Dog-killing drug raid in Buffalo. The police were looking for hydrocodone. They didn’t find any.
Glenn Greenwald has a nice appreciation of Sen. Jim Webb’s efforts at criminal justice reform. Greenwald’s right. There’s no political advantage to Webb doing this. There’s really only downside. He’s risking another term on doing what he thinks is right. He deserves a ton of credit for that.
Don’t know about you, but I find it a little frightening that we’ve reached the point where the president can order the CEO of a private company to resign.
Sheriff Joe uses taxpayer dollars to help pay for his reality TV show on Fox.
So this bobcat walks into a bar . . . no, really.
If you have an hour to spare, you might watch this lecture by a creationist, who is attempting to prove the earth is only 6,000 years old. It’s fascinating, though certainly not in the way the guy intended.
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on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 9:44 am by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
Having a problem with the bailout is fine but GM ceased being a private company as soon as it took taxpayer dollars
In his defense, Obama is asking for the removal of a CEO of a private company that’s taking tax money to keep his company afloat. Slightly different than just firing someone for not agreeing with his ideas.
I wish there was some way to require the cops to actually be bitten before they get to shoot the dog. Seems like shooting the dog is just standard procedure these days.
I have hydrocodone in my house. So does my dad. If we don’t use/want it- are we at risk? Why can’t we sell our property?
It looks like the guy raided beat up the informer, though.
multiple shotgun blasts to the dogs while the owner begs them not to shoot them… another bullshit no-knock warrant… another innocent family terrorized…
It’d be nice for some national media to publicize this- where’s Stossel? Sixty Minutes? How is this not a huge story?
The last line of the puppycide article states that the execution of a search warrent might bring a life and death situation for cops.
So, let’s stop disrespecting our “men in blue” by allowing them to execute search warrants for pain pills.
There are plenty of circumstance where I might want my public servants to risk their lives (kidnap…murder suspect…a few others) but not pain pills.
Sheriff Joe is getting a reality show on Fox? F@#$@ing hell…that means Dollhouse will be getting canceled…
“Don’t know about you, but I find it a little frightening that we’ve reached the point where the president can order the CEO of a private company to resign. ”
I don’t see it that way. The company in question actively sought a specific investor (in this case, the US govt.) and accepted that they would be terms and conditions of this get-it-or-we-die investment. None of us would have blinked an eye if, say, Microsoft was the investor and Gates said “these CEOs must go”.
Radley: “I find it a little frightening that we’ve reached the point where the president can order the CEO of a private company to resign.”
Geekfather: “In his defense, Obama is asking for the removal of a CEO of a private company that’s taking tax money to keep his company afloat.”
But at least in some cases, such as banks in the first round of bailouts, the government has required the companies to take the funds.
Who would have believed any of this even a year ago?
That’s an intentionally misleading blurb about Obama and GM.
We should not excuse Wagoner’s firing because they get money from the government. GM shouldn’t get government money. Nor should the Executive Office request a resignation.
Again, what interpretation of the Constitution allows this? We should be concerned that any “crisis” will endanger us all from a massive expansion of government which, once entrenched, never retreats.
Wagoner’s forced resignation is a significant marker.
“if, say, Microsoft was the investor and Gates said “these CEOs must go”.”
Private company versus government using MY EFFIN’ MONEY!
Why is it so hard for people to remember this?
I can show that the earth is only 6,000 years old…
if you allow me to define a “year” as 750.000 orbits of the earth around the sun.
Hell, if you allow me to define a “year” as one orbit of the solar system around the Milky Way, the earth is only 18 – 20 years old.
I don’t think I’m going to read any more dogs killed by police stories. This one almost made me cry. I have two dogs at home and I smoke (not sell) a bit of weed. I’m petrified of the thought that my dogs could be shot and killed if the cops ever got an anonymous tip i was dealer.
Fucking puppy killers.
With respect to the Wagoner firing:
You are off the slippery slope – you’re now over the edge.
Welcome to the United Soviet States of America.
If I ever read about a homeowner killing a cop for shooting his dog, I’ll just smile and say: It’s about time.
Linda Morgan:
Banks are required to keep their debt and asset ratios within particular guidelines to maintain FDIC insurance and Treasury support. The banks were “required” to take the money because they had bad ratios.
