Friday, July 31, 2009
Feinstein right – kill ‘cash for clunkers’ renewal
The House turned the original, more environmental idea, into an auto bailout, especially for SUVs, and a href="http://congress.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/07/31/mccain-to-filibuster-cash-for-clunkers-bill-trouble-for-reid/"Feinstein is again calling the House out/a.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-3121831529165206947?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Lancaster ISD – Unacceptable
One final, parting gift to Lancaster, Texas, School Board President Carolyn Morris and others from former Superintendent Larry Lewis? Or, a sign of just how goofy Texas Education Agency school ratings are?br /br /How can you have an International Baccalaureate program in a href="http://www.cbs11tv.com/local/Texas.Education.Agency.2.1109951.html"an academically unacceptable school district/a?br /br /At the same time, how can you have six “recognized” campuses and an academically unacceptable district? I know dropout rates are important, but…div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-6576367545096913740?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Now This One I Get
Washburn to Detroit, LHPs French, Robles to Seattle.divbr //divdivUnlike a href="http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2009/07/what.html"my snap assessment/a of the last major trade made by the Mariners (which a href="http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2009/07/good-deal.html"Scott/a and I initially disagreed on) this one makes perfect sense for a selling club. While the two pitchers coming Seattle's way are a href="http://ussmariner.com/2009/07/31/luke-french/"probably not/a as "stellar" as the a href="http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/washburn-traded-to-the-tigers/?hp"NYT blog suggests/a, it is an excellent return a href="http://ussmariner.com/2009/07/31/washburn-to-detroit/"according to Dave Cameron/a over at USS Mariner./divdivbr //divdivWhat the NYT did get right was that Washburn was traded at perhaps the peak of his value, which is excellent GM-ing in anybody's book./divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-443653245453484167?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div
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Eddie Bernice Johnson reads this blog, or my old paper
Well, somebody on her staff does, at least.br /br /Last month, in the last column in my former newspaper, and in part in a blog post before that, I noted that in the nine-plus years I've been in the south DAllas suburbs, Congresswoman Johnson had never graced our presence, before deciding she needed to show up for an Obama-stimulus-boosted highway construction project groundbreaking.br /br /Well, lo and behold, she's now on the list, Aug. 21, as one of the speakers at the Best Southwest Chamber of Commerce's TGIF legislative breakfasts.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-2805081999243122756?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Such A Dick
Until reading a href="http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/07/and-speaking-of-resource-allocation.html"this/a, I had assumed that "Mouthpiece Theater" was a horrible one-shot. (A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards...) But, no, apparently Milbank and Clizza a href="http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/07/charming.html"are bringing the painfully unfunny/a as part of an ongoing series. br /br /LGamp;M has been unable to confirm rumors that it was rejected by Pajamas Media for failing to meet their rigorous standards.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-2382713559356637186?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div
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"Shut up, faggot!": New motto for DC cops?
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xVsTK0oxlHsLeSeOZEYuFPkSVJ5PedpCf0__GbpV-9va5Gg0zjES7KnRmaCEJyNCbIARij1Rx4yS6EDucPTU1anJa9JnF-_1Vt5einGfHPrfdPEuhm2iO3T-tlI2pcq6OWvLJEbsMZ-y/s1600-h/dc-police-car.jpg"img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xVsTK0oxlHsLeSeOZEYuFPkSVJ5PedpCf0__GbpV-9va5Gg0zjES7KnRmaCEJyNCbIARij1Rx4yS6EDucPTU1anJa9JnF-_1Vt5einGfHPrfdPEuhm2iO3T-tlI2pcq6OWvLJEbsMZ-y/s320/dc-police-car.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364747542822722658" border="0" //aPepin Tuma, 33, was walking with some friends, Luke Platzer and Dave Stetson in Washington, DC. They were discussing the police incident with Prof. Henry Louis Gates and Tuma said: “I hate the police!” This is a sentiment he shares with many Americans, especially those who actually read news reports about how cops behave.br /br /Tuma’s comment was overheard by police officer J. Culp. Culp, like a mad dog, became enraged and charged at Tuma “pushed him against a transformer box” and shouted “shut up, faggot” at Tuma. Culp then carted Tuma off to jail.br /br /Meanwhile another police officer approached Platzer and Stetson and told them that he had witnessed Tuma resisting arrest and wanted the two men to sign statements to that effect. Both men told the police officer they were standing there when the police attack took place and that Tuma never resisted arrest. Platzer said: “We thought he was trying to trick us into saying that there was physical resistance by Pepin to the arrest. That is not true.”br /br /Tuma says he did not resist: “I said nothing at this time [of the arrest], except asking why I was being detained, whether I was being arrested, and my belief that it was not a crime to offer an opinion to my friends about the police.” Tuma should know, he’s an attorney. Unfortunately for the uniformed thugs, Platzer and Stetson are attorneys as well.br /br /Police claim that Tuma was guilty of “disorderly conduct,” for saying something they didn’t like. The local ACLU says that DC cops routinely use this charge “as a ‘catchall means of making an arrest, without proper justification.” So, when a DC cops feels pissed off, which is frequently, they can just charge someone with disorderly conduct and arrest the person, causing great inconvenience, at best, or imposing thousands of dollars in legal expenses. It is a means by which they inflict harm the public merely to satisfy their own emotional needs to hurt someone.br /br /Records show that five different citizens have filed complaints about Officer Culp and the way he behaves with just one section of the bureaucracy. Other complaints have been filed elsewhere, including one by Tuma. Police are refusing to comment on the incident.br /br /And cops can't figure out why so many people hold them in contempt. If the shoe fits, officer, wear it with my compliments. Police officials say they are investigating. That is police jargon for "saying something to placate people now, waiting until it dies down, and then exonerating the officer involved."div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/23782041-4986475226671891598?l=freestudents.blogspot.com'//div
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Ludlow Town Council back in the news
Things have gone quiet lately at this blog's favourite local authority. But Ludlow Town Council returned to the a href="http://www.shropshirestar.com/2009/07/31/six-are-cleared-of-breaching-rules/"Shropshire Star/a today with the news that six current and former members have been cleared of breaching their code of conduct:br /blockquotepTheir possible suspension was reported earlier this year, after a complaint that they had released confidential information to the press./ppThe tribunal heard all six had signed a statement condemning the “inappropriate management of public money by a member of staff at Ludlow Town Council”. They had also called for a police investigation./p/blockquotediv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6606798-8439535295084445874?l=liberalengland.blogspot.com'//div
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Gary McKinnon: The passport as school uniform
a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk91f2W34hraapNOad5gJsDK8TND-x32mFFpbJJKC7OCO-G7Tkrpp-doYypz8BhAaUSsAjBN2Ti2zso8apE-0kZpQYmf97sK5qTlDj0cQP2O8crVKHMKWMvCCFioCpCTGCXbByunzxOn0o/s1600-h/cap.jpg"img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 164px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364730248731337810" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk91f2W34hraapNOad5gJsDK8TND-x32mFFpbJJKC7OCO-G7Tkrpp-doYypz8BhAaUSsAjBN2Ti2zso8apE-0kZpQYmf97sK5qTlDj0cQP2O8crVKHMKWMvCCFioCpCTGCXbByunzxOn0o/s200/cap.jpg" //aHaving a passport - and particularly a British passport - used to mean something:br /br /divblockquoteHer Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State Requests and requires in the Name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary./blockquoteIt said, in other words, "Don't mess with me. I've got the British government behind me."br /br /These days it is hard to resist the impression that governments have more in common with each other than they do with their own people. Hence the enthusiasm for extradition, whether within Europe or across the Atlantic.br /br /A passport now fulfils the function that school uniform once did. It tells the observer which authority they should complain to if they don't like your behaviour. /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6606798-1513796897188306115?l=liberalengland.blogspot.com'//div
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Medicare NOT a government program?
