Walter In Denver

More Palmer Lake Poker

I'm not the only one critical of the bust. Local residents are, as well. From the Colorado Springs Gazette:

Town board member Trish Flake, who was served a misdemeanor summons for suspicion of professional gambling, said none of the 24 people arrested during the police raid thought they were engaged in illegal activity. They were among 81 members of a poker club playing at the restaurant that night.

“It was broad daylight right by the front door,” she said. “I think what hasn’t been reported is the aggressiveness of it. They came in with guns drawn, lasers trained on people’s heads. They swarmed in screaming, ‘Put your hands over your face and don’t move.’ I don’t think I’ve ever been that frightened in my life.”

You can't be too careful with these hardened criminals playing in a $15 poker game. Jim Leitzel at Vice Squad asks, "But sometimes drawn guns go off. Would it still be such a good idea if one of the alleged gamblers had been shot, or perhaps died of a heart attack?"

More from the Gazette:

Board member Chuck Cornell said the situation didn’t have to go that far.

“Why in the world didn’t our police chief go down there months ago and say, ‘Jeff, this doesn’t look like the right thing here. Why don’t you knock it off?’ ” he said. “We’re a small town. Everybody knows everybody.”

Hopefully the citizens of Palmer Lake aren't so close to their police chief that they won't demand his resignation. He has displayed an appalling lack of judgement in this case.

Too Cool

Via the Modulator's Friday Ark, comes Green Gabbro's Friday Rock Blogging.

I've been thinking of doing some mineral and mining blogging around here.

The Valley Part II

Reading about recent law enforcement shenanigans in South Texas reminded me of the time I spent there, and the people I met. The Valley is not like other places.

My wife took a job in McAllen, TX. Jobs were hard to find in the area, but eventually I found a spot bartending at a hotel nightclub in nearby Edinburg, the county seat. It was a rough spot, but it was the social gathering point for the community. Lawyers from the state courthouse, politicos, and any kind of VIP could be there any night of the week, mixing with drunks and criminals.

One of the most respected of the locals was the county sheriff, Brig Marmolejo. He was taller and wider than most, and wore a wide brimmed cowboy hat. He was elected on the slogan, A big man for a big job. He wasn't the most frequent of patrons at the nightclub, you couldn't help but notice him when he was there. He was always surrounded by well wishers, almost like a fan club.

That part of the world is a haven for drug smugglers, and the jails have a steady flow of arrestees. In April of '93 one was admitted into the county jail. He was allegedly part of a large trafficking operation. But the oddest thing happened - not long after he was booked the smuggler walked out of jail. The deputies explained (as I recall) that they left him unattended in a room accidentally unlocked. He walked right out the front door.

A couple of nights later Brig was in my bar. I couldn't resist a jibe.

"Hey, Brig, I heard you had a little trouble down at the jail!"

Hey turned to me, with a solemn expression, and said, "No, no trouble at all."

I must have been young and naive at the time, and I didn't suspect Brig was behind the incident. The feds thought otherwise. Although he was never charged in the escape, Brig was charged in a bribery case in 1994. He was convicted of taking bribes from another drug dealer in his jail, $5,000 a month, plus $1,000 per 'conjugal visit' from the dealer's wife and girlfriend.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Part I here.

Mostly Still Life

Blogger and babies.

Poker in Palmer Lake

Law enforcement officials in Palmer Lake, Colorado, have successfully eliminated all crime from their community. All actual crimes, the ones that might cause damage to you or your property, no longer occur there. It must be true, because they just spent a month conducting an undercover investigation of a $15 poker game held weekly at a local restaurant.

Multiple officers were working the case. After reading the story in the Rocky, I'm not sure the game was even illegal. Did I mention it was a monthlong investigation? I wonder how much tax money was wasted burned shredded thrown into the wind spent on this bust. A $15 poker game.

If you live in that jurisdiction you may want to take a more active interest in the activities of your local gendarmerie.

Fusilier on Social Security Reform

Incidentaly, Fuz has moved to Wyoming....

