Tag: Politics

Down the Memory Hole

My favorite thing about the Internet is how well it has eliminated the political memory hole. Nothing can be posted online and then fully removed. Unfortunately it seems some of the politicians haven’t come to realization yet and continue to make stupid comments and then try to have them removed through legal threats:

The Polk County Republicans in Wisconsin are now trying to cover up a video of one of their own elected representatives that they released via YouTube. The video in question shows United States Representative Sean Duffy (R-WI) complaining about how he is “struggling” to get by on his $174,000 salary.

Bitching about how hard life is when you make $174,000 a year isn’t going to win much sympathy in Wisconsin where the average yearly income is notably lower. What it will do is give your political opponents artillery to send your way next campaign season.

A copy of a take down notice for this video can be found here. The person who made the film is claiming copyright violation which legally is true since he did make the video. It’s also a great way to arm the Democrats with more artillery next season when they can not only say Mr. Duffy was whining about only making $174,000 a year but also tried to cover up the mess later. In these cases it’s just best to leave it alone and let people forget about it (it doesn’t take long, the average American attention span is two weeks).

Remember We’ll Have No Troops On the Ground in Libya

Unless of course we do:

US President Barack Obama has secretly authorised covert assistance to rebels seeking to overthrow Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, US media reports say.

He recently signed a document known as a “finding”, allowing support to the rebel groups, Reuters news agency and ABC News said.

Such “findings” are a common way for the president to authorise covert operations by the CIA.

When the CIA gets involved in a conflict it can only go from bad to worse (for a good read on the failures of these CIA tactics pick up a copy of Legacy of Ashes). Also I remember distinctly that George W. Obama promised that we wouldn’t have any boots on the ground in Libya. This would indicate that he was lying but that’s impossible because he’s Mr. Hope and Change!

Utah Looking to Gimp Their Carry Permits

Utah arguably has the best carry permit in the United States. Although the requirements of getting it are annoying (fingerprints) the state does have reciprocity agreements with the most states. It appears as though some of those states are getting pissy that Utah doesn’t require a non-resident to get a permit from their state before getting a Utah permit and have pushed Utah’s legislators to change the law. Sadly this change appears to be going through:

The Senate passed unanimously a bill Monday that would require non-Utahns to obtain a concealed weapon permit from their home state before being issued a Utah permit.

The bill, SB36 authored by Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, aims at working with 33 other states that have reciprocity agreements with Utah — allowing states to maintain more control over their concealed weapons permit records.

Why is it Utah’s problem that other states want more control over their peasants citizens and why is Utah bending to the will of other states? As pointed out by Senate President Michael Waddoups this change will cost Utah $1.3 million but nobody else cares because those funds are dedicated so they can’t be woefully pissed away on stupid projects.

So if you’re a holder of a non-resident a Utah permit but lack a permit from your home state it’s likely (going by the complete lack of resistance in Utah’s Senate) going to get you banned from holding a Utah permit for 10 years. Just remember to thank your state’s “representatives” for pushing Utah into this after you’ve thanked Utah for being the bitch of other states.

You Know That Conflict of Interest I Periodically Mention

I often talk about a conflict of interest the exists by having one branch of the government determine the validity of the action another branch takes. The idea of having the same organization both perform actions and watchdog itself doesn’t fly anywhere else but somehow we’re willing to accept it when such action is taken by government. It would seem that I’ve found an example of this:

A bitterly divided Supreme Court tossed out a jury verdict Tuesday won by a New Orleans man who spent 14 years on Death Row and came within weeks of execution because prosecutors had hidden a blood test and other evidence that would have proven his innocence.

The 5-4 decision delivered by Justice Clarence Thomas shielded the New Orleans District Attorney’s office from being held liable for the mistakes of its prosecutors. The evidence of their misconduct did not prove “deliberate indifference” on the part of then-District Attorney Harry Connick Sr., Thomas said.

How’s that for the government protecting it’s own? An innocent man spent 14 years on death row because a prosecute concealed evidence that would have acquitted the man. Instead of holding the District Attorney’s office liable for the actions taken by one of its members the Supreme Court decided to shield the office from any accountability.

