n2doc
n2doc's JournalScott Walker Is Dismantling an Oversight Committee That Investigated Him
BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
Let's skip up north to one of America's newly founded banana republics. Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their Midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, has managed to guarantee that elections in that state will be a complete sham for the foreseeable future.
And why is this happening? Were the members of the GAB hiring strippers and buying meth on the state's dime? Were some of them revealed to be carnivorous reptiles from the planet Shrelb? Are they the Gamesters of Triskelion? No, it's because they did their job and raised some questions about the source of Walker's re-election quatloos.
Punchline?
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a40592/scott-walker-wisconsin-government-accountability-board/
The DNC needs to restore Bernie Sanders’ access to voter data — fast
By Greg Sargent
It’s being widely reported that the Democratic National Committee has suspended Bernie Sanders’ access to its voter data after a software snafu allegedly allowed a Sanders staffer to view the Hillary Clinton campaign’s own proprietary data. As many accounts have noted, this represents a serious blow to the Sanders campaign.
We need more detail to understand exactly what happened here. But one point that can be made right now is that the DNC needs to restore Sanders’ access to the data as quickly as possible.
The degree to which the Sanders campaign should bear the blame for what happened remains unclear. The Sanders campaign claims that the data breach was the fault of the vendor that gives campaigns access to the data, which (the Sanders camp argues) erroneously dropped the “firewall” that protects each camp’s data. The Sanders camp also notes that it fired the staffer responsible for accessing the Clinton info. That fired staffer has now told CNN that he did not attempt to take Clinton data and was merely trying to determine how badly the Sanders camp’s data had been compromised by the fallen firewall.
On the other hand, multiple accounts say that as many as four users associated with the Sanders campaign may have accessed the Clinton data. The Sanders campaign does not deny this; it says that those staffers did so at the behest of their boss, the staffer who has been fired. As you can see, our knowledge of what happened is pretty murky right now.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/12/18/the-dnc-needs-to-restore-bernie-sanders-access-to-voter-data-fast/
Fla. Judge Who Threatened To Fight, Throw Rock At Lawyer Removed From Bench
ByMIKE SCHNEIDER
DECEMBER 17, 2015, 4:48 PM EST
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A judge who was captured on video berating and threatening to fight an assistant public defender was ordered removed from the bench Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court.
Brevard County Circuit Judge John Murphy got into an argument last year with now-former assistant public defender Andrew Weinstock over whether a defendant could have a speedy trial. The judge at one point said, "If you want to fight, let's go out back." The two men left the courtroom and Murphy was accused of hitting the man. He denied striking Weinstock.
The justices said Thursday that Murphy's actions eroded public faith in the courts. They also rejected a judicial review commission's recommendation that Murphy only be suspended for four months and fined $50,000.
"The egregious conduct demonstrates his present unfitness to remain in office," the justices said. "Judge Murphy's grievous misconduct became a national spectacle and an embarrassment to Florida's judicial system."
more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/john-murphy-florida-judge-removed-bench
A University of Louisville job ad excluded whites and Asians. Is that OK?
By Colleen Flaherty
Even before the recent, widespread student protests over campus climate issues, many colleges and universities were working to make their faculties more diverse. But can a department specifically reserve a position for an underrepresented minority candidate? That’s what some are asking after a job ad for an assistant professorship reserved for nonwhite, non-Asian Ph.D.s was abruptly deleted from a jobs site on Tuesday.
The post (inactive but still cached here) on HigherEdJobs mostly resembled a typical ad, encouraging applicants “with a Ph.D. in physics or a related area, a strong research record and a passion for teaching” to apply. It also included a standard equal employment opportunity statement saying the University of Louisville is “an affirmative action, equal opportunity, Americans with disabilities employer, committed to community engagement and diversity, and in that spirit, seeks applications from a broad variety of candidates.”
But just under that statement, the ad continued, “The Department of Physics and Astronomy announces a tenure-track assistant professor position that will be filled by an African-American, Hispanic American or a Native American Indian .” The ad, posted in mid-October, was taken down after the department received a complaint that the preferences didn’t include applicants with disabilities, said C.S. Jayanthi, chairwoman of physics and astronomy. She said she forwarded the complaint to administrators, and the ad was promptly removed.
In the interim, others have questioned the broader legal issues raised by a job ad limiting a faculty search to members of select racial and ethnic groups. “I’ve never seen that before and it strikes me as inappropriate,” said Benjamin Reese Jr., vice president and chief diversity officer at Duke University and president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education.
more
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/inside_higher_ed/2015/12/university_of_louisville_job_ad_excluded_whites_and_asians.html
no, it is not IMO. Having been a part of several faculty searches you want to cast the broadest net, and then you have the broadest range of choices. Faculty search committees have a lot of latitude to choose using their own metrics. But they were stupid here to be blatant about their biases.
R.I.P., GOP: Party of old, disillusioned white people is dying a slow death
Changing Demographics will be the death knell for the Republican Party — even though it may take White House in '16
by SEAN ILLING
No matter who wins the nomination battle, the Republican Party has a much bigger problem: demographics. A new report released by the Center for American Progress analyzed the demographic advantages for Democrats in 2016 and beyond and the results are overwhelmingly positive.
