The headline in the Metro section of today's New York Times only tells half the story:

Tasers Getting More Prominent Role in Crime Fighting in City

The title to this post reflects the other half.

NYPD officers now use their 500 Tasers in limited situations. Expanding Taser use is a perilous experiment. It isn't particularly comforting to know that only sergeants will have the authority to handle Tasers, in light of this:

Stun guns were introduced in New York in the early 1980s, when officers were confronting a higher number of disturbed people because of the rapid and widespread deinstitutionalization of mental health patients. The devices were not seen as a success. ... Several high-ranking officers and sergeants were transferred from the 106th Precinct in Queens after officers were charged with using stun guns on drug suspects during interrogations. [emphasis added]

The most important facts, at which the Times headline does not hint, come at the end of the linked article: [more ...]

Barack Obama and John McCain are in a statistical dead heat according to the Daily Gallup tracking poll. Why? Seems to me to be the high number of undecideds combined with those who won't vote for either.

Although the margin between Obama and McCain is now similar to what it was in the last few weeks of the Democratic primary race, the structure of the race looks slightly different than at any other time this year as a result of the relatively high percentage of voters -- 15% -- not favoring either major-party candidate. This includes 7% of voters who say they are undecided and 8% who say they will not vote for either candidate (including 1% who volunteer they will vote for another specific candidate).

....As a result, the percentages of Americans now supporting Obama and McCain are near the lowest seen for either candidate since Gallup Poll Daily tracking on the Obama-McCain matchup started in early March, and well below the high of 48% achieved by each at them at various times.

Where's Joe Cocker today? On a ranch in Crawford, Colorado where he and his wife have spent the last 14 years becoming "locals" and raising money for children's causes. The Denver Post profiles him today.

On yesterday's open thread, there was a lot of discussion about healthy cooking. (My suggestion is Ayurvedic -- just find your dosha and eat accordingly.) Other dosha quizzes are here and here. The New York Times this week had an extensive article on Colorado's growing contingent of organic farms on the Western Slope.

Happy father's day to all. This is an open thread.

From a damning New Yorker article

At MSNBC, Phil Griffin was worried, and with good reason. The average “Countdown” viewer is fifty-nine years old, and forty-five per cent of the viewers are women, presumably Democratic—a fair description of a Hillary Clinton supporter. Griffin believed that Olbermann was beginning to alienate his core audience, and asked him to ease up a bit on Clinton, and possibly even make some conciliatory gesture to the Clinton camp. Olbermann was offended by the suggestion. “I can’t do that!” he says, recalling that conversation. “Me doing a commentary against my own opinion is pandering. Black and white. And I’m not going to do it. Would I pull back a little bit, or think long and hard about whether or not I want to knowingly alienate part of the audience? Yeah. And I did. I mean, I held fire on Senator Clinton for quite a while after she began to really scare me, with some of these tactics.”

(Emphasis supplied.) More . . .

Frank Rich writes:

You’d never know that [McCain's] new campaign blogger, recruited from The Weekly Standard, had shown his genuine affection for Mrs. Clinton earlier this year by portraying her as a liar and whiner and by piling on with a locker-room jeer after she’d been called a monster. “Tell us something we don’t know,” he wrote.

Which makes McCain's new campaign blogger different than Frank Rich in what way? In this way, at least he is praising Hillary Clinton now. Frank Rich can not even fake it. I tell you, with supporters like Frank Rich, Obama needs no enemies.

BTW, Rich was singing a different tune about a "Democratic Civil War" in March:

TalkLeft turns six years old today. It's our blogiversary (and as Skippy would say, y.i.c.t.p. -- yes, I coined that phrase.)

Six years is a long time on the internets, and since we have so many more readers than we did at the beginning, for those who are interested, here's a little history. [More...]

I'm seeing a lot of comments that go well beyond disagreeing with Barack Obama on issues or criticizing him with respect to matters that reflect on his suitability to be President.

