Detroit’s 30-year disaster.
Bob Jones University offers non-apology for its ugly history of racism. “Sorry we were like everyone else” just ain’t gonna’ cut it. Especially when you weren’t.
Mexico’s former drug czar took $450,000 per month in bribes from drug traffickers. Yet we keep the spigot of drug war foreign aid flowing.
You know the economy’s on the skids when Wall Street barons can’t afford to buy gifts for their mistresses.
Minnesota public radio has a fun web feature where you can judge some of the disputed ballots in the Coleman/Franken Senate race recount.
String of burglaries around Temple University. Cops use investigate and . . . arrest and charge the burglars? Nah. They use information gleaned from the investigation to bust a couple of small-time student pot dealers.
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on Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 am by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
On the last story, it should be noted that I did read any reports of early morning raids with a SWAT team, shooting of dogs, or tasering of people, and the cops actually found something. I’m not saying I agree to current marijuana laws, but there doesn’t seem to be any major abuse of power here….a change for stories posted on this site.
business as usual for the drug warriors… HUGE wastes of tax money to enrich politicians and punish people who are intruding on no one else.
The real world costs- tuition money wasted on defense attorneys, job and housing outlook dimmed due to felony convictions, and their families get the trauma of dealing with the legal system vs. celebrating their kids’ successes in school.
looks like a major abuse of power to me…
But we’re now assured that ‘diversity’ is an integral part of higher education: shouldn’t anti-miscegenation policies be promoted by universities now, in order to provide for a diverse student body in the future?
So did they cherry-pick the stupid challenges in the MN senate race? There was only one that looked even to be in dispute. The others were just stupid “Oh, he put a dot in someone else’s box!” “Oh, they smudged it up with their thumb”
The ballots are a nice mix of “That challenge makes sense” and “Are you out of your flipping gourd?”
If one oval is filled in and another has a dot in it, it takes a lot of gall to claim the dot indicates intent.
Isn’t Bob Jones a private institution? Isn’t it precisely the product of a market driven higher education community? It staked out its corner of the marketplace by appealing to white, racist Christians, and it was apparently a viable strategy until 2000 when the decline in revenue required the school to grudgingly enter the 1950s…in 2000.
The school is abhorrent, but isn’t its existence precisely the sort of things that people who advocate the market and, thus, the strength of private institutions have to accept as an unfortunate consequence? This isn’t to denigrate the marketplace, but if everybody can offer a service, you’re going to have institutions like this.
I’m not sure what Minnesota statutes say, but in Illinois if a voter deliberately made an illegitimate mark, the ballot is void regardless of whether the voter intended to void the ballot. A good rule, IMHO, since the alternative will only promote chaos.
I remember a race which turned on the fact that the rules required that voters mark a box with an “X”. The directions on the front of the ballot explicitly stated that a check-mark was not valid. A filled in box was not valid. A circled box was not valid. Only an “X” written in the box would be valid. For whatever reason, some of the people who may have intended to vote for a particular candidate placed marks other than an “X” in his box. Had those people properly marked their ballots, their candidate would have won, but as it was he did not.
When handling absentee ballots, it may not be possible to be as strict as with polling-place ballots, since people casting absentee ballots won’t have an easy way of replacing spoiled ballots. At a polling place, however, people need to be told that if they mis-mark their ballot, they need to spoil it and ask an election judge to replace it. If the polling booth pen doesn’t work, they need to ask a judge to fix it rather than using a pencil.
@The Other Jeff
The candidates aren’t losing anything by challenging as many ballots as they can. Both are being aggressive. Its the right strategy.
@supercat
Minnesota has a liberal voter intent law. If the intent can be determined – then the ballot is valid (with some exceptions such if the ballot was marked with an identifying mark such as a signature).
One other thing:
“A good rule, IMHO, since the alternative will only promote chaos.”
Does the Minnesota recount look like chaos to you? Its downright boring and I must say – Minnesotan. I think that pretty much invalidates your opinion on the rule.
I guess the Mexican’s read their American history.At least the part about Al Capone.
Yes! I can’t believe someone wrote in “Lizard People” for the Franken/Coleman race! That guy must’ve just meant politicians in general, right?
@1: It might not be an abuse of power, but it still validates the idea that law enforcement is wasting time and resources fighting victimless crimes while ignoring truly violent crimes like home invasions. They increased their patrols to PROTECT the students of Temple, not to look for an excuse to arrest some of them.
Additionally, a big fuck you to the press for continuing to play unquestioning cheerleaders for these assholes. I assume that if the police have the time to go after pot growers, they have already busted the burglars they were supposed to be looking for? And if not, were resources devoted to that case diverted to this one? Why? How about asking what this bust has done to win the war on drugs or to make the local community safer? How much did this bust cost taxpayers? Instead the press just give these assholes yet another platform where they can brag about street values and confiscated cash.
Rah rah siss boom fucking bah…
@ #12
The Lizard people this is a reference to one of the more bizarre conspiracy theories out there. Look up David Icke if you want to have a good laugh. But if Icke’s right, I too welcome our reptilian-humanoid overlords….