...[T]he better selling point for privatization is simple human dignity, not some abstract solvency for SS. I don't give a rat's ass about whether SS will be solvent in the year 2040. Most other people don't either. They and I will care whether there will be any money left in our estates to pass to heirs. That cannot happen with SS in its current form.

Mister President, get your skinny ass back out there and sell this plan.

Yeah, it's not perfect, it's not really a libertarian solution, but private accounts are better than what we have now. I haven't heard a good argument otherwise.

The Valley Part I

Via Grits for Breakfast I found this story from the McAllen (Tx) Monitor:

The leader of a South Texas drug task force on Wednesday accused state Sen Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen of using legislation to retaliate against the task force for having pulled over Hinojosa during a traffic stop.

But Hinojosa said he would have filed the legislation even if an officer with the South Texas Specialized Crimes and Narcotics Task Force had not pulled him over on U.S. Highway 281 one afternoon in October for driving a car with dark tint on the windows.

It is the task force that retaliated against him for filing the legislation by offering video of the traffic stop this week to South Texas television stations, Hinojosa said.

Hinojosa has filed two bills that would change the way drug task forces must operate. Among their provisions is one that requires task forces to work under the direction of the Department of Public Safety.

The South Texas Specialized Crimes and Narcotics Task Force is a rarity among drug task forces in Texas in that it reports only to the chief of police of Kingsville and officials at the city of Kingsville, but not to DPS.
[...]
On the afternoon of Oct. 7, 2005, Hinojosa was traveling south on U.S. Highway 281, when one of Garza’s officers caught up to him south of Falfurrias because he thought the tint on Hinojosa’s black Lincoln Navigator was too dark to be legal, Garza said.

The officer thought Hinojosa swerved toward the shoulder when he waved to the officer, Garza said.

The dark tint, in combination with the swerving, gave the officer sufficient cause to stop Hinojosa, Garza said.

"The flags go up, big time, and we ask ourselves, ‘What’s wrong with this guy?’" Garza said.

Hinojosa eventually received a warning for not staying in his lane and for having tint that was too dark, Garza said. The officer never asked to search the car and never searched the car, Garza said.

Garza said he released the video of the traffic stop to interested television stations only after they asked him for it, their interest having been piqued only by a story in the San Antonio Express-News that referenced the stop.

But Hinojosa said Garza sent a message to television stations offering the footage. Within a period of about an hour on Tuesday after receiving the message, nearly every television station in the Valley and Corpus Christi called Hinojosa’s office seeking comment, according to his office.

(Emphasis mine)

The area of South Texas near the Rio Grande is called The Valley. It includes the poorest counties in the US, the closest thing to third world conditions to be found in this country. It's not just the living conditions that are substandard, local law enforcement has its problems, too. In the last decade or so all four of the southernmost Texas counties have had their top executive and law enforcement officials face serious criminal charges, including:

- Hidalgo County Judge J. Edgar Ruiz and four county commissioners were hit with a 134 count federal indictment for taking kickbacks

- Starr County Sheriff Gene Falcon pleaded guilty to bribery charges.

- Zapata County Judge Jose Luis Guevara and Sheriff Romeo T. Ramirez were convicted of drug trafficking.

- Hidalgo County Sheriff Brig Marmolejo was convicted of accepting bribes from a jailed drug dealer. This one is special to me, because I knew Brig back then...

The intimidation the drug task force is allegedly engaged in would be shocking except to those of us who used to live there. The place is crawling with drug traffickers and drug warriors, and it's not easy to tell which of them is worse.

Oh, No

This is sad, sad news. People have no sense of history.

Blog Commentry

Linda Seebach has an interesting piece on the blogosphere's place in the journalism world.

On Point

Ari Armstrong, answering Tom Mauser's letter to the NRA:

Hunters don't use a 9 mm to shoot a deer, because it's too small a caliber. However, hunting isn't mentioned in the Second Amendment, and it isn't central to the argument that gun ownership is a right.

