Length of original U.S. Constitution: 11 pages. Length of most recent energy/cap-and-trade/global warming bill: 1,200 pages.
Cross-dressing clown robs liquor store.
Sued if you do, sued if you don’t–the real problem with the Ricci case.
Good interview with Peter Neufeld, co-found of the Innocence Project.
There, I Fixed It.
Via John Tabin, if the U.S. Senate confirms Sotomayor, last week’s SCOTUS ruling granting criminal defendants the right to cross-examine forensic experts who author reports submitted into evidence may already be in trouble.
Police bring six cruisers, eight cops, a helicopter, and use pepper spray to break up . . . a fundraiser for a Democratic congressional candidate.
Cool Google Maps ap plotting the spots featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. That show makes me want to eat my television. Can’t believe Guy Fieri hasn’t come within 45 miles of D.C. yet, though.
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on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 8:37 am by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
Comments on the Democratic fund-raiser story indicate that a follow-up story describes seven attendees being arrested for taking cell phone pictures of the incident.
And I just love this gem from the article, quoting one of the cops:
“While trying to deal with the complaint, guests at the party surrounded Abbott and he felt threatened, Yancey said.
‘We don’t like people standing behind us – we have Tasers, guns, clubs,’ he said.”
So apparently, simply standing behind this guy could be justification for him to tase, shoot or beat you–so you don’t take his toys and use them on him first, I guess. This being a round planet, even if you’re in front of him, you’re also behind him!
And if he feels threatened by people behind him, imagine how we feel around someone as jumpy as him who has “Tasers, guns, clubs” at his disposal!
While doing some work on a Navy nuclear vessel, we were instructed not to come up behind the Marines guarding the nuclear fuel. That is, come up from behind and touch them or at least invade their personal space. They were trained to kill. They were instructed to protect the fuel at all costs. However, they didn’t go around provoking us squids.
So, what is the police’s excuse during a “disturbing the peace” callout.. in a rich neigborhood…full of elder white folks…in California? At least they would seem to treat the inner city kids equally. Brutal police are brutal.
I have yet to hear a detailed discussion on whether the test was actually fair or not. Most editorials and pundits just seem to assume it was if they are rooting for the plaintiffs, and assume it wasn’t if rooting against.
From the raid on the fundraising party:
“He was pepper-spraying the faces of anyone who tried to talk to him,” Busby said. “People were stunned. It was something that none of us has experienced.”
Welcome to the reality of law enforcement in America. Sorry your lesson had to be a painful one but maybe now if you get elected you’ll have a clue and actually consider the consequences and effects of the first “crime prevention” act that comes across your desk.
On the Ricci case:
I was SHOCKED to see that I sided with the majority here. I don’t think you should invalidate the results of a test AFTER the test was given and graded just because you thought the results would get you sued. If the test was biased (which it was never proven to be, only that the results were skewed against blacks) then those who brought the suit should’ve shown how the test was flawed and given an alternative test (which, again, they didn’t do).
As for Guy Fieri, he seems to have a love affair with New Mexico, Arizona, and California. I don’t think I’ve seen an episode yet that didn’t feature a restaurant in one of those three states.
I’ll be moving to Durham, NC this summer so I’m really going to be far from the Fiery Flavortowns!
Texas police raid gay bar under guise of regulatory inspection, one man is now hospitalized with brain bleeding. Others kidnapped/falsely arrested.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GAY_BAR_RAID?SITE=TNKNN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
MDguy #4-Absolutely right. I hate that anyone gets treated like that but if its going to happen its good that it happened to people who may be able to actually do something about it for a change. I wish the police would treat the powerful the way they treat everyone else. Then maybe the politicians would reign them in.
Statement from homeowner arrested in the dem fundraiser raid:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/homeowner-blasts-sheriffs-department-for-raid-on-dem-candidate-fundraising-event.php?ref=fpblg
[...] There, I fixed it. [...]
From the SCOTUS story: “[Sotomayor] has a record on criminal law issues that appears to be somewhat more prosecution-oriented than Justice Souter’s has been.”
That’s a bit of an understatement…
What’s left out of the story about the cops vs fundraisers is that there was a guy in the tree near the property screaming bad words at the people (all sorts of insults, etc) and the smart money is on this heckler being the 911 caller.
I noticed this also. One of the interviewees on NPR said black people don’t do as well on multiple choice tests, and this test was 60% multiple choice. This is evidence of racial bias?
“It ended with Barman, 60, being arrested and jailed on suspicion of battery on a peace officer, and resisting, delaying and obstructing a peace officer.”
In other words, another person arrested on the charge of being arrested.
