Random News Stories

[Junkenstein]

Lessons in local governance:
http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130505/CITYANDREGION/130509556/1026

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Heading into the final hours before Tuesday's Buffalo School Board elections, Carl P. Paladino had spent more than $25,000 of his own money to convince South Buffalo voters to choose him, the latest campaign finance filings show.

Jason M. McCarthy had raised more than $22,000 through the end of last week to try to retain his North District seat. The sums are part of a combined $70,000 that candidates have spent so far vying for positions that pay $5,000 a year.

But that collective amount is eclipsed by the money being spent by one group – widely believed to be the state teachers union – that is flooding mailboxes across the city with expensive, full-color smear ads trying to link various candidates to Paladino. In addition, the group sending the mailers is doing so illegally, far exceeding state spending limits.

The regional director of New York State United Teachers does not deny sending the ads, which have been distributed through a postal permit in Queens that is owned by a direct-mail company there.

Whoever is sending the glossy smear fliers has, by many accounts, succeeded in confusing voters. In addition, the group has violated state law that limits spending that is not authorized by candidates to $25 per candidate.

By the time the elections are over, whoever is sending the ads will likely have spent more than $100,000 – far more than any other money being spent on this year's battle to determine control of the Board of Education.

The lesson seems to be that cash will get you what you want.

One version of the ads being sent from the Queens postal permit features a picture of Park District candidate Paladino next to a picture of one of the candidates in another district who is not backed by the union. An arrow points to Paladino, saying, "This guy is the zero-experience, race-baiting, pornography-loving millionaire who wants to take over Buffalo schools." Another arrow points to the other candidate and says, "And this guy thinks that's just great."

And if cash isn't working, use attack ads.

[Junkenstein]

The secret court has, to my knowledge, never turned down a FISA request.

Which is part of why the government drive to all information, all the time, must break the laws, must retroactively give immunity to the telecoms etc etc is so ridiculous.

Then again, I suppose if they started routing every actual electronic surveillance request, then there would need to be a significant expansion in the court's staff, just to keep up.

Now you're thinking like a Job-Creator. Figure out a way to outsource it and it's a truly modern business.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22434077

Libya's Defence Minister Mohammed al-Barghathi has resigned in protest over a siege by gunmen on the ministries of justice and foreign affairs.

The militiamen had been demanding the introduction of a law banning Gaddafi-era officials from holding office.

On Sunday, a week after the siege began, parliament passed the law.

"I will never be able to accept that politics [can] be practised by the power of weapons," Reuters news agency quotes the defence minister as saying.

Wait, What?

There may have been a more fundamental reason for you not to continue in that post.

[Cain]

I think he means the power of other people's weapons without some kind of widespread social sanction set within a political context that allows for the theoretical dismissal of political control of that weaponry in the case of abuse.

But that doesn't sound as pithy.

[Junkenstein]

It also doesn't send the best of messages to the international arms dealing community. I'd guess that gravy train came to a fairly abrupt end after the revolution. Perhaps no one has explained the "Guns for oil" deal that had been working so well.

Also, your daily reminder of horror:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22437771

A Briton faces up to 27 years in a US jail for plotting to kidnap, rape, kill and eat a child, authorities say.

Agents found the basement of Geoffrey Portway's Massachusetts home equipped with a steel cage and a child-sized home-made coffin, in a raid last year.

The 40-year-old had spent months discussing the kidnap and murder online with an American, Michael Arnett.

Portway pleaded guilty to soliciting the kidnap of a child and distribution and possession of child pornography.

His admission on Monday was part of a plea agreement, the US Attorney's Office said. Under the terms he must serve between 216 and 327 months in jail before he is deported to the UK.

These abduction/imprisonment cases seem to be cropping up more frequently. I'm not sure if this is a case of better detection or just inevitable sloppiness from playing "Warden" for years. I've got a hunch that it's actually a lot more widespread than suspected or thought. Mainly because it's pretty horrific and people are good at hiding shit when they really don't want to get caught.

[Junkenstein]

I think he means the power of other people's weapons without some kind of widespread social sanction set within a political context that allows for the theoretical dismissal of political control of that weaponry in the case of abuse.

But that doesn't sound as pithy.

And he's just rescinded his resignation. Well, that's turned that thing into non-news.

[Junkenstein]

Everyone loves audacious crime:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22447516

Police in Belgium, Switzerland and France have arrested 31 people in connection with one of the world's largest robberies of diamonds.

Belgian prosecutors say they have recovered large sums of money and some of the diamonds that were taken in a raid at Brussels airport in February.

A gang cut through the airport's perimeter fence and broke into the cargo hold of a Swiss aeroplane as it waited for take off.

They took $50m (£32m) of diamonds.

The diamonds were "rough stones" being transported from Antwerp to Zurich.

Prosecutors described the thieves as "professionals".

They had dressed as police, wore masks and were well armed.

They forced their way through security barriers and drove towards the Helvetic Airways plane, forcing open the cargo hold to reach gems that had already been loaded.

They snatched 120 packages before escaping through the same hole in the fence.

Prosecutors said the whole operation took only about five minutes, no shots were fired and no-one was hurt.

Film by the end of the year assuming everyone involved has been caught.

