OT: American Politics

Two months ago, James Tomsheck was pushed out of his job as internal affairs chief for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

At the time, authorities criticized him for not doing enough to investigate abuse and corruption.

But now Tomsheck tells a very different story: about a culture that goes out of its way to evade legal restraints.

Use of force by law enforcement agents along the Southwest border has drawn attention and criticism recently, after reports that Border Patrol agents shot and killed unarmed migrants and faced no consequences.

Since 2010, 28 people have been killed by agents and officers. Tomsheck says he believes about a quarter of the incidents are highly suspicious.

"I believe the system was clearly engineered to interfere with our efforts to hold the Border Patrol accountable," he says.

When asked how that could happen, he responded: "Some persons in leadership positions in the Border Patrol were either fabricating or distorting information to give the outward appearance that it was an appropriate use of lethal force when in fact it was not."

Things like exaggerating the threat an unarmed migrant posed, he says. Or claiming a migrant was on the U.S. side of the border, when he was actually in Mexico.

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Habsy said:

17% voter turnout in Florida for the primaries. People have the balls to complain about government then sit home and do nothing about it.

Miami-Dade ~ 10% turnout
Broward ~ 14%

Pitiful.

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Habsy said:

17% voter turnout in Florida for the primaries. People have the balls to complain about government then sit home and do nothing about it.

Miami-Dade ~ 10% turnout
Broward ~ 14%

Pitiful.

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UWHabs said:

You don't have to know what word appears on page 46, paragraph 3, line 4, but yeah, it's probably worth taking the hour it takes to go through the report, even if you skip a section here or there.

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Alberta former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, now a Conservative leadership candidate, says he was dealing with legal issues related to a dispute between a cabinet minister and a sibling when he ran up a $20,000 cellphone roaming bill while vacationing in Poland in 2012.

CBC News has viewed the cabinet minister's family law court file, which is the subject of a publication ban and forbids identifying any of the individuals involved.

But the court documents show the cabinet minister's sibling had sought an emergency restraining order against the minister in relation to a family dispute. The restraining order has been removed. At one point, police were called in relation to the dispute.

In an interview with CBC News on Wednesday, Lukaszuk continued to insist he was dealing with what he has described as "an urgent government matter."

Lukaszuk said he received a phone call in the middle of the night in Alberta from "a very distressed cabinet minister, who felt the cabinet minister was in danger. Police were on the way. It was a very urgent situation."

The then deputy premier said he called a lawyer for the cabinet minister.

"The next day, I engaged in both telephone conversations and video conferencing conversations with the premier's office," Lukaszuk said. "It was determined that we need to make sure that the cabinet minister is not in any danger, that if there is any protection services that need to be afforded, that was looked into.

"We wanted to make sure that the cabinet minister has the legal representation that the cabinet minister needs," he said. "And documents were exchanged relevant to the essence of the actual issue, what was it that precipitated this — at that point in time, apparent danger.

"It turned out that this was a matter that did not touch government," Lukaszuk said. "The cabinet minister retained independent, privately legal counsel. And that was the end of the matter."

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Lukaszuk said he will not repay the money because he was doing government work.

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NEW YORK — The FBI said Wednesday it’s working with the Secret Service to determine the scope of recently reported cyberattacks against several U.S. financial institutions.

A report on Bloomberg.com said Wednesday that the FBI is investigating an incident in which Russian hackers attacked the U.S financial system this month in possible retaliation against U.S. government-sponsored sanctions aimed at Russia.

The attack, Bloomberg said, led to the loss of sensitive data. Bloomberg cited security experts saying that the attack appeared “far beyond the capability of ordinary criminal hackers.”

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LeafOfFaith said:

Is anyone talking about this Trudeau shit and who he's been promoting and aligning himself with?

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blacksheep said:

link

So... if they were NOT a government matter, then why this?

I get it. Buddy helps out a friend in a crisis. No issue with that.
Turns out it's not a government issue - so taxpayers shouldn't be footing that bill. And besides, video conferencing from Poland?? WTF??
Good luck in the election.

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SundinsTooth said:

Seems like it was party business more so than government business. Get the Cons to foot the bill.

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LeafGm said:

Who has he been promoting and aligning himself with?

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