The Breadth Of Politics

Kudos to the RNC for putting the “party” back in “tea party.”

And who knew that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was also their policy on political expenses?

square1,
.
Shouldn’t that be “Don’t Care If You Ask, I Ain’t Telling”?

I used to occasionally go to a strip club in Portland because you could get steak and eggs for breakfast for $3. Maybe they have cheap food, and the RNC bought $2000 worth of cheap food.

In defense of the RNC, the breathless reporting on the expenditures for travel and hotels lacks any context (e.g. how many people flew to an event or stayed in a hotel. $15k at the W Hotel? Is that for 15 or 150 people?

Thank you MIchael for taking up the baton on demonizing the Republican Party from Ms Tumulty. This needs to be exposed.
.
But, have you heard anything about JOBS? Is there a plan in the works to stimulate more jobs growth from the Obama Administration?
.
I realize that TIME.com is challenging the National Enquirer for readership, but do you think you could also report on the progress being made to decrease unemployment in this country?

Haha, is that a Sassy’s shout out?

Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t tip excessively.

Is this the straw that broke Steele’s back? [oh gosh, I opened up a can, didn't I?]

I suspect that Steele will be gone shortly even if he knew nothing of the expenditures because he is a clown anyway, and black. In the right wing clown is ok, black is not except on voting days.

MS enjoyed your article on the Afghan excursion. Kind of cloak and daggerish, It would seem exhausting to me. What are the press seats like on AF1? Can you sleep? Anyway, welcome back.

“In defense of the RNC, the breathless reporting on the expenditures for travel and hotels lacks any context (e.g. how many people flew to an event or stayed in a hotel.”
.
Very true, these expenditures when viewed without context are almost always misleading.
.
However, it hard to justify spending donor money to visit a strip club. And even if this was not Michael Steele which him and RNC are denying it was, it calls into question whom at the RNC is supposed to make expenitures are appropriate. That person as well as the person(s) that expenses this need to be fired.

At least Michael Steele is trying to help some nice girls pay for college.

We definately need to get to the bottom of this. Or we could compare these expenditures to say, the cost of just one of Nancy P’s flights across the country, or the cost of Michelle’s 23 member personal staff.
.
Just another diversionary tactic, I doubt very seriousely that the American people will put much stock into it. What’s a few thou compared to the trillions this administration is putting us and our descendants on the hook for.
.
Interesting, the mention of a Lesbian” themed night club. Is it proper for such a politically correct party to make that distinction? Oh, only if it’s done by conservatives. I get it.

There was no channel changing. CBS broadcast motorcross from noon to 1pm (EDT), followed by a college basketball special and then the MSU-Tenn game at 2pm.

Yeah, my son who plays baseball went to a Hooter’s without my knowledge and came back raving about the “service” and the fries.
.
I called while he was there and he said the team had gone to a “fast food restaurant” “kinda like McDonald’s”.
.
We’re NOT gonna let him live that down…

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again:
Corruption or inappropriate actions are neither liberal nor conservative.
.
They are just bad decissions.
.
During the Clinton years Republicans tried to make it out that being unfaithful to your wife is a Democratic thing.
.
If so, lesbian bondage has got to be a Republican thing.
.
Even being as Kosher as they can come, like Michael Steel is very Kosher to the Republican platform, they do at least as many dumb things that Democrats have done.

destor,
.
It’s not s “strip club”… it’s a “college financial aid” establishment.
.
It’s ALL about the presentation and framing, doncha know…

“Is there a plan in the works to stimulate more jobs growth from the Obama Administration?”
.
Well, the growth being stimulated here isn’t the type of part I really think money should be spent to stimulate the growth of.
.
I really do not believe anybody should be spending money to stimulate Michael Steel’s private sector.
.
I think Obama is tied up in grudge match with Republicans right now and can’t get very much done.

Priceless and not surprising.

At least we now know that some Republicans are normal, some of them get into the freaky stuff too. They’re not ALL super uptight about condemning sexuality some of them actually have their own [highly repressed in all probability] sexuality. Hahahaha.

afguy: It could have been worse, like this lesbian themed bondage bar or a gay bar. Hooter’s is pretty tame. I’ve been to regular bars where the girls dress in far sluttier clothing.

I’d be far more worried about a lot of other things like drinking and driving, not if my son likes chicks with boobs, tight shirts and wearing hotpants or not (which is normal by the way).

Thanks. Long trip. I count 28 hours on the plane, 6 hours on the ground. Sleep not easy, but hard to complain about flying steerage aboard Air Force One. Hope to have another story on the trip up soon.

