Room Service

From Whiskey Bar

Federal law commands that Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives not be tortured, and the president has ordered that they be treated humanely, but the U.S. is not required to treat captured terrorists as if they were guests at a hotel….

Former Justice Department attorney John Yoo
LA Times op-ed
June 11, 2004

A recent Soviet article quotes from the archives a written note of [Stalin’s] to Yezhov, when the old Bolshevik Beloborodov was giving unsatisfactory testimony: “Can’t this gentleman be made to tell of his dirty deeds? Where is he – in a prison or a hotel?”

Robert Conquest
The Great Terror: A Reassessment
1990

I can’t hear you!

From Wonkette

Yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney repeated the assertion that Saddam Hussein had “long-established ties” with al-Qaida. “He was a patron of terrorism,” Cheney told an audience at conservative think-tank in Florida. “He had long established ties with al-Qaida.”

Asked to defend his claims — which have been largely discredited by policy experts and denounced by members of Congress — Cheney demonstrated the administration’s latest approach to intelligence gathering, putting his fingers in his ears and singing, “La-la-la-la-la! I can’t hear you!”

Dating in Manhattan: An Exercise In Contract Law

From Gawker

Say you meet a nice guy on a popular online Jewish dating service, and go out for dinner. Then you get a little busy at work for a week or so, and don’t jump all over the guy like a desperate hussy.

What do you get? An invoice for that date’s dinner. Yeah, our name-withheld-heroine must be sad she’s missing out on this clown’s attentions. His invoice…

To: [X]
Subject: Invoice 6/12/04
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 17:15:59 EDT

Dear [WOMAN’S NAME]

On June 5, you agreed to accept dinner, paid for in full, by me, based on your stated offer that we would go out again. In that you have ignored all overtures to said follow up meeting, you are hereby considered in breach of contract.

To that end, you are being invoiced for 50% of the cost of the dinner, pursuant to the offer. For the record, the offer presented you with the option of not going out again and paying for half of the dinner, or going out again and not paying at all. You accepted these terms, choosing to go out again, as stated above, but have since failed to deliver your end of the agreement. In that this was merely a promise to meet, and not a promise to marry, the agreement is binding under New York law and does not require a written agreement (i.e. statute of frauds).

Furthermore, this is absolutely not a joke.

Your share is 50% of $74.51 which is a total of $37.25. Payment in full is expected within 30 days.

You may remit to:

[MAN’S NAME AND ADDRESS]

Under God…

was added to the Pledge of Allegiance by Act of Congress on this date 50 years ago (June 14, 1954). Today the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a California atheist could not challenge the language. The atheist does not have custody of his daughter and, according to the Court, is not her legal representative. The ruling did not address the issue of whether the phrase is an unconstitutional melding of church and state.

In other words, they punted.

Flag Day

On this date in 1777 the Continental Congress approved a national flag:

Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.

In 1916 President Wilson issued a proclamation declaring June 14 Flag Day.

The present design of the flag was established in 1818 — thirteen stripes to represent the original states and a star for each state. The current flag with 50 stars was established on July 4, 1960, when Hawaii was admitted to the Union.

The Star Spangled Banner at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 had 15 stars and 15 stripes.

Old fogeyism ALERT

Why can’t singers appreciate that anthems (including America the Beautiful) are best sung with the original music?

[Note: NewMexiKen was NOT referring to Ray Charles, who could sing anything he wanted anyway he wanted.]

You have the right to remain silent

In a 5-4 decision the U.S. Supreme Court found on this date in 1966 that Ernesto Miranda had not been informed of his rights before he confessed to the rape of a mildly retarded 18-year-old woman in 1963. His case was remanded to Arizona for a new trial. More importantly, the decision stated that the Constitution required that all persons arrested be informed of their rights before they were interrogated. These rights became known as Miranda Rights.

  • You have the right to remain silent.
  • Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.
  • You have the right to have an attorney present now and during any future questioning.
  • If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you free of charge if you wish.

Ernesto Miranda was retried (he had remained in prison throughout on another conviction). He was found guilty on other evidence and sentenced for a second time to 20-30 years for rape. He was paroled in 1972 and for a time sold autographed “Miranda” cards such as the police carried.

Ultimately Miranda was stabbed to death in a bar fight in 1976.

Read the decision.

View Chief Justice Warren’s handwritten notes.

Update: Listen to the oral argument [45 MB mp3 file].

Sounds right to me

From The Week Newsletter:

Christian diet books that promote menus based on Bible verses are flooding bookstores. The Hallelujah Diet and What Would Jesus Eat say God meant people to eat only foods available in the Garden of Eden, which means a largely vegetarian, vegan, or raw food diet. But the Rev. George Malkmus admitted that his Hallelujah Diet needed to be adjusted because it was low in B-12. “This shocked me, that God’s perfect eating plan could have a flaw,” he said. “But we realized that fruits and vegetables back then were more nutritious because of the topsoil.”

Jeanette Rankin…

was born on this date in 1880 on a ranch near Missoula, Montana.

In 1916, Rankin was elected the first woman member of the U.S. House of Representatives. She was not re-elected in 1918, after voting against entry in the First World War, but was returned to Congress for one term in 1940. In 1941, she cast the sole vote in Congress against the U.S. declaration of war on Japan.

Jeanette Rankin was a social worker and a lobbyist for peace and women’s rights. She died just before her 93rd birthday in 1973. She is one of the two Montanans honored in The National Statuary Hall Collection of the U.S. Capitol.

Read Rankin’s obituary from The New York Times.