Keeping the police state, though.
Obama doesn't seem to be letting go seeing as there is yet to be a nominee; however, maybe they are saving it for diversionary purposes at some point.
Sorry to be blowing the whi$tle the Globe will not, but it looks like Holder will be in good hands when he leaves:
Eric Holder Takes $77 Million Job With JPMorgan Chase
That's his annual salary.
Kind of explains this, too:
"Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the nation’s banks had become too big to jail. “The size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them,” Holder said at a hearing Wednesday. “If we do prosecute — if we do bring a criminal charges — it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.”
That's AmeriKan Ju$tu$!
"AG Eric Holder to quit; Governor Patrick won’t seek job" by Matt Viser | Globe Staff September 26, 2014
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation on Thursday afternoon, immediately reigniting rumors that Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts could be next in line for the country’s top law enforcement job.
OMG, that failure.
Almost as quickly, Patrick sought to squelch speculation that he would succeed Holder, even amid indications the president’s advisers were interested in Patrick and have sought to measure his interest in the post.
“That’s an enormously important job, but it’s not one for me right now,” Patrick said at a campaign event in Hudson, Mass. “I have no plans and no interest in making plans to be the next attorney general,” he said later at the State House.
A person briefed on the process, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the governor has told his closest aides that he will not be the next attorney general.
Thankfully, for this nation.
But in the hours before getting on plane to fly to Washington — a previously scheduled trip that coincided with the news of Holder’s resignation — the governor said he has talked previously with the president about a position.
“The president and I have had conversations over the years about a role in his administration and I am proud of his administration,” he told reporters in Worcester. “But I’ve told you before, I’m going to finish my term and then I’m going to go into the private sector.”
We'll see.
As long as a year ago, the White House was inquiring about the potential of Patrick taking Holder’s position. A senior adviser to the president posed the question to a prominent Massachusetts Democrat. “Would he be interested?’’ the adviser was quoted as saying.
It is unclear whether the efforts to determine Patrick’s interest went any further, or how Patrick responded to them.
The flurry of speculation erupted Thursday morning after news broke that Holder would be resigning. Holder is one of the longest-serving members of Obama’s Cabinet, and will be ending a tenure as the first black attorney general.
What scandal is coming down the pike causing Holder to leave?
During his nearly six years on the job, Holder sought to create a legacy on civil rights, pushing for legal benefits for gay couples, and filing lawsuits against voting restrictions in North Carolina and Texas. He also sought to ease federal drug sentencing laws, and recently went to Ferguson, Mo., to try to heal wounds and charges of racism that emerged when a police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager.
He opened more of them.
His tenure also was marked by controversy, and intense jousting with congressional Republicans— many of whom reacted with glee at his resignation.
I didn't react with glee. I was happy, but it changes nothing in the $y$tem.
Holder was criticized for his role in Operation Fast and Furious, a government program that allowed guns into Mexico.
Yeah, he should have been put on ice a long time ago.
He was also aggressive in prosecuting members of the media reporting on national security matters.
Then why did you not mention his obstruction on the IRS and Benghazi investigations?
“Eric has done a superb job,” Obama said during an emotional news conference at the White House. “I just want to say thank you.”
Bush to Brownie!
Aside from Patrick, other possible replacements include Preet Bharara, US attorney for the Southern District of New York; Janet Napolitano, the former secretary of Homeland Security; former White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler; and Solicitor General Donald Verrilli.
Natty Napolitano?
Patrick, a Harvard Law School graduate and the top civil rights enforcer in the Justice Department under President Clinton, is often mentioned when top law-related spots open up in Washington. He has been on speculators’ short lists for Supreme Court justice, as well as for attorney general each time rumors arose about a potential Holder resignation. Patrick is also the former corporate counsel at Texaco and Coca-Cola.
OMG, the Supreme Court!
I suppose he has the corporate credentials, but his governorship has been a massive failure.
*********
The White House has also long been interested in Patrick. The governor and Obama are personally close, sharing dinners on Martha’s Vineyard or late-night drinks at the White House. A former top aide to Patrick, David Simas, is now a top aide to Obama.
He go to the bathhouse, too?
With Patrick not running for reelection, he also will be available for new employment opportunities come January.
But Patrick has consistently ruled out interest in federal posts and has said he would like to explore more lucrative, private-sector opportunities.
He told the Globe on Thursday afternoon it was “mind-blowing to be mentioned in those contexts,” but acknowledged some weariness at the now-familiar pattern of his name surging to the top of lists about federal jobs, despite his repeated statements that he will serve out his term.
It is mind-blowing.
And he repeated his insistence that his first career step out of office will not be into another government post.
“As soon as I know what my next job is, I will tell you, I promise,” he said. “But it will be in the private sector.”
Patrick’s travel schedule Thursday helped fuel speculation. He held a Cabinet meeting at 2 p.m., and later left for Washington, which was abuzz over a 4:30 p.m. press conference during which Obama formally announced Holder’s resignation.
Patrick said he had long planned to be in Washington on Friday for events with the Congressional Black Caucus. Patrick is also attending a fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee, and then heading back to Boston in the evening.
Thanks for contributing to the global warming problem.
A Patrick spokeswoman could not say whether Patrick had plans to go to the White House, or whether he would be speaking with Obama.
