Thursday, May 17, 2012

Facebook arrogance re. privacy is reason for concern over stock offering

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and the leader of Facebook, has repeatedly shown his arrogance in the selecting, handling and sharing of Facebook user data.  Take a look at what results from a Google search of “Facebook Privacy Issues.”  In November of 2011, the feds accused the company of engaging in “unfair and deceptive” practices, only settling after ordering the company to respect the privacy wishes of its users, subjecting it to regular privacy audits for 20 years.

That’s heavy stuff for a company some of you trust your most private data to.  But the smart ones don’t and they have finally been heard from in a recent AP-CNBC poll revealing that 57 percent of Facebook users never click on ads or other sponsored content.  The obvious reason, they are concerned it will be used in a way that breaches their privacy.  Another 26 percent hardly ever do this and only 4 percent indicate they often click on ads.

This could be the primary reason that General Motors, the third-largest advertiser in the U.S., will drop Facebook from all its advertising.  Apparently it didn’t sell cars.  Considering the Facebook public stock offering coming this month, it exposes the riskiness of the overall Facebook model, according to Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research on MSN/Money.  And it’s not just Facebook; another large consumer products company thinks it may not be worth the money spent.

Mark Zuckerberg
I did a blog recently, What U.S. company do you hate the most?”  Guess who came out number 1.  That’s right.  Facebook.  Here’s a quote from the entry: “Facebook has the lowest customer satisfaction score from the American Customer Satisfaction Index.“  Further, “The company’s customer service was described as poor by 25.9 percent of users in 2011.”  In most industries that would spell disaster but fortunately for Zuckerberg, he holds the edge.

He’s giving away a communications vehicle that is absolutely free.  All he asks is that you give him all your private information to use in any way he chooses.  And there lies the problem of this whole mess.  It translates into yet another distrust by users where 54 percent said they would not feel comfortable using Facebook for financial transaction in purchasing goods or services.  Just imagine what that kind of thinking would do to a site like Amazon.com.

Watch this alarming video on your lack of Facebook privacy:

Analysts say this kind of e-commerce is necessary if the company is to survive.  But only 8 percent said they would feel safe in buying through Facebook.  These are all figures that, if they aren’t changed and changed quickly, could provide such a negative picture of this social media that it begins to lose both users and more advertisers. I have followed Mark Zuckerberg on his privacy raids since they first started and he appears completely clueless on the merits of the issue.

This has all had its effects on the current stock offering with an evaluation of around $100 billion, with half in the poll saying that is overvalued.  That number jumps to 62 percent with active investors.  There is also no consensus whether Facebook would make a good investment which does not bode well for the long term.  And Zuckerberg garners only 18 percent in those who have confidence in him as a leader of the company.  Has he just been lucky so far?

For as long as I can remember, users have been suspicious of Facebook’s use of their personal data.  In the AP_CNBC poll, which was conducted May 3 through May 7, 59 percent of respondents said they had “little or no trust in Facebook to keep their information private.”  Yet the company has grown to 901 million monthly users worldwide.  The answer is really simple, just give the very minimum of information to identify yourself and never your birth date.

Finally, an online survey the pollsters asked readers to respond to asked the following question: Do you trust Facebook to keep your personal information safe?  The results:

Total of 34,564 votes
Yes-2.1%-740 votes
No-93.7%-32,390 votes
Not Sure-4.1%-1,434 votes

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

More calls to repeal the 2nd Amendment

There is another debate going on re. whether to repeal the 2nd Amendment with a pro/con between Steve Zorbaugh and Elizabeth Roberts, both Pennsylvanians, and both very eloquent.  However, Roberts places much of her reasoning against repeal in her interpretation of what the Founding Fathers intended in their amendment plus a general distrust in the American government.  Zorbaugh shoots all this NRA malarkey down and makes a very strong case in favor.

But Zorbaugh starts with an interesting statement that I had to research further.  He said: “There are 788,258 words in a standard King James Bible. The word ‘gun’ isn't one of them.”  That would indicate a direct connection between religion and guns, and I found that there is.  At least in the minds of the gun worshippers.  There is a lawyer by the name of Herb Titus who is part of the Gun Owners of America who draws this parallel between the 2nd Amendment and religion.

