Shared posts

20 Jan 19:57

It's How to Say "Cowabunga" From The Great Beyond

ClintJCL

is that dan castelleneta?! i.e. homer simpson?

20 Jan 17:44

Diebold Charged With Bribery, Falsifying Docs, 'Worldwide Pattern of Criminal Conduct'

ClintJCL

despicable

One of the world's largest ATM manufacturers and, formerly, one of the largest manufacturers of electronic voting systems, has been indicted by federal prosecutors for bribery and falsification of documents.
20 Jan 12:56

MLK ASSASSINATED BY US GOVT: King Family civil trial verdict

ClintJCL

i think i hadn't realized this

Coretta Scott King: “We have done what we can to reveal the truth, and we now urge you as members of the media, and we call upon elected officials, and other persons of influence to do what they can to share the revelation of this case to the widest possible audience.” – King Family Press Conference, Dec. 9, 1999.
18 Jan 00:04

These Sisters Get Weird

ClintJCL

first i thought this was a bunch of bullshit, then like 1m30s in the craziness started, by the end, whoa... i've seen this type of shit before but still, whoa

Submitted by: Black_Yoshi

Tagged: Songs , wtf , videos , vintage
17 Jan 20:08

The Specter of Municipal Marijuana Legalization Looms Over DC [FEATURE]

by psmith
ClintJCL

Soon.

The District of Columbia city council this week took a preliminary step toward decriminalizing marijuana possession in the nation's capital, with a bill to do just that winning a unanimous committee vote. But the council's belated response to decades of racially biased pot policing may end up just being a blip on the path to outright legalization.

[image:1 align:left]That's because District activists, led by the indefatigable Adam Eidinger and the DC Cannabis Campaign have filed a marijuana legalization initiative with DC officials and are determined to move forward with it.

According to the campaign, the Legalization of Possession of Small Amounts of Marijuana for Personal Use Act of 2014 would "make it lawful for a person 21 years of age or older to possess up to two ounces of marijuana for personal use; to grow no more than three mature cannabis plants within the person's principal residence; and to transfer without payment (but not sell) up to one ounce of marijuana to another person 21 years of age or older; and to use or sell drug paraphernalia for use, growing or processing of marijuana or cannabis that is made legal by the Initiative."

The act does not address legal marijuana commerce because under District law, initiatives cannot deal with matters having to do with District government revenues. In the event the initiative passed, the council would have to come up with any regulatory and taxation scheme.

"Under DC law, voters can't interfere with the city's tax and spending authority," explained Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). "And the courts have read that so broadly that they ruled that a ban on public smoking in bars would lead to less smoking, which would interfere with the city's revenue authority."

The time for a legalization push appears to be ripe. Public sentiment in the District, long a bastion of liberal politics, is swinging in favor of legalization, not least because of increased public awareness of the racially disparate impact of marijuana prohibition.In a June report, The War on Marijuana in Black and White, the American Civil Liberties Union found that Washington, DC, had one of the highest racial disparities in marijuana arrests in the country, second only to Iowa. In DC, blacks were 8.05 times more likely to face arrest for pot possession than whites. Numbers such as these are driving the reformist impulse in the District.

A Washington Post poll released Wednesday is a case in point. In that poll, 63% of DC residents favored legalizing small amounts of marijuana, up from only 46% in 2010. And among the District's black residents, support increased even more dramatically, from only 37% in 2010 to 58% now.

[image:2 align:right caption:true]Not only does legalization appear to have public opinion on its side, the District is also easy pickings for initiatives. The number of signatures needed to qualify for the ballot is relatively small, and, in advertising market terms, DC is only a medium-sized market, meaning that the cost of a campaign is also relatively small.

"We only need 25,000 valid signatures, although we're going for 30,000, just to be on the safe side," said Eidinger. "I think we can do that in four months," even though DC law gives them up to six months.

The veteran DC activist estimates that the campaign needs $500,000 to be successful.

"I think we need about $300,000 for signature gathering," he said. "We'll need about half a million to be also be able to fight off any counter-campaign that emerges."

Eidinger and the DC Cannabis Campaign aren't there yet. He said the campaign had received a $100,000 donation from Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps and an additional $10,000 in bitcoins (!). The drug reform community needs to step up, he said.

"If we don't raise at least $350,000, I don't know if we can move forward," he said. "That's the bare bones. And if we do get this on the ballot, the drug reform community here in Washington should come up with the money. This is the nation's capital," he exclaimed. "It's a twofer. If we can legalize it here, we can legalize it anywhere."

But drug reform organizations that serve as major funding conduits have yet to get on board, at least with their checkbooks.

"We don't have a position so far on the initiative," said Dan Riffle, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. "We generally support legalization, but it's a question of whether we want to put our resources into a campaign that would improve on a very good law."

[image:3 align:left]Riffle was referring to the District's decriminalization bill, which he described as "the best decriminalization law in the country," with maximum $25 fines and no probable cause for a search based on smell alone.

DPA was similarly focused on the decriminalization bill and perhaps going even further with the council.

"Our first goal is eliminating the mass arrests of people of color in DC, which is why we're working with the council to support the decriminalization bill," said Piper. "And then we will support legalization, either through the initiative process or through the council or both," he said.

