Open thread potpourri

Today the Supremes essentially gutted the 4th Amendment by ruling that people arrested for any offense, however minor, may be forced to strip before being jailed even if there is no suspicion of contraband.

"A regulation impinging on an inmate’s constitutional rights must be upheld “if it is reasonably related to legitimate penological interests.” Turner v. Safley, 482 U. S. 78. This Court, in Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U. S. 520, upheld a rule requiring pretrial detainees in federal correctional facilities “to expose their body cavities for visual inspection as a part of a strip search conducted after every contact visit with a person from outside the institution[s],” deferring to the judgment of correctional officials that the inspections served not only to discover but also to deter the smuggling of weapons, drugs, and other prohibited items."

"The case decided Monday, Florence v. County of Burlington, No. 10-945, arose from the arrest of Albert W. Florence in New Jersey in 2005. Mr. Florence was in the passenger seat of his BMW when a state trooper pulled his wife, April, over for speeding. A records search revealed an outstanding warrant for Mr. Florence’s arrest based on an unpaid fine. (The information was wrong; the fine had been paid.) Mr. Florence was held for a week in jails in Burlington and Essex Counties, and he was strip-searched in each. There is some dispute about the details, but general agreement that he was made to stand naked in front of a guard who required him to move intimate parts of his body. The guards did not touch him.“Turn around,” Mr. Florence, in an interview last year, recalled being told by jail officials. “Squat and cough. Spread your cheeks.” 

Better make sure all your parking tickets are paid up.

Meanwhile, more shootings: At least seven poeople are dead after a gunman opened fire at Oikos University, a Christian school in Oakland, Calif., this morning.

According to police the gunman fired multiple shots in the school at 10:33 a.m. Police have not said how many people were killed or wounded, but aerial video from the scen shows five bodies laid out under sheets on the school lawn. Two more died at the hospital. 

The man suspected of shooting and fatally wounding multiple people at the religious college in Oakland had previously been a nursing student at the school.  Pastor Jong Kim, who founded Oikos University about 10 years ago, told the Oakland Tribune he was unsure if the alleged shooter had been expelled from the school or dropped out voluntarily. He said he heard about 30 gunshots while remaining in his office for safety.

Comments

[Mike Barer]

These guys are as far to the right as the court was to the left decades ago.
Douglas, Black, and Warren must be spinning in their graves.

[KS]

Sotameyer, Kagan, Breyer and Ginsburg are as far left as anyone ever on the SCOTUS and make Warren, Douglas and Black look like moderates.

[Air Yeezy 2]

Romney and Obama: A contrast in styles

[Chucks]

Just thank God Douglas, Warren and Black are in their graves (though retirement is just as good at ending the terror)

[Puget Sound Blathers]

Wow. Current TV's countersuit, on Olberman. Jeez, this guy sounds seriously unhinged. Given his track record, I am willing to bet this isn't an exaggeration.

"Current argues that Olbermann refused to promote the network or its shows, and would order staff not to promote “Countdown” when he wasn’t anchoring. It also pulled some embarrassing emails and events from Olbermann’s tenure at the network. After a picture of the “Countdown” set leaked to the press by the designer, Olbermann asked Current CEO Joel Hyatt “Can you assassinate him, please?” Another incident saw Olbermann throw a glass mug against the wall of the studio, shattering it.

Somehow, Olberman will manage to make it about Bush...this should be good

[Puget Sound Blathers]

too damn funny. john gibson bids adieu to Olberman
Olby actually cried that he can't stand the smell or the fact that the limo drivers would dare to talk to him.

Here

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=964ei7wir04&feature=youtu.be

[KS]

Gibson is damn funny - he is the one who coined the name "Bathtub Boy" for Olby.

If Prez. Obama needs any more trash talking material when he exposes his demagoguery , besides Al Sharpton, he can also reference Olby's worst person in the world diatribes.

(It is a sad commentary that I have to expose this side of the guy who serves as the Leader of the Free World, because many folks are too unperceptive and lazy to realize they are being played for idiots).

[Puget Sound Blathers]

looks like olberman did not care much for Cenk Uygur. (I actually like Cenk and started to watch him)
From David Weigel blog:
"Cenk Uygur, who brought his "Young Turks" show to the network even though Olbermann thought it would stink. "Olbermann told them that he did not think Uygur would be a good choice. Olbermann opined to Bohrman that Uygur had difficulty separating facts from things he wanted to be true… when Uygur appeared on "Countdown," the day after Ugyur's much publicized departure from MSNBC (at the height of his perceived popularity), the ratings on the Program had actually gone down during Uygur's segment."

Difficulty in separating fact from fiction? From Olberman? jeez. You know it's bad when Al Gore and Roger Ailes both agree on something: Olberman is ridiculous.

[KS]

I watched Andrew Breitbart rip Cenk a new one in a one on one exchange a few months ago about the falsehoods Cenk was telling the viewers during their interview. At first, I thought Cenk was the caliber of a Lawrence O'Donnell or a Chris Matthews - overboard and asanine, but he actually got better as the show went along - not talking over him as much and allowed Breitbart to have a forum which he loved no matter where.

The next day Cenk Ugyur came on and admitted that Breitbart helped straighten out his false perceptions from the left wing media (Huff Post, media matters) and moved on. I'd watch him again, knowing that I'd disagree with his take, but he would at least provide a reasonable forum for opposing views.

[Jim Beam]

at lest Cenk is still alive...

[KS]

Mark Steyn wrote the following;

"In the end, free societies get the governments they deserve. So, if the American people wish to choose their chief executive on the basis of the "war on women," the Republican theocrats' confiscation of your contraceptives, or whatever other mangy and emaciated rabbit the Great Magician produces from his threadbare topper, they are free to do so, and they will live with the consequences. This week's bit of ham-handed misdirection was "the Buffett Rule," a not-so-disguised capital-gains tax hike designed to ensure that Warren Buffett pays as much tax as his secretary. If the alleged Sage of Omaha is as exercised about this as his public effusions would suggest, I'd be in favor of repealing the prohibition on Bills of Attainder, and the old boy could sleep easy at night. But instead every other American "millionaire" will be subject to the new rule – because, as President Obama said this week, it "will help us close our deficit."

Wow! Who knew it was that easy?

President Barack Obama speaks about the Buffett Rule, Wednesday, April 11, 2012, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington.
SUSAN WALSH, ASSOCIATED PRESS
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A-hem. According to the Congressional Budget Office (the same nonpartisan bean counters who project that on Obama's current spending proposals the entire U.S. economy will cease to exist in 2027) Obama's Buffett Rule will raise – stand well back – $3.2 billion per year. Or what the United States government currently borrows every 17 hours. So in 514 years it will have raised enough additional revenue to pay off the 2011 federal budget deficit. If you want to mark it on your calendar, 514 years is the year 2526. There's a sporting chance Joe Biden will have retired from public life by then, but other than that I'm not making any bets."

That pretty much sums up what the POTUS election is about.