The Warm Glow of Freedom

Basking like with a last cigarette in the results of the Super Tuesday elections, one cant help but wonder if America really does have the best form of democracy in the world. First, of course, a definition of democracy.

The New York Times Editorial Board today posited on the reasons it would seem that American democracy is failing, or seems to be at any rate. According to the esteemed editors, democracy works best when it unites people by the party, and the problem is further complicated by the piles of money thrown at the candidates by interested parties. The Washington Post editorial today read like a recap of an insider's view, and pardon me for saying this if you find it offensive, but isn't it somewhat racist to cast entire demographies of American society in wide brush strokes? Casting the results as though all Hispanic voters favored Hillary Clinton, along with women, is rather disingenuous, overlooking the effects of class and the factors surrounding electoral participation. And, even though white voters might have a problem voting for a black man, Obama showed strongly in the South. Perhaps those who have been broadly cast as racists are looking for a change not offered by someone who is also seen as being from south of the Mason-Dixon. Or, perhaps, because of the unexpectedly high voter turnout in the primary, the traditional mainstream news media is unable to fully appreciate the results, or how they may have been distorted due to the procedural complications of our voting process.

Problems caused by overparticipation in the caucuses, which are themselves already undemocratic in structure, has reported caused problems across most of the country, as voter turnout was almost uniformly higher than projected by election officials. In states such as Kansas, Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado, and California all suffered from the problems related to the swell of voter participation, the ugly underside of democracy, voter disenfranchisement. Of course, it's easy for some pundits to say that the modern American election is more about individual, disparate districts begging for the attention of the candidates than any informative and substantive debate. However, considering the amount of popular participation in the primary elections, the U.S. is going to have some serious problems come November. In England, one observer asks if our system is the best, or the best that we can pay for. As one would expect, the comments are the best part of this article. To which, I can most simply respond that American's two party system doesn't properly reflect the policy aims of the American public, and probably wouldn't fit most definitions of democracy. That being said, here is the latest delegate count, according to CNN, not the distorting effect of the undemocratic Superdelegates in the Democratic race. Also, what good would this discussion be without being able to make fun of some polling data?

In Africa, always a target for those who criticize national governments on their lack of transparency and democratic institutions, the targets have somewhat changed. Tunji Ajibade, publishing from Abuja, frames the recent electoral violence in Kenya in the larger failing of democracy on the African continent and has some sharp words for hesitant British diplomats and their notions of development. Another darling of the West, South Africa, is faced with its own crisis in democracy, with the power of the state having come to reside in the hands of a single party, the African National Congress. One author criticizes the current system, and asks, "What next?" Other new darlings of the West, the Gambia, the DRC, and Ethiopia are also targets for abuse as what were essentially undemocratic elections yielded despots who, with the blessing of their aid donors, are ruthlessly enforcing their will over civil society and journalists.

In Afghanistan, whatever advances that have been made in democracy since the U.S. invasion seem to be quickly fading, as the Taliban continues to fight in the southern areas of the country. Meanwhile, the NATO countries are becoming increasingly frustrated in the varying levels of participation in the force responsible for bringing freedom and stability.

Here is a grim reminder of the dangers of flawed democracy, in which a small minority of a country was able to determine the fortunes and fates of the rest.

Now, for the election coverage!

Cleveland, Ohio: Terrible American City Or The Worst American City?

These posts usually start out in the same way. There was weather and the poor quality of Cleveland's infrastructure turned a windy day into a catastrophe. Residents of north east Ohio faced the usual 18 hour power outages after any kind of weather comes through. More significantly a train was thrown from a bridge into lake Erie.

That was last week. While in China they have been experiencing crippling winter weather for two weeks bringing the country to a standstill. The poor infrastructure and inability to deal with this much snow has caused massive transportation interruptions which in turn has caused price of produce to double in some places and has caused many people to go without power since they cant get the fuel to the power plants. At least Hu Jintao acts like a leader in this kind of situation by responding immediately, going to the places affected, and activating emergency response so that a disaster does not get worse.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK261760.htm

This week in Cleveland the temperature has been 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit and there have been scattered showers. Which in Cleveland is weather of catastrophic proportions accompanied by flash flooding, and power outages.

http://www.wunderground.com/US/OH/Cleveland.html#WAT

Ben Franklin Report: the Buttered Side

Even though the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the largest bank in the Middle Kingdom has announced $1.2 billion in exposure to the subprime crisis, there may yet be a silver lining. Considering that the Bank of China, number two in terms of amount of exposure in China, announced that they might post a loss on the year on such transactions, the executives at the ICBC are obviously re-examining the fundamental risk beneath the AAA-rated financial instruments behind the ongoing crisis.

There are still a couple of good opportunities out there in the world of finance for even the most bearish investor. If you are looking for banks that have strong fundamentals, no exposure to the subprime crisis, and are being sold at bargain prices, look no farther than Scandanavian banks. Or, if you are completely risk-averse and require underlying assets to your investment, perhaps you should consider Islamic banking, like in Malaysia.

Here in the U.S., the economy has risen to the tip of everyone's tongues. In hard-hit California, candidates are pitching their message to whoever will listen. In Massachusetts, the State is bringing civil suit against Merrill Lynch, seeking profits from selling the aforementioned AAA-rated credit instruments, collateralized debt obligations to Springfield, Massachusetts. And there are one or two more thoughts floating around about the planned economic stimulus moving through Congress.

A Few Poor Analogies

Congratulations to the New York Giants on what was at times, the second most boring Super Bowl Game ever and an awesome display of athletic ability! Would you take the result of this titanic struggle and equate the upset Giants win as a "good omen" for Hillary Clinton in the upcoming Super Tuesday elections? Considering her years as a Washington insider whose praises cannot be sung enough by the mainstream media, I find that analogy to be thin to the point of microscopic. Hillary, apparently, isn't a fan herself, as no true fan would take a work-related conference call in the middle of the game. Another bad metaphor could potentially be Hillary supports LGBT rights like marching activists.

Another mistaken metaphor would equate everyone's favorite pariah relative-type Presidential candidate, Mike Gravel, with others who have epitomized the Democratic process and fell out of the race due to a lack of money. Sen. Gravel is still alive and well and contemplating an independent run to the White House, but is still at work in the Bay Area in the run up to California's primary, one of 24 on Super Tuesday. Which, of course, brings us to another mistaken metaphor, that the author is liberal like the Clintons. It seems strange to agree with a conservative pundit.

Another potentially mistake metaphor is McCain is as left as Hillary Clinton, as Mitt Romney would have conservative voters believe.