2thirdsrocks,
You missed it.
.
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/03/29/michael-steele-living-large/?cpage=1#comment-151234
.
KT explained:
3x: I have several times, including this:
.
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/03/12/air-pelosi-uh-not-so-much/
.
Read more: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/03/29/michael-steele-living-large/?cpage=1#ixzz0jait2xWC
.
Long story short, Nancy did not take AF1. She took the same kind of plane as Dennis Hastert. Hastert took many more flights. She hasn’t been abusive with it. Hastert, although using it much more often, was not really abusive with it, either.
.
It’s a non-story.

Nancy’s airplane has been done and found to be wanting

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_nancy_pelosi_order_up_a_200-seat.html

and Michelle’s staff is almost identical in size to Laura Bush’s

http://m.factcheck.org/2009/08/michelle-obamas-staff/

2thirdsrocks,
Whitewater, a huge federal expenditure to prove that the Clintons lawfully and honestly lost their shirts on a real estate deal is a diversionary tactic.
.
This is another case, at this point Republican, misusing funds which, in this case, were donated to the Republican party which takes a very strong political stance about homosexuals.
.
Apparently gay marriage is just fine if both of the ladies are attractive.
.
It is not about all Republicans.
.
Most progressives agree that the more time looking at health care reform and what it does and does not do, the better it is for Democrats.
.
So, I, personally, do not believe looking at this funny story is going to help anybody at all in either party.

“Thank you MIchael for taking up the baton on demonizing the Republican Party…”
.
Shorter Rusty, “Mommmmmm! They’re picking on me again!”
.
Not that I’m against hearing about the Administration’s plans for job growth. I’d very much like to hear about that. Its just that I’m capable of discussing multiple topics at the same time without going into apoplexy when its something that’s contrary to my ideology.
.
Oh and, “But Mommmmmm! Nancy did it, too!” wouldn’t be a defense even if it was true. Which it is not.

Oh, I know Hooter’s, as we went there after a game in St. Louis because it was right down the street from the hotel where we stayed.
.
Just his reaction to the experience was the “hoot” (as it were)…
.
They were 14 at the time and the coaches forgot to ask if it was OK with the other parents.

Lesbian may be slightly more relevant to the Republicans who are supported by the anti-homosexual rights community that may find the idea of them going to a Lesbian strip club even more abhorrent. Outside the bible belt, I doubt that most people reading the word would think of anything other than “wait, Lesbian? What’s that address again?”

m0mentom0ri,
.
To Rusty’s credit, 2thirdsrocks was the one who brought it up.
.
It is with me that he says:
“Mommmmmm! They’re picking on me again!”
.
To go onto a website where you are in tiny minority for your opinions, you need to either:
.
1) Be thick skinned and have a sense of humor about yourself.
2) Be very respectful of others
.
Or
.
Be incredibly thick skinned since if you are rude to others they may choose to be rude back.

Steele must be hanging out at the bondage club to prepare himself for the whipping the Dems are going to give his candidates in Nov.

This never would have happened when Ken Male-Man Mehlman was running the RNC.

If you want to see women at there best without even paying anything, come to Manhattan on Halloween.
.
The most uptight twenty something business women in their twenties wear skimpiest outfits, they don’t ask for tips and are all over town.
.
Hey, I’m too cheap for a strip club.

Looks like a political consultant was the one who got reimbursed for the expense…

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/29/california-republican-returning-rnc-money-after-racy-club-visit/?fbid=_piOcjFVVEj

Question still is: Why did the RNC reimburse him? Was he playing host? If so, to whom?

afguy-

Well they certainly should have asked. I would say “Heck yeah!” I’m not homophobic or anything, but I fail to see how it could be bad to expose a teenage guy to some hot girls.

Seriously though there may be parents who don’t want their children exposed to that (as if high school hallways don’t do that already) and the coaches certainly should have fully disclosed everything to make sure parents were ok with it.

Now that you mention it, misspending their own money is so much better than cutting phone lines in New Hampshire.
.
I think I like Steel.

“To Rusty’s credit, 2thirdsrocks was the one who brought it up.”
.
Oh, I know. I was just trying to lightly ruffle the feathers of two birds with one nerf-covered, very light stone.
.
(Euphemism edited so as not to imply a violent intent to readers that might be over sensitive.)

“The most uptight twenty something business women in their twenties wear skimpiest outfits, they don’t ask for tips and are all over town.”

Sounds like a trip worth taking.

