DOJ v Ferguson

     I listened to Eric Holder's DOJ Findings on Ferguson press conference. I listened from the perspective of someone living just a few miles away and one who's seen some of the same abuses firsthand.

     My wife got caught up in one of Ferguson's neighbor's aggressive traffic enforcements. In Missouri, city police can write tickets on Interstates going through their city, and the burg's cop got my wife.  She swears she wasn't speeding... much. And I believe... well, I... I take the Fifth. She also got tagged for other violations. It was exactly like Holder depicted.

     She was ordered to appear in the city's court, a seedy little justice mill in an old bar. It was in a really sketchy area, so I was dragged along as the sacrificial meat shield. With about 90-110 other defendants, we waited while the judge described her town's particular version of jurisprudence. To paraphrase mightily: You're probably guilty. You could ask for a trail, but it would be expensive, inconvenient, and most likely futile. It would be so much easier if you threw your wallet on the mercy of the court. Justice takes cash, checks, American Express, Visa or Master Card, and easy payments at reasonable rates can be arranged. See the cashier in the back.   

     It was all as Holder described. More than 95% of the defendants were African-American. The condemned awaited their fate with surly resignation. Justice was curt, perfunctory and cynical. The defendants were separated from their money as efficiently as a pig from it's blood in a slaughterhouse.

     It was exactly as Holder described: an abusive, grasping, uncaring, racist system.

     Except, it wasn't. Not completely.  

     The judge was African-American. All but one of the many court officers and workers were minorities. The police commander was Black. The police security team was entirely Black. Furthermore, the city itself boasts an African-American Mayor and a totally Black City Council.  

     Abusive? Yes. Money Hungry? Certainly. Racist? Are you serious?

     Holder made much of Ferguson's unjust city justice system. In this I believe he's correct. However, to damn all of Ferguson as racist - based on behaviors that can be shown as being anything but, is fundamentally incorrect.  I haven't read the 110 page report yet, but it's seeming reliance on simple, unnormalized statistics and unsupported conclusions is troubling. Given the history of Holder and the Obama administrations willingness to play on race, this may be just another instance of their  elaborate racialist posturing. 
 

New York Ebola -- and the Obama Admin

Dr Spencer's walkabout of New York with nascent Ebola has the city in an uproar. 

It should be noted - but, somehow the media is failing to note - that a travel ban and/or quarantine of the Ebola hot zones of Western Africa could have prevented this threat to the 8.4 million tightly packed into NYC. In defiance of centuries of experience and effective practices, the Obama administration has refused to implement these preventative measures. Instead, they have slowly rolled out a patchwork of partially effective airport screenings and self reporting.

There are pervasive rumors - RUMORS - that the large NYC Liberian community is hiding
Ebola deaths within the city. 

 

There's every expectation that this Ebola outbreak is just a pre-test for some truly nasty future infection. A test the Obama administration is failing miserably. 


Remember this November 4th: Elections Have Consequences. Competency Maters.

Why Haven't the West African Flights Stopped?

"Of course, you can’t expect our government to be as competent as Nigeria’s."

Scott Johnson sums it up rather succinctly in his Powerline article Ebola Panic and the Limits of Political Sanity.  Go read it now; we'll wait.

This president is refusing to institute travel bans and quarantines. All for reasons of his own political beliefs, calculations, appearances and future plans. He has willingly chosen this path to the detriment of the men, women, and children of the United States. This is an inconceivable dereliction of a sacred duty. Except... it is completely believable for this president, his fellow-travelers and party.

(Drudge via Powerline)

Feeling the pressure of the public's well-founded concern, Obama appointed the "Ebola Czar" that he was adamantly against, then receptive to the possibility, and then finally wholeheartedly in favor of. This appointment is political eyewash; certainly not as anywhere near as constructive as a quarantine. It's telling that Obama's Ebola Czar is not a doctor, but a lawyer and political apparatchik.

Czar Ron Klain is the former chief of staff to Gore and Biden, a current press flack and lobbyist, and as a well-connected, reliably progressive, and administration-friendly political hack; absolutely loyal to the Obama administration. He has not a whit of infectious disease, medical, or health care system experience. Not the appointment that 'Boma would make if he was concerned with stopping the spread of a Cat 4 infectious disease within America's borders. It reaks of an effort to "massage the message", "keep a lid on things", and "control the damage" (all traditional political flack functions) -- 19 days before the critical Mid-term elections.   

Political Hack - And Ebola Czar - Ron Klain
(indystar.com)

Tell me again how America's in the best of hands.

  

Thoughts on Ebola - And Civilization

An Evolving List:

Citizens! You Have Nothing To Fear!
(Times of India)

21st Century Homo Sapiens is a fantastically interconnected, interdependent species. Where someone sneezing in Liberia can result in someone dying in Texas. 

Political Correctness is more powerful than millennia of experience and science.

Race can be injected into anything.

There is wisdom in admitting you do not know all the facts and are taking a conservative, risk mitigating approach until the situation becomes clearer. Wisdom has never been behind the podium at a 'Boma press conference. 

One point of infection can quickly become thousands of potential points in a modern mobile society; especially when assisted by political posturing and bureaucratic incompetence.

It is fantastically expensive to control a point of infection in a modern, interconnected, mass-service society; best to fight it over there. Sound familiar?

The best way to fight an infectious disease might just not be the 1st Armored. Completely different skill sets. I fear for our soldiers.  

The CDC is a $16 Billion a year clown show. And we're not laughing. 

Viruses evolve. Bureaucracies have a demonstrated ability not to.   

This'll keep me from commercial aircraft, cruise ships, malls, movie theaters, basketball games, DMV lines...  See, there's an upside to Ebola. 

Ye gods, what happens when we get a truly nasty virus? In all likelihood, this Ebola outbreak is nothing more that a pre-test. Somebody has got to go back to school.    

Reality has a rude habit of destroying carefully constructed fantasies. 

Elections have consequences.

Competency matters.

Paranoiac preparations are suddenly less paranoiac.