Ixnay on the aidsmay:

Two weeks after Dominique Strauss-Kahn was held on rape charges in Manhattan, an Egyptian financier was arrested yesterday on charges of sexually abusing a maid at The Pierre (above), one of New York City’s most luxurious hotels.

He is Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar, a former chairman of the Bank of Alexandria, one of Egypt’s biggest banks. Omar, 74, is thought to have been visiting New York in his current capacity as chairman of the salt production company, El-Mex Salines.

The Egyptian is accused of abusing the 44-year-old maid after calling for tissues to be delivered to his tenth-floor room on Sunday evening. As soon as she entered the room, police say, Omar “touched her inappropriately” and locked the door – a charge also leveled at Strauss-Kahn.

International bankers have a worse record than the Twins, so far this season.

Joe Doakes from Como Park – who knows his way around a city budget – writes:

The Legislature failed to reach agreement with the Governor meaning no state aid money for cities. Mayor Coleman wants to know how many cops the Republicans want him to lay off to balance the City budget.

Of course, the rest of the city’s bureaucracy is off limits.  But we digress.

Sad to say, Mayor Coleman has a point. In the Obama Economy of straitened finances, local government may be forced to privatize some services including aspects of police protection. Citizens may need to assume responsibility for their own safety. But many people have found themselves unable to afford to do so, or have been prohibited from doing so, by onerous government regulation or market forces. How can we address this urgent public safety issue consistent with reduced city government revenues?

It’s a tough question.  But Joe has an idea:

I think Congress should pass a Community Re-Armament Act requiring gun dealers to sell pistols to people who traditionally have been underserved in the firearms market (felons, minors, the insane); establish a federal agency to subsidize the price of those guns at taxpayer expense; assign BATF to audit gun dealers to make sure they’re selling enough guns to children upon pain of losing their dealer’s licenses; have Community Organizers sue high-profile gun dealers for “redlining” by failing to make enough such sales; wait 15 years to view results.

Empowering those traditionally excluded from power: I’m astonished Barney Frank isn’t all over this idea. Hey, it worked so well in the housing market. What could possibly go wrong?

Joe Doakes

Como Park

Leave out the “felons, minors, the insane” bit, and it could work…

If I ever rule the world, people like this…:

A tip from a parole officer led to the arrest of one of the suspects in the attack on a San Francisco Giants fan outside Dodger Stadium after the rival teams’ season opener, a brutal beating that prompted an outpouring of support for the victim and outrage in the sports world and beyond.

The man detained early Sunday is thought to be the “main aggressor”…

…who do this to other people…:

…in the March 31 beating that left Bryan Stow with brain damage, Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck said at an afternoon news conference at the stadium.

…over wearing another team’s fan gear, will, upon conviction, be judicially shot in the face.  So the alleged offenders should be glad I don’t rule the world.

An emotional Beck hailed the work of 20 full-time detectives who he said have pursued 630 leads in the case so far. The police chief choked back tears as he described getting a call at 7 a.m. Sunday from assistant chief Earl Paysinger.

Seriously.  There is nothing in the world that fills me with deeper contempt than people who get violent  with other people over sports (and I’m talking fans, not the actual sports; boxing or UFC or NHL, which are all about watching people hit each other, aren’t the same thing).  In a world absolutely ruled by me, it’d justify lethal force by others to prevent it.

Joe Doakes from Como Park writes (with occasional emphasis added):

Watch this video when you’re sitting down but not eating. At first, it looks like a typical chick-fight: slapping, hair pulling, minor kicking, nothing major. Certainly no reason to suspect the victim is in danger of Great Bodily Harm. Keep watching until you get to the 2:00 mark, then STOP it. Seriously, don’t watch the ending yet.

Here’s the video:

Remember – STOP THE VIDEO at the 2:00 mark.  Don’t peek.

If the victim in this video had been a pistol permit holder who resisted the assault by brandishing the pistol, would she have been justified?

Should she have run away, out the door into the parking lot where the attackers were waiting? Where else could she have retreated to, the bathroom where the attack started? The kitchen where the staff stood around watching but not helping? Was she legally obligated to flee McDonalds? How? Where?

What if the third time the attackers returned, the victim felt she was too weak and battered to safely flee so she drew her permitted pistol and opened fire? Would that use of force have been justified as self-defense?

In Minnesota?  Currently?  A county attorney, sitting in a warm office with a cup of Starbucks on her desk and a Sheriff’s deputy guarding the building will decide that according to whatever abstruse legal theory she thinks applies, and whatever political priorities her superiors have committed to.

Now, turn the video back on.

The problem with present self-defense law is that up until the minute of that video, any reasonable observer would have said no, deadly force is not justified, it’s just some chicks acting stupidly. There’s no danger of serious harm so no right of self-defense. But watch the ending again.

That’s the danger of allowing the prosecutor and jury, sitting two years after the fact, with six months to spend analyzing the evidence from every angle while experts debate the proper course of action. The last few seconds of that encounter changed lives forever. Should the victim have been legally obligated to endure it? Or should she have had the right to prevent it?

Should she have been able to Stand Her Ground, using deadly force if necessary?

Gotta smash some eggs for a better society, right?

Right?

The office of the effort to recall one of the Fleebaggers has been burgled (emphasis added):

Green Bay police are investigating an apparent break-in at the office of the “Recall Dave Hansen”effort at 1136 W. Mason St.

Petitions, a computer and T-shirts were among the items reported stolen, police said.

I know that when I’m looking to score crack money, nothing draws my eye like page after page of signatures.

The Democratic state senator is among the lawmakers being targeted in recall efforts stemming from Wisconsin’s ongoing budget controversy.

The burglar or burglars broke a window to make entry, police said. The incident occurred between 5 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. Friday, police Lt. David Paral said.

Organizers of the effort, in an email to media, blamed the break-in on “the (opposition) of ‘Recall Dave Hansen.'” Police said they did not have descriptions of suspects.

Total value of the missing items is slightly more than $1,000, Paral said.

Or, depending on how you view Wisconsin politics, several billion dollars.

Of course, we don’t know it was Wisconsin Democrats or Union supporters that pulled off the heist.

Really.  It could be a crack addict who figured she could pawn stacks of signatures.  Maybe she thought they were Packer autographs.

