In an update to my scientific study on Bumper Stickers As Political Indicators, I have expanded my research. I have concluded that most East Tennesseans will vote for either Earnhardt or Calvin pissing on something.

Seen at Fark:

Al Gore busted for doing 77 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. But after a recount he was only cited for doing 75

I just thought for my male readers that I’d alert them to the updates in the beach volleyball pictures coverage (AKA: butts from the Olympics), which has reached a new low (or high depending on your interest) in snapping pictures of the butts of the fans.

Bubba reports (no local press coverage, go figure) that:

Reader A.C. Citizen reports that First Utility District “just condemned” the Calloway’s Landing property “about an hour ago.” (I didn’t know a utility company could do that).

[snip]

Yesterday FUD filed legal proceedings to condemn the 18 acres of Lee Johnson’s family land known as Callaway Landing.

Once the land is condemned only a court case can stop FUD from proceeding. Lee Johnson’s lawyer Charles VanBeke will file an appeal Friday.

Lee Johnson is meeting with Mike Arms today at 1:30 PM to see what the County Mayor will do concerning the condemnation.

More info on saving Callaway Landing is here.

The WaPo filed an independent request for records about one of the Swift Boat Vets under the Freedom of Information Act. But they can’t do the same for the guy who’s running for president?

From Fark, I found this article describing how Microsoft is sending its employees to geography classes:

Insensitive computer programmers with little knowledge of geography have cost the giant Microsoft company hundreds of millions of dollars in lost business and led hapless company employees to be arrested by offended governments.

Seems that these furriners have a lot of chips on their shoulders, frequently over examples of furriners wanting to be even more furrin:

Perhaps the best known, and one of the most expensive, errors was a colour-coded world map showing time zones, which showed the disputed Jammu-Kashmir region as not being in India – an offence under Indian law.
…
[E]mployees were arrested in Turkey because Kurdistan had been shown as a separate entity on maps of the country
…
Microsoft employees were questioned by police in China, where it is an offence to refer to Taiwan as country or as the Republic of China.

The peace-loving followers of Islam are also quite sensitive:

One mistake that caused catastrophic offence was a game called Kakuto Chojin, a hand to hand fighting game. The fighting went on with rhythmic chanting in the background which in reviewing the game Mr Edwards noticed appeared to be Arabic.

“I checked with an Arabic speaker in the company who was also a Muslim about what the chant meant and it was from the Koran. He went ballistic. It was an incredible insult to Islam.”

Huh? Using a quote from the Koran in a game is an insult to Islam?

A game called Age of Empires 2 offended the Saudi Arabian authorities because it showed victorious Muslim armies turning churches into mosques.

Yeah, because we all know THAT would NEVER happen.

Of course, no “old media” piece would be complete without the obligatory head-scratching “say what?” quote:

The mistake led to the whole of the Windows 95 operating system being banned in the country, losing large sales. For its replacement, Microsoft Office 97, Microsoft removed the colour coding…

Office 97 was a replacement for Windows 95? What the…?

Screw that:

For your protection and ours we have established a procedure for parties wishing to introduce a link to the ATHENS 2004 website on their site.

Whatever.

New information contradicts one of the Swift Boat Vet’s claims. He has said there was no gunfire. However, the paperwork states there was constant gunfire.

Funny how the WaPo got right on that and, to my knowledge, hasn’t mentioned the Cambodia thing. Oh, that liberal media.

Triggerfinger reports that a judge ruled a no-knock search illegal. Technically, it wasn’t a no-knock search. It was a knock then count to five search, which is just about the same thing.

A local headline says:

Transporting body in back of pickup sparks probe

I would hope so.

Apparently, someone thinks Minnesota’s concealed carry law should prohibit guns in churches. Isn’t that, you know, up to the church?

Republicans split over the assault weapons ban:

If there’s one issue on which Republicans usually agree, it’s their strong defense of the Second Amendment. But less than two weeks before the GOP convention, moderates and conservatives find themselves at odds over the soon-to-expire semi-automatic gun ban.

In a clash with pro-gun Republicans, President Bush has publicly supported the ban on so-called “assault weapons” dating back to his 2000 presidential campaign. Although he hasn’t actively pushed for an extension of the 1994 law, his spokesmen consistently reaffirm his support for it.

