Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 52

Rick Rolled!

Last we heard, Gov. Perry ot Texas was about to announce presidential run.  Now he needs to announce defense team.  Just indicted by grand jury on two felony counts. Guess the new glasses didn't help clear things up.  I suspect grand jury was look at three felony counts--but could only name two.

The investigation centered on Mr. Perry’s veto power as governor. His critics asserted that he used that power as leverage to try to get an elected official and influential Democrat and elected official — Rosemary Lehmberg, the district attorney in Travis County — to step down after her arrest for drunken driving last year. Ms. Lehmberg is Austin’s top prosecutor and oversees a powerful public corruption unit that investigates state, local and federal officials; its work led to the 2005 indictment of a former Republican congressman, Tom DeLay on charges of violating campaign finance laws.

Following Ms. Lehmberg’s arrest, Mr. Perry and his aides threatened to veto $7.5 million in state dollars for the public corruption unit in her office unless she resigned. The governor followed through on his threat, vetoing the money by stating that he could not support “continued state funding for an office with statewide jurisdiction at a time when the person charged with ultimate responsibility of that unit has lost the public’s confidence.”...

Along with his blustery image as a tough-talking, pistol-packing Texan, Mr. Perry has made it a point throughout his nearly 14 years as governor to tout his ethics and Christianity. He summed up his views in a book, published in 2008, about the values he learned as a Boy Scout; it was called “On My Honor.”

The Alleged Michael Brown Robbery Video

From Ferguson PD just released.  CNN version.  Go here for my review of other developments today.

The 'Wall Jumper'

On this day in 1961, an East German border guard decided to leap to the West over the barbed wire that had been put up across Berlin two days earlier--the precursor to the Wall, which would be erected in the days ahead.   His name was Conrad Schumann and a photo of him in mid-leap would prove to be iconic, to this day.  I recently visited the spot where it happened.  There's also a statue of him making the leap on display.  Schumann, unfortunately, later suffered from depression--and would hang himself from a tree.
 

Not 'The Onion," Just Ferguson Cops

I was sure this was an Onion parody when I saw it tweeted a few times last night but on closer inspection, no, it's an actual reporting piece at Daily Beast.  It seems that cops in good old Ferguson beat up a guy and then charged him with property damage--that is, bleeding on their uniforms.

Human Rights Group Hits 'NYT' Bias

I mentioned a few days ago that rights group in Gaza, whose work on compiling a count of the death toll there in past weeks has been accepted by the UN and others, was writing a letter to the editor of the NYT protesting an especially egregious--and that's saying something--article by Jodi Rudoren that questioned numbers accepted by most others (and reflected Israeli talking points).  It also lumped the UN as being on "the other" side.  Now the letter has appeared. 

Your conjectures undermine our credibility, dismiss the seriousness of the violations documented, and weaken the legal standing of victims pursuing justice in Israel, occupied Palestine and elsewhere. Your article perpetuates the public relations message by Israel that there is no proof as to direct and disproportionate attacks on Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces. Our work shows that there is.

For Ferguson

Still one of my favorite songs of past decade, Joseph Arthur, "Travel As Equals."

The Todd Couple

NBC announced today, officially, no shock, that David Gregory has been axed at "Meet the Press" and Chuck Todd named to the post.      I'll say this:  Chuck has long been a major fan of my book on Upton Sinclair's wild and wildly influential leftwing race for governor of California in 1934--which I rightly (in my view) dubbed "The Campaign of the Century"--and he interviewed me for a segment about it a few years back for his MSNBC show...


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When 'Rubber Bullets' Were Mainly a Joke

Hit single from 10cc from 1973.   The Brits were then using rubber bullets in Northern Ireland, in the real world.  And real bullets (as on Bloody Sunday).

Robin Williams Had Learned He Had Parkinson's

Statement from his wife just now:

Robin spent so much of his life helping others. Whether he was entertaining millions on stage, film or television, our troops on the frontlines, or comforting a sick child — Robin wanted us to laugh and to feel less afraid.

Since his passing, all of us who loved Robin have found some solace in the tremendous outpouring of affection and admiration for him from the millions of people whose lives he touched. His greatest legacy, besides his three children, is the joy and happiness he offered to others, particularly to those fighting personal battles.

Robin's sobriety was intact and he was brave as he struggled with his own battles of depression, anxiety as well as early stages of Parkinson's disease, which he was not yet ready to share publicly.

It is our hope in the wake of Robin’s tragic passing that others will find the strength to seek the care and support they need to treat whatever battles they are facing so they may feel less afraid.

Michael J. Fox is one of the best known actors who has lived with Parkinson's for many years now.   Linda Ronstadt retired recently and explained she had received this diagnosis.

Thursday Updates on Ferguson Crisis

Obama at 12:50 P.M. makes live statement on Ferguson: Says got update today from Atty Gen Holder, and had already asked FBI to probe death of Brown.  Just spoke to Gov. Jay Nixon, expressed "concern" about "violent turn."   Nixon is a "good man and fine governor" and now going to Ferguson.  Says police need to be "open and transparent" about investigation. But "never an excuse" for vandalism or for police to "throw protesters in jail" without cause and ditto on journalists. "Here in the United States, police should not be bullying or arresting journalists who are doing their jobs." Now is time for "healing."

Waiting for St. Louis police to claim that Michael Brown killed by Hamas rocket that fell short.  Media often go for that.

Video of cops tear gassing...Al Jazeera TV crew. Then dismantling equipment.

Joe Scarborough suggested this morning that the two reporters got arrested because they just wanted to be on TV.  One of them responds angrily, don't miss.   Suggests Joe put down his coffee cup and come to Ferguson.  "Instead of getting more reporters on the ground we have people like Joe Scarborough who are running their mouths and have no idea what they’re talking about."

Good New Yorker piece by reporter on the scene last night.  Calls it "municipal shock and awe."

Before he was arrested, for no good reason, in a McDonald's in Ferguson, MO, last night, Wash Post reporter Wesley Lowery co-authored this piece on the city's police (nearly all-white in 2/3s black city) and being cited for high-level of racial profiling recently.  "And late last year, the state chapter of the NAACP filed a federal complaint against the St. Louis County police department, whose officers are now assisting Ferguson’s force since the shooting, over racial disparities in traffic stops, arrests and other actions."