Tag Archives: Raw Story

January 11, 2013 · 7:59 PM

James Yeager, CEO Who Threatened To ‘Start Killing People,’ Has Gun Permit Suspended

James Yeager

That was quick…

The Huffington Post

James Yeager, the CEO who recently threatened to “start killing people” if President Barack Obama pursued an expansion on gun control, has had his gun permit suspended.

Authorities with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security told Newschannel 5 the suspension was based on “material likelihood of risk of harm to the public.”

In a statement to the station, Commissioner Bill Gibbons said:

The number one priority for our department is to ensure the public’s safety. Mr. Yeager’s comments were irresponsible, dangerous, and deserved our immediate attention. Due to our concern, as well as that of law enforcement, his handgun permit was suspended immediately. We have notified Mr. Yeager about the suspension today via e-mail. He will receive an official notification of his suspension through the mail.

Yeager raised some eyebrows after posting a video to YouTube Wednesday. In the clip he said increased gun control measures would “spark a civil war” and he would “be glad to fire the first shot.”

The video originally ended with Yeager stating, “If it goes one inch further, I’m going to start killing people.” He has since deleted that portion of the video, but an original version, captured by Raw Story, is still viewable below.

Yeager is the CEO of Tactical Response, a Tennessee company that teaches people weapons handling and other tactical skills.

In a video statement released on YouTube Thursday, Yeager acknowledges, “I was mad when I said it and probably allowed my mouth to overrun my logic, but I don’t retract any of my statements.”

Watch Raw Story Video…

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January 10, 2013 · 6:24 PM

Tactical Response CEO Threatens To ‘Start Killing People’ Over Possible Obama Gun Measure (VIDEO)

James Yeager

Multiply this guy by millions who think just like him..scary scenario, indeed…

The Huffington Post

One CEO says he’s willing to go to outrageous lengths to protect his right to use a gun.

James Yeager, CEO of Tactical Response, a Tennessee company that trains people in weapon and tactical skills, claimed in a video posted on YouTube and Facebook thathe would “start killing people” if President Barack Obama decides to take executive action to pass further gun control policies, Raw Story reports.

In a frenetic address to the camera, Yeager puts a call out to other gun rights advocates to “load your damn mags” and “get ready to fight” in what he claims will turn into a “civil war” if gun control measures in the country get any stricter.

SEE FULL VIDEO BELOW — WARNING ADULT LANGUAGE

Yeager’s diatribe was a response to a recent statement from Vice President Joe Biden indicating that Obama was exploring using executive orders to address gun policy. Yeager accused Obama of being a “dictator” for considering taking action without Congress.

After the massacre in Newtown, Conn. last month, Obama instituted a task force lead by Biden to come up with policy proposals to deal with gun violence no later than this month.

The Washington Post reported that the White House is considering more expansive measures to tackle gun violence than simply reinstating a ban on assault weapons and large magazines. Biden’s working group will consider initiatives such as a national database to track sale and movement of weapons and universal background checks for gun buyers.

Yeager isn’t the first gun advocate to loudly voice his opinion about potential action on Capitol Hill. On Monday, Radio Host Alex Jones went on a scathing pro-gun tirade on “Piers Morgan Tonight” claiming that, “1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms! Doesn’t matter how many lemmings you get out there on the street, begging for ‘em to have their guns taken. We will not relinquish them. Do you understand?!”

Yeager recently edited the video he put up on YouTube to not include his threat to “start killing people.” The original video was preserved by Raw Story and can be seen below.

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April 6, 2012 · 3:08 PM

Activists promise to challenge Houston’s ban on feeding homeless

A line of homeless children being fed by a charitable group. Photo: Shutterstock.com, all rights reserved.

“God comes to the hungry in the form of food…” ~ Ghandi

Where is the soul of the GOP?  What’s happened to “the party of Lincoln”?

