AZspot

Giant Shadow Army Of Contractors Set To Grow In Afghanistan

Dec 1st

“The anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-religious minority...”
— slacktivist

Dec 1st

“Our culture’s misreading of the Rosa Parks story speaks to a...”
— The Real Rosa Parks

Dec 1st

Five questions for Radley Balko

DIA: You've written about the creeping militarisation of law enforcement in America. How has this trend manifested itself and what are the consequences for the quality of policing?
Mr Balko: The most obvious way it has manifested itself is in the explosion in the use of SWAT teams and similar paramilitary police units over the last 25 years. The criminologist Peter Kraska has surveyed their use over that time. He's found that the total number of SWAT-team deployments in the 1970s was a few hundred times per year, over the entire country. By the 1980s, it was a few thousand times per year. And by around 2005, Mr Kraska estimates around 50,000 times per year. The surge has been driven entirely by the drug war, with the vast majority of SWAT deployments being used to serve drug-related search warrants.
This has led to a militaristic mindset among America's police departments, beyond just SWAT teams. Driven by "war on crime" and "war on drugs" rhetoric set by political leaders, police officers have increasingly taken on the psyche of soldiers. There's a pervasive and troubling "us versus them" attitude in policing today. Policing has become more reactionary, more aggressive, and it's poisoning the relationship between the police and the communities they serve.
I should add that I don't think police officers themselves are to blame for this, nor, obviously, are all police officers guilty of it. These are problems spawned by 35 years or so of bad policies set by politicians. That's really where any reform would need to start.
DIA: Another criminal justice issue you often deal with is the use of forensic evidence. How is forensic evidence being abused in the courtroom, and what can be done to improve the way we use science in criminal proceedings?
Mr Balko: The main problem with forensic evidence is that it isn't science but it's usually presented to juries as if it were. Forensic evidence—think fingerprint matching, hair and fiber analysis, ballistics, etc—has been largely invented by and developed by police and police organisations. But when its presented in court, it's often presented with the gloss of science. It's telling that the one type of forensic evidence that actually was developed in the scientific community—DNA testing—is really the only type that's relatively certain (provided the evidence is handled properly). And it's showing us just how flawed and overstated other areas of forensics really are.
The other problem is that science is a process. It's sort of a journey toward truth. The criminal-justice system isn't shy about embracing new theories during criminal trials, but once the trial is over, the system puts a premium on finality. The courts set the bar very high when it comes to overturning convictions won in part or in whole based on science we now know is junk. Bite-mark analysis is a great example. Lots of people were sent to prison in the 1990s thanks to a small cadre of self-proclaimed bite-mark specialists. We now know there's simply no scientific support for the idea that you can match bite marks in skin to one person's teeth, especially to the exclusion of everyone else. Another good example is recovered memory psychoanalysis, which was responsible for dozens of wrongful convictions in the 1980s.
As for reform, I think we need to subject forensic evidence to the scientific method, at least to the extent that it's possible. The work of crime lab technicians and medical examiners should be tested from time to time by private labs, but without letting them know when they're being tested. Expert witnesses should be subject to statistical analysis, blind tests, and competency tests. If a medical examiner is diagnosing a disproportionately high percentage of infant deaths as homicides, for example, that would be a red flag for further investigation. Judges need to familiarise themselves with the appropriate accrediting organisations in the various forensic fields so they don't allow frauds and charlatans rubber-stamped by disreputable certification mills to testify in their courtrooms. Roger Koppl of Fairleigh-Dickinson University wrote a terrific paper for the Reason Foundation (which publishes the magazine I work for) with some other good ideas for reforming the forensics system.
DIA: Beyond the two discussed above, what are the most critical flaws in America's criminal justice system?
Mr Balko: Incentives. At every step in the process, the incentive is toward putting people in jail. And there's almost no penalty at all for state actors who overstep their authority. Police departments, for example, get federal anti-drug grants based in large part on how many people they arrest on drug charges. After the botched drug raid in Atlanta a few years ago in which a raiding police team shot and killed an innocent 92-year-old woman, we learned in subsequent investigations that officers had monthly quotas for drug arrests and drug seizures. Ed Burns, the former Baltimore cop and co-creator of the magnificent HBO show "The Wire", talks about this quite a bit.
It's also true of forensics. If a crime-lab technician reports to the local DA, there's always going to be some pressure—subtle or overt—to tell the prosecutor what he wants to hear.
But the incentive problems are most apparent with prosecutors. Prosecutors get no credit for cases they decide not to bring, either because of a lack of evidence or because pressing charges wouldn't be in the interest of justice. They're only rewarded for winning convictions. That's what gets them promoted, or re-elected, or gives them the elevated profile to run for higher office. Every incentive points toward winning convictions. And particularly with prosecutors, there's really no penalty at all for going too far to get a guilty verdict. One real disservice the Duke lacrosse case did for the criminal-justice system is it put in the public consciousness the idea that bad actors like Mike Nifong are regularly disciplined for misconduct. In truth, that case was really exceptional.
There have been a few prosecutorial misconduct cases before the Supreme Court over the last few years, and what's really striking when you read through the briefs is just how rarely prosecutors are sanctioned in any way, even for egregious misconduct. Not by courts, not by bar associations, not by state attorneys general. The Innocence Project estimates that prosecutorial misconduct factored into about a fourth of the wrongful convictions that organisation has helped expose. None of the prosecutors in those cases faced any serious sanction. It's impossible to sue a prosecutor, even if he intentionally withholds exculpatory evidence that sends an innocent person to prison. The Supreme Court will rule this spring if prosecutors who manufacture evidence that sends an innocent person to prison can be sued. I think a lot of people would be rather shocked to hear that such a notion would even be open to debate.
Most prosecutors are well-intentioned, honest public servants. But it's deeply troubling that those who aren't are almost never held accountable, and in fact are often re-elected, appointed as judges, or go on to get elected to political office.

