Wednesday, 07 June 2006
Jon Stewart Trounces Bill Bennett
Last night conservative douchebag Bill Bennett managed to tear his fat ass away from the slot machines long enough to appear on the Daily Show, where John Stewart took Bennett to school on the issue of gay marriage:
Bennett: Well I think if gay..gay people are already members of families...
Stewart: What? (almost spitting out his drink)
Bennett: They're sons and they're daughters..
Stewart: So that's where the buck stops, that's the gay ceiling.
Bennett Look, it's a debate about whether you think marriage is between a man and a women.
Stewart:I disagree, I think it's a debate about whether you think gay people are part of the human condition or just a random fetish.
It's all downhill from there. Seriously, don't miss this one. It'll make your day.
Posted by flow Frazao on June 7, 2006 at 06:03 PM in America, Culture, Current Affairs, Television, US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sunday, 23 April 2006
Living With War
In case you haven't heard, Neil Young has a new album coming out that's entirely dedicated to George W. Bush. The first single is called "Impeach the President".
“This talk about a 9/11 mentality. No one, George Bush or anyone else, owns the 9/11 mentality. It belongs to the United States of America. It belongs to everyone who was sitting there with their family, watching those buildings get hit by those jets. It belongs to George Bush and his family, it belongs to John Kerry and his family, it belongs to me and my family, my American family. I have a post 9/11 mentality. It’s just not the same as George Bush’s.”
Posted by flow Frazao on April 23, 2006 at 04:17 AM in America, Current Affairs, US News, War on Terra | Permalink | Comments (1)
Thursday, 23 March 2006
Rumsfeld: What a Lucky Guy
First he makes a bundle off the Iraq War from his ties to Bechtel, and now he stands to reap a hearty profit from all the Bird Flu hysteria:
The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world.Rumsfeld served as Gilead's chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.
Here's Gilead's press release announcing Rumsfeld's Chairmanship back in 97.
Posted by flow Frazao on March 23, 2006 at 12:30 PM in America, Scary Bush, Science, US News | Permalink | Comments (0)
Friday, 17 February 2006
Dump Lieberman
Seriously, we've got to get rid of Joe Lieberman. He's an embarrassment to me and all my fellow Nutmeggers. From yesterday's Hartford Courant:
President Bush threw a romantic Valentine's Day dinner at the White House Tuesday night, and who was on the guest list? None other than his favorite Democratic arm candy, Sen. Joe Lieberman.
Ned Lamont is the guy who's going to break poor Joe's heart by throwing his sorry butt out of Washington DC and away from the loving arms of George W. Bush. Click here to give Ned Lamont some money or some time if you want to avoid seeing scenes like this for another six years:
Posted by flow Frazao on February 17, 2006 at 01:29 PM in America, US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tuesday, 03 January 2006
Please God, No
Kerry Positioned for '08 White House Bid:
The Massachusetts Democrat, defeated by Bush in 2004, insists it is far too early to talk about the 2008 race, but some analysts assume he has already positioning himself for another shot at the White House. "Obviously, Kerry has all but said he wants another crack at the thing," said Neal Thigpen, a political science professor at South Carolina's Francis Marion University. "He's going to make a second try."
The only way I could possibly imagine this even coming close to being a good idea would be if Kerry were to completely change every single aspect of his personality and strategy. Perhaps he can undergo some sort of combination face/brain/testicle replacement procedure and then we can take Kerry 2.0 for a test drive. At the very least it would be more exciting than watching Frankenstein in a "debate" all over again.
I think this GOP strategist sums up the situation thoroughly:
"He believes in his heart and soul that he came just a whisker away from being president," said Ronald Kaufman, a veteran GOP operative with Massachusetts roots. Kerry's image as a Northeast liberal with fuzzy views on major issues like Iraq would make him vulnerable once more, said Kaufman, who was White House political director for Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush."I go to bed every night praying Kerry is the nominee again," he said.
Posted by flow Frazao on January 3, 2006 at 03:36 PM in America, Current Affairs, US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Friday, 09 September 2005
Best eBay Sales Item EVER
Now here's a guy who deserves a Medal of Freedom. Assuming they still have some left after they get through with Brown and Chertoff, that is:
Dr. Ben Marble, a young emergency room physician who plays in alternative rock bands and does art on the side, needs our help. Since he was the one who told Dick Cheney to "go fuck yourself" on CNN Thursday, that's the least we can do.
