You might as well talk, monkey. We've captured that man in the yellow hat, and he's already confessed to everything.

H.A. Rey

Remember when Elliot Madison was arrested earlier this month for sending tweets about where the cops were at the G20 summit? Here's a detail from the raid on his house that I missed at the time:

Three of us stayed to watch the hazmat team come in to investigate a child's chemistry set, to see them search the garage on an additional warrant, to sign vouchers for all the things they confiscated as "evidence" -- Curious George plush toys, artwork, correspondence with political prisoner Daniel McGowan, birth certificates, passports, the entire video archive of a local media collective, tax records, books, computers, storage devices, cell phones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs, flags, banners, posters, photographs and more than can be recounted here.

Madison is a member of an anarchist group called the Curious George Brigade. I'm gonna guess that the cops knew this, and that they detained the dolls to question them separately.

Comments

[John]

I am starting to think that this shit will neve reach a tipping point where people finally stand up and do something. We are just incrementally going to end up in a totalitarian hell. I am less free than my parents. And my children will be less free than I will be.

There is no stopping these people. They are totally devoid of common sense or any sense of decency.

[JW]

Sure they will John. Right after it's way too fucking late.

We're too rich, fat and happy to want to rock the boat any longer. Wealth has civilized is into total and utter complacency.

Our masters know this and act accordingly.

[JW]

is = us

Who the fuck put 2 vowels right next to one another on the keyboard?

MARKET FAILURE!

[Nephilium]

Two vowels? There's three (sometimes four) vowels next to each other.

COUNTING FAILURE! 🙂

[SusanM]

Get a Dvorak keyboard - market success

[Terry]

It's already there unless we do something about it in the next election. Libertarians, conservatives who respect the Constitution are the only ones to elect. God Save America!

That's no way to describe the G20 protesters.

[troy]

I agree with you Bro. Niel Postman was right in Amusing Ourselves To Death. As long as we have our little gadgets, our video games, our Dancing With the Stars to keep us entertained. REasoned political discourse and evaluation isn't going to happen. Huxley got it right.

[Dan Clore]

If anyone here is interested in standing up and doing something, I run a news list for anarchists & activists:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo/

[Kolohe]

John, I'm impressed, standing up for left wing anarchists and friends of ALF/ELF.

Didn't think you had it in you.

[John]

I would imagien that I would find the kid a loathsome little shit. But that doesn't matter. First, there is no crime in twittering where the cops were. Second, even if it was, that is no excuse to ransack his house. It is just police harrassment. The cops don't like him and are unlikly to get the bullshit charges to stick, so they will take all his shit and mess up his house. They are just gangsters.

[Your Good Buddy Johnny Clarke]

Everything changed after 9/11! 9/11!!! Sorry, haven't heard anyone yell that recently, so I figured I should pick up the slack.

[creech]

How come if the cops do shit like this to some dirtbag on "Law and Order" the judge throws out the evidence, lectures the ADA, and the cops are warned by their Lt. to stop screwing up cases?

[Ska]

Real question - did they find Curious George's stash of ether?

[Ska]

Not in reply to creech (grr....)

[Attorney]

vouchers for all the things they confiscated as "evidence" -- Curious George plush toys

If you guys don't see the significance of those as evidence of drug crime, you obviously haven't watched Wait Until Dark in a while.

[Episiarch]

The dude is a furry. Fuck him. Furries have no rights.

[Nick]

The problem here is that most people aren't like John or the rest of us. Most people on the right will support the cops against the little shit lefty anarchist despite breaking no law and then being harrassed. Just like the left wouldn't mind if the same happened to some rightwing asshole no one liked.

[John]

For sure. If the BATF did this to some evangelicals in the middle of nowhere in Montana, the same leftists, including this guy I bet, who are shocked by this would think it was entirely appropriate there.

[JW]

No terrorist here. Just one, bad monkey.

[Citizen Nothing]

Curious George Gets Waterboarded

I'm thinking sequel to Curious George Takes a Job and prequel to Curious George Goes to the Hospital.

[Citizen Nothing]

Obviously I know a lot about George. (My excuse: I have four-year-olds.)