"We've had a lot of discussions with Adam," said Piper. "They're in the process of figuring out how much money they can raise to support this, while we're working with Councilmember Grosso and others on a tax and regulate bill."

That's all well and good, said Eidinger, but the initiative campaign needs money now.

"Early donations are the most important," he emphasized. "I think we can get the money to get this on the ballot, but we need money to defend it, and we need to hire good people early. People need to donate now!"

Marijuana reform is happening in the District of Columbia. The question now is how far it goes, and by what route. Decriminalization looks like a done deal, but having a legalization initiative hanging over the city council's head may prod it to take the next step as well.

"The council will for sure decriminalize in the next month," Piper prophesied. "But will they then take up legalization? Having an initiative on the ballot is a good way to force their hand. We're hopeful that the council will realize that they will either end up in a situation where marijuana is legal with no controls, or they can take action and adopt a regulatory approach."

The initiative now awaits approval by the Board of Elections of its language, which could take up to a month. Then, it's on to signature gathering. Then it's winning an election. And then, Congress would have to refrain from blocking it -- or be forced once again to contravene the democratically expressed will of the voters of the nation's capital.

"There are lots of hurdles, but now is the time to move forward with righteous indignation," Eidinger said. "Those people who were talking about decriminalization aren't talking about it now; instead, the goal now is legalization. This is the time for everyone to think big and win!"

17 Jan 13:16

Your Doctor Can Disclose Your Medical Records to the NSA Without Authorization

ClintJCL

welp, there goes the last bastion of thinking you could honestly discuss things with your doctor with no repercussion

In other words, your doctor does not need your authorization to share your health information with the government. If the NSA asks for it, they get it. I found no provision requiring your medical provider to tell you the information was passed to the government.
17 Jan 12:57

Electrical Engineering Lost 35,000 Jobs Last Year In the US

by samzenpus
ClintJCL

but.. but.. but globalization is good!!! it will allow us all to buy the cheapest products with the money we earn from the job we no longer have because it was offshored!
...oh wait

dcblogs writes "Despite an expanding use of electronics in products, the number of people working as electrical engineers in U.S. declined by 10.4% last year. The decline amounted to a loss of 35,000 jobs and increased the unemployment rate for electrical engineers from 3.4% in 2012 to 4.8% last year, an unusually high rate of job losses for this occupation. There are 300,000 people working as electrical engineers, according to U.S. Labor Department data analyzed by the IEEE-USA. In 2002, there were 385,000 electrical engineers in the U.S. Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, called the electrical engineering employment trend 'truly disturbing,' and said, 'just like America's manufacturing has been hollowed out by offshoring and globalization, it appears that electrical and electronics engineering is heading that way.'"

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16 Jan 20:41

Cops Reportedly Beat Up Deaf Man For Not Following Orders That He Couldn’t Hear

ClintJCL

'Murica

Pearson claims that as soon as he rolled down his window, a cop punched him directly in the face. According to a website set up for Pearson, “Pearl pulled over and rolled down his window, expecting an officer to ask for [his] identification. An officer struck him in the face before Pearl had the chance to do anything. As you can see, he was struck multiple times.”
15 Jan 21:04

DC Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Wins Key Vote

by psmith
ClintJCL

Soon.

A bill that would decriminalize the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana in the nation's capital easily won a key committee vote today, and is expected to pass the full council in a matter of weeks. The bill passed the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on a 5-0 vote.

[image:1 align:left]The Simple Possession of Small Quantities of Marijuana Decriminalization Amendment Act of 2013 (Council Bill 20-409) would eliminate criminal penalties and instead subject a person in possession of one ounce or less of marijuana to a civil fine. The legislation was introduced in July 2013 by Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) with the support of ten out of thirteen council members.

The council was spurred to act at least in part by reports on racial disparities in marijuana arrests from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Washington Lawyers' Committee on Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. The ACLU, for example, found that black District residents were more than eight times more likely to be arrested than white ones, the nation's second highest disparity rate.

"Marijuana possession arrests have disproportionately criminalized African American residents and wasted millions of taxpayer dollars," said Grant Smith, policy manager with the Drug Policy Alliance Office of National Affairs. "This legislation represents a critical first step toward bringing DC law into step with public opinion and common sense."

Even as the District council advances the decriminalization bill, deeper reforms are looming. Local activists filed a marijuana legalization initiative with city officials Friday. The council may also address legalization, but if it doesn't, look for the initiative campaign to pick up steam.

14 Jan 19:09

Fullerton Cops Found Not Guilty in Beating Death of Homeless Mentally Ill Man

by Carlos Miller
ClintJCL

america is dead

Two cops were found not guilty Monday in the horrific beating death of a homeless man despite a city surveillance video showing they choked, tased, punched, kicked and smothered the man for nearly nine minutes, only pausing when he stopped pleading for help.

Former Fullerton police officers Manny Ramos and Jay Cicinelli are now free to return to a career of law enforcement if they so desire, comfortable in the fact that they can pretty much kill anybody and get away with it as long as they claim they were doing it for their own safety.

In this case, they claimed that 160-pound Kelly Thomas was just way too overpowering for them, even though they outweighed him by at least 60 pounds, forcing the first two officers to have to call for back-up, resulting in four additional cops joining the beating.

