Month: March 2014

Legalizing vigilantism

by digby

If you go looking for trouble armed with a gun, you can kill anyone you want, even confused and disabled elderly people:

The Walker County, Ga., District Attorney said Friday he will not press charges against the homeowner who shot and killed an elderly man wandering on his property. 72-year-old Ronald Westbrook, who has Alzheimer’s disease, had been walking around the Chickamauga area, a rural neighborhood in north Georgia, when he walked onto Joe Hendrix’s property at around 2:30 a.m. Hendrix’s fiancée called 911 and a deputy was dispatched. But before he arrived, Hendrix took matters into his own hands, walking out the front door and firing three or four shots at Westbrook, one of which hit him in the chest.

Hendrix’s fiancée told police that Westbrook was ringing the doorbell and trying to open the door, according to the press release issued Friday by District Attorney Herbert “Buzz” Franklin. Westbrook then started walking toward the back of the house, and Hendrix “took a handgun and went outside to confront the man.” The release explains:

Hendrix came around the corner of the house and yelled at Westbrook first to stop and then to come to him. There was no external lighting and the flashlight Westbrook had earlier either was not working or was turned off. Westbrook never verbally responded to Westbrook but began to advance towards Hendrix in what Hendrix described as a quick and aggressive manner.

Hendrix could only see a silhouette figure carrying a cylindrical object in his hand but could not make out anything else. Hendrix shouted at Westbrook to stop. Westbrook made no verbal response but continued to advance towards Hendrix in the same manner. Hendrix retreated to the front of the house. Hendrix was afraid that if the man got by him, his girlfriend in the house would be defenseless. Hendrix shot 3 to 4 times.

In an email to ThinkProgress, Franklin explained his decision not to charge Hendrix: “In interviews immediately after the shooting, Hendrix claimed he acted in self-defense. In Georgia, the prosecution bears the burden of disproving a self defense claim beyond a reasonable doubt. After looking at the facts from Hendrix’ perspective, it would be impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hendrix did not reasonably act in self defense.”

He later confirmed that he was referring to particularly robust protections for homeowners known as the “Castle Doctrine,” which allows deadly force without a duty to retreat to protect the home.

Georgia is one of many states with aggressive provisions that permit deadly force in self-defense, both inside and outside the home. Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson told the Times Free Press in Chattanooga, Tenn., that he expected the district attorney to consider Georgia’s Stand Your Ground law in deciding whether to press charges. “In my personal opinion, I believe that [Hendrix] should have stayed inside the house,” Wilson said. “Did he violate any laws by exiting the house? No.”

So, if you have the Castle Doctrine, you can shoot first and ask questions later if someone enters your house — even if you could have run out the backdoor and called police. And now, with SYG, you can leave the house with a gun and go looking for someone wandering around in the dark and shoot him without knowing if he’s a dangerous person at all. Basically we are legalizing vigilantism.

Yes, he should have stayed inside the house. The reason the law evolved over time to say that everyone has a duty to retreat if they can is because human beings are idiots who often go looking for trouble and find it. It’s best not to encourage that trait.

.

Back in the USSR

by digby

Jonathan Schwarz reads that silly Snowden book so you don’t have to. I think this probably tells you all you need to know about the evidence it summons to make its case:

Here’s a good example, one so portentous that it’s the last sentence of book’s last chapter:

[Blogger Catherine] Fitzpatrick has identified the background to one of the rare photos of Snowden in Moscow: on the basis of the distinctive striped pavements, the logo on a supermarket trolley he is pushing, and other visual clues it is, she believes, a shopping centre in Yasenevo, near Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service [SVR] headquarters.

Let’s leave aside the fact we don’t know if this photo (published by a Russian tabloid) actually shows Edward Snowden. And let’s leave aside that if it does show Snowden in Yasenevo, him being two miles away from SVR headquarters would not actually mean he’s a secret Russian agent. Let’s just focus on what Fitzpatrick says.

