UPDATE: Police abandon failed "Neighboorhood Safety Zones" because of increased violence

Yeah, evidently crime just moved to the areas they left vacant.

The Juicy Part:

The checkpoint plan followed other civil liberties-unfriendly proposals from DC police struggling to quell violent crime in the city. Previous proposals included a venture that would have had police going door-to-door in rough neighborhoods asking residents to "voluntarily" submit to warrantless searches of their homes. That plan was temporarily abandoned after citizen complaints, but police are moving forward with a plan to centrally network and continuously monitor thousands of closed-circuit video cameras throughout the city.

Police decided to shut down the checkpoint just a day after they said they would extend them through the weekend. Local blog DCist notes the confusion probably wasn't the best way to inspire confidence in the police.

D.C. neighborhoods to be sealed off into "Neighborhood Safety Zones"

Here's the juicy part:
Under an executive order expected to be announced today, police Chief Cathy L. Lanier will have the authority to designate “Neighborhood Safety Zones.” At least six officers will man cordons around those zones and demand identification from people coming in and out of them. Anyone who doesn’t live there, work there or have “legitimate reason” to be there will be sent away or face arrest, documents obtained by The Examiner show.

Lanier has been struggling to reverse D.C.’s spiraling crime rate but has been forced by public outcry to scale back several initiatives including her “All Hands on Deck” weekends and plans for warrantless, door-to-door searches for drugs and guns.

Under today’s proposal, the no-go zones will last up to 10 days, according to internal police documents. Front-line officers are already being signed up for training on running the blue curtains.

The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class

The talk starts at 4:45

Distinguished law scholar Elizabeth Warren teaches contract law, bankruptcy, and commercial law at Harvard Law School. She is an outspoken critic of America's credit economy, which she has linked to the continuing rise in bankruptcy among the middle-class.

Hirsch on CNBC: Peak oil problem "as massive as one can possibly imagine"

Larry the loophole explains how to properly screw your fellow man...

Here is a wonderful educational film about how to properly take over a company, saddle it with debt so it can't operate with the same expenses yet gets to pay less taxes, sell it off and make a bundle, then pay only 15% of your profits to the tax man - and keep the rest for yourself. All thanks to the magic of the amazing loophole.

I was just checking my zodiac and saw that it's the year of the hobo...

The Global Slump of 2008-2009 has begun... and what a slump it looks to be. We've got Banks shaking off loans like fleas, homeowners abandoning their investments on a massive scale, $120/barrel oil, and the purveyors of overpriced crap are going bellyup quicker than goldfish at a carnival attraction. Add the prediction of $200/barrel oil within 2 years and you have the makings of a depression unless someone actually does something to stop it (don't count on Bush). At the moment everyone is simply charging themselves into further trouble and robbing Peter to pay Paul can only go on for so long. I'll let one of our founding fathers put in his two cents:

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation then by deflation, the banks and the corporations will grow up around them, will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."---Thomas Jefferson, The Debate Over The Recharter of the Bank Bill, (1809)

Distilled awesome

This video is the winner of the moviebakery global warming award for 2007.

Denial is an ugly ugly thing.

Today the White House announced that it still doesn't see any evidence of recession.

Terence Mckenna: Reclaim Your Mind

Terence Mckenna waxes poetic on the cultural diversion of our society and how it focuses us on the things that don't really matter so that we can be exploited.

Randy Newman: Apple Keynote

See Randy Newman on Macworld Expo Keynote 2008 in San Francisco, singing about current and past political leaders in the US and Europe.