Richard Paey is three years into a 25 year drug trafficking sentence. He is disabled and constantly in pain. He was forced to sell all of his belongings, including his business.

His crime? He was arrested for the possesion of 60 tablets of percocet, for which he had been written a prescription. The cops told his doctor that he had been selling them on the street, (which he hadn't been, they fabricaterd the story), and his doctor predictably told them he had no idea who wrote the prescription. Fortunately for Paey, his doctor admitted in trial that he actually had written the prescription, unfortunately for Paey, the prosecution didn't care. The prescription had been written over six weeks after Paey's last physical and was illgal, which some-how makes Paey the guilty one. Of drug trafficking no less.

It looks as if he will be pardoned by the governor, but he has already payed over $500,000 in fines and spent 3 years in prison because his doctor wrote him a prescription. How does this happen?

"Some people support the use of surveillance cameras in public places as a way to help solve crimes. Others say these cameras go too far as a government intrusion on personal privacy. What's your opinion? Do you support or oppose the increased use of surveillance cameras in public places?" - ABC News/Washington Post Poll. July 18-21, 2007.

Support / Oppose

All: 71% - 25%
Democrats: 66% - 30%
Republicans: 81% - 16%
Independents: 71% - 23%
Men: 66% - 29%
Women: 75% - 21%

I thought that women and Republicans might be more skeptical of cameras than men and Democrats, but according to this poll that isn't the case. Another related tool from Google is a map feature called Street View. It allows you to see street level views of five U.S. cities in impressive detail. The cameras have caught some interesting images and a site compiled them. I post this poll and the Google Street View information because I am noticing more and more how many cameras are everywhere.

I'm watching NBC Nightly News last night and the lead story is about Iraq's soccer team that managed to pull an upset over Saudi Arabia to win the Asian Cup. Feel good story. Good times. Cut to footage of Prime Minister Malaki saying, "these men are from various parts of Iraq, and I admire them for sticking together in the name of Iraq for the pride of Iraq. They are heros." Awesome. Then, the report cuts to footage of celebratory gunfire in the streets and the reporter says, "At least two people were killed today by falling bullets, but there were no car bombs." The number killed by falling bullets from celebratory gunfire is up to 4.

Think about a city from a birds eye view. Think about how much surface area a person's body takes up from above. How many bullets have to be in the air to kill one person let alone 4? Imagine being with someone who is killed by a falling bullet. "Yeah, I heard the Lime Spyder is closing and that su..." Game over.

On Friday afternoon a police car chase took place in Central Phoenix. Several local news helicopters followed the chase. Trying to get the best footage of this unimportant story, two helicopters got too close and crashed. All four people on board were killed. It was the headline story of national news all day Friday and Saturday. I was having lunch just a few blocks from the crash and was fortunately unaffected. More importantly, the crash happened over a park in Phoenix, instead of over many of the buildings in the concentrated area, so no one else was injured.

About 5 hours after in the incident I turned on the local radio to find out some more information about the accident. The one liberal AM station was not talking about it, so I had to turn to other stations. Instead of learning any facts, I was fed misinformation and hate by the local (conservative) media.....

First off, every reporter and every caller was fully blaming the criminal suspect and demanding murder charges. Supposedly, the guy stole a car and then did not pull over when police stopped him. It's not his fault 5 local news choppers decided to treat this like it was OJ's white Bronco. It's a sad situation, but to act like that guy could foresee this happening is insane. I just think the executives at those news channels should be thankful more people weren't killed when the two helicopters crashed to the ground in the middle of a major city.

But the worst was how freaking racist things turned. One reporter explained: "we have confirmed the suspect is hispanic.....but the police is being very close-lipped about his legal status." The radio host responds: "well, that is ridiculous.....why are these police trying to conceal this hispanic man's identity.....we need to find out where this guy is from" In sum, there were endless comments along the lines of: 'if it ends up he is illegal, there is going to be hell to pay.' Everyone just felt it was an open forum to bash undocumented Mexicans and brand them as heartless killers because of this hispanic leading the car chase.

