Reason Morning Links: Plugged Leak Edition

• BP stops the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
• Goldman Sachs settles with the SEC.
• Democratic fundraiser Hassan Nemazee is sentenced to 144 months in prison.
• Lynne Stewart, the lawyer convicted in 2005 of aiding terrorists, sees her sentence extended from 28 months to 10 years.
• One health care model to avoid: North Korea.

Comments

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Small earthquake in the D.C. region (centered in Montgomery County, MD). A statement followed from the White House indicating that the earthquake was Bush's fault; there was no damage due to Obama's Great Leadership.

[Jordan Elliot]

So Casey Ryback wasn't able to stop this one, eh?

The links seem kind of weak this morning.

[David Axelrod]

We inherited that earthquake!

[Aresen]

Obviously due to the laisse faire approcah to geology. If we had had strong anti-earthquake regulation, it wouldn't have happened.

[Pro Libertate]

Isn't there a conspiracy theory out there that Bush had the ability to start earthquakes?

[Ragin Cajun]

Well, since he has the ability to melt steel, why wouldn't he be able to start an earthquake?

[SugarFree]

+1

[hmm]

HAARP ?

[Butts Wagner]

Conspiracy? The earthquake in Haiti, the earthquake in Chile, and most damning, the volcano in Iceland....WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!

[The Other Kevin]

This was actually a delayed reaction to all that cleavage a few months back.

[Episiarch]

BP stops the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

But the media has already stopped caring, so does it matter?

[Pro Libertate]

Thank God for James Cameron!

[-]

And Kevin Kostner! How's that oil-spinner working out, Kevin? You seem...I don't know...oddly quiet these days...

[Isaac Bartram]

He was on some NPR thing a coupla weeks ago and said that BP was using two or three of them but that it's still pretty much in the trial phase.

Hey, at least the guy has sunk some of his own money in the project and appears to have gotten a competent lot working on it. Beats the bloviating you get from just about anyone else in Hollywood.

[TrickyVic]

I hear Mel Gibson is going to suck up the oil with just his mouth.

[Oksana]

Better him than me.

[Darkeyes]

Not only should Lynn Stewart get the death penalty, it's imperative that it be televised on PBS.

The "Corporation for Public Broadcasting" is "funded by the American People."

About time we got our motherfucking money's worth.

Yeah, I was going to insist that Gwen Ifill be deputized to personally perform the execution, but my liberal streak means I won't insist on it.

[Fluffy]

That's funny, I was about to post to say that it's an outrage that Lynn Stewart is in jail.

Since the federal government has absolutely no power to ban either of the individual acts she committed, it has no power to ban them in combination.

She has the absolute right to speak to her client.

She has the absolute right to speak to the press.

There is therefore no crime here. Regardless of whatever "special administrative measures" the feds want to make up.

[John]

But she doesn't have the right to pass operational messages from her client to his followers. They inquired if it was okay to violate the cease fire with the Egyptian government. And he, through her, said yes. It was an act so craven even Ramsey Clark refused to do it.

If you have me carry a message to Baked Penguin that it is okay to kill Episiarch and he does, I am part of the conspiracy. Further, she agreed with the FBI not to transfer messages as part of her work for her client. And she did anyway knowing full well that the message was going to result in the murder of innocent people.

There is no defending Stewart.

[BakedPenguin]

If you have me carry a message to Baked Penguin that it is okay to kill Episiarch and he does...

We've talked about this, John. It's $30k, and not a penny less. He's armed to the teeth, and slippery as hell.

[John]

I know. Thoreau, Gaius Marius and Smacky all failed in their attempts. You are my last hope.

[Enough About Palin]

Oh how I miss Smacky.

[Yonemoto]

If you kill Episiarch, you'll have to go through me. I may dislike what he has to type (okay only 70% of what he has to say), but I will defend his right to type it.

[Fluffy]

But she doesn't have the right to pass operational messages from her client to his followers.

I suppose you could argue that if she passed a clandestine message.

But let's say I was a reporter working in Pakistan, and someone I met there showed me a copy of a recent tape where Osama bin Laden calls on his followers to attack, say, Japan.

