• Glimpses of the New York Times Magazine from 100 years ago.
• National Cancer Institute praises therapeutic effects of marijuana, then mysteriously walks said praise. Or not so mysteriously.
• Ego blogging: My Overkill paper on SWAT teams is being used to oppose the militarization of police in South Africa.
• Here’s a pretty damning look at DHS’s wholesale disregard for FOIA requests.
• Roundup of critical reactions to this week’s SCOTUS decision in Connick v. Thompson.
• The Institute for Justice files suit to stop Georgia’s asset forfeiture “slush fund” for police departments.
• Terrific aerial photographs.

Ugh.

Representative Gabrielle Giffords is still in the hospital, but some of her most ardent backers are so enamored of the idea of her running for the Senate that they describe the inevitable campaign commercials: the deep-voiced narrator recounting what happened to her, the images of her wounded, then recovering and speaking into the camera alongside her astronaut husband to call on Arizonans to unite…

While it might be wishful thinking, Ms. Giffords’s noncampaign is already having a major effect on Arizona politics; other prospective Democratic candidates say they feel compelled not to jump in unless she bows out, allowing Republicans to get a head start organizing their campaigns.

“I’m in but only if she’s not,” said one prospective Democratic candidate, who spoke of his deliberations but insisted that he not be named given the fluid nature of the race. “A Democrat running against her would be doomed.”..

“We could do no better for a candidate,” said Terry Goddard, a Democrat who lost a bid for governor last year. “She’s beyond partisanship.”…

She would no doubt benefit from sympathy she would receive as one of 19 people shot that morning. Political analysts in both parties say her rivals would face the difficult task of campaigning against her without appearing too hard-edged.

“Elections are about emotion more than logic, and she will attract a lot of people to her because of that,” said David Leibowitz, an Arizona political consultant who works for Democrats and Republicans.

I of course wish Giffords the best. And if, after making a full recovery, she then wants to run for higher office, more power to her. And for all I know, she may make a darned fine senator.

But that isn’t what’s going on here. Giffords has become an immensely more attractive Senate candidate because she got shot in the head. And, frankly, because she’s still recovering. These whispers actually started weeks ago, before it was even clear that she’d be able to talk again. Try to think of another profession where something like that would immediately make you more qualified for a promotion, before your colleagues even knew what sort of recovery was even possible.

There are many laudable, commendable things to be said about someone who can survive, and then recover from, a point-blank bullet to the head. One thing you can’t say is that any of that will necessarily make Giffords a better legislator. It will, however, unquestionably make her a better candidate, for all the reasons the sleazy political operatives mention above: She’ll get sympathy votes. It will be nearly impossible for an opponent to attack her, even substantively, without looking like an ass. She’ll get a ton of sympathetic press.

And that the qualifications and characteristics that make for a good candidate so starkly differ from the qualifications and characteristics you want in a legislator is really a huge part of the problem.

• Fascinating article on the new generation of poker pros.
• A woman scorned, and all that.
• Here’s a profile of Mitch Richards, a young libertarian running for city council in Columbia, Missouri. I met with Mitch and the Keep Columbia Free crowd when I spoke there last year. They’re really impressive.
• Correction of the day.
• Obama and the Potter Stewart doctrine of preemptive warmaking.

The Village Voice posts a devastating debunking of a widely-cited report claiming that sites like Backpage.com are facilitating a spike in the sex trafficking of underage girls.

“An independent tracking study released today by the Women’s Funding Network shows that over the past six months, the number of underage girls trafficked online has risen exponentially in three diverse states,” Richardson claimed. “Michigan: a 39.2 percent increase; New York: a 20.7 percent increase; and Minnesota: a staggering 64.7 percent increase.”

In the wake of this bombshell revelation, Richardson’s disturbing figures found their way into some of the biggest newspapers in the country. USA Today, the Houston Chronicle, the Miami Herald, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the Detroit Free Press all repeated the dire statistics as gospel.

The successful assault on Craigslist was followed by a cross-country tour by Richardson and the Women’s Funding Network.

None of the media that published Richardson’s astonishing numbers bothered to examine the study at the heart of her claim. If they had, they would have found what we did after asking independent experts to examine the research: It’s junk science.

