Conservative

Justice Dept. plans to sue Arizona sheriff Arpaio

PHOENIX (AP) — Federal authorities have said they plan to sue Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio and his office over allegations of civil rights violations, including the racial profiling of Latinos.

The U.S. Justice Department has been seeking an agreement requiring Arpaio's office to train officers in how to make constitutional ...

Obama More Insulting than Gutsy on Gay Marriage

About.com - US Conservatives - Fri, 2024-11-29 01:46

Does anyone really even care that much about gay marriage? If you can't find work, are paying $4 a gallon for gas, have a loved one fighting in Afghanistan, and are struggling with rising food costs, is this really what anyone cares about? It's very relieving to know that the economic crisis is over, because the only thing the Democrats want to talk about is birth control, gay marriage, and Mitt Romney's 1980's road trip with his dog, Seamus. So with Obama's orchestrated gay marriage roll out, Americans have to suffer yet another distraction from everything Obama has done (and failed to do) over the past four years.

But shouldn't gays be more insulted than anything over Obama's laugh-out-loud "evolution" on the issue? Everyone knew Obama was lying during the 2008 campaign when he claimed to believe marriage was between a man and a woman. If he were courageous, he would have been honest then. But it didn't matter. Obama was embarrassed of his position on gays and lied about it. Honestly, his opposition to gay marriage was about as sincere as his pledge to not raise taxes (ha), to not hire lobbyists (haha), or to go through the budget with "a scalpel" (not enough ha-has in the world).

The internal polling for Obama must be brutal. His political strength -- the under-30 crowd -- can't find work and the newness of Obama has worn off. He's trailing Romney, a supposedly wooden, woman-hating, unlikeable, out-of-touch rich guy by 3 and 4 points according to Rasmussen and Gallup daily tracking polls. (But worry not, two other polls give Obama leads by oversampling Democrats by 9 and 8 points).

So here we are. Obama has suddenly "evolved" on the issue of gay marriage, and is now bullying those who held the same position he did just a few days ago. And with Obama's announcement came his promise to do absolutely nothing. For the first time in history, Obama comes out with a federalist argument on an issue, so at least that is some progress. And with a few sweet-talked words, the money poured in and Obama's 2008 gay marriage base has come back home. And he didn't even have to actually do anything in return. As Condoleezza Rice once commented about being a black, female republican: "I'd rather be ignored than patronized." Obama believes that there are enough single-issue voters who will once again fall for his sweet-talking campaign tactics, as he makes the same promises in 2012 that he did in 2008. He could be right.

Obama More Insulting than Gutsy on Gay Marriage originally appeared on About.com Conservative Politics: U.S. on Thursday, May 10th, 2012 at 14:20:01.

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TSA Blasted over Security Equipment Spending

TruthNews.US - News - Fri, 2024-11-29 01:46
MSNBC | TSA has $44 million worth of screening equipment in storage for over a year; bought more than necessary to receive bulk discount.

Relative: Suspect thought kidnapped girls were his

GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi man on the run from a double slaying thought he might be the father of the two girls he's now accused of kidnapping, his mother-in-law said.

Authorities said they think the missing girls, Alexandria Bain, 12, and Kyliyah Bain, 8, are still with Adam ...

New Yorker: "Here’s Looking at You; Should we worry about the rise of the drone?"

FourthAmendment.com - News - Fri, 2024-11-29 01:46

New Yorker: Here’s Looking at You; Should we worry about the rise of the drone? by Nick Paumgarten:

ABSTRACT: THE WORLD OF SURVEILLANCE about drones. The prospect of unmanned flight has been around—depending on your definition—since Archytas of Tarentum reputedly designed a steam-powered mechanical pigeon, in the fourth century B.C., or since Nikola Tesla, in 1898, demonstrated a radio-controlled motorboat at an exposition in Madison Square Garden. By the sixties the Air Force was deploying unmanned reconnaissance jets over Southeast Asia. Still, it was the advent, in the mid-nineties, of the Global Positioning System, along with advances in microcomputing, that ushered in the possibility of automated unmanned flight. The Department of Defense, meanwhile, developed a keen interest. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and manhunts in places like Yemen, the military applications, and the corporations devoted to serving them (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman), came to dominate the skyscape. Many of these manufacturers had one client: the Department of Defense. In 2001, the military had just a few Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (U.A.V.s). Now it has more than ten thousand. Later this month, the F.A.A. will present a regulatory regimen enabling law-enforcement departments to fly small drones, and the military contractors will suddenly have some eighteen thousand potential new customers. As of now, only a tiny percentage of municipal and state police departments have any air presence, because most can’t afford helicopters or planes. Small camera-loaded U.A.V.s are much cheaper. The public proposition, at this point, anyway, is not that drones will subjugate or assassinate unwitting citizens but that they will conduct search-and-rescue operations, fight fires, catch bad guys, inspect pipelines, spray crops, count nesting cranes and migrating caribou, and measure weather data and algae growth. For these and other tasks, they are useful and well suited. Of course, they are especially well suited, and heretofore have been most frequently deployed, for surveillance.