I Didn't Know

Snopes on the origin of 420.

Would They Lie To You?

Rob Kampia looks at the implications of Sativex:

On April 19, the Canadian government delivered what should be the final blow to the U.S. government's irrational prohibition against the medical use of marijuana. It approved prescription sale of a natural marijuana extract -- for all practical purposes, liquid marijuana -- to treat pain and other symptoms caused by multiple sclerosis.
[...]
In short, the Canadian government has just certified that virtually everything our own government has been telling us about marijuana is wrong. In defiance of a large and growing pile of scientific studies, our government still claims that marijuana has no medical value. White House Drug Czar John Walters even compared medical marijuana to "medicinal crack."

Such statements were always scientifically ridiculous, as has been noted by a wide range of authorities, including the American Public Health Association, the American Nurses Association, and the state medical societies of New York, California and Rhode Island, to name just a few. Now, GW Pharmaceuticals' research has definitively put such nonsense to rest.

Make no mistake: Sativex is liquid marijuana. It is nothing like Marinol, the synthetic THC pill sold in the U.S. and sometimes falsely touted as an adequate substitute for marijuana.

Sativex is a whole-plant extract, containing the rich variety of naturally occurring compounds called cannabinoids that are unique to marijuana. It also contains trace elements of other compounds contained in the plant, which scientists believe contribute to its therapeutic value.
[...]
Sativex is to marijuana as a cup of coffee is to coffee beans. If Sativex is safe and effective, marijuana is safe and effective. And Sativex is safe and effective. Studies have shown significant effect against pain and other symptoms caused by multiple sclerosis and other debilitating conditions. Over 600 patient-years of research have established a remarkable record of safety.

Sativex should certainly be approved in the U.S., but the process may take years -- if it is allowed to happen at all. Sadly, our government's reflexive hostility to the medical use of marijuana shows no sign of abating.

But an even larger issue looms: Now that we know beyond doubt that marijuana is a safe, effective medicine, how long will our government continue to arrest patients who use it?

Remember all this, because you will still hear government officials and others in the US tell you that there is no evidence that marijuana is effective medicine, that research has shown the opposite, and there's no reason anyone would use marijuana as medicine.

They will say it with a straight face, expecting you to believe them.

h/t to Pete Guither.

Hello, Blogroll

Richard Combs has a fine new blog.

Why Watch?

Jim Henley savages the WNBA:

For the record, I tried to be a WNBA fan its first two or three years. Eventually I couldn’t deny that I was watching a lot of bad basketball for my trouble. That saw about how the women’s game is purer “fundamental basketball” in terms of basic skills and teamwork? Twaddle. At least when I stopped watching, the league lacked three point guards who could really handle the ball. Beyond point guards, players would muff basic ball-handling challenges. Catching the simplest entry pass was an adventure in uncertainty. I’m not just talking the famously bad early Mystics teams either, but all the various teams I saw on TB. Even Houston Comets games were like watching a one-legged contestant winning a sack race for paraplegics.

Comparing things like ball-handling skills isn't an exact science, so there can be debate about the difference between men's and women's sports. But when you look at sports that are measured in objective terms the differences become apparant. Here are the results from the 2000 Sydney Olympics women's track and field, including these winning times and distances. After the women's time I've put the Colorado Boy's 2004 winning results (from CHSAA) for comparison.

100 Meters 10.75 - 10.54
200 meters 21.64 - 21.18
400 meters 49.11 - 48.19
800 meters 1:56.15 - 1:53.13
High Jump 2.01 m - 2.03 m
Long Jump 6.99 m - 6.82 m

So we see that a small state like Colorado has high school boys who can beat world class women track and field athletes. So the question is, why do we watch one competition but ignore the other? It's clearly not for the skill level. Have you ever watched the Little League World Series on television? Millions do, and find it fascinating. But the skill level of twelve year olds is obviously not near that of mid-level adult players. But not many turn out to see a local amateur club play.

