NYPD Ends Spying On Muslims After Six Years - Not One Lead Came From The Effort

But since this was a Bloomberg/Kelly effort, of course it must be successful - after all, everything they do is successful:

New Jersey's attorney general has assured a group of Muslim leaders that a New York police department unit that conducted surveillance of Muslims is no longer operating in the state.

A spokesman for attorney general Jeffrey Chiesa confirmed that Chiesa told a private meeting of New Jersey law enforcement officials and Muslim leaders Wednesday that the NYPD's demographics unit had ceased operating in New Jersey.

The NYPD's covert surveillance program faced scrutiny after an investigation by the Associated Press beginning in August of last year detailed the extent of the operations.

Following September 11, with the help of the CIA, the NYPD's counterterrorism surveillance efforts included spying on Muslim neighborhoods, infiltrating Muslim-owned businesses and cataloging mosques in the north-east.

The demographics unit gathered information on people based on their language and ethnicity, though there was no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the individuals.

Muslim college students at more than a dozen colleges in the north-east US were a particular focus of the program which would monitor Muslim students' websites on a daily basis and monitored Muslim student associations.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie criticized the police department's operations in the state as did Newark mayor Cory Booker who said in February that he didn't know about the program that mapped and photographed 16 mosques in Newark and profiled several restaurants.

The NYPD has defended its surveillance of Muslims in New Jersey as legal, and Chiesa has said New York police did not violate New Jersey laws.

NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly, who has defended the program, said Wednesday he wasn't aware of the New Jersey meeting.

In late August, the police department acknowledged that the secret demographics unit did not generate a lead or case in the six years the program has been in place.

Not one lead or case generated after six years.

And you can bet had there not been push back from Jersey on this, they would still be doing it.

Actually given that both Bloomberg and Kelly are liars, I wouldn't be so sure they still aren't doing it anyway.

Just because they say they stopped something doesn't mean they really stopped something.

NYU, Fordham Report: NYPD Out Of Control, Above Law In Occupy Protests

No surprise here:

The first systematic look at the New York police department's response to Occupy Wall Street protests paints a damning picture of an out-of-control and aggressive organization that routinely acted beyond its powers.

In a report that followed an eight-month study (pdf), researchers at the law schools of NYU and Fordham accuse the NYPD of deploying unnecessarily aggressive force, routinely obstructing press freedoms and making arbitrary and baseless arrests.

The study, published on Tuesday, found evidence that police made violent late-night raids on peaceful encampments, obstructed independent legal monitors and was opaque about its policies.

The NYPD report is the first of a series to look at how police authorities in five US cities, including Oakland and Boston, have treated the Occupy movement since it began in September 2011. The research concludes that there now is a systematic effort by authorities to suppress protests, even when these are lawful and pose no threat to the public.

Sarah Knuckey, a professor of law at NYU, said: "All the case studies we collected show the police are violating basic rights consistently, and the level of impunity is shocking".

The report says the NYPD was by far the worst offender of all the police departments involved in suppressing Occupy protests:

The NYPD appears to be the worst offender, in large part because it has made little attempt – unlike Oakland, for example – to reassess its practices or open itself up to dialogue or review. The NYPD practices documented in the report include:

• Aggressive, unnecessary and excessive police force against peaceful protesters, bystanders, legal observers, and journalists. This included the use of batons, pepper spray, metal barricades, scooters, and horses.

• Obstruction of press freedoms and independent legal monitoring, including arrests of at least 10 journalists, and multiple cases of preventing journalists from reporting on protests or barring and evicting them from specific sites.

• Pervasive surveillance of peaceful political activity.

• Violent late-night raids on peaceful encampments.

• Unjustified closure of public spaces, dispersal of peaceful assemblies, and trapping of protesters.

• Arbitrary and selective rule enforcement and baseless arrests.

• Failures to ensure transparency about government policies.

• Failures to ensure accountability for those allegedly responsible for abuses.

The report argues that the lack of transparency and accountability is especially troubling because the public does not know whether police actions are guided by specific written policies, or whether they are random or ad hoc.

The NYPD turned down multiple requests to meet the researchers, who say they were keen include the police's point of view in the report. The other four police departments examined for the project all sent representatives to meet researchers. The NYPD did not provide a comment to the Guardian by the time of publication of this article.

As I wrote earlier - this Bloomberg's city.

You're lucky he lets you live.

Not "live in it."

"Live."