And this should surprise no one.
Observers on both sides have long questioned the Republican Party’s viability in an increasingly progressive and less white America. With every national election, it becomes more obvious that the GOP’s “Southern Strategy,” which exploited racial and cultural resentment for votes, has finally backfired.
As The Nation’s William Greider wrote in October: “The GOP finds itself trapped in a marriage that has not only gone bad but is coming apart in full public view. After five decades of shrewd strategy, the Republican coalition Richard Nixon put together in 1968 – welcoming the segregationist white South into the Party of Lincoln – is no devouring itself in ugly, spiteful recriminations.”
Greider was responding to the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner, who left on account of the nihilistic Tea Party caucus. The Tea Party extremists in Congress, like the social conservatives who supported them, are part of a reactionary movement of cultural discontents whose only purpose is to negate and obstruct, and they’ve proven that in office.
more
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/17/r_i_p_gop_party_of_old_disillusioned_white_people_is_dying_a_slow_death_report_says/
We shall see. I won't be doing any grave dancing until the repubs have lost control of all government branches and state houses.
THE PROSECUTION OF THABO SEFOLOSHA
On an April night in New York City, the Hawks forward was injured and arrested by the NYPD. This is the exclusive story of how, in the aftermath, he became what he never wanted to be: a civil rights symbol.
BY SCOTT EDEN
Five minutes and 22 seconds after Thabo Sefolosha came out onto the sidewalk from a Manhattan nightclub on the morning of April 8, his wrists were manacled behind his back and two policemen were steering him by his elbows toward the rear seat of a cop car.
In the days, weeks and months to follow, Sefolosha, a Swiss native of South African descent and a key player for the Atlanta Hawks, would retell the story of those five minutes over and over again -- to his lawyer, his wife, his parents, his coaches, his teammates, the media, the jury, himself. In his memory, it doesn't seem like five minutes. It doesn't seem to him anymore like a space of time at all. It's as if those five minutes won't ever end. "There has honestly not been a day I haven't thought about that night since it happened," he says. "There's no escaping from it."
The team's plane had landed in New York around 1:30 a.m. for a game against the Brooklyn Nets. Earlier that night, in Atlanta, Sefolosha had played 20 minutes against the Phoenix Suns in the nastiest, most belligerent game of the season. There were seven technical fouls. A Suns player was ejected. Now, at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in lower Manhattan, where the team was staying, Sefolosha didn't feel like sleeping; he was too amped up. When he'd talked recently over the phone to his brother in Switzerland, he'd told him he was excited for the playoffs, which were starting in 10 days. He'd been to the NBA Finals once before, with the Thunder three years earlier, losing in five games to the Heat. Now, playing off the bench for the Hawks, who had clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference, he wanted another chance at a title. He was a month from turning 31, old for the NBA. Who knew how many more opportunities he'd have. "Man, I've never felt like this," he said to his brother. "We have a real shot. I'm going to give it all I got. I'm going to be a locomotive."
A friend of Sefolosha's, a sports agent living in New York who represents other NBA players, had texted, suggesting they meet at a place called 1 Oak in the city's Chelsea neighborhood. Sefolosha had heard of the club -- the kind of high-end, velvet-rope establishment that paparazzi encamp outside of in hopes of DiCaprio sightings -- but he'd never been there. Sefolosha's friend and teammate, Pero Antic, decided to go along. The club was becoming packed. They took a VIP table. At such tables, the only choice is to buy full bottles of liquor. They ordered one of Jameson and one of vodka. Sefolosha mixed his Jameson with Sprite; he had two or three of these. They got to talking with other clubgoers, whom they urged to pour themselves drinks from the bottles; there was no way Antic and Sefolosha could finish them. An hour passed. His friend the agent rose to say good night, and not long after he left, the house lights came blazing on and the music died. Everyone had to go, the bouncers said, giving no reason, and they all went, exiting orderly through the front door.
more
http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/14379532/how-atlanta-hawks-forward-thabo-sefolosha-became-civil-rights-symbol
Woman charged in East Bay park confrontation with Muslim men
Denise Slader, an employee of the California Department of Corrections, confronted two men of Middle Eastern descent, who were praying near the entrance to Lake Chabot Regional Park around 3 p.m. Sunday, said Carolyn Jones, a spokeswoman for the park service.
A state Corrections Department employee was formally charged with battery in connection with the confrontation earlier this month with two Muslim men who were praying in a Castro Valley park.
Denise Slader was also charged with violating the civil rights of the men, according to the complaint filed Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court in Hayward.
The complaint said Slader “willfully and unlawfully used force and violence” on one of the men, Rasheed Albeshari, and “unlawfully injured and interfered” with his civil rights.
In the incident, which occurred at Lake Chabot and was captured on video Albeshari took, Slader is seen shouting at the men that their god is Satan and the Quran is “evil.” Slader is seen hitting Albeshari with an umbrella and throwing coffee on him. The video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times online.
more
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Woman-charged-in-East-Bay-park-confrontation-with-6705179.php?cmpid=brknow
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