Open Thread

post from Crooks and Liars on 22 July 2012 11:30:07 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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Richie Rich as veep? Who could be better?

Open thread below...

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Open thread for night owls: Rape victim speaks
attackers' names, faces jail for it

post from Daily Kos on 22 July 2012 11:30:06 PM. © Daily Kos

From the Louisville Courier-Journal

Frustrated by what she felt was a lenient plea bargain for two teens who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting her and circulating pictures of the incident, a Louisville 17-year-old lashed out on Twitter.
?There you go, lock me up,? Savannah Dietrich tweeted, as she named the boys who she said sexually assaulted her. ?I?m not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell.?
Now, Dietrich is facing a potential jail sentence, as the attorneys for the boys have asked a Jefferson District Court judge to hold her in contempt because they say that in naming her attackers, she violated the confidentiality of a juvenile hearing and the court?s order not to speak of it.
A contempt charge carries a potential sentence of up to 180 days in jail and a $500 fine.

Eugene Volokh writes:

An order barring a victim from revealing the names of her assailants is, I think, clearly unconstitutional, even when the assailants are juveniles. Oklahoma Publishing Co. v. District Court (1977) expressly rejected the notion that courts or legislatures may bar the publication of the names of juvenile offenders; that case involved a newspaper?s publishing the name of the juvenile offender, which it learned from a court hearing, but the rationale applies at least as strongly to a person?s publishing a name that she learned from the attack itself. Likewise, even when it comes to grand jury proceedings ? probably the most historically secret part of the criminal justice system ? Butterworth v. Smith (1990) held that, while a grand jury witness could be barred from revealing what he learned as part of the grand jury proceedings, the witness could not be generally barred from revealing information that he had learned on his own (even if that was the subject of his testimony).

The victim, Savannah Dietrich told the newspaper:

?So many of my rights have been taken away by these boys,? said Dietrich, who waived confidentiality in her case to speak to The Courier-Journal. Her parents also gave their written permission for her to speak with the newspaper.
?I?m at the point, that if I have to go to jail for my rights, I will do it,? she said. ?If they really feel it?s necessary to throw me in jail for talking about what happened to me ... as opposed to throwing these boys in jail for what they did to me, then I don?t understand justice.?

Such incidents of violating court orders not to speak are on the rise as a consequence of the spread of social media:

?In the past, people would complain to anyone who would listen, but they didn?t have a way to publish their comments where there would be a permanent record, like on Facebook and Twitter, for people to see worldwide,? said Gregg Leslie, interim executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Va.
?It?s just going to happen more and more.?

Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2009:

Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) wants to make sure nobody thinks the GOP has even one single ounce of empathy:
Let's agree that we're going to have PAYGO enforcement. That we're not going to cry 'emergency' every time we have a Katrina, every time we have a Tsunami, every time we have a need for extra spending, that we don't go call for a special appropriation that allows us to circumvent the PAYGO rules.
Congresswoman Blackburn, you are wrong. Nearly 1,500 people died as a result of Katrina. The notion that our budget process should forbid providing emergency aid to help save lives in future Katrinas isn't just crazy, it's cruel and inhumane.

Tweet of the Day:

#ConservativeBumperStickers Jesus Loves Me This I Know For I Have A Big Bankroll
? @CletisStump via web

Tune in Monday to Friday from 9-11 AM ET for Daily Kos Radio, hosted by David Waldman a/k/a KagroX. You can listen here.

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-owls-Rape-victim-speaks-attackers-names-faces-jail-for-it

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Yogi Bear Train Car

post from Texas Liberal on 22 July 2012 11:14:56 PM. © Texas Liberal

Above is a train car I saw a few days ago in Houston that has Yogi Bear and Boo Boo graffiti. At the extreme left of the train car you also see a bear hand stealing a picnic basket. I enjoyed this train car a great deal. Here are facts about Yogi Bear.

