RANT: Yet another example of the irreversibility of the death penalty

Thursday, March 19, 2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/letter-from-witness-casts-further-doubt-on-2004-texas-execution/2015/03/09/d9ebdab8-c451-11e4-ad5c-3b8ce89f1b89_story.html

A dad was executed for deaths of his 3 girls. Now a letter casts more doubt.
By Maurice Possley, The Marshall Project March 9

*** begin quote ***

CORSICANA, Tex. — More than a decade after Cameron Todd Willingham was executed for the arson murder of his three young daughters, new evidence has emerged that indicates that a key prosecution witness testified in return for a secret promise to have his own criminal sentence reduced.

In a previously undisclosed letter that the witness, Johnny E. Webb, wrote from prison in 1996, he urged the lead prosecutor in Willingham’s case to make good on what Webb described as an earlier promise to downgrade his conviction. Webb also hinted that he might make his complaint public.

Within days, the prosecutor, John H. Jackson, sought out the Navarro County judge who had handled Willingham’s case and came away with a court order that altered the record of Webb’s robbery conviction to make him immediately eligible for parole. Webb would later recant his testimony that Willingham confessed to setting his house on fire with the toddlers inside.

*** end quote ***

As a pro-life pro-choice little L libertarian, here’s a great example of the Gooferment being immoral, ineffective, and inefficient!

Why bother with trials?

Just let the Gooferment kill whomever it wants.

Saved the taxpayers a lot of unnecessary expense.

Argh!

How can anyone not be outraged.

Life without parole is the best that society can do. We are not all-knowing gods.

Bring back Devil’s Island, Alcatraz, and such.

At least then when the mistake is made, there is some possibility to make amends.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

1 Comment | Ranting | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

SECURITY: Unauthorized iPad and iPhone

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2015/03/state-dept-source-hillary-likely-used-unauthorized-ipad-iphone-as-sec-of-state/

State Dept. Source: Hillary Likely Used Unauthorized iPad, iPhone as Sec. of State
MARCH 10, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Clinton’s persistent efforts to persuade the State Department’s technology security experts to approve the use of her favorite Apple devices led those in the division to conclude that she did in fact go through with it. “My guess is she did it and wanted approval after the fact,” JW’s source said. “But no waivers were ever issued.” JW reached out to the State Department for a comment on this latest potential scandal surrounding its former leader, but failed to get a response.

*** end quote ***

For the “little people”, you do this and you get fired.

For the “big people”, “what difference does it make?”

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

 

Lead Independent Director of Tiptree Financial 

Leave a Comment » | SECURITY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

RANT: Nothing about age?

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

FROM A RECENT ONLINE JOB AD I SAW

“All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status. EEO/AA/M/F/Disabled/Vets”

# – # – # – # – # 

I guess fat old white guy injineers can be discriminated on by age?

# – # – # – # – # 

Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: Against the use of military force

Monday, March 16, 2015

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/03/11/open-letter-to-members-congress-about-authorization-to-use-military-force/?intcmp=ob_homepage_opinion&intcmp=obnetwork

Ten reasons to vote against the use of military force
By Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Published March 11, 2015 FoxNews.com

*** begin quote ***

7. A Solution: Follow ISIS’ money, and shut it down.Where is ISIS getting its money? Up to 100,000 ISIS fighters are funded by Gulf State donors, identified in the past as being from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. Fully equipping and providing for one modern combat-ready soldier can cost $850,000 to $1,000,000 a year. ISIS’ army could be gaining $85 billion to $100 billion a year from various sources. We can either commit the U.S. military to another war, and the U.S. to further risk of impending attacks through the genesis of a new crusade, or we can fight this threat with intelligent power and high technology.

The administration must identify the specific sources of ISIS’ money, the individuals, the nations and the means of transfer, and shut them all down. It must sanction countries and individuals, tie up their bank accounts and commercial activities, freeze their assets and cancel their credit cards. Send platoons of accountants from the Treasury Department and the IRS into the fray, not platoons of U.S. soldiers. The U.S. must track oil sales, sales of antiquities and other valuables. Anyone involved in any transactions of any kind with ISIS must be identified and sanctioned. 

*** end quote ***

I don’t often agree with a Liberal Leftie, but in this case, I think he’s correct.

“Not my monkey; not my circus.”

The fact that our alledged ally, Saudi Arabia, is funding this to keep their own power is crazy.

