Civil liberties – Page 32

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Published on May 16, 2004

There’s no way a white person would have been shot the way James Perez (or Kendra James before him, or Jose Poot before her) was shot. And if by some miracle a white person was shot on a pretext pull-over, there’s no way the Portland DA’s office would cheat the grand jury system to make sure that the cops were spared the discomfort of a trial. And if that did happen, the mainstream papers would at least report it.

Mike Schrunk and his boss John Bradley looked at the color of the victim’s skin and said, “screw it! Blacks aren’t human; the shooting of an unarmed black person doesn’t require a trial, because black lives aren’t worth that much.” A hundred years ago Schrunk and Bradley would have gotten their rocks off participating in lynch mobs, but since they can’t have that pleasure nowadays, they have to settle for gaming the justice system to make it legal for cops to shoot blacks.

It drives me up a wall that Schrunk and Bradley are still being treated with respect. Why aren’t they spit on by every decent person, everywhere they go? Why aren’t they turned away from restaurants and stores? Why aren’t their houses and cars vandalized every day? Why isn’t the mayor – or any of the folks running for mayor – calling for them to resign or be thrown out of office?

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Published on August 20, 2003

Nathan Newman on the silliness and danger of companies like Faux News and Verizon trying to shutdown satire/criticism by launching trademark infringement lawsuits against critics.

Basically, corporate America is asserting the right not to be mocked for their b——- slogans. Let’s be clear what parody and satire aimed at corporations is usually about — it’s the hijacking of the money spent by megacorporations to destroy the warm-and-fuzzy feelings the public may have. Which the corps hate, but it’s one of the main weapons of those without those megabillions to have chanc e in public debate, much as many martial arts allow a smaller combatant to use the strength of an assailant against them.

Trademark law should have a simple rule– if you aren’t selling the same product and there is no consumer confusion, a lawsuit should be dismissed on its face. That’s unfortunately not the legal situation now, but it should be.

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Published on April 29, 2003

Ethel the Blog

PUBLIC POWER, PRIVATE GAIN

The Institute for Justice has released a
report documenting thousands of eminent domain abuses across the U.S. I have a special interest in such
things seeing how there’s a group in Ohio with big plans to expand the former Rickenbacker Air Force Base.
The plan as published in the local papers about five years ago “featured” a new runway going right through
the entirety of my very small home town, which of course would have to be “relocated” for their wet dreams
to come true.

Top Stories Friday 20 Dec

Published on December 20, 2002

Atrios on the INS roundups in California:

Look folks – imagine you’re dealing with your DMV. Imagine Flunky #1 messes up your driver’s license application and tells you to come down to the office. Then, when you do go down to the office as requested Flunky #2 notices you drove there AND you don’t have your driver’s license (because, well, they screwed up your application). Flunky #2’s boss recently decided they now had a no- tolerance policy on such things and he has you arrested and thrown in jail.

Then, of course it doesn’t stop there. The special DMV judge operates his own special DMV court which has its own rules. Speedy trial? Nah. You could be there awhile. Who will support your family? Who knows. Chances for appeal? Not really.

The DMV judge deports you back to a country you haven’t lived in for 10-15 years. Your American children wave goodbye, as does your wife.

But, enough of that, I’ve got to go work on my next Tech Central Station column about the inconveniences of airline security for business travelers and my Fox News column about startling new evidence that Michael Bellesiles is a pedophile.