The Hollywood Liberal

In a surprise ruling (it’s surprising any time the court rules in favor of the people over the cops)
The Supreme Court ruled that passengers in cars, have the same rights against illegal searches and seizures as the drivers. The cops pull over a car for no reason, search it find drugs, (probably a roach or something) and arrest the passenger saying he has no 4th amendment rights. The court disagrees.

Court Embraces Rights for Car Passengers

SF Gate
Excerpt:
Passengers, like drivers, have a constitutional right to challenge the legality of police decisions to stop cars in which they are traveling, the Supreme Court said Monday.
Bruce Brendlin was convicted of drug possession after a sheriff’s deputy stopped a car in which he was a passenger in Yuba City, Calif., in 2001.
Brendlin was wanted for a parole violation, although the deputy who ordered the car to pull over didn’t know beforehand that Brendlin was in the vehicle…..

Justice David Souter, writing for a unanimous court, disagreed. “We think that in these circumstances, any reasonable passenger would have understood the police officers to be exercising control to the point that no one in the car was free to depart without police permission,” Souter said. “A traffic stop necessarily curtails the travel a passenger has chosen just as much as it halts the driver.”

The American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP backed Brendlin, arguing that a ruling in the state’s favor would encourage police to conduct arbitrary traffic stops to target passengers, especially minorities, who lack the same rights as drivers.

Brendlin appealed his conviction, arguing that the drug evidence should be suppressed because it was found as the result of an illegal stop. The state has since conceded there was no basis to stop the car…..

Here is one more example of how the Transportation Security Administration has no intention of making our airlines safe, and every intention of hassling people to the point where they just don’t want to bother flying anymore. A 14 veteran of the US Secret Service, and her young son are trying to board a flight, but wait, we have a potential terrorism situation. The kid has a sippy cup. What nefarious liquid may be in that cup? Some highly volatile chemical? some sort of liquid WMD? Not to worry though, the Secret Service Agent offers to drink the liquid, to alleviate any possible fears the TSA might have. That’s not good enough for the titty grabbing officers. They want her to go to the back of the line, and come back without the cup, causing her to possibly miss her flight. She gets upset and spills the water, causing an National Incident. Here’s Keith with the story, and video of the ordeal.

The end of the American dream?

BBC
Excerpt:
After growing at more than 3% a year in 2004 and 2005, the pace picked up to a blistering 5.6% annual rate in the first quarter of this year – although the pace has since then slipped back to 2.9%.

So far, though, little of that growth has translated into the hands of the average worker, according to new research from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

For real household incomes, the median point – the level at which half of households earn more and half less – has actually fallen over the past five years.

That marks a notable contrast with the 1990s, when the economic boom boosted both jobs and incomes.

The puzzle of economic expansion without significant job or wage growth has been troubling US economists and commentators of all political persuasions.

HL’s Take:
The reason is simple, Bill Clinton cared about helping the people, Bush only cares about helping HIS people

John Dean: Scooter Libby’s Appeal: The Focus Shifts To the Highly Political U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

Findlaw’s Writ
Excerpt:
A Test for the Rule of Law: Will Judge Walton’s Well-Reasoned Ruling Stand?

Judge Walton, it bears remembering, was appointed to the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia by George W. Bush. Clearly, he is a no-nonsense jurist. The law under which he is sending Libby to prison, rather than allowing him to remain free on bond, is a hard nosed statute that the Reagan Republicans pushed through Congress, the Bail Reform Act of 1984. (I have not checked but it seems overwhelmingly likely that Dick Cheney would have helped enact this law, since he served as the House’s Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee from 1981 to 1987.) The law was part of efforts by conservatives to make life difficult for all criminals, even white-collar criminals….

There are ten active judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia of whom seven are Republicans and three are Democrats. In addition, there are four senior status judges of whom three are Republicans and one is a Democrat. In short, this court is composed of ten Republicans and four Democrats. It does not require a statistician to appreciate that the probability of Libby drawing a three-judge panel composed of at least two Republicans (a majority) is therefore extremely high.

If this court stays Libby’s sentence, that will be a grievous mistake. Judge Walton has taken care to scrupulously follow the law, and he has clearly set aside the fact he was appointed by a Republican president. If the panel deciding upon the stay should overrule Judge Walton, that result ought send shudders through the land — because it will mean the rule of law has become secondary to party loyalty.

So we’ll see. I would be stunned if a GOP-majority panel or, indeed, any panel gave Scooter Libby a pass.