The Friday Bacon

Ben Franklin Report: Consequences

Observable in most economic aggregates of data, there is a form of statistical lag, which is how long it takes those who count to count the count that they choose to count. This phenomenon is acutely visible in the most recent jobs report, which is accompanied by a downward revision of data from December, to the tune of 376,000 jobs in the level of employment. According to the latest figures, the economy lost about 17,000 jobs in January. There is a large disparity, according to the aforementioned story, in the number of jobs expected and those that actually were, wherein lies the statistical lag. If one can assume that there is a two month lag in the system when it comes to employment figures, how will they look two months from now? In my opinion, the stock market could come to reflect the 2003 levels of the job market, depending on the fundamental strength of the U.S. Dollar, because it is all about the Benjamins. The reporter, Rex Nutting, Washington Bureau Chief for MarketWatch, covering the jobs report also says hard times are coming, starting, "The last pillar to hide behind has fallen. Jobs are being lost in the U.S. economy."

Speaking of, the dollar isn't seen to be in the best shape, having lost ground against most of the major currencies since the beginning of the year, such as the Euro and the Yen. Canada's Dollar is enjoying the benefits of a difference in interest rates, again stronger than the American greenback. Of course, the U.S. Dollar is continuing it's increasingly not so gradual slide against the Chinese Yuan (RMB).

In a minor aside, the subprime crisis is continuing to develop in an international way. The latest casualty of the curious lending practices is Mizuho Financial Group, to the tune of $3.2 Billion. In a sign that the subprime crisis is going to spread into other sectors of the economy, pharmaceutical giants like Bristol-Myers Squibb and IT tech companies like Ciena Corp. are posting writedowns on subprime investments. Moody's is predicting that the subprime loss could amount to 85% of all such loans made, their CEO blames flawed models. It looks like the State of Florida is going to blame Countrywide Financial Corp, and the FBI is looking at 14 companies and counting. Alan Greenspan is trying to deflect blame from his time in office. In an exercise of States' Rights, states are refusing to take on the burden of refinancing subprime mortgages, a primary part of Bush's economic crisis recovery plan. And, also, there's video goodness, as Jon Stewart talks about the economy.

The Mainstream Media

What is the Mainstream Media? How often do people think about this phrase? Does it have a commonly accepted definition? Why is there such a problem with what is commonly referred to as the Mainstream Media? All of your questions answered, but first a message from our sponsors.



Without a doubt, the Mainstream Media is one of the buzzwords of our modern society, with close to 11 million results on a Google Search, and its own convenient acronym to use with blogging, MSM. Interestingly, 'mainstream media' doesn't return any results on Google Trends, but MSM does, as it apparently means something in Spanish. But somewhere between the opinions of Noam Chomsky, the Wikipedia page on Mass Media, and the homepage of the Mainstream Media Project, lies a very tangible effect that I think we've already seen a little of. Coming up, how the MSM impacts your daily life, but first a message from one of our sponsors!



As Charlie Savage pointed out in the Boston Globe, which, as of printing is one of only a handful of mainstream news media outlets to publish anything about this most recent signing statement. Some bloggers and organizations, however, have taken issue with Bush trying to impose a foreign policy upon the next President. Bush, of course, is doing nothing but acting in a unilateral fashion.

The '08 Election Trail: Dispatch the Bloodhounds

Thanks to Russian TV, here is a Mike Gravel sighting.



For those of you watching at home, there is a second recall in progress, of sorts, in New Hampshire. Despite strange bureaucratic maneuverings on the part of the Secretary of State, votes are being recounted and some strange discrepencies in the voting process and chain of custody are being addressed. Black Box Voting has more. Then, Bill Maher's round table about election fraud with Tony Snow, amongst others. Finally, a ghost of the 2004 election comes back to rattle chains and remind us all why voting in general is, ultimately, fairly useless.

“Big Brother“ 應該怎麽翻譯？

If you think concerns about GPS positioning in cell phones is scary in a tin foil hat kind of way, or you're concerned about a few hundred thousand Social Security Numbers being inadvertently disclosed by Wisconsin state agencies, you might have read George Orwell's "nineteen eighty-four". Wang Jianzhou (王建宙）, head of China Mobile, made quite a splash at a panel about the future of cell phones, with the very literal disclosure, "We know where you are." Sure, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, looking to break into the cell phone market, has every right to be enthusiastic about location-based advertising, but the definition of privacy has slightly different meaning in Chinese. For instance, in the first Legal Dictionary published in Chinese after the the opening up of the Chinese marketplace and the liberalization of state regulation (改革開放)　in 1980，the only mention of privacy (隱私) relates to the privacy concerns in the case of rape of other illicit sexual activity. Admittedly, a lot can happen in the 30 years, for instance, China has become an economic superpower with a maturing discourse in civil society. A tightly disciplined form of protest against the problems of development are being demonstrated with increasing regularity, for instance, the ongoing maglev protests in Shanghai.

Congressman Edward Markey (MA - 7th) and Sony CEO Howard Stringer stand on the other side of the issue here in the United States. I, however, still sleep comfortable and content in the knowledge that the Bill of Rights will protect me from an overly intrusive government intent on invading commonly accepted and legally protected norms of telecommunications privacy. Ooops. Rep. Markey, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Log Cabin, wouldn't agree with that statement. On Friday, the Senate voted 60-36 to reject re-writing the laws governing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, no matter how much Sen. Harry Reid wanted to to get Bush a bill before the February 1st deadline.

With 6 million new subscribers every month China Mobile has a significant share of the Chinese cell phone market,　and plans to list on a mainland stock exchange in the near future.　China Mobile covers their liability by mentioning in their privacy policy published online (中文) that government coercion is one reason your privacy could be violated.

The Walk Of Shame

Again, a conservative politician turns up violating the same morality he crams down other peoples throats. Did you ever notice, its the people who don't go around making a big deal about sexual ethics, that are the most moral?

What Would You Do?

They probably zapped this guy to stop the horror. Same question as usual; in this situation did the taser save lives or was it a crutch?

Space: The Public Relations Frontier

NASA is seeking input from the gamer community on a space MMORPG. Initially this strikes me as pretty awesome. I would be totally interisted in a realistic depiction of contamporary space exploration. Thats why I play with Celestia. My second thought is that this is an effort by NASA to build up public support in light of the bad press they have been getting in the last few years. I find it hard to be too upset for them being savvy and pragmatic about P.R. but I can't help but feel like they could better spend their efforts on making improvements where things have been going wrong rather than allocating resources to seeming cool to the nerds.

