Needlenose

Some rock bands are upset that Shrubya has been using their music to illegally torture illegal detainees.  The reporter had some fun with this one, raising the obvious question - are they more upset about the fact the music is being used without authorization to torture people illegally, or the fact that listening to their music could be preceived as torture?  He even found one self-unaware musician, Stevie Benton of Drowning Pool:

“People assume we should be offended that somebody in the military thinks our song is annoying enough that played over and over it can psychologically break someone down,” he told Spin magazine. “I take it as an honor to think that perhaps our song could be used to quell another 9/11 attack or something like that.”

Some questions weren’t posed, though.  Are they really as concerned about the use of their music in illegal torture, or the fact that the Military isn’t paying them royalties (notice RIAA-friendly Metallica not mentioned among the complainers) for the songs.   And why has it taken them so damn long to complain?

Just released (PDF):

Finding Number One

For the reasons explained below, I find that Govemor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides

“The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”

…

CONCLUSION
…
The evidence supports the conclusion that Governor Palin, at the least, engaged in “official action” by her inaction if not her active participation or assistance to her husband in attempting to get Trooper Wooten fired [and there is evidence of her active participation]. She knowingly, as that term is defined in the above cited statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use the Governorʼs office and the resources of the Governorʼs office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired. Her conduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act. That statute provides that:

“The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”

Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired. She had the authority and power to require Mr. Palin to cease contacting subordinates, but she failed to act.

…
For all the above reasons, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power as Governor in that her conduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act.

Yesterday I warned that the Repugs were cleverly ‘purging’ registration rolls again to suppress Dem turnout.  Well today, Film Critic Buddy was complaining to me that Ohio wouldn’t let him register to vote!  Film Critic Buddy, originally from New Jersey, moved to Ohio 15 months ago for work.  He’s been faithfully paying Ohio state taxes, patronizing Ohio businesses, and generally - living in Ohio.

But Ohio doesn’t want him to vote!  An African American living in Hamilton County, Film Critic Buddy noted numerous election ‘irregularities’ in a previous local election around polling places in lower income and minority neighborhoods - i.e. polling stations that closed early after running out of ballots, polling stations that opened late. 

In this election Ohio has changed the rules, to the point now where an Ohio voter can potentially register and vote in the same day.  How is that working out?

Well Film Critic Buddy has been trying to register in Ohio for over two months now.  First he filed for an absentee ballot.  That registration was rejected on a technicality - the stupid company he works for had his old address filed on his payroll records (ignoring, of course, his numerous other ‘proofs of residency’ he submitted).   He got that corrected, then tried again to register at a registrar’s office.  They wouldn’t let him vote ’same day’ because of the previous rejection, but told him that everything was in order.

Today, he just got notification that his registration was denied because there is ‘no record of his residency in Ohio’ - in spite of the fact that last year he filed his state income tax!!  Anyway he is thinking of giving up as the 30 day advance registration notice is now up, and filing for an absentee ballot in New Jersey - but I am encouraging him to contact one of the numerous groups like People for the American Way (the group I volunteered for to assist voters in 2004), which offer legal services to help get this sorted out.

Deliberate attempt to disenfranchise a voter, or just stupid bureaucracy?  It’s hard to tell unless we could see the pattern of denied registrations, but given Hamilton County’s unbelievably crappy record with ‘voting irregularities’ I’d say they are just tried to screw Film Critic Buddy out of his right to vote in this critical swing state.  I hope he takes my advice and gets some free legal help and gets some representation with his taxation!

Your government, in bed with big business interests:

Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties improperly engaged in sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday.

Once again, parody is struck dumb, wondering how it can ever top reality.

P.S. Yes, I know this obvious joke has already been made (and rightly so).

Talk about trashy! Read the full dirt on Governor & Veep Wannabe Sharah Palin’s jihad against Officer Wooten (who had a trashy breakup with Sarah’s sis) and anyone who has gotten in her way in her attempts to get him fired.

Talk about vindictive! Her vendetta makes Cheney/Rove’s smears against Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame seem tame by comparison. And if McCain wins, this bit of nastiness is just one more heart attack away from the White House! She’d probably ship Wooten off to Gitmo if she gets the chance!

Hell hath no fury like a beauty queen (whose sister has been) scorned.

Earlier today, Matt Yglesias mused about how Richard Nixon’s illegal acts caused him to be forced out of office, while any suggestion of such accountability for Dubya’s flagrant disregard for the law (for instance, regarding FISA and torture) has been marginalized or ignored as “lunatic” extremism.

