Iceland may ban MasterCard, Visa over WikiLeaks censorship

Credit card companies that prevented card-holders from donating money to the secrets outlet WikiLeaks could have their operating licenses taken away in Iceland, according to members of the Icelandic Parliamentary General Committee. Representatives from Mastercard and Visa were called before the committee Sunday to discuss their refusal to process donations to the website, reports Reykjavik [...]

Four Queens men sue NYPD after being held for 30 hours, busted for laughing at cops

Four Queens men claim they were locked up for more than 30 hours by cops seeking revenge on a crowd of men who laughed at an officer who couldn’t catch a fleeing drug suspect. The men insist they didn’t even laugh, says their lawyer Gabriel P. Harvis, who filed suit against the NYPD and 10 [...]

Rep. Lewis passed over for powerful chairmanship

Republicans passed over  Rep. Jerry Lewis in favor of a veteran Kentucky lawmaker Wednesday to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee. The party’s steering committee rejected Lewis’s request to waive term limits that bar him from reclaiming the post he held when Republicans last held the majority. The decision deprives Lewis of a position that [...]

Religion as a Tool of Repression

Freedom of speech and dissent are always curtailed in times of war. Whenever soldiers occupy foreign nations, rational thinking is proscribed in favor of nationalistic hubris. Minority opinions, although grounded in ethics and reason, are repressed, often brutally. The majority becomes intolerant of dissenting views. Thoughtful dialog is suspended and irrational ideology gains ascendancy. Civil [...]

InlandPolitics: San Bernardino County retaliates against blogger Sharon Gilbert

San Bernardino County executives have come down hard on one of their own employees who also operates a local political blog. A blog popular with readers, but not county leaders. Sharon Gilbert, an almost thirty-year county employee, has taken on county government with great success through her website www.iePolitics.com. A widely-read blog in Southern California’s [...]

US contacts allies about WikiLeaks move

The United States has briefed its key allies, including Britain, France, Germany and Saudi Arabia ahead of the mass release of classified documents by WikiLeaks. Whistleblower website WikiLeaks plans to release around three million leaked documents, including cables sent to Washington from American embassies throughout the world. The website had previously posted online secret details [...]

Cops & Firemen

Two Norfolk teachers put on leave over material about police

Two Norview High School teachers were placed on paid administrative leave this week after a parent complained that they distributed classroom materials that gave advice on how to deal with police if stopped. The materials – a one-page handout and a video distributed and aired in a 12th-grade government class – are sponsored by two [...]

The “flotilla video”: Israeli troops storm boat with aid supplies bound for Gaza Strip

Source In the news today, worldwide controversy around an Israeli commando attack on a “Free Gaza Movement” flotilla carrying aid supplies to the blockaded Gaza strip. NYT story here. Varying reports on how many were killed: 10 according to Israel, and 19 or more according to the activists and some news organizations. Some 600 people [...]

California passes bill to counteract ‘disturbing’ Texas curriculum

Measure ensures Texas standards don’t ‘creep into our textbooks,’ senator tells Raw Story The California Senate on Friday approved legislation that sends a clear message to Texas and textbook publishers: don’t mess with our kids’ minds. “My bill begins the process of ensuring that California students will not end up being taught with Texas standards,” [...]

VicPD Officer Ordered to Stay Quiet

Hells Angels ride no more in German state

The interior ministry of the north-German state Schleswig-Holstein has made membership in local chapters of the Hell’s Angels and Bandidos biker gangs illegal. Over 300 police officers raided the headquarters of the “Hells Angels MC Charter Flensburg” und “Bandidos MC Probationary Chapter Neumuenster” on Thursday morning, as a ban against the groups came into effect. [...]

Local opposition to Arizona law sought

At Tuesday’s Beaumont Unified School District board meeting, trustee Mark Orozco called on his fellow board members to consider a resolution opposing Arizona’s SB1070 immigration law, which he pointed out gives police in that state the right to detain anyone who is suspected of being in this country illegally, or for failing to provide proper [...]

Maryland Citizens Face Felony Charges for Recording Cops

In Maryland, it is a felony to record thuggish cops as they push around skateboarding teenagers, beat sports patrons, and pull guns on motorists for speeding. “Several Marylanders face felony charges for recording their arrests on camera, and others have been intimidated to shut their cameras off,” reports WJZ 23 in Baltimore. Maryland cops are [...]

Radley Balko on the Militarization of Police

Pirates take over small-town radio signal

Residents of San Mateo County, California are hearing an unusual sound on the 89.3 frequency of their FM radios these days. Commercial-free radio programmed by real, local people. San Francisco-based Pirate Cat Radio has put KPDO on the air full-time. The station’s new home, nestled among coastal farmlands, is about an hour south from the [...]