The law would sunset Sept. 13 without action from Congress. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have refused to bring up the matter for debate, and with only four working days left before it expires, even the law’s supporters acknowledge it is doomed.

At the same time, however, a band of moderate Republicans have stood in stark opposition to their more conservative colleagues in House leadership posts. They believe enough Republicans would join with Democrats to send a bill to the president’s desk.

In my opinion, the votes are there in the Senate. They are not likely in the House. However, I don’t think Bush will push for it during an election year. He wants the NRA to sign off on him.

That aside, why are so many Republicans backing the ban? The ban is purely symbolic and accomplishes nothing and surely these Republicans know that. My speculation is that it’s a regional thing. In rural areas, the ban is not popular. It probably is popular in urban areas.

Worth the read. A taste:

For years, municipalities and community development agencies have successfully argued that state and local seizures of private property for purposes of economic growth, job creation and tax revenue maximization are valid “public uses” of eminent domain powers under federal and state constitutions.

The argument greatly expanded upon the popular notion that eminent domain meant that government takings of private property would be solely for public projects such as roads, bridges, parks, schools, government installations, public buildings and the like. Courts have long bought into the broadened argument and sanctioned takings of private property for the benefit of other private entities.

Hence, Norwood, Ohio, declared some private homes “blighted” to justify their razing to make way for a more tax-productive mall. An Arizona town invoked eminent domain proceedings to replace a brake shop with a more favored hardware store (dispute featured in a TV news report). The New Jersey shore town of Long Branch is trying to take oceanfront homes from present owners and build expensive new condos for yuppies. New London, Conn., seized some perfectly fine waterfront homes to replace them with an office building (litigation now before the U.S. Supreme Court).

All over the country, localities have dispossessed one set of property owners to make room for builders of stadiums, auto assembly plants, racetracks, casinos and big box stores. If someone else could make more money with your property and pay higher taxes, the town would boot you off that property and give it to that other party.

But one court is saying, “Hold on there! Not so quick!” In a broad ruling delivered this July, the Michigan Supreme Court has caused all jurisdictions across the nation to rethink the use of government eminent domain powers to advance economic goals and better land use agendas.

In Michigan, the court decided that a private entity’s pursuit of profit does not constitute public use. Good.

This article details a property owner’s victory:

Despite the loss of three federal grants comprising 90 percent of the $7.4 million it would cost and the possibility of repaying $300,000 for already-spent funds, the Oakdale City Council voted down a proposal Monday night to expand the Oakdale Airport through condemnation procedures.

The action, made on a 3-2 split vote, also provided a win for JLG Holsteins, who opposed the Eminent Domain process on 2.7 acres of its property. The argument posed by an attorney for the firm was countered by the City Special Attorney for Eminent Domain on the grounds that it did not meet a “legal” definition for public necessity.

This article addresses the use of eminent domain as an economic development tool rather than a public use measure.

And this article addresses the use of eminent domain to make a lake.

It’s good to see some victories for property owners or eventually all land would be for public use.

Again, an attempt to tie the assault weapons ban to machine guns (which the ban does not regulate):

Attorney General Bill Lockyer planned to be on hand for a news conference this morning to support renewal of the federal law. Also expected to attend were Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn, Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.

The news conference was planned outside the Bank of America in North Hollywood — the scene of a 1997 robbery that culminated in a shootout between two heavily armed gunmen and LAPD officers.

Police conceded they were outgunned by the robbers, who wore body armor and were armed with machine guns. Ultimately, both were killed.

The anti-gunners are using the imagery of the two men who used machine guns to rob a bank. Those machine guns were illegal and are regulated by the 1934 NFA.

Per this:

The MessageLabs Intelligence Email Security report shows that 63.5 per cent of all email sent in the first half of 2004 was spam.

Furthermore, 8.3 per cent, or one in 12 emails sent, contained a virus, according to the report.

Damn.

What do you mean sitting behind targets is bad?

The Comedian and I have been using the comments section of this post to continue coverage of the press corps’ infatuation with butts at the Olympics, particularly pictures from the Olympic beach volleyball games.