This is about as disgusting as it gets ladies and gentlemen. When a government office can’t be held responsible for taking 14 years of a man’s life because of direct actions taken by one of its members then there is no recourse. Then again what can be expected from entities that have officers that shoot an innocent person and give that office nothing harsher than paid administrative leave?

The land of the free is become less so every day.

Because It Worked Out So Well Before

It seems our 100 $600,000 cruise missiles didn’t do a whole Hell of a lot of help the Libyan rebels. That shouldn’t have been surprising though as the rebels are still outgunned on the ground. I like how George W. Obama is pretending to make an effort to avoid sending in ground troops but we know it will eventually happen. The next facade he’s bringing up is the possibility of arming the Libyan rebels.

This is a great idea because then when we get sick of them rebels twenty years down the road we can fight our own equipment just like we did in Afghanistan. Granted I wouldn’t have a problem with this if it wasn’t for two facts; tax payers will be paying for the weapons and we’re likely going to send in ground troops anyways so this whole deception is pointless. I’m hoping to be happily surprised and find out we’re not sending ground troops in but alas I don’t think Bush 2 is going to avoid occupying another major oil producing country.

TSA Witch Hunt

The Transpiration Security Administration (TSA) is on a witch hunt… literally:

Here’s a situation for all you aspiring managers: If you were the boss at a U.S. government agency and one of your employees complained that she was afraid of a co-worker’s religious practices, what would you do?

Would it change your decision if the religion were Wicca, and the employee feared her co-worker because she thought she might cast a spell on her?

Here’s how the Transportation Security Administration handled it:

It fired the witch.

I thought it was illegal to fire somebody in the United States because of their religious practices. Oh yeah I forgot that rule only applies to private industry, it’s OK when the government fires people based on their religion. To be fair we should probably look into what specific religious practice lead to the co-worker filing a complaint. Maybe the witch was sacrificing a small animal at the airport:

The assistant director told her he was investigating a threat of workplace violence. He said that her former mentor in on-the-job training, officer Mary Bagnoli, reported that she was afraid of Smith because she was a witch who practiced witchcraft. She accused Smith of following her on the highway one snowy evening after work and casting a spell on the heater of her car, causing it not to work.

Or the co-worker is a complete fucking idiot, that was actually my second guess. It’s nice to know the tradition of an honest to goodness witch hunt hasn’t completely died off. Thor forbid if somebody were to practice a non-mainstream religion. Oh and this line made me chuckle:

And it sheds light on work life at the TSA, where the 40,000-plus public employees who keep bad people and bad things off of airplanes have started voting this month on whether to join a union.

Name one instance where a TSA operative was able to keep a bad people or thing off of an airplane. Since the establishment of the TSA it seems to be that bad things keep getting onto airplanes. Let us not forget the shoe bomber, underwear bomber, and of course the liquid bombers. All of them managed to get past the TSA security theater without any problem.

Oh, and bonus points to MSNBC for find a way to mention unions in a story that has absolutely nothing to do with unions. Real subtle.

I Love Watching Evil Plans Fail

If you haven’t heard of Righthaven I’ll give you a quick summary of the law firm. They’re scum. Seriously. What Righthaven does is buy up newspapers and then sue very site that has ever linked to the online sight of the purchased newspaper. Additionally newspapers can come on board without being purchased and use Righthaven’s “protection” services. Well it seems they just had their ass handed to them:

Last Friday, a judge in the Nevada federal district court patiently explained why fair use disposes of Righthaven’s copyright claim arising from the republication of an entire news article by a nonprofit organization. The hearing was in one of the now-250 Righthaven copyright cases. A written order, which will help set a persuasive precedent for other copyright troll cases, will be issued later.

Burn you sons of bitches.

Rough Road for AT&T and T-Mobile

It seems some anonymous goon at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave his professional opinion on the AT&T and T-Mobile merger. Needless to say he doesn’t think it’s going to fly without the FCC getting a couple pounds of flesh:

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, an anonymous Federal Communications Commission official said “there’s no way the chairman’s office [will] rubber-stamp” AT&T’s $39 billion acquisition of Deutsche Telecom-owned T-Mobile USA, and that the approval process will be “a steep climb at least.”

