Monday, June 09, 2003

Afghan President Vows to Prevent Terror [AP World News] President Hamid Karzai vowed on Monday to do everything he can to prevent terrorist attacks and protect foreigners in Afghanistan, after a suicide attack killed four German peacekeepers and an Afghan civilian. I might take that seriously if Karzai didn't require US soldiers to protect him from his own constituents, because there aren't any Afghans he can trust to be his bodyguards. 10:45:39 PM    comment () Yeah, But He Broke the Law!. On Friday, Ramon Saul Sanchez became the latest illegal immigrant to learn firsthand that the look-the-other-way enforcement policy of yesterday's INS is rapidly becoming an artifact of the naive pre-9/11 past. It remains to be seen whether the usual suspects will clamor for Sanchez's deportation, especially in light of his repeated brushes with the law, but there are some mitigating circumstances. For instance, his infraction (not obtaining permanent residency within one year of immigrating) took place 35 years ago. When he was 13. Also, he came from Communist Cuba, and is one of South Florida's most prominent anti-Castro activists, heading up the confrontational Democracy Movement. And he was arrested while trying to finally obtain legal permanent residency, which is now required to renew a Florida driver's license. Sanchez's fate will be determined by an immigration judge in September. [Hit & Run] This guy has apparently run into US oppression in his efforts to fight Cuban oppression, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised if the US government took the opportunity to get rid of him. There is something rather ironic, in a sad and depressing way, about statements like, "The U.S. Coast Guard seized the boat Democracia..." and "The U.S. government seizes another boat, the Human Rights...". 3:02:36 PM    comment () The Los Angeles Times has run editorials twice in the past few weeks opposing the effort to recall Gray Davis. I consider that a good sign, since they wouldn't bother writing about it if they didn't think it had a chance. 10:36:36 AM    comment () Martha Stewart: Political Prisoner. If the feds are successful in their attempts to imprison Stewart, it is unlikely that her company will be able to survive in its present form. Sales will drop and people will lose their jobs. While the radio and television talk show hosts will be feeding the anti-Martha Stewart frenzy, people whose only crime was working for a successful firm will find themselves looking for work during an economic recession. Not everyone will lose. Comey will become a media superstar in the line of Rudy Guiliani and Joel Klein, who seriously damaged capital markets and the NASDAQ stock exchanges respectively through their predatory legal actions as employees of the U.S. Department of Justice. Thanks to their outrageous prosecutions of Michael Milken and Microsoft, both men today are multi-millionaires. Finally, one cannot discount the role of politics here. As I stated earlier, the government is seeking to make her into a political prisoner. It is politics, not the pursuit of justice, which is driving this case. Stewart is well-connected politically, but it is to Democrats, who control none of the branches of government at the present time. Her wealth and public persona make her a convenient target of a very political U.S. Department of Justice and of U.S. attorneys who see the example of the Guiliani path to fame and fortune. In the end, we are likely to have a well-known person owning a felony record and being sentenced to prison (or, at best, receiving a suspended sentence or probation) and a once-prosperous company in tatters. Oh, and we will see some federal prosecutors being feted as though they had just solved the Case of the Century. These are dark times, indeed, for the pursuit of justice in the United States of America. [Ludwig von Mises Institute] Let's also remember that the whole mess was caused by the FDA rejecting ImClone's application to sell their anti-cancer drug. A rejection by the FDA does not mean the drug doesn't work, of course, and this article has a link to a Reuters story that reports the drug actually works just fine and the FDA will probably allow it to be sold in the US by early next year. 10:30:55 AM    comment () Illicit Speech Anti-Proliferation Act. Joe Biden's Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, which holds venue owners responsible for drug use on their property, seems to have claimed its first victim: a fund-raising event for two drug policy reform groups. The Drug Reform Coordination Network reports that the Drug Enforcement Administration used the law to intimidate the owners of the Eagle Lodge in Billings, Montana, into canceling a concert that would have benefited the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Students for a Sensible Drug Policy. On May 30, the day the event was set to take place, a Billings-based DEA agent showed up at the Eagle Lodge, which had booked the concert. Waving a copy of the RAVE Act [the law's original name] in one hand, the agent warned that the lodge could face a fine of $250,000 if someone smoked a joint during the benefit, according to Eagle Lodge manager Kelly, who asked that her last name not be used. "He freaked me out," Kelly told DRCNet. "He didn't tell us we couldn't have the event, but he showed me the law and told us what could happen if we did. I talked to our trustees, they talked to our lawyers, and our lawyers said not to risk it, so we canceled," she said. "I felt bad. I knew the guys in the bands."... DEA Denver regional office spokesman Bill Wyman confirmed to DRCNet that an agent had visited the Eagle Lodge to warn of possible RAVE Act violations and their consequences... Clearly, the chilling effect of this law is not limited to unconventional music. Just as opponents of the measure predicted, the government is using it to silence critics of the war on drugs. [Thanks to Ted Sampsell-Jones for the link, via Don Watkins.] [Hit & Run] 9:43:40 AM    comment () 2 Broke 2 Greedy?. Taking Hollywood promotional tie-ins to a whole new level, the Los Angeles City Council marked the opening of 2 Fast 2 Furious this Friday by passing an ordinance allowing cops to confiscate and then sell cars deemed to have been used for street racing. Under existing law, L.A. police can impound the cars of both racers and spectators, but owners can retrieve them after paying a $300 fine. If Mayor James Hahn signs the ordinance into law, the cars will instead be auctioned, with the proceeds being dumped into the city's general fund. Which, coincidentally, is expected to reach a deficit of nearly $280 million this year. [Hit & Run] Presumably "deemed to have been used for street racing" means "the cops said so," without requiring the owner to have been convicted, or even charged, with any crime. 6:10:26 AM    comment ()

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