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The Stanislav Markelov article is somewhat old (8 days). I thought I read about it here in the first place, but maybe I am wrong. Still, pretty scary to be a lawyer or a journalist over there…
The world would be a better place, if t.v. cop shows more accurately reflected real crime experiences – so if violent crimes account for 4% of arrests then editors should devote 4% of screen time to showing the pursuit and arrest of violent criminals. Get a little perspective.
From the “Teen fools Chicago PD into giving him a 5-hour patrol” link…
“Police are not identifying the boy because of his age and say he really had no “ill intent” and was motivated by wanting to be an officer.”
Thankyou Playmobil.
So the kid impersonating the officer didn’t have a gun and yet the first thing the officer patrolling with him noticed was that he was missing a star on his uniform? And it took him five hours to figure that out?
That’s classic.
Regarding Citibank’s new jet, I think we all need to better understand the perspective from the point of view of the corporate executives.
Okay, first, put the words “bailout” and “rescue plan” out of your vocabulary. That’s not how they see it. To the guys who are going to be carrying a lot of this cash home with them, the government’s trillion dollar spending sprees are just the next boom. There was the dot-com boom, then there was the real-estate boom, and now there’s the government-flooding-the-economy-with-cash boom.
This isn’t a crisis to them at all. It’s an opportunity. They don’t listen to the news, so they might not even be aware how the real world sees it. It’s hard for someone who’s busily trying to find a place to put all their new income to think in terms of a crisis or hardship. If you confront them about the impending disaster, they simply look at you and tilt their heads back and forth like your dog does when you’re trying to explain why they shouldn’t chew the legs off the new dining room table.
The money the government is spending isn’t rescuing anything. Politically based distribution of wealth never rescues anything. It only enriches some at the expense of others. And the current tsunami of cash washing over corporate America, not to mention all the other potential governmental recipients lining up at the door, is eventually going to disappear into a lot of private bank accounts. And, just like always (yes, ALWAYS), there will eventually be a Congressional committee to study what went wrong.
It’s hard not to call this a depression when it’s so damn depressing. Fortunately, there’s a cure. Jack Daniels.
No, that’s some fine police work there, Lou. ;)
Maybe I’m mis-remembering, but I seem to recall that Citibank paid for the jet a couple of years ago and is just now taking delivery. They can’t get their money back. Am I wrong?
Did you see the comments on the jet article. Some were justifying the purchase because they had two other jets for sale for $27 million each. That is a $4 million profit!! How CRAZY is that?!! Same old thing, counting the financial chickens before their eggs hatch! Anybody who has been in the position of having two houses to make payments on, has a much better idea of how it works. Sell the other jets first, don’t add another 50 million dollar debt! Common sense,? Only for us poor people! As more of these things come out, maybe the 85% who were against giving the bankers money will speak out!
Is it any wonder that we have the debt load we have, when people have no sense about handling personal finances?
Working link for the kid/police article:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103×419900
“The world would be a better place, if t.v. cop shows more accurately reflected real crime experiences”
And as an added bonus, there would soon be no more tv cop shows. Imagine the fun of settling in for a thrilling hour of writing traffic tickets and swinging by Dunkin Donuts.
The 14 year old kid…
Looking forward to his graduation from the Academy.
Maybe the new jet is more fuel efficient than their other older jets. That would mean Citibank is just being environmentally responsible and should probably get some kind of reward. There’s no such thing as bein’ too green, ya know.
Citi is selling two $25-$28 million jets and taking delivery of the $50 million one they bought two years ago.
It is not uncommon for a company to cancel delivery of an order, so in response to prior comment they could have done that.
I personally do not see what the big deal is — they are selling existing assets and replacing with a new one.
And, as another commenter mentioned, the new one is probably a lot more fuel efficient which is the bulk of an aircraft’s cost anyhow.
In case your wondering, Putin and murdered people go together like…well…just about every other Russian leader and murdered people. To say the Russian people (and that covers a lot of ethnicity) have some real problems with corruption is an understatement. I hope they have the resolve to stand up to it, but there will be many, many, many dead to come.
Hell has a whole wing full of Russian leaders. Yes, I’m biased…mostly due to my Polish heritage.
#11 Rick: “Looking forward to his graduation from the Academy.”
Hell, he is already halfway there. He has mastered the fine art of lying and deception. Once he completes the DARE program there is no stopping him.
Cadet: “Sir, when will have a class on constitutional rights?”
Instructor [rolls his eyes]: “We don’t teach that here. You won’t need it. This is cop school not scumbag defense lawyer school.”