Dec 1st

The Prison that Follows Prison

Dec 1st

“A man is not his hope, nor his despair, nor yet his past...”
— Henry David Thoreau

Dec 1st

nakedpastor

Dec 1st

“After eight years of war, the situation is as bad as ever...”
— Malalai Joya

Dec 1st

“…the 20th century has been characterized by three...”
— Alex Carey

Dec 1st

“As an example of how it should be done: Vice president Gore...”
— daggatt

Dec 1st

Tom Tomorrow

Dec 1st

On Geocities

Dec 1st

“It is scientifically proven that most decision-making is...”
— More on brand narcissism

Dec 1st

“If our lives demonstrate that we are peaceful, humble and...”
— Rosa Parks

Dec 1st

Matt Bors

Dec 1st

“In fact, there has been only one top-nation that ever...”
— David Brin

Nov 30th

“I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions...”
— Stephen Jay Gould

Nov 30th

Jeff Danziger

Nov 30th

“The next election cycle will not be kind to Democrats. This...”
— Rogue Columnist

Nov 30th

“Part of the problem with end-times theology is that western...”
— Diana Butler Bass

Nov 30th

No names, no links: Writers give themselves a...

Nov 30th

nakedpastor

Nov 30th

“Celebrities who come from humble backgrounds are held up as...”
— Chris Hedges

Nov 30th

“If you’re looking for a job right now, your prospects are...”
— Paul Krugman

Nov 30th

Matt Bors

Nov 30th

“…we tend to fall in love with our ideas more than actually...”
— eugene cho

Nov 30th

What do you want to see in a jobs program?

Nov 30th

“It’s impossible to find a more perfectly...”
— Glenn Greenwald

Nov 30th

John Sherffius

Nov 30th

“What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would your...”
— Michael Moore

Nov 30th

“Our wars, even though they’re destroying our economy, are...”
— Jeff Huber

Nov 30th

“I don’t know what happened to the future. It’s...”
— Michael Chabon

Nov 30th

The U.S. Can't Manufacture the Kindle and...

Nov 30th

“It’s staggering really that modern American...”
— Andrew Sullivan

Nov 30th

Bill Day

Nov 30th

“…the Declaration does claim that abortion, homosexuality and...”
— slacktivist

Nov 30th

Five things you should know about climate change

Nov 30th

“The progressive brand is being burnt to the ground by Obama,...”
— Ian Welsh

Nov 29th

“Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned.”
— Mark Twain

Nov 29th

“Sociopaths, in their own best interests, knowingly promote...”
— The Gervais Principle, Or The...

Nov 29th

Is global warming unstoppable?

Nov 29th

“Wikipedia contains facts about facts. It’s a...”
— Seth Godin

Nov 29th

Have you read any on The List?

