Mr. Santana seems like a nice man.

He must like his job as a barber, he is styled himself. He is a hero to at least the community. I hope he grows to feel safe in his community again. I think there have been enough people around, even a Congressman to bring attention to the incident and he will be left alone. I hope he has good friends that will be a comfort to him. He witnessed a terrible thing. It may effect him in a few weeks when he realizes what he did to bring justice to the death of Mr. Scott, his family, his children and the community.

A few things.

From what Lawrence O'Donnell read during his show this evening it is obvious there is somewhat of a cover up. Mr. Slager never wrote a report. Officer Wilson never did either in the case of Michael Brown, Jr.. It was Mr. Slager's supervisor who didn't have first hand knowledge that wrote the report and the responding officer reported any first aid and CPR that was performed.

This "Stop Bleeding in 15 Seconds" is the only way any of these men could have survived the assault on their lives. Perhaps police officers should have these on their belt loops if they are going to be shooting people rather than chasing them. 

If nothing else these devices (if they are on the market yet) should be stocked in the ambulances responding to these scenes. Maybe they'll make is there while the victim of the shooting still has some life in him.

I also saw the full length video (click here) and the CPR came far too late to do any good. Mr. Scott had already bleed out and stopped breathing. He would have been impossible to save him by the time help arrived. But, the EMTs would not necessarily know that, but, they should have asked.

No one asked Mr. Santana at the scene of the shooting if he witnessed it. They told him to move along. He later went to the police station when he realized the reports to the public were incorrect. He wanted to talk to the police. There is an innate understanding most Americans have about police. They are the folks that are suppose to get it right. We trust them. 

He left when he realized it might not be a trustworthy environment at the police station. I don't blame him for being scared. He knew what happened was wrong. I would be scared, too. 

I am glad the DOJ is there and I am also concerned about what they are going to find. It was more than one officer that didn't accurately report the events. The Supervisor reported what he was told, but, the responding officer to the shooting had to know something terrible happened.

If this turns out to be another city that has a significant income from fines and fees, it will make at least the third the DOJ has intervened and actually found good reason to be concerned. Albuquerque, New Mexico; Ferguson, Missouri and now North Charleston, South Carolina. That is a lot wrong and it is getting to be more representative of the methodology of police nationwide. 

There are legislators that need to be very worried about the citizens of this country, especially citizens of color. Their upward mobility is being thwarted by city with insufficient budgets and when they don't cooperate in the way a police officer believes they should and they are Black men, they end up dead.

Everyone of the killings of which there is quite a list, were to be husbands or already husbands with children and at the very least, sons. They were good and decent men. Where mental health was an issue, there was medication in their homeless campsite. Considering the hostile environment they lived in and the monies siphoned off them and their families, it is fairly clear to me why they still are impoverished and even frustrated with their circumstances. 

This has to end. 

One other thing. About those people caught in the "money or jail scam." They should have lawyers file as a 'class' to request their monies back and their records expunged. They need to be made whole again.

April 7, 2015
By David Taintor

CIA Director John Brennan (click here) said critics who claim the preliminary Iran nuclear deal essentially provides a pathway for Iran to obtain a nuclear bomb are “being wholly disingenuous.”

“I am pleasantly surprised the Iranians have agreed to so much here,” Brennan said Tuesday during an appearance at Harvard’s Kennedy School. “I think it is really quite surprising and quite good. The people who point to this as saying it’s insufficient and the pathway to the bomb, what they’re really saying is the deal is okay, but the sanctions relief will give Iran the money and wherewithal to [cause unrest] in the area.”...

Congratulations to the prosecution. They did a great job.

Given the very unsuccessful death penalty executions, it will be life without. Life without parole is a hopeless state. The prison environment will dictate his quality of life. He won't be a happy person. I don't believe he ever expected to have to throw away the life he was building to be imprisoned forever.

The prosecution encompassed every detail of crime. It was rather incredible to realize there were 30 charges today. The prosecution brought justice to Boston today.

Inherent problems in Afghanistan aren't going to be changed. American troops or NATO allies can't change it.

