Constitution

Wasting the People’s Resources

This entry was posted in Constitution Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Economics Law Enforcement Libertarianism on by

This kind of speaks for itself:

The Kentucky crime labs have actually eliminated a backlog of drug cases that have plagued our courts for years.
The six crime labs have handled 16,000 drug cases since January and no cases older than 60 days remain.
….
The six labs in the state have 140 analysts and support staff to handle cases from about 400 law enforcement agencies.
Their caseload nearly doubled from 20,700 in 1989 to 40,000 in 2003.
A lot of these cases also had to be sent to private labs to enable them to catch up.
But just in case it does not, contemplate these same resources being applied to health care or infrastructure projects or tracking down perpetrators who have actual committed a crime against someone else or simply leaving the money in the hands of the taxpayers it was taken from to make a local decision on how the money would be best used.
Via MAP Inc.

Still Looking for Their Precisous

This entry was posted in Constitution on by

Last Week the House of Representatives continued to demonstrate that they are focused on things important by spending time on H.R. 3313 (PDF) which is also known as The Marriage Protection Act of 2004.
Now, to my untrained eye, it appears that there is no basis in the constitution for congress to even be considering any issues related to peoples living arrangements. But, that aside, Josh Chafetz makes it clear that the approach hastert and company are trying to use is itself unconstitutional.

Everything Changed?

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Democracy Domestic Terrorism Government Libertarianism Patriot Act US Politics on by

Point 14 of the things Mark Kleiman recently learned at an Executive Session on Gang Violence opens with:

14. On the other hand, gang violence accounts for more deaths each year than were killed on 9-11. Thinking about getting ready to think about it isn’t really a satisfactory response.
Why hasn’t this changed everything?
It is pretty clear that the policies of local, state, and federal governments over the past 100 years have not fulfilled the government’s obligations to the people. Perhaps it is time to make some fundamental changes in these entities to get them refocused on serving the people’s rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness rather than the faction de jour.

Homeland Insecurity II

This entry was posted in Constitution Domestic Terrorism Election 2004 Law Enforcement Libertarianism Patriot Act War on Terrorism on by

A few days ago I linked to a story by a student in Seattle who ran afoul of what appears to be some overzealous law enforcement folks.
Via Pacific Views I see that there are some legs on the story. From the Seattle Times:

On Monday night, the volume of Internet traffic to Ian Spiers’ Web site � www.brownequalsterrorist.com � crashed his server. Strangers from Chicago and New Zealand offered him space on their servers to get his story back online.
There is more at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.