Thursday Open Thread
So there are two pictures on eBay purporting to be taken during the Civil War (the left photograph) and years before in 1850 (the right photo). These pictures prove that Nicholas Cage and John Travolta are undead vampires of the night.
And that finally explains why either have acting careers in the first place.
h/t to Gawker.
c’MON! Travolta is great, though I do agree that Cage merely annoys the shit out of me.
I can’t wait for the duel in which immortal Travolta cuts the head off immortal Cage.
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!
Worshiped zenu back then too!
Both need to get back to whatever worked then because father time ain’t been so kind.
Proof that even the immortals are merely mediocre.
Then, there’s the Dr. Who model, perhaps they’ve been traveling in a T.A.R.D.I.S.
Seems that the teabaggers and 9/12’s are beating each other up over at DP over the Sussex sheriff again. St. Bodie Girl apparently sent a resolution to County Council stating that the GOP executive committee endorsed full police powers for the sheriff – except the executive committee never voted on it.
Pass the popcorn.
I think Chris Bowers’ post on dKos is a sign it’s time for us to start paying attention to the Wall Street protests. They’re big, and getting bigger. They are a bunch of hippies and have lots of energy and a hell of a lot more heart than we do, but they don’t seem to have much focus. That’s where we come in.
This is a good one. It is just what it says it is:
Wall Street executives watch protests while drinking champagne from balconies (literally)
And… Has anybody not seen the pepper-spray videos yet?
MJ – No, that’s not what happened, though lots of people have thought so. Bodie drafted a resolution and sent it to members of the council for their thoughts. But because it’s written in resolution-ese (“Wherefore and hereby the Executive Committee of the Grand Old Party Poo-Bahs Whatsits declare that …”) lots of people assumed it had been already approved by the Executive Committee of the whatever. Not so.
Reading comprehension fail.
actually anon – that is not true either
the initial post Crazy-man Ayotte had the header read as if it was passed.
Even their own blogger, Frank Knotts thought so as well – See comments # 2, #3 and #4 and #6
so Crazy-man changed the header to clear it all up and make it correct and not mis-lead readers. why I dont know – he misleads folks all the time. doesnt know that the NCC Sheriff and the NCC police are different agencies. And thinks that the DE constitution outlines the Sheriff;s duties. Dear me, a sad soul
I do believe the reading comprehension fail is on your part, anon
Pass the popcorn MJ
Clarence Thomas investigation? http://is.gd/QRAevh
Between Colley, DelawarePolitics, and Bodin, there is plenty of opportunity to for psycho-racist-craziness to slip in.
It sounds to me like some one wanted to pretend that GOP executive committee endorsed full police powers for the sheriff, in order to see if saying would make it so.
Teabaggers are always seeking to get control of any gun-toting paramilitary forces they can. Some of the DP comments claim that county sheriffs are of great importance in “sovereign citizen” theory. Commenter Nitpicker says Sussex t-baggers want “Joe Arpaio on LSD.”
Has anyone heard of a “safety checkpoint”?
I havent. I know all about sobriety check points. Im ok with these…. esspecially when they are in a logical place at a logical time.. Delaware Ave in Newark the weekend of Homecoming is totally understandable.
But last night I was driving with my band…. to band practice down Jackson St toward Maryland Ave and we saw traffic. Cops IDing everyone. The (old white teabaggy looking) cop that got my car was especially ready to bust someone.. and especially suspicious of my lead singer, who is black, sitting in my back seat. not a half a second after asking for HIS ID, which i see no reason why he needed, as I was the one driving he demanded “Why are you hesitating sir!?” in a “oh please make me taze you” tone of voice.
We were then asked to pull off to the side of the road while they ran all 3 of our licenses… “verified” my insurance card and 3 cops “investigated” my tags and VIN number plate to make sure it was “authentic” While on the side of the road i saw lots of cars get waived through with not so much as a glance inside…. where I could see people that… “didn’t fit the description”
We weren’t asked to get out of the car…. and lucky for them, they didnt ask to search it, because in addition to finding nothing other than a criminally non-taken care of Les Paul (belonging to my singer, not me) i would have made it a VERY VERY long night for them as legally as i possibly could have. At one point, no one knew where our IDs were. the cop who took them was doing something else and organization and communication didnt seem to be their strong point. No one gave me a clear answer as to why exactly tax payer money was being used for a random sweep to go fishing for people who might be thinking about breaking the law. One cop told me insurance companies pay for this for statistics.. which, if true means private companies can buy our police for to do their bidding.
sorry for the rant.
he demanded “Why are you hesitating sir!?” in a “oh please make me taze you” tone of voice.
A bunch of Tony Baloneys just waiting for their moment to shine.
Has anyone heard of a “safety checkpoint”?
