Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Fox News wants us to be upset because the number of deaths of law enforcement officers increased by 17% this year, from 48 to 56. Meh.

Understand, I garner no joy from the death of a police officer. Many have families. Many are good people trying to do the right thing. Not all cops are flaming assholes, though I would submit that the majority -- particularly campus and traffic cops -- are.

But I can't get too worked up over 56 police deaths when you compare it side-by-side with the statistics of those killed by police officers.

Between 2003 and 2009 (the most recent statistics on the interwebs), 2,844 people were killed by police officers. Of that number, 2,684 were shot dead by the police. That's 406 deaths per year, 383 of those shot dead by the police.
You don't have to be a math whiz to figure out that 406 > 56.

"Come on, Vulture! You can't equate criminals being shot in the commission of a crime with law enforcement officers!" You're quite right. I wouldn't for a moment claim that there weren't some -- hell, maybe 90% or more -- of that number who desperately needed killing and whose shootings were 100% legit.

But what if 10% of those killed by police were innocents, people in the wrong place at the wrong time. People mistaken for someone else. People like the guy shot because a cop mistook his lighter for a handgun. People killed during the execution of a no-knock warrant who weren't involved in any crime.

Hey, Fox News. If you want me to care more about police deaths, how about you hold the police accountable when they bash in grandma's door and gun down grandma and her sleeping grandkids during a no-knock raid where some puke informant gave them the wrong address. In fact, how about you simply get behind the cause of abolishing blatantly unconstitutional no-knock warrants.

When the police start to behave like peace officers instead of law enforcers (trust me, there's a big difference), then I'll be more sympathetic when one of their number is killed. In the meantime.....meh.

Law and Order UK

The other evening I was relaxing in Vulture Manor with Deadeye watching an episode of Law and Order UK. The BBC version of this venerable franchise is, IMO, every bit as good as if not better than the original was back in the 90's.

Okay, I watched TV. What does that have to do with anything?

The episode in question unfolded with what police at first thought was a copycat murderer mimicking a convicted white supremacist serial killer (hereinafter referred to as "Whitey"). When they found the killer, they received quite a surprise: the murderer was a black Jamaican, the murders weren't racially motivated at all (the killer was channeling "commands from God"), and, the biggest bombshell of all, he wasn't a copycat. He was the killer behind all of the murders for which Whitey was convicted!

This is where the course of justice, UK version, diverged sharply from the course of justice, USA version.

Whitey was freed right away. That makes perfect sense, right? Except that in the US, once it's been established that you're innocent, you're lucky if you don't wait months for someone to get around to issuing orders for you to be freed. If at all.

Then the solicitor (attorney) for Whitey dropped an accusation that the Crown Prosecutor (DA) had spiked exculpatory evidence in Whitey's original trial that would have cast doubt about his guilt in the murders. The CP was actually brought up on criminal charges of perverting the course of justice as a result of this single accusation. Stop for a moment and ponder that. A prosecutor was charged with the crime of perversion of justice as a result of an accusation of withholding exculpatory evidence. Whoa!

It got me thinking. Why in the name of all that is holy is there no such statute on the books in any jurisdiction in the US for the crime of perversion of justice? Why is it that DA's in the US can run roughshod over the rights of the accused, prosecute individuals they know to be innocent, and hide or manufacture evidence without fear of any sort of consequences? Lest you think I'm exaggerating or simply spewing hyperbole, I suggest you take a nice long look at actual evidence of prosecutorial mischief. Spend a half hour at Will Grigg's place. Or at William Anderson's place.You'll swear that I've understated the problem by half.

Until US prosecutors are held to the same high standard as Crown Prosecutors, we can expect innocents to continue to be sacrificed on the altar of some scumbag prosecutor's career aspirations. One day it might be you.

Let the punishment fit the crime

There are numerous - far too numerous - cases where the punishment flat out doesn't fit the crime. Murderers who get 8 years. The guy who sells a bag of weed with just over an ounce in it gets 15 years.

But this is clearly a case where the proposed punishment is more than appropriate.

Lawmakers and residents engaged in heated debate Tuesday over a bill that would make random airport security pat-downs and body scans criminal in New Hampshire.

The bill (HB628-FN) "makes the touching or viewing with a technological device of a person’s breasts or genitals by a government security agent without probable cause a sexual assault," according to the introductory text of the bill.

"Let's put their name on the sex offender registry, and maybe that will tell them New Hampshire means business," said bill co-sponsor Rep. Andrew Manuse, R-Derry.

"That is a crime in this state, and we should charge them every single time," said bill co-sponsor Rep. George Lambert, R-Litchfield.

Yes! Let's brand those TSSA* perverts with the scarlet 'S' for 'sex offender'! Let's make sure that those trolls understand that "No means no"!


* You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'

Police Story

I was driving to Columbia to see the chiropractor last week when I espied one of the People's Republic of Maryland message boards that have sprung up over the state's highways in the past several years.  The message on it read:

Slow traffic warning
Police funeral - 12 PM to 4 PM

I had to reread the message to make sure I understood.  You're telling me that traffic is going to be FUBAR for 4 hours just because a cop died?

This isn't an unusual occurrence.  This past year a Frederick County Sheriffs Deputy died "in the line of duty" and was given one of these lavish traffic-nightmare taxpayer-funded funerals.  He died during a high-speed chase when the perp was able to negotiate a left turn and he wasn't.  He died because he couldn't drive.  Heroic.