The article in the second site, above, exclaims that “…the Tea Party movement emerges out of the confluence of different strands of the far right, including Christian Reconstructionism.”  We all know that TPers are staunch gun rights supporters and gun toters.  Further, “The militia movement and Christian Reconstructionism both contend that our current civil government, most especially the federal government, is illegitimate.” At the very least, scary.

Cass Sunstein, Constitutional Lawyer and U.S. Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on repealing 2nd Amendment:

Larry Pratt, Exec. Dir. of GOA said: “we’re not really talking about a right but an obligation, as creatures of God, to protect the life that was given them.”  Now we don’t just go back to biblical days where there is a fantasized association between gun and religion, but according to Pratt it came right from the mouth of God.  More on this in a later post.  It is beyond me where these maniacs come up with this crap but of course the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) comes to mind.

Zorbaugh refutes Roberts’ Founding Fathers drivel in one compact, precise statement: “The justification for gun ownership that existed in 1787 no longer exists today.”  But he follows up with a multitude of other refutations that should make a brainwashed NRA membership think.  But it won’t.  He does acknowledge the need then to have protection against the King of England and against unfriendly Native American tribes that we confiscated our land from. 

But that was over two-hundred years ago.  Things have changed.  The only thing outside one’s God worshipped today is guns, not thrones.

Zorbaugh proclaims: “After 225 years, the Second Amendment has clearly outlived its original purpose.”  He is looking for a new Constitutional Amendment that will value the community’s right to being safe over the demands of the gun bubbas that want to carry their weapons anywhere they want to at anytime they want to.  And the only way this can be accomplished is with stronger gun control. 

One good reason for more control is Philip Cook’s statement that the cost our society pays each year to guarantee gun ownership exceeds $100 billion and is growing annually at an alarming rate.”  This comes from Cook’s book, “Gun Violence: The Real Costs.”

There is one solution affirms the pro-repeal author.  Require gun owners to carry insurance on their weapons just like they are required to do on their automobiles, for potential death and injuries.  This would at least mandate registration which we all know would send the NRA into its next aberration.  It would be worth the try just to see Wayne LaPierre, the organization’s CEO and Exec, Vice President, come off the spool…again.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

ARIZONA…where the hate groups flock

J.T. Ready and his U.S. Border Guard group are just the latest hate group to pop up in the news in Arizona after he shot and killed his girlfriend, her daughter and her boyfriend and the girlfriend’s granddaughter, only 15 months old.  We still have the neo-Nazi skinheads, the National Socialist Movement led by Harry Hughes, the Ku Klux Klan, the Vinlanders Social Club, another racist skinhead group and Minutemen American Defense.

Shawna Forde, founder of MAD and two of her henchmen were convicted of first-degree murder in 2009 for the deaths of two, one a 9-year-old girl.  Dennis Mahon, a White supremacist from Illinois, even came all the way to Arizona in 2004 to send a mail bomb to Don Logan who was black and working for the city of Scottsdale.  Jeffrey Harbin from the Nat’l Socialist Movement in Apache Junction was convicted of making explosive devices in 2011.

A USA Today article chronicles how easy it is for the hate groups to get started and flourish in the great state of Arizona.  Bill Straus, Arizona regional dir. of the Anti-Defamation League said, "Immigration is pretty much unarguably the No. 1 recruiting element in the White supremacist world."  Having lived in the state for over 20 years, I can vouch for the fact that there is little temperance here for minorities, particularly undocumented immigrants.


Hate in the South

Arizona’s anti-immigration law, SB-1070, sponsored by former state senator Russell Pearce, a known racist, and signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer, also known for being one of the worst governors ever to lead a state, was the impetus for these hate groups to raise their ugly heads and send Arizona into a tailspin that has made it the laughing stock of the country.  Not to be outdone, the boneheaded state legislature passed its share of stupid laws in its support.

Brian Levin, dir. of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Calif. State U.-San Bernardino, claims that he knows of neo-Nazis who “…want to make pilgrimages to Arizona.”  Levin continues, "They believe that there are a lot of people in the state who are sympathetic to them."