Hey, it could be.

Nationwide, about forty percent of convicted prisoners released from jail re-offend within three years.

The bad news?:

Minnesota led all states with a 61 percent recidivism rate.

“It must be the budget cuts!”

Well, no – Minnesota spends at around the middle of the pack (here’s an http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/spe01.pdf on the subject), a:nd recidivism would seem to be almost perfectly evenly divided…

Wyoming and Oregon had the lowest overall recidivism rates for offenders released in 2004, with rates hovering below 25 percent.

Minnesota had the highest — more than 61 percent — while Alaska, California, Illinois, Missouri and Vermont all topped 50 percent.

…between low and  high-tax states.

The recidivism rate in Kansas dropped by more than 22 percent between 1999 and 2004, while it jumped by about 35 percent in South Dakota over the same period.

The number one story yesterday – a peon Pawlenty staffer got hammered in Ankeny, Iowa, and while drunk out of his mind, tried to get into the wrong house.

Daughter got scared, father got the gun (and, thankfully, realized what was going on), and it’s a big story.

Of course, living next to a college, this is not an unusual thing; I had the same exact thing (minus the gun and the campaign connection) two months ago.

The lesson is this; if you’re going to be a peon staffer who gets hammered and does somethings stupid out in the middle of nowhere, for God’s sake don’t be a Republican.

Wisconsin investigators announced on Friday that they’d figured out who sent the really really stupid death threats to Wisconsin’s GOP senators:

On the day Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed his Budget Repair Bill into law, authorities announced they had identified the sender of emails that threatened to kill the Governor and Republican members of the State Senate who supported the proposal.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigation and the Wisconsin Capitol Police say they have investigated numerous threats against elected officials over the last four weeks. Thursday Night, the Division of Criminal Investigation identified and located a subject suspected of sending at least two of those threats.

“The Division of Criminal Investigation takes these kind of threats seriously and will follow through with the investigation and prosecution whenever possible,” DCI Administrator Ed Wall said.

Upon questioning, the suspect subsequently admitted to authoring and sending two e-mails threatening to kill the Governor and members of the Senate.

And that suspect has reportedly confessed

News that the state Justice Department has identified one suspect in connection with death threats sent to Republican state senators comes as at least a minor relief to Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend).

“They caught someone? Good,” he said Friday night. “I am waiting to hear the background of the type of person who would do such a devious thing.”

A few weeks ago, Brian “Saint Paul” Ward at Fraters – my longtime NARN colleague – vented his Tea-partying rage at U of M mascot Goldy Gopher:

I know I’ll never look upon his leading the “Ni, Ni, Ni” chant at hockey games in the same way again. All this time, he was referring to his putting his knee into the tax payers’ collective groin. Ski-U-Mah, indeed.

Someone has obviously taken Brian’s rant to heart:

An annoyed fan — a University of St. Thomas math professor and a devoted University of Minnesota booster — socked the fuzzy-suited mascot after tiring of his antics during a men’s gymnastics meet Saturday night.

The mascot-mauling left the professor red-faced, regretful and banned from the University of Minnesota’s Sports Pavilion and Williams Arena for a year. Goldy is left shaken, his gopher face damaged. And spectators didn’t know what to think.

“Honestly, we thought it was funny at the time,” said Barry Colthorpe, who watched the bleacher knock-down unfold as he sat with his wife. “I know it shouldn’t be funny that someone got punched, but the fact that it was a mascot, it was an unreal situation. But you can’t go around punching people even if it’s a mascot.”

Most fans know that Goldy tries to entertain crowds with light-hearted shenanigans. “He doesn’t mean any harm,” said Scott Ellison, U of M associate athletic director. “He’s just there to add a little fun.”

There’s a simmering pot of rage among those middle-aged academics.  Gotta be careful, Brian.

I’m reviewing Governor Dayton’s first “State of the State” address.

Failure To Meet Me Halfway Is Like The Taliban Attacking Us, Or Something: Dayton kicked off with an invocation of 9/11 , and Bush’s invocation that “we are all united, and the nation has never been stronger”.

Curiously, he jumped from there to scolding the assembled Republicans; “The challenges we face threaten to overwhelm us”.  He scolded us on even thinking about shutting down government, demanding a pledge not to shut down the state government. As if keeping government going at all costs is the sole goal.  “It should not happen, and it need not happen”, as long as we “compromise our wills for the common good”.   And if we do so, we can tell the people “we succeeded”.   “If we succeed, the people will win.  If we fail, they will lose.  It’s that simple”.

Tax Cuts Equal Stagnation: Dayton noted that Minnesota’s per-capita income dropped, after the Ventura and Pawlenty tax cuts.  (Pay no attention the 2001 and 2008 recessions – or the fact that Minnesota started high up the list, and remains there.  Thanks, Governor Pawlenty!)

Give The Teachers Union What They Want, Or The Kids Get It!: Dayton next turned to the need to “invest” in education, bemoaning the cutbacks in Lakeville and the ten districts that have had to put children to work in the coal mines.  Er, wait – have had to cut back to four day weeks.  My bad.

He then went on to introduce the Teacher of the Year, and about 2/3 of Minnesota’s Superintendents, who seemed to be gathered in the gallery.  Interesting to note that the Teacher of the Year teaches at Maxfield, a school that has flunked its “No Child Left Behind” numbers for recent memory.

He then reiterated his promise to “increase K12 every year, no excuses, no exceptions”.

The Dayton Jobs Program: At this point in the speech, it seems to  largely involve schools; all-day kindergarten, early childhood education, and more.  He indulges in his regional snobbery – “how can Alabama have all day kindergarten, and we don’t?”  Should that be telling us something?

“Don’t You Dare Criticize My Owners!”: “For too long, teachers have been battered by criticisms of their service”.   Battered?  By your leave, your highness, may I, a mere taxpayer, speak?

Job Program Redux:  “We are falling behind in every key measure…” of transit construction.

“Roads and public transit are to the state what arteries are to the body”.   Naturally, we should spend 40% of our medical bill on expensive but low-capacity “arteries”…

Dayton is proposing bringing together more blue-chip panels of “experts” to come up with the real answer to fixing infrastructure.

