Pull Over and Step From the Vehicle

Cop Who Ticketed Himself Reaps Praise -- KEWASKUM, Wis. - A police chief who ticketed himself for a traffic violation says that he has received congratulatory e-mails from all over the globe and that he has even turned down money to cover the fine.

Chief Dick Knoebel drove past a stopped school bus with its lights flashing in September, then wrote himself a ticket for $235 and docked himself four points on his driving record. The story surfaced after it showed up in court records and media reports.

"Police officers do good things everyday, and that doesn't get reported," said Knoebel, who has been chief for 20 years in this town northwest of Milwaukee. "All you hear about in the news is when a police officer is in trouble."

EXCUSE ME? Isn't this a story about a cop breaking the law? Isn't a $235 fine and four points on your license trouble? It would be for me. Just because he owned up to it does not mean he didn't break the law by blowing past a school bus while the kids were loading or unloading.

And just how far did he have to chase himself before he pulled over? Did he show himself his license and registration? Did he call in his tag number to see if he was driving a stolen car? Did he try to talk his way out of it? Did he maybe slip himself a $20 bill to make it all go away?

Did he resist? Did he throw himself to the ground and cuff himself? Did he have probable cause to search his own car? Did he make himself walk a straight line?

My guess is he smelled alcohol on his breath before all of this started. And THEN he did the right thing.

I wonder if he is going to act as his own lawyer or if he will appear for the prosecution? If the town is small enough, he could actually be the magistrate, too.

It sounds to me like this guy hit Escape Velocity all by himself.

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Saddam Hussein to be Hung

Saddam Hussein and two others have been sentenced to death. He was convicted and sentenced to hang for crimes against humanity in the 1982 killings of 148 people in a single Shiite town. Those people were executed because they were SUSPECTED in an assassination ATTEMPT against Hussein.

So, because he thought that maybe someone tried to kill him, just to be on the safe side, he ordered them ALL killed. This is called Ruling Through Fear (theirs and his). His lawyer must have thought that was a fair way of dealing with the situation because when addressing the court, he reiterated the reasons for the killings and kept shouting, "Where is the crime?" "Where is the crime?"

Noted American liberal asshole Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General under Lyndon Johnson, has been acting as a defense attorney for Saddam Hussein during his trial. Prior to the reading of the verdict on Sunday, Ramsey was ejected from the trial after he handed the judge a note calling the trial a travesty. Of course, you can't fault Ramsey for his reaction, since most liberals think justice is a travesty and that only their perversions of what is right and wrong should be the accepted norm. He was just proving to the world, once again, what assholes most liberals are.

Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister said, after the verdict, "The verdict placed on the heads of the former regime does not represent a verdict for any one person. It is a verdict on a whole dark era that was unmatched in Iraq's history."

I disagree. This trial may be putting an end to a dark period in Iraq's history but for justice to be done, and in order for others to learn the lessons of that history, this verdict must be viewed as being specific to the individuals who committed the crimes. Hussein spent his life trying to put himself above or outside the law. Wasn't that the point of the trial? To demonstrate that he was subject to the same rule of law as everyone else? The verdict placed on the heads of the former regime MUST represent a verdict for each individual. Otherwise their convictions will be considered symbolic and these men become martyrs.

In a final note, Saddam, speaking through his lawyer, told the Iraqi people to "pardon and do not take revenge on the invading nations and their people" (wink, wink) and to "unify in the face of sectarian strife" (nudge, nudge. You know what I mean? You know what I mean?)

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