There will be adults in charge, instead of Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin. Nagin is still there, but he'll be instructed on how to manage his city.

Karl Rove was put in charge last time. That's why Blanco isn't there anymore. "Adults" apparently refers to Bush administration operatives, I guess. Their revamp of FEMA was reported to Congress last week. They have some powerpoint slides and no definite plans. Kinda like when that other "Adult", Douglas Feith, was put in charge of the Phase IV operations in Iraq.

And the Louisiana Guard is still in Iraq, where the "Adults" have now been in charge for 5 years. At least if Gustav provokes a sandstorm they'll be ready.

I don't understand how an administration stocked full of 30 somethings with no experience from Liberty University is in any way a situation in which "Adults" are in charge. And sociopaths who torture and start wars on a whim aren't adults regardless of age. They're demented damaged goods, who should be in jail.

I have bottles, jars, cloth, paper, twine, styrofoam, gasoline, kerosine, lamp oil, brake fluid, metal, glass, plastic and cardboard containers. I have match heads (attached to matches, don't know if that makes a difference), paint of all sorts, sticks, poles, nails, screws, bricks, chicken wire, roofing tar, PVC, metal piping and, of course, duct tape (Homeland Security told me to buy that).

Thank God I have never been to St. Paul, or I'd have the maps and they'd have to come arrest me too, because Lord knows, though I rant about it on a daily basis, someone always forgets to flush the toilet in my house!

Seriously, this warrant is a joke. Every house on my block has nine-tenths of what was listed there. So what percentage is needed to put everyone in the house in jail?

I know, from personal experience, that all that is needed these days for police to burst into your home, destroy it in a hail of bullets and shoot and kill someone is possession of stolen baby clothes, that were brought to the house by Children's Services.

That's the truth folks. It really doesn't take anything at all for them to justify pulling a trigger.

Adults like those two, you mean? You should learn when to cut your losses. You make lookin' like a fool seem as easy and breezy as fallin' off a log.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/davidcorn/McCain-Bush%20photo.jpg

I watched in disgust how the Chinese government created the farce of freedom with the so-called "Protest zones" during the Olympics - where anyone actually applying for a permit to use them was immediately arrested.

After watching this, in Minnesota of all places, I have to wonder exactly how American democracy and freedom of speech is markedly superior. These kids weren't violent, they didn't have weapons or drugs. Nothing more dangerous, in fact, than laptop computers. They didn't even get the chance to state their political beliefs. We've gone from pre-emptive wars against foreigners to pre-emptive arrests of American citizens.

I keep telling myself that America is better than this. That for two hundred and thirty years we've striven to create a nation of freedom, of laws, and of decency.

The right wing keeps yapping about how our military is "fighting for our freedom" in Iraq. Fighting for our freedom, like charity or building schools and bridges, ought to begin at home.

Having defended animal rights activists as a public interest attorney myself, I have no doubt that these police raids will end up in court and that the arrested will receive big wads of cash.

And since this has both first and fourth amendment implications, it could go a little further, wouldn't you think? State Supreme or... who can say? We'll just have to be patient and wait and see.

And thinks they are "nothing" please email me.

"Just how long are decent REAL AMERICANS going to tolerate being abuse by these lowlife types who have absolutely no concern for others' lives, property and/or rights.

THESE PEOPLE COMMITTED NO CRIMES OF ANY KIND.

THEY WERE IN THEIR HOMES!!

What will YOU do when this happens to YOU?

If you think they won't do it to YOU, you are out of touch with reality.

Watch the videos and look at the sorts of decent people whose homes they invaded!!

These people did NOTHING.

Some of you will say "so what".

I HOPE they do this to those of you who will say that.

Do YOU have glass bottles, cardboard or paint thinner in YOUR home?

Then you are as "guilty" are these innocent human beings are.

Do invasions and imprisonments like this raise your level of esteem for these gangsters with badges?

BULLSHIT!!"

That's the truth folks. It really doesn't take anything at all for them to justify pulling a trigger.

-- Pedinska

This was actually pretty common up until the 60s. You can track the beginning of the expansion of these rights and protections from Weeks in 1914 up until Mapp in 61, and then the Republicans kept the WH, except for Carter, and got to stock the court with their judges who tend to think these "due process" concerns are too soft on crime. Here we are.

Just replace the royal families in the article with the corporations today who have replaced them ....

Note the always ready nature of the masses to acquiesce in letting those with power choose who will rule over them ....

There is a hopeless flaw in the species that directs them to place their own lives and interests in the hands of others ....

So much for Patrick Henry and the spirit of freedom (as opposed to the spirit of sheep) ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Leopold_II_of_Belgium

Such conduct by the police in Minneapolis had been done many times in American history and the cities responsible payed a hefty price for this. In the 1930 the corrupt mayor of Jersey City, Frank Hague, had the police and his citizen supporters stop the Socialist candidate for the presidency, Norman Thomas, from speaking using violence to do so. Birth control pioneer, Margarette Sanger, was stopped from a meeting by the police in New York City prior to that. The cities always get sued and always lose in court thanks to the First Amendment to our mostly overlooked U.S. Constitution. Steve World War 2