The Creepiest Thing In The History Of Ever

What's the big deal, you ask? I tell you what's the big deal! He's dead!!!! That pic was taken at his funeral.

You're welcome.

A Fair And Balanced Review of The Arizona Immigration Bill

All the brohaha over the Arizona Immigration Law got me thinking: What exactly does it say? The best I can tell is that the above provision is what everyone is fighting over. It's pretty interestingly worded because it has two prongs that jump out at me. The government of Arizona shall take a reasonable attempt to determine a person's immigration status if (1) there is a "reasonable suspicion" that person is an illegal alien and (2) the official has already made "lawful contact" with that person.

"Lawful contact" at first seems like a heck of restriction, but it really isn't. Yeah, a cop couldn't make random traffic stops to check for immigration status because that's not "lawful". But if there were a valid traffic stop, the cop has now lawfully contacted everyone in the car, not just the driver. More importantly, there's nothing unlawful for a police officer to casually walk in a crowd or walk up to someone on the street and ask them how they are doing. Heck, they can even knock on your front door for no reason. It criminal circles, that's simply referred to as an "encounter" which requires no justification and, more importantly, that would be a "lawful contact" under the Arizona law. So everyone is fair game.

The second part of the law requiring attention is the part referring to an officer having "reasonable suspicion" that someone is an illegal alien. That's a term of art used in criminal law which normally allows for an officer to detain, not arrest, someone if the officer "has a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot." (Legal battles are fought over that every day). But, honestly, the Arizona law really isn't a change in the law at all. If an officer truly had a "reasonable suspicion" that someone is an illegal alien, they could stop and detain them to investigate even if the new Arizona law was not on the books.

But here's the kicker: What exactly is "reasonable suspicion" that someone is an illegal alien? That's the problem. The only answer is that you would have to use stereotypes to justify the detention of any person solely under the new law. But those stereotypes don't work because not only do they apply to illegal aliens, but they equally apply to millions of legal American citizens of Mexican descent. (Hey, I've seen Born in East LA.)

So the bottom line, I think, is that the new law really doesn't change the law at all. However, you've never seen "suspected" illegal aliens detained on the streets in the past solely to check for immigration status because the cops know there's really no way they can articulate why the person they detained couldn't have just as easily been an American citizen. And the fear that it might start now kind of has The Left up in arms. It is American citizens, who might not look like "traditional America", who will suffer.

Edit #1 to respond to comment: Even if you are here illegally, you still have the same rights to be free from an unlawful detention as an American citizen. You may not like it, but that's the law. And as an American citizen not doing anything wrong, I have a HUGE problem with being detained.

Edit #2: Someone pointed out that being an illegal alien leads to deportation which is a federal civil, not criminal, matter. So maybe cops, absent the Arizona law, don't have the right to detain a suspected illegal alien after all. That's a great point.

He Got Weed! He Got Weed!

Not many details yet, but the Fort Worth PD is in trouble again. This time a cop was arrested for marijuana possession while on duty. KRLD says there is also a charge of Tampering With Evidence. Makes you wonder what is going on there. Edit: He was smoking in the patrol car? [Link fixed]

The cop has admitted possession and resigned.

In light of one Fort Worth cop being indicted for Intoxication Manslaughter, another recently being arrested for DWI and driving into a house, and a group of officers under investigation for lying about overtime, the Chief might want to start worrying about his job.

May Be An Out Of State Plate . . .

"Dont Blame Me

I Voted for

The AMERICAN"

. . . but the bumper sticker was right at home in Wise County where I just saw the vehicle parked by the courthouse.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• The Messenger's Sports Editor ran in the naked race at the Wildwood Bluebonnet Nudist Resort over the weekend and writes about it in today's paper. (But they forgot to include his byline at the beginning or ending of the story, but I'll do it for them: Richard Greene.)
• But somehow he wrote the article, which wasn't bad, without describing the physical characteristics of anyone he saw.
• Speaking of races, I thought Wise County was crazy but Kaufman County just took the cake: Some group wanted to do a "warrior run" this weekend (which sounds really funny), but the county got an injunction against the race since the promoter didn't obtain a permit under Texas' "mass gathering" law. And to make it even crazier: They issued an arrest warrant for the promoter for promoting such an event without a permit.
• The new Arizona law requiring suspected illegals to "show me your papers" has a very Nazi ring to it.
• But here's a funny cartoon depicting how cops will decide who they will detain.
• The Ticket guy that posted "dirty Mexicans" on his own personal Twitter account was fired last night. For a station I love, that is hypocrisy of the highest level. There's a weird arrogance exhibited by the station over the last few years which might end up, in the long run, killing it.
• That was a ton of grandstanding by the senate committee "investigating" Goldman Sachs yesterday.
• This is really a product from Sears?
• Vermont got a foot of snow yesterday.

That Third Bullet Point Will Make You Do A Double Take

Calm down. Not the same guy.

(Found on DMN via Richie Whitt)

Maybe Our Congress Is Like The Ukraine

Part of the Goldman Sachs hearings today. Warning: It is S Bomb City.

A Kelly Brook Pick Me Up

Midwestern State?

