Joe White: I'm not asking, I'm driving.

For all those who wish to give more power to the state.

From Ken White at Popehat:

Armando Saldate, Jr. had been adjudged to be a liar on four occasions and a lawbreaker on five others.

No rational person would accept his word as an adequate basis to do anything of importance — let alone as a basis to take a life.

But we do not speak of rational people today. We speak of the criminal justice system. And the criminal justice system is choked with people it has thoroughly captured — people irrationally convinced of, or indifferent to, the credibility of people like Armando Saldate, Jr.

That’s because Armando Saldate, Jr. was a police officer.

The State of Arizona, based on almost nothing but Saldate’s word, has been trying to kill Debra Jean Milke for nearly a quarter-century. Today the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said they can’t.

[From The Presumption of Truth]

Please, read the whole thing.

In recent weeks I (and my family and clients) have been exposed to a number of scams. I thought I should highlight them to help others avoid falling for them.

• Both sets of my in-laws received a call from (302) 464-5393. The caller, a male who spoke with a heavy Indian accent, claimed to be from Microsoft and stated that their machine had been hacked, but that they could repair it remotely. You can see reports of similar scam calls from this number at 800notes.com, callercenter.com, & whocallsme.com.
• A client was having issues with their ATT/Yahoo! email, and was trying to find a number for customer support. The number that they found, 888-307-9126, is for a company that is not related to AT&T or Yahoo, and may or may not be legitimate. The correct number for AT&T support is 877-722-3755 (or 800-288-2020 for U-verse).
• There was a young woman trolling our neighborhood stating her name as Angel Germain, claiming to be a neighbor and that she’s a mechanical engineering major at UT working on restoring a P51 Mustang. She said that her dad is making her get off her duff and raise funds so that she can go work with Boeing on the restoration. But “do to laws” she couldn’t fundraise directly, so was selling books that would be donated to Texas Children’s Hospital, and a portion of the proceeds would help her group (she then shows me the her laminated certificate with Angelica Germain on it…ooh, official!). When I told her we had a household policy of not donating at the door but asked her for a website for the group working on project, she stormed off in a huff, saying if I couldn’t help her the way she asked, then not to bother.

  Glad I had finished my remote clients early in order to play detective: https://local.nixle.com/alert/4868486/
  http://www.ripoffreport.com/directory/angel-germain.aspxI then drove around and found her at a neighbor’s house…too late to save them from giving her a couple of bucks, but while she was still at the door I asked the homeowner what name she had given…this time, it was Zimmerman. As she started to leave, I asked her for her actual address. “2005 Addison.” Doesn’t exist. She then started leaving in a hurry, saying I was harassing her. “On the contrary, you’re scamming my neighbors.” She was last seen walking west down Holcombe (to which I also advised the local constabulary). White female, ~5’5″, early-mid 20’s, skinny, glasses, two long braids in fabric wrappers.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there…keep your wits about you.