When he, like thousands of others, lost his home due to Hurricane Katrina last week, it was the single most traumatic week of his life. That led to his confrontation with the man who best represents the worst of the most callous, heartless, shittiest administration in U.S. history on Thursday.
Of course after he exercised his so-called "Freedom of Speech under the First Amendment", he was detained by troops with M-16s:
His friend videotaped a little bit longer and then came back to Marble's house. As they were salvaging a few things from Marble's home, two military police waving M-16's showed up and said they were looking for someone who fit Marble's description who had cursed at Cheney.
"I told them I was probably the person they were looking for, and so they put me in handcuffs and 'detained' me for about 20 minutes or so," Marble wrote. "My right thumb went numb because the cuffs were on so tight, but they were fairly courteous and eventually released me after getting all my contact info. They said I had NOT broken any laws so I was free to go."
Posted by flow Frazao on September 9, 2005 at 04:32 PM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sunday, 02 January 2005
The Crack Tax
I might be in Australia, but thanks to the internet I can still keep up with every retarded development in US News. Tennessee has introduced a new revenue stream which begs the question, "Is the Knoxville legislature on drugs?"
"The way this is set up, once anyone comes into possession of an illegal substance, they have 48 hours to purchase a stamp," said Al Laney, the department's director of tax enforcement.
The taxpayer needs only to say what sort of illegal substance he or she possesses and how much, then pay the appropriate amount of money - $50 per gram for cocaine, for example. The person need not give a name and the law provides that purchase of the stamp will be kept confidential and forbids revenue officials from asking any questions.
[..]
"We are serious about this, and we do not want the public to take this as a frivolous undertaking," Laney said.
The proposal was nicknamed "the crack tax" by the sponsors, who say the new levy will provide much-needed money for law enforcement efforts.
Does this mean that Tennessee expects to see a line in this year's budget for illegal drug taxes? And if so, does it mean that the state is counting on people to go out and buy things like crack and marijuana in order to maintain that revenue stream?
And also, how stupid are the drug users in Tennessee? Are they really going to go down to the Tax Office and buy $50 worth of "I've got drugs" stamps?
Posted by flow Frazao on January 2, 2005 at 04:37 AM in US News | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Saturday, 09 October 2004
The Cycle of Democracy
Calabane pulls out a great quote in the comments. I haven't been able to get it out of my head so I'm putting it up on the front page because this is my blog and nobody's the boss of me:
These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."
--Alexander Tyler's Thesis form the Cycle of Democracy
Also, on a totally unrelated note, check out the Bush flip-flops - J Peterman style.
Posted by flow Frazao on October 9, 2004 at 12:27 PM in Funny Bush, US News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Monday, 09 August 2004
Georgetown Stabbing
I seriously cannot wait to leave this city:
According to Sgt. Joe Gentile, a spokesman for the D.C. police, yesterday morning's fatal fight was touched off when two groups encountered each other on the street and "one group literally bumped into another."
[...]
Homicide is down citywide this year, on a pace that would result in fewer than 200 killings for the first time since 1986."
Everyday there's another story about people killing and dying in my city. Now this. If you're not familiar with DC, then it won't mean much, but if you are then a murder at Wisconsin and M street is almost unbelievable. Georgetown is to DC as Beverly Hills is to LA. This type of shit simply does not happen there.
I don't hang out much in Gtown because it's painfully lame, but it just goes to show that there is nowhere in this city where you are ever truly safe. Just the other day my wife and her friend were followed into an apartment building and attacked in the elevator by a guy with a knife. Luckily he was a total pussy and our friend Nancy kicked him in the chest with her high heels, but it could have gotten very ugly.
Like I said, I can't wait to get the fuck out of here.
Posted by flow Frazao on August 9, 2004 at 08:14 AM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tuesday, 20 July 2004
In Case You Needed Another Reason Not To Eat At KFC
Here's the latest development in the "Fast Food Is Really Really Bad" saga:
[...]
The undercover investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation and still does undercover work for the group, said in a telephone interview that he saw "hundreds" of acts of cruelty, including workers tearing beaks off, ripping a bird's head off to write graffiti in blood, spitting tobacco juice into birds' mouths, plucking feathers to "make it snow," suffocating a chicken by tying a latex glove over its head, and squeezing birds like water balloons to spray feces over other birds.