Kissing Babies, Recognizing Soldiers: The ovations – apparently bipartisan – for SSGT Wenzel, his PFC son, and Red Bulls commander Col. Krska (sp?), and Police Officer of the Year Adam Bailey were by far the longest of the day.

I can go along with that.

MPR’s Mike Mulcahy: “the governor is certainly taking advantage of his prerogative to invite guests; he has about a dozen in the gallery”.

And…huh?:  Next came a screeching turn from defense and law enforcement to…health care?

Dayton asks rhetorical question: “the most daunting challege: how do we improve services without spending more?”   He wants to “provide the best private sector practices with public sector expertise” to make Minnesota the best in the world.   That should be interesting.  “It’ll succeed best if we cooperate with our state employees…treating them with the dignity and respect they deserve will be essential to our success”.  I read that as “hands off all government employment, bennies and pensions”.

And Now, More Job Program Talk!: “We need business to create more jobs…partner with education and government”.  “We are determined to streamlining permitting…while protecting the environment”.   Unfortunately, he notes, he was MPCA Commissioner Aussen on the case.  I call it a potemkin effort.

We Need To Spend Money To Save Money:  Dayton plugged his billion dollar bonding bill.  “A key factor in holding back recovery is the lack of construction jobs”.  In other words, let’s get those Teamsters paying their dues again!

We Want Business To Feel Appreciated: He notes that he’s asked the Depts of Ag, Tourism and, I dunno, Happy Thoughts to reach out to business.  I have a hunch it’ll be Dept. of Revenue that’ll be doing the reaching out…

“I stand ready to go anyplace in the state, nation or world…” to bring jobs to MN.

Want to emulate “Lean” business practices.

The Chase:  Dayton asks for “forbearance” from business, while he deals with the financial crisis, “which we inherited” from President Bush Governor Pawlenty.  He basically apologizes in advance for the budget he’s going to be submitted next week.

Because God Wants You To: Dayton cites bible verse, “to whom much has been given, much will be expected”, in leading up to his “tax the rich” proposal.  Mulcahy points out for the tenth time “more DFLes than Republicans” applauding…

And In Closing: “We were lefty a horrendous fiscal mess, a declining economy, and badly-managed state agencies”.  But if we do things his way, “we’ll retain our former greatness”.

Good thing that DFL legislature did such a spectacular job from 2009-2010!

Let’s Condense The Speech:  “I‘m going to raise taxes, and keep spending just like the times are good.  If you disagree, you are spitting on Tim Burnett’s grave.  We inherited the problem, so don’t blame me; just pony up“.

Response: Tim Pugmire interviewed Amy Koch afterward.  “When the governor called for tax increases, the response was nonexistent on the GOP side, and “tepid” even on the DFL side.  I think that tells us something about the reception he’ll get”.

Speaker Zellers: “The governor is looking backward for his solutions…from California to New York, governors are not raising taxes.  We need to adopt this in Minnesota, and not keep going back to get more from society”.

Pugmire talking with Paul Thissen: “I thought it was hopeful – that we can turn this state around again”.  Wow – we’re in the top of this nation on most rational measures; how much better do we need to be?

“I think the majority is pushing through some extreme bills that are not where Minnesotans are”.  The polls on November 2 might suggest differently, Rep. Thissen.

Times the word “Bipartisanship” (or similar) used: 5

Times the word “Compromise” (or similar) used: 3

Times the phrase “A Better Minnesota” – the PAC that his family, ex-wife and union masters – used: 6

Times the word “Invest”/”Investment” used: 12

Gary Gross liveblogged the SOTS here.

This is, purportedly, a nation of laws.  Not men.  Or womyn.

It’s this fact – the idea that we are governed by laws arrived at at least indirectly by the consent of the majority of The People – that makes civilization possible.

So those of us who oppose legalized infanticide – whether we’re single-issue activists or just quiet, personal pro-lifers – have to work within the law to change the system.  And bit by bit, it’s been working; slowly.  The number of abortions is dropping, as the ubiquity of ultrasound starts to show people that that “lump of tissue” in actually a human being.  Maybe not a competely functional human being, yet – but as a parent of two teenagers, I’m here to tell you they’re not “viable” until they can get a job – but a human being nonetheless.

Still, the medical fact is that once a “fetus” gets past 22-23 weeks, science can save ’em, and after 30 weeks they have a better-than-fighting chance – as long as they can get out of the damn womb.

Or so we hope.  Because it seems to some on the left, “birth” is no guarantee of being called “human”.

You could say that it was a breakdown in the laws that govern our society that led to the Kermit Gosnell charnel house in Philadelphia.  The fact that Gosnell’s abortion mill avoided inspections for nearly two decades indicates an administrative breakdown.

But administration in a regulation-heavy place like Philadelphia doesn’t break down by accident.  The pro-infanticide lobby is powerful, and doesn’t brook interference with their civic sacrament.  And so if an administrative body has to break down somewhere, it’s not a huge leap to figure that the regulation of abortion mills is the path of least resistance.

Beyond that, though – it’s just a little bit nauseating how little respect for “the law” some of the pro-infanticide camp actually have.

PZ Myers is, by traffic, Minnesota’s top leftyblogger.  And criticizing him takes commitment; he draws a huge audience of the kind of readers who make Democratic Underground and the Daily Kos’ comment sections such pressure-cookers of dissociation, and some of them have waaaaay too much time on their hands, and love spending it bombing heretics’ comment sections.

But I love a challenge.  And being hated has always nourished me.

Myers’ lede: “abortions don’t kill people, people do“:

I have been receiving lots of triumphant mail from anti-choice people claiming vindication, that abortion is wrong, and demanding to know how I can possibly support abortion rights after hearing about the case of Dr Kermit Gosnell. Gosnell ran an abortion mill in Philadelphia, and was a hack who maimed and killed women while doing abortions on demand, for a substantial fee. He was unqualified, uncertified in obstetrics and gynecology, and his facility was unmonitored and relatively uninspected. He gave untrained, inexperienced staff critical jobs in the surgery — he allowed a 15 year old high school student to handle anesthesia. He killed a patient by overdosing her on drugs, and is also charged with killing 7 babies in late-term abortions.

