February 7, 2010
Inside the Politburo
Welcome to the U.S. Department of State underling who grabbed twenty five quick pages worth of postings here this a.m. after searching Google for "washington dc diplomatic security mike mcguinn".
IP: 169.252.4.21
NetRange: 169.252.0.0 – 169.253.255.255
NetName: DOS-US
OrgName: U.S. Department of State
Address: 2201 C Street NW
City: Washington
StateProv: DC
PostalCode: 20520
Country: US
Relatedly, not much new news, or anything to explain away any of the weirdness, since my last post.
February 5, 2010
It’s the Soviet Union, now
I've been watching this story all day, and it just keeps getting stranger and stranger. There's no way to excerpt this version. Horrors brew…
The State Department has refused to answer basic questions about an accident that took place in Washington on Wednesday night, in which a U.S. Diplomatic Security Service vehicle struck Daily Caller employee Sean Medlock as he was crossing the street.
An agent in the vehicle, Mike McGuinn, did not identify himself to Medlock at the scene, or apologize for running him down. Indeed, Washington, D.C., police drove to a local emergency room to serve Medlock with a jaywalking citation as he lay prostrate in a hospital bed, while a man who identified himself as “special agent” stood by watching and taking notes.
Reached on his cell phone the following day by the Daily Caller, McGuinn refused to answer questions about the incident.
“I’m a federal agent and I’m not allowed to talk to the media,” McGuinn said, citing “liability.” McGuinn initially declined even to reveal which agency he works for. “You can refer to the [DC] police department report,” he said before hanging up abruptly. (According the police department, no report will be publicly available for at least three days.)
According to Medlock, who writes under the name Jim Treacher, he was struck at about 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday, while crossing M Street in downtown Washington. Medlock says he was walking within the bounds of the crosswalk, toward a blinking white signal, when a government SUV suddenly turned left and plowed into him, knocking him to the ground.
Bystanders tended to Medlock, collected his crushed glasses and called an ambulance. McGuinn, meanwhile, called The Daily Caller’s offices from the scene to tell Medlock’s colleagues about the incident. But he did not identify himself to them or to Medlock.
Medlock was taken to Georgetown University Hospital with a broken left knee, lacerations and bruises. He will undergo surgery later this week.
At the hospital, DC police officer John Muniz arrived to issue Medlock a $20 jaywalking ticket. Medlock was lying sedated on a gurney, so Muniz delivered the ticket to a Daily Caller colleague, who was at the hospital with Medlock. He looked embarrassed as he did so. Behind him stood a man dressed in a dark suit who identified himself as a “special agent.” He said nothing but wrote in a notebook.
Curiously, the ticket says that Medlock was struck at an intersection four blocks from where the accident actually took place. And it claims that Medlock was walking diagonally across the intersection at the time. In one of his strikingly short conversations with the Daily Caller, agent Mike McGuinn acknowledged that Medlock was not jaywalking at all, but walking “outside the crosswalk when the incident occurred.”
The question is: Did the federal agent driving the SUV, faced with potential liabilities from the accident, encourage local police to issue some sort – any sort – of citation to Medlock, to establish his culpability?
If not, what exactly did happen? Calls to the State Department were met with evasion and indifference. Spokeswoman Grace Moe first asked a Daily Caller reporter where the publication’s offices were located before taking a message.
A second DSS spokeswoman, Sarah Rosetti, requested that questions be submitted in writing. When she responded in an e-mail, Rosetti claimed that “a jogger collided with one of the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service’s official vehicles” – as if Medlock, who does not jog, had somehow attacked the SUV.
“At all times, Diplomatic Security acted responsibly and appropriately and displayed due diligence in caring for the injured,” Rosetti continued.
Rosetti ignored a series of questions about whether McGuinn was on or off duty, who he might have been escorting or protecting, whether McGuinn identified himself to police at the scene of the accident, and whether McGuinn had anything to do with the jaywalking citation.
She said MPD had “conducted an investigation” of the incident and referred questions about the investigation to MPD.