Well, a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090731/ap_on_re_us/us_stimulus_bridges_5" that observation/a, actually a quote from a South Carolinian denying Medicare is a government program, as noted in Paul Krugman’s latest column, explains exactly why getting national healthcare is such tough sledding.br /br /And, when you connect that with the fact senior citizens are MORE satisfied with Medicare than the under-65 crowd is with private insurance, it's no wonder getting people to understand national healthcare is so tough.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-8477908105799779416?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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When tea partiers attack
More and more, Democratic Congressmen are a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25646.html"getting wary about town hall events/a because of the unruliness of tea-partier type constituents.br /br /That said, lest GOP folks like Republican Congressional Campaign Committee Chariman Pete Sessions get too smug, “birthers” may become more a problem at some of their town halls.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-2394819522137449743?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Fat Rights/Gay Rights
Reading through the comments a href="http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/07/americas_moral_panic_over_obes.php"here/a and a href="http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2009/07/assume-can-opener.html"here/a and a href="http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/07/dragging-the-obesity-debate-back-to-real-policy-issues.php"here/a I'm reminded of the many suggestive parallels between arguments about body diversity and those regarding sexual orientation.br /br /To simplify a great deal, I'd say fat rights are where gay rights were at 30 or 40 years ago. Elaborating:br /br /(1) Pathological disease/syndrome versus natural non-pathological ("healthy") variation. As most people know, a generation ago same-sex sexual orientation was treated by much of mainstream psychology and psychiatry as a mental disorder, and was formally defined as such. Similarly, at present any variation outside a narrow range of body mass is formally defined as pathological. br /br /The claim that a normal body mass is between 18.5 and 24.9 (this is the official position of the public health establishment) could be analogized to the claim that normal sexual relations consist of heterosexual vaginal intercourse, and that variations from this norm are pathological perversions/diseases of increasing severity. A loose analogy: you can imagine spectrum in which non-vaginal heterosexual sex = "overweight" (BMI 25-29.9), while drag queens = "morbid obesity" (BMI 40+). In this schema, a closeted GOP senator is mildly obese (In other words Larry Craig has a sexual orientation BMI of 32).br /br /The fat rights movement wants people to recognize that body diversity is every bit as natural, inevitable, and desirable as diversity in sexual desire/orientation. From this perspective, the labeling of a narrow range of body mass as normal and the pathologizing of everyone outside of it as involuntarily sick or voluntarily deviant is completely arbitrary and unscientific, and does a great deal of unnecessary damage.br /br /(2) Temporary state versus fundamental identity. In the traditional model, and still today for most cultural conservatives, many or most gay people choose to be gay, and therefore could choose not to be. The analogy with fat prejudice is obvious: the present climate of fat hatred depends in good part on the assumption, often rising to the level of an evidence-proof axiomatic act of faith, that fat people choose to be fat. The arguments in this area almost couldn't be more parallel. "Everyone knows" how to stop being gay: Stop having gay sex. Everyone also knows how to stop being fat: restrict caloric intake and increase activity levels, forever. In both cases, you see, it's a simple matter of a "lifestyle change." And of course both arguments are correct: It's perfectly possible, in theory, for people who strongly prefer to have sex with other people of the same gender to stop doing so, and become "normal." It's perfectly possible, in theory, for fat people to eat less, increase activity levels, become thin, and stay that way (become "normal," i.e., thin). It's perfectly possible in theory, but in practice almost no one in either category stays straight or thin, because it's extremely difficult for gay people to limit themselves to either straight sex or abstinence, and it's extremely difficult for fat people to transform their bodies into thin bodies and keep them that way.br /br /Here is where the distinction between a temporary state and a fundamental identity is crucial. In a deeply homophobic society, you'll have a certain number of gay people who, usually temporarily, but sometimes for long stretches and even for entire lifetimes, limit themselves to straight sex. In a deeply fat-hating society, you'll have a certain number of fat people who, usually temporarily but sometimes for long stretches or even entire lifetimes, inhabit thin bodies. Are such people not "really" gay or fat?br /br /(3) The possibility of transformation varies greatly among individuals. The extent to which sexual behavior and even sexual desire can be transformed falls along a wide spectrum, as does the the extent to which body mass can be transformed. It's safe to say there's a vastly higher amount of same-sex behavior in an all-male American prison than there is in an Afghani village controlled by the Taliban. There are per capita, vastly more upper class fat women in west Africa, where fatness is prized as a sign of social status, than in the USA, where it's despised as a sign of poverty (the reverse is equally true -- there are far more poor fat people in America than in west Africa. As several commentators have pointed out, famines are an effective cure for "obesity."). The protests of many a liberal regarding how fat people can be cured of fatness with the right combination of willpower and sensitive interventions sound quite similar to the protests of many a cultural conservative that gay people can be cured of gayness with the right combination of willpower and sensitive interventions.br /br /(4) People living in the fat closet tend to react very strongly when anyone tries to open the door. How many upper-middle class and upper class American women maintain a size 4 or 6 when, in a less fat-phobic society, they would be a size 10 or 12? For such people, the idea that the fantastic amounts of time, money, and most of all mental and emotional energy they've devoted to conforming to an arbitrary cultural norm must be justified by a socially respectable reason. In this case, the secular god of "a healthy lifestyle" does the work performed by the Book of Leviticus for the closeted gay cultural conservative. br /br /It's my belief that, in another generation or two or three, the casual fat hatred now flaunted by many an otherwise doubleplusgood-thinking liberal will look as shameful as the casual fag-bashing engaged in by his predecessors a generation ago.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-6809587895777877239?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div
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Cronkite in Context: Walter, CBS or the Era?
span style="font-family:arial;"biJuly 31, 2009, 12:30 p.m./i/bbr /br /centerbInsights from Cronkite's Successbr /Shed Light on Today's Media Failures/bbr /(brought to you by a href="http://fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com/"FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com/a*)/centerbr /blockquoteiThis is my last broadcast as the anchorman of The CBS Evening News; for me, it's a moment for which I long have planned, but which, nevertheless, comes with some sadness. For almost two decades, after all, we've been meeting like this in the evenings, and I'll miss that. But those who have made anything of this departure, I'm afraid have made too much. This is but a transition, a passing of the baton. . . . And anyway, the person who sits here is but the most conspicuous member of a superb team of journalists; writers, reporters, editors, producers, . . .. Furthermore, I'm not even going away! I'll be back from time to time . . .. And that's the way it is . . .. I'll be away on assignment, and [others] will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good night./i/blockquoteEmbedded in a href="http://wcbstv.com/local/Walter.Cronkite.CBS.2.1090918.html"Dan Shelley, "Commentary: Cronkite amp; The CBS Broadcast Center; Legendary Newsman's Aura Permeates Every Inch Of Building,"/a WCBS-TV amp; wcbstv.com, July 18, 2009.br /br /That was how Walter Cronkite left us the last time, in 1981. Change "last broadcast" to "last day," "two decades" to "nine," and it works pretty well for his most recent departure two weeks ago. Had he witnessed our response to his passing I suspect he would say again, with equivalent modesty that "those who have made anything of this departure, I'm afraid have made too much."br /br /And it would be neither inaccurate nor immodest of him to prophesy that "I'll be back from time to time." After all, he was known to most Americans as but an image on a television screen, and given the wonders of videotape and other storage media those images can always return. And, to quote Dan Shelley's headline, above, this "legendary newsman's aura" will continue to permeate not only the newsroom at WCBS-TV, but newsrooms of all media, and journalism classrooms, for decades to come.br /br /Like the thousands who have written about his passing, I too acknowledge his greatness -- as a human being as well as a journalist. Like others whose lives intersected with his, I too have my personal stories. Like all Americans with access to a radio and later a television set during the last half-century or so, I also looked to him to tell me "the way it is."br /br /But I've hesitated to leap into my own commentary because it seemed to me there was an even bigger story here. I'm not confident I'll ever fully understand what it is, but I certainly have a greater insight after two weeks' thought than I had on July 17. How much of "Walter Cronkite" was "Uncle Walter," how much "CBS," and how much the times, the era, in which he emerged?br /br /But first, a sampling of some of my own Walter Cronkite and CBS stories.br /br /We were both born in the midwest, he in St. Joseph, Missouri, and I in Iowa City, Iowa. We both attended the University of Texas, he about the