Comparing Obama's Drone Bombing Campaign To Nixon's Bombing Of Cambodia And Laos

Barack Obama continuing an age-old American policy of bombing as many black and brown people as possible:

Last October I was at a jirga in Islamabad where 80 people from Waziristan had assembled to talk about the US Predator drones that buzz around overhead, periodically delivering death by Hellfire missile. A jirga is the traditional forum for discussing and resolving disputes, part parliament, part court of law. The turbaned tribal elders were joined by their young sons on a rare foray out of their region to meet outsiders and discuss the killing. The isolation of the Waziris is almost total – no western journalist has been to Miranshah for several years.

At our meeting I spoke as the representative westerner. I reported the CIA claim that not one single innocent civilian had been killed in over a year. I did not need to understand Pashtu to translate the snorts of derision when this claim was translated.

During the day I shook the hand of a 16-year-old kid from Waziristan named Tariq Aziz. One of his cousins had died in a missile strike, and he wanted to know what he could do to bring the truth to the west. At the Reprieve charity, we have a transparency project: importing cameras to the region to try to export the truth back out. Tariq wanted to take part, but I thought him too young.

Then, three days later, the CIA announced that it had eliminated "four militants". In truth there were only two victims: Tariq had been driving his 12-year-old cousin to their aunt's house when the Hellfire missile killed them both. This came just 24 hours after the CIA boasted of eliminating six other "militants" – actually, four chromite workers driving home from work. In both cases a local informant apparently tagged the car with a GPS monitor and lied to earn his fee.

Last week officials in the Obama administration talked to the New York Times about the "Secret Kill List" drawn up for drone assassinations. Democratic strategists in an election year calculate that the article will prove a vote-winner, dispelling any notion that Barack Obama is soft on terror. The administration voices wanted to leave the impression of an involved and committed president who reads Thomas Aquinas's theory of the "just war" in between personally vetting the kill list.

...

It is easy to understand how the CIA slaughtered Tariq and many other innocent victims. Those who press the Hellfire buttons are 8,000 miles away in Nevada and are dependent on local "intelligence". Just as with Guantánamo Bay, the CIA is paying bounties to those who will identify "terrorists". Five thousand dollars is an enormous sum for a Waziri informant, translating to perhaps £250,000 in London terms. The informant has a calculation to make: is it safer to place a GPS tag on the car of a truly dangerous terrorist, or to call down death on a Nobody (with the beginnings of a beard), reporting that he is a militant? Too many "militants" are just young men with stubble. At least 174 have been children.

The New York Times reports that Obama first embraced a policy of taking no prisoners in order to avoid the embarrassing sore of Guantánamo. Then he accepted a method for assessing casualties that "counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants" unless there is explicit posthumous proof of their innocence – because they are probably "up to no good".

While Obama's policies may go down a treat in the US, they are fomenting radicalism abroad, the very policy not only undermining our way of life but provoking an extremist hydra with many more heads.

Some sane voices penetrate the gloom. Starting last summer, Cameron Munter, Obama's ambassador to Islamabad, was required to give a thumbs up or down assessment of each drone attack on Pakistani turf, as if he were an emperor in the Colosseum. "He didn't realise his main job was to kill people," said a colleague. Munter is quitting his job early this month because his diplomatic mission has been rendered impossible.

The dearth of US domestic criticism is astounding. The last time a president indulged in an illegal bombing campaign in the sovereign territory of allies (Richard Nixon in 1969, in Cambodia and Laos), the policy nearly got included in the articles of impeachment. We should remember that history, as the Vietnamese capitalised on the backlash, helping to impose the genocidal Khmer Rouge on Cambodia, and a single-party regime that endures 40 years later in Laos.

Can you imagine if George W. Bush were engaging in this kind of slaughter?

How about if Nixon and Kissinger were engaging in it?

Or Reagan?

But this is the Nobel Peace Price Winning Barack Obama, so mostly what we get from the liberal left is silence on this, or worse, rationalization.

I'll say it again - Obama belongs in Gitmo with Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Yoo, et al.

These are evil people doing evil deeds for their own ends.

Obama hold a Terror Tuesday meeting each week and invites his political team to it.

Then they leak details of the meetings and how "cool and collected" Obama is while ordering these drone killings.

It's all a political calculation to sell Obama as a "strong leader".

So what if some 12 year olds are killed in the process.

They're just foreigners anyway.

Probably will grow up to be terrorists in any case.

