Today's WTF??? Moment

Really, America??



More than 20 school districts in the United States have been equipped with military-grade equipment through the federal program that provides such gear to local and state authorities free of charge, according to civil rights groups.

The NAACP and Texas Appleseed, a legal advocacy group, sent a letter on behalf of a coalition of civil rights groups to the federal agency that administers the program on Monday. The letter requested reforms be made to the 1033 program, which has come under significant scrutiny after the heavily armed police response to protests in Ferguson, Mo., last month.

The letter cited "published reports" that have showed military equipment being transferred from the Pentagon to the school districts. It said the total number of transfers from the Defense Department to U.S. schools "is difficult to determine."

KPBS in Sand Diego reported that the city's school district had received a mine-resistant vehicle. KTLA in Los Angeles reported that the district there had also received its own mine-resistant vehicle as well as grenade launchers. KHOU in Houston reported that local school districts had received military firearms.

A school district in Edinburg, Texas, has employed a full SWAT unit, according to the letter, which is equipped through the 1033 program. The groups pointed to a news image that showed officers in military fatigues standing in front of school buses.

"It is frankly difficult to imagine how a grenade launcher, or any of these items, could be safely used in any scenario involving schools," the letter said.

School districts in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada and Utah have received military equipment, according to the groups.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/school-districts-1033-program-military-equipment

We are heading in a direction... slowly... certainly. Seagoat opines that liberties are being supported by the scotus...

I don't see the results where the rubber meets the road. I don't even see a backlash about mass data collection.

The growth of the police state can only be addressed with massive cuts in our criminal justice system. I have called for 25% reductions across the board in prison populations, probation officers, police, judges, public defenders, prosecutors, and support personnel. It took thirty years to create the monster, and we can shrink the same over the next 10 years with 2.5% reductions in budgets. The war on drugs needs to end. We need to focus on violent offenders and refocus off filling our jails with non violent drug offenders.

James clapper sat in front of congress on national tv and to all of us he swore that the govt did NOT collect data on random citizens. You might remember him... he still works at the pleasure of our president... no less. That is no random event.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/politics/16program.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

According to the NYT, it's been going on since 2001. Great article, BTW...but there are a couple of pieces of relevant info missing from it. One is testimony that BushCo was actually spying without a warrant PRIOR TO 9/11. Another is the uncontested fact that the NYT held off releasing the info to the public, under pressure from BushCo, for an entire YEAR after the 2004 elections. Again, this isn't speculation.

(Read more at NYT)

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http://rt.com/usa/158780-nyt-justice-withheld-nsa-info/

NY Times, Justice Dept. under fire for concealing info on NSA snooping


Published time: May 14, 2014 03:19
Edited time: May 14, 2014 04:08 Get short URL


"The New York Times and the Justice Department are under fire for bowing to the National Security Agency and either hiding (the Times) or misinforming (DOJ) the public about crucial pieces of the NSA’s secret spying programs.

An episode of PBS Frontline focuses on the 2004 decision by New York Times editor Bill Keller to kill a story on the NSA in the run-up to that year’s presidential election. The two-part program is called 'United States of Secrets,' and reveals “the dramatic inside story of the U.S. government’s massive and controversial secret surveillance program—and the lengths they went to trying to keep it hidden from the public.”

The report looks back at what the NSA called 'The Program' - the NSA’s decision to spy on Americans’ electronic interactions by spying on telephones, internet communications, metadata from emails, and almost all forms of electronic communications - all without warrants. Scandal broke out when the secretive agency’s spying techniques were revealed to the world - but not by Edward Snowden in the summer of 2013. The NSA first landed in hot water nearly eight years before the government whistleblower began leaking documents.

On Dec 16, 2005, New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau broke the news to the world of President George W. Bush’s 2002 presidential order authorizing the NSA’s use of The Program. Their source was Department of Justice attorney Thomas Tamm, who questioned its legality from the start, PRI reported in an episode of 'The World.' But Bill Keller, the New York Times editor working with Risen and Lichtblau, decided to run the story past top White House officials to get the government’s side of the issue.

