Abandon all hope, ye Conservatives who dare to read this blog. Here there be adults. Adults who are sick of you.
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So people say he was an evil dictator? Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. But, while history sorts that question out, let us first do some comparisons, shall we? Between the United States and Venezuela:
Which country has the most people per capita, in prison?
Which country has warrantless surveillance programs?
Which country routinely kills unarmed foreigners with drone strikes, without due process?
Which country uses drones to watch over its own populace?
Which country imprisons peaceful protesters?
Which country has police gangs that run around shooting at people they THINK are suspects, without even determining that they are in fact suspects?
The answer: we've got plenty of our own problems to be calling Chavez a dictator.
The national security state has an annual budget of around $1 trillion. Of that huge pile of money, large amounts go to private companies the federal government awards contracts to. Some, like Lockheed Martin or Boeing, are household names, but many of the contractors fly just under the public's radar. What follows are three companies you should know about (because some of them can learn a lot about you with their spy technologies).
In Mississippi, if kindergarteners violates the dress code or act out in class, they may end up in the back of a police car.
A story about one five-year-old particularly stands out. The little boy was required to wear black shoes to school. Because he didn’t have black shoes, his mom used a marker to cover up his white and red sneakers. A bit of red and white were still noticeable, so the child was taken home by the cops.
The child was escorted out of school so he and his mother would be taught a lesson.
Any talk about disarming civilians and limiting the kinds of firearms people can have, lacks any semblance of legitimacy unless we address the problem concerning police gangs.
We need to talk about the outright militarization of the police:
Not to mention the endless numbers of incidents in which police gangs shoot and kill unarmed citizens.
Police Shoot Unarmed Man in the Back Execution Style in CA Local News Report...
On Dec. 10, 2003 an unarmed man was shot and killed in the southbound lane of I-185 in Columbus by a Muscogee County Sheriffs Office deputy. The 39-year-old victim was shot twice in the head with a 9mm MP5 submachine gun. Dougherty County D.A. Ken Hodges was appointed to handle the case by Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker.
Why aren't we talking about taking submachine guns away from the police, or guns, period? Oh yeah, because of the same argument we get mad at gun owners for using: cops need big powerful guns for self-defense.
An unarmed populace being watched over by armed psychopath cops. What could go wrong with that? DISARM. DEFUND. REFORM.
EMERYVILLE, Calif. (KGO) -- People are used to seeing TSA inspectors at airports but on Wednesday, a specialized team made their presence known at the Amtrak station in Emeryville. Train stations are difficult to secure because they're so wide open but on Wednesday, the TSA showed up unannounced to let the public, especially potential troublemakers, know that they are keeping an eye on the rails.
Amtrak passenger Vera Molina said she noticed all the black-clad TSA inspectors right away and it's a presence she appreciates. Asked if she would like to see them more often she said, "I would, can't hurt, just in case you never know." As part of their nationwide "Viper Team" effort, the Transportation Safety Administration put about a dozen agents at the station to see and be seen, although some of the inspectors also work undercover.
"The visible deterrent is making a presence known at the station, getting on the train, talking to passengers, lettings the bad guys know that we're here, and letting the passengers know that we're here, and working with law enforcement to really tailor our Viper teams to their needs," TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said.
Think you could avoid the TSA's body scanners and pat-downs by taking Amtrak? Think again. Even your daily commute isn't safe from TSA screenings. And because the TSA is working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, you may have your immigration status examined along with your "junk".
As part of the TSA's request for FY 2012 funding, TSA Administrator John Pistole told Congress last week that the TSA conducts 8,000 unannounced security screenings every year. These screenings, conducted with local law enforcement agencies as well as immigration, can be as simple as checking out cargo at a busy seaport. But more and more, they seem to involve giving airport-style pat-downs and screenings of unsuspecting passengers at bus terminals, ferries, and even subways.
These surprise visits are part of the TSA's VIPR program: Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response. The VIPR program first started doing searches in 2007, and has grown since then. Currently, the TSA only has 25 VIPR teams doing these impromptu searches: in 2012, it wants to get 12 more.
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- METRO is promising to get to the bottom of what happened when its own police department invited TSA to stare down bus passengers two weeks ago.
METRO first said it would search passengers' bags, then said that didn't happen. Now, METRO says it never will.
The METRO counter-terrorism exercise didn't round up any terrorists. Instead, 81 officers arrested 14 people, predominantly alleged prostitutes and dope smokers. More problematic for METRO is that it seemed to anger and confuse some of the agency's riders who weren't eager to have their bags searched.
"There are an awful lot of assets out here," METRO police chief Victor Rodriguez told Eyewitness News on April 13.
Stop and Frisk: It's Not Just For Inner City Minority Neighborhoods Anymore!
And I just want to remind the readers... this town of Paragould, Arkansas is not exactly a "town swarming with minorities" like the areas where the NYPD engaged in their stop-and-frisk harassment tactics. It was "right and just" when it happened to black people in New York's poor areas... what do the readers want to bet that it'll be met with protest by the same yea-sayers who defended this behavior in New York?
In response to a recent increase in crime, Paragould Mayor Mike Gaskill and Police Chief Todd Stovall offered residents at a town hall meeting Thursday night at West View Baptist Church what could be considered an extreme solution — armed officers patrolling the streets on foot...... Should an individual not produce identification, Stovall said his officers would not back down. Individuals who do not produce identification when asked could be charged with obstructing a governmental operation, according to Stovall.
"I'm hoping we don't run across [any] of that," Stovall said. "Will there be people who buck us? There may be. But we have a right to be doing what we're doing. We have a zero-tolerance. We are prepared to throw your hind-end in jail, OK? We're not going to take a lot of flack."