Ah, the irony of Obama finally making a note how Trayvon Martin could have been his own son on the same weekend he orders U.S. drones to kill black and brown kids in Yemen and Pakistan.

These are truly, truly evil people, no better than the war criminals in the Nixon, Reagan or Bush administrations.

Obama Kills 12 People This Weekend

Our Nobel Peace Prize Winning President continues to slaughter "terrorists":

Ten more people have been killed by a US drone strike against suspected militants in Pakistan, with the aircraft firing its missiles into a gathering mourning one of two fighters killed in a similar atttack the previous day.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials say four missiles were fired at the village of Mana Raghzai in South Waziristan near the border with Afghanistan on Sunday morning.

At the time of the attack, suspected militants had gathered to offer condolences to the brother of a militant commander killed during another US unmanned drone attack on Saturday. The brother was one of those who died in the Sunday morning attack. The Pakistani officials said two of the dead were foreigners and the rest were Pakistani.

It brought to 12 the total number of people killed in two days and was the sixth American drone strike over the last two weeks. The US government considers the drone campaign a vital tool in the war against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Paul Harris of The Guardian puts the president's slaughter of civilians in some context:

Yet it is the drone programme and "kill list" that have emerged as most central to Obama's hardline national security policy. In January 2009, when Obama came to power, the drone programme existed only for Pakistan and had seen 44 strikes in five years. With Obama in office it expanded to Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia with more than 250 strikes. Since April there have been 14 strikes in Yemen alone.

Civilian casualties are common. Obama's first strike in Yemen killed two families who were neighbours of the target. One in Pakistan missed and blew up a respected tribal leader and a peace delegation. He has deliberately killed American citizens, including the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in September last year, and accidentally killed others, such as Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdul-Rahman.

The drone operation now operates out of two main bases in the US, dozens of smaller installations and at least six foreign countries. There are "terror Tuesday" meetings to discuss targets which Obama's campaign manager, David Axelrod, sometimes attends, lending credence to those who see naked political calculation involved.

Yet for some, politics seems moot. Obama has shown himself to be a ruthless projector of national security powers at home and abroad, but the alternative in the coming election is Republican Mitt Romney.

"Whoever gets elected, whether it's Obama or Romney, they are going to continue this very dangerous path," said Radack. "It creates a constitutional crisis for our country. A crisis of who we are as Americans. You can't be a free society when all this happens in secret."

Those of you prepared to re-elect Barack Obama because he is the lesser of two evils in an election match-up with Mitt Romney should note that even the lesser of two evils is still "evil."

And given the slaughter Barack Obama orders on a weekly basis, given the Bush administration surveillance state apparatus Obama has expanded, given the fascistic and secretive tendencies this man has, he is most definitely evil and belongs in a Gitmo jail cell next to George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice and Donald Rumsfeld.

Axelrod, the political operative, attending the "Terror Tuesday" meetings.

That tells you everything you need to know about the policy and the people involved.

Bloomberg To Ban All Freedoms In New York City

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today that he is declaring the American Constitution null and void in the borders of New York City.

Bloomberg, who overturned term limits to run a third time in New York City back in 2009, stated on WOR radio yesterday that "Democracy and freedom are just unworkable these days, they make trying to control people just too damned difficult, and so we have decided to do away with both in New York City."

Bloomberg stated that recent protests over his education policies, his stop-and-frisk policing policies, and food and restaurant regulation policies had sent him over the edge.

"We just can't have people in this city telling the mayor they won't do what he wants," Bloomberg told WOR radio host John Gambling Jr. "This is an oligarchy, John, and people have got to follow the rules and regulations I make, whether they like it or not."

"Except for my friends at Goldman Sachs, of course, " the mayor added with a chuckle. "They can do whatever the hell they want."

Bloomberg's controversial decree, essentially declaring martial law in the city, will take effect this Sunday, June 3 at 12:00 AM.

WOR radio host Gambling, normally a passive interviewer who lets Bloomberg have his say without much pushback, seemed nonplussed by the mayor's decree.

"Mr. Mayor, are you sure you have the power to do this? I'm no constitutional law scholar, but it sounds vaguely unconstitutional."

Bloomberg seemed annoyed with Gambling. "Listen, John, don't fuck with me, okay. I'm telling you, I've had it up to here with people trying my patience and not listening to what I say or doing what I want. I've got my own army in the NYPD, I've got my own General Patton in Commissioner Ray Kelly and I will do whatever the fuck I want when I want to whomever I want and if any NYCLU commie pinko liberal wants to say differently, I will have them orange netted and in a cell so fast it will make their birkenstocks spin off."