Free The West Memphis Three

Here is an article that vaguely describes a funds sharing agreement between the defendants. I just want to draw attention to the cost of justice in America. Toward the middle of the article the cost of the DNA testing that may exonerate them is listed at over $100,000. Thats just the cost of DNA testing without all the litigation and cost of incarcaration. The cost of keeping them in jail must be included because if they are aquitted then the state has wasted taxpayer money on the results of a sham trial on unreliable prosecution, and sloppy police work. The reason even the most selfish, cold-hearted person should care about truth in justice is the cost. If and when these men are found innocent they will be able to file a civil suit against the government that wrongfully imprisoned them for all these years. These cases always result in huge jury awards for the wronged person, and they should. The reason you should care that even the guilty get a strong defense is that money to compensate the exonerated takes away from your roads and schools.

The Friday Bacon

Recipe for bacon wrapped scallops.

Another Example

Is this Torture? Is it reprehensible? Were the police acting in an official capacity if they weren't charged?

Bad Apples

In way similar to, but probably not as reprehensible as the torturers of Abu Ghraib prison, police officers, as we have tried to bring attention to, have been accused of torturing suspects in an effort to coerce compliance.

In one of the most brazen acts of political sabotage I have ever seen, even if it was a Hillary Clinton event, two Bibb County, Georgia, officers threatened attendees of the event to disperse or be tased. So, apparently, the event had almost 150% more people than had signed up for the event, and the crowd outside must have been pretty boisterous. Regardless of my objection to making people register to come to a political event, these two officers were not merely being "discourteous," but were actively engaged in violations of constitutional rights. I mean, we do still have the freedom of assembly, right? The two officers are apparently highly decorated, and in typical good ol' boys fashion, won't even receive a suspension with pay.

A similar incident happened in Vancouver, BC, last night with the Queen's representative in Canada, Governor-General Michelle Jean is being met with anger and protests as she tours the province. As the Governor-General was meeting with local leaders on ways to combat violence, police were outside tasering a protester who got too pushy.

Another alleged bad apple is Corporal Rudy Torres of Frederick County, Maryland. Demonstrating that statistical discrepencies are usually reflective of underlying trends, this particular police force has been disproportionately enthusiastic about using their taser devices, and Corp Torres has under his belt more than 10% of the total use of the department, out of a total of 218 times using 171 tasers in 2007. A more typical rate of use based on these numbers would be more like .6% of all taser uses. One can only hope that the litigation surrounding the death of 20-year old Jarrel Gray sees some justice done.

In an example of messy reality conflicting with a very controlled situation, and the resulting conflicting legality, an Orange County man, described as having a condition that impairs his thinking, is tasered in the course of being subdued (with video badness) by officers, and was later cited for battery on a law enforcement officer with violence. However, if the person can't be held responsible for their own actions, what legal responsibility does this place onto the officer to prevent harm? For instance, why aren't law enforcement officers trained in more mediation and jujitsu?

What is torture? In Toronto, Canada, the founder of Taser International, Thomas Smith, offers some clever spin on the nature of the Taser. “'We were taught electricity is bad,' said Smith. 'Don’t put your finger in the socket. But really, electricity is life.'” Regardless of how true the statement may or may not be, it is ultimately irrelevant. Later, out comes another particularly wonderful example of the straw man logical fallacy.

When one deputant said the UN has expressed concern that taser use is tantamount to torture, Smith objected. “We don’t want to see torturous devices used,” he said. “But if the UN is going to define torture as causing pain, then a baton is torture, stepping on a nail is torture.”

Except the standard for torture is far more robust than Mr. Smith is protraying it. The definition for torture in the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Degrading Treatment or Punishment is as follows, italics added for emphasis.

Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

Wake Up Sir, Its Time For Your Tasing

This article describes a law suit resulting from a police tasing. The facts alleged in the suit are as follows. The police busted into his own home, found him sleeping on his own couch, and assuming he was armed, and an immidiate threat because he was snoring, they zaped him. This man managed to identify himself as the lawfull resident of the dwelling and the cops decided he needed to be tazed a couple more times to be sure. They then draged him down to the station locked him up and slandered him in public.

My favorite parts of the article are where its stuck in at the end that he was not charged with possession of pot by the cops who brutalized him. They had enough legal sense to determine it was discovered in an illegal search. My other favorite part is where the police chief explains to us that if the cops don't have tazers they would have to peperspray and beat us when they bust into homes and assault the peacefull, lawfull residents of the home. George Washington shot people over this kind of shit.

Ben Franklin Report: the Economic Stimulus

In the course of putting together their bipartisan economic stimulus package together, Congressional Democrats are willing to put aside something as small as the rule of law. After all, it wouldn't be prudent to try to bring contempt citations against former White House officials during the middle of negotiations, nonetheless the mountain of lies that led up to the Iraq War.

Bush hasn't outlined his plan, per se, just given a rough outline, namely a "robust" package with a $150 billion price tag. All of the key players in Washington have some version of the stimulus on their wish list, and each has already staked out his or her position on the matter. The Republicans and Democrats in Congress are pondering how to bridge the philosophical divide between individual tax rebates and decreasing business taxes. Lou Dobbs, ever the interested observer, says that the economy is going into a recession and there isn't much that a stimulus could hope to accomplish.

Of course, the presidential candidates of both parties aren't to be left out of the fray, each of them is sticking their pole into a position. We can probably expect to see more of the petty bickering among the Democratic candidates that they've exemplified so far. What they hope to accomplish using the decade-old "No Friends in Politics" mindset that has gotten us so far over the course of Republican control of the Congress. The only candidate who is actively against the stimulus is the one candidate who isn't officially running, Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I-$$$$) of New York City, who sees the giveaway as bad fiscal policy.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office is seeing the glass as more than half full. Focusing more on the $219 billion dollar deficit that the government has run so far this year, and predicting that the economy won't hit recession levels.

Regardless of how I otherwise disagree with Mayor Bloomberg's politics, I find his position the most reasonable. With another year of phenomenal deficit in the face of countervailing trends, this drop into the general economy will prime the markets for further spending, if the authors of the agreement see their dreams come to fruition. I remain skeptical. With the further aggravation of the deficit, this will further aggravate the U.S. National Debt, and contribute to a worsening macroeconomic situation. On Aug. 9, 2009, by my rough calculations, the clock will turn over to $10 trillion dollars, or roughly the same as our annual GDP, barring additional spending or the unlikely attempt to pay it down.

As another reminder on why not to put off anything, negotiations are over and the stimulus package has been assembled. Unfortunately, workers who earned less than $75K or couples who earned less than $150K, will earn approximately $300 and $1200, respectively. This little drop is hardly likely to inspire the next bubble, unless it's for pharmaceuticals; breweries, wineries, and distilleries; or for local head shops.

