Monday Roundup

A few weeks ago a story came out further detailing how the Bush administration intentionally mislead this nation into war. I know most people have moved on from this Administration even as we wait out this last year of it, but it's important to know how some politicians (sorry, but it is the "conservative" movement) use propaganda techniques that would make the most fascists of world leaders proud. Never forget that these movement conservatives must and will create a false reality in order to fool the people into supporting them:

"So the Pentagon would maintain a team of 'military analysts' who reliably 'carry their water' -- yet who were presented as independent analysts by the television and cable networks. By feeding only those pro-Government sources key information and giving them access -- even before responding to the press -- only those handpicked analysts would be valuable to the networks, and that, in turn, would ensure that only pro-Government sources were heard from. "Meanwhile, the 'less reliably friendly' ones -- frozen out by the Pentagon -- would be 'weeded out' by the networks. The pro-Government military analysts would do what they were told because the Pentagon was 'their bread and butter.' These Pentagon-controlled analysts were used by the networks not only to comment on military matters -- and to do so almost always unchallenged -- but also even to shape and mold the networks' coverage choices.

I have been reading a very disturbing story in the Tallahassee paper. Seems a young woman was arrested for selling drugs and was given a choice. Go to jail or become a secret police informant. Frightened of prison, this 23 years old went undercover and was promptly killed. This will probably blow up into a big story and I hope it does. The Tallahassee Police Department unfortunately tends to veer out of control from time to time. They are overpaid, overmanned and act like they patrol the streets of Baghdad rather than the sleepy town of Tallahassee. If there is trouble they are good at getting to it - but too often they are out looking for things to do to justify their huge numbers. This may be another example of them going overboard to justify their bloated budget. I'll keep on this story.

Hoffman, a 2007 Florida State University graduate, had recently become an informant for the Tallahassee Police Department after multiple drugs were found in her apartment, police said. She was also in a diversion program after a 2007 drug charge. Her attorneys and the State Attorney's Office say they were not aware she was working with police. "My job is to keep her out of harm's way, but I didn't have an opportunity because I didn't know," Devine said.

State Attorney Willie Meggs said it's common practice for his office to be notified when someone already in the justice system is recruited as an informant. "I am not aware of that ever happening before," Meggs said of not being notified. "Typically, we do know."

TPD spokesman David McCranie said police limit the people who know who their informants are. He said Meggs' office is informed when someone on probation is recruited, but Hoffman was in a drug diversion program. "We did not feel her participation as a confidential informant would in any way impede her ability to complete the diversion program," McCranie said. "If we need to make changes, we'll do so."