If I run back to my hotel and file a story titled "Osama bin Laden Calls on Followers to Attack Japan" that would be an absolutely protected act. Even if Osama's followers read my story and then attacked Japan.

It might be a rotten thing to do, but our federal government possesses no rightful power to criminalize the action.

You can't include in a conspiracy charge an element of the crime I have a specific Constitutionally-protected right to perform.

Does that make it easier in certain situations for criminals and assholes? Yes. Absolutely. We can come up with LOTS of scenarios where criminals can utilize their Constitutional protections in ways that make their crimes easier. That just means we have to work a little harder at stopping them.

[John]

Different situation. She was his lawyer. And he was in jail and specifically prevented from passing messages to his followers. In your example of the reporter, the reporter is passing information that is already public knowledge. Bin ladin is on t he loose not in jail. The only reason Stewart spoke with him was because she was his lawyer. And she used her position as his lawyer to allow him to pass messages to his followers to go and kill people.

[Fluffy]

Right, but a defendant communicating with his counsel is a constitutionally-protected act just like acting as a reporter is.

I'm arguing that since we can't restrict the freedom of the press, even if that has the effect of allowing the press to be used as a communications conduit by criminals, we can't limit attorney-client communications even if that creates the same problem.

[John]

"Right, but a defendant communicating with his counsel is a constitutionally-protected act just like acting as a reporter is."

That just means the government can't force her to tell them what he said. That in no way gives her the right to pass messages in furtherance of a criminal enterprise. Stewart is not the first person to go down for this. Mob lawyers have been convicted for assisting their clients in running their operations out of jail. This is no different.

[PapayaSF]

Correct, Fluffy is way off on this. She was not acting as a lawyer but as an accomplice, and violating prison rules, laws, and professional ethics, all in support of a disgusting Islamic terrorist group that would kill her the moment they got into power. 10 years is too easy; she should have gotten death for treason.

[ClubMedSux]

You can't include in a conspiracy charge an element of the crime I have a specific Constitutionally-protected right to perform.

That's not necessarily true. Conspiracy requires 1). an agreement, 2). intent to agree to enter a conspiracy to commit a substantive crime and 3). an overt act. The overt act may be legal and it may be constitutionally protected, but if it was done with the intent of carrying out the conspiracy then it's not constitutionally protected.

[Enough About Palin]

^THIS

[Fluffy]

So in the trial they proved that Stewart agreed to kill the people in question?

[PapayaSF]

If you are just the getaway driver but the bank robbery goes wrong and a guard is killed, you are a party to murder even if you never touched the gun or intended anyone to get hurt.

[BakedPenguin]

She maintains that American criticism of the Taliban's treatment of women is a case of "the pot calling the kettle black" because of supposedly comparable discrimination against women here.

I've been trying not to use the word, but what a stupid cunt.

[JW]

See you at the stoning at Yankee Stadium! We've got 7 adultresses and one blasphemer today.

[Johnny Longtorso]

The disintegration of the welfare state

Calling in the World Court against the Gun Trade

[Fist of Etiquette]

Goldman Sachs settles with the SEC.

"You know we own your boss, right?"

And the U.S. Treasury gets another $300 million. What oh what shall they do with all that found money? I'm hoping for ornate highway signs trumpeting their settlement.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Or maybe the money could be given to the Dept. of Education, for such vital programs as teaching kids that "MMM MMM MMM Barack Hussein Obama MMM MMM MMM" song.

[bendover]

Let's see, Goldman Sachs settles for $300 milliion - and their market cap rate goes up $500 million the same day.

[Brett L]

I thought it was "Goldman Sachs buys billions in civil immunity for $300M"

[Kaiser]

So BP has plugged the oil leak after 3 months, during which time the federal government did nothing to help, quite a bit to hinder, and various officials tried to take credit for any progress. Tell me again why the federal government should have a role in disaster management?

[J sub D]

A BP spokeman was overheard saying "We could never have done it without the expert technical leadership of the Minerals Management Service and the Coast Guard".

He then fell on the floor guffawing.