Bring the girls and boys home. Tell the “bad guys”, you “mess with us and we’ll nuke ya”!

Argh!

Dona Nobis Pacem

# – # – # – # – # 

1 Comment | Political | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Amtrak operating “without official funding authorization”?

Monday, March 16, 2015

http://www.economics21.org/commentary/PRRIA-2015-amtrak-reform-subsidies-privatization-2015-03-06

Amtrak Bill Continues History of Wasted Subsidies
Matthew Sabas | 03/06/2015 

*** begin quote ***

Four Decades of Failure

Congressional Republicans were elected on a platform of cutting spending, but taxpayers will continue to pay for Amtrak’s losses for at least 5 more years if a bill that just passed the House becomes law. Can’t Congress do better?

Amtrak has cost the government over $45 billion in subsidies over the last 44 years, allowing it to finance the upkeep of unprofitable routes, overstaffed trains, and the mismanagement of its food services.

The bipartisan Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2015 would subsidize Amtrak by an estimated $7 billion from 2016 to 2020. It passed the House by 316 votes to 101 votes on Wednesday and is now headed to the Senate and, presumably, President Obama’s signature. Amtrak has been operating without official funding authorization since the previous bill expired in October 2013.

*** end quote ***

How can it operate without an “official funding authorization”?

Why pass anything?

It’s a sad state of affairs just how “law-less” we have become.

The Dead Old White Guys must be rolling over!

# – # – # – # – # 

Leave a Comment » | GOVEROTRAGEOUS | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

SECESSION: NY towns want to move to PA

Sunday, March 15, 2015

http://nhindependence.org/video-southern-tier-towns-looking-to-cut-ny-ties/

Southern Tier towns looking to cut NY ties
Posted on Mar 6, 2015

*** begin quote ***

The local economy is pushing one organization in Upstate New York to pose a question: Is it possible to secede to Pennsylvania?The Upstate New York Towns Association is researching this very topic. The group says a few factors pushing its research are high property taxes, low sales tax revenue and the recent decision to ban hydraulic fracturing in New York.“The Southern Tier is desolate,” said Conklin Town Supervisor Jim Finch (R). “We have no jobs and no income. The richest resource we have is in the ground.”Finch said the ground in Conklin is rich with natural gas in the Marcellus Shale. However, that shale is unable to be tapped. He described this ban as a violation of his natural rights as a property owner.

*** end quote ***

This is a good sign.

Vote with your feet if you can.

Vote to secede if you can’t.

# – # – # – # – # 

Leave a Comment » | SECESSION | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: A gold Drachma?

Saturday, March 14, 2015

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/03/frank-hollenbeck/deadly-government-labs/

Five Steps to Fixing Greece’s Debt Problem
By Frank HollenbeckMises.org
March 5, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Step Five: Fix the New Drachma to Gold

Gold has many drawbacks, but gold’s primary advantage lies in the fact that it constrains current and future governments from using the printing presses to finance government expenditures. Once the tie to the euro is broken, Greece should then fix its new currency to gold. Even though Greece has no significant gold reserves, it can follow the example of Germany in 1923 when a broke Germany slowly returned to a gold standard by first fixing its money to non-gold commodities (i.e., rye bread in the German case).

By instituting true austerity and freeing the banking sector from the euro and the EU, Greece could go from being the example to avoid to the example to emulate in a relatively short period of time. With such a financial structure, Greece would benefit from long-term financial and economic stability. It would force Greece to make hard choices up front, thus avoiding later problems in the first place.

*** end quote ***

I’d want some of them. Or any hard money currency tied to something!

As a non-enconmist, I’d assume that there would be a capital inflow with a hard money currency.

Akin to the Swiss Franc, that’s becoming a proxy for a strong fiat currency.

And, if Russia or China do it, then that is the end of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

Whatever happened to the gold dinar?

Remember what happened to Saddam when he made noises about wanting to be paid in gold for his oil?