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Teen Names Her Sex-Assaulters on Twitter; Faces
Jail Time

post from Firedoglake on 22 July 2012 11:01:25 PM. © Firedoglake

Savannah Dietrich, the 17-year-old victim *named with her and her parents' written permission in the Louisville Courier Journal* now faces contempt charges requested by her convicted but not yet sentenced attackers' attorneys for violating the[...]

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Fooled by an icon

post from field negro on 22 July 2012 11:00:20 PM. © field negro

I live in Philadelphia, Pistolvania, so I know and work with a lot of Penn State alums. For the most part I find them to be smart decent people. For the most part. One aspect of PSU alums that has always kind of creeped me out is their undying devotion to all things JoPa. Some of them, it seemed, literally worshiped the ground the man walked on. To say he was an icon in these neck of the woods is an understatement.

Which is why the latest news out of Penn State is so shocking. If you had told me ten years ago that Joe Paterno would be implicated in a scandal to cover up child sexual abuse, and his statue would be coming down in Happy Valley, I would have called 911 and asked them to have you committed. Joe Paterno was Penn State, and he was, in the eyes of many, everything that was right about college football. It's like hearing that Vince Lombardi gave the Packers steroids before every game.

This should be a lesson to all of us who devote our lives to worshiping others. We have to be careful, because no one is infallible and above the sins of the rest of us mortal men. Joe Paterno might have been a great football coach and motivator, but he was human and susceptible to human failings. From the looks of it he put the image of the program that he carefully and successfully built above the lives of innocent children, and that will forever be a stain on his legacy.

His legacy will now be viewed in the context of a still evolving scandal, and there is no doubt that it has been tarnished forever. Now all the good he did will be overshadowed by a scandal that might mean the "death penalty" for the proud program that he built.

This morning his statue was covered and removed under armed security. The surreal image that goes along with this post is a stark reminder of just how uncertain life can be. Who could have imagined that it would end like this? I am sure that the folks who love and admire Paterno certainly could not. The rest of us who are a little more cynical are not quite as surprised. This is what we have come to expect in a society where things are never as they seem. "Normal" ("clean cut") All American kids can become mass murderers, and men who claim to be messengers of God can harbor evil iniquitous secrets. You just never know.

"Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence and worth is a tragedy"

Sorry Joe, but not heeding your own words was an even bigger one.

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C&L's Late Night Music Club with Sam and Dave

post from Crooks and Liars on 22 July 2012 11:00:06 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Genre: SoulTitle: You Don't Know (Like I Know)Artist: Sam and Dave

These guys had it goin on. Whatcha listenin to tonight folks?

The Best of Sam & Dave

Artist: Sam & Dave Price: $4.45 (As of 07/22/12 06:05 pm details)

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http://crooksandliars.com/mudshark/cls-late-night-music-club-sam-and-dave

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Peter Gabriel

post from Where Is The Outrage? on 22 July 2012 10:28:20 PM. © Where Is The Outrage?

Artist: Peter Gabriel Tune: Don't Give up One of the best albums in the last 30-40 years was Peter Gabriel's So. There are only a few albums which are produced in which the music leaps off of the CD. This is one of those albums. (until just recently, I didn't know who the female voice

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Batman almost

Last night, I almost went to Batman. Yesterday, could be summed up as a day of almosts. You see, I thought I was off yesterday. In my line of work, trauma surgeon, you really have to be mentally prepared to work. I thought it was off yesterday. I took a golf lesson. Then I played

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Nobel physicist sits on street corner, answers
questions

This is a cool vid. It features Leon Lederman, the Director Emeritus of Fermilab (a big particle accelerator) near Chicago. In the video, Lederman sets up shop on a street corner in NYC and takes random questions about physics. It's a neat idea.I met Lederman when I was in high school. Fermilab had some kind of Saturday program for kids to come and learn about particle physics...

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-street-corner.html

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I Was an Internet Badass

This weekend I spent an indecent amount of time on teh internets debating arguing with people men regarding their belief that, if only one person had been packing heat at Batman, things would have been so so much better. Forget for a moment that James[...]

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