Not only would some object, it might have made the phony baloney local 10 o’clock news on a slow day…”teen baseball team entertained at sex club…details at 10″.
..
Never mind that Hooters is innocuous and whose most loyal demographic would be 14 year old males recently graduated from McDonalds burgers to more sophisticated burgers and atmosphere.

That’s for sasquatch and afguy. Can’t seem to remember the reply to this comment button. Getting senile, obviously long past my days of being impressed by Hooters.

Image the gas. The efflux of which would cause atmospheric H2S and methane (CH4) to climb by maybe 40%.

I’m sure that your compatriots will stand firm against any effort to pass legislation that encourages the creation of middle class jobs.
.
Why am I so sure?
.
Axe Jim Bunning…

His job is secure James.
.
After all, just who else would they pick to salve the consciences (?!) of the ignorant populating that netherland far beyond my right fingertips?
.
I mean, er, uh, kaff, kaff…

Absolutely.
.
Go to the suburbs and the housewife puts on a witches hat. for Halloween.
.
Go to Boston and half the people dressed up are gay dudes.
.
In New York, the more straight laced she is in real life, the less she wears for Halloween.
.
Women by the thousands wearing half of their clothes and not wanting money!
.
I highly recommend Manhattan on Halloween.

Hell’s bells, 2/3rds?
.
Why weren’t you in on this? Looks like “taking back America” isn’t going all that well for you teabaggers.
.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/29/michigan.arrests/index.html?hpt=T2
.
Oh, and joy:
.
I guess since Lamar Alexander says we need to respect your “anger”, doesn’t that mean we have to respect Al-Queda, too?

dundedin

The sad part is whether it mattered or not. You go to Afghanistan you see the faces of these “kids” more or less, defending the homeland protecting the Afghanis and the most AMAZING thing you can pick from that is that they changed the channel. It does not even compute on the radar Of Michael “Show me your tats” Steele faux pas. Just another snarky remark from the one and only M.S. Sigh

And in real news today–here’s an example of a sterling Clinton addition to the judiciary:
.
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2010/03/29/03-73648.pdf
.
What is it about Dem judges and coddling criminals?

It’s a Christian Al Qada!
.
This seems to happen every few years that somebody in this country begins to think that the government is Satan and, since it’s for God, they can plot carnage.
.
Does Europe have this?
.
Are there people in Europe wanting to bring back the Knights Templar, or is the United States more fertile ground for insane people to take up weapons?

Ask a lawyer.
.
The judge’s hands were tied.
.
You can not receive a higher penalty for a crime if you are convicted before the higher penalty is the law.
.
If they outlaw blogwhoring in 2015, a blogwhore stops his blogwhoring in 2014, should he be fined in 2015?
.
You can’t do that.
.
A Republican appointed judge would have done the same thing.
.
It sucks, but it’s the constitution.

read the case, a Bush judge dissented, and ex post facto is not an issue here
.
Once again, what is it with Clinton judges and favoritism towards criminals?

It’s so predictable. Every time the gopers get caught doing something sleazy rusty wants to change the subject. Every single time.
.
Watch him do it the next time the gopers do something stupid. Rusty will post “Bla bla bla. But why aren’t we talking about [a totally different subject that gets the spotlight off of republican failed policies or bad behavior]…”
.
Of course you won’t see him trying to change the subject when the Dems are being criticized — just when gopers are.

I am not going to read sixty something pages.
.
Have an article of one or two pages?
.
Was the Appointee Sara Palin or Dan Quayle?
.
I do actually work when I work from home.
.
I can assure you that Clinton does not like criminals nor do his judges.
.
Well, then again, the Clinton’s never even supported W’s impeachment. So, I guess Dennis Kucinich is the one who really hates criminals.

“I count 28 hours on the plane, 6 hours on the ground.”
.
MS, in all seriousness, what do you gain from accompanying the president on such a trip? At least, what that wouldn’t be gained by observing his speech on the telly? Did you have a chance to talk to the troops, go off-base etc?
.
I was struck more by the following than the cliched republican-perv line:
.
“… so that NCAA basketball would show in the background as President Obama shook hands, not motorcross, which had been playing.”
.
You’re saying the troops were more into the m-cross, and the optics of Obama the baller was what led to the switch? Were their groans from the crowd, did they care? There’s much that could be said about class, the poor kids out there fighting for the elites back in DC.

‘…the Republican National Committee’s tortured explanation of the nearly $2,000 someone spent on “meals”…’

Have they reported who what they had to eat?