“You know, the president knows how to get in touch with me whether I’m in D.C. or not,” Patrick said. “Just relax everybody. I’m not going to Washington to meet with the president.”
But Patrick evaded specific questions over his past discussions with Obama over being appointed to the post.
When asked if he’d ever been offered the position of attorney general, he responded, “I’m not going to tell you all the details of our conversation, but he has an attorney general and a damn good one.”
With the Senate on recess until the midterm elections in November, any attorney general nominee probably would have to wait until at least the lame duck session for confirmation hearings. If Patrick were the nominee and confirmed before his term expires in January, Secretary of State William F. Galvin would become acting governor; the lieutenant governor’s office is vacant.
A confirmation hearing for Patrick could be contentious.
His political image has been dented by a string of mismanagement scandals, including at the state drug lab and major problems at the state’s Department of Children and Families.
They mentioned only two?
Patrick’s administration also has refused to comply with the Department of Homeland Security’s Real ID verification program, which requires proof of citizenship or legal residence in order to obtain a driver’s license.
Related: Things Getting UnREAL in Massachusetts
And he declined to sign onto the controversial fingerprint sharing system as part of a Secured Communities immigration enforcement program.
Republicans could also use the hearings as an opportunity to ding Patrick’s national reputation, should he ever decide to seek higher office.
Going to get dinged anyway.
Despite the governor’s denials, Senator Elizabeth Warren — campaigning with gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley in Chelsea Thursday — hinted that Patrick would be an ideal replacement for Holder.
“I happen to be very fond of the current governor of Massachusetts,” she said. “I don’t want to start any rumors here. I have not spoken with the governor about this and don’t know what the governor’s wishes are.”
Who cares what Liz says anymore?
--more--"
Media let go of these rather easily:
"Father: Police murdered my son at Ohio Walmart" by Kantele Franko | Associated Press September 26, 2014
DAYTON, Ohio — The father of a man fatally shot by police as he held an air rifle inside an Ohio Walmart said Thursday that he believes his son was murdered, despite a special grand jury declining to criminally charge the officers.
John Crawford Jr., whose son was shot Aug. 5 in the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek, said at a news conference that he was appalled the officers weren’t indicted. He said he welcomed an announced US Justice Department probe to determine if his 22-year-old son’s civil rights were violated.
‘‘The officer went in and virtually shot him on sight,’’ Crawford said. ‘‘He did not have a chance.’’
John Crawford III was black and the officers are white. Attorneys for Crawford’s family said they hope a federal grand jury will consider if or how race was a factor in the shooting.
‘‘It was an unarmed black man that got shot and killed in Walmart, and we can’t hide from that,’’ attorney Michael Wright said. ‘‘We believe that, yes, had Mr. Crawford been Caucasian, maybe the outcome would be different. But it’s very hard at this point to say that that, in fact, was the case.’’
I don't. We see white and black being blown away everyday; it is just that in my agenda-pushing paper of power the rural rednecks are poor white trash that deserve to be killed.
**************
Police said the Fairfield man didn’t obey commands to put down what turned out to be an air rifle taken from a shelf. Prosecutor Stacey DeGraffenreid said the officers did what they were trained to do, based on the information they had when entering the store.
Stay away from Walmart.
But Crawford’s father and the family’s attorneys say surveillance video shows the shooting was unreasonable. They contend that Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and special prosecutor Mark Piepmeier were biased and set out to defend the police.
Authority does close ranks.
DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney denied the allegations, saying DeWine took pains to remove himself from the process.
Piepmeier said he was complimented after the grand jury session by pool members for an unbiased presentation by himself and Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents, Tierney said. Those agents work for DeWine.
Wright said the family is considering its legal options and that he’ll seek the full investigative file from the Beavercreek police.
The Justice Department has begun its own review of police department practices. The federal government said its investigation will be ‘‘thorough and independent’’ and it would take appropriate action if evidence was found that civil rights laws were broken.
The Justice Department has opened civil rights investigations into the practices of some 20 police departments in the past five years. The latest is in Ferguson, Mo., where racial unrest and sometimes violent protests erupted after an officer fatally shot an unarmed, black 18-year-old on Aug. 9.
Activists who protested the handling of the Crawford case say Ferguson spurred national discussion about policy and race-related issues and prompted some people to reexamine the Walmart shooting, which happened days earlier, in that context.
Why wasn't this seized on by the agenda-pushing agent provocateurs of the paper?
It's a one-day wonder and that is it.
‘‘I think that race has always been a part of it, but I think Ferguson exploded it,’’ said Prentiss Haney, an organizer with the Ohio Student Association who says justice hasn’t been served in the Crawford case.
Walking the halls of Wright State University in a T-shirt printed with the words ‘‘Don’t shoot,’’ Haney promised more demonstrations as that federal investigation progresses.
--more--"
Related:
Ferguson police chief offers apology to Brown’s family
Grand jury gets second case on Ferguson officer
"Ferguson shooting, protests unrelated, police say; Suspect’s gunfire injures officer" by Ashley Southall and Emma G. Fitzsimmons | New York Times September 29, 2014
NEW YORK — Authorities searched Sunday for a man who shot a police officer in the arm in Ferguson, Mo., on Saturday night, in an episode that they said was unrelated to continuing protests over the death of a black teenager shot by a white officer there last month.
Is it?
