Romney Slaps Obama for Money Digs, Cops Make Suicide Threats Come True, European Borrowing Gets Pricier: P.M. Links
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Mitt Romney found himself a backbone and slapped back at Obama for needling him over being neck-deep in dollars. (The prez denies all.)
- Congressional Republicans and Democrats are wrangling over competing proposals for business tax breaks.
- Although still not sorry about pursuing the case, Marc Emery's prosecutor urges pot legalization. (HT: rts)
- Nevermind that "stand your ground" had little if anything to do with the Trayvon Martin case, a Florida task force will consider changes to the law anyway.
- Ever wonder which essential programs your tax dollars are supporting? Among other things, a plush lifestyle for the comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, who pocketed $30 million.
- Police responding to a call about an attempted suicide by porn actor "Sledge Hammer" tased him twice and apparently beat him during a fight in the back of an ambulance. He died two days later. Oh, and it's a pattern!
- Borrowing is becoming more expensive for Europe's more profligate governments as bailout money runs out.
- Cosmic rays get mysteriouser and mysteriouser.
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This is somehow binding? The Florida executive is going to instruct the legislature to alter a law?
bring the sunshine babiee & watch teh cocka-roachez runz n runz.
Silly FoE, the formal admendment process is so passe. Unless laws are reviewed by The United Colours of Benetton, the law is invalid on its face.
I'm pretty sure the executive could always ask the legislature to consider any bill.
I'm reading this as more than a request, but maybe the state legislature is more than happy to hand its responsibilities to some "task force" created by the governor.
That's been going on too - it's why the CFR is arguably more important than the USC.
Perfect cover either way from the voters. It puts all of the onus on Gov. Scott.
Guerilla class warfare. Enjoy fighting that, Mittster Roboto.
Not only that, it's a two for one logical fallacy (assuming you believe he was being intentionally misleading by not mentioning Romney by name initially).
The Romney campaign seems to be willing to punch back.
Obama has never had to deal with that, and it doesn't look like he will deal with it well.
I believe Romney could beat Obama just by (gently) mocking him. Once a puffed up nothing like Obama loses his aura of superiority, they've got nothing left.
The Romney campaign seems to be willing to punch back.
Meh. I will be impressed when The Flopster is leveling campaign salvos at His Pestilency with the same vigor and potenecy that was leveled at Santorum and Newcular Titties.
Obama has never had to deal with that, and it doesn't look like he will deal with it well.
This is true, he is a petulant shit, isn't he? Just look at his reaction to the Citizen's United decision (of which he is taking full advantage).
I agree with whoever it was I heard saying that Mitt could win by portraying Obama as a nice guy (good husband, father, etc.) but he simply isn't up to the task of president.
Yeah, I don't think he looks good by going newtcular on Obama, unless it's retaliation in kind. The whole "Obama's a nice guy, but way out of his depth" meme is much better IMO.
"Obama's a nice guy but way out of his depth"
Yeah that's gonna work!
You're probably being sarcastic, but yes, it will. Romney can hammer him on the economy, unemployment, record deficits, etc. - but personal attacks, unless in kind, are a bad idea.
Normally you would pick a VP to make such attacks.
But this time he's got 4 years of experience as President! The first term was just training! This time he'll get it right! He'll end the war on drugs, close gitmo, end the wars, and whatever else your little heart desires!
Goading him into making an ass of himself would work pretty well too, as long as the goading was either mild, or deniable.
"Using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole in Antarctica, ..."
ICE CUBE? That's one way to get the hip hop crowd interested in science.
"Sub-Atomicz wid flavah!"
Who can spot where this concerned family went wrong?
At least he's no longer depressed.
not standing their ground?
Yes, they quaintly beleive that cops are there to serve and protect the public.
They serve and protect, all right, but their fellow officers and their pensions.
Who would you recommend family call if someone is acutely suicidal? The ice cream man?
I wonder if EMS crews from the fire station could be called (not being sarcastic, I honestly don't know). But if so, they'd seem to be an alternative, anyway, and could take the person to a hospital for evaluation.