After all, the numbers are all guesses.

The data are based merely on looking at photos on the Internet. There is no science.

The group based its estimates on guesses of the ages of women depicted in escort service ads on sites like Craigslist and Backpage.com. (Backpage is owned by Village Voice media, which has resisted pressure to shut down its adult services section). And that’s just how they got the raw numbers. They then magnified the error by applying those numbers in all sorts of misleading and statistically dubious ways. There wasn’t an academic or statistician among the group that authored the study. This was PR.

Nevertheless, the “study” spawned hysterical media reports, outrage from indignant attorneys general, and sweet government grants for groups like the Women’s Funding Network. Most astonishing is this admission from one peddler of sex panic:

“We pitch it the way we think you’re going to read it and pick up on it,” says Kaffie McCullough, the director of Atlanta-based anti-prostitution group A Future Not a Past. “If we give it to you with all the words and the stuff that is actually accurate—I mean, I’ve tried to do that with our PR firm, and they say, ‘They won’t read that much.’”

That about says it all.

• Headline of the day.
• “Guatemala is a good place to commit a murder, because you will almost certainly get away with it.”
• City of Dover digs up, hauls off basketball hoops on private property that were in violation of a new “clear zone” ordinance.
• USA Today report suggests D.C. school officials cheated on standardized tests.
• Disturbing how common these sorts of images have become. Remember, these are domestic law enforcement agents you’re seeing, not military.
• The Tennessee legislature is again considering a bill that would allow grocery stores to sell wine. (Note to local media: Make sure your headline puns are properly aligned with the beverage being regulated. “Wine legislation on tap” = No! “Legislature serves up wine bills” = better.) Rather hilariously, Tennessee’s liquor stores, which have a monopoly on wine retailing, are again warning that this could unleash a wave of binge drinking and DWI carnage on the roadways.
• So I guess atheists and Muslims are the reason Newt Gingrich cheated on his wives.
• Disturbing list of writers and intellectuals who have recently gone missing in China.

I’ll be giving a speech on police militarization this Wednesday at 7 pm ET at the University Center Burgiss Theater at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.

The speech is sponsored by Furman Amensty International and Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow. It is open to the public.

So if you’re an Agitatortot in the area, come on out.

Apparently, lifting a seizing seven-year-old by the throat isn’t quite enough.

Allison said her son, who is a special needs student at Stevenson, suffers from seizures that cause him to scream and act much like a 2-year-old throwing a tantrum. He had such a seizure on Dec. 21 and was with the school psychologist waiting for his dad to pick him up and take him home.

Lorraine Allison said the psychologist had her son in a restraining hold, which is common practice.

[Bloomington, Illinois, police officer Scott] Oglesby became involved after he went to the school after hearing of an unrelated incident involving another student.

The school resource officer also was en route.

According to the police report obtained by the Allisons, Oglesby “darted” into the room where the Allison’s son was, told the boy he was giving him a headache and then lifted the 65-pound boy by the throat. He “was lifted off the floor so his feet were dangling … his head was close to the ceiling … his face was turning quite red,” according to the psychologist’s statement to police.

The psychologist left the room and told the school resource officer who then went into the room. Oglesby then grabbed the boy by the arm, lifted him over his shoulder and carried him to the principal’s office where, according to one witness, he “threw” the boy into a chair.

The report further states that Oglesby went back into the classroom and said to school staff, “You got any more?”

Oglesby is now on the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services “indicated” child abusers list. But he won’t face criminal charges. He was initially on paid leave during the investigation, but has since been reinstated to the force, albeit at a desk job that bars him from interacting with the public. So he didn’t miss a day of pay.

MORE: A reader points to this story about another Bloomington cop who was arrested in 2009 by a state trooper for suspected DUI, and for driving 83 in a 45 mph zone. Because the officer refused to take a breath test, McLean County State’s Attorney Bill Yoder responded by setting up “no refusal” sobriety checkpoints for all the non-cop motorists, meaning anyone refusing a breath test, as the cop did, would have blood forcibly extracted from their bodies.

The DUI charge against the cop that inspired the crackdown was later dropped. He is also still on the force.

