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Who Says Bloggers Don’t Do Investigative Reporting?

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Who Says Bloggers Don’t Do Investigative Reporting?

(Via Uncle) Rich Hailey at Shots Across the Bow puts on his investigative journalist’s fedora and digs into those “You may have won a CAR!” promotional mailings that car dealers mail out. My favorite excerpt:

I met Harold Posey, an older gentleman who referred me to Jeff Hill, brother of the owner. I told Jeff about what I’d found out, and asked him if he was comfortable using these deceptive kinds of tactics to get people onto his lot. He stared at me for a couple of minutes, and started to talk about understanding that I was upset that I hadn’t won the grand prize. I told him that I’d come into the dealership knowing that I wouldn’t win the prize, but was there primarily to find out whether he thought the promotion was in keeping with the ideals of the company.

He invited me back to his office and when we sat down, he began to grill me. Who was I? Where did I work? What kind of job did I do? Then he asked me the big question.

“What gives you the right to come in here and question how I do business?”

“I’m a potential customer and you invited me in when you sent out that direct mailing flyer.”

And he has the right to go home and blog about it.

RTWT.

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

Part III of excerpts from the chapter entitled “The Road to Nowhere” from David Horowitz’s The Politics of Bad Faith:

Stalinism is not just a possible interpretation of Marxism. In the annals of revolutionary movements it is without question the prevailing one. Of all the interpretations of Marx’s doctrine since the Communist Manifesto, it is overwhelmingly the one adhered to by the most progressives for the longest time. Maoism, Castroism, Vietnamese Communism, the ideologies of the actually existing Marxist states — these Stalinisms are the Marxisms that shaped the history of the epoch just past. This is the truth that leftist intellectuals like you are determined to avoid: the record of the real lives of real human beings, whose task is not just to interpret texts but to move masses and govern them. When Marxism has been put into practice by real historical actors, it has invariably taken a Stalinist form, producing the worst tyrannies and oppressions that mankind has ever known. Is there a reason for this? Given the weight of this history, you should ask rather: How could there not be?

A Theater Major

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A Theater Major!

The story I linked to below in I Have Power! I Have Power! just gets better. First, one of the firemen from the town of Marlboro responds in the comment thread at Make with basically what one would expect from someone in his position:

Posted by RPA August 13, 2008, at 7:40PM:

I love the fact that people from all over the country are blogging about this without the facts. Please, by all means, don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story or conspiracy theory! (insert rolleyes smiley icon here).

For your information, unlike everyone else who posted here, I was there. I am an officer in the Marlborough Fire Department. I have worked with Pam on many fire code issues and have known her for over 27 years. She used to work for the Fire Marshal, she does know her job.

The facts:

There was a fire at Mr. Deeb’s home. A firefighter was tasked with the assignment going into the basement, where the home’s electrical panel was to shut off the power to the second floor bedroom area so firefighters would not get electrocuted during overhaul operations (opening up walls and ceiling to search for hidden fire).

What the firefighter found were containers of all sizes and types, including boxes, vials, carboys, drums, pails, and unmarked mason jars full of various chemicals, including flammable liquids, acids and bases.

One of the Lieutenants who responded to the fire is a member of the State Hazmat team, he requested the Tier 3 haz mat response. A Tier 3 response is a full team activation with a mobile command post that contains all kinds of metering and sampling equipment, computer databases, guidebooks and such as well as the equipment trucks. A Tier 3 response is considered to be long term and/or an immediate life safety risk. Along with the Tier 3 activation came the Massachusetts Department of Environmental protection, The State Fire Marshal/Department of Fire Services, the State Police’s hazardous devices unit as well as the arson unit and representatives from the Building Department, Code Enforcement, the Board of Health and the Marlborough Police Department and Emergency Management.

Not knowing the full extent of the types of chemicals or the amounts (the basement was full, with containers on shelves, on the floor, under workbenches, etc), the hazmat team entered wearing level A protection.

