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var TPApp = {}; TPApp.app_uri = "http://www.typepad.com/"; Fables of the reconstruction Sen. Reid's Wife and Daughter Seriously Injured in Crash Area Woman Supports Jihad, Is Idiot Cops Tracked Sprint Customers' Locations 8 Million Times in 1 Year Local Programming: Support These Philly Beer Bars Grind Exceeding Fine Most of the Ones Who Voted for Him, Anyway A Tale of Two Blogs Blogger Jon Swift Dead Sick as a Dog I-95 2010: May 2 Frank on Local Programming: Support These Philly Beer Bars PennyDreadful on Sick as a Dog zenpundit on Sen. Dodd's Proposed Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United Goes Way Too Far Mithras on Sen. Dodd's Proposed Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United Goes Way Too Far 40yrs.blogspot.com on Sen. Dodd's Proposed Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United Goes Way Too Far Matthew G. Saroff on So What's Up in Lower Merion School District? Matthew G. Saroff on So What's Up in Lower Merion School District? Barry on Text Me, Email if Text is Too Short, Don't Call Unless Someone's Dead, And For Fuck's Sake Don't Leave Me a Voicemail No Matter What Mithras on Text Me, Email if Text is Too Short, Don't Call Unless Someone's Dead, And For Fuck's Sake Don't Leave Me a Voicemail No Matter What bartkid on Text Me, Email if Text is Too Short, Don't Call Unless Someone's Dead, And For Fuck's Sake Don't Leave Me a Voicemail No Matter What Chemicals Current Affairs Food and Drink Fucking and related Games Law-talking guy Music Piteous Political Religion Republican reprehensibilities Science Stupid people Travel War Web/Tech Weblogs Whatever Words, words, words March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 More... Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Blog powered by TypePad Member since 08/2003 Subscribe to this blog's feed Add me to your TypePad People list
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     Sen. Reid's Wife and Daughter Seriously Injured in Crash What a nightmare this would be for anyone with a partner or children: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's wife and daughter were being treated in a hospital Thursday for serious injuries they sustained when their vehicle was rear-ended by a truck, a spokesman said. Reid's wife, Landra, 69, broke her back and neck in the accident, Reid spokesman Jim Manley said. She and the couple's adult daughter, Lana, were being treated at Inova Fairfax Hospital in suburban Virginia. Neither woman's injuries appeared to be life-threatening, Manley said. ''While driving on a Washington, D.C., highway, their vehicle was rear-ended by a semi-truck,'' Manley said in a statement.
''Mrs. Reid has a broken nose, broken back and broken neck. Lana has a neck injury and facial lacerations. Both Mrs. Reid and Lana are conscious, can feel their extremities, and according to doctors their injuries are non-life threatening,'' Manley said. ''Sen. Reid has been to the hospital and appreciates the support he and his family are receiving from Nevadans and his colleagues in the Senate.'' And of course he can't just stay at the hospital; he had to then go back to work. If I were him, I couldn't concentrate. Posted by Mithras on March 11, 2010 at 07:23 PM in Piteous | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Area Woman Supports Jihad, Is Idiot Jihad Jane? More like Margaret Mitty: A woman from Montgomery County who used the online nickname of
"JihadJane" has been indicted for conspiring to provide support to
Islamic terrorists with whom she allegedly plotted to kill a Swedish
artist.Prosecutors accused Colleen R. LaRose, 46, of
offering to use her American looks and identity to help foreign
terrorists. She was arrested last October but her incarceration was
kept secret until today.
