideas.

One ACE textbook called Biology 1099, Accelerated Christian Education Inc reads: “Are dinosaurs alive today? Scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence.

“Have you heard of the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland? ‘Nessie’ for short has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur.”

Don’t Mess With Dad’s Girl – Dad Delivers and “Old Tyme” Spanking

Folks can complain all the want about “absentee dads” etc – but in the last few weeks some Dads have shown how far they are willing to go to protect their daughters.

A father in Lavaca Country Texas found his 5 year old daughter being raped by a scumbag, and delivered some “Texas Justice” with his fists. He is not being charged with the killing of the scumbag. This was not a case of vengeance, as the Dad caught the man in the act. No charges are being filed by Police for the beatdown and subsequent death of the perv.

Then there was the case in San Francisco, where Dad – with a little help from Mom, delivered some “.40 Caliber Justice” to a Pimp who was pimping their teenage Daughter. Both parents have been charged and bail has been set at $2 million. Seems to me that if the National Rifle Association (NRA) was really about self protection, instead of providing cover for racist whack-jobs they’d have paid the bail and given Mom and Dad a “Marksmanship Award”.

And then there is this case – caught on YouTube -

Now – I’d hardly call this “brutal” as the Video does. After all, as the father points out – it is a lot better than a full-on ass whipping!

Proving that in at least a few small corners of America, not yet polluted by right-wing sissified posturing, don’t mess with Dad’s Baby Girl.

Zimmerman Wife Charged With Perjury

Things are not looking good for George…

Now his wife has joined him at being charged with a crime.

George Zimmerman’s wife charged with perjury

Authorities say the wife of Trayvon Martin’s shooter is being accused of lying to a judge about their finances during his bond hearing and faces one count of perjury.

An order issued Tuesday by assistant state attorney John Guy charged Shellie Zimmerman for knowingly making false statements during the April hearing. George Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting. He was granted $150,000 bond at that hearing and released.

The judge revoked that bond earlier this month after state attorneys argued that both Zimmerman and his wife had lied to the judge about their finances, especially about money raised from a website.

George Zimmerman is back in jail.

“Stand Your Ground?” – Not So Fast!

This one should be interesting. The US Civil Rights Commission became a joke under the Bushit Administration when the Bushit stacked it with the usual conservaracist ideologues, provided racial cover by the Usual Uncle Tom black conservative.  Unless the Comissioners have changed, then about the only thing that will come out of this is a recommendation to put a statue of George Zimmerman in front of MLK’s statue on the mall as a “National Hero”.

The New Jim Crow legalizes the murder by gun of black folks, unlike the Old Jim Crow, which just didn’t prosecute it.

The George W. Bush, US Comission on Civil Rights

US Commission on Civil Rights to Investigate “Stand Your Ground” Laws for Racial Bias

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights announced it will launch an inquiry into so-called “Stand Your Ground” legislation for racial bias. The laws, which gained notoriety after the shooting of Trayvon Martin, eliminated the duty to retreat from a confrontation that has existed as part of the common law for hundreds of years.

According to the Commission, there are “some indicators of racial bias” in how the laws have been implemented. From the release:

Data compiled by the Wall Street Journal shows a near-doubling of justifiable homicides from 2005-2011 in states where SYG [Stand Your Ground] has passed. Moreover, their data shows that while white killers of black victims comprises only 3.1% of all homicides, such cross-racial killing constitute 15.6% of justifiable homicides.

A separate study by the FBI found “34% of cases involving a white shooter killing a black person were deemed as a justifiable homicide. Meanwhile, in similar situations, when the shooter was black and the victim was white, the homicide was ruled justifiable only 3.3% of the time.”

The committee plans to hold hearings and release the findings of their study within one year.

In the last 7 years, 23 states have adopted “Stand Your Ground” legislation at the urging of the right wing American Legislative Exchange Council.

Florida Governor Rick Scott has also convened a committee to study Stand Your Ground but has stacked the group with supporters of the law.

Re-Education – Louisiana Style

During the Communist era and Russia and China, and again during the Pol Pot Dictatorship in Cambodia – millions of people were sent for re-education or re-programming. Communism may be dead in most of the world – but the Republicans in Louisiana have fully embraced reprogramming as a way to ensure future loyal followers. This isn’t dissimilar to the Hitler Youth, and Stalin’s education of children to be good communist robots…

“Christian math”? Does that mean that numbers past 10 aren’t taught – because if God had wanted us to count past 10…

He would have provided us with more fingers? Set Theory is “un-godly”? You don’t need no Geometry and Trig – much less the Calculus to be properly “learned”!

Which gets to the point of whether the State Tests are also going to be dumbed down enough so these modern Luddite Youth can pass an exam which means anything to anyone outside of Louisiana.

Louisiana’s bold bid to privatize schools

 Louisiana is embarking on the nation’s boldest experiment in privatizing public education, with the state preparing to shift tens of millions in tax dollars out of the public schools to pay private industry, businesses owners and church pastors to educate children.

