Inspection emergency: They're baaack!

And stronger than ever! (Back story in old post: Inspection emergency(wipt))
This time, they brought reinforcements.

Doule the idling pleasure for double the breathing fun!

Yes, it takes a fire truck AND an ambulance to get 10 blocks away to re-inspect a building. This time it took about 6 folks to complete the inspection.

And, I'm not kidding, its not that big of a building I work in:

Home sweet office

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Don't ask. Period.

Studying, debating, legislating, enforcing, re-debating, more studies, more legislating, now enforcing who exactly it is we are comfortable putting in harm's way to ensure my quality of life.

Sure he can spot the extremist in a crowd of muslims from 100 yards, but did you hear where he sticks his dick at night? Has anyone told Congress about this guy? I certainly don't want him taking a bullet for me!

Even a step in the right direction costs our money.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Inspection emergency

When the Hampshire, IL Fire Department goes out to inspect buildings for fire code, they go in style.

For one, it takes a team of 4 people to inspect a building. Not a big building, only 4 suites... Most of the inspectors stand around while the one in charge actually takes a look around and hollers out things for the others to write down.

While you might expect them to pile into the fire marshal's sedan for a scheduled appointment to inspect a building, they don't. Instead, they fire up Big Red and leave it idle out front for hours while inspecting. Apparently, their inspection equipment (clip boards) did not fit in the trunk.

Good for the environment AND the city budget.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Idling, for your breathing pleasure

P.S. - I'd like to mention the time, about a month ago when they had this baby stopped at a major intersection, lights flashing. As drivers slow down approaching the intersection, fearing the worst, a young fireman approaches each vehicle with an upside down helmet asking for donations. Not exactly fodder for my blog, but a HFD related story I just had to share...

Somethings fishy here

And it ain't just Antoine Goetschel's clients.

Seriously. The guy defended a dead Pike in court. And dogs, cats, guinea pigs, cows, horses and sheep. (I don't suspect the sheep was involved in a rape case, but I have no evidence either way...)

No big deal, right? Some hippy lawyer has decided to enjoy his wealth by taking on animal cruelty cases pro bono, right? Sure, he's clogging Switzerland's court system with cases that ought to be handled in other ways, but at least he's not government funded, right?

The hell you say.

Nope. Funded entirely by the government, this guy sued a fisherman because it was reported that the fisherman took 10 minutes to bring the fish in and kill it. To no one's surprise, he had his ass handed to him on this case. However, not only is he wasting a shit ton of a citizens and several government employees time with this nonsense, but he is taking a salary and a pension for this nonsense too. Not to count the allowance he surely has for staffing his office.

And this is all brought up because he thinks that he can't work alone. Oh no. He thinks the Swiss need a fucking mountain of these guys. Sort of a new D.A.s office. Eventually, they'll probably be bringing about involuntary manslaughter charges against everyone who hits a deer with their car. You better hope the deer is resuscitated or you're spending time behind bars.

I'll bet the Swiss even paid for a public defendant for the fisherman.

Just think... A story about overpaid and under worked lawyers milking the system for all its worth that didn't originate in the U.S. Yay!

THIS is whytheSWISSpaytaxes

read more: Swiss ask whether animals need lawyers (bbc)

Buzz kill

Again, I'll bet a lot of folks have used that post title recently...

The folks at Epic (Electronic Privacy Information Centre) are lobbying the FTC to spank Google over their ridiculous release of Buzz. Though going to the FTC to file paperwork and start investigations will incur a significant cost to our government, I couldn't agree with their points more.
Some people, myself included, signed up for gmail because we wanted to take advantage of a great e-mail service.
Some people, myself included, have not signed up for Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or other social media networks because we value our privacy and see no need to publicly lay out the details, mundane or otherwise, of our lives. (Some of us, myself included, simply seek to avoid being found by maniacal exes that would show up on our doorsteps the minute our current addresses became public knowledge)

I know that gmail is free and I know that Google can do whatever it likes to the account. I appreciate all they provide to me for no additional cost aside from creepy ads everywhere. But to suddenly take my saved contacts or frequently e-mailed addresses and put them up in a public forum for all to see is a ridiculous and ignorant thing to do.

