Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Stopping Washington’s Perpetual War in The Middle East

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Violence Erupts as Islamic State Rises (737)
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The United States must end its unceasing ground combat operations in the Middle East, US Senator Bernie Sanders said on Tuesday, launching his campaign for the US presidency in Burlington, Vermont.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On March 7, 2015, Sanders said in a statement that the Saudi Arabian government must be responsible for stability in the Middle East and should send its own military to fight the Islamic State rather than demand that the United States undertake such actions.
“I am vigorously opposed to an endless perpetual war in the Middle East. Yes, we must be vigorous in combatting terrorism and defeating ISIS [Islamic State], but we as a nation should not have to bear that burden alone.”
On Tuesday, Sanders said the battle against the Islamic State should be fought by an international coalition led by Muslim counties to create conditions for lasting peace.
The US armed forces currently has 3,000 troops in Iraq in a training capacity and continues to carry out airstrikes on ISIL positions in Iraq and Syria.
Bernie Sanders on Current US Trade Policies
US Senator Bernie Sanders said he would oppose free trade agreements that outsource millions of American jobs to low-cost countries.
“I will continue to oppose our current trade policies,” Sanders said on Tuesday. “For decades, [US] Presidents from both parties have supported [free] trade agreements which have cost us millions of decent paying jobs as corporate America shut down plants in Vermont throughout this country and moved to low-wage countries.”
On May 5, 2015, an NBC/WSJ poll found that up to 40 percent of US citizens see international trade pacts as beneficial to the US economy.
The poll was released against the backdrop of attempts by President Barack Obama's administration to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through Congress.
Middle East: Sectarian Divisions and Oil Riches
Middle East: Sectarian Divisions and Oil Riches
Topic:
Violence Erupts as Islamic State Rises (737)
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End of Isolation: Britain Asks Putin for Help in Middle East – German Media
Ageing Populations, Buried in Debt: Fears Raised of Another Global Crash
Tags:
warBernie SandersMiddle East


Read more: http://sputniknews.com/us/20150527/1022593197.html#ixzz3cXyFEXPO

56 comments:

  1. The young two times veteran has more sense than the entire GOP Likuds Force.

    ReplyDelete
  2. >>Love and Laughter Dissipate Delusion

    As more people succumb to PC conditioning and cede their freedom of thought, it becomes more difficult for the rest of us to maintain integrity of mind. Our audience shrinks. As we encounter more and more drone-like personalities in daily life, the world seems to sink into surrealism, like so many in Rod Serling’s old “Twilight Zone” episodes.
    ‘The totalitarian mind does not observe and verify its impressions of reality; it dictates to reality how it shall behave, it compels reality to conform to its fantasies.’

    Meerloo testified to this feeling of disorientation: “Many victims of totalitarianism have told me in interviews that the most upsetting experience they faced in the concentration camps was the feeling of loss of logic, the state of confusion in which they had been brought – the state in which nothing had any validity.”

    That’s because in the mass centralized state, “peaceful exchange of thoughts in free conversation will disturb the conditioned reflexes and is therefore taboo.” On a hopeful note, Meerloo writes that “love and laughter break through all rigid conditioning.”

    I think the reason there is so little “comedy” that’s funny today is the genre itself has been hijacked by the humorless PC crowd. Why is their humor so unamusing and so dependent upon mean-spiritedness? Consider this possibility: “The totalitarian mind is like the schizophrenic individual; it has a contempt for reality. Think for a moment of Lysenko’s theory and its denial of the influence of heredity. The totalitarian mind does not observe and verify its impressions of reality; it dictates to reality how it shall behave, it compels reality to conform to its fantasies.”

    Along these lines, Meerloo offers a prescription: “We must learn to treat the demagogue and aspirant dictator in our midst just as we should treat our external enemies in a cold war – with the weapon of ridicule. The demagogue himself is almost incapable of humor of any sort, and if we treat him with humor, he will begin to collapse. Humor is, after all, related to a sense of perspective. If we can see how things should be, we can see how askew they can get, and we can recognize distortion when we are confronted with it.”<<


    Free Expression

    How To Escape The Age Of Mass Delusion
    Mass delusion is an important tool of oppressors because they can’t survive free expression. That’s why the First Amendment’s a target.

    http://thefederalist.com/2015/06/08/how-to-escape-the-age-of-mass-delusion/

    ************

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can You Propel Yourself in Space by Farting?

