Hey Stalin, France is waiting for its apology.

France elected the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy. Apparently they will stop at nothing to antagonize our own Stalin Malone.

Kathryn Johnston Update

Back in November I wrote about the death of 92 year old Kathryn Johnston in a "no-knock" raid. The whole event was shady to say the least, and looked like there was something very wrong going on.

Yesterday an Atlanta court agreed. Two officers involved, J.R. Smith and Gregg Junnier plead guilty to various crimes including manslaughter, violation of oath, criminal solicitation and making false statements. A third, Arthur Tesler is charged with charged with violation of oath by a public officer, making false statements and false imprisonment under color of legal process, but plans to go to trial.

There is one throw away line in the article that I want to address.

He (Fulton County prosecutor Peter Johnson) said Johnston only fired once through her door and didn't hit any of the officers. That means the officers who were wounded likely were hit by their own colleagues, he said.

What this means is that this "no-knock" method, a method used to protect police, actually lead to more harm as the chaos and excitement of the moment added bullets to the air. Besides Ms Johnston, how much more injury could have been prevented by an old fashioned investigation and warrant issue? The general rule to a tense situation is to try to diffuse it, not jack things up. A calmer tact may not be as cool, but it is more effective.

Bottom line, nobody "won" today, but hopefully this will slow down the rapid rise of no-knock entries, put the police under greater scrutiny, and it does show that if citizens put pressure on the system, they still control it.

Wiccan Celebration Party. BYOI.

(That's Bring Your Own Incense for the Wiccanly challenged).

Anyway, the Department of Veteran's Affairs has officially OKed the Wiccan symbol, or Pentacle, for use on the government issued headstones of fallen soldiers.

OUTSTANDING!

Long time readers (Hi Ma) know that the H-Blog has been all over this issue, here and here, and it's nice to get a "win."

Wal-Bank Update

Wal-Mart has abandoned it's plans to run a industrial loan corporation, or "Bank" as the knee-jerks call it.

The chairman of the FDIC, Sheila Bair says the decision to withdraw the application was a "wise choice" because of emotional (controversy) not factual (how it will help/hurt anyone - and if it's better for consumers). Mind you, she's the chair of the FDIC. You would think that she'd rise above the noise of emotional controversy and focus on data.

But nope. Somehow its OK for Target to have this type of banking, but not Wal-Mart. Not to be picky, but this feels like a government mandated business advantage, which, to me, is much more controversial.

Bottom line, I'm not sure the consumer won today.

UPDATE: Lafayette Marijuana and Judge

Quick update on a recent post about Lafayette Judge Leonard Frieling's decision to step down in protest of the city's decision to increase the penalty for possession of less than one ounce 10 fold from $100 to $1000 and up to one year in jail.

First the Honorable Judge Frieling responded to our post, meaning much like the Libertarian party boasts on and on about their sheriff, we can now claim an actual Judge among H-Blog readers!

Speaking of Judges, on to the update. As Judge Frieling says in his now famous reply to the post, the City of Lafayette reversed course and withdrew the Ordinance. Judge Freiling's decision to step down, and not "work from the inside" (really bad comment on my part, since when have I not championed the bold gesture?) was clearly the catalyst. The resulting media attention and resulting local outcry killed the ordinance. We at Hydrablog humbly accept our small role in this action (the great thing about a group blog like Hydrablog is that those contributers who don't support an action pressed by another, are along for the ride. So while the rest of the H-blog gang may not support the Council's Ordinance withdrawal, we're all in it together. Much like when Stalin finally pulls off replacing the Star Spangled Banner with Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" as our national anthem, I'll be dragged along with him.).

Some fun facts.

53% of Lafayette citizens supported Colorado Amendment 44 , which would have decriminalized possession of less than that very ounce that the City Council wanted to increase the penalty for holding. Much like the South Dakota Abortion Bill, this shows a real disconnect between legislators and citizen.

"Lafayette Judge Marijuana" gets 123,000 hits on Google. Again, Judge Frieling's decision to step down was the correct one.

Again, with the disconnect between the city council and the citizens, all it took was the right catalyst to get everyones attention. 123,000 Google hits was more than enough to alert the Lafayette citizens that their legislators weren't acting in accordance with their wishes. And the the 123,000 hits came from on man's decision to take action. This is also the time to congratulate the City Council for reversing course rather than stubbornly continue down a path at odds with the citizenry. Believe it or not, this is roughly how a democracy is supposed to work.