[Spartacus]

My wife thinks that BP has intentionally kept the leak going all this time. Because, uh, well, because they are corporations, and therefore evil. Or something.

[Mrs Spartacus]

I know something else that is sealed off.

[Spartacus]

Honey, I never knew you read this blog!

[Mrs Spartacus]

I can't spend my whole day mastur...I mean vacuuming

[Fist of Etiquette]

One health care model to avoid: North Korea.

This embargo must stop. If only the United States would allow North Koreans to cross below the 38th parallel border, the standard of living for all Koreans would change.

[Kaiser]

I'm pretty sure it's not the US keeping North Koreans from crossing the border....

[BakedPenguin]

I bet Lynn Stewart would disagree with you.

[Kim Jong Il]

Norf Kowea has gweatis helf care system in wold you stupid amewacans. No ilwegle drugs. we all healfy unlike you lazy gweedy capidalwis.

[The Angry Optimist]

It's supposed to be readable. You're doing it wrong.

[Johnny Longtorso]

The revolving door spins faster on healthcare reform

Dodd-Frank is not "financial reform," it's more Big Government lunacy

[Johnny Longtorso]

Bart Stupak: Confusion, dishonesty, or all of the above?

[?]

North Korea's healthcare system is unable to provide sterilized needles, clean water, food and medicine, and patients are forced to undergo agonizing surgery without anesthesia

But they'll love it when they find out what's in it.

[Alan Vanneman]

'Stewart was found guilty in 2005 of distributing press releases on behalf of her imprisoned client Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the "Blind Sheikh," in violation of "special administrative measures."'

If that's the only "crime" she committed, 10 years is ridiculous. Apparently, the judge didn't like her attitude. Because we want revenge, not justice, and because the guilty are all dead, we punish the (mostly) innocent.

[-]

And the really ugly.

[John]

the "press release" was a message to his followers to go and kill people. That is a crime.

[Mr Whipple]

Does that pass the "imminent lawless action" standard?

These later decisions have fashioned the principle that the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.

I don't know. That's above my pay scale.

[Fluffy]

The question is whether you can violate the laws against incitement by talking about the speech of a third party.

"I want you to go kill those people over there!" is pretty much straightforward incitement.

"I heard Joe Blow say that he wants his friends to go kill somebody," really isn't.

[John]

But the facts are different here. He was in prison. And great lengths were being taken to ensure that he didn't tell people that. She then met with him as his lawyer and passed the information. It really is a special case.

[Fluffy]

I realize that.

But we're also going to great lengths [I hope] to disrupt Osama bin Laden's communications.

And we can certainly ask the media to be responsible and not allow themselves to be used to help a criminal pass messages. And we can ask the criminal's attorney the same thing. But if they don't play ball, if we respect the Constitution we should pretty much have to say, "OK, they win this round. Fuckers."

[John]

When the person is in jail, we can ask more than that. Here is the difference. In the Bin Ladin example, he is out telling everyone he wants to "I want X". In the Stweart example, the guy is in jail and can't talk to everyone. The government has a right to prevent convicted prisoners from talking to people to run their criminal enterprise. Stewart has a right to represent this guy. And the government can't force her to say what she learns during that representation. But what Stewart cannot do is use her position as an attorney to pass messages for this guy to run his criminal enterprise. Since he is in jail and the government has a right to restrict his communication, it has every right to tell Stewart, who by necessity must communicate with him, that she can represent him but she can't pass messages for him.

[Fluffy]

Since he is in jail and the government has a right to restrict his communication

But they don't have the right to restrict his communication with his lawyer.

And they don't have the right to restrict his lawyer's communication with the press.

Does that frustrate the state's desire to restrict the communication of defendants or incarcerated felons? Absolutely. But it's not my job to figure out a way for the state's desire to be realized. Maybe it CAN'T be realized.

Like I said above, maybe if she was surreptitiously carrying messages directly from the defendant to his accomplices, you might have grounds for calling that a conspiracy.

But issuing a press release?

Remember, there are other justice-system-related speech restrictions I don't think the state actually possesses the legitimate power to undertake. Like gag orders, for example.

