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Stormtrooper

Best of the Web: US: 'I'm a cop, I can do whatever I want ' off-duty policeman shouts before 'executing guy in bar' over a game of darts


Daily Mail
Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:19 UTC
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© Police HandoutDetained: Off-duty cop deputy Dayle Long, 42, allegedly shot Vanettes

Riverside County sheriff's deputy Dayle Long, 42, allegedly shot Samuel Vanettes, 36, three times leaving him to die on the floor of the bar in Murrieta, California.

An off-duty police officer has been charged with executing a man in a sports bar - after an argument over a game of darts.

Riverside County sheriff's deputy Dayle Long, 42, allegedly shot Samuel Vanettes, 36, three times, leaving him to die on the floor of the bar in Murrieta, California.

It is reported that Long, who had been drinking alone, struck up a conversation with Vanettes and his friends at Spelly's Bar and Grille before the shooting.

An altercation allegedly broke out after the police officer told one of the friends 'I'm better at darts than you are', Chris Hull, 39, told Patch.com.

'My buddy says, "Aw, you suck at darts". (The man) says, "That's why I'm a cop, I can do whatever I want to do".'

Hull said his friend asked; 'Really, you can do anything?'

The police officer then pulled out his gun, Hull claimed and after the group repeatedly asked him to put it away he 'pops three rounds into my friend Sam'.
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Che Guevara

Best of the Web: 2011 - Year of the Dupe

Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer Report
Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:43 UTC
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A timeline & history: One year into the engineered "Arab Spring," one step closer to global hegemony
dupe (ˈdüp also ˈdyüp)
n.
1. An easily deceived person.
2. A person who functions as the tool of another person or power.
tr.v. duped, dup·ing, dupes To deceive (an unwary person).
December 24, 2011 - In January of 2011, we were told that "spontaneous," "indigenous" uprising had begun sweeping North Africa and the Middle East in what was hailed as the "Arab Spring." It would be almost four months before the corporate-media would admit that the US had been behind the uprisings and that they were anything but "spontaneous," or "indigenous." In an April 2011 article published by the New York Times titled, "U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings," it was stated:
"A number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region, including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadhi, a youth leader in Yemen, received training and financing from groups like the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington."
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Dollar

Best of the Web: A Very Scary Christmas And An Incredibly Frightening New Year


Theeconomiccollapseblog.com
Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:39 UTC
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© Unknown
Can you hear that? It almost sounds like a little bit of peace and quiet. This year, the holiday season has been fairly uneventful, and for that we should be very grateful. But it isn't going to last long. 2012 is going to be a much more difficult year for the U.S. economy and the global financial system than 2011 has been. So if things are going well for you right now, enjoy this little bubble of peace and tranquility while you can. Because while things may look calm on the surface right now, the truth is that this is a very scary Christmas for financial professionals and world leaders. Most of them know how fragile the global financial system is at the moment.

Most of them know that we are living in the greatest bubble of debt, leverage and financial risk that the world has ever seen. As I wrote about the other day, world leaders would not be throwing huge bailouts around like crazy if everything was going to be just fine. The truth is that we are rapidly approaching another financial crisis that may end up being even worse than the horrific crash of 2008.

Despite unprecedented efforts by the European Central Bank, the yield on 10 year Italian bonds is nearly up to 7 percent again.

Keep an eye on the yield on 10 year Italian bonds. That is going to be one of the most important financial numbers in the world in the coming months.
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Holly

Best of the Web: US: Just Say No to Christmas?

Judy Keen
USA Today
Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Denny Simmons/USA TodayGriffin Holland, with mom Sarah Stewart Holland, plays in his family's Paducah, Ky., home on Dec. 14. The family has scaled back on Christmas spending, and Griffin will get gifts stashed after his birthday celebration.
Susan Lee, a divorced mother of three in New York City, is taking a drastic step this year. "No Christmas for me," she says. "No gifts, no turkey, no tree, no kidding."

Lee, 41, a marketing consultant, says she needs a break from the stress and spending that are integral parts of the holiday. Her kids will celebrate a traditional Christmas with their dad, but she's ignoring all the rituals.

"I start dreading Christmas from the time the decorations go up in the stores," she says. "It stopped being fun for me, so I'll find out this year if I can do without it altogether. I think it will be a relief. It already is."

The holiday is in no danger of extinction. Retail sales broke records over the Thanksgiving weekend, and online sales are up 15% from 2010, according to ComScore, a research company. A Gallup Poll found that Americans expect to spend an average of $764 on Christmas gifts, $50 more than a year ago. And forecasters expect spending on Christmas to rise 3.1% to $3.4 billion this holiday season.
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Bomb

Best of the Web: FDA Targets 'Unproven' New Supplements While Allowing Harmful GMOs

Anthony Gucciardi
Activist Post
Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:18 UTC
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© gaia-health.com
The FDA is seeking to outlaw the majority of supplements created after 1994 until they have been heavily proven to be 100% effective and free of any slight side effects.

Meanwhile, the organization allows for harmful genetically modified ingredients to fill the world's food supply.

While the FDA's NDI (New Dietary Ingredient) regulations seek to remove your right to freely purchase powerful superfoods, they are simply not concerned over the fact that GMO food consumption has been linked with severe organ disruption and other health concerns.

Under the new guidelines, every nutritional supplement company will be required to compose and submit a comprehensive NDI (New Dietary Ingredient) documentation for every single ingredient used in each product they are currently selling.

