Chicago’s new claim to fame: Murder capital of our nation.
here’s a website with all of the details:
This is pathetic.
Author: Superpole
Obama’s Pot Problem
Now that states have started legalizing recreational marijuana, will the president continue the government’s war on weed?
Obama, the former constitutional-law professor, has relied on the expansive powers of the chief executive when it serves him politically – providing amnesty to a generation of Dream Act immigrants, or refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court. A one-time pothead who gave a shout-out to his dealer in his high school yearbook, Obama could single-handedly end the insanity of marijuana being treated like heroin under the Controlled Substances Act with nothing more than an executive order.
Regarding our absurd gun violence/death problem, both the president and the vice president have more or less demanded common sense and the will of the people prevail.
Why not the same approach to our equally absurd war on drugs– particularly marijuana? Opiod abuse alone in our nation now kills around 15,000 people per year. Think about that number for a minute. Does the use of marijuana cause even remotely similar harm?
President Obama starts his second term this weekend. The feeble “it’s not politically expedient for him to advocate legalization of marijuana” excuse no longer applies.
The new laws also compel Colorado and Washington to license private businesses to cultivate and sell pot, and to levy taxes on the proceeds. Together, the two states expect to reap some $600 million annually in marijuana revenues for schools, roads and other projects. The only losers, in fact, will be the Mexican drug lords, who currently supply as much as two-thirds of America’s pot.
The other economic boon which I think the RS article overlooks is legalization means fewer people in state prisons. that’s a savings of what? $30,000 per year per person not incarcerated?
We all know states need more revenue, infrastructure repair; the increased tax revenue from legalization provides the funding, and the concurrent new jobs which are also obviously needed.
It’s time for our President to act with some common sense on this issue.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obamas-pot-problem-20121207
DNC Held in Anti-Union State – Happy Labor Day!!
Once again, political expediency is put ahead of common sense and respect by the Democratic Party.
“Labor has no place to go.” – Chris Hayes
WHAT WOULD Democrats be without labor? Where would they be?
What would the American middle class look like without unions? Before we met, my own husband was in a situation for many years in Nevada where the threat of unionization in the company where he worked solidified his living wage and benefits.
So, why, in the middle of a union fight in Wisconsin, did Pres. Obama decide to not only sidestep the discussion, but stay well away from offering anything but the most perfunctory support?
Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Democrats in Wisconsin fielded a candidate against Scott Walker who said he wasn’t a union man. Except that wouldn’t stop the President from making the argument about Gov. Scott Walker’s governorship stripping workers of a path to middle class prosperity by gutting collective bargaining. Pres. Obama’s numbers with blue collar workers aren’t exactly great, so it could have benefited every Democrat. Instead all we got from the leader of the Democratic Party as labor went to battle was one tweet.
As a former UAW member raised in a union family, I am insulted by the Democratic Party’s decision to hold their 2012 convention in an anti-union state.
Weak, very weak.
Our so called congresspeople attending the convention, whooping it up and having a great time (on our dime) while we have around twenty million UNemployed/underemployed people is also an insult and frankly, a disaster.
it proves just how out of touch “our” representatives are.
Happy Labor Day??
NOT.
http://www.taylormarsh.com/blog/2012/09/democrats-prepare-to-celebrate-in-anti-union-north-carolina/
FALSE Premise: We Cannot Preempt Rampage Killing in the U.S.
This is for the family of and for Christina Taylor-Green, an innocent child shot down in cold blood by a madman armed with deadly weapons, and all the rest who continue to suffer from our obvious domestic terror problem. I refuse to concede to armed madmen and to the total enablers of these madmen– currently “serving” in our Congress and the sad enablers running the NRA. Everything in our Constitution and contained in any sort of moral/religious code demands we must take action.
I’m not interested in endless “analysis” of the problem. And I’m not interested in yet another congressional “study” of the problem. we’ve seen this movie several times now. There IS a discernible pattern.
Not interested in snarky references to the great Phillip K. Dick. I’ve read most of his books, some of them twice. I know enough to guess he’d be wondering why
we don’t do more to stop the carnage– given the technology at our disposal, and the gigantic amount of our tax dollars spent by local, state, federal law enforcement and various security agencies (16? of them).
Not interested in sacrificing further innocent lives, including dozens of children per year, on the altar of the Second Amendment. That said, nothing as drastic as repeal of the Second Amendment is needed.
I’m not implying ALL mass murders can be preempted. I am stating some of them obviously can be and it’s time for our various “security” agencies and law enforcement to get on board. Stop the lame excuses. Stop pretending it can’t be done.
