Now it can be told – Bloomberg’s mobby ways

Ever since a candidate, Bloomberg bought and bullied his way in and out of everything. And since one of the bought parties is the media (some of which he owns) we never saw a bad headline about him. With his 3rd term approaching its end, NY Post became “brave”  (even as Bloomberg’s designated successor, Quinn gets all the coverage by the same media)

Bloomberg’s Army (with OWS inside)

Metro NY let us know today that NYPD lost it’s popularity lately.

Not any more explicit than that although the photo send one immediately to OWS.

Inside however the headline is stronger

NYPD: Can we still call them NY’s finest?

the OWS photo is one which made some covers at the time

the article even has a passing reference to OWS

Last year was a rocky one for the NYPD. The largest police force in the U.S. at 34,500 officers strong was consistently under scrutiny for highly publicized scandals and shocking revelations. Rape accusations against police, a ticket-fixing scandal, reporters arrested while covering Occupy Wall Street — with each embarrassing headline, New York’s Finest damaged its once record-high level of trust among the public.

What is being even more gingerly avoided is Bloomberg’s name

Even after a scandal-ridden year for the NYPD, Mayor Michael Bloomberg made no direct reference to the gaffes during his 2012 State of the City Address earlier this month. Instead, he called the NYPD the best police force in the world.

His dictatorial ways barely get a passing mention

Stop-and-frisk tactics, introduced under Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration and stepped up by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, let cops pat down anyone they suspect of a crime. Critics call it unconstitutional, while Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly credit the practice with lower crime rates and more arrests.

But it’s the only coverage it gets.

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I wonder how they’ll spin this photo

yet another “protesters clash with police” situation

This is the story from FB

Marley Windham-Herman UC Davis. This occurred in the quad. The police arrived to take down the tents that the students had set up. They took down the tents. The protesters blocked the sidewalk, saying that they would move if their arrested friends would be released, which of course was not going to happen. The police could have easily walked ,around, over or even pushed through these protesters. The pepper spray and arrest is not an enactment of the law. It is a demonstration of power that the police have. If they back down and are “commanded” by a bunch of shouting students then they effectively lose their mandate to control. If you can shout at a police officer long enough to make them not write you a ticket, then everyone would. The role of the police is to protect persons and property. Their actions today protected no one but themselves.

 — in Davis, California.

Tabloids: FBI saves Cristmas (from its own plot)

As expected . FBI’s pathetic trap gets all the headlines.

One has to wonder if the timing wasn’t chosen to make up for last Chrismas underwear fiasco.

WaPo goes one further calling the plot “elaborate” forgetting who cooked it

The terrorists won – we scratch to death

Soon, after 9.11 I read an essay which compared US to a dog and the terrorists to flees.

It’s not the flea bites that get the dog, it’s the scratching.

If we don’t do this or that, the terrorists win – so became the joke of the Bush administration since 9.11.

Let’s remember what terrorism is. per Merriam-Webster

–noun

1.

the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.

2.

the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.

3.

a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

The first meaning refers to the perpetrators of terrorists act. Notice how their purpose is not to kill or destroy so much as to intimidate or coerce.

As in get all Americans to take their shoes of after an inept attempt to conceal a bomb in a shoe.

And now, get porno scanners an groping of genitals after an inept attempt to hide a bomb in underwear.

Are their goals met? I would say they are.

If I were a terrorist leader, I’d direct a number of minions to hide bombs – working or not – in their cavities.

Then relax and watch the stupid dog chasing its tail.

We cannot control the terrorists actions (although I thought we were “fighting them over there so we didn’t have to fight them over here” ha-ha).

But we do have choice over the way we “scratch”.

Israel has been in the midst of such threats for decades now, and has been protecting its citizens very well.

Instead of using porno scanners and groping hands, they use the low tech weapon of intelligence.

Security people there don’t get in your underwear, they get into your head. All within a short, pleasant conversation.

Last year, on the airport in tel Aviv, I got confused about procedures and left my luggage unattended after they were scanned (luggage, not people are scanned there).

I was invited in an office and went there quite scared as I knew I did a no-no thing.

They re-scanned my luggage . I am sure their scanner was as detailed as ours as they started a conversation about some plastic containers I had in there – with salt from the Dead Sea. A courteous, pleasant conversation that reassured me and  informed them I was no threat. I left there feeling good that they were on the job.

So why can’t we, in this country probe with our minds rather than our hands?

One reason is, of course, corruption

Scanner makers boosted lobbying

a headline from Federal Times – DHS:

Rapiscan Systems, meanwhile, has spent $271,500 on lobbying so far this year, compared with $80,000 five years earlier. It has faced criticism for hiring Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security secretary, last year. Chertoff has been a prominent proponent of using scanners to foil terrorism. The government has spent $41.2 million with Rapiscan.

“The revolving door provides corporations like these with a shortcut to lawmakers” and other decision-makers, said Sheila Krumholz, of the Center for Responsive Politics.

I can’t believe their name is actually Rapiscan. What? Rape Scan was taken?..

But that is only part of the reason. That takes us to the second meaning of the word “terrorism”

2.

the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.

We all remember the color code charts and the catch phrase I used in the headline: “if you don’t eat your French fries, the terrorists win.

Bush used it most ostensibly.

Obama too gave a speech on Nigerian packages the day before the election – to little effect.

We are now admonished by the TSA and Obama media to “grow up”

Don’t touch my junk? Grow up, America.

The media – which tells us how to vote is now telling us to  obey. Relax and enjoy.

Yup. We are all big babies for not wanting to be touched in private places by strangers.

We don’t obey well.

All together now: HOPE! CHANGE! (of underwear).