Contractors also encourage mission creep, because contractors don’t count as “boots on the ground.” Congress does not consider them to be troops, and therefore contractors do not count again troop-level caps in places like Iraq. The U.S. government does not track contractor numbers in war zones. As a result, the government can put more people on the ground than it reports to the American people, encouraging mission creep and rendering contractors virtually invisible.
America’s Addiction to Mercenaries
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Obstacle to moving Rio Olympic venues? 1,400 silent athletes
American Alex Meyer is among the few who have spoken out. A 2012 Olympian and former world-champion distance swimmer, he wants the open-water venue moved from Copacabana Beach. He did not qualify this year, and feels free to speak.
“I totally support moving it,” Meyer told AP. “This is a little bit of a window into why, on many fronts, the Olympic athletes feel like they are just pieces of meat. They (IOC) don’t care if we are comfortable or safe. They’re just putting on a show and we are replaceable.”
via Obstacle to moving Rio Olympic venues? 1,400 silent athletes.
Posted in Sports
Tagged ioc, monopolistic practices, olympics
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The Boston Red Sox’s Fenway Park Goes It Alone
What the Red Sox have done with Fenway Park should be a lesson for every sports franchise and municipality in the country. The argument from pro sports teams is always the same: We need a new billion-dollar stadium (paid for with your tax dollars) to remain “economically competitive.” The Red Sox have not only turned that argument on its head, but shown how truly disingenuous it is.
via The Boston Red Sox’s Fenway Park Goes It Alone | By Mark Yost – WSJ.
“We the Prisoners”: The Demise of the Fourth Amendment
Phone and e-mail surveillance, databases for dissidents, threat assessments, terror watch lists, militarized police, SWAT-team raids, security checkpoints, lockdowns, roadside strip searches: There was a time when any one of these encroachments on our Fourth Amendment rights would have roused the public to outrage. Today, such violations are shrugged off matter-of-factly by Americans who have been assiduously groomed to accept the intrusions of the police state into their private lives.
via “We the Prisoners”: The Demise of the Fourth Amendment.
Americans actually celebrate with perfect sincerity the anniversary of our independence from Great Britain without ever owning up to the fact that we are as oppressed now – more so, perhaps, thanks to advances in technology – than we ever were when Redcoats stormed through doorways and subjected colonists to the vagaries of a police state.
Posted in Human Rights
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Why police were called to a South Jersey third-grade class party
A third grader had made a comment about the brownies being served to the class. After another student exclaimed that the remark was “racist,” the school called the Collingswood Police Department, according to the mother of the boy who made the comment.
The police officer spoke to the student, who is 9, said the boy’s mother, Stacy dos Santos, and local authorities.
via Why police were called to a South Jersey third-grade class party.
From: Calling police on kids not our idea
“During that meeting, it was made abundantly clear by an assistant prosecutor that if we did not follow the directive, they would come after us with criminal charges, they’d come after our educational certifications,” Oswald said.
Posted in Current Events
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