Boyz N' The Hood, the classic drama about four friends growing up in Los Angeles South, formerly known as South Central LA. The movie was directed by John Singleton and it became a cult hit. It starred Cuba Gooding, Jr., Ice Cube, Laurence Fishburne, Morris Chestnut, Nia Long, Angela Bassett and Regina King.
The movie depicts the gang lifestyle.
Cuba Gooding, Jr.;s breakthrough role opened the door for many roles! He won an Academy Award for the his role as Rod Tidwell, the guy who utter the famous phrase from Jerry Maguire, "Show me the money!"
Now fast forward to July 2012, a bar in New Orleans and Cuba Gooding, Jr. getting into it with a patron of the bar. Now the NOLA Cops are looking for him!
According to the Huffington Post, an arrest warrant has been issued for actor Cuba Gooding Jr. after an incident at a Bourbon Street bar.
Police said in a news release that a bartender told officers that Gooding was there at 3 a.m. Tuesday when he became upset with other patrons who started asking him to take photographs with them.
The bartender told officers that Gooding pushed her after she asked him to calm down, and again after she told him he needed to leave and police had been called.
Gooding left the bar before police arrived. Police issued an arrest warrant for municipal battery, a misdemeanor.
Gooding's publicist declined comment. The actor is in New Orleans filming "The Butler," a movie about a White House butler who serves eight American presidents.
President Barack Obama's mother has an African decedent.
Just when you thought the conservatives were trying to figure out whether the president is an Arab or a worshiping Muslim born in either Indonesia or Kenya. Out of nowhere comes some interesting facts about the President of The United States, Barack Obama.
Ancestry.com takes a look into the president's maternal roots and discovers that his late mother Stanley Ann Durham has a decedent that traces back to Jonathan Punch, an African slave from Virginia.
According to The New York Times, a team of genealogists is upending that thinking, saying that Mr. Obama’s mother had, in addition to her European ancestors, at least one African forebear and that the president is most likely descended from one of the first documented African slaves in the United States.
In 1640, Mr. Punch, then an indentured servant, escaped from Virginia and went to Maryland. He was captured there and, along with two white servants who had also escaped, was put on trial. His punishment — servitude for life — was harsher than what the white servants received, and it has led some historians to regard him as the first African to be legally sanctioned as a slave, years before Virginia adopted laws allowing slavery.
Historians say there was a trade in human labor, of both whites and blacks, during this period in American history. There were also some free African-Americans. Beginning around 1617, indentured servants were bought and sold, as were debtors, in the Chesapeake Bay region, said Ira Berlin, a University of Maryland professor and expert in the history of slavery. But while those people were in an “unfree condition,” he said, historians cannot pinpoint a date for the beginning of the slave trade.
An interesting finding of President Barack Obama. Now let's move forward to the reactionary outrage from his political foes. The Republicans and their conservative allies will waste no time discussing this in the usual disgusting fashion.
Learn the White Male Conservative Word Salad, a mixture of reactionary hate, stupidity, incomplete sentences, condescending rhetoric, patriotic avatars and inserts of Barack Obama.
I am guessing the first thing you'll find on The Blaze, The Daily Caller, Twitchy, The Drudge Report, Breitbart, WorldNetDaily or Fox Nation is....
The president is a decedent of gorillas! The president is straight outta of da 'hood! The president is a Nigger! The president is a Marxist! The president is a Kenyan born national! The president is a socialist! The president is married to Wookie!
Somehow White conservative males seem to be the reason why this country is so fucked up! If you got people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Karl Rove and Mitt Romney talking shit about the president and the Black community, you're obviously not aware they're dog whistling White voters.
White males are the most pessimistic voters whenever a Democratic president is elected. It's way worse if a person of color or even a woman is elected to be the President of the United States. They just can't stand it!
They are the arm chair warriors who spend their days collecting ammunition, insulting people online with reactionary comments, calling talk radio programs to vent off frustration over the government and decrying the end of days in biblical formation. They would rather see this country restored to its "glory" days when White male influence dominated the country's decisions.
When you hear comments like "I want my country back!", it's a dog whistle for White voters.
Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania went to Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Elections. Four years later, Republicans ceased control of Ohio and Pennsylvania, retained hold on Florida. Other states carried by Barack Obama included New Jersey, Iowa, Virginia, New Mexico, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Each now holds a Republican governor.
Now Republican governors are plotting to keep the Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos from the polling stations.
A Florida ex-Republican under fire, is going to spill the beans about the plot to keep minority voters away from the polls. In a election where only 7% of the registered voters matter, a few minority votes could tip the scale for President Barack Obama. The Republicans want to keep this from happening.
So what do the Republican Party do? Call up their good buddies over at Fox News and The Drudge Report!