My apology for the length of the diary; I think the subject matter justifies.
Mission Statement of the Dept. of Homeland Security
The Department of Homeland Security has a vital mission: to secure the nation from the many threats we face. This requires the dedication of more than 240,000 employees in jobs that range from aviation and border security to emergency response, from cybersecurity analyst to chemical facility inspector. Our duties are wide-ranging, but our goal is clear – keeping America safe.
Super! But where is the security? Who exactly is evaluating the performance of this Department? What is the metric for success?
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a cabinet department of the United States federal government, created in response to the September 11 attacks, and with the primary responsibilities of protecting the United States of America and U.S. Territories (including Protectorates)[vague] from and responding to terrorist attacks, man-made accidents, and natural disasters. In fiscal year 2011 it was allocated a budget of $98.8 billion and spent, net, $66.4 billion.
Nearly $100 Billion dollars per year alloted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Homeland_Security
I don’t know about the rest of you, but “The Joker” was the last straw, IMHO. That, plus Trayvon Martin, and the four year old child shot in the head in Brooklyn recently.
All totally beyond acceptable.
It’s time for “our” Congress to answer for their denial and lack of sense of urgency regarding our all too frequent domestic terror problem. And I’m not just referring to the repuglicans. The carnage and terror requires we move beyond partisanship.
I don’t care all that much about what Rmoney or Obama has to say about this issue; it’s election time (for two + years now) and most of what is said lacks credibility, and again, there’s just no sense of urgency.
When President Clinton and the one percenters in Congress decided they wanted NAFTA, they put it on the legislative fast track and got it done in what? 60 days at the most? Oviously things can get done in DC.
I’m looking primarily (for now) at the Aurora case, the VA Tech shooter, Jared Loughner (shooter of congresswoman Giffords) and the Northern Illinois Univ. shooter. There is a discernable pattern here, it’s definitely actionable, IF the appropriate resources are committed.
(Note: I’ll be updating this after more details are available regarding the Sikh Temple shooting near Milwaukee)
One of the obvious, discernible traits of the shooters: mildly or very mentally ill, detached from reality.
Two: Anti-social behavior. Few, if any, long term relationships.
Three: On prescription medications (anti-depressants and/or other legal/illegal drugs) and allowed to purchase guns.
Four: A personal emotional event/upheaval which starts a downward spiral; with weapons/ammo being purchased during the spiral.
Five: The shooters are in their 20’s-30’s age wise.
Six: The venues chosen by the shooters are mostly public places with numerous people
sitting/standing in close proximity to one another. The shooters plan carefully for and intend a maximum number of deaths.
Seven: The shooters bring multiple deadly weapons and numerous rounds/clips of ammunition; again, the intent is maximum number of deaths.
Eight: The shooters are using credit cards to purchase their weapons and ammo. I think some of us remember the scene in M. Moore’s Bowling for Columbine.
Nine: The shooters are spending time on/posting on anti social/anti government/tin foil hat websites.
Ten: Almost all rampage murderers are male.
The fact our considerable resources/technology are not committed to stopping/slowing down the carnage is weak and unacceptable. We’re floundering morally as a nation/people.
Northern Illinois Univ shooting (Date of shooting: 2/14/2008, Number of deaths: 6 [including Kazmierczak, who committed suicide] 22 total people shot. Venue: Univ. Lecture Hall wiith class in session. Around 120 students in the lecture hall. Age of shooter: 27).
We were told that Steven Kazmierczak, who killed five students and then himself at NIU one year ago, was a sweet, unassuming, overachieving grad student who inexplicably snapped. He was not.
Steven Kazmierczak wanted infamy. He wanted video game-style bloodshed. And perhaps most of all, he wanted to punish Northern Illinois University, the “surrogate family” that had kept his demons at bay but that he felt ultimately abandoned him.
In the 18 months leading up to his lecture hall massacre, Kazmierczak’s mother died, he lost his job as a corrections officer and he became angry because he believed NIU had de-emphasized his graduate program, leading him to transfer to another university, according to a 300-page report released by the university Thursday.
A newly released psychological profile contained in the report suggests that everything about the attack signified something in Kazmierczak’s troubled mind: the location, the date, the victims.
The report offers the most detailed account to date of Kazmierczak’s troubled life, including repeated suicide attempts that required hospitalization, unresolved conflicts with his parents stemming from their decision to institutionalize him and interest in satanic rituals.
The 27-page profile of Kazmierczak, written by an independent psychologist hired by NIU for about $10,000, states that the shooter had been diagnosed as a teenager with schizoaffective disorder, a disabling mental illness characterized by a combination of schizophrenia and a mood disorder such as manic-depression.
