Monday, November 24th, 2014
Daniel Wood, - Christian Science Monitor
Stephan: In my view making all police wear cameras that record their activities minute-by-minute while on duty is the reasonable response to the militarization trend. At least as long as those video records are publicly available. My guess, however, is that if such cameras are mandated there will be a major pushback from the law enforcement establishment to keep the videos secret unless they are compelled to release them by a court. So then the pressure will shift to corrupting the law makers and the judiciary so they help to keep the videos secret. Bullies and thugs who seem to make up somewhere between 10-15 per cent of sworn officers do not like exposure.
Project manager Sheriff’s Lt. Chris Marks displays a camera at a news conference in the Monterey Park section of Los Angeles in September. Dozens of sheriff’s deputies at selected stations in Los Angeles County are testing body cameras during a six-month pilot program.
Credit: Nick Ut/AP/File
RIALTO, CALIFORNIA — When five police cruisers entered a mini-mall parking lot earlier this week in Rialto, Calif., it might have signaled trouble.
Three men were handcuffed – two Latinos and an African-American. For about 20 minutes, the police questioned the three men as a crowd gathered. At last, everyone was let go.
There could be a number of reasons why the tension-filled exchange did not descend into violence. But Vernon Tucker, the head of security at the mini-mall, is convinced that the body cameras the […]
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Monday, November 24th, 2014
Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, - Alternet (U.S.)
Stephan: The more research I do on GMOs, the less the immediate problem seems to be the seeds, and the more it seems to center on the toxins used to protect the seeds, and the costs associated with this industrial chemical model of agriculture. Here is the latest.
There is a growing movement for labeling of GMO crops, and many would go further and ban GMOs completely. Currently there is a close vote in Oregon on a GMO labeling initiative, with advocates for labeling 0.3% behind and raising money to check ballots (we urge your support). Those who profit from GMOs spent $20 million to prevent labeling in Oregon. Several states in the Northeast have put in place laws that will require labeling.
Vermont is about to be sued to prevent GMO labeling. GMO profiteers have an unusual marketing strategy. While most companies brag about their product, the GMO industry spends hundreds of millions to hide their product. The US does not requiring labeling of GMOs despite the fact that 64 countries around the world label GMO foods.
Millions have marched against Monsanto urging labeling or the banning of GMO products. There is a national consensus in favor of labeling but the government has been unable to respond. Indeed, President Obama’s food czar is a former Monsanto executive. The deep corruption of government is putting the health of the American people at serious risk.
The research highlighted below, “Genetically engineered crops, glyphosate and the deterioration of health in the United States of America,” was published in
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Monday, November 24th, 2014
Jay Michaelson, - The Daily Beast
Stephan: The issue of the relationship between the Church and the State is heating upbecause values arguments have replaced commonsense and facts. It is part of the Great Schism Trend and, in the next decade, is going to reach a crescendo. Is law or faith the primary value of a civil society? That is the question. For the Founders the answer was clear. Law is primary. But the firewall the Founders created has been breached by the Theocratic Right, and the Founder's vision has been destroyed.
Credit: vdcoleman.wordpress.com
We have entered the “anything goes” phase of religious exemptions.
As I described last week, newly Republican state legislatures (and Congress, of course) are eager to carve out ever-larger exemptions from civil rights laws and laws governing contraception and abortion. Now they are being written into law.
In the wake of Hobby Lobby, activist lawyers are getting busy too. What are the boundaries of religious exemptions? How much of a “pass” do I get, if I claim a religious justification?
Take the case of Herx v. Diocese of Fort Wayne, an employment discrimination suit in the Seventh Circuit. The local Catholic diocese has appealed this case before it’s even been heard by a jury, arguing that it is completely exempt from employment discrimination law. This is not quite the more audacious argument, reported in other media, that the Church is exempt from the entire judicial process; that remains, so far, beyond the pale. But it is a worrying claim nonetheless, one of many testing the boundaries of this new area of law.
The facts of Herx are straightforward. Emily Herx, a well-regarded English teacher […]
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Monday, November 24th, 2014
Lynn Stuart Parramore, - Salon/Alternet
Stephan: I got the saddest email from one of my older readers yesterday talking about how his handicapped wife and he were facing decisions like medicine or food. Then I ran into another reader coming out of the thrift store with some children's clothes who told me she had not been able to buy anything new for her two kids for more than two years. And I suspect many of you will identify with this report.
Credit: Shutterstock
Recently Don Hazen, the executive editor of AlterNet, asked me to think about trauma in the context of America’s political system. As I sifted through my thoughts on this topic, I began to sense an enormous weight in my body and a paralysis in my brain. What could I say? What could I possibly offer to my fellow citizens? Or to myself? After six years writing about the financial crisis and its gruesome aftermath, I feel weariness and fear. When I close my eyes, I see a great ogre with gold coins spilling from his pockets and pollution spewing from his maw lurching toward me with increasing speed. I don’t know how to stop him.
Do you feel this way, too?
All along the watchtower, America’s alarms are sounding loudly. Voter turnout this last go-round was the worst in 72 years, as if we needed another sign that faith in democracy is waning. Is it really any wonder? When your choices range from the corrupt to the demented, how can you not feel […]
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Monday, November 24th, 2014
SEAN WHALEY, Reporter - Las Vegas Review-Journal
Stephan: This is the follow-up and some good news about the story I ran Saturday about the Nevada Speaker of the House Ira Hansen, he of the ungrateful "simple minded darkies" comments. Moral opprobrium largely expressed through the internet, I think, produced this result. Please note that his view is he was driven from office by, “The deliberate character assassination and the politics of personal destruction (which) have totally distorted my views and record,” he said. “Ultimately, this whole attack has very little to do with my views." It is the hallmark of the scumbag -- It's not my fault, I'm the victim.
CARSON CITY — Assembly Speaker-designate Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, said Sunday he is withdrawing from the leadership position after newspaper columns that he wrote with controversial remarks for the Sparks Daily Tribune generated widespread criticism.
Hansen said he would “gladly fight this out if it was only about me, but I cannot allow the many fine people elected to office to also be impacted.”
In a statement, he said the attacks were not about his past comments but instead aimed at removing him as speaker because he would be an obstacle to any tax increase that may be proposed by Gov. Brian Sandoval and other lawmakers in the 2015 legislative session.
The 25-member GOP caucus, which came to the majority in the Assembly in the Nov. 4 election for the first time since 1985, will have to pick a new speaker.
Assemblyman Paul Anderson, R-Las Vegas, was named second in command as majority leader after the GOP caucus meeting earlier this month.
The caucus has set a meeting for tonight to select its new leader.
“For the greater good of the state of Nevada and the cause I support it is necessary for me to withdraw as speaker designee,” Hansen said in […]
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