Reason Late Morning Links: Gaza Activists Released, Supreme Court Rolls Back Miranda, Criminal Investigation of BP

• Israel to release, deport Gaza flotilla activists.
• Arizona governor to meet with Obama to discuss immigration bill.
• Supreme Court rules that suspects must speak up to assert their right to remain silent.
• DOJ launches criminal investigation of BP over Gulf oil spill.
• Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama resigns over broken campaign promise.

Comments

[Suki]

Was MNG on the slow boat to Gaza? Please be true!

[Ragin Cajun]

CBS' "Evening News": Gore's Loss To Bush Contributed To Separation

[Groovus Maximus]

It is true that latent and chronic emotional distress can and does affect sexual performance and potency.

Plus, I'll bet Tipper got sick of Al screaming "Fuck you Bush!" , as opposed to "Fuck your Bush", after she found out he wasn't using some silly role playing accent.

[Ragin Cajun]

Maybe he was performing about as well as Ron Zellman did after Tony Soprano gave him that beating.

[AlmightyJB]

I'm quite sure there was some global cooling involved.

[Groovus Maximus]

Does Tipper get half Teh Internetz?

[alan]

Given the level of gayness in their statement, a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration, I'm going to assume that they both got tired of living double lives. The Cheney's will have a similar statement coming out soon. Working together in the 80's against those diabolical metal lyrics in defense of their own generation's more harmony, peace and understanding* themes got pretty intense, and the swinging between the two couples was out of control.

* I recall an interview Tip and Lynne did on one of the morning talk shows back then that that was the very reason they opposed metal music. It did not promote the values of the hippie generation music they listened to in college.

[Rusty Shackleford]

that last part is funny, way to turn into you parents boomers.

[mitch]

Wow, they really do blame Bush for everything.

[alan]

nice.

[jtuf]

lol. Good one.

[Episiarch]

once rights have been read and questioning begun, a suspect must clearly declare that he wants to remain silent and cannot simply be silent

WTF does this even mean?!? If you just sit there saying nothing, that doesn't constitute remaining silent?

I am growing to hate the Supreme Court more with every passing ruling.

[John]

After they read you your rights, is it really a big deal to say "no I don't want to talk and I want a lawyer?" Seriously, you do have some responsibility to protect your own rights. Yeah, the cops do to. But I really don't have a lot of sympathy for someone who doesn't affirmatively tell the cops no and then later spills his guts.

[Warty]

What this means is that the uneducated and stupid won't know that they're free to shut up. There are already enough cases of cops getting false confessions out of retarded people that I'm quite leery of anything that makes it easier for them.

[John]

How do they not know they are free to shut up if their rights are read to them?

[Warty]

Because they're uneducated and stupid. You read Balko's pieces; you know how often this happens.

[dave b.]

'Uneducated and stupid'? Are you running for Congress?

[Warty]

No, but perhaps I should.

"Vote Warty 2010: because you are all miserable fuckbags"

[SugarFree]

"Warty: Because deep down you know he's right about your gunt."

[Groovus Maximus]

"Warty 2010: My ambiguous genitally what?!"

[SugarFree]

"Warty: Clean, Sterile and Not Packaged For Individual Sale."

[Warty]

"Warty 2010: Fuck you, that's why."

[Groovus Maximus]

"Vote Warty: His hole is already plugged and he's carbon neutral!"

[J sub D]

But I really don't have a lot of sympathy for someone who doesn't affirmatively tell the cops no and then later spills his guts.

Same here. I refuase to get all hot and bothered over this. Saying "I want a lawyer" ain't that much of a fucking burden.

[Slut Bunwalla]

To the average jury member being told what happened at the time of arrest, "I don't want to talk" could easily translate to "I'm guilty/hiding something and don't want to implicate myself."

[JW]

We have to opt-in to our rights? Did the American Marketing Association submit the cert?

[Police "interviewer"]

Sorry, buddy. You didn't ask for a PD-115 form and check off the "no beatings" box.

[sage]

If you just sit there saying nothing, that doesn't constitute remaining silent?

The SC is saying that if you don't speak up the cops can waterboard you. Once you're on the plank it's too late.

[R C Dean]

My initial reaction was the same, but on reflection, I think I see what the SCOTUS was getting at.