American and foreign government used the time to sweep up a terrorist
network in Ireland, according to news media in that country. The Irish
Times said seven men, most from other nations, were arrested as part of a
plot to murder a Swedish cartoonist who drew controversial images of
the Prophet Muhammad.I also like the fact that Ms. LaRose's other alias was "Fatima LaRose". Nothing like using your own name as your cover. Easier to remember that way.Whether I am right or not about her being just a thrill-seeker, she's going byebye for a long time. Enjoy federal prison, Coll.Update: Here again is the evil supervillian, disguising herself in the most cunning manner possible: How did they catch her? Nice animal print, by the way. Isn't that haraam, though? I'm not even going to ask about the eyebrows. As much as I want to. Cruella. Posted by Mithras on March 09, 2010 at 05:09 PM in Stupid people | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Cops Tracked Sprint Customers' Locations 8 Million Times in 1 Year ACLU:At a security and surveillance conference a few months ago, the Sprint
electronic surveillance manager admitted that law enforcement was
making such extensive use of [the cell phone tracking capability] that
Sprint had set up essentially a Web portal for law enforcement to go
to, to ping cell phones to find their location based on GPS. He said
that that website had been used eight million times over a one-year
period.Yikes. Posted by Mithras on March 08, 2010 at 09:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Local Programming: Support These Philly Beer Bars Pennsylvania's autocratic liquor laws in action:Based on a complaint from someone the State Police refuse to identify,
three teams of officers converged last Thursday on the three bars, run
by Leigh Maida and her husband, Brendan Hartranft. Checking their
inventories against the state's official list of more than 2,800 brands,
the cops seized four kegs and 317 bottles, totaling 60.9 gallons of
beer, according to police calculations.First, the state requires beer sellers to register their offerings by name by paying a $75 fee. There is nothing done to justify the registration; it only exists to raise revenue.Second, more than half the beer seized by the State Police were actually on the approved list, but clerical errors and laziness on the part of the authorities meant is was confiscated anyway.Third, the beers confiscated are sold all over town, and all over the state, but a complaint by an anonymous individual (read: well-connected competitor) resulted in this couple's three great bars being raided.My response was to run right out and have dinner at Resurrection Ale House. I recommend you pick one of the three places and give them your business: Resurrection Ale House, at 2425 Grays Ferry Ave.; Local 44, at 44th and
Spruce streets, in West Philadelphia; and Memphis Taproom, 2331 E.
Cumberland St., Port Richmond. Posted by Mithras on March 08, 2010 at 01:02 PM in Food and Drink, Political, Stupid people | Permalink | Comments (1) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Grind Exceeding Fine A incisive argument via illustration about the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad by taddy porter at bitch's place:Let me explain with a little story about my friend T-.T- is a
working man in his late 40's, a father with three kids. He lives on the
north side of Milwaukee, with wife and kiddies in a well maintained
brick house in the working class neighborhood of Sherman Park.To
maintain home and hearth and feed three healthy teen agers, T- works
more jobs than you can count.He has a first shift job in a
stamping plant on Milwaukee's South Side. After that, he goes to work
cleaning offices in downtown Milwaukee. He runs a big floor buffing
machine, looks kind of like a zamboni. He does this until 10 or 11 at
night.On weekends, he works at any number of sidelines. He has a
snow plowing business. He details cars. He drives taxi. He cleans beer
lines (a very lucrative craft, I might add). He mows lawns and does
landscaping.The point is, he is a solid citizen and works all
the damned time.In mid-January, there was a big snowfall in
Milwaukee. To T-, that's money in the bank. Around midnight of a Friday,
he was sitting in the cab of his Ford F-250, idling at the curb in
front of his house, waiting for his helper to show up so he could get
started plowing out his clients.While he waited, he blew himself
a big spliff.At the psychological moment, an MPD TAC Squad
cruiser rolled by. The TAC Squad are the heavies for the organs of
public security in Milwaukee. They patrol the city late night to
suppress threats to the public order. They observed a nimbo-cumulus
cloud emerge from the passenger side of T-'s pickup and investigated.The
upshot was that T- was busted for smoking a joint.The TAC squad
lads bundled him into the back seat of the cruiser, wedged between a
beefy Polish sergeant on one side and a beefy African-American sergeant
on the other. For hours they drove him all over the county while they
tried to persuade him to fall in with their plans as follows: they
wanted him to make some crack buys for them. At the end of their shift,
they would pay him $1000 for his troubles and release him without a
stain on his character. It was their assumption, I guess, that any Black