Spob — The man pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a minor and was sentenced to 8 months in jail. This is hardly “coddling.” If you think it is coddling, reflect that it occurred in 1988, late in the Reagan administration. Of course, the criminal matter was handled in state court in Oregon, so there’s no telling from whom the judge who handed out the sentence got his job. But then, partisan politics wasn’t involved at all back then. This was just another felony case to move along and plea-bargain away if at all possible. And that’s just what happened.
.
The issue before the Ninth Circuit was an extremely technical one. I’ve only skimmed the opinions, but I have some familiarity with the principles involved, and it’s hard to declare either side “right” when things get that complicated. The Ninth Circuit is known as a hotbed of liberals, and it’s entirely possible that the Supreme Court, in the unlikely event it is asked to take the case and agrees to do so, will come to the opposite result. And then their decision will be “right” by definition, because there’s no higher court. But there will still be good arguments on both sides. I read enough of the opinions to be able to tell that.
.
Meanwhile, here’s a guy who committed a crime almost a quarter-century ago, served his time, and apparently has kept his nose clean ever since. In 2003 the immigration officials decided that he could be deported under the provisions of three statutes, the earliest enacted in 1990, for something he did BEFORE any of them were law. Although, technically, deportation is not a criminal proceeding and therefore is not subject to the Constitution’s prohibition of ex post facto laws (you’re right on that point), deporting someone in 2003 (or later) for something he did in 1988, at a time when it was not a deportable offense, still seems just a bit unfair, no matter what he may have done — and been punished for — in the past.
.
Judges have to decide the cases before them. It’s plain that the US no longer wants people like this guy hanging around the country and will deport them if they’re not citizens. But the law did not provide for deportation in 1988, and the court condluded that Congress did not make his offense retroactively deportable. And that’s really all the majority judges say. I don’t see that as coddling, any more than it’s coddling to dismiss charges because of a constitutionally defective search, or because the statute of limitations ran, or because of a variety of other “technicalities.” The Government has to play by the rules. If some bad guy goes free, that’s the price we pay.
.
This case isn’t a political case. It’s a legal dispute. Let it lie.

BTW, isn’t spending 2gs at ‘lesbian-themed nightclub[s]‘ the reason why most of these goons go into the business in the first place? $ & women/men/boys.

Now that Scherer mentions it, television sets are just as interesting as lesbian-themed bondage clubs.

You are such a predictable, whiny, little b-tch, spob.
.
Your legal “analysis” always begins and ends with the outcome you desire. Criminals should get the worst punishment or administrative decision imaginable, or a judge is “coddling” the criminal. Damn the law.
.
Discrimination suits are frivolous, unless it is a white person bring the suit for “reverse discrimination,” in which case there is no legitimate reason to deny them summary judgment in their favor. Damn the law.
.
The accused are presumptively guilty. Damn the law.
.
Democratic-appointed judges are morons. Republican-appointed judges (in this case, pro-torture-memo author and Republican hack Jay Bybee) are, by definition, infallible.
.
You are entitled to your pathetically childish and predictable political opinions. But why you think anyone else wants to read them is beyond me.

Gee, bobell, you sure are sympathetic to criminals who have sex with 10 year old girls–are you angling to be an Obama judge, like for example, Judge Chatigny, who thinks that sexual sadists shouldnt be convicted of murder due to their sexual sadism. (Yeah, he said that.)
.
In this case, the Ninth utterly failed to give Chevron deference. And as a result, they are keeping a child rapist here in the US.

I’d missed your comment Dunedin. Hopefully MS can clarify his pt.

C’mon. The only reason this is a story is because it’s funny. It’s funny. There’s no reason to get sanctimonious about it, because if we’re honest a little first-class ride and an occasional titty show is really no big deal for full-grown adults. There’s nothing illegal or unethical here, no misuse of taxpayer funds. In a couple days, we’ll have had our chuckles and moved on to the next story, forgotten for the most part…except by one critical segment: Republican donors.
.
Boy, the donors must be piss’d. To see what their money is being spent on. The last few months we’ve seen the RNC severely underperforming in fundraising, despite the so-called enthusiasm gap, with the DNC numbers coming out way ahead. This was even despite that the last few months, with Scott Brown and before health care turned around, and Democrats demoralized, the RNC still wasn’t pulling in the numbers. Because these stories of wasted funds were getting back to the Republican donors, even when they weren’t making big media stories.
.
It’ll be interesting to see the fundraising numbers for March, April and May. With depressed GOP fundraising and war chests spent defending primary challenges from the right (McCain, Crist), maybe Republicans will have shot their wads before fall. And if the Republican donors react adversely to Michael Steele stories, Dems should make out pretty well come November.