      Posted by Ross Pomeroy

      The subreddit AskScience is an intellectual gold mine. Curious folk of all ages pose rousing scientific questions to be answered by scientists and experts. Often, the queries deal with peculiarities of how the world and universe function, or the psychological oddities of human behavior. Other times, they detour into the ridiculous. Last month, user sleepwalken asked a question that was both hilarious and thought provoking:

      "If you farted hard enough in space, could you move yourself around?"

      The slightly sophomoric, yet stimulating question quickly rose to the top of the forum, and received a serious response from user VeryLittle, a physicist and moderator of the Physics subreddit.

      "Essentially, farts are rocket fuel," he (or she) replied. "Gas diffusing will carry a small amount of momentum backwards, so it must exert a force on the person, pushing them forward."

      However, that force would be very small, he calculated. The average person produces roughly one liter of flatulence a day, composed mostly of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane, along with smaller amounts of nitrogen and oxygen. "That comes out to 0.5 g of flatulence every day for a normal person," VeryLittle wrote.

      Now, let's guess that a fart leaves the butthole at about 1 m/s - again, not entirely unreasonable. So putting all this together, we can find that a day's worth of farts carries backwards momentum equal to

      (1 m/s)(0.5 grams) = 0.0005 kg m/s

      So for momentum to be conserved, the astronaut will now be traveling 7.7x10-6 m/s forward, which is only about 1000x faster than hair grows. If an astronaut in space farted every day, it would take 10,000 years for him to get up to a normal highway speed.

      VeryLittle's analysis does seem to dash one's hopes for a "natural" anal jetpack. However, as a great many match-wielding high school boys have discovered, there's a simple way to get more energy out of one's flatulence. VeryLittle continues:

      "The gases I listed above are combustible - specifically methane. Just spewing the gas backwards to get a push forward would be like putting your SUV in neutral and trying to propel it forward with a supersoaker that sprays gasoline backwards. Instead of throwing it backwards, you can explode it backwards to generate thrust, like a real rocket."................

      http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2015/06/can_you_propel_yourself_in_space_by_farting_109249.html

      Delete
  3. Maybe if the moslems of the middle east had not started the fight in 1783 things would have been different...

    But reality is what reality is...

    The moslems of north africa and the middle east have, by their very nature, help forge these UNITED STATES into coming together to create the very Navy that has been used so often.

    If only the moslems had not hijacked the Philadelphia and the Betsy.... Not demanded tribute.... Not demanded the peoples of the Americas bow on bended knee and accept dhimmihude....

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. From Newsweek...

    How COOL is this...

    Up to 1,700 Russians Fighting for ISIS, Says Head of Secret Service

    As many as 1,700 Russian citizens could be fighting for jihadist groups in Iraq, Russia's head of federal security (FSB) has said during a U.S.-chaired summit against violent extremism in Washington DC, Russian news service RIA Novosti reported today.

    "We need to invigorate our efforts to prevent these departures and alongside other countries we need to do all that is necessary not to allow terrorist threats or attacks once these citizens return," Alexander Boratnikov, director of the FSB said.

    "At present there are 1,700 Russian citizens in Iraq and this number has practically doubled since last year," the security chief added, estimating that around 20,000 militants from 100 different countries have been recruited for groups in Iraq and Syria such as ISIS.

    Now to be fair, this report is several months old...

    So you can safely bet the numbers are higher..

    Rufus tells us that America has killed 10,000 head cutters...

    LOL

    So that's about 1/2 the number of fresh recruits in a 4 month period...

    LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now talk about HEADCUTTING...

      Russia has long-standing problems with jihadis internally, as an estimated 160,000 people have been reported killed during fighting between the Russian military and Islamist separatists in the predominantly Muslim region of Chechnya since the early 1990s.

      Wow, Israel killed 2,200 in Gaza in the last dust up....

      Israel sucks at killing as compared to the USA and Russia...

      Delete
    2. Heck, even Assad's daddy killed 10,000 headcutters in ONE weekend in Hama!!!!!!

      Wow...

      Like moths to a flame...

      Maybe that's the strategy...

      LET the crazies go to ISIS then kill em....

      LOL

      Delete
    3. .

      Wow, Israel killed 2,200 in Gaza in the last dust up....

      Hey, don't sell yourself short.

      The Russian number is from the early 1990's in a country of 144,000,000.

      Israel, a country of 7-8 million accomplished it all in a month time.

      You go girl.

      LOL

      .

      Delete
    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    5. Quirk, at last check Checnya aint russia…

      nor does it have a population of 144,000,000

      90% of Russia's killing happened in ONE city…

      Try again retard.