[John]

"But they don't have the right to restrict his communication with his lawyer.

And they don't have the right to restrict his lawyer's communication with the press."

If that communication is furthering a criminal enterprise, they absolutely do. You are creating protections that don't exist. Furthering a criminal enterprise is not constitutionally protected speech.

[TrickyVic]

""Furthering a criminal enterprise is not constitutionally protected speech.""

Where in the Constitution does it say so? 😉

I agree with what you are saying John, but I didn't know you believed terrorism was criminal in nature.

[John]

Suppose she was representing an accused spy and passed classified information to the press, do you honestly think that such a communication would be "protected speech"?

[Fluffy]

Yes, actually.

As a private citizen, I don't see that I have any obligation whatsoever to respect so-called "classified information".

The state can criminalize the release of information by, say, an NSA employee. But if I don't work for the NSA, and they accidentally tell me all their secrets, I can tell whoever I want.

In fact, I think in this example the speech would be even more clearly protected than in the actual case we're discussing.

[The Angry Optimist]

Sorry, fluffy, but if I represent Luigi, and he is under a no-speech order because he has a bad habit of ordering hits, there is no way in blue fuck you can claim that me stepping out on the steps and saying "The Lasagna is Baked" (code for: go, Goombas, and kill Mario), that that is somehow protected. I am not buying that at all.

Basically, you are making an artificial division between speech and speaking to the press. What if Stewart picked up a pay phone or dialed Abdullah on her disposable? Is that punishable?

[Fluffy]

Basically, you are making an artificial division between speech and speaking to the press. What if Stewart picked up a pay phone or dialed Abdullah on her disposable? Is that punishable?

I don't think it's an artificial distinction at all. That's why I included, above, the example of a reporter writing about what Osama bin Laden has to say.

If I manage to interview bin Laden and he says "I am ordering my people to kill Bush" and I print that in the newspaper, that is a categorically different act from taking the same message and seeking out a specific individual and whispering in his ear, "Osama bin Laden says he orders you to kill Bush."

[Pope Jimbo]

If a judge doesn't like your attitude be prepared to get fucked over. Ask the chick who did jail time because she showed up in a court room to support a friend wearing a crude t-shirt.

Judges are very prickly about people who don't bow and scrape to the judicial system. Stewart hasn't been very apologetic.

I'm sure the judge felt that if she didn't grovel, it would be seen as a huge middle finger to the courts so she got the extra time.

Just be glad that judges don't have tasers.

[Virginia]

Yep, fuck all judges in our lawless society. Seriously.

Especially the one in the Buttman trial that advised the prosecution before the trial began, or so says the prosecution's chief witness. I guess they didn't brief that FBI agent on when it's okay to lie under oath while he was at federal re-education camp.

[theocrat]

"...a population that is chronically malnourished and suffering from digestive problems caused by eating weeds, tree bark, roots, corn husks, cobs and other 'substitute' foods."

Low fat. Heart healthy. LFCS.

[Joe]

Organic and local.

[Fluffy]

The Goldman Sachs story is why I could never be in charge of a large corporation.

Because since I don't think they did anything wrong, if I was in charge over there I would have gone over the falls in a barrel telling the SEC to go fuck itself and I'd see them in court.

And that would make me a really bad CEO for a firm like Goldman Sachs.

It is imperative in business in the US today to have the ability to abase oneself before the state when it's required, so you can turn around and steal from the state when it's possible. Those two personality characteristics - the ability to abase oneself and not care about it, and the ability to steal without conscience or remorse - are the most important "competitive" characteristics to possess today.

[Corduroy]

Win

[Ska]

Pretty much why plenty of smart, hardworking, ethical middle management types never make partner/top executive level.

What you'd call abasing yourself and theft, they'd call dealmaking.

[db]

Yeah, James Taggart was the hero of that book.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

I wanted to see this case go to trial. Becuase I actually wanted to know what happened (ya .... I'm kind naive). Did they actually commit fraud* or are people just mad them because they helped somebody short something that ended up going down?

*my definition of fraud: lying for material gain.

