Jul 18, 2013

Breaking Bad: The US vs The UK

Breaking Bad:  The US vs The UK



Laws that allow vigilante justice against kids.
Conservative right-wing talk shows that are culturally insensitive and happy about it.


Health Care for everyone.
Guns.

Street Cams.


To put it mildly; is Britain a more sophisticated nation than the United States?
Are we the wild, wild west?
America, America, America.......the right wingers are always talking about saving America, the freedom of America, taking back America.  Wake up and see who and what America is--we are a beautiful coat of many colors.  To quote Rachel Jeantel these old white ROWGs are old school--outdated and out of style.....not to mention embarrassing.
Thank goodness we have President Obama and Eric Holder, people in power, people of color, mixed color, the color of America, who can actually do something about it--change laws, promote equality, nominate judges.   That’s the best thing we have done.  We have elected President Obama in an act of forward thinking.
Let’s move our country forward to equal rights for all, for all children, towards sophistication--let’s move out of the wild, wild west some are so proud of and fearful of losing and to a forward thinking country of education, equal opportunities, cultural sensitivity and laws that prevent vigilante justice against children.
Some of these right wing haters--you know the names--if they would bother to listen to the words of Reverend Al Sharpton they would see he has a lot of very interesting things to say--soothing words that are really needed right now in this time of anger and everyone taking sides.  
We have an opportunity now to see the world through the eyes of others, not just through the white prism--we have a chance to gain knowledge and cultural sensitivity.  What is wrong with that.  Isn't that sophistication and isn't that a good thing.

 talking about stand your ground and my disdain at laws that allow vigilante justice against kids..........










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Thank Goodness for Eric Holder.........

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What Holder’s Father Told Him About Cops

By ANDREW ROSENTHAL
Eric Holder speaks to the National Convention of the N.A.A.C.P. on July 16, 2013 in Orlando, Florida. Tim Boyles/Getty ImagesEric Holder speaks to the National Convention of the N.A.A.C.P. on July 16, 2013, in Orlando, Fla. 
Attorney General Eric Holder reaffirmed yesterday that federal prosecutors were investigating whether George Zimmerman acted out of racial hostility when he killed Trayvon Martin in February 2012. It seems worth a try, although the Justice Department will get attacked for even looking into it.
Calling the shooting “tragic and unnecessary,” Mr. Holder said in a speech to the N.A.A.C.P. in Florida that it is time for “our nation to speak honestly — honestly — and openly about the complicated and emotionally charged issues that this case has raised.”
Those issues, he said, include laws like the one in Florida that “senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods.”

Mr. Holder said that Stand Your Ground laws try to fix something that was never broken. He said: “There has always been a legal defense for using deadly force if — and the ‘if’ is important — if no safe retreat is available,” in confrontations outside a person’s home. Removing that requirement undermines public safety “by allowing and perhaps encouraging violent situations to escalate in public.”
Mr. Holder could have added to his list of senseless laws the proliferation of concealed-carry statutes around the country. Florida’s deadly combination of Stand-Your-Ground and concealed carry laid the foundation for an untrained man like Mr. Zimmerman to go out into the night with a gun on his hip looking for people he judged to be criminals.
Would he have gotten out of his truck and followed Mr. Martin if he had not been armed? It’s hard to believe he would have.
While Mr. Holder did not say he believed Mr. Zimmerman was motivated by race, he said there are “disparities that are too commonly swept under the rug” in the way African Americans, particularly young African-American men, are treated by the law.
“Years ago,” he said, “some of these same issues drove my father to sit down with me to have a conversation — which is no doubt familiar to many of you — about how, as a young black man, I should interact with the police, what to say and how to conduct myself if I was ever stopped or confronted in a way that I thought was unwarranted.”
There is no question that the police unjustly stop, question and arrest African Americans at a greater rate than white Americans — just look at New York’s outrageous stop-and-frisk policy. That dynamic is fraught, but perhaps less dangerous than the one between a young black man and an armed civilian looking for “suspicious characters.”

copied from the New York Times.......
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Jul 15, 2013