If Steele’s shenanigans get 10 Republicans high rollers to close their wallets, he may single-handedly save the Democrats this November.

I thought I smelled right-wing hypocrisy this morning…

I miss the good old days when Democrat scandals were sexual and Republican scandals were financial. Nowadays I’m unsure where to direct my sanctimony and outrage.

“C’mon. The only reason this is a story is because it’s funny. It’s funny.”
.
Actually, it shouldnt be funny for people like Rustyblog and 2third.. they are the ones who paid for the strip club visit, with their donations to the repugs. But, they seem to be defending Steele spending their donations on strip club visits.. NOW that is what is funny !!

Spob, you continue to blather nonsense.
.
I have no problem with the concept of deporting convicted felons, but do not try to bullsh-t us about how such deportations demonstrate some greater concern for punishing wrongdoers. A sexual predator is a sexual predator, whether in the U.S. or in Mexico. Your obvious concern for the Mexican girls who would be exposed to Ramon Ledezma-Galicia, should he be deported, is truly touching.
.
The proper way to keep criminals off the streets is to prosecute them, convict them, sentence them, and/or treat them if possible. Deportation — while perfectly acceptable — is not a significant crime-fighting tool.
.
Judges — to repeat an over-used analogy — are supposed to call balls and strikes. They aren’t supposed to decide ahead of time that they don’t like the batter and make sure that he gets called out. But, sadly, the legal question of whether Congress properly amended the relevant statutes to permit the deportation of Ledezma-Galicia is not answered by the fact that you want him out of the country.
.
The majority did not “utterly fail to give Chevron deference.” They explained why deference under Chevron was not appropriate in this case. Hint: You can find the analysis under the subsection entitled “The BIA and Chevron deference.”

square, I didn’t write that they didnt deal with the Chevron issue, just that they didn’t give the deference that was due. Berzon, a criminal-coddler, really had to work hard to torture the statute and the en banc case law (i.e., binding law) to get to her favored result.
.
As for Mexican girls, well, I wouldn’t expect Mexico to keep a US citizen child molester either. And I would be happy to deport a US child molester who committed crimes in Mexico to Mexico so that he could face justice there. Mexican prisons are no fun.

I like sanctimonious outrage. It’s even better if there are pictures of the offending acts. They make great “1000 Words”.

Seriously, $2K for a lesbian topless show is chump change compared to an all-expense paid RNC strategy meeting at the beachfront Hilton Hawaiian Village resort in sunny Waikiki! Republican donors generously paid for the leis, floral shirts, and ocean views — and doesn’t Michael Steele look sharp?

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-february-9-2010/rnc-meeting-in-hawaii

Nah, ohiolib, that’s the stench from Obama’s recess appointments that linger . . . .

Yeah, I hate it when confusing things happen like that.
There was one point when, at the same time a Jewish Cantor was accused of child molestation and a Catholic priest, from my hometown in burbs, was accused of stealing the parish’s money.
.
That’s backwards!
.
Protestants and Jews get in trouble for stealing money from their houses of worship and Catholic priests get in trouble for child molestation.
.
What is the world coming to when unfair and exaggerated stereotypes of wrongdoing don’t match reality!

Spob, does that smell like John Bolton, but only sweeter and more constitional?

I have no idea how this thread got so off topic but to some extent Spob does have a point.

I can’t name names because it’s been a long day and I don’t care that much. However, there have been some (mostly ultra liberal feminists) who have suggested much harsher sentences for rapists including the death penalty. I believe you can find referneces to this in “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?” (1997) by Susan Moller Okin.

Personally I think that’s retarded (sorry Sarah Palin, but I didn’t say “that’s down syndrome” so calm down and shoot a moose) because if rapists get the death penalty they have no reason to leave victims alive. If the penalty for rape is the same as murder why not kill the girl so cops have a harder time identifying you? Not like it changes the sentence under those circumstances so you might as well murder her, it’s all gain and no loss at that point no witness and even if you do get caught the sentence is the same either way. No witness, less chance (theoretically) of a conviction.

Paging Dr sacred…Dr sacred.
.
Tuna joke at post #17…over.

