Date posted: March 28, 2008 - Friday
Title: TW3 03/28/08
Current mood: rushed
The Wrinkled Bandits
As we make new advances in numerous areas, we are also making advances in the field of crime. OK, maybe not new crimes, but a new wrinkle on an old crime.
The American obsession with looking good, whatever the cost, seems to have driven attractive older women to a life of crime. Around the country they are engaging in a type of fraud.
These women walk into spas, have botox treatments to eliminate the wrinkles that come with ageing and then beat feet out the door without paying.
Yep, fraud.
The excuses they use are varied, "I left my credit card in the car", "I have to make an important phone call", but whatever they say, the end result is the same; they take off. It has happened at clinics in Reno, Houston, Phoenix, Northern California and Florida.
Well, at least they will look good in the booking photos when they are caught.
I’ve Heard This Song Before
Vice President Dick Chaney has traveled to the middle east to push the battling sides towards peace.
I read the story and said to myself, "So What?"
It occurred to me I had heard this all before. Over the years Vice Presidents, Senators, Congressmen and even Presidents have gone to the middle east to negotiate, strong arm and even beg for peace. The parade through the region has been constant since I don’t know when.
And none of it seems to do any good. There are developments that look good for a time, but they always seem to fall apart and one side or another does something to irritate the situation and it all begins again.
Now, I’m not saying we should stop trying to help achieve peace in the middle east, but the length of time this whole mess has been going on got me to thinking.
We are entering our sixth year of battling for peace in Iraq and while the Bush administration says we are making progress, I just wonder how long we will be tied up in the conflict between sects in that country?
Now admittedly we aren’t actively involved in any conflict in the area where Chaney is trying to achieve peace, but we don’t seem to be able to achieve the goal there either. What makes us think we can solve anything in Iraq through force when we can’t seem to bring the warring factions around the Mediterranean together just to talk?
Ah, Pardon Me, But Can You Come Back To Prison?
70’s radical Sara Jane Olson was released from prison on the 17th. But her freedom was short lived.
The former member of the radical 1970s group Symbionese Liberation Army was serving a sentence for a 1975 bank robbery and the death of a customer during that robbery. Her release was allowed for good behavior while she served six years in prison.
Her release on parole, of course, caused screams from the family of victim. The Los Angeles Police Protective League denounced the release. The league chimed in because the radical group had planted bombs beneath police cars in an unsuccessful attempt to kill police officers.
Olson had been approved to return to Minnesota, where she had been living when she was captured 1999, to serve her parole. She had fled to the northern state after the crimes in California and lived there for more than 20 years. She married, was raising a family and contributed to the community there.
Oooooppppsss. The prison discovered it had made a clerical error and she wasn’t eligible for parole until March 17, 2009 and she was in the LA airport ready to leave when she was rearrested.
Clerical error? No wonder our prison system is screwed up if they can’t even keep track of how long a sentence is supposed to run and how long the prisoner has been there.
Several things strike me about this mess. While the woman ought to do the time for the crimes she committed, the police league seems to be to be a little over zealous in its’ condemnation of the possible parole. The group’s statement attributing Olsen’s release to having a good lawyer seems particularly offensive. Maybe it’s the fact she managed to evade them for all those years that really has them ticked off.
Apparently the good things she did in Minnesota don’t count a whit towards showing her character may have improved since her radical days. But I thought that was one of the avowed reasons for prison, rehabilitation, rather than just the vindictive punishment. Guess I was wrong.
Later in the week Olson’s attorney filed a motion to have her freed from prison. His assertion was the parole board had no authority to rearrest her. It could only revoke her parole, but could not arrest her because of a clerical mistake.
The union for the correctional officers weighed in on the matter late in the week because they were afraid union members would be blamed for the clerical error even though higher ups in the parole system also were involved in the review of Olson’s records and approved of the release without catching the error.
Sure, It Needs More Study
Yep, I’m sure of it. Global warming needs more years of study. The hunk of ice that broke off the Antarctic shelf, seven times the size of Manhattan, means nothing. Just a fluke.
It doesn’t mean a thing a hunk of ice the size of the state of Connecticut (the Wilkins ice shelf) is hanging by a thread.