Then there's this tool, who died "in the line of duty" when he learned first-hand that giving a "halt" hand signal won't stop a vehicle going 70-MPH.  Heroic.

There's no telling how the officer whose passing was going to cause a 4 hour traffic nightmare died.  Perhaps he was in high-speed pursuit of a dozen donuts.

"Damn, Vulture!  That's harsh!  Why do you hate on the cops so much?"

Why?  Because NWA was right.  And because of cops like this.

The sentencing hearing for former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge recessed for the day after a University of Chicago professor testified that torture allegations against Burge are unlike any other police misconduct in the city's history.

“This is an unprecedented instance,’’ said Adam Green, who specializes in African-American history. “What happened at Area 2 is really a singular chapter.’’

Green said abuse by police strikes at entire communities, but a sense of worth and respect can be restored if the misconduct is addressed.

Earlier today, one of Burge's alleged victims took the stand and asked Burge, “Why would you do this? … You were supposed to be the law.”

Before a packed courtroom, Anthony Holmes told how he still dreams he is inside the now infamous room at the Area 2 station on the South Side where Burge allegedly used electric shock and suffocation to coerce confessions from suspects.

Holmes, saying it was difficult for him to testify about the abuse, took a deep breath before he started. He said his wrongful imprisonment shattered family relationships and caused constant fear of police and re-arrest.

Officer Burge tortured young black men who may or may not have been involved in any crime in order to extract a "confession". He then turned the young man over to the grasping, politically ambitious Prosecutor, the one person less concerned with guilt or innocence than Officer Burge.  What's the big deal, right?  It's just one more po' nigga in the system.

Except that an innocent person has their life and freedom robbed from them just so law enforcement can bump their statistics.  With the exception of murder and perhaps rape, there is no more heinous crime than that.

I'd love to attend the taxpayer-funded police funeral for Officer Burge.  What I'd leave on his grave site wouldn't pass for flowers.

Safer in Afghanistan

For those of you unfamiliar with the Washington metropolitan area, here's a brief geography lesson.  Washington DC is surrounded by the state of Maryland (or, as the Vulture refers to the state in which he lives, the People's Republic of Maryland).  There are two PRM counties surrounding DC: affluent Montgomery County to the West, and HURTing Prince Georges County to the East.

PG County has always been a high crime place.  But now it's achieved the kind of milestone that has heretofore never been approached by any stateside jurisdiction - EVER!

Federal agents are embedding with homicide investigators in Prince George's County starting this week in a rare move as authorities scramble to react to a string of 13 killings that have occurred already in 2011.

"It is very unusual for us to bring in agents and embed them in our homicide division," said police spokesman Maj. Andy Ellis. "I can't remember us doing that since probably the mid-to-late '90s."

The county has been rocked by news of a homicide spike since New Year's Day. The county's 13 killings exceed the 12 U.S. military deaths that have occurred this year in Afghanistan as of Friday morning.

Yes, you read that right. There have been more shooting deaths in PG County in 2011 than fatalities in Afghanistan.

Please, explain to me again how the Great Society welfare state, gun control, and the War on Drugs have made our lives so much better. 'Cause I ain't seein' it.

Conservatives and law enforcement

One of the things about so-called Conservatives that really chafes my bottom is their adoration for law enforcement.  Cops are all heroes who accepted a calling from God to be protectors of the citizenry.  Prosecutors are all heroes who eschewed the Siren call of lucrative jobs with prestigious law firms to fight crime and see to it that the guilty are punished.

As has been witnessed by anyone who has read more than a handful of Will Grigg's posts, the reality doesn't match the fantasy.

Prosecutors tend to be bastions of corruption, more concerned with their won-lost record than whether they've sent an innocent man to prison (because it was easy) or let a guilty man walk free (because the case was too hard to win).  On multiple occasions it has been discovered that exculpatory evidence has been hidden by prosecutors to assure the "win"! (See here for one example).  Why do they do this?  What's in it for them?  Why, they have political aspirations, of course!  A prosecutor with a tremendous won-lost record makes an excellent candidate for state or federal office.  Bastards.

Think I'm wrong?  See here, here, and here.  Again, William Grigg has MANY more examples than that.

Cops tend to be fatass bullies, quick to anger, quick to shoot those who don't react immediately to their commands.  Examples of this are legion - particularly on Will Grigg's site, but I've documented a few myself, here, here, here, and especially here.

A prime example of "quick to anger, quick to shoot" is the case of John T. Williams (H/T to Debra Farver).

The police shooting of a talented, aging Native totem carver has sparked anger and outrage in Seattle’s Native community, and beyond.

John T. Williams, long time Seattle resident and a Ditidaht member of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations of Canada’s Vancouver Island, was shot four times and killed Aug. 30 by police officer Ian D. Birk, a two-year veteran of the Seattle Police Department.

Police said Williams advanced towards Birk when the officer spotted him sitting on a ledge with a knife and shouted three commands at him to drop it.

As eyewitnesses came forward with a different version of events police then said Williams was crossing an intersection with a knife and piece of wood in his hands, refused to drop the knife and advanced towards the officer.

“His body stance did not look threatening at all,” an eyewitness told The Seattle Times. “I could only see the gentleman’s back, and he didn’t look aggressive at all. He didn’t even look up at the officer.”

