The Volokh Conspiracy naively, or pretending to be naive, piously asks about the Brett Kimberlin incidents:
One thing I do not comprehend about either story is the apparent reticence of local authorities. I would think local law enforcement would move heaven and earth to uncover who sicced SWAT on Patterico’s home and it is unconscionable the local authorities in Montgomery County, Maryland would sit by and allow the continued abuse of legal process that has victimized Worthing.
I wonder if any commenter who attempts to explain this mystery to him gets instabanned.
Tags: Brett Kimberlin
I apologize for this off-topic comment, but does the author of this blog or any reader of it know where I can get basic info on Defense Dept. spending over the last 30 years or so on a state by state basis? Basically procurement and similar expenditure. Similar in nature and simplicity as these:
http://taxfoundation.org/article/federal-spending-received-dollar-taxes-paid-state-2005
http://taxfoundation.org/article/federal-taxes-paid-vs-federal-spending-received-state-1981-2005
http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/docs/sr139.pdf
Thanks in advance.
Here are data from 2006 on defense contracts by congressional district. Congressional districts never cross state boundaries, so you can aggregate them up to the state level. I had no luck finding more current data, but I did not look that long. The link names the relevant DoD report—but I have had no luck locating it on DoD’s website.
Here are some suggestions:
– look harder than I did for the relevant report.
– if you are a US citizen, call your congressman’s office and ask them to help. Some congressmen are good about helping with this kind of thing, some not.
– try calling DoD’s legislative affairs office and asking them. I have no experience with DoD, but some agencies are remarkably responsive to these kinds of requests.
– Try searching the RAND corporation’s website for relevant reports—they have a huge defense analysis business. If you find stuff there which is almost-but-no-quite relevant, email the authors. Some will be helpful, some will blow you off.
– Try calling DoD’s comptroller’s office. Again, they may be helpful or they may blow you off.
Thanks Bill. That link isn’t working but I’ll certainly try some of your other suggestions.
That’s weird. That link comes up first when you google “2006 defense contracts by congressional district” (without the quotes). But, it does seem to be broken now, and I don’t see a cached page.
Look at the comment thread. It’s all about how evil conservative bloggers, generally, and Kimberlin’s victims, specifically, are. I guess both sides in the debate over the evil of Kimberlin’s victims are represented, but still.
According to the left wing commenters, it is totally outrageous to blame the left as a whole for Brett Kimberlin incidents, and also his victims had it coming, and they are obviously substantially guilty of whatever Brett Kimberlin accused them of doing, in part because Goldwater was such a terrible person and his political position was so horrid.
From the comments thread it is obvious that the left as a whole is cool with violent repression of right wingers.
So far however it is only conservatives, not reactionaries, that seem to be copping it. You get repressed for thinking there is a big important difference between the Obamessiah and Governor Romneycare, but you don’t get repressed if you think that we are heading to the abyss, and the only difference between the Obamessiah and Governor Romneycare is a difference in how fast. For the moment, reactionaries seem to be below the radar.
American leftists have no idea what to make of the far right. I get a lot less contempt and hatred from them as a reactionary than I ever did as a conservative. Nobody is exposed to reactionary thought, which is shame, but it means they don’t develop resistance to it.