The above is a fact that should be troubling to Gov. Brewer and the legislature but both are clueless in the matter.  The key factor here is that Arizona would have to tighten its gun laws—the loosest in the nation—to do anything about the extremism, and the state’s gun bubbas would never allow that.  They, along with the Tea Party, have Arizona so tightly controlled at the moment that it has become near impossible to even raise progressive ideas.  But it is happening.

FAIR and hate groups video:

USA Today says that Ready’s death, “…has pulled back the curtain on the shadowy world of extremism in Arizona that seems to teeter on the edge of violence.”  So add to the cross-country ridicule of Arizona the fact that it is now the leader in “Hate-States.”  Pathetic!  Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center says there were a total of 17 hate groups in Arizona as of 2011.  And it can all be traced back to the proliferation of guns to create this hate and violence.

James Turgal, special agent in charge of the FBI's Phoenix division believes that domestic terrorism is “very active” in Arizona, giving credit to the Nat’l Socialist Movement, neo-Nazis and something he called the “anti-government sovereign citizen” movement.  And Mark Potok of the SPLC was quoted as saying, "There are a lot of really thuggish individuals associated with the nativist movement in Arizona."  That’s a term no state should want associated with its citizenry. 

If the dethroned Russell Pearce gets his way, he will be back in Arizona’s senate by the end of the November elections; he is running for a seat in another state district from where he was booted recently.  In all likelihood the lame-brained legislature would probably elect him president again, and the great state of Arizona would return to business as usual.

UNLESS…progressives continue to do their thing and start a conservative cleansing that will rid us of these un-patriots.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Stories behind the mindless side of the gun rights movement

Sometimes you can’t resist illustrating just how far the marginally intelligent will go to attempt to prove their point that anyone should be able to own a gun and take it anywhere they want.  I question their IQ quotient because in a couple of the instances below, the people must be dealing with double digits or less.  If not, they are clearly a menace to society and should be under the observation of mental health specialists.

Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican (what else?) from Kentucky has placed his political support behind a gun group’s email campaign that has an image of a rifle pointed at President Barack Obama’s head.  It is funded by the National Association of Gun Rights (NAGR) based in Virginia, who also has bolstered the conspiracy, along with the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), about the alleged government plans to take weapons away from American gun owners.

Ladd Everitt, dir. of communications for The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, says that death threats against Obama are up 400 percent compared to former President George W. Bush.  Considering the complete ineptness of GWB’s administration, you might wonder if this is based on the fact that most guns are in the hands of conservative Republicans.  Either that or is there another underlying factor which centers on Obama being the first black president?

Trayvon Martin target
And then we have this crackbrained entrepreneur from Orlando, Florida who has come up with the ludicrous idea to sell targets for the gun range, made in the image of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman.  Supposedly in a self-defense situation, Zimmerman was charged with 2nd degree murder.  Even Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara said, "This is the highest level of disgust and the lowest level of civility."

What says even more about the gun nuts that bought the targets is the fact that they sold out in 2 days.  This scrapes the under-belly of the barrel of bad taste but is representative of a group whose priorities are so far out of whack that they cannot see beyond the barrel of their gun.  The National Rifle Assn. (NRA) has turned these poor souls into a lunatic fringe for their guns, convincing them they have the right to do anything they want with their weapons.

The targets were offered for sale on a popular firearms auction website and the sellers said they "support Zimmerman and believe he is innocent and that he shot a thug."  No mention of supporting Zimmerman’s case from the proceeds of the sales of the targets, rather, it appears that these slime-balls have just decided to profit off the death of this black teenager.  This incident provides perfect insight into the mentality of an extremely dark side of the gun rights movement.

Finally, one for the books.  With Mexico overrun with weapons, did you know that there is only one legal gun store in the country?  If you’re a Mexican looking for a gun, you must go to the one store that is housed on a military base run by the army.  That’s if you want to do it legally, because Mexico has some of the strongest gun laws in the world.  But if you want a weapon from the so-called black market, you look to the U.S. just like the drug cartels do.