MPD provided several answers about the level of detail they would be able to provide. MPD public affairs said a police report would not be available until early next week at the soonest. A Daily Caller reporter who visited the Second District station, where Officer Muniz posts, was told there will be no incident report at all filed for a traffic incident.
The Daily Caller will continue to press for answers. In the meantime here are the questions sent by The Daily Caller to the Diplomatic Security Services public affairs office, followed by the responses.
QUESTIONS:
Was Mr. McGuinn protecting any member of the diplomatic corps when his SUV struck our Mr. Medlock? If so, who was he protecting? If he was not protecting or escorting anyone, was he on duty or off duty?
Was Mr. McGuinn driving a state department vehicle?
Did Mr. McGuinn at any time identify himself to Mr. Medlock or to Metropolitan Police? Did he accompany Mr. Medlock to the hospital?
Did Mr. McGuinn contact MPD to have them write Mr. Medlock a jaywalking ticket that was delivered to Mr. Medlock while he was in the hospital being treated for a broken knee (which will require surgery), lacerations and bruises? If so, do you consider that ethical or proper behavior?
Did a diplomatic security service special agent accompany the MPD officer into the hospital room while Mr. Medlock was being questioned, observe and take notes? Was that officer Mr. McGuinn?
Does Mr. McGuinn contend that Mr. Medlock was jaywalking?
Did Mr. McGuinn apologize to Mr. Medlock after the incident? Does the State Department plan on issuing an apology to Mr. Medlock?
Will any disciplinary action be taken against Mr. McGuinn? Is this the first time he has been involved in a vehicular accident?
ANSWERS:
At approximately 7:10 PM last night, a jogger collided with one of the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service’s official vehicles.
The jogger was transported by ambulance to Georgetown University Hospital.
Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) responded to the scene and conducted an investigation. Diplomatic Security has since learned that the jogger was cited for Jaywalking. For further details regarding the investigation, we would refer you to MPD.
At all times, Diplomatic Security acted responsibly and appropriately and displayed due diligence in caring for the injured.
Mike Riggs and Gautham Nagesh contributed to this report.
ps. What the fuck is the "ANSWERS" section? Cues for the "reporter" who forgot to strip them out of the story? "A jogger collided"????
Pursuing the dream…
Of perfect pork.
Breaking all the rules, but it turned out to be too good not to have tried. I'm talking about the pulled pork recipe in the Jan/Feb issue of Cook's Illustrated. Yes, don't tell anyone, but it's barbecue done in the oven, with yellow mustard and liquid smoke, no less. Horrible. Until you eat it.
I never worked with liquid smoke before, but there's nothing to it. At least, according to the label. No calories, no carbs, no vitamins, no salt, no fats, nothing. Just pure hickory flavor ensconced in some kind of mysterious liquid. Yes, it's slightly ersatz hickory flavor, but only very slightly. I mean, very, very slightly. And ultimately non-obtrusive, which is good in a taste-based product.
So, that's a Boston Butt, butterflied (per the mag) to increase surface area to increase the amount of tasty crust, brined (four quarts of water, a cup of salt, a third cup of sugar, three tablespoons of smoke) for a couple hours, slathered with yellow mustard and a very small amount of additional smoke, then crusted with rub (make yer own), baked (sealed, aluminum-wise, in a shallow pan) for three hours at 325, and then unsealed for another hour and a half, or until the chunk reaches two hundred degrees, whichever comes first. Drippings, if any, should be collected and incorporated into some sauce. There were virtually no drippings, today.
And the crowd went wild.
February 4, 2010
Up, up, and awaaaaaayaaaay
In my beautiful, my beautiful…
It's only been a little more than twenty four hours, and already they've raised $372 American.
Answer: The more equal pigs
Malone Vandam offers the Riddle of the Day:
“When all share equally in the bounty of the earth, who will get to summer on Nantucket?”
Euphemisms
HotAir: Guess what rose “unexpectedly”?
"Unexpectedly", new meaning: The incantations failed to appease the phantasms of wishful thinking, again.