100 Notable Books of 2009 Since I rarely read fiction (and the few titles I do consume are...

Nov 29th

“What’s more, buying any e-book reader now is a gamble....”
— Farhad Manjoo

Nov 29th

Grim reaper's role in climate change denial

Nov 28th

KAL

Nov 28th

“Bush, the “read-my-lips-no-new-taxes” president, did not...”
— Abuse of the Social Security...

Nov 28th

“So here we have a country that used to have oil which has...”
— Dubai’s Fantasy Island...

Nov 28th

“In his recent book, Stumbling on Happiness, Dan Gilbert...”
— The Law of Attraction:...

Nov 28th

“The orthodox attempt to explain the divinity of Jesus in...”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nov 28th

27-inch 3.06GHz iMac Ordered

Thanks for all  the feedback in response to my Mac replacement dilemma. A tough call, but I opted...

Nov 28th

National Day of Listening

Nov 27th

15" MacBook Pro or 27" iMac?

Why? MBP would plug into ~7 year old ACD that might not have much life left (or perhaps it does)...

Nov 27th

The War Tax Is For Real, And Here’s The...

Nov 27th

“Unprecedented problems produce unprecedented resolutions. It...”
— Fred Branfman

Nov 27th

Brain scanner can tell a Dali from a Picasso

Nov 27th

“Just for a second, think about the influence, buying power,...”
— Seth Godin

Nov 27th

nakedpastor

Nov 27th

The Geographic Gap

Nov 27th

Willing to Pay a Fee for Access to News...

Nov 27th

“I start with the view that a suburban town is a community...”
— John Robb

Nov 27th

The Right Speech Barack Obama Won't Give on...

Nov 27th

“The media (are) giving an equal seat at the table to a lot...”
— Julio Betancourt

Nov 27th

The bankruptcy of Dubai - in every sense

Nov 27th

“Our society has developed a knack for portraying work as a...”
— Patricia Romeo

Nov 27th

Christian Ethics Must Address the Nation's...

Nov 27th

“Jesus was not a Zealot, nor an encourager of those who lived...”
— Ben Witherington

Nov 27th

RJ Matson

Nov 26th

“May we ask guidance in more surely learning the ancient...”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Nov 26th

“Should the Democrats tackle deficit reduction even without...”
— daggatt

Nov 26th

“…the real explosion in the federal debt began under Ronald...”
— daggatt

Nov 26th

“In 1641, the Dutch governor of Manhattan offered the first...”
—  The Silver Lining of...

Nov 26th

Google Apologizes For "Michelle Obama"...

Nov 26th

Andy Singer

Nov 25th

Mussolini's 'brain and blood for sale on...

Nov 25th

“With President Obama pushing a huge troop escalation in...”
— Get Ready for the Obama/GOP...

Nov 25th

“They are that great white unwashed that educated liberals...”
— Joe Bageant

Nov 25th

Watch

ProFORMA: Probabilistic Feature-based On-line Rapid Model Acquisition

Nov 25th

How Bugliosi Met the Bush Censors

Nov 25th

Matt Bors

Nov 25th

“If we want ‘good’ jobs, ‘more’ jobs, the most important...”
— Rethinking Jobs

Nov 25th

“Social media doesn’t destroy or hinder community, it builds...”
— Julie Clawson

Nov 25th

“Imagine you’re sailing to a new home overseas when the...”
— Andrew Tallman

Nov 25th

Steve Sack

Nov 25th

Words Not Found in Scripture – Church

Nov 25th

“We are all of us from birth to death guests at a table which...”
— Rebecca Harding Davis

Nov 25th

The Far Left Side

Nov 25th

Constitutional Chicanery

Nov 25th

“If Obama buckles to pressure on the deficit, he risks,...”
— Hoover vs. Keynes

Nov 25th

The Morality of Economics

Nov 25th

“I’ve noticed that people who read a lot of blogs and a...”
— Seth Godin

Nov 25th

“Few people would say, “Yes, we want a culture of death!” But...”
— Brian McLaren

Nov 25th

Could cannibalism hold the key to...

Nov 25th

Jeff Parker

Nov 24th

More on the Constitutionality of the...

Nov 24th

“What is most remarkable about the psychology of movement...”
— After the Future

Nov 24th

“…if you actually do study the end of the Weimar Republic,...”
— Fearmonger-in-Chief Beck...

Nov 24th

“What the people who are flipping out about the treatment of...”
— Matt Taibbi (via...