person knows where to buy crack. T- is Black and, so, ipso facto, just
the man for the job. T- declined to participate. First, he knew
the offer of $1000 was bullshit. Second, he had no fucking idea where
to buy crack. He's a working man. Third, he would not have gotten
involved even if he did. These crack dealers tend to be bad hombres and
its a smart fellow that steers clear of them.None of this made
the least impression on the TAC squad boys. They rode him around till
sunup, denying him any contact with his family. In the morning, they
took him to jail.He did not see a magistrate until Monday
morning. When he was brought before his honor, it turned out there was
no charge or, at least, no charge paperwork, so he was released.The
point of this amusing anecdote is that, for working people, the
requirements of the 14th amendment and other pertinent protocols are
more often honored in the breach than as a matter of routine. So we
don't appreciate being lectured by Mrs Greenspan and Chris Matthews and
the rest of the millionaire gasbags on how the minions of the law are
tied down like Gulliver by the uncallused wonder that is American
justice.Law enforcement will find a way to make its case, don't
even trip. If they would go to those lengths with my friend just to turn
over a few penny ante drug-dealers, imagine the schemes they can employ
to convict Snuffy Smith. I mean KSM.We got him. He's not going
anywhere.The idea is to punish him, not the Constitution. That's some fine snark, right there. Posted by Mithras on March 07, 2010 at 10:26 PM in Law-talking guy | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Most of the Ones Who Voted for Him, Anyway 
(Via P6.) Posted by Mithras on March 03, 2010 at 10:48 PM in Whatever | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us A Tale of Two Blogs Love wins, bigots fume. Posted by Mithras on March 03, 2010 at 04:51 PM in Political, Republican reprehensibilities, Stupid people | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Blogger Jon Swift Dead Shit.(Via Kevin K.) Posted by Mithras on March 03, 2010 at 02:16 PM in Piteous | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Sick as a Dog Home with the croup, so here are some dogs in slow motion.
Posted by Mithras on March 02, 2010 at 03:24 PM in Piteous | Permalink | Comments (1) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us I-95 2010: May 2 Save the date.
 Posted by Mithras on March 01, 2010 at 10:42 PM in Words, words, words | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Local Programming: Drinking Coffee Liberally in Mt. Airy Tomorrow Sunday, February 28th, 12:30-2:30 p.m.
Drinking (Coffee) Liberally Mt. Airy
Mt.
Airy Drinking Liberally meets every Sunday at Infusion Coffee +
Tea (7133
Germantown Ave.), from 12:30 until 2:30 PM.About UsDrinking Liberally is a
project of Living Liberally, a
nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which builds progressive community
through social networks and events. Founded in 2003, Living Liberally
has 347 chapters across the country. The Center City Philadelphia
chapter of DL was started during the 2004 election and has met every
Tuesday night since. Posted by Mithras on February 27, 2010 at 01:01 PM in Food and Drink, Political | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us No Wonder It's Dark
(Via Cyn.) Posted by Mithras on February 27, 2010 at 03:33 AM in Whatever | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Haitian Christians Stone Voodoo Worshippers Holding Ceremony Pictures here. Posted by Mithras on February 26, 2010 at 12:49 PM in Piteous, Stupid people | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Sen. Dodd's Proposed Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United Goes Way Too Far I was really curious when I saw Dan Tokaji's blurb that Chris Dodd had introduced a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision. (See here, here, here and here.) I wondered how Dodd would handle the balance between free speech and maintaining the integrity of elections. I got quite a shock:
SECTION 1. Congress shall have power to regulate the raising and spending of money with respect to Federal elections, including through setting limits on (1) the amount of contributions to candidates for nomination for election to, or for election to, Federal office; and (2) the amount of expenditures that may be made by, in support of, or in opposition to such candidates. SECTION 2. A State shall have power to regulate the raising and spending of money with respect to State elections, including through setting limits on (1) the amount of contributions to candidates for nomination for election to, or for election to, State office; and (2) the amount of expenditures that may be made by, in support of, or in opposition to such candidates. SECTION 3. Congress shall have power to implement and enforce this article by appropriate legislation.. This amendment, if adopted, would mean that Congress and the states would have unchecked power to regulate "the amount of expenditures that may be made ... in support of or in opposition to" a candidate by anyone. That language doesn't apply to just corporations, it applies to real people. The power it grants to government is ludicrously over-broad. As written, the amendment would allow the government to completely ban all election-related