"The patrolling officer on his beat is the one true dictatorship in America, we can lock a guy up on the humble, lock him up for real, or say fuck it and drink ourselves to death under the expressway and our side partners will cover us, No one - I mean no one - tells us how to waste our shift!"
-McNulty
Allegations that officers falsified search-warrant affidavits arose in September. After the department's acknowledgment that some officers made misstatements to judges, dozens of criminal cases have been placed in question, and criminal charges against 12 defendants have been dropped.
"Your defense of Gates while he is on the phone while being confronted [INDEED] with a police officer is assuming he has rights when considered a suspect. He is a suspect and always will be a suspect. His first priority of concern should be to get off the phone and comply with police, for if I was the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC deserving of his belligerent non-compliance." [my emphasis]
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That said, pdb’s comment would be a beautiful example of the reflexive narcissism of the Wingnuts—they have a disdain for African-Americans, but lie about it, so they project that onto everyone else. They are cowards, but lie about it, so they project that onto everyone else. They are crooks, but lie about it, so they project that onto everyone else.
(This, by the way, is a classic example of narcissistic projection that one sees in the psychological literature. Narcissists are deeply insecure, fearing that a certain modesty on their parts would be more than justified. Thus, in any case where they fail of the ideals that they demand others achieve, they use misdirection to distract viewers.)
Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months I've been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations – such as holding a fish in a photograph, wearing a jacket with a logo on it, and answering reporters’ questions.
[...]
In fact, this decision comes after much consideration, and finally polling the most important people in my life - my children (where the count was unanimous... well, in response to asking: "Want me to make a positive difference and fight for ALL our children's future from outside the Governor's office?" It was four "yes's" and one "hell yeah!" The "hell yeah" sealed it - and someday I'll talk about the details of that... I think much of it had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother Trig mocked by some pretty mean-spirited adults recently.)
"Recently we learned of a malicious desecration of a photo of the Governor and baby Trig that has become an iconic representation of a mother's love for a special needs child," Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapelton said in a statement provided to CNN. "The mere idea of someone doctoring the photo of a special needs baby is appalling."
"And one chooses how to react to circumstances. You can choose to engage in things that tear down, or build up. I choose to work very hard on a path for fruitfulness and productivity. I choose NOT to tear down and waste precious time; but to build UP this state and our country, and her industrious, generous, patriotic, free people!
Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out. And a problem in our country today is apathy. It would be apathetic to just hunker down and "go with the flow".
Nah, only dead fish "go with the flow"."
Every Day is a Good Day to Start a War
John Bolton urges Barack Obama to adopt a policy of regime change and unprovoked military attacks on Iran:Iran and North Korea achieved their objectives through diplomacy. Mr. Bush failed to achieve his. How can Mr. Obama do better? For starters, he could increase the pressure on China, which has real leverage over North Korea, to press Kim Jong Il’s regime in ways that the six-party talks never approached. Options on Iran are more limited, but meaningful efforts at regime change and assisting Israel should it decide to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities would be good first steps.
That’s via my colleague Ben Armbruster who also observes that “Earlier this week famed war hawk John Bolton said that the recent crisis in Gaza presents the perfect opportunity for the U.S. and Israel to bomb Iran.”
This gets to the essential creepiness about Beck's emotional display introducing his whole 9/12 project--the man wasn't weeping because he wished the country was as "unified" as it was after 9/11; he was weeping because the country is no longer in a such a state of petrified fear that it will acquiesce to whatever extreme measures the right deems necessary. Beck wasn't crying for the country; he was crying for himself, crying because people are no longer frightened enough to agree with everything he has to say. Understand, he only wants to hurt you because he loves you.
But understand, this is not unpatriotic. You can wish all manner of horrors on this country, but as long as these horrors might serve a specific political agenda, you're not being unpatriotic. Unpatriotic is a public health-care plan. Unpatriotic is a judge modifying sub-prime mortgage loans to keep a roof over someone's head. Unpatriotic is phosphate-free detergent. Patriotic is wishing for a terrorist attack on the United States.