Gosnell is precisely the kind of butcher the pro-choice movement opposes.

All true, and well and good.  Of course, the reasons the clinic got left unregulated, in a city where you can’t run a hot dog cart or a braiding shop without swarms of inspectors inspecting your droppings, will need to be sorted through; they’re likely inextricable from the politics of abortion.

…what [Gosnell] represents is the kind of back-alley deadly hackery that the anti-choice movement would have as the only possible recourse, if they had their way. If anything, the Gosnell case is an argument for legal abortion.

A hack being allowed to practice his bloody incompetent craft in a city that is both among the most pro-abortion and high-regulation (usually) cities in the country is “an argument for legal abortion” in the same sense that Jared Loughner’s legal purchase of a Glock supports legalized suicide; both are non-sequiturs.

Still, it’s a defense of the existing law, whether you agree with that law or not (and from Roe V. Wade on down, I don’t).

Still, on all of this, people can agree to disagree – however angrily and emotionally.

But when people try to put abortion above the law?

He has also been charged with the murders of seven babies, and there I have to disagree. There has to be a difference in degree, or the mothers of those infants would also have to be charged as collaborators (they were all willing volunteers for this medical procedure, and they knew the result would be termination of their pregnancy).

Now, let’s make sure we’re clear on the terms here:  Gosnell is accused of “terminating” seven “pregnancies” after the “fetuses” had completely exited the mother, and – even under the most radically proscriptive definition of “when does life begin”, which with some pro-death types seems to be “when all ten of the baby’s toes exit the birth canal” – become “human”.

What Myers seems to be saying here is that the “law” governing when life begins, such as it is, shouldn’t count; that human life shouldn’t begin until everyone who wants a crack at “terminating” it has taken a shot at it, long after it’s actually born.  How long do you wait before you consider life, life?  Until the little nipper is a year old?  (Oops – someone beat me to that one).

The strawman that the left has thrown up as the smokescreen – “so you want to put poor black women in jail” – needs to be slapped down, by the way.  If they agreed to a late term abortion – which, barbaric as it is, is legal, sickening as it is to admit – then it’s not an issue.  If the doctor killed the “fetus” after it was born, without the mother’s consent, or while the mother’s capacity was diminished from pain, drugs and fatigue, then it’s not an issue. If the mother saw a fully delivered fetus and, with full mental faculties, said “go ahead and kill it off”, and the laws does in fact say a delivered “fetus” is protected by the law, then what do you call it?

Or “the law is the law” only count when it protects infanticide?

Has it really only been two weeks since the Tucson Massacre?

Yep.  Two weeks and two days.  The media coverage has been so all-encompassing and intense, it feels longer.

Part of it is Rep. Giffords’ miraculous recovery so far.  Miracles fascinate us (although I have a hunch if it were a black guy, or an unattractive unelected white guy, we wouldn’t be getting the hourly updates).  And as disabled as this nation has been by Obama’s regime so far, I think America wants to see something recovering quickly.  Goodness knows the economy isn’t.

On the other hand, as Dr. Jonz at the Dogs points out, there is another massacre story out there – one we’re barely hearing about:

However, an even more gruesome, horrific, unspeakably evil, beyond-human-comprehension, massacre has been uncovered the last few days, and I believe that very few in the nation have heard about it. I am referring to the Philly abortion / infanticide / drug OD operation run by Kermit Gosnell – for over 30 years! The details are very grim, and are hard to believe, how any one human that has any heart, soul, or conscience, could perform such atrocities. The clinics’ acts included killing hundreds of live babies outside the womb, (including a procedure of snipping babies’ spinal cords in the back of their necks, like one would cut a string with scissors)…. but he also over drugged his patients who were in such intense pain, or had second thought about the procedures.

He also ran the most filthy, infected, unsanitary clinic imaginable, with blood, urine, discarded fetuses strewn everywhere. Finally, he engaged in every and any sort of criminal deceptive activity, to ensure he could perform any abortion at any stage, despite laws against late term abortions (falsifying addresses, falsifying medical records, etc). Think of the worst horror show / nightmare imaginable, and that would look mild compared to the depths that this monster carried out for 30 years. He did everything humanly possible to squeeze every penny out of his pregnant clients – regardless of patients’ pregnancy stage or mental and physical state – to the tune of about $1.8 million per year.

While abortion has never been my main political topic – I’m personally a pro-lifer, and think Roe needs to be reversed as bad law – the Gosnell story is enough to turn any libertarian into a pro-lifer; enough to make me want to grab some of those leftyblog/leftymedia hamsters who point to the murders of two abortion doctors in two decades by lunatic fringers and tell ’em “the score has swung waaaay past even”.

Jonz:

Again, though, I am sure that most will hear almost nothing about this story. Why? Because the babies were mostly minorities? Because the babies were only 24 weeks from conception? Because abortion is a taboo topic in the US? None of these justify allowing such horrific slaughter to go unrecognized in our society.

True.

Know what “justifies” it to the left and media (pardon the redundancy)?

Knowing that this story is going to impede the mission of safeguarding the civil sacrament of abortion.  Because human life – that of minority and poor mothers, as well as countless babies – just like fair and equal treatment of women, all go by the boards when the left, and “feminism”, feel that one of their political goals is in danger.

And so people just can’t know about it.

I am more concerned with what happens in our society beyond the prosecution of Gosnell and his accomplices. How did the Pennsylvania State Dept of Health and Human Services go 30 years, with either no – or inadequate – inspections? More people need to be held to account than just Gosnell. What makes this Philly massacre more tragic than the Tucson massacre, is that if people had done their jobs, many innocent lives taken in Philly easily could have been saved. Why as a society do we not value those lives, as much as the lives in Tucson?

Oh, that’s easy.

Tucson involved an elected, photogenic Democrat official.

Philly unphotogenic crimes and non-jet-set victims involve a judicially imposed “right” that’s more important than human life, than individual womens’ health, than the rest of the entire Constitution to a good chunk of our society, to its supporters.  To the hard left, protecting abortion is a civic jihad, more important than any individual (especially the declassé brown women who were Dr. Gosnell’s customers and victims.