Starting this fall, thousands of poor and middle-class kids will getvouchers covering the full cost of tuition at more than 120 private schools across Louisiana, including small, Bible-based church schools.

The following year, students of any income will be eligible for mini-vouchers that they can use to pay a range of private-sector vendors for classes and apprenticeships not offered in traditional public schools. The money can go to industry trade groups, businesses, online schools and tutors, among others.

Every time a student receives a voucher of either type, his localpublic school will lose a chunk of state funding.

“We are changing the way we deliver education,” said Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican who muscled the plan through the legislature this spring over fierce objections from Democrats and teachers unions. “We are letting parents decide what’s best for their children, not government.”

BIBLE-BASED MATH BOOKS

The concept of opening public schools to competition from the private sector has been widely promoted in recent years by well-funded education reform groups.

Of the plans so far put forward, Louisiana’s plan is by far the broadest. This month, eligible families, including those with incomes nearing $60,000 a year, are submitting applications for vouchers to state-approved private schools.

That list includes some of the most prestigious schools in the state, which offer a rich menu of advanced placement courses, college-style seminars and lush grounds. The top schools, however, have just a handful of slots open. The Dunham School in Baton Rouge, for instance, has said it will accept just four voucher students, all kindergartners. As elsewhere, they will be picked in a lottery.

Far more openings are available at smaller, less prestigious religious schools, including some that are just a few years old and others that have struggled to attract tuition-paying students.

The school willing to accept the most voucher students — 314 — is New Living Word in Ruston, which has a top-ranked basketball team but no library. Students spend most of the day watching TVs in bare-bones classrooms. Each lesson consists of an instructional DVD that intersperses Biblical verses with subjects such chemistry or composition.

The Upperroom Bible Church Academy in New Orleans, a bunker-like building with no windows or playground, also has plenty of slots open. It seeks to bring in 214 voucher students, worth up to $1.8 million in state funding.

At Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, pastor-turned-principal Marie Carrier hopes to secure extra space to enroll 135 voucher students, though she now has room for just a few dozen. Her first- through eighth-grade students sit in cubicles for much of the day and move at their own pace through Christian workbooks, such as a beginning science text that explains “what God made” on each of the six days of creation. They are not exposed to the theory of evolution.

“We try to stay away from all those things that might confuse our children,” Carrier said.

Other schools approved for state-funded vouchers use social studies texts warning that liberals threaten global prosperity; Bible-based math books that don’t cover modern concepts such as set theory; and biology texts built around refuting evolution.

The Sno’ Ho’s Terrorist Friends…

There were reports of Palin’s connection with Domestic Terrorist groups before she was selected by McCain to run as VP candidate. Those were never fully followed up by the MSM.

Palin’s Hit Men Pals Shafer Cox and the Alaska Militia

The recent arrest of some of the Sno’ Ho’s friends and political supporters for the planned assassination of Judges and elected representatives may open up that can of rancid worms…

“I am not against violence. OK? I am not against spilling blood for freedom,” Cox told a group in Hamilton, Mont., in December 2009. “You know, everybody asks, ‘Would you die for liberty?’ That’s not really the question to ask. The right question to ask is ‘Would you kill for liberty?’ “

“Pallin’ Around with Terrorists”: Palin’s Link to Militia Leader Charged With Conspiracy to Commit Murder

According to sworn testimony Thursday during federal court proceedings in Alaska, two close associates of former Governor Sarah Palin — Joe Miller, a staunch political ally of Palin’s whom she supported in his failed bid for the U.S. Senate; and Palin’s former director of boards and commissions Frank Bailey, more commonly known in Alaska as Palin’s “hatchet man” — were responsible for introducing FBI Informant William “Drop Zone” Fulton to Schaeffer Cox, the leader of the so-called Alaska Peacekeeper Militia.

Cox and two other Fairbanks-based militiamen have been charged with conspiring to kidnap and murder Alaska judges and law enforcement authorities. They have also been charged with violating various federal weapons laws for owning or attempting to purchase machine guns, silencers, hand grenades and other combat-type weapons.

It’s an only-in-Alaska story.

The surreptitious meeting between Fulton, Cox and Palin’s associates took place a scant six months before Palin was selected by John McCain to serve as his running mate on the GOP ticket. Cox, a supporter of Palin’s, was then a Republican candidate for the Alaska House of Representatives, District 7. He finished with 36 percent of the votes.

Cox’s trial, now in its third week, has revealed the bizarre cultural and political milieu in which Palin came to power in Alaska and which eventually catapulted her to a national stage.

Zimmerman Bail Revoked for Lying

Well – at least one lie has caught up with George Zimmerman.  And I am sure someone is going to take a close look at how the $200,000 plus he has collected from Internet donors gets (or got) spent…

Which may wind up being another can of worms.

The fact that Zimmerman lied about the money issue is indicative that he may have lied about a bunch of other stuff – such as that Trayvon attacked him.

“Goes to character, Your Honor!”

George Zimmerman back to jail for ‘falsehoods.’ Will they influence trial?