But the video shows he never threw one punch.

According to KTLA:

Former Officer Manuel Ramos and ex-Corporal Jay Cicinelli were accused of causing the death of Thomas in a violent struggle in the Orange County college town, prompting angry protests and closely watched criminal proceedings.

A coroner’s report stated Thomas died of asphyxia due to chest compression and injuries to his head and chest during the struggle on July 5, 2011, at the Fullerton Transportation Center.

The prosecution had argued that officers’ beating of Thomas was unwarranted and that Thomas was not a threat to police.

Defense attorneys responded that Thomas struggled back against officers – who called for backup after striking him repeatedly – and that he succumbed to heart problems due in part to drug use.

It was a disgusting video but an even more disgusting verdict. Here is an excerpt from an article I wrote last year about the incident, describing the video.

“Now you see my fists?” Fullerton police officer Manny Ramos asked Thomas while slipping on a pair of latex gloves.

“Yeah, what about them?” Thomas responded.

“They are getting ready to fuck you up,” said Ramos, a burly cop who appears to outweigh Thomas by 100 pounds.

“Well, start punching,” Thomas responds, never once displaying any physical aggression towards Ramos.

Moments later, as Thomas is standing while Ramos is ordering him to get on his “fucking knees,” Fullerton cop Joseph Wolfe, who is not charged in the case, walks up and starts beating his legs with a baton.

Then Ramos gets into the act and Thomas takes off running, moving out of the frame of the camera.

The camera, operated by a dispatcher at the station, then moves toward the beating, showing Ramos and Fullerton cop Jay Cicinelli on top of Thomas as Thomas repeatedly apologizes and telling them he is unable to breathe.

The cops keep telling him to put his hands behind his back and lay on his stomach, but they are both laying on top of him, making it impossible to even breathe, much less move.

As the video continues, one of the cops can be seen kneeing him.

“Please, I can’t breathe,” Thomas pleads as the officers keep telling him to put his hands behind his “fucking back.”

The cops keep telling him to “relax” to which he responds, “I can’t, dude.”

More cops eventually arrive and a little more than four minutes into the video, they start tasing him.

And a little after five minutes into the video, as three cops are piled on top of him, beating him, tasing him, one cop looks up at another cop who just arrived on the scene and says, “help us.”

At one point he yells out, “Dad, they are killing me.”

Even after seven minutes into the video, when six cops are on top of him and all Thomas is doing is crying for his father, they keep telling him to “relax.”


Kelly Thomas

 

Fullerton cops

The post Fullerton Cops Found Not Guilty in Beating Death of Homeless Mentally Ill Man appeared first on Photography is Not a Crime: PINAC.

10 Jan 14:16

Father sentenced to 6 months in jail for paying too much child support

ClintJCL

what the fuck

A father will spend half of 2014 behind bars for doing too much for his son. After overpaying child support and seeing his son too often — breaking terms that were secretly modified without his knowledge — a judge sentenced him to a lengthy jail sentence.
10 Jan 00:06

Demonoid Returns, BitTorrent Tracker is Now Online

by Ernesto

demonoidAs the single largest semi-private BitTorrent tracker that ever existed, Demonoid used to offer a home to millions of file-sharers.

This changed abruptly August 2012, after a series of troubled events took the site offline. The unexpected downtime was followed by more than a year of silence, until the Demonoid.com homepage showed signs of life two months ago.

The site owners put up a notice suggesting that they were planning to restore Demonoid to its former glory. This uplifting news was later confirmed in a short statement that was sent to us by the people behind the site.

“I can’t give you any specifics at the moment, but yeah, we are planning to bring the site back,” TorrentFreak was told.

This glimmer of hope got many former Demonoid users excited, and today we can report further progress as the site’s tracker is now back online.

A few hours ago http://inferno.demonoid.com:3396/announce was revived, and at the time of writing the tracker is coordinating the communication of 1.3 million people scattered across 388,321 torrent files. This means that Demonoid has instantly settled itself among the five largest BitTorrent trackers on the Internet.


Demonoid tracker back in action

demonoid-back

What appears to be new is that all these torrents are tracked by a single announce URL. Previously, Demonoid used various tracker addresses and ports for its torrents. However, several older announce URLs still work as well.

The hosting location has also changed as Demonoid have traded in their Ukrainian provider for one in Sweden.

While the above is good news for those who hold Demonoid dear, there are still plenty of uncertainties regarding the comeback. For example, it is still unknown whether Demonoid users can still use their old accounts, as the database may have been compromised.

Last year a mysterious replacement surfaced, using a copy of the Demonoid user and torrent database. The operator of the spin-off claimed not to be related to the Demonoid owners, but he did have a copy of the site’s database.

The tracker that was revived today uses Demonoid’s original .com domain, so it’s presumably backed by part of the old crew.

Time will tell whether Demonoid can make a full comeback, and what the site will look like if it does.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and VPN services.

06 Jan 00:22

The Last Sound Before Your Doom

ClintJCL

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Submitted by: lenville222

Tagged: wtf , creepy , videos , dolls , funny
05 Jan 21:29

High Business

ClintJCL

perfect for blumpkins

04 Jan 00:15

Rise of the Bronies in The American Conservative

by Calpain
ClintJCL

heh, pretty good comments and everything went better than expected. probably my first exposure to The American Conservative...


