A Donald Trump - Tim Scott ticket in 2016

GOP Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina

A ticket to drive Democrats insane

Using the Race Card will fall flat on its face

By Gary;

By any standard political timeline it is way, way too early to talk about a GOP ticket.  But I have a gut feeling that the entire Republican field of candidates has imploded.  The Donald has come.

The fat lady is singing, but the GOP candidates are refusing to listen.

The exciting news to me is the new SurveyUSA poll showing The Donald pulling an unheard of 25% of the African American vote in the general election.

The Trump appeal crosses a lot of supposedly solid political lines.  Many Black voters see Trump as looking out for them on immigration and exporting jobs while traditional Republicans are for open borders and poverty for all American citizens.  By comparison establishment Republican Mitt Romney pulled a "massive" 6% of the Black vote and McCain got 4%.

If this trend to Trump continues there is an opportunity to re-establish the old Civil War era Republican-Black alliance that died out in the 1930s.

To this end I humbly propose a 2016 ticket of Donald Trump and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.

A Trump-Scott ticket could up end the election:

• The phony Democrat weapon of the Race Card is removed.
• If a 25% or more Black GOP vote happens a number of states with large Black populations could go Republican:  Florida (17% Black), Virginia (20% Black), Ohio (12% Black) and Pennsylvania (11% Black).

Opportunity may come knocking for the GOP.  But the question of the day remains:  Will Republicans embrace the American people or continue to lick the boots of the open borders Billionaire Cartels on Wall Street?

Tim Scott Speaks in Support of Full Repeal of Obamacare

A Pro-Civil Rights Republican
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GOP President U.S. Grant made many advances in civil and human rights. In 1869 and 1871, he signed bills promoting black voting rights and prosecuting Klan leaders. He won passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave freedmen the vote, and the Civil Rights Act of 1871, which empowered the President "to arrest and break up disguised night marauders."
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In response to the renewed violent outbreaks against African Americans, Grant was the first President to sign a congressional civil rights act: the Civil Rights Act of 1875.  This legislation mandated equal treatment in public accommodations and jury selection.
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Former President Grant acidly remarked that this anti-labor wing of the Republicans were the same people who had resisted using federal troops “to protect the lives of negroes. Now, however, there is no hesitation about exhausting the whole power of the government to suppress a strike on the slightest intimation that danger threatens.”

Black Republican leaders in 1875
Back in the day Republicans actually cared about African Americans and were rewarded with massive GOP majorities and Black Republican Congressmen. 

Gays banned by hardware store

Retard Alert!

• Banning Gays from buying wrenches!?!  Are people really this fucking stupid?  How about having good manners?  Treating people the way you would want to be treated yourself.

(WBIR.Com)  -  An East Tennessee store owner is using what some call a controversial sign to express his beliefs following the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage.

Several WBIR 10News viewers brought this story to our attention on Facebook.

Jeff Amyx, who owns Amyx Hardware & Roofing Supplies in Grainger County, added the ‘No Gays Allowed’ sign because gay and lesbian couples are against his religion.

Amyx, who is also a baptist minister, said he realized Monday morning that homosexual people are not afraid to stand for what they believe in. He said it showed him that Christian people should be brave enough to stand for what they believe in.

“They gladly stand for what they believe in, why can’t I? They believe their way is right, I believe it’s wrong. But yet I’m going to take more persecution than them because I’m standing for what I believe in,” Amyx said.

Read More . . . .

"93% of Blacks are killed by Blacks" says Black Civil Rights Icon

Don't Bother Me With The Facts

• My family fought for the Union at Gettysburg so I have no problem banning the Confederate flag from public property.  But isn't is wonderful how the mouth-breathing Sheeple scream about "evil" white racists when almost all Blacks murdered in the U.S. are killed by Black Americans. 

(DC Clothesline)  -  Black civil rights icon and former Mayor of Atlanta Andrew Young says that debate over the Confederate flag is a divisive non-issue which completely distracts from the real problem – the fact that 93% of blacks are killed by other blacks.