It took 3 days to catalog, type and remove what was in Mr. Deeb’s basement. The operation was conducted by an independent hazmat cleanup company working under the auspices of the DEP, the Fire Department maintained a 24/7 presence there to maintain control of the incident.

In the real world, a “lab” of this type would require blow out walls, flame detection, smoke detection and a deluge sprinkler system. A lab of this magnitude would also be located in an industrial area and have the proper permitting for the storage of these chemicals.

Mr. Deeb’s home is a 2 and half story Colonial wood frame with an attached garage in a residential neighborhood. He didn’t have permits, and the fact that many of the containers found were not approved for chemical storage is in violation of the protocols, rules and regulations for the handling and storage promulgated by the EPA, OSHA, NIOSH as well as the Chemical Safety Board.

Within an 1/8th mile radius of Mr. Deeb’s home is a playground, UMass Memorial/Marlborough Hospital, the Fremont Medical Center (doctor’s offices), a daycare center and the Marlborough Boys and Girls club, as well as the surrounding residential neighborhood.

That wasn’t in the news story, was it? Now you know.

Imagine if the fire was in the basement…

Could there have been another Bhopal?

How long would it take to evacuate everyone within a mile radius?

How many people could have died or be permanently disabled from exposure to chemicals?

How many firefighters could have been killed?

Mr. Deeb responds:

Posted by: Victor M. Deeb on August 19, 2008 at 9:21 AM

Please read what I have chronicled below and advise if my civil rights have been violated,

On Aug. 5 about 11 AM Officer Pacific of the Marlborough, Ma. police Dep. while riding his motorcycle on Fremont St. Marlborough Ma. noticed that smoke was coming out of a window air conditioner in my wife’s bedroom, he phoned the fire Dep. and got me out of the house, in a pajama bottom, T shirt and no shoes, The fire Dep. put out the fire within minutes of their arrival, and in their effort to eliminate the possibility that the electrical fire started in the basement, the firemen entered my basement and found my lab. With (Labeled) samples, all over, on shelves, on tables and some on the floor, some Jars, quart cans and vials, marked but not labeled, that I carried my experiments in, Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), Technical Data Sheets (TDS) and spread sheets of my experiments, conditions, results, and observations, and any document that would allow me to protect my intellectual properties.
The fire department not knowing what the samples represented, and fearing the worst, contacted the code enforcement office of The City of Marlborough, Ma. (Ms Pamela Wilderman) a code enforcement officer who is a theater major, with no science training at all.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/09/09/she_keeps_an_eye_on_citys_eyesores
It is claimed that I may have violated zoning laws, which is contrary to;
http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/40a-9.htm
How did Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs get started? Is it not in their basement / garages? Why am I being singled out crucified and have 20 years of my life / work and efforts to help others down the drain?
I met with Ms Wilderman and her associate (Deirdre O’Connor M.S.) In my hotel room and I explained that there was no more toxic, hazardous, or flammable material, in my lab. than found in any home.
Materials found in ANY home, such as Bleach, solvents in surface cleaner, window glass cleaners, rubbing alcohol, finger nail polish and finger nail polish remover, hydrogen peroxide, paints and drain cleaners, are more volatile, hazardous, and flammable than anything found in my lab.
The state police office of the state fire marshal of which Trooper Sean P. Sullivan interviewed me and asked me to sign a document giving the state permission to renter my home at any time, which I refused to sign, Trooper Sullivan remained around for the following three days, constantly in and out of my house, without a court order or my permission.
The emergency response of Ma. Dep. Of environment protection waste site clean up, of whom Mr. Nicholas J. Child (Section Chief) and William J. Phillips (Branch chief), visited me in my hotel room, and I explained to them what I was working on in details, at which time Mr. Child asked me if I was in a position to afford removing all items from my lab, and I said NO!, filled out a form handed to me and left. Apparently Mr. Child contracted with New England Disposal Technology, Inc. of which Mr. Michael F. Sabo who is its field operation manager, without a court order.
.
Is it not illegal for the state to enter and dismantle my lab and remove my samples and 20 years of my life without a court order, in the presence of a lawyer representing my interest?
If this could happen to me, what about ANY creative inventor with the desire to create
Unfortunately I do not have the resources at this time to pursue a legal way to recover my last 20 years, unless some attorney agree to take this on contingency