Again, Downloading Does Not Hurt Sales

Here is an article describing the reaction in the blogosphere to the admission form the MPAA that they had exaggerated the percentage of their profit losses that stems from illegal movie downloading. Like the RIAA these people use heavy handed and potentially illegal harassment tactics. The movie industry also attempted to place the blame for its falling profits on the video gaming industry. They fail to accept the reality that what they are producing is not entertaining. They are at least not entertaining enough for a person to pick up their twenty dollars, lug its moral weight out to their car, drive to the cineplex and hand that hard-earned money to the stoned high school drop out behind the terrorist proof glass. Ooh and what a variety of equeally attractive choices the temple to Hollywood offers. Should you select, 27 dresses? Over her dead body? National Treasure? Juno? Mad Money? Water Horse? The Bucket List? Untraceable? Cloverfield? Rambo? Oh the choices do go on and on. How can you pick? I think the only reason people actually go to these movies is because they have terribly depressing lives that if they were to think about their life at all they would be compelled to suicde. Even the commercials for these movies make me tear at my own flesh. Given the choice between National Treasure and death, I suppose I would go to National Treasure. Oh and don't forget the fucking recession.

Go Ahead, Move to Canda!: Did Someone Say "NEW ONGOING SERIES"?

In the establishment's perpetual search for power, they have used many a tact in suppressing dissent, and suring up their base. Though it is possible to imprison or murder the dissenters, that takes time, money, lives, effort, etc. There are also risks. The imprisoned or assassinated victims can become martyrs, and blowback occurs. (Though you can never forget about intentionally cause blowback to increase the disorder and chaos in an area to create grounds for heavy force.) Well, one of my favorite ways to get rid of dissent is to offer the dissenters a way out.

I was recently watching the movie "The Unbearable Likeness of Being," with the badass Daniel Day Lewis and the juicy Juliette Binoche. In it they play a brain surgeon and budding photographer living in Prague in 1968. A gold star for the first kid who said, "Isn't that during the Prague Spring?" This is where the Communist, sorry, evil Ruskies came marching in and took control with an Iron Fist. Demonstrations, riots, and general public dissent ensued. Juliette Binoche even took a couple pictures of excessive Russian military practices. Of course it didn't take long for the "secret police" to find her and her pictures, and start making her life difficult. What to do, what to do? Stay around and fight the oppression? Stand your ground and fight for you and your fellow man's rights? Naw, fuck that, they left. They packed up and left. There was then an important scene. Instead of there being a difficult process of escape it was simply a matter of heading to a Russian sanctioned border checkpoint and waving to the soldiers as they headed to Switzerland.

Now the first thought that popped into my head was, why the hell are the Russians letting all of these, though dissenting, talented, valuable human resources leave? If they are so evil, why give them a chance to live in the happy free Switzerland, where the trains only run on time because they made the watches. Well then it dawned on me, and really put domestic events into perspective for me. They let them leave because they are trouble. They were making their occupation easier by getting rid of the people who give a shit.

Let's look to America at this time. A quick Wikipedia check will show you that...(I am actually doing some minor research for a blog, woo is me) 100,000 American men went abroad to avoid service in Vietnam, with 50,000 - 90,000 going to Canada. Initially, Canada didn't want a bunch of American immigrating into their country (we should be able to empathize with concerns about southern border immigration.) However, Canada eventually welcomed them, probably after the US told them we will allow them back in at a later date. Oh, and sure enough we did.

So, America was waging not only an unjust war abroad, but at the same time, the establishment was being fought with over many issues, namely civil rights. Forcing people into service, or anything for that matter, who really don't want to do it can incite rebellion. What better way to quell any serious threat to the establishment than to "allow" 100,00 pissed off young men (all fit for service) to leave. And then someone had the great idea to invite these people back, because not only are they a valuable human resource, but they are sure to be pretty tame now that the man "showed them kindness."

Every member of the counter culture or urban radical out there has heard someone say "I'll move to Canada when shit really hits the fan." As if Canada is some sort of magical safe fallback option for when America really becomes fascist. Hell, I bet there are a ton of ex-pats who have left already, to Canada or Europe, because they think America already is an oppressive state. It is to these yellow-bellied, selfish, all talk no walk, used to be but no longer am dissenters that I dedicate this NEW ONGOING SERIES:

Mark Emery, the Prince of Pot, is founder of the BC Marijuana Party and successful marijuana seed distributor. In 2005, he was arrested by Canadian law enforcement, under pressure from the Yanks, along with two others for selling these seeds. It is almost an never enforced law in Canada (to Canada's credit) though there are some laws on the books. The U.S. wanted him extradited to our country to face our stricter anti-drug legal system. A recent plea deal in the case means that Emery, but not his two compatriots, will serve 5-10 years in prison. Though Canada did not blindly hand him over to the U.S., they did allow a foreign agency to interpret their own laws, dictate the resources and actions of their police, sway the Canadian judicial system, and spend Canadian tax payer dollars all to enforce a victimless crime for political reasons. Emery may still do some of his prison time in the U.S., but that is yet to be determined.

Canada, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. I liked you, I really did. But you're no better than u.s. You give in to the bully. You question your own values. You are willing to hurt an innocent human for what? And to you people out there wanting to move to Canada, where will you move when Canada and the U.S. have the same laws and law enforcement under the banner of the North American Union; when you could spent this whole time fighting the establishment instead of spending all that damn time packing and unpacking your fucking dishes you got from Pier One.

Video Flashback

To touch upon the John McCain issue, I would like to present a few video examples. Over the course of four years, Sen. McCain flipfloped in the worst way, and became a sound machine for the very political machine that tried to destroy his reputation in South Carolina and defame his character for a singular act of kindness. Maybe if John McCain can win in the state that still flies the stars and bars of the confederacy, then there really is hope for humanity after all. My guess is that McCain's neoconservative credentials appealed to the deeply conservative southern states. The real test for the Republicans is Florida, but more on that later. Enjoy some video goodness!

More Wild Dogs and Police Brutality

Cops beat up an old man in a wheelchair. And Yes that is a wild dog roaming the streets of Cleveland.

More Substantive Commintary

Sen. John McCain won the Republican primary in South Carolina on Saturday, and Ron Paul placed second in Nevada and I couldn't be happier. I sincerely wish McCain had won the presidency in 2000, because I believe the world would be a better place now. McCain would have had the appropriate responce to 9/11 and he may even have had the wits to stop it but we can never know now. We just have to live with the effects of Rove's wicked campaigning where he was able to paint real American war heros like McCain and Kerry as cowards in compairison to a drunk driving, draft dodger. (better than G.I.Joe)

McCain and Paul are the kind of Republicans I could vote for. There are people who are disappointed with their conservative credentials on the right but these are the kind of maniacs that voted for Huckabee. They put enforcing their religious beliefs on other people over, freedom, fiscal responsability, integrity, security, and sound defence policy. In my book those are the things that make someone a Republican, not the desperate need to carve out special religious privileges for yourself and opress everyone who disagrees with you.