The profile suggests he increased the difficulty of his shooting spree as if it were one of his beloved video games. When he had emptied the shotgun and walked down into the audience with his handguns, he fired at only those who ran or ducked. Those who sat frozen in their seats, the easiest targets, were ignored.
Kazmierczak, 27, made it difficult for investigators to identify a motive. He didn’t leave a suicide note. The hard drive of his computer has never been found. He tossed out his cell phone’s memory card.
Steven Kazmierczak entered a large auditorium-style lecture hall in Cole Hall (Auditorium 101) with approximately 120 students, where an oceanography class was in session. Kazmierczak was wearing dark brown boots with laces, jeans, a black t-shirt with the word “Terrorist” written across the chest imposed over an image of an assault rifle; a coat; a black knit hat; and a black utility belt with two magazine holsters, a holster for a handgun, three handguns (a 9mm Glock 19, a 9mm Kurz Sig Sauer P232, and a .380 Hi-Point CF380), eight loaded magazines, and a knife. He also carried in a 12 gauge Remington Sportsman 48 shotgun concealed in a guitar case. Once he donned the weapons, he approached the auditorium. Kazmierczak entered the auditorium from the vestibule, using a door at the extreme southwest corner of the room, which led directly to the stage in front of the classroom; it was there he stood and fired into the crowd of students. He opened the door with such extreme force that many witnesses described him as “kicking the door in”.
Sound familar? What other rampage killers used Glocks? and why are they so popular with them? (Video game connection?)
Mr. K’s meds: (numerous)
ABC News reports that his behavior seemed to become more erratic in the weeks leading up to the shooting, and that it is believed he stopped taking medication beforehand.His girlfriend, Jessica Baty, confirmed that Kazmierczak was taking Xanax (anti-anxiety), Ambien (sleep aid), and Prozac (antidepressant), all of which were prescribed to him by a psychiatrist. She said that he stopped taking Prozac about three weeks prior to the February 14 shooting.
OK, anyone who knows anything regarding anti-depressant meds knows you don’t quit them cold turkey. your doctor/psychiatrist has to approve and monitor you for weeks, and you are weaned off the meds over time.
And there’s no mystery any longer regarding the rather large problem with Prozac.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Illinois_University_shooting
http://www.esquire.com/features/steven-kazmierczak-0808
Tucson, AZ shooting (Date of shooting: January 8, 2011, Number of deaths: 6, including nine year old Christina-Taylor Green and Chief U.S. District Court Judge John Roll. Dem. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords severely injured, her congressional career ruined. 20 total people shot. Venue: Shopping mall; exterior area. Age of shooter: 22).
Folks, let’s face it: Mr. Loughner is a mess, and there were numerous RED flags prior to his meltdown. He’s obviously out there in Tin Foil Hat territory. Why was this very disturbed person allowed to purchase deadly weapons and ammo?
Glock again:
Loughner allegedly purchased the 9mm Glock pistol used in the shooting from a Sportsman’s Warehouse in Tucson on November 30, 2010.[24] The night before the shooting, he left a message on a friend’s voicemail saying, “Hey man, it’s Jared. Me and you had good times. Peace out. Later.”[20] In a MySpace post the morning of the shooting at 4:12 am, he wrote,
Goodbye friends. Please don’t be mad at me. The literacy rate is below 5%. I haven’t talked to one person who is literate. I want to make it out alive. The longest war in the history of the United States. Goodbye. I’m saddened with the current currency and job employment. I had a bully at school. Thank you. P.S. –plead the fifth![60]
Photos on the MySpace page showed a close-up picture of a handgun sitting atop a document titled “United States History.”
OK, just looking at the above, and again, forget the psychoanalysis for now: WHAT is he babbling about? Why on earth should we allow this guy to purchase deadly weapons? Is there much coherence here? Is he merely a “regular” hunter/sport shooter?
Other evidence seized from his home included an envelope from a safe with messages such as “I planned ahead,” “My assassination” and the name “Giffords” next to what appears to be Loughner’s signature. Police say he purchased the Glock pistol used in the attack in November.
I planned ahead. Here we have the perfect foil for those proclaiming “Gee, we just can’t stop these guys, we don’t what they are doing”. It’s well known Loughner was all over tin foil hat websites– where he exhibited behavior and made statements so utterly bizzare that even people in the one UFO site he frequented tagged him as a lunatic.
This is not trackable? This can’t be surveilled and raise BIG red flags? Sorry, I don’t buy it.
