tvc184

  This is what the Constitution says about search and seizure. It is called the Fourth Amendment.   The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

PC is facts based, not hearsay. It is a set of facts that tends to show that guilt is more likely than not. It is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt but it is fact based. If PC only had to be based on hearsay, I could arrest almost anyone that I wanted to at any time by merely saying, "I heard..." .

Their raid was likely justified before they got the warrant. Just one of those little quirks in the law called probable cause affidavits......

Yep. Gives them an easy out for something that should have been done long ago.

I eat at Tony's about once a week on average (convenient at work) and about half the time I get chicken fried steak with baked potato and salad. It is one of the better ones in this area in my opinion. It is kind of a hidden gem as most people might not think of CFS there.

It is smple, we spend way too much.

The last time I ate links there they weren't very good. It was more like a sausage than a link. Edible but that is why I haven't been back. Maybe they have changed and I willl give them another try. The last time I passed that way it looked like they were closed.

  I'll bet the 16 year old boy did not walk out thinking he was raped. 

I saw nothing that he said was wrong. 

  It is an apples and oranges question. The Bergdahl case has been brewing for years. You can't come close to comparing that to an incident that happened within hours. There simply is no comparison.

I must have missed the part where the ADA said he struck the juror for being part of a hate group. 

  And if you can show me any legal precedent that says only people belonging to hate groups can be struck from juries and I will say that you are on to something.   I have sat on juries and testified in many trials. I have seen people struck and seen the defense attorney contest strikes based on race (Batson strike). In one jury pool the DA had three strikes that were contested. The DA countered that one had a spouse had been convicted of the same crime (I think it was DWI) so the potential juror might be prejudiced against the police (making for an unfair jury), one had been involved in a lawsuit based on the same crime from injuries and I don't remember the other reasoning but the judge ruled that all strikes were fair based on cause and not on race.    A jury is supposed to be fair for both sides and the people serving need to go in with as much of an open mind as possible. In this case a woman is posting material on how to survive while driving black (The Negro Motorist Green Book). To me that appears that she believes that she might be targeted based on race and is even posting survival tips on how to stay away from cops. It doesn't even matter if she is correct, it a preconceived perception (prejudice) that is the problem. Nothing in that article that hippy posted or the others that I have read said that she was struck due to being an NAACP member. He also never claimed she was some kind of supremacist.    I read several articles on this issue and found this as his statement... "It's not because of race. It's because in part she appeared to be an activist, and that's what we don't want. Just as if she was white, we wouldn't want a white activist or a white supremacist." The DA said that she appears to be an "activist", not a "supremacist" or "racist". Looking at her postings, she might very well be an activist for a cause.    I see nothing wrong with his statement.    So I will ask this, what if  the defendant was black as in this case and there was a prospective white juror that was not the member of any hate group. But maybe he had postings he had made on how to survive while being white in a minority neighborhood and had posted The Turner Diaries, just as this woman posted the book about black survival while traveling (published until the early 1960's)? The Turner Diaries was a novel written by a white separatist. Would you want this person sitting in judgment of a family member? Remember that he belongs to no group and just posts thoughts.    Remember that the DA is an elected official and wanted to quickly stop something that might cost votes. That makes his firing political. That might even be within the law as an at will employee but let's call it what it is. I suspect that if a black assistant DA that made the same or similar statements and was fired, we would be seeing an opposite response. 

  You are going pretty far out to try and rationalize you statement.   You cannot strike for any reason as you started out with because you then follow up on race. Race here is not the issue but mindset. How do you strike a member of the KKK without bringing up race? It isn't because he is white but because he is prejudiced and not likely to act fairly by the evidence presented.    An activist for a cause, valid or not, is still an activist.    As far as your claim of fighting an allegation between advocacy and hatred (both to me should be disqualifiers) is meaningless because that is for the opposing attorney to raise and a judge to rule. That happens every day in this country in courtrooms. This isn't an election or popularity contest. It is a plea based on legal grounds and happens any number of times in a trial or the motions leading up to it.    This ADA's termination seems political for various reasons. 

  They do not have to be the same. Any person can be rejected for cause and that cause can be any prejudice toward either side of the case in question. Whether one group is the exact same an another does not matter. If a person is an activist for a cause, that person really should not be on a jury deciding an issue.    The criminal's defense attorney even stated that it was an overreaction. There is no problem contesting a strike based on race and I have sat on juries (I think that I have sat on four juries in both state and federal court) with such challenges. It is not every case but far from rare that a defense attorney will challenge a strike. 

The prosecutor makes a valid argument however he should know that he can never mention race per se in court unless it deals with a description of a suspect. 

  They are crowing like they beat someone. One conservative replaced a less conservative one in a seat that will likely stay Republican. That new Republican might be a bigger thorn in the side of the Dems than the guy that is being replaced and they act and think it is a great deal.    To me, that is stupid. 

Maybe the Tea Party isn't dead after all. One Republican beat another one. Apparently the Dems are too stupid to realize that it was not their guy that won and an even more conservative will take his place.

It is almost too funny that the teacher's union calls the decision that allows the firing of incompetent teachers "deeply flawed". What seems to me that is deeply flawed is the teacher's union.

Yes. He has taught me that you can only scam the public for so long until even your thinking (not blindly following) supporters bail out on you and vote for the opposition. Which is exactly why that the last 6 of his 8 years in office will show him with no political clout whatsoever. He was a lame duck after his second year in office. If the next Democratic nominee for president is lucky enough to win, he/she will begin the term without having any support in Congress and will remain a lame duck through the entire term unless vast changes are made in the way that he/she does business. I wonder if the Dems will realize the same lesson. I doubt it.

  With the power to pass no legislation. 

  ..... and the Dems are sweating that the sinking ship might be about to take over complete control of Congress. 

Only if he had Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea. 

  That simply is not true unless you intentionally skipped two step raises in between $5.15 and $7.25.    If you want to do it that way, the MW was $1.60 when I started working so it went from $1.60 to $7.25. 

  There have been court cases that say that WBC (other protest and religion cases but specifically one involving them) is within their rights to protest. There has been no federal cases that show any right to openly display rifles in a public place.    I understand the rationale of being within your rights but not doing something anyway because it is stupid but the argument doesn't fit here as there is no "right" yet shown to openly display firearms. 

Yes we had an income tax prior to 1913 including at the least, during the Civil War. In 1895 the SCOTUS ruled in a case (Pollock) that income taxes were "direct taxes" which were allowed under Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution.    The problem with these direct taxes (income tax is included in that definition) is the aforementioned apportionment.    Income taxes have always been legal to impose but not legal the way they were imposed and they were collected way before 1913 or even 1895. The Sixteenth Amendment ended those technicalities.