The Republicans and their conservative allies would love to make the case of voter intimidation by those scary Black Panthers holding batons. Get on the bullhorn about those poor Kentuckian voters buying up votes with liquor and chicken feed. Talk about Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department committing a crime by withholding information to Fast & Furious. Making the case to have Holder removed as Attorney General. The Republicans are voting on legislation to impeach him and President Barack Obama.
Republican legislators work hard to pass voter identification laws that requires voters to present driver's licenses or proof of identification to vote. The legislation to impose restrictive photo ID requirements has been prepared by the conservative organization ALEC and circulated to conservative state legislators. The work hard to purge registered voters off the ballots. If you've voted once in four years, Republicans think you're dead so you don't exist. You don't vote!
According to the Tampa Bay Times, reporter Lucy Morgan interviews Jim Greer, the former Florida Republican chairman who is under investigation for corruption and fraud.
Jim Greer admits that his criticism of President Barack Obama is an act. Greer was told to criticized the president in order to make White voters pessimistic.
Jim Greer denounces Florida Republican Party officials as liars, 'right-wing crazies' in deposition
TALLAHASSEE — In a wide-ranging deposition that spanned two days in late May, former Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer denounced some party officials as liars and "whack-a-do, right-wing crazies'' as he described turmoil in the months before his resignation.
Greer said some GOP leaders were meeting to discuss ways they could suppress black votes while others were constantly scheming against each other.
He blamed criminal fraud charges filed against him in 2010 on legislative leaders and other party officials who he says orchestrated an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the statewide grand jury to avoid paying him money he was due.
His statements were in response to questions from lawyers for the party, Senate President Mike Haridopolos and Sen. John Thrasher. Greer has filed a lawsuit against the party and the two officials in an attempt to collect $130,000 he was promised in a written agreement shortly before he resigned. The lawsuit, pending in Leon County, is unlikely to be resolved until after a criminal trial scheduled for mid November.
Jim Greer, the former Republican chairman from Florida admits that his party is trying to keep minorities from voting.
Copies of the 630-page deposition and other documents were released by statewide prosecutors Wednesday.
Greer's testimony offers a window into the level of animosity that exists between Greer and the party he once ran.
• Greer said "the party was in turmoil" as officials wanted to get rid of him and former Gov. Charlie Crist because they disagreed with some of Crist's decisions, including the appointment of a liberal African-American judge to the Florida Supreme Court, Crist's endorsement of John McCain for president in 2008 and the hug Crist gave President Barack Obama in 2009. "My phone lit up with people wanting me to censure the governor,'' Greer said. "The tea party came into existence. There was a feeling within the party that the tea party was just a bunch of whack-a-dos."
• After the party's budget and audit committee started asking questions about House and Senate spending, including legislators who used party credit cards for personal expenses, Greer said he wanted to open the books and credit card records, but party officials and legislative leaders vetoed the idea.
• Greer said he warned others at the party that the budget committee was made up of "whack-a-do, right-wing crazies'' who were trying to take over because of continuing disagreements with Crist and legislative leaders. House and Senate leaders insisted that no one at the party could control their campaign finances. "We eat what we kill,'' Greer said the leaders told him. "Legislative leaders were using their party credit cards like drunken sailors and they made it clear to me I was not to interfere with their spending,'' Greer said.
Thrasher, who succeeded Greer as party chairman, called Greer's suggestion of voter suppression and other accusations "absurd, absolutely absurd'' and said Greer is making "baseless accusations on other people in an effort to divert attention from himself.''
Thrasher said party officials had no choice but to get rid of Greer once they discovered he had secretly created a company that was getting money from the party.
Many of the questions posed to Greer were about his creation of Victory Strategies LLC, a company that collected almost $200,000 from the party while he was running it. The criminal charges stem from that contract.
Greer's animosity was evident on almost every page of the deposition as he described the inner workings of a party that has controlled Florida since 1998.
On voter suppression, Greer said he had just completed a December 2009 meeting with party general counsel Jason Gonzalez, political consultant Jim Rimes and Eric Eikenberg, Crist's chief of staff, when questions arose about fundraising.
"I was upset because the political consultants and staff were talking about voter suppression and keeping blacks from voting. It had been one of those days,'' he said.
Rimes said he recalls no discussion of suppressing votes at any meeting. Eikenberg did not return phone calls.
Greer said party officials were questioning spending on fundraising trips to New York, Yankees games, limos, expensive cigars and other items when Gonzalez asked him if he had any ownership in Victory Strategies. Greer said he initially denied owning any interest in the company but later admitted it when he and Gonzalez were alone. Gonzalez told state investigators that Greer did not own up to his involvement in the business and threatened to sue anyone who made the accusation. A number of other party officials told state investigators they were unaware of Greer's involvement in the company. Contacted this week, Gonzalez said he could not publicly discuss the case.
Asked about his failure to tell other officials, Greer said they didn't ask.
Asked if he told party finance chairman John Rood, a Jacksonville businessman, Greer said Rood was "basically useless as finance chairman.''