Drug use: again significant.
Zach Osler, a high school classmate of Loughner’s, and his closest friend, indicated that Loughner’s life began to unravel after his high school girlfriend broke up with him, and he then began to abuse alcohol and drugs, specifically Salvia divinorum (a natural hallucinogen illegal in some states). Another longtime friend, Kylie Smith, added that he had used cannabis (marijuana), psychedelic mushrooms, and LSD around that same time.[19] Loughner quit using marijuana (as well as alcohol and tobacco) in late 2008 and has not used it since, according to one of his longtime friends.[20] The U.S. Army confirmed that Loughner had been rejected as “unqualified” for service in 2008.[21][22][23] According to military sources, Loughner admitted to marijuana use on numerous occasions during the application process.
Regarding Salvia:
Salvia Divinorum is a drug, legal in some states, and is a hallucinogen. Though proponents of the herb that is either smoked, chewed, inhaled, or its juice drunk believe salvia is safe, the National Institute on Drug Abuse NIDA says otherwise.
The NIDA says about Salvia, “People who abuse salvia generally experience hallucinations or “psychotomimetic” episodes (a transient experience that mimics a psychosis).
NO red flags here?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner
Virginia Tech shooting, Blacksburg, VA (Date of shooting: April 16, 2007. Number of deaths: 32, with 49 total people shot in two incidents on Campus. Shooter Seung-Hui Cho committed suicide after second attack. Venue: West Ambler Johnston Hall, Norris Hall; school was in session during attacks. Age of shooter: 23).
Cho, a senior English major at Virginia Tech, had previously been diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder. During much of his middle school and high school years, he received therapy and special education support. After graduating from high school, Cho enrolled at Virginia Tech. Because of federal privacy laws, Virginia Tech was unaware of Cho’s previous diagnosis or the accommodations he had been granted at school. In 2005, Cho was accused of stalking two female students. After an investigation, a Virginia special justice declared Cho mentally ill and ordered him to attend treatment.[4] Lucinda Roy, a professor and former chairwoman of the English department, had also asked Cho to seek counseling.[5] Cho’s mother also turned to her church for help.
Thus far I’ve looked at only three mass murders in the U.S.; each shooter is mentally ill and is being allowed to purchase deadly weapons. Even if the HIPPA laws were not in place, why would I believe admissions officials at any university would stop this guy from attending their college? He’s a paying customer, right?
IMHO, Mr. Cho should not have been allowed to attend university. He clearly had deep psychological/social problems and was on a very short fuse. Anything could have set him off. He was a threat to the life safety of the general public.
The massacre prompted the state of Virginia to close legal loopholes that had previously allowed Cho, an individual adjudicated as mentally unsound, to purchase handguns without detection by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). It also led to passage of the first major federal gun control measure in more than 13 years. The law strengthening the NICS was signed by President George W. Bush on January 5, 2008.
Wait… You mean it is in fact possible/legal to slow down/stop the purchase of deadly weapons by a mentally ill person?
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/283546
Can I just ask: Does any “political leader” in the United States know the meaning of the word “proactive”?
Approximately 10-12 minutes after the second attack began, Cho shot himself in the head.[37] He died in Jocelyne Couture-Nowak’s Intermediate French class, room 211. During this second assault, he had fired at least 174 rounds,[21] killing 30 people and wounding 17 more.[1][37] All of the victims were shot at least three times each; of the 30 killed, 28 were shot in the head.[38][39] During the investigation, State Police Superintendent William Flaherty told a state panel that police found 203 live rounds in Norris Hall. “He was well prepared to continue…,” Flaherty testified.[40]
During the two attacks, Cho killed five faculty members and 27 students before committing suicide.[41] The Virginia Tech Review Panel reported that Cho’s gunshots wounded 17 other people; six more were injured when they jumped from second-story windows to escape.[1] Sydney J. Vail, the director of the trauma center at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, said that Cho’s choice of 9 mm hollow point ammunition increased the severity of the injuries.[42] Conversely, due to the limited penetration depth of hollow point bullets, it is likely that Colman would have died had they not been used.
To our hunter friends: Is hollow point ammo used for hunting?
Glock again:
Cho used two firearms during the attacks: a .22-caliber Walther P22 semi-automatic handgun and a 9 mm semi-automatic Glock 19 handgun.[12] The shootings occurred in separate incidents, with the first at West Ambler Johnston Hall, during which Cho killed two pupils, and the second at Norris Hall, where the other 31 deaths, including that of Cho himself, as well as all the nonlethal injuries, occurred.
