Fortuna Faveat... may fortune favor us

If you don’t already think there is something rotten with the police camera systems that are going up all across the country (Kansas City, MO is putting them in as I type), try this one on for size:

As a prank, students from [Maryland] high schools have been taking advantage of the county’s Speed Camera Program in order to exact revenge on people who they believe have wronged them in the past, including other students and even teachers…Students duplicate the license plates by printing plate numbers on glossy photo paper, using fonts from certain websites that “mimic” those on Maryland license plates. They tape the duplicate plate over the existing plate on the back of their car and purposefully speed through a speed camera…The victim then receives a citation in the mail days later.Joe Slaninka
The Sentinel

The owner of the vehicle is the one that is ticketed with these cameras. So, for instance, if your car is stolen (or, as above, someone fakes your plate) and the thief runs a light, you get the ticket in the mail weeks after being burgled. Do we really need any more proof that these systems should be demolished?

Via GNN

For those who have forgotten their basic civics, the Posse Comitatus Act is a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military’s role in domestic law enforcement. Namely, they can’t take part in it. The idea originally sprung from the South wanting to get rid of the Union army after the civil war. Since then, most have agreed that it is a great way to prevent the military from overstepping its mandate (defending our borders) and it makes military coups illegal in the United States. Silly me, I still think those are good things. Enough history…

Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to domestic response — a nearly sevenfold increase in five years — “would have been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable,” Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said in remarks last month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the realization that civilian authorities may be overwhelmed in a catastrophe prompted “a fundamental change in military culture,” he said.

The Pentagon’s plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of Oct. 1, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of the U.S. Northern Command.

If funding continues, two additional teams will join nearly 80 smaller National Guard and reserve units made up of about 6,000 troops in supporting local and state officials nationwide. All would be trained to respond to a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack, or CBRNE event, as the military calls it.Spencer S. Hsu and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers

Write Congress

and/or

Call Congress

I’m with Cato Institute Vice President Gene Healy. He warned of “a creeping militarization” of homeland security. I mean, isn’t this what the National Guard is supposed to do? Perhaps this is why we shouldn’t have them guarding other nations, n’est-ce pas?

“There’s a notion that whenever there’s an important problem, that the thing to do is to call in the boys in green,” Healy said, “and that’s at odds with our long-standing tradition of being wary of the use of standing armies to keep the peace.”

Here, here, Healy! Just like when Bush suspended Habeus Corpus (see video below), we are seeing our long-standing freedoms eviscerated before our glassy eyes. Make sure you note that this is already happening. The first troops were deployed inside the United States in October. The Pentagon saw no protestors in the streets following that “soft open,” so they are now expanding their program. Don’t let this lamest-of-ducks President or the terrified flock of ducks in Congress inflict our military upon us at home. Take a moment to contact your own, personal lame duck. Use the handy form above.

Take back the reins! Demand your freedoms! Anything less is un-american!

I would totally steal from Aaron Sorkin! This speech would have worked a charm during the campaign, but it would be good to keep in your pocket for anytime when the rhetoric devolves. It would go something like this:

America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve 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 cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.

Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.

I’ve known [Sarah Palin] for years. And I’ve been operating under the assumption that the reason [Sarah] devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that [she] simply didn’t get it. Well, I was wrong. [Sarah]’s problem isn’t that [she] doesn’t get it. [Sarah]’s problem is that [she] can’t sell it!

We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you [Sarah Palin] is not the least bit interested in solving it. [She] is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who’s to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, and American values and character, and you wave an old photo of [Bill Ayers] and you scream about patriotism. You tell them [he]’s to blame for their lot in life. And you go on television and you call [Obama a terrorist].

We’ve got serious problems, and we need serious people. And if you want to talk about character, [Sarah], you’d better come at me with more than an [educational foundation board meeting] and a membership card. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and I’ll show up. This a time for serious people, [Sarah], and your fifteen minutes are up.Aaron Sorkin
Writer/Producer

I know, I know. I said no more Palin. But the election between a Presidential candidate who is one generation removed from Africa and his opponent, who’s vice presidential candidate didn’t know that “Africa” wasn’t a country, is over. I now just want to try to sound the death knell of Sarah Palin’s national political career. Whether or not the reports in the above video are true, they are believable. That is enough reason to feel the bile rise in the back of your throat.