In most states if you call 911 for a psych danger-to-self or danger-to-others situation it is the police that respond, as they alone have the authority to bring people involuntarily for psychiatric evaluation. For willing individuals you can call for an ambulance, but it is somewhat risky -- since they are voluntary, they can demand the ambulance stop and let them out (and technically go kill themselves if they wish now that they are out of family's sight). Most prefer to err on the side of safety and use police.
Why make the assumption that the evaluating psychiatric personnel care about the evaluees at all and have some degree of competence?
This is another situation where involving the police and other authorities will make things worse the grand majority of the time.
Gee, I don't know, because they are physicians with many years of training and experience that have devoted their careers to helping people? What are you, a scientologist?
Uh, no, just someone with actual personal experience as well as a bunch of family members in psychiatric medicine doing exactly these evaluations.
Just assuming a "new professionalism" doesn't make it so, regardless how how many years clocked in; there are simply no incentives to place for them to prioritize the care of the patient over the theoretical risk to others other than the assumed good character of the doctors.
Perhaps in your neck of the woods it's miraculously better but I wouldn't want anyone's rights to be possibly stripped because the doctor evaluating believes that, say, firearms ownership is prima facie evidence of mental illness.
Are they going to put exactly that into a report? Hell no. Is this belief going to bias their judgement when a gun owner is reportedly suicidal? Quite possibly.
So basically you're taking somebody and putting their person and future legal status in jeopardy without knowing at all who's going to be in charge of that. And it's not just doctors--there are all the nurses and other personnel, and when you have a situation where one person is locked up and not allowed to leave, there's going to be occasional verbal/physical/sexual abuse by the staff as well.
And, no, I'm not a fucking Scientologist.
I work in a busy urban ER where we have about 1000 people brought in involuntarily for danger to self or others each month. The attention to patient's rights, focus on collaborative work with patients, and avoiding coercion is paramount to our docs. Of those 1000, over 75% are discharged after our doc's intervention, without being admitted to a psychiatric hospital, preserving all their rights and anonymity. We also use a fraction of the number of physical restraints on patients a typical ER does -- in fact, this year we are averaging using restraints less than ten times/month despite seeing very high acuity.
The occasional staff member (usually psych tech) who is observed to be verbally abusive is promptly terminated; the fact that they themselves are subjected to continual abuse by many of the patients is not permitted to be an excuse. We require all staff to do regular non-violent intervention training.
In CA, no one can have their gun ownership even questioned in psychiatric cases until they have been hospitalized for a minimum of five days (and then only because of dangerousness) and only after they go before a judge. Even then, they can appeal once they are out of the hospital.
I have written a textbook, many book chapters, and dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles on these topics. There are definitely still places that are as you described, but many of us are working on a national level to make them rarer and rarer exceptions.
Sorry, I didn't mean to step on your toes there. I am frankly pleased to hear that things are handled better in CA, but well, there's a reason why stuff like One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and other pieces revolving around being wrongly imprisoned in an institution are still popular in culture even today.
Also firearms rights reversal decisions around here are, as far as I've been able to determine, only given to... (you can probably guess this one)... cops! If somebody else gets screwed on the initial eval, oh well.
The bit about restraints is somewhat darkly amusing--whenever I hear my relatives talking about work it's virtually always mentioning putting someone in four-points.
Sorry, I didn't mean to step on your toes there. I am frankly pleased to hear that things are handled better in CA, but well, there's a reason why stuff like One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and other pieces revolving around being wrongly imprisoned in an institution are still popular in culture even today.
Also firearms rights reversal decisions around here are, as far as I've been able to determine, only given to... (you can probably guess this one)... cops! If somebody else gets screwed on the initial eval, oh well.
The bit about restraints is somewhat darkly amusing--whenever I hear my relatives talking about work it's virtually always mentioning putting someone in four-points.
SledgeHammer? Didn't he star in "How to Drain Your Dragon"?
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing!"
I read that the wife didn't blame Mckay because Emry's prosecution "wasn't personal" but, having talked with various prosecutors and law enforcement over the years, I think I can safely bet that it was very personal. They take almost every violation of even the silliest law as a personal affront.
Every US Attorney dreams of being a Senator.