Politicians like John McCain gave me hope that there can be such a thing as integrity in public office. Which is why I fealt personally offended when he gave the graduation address at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. It was overt pandering like I had never seen and I couldn't have expected from McCain. I suppose Rove and his evil strategy of courting the southern poor with appeals to devicive religion could mess with anyone's mind.

One last thing about Huckabee. I am gonna say something that sounds like an Old Media attempt at manipulation. Huckabee cannot win a national election, he is not "electable." I saw this kind of thing play out in the last senate election in Wisconsin. In the primary the Republicans of the state nominated someone that appealed to them so they got a religiously extreme, inexperienced, but nice-looking candidate. When it came to the state wide election he could only garner the votes from those that had voted for him in the primary that went for style over substance. Huckabee is the same kind of candidate. He represents a religious special inetrest group, and only people in that special intrest group are voting for him. If Huckabee wins the Republican nomination, I predict he will get no more than 33% of the popular vote(persuant to our previously cited 1/3 are always wrong). Unless, he is pitted against Sen. Clinton, who is hated by a considerable section of the population. In which case, I would give him a twenty point spread even though those two catagories are going to have some overlap.

It's Not Contradictory

We have now said two things that may appear to be contradictory. We have said both that the Old Media consistently fails to predict accurate results of voter behavior and that they control voter's behavior. If you read TheRedKap's previous posts you should be able to discern the elements of what is being said that make these two arguments consistent. For those who may miss it, the Old Media is doing both. There is a groupthink among political pundits because they all ride around in the campain busses with the candidates and they all go back to D.C. or New York together so their perspectives are altered by the social dynamics of their little click. They are also lazy, selfish, and stupid just like any other human so they only want to wright about a limited feild of candidates. I don't know to what extent personal preference enters into it but after the run-up to the war in Iraq, I refuse to assume there is such a thing as journalistic integrity. This is the control aspect of what the media does. They limit the field of candidates based not on quality or support but on unrelated social factors from within their profession, and their own lazyness. After this decision has been made for the people by the media it affects peoples perceptions and those who like a "third party" candidate or a "fringe" candidate vote for someone the media tells them is a mainstream candidate so they don't "throw their vote away." This alteration is not about substance, its simple social manipulation that any social primate, down to the colobus monkey, could see through. Thats right I called you a monkey.

This time around you had three candidates getting free publicity by this time last year so it was almost unthinkable for anyone else who might run for president to wait till the traditional start of the presidential race. After all the early announcements the states decided to get in on the action and push the primary race earlier than ever before. I think an anomaly in diversity of candidates this year has caused a permanint change in the election system, the full effects of which are yet to be seen. But, I digress.

It is no suprise that given the criteria used by the Old Media to determine the content of election coverage are not in line with the thoughts of the average voter. Thankfully we have the intertubes as a communication tool where candidates can bypass the media filter of lazyness and ignorant preferance and speak to us directly. Or even better, citizens of a democracy can speak to each other about their options for presidential candidate. It gives me hope for our country when I see a maniac like Huckabee win a primary when the media had written him off.

To draw the distinction more clearly: the Old Media does manipulate their reporting and consequently the election but thanks to the internet, involved citizens can educate themselves and override the marching orders handed down to them by the groupthink overlords.

The Friday Bacon; Late Again

It's usually Saturday by the time I get the Friday Bacon up, unless I pre-date the post but I have too much to do in the real world to be held to strict deadlines on the Log Cabin for which I am not paid. So here it is, late but always tasty looking.
Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheese Burger

Programmed Disenfranchisement

As much as John Edwards may complain about being pushed out of the media spotlight, we have to wonder how important the media spotlight is. For some reason, some time along the course of history, we in America have come to equate democracy with compromise. While compromise is good and can help get legislation moving, at other times, people are willing to compromise way too much, such as the 6% of Ron Paul supporters who changed their vote to fit their ideas about what other people thought. Human beings are social creatures, but this is clearly socialization taken to the point of serving to propagate gross logical fallacies. Whether it's an appeal to base emotions, such as "Double Gitmo" remarks, or your typical political ad hominem, such as referring to a candidate as a crazy relative, or or your commonplace straw man, such as mentioning the decade-old racist remarks in a newsletter written under Ron Paul's name while he was in private practice, yet not mention the fact that he has addressed those remarks in the same way for the past ten years. I only make such a fuss about each of these, because they serve to better illustrate, as we have done over the course of this election season, the narrow depth of coverage offered by most outlets of the mainstream media. To be fair, the news corporations are only trying to give people what they want to see, right? Probably not. Exhibit A. Exhibit B. I include "election" to serve as a kind of comparison between the two groups. It would appear that most of the candidates have something to be upset about, but Ron Paul supporters have the most to be upset about.

I have a bone to pick with them, though. If one looks at the graph, "Ron Paul" is more popular than all of them, even "election." I have a hard time believing that there is this berth of support for Ron Paul, though, as it certainly isn't reflected in the polls, which leads me to several possible conclusions. The most likely, is that Ron Paul supporters can't or won't vote for whatever reason, be it for felony charges or apathy. However, another is that more people did actually vote for Ron Paul at the several primaries that have been held so far and their votes were counted improperly, which also leads me to be angry at such voters, as they don't care enough about their vote to ensure that it's counted properly.

Anyone else have that age old feeling of disenfranchisement?

I was perusing the Cnn.com, as part of my regular late night masochism session, looking for some clues as to what is going on with the electorate. How come the same pundits who are so horribly wrong about policy are surprisingly correct when it comes to predicting elections? As a vehement Ron Pauloholic I was optimistically expecting well above 10% from Ron Paul in the New Hampshire primary. (By the way, can we strip them of their state motto: Live Free or Die because no one truly free would vote for Hilary Clinton, well maybe as a joke?) The acceptable Jack Cafferty echoed that idea before the primary on CNN, though none of his co-workers agreed. As we all know, as well read (five points to anyone who coins a new term to replace "well read" in regards to getting their news from Youtube and Log Cabin videos) politicos, Ron Paul did not even hit 10% in New Hampshire, and has done similarly or worse since, in Wyoming and Michigan. On CNN.com they have some exit polls from Michigan, and one of them asked the voter, who they think is the candidate that will best bring much needed change. Then they broke down who those people voted for. For example, 28% of Republican voters thought John McCain will best bring about much needed change, and 88% of those people voted for McCain. Well, 12% of Michigan Republican primary voters thought Ron Paul would best bring about much needed change (that figure alone angers me for being low.) However, only 48% of those people voted for him. In summary, 6% of the Michigan Republican primary electorate thought that Ron Paul would be the best person to change this country for the better, but decided not to vote for him. Motherwhat? YOU PEOPLE ARE DRIVING ME INSANE!