[Steve Nash Equilibrium]

I don't understand how North Korea is so poor. According to the buy local people since North Koreans essentially only trade with each other and therefore keep all of their money in their own country, they should be better off than countries like the US where the people spend so much of their money on foreign goods. Can someone please explain to me how this happens?

[BakedPenguin]

Kim Jong-Il inheirited those problems from Bush.

[Ragin Cajun]

See, I was going to say that the people of North Korea are suffering under some kind of false consciousness. They don't realize how good they have it!

[hmm]

They don't deserve Kim like America doesn't deserve Obama.

[hmm]

And the Republicans are stopping him from accomplishing his agenda, even when he has the majority.

[Nork Apologist]

Because the peace and freedom loving people of Korea are forced to spend an inordinate amount of resources on defense since running-dog imperialist lackeys are massed on the border ready to invade at any sign of weakness.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

They aren't poor. They live in a workers paradise. The reports of poorness are just examples of western,linear, boozhwazee "logic", designed to further the class interest of the oppressors. Plus they have free health care.

[Rich]

citing Stewart's lack of remorse

Here's that *other* r-word again rearing its ugly head again. This stuff is "hate crime" ascribed after the deed instead of before.
"Oh, you're really, *really* not sorry? Make that 40 -- no, *50* -- years!"
"Upon reflection, Your Honor, I sincerely apologize to the victims."
"Well, all right, then. Time served."

[BakedPenguin]

It is imperative in business in the US today to have the ability to abase oneself before the state when it's required...

This is required whenever the state deems the person to have committed a crime. Real crimes (murder, robbery) are punished less when the perpetrator begs for forgiveness. It's even more true when the person has committed concsensual "crimes." If Rush Limbaugh had said "fuck you, I didn't hurt anyone by taking those pills", he'd be in prison today. The average DA has a mentality not far removed from the average Spanish Inquisitor.

[MNG]

"Rush Limbaugh had said "fuck you, I didn't hurt anyone by taking those pills except my own credibility"

FTFY

[BakedPenguin]

He could have salvaged his credibility had he come out and said the WoD was bullshit, but he had to say what he did to avoid spending time in a PMITA prison for a "crime" that did not violate anyone's rights. I would certainly have more respect for him.

Which is to say, I would have a non-zero amount of respect for him.

[Rush Limbaugh]

Boys, boys, stop fighting. Even I know, I never had credibility.

[franz kafka]

She'll have remorse for eating most of the prison food.

[hmm]

I had some "remorse" from eating super spicy salsa with my bacon/burger/cheese mash.

[John]

http://www.theatlantic.com/megan-mcardle/

Billy Raye, a 51-year-old unemployed bike courier, is looking for work.

Fortunately for him, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters is seeking paid demonstrators to march and chant in its current picket line outside the McPherson Building, an office complex here where the council says work is being done with nonunion labor.

"For a lot of our members, it's really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else," explains Vincente Garcia, a union representative who is supervising the picketing.

So instead, the union hires unemployed people at the minimum wage--$8.25 an hour--to walk picket lines. Mr. Raye says he's grateful for the work, even though he's not sure why he's doing it. "I could care less," he says. "I am being paid to march around and sound off."

Unions apparently prefer to hire non-union goons.

[SugarFree]

Some local unions tried to hire students through the Federal Work/Study Program to protest for them a few years ago. Surprisingly, the university turned them down.

[Warty]

That's the strangest thing I've read this morning.

[JW]

They can't afford union goons. Do you have any idea what the going rate is today? They have a 4 hour minimum AND they have to get a 30 minute break every 3 hours. That's no way to run a phony protest.

[Warty]

I mean the strange thing is that the university said no.

[Mr Whipple]

Fuck. A friend of mine is in the local Iron Workers. They give them $5 a day and a Bologna sandwich to protest non-union jobsites.

[Mike M.]

It's rather ironic, but most of the trade union guys I personally know are pretty conservative.

I suspect that the gap between today's rank-and-file trade union membership and their politicized leadership is about as big as the gap between the American citizenry and the media/political class.