He said the behavior was "to alleviate boredom or vent frustrations," especially when so many birds were coming in that they would have to work late.
On April 6, one day he filmed, workers made a game of throwing chickens against a wall; 114 were thrown in seven minutes. A supervisor walking past the pile of birds on the floor said, "Hold your fire," and, once out of the way, told the crew to "carry on."
On another day, he said, the supervisor told the crew to kill correctly because inspectors were visiting."
It also bears mentioning that Pilgrim's Pride plant in Moorefield, W.Va., the chicken factory at which the tape was shot, won KFC's "Supplier of the Year" award in 1997.
To pretend that these types of violations are the result of "a few bad apples" would be absurd. The American food industry is rife with these types of violations.
It's disgusting and disturbing, and sadly we (myself included) condone it with every bite. I've been doing my best to eat vegetarian, but it's a struggle most days.
Articles like this, however, make it that much easier.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 20, 2004 at 03:41 PM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Friday, 16 July 2004
The UN Report and American Health Care
Yesterday, the UN launched it's Human Development Report for 2004. The index measures education, life expectancy and standard of living and ranks all the countries in the world in a wide variety of tables and lists. The full report can be downloaded here, but the best way to view the data is from this page.
It's especially interesting, because as an American I'm constantly being bombarded with the idea that America is the best in the world.
However, if you take a look at the 285 page report you start to notice that America is good, but claiming that we're the best country ever is a little like claiming we've got the world's best soccer team or the highest standard of living on the planet, without exception.
They're are nice ideas, but they're simply not true:
The United States was ranked in eighth place, a drop of one position from 2003, and Sierra Leone was in last place on a list of 177 rankings."
Personally, I don't put much stock in that type of across-the-board ranking. It's interesting, but it doesn't actually reveal all that much.
However, it is quite another thing to look at the more in depth studies. Here's a particularly telling one:
1 Norway 6.9
2 Sweden 7.5
3 Australia 6.2
4 Canada 6.8
5 Netherlands 5.7
6 Belgium 6.4
7 Iceland 7.6
8 United States 6.2
9 Japan 6.2
10 Ireland 4.9
Private health expenditure (% of GDP)
Direct household (out of pocket) spending, private insurance, spending by non-profit institutions serving households and direct service payments by private corporations.
1 Norway 1.2
2 Sweden 1.3
3 Australia 3.0
4 Canada 2.8
5 Netherlands 3.3
6 Belgium 2.5
7 Iceland 1.6
8 United States 7.7
9 Japan 1.8
10 Ireland 1.6
As you will notice, the US spends roughly the same amount of public funds on health care as the other 9 countries in the top 10. However, when you look at how much money is spent privately (note the term "Direct household (out of pocket) spending") you will notice a huge discrepancy.
Why is that? Why is it that US citizens wind up spending so much more of their own money on healthcare? Could it be that Universal Health Care is actually less expensive than the system we currently employ?
We as a society need to seriously consider a single-payer system. We are the last of the developed nations to deny our own citizens access to health care. It's an idea who's time has come.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 16, 2004 at 01:33 PM in US News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Wednesday, 14 July 2004
Colin Powell Can't Be Bothered To Travel
In a striking testament to the Bush Administration's contempt for foreign relations, MSNBC reports that Colin Powell is the least traveled secretary of state in 30 years:
[...]
Powell also has significantly shorter trips than any predecessor -- an average of 3.3 days. He rushes through meetings in conference rooms and foreign ministries and spends virtually no time sightseeing.
In 3 1/2 years, his only nonbusiness moments have been 15 minutes in a Nepalese temple in 2002 and a couple of hours at the ancient ruins of Petra during a three-day trip to Jordan in 2003. In capitals abroad, it has become his custom to apologize for the brevity of his visit and express the hope he can stay longer next time.
In fact, Powell has progressively cut the average length of his trips, from 4.6 days in 2001 to 2.9 days this year. Kissinger's trips lasted an average of 8.7 days, while most other recent secretaries averaged about five days."
I really shouldn't be surprised that our so-called leaders express such embarrassingly little curiousity about our world. Whereas I would jump at the chance to represent America in Nepal or Jordan or any other of the dozen countries Powell has rushed through, I am among a small minority of Americans.
