From The Washington Independent:

It turns out that an economy-wide cap on carbon emissions really is necessary to spur investment in what President Obama likes to call the “clean energy economy.” At least for Deutsche Bank.

Politico pointed today to an Aug. 11 Reuters story that says Deutsche Bank will funnel the $6 billion to $7 billion in investment money it puts aside for climate change not to the United States, but to Western Europe and, wait for it, China.

We’ve just had the second-warmest July on record, and we’re on pace to have the warmest year ever, temperature-wise. The warming of the earth and the resultant warming of the oceans is most likely a cause for the severe storms we have experienced over the past few years.

And the climate change-phobics who refuse to take action on clean energy and carbon emissions legislation are now costing us billions in planned investment funds that will be moving elsewhere in the world.

Yet, they’ll still blame the president for the lack of movement with regard to jobs.

One thing that struck me about the saga of the serial stabber was the contrast between the sketch of the suspect, and the actual suspect that was captured.

I, for one, would not have identified the man on the right with the sketch on the left. Clearly, the eyewitness information provided was insufficient to catch this creep, and hard, focused police work proved decisive.

And yet, a huge number of people are convicted of crimes on the basis of eyewitness testimony alone. Follow below for a discussion of the dangers and implications of relying on eyewitness testimony.

The DNA revolution that began in the late 1980s has dramatically demonstrated how utterly unreliable eyewitness identifications are. About 200 people convicted of violent crimes have been exonerated by DNA evidence in the past two decades. About 80 percent have been the victims of eyewitness misidentification. Some of them served even more time in prison than Tillman.

Even more disturbing are the results of the FBI’s DNA analysis of biological specimens in 10,000 cases from 1989 to 1996.

These were all cases in which eyewitnesses had identified a suspect who had been arrested for the crime (usually sexual assault) and biological material from the perpetrator was available for comparison with the suspect’s. In 20 percent of the cases, no conclusive results could be obtained. In the remaining 8,000 cases, however, the suspect was cleared in 2,000, or 25 percent. Assuming that without DNA evidence half of these defendants would have been convicted, then as many as 12 percent of those convicted in disputed eyewitness cases may be innocent.

At least 80,000 prosecutions in this country every year rely largely on eyewitness testimony. If only half of those result in convictions, we may still be sending to prison nearly 5,000 innocents annually, based on false eyewitness testimony alone. – Yale Law School

Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable, as has been documented by a wide range of scientific studies. This is why the DNA revolution has been so critical to our criminal justice system. It is also why it is critically important that we maintain funding for cops and detectives even as we look for ways to save in our local government budgets. We want our cases against criminals to be as solid as possible, and not rely on eyewitness testimony alone.

Here in Virginia, felony convictions have enormous consequences as the convicts typically have their right to vote stripped for life, in addition to they stigma and job opportunity penalties that accrue from such a conviction. After conviction, the US justice system often hands out punishments that far outweigh the crimes. This is all the more reason that when it comes to criminal convictions, we need to get it done right, rather than get it done fast.

Did you know that the blink tag is no longer allowed on many platforms? And here I wanted to make a play on words with it. Oh well, this will have to do:

Let’s give Frank Wolf every chance to lose. He deserves it.

• Judge Dred – Dante at DKos discusses the impulses behind the GOP’s attacks on the 14th Amendment. God bless the Republican Party – of the 1860s, that is. You know, the one that passed that Amendment in the first place?
• Cordoba House In One Image – With a tip-o-the-hat to DailyKos.
• The Byrd Organization – For may of us who came to Virginia in the past thirty years, there’s a vague awareness that Virginia was a one-party machine state for a long time, but that’s about it. The Byrd Organization was legendary and worthy of knowing about if only to admire its ramifications to this day, here in our Old Dominion.
• Leesburg’s Sorensen Councilman – Councilmember Dave Butler of Leesburg is attending the Sorensen Institute at UVA. This is a good thing.
• What Is It About 20-Somethings – Every few months another article is written about how young people these days suck, because they’re not doing things the way that the writer did things when s/he grew up. Here’s another. Of course, this one is in the Times. Hey everybody, guess what, it will be okay. Kids grow up, just not in the way that we did, or our parents did. Get over it!
• Liberals and Atheists Smarter? Intelligent People Have Values Novel in Human Evolutionary History, Study Finds – There’s been a lot of science done on culture war values these days (for example, Neuroscience investigates how people perceive justice). Here’s another.
• Why our children need to get outside and engage with nature – Okay, maybe our kids should play outside more, but “nature deficit disorder” is a bridge too far for me.
• “…unless you’re fat, and then you’re supposed to be ashamed”; Delta Burke, Suzanne Sugarbaker, And My Memory Of Being 9 Years Old The Rotund’s post brought up a lot of memories for me. The women on that show made me, child of red diaper babies that I was, very happy.
• Growing number of Americans think Obama is a Muslim – He isn’t, but so what if he were?