The officer was shot around 9:10 p.m. while checking on a community center, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said in a news conference. The center is not near where the protesters had gathered.
The officer spotted two men, who began running when he approached them, Jackson said. The officer chased them, and as he closed in on one of the men, the chief said, the second pulled out a gun and fired at the officer.
The officer said he fired several shots in return, but there was no indication that he had hit either man, Jackson said.
The man who shot the officer fled into woods, the St. Louis County Police Department said Sunday morning. Ferguson police officers and officers from other departments searched the area for an hour and a half but did not find him.
????
Are you frein with that?
***********
Less than an hour after Jackson spoke, an off-duty St. Louis city police officer was shot at while driving his personal vehicle on a highway near Ferguson, the County Police Department said....
Schron Jackson, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis Municipal Police Department, said the suspects, described as three males, fled in a black sedan.
???????
*****************
Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri expressed sympathy for the two injured officers in a conference call Sunday from Afghanistan with reporters from Missouri. He described the violence as ‘‘a challenge for everyone.’’
Demonstrators have been protesting in Ferguson since Brown’s death, in a case that has heightened long-simmering racial tensions in Ferguson, a suburb north of St. Louis.
At around midnight Saturday, about two dozen officers stood near a group of about 100 protesters who mingled on a street corner, occasionally shouting, ‘‘No justice, no peace.’’ By Sunday afternoon, the streets of Ferguson were quiet, with no visible signs of police or protesters.
On Thursday, Chief Thomas Jackson of the Ferguson Police Department issued a stark apology to the relatives of Brown, saying in a videotaped statement that he was sorry for the death of their son and for the four hours that the body of the unarmed 18-year-old lay in the street.
“I want to say this to the Brown family: No one who has not experienced the loss of a child can understand what you’re feeling,” he said. “I am truly sorry for the loss of your son. I’m also sorry that it took so long to remove Michael from the street.”
But in an interview with the Associated Press on Saturday, Brown’s parents were unmoved....
Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, and his father, Michael Brown Sr., attended President Obama’s speech at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation awards dinner on Saturday. He acknowledged their presence in the audience during his remarks, in which he also said more progress is needed in curbing racial discrimination.
--more--"
"Obama says votes, not just prayers, needed for racial progress" by Megan O’Neil | Bloomberg News September 29, 2014
WASHINGTON — President Obama challenged black voters to turn outfor November’s congressional elections if they want to see more of the racial progress in society that allowed him to become the nation’s first black president.
Tired of being used as tools and pandered to yet?
In remarks Saturday night at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual conference, Obama ticked off a list of achievements that he said showed the ‘‘enormous progress’’ in the United States, including steady job growth, a decline in the number of people without health insurance, and a falling crime rate.
Yeah, this country is in great shape. Too bad we have either a delusional or deceptive president.
‘‘But our work’s not done,’’ he said, noting the killing of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Mo., and the lack of equal access to education and jobs.
Prayers and good intentions aren’t enough, Obama said.
‘‘We have to get back to our schools, our offices, our churches, our beauty shops, our barber shops,’’ he said. ‘‘Make sure people know there is an election coming up. They need to know how to register, and they need to know how and when to vote. We have to tell them to push back against the cynics.’’
OMG! I need to let go.
Obama’s address underscored a reality Democrats around the country are facing with less than six weeks before the Nov. 4 midterm congressional elections: Voter enthusiasm is a problem.
Not on the Republican side it isn't.
Turnout from groups crucial to the party’s recent victories — young people, minorities, and women — historically declines in midterm elections.
Seven of the 21 Senate seats being defended by Democrats are in states that Obama lost in the last presidential election. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to gain control of the chamber, and polls show they are in reach of that goal.
Related: Scott Brown Surges Past Jeanne Shaheen
Also see: Shaheen, Brown use issues as weapons
Everything is a f***ing war in my paper.
Smiling, Obama told the audience that people often wish him well, note that he’s getting gray hair and ‘‘looking tired,’’ and say they’re praying for him.
‘‘But we need more than prayer. We need to vote,’’ Obama said. ‘‘It will not relieve me of my gray hair, but it will help me pass some bills.’’
All the more reason to vote Republican.
National Democrats, including former president Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, former secretary of state, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, have focused on Republican efforts to change voting laws as a way to increase urgency among the party’s voters.
The changes to state voting laws and rules around the country have drawn the ire of Democrats, who see the measures as a deliberate effort to suppress votes, particularly among minorities.
I wish I cared about rigged selections like I once did.
Republicans counter that laws requiring identification at the polls or cutting down on early voting hours are designed to root out fraud and streamline state and county operations.
Obama spoke two days after announcing the resignation of Eric Holder, the first black US attorney general, who focused on voting rights and reducing mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses that disproportionately imprisoned blacks.
He paid tribute to Holder as someone who has made it his life’s work to ‘‘making sure that equal justice under the law actually means something.’’ He called him ‘‘a great friend of mine, he has been a faithful servant of the American people.’’
Holder spoke to the group a day earlier, saying attending a Congressional Black Caucus dinner with an aunt when he was younger was a ‘‘foundational experience’’ for him.
As the nation’s top Democrat, Obama has a schedule of political fund-raising trips between now and the Nov. 4 elections aimed at helping Democrats retain control of the Senate.
He recently headlined fund-raisers in New York and Washington and this week he is scheduled to travel to Chicago to raise money.