On Aug. 8, I was informed by the City of Marlborough Fire Chief David Adams, that I was permitted to return to my home. Upon my return to my home, I realized that my work for the last 20 years has been dismantled, destroyed and removed including Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), Technical Data Sheets (TDS) and spread sheets of my experiments, conditions, results, and observations, and any document that would allow me to protect my intellectual properties, upon my contacting Mr. Child of the emergency response section chief, some of the MSDS and TDS were returned to me by Mr. Child but NO! Spread sheets of my experiments, conditions, results, and observations, and any document that would allow me to protect my intellectual properties, and said that they may be in the FBI’s possession.
Chief Adams of the Marlborough,Ma.fire Dep. was kind enough to send the assistant fire chief to help me locate spread sheets of my experiments, conditions, results, and observations, and any document that would allow me to protect my intellectual properties, NON were found in the basement / lab. nor the garage.

My desire to help the environment led to my interest in the recycling of used Rubber tires, by reclaiming / recycling, instead of burning for fuel which generates toxic hazardous fumes. Samples of ground rubber tire were among the samples removed from my lab.
Currently there are 3 ways to recycled rubber tire:
1) Brute force, by passing chopped rubber tire between 2 counter rotating cylinders driven by very high horsepower motors, which produces particle of 40 Mesh at best, the higher the mesh the smaller the particle size, the more acceptable it is for recycling into virgin tires or as asphalt modifier.
2) The Cryogenic process which uses liquid nitrogen to cool the rubber and upon impact particles as small as 300 mesh could be produced, the weight of liquid nitrogen per weight of rubber required, makes the Cryogenic process economically prohibitive.
3) The wet process implemented by The Rouse Rubber Co. Of Mississippi, which utilizes a way to grind chips from used tires under water, to as low as 200 Mesh economically.
My interest in the wet process led to my association with The Rouse Rubber Co. as a consultant and eventually to the formation of a partnership under the name of R. & D. Technology Inc. (Rouse & Deeb) and:
PAT. NO.Title
1 6,815,510 Elastomer reclaiming composition and method
2 6,743,836 Method for predispersing compounding ingredients
3 6,680,110 Particle size reduction using supercritical materials
4 6,663,954 Method of reducing material size
5 6,426,136 Method of reducing material size
6 6,333,373 Ground elastomer and method
7 6,238,448 Grinding stones

Prior to my association with the wet process, they used a 20% slurry in the grinding process, which was increased to 40% with an additive i identified.
Prior to my association with the wet process, they could not grind Butyl inter tubes or tire molding bladders without an additive I identified Hence the presence of various additives in my lab
In an effort to identify ways to enhance the acceptability / recycling of wet process ground rubber by the host compound such as tire compounds or as a modifier for asphalt, paving or roofing, I investigated many potential binders / additives.
Of the binders / additives investigated certain type of polyurethane chemistry was identified as lending themselves to this application. Water dispersions of such Polyurethane chemistry, were obtained and evaluated as binders for ground rubber tire with success. Fearing that the cost of the specific Polyurethane chemistry dispersion may become an obstacle for adding such polyurethane dispersions to the wet process, I acquired various latexes (Such as Neroprene SBR, acrylic, ect.) and investigated minimum Polyurethane dispersion required to maintain binding capacity of the ground rubber tire, Hence the presence of various Latexes / polymer dispersion in my lab.
My interest in utilizing an alternative way to enhancing various processes of reclaiming scrap tires, I identified certain additives that enhance the effectiveness, a process that utilizes much less energy. a water soluble solvent, and a peroxide (NOT HYDROGEN PEROXIDE FOUND IN MOST HOMES) but peroxide with a 300 to 400 dF decomposition temp. Hence the presence of Dicumyl peroxide, Ter-Butyl perbenzoate and 2,5-Dimethyl-2,5-di(tert-butylperoxy) hexane, and water soluble solvents in my lab. Which are safe enough to be approved for food contact applications by the FDA.

