Equal Protection Under the Law
Courtesy of Fuse Washington, via Darcy Burner on Facebook.
Opinion and Commentary since 2003
Courtesy of Fuse Washington, via Darcy Burner on Facebook.
Have you seen it?
I hope to move my way up from “surface parking” to “valet parking”, and someday aim to join the “chairman parking” elite.
It’s good to aspire to excellence. The whole plan – is it serious? Is it a massive “f you” to the earnest people with dubious means of support who fought to halt it and its predecessor plan a few years ago?
It’s magnificent, if you agree with Xzibit:
Let me know what Harrah’s is trading at today, as that may have some bearing on how aggressively this plan will be fought.
I can call you Chris, right? I mean, after you and Carl tried to strong-arm me into getting out of the NY-26 race last year, we’re buds, right? Anyhow…
Lost amid the sound and fury of the race for the Republican nomination is how candidates Romney, Santorum, Gingrich, and even former candidates like Cain, are really focusing on issues and not engaging in race-baiting or hyperbole.
Nah, I’m just kidding. The issues are secondary. This is all about how Obama has destroyed / is about to destroy America, grandma, apple pie, and Chevrolet. Why, yesterday Obama got caught on a hot mic telling Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev the truth – that missile shield talks need to wait until after the election, at which time Obama will have “more flexibility”.
Given that Mitt Romney went on record yesterday all but demanding war against Russia, Obama’s position is a bit more sane.
So, here are some pretty awesome advertisements that Santorum and Cain’s PAC have put out in recent days. I’d call these “blatantly false propagandistic fearmongering”, but Limbaugh and his clones tell me only Democrats do that.
This one is from Rick Santorum. It’s got everything – how Obama destroyed the economy while he was President in 2008, how Ahmadinejad is going to rocket-destroy America and, like, take it over – maybe with Obama’s help, because he’s a seekrit Kenyan Mooslim!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DApjHZq9o7M]
Herman Cain isn’t going to be outdone by the patent insanity of a Rick Santorum. So, he’ll start out by displaying his hatred for “stimulus” by having a little kid kill a goldfish:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYN-Awrq3og]
And, not content with sanctioning the killing of a 10-cent fish, Cain pays for some really poor CGI showing a guy shooting a bunny rabbit in mid-air.
Because nothing says, “I disagree with Keynesian economic pump-priming” like blowing a rabbit into little bits!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdpN5C1_flQ]
Your 2012 GOP: Totally out to lunch!
And what about hip-hop music? Does listening to it “send a message” that puts “young blacks at risk”?
WTF.
In the Republican race to take on Kathy Hochul in the newly reconstituted NY-27, the main advantage Chris Collins has over David Bellavia is related to the size of his bank account, and his willingness to use it.
Not so fast.
Look for curmudgeonly Akron industrialist Jack Davis, who ran for Congress in 2006, 2008, and 2011 as a Democrat, under the “Save Jobs Party” banner, and finally as a Republican to set up a pro-David Bellavia SuperPAC within the next few days.
As we’ve seen in the presidential campaign, the SuperPAC is free to spend unlimited, undisclosed sums of money to actively support a candidate for federal office.
I suspect this isn’t good news for Mr. Collins, who was counting on obliterating Bellavia with expensive TV time and mailers.
Just a few short months ago, the voters of Erie County rejected political hobbyist Chris Collins’ bid for a second term as County Executive by an unexpectedly wide margin. Although polls showed that Poloncarz had momentum, Collins wasn’t expected to lose, and it was supposed to go past election day into absentee-counting. Neither of those things happened, and Collins was sent home.
A corporate raider with a Six Sigma fetish, Collins returned to said he was done with political life for now.
Yet now that the congressional lines have been re-drawn, Collins’ ego compels him to seek out and destroy those who have succeeded where he has failed. It was last May when Kathy Hochul pulled off an epic upset against Collins’ Spaulding Lake neighbor, Jane Corwin. There wasn’t a lot of sunlight between Corwin’s and Collins’ teams, and they ran just horrible races that relied on money. It’s the 1%’s occupational hazard.