By late December 2009, Greer found himself under pressure to resign. He said he agreed to leave for the "betterment of the party'' and in January 2010 signed a severance agreement that was to pay him the rest of his $130,000 for the year.
Greer said he got concerned when Haridopolos and Thrasher, who had both signed the agreement, began to publicly deny knowledge of it. Haridopolos later admitted signing it, insisting he had not read it.
"Around the party most people considered President Haridopolos to be not the brightest person, but I would assume he would have read the agreement before he signed it,'' Greer said.
Greer had good words only for House Speaker Dean Cannon, saying the Orlando Republican tried to get others to live up to the severance agreement and promised to help him find a lobbying job and clients.
After others at the party refused to honor the severance agreement, Greer said Cannon and Haridopolos contacted his friend Jim Stelling to say that political consultants Pat Bainter and Marc Reicheldfer were going to pay Greer $200,000.
Despite promises of payment and a request from Bainter for information on where to wire the money, none was ever paid, Greer said. After he left the party, Greer said he heard that Thrasher was telling people they were going to have him arrested. A short time later, Greer was indicted by a statewide grand jury on charges of money laundering and fraud.
The charges and the party's failure to pay him have ruined his life, Greer said.
"They took everything I worked for my whole life,'' he added. Now his family is on food stamps, some of his possessions have been repossessed and his children watched their father being arrested.
"Any good thing I did at the Republican Party has been destroyed by these people,'' he said. "I want my life back. I want them to say they are sorry for what they did to me.''
T.J. Holmes (right) and Betty Nguyen (left). Both left CNN recently. T.J. Holmes was pulled over in Georgia and is concerned that he was pulled over for being Black.
T.J. Holmes, once hosted CNN Saturday with co-host Betty Nguyen. He left the network in 2012, and now hosts a program on BET. I guess being a television host isn't enough for the "boys in blue" in the state of Georgia. You're just another "criminal" in the mind of the law enforcement in the rural South.
According to the Raw Story, Holmes was pulled over on Monday and he was said to be “pissed beyond words” after he was stopped by police for “driving while black.”
T.J. Holmes, who now hosts Don’t Sleep for BET, live-tweeted the entire traffic stop, but did not indicate where in Georgia he had been pulled over.
“Driving while black ain’t no joke!” Holmes wrote along with a photo of a police car in his rearview mirror.
“Yep, in sitting on the side of the road 1 mile from my house with 2 cop cars behind me,” he continued. “Officer has yet to give a reason for why he stooped [sic] me.”
Holmes later added: “This is a damn shame. Officer is literally stumbling over his words trying to explain why he stopped me. … Officer’s reason for pulling me over: ‘wanted to make sure you have insurance on the car.’ I kid you not.”
About an hour later, the journalist explained that he had “managed to avoid jail time,” but his relationship with the county police might have “soured a bit.”
“Still pissed beyond words right now. But Lord knows I’m not the only this will happen to today. #showmeyourpapers,” Holmes said.
The power of Photoshop. Vice President Dick Cheney reflects on his time and offers cautionary advice to Mitt Romney not to pick a candidate that reminds the public of Sarah Palin.
The Republican Party has known for theatrics. Every Sunday morning a Republican goes on television to express his disgust of the president. One in particular is former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney who is recovering from heart surgery is out in the open speaking to the press about how he's not a fan of the Obama Administration and faults President Barack Obama for the economic turmoils he'd inherited from the vice president's former boss George W. Bush.
The former vice president and former President George W. Bush have kept a relatively low profile. Cheney comes out once in awhile going after the president or Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State who was at odds with the vice president. Powell endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008. They are not attending the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.
On ABC's This Week with George Stephanpoulos, the former vice president offers his take on the 2012 U.S. Presidential Elections, former governor and perennial candidate for president Mitt Romney and the outcome of the economy.
ABC reporter Jonathon Karl asked Cheney about the potential pick of vice president for Romney, and the subject of that had the former vice president open up about Palin. The previous nominee Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) and his vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, then governor of the state of Alaska lost in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election.
Let's say that Cheney knew that it was a mistake that McCain picked Sarah Palin. This comes a few days after the dumb conservative agitator and her husband Todd Palin were spotted at Texas Chick-Fil-A restaurant in support of the company's stance against gay rights.
Cheney has a daughter Mary who is openly a lesbian. Liz Cheney is a political pundit who has thoughts of running for U.S. Senate to replace Democratic Virginia senator Mark Warner.
A few years ago, rapper Snoop Dogg was detained in the Kingdom of Norway after he was caught in possession of his "medicine" and a stack of dollars. He acknowledged his frequent use of the medicine and the Norwegian courts fined a hefty sum and was allowed to perform. Well after an assessment of the situation, the rapper is banned from the country for the next two years.