Not that I’m linking to those to draw hits, but apparently lots of folks are Googling them up.*

Read the rest of this entry »

Unlike the media, Kerry is addressing the allegations of the Swift Boat Vets:

Senator John F. Kerry is disputing an allegation made by a group of veterans opposed to his presidential candidacy that he never operated inside Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

In a just-published book, “Unfit for Command,” the veterans said that “Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War” and that he “would have been court-martialed had he gone there.”

But the Kerry campaign said that the group, which calls itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is wrong and that Kerry was inside Cambodia to drop off special forces on one mission and was at the border on other occasions.

“During John Kerry’s service in Vietnam, many times he was on or near the Cambodian border and on one occasion crossed into Cambodia at the request of members of a special operations group operating out of Ha Tien,” Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said in a statement. The statement did not say when the cross-border mission took place.

At the time of Kerry’s service, the official policy was that US forces were supposed to respect the territorial integrity of Cambodia, but they occasionally went inside Cambodia either secretly or in pursuit of the enemy.

For years, Kerry has said he was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968. He gave a detailed view of that experience in an article he wrote for the Boston Herald in 1979. “I remember spending Christmas Eve five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas,” Kerry wrote. “The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real.” A similar recollection by Kerry was mentioned in a Globe biography of the Massachusetts senator published earlier this year.

The anti-Kerry veterans have said Kerry’s recollection does not make sense because Nixon was not inaugurated until January 1969. But Kerry campaign spokesman Meehan said Kerry was referring to a range of time that included when Nixon was president-elect and president. During the 1968 presidential campaign, Nixon opposed a change in US policy that would allow “hot pursuit” of enemy forces into Cambodia; in March 1969 he authorized the secret bombing of Cambodia, which was followed by the 1970 invasion of Cambodia.

Given the amount of time it took to do so may intimate getting stories straight, I’m not convinced. However, I am glad to see him address it.

In other news, Kerry has condemned the Moveon ads targeting Bush’s National Guard record.

Nicholas D. Kristof on the assault weapons ban:

President Bush promised in the last presidential campaign to support an extension of the ban, which was put in place in 1994 for 10 years. “It makes no sense for assault weapons to be around our society,” Mr. Bush observed at the time.

These days Mr. Bush still says that he’ll sign an extension of the ban if it happens to reach his desk. But he knows that the only way the ban can be extended on time is if he actually urges its passage, and he refuses to do that. So his promise to support an extension rings hollow – it’s not exactly a lie, but it’s not the full truth, either.

Mr. Bush’s flip-flop is surprising because he has generally had the courage of his convictions. Apparently he’s hiding from this issue because it’s so politically charged.

Yes, Bush is playing politics. Thank God it’s an election year or he’d be pushing for it. However, he wants gun owner votes. Look for it after the election. Continuing:

Critics of the assault weapon ban have one valid point: the ban has more holes than Swiss cheese.

“The big frustration of my customers is that [the ban] removed things that were kind of fun and made it look cool, but didn’t affect how the gun operated,” said Sean Wontor, a salesman who heaved two rifles onto the counter of Sportsman’s Warehouse here in Meridian to make his point.

Actually, we have many points, including the fact that CDC and NIJ have concluded the ban has no effect on crime.

So far so good, but then he says:

Still, assault weapons, while amounting to only 1 percent of America’s 190 million privately owned guns, account for a hugely disproportionate share of gun violence precisely because of their macho appeal.

I’d like to see some sort of citation for this stat because to my knowledge that is not the case. Taking the VPC talking points and reporting them as fact borders on dishonesty.

Assault weapons aren’t necessary for any kind of hunting or target shooting, but they’re popular because they can transform a suburban Walter Mitty into Rambo, for a lot less money than a Hummer.

What’s hunting got to do with it? And, having just admitted there’s no difference in functionality above, you’d think he’d realize the Rambo reference is misplaced as somone could act all Rambo with a post-ban rifle.

I grew up on an Oregon farm that bristled with guns to deal with the coyotes that dined on our sheep. Having fired everything from a pistol to a machine gun, I can testify that shooting can be a lot of fun. But consider the cost: 29,000 gun deaths in America each year.