So an interesting thing turned up with the "confirmed" hispanic: his name is Christopher Jones......umm, that would make him not hispanic. Yet, that actually confirmed fact did not stop the hate and rage of conservative radio all day on Friday. Instead of a forum of sympathy for the victims, or a discussion on the media's responsibility during a silly car chase, it turned into hate and racism.....against that infamous hispanic Christopher Jones. Pathetic.

So let me get this strategy straight: After 9-11 the US hopes to protect itself by primarily: disarming terrorist networks and the UN-resolution-breaking nations capable of slipping them weapons of mass destruction; and secondarily: promoting democracy in the region.

So it invades UN-resolution-breaking Iraq, inadvertently strengthening terrorist networks and destabilizing the country to the point that UN-resolution-breaking, nuke-building Iran threatens to dominate the region. Then it arms UN-resolution-breaking, anti-democratic Saudi Arabia to balance the Iran threat and promises further arms to UN-resolution-breaking Israel to compensate for the Saudi threat.*

Meanwhile to try to stabilize Iraq, the US arms the more 'nationalist side' of the anti-US insurgency while at the same time failing to arm the Iraqi army.

Someone please tell me I don't have my facts straight, cause the only strategy worse than what I've just described would be to arm al-Qaeda directly (like we did to counter the Russian threat).

Guest Post By Tim Fitzwater
I asked my good friend Tim to write a post on his experience last weekend in Highland Square. Though the picture is humorous, this confrontation really happened.

Last Friday night my friend Pete and I were walking from his apartment at 37 S. Highland (about 5 buildings from W. Market) to the Matinee when we were approached by two black men probably about 20 years old. Before I knew what was happening Pete had thrown his wallet and cell phone on the ground and said, "I don't have anything" then promptly froze.(In Highland Square I'm so use to being approached by people bumming change and cigs that I usual mumble that 'i don't got it' and keep walking.) As one of the dudes bent down to check Pete's wallet the other yelled at me to "give him everything I got". It was at this point that I noticed the gun. I franticly replied that all I had was one cigarette. The guy than shoved his small silver gun in my face and said, "I don't want your f@#cking smokes I want your shit!" I replied, "I'm broke, I got nothing." The guy checking Pete's wallet said, "these niggas don't have shit" and they quickly walked off turning to point the gun at us a few more times.

A few nights ago a girl was beaten up and robbed in the parking lot of the Highland Square Walgreen's. Last weekend Pete had to outrun some dudes on bikes threatening him. A few weeks ago an aquaintence was robbed on Crosby St. of his rent money by two men. About a month ago a girl was assaulted with a baseball bat in the Twin Oaks parking lot. Last summer Pete was robbed by 5 or 6 kids at ten at night in front of the First Merit in Highland Square. All this along with the rash of robberies at the ATM's last summer in Highland Square. I was sitting in Mocha Maiden a few months ago talking photography with a retired Akron police officer and owner/developer Tony Troppe. Tony pulled out a blown up picture of the officer walking on W. Market in Highland Square taken in the early 80's. I asked the officer why, with the amount of crime in the Square lately combined with the efforts at re-development, there weren't foot patrols anymore. "Money," he flatly stated.

All the Chipotles in the world are going to do nothing for this city's neighborhoods unless people can feel safe walking THEIR streets....... - By Tim Fitzwater

Normally I wouldn't share such damning, personal information on TCS, but tonight I saw something on the show that I have to share. Last night all the dancers did a themed solo prepared by the show. They danced to the song: Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer wearing white shirts with black peace signs painted on the front and a single word on the back (example: love, understanding, unity, patience etc.)

On tonight's result show Nigel Lythgoe, the executive producer of the show, made a formal apology to America. Apparently the show was flooded with calls from irate viewers who were angered by the show's anti-war message. I repeat, viewers were disturbed by the sight of the peace sign!!!

Gonzales keeps his job, Bush refuses to let aides testify, America doesn't flinch. Then these kids sport a peace sign during a contemporary dance competition and people are in the streets with pitchforks, people are taking action, people are outraged.

