SCOTUS directs federal judge to hold an innocence hearing for condemned Georgia man Troy Davis. This is very unusual. And good news. Thomas and Scalia dissented.
Obama DOJ backs law fining music P2P sharers $150,000 per song.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition members Peter Moskos and Neill Franklin write op-ed in the Washington Post calling for drug legalization.
Nationwide crackdown on lemonade stands marches on.
Anti-war activism curiously low priority for Netroots activists. If McCain had won and the following August we still had 130,000 troops in Iraq, I think it’s safe to say we’d still be seeing anti-war protests. Over Twitter, I made a $1 bet with lefty blogger Oliver Willis that there will still be at least 50,000 troops in Iraq by the end of Obama’s first term. I’d be happy to lose it.
After 11th try, man convicted for 1992 murder based on witness testimony that has since been recanted or proven false finally gets an innocence hearing.
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on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 2:45 pm by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
“Anti-war activism curiously low priority for Netroots activists. If McCain had won and the following August we still had 130,000 troops in Iraq, I think it’s safe to say we’d still be seeing anti-war protests. ”
Exactly! Turns out they weren’t anti-war after all, they were just anti-republican war.
Radster, this is the wrong thread but there are over 175 posts on the “Whole Foods, Ct’d…” post already … I just wanted to give you props. Posts like that are why a) I come here regularly and b) why I support the majority of libertarian ideas.
You should have a ‘greatest posts’ or ‘most popular posts’ link where we can vote on current posts. The ones we appreciate the most could be kept available on the site for all time. I think that one qualifies as well as that anti-socialism/communism one you did last year (maybe 2 years ago).
I figure there will be at least 50,000 troops in Iraq for the next 50 years.
The NYC Parks Department should get credit, at least, for knowing a PR nightmare when one smacks them in the face. They promised to dismiss the girl’s citation for her lemonade stand, and said their officers exercised “poor judgment.”
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition members Peter Moskos and Neill Franklin write op-ed in the Washington Post calling for drug legalization.
Damn hippies! Just wait until the cops get a hold of these two.
Oh, wait…
Good Washington Post article. Hopefully it will happen some day.
I buy all my lemonade from the guy we used to score our weed from…
I’m supposed to take their moral outrage about anything seriously after this? The war is still going on. It is still immoral. Bringing a stable representative democracy that can stand on it’s own two feet remains a pipe dream.
But now that team blue is in charge, controlling both houses of congress and the Oval Office, our soldiers and marines in harm’s way fighting for Odin knows what, just isn’t very important anymore.
IOW, STFU Netroots.
I just told my daughter that if I wasn’t afraid of getting arrested AND tasered for practicing medicine without a license AND at risk for having our beagle shot by cops, we could set up a stand that offered psychiatric help for 5 cents. The humor was lost on her, though, she is only 7.
If McCain had won and the following August we still had 130,000 troops in Iraq, I think it’s safe to say we’d still be seeing anti-war protests.
So? You’re neglecting the key difference here, which is that McCain would have had 130,000 troops in Iraq because he was committed to that level of deployment for another decade or two, whereas Obama has 130,000 troops in Iraq because his drawdown plan isn’t proceeding as fast as some would like (last I heard it called for a reduction to 35-50k by August 2010).
in before #10 Matt D’s post gets voted down to -10 by our ‘freethinking’ posters.
@ #7 Marty
Dude that’s not lemonade………
IIRC, Nixon got a bit of a holiday (6 mos to 1 year) at the beginning of his term when he promissed a “secret plan” to bring the Vietnam War to an end.
Also, Barry O has been reducing the number of troops in Iraq, so I’m willing to give him a bit of a pass there. I’d call it a “gentleman’s “C”. (Although didn’t he make some promises in the early stages of his campaign about having the troops home in 3 to 6 months?)
On the drug war, spending, health care, Guantanamo, and transparency, his GPA is around 1.
So, what to make of the SCOTUS decision? I haven’t read the particulars yet, but from the outside I am confused.
People can think of a lot of excuses to defend their team for doing same thing the other team did back when it was wrong. 35-50k is is 35-50k too many. And the reductions in Iraq are partially offset from the troop increases in Afghanistan. Not to mention that Holder seems pretty content with the status quo at Gitmo. Changing the numbers around here and there keeps adding up to the same thing we had pre-November 08.
This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is “actually” innocent. Quite to the contrary, we have repeatedly left that question unresolved, while expressing considerable doubt that any claim based on alleged “actual innocence” is constitutionally cognizable. Scalia’s dissent.
This is the result you get when you claim that there is no such thing as substantive due process. The constitution becomes like a set of directions on the side of a box of pancake mix. This is nothing but sophistry and the ultimate example of elevating form over substance. He actually takes pride in taking that position. Although I am an aetheist, I hope this Opus Dei ass is right about there being a final judgement day.
But Mattocracy, you’re just thinking with a pre-11-4-08 mentality.
Isn’t Afghanistan rather than Iraq the place where everyone said we should have concentrated our efforts from the outset?
People can think of a lot of excuses to defend their team for doing same thing the other team did back when it was wrong.
Good grief. If you want to read the difference between a commitment to a 2/3rds force reduction in 2 years and a commitment to a more or less permanent deployment at present levels as an excuse, I guess I can’t stop you.
And he was gonna close Gitmo immediately too wasn’t he? So far reductions are all talk no action Matt D. I’m not saying he ain’t better than Bush or McSenile, who was hell bent on getting us in a war with Russia, but still, so far the dear leader looks more like Dubya 2 than the Obama who campaigned on the promise to end the overseas adventures.
It looks like the 3 parks employees have a bright future if Sheila Jackson Lee has any job openings.
Scalia wrote: “This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually’ innocent.” He conceded, though, that the Court has left the issue open.
This quote speaks for itself.
#17:
it’s nice to see that some people believe that, as long as it’s an emergency, the feds can step in when they choose regardless of the lack of constitutional authority.
In regards to Obama DOJ,
as opposed to the other DOJ?
“This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is “actually” innocent.”
Funny what’s become of the pro-life movement, isn’t it? I wonder if he would have taken a likewise principled stand in an abortion case.
Ah, Clarence Thomas. Reason’s “Friend of Freedom”.