Vinson Ruling

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Vinson Ruling

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While his stance shows more class than his 2 Democratic predecessors, Bill Clinton and Jimmuh Cahtah, both of whom criticized him several times during his 8 years, I doubt Democrats will cease using him as their whipping boy to hang every ill of society on that they contributed to heavily themselves.

Bush says,

“I don’t want to be on these talk shows, giving my opinion, second guessing the current President. I think it’s bad for the country, frankly, to have a former president criticize his successor.”

I believe the constant criticism he received from the 2 living former Democrats proved that well. Neither Bush Sr. nor Ronald Reagan criticized or belittled Bill Clinton during his 8-year reign in similar manner.

NYDailyNews.com

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H/T to Tyler Shaw for the cover

The Time magazine cover with Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan is about as far off the mark as one could get. Obama’s presidency has began looking more and more like that of Jimmy Carter, with ineptness and indecision and now, with a major ally teetering on the brink of collapse and into the hands of radical Jihadists, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Much like when Carter refused to support the Shah of Iran, encouraging him to step aside and allow the the Ayatollah Khomeni to impose his strict Sharia over Iran, Obama and members of his administration are encouraging a Peaceful and orderly transition.

Forgotten is that once the Shah of Iran was gone and Khomeni took over, he “ruthlessly purged the disorganized liberal oppositionists and consolidated his brutal dictatorship, the excesses of which were far worse than anything perpetrated by the Shah.”

As an editorial in the Washington Times puts it, “Islamic extremists are giddy over the possibility of the region’s largest pro-American domino falling. Liberal oppositionists are calling for a united front government with the Muslim Brotherhood, a compromise measure that will surely prove fatal when the current regime collapses and the moderates are left to face off with the extremists. Given the precedent set in Iran – as well as in the Russian and French Revolutions – the liberals will not last long.”

A recommendation they make to Obama and I agree with, “The administration should immediately draw down the number of personnel in the U.S. embassy in Cairo. A hostage crisis may be the only part of this Carteresque rerun Mr. Obama can avoid.”

See also the UK Telegraph,  Egypt crisis: will Obama trust 80 million Egyptians?

Closer to home, about a hundred people gathered in  downtown Portland Saturday to rally in support of the Egyptian people against Hosni Mubarak. While  I have no affinity towards Mubarak and think his ways should have changed long ago, I also wonder if these people in Portland fully understand just exactly what they are rallying in support of? KGW.com

Will Egypt go the way of Iran?

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Britain, one of those countries considered light years ahead of the U.S. in “Green Energy,” conducted a little experiment recently on the electric car and just how practical it would be.

The BBC, one of the proponents of electric cars, showing just how practical they are, traveled from London to Edinburgh, a distance of approximately 332 miles (484 by BBC claims) “in a mere four days – with nine stops of up to 10 hours to recharge the batteries (with electricity from fossil fuels).”

According to the UK Telegraph article on the trip, “in the 1830s, a stagecoach was able to make the same journey in half the time, with two days and nights of continuous driving. This did require 50 stops to change horses, but each of these took only two minutes, giving a total stopping time of just over an hour and a half.”

Would horses be more practical?

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While his stance shows more class than his 2 Democratic predecessors, Bill Clinton and Jimmuh Cahtah, both of whom criticized him several times during his 8 years, I doubt Democrats will cease using him as their whipping boy to hang every ill of society on that they contributed to heavily themselves.

Bush says,

“I don’t want to be on these talk shows, giving my opinion, second guessing the current President. I think it’s bad for the country, frankly, to have a former president criticize his successor.”

I believe the constant criticism he received from the 2 living former Democrats proved that well. Neither Bush Sr. nor Ronald Reagan criticized or belittled Bill Clinton during his 8-year reign in similar manner.