Los Angeles teacher call for Mexican revolution in the US

News videographer at center of media battle after shooting video of abusive cops

Source A freelance news videographer in Seattle lost his gig with a television station over a police abuse video they rejected after he posted the video on Youtube. The video showed the customary abuse we expect from the Seattle Police Department; a cop kicking a detained suspect in the head after threatening to beat the [...]

A Tutorial on the Classified Information Procedures Act

Last week, prosecutors in the case of Thomas A. Drake, the former National Security Agency official who is charged with unlawfully retaining classified information that he allegedly disclosed to a reporter, asked the court to hold a pre-trial conference on the use of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) in that case. CIPA was passed [...]

U.S. Forest Service Employees on “Stand-Down” from Talking to the Media

The Rural Blog brings us this post about the U.S. Forest Service prohibiting its law enforcement and investigations (LEI) employees from speaking to local media without approval from Washington. The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility obtained a memo outlining the policy, which critics say stifles access to government records. “Until further notice all LEI employees [...]

Senator Kerry recognizes resounding failure of Radio and TV Marti

Washington, May 4 (Cubadebate-RHC) Radio and TV Martí, financed media by the U.S. government for subversion in Cuba, “must undergo a huge reform to ensure its survival”, estimated a U.S. congressional report released Monday. The report of the Senate’s US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations identified numerous flaws on the “materials”, they’ve been broadcasting to [...]

Groups Call ‘Privacy’ Legislation Orwellian

Privacy groups gave an overwhelming thumbs down Tuesday to proposed legislation by Rep. Frederick Carlyle “Rick” Boucher (D-Virginia) that for the first time would mandate the length of time online consumer information could be kept. The proposal would require websites to discard data collected from their users after 18 months. Some suggested the retention limit for consumer [...]

U.S. says it has 5,113 nuclear warheads

WASHINGTON — The United States has 5,113 nuclear warheads in its stockpile and “several thousand” more retired warheads awaiting the junk pile, the Pentagon said Monday in an unprecedented accounting of a secretive arsenal born in the Cold War and now shrinking rapidly. The Obama administration disclosed the size of its atomic stockpile going back [...]

Forty years since the Kent State massacre

May 4 marks the 40th anniversary of the shootings of unarmed student protesters at Kent State University in northeast Ohio. The Ohio National Guard killed four students and wounded nine others at a rally against the Nixon administration’s decision to escalate the Vietnam War by invading neighboring Cambodia. The four students who died were Allison [...]

May 1st in History

Escapades of former sheriff Gary Penrod’s Wife

See also:  Escapades of former sheriff Gary Penrod Witnesses who have been lined up to testify that the woman who has provided psychological care to members of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for more than two decades engaged in multiple sexual affairs with the deputies she was hired to treat should be excluded from [...]

Superior Court Judge candidate Ed Montgomery endorses Paul Schrader for sheriff of San Bernardino County

It is my privilege and honor to endorse candidate Paul Schrader for the office of Sheriff in San Bernardino County. Our community will be well served by many of Paul’s proposals and recommendations once he takes office. San Bernardino has suffered too long without an election for sheriff. It is time to move forward in [...]

FBI Adds Electronic Form for FOIA Requests

The FBI has a new electronic form designed to make requesting information easier. In addition, the bureau has retooled it records website, including a guide for research in FBI Records. Of course, filing a request has always been the easiest part of making a FOIA request of the FBI. George Washington University’s National Security Archive [...]

Oklahoma Passes Bill Outlawing Militia Recruitment

Last week the Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a bill that equates recruiting militia members to recruiting gang members. “Recruiting membership in an unauthorized militia or the Ku Klux Klan would be a crime if legislation approved Thursday by the House of Representatives becomes law. ‘This is making unauthorized militias illegal,’ said Rep. Mike Shelton, [...]

YouTube Didn’t Delete M.I.A. Video, But Did Bury It

See the story here.

Flintstones hawking cigarettes

Bluebear: Exploring Privacy Threats in BitTorrent

BitTorrent is arguably the most efficient peer-to-peer protocol for content replication. However, BitTorrent has not been designed with privacy in mind and its popularity could threaten the privacy of millions of users. Surprisingly, privacy threats due to BitTorrent have been overlooked because BitTorrent popularity gives its users the illusion that finding them is like looking [...]

Assassin of Malcolm X freed on parole

Thomas Hagan, assassin of America’s civil rights leader Malcolm X, has been freed 45 years after he admitted to shooting Malcolm X in New York City. “He was released today. His release was approved,” said Linda Foglia, spokesman for the New York State Department of Correctional Services on Tuesday. Thomas Hagan, who confessed to the [...]

