Day: July 22, 2014

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Featured News

Here’s What Some Cops Are Saying About the Death of Eric Garner

Emotions are running high over the case of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died last week while under the restraint of NYPD officers. Social media activist have mobilized under the #JusticeForEricGarner hashtag. There is, however, another community online expressing their feelings about the case: police, and what many have to say is chilling. NYmag.com has the story:

In internet communities for law enforcement, like PoliceOne.com, “the One resource for Law Enforcement online,” and Thee Rant, an NYPD message board, the Garner story has stirred up racial, political, and professional tensions, most of them quite ugly. While all of the comments below are anonymous, and therefore not verifiable, both sites do require registration for membership (“No ID card, No Approval!” says Thee Rant). By no means a comprehensive view of law-enforcement feelings about the incident, the postings do provide a different — if beyond upsetting — perspective.

Here are just a few of the comments gathered by NYmag.com. We’ll warn you: they’re veryupsetting.

SAPDMAS: Again if Mr walking heart attack had simply put his hamburger shovels behind his back, he wouldn’t have had a heartbattackmfor over exerting himself. The NYPD did absolutely nothing wron. Tomthe guys slamming these NYPD officekrs, I and many here wouldn’t want any of you guys around us on a critical,incident. Hopefully you guys are desk jockeys.

esu5: I think they were very generous, maybe too generous in the amount of time they allowed this guy to vent. I wonder if that was because of his size? Or that they were awaiting backup, again due to his size. I also didn’t see any kicks, baton strikes, punches, nothing that could be construed as excessive.

kopinyc: A more accurate headline would be “Non Compliant Fat Bastard Gets Just Due In Resisting Law Enforcement Officers”

DisGraziato: I guess it’s the best thing for his tribe.  He probably never worked a legit job. They city will pay off the family and they will be in Nigggaaa heaven for the rest of their lives!!

PH1nAlLY Phr33: As they go down, one can clearly see the cop (Green Jersey) holding-on to his neck with his left arm ONLY while trying to grab perp’s right hand with his. Within 1 second he lets go completely and twists to a seated position next to the perp. There was no continuous “Chokehold” of any kind. Though not surprised, I like how these rags try to portray/describe something that never happened.

NYPD finest: Hopefully I am totally wrong but they are going to try to crucify these cops for doing their job.  If the fat fuk just put his hands behind his back none of this would have escalated into what it did. I think the cops are going to have a long uphill battle but thankfully this happened in Staten island and not the Bronx.

Career Path: Fuckin Bratton threw the cops under the bus by declaring it as a choke hold.The cop grabbed him from behind yes but did not hold this guy in a position where the breathing of this fat bast*rd was blocked.The medical examiners report will be in the cops favor.Tell Deblowzio to get his azz to Italy.

Officer Joe Bolton: It’s going to be an up hill battle for the cops, you can clearly hear the fat bastard crying out “I can’t breath”. If ever a person wanted to know why police work is so difficult, here is a good reason. Best of luck to those guys who’s lives (and their families) have just been turned upside down for all eternity.

And these people are sworn to protect and serve.

h,t – newsone

Categories
Domestic Policies Foreign Policies Healthcare Israel News ObamaCare Palestine Politics Russia

The Silly Season Gets Serious

I took my talents to South Beach over the weekend for a relative’s surprise birthday party, and on the plane to and fro I had the opportunity to…think. Love airplane mode. Phones and tablets should have other modes, such as marriage mode, play-with-children mode, just-watch-one-screen mode, or perhaps physical media mode, where you would be forced to consume news and entertainment using a newspaper or magazine. I know, I know. I’m old and out-of-touch.

Not really.

Consuming news over the past 10 days has been a wild ride. The Middle East is blowing up again, Malaysia Airlines underwent another tragedy. U.S. courts are issuing contradictory opinions on the same set of facts. We have reached a news critical mass.

