Volume 1 Issue 38

January 10, 2003

Public Policy From Idiots

Virginia's crackdown on drinking, stimulating the deficit, and those wacky French...

So last weekend, Fairfax County, Va. policemen raided multiple bars throughout the county, making widespread arrests. Why you ask? Because they were drinking in public, and this is apparently illegal there. OK, so WHY DO THEY HAVE BARS IF ITS ILLEGAL TO DRINK IN PUBLIC!?!?!?!?! Virginia has always had screwed up laws and poor common sense, but this one takes the cake. Now the cops claim they were trying to stop drunk driving, but the law says no drinking, so there. Yes, drunk driving should be stopped. Instead of sending 12 cops into one bar, lets put 12 cops outside of 12 bars, and get folks as they get in their cars and start driving! Plus, half the people they arrested were not even planning to drive that evening, most didn't even bring cars! They even arrested someone who was not really drunk, but simply singing karaoke in a Santa Claus suit (now, that in itself might be a crime, but we can debate that later). Or, how's this let's actually penalize people who drive drunk! Most states still refuse to try a drunk driver involved in a fatal accident with anything more than involuntary manslaughter. In my mind, it's 1st Degree murder, or at the very minimum 2nd degree. Life in prison. Boom. In addition, the penalties for DWI are so minor, it's amazing! If you drive intoxicated, you should lose your license for 5 years, 60 days minimum jail time. Second offense, lifetime driving ban, 1 year minimum jail time. Third offence, 20 years, no parole. The Washington Post did an article a few years back as I recall about a Maryland man who had been arrested for DWI over 25 times, but still drove and had never spent a night in jail. Come on people...but going into bars and arresting people is stupid, and takes cops off the roads. Yet another reason I will never live in the Old Dominion...here's today's latest article on the debacle -

http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20030110-97837112.htm

Off to the insanity...

Bombs Away!: North Korea pulled out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty today, as they continue to beef up their nuclear programs. It is kinda interesting though that the North Korean diplomats in the US demanded to meet only with former UN ambassador and current New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. Maybe they just wanted to see Santa Fe -

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/10/international/10CND-SEOU.html

Stimulating Talk: The fallout from the Bush "stimulus" package (or lack of one) continues. The Washington Post today says that budget projections taking the package into account say that Bush will have gone from the largest surplus in American history to the largest deficit in just 2 years. Paging Ross Perot... -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35391-2003Jan9.html
And Bush was out trying to defend what seemed a surprising number of denunciations of the plan. He also babbled off track, saying something to the effect that a family of 4 making $40,000 would get a 96% tax cut, which isn't entirely accurate apparently, considering they would only get about $295 according to analysis of the plan, and I make less than that and pay more in federal taxes. Republican Senator Chaffee (RI) became the first GOP member to trash the plan as well -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35393-2003Jan9.html
But Republican governors are really pissed. Ohio Governor Bob Taft could not contain his anger when questioned by reporters -

http://www.cleveland.com/ohio/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/ne ws/1042109894153540.xml
Plus, the economy ain't doing too hot. Retailers actually cut jobs in December, the month when they usually need to hire more people -

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-economy-jobs.html
USA Today follows up on yesterday's article about Bush overreaching on purpose -
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-01-09-bush-confidence-usat_x.htm

War on Terror Screw-up of the Week: Last week, we had the FBI warning that turned out to be a hoax. This week, it turns out that baggage handler arrested at one of Paris' airports with tons of bombs and weaponry was set up. By his in-laws. Ouch. -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2645861.stm

This is only a test...: Senators are discussing how to better warn Americans if another homeland attack takes place -
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030110-90194169.htm

Look Who's Running For President: More talk about Wesley Clark. Wesley Clark fact of the day, he's from Arkansas, so he would join Edwards and possibly Graham as the Southerners in the race. -

http://slate.msn.com/id/2076528/

Look Who's Running For President 2: And Gary Hart, denying he's going to run but continuing to plan for it, is now comparing himself to Winston Churchill -

http://www.ctnow.com/news/politics/hc-hart0110.artjan10,0,1497064.story?coll=hc%2Dheadlines%2Dpolitics

Bad John Edwards Photo of the Day: "And if you come any closer to me with that damned hat, I'm going to start talking in an even worse Southern drawl! Take that you New Hampshire weirdoes!" -

http://media.gatewaync.com/wsj/photos/specialreports/edwards /edwards3.jpg
In your response to your many requests, I will make the archives of the bad Edwards photo's part of the website when we launch. And you can send bad Edwards photo's to southernboy@fromtheswamp.com !

