Eideard

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In a ruling of interest to educators, parents and students across the country, the Supreme Court ruled, 8 to 1, that the strip search of a 13-year-old Arizona girl by school officials who were looking for prescription-strength drugs violated her constitutional rights.

The officials in Safford, Ariz., would have been justified in 2003 had they limited their search to the backpack and outer clothing of Savana Redding, who was in the eighth grade at the time, the court ruled. But in searching her undergarments, they went too far and violated her Fourth Amendment privacy rights, the justices said.

Had Savana been suspected of having illegal drugs that could have posed a far greater danger to herself and other students, the strip search, too, might have been justified, the majority said, in an opinion by Justice David H. Souter.

“In sum, what was missing from the suspected facts that pointed to Savana was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear,” the court said. “We think that the combination of these deficiencies was fatal to finding the search reasonable.”

In fact, no pills were found on Savana when her underwear was examined by two school officials, both women, who were acting on a tip passed along by another student…

Questions of individual responsibility vs. institutional bureaucrat protections will come up in lower courts – if the young lass and her family care to pursue them.

Meanwhile, an important step in redefining privacy has been taken. I’d be the first to admit to contradictory feelings about crime vs. privacy; but, this appears to be just one more case of officials thinking they are little tin gods.

A monkey urinated on Zambian President Rupiah Banda as he spoke to journalists at a news conference on Wednesday.

Banda softly shouted: “You (monkey) have urinated on my jacket,” and paused as he looked up to see the animal playing in a tree just above his chair.

“Perhaps these are blessings,” he said continuing his address amid laughter from the audience of journalists and diplomats at the State House presidential offices.

Ain’t any different from the occasional gopher snake wandering through the governor’s grounds here in New Mexico.

It’s nice to see a politician who ain’t offended by nature.

The seeds of a lowly weed could cut jet fuel’s cradle-to-grave carbon emissions by 84 percent.

David Shonnard analyzed the carbon dioxide emissions of jet fuel made from camelina oil over the course of its life cycle, from planting to tailpipe. “Camelina jet fuel exhibits one of the largest greenhouse gas emission reductions of any agricultural feedstock-derived biofuel I’ve ever seen,” he said. “This is the result of the unique attributes of the crop–its low fertilizer requirements, high oil yield, and the availability of its coproducts, such as meal and biomass, for other uses.”

Camelina sativa originated in Europe and is a member of the mustard family, along with broccoli, cabbage and canola. Sometimes called false flax or gold-of-pleasure, it thrives in the semi-arid conditions of the Northern Plains; the camelina used in the study was grown in Montana.

Oil from camelina can be converted to a hydrocarbon green jet fuel that meets or exceeds all petroleum jet fuel specifications. The fuel is a “drop-in” replacement that is compatible with the existing fuel infrastructure, from storage and transportation to aircraft fleet technology…

Because camelina needs little water or nitrogen to flourish, it can be grown on marginal agricultural lands. “Unlike ethanol made from corn or biodiesel made from soy, it won’t compete with food crops,” said Shonnard. “And it may be used as a rotation crop for wheat, to increase the health of the soil…”

I’m a firm advocate of running biofuel wherever and whenever possible. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. It’s even high in omega-3 fatty acids.

From a previous arrest
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The FBI has arrested an Internet blogger from New Jersey on charges of threatening three prominent Chicago judges who authored an anti-gun rights ruling earlier this month.

Hal Turner, 47, of North Bergen, N.J., allegedly posted a headline “These judges deserve to be killed,” supplemented the next day by, “Judges official public work addresses and a map of the area are below. Their home addresses and maps will follow soon. Behold these devils.”

Below this headline, the entry listed the names, photos, phone numbers, work addresses and room numbers of the three judges involved in the handgun decision, as well as a photo of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago and a map, according to an affidavit. The photo of the building had been modified to include arrows and a label referencing “Anti-truck bomb barriers,” according to the affidavit…

“We take threats to federal judges very seriously. Period,” Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said in a written statement.

Turner is charged with threatening to assault and murder three federal judges. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted.

I’ve not read his babble or listened to it; but, if he’s fool enough to break established criminal law – he’ll probably get what he deserves. The nutballs, of course, will consider him a hero. Surely you don’t think America’s right-wing is ready to accept the Constitution or federal law as binding.

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On Jan. 22, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down laws criminalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But privately, newly released tapes reveal, he expressed ambivalence.

Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster “permissiveness,” and said that “it breaks the family.” But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases — like interracial pregnancies, he said.

“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding, “Or a rape.”

Ambivalence? Why be polite about racist politics. Nixon’s self-questioning is no different from what you’d expect from any bigot.

Nine months later, Nixon forced the firing of the special prosecutor looking into the Watergate affair, Archibald Cox, and prompted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus. The next day, Ronald Reagan, who was then governor of California and would later be president, told the White House that he approved.

Reagan said the action, which would become known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” was “probably the best thing that ever happened — none of them belong where they were,” according to a Nixon aide’s notes of the private conversation.

Those disclosures were among the revelations in more than 150 hours of tape and 30,000 pages of documents made public on Tuesday by the Nixon Presidential Library, a part of the National Archives. The audio files were posted online, as were a sampling of the documents.

RTFA. Follow all the links in the article. Learn a bit of American presidential history if you weren’t around then.