Indeed, it was his intellectual failure that may have driven him to kill. Mr. Cho’s ambition to become a “great writer” was stamped out during college by the negative reactions of professors and students, and also by rejection of a book proposal he wrote.
“These rejections were devastating to him and he fantasized about getting revenge,” Mr. Depue wrote.
A second component of his anger may have stemmed from the economic inequality that became painfully apparent to him at Virginia Tech. While his college bills were paid by his hard-working blue-collar parents, “he was constantly aware of his classmates taking from their affluent parents and squandering their money on luxuries and alcohol.”
With his failure at writing and his disgust at the “haves” combining to motivate him, the remaining question surrounds the timing: why Mr. Cho acted when he did.
“Graduation was only weeks away, but for Cho it was not an occasion for joy,” Mr. Depue said. “Rather it was a time of fear and dread.”
I’m not finding anything regarding use of drugs, legal/illegal by Mr. Cho. Regardless, clearly he was profoundly mentally ill and exhibited anti social behavior, stalking behavior, etc. prior to his meltdown.
Finally: The Joker.
Aurora, CO shooting (Date of shooting: July 20, 2012. Number of deaths: 12, with 70 total people shot, including a thee month old infant. Venue: Century 16 Movie Theater complex; screening midnight premier of The Dark Knight Rises movie. Age of shooter: 25).
GLOCK again:
On May 22, 2012, Holmes purchased his first weapon, a .40-caliber Glock pistol, at a Gander Mountain shop in Aurora, and six days later a Remington Model 870 shotgun at a Bass Pro Shops in Denver. On June 7, just hours after failing his oral exam at the university,[29] he purchased a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semi-automatic rifle, with a second .40-caliber Glock pistol following on July 6. All the weapons were bought legally. In the four months prior to the shooting, Holmes also bought 3000 rounds of ammunition for the pistols, 3000 rounds for the M&P15, and 350 shells for the shotgun over the internet.On July 2, he placed an order for a Blackhawk Urban Assault Vest, two magazine holders and a knife at an online retailer.
On June 25, less than a month before the shooting, Holmes emailed an application to join a gun club in Byers, Colorado. The owner, Glenn Rotkovich, called him several times throughout the following days to invite him to a mandatory orientation, but could only reach his answering machine. Due to the nature of Holmes’ voice mail, which he described as “bizarre, freaky”, “guttural, spoken with a deep voice, incoherent and rambling” Rotkovich instructed his staff to inform him if Holmes should show up, though Holmes neither made his appearance at the gun range, nor called back.[45] “In hindsight, looking back — and if I’d seen the movies — maybe I’d say it was like the Joker — I would have gotten the Joker out of it,” Rotkovich said. “It was like somebody was trying to be as weird as possible,” he said.
Trying to be as weird as possible. WTF??
The gunman threw a canister emitting a gas or smoke, partially obscuring the audience members’ vision, making their throats and skin itch, and causing eye irritation.[9] He then fired a 12-gauge Remington 870 Express Tactical shotgun, first at the ceiling and then at the audience. He also fired a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semi-automatic rifle with a 100-round drum magazine, which malfunctioned after reportedly firing fewer than 30 rounds. Finally, he fired a .40-caliber Glock 22 handgun.He shot first to the back of the room, and then toward people in the aisles. Some bullets passed through the wall and hit people in the adjacent theater 8, which was screening the same movie. Witnesses said the multiplex’s fire alarm system began sounding soon after the attack began and staff told people in theater 8 to evacuate. One witness said that she was hesitant to leave because someone yelled that there was someone shooting in the lobby and that they shouldn’t leave.
Drug use:
Holmes’ defense attorneys claim he was a “psychiatric patient” of the medical director of Anschutz’s Student Mental Health Services prior to the Aurora shooting; however, the prosecution disagrees with that claim. Four days after the release of the defense attorney’s motion, the judge required this information to be blacked out.
There doesn’t seem to be any details regarding drug use (legal/illegal) by Holmes. Obviously Holmes is disturbed. He should not have been allowed to purchase guns.
James Eagan Holmes — suspected in the Aurora movie-theater attack — was seeing a University of Colorado psychiatrist to whom he allegedly mailed a notebook before the July 20 massacre, court documents reveal.
Friday’s disclosure came in the wake of two days of news stories about the contents of the notebook, which several news outlets reported contained details of Holmes’ alleged murderous plan. Those reports were based on unnamed law enforcement sources.
Just like I don’t buy into the CNN-hyped baloney regarding Holmes the “master bomb maker”, I’m not concerned with this notebook.