This latest sign of global warming happened at the end of the Antarctic Summer and has caused scientists to predict the entire Wilkins ice shelf will collapse within 15 years. Since the ice shelves in Antarctica are only attached to the coast and already floating, there won’t be rise in sea level, but large chunks of floating ice could cause a hazard to shipping in the area.
There have been larger collapses in the ice shelves in 1995 and 2002, but this latest one again points to what scientists call "a tipping point or trigger in the climate system."
No doubt about it, we need more study. Heaven forbid we should do something about global warming too hastily.
Yeah, Just Ship Those Crates Over There
Apparently inventory control is not one of the strong suits of the U.S. Defense Department.
The Pentagon admitted this week it shipped four nose-cone fuses for intercontinental ballistic missiles to Taiwan. What they were supposed to ship were helicopter batteries.
And it took two years to discover the mistake despite repeated inquiries by Taiwanese officials. The shipment was made in 2006 and just a week ago the Pentagon admitted the mistake when the Taiwanese military notified the U.S. of the presence of the nose-cones in a warehouse on the island.
The parts were shipped between Air Force bases in 2005 after being declared excess and should have been stored in a classified storage section but were not. There were also supposed to be quarterly inventories of stock on the base, but apparently these parts were not accounted for.
Air Force Secretary Michael Waynne passed off the mistake by saying no nuclear material was part of the shipment. But, an investigation has been ordered into how the mistake was made.
Late in the week Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered a total inventory of nuclear weapons and all nuclear weapon-related materials. The inventories require accountability by serial number and must be completed in 60 days. He ordered the inventory not only because of the mistaken shipment to Taiwan but because of an accidental flight of B52s carrying nuclear missiles across the country in 2007.
The excuse the DOD is a huge organization and mistakes will be made just doesn’t fly. Because the department is huge it should also have huge resources to maintain its inventory and accountability. Even a small business seems to do a better job of accounting for their inventory than these guys do.
Business Is Business (Kind Of)
I need to get my prejudice out of the way right up front. I will not shop at Wal-Mart. How much do I hate these guys? If there was something I needed desperately and Wal-Mart was giving it away I would still go someplace else to get it. My reasons are many, but I won’t enumerate them here.
But, my prejudice aside, the company has again demonstrated why it has reputation of being a greedy, maintain-a-profit-at-all-costs organization.
Take the case of Debbie Shank. She worked at Wal-Mart eight years ago and signed up for its health and benefits plan. Then she was injured in an accident and suffered brain damage that has robbed her of much of her short term memory and left her living in a nursing home.
Two years ago she and her husband were awarded $1 million from the trucking company which was held responsible for the accident that injured her. After legal fees she got $417,000 which was placed into a trust to pay for her long-term care. (That’s a crime in itself when the majority of the award is eaten up in legal fees.)
Enter Wal-Mart. A clause in the health plan says if she received an award the company was entitled to take the money to repay the health plan for expenses it had incurred for her care. Wal-Mart had expended $470,000 for Shank’s medical coverage and so in 2005 sued her for that amount.
Although Shank and her husband weren’t aware of the clause in Wal-Mart’s coverage their lawyer had notified the company of the settlement and assumed the Shanks would be allowed to keep the money. "We assumed after three years, they (Wal-Mart) had made a decision to let Debbie Shank use the money for what it was intended," said Maurice Graham, the Shanks’ attorney.
The Shanks lost their case against Wal-Mart and lost again on the appeal of the original decision. A month after that their son was killed in Iraq. Because of Debbie Shank’s brain damage she can’t remember her son is dead even though she attended the funeral. When she inquires about her son and is told again he is dead she reacts each time like it is the first time she has been told.
At this point only about $277,000 remains in the trust; far short of the amount Wal-Mart wants returned.
"They are quite within their rights," says Jim Shank. "But I just wonder if they need it that bad. Who needs the money more? A disabled lady in a wheelchair with no future, whatsoever, or does Wal-Mart need $90 billion plus $200,000." Wal-Mart reported net sales of $90 billion in the third quarter of 2007.