Legal experts say that while Bloomberg's decree seems unconstitutional on the face of it, if he uses the veneer of "terrorism" as a reason for declaring martial law within the borders of the city, he just might get away with it.

"It's very disturbing, to tell you the truth," said Jonathan Turley, law professor at George Washington University Law School, "but ever since 9/11, these people in government can pretty much do whatever they want, so long as they say it's to keep us safe from terrorism. I mean, who'd have thought an American president would say he has the legal right to assassinate any American citizen suspected of terrorism at any time in any place? And yet, Obama has done just that. So why shouldn't Bloomberg be able to get away with declaring martial law in New York? It's just the kind of thing the right wing nuts on the Supreme Court will love."

Turley, who was visiting MSNBC studios at 3o Rockefeller Center at the time of his comment, was later arrested by NYPD officers on terrorism charges and is currently being held in a Riker's Island jail cell until he can be transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for questioning.

Chicago Police Trump Up Bogus Charges To Arrest Three NATO Protesters Who Posted You Tube Video

Barack Obama's America:

Three Nato protesters, arrested in a late night raid on Wednesday, have been charged on terrorism-related offences.

Police claim the charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism, providing material support for terrorism and possession of an explosive or incendiary device, are the result of a month-long investigation into a group they believe was making Molotov cocktails. They had already been pulled over by police last week and asked about their protest plans in a stop they posted on YouTube.

Attorneys representing the men say the charges are fabricated and aimed at intimidating activists. "We cannot say enough that we believe that these charges are absolutely … very trumped up charges," said Sarah Gelsomino of the Peoples Law Office. "Clearly in an attempt to continue this intimidation campaign on activists. Charging these people who are here to peacefully protest against Nato for terrorism, when in reality the police have been terrorising activists in Chicago, is absolutely outrageous.

"All three of these guys, interestingly, were in the car about a week ago that was stopped and harassed by the Chicago police department," Gelsomino said. "They then posted that video online in an attempt to expose that police misconduct. Each of those three are now being charged with these crimes. That's as much as we know."

The three men are all in their twenties. Two come from Florida and one from New Hampshire. They were arrested in the Bridgeport area of the City after 11pm on Wednesday. Chicago police dressed in black and armed with battering rams broke down doors in an apartment building, searched the units and then arrested nine protesters for allegedly making or possessing Molotov cocktails. Lawyers say it was just beer-making equipment.

"The city has so far failed to produce any evidence or the search warrant affidavit used in the raid," said Kris Hermes of the National Lawyers Guild.

When police detained the people, they also seized parts of a beer-making kit, including bottles and caps, and a cellphone, Gelsomino said.

"This is the playbook," said Gelsomino. "Shoddy police work. It's a fear campaign."

Indeed it is.

One protester said he had been handcuffed for 18 hours in an "interrogation room" before being released. Others say they were held without being told what they were going to be charged with.

Those of you out there still unconvinced that Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel and the rest of the so-called Democrats are as dangerous to democracy and humanity as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld, please take note of these arrests, along with all the drone killings across the world in the name of "freedom," the slaughtered Afghan children who show up in a little paragraph on A6 of the Times every week, the treatment of Bradley Manning, the harassment of whistleblowers by the feds, and all the spying and surveillance Obama is having his people do in order to keep us "safe from terrorism."

You could be the next one arrested for "terrorism" with your beer-making kit and your You Tube videos that expose the police for fascist goons.

Because we all just want to be safe, don't why?

Remember, the lesser of two evils is still evil.

Empress Quinn Says Democracy Means Never Insulting Bloomberg

Totally agree with what Assailed Teacher says.

Before yesterday, I thought Christine Quinn was not fit to be mayor.

After yesterday's escapade, I KNOW Christine Quinn is not fit to be mayor.

NYPD Forces Grandmother Of Teen Murdered By Cops To Give Statement Against Her Will

OK, so the NYPD chases a kid with dope on him into his apartment and shoots and kills him as he's trying to flush the shit down the toilet.

The kid's grandmother and six year old brother are both home and witness the murder.

You would think Ray Kelly and the NYPD would apologize for this outrage and look to rectify it.

But you would be wrong.

Instead they took the grandmother into custody and held her for seven hours until she gave a forced statement about the incident:

After a police officer fatally shot an 18-year-old man in his Bronx apartment on Thursday, the man’s grandmother, a witness to the shooting, was taken into custody and held against her will for several hours, a friend of the family said on Saturday.