Tuscon schooing victim arrested for threatening a Tea Party leader:

One of the Arizona shooting victims was arrested Saturday and then taken for a psychiatric evaluation after authorities said he took a picture of a tea party leader at televised town hall meeting and yelled: “you’re dead.”

James Eric Fuller, 63, objected to something Trent Humphries said during the forum taped for a special edition of ABC’s “This Week” with Christiane Amanpour, Pima County sheriff’s spokesman Jason Ogan said. Fuller was in the front row and apparently became upset when Humphries suggested that any conversations about gun control should be delayed until all the dead were buried, KGUN-TV in Tucson reported.

Fuller was arrested on misdemeanor disorderly conduct and threat charges, Ogan said. While Fuller was being escorted out, deputies decided he needed a mental health evaluation and he was taken to a hospital, where he remained Saturday evening.

The hospital will determine when he will be released, Ogan said.

Let’s wait for the inevitable lecture on how the tone of our debate is driving people over the top, shall we?

Deficit, Schmeficit; Jesse Jackson Junior feels nervous:

Just last week, the House voted to slash its operating budget by 5 percent, or $35 million, as part of the GOP drive to reduce federal spending the cut the deficit.

Jackson wants that money restored, plus 10 percent, in order to augment security in the Capitol and in districts, where he said some lawmakers may need to hire security for constituent events and install surveillance cameras in their district offices.

“After the events of last weekend, it is clear that our district staffs are vulnerable,” Jackson said in an e-mail. “Members should have the resources and the latitude to take appropriate security measures in order to protect themselves and their staffs.”

Representative Jackson: there were over 430 homicides in Chicago last year; that’s seventy Tuscons, each one as bloody, horrible and ghastly as the one in Tuscon.  There were 25 murders in December – more than four Tuscons, over the holiday season.

The people in your district are hunkered down against a three-year-long rash of gang warfare; more prosaic, perhaps, than an insane man shooting up a congresswoman and her constituents at a store, but really no less insane.

Hire an off-duty cop when you make your rounds of your constituents, if you still do that, and shush.

Lawmakers are also nervous about security inside the Capitol complex, despite the hundreds of armed police officers who already guard it each day and the extensive screening required for those entering Capitol Hill buildings

And those “lawmakers” are being just a tad dramatic.  The Capitol has been like a maximum security prison – only for people coming in – for decades.

Unfortunately, much of the advice available on the web is downright ridiculous.

You mean like this:

STEP #8: Play Dead. If you’re shot, lie down and play dead.  With any luck, the shooter will not come over and finish you off.

Uh, no. If I’m shot, and it’s possible, I’m going with:

STEP #7: RUN! If the shooter actively shoots at you, run away in a zigzag pattern.  You’d be surprised how difficult it is to hit something that’s moving like that.

I’ll play dead when I am.

Since I haven’t done it, at least in writing, I’d like to send this note into the ether in the hopes that some of it skitters about the cosmos and finds its way to Rep. Giffords and her family, and those of the other victims of last Saturday’s shooting.

To the families of the six dead: nothing can replace your loss, or make up for the arbitrary, demented nature of it all.  I can only hope and pray that you find some peace and comfort, sometime.  I am sorry beyond words for your loss.

For those wounded: I  hope you recover completely physically – and as completely as possible, mentally, spiritually and emotionally.

And to Representative Giffords: I pray that the miracles keep coming.

In all sincerity, I thank the God we both believe in that the bullet took one of the infinitesimal paths it could have taken through the human brain that left you (as I write this) not only alive, but responsive enough to leave doctors optimistic about your prognosis.

I know you have a couple of young children.  The thought of being yanked away from them by any of life’s arbitrary caprices – to say nothing of this sort of evil – used to haunt me when my kids were that age; I hope you and yours are together again as soon as humanly possible.

Political differences should be tabled at times like this.  It should go without saying.

Anyway – for whatever its feeble worth, I hope for the best for all of you.

I originally wrote this after the Virginia Tech shootings and adapted it to current events. In light of the frenzy going on only hours after the shootings in Arizona, I feel it is no less relevant now.

What can we do?

…regarding the shootings yesterday in Arizona?…nothing.

You can’t make sense of something like this. You can’t ban guns. You can’t promote guns. Not today. Not ever.

You can’t make this about policy, religion or politics. Not today. Not ever.

We’ll hear all the angles, all the speculation, the second it’s politically acceptable – probably sooner. In the context of an isolated tragedy like this no one will be right.

You can’t lock down public places. You can’t arm everyone everywhere, even if they wanted to be, and a gun law won’t stop a person intent on harming another person.

You can’t prevent everything.

We want to try to make sense of it. We want to try to mitigate the pain by somehow surmising that there is an upside. Something to be learned. An opportunity to capitalize. A way to prevent someone intent on harming others. But there won’t be.

All we can do is support and pray for the families…and for the shooter’s family…and for the victims of similar past tragedies for whom this will be an excruciating reminder.

Hug your loved ones, your husbands, wives and kids.

That’s what we can do.

When I heard about his shooting I thought about the congresswoman’s husband and what he must be going through. I thought about what it would be like to lose a nine-year-old daughter in such a horrible way. I thought about how I would feed if the shooter were my son.

It didn’t occur to me to think about the political motivations of the killer or the culpability vis a vis a policy stance or voting record on the part of the congresswoman or her staff, let alone the bystanders who are no less or no more innocent in this context.

I think it’s sad that there are those that have already done that, even before all the facts are in; as if it would be appropriate even if they were.

There is only one person to blame. Whether he used a gun, a knife, a car or a baseball bat, it is of no import. Whether he was a Republican or a Democrat or of the Tea Party, it is of no import. Whether he was sane or not, it is of no import.

Senseless acts of violence can not be explained or rationalized.

No one in the interest of any affiliation should condone or attribute a senseless act of cruelty.

Law enforcement is saying that the Giffords’ shooter was one Jared Loughner, a student at Pima Community College.

Here’s his Youtube channel.  Check out the references to “government controlling our minds by controlling grammar”, mind control, the unconstitutionality of tuition.   There are references that make noises that sound like anarchism and atheism – but for the most part, he seems to be very, very mentally ill; if he is indeed the shooter behind the (as this is written) 1 to 4 dead, very very mentally ill.