Young is widely recognized as a prominent activist for the African-American civil rights movement, having been a personal friend and supporter of Martin Luther King. Young marched with King in Selma, Alabama and was with King when he was assassinated. He was also instrumental in pushing through the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Young, a former Democratic Congressman, was also the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and served as President of the National Council of Churches USA. He cannot be dismissed as an “Uncle Tom” or an apologist for right-wing Republicans.

In an interview with Fox 5 Atlanta, Young skewers the politically correct outrage mob that has targeted the Confederate flag in the aftermath of the Charleston shooting, asserting that the elimination of southern heritage will do nothing to address the problems faced by black people today.

“The challenge for us is not to wipe out our past history but to learn to live together in the future,” said Young.

“I would never trade the flag for a single job,” he added. “The problems we face don’t have anything to do with the flag. The fact is that 93% of black people killed are killed by other black people. So black lives matter. Let us start believing that we matter.”

Young refers to statistics on black crime that people have been lambasted as racists for even mentioning which illustrate that the biggest threat to black people is not policebrutality or racist white people, but violence within the black community itself.

Those same statistics show that black people commit over half of homicides despite making up only 13% of the population.

Rather than focusing on a divisive symbol – the Confederate flag – Young urges Americans to rally behind the message of unity and healing that was embraced by the Charleston community in the aftermath of this month’s shooting.

Read More . . . .

Supreme Court rules for Muslim woman denied job at clothing store

A Civil Libertarian's Nightmare

• Personally I have no problem hiring a Sikh with a turban or a Jew with a yamaka.  But at some point your "right" to thrust your religion in the face of strangers and co-workers becomes offensive, even oppressive and will damage your business.. 

(CNN)  -  The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Muslim woman who has sued retailer Abercrombie & Fitch when the store failed to hire her because she wore a head scarf in observance of her religion.

The court ruled 8-1 that the company failed to accommodate Samantha Elauf's religious needs when she was not hired on the basis that her hijab violated company dress policy. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented with part of the ruling but concurred with the rest.

Abercrombie & Fitch argued that Elauf couldn't succeed without first showing that the employer had "actual knowledge" of her need for a religious accommodation. But the Court disagreed, and sent the case back down to the lower court for further consideration.

"An applicant need show only that his need for an accommodation was a motivating factor in the employer's decision, not that the employer had knowledge of his need," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority.

The case was being closely watched by other retailers with so called "look policies" as well as religious liberty groups who believe that an employee shouldn't have to explain their religious justification if the employer already has reason to know it.

"The significance of today's ruling is that an employer cannot put its head in the sand when it has reason to believe that an applicant will need a religious accommodation," said Gregory Lipper of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who joined a brief in favor of Elauf.

"It means that if an employer thinks a potential employee needs a religious accommodation, than the employer needs to make a reasonable effort to accommodate; it can't reject the applicant and then plead ignorance, " he said.

Read More . . . .

Court: "CIA torture report to stay secret"

We are better than this
- - - As usual government closes ranks to protect its members from the sunshine of public scrutiny.
- - - Government excuses to torture are bullshit.  We did not torture Nazi war criminals who loaded babies into ovens.


(McClatchy News)  -  The CIA can keep secret a nearly 7,000-page Senate report on harsh interrogation methods, as well as an internal agency review, a federal judge has ruled.

The complete 6,963-page report compiled by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the related “Panetta review,” are exempt from the dictates of the Freedom of Information Act, U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg concluded.

Though noting that “this case is no slam dunk for the government,” Boasberg in his 26-page decision Wednesday rejected the ACLU’s arguments for disclosure. The Senate committee report, he reasoned, remained a document under congressional control, and Congress made sure to exempt itself from FOIA.

“Congress has undoubted authority to keep its records secret, authority rooted in the Constitution, longstanding practice, and current congressional rules,” Boasberg stated.

