2007 archive

FELA is the law that covers liability in the United States railroad industry.

It is absolute: either the employee or the company is wholly liable if there is a workplace injury. Check out this link: It points to a law firm specializing in FELA law. The information about the law, by the way, is accurate.

There are many such firms. There is even a firm from which I have received many mailings (though I was never injured on the job, on company time, or on duty) whose phone number is 800-something or other-FELA.

When I worked for the railroad, I knew a number of folks in the claims department–the department charged with settling injury claims under FELA. In most cases, the company and the injured employee acted in good faith. The employee was hurt, lost time from work, and the company paid, even though the employee may have contributed to the injury.

However, from time to time, they ran into situations such as this one, where good faith was missing and a little bit of videotape invalidated the injury claim.

And, make no mistake, the company used detectives and video when it doubted the good faith of someone who claimed an injury.

Oh, yeah. We won’t mention the charges of criminal fraud.

Fake Stinger missile explodes. Causes real injury.

This was about three miles from where my mother now lives.

And it made the AP wire.

A tribute here.

(Takes a moment to get to the right spot.)

The attorney-general of the Current Federal Administration perversely argues that the right of habeas corpus is not a right:

Responding to questions from Sen. Arlen Specter at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Jan. 18, Gonzales argued that the Constitution doesn’t explicitly bestow habeas corpus rights; it merely says when the so-called Great Writ can be suspended.

“There is no expressed grant of habeas in the Constitution; there’s a prohibition against taking it away,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales’s remark left Specter, the committee’s ranking Republican, stammering.

“Wait a minute,” Specter interjected. “The Constitution says you can’t take it away except in case of rebellion or invasion. Doesn’t that mean you have the right of habeas corpus unless there’s a rebellion or invasion?”

Gonzales continued, “The Constitution doesn’t say every individual in the United States or citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas corpus. It doesn’t say that. It simply says the right shall not be suspended” except in cases of rebellion or invasion.

No. It doesn’t say, “All Americans have the right of habeas corpus.” It simply assumes and implies it.

The twisted reasoning that would deny the existence of that right is quite clearly treasonous. It is the thinking of tyranny.

And must not be brooked by any citizen of the United States of America who has even a ten-percent understanding of what this country is about.

Another take here.

With a tip to Andrew Sullivan.

Whack!

Three pregnant teens living in a group home whacked the director in the head with a frying pan, tied her up and then fled in a stolen minivan, police said.

Last week, I took my Defensive Driving refresher course (that insurance discount is worth three hours every three years!).

None of these facts were covered in it.

’nuff said

A fire that started in a man’s pants pocket, critically injuring him and destroying his hotel room, was not ignited by a cell phone as authorities suspected, phone technicians said.

In my view, history will show that this president never seriously prosecuted this war, never took his responsibility seriously, never provided sufficient resources, never even gave it his full attention. That became clear to me in 2003. I didn’t get it beforehand because I just assumed that any American president would understand the gravity of the decisions he was taking and would ensure that he took all means to guarantee victory. But this president didn’t. He ran this war like a distracted frat boy, irritated by the distractions it required, and outsourced its execution to two unhinged aides. In other words: he wimped out. Bill Kristol has the gall to call critics of the surge “boneless wonders.’ But there is only one truly boneless wonder these past four years, and he is still sitting in the White House.

Boneless. Boneheaded. Six of one, half-dozen of another.

I grew up in a Ford family.

I believe that real cars don’t wear bowties.

But I know that the next Ford I buy, if I buy one, will undoubtedly crash:

Microsoft is to work with Ford to supply voice-activated software that will allow drivers to make mobile calls or play songs stored on digital music players without taking their hands off the wheel.

Then there will be only one course of action.

The interregnum is over.

This week, I started my new gig as a contractor developing documentation for a fairly significant documentation consulting firm.

As I started working regular hours again this week, I had only one thought:

“Where the hell did I ever find enough time to go to work?”

From El Reg:

A Melbourne man was today accused of using a tiny video camera embedded in the toe of his shoe to look up womens’ skirts on the city’s buses, trains and trams – and admitted doing so for the last four years, local police claimed.

Story here and here.

Answer here:

It either doesn’t understand “competence,” or, more likely, it fears competence.

Why does the Current Federal Administrator relish breaking the law?

Phillybits pulls it all together.

You belong to George:

The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to get banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage in the United States, The New York Times said on its Web site on Saturday.

Citing intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, the newspaper said the investigations, part of an expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering, also included CIA issuance of what are called national security letters to get access to financial records from U.S. companies.

And from all this, there has not yet been one–one–successful prosecution on United States shores of anyone for anything connected with terrorism since the initial World Trade Center bombing, which did not occur, was not investigated, and was not prosecuted under the Current Federal Administration. And note that the convictions that resulted in that case resulted without attempts to abrogate anyone’s civil liberties.

So what’s it all about?

Tyranny. Just because they want to.

Why is the United States poised to try Jose Padilla as a dangerous terrorist, long after it has become clear that he was just the wrong Muslim in the wrong airport on the wrong day?

Why is Washington still holding hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, long after years of interrogation and abuse have established that few, if any, of them are the deadly terrorists they have been held out to be?

And why is President Bush still issuing grandiose and provocative signing statements, the latest of which claims that the executive branch has the power to open mail when it sees fit?

I once believed that the common thread here is presidential blindness — an extreme executive-branch myopia that leads the chief executive to believe that these futile measures are integral to combating terrorism; a self-delusion that precludes Bush and his advisers from recognizing that Padilla is a chump and Guantanamo Bay is just a holding pen for a jumble of innocent or half-guilty wretches.

But it has finally become clear that the goal of these efforts isn’t to win the war against terrorism; indeed, nothing about Padilla, Guantanamo Bay or signing statements moves the country an inch closer to eradicating terrorism. The object is a larger one: expanding executive power, for its own sake.

What part of “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” are they so incapable of understandiing?

And how can members of the Current Federal Administration sleep at night?

With apologies to Jesus’ General.

Here.

. . . supposedly followed the Big Bang.

Here’s more evidence.

Good-bye KDE.

Hello XFCE (the Low Cholesterol Desktop).

Faster, lighter, smaller. And runs KDE services.

Listen. Especially to the end.

With a tip to Jesus’ General.