11 yr Old Girl Tasered at school

CNBC: IRS Agent Joe Banister & Ron Paul

Former IRS CID Agent Joseph R Banister
and presidential candidate Ron Paul discuss the illegality of the income tax on a 2004 edition of CNBC's Special Report with Maria Bartiromo.

Watch Aaron Russo's AMERICA: Freedom To Fascism for free on Google Video to learn more about the illegality of the income tax.

Firefighters Fired for not speaking Spanish

Urgently needed firefighters in Oregon are being fired or demoted because ... they only speak English.

Appeal For Calm Heeded Over "Fitna" Film.

An appeal for calm by Muslim leaders in the Netherlands after the release of an anti-Islam film appears to have been heeded. They urged restraint during Friday prayers following the publication of the video by right-wing politician Geert Wilders on the internet yesterday.

Senior Islamic figures also met government representatives who praised Muslims for their restrained reaction. Wilders said the government was wrong to anticipate trouble: "I'm happy there's been calm in the Netherlands. Muslims reacted in a more responsible way than the Prime Minister, who used words like 'crisis'."

The short feature intersperses images of the September 11 attacks with quotations from the Koran, Islam's holy book. The film urges Muslims to tear out what it calls "hate-filled" verses from the Koran.

It had been a huge talking point before its release and the government stepped up security fearing a backlash. Dutch broadcasters refused to air the video and it finally appeared only briefly on a website. Amid the fallout a Muslim group has begun legal action to try to stop Wilders from comparing Islam to fascism, saying he has incited hatred of Muslims.

But the film does have it supporters and members of of a far-right group made their presence felt outside the court in Rotterdam. Several were arrested.

Police shoot Mom and 8 yr Old

OCEANSIDE, CALIF. -- The Oceanside Police Department on Thursday defended its investigation into an incident in which an off-duty San Diego police officer shot a woman and her 8-year-old son after a traffic altercation.

Oceanside Police Capt. Tom Aguigui said investigators are still trying to figure out what led Officer Frank White to fire five shots at Oceanside resident Rachel Silva's car in a mall parking lot.

White was not arrested or tested for drugs or alcohol. But he was questioned after the shooting, which occurred about 9:15 p.m. on March 15.

A supervisor from the San Diego Police Department, a lawyer provided by the Police Officers Assn. and a "peer support" representative from the department were with White during the questioning.

White has been put on paid administrative leave.

White's wife, a Carlsbad police dispatcher, was with him in the car when the shooting occurred, and has been interviewed by police.

Silva, 27, has refused to be interviewed by police.

After she was treated at a hospital for her wounds, police required her to take a blood test. The results have not been released.

Silva was driving on a suspended license and had two drunk-driving convictions, according to court records. Aguigui said police had probable cause to order Silva's blood drawn, but none to make a similar decision involving White. He said San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne was briefed about the incident as a courtesy to a fellow police department, but no similar briefing has been given to Silva's attorneys.

On the night of March 15, both White and Silva called 911 for help.

Aguigui would not describe the traffic incident or say whether White believed that his life was in danger.

Silva was struck twice in the arm; her son, Johnny, was struck once in the leg. Silva's ex-husband, a Marine serving in Iraq, has been given emergency leave to be with his son.

Aguigui said four bullet holes were found in the windshield of Silva's car and one in the front passenger's window. The driver's window of White's vehicle was shattered.

But Aguigui declined to describe the relative location of the two cars when the shooting occurred.

He said he could not estimate when the case would be taken to the district attorney for a decision on what, if any, charges would be filed.

Silva, who is being represented by civil rights attorney Eugene Iredale, filed a claim Wednesday with the city of San Diego for unspecified damages. The claim alleges that White, 28, who has been an officer for two years, is "manifestly unsuited" for his job and that Oceanside police are showing favoritism toward a fellow officer.

The claim also asserts that the San Diego department has been negligent in not testing its officers periodically to discover "rage tendencies."

"It seems to me the temperament shown -- the rage -- is the kind we do not want in a police officer allowed to carry a firearm," Iredale said.

Lansdowne, in a telephone interview, said that all officer candidates are given a thorough psychological screening before being hired.

He said that the department has psychological services available for officers and that they can either ask for help or be referred by their supervisors.

"We have a very good system," he said.

If her claim is rejected, Silva will be able to file a lawsuit.

At the sometimes combative Oceanside news conference Thursday, Aguigui denied suggestions of favoritism toward White.

"We are doing our best to do a very fair and complete investigation," he said.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Reports Bob Barr May Seek Libertarian Presidential Nomination

On an Internet site called Anti-War Radio, former Georgia congressman Bob Barr confirmed on Wednesday that he’s “very seriously” looking at joining the race for the White House as a Libertarian — and had harsh words for both the Iraq war and for the Bush Administration’s defense of “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

Many thanks to blogger Jason Pye for passing on word of the interview.