The fact that the Senate intelligence panel had forwarded a copy of the full report to the CIA, Boasberg added, “should not be readily interpreted to suggest more wholesale abdication of control.”

Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project, voiced disappointment in the ruling.

“The direct, contemporaneous evidence shows that the full torture report is subject to the FOIA because Congress sent it to the executive branch with instructions that it be broadly used to ensure torture never happens again,” Shamsi said in a statement. “The Senate’s landmark investigation into a dark period in our nation’s history should not stay behind closed government doors, but needs to see the light of day.”

But the current Senate committee chairman, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said he was pleased.

Read More . . . .

A

“You give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders."

Governor Jesse Ventura

Court - Warrantless cellphone tracking not illegal search

Slice by Slice

• Law by law, court case by court case, our bi-partisan Big Brother Masters in government slice away at our privacy and the Bill of Rights.  Always the excuse is "We are protecting you." 

(Associated Press)  -  Investigators do not need a search warrant to obtain cellphone tower location records in criminal prosecutions, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a closely-watched case involving the rules for changing technology.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, overturning a three-judge panel of the same court, concluded that authorities properly got 67 days' worth of records from MetroPCS for Miami robbery suspect Quartavious Davis using a court order with a lower burden of proof.

In its 9-2 decision, the 11th Circuit decided Davis had no expectation of privacy regarding historical records establishing his location near certain cellphone towers. The records were key evidence used to convict Davis of a string of armed robberies, leading to a 162-year prison sentence.

In fact, Circuit Judge Frank M. Hull wrote for the majority, it's clear that cellphone users in today's society understand how companies collect data about calls and that cell towers are a key part of that.

"We find no reason to conclude that cellphone users lack facts about the functions of cell towers or about telephone providers' recording cell tower usage," Hull wrote. "This cell tower method of call connecting does not require a different constitutional result just because the telephone company has decided to automate wirelessly."

Two judges dissented, contending the Fourth Amendment requires probable cause and a search warrant for such records and some judges in the majority agreed in separate opinions that the U.S. Supreme Court should make the ultimate decision. Davis attorney David O. Markus said the dissent could provide a "roadmap" for a likely appeal to the high court.

"Unfortunately, the majority is stuck in the early '80s when cell-phones were the size of bricks and cost $3,000. The cases from that long-ago era aren't helpful in today's world," Markus said.

Markus called the decision "breathtaking," contending it could mean government investigators could have access without a search warrant to all kinds of personal data stored by a third party such as Facebook posts, purchases on Amazon and even pictures in "cloud" storage.

The Miami case has drawn wide interest from civil liberties groups and others, with briefs in support of the search warrant requirement filed by the ACLU, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and many others.

"The majority opinion fails to appreciate the necessity of protecting our privacy in the digital age," said Nathan Freed Wessler, staff attorney at the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The 11th Circuit, however, said existing law regarding information possessed by third parties clearly governs the Davis cellphone tracking data. Those who want the law changed should look to Congress and the state legislatures, not the judicial system, the judges said.

The decision Tuesday is similar to an earlier ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, while the 3rd Circuit has ruled a search warrant may be required for cell tower records if privacy rights might be affected. Federal appeals courts are also considering cases from Maryland and Michigan.

Read More . . . .

Jeb Bush flip-flops on Indiana law

A Flip Flop or Just Nimble?

(The Guardian)  -  Anti-discrimination activists and gay rights groups welcomed a lightning evolution by Jeb Bush, this week on a controversial law passed in Indiana last week that opponents said would have made it easier for businesses to discriminate against LGBT employees and customers.

On Monday, Bush praised the law as signed by Indiana’s governor, Mike Pence. On Wednesday, the former Florida governor and likely 2016 presidential candidate drew back sharply in his approbation, conceding only that the law would “be in the right place” by the end of the week, after an anticipated fix by the Indiana legislature.