I'm sick of $hit-show fooley politics, sorry.
--more--"
You might want to buckle up for this next article:
"S.C. dashboard video shows shooting of unarmed driver" by Jeffrey Collins | Associated Press September 26, 2014
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina state trooper’s dashboard video shows an unarmed driver being shot just seconds after he was stopped for a seat-belt offense— and the trooper, who was fired last week, has now been charged with assault.
As Levar Jones cried in pain waiting for an ambulance, he repeated one question: ‘‘Why did you shoot me?’’
Jones’s groans and then-Trooper Sean Groubert’s reply — ‘‘Well you dove head first back into your car’’ — were captured by the camera.
State Public Safety Director Leroy Smith, Groubert’s boss, fired the officer Friday. He called the video ‘‘disturbing’’ and said ‘‘Groubert reacted to a perceived threat where there was none.’’
I think he should be executed by firing squad.
The 31-year-old former trooper is charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison. He was released after paying 10 percent of a $75,000 bond.
The dashboard camera video was released by prosecutors Wednesday night after they showed it at Groubert’s bond hearing.
Jones was stopped Sept. 4 as he pulled into a convenience store on a busy Columbia road. With the camera recording, Groubert pulled up without his siren on as Jones was getting out of his vehicle to go into the store. ‘‘Can I see your license please?’’ Groubert asked.
As Jones turned and reached back into his car, Groubert shouted, ‘‘Get outa the car, get outa the car.’’ He began firing before he finished the second sentence. There was a third shot as Jones staggered away, backing up with his hands raised, and then a fourth.
From the first shot to the fourth, the video clicked off three seconds. Jones’ wallet could be seen flying out of his hands as he raised them.
Groubert’s lawyer, Barney Giese, said the shooting was justified because the trooper feared for his life and the safety of others.
All police shootings in AmeriKa are justified. The police only shoot those who deserve it, unlike those awful enemy countries.
Police officers are rarely charged in South Carolina.
Or anywhere else, for that matter.
In August, a prosecutor refused to file criminal charges against a York County deputy who shot a 70-year-old man after mistaking his cane for a shotgun during an after-dark traffic stop.
It's just FIRE AWAY FIRST, huh?
Groubert is white and Jones is black.
The agenda-pu$hing ma$$ media noticed that.
State Representative Joe Neal is an African-American who has spoken against racism in law enforcement for years.
‘‘You are doing exactly what the police officer asked you do to and you get shot for it?’’ said Neal. ‘‘That’s insane.’’
That's AmeriKa!
--more--"
Also see: SWAT teams respond to N.H. school
I'm tired of the mind-manipulating, staged and scripted psyops to justify more tyranny. Sorry.
"More US police agencies turning to cameras" by Kirk Johnson | New York Times September 28, 2014
PULLMAN, Wash. — Amateur videos of police officers doing their jobs have become part of the fabric of urban democracy, with embarrassing or violent images spreading via social media in minutes.
But more police agencies, especially after the unrest following an unarmed teenager’s shooting in Ferguson, Mo., are recording events with small body-mounted cameras.
In just the past few weeks, law enforcement agencies in at least a dozen cities, including Ferguson; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Minneapolis; Norfolk, Va.; and Washington, have said they are equipping officers with video cameras.
I'll bet the cops are complaining about their privacy!
Miami Beach approved buying $3 million worth of cameras for police officers, parking enforcement workers, and building and fire inspectors.
The New York Police Department, the nation’s largest urban force, has studied how Los Angeles is incorporating body cameras and plans its own pilot project.
A new law in New Jersey, requires all municipal police departments to buy car-mounted or body cameras, and creates a new fine on drunken drivers to help pay for it. And the US Border Patrol, with more than 21,000 agents, said it would start testing cameras this year.
The experience of the police in this college town in Washington provides a glimpse of how.
Shane Emerson, a barrel-chested officer, was responding to a report of inebriated students — not an unusual assignment here. Friends of the youths rushed up as he began his questioning, brandishing their cellphones and telling him they were recording the encounter.
God help them if they smoke a joint.
“Cool,” Emerson said. “I am, too.”
The shift has been sudden and seismic, primarily because various interests, often opposed, have lined up in support of the idea.
Liability-conscious city attorneys say the cameras could help in lawsuits. Rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say police accountability will be bolstered by another layer of public documentation.
The Justice Department, surveying 63 police departments that were using body cameras and many others that were not, concluded in a report this month that the technology had the potential to “promote the perceived legitimacy and sense of procedural justice” in interactions between the public and law enforcement.
Why would the AmeriKan public feel there was not that?
But the spread of police body cameras is also raising concerns about what is recorded when and how video might be released to the public, and how the millions of hours of video will be archived and protected from leaks and hackers.
This from the authority and officials that are collecting all of our data and storing it.
Some police unions worry that videos could become tools of management, used by higher-ups to punish an officer they do not like, or that private conversations among officers could go public.
And then the racist nature of the police will really be established!
The rising use of cameras has put the police in a complex and uncertain landscape of public records law.
Yeah, the poor skull-bashing, blasting-away cops.
--more--"
Did you know that "private companies like Taser International offer document storage services, along with the cameras, batteries, docking stations and software?"
Hard to let go of that dough!
Time for me to let go of blogging for tonight. See you bright and early tomorrow for some Sunday Globe Specials and much more!