A little OT, but my MIL’s minister and I don’t get along. He’s 50, never been married and never had a girlfriend. He lives with a guy to “share expenses”. I suspect expenses are actually body fluids. I ran into him and his house mate a couple of weeks ago. I asked the minister’s friend if he was the minister’s husband. He smiled and the minister told me I was going to Hell. Pure coincidence, but his sermon topic this past Sunday was on the evils of society and homsexuality.

sasquatch:
.
You have succinctly made the case for eliminating the death penalty in *all* circumstances. Thank you.
.
In essence: if it takes an eyewitness, not just circumstantial evidence, to assure a death sentence, then why not just kill the eyewitness?
.
The death penalty, ironically, begets more murders.
.
The answer is, logically enough, to take the death penalty off the table.
.
…which has the side benefit that if someone is wrongfully convicted of murder, we, the people, can release a living, breathing individual back to society.

I have to respectfully disagree. I’m very pro death penalty. I thought Kenneth Lay and Bernie Madoff should have been executed. They screwed up so many people’s lives that I feel they have forfeited their right to breathe.

One memorable random academic piece of trivia I got in an Econ class was that a human life is worth one million dollars.
.
This is actually used in cost benefit analysis .
.
(If anybody cares why that number came about I will explain)
.
But, that would go to Sacred’s remarks.
.
Through fraud or theft take one million dollars and you have, arguably, done the same damage as a murder.
.
In that case, Lay and Madoff are as evil as serial killers.

kbanginmotown-

To be honest I don’t really care for the death penalty.

Not because I feel it’s wrong but because it has been shown again and again to not be cost effective and it’s not reversible. States with it show no statistically significant drop in violent crime. It certainly (in my humble opinion) doesn’t deter people when it takes 20 years to execute someone and it’s not public.

According to a criminology book I have somewhere but can’t find right now (I moved not long ago) Florida’s DOC claims they spend about $175,000 housing a 35 year old inmate for life (the expectancy is considerably shorter in prison than out of it) whereas they spend just under $600,000 for every execution because of the required appeals process. I find that to be very cost-ineffective.

My other problem with it is simple. If you imprison the wrong guy for a crime and later find out that he didn’t do it, you can let him go and financially compensate him for his time, which is imperfect but in my mind far better than saying “Oh crap, we killed that guy six months ago… whoops!”

The only times I can really support the death penalty are high treason during wartime with people that could continue to pose a threat to the nations ability to fight a the war if kept alive and people who can continue to run a murderous criminal organization from behind bars. In both cases incarceration does not remove them as a threat to society and therefore there is no choice but to kill them and do so quickly and preferably as humanely as possible. Using it for rape, robbery or in many cases murder is, as far as I am concerned, nothing more than state sanctioned murder.

That said, if you break into someones house and he takes you apart with a combat knife or shoots you to death… well you rolled the dice and lost. If you weren’t doing something you shouldn’t have you’d still be breathing. Mess with the wrong person at the wrong time and in the wrong way; you’ll end up dead. Break into MY house and I hope you’re like Neo from the Matrix, cause you’ll have a bunch of .45ACP JHP rounds to dodge if you want to keep breathing and I am an excellent shot.

Sacredh-

You are free to believe as you wish in the United States, and I urge you to do so. I just happen to have a different point of view on this one. My only point with the rape thing was that I think you would stand a good chance of turning a serial rapist into a serial rapist/murderer by changing the law to allow the death penalty for crimes like rape.

Do you think this has to do with offing half of Santa’s Sled Doggs?
.
I’ve heard they’ve called on the deadliest assassin this side of, uh, this side of, oh hell, I forgots.
.
Shhhh. It’s the jackalope…

Patrick-

I’ll take you at your word about the $1million but I do have one question. I assume that’s the mean cost, right?

Now, if they could just make a completely reversible, cheap version of death penalty, we could get somewhere.
.
Oh.
.
I forgot. We do have a completely reversible, cheap version of the death penalty. The High Sheriffs use it all the time!
.
It’s called banning…

sasquatch08- I’m somewhere to the left of Ghandi on most social issues, but I kept thinking “What if it was my wife, sister, mother or niece that got raped and/or murdered?”. I want want to kill the perp myself and it would be hard for me to live knowing that they were alive. I’d try to take matters into my own hands even if it meant me going to prison or being executed myself.
.
I believe in law and order, but there are limits to everything. It’s wrong to take matters into your own hands and I know that, but that’s just a personal failing of mine.

On a more serious note, sacred, you wouldn’t be implying that a man of the cloth is taking a wide stance, are you?

53_3: It’s either synchronicity or pure chance. My wife still warns me to be careful every time I take her new car out. She’s even talked about ordering one of those high-pitched sound things to put on the car that supposedly makes the deer scatter.