[John]

Hey, that is a monkey. You guys are just racists.

[Citizen Nothing]

Actually, as my four-year-old son loves to point out, George has no tail, so he's an ape, not a monkey.
Curious, indeed...

[John]

RACIST!!

[Jesse Walker]

George has no tail, so he's an ape, not a monkey.

You will not be surprised to hear that there was a Wikipedia war on this very subject.

I say the authors' word goes. If the books call him a monkey, then the series takes place in a parallel world where monkeys have no tails. (And are super-intelligent creatures capable of painting an enormous, realistic jungle scene in just an hour.)

[Citizen Nothing]

I just love how happy George looks after his ether binge in ...Goes to the Hospital.
I like to think of him partying with Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo.

[Citizen Nothing]

And I presume his tail was lost when he crashed his Vincent Black Shadow.

[Jesse Walker]

Pedantry alert: I think the ether binge was in Takes a Job.

(Yes, I have a four-year-old too.)

[Citizen Nothing]

Aha! I have TWO four-year-olds, so I can claim distraction.
Right - ether after breaking the leg, not eating the puzzle piece. That monkey was a lot of trouble. I hope at least his "picture" made a lot of money. (I also dig on how much the Man in the Yellow Hat seems to be enjoying his stogie in the producer's (director's?) office.

[Jefferson]

As a father of a 4 year old, I have to wonder how the Man in the Yellow Hat was able to get George approved by the Co-op Board.

[John Tagliaferro]

Or perhaps he lost his tail in a strange, madcap mishap that will not be revealed until after Margret E. Rey's secret manuscript is discovered. The suspicious circumstances behind her death cannot be explained in any other plausible way.

HE BROUGHT AIDS TO THE COMPANY PICNIC!!!

[John Tagliaferro]

So you have seen the secret manuscript too?

[Citizen Nothing]

And I'm happy to learn that my four-year-old son has at least reached the intellectual level of the typical Wikipedia debate.

[highnumber]

I'm no zoologist, but I don't believe that all monkeys have tails.

[John Tagliaferro]

Sure, elevate your belief system abov settled science. Fundie!

[?]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs are waivers of all human rights.

[Ska]

What if you use them as coasters?

Better question, why do I dig her red headed sidekick? She looks like a cat for chris'sakes.

[John]

Allyson Hannigan is very cute in a very perky and sexy way. She is kind of the ultimate cute geek.

[John Tagliaferro]

They did have quite a few hot scenes, surrounded by nonsense.

[wingnutx]

I'm waiting for the Buffy/Firefly crossover which consists solely of Willow and Kaylee making out for 120 minutes.

[lunchstealer]

Actually she's the penultimate cute geek. The ultimate cute geek is Felicia Day.

[I'm an alligator!]

The cops just want to spank the monkey.

[sage]

I don't really click over to Wired too often, so I hope you guys are going to keep an eye on the ruling on the legality of the search. Could be important.

[Xeones]

The dude is a furry. Fuck him. Furries have no rights.

Come on, Epi. As anyone who's bantered with SugarFree as much as you have should know, he's technically a plushie, not a furry. The rest of your comment stands, however.

[SugarFree]

I was hoping someone would stand up. Good job, Xeones.

[James]

So how is listening to a police scanner and tweeting positions any different than something like, say...

Flashing your brights to signal to other drivers there's a speed trap ahead of them...

[James]

Well, I guess speed traps don't have much to do with riots...

[sage]

In the state of WA, using your headlights to communicate is illegal. I would imagine the only way a ticket would be issued, though, is for the driver to admit they were doing it. And sadly, too many people will do just that.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

In the state of WA, using your headlights to communicate is illegal.

That must have put a serious crimp on Epi and Steve Smith's love life.

[Citizen Nothing]

What? I can't flash my brights to warn there's a riot ahead?

[John Tagliaferro]

No! You flash lights to warn of zombies ahead. You honk your horn for riots.

[Citizen Nothing]

What about a zombie riot, Mr. Smart Guy?

[John Tagliaferro]

You flash and honk, Captain Obvious.

