So tomorrow is the day and from what I have seen people seem to think Obama will win but it may be a narrow victory. It doesn't seem as hyped up over here as the last one was but maybe the whole first black president thing helped drive the hype last time and everyone is over that now.
Maybe the austerity mongers in the Eurozone are embarrassed that the "weak" U.S. economy under Obama is significantly better than their own...
I think you misunderstood, I was talking more about press coverage than anything. 4 years ago it was massive but this time it only gets the odd little mention. The Eurozone and the EU are pissed off with us at the moment because they want to raise the EU Spending budget by 5% and we have said that this is a joke considering that all member states are trying to cut back at home and they have enforced huge cuts on Greece and Spain etc. DC got a bit of a shock when ministers voted against him last week and said they wanted to demand the EU cuts its budget and not just froze it which was what DC was going to propose. The tory backbenchers have wanted out of Europe for a long time but it came as a shock that so many teamed up with Labour on this vote to embarrass the government. DC has promised to Veto the rise if they try put through a rise but it isn't enough for the euro sceptics in his party. Personally I agree, why give the EU more money when we are cutting back on police, NHS and school services at home.
@Grim: I didn't misunderstand. The presidential race in the U.S. is all about the economy, and it makes Europe look bad since what's considered "bad" in the U.S. is so much better than what the Eurozone is experiencing currently. I think Europe is in heavy denial per the spectacular failure of austerity...even the press.
This is the followup to the cop who punched a woman in the face at the PR day parade. The union boss seems like a bigger sociopath than the cop. If anybody else punched someone in the face like that they would get felony aggravated assault and battery. He's being charged with a misdemeanor, and he IS a fucking criminal.
Aggravated assault usually involves use of a weapon and/or serious bodily injury. From what I saw on that video, it seems closer to simple assault than aggravated assault. He still deserves to lose his job though.
Police are given a huge amount of leeway here in the US. Violations that would probably result in prison sentences elsewhere result in maybe a week of paid suspension here.
More authoritarian police state abuse of power. A crooked, dumbfuck Texas cop pulls over a couple of women who have committed no crime other than tossing a cigarette butt from a car window and just decides he's going to keep searching until he finds something substantial. And he was willing to go to the extent of calling in a female police officer who gives illegal full body cavity searches of both women on the side of the road as though they were inmates in prison. I guess these crooked cops couldn't wait until they manufactured a reason to imprison them before they violated them. The female cop disgustingly goes from orifice to orifice of both women using the same glove throughout the searches. They perform all of this in front of the dash cam, so it's clear that they either thought this type of behavior was within their authority or they thought they'd get away with it. The cop manufactured a bullshit story about how the women were acting in a bizarre manner and claimed he could smell marijuana from the car. Of course they found nothing because he made it up. The women are suing, but I guess we'll have to see if anything actually happens. It should be fun to get the reactions of non-US residents on the board. There will undoubtedly be questions regarding how this could possibly happen. Those of us who live in the US are used to police doing just about anything they want and usually get away with it, although they usually restrict treatment this blatantly illegal to minorities if it's in public view.
I treat cops the same way I treat any other gang of thugs. I just keep moving and try not to make eye contact. They're just looking for any excuse they can find to beat you up and/or kill you. And unlike other street gangs, they usually get away with it. In any sane country, those officers would be charged with sexual assault. But because this is the US, that incident will just be swept under the rug and they'll keep their jobs.
If that happened here there would definitely be public outrage. It would easily make headline news. That shit for brains cop certainly wouldn't be a cop anymore at the very least. haha
This is how police misconduct goes every single time: 1. Cops do something blatantly illegal. 2. They are suspended with pay, which we commoners call vacation time. 3a. Charges are dropped they go back to work. 3b. The situation is too difficult to cover up so they are fired. 4. If they are fired, the police union sues and the cop comes a millionaire at taxpayer expensive. I think #4 is the reason most departments prefer going straight to the cover up. It's cheaper.
I do just the opposite. A cop will pull this dirty hijinx crap on you BECAUSE your being a douche to him duh.
Cops gang beating a diabetic man. Subway lying straight to your face. Pro gun propaganda. Just another day in 'merica. Quote: "Obama mentioned that since Newtown 900 deaths have resulted in this country from gun violence". That is fucking crazy.
More police brutality in the states. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6e0_1360266647 In contrast this is how British police deal with a semi scuicidal knife wielding maniac outside Buckingham Palace. Notice the distinct lack of brutal kicking the suspect recieves once down. That's how it's done.
There's a massive manhunt in California right now for a former cop that killed some other police officers, and below is a picture of a truck (wrong color, wrong model) that the LAPD riddled with bullets thinking that it contained the suspect of the manhunt (who is a black male). Instead, it was a 71 year old Hispanic woman and her 47 year old daughter who were delivering newspapers for the LA Times.... http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/02/dorner-manhunt-shootings-newspaper-carriers.html
Yeah, I've been hearing about this. The guy is a former cop who has apparently declared war on the corrupt LAPD like some kind of a Batman villain, complete with a manifesto. And he's going around assassinating cops. He'll never live to see a courtroom or the inside of a jail cell. Anything or anyone who even looks like this guy is going to get sprayed with machine gun fire. It's ironic that in hunting this guy down, the LAPD is proving to be just as corrupt as he says they are.
I heard of another incident where a cop thought they saw this guy in a car and popped three rounds or so into the windshield. It was another civilian in there, but luckily he didn't die.