Bush’s original remarks were made on the Hugh Hewitt radio show, whose core audience comprises the kind of hard-right conservatives who tend to vote in primary elections. “I think if you, if they actually got briefed on the law that they wouldn’t be blasting this law,” Bush said. “I think Governor Pence has done the right thing.”

Bush’s second remarks were made in Palo Alto, California, at a Silicon Valley fundraiser.

Bush was asked about his defense of the law at a fundraiser at the East Palo Alto Four Seasons on Wednesday night, reported the New York Times, which obtained an audio recording.

“By the end of the week, I think Indiana will be in the right place, which is to say that we need in a big, diverse country like America, we need to have space for people to act on their conscience, that it is a constitutional right that religious freedom is a core value of our country,“ the Times quoted Bush as telling the California crowd.

But “we shouldn’t discriminate based on sexual orientation”, Bush said.

Read More . . . .

Gays, Pizza and other insanity - GOP stupidity marches on

A Fear of Gays & Pizza

• The "Conservative" GOP won't cut government spending or give us a flat income tax, but the party will throw around red meat anti-Gay rhetoric to their base disguised as religious freedom.

By Gary;

The insanity begins.

An Indiana pizza shop is saying they agree with GOP Governor Pence and the signing of the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act. 

“If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no,” says Crystal O'Connor of Memories Pizza.

The Leftist Republican Party will not meaningfully address their pro-big government spending policies or pro-Police State spying policies.  So to pretend to be different from the Democrats we see many Republicans beating the anti-Gay drum to motivate their base.

A GOP Pandora's Box

By standing up for what they call "religious freedom" the GOP is actually opening up a Pandora's Box of religious hate.

To keep a peaceful civil society, businesses that are open to the general public should serve all members of the public.  This is not rocket science.  It is also simply the polite thing to do.  Good manners.

What would happen if Jewish store owners refused to serve Muslims?  Or fundamentalist Christians refused to serve Mormons?  The list could go on forever.

The U.S. is made up of a massive numbers of faiths from Hindus to Eastern Orthodox Christians to Scientologists.  Government is not here to allow "the true faith" (whatever that is) to have their way in publically run businesses.  Government is here to keep society peaceful and operating.

Conservative Republicans need to get a grip and grow up.

(ABC News 57.com)

Pagans in the U.S. Military
America has many faiths, and the members of those faiths should have the right to go into businesses open to the general public and purchase products and services.
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At the Air Force Academy in Colorado, a prayer circle and veritable Stonehenge on the Rockies will now serve as a place of worship for the academy's Pagans.

Read more: Daily Mail. 

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Sikh-ing a GOP Win
California Republican candidate for Congress Doug Ose, left, shakes hands with Harmeet Dhillon, and fellow Sikh volunteer precinct walkers Ravi Kahlon and Guri Kang.
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Sikhs have been part of California for over 100 years.  Why should they be allowed to be discriminated against because they do not believe in some business owner's view of the "true faith"?

Freedom of Religion
American Sikhs on American Sikh Day at the California state capitol.  Freedom of religion also means the freedom of members of a religion to shop and contract for services at businesses open to the general public.

The Gay Friendly
Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles
Marriage can indeed be a religious ceremony.  But freedom of religion says it is not the business of Big Government to decide which is the "True Faith" and then write laws based on only the view of that religion to the exclusion of others.  
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America is made of a huge variety of faiths from Baptist to Judaism to Scientology to Buddhism.  Government must let each faith run their own affairs.  Government issued marriage licenses should only be to provide legal guidelines for secular issues like property rights and inheritance.
Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles 

Indiana GOP - "Let's get the Gays"

The GOP "Big Tent"

• The Indiana Republican legislature will allow business owners to discriminate against Gay customers in the name of religion.
• But what happens when the 100,000 Muslims in Indiana refuse to serve "Infidel" customers, or fundamentalist Christians refuse to serve Mormons or . . . well you get the idea.  Businesses must be open to all members of the public or you create a nightmare of insane bigotry.