While they could have used a better image for their article header, it is still rare to see a somewhat positive article on a conservative media outlet. Considering all the flak we've gotten from the likes of Fox and other outlets, this is a breath of fresh air by comparison.

Check out the full article on The American Conservative here.

Twitter: Calpain
30 Dec 16:30

Perspective: Even if you write/perform terrible music, be thankful for those that speak up and say, "you're doing this all wrong". More than likely, your friends aren't going to tell you of your inability to sing, write a cogent musical verse/chorus/verse, nor your terrible stage presence, nor your lack of viable production skills. They're afraid of hurting your feelings- but more than likely you *need* your feelings hurt to progress as an artist. Anything else is just enabling.

Perspective: Even if you write/perform terrible music, be thankful for those that speak up and say, "you're doing this all wrong". More than likely, your friends aren't going to tell you of your inability to sing, write a cogent musical verse/chorus/verse, nor your terrible stage presence, nor your lack of viable production skills. They're afraid of hurting your feelings- but more than likely you *need* your feelings hurt to progress as an artist. Anything else is just enabling.
27 Dec 22:59

Iron Maiden Tracks Down Pirates…. And Gives Them Concerts? (Updated)

by Ernesto

iron-maidenOver the past several years numerous studies have shown that on average file-sharers spend more money on legal purchases, including concert tickets and merchandise.

The most logical explanation for this finding is that “pirates” are more engaged than those who don’t share, and that they complement their legal purchases with unauthorized downloads.

This means that unauthorized file-sharers are in fact the music industry’s best customers. So, instead of hunting down these pirates for lawsuits, it may be more rewarding to play for them.

The English heavy metal band Iron Maiden is reportedly doing just that. The veteran musicians use the services of music analytics company Musicmetric which allows them to see where their albums are most pirated.

“If you know what drives engagement you can maximize the value of your fan base. Artists could say ‘we’re getting pirated here, let’s do something about it’, or ‘we’re popular here, let’s play a show’,” Gregory Mead, CEO and co-founder of Musicmetric told Cite.

Instead of suing these unauthorized file-sharers, the band used the information as input for its tours, and not without success.

“Maiden have been rather successful in turning free file-sharing into fee-paying fans,” Mead said.

The overview below, for example, shows that Iron Maiden is most popular among Brazilian pirates with 463,467 downloads in recent years. The band is also relatively popular in Chile with 1,300 downloads per 100,000 Internet users, which totals 70,932 downloads.


Iron Maiden’s popularity on BitTorrent (large)

mms

Iron Maiden’s recent tour had a heavy focus on South America, where the band has a lot of Twitter followers and unauthorized downloads. The band played in Paraguay for the first time, for example, and concerts were sold out throughout the region.

Musicmetric suggests that the file-sharing data helped Iron Maiden turn these pirates into paying customers, simply by heading over there and playing for them. It’s impossible to download the true experience of a live concert, so the chances are high that several pirates will turn up.

“If you engage with fans, there is a chance to turn a percentage into paying customers. You can see that through various bands using the BitTorrent network in a legal way to share content,” Mead says.

It’s refreshing to see that instead of hunting down pirates for lawsuits, file-sharing data is being used by artists to plan their gigs. After all, it is much more rewarding to play for your fans than to try to bankrupt them in court.

Update: The Cite report suggested that Iron Maiden used the analytics to plan their concerts, however, this claim remains unsubstantiated. TorrentFreak contacted Musicmetric before publication but we were unable to get a comment in time as they were out of the office for a few days.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and VPN services.

25 Dec 02:34

South Florida Cops Convicted of Questionable Felonies After Whistleblowing Complaint

by Carlos Miller
ClintJCL

man.. fuck texas, and fuck dogooder gun laws that just give the govt more leway to selectively prosecute pre-crime while ignoring real crime.

Sounds like these cops were wrongfully ruined for rightfully defending american citizens, which is SUPPOSED to be the duty of a cop.

 

Every day we read stories of cops gone bad, abusing the power of their badge, only to get free passes from their superiors, leaving us wondering why don’t the good cops, if there are any, ever speak up.

But if we look a little deeper, we will realize that those cops who do speak up end up getting retaliated against, their lives turned into a living hell, resulting in termination, hospitalization and even incarceration.

Police call it the Blue Code of Silence, that unwritten rule that you turn the other way when you see an officer abuse his power. Not much different than Omerta, the deadly code of silence within the mafia.

Take the case of New York City police officer Adrian Schoolcraft, who had spent almost a year secretly recording conversations with superiors encouraging officers to meet arrest quotas, even if it meant making unlawful arrests on innocent citizens, while refusing to take valid complaints from citizens in order to keep crime stats down.

When he took the evidence to investigators, they began retaliating against him with intimidation tactics, eventually forcing their way into his home and dragging him to a hospital where he remained in the psychiatric ward for six days against his will.

The Village Voice has covered that story extensively, including posting audio clips of the chilling exchange between the officers and himself when they entered his apartment and forced him to go to a hospital as well as clips of the original recordings that he brought before investigators.