Nov 24th

“This nation is affluent and has more than it needs. The...”
— Henri Nouwen

Nov 24th

Economists Urge Passage of Health Reform

Nov 24th

bartcop.com

Nov 24th

“The awkward truth about capitalism is the machine does not...”
— William Greider

Nov 24th

“You don’t charge the search engines to send people to...”
— Seth Godin

Nov 24th

Solar-Powered Plane Makes Runway Debut

Nov 24th

“Reform movements have succeeded in the United States only...”
— Can populism be liberal?

Nov 24th

Advice From Grandma

Nov 24th

“But Drake argues he’s in good company when it comes to...”
— Praying for Obama’s...

Nov 24th

The Biology Behind the Milk of Human Kindness

Nov 24th

nakedpastor

Nov 23rd

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the...

Nov 23rd

“…given Americans’ love of material success, there are...”
— Frank Schaeffer

Nov 23rd

“Most of the tea partyers I’ve talked to aren’t just Randian...”
— Zaid Jilani

Nov 23rd

“During a White House meeting in early 1984, Ronald Reagan...”
— Rosy Scenarios and Red...

Nov 23rd

“…America is not an officially Christian nation, but rather a...”
— John Stackhouse

Nov 23rd

Murdoch-Microsoft deal in the works

Nov 23rd

Versailles Thinking

Nov 23rd

“Think on this: A congressional race can easily cost...”
— Is America Ungovernable?

Nov 23rd

“…what’s interesting to me here is the idea of the...”
— The Conservative Movement and...

Nov 23rd

Explosm.net

Nov 23rd

Warming's impacts sped up, worsened since...

Nov 23rd

“Over the past eight years the U.S. has helped turn my...”
— Malalai Joya

Nov 23rd

New Consensus Views Stimulus as Worthy Step

Nov 23rd

How to lose an argument online

Nov 23rd

“McKibben and Berry are right. Nonviolent civil disobedience...”
— Chris Hedges

Nov 23rd

“The second was a word: Twitturgies. Why not use Twitter as a...”
— Twitter as a Spiritual...

Nov 23rd

Town to photograph every car that enters and...

Nov 22nd

“Sarah Palin is on an endless crusade against assholes. It’s...”
— Matt Taibbi (via thesmarttart)

Nov 22nd

“The crowds lining up in the cold for her book tour are...”
— Frank Rich

Nov 22nd

A King is Born

Nov 22nd

“Employed people began to spend their money more carefully...”
— The Big Picture

Nov 22nd

“You can say that I find Paul appealing but Peale appalling!”
— Adlai Stevenson

Nov 22nd

Watch

The Century of the Self

Nov 22nd

Andy Singer

Nov 21st

“Globalization has put many (most?) jobs up for bid on the...”
— Some Assembly Required

Nov 21st

Does US need a second stimulus to create...

Nov 21st

“A Senator’s average age is an elderly 63 years old,...”
—  America’s House of...

Nov 21st

Steve Benson

Nov 21st

The Trolls Under The Bridge

Nov 21st

“The problem in this country is that we want to constantly...”
— The Black Sentinel

Nov 21st

“Now in a different world, at a different time, and with a...”
— Bill Moyers

Nov 21st

bartcop.com

Nov 20th

“Most of us came to the conclusion during the Bush years (if...”
— daggatt

Nov 20th

“When, oh when, will liberals come to realize that the Left...”
— David Brin

Nov 20th

“The contractor got the judgment vacated on the grounds that...”
— Grappling with Contractor...

Nov 20th

EFF Tackles Bogus Podcasting Patent - And We...

Nov 20th

“Unfortunately, we have an economic system and national...”
— Joe Bageant

Nov 20th

David Fitzsimmons

Nov 20th

Hot Bubbling Gore

Nov 20th

“Why does this demographics shift matter? Here is an example...”
— Mike Papantonio

Nov 20th

Matt Bors

Nov 20th

“The problem with being an amateur scientist is precisely the...”
— Seth Godin

Nov 20th

“Does the world know the disciples of Jesus by their love for...”
— A Few Questions For...

Nov 20th

Apocalypse fatigue: Losing the public on...

Nov 20th

Edit This Page

Nov 20th

“The conservative movement that took shape in the late 1960s...”
— Friends of Justice

Nov 20th

Tax the Rich

Nov 20th

The Joy of Tech

Nov 20th

Test Your Global IQ

Nov 19th

“I don’t think Apple realizes how badly the App Store...”
— Apple’s Mistake

Nov 19th

Conference Humiliation: They're Tweeting...