My interested in renewable resources led me to evaluate vegetable oils as a component of modifier for asphalt. Vegetable oil when combined with petroleum derived di-functional monomer and a catalyst, subjected, in a batch or continuous way in a reactor I developed using my enhanced process, will produce syrup, which will finish the polymerization process using asphalt’s melting heat / energy. Hence the presence of various vegetable oils in my lab.

The identification of BisPhenol A, BisPhenol F and Pthalates in baby foods, from coatings, sealants and Dioxin (a potent carcinogen) from the degradation of Poly vinyl chloride (PVC) Plastisol sealant, upon reclaiming the steel from food jar metal closures, has led me to recognize an opportunity to help humanity in general and children in particular, and embarked on a project to develop a NO BisPhenol A, BisPhenol F liquid coating that can be applied using existing methods and converted using existing equipment, temp / time. Utilizing a modified Vegetable oil, oligomers and peroxides complying with FDA 21 CFR 175.300 are under consideration by European and domestic companies.
I have also a NO PVC, NO PHTHALATES closure sealant based on oligomers antioxidant and a catalyst complying with FDA 21 CFR 175.300 ready for sampling. Hence the presence of modified vegetable oil, oligomers and powder antioxidant complying with FDA 21 CFR 175.300 in my lab.

Immediately after that, he posts:

Responding to RPA

I wonder where did Ronald P. Ayotte (RPA) of the Marlborough fire Dep. get his degree in the chemistry, toxicity, hazard of materials, to qualify him to make such remarks. I was able to get an inventory of what was illegally remove from my Basement / Lab without a court order, and will be glad to have Mr Ayotte (RPA) point out to me what he is referring to.
Materials Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)that were removed and eventually returned to me would confirm all I claim.
Escalating to Tier 3, instead of Tier 1(Tier 1 suggested by many of the firemen I have consulted) to justify their lack of experience and their jobs is mind boggling Ms P Wilderman
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/09/09/she_keeps_an_eye_on_citys_eyesores
claimes that I may have violated zoning laws, which is contrary to;
http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/40a-9.htm

I’m not a chemist, but it sounds like nobody there but Mr. Deeb was, and no one bothered to ask him squat. Nobody bothered to get permission. Nobody bothered to get a warrant, and nobody read anybody their rights.

Yes, I’d say Mr. Deeb has grounds for a lawsuit, and I hope like hell somebody will step up and give the man a hand.

Read the whole thread. And read the one at the Telegram & Gazette on the story. And understand that your neighbors are probably a lot like Mr. Deeb’s.

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

Part II from David Horowitz’s The Politics of Bad Faith.

First, for those of you who will not read the entire piece, an introduction:

A philosopher of exceptional brilliance and moral courage, (Lezsek) Kolakowski had been the intellectual leader of our political generation. Even the titles of his writings –“Responsibility and History,” “Towards a Marxist Humanism”– read like stages of our radical rebirth. By 1968 those stages had come to an abrupt conclusion. When the Czechs’ attempt to provide Communism with a human face was crushed by Soviet tanks, Kolakowski abandoned the ranks of the Left. He did more. He fled — unapologetically — to the freedoms of the West, implicitly affirming by his actions that the Cold War did indeed mark a great divide in human affairs, and that the Left had chosen the wrong side.