July 6, 2010
By Spencer Ackermann

The looming security operations (click here) — er, “ rising tide” — in southern Afghanistan are getting all the attention. But the American-led coalition may be in serious trouble in eastern Afghanistan as well. According to a just-departed U.S. commander in charge of a big chunk of the area, locals in four critical provinces believe that the Taliban have greater religious legitimacy and a stronger commitment to justice than Hamid Karzai’s government. Coalition forces who aid that government are seen as “naive at best,” and “‘co-conspirators’ at worst.”...

...Afghanistan’s most violent and vexing areas: Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar, and Laghman provinces, a mountainous part of the country home to about 3.7 million people, 33 tribes and sub-tribes, and over 300 kilometers’ worth of porous border with tribal Pakistan...

The USA will never control these lands. The USA military would have to kill everyone. That is not an option. The choices of the tribes are political issues, not military resolve. 

...George titled of those slides “How Locals Ranked The Enemies To Progress.” Through the locals’ eyes, the slide reported four big challenges. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban rank dead last. A “Corrupt and Ineffective Government” is number one....

The USA military has worked with this reality over and over and over. There is no military solution. There is no reason for the USA to stay in Afghanistan unless it is greed and rare Earth elements. That is not for the USA to covet. Those resources belong to the the Afghan people. 

NY Times blogs "Idea of the Day" (click here)

July 6, 2010, 6:36 am
Afghanistan, the Regional Proxy War (click here)

Today’s idea: Afghanistan — a war against Islamic terrorism? No, it has become a proxy war between the regional powers Pakistan and India, a columnist says, with NATO only a marginal participant. But could a grand bargain between the two rivals solve things?...

Nothing has changed and nothing will change because there is no role for the USA military. This is a political issue and there are new leaders to Afghanistan. It is up to them to bring benefits to the people in eastern Afghanistan to induce a benevolent democracy with LAWS adhered to by court hearings. Until the tribes consent to a different form of law and justice there is no changing this. Leave them alone.

Do I have to continue to bring the history of the country to this blog? People don't read? They don't care? War is not option, now what is the USA going to do? Diplomatic relations? Sounds like a plan. 

List of Afghanistan mountains and peaks. (click here) Includes 14665 peaks in Afghanistan. Click the peaks to see mountain photos, maps, routes, and summit logs for every mountain in Afghanistan. Also browse Afghanistan mountains in a big map view or photo view.

As a military mission, it is called "Operation Completely Impossible."

Noshaq is the highest mountain in Afghanistan and the second highest peak of the Hindu Kush after Tirich Mir (25,230 ft). Noshaq is located in the northeastern corner of the country along the Durand line which marks the border with Pakistan. It is the westernmost 7,000 m peak in the world. The north and west sides of the mountain are in Afghanistan whereas the south and eastern sides are in Pakistan. The normal route is by the West ridge.

If military and on this road, they are sitting ducks.

Kabul-Jalalabad Highway (click here) is a section of A01 national highway, with a length of 153km, linking Kabul and Jalalabad, Afghanistan. This road follows the Kabul River Gorge for 64 kilometres (40 mi), in Taliban territory. The two-lane Kabul Gorge highway runs along 600 metre-high cliffs. Fatal traffic accidents often occur in this area, mainly due to reckless driving. 

The road is of utmost strategic importance, facilitating trade, humanitarian aid, reconstruction efforts and the return of Afghan refugees.  However, the highway, which was a good standard asphalt road when it was completed in 1969, has deteriorated into a gravel road, making the journey long and tortuous. Reconstruction of the road is now under way, with funding from the European Commission (EC) for its construction and from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Authority (Sida) for its design.

The USA is out of there!

The Framework that the USA Congress has no control over.

Secretary Kerry is not the only authority signing this framework agreement. Where does the US Congress actually thing they have something to say about it? Arrogance? That is about the only thing that can occur here. Arrogance and the cartoons of 'let's pretend' we can control Iran.

Here's the full text of the statement on the deal, (click here) read by the EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, at a press conference in Lausanne on Thursday afternoon alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

I'm going now to read a joint statement that we have agreed on with Foreign Minister Zarif and all the others that have been negotiating so hard in these days.
We, the European Union High Representative and the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, together with the Foreign Ministers of the E3 + 3, China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States, met from 26 March to 2 April 2014 in Switzerland, as agreed in November 2013, to gather here to find solutions towards reaching a comprehensive solution that will ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program and the comprehensive lifting of all sanctions....