NYDailyNews.com

Follow

H/T to Tyler Shaw for the cover

The Time magazine cover with Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan is about as far off the mark as one could get. Obama’s presidency has began looking more and more like that of Jimmy Carter, with ineptness and indecision and now, with a major ally teetering on the brink of collapse and into the hands of radical Jihadists, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Much like when Carter refused to support the Shah of Iran, encouraging him to step aside and allow the the Ayatollah Khomeni to impose his strict Sharia over Iran, Obama and members of his administration are encouraging a Peaceful and orderly transition.

Forgotten is that once the Shah of Iran was gone and Khomeni took over, he “ruthlessly purged the disorganized liberal oppositionists and consolidated his brutal dictatorship, the excesses of which were far worse than anything perpetrated by the Shah.”

As an editorial in the Washington Times puts it, “Islamic extremists are giddy over the possibility of the region’s largest pro-American domino falling. Liberal oppositionists are calling for a united front government with the Muslim Brotherhood, a compromise measure that will surely prove fatal when the current regime collapses and the moderates are left to face off with the extremists. Given the precedent set in Iran – as well as in the Russian and French Revolutions – the liberals will not last long.”

A recommendation they make to Obama and I agree with, “The administration should immediately draw down the number of personnel in the U.S. embassy in Cairo. A hostage crisis may be the only part of this Carteresque rerun Mr. Obama can avoid.”

See also the UK Telegraph,  Egypt crisis: will Obama trust 80 million Egyptians?

Closer to home, about a hundred people gathered in  downtown Portland Saturday to rally in support of the Egyptian people against Hosni Mubarak. While  I have no affinity towards Mubarak and think his ways should have changed long ago, I also wonder if these people in Portland fully understand just exactly what they are rallying in support of? KGW.com

Will Egypt go the way of Iran?

Follow

Britain, one of those countries considered light years ahead of the U.S. in “Green Energy,” conducted a little experiment recently on the electric car and just how practical it would be.

The BBC, one of the proponents of electric cars, showing just how practical they are, traveled from London to Edinburgh, a distance of approximately 332 miles (484 by BBC claims) “in a mere four days – with nine stops of up to 10 hours to recharge the batteries (with electricity from fossil fuels).”

According to the UK Telegraph article on the trip, “in the 1830s, a stagecoach was able to make the same journey in half the time, with two days and nights of continuous driving. This did require 50 stops to change horses, but each of these took only two minutes, giving a total stopping time of just over an hour and a half.”

Would horses be more practical?

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Portland Police Chief Mike Reese recently said he’ll ask the community when police should use Tasers. This comes after criticism of law enforcement and a recent 9th Circuit Court decision holding officers personally liable if they ‘Taser’ someone when the suspect poses no immediate threat. 

• Live the list, 
• Ignore the input 
• Take the Tasers away from the cops.  

• Follow the policy
• Don’t follow the policy and risk discipline
• Don’t use the Taser as a matter of practice except when you’re sure in the moment that the situation is on the list. 

And remember the only tool left on the use of force continuum is the officer’s firearm.

I can tell you from personal experience at the end of a Taser prong that it’s a once-in-a lifetime-experience and one you’ll want to miss.  Every muscle in your body gets involved and ones closest to the prongs bring an instant understanding of its purpose and respect for its use.

But I can recount several instances in the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office on the street, in the jails and in the courthouse where the presence of the Taser not only prevented the use of a firearm, or injuries from a fight, in some cases it prevented the fight all together. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with engaging our citizens in an education process about why we use the tactics and tools that we do. In fact that is good stuff. But along the way if we allow principled policy to be replaced by unworkable policy then law enforcement fails everyone.

If the message to the cops is that the Bureau needs to redefine Taser policy including examples of when and how much to use it: no problem.  If the message is ‘you’re in trouble if you wander off'”the list:” big problem.  And at that point just take the Tasers off the street. If the message to the community is “the list” has got it covered: big lie.

We are a great risk of putting our police officers in not only no-win situations, but lose-lose situations. Time after time, event after event they are faced with bureaucratic inferences that somehow they are failing to meet our expectations. The Police Bureau can’t set the expectation that every poor decision a cop makes can be solved with another public flogging. 

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