Here’s an example:

Here’s another, from three weeks or so ago, with a few rather troubling bits in it:

looks just a tad mentally ill, from my utterly unqualified but common-sense-drenched perspective.

Judge for yourself.

Side note:  Anyone trying to fob this maniac off on the Tea Party is going to have me to deal with.  Don’t go there.

For the record, I’m with Speaker Boehner on this one:

“I am horrified by the senseless attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and members of her staff.  An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve.  Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society.  Our prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords, her staff, all who were injured, and their families.  This is a sad day for our country.”

And my prayers are with Rep. Giffords and her family, as well as all the other victims – however many there are.

UPDATE:  I’m in the studio, with Ed, digging into whatever’s available about Mr. Loughner.  So is Ed, over at HotAir.

UPDATE 2:  Rep. Giffords is out of surgery – after having been reported as “dead” by NPR and Fox during the 1PM CT hour.  There is apparently room for optimism about the Representative’s condition.  She was (reportedly) shot in the temple at four feet range; perhaps the vagaries of ballistics and some excellent doctors have given her a miracle.

“Why don’t Muslims crack down on their terrorist elements” has been a pretty standard question since 9/11.

The short answer – they, largely, are:

It used to be that there were plenty of mosques in the West run by radicalized, or very conservative, clerics. But no more. Since September 11, 2001, Western nations have cracked down. Radical clerics were either expelled from the country (these guys tend to be migrants), or police investigations of criminal activity by these firebrand clerics put them in jail, or on the run.

Which is not to say there was never a problem:

 Turns out that in the 1980s and 90s, a lot of mosques had been taken over by a small number of radical members. Threats and violence were used, and it often got quite ugly. This was ignored until the 1990s, and not tolerated much at all after 2001. While this kept the radical Moslems quiet, it did not always change their attitudes. But these men were usually migrants, often from the same country, or region, as their fellow congregants.

As with so many things, 9/11 changed all that:

After 2001, Moslems in the West, particularly the United States, knew that they were responsible for the terrorist activity of Moslems they worshiped together with. They could usually recognize another migrant who might be up to something dangerous. Action could be taken to stop it, or drive the troublemaker away (or turn him in to the cops). But the new converts were harder to read. Thus the growing tendency to scrutinize those seeking instruction to become a convert.

And it’s having an effect:

Even before September 11, 2001, al Qaeda warned its agents to not hang out with American Moslems, who were known to turn in suspected radicals. Now American Moslems are letting the FBI know about suspicious new guys seeking to convert. That has led to the arrest of some active terrorists. But in many European countries, local Moslems are less prone to let the police know of someone suspicious, and there are more active Islamic radicals (because the Middle East is closer, and Moslem migrants are less likely to be accepted by the natives.)

Unmentioned in the piece; is the Twin Cities’ extremely fundamentalist Somali Muslim community an exception?

If you happen to be part of my tiny audience in New Jersey, I’d like to ask that you give Governor Christie a call.  He’s got a miscarriage of justice to fix.

Brian Aitkin was in the process of moving from Colorado to New Jersey.  He was moving a couple of handguns which he’d bought in Colorado.  He was doing everything by the book:

According to testimony [his roommate] later gave at Aitken’s trial, before leaving Colorado Aitken researched and printed out New Jersey and federal gun laws to be sure he moved his firearms legally. Richard Gilbert, Aitken’s trial attorney, says Aitken also called the New Jersey State Police to get advice on how to legally transport his guns, although Burlington County Superior Court Judge James Morley didn’t allow testimony about that phone call at Aitken’s trial.

His mother, a social worker, called the police – erroneously – while worried over his son’s mental state during his divorce, which was at the time going badly (his vile pig ex-wife was withholding visitation with his kid).  The cops turned that into an excuse to search his car, which turned out the legally-stored handguns after a two-hour search.  They arrested him – regardless that he’d stored the guns precisely in accordance with New Jersey’s draconian, fascist gun laws, and that Federal law grants lawful gun owners an exception to state gun laws if they are moving from one location to another.

Unfortunately, Aitkin had a judge even more bigoted against gun owners than the ones in Hennepin County.

The jury never heard about the moving exception, virtually guaranteeing Brian’s conviction.

Yet Judge Morley wouldn’t allow Aitken to claim the exemption for transporting guns between residences. He wouldn’t even let the jury know about it. During deliberations, the jurors asked three times about exceptions to the law, which suggests they weren’t comfortable convicting Aitken. Morley refused to answer them all three times. Gilbert and Nappen, Aitken’s lawyers, say he also should have been protected by a federal law that forbids states from prosecuting gun owners who are transporting guns between residences. Morley would not let Aitken cite that provision either.

Brian Aitken is currently serving seven years in a state prison. Now a website and Facebook page are asking Governor Chris Christie to pardon Aitken.

Gov. Christie has proven a sensible leader and shown political courage in taking on his state’s debt-ridden “Situation.” Here’s hoping that Christie, a former prosecutor, will see that Aitken’s continued imprisonment does nothing to serve the interests of justice.

So all you folks stuck in the mud somewhere in the swamps; give the Gov a call.  This has to be fixed.

Wanna good laugh for the  morning?

Here’s a scan from Henco’s complaint against Joel Rosenberg:

Now, as I’ve ascertained, I’m no lawyer.

But Mark Bennett is.  And he’s got the ultimate write-up, so far, of the Rosenberg case.  It’s over at his blog.

The warrant is for the felony of carrying a firearm in the courthouse. Because carrying a firearm in the courthouse complex is a felony—except for “persons who carry pistols according to the terms of a permit issued under section 624.714 and who so notify the sheriff or the commissioner of public safety, as appropriate“—which, oddly enough, is a category into which Joel neatly fits. And except that the city hall is not really a part of the courthouse complex, but a judge says it is.

The warrant is also for contempt of court because, you see, there was a judge’s order declaring the police station a courthouse (how many legs does a dog have, if a judge says that a tail is a leg?) and barring citizens from carrying firearms there—except that, among other problems, “no sheriff, police chief, governmental unit, government official, government employee, or other person or body acting under color of law or governmental authority may … limit the exercise of a permit to carry.”