Labor economists looked up every job out there. For every one chance in one thousand of getting killed on the job (and this is the 1990s, I guess this is subject to inflation) the pay is $1,000 per year higher than a job with exactly the same skill level.
.
So, what happens if there is a 99.999999% chance of dying from doing a job?
.
Then somebody will take that risk for an additional $999,999.99
.
So, if people, when they work, are willing to come infinitely close to death for a million dollars that is the price that people place on their own lives.
.
Creative method since if you asked “how much money would you want me to give you after I kill you” will not get an answer on a survey. If you gave that survey to Rusty, he would call the FBI.
.
So, when figuring out pollution costs, if you go for lifetime income, then, in theory, you should get paid for your pollution killing retired people. That, obviously, was even more repulsive than the million dollar answer.
.
I think I clearly explained it.
.
From there, stealing and not returning twenty million dollars is the equivalent of murdering twenty people.
.
I do think it should be used in sentencing, but I do not support the death penalty.

On a more serious note, why should an execution be public?
.
Entertainment bang for the buck? I see the proximity of those two statements and it does make one wonder.
.
To me, the death penalty, if used, is not intended to be entertaining, but simply as the ultimate punishment that can be levied.
.
There has never been any time in history where public executions were beneficial. As a matter of fact, just so you know, public execution is practiced most widely in large portions of the third world.
.
I don’t think that that is a direction a country as enlightened as the United States should go.

53_3, if the little weasel isn’t gay, he missed his true calling. I’m not at all anti-gay, but I enjoy getting on his case because it makes him so mad. At Wal-Mart recently my wife and I ran into him and he called me a heathen. I called him a CSer and started to go after him. My wife pulled me away while we were exchanging pleasantries. He calls the MIL frequently and if I answer I always yell “It’s Richard Simmons, Ru Paul, Sissy Mary” or anything else that pops up to get the MIL to pick up the phone

“She’s even talked about ordering one of those high-pitched sound things to put on the car that supposedly makes the deer scatter.”
.
I don’t know. Maybe they’d just stare harder at the headlights…

Dear God, sacred.
.
You’ve messed with Santa, and now you are messing with a minister.
.
Is it that you really want God to toast your heart over an open campfire at the end of a long stick?

Oh, and not to mention the MIL. You are living life on the edge!
.
Can I recommend a more pacific pastime, like bungee jumping from a biplane over that volcano in Iceland?

53_3: God as a cannibal. There’s something I hadn’t thought of. Thanks for the thought. I’m sure I can use a variation of that to PO the Bride of Frankenstein. I’d tell you a story about an incident that happen last month but I have to get ready for work in a couple of minutes and it’s a long one.

sacredh-

I know what you mean, I am absolutely sure I would feel the same way. I just hope I would be able to restrain myself.

Having handled people who died or were dying after SCUBA diving accidents (one in a pretty damn horrible way) I don’t think I would feel better after watching someone get strapped to a table and put down like a animal. I think I would feel worse for having wanted to see it and then actually watching what it’s really like to see a person in chains with no chance of escape die. I think I would further feel bad for their family who had to watch them die and now has to go through the same thing I went through when they killed my family member.

But that’s just me.

53_3-

Entertainment? What are you talking about? I never said ANYTHING about an execution being entertaining or entertainment. The idea of a public execution is that it scares the public into not committing the same crime as the offender who is being put to death. That’s the deterrent factor to it.

I’m sure that there are some sickos out there who would love it, and apparently you’re one of them since you brought this up.

Executions as entertainment? That’s disgusting. On the note of entertainment however; at least the gladiators had a chance. They weren’t strapped into a machine full of poison or tied to a decapitation device.

Patrick-

Very interesting, and I can think of of only one job that breaks the rule: commercial diving. Where the chance of dying is about 65% in some cases but the max you will ever make is about $400,000 because they won’t let you work more than 40 weeks a year in most cases when doing real deep diving on oil rigs (that raises the chances of death WAY too much for them) but your numbers are probably just about right when I think about the insurance those guys get. I almost went into the field until I realized I didn’t really want to spend a week or two weeks at a time down 600-1200 feet in a giant diving bell with a bunch of guys that are pretty much nuts just for being there. Not to mention that JIM suit diving doesn’t appeal to me.