At one time in our lives we have all either supported a "fringe" candidate, or knew someone who did. If you are one of the people who supported the "fringe" candidate, then you heard, almost every time you tried to proselytize for your boy, "I'm not gonna throw my vote away." If you are not someone who supported a "fringe" candiddate, then you are that asshole who said, "I'm not gonna throw my vote away." Yet they rarely attack that candidate on the issues, on hizzer policy and cred, street or otherwise. I figure this is either because they agree with the candidate but are afraid to vote for himmer, like our Michigan 6%, or they are uninformed of him, a number likely much higher than 6%.
I was watching a fall 2000 Charlie Rose episode on Youtube that had a number of political experts analyzing the first Gore-Bush debate from that election. A couple times they referenced a poll that asked about people's impressions of the candidates, and seemingly used it as evidence of what the candidate actually is. I thin I only explicitly noticed it because I was able to look at these talking heads with a very 20/20 perspective. However, this is an hourly occurrence on every news network, newspaper front page...and most blogs, for that matter. Just because a poll says most people THINK a candidate is something, does not make him so. And for the media to spin in that way, makes it not only self-fulfilling but that number can increase like a snowball, and then simply becomes fact. It is circular logic that doesn't even have a factual base to turn on itself.

There are hundreds of way the propaganda machine, sorry, "media", distorts and hides the truth. There are many ways in which it, eh...for lack of a better word, BRAINWASHES people into voting a certain way. As bad as it is that there are elections being rigged at the polls, after the polls, and before the polls, by not allowing people to vote, elections are also being stolen through propaganda. Remember, why steal something forcefully or stealthily when you can just trick someone into giving it to you?

The Walk of Shame

There has been a conserted effort by some to claim Barrac Obama is a muslum and that he took his oath of office on the Koran. The people who would vote for him are not likely to be affected by this, and the people who would are likely to vote for an extremist like Hucakabee. Obama denies this stating he is a Christian. While denying this he also states that Americans are too smart to be taken in by this kind of statement. I logically derive from this statement that those who would be taken in by these claims are stupid. I like any statement that points out the stupidity of conservative extremist radical Christians.

If you want to persecute a politician for supporting Islam and terrorism, looky here. Basicly, a Republican congressman accepted stolen government money from an Islamic charity that funneled money past the UN embargo on Iraq into the accounts of a terrorist.

More Good News! (Depending on your positions)

Citigroup is learning a small lesson in operating in different economies internationally, with an emphasis on command economies. The Chinese government, according to the English reporting from Reuters, is sticking its fingers in the pie, so to speak, and putting the brakes on any capital infusion from China Development Bank (CHDB). According to this report (Chinese, 中文） from news365.com.cn, the Deputy Chairman of the PRC's Ministry of Finance, Li Yong （李勇） indicated that he was not previously informed of the deal, but that it would be decided upon in the same manner as similar investments. On Sunday, Mr. Yong admitted that he had no understanding of the situation surrounding this type of investment, but that China Investment Corp. (中文） should not meddle in the business decision-making of the CHDB. This signal from the Finance Ministry will probably mean that the deal will be delayed slightly, pending further developments. As of publishing Citigroup was down and trading very actively. Oh, and the Mighty "C" is looking to save $10 billion in cash, lay off about 20,000 workers, and make $24 billion more in writedowns!

The deal is certain to escalate the debate over whether overseas sovereign wealth funds should be allowed to take a more active role in the financial markets in the form of capital infusions. However, considering the cash-strapped situation domestically, there are few alternatives, lest large financial institutions flirt with insolvency.

Add Sears to the list of retailers who didn't have a great holiday season. How much more coal is there to go around? And what does 2008 bode?

What will the Fed decide today? Will they go for broke and announce a full point decrease in the rate to defy analysts' predictions, or will it be a, relatively conservative at this point, .5% increase? Inflation will be the key word at the meeting today, so they might be hesitant to play fast and loose with M3 growth during a recession.

Also, here is a look at the bubbly nature of the economy and why this bubble is more dangeerous this most.

Fantastic!

They can make new hearts out of stem sells!

Also, they no longer have to kill an embryo to get the cells. As a side note, Wisconsin finally gets some fucking respect in the second article.

Margin Of Error

I can't find the link anymore but last week on NPR a political science professor was pushing his new book wherein he states that the margin of error in a national presidential election in a state the size of Ohio is about 50,000 votes. This essentially means the Ohio Republican Party stole
the election for Bush with help from the much maligned electronic voting machines. This also implies that the margin of victory the various candidates are claiming in the primaries so far are meaningless as they are within the margin of error inherant in our election system that arise from fraud, lost ballots, voter ID requirements, computer error, and human error.

Cleveland Ohio; Terrible American CIty, Or The Worst American City?

According to the FBI violent cirime in Cleveland, and the US as a whole is down. However, Cleveland compensated for that by having an increase in murder this year. Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson has decided that the way to react to this is to crack down on drug dealers with guns. Its a reasonable reaction where stories like this, and this are an almost daily occorence. With each new national finincial crisis hitting Cleveland like its the red-headed-step-child of the nation the average Clevelander's life choices are limited to becoming a crackhead, becoming a crack dealer, or leaving the city and burning your bridges behind you because you don't want to be drawn back into this. If I didn't have to go into Cleveland every day I would be interisted in seeing how this would play out. Now my interest is akin to the Iraqi citizen forced to wonder how the surge will affect his life. The city council and the Mayor both agree that there will be a backlash from the city's criminal element as a result of this program.

>Which leads me to wonder how this will affect Ohio's concealed carry. We referred earlier to an article from Detroit where it was found in the same statistics submitted to the FBI that after six years of having concealed carry Detroit has seen a decline in violent crime every year. Showing that putting guns in the hands of law abiding citizens reduces crime rather than increasing it like certain people fear. Ohio's concealed carry is entering its fourth year and this report from the Ohio AG seems to show that the market is reaching saturation for these permits. I have a couple of objections to these permits. First, they still seem like an unconstitutional regulation of a natural right granted to us by our creator and thus, not to be interfered with by men or governments. However, I must admit this is a nice and neet situation to put guns in the hands of decent, average citizens and ensure they are not criminals. The background check shows one is not a criminal, and the licence shows police this person is not dangerous even though they are in possession of a weapon. My second objection is that the licencing requirement amounts to a undue burden of cost and time comittment that prevents otherwise eligible citizens from getting the proper training and licence. This is analogous to the REAL ID act and local statutes that prevent voting if one does not have a government ID, which disenfranchises the poor and old. It is analogous because being armed is a right, not a privilege like the Ohio attorny general states. Again, I have to admit I don't see an easy alternative. Training and background checks are still necessary for the government to know it can trust you to roam the streets with a gun, and its also a good idea for a number of other obvious practical and legal reasons. Also, its not up to the government to subsidise the exercise of its citizens rights. In alot of cases its a good idea to support them with infrastructure, tax benefits, and with legal recognition. Again, contradicting myself, I can't for the life of me think of a good reason why the government should not conduct the training itself. Sure there are issues of cost but I don't know thats enough. For practical reasons it would be the best situation since the law in Ohio has changed in the past and one has to be careful that the private trainer one goes to will actually provide the minimum required by statute. That all being said, my larger point is one of enforcement and similar to one I have made in the past with regard to tasers. The police have difficulty differintiating between people who pose a clear and immidiate threat and persons going about their daily business but it is the police we have to rely on during this crack down on guns. Inevitibly people who were doing nothing wrong will be swept up and have their rights violated in this latest attempt to keep Cleveland from being a cruel joke of a city.