time I was born, I about 18 years later. (In later years our pictures were both hung in the UT Journalism Building, along with that of Bill Moyers, as DeWitt Carter Reddick Award recipients.) Although my own accomplishments and prominence were those of a pygmy compared to Walter Cronkite, our most public times overlapped -- his as anchor of the half-hour "CBS Evening News" (1962-1981), mine in Washington from 1963-1979 (three presidential appointments, including Maritime Administrator, FCC commissioner, presidential adviser to President Carter, a congressional race, and chairing the National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting).br /br /Cronkite knew of my interest in journalism in general, and television news in particular, and offered me a standing invitation to visit the set and control room whenever he was doing the news from Washington. These were days of film -- occasionally arriving only minutes before the show went live -- and the tension surrounding what would and would not be processed in time to air, along with the split-second commands to the camera operators (and Walter) made the scene, from my perspective, about as exciting a place to be as any I could imagine.br /br /Earlier, as Maritime Administrator, I had learned the power of his broadcast. One of my responsibilities was moving shiploads of wheat to India. There were disputes with the unions, and various government agencies, that made this task something between very difficult and impossible. Cronkite mentioned the problem one evening in a newscast; the next day the orders came down from the White House, following which the ships promptly sailed. It was an insight and lesson that stayed with me when later confronting the power of the mass media as an FCC commissioner.br /br /At the FCC I tried to focus public and congressional attention on the importance and responsibility of broadcast journalism. Broadcasting's greatest failing, I said, was not so much the harm that it did (though there was plenty of that) but the good it could do for America that it failed to do.br /br /In 1967, the second year of my seven-year term on the FCC, CBS launched a new program called "60 Minutes" which I praised as a step in the right direction. It wasn't long, however, before the show's low ratings were cited by those who thought the experiment had failed and the program should be canceled. I urged the network to stick with it, give it time, that it takes awhile for a show to build a following. Not that my urging had anything to do with it, but the program was kept on the air and for many years thereafter reigned as number one in the ratings -- not number one among news programs but number one, period.br /br /CBS had a Sunday morning show called "Face the Nation." On September 14, 1969, I was the guest. I recently accidentally came upon a a href="http://tobaccodocuments.org/bw/240374.html""Face the Nation" transcript/a of my exchanges on that occasion with Mike Wallace and George Herman of CBS and Richard Burgheim of Time magazine. They were heated exchanges, and I was at my outrageous worst. Given that the show was not promoted, and the only listings had it at the wrong time, I was not surprised that one of the letters I received from a viewer explained that she had only seen it because she'd accidentally turned on her TV set while dusting it. (As the producer later explained to me, "You're not paranoid, Nick, you've got real enemies.") All told we had more than 7000 letters in my office (if I now remember correctly), and someone from CBS told me that the network got more mail about that show than any "Face the Nation" program prior to that time. (If you're interested in what was said, just click on the link above.)br /blockquotespan style="font-size:85%;"[* Why do I put this blog ID at the top of the entry, when you know full well what blog you're reading? Because there are a number of Internet sites that, for whatever reason, simply take the blog entries of others and reproduce them as their own without crediting the source. I don't mind the flattering attention, but would appreciate acknowledgment as the source, even if I have to embed it myself. -- Nicholas Johnson]/span/blockquoteMost of the occasions when I was the subject of a CBS' or iNew York Times/i' news item it involved my work. But years later, when I had long since settled into what would prove to be a 17-year period as a single man once again, Kathleen Nolan (then national president of the Screen Actors Guild) and I began dating and a personal item made Cronkite's newscast.br /br /Kathleen had a friend with a small house on the north side of Oahu where we decided to spend a few days. Next door, among others, was a young boy who lived in a tree, could dive meters below the surface without a scuba tank, walk on coral, and smoked pot. (Asked why he wasn't in school, he replied, "Because the surf's too high.") When we considered a walk in the near-by forested mountain area he gave us suggestions and offered to accompany us. Since we didn't know the area, and assumed he knew it like the back of his hand, we followed him.br /br /We climbed up a mountain under bushes with long thorns that permitted sliding under while going up, but would have torn the hide off of anything trying to go back down. We weren't concerned not only because we had our experienced guide, but because my mountain experience from Colorado and the Shenandoah was that there are usually animal trails along a mountain ridge that we could probably take back to our cottage. We were wrong on both counts. Our guide did not know this territory, and the trail along the top was very narrow, with drops on both sides precluding descent. Assuming we would ultimately get back down, we continued on only to find the trail ended with an equally impassible drop. We were stuck. We were supposed to have dinner with our friends Dorothy and John Craven (who was then running for Lt. Governor of Hawaii). When we didn't show, he got the Honolulu Fire Department helicopter out looking for us. Our guide, of course, came equipped with matches (though no pot, as I now recall), so we started a little (controlled) fire to alert the helicopter we saw coming for us. For some reason the fire did not get their attention, and they left us on the mountain overnight.br /br /There followed a number of contradictory stories running on the wire services. We were lost in a forest. We had gone down in a small plane at sea. We were lost at sea in a boat. I later heard from some of the other women I was dating at the time of their concern -- both as to what might have happened to me, and as to whom I was with at the time.br /br /The next day the helicopter sighted us, and we swung down in baskets from the mountaintop to the road below -- where the local TV cameras were ready to record our rescue. The reporters' first question to Kathleen: "What were you wearing?" (Dressed in shorts and climbing boots she sarcastically explained that she had been in a designer ball gown while climbing, but changed into shorts for the interview.)br /br /And what does Walter Cronkite have to do with this misadventure? It was a slow news day apparently, so he included a report of our safe return on the evening news.br /br /Another thing Cronkite said on his last day as anchor, quoted above, was "the person who sits here is but the most conspicuous member of a superb team of journalists; writers, reporters, editors, producers . . .."br /br /And that's the point I'm about to make about Walter Cronkite, CBS, and the state of broadcasting during the 1960s and 1970s -- as contrasted with today.br /br /CBS was, as Cronkite himself said, much more than the anchor on the Evening News. And my relationship was with CBS as much or more than with Cronkite.br /br /Our next door neighbors, and probably closest family friends, in Bethesda, were the Pierpoints; Bob was then the CBS White House correspondent. Although I never met Edward R. Murrow (who died in 1965), I enjoyed a dinner with his widow, Janet, one evening in Pat and Bob's home. My sister, who started her career in television broadcasting while in high school ("Let's Pretend" and "It's Fun to Find Out" on award-winning WMT-TV, Cedar Rapids, were her creations), had gone on to work for NBC, CBC, BBC, and others. Before moving on to other things, she also worked with Cronkite and CBS News as both a researcher and on-air reporter. And as /spanspan style="font-family:arial;"was necessarily the case for someone in my position at that time, I had an acquaintance with a number of CBS reporters and other personnel. /spanbr /span style="font-family:arial;"br /Which brings me to what is perhaps the broader significance of the "CBS era" in broadcasting. Its success was a tribute to more than just the "team of journalists" -- however professionally skilled, ethical, and hard working they may have been.br /br /It was a tribute to CBS' owner, Bill Paley (whom I never met), its president Frank Stanton (whom I did meet), its general counsel, Dick Salant (with whom I publicly tangled in print), CBS News President Fred Friendly (whom I knew in a variety of his roles). It was they who made the decisions to spend more on CBS News than any other network was willing to spend, far more than the FCC would ever have required. They who lived the admonition, "with great power goes great responsibility." They who exercised that responsibility to all America as best they knew how. They who took pride in the creation and operation of one of the world's preeminent television news organizations.br /br /Looking back the 40 years to those days it's ironic that I should ever have included CBS in my criticisms of the industry. They somehow seem, by comparison with today, the "golden years of responsible television journalism."br /br /And so I'm left to wonder, "why?" What happened during the last three decades to create the state of the broadcast media we see today?br /br /Certainly a part of the answer is the "Wall Street cancer" that infects the majority of American capitalism. Capitalism used to be run by capitalists. Now it's run by bankers and multi-million-dollar hired hands.br /br /You knew who owned CBS in those days; where the buck stopped -- and where the bucks came from. It was Bill Paley. He was driven by forces other than the goal to become "the richest man in the cemetery." He took personal pride in CBS' accomplishments. (And as he once told Edward R. Murrow, when trimming his sails, he also felt it in the pit of his stomach when, in his judgment, CBS was stepping over the line.) But the result was that profit maximization was not paramount; the money spent on CBS News