The focus of this demonstration is how this weapon will be used in military situations, but you know it won’t be long before this machine shows up at protests. I apologize for the lame intro for this video.

Many of the last several protests, such as the recent APEC demonstrations, were a joke. Protesters are gated off, sometimes as much as a mile or so from what they’re protesting. Now they’ve got this thing?! Exactly how can anyone meaningfully protest anymore? How can anyone be surprised when riots break out?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
John F. Kennedy

September 9, 2007: Dale Mills from Human Rights Monitors says there is evidence that about 200 officers removed their ID badges - so they could not be identified for complaints of assault during the APEC rally in Sydney.

18 people were arrested during APEC demonstrations on Saturday with Police accused of using excessive force. A 52-year-old man spent 22 hours in jail after being arrested for jaywalking before a motorcade on Friday…

The Bums Not Bombs protest was kinda funny though. Effective? Not so much.

Sydney, Australia

Potential troublemakers have been blacklisted. Police were given extraordinary powers to stop and search people in the street. High school students were warned that their parents would be told if they skipped school to protest.

Officials in Australia — which prides itself on a long history of liberal democracy and respect for human rights — have gone to unusual lengths to make sure world leaders at a summit in Sydney this week are not bothered by unruly protests.

I liked this quote myself:

“The reason why we have this security clampdown in Sydney, the reason why people have been inconvenienced, is because people in the past have practiced and … are threatening violence,” Howard said this week.

To place the emphasis of violence on the protesters is to undermine the widespread violence necessary for APEC to exist and function. But to be a little more explicit with this violence, the police want a court order to change the route of the march to avoid protesters.

“If they are going to be idiots and want to take the police on, then they are going to face the consequences.”

So protestors are promised violence if they merely want to be noticed by those attending. Bush, Hu Jintao, Putin, and others can go about business and not for a second do they have to believe there is any diversity of opinion.

This is some scary-ass shit.

We launch investigations and start wars at the very inclination that another country is making nulcear weapons. All the while, we have so many we can’t even keep track of them. I can’t think of a moral argument that could possibily support the existence of nuclear weapons (or nuclear anything for that matter). All around the world, they need to be dismantled, and properly and safely disposed of.

The US Air Force has launched an investigation after a B-52 bomber flew across the US last week mistakenly loaded with nuclear-armed missiles.

The air force said the cruise missiles were safe at all times.

Why would they say anything different?

Army Times said the missiles were to be decommissioned but were mistakenly mounted on the bomber’s wings.

Now… I’ve never mounted a missile on an aircraft before. I have no idea how various missiles are organized or labeled or anything like that. But it seems to me that the difference between a nuclear warhead and a regular missile should be clearly distinguished–you know, a sticker, some spray paint, a special number….something, anything, that would prevent something so stupid and irresponsible from ever happening.

I’m reminded of that statistic that says owners of guns have a much higher chance of getting shot that people who don’t keep guns in the house. We own nuclear weapons–not only do we “have” them, but we irresponsibly fly them all over the country. The existence of, and our possession of, nuclear weapons significantly and dramatically increase our chances of annihilation. Don’t we already have enough factors that have us living under the threat of apocalypse?

PHOENIX

A Department of Public Safety officer faces almost four years in prison for allegedly asking a woman to expose herself during a traffic stop, authorities said Monday.

Chris Young, 28, of Williams, was charged with one count of bribery of a public servant, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

The Attorney General’s office said that Young made the proposal in April 2006 after stopping Kyle Parcell, of Temecula, Calif, for speeding on Interstate 40 in Yavapai County.

During the traffic stop, Young allegedly asked Parcell’s passenger, Myrla Ryan Brock, to expose herself with the understanding that “Young’s opinion, judgment, exercise of discretion or other action as a police officer might be influenced.”

Young is a nine-year DPS veteran. He resigned in November 2006.

ROSTOCK, Germany (AP)

Masked demonstrators showered police with grapefruit-sized rocks and beer bottles, then were driven back with water cannon and tear gas during a protest march Saturday against the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Germany.

The clashes left smoke from burning cars and the sting of tear gas drifting through the harborfront area in the north German port of Rostock. Some 146 police were hurt, 25 of them seriously.

Radicals “are smashing everything in their way to pieces,” said Karsten Wolff, a police spokesman.

The officially permitted march preceded a three-day summit beginning Wednesday in the seaside resort of Heiligendamm, where German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts the leaders of the other G8 nations — Britain, France, Japan, Italy, Russia, Canada and the United States.

The leaders are expected to discuss measures against global warming, the fight against AIDS and poverty in Africa, and the world economy. As in previous years, the summit drew protesters of various stripes opposed to globalization, capitalism and the G8 itself.

MIAMI (Reuters)

Police in Florida have arrested an activist for feeding the homeless in downtown Orlando.

Eric Montanez, 21, of the charity group Food Not Bombs, was charged with violating a controversial law against feeding large groups of destitute people in the city center, police said on Thursday.

Montanez was filmed by undercover officers on Wednesday as he served “30 unidentified persons food from a large pot utilizing a ladle,” according to an arrest affidavit. The Orlando area is home to Disney World and Universal Studios Florida.

The Orlando law, which is supported by local business owners who say the homeless drive away customers but has been challenged in court by civil rights groups, allows charities to feed more than 25 people at a time within two miles of Orlando city hall only if they have a special permit. They can get two permits a year.

Police collected a vial of the stew Montanez was serving as evidence.

Police spokeswoman Barbara Jones said in an e-mail it was the first time anyone had been arrested under the feeding ban.

Montanez was charged with a misdemeanor.

MERIDA, Mexico

Violent protests dogged President Bush on a visit to Mexico, with demonstrators lobbing concrete blocks at his hotel, smashing up a nearby town hall and battling riot police outside the U.S. Embassy in the Mexican capital.
The Tuesday disturbances were only the latest clashes during Bush’s five-country tour of Latin America, where many blame him for tougher U.S. immigration policies and opposition runs deep against the war in Iraq.

I really hate blogging about the president, but did Bush really expect this trip to go well?

About 100 protesters marched to Bush’s hotel for the second night in a row carrying Mexican flags and calling the U.S. president a “murderer.”

The protesters pounded on high metal security barriers outside the hotel in an unsuccessful attempt to bring them down and hurled chunks of concrete from sidewalks over the barrier at riot police lining the other side. Bush was away from his hotel having dinner with Calderón.

One hundred protesters. That’s it. It’s a little strange to me that when one hundred Mexicans protest Bush, it’s all over the news, but when thousands march the street in our own country, it barely makes page A13.