On Saturday, we went canvassing for Jeff Barnett and headed over to Sen. Herring’s annual Ears and Cheers event for volunteers afterwards. I must say, grilled corn fresh from the farmers’ market is pretty wonderful when cooked by our state Senator. It was the great cap to a day of walking our neighborhoods and talking with voters about Jeff and the election this year. I was pleased to talk to a neighbor on the street who was not even on our walk list about the campaign and Jeff’s positions. She was very interested to hear about Jeff’s plans for the mortgage mess. And while knocking doors we heard many enthusiastic voters tell us they would definitely come out and vote for Jeff in November.

At Ears and Cheers, we enjoyed the company of our neighbors on a pleasant Saturday afternoon. Sen. Herring and his wife were wonderful hosts and provided a lovely location for Democrats and independents to gather and discuss issues that were important to us. Sen. Herring has made a career out of doing what’s right for his district in such a way that it benefits all of Virginia. This focused, open and results-oriented approach to government has served Loudoun well.  The next year will be an eventful one for Sen. Herring, as the Senatorial District lines will be redrawn from new census data, and he is likely to run for re-election shortly thereafter. That is among the reasons that it is entirely appropriate to join the Senator’s mailing list today, in anticipation of the 2011 elections:

Earlier this year, Senator Herring launched a brand new website.  If you haven’t already, head over to www.markherring.org. You can sign up to receive the Senator’s email updates as well as connect with him on Facebook. The “Senate Notebook” feature allows Senator Herring to communicate directly with constituents about his thoughts on the issues facing our area and the good work he is doing on our as our Senator.

The new site is an excellent improvement over many of the sites offered by other state representatives, and worth checking out.  

Peter Gabriel – Biko

Part 4 in a series

Russians by Sting

Part 3 in a series

From Daily Kos, via Ezra Klein

The plan on the right adds $36 billion to the deficit in 2011. The party of fiscal responsibiity? My a**.Ronald Reagan’s budget director, David Stockman, agrees:

If there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing.

Balance the budget, reduce the deficit, eliminate the national debt, but hey, give big tax breaks to our rich buddies (i.e., “our base”)!! Ain’t gonna work, guys.

As an update to the ongoing saga of the racially-motivated stabber, a suspect is in custody thanks to nationwide cooperation among police departments. The suspect is a former Leesburg resident who had been in the custody of the Arlington County police just hours before attacking a man in Leesburg. The suspect literally went from jail to stabbing someone in my Town in a matter of hours.

Abuelazam was booked on the outstanding warrant. However, a magistrate released him around 3 a.m. with order to appear in court Monday, Aug. 16. He returned to Leesburg and at 6:15 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 5 allegedly stabbed the elderly man as he sat on the stoop outside the Leesburg Commons apartment building. – Leesburg Today

The Leesburg Police did their job, and did it well, as our local cops were the ones to link the suspect to Michigan and begin cooperation with the Flint police. It is unfortunate that news did not move more quickly to Arlington, as one of our neighbors might have been saved from being stabbed if it had.The suspect has a criminal history, here in Loudoun and elsewhere.

Abuelazam has a history with Loudoun law enforcement. Between 2001 and 2008, he was brought in for five traffic offenses in Loudoun, including failure to stop at a stop sign; operating an uninspected vehicle; expired registration; failure to obey a highway sign; and improper passing on the right. In 2008, Abuelazam pleaded guilty to making false reports, a misdemeanor charge pleaded down from a more serious felony charge of making a false statement of one’s criminal history when attempting to purchase a firearm.

According to Commonwealth’s Attorney James Plowman, Abuelazam had been convicted of a non-violent felony in California in 1995, and failed to report that conviction when attempting to purchase a firearm in 2007. The case was referred to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office from the Virginia State Police. Court records indicate Abuelazam spent 30 days in jail in that case. – Leesburg Today

This suspect is the posterchild for national background checks when you try to buy guns. Could you imagine what this spree of violence would have looked like had he had a gun? The next time a politician in Virginia decries background checks, or grandstands on the gun show loophole, we will all do well to remember Virginia Tech and the senseless attacks of this past week.

The thanks of the whole community go out to the Leesburg Police for their swift and effective work on this crime, and our hearts go out to the victims and their families.

(Crossposted from Leesburg Tomorrow.)

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart continually gets it right, in way that is both hilarious and thought-provoking (And if I knew how to embed a video in here, it would be much, much better).

http://www.thedailyshow.com/wa…

(With a little futzing, and teamwork, it’s remarkable what can be accomplished. At least, in terms of posting videos -P13)

Another set of links in the great chain of being. Of course, the great chain of being has been discarded as a grossly inaccurate oversimplification.

• The Hunt for American Decency in Arizona Quicksand – Being mean isn’t immigration policy.
• Sarah Palin Said Democrats are Planning the Largest Tax Increase in History – We’re not. Thanks PolitiFact. With a tip-o-the-hat to Carolyn.
• LaBarbera Award: Family Research Council – Coverage of the most wacky mental gymnastics ever after the Proposition 8 decision was handed down. With a tip-o-the-hat to Jonathan.
• Yes, Virginia, There Is a Wage Gap. Seriously? People QUESTION this?
• Girl Quits Her Job On Dry Erase Board – Simply brilliant photo essay commentary on modern office life. Of course, it appears to be a hoax. Dang.
• Civilization V Hands-On Preview – Did you know that Maryland has declared September 21st “Civilization V Day?”