If you guessed that was not a call for help, you're correct!

1. The Ninth Circuit upheld the preliminary injunction against the Arizona yellow star law,  said Arizona was not even reading its own law correctly, and said the US would likely prove the law was unconstitutional;

       2. a drone strike in North Waziristan killed 44 people -- most of them civilians;

       3. Remember that “suspected Al Qaeda organizer” the Bush  admin once called "the highest value detainee" at Guantanamo Bay accused  of helping recruit Mohammed Atta? He was released on habeas corpus after seven years. Turns out the Bush admin really had no real evidence against the guy sufficient to hold him. The only evidence they had was derived from a “special interrogation plan" involving weeks of physical and mental torment, including a death threat and a threat to bring his mother to Guantanamo Bay where she could be gang-raped.

      4. Roman Polanski’s new movie, The Ghostwriter, is pretty good. It’s about a former British PM who allowed terrorists to be tortured but then is charged with war crimes. Be sure to see it – it kind of unites a lot of your favorite themes.

Good thing California didn't throw him in jail.

But I'm glad you had a great time in South America.

kill "suspected terrorists" with the drones but when we capture them and bring them over to Gitmo it turns out we don't even have enough evidence to keep them locked up, much less kill them.

      As to the Arizona law, remember we are in federal court and the Az atty general argued that the law required determination of immigration status only if the there was reasonable suspicion that the person arrested was an undoc - the Ninth Circuit said "no, your law says determination of immigration status is required of any person arrested."  

     So if a white guy is arrested for solicitation in Arizona on Friday night  and he does not have his birth certificate on him, Sheriff Joe has to keep him detained till Monday when the feds get back to their office and say - "that's just DNCPHIL, a good if frequently misguided American citizen. You can let him go now."

It would seem that that would be a major news story, and I don't remember reading about it anywhere.

Been out of touch for the last few weeks on the annual overseas vacation. Two new countries, Uruguay and Argentina.  Great time. As usual, loved both countries.  B.A. is a cool city. Reminds me of a small Paris.  As usual, I am even more appreciative of my ancestors who moved to the U.S.  
Now, here is my challenge to right and left wingers, and those in between.

Here is my challenge.  When I am on vacation, I am gone.  I don't go on the internet because I do not want e-mails from anyone in the U.S.  I pick up the International Herald Tribune on Mondays and Tuesdays, if it is available in the town I am in.  (Those are the only two days I have a 50/50 chance at the crossword puzzle. I am not good at it.)

It's kind of a Sabbatical, and it makes me understand religions wise enough to shut out the world once a week.

However, I only got the skimpiest idea of what happened.

Fill me in on the events of the past three weeks.  No more than 4 sentences, and no sentences longer than 20 words.  

So, what happened?

Thanks for the update.  If those are the big stories, I didn't miss much.  That is good. I means I can plan  my next trip and go early, since the political world doesn't need me.

As to your news:
1) how can the ninth say AZ wasn't reading it's law correctly. They haven't even had an AZ Supreme Court opinion, to my knowledge.  Shouldn't the ninth have sent it back for that?

2) Bummer re drone strike. Shit happens in war. Look at WW II, the "good war."

3) Improper interrogation is not necessarily equal to inaccurate.  Under extreme pressure some people may tell the truth and some may lie.  Personally, I would rat out my mother to save my fingernails.

4) God, the left is so predictable.  Could H'wood do one movie that isn't politically correct. How about a PM who tortures a suspect and get valuable info saving lives, or an insurance adjuster who exposes fraud and saves the public millions.

Anyway, got to plan the next trip.  THinking of S.E.  Italy.  Haven't been to that area for a few years, and they must miss me.

so it is hardly front page stuff any more.

But even Fox News reported it.

However, I see from the link that I screwed up the date- the release was in March 2010 rather than March 2011 so that's why we don't remember it.

-- Modified on 4/18/2011 4:32:58 AM

President again has no clue, inflation is rising while unemployment rate remains high (stagflation) , Mideast countries are uprising, and we have nuclear disaster.

Why did you come back?

My understanding is we don't want any more prisoners.  As a result we can either hand them over to really, really, really brutal people for questioning, or we can kill them.

A few months ago I saw something to the effect that rather than take new prisoners, we would let other people, like the Pakis, question them.  I don't know if that is what we are still doing, but the choices are either 1) send them to Gitmo; 2) run the risk of civil trials - and the one thing I learned in 20 years of crim law is that is always a risk; 3) kill them; 4) have the Pakis or other similar countries "interrogate" them; 5) let them go with a fine if they promise to be good.

The problem is that the current administartion does not want to fight a war and does not have the balls to say so.  

Even with the problems, I think this is the best.  MHO, as they say.

I love going to other places, I love being in other places, and in 30-plus years have only had one bad experience.  I am the type of traveler who is in the airport getting ready to leave and is thinking of the next trip.  (I actually have the next two planned.)

But the diversity and freedom of the US can't be beat.   Italy is my fav, but it is all Italian.  Here, on my 15 minute drive from my home to downtown, I pass Italian, French, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Guatamalan, Haitian, Korea, and a dozen others.