was money that would otherwise have been in Bill Paley's pocket.br /br /Today's news judgments, and news budgets, are made by Wall Street financiers with little respect for journalism or sense of national responsibility. They know, as the saying has it, "the price of everything and the value of nothing." They not only want profits (and the multi-million-dollar bonuses they make possible), they want ever-increasing profits. Hard times? Fire the journalists, reward the executives.br /br /Dick Salant was ferocious defender of CBS' First Amendment rights. I disagreed with him often, but always respected him. Journalism was serious business; it was no place for music or other promotional nonsense. When President Lyndon Johnson complained to Frank Stanton (LBJ's Austin station was a CBS affiliate, I believe) about CBS' Vietnam coverage Stanton never even mentioned the conversation to the reporter the president disliked. When Cronkite thought the Vietnam war unwinable, he simply said so. Unlike today's lapdog media, CBS never felt it had a responsibility to be a cheerleader for war for the White House.br /br /Necessarily, TV reporters and anchors in those days had come up through print journalism (Cronkite with UPI). There were no TV stations to train them. My sense (devoid of data) is that at least some of today's TV's "reporters" have had neither that experience, nor its equivalent, in either journalism school or prior employment. (As a communications study student once told me, the reason he was choosing broadcasting rather than newspapers was because he didn't really like to research and write.)br /br /Another factor, in fairness to ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and the others, is that we no longer have what we used to call a "two-and-a-half-network economy." We have hundreds of channels on cable, and even more from the online Internet sites (including blogs). There's a little more competition than there used to be -- and a lot less inflation-adjusted revenue.br /br /The reasons we do not, today, have a Walter Cronkite are many. But among them is the fact that, even if there were a potential Cronkite out there somewhere there is no media operation that would hire him or her -- or place where such a journalist would stay for long even if hired.br /br /"That's the way it is" -- and a significant part of the story of Walter Cronkite's life, and death, that didn't receive the attention it might have during our grieving and memorial services.br /____________br /br /* Why do I put this blog ID at the top of the entry, when you know full well what blog you're reading? Because there are a number of Internet sites that, for whatever reason, simply take the blog entries of others and reproduce them as their own without crediting the source. I don't mind the flattering attention, but would appreciate acknowledgment as the source, even if I have to embed it myself. -- Nicholas Johnsonbr /br /center# # #/center/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30130444-1521375823739711195?l=fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com'//div
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Open Ashes Post
divAustralia 263 all out. England 116-2, bad light stops play./divdivbr //divDay 2 of the third test sees England with a a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/england/8177950.stm"slight advantage/a, which could have been a strong advantage following the a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article6734526.ece"Australia collapse/a had they themselves not lost two quick wickets. divbr //divdivThe Bell standing in for Pieterson project begins here, and over at the Ashes Blog they compare the two, a href="http://www.cricketweb.net/blog/asheshq/30.php"not favorably for Bell/a. Strauss is looking good on 64, and England enjoyed some fine bowling from Anderson (5-80) and Onions (4-58)./divdivbr //divdivThis one could very well end in a draw, with a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/30/edgbaston-third-test-weather-waterlogged"weather being an issue/a./divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-4132651012304758594?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div
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States wasting road stimulus money
Money that could, and should, be spent, from federal economic stimulus money, on bridges that have holes in them, even if they weren’t 100 percent “shovel ready,” is instead going to spans a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090731/ap_on_re_us/us_stimulus_bridges_5"that need no real work right now/a. br /br /And, it seems like both state governments and the Obama Administration have engaged in some shoddy marketing practices.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-2356668784640679962?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Ten percent of California mortgages in default
Wow. And, if the problem is spreading to commercial real estate as well, a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fi-default31-2009jul31,0,294190.story"as the story says/a, recovery is far away from the Leaden State. With unemployment so high there, homeowners have no money to refinance, and there’s no new buyers on the market, so plenty of defaults.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-59402041586224189?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Blue Dog hypocrisy on insurance campaign $$$
This is the real reason Blue Dog Democrats oppose the public option on healthcare reform, perhaps — a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/30/AR2009073004267.html"the campaign cash they get from the health insurance industry/a. br /br /And, even worse, many of them are actually actively exploiting the current political climate to up their fundraising.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-8752166029206816201?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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This Matters..How?
The Broderite argument against politics in the United States Senate, at least when it comes to judicial confirmation hearings, has now been made by a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/29/AR2009072902628.html"the man himself/a:br /br /p /pblockquotepBoth these senators decry the growing role of interest groups that lobby on judicial confirmations. Both have defied those pressures, Leahy in voting for Roberts and Graham in being the lone Republican to support Sotomayor in this week's vote. /p p"I pointed out that Roberts was not someone I would have recommended to Bill Clinton or Barack Obama," Leahy said, "but I did not want to see the chief justice of the United States confirmed on a party-line vote." /p pGraham took the same stance on Sotomayor, saying he expected to disagree with many of her rulings, but gave great deference to Obama's choice because "elections make a difference" and she is "clearly qualified." He said he hoped it would serve as an example to Democrats the next time a Republican president makes a nomination. /p p If their examples spread, we might avert the ugly partisanship of recent confirmation fights. /p/blockquotep/pWhat he doesn't do is explain exactly a href="http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=in_defense_of_confirmation_hearings"why it's a bad thing if Senators vote against judges who have a different constitutional philosophy. /a For those of us who don't see "partisan" as a pejorative term, what exactly is the span style="font-style: italic;"argument/span?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-4494271062849908633?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div
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Tony Gives Credit Where Credit Is Due
In his a href="http://post-gazette.com/pg/09212/987645-153.stm?cmpid=bcpanel0"column today/a, Tony Norman explains some parts of teh crazie and starts with two sentences I never thought I'd read from him:blockquoteLet us now praise Bill O'Reilly. Let's not forget "Sideshow Annie" Coulter while we're at it. Both Ann Coulter and Mr. O'Reilly have done what many conservative elected officials don't have the guts to do: They've either mocked or denounced the so-called "birther" movement as an embarrassment to common sense and a threat to the long-term interests of the Republican Party.br //blockquote And writes something a local member of Congress should notice:blockquotepEarlier this week, a reporter from The Huffington Post tried to get Rep. Tim Murphy, a Republican from Upper St. Clair, on the record about the "birthers." But the pride of the 18th District proved too fleet-footed for the running dogs of the media./p pRep. Murphy reportedly hid in a congressional office supply store for 20 minutes rather than answer the politically sensitive question about whether Barack Obama is a natural-born citizen. How many birthers can there possibly be in the 18th District to take offense?/p/blockquoteThe video can be found a href="http://2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com/2009/07/guess-who.html"here/a, in the event you wanted to see it in all its glory. Tony, in three paragraphs, explains teh crazie:blockquoteAs anyone with a relative with a tinfoil hat knows, the birthers believe Barack Obama is a Kenyan citizen who became president of the United States through trickery. They argue that Mr. Obama's presidency is, thus, constitutionally invalid. Even CNN's Lou Dobbs has given legitimacy to their paranoid ravings by insisting on "more documentation" from the Obama White House on the issue. pBirthers want to inspect the original birth certificate and not the copy issued by the state of Hawaii. They don't believe an original exists and they're critical of the "certificate of live birth" Hawaii distributed to the media to quell the controversy./p pBirthers insist that a certificate of live birth and a birth certificate aren't the same animal. They also want to debunk the notion that "six of one" comes anywhere near to being the same thing as "half dozen of the other."/p/blockquote Birthers are crazie.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8213262-9217318159592702541?l=2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com'//div
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Loves Springs Internal? Wait, I Don't Get It...
Making a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2223840/"the case for IUDs./adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-624534188371436301?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div
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Should Nick Clegg stop being Mr Angry?
Any comment on the performance of a Liberal Democrat leader at prime minister's questions has to be prefaced with a recognition of just how hard the job is. Faced with a noisy, hostile house, and without a dispatch box to lean nonchalantly upon or much protection from the Speaker, it is close to impossible to shine.br /br /Vince Cable scores with his lugubrious humour, but then he is not treated with the same lack of respect.br /br /All that said, I wonder whether Nick Clegg's weekly display of synthetic anger has not reached its sell-by date. You may say that there is a lot to be angry about, but I am not sure that this approach is showing Nick to his best advantage - too often he threatens to topple over into petulance.br /br /Nor does this punctual anger chime with the sober approach and limited ambitions of a href="http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2009/07/fresh-start-for-britain-smells-little.html"A Fresh Start for Britain/a.br /br /The a href="http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14140761"Economist article/a I quoted from earlier this evening begins by making a similar point:br /blockquoteIconoclasm does not come easily to nice and privileged men: this seemed to be a lesson of Nick Clegg’s early efforts as leader of the Liberal Democrats. Staged parliamentary walkouts and other attempts to distinguish himself from the Conservatives’ David Cameron, the other well-scrubbed young leader on the opposition benches, were mocked as the work of a rookie trying too hard./blockquoteBut it goes on to suggest that "Mr Clegg’s righteous ire should now be an asset".br /br /I wonder. More light and shade, and a little humour, might show Nick to better effect. Perhaps he should try a new approach when the next parliamentary season opens?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6606798-2863305524646229200?l=liberalengland.blogspot.com'//div
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Thursday, July 30, 2009
Video shows Mormon thugs roughing up couple for a kiss.
object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OgvPDxjMbgUamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0x234900amp;color2=0x4e9e00amp;border=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OgvPDxjMbgUamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0x234900amp;color2=0x4e9e00amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/objectbr /br / It is not well known that the Mormon sect employs large young men as their muscle, especially around their so-called temples. These men are hired to roughhouse anyone that may protest the church or attempt to pass our literature that doesn’t meet their standards.br /br /In most the country the temples are surrounded by sidewalks and streets open to the public. This has always vexed the Mormon church. It makes it easier for people to do inconvenient things like speak against the sect, carry picket signs, hand out literature, or apparently, kiss.br /br /The way the sect handled this in Salt Lake City was to use their massive political power in the state to turn the public street in front of the temple into Mormon church property. Since the street, used by pedestrians, not cars, continues from public property to public property most people never realize that the Mormon cult managed to get the politicians to give them domain over the small stretch of land outside the temple gates. The Mormon majority on the city council vote for the land transfer, while the two non-Mormons on the council opposed it.br /br /People walk along the street, as they would any downtown street, never realizing that they leave public property, enter private property, and then re-enter public property, all in a matter of seconds. But it gives the Mormon cult something they desire, the ability to snuff out dissent, or anything else for that matter.br /br /Matt Aune, and his partner Derek Jones, didn’t realize what was going on. They were walking down the street, side by side, holding hands. As they were walking Aune, still at the side of Jones, gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek. Seconds later they were surrounded for four burly thugs in suits who were yelling at them. Aune pulled Jones protectively to his side. The four men surround the couple and become more and more agitated. Suddenly they move, one of them grabs Jones and flung him to the ground. The other three grab Aune and begin trying to wrestle him to the ground. (Three on one, Mormon fairness.)br /br /The Mormon hired guns handcuff the men and call police, for the crime of a kiss and a hug. Of course, they couldn’t make that the official charge. So they contended the men were guilty of trespassing, even though this street was public for decades and is still wide open for pedestrians and not posted as private. Had there been no kiss there would have been no trespassing charge. When police were called they were told the men had kissed and hugged. That was what the security guards said then. According to the police report the church thugs said that they never engaged in roughness with the two men — something this video calls into question.br /br /After the incident got publicity the church revised their story and painted a scene reminiscent of the most debauched orgies of ancient Rome. Now they claimed there was “groping,” “passionate kissing” and “profane and lewd language.” We know how honest the Mormons are when it comes to gay people. The church contends that they didn’t treat the male couple any differently than any other couple. Yet I know of no incident where any other couple was every wrestled to the ground by burly security thugs for the crime of a kiss and a hug.br /br /While the church has video cameras on the public, better to spot those criminal kissers or felonious huggers, no video footage of the alleged crime actually exists. The church did release film of the men being surrounded by the church-hired thugs. But, for some reason, it can’t supply footage showing that the men were groping each other in public. How convenient.br /br /Public prosecutors had asked for all footage of the incident and when the church only turned over the arrest tape, and had nothing to to back up their accusations, charges were dropped against the men.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/23782041-7629587279523196780?l=freestudents.blogspot.com'//div
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A Young Athlete's Journey
centerbr /img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13657" title="alexis-page" src="http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/alexis-page.jpg" alt="alexis-page" width="540" height="298" /br /lexis Page practices at Aviator Sports and Recreation in Brooklyn./centerbr /br /From a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/sports/30vecsey.html?_r=2amp;hp"The NYTimes:/abr /blockquotebr /br /strongSports of The Timesbr /A Young Gymnast’s Distant Olympic Dreambr /By GEORGE VECSEYbr /Published: July 29, 2009/strongbr /br /On weekends, the subway and bus trip can take two and a half hours — each way, that is. Alexis Page, 13, is pursuing her sport, her art, from uptown Manhattan to the outer fringes of Brooklyn.br /br /Millions of hopeful American youths ride to practice in team vans or their parents’ cars or perhaps they bicycle to a nearby field or gym. Alexis takes the No. 2 subway and the Q35 bus.br /br /Her discipline is rhythmic gymnastics, twirling a ribbon, dancing with a ball, an Olympic sport that is obscure just about everywhere except the old Soviet bloc.br /br /Alexis cannot afford to think about the Olympics themselves, she says softly. She must live within the moment of the music and the rhythm, and not think how she will pay for all this, or when she will sleep.br /br /Her coaches, with the enduring poise of Soviet athletes, tell her she has it good. They tell stories of all-day training rather than the four-hour sessions she takes. They tell of children removed from their families to join the collective athletic system.br /br /Alexis studies them, the way they walk, the way they talk. She is preparing for life, for college, not only the Olympics. She does not have time for a social life in her neighborhood; her friends are in the gym or on her Facebook page — girls from Russia, girls from Chicago, gymnasts, like herself. One of her friends is an octogenarian European gymnast, now living in New York./blockquotebr /!--more--br /br /Rest of article at link above.br /br /Much encouragement to this young Sista on her own path....and much luck.br /br /centerimg class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13659" title="alexis-page2" src="http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/alexis-page2.jpg" alt="alexis-page2" width="540" height="298" /br /Alexis Page, right, and her mother Pamela Fair on the No. 2 subway.br /br /img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-13660" title="alexis-page3" src="http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/alexis-page3.jpg" alt="alexis-page3" width="540" height="298" /br /Alexis Page trains at a sports facility at Floyd Bennett Field/centerdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21083673-2296116236764860767?l=mirroronamerica.blogspot.com'//div
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Nissan unveils all-electric hybrid car
The all-new Nissan Tilda, scheduled to go on sale in the U.S. next year, a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/classifieds/news/automotive/latestnews/stories/DN-Japan-Nissan_28bus.ART.State.Edition1.3f71d1b.html"is indeed a hybrid-drive car/a in the sense that it uses regenerative braking for battery recharges, enabling it to go 100 miles, not 50 or so, between charges.br /br /Toyota still pooh-poohs all-electrics right now, but we shall see. Meanwhile, at a price Nissan says will be “competitive” with gasoline-engine vehicles, a 100-mile charge life, and lithium-ion batteries, the Tilda has just kicked massive amounts of sand in the face of the Chevy Volt. (Not that that’s hard to do. And not that that’s not kind of fun to do, either.)div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-3390985414905839098?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Southwest looks to buy Frontier
But, as when it bought ATA a couple years back, also out of bankruptcy, just to get its LaGuardia gates, it looks like Southwest is just looking at buying Frontier a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/073109dnbussouthwest.90001c9a.html"to increase its Denver muscle/a. br /br /I predict it turns around and resells Frontier’s regional line, Lynx, possibly to Alaska Airlines, possibly to U.S. West.br /br /Since Frontier itself runs nary a one on 737s in its fleet, I can’t imagine what Southwest wants other than Denver gates, and probably some routes. (Unless maybe Southwest does a massive flip into an all-Airbus fleet!)div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-6249264226506711813?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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More Misreporting?
