Author: Indianadem

H/T to Kelly McCullough

From The Infamous Brad ~ “Sometimes, When “All the Facts are In,” It’s Worse: The UC-Davis Pepper-Spray Report”

You know how every time somebody in law enforcement does something that looks bad, we’re told that we should “wait until the facts are in” before passing judgment? Well, after Lieutenant Pike of the UC Davis Police Department became an internet meme by using high-pressure pepper-spray on peaceful resisters, the campus hired an independent consulting firm to interview everybody they could find, review all the videos and other evidence, review the relevant policies and laws, and issue a final fact-finding report to the university. The university just released that report, along with their summary (PDF link), and the final report is even worse than the news accounts made it seem.

Coming soon to a campus, city or town near you.

See more on Know Your Meme

John L. Micek of The Morning Call reports the Pennsylvania Senate voted 26 – 23 yesterday to advance a photo voter ID bill to the House for approval.

The majority-Republican state Senate voted 26-23, largely  along party lines, after hours of grueling debate to approve legislation that backers say is intended to cut down on fraud at the polls. It now returns to the Republican-controlled state House which is expected to approve it. Corbett has said he supports the concept.

The predictable line we’ve all heard before was, of course, included in the discussion.

“This bill is a simple, commonsense measure to protect the integrity of the voting process, which is the foundation of our democracy,” Senate Majority Leader Dominic PIleggi, R-Delaware, said. “No voter will be turned away on Election Day. That simple fact appears to get lost in the hyperbole of this debate.”

Yeah, right. Here in Indiana, they’re even turning nuns away from the polls. Maybe its time to invoke the wrath of Sister Mary Stigmata aka… The Penguin.

A few weeks ago, the former Republican Indiana Secretary of State, Charlie White was convicted of 6 felony counts of voter fraud.

“Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White guilty of voter fraud? But… but… what about the Great and Powerful Voter ID Law that was supposed to prevent all that? This is the guy who is charge of elections for the entire state – the big cheese – the top banana and he cheated! Oh, the arrogance!”

Charlie was sentenced yesterday and the felony convictions will stand (pending appeals) meaning ol’ Charlie won’t get to supervise elections in Indiana any more. The action now moves to the Indiana Supreme Court for a battle over who will be his replacement. Our Little Guv contends he’s the decider, but Indiana law at the time of the original election says otherwise.

The Indiana Supreme Court will hear arguments on that issue Wednesday. Its decision will determine whether Gov. Mitch Daniels can name White’s successor or whether Vop Osili, the Democrat who lost to White in November 2010, will take over.

State Dems already have one determination in their corner.

Democrats claim that Osili is the rightful winner of the election because a Marion County judge ruled that White was improperly registered to vote at his ex-wife’s house and was ineligible to be a candidate. State law at the time of the 2010 election said that the second-place finisher — in this case, Osili — is declared the winner.

The party holding the office of Secretary Of State will have their candidates listed first on the ballot in November.

I was pleased to see my former state senator and colleague get some praise in The Village Voice.

Vi Simpson: The Woman Who Punked The Radical Republicans in the Indiana State Senate and Their Creationist Bill

After interviewing Vi Simpson, the Indiana State Senate Minority Leader, I’m wondering why the hell I haven’t already seen this woman on national television or in the mainstream press.

I hope you see what I mean after you hear what she had to say about the way she crippled the latest Creationism-in-the-schools bill with a brilliant stratagem: by convincing the radical Republicans in the Indiana State Senate that if they want to teach Christianity in the schools, they’re also going to have to teach Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and even Scientology.

Even though the Republicans managed to shrink her district down to little more than the city of Bloomington last year, she still has the edge on them in creative amending (and much more).

More like Vi in statehouses everywhere, please!

Indiana Secretary Of State Charlie White guilty of voter fraud? But… but… what about the Great and Powerful Voter ID Law (.pdf) that was supposed to prevent all that? This is the guy who is charge of elections for the entire state – the big cheese – the top banana and he cheated! Oh, the arrogance!

NOBLESVILLE, Ind. — Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White was convicted of six felonies early this morning, and consequently lost his job.

But the Republican could get it back soon.

White, 42, Fishers, plans to ask a judge to reduce his convictions – all class D felonies – to misdemeanors at sentencing. It’s uncertain whether that move would allow him to reclaim his job.

“We don’t know the right answer to that,” White said. “This is all very new.”

The little man behind the curtain is scheming even now to keep the office in Republican hands for the 2012 election.

“I have chosen not to make a permanent appointment today out of respect for the judge’s authority to lessen the verdict to a misdemeanor and reinstate the elected office holder,” the Republican governor said in the news release.

Beware – flying monkeys are on the loose in Indiana.

The quintessential “Mom and Pop Small Business” that the GOP loves to crow about helping is in big trouble through no fault of its own. Is an incident like this something the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would be interested in?  

A neighborhood gathering place which has been an Indiana University icon for decades was hit for over $1 million in fraudulent debit card chargebacks over a short period around Thanksgiving.

The trouble began early on Nov. 23 when Nick’s co-owner and financial manager Susan Bright fielded a call from a prepaid debit card company reporting suspicious activity on the Bloomington bar’s account. It “flagged” six charges to Nick’s — each just under $1,000 apiece — and the company representative said the charges stood out because they all came from a card number with no previous activity at the establishment.

Nick’s English Hut is owned and operated by a local couple and has employed both students and permanent residents since the 1920s. Lots of celebrities have stopped by the place over the years, even the POTUS.

