Hundreds of thousands of Catalans have flooded the streets of Barcelona in the region's national day to demand the right to vote on independence from Spain. The demonstrators have formed a big V in red and yellow, symbolizing "vote."

People who wanted to make their voices heard, were wearing red and yellow, the traditional Catalonian colors during La Diada, the Catalan National Day. Almost half a million Catalans have signed up to form a "V for vote," a show of support for the right to decide on their independence from Spain.

"It would be the people's triumph if we were allowed to vote. If we live in a democracy we should be allowed to vote," Montserrat, a 58-year-old homemaker, told Reuters.

U.S. police are operating a co-ordinated scheme to seize as much of the public's cash as they can

On its official website, the Canadian government informs its citizens that "there is no limit to the amount of money that you may legally take into or out of the United States." Nonetheless, it adds, banking in the U.S. can be difficult for non-residents, so Canadians shouldn't carry large amounts of cash.

That last bit is excellent advice, but for an entirely different reason than the one Ottawa cites.

There's a shakedown going on in the U.S., and the perps are in uniform.

Across America, law enforcement officers - from federal agents to state troopers right down to sheriffs in one-street backwaters - are operating a vast, co-ordinated scheme to grab as much of the public's cash as they can; "hand over fist," to use the words of one police trainer.

You can't assemble a totalitarian war machine and expect it to never come home. Sooner or later, all those military-grade weapons end up in your own back yard. Pointed at you.

Over the last several decades, we've seen the rise of militarized law enforcement. From no-knock raids to Ferguson under armed occupation, America is beginning to look a lot less like the peaceful land of the free and more like a land where only the brave dare venture. Even sleepy little towns in New Hampshire are getting armored assault vehicles, despite hundreds taking to the streets in protest. Weapons of war are in our streets, and they're here to stay.

Many ardent critics of America's transition into the land of checkpoints and armored personnel carriers supported military interventions and occupations abroad. The argument goes, fight them there so they don't come here. Heavily-armed patrols and universal inspections are easier to tolerate when they aren't in your back yard, especially when accompanied by the expectation that they will never, ever, happen at home.

As it turns out, that expectation was foolish. The war has come home. To begin with, America's civilian law enforcement increasingly benefits from tactics, training, and close ties with its military. Train cops with Navy Seals and give them a "war" on drugs to fight, and it's hardly surprising when officers begin to view the people more like enemy combatants than civilians. With dispositions and training more suited to fighting a war than keeping the peace, it's easy to see how an otherwise peacefully-solved conflicts could escalate into violence and death.

Next, state and city police departments are stocking up with some heavy equipment. Much of this is either direct military hand-me-downs or made available through federal grants. This means that federal defense spending approved under the assumption that none of it would be used against Americans is being employed for just that purpose. Local government, always aware of the popularity cost of raising taxes and fines to fund various projects, simply can't say no to free stuff.

Finally, many military-style operations, though carried out by local law enforcement, are funded by the federal government. A prime example of these are so-called sobriety checkpoints, where police are paid by federal money to hold regular checkpoints arbitrarily detaining motorists. Slowing traffic and harassing citizens in a sleepy little town is hardly something that would be deemed cost effective in a city budget meeting. Provide the funding for free, however, and the objections simply wither away.

Morgantown, West Viginia - A kind-hearted woman with a cellphone captured the horrific scene of a man choking on his own blood, in front of his children, while pinned under three cops.

According to police they were responding to a report of child abuse. Police say when they approached Jeffery Bane, 39, that he appeared to be under the influence of narcotics. They claim that Bane began to fight police officers, kicking one and trying to spit on others.

This is why, police say, they were forced to pepper spray, beat and kneel on Bane as he choked on his own blood pleading for help.

Bane was charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing an officer and battery on an officer.

If you were to read only the report, you would think that police took down a vicious criminal that day.

However, according to Bane and his family, it was the police who did the attacking.

According to Bane's nephew, Josh Bane, he was walking to the park with his children when police approached and attacked him.As my uncle and his two children headed towards the store before heading to the park together they crossed an intersection to the other side when the stroller became hung up on the curb. As the light changed, to keep his children out of harms way he hurriedly put his two year old on the curb, told her to stay put and pulled the stroller up on the curb.

In this moment someone mistook my uncles actions to keep his kids safe as child abuse. The police were then called and approached him down the street and began to question him. Assuming because of his appearance he was high on narcotics with out reason they began to sub due him, macing and beating him in the head as he fell to his face were he was then held with a great amount of force by two officers double his size as a third one landed on his torso.

For the the next ten minutes as my cousins watch unattended, my uncle pleads and cries out in pain for the lack of breath and agony being applied to him.