The ATF estimates that at least 68,000 guns found in Mexico by their government have been traced back to the United States.  Now, did you know that there are 20,834 gun stores on the U.S. side of the Mexican/American border?  Coincidence?  With the weak gun laws in this country, these stores are free to sell to whomever they please and in quantity.  Not losing a step, Republicans and the NRA still oppose any laws resisting the sale of assault weapons in the U.S.

Added to the above, it was reported by the Brady Campaign that gun dealers “lost” more than 62,000 firearms since 2008.  Described as “A Criminal’s Delight,” they also report that gun manufacturers, the biggest supporters of the NRA, lost more than 16,000 firearms since 2009.  Pennsylvania leads the nation when it comes to guns missing from gun shops.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t Arizona.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer carries questionable baggage in barring Planned Parenthood funding

Continuing to worship at the altar of Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, her conservative supporters in the legislature and her like constituents have once again given her the impetus to dump on those in need, turning them out to fend for themselves.  Arizona already bars tax dollars for abortion, but backers, including the Susan B. Anthony List group, say the law is needed to prevent indirect monies from reaching these organizations.


Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer,
still at her best 
Forbes magazine accuses Brewer of “Slipping Back into the Dark Ages.”  What Forbes may not realize is that the country’s worst governor entered the dark ages when she first got into politics and has just continued to unravel since then.  The magazine called her a woman governor playing God with women’s rights.  And this was all in the headline.  What Forbes and most of the other articles about this issue don’t mention is Brewer’s family connection which I cover later. 

Planned Parenthood does provide abortion funds but they do much more for the needy including: providing cancer screenings, birth control, plus regular wellness exams for women.  Only 10 percent of females seek abortion services from Planned Parenthood of Arizona.  But Jan Brewer’s bill shuts out the other 90% that need regular healthcare.  This all stems from ideology originating with the domination of conservatives including the religious right, and the Tea Party.

See a video on Arizona's new law:

As the Republican Party has added seats in state legislatures across the country, in many cases led by TPers, the strength to pass laws like Arizona’s has become more prevalent.  What these ideologues don’t understand—or maybe they do and just don’t care—is that this kind of legislation only delays the inevitable which is the fact that these folks eventually end up in the emergency room at taxpayer expense.  But common sense has never been a staple in Arizona politics.


Planned Parenthood protestor
Planned Parenthood says this is just “bad health policy, bad fiscal policy, and bad politics.”  But it is the GOP way and it is an election year.  PP recounts that “Court decisions in Indiana, Kansas, and now North Carolina have made it abundantly clear that it is unacceptable for states to pass laws that prevent women from going to their trusted health care provider to get primary and preventive care.”  We’re not talking abortions, just plain healthcare.

Laws similar to Arizona’s have already been signed in Texas, Tennessee, Vermont, Indiana, and Kansas and are under consideration in New Hampshire.  Many are already being disputed.  And the statistics do support Planned Parenthood.  Forbes reports: “…fully 42% of abortions are requested by women below the poverty level; 61% of women seeking abortions already have at least one child; and 1/2 of the pregnancies in the United States are unintentional.”

Co-PP’s founder, Margaret Sanger, says, “They live and die on the fringes of society, in pockets of dire poverty and inner city tenements, even in an ultra-rich country like ours.  Yet they might as well not exist as far as politicians, and commentators are concerned.”  No doubt she means the conservative talk-radio circuit.  Another point is made that Arizona’s and other states’ budget deficits might be solved by releasing this financial burden on families.

But Arizona’s Gov. Jan Brewer has a deeper, more covert interest in Arizona’s “Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act.”  Almost sounds wholesome, doesn’t it?  The only site that had the guts to report this aspect of the story was Jezebel.com, saying in its headline, “Governor Who Cut Funding for Sexual Assault Victims Has Son Who Was Charged With Sexual Assault.”  Brewer’s new law won’t help the victim but it will help her son.

Ronald Brewer “…broke into a woman’s apartment, slapped her several times, and committed sex acts on her.”  And although the man had been functioning as a normal human being prior to the attack, his mother, the Governor, had him committed because she said the trauma had deteriorated his health.  At the same time she had the case’s records sealed by the court.