But is it something the government needs to get involved in? I'm not so sure. If I was so chapped that I just couldn't deal with it anymore, I am more than welcome to delete both my Buzz and Gmail accounts right now.

Even more astounding, here is a quote from the article I read(bbc) with bold italics on a key phrase:
The complaint has also asked the FTC to "require Google to provide notice to and request consent from Gmail users before making material changes to their privacy policy in future, and seek appropriate injunctive and compensatory relief".
Somebody is going to have to explain to me: who deserves to get compensated for this? I wonder if this sets a precedence where those people who just had their wives introduced to their mistresses can sue Google for privacy infringement seeking damages to cover the divorce?

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Total recall

I'm sure that title has been used a lot lately...

This post is mainly to point out the tiny little add on recall of 8,000 Tacoma Trucks for faulty front drive shafts (bbc). Didn't want it to get missed it having been announced at the end of the week with no one paying attention.

But a big thanks to the media for whipping this thing into a frenzy that will surely score some more taxpayer bucks over at National Highway Traffic Safety Administration so they can get involved in matters like these that have been pretty well handled. Sure, we might like to see Toyota act a bit quicker, but I'd say they've handled it like the pros they are.

And for the most part, this has been a rather risk free recall. We all mourn those who passed, but we also all know the inherent risks in strapping yourself into a box on wheels going around at 65 miles per hour. Its not like Toyota was trying to kill people... If the highly skilled engineers at Toyota didn't see an issue when designing and producing the vehicle, the engineers at NHTSA likely would have also missed it during a total vehicle inspection.

Adding more layers of bureaucratic red tape...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Dead Man Appealing

I got out of work late yesterday and ended up listening to a bit of Fresh Air from NPR. While Terry Gross is an amazing interviewer, I generally find her program frustrating because I'm rarely so interested in the person she's interviewing that I want to hear a half hour or more of it.

Last night was no exception. But they guy she was interviewing got me to thinking about just how much this person costs the government.
As is often the case, I'd like to state: I'm not saying right or wrong here. I'm not trying to argue a point one way or the other. I'm just amazed as to how much one particular individual can run up the costs for state and federal governments.

His name is David Dow and he has devoted his life to appealing the sentence in cases where the defendant has been sentenced to death. He does not seek to exonerate wrongly convicted people, in fact, most of his clients readily admit that they are murderers and rapists. He simply seeks to avoid their execution in exchange for life in prison.

Here is a simple list of some ways this fellow costs you and I some dollars:
1.) The minute the death sentence is handed down, this guy goes through the appeals process. Delaying tactics are his friend and he will exhaust every legal option he has. Forms upon forms and likely a lot of face time with government employees.
2.) When he loses his initial appeal, he goes to the federal court of appeals and does the same thing.
3.) When he loses his federal appeal, he petitions the Supreme Court to hear his case. Luckily, the SC generally doesn't bother with this guy, but someone has to take the time to look his case over to make sure they aren't just blanket rejecting silly cases.
4.) There are other appellate courts and forms to fill out and process, these are just the big 3.
5.) When he wins a case, we suddenly have to pay to house and feed another inmate for many many years in an already overwhelmed prison system at about $100 grand a year (statistics vary).

In summary of why this man spends so much time and money clogging up our court system to save murderers from the same fate no one could save their victims from: "The person that we're executing is simply not the same person who committed the crime that landed that person on death row..."

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

How dare we legislate without input from Europe

In October of 1998, the Fairness in Music Licensing Act was passed in the U.S. in a way that amended our copyright laws. The FMLA permits, under certain conditions, the playing of radio and television music in public places (bars, shops, restaurants, etc.) without the payment of a royalty fee.