The rise of the blatherskite
Glenn Reynolds catches B. Obama channeling his inner hatred of Capitalism:
We’ve got to make sure that our party understands that, like it or not, we have to have a financial system that is healthy and functioning [...]
It's idiotic on its face (yet typical of collectivist gibberish), but let me immediately redraw my characterization: That's B. Obama revealing his inner hatred of reality, for our capitalist financial system is simply an artifact of the natural evolution of human interaction and commerce. Collectivists are continually butting their fat heads with reality, convinced that they have to control that which otherwise bursts forth and flourishes as a natural byproduct of human effort
“Where have all the commies gone?”
Gone to wrack and ruin, every one… When will they ever learn?
Mayer warned that Greece may be only one of several countries that will fall into the “EMU trap” a condition in which Europeanization essentially destroys the competitiveness of the economy.
'Tis a tale of woe much foretold, and still the peasants shake their pitchforks at the monsters they themselves created.
Humanity is turning into a third rate novel.
The rise of the standing army
"[O]nly qualified sellers may submit quotes":
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to purchase sixty Remington Model 870 Police RAMAC #24587 12 gauge pump-action shotguns for the Criminal Investigation Division. The Remington parkerized shotguns, with fourteen inch barrel, modified choke, Wilson Combat Ghost Ring rear sight and XS4 Contour Bead front sight, Knoxx Reduced Recoil Adjustable Stock, and Speedfeed ribbed black forend, are designated as the only shotguns authorized for IRS duty based on compatibility with IRS existing shotgun inventory, certified armorer and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
Sounds like some little Nazi is having a wet dream, but won't really be happy until he's pointing his new toys at some radical's head. All paid for by freedom-loving you.
February 3, 2010
Don’t fear the Canadian Reaper
The Premier of Newfoundland has flown to sunnier health care climes (i.e. the U.S.):
The Premier whose heart clearly belongs to Newfoundland is having his heart repaired south of the border, making Mr. Williams an exhibit for private American health care advocates seeking to demonize Canada's publicly funded system.
Move over Shona Holmes. You're second-rate propaganda material now.
The Ontario woman was the original star of Canadian health care bashing last year, heavily commercialized by those attacking proposed Obama health reforms in the U.S. after bailing off a long Ontario wait list to pay $100,000 for private brain surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona.
But to have a popular Canadian premier flee to an undisclosed location in the United States for up to 12 weeks of treatment, leaving his stand-in deputy to deliver a less-than-detailed explanation, well, that's quite a step up for U.S. opponents of socialized medicare.
There'll be no quibble from me if Canadians want to buy themselves faster, better treatment south of the border. If you have the cash, picking up your hospital-bound boarding pass will only shorten our wait-lists.
Former MP Belinda Stronach, a breast cancer survivor, bravely admitted she'd gone south because California doctors offered her a superior breast reconstruction procedure.
Besides, buying yourself a new hip or joint, faster diagnostic imaging, colonoscopies or a host of cosmetic enhancements are but a private clinic booking away in several provinces.
While this is admittedly speculative, it's entirely possible the wealthy Williams could not get the required heart procedure done by surgeons on The Rock.
Realizing he'd cause a media circus by shifting to a hospital in another province, he may have decided U.S. health care was preferable to the political fallout of displacing another province's patient on a urgent-care wait-list.
It's also worth noting that Newfoundland does appear, according to Canadian Institute for Health Information, to have the longest cardiac care wait-lists in the country. It shows that 95% of its bypass patients are operated on within 182 days of the go-ahead decision, but that's a far cry from the seven-day average on Alberta's wait-list.
That's cute, innit? The more people who fly to the U.S. for its life saving procedures, the shorter the Canadian waiting lists. By golly, we got to get ourselves some of that.
Striking another blow for Unfreedom
The Federal Trade Commission (yup, them again) has bullied a settlement barring a physicians association from negotiating contracts on its own terms. The association was said to be guilty of (small PDF):
(1) facilitating, coordinating, and implementing agreements to refuse to deal with payers except on collectively agreed-upon terms; and (2) facilitating, coordinating, negotiating, entering into, and implementing agreements on price-related terms.
