It's Robert's Fault

Monday, March 2, 2015

Cop Chains Innocent Man to Wall, Beats Him, Gouges Eyes After Refusing to Confess to a Crime | The Free Thought Project

Milwaukee, WI — In August of 2013 former detective Rodolfo Gomez savagely beat Deron Love during an interrogation. He was chained to the wall.
Love, 27, was accused of killing his 7-month-old baby, a charge he would not confess to and one that he would eventually beat.

A year after being tortured by Gomez, Love was found not guilty of first-degree reckless homicide and child neglect in the death of his infant son.

Love’s innocence was of no matter to Gomez who repeatedly compelled him to confess.

After becoming tired of being told to confess to a crime that he did not commit, Love became agitated and began screaming in the face of Gomez. Gomez, then “feared for his safety” as the man, who was chained to a wall yelled at him. So he began to beat the restrained man – savagely.

This is but one more example of what many believe to be irrefutable evidence being turned on it's head by a skilled defense attorney. I support the current call to require police to wear functioning active body cams during a response to any entire incident to which he is tasked. I also realize that it's not an ironclad solution to our nation's ongoing issues with incidents of law enforcement misconduct.

NC Ethics Commission: Sex acts don't violate lobbyist gift ban :: WRAL.com

RALEIGH, N.C. — Sexual acts between lobbyists and a state official covered by North Carolina's state ethics act do not constitute a "reportable expenditure" or "things of value," according to a ruling the State Ethics Commission published the Friday before Valentine's Day.
Read more here

SC County GOP: If You've Had Pre-Marital Sex, You Can't Be A Republican

Before you can join the Laurens County Republican Party in South Carolina and get on the primary ballot, they ask that you pledge that you've never ever had pre-marital sex -- and that you will never ever look at porn again.
Last Tuesday, the LCGOP unanimously adopted a resolution that would ask all candidates who want to get on the primary ballot to sign a pledge with 28 principles, because the party "does not want to associate with candidates who do not act and speak in a manner that is consistent with the SC Republican Party Platform."

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Watch John Oliver Explain the Absurdity of Judicial Elections (Mature Language) | BillMoyers.com

On this week’s edition of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Oliver discussed the public election of judges, a practice that occurs in all but 11 states. “The problem with an elected judiciary,” he explained, “is that sometimes the right decision is neither easy nor popular, and yet campaigns force judges to look over their shoulder on every ruling.”

Elected judges are susceptible to public opinion and attack ads, leading some to hand down tougher sentences during election years, according to Alicia Bannon of the Brennan Center for Justice, who appears in Oliver’s essay. (Read Bannon’s recent op-ed on the issue for BillMoyers.com). These excessively harsh rulings only further fuel the mass incarceration rates that give the United States the largest prison population in the world.

This Lawmaker Wants a Civil Rights Organization for White People

A member of the Tennessee House of Representatives says she was “misunderstood” when she called for a new civil rights organization that supports white people. Rep. Sheila Butt posted a Facebook comment suggesting that “…It is time for a Council on Christian Relations and an NAAWP in this country.”
Shelia Butt. She later said she made up the controversial acronym and explained that she was not referring to the National Association for the Advancement of White People, the group once led by white supremacist and former KKK leader David Duke.

John Boehner Bails On Reality: Blames Obama For All Republican Failures

Speaker Boehner was immediately asked about his broken promise that there would be no more manufactured crisis if Republicans won control of Congress. He answered by blaming President Obama for everything.

Addicting Info – Texas Toddler Dies After Shooting Himself In The Head (VIDEO)

A three-year-old Harris County, Texas, boy shot himself in the head on Friday, February 27. He was taken by helicopter to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead just a few hours later.

According to click2Houston.com, the boy’s mother was at home at the time of the shooting, along with another child, age five

You Won’t Believe Who Is Helping This Obamacare Hating Sheriff Pay His Medical Bills | If You Only News

As of this writing, Mack has received close to $20,000 in donations from 439 people. The commenters are sympathetic to Mack’s situation — far more sympathetic than Mack and his supporters have been to the plight of those without health insurance. Many hope that he will use it as a learning experience, to change his views about the Affordable Care Act.

Not likely. As with many in a red state state of mind the begging jar at the local seven eleven is the way to go when confronted with medical catastrophes

February 21, 1922: Fifteen Years Before the Hindenburg, the Air Disaster America Forgot

Fifteen years before the crash of the Hindenburg galvanized the nation and effectively put an end to lighter-than-air commercial travel, the fate of the Roma made headlines – and then was forgotten.
Built in Italy in 1919, the Roma's speed, payload and range had drawn attention throughout Europe before the airship was purchased in 1921 by the United States Army Air Service for $200,000, the equivalent of $2.6 million in 2015 dollars.

The Roma was enormous - 410 feet long, 92 feet tall – and capable of carrying 100 passengers and cargo at speeds of up to 80 miles per hour. The airship was designed for trans-Atlantic crossings and was the largest semi-rigid airship in the world at the time.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Addicting Info – 15 Phrases “Progressives” Need To Ditch (And What We Can Say Instead)

One of the most frustrating things about being a progressive has been watching conservatives win the big fights over and over again over the past four decades. Why do right-wing extremists keep winning when their agenda has proven so bad for America? It’s partly because they’ve taken over the conversation and have set the terms of the debate by choosing the actual words we use to discuss the issues we care about.

We need to take a long, hard look at phrases we keep using, and that we seriously need to ditch. Why use language that puts the “liberal agenda” of fairness, equality, peace, and shared prosperity in a bad light. If we want the American people to think well of our causes, then we need to use our own words.