Sure, I ruined some guys life prosecuting a "crime" that any sane person would find immoral and that even I, in hindsight, find reprehensible... but I was just doing my job, which makes my actions moral and just.
Derp.
Apparently we didn't learn anything from the Milgram experiments.
Watching the footage of those is excruciating, but there a couple of gents. One, in particular, who is so the righteous man for whom this whole human race thing should be spared. Or something.
You know who else was just doing their job?
The wife probably doesn't want to snipe at a new ally - that would start a battle over the past and do the drug warriors' work by disarming this remarkable new ally.
Though I'm interested in the number of ex-govt officials who get religion after leaving office.
Sheesh people, it's a good thing for the Christian Church that Saul didn't have his conversion to Paul with the internet around.
You killed Christians how can you proselytize for them?
I have some good one today, let's start with this:
Mother of the Year Award contestant.
The station identifies the woman as Chekayla Dampier, from Port Richey, Fla. Dampier allegedly ran the water from the tap in her bathroom and held the baby under for two to three minutes, a spokesman Pasco Sheriff's Office said.
No! I don't want to see that shit. I've got a seven week old baby at home right now.
Congrats! I've got a 4-week old myself.
Also, what a fucking horrible person.
Godfuckingdamnit. Worthless fucking bitch.
Those were my sentiments exactly.
At least a suitable punishment for her is easy to work out.
"A Florida mom was arrested after she allegedly put her seven-week-old baby under scalding-hot water as a form of punishment for his excessive crying, MyFoxTampaBay.com reports."
Yeah, that will quiet down the baby.
But, but, it's always the fathers that are the violent ones!?!?
It's cases like this I bemoan the NAP.
Fucking Christ, the thing doesn't even have object permanence yet and you expect it to learn a fucking lesson when its only instinct is "I AM HUNGRY, CRY FOR ATTENTION"?
I'm thinking she had no concept of the baby learning anything. She was just pissed off and wanted to hurt it.
Sounds like enhanced interrogation to me.
That baby's probably Al Queda.
You bastard! Now i have to clean my monitor and keyboard!
As punishment for excessive crying......she does something guaranteed to ensure more........hmmm....anyone....anyone?
More fucking crying! Jesus Christ!
Wonder who she voted for?
I was thinking that too when I read the story. This here is your average voter.
Sheriff's forensics took the temperature of the hot water and it registered at 142 degrees
142? Holy shit, that sounds ridiculously hot to me. Still I think a fitting punishment for this sort of thing would be an "eye for an eye". Hold her under 142 degree water for a few minutes. WTF is wrong with some people?
Libertarian geeks rejoice: the Ron Paul video game is coming.
One of my buddies already linked me to the Kickstarter page for it. I opted not to contribute. Someone here linked me to a Shadowrun game, though, and I threw down for that one.
I played that very briefly on a BBS message board about twenty years ago. The concept seemed pretty cool, especially back then, before every sci-fi idea under the sun had been completely played out.
This might not be the fault of the cops but...
Yonkers police Lt. James Murphy said, "Once we get there, if they're acting out and deemed emotionally disturbed -- if they don't go willfully... sometimes they'll have to be restrained. It looks like he was being restrained for reason 'A' and for some reason unknown, he went into cardiac arrest."
I don't think decrying Romney for something he had absolutely no control over is going to be a successful strategy, in part because Romney has proven surprisingly adept at making combacks at Obama's attacks. Just look at how he killed the dog story.
It actually helps Romney get his personal story out, which is not about inheriting millions like most people assume.
And check out Obama's disingenuousness on this topic:
"Somebody gave me an education. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth," said the President.
He may not have been born wealthy, but I'd hardly call Obama's upbringing disadvantaged. Being raised in an upper-middle class household after being abandoned by your mother is not exactly Oliver Twist.
And LOL at him basically admitting that his achievements are due to something other than his abilities.
A big hooray for zero tolerance.
Hmm, apparently the sentence FTA contains a word longer than 50 characters, even though it doesn't.
"One kid kicked me in the back, then punched me in the face. Then I punched him in the face and then I got in trouble," the boy told the station.
Maybe a different section will work.
They need a stand your ground rule for school.