One more time. Secretary John Kerry's input is the best hope the USA has to stem the agreement. This is an international agreement. The USA can pass unilateral sanctions and become completely worthless to a good outcome. It can also declare war unilaterally, but, that would only return to the days of "The Bush Regime" and an illegal war. If the other four permanent members to the UN act unilaterally and the USA comes to the UN Security Council to start a war with Iran, other countries will never allow it if Iran is in complicance with sanctions. 

The US Congress is proving to be completely out of control in their politics because that is all that is in play here. The UK, France, Russia and China won't give a hoot about what the US Congress decides is best for their politics.

What is the US Congress going to do, declare war on allies? 

Dr. Ernest Moniz was involved with the framework to bring reality to that document. Anyone commenting outside the profession of Dr. Moniz as if an expert to Iran's nuclear program is making noise and incapable. I don't care who it is. 

...Iran limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, after eight days of hugely complicated talks....

The reality and dynamics of the talks in Switzerland cannot be duplicated so others can effectively speak to the agreement. The agreement is the document that has come out from this once in a lifetime opportunity to bring about compliance by Iran with the NPT.

There is no way the agreement can be duplicated. One would have to recruit, quite literally, every person at the table. That isn't going to happen until they come together in June. Each and every permanent country was represented so they could bring their unique sovereign authority to alter sanctions and form the agreement. This Arm Chair Quarterback stuff is nonsense. No one other than those at the table can speak to the finalized framwork. 

I can understand why everything is confidential. They USA's politics wants to devour it. I really think from here out, Secretary Kerry needs to simply call all information is classified. Even after the final document is signed. What is occurring in the USA regarding this document is ridiculous and it is because the right wing political party of Israel are pouting.

There was something about the Martin Luther King, Jr. monument, too.

I think the affection for a frequent quote is a nice idea. I'd worry about it if it never was stated.

April 7, 2015

By Matt Novak

Today the U.S. Postal Service (click here) unveiled a new stamp honoring writer Maya Angelou. The only problem? The quote featured on the stamp isn't hers.

The stamp has an image of Angelou, along with the quote: "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." The quote actually comes from a 1967 book of poetry by author Joan Walsh Anglund called A Cup in the Sun.

Anglund's original quote used "he" instead of "it" to refer to the bird. But for what it's worth, Anglund isn't upset about the misattribution, telling the Washington Post that she wasn't aware that the stamp was being made but that she hopes it's successful.

Earlier this morning First Lady Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey were on hand in Washington to help unveil the stamp. The President even misattributed the quote to Angelou in a 2013 speech — an error that nobody seems to have caught at the time.

Perhaps the community can ask central figures to organize a group to lead as consultants of these moments that are so important. A group of historians, if you will. There isn't a central library to accumulate an accurate history of the community and the civil rights movement.
 
August 25, 2011
By Rachel Manteuffel
 
The memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. (click here) has been a little controversial — but not for the right reason. Someone, somewhere along the line, made a decision that makes King look like something he was not: an arrogant jerk. 
“I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.”  
That’s what it says on the right side of King’s enormous monument. At first it struck me as odd that this man, whose many other quotes on the same monument are beautifully worded and biblically informed, would refer to himself as a drum major. To me, silly hats and King just did not compute....

Is there some kind of common denominator with these killer cops? Few years in service? Something.

By Cassandra Vinograd

Prior to joining the force, (click here) Slager had worked as a waiter before joining the military spending several years with the U.S. Coast Guard, according to a job application filed with the City of North Charleston Police department. That application — filed and received in January 2009 — stated that Sager had not been convicted of a felony in the past seven years....

...At the North Charleston Police Department, Slager was subject to annual in-service mandatory training — on everything from First Aid to firearms and Taser use. Slager routinely passed his certifications — even earning a perfect score on Taser Certification test questions in February 2011. His 2014 annual training — on subjects including ethics, bias base profiling and Taser use — and was signed off on in May 2014, and Slager re-passed a firearms qualification as recently as August 2014....

...According to the police records, Slager was involved in a "non-preventable" traffic accident in July 2014 when a driver put his vehicle in reverse and struck the officer's patrol car during a traffic stop. According to an accident report, the driver in question then fled the scene and the officer initiated a pursuit.