The Shanks appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, but last week the court refused to hear the case. Things have become so desperate Jim Shanks had to divorce his wife last year so she could qualify for Medicare. He is recovering from prostate cancer, works two jobs and still struggles to pay his bills. He worries if he can send his youngest son to college or continue to pay for his wife’s care.
There is legally right and there is morally right. While Wal-Mart may be sticking to its’ legal rights I think they are violating a higher moral principal. And the company can disseminate all the propaganda they want about being ecologically friendly or doing good works in the community. I’m not buying it.
Quickies
In what I guess you could call an ironic twist it turns out the guy who runs the company whose employees snooped into Barack Obama’s passport records is an advisor to his campaign.
Our Congress reaches new heights of silliness every day. Not content to waste their time holding hearings over whether on not Roger Clemens used performance enhancing drugs, now they are squabbling over whether or not he lied to them. Committee Democrats expressed their belief Clemens had lied during testimony. Not content to just let the matter drop, Republicans are siding with Clemens’ accuser. And to memorialize their stupidity they issued a 109-page report on the hearings.
109-pages!!! What a waste of trees to memorialize a waste of time.
Want another sign the economy is in a mess? The National Association of Realtors reported sales by homeowners rose by 2.9% in February. Though these numbers reflect a pace that beat economists’ expectations, sales were still down 23.8% from last year.
And these sluggish sales came when the median price of a home had dropped 8.2% from the previous year; the largest year-over-year price drop on record. Sales prices have now fallen 15% from their peak in July 2006 and brings the median price of a home down to level of those from May 2004.
And while the Northeast of the country is in better shape in both amounts of sales and median home price, the news is not good in the west. In the western part of the nation median prices dropped 13.4% and sales still dropped 1.1% in the region.
The Supreme Court has ruled against the Bush administration again. Bush had entered the fight over an execution in Texas on the side of the defendant. Because the convicted man was a Mexican citizen, a treaty signed by the U.S. says a foreign national accused of a crime has to have his embassy notified to help with legal assistance. In the case of Jose Ernesto Medellin the Mexican consulate wasn’t notified until after his conviction.
Bush demanded the state of Texas conduct a new hearing and sentencing for Medellin who faces execution by lethal injection for the gang rape and murder of two teenaged girls in 1993. Bush said he was enforcing the treaty provisions agreed to by the U.S. decades ago and the ruling by the International Court of Justice rendered in 2003 on an appeal by the Mexican government.
The US Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold the Texas decision to execute Medellin despite a violation of the international agreement. The decision said Bush could "execute" the laws "not make them." "The executive’s narrow and strictly limited authority to settle international claims disputes pursuant to an executive agreement cannot stretch so far as to support the current presidential memorandum," said Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority opinion.
Good news for winos. Researchers have shown for the first time that a natural antioxidant found in grape skins and red wine can help destroy pancreatic cancer cells. The antioxidants reach the cell’s core energy source, or mitochondria, and cripple its function.
While professing that she wants to return to Stanford, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has let it be known in Republican circles she would consider running for vice president if asked. She recently spent 20 minutes speaking to a meeting of Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group, and another 20 minutes answering questions.
After some of the bumbling the current administration has made in foreign affairs with Rice as the spokesperson is she really the one we want a heartbeat away from the Presidency?
True to his history, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said he wouldn’t "rush" his decision on whether or not to regulate emissions linked to global warming. The EPA, as you may remember, is under a court order to make a decision on regulation of carbon dioxide emissions.
He has called for hearings to take public comment on the implications of regulating carbon dioxide. He also wants comment on other agency rules that cover everything from power plants and factories to small businesses and schools.
It is said the process of gathering public comment could take months. This would effectively drag the process beyond the term of the Bush administration and place the problem in the hands of the next administration.
In a letter to the House and Senate environment committees Johnson said, "Rather than rushing to judgment on a single issue, this approach allows us to examine all the potential effects of a decision with the benefit of public insight."
Bullshit. This is a stalling tactic pure and simple. Congress needs to call this jerk on his crap and some judge needs to look into prosecution of him for not complying with the court order. And there needs to be a way to make him accountable for his actions even if he leaves his position when the Bush administration leaves office.