Taser Bar

Cleveland, Clinton, and Capitalism, That's a Twisted Trifecta

The courts are now being called in to help arbitrate the ramifications of the subprime crisis. Cleveland, one of the worst cities, or was it the worst, is now suing 21 different lenders that "knowingly created a public nuisance by exploiting the city of Cleveland." The city is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars "at least" to help cover the cost of demolishing thousands of abandoned homes. The plummeting population of Cleveland is putting the city in a budgetary squeeze to maintain services. Baltimore, on Thursday, beat them to the punch, though, and filed suit against Wells Fargo Bank NA, subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co. Of these two suits, it's easier to see the Baltimore suit going farther because of its limited scope, but I'm not a lawyer. The Cleveland suit seems more like a shot in the dark, but may get much more interesting if the suburbs become involved in a class action type action.

Washington is all abuzz with talk of an economic stimulus package to help offset the downside pressures in the market. Bipartisanship is a word that's hardly mentioned without a curse, but congressional leaders are falling over themselves trying to say it the most. As well they should, because any deal will have to accord with the wishes of our King, I mean, President. Treasury Secretary Paulson says that Bush has yet to decide, but stresses that any stimulus package should be temporary at best. It should make Bush's State of the Union Address more interesting.

The Democrats, for their part, are now faced with breaking their "pay as you go" promise, and could potentially borrow billions more to help finance their version of an economic stimulus package. In a bipartisan fashion, everyone agrees that the measure should be permanent and it needs to be felt by the general population very quickly. With the coming Presidential election, the stakes are much higher, and Hillary Clinton is trying to be one of the first in the field to offer a plan to offset the downside risks. Ben Bernanke is going to pow wow with the Democrats at a policy retreat later this month, to consult with them as they try to find a way out of this fiscal nightmare. The Fed Chairman's words are being parsed for hints at the January board meeting and what moves the Fed will take. Most economists are betting on a rate decrease of at least half a percentage point, down to 3.75%. Ben will meet with Nancy Pelosi on Monday for what will amount to little more than a photo opportunity and a chance for the Speaker of the House to appear as though she's doing something in the midst of growing signs that the economy might be in real trouble.

Among these signs are the rising price of gold, which is expected to hit $900 per troy ounce, as investors seek reliable shelters in the face of market uncertainty. Another sign of troubled times in the economy are the anemic holiday sales at all of the major retailers, with the notable exception of Wal-Mart. Considering Tiffany's was also subject to the slow down, the upper echelons of earners no longer appear immune to these downward risk pressures. Another interesting note is that the Treasury Department's last issuance of inflation protected securities fell to 1.65%, down from October's rate of 2.36%.

The difference in response between the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank couldn't be more stark. Whether the glass is half full of half empty, it would appear that the philosophical difference lies in whom the stimulus package and the results are directed at. The Federal Reserve, in lowering rates, makes it more appealing for businesses to earn money and to help money move through the economy, hopefully in the form of capital investment. The European Central Bank, on the other hand, appears to be betting that keeping rates up will encourage people to save money in depository institutions, which will then be on a much sounder footing to issue new loans and securities. The question remains to be seen whether investors will respond to this strategy, but so far it would appear not.

Among the companies named in the city of Cleveland's law suit are some of the most troubled financial institutions in the U.S. Countrywide Financial, the biggest mortgage dealer which helped spur the growth in subprime mortgages is being purchased by the Bank of America. Citigroup is turning towards Kuwait and China to seek billions more in capital infusions to stay afloat. Merrill Lynch is looking at a much larger loss in the fourth fiscal quarter in attempting to move stock options issued to its employees off of its balance sheet.

All of this talk of moving the economy out of recession through a temporary spending measure, as Ron Paul said in the debate on Thursday night, would be productive in that it would inject capital into the economy in a way that the Fed cannot, but would be counter productive in that the United States government has no money to pay for anything that it would want to.

The Friday Bacon

http://www.peppersandsmoke.com/bbq/deepfried/ A deep fried, cheese filled, bacon burger, with bacon.

I am suspicious of this story

They claim the government spying on us was terminated due to an irresponsible lack of keeping up with bills.

Socialist Feminism

The entire old media, not just Fox News, has been dragging what is percieved as the middle further and further to the Right. This is just to reaquaint you with what The Left actually looks like.

You should be compensated for your domestic labors and for your offspring. These activities directly benefit your employer and the state. The substantial benefit derived from these activities amounts to these entities differing costs to you. In a very real sense you are subsidising the operation of your employer and the government with the costs of remaining alive.

When you go grocery shopping, commute to and from work, keep a clean house, and produce offspring you confer a benefit on those entities. This streaches credulity in its current form so allow me to expand on these points. Clearly your employer should not be relieved every day that you made it in alive, they should not be expected to compensate you for the act of sticking your dirty shirts in the washing machine, or even to pay extra for the detergent. Even if I were saying this it would in effect limit your freedom in life as your employer would choose the least expensive mode of satisfying your basic survival needs even to the extent of a return to the company town of the 1920's where every aspect of your life was decided by your employer. As for transportation, if every employer participated in public transportation and allowed employees to buy group rate passes, freedom of choice need not be impinged. Also, if your employer was responsible of every aspect of your cost of living it would severely reduce wages. However, your wage would be an actual reflection of the market value of your labor instead of ransom to subsidise the cost of having employees.

I am making this radical point to emphasize that every employer has a moral duty to pay every employee a living wage. Further, I wish to emphasize that demands for universal health care, and universal post-highschool education are demands of the rational center, not the fringe element of the left. Freedom from fear about housing, food, hygene, health, and education needs are basic conserns of real people in America.