Schoolcraft, whose is still suspended without pay, has filed a suit, which is still pending.

Then there’s the case of Florida Highway Patrol officer Donna Watts, who made national news in 2011 when she pulled over a speeding Miami police officer for speeding, handcuffing him in an incident captured on her dash cam.

While many of us applauded her, police officers from various departments retaliated, not just against her, but against any FHP officer, including covering a patrol car in excrement. Police officers throughout the state logged onto a database to obtain her personal information, including her home address and social security number.

Watts responded by suing various departments, so far collecting more than $66,000, but she is no longer on road patrol, believing fellow officers will not back her up if she ever needed help. An outcast within her ranks.

She would probably make a good internal affairs investigator, except they would not appreciate her adherance to the law.

And there are many more cases of cops filing lawsuits claiming retaliation after blowing the whistle on illegal practices, including from New Jersey, Chicago, Maryland, Washington DC and St. Louis.

And in a separate case from New Jersey, Atlantic City police officer Mark Benjamin says he has received death threats from fellow officers after reporting police abuse.

“It was like the masses turned against me,” Benjamin said. “I reported things in reference to police misconduct and with that came the hostilities.”

And down here in Miami, we have a case of two cops facing prison sentences after one of them reported illegal activities within her department.

Ralph and Tammy Valdes, a married couple who were convicted this year for selling guns without a license, transporting stolen gun parts from a police department and filing illegal tax returns, will be sentenced in January. They face up to seven years.

All because, they say, Tammy reported six fellow cops for double-dipping; charging the Golden Beach Police Department for hours worked while working off-duty security for a private security company owned by another cop named Pedro Vila, who also happened to be on a federal task force.

That got her fired, so she filed a lawsuit and won a $233,000 settlement.

Soon after, her husband, who was a Hialeah police officer, started noticing they were being followed by cops in unmarked cars, who would also park outside their home, video recording them as they stepped out.

Ralph and Tammy Valdes

They reported it to the FBI, thinking they were being stalked by local cops, but it turned out, they were being investigated by federal ATF agents that were apparently using their muscle on behalf of their friends at the Golden Beach Police Department.

“Two of the Golden Beach officers who were identified as subjects in the investigation of my complaint by the state attorneys office were assigned and still currently work out of the same building where the ATF investigators who prosecuted our case work out of,” she explained in a Facebook message.

Through a local newspaper account, the story of their conviction comes across as justice catching up to a pair of corrupt cops, something we rarely see.

But if you take some time and listen to their story, a story that’s much too convoluted and long for the Miami Herald, you will begin to see a very strong case of injustice.

After talking to them on several occasions for more than a month, I invited them on the new PINAC TV show, hoping to keep their story under 20 minutes.

But that turned out to be impossible as we only got to skim the surface in an hour.

It’s a long video, but I hope you guys stick it out because you will see how two career police officers, who’ve never been accused of abuse, become convicted felons under federal gun laws that are selectively enforced, not to mention a glaring lack of evidence in two tacked-on charges.

They not only have lost all their cop friends, they are frequently trashed on LEO Affairs, a police forum that usually defends cops in all their transgressions.

The former firearms instructors were avid gun collectors, so they would go to the gun shows that are regularly held down here and sell their guns as many gun owners do. The transactions of guns down here is very loosely regulated, which is the way residents have preferred it for decades.

But they were arrested for selling more than 600 guns over seven years without a license. The feds allow the sale and purchase of gun, and there is no specified number of guns sold that make it illegal, so it’s a confusing situation for many gun owners who sell guns, as you can read in this gun forum.

But essentially, it boils down to if the vendor’s livelihood was dependent on the gun sales as you can read below:

as applied to a dealer in firearms, as defined in section 921 (a)(11)(A), a person who devotes time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms, but such term shall not include a person who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms;

The couple say that they were each working two full-time jobs, as officers and as firearms instructors, so the gun sales were just a hobby and far from their main source of income.

They also say it is customary for ATF agents to issue warning letters to vendors who may be inadvertently skirting the law through their gun sales, but that never happened to them.

And as far as the tacked-on charges, transporting gun parts from the Hialeah Police Department and filing false tax returns?

There was never a report of missing gun parts from the police department and the IRS didn’t begin auditing them until after they were charged with the tax charge, which means there was no evidence to charge them with, but they were convicted nonetheless.

Their case is similar to one out of Texas a few years ago in which an FBI Agent named John Shipley was arrested on the same federal charges of selling weapons without the proper license, including a gun that ended up in the hands of Mexican drug traffickers.

The gun rights website Ammoland describes the case as being just as convoluted at this case in a very detailed report with several links:

My initial assumption, that a crooked cop got caught, was challenged within hours by a trusted source, who told me all was not as it appeared. What follows is a summation of my coverage of the story of John Shipley. The details are confusing, and often times appear to make no sense, and even today, years after my initial report, more questions remain unanswered following the strange twists and turns this case has taken.

The FBI press release ignores the irony of the ATF scandal in which guns were allowed to cross the border for five years in a lubricous attempt to eventually trace them to cartel leaders. Shipley’s family has set up a website explaining more details about the case.