President Chávez launched its first tweet at midnight

Caracas, May 28. ABN.- Tal como lo había prometido, el presidente de la República, Hugo Chávez Frías, escribió cerca de la medianoche de este martes su primer mensaje en la popular red social Twitter. ABN .- As promised, the President of the Republic, Hugo Chávez Frías, wrote about midnight on Tuesday its first message on [...]

Who Will Hold America Accountable for Its Crimes?

The website WikiLeaks has been garnering attention recently due to its publication of sensitive material that many in government (and elsewhere) would rather be kept private. Information on the site includes secret intelligence documents and studies commissioned by the U.S. government, which does not seem to appreciate the disclosure of such information, for fear of [...]

Sarkozy proposes total ban on the burqa in France

F At the April 21 meeting of the French cabinet, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that a bill banning the wearing of the burqa or niqab full-face veil in public would be put before the cabinet in May. The bill is a blatant attack on democratic rights, moving France towards extra-legal rule. Prime Minister François Fillon [...]

US confronts its reputation abroad

Evolution’s New Foe: Timid School Administrators

Evolution education is under attack in Weston, Connecticut, but not from the usual direction. Nobody is promoting intelligent design in the curriculum, or asking schools to teach evolution’s “strengths and weaknesses.” There’s just an administration afraid that teaching third graders too much about Charles Darwin will cause trouble. “They might have just been looking to [...]

Argument transcript released in Ontario v. Quon U.S. Supreme Court case

A 70-page transcript of Monday’s argument in the U.S. Supreme Court case involving Ontario Police Department has been posted to the court’s website. Click here for background on the case. Court takes up Ontario employees’ privacy case By MARK SHERMAN (AP) WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court appears likely to rule against public employees who claimed [...]

Anti-Facial Recognition Makeup

Now that facial recognition software is being implemented in more and more security systems worldwide, in such places as airport security lines, law enforcement agencies, and the Superbowl, it’s obviously time for the average forward thinking person to consider when and where this technology will be used to create an Orwellian police state. Or, when [...]

Man charged after mailing in stained parking ticket

A man who received a parking ticket in Bartlett now faces criminal charges after authorities said he stained the citation with human excrement before mailing it back to the village. Officials said Alexander J. Bailey, 22, of the 6N600 block of Medinah Road in Medinah, was arrested last week charged with disorderly conduct after a [...]

Britain: Details of hundreds of students handed to CIA

The details of up to one thousand Muslim students at University College London (UCL) have been made available to the Central Intelligence Agency jointly by the university and the Students Union. The move represents a grave attack on democratic rights and another step towards tighter controls over academic institutions in the UK. An article appeared [...]

Trial postponed in libel lawsuit filed by former sheriff’s wife

A civil trial in a multi-million dollar libel lawsuit filed by the wife of former Sheriff Gary Penrod against a High Desert newspaper publisher and has been postponed until August. Lawyer John David Rowell, who represents Penrod’s wife Nancy K. Bohl, appeared for a hearing via telephone Thursday in San Bernardino Superior Court and requested [...]

Bay of Pigs: A Victory of Latin America over the United States

The Cuban people will be celebrating the 49th anniversary of the defeat of the mercenary troops financed and trained by the US government that invaded Cuba on April 16, 1961 with the objective of overthrowing the government of Fidel Castro. More than 500 mercenaries disembarked at the Bay of Pigs, where they planned to create [...]

Google Reveals Number Of Goverment Censorship Requests Around The World

Google has done something pretty cool: it has released information on the number of government requests received to remove content, and the percentage of those requests Google complied with: Like other technology and communications companies, we regularly receive requests from government agencies around the world to remove content from our services, or provide information about [...]

Sheriff Hopeful Schrader Pushing Department Reform

Paul Schrader says he is running for San Bernardino County sheriff because he believes “I can do a better job than what is being done now.” In expanding on that point, Schrader said, “I am more qualified because I have a diverse background in law enforcement. I’ve worked as a supervisor in specialty positions in [...]

Sinn Féin Leadership Easter Statement

“On this the 94th anniversary of the 1916 Rising the leadership of Sinn Féin extends its solidarity to the families of all our patriot dead. We remember with pride those comrades from every generation who gave their lives for the cause of Irish freedom. We are immensely proud of our patriot dead and of their [...]

WikiLeaks: Collateral Murder

WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff. Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot [...]

Paul Schrader: Transparency- San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department

The questions asked at most of my events and from people all over the county is, what are they hiding, and why is the sheriff and his command staff not open and available to the public. As part of my fresh start approach to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, it will be my duty [...]

Paul Schrader: Community Responsibility- San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department

My name is Paul Schrader, and I am running for the position of Sheriff-Coroner of San Bernardino County. My campaign is based on what we call the Fresh Start Initiative. My goal is to bring a Fresh Start to San Bernardino County that the citizens can be proud of, participate in, and see concrete, forward-looking [...]