After seeing public opinion gradually swing his way over the events of Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla.,George Zimmerman’s already tentative credibility took a hit as Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Lester ordered him back to jail for lying at his bond hearing in late April.

Accused of murdering unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, Mr. Zimmerman had posted a $150,000 bond in April after declaring, through his lawyer, that he was out of work and basically indigent. His parents, too, said they had little money.

But a few days later, Mark O’Mara, Zimmerman’s attorney, told Judge Lester that Zimmerman’s financial situation wasn’t as dire, as he had raised nearly $200,000 through his “The Real George Zimmerman” website.

While Mr. O’Mara pointed to the discrepancy as an innocent mistake, prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda pounced on the misdirection on Friday, saying it – together with Zimmerman’s failure to tell the court about a second passport in his possession – was evidence that he deserves to await trial in a jail cell.

“I don’t know what other words to use [about how much money Zimmerman had] besides that it was a blatant lie,” Mr. De La Rionda said.

O’Mara on Friday argued there was “no deceit” involved since the pair did not use the money for anything.

In revoking the bond, Judge Lester said Zimmerman, who is currently in hiding, shouldn’t be able to benefit from “material falsehoods.” The judge also immediately placed Zimmerman under a “no bond” status, meaning he’ll likely spend the rest of his time awaiting trial in a Seminole County jail cell.  The judge gave Zimmerman 48 hours to report to jail…

Those lying  eyes…Indeed.

George Zimmerman Complaint Filed About Racial Harassment From Coworker

Zimmerman’s record of racial harassment was also release as part of the evidence package yesterday -

AUDIO: Witness Says George Zimmerman Repeatedly Bullied Him At Work, Targeted Him With Racist Jokes

Among the evidence in the Trayvon Martin case released by the Florida state prosecutor yesterday was a 15-minute interview with a former work collegue of George Zimmerman. The man, who is not identified by name, says that Zimmerman relentlessly bullied him at work.

Zimmerman, according to the witness, targeted him because he was Middle Eastern. He repeatedly called the man a “fucking moron” and mocked him using the voice of “Achmed the terrorist.” Zimmerman’s stories about the man would involve “bombing,” “I’ll kill your family” and other “jokes” about “Middle Eastern stuff.” According to the man, this went on “for days and days.”

http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F46758175&auto_play=false&show_artwork=false&color=ff7700

 

Trayvom Martin Case – When “evidence” isn’t Evidence

ABC News released a report to reputedly documenting George Zimmerman’s injuries. The problem with this as that the report was generated by a family physician the day AFTER the shooting.  This means that the evidence was not checked or safeguarded by the Police, who could assure that the “injuries” suffered by Zimmerman were really as a result of the altercation – and not something generated to provide an alibi for his actions. There is no chain of evidence.

Truth here was the second victim, thrown under the bus by the local police not doing their jobs.

ABC News Exclusive: Zimmerman Medical Report Shows Broken Nose, Lacerations After Trayvon Martin Shooting

A medical report compiled by the family physician of Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a “closed fracture” of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation.

Zimmerman faces a second degree murder charge for the Feb. 26 shooting that left the unarmed 17-year-old high school junior dead. Zimmerman has claimed self defense in what he described as a life and death struggle that Martin initiated by accosting him, punching him in the face, then repeatedly bashing his head into the pavement.

Also today, a trove of documents are being examined by lawyers for both the defense and prosecution as part of discovery in Zimmerman’s trial — including 67 CDs worth of documents, video of Martin on the night of the shooting, his autopsy report and videos of Zimmerman’s questioning by police.

Zimmerman’s three-page medical report is included in those documents that the defense could use as evidence.

Did Crooked Lawyers and a Judge Steal Rosa Park’s Endowment?

One of the things which have really escalated in the past few years has been the cost of Lawyers. Believe me, I’m in the middle of a lawsuit right now, paying from $375 – $575 an hour for Lawyers. One of the things which has happened in this country is to make it financially impossible for many individuals and small companies to pursue legal remedies – meaning a further tilting of the playing field in the favor of the wealthy.

One of the issues I expect to surface in the next few years is accountability for Lawyers, as the system of capitalistic competition seems to have (once again) failed at controlling costs.

Attorney: Judge, 2 lawyers conspired to drain civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks’ estate of cash

An attorney claims a judge and two lawyers involved in a long-running dispute over civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks’ estate conspired to drain the estate’s cash.

Attorney Stephen G. Cohen said in court papers Tuesday that Wayne County Probate Judge Freddie Burton Jr. conspired with John Chase Jr. and Melvin Jefferson Jr. to rack up more than $507,000 in mostly unnecessary legal fees. Cohen claims the estate is $88,000 in debt.

Jefferson told The Detroit News the court action was a “great fabrication.” Burton declined to comment to the Detroit Free Press. An email seeking comment was sent Thursday to Chase.

A hearing is May 22.

Parks left almost all her estate to the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute, which Cohen represents. Relatives challenged Parks’ will after her 2005 death.