I'm not going to spell out what's okay and what's not. Suffice it to say, TalkLeft and all three of its writers now support Barack Obama for President. He is the Democratic nominee and we are Democrats.

That doesn't mean you won't find criticism of him here. You will. Just as you'll find criticism of almost all our politicans and policy makers and the media (and for Big Tent Democrat that includes bloggers.)

But there's a difference between expressing disagreement with politicians and voicing displeasure with some of their actions and comments, -- and even with questioning their sincerity or suitability for office -- all of which are okay -- and with filling the comment threads with hateful character attacks.

I hope those of you who supported Hillary will take her at her word and transfer your support to Barack Obama. If you don't want to do that, you can still comment here, but not just to trash Barack Obama or his wife. You can't spread falsehoods, like he stole the nomination. He didn't. The Democrats gave it to him. [More...]

If the surge has worked as well as President Bush and his older twin John McCain would have us believe, why can't British troops leave Iraq?

Last week media reports said Britain could possibly pull all its forces out by the end of the year, but with the situation still unstable on the ground that appears unfeasible.

Gordon Brown must be thrilled about the prospect of having his picture taken with George "No Timetable" Bush.

Brown is battling against poor opinion poll ratings and Iraq is a divisive issue in Britain.

Birds of a feather.

Bush has been meeting with European leaders to stir up fear of Iran. The Times says Bush "was warmly greeted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel," who may simply have been anticipating another massage.

John McCain has locked up the Republican nomination, but he may not have locked up Republican votes in the general election. Will he need to move farther to the right to keep the Republican voting coalition intact?

The size of the evangelical community ensures its voice must be listened to. In the post room of Focus on the Family, dozens of workers sift through the mail, which can be as much as 150,000 items a day. Such power and influence mean evangelicals are a voting bloc McCain cannot write off. His campaign is bombarding 600 nationwide leaders with regular emails and appeals for help. Plans have been drawn up to mobilise the evangelical vote in 18 vital states. His top staff, like senior aide Charlie Black, have regular meetings with evangelical leaders. It might work. McCain's record on the key issue for many conservative evangelicals - abortion - is solidly hostile. 'The evangelical community will come around in the end,' said Steve Mitchell, a political pollster and chairman of Mitchell Research. 'Some leaders have not endorsed him yet because they are just tough negotiators. They are playing politics.'

[more ...]

Whether allegations of police misconduct during a raid -- including claims that several women were stripped searched in front of male officers and that officers "stole cash from a safe and coin-operated video games" -- are true, they beg the question: Why did the raid occur?

Police confirm they began the raid with a flash grenade, and that it happened at 11:30 p.m. May 30, 2008 .... That night, just over 20 people were attending a party inside the La Familia Motorcycle Social Club, 2500 W. Fullerton, and the department says the officers, wearing body armor and wielding assault weapons, were responding to a tip that illegal drugs were being used or sold there.

Does the war on drugs necessitate that level of force at a private party? All because of a tip? What's the point? [more ...]

Much of the time, "jailhouse lawyers" give lousy advice. Sometimes they get it right. Allen Penoyer, a 68 year old lifer, helped fellow inmate Jeffery Sipple challenge his manslaughter conviction.

Penoyer, using a blue ballpoint pen and blank sheets of white paper, challenged Sipple's conviction on the grounds that his attorney, Michael Connell, allowed the jury to hear an invalid instruction that negated Sipple's self-defense argument. "He studied it, and sure enough, they violated my rights," Sipple said.

The 5th District Court of Appeal agreed in December and granted Sipple a new trial.

Sipple's family chipped in to hire a lawyer from Tampa to argue Sipple's appeal. Freed from prison after serving four years of a twelve year sentence, Sipple struck a new deal that will allow him to remain free if he obeys the terms of his probation. He's moved to Indiana, and his goal now is simple.

"I'm trying to start over and keep a low profile," he said.

More thread for you.