“Length of original U.S. Constitution: 11 pages. Length of most recent energy/cap-and-trade/global warming bill: 1,200 pages.”
“One thing, one thing leads to another …” — The Fixx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzymBKGV8rw
“Police bring six cruisers, eight cops, a helicopter, and use pepper spray to break up . . . a fundraiser for a Democratic congressional candidate.”
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of Statists.
I laughed so hard I blew fucking coffee out my nose all over my monitor.
Glad to see police brutality is moving up the food chain!
I really enjoy how the commenters in the TPMDC story blame police thuggery on their “conservatism.” I didn’t realize thuggery was a left/right thing; I thought it was a blue thing.
Yes, and that same NPR story also said that the UNION requires that the tests be this way.
one of the big problems with the constitution is its brevity! A substantially longer and more explicit document would certainly have been an improvement!
Can’t believe Guy Fieri hasn’t come within 45 miles of D.C. yet, though.
He probably doesn’t want the CSPI and the Meme Roths of the world giving him a headache about “producing food porn”.
Length of original U.S. Constitution: 11 pages. Length of most recent energy/cap-and-trade/global warming bill: 1,200 pages.
That’s because it’s exactly 109.09 times more important.
“We didn’t hear anything until the sheriff came, with eight patrol cars and a helicopter,” said Natasha Cortina, 43, who said she and her two children were home with the windows open.
So the “new professionalism” solution to disturbing the peace is to disturb the peace. That’s about right. Fits in with their mission of saving an otherwise non-violent neighborhood from potential violence by bashing in doors and instigating violence.
“The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department announced Monday that it has launched an internal affairs investigation into a deputy’s use of pepper spray at a fundraising party for Francine Busby on Friday night in Cardiff.”
Oh good. I feel so much better now; surely this investigation will lead to swift punishment of those who violated regulations or the law. (Insert eye-roll … here)
Length of original U.S. Constitution: 11 pages. Length of most recent energy/cap-and-trade/global warming bill: 1,200 pages.
So?
I have yet to hear a detailed discussion on whether the test was actually fair or not. Most editorials and pundits just seem to assume it was if they are rooting for the plaintiffs, and assume it wasn’t if rooting against.
Fairness isn’t really the issue so much as whether the city was complying with its legal obligations when they chucked the results.
#18 | bobzbob
You are hereby informed that you have infringed on Dave Krueger’s sarcasm copyright, and that you must cease and desist immediately and forthwith.
/served
The Catch 22 for HR offices is certainly a big problem, but not in the Ricci case. Read Alito’s concurrence; it’s the most damning document I’ve seen since the Smoking Gun ripped A Million Little Pieces. Here’s the summary: discarding the tests was a purely political move to appease an influential crooked black preacher, e.g. “In that capacity, Rev. Kimber told firefighters that certain new recruits would not be hired because ‘they just have too many vowels in their name[s].’”
Also, if you’re “sue’d if you do, sue’d if you don’t,” you’re in the same position as facing no threat of lawsuit. Do the right thing. There’s normally one person on a jury who sympathizes with that.
#3 — I’ve yet to hear how someone who believes a firefighter’s promotion test could even possibly be biased is not, by definition, a racist.
[...] The Agitator) Written by Skyehaven in: People [...]
[...] Thank you, Mr. Balko. [...]
Ricci v. Dipterans –
God I’m getting tired of the term “reverse discrimination”. There’s nothing reverse about it, its just plane discrimination. It shouldn’t matter what color a person is, they can still be discriminated against. Why not just throw the whole idea of minority assistance/affirmative action away and give people jobs biased on what their capabilities are?
Because assessing those capabilities is the problem. Look, we did it the informal way for decades, where managers were supposed to just know how capable their employees were; the not-so-surprising result of that was that regardless of who was actually more qualified than whom, the managers usually perceived the whites as more qualified than the blacks and the men more qualified than the women.
Frankly, until libertarians and conservatives are willing to grapple with the decades-long systematic racism against women and minorities that persists even to this day, their “white-man-just-can’t-catch-a-break” nonsense just looks like self-centered privilege. It’s still the case that the resume of a white person with a felony record still gets twice as many callbacks as the resume of someone with no criminal record and a black-sounding name.
Length of original U.S. Constitution: 11 pages. Length of most recent energy/cap-and-trade/global warming bill: 1,200 pages.
This is a fallacy I see again and again.
The constitution is the law that is supposed to govern the government. Notice it’s pretty light, vague, and full of loopholes. And then they don’t even follow that.
US statutes are laws that are supposed to govern the people, etc. Notice these are heavy, wordy, confusing, inscrutable, etc.
Both the short length of the constitution and the long length of statutory laws stem from the same problem. The government gets to do what it wants and the people do not.