Later On

Police in general — and beat cops in particular — have long been hostile to being videotaped in the course of going about their jobs, and understandably so: they do dangerous work in which they have to confront actively hostile and dangerous people, and they don’t know who this is who is videotaping them or for what reason. I’d be jumpy about it, too.

OTOH, police in general — and beat cops in particular — should be trained explicitly on the occasional drawbacks to living in a free society, among which drawbacks is that citizens are free to photograph and videotape their public officials going about their public duties in public. That’s the way that particular cookie crumbles.

David Sirota has a particular good analysis of the situation. Read it here.

The Patriot Act will be extended for four more years of damage to civil rights. But that’s not all. Here’s a brief list from the past week. And Ed Brayton also comments.

Of course, it’s not the Federal government—Wall Street pretty much owns the Federal government now. It’s New York state and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Glenn Greenwald expresses sincere praise in this column, well worth reading. The concluding two paragraphs are worth noting:

Further evidence of Schneiderman’s unwillingness to allow the law to be exploited as a corrupted instrument for corporatism is found in his threats to sue the federal government with “aggressive legal action” over its failure to conduct legally mandated environment impact studies for proposed drilling in the Delaware River Basin (which provides 50% of New York’s drinking water).  Those threats predictably prompted objections from “oil and gas industry representatives” accustomed to lawless subservience from government officials: especially from the regulatory agencies mandated to compel industry compliance with the law yet which are typically run by former industry officials who do the opposite (as epitomized by theBP official chosen by the Obama administration as a top regulator overseeing land and minerals management).

An Attorney General who simultaneously works for more lenient laws for ordinary Americans committing trivial drug offenses while demanding serious accountability for the nation’s most powerful factions is a rare and noble aberration indeed:  one who seems openly hostile to the two-tiered justice system that operates to protect lawbreaking political and financial elites while punishing the powerless.  Of course, the last politician who tried to impose meaningful accountability on Wall Street was New York Attorney General and Governor Eliot Spitzer, whose career was abruptly destroyed by a still-very-strange-and-difficult-to-understand massive federal law enforcement effort into his prostitution-hiring activities.  AsJay Ackroyd said of Schneiderman yesterday in response to my praise of his actions:  “He’d best have no skeletons. None.”  It is worth keeping a watchful eye on Schneiderman’s investigative efforts and doing everything possible to provide what will undoubtedly be much-needed support if, as appears to be the case, he is serious about taking on these pernicious factions and impeding the conspiring by the political class to protect their benefactors/owners.

The title summarizes the shave, but omits the wonderful thickness and fragrance of the lather and the comfort of the iKon (though that Swedish Gillette blade must soon be switched out—I noticed in the ATG pass—and I think I’ll move to currently available blades for a while). Obsession is still a novelty to me, and I’m enjoying it.

I really think that these paramilitary police units are extremely dangerous to citizens. For example, this story reported by Philip Smith:

In a mid-morning drug raid May 5, a Pima County SWAT team executing a search warrant shot and killed a 26-year-old Afghan and Iraq war veteran after he confronted the intruders with a weapon in his hand. Jose Guerena become the 27th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year. (Actually, he was the 25th, but the Pima County Sheriff’s office has been so dilatory in releasing information that we logged two more drug war deaths before we were able add this one to the list.)

According to the initial police account, when SWAT officers broke down the door of Guerena’s home, which he shared with his wife and young child, he confronted them and opened fire. “The adult male had a long rifle, opened fire on the SWAT team. The SWAT team returned fire and the male is pronounced deceased. The woman and the child are unharmed,” said Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Ogan.

Six days later, police admitted that while Guerena, a former Marine, was holding an AR-15 assault rifle, the safety was on and he had not fired it. They also admitted that SWAT officers fired 71 rounds at Guerena in seven seconds. It was also later reported that even though Guerena’s wife called 911 as soon as he was shot and that EMTs arrived two minutes later, deputies never allowed them to treat Guerena, citing security concerns. (Recall that in the Jared Loughner mass killing in Tucson earlier this year, EMTs were allowed to treat the wounded in a matter of minutes despite the chaos of that scene.)

