Eeyores News and View

Blogger claims police search of home was a threat
by Michael Ferraresi - Mar. 19, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Police officers accused of drunken driving. A female officer's alleged promiscuity and infidelity. A commander whose critics labeled his son a child molester.
Jeff Pataky said he uses negative complaints and anonymous tips to fuel his blogging crusade against Phoenix police. A headline on his Web site suggests rewards would be provided for "dirt" on police indiscretions.
Pataky, a former software sales and marketing executive who now focuses his energy shoveling content on www.badphoenixcops.com, said he believes his online criticism of the department - along with past criticisms of police investigations - led officers to serve a search warrant at his home last week.
Police officials said Wednesday that a Phoenix detective prompted the investigation after complaining about harassment, though they declined further comment.
Pataky said he felt the investigation was a response to a lawsuit he filed on Monday in U.S. District Court saying he was maliciously prosecuted by police in 2007 after his ex-wife accused him of harassment, a case later dropped. In his lawsuit he's asking for an unspecified amount for damages. City officials declined to comment on pending litigation.
Pataky's blog is known in law-enforcement circles for its off-color language that, according to the blogger, is aimed at Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris, Maricopa County Andrew Thomas and other public officials.
"Too bad. They need to get over it," Pataky said. "They are held to a higher accountability."
Pataky said he edits the blog and works with four or five people who receive tips from a variety of sources, including sworn and retired officers.
Investigators confiscated computer material and other items from Pataky's north Phoenix home, which he considered a threat to quit writing.
"We have heard internally from our police sources that they purposefully did this to stop me," Pataky said. "They took my cable modem and wireless router. Anyone worth their salt knows nothing is stored in the cable modem."
Phoenix Assistant Chief Andy Anderson said the harassment case is unique because of the connection to an unaccredited grassroots Web site. He said the blog is one part of the case, though he did not provide specifics of the ongoing investigation.
"This isn't about the blog," Anderson said. "That's just where the investigation led."
Police also served a separate search warrant at the home of former homicide Detective David Barnes, one of the investigators on the "Baseline Rapist" case.
Barnes was demoted from the homicide unit to patrol after he went public one year ago with claims of mismanaged evidence at the city's crime lab.
Mark Spencer, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, said he was concerned about questionable probable cause to enter Barnes' house. The union, which claims no affiliation with Pataky's blog, will represent Barnes through the internal investigation.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/03/19/20090319copsblog0319.html
Silvio Berlusconi threatens news blackout after reports of latest gaffes
The Italian premier has accused newspapers and television stations of slandering him and damaging the country's reputation by highlighting his alleged faux pas.
He said he was considering taking "hard measures" against reporters, without specifying what that might entail.
On Saturday Mr Berlusconi was accused of snubbing German Chancellor Angela Merkel by turning his back on her and talking on his mobile telephone as Nato leaders gathered for a group photograph on a bridge spanning the Rhine.
As Mrs Merkel waited to receive heads of state on a red carpet, the Italian premier wandered off with his mobile telephone pinned to his ear.
Mr Berlusconi later insisted he had been talking to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in an attempt to convince him to drop Ankara's objections to Danish leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen being named Nato secretary general.
It was the second gaffe in almost as many days. At the G20 summit on Thursday in London, Mr Berlusconi boisterously shouted a greeting to US President Barack Obama during a photo shoot, apparently earning a rebuke from the Queen, who turned round in apparent annoyance and said: "Why does he have to shout?"
An exasperated and angry Mr Berlusconi said he was fed up with the way the media treated him and threatened a news blackout. "I will no longer talk to you. I am working for Italy while you work against it. I will no longer give news conferences."
He later added: "Enough with this. Go to the devil! This is slander towards me and disinformation to newspaper readers.
"I don't want to say that I'm calling for direct and tough action towards certain newspapers and members of the press. But frankly I'm tempted. One shouldn't behave like this," said Mr Berlusconi.
"The Italian press, with their stories of my gaffes, harm the reputation of Italy. The story of my gaffe with Queen Elizabeth is absurd. And now the same thing with Mrs Merkel. I said to her 'I'm talking to Erdogan' and she said 'Go ahead, go ahead'.
"The Italian press seems to have no other objective than to say that I made bad impressions or gaffes."
The president of an Italian journalists' union, Roberto Natale, described Mr Berlusconi's remarks as "words of an unprecedented seriousness".
The National Press Federation's secretary, Franco Siddi, said: "When journalists report on the basis of observed facts, they are doing their duty. They cannot be accused of disloyalty or, worse than that, slander."
An Italian political analyst, Nando Pagnoncelli, said that while Mr Berlusconi may be regarded as an embarrassment by his political opponents, his clowning and sense of humour is well received by his right-wing supporters.
His antics "raise eyebrows in the public opinion of the Left, (but) they are endearing to the Right," Mr Pagnoncelli told La Repubblica newspaper.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5110631/Silvio-Berlusconi-threatens-news-blackout-after-reports-of-latest-gaffes.html