Atrios offered an explanation that the Republican establishment is simply stronger now than it was then (to the point where it “is almost indistinguishable” from the Washington, D.C. establishment), but Kevin Drum took a different tack:

I agree that the David Broders of the world have been far too sanguine about the abuses of the Bush administration. At the same time, the difference here really is pretty obvious. Nixon broke the law repeatedly for purely political purposes: to help his friends, punish his enemies, and keep tabs on domestic groups he happened to personally dislike. There was no ideological dispute about the value of what Nixon did . . .

In contrast, Drum says, Bush’s lawbreaking was ideologically based:

He approved torture of prisoners and violated FISA because he genuinely thought it was necessary for national security reasons after 9/11 — and unfortunately, lots of people agreed with him at the time and continue to agree with him today. I too wish there were a broader consensus that Bush has acted illegally and ought to held accountable, but the fact that he hasn’t met Nixon’s fate doesn’t really say all that much about how tolerant we are of executive lawbreaking. Ideological disputes are simply a different kettle of fish than personal vendettas.

Kevin is already in the middle of a severe beatdown from his commenters for this claim, but I think he’s partially right, although he doesn’t grasp the exact reason why.

The whole “unitary executive” claptrap and all the other pseudo-ideological manure put out by the Bushites is simply a flimsy fig leaf over the kind of naked power grab Nixon thought was his right (indeed, Kevin seems to have forgotten that Tricky Dick tried to use “national security” as an excuse, too).

The difference now is that the petty political vendettas pursued by Nixon have been raised to the level of ideology by the modern GOP. Unrestrained use of power for its own sake is their sine qua non, their raison d’etre (and probably a bunch of other foreign phrases, too). Whatever interest they used to feign in the common good, they’ve dropped that particular mask now.

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)

After lying low until the FISA “compromise” passed the House today, he claims to oppose the immunity included in the bill for telecommunications companies who shared private data with the White House, but then says he’ll vote for the bill anyway when it comes up in the Senate.

I gather that he’s trying to unify the Democratic party after the occasionally bruising primaries by demonstrating that they nominated a Clinton after all… if not in name, at least in spirit.

Every hear of the City of Glendora? Nope, me neither. The only Glendora I could think of was Darrin’s mother on Bewitched. So you can imagine my surprise when I received a reminder to pay a citation for illegally parking on one of Glendora’s streets at 2:30A, to the tune of $40 dollars!

After getting over my shock, I checked the ‘contest this citation’ box, and sent them a nice letter, to the effect of “I live and work in San Francisco, more than 400 miles away from your community” and “the night in question the car was parked in my driveway.

So of course that didn’t work. I just got another form letter, an ‘Administrative Review’ saying that “The evidence presented does not invalidate the citation. Please submit proof that the cited vehicle was not yours.”

How do I prove such a thing? I guess ‘innocent until proven guilty’ doesn’t apply to municipal governments and parking violations. It’s not like I run some digital video of my car 24×7, just in case some wacky and possibly fictitious city tries to run some ’shakedown’ scam on me.

I did a little research and discovered the little town is running a $5 million dollar budget deficit. I bet some clever wag decided they could make up the difference by sending out tens of thousands of bogus tickets to random Californians with autos. How many folks would have any type of real evidence of their vehicle’s whereabouts in the early morning hours?

Worse, I looked at the options for an Administrative Hearing - you can do an in-person, a written or a phone hearing. Well nobody’s going to spend $200-$300 to drive 400 miles to contest a $40 ticket. I can choose one of the other two options, but I’m not sure what would constitute conclusive evidence - a written notarized letter (figure $16 at least for the notary stamp) from a neighbor saying they saw my car in the driveway at 7P when they got home (could still conceivably have driven 400 miles in that time).

And the kicker, that convinces me this is some type of LoCal Municipal scam, is the fact that I need to pay the full citation amount *in full* before the Administrative review. What if I don’t pay? California won’t register my car next year; I won’t be able to drive. Oh and of course the fact that Glendora is running a $5 million budget deficit.

It’s only $40 you say, why get so worked up? Well think about it - what’s to stop other possibly fictitious cities from shaking me down, if the Glendora Parking Scam is extremely successful? I’m sure these parking parasites have regular conventions and things, swap secrets.

But a damn clever way of balancing their budget!