The ODE ran a story today on the Campbell Club incident, mainly dueling quotes between the EPD and the co-opers. I enjoyed this part for the mental image (emphasis added):

[EPD Officer] Stubbs said people were not allowed out of their handcuffs to urinate because of safety concerns.

“One man in handcuffs had to use the restroom, so we allowed his girlfriend to help him,” Stubbs said. “He was not released from his handcuffs because he had previously been threatening officers, and it was a safety issue.”

You ol’ kinky polecats!

Everyone’s favorite money-wasting douchebag, Bill Sizemore — known for his seemingly unquenchable thirst to put as many ballot measures as he possibly can before Oregon voters — got thrown in jail today for contempt of court.

Oh well.

Here’s an interesting little email we got from the EPD regarding the robbery of an adult store:

Eugene police responded to the report of an armed robbery at 720 Garfield Street in Eugene. The two suspects entered the adult store at approximately 11:50 pm and ordered the two employees to the ground at gun point. The suspects stole an undisclosed amount of cash and merchandise before exiting the store. The employees were not injured during the incident. The suspects left the location in an unknown direction after the robbery.

[…]

Both subject’s coats were described as “puffy”.

And merchandise? I can almost imagine the robbers’ thought process. “Well … as long as we’re here.” And so the puffy-coated highwaymen fled into the night, arms full of rubber vaginas and bukkake porn.

Seriously. You can’t make this shit up.

Eternal thanks to OC alum Ian Spencer for bringing this to my attention.

A few months ago the State Attorney General intervened to put the brakes on RIAA demands that the University of Oregon pass along identifying information about a number of students suspected of engaging in illegal file-sharing. Unfortunately, it looks as if a judge has stepped in and sided with the recording industry, allowing the RIAA to once again try to force the U of O to give up the information.

As ArsTechnica makes clear, just having an IP that is associated with a given computer’s MAC address is not a sure-fire way of identifying a user:

Only one of the students flagged by MediaSentry for offering files for download lived in a single-occupancy dorm room. Five lived in a double-occupancy room, while nine were on the university’s wireless network.

Nevertheless, it seems likely that the students in question could be paying hefty price for (alleged) copyright infringement, even though the RIAA “says it’s not trying to bully students by jacking up the settlement cost” from $4,000 to $8,000. I know I believe them.

No doubt that by now everyone has heard that Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin’s Yahoo e-mail account(s) were cracked and the contents thereof distributed on the Internet. The whole imbroglio has got both Team Red and Team Blue riled up, and I’ve got a few thoughts on the affair.

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As always with Barr, better late than never:

As both a U.S. Attorney and Member of Congress, I defended drug prohibition. But it has become increasingly clear to me, after much study, that our current strategy has not worked and will not work.

…

 It is obvious that, like Prohibition’s effort to eradicate alcohol usage, drug prohibition has not succeeded. Despite enormous law enforcement efforts — including the dedicated service of many thousands of professional men and women — the government has not halted drug use.

…

Whether we like it or not, tens of millions of Americans have used and will continue to use drugs.

Michael Moynihan at Reason has a video of what can only be called one of the worst musical abominations of all time, or in his words, “a skin-crawling, wretch [sic]-inducing festival of crappiness” featuring such notable musicians as Jason Alexander, Margaret Cho, and Whoopi Goldberg (I think I spotted Herbie Hancock in there, too, which is really a shame). Evidently, this fetid pile of shit was co-written by Bono and some asshole from the Eurythmics who, along with their assorted guests, are offering their “American prayer” to the Democratic nominee.

Word of warning: Do not watch this video unless you have sexual fantasies of giving oral pleasure to Barack Obama, because that’s basically what the song amounts to.

For the record, I made it until 2:35 into the song before projectile vomiting.

I’ll never un-hear that song.

In a 5-3 vote, the Eugene City Council passed the contentious exclusion ordinance that I wrote about last week. A judge can now ban individuals from the downtown area for 90 days without trial or right to a lawyer if they have allegedly committed a long list of crimes, including public urination, furnishing alcohol to a minor and possession of marijuana. If actually convicted, a judge can then ban the individual for up to a full year. (In other news, the Oregon Commentator staff are never going downtown again.)