While gun statistics are as malleable as Play-Doh, they do underscore that assault weapons are a special problem in America.

They accounted for 8.4 percent of the guns traced to crimes between 1988 and 1991, and they are still used in one in five fatal shootings of police officers. If anything, we should be plugging the holes in the ban by having it cover copycat weapons without bayonet mounts, instead of moving backward and allowing a new flood of weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Ah, the patented I’ve shot guns before justification is quite John Kerryish. The statistics you cite (assault weapons traced to crime and the one in five police deaths) have both been discredited. The former is a useless statistic that proves nothing and the latter is a blatant lie by the VPC.

The bottom line is that Mr. Bush’s waffling on assault weapons will mean more dead Americans.

About 100 times as many Americans are already dying from gunfire in the U.S. as in Iraq. As many Americans die from firearms every six weeks as died in the 9/11 attacks – yet the White House is paralyzed on this issue.

About half of those gun deaths are suicides and most gun deaths are the result of handguns, not assault weapons. On September 14, we will not see an increase in gun violence. And the attempt to tie the weapons to Iraq is rhetoric comparable to the weapons of mass destruction, weapon of choice of criminals, and favored by terrorists nonsense we’ve seen in other media outlets. None of which is true.

I do applaud the fact he never once used the alarming and false talking point about AK47s and Uzis hitting the streets but the rest of the rhetoric is based on falsehoods.

For those not familiar with Boomsday, it’s a Knoxville tradition that involves a big fireworks show during Labor Day Weekend. The show has always had street vendors selling food. Beer was usually plentiful in the tents on the street. And if you’re connected, you can make a killing selling it:

Attendees at next month’s Boomsday fireworks show will not be able to purchase beer at the event. Unless, that is, they do their drinking at Calhoun’s on the River.

In a pair of seemingly contrasting votes Tuesday night, Knoxville City Council members approved the restaurant’s request to extend its standing beer permit to an outdoor patio area during the Sept. 4 event, after earlier denying a requested beer permit from Boomsday’s sponsor, Journal Broadcasting Group.

The Calhoun’s restaurant will have a monopoly on beer sales. The lines will be long. Of course, the owners of Calhoun’s (and a few other restaurants) are major players in the political realm in Knoxville. Just ask Tyler Harber.

The rule has always been keep it at Calhoun’s. However, that rule was never really enforced.

Update: Great minds and all that, Bubba has more.

Champaign brunches are now legal.

The college athlete addition:

A judge, while acknowledging he believed a college football player was “guilty as sin,” acquitted him of charges related to a run-in with police after a lawyer argued that a conviction could end the player’s career.

Gregory D. Powell, 20, was charged with assaulting police and disorderly conduct after a June disturbance at a motel where police had ordered underage drinkers to pour out their beer.

Way to teach him a lesson. Judge R. Patrick Hayman needs to be reprimanded but that won’t happen.

By now, you’ve probably seen it. The video is all over the news. The story is:

Officers in hurricane-ravaged Fort Myers used a Taser gun on a man allegedly trying to get by a police barrier to get home, and it was caught on tape.

A crowd formed around the scene and voices can be heard yelling, “Leave him alone,” “That is so wrong,” and “Come on man, he’s frustrated.”

The man had three children in the car with him. Many in the crowd felt for the man who hasn’t seen his home in days.

A free citizen has decided to return to his home. The extent of police involvement in this case should be a warning that it might be dangerous, proceed with caution. The hurricane was over. How about using those resources to, you know, stop looting?

Dragging a man out of his car, tasering him, and arresting him in front of his family for no real reason is pretty horrid.

A doctor refused to draw blood from a homicide suspect because the suspect did not consent. Obviously unclear on the concept of the fourth amendment, the police arrested the doctor. Eventually, the police got a warrant and a doctor performed the test. Says one policeman:

The five-hour delay could have “a serious impact on the case,” Stanek said, because the delayed blood test won’t provide an accurate gauge of the suspect’s blood-alcohol level at the time of the stabbing.

I’m so sorry that fourth amendment is such an inconvenience. That’s pretty abysmal.

The doctor who was arrested was following the hospital’s privacy policy.

Update: Gunner has good news regarding this case.