# – # – # – # – # 

Leave a Comment » | MONEY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Government Labs need pruning

Friday, March 13, 2015

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/03/felix-bronstein/deadly-government-labs-2/

I’m From A Government Lab, And I’m Here To Help You
By Felix Bronstein
March 5, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Among other things, FBI’s handling of evidence in such cases as the Oklahoma City and the 1993 World Trade Center bombings was criticized.  The investigation came about as a result of a whistleblower, Frederic Whitehurst, Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI Crime Lab.  In 2003, an investigation by the Associated Press showed that “the FBI lab, which reformed itself after a mid-1990s scandal over bad science, is grappling with new problems that have opened its work on lead bullets and DNA analysis to challenges … .”  The IG began an investigation, which eventually broadened to the FBI’s DNA analysis unit.  In May of 2003, a man who spent 10 years in prison had his conviction overturned “because an FBI scientific expert gave inaccurate testimony and withheld evidence.”  In the summer of 2003, the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility began investigating its crime lab’s chief of scientific analysis, Steven Burmeister, regarding his conduct in the Oklahoma City bombing case.  Burmeister initially claimed that the crime lab mishandled evidence, but then retracted that statement, allegedly under pressure.  In July of 2014, it was revealed that the task force the Department of Justice created in 1996 to identify cases involving “fabricating evidence and reaching conclusions unsupported by science” and other mishandling by the FBI acted very slowly.  A number of defendants were never informed that their convictions were based on such evidence, and at least 3 death row inmates were executed before they could be informed of this.  “Nearly every criminal case reviewed …  as part of [an] investigation started in 2012 of problems at the FBI lab has included flawed forensic testimony from the agency.”  The FBI then stopped the review of its hair and fiber analysis unit until the July 2014 report came out.

In November of 2014, charges against several defendants were dismissed and prison sentences were vacated as a result of an FBI agent allegedly “tampering with drug and gun evidence.”  In December of 2014, an audit revealed that “F.B.I. agents in every region of the country have mishandled, mislabeled and lost evidence.”  Also in December, a General Accounting Office inquiry found that the “FBI’s genetic tests didn’t nail anthrax killer.”  This corroborated prior investigations that found problems with how the FBI and its lab concluded that Bruce Ivins was the Amerithrax killer.

Perhaps the next time someone states that we must always only look to the federal government when truly important matters of science, safety, objectivity, justice, national security and transparency are concerned, one may take a pause, and consider these (and other similar) cases.

*** end quote ***

I have long ranted that the Gooferment is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient.

Here’s another example.

How do we shut this stuff down?

Does anyone believe anything that comes from them?

I don’t.

I used to. 

But, they have lost ALL credibility.

# – # – # – # – # 

Leave a Comment » | GOVEROTRAGEOUS | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: End the Government’s Postal Monopoly

Thursday, March 12, 2015

http://www.cato.org/blog/after-eight-years-losses-end-governments-postal-monopoly

MARCH 2, 2015 4:34PM
After Eight Years of Losses, End the Government’s Postal Monopoly
By DOUG BANDOW

*** begin quote ***

The United States Postal Service lost $5.5 billion last year. That is the eighth annual loss in a row and the third highest ever. The only good news is that it remains below the red ink tsunami of $15.9 billion in 2012.

Why does the federal government deliver the mail? Why does it have a monopoly over delivering the mail?

The Postal Service one of the few government programs with actual constitutional warrant. Alas, America’s revolutionaries turned the system into a fount of federal patronage.  Local postmasters became perhaps the president’s most important appointments. The Postmaster General was a member of the Cabinet from 1829 to 1971.

*** end quote ***

Obviously, it’s a patronage boondoggle.

End the monopoly now.

Interesting that the PO is using FedEx and UPS to deliver to the PO’s and FedEx and UPS are using UPS to deliver to end Users.

Stop it all now.

# – # – # – # – # 

Leave a Comment » | Political | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

RANT: OU expells two students for leading a racist chant; shreds the First Amendment!

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/03/10/what-speech-is-going-to-justify-expulsion-next/

The Volokh Conspiracy
What speech is going to justify expulsion next?
By Eugene Volokh March 10 at 2:14 PM  

*** begin quote ***

Oklahoma University President David Boren has expelled two students for leading a racist chant. These students’ speech was indeed quite repugnant, but for reasons I discuss here, it’s protected by the First Amendment.

*** end quote ***

“America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can’t just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the “land of the free”.” — President Andrew Shepherd played by Michael Douglas in “The American President” (1995)

Seems pretty OBVIOUS:

(1) Oklahoma University is a Gooferment Skrule!

(2) The OU Prez punished the students and the frat for their speech.

The First Amendment has been violated!

Using the liberal’s favorite movie, “defend that”!

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »