Moyers: How Corporations and Right-Wing Groups Take Aim at Judges Whose Rulings They Dislike

There’s a movement afoot to punish judges for decisions that offend political partisans.

October 15, 2012

When the National Football League ended its lockout of the professional referees and the refs returned to call the games, all across the country players, fans, sponsors and owners breathed a sigh of relief. Fans were grateful for the return of qualified judges to keep things on the up and up.

After the now infamous Seattle Seahawks-Green Bay Packers game, when questionable calls by the replacement refs led to a disputed 14-12 win by the Seahawks, even union-busting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, the pride of Janesville, Wisconsin, became – briefly – fans of organized labor, calling for a negotiated peace and bringing the real refs back on the field.

In Baltimore, when the professional referees returned for their first game of the season, fans gave them a standing ovation.  One held a sign: “Finally! We get to yell at real refs! Welcome back!” As the captains of the Ravens and Cleveland Browns met at the center of the field for the coin toss, veteran official Gene Steratore turned on his microphone greeted them with, “Good evening, men. It’s good to be back.” The stadium erupted in a roar.

It was a revealing glimpse into a basic truth of American sports: Without the guys who enforce the rules, everything else is pointless.  READ MORE

The US schools with their own police

Texas is a huge state. There are 1229 Independent
School Districts (ISDs) and Charter Schools in Texas
serving over 4 million students.READ MORE

January 9, 2012, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers) More and more US schools have police patrolling the corridors. Pupils are being arrested for throwing paper planes and failing to pick up crumbs from the canteen floor.

Why is the state criminalising normal childhood behaviour? Like hundreds of schools in the state, and across large parts of the rest of the US, Fulmore Middle [school] has its own police force with officers in uniform who carry guns to keep order in the canteens, playgrounds and lessons.

Each day, hundreds of schoolchildren appear before courts in Texas charged with offences such as swearing, misbehaving on the school bus or getting in to a punch-up in the playground. Children have been arrested for possessing cigarettes, wearing "inappropriate" clothes and being late for school.

In 2010, the police gave close to 300,000 "Class C misdemeanour" tickets to children as young as six in Texas for offences in and out of school, which result in fines, community service and even prison time. What was once handled with a telling-off by the teacher or a call to parents can now result in arrest and a record that may cost a young person a place in college or a job years later. "We've taken childhood behaviour and made it criminal," said Kady Simpkins, a lawyer.

"They're kids." The very young are not spared. Texas records show more than 1,000 tickets were issued to primary schoolchildren over the past six years . Note: For a long list of bizarre arrests of children, for behavior not at all unusual, that have been reported in the mainstream media, click here.

Facebook Set to Turn Users Into Corporate Sponsors

Facebook users could soon find themselves becoming unwitting corporate sponsors under a new advertising scheme unveiled by the social network, 12/28/11. (photo: Daily Mail UK)

 

 

By Damien Gayle, Daily Mail UK

28 Decemeber 11

Facebook users could become unwitting corporate ambassadors under plans by the company to allow the site's main news feed to carry sponsorship messages carrying their mugshots.

Beginning in the New Year, so-called 'sponsored stories' appear in the main news feed that Facebook users' friends see. At present, if you click to 'like' a product, it does not always appear in the main feed.

The new update will show friends your profile picture and the product you have 'endorsed' in much larger form in the main news feed - a move that the site admits is designed to bring in advertising revenue.

Facebook say the scheme is a vital revenue booster, which will help it claw back some of the $1 billion a year it spends on developing the site.

The site claims that because the stories are labelled 'Sponsored', they will be less intrusive.

If a user decides to 'like' a product, the endorsement will also remain on their new, open 'timeline' profile, enabling companies to pay Facebook to feature their adverts more visibly.

But the announcement will infuriate users who feel that the social network is taking too much ownership over its 800 million members' personal information.

Facebook users in the U.S. have now launched a legal action against the company to contest the commercial use of the 'Like' button.

A judge in San Jose, California, has allowed plaintiffs to bring a case against Facebook in which they argue that the company is using their names and likenesses without their authorization. 

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Faye Dunaway Facing Eviction From Rent-Stabilized Upper East Side Apartment

Faye Dunaway.Photo: Paramount Pictures

# 8/3/11 at 11:55 AM # 42Comments

The takeaway from today's New York Times article about a lawsuit over actress Faye Dunaway's Upper East Side apartmentis not that she's another movie star unfairly using New York's rent stabilization laws to keep a posh pied-á-terre in the city. (Although, evidence suggests that she does live in West Hollywood and is using the $1,048.72-a-month East 78th Street walk-up as a living space for her son, Liam Dunaway O'Neill.) No, the point the paper seems to try to make is that Ms. Dunaway is ... kind of ... poor:
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