Astonishingly, less than 20% of Americans currently have a valid passport. Given that, I suppose Powell's lack of interest in the world around us simply mirrors our own.
Posted by flow Frazao on July 14, 2004 at 08:25 AM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wednesday, 07 July 2004
What Privacy?
There is no such thing as privacy:
Upholding a lower-court decision that the provider did not violate the Wiretap Act, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set a precedent for e-mail service providers to legally read e-mail that passes through a network.
[...]
Last week's ruling means that e-mail has fewer protections than phone conversations and postal mail. Granting e-mail providers the ability to read e-mail is equivalent to granting postal workers the right to open and read any mail while it's at a post office for sorting, but not while it's in transit between post offices or being hand-delivered to a recipient's home or business.
The ruling also has repercussions for voicemail messages, as long as certain provisions in the Patriot Act remain law.
Before the Patriot Act, the legal definition of wire communication included voicemail messages. This meant that authorities had to obtain a wiretap order to access voicemail messages or face charges of illegal interception under the Wiretap Act. Under the Patriot Act, however, the definition of wire communication changed. Voicemail messages are now considered stored communication, like e-mail. As a result, law enforcement authorities need only a search warrant to access voicemail messages, a much easier process than obtaining a wiretap order.
The provision in the Patriot Act that changed this is set to sunset in December 2005, but if the current administration has its way, the law will be renewed."
If you're interested, you can find the courts ruling here (PDF).
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 7, 2004 at 01:23 PM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Friday, 02 July 2004
Our Pathetic Media
How much has this whole war/trial/Halliburton welfare program cost? $100 billion? $150 billion?
You'd think the least they could do is let us know what's going on, but guess what? You'd be wrong:
American and Iraqi officials did not want any footage shown of Iraqi guards or court personnel, and they asked broadcast and cable news nets to honor this request.
But the situation took an unexpected turn even before the hearing began, when U.S. officials ordered CNN and Al-Jazeera, the pool camera crews, to disconnect their audio equipment. Officials said it was the wish of the Iraqi judge.
Following the hearing, the CNN footage was taken to the convention center, where a CBS News employee transmitted the footage after it was viewed and okayed by two military censors.
As the silent footage of Hussein began to air on U.S. networks around 8:30 a.m. ET, CBS News anchor Dan Rather explained that the tapes had been "taken to another location, edited, and what you're seeing is in effect a censored version" of what happened in court earlier today.
I am neither shocked nor awed by this revelation. Saddam had longstanding ties to prominent US officials throughout the period during which he's being charged with genocide. The last thing the US government wants is to give him an open mike from which he can divulge secrets about Rumsfeld, Cheney, Perle et al.
What I can't believe is that our media is going along with it. I know I should be used to it by now, but man. That's just so weak.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 2, 2004 at 02:56 PM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Thursday, 01 July 2004
More Mad Cows
What a surprise. The USDA is expecting more cases of Mad Cow Disease, but you shouldn't worry about it. God knows they're not too concerned:
About half of the cases will go undetected and passed on for human consumption, Robert LaBudde, president of Least Cost Formulation Ltd., a food industry consultancy in Virginia Beach, Va., told UPI.
[...]
LaBudde said he bases his prediction on the one positive case detected so far, compared to the number of downers, or at-risk animals, in U.S. herds -- which amounts to about 250,000 by his calculations. That would yield about 68 cases among the at-risk cows, he wrote in a recent article published in Food Safety magazine. In Europe, the number of cases among seemingly healthy animals has been about half that seen in the at-risk cows. So in the U.S. that would yield 34 additional cases, for a total of 102.
Only about half the cases will be detected, however, because many animals will not show any symptoms, LaBudde said. This is based on the experience in Europe, where half the animals that test positive have no outward symptoms of infection, he added.
The USDA's surveillance plan focuses predominantly on animals with obvious signs of the disease, such as staggering, the inability to stand or dying from it. Only a small percentage of healthy-appearing animals will be tested.
LaBudde said the department should test all cows over age 5 regardless of their health status, because these are the most likely to have passed through the lengthy incubation period of the disease and test positive. He called the USDA's failure to do that bordering on "negligent."
The USDA and the meat industry have insisted the U.S. beef supply is safe because the most infectious parts of the cows -- the brain, spinal cord and intestines -- are being removed."