The question is whether she put the guy away to help him or was it because she didn’t want Ronald to embarrass her during her administration?  She needn’t have worried, Brewer has done nothing but embarrass herself since becoming Governor.

Forbes had an interesting statement at the end of their article.  It read: “It is reprehensible enough when governments like the Chinese enforce a rule of no more than one child per family.  How is it any different when a government insists that we cannot limit the size of it?”  The anti-abortion people should take note of this.  But Jan Brewer wouldn’t have a clue what they are talking about.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Florida man provided driving force behind “Stand Your Ground” law

An elderly James Workman in Pensacola, Florida was the impulse for the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) to devise and advance Florida’s, the nation’s first, “Stand Your Ground” law in 2005.  It was November 3, 2004, at 2 a.m., seven weeks after Hurricane Ivan made landfall, when FEMA worker Rodney Cox came to the Workman’s door and asked for a drink of water.  Workman and his wife were in a temporary RV in the driveway of their unlivable home. 

Residents were on edge following an earlier incident where police had to subdue a man with a machete at the house next door.  Rodney Cox approached the workman’s front door as Kathryn Workman—awake because she couldn’t sleep—watched, then woke her husband who grabbed his .38 pistol and confronted Cox.  After mumbling and asking for a drink of water, Workman ordered him off his property, firing a warning shot.

At that point they say Cox dashed toward the trailer where Kathryn was waiting, a phone in one hand, her own .38 in the other.  She screamed at the 911 operator who heard a struggle, then was told by the wife that her husband had shot the intruder, who apparently got up after being shot.  In the hours before being shot Cox had called 911 himself to report he had been a victim of domestic violence, his skull fractured, possibly explaining his disoriented condition. 

It was this particular episode that was the motivation for “Stand Your Ground.”  But, interestingly, the Workmans were never asked to testify at the legislative session considering the law.  They had to find out about it on the evening news.  It would almost appear that the NRA saw the incident as an excuse to enact another stupid law that is now being questioned in many of the states where it has been passed. 

Then on to another loose gun state, Texas, where Jose Luis Gonzales, fed up with burglaries at his house, shot and killed Francisco Anguiano, 13, when he broke into Gonzales’ house around midnight.  He was with three other kids ranging in ages from 11 to 15, and was shot in the back with a shotgun.  Looking for snacks, the boys were told to “drop it” referring to a bag of Cheetos, then said they were smacked with the shotgun.  They ended up on the floor face-down.


Texas guns

Uriel Druker, Webb County district attorney said the kids were subdued and “weren’t going to go at him.”  Gonzales was screaming at them to stay down, all of this which Druker said disproves Gonzales’ claim of self-defense.  Gonzales said he thought the 13-year-old was about to “lunge” at him.  Now common sense would tell most of us that, assuming the kid was on his stomach on the floor, and was shot for lunging at Gonzales, how did he get shot in the back?

The medical examiner even confirmed this, and, according to Druker, the homeowner didn’t even mention the kids lunging at him until he retained a lawyer.  It only took three hours for a jury to acquit Gonzales.  When Druker later confronted jurors meeting them around town, he asked why the jury agreed to acquit.  The standard answer was that they feared losing their right to protect their own homes.  That is gun mentality at its worse.  The statute was on trial.

The CNN article in the above link says, “The shooters feel remorse but are resolute in the belief that the law is on their side.”  I say that is a double-edged sword, and one these self-styled vigilantes should have to fall on instead of their victims.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

When does self-defense become murder?

The “Stand Your Ground” law has taken flak since Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Florida where the legislation was enacted for the first time under the complete supervision of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) in 2005.  Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder and there is some concern over Zimmerman’s pursuit of Martin in the incident, which the bill’s sponsors say was not intended as an option.

It’s like playing Wyatt Earp or vigilante, and we all know that isn’t allowed anywhere but in Arizona.  Precisely where SYG was re-enacted recently; that state passed the law in 2006 after only 20 seconds of justification by the NRA before legislators.  A total of 33 states have passed a similar version that allows the expansion of deadly force in protecting yourself outside the home.  Some question whether the 2nd Amendment intended this.