This time, it appears that the culprit is Bernama.br /br /Penang Chief Minister has requested that Bernama correct it 30 July report and instead print the complete and accurate version of his comments on the new RM300 million Sarawak State Assembly Building. He was reported to have said:br /blockquotespan style="font-size:85%;"“Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was also impressed with the new building, adding that Sarawak had the capability to provide the state with more infrastructure facilities.” /span/blockquoteHowever, what he said in Bahasa Malaysia were words to this effect:br /blockquotespan style="font-size:85%;"“Bangunan ini menarik perhatian. Yang menarik saya adalah pembentukan modal insan dan sumber manusia seperti dalam bidang pendidikan. Adalah penting sekolah dapat bekalan letrik kerana apa gunanya computer tanpa bekalan letrik. Penetration untuk jalur lebar(broadband) di Sarawak adalah 13%. Saya lebih berminat memberikan tumpuan kepada aspek menaikkan kadar penetration broadband atau jalur lebar ini.”/span/blockquoteCan you tell the difference?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/37045477-2302948764271451205?l=tonypua.blogspot.com'//div
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Hey Mac lovers, wipe that smirk off hang up your hackable iPhone
Yes, all you worshipers of Steve Jobs, your iPhone a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_iphone_security"can be hacked/a. Maybe, given it’s history, ATT can wiretap you through it, too.br /br /And, here’s the real biggie. Apple was warned about this two weeks ago, but has yet to do anything.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-3381064765599186066?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Shadows of the War
I was driving late Tuesday night, heading home from seeing some friends. The lights were soundless as they came up behind me. I’d had a beer, and I pulled over and worried for a moment as the lights carried on past me into the night. Ahead of me, more lights flew by soundlessly, then more. As I pulled to the curb in front of my house, the first siren split the humid night air, and yet another set of lights burned down the road. br /br /Let’s go back to 2006 and meet George Nickel. I’ve talked about him before, though never by name. He’s been in the US Army a long time- he was a private in the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry back when the Tropic Thunder division still had an Air Assault regiment. When I met him, he’d already left the Army and come back to join the Army Reserve with friends of his from his work at Idaho’s State Penitentiary. He’s given this country of ours a lot. On February 8th, 2007, on a narrow road outside of Karma, Iraq, Staff Sergeant Nickel, USAR, very nearly gave it all. He was the lone survivor from the explosion of one of the largest IEDs ever placed in Iraq- his 12 ton bomb-resistant vehicle was thrown above the tops of the 10-foot high reeds that lined the road. Three other good men died- the truck’s gunner, just a foot away, was blown from the turret and died before he hit the ground. The sergeant riding shotgun was even closer to George- he too died instantly. The driver was the furthest from the point where the blast penetrated the armored hull- he lived long enough for a medivac helicopter to arrive, but he died en route to the combat hospital in Fallujah. George Nickel was separated from death by mere inches. Nearly every bone on the right side of his body was broken, and shrapnel from the blast tore his flesh.br /br /George was a private man. He was the sort to get married to a woman, and only tell his best friends, the ones he had rejoined the Army with, when they noticed the ring he was wearing. Everyone who deploys overseas has a contact number on file, so if the worst happens, the military can begin the process of alerting loved ones of their service member’s death or injury. George gave the Army a number that he knew his wife wouldn’t answer, trusting his friends to tell her before the Army found her. In the end, that was exactly how it happened. br /br /He arrived from Germany at Walter Reed Army Medical Center just after the neglect scandal broke there. There wasn’t enough room for him; the administration there wanted to send him home to continue his rehabilitation therapy. He was on canes then- his house was in the woods of Idaho and definitely not handicap accessible. Instead, he was housed in one of the old hotels nearby that the Army had rented out to house the overflow of wounded warriors from Walter Reed. A cab took him to his temporary home- another wounded veteran helped him carry his meager belongings upstairs. He ate from care packages rather than trust the meal service. He finally came home to Boise on July 4th, 2008. br /br /Fast forward to July 28th, 2009. Boise’s finest are running towards the sound of guns, and at the end they find George, still running toward the sound of his own guns. Towards his own demons. He’s lost his dog, and he’s searching the nearby apartments for the pup. A bullet into the lock. A boot into the door, and suddenly there’s a voice yelling “Police! Put your hands up!” He doesn’t. They start shooting, and he takes cover. Suddenly the war has come home for everyone, not just George. George is searching buildings, just like he did in Iraq. Trouble is, this is America and not Iraq, and in America we like to pretend that soldiers are GI Joes- a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/boise/story/850012.html"like they’re heroes who never need our help/a.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/34649397-3651040590431634621?l=acutepolitics.blogspot.com'//div
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Ted Rall – Draft, not hire, cops
Ted Rall, a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20090730/cm_ucru/everyonehatesthecops"in his post-Henry Louis Gates column/a, argues for draftee cops, not hired ones, using the same arguments many of us do for a draftee military.br /br /And, they’re some damned good arguments in both cases. We might weed out the type of people who glorify in brutality. Or the appearance of that. You know, the type of local police who are “jackbooted,” whether active in thuggery or not.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-3791651464105713444?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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My Final Thoughts on the Gates Fiasco
span style="font-weight:bold;"All Three Men Were At Fault - Gates, Crowley and Obama/spanbr /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcaTup8c8rh1mK6oHKdKK3LfMOycEIOMaYa-_PTIYpfWDKBfgmBPWXBrOkeBfPxaMufKE-ZX6L6V_4CzmKKrgdxNg_nxa1TXHmksfHJ4eja3tRqyf2tXyLIrDV6o8rmM0jv3HdCa2pEvSz/s1600-h/Gates+Crowley.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcaTup8c8rh1mK6oHKdKK3LfMOycEIOMaYa-_PTIYpfWDKBfgmBPWXBrOkeBfPxaMufKE-ZX6L6V_4CzmKKrgdxNg_nxa1TXHmksfHJ4eja3tRqyf2tXyLIrDV6o8rmM0jv3HdCa2pEvSz/s320/Gates+Crowley.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364412990792730802" //a The more that I have learned about the Gates case over the past week, the more I’m happy that I didn’t jump on the Gates bandwagon…at least not completely. I did have one foot on the bandwagon though. But my inner voice usually tells me to avoid the knee jerk reaction that often comes from Black folks, especially on issues that have anything to do with race. I listened this time… but I probably didn’t listen enough.br /br /I am making no excuses for Sgt. Crowley. I still believe that he could have walked away from the situation that day. The arrest was most certainly a discretionary decision that Crowley could have and probably should have avoided. And I am not convinced that Crowley would have made the same decision had Gates been White. However, based on what I have seen and the statements made by those involved, I don’t see this as a blatantly racist incident. Believe me… I looked…and looked, and looked again, but I haven’t found any evidence that this was primarily a racial event. I’m sorry…. I have to be The Angry Independent today and not the Angry Black Man. The Angry Black Man is on vacation for a few days anyway. He’ll be back next week. But nope... I did not see racism as the primary issue here. Now that ass_____ a href="http://www.oliverwillis.com/2009/07/29/boston-cop-called-henry-louis-gates-jr-a-jungle-monkey/"from the Boston Police Department/a is an entirely different story. But i'll leave that case alone. br /br /I have also heard “racial profiling” thrown around. And this case doesn’t fit that definition very well either. It’s a term thrown around by those who don’t understand what it means. On the periphery there may have been profiling here…. On both sides, but this case is not primarily a profiling issue in my opinion. Profiling has to do with Police proactively and arbitrarily stopping people of a certain demographic on the streets. I know exactly what it is…. Living in a neighborhood that is 90-95% White, I have been the target of profiling. But in this case officers did not stop Gates on the street. These officers were responding to a 911 call of a possible burglary in progress. And yes…. This is the kind of call where multiple officers are routinely dispatched. I have been baffled by the comments of those who are wondering why more than 1 or 2 officers showed up. IT’S ROUTINE! On a burglary in progress, especially in a nice upper middle class - wealthy community, expect a minimum of 3 units. Often in a small city...an entire shift will respond (until cancelled)...and entire sectors in big cities. Not unusual at all. The call wasn’t for a Black man standing in his own Kitchen. The call was for a burglary in progress. br /br /Crowley was wrong to allow Gates to push his buttons and provoke him. He should have used better judgment and left the scene once it was clear that there was no burglary. This may have been difficult to do with a belligerent man asking for names and wanting to complain. I have dealt with the Dr. Gates'… elites (of all races) who believe that you are beneath them. I deal with them all the time. They give you grief even when you are just doing your job…. Whether its getting their information for an accident report, or asking them about what happened regarding a dispute with someone else. Just getting them to calm down and speak logically is like pulling teeth. But Crowley should have given Gates all the information