priorities

Katrina looters get 15 years in prison

KENNER, Louisiana (AP) -- Three people convicted of hauling away liquor, wine and beer from a grocery store after Hurricane Katrina were sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison.
The judge said he wanted to send a message that looting would not be tolerated when he gave the maximum sentence to Coralnelle Little, 36, Rhonda McGowen, 42, and Paul C. Pearson, 36, all of Kenner.
A jury convicted the trio May 2 on a portion of the state's looting law that took effect two weeks before the Aug. 29 storm. The amended law set a three-year minimum sentence, and a maximum of 15 years in prison, for looting during a declared state of emergency.
They were convicted of attempting to leave the grocery with 27 bottles of liquor and wine, six cases of beer and one case of wine coolers, six days after Katrina made landfall.
Pearson's attorney, Bruce Netterville, said the sentence and conviction would be appealed.
"We believe the sentence is excessive," said Netterville.
Attorneys for the other defendants agreed.

as do i. we're really going to demand "accountability" from hurricane survivors in the form of a fifteen-year prison sentence and let the jokers who should have been down there providing for and protecting the people keep on rolling along? pathetic.

car owners: beware of woodland creatures

an animal ate through the gas tank of my car. apparently, this is possible. another thing that i now know is possible, yet i imagine rarely happens: being stranded at a gas station on the side of a highway for the better part of a day, in 90+ degree weather, under direct sunlight, studying for the bar exam.
in related, but much happier news, i got to trade in my piece o' crap and get a neeeeewww caaaarrr (a la bob barker on price is right)! so now i am crusin' in style an hopefully the new ride is a bit more squirrel proof.

Court Limits Protection Against Improper Entry

Evidence found by police officers who enter a home to execute a search warrant without first following the requirement to "knock and announce" can be used at trial despite that constitutional violation, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
The 5-to-4 decision left uncertain the value of the "knock-and-announce" rule, which dates to 13th-century England as protection against illegal entry by the police into private homes.
Justice Antonin Scalia, in the majority opinion, said that people subject to an improper police entry remained free to go to court and bring a civil rights suit against the police.
But Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for the dissenters, said the ruling "weakens, perhaps destroys, much of the practical value of the Constitution's knock-and-announce protection." He said the majority's reasoning boiled down to: "The requirement is fine, indeed, a serious matter, just don't enforce it."

This decision is another outrageous peek into what the new Court will bring to us in the coming years. You can't truly comprehend the gravity of the matter without reading the opinion and the dissent - the majority opinion is chock-full of anti-defendant, pro-police rhetoric, while the dissent tries to inject some reason (using, by the way, what has been settled reasoning for the past 45 years) into the debate. Silly dissenters, justice has no place on this Court!

a thought for today. . .

"The death of every human being is a tragedy. The death of Mr. al-Zarqawi means the continuation of the violence and revenge that took the life of my son. This will mean an increase in violence and resistance to the occupation of Iraq by the US military. I sincerely wish the Iraqi people and the US soldiers who believe they are protecting us good fortune in weathering the upcoming violence."
Michael Berg (the father of Nicholas Berg, a U.S. contractor believed to have been beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq)

cheesesteaks

as a vegetarian philadelphian (vegedelphian?), i can't say i am the first person to go to for advice on where to get a good cheesesteak. but, i can say that, in the pat's/geno's debate, i have always favored pat's - not because of its food (i've only had their fries, which are good btw), but because of their politics. set caddy-corner to one another, pat's and geno's also appear to have opposing political ideologies, which is kind of odd for food vendors. pat's is the democrat and geno's the republican in the world of cheesesteak purveyance. john kerry visited pat's. dick cheney visited geno's (good for his heart?). pat's hangs pictures of various hollywood and sports stars who have dine there, while geno's fills its walls with pictures of cops and a written diatribe against mumia abu-jamal. and now, geno's has entered a new venue of right-wingery: a "order in english only" requirement.

"Situated in a South Philadelphia immigrant neighborhood, Geno's _ which together with its chief rival, Pat's King of Steaks, forms the epicenter of an area described as 'ground zero for cheesesteaks'_ has posted small signs telling customers, 'This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING 'SPEAK ENGLISH.'"

as noted in the article, it's not as if the awesomely english speaking staff at either vendor use the most polite, proper english. but i guess saying that makes me a terrorist or something. ah, well, i suppose being a lefty vegedelphian already does.