And what she says is that she’s “going to take a WAG” about the photo—i.e., a wild-assed guess. This guess is based on these features of the photo:

• The stripes on the curb, which she says are found near shopping centers and metro stations in Yasenevo…and also the rest of Moscow.
• The logo on the shopping cart—which I find totally illegible but she believes starts with a Russian D, so “maybe” it’s Dialayt. There’s a shopping center called the Dialayt Torgovy Kompleks in Yasenevo.
• The trees, which are the “same kind” as in Yasenevo. I’m not an expert on trees or Moscow or Moscow trees, but my guess is such trees are found in more than one Moscow location.
• The metal kiosks, which she (incorrectly) says look like those close to Dialayt Torgovy Kompleks.

That isn’t cherry-picked—literally the entire book is like that.

There you have it.

Equally idiotic is the idea that Snowden’s documents have something to do with the current events in Crimea. As Russia expert Mark Adomanis tweeted earlier today:

Rather than Snowden’s documents the Russians probably relied on, you know, their several hundred years of experience ruling Ukraine
— Mark Adomanis (@MarkAdomanis) March 1, 2014

I know it’s truly shocking to imagine, but not everything that happens in the world is about America or Americans.

What’s happening in Ukraine is very worrisome for a whole lot of reasons. Anything could happen, although according to what I’m seeing on TV today from people actually in Ukraine, the most likely outcome is a vote in Crimea, backed by Russia, to secede from Ukraine and form an autonomous country. (Crimea is mostly Russian ethnicity — after all it was Russia until 1954 — so one assumes those two countries would have a cooperative relationship if that were to happen.) Russian partition sounds like it’s unlikely. I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is, and there is no bloodshed in getting to that point, this would seem to be a better outcome than we might expect.

On the other hand the usual suspects are starting to fulminate about the usual nonsense about US “credibility” and “toughness” and “sending messages” and talking up the idea that Russia is on the verge of invading Europe — and the Neocons were already getting very over-stimulated at the prospect of a new cold war.

I don’t think I have to point out that because we know that Vladimir Putin is a corrupt and repressive autocrat, and he certainly is, ginning up a new cold war as the old Soviet borders continue to disintegrate is a counterproductive idea. It will not help the people of Russia or the Ukraine or anyone else.

Update: Here’s a realistic piece on what’s happening by Russia expert Julia Ioffe. I’m afraid that unless we can get the Marvel Comics superheroes to get on the case there’s just not much to be done except exhort the Russian government to eschew violence and hope to hell that a bunch of local hotheads don’t get out of hand.

Update II: When I say “realistic” I’m talking about what can be done, which is very little. I have no idea about what’s in Putin’s mind and frankly, I don’t think anyone else does either.  The fact that he’s worried about losing influence in his region seems like a fairly obvious concern but beyond that I have no idea whether the chest beating and nationalism is any more strategic than the chest beating and nationalism of any other militarily powerful country.
.

by tristero

You denounce them. You laugh at them. You mock them. Better yet, you ignore them.

Here’s what happens if you try to debate them:

A Christian ministry’s long-stalled plans to build Noah’s Ark in the hills of Kentucky have been revived.

Creation Museum founder Ken Ham announced Thursday that a municipal bond offering has raised enough money to begin construction on the Ark Encounter project, estimated to cost about $73 million. Groundbreaking is planned for May and the ark is expected to be finished by the summer of 2016.

Ham said a high-profile evolution debate he had with “Science Guy” Bill Nye on Feb. 4 helped boost support for the project.

Nye said he was “heartbroken and sickened for the Commonwealth of Kentucky” after learning that the project would move forward.

Nye was told this.  You can’t debate truly bad ideas like creationism. When you do, you simply elevate bad ideas and confuse everyone.

.

Old man yells at cloud

by David Atkins

Fox News has gotten so pathetic that it doesn’t even anger me anymore. It’s infotainment for scared 80-year-old conservative white men, and increasingly plays the part:

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on Thursday advised Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett to get “gangsta rappers” like Jay Z and Kanye West to say their behavior is wrong if the White House really wants to improve minority communities.