(AFP News)  -  Supporters of gay rights united in outrage Friday after the US state of Indiana adopted a law critics say would allow businesses to deny service to homosexuals on religious grounds.

Governor Mike Pence signed Senate Bill 101 on Thursday at a closed-door ceremony attended by Catholic nuns, orthodox Jews and socially conservative lobbyists.

GOP Gov. Mike Pence
Bigot or inbred?

"It is vitally important to protect religious freedom in Indiana," the Republican governor said in a statement.

"It was therefore important to pass Senate Bill 101 in 2015 in order to help protect churches, Christian businesses and individuals from those who want to punish them because of their Biblical beliefs!"

The law, which takes effect July 1, makes no mention of gays or lesbians, and Pence said that if it was discriminatory, he would not have signed it.

But activists say it effectively makes it legal for Indiana businesses whose owners reject homosexuality on religious grounds to turn away LGBT customers.

"They’ve basically said, as long as your religion tells you to, it's OK to discriminate against people," said Sarah Warbelow, legal director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's biggest gay rights group.

The Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the law a "backlash" response to a failed bid last year to put a gay marriage ban in the state's constitution.

Read More . . . .

Real Business Freedom
If a Mormon, Black, Gay, Jew or Scientologist comes into my store
I have only one thing to say:  
"Will it be cash or charge?"

Jackboot Thug Cop Stomps on Cellphone

Officer attempted to destroy phone after attacking man for filming police brutality

(Infowars)  -  A man in Massachusetts is suing police in Amherst after he was attacked for filming officers using excessive force while making an arrest.

Thomas Donovan, a legal studies student at the University of Massachusetts, is pressing ahead with the civil rights lawsuit, alleging that his First Amendment rights were infringed.

Donovan was pepper sprayed and hit with batons by police dressed in riot gear as they cracked down on students during an annual day of St. Patrick’s Day related festivities in Amherst.

The video clearly shows that Donovan was not interfering with police making the arrest. Indeed, he was on the other side of a fence which cops had to walk around in order to assault him.

As he demanded the badge number of the officer who had pepper sprayed him, to no avail, Donovan was struck by another officer and forced to the ground, propelling the phone out of his hand.

“Arocho, assisted by Defendant Andrew Hulse, placed Mr. Donovan under arrest.” the lawsuit states. “Meanwhile, Mr. Donovan’s phone, which had landed on the ground with the camera facing up, continued to film. It captured the actions of another police officer, Defendant John Doe 3, who walked over to the phone, stood over it, then stomped on it with his boot, several times, in an unsuccessful effort to destroy it.” the filing continues.

The resulting video survived because the phone was in a shock proof hard case. It gives a chilling impression of what it is like to be stomped on by a thuggish police state storm trooper.

Donovan was arrested for “disorderly conduct” and “riot, failure to disperse,” spending up to six hours in jail without being allowed to wash the pepper spray out of his eyes.

However, the charges were dropped after it emerged that the video had survived. He was also suspended from the university because of the incident, but successfully appealed against the suspension, using the footage as evidence.

It also emerged that Officer Arocho lied in the police report, claiming that Donovan was pepper sprayed “as he began to close the distance between himself and the officers.” The video footage clearly shows no such thing occurred.

Read More . . . .

Police go door-to-door to collect blood samples

Canadian soldiers at Normandy with a captured Nazi flag in 1944.

Life Comes Full Circle

• In the olden days of the 1940s, when men actually believed in freedom, Americans and Canadians fought and died to defeat Fascism and the Police State.  Today both nations are adopting the very Fascist Police State tactics they once opposed . . . . all in the name of "Law & Order."

Police in Windsor, Ont., have ordered hundreds of DNA testing kits and are going door-to-door in a residential neighbourhood — near where former prime Minister Paul Martin grew up — asking everyone to provide a blood sample to rule themselves out as a suspect in the murder of a pregnant woman.