spob (re 16.6) — There’s not one word in my comment that is “sympathetic to criminals who have sex with 10 year old girls.” Apparently you grasp that the legal issue was whether Chevon required deference to the agency’s interpretation of the statutory scheme because the statutes, in the aggregate, were unclear. The mere fact that statues are complex or hard to figure out does not necessarily mean that they cannot still be clear. The circuit court found a clear meaning. That Bybee, who dissented, could not find a clear meaning may say more about him than about the majority.
.
The Ninth Circuit held, quite simply, that whatever else might happen to the petitioner in this case because of his criminial offense, the law did not permit the feds to deport him, then or now. That may be a matter over which reasonable minds can differ, but the court’s choice doesn’t indicate that it coddles criminals. All it means is that they found that the stautes quite clearly inapplcable to the person before them.
.
I sense that you are a Christian, and on that premise I’d like to ask you whether there can ever be repentance and forgiveness. It’s more than two decades since this guy did both did the crime and the time, and you’re still beating him over the head with it. There’s nothing in the record to indicate how he now feels about what he did way back then, but might it not be that he’s terribly repentant and trying to make it up in some fashion. Or is that reserved only for good Republicans like Chuck Colson? (For what it’s worth, I think Roman Polanski should be extradited to the US and serve his sentence. The law that the California authorities seek to apply to him is plainly applicable. That’s what differentiates his case from this one.)
.
I sometimes think your world view is the opposite of Ronald Reagan’s. Reagan used to tell about the kid told to clean a huge quantity of manure out of a stable. He reacted by saying “With all that manure in the stable, there’s gotta be a pony in there somewhere.” And you know he was describing himself You see the pony and worry about whether you’ll have to shovel the manure — and of course you chide Ronnie for being such an ignorant optimist. This is no way to go through life.
.
The Dark Side loses, spob. Come on over.

Why were haters of the United States military like the “White House advance people chang[ing] the television station in a troop mess hall, so that NCAA basketball would show in the background as President Obama shook hands, not motorcross, which had been playing”?

Those military-hating White House advance people are lucky that some members of the United States military didn’t break their arms for touching a television that does not belong to the White House advance people.

Textee:
I hadn’t heard anything about that happening. If it did it’s a travesty.

Sasquatch,
I think Textee is reading a different blog. Not one of sight of sound but of imagination.
… In the Twilight Zone.

Actually, sasquatch, it wasn’t intended as an insult. If you’ve taken it that way, you only have yourself to blame because you made that statement.
.
If you feel that public executions as a deterrent (it would be doubtful, as the surrounding environment must be repressive!), then perhaps you need to buy a ticket to the Middle East, Afghanistan, or other delightful third world locations where they practice it.
.
In the meantime, I’ll fly with the eagles…

jcjapan, Motorcross was on before the White House team arrived at the mess, but I didn’t notice any soldiers taking much interest in it, nor did anyone seem to mind when the channel was changed to NCAA. It was almost 1 a.m. local time.

Acording to dunedin56 @8, the NCAA basketball tourney followed motocross as part of normal programming, so there would have been NO channel changing required.
.
But don’t let this little snippet of info get in the way of a perfectly good rant, textee. Wouldn’t want facts to get in the way.

Patrick-

If you run across the blog let me know so I can avoid it AAC.

53_3-

You are a classic example of the twisting someone’s words.

1) I never referred to executions as entertainment; you did.

2) I never said you insulted me. That’s something you created in your imagination, everyone here can read what I said and what you said and will know the truth.

If you really think that I ever said anything about executions being entertainment, or whined that you insulted me please share whatever drugs you are using with me cause they must be DAMN good. Much better than the last batch of doses I acquired.

3) Please note that I am NOT IN FAVOR OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, and stated that plainly and repeatedly. I suggested that any deterrent factor that executions might have is mitigated by the long time between sentencing and the carrying out of the sentence and the lack of publicity. If I was unclear about that, I apologize, however I feel I probably was clear because no one else suggested anything like what you did.

A quick scan of the page with the “find” search command (Control+F) shows the first use of the word “entertainment” to be at 23.3, posted by you, “Entertained” at 15, by formerlyjames with before the death penalty was even discussed and not referring to amusement, “entertaining” again at 23.3 by you.

Fly with whatever you want, but if this type of [lack of] logic and critical reasoning skills as well as your amazing ability to believe anything your imagination tells you must be true continues to abound, please be sure to fly as high as possible so the nosedive into the ground hurts as enough to snap you out of your insanity and hopefully also shatters your knack for creating your own reality where people said things you disagree with and therefore must be attacked.

sasquatch08,
.
You’ve got the wrong man.
.
I wasn’t in that part about executions.
.
I was in the part of a life = one million dollars.
.
When did I twist YOUR words?
.
You have things confused, man.

Patrick, the first part was about you (avoiding the imaginary blog). The second part was directed at 53_3, sorry I didn’t really break that up as well as I should have. I will do it better next time.

I still don’t know what you mean, but, you’re not POd for no reason, so, that’s fine.