Blog Archives

Atlanta police SWAT members search a building for a shooting suspect. (photo: John Bazemore/AP) Written by Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz, Center for Investigative Reporting If terrorists ever target Fargo, N.D., the local police will be ready. In recent years, they have bought bomb-detection robots, digital communications equipment and Kevlar helmets, like those used by soldiers in foreign wars. For local siege situations requiring real firepower, police there can use a new $256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret. Until that day, however, the menacing truck is mostly used for training runs and appearances at the annual Fargo picnic, where it’s been displayed near a children’s bounce house. “Most people are so fascinated by it, because nothing happens here,” said Carol Archbold, a Fargo resident and criminal justice professor at North Dakota State University. “There’s no terrorism here.” Fargo, like thousands of other communities in every state, has been on a gear-buying spree with the aid of more than $34 billion in federal government grants since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

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Written by Walter Brasch I am a Jew. I don’t mind receiving Christmas cards or being wished a “Merry Christmas” from friends, clerks, or even in junk mail trying to sell me something no sane person should ever buy. My wife and I even send Christmas cards, with messages of peace and joy, to our friends who are Christians or who we don’t know their religion. I like Christmas music and Christmas carolers, even if some have voices that crack now and then, perhaps from the cold.

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Written by Bob Burnett It’s been 168 years since Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol to illustrate the horrific living conditions of the English poor and promote the true nature of Christmas. If Dickens were still alive, he’d be compelled to update his tale. On Christmas Eve, Bob Cratchit comes home from work and tells his wife, Emily, he’s been laid off, “They’re shutting down the tractor factory and moving it to China.” “How are we going to pay for the Christmas presents?” she asks. “We’ve already maxed out all our credit cards.” Emily just came off a long shift at Walmart and she’s exhausted. “I don’t know,” Bob responds, “but what I’m most worried about are Tiny Tim’s medical bills.” Their only son, Tim, is short for his age and has brittle-bone syndrome. When Tim was a baby, the Cratchits lived near a chemical plant that contaminated the groundwater. Rather than deal with the damage, the chemical corporation declared bankruptcy.

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Ron Reagan did well with the evangelicals–will Ron Paul? [source] Written by Russ Baker It’s the oldest trick in the book. Profess religiosity, get a ton of votes. Has anyone become president in years without proving his religious bent? Jimmy Carter was the first “born again” president–and his profession of faith certainly helped him win in 1976, though it did not rally enough troops for him in 1980. He lost to Ronald Reagan, who made a big deal out of his own supposed (but dubious) religious devotion, which got him the backing of the then-powerful Moral Majority. And then, of course, there was the “born again” George W. Bush. Others, including Clinton and Obama, have done what they had to do in that regard. Now we get to Ron Paul. A lot of people like him because he talks straight on a number of issues others won’t touch. But is he a man who shuns opportunity? Consider this: one of Paul’s senior advisers is faith outreach specialist Doug Wead.

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Thousands attended ‘The Response,’ a religious event organized by Republican Gov. Rick Perry in order to pray for God to help save America: ‘a nation in crisis,’ 08/06/11. (photo: Brandon Thibodeaux/Getty Images) Written by Loren Adams for TPJ Magazine How you view God is how you see man. An individual’s concept of “God” determines how one treats others. The same principle applies for a culture, nation or movement. If one envisions a vengeful, wrathful superior being, wrath and retribution are levied against “others” outside the “chosen.” The religion justifies prejudice with all its ugly manifestations: verbal abuse, theft, deceit, injustice, violence, and the ultimate – “final solution.” Religion was the foundation for Nazism which gave birth to Holocaust. This is another law of human nature oft overlooked – which coincides with Voltaire’s cardinal truth: “People who believe absurdities will soon commit atrocities.” It is a massive cult gripping America spinning it to hell. The current gridlock has its roots in right religion. Remove the religious right’s powerful influence over America, a measure of sanity may return. Imagine a world without religion, as found in John Lennon’s lyrics:

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Nicholas K. Peart, 23, has been stopped and frisked by New York City police officers at least five times, 12/16/11. (photo: Ashley Gilbertson/NYT) Written by Nicholas K. Peart for The New York Times When I was 14, my mother told me not to panic if a police officer stopped me. And she cautioned me to carry ID and never run away from the police or I could be shot. In the nine years since my mother gave me this advice, I have had numerous occasions to consider her wisdom. One evening in August of 2006, I was celebrating my 18th birthday with my cousin and a friend. We were staying at my sister’s house on 96th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan and decided to walk to a nearby place and get some burgers. It was closed so we sat on benches in the median strip that runs down the middle of Broadway. We were talking, watching the night go by, enjoying the evening when suddenly, and out of nowhere, squad cars surrounded us. A policeman yelled from the window, “Get on the ground!”

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Promises Continuity of Leadership Written by Andy Borowitz PYONGYANG (The Borowitz Report) – Within hours of the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il, real estate mogul Donald Trump roiled the political situation in that Stalinist country by announcing that he would run for its presidency. “Kim Jong-Il ruled North Korea as the egomaniacal leader of a personality cult,” Mr. Trump told reporters en route to Pyongyang.   “I can offer continuity of leadership.”

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Written by Gene Lyons Newt Gingrich is the Jimmy Swaggart of American politics, a confidence man so transparent as to test the faith even of True Believers. Paradoxically, that’s precisely why the disgraced former speaker looks a good bet to secure the GOP presidential nomination. Not seeing through Gingrich’s bare-faced mendacity requires an effort of the will so profound it can only be accomplished with the aid of strong countervailing emotions — essentially the envy, resentment and fear that right-wing media have fomented among the faithful ever since the election of President Clinton and the 1994 “Contract With America.” Metaphorically speaking, Gingrich’s candidacy is the love child of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, with Fox News throwing the baby shower.

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Written by Will Durst fpr The San Francisco Chronicle The mad mud tossing between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, the last two Republicans still standing, is quickly ramping up to levels not seen since the Agincourt catapults. The candidates and their surrogates are busy dredging up dirt with fleets of front loaders, personally wetting it down with outraged spittle and other anatomical fluids and it’s getting ugly out there folks. Not to mention- moist. The gloves are coming off and this battle of ironclads, unlike the Monitor and the Merrimack, is guaranteed to result in more self-inflicted harm than damage to the enemy. Sure, sure, other wannabees continue to circle the spotlight, but haphazardly, like September moths after repeated run-ins with a tricked-out bug zapper. Barring a second bout of primary puppy love, the race for the GOP Presidential nomination is down to Weasel Boy and Plastic Man. Per as, it all started with money. Mitt Romney stepped in doo- doo deeper than Nietzsche’s private letters to Wittgenstein when he bet Rick Perry $10,000 in a recent debate, demonstrating the same kind of connection to the middle class that a ceramic Portuguese tie clip in the shape of a crouching…

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Written by Robert Scheer   Once again the gods of war have united our Congress like nothing else. Unable to agree on the minimal spending necessary to save our economy, schools, medical system or infrastructure, the cowards who mislead us have retreated to the irrationalities of what George Washington in his farewell address condemned as “pretended patriotism.” The defense authorization bill that Congress passed and President Obama had threatened to veto will soon become law, a fact that should be met with public outrage. Human Rights Watch President Kenneth Roth, responding to Obama’s craven collapse on the bill’s most controversial provision, said, “By signing this defense spending bill, President Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in US law.” On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney claimed “the most recent changes give the president additional discretion in determining how the law will be implemented, consistent with our values and the rule of law, which are at the heart of our country’s strength.”

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