I'm in the sports business and I can't fully explain why people watch what they do. For the spectator it's a mixture of empathy and awe that attracts our attention, and skill level is part of the equation, but not the full story.

My best theory is we'll watch lower level sports when skill level isn't easily discernable, but the stakes of the competition are relatively high. The Olympic Games are high stakes contests, where the winners can become celebrities. Women's golf and tennis are popular, too, perhaps because only a few experienced spectators can see any difference between them and the men's version. Until they compete side by side, that is.

Libertarianism, Flawed

Ari Armstrong has written a series of articles critical of the Colorado Libertarian Party, and the LP in general. Start here. Caveat: This may be of interest only to those deeply interested in the politics of liberty.

Ari makes a number of interesting and valid points, centered around a criticism of a lack of principle guiding the Libertarian Party (LP), and the Party instead

... hold[s] that liberty is intrinsically good, and that it is compatible with whatever set of values one might hold, tends to lead to an incoherent understanding of liberty, to a hostility toward moral standards, and to an anti-state reactionism in which the government is seen as the greatest evil.

That reactionism does exist, and it is unhealthy.

The crux of the issue is an implicit debate about the nature of the LP. Ari:

For example, Norm Olsen, who remains the chair of the state LP until next month, told me outright he wanted the party to focus on electoral politics rather than intellectual discussion, and he wanted the newsletter to focus on party activism rather than the ideas behind liberty. One of the ways this trend has played out in Colorado is to treat the LP as some sort of tribe in which loyalty to the group takes precedence over loyalty to correct ideas.

The LP is a political organization. Its purpose is to influence the political sphere of society. One of the necessary features of a successful party is inclusiveness. In the case of the LP, it means accepting members and candidates of diverse philosophical backgrounds. Ari, who is an Objectivist, or at least sympathetic to Objectivism, would like to see a party guided by his philosophy.

Of course, inclusiveness has its limits, and there are some Libertarians running for office while holding anti-liberty views on important subjects. Those people should not be on the LP ticket. But the problem with specific philosophical litmus tests, as opposed to policy litmus tests, is illustrated when Ari writes concerning other philosophies;

If most people accept the doctrines of socialism, then they will adopt socialism. If they accept some fundamentalist religious dogma, then they will adopt theocracy.

Here Ari mistakenly lumps a social/political philosophy with a religious one. Setting aside the use of the term 'fundamentalist,' which carries little meaning in spite of its popular usage, a religious person can hold any number of social/political philosophies, including socialist or libertarian philosophies. It is quite possible to separate secular and religious realms when it comes matters of public policy.

As a Christian and a Libertarian, I should know. As far as political policy matters go, I don't know that Ari and I have any differences, even though our philosophies are divergent.

Hence the lack of philosophical bases for the political arm of the libertarian movement. If we were to argue the necessity of either one of our philosophies as an underpinning to our politics we would have to exclude the other, and that would be a counterproductive and foolish thing to do.

More Unintended Consequences

Singapore police have installed security cameras to fight prostitution, and the cameras have been effective in driving the working girls elsewhere. A lot of other people, too.

Shopkeepers in the Geylang district complained business had deteriorated since the cameras were put into operation last week, the Sunday Times reported.

"The men are staying away because they're afraid of being misunderstood by their wives, while our women customers are staying away because they don't want to be mistaken as prostitutes," Joyce Low, who runs an acupuncture and foot reflexology business in the area, was quoted as saying.

The manager of a clothing store, Simon Chan, also said business had been affected with sales down by 60 percent.

Leaving aside the negatives of trying to enforce solicitation laws, the general impersonalization of law enforcement troubles me. Traffic cameras, data base profiling, random roadside checkpoints and the like not only inconvenience law abiding citizens but make it harder for officers to discriminate. I use that word in the positive sense here. When an officer is face to face with a suspect that officer can make a better judgement as to the actual intent of the suspect.

If you've ever talked your way out of a traffic ticket you know what I mean. A camera can't discriminate between the reckless and the cautious.

H/T to Vice Squad.