Seems pretty fair to me. Having a television in the waiting room or a game on at the bar is a matter of convenience. I'd have a hard time believing that said television was the draw that brought people through the door. No royalty fees are necessary because no profit is being made from the content being displayed.
A matter of discussion, to be sure, but I'm not sure its a discussion we need to have with the world.
But, Oh No, Not This Time.

5 months after our law was enacted, a handful of, and I quote, 'European Communities' went to the World Trade Organization to complain. Of course, the WTO summarily discovered that a substantial majority of eating and drinking establishments and close to half of retail establishments were covered by the business exemption.
I've yet to see any reason for the Europeans to step into what we do in our establishments, but to this, they cry foul. This apparently violates an agreement we signed long before.

Seeing that the 'European Communities' were on to something and that the WTO was about to start shitting U.S. tax dollars, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and Switzerland jumped on board to complain of this as 'third parties.'

Of course, the WTO found us at fault. Demanded we change our laws and fined us a great deal of money. Money of which we are paying to this day.

I've already gone far enough, if not too far in this relatively uninteresting bit of bureaucratic red tape. But I'll summarize:
Because we adjusted our copyright law to allow businesses run a television in their establishment, we are attacked, sued, fined and ordered to pay restitution to a random smattering of countries from around the world. (Explain to me how our law affected Japan and why they have a right to damages from us because I watched a game at the bar last week)

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

read more: DISPUTE SETTLEMENT: DISPUTE DS160 (WTO)
(Thanks to a Slate story for the link)

Haggling on Haggis

The U.S. government enacted a ban on haggis ingredients from Scotland 21 years ago at the height of the Mad Cow outbreak in Britain.

Since that time, our presidents have been briefed on the 'Haggis Situation', our department of agriculture has to dispel rumors, and we've just spent a lot of time and effort in considering the haggis ban.

Even if we get past the Mad Cow prohibition, we have an even older law on the books. This one goes back to 1971 and bans the import of food made with sheeps lungs.

As per usual: I don't technically disagree with my government. I would hope they ban meat imports from places that have a reasonable chance of shipping us tainted meat (or so I'm told). I have no urge to try a good haggis (they lost me at liver and didn't exactly whet my appetite with the lung).

But do we really need to legislate, maintain, and consider a freaking haggis ban? Braveheart would be pissed. (You can take our lives, but you'll never take our HAGGIS!!!)

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

TRY VIAGRA

Here's another one of those things where I agree with the spirit of the law, but find it really fucking ridiculous that our Representatives and Senators have nothing better to do than to legislate what we in the land of the free can and cannot do.

Since Congress is bored with the economy, health care, war, other war, social injustice, environment, failing infrastructure, a country hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs, etc. etc., they decided it was time to tackle one of the truly monumental issues of our time:
Loud commercials.

Perhaps they could legislate that all remote control manufacturer's make a bigger mute button instead?

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Read more: US moves to ban 'excessively noisy' TV advertisements (bbc)

Fish Kill before the fish get killed

One of my biggest pet peeves is when the government sues itself. In this particular situation, it is two different governments, but we're pretty much supposed to be on the same side.

Michigan is going to sue Illinois to demand closure of the Chicago locks until the Asian Carp problem is cleared up in Illinois' waterways.

First off, they have a valid point. Everything that can be done should be done to prevent the asian carp problem, even if it costs industry big money. While Illinois has spent plenty of money on trying to contain the problem, including a fish kill last night and a high tech system that was supposed to shock the fish into turning back, the problem is real.

And of course we all know that Illinois lacks the political will to do something Chicago doesn't want to do.

But do we really have to pay a bunch of lawyers to figure it out for us? Shouldn't we instead spend the same amount of money and bring the two states' Departments of Natural Resources together? Maybe get some federal employees besides judges involved?

A quote from the article below:
A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources says they are aware of the potential legal action but will "let the lawyers sort it out."

Great! The DNR says, fuck it. We give up.