In an interview with KGUN9-TV, Guerena’s wife, Vanessa, explained that her husband had worked the night shift at his job at a mine and been asleep only a couple of hours when the raiders arrived. When she saw armed men in her house pointing guns at her, she said, “Please don’t shoot, I have a baby… and I yell ‘Jose! Jose! Wake up!’”

The SWAT team didn’t identify itself before breaking in her door and entering her home, Guerena said. “You’re saying [they] only yelled SWAT after the shootout?” KGUN9asked. “Oh, yes! Yes,” said Guerena.

Her husband grabbed a gun to protect himself from what he thought were home invaders, she said.

Police said Guerena’s home was one of four targeted in simultaneous raids and that a large amount of cash was found in one of them. It wasn’t Guerena’s. All they have said about what they found there was that it was “evidence pertinent to the case.”

But at a Wednesday memorial service for the veteran of deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, an attorney retained by his family, Christopher Scileppi, told FOX11-TV that Guerena was not part of any drug conspiracy. “What I do know is that they collected phones, computers the family has conveyed to me that they’re confident that there is nothing that will be of inculpatory incriminating information,” said Scileppi.

No lawsuit has yet been filed, but Scileppi is laying the groundwork. “We’ll be sending our investigators out to find out what the neighbors saw, what mutual observers saw because this was obviously a big deal certainly to the Pima County sheriff’s office,” he said.

A Central Valley community finds itself home to a state champion chess team. A very nice story indeed, and on my way to class I’m shipping them all my remaining chess books (two boxes).

UPDATE: I just talked to the principal to let her know that the books are coming. She seemed quite pleased to receive them. I gather that Mendota High School, like many schools, operates on a shoestring with precious little money for extra-curricular activities. My shipment included a good (digital) chess clock, along with an excellent book on gambits and probably a complete collection of the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, a newsletter devoted to that opening that was published a half-century or so ago.

Possibly you have some books or games or other materials that the school could use. Never stifle a generous impulse. Here’s their shipping address:

Mendota High School
1282 Belmont Avenue
Mendota, CA 93640-2667
(559) 655-1993

Eric Holder famously promised that the Department of Justice would no longer go after medical marijuana in states that had legalized it. I suppose Holder is going back on his promise because his boss, Barack Obama, has reneged on his promise regarding medical marijuana. (Details here.)

Here’s the latest raid, yesterday, reported by Philip Smith:

In the latest round of the federal assault on medical marijuana in Washington state, the Cannabis Defense Coalition reports that the DEA conducted a Wednesday afternoon raid on Medical Herb Providers, one of the few dispensaries left in the city after a flurry of federal raids last month. It’s not clear whether any other dispensaries are being targeted.

According to the CDC, a Medical Herb Provider manager reported that one employee was arrested.

The raids today and last month come as the state legislature and Gov. Chris Gregoire are struggling to come up with legislation to provide some sense of what is and is not allowed under the state’s medical marijuana law. It currently does not explicitly allow for dispensaries, but that hasn’t stopped dozens, perhaps more than a hundred, from opening.

Late last month, at least two Spokane area dispensaries were raided. Those raids came three weeks after the US Attorney for Eastern Washington, Michael Ormsby, warned the then 40 dispensaries in the area that they should shut down or face federal action.

The letter from Ormsby and a similar one from his counterpart in Western Washington, were crucial in persuading Gov. Gregoire to veto the portions of a medical marijuana patient registry and dispensary bill. They warned that state employees who licensed or registered medical marijuana businesses could be subject to federal prosecution.

Now, as Gregoire and the legislature tussle over what to do about medical marijuana, the feds are reminding everyone that they haven’t gone anywhere.

Here’s the Washington Post‘s story on Holder’s promise when he made it. I find it strange that such clear and flagrant violations of public commitments do not attract more attention in the mainstream media.