Sadly it is allowed per a Supreme Court decision as long as you nominally follow certain guidelines. Or not.
I have to figure out a way to keep a camera handy in the car, possibly concealed with a hidden “on” button, with a way to instantly upload video in case of (certain) confiscation.
These Safety Checkpoints happen in the city fairly routinely. As far as I can tell, they place them in areas where there’s alot of illegal activity or a new and sustained spike in activity. I’ve only driven through one — at 7th and Washington (around 12:30 AM) and it looked like an occupation. Not that I’m complaining for that part of the neighborhood. I was waved through.
I actually might be in favor of suspending civil liberties to some extent in high-danger, high-crime areas, under certain conditions. At one point when I lived in NYC I would have been willing to let the National Guard come through designated neighborhoods door-to-door and remove all the guns and drugs (and my neighborhood would have been included).
But my concept was that it would be heavily court-supervised, and the activity would be accompanied by lawyers, court officers, civilian rights advocates on the ground, and heavily filmed and monitored, with a definite end date. In reality I can imagine our elected officials suspending civil liberties, but I can’t imagine them taking such care to cause the least damage, or to make it temporary.
If you disagree then you almost certainly did not live in NYC in the 80s, and never had a gun stuck in your face.
In the end, Rudy Giuliani did make a huge dent in street crime and the atmosphere of fear. He basically did suspend civil liberties and shake people down, but he did it on the streets instead of door to door, and he didn’t need no stinkin’ court supervision.
OK. I had just not heard of them…. *devilish grin” other than in Poland in the 30s.
What bothered me was the obvious profiling. Car full of multi ethnic 20 somethings.
I was very cooperative and respectful until it became clear we were getting fucked with…. then i started asking questions… which they always hate.
Puck, I didnt have time to engage it in this situation, but i build a little mount for my phone in my center console that points the lens for the camera right at the window so it can see anyone standing there.
I know that part of wilmington isnt the nicest area… but i also know that all the kids who drive around stoned with drugs on them live up in Talleyville.
Cassandra, it did look like an occupation. they were all wearing bulletproof vests, guns and tasers well displayed and all the blocked off streets had cops with (i hope bean bag round) shot guns standing next to the patrol cars.
I guess I lose this round of Godwin’s Law. It sounds like fascism to me. No cause, no stop. It used to be that simple.
Just ’cause has become the new Just Cause
The cause is Safety. That’s how they get to do it.
Edit: And I have to say, living on the edge of a pretty dicey neighborhood, that I don’t exactly mind these efforts. There is all kinds of activity that tends to die down for awhile after one of these checkpoints, and the WPD scoops up a couple of weapons that helps them clear some cases.
“The cause is Safety. ”
Safety for whom?
That makes sense, but don’t you think that it doing police work on the cheap?
If you’ve ever seen one of these operations, you wouldn’t be using the word *cheap*.
I think honest people can disagree at different times. I even hold different opinions, sometimes at the same time. The balance of individual rights vs. security is one of the oldest dichotomies in America.
In the end I think civil liberties should usually win over security. And that is because the supposed security gains are small or nonexistent and temporary, while civil liberties are priceless and seemingly irrecoverable once lost.
I agree with jason. Rather than doing leg work, following leads, going out looking for violent criminals…. they are setting up a net in a “bad neighborhood” and hoping someone with an outstanding warrant happens to drive through. There were 50 or so cops there… which means there were 50 or so cops NOT somewhere else. Its like hassling a guy with a joint because catching that rapist is just too difficult.
It’s hard to see what civil liberties are being lost here that haven’t been gone for your lifetime. You agree to stop when the police ask you to stop. These checkpoints ask you to stop and show your licence, registration and insurance. They also check for outstanding warrants, which isn’t unusual for a traffic stop now. This *safety* check lets the police decide if they should be interested in you for other reasons too. And given the drugs and weapons some of these checks produce, it is hard to argue that they aren’t productive. On top of that, neighborhoods being beseiged by the kids from Talleyville coming into town to buy their high get some relief.
well, you arent given much choice to stop. All roads to turn off and drive around are blocked off and it is on a one way street. At the very least you are tied up for (in our case) 45 minutes. The disorganization is also unacceptable. They should have been able to produce or stuff as soon as they were done checking up on us….. not dick around for 10 minutes trying to find whos car it was in. And like i said, the instant third degree… Not even hiding the fact he was gonna play “bad cop” as soon as i rolled down my window was totally unnecessary. He even made a little “uh oh, you’re pizza is gonna get cold” crack.
In the same way, they take their funding for crackdowns on “aggressive driving” and instead use it to set up speed traps and checkpoints. Because checkpoints a hell of a lot easier than catching people tailgating, making unsafe lane changes, failing to yield, etc.
In Delaware there is an actual “aggressive driving” charge, which is basically used just as a pile-on fine for speeding.
