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From the Washington Post:

D.C. police began checking drivers’ IDs last night in a neighborhood that has been plagued by homicide, and although the policy found critics, among them at least one motorist, a police official said it went well.

…

But [Herbert Temoney] was skeptical, stating that stopping motorists at checkpoints may not be an adequate response to the killings.

…

“They’re out here putting tickets on cars of residents when they should be out here walking around getting to know the neighborhood and learning who lives here and who doesn’t,” said Diane Kemp, a 16-year resident of the area who was ticketed a few months ago.

“Now we have checkpoints, one more way of hurting those of us who live here.”

Representatives of several civil and housing rights organizations protested the plan as they gathered in the 1400 block of Montello Avenue NE. Eleanor Johnson, of the D.C. Coalition for Housing Justice, said the police were “creating a police state.”

About 15 demonstrators decried the checkpoints, saying they violate the residents’ rights. “Trinidad, yes; Baghdad, no!” they yelled. “Don’t turn Trinidad into Baghdad!“

If DC is serious about reducing crime, why not start foot patrols? There’s a wealth of information supporting the increased effectiveness of foot patrol as a crime deterrent and effective social policy.

Foreign Policy has an interesting guide on tourist destinations that Americans can’t visit. They mention Mount Kumgang, Baracoa, Mogadishu’s Beaches, Persepolis, and Mandalay. Respecively North Korea, Cuba, Somalia, Iran and Burma.

Of course, no one from any of those countries would be allowed to enjoy the Grand Canyon, or the Big Apple. In fact, even Iraqi translators working at enormous personal risk with the US military in Iraq can’t get visas to travel here. Like the Gonzaga basketball prospect born in Sudan who was refused entry into the US, Iraqi translators come from a country our government has short-listed as undesirable. In fact, there are only 27 countries allowed to visit the US’ tourist splendors without visa of their own; mostly European nations like England or Italy. Unfortunately even citizens of those nations can be in for US travel problems. One Italian lawyer was recently locked up without lawyer or trial for ten days on a recent visit for audaciously traveling to the US visit his American girlfriend, and eventually the Grand Canyon.

From the LA Times:

Restaurants, fast-food chains and supermarkets across Southern California removed fresh red Roma, plum and red round tomatoes from their shelves and took them off their menus this weekend as the U.S. government warned of a widening outbreak of salmonella.

The Food and Drug Administration said consumers should avoid raw red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes, which have been tied to 145 infections reported since mid-April.

I drove 1600 miles this weekend on a trip marked by dining, of both the fine and fast categories. The lack of tomatoes across all spectrums of dining was noticeable. What’s curious is the scope of the tomato shortage, given the nature of the problem. For the sake of 145 illnesses, with 23 hospitalizations, many restaurants stopped serving tomatoes and many grocers halted sales of at least thee kinds of tomatoes. Given the enormous quantity of American consumption, and the food and feed shortage we’re facing on a global scale, it seems puzzling that we’d destroy food. Granted people are getting sick enough to require medical care, but other people are dying of starvation. Destroying a large supply of any food would seem an act of imprudence, likely driving up already high food costs and increasing the likelihood of starvation-related deaths worldwide.

Photo courtesy Junjan at Flickr.

From CNN:

The man who designed the Pringles potato chip packaging system was so proud of his accomplishment that a portion of his ashes has been buried in one of the iconic cans.

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Baur’s children said they honored his request to bury him in one of the cans by placing part of his cremated remains in a Pringles container in his grave in suburban Springfield Township.

What can’t Pringles’ cans do? Extend your wi-fi? Check. Work as a lens extender for budding photographers? Done.

Serving as a final resting place was the obvious next step for the Pringles can.

Image from Flickr, courtesy Kevin+Photo.

From the NY Times:

It looks like Republicans will counter the Democratic push for change from the years of the Bush administration with their own pledge to deliver, drum roll please, “the change you deserve.” The first element of the party agenda developed over the past few months by the leadership and select party members will focus on family issues.

A bold new plan could certainly help the Republican party stop the hemorrhaging that threatens their very existence. A courageous stand against the obviously faulty policies of the currency administration—politicized beliefs that fly in the face of conventional wisdom and academic insight on matters of budget, science, war & even infrastructure—could also help provide a real context for a damaged party. But try to co-op the one platform branded so tightly to a current candidate will simply reinforce the belief that most voters of any persuasion already have: that the GOP is yesterday’s party, and today’s problems need tomorrow’s solutions.

We’re out of troops?