• Even Newt Gingrich is bummed out about Newt Gingrich running for president. Also, when Gingrich writes his memoirs, I think he should call it: I, of Newt.
• RIP, guy who invented super glue. Needs more horse.
• This story illustrates just about everything that’s wrong with political discourse. Fox and Media Matters thrive on one another. And we’re all stupider for it.
• Ego blogging: Esquire suggests my name for the NY Times op-ed page. Given that I’ve wanted to grow up to write for Esquire since about high school, I’m darned flattered. (FWIW, I think Ross Douthat is a thoughtful, often surprising writer. I also usually disagree with him.)
• This article cogently lays out yet another part of the “Better Dead Than High” theme.
• Colorado bill would jack up the penalties for soliciting a prostitute. Note that underage sex workers are cited as a reason the bill is needed, yet the new penalties wouldn’t actually apply to someone charged with paying for sex with a minor. There are already other laws for that.

“You guys in AZ are life savers. Buy you a beer next time I get that way.”

– California prisons official Scott Kernan, in an email to a counterpart in Arizona.

Here’s the context.

• Here is a 1981 local news report on the future of “electronic newspapers”.
• Here is a weird book for children.
• Here is an abandoned Frank Lloyd Wright home in Detroit.
• Here is a man who is trying to make America sexier by playing the saxophone solo from “Careless Whisper” in random public places.
• Here is a discussion of whether Karl Pilkington is genuine, or just really great performance art.
• Here is Cyndi Lauper singing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” to aggravated passengers in a Buenos Aires airport terminal.
• Here is a time-lapse tour of the Appalachian Trial. (Mark Sanford does not appear in this video.)
• Here is a man who really wants to walk your dog.

Friedlander, the founder of Reason magazine, has died.

Like everyone else who now works at the magazine, I never met him. But Nick Gillespie’s obituary for him today put a lump in my throat. Our own Syd Barrett. Can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s something fitting about that.

See also this remembrance from Bob Poole, who did know Friedlander, and worked with him in the magazine’s very early days.

More problems for Police Women of Broward County, the awful TLC reality show I previously wrote about here.

The filming of a new season of Police Women of Broward County has victims, suspects and the sheriff saying the reality series has gone too far trying to create must-see TV — including offering suspects money if they’re reluctant to allow their faces to be used on the program.

Crime victims have come forward recently, upset about their treatment by deputies connected to the show while a number of suspects have complained about what they say is pressure put on them to sign release forms…

The Broward County Public Defender’s Office is aware of at least three clients who have been offered or received money to sign release forms since filming for the new season began in January, Chief Assistant Public Defender Gordon Weekes Jr. said. One was paid $500 and another offered that same amount, Weekes said.

“They need to take any action necessary to prevent future arrestees from being further exploited,” Weekes said of Lamberti’s office. “They need to take some responsibility for the lack of supervision of these folks.”…

Some victims have also criticized the show, saying they have felt pressured by deputies and the show’s producers to allow the cameras to intrude on their lives.

One woman who reported a date rape to BSO in January said she was disturbed when Sheriff’s Office sex crimes Detective Julie Bower came with an all-male television crew and pushed for her to tell her story on camera. Bower is one of the original stars of the show…

“I started getting upset, crying,” said the Pompano Beach woman, 51, who has since moved to the Orlando area out of fear of running into the man she said drugged and raped her. “I’m reporting a date rape. I’m trying to get someone to listen to me and she’s trying to put me on TV.”…

[Broward County Sheriff Al] Lamberti said the show does have benefits.

“I wanted to show law enforcement in a human way,” Lamberti said. “It does illustrate that women can have a career in law enforcement.”

Here’s a screen cap of the show humanizing Det. Andrea Penoyer.

The Oak Ridge Boys cover the White Stripes.

So my browser doesn’t crash…

• Judge who refuses to sign arrest warrant. So the state police want to arrest the judge. Pretty sure this is not how it’s all supposed to work.
• Great example of how easily good news can be be portrayed as bad news.
• Funny how classified leaks that benefit the government tend not to get investigated.
• Strangely, another Indiana prosecutor has been fired (justifiably) for going bonkers over the protests in Wisconsin.
• Classic arcade game deaths.
• If Hemingway Yelped.
• The NY Times raves about “The Book of Mormon”, the new Trey Parker/Matt Stone joint.
• Agitator favorites the Cold Stares are in a Nashville battle of the bands competition. Go vote for them here.

