Casual Observation

10 Comments

1. 

   LosGatosCA on June 7, 2015 at 7:11 pm

   Every day I think it’s amazing how uniformly stupid and wrong the MSM is.

   But it’s clear peak stupid, peak wrong, peak wingnut are just theoretical concepts that are never realized.

   It seems there must be an inexhaustible supply of lead paint chips for these people to chew on.

2. 

   Errol on June 7, 2015 at 7:12 pm

   I guess it wouldn’t have anything to do with reality then

3. 

   TarheelDem on June 7, 2015 at 7:49 pm

   It’s amazing how campaign rhetoric distracts people from voting records.

   I would be curious to know what the opinion author’s role was in the Edwards campaign.  And how the WaPo came to get his opinion.

   • 

     Phil Perspective on June 7, 2015 at 8:57 pm

     Tankersley is an idiot.  He wrote dumb crap last week too.

     • 

       TarheelDem on June 7, 2015 at 10:36 pm

       Bezos’s Bozos living up to the nickname.

4. 

   Parallax on June 7, 2015 at 9:10 pm

   I’m not sure how anyone could paint Edwards as an idealist. He had an attractive platform to those of us on the left, but just the risk to which he subjected our interests by running (given all the skeletons in his closet) makes clear John Edwards was in it for John Edwards.

5. 

   Geov Parrish on June 7, 2015 at 10:12 pm

   Tankersley is from Oregon. Oregon doesn’t want him back.

6. 

   rikyrah on June 7, 2015 at 10:21 pm

   OT: Alycee @jazziz2
   Kalief Browder, 1993-2015 http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/kalief-browder-1993-2015 … via @newyorker | Succumbed to the after effects of 3 years of NY state sponsored tourture
   7:21 PM – 7 Jun 2015

   …………………………….

   “Last fall, I wrote about a young man named Kalief Browder, who spent three years on Rikers Island without being convicted of a crime. He had been arrested in the spring of 2010, at age sixteen, for a robbery he insisted he had not committed. Then he spent more than one thousand days on Rikers waiting for a trial that never happened. During that time, he endured about two years in solitary confinement, where he attempted to end his life several times….

   Ever since I’d met him, Browder had been telling me stories about having been abused by officers and inmates on Rikers. The stories were disturbing, but I did not fully appreciate what he had experienced until this past April when I obtained surveillance footage of an officer assaulting him and of a large group of inmates pummeling and kicking him. I sat next to Kalief while he watched these videos for the first time. Afterward, we discussed whether they should be published on The New Yorker’s Web site. I told him that it was his decision. He said to put them online…”

7. 

   Ed Tracey on June 7, 2015 at 10:32 pm

   Edwards was someone we were fortunate not to have nominated (much less elected) ….. but now that his Two Americas are becoming a reality for more and more non-wealthy Americans, I’m mighty glad to see that theme becoming more accepted.

8. 

   rikyrah on June 8, 2015 at 9:38 am

   OT: One Year Later-Racial symposium at Colerain High School

   Mending community after teens’ constitutional rights violated.
     Kate LeDonne

   15 Apr 2015, 14:02 GMT

   Imagine a group of teenage boys in high school making a music video for a digital media class. The music video gets an “A”. They post it online in typical teenage fashion with teenage boy swagger.

   Then, the next thing they know, they’re being put in a room with armed police and their phones and bags confiscated.
   ……………………………………………

   Sadly, a year ago, in April 2014, this is what happened in Colerain High School. In the aftermath, the parents of four of the African-American teenagers filed suit against the Northwest Local School District and several Colerain Police officers for violating their children’s Constitutional rights.

   The following is a basic summary of the events that took place.

   School administrators accused more than a dozen African-American teens of making so-called “street” signs and being member of a gang. Local police and school administrators had scoured social media sites and gathered photographs of the accused. The administrators said the postings made several unidentified parents feel uncomfortable. Police Chief Mark Denney saw rounding up the students as a proactive way to squash the rumors of gang activity at Colerain High School.

   These students were scapegoated and criminalized because of the ignorance of a select few members of the community. School administrators and police rounded the kids up, and detained them in a windowless room without telling them why. The room was secured by armed police and the students’ phones, backpacks and bookbags were confiscated. Some of the kids were held for up to 5 hours in this manner, without bathrooms breaks, food or water. There were no attorneys present, nor any parents present.

   One of the accused students became upset, and when he raised his voice, a school administrator who was guarding the teen said,”Now we have our infraction!” A police officer then placed the teen in handcuffs.

   The kids were expelled from school. Their trust in the school administration irretrievably broken. Ultimately, the teens were expelled. They lost more than 10 days at school. One lost employment as a videographer. One lost access to the weightlifting equipment. The real loss was mutual trust and respect in the community between kids and those in positions of authority.

   The local police started harassing them over the summer. One teen was given a jaywalking ticket for an address that didn’t exist. They were banned by local police from going to a local festival “Taste of Colerain”. The teens became frightened to go anywhere without a parent, understandably.

   Since last year, the expulsions have been removed from their record and all involved are working toward mutual respect. I sincerely hope they are successful.

   http://youtu.be/HdDsk9-csGk

   https://www.the-newshub.com/general/one-year-later