Patriotism is dead, long live patriotism.
As first described by conservative columnist and Psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer, Bush Derangement Syndrome (or BDS) is a loss of the capability for rational thought. This loss is often displayed over a period of hours, days or even months and years. The sufferer in all cases blames President George W. Bush for any and all types of disasters, human maladies, etc. despite abundant evidence of contrary causal effects. BDS is also manifested in many sufferers by a determination to label President Bush as the greatest single threat to democracy and freedom in the United States since the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts during the presidency of John Adams.
Since we oddly have no actual pictures of her, you know, running in Runners World, and each photo seems staged to a comic degree, and her exploitation of the child has been relentless from the get-go, and I provide the links for readers to make up their own minds, I don't think I'm being unfair. I may be wrong, of course, and I'm happy to air another view, hence this dissent. And my reader is right that we can get stuck in a rut and not give someone a fresh look.
But my view is that people do not change that much and their history is often a guide to who they are, and I observed Palin very closely - after initially liking her - and that's my judgment. I'm very fallible and I may be wrong so I urge Dish readers to seek other views and interpretations. But here's the point I'd make now: If Palin had herself shifted the narrative since the election, if she had gone back to Alaska to do her job diligently, and made an effort to master domestic and foreign policy issues, and run for a second term on her record, rather than preening about in Runners World and picking fights with David Letterman and setting up Sarahpac and on and on, then I think many of us would have been prepared to look again. She was hopelessly unready in 2008 - but she's young and could evolve and grow. Everything we see - from the tabloid family feuds to the staged controversies - suggest a regression, not an evolution. She is who she is, hence the solidity of her support and opposition.
Part of Sarah Palin's irresistible appeal to her fundamentalist base is her ability to look at the camera with utter conviction and declare black to be white.
The ability to lie well is a valuable part of the fundamentalist psychology. My son isn't gay, he just hasn't found the right woman! Those rocks aren't 50 million years old, they just look like it as a test of our faith! My sexless marriage isn't foundering, it is filled with God's spirit! The minister isn't molesting little Maria, they're just very close! It isn't torture, it is being tough on terrorists!
Fundamentalists can recognize a truly audacious and talented liar from miles away. Instead of running the other way, as you might expect, they gather around the powerful liar, for they know that their own lies will be respected and protected by a leader who understands the paramount importance of preserving their whole system of denial.
"Significantly, the uprising in Iran also makes it more likely that an effective public diplomacy campaign could be waged in the country to explain to Iranians that [an Israeli strike] is directed against the regime, not against the Iranian people. This was always true, but it has become even more important to make this case emphatically, when the gulf between the Islamic revolution of 1979 and the citizens of Iran has never been clearer or wider. Military action against Iran’s nuclear program and the ultimate goal of regime change can be worked together consistently."
It was a supernatural View today when the ladies welcomed John Edward, Dr. Brian Weiss, Sandy Anastasi, and Joanne Reeves to our studio! John kicked off the show by doing an amazing audience reading; our viewers were surprised to see how right on he actually was. Then, the ladies welcomed Dr. Brian Weiss, who took Joy on a journey back to a past life. Later, Sandy Anastasi read Whoopi's tarot cards and informed us what each card actually represents. Finally, John Edward came back to give Sherri a fantastic psychic reading -- and Joanne Reeves told Elisabeth and our audience what's in the stars for the Hasselbeck family. All of today's guests can be found on infinitequest.com.
Get ready for an hour unlike any other this Thursday on The View. In this special edition of the show, the co-hosts each get exposed to some variety of the supernatural, be it tarot cards, past lives, or messages from beyond. Sherri gets a reading with nationally recognized psychic John Edward, and we can't even begin to tell you how that all went down. Whoopi gets her tarot cards read, and we all get a lesson in the difference between right-side-up tarot cards and upside-down tarot cards. And Joy gets put under hypnosis by a past-life expert, who delves deep into Joy's childhood. No, farther back. No, even FARTHER back!