A Cop's take on the Verdict

The verdict was ridiculous but not surprising.  The only way I would describe the way that I feel is nausea.  I am just sick that this guy got off and his lawyers are going to shamelessly be doing victory laps on TV for the next several weeks.  I also feel so terrible for Trayvon Martin's parents who had to live through that clown show just to see this punk Zimmerman walk. But right now my burning issue is with all of the police officers that defended this idiot from the beginning.  Because as a cop of 11 years myself this burns me especially deeply.
First off I'll just say that for me to write this post I have to be brutally honest about a side of the job that most non-police don't even know that much about, the police-adjacent characters that play a pretty significant role in the career of the average police officer. NO not fireman and EMS.  I'm talking about the other people that if you work the street you get to know by name because you see them that often. They are the medical examiners, the tow truck drivers, and yes at times the Security Types. Security types come in basically two flavors; bouncer types and security guard types.
Security Guard Types:
If you've gone to the calls and done the job you know dudes like this.  You usually meet them pretty early on in your career and you get used to them, they can be clingy at times.  As you gain experience you learn what they do well and what they don't. Most of the time the whole precinct knows who they are.  They will work security at an apartment complex or a gated community.  In my case I worked a pretty rough side of Atlanta so there were no gated communities there, only apartments, and trust me the apartments that had gates were the roughest of all. These security guard types usually know all the neighborhood "stuff".  They know (or purport to know) who sells the drugs and who is breaking in houses.  They definitely know about the noise complaints and the unruly kids.  The teens smoking weed.   Most of the time they wan't you to run some dope-boy off or break up the couple having sex in the parking lot. Or maybe they are in over their head with a thug that they have talked a little to sassy too and they have been told they are going to get beat up or worse.  Sometimes they do get beat up and worse.  There is a place for people like this.  They should be respected for what they do. But they should always respect what role they play and even more than that the limits of their authority.
In my experience this person gets in over their head a lot. There seems to be this struggle between what they perceive as their authority and what they know is their responsibility.  As a cop they can make your life easier if they just keep the little stuff tamped down, (i.e. kids running at the pool, loud music complaints).  But When you drive up and the security guard hands you a 27 ounce bag of weed that they just "confiscated" from someone in a car that is now unoccupied, the occupant of which has since run into a now locked apartment that Mr security just happens to have the key to, and they are begging you to enter (with no warrant), so that they can "help you apprehend the perp", well I think you get the picture. Every single day police officers have to make decisions like this.  All are trained, some better than others. Security officer's choose to make these decisions without the training.
The Bouncer Types:
I can't lie, I've worked off duty at night clubs and been thankful for the security there. I have been in bar fights so massively bad that they looked like a scene from brave heart.  When you are alone and the music is loud and everybody is yelling and screaming and running its hard to get backup so the only thing that has saved my ass a few times was the folks in security until the cavalry got there.  Some of these folks are top notch, some are ex-pro athletes and martial artists. Some are even models and actors so you get a healthy mix. Many a night standing in the cold waiting on my shift to end I've talked to these guys about their dreams and some I've thought would be some really excellent police officers and I've told them so. I've encouraged them in the process, called friends in the department that were recruiters, even given personal references for them.  So I definitely appreciate and respect what they do. At times I've worked with security that were more professional than some of the sworn officers that I worked the streets with. But then of course you've got the real knuckle-dragger's that just love to beat people up and then bring them to you looking like a grapefruit expecting you to look the other way.  They are just clowns through and through and most likely sociopaths.  Some of them may be doing drugs on the job but if they are real turds they may be the ones selling the drugs in the same club they work in. It's a dirty business. But they probably only make up a small part of the population.  
In both groups, a lot of these guys probably work security because they have a desire at some level to be a police officer.  I always took that as a compliment not with disdain.  Law enforcement is an honorable profession and people do good work. But like any other job you have to have good people to do the good work.  I've always believed that it is the combination of intelligence, integrity and courage that makes an average police officer a good officer, but I believe it is empathy that comes with experience that makes a good officer great.  It is the same dynamic for security officers.  The vast majority of these people are hard working folks that are very good at what they do.  They are a true asset to law enforcement as long as they stay in their lane and do what they are supposed to do.  I'm no longer a police officer I'm actually a counselor now.  We have this term in the mental health field that we use that's called "scope of practice".  If you are a mental health counselor, practicing outside of your scope will get your ass in trouble and your license revoked.  Practicing outside your scope of practice in law enforcement will get your certification revoked and your ass prosecuted and put in prison.  But what happens if you are a security guard and you "work outside of your scope of practice"?  Well it looks like you can shoot somebody and walk free.
George Zimmerman:
George fits into a special category that we will just term the perpetual wanna-be. He loves guns, he loves MMA, he watches cops.  He fancies himself a criminal investigator in the making.  He patrols in his personal vehicle, keeps a police scanner and thinks that he has a direct line into dispatch.  The dispatchers on night shift probably do know him by name only because he shows up on caller ID so much.  On the night in question he probably sees Trayvon and for some tragic reason made his mind up that this sneaky perp wasn't going to get away from him this time.  His GUN makes him do things that he shouldn't do because he is basically a coward.  He follows, attacks, then is bested in a ground fight by a 17 year old boy that he outweighed by several pounds that he then decides to shoot at point blank range.  Even the fight scene that played out in Zimmermans mind was written like an urban contemporary movie with Trayvon's last words saying "you got me". (really?)  As a police officer you are trained to use the necessary force to subdue the threat but if there is no longer a deadly threat, deadly force is no longer necessary or approved. Translation = Had this been a real police officer, his ass would be in deep shit.  The local police knew he was a cheese ball. That's why they never hired him. They probably knew him by name.
I think what we have in George Zimmerman is a person who very likely has tried to be a police officer many, many, many times but couldn't for some very good reasons. He has probably tried to apply to police departments and could not pass the entry requirements.  Now from the surface you would say this is because of his size.  You may surmise that he probably couldn't meet the weight or fitness standard. But I disagree.  I would wager that Mr. Zimmerman has probably never gotten past the psyche evaluation.  I'm sure laws prohibit the release of applicant information but I would bet that he has applied to at least 2 or more sheriff or police departments in the area and has been declined.  You see even in a big city it's a relatively small community.  Once you begin applying and fail a polygraph or fail a psych, that follows you.  Chances are he's failed a few and has likely been blacklisted.  Judging from his demeanor and some of the witness statements he may have some delusions as well.  As many voter purges as FL has done it is amazing that this man was able to purchase a weapon after an altercation with police and a DV but I assume that is what having a father in law enforcement will get you.  Just from the 30,000 foot view Zimmerman probably never should have been able to purchase a gun.  Zimmerman never should have held the job that he did. And Zimmerman never should have been able to get away with murder but he did.
That is what is so infuriating and confusing about this case.  Good police officers that I know personally very well, that I have policed with, bled with, have taken sides on this case that are completely contrary to everything they have ever demonstrated in their entire professional lives.  People that would be pulling their eye teeth out with pliers if they had to deal with a guy like Zimmerman on their beat are cheering his acquittal. People that supervise officers.  If this scenario had played out with one of their subordinates shooting an unarmed teen after pursuing them under these circumstances they would have recommended termination at the least and gone all in on an Internal Affairs Investigation are saying the prosecution never had a case.  I am sure that my old department would not have hesitated a moment to prosecute any off duty police officer if they had done the same thing that George Zimmerman did. But for some reason this case triggered some sort of collective fugue state that has clouded every bodies mind.  At some point this became a basketball game for them, our team versus their team. Now we've got defense lawyers doing victory laps, cops cheering prosecutors losing a case and 60% of the country feeling like a guilty man is going free.

copied from the Daily Kos...............

ORIGINALLY POSTED TO MILITANT APATHY ON SUN JUL 14, 2013 AT 03:29 AM PDT.

ALSO REPUBLISHED BY BARRIERS AND BRIDGES AND TRIAL WATCH.

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Jul 14, 2013

Emirati sisters step back in time for clothing line

Roadha Bin Khedia, left, and her sister, Khawla Bin Khedia have launched a collection of clothes for Ramadan. DELORES JOHNSON / The National
Roadha Bin Khedia, left, and her sister, Khawla Bin Khedia have launched a collection of clothes for Ramadan. DELORES JOHNSON / The National

Emirati sisters step back in time for clothing line

Jul 14, 2013 
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DUBAI // Two up-and-coming Emirati designers have created a range of clothes using traditional Bedouin fabrics and techniques - and a little help from their grandmother.

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Sisters Khawla and Roadha bin Khedia have launched their second clothing line in time for Ramadan using rarely used fabrics and styles passed down through the generations, from their grandparents and great grandparents.
The entrepreneurs, aged 20 and 18, chose to come up with a more sporty, casual line of garments rather than what they describe as the "predictable" abayas designed each year for the holy month.
The special fabrics were sourced from traditional souqs and stores in old Dubai and by adding Arabic letters and embroidery. The sisters hope they have found a way of educating their customers about a little piece of UAE history.
"Ramadan is a very cultural time and we wanted that to be reflected in the collection," Roadha said. "We educate ourselves religiously through the Hadiths and it's a time for learning."
The sisters sought advice from their grandmother, who makes her own clothes. She taught the girls about traditional Bedouin handmade fabrics used to make garments such as a shayla munagatah, a transparent head covering for women, and a badla, worn by men underneath their kandura.
"Through this project, we haven't just learnt the religious history but the cultural history too," Khawla said.
The name of the fabric is written in Arabic on the back of the girls' tops, T-shirts and dresses, while on the front Arabic numbers are written out from 1 to 31, representing the days of the month.
"Our great grandmother who is 90 is so happy we are learning about these things," Roadha said. "She was really surprised we knew this because today nobody knows the names of these. They may see them on the Freej cartoons but we actually did something with them and brought them back."
Tags explaining why the fabric was chosen, its history and its name are attached to each piece of the collection, which has lines for men and women.
Khawla and Roadha, who are both students at Zayed University, said support from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, had been pivotal in inspiring them to pursue their dream.
"Sheikh Mohammed really cares about education and the future of young Emiratis," said Khawla, who will start her fourth year of strategic communications after the summer break. "This is why we were so encouraged to take this further than just doing our clothing. We felt there was a lot of support."
Roadha, who is due to begin her second year of graphic design, said: "Other girls have seen what we've done and it's made them realise we can all do this if we really want to.
"It's great to be able to inspire other people to do what we've done. It's been a case of time management. In our free time at university we design, we go to meetings. It's not been easy but we love it."
The girls, whose family is split between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, will continue to work on their clothes throughout Ramadan.
Their creations have already attracted attention from customers in Saudi Arabia and Britain.
"People are hearing about us through social media. We were amazed to have a woman get in touch from the UK," Khawla said.
The clothes are sold in four boutiques in Dubai and are being taken on by the House of Fraser group.
"We'd love to go international," Roadha said. "We sold out when we put our products in a bazaar in Qatar, so this is our next step."
Natalie Vesaloo, a Briton who lives in Dubai, saw the collection when it launched last week at O Boutique in Jumeirah.
"I love to see fashion blended with something more authentic," she said. "There's a real gap in the market for this kind of clothing.


Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/emirati-sisters-step-back-in-time-for-clothing-line#ixzz2Z2g1NyHd
Follow us: @TheNationalUAE on Twitter | thenational.ae on Facebook


copied from The National.......
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“Enemy of the Truth” – Sherry Fiester on Radio Amerika Now--LIsten

July 13, 2013 “Enemy of the Truth,” – Sherry Fiester,  Hilary Hart, “Body of Wisdom” and Dr. Joseph Cardillo, “The Five Seasons”