While there is no indication Shipley was a whistleblower, the one gun that ended up in Mexico was actually sold to an El Paso corrections officer. And transcripts from a full-day hearing were discovered to be destroyed when he tried to prepare for his appeal.

Perhaps Shipley got on the wrong side of his superiors when he came to the defense of a woman of Iranian descent who was kicked off an airplane in 2003 during the post-9/11 hysteria, in which the woman won a $27.5 million settlement.

A Texas jury has awarded $27.5 million to a woman who says Southwest Airlines flight attendants had her arrested in 2003 because they were overly aggressive in enforcing post 9/11 security.

The charges against Samantha Carrington, a U.S. citizen born in Iran, were dropped the next day when an FBI agent investigating the case came to her defense. Nevertheless, the Los Angeles woman says, she is now subjected to heightened security while flying and cannot clear her name from watch lists.

Carrington’s lawyer, Enrique Moreno, says the case is an example of how post-Sept. 11 security measures can unfairly target innocent people, especially those with Middle Eastern backgrounds.

“It started with profiling, perhaps a stereotype, and it escalated to something much more sinister,” Moreno said Tuesday. “This particular incident has some role in that greater national discussion about balancing security with individual rights.”

The woman was extremely grateful and wanted to give Shipley money for clearing her name, but he declined and reported the offer. He was investigated for that, but they found nothing.

Instead, they turned his life into a living hell, throwing him in prison where he served two years and is currently out on supervised release where he is trying to appeal to get the conviction reversed.

But in the Valdes case, at least the six cops she initially reported are no longer there, right?

“Three were arrested and three relinquished their police certifications in lieu of prosecution,” she said. “Two are still working there and the third was just given a disability retirement compliments of the citizens he stole from.

“All three were arrested in 2011 and still have not gone to trial.”

“By the way, the attorney who was representing them was just convicted on his involvement in a $1 billion dollar Ponzi scheme and is looking at life in prison when he is sentenced on February 21.”

Please check out the above video to hear how cops who raped citizens on duty and stole from taxpayers were allowed to stay on the force while the Valdes’ were fully prosecuted on gun laws that are selectively enforced.

 

The post South Florida Cops Convicted of Questionable Felonies After Whistleblowing Complaint appeared first on Photography is Not a Crime: PINAC.

19 Dec 17:36

How the Lessons of Columbine Saved Lives At Arapahoe High School

by timothy
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Ray Sanchez reports at CNN that the handling of Friday's shooting at Arapahoe High School, just 10 miles from the scene of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, drew important lessons from the earlier bloodshed. At Arapahoe High School, where senior Claire Davis, 17, was critically injured before the shooter turned the gun on himself, law enforcement officers responded within minutes and immediately entered the school to confront the gunman rather than surrounding the building. As the sound of shots reverberated through the corridors, teachers immediately followed procedures put in place after Columbine, locking the doors and moving students to the rear of classrooms. "That's straight out of Columbine," says Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services. "The goal is to proceed and neutralize the shooter. Columbine really revolutionized the way law enforcement responds to active shooters." Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson credits the quick police response time for the fact that student Karl Pierson, the gunman, stopped firing on others and turned his weapon on himself less than 1 minute, 20 seconds after entering the school. Authorities knew from research and contact with forensic psychologists that school shooters typically continue firing until confronted by law enforcement. "It's very unfortunate that we have to say that there's a textbook response on the way to respond to these," says Trump, "because that textbook was written based on all of the incidents that we've had and the lessons learned (PDF).""

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17 Dec 23:38

Teri Hatcher unomatch (1)

by nobody@flickr.com (ashanaz4961)
ClintJCL

ayiyiyiy what has happened to you Teri?!

17 Dec 21:19

AllSeen Alliance Wants To Open-Source the 'Internet of Things'

by timothy
ClintJCL

Hey Carolyn, does this article or the comments in it mention the CalAmp company that Motley Fool encouraged us to invest in?

Nerval's Lobster writes "The so-called "Internet of Things" has rapidly become a buzzword du jour, with everyone from tech-giant CEOs to analysts rhapsodizing about the benefits of connecting everyday objects and appliances to the Web. Despite all the hype, some significant obstacles remain to fulfilling that vision of a massively interconnected world. For starters, all the players involved need to agree on shared frameworks for building compatible software—something that seems well on its way with the just-announced AllSeen Alliance, which includes Sharp, Cisco, LG Electronics, Qualcomm, Panasonic, D-Link, and the Linux Foundation (among many others). In theory, the AllSeen Alliance's combined software and engineering resources will result in open-source systems capable of seamless communication with one another. The Alliance will base its initial framework on AllJoyn, an open-source framework first developed by Qualcomm and subsequently elaborated upon by other firms. Applications and services that support AllJoyn can communicate "regardless of manufacturer or operating system and without the need for Internet access," according to the Alliance, whose Website offers the initial codebase. "Open source is the ideal, neutral staging area for collaboration that can provide the interoperability layer needed to make the Internet of Everything a reality," read a Dec. 10 note on the Linux Foundation's official blog. "When everyone jointly develops and uses the same freely available code, companies can develop innovative services on top of it and get them to market faster." However, not all companies interested in exploring the Internet of Things have joined the AllSeen Alliance. For example, Intel isn't a partner, despite having recently created a new division, the Internet of Things Solutions Group, to explore how to best make devices and networks more connected and aware."

