Podcast for 7-18-2011

[MrBogosity]

The drug laws existed LONG before private prisons did.

[AnCap Dave]

The drug laws existed LONG before private prisons did.

Yeah, now she's just ignoring stuff and just going with PROFIT IS BAD argument.

I agree, however I think the increase in our prisons is directly related to the profit margin.

[MrBogosity]

That's what dogmatists do when they're confronted with the evidence.

[AnCap Dave]

That's what dogmatists do when they're confronted with the evidence.

Yep, that is exactly what they do.

Well, David. We will have to agree to disagree. I do think that making a profit in some areas is obscene and not in our best interest, such as education, healthcare and putting our people in prison. And I think it makes perfect sense that lobbyists are influencing our lawmakers into inforcing and creating new laws to imprison our people because of profits. That is happening. And I think it is disgusting and wonder why we are letting it happen.

[MrBogosity]

We will have to agree to disagree.

Man, I hate that cliche! What it really means is, "I don't want to have to do anything to be faced with any possibility that I might be wrong."

[AnCap Dave]

Man, I hate that cliche! What it really means is, "I don't want to have to do anything to be faced with any possibility that I might be wrong."

So I rightfully called her out and said that her reasons are based on nothing but her own bias against the idea of profit.

The reply:

My reason is most certainly based on something. http://www.democraticunder​ground.com/discuss/duboard​.php?az=view_all&address=4​39x1107761

The post that she was referring to:

Check out two articles linked in today's DU. First, U.S. businesses that outsource to Mexico are hurting. Border violence---fueled by U.S. demands for (currently) illegal marijuana have made the northern portion of Mexico a lot like Beirut in the 1980s.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Poor U.S. manufacturers. It's too dangerous to outsource our jobs. Good thing the American workers have someone in their court----the states which have an economic incentive to keep marijuana Illegal with a capital P. As in, you will do hard prison time in those states if you light up. Private prison time.

Here is the DU article on the five states which bring the hammer down hardest on those who commit the victimless crime of smoking weed:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/marmar/21614

Note that the state at the top of the list is not on the U.S. Mexican border. Why is Oklahoma so down on dope? Because recreational drug users are the cheapest, easiest prisoners for private prisons to incarcerate (at public expense). And your average pot smoker is a lot easier on the pocketbook than a full blown heroin addict. No HIV, not Hepatitis C. Just one poor soul who wants to get out of jail real bad so that he can return to his productive life as a U.S. worker. This guy is definitely not going to be a problem for the private company that is getting paid a gazillion dollars to keep him from smoking (weed) for a year.

"Follow the money," he said. "Private prisons make a profit of over 30 percent on each inmate. They utilize a good portion to influence local policy decisions by hiring the most affluent lobbying firms and making political donations."

http://opea.org/private-prisons-are-no-bargain

Oklahoma is booming. Or, at least, its prisons are.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OKCURE/message/1832

The state's prison population routinely hits 99 percent of capacity, the
Board of Corrections was told Wednesday.

In Texas, private prisons are a boom industry. Note that Texas has the largest number of private prisoners in the country as of 2007:

http://www.texasprisonbidness.org/lobbying-and-influenc...

And guess who comes in second? That's right, Florida, the third worst state in which to smoke dope. Arizona, the fifth worst state for draconian pot laws is third in number of for profit incarcerations. Louisiana made the list in 2007, too, and GOP Governor Bobby "Blanche" Jindal (relies on the kindness of the feds for free money while arguing against Big Government)wants to see even more money flow into the hands of the privates.

http://www.thepelicanpost.org/2011/04/05/legislators-at... 's-plan-to-privatize-prisons/

Paul Rainwater, Gov. Jindal's top budget advisor, counters that the one-time money would help private health providers navigate a tough financial year.

Hmmm. And if we sold every male whose name begins with the letter B (sorry, Bobby) into slavery in Saudi Arabia, we could pay for platinum plated health insurance for the rest of us!

Remember, we don't want our private prison industry to suffer hard times just because the rest of us are, either. So, light up America! Keep those manufacturing jobs at home and America's private prison industry profitable!

WORSHIP THE STATE! PROFIT IS BAD! WORSHIP THE STATE! PROFIT IS BAD!

[Travis Retriever]

Ask her about if the state profits from this.

[AnCap Dave]

Ask her about if the state profits from this.

Oh please, I already know what kind of answer she'd give.

David you and I agree on more than you realize. the difference being that I believe we are the government we the people. Hating the government is like hating yourself. If you don't like something you have the power to do something about it.... I believe it is our obligation to speak out and do something about it. But remember I am a public school teacher at heart. And I don't think that anybody should be making any money off of public education. We the people should be investing in our future. generation. And taking care of our elderly and disabled. We as americans should take care of each other and that is what government is supposed to do in my opinion

This is just sad now.

[VectorM]

And I don't think that anybody should be making any money off of public education.

This is where i would post a trollface image and ask her "Then why do YOU profit from public education?"

[AnCap Dave]

I actually threw that question to her about taking a paycheck, this was the response:

Darling I'm looking for a job. And I will take a paycheck because I will be early. Not to mention that the money that I spent on my education came out of my own pocket. Again in my humble opinion I think teachers should be making more money not less.

Oh, so it's okay for YOU to make money, but how dare anyone else try to compete!

Lol. I also threw a quote at her from Fringeelements, though I slightly modified it to take out the whole youtube aspect of it.

People who aggressively advocate for state action aren't good people. They're evil people and deserve the worst, and so I have no plans to be kind to them. They want to throw me in a cage and probably get raped if I don't go along with thei...r plan [and/or] pay for the things they want, and then say that this brutality is social. When clearly it is the definition of anti-social. So no chivalry. These people want to enslave me, because in their narcissism, they think that they can centrally plan better than the grand nexus of interactions of society.