Reading Around

According to The Christian Science Monitor, Denver is reinventing itself.

I saw this episode, too. I don't watch a lot of TV, so it's a happy coincidence. I was wondering if the IRS agents would get sympathetic treatment from the writers, and they didn't. I like Steve's idea on future programming...

Pain doctor William Hurwitz was sentenced to 25 years today. His crime? Being too compassionate. The feds wanted a life sentence, to use him as an example. It would be fitting if each of the agents and prosecutors in the case were to catch debilitating, painful diseases and be unable to get adequate pain medications.

I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Exit Strategy?

Just a reminder: Even justified foreign interventions can have unintended long term consequences.

Catching U.S. officials slightly off guard, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said yesterday he is seeking a long-term security partnership that could keep U.S. troops there indefinitely and make permanent the military relationship that began when U.S. forces invaded his country in 2001.

It will be hard to leave if the Afghan government wants us to stay.

Fred Brown Doesn't Get It

Semi-retired Denver Post columnist Fred Brown's latest, with my comments:

American journalism began as a means of political communication. The first newspapers had decidedly partisan points of view. There were Whig newspapers, Royalist newspapers, conservative and liberal newspapers (in the context of the times).

That changed. The news media decided that serious, responsible journalism required accuracy, fairness and independence above all. And they worked hard to achieve those ideals. But after a long 20th century romance with independence and objectivity, journalism seems to be returning to its partisan roots.

If by beginning, he means several decades ongoing, he's right. Maybe the 20th century was shorter than I thought.

The mainstream media still cling to the ideals of objective, fair and balanced reporting, even when their critics maintain their reporting is anything but.

But now, in the early days of the 21st century, the world is awash in information and media resources.

Shame about all that information and those media resources. It's getting easier all the time to judge how the media are living up to Mr. Brown's claim of media ideals.

There are mainstream newspapers, "alternative" newspapers, newsmagazines, literary magazines, network newscasts, 24-hour cable newscasts and - the latest, edgiest and often most controversial entry into the information mix - Internet sources, including a growing number of Web logs.

Many of them have definite points of view. It's easy for an information seeker to find a source that confirms his or her preconceived view of the world.

Bringing up the question, what's a better source, a blogger wearing his biases on his sleeve or a journalist desperately trying to conceal his?

This raises an issue that has been the subject of much discussion in the ranks of journalism lately.

And a major question in journalism these days is this: who is a journalist?

Web logs - "blogs" - and the people who produce them - "bloggers" - have changed journalism. They are widely credited - or blamed, depending on your politics - for exposing the shoddy reporting that cost Dan Rather his anchor job.

There are blogs on the left as well as on the right. Many of them are heavily into conspiracy theories. Mainstream media have begun to assign people to read them and report on them. Some mainstream media also are encouraging their staffers to write them.

But should they be considered serious journalism? Do bloggers deserve the same protections mainstream journalists have? There's no licensing of journalists in this country. But there are cultural standards such as a commitment to accuracy and fairness. And there are a few laws, too, such as those that protect the confidentiality of a journalist's sources. Can a blogger have those protections without that commitment? And who decides?

As an old fashioned liberal I tend to dislike dividing citizens by class. I like equal protection under the law, and all that rot. And how's this for a conspiracy theory: Some professional journalists dislike competition from amateurs.

As an old foop, I don't read many blogs. I've found a couple by people who seem to know what they're talking about. But there's a lot of uniformed opinion, rumor and otherwise inaccurate drivel out there, too.

Which is different from your newspaper in what way?

Sure, blogs provide a free and unfettered marketplace of ideas. Libertarians and Darwinists will argue that this eventually produces dominance by the best of the species - good journalism. But there's also a danger that it creates fragmentation. People no longer need to expose themselves to the diversity of ideas provided by old-line, mainstream journalism, with its outmoded ideals of diversity and fairness.

Diversity not to include sources of information. It seems you have to go to journalism school to argue against yourself in a single short paragraph.