This tedious and ridiculous process will hinder the sales of legitimate nutraceuticals, and removes your free choice to determine which ingredients you find to be the most beneficial to your health.
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Bell

Best of the Web: "I Cannot Eat Your Prayers": How Student Debt Changed One Woman's Mind on "Christian Charity"

Kristin Rawls
Alternet.org
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:10 UTC
From an evangelical home to over $100,000 in student loans and healthcare debt, one writer faces the ways in which even progressive Christianity comes up short.

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© Jasmic
I'm going to tell you a story. It's the story of a good girl from a quiet town who prayed, studied hard, said no to drugs, and otherwise did everything she was told - and then went on to become Sallie Mae's bitch and lost just about everything. This story is mine.

I grew up in an evangelical home, and was an earnest "liberal-evangelical" into my early twenties. Now I think that my former religious faith - not unlike my faith in the U.S. higher education system - gave me a warped sense of optimism about the way the world works. I believed in faith-based platitudes, plus a few secular ones. Examples:
  1. God has a plan for my life.
  2. My whole future is ahead of me.
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Black Cat

Best of the Web: R.I.P. America

Karl W B Schwarz
CTBusters
Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
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© corporatecriminalsexposed.com
It has been painful and disgusting for me to watch the US continue to devolve into a beast worse than any real or perceived 'terrorist'. With the passage of The Defense Authorization Act, aka: Bill S.1867, the leadership of America has proven to the world that are psychopathic, traitorous, treasonous and do not stand for anything that has made America in the past the beacon of freedom, liberty, democracy and hope in this world. They have also proven they are anti-freedom, anti-liberty, anti-democracy, anti-justice, and anti-rule of law.

Whatever scant remains of a moral high ground the US government may have claimed in the midst of all of its grotesque lies and misdeeds, and its malfeasance of office since 9-11-2001, it was forfeited it with the passage of S.1867.

When any citizen of the US can be perceived, deemed, or even deliberately painted as an enemy combatant of 'this government', that person can now be detained without trial indefinitely. To Hell with the US Constitution, to Hell with the 4th, 5th and 14th Amendments, to Hell with the right of habeas corpus, and the Bill of Rights and the law of the land. Any sense of decency, any sense of veracity, any sense of leadership was sacrificed with the passage of this monstrously un-Constitutional bill by the Senate and House.
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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: A Christmas Message From America's Rich

Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone
Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:05 UTC
Wall Street Sign
© Dario Cantatore/Getty

It seems America's bankers are tired of all the abuse. They've decided to speak out.

True, they're doing it from behind the ropeline, in front of friendly crowds at industry conferences and country clubs, meaning they don't have to look the rest of America in the eye when they call us all imbeciles and complain that they shouldn't have to apologize for being so successful.

But while they haven't yet deigned to talk to protesting America face to face, they are willing to scribble out some complaints on notes and send them downstairs on silver trays. Courtesy of a remarkable story by Max Abelson at Bloomberg, we now get to hear some of those choice comments.

Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, for instance, is not worried about OWS:
"Who gives a crap about some imbecile?" Marcus said. "Are you kidding me?"
Former New York gurbernatorial candidate Tom Golisano, the billionaire owner of the billing firm Paychex, offered his wisdom while his half-his-age tennis champion girlfriend hung on his arm:
"If I hear a politician use the term 'paying your fair share' one more time, I'm going to vomit," said Golisano, who turned 70 last month, celebrating the birthday with girlfriend Monica Seles, the former tennis star who won nine Grand Slam singles titles.
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Igloo

Best of the Web: US: Congress Cuts Winter Heating Aid For The Poor While Boosting The Defense Budget

Travis Waldron
Think Progress
Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:32 UTC
Federal Budget
Poverty in America is only getting worse, with data showing rising income inequality and the startling fact that half of all Americans are now either in poverty or considered low-income. Were it not for the government programs that comprise the social safety net, those numbers would be even worse. More than a quarter would live in poverty without the safety net, according to one study, and Social Security alone kept 14 million out of poverty last year. Despite that, Congress - and particularly Republicans in Congress - have made cuts to various programs meant to aid the poorest Americans.

Congress reached a deal Thursday to avert a shutdown that would have begun at midnight tonight, and in doing so, Republicans found another low-income program to target, cutting funding for subsidies that help the poor stay warm during the winter by nearly 25 percent. At the same time, however, the Pentagon's budget is getting a 1 percent boost, as the Associated Press noted:
Highlights of the $1 trillion-plus 2012 spending legislation in Congress:

- $518 billion for the Pentagon's core budget, a 1 percent boost, excluding military operations overseas. [...]

- $3.5 billion for low-income heating and utility subsidies, a cut of about 25 percent.
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Family

Best of the Web: US: Children of welfare recipients in California forced to pay for welfare debt

Kevin Martinez
World Socialist Web Site
Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:02 UTC
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© Illustrated London News (23 December 1843)Refuge for the Destitute
Children in California are being fined for debt payments their parents incurred while on welfare. The vindictive practice has been going on for years, as California welfare agencies collect money from family members living off of government assistance, even if a family member was a minor when the debt occurred.

Many of the debts were brought on by clerical error or fraud and therefore were especially no fault of the children. A lawsuit on behalf of two girls, Irene Ayers and Jamie Hartley, has been filed by two legal organizations, the Western Center on Law and Poverty and the Public Interest Law Project.

Patti Prunhuber, a lawyer from the Public Interest Law Project, told the WSWS that state agencies are barred from collecting payment or seeking criminal charges from cases that are more than four years old. However, according to Prunhuber, the state can still seek repayment for "extremely old" overpayments by intercepting income tax rebates and garnishing wages.
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