On a presidential run, Barr said:

“There’s been a tremendous expressed to me both directly and indirectly on the Internet. I take that support very seriously, and I think it also reflects a great deal of dissatisfaction with the current candidates and the current two-party system. So it is something, to be honest with you, that I’m looking very seriously at.”

Barr said a Libertarian candidacy would essentially be an extension of the Ron Paul campaign.

“Ron Paul tapped into a great deal of that dissatisfaction and that awareness. Unfortunately, working through the Republican party structure, it became impossible for him to really move forward with his movement. But we have to have ….a rallying point out there to harness that energy, that freedom in this election cycle,” Barr said.

On Iraq:

“What we’ve fallen into in recent years — not just since 9/11, but particularly since 9/11 — is this notion that, in order to protect ourselves, we have to preemptively go into and — in the case of Iraq — occupy another sovereign nation,” Barr said. “Simply saying, ‘Gee, it’s better to fight over in this other nation and destroy another nation, so we’re not potentially attacked here, is the height of arrogance.”

As for the Bush administration’s refusal to define waterboarding as torture, Barr referred to the practice as “sophistry of the worst and rankest order.”

Why Ron Paul still scares the GOP

Ron Paul won't quit the race, insisting that actual conservatives have a candidate to vote for at the Convention. He has been smeared as a racist by association, as now seems to be the main way to destroy or attempt to destroy any genuinely reformist politics in America. But his legacy will endure because, as Michael Grunwald points out, he actually represents something honorable:

When his fellow candidates denounced big government, Paul was there to remind them that President Bush and the G.O.P. Congress had shattered spending records and exploded the deficit. When they hailed freedom, Paul asked why they all supported the Patriot Act and other expansions of executive power. And when they called themselves conservatives, Paul asked what was so conservative about sending thousands of young Americans to try to transform the Middle East.

These questions have not and will not go away. At its very best, Iraq, it is now more than apparent, is a decades-long, bankrupting, utopian liberal attempt to build a democratic culture where no such culture has ever existed; and at worst, it is a corrupting, demoralizing cancer on America's reputation and power in the world. At home, the long term fiscal situation is at a crisis-level, with Republicans adding $32 trillion to future unfunded liabilities by the federal government in seven years, and with a commitment not to raise any more revenue for the indefinite future. Neither Obama nor Clinton has any plan to tackle this debt or to restrain entitlement spending in any serious way. Millions of private individuals have taken out idiotic mortgage loans on houses they cannot afford and should never have been reckless enough to buy. The dollar is headed into the toilet as much of the US economy is leveraged on the bona fides of a still-authoritarian regime that is currently brutally suppressing human rights in Tibet and across its territory.

For all his quirks, and for all his unseemly past associations, Ron Paul had some serious view about the gravity of the situation and a philosophy that was once called conservative and is now smeared as nuts. History will be far kinder to him that today's chattering classes.

FEMA Occupies Real Town For Advanced "Terror Training"

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is spending $22 million dollars per year on a terror training program within a real town in New Mexico where helicopters buzz overhead in the middle of the night, mock nuclear explosions are drilled and "suicide bombers" are taken down by SWAT teams who pull citizens out of their homes.

The AP reports that what makes Playas, New Mexico an ideal training ground is the fact that it is a real town with real people living there.

There are a number of families in the town that are totally unconnected to the training and go about their daily lives while martial law scenarios are played out around them.

"Just a few years ago it was a ghost town abandoned after a large mining company pulled out," the AP's Rich Matthews reports. "Today, it's a training ground for the unthinkable: Nuclear attacks, invasions and suicide bombings in the United States."

"We have helicopters in the middle of the night flying overhead and explosions that can take place at all hours," resident Kim Kvame says. "It gets to be a part of the background noise that just lets you know you're home after a while."

Senior Egyptian Diplomat Abdallah Al-Ash'al: Bush and Sharon Carried Out 9/11

Representative Barney Frank Calls For Decriminalizing Small Amounts Of Marijuana

Rep. Barney Frank will soon introduce legislation to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, the Massachusetts Democrat said during an appearance on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher.Frank offered no details on his legislation, and it's not at all clear that he could ever get it to the House floor for a vote. A Frank aide was unaware of his plans other than his statement on HBO.

Frank has introduced legisaltion in previous years to allow the use of "medical marijuana," although the bills never made it out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.Asked by Maher as to why he would push a pot decriminalization bill now, Frank said the American public has already decided that personal use of marijuana is not a problem. "I now think it's time for the politicians to catch up to the public," Frank said. "The notion that you lock people up for smoking marijuana is pretty silly. I'm going to call it the 'Make Room for Serious Criminals' bill."