Williams died between 1811 Eastlake, a private nonprofit home for chronic drinkers where he’d lived off and on, and the Pike Street Market in downtown Seattle, where he sold his carvings.

Williams was crippled with arthritis and hobbled more than he walked, Randy Lewis, a leader of the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation said. He was capable at most of turning towards the officer when he heard him shouting, to show him what he had in his hands.

That’s if he heard him shouting. Williams’ friends say he was deaf in his left ear from an infection eight years ago.

To summarize:

• A cop orders a man walking down the street minding his own business to drop the knife he's carrying.  Never mind that the block of wood he's carrying is what's known as "a clue" as to what said person's intention is for said knife.


• The cop doesn't get the response he desires; that is, the person in question doesn't immediately comply like a cowering sheep to John Law's demand.  He most likely didn't comply because he couldn't hear him.  This matters not one whit to the man in blue.


• The cop shoots him 4 times.  In broad daylight.  Like a dog.

What do you think of your "hero" cop, Conservatives?  You think he's in law enforcement because he's been called by God to protect the masses?  Or is it because he's hung like a thimble and needs a license to throw his weight around, that license being the sanction of the State in the form of a badge?

Speaking of getting fired...

Yesterday I wrote about Steven Screamin' A. Smith losing his gig as the Fox Sports Radio morning drive host.  Today I wish to write about a different individual losing a different type of job.

The Pharisee reported on Monday that the Caput a Palos, AKA TxBluesMan, AKA Sgt. Gregory Prickett, AKA The Prickette (pictured at left), has left the employ of UNT-Dallas.  It is unknown at this time if he jumped or was pushed.  Regardless of how or why, he is no longer employed by UNT.

I'm an empathetic person at heart, so I have a certain feeling of sadness for the Caput a Palos.  There is nothing more damaging to a man's self esteem than the loss of his employment.  Most of us feel somewhat defined by our occupation ("I'm a doctor", or "I'm a lawyer", or "I'm a glorified mall cop", for example).

That stated, I have to admit to a certain schadenfruede over the news.  After all, Mr. Bigshot has wrongfully maligned me and blogger friends of mine with the vilest of accusations, and did so under cover of anonymity.  That his cover has been blown and his shady acts of cowardice exposed is a satisfaction ranking right up there with a 49ers Super Bowl victory for me.

When The Prickette was outed, he lashed out against those most prominent in the exposure of his identity by filing a bogus lawsuit against them.  The Pharisee reported on Tuesday that the lawsuit is effectively kaput.  Given that it was strictly an intimidation ploy by The Prickette all along, Hugh has filed a criminal complaint against him.  It seems that in Texas -- and pretty much nowhere else -- it is a felony crime to engage in Barratry - the act or practice of bringing legal action solely to harass. The complaint also details The Prickette's harassment of Hugh's daughter, an innocent bystander in this particular pissing contest.

Hey, if this is a pissing contest, has Hugh succeeded in making it halfway up the 30' pole (as compared to The Prickette's measly 2 feet)?  I always suspected that The Prickette was a little...uh...lacking...in the man-plumbing department.

I hear that every time a cop gets fired a member of NWA gets his wings. Could be.  All I know is there's one less goon out there busting teeth today than there was last week at this time.

Another out-of-control Prosecutor

Normally, this would be a story for Toes at Sore Toes and a Bleeding Heart.  She is a tireless advocate for the reform of CPS (Child Protective Services).  But Toes passed it to me because (a) she knows my opinion of Prosecutors, that they are over-ambitious weasels intent on parlaying their position into a future political career without regard to the human wreckage left in their wake, and (b) it happened in my neck of the woods.  In Harford Country, to be exact - just a couple of hours northeast of humble Frederick.

Toes knows me entirely too well. The story got the predictable reaction out of me - I'm PISSED.

I can't do the story justice with a few random quotes. You can find it here in its entirety (major hat tip to Bill Medvecky who, like Toes, is a champion in the fight against out-of-control CPS). This is the money quote.

We want to see how she reacts when we tell her her kid is dead.

Classy. I hope there's a special place in hell where assholes like this can be subjected to horrors beyond imagination.

Thug cops in the news

I've been characterized by the pro-bigotry crowd at Caput Penitus Culus and Texas FLDS as anti-law enforcement.  I think that's something of a mischaracterization.  I think it would be more accurate to characterize me as being strongly opposed to unlawful law enforcement.  What do I mean by that?  Here are three examples for your perusal.

Pittsburgh police Chief Nate Harper said three plainclothes officers have been reassigned during an internal investigation into the beating of an 18-year-old student violinist from the city's Creative and Performing Arts High School.

Police charged Jordan Miles, 18, with assault and resisting arrest Jan. 11 because, they said, he fought with the officers who thought a "heavy object" in his coat was a gun. It turned out to be a bottle of Mountain Dew.

Miles said he resisted because he thought the men were trying to abduct him and didn't identify themselves as police.

Miles' family and attorney said he was hit with a stun gun and hospitalized after the violent Homewood struggle during which a chunk of his hair was yanked out and a tree branch went through his gums.

"I was accused for something I never had anything to do with," said Miles, an honor student at CAPA. "I was completely innocent. They couldn't find anything."