Bennett, a defense attorney in Texas, points out the rather odd circumstances of  a judge INSERT A VERB a court order that didn’t even have a charge filled in:

Yes, it is in fact alleged that he DESCRIBE BEHAVIOR in contempt of the Hennepin County Juvenile Court. Now, I ask you: can we really have people like Joel Rosenberg going around DESCRIBE BEHAVIOR? I say not, and I say we should DESCRIBE KANGAROO PROCEDURE and then DESCRIBE BIZARRE AND PAINFUL PUNISHMENT them.

I don’t ordinarily pick on other people’s judges—Texas being a target-rich environment—but what kind of Ruben-Guerrero judge is Janet Poston, to sign an arrest warrant based on the allegation that someone has DESCRIBE BEHAVIOR? She didn’t even bother to read the papers.

Conclusion?

So Rosenberg will sit in jail dealing with his health problems, and Rosenberg will fight the case, and Rosenberg will win the case. And, before all is said and done, Sergeant Palmer’s little self-esteem-fluffing exercise will cost the city a pretty penny.

Read the whole thing.

And I hope that when Joel’s lawsuit is over he has the City of Minneapolis by the DESCRIBE A TENDER PIECE OF ANATOMY, and walks out with DESCRIBE ABSURD AMOUNT OF MONEY.

Here’s Part III of Joel Rosenberg’s side of his encounter with Minneapolis Police sergeant Bill Palmer last month.

The incident was the subject of a fairly egregious bit of lousy reporting by the City Pages, among others.

———-

Part Two: The Contempt of Court that Joel Didn’t Commit

By Joel Rosenberg

And so, we finally arrive at the point of this particular part of the exercise, where we get to the crimes that Bill Palmer committed when he lunged at me, took my gun without authority, acting under color of law and authority, and only gave it back — and only let me continue to examine the public data that he, as MPD Data Practices Officer, had invited me to Tim Dolan’s office to examine — when I submitted to his unlawful order to remove it from City Hall.

And, let’s once again, look at the law, as it’s written, with some emphasis added.

609.27 COERCION.

Subdivision 1. Acts constituting. Whoever orally or in writing makes any of the following threats and thereby causes another against the other’s will to do any act or forbear doing a lawful act is guilty of coercion and may be sentenced as provided in subdivision 2:

(1) a threat to unlawfully inflict bodily harm upon, or hold in confinement, the person threatened or another, when robbery or attempt to rob is not committed thereby; or

(2) a threat to unlawfully inflict damage to the property of the person threatened or another; or

(3) a threat to unlawfully injure a trade, business, profession, or calling; or

(4) a threat to expose a secret or deformity, publish a defamatory statement, or otherwise to expose any person to disgrace or ridicule; or

(5) a threat to make or cause to be made a criminal charge, whether true or false; provided, that a warning of the consequences of a future violation of law given in good faith by a peace officer or prosecuting attorney to any person shall not be deemed a threat for the purposes of this section.

Subd. 2.Sentence.

Whoever violates subdivision 1 may be sentenced as follows:

(1) to imprisonment for not more than 90 days or to payment of a fine of not more than $1,000, or both if neither the pecuniary gain received by the violator nor the loss suffered by the person threatened or another as a result of the threat exceeds $300, or the benefits received or harm sustained are not susceptible of pecuniary measurement; or

(2) to imprisonment for not more than five years or to payment of a fine of not more than $10,000, or both, if such pecuniary gain or loss is more than $300 but less than $2,500; or

(3) to imprisonment for not more than ten years or to payment of a fine of not more than $20,000, or both, if such pecuniary gain or loss is $2,500, or more.

History: 1963 c 753 art 1 s 609.27; 1971 c 23 s 40; 1977 c 355 s 7; 1983 c 359 s 87; 1984 c 628 art 3 s 11; 1986 c 444; 2004 c 228 art 1 s 72

609.43 MISCONDUCT OF PUBLIC OFFICER OR EMPLOYEE.

A public officer or employee who does any of the following, for which no other sentence is specifically provided by law, may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than one year or to payment of a fine of not more than $3,000, or both:

(1) intentionally fails or refuses to perform a known mandatory, nondiscretionary, ministerial duty of the office or employment within the time or in the manner required by law; or

(2) in the capacity of such officer or employee, does an act knowing it is in excess of lawful authority or knowing it is forbidden by law to be done in that capacity; or

(3) under pretense or color of official authority intentionally and unlawfully injures another in the other’s person, property, or rights; or

(4) in the capacity of such officer or employee, makes a return, certificate, official report, or other like document having knowledge it is false in any material respect.

History: 1963 c 753 art 1 s 609.43; 1984 c 628 art 3 s 11; 1986 c 444

Lets review the bidding, shall we?

Palmer threatened to arrest me if I didn’t leave. He had no right to arrest me; none at all, regardless of his interpretation of the court order. (I’ll get to that in a minute.) Doesn’t matter what the judge’s interpretation of the court order is, either, for the same reason. It’s null and void, and WOULD BE constitutionally overbroad with regard to the Minneapolis City Hall, if it applied to City Hall at all.

It doesn’t. I’ll get back to that again.

Whoever orally … makes any of the following threats and thereby causes another against the other’s will to do any act or forbear doing a lawful act is guilty of coercion….

a threat to unlawfully…hold in confinement…. (that’s the threat of arrest that Palmer made, repeatedly. Let’s keep going) a threat to make or cause to be made a criminal charge

609.43 Misconduct of a public officer …

A public officer or employee …. does an act knowing it is in excess of lawful authority… or intentionally and unlawfully injures another in the other’s rights…

Which is why Palmer’s lawyered up.

One last, minor thing. “But wait, you say; there was a court order for Minneapolis City Hall at 300 South Fifth Street. It might be questionable, but until the courts determine that it’s invalid, you have to abide by it, Joel. That court order, just as it was written, was effective on that date — Craig Steiner, the head of Minneapolis Data Practices, told you so.”

And I’ve shared with you a copy of that court order, which was, arguably (not very, but a weak argument could be made) effective on that date for 300 South Fifth Street, Minneapolis City Hall.

Let’s take Bill Palmer’s word for it that he was familiar with this court order. He’d read it, he studied it, and by God he was going to enforce it. He was going to grab me, to threaten me to compel me not to carry at 300 South Fifth Street.