An officer confronted the man, Ramarley Graham, who was in the bathroom possibly trying to flush some marijuana down the toilet. A moment later, a shot rang out, killing the teenager.

While officers had trailed Mr. Graham to the apartment thinking he was armed, no gun was found, making the grandmother, Patricia Hartley, 58, a critical witness. The shooting is drawing the kind of close scrutiny reminiscent of the killing of Sean Bell, who died in a hail of 50 police bullets in Queens in November 2006.

At this juncture little is known of precisely what Ms. Hartley saw and what of that she has told detectives.

But her treatment by the police in the hours after her grandson was killed could become a sticking point in an investigation that Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said would be presented to a grand jury.

After Mr. Graham was killed, Ms. Hartley was taken to the 47th Precinct station house on Laconia Avenue and held for seven hours, according to Carlton Berkley, a friend of Ms. Hartley’s who said he had retired from the police force as a detective in the 30th Precinct in upper Manhattan. Mr. Berkley added that Ms. Hartley was forced to give a statement about what happened.

“She gave it against her will,” Mr. Berkley said. “She didn’t want to speak to the police.”

Mr. Berkley, speaking on Saturday outside the Graham family home on East 229th Street in Wakefield, said: “We’re going to fight that statement.”

This is just the latest outrage committed by Commissioner Ray Kelly and his NYPD goons, as the NY Times pointed out today:

Over the past year, two officers charged with raping a woman were fired after being acquitted of rape but found guilty of official misconduct. A broad ticket-fixing scandal flared in the Bronx; when the accused officers were arraigned, hundreds of officers massed in protest, some denouncing Mr. Kelly. Eight current and former officers were charged with smuggling illegal guns. Narcotics detectives were accused of planting drugs on innocent civilians. An inspector needlessly pepper-sprayed four Occupy Wall Street protesters, invoking memories of the scrutiny and mass arrests of protesters during the 2004 Republican National Convention, and giving the nascent movement its first real prime-time moment.

Civil rights advocates have assailed the department’s expanded stops of minorities on the streets. Several officers denigrated West Indians on Facebook. Muslims have denounced the monitoring of their lives, as Mr. Kelly has dispatched undercover officers and informants to find radicalized youth.

Let's not forget Kelly's voluntary appearance in a film that smears Muslims as terrorists, a film that was shown to cops as part of their training, and Kelly's bragging that he could shoot down a plane over New York City if he wanted to, he's just that powerful.

And let's also not forget that his son is currently under investigation for rape and the NYPD has been working overtime to discredit the alleged victim in the tabloids with anonymous quotes.

But this latest outrage, the murdered teen and the cops holding the grandmother until she gave the statement they wanted her to give, that goes beyond the pale.

It's time for this autocratic commissioner to go.

Frankly after the OWS crackdown, he belongs in jail sharing a cell with Bernie Kerik.

That won't happen, of course, which is a shame.

But even the cops who work for this creep want him gone.

The outrages are building, week after week.

It's time for Kelly to be gone.

Bloomberg and His Army

Police Defend Use Of Pepper Spray Against UC Davis Protesters

The Associated Press finds a retired policeman from Baltimore who wrote the city's book on use of force who defends the use of pepper spray on seated, passive protesters at UC Davis as Standard Operation Police Procedure:

SAN FRANCISCO — As video spread of an officer in riot gear blasting pepper spray into the faces of seated protesters at a northern California university, outrage came quickly — followed almost as quickly by defense from police and calls for the chancellor’s resignation.

University of California Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi said in a statement Saturday she was forming a task force to investigate the police action and the video images she said were “chilling.”

However, a law enforcement official who watched the clip called the use of force “fairly standard police procedure.”

In the video, an officer dispassionately pepper-sprays a line of several sitting protesters who flinch and cover their faces but remain passive with their arms interlocked as onlookers shriek and scream out for the officer to stop.

...

The protest was held in support of the overall Occupy Wall Street movement and in solidarity with protesters at the University of California, Berkeley who were jabbed by police with batons on Nov. 9.

Charles J. Kelly, a former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department’s use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a “compliance tool” that can be used on subjects who do not resist, and is preferable to simply lifting protesters.

“When you start picking up human bodies, you risk hurting them,” Kelly said. “Bodies don’t have handles on them.”