Government will be watching over you…
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The Obama administration plans to kill a controversial Bush administration spy satellite program at the Department of Homeland Security, according to officials familiar with the decision.

The program came under fire from its inception two years ago. Democratic lawmakers said it would lead to domestic spying. The program would have provided federal, state and local officials with extensive access to spy-satellite imagery — but no eavesdropping capabilities— to assist with emergency response and other domestic-security needs, such as identifying where ports or border areas are vulnerable to terrorism.

It would have expanded an Interior Department satellite program, which will continue to be used to assist in natural disasters and for other limited security purposes such as photographing sporting events. The Wall Street Journal first revealed the plans to establish the program, known as the National Applications Office, in 2007…

The plans to shutter the office signal Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s decision to refocus the department’s intelligence on ensuring that state and local officials get the threat information they need, the official said. She also wants to make the department the central point in the government for receiving and analyzing terrorism tips from around the country, the official added.

Lawmakers alerted Ms. Napolitano of their concerns about the program-that the program would violate the Fourth amendment right to be protected from unreasonable searches-before her confirmation hearing…

The lawmakers were most concerned about plans to provide satellite imagery to state and local law enforcement, so department officials asked state and local officials how useful that information would be to them. The answer: not very useful.

Cheney’s little army of Republican clones will spend the rest of the week in front of the White House – in the shade, of course, with beverage in hand – chanting, “Soft on communism!” Something like that, anyway.

Whatever is leftover in their chickenhawk pea-brains from the McCarthy days of the Cold War.

USA caused one of the biggest surprises in Confederations Cup history by beating European champions Spain to reach Sunday’s final.

Jozy Altidore scored the opener when he turned his marker Joan Capdevila to fire in from 15 yards.

Fulham’s Clint Dempsey doubled the lead in the second half when he converted Landon Donovan’s pass from close range.

Tim Howard saved from Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas before USA’s Michael Bradley saw red for a tackle of Xavi.

Many would have predicted Spain to win this match with a lot to spare, judging by the ease with which they won their group games.

But Vicente del Bosque’s men had only faced New Zealand, Iraq and South Africa in the lead up, and with all respect to those teams, the Americans were always going to be a tougher proposition.

Time and time again in the first half, the USA managed to read Spain’s trademark killer passes by sticking tight to potent forwards David Villa and Torres.

In fact, prior to USA’s goal, Spain’s best opportunity fell to Liverpool hot-shot Torres whose attempt at a volley from six yards was superbly scuppered by Watford’s Jay DeMerit.

What was starkly apparent on Free State Stadium pitch, was the superior athleticism of the Americans.

RTFA. It was a joy to behold. Parking the bus is not my favorite style of football; but, that was just about the only option available to the American team. They were superb at it. The comment about fitness was appropriate – and something that shouldn’t surprise anyone who follows American training methods and standards.

And Tim Howard was man of the tournament, today. He stopped everything that Spain offered.

I know there was something I was supposed to mention before I left…
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South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford says an extramarital affair is behind his unexplained disappearance.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, he admitted he’s been unfaithful to his wife with a friend from Argentina.

Sanford says he and his family have been working through the affair for about the last five months.

He apologized to his wife, kids and staff after his mystery trip to Argentina.

He says, “I’ve let down a lot of people.”

He says he spent the last 5 days in Argentina “crying a lot”.

Sanford also resigned as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, but when asked if he’d resign as governor of South Carolina, he did not respond.

Har!

Canadian police are on the search for a brazen thief who snatched a take-away meal while making a naked run past a fast food restaurant’s drive-though window.

An employee of a Langley, British Columbia, Wendy’s restaurant was handing food to a customer waiting in her car when a naked man ran between them, taking off with her fries, and leaving little evidence behind, according to police.

“Other than an age range, neither woman could provide further description,” police said in a press release.

The man, believed to be in his 20s, jumped into a waiting van, which sped away from the scene during the weekend incident, police said.

Har! Neither woman got a look at his face.

An exclusive American clothing shop banned a disabled sales assistant from working on the shop floor because her prosthetic arm did not fit with the store’s “look policy”, a tribunal heard today.

Abercrombie & Fitch demonstrated a “blatant display of eugenics” when they “hid” 22-year-old Riam Dean in the stockroom instead of letting her serve customers as per her job description, the central London employment tribunal was told.

Dean, a law student from Greenford, Middlesex, is suing the firm for disability discrimination after she was left “personally diminished [and] humiliated” while working in the American firm’s flagship London store last summer. “I had been bullied out of my job,” she said. “It was the lowest point I had ever been in my life…”

Dean, who was born without her left forearm, claims that when she told A&F about her disability after getting the job the firm agreed she could wear a white cardigan to cover the link between her prosthesis and her upper arm. But shortly after this, she was told she could not work on the shop floor unless she took off the cardigan as she was breaking the firm’s “look policy”. Her job was supposed to entail four roles – two on the shop floor and two in the stockroom.

A&F management “used the ‘look policy’ and the wearing of the cardigan as an excuse to hide me away in the stockroom”, Dean said today in her evidence. “I knew then that I was being treated different and unfairly because of my disability,” she said, before breaking down in tears.

I’ve had some small involvement with family members with disabilities – and mainstreaming. In fact, lawsuits were required for access to equal opportunity in education. To further handicap someone with a diminished chance to work and earn within society is reprehensible.