The suspect in this case was interrogated for three hours. He never said he was invoking his 5A rights, and was generally, but not completely incommunicative. Some of the minimal communication he made was used against him, including his response of "Yes" when asked if he killed the victim.

Should that response have been barred from trial? I don't see why. If you want the interrogation to stop, you should say so, and if it isn't stopped, nothing you say can be used against you. If you don't ask for the interrogation to stop, well, "anything you say can and will be used against you."

[Warty]

Hm. Maybe my reaction moves into the don't-care region then.

[Episiarch]

So can the cops interrogate someone for 5 days straight if that person says nothing the entire time? Because that seems perfectly legal under your interpretation.

[WTF]

That raises other due process concerns - e.g., how long they can hold someone without charging him with a crime.

But in general, all this guy had to do was to continue to shut up. He chose to answer "yes" to the cop's question - thereby giving up his right to remain silent.

You have the right to remain silent. So all you have to do is that - remain silent.

But SCOTUS says the only way to get the interrogators to stop hounding you is to expressly say "I wish to invoke my right to remain silent." Even if you do that, there are cases saying that if they wait a suffiently long period after you invoke that right, they can reinitiate questioning just to try again and see if you really do still want to keep your trap shut.

Answer: yes, you're damn right you do.

[Tulpa]

Uh, would it be OK for the cops to interrogate someone for 5 days straight if he answers every question?

If not, then the right to remain silent isn't what's preventing the scenario you describe.

[Groovus Maximus]

Uh, would it be OK for the cops to interrogate someone for 5 days straight if he answers every question?

Perhaps if A) they were not getting the answers they wanted and B) the suspect did not think to invoke his right to an atty, expecting the cops to read him his rights. Or was prevented from doing so.

[WTF]

I quote myself:

That raises other due process concerns - e.g., how long they can hold someone without charging him with a crime.

[Gabe]

"would it be OK for the cops to interrogate someone for 5 days straight if he answers every question?"

it probably would be ok from a tax feeding judges point of view...not from mine...the problem is that nothing written on any paper is going to help us if we don't actively stick up for our rights ourselves.

[Tulpa]

including his response of "Yes" when asked if he killed the victim.

From what I read it wasn't that clear cut. He answered "yes" when the cops asked him if he prayed for forgiveness for killing the victim.

Now that pretty much implies that he killed the victim, but let's not gild the lily here.

[Tulpa]

While this ruling sounds awful at first, looking at it more carefully makes it less so. As a non-lawyer who's never been arrested, I assumed that the right to remain silent simply meant that you could not be coerced to answer police questions, and the fact that you remain silent cannot be used as evidence against you at trial.

I didn't realize that it was interpreted to mean that police had to stop interrogating you if you remain silent, which is what the court actually ruled on. But under that interpretation, what duration of time do you have to remain silent to invoke the right? If the police ask you a question and you don't answer, does that mean they can't ask you any more? Is there a 20-question limit? A 30 minute limit?

It seems more sensible to me that in order to stop interrogation, you should have to invoke your right to remain silent. As long as silence, or the invocation of the right to remain silent, cannot be held against you at trial, then I don't see any problem with this ruling, or how it constitutes a "rollback" of Miranda rights.

[WTF]

Yes, that is the issue - whether the police have to stop trying to get you to say something. Is merely not saying anything enough for them to have to stop asking questions, or do you have to let them know, "look, I'm not going to say anything, so stop asking me questions."

[Tulpa]

Not saying anything for how long? You have to come up with some standard for what constitutes refusing to answer one or two particular questions versus refusing to answer ANY questions. Without an explicit declaration on the part of the arrestee, it's not clear where that dividing line is.

[Tonio]

Apparently Justice Sotomayor wrote a pretty scathing dissent. Looks like she came across for individual rights on this one.

[prolefeed]

I don't have a problem with this decision. Sorry, but if you've heard "you have the right to remain silent; anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law" and then you say something incriminating -- well, then you're just stupid.

If you remain completely silent, they can keep on haranguing you. What they can't do is force you to respond.

That being said, after being Mirandized, you should immediately say, "I want a lawyer" then shut up.

[Ska]

How about when the police don't feel like wasting their time with Miranda warnings?

[John]

Different set of facts then. If they never read you your rights, then your statements are probably going to be inadmissible.

[Tulpa]

Unless the cops lie and say they read your rights.