Look Who's Running For President - A Scorecard Update (1/10):
RUNNING
Gov. Howard "Jed Barlett" Dean (Vermont) - http://www.deanforamerica.com/
Senator John Kerry (Massachusetts) - http://www.johnkerry.com
Senator John Edwards (North Carolina) - http://www.johnedwards2004.com/
Congressman Richard Gephardt (Missouri) No Known Website Yet...
Al Sharpton (NY) - http://www.sharptonexplore2004.com/

CONSIDERING
General Wesley Clark (Arkansas)
Senator Bob Graham (Florida)
Senator Joe Liberman (Conn.)
Senator Joseph Biden (Delaware)
Former Senator Gary Hart (Colorado)

LONG SHOTS
Senator Hilary Clinton (New York)
Senator Chris Dodd (Conn.)
Governor Mark Warner (Virginia)
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Ohio)
Ralph Nader
50 "favorite sons" under the Donna Brazille plan
And half the Democratic Party over the age of 35.

OUT
Former VP and President-Elect Al Gore
Governor Gray Davis (California)
Former Senator Bill Bradley (New Jersey)
Senator Tom Daschle (South Dakota)

Card Movement Today: Haven't heard much from Kucinich for a while, so he's dropping to "Long Shots". I think Gary Hart is always a long shot of winning, but that's not what this list is about, and he does seem to be truly considering running, so for now we'll promote him to "Considering."

Other Nations Elections: In Israel, PM Ariel Sharon ran into some trouble yesterday when the government election commission ordered a news conference shut down in the middle of it for violating election laws. Which is what the news conference was about to begin with, as it is looking like Sharon is kind of corrupt. No, not just morally. -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2643875.stm
And in Malawi, a politician was stoned because his opposition said he was a vampire that was planning to steal citizens blood -

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=573&ncid= 757&e=2&u=/nm/20030110/od_nm/odd_malawi_vampires_dc

Media Watch: A good column today about a Washington Post columnist, who the paper tries to hide -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2076555/

Maybe they'll actually the city to put police on the street, instead of working speed cameras: A citizens group in DC has formed, calling for the city to be murder-free by 2005. -

http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20030110-76824655.htm

Scary Governors: OK, take a look at outgoing MD Governor Parris Glendening's official portrait. It's frightening. Everyone, including Democrats in Maryland, are glad to see him go -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35569-2003Jan9.html
Here's another article today about Glendening's accomplishments in his 8 year term. I really know of no other person who did more good things but ostracized more people with his behavior. I really think that in the last 4 years, he must have had some mental breakdown or something, nothing else could really explain the dumping the 25 year wife for his aide, the pure hatred for Kathleen Townsend, etc. Strange man. -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35495-2003Jan9.html

Now on Sale - France...for a limited time only! - The French are geared up for their annual sale. In France, stores can only have sales twice a year -

http://www.nytimes.om/2003/01/09/international/europe/09PARI .html?8hpib

If they're working: The NY Times is big on the French today, with a story about the French bitching because they have a 35-hour workweek and 50 vacation days a year -

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/10/international/europe/10FRA N.html

Bud Selig actually makes an intelligent decision: He's going to make the winner of the all-star game have home-field advantage in the World Series. But, Bud, what if it's a tie? Well, actually the plan is that since the game is worth something, there wouldn't be a tie, and so not all the players would get used. Gee, sucks to be them. I mean making millions of dollars a year and all, and getting a bonus usually for being an all-star... -

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/allstar/2003-01-09-homefield-series_x.htm

And Miss Cleo's already looking for real estate: Cedar Rapids, Iowa yesterday repealed an ordnance banning fortune telling -

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/01/10/offbeat.iowa.fortun e.telling.ap/index.html

Have a great weekend! Go Eagles!

Gregory S. Gadren