We don’t need the notebook to know Holmes planned his performance for four months, and had 50 packages with various ammo, gear, etc., delivered to his home and workplace. did he make any of these purchases with cash? or was everything purchase using his credit card?
Also, I’m reading Holmes received a $26K stipend (from the University?). I’d like to know how much of this was used to purchase guns/ammo/gear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Aurora_shooting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Eagan_Holmes
The United States cannot push back a debate about gun control after the mass shooting in Colorado, according to Colin Goddard, who was shot four times during the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.
“We just upped the ante for the worst mass shooting in our country’s history, and now is not the time to talk about solutions?” he said on Democracy Now. “It is beyond time to talk about solutions. This conversation should have happened before this shooting in the first place. It is insane when you hear this from people who say they want to put distance between it. This is when people are outraged. This is when people realize that this could happen to them. I mean, everyone goes to movies. Everybody tries to make opening night.”
How do rampage murderers like Holmes and the others described above compare to overall statistics:
Only 17.6% of mass killers are between the ages of 18 and 24 years old. Mass murderers do make up a larger share among the population at large in the 18 to 24 and 25- to 34-year-old demographic, but the plurality, 35.8% of rampage killers, are actually 35- to 49-year-olds. This percentage is well above the 20.5% of the entire population that is 35-49 years-old. Few mass murderers are above the age of 50.
Overall, the median age for rampage killers is 33 years old compared to the 27 years old median for all murders, which are both lower than the median age United States population of 37.
I would like to see the stats on this since year 2000.
Operative sentence:
“Mass murderers do make up a larger share among the population at large in the 18 to 24 and 25- to 34-year-old demographic…”
Conclusions/Next Steps:
- Congress must again ban assault weapons/military style assault weapons, and the sales of large capacity magazines to civilians. Ban these sales at shops and at the gun shows.
- Universities must be allowed to know the mental health status of student applicants. If universities are going to allow attendance by mentally ill studetnts, the students must be monitored closely. Most universities already have staff who do this sort of work.
- Congress must create a, if you will, “rampage killer unit” within the FBI, DHS, or other appropriate security agency.
- Let’s dispense with the nonsense “we can’t surveil everyone”. Wrong, it’s already being done. Pls read Jame Bamford, etc. The TIA program never really went away.
- Point the surveillance lens at the “right” people to preempt rampage killings, using the obvious markers any of us can look at and see are there. The perps in the four cases I looked at are buying more or less the exact same handgun. this is not a trend, not a marker?
Yes, this will be somewhat difficult, but the notion it is impossible is total nonsense.
One more thing regarding Glock handguns:
But the handgun he used, the Glock Pistol, has proved the weapon of choice for spree killers across the world.
Norwegian far-Right extremist Anders Behring Breivik used a Glock 17 to kill most of the 67 people he shot dead during his massacre on the island of Utoya a year ago this Sunday.
Sweden’s Peter Mangs, the man accused of being behind to more than a dozen shootings of immigrants in the city of Malmo, owned a Glock 19.
Germany’s Robert Steinhäuser, who killed 17 people in the 2001 Erfurt massacre, used a Glock 17.
In the US, the weapon crops up still more frequently.
The truly tragic aspect of the Aurora disaster is the perp planned for four months; red flags and warning signs everywhere. Four months.
The notion Holmes’ guns/ammo/body armor purchases were “normal”. Normal for who? yes, possibly for a person who was already a gun owner, tho’ I have to question the full body armor (why is this available to civilians?) the tear gas grenades, the drum magazine, and the gunpowder used in the devices he set up in his apartment.
Sorry, this is not normal behavior for a young college student with a promising future ahead of him.
Regarding the Big Brother hysteria.. that horse left the barn long ago. My position is if more determined surveillance can save the life of ONE Christina Taylor-Green, it’s well worth it.
Thanks for reading.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/21/colorado-shooting-james-holmes-history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/seung-hui-cho-who-is-this-man/
Military McMansions: "Parting Gift for Afghans".
“Deep fryers? Really?” said Lt. Col. Rafael Paredes, deputy commander of the 172nd Infantry Brigade.
This is Wayyyyyyyyy beyond absurd.
ZARGHUN SHAHR, Afghanistan–In a dusty valley here, construction workers are racing to finish a fiber-optic-equipped military base for a wood-burning army.
The $89 million U.S.-funded forward operating base, called Super FOB, is being built to house the Afghan army brigade that patrols Paktika province, along the contentious Afghanistan-Pakistan border.But Super FOB is being completed, and due to be expanded, after the U.S. and its allies have decided the Afghan security forces should be about a third smaller than envisioned when the base was conceived by U.S. and Afghan strategists.