Perhaps unclear on the concept of the public use:

The city now has the option of purchasing, on a judge’s terms, any business property the courts decide could be put to better use.

A City Council decision Tuesday night to restore the power of eminent domain means the city can take ownership of businesses in the redevelopment district – which includes the entire city – and a few apartment complexes as well, if they prove to be a public nuisance.

Councilwoman Jane Day said the city should expand the authority to include all apartment buildings in Suisun City. As it is, only three apartment complexes are vulnerable.

Day called eminent domain “a tool we definitely need on board so that if there are problems we can correct those problems.”

Correct what problems? The problem of private ownership?

Update: Thanks to HL, I corrected the terminology.

The “Gun Safety” advocates always talk about how “nobody needs an AK-47 to hunt deer.” Well, OK, but how about a mountain howitzer?

For those of you unfamiliar with cannon artillery talk, a 12 pound Mountain Howitzer cannon was a small cannon used during the Civil War. The early mt howitzer cannons were originally designed to be disassembled and packed into the mountains on horseback, hence the name, Mountain Howitzer. The later model Mountain Howitzers, like this one, were built on a carriage designed to be “pulled” by horses.

The “pound” designation ( 12 pdr ) in the name ” 12 pound Mountain Howitzer “, refers to the weight of the projectile that the mt howitzer cannon shoots. Therefore, a 12 pound Mountain Howitzer ( 12 pdr ) shoots a 12 pound cannonball. All artillery cannons with smooth bore barrels were described in the “pound” weight of their projectiles. ( like the 12 pound Mountain Howitzer ) Artillery cannons with rifled barrels were described in the “inch” of their bore diameters. ( like a 3 inch Gun )

First, let me start by saying that I’m pretty sure that it may not be entirely legal to use a Mountain Howitzer Cannon for deer hunting, at least not here in Wisconsin. ( I didn’t actually ask the DNR about using a Mountain Howitzer, but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t like it ) Check with your own State Hunting regulations, … or not … (see hunting with artillery section)

Give those deer a whiff of grape!

Hugh Hewitt on Operation Keep Your Mouth Shut:

How odd for papers to carry opinion pieces relating to controversies that their readers have never read about in those papers, but which the opinion pieces presume they have heard or read about elsewhere.

My new highly unscientific study says no. A while back (up until last week, if I recall correctly), Glenn had a patron blog ad for this website, a group of local Knoxville lawyers (one of which has an on again, off again – but mostly off – blog).

The cost of this blog ad was $750 for a week, unless it was given to them free. Did the ad draw droves of traffic to the site? Nope. They went from about 3 visits per day to 16 visits per day. Not a stellar traffic increase from a site that, with a simple post, can send thousands and thousands of hits to bloggers. None of the other sites advertising at Glenn’s had Sitemeters.

Additionally, nearly all their hits come from Instapundit.

Most blog readers block out the ads, it seems. I wouldn’t buy any.

A while back, I TiVoed the CNN thing on blogging because Glenn said he’d be on it. Since then, TiVo’s suggestions function has recorded an episode of Dennis Miller, which featured the blogger Moxie.

Last night, it picked up an episode of whatever Bill Maher’s new show on HBO is called. And there was Michelle Malkin arguing with some Democrat politician and DL Hughley. Nothing exciting to report about the exchange, other than the Democrat toed the party line. DL Hughley had nothing insightful or funny to say once he ran out of scripted one-liners. I stopped watching (baby cried) when they started addressing her book, which apparently defends the internment of Japanese in America during WWII. I don’t see how such an act is defensible.

I realize Michelle Malkin is not only known as a blogger but a syndicated columnist. Regardless, is TiVo searching for shows that feature bloggers? I realize that is unlikely, but I found it interesting.

A girl was attacked by a pit bull. The owner of the dog did not follow Ohio’s law that requires owners of vicious dogs (which includes all pit bulls) to have $100K in insurance. So, an irresponsible dog owner who allows is dog to run loose, which is certainly a violation of leash laws that most cities have, also doesn’t obey insurance laws. Go figure.

Ohio’s law, which labels pit bulls as vicious by default, should be re-written to classify dogs as vicious once they act, you know, viciously.