According to the Associated Press and SOHH.com, a hip-hop news blog, Snoop must wait two years before entering the European country.
Snoop Dogg, whose name is Calvin Broadus, was on his way to a music festival in southern Norway in June when sniffer dogs detected eight grams of marijuana in his luggage. He was also carrying more cash than is legally allowed and was fined 52,000 kroner ($8,600) after admitting to the two offenses, the lawyer said.
The rapper didn't seem to mind the ban. Snoop Dogg is licensed in California to have an ounce due to his medical prescription.
This latest controversy adds to the rapper's arrest in Texas on the charge of possession. In 1993, the rapper escaped a murder conviction charge after he and some associates were accused of killing of a gang member.
Phillip Woldermarian, a member of a rival gang who was shot and killed by the rapper's bodyguard, McKinley Lee; Snoop Dogg was charged with murder along with Lee as he was driving the vehicle from which the shooting had commenced. The rapper and his bodyguard were defended by Johnnie Cochran. Both Snoop Dogg and Lee were acquitted; Lee was acquitted on grounds of self-defense, but Snoop Dogg remained entangled in the legal battles around the case for three years.
Snoop Dogg, country music star Willie Nelson, rappers Wiz Khalifa, Method Man, Redman and Ludacris are advocates of legalizing marijuana for recreational usage.
Snoop Dogg appears on Doggystyle Records/Priority Records.
Keep it real classy, conservatives. You complain about comedian Dane Cook making light of the controversial shooting incident that claimed twelve innocent lives, but yet compare our president to this deranged shooter James Holmes.
What is certain to draw ire of the survivors of this shooting as well as the supporters of President Barack Obama is a electronic sign in the city of Caldwell, Idaho.
The Huffington Post/Black Voices via The Idaho Statesman reported that the digital sign has sparked outrage in the community.
The giant sign on Franklin Road and North 21st Avenue features a photo of Holmes with the words, "Kills 12 in a movie theater with assault riffle, everyone freaks out," written under his picture, juxtaposed to a photo of Obama with the words, "Kills thousands with foreign policy, wins Nobel Peace Prize," written below.
The billboard often features anti-Obama messages, and is sponsored by The Ralph Smeed Foundation, the supporters of the late activist for libertarian causes in Idaho. Foundation member and former state lawmaker Maurice Clements, told The Idaho Statesman the billboard is a response to Obama's 'broken promise' to bring home the troops.
"We’re all outraged over that killing in Aurora, Colo., but we’re not outraged over the boys killed in Afghanistan,” Clements explained to the paper, and added that he's not trying to connect Obama to Holmes, he's just comparing the way society reacts. "We’re not saying that Obama is a lunatic,” he said.
Regardless of what the billboard is really comparing, the message is not going over well with the area's residents, who are outraged, calling it "offensive," "abhorrent," and "pathetic," reports NBC News.
Libertarians are conservative leaning voters who endorse Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico. And of course, the remnants of cult leader Texas Congressman, Republican perennial candidate for president Ron Paul.
While it's the freedom of speech and all, how low can these people go to taking down President Barack Obama. It's bad enough they can't figure out the president's religion, but to compare him to a mass murderer who had a choice to do something without prejudice is beyond the pale of the reality. Conservatives call him everything but Mr. President.
I am hoping they overreach enough that they'll end up hurting Mitt Romney. Because independent voters should look at this party as serious on issues. They've stomped their feet, move the goalpost and took the debate to the brink of economic chaos to defeat President Barack Obama.
They can't win on this anti-Obama crap. They have to have a decent plan that sells. They can't just wave a three page proposal that has nothing but tax cuts and deregulation. That stuff isn't going to solve the problems.
The key to economic stability is spending and the Republicans would rather waste time on trivial debates like repealing healthcare reform and holding administration officials in contempt.
Former Alaskan governor and now serial conservative agitator Sarah Palin wraps her dumb ass into the controversy involving fast food chain Chick-Fil-A. The company is under fire for its founder and company's CEO stance on gay marriage.
The Republicans are rallying in defense of the restaurant. While many Americans are starting to warm up to the equal rights of the LGBT community, conservatives are still fighting on the culture war. Preparing themselves for the complete isolationist strategy that could damage their nominee for president, Mitt Romney.
Sarah Palin has been out of office for many years and yet her influence on the 2012 U.S. Presidential Elections is effective. Her influence as a "queen maker" helped the Republicans get back the House of Representatives and state governorships. Many supporters hoped that she would jump into the nomination race. They were disappointed that she decided not to run. Palin and her family manages to continue as reality stars of television programs and the former governor contributes to Fox News.
Chick-Fil-A is facing mounting pressure to recant their stance on gay marriage. So far the company isn't budging on the issue. Many activists are planning a boycott or support of the company.