      Delete
    6. Chechnya
      Russian republic
      The Chechen Republic, commonly referred to as Chechnya, also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria, is a federal subject of Russia. Wikipedia
      Area: 6,680 mi² (17,300 km²)
      Founded: January 10, 1993
      Capital: Grozny
      Population: 1.269 million (2010)

      SMALLER THAN GAZA

      Delete
    7. Yep Russia killed 160,000 OUT of 1.2 million

      Israel Killed 2,200 out of 1.2 million

      Delete
    8. Quirk, stop trying to be so smart…

      you are posting above your pay grade (again)

      Delete
    9. .

      You are the idiot that continues to raise these inane comparisons.

      .

      Delete
    10. it's not inane.

      Russia killed 160,000 out of 1.2 million
      Israel killed 2,200 out of 1.2 million

      Please, in your infinite wisdom, tell us how russians killing jihadist terrorists on their border is any different than israel killing jidahist terrorists on their border....

      why is this "inane" oh lordship of the blog?

      Try growing a pair and answering the question...

      Delete
    11. as for inane?

      QuirkTue Jun 09, 12:02:00 PM EDT
      .

      Wow, Israel killed 2,200 in Gaza in the last dust up....

      Hey, don't sell yourself short.

      The Russian number is from the early 1990's in a country of 144,000,000.

      Israel, a country of 7-8 million accomplished it all in a month time.

      You go girl.

      LOL


      Tell us what does the size of russia have to do with the numbers killed in chechnya?

      Delete
    12. .

      Not much. Just as your comparing a 1-2 month kill by Israel to a 2 decade war war between Russia and Chechnyan militants.

      You seem to be the one here lately who continues to bring up and justify the 2,200 dead in Gaza any way you can.

      .

      Delete
    13. Add up the entire kill rate by Israel for 65 years

      As for the justification? Israel used appropriate force America uses far
      More force against Isis which poses no direct threat against the usa

      Delete

  5. Highlights

    The small business optimism index came in well above expectations, at 98.3 for a very solid 1.4 point gain from April's 96.9 and compared with the Econoday consensus for 97.2. The gain is centered right where small business owners need it the most, in earnings trends. The gain here in turn is lifting the small business outlook with more saying this is now a good time to expand. The outlook on the general economy is also up as are job readings. This report hints at the big second-quarter rebound that many have been expecting.


    Recent History Of This Indicator
    Until the last few months, the small business optimism index had been lagging behind but then sent out a very strong signal in April. For May, forecasters are . . . .

    Bloomberg

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Highlights

      Inventories relative to sales lightened up in the wholesale sector during April with inventories up 0.4 percent but far below a giant 1.6 percent surge in sales. The stock-to-sales ratio edged down to 1.29 from 1.30. Autos, where sales have been strong, show a sizable decline in the stock-to-sales ratio as do farm products, furniture, computer equipment, and electrical goods. All these categories, like autos, show strong sales gains in the month.

      Early indications on second-quarter inventories have been favorable with the risk of overhang, evident in the first quarter, now easing. Watch Thursday . . .

      Bloomberg

      Delete
    2. Highlights

      The hawks have something to talk about with the April JOLTS report where job openings surged to 5.376 million, far above the Econoday consensus for 5.038 million and the high estimate at 5.050 million. This is the highest reading in the history of the series going back to 2000. The job openings rate rose to 3.7 percent from 3.5 percent.

      JOLTS

      This report will boost talk among the hawks that slack in the labor market is evaporating and that employers will have to raise wages to fill positions. Other readings include a tick lower for the quits rate, to 1.9 percent, and a tick lower for the separations rate, to 3.5 percent from 3.6 percent.

      Delete
    3. We have reduced payroll by 28% and the workforce by 33%, we have replaced entry level positions with contract manufacturing and more advanced machinery…

      The lost jobs are gone forever…

      Delete
  6. .

    I was reading an article in Haartz about secret visits to Israel by John Brennan and an upcoming one by John Dempsey when I came across this rather humorous (unless you are invo9lved of course) story.

    An American-born lone soldier serving in the Israel Defense Forces was sentenced to military jail for eating a non-kosher sandwich during training, according to an Israel Radio report.

    After an Israel Radio reporter asked the IDF Spokespeson's Unit to comment, however, it was decided that the soldier would not be sent to jail, but rather would not receive his upcoming weekend leave...