“You agree to stop when the police ask you to stop. These checkpoints ask you to stop and show your licence, registration and insurance. ”
I know. But some of us still have vestigial memories of the Fourth Amendment.
Actually, the SC decision gutting the Fourth Amendment allows states to stick with the old interpretation if they want. But law enforcement owns Delaware politics just as much as banks do.
“He even made a little “uh oh, you’re pizza is gonna get cold” crack.”
Every car should come with a sticker on the driver side door that says “Smile, you’re on YouTube.”
:…they were all wearing bulletproof vests, guns and tasers well displayed and all the blocked off streets had cops with (i hope bean bag round) shot guns standing next to the patrol cars.”
You just described a typical police officer’s uniform and equipment. The shotguns were loaded with 00 Buck or slugs, not bean bags.
“One cop told me insurance companies pay for this for statistics.. which, if true means private companies can buy our police for to do their bidding.”
Thanks to our lawMAKERS, the police have been doing the bidding of insurance companies for decades. Think moving violations and points.
Except that 4th Amendment or no, agreeing to stop your vehicle when the police ask you to comes with the privilege of driving that vehicle. So while that may be an intrusion on civil liberties, you’ve been living with that for as long as you’ve been driving, for as long as your parents have been driving.
There’s no doubt that this stop is meant to be the reason why they look for other stuff (drugs and guns), but if you are making a civil liberties case for said stop, you’re a little late to the game.
“agreeing to stop your vehicle when the police ask you to comes with the privilege of driving that vehicle. ”
True. It is just that a stop without probable cause is a reminder of the loss of the Fourth Amendment which triggers an infinite sense of regret and, if one is not careful, anger.
And “being a police officer”(or supervisor) is even more of a privilege which is also subject to review. The only reason a lot of officers keep their jobs is lack of ubiquitous civilian video. That will change in time, and when police come to expect being filmed, it might help counter the loss of the Fourth Amendment.
“In Delaware there is an actual “aggressive driving” charge, which is basically used just as a pile-on fine for speeding.”
Aggressive driving is a *combination* of offenses, such as speeding, tailgating, not signaling a lane change…
i dont know. I often use aggression when i decide to drive the speed limit on a 2 lane no passing road just to piss off the lead-foot behind me.
“The only reason a lot of officers keep their jobs is lack of ubiquitous civilian video. That will change in time, and when police come to expect being filmed, it might help counter the loss of the Fourth Amendment.”
I fully agree that civilians should be permitted to film the police during stops. However, there’s a lot of resistance to this by some police agencies at this time.
Conversely, the police should be able to whip out a recording device during a contact as well. That’s why my officers were issued hand-held voice and/or video recording devices along with all their other equipment. The bonus was that it tended to moderate the behavior of the suspect if they knew it was a matter of record, and you’d be surprised how many offenses were plead, and complaints were resolved, when a tape was provided at intake or discovery.
“I often use aggression when i decide to drive the speed limit on a 2 lane no passing road just to piss off the lead-foot behind me.”
Ditto, and it’s perfectly legal.
These checkpoints are nothing but police state fishing expeditions. They have no legitimacy in a free country. They exist only “because we say so and we have the guns”. Then the citizenry act like sheep and keep electing gutless politicians scared to challenge this crap or go against the police lobby.
Let’s face reality, Delaware is overloaded by hyper law enforcement goons. They are backed by toadies in black robes more than happy to shit all over what’s left of the 4th amendment. The commenter above who acts like it’s all just life in 21st century America Wilmington Delaware is a disgrace. For real: police “ask you to stop”??? Pleazzzze. Good luck saying “No thanks.”
The adrenaline junkie cops these days are too lazy to do real police work. These dragnet shakedowns can’t possibly meet the DE Supreme Court standard that “a police officer may detain an individual for investigatory purposes if the officer has a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the individual is engaged in criminal activity.” It is one thing to detect alcohol on a driver in a checkpoint but just plain shaking people down this way is craziness.
Sadly this is the reality of a new paramilitary generation of cops who are out of control. All they want to do is fish around and invent crimes rather than solve or prevent them. It’s not about protecting citizens or property now. It’s about racking up arrests and showing armed muscle to the proles. The old “papers, please” is a joke really since “please” has nothing do with it. What they have caused now with all this aggression breeds is more and more distrust and outright disrespect for law and law enforcement even amongst the otherwise law abiding.
In this hyped-up world we live in everyone is being treated as a terrorist.
There are neighborhoods all over this US of A whose citizens have *always* been treated as terrorists. The only thing new is that now they’ve increased the candidate neighborhoods.
I’m not sure that anyone other than the driver is legally required to show identification, unless there is clear probable cause. Are there any DL readers with more legal knowledge, who can comment on this?
Also, never, ever give the police your permission to search your car.