Nick’s has hosted many famous celebrities over the years, including musicians Roberta Peters, Dominic Spera, Al Cobine, Stan Kenton, Henry Mancini, John Mellencamp, Bix Beiderbecke, and Hoagie Carmichael; writers and actors Kurt Vonnegut, Art Buchwald, Dylan Thomas, Ernie Pyle, Kevin Klein, and Truman Capote; as well as athletic figures Steve Kinser, Fuzzy Zoeller, Bob Knight, and the 1984 Olympic basketball team, which included Michael Jordan.

 Although the owners may eventually be compensated for their losses, the temporary hold on customer credit card purchases is causing major cash flow problems and they’ve had to scramble to find loans to cover their day to day operations. The case is being handled by the FBI.

IU started doing something about cybersecurity and related matters all the way back in 2003. Its time the GOP stopped posturing and joined the protection effort. No one can predict who the next victim might be. Bloomberg’s opinion? Obama played politics with the Cordray appointment. No, sorry – the Republicans have been playing politics for quite some months now with this and lots of other appointments. There are no grounds for complaint left.

An interesting perspective from Naomi Wolf.

The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class’s venality.

In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on “how to suppress” Occupy protests.

No press allowed.

The New York Times reported that “New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers” covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that “It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk.”

Ya think somebody touched a nerve somewhere?

The social upheaval of the 1960s and 70s may have been the open door to a reporting and writing style unlike that previously seen by the mainstream media and publishing houses of the day. Could the next generation of the New Journalism pioneered by Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer and others, already be underway? We’ve been hearing rumblings from the contemporary MSM for some time on the blogger/journalist issue and seen firewalls erected on previously free websites. Now, apparently feeling threatened, the Associated Press is whining at staff to stay off Twitter, even though they may be in the middle of, or even swept up into the midst of a developing event.

Associated Press Staff Scolded for Tweeting Too Quickly About OWS Arrests

“In relation to AP staff being taken into custody at the Occupy Wall Street story, we’ve had a breakdown in staff sticking to policies around social media and everyone needs to get with their folks now to tell them to knock it off,”

So will Twitter be the vehicle for an abbreviated style of New Journalism? Mathew Ingram has a few thoughts.

Memo to AP: Twitter is the newswire now

Updated: It’s a distributed digital-information network that gives subscribers short news updates in something approaching real time, whether on the web or a mobile device. If you said Twitter, you would be right. But that same description also fits traditional newswires like Associated Press and Reuters. So how are they trying to evolve and compete with this new social news service? According to an internal memo obtained by New York magazine, AP’s response is to admonish its reporters for posting news to Twitter instead of saving it for the company’s traditional wire-service subscribers — even though the news in question was about their own arrest in a crackdown on an Occupy Wall Street demonstration.

OTOH, Reuters is sounding a bit more pragmatic.

Reuters reporter Robert MacMillan made effectively the same point on Twitter, saying a news service that waits and tries to “save” the news for later is really just asking to be beaten by another service that decides not to wait. And Anthony De Rosa, the social-media editor for Reuters (the AP’s major competitor) wrote in a blog post that the wire service sees posting news to Twitter and other social networks as a key part of its business, not competition for the traditional wire

Save the news for later and be beaten by another service or <gasp> a DFH protester. Oh the shame!

The news that police reaction to the Wall Street protests turned violent yesterday probably comes as no surprise to most who visit here. There’s coverage, including photos and video at The Guardian, Common Dreams and Occupy Wall Street.

The Guardian News Blog

The scenes are showing signs of attracting high-profile criticism. Anne-Marie Slaughter, who was director of policy planning, at the State Department from 2009 to 2011, said on Twitter: “Not the image or reality the US wants, at home or abroad,” linking to a picture of a police officer kneeling on a protester pinned to the ground.

Common Dreams

A video posted on YouTube and NYDailyNews.com shows uniformed officers had corralled the women using orange nets when two supervisors made a beeline for the women, and at least one suddenly sprayed the women before turning and quickly walking away.

From the 99 percent at Occupy Wall Street

We stand in solidarity with homeowners across the country and the world whose homes are in the process of being stolen by faceless conglomerations motivated only by profit. We are the 99 percent. We will not let you steal our homes. We will not let you deprive us of a basic right, shelter, so that you can buy a home you do not use. We are here. We are growing. And we will not be moved.
Live stream
Twitter

The US media finally begins to jump in today.

Update [2011-9-26 20:42:50 by Indianadem]: Police violence was captured by a freelance photographer during the Saturday march returning from Union Square.

The protesters were marching back to Zuccotti Park when the NYPD turned violent. Hitting, arresting and forcing protesters into a small area. At that point a NYPD supervisor yelled shut up to one of the protesters and shot pepper spray into her eyes point blank range and hitting a half dozen protesters (including 3 police officers) when they had nowhere to go.

Tis the season of book banning again in the central wack zone. This time, Kurt Vonnegut and Sarah Ockler are the targets.

I’m surprised to see an op-ed of this tone in the normally right-leaning Indy Star. Maybe its because Vonnegut is a favorite son.

Last week, the school board of Republic, Mo., voted 4-0 to ban two books, one of them Indianapolis native Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughter-House Five.” The vote came in response to a complaint lodged by a resident named Wesley Scroggins, who home schools his children.

Apparently, removing his kids from public schools wasn’t enough for Scroggins. By his reckoning, “Slaughter-House Five” — named the 18th Greatest English Language Novel of the 20th Century by the Modern Library — failed to meet moral standards of his favorite book, the Bible.

The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis is providing relief to the more enlightened citizens of Republic by shipping copies of the banned text to the area.

The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library stepped into the fray after a Missouri high school banned one of the Indiana-born author’s best-known books.

The Indianapolis library plans to ship copies of “Slaughterhouse-Five” to families in Republic, Mo., who ask for them, Library executive director Julia Whitehead said Friday.

While they’re at it, the library should include copies of Fahrenheit 451 as well.