speech that involved an expenditure of money, such as operating a blog or printing leaflets. In fact, the government could ban all election-related fundraising, meaning that it could prohibit you from even soliciting donations for your favorite advocacy organization.The net effect of this amendment is not to overturn Citizens United; it's to overturn every campaign-finance decision on the books and replace it with absolute governmental authority over election-related speech. I'm appalled that Sen. Dodd would even have proposed it. No one in their right mind should support it. Posted by Mithras on February 25, 2010 at 09:30 PM in Law-talking guy, Political | Permalink | Comments (3) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Text Me, Email if Text is Too Short, Don't Call Unless Someone's Dead, And For Fuck's Sake Don't Leave Me a Voicemail No Matter What 1o Reasons to Avoid Talking on the Phone.
 Posted by Mithras on February 25, 2010 at 09:09 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (3) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Pennsylvania Appellate Court Overturns Anti-Gay Precedent in Child Custody Case Good:A Pennsylvania appellate court has rejected a 25-year-old legal
precedent and ruled that a parent's homosexual relationship cannot be
used against the parent in determining child custody. ...
It also reversed the lower-court ruling that awarded the father primary
custody of their daughter, and granted the appeal of the mother, who is
gay, to continue shared custody.
In doing so, the judges overruled a 1985 Superior Court decision that
said a parent must prove that his or her gay relationship is not
detrimental to the child.
That presumption "is based upon unsupported preconceptions and
prejudices - including that the sexual orientation of a parent will have
an adverse effect on the child, and that the traditional heterosexual
household is superior to that of the household of a parent involved in a
same sex relationship," Judge Christine Donohue wrote in the Jan. 21
opinion. [The 1985 ruling that was overturned rejected the idea that a] "homosexual
relationship could ever be the equal of the traditional family as a
suitable family arrangement, and indicated that it was 'inconceivable'
that a child could be exposed to a homosexual relationship 'and not
suffer some emotional disturbance, perhaps severe,' " Donohue wrote. Posted by Mithras on February 25, 2010 at 08:41 AM in Law-talking guy | Permalink | Comments (1) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Lower Merion School District Family That's Suing Has Litigious, Debt-Ridden History This is a lot of inadmissible evidence with a couple of exceptions:[The Robbins family] lived in a $986,000 house on the Main Line. [Mr. Robbins], until
recently, had earned well more than $100,000 per year. Yet he and his
wife were in hock to creditors, ranging from Uncle Sam to their former
synagogue - and had regularly been stiffing Peco Energy for five years,
breaking payment plan after payment plan.They repeatedly appealed "unpaid electric and gas bills that by
last year were closing in on $30,000" to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. It was the second largest unpaid utility bill in Peco history. They paid off half of it just last week. In addition to the Peco debt, the PUC noted, the Robbinses had been hit
with numerous civil judgments in recent years totaling more than
$365,000.They're into the IRS for $62,692. Even their current lawyer has had to sue them for payment in the past.[I]t was the apparent failure to pay a fee - a $55 insurance payment to
permit the Robbinses' son Blake to take his laptop home from Harriton
High School - that might have prompted the district to activate the Web
cam.Ah. That doesn't change the legal issues surrounding (a) not notifying parents and students of the monitoring or (b) whether Harriton High officials used the picture taken for disciplinary purposes outside of the authorized removal of the laptop. But, if true, it could dispose of the accusation that the camera was turned on simply to monitor student behavior.So, they're spendthrifts with a sense of entitlement seeking to hit a jackpot suing their son's high school, right? Maybe, maybe not. Mr. Robbins' is also suing his former employer for unpaid commissions - he was a salesman - of $5 million. It's possible that the claim is bogus and just of a piece with the rest. It's also possible that the employer really did screw him and the family's distressed state is the result of that, and it has nothing to do with the lawsuit against Lower Merion School District. The problem with the second version is that they racked up their debts well before Mr. Robbins lost his old job. If there is no objective evidence that the school officials were using the picture for disciplinary purposes and it comes down to the family's testimony versus the vice principal's, then I think the existence of the debts could be used to impeach the Robbinses' credibility. However, the core of the case is that the monitoring program existed and was used without notification. None of these revelations affects that issue, as far as I can tell. Posted by Mithras on February 25, 2010 at 08:32 AM in Law-talking guy | Permalink | Comments (2) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us 12.5" Fuck.