    I had to chuckle.

    http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/1.659155

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting u didn't finish the story
      The IDF reduced the sentence to nothing and is now reviewing it's policy that they considered wrong. Half truths are lies too quirk

      Delete

  7. U.S. and allied forces conducted 14 air strikes in Iraq and nine in Syria against Islamic State militants during a 24-hour period ending on Tuesday morning, the U.S. military said.

    The strikes in Iraq hit near Mosul, Tal Afar, Baiji, Kirkuk and Makhmur, destroying buildings, fighting positions, vehicles, and a rocket system belonging to the militant group, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement.

    In Syria, six of the air strikes were concentrated around Kobani near the Turkish border and three near the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, where they destroyed four tactical units, three resupply boats, an excavator, a fighting position and a vehicle, the statement said.


    (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Will Dunham)

    X3 = about 70 Dead Men, no longer walking

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 60 or 70 a day, every day - Christmas, Ramadan, Arbor Day, Federal Holidays, and Easter.

      No, it's not us that's "in a mess."

      Delete
    2. .

      A couple weeks ago the military was saying they estimate but don't know that there have been 8500 ISIS casualties from the bombing. At about the same time, the State Department declared we have killed 12,500. Just the other day, the general who is leading the air campaign, the guy who stated this is the most whiz-bang air campaign in history, said we have killed 10,000. Now, Rufus says we have killed about 18,000-20,000.

      The fact is, for the most part we drops our bombs and, like the moving finger, move on. We haven't got a clue as to how many have been killed.

      .

      Delete
    3. I said no such thing.

      The number is probably around 13,000.

      Delete
    4. .

      Just estimating

      24/7, 7 days per week

      60-70 per day x 30 days x 10 months = 18,000 to 21,000

      Not trying to misquote you. The rest of my statement stands. Most of the bombing is taking place in ISIS occupied territory and the reporting is sporadic. We don't know how many militants have been killed or how many civilians. it is the nature of this war.

      .

      Delete
    5. It doesn't help much that three out of four planes return to base without drooping their bombs.

      Delete
    6. You didn't "Try" to misquote me; You flat-ass DID Misquote me.

      This

      "60-70 per day x 30 days x 10 months = 18,000 to 21,000"

      doesn't work because the pace of the attacks has increased in the last few months

      The number of strikes is probably now in the 4,400 range - and, all evidence we've seen shows that you can come very close by multiplying the number of strikes by 3.

      Delete
    7. Whole thing is the worst run military fiasco of my life time.

      The Iraqi Army no longer exists, hell, Iraq no longer exists.

      ISIS may try a Tet Offensive on Baghdad one of these days, hoist up the Black Flag over our embassy, and then get out of Dodge. Leave a few super sized truck bombs behind for good measure.

      They can't take and hold Baghdad. They can score a big propaganda victory.

      Delete
    8. .

      You didn't "Try" to misquote me; You flat-ass DID Misquote me.

      Bullshit.

      doesn't work because the pace of the attacks has increased in the last few months

      Tried to find the number of air strikes by month and couldn't. I do recall there were around 1400 airstrike around the end of November, 2014. If you want to nitpick the numbers, go ahead. My point remains the same, neither the pentagon, the State Department or Rufus II knows what the casualty figures are in Iraq.

      ...and, all evidence we've seen shows that you can come very close by multiplying the number of strikes by 3.

      What evidence?

      .

      Delete
    9. Have it your way, Quirk. I'm not going to be drawn into a pointless argument with you.

      Delete
    10. I thought the question regarding evidence was a good one. What evidence are you using Rufus?

      Delete
    11. I posted it a week, or so, ago. At that time the Pentagon, or Central command, or whatever, put up the numbers of 4,200 Strikes with 12,500 Killed.

      Delete
    12. .

      It was the State Department not any military source. If you want to take some phony made up number and project it into infinity go for it.

      .

      Delete
  8. Looks like Quirk is getting his teeth cleaned by WiO this fine hot summer's day, and Rufus is getting his teeth cleaned by Quirk.

    Who cares about some ham sandwich for goodness sakes ?


    Rufus eats gator tails, my Niece is a vegetarian, I'm eating Lay's Barbecue Potato Chips, and drinking iced tea, and Quirk sounds like he's on the sauce and in a bad mood.

    To each his own.
    ........

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hogs think they are intelligent.

      Make good pets, if you remember your Green Acres.

      My Niece would never eat one. She cheats on a little chicken once in a long while.

      Nor are they vain, and spend inordinate amounts of time on their grooming.

      And, they have a poet's attitude towards work.