[John]

In this day and age who doesn't know that they don't have to talk to the cops?

[Warty]

It's supposed to be pretty common for people in foreign countries to demand that they be read their rights when arrested. I imagine the police are pretty amused by it.

[Tulpa]

The guy in this case, apparently.

But yeah, the "reading of rights" is probably unnecessary for most people, but it's such a tiny inconvenience for law enforcement that it should be required, just so all the i's are dotted and the t's crossed.

[Ska]

What if the person being arrested was never arrested before, and never watched Law and Order? I would imagine the not-very-street-smart criminals are the ones getting bagged, and the ones most in need of Miranda protections.

[Kevin]

Our Tax & Spend Republican Governor meets Obama. Who cares! Brewer & that jackass Russell Pearce are using the immigration issue as a distraction while they blow our state budget out of the water & spend us right into the ground.

Arizona is becoming just another county in the People's Republic of California & the public-sector unions who own Brewer along with most of the State Legislature couldn't be happier.

[John]

"DOJ launches criminal investigation of BP over Gulf oil spill."

What did they do that was criminal? Ask for and get a waiver from the Obama administration?

[sage]

I wonder if they'll look at the people at the MMS that was taking bribes, snorting meth, and surfing porn while on the job. HA HA HA HA HA

[J sub D]

My thoughts as well. If we're looking for scapegoats or for people being derelict in their duties, the Department of the Interior should be investigated with all the fervor that BP will be.

Not that I think that will happen.

[R C Dean]

What did they do that was criminal?

Showing Obama up for a feckless jackass, and making him look bad.

[Suki]

They are in the oil business, automatically guilty. Saved you a few steps.

[Timon19]

Yeah, this smacks of "doing something" for appearance's sake. The only thing that can remotely be considered criminal in this case is perhaps some sort of criminal negligence charge.

Appease and distract.

[Tulpa]

What did they do that was criminal?

That's what the DOJ will figure out. This is one fishing expedition that's made more profitable by oil floating in the gulf.

[Groovus Maximus]

one fishing expedition

*Groan* Get off the stage, Shecky Tulpa!

[Tulpa]

Yeah, so I'm watching Monsters Inside Me on Animal Planet the other night (it helps get the SO in the mood), and it seems like every story has the person going to the doctor with some early symptom of the parasite infestation they have, and the doctor completely misdiagnoses the problem and gives them some treatment that makes things worse. Then they go two weeks coughing up blood, or hearing maggots gnawing at the back of their heads, without going back to the doctor because they figure the doctor knows what he's talking about so they'd better do as told, until something happens where they pass out or start projectile vomiting or whatever.

Anyway, in the last vignette in the other night's episode, one of the patients' wives says that she hopes he'll start trusting doctors more as a result of his experience with the parasites! And I'm like, wtf?

[Groovus Maximus]

C-. Plus, I think you are hitting on me, you deviant. I'll pass.

[Tulpa]

So you're saying you DON'T have a parasite fetish?

[Groovus Maximus]

I talk to you, don't I, Dr. Lamprey?

[JW]

Is anyone else tired of responding that "BP has a significant economic interest in stopping the leaks as soon as possible." to OHMYGODOHMYGOD OILSPILLOILSPILLOILSPILL!!1!1!

Of course, if this is just a demonstration of BP's supposed incompetence, then let this be their last act.

[Warty]

Are you serious, John? There are careers just waiting to be made out of this mess. This is a prospective Attorney General's dream.

[John]

Breaking this morning: "Jim Greer, former head of the Republican Party of Florida, was arrested this morning, according to law enforcement officials. There was no immediate word on charges." Federal authorities were reportedly investigating a lucrative contract Greer awarded himself and an associate while he was running the state GOP.

This is the Jim Greer often described as, "Charlie Crist's personal pick to head the Republican Party of Florida." Not that the Crist campaign needed more bad news.

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....op-florida

[Tulpa]

I SHOULD HAVE CLEANED UP THE GREER

[EJM]

Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama resigns over broken campaign promise.

However, you can probably still buy your very own copy of The Shirt.

[Benjamin Lecrone]

Wow! He looks like a gay rodeo clown who's getting ready to sing karaoke...just as soon as he finishes his lo mien. I like it!