MN: A parole search needs only reasonable suspicion

FourthAmendment.com - News - Fri, 2024-11-29 01:46

“No more than reasonable suspicion is required to search a parolee's home when the search is conducted pursuant to a valid parole condition.” State v. Heaton, 2012 Minn. App. LEXIS 39 (May 7, 2012).*

Defendant was stopped for a turn lane violation. Defendant’s detention was based on the fact that he would not make direct eye contact, his eyes were red and glassy, he was looking around the vehicle, and he acted somewhat suspicious. This led the officer to believe that he might be engaged in criminal activity. State v. Aguirre, 2012 Ohio 2014, 2012 Ohio App. LEXIS 1765 (3d Dist. May 7, 2012).*

Defendant has the burden of showing that the search warrant was issued without probable cause. Evaluating all the information, there was a substantial basis for concluding there was probable cause. State v. Fruge, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 623 (La.App. 5 Cir. May 8, 2012).*

Taxing jobs out of existence

Congress, ravenous for revenues to fund Obamacare, included in the health care legislation a 2.3 percent tax on gross revenues -- which generally amounts to about a 15 percent tax on most manufacturers' profits.

D.S.D.: Davis good faith exception requires a change in the law; it doesn't apply to wrong interpretations

FourthAmendment.com - News - Fri, 2024-11-29 01:46

To apply a Davis good faith exception to an officer’s interpretation of the statute, it has to be correct and in accord with existing case law that thereafter changed. If the officer is wrong on application of the statute, that’s a mistake of law and any good faith exception would not apply. United States v. Gore, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64784 (D. S.C. May 9, 2012).*

Officers approached defendant outside a store and got her ID to run a “local check” finding no warrants. They let her go but watched her walk and then decided to encounter her again, having her back against a wall and officers to both sides. A reasonable person would not have felt free to leave, and this was a Terry stop without justification. Defendant had the burden of showing that this was a seizure, and she satisfied it. State v. Young, 2012 Wash. App. LEXIS 1015 (May 1, 2012).*

CA10: State court's erroneous decision on search claim not subject to habeas

FourthAmendment.com - News - Fri, 2024-11-29 01:46

COA(2253(c)) in a 2254 denied on petitioner’s Fourth Amendment claim. The contention that the free standing Fourth Amendment claim was decided wrongly by state courts is barred under Stone v. Powell and AEDPA. McIntyre v. McKune, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 9435 (10th Cir. May 9, 2012):

Unlike the situation in Gamble, however, there is no indication that the Kansas courts refused to recognize or apply the correct legal standards in this case. McIntyre's belief that the state courts decided the claim wrongly does not mean that he was denied a full and fair opportunity to litigate. See Matthews v. Workman, 577 F.3d 1175, 1194 (10th Cir. 2009). He was able to brief his arguments, and the trial court held a hearing on whether to hold a Franks hearing. At that hearing, in addition to concluding that a Franks hearing was not warranted, the trial court held that the omissions were not material. McIntyre's counsel declined to raise suppression in his direct criminal appeal, but the Kansas Court of Appeals allowed McIntyre to file a pro se supplemental brief challenging the denial of suppression. After the Kansas Court of Appeals specifically acknowledged the pro se brief and stated that the arguments were meritless, McIntyre again on direct appeal was able to file a pro se petition for review to place the issue before the Kansas Supreme Court. No reasonable jurist would find it debatable whether McIntyre had a full and fair opportunity to litigate his Fourth Amendment claim in the Kansas courts.2 See Miranda v. Cooper, 967 F.2d 392, 401 (10th Cir. 1992) (concluding that defendant had a full and fair opportunity to litigate, even though he did not receive a Franks hearing).

S.D.Ind.: The fact there was an innocent explanation does not undermine PC for SW

FourthAmendment.com - News - Fri, 2024-11-29 01:46

The fact there were innocent explanations for what was described in the application for the search warrant does not undermine probable cause. The showing as to one of the searches was not supported and was thus waived. United States v. Durham, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65126 (S.D. Ind. May 9, 2012):

Mr. Durham's motion also purports to challenge the fruits of a search warrant issued in Ohio. [See dkt. 153 at 1.] He has not provided the Court with a copy of that warrant, its application, or with any argument specifically addressing the legal and factual circumstances for that warrant (including, for example, an explanation of the extent of his reasonable expectation of privacy there). Those failures constitute a waiver of any argument that he may have had, for lack of cogent development. E.g., Kawasaki Heavy Indus. v. Bombardier Rec. Prods., 660 F.3d 988, 994 n.3 (7th Cir. 2011) (citation omitted).

Inmate telephone calls out of a federal prison are recorded, and recording and listening to one is not an illegal search. United States v. Bassett, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65068 (E.D. Mo. April 13, 2012).*

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