In the Vatican’s view, they have now done their job: issued some “guidelines” and told the bishops that the ball’s now in their court. I do not believe that anyone will see this as leadership or even a serious attempt to deal with the problem.

The NY Times has an editorial, for what it’s worth. But the fact is that the Catholic church seems not very interested in the problem and would just like to bury it once more.

This morning I brought forth my Vintage Blades triple-milled shaving soap and worked up a fine lather with the G.B. Kent BK4 silvertip brush. The Apollo Mikron with a Swedish Gillette blade delivered a completely smooth face in three passes, and a splash of New York aftershave set me up for my final quiz in Spanish today. (The final exam is May 31.)

The idea of the Rule of Law—that we all stand equal before the bar of justice—has been deteriorating steadily, with the powerful and wealthy increasingly insulated from the law. And, of course, Obama’s decision to protect all involved in the torture and murder of prisoners—”detainees”—in the War on Terror, despite a legal requirement that investigations be launched, brought the idea to its knees. And now the door is nailed shut: the Supreme Court refused to rule on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that any lawsuit against the government must be immediately dismissed if the government says, “State secrets privilege.”

Thus the US government is free to kidnap and torture innocent people, with no legal recourse available to the victims: “state secrets privilege” gets their cases tossed out of court. Right now the government’s focus is on terrorists and those standing close by, but these things tend to grow. American citizens are already on the “extrajudicial hit list”, to be killed out of hand, without trial or judicial review.

We’ve seen this movie before, and we know where it’s headed. Soon enough people who are critical of the government can be viewed as security risks, to be kidnapped, tortured, and buried in an anonymous grave. It happened in Argentina, and it is in the process of happening here.

More info here.

UPDATE: The deterioration of the role of the Rule of Law is plainly visible in the many public comments by wealthy, powerful individuals who are beside themselves with indignation at the idea that a wealthy, powerful man like Dominique Strauss-Kahn could be arrested because some chambermaid from Africa said she was sexually assaulted by him—indeed, ran from his room straight to hotel security for help. The class/sex/ethnic bias is so thick you can cut it with a knife, but the point is that, with the enormous socio-economic gap between the alledged miscreant and the victim, many believe that no charges should have been brought because in cases such as these the law does not apply.

Very interesting post at Transform:

There can be no question that global security is fundamentally compromised by the world’s commitment to the war on drugs. Could this fact be instrumental in bringing an end to the global prohibition?

As has been demonstrated by the recently launched Count the Costs campaign, the war on drugs detrimentally impacts on numerous policy areas – Crime, Development, Security, Health, Expenditure, Stigma and Discrimination, Human Rights and the Environment. Some of these policy paths have been well-trodden by reformers; others have witnessed almost no footfall. Whilst all of them have the potential to engage policy makers, the question we have been asking is, which of them has the potential for the most engagement and concern? We have come to the conclusion that demonstrating the negative impacts of the war on drugs on security, and bringing security and intelligence agencies into the debate, has substantial untapped potential tomove the debate forward. When current and former military and intelligence personnel critique the war on drugs or indeed, explicitly call for reform to the status quo, formerly uninterested policy makers are likely to pay attention.

Up until relatively recently it had been received wisdom that drugs, crime and insecurity were inextricably linked. As the reform agenda gains traction, it is increasingly understood that the drugs/crime nexus is created, not by primarily by drug use/misuse, but in substantially part by the the prohibitionist policy environment; the war on drugs itself.

In 2008 even the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime conceeded in a discussion paper that prohibition had created a series unintended negative consequences, including ‘vast’ criminal market. However, there is relatively little engagement in the public debate with the fact that, along with the vast criminal market there are whole regions of the world whose national security is fundamentally compromised by the war on drugs.

There have been lone voices – for example . . .

Continue reading.

An extremely pleasant shave this morning. First a generous lather from the Geo. F. Trumper Violet soap, using the Rooney Style 2. Then three passes with the Eclipse Red Ring carrying a Swedish Gillette blade, and finally a splash of Calvin Klein Obsession, which I just got. Not bad.