[Junkenstein]

Serious times in court:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/05/07/57378.htm

The "claw machine," in which kids try to drop a claw onto a stuffed animal, is an illegal gambling operation and should be shut down, a woman claims in a class action against Denny's.
     Ashley Cheesbrough sued Denny's in Superior Court.
     Cheesbrough claims that Denny's "engaged in unlawful business acts to earn higher profits by exposing its patrons to illegal gambling devices and providing them with opportunities to gamble. Denny's conduct violates public policies tethered to laws that are designed to protect the public against the deleterious effects of gambling."
     She claims that Denny's encourages illegal gambling by offering "games of chance" in the arcade sections of its restaurants.

Cheesbrough says she personally lost money trying to win prizes out of claw machines at Denny's, and never would have played them had she "known that the machine was an illegal gambling device."
     The complaint does not say how much money she lost playing the game.
     But she claims that she and other class members will continue to lose money and Denny's will "retain proceeds of its ill-gotten gains" unless the court orders Denny's to remove the claw machines and other games of chance from its restaurants.
     She seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction, disgorgement and restitution for unfair competition and business law violations.

I'm betting 4/5 figures. Minimum.

[P3nT4gR4m]

But she claims that she and other class members will continue to lose money and Denny's will "retain proceeds of its ill-gotten gains" unless the court orders Denny's to remove the claw machines and other games of chance from its restaurants.

Bottom-of-the-food-chain level of willpower. These people are supposed to be exploited and conned. It's what they're for.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/former-enron-ceo-jeff-skilling-may-leave-prison-2017-1C9846371

[Cain]

Well, by the standards of the investment banks, Enron's leadership were not criminals, only pioneers in innovative revenue-streaming methods.

[Junkenstein]

I still don't get why anyone actually thought Mark-to-Market was in any way sane.

Even Enron joked about it being bullshit. Which was probably one of the few honest things they actually did.

[Junkenstein]

Berlusconi:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22458282

An appeals court in Italy has upheld the conviction for tax fraud of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The court also reinstated a four-year prison sentence and five-year ban from public office he was handed in October.

Mr Berlusconi was convicted of artificially inflating prices of film distribution rights bought by his company, Mediaset, to avoid taxes.

He is now expected to appeal against Wednesday's ruling at Italy's highest court, the Court of Cassation.

The 76-year-old has denied the charges and said they are politically motivated.

But instead of overturning October's verdict, the Milan appeals court on Wednesday upheld his conviction for tax evasion and re-instated the original jail sentence. The four-year term had been cut to one year by a lower court because of his age.

"We knew it would go like this," Mr Berlusconi's defence lawyer Niccolo Ghedini told reporters.

There is however no real prospect of Mr Berlusconi being jailed, as he will exercise his right to appeal and the case will actually soon expire under a time limit, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome reports.

I fucking bet he did too.

[Junkenstein]

Ill thought out opinion of the day for 5 minutes of shame:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22459815

A prominent barrister specialising in reproductive rights has called for the age of consent to be lowered to 13.

Barbara Hewson told online magazine Spiked that the move was necessary in the wake of the Savile scandal to end the "persecution of old men".

She also said that complainants should no longer receive anonymity.

The NSPCC called her views "outdated and simply ill-informed" and said to hear them "from a highly experienced barrister simply beggars belief".

Her remarks come after a number of high-profile arrests over allegations of historical sexual offences in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.

Among those to have been convicted is former BBC broadcaster Stuart Hall, who admitted 14 charges of indecently assaulting girls, including one aged nine, between 1967 and 1985.

Ms Hewson described Hall's crimes as "low-level misdemeanours" which "ordinarily... would not be prosecuted".

'Prurient charade'
"What we have here is the manipulation of the British criminal justice system to produce scapegoats on demand. It is a grotesque spectacle," she said.

"It's time to end this prurient charade, which has nothing to do with justice or the public interest."

She argues for an end to complainant anonymity, a strict statute of limitations to prevent prosecutions after a substantial amount of time has passed and a reduction in the age of consent to 13.

She said that "touching a 17-year-old's breast, kissing a 13-year-old, or putting one's hand up a 16-year-old's skirt" are not crimes comparable to gang rapes and murders and "anyone suggesting otherwise has lost touch with reality".

The NSPCC described crimes such as Hall's as "incredibly serious" and said that "to minimise and trivialise the impact of these offences for victims in this way is all but denying that they have in fact suffered abuse at all.

"Any suggestion of lowering the age of consent could put more young people at risk from those who prey on vulnerable young people."

It also argued that complainant anonymity should be maintained and that historical prosecutions should be allowed as "many who are abused are bullied, blackmailed and shamed into staying silent, often well into adulthood"

There's been murmurs for a while about if these offences "were really crimes" and associated victim blaming. This is particularly overt.

[Cain]

online magazine Spiked

Stopped reading right there.  Spiked is basically contrarianism for its own sake.

In fact, Spiked Online has a very interesting history, when you look into it.  Originally called "Living Marxism", it was the journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1978) a Trotskyist outfit that somehow drifted into extreme corporate libertarianism and support for Tony Blair's endless wars of foreign interventionism.

Inbetween that, they spent a lot of time arguing that therapy was bad, that paedophilia criminalised being an older man, and undertaking literary criticism.