dems didn't get the memo, neither side gets it, and voodoo science is sending you to jail...

the culture of washington was going to change (for what seems like the 10,000th election cycle in a row). progressive minded folks (true progressive, not left-wing nutjobs or democratic party players) were going to slap some sense into the moronic tendencies of our government, decades overdue of a cleaning, entrenched in their counter-productive and severely damaging ways of throwing money at themselves while they pat themselves on the back. don't get me wrong, my entire life I have had to live under the bullshit ideologies and practices of a republican party that long ago was hijacked by Big Business and all that is wrong with capitalism and america. (lest we forget, republicans always had such a leaning though...even lincoln was a lawyer for Big Railroad). and because of this, I too have a desire for payback...it is only natural. but while the democrats in congress apparently believe that 2006 and 2008 is a blank check for payback on their across-the-isle braindead brethren, I can't help but think they just did not get the memo from the american people. we are at a watershed moment, unfortunately it is not the watershed we had hoped for. our economy, which we falsely believed was eternally unstoppable (thanks to an undying proud ignorance of history), is crumbling...crumbling being too soft a word for the dramatic freefall we have entered. a hundred thousand people a week are receiving pink slips. one hundred thousand a week. millions are being kicked out of their homes. we don't build anything anymore. to say we are up shit creek without a paddle would be a gross understatement. basically, we are royally fucked, we the narrowest of windows to save ourselves, and possibly the world, from a decade of hell (well, there is plenty of the world that life won't change much for, except that we will stop helping). and on the other side? a world in which the united states is no longer the undisputed heavy weight champion of the world...just ask the brits, the dutch, the spanish, the romans...its one hell of a beautifully repeating cycle in western history.

and how do the democrats in congress respond? by butchering a stimulus bill to basically just make it the largest pet-project bill ever imagined. we are not talking about $800,000,000,000 (yea, when you write it out it looks like a lot of fucking money) into a massive public works program, education, and assistance to local and state governments. we are talking too much about an excuse for payback, to get all the crap that the republicans kept for themselves the last 15 years. we are talking about spending that might be a good idea...but not now. we are talking about throwing money desperately needed to put people to work to pay the FBI more for its junk science (see below) along with a load of other crap that suddenly has the american people questioning what the fuck these bozos are doing with our money. all while apparently not a single one of them pays their own goddamn taxes. and this is why I hate the democratic party. this is why, after a few months of hope and apparent insanity, I will once again be removing my name from the party's roll. fuck you and the fucking horse we gave you to ride in on.

not that the republicans are any fucking better...maybe just lucky. do not for a second believe that they "saw the light" and recognized much of this bill for what it is - dem masturbation. (don't get me wrong, there are some very good projects and ideas in this...unfortunately, like most good things that come out of washington, it is accompanied by a host of stupid shit). they are not pissed off at indiscriminately throwing money at anything and everything...they are pissed because they don't make the rules anymore. they are pissed because they got used to shutting their across-the-isle-hopelessly-lost brethren and the american people out of the process. and they are pissed because it is no longer their pet projects that are getting hoards of money. this isn't an ideological stand...this is a fucking tantrum.

but what is their response? tax cuts. are they fucking serious? I am so goddamn sick of this "we must cut taxes" refrain (now accepted in large part by the democrats). did none of these people have to take american history? if cutting taxes was the answer, why is it that the economy crumbles every time we get to the end of a period where cutting taxes was the answer? why is it that after 30 years of cutting taxes we are in this mess? why is it that hastened giant tax cuts over the last 8 years resulted in us leaning over the cliff? can't we add a constitutional amendment to require an IQ test and a basic knowledge of history before we let you help run the country?

changing gears to my typical anger at the criminal "justice" system. anyone involved in criminal law knows that there are an unbelievable number of convictions based on voodoo "science" developed by non-scientists and conducted by idiots. yes, forensics, as practiced in america, is a load of fucking crap. they make it up. we know it, they know it (although they will swear they are never wrong and will testify under oath to a slew of shit that they could never possibly know or understand...and they will get convictions, some of which, thank god, are later overturned thanks to real science). crime labs are a joke. they are factories for convictions. they are designed to find what the detectives and prosecutors tell them needs to be found. I'm actually involved in a case where a crime lab wanted to testify that a man was biting on a hamburger when he was shot because a hamburger fell on the ground from his truck when he got out of it a half mile later...I'm not kidding. and another case when a crime lab wanted to testify that a man was shot while climbing a fence because that was the only explanation for the slightly upward angle of the wound under the arm (thank god for a newer forensic pathologist not yet trained in the whatever-the-police-say ways who noted that any such theory would necessarily be one of countless possible scenarios). blood splatters? bullet analysis? gun powder? they don't know what the fuck they are doing...they make it up and make sure it fits the prosecution's theory.

but now we finally have some real scientists to tell the truth. the National Academy of Sciences put together a report mocking "forensics" used to convict - including fingerprints, firearms, bite marks, blood splatter, hair, handwriting, etc. in a no brainer to those of us working within the system, the NYT reports that the NAS report "says such analyses are often handled by poorly trained tecnhicians who then exaggerate the accuracy of their methods in court." of course the law enforcement community and the department of justice did everything they could to derail this effort. because the last thing prosecutors and police want is real scientists looking at their junk science and calling bullshit when they see it. once again, the false advertisement of "halls of justice" is exposed. and it couldn't come soon enough.

mandatory minimum sentencing...cause he got caught with a pocket full of medicine...