The address of Minneapolis City Hall, though, is at 350 South 5th Street. It says so, right on their official web page.

Hell, you can ask Bill Palmer that. He should know. He works there. At 350th South 5th Street.

Ask him, but remember, he does have the right to remain silent. He had that right in Tim Dolan’s office, too. He had the right to remain silent; he had the right to keep his hands to himself; he had the right to not engage in coercion or misconduct. He had every right to not grab my property — and no right whatsoever to take it, without my permission — at all. He had no right to hold it as a hostage to my compliance to his unlawful demands.

He had the right to not commit any crime at all.

He did not, however, have the ability.

Too bad that you can’t find a City Attorney around when you need one to draw up a summons and warrant, isn’t it?

Susan Seigel, Minneapolis City Attorney: please have one of your prosecutors draw up papers and charge the son of a bitch?

Thanks in advance.

More on this story coming up, I have a hunch, this week.

A few weeks ago, I ran the first part of a three-part series by Joel Rosenberg regarding his confrontation with Minneapolis Police sergeant Bill Palmer.

The confrontation was captured on video.

The City Pages tittered about the story, but really didn’t understand it.

Here’s Part II.  Part III follows later today.

Part Two: The Contempt of Court that Joel Didn’t Commit

By Joel Rosenberg

When last we left our heroes, we were about to take a look at the court order that poor Bill Palmer couldn’t find, and which he pretended to be trying to enforce. He knew better, which is why he didn’t arrest me.

Here it is:

———-WHEREAS it is the court’s responsibility to ensure the proper, safe, and orderly administratio nof justice throughout Hennepin County coutr facilities, and

WHEREAS the Court has a weapons policy in place since July 12, 1995 that prohibits any firearm or other weapons from being taken into a courtroom or the environs of any other juvenile justice or other court facility witin Hennepin County except under certain conditions described below,

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that all persons, exept as provided in this Order, are prohibited form having weapons on their person or in their possession in Hennepin County court facilities, regardless of whether or not they have a firearms permit, and

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that persons entering Hennepin County court facilities may be subject to screening for weapons upon entry; anyone refusing to submit to such searches shall be refused admission, and

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that all weapons, including but not limited to firearms and any related ammunition, stun guns, taser weapons, and replica or toy guns shall be removed form said persons before they are allowed to proceed further into the court facility and

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that this order shall not apply to licensed peace officers or federally authorized law enforcement agents in the performance of their official duties. Only law enforcement personnel empowered by law to carry weapons may enter a court facility with a weapon. The peace officer exception to the Order shall not apply to officers present in court as private parties, support persons, or to provide testimony not required by their job duties, and

IT IS FURTHE RORDERED that weapons be used as an exhibit in an official proceeding may be taking into a courtroom or any other court facility only fter they have been checked for safety by the Hennepin County Sheriff or HSeriff’s designee, e sealed in a transparent vinyl tape envelope or otherwise be secured to ensure security during the proceedings by a peace offier in the performance of official duties, and

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Hennepin County Court facilities include:

1. Hennepin Government Center

300 South Sixth Street, Minneapolis

2. Minneapolis City Hall,

300 Wouth Fifth Street, Minneapolis

3. District Court Division II – Brookdale

6125 Shingle Creek Parkway, Brooklyn Center

4. Disrict Court Division III – Ridgedale,

12601 Ridgedale Drive, Minnetonka

5. District Court Division IV – Southdale

7009 York Drive, Edina

6. Hennepin County Public Safety Facility

401 South Fourth Avenue, Minneapolis

7. Hennepin County Family Justice Center

110 South Fourth Street, Minneapolis

8. Hennepin County Juvenile Justice Center

626 South Sixth Street, Minneapolis

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that any person violating this Order shall be suejct to being held in contempt of court and may be subject to a jail sentence.

This Order is effective immediately.

Date: 9/28/08

———-

Interesting, isn’t it? The judge appears to have decided that Minneapolis City Hall is part of the Hennepin County Court complex.

How’s that work? Can the judge decide that a radius of a thousand miles from his bench is part of the court complex? How about fifty? How about the McDonald’s across the street? How about Minneapolis City Hall?

Well, there’s actually just a touch of logic to that — there are courtrooms in City Hall. They’re not used all that often, I understand, but when they are being used by a judge for official county business, the order would clearly apply.

But the rest of it? Nah. It’s what’s called “unconstitutionally broad.” Ask your favorite law professor; I’ve asked more than one of mine.

Here’s what one said:

“This covers entire buildings where courtrooms and court office space are only a portion, often small and temporary, of the entire facility. A good example is the Minneapolis city hall. This order is OVERBROAD [his emphasis. JR].”

In practice, the order is enforced, almost all the time, perfectly legitimately, by the HCSO: outside the security zone of the courthouse, no problem; permit holders come and go, carrying if they please as they do whatever business they have with the courts. Before going into the zone, the permit holder disarms, and stores his weapons somewhere — typically, out in the car.

Easy, peasy.

Also in practice: Tim Dolan and the badged bullies of the MPD have been using their willfully false “interpretation” of the order to bully permit holders into not carrying anywhere in city hall. But they don’t *dare* actually arrest somebody who has, like me, given notice (covering the felony issue, even if you believe that, say, the janitor’s closet in City Hall is a courtroom).

Why? Because they know that the order, being overboard, is utterly unenforceable.

And if they try to enforce it?

That’s for the last chapter: The Crimes Bill Palmer Committed.

Later today – where Palmer allegedly messed up.

It might amaze you that even in this flaccid employment market, some workers choose to gamble their job.

Rick Raymond parked his black Kia SUV behind a row of trees and peered out at his target. It was 4 a.m. on a recent morning, and Raymond—a seasoned private detective who has worked roughly 300 cases, from thieves to philandering spouses—was closing in on a different sort of prey.

Playing hooky without getting caught—as immortalized in the cat-and-mouse skirmish between Ferris Bueller and Principal Rooney in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—used to be an adolescent rite of passage. Now it has given rise to a thriving industry, with stern legal precedent to back it up.

…and that industry, the surveillance they conduct and the terminations that are a result are backed by legal precedent – you sue you lose.

But what do you think?