This, unfortunately, is more the norm than you might think. If this kid had been some random gang-banger, there would have never been any newsprint "wasted" on his story. But because it was a talented honor student, the cops in question will receive a slap on the wrist. What they DESERVE is serious jail time for aggravated assault.

A different kind of unlawful law enforcement is practiced in Brooklyn.

A Brooklyn precinct is under investigation for manipulating statistics to make its cops look like better crimefighters, the Daily News has learned.

Two probes are centered around whether Bedford-Stuyvesant's 81st Precinct recorded felonies as misdemeanors and refused to take complaints from victims - all in an effort to drive down the crime rate, sources said.

And the allegations came from one of the precinct's officers.

Officer Adrian Schoolcraft shared his suspicions with the Internal Affairs Bureau and the Quality Assurance Division, the NYPD unit responsible for maintaining the integrity of crime stats.

Schoolcraft told The News the top brass are so concerned with numbers that one precinct lieutenant is known as "The Shredder" because he's often spotted destroying documents.

Refused to take complaints from victims? Whatever happened to "protect and serve"?

One usually associates fudging the numbers with companies like Arthur Anderson and Enron, NOT with the police. How many violent perpetrators are walking the streets of Brooklyn now because these corrupt jerks were more concerned with their numbers than with public safety?

Finally, there's the all-too-prevalent "cop mentality", that "us vs. them" attitude that many police have towards everyone else not wearing police blue.

An East Palo Alto police detective is taking heat in online forums for allegedly posting comments from his Facebook account that advocate shooting Open Carry gun advocates.

Detective Rod Tuason apparently made the remarks in response to a friend's status update, which joked that gun advocates who carry unloaded weapons in plain view as a political statement should start doing so in places such as Oakland, Richmond and East Palo Alto "and not limit themselves to hoity toity cities."

"Haha, we had one guy last week try to do it!" Tuason replied, referring to a Redwood City man who strolled into the Mi Pueblo Food Center in East Palo Alto on Jan. 27 with a gun on his hip. "He got proned out and reminded where he was at and that turds will jack him for his gun in a heartbeat!"

After several more comments in the thread, Tuason apparently joked that officers should shoot the advocates, who have made recent headlines throughout the Bay Area for sipping coffee at cafes and performing other everyday acts with visible weapons.

"Sounds like you had someone practicing their 2nd amendment rights last night!" Tuason wrote. "Should've pulled the AR out and prone them all out! And if one of them makes a furtive movement ... 2 weeks off!!!"

Two weeks off. The life of a human being who is simply demonstrating for his Second Amendment right to bear arms is of no importance. Only the lives of the men in blue are worthy of concern.

The arrogance is stunning. And altogether too common.

Three examples of unlawful law enforcement. And that's without any mention of the overt militarization of community police forces thanks to the War on Drugs.

If being offended by THAT kind of law enforcement makes me anti-law enforcement, so be it.

False rape accusation punished

On Monday I wrote a post addressing the reality of a false rape allegation being no laughing matter. I wrote that, in spite of the inherent humor in the situation described in the original story, no false criminal accusation is the least bit funny so long as our legal system is as FUBAR as it currently is.

Oh how right I was!!!

A young mother who falsely cried rape, sending an innocent man to prison for nearly four years, will experience firsthand what he suffered -- she'll spend one to three years behind bars for perjury.

"I wish her the best of luck," said William McCaffrey last night of Biurny Peguero Gonzalez.

"Jail isn't easy."

McCaffrey, 33, of The Bronx, was locked up after Gonzalez accused him of raping her at knifepoint on a Bronx street back in 2005.

It was a lie she repeated to doctors, cops, prosecutors, a grand jury and the jury that convicted McCaffrey.

"What happened in this case is one of the worst things that can possibly happen in our criminal-justice system," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon said as he pronounced sentence.

Gee, Charlie. You really think so? [/sarcasm]

In light of what has been done to him, I think William McCaffrey showed a lot of class in his comments about the heinous shrew whose lies caused him to lose four years of his life and forced him to endure an unmentionable hell in prison. Even so, there is justifiable bitterness.

A person who would "lie and paint somebody as a rapist is worse than a real rapist or a real murderer," McCaffrey said

He also blamed "the arresting officers, the prosecution." Everyone, he said, "wanted to believe the lie, the ADA [assistant district attorney] first and foremost."

My advice to Mr. McCaffrey is this: sue everybody! Sue the city. Sue the District Attorney's office. Sue the hosebag who made the false accusation against you.

The police, in their usual fashion, latched onto a suspect and made no effort to do no more than absolutely necessary in order to continue to dine at the public trough. The ADA was only concerned with getting the win once the case was referred to him. This is true of most 21st century DAs. They couldn't care less if the person they convict is guilty or not. They just want the win.

While at first glance it is something of a feel good story -- lying Jezzibel gets jail time, innocent man is to be freed -- there is still an inequality that screams for remedy. Why, in the name of all that is good, did the bitch only get sentenced to 1 to 3 years? She should have -- at a minimum -- served the same number of days in prison as Mr. McCaffrey endured. At. A. Minimum.

If the courts were concerned with eliminating false accusations of this kind (hint: they're not), they would have sentenced her to 10 years. That's what I would have done if I was the judge. We've got to make it clear to lowlifes like Ms. Gonzalez that robbing a man of his freedom is an offense every bit as heinous as violently assaulting his person.