I am worn out about the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian war and the war over which press outlets are too pro-Israel (FOX) and too pro-Palestinian (The New York Times). Terrorist groups and organizations have for too long molded the narrative and have sabotaged every attempt at peace in the region. And the governmental authorities in the warring camps have let it happen. Clearly, Benjamin Netanyahu is not the man who will lead Israel to recognize a two-state solution and there is no current Palestinian leader with the credibility to make peace with Israel. As long as countries in the region refuse to recognize Israel’s sovereign right to exist, there is no basis for meaningful talks. As long as Israel continues to blow up Palestinian homes, the world will continue to paint it as an immoral country.

And speaking of leaders with no credibility and few morals, Vladimir Putin has almost succeeded in building his neo-Soviet state out of the ashes of the USSR. Covering up the shooting of the Malaysian airliner, then having his thugs block access to the crash site is right out of the Chernobyl 101 textbook. The problem is that textbooks are so passe and the technology we have now has laid bare his claim that it was Ukrainians, not pro-Russian separatists, who perpetrated this horrific deed. I don’t believe that this will lead to Putin’s downfall in the short term because he’s still very popular in Russia and he controls the media. Some Russians even believe that Putin himself was the target as he was flying in the general vicinity at the time the Malaysian plane was destroyed. Next up to blame will probably be the Israelis. Putin loves the Israelis.

As for the latest domestic squabbles, the Third Circuit Court in DC struck down the ACA subsidies and the Fourth Circuit in Richmond upheld them. Gotta love our judicial system. Both sides can claim victories, but my sense is that the ultimate decision by the Supreme Court, either next year or the year after, will uphold the subsidies that people get when buying insurance on the national exchange even though the law says that subsidies should only be given to people who buy on the state exchanges. Of course, the last time we tried to parse the ACA arguments in the court, the general consensus was that the law was toast. Ouch. And even if the Republicans win the Senate in November, which they won’t, the law will still survive.

Meanwhile, sleep tight America. Rick Perry’s got the border covered. 

But don’t worry; he’ll never be president.

You want more? That’s easy. Simply go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Featured

This Republican Said “being hung, drawn and quartered is probably too good” For Obama

Another Republican, or Teaparty mamber, or right-wing wacko, has decided to take his hate for our Democratically elected, Constitutionally approved President, to a whole new level. 

Stephen Steinlight, a Senior policy analyst for the Center for Immigration Studies, told a group of Teaparty members in Florida that being impeached is not enough for our President. According to Steinlight, even “being hung, drawn and quartered” is too pleasant an experience for the American president in the White House.

A rash of opinion polls which have come out, not push polls, real polls, including one by Gallup that showed that 65 percent of the American people don’t want any part of an Obama-style immigration reform. But the idea of this [lawsuit] is vintage Boehner, it’s a political loser. There is no court that is going to stop Obama from doing anything. We all know, if there ever was a president that deserved to be impeached, it’s this guy. Alright? I mean, I wouldn’t stop. I would think being hung, drawn, and quartered is probably too good for him. 

Like the average Republican/Teaparty/Right-Wing Wacko, Steinlight has not given any legitimate reasons why he hate the president. But whatever the president has done, Steinlight is apparently taking it personally.

Video

Categories
Featured Racism

A Modern Day Lynching in Staten Island

There is a reason I read The Rude Pundit. Most of the time, Rude zooms in on things the other so-called pundits either willfully or accidentally miss.

Rude’s most recent piece focused on the killing of a Staten Island man named Eric Garner. Garner was killed when New York Police applied an illegal chokehold on him, slamming him to the ground and forcing his head into the concrete pavement. Much was said and written about this incident of police brutality, but Rude’s take is always amazing!

That screenshot shows two New York City cops trying to convince the corpse of Eric Garner that he’s not dead. Garner, 43 and black, died after being put in a chokehold by the police for not allowing them to arrest him for, as the NYPD says, selling cigarettes illegally. That is, he was selling individual cigarettes for 50 cents each from untaxed boxes, and he needed to be stopped.

