DOWNLOADS: (172)

PLAYS: (2261)

Embed

Republican primary seasons are usually so boring. They either go after each other on a personal level, or by the time South Carolina rolls around there's a nominee apparent and they close ranks around them.

Not this time. Not by a long shot. It's clear that Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry consider this a personal crusade, which is why the scorched earth strategy has been launched in a big way. The 28-minute video on KingofBain.com is a devastating indictment of capitalists like Mitt Romney who strip assets from businesses and allow them to die, after transferring pension liabilities to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

To say it's got Rudy Guiliani and Rush Limbaugh's knickers in a twist would be an understatement. Rudy was just about out of his body Thursday morning on Fox and Friends, calling Newt a student of Saul Alinsky and equating his actions to "something Barack Obama would do." There's an insult.

Rush, on the other hand, has a real problem. He cannot stand Mitt Romney, doesn't think he's any kind of real conservative, but like all good Republicans, he was ready to suck it up and let Mitt have the nomination. Now we have Newt Gingrich tossing a neutron bomb into the middle of the primary while Sheldon Adelson simultaneously funds and distances himself from it, and well...sit back and watch the fireworks.

Even though all fists were shaken in Newt's general direction, Rick Perry should not go unnoticed. Today one of his major donors, Barry Wynn, withdrew support and gave it to Mitt. Perry's response was entirely self-destructive and personal. Specifically, he said "If they want to cut and run, that's their problem." Now Wynn isn't just your ordinary run of the mill Republican. In addition to being a major donor, he's also Jim DeMint's treasurer. Yes, that Jim DeMint. Mr. UberConservative kingmaker guy. I'm not sure if Perry believes in what he's doing or he's just taking things personally enough to melt down and self-destruct. Whatever the case, it's entertaining.

According to at least one poll, it's working. A new InsiderAdvantage poll shows Newt in a statistical tie with Mitt Romney in South Carolina. Watch out, Mitt.

It's always hard to know where to begin with Tasers. I mean, they're a nightmare for the citizens against whom they're used, the lawsuits will end up costing millions of taxpayer dollars and they inevitably suppress freedom of speech and assembly. Why are they still in such widespread use?

I suppose it didn't hurt that right-wing heroes Rudy Guiliani and Bernie Kerik were so heavily involved in marketing them to police departments around the country. (Did you know the police officers recruited to demonstrate them to their departments receive stock options and/or payments? That explains a lot.)

On Sept. 24, in Brooklyn, N.Y., a 35-year-old man named Iman Morales fell to his death after a 22-minute standoff with New York Police. Morales, who was described as "emotionally disturbed," had climbed onto the fire escape of a building in Bedford-Stuyvesant, naked and waving a metal pole. Unable to talk him down, one officer, under order from his lieutenant, shot Morales with a Taser gun, at which point he fell to the sidewalk, head-first.

He was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead.

One week later, the officer who gave the order, Lt. Michael W. Pigott, drove to Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field, a former air base used by the NYPD, took a 9mm Glock from a locker room, and shot himself in the head.

It's hard to know which are more ubiquitous at this point: stories of accidental death by Tasers, or stories of police brutality involving bullets. Just this week, in New York, a Bronx man was shot and killed after he allegedly waved a baseball bat at police officers who entered his home. In theory, these sorts of confrontations are the reason such "non-lethal" weapons as Tasers exist. But news reports tell a different tale. In the United States and Canada, more than 400 people have died after being Tasered since 2001.

Continue reading »