The base, already more than three years behind schedule, is so elaborate it will require fuel and technical skills that many U.S. officers doubt the Afghan army will possess once American troops withdraw.
It is also being built to American specifications, with a huge, propane-powered kitchen whose stoves the Afghans say they won’t use. Instead, they are getting wood stoves designed for their tastes.
The U.S. has funded dozens of bases for Afghan army units. The bill has come to $6.7 billion in projects completed, under way or planned since fiscal 2005.
Col. Edward Bohnemann, commander of the 172nd Infantry Brigade, tried last summer to kill a plan to spend an additional $43 million to expand the capacity of the 300-acre Super FOB to house two more Afghan battalions, according to his spokesman. The troops would be better positioned elsewhere, Col. Bohnemann argued, according to his spokesman.
His entreaties went nowhere.
Super FOB will be finished in June, according to a spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is in charge of the U.S.-funded base-building operation. The expansion project will be completed next spring, and is now expected to cost $25 million, bringing the total base cost to roughly $114 million, the spokesman said.
“Super FOB is no more unique” than any of the other 16 brigade bases now in various stages of construction, said Lt. Cmdr. Robert Wadsworth, a NATO engineering officer. Six corps-size bases are being set up, each with a $300 million to $350 million price tag.
Super FOB was conceived and contracted in the early stages of the decade-old war, when NATO envisioned an Afghan army based in garrisons built to Western standards.
The base contains 122 buildings, many with lowered ceilings that absorb sound, terrazzo floors and forced-air heating and cooling. Fiber-optic Internet service is on its way. The hand-built stone wall surrounding the base cost $2.5 million.
There is a wastewater plant, a soccer field with bleachers, an underground sewer system and a fire station. The kitchen has separate fish-prep, chicken-prep and beef-prep areas. It also has deep fryers, a salad room and sneeze-guarded, stainless-steel service lines.
Afghan military cooks traditionally do their food preparation on the floor, and prefer to make large pots of rice and meat stew. When Afghan commanders inspected construction recently, they complained that the U.S.-supplied propane stoves are too small to hold such large pots. Now the contractor is installing a kitchen annex with 10 wood-burning stoves set into the ground that Afghan cooks can stand on as they stir.
“We require a different way of cooking,” Gen. Zemaray says. He predicts the Defense Ministry will issue enough diesel fuel to run Super FOB’s generators, and says he has asked Kabul to send him a 71-man technical team able to maintain the sewage-treatment facility, power grid and other advanced systems. NATO, meanwhile, is training Afghan technicians to maintain the new bases.
Gee, Gen. Zemaray, sorry we the sappy taxpayers in America didn’t get this right for you. Maybe we should cook your goat stew for you, and serve it on silver platters? Would that satisfy you?
$7 Billion dollars for Afghan army bases. Bases that likely will be overrun by the Taliban, al Qaeda, Pakistan ISI, haqqani group (take your pick) within five years.
Thanks, Congress!!
What’s the ROI here for us, Congress? Providing deep fryers for the Afghans prepares them for fantastic free market KFC’s in Kabul??? High speed fiber optic internet? Why!? They cannot read!!!
In the end, chalk this right up there with the insidious, continual waste of money by the MIC we’ve been reading about now for decades… the $100 hammers, $300 toilet seats, etc.
This is hideous.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303610504577420232465796466.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Page: "Obama’s Pot Reform Goes Up in Smoke"
Clarence Page:
Activists were elated when Obama acknowledged that legalization was “an entirely legitimate topic for debate” — the first time a sitting president has made such a statement, according to Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Obama promised to maintain a hands-off approach toward California’s pot clinics that adhered to state law, which legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes in 1996. “I’m not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws (on medical marijuana),” he said, according to Rolling Stone magazine.
But activists’ joy quickly evaporated as marijuana arrests surged to new record highs — more than 850,000 in 2009 and in 2010, according to the latest annual FBI crime reports. That’s more than half of all drug arrests, contrary to the popular but reckless notion that “nobody” gets busted for grass anymore.
And federal agents have launched more than 100 raids in nine medical marijuana states, resulting in at least 61 federal indictments, according to data compiled by Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group. The raids have closed down dozens of distributors operating legally under state law, and a high-profile training academy for providers in Oakland, Calif.
It is against the backdrop of those events that Obama’s youthful weed indiscretions raise intriguing new questions, such as: Would today’s Barack Obama arrest young Barry Obama?
