11.16.2011

Way to Go Google! Well...Sort of

Google recently refused a U.S. law enforcement's agency to remove a Youtube video showing police brutality, according to the Huffington Post.

That's great for Google and even better for our fight to end police brutality and hold police officers accountable for their actions. But this story now takes a turn for the worse.

Google has removed 63 percent of the U.S. government's requests. They say that "generally" a court order is the only way that they can comply. These agencies usually cite defamation as the cause of concern for these videos.

Since when does truth equal defamation?

I have a great idea for these agencies about the removal of defamatory content about police brutality. Go to the source and stop it. If police officers would stop brutalizing citizens, then there would be nothing to record and post on the internet.

Another interesting fact of this report is that the U.S. ranks as number three in the world for the highest number of content removal requests. It is behind Brazil and Germany, but ahead of China. The U.S. also ranks at number one for the amount of requests for user data.

Wow.



My Thoughts on the Penn State Scandal


So the assistant coach at Penn State, who was the graduate assistant that walked in on Sandusky raping a young boy in the shower, is now saying that he did in fact go to the police.

Why is Mike McQuery just now saying this? Probably because he is scared of losing his job. (He was placed on administrative leave.)

But even bigger than that, McQuery almost seems as if he wants the world to feel sorry for him. Instead of apologizing to the boy who he left Sandusky molesting in the shower, he says something like this:

"No one can imagine my thoughts or wants to be in my shoes for those 30-45 seconds. Trust me."

Are you serious Mikey? Maybe I'm grasping for straws here, but what about the thoughts or wants of the little boy being sodomized right before your eyes? Wanna walk a mile in his shoes?

In my opinion, anyone who knew about Sandusky's habits of raping young boys and ruining their lives and did not kick his butt or go insist that the police throw him in jail are just as guilty as he is. They should all be fired, fined and jailed. I know that more than just those who were already fired knew about this. But money and fame outweighed the innocence of little children at Penn State.

I honestly hope that their administration crumbles, they are stripped of any awards or games won that Sandusky played a part in and that they are hit with a mega-billion dollar lawsuit that rocks them to their very core.

These mothers and children entrusted their lives to Sandusky, and he ruined them forever. Every time I think of this situation, it makes my stomach turn.

I can't wait for Sandusky to receive his lengthy prison sentence so that he can trade places with all the young boys that he molested. Karma is sweet, ain't it?

WTF: Alabama's New Anti-Immigration Law

Alabama is getting blasted from all sides because of their new anti-immigration law. NBC's Brian Williams recently did a special on the issues surrounding this law, and even Alabama Republicans are pissed off with Governor Robert Bentley because of it causing them to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. Immigrants are leaving the state in droves and, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP), all residents of the state will be negatively affected by this.

CAP recently shared "The 10 Numbers You Need to Know about Alabama's Anti-Immigrant Law." An excerpt is below.

1. 2.5 percent—The percentage of Alabama’s population that is undocumented. That makes Alabama 20th in the nation in terms of the number of undocumented immigrants (120,000) residing there, well below states such as California (more than 2 million) or even Colorado (180,000).

2. $40 million—A conservative estimate of how much Alabama’s economy would contract if only 10,000 undocumented immigrants stopped working in the state as a result of H.B. 56.

3. $130 million—The amount Alabama’s undocumented immigrants paid in taxes in 2010. These include state and local, income, property, and consumption taxes. This revenue would be lost if H.B. 56 were to do its job and drive all unauthorized immigrants from the state.

4. $300,000—The amount one farmer, Chad Smith of Smith Farms, estimates he has lost because of labor shortages in the wake of H.B. 56. Another farmer, Brian Cash of K&B Farm, estimates that he lost $100,000 in one single month because of the law.

5. 2,285—The number of Hispanic students who did not attend class on the first Monday following the judge’s ruling upholding key parts of H.B. 56., including the provision mandating schools to check the immigration status of students.

6. 15 percent—The percentage of absent Hispanic students (at peak) too afraid to attend school, comprising 5,143 children, since the law went into effect.

7. 1.3 percent—The percentage of Alabama schoolchildren who are not citizens of the United States. H.B. 56 intends to expend considerable resources to drive out a small percentage of the school-age population.

8. 2,000—The number of calls made in the first week to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hotline. Calls to hotline are reporting civil rights concerns related to the impact of H.B. 56, highlighting the extreme anxiety among the immigrant population.

9. $1.9 million—The amount of money that was spent by Arizona to defend S.B. 1070, a similar anti-immigrant law. The Arizona litigation is ongoing and can expect higher costs. With Alabama already facing multiple rounds of legal challenges, their costs are certain to be just as high, if not higher.

10. $2.8 billion—What it would cost the government if they were to deport all 120,000 undocumented migrants in Alabama. Each deportation costs American taxpayers $23,482.

What ever happened to "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free?" Am I missing something? I know that some of these immigrants are here illegally, but isn't there something in place to help them become legal citizens? The situation in Alabama proves that many of them are hard workers and are doing work that no one else will do. Many of them came to America to make a better life for themselves. Many Americans forget that their ancestors did at one point as well.

Who are we to stop them? Let's make it easier for them to become legal citizens and keep it moving.