Obama says, “I don’t think so.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Politics/story?id=6740011&page=1
@Ben #6: ” That’s classic.
No, that’s some fine police work there, Lou. ;)”
Thank you Chief! Mind if I hold my gun sideways? It just looks so cool!
Sadly, for us in IL, this is just another strike against the shreds of dignity we have left. Oh yeah, Daley. Bring the Olympics to Chicago where the law enforcement agency, who will be completely overrun during the event, can easily be infiltrated by a frakin’ eighth grader.
#10 Zeb: “Imagine the fun of settling in for a thrilling hour of writing traffic tickets”
You don’t have to imagine that. It already exists. It’s called Speeders on Court TV.
http://www.tv.com/speeders/show/71796/summary.html
I’m curious about how much ‘business’ the citibank planes are needed for- they’re not exactly looking over assembly lines and quality control of product. It seems like some good cameras and modems would allow them to have conferences and reduce usage of the older planes, to allow them to remain viable.
at least that’s what I’d have to do- reduce my traveling and put off buying the new vehicle…
The sleeveface stuff is fabulous!
RE the kid cop:
He is already on probation for the same offense! Why didn’t they take his uniform away the first time he got caught?
He is only 5′ 3″ (but muscular) and in the eighth grade – aren’t most cops (at least male ones) just a wee bit taller than that?
Me thinks there needs to be a lot of firing/retraining going on at that station!
Lori, unfortunately / fortunately (depends on your prospective) there are no longer any height requirements in order to be a police officer in many areas. No longer must you be the 5’10”+ in order to join. Now, you to can become part of the wonderful world of cops at 5’3 with apparently only a middle school education. I have to admit nothing gave me more joy than the time I spotted a cop my size. 5’2”, I could see eye to eye with him. Lets say lack of intimidation.
Matt,
They can fly commercial like everyone else. Why should they use $50 Million to purchase a new jet when they can save that money and just fly first class?
Why do we criticize what Citibank does with it’s own money? It’s a free country.
What, exactly, was inane about Stein’s article? To be sure, Stein is an idiot, but there was nothing worth getting upset about in his article.
I’m afraid to say anything bad about Putin.
Oh wait, didn’t W look into his eyes and read his mind or something? I guess I shouldn’t worry then. :)
OK, so he was undersized and over-educated.
You got a problem with short, smart people?
#23 ShelbyC wins for Most Ironic Comment and for Most Irony Per Word. Classic!
Word on the street is that Citigroup canceled the order for the jet.
So we have THAT going for us. Which is nice…
/carl the gardener
Because it isn’t their money, it’s OUR money that they’re spending (unless you think the $50 Million didn’t come out of the $41 Billion they took from us)
@Robert #24
I think it’s just that we expect a “respected” right-winger to believe in personal responsibility, hard work, and other “conservative” values.
Not to be a class-warrior, but it’s pretty awful to my non-rich-born ears to hear a very rich person whine about how their friends and children won’t be very rich even though they deserve it. I make good money because I work hard in a difficult industry – so hearing people act like their friends are entitled to be rich no matter the work – blech. His 20 year old married (wtf?) kiddo sounds like, well, a spoiled little bitch. Ditto for his “friend”.
According to the ABC link posted, canceling the order for the jet will cost millions in penalties. So, if you subtract the penalties from the $50 million price tag, how long will take those high priced execs to eat through what’s left, buying regular business class fares? I’d be willing to bet it costs them less to fly commercial than it does to operate that jet anyway, even aside from the cost of the plane itself. In other words, they’d probably be saving money even if the penalties cost as much as the jet.
The audacity is of these corporate welfare parasites is amazing. On the other hand, as with the car company execs flying into Washington on corporate jets, what is really catching hell is not their pissing away the money. Nope. What is really catching the crap is the appearance of their pissing away the money (and “the message it sends”).
Politics isn’t about what you do. Politics is about the appearance of what you do.
As for the fact that they ordered the jet some time back, perhaps if they’d been a bit more money conscious back then, we wouldn’t be stuck bailing their sorry arrogant little asses out now.
Regarding the picture of Vancouver, my office is smack in the middle of that. That was taken right in the middle of about a 9 day stretch of nearly constant fog.
Normally I’ve got a million dollar view – that’s what they are charging for the 2 bedroom condos being built next door – of Stanley Park and the North Shore mountains. For that week I could barely see across the street.
The picture is beautiful, being stuck inside it wasn’t.