HL’s Take
If the appeals court does not overturn Judge Walton, will it then go to The Supreme Court? Will they then vote 5-4 in Libby’s favor. Will they do this so Libby won’t spill the beans and implicate Cheney, the most powerful man in the world? I do love to see Republicans getting caught up in the “get tough on crime” legislation that they themselves passed. Poetic Justice, (and actual justice) at it’s finest.

It’s Official: The Crash of the U.S. Economy has begun

Global Research
Excerpt:
It’s official. Mark your calendars. The crash of the U.S. economy has begun. It was announced the morning of Wednesday, June 13, 2007, by economic writers Steven Pearlstein and Robert Samuelson in the pages of the Washington Post, one of the foremost house organs of the U.S. monetary elite.

Pearlstein’s column was titled, “The Takeover Boom, About to Go Bust” and concerned the extraordinary amount of debt vs. operating profits of companies currently subject to leveraged buyouts.
In language remarkably alarmist for the usually ultra-bland pages of the Post, Pearlstein wrote, “It is impossible to predict when the magic moment will be reached and everyone finally realizes that the prices being paid for these companies, and the debt taken on to support the acquisitions, are unsustainable. When that happens, it won’t be pretty. Across the board, stock prices and company valuations will fall. Banks will announce painful write-offs, some hedge funds will close their doors, and private-equity funds will report disappointing returns. Some companies will be forced into bankruptcy or restructuring…..”

Among those poised to profit from the crash is the Carlyle Group, the equity fund that includes the Bush family and other high-profile investors with insider government connections. A January 2007 memorandum to company managers from founding partner William E. Conway, Jr., recently appeared which stated that, when the current “liquidity environment”—i.e., cheap credit—ends, “the buying opportunity will be a once in a lifetime chance.”

HL’s Take
It will be Bush’s going away present to America.

Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes 2008 Edition

War Resisters League
Excerpt:
HOW THESE FIGURES WERE DETERMINED

Current military” includes Dept. of Defense ($585 billion), the military portion from other departments ($122 billion), and an unbudgetted estimate of supplemental appropriations ($20 billion). “Past military” represents veterans’ benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt.*

HL’s Take
There’s lots more, click through and see, there is another pie chart that shows how the Government claims the money is spent. The War Resisters League has been around since WW1, these are the guys I got arrested with at the 2004 Republican Convention in New York.

New Orleans turns to international aid

Raw Story
Excerpt:
NEW ORLEANS — The cash-strapped city of New Orleans is turning to foreign countries for help to rebuild as federal hurricane-recovery dollars remain slow to flow.
Kenya Smith, director of intergovernmental relations for Mayor Ray Nagin, said city leaders are talking with more than five countries. He wouldn’t identify the countries, saying discussions were in the early stages. But he said the city is “very serious” about pursuing foreign help.

“Of course, we would love to have all the resources we need from federal and state partners, but we’re comfortable now in having to be creative,” Smith said. He did not know if the city would have to overcome any obstacles if it got firm pledges for aid, but “we want to make sure we’re leaving no options unexplored.”

For months Nagin has complained bureaucracy is choking the flow of much-needed federal aid dollars to New Orleans – slowing the city’s recovery. As of June 8, the city said it had received just over half of the $320 million FEMA has obligated for rebuilding city infrastructure and emergency response-related costs. The city has estimated its damage at far more than that – at least $1 billion. And that doesn’t include other improvements – such as raised neighborhoods – meant to help build the stronger city promoted by Nagin and his recovery director

HL’s Take
It’s been almost 2 years and only half the money that was supposed to go to New Orleans has gotten there. That is a disgrace. Bush is the steward of the biggest domestic disaster in US History as well as the biggest foreign policy disaster in US history. It is disgraceful that this much time has passed and parts of New Orleans still look like the hurricane happened yesterday.
If Katrina would have happened when Clinton was President, the whole city would have been rebuilt in less then a year. This is Bush’s way of telling America You’re on your own. Don’t look to us for help when disaster strikes, we are too busy looting Iraq’s oil, and stealing everything that isn’t bolted down.

Rackjite.com
Tony Snow is a liar, so were Bush’s other press secretaries, but Snow makes the others Fliesher, and McClellan look like pikers. Here John Stewart busts him. No and, ifs or buts, no well I meant that. Snow says one thing, then he claims he never said it. Stewart is hilarious as ususal, check iit out.

They Love him in Albania, Bush Watch Stolen Off His Own Wrist.

See The Rest Of The Comic Here.

Tommy Chong was invited on MSNBC to talk about his take on the whole Paris Hilton ordeal, seems the talking head host didn’t dig what he had to say, and quickly cut him off after his answers. Stephen Colbert laughed so hard about it he had Tommy on his show to discuss it.
You have to stop what you are doing right now and watch the videos.