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17 Dec 20:00

Diet Drugs Work: Why Won't Doctors Prescribe Them?

by timothy
ClintJCL

hmm carolyn ... i did not know there are now drugs that actually work, and don't necessarily make you shit out your fat. this is good news. maybe i need this cause i'm too lazy to actually diet properly :)

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Suzanne Koven, a primary-care doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, writes in the New Yorker that the FDA has currently approved four drugs that will help patients lose weight but few primary-care physicians will prescribe them. Qsymia and Belviq work by suppressing appetite and by increasing metabolism, and by other mechanisms that are not yet fully understood. 'But I've never prescribed diet drugs, and few doctors in my primary-care practice have, either,' writes Koven and the problem is that, while specialists who study obesity view it as a chronic but treatable disease, primary-care physicians are not fully convinced that they should be treating obesity at all. The inauspicious history of diet drugs no doubt contributes to doctors' reluctance to prescribe them. In the nineteen-forties, when doctors began prescribing amphetamines for weight loss, rates of addiction soared. But in addition, George Bray thinks that socioeconomic factors play into physicians' lack of enthusiasm for treating obesity because obesity is, disproportionately, a disease of poverty. Because of this association, many erroneously see obesity as more of a social condition than a medical one, a condition that simply requires people to try harder. Louis Aronne likens the current attitude toward obesity to the prevailing attitude toward mental illness years ago and remembers, during his medical training, seeing psychotic patients warehoused and sedated, treated as less than human. 'What the hell was I thinking when I didn't do anything to help them? How wrong could I have been?' Specialists are now developing programs to aid primary-care physicians in treating obesity more aggressively and effectively but first primary-care physicians will have to want to treat it. 'Whether you call it a disease or not is not so germane,' says Lee M. Kaplan. 'The root problem is that whatever you call it, nobody's taking it seriously enough.'"

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16 Dec 16:45

JOURNAL: ANECDOTES: HIGH SCHOOL: I threw my grades away once.

by Clint
ClintJCL

a personal story

This Dilbert comic totally reminded me of a moment of my life!:

Dilbert.com
The comic is funny, because Dilbert’s boss simply thinks he can crumple up his problems, throw the piece of paper away, and have them solved.

We all know the real world doesn’t work like that.

Or does it?

I left TJ to return to Woodbridge High School — best decision of my life, since that’s how I met Carolyn.

1994 - Carolyn - senior pic

I made the right call.

This happened one quarter through 10th grade. Leaving at 7AM and arriving home at 5PM only to have 3 hours of homework was not cool. Having classes that were harder than AP classes — but not getting college credit for them because these were the “normal” classes — also not cool. (I ended up taking AP classes in high school. Not a lot, but enough to spare me the year of CS classes that causes most Virginia Tech CS students to drop out.)

So anyway, this was a good decision. That grading period [Fairfax had four 9 week periods, Prince William had six 6 week periods] was the worst in my life. I even had my only F, ever. In Spanish 3. Which was odd, because I ended up doing just fine in Spanish 4 at Woodbridge. The point being: TJ was a lot of extra work, with very little benefit. I got into Virginia Tech based on my 740 math SAT score, and it didn’t really matter if I took magnet school classes, or normal school classes. Most people I knew ultimately dropped out. Those who didn’t ended up in the same Virginia Tech classes with me. One even told me he wish he’d dropped out, since he did a lot more work to get to the same place.

1994  - NOT Woodbridge High School - 0530 - NOT Clint's Senior 1992 pic - cropped & artifacts removed - upgraded 2010/12


I graduated–the same as everyone else. But I didn’t waste as much of my childhood on pointless overachieving, and ended up much happier than most of them.

SO ANYWAY, there I am, in Woodbridge High School, on my first day there, sometime around approximately November, 1989.

I had my first 6 weeks report card in my hand.

I didn’t really like those grades — they were really, really bad grades.

So, much like Dilbert’s boss in the above comic, I threw the paper away.

Beavis - garbage man

Beavis — in control.

Guess what? My report card was blank for that grading period. It only showed up as 6 weeks missing under the Prince William Count system, even though I had missed 9. The 2nd 6 week grading period, I was there for half of that, so I got within 3 weeks (I about tripled my GPA, and for some reason made a switch from Spanish 3 to Spanish 2–even though I had already taken Spanish 2 at TJ. So I ended up taking 5 yrs of spanish by graduation: 1, 2, 2, 3, and 4).

Yes — I got to throw away my grades. FOR REAL. MY REPORT CARD WAS BLANK, AND IT WAS FINE.

1989ish - Spanish class - mi abuelo

maybe the fact that this is what I did during Spanish 2 class didn’t help

Ironically, it was my bitch of a Spanish 2 teacher who was the only one to penalize me for having a blank report card period. I had a tie between my semester grades — let’s say an A and a B. Rather than rounding up, she chose to round down, because of the blank I had. Didn’t matter that I’d already passed Spanish 2 in the first place. This was the same bitch who gave me detention for walking into the class with gum — even though gum was allowed in all other classes. It wasn’t enough that you spit it out when asked, she considered it an offense if you didn’t remember this instantly upon walking into the class. BIIITCH!