(gasp)
How dare they?
One of the entities that the association declined to provide services for was Medicare.
As S. M. Oliva at Mises put it:
So it's now illegal to simply refuse to sign a contract, because the buyer's "need" for a service outweighs the seller's right to control the disposition of their own labor. Remember, it's not illegal for a federally-recognized labor union to coerce its members to work (or strike) under certain conditions, but it is illegal for a purely voluntary group to act out of shared self-interest.
It's but one more direct attack on the free enterprise system, and another chunk out of the individual's tattered right to peaceably assemble with whomsoever he chooses, under terms of his own choosing.
February 2, 2010
Of fat ladies and Keith Olbermann
Amidst all the crumbling, some are crumbling fastest:
In the end and in Olbermann's eyes, life is what it has always been: hostile. The viewers are disappearing, and all that remains is a Krakatoa of rage, of poisons spewing forth from a shell of a man on a shriveled network into the homes of a shrinking audience.
Chalk that one up to prurient interest… in some cases the ignominy cannot be too great. Hurry up and bow out in the puddle of your own disgrace, Keith.
January 31, 2010
Dishonesty based faith
Warren Meyer tries to reason with a person hell bent on playing trains with other people's money, here and in the comments here, which effort earns him a resounding:
'[S]o what'. Community investment doesn't bother everyone the same way and different people see different value. There's no way you or I cold [sic] supernaturally understand the net benefit for or against light rail. We must simply choose to believe and pick our sides.
No matter how intelligently or comprehensively Meyer or anyone else addresses the issue, pointing out the inherent and (eventually) utter failure of the thing, there are those who simply will wave all the arguments away and say, "We simply must choose to believe." But, of course, that ignorance is merely disingenuous blather for, "I don't give a shit, I want subsidized trains, and I'll prattle on about ginned up ridership figures and 'community integration' and 'respectful financial constraint' (carefully never mentioning or even linking to mention of precisely how much money these projects lose) to get them."
And it's all in a sweep of grand nonsense. Exactly what is "venues of service", I wonder, if not a fitting companion for "auto-depenent", "definetively", "investement", and "rationale individuals" in the mind of a guy who wants others to believe that fathoming the benefits, or lack thereof, of large scale public works projects requires supernatural abilities. Dave, or whoever wrote that blog piece, says his links should "embarass" [sic] the naysayers, but all he does is embarrass himself. He should be ashamed, but instead, he's the kind of activist moron ready to get in the face of intelligent debate and declare he'd rather "choose to believe".
January 30, 2010
Noon roundup
V is for Value Added Variety:
Political footballs
The United States is such a beautifully free country that voluntary associations are policed by the people's commissars:
[Senator Orrin] Hatch, a Utah Republican, was steamed that his home state team was deprived of getting a chance to play for the title last year.
Yes, we just need to vote Republican so we won't have to worry about intrusive, overbearing, meddling, incompetent government ever again.
January 29, 2010
Nine cheeseburgers
Below is a side by side hack of the before and after CT scans of Grace's spine. They're a little different than x-rays, as they show a slice of things at a certain depth rather than the shadow of entire structures, therefore some apparently disconnected parts may actually be connected at points at different depths than those shown. In any event, the shattered vertebra is plainly visible, and, on the right, some of the remedial superstructure thrown into place to compensate. OUCH!
Grace is now reclining, apparently comfortably, in a nearby chair. We were going to go fetch her today, but the threats of incoming inclement weather prompted us to organize a day early, so we enjoyed the fifteen and a half hours of the up and back run yesterday. And it's a good thing we did, as the snow has been coming down all over southern Kentucky and Tennessee for a while. Last night everything was clear and dry, and the big flying moon helped light the roads, thereby reducing the paranoia over lurking herds of deer (I spotted only two carcasses as we flew back south.) The title of the post is what I ate on the trip. Six of those babies were from White Castle, but still, it counts as a personal best.