No, really. That’s why the police were confronting him in the first place, according to the cops involved. They could have written him a ticket. Instead, he was tackled and handcuffed by a group of cops who thought Garner, obese with asthma, was lying when he said, repeatedly, “I can’t breathe.” One officer was kneeling on Garner’s head on the sidewalk as he tried to breathe. So he died and the white officers kept leaning in to talk to him to tell him to get up. Being dead, he could not obey the officers’ commands. It’s shocking they didn’t arrest his body.

As more than one editorial writer has pointed out, Garner was not a threat, was unarmed, was not doing anything violent – people on the scene claim he had just broken up a fight, and was, at most, committing a petty crime. When he was on the ground, he received no medical attention, no CPR, no dosage of asthma drugs, nothing. It’s still unknown if he was killed by a heart attack, asthma, or strangulation.

What is known is that Garner had been arrested for selling untaxed cigarettes before. What is known is that Garner had once handwritten a lawsuit claiming that he had been strip searched on the street. What is known is that the cop who put the chokehold on Garner, Daniel Pantaleo, had two civil rights lawsuits filed against him. One of them, where Pantaleo and another cop strip searched two Staten Island men in public, led to a $30,000 payout. Another case is about unlawful arrest and is ongoing. In both cases, Pantaleo submitted reports that were sketchy at best. Now, he’s had his gun and badge taken away and he’s on unpaid leave, as are the EMTs who arrived on the scene, took Garner’s pulse, and did nothing else, which more than likely means he was dead already and there was nothing they could do.

By the way, chokeholds are prohibited by the NYPD. That’s probably why the police report does not mention one. The report also says that Garner did not seem to be in distress, so “I can’t breathe” must be something that cops hear all the time.

– See more at: The Rude Pundit

Categories
Barack Obama Featured Politics Sarah Palin

More Impeachment Noise from Republican Mouthpiece Sarah Palin – Video

Sarah Palin and the Republicans are continuing to sing the impeachment song. Over the weekend, Palin once again floated the idea of impeaching President Obama because… well, because she says so. And the Republicans at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver loved it!

“There’s only one remedy for a president who commits high crimes and misdemeanors, and it’s impeachment,” she said. “It’s the ‘I-word.’ You don’t need some fancy law degree hanging on your wall there to know laws are not being enforced today. Illegal immigrants all over the world also know that.”

Democrats are hoping that Republicans jump off that impeachment cliff again.

Since Boehner’s lawsuit against Obama and the constant Republican drumbeat for impeachment, the voting base of the Democratic party are getting riled up for the midterm election, an election they generally sit out.

The Washington Post reports that The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has raised $3.7 million from 200,000 online donations since Boehner announced his lawsuit on June 25.

“Republicans are drastically overreaching with their lawsuit and impeachment talk, and the result has been a massive surge of enthusiasm from our grass-roots supporters,” DCCC chairman Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y) said. “A stark contrast has developed between Republicans’ focus on suing or impeaching the president and Democrats’ focus on strengthening the economy for the middle class.”

Click to view video.

Categories
Healthcare Obama care

GOP’s Obamacare Talking-Points Fall Flat – Court Rules In favor of Subsidies

The New York Times reports that two federal appeals court panels issued conflicting rulings Tuesday on whether the government could subsidize health insurance premiums for people in three dozen states that use the federal insurance exchange. The decisions are the latest in a series of legal challenges to central components of President Obama’s health care law.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, upheld the subsidies, saying that a rule issued by the Internal Revenue Service was “a permissible exercise of the agency’s discretion.”

The ruling came within hours of a 2-to-1 ruling by a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which said that the government could not subsidize insurance for people in states that use the federal exchange.

Categories
Politics

Poll: Republicans Admit Minimum Wage is Too Low, Yet Refused Raising It

In the poll conducted by Public Policy Polling, the majority of Republicans admitted they would not be able to live on today’s minimum wage, but when the question of raising it was asked, the majority of Republicans refused.