The Raw Story

The Houston City Council voted this week to require prior permission before any citizen may distribute food to five or more people on public property, but local activists are preparing to fight back — and hard.

While the ordinance passed Wednesday night by an 11-6 vote was drastically stripped down from the version supported by Houston Mayor Annise Parker, activists say they’re going to challenge it in court and attempt to gather 20,000 signatures over the next month, which should be enough to trigger a city-wide vote on the ordinance in November.

It turns public property into private property,” Chris Carmona, a civil rights attorney in Houston and volunteer with the charitable group Noah’s Kitchen, told Raw Story on Friday. “We already have trespassing laws on the books. We have loitering laws. We have littering laws. But to take public property and turn it private… That’s our local government’s recent mood. That’s our biggest concern.”

The ordinance that passed Wednesday night requires groups to obtain permission from the city before handing out any food, and imposes a fine of $500 for anyone who defies the rule. It also allows the city to designate certain organizations as “recognized” charitable food providers, which would have to adhere to certain rules mostly pertaining to cleanliness.

The disjointed groups opposing the city on public food distribution are being led by the local chapter of Food Not Bombs, which boasts that they have been serving Houston’s homeless community four nights a week over the last 18 years. They helped lead the charge against the original proposal, which would have required food handlers’ licenses and special permits from the city to serve food in a public place.

“This will make it a crime to pull over to the side of the road and hand out food to five or more people,” Nick Cooper, spokesman for Houston Food Not Bombs, told Houston newspaperThe Memorial Examiner.

Carmona added that his group, Noah’s Kitchen, would be restricted to operating at only very specific locations, and likely far away from the less-seen populations they try to serve. He pointed to the city’s wealthier land and business owners as having been influential in the city’s thinking on the ordinance, which he claimed essentially says that the city owns all public property.

And Randall Kallinen, a civil rights attorney who has worked with Occupy Houston, absolutely agrees with Carmona. “A few of the downtown moneyed interests have been able to exert their influence to prevent people from giving and sharing food,” he told the local Fox affiliate.

Kallinen and Carmona, along with other associated groups, have released petition forms online for distribution across social media, hoping to generate the 20,000 signatures required to force the issue onto a city-wide ballot this November. Other groups are reportedly pursuing a restraining order against the ordinance, which would otherwise take effect on July 1 — but Carmona told Raw Story that may not even be necessary.

“Under city charter, if we get our signatures in a timely manner, once you submit them to the city secretary, that should stop any action on the ordinance until it can be voted on by the citizens of Houston,” he said.

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March 30, 2012 · 8:40 PM

Texas cop filmed threatening to arrest men for being afraid of Taser

An as-yet-unnamed police officer confronts several men outside of a Walmart in Houston, Texas. Screenshot via YouTube.

I watched the video below a couple of times.  My conclusion is that the police officer in question needs some serious time off along with some diversity classes and anger management classes…

The Raw Story

A video published to YouTube on Friday appears to show a police officer at a Walmart store in Houston, Texas threatening several black males with a Taser, then claiming he would arrest them, apparently because they cowered away from his weapon.

Reached by Raw Story, a Houston police spokesman said it was not one of their officers involved in the confrontation, and the man’s identity remains unknown.

“He’s an officer from a neighboring jurisdiction, but that’s not for us to say,” the spokesman insisted.

“The officer seen in this video is not a Houston Police Officer and does not work for the Houston Police Department,” another Houston information officer wrote in the video’s comments. “Officers from jurisdictions throughout the area often work extra jobs at businesses throughout the area and that is the case in this incident/video.”

In the video, the unnamed officer approaches several men who are filming outside of a Walmart, then draws his Taser after the men say that they do not have to show him their identifications. When one man reaches toward the officer, he reacts angerly and accuses him of resisting, then claims later in the video he’d already been “hurt,” although it’s not clear by whom.

The man who appeared to gesture toward the officer apparently did so out of fear that his friend might be tazed, and did quite make contact when the officer flung his arms up and knocked his hand aside.