      Taken all in all, taking a bite of pork seems a little like taking a bite of......of.......Ash.

      yuck

      Delete
  9. Arguments are always pointless when one is on the losing end of the argument.

    It is best not to get drawn into such a pointless argument.

    Wisest words so far today.....

    ReplyDelete
  10. .

    The argument over TTP or TTIP is not just being argued in the US. The following (rather long) article by Der Spiegel lists the various issues for both sides in Europe.

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/how-ttip-and-an-eu-us-free-trade-deal-can-be-fixed-a-1036831.html

    There is an argument to be made that TPP is necessary to counter the moves China is making in Asia. Given some of those moves, a number of which were outlined in the article I posted yesterday,

    The Geopolitics of US Global Decline

    I am sympathetic to a competing trade agreement; however, I am opposed to a number of provisions we have heard about in the proposed agreement and I am definitely against giving the president 'fast-track authority.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  11. NPR Study: Smoking pot interferes with math skills

    Politico One voter shows up at Santorum event in Iowa

    Eli Lake Iran spends billions to prop up Assad as U.S. prepares to release billions by lifting sanctions



    Recent Headlines and Articles from Hot Air


    (why is Santorum going to all the trouble ?)

    ReplyDelete
  12. June 9, 2015
    Obama admits still no 'complete strategy' for ISIS
    By Thomas Lifson

    A year after ISIS took control of Mosul and 18 months after dismissing it as “jayvee,” President Obama still does not have a “complete strategy,” and he is blaming it on the Iraqis and the Pentagon. Speaking at a press conference in Austria at the G7 meetings:

    President Obama said that the Pentagon hasn't presented him with a "finalized plan" on combating the Islamic State, specifically with the help of Iraqi forces.

    "We don't yet have a complete strategy," Obama said, speaking at a press conference from the international G-7 summit in Kruen, Germany, "because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well about how recruitment takes place, how that training takes place. And so the details of that are not yet worked out."

    This is nothing short of breathtaking – a commander-in-chief confessing that in the face of a brutal terror threat currently metastasizing not just in the Middle East, but within the American borders, he still hasn’t got a plan. The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal column says, simply, “Wow.”

    … last summer, Mr. Obama announced his anti-ISIS strategy in a September speech, promising to “degrade” and “destroy” the self-styled caliphate.

    Nine months later here we are: ISIS has overrun Ramadi, a gateway to Baghdad, the grand alliance that Mr. Obama promised barely exists, the Kurds in the north are fretting publicly about the lack of weapons to forestall a major ISIS assault, the U.S. bombing campaign is hesitant, and now Mr. Obama tells us the training of Iraqis is barely under way.

    “So part of my discussion with [Iraqi] Prime Minister [Haider al-] Abadi was how do we make sure that we get more recruits in. A big part of the answer there is our outreach to Sunni tribes,” Mr. Obama added.

    That sounds good, but one reason it’s hard to recruit Sunnis in Anbar province is because they are betting their lives if they side with the coalition. They saw Mr. Obama withdraw all American forces after 2011, and in the last year they’ve witnessed a fitful U.S. commitment that includes no American ground forces—not even bombing spotters near the front lines. The U.S. is having trouble recruiting allies for the fight because Mr. Obama gives every sign that he’s not all that committed himself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Sunni world is on fire, with ISIS plausibly claiming momentum as the future Caliphate, and President Obama is dithering and blaming others. George W. Bush managed to train Iraqis and deploy them, but that is because he backed his words with actions (and U.S. troops). It’s called leadership, and it required looking beyond opinion polls and doing what was necessary to meet the goal.

      Is President Obama planning to have a “complete strategy” by the time he leaves office? Republicans are asking the right questions:

      "What has President Obama been doing for the last 10 months?" the Republican National Committee wrote Monday. House Speaker John Boehner took the attack another step, responding to Obama with a tweet of a popular emoticon of a person shrugging ("¯_(ツ)_/¯ ") as a shorter summary of Obama's strategy.

      Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Arizona, hammered Obama on the Senate floor Monday, saying the lack of a strategy is alarming "while ISIS goes from house to house in Ramadi with lists of names and they execute people and they kill 3-year-old children, and they burn their bodies in the streets and the atrocities in Syria continue as Bashar Assad barrel bombs innocent men, women and children."

      "One can wonder, one has to wonder, whether this President just wants to wait out the next year and a half and basically do nothing to stop this genocide, bloodletting, horrible things that are happening throughout the Middle East," McCain said.

