University Police drag off and taze a university student (Andrew Meyers) after "the honorable" John Kerry called on him to ask questions after a lecture at the University of Florida.
The police did not like his questions or his tone and grabbed his arms to drag him off. They did not Mirandize him, they did not advise him if or why he was being arrested when as officers grabbed each arm. The student made a "poor decision" and resisted their arrest/assault after questioning if and why he was being arrested. Then, as there was an ant pile of the serve and protect crowd on and around him, they made the decision to taze him.
I find two things particularly disturbing: A number of the students in the auditorium began to cheer as these thugs in uniform were violating his civil rights. What the hell has happened to college students? They line up to go through metal detectors and get searched, but they won't speak out for a fellow student? Where would they ever learn such a behavior?
The second item I find so unsettling? The example John Kerry set for all of those hungry young minds. This man who wanted the top position in the country and to swear an oath to"... protect and defend the Constitution". Do you feel he proved himself as a defender of the Constitution? Did he say, "This is America, let the boy speak."? I think the young man made his point.
Not only did Senator Kerry not object to watching this young man be stripped of his civil rights, dragged off and tazed; he decided to ignore the situation and continue lecturing. Senator Kerry did what all good Americans are being trained to do, act like nothing is happening as your fellow citizens are being carted off for disagreeing, questioning or some other heinous infraction like being brown.
Mr. Kerry, your actions were disgraceful and you are a disappointment to your constituents.
I thought students were encouraged to ask questions in a university setting, but maybe that's just my pre-9/11 thinking.
House investigators have learned that, over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted himself from an executive order designed to safeguard classified national security information.
Sec. 6.1(b) of the executive order clearly outlines that it applies to any “‘Executive agency…any ‘Military department’…and any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information.” To support his position, Dick Cheney and the White House are claiming that the Vice President is not part of the executive branch of government!Vice President Cheney's office offered its first public written explanation yesterday for its refusal to comply with an executive order regulating the handling of classified material as it argued that the order does not make the vice president subject to the oversight system it creates for federal agencies.
In a letter to John Kerry, David S. Addington (Cheney's Chief of Staff) wrote that the order treats the vice president the same as the president and distinguishes them both from "agencies" subject to the oversight provisions of the executive order.
The reasoning given last time was that the VP's office is not strictly an executive branch agency but also shares legislative functions because the vice president presides over the Senate. (That's like me claiming I am not impacted by rules affecting all human kind because I am not just a human, but a redhead too.)Last week, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) stated that since 2003, Cheney's office had failed to provide data on its classification and declassification activities as required by Executive Order 12958, which President Bush has amended and endorsed.
The National Archives and Records Administration polices executive branch compliance with rules protecting classified information. In 2004, Cheney’s office intervened to block an on-site inspection by the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), a requirement of the executive order. Cheney's aides have not filed reports on their possession of classified data and blocked an inspection of their office by officials at the National Archives, according to documents released last week by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Kerry rejected Addington's arguments. "This legalistic response raises more questions than it purports to answer," the senator said in a statement. "I . . . ask again for the Vice President's office to plainly answer the question of whether he considers himself outside the realm of agency scrutiny."
According to Waxman, this is the first time in the nearly 30 year history of the Information Security Oversight Office that a request for access to conduct a security inspection was denied by a White House office.”