Do we really live in a country where a major network needs to issue an apology for showing pro-peace imagery?!? Please tell me this is some strange nightmare.

Oscar the cat (pictured) was raised in a dementia ward of a hospice, and apparently has developed the ability to predict the deaths of patients.

Although the cat is normally unaffectionate, he will curl up with patients from time to time. When he does, it is time to call the family, as the patient likely has less than four hours to live.

Oscar has been recorded predicting deaths correctly over 25 times in a row, which has lead Doctor Dosa, of Brown university to publish a study on Oscar.

Bizarre. Check out the story here.

So Harriet Miers, facing contempt charges, could serve time for shielding Bush. If so, she'll have the distinction of being the first Bush aid to really break the traditional paradigm (unqualified> negligent> disgraced), the first aid to face charges without even getting to taste the fruit of abuse-enticing power, the first aid who never really had a chance to prove her negligence.

The reality is that Miers, nor any other Bush crony, will ever see any real punishment for anything, but I can dream can't I? It'd be ironic though, no? A former Supreme Court Nominee behind bars for not showing up to court.

I've always been a huge fan of The Onion and they say that, aside from cult-formation and ritual worship, impersonation is the highest form of flattery. For those of you who enjoy my Onionesc fake headline series Extra! Extra!, I've added a link in the sidebar to showcase them all in one place.

Back in May, Bush's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace said: "we had more than 3,000 Americans murdered on 11 September, 2001. The number who have died, sacrificed themselves since that time is approaching that number." Actually, at that time about 3500 American troops had been killed in Iraq. He had no idea how many troops had sacrificed and died - nothing else he says has credibility. What a leader!

Back in May, former-acting Attorney General James Comey testified about how Alberto Gonzales and then-Chief of Staff Andrew Card went to John Ashcroft's hospital bed to pressure him to authorize warrantless wiretapping. Comey, said the wiretapping program was illegal, so Bush's goons went to pressure a man in the hospital....classy. Comey believed Gonzalez and Card were taking "advantage of a very sick man."

Back in May, here is what Snow basically had to say about taking advantage of a very sick man: big deal, its not like "his brain didn't work." This is from Tony Snow - the man suffering with cancer. But since he doesn't have brain cancer, its not like Snow can't keep on being an ass and keep on lying, right?

Back in May was when we learned Bush personally arranged the meeting at Ashcroft's hospital bed.

Back in May I read up on Karl Zinsmeister. Zinsmeister is currently President Bush's Chief Domestic Policy Adviser. Here is Zinsmeister's policy on hiring women: "I am never going to hire another woman because they just get pregnant and leave." That is who Bush has as his Chief Domestic Policy Adviser. Now that's a true Republican!

The Beacon had a great cover story on the new football stadium to be built at The University of Akron. (click picture for a larger view) You can see the artists rendering of the new stadium at the bottom of the picture where Spicer and Exchange intersect. You'll also notice that several new residence halls will be build as part of the complex. This development would do so much to revitalize this part of the city and the contiued growth of the university.

The war in Iraq, health care reform, and a corrupt presidential administration have left an important debate on the back burner, the reasoning behind our impotent "war on drugs."

Today a story was printed in The Plain Dealer about a drug informant who repeatedly lied to put innocent men and women behind bars. Although the accused have been released, others are not so lucky. In Atlanta, an 88 year old women was shot and killed in a botched "no knock" drug raid this past November. Not knowing that her attackers were the police she fired a bullet as the officers were tearing down her burglar bars. The officers then kicked down her door, and shot 39 rounds. They were carrying riot shields and wore bullet proof vests at the time. She was innocent, but the cops attempted to plant fake evidence, before eventually pleading to murder. These are not isolated cases, check out this interactive map, made by the CATO Institute which details botched raids since 1985.

The war on terror, and our drug war have made it too easy for police departments to justify militarizing their forces, and somebody needs to respond. The war on drugs has already cost $29 billion this year, and arrested 900 thousand. All this to stop people from engaging in behavior that doesn't necessarily harm others.