Vulture Droppings - Spring cleaning

Vulture Droppings is a semi-regular feature of this blog. It's a kind of "Random Thoughts" post in which I try to quickly summarize a particularly large event or series of events. Think of it being sort of like what a vulture leaves behind after devouring a horse. You don't get the whole horse, just highly processed leftovers.

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Over the course of time, as I wade through various news items on TV and on the web, I accumulate a "to do" list of items on which I wish to comment. The only problem with that approach is that new stuff is happening all the time, so only the most pressing (or personally appealing) items actually make it into the blog.

This issue of Vulture Droppings is my attempt at Spring cleaning -- to clear out the "to do" list and start afresh.

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I had an epiphany this week.

Have you ever noticed that Earth Day falls on the day after 4/20 (or 4:20 for you stoners)? NOW Earth Day finally makes sense to me.

Hippy 1 (taking drag on joint): Dude, we should totally, like, do something, like, big.
Hippy 2 (irritated that Hippy 1 is Bogarting the joint): Like, what, man?
Hippy 1 (finally passing the joint): Like, I dunno. Maybe, like, save the Earth or something.
Hippy 2 (talking while trying to hold his breath to keep the smoke in): Dude! Like, totally!
Hippy 1 (irritated that Hippy 2 is Bogarting the joint): Dude! Let's make a special day for, like, demonstrations and action to save the Earth.
Hippy 2 (finally passing the joint): We can call it Earth Day! Let's do it! We could start today.
Hippy 1 (reaching for the Doritos): Nah, let's do it tomorrow...

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Anyone who has read this blog for more than 5 minutes knows that I L-O-V-E the 49ers. But, if this rumor is true, I'm about to be mad as hell.

Following in the path of the Detroit Lions (which is always a good idea), the 49ers are scheduled to unveil some helmet and uniform tweaks this weekend.

Tweaks? According to the rumor, the Niners are going back to the old red-white-red helmet stripe and gray facemask. Gaack! Don't get me wrong, I love the old throwback uniforms. But the bland 1960's style stripes? And the gray facemask - something I ALWAYS disliked because it made a bland helmet look even blander? Please don't be true! Please!

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Schadenfreude, sweet schadenfreude. Congressman Peter DeFazio got to experience his Frankenstein's monster first-hand.

The Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, reported that DeFazio "lost his temper" and denounced the security as "stupid" and complained to screeners that he was a member of Congress who had helped found the Transportation Security Administration. The paper said DeFazio swore and "caused a ruckus that drew extra security officers."

DeFazio told The Oregonian that he did not try to hinder the screening. He was screened at Eugene Airport, flew to Portland and then was pulled out of a passenger line boarding a flight to Washington, D.C.

And the Vulture smiled the kind of smile one associates with a vampire locked in a blood bank.

Wassumatta, DeFazio? You too good to be subjected to what the rest of us routinely experience? Your monster wasn't intended to harass the "important people", just us serfs?

I only wish they'd have done to you what they've done to other passengers who've raised a fuss. A picture of you getting tazed would have been...priceless.

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A new criminal class has emerged in Washington State.

The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under Washington state law don't work as well. Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation's strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states.

But it's not easy to get sparkling dishes when you go green.

Many people were shocked to find that products like Seventh Generation, Ecover and Trader Joe's left their dishes encrusted with food, smeared with grease and too gross to use without rewashing them by hand. The culprit was hard water, which is mineral-rich and resistant to soap.

As a result, there has been a quiet rush of Spokane-area shoppers heading east on Interstate 90 into Idaho in search of old-school suds.

Smugglers! Contraband! Cascade?!?!?

Two thoughts. First, Washington is experiencing the Law of Unintended Consequences. The quest to "save the Earth", itself a hubris-induced product of the Chris Berman Generation (the 60's Baby Boomers), keeps resulting in more and more regulations that do little to change pollution levels due to the fact that one form of pollution (in this case, phosphates) is replaced by another (the energy cost of re-washing the dirty dishes that didn't get cleaned by the "green" products).

Second, little-by-little Leviathan is making criminals of us all. People who wouldn't DREAM of committing any sort of crime that harms another person or their community are now SMUGGLERS guilty of violating Washington State law.

Criminals. Because they want clean dishes. Priceless.

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Caput Penitus Culus has been oddly silent for the past week. Maybe I wore him out...

I get the impression he's not well-liked outside of the sycophants, law fetishists, and judge-felators who frequent his site. I happened upon a post at The Plural Life where a commenter going by the name duaneh1 posted this:

In the ligher side of the news, Coram has a new friend:
http://thelurkingvulture.blogspot.com/2009/04/wiener-of-week_18.html

“Caput Penitus Culus” (latin for “head in a@@”) is Blueseys new nickname fondly given by Vulture.

He does having a winning personality, that Culus.

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Okay, the "to do" list is officially cleaned up. Whew! A Vulture's work is never done!

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Wiener of the Week

George W. Bush -- King George the Dim -- is destined to be the charter member of the Wiener Hall of Fame. But before he receives that dishonor, he needs to be named as WotW yet again.

What did he do this time? It's not so much what he did, which was the right thing -- freeing two border patrol agents from prison who were scapegoated convicted of the high crime of doing their jobs as agents charged with protecting America's borders. It's how he did it.