Stein has the same problem that all the other celebrities in California have. He is out of touch with reality, rather self absorbed, and thinks he is much smarter than he really is. Just goes to show that celebrity stupidity has less to do with politics and more to do with the lifestyle.
US Supreme Court says passenger can be frisked
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/01/26/us_supreme_court_says_passenger_can_be_frisked/
Passengers can be frisked if police reasonably believe you are a threat. We already know that police are liars, and what they claim to believe reasonable isn’t to the rest of us, and is simply their brazen lie. Everyone is now open to being frisked, which opens up the door to everyone being charged, because the SCOTUS recently ruled that evidence obtained illegally is still permissible even if due to “clerical errors” and whatnot. It’s all pliable, so you will see these all twisted to justify searching everyone and charging everyone. Suddenly there is a new source of revenue for The State!
Hey, at least the kid didn’t shoot any dogs while on patrol. Give him a little credit, huh?
Wow, who does Ben Stein think his readers are? Crazy obscenely rich people are being hit hard, well, um, effected, by the recession too.
RE: Arrest Stats…
“Those men are not overwhelmingly committing violent crimes (as stereotypes suggest), but are imprisoned because of the intensive policing of drug crimes in those neighborhoods.”
Exactly. Now imagine how much better things would be for private citizens and police alike if resources weren’t being used so disproportionately for drug enforcement. Putting aside the morality of prohibition, I think it is worth noting that “Drug war” policing is not usually GOOD policing. In urban centers, solid police work (interaction with cooperative citizens, good surveillance, sound evidence collection, etc.) is too often replaced with rounding up the “usual suspects” on corners, and making very questionable traffic stops. The drug war has dumbed down policing.
Can hardly wait for “no knock” warrants for traffic scofflaws.
The article about the two murdered Russians neglected to mention that they were anarchists.
Funny that.
#39 Cynical: “The article about the two murdered Russians neglected to mention that they were anarchists.”
No suprise there. Pootie Poott is carrying on in classic Leninist fashion. Recall his disdainful attitude toward Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. What we have going on now in Russia is Petrograd in slow motion.
True about Putin, Helmut. But my point was that the article was published in the Washington Post. Why would they leave out that little tidbit?
Fear?
Excerpt from post 37 by Helmut O’ Hooligan:
…”I think it is worth noting that “Drug war” policing is not usually GOOD policing. In urban centers, solid police work (interaction with cooperative citizens, good surveillance, sound evidence collection, etc.) is too often replaced with rounding up the “usual suspects” on corners, and making very questionable traffic stops. The drug war has dumbed down policing.”
There are 3 conceptual points here converging to form a ‘Triad of Doom’…
First: The Drug War.
Second: Clearance of crimes by arrest.
Third: Racism.
All three, in my view, are linked.
3: (Racism) provides a ready patsy. A pool of people that can be portrayed as criminals without, for want of a better phrase… “Pissing off white voters”.
2: (Clearance of crimes by Arrest) provides the incentive to arrest people without regard to possible guilt. It DOESN’T MATTER if a case is thrown out in court, simply getting an arrest CLEARED THAT CASE as far as the Police are concerned.
1: (The Drug War) is the perfect storm to support concepts one and two. With no victim, there is no person that has to file a complaint. Add to that absurd felonies like “automatic felony distribution for possessing X amount” and “automatic felony for possessing drugs AND a gun” And you get a big list of ‘crimes’ that are EASY to get an arrest for.
If you have 5 or more people going to the same destination a corporate aircraft starts to make economic sense. Let me ask one question. If Citibank had cancelled their jet and had to pay 10-15 million in penalties for cancelling the order, what do you think the headline would be?
5 people is the cost effectiveness mark? We’re talking jets vs. commercial tickets, right? Not limos vs. taxis. This just isn’t correct.
When you take into account the reduced number of flights that commercial airlines have these days and add in things like the costs of lodging and per diem, yes it starts to make sense.
I’m not even considering the time factor here at all. I used to work for a company that was backcharged for the time that it’s customer’s lines were down because of our equipment. When you are being charged over $8,000 per hour you don’t have the time to wait for a commercial flight.
I also remember loading a Learjet with boxes of bolts and flying in it from Georgia to Detroit because an automobile assembly line was shut down due to a lack of these bolts.
I don’t know much about banking, but there are times that you are going to have to have a group of people someplace in a hurry and can’t afford to wait on the airlines. If all they are going to do is to fly their brass to and from golf tournaments in this thing then I agree that they don’t need the jet.