"He is not the pastor of the United States; he is the President of the United States." This powerful sermon by Rev. Dr. Frederick Haynes III, pastor of Dallas' Friendship-West Baptist Church, in favor of marriage equality is a must-watch. Hat tip to the Lawrence O'Donnell crew for highlighting it last night (see his segment after the jump).
The final (American) fight for Afghanistan has begun, but Spencer Ackerman reports that what we're fighting for is unclear:
So what could well be the final major US campaign in Afghanistan doesn’t initially target the terrain that its adversary most wants. It won’t have the same access to air power that the effort to take Helmand and Kandahar enjoyed. It won’t have complementary effort on the border by the Pakistanis to deny insurgent safe havens. And whatever happens won’t change the timetable for handing over Afghanistan to the Afghans. No wonder the military isn’t exactly playing up the fight for eastern Afghanistan.
Washington is on pins and needles waiting for the Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Care Act. Ezra Klein has a good primer out this morning to get you prepped, just in case.
Speaking of the Supreme Court, did they just gut habeas corpus yesterday? Marcy Wheeler says yes; Adam Serwer has more.
Real talk: in eight days, Rep. Darrell Issa's Oversight Committee will likely find Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, because they can. And That Channel Across Sixth Avenue is already giddy at the prospect.
Whatever reprieve we had from violent political rhetoric in the wake of the 2011 Arizona shooting which targeted Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, it's over now. That may not sound like news, but TPM's Pema Levy has some recent, and alarming, examples.
Mitt Romney wants to overhaul the U.S. public education system, but can't seem to say the word "voucher."
Are Millenials a generation of skeptics? It seems so, at least when it comes to God.
Two suspects have been arrested in the shooting death of 23-year-old Los Angeles youth minister Oscar Duncan.
The Good Pastor tries to make his congregation see the light about his position on marriage equality. The Bad Pastor hangs President Obama in effigy, lynches him up and claims there was absolutely nothing racist about it. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell has the comparison in the latest Rewrite.
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Trying anything to get this addresses on national news. Been trying for a while. Kinda sad. Would you be interested?
LOXAHATCHEE, FLORIDA (PALM BEACH COUNTY)
MAY 16TH 2012
Seth Adams returned home after his weekly Texas Hold 'Em game to find a car parked on his property. The car ended up being an unmarked car of an undercover detective. From this point no one can be clear on what happened because only one of these people is alive. The UNARMED owner of the property was shot four times by the undercover officer. Twice in the chest...one in the abdomen and one in the forearm or Three times in the chest and once in the abdomen...there have been conflicting stories. Within 48 hours the county sheriff appeared on the news making the following statement "if you choose to confront....and then assault an officer you need to be prepared to suffer the consequences"
Please note that after the Sheriffs FULL investigation...he was asked how many shots were fired and his answer was I DON'T KNOW....no I can not comment....but I DON'T KNOW!
Per the Sheriff the deputies accounts are as follow: (keep in mind there are no witnesses to dispute this....so we DO NOT know if it is the truth.)
Mr. Adams rolled down his window, as did the officer, Mr. Adams asked who he was and what he was doing there....the officer identified him self...both men exited their vehicles and a physical altercation began. Mr. Adams lunged at the officer....(14-year-veteran) the officer pushed him to the ground and pulled his weapon...Mr. Adams got up from the ground..walked towards his truck reached through the window and as he turned around the officer shot him 4 times.
There is a story in a New York paper that includes statement from the Sheriffs office...and there are some differences in the two statements.
Following the shooting...this we know....Mr. Adams made two phone calls to his brother (who lived on this property with him), was able to get 300 feet away from the officer. At some point during this time the officer called for back up, and possibly medics.
The family story is this....they received the phone call from Mr. Adams...thought the first one was a joke....Mr. Adams again called and the brother and his wife went outside to find him laying on the ground bleeding...with no aide being rendered. When the brother went to go towards Mr. Adams they were forced to the ground by officers with assault weapons and told not to go near Mr. Adams. Still no aide being rendered. And the responding officer’s cars were blocking the shortest route for the medics to reach Mr. Adams.
Reports state that it took 47 minutes to get Mr. Adams to the hospital.
What we know as a community...the closest medics are literally one minute down the road. The entrance to the property was blocked by the responding officers’ vehicles making it difficult for them to enter the property to render aide to Mr. Adams. The call to trauma hawk was delayed. Although there were PBSO helicopters flying for at least 30 minutes.
The Sheriff later made the statement that it took time to get Mr. Adams to trauma hawk since he had to be transported to the landing site. The sheriff did not mention (and the community knows) that the landing site is DIRECTLY across the road from Mr. Adams property and has been for years and it would be quicker to walk him there than load him up and drive him there.
Although the officers took the surveillance video from the property (the property is also a business) with what is now a questionable warrant... they appeared to be blank. There is no surveillance video from the officers’ vehicle.
It was said by the Sheriffs spokesperson the night of the shooting that the Sheriffs Office did NOT know the officer was on this private property (the parking lot of the business) or what he was doing there. It has since been said that the officer was conducting surveillance of the Western Communities, although per their statements...the business was not being investigated. There is really nothing else around this business.
It is also important to know that not one person that knows Mr. Adams agrees that he ever would have gotten physical (or lunged at) in officer. That he was very mild mannered and polite. There have hundreds of statements regarding the type of character he had. AND NO ONE has stepped up disputing them.
The Attorney Generals office has been contacted...they say the can not assist....the governors office has been contacted...they say they can not assist and directed us back to the Sheriff...well we are not so trusting of him at this point.
The Sheriff came out a week or so later and stated that he would turn the investigation over to FDLE, not that he didn't defend his deputy 100% but to calm the fears of the community and family. He failed to mention that he is the Vice-chairman of the CJSTC and his buddy from West Palm Beach is the Chairman.
Letters have been sent to the FDLE committee and the States Attorney, with no response.
There have since been 3 shootings by PBSO. Two fatal. Now all three of these cases have witnesses & two of these cases include shots being fired at the officers....and Sheriff Bradshaw is using these as examples to compare to the Seth Adams case, even though the events are totally different. Mind you the third (& fatal) shooting has eyewitness accounts that differ from Sheriffs statement and those are being ignored.
Please note: The Sheriff has been at the scene of all three of these recent shootings, but was NOT at the scene of the Seth Adams shooting. And has not, nor as any other investigator, spoken to the family concerning their accounts of that night.
It seems to me that if the shooter in the Seth Adams case was not an officer this whole thing would have gone very different....and maybe the news would be more forceful in their reporting. But the community is having a hard time getting this story out there. We are left wondering if we have to create a mob scene as in the Trayvon case to get attention. There was a piece on the news one night regarding the medical report of Mr. Adams....that did not shine a good light on the officer....but it has since disappeared, as has the whole press conference with the Sheriff. A family member of Mr. Adams was smart enough to video the medical report clip and has posted it on FB...but that is the only place you can find it.
If you want to be heard, you will need to do what Trayvon Martin's family did - make a petition, use Twitter & Facebook for it to go viral; rally, protest, march; continue emailing news outlets, but also popular blogs; and honestly, groups that will most publicize this would be the Occupy movement, and anti-capitalism groups. The Occupy movement has really taken up the cause against police brutality, at least here in Chicago. Do what you have to do to get this story heard. I'll be passing the word along.