Communities print own currencies to keep cash flowing
A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money.
Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.
The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.
Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.
Ed Collom, a University of Southern Maine sociologist who has studied local currencies, says they encourage people to buy locally. Merchants, hurting because customers have cut back on spending, benefit as consumers spend the local cash.
"We wanted to make new options available," says Jackie Smith of South Bend, Ind., who is working to launch a local currency. "It reinforces the message that having more control of the economy in local hands can help you cushion yourself from the blows of the marketplace."
About a dozen communities have local currencies, says Susan Witt, founder of BerkShares in the Berkshires region of western Massachusetts. She expects more to do it.
Under the BerkShares system, a buyer goes to one of 12 banks and pays $95 for $100 worth of BerkShares, which can be spent in 370 local businesses. Since its start in 2006, the system, the largest of its kind in the country, has circulated $2.3 million worth of BerkShares. In Detroit, three business owners are printing $4,500 worth of Detroit Cheers, which they are handing out to customers to spend in one of 12 shops.
During the Depression, local governments, businesses and individuals issued currency, known as scrip, to keep commerce flowing when bank closings led to a cash shortage.
By law, local money may not resemble federal bills or be promoted as legal tender of the United States, says Claudia Dickens of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
"We print the real thing," she says.
The IRS gets its share. When someone pays for goods or services with local money, the income to the business is taxable, says Tom Ochsenschlager of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. "It's not a way to avoid income taxes, or we'd all be paying in Detroit dollars," he says.
Pittsboro, N.C., is reviving the Plenty, a defunct local currency created in 2002. It is being printed in denominations of $1, $5, $20 and $50. A local bank will exchange $9 for $10 worth of Plenty.
"We're a wiped-out small town in America," says Lyle Estill, president of Piedmont Biofuels, which accepts the Plenty. "This will strengthen the local economy. ... The nice thing about the Plenty is that it can't leave here."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-04-05-scrip_N.htm

Sounds more and more like his predecessor all the time
Obama declares US not at war with Islam
April 6, 2009 - 11:19am
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Barack Obama, making his first visit to a Muslim nation as president, declared Monday the United States "is not and will never be at war with Islam."
Urging a greater partnership with the Islamic world in an address to the Turkish parliament, Obama called the country an important U.S. ally in many areas, including the fight against terrorism. He devoted much of his speech to urging a greater bond between Americans and Muslims, portraying terrorist groups such as al Qaida as extremists who do not represent the vast majority of Muslims.
"Let me say this as clearly as I can," Obama said. "The United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical ... in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject."
The U.S. president is trying to mend fences with a Muslim world that felt it had been blamed by America for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
At a news conference earlier with President Abdullah Gul, Obama dealt gingerly with the issue of alleged genocide committed by Turks against Armenians during World War I. He urged Turks and Armenians to continue a process "that works through the past in a way that is honest, open and constructive."
Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyia, two of the biggest Arabic satellite channels, carried Obama's speech live.
"America's relationship with the Muslim world cannot and will not be based on opposition to al Qaida," the president said. "We seek broad engagement based upon mutual interests and mutual respect."
"We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over so many centuries to shape the world for the better, including my own country," Obama said.
The president spoke for about 25 minutes from a small white-marble-and-teak rostrum in the well of a vast, airy chamber packed with Turkish lawmakers in orange leather chairs.
Except for a few instances of polite applause, the room was quiet during his speech. There was a more hearty ovation toward the end when Obama said the U.S. supports the Turkish government's battle against PKK, which both nations consider a terrorist group, and again when he said America was not at war with Islam. Lawmakers also applauded when Obama said the United States supports Turkey's bid to join the European Union.
Earlier, Obama said he stood by his 2008 assertion that Ottoman Turks had carried out widespread killings of Armenians early in the 20th century, but he stopped short of repeating the word "genocide."
Gul said many Turkish Muslims were killed during the same period. Historians, not politicians, Gul said, should decide how to label the events of those times.
In his 2008 campaign, Obama said "the Armenian genocide is not an allegation," but rather "a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence."
Now that he is president, the genocide question may not be Obama's best issue for taking a tough stand that antagonizes a key ally. It is important in U.S. communities with large numbers of Armenian-Americans, but it has a low profile elsewhere.
In his speech to the parliament Monday, Obama said the United States strongly supports the full normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia. He also noted that the United States "still struggles with the legacy of our past treatment of Native Americans."
And the president also urged Turkey to help Israel and Palestine live "side by side in peace and security."
Obama's visit is being closely watched by an Islamic world that harbored deep distrust of his predecessor, George W. Bush.
In talks with Gul, and Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Obama hoped to sell his strategy for melding U.S. troop increases with civilian efforts to better the lives of people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
At end of meeting later in the day with Erdogan, Obama said: "Turkey is a critical strategic partner of the United States, not just in combating terrorism but in developing the kind of ecnoomic links, cultural links and political links that I think will help the world prosper."
Obama recognized past tensions in the U.S.-Turkey relationship, but said things were on the right track now because both countries share common interests and are diverse nations. "We don't consider ourselves Christian, Jewish, Muslim. We consider ourselves a nation bound by a set of ideals and values," Obama said of the United States. "Turkey has similar principles."
Obama's trip to Turkey, his final scheduled country visit, ties together themes of earlier stops. He attended the Group of 20 economic summit in London, celebrated NATO's 60th anniversary in Strasbourg, France, and on Saturday visited the Czech Republic, which included a summit of European Union leaders in Prague.
Turkey has the largest army in NATO after the United States. It and tiny Albania, recently admitted, are the only predominantly Muslim members of NATO.
Turkey opposed the war in Iraq in 2003 and U.S. forces were not allowed to go through Turkey to attack Iraq. Now, however, since Obama is withdrawing troops, Turkey has become more cooperative. It will be a key country after the U.S. withdrawal in maintaining stability, although it has long had problems with Kurdish militants in north Iraq.
Turkey maintains a small military force in Afghanistan, part of the NATO contingent working with U.S. troops to beat back the resurgent Taliban and deny al-Qaida a safe haven along the largely lawless territory that straddles Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. Turkey's participation in fighting Islamic extremism carries enormous symbolic importance to the Muslim world, and Turkey has diplomatic leverage with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
http://wtop.com/?nid=116&sid=1638387