Bush didn't pardon the men for their crimes, but decided instead to commute their prison sentences because he believed they were excessive and that they had already suffered the loss of their jobs, freedom and reputations, a senior administration official said.

The action by the president, who believes the border agents received fair trials and that the verdicts were just, does not diminish the seriousness of their crimes, the official said.

Fair trials? Just verdicts? Bullshit! Those two guys were railroaded to placate Mexico, nothing more, nothing less.

What a colossal a-hole Bush is! And he's the Wiener of the Week.

Piracy Update

Piracy in the area around the Horn of Africa is back in the news. It seems that the United States Navy is planning to join the fight after all. Well, sort of.

A new international naval force under American command will soon begin patrols to confront escalating attacks by Somali pirates after more than 100 ships came under siege in the past year, the U.S. Navy said Thursday.

But the mission—expected to begin operations next week—appears more of an attempt to sharpen the military focus against piracy rather than a signal of expanded offensives across one of the world's most crucial shipping lanes.

The force will carry no wider authority to strike at pirate vessels at sea or specific mandates to move against havens on shore—which some maritime experts believe is necessary to weaken the pirate gangs that have taken control of dozens of cargo vessels and an oil tanker.

Typical. Too little. Too late. Too toothless. The Somalis are quaking in their boots.

Not to worry, though. The Somali pirates have released the oil supertanker they hijacked late last Fall. Of course, it took a substantial ransom to accomplish the vessel's return.

But, in what can only be deemed an amazing bit of irony, some of the pirates won't get to enjoy their ill-gotten booty because they're dead.

Five Somali pirates drowned when a wave washed off their getaway boat as they squabbled over over how to split their $3 million ransom.

Ah, sweet schadenfreude!

Sheila Dixon's Vultures come home to roost

If you know the Vulture, you know that I love schadenfreude almost as much as life itself. Please don't misunderstand -- when I say 'schadenfreude', I specifically refer to the suffering of pretentious a-holes who desperately NEED to suffer.

Mayor Sheila Dixon of Baltimore (pronounced "Bawlmer" in these parts) is one of those pretentious a-holes.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila A. Dixon was charged today with 12 counts of felony theft, perjury, fraud and misconduct in office, becoming the city's first sitting mayor to be criminally indicted.

The case stems in part from at least $15,348 in gifts Dixon allegedly received from her former boyfriend, prominent city developer Ronald H. Lipscomb, while she was City Council president. She also is accused of using as much as $3,400 in gift cards, some donated to her office for distribution to "needy families," to purchase Best Buy electronics and other items for herself and her staff.

Stealing gift cards intended for the poor. Man, if that isn't the essence of 'pretentious a-hole who desperately NEEDS to suffer', I don't know what is.

But who's really surprised? This sort of pillaging and looting are ALWAYS the end result of one-party rule. Baltimore hasn't elected anyone but Democrats for any city office since....well, not in the 20+ years I've lived here, that's for sure. Maybe since Reconstruction - who knows?

Of course, as we've seen with the "recount" situation in Minnesota, when "justice" is administered by the corrupt, you can never be sure of the outcome...

Wiener of the Week

Whereas last week was the perfect example of a no-brainer WotW, this week is the complete opposite. There really is no clear-cut wiener. I suppose this clown will have to do.

Note to criminals: Do not lie to police about your name when your surname is tattooed on your neck.

Darnell L. Frazier, 25, did just that ... uh, well, he tried to do just that early Thursday on St. Paul's East Side.

According to the police report, an officer stopped two men walking in the street at Forest Street and Minnehaha Avenue. One was "evasive" about his identification, telling the officer he had never had a photo ID. He said his name was Darnell Lewis, spokesman Peter Panos said.

The officer, however, noticed that the man had "Frazier" tattooed on his neck.

Frazier was arrested on four misdemeanor warrants, including driving after license revocation, driving after suspension and no proof of insurance.

He also had at least two felony warrants for his arrest: a probation violation in Jackson County for bringing a stolen vehicle into Minnesota and a failure to appear in Hennepin County on a drug charge.

Being stupid isn't a crime. But it's not exactly a handy trait, especially for a criminal trying to be "evasive" about his identification.

So "Frazier", you're the Wiener of the Week.

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Only two more shopping days remain before I name the Wiener of the Year. Shop early, shop often.

Pirates!

xfloggingkylex wrote in a couple of weeks ago about the situation in the seas around the Horn of Africa.

WTF?? Why would you raid and capture an oil tanker knowing what the US will do for oil (and for Saudi Arabia).

Pirates! In Somalia? What the deuce are Willie Stargell, Manny Sanguillen, Doc Ellis, and Steve Blass doing in Somalia hijacking oil tankers? What's that? Wrong kind of pirates? Boy is my face red! Let me try again.

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Pirates! In Somalia? What the deuce? Why are Blackbeard, Bluebeard, RedBeard and all of the other "beards" sailing their cutters from the Caribbean all the way to the Horn of Africa? What's that? Wrong again? Sheesh! Red-faced again. Let me try one more time, but before I do, I have some questions. Why were the famous real and literary pirates of the 18th century referred to by the color of their beards? And does this mean that, were I to become a pirate, I would be hung with the moniker "Graybeard"?

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Pirates! In Somalia? You bet.