that he requested. Although the Police report states that the information was given, I’m not convinced. br /br /Gates is also at fault for what I suspect was belligerence. Clearly he doesn’t understand Police procedure and didn’t appear to understand the situation that day. For the average level-headed person, there would be no need to fly off the handle in any sort of knee jerk fashion. I understand how officers can be cocky and disrespectful…. Walking into a home, not giving a citizen a certain level of respect, not responding when asked questions, etc. And there has been evidence of a disparity in Police service to the public based on the race of those being served. But Gates was wrong to assume that this officer should have known who he was. Gates may have been hanging out with Oprah too long. He thinks he’s a household name outside of academia….and he’s not. While Gates did provide identification, I have a feeling that the officer was subjected to a lot of verbal nonsense in the process. I’m not saying that a citizen can’t or shouldn’t question an officer….but there is a proper way and a proper time to do it. br /br /It seems to me that Gates did much of the racial profiling himself…making assumptions about why the officer was there. When an officer arrives to such a call…. they have to confirm that you are who you say you are…. unless they know you. Gates believes that the officer should have taken his word that he was the rightful occupant of the House. But that’s not how it works. Perhaps the officer didn’t explain very well…why he was there. The saying… “it’s not what you say…but how you say it“…is really true. Maybe the officer had the wrong tone. We don’t know…none of us were actually there, so there is no way to know exactly what led up to the arrest… I can only base my comments on the bits and pieces of information that have been made available.br /br /And the observers, especially most of the Black observers, almost got this story completely wrong. They certainly tried to distort the situation. From what I can tell… Gates was not arrested for being in his own home… nor was he arrested for breaking into his own home (he used his key at the back door). He was arrested for his knee jerk belligerence…causing a disturbance and I suspect for not being very cooperative. “Disorderly Conduct”… for good or bad (mostly for bad) gives officers a lot of latitude. It’s a broad law allowing officers to apply just about any behavior to it. The officer is more guilty of not using good judgment when it comes to exercising his arrest powers. But folks immediately wanted to make this a Black/White issue. As I stated, Gates was just as guilty of racial profiling (if we are going to use the term…lets apply it evenly)…because he made assumptions about the officer based on what he saw through his lens. br /br /What we had in this situation was a clash of ego’s. Gates saw the presence of this officer as a challenge to his position in life…almost an affront to his status. The fact that the officer apparently didn’t know who he was probably offended Gates. And the fact that the officer didn’t respond to his comments and requests only made Gates more irritated. Gates was probably tired from his long trip and was clearly already irritated with the property management people because his door was jammed. The officer was probably the last person that Gates wanted or needed to see at that moment. And now Gates is playing up race as a way to repair his damaged ego. br /br /The last person at fault would be the President. What the Hell was he doing commenting on this case?br /I was at work when I heard the Press Conference. At the end, when he was asked about the case… I assumed he would be smart and take a pass….especially when he didn’t have all the information. But when Obama proceeded to give one of his long answers… I couldn’t believe it. I knew that he was stepping in it…big time. I knew that nothing good could come out of his answer. And of course I was right. The Right wing media jumped on it immediately…and made Obama sound as if he was attacking Police. Obama has a habit of handing these kinds of gifts to his opponents. br /br /The only person that I feel sorry for in this case (well…not really sorry…because all of these folks are well off….and none give a damn about me struggling to survive)…is the woman who called 911. She was doing what I hope my neighbors would do if they saw someone messing around with my car or they saw someone who they didn’t recognize entering my place. br /br /Hopefully after this White House meeting... the hardcore Black hardcore White nationalists on both sides will take a break. Hopefully. I'll keep my fingers crossed....but won't hold my breath.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21083673-4606167321875110696?l=mirroronamerica.blogspot.com'//div
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Good Deal
Like a href="http://myespn.go.com/blogs/sweetspot/0-4-117/Who-wins-M-s-Bucs-trade-.html"Neyer/a, and unlike the Daves Brockington and a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-seattle-pittsburgh-deal"Cameron, /aI'm inclined to think that the Wilson/Snell trade is a good one for the Mariners. (In fairness, neither of them knew initially that the Pirates were picking up a lot of the salary):br /br /ulliI don't think the Mariners gave up much. As long as I'm vaguely competitive, I'll give up 3 low-upside pitching prospects with no history of major league success for one high-upside pitcher with a little major league success any day. I also don't see Clement as having much value -- it's always important to remember the distinction between "should be playing if your only alternative is Jose Vidro" and "good." He's 25, has no position, and his 173 ABs in Tacoma in 2008 are his only strong credential (and in the same year he was carved up by a similar sample of major league pitching.) Basically, aside from that he hits in the minors the way he'd have to hit in the majors to be interesting, and that's not good enough. Cedeno, as Cameron concedes, is replacement level.br //liliCameron says that "Adam Everett is a similar player and signed a 1 year, $1 million deal with the Tigers last winter." But this is highly misleading. I suppose they're the same "type" of player in broad terms, but a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/everead01.shtml"Everett/a hits span style="font-style: italic;"nothing/span. Since 2005 he hasn't had an OPS+ within 15 points of Wilson's career average. They're the same kind of player but Wilson is a lot better.br //liliRelatedly, Cameron says that "the Mariners could still salvage this by moving Wilson before Friday’s deadline for a younger SS with more long term potential." I don't think this will happen, but that gets at the heart of the disagreement: I think Cameron is greatly understating how scarce talent is at shortstop. With one or two exceptions for taste, the class of shortstops who are significantly younger and substantially better than Wilson are among the most valuable properties in the game. If you have one, you're not going to give him away. Put it this way: the Red Sox, an organization with huge resources and first-rate talent evaluation, haven't had a shortstop nearly as good as Wilson since 2004. It's a hard position to fill. If you go scavenging, you might get lucky and get a Jason Bartlett -- but it strikes me as much more likely that you'll get a Ronny Cedeno (or Tony Pena Jr. or whatever.)br //liliThis doesn't necessarily mean that the Pirates "lost" the trade; positive-sum trades may happen less than they should, bit not every trade has a winner and loser per se. I'm not sure about the Pirates' "trade everybody whether premium prospects are available in return or not" strategy, but now that they're this far along there's not much point in going back. It would be a fine trade for the Pirates if they dumped most of the salary; since they didn't I'm less sure, but Snell and Wilson aren't going to be part of the next competitive Pirates team, so they don't have much to lose. But it's a good trade for the Mariners if they have any chance of being competitive next year, and I don't see why they wouldn't.br //li/uldiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-3302719941484977449?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div
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Oswald Mosley in Market Harborough
a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu3cs4g9OS5fbJow2ekMzfWumZeUCXsmz7Sp07aJcYZFGN5IySJC2q4PmHBZCrfMmxXjKQhENWgLwhh6VyBBIQ2FPmhyjQL7ZPyY281j8R6xYLem-XfoIIgI062gy2CDEeETL_lC-kVvLK/s1600-h/mosley.jpg"img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 169px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364377685407757842" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu3cs4g9OS5fbJow2ekMzfWumZeUCXsmz7Sp07aJcYZFGN5IySJC2q4PmHBZCrfMmxXjKQhENWgLwhh6VyBBIQ2FPmhyjQL7ZPyY281j8R6xYLem-XfoIIgI062gy2CDEeETL_lC-kVvLK/s200/mosley.jpg" //aLast Saturday I wrote about Market Harborough's home-grown Moseleyite candidate a href="http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2009/07/noel-symington-and-night-climbers-of.html"Noel Symington/a. But it seems that Mosley himself also visited the town.br /br /I recently bought Mike Hutton's book a href="http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=7613amp;ProductID=8194"Around Market Harborough Between the Wars/a. It is largely nostalgia porn - to which I am hugely susceptible - but there is also some interesting text.br /br /Hutton writes:br /blockquotepThere is no doubt that many among the upper class had a certain sympathy with Nazi Germany. A meeting held by Sir Oswald Moseley em(sic)/em, at the Assembly Rooms, suggests that the far-right policies also appealed to a far wider audience./ppSome five hundred attended his firebrand address, given on behalf of the British Union and National Socialist Party. He spoke for almost two hours without interruption. The audience, who had paid 2s 6d on the door, were largely supportive. A heavy police contingent and a team of his own black-shirted henchmen ensured there was no trouble. Moseley em(sic)/em left to long and enthusiastic applause./p/blockquotepThis meeting took place in 1937. /pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6606798-2742300846062839786?l=liberalengland.blogspot.com'//div
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Should Nick Clegg continue to be Mr Angry?