Here’s the QotD:

Kolakowski published Main Currents of Marxism, a comprehensive history of Marxist thought, the world view we all had spent a lifetime inhabiting. For three volumes and fifteen hundred pages Kolakowski analyzed the entire corpus of this intellectual tradition. Then, having paid critical homage to an argument which had dominated so much of humanity’s fate over the last hundred years (and his own as well), he added a final epilogue which began with these words: “Marxism has been the greatest fantasy of our century.” This struck me as the most personally courageous judgment a man with Kolakowski’s history could make.

THIS Outrage Hits Newsweek

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THIS Outrage Hits Newsweek

Patti Davis, Ronald Reagan’s daughter, has penned a piece for Newsweek on last week’s botched heroically-executed raid on nefarious drug kingpin innocent Berwyn Heights, Md. mayor Cheye Calvo, his mother-in-law, and his two slavering pit bulls Black Labs.

Entitled America’s Troubled House, I strongly urge you to give it a read. Here are some of of the highlights:

Mayor Cheye Calvo came home late in the afternoon of July 29 and discovered a package addressed to his wife that had been left at the front door. He brought it inside, didn’t open it and set it aside for his wife. Calvo said hello to his mother-in-law, Georgia, who lives with them, and took the family’s two black Labrador retrievers, Chase and Payton, out for a walk. He waved to several people who were sitting in cars near his home, never suspecting that a nightmare was about to unfold.

When he came back, Calvo went upstairs to change clothes for an evening event. His mother-in-law was in the kitchen when she saw masked men with guns running toward the house. Not surprisingly, she screamed as they kicked in the door. They shot Payton who was standing beside her. They then turned their weapons on the other black lab, Chase, who was running away from them. They killed him, too.

If you read the gun boards where incidents like this are reported regularly (which means, of course, they occur regularly), shooting the dogs seems to be standard operating procedure.

Mayor Calvo came downstairs into a new time in America, in which no one is presumed innocent and guilt is only an assumption away.

—

Several days after the raid, authorities arrested several men, including a FedEx delivery man. And County Police Chief Melvin C. High finally admitted that “Ms. Tomsic and the Calvo family were innocent victims of drug traffickers.”

He’s probably tired of reporters coming up to him with microphone in hand and saying, “You must be High.”

While Chief High later expressed regret for the incident, he stopped short of offering an apology. And Sheriff Michael A. Jackson, whose department executed the raid, defended his department’s actions.

It’s not the first time something like this has happened in Prince George’s County. In November, another family was targeted for what was later deemed a mistake. Their dog was shot to death in their front yard. When Calvo called for a U.S. Justice Department investigation last week, he noted “reports of similar misconduct, including service of warrants at the wrong address, excessive use of no-knock entries and other unjustified killings of family pets. This has happened before, and without oversight, it will happen again.” Calvo acknowledged that because of his position as mayor, his case has been getting the kind of exposure that the average citizen could never hope for. “What saddens us most is that all too often, these injustices go unnoticed by law-enforcement officials and those who are victimized are forced to suffer in silence,” he said.

Gee, Ya THINK??

Imagine being Georgia Porter, one minute cooking dinner, the next handcuffed on the kitchen floor, inches from the bloodied body of a dog who was part of her family. Imagine Cheye Calvo hearing the shots from upstairs, not knowing what was happening, and then finding himself handcuffed, helpless, forced to kneel in his underwear. Imagine Trinity Tomsic dealing with her defiled home–not only did the police slaughter their dogs, they tracked blood all over the house in a search that yielded nothing.

You need to imagine all these things because, in a way, we all live in that house. It’s called our country, and this is what’s starting to happen here.

It’s not starting, Patti, it’s been going on (and worse, much worse) for quite a while. The legacy media is just now starting to take notice, but that’s because media serves as the ecclesiastical arm of government, not as the fourth check and balance on government.