After reviewing the video, Kelly said he observed at least two cases of “active resistance” from protesters. In one instance, a woman pulls her arm back from an officer. In the second instance, a protester curls into a ball. Each of those actions could have warranted more force, including baton strikes and pressure-point techniques.

“What I’m looking at is fairly standard police procedure,” Kelly said.

Lt. Kelly is absolutely correct - this is standard police procedure.

And that is the problem.

How anybody could say that a person pulling their arm away from a policeman or covering their face from pepper spray is engaged in an "active resistance" is beyond me.

But Lt. Kelly does.

And you can bet a lot of other officers in both blue and white shirts think the exact same thing all across this country.

These guys have seen the enemy and it is every American who does not meekly comply with the orders of the establishment - WORK, SHOP, OBEY.

As I wrote earlier, it is only a matter of time before they start shooting real bullets.

And they'll defend that too.

Ducking police bullets while peacefully rallying against Wall Street is, after all, an "act of resistance."

Fascism Comes To Indiana

Bad news:

Today, the Indiana Senate concurred with the House version of Senate Bill 575.

It goes to Senator Mitch "Big Jerk" Daniels for his signature either this week or next. He will almost certainly sign it.

This is a huge loss for teachers here in Indiana. As I've been saying for some time the victory parties regarding union labor and public education in the Hoosier state were quite premature. In concurring with the House Version of this bill, the Indiana Senate approved measures that would:

* allow annual evaluations to be conducted by other teachers or contracted outside agencies

* eliminate the ability of a local associations to bargain or discuss the evaluation tool

* restrict collective bargaining agreements to wages and wage related benefits

* ban the bargaining of contractual hours or number of days worked.

* eliminate current contractual reduction-in-force processes

* eliminate contractual grievance procedures except in cases related to wages and wage related benefits.

I added the bold for the two worst elements of this bill. Do the parts in bold sound familiar?

They should, if you've been following the labor struggles in Wisconsin and Ohio.

I'm lucky in that my own local union was able to negotiate a two-year extension on my contract, and in that our union has a pretty good working relationship with the administration and the school board. Other locals were not so lucky, and will now see huge chunks of their contract left entirely to the mercy of the local administration and school boards.

Should such entities decide that teachers ought to work an additional forty-five minutes to an hour a day, at no additional pay, they will be able to insert that kind of language into the contract. And if the locals don't like that? They can get bent, as far as the state GOP is concerned.

This is a sad day for teachers in Indiana.

Indeed, it is.

But remember that it is NOT just Republicans doing this to unions.

Rahm "Corporate Whore" Emanuel in Chicago plans to unilaterally impose longer work hours and days now that the Illinois legislature has given him that power.

Gotta love a country where corporate contracts are sacrosanct, but employee contracts are worthless.

They call that kind of country a fascist country.

And the politicians who engage in this kind of politics are fascists - whether it is Mitch Daniels in Indiana, Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Rah Emanuel in Chicago, Chris Christie in New Jersey, or Bloomberg/Cuomo in New York.

Fascism Comes To Detroit - Oprah and Obama Are AWOL

The corporate gestapo sent the police to arrest teen mothers protesting the closing of their school - the only one in the nation specifically created to help teen mothers graduate from high school:

Approximately a dozen teachers, teen mothers and their children were arrested and taken away by Detroit police while staging a peaceful sit-in protest at the Catherine Ferguson Academy in Detroit on Friday April 15th. Eight students, along with their children and some faculty members of the Catherine Ferguson Academy of Detroit, MI began the sit-in at the end of the school day in protest to Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb’s announcement to close the school for pregnant and parenting teens. The decision to occupy was made after many other attempts by students, staff and supporters to have their voices heard by EFM Robert Bobb through letter writing and petition campaigns, to no avail.


The protestors were told by police that they were trespassing and the building needed to be closed. The peaceful occupiers refused to leave and many were brought out in handcuffs. It has been reported by local news that “Some struggled, some screamed, all were put in squad cars and hauled away", while many more protestors and supporters outside watched in shock. The students themselves say they did not resist arrest. One told local reporters, "We just stood there and they just arrested us one by one ."

Hey, this building has to be handed over to the for-profit charter school industry, so teen mothers trying to graduate high school be damned!

Take a look at the videos of this at the Daily Kos, then ask yourself, "Where is Oprah and Obama on this?"

Nowhere to be found.

You know why?

They're on the side of the corporate fascists and gestapo.

The selling off of America and the feudalization of the populace continues unabated.