[Citizen Nothing]

Oh. Right. Carry on.

[John Tagliaferro]

The first time I was in Manhattan I thought there was a zombie riot nearby. It was just some half-way good looking chick with every dope in a crappy car giving her the northern pickup attempt routine.

[Nick]

You flash your brights to warn people of threaded comments. Seriously, guys. This still sucks a month later.

[Nope]

I have no sympathy with anarchists who complain when others don't play by the rules that they themselves have declared to be arbitrary and subjective. Life sucks when your own principles (or lack thereof) come back to bite you in the ass.

[Xeones]

Nope, you're not very familiar with the anarchist philosophy, are you?

[Nope]

Anarchism by definition has no consistent, noncontradictory philosophy.

[Art-P.O.G.]

I thought that was nihilism, not anarchy.

[nihilist]

We believes in nuzzing, Lebowski!

[aelhues]

As a conservative...I have to say...I'm not evil. 🙂

While I support law enforcement quite a bit more readily than most here, I certainly don't support any searches, confiscations or arrests without a clear justification. If there is a law against tweeting police scanner sourced locations, fine, he should be arrested or fined accordingly. But what is the point of searching an confiscating his stuff?

BTW, I'm not saying that I'd support such a law, if it did in fact exist.

[Abdul]

old Serbian joke:

How do policemen fish?

They get one fish, slap it, and yell: "Tell me! Where are the others?"

[Yakov Smirnoff]

In Soviet Russia, backpack searches you!

[Rimfax]

...political prisoner Daniel McGowan,...

I've read too much of Balko's work to discount the possibility that McGowan was railroaded as part of some "Green Scare", even though he did plead out, and that this evidence seizure was ridiculously excessive. But without much more to go on, this bit of rhetoric raise my skepticism of this as a black and white story of police excess.

[Jesse Walker]

this bit of rhetoric raise my skepticism of this as a black and white story of police excess.

The quote is from one the people who lives in the house. Why should that person's opinions about McGowen have any bearing on whether the seizures were just?

If you want a neutral observer's account of the case (with links to the relevant documents), go to the Wired story linked from the word "arrested."

Having already appeared at two rallies in the state and currently being featured in TV ads, President Barack Obama has now penned a letter to 330,000 "surge voters" in Virginia in an effort to get out the vote for gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds.

"To move this country forward, I need the support and partnership of good governors who are ready to help lay the foundations of change," Obama writes.

http://realclearpolitics.blogs.....for-deeds/

Why does this arrogant cocksucker think America needs new "foundations of change"? I thought the old foundations worked pretty good. You know, the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights...

[bigbigslacker]

The stoopedist people have the "best" ideas and the greatest confidence in themselves. I consider it a gift from God to the rest of us. Just play along.

[hmm]

I say waterboard that banana muncher's ass till he talks.

[joshua corning]

So these are the asshole throwing rocks through Starbucks windows and intentionally antagonizing police to get them to attack whole crowds of peaceful protesters or even simply innocent by-standards?

I am having a hard time getting up my libertarian out rage for these fuck holes.

[dhex]

you should consider reading the wired article.

[Citizen Nothing]

First they come for the fuck holes. Then they come for you, corning.

[joshua corning]

First they come for the fuck holes. Then they come for you, corning.

Well you can go with "first they came for the jews then they come for you."

The jews being innocent civilians who people did not like. and your thing works.

then you can go with "First they came for the rapist and murderers and then they came for you"

Obviously this one does not work.

The question is does "First they came for the vandals and those who incite riots and then they came for you" work?

[ejay]

I will attempt to get this thread back on track.

I hate cops. I hate DAs. Why aren't lefties hectoring the Ohbummer administration about its support of crooked, lying, evidence-manufacturing DAs and cops in the upcoming Supreme Court case?

Why? Because they're in charge now. Nothing else matters. Principles? It really is true that the libertarians I know and consort with (a wide range, too) vote and act on principle. No GOPer or Dem does that anymore (or very few, anyway).

Dang, got off topic again. Allow me: I hate cops.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Damn you, Walker. Don't make me side with the anarchists.