Typical Arizona shootings yellow tape
Arizona just couldn’t wait to test the law and one of the state’s gun worshippers decided to do just that on April 3, at a Taco Bell in Laveen.  He shot Daniel Adkins, Jr. in what he claimed was self-defense.  The young man was 29 but with the mental capacity of a 13-year-old.  The shooter was not charged.  Adkins was walking past a Taco Bell just as the 22-year-old shooter was picking up his order.  The latter slammed on his brakes barely missing Adkins.

The two men exchanged words and according to the shooter Adkins swung his hands in the air in the direction of the SUV.  The question at this point is whether the shooter almost hit Adkins with his SUV; if so, who was the instigator of this altercation?  Or is that not considered under the SYG law?  Adkins wasn’t even close enough to touch the vehicle but when he waved his hands in the air again, the driver shot him with his S&W 40-caliber weapon, hitting him in the chest.

Adkins was not armed but the shooter “believed” he was carrying due to what he thought he saw was a metal pipe or bat in the victim’s hand.  Since the shooter’s fiancé was also in the car with him, it will be interesting to hear her take on the event.  CNN spoke to the shooter’s father who, behind the door of his home warned the reporter that he had a gun in his hand.  He did defend his son’s use of deadly force.  He also said witnesses said that Adkins “went berserk.”

Adkins family later said that all Daniel had in his hand, what the shooter thought was a weapon, was the leash of his loyal dog, a yellow lab named Lady.

In this retaliation Adkins is purported to say: “What the hell, you almost hit me,” and “watch where the f*** you’re going.”  Sounds like substantiation of the fact that the driver almost did hit him, and his following tirade does not appear to justify the taking of the man’s life.  It sounds more like wild-west justice based solely on the fact that the NRA has apparently driven home the ideology to its members and the public that it is OK to shoot first and ask questions later.

Local TV coverage of Daniel Adkins killing:

The senior Atkins told CNN, "Why didn't he shoot my son in the leg? It would've stopped him. He hit him right straight in the heart. He shot to kill."  Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California, said:
"When you arm people on the streets, the opportunities for tragic shootings like the one in the Martin case increase."  A 2007 Nat’l Dist. Attorney’s study also found that law enforcement is concerned over the “Stand Your Ground” laws.

In the next post, the incident that spawned the “Stand Your Ground” laws.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

J. T. Ready had support of top Arizona politician

J.T. Ready with assault rifle
It is reasonably agreed at this point that well-known Arizona racist and neo-Nazi J.T. Ready killed four people including a 15-month-old toddler in Gilbert, Arizona on May 2, and then took his own life.  He was outfitted with body armor, which in itself raises questions since he shouldn’t have expected much opposition from his gun attack from family members, certainly not the child.  In my post yesterday I described the specifics of the massacre, including Ready’s NRA membership.

J.T. Ready was an avowed white supremacist who had been followed by the Anti-Defamation League, according to its director of investigative research, Marc Pitcavage.  Ready is described on their website as an “anti-immigrant extremist dating back to 2004.  His biography even stated that he believed in “lawful deadly force” to protect the Mexican border, as well as restoring America to a “White, European homeland.” 

Ready’s national attention may very well have contributed to the force behind a recent study by Pew Research that confirmed that only 29 percent of Hispanics think it is more important to protect gun control, compared with 57 percent of whites.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil-rights organization in Alabama that keeps track of hate and extremist groups, documents Ready’s background on its website.  He actually started his political career in the 2000s at Mesa, AZ Community College.  It says that he received a bad-conduct discharge from the Marines having been court-martialed twice, once for larceny and going AWOL, once for conspiracy and assault.  There was also a criminal conviction is 1992.

The hacker group LulzSec posted secret FBI documents online with suspicions neo-Nazi groups were planting “fairly complex” explosives along smuggling routes, according to the Christian Science Monitor.  J.T. Ready was once quoted as saying, “I firmly believe in having a minefield across the border.”  He was also known for wanting to militarize the border and had patrolled there repeatedly with his own militia group, U.S. Border Guard.

