Saturday night

and the study materials arrived

Bloggage will probably be light the next few days,

things to do, etc.

If this bastard and staff get immunity, then in the near future

they need to be found decorating trees.

And the idiot judge who give it to them should follow.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro issued fake subpoenas to pressure victims and witnesses to testify. Now facing a lawsuit, the Louisiana prosecutor is arguing that the practice falls under the umbrella of absolute immunity—the doctrine that says prosecutors cannot face civil action for carrying out their official duties.

The good news is that there's a strong chance the courts won't buy it.

The Lens uncovered Cannizzaro's tactic in April 2017. He would send people notifications telling them to appear in court or face fines or jail time. The documents were neither authorized by a judge nor issued by a county clerk, the proper channels for subpoenas. Cannizzaro's office was producing them itself. Worse yet: Even though the subpoenas were unlawful, he really did jail people who didn't obey them.
This is disgusting.  And horrible.  And should involve a whipping post before the decorating.

Friday evening,

most of the snow it gone but it's still cold, so...

Why bureaucrats should not be allowed to decide what the law is,

or change it by screwing with definitions:
Following his testimony, O'Kelly submitted a declaration in the case saying it was his professional opinion that roughly 60 percent of the firearms in America do not have a single part that qualifies as a receiver under the current regulation.

In siding with the defense, (Judge)Carr wrote that the ATF's long-standing interpretation was "plainly erroneous and inconsistent with the regulation." He added, "misapplying the law for a long time provides no immunity from scrutiny."
No, it does not.

This also goes under the heading of "Why do so many people distrust(or flat-out hate) the BATFEIEIO?"

Vann asked O'Kelly about his tenure at the ATF National Academy and whether he taught new agents that the AR-15 did not have a receiver.

 

"No, I did not," O'Kelly responded. "That would have been seriously frowned upon by the agency."

 

When Vann pressed him on why he didn't include that information in his curriculum, O'Kelly replied, "It wasn't allowed."

 

At that point the judge intervened, asking the same question.

 

O'Kelly told Carr he voiced his concerns to an official named Richard Turner at ATF headquarters, but was told "we're not going to teach that."

 

O'Kelly added, "I could only teach what was approved by headquarters."

 

Turner declined comment through an ATF spokeswoman.

Bold mine.  And I'll bet he did.


This being CNN, a surprisingly well-done bit of reporting.

Every time someone starts yelling about us idiots not trusting experts and expertise,

I remember things like this about a Very Credentialed Historian:
Lepore notes that a one-volume US history has to skip a great deal, but there should be a logic to what is in and what is out. If there is one in this book, I’m not sure what it is. Mentioning the story of Harry Washington, a slave who escaped from George Washington’s plantations adds richness to the history, but Lepore returns to him several times. His index entry is only a bit shorter than that of the Whig party, and that includes the mistaken reference to Milliard Fillmore as the Whig (as opposed to Know Nothing) candidate in 1856. So much is missing from the book that it would be irresponsible to assign it as a text in any class. It omits any mention of the Jay Treaty and skips over the role played by Booker T. Washington in race debates, which is quite surprising unless you consider how his life’s work might complicate her narrative. The first Gulf War appears in the context of a discussion of the evolution of the news business.

Even though I won’t ever assign it, I am, however, tempted to select a few passages and use them as an extra-credit question for my students at Cal State, San Bernardino: “The following are passages from the work of a major prize winning historian. Spot the mistakes.” My students, after all, do need to learn not to be blinded by credentials.

Brought to you by the geniuses running New effing York

Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder says the DA’s office had a hearing regarding the case going to trial in December of last year. He says at that hearing, it was decided that all information that had a protective hold on it would have to be turned over to the defense counsel days later. This included witness names and contact information.

 “We don’t know if the defense counsel turned that information over to the defendants, but we do know that right after that time period, we started this pattern of intimidation,” says Ryder.

Ryder says on Jan. 30, one of the other witnesses was shot at. Two days later, he says Rodriguez was beaten but escaped. He was found dead the following day.

True, every word

JOURNALIST: “Sure, absolutely, I’ll call you whatever you want.”
ANGEL ALICEA: “Yeah. But when you put that over making sure people have decent jobs and healthcare, like, it’s a f**king no-brainer why we’re going to G** d**n lose an election.”

It's all white out there,

and the roads are slushy.  Which'll make getting around later today a pain.

The Oklahoma Pecan Hound on the hunt

Ah, Racism!, is there anything it cannot do?

Including messing up the Evil Party caucus in Iowa?

I generally don't watch political speeches,

and haven't seen an SOTU in years.  But I forgot it was on and turned on the tv just as Trump was something and I watched for a couple of minutes.

Pelosi looked like she'd rather be hanging over a pit of rabid honey badgers than be there.

Trump looked relaxed, and totally in command; not stiff, not formal in stance.  A very effective performance.  He wasn't my choice for the Stupid Party nominee, but I'd forgive him a lot for the hemorrhoids he's giving the Evil Party tonight.

Few minutes later heard something about al Baghdadi and went back in: the parents of a girl who'd been raped, otherwise tortured, and finally murdered by that piece of shit were there, and Trump told her story.  And about the name of the mission, and about the bastard being killed.  And the Evil Party... they acted like they were embarrassed and shamed that we whacked some terrorists.  Pelosi had her eyes down and kept fiddling with papers like it was do that or break out screaming.

From the bits I actually heard, a very effective speech.  And a lot of the Evil Party clowns looked like they'd just been told their hemorrhoids were metastasizing; NOT a good look.

Toon clearing