Obama doesn't seem to be letting go seeing as there is yet to be a nominee; however, maybe they are saving it for diversionary purposes at some point.
Sorry to be blowing the whi$tle the Globe will not, but it looks like Holder will be in good hands when he leaves:
Eric Holder Takes $77 Million Job With JPMorgan Chase
That's his annual salary.
Kind of explains this, too:
"Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the nation’s banks had become too big to jail. “The size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them,” Holder said at a hearing Wednesday. “If we do prosecute — if we do bring a criminal charges — it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.”
That's AmeriKan Ju$tu$!
"AG Eric Holder to quit; Governor Patrick won’t seek job" by Matt Viser | Globe Staff September 26, 2014
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation on Thursday afternoon, immediately reigniting rumors that Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts could be next in line for the country’s top law enforcement job.
OMG, that failure.
Almost as quickly, Patrick sought to squelch speculation that he would succeed Holder, even amid indications the president’s advisers were interested in Patrick and have sought to measure his interest in the post.
“That’s an enormously important job, but it’s not one for me right now,” Patrick said at a campaign event in Hudson, Mass. “I have no plans and no interest in making plans to be the next attorney general,” he said later at the State House.
A person briefed on the process, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the governor has told his closest aides that he will not be the next attorney general.
Thankfully, for this nation.
But in the hours before getting on plane to fly to Washington — a previously scheduled trip that coincided with the news of Holder’s resignation — the governor said he has talked previously with the president about a position.
“The president and I have had conversations over the years about a role in his administration and I am proud of his administration,” he told reporters in Worcester. “But I’ve told you before, I’m going to finish my term and then I’m going to go into the private sector.”
We'll see.
As long as a year ago, the White House was inquiring about the potential of Patrick taking Holder’s position. A senior adviser to the president posed the question to a prominent Massachusetts Democrat. “Would he be interested?’’ the adviser was quoted as saying.
It is unclear whether the efforts to determine Patrick’s interest went any further, or how Patrick responded to them.
The flurry of speculation erupted Thursday morning after news broke that Holder would be resigning. Holder is one of the longest-serving members of Obama’s Cabinet, and will be ending a tenure as the first black attorney general.
What scandal is coming down the pike causing Holder to leave?
During his nearly six years on the job, Holder sought to create a legacy on civil rights, pushing for legal benefits for gay couples, and filing lawsuits against voting restrictions in North Carolina and Texas. He also sought to ease federal drug sentencing laws, and recently went to Ferguson, Mo., to try to heal wounds and charges of racism that emerged when a police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager.
He opened more of them.
His tenure also was marked by controversy, and intense jousting with congressional Republicans— many of whom reacted with glee at his resignation.
I didn't react with glee. I was happy, but it changes nothing in the $y$tem.
Holder was criticized for his role in Operation Fast and Furious, a government program that allowed guns into Mexico.
Yeah, he should have been put on ice a long time ago.
He was also aggressive in prosecuting members of the media reporting on national security matters.
Then why did you not mention his obstruction on the IRS and Benghazi investigations?
“Eric has done a superb job,” Obama said during an emotional news conference at the White House. “I just want to say thank you.”
Bush to Brownie!
Aside from Patrick, other possible replacements include Preet Bharara, US attorney for the Southern District of New York; Janet Napolitano, the former secretary of Homeland Security; former White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler; and Solicitor General Donald Verrilli.
Natty Napolitano?
Patrick, a Harvard Law School graduate and the top civil rights enforcer in the Justice Department under President Clinton, is often mentioned when top law-related spots open up in Washington. He has been on speculators’ short lists for Supreme Court justice, as well as for attorney general each time rumors arose about a potential Holder resignation. Patrick is also the former corporate counsel at Texaco and Coca-Cola.
OMG, the Supreme Court!
I suppose he has the corporate credentials, but his governorship has been a massive failure.
*********
The White House has also long been interested in Patrick. The governor and Obama are personally close, sharing dinners on Martha’s Vineyard or late-night drinks at the White House. A former top aide to Patrick, David Simas, is now a top aide to Obama.
He go to the bathhouse, too?
With Patrick not running for reelection, he also will be available for new employment opportunities come January.
But Patrick has consistently ruled out interest in federal posts and has said he would like to explore more lucrative, private-sector opportunities.
He told the Globe on Thursday afternoon it was “mind-blowing to be mentioned in those contexts,” but acknowledged some weariness at the now-familiar pattern of his name surging to the top of lists about federal jobs, despite his repeated statements that he will serve out his term.
It is mind-blowing.
And he repeated his insistence that his first career step out of office will not be into another government post.
“As soon as I know what my next job is, I will tell you, I promise,” he said. “But it will be in the private sector.”
Patrick’s travel schedule Thursday helped fuel speculation. He held a Cabinet meeting at 2 p.m., and later left for Washington, which was abuzz over a 4:30 p.m. press conference during which Obama formally announced Holder’s resignation.
Patrick said he had long planned to be in Washington on Friday for events with the Congressional Black Caucus. Patrick is also attending a fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee, and then heading back to Boston in the evening.
Thanks for contributing to the global warming problem.
A Patrick spokeswoman could not say whether Patrick had plans to go to the White House, or whether he would be speaking with Obama.
