Overnight Open Thread: “You Say You Want a Revolution?” (genghis)
— Open Blog

If not, you will after reading this article from the NYT via MSNBC.com.

“Cities, States Turn to Fees to Fill Budget Gaps.” Some excerpts:

”After her sport utility vehicle sideswiped a van in early February, Shirley Kimel was amazed at how quickly a handful of police officers and firefighters in Winter Haven, Fla., showed up. But a real shock came a week later, when a letter arrived from the city billing her $316 for the cost of responding to the accident.”

“I remember thinking, ‘What the heck is this?’ ” says Ms. Kimel, 67, an office manager at a furniture store. “I always thought this sort of thing was covered by my taxes.”

“Such cash-per-crash ordinances tend to infuriate motorists, and they often generate bad press, but a lot of cities are finding them hard to resist. With the economy flailing and budgets strained, state and local governments are being creative about ways to raise money. And the go-to idea is to invent a fee — or simply raise one.”

Of course, targeted fees and taxes are nothing new, as anyone who smokes can tell you. Since the number of smokers is about 20% of the population, the remaining 80% could care less for the most part. But that gooseÂ’s golden eggs are about tapped out. The insidious thing about these fees is that they almost always target a small portion of the population. For example, whoÂ’s really going to scream bloody murder if Wisconsin triples the application fee to get an elk hunting license? (ThatÂ’s mentioned in the article) Well, elk hunters of course, but few others. ItÂ’s not the sort of thing thatÂ’ll bring a hundred thousand angry protesters to the steps of the state capital.

So it’s a “divide-and-conquer” strategy. Eventually though, they’ll finally get around to ramping up fees on something that affects you directly…and you’ll be rightly pissed off. Maybe it’s a new fee on the sales of tanned hobo hides or a fee for each word you use while commenting. But don’t expect the elk-hunters to get riled up about it. After all, where were you in their hour of need ? (Of course there’s often some crossover and probably a few enjoy hobo-hunting and commenting)

Defenders of this ever-increasing reliance by government on targeted fees always fall back on the argument “Well, people who use and benefit from these services should pay for them.” Yet I seem to recall that there’s already a mechanism in place to pay for basic services. Wait, don’t tell me…it’ll come to me…oh yes, now I remember: Taxes. More outrage below the fold.
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Breaking: Captain Phillips Free, 3 Pirates Killed, 1 Captured
— Dave in Texas

UPDATE (4:35pm EDT)

Pentagon press conference right now. It was not a planned assault. What they are saying is that there was an imminent danger to Captain Philips and the on scene commander (I think that's the commander of USS Bainbridge) gave the order to take the pirates down. Apparently there was an AK pointed at Philips and the commander authorized snipers to take their shots. It was a split section decision.

They had standing authority from the President to take action in the case of an imminent threat to the hostage's life.

The SEAL snipers were on Bainbridge about 20 meters or so from the life boat and sea conditions were 'deteriorating'. It sounded like Bainbridge had the life boat under tow at the time.

I'm guessing the early reports of a 'fire fight' were somewhat over stated. It seems 3 shots, 3 ex-pirates is more like the case.

As for Obama's role in this, it seems it was neither heroic nor stupid. This is as it should be. He seems to have given his approval to the military's requests for authority and then let them do their thing. He did his job, that's enough for now.

Right now the praise belongs to Capt. Phillips, some kick ass SEAL snipers, CDR Castellano, the men and women of USS Bainbridge and the rest of the military and FBI that provided support on this mission.

Captain Phillips safely on board USS Bainbridge
with the ship's CO CDR Frank Castellano
On Fox now.

More: Fox reporting Capt. Phillips jumped overboard again and the SEALs were ready. Damn, the fuckin balls on this guy.

Not "freed" - loose shit on me. Although Fox is using that in their header too. So loose shit on them too.

MORE [DrewM.]

Interesting note about the one pirate in custody.

A senior U.S. intelligence official said a pirate who had been involved in negotiations to free Capt. Richard Phillips but who was not on the lifeboat was in custody.

Was he on a US ship 'negotiating' when this went down? It's early and it will take awhile to get it all sorted out but obviously, very interesting stuff was going on.

Whoever or wherever the captured pirate is, the Navy was 3-3 when it came to targets on the life boat. Well played gentlemen. Well played.