That ol’ carpetbagger Alan Pittman has an article in the most recent Eugene Weekly about the exclusion ordinance. Despite the usual Pittman-isms, he manages to point out the more glaring problems with the new plan:

The city could jail, for up to 90 days, a person who violates the exclusion order. Before the ordinance, getting caught with a joint could result in a ticket; now, it could result in a three-month jail term. Holding a prisoner costs taxpayers an estimated $350 a night.

And the money quote from City Councilor Betty Taylor:

Taylor said the “unjust” exclusion ordinance will just move the problem from one part of downtown to another. “The people who are excluded will not disappear.” She said those jailed for violating the ordinance will be released quickly from the overcrowded facility, and she said that all the violations in the ordinance are already illegal. “We need to enforce the laws we already have.”

I agree. While I consider most denizens of downtown obnoxious and disgusting, the ordinance is a poor attempt at a solution – costly, hard to enforce and perhaps unconstitutional. As Councilor Bonny Bettman also was quoted as saying in Pittman’s article, “To punish people who have not been convicted of a crime is inconsistent with everything we stand for in this country.”

• Sports Editor Andrew Grief has an interesting article about the rise in applications for concealed carry permits in the wake of budget cuts that have gutted the Lane County Sheriff’s Office:
  

Faced with longer response times and fewer deputies, many of the 93,500 Lane County residents who live outside city limits in the county believe having a concealed handgun is a necessary step. The Sheriff’s Office expects a record of more than 1,250 permits to be issued this year in the county, up from 680 in 2005, 811 in 2006 and 950 last year. 

Huh. It’s almost like people feel like their Second Amendment rights are valuable and necessary when the government cannot provide for their well-being.

• The OC’s own Drew Cattermole and his upcoming radio spot, The Cattermole Minute were mentioned in a story about upcoming ASUO programs. The Commentator, however, is disapponted that Senior News Editor Robert D’Andrea (who got a special birthday shout-out at last week’s roller derby) mistook Drew’s ASUO president bid last year as “not-so-serious”. We can assure Mr. D’Andrea that Drew Cattermole was deadly serious. Deadly.

• A whole page of re-printed Associated Press stories, with a couple more spread around the issue for good measure? Really? I mean, seriously… this shit shows up every day in Firefox’s built-in RSS news feed. It seems like that space could’ve been better used re-printing some of the more colorful posts left on the comments section of Jeffrey Dransfeldt’s infamous piece on wrestling. I mean, there’s 813 of them to choose from, and most of them are more fun to read than a recycled story about Ehud Olmert from a few days ago. Highlights include:
  • “Jeffery, maybe Mommy didn’t love you enough. I don’t know what your problem is, but the anger you carry from your early puberty is going to hamper you throughout life. Taking glee in the demise of people who have sacrificed more than you will ever know is just a sign of the sickness that dwells in your tortured little body and shadow of a soul. Your rantings sound like those of the VT shooter.”
  • “Your arrogance is disgusting.”
  • “With your neck as shown in the picture, you’re lucky you broke your arm.”

Former U of O student (I’m not entirely clear if he is a graduate), Jeremiah Mondello, is going to prison for four years for selling counterfeit DVDs of software and hacking into bank accounts in order to disguise his financial transactions.  He apparently made $300,000 in three years, mostly by selling copies of Quicken software.  Considering how well his enterprise was going till he was caught, it’s too bad he didn’t apply his creative energies to more legal business ventures.

The BBC is reporting that Serbia has arrested the fugitive Radovan Karadzic, who has been on the run since 1996.

The next time someone complains that we haven’t caught Osama bin Laden yet, just remember that it took 12 years for anyone to catch up to Karadzic and that Ratko Mladic is still on the loose.

In any case, score one for the good guys.

[UPDATE, 07/22]

Okay, this story just got weird. Apparently, Karadzic was working as an “alternative medicine” quack under an assumed name. According to Harry’s Place, this is the company he was working for. As far as I can tell (I don’t know Serbian, but there are enough Russian and English cognates that I can piece a bit of it together), their products are all supposed to focus your bio-energy with vibrations to harmonize your energy and aura and things like that.

