In the old Soviet and East German police states of the Cold War, police kept secret files on scores of common people. Information was fed to the police by thousands of clandestine sources – and a seemingly banal or routine interaction with nearly anyone could lead to a surprise “knock on the door” by authorities. During the late Soviet era, communist leadership moved away from the executions and purges of the Stalin years and began to increasingly rely upon medical professionals to diagnose “enemies of the state” as insane – thus, a routine trip to your doctor could lead to a visit from police.
Although the Cold War ended over two decades ago, a lawsuit filed December 17th in U.S. District Court in Rochester, NY alleges that such heavy-handed police-state tactics are presently being employed in Andrew Cuomo’s New York. The suit, filed by attorney Paloma Capanna on behalf of plaintiff Donald Montgomery, alleges that the New York State Police ordered the permanent confiscation of Mr. Montgomery’s registered handguns after he sought treatment for insomnia. The confiscation was ordered under Cuomo’s “SAFE Act” gun-control law.
The allegations in the case are downright scary. The complaint contends that Montgomery, a Navy veteran and retired police officer who rose to the rank of detective sergeant during his thirty-year career, voluntarily sought treatment for insomnia at a hospital on Long Island in May of 2014 after relocating to a new home several hundred miles from his previous residence.
According to the suit, the hospital diagnosed the plaintiff as “mildly depressed,” and his clinical evaluation stated, “Patient has no thoughts of hurting himself. Patient has no thoughts of hurting others. Patient is not having suicidal thoughts. Patient is not having homicidal thoughts…” and “there is no evidence of any psychotic processes, mania, or OCD symptoms. Insight, judgment, and impulse control are good.” The suit further alleges that a psychiatrist told the plaintiff, “I don’t know why you were referred here. You don’t belong here.”
Nonetheless, the suit contends that five days after being discharged from the hospital, the local sheriff’s department showed up at Montgomery’s door and seized his four registered handguns, including his former duty sidearm, after the sheriff had been subjected to “repeated pressure” by the New York State Police, who claimed that Montgomery had been declared mentally defective and had been involuntarily committed to a mental institution.
Senator Marco Rubio says he’s moving closer to a decision on whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination, but he’s not there yet.
Rubio tells National Public Radio “this is not a gut decision.”
He also says in an interview broadcast Thursday that he doesn’t have a “date in mind or a time frame in mind” for making his decision, “but certainly soon.”
On this week’s episode of the official broadcast of the New Black Panthers Party’s “Black Power Radio,” the former national chairman of the New Black Panther Party and current national president of Black Lawyers forRevenge"Justice," Malik Zulu Shabazz said 2015 is the time to “build up that army” and go “to the gun range.”
Sixty percent of Republican voters want John Boehner replaced as Speaker of the House, a new poll shows, as a conservative mutiny grows against the Ohio congressman they consider too accommodating with President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats.
The Caddell Associates' survey of 602 Americans who voted Republican in the midterm elections also found that they agree with the simmering conservative revolt, as 64% called Boehner too "ineffective" in opposing Obama’s agenda.
The election for speaker is scheduled for January 6th, and Boehner would need the support of a majority of members present and voting.
The resignation of Republican Michael Grimm of New York-11 dropped the total number of House members in the new Congress to 434, with Republicans holding 246 seats. Boehner would need at least 218 votes. So far, as many as eighteen Republicans are privately opposing him.
Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina-3, one of the few Republicans who are publicly against the speaker, says he "cannot vote in good conscience for John Boehner."
"Right now, I’ve been meeting with a small group, and we — about sixteen, eighteen — and we’re hoping to have a name of a sitting member of Congress that we can call out their name," he told North Carolina’s Talk of the Town radio program.
Level 1 - Foundations in Self Governance.
The class takes place on January 3, 2015 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at AllStar Collision, 522 Railroad St, Corona California.After the meeting, the group that joined me in class will join me at the Constitution Associationmeeting in Menifee to relay what we learned. I urge you to participate at Boston Billies for that meeting.
5:00 pm Check in, meeting begins at 5:30. We should arrive at about 5:45 pm from the class to join you. Mr. Mobley will start the meeting for me before we arrive. Join us for dinner at Boston Billies, 26850 Cherry Hills Blvd., Menifee, California.During the meeting we will:
- Discuss what we learned at the Foundations in Self Governance Class.
- We will view the video I made with the audio from my interview on Al Jazeera the other day.
- We will view a video about the American Form of Government.
- We will view pictures from the Festival of Trees event just before Christmas that a number of folks from our group participated in.
- We will have the hopey-changey drawing for a fantastic gift.We should wrap it up at 7:00 pm.
The Radio Show:
Even though I will not be on this week's program on KCAA, JASmius will be hosting the show, playing the audio from the Al Jazeera interview, and will be discussing the interview, as well as the various important issues of the week.
Catch him on American Daily Review at Noon Pacific, and Constitution Radio with Douglas V. Gibbs on KCAA 1050 AM at 2:00 pm Pacific.
As always, thanks for all you do, and we'll see you Saturday Night.