Nov 19th

“Even in death, [Joe] Hill was not safe from the government....”
— The Man Who Didn’t Die

Nov 19th

bartcop.com

Nov 19th

America's most authoritarian sheriff

Nov 19th

Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government...

Nov 19th

“It was conservatives who argued for maintaining slavery...”
— Orcinus

Nov 19th

Scientists hold their breath as LHC prepares...

Nov 19th

“Whatever the reasons, they had eight kids, and decided to go...”
— Jon and Kate Plus Hate

Nov 19th

Army Corps of Engineers blamed for Hurricane...

Nov 19th

“…if the 20th century was the American century … you...”
— The Chinese are...

Nov 19th

TweetPhoto CEO Says Too Much In Interview,...

Nov 19th

Media Disseminated Myths about Obamacare

Nov 19th

“Genuine Christian love is forged against the anvil of our...”
— Morton T. Kelsey

Nov 19th

“The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of...”
— Letter to Non-Believers by...

Nov 18th

Watch

Trade as One - Just One

Nov 18th

The Great Disconnect Between Stocks and Jobs

Nov 18th

“It is true that excessive government deficit spending can be...”
— Marshall Auerback

Nov 18th

“If it won’t work in a story, it won’t work in life.”
— A Million Miles in a Thousand...

Nov 18th

“Sarah Palin is back to tell us that she loves Alaska. And...”
— Rod Dreher

Nov 18th

Coincidence and Corruption

Nov 18th

“One of the lessons we were supposed to have learned from the...”
— Eunomia

Nov 18th

“We cannot say we were not warned. We will not be able to say...”
— Anil Dash

Nov 18th

10 Reasons That Sarah Palin Could Win the...

Nov 18th

nakedpastor

Nov 18th

Climate change catastrophe took just months

Nov 18th

IBM announces advances toward a computer that...

Nov 18th

“Having thus in a few words, opened the merits of the case, I...”
— Thomas Paine

Nov 17th

Watch

“Robert Erickson” Speech to MN Tea Party Against Amnesty

Nov 17th

PodCampAZ 2009 Roundup

Another PodCampAZ, the “Relevant Media Unconference”, is in the books. The 2009 edition...

Nov 17th

Ken Ober, ‘Remote Control’ Host, Is Dead at...

Nov 17th

“While there is a lower class I am in it, while there is a...”
— Eugene V. Debs

Nov 17th

Vegetarianism is a major step for...

Nov 17th

Monte Wolverton

Nov 17th

“It was the snuffing out of what compassion remained in the...”
— Joe Bageant

Nov 17th

“The rise of the “app store mentality” is a direct attack on...”
— The death of the URL

Nov 16th

“What will happen to the yeast people of the USA?  You can be...”
— James Howard Kunstler

Nov 16th

“Genuine leadership means setting the agenda. It means taking...”
— Drew Westen

Nov 16th

(via bmckinney, clingtomymouth, fyeahsocialism, ...

Nov 16th

“It must be stated over and over again: the Fox News Channel...”
—  Fox News’s faux news

Nov 16th

Matt Bors

Nov 16th

“This is the time, I believe, for Christians and...”
— Brian McLaren

Nov 16th

“The Israelis have orchestrated acute misery and poverty in...”
— Chris Hedges

Nov 16th

“By emphasizing her own crises and her victimization by the...”
— Max Blumenthal

Nov 16th

“As the philosopher John Searle describes social facts, they...”
— Clay Shirky

Nov 16th

Is It Time to Retire the Football Helmet?

Nov 16th

“I think philosophy is all about lived experience, which is...”
—  Cornel West

Nov 16th

Did Christianity Cause the Crash?

Nov 16th

“According to surveys taken across much of the last decade,...”
— David Brin

Nov 16th

August J. Pollak

Nov 16th

“An important side note here is the time at which you choose...”
— The All-Inclusive...

Nov 16th

“Sometimes people ask, “What is the evidence that the...”
— John Haught

Nov 16th

“I like lists for the same reason other people like football...”
— Umberto Eco

Nov 16th

Housing market still faces a big glut

Nov 16th

“But rather than recognize evangelicalism for the sinking...”
— Why obsessing over definitions...

