Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Endorsement Statistics, 2004-2012

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I’m running a bit late on it this year, but the Off on a Tangent political endorsements for the 2013 elections are coming soon. This year, Virginia citizens will be voting for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and our local representatives in the House of Delegates. Additionally, citizens of Loudoun County will be voting on four bond referendums. As in past years, Off on a Tangent will provide live election-night coverage at http://election.scottbradford.us/.

As I work on researching the candidates and issues and preparing my formal endorsements, I thought I would look back at my past endorsements and do some statistical analysis—an exercise I last did in 2010.

I have always considered myself to be a political independent. I certainly tilt toward the Republican side of the spectrum, with a healthy dose of ‘small-l’ libertarianism thrown in . . . but I rarely ever endorse, or vote for, a straight party-line ticket. I always try to make a serious, dispassionate evaluation of every candidate and issue before me, and then endorse and cast my own ballot for the ones that I believe are the best available options. I pay little or no attention to party affiliation during this process, and I don’t plan to change that any time soon.

Read more . . .

Police Chase and Shooting on Capitol Hill

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A woman in a black car rammed the security barriers at the White House on Thursday afternoon, striking U.S. Secret Service officers in the process. She then led the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Capitol Police in a high-speed chase around the Capitol Building complex. She rammed at least one police car near the Capitol building, crashed near the Hart Senate Office Building, and was then shot and killed by law enforcement officials.

The driver of the vehicle has been identified as thirty-four year old Miriam Carey, a dental hygienist from Stamford, Connecticut. Her one-year old daughter was in the back seat of the car during the incident, but was uninjured. Reports indicate that Carey suffered from mental illness, perhaps including post-partum depression or psychosis. Carey’s boyfriend contacted police in December claiming that she was acting delusional, and that she had said that the president had placed the city of Stamford under a lockdown and bugged her house.

A Capitol Police officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the incident when his vehicle collided with a protection barrier that was deployed from the ground on Constitution Avenue. He was airlifted from the Capitol Grounds via a U.S. Park Police helicopter.

U.S. Capitol Police officials earlier announced an ‘active shooter’ situation and placed the Capitol complex on lock-down, asking people inside to shelter-in-place. The White House was also locked-down for a period of time. Both lock-downs have since been lifted, and there is no indication of any ongoing threat.

A video is available of part of the chase (Alhurra, via Fox News Channel, via Mediaite). Alhurra is an Arab-language television channel operated by the United States government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Mass Shooting at Washington Navy Yard

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Thirteen are dead—including the attacker—and at least eight wounded after a gunman opened fire Monday morning at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, DC. At least three victims were hoisted from Naval Sea Systems Command Headquarters Building 197 by a National Park Police helicopter, and the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) reports that a police officer was seriously injured in the shootout but is expected to survive.

Despite many earlier reports about multiple assailants, including detailed descriptions of other suspects, it now appears that a single man—a contractor named Aaron Alexis, 34, from Fort Worth, Texas—was responsible for the carnage. Officials believe that he arrived at the Navy Yard armed with a shotgun, and later took two handguns from law enforcement officers on-scene. Earlier reports claimed that Alexis also obtained an AR-15-style rifle during the attack, which likely would have been a semi-automatic model (not an ‘assault rifle,’ as it has been labeled by many media outlets), but those reports were in error. Only the shotgun and two handguns were found at the scene.

Alexis was a former full-time Navy Reservist who was honorably discharged in 2011 following a number of disciplinary problems. He had suffered from a variety of serious mental health problems and had sought treatment, and yet retained a security clearance and had the appropriate access rights to enter the Navy Yard property. Alexis purchased the shotgun used in the assault less than one week ago in Virginia, after having been cleared by the the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). It is unclear why somebody with documented mental health problems both cleared the NICS check and was granted access to a secured military facility.

As events unfolded on Monday, nearby Reagan National Airport was briefly closed. The Eleventh Street bridge was also closed for much of the day, and nearby schools were put on a day-long lock-down before dismissing at the usual time. The United States Coast Guard also established a secure zone along the Anacostia River shore and briefly stopped all Anacostia and Potomac river traffic. There were reports of another shooting incident at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, located further south on the Anacostia and Potomac rivers, but those reports were in error.

What To Do About Syria?

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Map of Syria
Map of Syria

I am not an isolationist. There are times when countries, or coalitions of countries, can and should intervene in other nations’ affairs.

I am happy, generally, to stay out of other countries’ business and reserve that interventionism for cases where one nation poses a direct and immediate threat to others. I make exceptions in cases where a particular regime engages in serious, systemic, continuing violations of its own citizens’ basic human rights. I supported the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (see: The War in Iraq: Ten Myths), as well as the more recent intervention in Libya . . . although I did not necessarily support our strategy or President Barack Obama’s (D) unconstitutional way of executing it (see: Presidents Aren’t Dictators).

Many who tend toward the libertarian side of the political spectrum take a principled view that foreign affairs are really none of our business. Although I understand this position, I respectfully disagree. The community of nations must be ready to step-in—at least in extreme situations—not only to fight against nations that threaten the greater peace, but also to help a nation’s people fight against the maniacal dictators and belligerent madmen that too-often rule them.

Ideally this would happen in the context of an international body like the United Nations. But the only U.N. body with the authority to intervene militarily is the Security Council, and its structure—where five nations, including the United States, have unlimited veto authority—ensures that it will almost never be able to act. As we saw with Iraq, even in those rare cases where the U.N. takes a strong stand on paper, it is unwilling to obey its own charter and back it up with military force.

Read more . . .

The Difference Between Manning and Snowden

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Bradley Manning (U.S. Army) and Edward Snowden (Laura Poitras / Praxis Films [CC-BY-3.0])
Bradley Manning (U.S. Army) and Edward Snowden (Laura Poitras / Praxis Films [CC-BY-3.0])

You might remember that I defended Julian Assange and Wikileaks—much as I don’t like them—because they have the right to publish whatever they want. We wouldn’t attempt to prosecute the Washington Post for publishing classified material that it obtains from undisclosed sources, would we? Although the Post is bound by U.S. laws dealing with classified material, we also have (or at least had) strong First Amendment protections for media outlets. A leaker might be a criminal, but the recipient and publisher of the leak isn’t.

Wikileaks, as a foreign media outlet, doesn’t have First Amendment protections . . . but it also isn’t bound by U.S. laws about classified material, so they are still in the clear.

I pointed out at the time that, “Crimes were committed here. The people who stole secret information and gave it to Wikileaks have mishandled classified information; that is a crime, and the culprits should be charged and prosecuted.” It turned out that the culprit was U.S. Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, who has since been convicted of violating the Espionage Act and a number of other serious crimes.

More recently, Edward Snowden—a federal contractor employed by Booz Allen Hamilton—also divulged classified information to the media, particularly relating to a National Security Agency (NSA) program that collects and analyses virtually all phone records in the United States. While I called Manning a criminal, I’ve called Snowden a hero. I stand by these characterizations. Despite efforts—particularly by Assange—to equate Manning and Snowden’s actions, the two leaks (and men) are very different.

Read more . . .

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.