Banks can chose not to carry FDIC insurance but then they become more of an investment entity rather then a traditional bank. There is no problem with this, but i call a spade a spade.
On one hand I hate the government telling banks and ultimately the bank’s depositors what can and can not be done. On the other hand having a stable currency seems fairly fundamental to capitalism.
Arguments can be made about our Treasury and leaving the Gold Standard.
#5
That statement concerned me,as well. But, the life and death situation, actually, is more valid in referring to the “perps” and their animals. Not the cops! The cops blow the “risk” all out of proportion to try to cover their violent and aggressive behavior. The cops are not the ones in danger, in 99%(?) of these “raids”! That statement is a line of crap!
Now, the dogs are dead and the guy has been arrested, probably for kicking the crap out of the “informant” for the lies he told the police! I love justice!
Well, if GM doesn’t want to lose Wagoner, there’s a really simple solution: don’t take the money, and live and die by the free market like a company is supposed to.
Of course, that would require the company to, like, actually compete, and that’s getting into a debate about whether *any* corporations actually live by the free market any more, which I really don’t want to do.
Until then, if they want money, well, they have to take it with whatever strings are attached, even if a provision is put into the bill requiring all the executives to attend board meetings dressed up as ballerinas.
Which actually, would be kind of awesome.
Looks like Hanavan found the narc.
Imagines Warren Buffet in a tutu.
*shudders*
I do not wish death or injury on cops.
I simply want them to act like responsible human beings.
Was GM so naive – after taking billions in assistance – to believe that Washington wouldn’t be making policy decisions?
Hovind’s a legend in the fundamentalist southern baptist circles. I’ve seen him speak thrice at churches I attended back before I let my brain get the better of my upbringing.
When the government accepted responsibility for medical costs of older people through medicare, it wasn’t long before they started using it as justification to dictate how people lived and took care of their health. The anti-smoking crusade rested heavily on the notion that getting people to quit would save taxpayer dollars (regardless of whether that is actually true or not).
So now we have the government giving money to corporations. Is it any wonder that they now feel a right to dictate how those corporations are run?
Everyone complains about greedy corporations that only care about their profits. The idea that the government, which has never had to worry about making a profit, is going to save them is ludicrous beyond description. The sooner they go down the toilet, the better.
When the government accepted responsibility for medical costs of older people through medicare, it wasn’t long before they started using it as justification to dictate how people lived and took care of their health.
Yeah, that is unfortunately about the only convincing argument I’ve heard against government insurance. OTOH it wouldn’t surprise me if private insurers are big movers in that sort of thing too.
So now we have the government giving money to corporations. Is it any wonder that they now feel a right to dictate how those corporations are run?
Well, if I own part of a corporation, I would expect to get some say in how it’s run. Which seems to be the position we’re in, so I don’t really have a problem with it. I don’t particularly think GM deserves a bailout, but since it’s happening anyway and since the company is asking for it, it seems pretty reasonable that they be asked to jettison the guy who ran the things for the last 10 years.
Now that the govt’s calling the shots for these corporations, how can there be any correction? typically, when a govt program fails, the managers get promoted and taxes go up and they try it again.
Obama has had ZERO successes so far with his policies. He’s succeeded in getting policies implemented, but I don’t see how these policies will work. How is he qualified to dictate to anyone how they should run their business?
Wagoner should have been fired by the board long ago for running GM into the ground. Based on the stock price and that he had to beg the taxpayers to keep GM afloat, he clearly failed in his role of maximizing shareholder value. The fact that the board didn’t fire him tells you all you need to know about the incestuous board / CEO relationship that exists at corporations these days. He should have been gone long ago.
I agree the taxpayer funding of this downward spiral is insane. But if the taxpayer has invested billions in your company, then they, through the elected leaders, get a say in how it’s run.
It’s really simple, you run your company competently, you get to make your own decisions. You fuck up and ask the taxpayer to bail you out, the man now owns you.
I once owned a corporation. OK, I was a shareholder in Chase Manhattan. Not a very big one, but I did get invited to annual meetings and was allowed to vote for stuff by proxy. Shouldn’t that be the limit of the government’s involvement?
#15
One of the reasons I come to this site is the hope of one day reading just such a story.