Or, better still, a "leave school grounds" rule.
antidisestablishmentarianism
(my earlier comment was considered invalid for containing a 50-characater word)
... none of these methods include violence or retaliation standing up for yourself or anything else that might actually work.
This happens every time. The administration realizes that constant, low-key torture is less disruptive to the learning environment than someone standing up for themselves. That's why you schedule the fight for after school, and only slam their head into a locker if they don't show.
"We use the Neville Chamberlain Method of Vioence Prevention."
I love this part:
How quaint. Like the DA cares - unless it will get it elected to higher office.
Threats spark closure of Kamloops university art department
Police on Vancouver Island say they have tracked down an unlicensed and uninsured motorcyclist who posted a YouTube video of a terrifying high-speed run along a busy section of the Trans-Canada Highway.
The rider in the video is believed to be a 25-year-old male with 25 previous infractions, Saanich police revealed Thursday morning. The registered owner of the bike is believed to be his mother, but the bike is not insured, they said.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/.....toria.html
In the video, the motorcycle rockets past vehicles with the speedometer indicating close to 300 km/h, passing along the centre line, shocking even veteran traffic officers and professional motorcycle riders who have seen it.
Somehow the cops got the IP address and tracked the guy down (presumably) using existing laws.
So why do we need ever more pervasive Internet tracking laws again?
I would have posted it from a library PC.
For the children. Duh.
Sooner or later that retard is gonna be scraped off the road with a shovel.
No big loss. The problem is that he'll probably take someone with him.
Stupid squid. Shit like this is how the rest of us will end up with gov-mandated power limits.
Yeah, I think I saw that guy. For about half a second. He was dressed like a blue flash. I could totally identify him.
Monster drug sting nets 43 tonnes of hash
That's a lot of hash. I'm surprised the article didn't attempt to give the cop-math street value, which I'm sure requires scientific notation to express.
That's the saddest thing I've read all day.
+1 hit
43 tonnes? Whoa! That's 86,000 pounds!
1 tonne = 1000 kilograms.
43 tonnes = about 95,000 pounds.
(43 tons = 86,000 pounds).
A little British for my taste, but at least SOMEONE did the street-value math.
Amusing little article about facial hair on politicians, including what Obama and Romney would look like with the beards of previous presidents.
That's still true today. Just look at all the hipsters with beards.
You can't stuff Das Kapital in those skinny 'tard jeans. It'll be in the messenger bag, whihc is borderline for "on his person".
Lenin had a beard. Gabby Hayes had whiskers.
So, why doesn't Obama have one? Is he even capable of growing one?
I wouldn't call what hipsters typically sport as facial hair "beards." They have too much estrogen coursing through them.
The first one to grow a playoff beard gets my vote.
I, for one, would like to see a perfectly groomed neckbeard. But not the patchy, scraggly, Keanu Reaves kinda beard.
I propose we mandate that all men running for public office grow facial hair inspired by the characters on the TV show Deadwood. Imagine if Romney had an Al Swearagen mustache.
"We're not walking into this with any preconceived notions," Gov. Rick Scott said at a news conference. If there are "logical changes to be made," he said, the task force "will provide those."
Ah, so you *do* have a preconceived notion!
"If there's laws that are impacting that, where people don't feel comfortable, I want to know about it."
I don't feel comfortable about a lot of laws. What's magic about STG?
What's magic about SYG?
The reason for gun ownership that's the most diffiult to rebut is self-defense. Particularly for handguns.
Those who want to ban handguns (as a first step) must first get rid of self-defense.
SYG is the heart of self-defense; ie self-defense is legitimate and you shouldn't be punished for it.
Norway killer used video games to train
I'm almost certain this will result in more retarded laws, for the children.
Did he use magic in his shooting spree?
The comma is superfluous.
Your comment is invalid.
Your comment contains a word that is too long.
Your comma is superfluous.
What's the matter, squirrels, does length threaten you?
It makes them feel inadequate.
I keep waiting for one of these clowns to claim something like "I watched 'Dancing with the Stars' 16 hours a day" or "I got the idea from reading 'Harry Potter'".
If I ever snap and go on a killing spree I'll do my best to come up with something absurd like this.