President Barack Obama had invited O’Reilly to the launch of his new initiative called “My Brother’s Keeper” earlier Thursday. The program aims to create opportunities and improve conditions for young minority men, but O’Reilly said he doesn’t believe the White House sees the “urgency” of the situation in the streets.

“You have to attack the fundamental disease if you want to cure it,” O’Reilly told Jarrett. “Now I submit to you that you’re gonna have to get people like Jay Z, Kanye West, all these gangsta rappers to knock it off.”

“They idolize these guys with the hats on backwards, and the terrible rap lyrics and the drug and all of that,” he continued, adding that high-profile figures need to hammer young people with that message to “reverse the peer pressure.”

O’Reilly also challenged First Lady Michelle Obama to come on “The Factor” and tell teenage girls “You stop having sex. You stop getting pregnant. This is wrong.”

Jarrett said the first lady’s mentorship program accomplishes more for young women than a single Fox News interview could, but she conceded that perhaps the outreach program could find some musicians that kids respect to come and speak to them.

“Look, either tell them they do it or you audit them. That’s it,” O’Reilly joked.

I can’t even bring myself to feel outrage at this. I just feel pity and derision.

.

The nice curmudgeon

by digby

To make you feel better about this misbegotten human species:

.

Rush’s screaming dogwhistle


by digby

Good lord:

@digby56 In the first 1,186 words spoken by Limbaugh on NFL (26Feb), he used the term “N-word” 17 times pic.twitter.com/pbGMbBJ4e5
— bluewhaletail (@bluewhaletail) February 28, 2014

Gosh, I wonder what he was trying to say?

.

Back to the good old days …

by digby

For those who are unfortunately watching cable news and are being misinformed and confused by the commentary on the events in Crimea, particularly from the usual suspects like John McCain, this article in the New York Times about Ukraine’s history and relationship with Russia will get you up to speed:

Crimea, a multiethnic region populated by Russians, Ukrainians and Tatars, has been the focus of territorial disputes for centuries, and in recent decades it has frequently been a source of tension between Ukraine and Russia.

Before this week, the most recent of these disputes occurred in May 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the Crimean Parliament declared independence from Ukraine. And there has always been an expectation that when things become tense between Russia and Ukraine, that tension is likely to be felt must acutely in Crimea.

“The Crimean peninsula has become an arena for the duel between Kiev and Moscow on political, economic, military and territorial disputes,” Victor Zaborsky, an expert on the region, wrote in a 1995 paper for the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.

The 1992 dispute was resolved with an agreement known as the Act on Division of Power Between Authorities of Ukraine and Republic of Crimea, which granted Crimea autonomous status within Ukraine.

In that sense, it is similar to the status of Chechnya within Russia. Chechnya’s autonomy nods to that region’s distinct Chechen language and Muslim religion, while in Crimea, such autonomy acknowledges that the political and cultural identity is often more Russian than Ukrainian.

McCain is on CNN now beating the drums for … I don’t know what. But like his pals in this article, he’s clearly nostalgic for the cold war:

“I look back wistfully at the Cold War,” Inhofe said Thursday at a breakfast meeting with reporters. “There were two superpowers, they knew what we had, we knew what they had, mutually assured destruction meant something. It doesn’t mean anything anymore. Now we have these people who are not rational, not logical, they’re nuts.”
[…]
McKeon agreed and harkened back to the days when he said Russia and China could be depended on to keep their client states in line.

“When we used to have superpowers, they would let things go until it looked like it was going to spill over. Then they would step in and stop it,” he said. “We can’t get any help from Russia now with Iran or Syria, they are just pushing us all over the place. It’s a dangerous world and we are making it more so, because by cutting defense we are totally eliminating Reagan’s line ‘peace through strength.’”

The good old days ….

That’s what I grew up with. It wasn’t as fun as it looks.

.