Meanwhile, Captain Philips' crew was obviously ecstatic at the news.

When Phillips' crew heard the news aboard their ship in the port of Mombasa, they placed an American flag over the rail of the top of the Maersk Alabama and whistled and pumped their fists in the air. Crew fired a bright red flare into the sky from the ship.

Below the fold, a celebratory Navy SEALs video. more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 08:41 AM | Comments (9)
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Happy Easter!
— Gabriel Malor

He has been raised; he is not here.

Happy Easter, all. Hope the day finds you happy and sick from too many peeps and cadbury bunny eggs. And jelly beans. I love jelly beans. Also, go to church, call your mother, cook a turkey. Some people like ham. And some people have lamb, but I think that's a little too on the nose.

A little Easter humor is below the fold.

UPDATED [DiT]: with another Easter classic. Old but good.

Happy Easter Y'all. more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:42 AM | Add Comment
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Failing the Pirate Test
— Uncle Jimbo

UPDATE: Looks like we got in the game and freed the captain and whacked three of the four bad guys.. Well done.

Our country and it's leader especially are getting Joe Biden's promised tests. The pirates didn't hit any US flagged ships until now and they and many other bad actors will be looking to see if there are any teeth left in the big dog. A headline today reads US Navy shadowing pirates, ooh I hope that isn't too provocative.

Commentary w/my new toy below the fold. more...

Posted by: Uncle Jimbo at 06:14 AM | Add Comment
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Reason For Optimism?
— LauraW

March was a dismal month for my business and the same was reported by most of the local small businesspeople (and large company reps.) that I speak to.

But there's been an uptic in the last couple weeks, a palpable change of attitude and work is starting to roll in.

Of course, the plural of anecdote is not data.

He points to one indicator in particular with a remarkable track record: the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits. In past recessions, it has hit its peak about four weeks before the economy hit a trough and began to grow again. As of right now, the four-week average of new claims hit its peak of 650,000 in the week ended March 14.

From the Department of Labor.

In the week ending April 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 654,000, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 674,000. The 4-week moving average was 657,250, a decrease of 750 from the previous week's revised average of 658,000.

So small...but hey, it's something, right?

Please check out the nifty graphs at the first link, if you're into that sort of thing.

Posted by: LauraW at 05:04 AM | Add Comment
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North Korea Is In Trouble Now...Security Council Agrees On A Strongly Worded Letter
— DrewM

In yet another display of Obama's awesomely awesome diplomatic prowess, the UN Security Council has reached an agreement on how to respond to last week's missile launch by North Kora.

The US said it wanted a tough resolution (for what little that's worth) but not even Obama's bowing and scraping tour of Europe could get Russia and China to go for that. All the US and Japan got was a "Presidential Statement".

The US draft that refers simply to a launch, without specifying whether it was of a satellite or a missile, calls on the UN sanctions committee to designate North Korean entities and goods that should be subject to sanctions under UN Security Council Resolution 1718, passed in October 2006 following a North Korean nuclear test.

The sanctions have not been effectively enforced since that time, although UN member states are empowered to do so.

Susan Rice, US ambassador who presented the draft statement on Saturday, said it sent a “strong message to the DPRK that their violation of international law will not be treated with impunity”.

No word on whether or not she said that with a straight face.

I'm sure the North Koreans are quivering in fear of a press release warning them that the sanctions that have been ignored for over 2 years will suddenly be enforced. Obviously this is bullshit since the Security Council couldn't rouse itself to pass another theoretically binding resolution (no, I couldn't keep a straight face while typing that) but punted for the diplomatic equivalent of a blog post.

As John Bolton argued in his book, this kind of action isn't simply a defeat for the US but for the idea that the UN is a viable institution. The people who claim to support it so much are the first to emasculate it through this constant retreat from its supposedly 'binding' resolutions. They do far more damage to their beloved institution than any supposed unilateral cowboy ever did.

Maybe it's just me but I'm starting to get the idea that the UN is a fabulous waste of time and money.

Posted by: DrewM at 05:03 PM | Comments (1)
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Overnight Open Thread: “A Commenter Bestiary” (genghis)
— Open Blog

In last night’s comments “kbdabear” posted a link to this piece at “Edgelings” titled A Commenter Bestiary. It lists and describes the various prototypical commenter types you encounter on any blog, regardless what the blog or topic is about. It seemed like it needed it’s own separate post though.