Interesting post at Transform Drug Policy Foundation:

The first edition of the new International Journal on Human Rights and Drug Policy is now available online in full. Produced by the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy the journal critically engages with many of the frequently neglected human rights issues raised by drug policy and law enforcement. It is also open access, so available to all. Highly recommended.

It’s an absolutely terrific movie, and now you can watch it on the Internet for free. Details here.

I don’t think the USAF makes much sense as a separate service, and in any event the USAF Academy is badly infested and doesn’t seem to be getting better. (I understand and support religion in its appropriate sphere and with appropriate recognition of the immense variety of religions, past and present, and in keeping with our Constitutional principles, which bar religious activity on the part of government institutions.)

The story sound quite familiar: big businesses collude with the government, ostensibly the regulators, to shut down information and resist pressures to make the nuclear plants safer. Businesses NEVER want to spend money to ensure the public will be safe, and they fight such expenditures with passion because the business wants profits to be as big as possible. Because businesses can offer government officials cushy jobs, regulators often shirk their responsibilities (especially since businesses increasingly control Congress and are perfectly willing to have their Congresspeople thump on regulators and, in some cases, simply block all funds to the regulating agency.

And, of course, this eventually leads to disaster, but in the meantime those who profited have profited handsomely, and by the time the disaster hits, they’ve made their pile. While they don’t especially enjoy the disaster, it really doesn’t bother them because they make sure they do not live in the danger zone, so all the bad things happen to other people, and that burden is easily borne by the sort of people who do these things.

From the NY Times article detailing how the thing works, one paragraph:

The lawsuits reveal a disturbing pattern in which operators underestimated or hid seismic dangers to avoid costly upgrades and keep operating. And the fact that virtually all these suits were unsuccessful reinforces the widespread belief in Japan that a culture of collusion supporting nuclear power, including the government, nuclear regulators and plant operators, extends to the courts as well.

Not like in the US, huh? (Just joking: it’s exactly like that here. We already know that too many spent control rods are stored in too little water in the U.S., but we are told that’s fine, things are different in the US because we don’t allow earthquakes.)

The interview is not with me, but with the proprietor of the famous Shoebox Shaving Shop. Interesting, and I’m delighted I played a small role in his success.

The custom brush is one that the Pogonotomy Forum is putting up for subscription. It’s a quite elegant horsehair shaving brush: undyed, natural bristle, 50mm loft, 20mm knot. The photo is one of three designs being considered. You can read about it in these posts:

Custom Horse shaving brush

Vote on the Custom Horse shaving brush handle

Custom brush logo proposal

And here is where you indicate your commitment to buy.

Without trying to unduly influence you, I do have a few horsehair shaving brushes, and they work fine. And this one looks to be particularly good. I’ve signed up already.

Once again I begin the day with a PWS (pretty wonderful shave): a very nice lather from Queen Charlotte Sandalwood, thanks in part to the Sabini brush. Then three quite smooth passes with the Feather stainless holding a Feather blade. Finally, a splash of Paul Sebastian (which a reader tells me is a babe magnet, but I think there must be more to it than just the fragrance—which, indeed, is extremely nice: I do like the vanilla note).

I’m ready for the day and ready to talk about preterites in Spanish…

More and more we find our government disappearing behind a cloak of secrecy—combined with a refusal to investigate even when it becomes obvious that things have gone—and are going—horribly wrong.

Jane Mayer has a good article in the New Yorker on the current activity as the government withdraws itself from public scrutiny. I found it via Glenn Greenwald, who also notes:

The Supreme Court today refused to hear an appeal from the Ninth Circuit’s decision upholding the Bush/Obama version of the “state secrets privilege” and thus denying a torture victim the right to sue in court for what was done to him (on the ground that even the torture regime — and its enabling renditions program — are far too vital of state secrets to permit judicial review).  Serwer describes the implications here.