But here’s the key excerpt:

Prince George’s official country Web site defines itself as “a county of livable communities.” That’s what we all wish for–a livable community, a home where we feel safe. We want to feel that if the bad guys come, we can call the police and they will be the good guys. We want to believe that if we’re innocent, armed men with government badges won’t handcuff us and shoot our pets and wave their weapons in our faces.

But more and more of us don’t believe that.

A spot-on observation in a national news outlet.

By all means, read the comments, from the bottom up.

I’ve got another Überpost forming in my brain that isn’t going to crawl its way out of my skull until sometime after I get back from the Para Blogger’s shoot. I’m hoping nice long conversations with the other attendees will help inspire me in saying what I want to say the way I want to say it.

Has Frank Sanns “crossed a line somewhere”?

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Has Frank Sanns “crossed a line somewhere”?

A couple of days ago I wrote a post about retired chemist Victor Deeb, whose private property was seized because he was doing chemistry experiments in his home.

Pamela Wilderman, the code enforcement officer for Marlboro (MA), stated, “I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation.”

I wonder what Ms. Wilderman would think of Frank Sanns, and whether there’s a similar .gov position in Pittsburg with an “enforcement officer” who would object – with similar results – to Mr. Sanns’ non-“customary home occupation.”

Mr. Sanns has an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back*, er, a nuclear fusion reactor in his garage.

And he’s not alone.

I LOVE America! The Pursuit of Happiness!

Via Classical Values.

(* – For those too young to get the reference.)

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

The victorious radicals had proclaimed a theology of Reason in which equality of condition was the natural and true order of creation. In their Genesis, the loss of equality was the ultimate source of mankind’s suffering and evil, just as the arrogant pride of the primal couple had provoked their Fall in the religious myths now discarded. The ownership of private property became a secular version of original sin. Through property, society re-imposed on every generation of human innocence the travails of inequality and injustice. Redemption from worldly suffering was possible only through the Revolution that would abolish property and open the gates to the socialist Eden — to Paradise regained.

The ideas embodied in this theology of liberation became the inspiration for the new political Left, and have remained so ever since. It was half a century later that Marx first articulated the idea of a historical redemption, in the way that became resonant for us:

Communism is the positive abolition of private property, of human self-alienation, and thus the real appropriation of human nature through and for man. It is therefore the return of man himself as a social, i.e., really human, being… – Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts

This was our revolutionary vision. By a historical coup we would create the conditions for a return to the state of true humanity whose realization had been blocked by the alienating hierarchies of private property. All the unjust institutions of class history that had distorted, divided, and oppressed mankind would be abolished and human innocence reborn. In the service of this cause, no burden seemed too onerous, no sacrifice too great. We were the Christopher Columbuses of the human future, the avatars of a new world struggling to emerge from the womb of the old. – David Horowitz, The Politics Of Bad Faith: The Radical Assault on America’s Future

(h/t to PhilB)

That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a Leftist (former or otherwise) put in print why there is such an assault on private property rights today. The Endangered Species Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the multiple various and sundry EPA regulations about “wetlands” and pollution, Eminent Domain abuse, etc., etc. I mean, I’d come to that conclusion myself, given the evidence, but to have it admitted in print. . .

In fact, the entire piece is full of quotable excerpts. Expect the remainder of the Quotes of the Day this week to be from this one link.

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

Ideas that have been tried and found wanting; tried and found to be disastrous: the totalitarian temptation in all its many guises; the multifarious utopian schemes for universal beatitude; efforts to curtail freedom in the name of an abstract republic of virtue–all these ideas were thoroughly discredited only yesterday but, like some strange villain out of a science fiction movie, they have suddenly changed shape and are poised to attack again. We have yet to learn–even now, even at this late date–that promises of liberation often turn out to conceal new enchantments and novel forms of bondage. – Roger Kimball, Ideas in Battle, The Weekly Standard, 7/21/08

RTWT. (h/t: Empire of Dirt)