Blog Profile / The Agitator
| URL : | http://www.theagitator.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | News | |
| Posts on Regator: | 3896 | |
| Posts / Week: | 17.5 | |
| Archived Since: | February 15, 2009 | |
Blog Post Archive
I’ve Moved
Still a few kinks to work out, but as promised, your daily agitation is moving to the Huffington Post. Future posts will go up over there, starting now. The web address will redirect in a bit. But until then, here’s where you need to go.
Saturday Links
Whether you support abortion rights, oppose abortion rights, or are somewhere in between, there’s one position on which we can all join together in agreement: Tennessee Rep. Scott DesJarlais is an asshole. Virginia man exonerated of rape after accuser admits to a detective that she lied. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is still blocking the [...]
Scenes from Militarized America
From a drug raid in Wilson, North Carolina.
Morning Links
Your drug war at work: St. Paul, Minnesota cops stomp a man’s head, then fire a flash grenade at his disabled mother curing a cocaine raid. She suffered third-degree burns. They found three grams of pot and a legal handgun. Taxpayers, not the cops, will pay the two a $400,000 settlement. Man attempts to become [...]
Is America Getting Less Punitive?
Over at Huffington Post, I look at that question in light of recent election results. The article is almost optimistic. Longtime readers may find that confusing. But I promise, I really did write it.
Morning Links
More evidence that the public is nearing a tipping point in the war on drugs. This will surprise all of you. The Omaha police union is defending the officer who tackled a man out walking his dog, then shot the dog. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the fact that City Hall reporters illegally recorded journalists [...]
Not a War on Patients
I still get a couple emails like this each week in response to the painkiller series I wrote for Huffington Post back in March. My husband died 4 years ago from a massive cerebral hemorrhage. He had multiple health problems but the worst one was a severely degenerative disc disease. Because he was on Plavix [...]
World Press Photos of the Year
This one was taken in Pyongyang. More here.
It Isn’t a Crime When the Government Does It
So remember when Chicago police were arresting people for recording them, and charging them with crimes punishable by 10 or more years in prison? Remember the woman who was arrested and charged because she attempted to record Chicago PD internal affairs police browbeating her when she tried to report a sexual assault by a Chicago [...]
Headlines
It’s almost like we went to bed Tuesday night, then woke up in an alternate, slightly saner universe on Wednesday morning.
Milton Friedman, the War on Drugs, and Last Tuesday Night
In light of this week’s milestone victories for common sense in Colorado and Washington, here’s Milton Friedman—one of my personal heroes—writing an open letter to Drug Czar William Bennett in the Wall Street Journal. In Oliver Cromwell’s eloquent words, “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken” about [...]
The New Professionalism
Florida cop responding to a report of a stolen motorcycle snoops around a cemetery at night, knocks on the door to an equipment shed without first identifying himself. Cemetery owner is in the equipment shed, hears the knock, fears he’s being robbed, and so opens the door holding a gun. Cop opens fire. The guy [...]
Morning Links
I’ve been neglecting you. But just think, in the spring you’ll have your own portable collection of groin-punching, blood-pressure raising stories to pull down off your bookshelf—any time you like! I do have some thoughts about the election. I just don’t have time to put them into a more substantive post at the moment. And [...]
Steven Hayne Admits to Perjury
It’s been a while since we visited the Steven Hayne saga in Mississippi. There was some big news today. If you’ll remember, when my story about Hayne broke and the Innocence Project went after him a short time later, Hayne was asked by the Jackson Clarion-Ledger about why he was never board certified in forensic [...]
Morning Links
This changes everything. Captain Dick “Riverat” Stevenson not only organized the Yukon’s only all-nude beauty pageant, he also invented a cocktail that includes a human toe. A life well-lived, sir. A life well-lived. “In an unusual twist, Homeland Security provided the partially redacted report (PDF) to the EFF under open government laws — but then [...]
Mountain Barking
You’re going to like this. Almost as much as I enjoy dog-related puns.
Reminder: The Media Isn’t Liberal, It’s Statist
The Boston Globe today editorializes against medical marijuana and physician-assisted suicide today, both of which are on the ballot in Massachusetts. Why? Because neither ballot measure gives state bureaucrats sufficient control over over the lives of people who live in Massachusetts. Show More Summary
Prediction
I’m not really going out on a limb, here. I do think Romney will win the popular vote by slim margin—I’d say less than half a percentage point. But Obama will win the Electoral College, somewhat comfortably. One lesson for Republicans: Stop hating on immigrants. Bush won about 40 percent of the Latino vote in [...]
Five-Star Fridays: Another Saturday Edition
Yes, I forgot again. But I’ll make it up to you. If music gets any better than Mavis Staples and Bonnie Raitt singing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” I can’t imagine what it could possibly be. (Okay, maybe this. But mostly for the parade of terrifying mustaches.) Behind the Scenes: Bonnie Raitt & Mavis [...]
New at HuffPost: SCOTUS Goes to the Dogs
I have a piece up at Huffington Post looking at this week’s drug dog cases heard by the Supreme Court. Much of it will be familiar if you’ve read this site over the last year or so. But I also consider whether the lack of any real criminal defense experience among any of the current [...]