[T]

I know a few in the airline industry, and they're very conservative except when it comes to protecting their jobs. They are socially conservative, yeah, but economically? Illiterate and incoherent is the best way to describe them. Any half-assed reason for protectionism and unionism is all good. Plus, they're convinced everything management does is an attempt to fuck them over somehow.

Which in the airline industry, may actually be true.

[John]

Obesity Rating for Every American Must Be Included in Stimulus-Mandated Electronic Health Records, Says HHS

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/69436

Fuck them. The next time I go to the doctor I am going to refuse to be weighed. Mass civil disobedience is the only way to deal with these people.

[TrickyVic]

When looking for a doctor, ask what software they use as an EHR. If they answer anything other than "what's that?" Go to the next on the list.

""Obesity Rating for Every American Must Be Included in Stimulus-Mandated Electronic Health Records, Says HHS"

Health care has been going this way for a while, Bush was fond of EHRs, and wanted every American to have one. Obama has found a way to speed up the process via the stimulus carrot. Don't expect the next republican congress and/or president to reverse directions. The name of the game is to have your medical record available upon need.

Say you hurt yourself on vacation, or you just moved. Your medical record can be viewed by the treating physician.

Of course third party information has less expectation to privacy, and HIPAA has a LEO exclusion. But I see very little actual objections to the concept of the all knowing government, so other than a few of us, who the hell cares.

[no more tricks]

Of course you don't like losing that little cash cow.

EHR will protect the consumer from doctors repeating expensive tests. Not to mention accurate accounting of fuck-ups

[Warty]

One health care model to avoid: North Korea.

Well, I bet they have a 100% literacy rate.

[John]

And everyone has a job. And health care is free. Best quote of the last ten years came from John Derbyshire. It went something like

"Wherever there is a boot on a face in the world, there is a Western liberal there to explain how the face has 100% literacy and free health care."

[TrickyVic]

""And everyone has a job. And health care is free. ""

It's not free, but a bucket of leeches is cheap.

[wayne]

That is a terrific quote, John. I will file that away as a future retort.

[But Consider This]

The trains run on time.

Well, they would if they had trains.

You know what I mean.

[xenia onatopp]

Wait, I'm confused. Just two months ago we were being told by a WHO official that North Korea's health system was, what was the word? "Enviable" I believe? And that furthermore she didn't see any signs of an obesity epidemic on the streets of Pyongang. Clearly Amnesty International is talking out of its ass here. I mean, what's the alternative?
That a UN official is a clueless commie dupe?

[Guy]

You're not the only one:
http://tinyurl.com/245xx4j

[xenia onatopp]

Why am I not surprised that the WHO seems more concerned with covering Chan's worthless ass than it is with the actual health of North Koreans? Hey, at least she was right about the lack of obesity.

[wayne]

She saw no signs of obesity, but had she looked a bit closer she would have noticed that North Koreans are significantly smaller (shorter and lighter) as a result of malnutrition.

[Fluffy]

A question:

Does the fact that BP capped this well mean that the methane bubble isn't going to bring about an Extinction Level Event?

The media hadn't pushed an Extinction Level Event story since the SARS scare. I would have liked to see it last longer.

[John]

That must be one hell of a methane bubble.

[JW]

It was one helluva burrito.

[JEP]

Problem: Methane Bubble
Solution: Strike a Match

[P Brooks]

Some local unions tried to hire students through the Federal Work/Study Program to protest for them a few years ago.

Nothing the government does is nonessential.

[Warty]

So I did some field research, and I can say that Milk Nymphos is incredibly tame compared to most porn that's out there. If it's obscene, the entire fucking internet is obscene.

[John]

"the entire fucking internet is obscene."

That pretty much goes without saying doesn't it?

[Virginia]

Good thing the President will be able to kill the internet... but hopefully not before I complete my own field research.

[What's the title?]

"I did some field research."
Congrats on your new career

[Found it]

Warty and the Milk Mustache

[SugarFree]

"The Celebrated Milk Asstache of Wartiveras County" by Mark 'Tang

[I see an Oscar]

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Lactating

[Enough About Palin]

On Wednesday, my Visa card was charged $89.22 for Donino's pizza in Buckhamshire England. It's going to be reversed, but because it's over $50.00, I had to file a police report. How fucked up is that?