Clearly, Alaskan’s don’t really know how to elect reputable people. First, there was Palin. Then, on Tuesday, they re-elected Ted Stevens on the heels of him being convicted on seven felony counts relating to corruption. So we are left hoping that Steven’s doesn’t resign because then Palin can appoint herself to the United States Senate. Goo! This must not be allowed to happen.

First things first, we are going to need some money. Guess where we are going to need to get it?

I haven’t been posting as much as I’d like to over the past week or so, but don’t think I’ve forgotten about you. I just want to remind you how important it is that you exercise your rights and vote tomorrow. Some of you may have already voted. Early voting is an excellent step in the right direction, removing one of the many barriers to participation in our democracy. To those who haven’t (including me), you may be in for a long wait tomorrow. More people are registered to vote this year than any year since women’s suffrage, 1920 for those scoring at home. It is worth waiting. It is worth taking a few hours away from work. This is important.

While at the polling place, you should bring along your digital camera or camcorder or whatever kind of recording device that may be handy and document your voting process. PBS and YouTube are hosting a Video Your Vote channel to host everyone’s experience. This has two huge benefits for society. First, it keeps a record of any shenanigans or voter suppression that may be going on out there (don’t ever forget what happened in 2000 and 2004). Second, it is a great way to promote active citizenry. Just make sure such recording is legal in your state.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to video my vote as Kansas is quite restrictive on cameras in the polling booth. Rest assured, any snafus I encounter will be well-documented here. Thankfully, I get to vote with a trusty No. 2 pencil. No touch-screen for me!

Finally, if you do live in a state like Kansas, i.e. a foregone conclusion, please consider voting for a prominent third party candidate in any race. This is particularly true in the presidential race. The real impact of the electoral college, for those of us with minority viewpoints in foregone states, is the enhanced responsibility to try to increase the number of voices leading our country. Our only hope for getting better candidates is to get a diversity of viewpoints into the public forum. Sure, we can all espouse on the internet, but there is a monopoly on the top of the ticket. The corporate party rules all. I’m not telling you who to vote for, but please, consider a third party candidate.

If you do video your vote, post a link to it in the comments or embed it here and let us all see how it went for you. Good luck and good voting!

Happy Halloween! Enjoy the scary reality of the bailout, compliments of Dr. Ron Paul.

Many out there are making a big deal about the fact that Palin has been “applying” for the VP job for six weeks and still doesn’t know what that job entails. While that is a valid point, the critique of Palin doesn’t go deep enough. Every citizen should know what the vice president does, let alone the governor of the largest state in the union. That is not an unreasonable expectation. I’m not asking for every one of us to be a policy wonk or to even have a firm grasp on how a bill becomes a law. My expectations of our educational system have been so diminished that I will settle for a basic understanding of the separation of powers.

Then again, Palin only seems to have become conscious of the world outside the pageant circuit (and even worse, the TV anchor circuit) during the Bush administration. She has only known a bigger world under the vader-esque power of Dick Cheney. I certainly don’t want any Vice President to have the power Cheney and his black heart (no, really) have exerted, let alone the insane expansion of power that Palin’s idiocy would suggest. This begs the question: with a role model like Cheney, can we really blame her? Let me stop you right there…yes, we can.

I just can’t picture Palin in the cloak room saying to Patrick Leahy, “fuck yourself!” In fact, the image that comes to mind when you think about Sarah Palin in the Senate is not her palling around with that bunch of corporate shills making policy. Instead, it is a bunch of patriarchs patting her on the forehead and suggesting that she get back to playing her flute and counting her oil dollars. You betcha!

I find her candidacy offensive. She is disturbingly uneducated and culturally illiterate. I think the biggest problem (and least reported issue) with Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama is his throw-away comment that implicitly gives a modicum of credence to Palin’s selection, saying, “She’s a very distinguished woman, and she’s to be admired.”

No, she is not. Her candidacy is indefensible.

Election to public office does not distinguish you. Her behavior in our modern bloodsport, in every political Coliseum across the country, is not admirable. She is an abomination.

I cannot imagine how anyone could vote for McCain knowing that she is a heartbeat away from ruling the “free” world. If you intend to do just that, please explain it to me in the comments section. I really and truly would like to understand your rational for such behavior.

After the jump, a video that Palin absolutely needs to watch and we all could use as a civics refresher course. Read more »