But the following must be one of Ready’s most bizarre statements: “Arizona Statues allow the fielding of most weapons short of nuclear weapons and certain chemical weapons.  Therefore we are already in contact with brokers concerning a .50 cal semi-automatic rifle and a MBT– Main Battle Tank.”


Russell Pearce paling with J.T. Ready

Some friends said the man was “cruel and controlling” and one of his victims, his girlfriend Lisa Lynn Mederos, may not have known of his troubled past with women.  In 2009, a Scottsdale woman filed an order of protection against him; in 2003 a woman in Ready's apartment complex accused him of stalking, spying, frequently calling and trying to kiss her.  Some family members hated him and Ready called the toddler, Lilly, he killed “50 % ugly” because she was half-Latino.
    

J.T. Ready was sponsored as an elder in the Mormon Church by former Arizona state Senator Russell Pearce, who was dumped from his job recently by voters, but not until he had authored the state’s anti-immigration bill, SB-1070.  And when it comes to the relationship between Russell Pearce and Ready I must defer to Phoenix New Times writer Stephen Lemons, who publishes the blog, the Feathered Bastard, and his dogged coverage of the two.

In a May 2 article, Lemons said, “Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Ready was his relationship with ex-Senator Pearce, who helped him join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and groomed him, according to Ready, for a possible run for the legislature.”  Their affiliation later soured when Pearce distanced himself from Ready and actually renounced him in 2008.

Best Buds J.T. Ready with Russell Pearce
In Lemons article on May 3, he accuses Russell Pearce of lying “again,” with documentation that is a must read.  The two were so close, he said, that Pearce ordained Ready as an elder in the Mormon Church’s Melchizedek priesthood for adult men in the church.  But Pearce continues to deny the closeness of their relationship. 

Krysten Sinema, former Arizona state senator, sponsored a 2007 event in the legislature on extremism in the immigration movement.

Lemons asked Sinema if it was possible that Pearce could not be aware of that seminar.  She answered, "I find that very hard to believe,” she told me in 2008. "The entire Legislature was invited to the event. The whole thing was videotaped, and you can watch it on our archive. And I reported it on the floor [of the state House]."  Pearce has been charged regularly by Democrats, the media, even fellow Republicans of misstating facts to make his points.

Video of Russell Pearce endorsing J.T. Ready

There’s more.  The Arizona regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, Bill Straus, says that he informed Pearce of Ready’s extremist activities as far back as 2006.  Once again, Pearce blatantly disputes the fact that the two had close ties.  He even told Lemons in 2007 at a roast of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio that he really didn’t think J.T. was a “Bad guy.”  When lemons questioned their on-going friendship, Pearce replied he didn’t hang out with Ready.

The “Bird” as the author refers to himself, quickly reminded the ex-senator that he observed him working side-by-side, arm-in-arm at a rally and had the photos to prove it.  Pearce replied, “I don’t push people away.”  This was in December of 2007 after being warned by Straus, also following Ready’s public outing as a white supremacist.  I urge you to read Stephen Lemons full account of the issue of Pearce’s lies in the above May 3 link.

So it is clear that defrocked Senator Russell Pearce was buddies with J.T. Ready until the extremist no longer served his needs, at which time he dumped him and tried to cover up the past with lies that have been confirmed as just that over and over.  It is ludicrous that Russell Pearce still has the unquestioned support of many of his fellow Republicans and has the arrogance to run for the Arizona Senate in the same general area that has already thrown him out of office.

Only in Arizona.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Arizona neo-Nazi murderer J. T. Ready was NRA member


J.T. Ready and pal Russell Pearce

Jason Todd ‘J.T.’ Ready was well known in Arizona as a confirmed racist and neo-Nazi who never missed the chance to demonize the Hispanic community, sometimes along with his pal, Russell Pearce.  See a list of my blog posts on Ready and Pearce here.  It was this past Wed., May 2, when Ready decided to end his career of terrorizing Latinos and shot five people including himself.  I have covered this man for the last three years and this was totally unexpected. 