The condemnation, the shaking, the tension, and the awkwardness. (I saw this yesterday when it was just labeled "A school in Texas". Today a user on youtube says its Midwestern State up in Wichita Falls.)

Now That's The Way To Run A Congress!

I'd watch CSPAN 24/7 if I had the chance to see eggs, fights and smoke bombs!

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Goldman Sachs executives will testify before Congress today. Prepare yourself for lots of five second soundbite showboating on the evening news ---- that is, from the congressmen.
• Someone will say, "While people were being kicked out of their homes through the front door during the mortgage crisis, you were [insert witty way of saying making a bunch of money.]"
• Chicago murders so far this year: 116. US Troops killed in both Iraq and Afghanistan during same period: 127. Yep. Pretty much the same.
• Rick Perry and Glenn Beck were on stage together in Tyler, Texas over the weekend. Perry might want to throttle it back a bit.
• I've already had the Yellow Pages salesperson come by this morning for her appointment. I think I gave her the impression I wanted the renewal deal done in a hurry. She was accommodating. Big time.
• The high tech blog Gizmondo pays $5,000 for a "lost" new iPhone 4G prototype, writes a review about it which gets ton of Internet buzz, and then the author gets his home raided and computers seized by the police. Big government, indeed.
• I just heard someone in my office use the word "potty."
• I wouldn't even bet on the Mavericks to win tonight in Dallas before being eliminated in San Antonio.
• I had read about the "mutilated" woman found on a Lewisville street yesterday morning, but I had no idea she was killed with a chainsaw by her husband. (Or so The Ticket says.)
• There are a couple of hotels in Decatur which seem to have been under construction for years.
• Almost one year ago I wrote about a Texas Monthly article that put me in tears. Last week, the author won what is probably the highest honor for magazine writing for that very same article.
• The doctor that treated deceased Tarrant County DA Tim Curry was reprimanded for telling another cancer patient, "if it were me, I would get a bottle, a gun and go into the woods and contemplate my options." Good lord, woman.
• I've never called 911. For some crazy reason I believe it is to be used only for emergencies.
• Paris Hilton wannabees at the Ranger game last night. Hey, now.
• How silly was it to cancel Fort Worth's Mayfest last year due to the Swine Flu?

Explosion?

http://www.wcmessenger.com/update/?p=2022

Barry (from iPhone)

Allow Me To Translate

Don't be stupid.

Monday Afternoon Pick Me Up

Flashback: 1992

I was actually going to do a post on the new numbers for circulation for the Dallas Morning News when I stumbled upon this from the Dallas Morning News. (Click to enlarge). And the remainder of the story is here and here.

Edit: Sorry, you can't post a comment naming someone as being "right in the middle of it" and "got away with it" without any proof whatsoever. Trust me, I'm protecting you.

Ticket Personality Might Be In A Little Hot Water

Mike Bacsik is a former Major League pitcher who now is the producer for Norm Hitzges show on The Ticket. He gets his fair share of airtime, however. Last night he seemed to forget that the radio station's sometimes weird and shocking sense of humor might not be understood by the masses. (It's a reference to the San Antonio/Dallas game.)

He has since deleted the post (and a few others) from his Twitter feed but someone grabbed a screenshot of the posts before he could do it.

And now we've got a small storm brewing (see people referring to the incident here.)

But for years there has been an audio drop of one of the morning hosts saying, "I think all Mexicans are dirty." That's probably the origin of his tweet.

Update: Suspended.

Remember This Lady?

This Plano woman was found not guilty by reason of insanity a few years back of killing her baby by cutting his arms off. She was in the news briefly this weekend after a generic AP story reported she had been ordered back to a mental hospital. But look at this shocking tidbit buried in the story:

"[I]n March, firefighters in the Dallas suburb of Richardson found her walking down the street at 2 a.m."

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Last night I dreamed I ran into Ann B. Davis (Alice from The Brady Bunch) in the Northeast Mall. And then moments later I saw LizaMinnelli. That's so weird.
• Hung out by a beautiful backyard pool on Saturday night. It made me realize how incredibly boring my backyard is.
• The mysterious unknown little boy found dead in a Wylie park was ID'd over the weekend. Then it seems like the cops jumped the gun and arrested his grandmother.
• Richie Whitt over at the Dallas Observer posed an interesting question about the many people who showed up for the dead boy's candlelight vigil: Why don't we care that much about the living?
• I wish there was a constant Mark Cuban cam that I could watch when the Mavericks are struuuugling.
• A team leading a seven game series in the NBA by a 3-1 lead, have gone on to win the series 181 out of 189 times. (That nugget comes from WBAP, however, so it might be wrong.)
• I caught a little bit of a bicycle race at Indiana University this weekend on TV -- the same race that is featured in the old movie Breaking Away. The crashes are insane. (And I've mentioned it to a couple people but I don't think anyone remembers Breaking Away.)
• A Dallas Morning News delivery guy was murdered this morning. I think I recall the same thing happening to another one a couple of years back.
• There was a borderline assassination attempt on the President this weekend which seems to be getting very little press.
• I haven't had my home air conditioner on in a week and resorted to the weird practice (for me) this weekend of leaving my windows open.
• President Obama visited Billy Graham at home over the weekend. It seems like Graham has been on his death bed for years, doesn't it?