The poll found that 69 percent of Republican respondents said they don’t think they could live off the minimum wage, versus 80 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of voters overall. However, when asked if they support raising the minimum wage, just 37 percent of Republicans said they would back an increase. (74 percent of Democrats said they are in support of a hike.)

The poll’s release comes on the heels of a new campaign by Americans United for Change challenging lawmakers to “Live the Wage” and live off just $77 for a week. Democratic Reps. Tim Ryan (Ohio) and Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) as well as former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland announced that they will begin the challenge Thursday.

Categories
MSNBC Palestine Politics

MSNBC Contributor Who Spoke Out Against MSNBC Bias, Gets “Cancelled”

Yesterday, a paid MSNBC contributor spoke out against her network’s apparent bias in the way it reported the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

According to Rula Jebreal, MSNBC showed clear favoritism in their reporting to Isreal, and disregarded the other part of the story – the suffering being caused by Israeli bombs in Palestine.

“Because of AIPAC, and because of the money behind it, and because of Sheldon Adelson, and because of all of us in the media,” Jebreal said. “We are ridiculous. We are disgustingly biased when it comes to this issue.”

She went on… “Look at how many airtime Netanyahu and his folks have on air on a daily basis. Andrea Mitchell and others. I never see one Palestinian being interviewed on theses same issues.”

Well that was yesterday, and it seems that MSNBC cannot take criticism. After making her pont, Jebreal tweeted that all her upcoming appearances on the network were mysteriously cancelled.

Categories
Featured

Terrifying Video – Four Cobra Snakes Guarding a Sleeping Baby

If you happen to have four cobras hanging around, do not… I repeat,  do not try this at home!

The terrifying footage below shows the four deadly snakes standing guard while a baby sleeps. At one point, the infant tries to grab one of the snakes. The snake checks out the baby, then resumes its guardian position.

Video

Categories
Health insurance Healthcare ObamaCare Politics

New Report – 20 Million Americans Covered Under Obamacare

This bit of news will totally mess up your crazy Republican uncle’s day. So be my guest and share this news with him.

A report published last week in the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine provided an overview of Obamacare’s first year, its successes and the challenges ahead. It also offered a yet another estimate of the number of people covered by the law: 20 million.

The NEJM report pulled a wealth of information, much of it already known by those closely following the law’s implementation but presented together by the journal, from think tanks and government agencies. It covered a range of topics, including the number of people covered, 2015 premiums, and the adequacy of provider networks for plans offered through the law.

But its bottom line was that millions of people have become insured under Obamacare.

“Taking all existing coverage expansions together, we estimate that 20 million Americans have gained coverage as of May 1 under the ACA,” the authors wrote. “We do not know yet exactly how many of these people were previously uninsured, but it seems certain that many were.”

They reached the 20 million total this way: 1 million adults under age 26 enrolled in their parents’ plan; 8 million enrolled in private coverage through the insurance marketplaces; 5 million enrolled in private coverage directly through their insurer; 6 million enrolled in Medicaid.

Categories
contraception contraceptives Politics

Ted Cruz: “I have literally never met anybody who wants to prohibit Americans from using contraceptives”

Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas is a liar!

He is the same Ted Cruz who is on the front lines of the Republicans’ war on women, ensuring that contraception and other essential methods of health services for women get cut, defunded and destroyed – as is the case in his state of Texas.

In the midst of his personal vendetta to eradicate contraception and other forms of women’s health services, Cruz lied again by saying,  “I have literally never met anybody who wants to prohibit Americans from using contraceptives.”

“They tried to convince Americans, and sadly they succeeded in convincing a number of Americans, that were somehow some people in the political sphere out to stop people from using contraceptives. I have literally never met anybody who wants to prohibit Americans from using contraceptives if they so desire. The allegation that there is somehow any effort at all to restrict access to contraceptives is looney, in the U.S. Senate the number of Senators advocating doing that is zero, they never have.”

Can you say Republican Hypocrite?

Audio

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