Conservative Republican and Iraq War Veteran David Bellavia has already announced his candidacy for Congress, and his experience with the Collins crew has been rocky. Way back in 2008, Bellavia agreed to step aside to allow Chris Lee to get the Republican nod in NY-26 and run against Democrat Alice Kryzan. In exchange for that, he was promised that he’d be on deck to run next time. When the next time came around with Chris Lee’s abrupt resignation in 2011, Collins and the party apparatus strong-armed him out of the race like something out of a Sopranos episode. Specifically, Chris Collins, Carl Paladino, and Rus Thompson cornered Batavia in the back room of a coffee shop to convince, cajole, and intimidate him into quitting the race.
Bellavia isn’t stepping aside for anyone this time, and it’s expected that he’s going to take the fight to Collins with a vengeance. Collins is used to attacks from the left over things like rat control, health clinics, day care, and cultural funding. What he’s not used to – or, likely, ready for – is attacks from the right. Collins is busy telling people his values better reflect those of the new 27th district, but Bellavia is going to challenge Collins on that point, and he’s taken on tougher opponents than some gruff rich jerk.
In concluding my March 2011 post about the attempted intimidation of David Bellavia, I wrote:
Corwin is scared. Collins is scared. Paladino wants people to be scared of him. How fascinating that Chris Lee’s shirtless tranny hunting let all of WNY see that political party for what it really is.
Corwin and Collins had every reason to be scared, and Paladino’s infrequent whining-by-memo has no one afraid of him. Chris Collins is a local version of Mitt Romney, and I have a hard time believing that Republicans in WNY are going to be enthusiastic about this recent loser. Collins’ schtick may play well in Amherst and other Buffalo suburbs, but I have my doubts over how he’s going to come across in the GLOW counties.
I hope Bellavia makes it conceptually impossible for Collins ever to seek elected office again. With Michael Caputo on his team, he’ll do to Collins what Paladino did to Lazio.
Let the games begin.
Had he not been such a consistent Collins sycophant for so long, I might just feel some sympathy for Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard. After yet another episode of a dangerous detainee being mistakenly released under his tenure, there was something new in the mix – candor. The new Democratic administration and Legislature weren’t looking to place blame, but to solve the problem.
A longstanding one that’s been known for a long time.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjuXySiM_5A]
Howard and Collins had both viciously fought off any criticism from Democratic electeds and politicians like, e.g., then-Comptroller Mark Poloncarz, about hiring more staff to adequately do their jobs. This despite multiple tragic and embarrassing cases of inmate suicides, early releases, and escapes – most notable among them being Ralph “Bucky” Phillips’ escape from the Alden Correctional Facility, which resulted in three shot cops, one of whom died.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtAcb-fydFg]
Most recently, an accused attempted murderer was mistakenly released for about 20 hours on March 8th due to an epic paperwork screw-up. Howard was brought before an Erie County Legislature committee to explain what happened. Now unshackled by any loyalty to the Collins crew, Howard was uncharacteristically forthcoming. He blamed the screw-up on overworked deputies and clerks, many of whom were on their third consecutive 16-hour day. Some had made mistakes when entering information from the court, and rebuffed questions about the release from a newer clerk.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idd3STYUCAY]
Legislative chairwoman Betty Jean Grant asked Howard whether the Sheriff’s Department had asked for more staff to rectify this issue.
Undersheriff Mark N. Wipperman said yes and that the former county executive punished the department for the request.
“We asked for seven additional records clerks at $13.18 an hour for the 2011 budget, and the executive reponded by cutting all of our secretaries, administrative clerks, and eliminating management positions and reducing my salary,” Wipperman said.
Get that? Collins’ relentless push for “efficiency” and “running government like a business” resulted in punishing the Sheriff’s office for asking for adequate staffing.
In answer to Hogues’ and Grant’s questions on what steps have been taken to prevent further mistakes on improper inmate releases, Howard said:
- Paperwork from State Supreme Court and Erie County Court on inmates is now immediately entered into the jail’s computer records once it is sent over from the courts.
- Efforts have been increased to speed up the activation of a new universal computer system that would electronically transfer the most recent court actions inputed by court clerks, eliminating the need for those records to be manually updated by sheriff’s records clerks.