See, here's the thing - the USDA can insist all they want, but the reality is that we don't know very much about the agents that actually cause Mad Cow disease. They're called prions, and they're unlike anything else in modern medicine:
- baked at 680 degrees F for one hour (hot enough to melt lead)
- bombarded with radiation
- soaked in formaldehyde, bleach, and boiling water/
Finally, just to scare the living shit out of you, even if the USDA does discover widespread infections in US herds there is no way the agency can force a recall. In fact, no state or federal agency has clear authority to institute a mandatory recall of meat or poultry products.
According to Edward L. Menning, DVM, editor of the Journal of Federal Veterinarians:
Posted by flow Frazao on July 1, 2004 at 08:12 AM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tuesday, 29 June 2004
Fahrenheit 9/11 - Never Again
I've seen Fahrenheit 9/11 twice now, but I'm not going to subject you to any kind of review or anything. Plenty of people have already done that, and they've done a much better job than I could hope to.
Naturally, I recommend that you see the movie yourself instead of relying on somebody else for an opinion, but I digress...
It's been pointed out in numerous places that there is absolutely no way to predict what the impact will be on the election in November. Will it be a fatal blow to the Bush campaign? Or will it serve to mobilize the right wing? The movie is an unprecedented factor in this election so all anyone can do is guess, right?
Well, sort of. There might not be any way to foretell the movie's effect on the Presidential race, but the powers that be have found a way to ensure that this little inconvenience won't pop up again anytime soon:
[...]
Loews is the third-largest movie theater chain in the world, with more than 220 theaters and 2,200 screens worldwide."
If you've already seen Fahrenheit 9/11 then you know all about the Carlyle Group. If you haven't, here's a little background (via Fortune Magazine):
The firm also has about a dozen investors from Saudi Arabia, including, until recently, the bin Laden family. Yes, those bin Ladens."
These guys now own the third largest cinema chain in the world. Something tells me the next Michael Moore movie won't enjoy a 900 screen opening weekend.
Of course, the Carlyle Group can't stop Loews from showing Fahrenheit 9/11. It's too late for that. What they're essentially doing is saying:
Fool me, don't get fooled again."
Posted by flow Frazao on June 29, 2004 at 03:48 PM in Current Affairs, Film, US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Supreme Court Puts the Smack Down
Lots of action yesterday from the Supreme Court. The "Enemy Combatant" rulings have gotten most of the attention, but another decision was made as well upholding the Miranda warnings:
Under the tactic the court invalidated in the Missouri case, the police first question a suspect while withholding the advice required by the Miranda decision of the right to remain silent and to consult a lawyer before answering questions. In not giving the warnings, the police know that any incriminating statements elicited in this phase of the questioning will be inadmissible in court.
The officers then give the suspect a short break before resuming the interrogation, this time with the warnings. Typically, suspects will waive their Miranda rights and then repeat what they had said earlier, prompted by the officers' leading questions and by the sense that it is now too late to turn back."
This is great news - by a 5-4 decision, Miranda will live to see anther day. However, this case really underscores the importance of the upcoming election. The next President will be nominating up to four Supreme Court Justices. One more conservative judge on the court would have been enough to effectively deal a death blow to the Miranda warnings, and an entire generation would be deprived of hearing "you have the right to remain silent..." in cheesy cop shows.
In case you haven't heard, another huge decision was passed down today involving the government's powers in fighting the War on Terra. As I'm sure you know, for the past two years we've been holding hundreds of people as "Enemy Combatants". No charges have been filed, and most of them are currently being held in cages in Guantamo Bay.
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court has dealt the Bush Administration a harsh blow by ruling in favor of the prisoners' rights:
Ruling in two cases, the high court refused to endorse a central claim of the White House: that the government has authority to seize and detain terrorism suspects and indefinitely deny access to courts or lawyers while interrogating them.
A state of war "is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote in the most significant case of the day, a ruling that gives American-born detainee Yaser Esam Hamdi the right to fight his detention in a federal court.
Separately, the court said that nearly 600 men from 42 countries held at a Navy prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can use American courts to contest their treatment. The Bush administration had argued that U.S. courts had no business second-guessing detentions of foreigners held on foreign soil."
Although the official ruling was 6-3, there were some interesting viewpoints expressed:
[...]
Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and liberal Justice John Paul Stevens said if the government had a case against [enemy combatant] Hamdi it should have charged him as a criminal, perhaps even as a traitor. Citizens cannot be held as enemy combatants so long as the usual protections of the Constitution are in force, the pair wrote."
