Here are some Al-Jazeera journalists being tear gassed in Ferguson last night. If they don’t count, how about the Wesley Lowery from the Washington Post, who was arrested last night, making Ferguson and Tehran the two places where Post reporters have been arrested this year.
Archives for August 2014
Open Thread
At the Bundy ranch, white anti-government militia wanna-bes pointed loaded firearms at federal employees and law enforcement officers in the support of a criminal, and nothing happened.
In Ferguson, MO, a young African American was killed by a police officer for jaywalking, and the city and county police have attacked the mostly African American citizens with baton rounds, tear gas, armored vehicles, and riot gear while threatening them with automatic rifles.
Where are all the 2nd Amendment open carry zealots to defend people who are actually under attack by an out of control government?
Yeah, I thought so.
I’ll just note that Ferguson PD and St. Louis County PD brought heavier gear to a civil protest than I had to fight the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents. My troops however, were better trained and disciplined. Most of the Vets that I’ve been tweeting with back and forth throughout the day and evening are shocked at the police tactics throughout the day. We were taught to diffuse tensions when dealing with agitated civilians and civil disturbance and the actions of local law enforcement in in the Ferguson area seem geared to inflame the situation.
Ryan J. Reilly, who was arrested and released earlier this evening reports that a peaceful protest is currently taking place across the street from the main police station in Ferguson.
Anyway, open thread.
UPDATE: Governor Jay Nixon (D-MO) has finally issued a statement.
Late Night Open Thread: Second Verse, Same As the First…
6 hours ago Ryan Reilly introduced himself to me in a McDonalds. Then we ended up in jail. Wonder what he's got planned for our second date
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 14, 2014
Phenomenal reporting by @WesleyLowery from Ferguson – if you're not following him or reading his timeline, you should.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 14, 2014
The Washington Post gets a lot of grief, much of it well-deserved, but they have been stepping up on the ongoing Ferguson disaster.
FERGUSON, Mo. — When an unarmed black teenager and a police officer crossed paths here last weekend with fatal results, the incident cast a blinding spotlight on a small police department struggling for authority and relevance in a changing community…
But while the racial disparity between the public here and its protectors has come to define the violent aftermath of Brown’s death, the department’s problems stretch back years and include questions about its officers’ training and racial sensitivity.
The office of Missouri’s attorney general concluded in an annual report last year that Ferguson police were twice as likely to arrest African Americans during traffic stops as they were whites.
And late last year, the state chapter of the NAACP filed a federal complaint against the St. Louis County police department, whose officers are now assisting Ferguson’s force since the shooting, over racial disparities in traffic stops, arrests and other actions…
(h/t commentor Tissue-Thin Pseudonym/JMN)
Late Night Open Thread: Second Verse, Same As the First…Post + Comments (38)
Chicago, Illinois, 1968 Ferguson, Misery, 2014
.@jelani9 @SusanGDailyKos It must be something about the way you're dressed….
— billmon (@billmon1) August 13, 2014
In addition to civil rights memories, #Ferguson also has a Chicago 1968 vibe to it: Cops just itching to crack skulls of "liberal media."
— billmon (@billmon1) August 14, 2014
In Chicago in '68 they took their badges off. They know how to do things in Chicago.
— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) August 14, 2014
.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”
I had just finished the eighth grade when the 1968 DNC happened. Not sure if any of the other front-pagers, apart from Kay, had even been born…
<del>Chicago, Illinois, 1968</del> Ferguson, Misery, 2014Post + Comments (247)
Four Words I Thought I’d Never Write
The big news about former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer this week was his purchase of the Clippers for $2 billion, but it appears he’s dipped into the coffers recently for political activism, too. According to newly released financial disclosures, Ballmer and his wife, Connie, have poured $580,000 into gun control efforts in Washington state.
The initiative has raised about $3.4 million
Following the Sandy Hook shootings, gun control advocates proposed a ballot initiative to close loopholes that allow for background check-free purchases of firearms, if the purchases are made online or at gun shows. Because of Ballmer — and other ex-Microsoft bigshots including Bill Gates and Jon Shirley, who have made smaller donations — the initiative is now significantly outpacing a competing gun-rights campaign, at about $3.4 million to $1.1 million. […]
At least the guy responsible for missing mobile for years, and for Windows 8, did something right.
Livestream of Ferguson Protests
Here:
It’s kind of surreal, like a Coen Brothers meets Terry Gilliam kind of way- church music cranking, the crowd peacefully clapping and singing along, all while snipers or armored vehicles train weapons on the crowd. The stark contrast between the white officers and predominantly black crowd is telling.
There are rumors that reporters Ryan J. Reilly and Wesley Lowery have been detained by the Police.
*** Update ***
Police come into McD where me and @ryanjreilly working. Try to kick everyone out.
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 13, 2014
Was arrested
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 14, 2014
Also Ryan Reilly of Huff Po. Assaulted and arrested
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 14, 2014
Officers decided we weren't leaving McDonalds quickly enough, shouldn't have been taping them.
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 14, 2014
I guess if being black and unarmed warrants the death penalty, eating too slowly at McDonalds warrants a beating and arrest.
*** Update ***
Last update deleted. May not be verified and I don’t want to inflame shit.
*** Update ***
Remember a week or so ago when I said it looks like black people are getting the summer off. Anyone want to talk about something else less embarrassing? Maybe my two votes for Bush or my peak wingnut theory?
Open Thread: Dick Santorum – He’s White, He’s Rested, He’s Ready!
Forget all the sunny “morning in America” nostaliga — Rick “It’s My Turn” Santorum is going direct for the bitter soul of the Silent Majority voter, whether or not the nattering nabobs of the mainstream media can crack the code. Here’s Ben Jacobs, at the Daily Beast:
Among potential Republican presidential contenders in the 2016 Iowa caucuses, Rick Santorum is polling at around 6 percent. He’s mired behind more than a half-dozen candidates, some of whom have never campaigned the Hawkeye State, let alone won the first in the nation’s caucuses. But while the former Pennsylvania senator may not be in an ideal position for a presidential hopeful, he’s still light-years beyond where he was was at this time four years ago…
… Being so behind in the polls for 2016, the former Pennsylvania senator was under particular pressure to deliver a strong performance at Saturday’s Family Leader Summit in Ames, Iowa. Bob Vander Plaats, the summit’s organizer and a leading Iowa social conservative, told The Daily Beast that as “the defending champion,” Santorum’s speech had some of “the highest stakes” of anyone who appeared. Vander Plaats said he thought the former Pennsylvania senator needed to remind attendees “why he won the Iowa caucuses and why he’s the one to champion their values and lead on those moving forward.” Instead, in a unique appeal, Santorum avoided hot button social issues almost totally and did something peculiar: He went after Ronald Reagan…
Both Friday night in Boone and at the bigger Family Leader Summit on Saturday in Ames, Santorum gave what has become his standard stump speech, focusing on themes from his book Blue Collar Conservatives. But unlike some other GOP presidential hopefuls, he appeared more focused on using his book to promote his potential candidacy than the other way around…
In contrast to Cruz’s pep rally, Santorum could sound as much like a political analyst as a candidate, as when he noted on Friday that this year’s Senate races were especially important because the GOP would almost inevitably lose seats in the upper chamber in 2016…
… Santorum is in the mix, which is remarkable for a politician who has been out of public office for eight years and whose last general election was in 2000. As he told reporters after his speech on Saturday, he plans on being back in Iowa often and encouraging congressional candidates, particularly in the more Democratic-leaning, eastern half of the state, to adopt his message. It will certainly be an uphill battle for Santorum, who has to gain roughly 25 percent in the polls over the next 18 months in the Hawkeye State. Then again, he only needed one month to accomplish the same feat in 2012.
Dave Weigel is more alert to the actual audience:
… At the county picnic, Santorum was constantly, politely interrupted by well-wishers who had met him before. He spent much of his downtime kibbitzing with Rep. Steve King, the local congressman, who kept looking at Santorum during his remarks about how the conservative movement needed to settle on a champion in 2016. (King endorsed Fred Thompson in the eleventh hour of the 2008 caucuses, and stayed neutral in 2012.)
“We have had the same message on the economy for 35 years,” said Santorum. “Every single Republican that runs, they talk about the same three things on the economy. Number one, cut taxes. Number two, shrink the government. Number three, balance the budget. Can you imagine Ronald Reagan in 1979 giving a speech and saying, ‘as Wendell Willkie said’?” It was a laugh line. “Because that’s how long ago, 35 years, it was from Willkie to Reagan. Wendell Willkie!”…
Wendell Wilkie — dark-horse, liberal, bankers’-choice flip-flopper, “last nominee of either of the two major U.S. political parties to have never held elected or appointed office”. Much like that rich-kid pretender the GOP stupidly nominated in 2012! You’ll get none of that one-world pablum from Pastor Sanctorum, you miserable sinners!…
Which would be entirely risible, except for the fact that Richard Nixon won two terms in the Oval Office.
***********
While we contemplate yet more unpleasant recycling of 1960s tropes, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Open Thread: Dick Santorum – He’s White, He’s Rested, He’s Ready!Post + Comments (17)