Category: Politics

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Let’s Say Hello To Martial Law In America

Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Martial Law in the United States.

A crime-ridden town in Arkansas has expanded a 24-hour curfew and ordered armed officers to continue patrolling the neighborhoods while extending their authority to stop and question any who pass by. Yesterday, the City Council for the town of Helena-West Helena voted unanimously 9-0 to allow police to expand that program into any area of the city, despite a warning from a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas that the police stops were unconstitutional.

When asked about the warning from ACLU, the Mayor James Valley said “Now if somebody wants to sue us, they have an option to sue, but I’m fairly certain that a judge will see it the way the way the citizens see it here… The citizens deserve peace, that some infringement on constitutional rights is OK and we have not violated anything as far as the Constitution.” The Police Chief said that they had yet to arrest anyone for not abiding by the curfew and were only questioning people about why they were outside. “Those without good answers or acting nervously get additional attention”… yea, armed guards arresting people and patrolling your town would certainly cause you to remain calm when being questioned with the fear that if you don’t provide a “good answer”, you’ll be thrown behind bars.

So to recap what he just said up there: It is okay to infringe upon constitutional rights but stopping people randomly without cause does not violate anything?

You know this is going to set a bad precedent with other towns following suit if anytime something gets out of hand and instead of following things judicially, everyone will start taking the law in their own hands and let the courts decide later on.

[Source: AP – Crime-ridden Arkansas town expands 24-hour curfew]

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Olympics: Presidential Blunder #1

It is an awesome thing to have a President who is an avid sports fan and knows what he is talking when he says something on the subject (unlike when he does on domestic or foreign policy) but come on, at least hold your country’s flag the right way at the Olympics. I think that is his daughter Barbara who looks at the flag in befuddlement… makes for one heck of a photo.

Bob Costas had him on yesterday for an interview and he spoke real well on the Olympic opening cermonies, China hosting the event, baseball and steroids. Turns out he really can speak when he isn’t trying to lie or cover up something. Maybe it’s something he should have tried for the past seven years with the American public.

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Beijing Olympics [08.08.08]

Edit: As my friend Joe pointed out in the comments, NBC is showing a ton of coverage online which is unprecedented but there is some trouble on the horizon for those of us who subscribe to Cablevision.  Cablevision has decided not to air all 3,600 hours of Olympics-related programming, but it appears viewers who get their broadband Internet service will be limited to 1,400 of those hours.

That is because NBC is charging carriers a premium for its 2,200 hours of live video from the Olympics – as well as for two special channels dedicated exclusively to soccer and basketball – but Cablevision has declined to sign up.

NBC said most TV and Internet carriers have agreed to its terms. It said in a statement:

“A substantial majority of the industry, about 90 percent of multiplatform subscribers, will have access to NBCOlympics.com broadband content. Nearly every distributor, including all majors [Comcast, DIRECTV, Time Warner, DISH, Cox, Mediacom, Verizon, AT&T] are making Olympic broadband content available to their customers. To date, Cablevision has not elected to offer its customers the enhanced Olympics package.”

Just fantastic news for us Cablevision customers. [Source: Neil Best, News Day]

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Well the Summer Olympics are finally here amid all the protest over human rights, Tibet’s freedom and internet censorship. I know a couple of people who are in Beijing either watching the games or helping out volunteer so good luck to them and hope you have a great time.

So is anyone else actually going to watch the Olympics? There has been talk recently that it does not generate much interest anymore but I find that hard to believe but then again, maybe it is not that hard to believe. I barely hear anyone talk that they are looking forward to watching the games and it is mostly about how they are overrated and not very exciting. I call all of that nonsense and completely garbage as the Olympic Games can be a place to bring issues to light, to bring athletes and people from all over the world together to watch an event that has entire communities and countries biting their nails awaiting the result. It used to be a stage where people spoke out on issues that were being suppressed in everyday lives.

Two people who come to mind for that are Tommie Smith and John Carlos who gave everything for their country (United States) and were humiliated when they returned home. Smith and Carlos were largely ostracized by the predominantly white U.S. sporting establishment in the following years and in addition were subject to criticism of their actions. Time Magazine showed the five-ring Olympic logo with the words, “Angrier, Nastier, Uglier”, instead of “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. Back home they were subject to abuse and they and their families received death threats. At least they made a positive difference in the world we live in today and it was nice to see them being honored by ESPN for their 40th year anniversary of the event at the ESPY’s this year (that I blogged about here).

I don’t know about all those doubters but I have always been a fan of the Olympics (Winter and Summer both) because once every other year, atheletes from all over the world can sort of come together and compete against each other while proudly wearing their country’s colors. For all the other times (at least in the US anyways) you just see the title of “World Champion” or “World Series” get tossed around like it means something when the teams only consist of the United States and only a handful of teams from north of the border.

I have tried to stay away from much of the details regarding the opening cermony as I want to watch it live tonight (7:30 PM on NBC) will be shown in taped-delay fashion. There has been much anticipation regarding what the Chinese have in store for the opening ceremony as it certainly will be lavish and I am particularily curious to see be the last to light the Olympic Torch. Who can ever forget Muhammed Ali lighting the Torch in the Summer Olympics of 1996 in Atlanta, Ga.

For anyone interested in the history of the Olympic Medals for a summer Olympics by country, year, or ranking, New York Times once again put out a brilliant interactive Graphic on the matter that can be found right here. The graphic is pretty clear as it changes the size of a particular country based on the number of medals they have won in a given year and they also detail each medal won if you just click on a specific country. For example who knew that the only medal Dominican Republic won in the 2004 games was a Gold Medal by Felix Sanchez in 400m hurdles.

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How Does This Happen?

You notice stories like this all the time whether it was in a mall or in an airport and I just don’t understand how parents, not only all over this country but all over the world continue to focus more on getting to their destination on time rather than the welfare of their children. I especially like how the story points out that they made sure that their 18 suitcases for the entire family was accounted for but disregarded whether all the children had made it on board safely.

It was a 3-YEAR-OLD! You would think someone account for her amongst the two parents and four other children that were going. The scary part of all this (as if leaving a child at the airport wasn’t enough) is that they did not realize that the child was missing at all until notified by the airplane crew that their child had been safely found by authorities at the airport.

JERUSALEM – Israeli airport police say a couple going on a European vacation remembered to bring their duty-free shopping and their 18 suitcases, but forgot their 3-year-old daughter at the airport.

The couple and their five children were late for a flight to Paris Sunday and made a mad dash to the gate. In the confusion, their daughter got lost. A policeman found her wandering around the terminal, crying for her mother.

Israeli media report Monday that the ultra-Orthodox Jewish parents, whose names were not released, didn’t notice the child was missing until they were told, in the air, that she had been found at Ben-Gurion airport.

The child, accompanied by an airline staffer, took the next flight to Paris where she was safely reunited with her parents. Continue reading “How Does This Happen?”

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Ted Stevens: Down The Tubes?

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/POLITICS/07/29/stevens.indictment/art.stevens.gi.jpg

Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in Alaska, who became an internet legend by calling the internet a “series of tubes”, has been indicted on seven counts related to falsely reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in services he received from a company that helped renovate his home.

Becoming famous for obviously over-simplifying what the internet is in trying to make his case for Net Neutrality, I am certain people all across the tubes today are rejoicing this moment.
Here is a partial quote and to read more on the issue, visit the Wikipedia page: “Series of Tubes” 

Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got… an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday, I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.

I Got It Yesterday – Sen. Ted Stevens (AUDIO)

[…] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It’s not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it’s going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Series Of Tubes – Sen. Ted Stevens (AUDIO)