Any comment on the performance of a Liberal Democrat leader at prime minister's questions has to be prefaced with a recognition of just how hard the job is. Faced with a noisy, hostile house, and without a dispatch box to lean nonchalantly upon or much protection from the Speaker, it is close to impossible to shine.br /br /Vince Cable scores with his lugubrious humour, but then he is not treated with the same lack of respect.br /br /All that said, I wonder whether Nick Clegg's weekly display of synthetic anger has not reached its sell-by date. You may say that there is a lot to be angry about, but I am not sure that this approach is showing Nick to his best advantage - too often he threatens to topple over into petulance.br /br /Nor does this punctual anger chime with the sober approach and limited ambitions of a href="http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2009/07/fresh-start-for-britain-smells-little.html"A Fresh Start for Britain/a.br /br /The a href="http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14140761"Economist article/a I quoted from earlier this evening begins by making a similar point:br /blockquoteIconoclasm does not come easily to nice and privileged men: this seemed to be a lesson of Nick Clegg’s early efforts as leader of the Liberal Democrats. Staged parliamentary walkouts and other attempts to distinguish himself from the Conservatives’ David Cameron, the other well-scrubbed young leader on the opposition benches, were mocked as the work of a rookie trying too hard./blockquoteBut it goes on to suggest that "Mr Clegg’s righteous ire should now be an asset".br /br /I wonder. More light and shade, and a little humour, might show Nick to better effect. Perhaps he should try a new approach when the next parliamentary season opens?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6606798-2863305524646229200?l=liberalengland.blogspot.com'//div
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If ‘cramming’ for a Rorschach– or giving one …
You have plenty of other “issues” besides the question of whether Wikipedia is now a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/technology/internet/29inkblot.html"a Rorschach cheat sheet/a. br /br /Beyond psychologists getting bent out of shape over 10 original Rorschach plates being posted by Wiki, ijust what does it test?/ibr /br /Have psychologists and psychiatrists ever demonstrated that?br /br /Per who else but a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_test"Wikipedia/a, the short answer is “no”:br /blockquoteSome researchers have raised questions about the objectivity of psychologists administrating the test; inter-rater reliability; the verifiability and general validity of the test; bias of the test's pathology scales towards greater numbers of responses; the limited number of psychological conditions which it accurately diagnoses; the inability to replicate the test's norms; its use in court-ordered evaluations; and the proliferation of the ten inkblot images, potentially invalidating the test for those who have been exposed to them./blockquotebr /So, some psychologists are protesting that their priesthood has been violated and a pseudoscientific central tenet has been revealed.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-980817679170600362?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Dallas Mayor Leppert is Schwarzenegger or Rick Perry on Zoo
Really, Tom Leppert? a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/073009dnmetzoo.42628ab.html"Privatizing the Dallas Zoo/a?br /br /Other than taking a page from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on privatizing popular recreational services, both Leppert and Dallas Zoological Society President Michael Meadows appear to have been drinking Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s Kool-Aid, claiming the zoo can be run both more cheaply and better in private hands.br /br /Whatever happened to the old idea of getting Dallas County to help with expenses? And, in privatizations of this sort, salaries get whacked. Given Dallas’ gorilla and elephant problems in the past, do you want to downgrade staffing even more by chasing people off?br /br /To compare this to the privatization of Houston’s zoo, which has more land, and is in a larger park system, somewhat comparable to Fair Park in Dallas, is ridiculous, too.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-5552700353402320812?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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I am ‘shocked’ that David Ortiz allegedly roided
Supposedly, the Boston Red Sox slugger, Big Papi, was one of the a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/sports/baseball/31doping.html"100-plus steroid users/a, along with then-teammate Manny Ramirez, busted in a trial-run year of Major League Baseball testing in 2003.br /br /Now, do I think all of his decline is due to at least reducing his juicing? No, but a fair amount is.br /br /Meanwhile, in what gets this filed under “hypocrisy alert” tagging, too, in February, Ortiz said players who tested positive for juicing should be suspended for a full year.br /br /Instead of getting Pete Rose re-eligible for the Hall of Fame, Commissioner Bud Selig needs to sit down with the players’ union and start addressing a way to responsibly talk about this to the world of fans.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-612570631364896956?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Rather wants Obama to help fix media implosion
Well, first of all, Dan Rather is assuming it’s fixable, which I’m not so sure about, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt on a href="http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/135834"asking President Obama to help fix print media’s problems/a. Rather doesn’t specifically mention print media, but we all know that’s where the problem is.br /br /That said, getting beyond most the comments on the story, it is true that the Fourth Estate has taken that phrase far too literally for too long, at the top-of-the-heap level. The Aspen Institute at which Rather made his comments could be a top example of that.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-3849648193888844349?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Organic no healthier than ‘conventional’ food? Hold on
Ahh, but a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090729/sc_nm/us_food_organic_3"this study/a overlooked one big difference — pesticide and herbicide residues.br /br /uUpdate:/u A Facebook friend of mine commented on this, leading me to further thoughts.br /br /With pesticides being linked to human sperm count decline and hermaphroditization in fish and amphibians, "conventional" Big Ag ain't so healthy, contrary to people who say they will just "wash off" pesticide residue. It's not just the chemicals on the crops, but the ones in the rivers and lakes, in the fish you catch from them, if you do that, the water in your municipal supply, etc.br /br /And, given the amount of chemicals Big Ag uses, and over the full growing timetable, are you even sure you can just "wash them off"? br /br /Beyond that, a href="http://www.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/07/29/organic-may-not-mean-healthier.html"a similar study/a conducted by organic growers did find a higher level of antioxidants in organic food.br /br /I'm not denying that "organic" is indeed a marketing tool, but that doesn't mean that there's still not legitimate reasons to eat it.br /br /Couple of final points:br /1. This is meta-analysis, not a new study;br /2. It's meta-analysis over 50 years, a period in which organic practices, definitions and quality control changed, while the use of pesticides by Big Ag went up and up.br /3. Organic does have the side benefit of getting away from moo-crop and mono-variety food.br /br /Some more skepticism from professed skeptics would be nice.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-2071524958567244174?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Are insurers paying Baucus to monkey-wrench healthcare?
How else can you explain the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, “Mod Max” Baucus, now saying his committee won’t report out a healthcare bill a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090730/pl_nm/us_usa_healthcare_23"before September/a?br /br /Well, actually, it’s No. 2 GOP on the committee, Mike Enzi, actually saying that. Why is be even getting that much airtime?div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-2718999572464385110?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Tony Blair on the spot on British Iraq inquiry
Unlike in the U.S., with President Kumbaya content to follow in the tracks of George Pre-emptive Strike Bush, Great Britain actually exercises its democracy.br /br /That includes a full-blown Iraq War run-up investigation that will have a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090730/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_iraq_inquiry"former Prime Minister Tony Blair on the witness stand/a. Unfortunately, the commission will have no sanctions power.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-7949587098224019646?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div
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Update on the RIOT story
Today's update on yesterday's story about the new ' directive' from the Superintendent of Chicago Policebr /br /a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/1692474,CST-NWS-SNEED30.article"The Chicago Sun Times/abr /br /br /br /br /blockquotebr /strongHold your fire br /The police blotter . . . br /July 30, 2009br /BY MICHAEL SNEED Sun-Times Columnist /strongbr /br /Walking back the cat: Looks like Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis was forced to backtrack on his deadly force policy amendment -- tipped in Sneed's column Wednesday -- allowing cops to shoot at suspected felons fleeing in motor vehicles.br /br /• • To wit: Sneed hears City Corporation Counsel Mara Georges and Mayor Daley were flummoxed by the order, which they felt could have been a huge liability problem for a city already reeling in debt. br /br /• • The upshot: The deadly force order, which Weis felt would give cops added protection, was issued July 17 to go into effect Aug. 3.br /br /• • The buckshot: No more. It was dispatched to the bye-bye bin Wednesday. /blockquotebr /br /Just so you know...nearly 1 out of every 3 dollars budgeted for the Chicago Police Department is done so to payoff POLICE MISCONDUCT LAWSUITS. Thus, the core of the mistrust of the Black community towards the PO-LEEZ.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21083673-1134870635251246154?l=mirroronamerica.blogspot.com'//div
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