Who is the most oppressive and unjust?

A former Iranian vice president has been sentenced to six years in jail after being accused of fomenting unrest to overthrow the government, his lawyer said today.

Mohammad Ali Abtahi is the most senior reformer to face imprisonment following the disputed presidential election in June. Abtahi was vice president for parliamentary and legal affairs during the 1997-2005 presidency of Mohammad Khatami.
Read the story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/22/mohammad-ali-abtahi-iran-protests-jailed

The government cited above is, by American standards of Justice, arguably one of the most oppressive and unjust political systems in the world. And the "guilty" party here is sentenced to "six years in jail after being accused of fomenting unrest to overthrow the government".

Yet, our government here in Amerika routinely passes out sentences that long and longer for the considerably lesser offenses such as DUI and simple pot possession. Aren't you glad that your tax dollars are used so wisely? The "war on drugs", the "war on crime", and the "war on terrorism"... all distractions designed to keep YOU in FEAR and bleeding you dry.

I ask you, who is the most oppressive and unjust?

Rally held, charges of racism against Kennett, MO

KENNETT, MO (KAIT) – Supporters from across the country converged on the Dunklin County Courthouse Monday to voice public outrage against the Kennett Police Department and Dunklin County Prosecutor’s Office. Heather Ellis, 24, cut in line at the Kennett Wal-Mart on January 6, 2007 and created a disturbance after police were called, court documents said. According to court filings, Ellis assaulted two white police officers who told her to leave the premises. She was arrested on two felony counts of assaulting a police officer and two misdemeanor violations.

Ellis, a black school teacher in Louisiana, was in college at the time of her arrest. She charges customers and police officers as being racially disingenuous.
...

Counter protestors also watched the march as it traveled down First Street. Counter protestors [sic] were holding Confederate flags with swastikas and skulls.

See the whole article here: http://www.kait8.com/global/story.asp?s=11517159

If there was any question about the racist atmosphere in Kennett, MO, the last quoted paragraph should help put things in perspective for you. And if you read the comments to the article, it should remove all doubt. The sad part is that these bigoted rednecks don't even realize that they are racist. The racist, fascist atmosphere permeates the entire region. They are indoctrinated in church, in school and in their homes.

As noted in the above article snippets, at the protest rally prior to the trial counter protesters showed up waving confederate flags and swastikas just to prove that the aren't prejudice. Morons.

I'll add this from personal experience: There is no doubt in my mind that most of the local law enforcement around here is racist. And hand in hand with their racism goes their fascism. However, I don't think that the prosecutor, Steve Sokoloff, is a racist. At least not overtly. He's simply a fascist. He definitely allows his personal feelings and convictions to interfere with the execution of his duties. He pursues personal vendetta's at the bench. He also allow "his buddies" to walk free on identical charges to those he sends away for years.

UPDATE:
Heather Ellis plead guilty to two misdemeanors and received 4 days in county jail, 1 year unsupervised probation, and mandatory anger management classes. The plea was reached after it was disclosed that the officers and witnesses in the case had a private conference together prior to the trial. It is speculated that this time was used to "get their stories straight". In fact, witness testimony included information that was not included in the original police reports suggesting that their stories were embellished for trial. Let's hope that the various anti-discrimination organizations who have been drawn to this case keep a close eye on this town and county. This story is not over. But the story is not about Heather Ellis. It is about a clan of racist bigots and their nepotistic, isolationist, white supremacist, Christian Fascist behavior.

When "Confidential" isn't really that confidential

Does anyone else see a problem with the following excerpt from Yahoo! News?

Senior Obama administration officials have stepped up consultations with key allies, laying the ground for an announcement on strategy and troop levels.

In his confidential troop request, McChrystal said 40,000 additional troops were needed to help secure Afghan population centers and to give NATO some additional resources to take on Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in outlying areas.

When it is reported on Yahoo! News, it's not all that fucking confidential, now is it?

And I seem to remember something about the cock sucker, McMeth, going public with his demands some time ago, too. So, why the pretense?

Does anyone else find it odd...

Does anyone else find it odd that:

Our lawmakers will pass an $800b bill that funds mass murder in foreign lands without batting an eye but seems paralyzed and polarized when it comes to spending a fraction ($90b) of that figure to save American lives with health care reform?

When 90 or more people are killed by a robot at a wedding or funeral in a foreign land it is referred to as an unfortunate incident, if it is acknowledged at all, yet when 13 soldiers are killed in their own country by one of their own where they are trained to kill it is referred to as "a massacre"?

I'm just sayin'...

"Cash for Clunkers" just put more clunkers back on the road... ones with bank notes, though!

WASHINGTON (AP) - The most common deals under the government's $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program, aimed at putting more fuel-efficient cars on the road, replaced old Ford or Chevrolet pickups with new ones that got only marginally better gas mileage, according to an analysis of new federal data by The Associated Press.

The single most common swap - which occurred more than 8,200 times - involved Ford F150 pickup owners who took advantage of a government rebate to trade their old trucks for new Ford F150s. They were 17 times more likely to buy a new F150 than, say, a Toyota Prius. The fuel economy for the new trucks ranged from 15 mpg to 17 mpg based on engine size and other factors, an improvement of just 1 mpg to 3 mpg over the clunkers.

Owners of thousands more large old Chevrolet and Dodge pickups bought new Silverado and Ram trucks, also with only barely improved mileage in the middle teens, according to AP's analysis of sales of $15.2 billion worth of vehicles at nearly 19,000 car dealerships in every state. Those deals helped the Ford F150 and Chevy Silverado - along with Ford's Escape midsize SUV - climb into the Top 10 most-popular vehicles purchased with the government rebates. The most common truck-for-truck and truck-for-SUV deals totaled at least $911 million.

In scores of deals, the government reported spending a total of $562,500 in rebates for new cars and trucks that got worse or the same mileage as the trade-ins - in apparent violation of the program's requirements. The government said it is investigating those reports and said in some cases they were probably entered incorrectly by dealers or based on outdated fuel economy figures.

The new data, obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act, include details of 677,081 clunker trade-ins processed by the government through Oct. 16. More than 95,000 of the new vehicles purchased under the program - or about one in seven - got less than 20 mpg, according to the data.
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20091104/D9BOVMNG0.html

Maybe I missed something. But I thought that the main purpose of the "Cash for Clunkers" program was to put more fuel efficient vehicles back on the road in the "clunkers" place. It appears that we kinda missed the mark on that one.

But, by god, they got fresh auto payments for the banks! They don't seem to miss a beat in scheming to fleece us all at every turn. And stupid pricks just seem to stand in line waiting patiently for the fucking they're about to ask for and get!

What amazes me is that I'm pretty sure that most people SEE the hypocrisy in these public money schemes to continue transferring the wealth to the extremely few. Yet, they smile, open their wallets and sign on the dotted line just the same.

As P.T. Barnum so aptly put it, there is a sucker born every minute.

I might add that if you wish to see one, you need only look in the mirror.