Daily Blend: Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Pres. Barack Obama

A Tale of Two Obamas: BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski presents a trenchant exposé on the President’s ^[pictured] then-and-now stance on civil liberties and government powers.

10-year-old Alexandria, VA boy arrested and charged with “brandishing a weapon” for showing his orange-tipped toy gun to other kids on a school bus.
(via @radleybalko)

Maybe the reason some police departments hate being recorded (including by their own surveillance tools) is because it exposes their corruption.
(via @normative; RT: @radleybalko)

And finally, latest Republican attempt to force God into classrooms includes text from a noted pro-choice atheist.
(via Rob F)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Random polar-bear-cub-in-a-basket pic of the day [source | full size (510×360)]

Another Catholic institution, this time a Montréal, Canada school for deaf boys, sued for repeated child molestation that lasted decades. Makes me prouder than ever of the Quiet Revolution.
(via My Secret Atheist Blog)

U.S. Supreme Court upholds the right to record on-duty police officers in Chicago, IL.

PZ Myers tears into an anti-Atheism Plus douchebag for misrepresenting scientific research to defend vaginal douching.

And finally, Ed Brayton takes apart that stupid Fox News column about a supposed “war on men” where “women aren’t women anymore”.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Gene Burmington | Gabe Suarez: Blaming the Victim is Old-Fashioned

The following is a guest post by Gene Burmington in response to this item in yesterday’s Daily Blend.

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Gabe Suarez

I read this article by former SWAT officer and militant fuckhead Gabe Suarez, who's worried about the effects of the Indiana defense against the police bill. For the post part, concerns about that law are sound. Only problem is, he didn't address them:

When I was on SWAT our view is that "We will always win....even if we have to burn down your entire house by bombing it....we will win". Period.

Yeah. SWAT always has to win. Even if it means breaking into the wrong house and vandalizing the fuck out of it just because you can when someone has a justifiable complaint and anger towards the intrusion. Not to mention all those dogs that SWAT teams kill just for (what I assume) entertainment purposes.

A SWAT team is like a military unit. You can moan all you want about the militarization of the police and all of that but your tears will not change a thing.

Which is really too bad. Aren't people aware that when you militarize something, there always has to be an enemy to fight? It isn't a police officer's duty to condemn people as enemies; our system is supposed to catch, rehabilitate, and release like a fancy sports-fishing league. Once we begin to demonize these people who are considered criminals, we strip away their rights as human beings and their ability to change their ways. We also condone the opportunities that our police take to abuse such individuals.

Notice that I have not even gotten into the "right or wrong" discussion. Why not? Because it is not relevant.

You fuckhead. You're a police officer; right and wrong is your job. To call ethical choices and distinctions "not relevant" is to say that you don't care if an intrusion is justified or not, you just want to support your own agenda that police forces are always right no matter what brutalities they engage in. Well, let me remind you of your duty, former officer Suarez: It is to protect the innocent and defend the peace. As long as you justify false break-ins by SWAT units, you are saying that in the long run of your power and corrupted authority, that the safety of the innocent does not matter.

If economic events require you to live there, work as much as you can (you can get by on 4 hours of sleep) and make enough money that you can go live in a normal neighborhood […]

Daily Blend: Friday, June 22, 2012

Gabe Suarez

Awesome: Cracked.com explains why the popular claim that men have three times as many sexual partners as women do is completely (mathematically) impossible.

Former SWAT officer ^[pictured]: Wanna avoid paramilitary-style police raids at 3 AM? Don’t live in a poor neighborhood (you druggie).
(via @radleybalko)

Clinton, N.C. third-grader strip-searched in public by assistant principal over a missing $20.
(via @radleybalko)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Cracked.com • Dennis Hong • sex • men • women • Gabe Suarez • SWAT • Special Weapons And Tactics • police raids • no-knock warrants • Justin Cox • strip-searches • Clarinda Cox • Union Elementary School • Teresa Holmes

Daily Blend: Monday, April 02, 2012

Trayvon Martin

Congress considering bill to strip Constitutional rights from individuals the federal government doesn’t like, including children, ACLU members and Cat Stevens.

Lying Coral Springs, Florida cops become latest example why recording on-duty officers is a must.
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

U.S. Supreme Court rules that jails may strip-search anyone they like, regardless of the trivialness – or even existence – of actual crimes.
(via Joe. My. God.)

Four 8- and 9-year-olds handcuffed, arrested and put in holding cells for 12 hours for fighting at school.
(via @radleybalko)

Salon’s Alex Pareene takes a look at the Right’s smear-job of Trayvon Martin ^[pictured] and defense of George Zimmerman.
(via @ggreenwald)

Oops goes the Catholic priest’s PowerPoint presentation. (To be fair, it is possible he was sabotaged … but I’ll bet the only saboteur was his half-competent self.)
(via Pharyngula)

“The show ended up screening in more than 90 countries, its mild family-friendly humour helping to de-mystify the idea of Christians and Muslims living side by side. Only the U.S. failed to embrace the series.”

My new to-do list. I’m officially adding #2 to my bucket list.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: U.S. Congress • Vet Voice • FBI • terrorist watch list • Coral Springs, FL • cops • Nicole Stasnek • Derek Fernandes • Susan Mait • wrongful arrests • U.S. Supreme Court • SCOTUS • strip searches • cavity searches • jails • Morrell Park Elementary School • Baltimore Police Department • Jeremy Silbert • Alex Pareene • Trayvon Martin • George Zimmerman • conservatives • right-wing media • Martin McVeigh • Catholic Priests • Little Mosque on the Prairie • USA • United States • Islamophobia • racism • sitcoms • to-do lists

Judge strikes down Illinois eavesdropping law

It’s long been maintained that the right to record police officers on duty in public is a fundamental aspect of common law, despite cops’ continuous attempts to undermine it, usually in the form of stolen property eventually returned with “accidentally” deleted footage, or else by having dangerously broad and vague “eavesdropping” laws passed that never do as much good as harm. Illinois has one such law – or rather, had, as a judge has now seen fit to put an end to it:

A Cook County judge today ruled the state’s controversial eavesdropping law unconstitutional.

The law makes it a felony offense to make audio recordings of police officers without their consent even when they’re performing their public duties.

Judge Stanley Sacks, who is assigned to the Criminal Courts Building, found the eavesdropping law unconstitutional because it potentially criminalizes “wholly innocent conduct.”

The only real way to ensure both that officers are held accountable for their actions, and to affirmatively settle matters of dispute in court, is to allow citizens to watch the watchers while they’re on public duty. Too many places are trying (wrong-mindedly and often illegally) to curtail this evident and basic right of the common people to keep tabs on those who are supposedly keeping tabs on them. Kudos to Judge Sacks for bringing a little more fairness to the Chicago area.

(via The Agitator)

Tags: Cook County, IL • eavesdropping laws • Stanley Sacks