      Unfortunately, it is going to take dramatic video of Americans being beheaded before the public wakes up to the dereliction of duty on the part of the man charged with our defense. And unfortunately, that is likely to happen in the foreseeable future.

      http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/06/obama_admits_still_no_complete_strategy_for_isis.html


      Or an attack on the Mall of America. That would do it too.

      Delete
    2. This is good:


      ("¯_(ツ)_/¯ ")


      "What Me Worry"

      Delete
  13. Over on "The Five" on Fox the war tom toms are beating.

    Geraldo wants revenge, pure and simple

    Gutfeld wants an American foreign policy such as the Russians would use if they were in our shoes.

    Everyone shouts that Obama is an idiot. We have no policy, no policy at all.

    Not a peacenik among there, over there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. among them, over there on "The Five"

      Delete
    2. And no one seems to be blaming Israel for anything, either.

      Delete
    3. Fox News is far and away the most popular News Program on American TV.

      I've even caught Q, our Intellectual Royalty here, watching and slumming.

      As goes Fox, so goes the Nation.

      Delete
  14. HOLY SHIT

    MEGYN KELLY HAS AN LETTER FROM MS MOSBY ORDERING THE POLICE TO CRACK DOWN ON THE VERY STREET WHERE FREDDIE GRAY WAS BUSTED !

    Well, fancy, fancy that......

    You don't know nuttin' if you don't Fox first.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ms. Mosby REALLY has her ass in a sling now. She just had her ass in a sling earlier.

      Further, Megyn Kelly has a SC decision that says simply fleeing in a high crime area after making eye contact with the Police can be cause for arrest.

      It seems Judge Napolitan may be wrong here.

      For all the last tune in to Fox News.

      Delete
    2. It's really best to let time pass before one hammers on the Police.

      You never know what will turn up in discovery.

      Sometimes they are in the wrong, sometimes not.

      Delete
  15. I know it's not really polite to call Mosby an idiot, but honestly - -

    Baltimore court rejects Mosby’s request for gag order in Freddie Gray case
    posted at 7:21 pm on June 9, 2015 by Jazz Shaw

    Share on Facebook

    We’ve been following the events in Baltimore coming out of the Freddie Gray case pretty closely and, as usual, the story seems to be swinging further and further away from the original incident and focusing on the city government. As you may recall, State Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby recently asked for a gag order preventing the release of the autopsy in the case, as well as barring any discussion in the media of relevant information. It didn’t take long for an answer to come down, and the court has declined her request.

    But the reason is probably not what you were first thinking. This wasn’t some comment on the strange nature of asking for the gag order itself… it was because of a technicality. Mosby filed the request with the wrong court. (From Legal Insurrection)

    Once again, Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby seems to be having difficulty grasping fundamentals of the practice of law.

    Indeed, she’s now reduced to making exactly the same errors she only recently accused opposing counsel of making.

    In this most current instance, Mosby’s motion for a gag order on the Freddie Gray case has been rejected, reports the Baltimore Sun (h/t Conservative Treehouse).

    The reason? She filed her motion in Circuit Court on May 14, but while the matter was still jurisdictionally in the lower District Court. The matter was not moved into Circuit Court until May 21, a week later.

    Ironically, in Mosby’s motion opposing defense counsel’s efforts to have her recuse herself from the case the Prosecutor argued that it was improper of the defense to make that argument in District Court, where the matter then rested, knowing as they did that the case would end up in Circuit Court.

    DOH!

    Mosby’s other intention – to keep some information from the defense attorneys requesting it – doesn’t sit well with the legal beagles at LI either.

    In addition, the State must share with the defense all incriminating and exculpatory evidence their investigation unearths, well before the trial itself through the discovery process. All of it.

    This is just turning into amateur hour at this point. I was watching one legal analyst on CNN this afternoon who was asked if he thought the defense requests for a change of venue or a dismissal were likely, as well as the odds that Mosby would recuse herself. He didn’t feel that the prosecution could possibly just move for dismissal after this much water had run under the bridge, but he felt that a change of venue was “very likely” now. And Mosby may have no intention of recusing herself, but if she does as good of a job answering the recusal request as she did with the gag order, she may not have a choice in the matter.

    We said from the very beginning that this could be a make or break case for an ambitious young prosecutor with big political ambitions. The smart money may be moving toward “break” this week. I can’t imagine the meetings that are going on behind the doors at her offices these days, but you can bet it’s not pretty.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2015/06/09/baltimore-court-rejects-mosbys-request-for-gag-order-in-freddie-gray-case/

    ReplyDelete