J's Cafe Nette

Archive for April 30th, 2007

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday gave police officers protection from lawsuits that result from high-speed car chases, ruling against a Georgia teenager who was paralyzed after his car was run off the road.

In a case that turned on a video of the chase in suburban Atlanta, Justice Antonin Scalia said law enforcement officers do not have to call off pursuit of a fleeing motorist when they reasonably expect that other people could be hurt.

Rather, officers can take measures to stop the car without putting themselves at risk of civil rights lawsuits.

“A police officer’s attempt to terminate a dangerous high-speed car chase that threatens the lives of innocent bystanders does not violate the Fourth Amendment, even when it places the fleeing motorist at risk of serious injury or death,” Scalia said.

The court sided 8-1 with former Coweta County sheriff’s deputy Timothy Scott, who rammed a fleeing black Cadillac on a two-lane, rain-slicked road in March 2001.

Victor Harris, the 19-year-old driver of the Cadillac, lost control and his car ended up at the bottom of an embankment. The nighttime chase took place at roughly 90 miles an hour.

Harris, paralyzed, sued Scott.

Lower federal courts ruled the lawsuit could proceed, but the Supreme Court said Monday that it could not. Justice John Paul Stevens dissented.

In an unusual move, the court posted the dramatic video on its Web site.

Scalia described a “Hollywood-style car chase of the most frightening sort, placing police officers and innocent bystanders alike at great risk of serious injury.”

A vote of 8-1 is not even close and I’m glad to see the officers get some protection from lawsuits that could ruin them financially.

Now if they’d just rule in favor of those Border Patrol agents who have been sent to jail by an over-eager prosecutor…

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As the owner of this blog I must take full responsibility for everything that is posted on this site.

Today a post was made that was not in good taste in reference to some of our military serving in Iraq.

To those who saw the post, you know what I am talking about.

To those who didn’t see the post, you will not know what it was as we will no longer discuss it.

I promise you this will never happen again.

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Today we posted the link to the Los Angeles Times’ article, saying Bush was in heap big trouble when September gets here because he has no backing and the war is lost, basically.

Well, thanks to California Conservative I have been directed to this New York Times article.

Let’s all be clear about this: neither the Los Angeles Times nor the New York Times has a conservative bent and they are not in favor of the war in Iraq.

With that said, let me quote from the New York Times article:

RAMADI, Iraq — Anbar Province, long the lawless heartland of the tenacious Sunni Arab resistance, is undergoing a surprising transformation. Violence is ebbing in many areas, shops and schools are reopening, police forces are growing and the insurgency appears to be in retreat.

“Many people are challenging the insurgents,” said the governor of Anbar, Maamoon S. Rahid, though he quickly added, “We know we haven’t eliminated the threat 100 percent.”

Many Sunni tribal leaders, once openly hostile to the American presence, have formed a united front with American and Iraqi government forces against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. With the tribal leaders’ encouragement, thousands of local residents have joined the police force. About 10,000 police officers are now in Anbar, up from several thousand a year ago. During the same period, the police force here in Ramadi, the provincial capital, has grown from fewer than 200 to about 4,500, American military officials say.

At the same time, American and Iraqi forces have been conducting sweeps of insurgent strongholds, particularly in and around Ramadi, leaving behind a network of police stations and military garrisons, a strategy that is also being used in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, as part of its new security plan.

Yet for all the indications of a heartening turnaround in Anbar, the situation, as it appeared during more than a week spent with American troops in Ramadi and Falluja in early April, is at best uneasy and fragile. [They couldn't resist that last paragraph. ED]

Go over to California Conservative and read the commentary there. It won’t hurt any liberal to take a look. They can’t reach through your monitor and grab you.

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Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is calling for higher taxes:

SAN DIEGO — Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said yesterday raising taxes for higher-income families back to their levels under the Clinton administration is a floor, not a ceiling, and he would consider even higher tax increases.

“What I believe is the starting place is to go back to the Clinton levels,” Mr. Edwards told reporters after addressing the 2,000 delegates to California’s state Democratic Party convention.