“You know, the president knows how to get in touch with me whether I’m in D.C. or not,” Patrick said. “Just relax everybody. I’m not going to Washington to meet with the president.”
But Patrick evaded specific questions over his past discussions with Obama over being appointed to the post.
When asked if he’d ever been offered the position of attorney general, he responded, “I’m not going to tell you all the details of our conversation, but he has an attorney general and a damn good one.”
With the Senate on recess until the midterm elections in November, any attorney general nominee probably would have to wait until at least the lame duck session for confirmation hearings. If Patrick were the nominee and confirmed before his term expires in January, Secretary of State William F. Galvin would become acting governor; the lieutenant governor’s office is vacant.
A confirmation hearing for Patrick could be contentious.
His political image has been dented by a string of mismanagement scandals, including at the state drug lab and major problems at the state’s Department of Children and Families.
They mentioned only two?
Patrick’s administration also has refused to comply with the Department of Homeland Security’s Real ID verification program, which requires proof of citizenship or legal residence in order to obtain a driver’s license.
Related: Things Getting UnREAL in Massachusetts
And he declined to sign onto the controversial fingerprint sharing system as part of a Secured Communities immigration enforcement program.
Republicans could also use the hearings as an opportunity to ding Patrick’s national reputation, should he ever decide to seek higher office.
Going to get dinged anyway.
Despite the governor’s denials, Senator Elizabeth Warren — campaigning with gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley in Chelsea Thursday — hinted that Patrick would be an ideal replacement for Holder.
“I happen to be very fond of the current governor of Massachusetts,” she said. “I don’t want to start any rumors here. I have not spoken with the governor about this and don’t know what the governor’s wishes are.”
Who cares what Liz says anymore?
--more--"
Media let go of these rather easily:
"Father: Police murdered my son at Ohio Walmart" by Kantele Franko | Associated Press September 26, 2014
DAYTON, Ohio — The father of a man fatally shot by police as he held an air rifle inside an Ohio Walmart said Thursday that he believes his son was murdered, despite a special grand jury declining to criminally charge the officers.
John Crawford Jr., whose son was shot Aug. 5 in the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek, said at a news conference that he was appalled the officers weren’t indicted. He said he welcomed an announced US Justice Department probe to determine if his 22-year-old son’s civil rights were violated.
‘‘The officer went in and virtually shot him on sight,’’ Crawford said. ‘‘He did not have a chance.’’
John Crawford III was black and the officers are white. Attorneys for Crawford’s family said they hope a federal grand jury will consider if or how race was a factor in the shooting.
‘‘It was an unarmed black man that got shot and killed in Walmart, and we can’t hide from that,’’ attorney Michael Wright said. ‘‘We believe that, yes, had Mr. Crawford been Caucasian, maybe the outcome would be different. But it’s very hard at this point to say that that, in fact, was the case.’’
I don't. We see white and black being blown away everyday; it is just that in my agenda-pushing paper of power the rural rednecks are poor white trash that deserve to be killed.
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Police said the Fairfield man didn’t obey commands to put down what turned out to be an air rifle taken from a shelf. Prosecutor Stacey DeGraffenreid said the officers did what they were trained to do, based on the information they had when entering the store.
Stay away from Walmart.
But Crawford’s father and the family’s attorneys say surveillance video shows the shooting was unreasonable. They contend that Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and special prosecutor Mark Piepmeier were biased and set out to defend the police.
Authority does close ranks.
DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney denied the allegations, saying DeWine took pains to remove himself from the process.
Piepmeier said he was complimented after the grand jury session by pool members for an unbiased presentation by himself and Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents, Tierney said. Those agents work for DeWine.
Wright said the family is considering its legal options and that he’ll seek the full investigative file from the Beavercreek police.
The Justice Department has begun its own review of police department practices. The federal government said its investigation will be ‘‘thorough and independent’’ and it would take appropriate action if evidence was found that civil rights laws were broken.
The Justice Department has opened civil rights investigations into the practices of some 20 police departments in the past five years. The latest is in Ferguson, Mo., where racial unrest and sometimes violent protests erupted after an officer fatally shot an unarmed, black 18-year-old on Aug. 9.
Activists who protested the handling of the Crawford case say Ferguson spurred national discussion about policy and race-related issues and prompted some people to reexamine the Walmart shooting, which happened days earlier, in that context.
Why wasn't this seized on by the agenda-pushing agent provocateurs of the paper?
It's a one-day wonder and that is it.
‘‘I think that race has always been a part of it, but I think Ferguson exploded it,’’ said Prentiss Haney, an organizer with the Ohio Student Association who says justice hasn’t been served in the Crawford case.
Walking the halls of Wright State University in a T-shirt printed with the words ‘‘Don’t shoot,’’ Haney promised more demonstrations as that federal investigation progresses.
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Related:
Ferguson police chief offers apology to Brown’s family
Grand jury gets second case on Ferguson officer
"Ferguson shooting, protests unrelated, police say; Suspect’s gunfire injures officer" by Ashley Southall and Emma G. Fitzsimmons | New York Times September 29, 2014
NEW YORK — Authorities searched Sunday for a man who shot a police officer in the arm in Ferguson, Mo., on Saturday night, in an episode that they said was unrelated to continuing protests over the death of a black teenager shot by a white officer there last month.
Is it?