“Don’t taze me, sir,” one man says. “Don’t taze me, sir.”

The men appear to remain calm during the confrontation, even after the officer appears to slap the camera down. “I’m sorry I scared you, but we’re not hostile people,” one of them explains. “We know our rights. We know the Constitution, sir. We know the Constitution. Do I sound illiterate?”

“You know what, I’m calling for a unit right now,” the officer replies. “We’ll see how well you know the Constitution.”

“What’s the– What’s the unit gonna do, take me to jail for knowing the Constitution?” the man answers. “For standing for my freedom?”

At the end of the video, another one of the men informs the officer that he’s a dialysis patient. “You were about to taze somebody– you don’t even know what I go through,” he says. “You might-a, coulda killed me. I’m a dialysis patient, sir! You could have tazed me and made my blood pressure go up.”

It’s not clear what happened after that, as the footage cuts off. It’s also not clear what time and date the incident occurred, but the video was published on Friday, March 30. Houston Police told Raw Story that it happened at the Walmart Super Center at 9460 West Sam Houston Parkway, but could not provide any further details.

The video’s description notes that none of the men were arrested.

This video was published to YouTube on Friday, March 30, 2012. It contains some adult language.

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February 19, 2012 · 12:21 AM

Alec Baldwin calls Breitbart a ‘festering boil on the anus of public discourse’

I have never been a real big fan of Alec Baldwin.  However, that has all changed since reading this headline on the Raw Story. I have tweeted Andrew Breitbart a few times telling him what I thought of him, but never could I have composed such a “poetic” description of creepy Breitbart.

The Raw Story

Apparently Keith Olbermann isn’t the only person who thinks Andrew Breitbart’s recent attempt to smear the “Occupy” movement as serial rapists is a bit beyond the pale.Mediaite is reporting that actor Alec Baldwin took to Twitter today to excoriate the Big Government blogger and media provocateur, calling him a “festering boil on the anus of public discourse.”

The dust-up began when a Twitter user asked Baldwin’s opinion as to whether Breitbart was using the so-called “rape rant” as a smoke screen to distract public attention away from the Shirley Sherrod scandal. (Sherrod was a USDA employee whose career and reputation were impugned in a heavily doctored video that was first aired on Breitbart’s website.)

Baldwin replied to the query with the very descriptive phrase mentioned above, which prompted a great deal of back and forth between the 30 Rock star and Breitbart, as well as many of Breitbart’s and Baldwin’s fans. The actor threw in the towel around 2:00 pm, Tweeting, “OK, enough festering boils for this weekend.”

Interested readers can view screen grabs of the Twitter feeds and a detailed timeline at Mediaite.

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February 12, 2012 · 1:17 PM

American kids of immigrants denied food stamps in Alabama

Apparently the term compassionate conservatism died the moment it was “invented”…

The Raw Story

A civil rights law firm based in Alabama says that children who are U.S. citizens from at least five families have been denied food stamps because their parents are undocumented immigrants.

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Legal Director Mary Bauer confirmed to Raw Story that Alabama’s Department of Human Services had cited the state’s anti-immigration HB 56 law, which makes it illegal to conduct “business transactions” with undocumented workers, as a reason they were denied food stamps.

“We have heard from a number of people that several localities in Alabama have adopted the policy that they’re required to verify the status of parents who are trying to help their kids apply for food stamps — even if they themselves are not applying for food stamps,” Bauer explained. “Of course, that is illegal under federal law.”

“The localities are essentially saying that they are required to do this by Alabama’s immigration law,” she added. “What that means is that we have hungry U.S. citizen kids who are unable to get the benefits to which they are legally entitled.”

Yahoo News’ Liz Goodwin first revealed earlier this week that at least five people had called into SPLC’s immigration hotline to make a report.

Department of Human Services spokesman Barry Spear has insisted that the agency had no policy requiring proof of citizenship for services.

“We are unaware of any violations of the policy,” he said.

But Bauer was skeptical of that claim.

“That may be — that he is not aware of it,” she told Raw Story. “But this is the way that it’s playing out in the field and in the real world. And we will bring specifics to the department’s attention and insist that they come into compliance with federal law.”

While federal law prohibits undocumented immigrants from obtaining food stamps and many other welfare benefits, U.S. citizen children are entitled to all benefits regardless of the status of their parents. A recent study  from the Pew Research Center estimated that there were at least 4.5 million born in the U.S. with at least one undocumented parent.

Alabama state Senator Scott Beason, who authored HB 56, told WBRC that SPLC’s claims were “not necessarily factual.”

Update (5:30 p.m. ET): The SPLC tells Raw Story that they have not ruled out taking legal action if Alabama’s Department of Human Services does not come in compliance with the law.

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December 15, 2011 · 8:09 AM

Gay soldier booed at GOP debate shares his reaction

So much for those little magnetic yellow ribbons that say “Support our troops“.  One could always rely on seeing a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker near those yellow magnets as well.

At the same time Bush was telling us to “go shopping“.

We needn’t make any sacrifices, a yellow magnet would do just fine.

Someone on the “go shopping” link put it clearly and succinctly:

The period immediately following 9/11 provided a moment for Pres. Bush to exercise great leadership, especially to ask Americans to make a sacrifice, and that Bush didn’t seize that opportunity. I also share the view that refraining from calling on Americans to make helpful contributions to the war effort, while ordering other people into harm’s way, is unseemly and symbolic of the growing class disparities in the US. But I caution people against evaluating policies on the basis of symbols.

The Raw Story

An openly gay soldier who was booed by a Republican audience spoke to MSNBC host Chris Matthews on Wednesday about his reaction to the incident.

Army Captain Stephen Hill asked at the Fox News Republican presidential debate in September if the candidates intended to “circumvent the progress that has been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?” His question was met with loud boos.

“I’ve been in the army about 20 years,” he told Matthews. “And I submitted the question because I have had a lot of times in the military where I’d go to the firework, and would be sitting there and they would say, ‘We want to shout out to the troops,’ and it made me feel like I should be really happy at that moment, and then I would all of a sudden realize I am fighting for everybody’s rights except my own. So when I heard some of the Republican candidates had said they would repeal the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ I felt inclined to ask them, ‘is that true? is that what you would do?’”

“I was pretty surprised when the boos happened. It was shocking to me, my gut kind of dropped out. I thought that I had done something wrong. But I think what’s worse is probably that Mr. Santorum’s response got so many cheers.”

Santorum responded to the question by saying that gays shouldn’t have the “special privilege” of being able to serve openly.

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, here…

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November 22, 2011 · 12:38 PM

Pregnant Seattle protester miscarries after being kicked, pepper sprayed

The Raw Story

A woman who was pepper sprayed during during a raid on Occupy Seattle last week is blaming police after she miscarried Sunday.

Jennifer Fox, 19, told The Stranger that she had been with the Occupy protests since they started in Westlake Park. She said she was homeless and three months pregnant, but felt the need to join activists during their march last Tuesday.

“I was standing in the middle of the crowd when the police started moving in,” Fox recalled. “I was screaming, ‘I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let me through. I am trying to get out.’”

She claimed that police hit her in the stomach twice before pepper spraying her. One officer struck her with his foot and another pushed his bicycle into her. It wasn’t clear if either of those incidents were intentional.

“Right before I turned, both cops lifted their pepper spray and sprayed me. My eyes puffed up and my eyes swelled shut,” Fox said.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer photographer Joshua Trujillo snapped a picture of Fox in apparent agony as another activist carried her to an ambulance.

Continue reading here… 

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September 1, 2011 · 5:23 PM

WikiLeaks cable: U.S. troops handcuffed, shot Iraqi children in raid

I must admit that when I read this story at around 8:00 am on the McClatchey site, I was hesitant about reporting it for various reasons which I won’t detail here.

I will not post the horrifying picture that accompanies the story on either McClatchey or The Raw Story.  One would have to click on the link to either site to witness the horrific graphic detail.

In every war this country has ever fought, there are a few soldiers, who for whatever reason, have sunken into the darkest depths of the so-called fog of war.

The Raw Story

According to a diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, U.S. troops massacred an Iraqi family in the town of Ishaqi in 2006, handcuffing and then shooting 11 people in the head including a woman in her 70′s and five children ages five and under.

McClatchy is reporting that the soldiers then called in an air strike on the house to cover up evidence of the killings.

This account differs sharply from an official version of the 2006 incident, which indicated that coalition forces captured an al Qaeda in Iraq operative in the house, which was destroyed in a firefight. The WikiLeaks cable, however, corroborates accounts by Ishaqi townspeople and includes questions about the incident by Philip Alston, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

The cable is dated twelve days after the incident, which took place March 15, 2006. In it, Alston says that autopsies performed in Tikrit on bodies pulled from the wreckage of the farmhouse indicated that all of the dead had been handcuffed and shot in the head.

The victims included “at least 10 persons, namely Mr. Faiz Hratt Khalaf, (aged 28), his wife Sumay’ya Abdul Razzaq Khuther (aged 24), their three children Hawra’a (aged 5) Aisha (aged 3) and Husam (5 months old), Faiz’s mother Ms. Turkiya Majeed Ali (aged 74), Faiz’s sister (name unknown), Faiz’s nieces Asma’a Yousif Ma’arouf (aged 5 years old), and Usama Yousif Ma’arouf (aged 3 years), and a visiting relative Ms. Iqtisad Hameed Mehdi (aged 23) were killed during the raid.”

Here is the cable…

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February 1, 2011 · 9:52 PM

Rep. Wasserman Schultz: Bill Redefining Rape To Prevent Abortions Is ‘A Violent Act Against Women’

It  appears the Honorable Congresswoman from Florida, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, sees the problem with “redefining rape” solely to prevent abortions, with clarity.  She  produces a cogent rebuttal to such an act against women…

Think Progress

House Republicans wasted no time in declaring their legislative priorities for the 112th Congress. The first: repeal health care for millions of Americans. The second: redefine rape. A day after repealing health care, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced the No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act, a bill that would not only permanently prohibit some federally funded health-care programs from covering abortions, but would change the language exempting rape and incest from rape to “forcible rape.”

[...]

And yet, 172 Republicans — including sixteen women — and lone Democrat Rep. Daniel Lipinski (IL), chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus — readily support the new standard. Appalled at such a cavalier attack on women’s rights, one House member is not taking the change lightly. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) “fiercely denounced” her conservative colleagues for this “absolutely outrageous” dilution of victims’ rights. Enraged at the suggestion that “there is some kind of rape that would be okay,” Wasserman Schultz told The Raw Story that she considers the bill itself to be “a violent act against women”:

“It is absolutely outrageous,” Wasserman Schultz said in an exclusive interview late Monday afternoon. “I consider the proposal of this bill a violent act against women.”[...]

“It really is — to suggest that there is some kind of rape that would be okay to force a woman to carry the resulting pregnancy to term, and abandon the principle that has been long held, an exception that has been settled for 30 years, is to me a violent act against women in and of itself,” Wasserman Schultz said.

“Rape is when a woman is forced to have sex against her will, and that is whether she is conscious, unconscious, mentally stable, not mentally stable,” the four-term congresswoman added.[...]

Wasserman Schultz dismissed the effort as a nonstarter in the Democratic-led Senate and a guaranteed veto by President Barack Obama, but conceded that it may pass the GOP-controlled House. She called it “yet another example” of how the “extreme right-wing fringe of Republican Party has complete control over their agenda.”

More…

 

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