Are we really so incompetent as a society? Are we going to let the natural ecosystems of the largest freshwater lakes on the planet be destroyed? Because an invasive species of carp was imported to eat algae out of the Gulf of Mexico?
You're serious. To solve the problem we're going to let lawyers get rich off the government while dragging out the case for as many billable hours as possible? While various agencies that ought to take charge of the situation play a game of 'Not It'?

And people wonder why I have little faith in humanity...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

read more: Michigan Considering Lawsuit Against Illinois Over Asian Carp Spread(wkzo)

Moral hazards (Picking winners, choosing losers pt 4)

The CIT Group needs our help.
Being one of those companies that were allowed to change their status from a financial institution to a banking company in December to get their share of the TARP funds, CIT Group was awarded $2.33 BILLION. Which they've decided isn't enough and they must be given more.
'Cause, you know... If CIT Group fails, the world's economy will follow.
Right? That's still the official line, right?

Now lets flip that coin over.

The government may choose not to honor CGs request for another BILLION dollars. As a major lender to small and mid sized businesses, they don't have access to the lobbying teams the mega banks do, nor do they have conveniently placed ex-executives in the new government.
So, in spite of the Hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars given to AIG for backing up big name banks with their 'friends with benefits [in government]', our government now debates letting CIT Group go into bankruptcy over $1 BILLION. Because hey... Who needs small and mid sized businesses anyway?

Giving some banks free access to the Fed's printing press while busting chops over other banks seeking to grab up the money the others couldn't fit into their pockets on the way out...
Giving taxpayer dollars to anyone willing to call themselves a bank...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Oil for sale

Now that we've spent $683,942,908,585.08 (according to the zFacts ticker and links to the left at the top of this page at 2:22AM CST) on 'liberating' the Iraqis, its time they start reaping some of this fine Oil Money they been hearin' all about.

What do we get in return? Shoes thrown at us.

The Headline Reads:
Iraqi oil for sale in TV auction(bbc)
A goddamn auction between giants such as Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil for the rights to rape and pillage the land and oil reserves being aired on TV. This must be an exciting moment for them. (The Iraqis) (Well, the suits too...)

Aw fuck it.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Here's some fun quotes:
The US budget for Iraq in FY 2007 came to $4,988/Iraqi. This is triple Iraq's per-person GDP. It's like spending $121,000 per person ($484,000 per family of 4) in the US. Why not just bribe the whole country?

"If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem." — George W. Bush, Jan. 2001

What happened to kicking somebody's ass and taking their stuff? All the war, none of the spoils?

Mammalian fecal matter

Much like the EPAs guidelines for tossing bodies over the side of a boat, the FDA has taken the time to create guidelines for how much mammalian fecal matter is acceptable in the processed foods you consume.

Some of the interesting guidelines:
There is a problem when there are 60 or more insect fragments or 1 or more rodent hairs in 100 grams of chocolate.
Further investigation is warranted when 3% or more of your red fish or sea perch fillets examined contain 1 or more parasites accompanied by pus pockets.
Call in the agency when there is more than 1 insect fragment per gram in your noodles or macaroni products.
They call in Mr. Reddenbacher (r.i.p.) himself when 1 or more rodent excreta pellets are found in 1 or more subsamples, 2 or more rodent hairs per pound, or 20 or more gnawed grains per pound and rodent hair is found in 50% or more of the subsamples of popcorn.

Now, this is one of those posts where I am not particularly displeased with the results of the federal guidelines. After all, there is a direct inverse correlation between the amount of insect fragments IN your food and the amount of chemical pesticides ON your food. (The more poison, the fewer insect fragments. The less poison, the more insect fragments.) Not to mention that eating insects is generally healthy. (Not so sure about the rodent excreta pellets...) One last caveat, by the time most of this food reaches your mouth, it taste like a big mac anyway. Ignorance is bliss!
Besides, the line had to be drawn somewhere. Why not pay some scientists to draw that line for us?

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

read more: How Many Insect Parts and Rodent Hairs are Allowed in Your Food? More Than You Think ... and Maybe Than You Want to Know!(6wise)(original props go to NPRs (APMs) Splendid Table for pointing out the story...)