Mike Gravel Joins Libertarian Party

On March 25, former Alaska U.S. Senator Mike Gravel joined the Libertarian Party. He currently lives in Virginia, which does not have registration by party. Gravel joined the party by becoming a dues-paying member. Thanks to ThirdPartyWatch for this news.

Video raises questions about excessive force...man tasered in vehicle

Dramatic video caught by a news crew is forcing local police to answer some tough questions about proper procedure. The actions of a police officer captured on video are under review by the District Attorney for Washington County. An NBC15 news crew was in McIntosh for a different story when they caught the scene on camera.

McIntosh Police say the chase started as a routine traffic stop and quickly accelerated when Ronald Lee Reed would not stop his truck. When the police caught up with Reed, Officer Blaine Barnett fired a taser into Reed's truck. Barnett then pulled Reed out, threw him to the ground, and punched him one time on the side of the head. The video also shows Barnett slamming Reed's face into the asphalt street three times.

NBC15 News spoke with Billy Lathan who was standing with us and also witnessed the arrest. "Down to the ground! He pushed him down to the ground and got down on him. I reckon they handcuffed him," said Lathan.

Reed didn't spend the night in jail, though. He walked away with two misdemeanor citations for reckless driving and possession of marijuana.
Officers searched Reed's truck, but according to a court clerk, the citation says only a "small amount of green substance (was found and) presumed to be marijuana."

So, why use of the taser, the punch and the suspect's head being slammed to the street when Reed was cited for minor offenses?

For more than a week, NBC15 News has been trying to get someone from the McIntosh Police to talk about the tape, to see if proper procedure was followed. The chief wouldn't talk. The chief's name is Michael Barnett... and he's Officer Blaine Barnett's father.

The District Attorney has also not returned any of our calls.

As for suspect Ronald Reed and his family, they told us they did not want to talk on camera. His parents say they'll wait until they have consulted an attorney first, but they too are concerned the force used against their son was excessive.

One other point over which there is some confusion concerns a question as to which agency Officer Barnett was working for at the time of Reed's arrest. The McIntosh Police chief says he was working for the drug task force, a division of the district attorney's office. But the task force says he had quit the day before the incident and was working as a McIntosh Police officer, where he continues to work.

McCain: Osama bin Laden and I agree on Iraq

"As you probably know, an audiotape ... was released where bin Laden said, and I have to quote bin Laden: 'The nearest field of jihad today to support our people in Palestine ... is the Iraqi field.' He urged Palestinians and people of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to 'help in support of their mujahideen brothers in Iraq which is the greatest opportunity and the biggest task.'"

McCain followed that with, "For the first time, I have seen Osama bin Laden and Gen. Petraeus in agreement, and that is, the central battleground in the battle against al-Qaeda is in Iraq today! That's what bin Laden is saying, and that's what Gen. Petraeus is saying, and that's what I'm saying, my friends."

Hillary's Economic Plan

Okay, stop the complaints about Democratic presidential candidates who won't face up to the financial crisis bearing down the country. Hillary Clinton stood up and shook her finger at it, kind of like her husband does. Her response seems a little goofy and maybe a sign the boys in her "war room" are losing their grip. On the other hand, what she said is exactly what you would expect her to say.

Speaking at the University of Pennsylvania Monday [AP story by Charles Babington] Senator Clinton proposed the government provide mortgage companies with protection against lawsuits by other investors. Say what? Isn't that the old Republican chestnut called "tort reform?" Shouldn't she have saved this nugget until after she wins the nomination and starts moving to the right for the fall campaign?

Her logic is strictly from financial. "Many mortgage companies are reluctant to help families restructure their mortgages because they are afraid of being sued by the investment banks, the private equity firms and others who actually own the mortgage papers," Clinton explained. Good thought. Maybe she could send along a few security guards. I hear mortgage lenders are afraid of being tarred and feathered by those families who were conned into buying the sure-to-fail mortgages.

It gets better. Senator Clinton further proposes (actually urges our defunct President to appoint) "an emergency working group on foreclosures" to come up with some answers She doesn't exactly call this a "blue-ribbon commission" but that's the idea. Clinton nominates for this prestigious group her own financial patron and economics guru Robert Rubin of Citigroup and former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, also the former-former Fed chairman Paul Volcker.

Volcker is long retired and might be available, but Rubin is standing deep in the muck and debris at Citigroup, bailing furiously so it doesn't go the way of Bear Stearns. Greenspan was traveling abroad the other day when the New York Times tried to ask him to explain why he failed to prevent the Wall Street meltdown by regulating these financial high fliers before it was too late. Come to think of it, why didn't the New York Times ask that question when Greenspan was still chairman? .
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U.S. Supreme Court Wont Hear Campaign Finance Case

On March 24, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, 07-953. This is the case brought by people who wanted to make and advertise a film that would be shown in theaters and would try to make a profit. Yet the subject of the film would be to attack Hillary Clinton. The group wanted to be free of campaign finance reporting requirements.

Technically, the Court ruled that it doesn’t have jurisdiction to hear this case, because of procedural problems. This is slightly different than merely choosing not to hear the case.

Overall US death toll in Iraq hits 4,000

3/23/2008 BAGHDAD - The overall U.S. death toll in Iraq rose to 4,000 after four soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad, a grim milestone that is likely to fuel calls for the withdrawal of American forces as the war enters its sixth year.

The American deaths occurred Sunday, the same day rockets and mortars pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide.

An Iraqi military spokesman said Monday that troops had found rocket launching pads in different areas in predominantly Shiite eastern Baghdad that had been used by extremists to fire on the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government headquarters.

"We hope to deal with this issue professionally to avoid civilian casualties," said spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi.

The four soldiers with Multi-National Division — Baghdad were on a patrol when their vehicle was struck at about 10 p.m. Sunday in southern Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Another soldier was wounded in the attack — less than a week after the fifth anniversary of the conflict.

Navy Lt. Patrick Evans, a military spokesman, expressed condolences to all the families of soldiers killed in Iraq, saying each death is "equally tragic."

"There have been some significant gains. However, this enemy is resilient and will not give up, nor will we," he said. "There's still a lot of work to be done."

Last year, U.S. military deaths spiked as U.S. troops sought to regain control of Baghdad and surrounding areas. The death toll has seesawed since, with 2007 ending as the deadliest year for American troops at 901 deaths. That was 51 more deaths than 2004, the second deadliest year for U.S. soldiers.

The Associated Press count of 4,000 deaths is based on U.S. military reports and includes eight civilians who worked for the Department of Defense.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians also have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003, although estimates of a specific figure vary widely due to the difficulty in collecting accurate information.

Utah Constitution Party Has Candidates in Half of State Legislative Races

Filing has closed for the Utah primaries. The Constitution Party has 38 candidates for the State House, although two of them are running against each other in one district. Utah has 75 State House districts.

It is unusual for any minor party to run candidates in even half of any state’s legislative districts.

The Constitution Party also has candidates in over half the State Senate districts (8 candidates, in the 15 districts that are up this year).

The Libertarian Party has 8 candidates for the Utah State House.

In the U.S. House races, the Constitution Party has candidates in all three districts, and the Libertarian Party in two districts. Thanks to Frank Fluckiger for this news.

Vermont Progressive May Win Governorship

Vermont Progressive Party leader Anthony Pollina formally announced his gubernatorial candidacy on March 13. Pollina is very well known in Vermont and conceivably may be elected.

Pollina founded Rural Vermont in 1985, to work for a more favorable tax structure for farmers. In 1986 he successfully persuaded the legislature to label dairy products which used bovine growth hormone. In 1991 he became Policy Advisor to Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders. In 1996 he became Director of Vermont Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).

Although the Progressive Party elected candidates to the state legislature in the 1990’s, it had never run any statewide nominees until 2000, because it didn’t want it to be forced to nominate by primary (which would happen, once it polled 5% in any statewide race). However, the party changed its policy in 2000, and ran Pollina for Governor. He polled 9.59%. Despite that large share of the vote, Democratic nominee Howard Dean was re-elected.

In 2002 Pollina was the party’s candidate for Lieutenant Governor. This time he polled 24.76%. Not surprisingly, he “spoiled” the chances of the Democratic nominee, and the Republican nominee was elected with only 41.2% of the vote. This result increased interest in Instant-Runoff Voting in Vermont.

On March 17, the Burlington Free Press carried a letter to the editor from Philip Hoff, who had been elected Governor in 1962. The letter says, “For a long time I have felt that the Democratic and Progressive Parties should work together for the common good. In the absense of a viable Democratic candidate, it seems to me that the candidacy of Anthony Pollina offers such an opportunity.” Hoff, 83, is well-known in Vermont; he was the first Democratic Governor since 1854.

It is possible that Pollina will win the Democratic primary in September, with write-in votes (he cannot have his name printed on the Democratic primary ballot, since he will be running in the Progressive primary). If he wins the Democratic primary with write-in votes, he would then be free to withdraw as the Democratic nominee. That would leave the Democratic Party without a gubernatorial candidate. Or he could keep the Democratic nomination, and would then be listed on the November ballot as “Progressive, Democratic”. Some Progressive Party state legislators accept Democratic nominations; others do not. The party has six state legislators currently.

If Pollina is elected as a Progressive, he will be the first non-major party candidate to win a governorship since 1998, when the Reform Party elected Jesse Ventura Governor of Minnesota. Thanks to ThirdPartyWatch for news about the Hoff letter.