Former governor of Arkansas, conservative agitator Mike Huckabee told his audience that he's going to devote a day to eating at the restaurant. Conservative agitator Rush Limbaugh calls the mayors of Chicago and Boston, "Stalinist" for rejecting permits to build restaurants in their cities. Even Alan Colmes, the liberal talk radio agitator from Fox News supports going to Chick-Fil-A as well.
Sarah Palin is campaigning for the Tea Party endorsed candidate Ted Cruz who is facing a run off election against his primary challenger. They are fighting for U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's seat. The senator is retiring after she was embarrassed by that idiotic governor Rick Perry in the Texas gubernatorial primary.
The boycott is a growing movement. New York University wants to ban the restaurant from being on the campus. Many activists are planning a rally against the company. They'll be met with people who support the business and they'll be there!
Don Perry the public relations executive for Chick-Fil-A dies unexpectedly.
Another issue that comes forth, the public relation chief Don Perry dies unexpectedly. Our condolences to the family of Mr. Perry. The Los Angeles Times report that the death of a top Chick-fil-A executive added to the fast-food chain's difficulties in trying to extricate itself from the public relations imbroglio ignited by its president's comments on same-sex marriage.
Chick-fil-A announced Perry's death hours after New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a staunch supporter of same-sex marriage, refused to ban the company from opening restaurants in his city.
Bloomberg's comments, made in a radio broadcast, came after the mayors of Boston, Chicago and San Francisco said they didn't want Chick-fil-A outlets in their cities. Bloomberg said the chain could expand in New York as long as it passed through the same permitting requirements as any other company.
"I just don't think it's the government's business, period," Bloomberg said of threats to block the chain. "This is just a bad idea, and it's not going to happen in New York City."
But Chick-fil-A might find it difficult to grow on certain college campuses. Students at seven universities, including the University of Illinois, the University of Kansas and Minnesota State University, launched petitions on Change.org this week to try to remove the restaurants from their campuses or keep them from coming.
Students at New York University have long known about the company's conservative views — the chain has donated money to anti-gay-marriage groups — and had a petition pending to kick out the on-campus Chick-fil-A. In the aftermath of the same-sex controversy, the number of signatures surged by as much as 2,500 to more than 15,000.
In Orange County, protesters outside a store Thursday in Laguna Hills tried to divert customers to other fast food outlets.
Actors Roseanne Barr, Ed Helms and Mia Farrow took to Twitter to express their disappointment in Chick-fil-A. Jim Henson Co. pulled out of a partnership with the company to make toys for its kids' meals. Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, along with thousands of fellow customers, said he would boycott the chain.
On the opposite side, former presidential candidate Rick Santorum showed support by taking his children to a Chick-fil-A restaurant. Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin called the backlash "chilling."
Denied a marriage, Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson are expressing outrage over their church's ultra-conservative members rejecting Black couples from getting married.
The first ever Black leader of the Southern Baptist Church Fred Luter has a lot of baggage on his hands. The most conservative Christian domination in the United States is still a little uneasy about the addition of Black people into their folds. We here at Journal de la Reyna will talk about in the ongoing struggle for social justice. A Black couple in Mississippi regularly attends at a local church and had plans on getting married. It's marred with controversy.
They were turned away after the pastor raised concerns about his congregation and their feelings towards Blacks. According to the WLBT, a NBC affiliate television station out of Jackson, Mississippi, Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson were planning their big day, but the couple says the church where they were planning to wed turned them away because of their race.
Now, the couple wants answers, and the church's pastor is questioning the mindset of some of members of his congregation who caused the problem in the first place.
They had set the date and printed and mailed out all the invitations, but the day before wedding bells were to ring for Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson, they say they got some bad news from the pastor.
"The church congregation had decided no black could be married at that church, and that if he went on to marry her, then they would vote him out the church," said Charles Wilson.
The Wilsons were trying to get married at the predominantly white First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs -- a church they attend regularly, but are not members of.
"He had people in the sanctuary that were pitching a fit about us being a black couple," said Te'Andrea Wilson. "I didn't like it at all, because I wasn't brought up to be racist. I was brought up to love and care for everybody."
The church's pastor, Dr. Stan Weatherford, says he was taken by surprise by what he calls a small minority against the black marriage at the church.
"This had never been done before here, so it was setting a new precedent, and there are those who reacted to that because of that," said Weatherford.
Weatherford went on and performed the wedding at a nearby church.
"I didn't want to have a controversy within the church, and I didn't want a controversy to affect the wedding of Charles and Te' Andrea. I wanted to make sure their wedding day was a special day," said Weatherford.
After months of planning, the newlyweds say they had no choice but to go through with the wedding at the new location, but they still can't understand why a church would ban their wedding because of race.
"I blame the First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs, I blame those members who knew and call themselves Christians and didn't stand up," said Charles Wilson.
Church officials say they welcome any race into their congregation. They now plan to hold internal meetings on how to move forward, should this situation occur again.