As for the CEO thing, I’m more than a little concerned with the “well we own them now” argument that is being tossed around. A violation doesn’t stop being a violation just because the violators follow their plan through consistently. It’s true that there has not been anything like a “free market” for as long as any of us have been alive, but the current trend is to a massive socialization of industry the likes this part of the world has not seen before. Schadenfreude is not a valid justification to cheer on the normalization of government control, at least for those who are so consciously aware and philosophically opposed to it.
RE: GM CEO
Someone I read earlier today asked if the administration is making the CEO resign, when are they going to make the same demands of the UAW president, Ron Gettelfinger? This firing just opens an entirely unpredictable can of worms that I think this president is going to come to regret.
Andrew @ #16: “Banks are required to keep their debt and asset ratios within particular guidelines to maintain FDIC insurance and Treasury support. The banks were “required” to take the money because they had bad ratios.”
No. There’s been huge press about this since the get-go under Paulson. The government pushed healthy banks to take bailout funds.
Here are just a couple of blurbs, one old, one newer:
Washington Post, October 2008:
Los Angeles Times, March 2009:
The bailouts began as a means for the government to tighten its already formidable grip on banks and other companies. Before Obama was empowered to take it to the next level.
Everything will be fine after Congress implements the Automotive Unification Plan.
thorn
The even more troubling thing is that GM is complying in running Wagoner. Why? Not because they took all that money in December. It’s so they can get more of my money now.
Meanwhile, whither Ford Motor Company?
Government money has come with strings attached forever. It has dictated what science people can and cannot do in government supported labs, dictated who a school can and cannot accept and at sports teams they offer, what doctors can and cannot tell their patients, what artists can and cannot depict or use as a medium, who’s money you can and cannot accept as matching donations, who you should or shouldn’t do business with including dictates regarding union membership, what laws and regulations states should and should not enact etc etc.
To those people who object to Wagoner being asked to step down I have one question: “What, are you new in town?”
I am always amused when people who sit by or even cheer when government exercises this prerogative in areas they want them to, and then get their panties in a twist when the same concept applies to issues or institutions they hold sacrosanct.
I have no problem with the principle that using my tax money gives me, through my elected representatives, a say in how that money will be spent and on what. I just wish much less of my tax money was being used for this kind of thing and therefore that my government was getting involved in less things like this.
Money and control are the same thing. I want less of both from my government and that which is used to be used more efficiently.
“Executing a search warrant, police never know what they’re going to find on the other side of that door,” DeGeorge said. “In most cases, these can be life and death situations.”
What a total empty statement. “In most cases these can be life and death situations” They can be, but they are not (except for the dogs and legally armed citizens).
While I completely disagree with the government bailouts AND demanding Wagoner’s ouster, I will say this:
I practice transactional corporate law, and on occasion have done large private financing deals. In one such deal, the lender’s original position (which they backed off of after a bit of negotiation) is that they’d only lend the money if the company replaced the CEO and a few other people in senior management.
So… it’s not unheard of in private financing deals. That being said, things are different and worrisome when it involves the government calling the shots. We could negotiate with a private company to remove the clause. The government isn’t usually one to negotiate.
I have a hard time feeling bad for the CEO. I agree with Salvo that punishments may help to stop this ridiculous trend in the future. I also like the idea that we should begin calling for the head of the UAW.
But what keeps getting lost in all this is who will replace hime? Don’t you think Obama is going to have some say over who replaces him? GM will become a puppet corporation. This isn’t socialism, this is communism. That’s why I think Radley is right, this is a big step. It’s one thing to throw money at GM, the way government always does. But to start putting “your people” in place is a much bigger deal. It’s not surprising, but it is significant.
As for the CEO thing, I’m more than a little concerned with the “well we own them now” argument that is being tossed around. A violation doesn’t stop being a violation just because the violators follow their plan through consistently.
But what’s the violation? It seems to me that if a private investor had come along with cash conditioned on Wagoner resigning, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.
Of course, the fact that a private investor hasn’t come along kinda suggests that the bailout itself is a bad idea, but whatever–we’re obviously doing it.
I wonder what would happen if all the Obama fans who just go to pieces over his wonderful ability to communicate would watch the Hovind lecture. Would that all suddenly throw aside evolution and become adherants to creationism, just as they’ve tossed aside capitalism and embraced Obamanomics? Regardless of what he’s selling, you gotta admit Hovind is very good at selling his idea, just like Obama.