This was the response:

We have come full circle because I think they want to en slave you because of money but we should probably continue this conversation in person or through email

[Travis Retriever]

Oh please, I already know what kind of answer she'd give.

Sorry. I meant, ask how she feels *that* the state profits from all this.  Unless she thinks profit and government are mutually exclusive in which case.
She's a super woo.

[AnCap Dave]

Sorry. I meant, ask how she feels *that* the state profits from all this.  Unless she thinks profit and government are mutually exclusive in which case.
She's a super woo.

She does.

[Travis Retriever]

She does.

That explains a lot.  You did explain your family is full of idiots, so I guess I really can't be surprised.

[AnCap Dave]

Russell Huekler, who was an alternate juror, gives a statement on why he agreed with the verdict. Just further confirming what Shane said in the podcast.

[yt]Gycaz000nGo[/yt]

[AnCap Dave]

Source.

News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower found dead

Death of Sean Hoare – who was first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson knew of hacking – not being treated as suspicious

Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbusiness reporter who was the first named journalist to allege that Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead .

Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, was said to have been found at his Watford home.

Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but said in a statement: "At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.

"The death is currently being treated as unexplained but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing."

There was an unexplained delay in the arrival of forensics officers at the scene .

Neighbours said three police cars and three police cars and two ambulances arrived at the property shortly before 11am. They left around four hours later, around 3pm, shortly after a man and a woman, believed to be grieving relatives, arrived at the premises. There was no police presence at the scene at all for several hours.

The curtains were drawn at the first-floor apartment in a new-build block of flats .

At about 9.15pm, three hours after the Guardian revealed Hoare had been found dead a police van marked "Scientific Services Unit" pulled up at the address, where a police car was already parked. Two officers emerged carrying evidence bags, clipboards, torches and laptop-style bags and entered the building. Three officers carrying cameras and wearing white forensic suits went into the flat at around 9.30pm.

Hoare was in his mid-40s. He first made his claims in a New York Times investigation into the phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World. He told the newspaper that not only did Coulson know of the hacking, but he also actively encouraged his staff to intercept the calls of celebrities in the pursuit of exclusives.

In a subsequent interview with the BBC he alleged he was personally asked by his editor at the time, Coulson, to tap into phones. In an interview with the PM programme he said Coulson's insistence he did not know of the practice was "a lie, it is simply a lie". At the time a Downing Street spokeswoman said Coulson totally and utterly denied the allegations; he had "never condoned the use of phone hacking and nor do I have any recollection of incidences where hacking took place".

Hoare said he was once a close friend of Coulson's, and told the New York Times the two first worked together at the Sun, where, Hoare said, he played recordings of hacked messages for Coulson. At the News of the World, Hoare said, he continued to inform Coulson of his activities. He "actively encouraged me to do it", Hoare said. In September last year he was interviewed under caution by police over his claim the former Tory communications chief asked him to hack into phones when editor of the paper, but declined to make any comment.

Hoare returned to the spotlight last week, after he told the New York Times that reporters at the NoW were able to use police technology to locate people using their mobile phone signals, in exchange for payments to police officers. He said journalists were able to use "pinging", which measured the distance between a mobile handset and a number of phone masts to pinpoint its location.

Hoare gave further details about "pinging" to the Guardian last week. He described how reporters would ask a news desk executive to obtain the location of a target: "Within 15 to 30 minutes someone on the news desk would come back and say 'Right, that's where they are.'"

He said: "You'd just go to the news desk and they'd come back to you. You don't ask any questions. You'd consider it a job done.

"The chain of command is one of absolute discipline, and that's why I never bought into it, like with Andy saying he wasn't aware of it and all that. That's bollocks."

He said he stood by everything he told the New York Times of "pinging". "I don't know how often it happened. That would be wrong of me. But if I had access, as a humble reporter ... "

He admitted he had had problems with drink and drugs, and had been in rehab. "But that's irrelevant," he said. "There's more to come. This is not going to go away."

Hoare named a private investigator who he said had links with the News of the World, adding: "He may want to talk now, because I think what you'll find now is a lot of people are going to want to cover their arse." Speaking to another Guardian journalist last week, Hoare repeatedly expressed the hope that the hacking scandal would lead to journalism in general being cleaned up, and said he had decided to blow the whistle on the activities of some of his former NoW colleagues with that aim in mind.

He also said he had been injured the previous weekend while taking down a marquee erected for a children's party. He said he broke his nose and badly injured his foot when a relative accidentally struck him with a pole from the marquee. Hoare also emphasised that he was not making any money from telling his story.

Having been treated for drug and alcohol problems, Hoare reminisced about his partying with former pop stars and said that he missed the days when he was able to go out on the town.

On Monday evening the curtains were drawn at his home, a first-floor apartment in a new-build block of flats.

A neighbour living opposite, Nicky Dormer, said three police cars and two ambulances arrived at the property at 11am; police left at 3pm, shortly after a man and a woman, believed to be grieving relatives, arrived at the premises.

She and another neighbour described Hoare as a jovial man who would often sit on his balcony, overlooking the block entrance, and talk to residents. They said he lived in the block with his partner, a woman called Jo, who they believed had been away on holiday. Neither had seen Hoare for a few days.

Paul Pritchard, 30, another neighbour, said Sean Hoare was "the most sociable" resident, and they would regularly see him watering the communal front lawn.

"It is just such a shock. About a month ago he said he felt unwell and he said he went to the doctors for a checkup. Then I saw him again and he seemed well."

I'm waiting for the conspiracy theories to start flooding in.