BERNIE'S STUNNER (Kerik alreadys puts $6 mil in his pocket)

[donsu]

http://www.nypost.com/business/35781.htm

-snip-

Certainly it was a moment to remember for Kerik, an up-from-the-streets type of fellow who began life as the son of a New Jersey prostitute, maneuvered his way into becoming a limo driver and bodyguard for the Mayor, and has now wound up ready to take on the role of a lifetime as a kind of cabinet-level Bo Dietel for the whole of America.

And to do so, Kerik is not going to wind up living with his wife and kids in some high-rise warehouse across the Potomac, or show up for Situation Room briefings in a suit from Syms. We'll turn to why in a minute, but for now all one needs to know is that a timely recent sale of stock in a company called Taser International, Inc., where he has been serving as an outside member of the board, has made the nation's soon-to-be-confirmed new Secretary of Homeland Security nearly $6 million richer than he was just three weeks ago.

-snip-

This NASDAQ-listed company produces a pistol-like device that fires a dart-type projectile attached to several yards of filament-fine electrical wire connected to a battery. Once the dart is embedded in the skin of a victim, the battery sends a disabling jolt of high voltage electricity down the wire and into the victim, knocking him instantly to the ground in a brief but intense fit of twitching and convulsing that is suggestive of an epileptic seizure.

-snip-

The company's problems began to multiply last June when the New York Times reported that Taser's safety claims have been based on a 1996 series of tests involving a pig, and a 1999 study involving five dogs. Both studies were commissioned and paid for by Taser.

-snip-

Last week, Amnesty International weighed in with its own report, citing research showing that 76 people in the U.S. and Canada have died following jolts from Tasers since the weapons were first introduced into those markets in 2001.

-snip-
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so now they will all become richer selling tasers to the cops of america and the world.

[Rose Siding]

1. Ah yes, the tasers used on unruly school children.

I guess someone had to make money on that.

[SpiralHawk]

2. Good old Stun Gun Kerik

Tips his hand.

Now we know the "weapon of choice" for troops of the Homeland Henchmen will be the groovy, new-age energy Blasters his buddies make.

What's good for BushCo is good for BushCo.

Shields up!

[AP]

3. Follow the money.

I just saw one of these guns on TV recently. I don't know if it was critical news piece or whatever (wasn't really paying attention). But I suspect it was the media giving this company some free advertising just before Kerik sold his stock.

[Rose Siding]

4. Their use is increasing

snip>
View Of Weapon Broadens

An officer is justified in firing his or her service weapon if there is reason to think not doing so will result in the officer's death or death of someone else. The Taser originally was seen strictly as an alternative to that deadly force, but over time, that view has changed.

``Once we started looking at policy, in talking with other law enforcement agencies, we learned it was also good to use in other circumstances,'' Pinellas Sheriff-elect Jim Coats said.

At the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, Tampa Police Department and Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, an officer can use the Taser if the suspect is offering ``passive physical resistance.'' The suspect does not have to pose a threat to anyone; he may be making an officer's job more difficult by staying put when he is asked to move or bracing his arms when officers are trying to handcuff him.

http://www.tampatrib.com/MGBK6UBUZ1E.html

There's no particular policy on use...

''From what I gathered, there is not a clear policy with the use of the gun on children,'' Carey-Shuler said Monday.

The Herald reported on Sunday that experts have questioned statements by the makers of the Taser gun claiming the product is safe for use on children.

Police director Robert Parker said last month that the use of a Taser against a 6-year-old student was justified because the boy was threatening to hurt himself with a piece of glass. Parker said the use of a Taser on a 12-year-old who was skipping school was a mistake, and the officer will be disciplined.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/10355488.htm?1c

A 14-year-old student at Lincoln Park High School was handcuffed and shocked with a Taser gun during an altercation with police.

Police used the Taser gun on the male youth after four officers were unable to restrain him, according to a report in the News-Herald.

The incident started at about 9 a.m. last Thursday when the boy refused to stop playing a handheld video game after several requests by a teacher to put the game away, police told the paper.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/3948014/detail.html

Knuckles Kerik will make us safe, brave and prescient capitalist that he is!

[PurityOfEssence]

5. I'd say he's more the Martin Bormann type

He looks just like the dim-witted enforcer of the privileged that he is. He's been thoroughly bought off now, so he'll do their bidding. The question is whether a career functionary has the smarts for a truly executive position. Nothing demonstrates that so far.

He's nothing but a seasoned non-com enlisted to keep the peons under control for their betters. Happenstance elevates many nobodies to prominence; he's just one of the most obvious.

Man, I hate the very mindset of Bushco: obedience and order is everything, and true talent is to be shunned like the plague. First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-raters. Junior can't even measure up to that. Nobody at a cabinet level in this administration is anything but mediocre except Rumsfeld, and it shows. Rummy's a megadick and a fuck-up, but at least he's smart.

The small-talk among this bunch must be very small.

[UTUSN]

6. Wow, He Cleared about Half of What Shrub Did on the TX Rangers n/t