"I was prepared to go ahead and do the wedding here just like it was planned, and just like we agreed to," said Weatherford. "I was just looking for an opportunity to be able to address a need within our congregation and at the same time minister to them."
Back in 2009, Republicans and their conservative allies were pleased that Chicago wasn't in the running for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The Drudge Report and conservative talk radio were so gleeful they've splashed the internet trouncing on President Barack Obama claiming that "he was hated by the world" and the "rock star ego" was over!
Hence forth, four years later, one Republican nominee. The presumptive nominee, the perennial candidate for president, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney goes overseas.
Mitt Romney is going to show off his foreign relation skills. He is to go to Israel, the United Kingdom and Poland. Each holding a conservative leader.
His first trip to the United Kingdom as a nominee was bad. Really bad. He practically handed President Barack Obama another opening. As a vulnerable president, Obama is hoping that Romney will implode so badly, the Republicans will lose enthusiasm towards him. The Guardian has reported that many leaders in the United Kingdom were sort of disappointed with Mitt Romney.
Off the cuff, Romney complained the people of London weren't prepared for the 2012 Summer Olympics. That comment landed at the mayor's desk. Boris Johnson, the mayor of 8.3 million shot back at the Republican candidate. He spoke before a crowd of 60,000 in Hyde Park. "There is a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know if we are ready. Yes, we are," he declared.
He screwed up so bad, the United Kingdom's Conservative Party and the party's leader Prime Minister David Cameron were a bit unease with the nominee. Prime Minister David Cameron wasted no time in rebuking Romney hours after his remarks were broadcast. On a visit to the Olympic Park, the prime minister said: "We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities in the world. Of course it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere."
Mitt Romney with Prime Minister David Cameron, the UK Conservative Party's national leader.
Romney went off and blabbed about his visit at the Secret Foreign Intelligence Service (MI6) and apparently its against protocol and national security. The U.K. Secret Foreign Intelligence Service whose existence was only acknowledged by the British government in 1994 remained confidential until Mitt Romney told the press the meeting. Such conversations are not normally discussed publicly by government leaders.
"I can only say that I appreciated the insights and the perspectives of the leaders of the government here and opposition here as well as the head of MI6 as we discussed Syria and hoped for a more peaceful future for that country," he said.
Romney also seemed to make his political digs at President Barack Obama personal. According to the Huffington Post, Romney broke the longstanding rule for U.S. politicians not to criticize the president overseas. At a fundraiser for American expats, he reportedly said, "I'm looking forward to the bust of Winston Churchill being in the Oval Office again," referring to the White House returning the artwork to the British Embassy in early 2009. President Barack Obama replaced it with a bust of Abraham Lincoln.
London mayor Boris Johnson works the crowd attending the pre-ceremonial Olympic games. Johnson jabs Romney over his remarks of London not being prepared for the Summer Games.
Romney also met Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition Labour party. Miliband took questions from two reporters from what he called "my side", but Romney would not take questions from US journalists. At one point, Romney called Miliband "Mr Leader", which prompted suggestions he had forgotten Miliband's name.
There were also meetings with foreign secretary William Hague, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and former PM Tony Blair.
His campaign team claimed the event took $2 million in political donations, but there were reports earlier that ticket prices had been lowered, and that some people had been offered free passes.
I would say this isn't going to please his conservative allies. They'll hope the controversy will go away when the July job report numbers show little to no growth in the United States economy.
Matt Drudge and the his cabal of racist jackasses click to the story. Add their usual word salad of insults towards Blacks, Hispanics, President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, and you got a real swingers party.
The last time a riot broke out in a city and the media covered it was the costly and yet deadly Los Angeles riots of 1992. I am guessing that conservatives are trying to get the ball running on this story. Unfortunately, the media is covering that white guy who shot up a suburban movie theater. The Drudge Report and likely a conservative agitator will address this as the LA Riots in the age of Barack Obama.
By Doug Irving, Eric Carpenter, Sean Emery and Micheal Mello of the Orange County Register are covering the riots and they've reported that a handful of citizens were arrested after a melee broke out in the California city of Anaheim. Police officers shot an unarmed person and I am assuming that the U.S. Justice Department and FBI are looking into the matter.
Remember that conservatives and White supremacists are rooting for an all out race war. They want the Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos to get riled up and destroy property. In turn they can claim that it's those evil traitors (uh, the progressives, the Democratic Party, President Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Nancy Pelosi) rooting on chaos while "patriots" like Mitt Romney and Darrell Issa are willing to help these "folks" get off the dependency of government.
They've reported that more than 20 people under arrest, police reported restoring order Wednesday morning after a fourth day of clashes between officers and protesters angry over two fatal officer-involved shootings in Anaheim last weekend.
At least five people were reported hurt in the unrest, with crowds setting fires, smashing windows and throwing rocks and other projectiles at officers in riot gear who fired non-lethal rounds at demonstrators refusing to disperse.
One person was taken to a hospital after being struck in the head with a pepper ball fired by police. Two Register reporters were injured – one was hit in the head with a rock and the other hit in the foot with a projectile. Both will get medical attention today.
A police officer suffered a minor arm injury, said Sgt. Bob Dunn, an Anaheim police spokesman.
Manuel Diaz, 25 was gunned down by the Anaheim Police. He was a petty criminal a citizen that was unarmed when the police confronted him. The officers claimed that he held something in waistband and they opened fire.
Additionally, one person was injured during a fight among protesters.
Police battled "pockets of unrest" in downtown Anaheim late Tuesday night, hours after a large crowd attempting to get inside City Hall broke into violent protest.
About 20 minutes before Tuesday's 5 p.m. City Council meeting, a 200-strong crowd tried to get inside the packed City Hall.
They were rebuffed by police officers who cited fire standards and would not let anyone else into the crowded council chambers, where the council held its regular meeting and talked about what the crowd was upset about: two police shootings over the weekend.
A half-dozen officers blocked City Hall's entrance, while the crowd gathered around and hurled obscenities.
As the crowd pressed closer, officers with helmets and batons came out the front door and pushed the protesters back, angering them.
After several minutes, some protesters called for everyone to hit the street.
For the next five-hours-plus, the tug of war between protesters and police persisted.
The crowd marched along Anaheim Boulevard to Lincoln Avenue, going into the street and blocking traffic.
Some pounded traffic signs and pulled trash cans into the street, while others pulled back the cans. One man with a bullhorn shouted how the protest was to be peaceful. A boy spray-painted a utility box. Some protesters grabbed sand from flower beds and a traffic cone and threw them at officers.
Anaheim police were assisted by officers from Garden Grove, Tustin, Brea, Fullerton and other agencies.
About 7:40, police lined across Broadway and in front of City Hall in riot gear. The crowd, now 500 strong and peaceful, stood about. Women with strollers came out to take a look. A church handed out fliers, "Jesus loves you. Come to our church."
At 8 p.m., police from a helicopter's speaker told the crowd to leave the Broadway/Anaheim Boulevard intersection or face arrest. Few, if any, budged.
Authorities announced a dispersal order at Anaheim and Broadway shortly before 9 p.m., then released pepper balls at the feet of the protesters, prompting the crowd to move rapidly away.
Some regrouped nearby, while others scattered throughout downtown.
Police took at least five people into custody, one for resisting arrest, said Sgt. Bob Dunn. A fight between demonstrators left one person "significantly injured," but the victim is expected to survive.
Rocks were thrown at police throughout the protests. Officers deployed bean bags and pepper balls.
Numerous trash bin fires in nearby neighborhoods were reported throughout the evening. The crowd also broke windows to some downtown businesses, including a Starbucks.
Earlier in the evening, four or five men were seen filling 1-gallon glass bottles with gasoline and placing rags in them at an Arco Station at Anaheim Boulevard and Broadway, said Jon Dunton, a legal representative for the business. Police were called and directed employees to shut down the pumps.
While the number of protesters decreased throughout the night, police said those who remained were "intent on causing trouble."
"They seem to be destructive," Dunn said.
Police expected to remain on alert throughout the night. By 10:30 p.m. the large groups had dispersed, but there were more than 100 scattered protesters causing "pockets of unrest" in the downtown area, Dunn said.
"We hope to restore order by the morning," Dunn said.
Tim Pool, an independent journalist who goes by Timcast on Ustream and Twitter, did a live webcast from the Anaheim protests.
On his webcast, at least six fires could be seen within about 45 minutes. The fires were in a trash bin, on the side of roads and alleys and inside a garbage can, which melted. He also witnessed a woman being struck in the legs.
Pool stayed behind police lines for most of the night, but when he veered out, he was fired upon with pepper balls and impact rounds, despite showing a press pass, he said. As of 10:35 p.m., he was unable to get back to the action.
Earlier in the day, the Anaheim Police Association said that the Anaheim officer who fired a fatal shot at an unarmed man this weekend saw some kind of object in the man's waistband and feared it was a weapon.
The association's account, and a $50 million lawsuit filed by the man's mother, offered new details about the shooting that killed 25-year-old Manuel Angel Diaz. An attorney for Diaz's mother said he was shot in the back, then fell to his knees and was shot again in the head.
Police have described Diaz as a known gang member and said he fled on foot down a residential alleyway when officers approached him Saturday afternoon. They have declined to speak in any more detail about what led to the shooting.
The next day, an Anaheim gang officer shot and killed another man, Joel Mathew Acevedo, 21, in an unrelated incident. Police also described Acevedo as a known gang member and said he opened fire on officers during a foot chase.
The back-to-back shootings have sparked several demonstrations.
"The community is scared and angry," said Joanne Sosa, who helped organize Tuesday's protest. "We don't want violence, we just want those people (in City Hall) to know things need to change."
Diaz was talking with friends when police confronted them, according to an attorney representing Diaz's mother in her lawsuit against the city. All three ran, and two officers chased Diaz, attorney Dana Douglas said in a statement.
One of the officers had recognized Diaz as a known gang member and saw him holding a "concealed object" in his waistband with both hands, according to the police association. He ignored their orders to stop running, then pulled the object from his waistband and turned toward the officers, the association said.
"Feeling that Diaz was drawing a weapon, the officer opened fire on Diaz to stop the threat," the association said in its statement. Anaheim police said after the shooting that Diaz was not armed; the association declined to say what the object that the officer reported seeing was.
The attorney for Diaz's mother called that account of the shooting an "absolute fabrication." She said Diaz was shot in the back and the back of the head, so it would have been "physically impossible" for him to have turned toward the officers. She also said no witnesses she interviewed had seen Diaz turn.
A city spokeswoman did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Douglas said she also filed a formal claim for damages against the city, a precursor to a lawsuit in state court.
The day after Diaz was killed, a gang investigator patrolling a nearby neighborhood saw a stolen vehicle and tried to pull it over, according to the police association. The driver instead led officers on a short pursuit and crashed; three people got out and ran.
One of them, Acevedo, turned during the chase and fired a handgun at an officer, the police association said.
The officer returned fire, killing him. A handgun was recovered next to his body.
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Court records show that Acevedo pleaded guilty in 2010 to resisting a peace officer and in 2009 to street terrorism and receiving stolen property. Diaz pleaded guilty in 2011 to drug charges and in 2008 to having a firearm on school grounds, with a street-gang enhancement, records show.
The two shootings in two days brought to six the number of officer-involved shootings in Anaheim so far this year; five were fatal.
Officers fired bean bags and pepper spray into a group of protesters that had gathered near the scene of the Diaz shooting Saturday. A police dog also escaped its handler and charged into the crowd.
"It's wrong what the police are doing. It's like it's 'shoot to kill' now," said Pauline Miltimore, who joined Tuesday's protest outside City Hall and said she was Acevedo's cousin. "Even if it doesn't make a difference, I have to (protest). It broke my heart when I found out."
The FBI is reviewing whether a civil-rights investigation is warranted after the two shootings, spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. City leaders have also invited the state Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate.
The District Attorney's Office is investigating both shootings, which is standard protocol for officer-involved shootings.
Gordon Cowden was a loving father of teenage children. At the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, gunman James Holmes opened fired killing him and eleven others.
The Aurora shooting tragedy has claimed twelve lives. The American movie theater was the place where a deranged gunman opened fire on a crowd of moviegoers attending the Batman: The Dark Knight Rises premiere a week ago. Warner Bros., producer Christian Nolan, actors Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman and Anne Hathaway all send condolences to the victims of this horrible tragedy.
The movie features Batman taking on Selena Kyle (Catwoman) and mercenary Bane. The movie is slated to take in nearly $1 billion in ticket sales. With the movie was the thought of thousands of fans waiting for midnight showings.
Midnight showings are a common theme of movie theaters who want to rake in thousands of dollars in first run features that are slated to be huge draws. The Dark Knight Rises,The Avengers, The Amazing Spiderman, the upcoming Twilight movie, the upcoming Superman and Transformer movies are expected to draw millions in the coming years. These movies are always guaranteed to take in a huge opening.
This tragedy has opened up the debate over gun control. This tragedy has opened up the controversial issue because of the firearms used by James Holmes were considered once banned by the 1993 Assault Weapons Ban that was signed into law by then President Bill Clinton.
We focus on Gordon Cowden, a father who was killed during the tragedy. All Gordon wanted to do was to give his teenage children to see the premiere when James Holmes opened fire on the family. He was killed in front of his children. This callous young man right now may face the death penalty for this tragedy. As the Gordon is laid to rest, the world will at least know a little bit about him.
According to The Daily Mail , Gordon Cowden, 51, was the oldest of the 12 people killed when a gunman opened fire at the Dark Knight Rises midnight showing last Friday. His teenage children escaped unharmed after they had gone with their father to see the blockbuster.
Gordon leaves behind a wife, a son and three daughters.
Mr Cowden lived in Aurora, the Denver suburb where the theater is located. A family statement described him as a 'true Texas gentleman' who loved the outdoors and owned his own business.
The memorial was also attended by Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan and Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates.
Later this week, families of other victims planned to say their final goodbyes.
His family said in a statement: 'A quick-witted world traveler with a keen sense of humor, he will be remembered for his devotion to his children and for always trying his best to do the right thing, no matter the obstacle.'
Carrying flowers and passing a large portrait of Cowden, about 150 mourners gathered for the memorial at a Denver church. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper paused at the photo before entering the church.