Juan Cole at Salon:

The U.S. Justice Department is considering a change in the grounds on which the FBI can investigate citizens and legal residents of the United States. Till now, DOJ guidelines have required the FBI to have some evidence of wrongdoing before it opens an investigation. The impending new rules, which would be implemented later this summer, allow bureau agents to establish a terrorist profile or pattern of behavior and attributes and, on the basis of that profile, start investigating an individual or group.

…

 If the aim is to identify al-Qaida operatives or close sympathizers in the United States, racial profiling is counterproductive. Such tiny, cultlike terror organizations are multinational. Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, is a Briton whose father hailed from Jamaica, and no racial profile of him would have predicted his al-Qaida ties. Adam Gadahn, an al-Qaida spokesman, is from a mixed Jewish and Christian heritage and hails from suburban Orange County, Calif.

Sadly, this sounds a lot less far-fetched than the Department of Homeland Security’s “shock bracelet” story from a couple of days ago. That famous old Benjamin Franklin quote seems particularly apt here. Our government has long been intent on selling away our liberties for safety and security, often with the cowed acquiescence — if not outright encouragement — of the people. Perhaps in this case the tradeoff will appear so high enough as to a reaction not limited merely to the ACLU, disgruntled, anti-Bush liberals, and other civil libertarians.

(via Tololy’s Box)

Some Washington Times blogger is reporting that:

[a] senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®.

This bracelet would:

• take the place of an airline boarding pass

• contain personal information about the traveler

• be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage

• shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes

I’m pretty inclined to take all this with a healthy dose of salt. I say this because it is the Washington Times after all, and the scanned letter purportedly originating from the DHS official that he links to is incomplete and refers to a meeting that took place in 2006. And nevermind the fact that the idea of giving airline passengers shock bracelets instead of boarding passes is one of the most batshit crazy things I’ve ever heard.

If it is true, though, then everything that’s been said about the dangers of an intrusive government is true.

[UPDATE]

A recent comment on the Washington Times site from “S&Tspokesman” clears things up:

The bracelet was never intended to replace boarding passes, contain ID information or be worn by all passengers as asserted in the Lamberd video and discussed in the Washington Times Blog.

The hypothetical use of the bracelet would have been for transporting already apprehended prisoners and detainees at prisons and border patrol facilities, and DHS was looking to see if there were potential air travel applications for apprehended suspects.

This concept was never funded or supported by the DHS or TSA and hasn’t even been discussed for two years. The letter circulating throughout the blogosphere from Paul Ruwaldt was not addressed to Lamberd and merely states the DHS was interested in learning more about the technology. Neither side followed up.

DHS/TSA does NOT support the asserted use and has not pursued the development of such technology.

PSU student Adam Sweet and his brother started a part-time moving business with their pickup truck. Soon business was flourishing, and they were successful enough to afford a real moving van. They christened their new, full-time outfit “2Brothers Moving Company.”

Imagine their surprise when the state fined them and towed their truck because they didn’t have a “Oregon Intrastate Certificate to Transport Household Goods or Passengers.” In the state of Oregon, all moving companies must be licensed. Now Sweet, with the help of the Pacifica Legal Foundation, is suing Oregon Attorney General Hardy Meyers, claiming the licensing system violates his 14th Amendment rights and provides “an unequal and unconstitutionally protectionist advantage to established moving companies who are able to limit their own prospective competition.”

Here’s what Sweet means by “protectionist advantage”: Even if 2Brothers had applied for the license, they probably wouldn’t have got it. The state notifies all other moving companies about a new application, and if they object, the application will be denied. According to the PLF, every company for the last two years that has applied for the license has been denied. This reminds me of something. What’s the word I’m looking for? Oh, right:

Cartel: a combination of independent commercial or industrial enterprises designed to limit competition or fix prices

Surely the fact that 2Brothers were significantly undercutting regular moving companies had nothing to do with the state bringing the hammer down on them. Here’s the case complaint, and there’s a video from the PLF after the jump, complete with sweet graphic representations of economic oppression.

Update: Crossposted over at Oregon Catalyst.

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