There was Ready’s girlfriend, Lisa Lynn Mederos, 47, her daughter, Amber, 23, Jim Hiott, Amber’s fiancé, 24, and Amber’s daughter, 15 months.  There is total tragedy in the whole incident, which someone other than Ready should have seen coming, but the killing of a toddler makes it even more horrendous.  Another of Lisa Lynn’s daughters, Brittany Hazel Menderos, 19, was in a bedroom and heard the shootings and was first to discover the bodies. 

The Young Turks on Ready massacre:

For years J.T. Ready has conducted armed civilian patrols at the U.S. border with Mexico with the group he founded, U.S. Border Guard, and although saddened over the loss of their leader and his victims, say they will continue Ready’s work.  In the past, Ready has stated, “I firmly believe in having a minefield across the border.”  He added, “This is 100% effective.”  As a part of the Arizona militia scene he was known to take matters into his own hands.

Ready was a former Marine who started his militia activities after his bad conduct discharge from the service in 1996, preceded by two courts martial.  At one point he belonged to the National Socialist Movement which supports white supremacy.  In 2007 he marched in Omaha, Nebraska with a swastika banner with brown-shirted NSM members.  He was also a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp. serving in their border project. 

In 2008, Ready became a Republican precinct captain in Mesa, AZ, further promoting his political career.  Republicans tried their best to get him removed from the position due to his extremist views but apparently Ready had deep support in the Arizona GOP that was able to help him survive.  There is probably another story in just who this was.  And he was currently a prospective candidate for Pinal County Sheriff, running as a Democrat.


J.T. Ready (2nd from right)
as neo-Nazi

Harry Hughes, regional director of the National Socialist Movement said Ready had left the organization two years ago but it is obvious that he left his imprint on the group from the following:  Ready said that only non-Jewish, white hetrosexuals should be American citizens.  Also, that all non-white people should leave the U.S.  Ready entered the news early when firing on a Hispanic man in 2006 with a BB gun while running for the Mesa, AZ City Council.

When police searched the house after the massacre, they found six 40 mm projectile grenades, which an Army surplus store manager said was not available in any store.  They had to be acquired on the black market.  Also found were two 55-gallon drums that the bomb squad said was no immediate danger.  And finally, authorities recovered 2 handguns and a shotgun.  It isn’t clear yet just what gun or guns Ready used on the victims and himself.


J.T. Ready protesting

And now to my headline signifying that J.T. Ready was a member of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), which is true.  Back in 2010 I was doing several blog posts on Ready and Russell Pearce, the defrocked Arizona senator.  The comments, as usual, were vitriolic of me but in support of Pearce, even Ready, in his quest to rid Arizona of undocumented immigrants.  There is no compassion in that state for illegals, a stigma that remains until this day.

I have never minced words about J.T., and one of his supporters took me to task in a comment for berating him for his tactics.  It was posted on Facebook, where I had shared the post.  That same day, Ready posted another comment in reply to his supporter saying not to worry, it {me} was just sophomoric writing.  I couldn’t resist and headed over to Ready’s Facebook page and left him a message.  Ignoring his comment, I asked him point blank if he was a NRA member.

His exact reply was: “I am not current on my dues.  I hold numerous NRA instructor certificates.  You may see wahtwe(sic) do at:” and he directs you to this site.  Warning.  Page 13 has a gruesome picture.  But you can see from the pictures and captions, J.T. Ready was firmly against animal abuse.  Read more on the issue here, here, here and here.

It is not clear just how close Ready’s ties with the NRA were.  His statement above is proof of membership, but apparently he couldn’t or wouldn’t pay his dues.  Over the years I have covered Ready, I cannot remember the National Rifle Assn. ever even questioning his activities.  So far I have seen no statement from the NRA on the issue.  Read more about this on Common Gunsense. 

Since Ready is or was a member of the NRA, and because he operated in a state (Arizona) where the organization has been successful in forcing the loosest gun laws in the country through a clueless Governor and state legislature, I think we are due the consideration of a statement on how this man was armored up to the hilt and allowed to wreak havoc that killed 4 innocent people including a toddler.

More on J.T. Ready tomorrow including his close association with former Arizona Sen. Russell Pearce who was booted from office.

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