They have a multitude of choices before them. They can choose only those information purveyors they agree with, instead of those sources that expose them to a variety of viewpoints. They can find affirmation, not information.

This isn't a good trend. It's bad for informed decision-making. It's bad for the serious, mainstream media. It's bad for self-governance.

They can also choose to read diverse points of view, which is good, I think. But hey, I don't work for a newspaper.

Last month, longtime ABC correspondent Sam Donaldson spoke at the University of Denver's School of Communication Summit. Addressing the proliferation of information sources, Donaldson said this, or something close to it:

"Everyone is entitled to his opinion. But he's not entitled to his own set of facts."

That's how mainstream journalism will survive - by providing facts - reliable, accurate, credible facts, the information responsible citizens need to make informed decisions. That is the role and duty of a free press.

I have to note the irony - Sam Donaldson and I attended the same journalism school. (Go Miners!)

Mr. Brown credits blogs with changing journalism, and notes that facts are journalism's salvation. He seems to have missed the obvious connection - blogs can, and sometimes have, kept mainstream journalists honest.

I don't want to overstate the case, but as Mr. Brown complains that blog readers can choose their biases in information sources, he ignores that every journalist has the same problem. The reason journalists should be reading blogs is for the diversity of opinion. They will be better journalists for it.

Due to Popular Demand

Abigail and Wyatt.

Post on Pols

The Denver Post ran an article today on Colorado Pols, the blog devoted to insider political news, and a member of the blogroll here.

Some bits:

Gov. Bill Owens, congressional staffers, state lawmakers, lobbyists and political wonks are among the estimated 20,000 people who visited the site in March. The mystery bloggers expect hits to double this month.

A privacy agreement with the site's host server masks who is behind it.

Although many readers bristle at the authors' anonymity, they see the site as a guilty pleasure, especially in a state where sports coverage often pushes political news to the sidelines.

"Everybody's reading it because it's great entertainment, even if it's not always accurate," said former Democratic Party chairman Tim Knaus, who peruses the blog almost daily.

Rick Ridder - the Denver political consultant who ran the early part of Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's technologically savvy presidential campaign - said such blogs are replacing older centers of gossip. They "are becoming what was once the pool room, the bar hall or the corner drug store of political life, with all the accuracies and inaccuracies of those institutions."
[...]
Owens' communications chief, Sean Duffy, took umbrage with a recent posting about Holtzman's fiancée and Owens' former deputy spokeswoman, Kristen Hubbell, whom the site described as a "press girl."

"It was snarky and demeaning," Duffy said. "The anonymous nature of this cuts the cord on accountability."

Newly elected state Democratic chairwoman Pat Waak also questions the ethics of the site, which knocks her ability to lead her party.

"If they want to be really viable political players, they ought to be willing to step up and say what they are and what their agendas are," she said.

At least they're annoying all the right people. I haven't found the site to be particularly rude, more playful than anything. Some people have no sense of humor.

Turnabout

Radley Balko:

So we've now learned that the Schiavo memo wasn't a fake, and did indeed originate from the legal counsel to a Republican staffer.
[...]
My question is, what will the screeching bomb-throwers at Powerline do about this? They've been pushing the "fake memo" meme for weeks. They repeatedly stated matter-of-factly that the memo was a "fake," and implied over and over again that it was a Democrat dirty trick. If a media figure had made the same mistake, the Powerline mob would be calling for a resignation. It'd be nice if Powerline provided an apology and retraction.

I don't think anyone seriously doubted that the blogosphere could become what it seeks to replace. The question, as the medium matures, will its much vaunted self-correcting features keep the most popular partisan blogs honest. Only the readers can make that happen.

Stalker Opportunity

Bump and update

I've got clearance, so it looks like I'll be there.

Doors open at 7 PM. Since it only goes til 11 you don't want to be too late.

Makes Sense

It's been confirmed - the KGB was behind the Pope's assassination attempt in 1981.

It's not surprising, as those people had no limit to their depravity, but it's still somewhat shocking to get the proof.

h/t Chad

Update: More here.