Rather hard for the TSA to extract information from a computer that simply isn’t there.

Somebody needs to start a site with daily pics of our “new professionals” in action. Exhibiting all behaviors, the good, the bad, the ugly.

I guess it would depend on the sensitivity of your work place.

Dammit McCloud!

I predict that within 2 years of the installation of traffic cams the state of Illinois starts lowering speed limits on high traffic stretches of road.

Oh definitely. Lake Shore Drive is an eight-lane highway with a 40 mph speed limit for most of the way but it’s always determined to be “too dangerous” to raise it. Too dangerous to the budget, maybe—I’ve never driven down it without seeing at least one speed trap/person pulled over.

The watchmen don’t like being watched.

The offer of state police and national guard that Blago made a few weeks back was a reactionary move meant to embarrass Chicago’s mayor for allying with state House Speaker Madigan to oppose Blagojevich’s proposal for a casino in Chicago that would help fund a $34 Billion state construction plan. Blago desperately needs the plan if he wants to reverse his extraordinarily dismal reputation before he’s indicted on what will likely be a wide range of corruption charges.

Not that embarassing your opponent is the best way to come to a compromise, but like I said, the guy isn’t very slick.

But then Chicago’s police superintendent decided to accept the offer. The problem is that Illinois is already facing budget problems, Blago had no way of backing up his offer of state police, so he had to come up with something quick. What’s a bigger cash cow than speeding and red light cameras? Unfortunately for Blagojevich, there’s a state law banning speed cameras on interstates.

The good news is that Madigan can and will block pretty much any idea that originates with the current governor, and there isn’t much that either Blago or his lap dog in the senate, Emil Jones, can do about it. So the state law against speed cameras will stand … for now.

Did I mention that every last one of these guys is a Democrat. LOFL

“After the raid, arrests were made in the package interception scheme.”

In other words, they now know that the mayor and his family were innocent victims. Um, guys, next time might want to do that investigation *before* you try to destroy someone’s life.

The actions of the sheriff’s department are shameful, as is usual in this case. It also turns out that there are no “no-knock” warrants in MD, so the law was broken by the serving of the warrant. They also didn’t produce a warrant until a few days later. Incredible stuff, it’ll be interesting to see if anyone is prosecuted.

Link:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/07/mayor.warrant/index.html

Sure, they’ll make a bunch of money in the first few months, and perhaps even in the first full year. But those hefty fines will start to change individuals’ valuations of the costs and benefits of driving faster.

I predict that within 2 years of the installation of traffic cams the state of Illinois starts lowering speed limits on high traffic stretches of road.

So, what you’ll have it people spending more time on the road, and pissed off for having to do it. You get the opportunity losses from lost productive time spent driving slower. And, to top it all off, the state of IL imposes a new tax to make up for the shortfalls from their underproducing cameras.

Joy. I can’t wait to go visit my friends in Chicago.

“They beat the shit out of him,” he said. “The guy’s lawyer came back and took witness statements. When the statements made it back to the sheriff’s department, they came by and asked me why I was getting involved.”

No witness intimidation there.