"I watched bills get voted on and signed into law."
+1
Obviously all that WoW didn't teach him anything. Anyone who plays WoW long enough knows you don't go on a rampage like that without a couple reliable tanks, a handful of decent healers, and at least 20 more DPSers.
Apparently his guild got the date & time of the raid wrong. It happens.
It was a lack of experience points. He didn't qualify for a level increase and guild advancement.
A worthy effort Groovy, but it seems obvious that you've never been bitten by the WoW bug.
Nope. I'm strictly an Elder Scrolls kinda guy. PC games for me. I don't generally do console games.
Psssssst - MMOs like WoW are PC only.
But you'd rather be playing Guild Wars anyway. I hear you.
The Secret World comes out in June. I know that's what you really meant.
Psssssst - MMOs like WoW are PC only.
Duly noted Ska; I'm not a mega huge gamer. WoW just never appealed to me.
But you'd rather be playing Guild Wars anyway. I hear you.
Yeppers.
Am I the only one who would love to see how an H&R Guild would interact in WoW?
Am I the only one who would love to see how an H&R Guild would interact in WoW?
It would be fascinating to see who would emerge as the Guild Master.
I would put my $$$$ on RC Dean or Saccharin Man.
Nope. Who would be GM?
I think we would informally nominate Lucy, who would not actually be in the Guild, as our leader. Then we'd have constant squabbles over who should GM, changing it each week to the person who scores highest on the Libertarian Purity Test, which is mostly comprised of giving quotes from 80s movies and episodes of Star Trek.
went on several raids with women guild leaders...the novelty of logging onto teamspeak and hearing a female voice was such a surprise that I think it kept everyone sober/nonstoned enough to listen to directions.
so in short..if this guild thing gets off the ground..I vote for LUCY!
went on several raids with women guild leaders...the novelty of logging onto teamspeak and hearing a female voice was such a surprise that I think it kept everyone sober/nonstoned enough to listen to directions.
so in short..if this guild thing gets off the ground..I vote for LUCY!
Like everything else with libertarians, it would be like herding cats.
Worse still, it was all burst damage. Needs more DOTs.
It wasn't a raid, it was using a hack to gank newbs in a supposedly no-PvP area.
Well if that doesn't bring the banhammer then I don't know what will.
It seems that there are few people who bother to even make a serious attempt to inspect the motives of mass murders committed by the likes of Breivik. The emotional response must be too intense for most people to get past.
But Mencius Moldbug did bother to inspect Anders Breivik.
Here: http://unqualified-reservation.....hring.html
And Gore Vidal did bother to inspect Timothy McVeigh.
Here: http://www.vanityfair.com/poli.....eigh200109
It's not video games.
"Although we have not discovered where cosmic rays come from, we have taken a major step towards ruling out one of the leading predictions,"
See, that's how science is supposed to work. It's a good thing when current theory is questioned or ruled out.
So you're in the pocket of big gamma then?
All right, WTF is this shit, seriously, I am becoming annoyed:
"Your comment contains a word that is too long (50 characters)."
Anti-Mary Stack measures. Direct all your anger at our insane griefwhore.
It seems to think the URL is a word, but it still gives me that error when I use a Tiny URL. Grrrr.
Don't use a raw link, try embedding it.
Does it let you put the url in a link tag?
No, it won't let me post either a plain URL or in an embedded link. I have made sure all the quote marks are plain quotes, there's no funky HTML, etc.
OK then, try posting just the embedded link and nothing else. I had that happen a couple times too.
Where the fuck is MNG?
Well, not to change the subject, but I have noticed John hasn't been around either the last couple of days. So I think they are messing around in their dungeon again.
Perhaps they are in Colombia?
That would make my day if they were actually both in the Secret Service all this time, and they were part of the hooker scandal.
That's not wishing ill on them personally, as I suspect these Secret Service guys will have an exciting new career. Reality TV? Blogs? Porn? Any way you cut it, lots of money.
"Agents John and MNG in Colombian Chubby Chaserz: The Movie"
What a compelling yarn. Clearly, this needs a reboot, but with MNG and John as Ilsa, and the SS being the Secret Service.