• Don Haase sex scandal in 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . .
• Guy makes portrait collages out of porn (NSFW).
• Prosecutor: “You bet your ass I ain’t gonna be mean to Willie Nelson.”
• How could anyone possibly think this is a good idea?
• Here’s a writeup of my talk at Georgetown last week.
• Chuck Schumer bill would bar people convicted of drug crimes from owning a gun.It would bar people who haven’t been convicted of a drug crime from owning a gun.

• Cases of Shaken Manchild Syndrome on the rise.
• DOJ is now on the “war on cops” meme. Some of the proposals mentioned here are troubling (more gun control, looking for federal crimes to throw at people), while other seem pretty sensible. It’s good, for example, to give cops better training on how to deal with violent situations, and to equip them with more protective bullet-proof vests. But the numbers the article throws out still need context.
• The person who wrote Elizabeth Taylor’s New York Times obituary died six years ago.
• Police found “54 bags of heroin, 31 empty bags used to package heroin, 8.5 prescription pills and $51.22.” The story is about where they found it all.
• 85-year-old-man posts Tweet asking college girls to get naked for him in exchange for cash.
• Speaking of Twitter, here’s a Tweet that rather succinctly demonstrates the absurdity of U.S. foreign policy.
• This article only summarizes one side of a lawsuit. But damn.

Earlier this afternoon I blogged about Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and bloated action hero Steven Seagal raiding a suspected cockfighter (cockfighting manager? cock manager? cocker?) with a tank and a SWAT team. If the story wasn’t already outlandish enough for you, you’re in luck.

Seems that Segal told local media taht he was piloting tanks and smashing doors with Arpaio’s crew while “on loan” from his deputy position with the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff’s Department.

Not quite.

According to beefy action film star Steven Seagal’s former “boss,” Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand, Seagal is not “on loan” from Jefferson Parish, as Seagal asserted recently after a massive MCSO raid on a home in Laveen, where one — count him, one — suspect was nabbed for his alleged involvement in raising roosters for the purposes of cockfighting.

Indeed, according to Sheriff Normand, who once played host to Seagal’s A&E reality series Steven Seagal: Lawman, the tough-guy Akido master resigned rather than face an internal affairs investigation by the JPSO into allegations of sex trafficking and sexual assault raised in a 2010 lawsuit by an ex-employee…

In her lawsuit, ex-swimsuit model Kayden Nguyen accused Seagal of sex trafficking and creating a hostile work environment by groping her and making unwanted sexual advances toward her.

The complaint, which has since been dropped, stated that she was hired through a Craigslist ad to be Seagal’s executive assistant as Seagal filmed his reality show in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans.

But Nguyen alleged that, “what the production company really wanted was an `Attendant’ to provide sex on demand to Mr. Seagal…”

Supposedly, she was to take the place of one of two female Russian masseuses, as one of them had recently left Seagal’s employ.

The lawsuit is bursting with salacious details, all of which Seagal’s lawyer has denied to the press, claiming that Nguyen had been fired from her position for illicit drug use. (No criminal charges were ever filed in the Seagal-Nguyen case.)

More at the Phoenix New Times. Seagal appears to be attempting to embody every bad cop cliche all by himself.

(Thanks to Kelly James for the tip.)

Sometimes, a story comes along that defies commentary.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio rolled out the tanks to take down a man suspected of cockfighting. West Valley residents in the neighborhood are crying foul after armored vehicles, including a tank, rolled into their neighborhood to make the bust.

Neighbor Debra Ross was so worried she called 911 and went outside where a nearby home had its windows blown out, was crawling with dozens of SWAT members in full gear, armored vehicles and a bomb robot.

“When the tank came in and pushed the wall over and you see what’s in there, and all it is, is a bunch of chickens,” Ross said.

In a massive show of force on Monday, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant and arrested the homeowner, Jesus Llovera, on charges of suspected cockfighting

Llovera was alone in the house at the time of the arrest, and he was unarmed.“I think taxpayers should be shocked,” said Robert Campus, Llovera’s attorney.

