I guess what some people think of as the "Rule of Law" is whatever they want it to be.

Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985)
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/471/1

Where the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others, it is not constitutionally unreasonable to prevent escape by using deadly force. Thus, if the suspect threatens the officer with a weapon or there is probable cause to believe that he has committed a crime involving the infliction or threatened infliction of serious physical harm, deadly force may be used if necessary to prevent escape, and if, where feasible, some warning has been given.

Majority White, joined by Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, Powell, Stevens
Dissent O'Connor, joined by Burger, Rehnquist

It is worth noting here that Justice Brennan is most famously known for his longstanding and eloquent dissents against the trend in the 1970's toward greater police power.

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2013/02/michael_crain_riverside_p.php

Crain is survived by a wife, a 10-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter. Funeral services are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Grove Community Church in Riverside, followed by interrment at Riverside National Cemetery.

That's right, with thousands of blocks and a one million dollar prize, who will be the lucky winner to pick the one where Dorner is hiding, and claim the one million dollar prize.

You can't win if you don't play, so call in and stake your claim to be the winning tip!

Don't let the capsule description about Nazis hiding on a secret moon base fool you. This is not your run of the mill Nazis-on-the-moon picture. While easily mistaken for another piece of B-movie flotsam, which is what I was expecting, this film is a window into the deepest fears of its international production crew about the American political psyche.

The film is set in a 2018 US which has elected a vacuous, egotistical woman as president who decorates her office with animal carcasses while crafting a media image as a downhome, folksy patriot.

Sound familiar? Oh, yes. And she looks familiar too.



It's election season, and she has set her hopes on being the first president to put a black man on the moon. Unfortunately, the mission doesn't succeed, and she is looking for some other way to boost her rootin', tootin' cred. However, unknown to earth, the mission did reach the moon, and our African American astronaut has been captured by Nazis who have been planning to stage a triumphant return to earth in the Gotterdamerung, an immense space battleship. The battleship is nearly operational, but the Nazis have not been able to perfect the control system for it.

By a remarkable stroke of luck, the Nazis confiscate the astronaut's iPhone and find that it is the missing piece of the control system they have been seeking. Unfortunately, the remaining charge in the iPhone is used up during testing, and so they must mount an expedition to earth, in order to visit an Apple store to obtain another one.

These Aryan Apple fanboys are just the ticket needed for the president's media advisor to find a way out of her career-ending moon landing PR debacle, not to mention inflaming her unusual romantic inclinations.

Many of the scenes are satiric takes on classic movie moments, including one absolute killer take off on the granddaddy of internet movie scene memes that is just not to be missed.

So, forget what you think this movie is about, and give it a look-see. You'll thank me later.

Jimmy Lee Dykes, the Alabama man who was holding a child hostage in a bunker for several days, was apparently killed by law enforcement.

He was not arrested, he was not charged, he was not tried, he was not given access to an attorney. He was shot dead.

Same with Charles Whitman, Bonnie & Clyde, and countless other criminal suspects apparently engaged in violent activity and showing no sign of desisting from that activity.

Check your warnings bonobo and asahina

As some members of our community take offense at the label "truthers" now being applied to various theories about events impacting politics, in the manner that "-gate" has become a suffix for all manner of political scandal, I would like to propose that we use a sui generis term for this manifestation, and call them:

Hookers.

We might as well fill out the cabinet now.

And then WE can control the Senate!

One of the reasons why there is a Democratic majority in the Senate is that Senators are elected at-large from each of their states, and thus the Senate is immune to gerrymandering. That is one of the reasons why you will occasionally hear R's state they want to repeal the Constitutional Amendment which established direct election of Senators, and go back to having Senators elected by the respective state legislatures.

Should the Senate Republicans continue to obstruct to the degree they have so far, then in the absence of filibuster reform, they have to own their obstruction, and answer to their at-large state electorates. With filibuster reform, their obstruction is blunted, but so are the electoral consequences of obstructing popular legislation.

Which Senate seats are up for election in 2012?

Put another way, which R senators need to have a sign saying "obstructionist" hung around their necks as the next two years proceed?

At present, it looks like this:

Alabama Jeff Sessions Republican Running

Alaska Mark Begich Democratic Running

Arkansas Mark Pryor Democratic Running

Colorado Mark Udall Democratic Running

Delaware Chris Coons Democratic Running

Georgia Saxby Chambliss Republican Retiring

Hawaii Brian Schatz Democratic Running

Idaho Jim Risch Republican Running

Illinois Richard Durbin Democratic Undecided

Iowa Tom Harkin Democratic Undecided

Kansas Pat Roberts Republican Running

Kentucky Mitch McConnell Republican Running

Louisiana Mary Landrieu Democratic Running

Maine Susan Collins Republican Running

Massachusetts (John Kerry) Democratic

Michigan Carl Levin Democratic Undecided

Minnesota Al Franken Democratic Running

Mississippi Thad Cochran Republican Undecided

Montana Max Baucus Democratic Running

Nebraska Mike Johanns Republican Running

New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen Democratic Running

New Jersey Frank Lautenberg Democratic Undecided

New Mexico Tom Udall Democratic Running

North Carolina Kay Hagan Democratic Running

Oklahoma Jim Inhofe Republican Running

Oregon Jeff Merkley Democratic Running

Rhode Island Jack Reed Democratic Running

South Carolina Lindsey Graham Republican Running

South Carolina Tim Scott Republican Running

South Dakota Tim Johnson Democratic Undecided

Tennessee Lamar Alexander Republican Running

Texas John Cornyn Republican Running

Virginia Mark Warner Democratic Running

West Virginia Jay Rockefeller Democratic Retiring

Wyoming Mike Enzi Republican Running

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I note that McTurtle is up in 2014. Is it better, for him, to have been perceived as having continued to make deals with Harry Reid under which Republican ability to obstruct is marginally weakened, or to have something imposed upon him?