In addition, Howard said the state’s Commission on Corrections, which oversees local jails, will meet at 2 p.m. Monday with his department to review its final draft of a staffing-needs analysis of the sheriff’s jail management division.
That document is expected to require the county to hire 60 to 80 new employees, both civilian and sworn personnel, to meet the manpower needs of the downtown Buffalo Holding Center and county Correctional Facility in Alden.
What we’re learning is that the Collins-Romney Six Sigma, “run government like a corporate raider” ideology is an abject failure. The needs and goals of government services like running a jail and policing the community cannot be held to the standards of the American private sector.
Just because a corporate worker is overworked, underpaid, given few benefits, and threatened daily with outsourcing doesn’t mean that’s any way to run a Sheriff’s Department.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnc1Uqur02w]
Imagine your 17 year-old kid is at home watching college basketball, and during a break in the action he goes to the 7-11 to get some iced tea and Skittles. On his way back, as he’s walking through the apartment complex, he sees a hulking man in an SUV, talking on the phone and staring ominously at him. Your kid stops and checks the guy out. Something doesn’t fit here. It’s scary. In fact, your kid is on his own phone with his girlfriend. She tells him to run. He says no, he’s just going to walk fast. After all, while he’s scared of this weird guy in the truck, he’s not doing anything wrong.
The man gets out of his car and starts chasing your kid. Your kid runs too, but he’s no match for his larger predator. They end up wrestling on the ground. The whole neighborhood hears the tussle, and calls to 911 are made. On one of the calls, your kid’s voice is clear as a bell, screaming, pleading for help – for this unprovoked attack to stop. Suddenly, a shot rings out. The 911 caller gets away from the window. The screaming has ended abruptly. Your child is lying on the ground, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, bleeding from his chest.
He’s shot by a guy with a police record involving violence; a part-time rent-a-cop security guard. A guy who packs a 9mm while running a neighborhood watch in a gated apartment complex.
I mean, there had been 8 break-ins at the complex in recent months, all allegedly done by young black kids. Trayvon Martin was a young black kid. Ipso facto, right?
When the cops come and find the shooter and your dead kid, the shooter is taken into custody for an investigation to take place, but he’s quickly released. You see, you live in Florida, and the self-defense statute has been amended to take away any requirement that the person claiming self-defense first retreat before using deadly force; under this new rule, drafted and promoted by the powerful gun lobby, a gun owner can “stand his ground”.
Meanwhile, your kid is dead on the ground – armed only with an Arizona iced tea and Skittles – for the crime of, at worst, looking at someone funny.
Trayvon Martin wasn’t breaking any law when he was shot and killed. And when all the nonsense shakes out, we’ll quickly learn that this case doesn’t really invoke the much-criticized “stand your ground” law. Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, didn’t “stand his ground”; he affirmatively chased Martin down before shooting him. He was a predator hunting what he called “f*cking coons” on his 911 call to Sanford Police – the same police department that instructed Zimmerman to not pursue Martin.
It’s not just the facile prejudice that Zimmerman had about a black kid wearing a hoodie that’s distressing here; Martin, after all, had every right to be in the complex – he was at his father’s apartment there.
There was no moral or legal justification for this homicide. In fact, the police department here appears to have interfered with its own investigation – to call it a cover-up isn’t out of line. As witnesses recounted their stories – some said the shooter yelled “help”, others said it was Martin, the police on the scene made sure to “correct” them and insist that it was Zimmerman who yelled for help.
Help from what – a kid who weighed 100 lbs less, who had tried to flee from him?
“Stand your ground” may indeed be a horribly misguided law that has led to terrific difficulty in prosecuting gun crimes in Florida, but this case doesn’t even invoke that statute.
I think it’s pretty clear that George Zimmerman committed a murder. He shot and killed a kid who was unarmed and unable to harm him. He had no reasonable fear of imminent death or severe bodily harm – he had subdued his victim to the point where Martin was screaming for help.
The shot to the chest shut him up, and now the only criminal running around that gated apartment community is its own self-appointed “neighborhood watch captain”.