The unusual mass request for a blood sample prompted more than 500 residents to agree and a “handful” of people to refuse, police say. It also has stirred condemnation and warnings from civil liberty and legal advocates about a police technique increasingly turned to when murder probes begin to falter.

“The extraction of a DNA sample without a warrant is concerning. It is inherently coercive,” says Sukanya Pillay, executive director and general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

“There is no guarantee that doing wide sweeps of DNA collection is going to produce the killer, but there is a guarantee it will create potential privacy violation and erosion of standards.”

(National Post)

With search warrants being abolished, can a new Canadian national hockey team be far behind?

Florida police "used mugshots of black men" for target practice

Retard Alert!

Moron cops using African American mugshots for target practice.  Where do you go to hire people this fucking stupid?

At a time when police public relations are strained over the shootings deaths of black men by white cops, people are asking why North Miami police would use pictures of real black men at the firing range.

When National Guard Sgt. Valerie Deant paid a visit last month to a shooting range in Medley, Florida she was astounded at what she found. North Miami Beach Police had been participating in a shooting drill using mug shots of six black males as targets.

 Deant was even more shocked when she discovered that one of the images was that of her brother, Woody Deant.

"I was like, 'Why is my brother being used for target practice?'" Deant told NBC6, which first reported the story.

About 15 years earlier, Woody Deant had been arrested over his involvement in a drag racing incident that left two people dead. Deant, whose image at the firing range had been sprayed by bullets, had spent four years behind bars. But today he describes himself as a dedicated father and “a career man” reports RT News.

"You stupid, ignorant son of a bitch, dumb bastard."

These cops should be demoted just for being dumb bastards. 

"I'm not even living that life according to how they portrayed me as," he told the station. "I'm a father. I'm a husband. I'm a career man. I work 9 to 5."

Describing his reaction to seeing his face being used as target practice, Deant said he was “speechless.”

“The picture actually has like bullet holes,” Deant said. “One in my forehead and one in my eye. …I was speechless," he said.

North Miami Beach Police Chief J. Scott Dennis defended the actions of his officers, some of whom he said are minorities themselves. Dennis said his department also uses images of whites and Latinos for target practice.

"Our policies were not violated,” the police chief was quoted by NPR as saying. “There is no discipline forthcoming for the individuals who were involved with this."

He admitted, however, that the officers could have exercised better judgment, because one of the men, Woody Deant, "would be someone that was on the streets of North Miami Beach."

RETARD ALERT - Blacks Burn Black Owned Businesses

Natalie DuBose after Ferguson looters attacked her cake store to get "justice" for Michael Brown.

"Justice" and looting for all

Retard Alert!  To protest "racism" you burn 

and loot Black owned businesses.

FERGUSON, Missouri----KMOV-TV reports that the majority of stores that were damaged or completely destroyed during Monday night's violent riots in Ferguson were minority owned.

Fire Departments around the St. Louis County Area put out 25 structural fires caused by vandals and looters following the announcement from the grand jury that Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted in the death of Mike Brown.

Most of the damaged businesses were on West Florissant Avenue and included: Walgreens, Little Caesers Pizza,  Autozone, Beauty Town, Title Max, Family Dollar Store, and O'Reilly Auto Parts.

Small-business owner Natalie Dubose was in tears when she realized her cake store was attacked by vandals.

Dubose, a mother of two, previously told CNN, "If I can't open my doors every morning, I can't feed my kids in the evening. Just don't burn my shop down, don't destroy it."

(Breitbart News)

Ferguson firefighters survey rubble at a strip mall that was set
on fire when rioting erupted following the grand jury announcement
in the Michael Brown case on November 25, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. 
Scott Olson, Getty Images

A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Cops To Collect Traffic Fines On the Spot Via Credit or Debit Card

Notes From The Police State

• A bill from the "small government" Republican Party would empower everyday police officers to take on the roles of judge, jury and executioner . . . and levy fines right on the spot.
• Thank God the "small government" Conservatives are in charge and not the crazy libs.