@ #6
You’re right Sam, but we have to live with organizations like Bob Jones Univ. But we can (and should) also speak out against half-hearted apologies for repugnant behavior. There is a not to subtle difference between calling out Bob Jones for not taking their repugnant behavior seriously, and calling for the state to shut down or use force to make them change their ways.
“racist Christians” is an oxymoron. Not saying plenty of people don’t *claim* to be Christians who aren’t, and BJU seems to be a magnet for them…
To be fair, the police around Temple are very lax when it comes to pot, normally. That is, if you’re white and look like a Temple kid from the Philly suburbs.
RE: “Higher Education” story (Ha Ha, get it, Ha, it’s hilarious…not)
“This is something that normally wouldn’t have come to our attention, because the college area is a pretty tight community,” Frazier said.
–No shit. Most of the college community doesn’t give a shit about weed, or they patronize the dealers that were arrested, so they don’t talk to law enforcement about this kind of non-crime.
“But we developed some sources in the neighborhood and started conducting surveillance on the property.
–Translation: We busted some other college kids for possession and coerced them to roll over on their source.
#13 Former Army: I couldn’t have said it better myself! Thank you for your insight. In a burglary, the offender(s) unlawfully tresspasses and usually deprives someone of their property or damages property while making entry. In addition, a burglary can quickly devolve into a home invasion, agg. assault, rape or murder if the offender finds someone inside the residence. Burglars DO present a danger to the community and should be sought and apprehended. College kids growing weed and selling to their fellow students usually don’t present a danger. The only danger involved (they are selling a product that has not been inspected, they have to interact with more dangerous organized criminal groups to get their product) is caused by the drug war.
Great story on CNN about sheriff’s deputies in Orange County stealing some poor guy’s xbox and eight games after a traffic stop. Oddly, nobody can find it now, although they didn’t seem to think about checking the deputy’s house….
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/11/21/nguyen.xbox.taken.by.cops.wftv
By the way, anybody who modded #15 down care to debate what I said that was wrong?
I agree, Michael, there is a big difference between “Christians” and “Hypocritical racists who hide behind Christianity.” The fact that the latter group is much louder and gets much more attention allows people to lump them together and condemn both. And, for the last story, even if these guys were only selling eighths, I only get $102,400 from the 16 pounds the cops got. Out of whose ass did they pull that other 40 grand?
I found it interesting that nowhere in the Daily News article did it mention if police had caught the burglars. Or if they even had any suspects.
Otherwise, business as usual in the “greatest country in the world.” Meh.
#20 Andrew Williams: Good point. I’ll bet they didn’t, but I don’t know. If these suspects are still at large, and still a danger to the community, I guess the police figured putting a bunch of pot on a table for journalists to gawk at and photograph would divert the attention of the media from this rather glaring issue. Besides, the reporters were busy coming up with this HIGHLARIOUS title: “Cops deal a blow to ‘higher’ education.” Whoa, get it dudes? Such is the state of drug war journalism.
Joel Spolsky had a great article in Inc. this month talking about how people will always game the system when they are given incentives based on performance in a certain area. It really is the same with the cops – they’re incentivized to make more and more drug busts (through federal funds that ultimately fund their paycheck) yet get nothing for actually solving a local crime or catching a burglar. This perverse system makes them chase after as many small-time drug dealers as possible at the expense of every other crime.
We cannot state this emphatically enough: you will always get the outcome that you incentivize.
Put a bounty out for catching the burglar alive, and make it also available to cops – even on duty.
good posts and links, Michael Chaney!
Re:#18 “By the way, anybody who modded #15 down care to debate what I said that was wrong?”
I disagree with the “oxymoron” part. My parents were Christian missionaries in the amazon so I got LOTS of exposure to biblical teachings.
There is a lot of stuff in the bible about NOT being racist. The bible admits that racism exists but always talks about it as a bad thing.
So, if you find a “Christian racist” I would question their true Christianity.
Stephen, not sure if you know what an “oxymoron” is, but you actually *agree* with it.
Private schools should be able to set their own rules. It is no different from Banard College not admitting men.
I don’t have any issue with what BJU did. They are a private institution and had clearly defined rules and stuck with them. I think its important to stand up for institutions like BJU. They have indeed gone against the norms of society, but they are private and have a right to their beliefs. And the people they serve have a right to do as they wish.
BJU and other private institutions aren’t a threat to this country, governmental racism, like affirmative action (as well as the Jim Crow laws of the past) are.
Of course the policies of private institutions ( assuming they are private.. BJU receives no tax payer funding, no financial aid?) should be allowed. That doesn’t mean we have to celebrate them.
The Bible is a big book, with lots in it that can be twisted any way you want it. It’s not unambiguously racist or unambiguously anti-racist. Racists can certainly be Christians, and vice-versa. Consider that the Bible was used to both support and attack American chattel slavery.