 Fuck.
The storm is forecast to become a potent and peculiar nor'easter that
will become a "bomb" off the Jersey coast. It will take a bizarre path,
paralleling the coast and then jogging inland near New York City and
remaining stationary.
"I haven't seen anything like it," said Greg Heavener, a meteorologist
at the weather service's Mount Holly office.
When the storm peaks later tomorrow and tomorrow night, it is expected
to hammer the region with long-lasting and powerful winds, with gusts up
to 50 m.p.h. not out of the question, said Henry Margusity, a
meteorologist with Accu-Weather Inc. Posted by Mithras on February 24, 2010 at 11:06 PM in Piteous | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us So What's Up in Lower Merion School District? Jeffrey Billman at the clog:Matsko may well be scapegoated here; I don't mean to imply that she did
something shady, because I really have no idea what's going on. I mean,
seriously: No school official could be cavalier or dumb enough to think
they could spy on kids and no one would ever be the wiser, right? I
doubt it. But these stories aren't adding up. If the school district
can come out and say that Blake Robbins is lying, why hasn't it done so?
In lawsuits, people categorically deny charges all the time; it's not
unusual or improper.My take is that the school district, which is the actual defendant in the case, doesn't know what its employees at Harriton High did or did not do. So the district can't issue an unequivocal denial until it finds out the truth. But the employees in question - like Matsko - are probably lawyering up themselves and trying to keep themselves from being sued or imprisoned (since there may have been multiple felonies committed here). And the school district doesn't want to cut Matsko and friends loose too soon, because (a) that's a tacit admission of culpability that the district will ultimately be financially responsible for and (b) if they ax Matsko and it turns out she's innocent, then she can sue them. So they wait for discovery to roll out, and see what people say when they're under oath.My total guess is that Matsko is lying through her teeth in a last-ditch attempt to brazen it out. Her passionate performance reading a prepared statement made me think, "The lady doth protest too much." Posted by Mithras on February 24, 2010 at 05:56 PM in Law-talking guy | Permalink | Comments (2) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Cheez Whiz Jim's Steaks, 10 p.m. Posted by Mithras on February 23, 2010 at 11:50 PM in Food and Drink | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Local Programming: Drinking Liberally Center City Tonight @ Triumph Brewing Tuesday, February 23rd, 6 - 9 p.m.
Drinking
Liberally Center City
Center City DL meets from 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. every Tuesday at the
downstairs platform bar of Triumph Brewing Co.,
located at 117
Chestnut St. (between Front and 2nd Streets), Philadelphia, PA
19106. There are $3 beers, $4 wine, $5 well drinks all night as well as
happy hour food specials including half-price burgers. Triumph Brewery
is conveniently SEPTA-accessible.Join the Shooting Liberally Philadelphia Facebook Group
Like shooting or want to learn how to handle a gun? Shooting Liberally
Philly meets about once a month to shoot at a center city range. Sign up
for the Facebook group here to
get announcements about future events, see pictures
from prior outings, and participate in the discussion.Send In Your Event Suggestions
Like all civic-minded liberals, we're here to promote democracy and
citizen engagement in the political process, especially if there is beer
involved. Whether it is or not, forward any area events for the week to
the
Philly DL organizer by Sunday to have them included in the weekly
email.Help Us Promote DL
Spread the word to your liberal friends to sign up
for a group of like-minded people who get together every week to have
fun and talk about what's happening in progressive politics right now.
