Free Republic

It’s wrong on so many levels. Own that your officer made a choice you have to investigate. State that you are complying with state and federal authorities during the investigation. Report that the officer has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation. And then STOP talking. Leave the podium if you have to. Whatever you do, don’t fumble a narrative and tell people the officer ‘accidentally’ reached for a duty weapon and grabbed a taser instead.

Revealing Politics asked DNC attendees and delegates in Charlotte what they thought of one of the themes of the DNC promotional video that played in the arena last night— “The government is the only thing we all belong to.” The Obama campaign is backing away from the video, but DNC attendees sure aren’t. “Regardless of where you live, you’re gonna be owned by someone at some point. I think the American government so far has been a fair government and I don’t necessarily hate that I’m owned by them at this point.”

A lot has been made of the "community organizing" techniques of the late Saul Alinsky, and his influence on Democrats from Hillary Clinton to The Teleprompter himself (mmm, mmm, mmm). It has only been comparatively recently, with the rise of the Tea-Party movement, the rise of Breitbart.com, and a few other cases, that the political right in the US has attempted to forestall, or even to emulate his tactics, as set forth in Rules for Radicals. And whenever these techniques have been used to date, they have been a roaring success. Another well-known, but not as well-examined, aspect of Alinsky's...

The city of San Francisco has started an advertising push with a very specific target market: illegal immigrants. And while the advertisements will come in a bundle of languages — English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese — they all carry the same message: you are safe here. In what may be the first such campaign of its kind, the city plans to publish multilanguage brochures and fill the airwaves with advertisements relaying assurance that San Francisco will not report them to federal immigration authorities. Mayor Gavin Newsom said the campaign was simply an amplification of a longstanding position of not cooperating...

An Iranian inventor designed and produced the first photography and video camera for the blind.Mahvash Sepehr told FNA that the camera works with color waves and their reactions and it can determine the distance automatically."Using this camera, blind people can recognize the distance and position of the subject, " she said, adding that she has also invented special tanks for the blind to develop their negatives."Once the film is developed, the tank starts ringing to warn the blind person that it is time to bring the negative out of the liquid," the Iranian inventor concluded.

The Italian government has approved a law that increases sanctions against people who smoke marijuana, putting the drug on a par with cocaine and heroin. Under the new legislation, people found in possession of cannabis could risk having their passport and their driving licence suspended. The government has forced through this new legislation with a confidence vote. The move has been greeted mostly with dismay by opposition MPs and drug treatment professionals. Under the new rules, dealing and trafficking in drugs - whether heroin, cocaine or cannabis - will be punished with jail sentences of between six and 20 years...

DEVELOPING: SECRET SERVICE CONCERN AFTER LOS ANGELES TIMES COMIC DEPICTS 'BUSH ASSASSINATION'