[SugarFree]

Do British police shoot dogs or just truncheon them to death?

[Warty]

'Cept for the ring of the truncheon thing

[SugarFree]

Exactly what I was thinking of.

"When they kick in your front door..."

[Enough About Palin]

No, I had to file with the Minneapolis police. They can't catch killers, but maybe they can handle something like this.

What makes it so fucked up is that in all likelyhood, someone just mis-entered the credit card number. I really doubt it was fraud. What a waste of police time and resources.

[SugarFree]

If it's like every time I've ever dealt with the police over a property crime done to me, at least you'll never hear from them again.

[Enough About Palin]

Shit, I was an eye witness to an armed robbery a few years ago. I'd seen the kids around the neighborhood both before and after the crime, but the police nevr got around to having me come in and look at mug shots.

Eventually a guy was arrested, but it turned out he wasn't the guy (he'd been in jail when the crime was committed). But before they figured that out they made him pay restitution to the victim. I told the cop that they had the wrong guy and the cop said, yes, but at least the victim got some money back so it's all good. I said no it's not because the two youths who did the robbery were still out there and most likely still robbing people with a gun. He looked at me like that was the dumbest thig I ever heard.

It used to be when I'd hear black folk say the cops don't care which black person they put in jail for a crime I'd think they were crazy. But now I believe them.

[SugarFree]

Black people are fungible.

[wayne]

Pithy! You should opine on O'Reilly.

[Brett L]

"We'll say whatever we have to to get you to let us get the fuck out of here and not do dick about your stolen/broken shit." I'm not sure that's a direct quote, but that's the essence of all my communications, too.

[BakedPenguin]

If it's like every time I've ever dealt with the police over a property crime done to me, at least you'll never hear from them again.

Hey, they have drug raids to do, dogs to shoot, and hookers to hassle. Priorities, man, priorities.

[TrickyVic]

""What makes it so fucked up is that in all likelyhood, someone just mis-entered the credit card number.""

The card they "intended" to enter would have to have the same expiration month and year as your card. What's the odds?

[M]

It happens to me at least every five years. I usually have to sign an affidavit, and they credit me on the next statement. I know that my info was lifted from a utility bill, and they took care of the CR warning.

[M]

It happens to me every so often. I usually have to sign an affidavit, and they credit me on the next statement. I know that my info was lifted from a utility bill, and they took care of the credit report warning.

[Tulpa]

I would have thought most cards would deny any charges from an overseas POS unless you've called them and told them you're going to that country beforehand.

[Enough About Palin]

He looked at me like that was the dumbest thing HE ever heard.

[Brett L]

Cop in my neck of the woods "accidentally" tasers a BP employee. Shooting her in the back was completely unjustified, even if your cousin, uncle, and brother-in-law didn't get paid.

[TrickyVic]

""
Wakulla County Sheriff's Office spokesman Keith Blackmar says the unidentified deputy has been suspended with pay for the accident on Wednesday.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....z0trS5yxf0

Of course!

[Slap the Enlightened!]

Farm raids increasing.

[PapayaSF]

Ugh, that's depressing. Apparently we have the manpower to protect us from the menaces of raw honey and goat cheese, while gangsters can just walk from Mexico into the US.

[Mike M.]

The Federal Reserve admits failure, says economy not likely to recover for five or six more years.

[Tulpa]

Well that blows. Looks like we didn't pass the financial reform bill fast enough, heh.

[Mike H]

Lynne Stewart in jail for another ten years - FUCK YEAH!

[Tulpa]

Dear Reason: If you're going to review a movie today, please don't do Sorcerer's Apprentice.

[R C Dean]

Oh, c'mon. Isn't Nicolas Cage in Sorcerer's Apprentice? Its been awhile since we had a full-on comment dump on him.

[Tulpa]

Did I mention I liked Con Air?

[PapayaSF]

I did, too. It's one of those cheese-filled action films that somehow rises above the formula, like Executive Action, Cliffhanger, and Demolition Man.