The author of the piece, Michael S. Malone, is apparently the reporter who wrote a widely circulated and posted article last October about being ashamed of being a journalist. He does a pretty nice set-up describing his newspaper experience and “letters-to-the-editor” vs. his time as a blogger and having to deal with commenters. Here’s a few examples of commenter types he’s encountered:

”The Relentless Pol - Posters who can’t join any discussion without immediately using it to make a political point, i.e., “The current lack of sunspots is the direct result of the Bush Administration’s failed policies.”

“The Dismisser - The ultimate arrogant commenter, this person never actually engages with the topic, but merely declares it beneath anyone’s interest, already resolved, or improperly stated - and thus hardly worth the bother. The Dismisser’s only real message is: I’m smarter than you and you need to acknowledge that fact.”

“The Parser - What would we do without the Internet Grammar Police? These folks assiduously correct the online writings of others - never quite catching on that the Web is designed to be fast, fresh and sloppy.”

“The Lecturer - This is the buzzkill pedant who feels the need, even in a casual, light comments section to post a 1,000 word exegesis on what everyone should be talking about. Hey, thanks pal!”

Lots more species in the piece, but I’m sure there’s some he left out. If you can think of any others (and that includes sub-genres and combinations of types) post them in the comments. For example: There’s a sub-species of “The Parser” that takes it a step further by pointing out that your typo proves you’re an idiot and invalidates whatever point you were trying to make. Feel free to tell us what type you think you are as well as labeling/accusing your fellow commenters. I’m sure they’ll want to know.

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to xgenghisx@gmail.com. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

Posted by: Open Blog at 04:03 PM | Comments (2)
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Pirates Fire At US Navy
— DrewM

In a better world, their lives would now be forfeit.

Pirates off the eastern coast of Africa fired on U.S. sailors Saturday as they tried to reach the lifeboat where an American captain is being held, a U.S. official familiar with the situation told CNN.

The gunfire forced the sailors, who did not return fire, to turn back, the official said.

But have no fear, lawfare is here!

The FBI is launching a criminal investigation into the hijacking and hostage-taking, two law enforcement officials told CNN. The probe will be led by the FBI's New York field office, which has responsibility for looking into cases involving U.S. citizens in the African region. Agents from the office were scheduled to leave for Africa sometime this weekend, the officials said.

Yeah, I'm sure they are really worried about that.

Obama. He's Jimmy Carter without the muscular foreign policy.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:19 PM | Comments (3)
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New York Times Front-Page Celebrates the Absolute Moral Political Authority of Our Troops in Iraq
— Ace

Bumped, as it was the most interesting thing I wrote this week month.

The picture, and the headline:

In Unexpected Visit, Obama Wins Cheers of Troops

There are quite a few reasons to knock this as bias. The New York Times never seemed to think it was worthy of prominent announcement that The Demon Bush was warmly received by troops being the most obvious.

Another obvious bit of bias is the claim that Obama "won" the cheers of troops. Did he? In what manner? By what action? It seems more likely that Obama didn't "win" anything from the troops, rather that the troops had, as patriotic Americans and sworn defenders of the Constitution, given the commander in chief the reception they extended to all of their superiors.

There's a last bit of bias here that I always notice in the news, but never mention because it takes a little bit to explain, and I'm not sure how much actual impact it has.

The bias I mean is the bias of perspective. The novelistic technique of making one "character" (in this context) the active character, making decisions that advance the "plot," with whom the audience is "with" and through whose eyes the audience sees the world. And making the rest of the world, whether fictional or real, either objects of the hero's action, or opponents for him to contest against. The press has a strong tendency to frame political stories from the vantage point of the heroes of their stories, who are, almost inevitably, Democrats. more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:41 AM | Comments (1)
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If Workplace Training Films Were All Like This, We'd Pay to See Them
— Ace

Five minutes of pure awesome at Hot Air.

Grim, gory stuff. It's funny because it's just odd to see so much blood and gore in an instructional film. On the other hand, it's kinda sick because, unlike a slasher film, this stuff happens.

Candian Anti-Accident Ad Campaign: More gore, this time with American Werewolf in London style visitations from the grisly dead:
more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:47 AM | Comments (1)
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