Campus said he believes the operation costs tens of thousands of dollars.Deputies had no probable cause to believe Llovera was armed or dangerous, according to Campus.Campus said he believes the entire scene was basically a stage, to help actor Steven Seagal’s TV show, “Lawman.”

Seagal was riding in the tank.

My column on the sad spectacle of reality cop shows here. I also wrote about how the presence of reality show cameras may have contributed to the shooting of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones here.

(Thanks to Franklin Harris for the tip.)

It wasn’t a drug raid. But the details are fun. From the opinion:

On May 31, 2007, Sam Bellotte printed some photographs from a memory card at a self-service station in a Winchester, Virginia Wal-Mart. When he went to pay for the prints, a clerk insisted on inspecting the photos. Mr. Bellotte admitted that some contained nudity and surrendered them, then made other purchases and left the store.

The Wal-Mart employees charged with discarding the photos noticed one depicting male genitalia seemingly next to a child’s face. Concerned that the photograph was child pornography, the employees notified the Frederick County police. An investigation of the surveillance camera footage and credit card receipts showed that Mr. Bellotte, a resident of Jefferson County, West Virginia, had printed the photo in question. A Frederick County police officer placed the photo in a file container and notified the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, which then took responsibility for the investigation. After reviewing the file, verifying Mr. Bellotte’s address, and learning that both Mr. and Mrs. Bellotte held concealed carry permits, Detective Tracy Edwards sought a search warrant for the Bellotte residence. Around 9:00 that evening, the magistrate reviewed the application and signed the warrant.

In order to execute the warrant, Detective Edwards sought and received approval from the ranking Jefferson County law enforcement officer for the assistance of the Jefferson County Special Operations Team (“SORT Team”). The SORT Team leaders decided that their involvement was justified due to the possibility of a violent reaction from Mr. Bellotte and the concealed carry permits held by both Mr. and Mrs. Bellotte. After the three SORT squads were assembled and briefed, they arrived at the Bellotte residence around 10:15 p.m.

The three squads took positions around the house, wearing tactical vests and helmets and armed with flashlight-equipped.45 caliber Sig Sauer pistols and “hooligan” pry bars for a possible forced entry. Then, the Bellottes claim, the SORT squads opened the unlocked front and rear doors without knocking or announcing their presence. They immediately executed a dynamic entry—a technique that the SORT Team had recently been trained in—by which all squads simultaneously rushed into the home from multiple entry points. After the SORT squads were inside the house, they repeatedly identified themselves as law enforcement officers executing a search warrant.

The first member of the family to encounter the SORT Team was E.B., the Bellottes’ teenage son. When the officers found him upstairs walking out of his bedroom and talking on a cell phone, they subdued and handcuffed him. E.B. asserts that the officers also poked a gun at the back of his head. In another bedroom, the team found C.B., the Bellottes’ young daughter, and led her downstairs unhandcuffed.

When the SORT Team came to the parents’ bedroom, Tametta Bellotte raced out of bed and ran screaming toward the closet. When she reached for a gun bag, the officers forced her to the ground and handcuffed her. Later, when the house was secured, the SORT Team allowed Mrs. Bellotte to get fully dressed under the supervision of a female officer. The search of the Bellotte residence concluded shortly before midnight.

Sam Bellotte was actually on a hunting trip at the time. When he learned of the raid on his family, the same man police thought was so dangerous that they had to send a SWAT team to his home late at night walked into the police station, explained the situation, and provided documentation that the person depicted in the photo was a 35-year-old Filipino woman.

A couple other points here. First, I still wonder why gun rights groups like the NRA aren’t more disturbed by the ubiquitous use of SWAT teams. Here, the fact that the Bellotte’s were legal, registered gun owners was used as justification for the violent, volatile entry into their home. It isn’t the first time this has happened. You’d think that’s something that might concern Second Amendment acitivists.

Second, the police were right. Tametta Bellotte did immediately go for her gun when the SWAT team entered. But not because she’s a cop-killing, child pornographizing criminal. As it turns out, she was innocent. She went for her gun because she thought her life is in danger.

That said, it’s good to see the Fourth Circuit decline qualified immunity here. And it would be nice to see federal courts allow more liability for botched raids.