This isn't some new and obscure problem. Piracy in the area of North Africa goes back to Roman Times. The famous line from the Marine Hymn "to the shores of Tripoli" refers to a US military action ordered by President Thomas Jefferson against Barbary pirates in 1803. Most of the piracy was historically located in the Mediterranean, due to greater shipping activity in that region. But lax antipiracy enforcement around the Horn of Africa has made piracy much more lucrative in that area and with less likelihood of interdiction.

Somali pirates have become more brazen of late, hence xfloggingkylex's perplexed question. I mean, when you've moved from common merchant ships to oil supertankers, you're obviously upping the ante. Pirates took 9 ships in 12 days during one stretch. But no one has done jack to stop this reign of terror.

And who would do it, anyway? The US? Don't make me laugh! Our navy is designed for re-fighting World War II - what're we going to do, send an aircraft carrier or battleship to stop the piracy? Besides, we're broke, our military is overextended, and it really doesn't impact US interests all that much, the oil tanker notwithstanding.

What about England? If any country is known for naval supremacy, it's England. Not happening. England has Iraq war fatigue - they're not going to lift a finger on this one.

Fortunately, one great nation is preparing to take on these pirates - China. While the Chinese may seem like an ideal country to fight this battle, given that country's size and natural belicosity, the fact is that the Chinese navy hasn't done much more than play Coast Guard since the 15th Century. I'm really hoping the Chinese take on this antipiracy action. It could be one of the more entertaining examples of Keystone Kops naval tactics ever witnessed.

King George's bailout

What the Senate rightly refused to do, King George the Dim has done.

The Bush administration said it would lend $17.4 billion to General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, buying them a few weeks of financial relief but leaving the biggest decisions about the industry's future to President-elect Barack Obama.

Good old King George! If ever there was a president (besides Lincoln) who acted as if he were the Emperor, it's old Georgie. I could be wrong, but I don't believe the Constitution grants the president any authority whatsoever to spend so much as one dime from the public treasury on anything, let alone bailouts. Did I miss something? Was the Constitution amended whilst I slept?

At least Ford had the common decency to decline King George's largess.

There are at least three things about this illegal and immoral act that I have issue with.

1. If there was previously any doubt as to the advent of the dictatorial presidency, they're surely gone now! King George has established a precedent - now His Holiness, King Obama, will have carte blanche to take whatever extra-Constitutional actions he so desires. Thanks, asshat!

2. These "poor" automakers are in such desperate straights! Yet that didn't stop them from spending $50 million dollars lobbying Congress during the past year! Nor from paying even more than that in salaries and bonuses to the clowns who put them into peril with their herd mentality decision making.

3. A pattern has been established. The House votes in favor of something the administration wants but the will of the people opposes. The Senate votes down the steaming pile of legislation. Then the President swoops in and mandates via fiat that what would have been the result of said steaming pile shall be so.

We're no long a Republic. Nor are we a representative democracy. We are a country by the wealthy and connected, for the wealthy and connected, against the non-wealthy and non-connected. We are Amerika!

Corruption! In Chicago!

In what surely has to qualify as a 'dog bites man' story, the Governor of Illinois has been arrested for, among other infractions, soliciting bribes from candidates for Barack Obama's old Senate seat.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been taken into federal custody, accused of putting Barack Obama's Senate seat up to the highest bidder and attempting to shake down the Tribune Co. on the sale of Wrigley Field.

The charges also include alleged attempts by the governor to influence the Tribune editorial board, threatening, that if the Tribune didn’t support him, he wouldn’t approve the sale of Wrigley Field.

The complaint contends Blagojevich, a Democrat, threatened to withhold substantial state assistance to the Tribune Co. in connection with the sale of Wrigley to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members critical of Blagojevich.

The governor is also accused of obtaining campaign contributions in exchange for official actions — in the past and recently in a push before a new state ethics law takes effect Jan. 1.

I'm so very shocked that something like this could happen in Chicago. [/sarcasm]

Apparently, part of the Governor's shakedown even involved putting the screws to King-elect Obama.

In one charge related to the appointment of a senator to replace Barack Obama, prosecutors allege that Blagojevich sought appointment for himself as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the new Obama administration, or a lucrative job with a union, in exchange for appointing a union-preferred candidate.

Some things never change. Pigs will wallow in their sties. Vultures will lurk, snack on tasty carrion, and soak up as much schadenfreude as possible. And Chicago politicians will wallow in shady company while perfecting the art of corruption.

Surely this guy gets some consideration for Wiener of the Year, right?

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Before anyone posts a comment calling me an asshat because "the capital of Illinois is Springfield, not Chicago, dumbass!", stop now. I am fully aware of that. The Chicago connection is still there for this Governor, whose corrupt style of operation dates back to his time as a local politician in the Second City. So there!

Making criminals of us all

In a recent post I casually mentioned a phenomenon that gets very little attention anywhere. In fact, the only other person I've heard mention it before is Ron Smith of WBAL in Baltimore. The phenomenon of which I speak is the passage of laws and regulations by Congress that are so vague you could drive a truck through the gaps. These vague laws are then passed to some faceless bureaucracy to implement. Hilarity ensues.

You'd be surprised at how much of our "law" has been implemented by turf-hungry careerist bureaucrats. Let me lay it out for you.

Congress passes the National Everyone Must Be Happy Act. Just as one would expect from the title of the Act, it's more vague than a mime with ADD. There aren't any details to speak of. Just "be happy, damn it!".