Please forward this email to those who might be interested in coming out
and Drinking Liberally.About UsDrinking Liberally is a
project of Living Liberally, a
nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which builds progressive community
through social networks and events. Founded in 2003, Living Liberally
has 347 chapters across the country. The Center City Philadelphia
chapter of DL was started during the 2004 election and has met every
Tuesday night since. Posted by Mithras on February 23, 2010 at 02:59 AM in Food and Drink, Political | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Earth Tones and Teleprompters The point of rightwing zombie lies like "Obama can't talk without a teleprompter" (despite vivid evidence to the contrary) is, as Duncan says, to provide a hook for "journalists" to base their stories on. But to be effective, the lie has to join up with some widely-accepted public perception of the person being lied about. In Al Gore's case, people were prepared to believe that he was a wimpy tree-hugger who had to consult with a woman on what clothes to wear. But what are the rightwingers trying to say about Obama? That he's not as smart as he seems? Or that he's inauthentic, scripted, rigid? Maybe both. Look for clues in future lies and talking points. Posted by Mithras on February 19, 2010 at 05:12 PM in Political, Republican reprehensibilities | Permalink | Comments (2) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us So Real It's Fake If you had asked me how much of the outdoor shots on TV were faked, I wouldn't have guessed 100%:
Posted by Mithras on February 18, 2010 at 12:59 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Dirty Fucking Hippie Field Trip A bunch of liberal bloggers met with Biden's chief economist at the White House to talk about the stimulus. Looking at this picture closely, I had to laugh: Which one of these things is not like the other? Answer under the cut.
Continue reading "Dirty Fucking Hippie Field Trip" » Posted by Mithras on February 18, 2010 at 09:06 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (2) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Philly-Area School District Remotely Activating Webcams to Spy on Students at Home This is almost too bad to be believed:According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School
District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the
well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by
the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on
students and even their families. The issue came to light when the
Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and
the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The
suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with
these machines. According to the complaint (pdf), the district has issued a laptop to all students and never informed them that the webcams could be activated remotely. The suit alleges violations of state and federal law. This is a civil suit, but wiretapping is also a crime under both state and federal law. If the allegations are true, someone's going to jail. Posted by Mithras on February 18, 2010 at 08:49 AM in Law-talking guy, Stupid people | Permalink | Comments (2) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Seems Like a Lot of Effort to Kill One Guy Back on January 19th, a senior Hamas leader went to Dubai and was found dead in his hotel room within a few hours of arriving in the country. Those are the agreed-upon facts. Everything else is disputed.
Dubai's police chief says that an 11-person assassination team killed him and that there is surveillance video showing them in action. (Nothing graphic.) Assuming that's what they are, it's pretty interesting to see these people walking around trying to act normally before, during and after the murder. The extraordinary thing is how ordinary they are.
The cause of death varies, depending on who you believe. Shooting, electrocution, poisoning and suffocation are all mentioned.
The victim is said to have a security detail but they were left behind because there wasn't enough room on the plane. And Dubai apparently didn't have anyone to cover him. That's just weird if he is who they say he is.
The assassins - if that's what they were - traveled mainly on British and Irish passports. Several of the passports were in the names of British citizens who live in Israel. That plus the fact the victim was Hamas clearly suggests a Mossad operation. Indeed, Israelis were initially cheering the Mossad chief when the murder first occurred. But now since the video came out and the allegation of the forged British and Irish passports was released, not so much:The initial nods, winks and pats on the back here over the assassination last month of a senior Hamas official in Dubai are turning to puzzlement and concern as mounting evidence, including extensive surveillance footage, points to a remarkably clumsy operation many Israelis deem unworthy of their intelligence service, Mossad.