By Barb Adams
13 July 2013 – Archives/Pod Casts              Hour 1 -    Hour 2 -    Hour 3
Hour 1:  Sherry Fiester
Joining Amerika Now during the first hour of the show is prominent author, lecturer, educator and retired Certified Senior Crime Scene Investigator and law enforcement instructor Sherry Fiester, who will be discussing her book,Enemy of the Truth:  Myths, Forensics, and the Kennedy Assassination.
While President John F. Kennedy’s assassination has been the most studied murder investigation in American history for nearly 50 years, many of its mysteries remain unsolved.  Fiester’s book, Enemy of the Truth, utilizes current forensic techniques to reveal compelling information that not only resolves some of those questions, but more importantly, does so while meeting the evidentiary standard required to support a criminal conviction in today’s courtroom.
Enemy of the Truth is endorsed by prominent historians, educators, Kennedy assassination researchers, and forensic experts.  Written from the perspective of a court-certified forensic investigator, the book addresses Kennedy’s murder as an unsolved major crime.
Fiester is a retired Forensic Investigator and Police instructor with over 30 years of experience.  She’s testified as a court-certified expert in crime scene investigation, crime scene reconstruction, and bloodstain pattern analysis in Louisiana Federal Court and over 30 judicial districts in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida.  In addition, Sherry is a regular speaker at JFK Lancer’s November in Dallas Conferences and is scheduled to present at Cyril Wecht’s Conference in October.
The Kennedy assassination has held the interest of the world for almost 50 years.  Fiester will explain how modern CSI techniques can be applied to this historical event, specifically addressing the validity of a grassy knoll shooter using modern trajectory analysis.
Sherry Fiester is a retired Certified Senior Crime Scene Investigator and law enforcement instructor with 30 years of experience. She has testified as a court-certified expert in crime scene investigation, crime scene reconstruction, and bloodstain pattern analysis in Louisiana Federal Court and over 30 judicial districts in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. Author of numerous articles in professional publications, Fiester is recognized as an instructor in her field at state and national levels.
Fiester has presented forensic findings at the Coalition on Political Assassinations Conference (COPA) in Washington, DC in 1995, the Dealey Plaza Echo Annual Kennedy Assassination Conference in the United Kingdom in 1996, and at JFK Lancer November in Dallas Historical Research Conferences since 1996. Fiester is a recipient of the prestigious JFK Lancer-Mary Ferrell New Pioneer Award, presented for advancing a better understanding of evidence in the Kennedy Assassination through innovative research.
Now retired from police work, Fiester is a prominent author, lecturer, and educator.  Enemy of Truth: Myths, Forensics, and the JFK Assassination is her first in a series of upcoming publications utilizing various forensic disciplines to address important subjects of interest to Americans in the 21st century.   Her next book, Demystifying Mind Control, is slated for release in late 2013.
For more information, please visit http://www.sherryfiester.com/.
“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest; but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.” – John F Kennedy
PLEASE CALL  800-259-5791  TO SPEAK WITH SHERRY.
copied from Radio Amerika Now......
here is the website to Radio Amerika Now.....

 http://radioamerikanow.com/?p=6594
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Jul 13, 2013

Canadian Fans Are Looking for George Strombo on CNN Too...

copied from the blog.....Canadian Crossing.......

here is the link to this blog......

http://balanceoffood.typepad.com/canadian_crossing/2013/07/stroumboulopoulos-finally-returns-to-cnn-tonight.html

JULY 12, 2013

'Stroumboulopoulos' finally returns to CNN tonight

Editor's note: "Stroumboulopoulos" did not air Friday night nor in its early Saturday morning rebroadcast. We did get a lot of repeats of Anderson Cooper and the George Zimmerman trial. We double checked @StromboCNN on Twitter and Facebook and they both said the program was going to air July 12.
We will update this story as needed. We'd like to see this program finish its run, but CNN isn't too eager to share our sentiment. Nor will CNN communicate with us on the pre-emptions.
"Stroumboulopoulos" is back on the air on CNN tonight at 11 pm Eastern as George Stroumboulopoulos talks to Larry King, Aisha Tyler, and UFC president Dana White. If this guest lineup sounds familiar, and it should, this was the episode CNN was supposed to air on June 28.
If you tried to tape the show on June 28, you got an episode of "Anderson Cooper Special Report" dealing with serial killers. Episodes of "Boston's Finest" aired the night of July 5.
Consistency of schedule is significant in determining ratings; a last-minute switch of the debut episode to a different night and this 2-week lull hasn't helped.
The last episode that did air (June 21) had an excellent lineup. Bill Maher along with Canadians Jay Baruchel and Ellen Page was the best show we've seen so far.
Chasing down information about the show and when it airs is difficult if you rely on the CNN Web site. Also, you can't find episodes to watch later on, in case of a scheduling mishap. The Facebook page for Stroumboulopoulos on CNN was a lot more helpful.
The show takes on a distinct tone compared to other talk shows. Too many of them are about promoting some hapless project, where George Stroumboulopoulos tries to have a conversation. I learned a lot more about Jay Baruchel (cat care) than I would have learned from any other source. Stroumboulopoulos made me like Henry Winkler more after that interview.
We realize that the "Stroumboulopoulos" experiment is only for the summer, and there is little to no chance that George will permanently cross into the United States. But the show is an opportunity to showcase a Canadian talent who appreciates other Canadian talent. And that show should be treated better than erratic scheduling.
Hopefully, the bumps in the road are gone, but we aren't holding our breath.
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