This could be taken as the FCC will likely block the merger. Personally I bet the FCC puts on a huge dog and pony show to demonstrate that they have the “best interests of consumers in mind” but will ultimately determine this merger good to go. Ma Bell is coming back baby!

The Death of Due Process

Our legal system is one where a person must be found guilty of a crime by a jury before punishment can be exacted. Well that was the idea at least, the reality is a bit different through. For example thanks to various legislation passed shortly after 9/11 you can be arrested and detained indefinably so long as the state labels you a terrorist. Apparently some “representatives” decided this was a good idea and put some provisions in the The Fix Gun Checks Act of 2011 that would strip the second amendment rights of anybody arrest of a drug crime, regardless of whether or not they were actually convicted:

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Sponsored by New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer and introduced earlier this month, the expanded background checks bill includes a “clarification of the definition of drug abusers and drug addicts who are prohibited from possessing firearms.” Under Schumer’s bill, the definition of a “drug abuser” would include anyone with “an arrest for the use or possession of a controlled substance within the past 5 years.”

But the “arrest” language of Schumer’s bill and a clarification from the ATF indicate that a greater number of innocent Americans would be barred from owning a gun if the Senate bill becomes law.

“Under the definition of ‘unlawful user’ … an inference of current use could be drawn if the one arrest resulted in a conviction for use or possession of a controlled substance within the past year,” the ATF told the The Daily Caller.

To clear up any confusion, Schumer’s bill would expand that “inference” to say: if you’ve ever been arrested for any kind of drug use or possession in the past five year, you can be denied the lawful possession of a firearm.

Obviously Schumer is an asshole but I’ve already said that several times on this blog. People who’ve read this blog long enough know I’m against continued punishment after your initial sentence has been carried out. What I mean to say is I’m against the stripping of somebody’s rights after they’ve served their prison sentence. Punishments should fit crimes and being stripped of the best means of self-defense does not fit using marijuana.

Drug use in of itself isn’t violent and permanently taking somebody’s right to keep and bear arms is flimsy even for violent crimes. There is absolutely no justification for taking somebody’s right of self-defense if they’ve committed a non-violent crime. But what lacks any justification whatsoever is taking somebody’s second amendment right because they were arrested for a crime but not convicted. You’re not supposed to be able to punish somebody for a crime they haven’t been proven beyond a reasonable doubt of committing.

This amendment would be completely open for police abuse. What happens if a sheriff in a shall-issue state doesn’t want to issue permits because he doesn’t believe citizens are as good as he is? Well you simply arrest them for a drug charge and release them. There you go that person is now no longer able to get a permit and the sheriff gets to continue his monopoly on the use of violence in all situations.

Can Anybody Say Conflict of Interest

There has been a lawsuit going on between i4i and Microsoft over a claimed patent involving XML editing. Microsoft started using XML as the basis for their Office document file formats partially due to urges by world governments for a more open format. That last sentence has no bearing on this story, I just like pointing out irony.

The lawsuit has finally reached the Supreme Court where Microsoft will argue to the federal court against i4i. Unfortunately for Microsoft the government has failed an amicus brief against them:

The U.S. government is backing i4i in its case against Microsoft that the Supreme Court is expected to hear in April.

Acting Solicitor General Neal Kumar Katyal filed an amicus brief supporting a U.S. Court of Appeal decision and i4i’s position on Friday. The brief represents the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

This is a major argument I have against the court systems in this country, they are loaded with conflict of interest. Ultimately the Supreme Court represents the federal government thus having other agencies of the federal government file amicus briefs creates a conflict of interest. That’s not to say the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled against federal legislation in the past, they certainly have, but the potential exists.

The Supreme Court shouldn’t have been made as an arm of the federal government but instead as a completely separate entity. If i4i wins this case a claim of conflict of interest would be valid but alas could not be appealed. It certainly becomes an interesting scenario when you think about it.