While I think the ability to communicate is an important attribute for a POTUS, I also think it’s oversold. The ideas are more important than the ability to express them. We seem to keep losing sight of that. So I offer you Kent Hovind for the next POTUS.
“Executing a search warrant, police never know what they’re going to find on the other side of that door”
Maybe one day it’s gonna be a real drug dealer with a full automatic rifle and armor piercing rounds. I bet that’s gonna be all over the major newspapers.
#32: Whither Ford is that they’re not taking the bailout money, and thus have no strings.
Re: Jim Webb, people can think whatever they want about his politics–but they cannot doubt that he is one brave man. Navy Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star (x2), Purple Heart (x2). See Webb’s Wiki for Navy Cross Cit–chilling.
Since we now own a portion of all these companies (which is a mistake), the last thing we should want is the stupid politicians running them. These guys have the power to confiscate money and they still can’t break even.
Zeb, “and babies.” You forgot to add the babies and other unarmed citizens.
I’ll just siimplify it.
“In most cases, these can be life and death situations for the residents of the home.”
FTFY
Greenwald: “We’ve been trained how we talk about our political leaders primarily by a media that worships political cynicism and can only understand the world through political game-playing”
Awesome article by Greenwald, and good work by Sen. Webb. Whenever a political representative–be it Webb, Feingold, Ron Paul or whoever–says “fuck it,” and refuses to talk to us like a nation of children and invalids, I get excited. I wish Webb all the success in the world, and I can’t wait to see him drive some of his less courageous/intelligent colleagues into hysterics.
Go get ‘em sailor!!!!
Re: GM CEO – I agree that since GM is nationalized, the gov’t has a say in such matters. I totally agree that GM can’t have its bailout money and eat it too. However, I agree with what I think Radley is saying here:
a) It’s scary as hell that the gov’t has this interest in a company (literally, fascism).
b) It’s scary, and a real “this is really happening” concretization, that a gov’t official has taken the step of having this say in the company.
Oh, and of course it’s also WRONG that the gov’t is doing anything of the sort (bailouts, stimulus, all the rest of it). In fact, I’ll be at the San Fransisco Tea Party protest on Wednesday.
Yes, it was. It happened in San Francisco and four police officers died. Problem is this will be used as justification for stepping up the violence police officers engage in during these raids, not reducing it. The idea, with these micro-brained macho types, of ramping down the violence just doesn’t occur to them. Nevermind that these kinds of cases are probably even more rare than a wrong door raid.
In a better world someone would dupe the pigs into carrying out a raid ala copbusters…
just to have them burst into a house chock full o’ claymore mines instead of a few japanese maples under growlights.
Aresen @ 21:
You’re a better person than I am.
Wagoner’s resignation was not a condition of the money being given. It was given, then the administration wasn’t satisfied with GM’s recovery plan, so they demanded Wagoner’s exit.
Scarier still is that Obama said that the U.S. government will now be responsible for warranty work on GM vehicles.
paranoiastrksdp
Bet you won’t say that after I’ve hacked your bank account and credit cards.
:)
So, the cops killed the dogs of a 68 year old man. It’s a terrible thing to say, but one day they’ll kill the dogs of a senior who realizes that, according to the actuarial tables, a life sentence means no more than a few years in prison; and that wronged citizen just might decide to go down in history.
It’s an even a more terrible thing to say, but some of us who are sick of reading of these abuses will cheer that man on.
So, how long was god around before he created the earth?
Wouldn’t it have been at least “biiiiiiilllllions of years”?
You’d think anyone who had that long to study the problem would have done a better job.
Glenn Greenwald? Mr. Socky Sock-puppet? That guy lost nearly all of his credibility long ago. Even if he is right I still don’t trust him based on his past behavior.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Glenn+Greenwald+sockpuppet&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Aresen @ 52:
Give it your best shot pal, I refuse to own a credit card and my bank account is in the red. Not to mention my credit is shot to hell with student loans. You’d practically be doing me a favor lol. :)
Kent Hovind is indeed hilarious, but he’s got nothing on Ray Comfort, aka the banana guy. The banana is apparently “the atheist’s worst nightmare” as it irrefutably proves the existence of a higher power.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGMuIyBK5P4&feature=related
Wouldn’t it be just desserts if Joe Arpaio gets nailed on corruption charges..?