A house bill recently introduced in the Texas legislature would allow police officers to collect immediate payment from “defendants” for Class C misdemeanor traffic fines “by use of a credit or debit card,” completely circumventing the rule of law and citizens’ due process rights.

H.B. No. 121, introduced on Monday by Republican State Rep. Allen Fletcher, concerns “an alternative means of payment of certain criminal fines and court costs.”

“Under the procedure, a peace officer making an arrest of a defendant (1) shall inform the defendant of: (A) the possibility of making an immediate payment of the fine and related court costs by use of a credit or debit card; and (B) the defendant’s available alternatives to making an immediate payment,” the bill, still in its initial phase, states reports Infowars News.

The House bill goes on to explain that “a peace officer making an arrest of a defendant: (2) may accept, on behalf of the court, the defendant’s immediate payment of the fine and related court costs by use of a credit or debit card, after which the peace officer must release the defendant.”

However, should the bill pass, it would deal a devastating blow to the citizenry’s right to due process, which among other things mandates an appearance and assessment before a magistrate prior to a case proceeding to trial, and would set the legal precedent wherein everyday police officers would be empowered to take on the roles of judge, jury and executioner – and charge “related court costs.”

Not explicitly stated is the fact that, under the bill, traffic cops would be required to carry around credit card swiping machines, in addition to citizens’ private credit or debit card information, which could open the doors to a litany of personal security risks and liabilities.

"If I told you once I told you three
times . . . we don't accept Mastercard."

China Holds Blogger, Rights Activist in Psychiatric Hospitals

Wanting Freedom Means You Are Insane

The Communist crackdown on the Internet goes on.

A Chinese blogger and a rights activist are being held in mental institutions, rights groups and activists say, sparking fears for their well-being.

Authorities in the southeastern province of Fujian detained outspoken blogger Shi Genyuan at his home on June 3 and forcibly committed him to the mental health ward of the Quanzhou No. 3 Hospital, according to the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch website.

Some folks believe the wrong
people are committed and that
we are ruled over by the insane.

Shi's committal means that only Quanzhou state security police have the power to release him from the facility, although nurses there said he didn't consent to his detention there reports Radio Free Asia.

A campaign by Shi's family and friends for his release has come to nothing in the face of threats from Quanzhou state security police, the group said.

Shi is being held on the basis of a "psychiatric evaluation" carried out by police in August 2013, after he was held on suspicion of "incitement to subvert state power" the previous May, it said.

"They are using mental illness as an excuse to detain him," Shi's friend, who gave only his surname Pan, told RFA.

He said nobody believes that Shi is suffering from a genuine mental illness.

"Mental health patients have normally lost at least some of their capacity to function in society," Pan said. "But his notes say he wants to appeal."

"Perhaps he wants to appeal against being labeled a mental health patient?"

'A form of reprisal'

Meanwhile, it has emerged that authorities in Beijing have been holding veteran pro-democracy activist Song Zaimin at the Pinggu Psychiatric Hospital, since he "disappeared" on Aug. 27, activists said.

"We have received reliable information in the past couple of days saying that that [Song] is being held in a mental institution," Beijing-based fellow activist Hou Xin told RFA.

"I am very worried about his situation. I never thought they would use a psychiatric hospital to detain him," Hou said.

He said Song's friends and family are getting together to campaign for his release.

"We want to see if we can get lawyers involved, because people don't get released from psychiatric hospitals quickly," he said.

According to Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch, Song was detained after taking part in activities marking the 25th anniversary of the military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square..
T
The overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) group, which collates and translates reports from a number of Chinese rights groups, said both Song's and Shi's detentions are illegal.

"Their detentions constitute a deprivation of liberty that directly violates China's Mental Health Law, which went into effect in May 2013," the group said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday.

"The law has not stopped the use of involuntary psychiatric commitment as a form of reprisal against members of civil society," it said.