The officer was shot around 9:10 p.m. while checking on a community center, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said in a news conference. The center is not near where the protesters had gathered.
The officer spotted two men, who began running when he approached them, Jackson said. The officer chased them, and as he closed in on one of the men, the chief said, the second pulled out a gun and fired at the officer.
The officer said he fired several shots in return, but there was no indication that he had hit either man, Jackson said.
The man who shot the officer fled into woods, the St. Louis County Police Department said Sunday morning. Ferguson police officers and officers from other departments searched the area for an hour and a half but did not find him.
????
Are you frein with that?
***********
Less than an hour after Jackson spoke, an off-duty St. Louis city police officer was shot at while driving his personal vehicle on a highway near Ferguson, the County Police Department said....
Schron Jackson, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis Municipal Police Department, said the suspects, described as three males, fled in a black sedan.
???????
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Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri expressed sympathy for the two injured officers in a conference call Sunday from Afghanistan with reporters from Missouri. He described the violence as ‘‘a challenge for everyone.’’
Demonstrators have been protesting in Ferguson since Brown’s death, in a case that has heightened long-simmering racial tensions in Ferguson, a suburb north of St. Louis.
At around midnight Saturday, about two dozen officers stood near a group of about 100 protesters who mingled on a street corner, occasionally shouting, ‘‘No justice, no peace.’’ By Sunday afternoon, the streets of Ferguson were quiet, with no visible signs of police or protesters.
On Thursday, Chief Thomas Jackson of the Ferguson Police Department issued a stark apology to the relatives of Brown, saying in a videotaped statement that he was sorry for the death of their son and for the four hours that the body of the unarmed 18-year-old lay in the street.
“I want to say this to the Brown family: No one who has not experienced the loss of a child can understand what you’re feeling,” he said. “I am truly sorry for the loss of your son. I’m also sorry that it took so long to remove Michael from the street.”
But in an interview with the Associated Press on Saturday, Brown’s parents were unmoved....
Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, and his father, Michael Brown Sr., attended President Obama’s speech at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation awards dinner on Saturday. He acknowledged their presence in the audience during his remarks, in which he also said more progress is needed in curbing racial discrimination.
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"Obama says votes, not just prayers, needed for racial progress" by Megan O’Neil | Bloomberg News September 29, 2014
WASHINGTON — President Obama challenged black voters to turn outfor November’s congressional elections if they want to see more of the racial progress in society that allowed him to become the nation’s first black president.
Tired of being used as tools and pandered to yet?
In remarks Saturday night at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual conference, Obama ticked off a list of achievements that he said showed the ‘‘enormous progress’’ in the United States, including steady job growth, a decline in the number of people without health insurance, and a falling crime rate.
Yeah, this country is in great shape. Too bad we have either a delusional or deceptive president.
‘‘But our work’s not done,’’ he said, noting the killing of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Mo., and the lack of equal access to education and jobs.
Prayers and good intentions aren’t enough, Obama said.
‘‘We have to get back to our schools, our offices, our churches, our beauty shops, our barber shops,’’ he said. ‘‘Make sure people know there is an election coming up. They need to know how to register, and they need to know how and when to vote. We have to tell them to push back against the cynics.’’
OMG! I need to let go.
Obama’s address underscored a reality Democrats around the country are facing with less than six weeks before the Nov. 4 midterm congressional elections: Voter enthusiasm is a problem.
Not on the Republican side it isn't.
Turnout from groups crucial to the party’s recent victories — young people, minorities, and women — historically declines in midterm elections.
Seven of the 21 Senate seats being defended by Democrats are in states that Obama lost in the last presidential election. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to gain control of the chamber, and polls show they are in reach of that goal.
Related: Scott Brown Surges Past Jeanne Shaheen
Also see: Shaheen, Brown use issues as weapons
Everything is a f***ing war in my paper.
Smiling, Obama told the audience that people often wish him well, note that he’s getting gray hair and ‘‘looking tired,’’ and say they’re praying for him.
‘‘But we need more than prayer. We need to vote,’’ Obama said. ‘‘It will not relieve me of my gray hair, but it will help me pass some bills.’’
All the more reason to vote Republican.
National Democrats, including former president Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, former secretary of state, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, have focused on Republican efforts to change voting laws as a way to increase urgency among the party’s voters.
The changes to state voting laws and rules around the country have drawn the ire of Democrats, who see the measures as a deliberate effort to suppress votes, particularly among minorities.
I wish I cared about rigged selections like I once did.
Republicans counter that laws requiring identification at the polls or cutting down on early voting hours are designed to root out fraud and streamline state and county operations.
Obama spoke two days after announcing the resignation of Eric Holder, the first black US attorney general, who focused on voting rights and reducing mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses that disproportionately imprisoned blacks.
He paid tribute to Holder as someone who has made it his life’s work to ‘‘making sure that equal justice under the law actually means something.’’ He called him ‘‘a great friend of mine, he has been a faithful servant of the American people.’’
Holder spoke to the group a day earlier, saying attending a Congressional Black Caucus dinner with an aunt when he was younger was a ‘‘foundational experience’’ for him.
As the nation’s top Democrat, Obama has a schedule of political fund-raising trips between now and the Nov. 4 elections aimed at helping Democrats retain control of the Senate.
He recently headlined fund-raisers in New York and Washington and this week he is scheduled to travel to Chicago to raise money.