Wisconsin Republicans: Screw The Constitution

Fascism, pure and simple:

CHICAGO — A law to limit collective bargaining rights for public workers in Wisconsin was unexpectedly published by a state agency on Friday despite a temporary restraining order barring publication, sparking confusion and more animosity among legislators who have fiercely debated the issue for weeks.

State officials disagreed over whether publication of the law — a procedural requirement — would allow it to be in force on Saturday. The state’s Legislative Reference Bureau said it is required to publish all laws within 10 days after they are enacted. Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, signed the bill on March 11, but a county judge issued an order last week blocking the secretary of state from publishing it. The order did not bar the legislative bureau from publishing the law.

Democrats argued on Friday that the law would not go into effect on Saturday because it still required official publication by the secretary of state.

“This bill has been under a cloud of suspicion since Day 1,” Peter Barca, a Democrat and minority leader of the General Assembly, said in a statement. “Today’s actions and statements are only perpetuating the problem.”

...

Governor Walker’s administration said it had been notified that the agency published the bill as required by law. “The administration will carry out the law as required,” the administration said in a statement.

The law limits bargaining to matters of wages and limits raises to changes in the Consumer Price Index. It ends the state’s collection of union dues from paychecks and requires most unions to hold annual votes to determine whether workers still wish to be members.

Judge Maryann Sumi of Dane County Circuit Court in Madison had issued the temporary restraining order barring publication of the law last week after the county’s Democratic district attorney filed a lawsuit saying that Republican lawmakers violated open meeting requirements when they pushed the bill through the Legislature. Judge Sumi had planned to hold a full hearing this month.

On Thursday, a state appeals court declined to weigh in on the issue and suggested the Supreme Court take up the case.

It will be interesting to see if Republicans pay a political price for defying a court order.

Until these criminals are made to pay a political and a criminal price for their actions, they will continue to pull this kind of thing.

Rahmbo Looks To Solidify His Dictatorship By Canning Half Of Chicago City Council

The move toward authoritarian governance continues unabated:

Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel (D) "has broached a touchy subject during private meetings with aldermen to solicit their ideas on budget and ethics reform: cutting the nation's second-largest City Council in half," the Chicago Sun Times reports.

"Several aldermen, who asked to remain anonymous, said they were stunned when Emanuel opened the discussion by asking them point-blank, 'What do you think about going down to 25 aldermen?'"

"It was a bold opening line for a mayor-elect who will need every vote he can get to reorganize the Council, pass his programs and solve a budget and pension crisis that literally has Chicago on the brink of bankruptcy."

It was a bold move all right - Emanuel bought most of these crooks off before the election, now he's going to fuck them afterwards.

And of course he'll cite the need to move fast on pressing financial issues, fiscal crisis, blah, blah, blah as the rationale for getting rid of half the City Council.

Which is all jive, of course.

He just doesn't want to have to share power in any way, shape, or form.

The next gambit in the move toward fascism - abolish the city council.

That'll come next.

Call it Emanuel's Beer Hall Putsch.

Oh, the irony.

Emblem Of The Times

From Political Wire:

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) has ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural depicting the state's labor history from the lobby of the Department of Labor headquarters, according to WMTW-TV.

A spokesman said the mural was "not in keeping with the department's pro-business goals and some business owners complained."

Diane Ravitch called the current nexus between authoritarian politicians and anti-democratic business conglomerates "fascism" the other day in her blog post at Ed Week.

What would one call the removal of a 36-foot mural depicting a state's labor history from the Department of Labor headquarters because it upset some business guys?

First we remove the murals depicting labor history, then we remove any vestige of labor protections.

I seem to remember hearing about this somewhere else...might be a book or something...

Oh, yeah - now I remember.

Bloomberg To Defund Borough Presidents And Public Advocate

Well, this is one way for Moneybags to hold onto dictatorial power and quash criticism:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is proposing massive cuts to the budgets of the city's top government watchdog and the borough presidents, a move his administration defended as fiscally necessary and his critics denounced as a political power play.

In the fine print of the mayor's preliminary budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning July 1, Mr. Bloomberg recommended cutting the public advocate's budget by 20% and each of the borough presidents' budgets by as much as 36%.

The public advocate and the five borough presidents are independently elected officials, but their budgets are at the mercy of the mayor and the City Council. The mayor has a long history of proposing cuts to these offices, and, in most cases, but not all, the council has restored a large portion of what Mr. Bloomberg recommended cutting.