The Department of Feel Good is created to enforce this Act. "Happy" Czar C. Brazen Hubris tasks his department heads to define the policy and the definitions of what "compliance" is, the better to reward those who comply and punish those who don't. When their "little" document is finalized (at around 1,300 pages), the "law" resulting from the Act is now complete. Regardless of the intent of the sponsors of the original bill, the law, as implemented, may be 180 degrees different from that intent.

As a result of this little game, Congress get credit for passing "magnificent" bills like the Americans with Disabilities Act, No Child Left Behind, and, of course, the Assault Weapons ban. Note the resultant success of each of these Acts (/sarcasm).

It is the Assault Weapons ban that comes into play here. Of all the federal black hole gawd-awful agencies that could implement this steaming turd of legislative nonsense, it fell to the very worst - the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF). ATF seems to be the place where the very worst of schoolyard bullies eventually end up working. ATF would just LOVE to make criminals out of every gun owner in America. Think I'm kidding? You'll be of a different mind after reading this.

Savage's dispute with the federal agency stems from a recent project for which he sent a gun part he is developing to the federal government for review.

The part is intended to allow a certain type of gun to be used with a different size and less expensive ammunition. Savage, owner of Historic Arms LLC., said his part would convert the caliber of the guns to operate with ammunition that costs 1 or 2 cents per shell, instead of 25 cents or more.

He said such devices are fairly common. But he told WND he was stunned to get a letter from the BATFE stating that not only was his repair part a gun, it was a machine gun.

That conclusion came after the agency's testing bureau added some metal pieces, a length of chain, some duct tape and plastic wires to his gun part in order to make it fire a bullet.

Okay, follow me here. Dude invents an add-on part to allow guns to fire cheaper ammunition (great for target practice). ATF puts McIver to work on the gun and part. McIver creates a machine gun. Now dude is a criminal...just because some whiz kid could take additional parts never intended for use with either the gun nor the add-on part and rig a machine gun.

It gets better. There's the case of a poor soul whose weapon malfunctioned and shot three bullets with one squeeze of the trigger. He's doing 30 months in Federal penitentiary as a result.

"A gun that malfunctions is not a machine gun," Larry Pratt, executive director of GOA, said. "What the [federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] has done in the Olofson case has set a precedent that could make any of the millions of Americans that own semi-automatic firearms suddenly the owner [of] an unregistered machine gun at the moment the gun malfunctions."

When U.S. District Judge Charles Clevert imposed the sentence, a commentary in Guns Magazine said, "It didn't matter the rifle in question had not been intentionally modified for select fire, or that it did not have an M16 bolt carrier … that it did not show any signs of machining or drilling, or that that model had even been recalled a few years back.

"It didn't matter the government had repeatedly failed to replicate automatic fire until they replaced the ammunition with a softer primer type. It didn't even matter that the prosecution admitted it was not important to prove the gun would do it again if the test were conducted today," the magazine said. "What mattered was the government's position that none of the above was relevant because '[T]here's no indication it makes any difference under the statute. If you pull the trigger once and it fires more than one round, no matter what the cause it's a machine gun.' No matter what the cause."

No matter what the cause.

Do you still think I'm exaggerating when I say they're trying to make criminals of us all?

Big Brother? Fugedaboutit!

One of the things that made Stalin's little workers' paradise such as swell place to live (/sarcasm) was never knowing who might be watching you. Anyone -- your best friend, your wife, your children -- might report you to the NKVD (the People's Comissariat for Internal Affairs) for any action that might be deemed a "crime" against государство (Russian for "der Staat"). Everyone was encouraged to spy and report on everyone else. It was your patriotic duty.

Fast forward to the 21st century. Stalin and the Soviet Union are dead and gone...but the totalitarian mindset lives on in New York City.

New Yorkers can soon take a bite out of city crime by uploading video or photo evidence directly to the New York Police Department, in a move welcomed on Thursday by civil rights groups.

"We're putting that technology in place to enable us to do that," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, adding that the service will be available soon.

"It's a fact of life," Kelly said. "Everybody has a camera in their telephones. When people can record an event taking place that helps us during an investigation, it's helpful."

Soon citizen sleuths can transmit evidence of criminal activity directly to the police and 911...

Of course, the Fascists are selling it as a way for citizens to "stop crime", even "including evidence of police misconduct".

Let's call a spade a spade, shall we?

This is nothing by a thinly veiled attempt to get the citizenry used to ratting out their fellow man. It's 21st century Stalinism, right here in that glorious People's Republic, the USSA.

The sheeple love it.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union said, "I think...it's appropriate for the police department to invite video reports of wrong doing both by ordinary people and police officers...

Of course you do. Moron.

As more and more laws are passed that seem designed to make a criminal of everyone rather than protect the common good, this sort of "spies among us" mentality will be a most useful tool to the elite in keeping the disgruntled in line.

Parsons is arrested for thoughtcrime because of his little daughter. She listens at the keyhole, hears him saying, "down with Big Brother" in his sleep and runs to get a patrol. Parsons is actually proud of her for this; he was completely unconscious and unaware of doing anything of the kind, and thinks that it is terrible that he could have unknowingly harbored these evil thoughts. He says that when he goes up against the tribunal he plans to thank them for saving him before it was too late.

From 1984 by George Orwell