I'm sick of $hit-show fooley politics, sorry.
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You might want to buckle up for this next article:
"S.C. dashboard video shows shooting of unarmed driver" by Jeffrey Collins | Associated Press September 26, 2014
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina state trooper’s dashboard video shows an unarmed driver being shot just seconds after he was stopped for a seat-belt offense— and the trooper, who was fired last week, has now been charged with assault.
As Levar Jones cried in pain waiting for an ambulance, he repeated one question: ‘‘Why did you shoot me?’’
Jones’s groans and then-Trooper Sean Groubert’s reply — ‘‘Well you dove head first back into your car’’ — were captured by the camera.
State Public Safety Director Leroy Smith, Groubert’s boss, fired the officer Friday. He called the video ‘‘disturbing’’ and said ‘‘Groubert reacted to a perceived threat where there was none.’’
I think he should be executed by firing squad.
The 31-year-old former trooper is charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison. He was released after paying 10 percent of a $75,000 bond.
The dashboard camera video was released by prosecutors Wednesday night after they showed it at Groubert’s bond hearing.
Jones was stopped Sept. 4 as he pulled into a convenience store on a busy Columbia road. With the camera recording, Groubert pulled up without his siren on as Jones was getting out of his vehicle to go into the store. ‘‘Can I see your license please?’’ Groubert asked.
As Jones turned and reached back into his car, Groubert shouted, ‘‘Get outa the car, get outa the car.’’ He began firing before he finished the second sentence. There was a third shot as Jones staggered away, backing up with his hands raised, and then a fourth.
From the first shot to the fourth, the video clicked off three seconds. Jones’ wallet could be seen flying out of his hands as he raised them.
Groubert’s lawyer, Barney Giese, said the shooting was justified because the trooper feared for his life and the safety of others.
All police shootings in AmeriKa are justified. The police only shoot those who deserve it, unlike those awful enemy countries.
Police officers are rarely charged in South Carolina.
Or anywhere else, for that matter.
In August, a prosecutor refused to file criminal charges against a York County deputy who shot a 70-year-old man after mistaking his cane for a shotgun during an after-dark traffic stop.
It's just FIRE AWAY FIRST, huh?
Groubert is white and Jones is black.
The agenda-pu$hing ma$$ media noticed that.
State Representative Joe Neal is an African-American who has spoken against racism in law enforcement for years.
‘‘You are doing exactly what the police officer asked you do to and you get shot for it?’’ said Neal. ‘‘That’s insane.’’
That's AmeriKa!
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Also see: SWAT teams respond to N.H. school
I'm tired of the mind-manipulating, staged and scripted psyops to justify more tyranny. Sorry.
"More US police agencies turning to cameras" by Kirk Johnson | New York Times September 28, 2014
PULLMAN, Wash. — Amateur videos of police officers doing their jobs have become part of the fabric of urban democracy, with embarrassing or violent images spreading via social media in minutes.
But more police agencies, especially after the unrest following an unarmed teenager’s shooting in Ferguson, Mo., are recording events with small body-mounted cameras.
In just the past few weeks, law enforcement agencies in at least a dozen cities, including Ferguson; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Minneapolis; Norfolk, Va.; and Washington, have said they are equipping officers with video cameras.
I'll bet the cops are complaining about their privacy!
Miami Beach approved buying $3 million worth of cameras for police officers, parking enforcement workers, and building and fire inspectors.
The New York Police Department, the nation’s largest urban force, has studied how Los Angeles is incorporating body cameras and plans its own pilot project.
A new law in New Jersey, requires all municipal police departments to buy car-mounted or body cameras, and creates a new fine on drunken drivers to help pay for it. And the US Border Patrol, with more than 21,000 agents, said it would start testing cameras this year.
The experience of the police in this college town in Washington provides a glimpse of how.
Shane Emerson, a barrel-chested officer, was responding to a report of inebriated students — not an unusual assignment here. Friends of the youths rushed up as he began his questioning, brandishing their cellphones and telling him they were recording the encounter.
God help them if they smoke a joint.
“Cool,” Emerson said. “I am, too.”
The shift has been sudden and seismic, primarily because various interests, often opposed, have lined up in support of the idea.
Liability-conscious city attorneys say the cameras could help in lawsuits. Rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say police accountability will be bolstered by another layer of public documentation.
The Justice Department, surveying 63 police departments that were using body cameras and many others that were not, concluded in a report this month that the technology had the potential to “promote the perceived legitimacy and sense of procedural justice” in interactions between the public and law enforcement.
Why would the AmeriKan public feel there was not that?
But the spread of police body cameras is also raising concerns about what is recorded when and how video might be released to the public, and how the millions of hours of video will be archived and protected from leaks and hackers.
This from the authority and officials that are collecting all of our data and storing it.
Some police unions worry that videos could become tools of management, used by higher-ups to punish an officer they do not like, or that private conversations among officers could go public.
And then the racist nature of the police will really be established!
The rising use of cameras has put the police in a complex and uncertain landscape of public records law.
Yeah, the poor skull-bashing, blasting-away cops.
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Did you know that "private companies like Taser International offer document storage services, along with the cameras, batteries, docking stations and software?"
Hard to let go of that dough!
Time for me to let go of blogging for tonight. See you bright and early tomorrow for some Sunday Globe Specials and much more!