"It is outrageous that we are part of this political budget dance that impacts our ability to do our job effectively," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, whose office is slated to lose a third of its budget.

Mr. Stringer, a potential 2013 mayoral candidate, said the constant threat of cuts creates a chilling effect aimed at dissuading elected officials from criticizing the mayor or the council.

Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, called Mr. Stringer's allegations "completely false."

"Budget decisions are made based on how our limited taxpayer dollars can best serve the city—spending on education and public safety is the highest, then on down the list," Mr. LaVorgna said.

Oh, please - the mayor's spending priorities start with how to fund all the outside consultants and no-bid contracts he's doled out over his nine years in office.

You know, like the CityTime contract.

As for education, clearly that's not a priority or he wouldn't be KILLING children and school staff by refusing to take TOXIC LIGHTS that contain PCB's out the schools.

Nope, this defunding of the borough presidents and the public advocate is just an old-fashioned power grab by Moneybags to quash criticism and rid himself of rivals.

I bet if he could go after City Comptroller John Liu's office, he would REALLY do some defunding.

Liu, after all, is the only city official actually taking actions that show what a mismanaged city we have under Michael "Outside Contracts Like CityTime are Sacrosanct" Bloomberg.

You can expect Bloomberg suck-ups like De Blasio, Markowitz and others to BEG for the cut funds to be restored to their offices.

And then you can be sure that they'll be less likely to criticize their benefactor, Moneybags.

Stringer can't afford to run things that way, of course.

As a potential mayoral candidate in 2013, he MUST distance himself from Bloomberg and be critical of Herr Mayor.

Guess he's just screwed.

As for Bloomberg, you have to wonder when he's going to say that NYC can no longer afford the City Council or elections and just dispenses with this whole democracy sham and takes power like the fascist jackboot he is.

Bloomberg Looks At The Balloons

The Daily News reports politicians around the state are divided over what to do with the Cathie Black mess.

Some say Bloomberg should agree to give her training wheels and a deputy chancellor in charge of learning, teaching and accountability as the Steiner waiver panel recommended.

They say this is just the way things have worked in Chicago and it's all swell (even though actually it isn't.)

The NY Times op-ed page suggested that Bloomberg should accept this deal.

Other says no, she shouldn't get a "mini me" - if she cannot do the job on her own, then she should not get the job.

Little Andy Cuomo - who has a streak of fascism and authoritarianism in him - says since Bloomberg is the mayor, he should get what he wants.

How's that for reform from the reform governor? Political leaders as dictators!

Anyway, Bloomberg didn't want to talk about any of this last night as he watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons get blown up on the Upper West Side:

City Hall and the Education Department remained mum yesterday, with Bloomberg declining to answer questions at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon inflation event.

"We're not going to talk about any ongoing processes," the mayor said. "We want to look at the balloons."

Poor Mikey - the balloons are getting blown up and so is his pick for chancellor.

One last thing about Bloomberg - you ever notice how he uses the royal "we" when he talks about himself?

It's Like He's Cheney Or Something

Gee, I don't remember President Accountability mentioning he was going to expand the Bush/Cheney domestic spying apparatus.

And yet, he is:

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.

The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication.

But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters. These missives, which can be issued by an FBI field office on its own authority, require the recipient to provide the requested information and to keep the request secret. They are the mechanism the government would use to obtain the electronic records.

Stewart A. Baker, a former senior Bush administration Homeland Security official, said the proposed change would broaden the bureau's authority. "It'll be faster and easier to get the data," said Baker, who practices national security and surveillance law. "And for some Internet providers, it'll mean giving a lot more information to the FBI in response to an NSL."

...

To critics, the move is another example of an administration retreating from campaign pledges to enhance civil liberties in relation to national security. The proposal is "incredibly bold, given the amount of electronic data the government is already getting," said Michelle Richardson, American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel.

The critics say its effect would be to greatly expand the amount and type of personal data the government can obtain without a court order. "You're bringing a big category of data -- records reflecting who someone is communicating with in the digital world, Web browsing history and potentially location information -- outside of judicial review," said Michael Sussmann, a Justice Department lawyer under President Bill Clinton who now represents Internet and other firms.

That doesn't sound hopey/changey, does it?

Not to me it doesn't.

Just another move to the right by President Accountability and the merry band of public school privatizers, war profiteers, and hedge fundies/corporate whores he has inhabiting his administration as part of his "meritocracy."