After the last of the five “surge” brigades goes home this summer, the U.S. Army will have 13 brigade combat teams in Iraq (the Marines have two more) and two in Afghanistan. One BCT serves as a “global response force,” ready to respond to a small-scale emergency elsewhere in the world. One is in Korea. One is dedicated to homeland defense and security. One, at a base in Fort Riley, Kan., is training soldiers to become advisers to Iraqi and Afghan security forces. That adds up to 19 BCTs. All the other Army brigades are either between deployments or in their 12-month downtime periods, having fulfilled their 12-to-15-month deployment tours. (For a little more detail on these numbers, click here.)

And that’s it. There are no more combat brigades left.

Photo courtesy annibee at Flickr.

From Karl Rove’s op/ed in the Wall Street Journal:

Another McCain story, somewhat better known, is about the Vietnamese practice of torturing him by tying his head between his ankles with his arms behind him, and then leaving him for hours. The torture so badly busted up his shoulders that to this day Mr. McCain can’t raise his arms over his head.

Regarding Donald Rumsfield in the Wall Street Journal (via Yale):

U.S. military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could put prisoners in “stress positions” for as long as four hours, hood them and subject them to 20-hour-long interrogations, “fear of dogs” and “mild non-injurious physical contact,” according to list of techniques Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved in December 2002.

McCain’s torture in Vietnam was, in part, being held in stress positions. The very same stress positions were approved as an interrogation technique by the US in the war on terror.

So what was considered torture to McCain is not considered torture in Guantanamo.

From Newsweek’s piece on new revelations in the Bush administration’s spying on Americans:

The revelation of the existence of the documents comes at a time when Congress is bracing for what is expected to be a grueling summerlong debate over the surveillance measure. Administration officials say that unless Congress acts by this summer, existing court orders permitting surveillance of suspected overseas terrorists will expire, threatening the U.S. government’s ability to keep track of potential plots against the homeland. If new legislation is not enacted before the current stop-gap law expires, Republicans may try to use this as an election issue against Democrats.

So the Republican ads would read: Don’t vote Democrat! They’re anti-America and want to let the terrorist win! While the Democrat would say: Don’t vote Republican! They’re anti-Americans and want to terrorize you with their spying!

Where is the reason in this public policy?

McCain and Clinton both think the best way to help consumers with sharply rising gas costs is a break on the federal gas tax. There are a few profound problems with that terrible, terrible idea:

1. There’s no way to ensure the oil companies won’t just lower gas a few cents and pocket the rest of the difference as profits.
2. Decreased cost will increase demand, which will causes base costs to increase. So the costs would likely stay the exact same
3. The virtually no way to pass related legislation before the summer. Government is built to function slower than that.
4. The federal gas tax pays for road work, like bridge repair. Given our highway infastructure is in serious trouble, reducing that budget fund is a terrible idea. In fact, the budget has already been approved so the money would have to be raised somewhere. Most likely source: the public. Least likely source (and Clinton’s suggestion): the oil companies based on their enormous new profits, which I’m sure they could rely on clever accounting to hide.

From the NY Times:

Three detectives were found not guilty Friday on all charges in the shooting death of Sean Bell, who died in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a club in Jamaica, Queens, in November 2006. The verdict prompted calls for calm from the mayor, angry promises of protests by those speaking for the Bell family and expressions of relief by the detectives. …

Justice Cooperman delivered the verdict in State Supreme Court at 9 a.m. Describing the evidence, he said it was reasonable for the detectives to fear that someone in the crowd that night carried a gun. He added that many of the prosecution’s witnesses, including Mr. Bell’s friends and the two wounded victims, were simply not believable. “At times, the testimony of those witnesses just didn’t make sense,” the judge said.

Detective Isnora told grand jurors last year that he clipped his badge to his collar and drew his gun, shouting, “Police! Don’t move!” as he approached Mr. Bell’s Nissan Altima.

Other witnesses, mostly friends of Mr. Bell, said they never heard shouts of “Police!” Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield testified that they had no idea that Detective Isnora was a police officer when he walked up with his gun drawn.

The verdict was rendered based on a belief that one set of witnesses was more believable than the other. But in a plea of “not guilty”, where a chief piece of evidence is the corpse riddled with bullets, how could either side be considered entirely reliable. Self-interests and grief surely colored both sets of testimonies.

It would be hard to fault the judge for any specific verdict in this weighty case, but for his verdict to rest in the assertion that he found one argument more believable is the weakest possible judication. Justice Cooperman abdicated his role, and pinned responsibility for the verdict on the witnesses for the prosecution’s perceived lack of character. “Innocent until proven guilty” should always be the governing principle on the bench, but no judgement should be based on the mistaken equation of innocent and honest.