Nov 15th

Steve Benson

Nov 15th

“An eclectic essayist is necessarily a dilettante, which is...”
— Malcolm Gladwell, Eclectic...

Nov 15th

“To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed; but...”
— Thomas Jefferson

Nov 13th

Watch

Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No

Nov 13th

The Real Thanksgiving Day

Nov 13th

bartcop.com

Nov 13th

“At the core of real conservatism is a distinction between...”
— I’m a conservative

Nov 13th

“The Prejean story is not merely the story of a sad woman who...”
— Classically Liberal

Nov 13th

“How in the world would the biblical writers have known that...”
— Experimental Theology

Nov 13th

Luke 10

bellatoris: squashed: I’ll second what AZSpot said and add that the goals of health care are...

Nov 13th

Why Christianity Is Failing in America

Nov 13th

“So, why do I disagree with him over the Droid even though...”
— Scobleizer

Nov 13th

Hiding Hiroshima

Nov 13th

“In truth, agreement on the cause of the mass extinction at...”
— I am become Death, destroyer...

Nov 13th

Luke 10

bellatoris: I find it interesting that the same people who argue for distinct separation of church...

Nov 13th

Jeff Danziger

Nov 12th

“A full two thirds of the entire economy of modern...”
— Romancing the Afghan Dragon

Nov 12th

Massive Defense Spending Leads to Job Loss

Nov 12th

“So doesn’t it seem odd to hear hawks say that health...”
— Nicholas Kristof

Nov 12th

What’s More Important to You: Bandwidth or...

Nov 12th

nakedpastor

Nov 12th

“When we buy our coffee from “Juan Valdez”, who is in reality...”
— the Jesus Manifesto

Nov 12th

Modern Theories on Why Dreams Exist

Nov 12th

Microsoft Patents Sudo?

Nov 12th

“I am told by people I respect that Barack Obama cannot pull...”
— Garry Wills

Nov 12th

Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy Restores Walking...

Nov 12th

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Nov 12th

“I study racial disparities in criminal justice, but this...”
— scatterplot

Nov 12th

“Imagine your neighbor told you that the moon, rather than...”
—  More Than a Question of...

Nov 12th

Britain: State to ‘Spy’ on Every Phone Call,...

Nov 12th

“Globalization is in the process of eviscerating traditional...”
— John Robb

Nov 11th

“As we celebrate the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, let us...”
— Becky Garrison

Nov 11th

“College students graduate with 10’s of thousands of...”
— Drew Tatusko

Nov 11th

“With all the hope for an end to the recession, military...”
— Shane Claiborne

Nov 11th

Bill Day

Nov 11th

2012 Prophecies Sparking Real Fears, Suicide...

Nov 11th

“The current economic crisis teaches insurance regulators...”
— Wendell Potter

Nov 11th

“It is in recognition of my own privilege as a white...”
— Paul Raushenbush

Nov 11th

Matt Bors

Nov 11th

“George W. desperately needed his own Lex Luthor if he was to...”
— Thom Hartmann

Nov 11th

Thom talks to Max Blumenthal, author of...

Thom Hartmann: Great to have you here with us. One of the, Republican Gomorrah, I mean, it really, as in Sodom and Gomorrah, it really is Gomorrah, one of the most amazing stories for me in your book was how the Republican Party reached out to a, a serial killer, an actual serial killer, a man who murdered over 30 women, it’s estimated, and moved him up through the Party. Tell the story.
Max Blumenthal: It’s possibly 130 women.
Thom Hartmann: Seriously?
Max Blumenthal: The Republican Party didn’t actually, we’re talking about Ted Bundy, the worst serial killer in American history. The Republican Party didn’t really reach out to Ted Bundy. Before he was a serial killer he was a top Republican operative in the Washington State Republican Party, he was the personal driver to Republican governor Dan Evans. He was a moderate. And he wore disguises to slip into his opponents’ rallies and take film of his opponent that wound up devastating Alberto Rosellini for Dan Evans’ campaigns, and he wore those same disguises to kill women. And what happened was where Bundy comes into my book, “Republican Gomorrah”, is when he’s on death row, he’s converted by James Dobson into a poster child for the anti-pornography movement and the born again Christian and he gives Dobson this exclusive interview, on death row, that none of the other media could get, which vaulted Dobson into the national conscience and introduced him to the American public.
Thom Hartmann: So, senior Republican operative, Ted Bundy, becomes a serial killer, and once he becomes a serial killer, James Dobson visits him in prison, does this special interview. And Dobson was then, if I read this right in your book, Dobson was actually making money, over a million bucks, the interview became Dobson’s cash cow, you write; selling the Bundy tapes reaped a windfall profit of nearly a million bucks, and that Dobson initially stuck it in his own pocket.
Max Blumenthal: Right. And so Dobson, you know, controversy ensued. Dobson got in trouble for this because he’s exploiting a serial killer’s last confession, which was a false and baseless confession, that images from Playboy Magazine fueled his killing spree.
Thom Hartmann: Right, when in fact he was a sociopathic mass murder.
Max Blumenthal: Who was abused as a child as Dobson was. Abused according to many of the techniques Dobson advocated in his book “Dare to Discipline.” Um and so Dobson donated that million dollars to what he called charities which were actually anti-abortion groups affiliated with his political empire. But through Bundy Dobson became a national figure and he moved on to converting members of the Republican congress using the same techniques he used to convert Bundy and exploit Bundy’s confession for political gain.