Unknown to the police my uncle suffers from Huntington's disease. For those unfamiliar it is very similar to Parkinson's. So as he lay there uncontrollably moving due to his terminal condition, he is forcefully detained to the point of screaming for help. He is spitting blood and drowning in it and the officer holding his head only applies more pressure and instructs him to "quit spitting".

Reaction to news that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their second child. If we were to rebuild society now, would we start by putting an old lady who does nothing in a palace and lavish her with riches?

Fox host and right-wing buddies want the nation to get its priorities straight. Wait till you see what those are

It was with much sadness and disbelief that the right wing greeted the news the other day that the so-called wave of criminal children surging over America's border to destroy everything that's good and decent about us seems to have crested. The director of homeland security, Jeh Johnson, made the announcement on Monday, saying that "the worst is over, for now." He explained that the numbers of kids arriving from Central America peaked in May and June and has substantially dropped since then and he credits the administration's public relations campaign in their home country with explaining why these kids are better off in their own anarchic, gang-infested countries than here in the land of the free. It's a foreign policy to be proud of.

But that was small solace to the true guardians of the American Way of Life who know very well that the nation has already been infiltrated by an enemy so cunning it is even able to fool sharp observers like George Will and Brit Hume into arguing they should be treated with compassion.

But they weren't fooled. These so-called children are nothing but stealthy foreign invaders who are even now forming sleeper cells from within their ... sleeping cells. Indeed, these champions of our proud cultural heritage saw through the president's Machiavellian plan to distract the public with passenger planes being shot out of the sky, invasions, beheadings and general chaos around the globe.

The Protector of Real America Laura Ingraham noticed as long ago as July that the only network adequately covering the "massive dispersal" of immigrants around the nation was Fox while all the other networks were "diverting attention" in the media to foreign policy stories like the downed plane in Ukraine and the war in Gaza.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is defending his Wednesday night remarks at a Washington event -- comments which drew boos he attributed to "anti-Semitism...[rearing] its ugly head."

The senator was booed at an event hosted by a Christian group in Washington, leaving the stage after the hostility did not subside.

In a lengthy statement issued after the event, Cruz said he had "no choice" but to walk away after "a vocal and angry minority" criticized his comments in support of Israel.

Officials in Texas executed a convicted murderer on Wednesday evening, despite arguments raised by the man's counsel concerning the drug used to kill him.
Willie Trottie, 45, was executed in a Huntsville, TX, prison chamber on Wednesday for the 1993 shooting death of his common law wife and her brother. Authorities administered a dose of a lone sedative, pentobarbital, via lethal injection, making Trottie the eighth death row inmate to be killed in the Lone Star State so far this year.

He was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. CT. The execution was carried out about 90 minutes after the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeal, which raised questions about his legal counsel as well as the drug Texas officials intended to kill him with.

According to the Associated Press, Trottie asked for forgiveness multiple times before the execution took place.

"I love you all," he said. "I'm going home, going to be with the Lord. ... Find it in your hearts to forgive me. I'm sorry."

Attorneys for the man, who admits he killed Barbara and Titus Canada more than 20 years ago but contests the prosecution's arguments, were fearful that Wednesday's ordeal would not go as expected. On the heels of a series of botched executions during the last several months - and an unsuccessful campaign to have Wednesday's event put on hold - Trottie's counsel was counting on the Supreme Court of the United States to intervene and issue a temporary injunction to delay the otherwise imminent death sentence.

The majority of German citizens, for the first time in history, insist on less dependence on the United States in terms of their national security and diplomacy, according to a major survey released by the German Marshall Fund think-tank.

The study published on Wednesday shows that most Germans want their country to take a more independent position from the United States, especially on issues as vital as national security and sovereign diplomacy.

A majority of 57 percent of German respondents opted for a more independent approach, according to the Transatlantic Trends survey, which is up from only 40 percent back in 2013. What is even more interesting is that just 19 percent of Germans say they want to have a closer relationship with the United States - compared to 34 percent of Americans who wanted their country to get cosier with Germany.

In Europe as a whole, 50 percent of respondents opted for a more independent security relationship with the United States, which is up eight percent from last year.

Staff at the UK hospital where brain tumour patient Ashya King was treated have been inundated with abusive calls and emails, it has been revealed.

The five-year-old was removed from Southampton General Hospital by his parents, against medical advice, sparking an international hunt.

His parents were arrested in Spain, prompting a public outcry.

In her blog, hospital trust chief executive Fiona Dalton said paediatric oncology staff had been targeted.

She said: "When their email inboxes were full of personal abuse from strangers, and there were journalists camped on their front door, they were still worrying about how we could do the best thing for a small boy in Spain...

"Our switchboard and patient support services were overwhelmed with calls from irate members of the public... and many other people working here were being questioned by patients or the public about this situation, sometimes in a very aggressive way."