On the government front the profiting off of your living is more incidious. This is exemplified by the state's intrest in promoting marrage. I am not referring to any debate on homosexual marrage. The state actively promotes marrages for the purpose of creating a stable tax base. They do this in part by regulating marrage through licencing, but to a much greater degree in the creation and application of law. Ones marital status is a legal status and can have a substantive effect on the outcome of a court case, specifically because the state wishes to promote marrage as opposed to other consentual sexual relationships between adults. For example, children born out of wedlock are more likely to end up in the care of the state. While this is not going to be the most luxurious accomidation for the child, it can be illustrative about the costs the state is differing to married parents so that they bear the cost of raising a child until the child becomes a taxpayer.

At the very least, the state owes every child health care and education past the high-school level. Both of these things have a higher return on the investment paid into them. The return is a healthy adult with higher earning potential, and thus more taxable wages. This article makes a similar argument.

After hearing all this, would you believe I am a libertarian?

There you have it. This is the left. NPR and PBS and Democrats like John Edwards are the center. The Clintons, Joseph Liberman, the main stream media, and most of the Republicans are the right. The evangaliticals, Fox, the Neocons, and the rest of the Republicans are the far right. I could tell you about the far left but they are really crazy. PETA crazy.

Cleveland Ohio; Terrible American City, Or The Worst American City

Have I mentioned the wild dogs? Dog fighting is common in cities like Cleveland and when the dogs are no longer profitable but the owners don't kill them, the dogs might be released into the city. It is common to see these maladjusted, violent pit bulls roaming the streets at night.

The Old Media; Wrong Again

Political pundants sounded the death knell of Sen. John McCain in the summer. Now, he has won the New Hampshire primary. The same jackasses smelled blood yesterday when Clinton got all weepy like the nation's mother and were all but waiting for tonight so they could call her political career dead. Don't get me wrong, I dislike Hillary Clinton, but I hate the media with a rabid passion. One pundit quipped that the public had the audicity to ignore the media. I say tar and feather the pundits and run the idiots out of town.

That Other Forgotten Conflict

Since 2003, the international community has had a ready barometer with which to gauge its ability to tolerate the worst forms of brutality that man can inflict upon man. No weapon is off limits, as many women have been raped as a tactic of war. Bush said that what was going on was "genocide," that the U.S. and the world should do something to stop the violence. However, like almost everything else Bush has said or done while in the Oval Office, this, too, turned out to be purely for political reasons as words were not matched with follow-through. Darfur is still burning, using the hopes of inhabitants for peace as fuel for what has now turned from internal struggle has now blossomed like a twisted, black Lotus into full-scale regional conflict.

Tensions along the border have risen. The government of Chad, which bombed targets in Darfur over the weekend, stands ready to escalate the fighting even further, perhaps with ground forces. And, Sudanese troops attacked UN/AU peacekeepers, allegedly as a result of misidentification. The fighting stands to get even worse without urgent diplomatic, economic, and military assistance from the West.

Let Me Just Hug My KidzzzZZZZ

This story comes to you from the frozen north of Wisconsin. The names have been changed to protect us from liability.

Maude and Harold(married to each other) were drinking and Maude went to bed. Later, Harold wanted to know where the limes were and woke up Maude to ask her. Maude, being mentally unstable, freaked the fuck out, attacked Harold, ran screaming from the room and summoned the police. We all know from watching "Cops" that when the police respond to a domestic disturbance, they don't leave without one of the parties in handcuffs, and its usually the shirtless one. When they arrived, the police naturally inquired as to what has happened here, seeing a frantic woman, and a man with a ripped shirt, who also happens to have a criminal record. (but who doesn't?) Maude attempts to recount her half-drempt assault to the police and manages to fill an entire page of a written statement with the sentence; "I think he was choking me." The police dutifily begin slapping the cuffs on Harold as he attempted to deny the allegations. At which time the children of the couple begin to wake up and ask why the police are taking daddy away again, because mama was the one being scary. Harold asks the police if he can say "good by" to his kids and for some reason they allow it. Harold, who has recently had back surgery, lurched around the corner out of sight. Here is where the four peace officers spring into action. The other residents of the household heard, "3...2...1...AAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!" as the police deploy tazers on Harold. In his electricly induced spasam, Harold reached out and grasped one of the officers, effectively transfering the 50,000 volts of electricty to the officer. This is commonly referred to as, "spreading the love." He is now charged with resisting arrest since there are no witnesses who will agree there was an assault and Maude can no longer recall her drunken hallucination.

Multiple Personalities

If there are any regular readers of this blog they may have occasion for confusion. We frequently assert positions in different blog articles that are contradictory. As an answer to that confusion, I direct your attention to the list of contributors to this blog. There are a few of us and we don't all hold precicesly the same viewpoint and that leads to different coverage.

For example, my collegue has a good point about the sponsorship of womens tazer parties could easily be construed as mysoganism.

Personally I wholeheartedly support this kind of thing as long as this is the kind of thing that happens organicly and is not some crass attempt to profit off of fearmongering.

You may also be confused to read that I am not against tazers. After all they are simply tools and have no moral value apart from how they are used. When a cop zaps the fuck out of a guy having a diabetic seisure, that is evil. When a law abiding person tazers a violent criminal, that would be a good use of the weapon. Under these circumstances the average person would be more likely to use a tazer in the way Taser International describes their purpose; they save lives by giving people an alternative to using lethal force. The average person is just walking around out there minding their own business, while the cops are roaming the streets looking for trouble.

This argument holds true for firearms as well. Take a gander at this article from Detroit of all places, describing the effect of increasing access to firearms to law abiding citizens over the last six years. Big suprise? Gun crime went down.

Taxpayer Exposure

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is scheduled to give a speech today, outlining the administration's efforts to ameliorate the effects of the ongoing financial crisis. In mentioning the investor reluctance to fund mortgages, Sec. Paulson also seems to depend on "market discipline" to restore confidence in the markets. He also plans to use the occasion to defend a freeze in subprime borrowing costs. Although the author of this article, Jeanne Sahadi, seems to believe that there are two exclusive camps surrounding the crisis, one camp that feels that the Treasury's plan is too little, and another that feels that free market principles should prevail and those who took on risk should learn the meaning of risk, I find merit to both arguments.

Regardless, some are wishing that they had agreed with Ron Paul in 2005 when he wanted to remove the implicit taxpayer backing for the GSEs, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to avoid a government bailout after the housing bubble burst. After a closer look at the liquidity figures of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank and the regulatory options available to forestall the crisis, "Mish" Shedlock says that there is no possible rescue plan, and clears up the mistaken notion that liquidity is capital, which can be used to underwrite shaky markets, which it is not.

"Raghu" offers up some advice through his new book, on how the subprime crisis can be further averted, although I have to wonder how he thinks the government will find the money to bail out the market, for even 1%, nonetheless 20%.

IndyMac Bancorp Inc. is looking at darker days as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have raised fees and surcharges to securitize risky loans.