Nov 11th

Is sport a religion?

Nov 11th

“…Fourth Generation war is not just something fought “over...”
— 4GW Comes to Ft. Hood

Nov 11th

The Man Who Put the Rainbow in ‘The Wizard of...

Nov 11th

“I have often maintained that the best poet is … the...”
— Pablo Neruda

Nov 11th

Blackwater Approved $1 Million in Iraqi...

Nov 10th

“But what’s most troubling about “SuperFreakonomics” isn’t...”
— Elizabeth Kolbert

Nov 10th

“Truman sought single payer. His failure led to Kennedy and...”
—  Ezra Klein

Nov 10th

“We” Do Not Have Troops: An Open Letter to...

Nov 10th

High-carb diets lower weight and raise mood...

Nov 10th

“China is spending where it will really hurt us: building...”
— Rogue Columnist

Nov 10th

“One of the reasons for subsidizing homeownership is the...”
— Attack of the Home Buyers’ Tax...

Nov 10th

“The nut baggers are right. Socialism has come to America. It...”
— Rogue Columnist

Nov 10th

Tom Tomorrow

Nov 10th

Do Businesses Hate Their Workers? (Income...

Nov 10th

“This story about the Enlightenment opens up, I think, the...”
— The Enlightenment and...

Nov 10th

Church Told to Stop Feeding the Poor

Nov 10th

Watterson on Calvinism

Nov 10th

Why corporate IT should unchain our office...

Nov 10th

“Conservatives argue that government programs that pay the...”
— John Buell

Nov 10th

Mr. Netanyahu, Tear Down This Wall

Nov 10th

“Nobody talks more of free enterprise and competition and of...”
— C. Wright Mills

Nov 9th

Petition to Treasury Secretary Timothy...

Nov 9th

“…the biggest federal subsidy for private insurance coverage...”
—  Ezra Klein

Nov 9th

It's About the Money, Stupid

Nov 9th

The High Cost of Cheap

Nov 9th

“Is the House bill better than nothing? I don’t think...”
— Marcia Angell

Nov 9th

Blaming the 'Dithering' Obama

Nov 9th

“The Republican right wing is, if anything, even more...”
— James Howard Kunstler

Nov 9th

Jeff Danziger

Nov 9th

“We have pumped billions of dollars into Afghanistan and...”
— Chris Hedges

Nov 9th

“Most conservatives also believe that the United States has...”
— Is Health Care a Human Right?

Nov 9th

Message To Seth MacFarlane

Nov 9th

Are nuclear weapons safe in Pakistan?

Nov 9th

“Obama and the Democrats have no real vision for...”
— Obama’s Unhealthy...

Nov 9th

Opiate of the masses — TV?

Nov 9th

“But the other gap—just as fundamental—is between how much...”
— Bill McKibben

Nov 9th

“We have been led to believe that we must make our health...”
— Dennis Kucinich

Nov 8th

Bullet Trains for America?

Nov 8th

Almost a Literalist

Nov 8th

What piece of advice changed your life the...

Nov 8th

“Tonight, in an historic vote, the House of Representatives...”
— President Obama

Nov 8th

Quotation of the Week

Nov 8th

Jeff Danziger

Nov 8th

“In particular, I think the populist anger is real and it is...”
— daggatt

Nov 8th

Reagan! Reagan! Reagan!

Nov 7th

David Fitzsimmons

Nov 6th