According to Frontline’s Michael Kirk, the government used three arguments to convince the Times not to run the story, including: “It is completely legal; it is a vulnerable secret that, if you reveal it, hundreds of thousands of Americans may die in the next attack; and it is working,” Kirk told The World. So the paper delayed the story from when Tamm first talked to the Times reporters in the summer of 2004 until after the presidential election - 18 months after first contact.

Just half a month after the first of Risen’s NSA stories hit the pages of the Times, reports began to surface of the delay in publication. “The administration first learned that The New York Times had obtained information about the secret eavesdropping program more than a year ago and expressed concern to editors that its disclosure could jeopardize terrorism investigations," one of its own articles stated on December 31, 2005. “The newspaper withheld the article at the time, and the government did not open a leak investigation at that time, presumably because such an inquiry might itself disclose the program.”..."

(more)

That rings true to me zman. In college I often wrote position papers that were in direct antithesis of my ideas and beliefs.

I took it as an exercise... and was pretty good at it... but I would not have written those had my grade not depended on it.

I often bit my tongue during classroom debate as well.

Sal wrote:Really, America??

[

School districts in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada and Utah have received military equipment, according to the groups.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/school-districts-1033-program-military-equipment

Why should YOU care? ROFLMAO

gatorfan wrote:

Sal wrote:Really, America??

[

School districts in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada and Utah have received military equipment, according to the groups.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/school-districts-1033-program-military-equipment

Why should YOU care? ROFLMAO

LOL

For context... Sal hit gator with the local factor... I think about maxine waters... and this was the retort.

But the real irony is that leftists love central powers... only offering support if some locale passes a statist law.

That of course doesn't restrict the option should an opportunity arise.

just for the record, i wasnt laughing at gator, i was laughing with him.

because i saw where sal had hit him with that

now sal is trying to say thats gators standard about the local.

The thing with this armor is coming from the federal gov

and these police take it because its like big boy toys to them

I know thats a terrible mindset, but humans are weird

Probably very accurate... I think most guys get it at the base degree. But a little thght knows it's not right here.

We're slowly turning into fucking china... while they're slowly turning into fucking us.

Th Dude wrote:Probably very accurate... I think most guys get it at the base degree. But a little thght knows it's not right here.

We're slowly turning into fucking china... while they're slowly turning into fucking us.

i agree

i had thought the feds were reversing the rule to give that stuff to them

Chrissy* wrote:just for the record, i wasnt laughing at gator, i was laughing with him.

because i saw where sal had hit him with that

now sal is trying to say thats gators standard about the local.

I've come to see the hypocrisy of a few posters on here. Sal is one. Not that it really matters, most progressives are hypocrites, I think it may be a requirement for that mindset.

gatorfan wrote:

Chrissy* wrote:just for the record, i wasnt laughing at gator, i was laughing with him.

because i saw where sal had hit him with that

now sal is trying to say thats gators standard about the local.

I've come to see the hypocrisy of a few posters on here. Sal is one. Not that it really matters, most progressives are hypocrites, I think it may be a requirement for that mindset.

You have to have the first part before you can have the set.

*****CHUCKLE*****

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diOuUYcenW0

I think the root of the collectivist is peer pressure... it sounds so humane... and you look at the person next to you...

they're nodding their head to the beat. Why question the results? It feels good... it must be right... damn the torpedoes.

Th Dude wrote:For context... Sal hit gator with the local factor... I think about maxine waters...

Nah ....

this is where it came from ....

https://pensacoladiscussion.forumotion.com/t16307-georgia-republican-senator-openly-doubles-down-on-racist-remarks-what-year-is-it-again

Thanks for the opportunity to bump that thread for Markle's benefit.

lol

In harmony and with feeling now...

*****CHUCKLE*****

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swrLCQz-EaI