The answer, judging by his recent interview with Rolling Stone, appears to be maybe not, as long as young Barry were a medical marijuana patient.
Note Page doesn’t say anything about Obama making this a priority in his next term.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/ct-oped-0530-page-20120530,0,5777378.column
Jon Corzine: Billionaire Bundler for Obama Campaign
or should that be, bungler?
They are billionaires like Jon Corzine, the Elmer Fuddish capitalist who presided over MF Global, the eighth largest bankruptcy in history. He also managed to lose track of a couple of billion dollars of investor money that just vanished into thin air.
The missing money belonged to clients, many of them small business people and middle-class investors. Their life savings and investments were wiped out. Those are supposed to be the good folks President Obama cares so much about.
Corzine is supposedly being investigated by several Obama Administration agencies. Like Fast and Furious and Solyndra, the investigations are going nowhere, except down dead end streets.
Corzine is a good capitalist. Corzine is an honorable man. His rapacious greed is as pure as the driven snow. Good capitalists who give and raise money for Team Obama are immune from criticism. Jon Corzine is a major bundler. Team Obama did return Corzine’ personal donations, but they are ecstatic to pocket donations he brings in from his billionaire friends.
Again, this is why Obama’s Bain strategy is not going to get much traction.
JPMorgan Chase Made $5 Billion Friday
Hmmm…
With all the talk about JPMorgan’s losses out of the CIO’s office, nobody is discussing the money the firm made on Friday due to the accounting magic called DVA. After all, CIO’s positions were (at least in principle) meant to act as an offset to this earnings volatility.
Regarding the recent $2 Billion loss, I’ve not seen anything in Bloggo world regarding the fact JP Morgan Chase will likely get a significant tax write off on the loss.
So it’s alot like the marketing for the film Alien vs. Predator, “Whoever wins, we lose”.
http://soberlook.com/2012/05/jpmorgan-made-some-5bn-on-friday-using.html
Why I Ignore the Pundits: James Carville
James Carville’s inaccurate, baseless proclamations are one reason why I mostly ignore the pundits.
Remember this after the 2008 election?
Now, no less a pundit than James Carville has stepped into the breach with his new book, 40 More Years: How the Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation, an extended boast that demographic trends, particularly the partisan preferences of young people, will ensure an era of Democratic dominance.
“A Democratic majority is emerging,” Carville declares. “This majority will guarantee that the Democrats remain in power for the next forty years.”
Carville chose this seemingly arbitrary time span on the basis of his historically dubious assertion that American politics tends to go in cycles, with alternating spans of thirty-six or forty years of dominance. That proceeds from the fact that Republicans won most Presidential elections from 1896 to 1932, Democrats from 1932 to 1968, and Republicans since then.
Here’s where Mr. Carville is now:
You think that Democrats around the country are going to win — as I hear time and time again from people on the street.
Democratic fundraisers, activists, supporters, and even politicians alike have somehow collectively lapsed into the sentiment that the president is going to be reelected and that we have a good shot to take the House back while holding the Senate.
I ask: What are you smoking? What are you drinking? What are you snorting or just what in the hell are you thinking?
Look around the world — do you see any governments or incumbents winning any elections out there? Did it happen in small elections in Germany or Britain, big elections in France and Greece or how about huge elections in the United States in 2008 and 2010? Please folks — wake up!
The polling? Not that encouraging. The latest Democracy Corps poll was 47-47. The Real Clear Politics average of polls has the president up a whopping three-tenths of a percentage point. And I am hearing the garbage that Democratic donors are telling Democratic fundraisers …”Obama has it in the bag.”
Wow.. that was a fast 40 years!! LOL…
http://progressive.org/adler0609.html
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/08/opinion/carville-democrats-could-lose/index.html
Wired’s Expose on Massive New Spy Center in Utah
Alternate title for this post: “Example of What Happens When Citizens/Progressives Set the Bar Low“.
Remember Poindexter’s TIA (Total Information Awareness Program) which supposedly was not approved by congress and went away back around 2002-03?
Uhhh, no.
Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails–parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration–an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.
One of the sources, William Binney, for the author (James Bamford) of the Wired article ended up having his home raided by the FBI, a gun pointed at his head.
In his first television interview since he resigned from the National Security Agency over its domestic surveillance program, William Binney discusses the NSA’s massive power to spy on Americans and why the FBI raided his home after he became a whistleblower.
This, folks, is why I spoke up in the recent torture thread.. this is where we are headed. This is what we get for not standing up and demanding more from “our” government.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/20/exclusive_national_security_agency_whistleblower_william