It's remarkable to me that the Israeli public is portrayed as only being
concerned that the killers were clumsy. My guess is that this is just a case of people believing their own hype. Mossad agents aren't superheroes. In any country that had as many CCTVs as Dubai apparently has, you'd end up with pretty good video of an operation like this. They had to have figured burning all those operatives was an acceptable loss given the objective. Assuming any of this is true. Posted by Mithras on February 17, 2010 at 06:45 PM in War | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Nostalgia In a webcomic on the decline of Internet Explorer:
 Posted by Mithras on February 13, 2010 at 07:57 PM in Political | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us I Don't Get Today's xkcd A geek joke translation service: Explain xkcd. Posted by Mithras on February 11, 2010 at 12:41 PM in Whatever | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Legislator Wants to Abolish Precedent A member of the Iowa legislature, Jason Schultz, has introduced a bill:
A judicial officer shall not use judicial precedent, case law, penumbras, or international law as a basis for rulings. A judicial officer shall only use the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Iowa, and the Code of Iowa as the basis for any ruling issued by such judicial officer. The only source material that may be used for interpreting the Constitution of the United States by a judicial officer in this state shall be the Federalist papers and other writings of the founding fathers to describe the intent of the founding fathers, and if such source material is used, the full context of the source material must be used by the judicial officer. This fails for both legal and common sense reasons. First of all, application of the Supremacy Clause prohibits states from interpreting the federal constitution in any way that contradicts the interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court or the applicable Circuit Court of Appeals. (The same goes for federal statutes, which Schultz's bill neglects to mention at all.) This bill implicitly makes an absolute claim of state sovereignty and denial of the authority of the U.S. government. It amounts to a declaration of secession.Secondly, due process under both the Iowa and U.S. constitutions requires that precedent have legal weight, at least in criminal matters. If a state supreme court rules on the interpretation of a criminal law, then people in that state must be entitled to rely on that ruling in guiding their own behavior. Schultz's bill, which is nominally about making judicial decision-making less variable, actually would have the opposite effect: Every judge who considered a statute would be required to decide what that statute meant de novo. No one could ever be truly sure was legal and illegal. Which brings us to the common sense objection: Who makes decisions like this? Who reinvents the wheel every time an issue arises? It's idiotic to not consider what other people thought about any complex problem in the past when you approach a similar question. It's essentially mandated stupidity.
I know it's nutpicking, but look at the size of that nut. It's pretty big. Posted by Mithras on February 09, 2010 at 04:17 PM in Law-talking guy, Political, Stupid people | Permalink | Comments (0) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us South Carolina Requires "Subversives" to Pay $5 Registration Fee No, really:Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now
register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their
intentions -- or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.I disagree with the article when it says that this statute is "redundant" with current laws against terrorism. Advocating mass murder is not the same as committing it - advocating it is protected free speech. The article equates the law with those which imposes a tax on the proceeds of crime, but again, one has to commit a crime to profit from it. This statute is unconstitutional on its face.While clearly aimed at brown people, the article raises the obvious question:While the intention of the law is apparently aimed at Islamic
terrorists, it's unclear in the law's wording whether it can be applied
to right-wing militias, some of whom have reputedly called for the
overthrow of the US government. The law states that "fraternal" and
"patriotic" groups are exempt from the law, but only if they don't
"contemplate the overthrow of the government."To the extent there is any enforcement of this statute, I think it will be held to be unconstitutional as applied, because Tea Party types calling for the unconstitutional removal of Obama from office will tacitly be exempted from it.I tend to agree with this:"In the long and storied history of utterly retarded legislation in
South Carolina, we may have finally found the legal statute that takes
the cake for sheer stupidity, which we think you’ll agree is saying
something."(Via.) Posted by Mithras on February 09, 2010 at 09:55 AM in Political, Stupid people | Permalink | Comments (1) Digg This | Save to del.icio.us Next »
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