Prosecutorial Incompetence

All charges against Alaska's favorite Senator, Ted "Why don't you ask my wife about that" Stevens have been dropped. Turns out, the team on the job from Bush's DOJ dropped the ball, time and again, blatantly. Almost seems as though they tried it. (technically, they didn't try it, but...)

Stevens roams free after decades of trading government contracts for personal favors and now we're paying for a big ol' investigation into the DOJ's incompetence...

This is whyipaytaxes.

On a side note, I sat with a friend this evening who is experiencing the frustration of a prosecutor unable to do his job. I won't go into the whole story and obviously leave out some key details, but...
Basically, this guy got busted on his third DUI 2 years ago. He demanded a jury trial, as is his right, and court date after court date has gone by. Today was to be the Big One, the jury was called and all. But the trial got delayed yet again because the prosecution was unprepared. They still had a few affairs to get in order.
1.) Had HE been the one unprepared, they would have thrown him in jail.
2.) While awaiting trial, he is being forced to submit to regular urine tests, twice weekly. This will not credit him as any sort of probation served.
3.) They called out the jury for that? Man, those must've been some pissed off jury members...

Imagine living your life knowing that on a special date in three months you might go straight to jail. On that special date, they say, well, maybe on this new special date, in three months.

Water logged

Followed a fun link to the EPA from a slate article.

Turns out the EPA has put some thought, time, and energy to where and how you can toss a body overboard for a sea burial. (Must be at least 3 miles from the coast. Inland lakes vary by state, but a permit is required.)

What made me chuckle is one question:

FOR NON-CREMATED REMAINS
	Did the remains appear to rapidly sink to the ocean floor? Yes ( ) No ( )

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

(Another, un-tax related but pretty cool way to go: In the other procedure, called promession, a corpse gets freeze-dried with liquid nitrogen and then shattered into powder, Terminator-style. )

An arm and a leg

Multiply that times thousands, toss in thousands of deaths, and you get the cost of politicians putting their careers ahead of their jobs.

The military knew in 1994 that humvees were, as they called it, a "deathtrap."
However, while considering a different fleet of safer vehicles,
The Pentagon didn't develop such a fleet because championing the vehicles wasn't seen in the '90s as a "good career move," said John Pike of Globalsecurity.org. The military had spent hundreds of millions on Humvees and drawn-out ground wars were seen as a thing of the past, he said. (usat)

And, of course, that brilliant strategist and great humanitarian Donald "Go to war with the Army you have" Rumsfeld and his cronies ignored the boys on the ground in 2005.
Combat Development Command did not create a plan to field the vehicles or obtain funding for them despite receiving an urgent request from field commanders in Iraq for MRAPs in February 2005.(usat)

Its all under investigation now, but I imagine there are a lot of pretty bold men and women that had the balls to defend their country (even if many of them didn't realize what that meant) wishes they would have investigated it up front.

The military politicians in the pentagon in pursuit of the American dream at the cost of thousands of other Americans' Dreams...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

This looks like a job for Nancy Killefer!

You all remember Nancy Killefer, of course. She's the additional layer of beureaucracy that's going to make our government all efficient and shit. The, uhhh, chief performance officer, if you will.

Well, here's her first gig: Make the TRILLION or so stimulus package work.

Some cuts and some pastes from Slate:
How much of this $356 billion in job-creating money will go out the door between now and Sept. 30? Only $29 billion!
less than half of the appropriations in the stimulus bill will be spent within the next two years.
less than one-tenth of the appropriations will be spent during the current fiscal year, which still has eight months to go.

Basically, everything has got to go to bid. Basically, no one has had the time to schmooze the new government yet, so they haven't decided which company is 'best' for the people...

Now is a GREAT time to know someone working in the government because they're gonna be shitting cash soon. Oh man... Some bastards are going to get right rich, right quick. I just hope their products are better than KBR or Halliburton... I wonder if we're going to buy some new defense contractors? Hmmm...

Mountains of red tape...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.