Blessings,
Douglas V. Gibbs
Constitution Radio, KCAA AM1050
Author, "25 Myths of the United States Constitution," and "The Basic Constitution"
President, Constitution Association
The Constitution Classes will resume this week. In Corona on Tuesday Night we will begin at 6:00 pm at AllStar Collision, 522 Railroad Street. In Temecula on Thursday Night we will begin at 6:30 pm at Faith Armory, 41669 Winchester Road. In both classes we will be discussing the Civil War Amendments.
And of course, don't forget to visit www.politicalpistachio.com daily for hard-hitting political commentary on the news that matters as it emerges
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The lawsuit claims that Obama has “unilaterally suspend[ed] the immigration laws as applied to 4 million of the 11 million” illegal aliens in the United States.
The states are requesting that Hanen find that the Department of Homeland Security directives implementing Obama’s plan violate the “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” clause of the Constitution, as well as various provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act because they are arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and were issued without regulatory authority or the required notice and opportunity for public comment.
On December 24th, the Justice Department filed a 56-page response on behalf of the administration opposing the request for an injunction and asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit for lack of standing because the states cannot “demonstrate that they will suffer a cognizable injury traceable to the deferred action guidance.”
The Justice Department says that all of the increased, substantial costs of law enforcement, education and health care that the states claim will result from the president’s action are mere conjecture and are not sufficient to grant them standing.
From November 2013 through November 2014, the aggregate balance in the federal direct student loan program–as reported by the Monthly Treasury Statement–rose from $687,149,000,000 to $806,561,000,000, a one-year jump of $119,412,000,000.
The balance on all student loans, including those from private sources, exceeded a trillion dollars as of the end of the third quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
“Outstanding student loan balances reported on credit reports increased to $1.13 trillion (an increase of $8 billion) as of September 30, 2014, representing about $100 billion increase from one year ago,” the bank said in its latest report on household debt and credit.
Queens College President Felix Rodriguez announced that Eric Linsker would be reassigned to “academic support functions in the English department” while he awaits trial.
“Queens College determined that it was in the best interests of its students, after consultation with University administration and legal counsel, to relieve Mr. Linsker of teaching duties,” Rodriguez wrote to faculty and students.
“Other faculty has been assigned to teach in Mr. Linsker’s place.”
Linsker, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, faces a litany of charges including assault in the second degree, riot, criminal possession of a weapon, resisting arrest and possession of marijuana.
Police said he was one of a handful of rowdy demonstrators who beat up two cops monitoring protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge December 12th.
Nicki alludes to a pregnancy that ended in abortion on the Pinkprint.
Minaj’s first love was an older guy from Queens she dated while attending the prestigious Manhattan performing-arts high school LaGuardia. When she discovered she was pregnant, “I thought I was going to die,” she admits. “I was a teenager. It was the hardest thing I’d ever gone through.” She ended up having an abortion, a decision she says has “haunted me all my life”....
....though it was the right choice for her at the time. “It’d be contradictory if I said I wasn’t pro-choice. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t have anything to offer a child.”
She first rapped about the experience on a mixtape track called “Autobiography” she says she “didn’t expect anyone to hear.” Now the world is listening to every word she says very carefully: “Millions of people are gonna hear it. And you gotta watch everything you say — people find an issue with every f*cking thing.”
There are still multiple references to the one-in-five statistic on the White House website, including this January 2014 speech by President Obama, this White House Task Force report on sexual assault, and this “FACT SHEET” on protecting students from sexual assault.
The problem is there is nothing scientific about this number.
“Regardless of which studies are most accurate,” the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice webpage on measuring campus sexual assault reads, “the often-quoted statistic that one in four American college women will be raped during her college years is not supported by the scientific evidence.” [emphasis added]
Target department stores are under fire for having a white girl featured in some of its posters to advertise its new clothing line inspired by the upcoming movie adaptation of “Annie”–a movie with an all African American cast.
Target says it tried to get the stars of the movie to make themselves available for the ad campaign, but it wasn’t to be. Target also notes that girls of several ethnicities are featured in its ad campaign, not just the one white girl model. Other posters (like the one above) features an African American girl along with the white girl as well as by herself. Target insists that the campaign was meant to appeal to all girls not solely to whites or blacks.
A high-ranking House Republican under fire after he admitted to speaking at a racist event in 2002 as a state legislator might have confessed to a sin he didn't commit, Slate reports.
Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana-1 actually addressed a local civic association that was allowed to use the same hotel conference room on the same day, but had no connection other than location to the controversial gathering, according to two self-described eyewitnesses interviewed by Slate....
Scalise spoke to the Jefferson Heights Civic Association, a citizens group, before the European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO) conference had even started, according to Kenny Knight, who told Slate he booked EURO into the Landmark Best Western Hotel in Metairie, near New Orleans.
Knight, an associate of well-known white supremacist and former Louisiana gubernatorial candidate David Duke, said he loaned the room to the civic association and to local officials including Scalise — who he knew from state politics — as a courtesy.
"He spoke early in the day to a contingent of people, prior to the conference kicking off," Knight told Slate. "He was not there as a guest speaker at the conference."
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