20061110 - TAMPONS - no, not really - Big Red made me bite my tongue - 108-0864

I *SUFFER* for my gum habit! And it’s WORTH IT!

Anyway — this Dilbert comic satirizes the concept of being able to solve one’s problems by such a simple method as throwing away a piece of paper.

But truth is stranger than fiction — I’ve done what Dilbert’s boss did above. And it worked!

That, my friends, is what the SubGenius concept of SLACK is all about!

20080705 - X-Day at Brushwood - 162-6214 - Bob mousepad

SALLACK!

Music: Sepultura – Dusted
Mood: anxious


Filed under: Anecdotes, Clint, Journal, People
13 Dec 23:32

Optimal Dental: Dr. Calagan

by carolyncasl@gmail.com
ClintJCL

Hey Carolyn... That's who worked on me today! :)

Oh wait... Now Greg and maybe BIOU13 too are reading this. Maybe I'll have to start doing these kinds of messages in email again.. I doubt anyone else cares that we had the same dentist one day:)

Hi greg!

When: Mon Dec 16, 2013 1:45pm to 2:45pm  EST

Event Status: confirmed
13 Dec 03:04

For the first time ever there was an Upworthy post in my news feed. I followed your lead and blocked it and all future Upworthy posts. Just thought I'd let you know, you inspired me. Enjoy the snow!

ClintJCL

oh look , pretentious people acting pretentious. now i know what Upworthy is. OMG how dare a site try to be positive. Next thing you know they're going to tell me My Little Pony is unhealthy ;)

From Susan Etheridge:

For the first time ever there was an Upworthy post in my news feed. I followed your lead and blocked it and all future Upworthy posts. Just thought I'd let you know, you inspired me. Enjoy the snow!
12 Dec 18:09

Hey Facebook, Could You Fit Any More Fucking Branding On Your ...

by Drew Olanoff
ClintJCL

my cats! they're famous!

So, Facebook launched its "Gifts" product, and I was keen to take it for a whirl. I proceeded to visit my fiancee's wall and pick something out that she might..
10 Dec 22:07

RetailMeNot

by mark
ClintJCL

I'll try this out. Anyone else have success with this, lemme know. Advanced Auto has 30% off >$50 orders right now, and Chase Freedom has $200 back if you spend $500 on their credit card [which had better points than mine], so I'm down with saving money!

This discount code source really works. Whenever you are about to make a purchase online, you should go to RetailMeNot to check to see if it has discount coupons for your merchant. There’s a good chance you’ll find current codes, and you’ll also see the likelihood that they’ll work based on previous user’s experience. It’s a clean interface telling you what the discount is, when it expires and what percent chance it will work. In my experience, the probabilty is good if the codes are rated high. They also seem to have codes for pretty obscure and specialized stores I would not have expected. I’ve saved a lot of money this way and wish I knew about it long ago.

There are a lot of discount coupon sources on the web but most of these are subscription types: you are bombarded with sales offers on an ongoing basis. RetailMeNot is different: You solicit the exact discounts you need only when you need them. Instead of bombardment, you get discounts on demand. My kind of shopping.

And if you really want to browse for hot deals, they have current bargain discounts on their front page. But their real asset is discount codes on demand.

rmn

-- KK

RetailMeNot

09 Dec 17:25

Gov't Puts Witness On No Fly List, Then Denies Having Done So

by Soulskill
ClintJCL

our govt is getting increasingly corrupt

cathyreisenwitz sends word of a San Francisco trial in which the U.S. government appears to be manipulating the no-fly list to its advantage. The court case involves a Stanford Ph.D. student who was barred from returning to the U.S. after visiting her native Malaysia. She's one of roughly 700,000 people on the no-fly list. Here's the sketchy part: the woman's eldest daughter, who was born in the U.S. and is a U.S. citizen, was called as a witness for the trial. Unfortunately, she mysteriously found herself on the no-fly list as well, and wasn't able to board a plane to come to the trial. Lawyers for the Department of Justice told the court that she simply missed her plane, but she was able to provide documents from the airline explaining that the Department of Homeland Security was not allowing her to fly.

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05 Dec 01:51

Selective Counting is a Practiced Art

ClintJCL

"If you think that smelling something is counting, might I invite you to sniff my ass and tell me how many farts I just made?"

Selective Counting is a Practiced Art

Submitted by: Unknown

Tagged: dogs , treats , smart , counting
04 Dec 16:06

The Brains of Men and Women Are 'Wired Differently'

by Soulskill
ClintJCL

true

Rambo Tribble writes "Research out of the University of Philadelphia concludes there are major differences in the neural pathways in the brains of men and women. Men, they say, are wired more front-to-back, women more side-to-side. 'The results establish that male brains are optimized for intrahemispheric and female brains for interhemispheric communication. The developmental trajectories of males and females separate at a young age, demonstrating wide differences during adolescence and adulthood. The observations suggest that male brains are structured to facilitate connectivity between perception and coordinated action, whereas female brains are designed to facilitate communication between analytical and intuitive processing modes.' They propose this may explain why women have been found to be better multitaskers. Of course, this may also have ramifications for what skill and career proclivities each sex exhibits."

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