Well, the brouhaha occurred because two agents were double-teaming a hooker and tried to just pay for one, so it's entirely possible.
Direct all your anger at our insane griefwhore.
So I should blame only al Qaeda for the Patriot Act? No. My anger is a scattergun. All, feel my wrath and despair. (And by that, I mean read occasional comments from me about it.)
Mary Stack is far more evil than Al Qaeda. Your comment is invalid.
Something is a bit goofy with copy/paste (if that's what you're trying). Try breaking the post down in a couple places. I haven't been able to figure out what is setting it off the few times I've been able to get around it.
Got hit with this message earlier. Very annoying, especially when I had no words longer than 10 characters.
Still have yet to encounter this problem and I haven't changed my posting habits at all. Perhaps it's because I embed all my links in text?
The times I've run into it most are when trying to post an embedded link with some extra descriptive text. When I hit the error I just split the link and the text into two separate posts and it worked fine.
I had that happen earlier on a comment that didn't even contain a URL, embedded or otherwise. And there were no words over 50 characters, so I have no idea what bug crawled up the squirrels asses today.
Zimmerman bond hearing tomorrow morning at 9:00, before the new judge.
I wonder if jail would be more safer for him than being on the outside.
I've been wondering the same thing. I hope his lawyer has found a safe place to hide him.
Probably with that chick who murdered her daughter and got away with it.
Yeah, what was up with that?
I dunno, the jury thought she was attractive in a slutty, inhuman-child-murdering kind of way?
That's one hard up jury.
They did show pictures of her in a wet t-shirt contest, and I think they may have been recused, without access to free porn.
Quothe the Barfman:
*barf*
The Olympics goes full retard.
Is there anything that happens in Britain that isn't full fucking retard?
When did dwarf tossing become an Olympic sport?
Of course, the idea that hosting the Olympics actually has economic benefits for a city is laughable.
This isn't much different than what American professional sports teams do to non-sponsors generally. I worked in that industry for a time and sent a lot of C&D letters to Mom & Pop shops who painted "Go (name of sports team)" in their windows. Not that I agree, but the justification is that corporate sponsorships have value and nobody gets to create the appearance of association with the team that doesn't pay for the privilege.
Isn't that Special?
Governor says Zimmerman second-degree murder charge was not a result of the public outcry.
I find this dubious, to say the least, since it's a political statement and a half-truth. When dissected some, the statement's parsing becomes a bit more clear. It's true his being charged was not a result of public outcry; however, the nature of the charge, I have to wonder. But then, I am not privy to all the evidence presented.
I do, too.
Secret Service decides that Ted Nugent is not a threat.
It's the magic of OK. It's not called The Sooner State for nothing.
Also, Jesse Jackson is still skulking around here, trying to gin up support for gun control, "economic justice", and his usual class envy pimpery.
Colombian Escort Describes Her Secret Service Ordeal
OMFG, that worked, thanks Soc Indv Sparky
Anyway, this article contains many, many golden quotes.
Welcome. I think I ran into that same issue four times today.
Now, why don't you step over here and let me enlighten you in the ways of Socialistic Individualism.
Socialistic Individualism.
Now there's ya a euphemism!
(off-screen announcer)
"Now, we watch and see how The Underworld's Archivist reacts..."
Our motto is "You're unique, just like everyone else". As the founder of this new movement, my title is Unique Citizen One. The very first person to join gets to be Unique Citizen Two.
And I did NOT steal it from this guy.
What I don't understand about the Scandinavians is why they don't harness the free energy generated by thousands of their Viking ancestors whirling in their graves.
Ordeal? The NYT can't help but play up her sob story despite the fact that she apparently makes quite a bit of money on a regular basis.
Come on now. It's like buying fine rum, or an iPhone or a Blackberry. It has a different price.
Baby, my cash money
Always get it in writing.
Levon Helm dead at 71.
So that's two, I suppose.
Ah, the old "Threes and Seven Rule".
My money's on Steven Tyler to go next.
The price alone, she said, indicates she is an escort, not a prostitute. Umm, lady distinction without a difference.
Fight the power. With phlegm.
(They probably asked for a liter of cola.)