Even Scalia thinks the government has overstepped it's bounds. This is not a guy who's known for upholding the constitution.
This is extremely heartening news. We can expect the Guantanamo detainees to begin bringing cases to trial sometime this summer, and I have a feeling there are going to be some pretty unsavory details coming out:
Just wait till US citizen Jose Padilla gets his day in court. Torturing Iraqis and Afghans might be acceptable to Joe Sixpack, but somehow I don't think "waterboarding" Americans is going to go over all that well.
It's going to be a long, hot summer for the Bush Administration.
Posted by flow Frazao on June 29, 2004 at 12:24 PM in US News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Thursday, 24 June 2004
Blasts From the Past
Here's a couple of updates to stories that didn't have what it takes to compete in the era of the 23-second news cycle.
- Student in Box-Cutter Case Gets Probation
A college student who says he hid box cutters on airplanes to expose weaknesses in security was sentenced Thursday to two years supervised probation and fined $500. - Man Gets Six-Year Term For D.C. Tractor Standoff
Tobacco farmer Dwight W. Watson was sentenced yesterday to a six-year prison term for making threats, destroying property and paralyzing part of downtown Washington after he drove his tractor into a pond on the Mall last year.
Don't these both of these stories feel like they happened 20 years ago? Maybe it's just me...
UPDATE: OK, OK, I couldn't resist - here's a new one:
- Oklahoma Judge Removed From Bench After Masturbation
While seated on the bench, an Oklahoma judge used a male enhancement pump, shaved and oiled his nether region, and pleasured himself, state officials charged yesterday in a petition to remove the jurist.
Talk about taking the law into your own hands...
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on June 24, 2004 at 02:33 PM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Now That We've Caught All The Terrorists
After three long years of sacrifice and hardship, our airports are finally secure:
Thomas Blank, assistant administrator at the Transportation Security Administration, told the Senate aviation subcommittee that airports will have three options: remain in the federal system, use a private contractor to hire and train screeners, or run the screening themselves. They can apply for a change in November.
Since we don't have to worry about terrorists, we can go back to rushing through airports and flashing our Blockbuster cards when the minimum-wage security guards ask us for ID.
September 11 really did change everything, didn't it? Thank God we've finally come to our senses.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on June 24, 2004 at 02:12 PM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tuesday, 22 June 2004
You Weren't Using Those Amendments Anyway
If you've been reading this site for a while, you might remember the story of Dudley Hiibel, a 59 year old cowboy who owns a small ranch outside of Winnemucca, Nevada.
Dove asked Hiibel 11 times to show his identification, but Hiibel refused.
He was arrested and convicted of resisting an officer by refusing to show his identification, a misdemeanor. He was fined $250.
Hiibel appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, but when the state court ruled against him, he took his case to the nation’s highest court.
It's all on video here. Check it out - the guy really isn't doing anything wrong.
But that didn't stop the Supreme Court from ruling 5-4 against Hiibel, thereby dealing yet another blow to what's left of our civil liberties:
During such “Terry stops,” officers have the right to ask questions about the person’s identity, the court said.
But, the court said, “it has been an open question whether the suspect can be arrested and prosecuted for refusal to answer.”
In Monday’s ruling, the justices settled that question.
“The Nevada statute is consistent with Fourth Amendment prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures because it properly balances the intrusion on the individual’s interests against the promotion of legitimate government interests,” said Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority.
But Justice John Paul Stevens, writing the dissenting opinion, said “a person’s identity obviously bears informational and incriminating worth.”
“As the target of that investigation, (Hiibel), in my view, acted well within his rights when he opted to stand mute,” Stevens wrote.
As of now, failure to produce identification upon demand even without probable cause could be grounds for arrest.
I've got an idea - why don't they just go ahead and tattoo our social security numbers on our arms?
Oh wait. That's already been done.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on June 22, 2004 at 11:29 AM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Monday, 24 May 2004
About Time
Is America ready to join the rest of the civilized world by outlawing the death penalty?
Justices said that lower courts were wrong to block appeals by death row inmate David Larry Nelson, who was less than three hours from execution last fall when the Supreme Court gave him a temporary reprieve.
Looks like we'll find out.
Posted by flow Frazao on May 24, 2004 at 11:28 AM in US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack