Reports from Washington DC: Hillary Clinton has called the Egyptian Foreign Minister to remind him of Egypt’s duty to obey the Vienna Convention. That convention relates to the protection of diplomatic buildings.
Also, Leon Panetta has talked the Israeli Defense Minister, who has demanded the United States defend the Israeli embassy in Egypt.
Live video, 04:00 Egyptian time, shows police vans trying to run over “Correcting the Path” protestors, in another live video it looks like protestors have riot police backed into a corner.
Police admit they are using live bullets.
Health officials say more than 520 people wounded. Most of the wounded coming from the areas around the Security Police HQ, and the now former Israeli embassy.
Many protestors say nothing had changed after the downfall of Mubarak, the pro-U.S. military government continued the same policies.
Egyptians have broken through part of a wall built around the Israeli embassy. Latest reports say protestors have torn down the Israeli flag.
Unnamed Egyptian security officials say the building which houses both residential apartments and the Israeli embassy, has been stormed by at least 30 protestors.
The protestors have ransacked offices and are throwing documents printed in Hebrew out the windows. Reporters have tried contacting Israeli officials in the embassy, but no one is answering the phones.
Egyptians are still angry about Israel killing at least eight Egyptian border patrol troops last month. Egyptians are also accusing the pro-U.S. military rulers of Egypt of being puppets of Israel.
The unincorporated U.S. territory of Puetro Rico, has one of the worst police violence records in the United States, that’s according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The DoJ report accuses the Puerto Rico Police Department of regularly: “…using force, including deadly force, when no force or lesser force was called for.”
The DoJ report says police officials reasons for the violence does not justify it: “Puerto Rico officials maintain that drug trafficking and social deterioration are fueling the wave of violent crime. However, increasing crime cannot be used to justify continued civil rights violations or the failure to implement meaningful reforms.”
One problem identified in the report was the use of swat teams for standard community policing. Puerto Rico has the second largest police force in in the United States.
“This was not a deliberate act. The employee was just switching out a piece of equipment that was problematic.”-Daniel Froetscher, Arizona Public Service
At least 2.5 million people in the U.S. and Mexico, lost power because of maintenance at a Yuma, Arizona, substation.
Around 15:30 September 8, monitoring equipment was replaced. That caused power to go out for about 56,000 customers. Ten minutes later, after an attempt to restore power, the lights went out for 2.5 million customers from Yuma, Arizona, to San Diego, California, to Tijuana, Baja California.
Apparently circuits were shorted out. Power company officials are trying to find out why such actions would have created a “cascade” effect along the power grid.
The power outage also shut down the San Onofre nuclear plant, and caused a 3.2-million gallon sewage spill San Diego beaches.
On September 7, moderator Brian Williams opened up a question for Governor Perry by first reminding him that his state has executed 234 men under his watch, a bodycount much greater than any other governor, but before Williams could get to his question, the crowd broke into applause to laud Perry for his accomplishment.
“Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent?” Williams asked Perry.
“No sir,” responded the ‘christian’ governor Rick Perry, “I’ve never struggled with that at all.”
Now realize that Texas has executed innocent people! Which makes these Texas ‘christians’ even more sick in the head!
Other Texans are going to make sure everyone knows that innocent people have been executed under ‘christian’ Rick Perry’s watch: The 12th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty is October 22, in Austin at the Texas Capitol.
A woman lay belly-down on the floor of the Pimlico Race Course, handcuffed and beaten bloody by Baltimore Police. A man recorded the scene on his cell phone camera. Immediately the police grabbed the phone and erased the recording, including months of family recordings.
Now, thanks to the 1st Circuit of the U. S. Court of Appeals, which ruled that police business is public business, therefore can be recorded, the man who lost the recordings is now suing.
The American Civil Liberties Union is also suing: “It is antithetical to a democracy for the government to tell its citizens that they do not have the right to record what government officials say or do or how they behave in public.”-Deobrah Jeon, ACLU
On August 26, the 1st Circuit of the U. S. Court of Appeals held that videotaping police in the course of their public duties is “unambiguously” a free speech right protected under the First Amendment!
However, that is not stopping the state of Illinois from trying a man charged with eavesdropping, after he recorded an incident in which he was confronted by police on his mother’s property.
The man is facing five counts of eavesdropping, and could face 15 years in prison for each charge.
In the 1st Circuit of the U. S. Court of Appeals case Massachusetts police argued that their privacy rights were being violated every time someone recorded them on duty. The courts ruled that while a police officer is on duty they are no longer living a private life, they are on public duty. The appellate judges found that citizens have a First Amendment right to record government officials carrying out their duties in a public space!
Here’s something else to think about: If police claim they can not be recorded because it violates their privacy, and is a threat to security, then their own dash cams in their police cars are illegal! In fact all security cameras are illegal by that reasoning! Haven’t people tried to fight security camera use using that very reasoning, and lost? What gives police the special right to be excluded from public video and audio recordings?
Texans are suffering the worst fires in Texas history. Did you know that Governor Rick Perry slashed the state firefighting budget by 75%?
Earlier in 2011 Perry said he was planning on slashing funding for the volunteer fire department from $30 million down to $7 million! Back in May, Forest Service Director Tom Boggus told Reuters that volunteer programs were the number one defense against wild fires. Despite this, the Texas Forest Service is expected to see $34 million in cuts over the next two years, no thanks to Rick Perry.
Rick Perry recently tried to blame Obama for lack of funding for Texas firefighters: “It is not only the obligation of the federal government, but its responsibility under law to help its citizens in times of emergency.”
Perry’s cronies say their cuts are necessary to save money: “We understand the difficulty they have had in dealing with almost unprecedented numbers of fires this year. We also understand that in order to balance the budget, everybody needs to endure some reductions.”-Talmadge Heflin, Center for Fiscal Policy/Texas Public Policy Foundation
But get this, the ‘savings’ in cuts to Texas firefighting services have been totally negated by the cost of this year’s ongoing fires. So far damages are estimated to be $5 billion, and counting!
And yet the historic fires of Texas aren’t enough to stop ‘christian’ Rick Perry from campaigning for President of the United States!
Currently the Japanese constitution does not allow the sale of Japanese made weapons to other countries. It does not allow Japanese troops to be used outside Japan, although the government got around this by ordering their troops not to carry weapons on ‘peacekeeping’ missions.
Japan’s new policy chief Seiji Maehara, is recommending changing the constitution to relax criteria for weapons use by Japanese Self-Defense Forces taking part in UN peacekeeping operations. He says Japanese troops could help the U.S. by being able to actually fight alongside U.S. forces.
Also, Maehara claims that without letting the Japanese military industry sell weapons to other countries, and take part in advanced weapons development with countries like the United States, Japan’s military defenses could become technologically outdated.