:: walterindenver ::

:: Saturday, July 06, 2002 ::

Badly Drawing Boy
Just when Tom Tomorrow is about to finally make a valid point he does this. I can't decide if he's really worried about the state of the country or if he just hates conservatives, and religion by extrapolation. Modern World, Tom? Christian-bashing has been around for, like, millenia.

:: Walter 3:43 PM [+] ::
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ILTE of the day
Nanette Reimer of Idaho Springs, CO (not Denver, whew) picks up on our ethics theme explaining that the Post Office could save money if they just cancelled stamps better. How does she know this?
I typically receive one or two pieces of mail per week in which the stamps have not been canceled by the U.S. Postal Service. I remove the unused stamps and simply reattach them to other pieces of mail and use them again. I've checked; as long as you don't tape over the entire stamp, its perfectly legal. It's like the USPS having a two-for-one sale. Buy one stamp, use it twice, for free!
It's not her fault the USPS loses the revenue. See below.

:: Walter 1:45 PM [+] ::
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Warm Fuzzy Ethics
Denver weekly Westword has a horror story this week. Seems Juan and Debra Manchego have made a career of ripping off landlords, falsifying rental applications and then stopping rent checks. When the landlord moves to evict them, the Manchegos use the legal system expertly to delay the eviction and squeeze out a few months of free rent. They trash the house, and then when the landlord sues them for back rent they countersue claiming the landlord is running a slum.
These landlords, usually small time investors renting out family owned houses, lose many thousands of dollars to the scam. About thirty of them in Denver have been victims of the Manchegos over the last two decades.
Debra Manchego explains how she feels about her current landlord: "Maybe if Franz had done his job, had asked some questions, had asked for references and checked Social Security numbers, we wouldn't be there. Now he's just mad."
That's right. It's not her fault. If the landlord can't protect himself how can you blame her for ripping him off?

:: Walter 12:50 PM [+] ::
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Blog Hall of Fame Post
One of my favorite posts of all time is this at protein wisdom from a few months ago. Nazi personal ads?!?! Jeff G crushes the monobrow crowd at some racist website or other. He tells me he caught e-mail grief from them for three weeks after. At the risk of stirring them up again here goes......
Warning: rated NC-17. It is Jeff, after all.

:: Walter 10:00 AM [+] ::
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Understanding the enemy
Retired intelligence officer Ralph Peters thinks through the terrorist problem and comes up with some great insights, and a good quote.
"[F]erocity is the ultimate guarantor of peace."
The rest is also worth reading.
Link via Vodkapundit et al.

:: Walter 9:25 AM [+] ::
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Here come da judges
The three judge panel ("We're neutral observers. No, really!") looking at Denver's secret police files recommends they be thrown out. The Denver Post reports:
_________________________________
Budget considerations and a lack of computer training, the panel concluded, led to detectives entering all types of groups into the intelligence files - from criminal contingents to people with gun permits to those who had received police honorariums. And the judges acknowledged that Denver police officers probably keep most intelligence information in their heads.

David Neil, president of the Denver Police Protective Association, said he hopes the proposed regulations, if enacted, wouldn't interfere with officers' ability to do their jobs. He said intelligence files aren't admissible in court, and he doesn't know why people are so upset that the department keeps this kind of information. The department of motor vehicles and other agencies keep similar information, he said.
"I understand their concerns," he said. "But we have concerns, too, as a department. Information is a big deal in fighting crime."
______________________________
(emphasis mine)

I feel so much better now, Mr. Neil. Do I need to go over all the statistics affirming that gun permit holders are far less likely to commit crimes than the general population? I have no faith that the Denver police department is not keeping politically motivated negative information an the citizenry. And that these judges aren't sympathetic to the city.
The judges recommendation is that the files be tossed after people who are listed therein be allowed to see them. I wonder if they'll publish a list of names of those people.

:: Walter 7:07 AM [+] ::
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We Give
Oh, this is just mean. Happy 4th!

:: Walter 6:59 AM [+] ::
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Denver Secret Police Files
Hard to believe, but if you live in Colorado you've been hearing about this for months now. The Denver police have been keeping secret files on thousands of people they deem to be possible public threats because of political protests. This has nothing to do with 9-11, they just kept tabs on folks who went to public demonstrations supporting various causes dating back for several years. The push is on now to make those files public. I haven't been one to go to protests much, but I have been to a few. I'm curious to see if they've kept a file on me.

Incredibly, the City won't say if they've discontinued the practice.

:: Walter 7:51 AM [+] ::
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The links are pouring in
Fusilierpundit (WeckUpToThees!) noticed my post about Rick Stanley below and that I was an eyewitness to part of the trial. Fusilier was NOT at the Rocky Mountain Bloggers Bash, or at least did not make his (her?) presence known. Colorado must have more libertarian bloggers per capita than anywhere.

:: Walter 10:41 PM [+] ::
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Vote early and often
Those of you attending the Libertarian Party national convention this year will have the opportunity to vote for BetteRose Ryan for an at-large seat on the national board. She's intelligent, graceful, hard working, and one of my wife's and my favorite people. You couldn't do better than voting for her, I wish I could be there.
And she doesn't even pay me to say this.

:: Walter 9:50 PM [+] ::
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Brazil, 2-0
Brazillian Goalkeeper Marcos outplayed his German counterpart Kahn and Brazil wins. Kahn's stellar play brought Germany past the US team, and I was slightly disappointed that they didn't take the trophy.

Qualifying starts again in just two years. I can't wait.

:: Walter 4:23 PM [+] ::
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Idiotic LTE of the Day
Saturday's Rocky Mountain Snooze produced an easy winner. Eric Bard writes about Isreal:

This vicious warlike tribe is incapable of living in peace.
After they wipe out Palestine, who is next?

That's very helpful, Eric.

All the ILTE winners have been fellow Denver residents to this point.

:: Walter 4:09 PM [+] ::
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RMBB Postmortem
Colorado bloggers are fun people. Wynkoop still has good beer. Everyone was younger and slightly better looking than I imagined they would be. Lots of blogs and other sites were represented there, including Protein Wisdom and Vodkapundit of course. Also some sites that I have visited infrequently or never in the past; John Tabin.com, Roverpundit, Ben Fischer, Vardaman.org, Comediccadavers, tbotcotw, Worldwiderant, and a fellow I've actually met before, Peter Saint-Andre.
Ah, yes. I knew I'd miss someone, probably several someones. Andrew Olmsted was there. He has a very nice blog.

:: Walter 3:42 PM [+] ::
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