My question is why? Taxes have been lowered for most of six years now and the economy is doing well.

The class warfare perpetrated by the Democrats is getting old and frustrating. Wouldn’t you love to be in the position that you could work as hard as you want and reap the benefits of your work instead of having to give your money to the state?

What incentive does anyone have to work hard if they have to give most of it to the state? If Edwards wants to raise taxes for the rich he should start with himself and go to the rich members of congress to pitch in first. Lead by example.

I’m reminded of Walter Mondale’s 1984 acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination.

He said something to the effect: “They will say I will raise your taxes, and I will.”

Why is it Democrats have never seen a tax increase they didn’t love? And don’t tell me it will be used to reduce the debt because the record so far shows it goes for more porkbarrel spending and social programs that are not needed if they would cut the pork.

And don’t forget it was President Clinton who put income taxes on Social Security benefits.

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Here’s the commentary by the person who put this on YouTube:

This is the closing monologue to the 2007 CMT Award’s show by Host Jeff Foxworthy, which aired last Monday. He talks about why he likes country music and why he likes being considered a country folk. This is not only very touching but oh so accurate as well.
Thanks Jeff – You really hit a home run with this one!

(I am sorry the video quality isn’t the greatest – I am looking to post a better version soon. I wanted to get this up right away though and it’s really the audio and what is contained that matters)

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This is video taken from The Beltway Boys

It doesn’t last that long, so please listen to what they are saying.

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From the Washington Post:

The protesters assembled on the Mall yesterday with a plan to voice their less-than-generous views about a certain president and his vice president. They would form a human chain to spell out I-M-P-E-A-C-H, even including an exclamation point.

But only 150 or so showed up, far fewer than the 1,000 organizers had hoped for. As their photo opportunity approached, they knew they’d be lucky to spell I-M-P.

“We’re going to have to scrap the big plan,” George Ripley, the protest’s leader, announced. He advised his allies to rearrange everyone. They would still form I-M-P-E-A-C-H-!, he insisted, only on a tad smaller scale.

“A nightmare,” a pony-tailed confederate said, shaking his head.

Ripley, 57, grabbed a megaphone and chanted stage instructions, and the scrum began its realignment. There were mothers dressed in pink, Naderites, peaceniks in tie-dyed T-shirts, a guy in a George Bush mask wearing prison stripes, and one Robert Greenough, with two dandelions entwined in his long red beard.

“It’s sad, isn’t it?” he said of the turnout. He and his wife, Joyce, had certainly done their part, bringing their sons, Jordan, 10, and Josh, 14, who seemed happily lost in his iPod, which blared A Static Lullaby, a rock band.

Ripley paced back and forth, exhorting everyone to find a spot. The Columbia Heights resident said he had slept near the Mall overnight to get tickets so news photographers could go to the top of the Washington Monument and capture the moment for posterity.

Well, it was a Sunday and if the weather was as good there as here I can understand why people weren’t there. They had more important things to do with their families.

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Clarice Feldman at American Thinker has an interesting quote from Richard Perle having to do with a claim of George Tenet’s:

In a review of George Tenet’s book “At the Center of the Storm”, Michiko Kakutani reveals Tenet’s claim that the Administration –or at least the neocons in it–were determined to get Saddam even before the facts were in. In support of this he recounts Tenet’s tale:

On the day after 9/11, he adds, he ran into Richard Perle, a leading neoconservative and the head of the Defense Policy Board, coming out of the White House. He says Mr. Perle turned to him and said: “Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday. They bear responsibility.” This, despite the fact, Mr. Tenet writes, that “the intelligence then and now” showed “no evidence of Iraqi complicity” in the 9/11 attacks.

Unfortunately for Tenet and whoever( if anyone) was fact checking this whine-arama Perle was out of the country on 9/11 and confirmed to me today that he was unable to return home until 9/15/2003.

Some head of intelligence.

Here’s another story that confirms what Clarice wrote although she made a mistake by putting the year at 2003 instead of 2001.

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