[SugarFree]

"My boyfriend and I recently had sex (both of our first times), and have had sex a handful of times since, and he has never cum."

Male partners unable to ejaculate when having sex with feministing commenters seems to be a common problem. Watch how they scratch their heads and dance around the obvious.

[JW]

Tell him to stop thinking about basketball start thinking about basketball players.

[Ragin Cajun]

As long as they aren't WNBA players. Then he's back to square one.

[Enough About Palin]

You wouldn't bang Candice Parker, Ragin Gayjun??

[John]

When you have to get a guy dead drunk to get him to sleep with you, that tends to make it harder for him to get over the top. Then of course the woman making no effort whatsoever beyond telling him how lucky he is to be able to touch her, doesn't help either.

[Warty]

The cisgender oppressor TUK MUH JERB

But that's not the end of it. Two months ago I approached my manager and asked her to do something about people misgendering me at work, which is blatant discrimination. Noises were made that something was being done about it, but nothing happened. I was misgendered several times after I raised the issue and I called a meeting to find out what was going on. The boss again assured me that something was being done. Three weeks later, I no longer have a job.

I can't imagine why they didn't want to work with you, dude.

[Tulpa]

Well, it's not like spotting a toupee!

[Groovus Maximus]

And you know students and instructors in Gender Studies and can't spot this phenomenon? You disgust me Tulpa.

[Tulpa]

I just assume everyone is transgendered until proven otherwise.

[JW]

You see, my colleague is a heterosexual cisgender male.

That's a lot of words to call someone "normal."

[SugarFree]

"Normal" is now the ultimate dirty word.

[Tulpa]

Wait, "to cum" is an irregular verb? I never knew that. They don't teach that word in 5th grade vocabulary for some reason.

[Warty]

A self-degrading man is a terrible thing to see

I wondered if his disapproval of my cleaning standards would make him think I was sloppy writ large (read less attractive) or, gasp, that I didn't have it all together. Like some Mad Men character caught with her dishes unwashed and her hair a mess, I felt a little sheepish.

Luckily, this passed pretty quickly as I realized, "Holy shit, I just found myself a partner who not only doesn't mind my substandard cleaning capacities, but doesn't mind cleaning while I lay in bed and read." This isn't gender parity or domestic subversion people. This is nirvana.

[Groovus Maximus]

Watch how they scratch their heads and dance around the obvious.

Trauma to the glans penis is gonna kill the mood, Saccharin Man. These gals need to lube or go to their OB/GYN. Dancing doesn't make the Bartholin's Glands work any better (usually; however, erotic dancing can stimulate some love juice if the issue is lack of "spark").

[prolefeed]

"My boyfriend and I recently had sex (both of our first times), and have had sex a handful of times since, and he has never cum."

If she said something like "Treat me like a slut. Fuck my ass. Do anything you want to me, and I'll let you."

then her problem would be over. Except that's so not what anyone posting on Feministing would say.

[cynical]

They should place the words "Sarlaac fetish" more prominently in their Craiglist ads.

[John Thacker]

Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama resigns over very bad poll numbers, partially related to broken campaign promise, more specifically related to the fact that many campaign promises were contradictory and otherwise impossible to achieve.

[JW]

Many men masturbate with techniques such as lying face-down and rubbing their genitals against the mattrass that no human orifice or action could simulate. They have quite simply gotten themselves used to a form of stimulation that your body cannot offer.

I have to wonder if she actually knows any actual, living men.

[Warty]

I think she's saying that her vagina feels worse than fucking a mattress.

[SugarFree]

You magnificent bastard!

[WTF]

or a "mattrass"

[Chris]

Maybe he could fuck her chest instead. I assume it's about as flat.

[Tulpa]

"Sorry honey, I'm used to pillow-top"

"DON'T CALL ME HONEY, YOU VICIOUS OPPRESSIVE PATRIARCH!"

[Tulpa]

Can't he just close his eyes and pretend her back is a mattress?

[Enough About Palin]

That's what titty fucking is for.

[Chris]

http://www.tnr.com/print/artic.....vement-isn't-racist

[Death Panelist]

Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama resigns over broken campaign promise.

It truly is an alien culture.

[SugarFree]

If she's so smart, why does her hair look like that?

[Warty]

BBWs are not American Apparel's demographic

[SugarFree]

Even I didn't want to inflict that on the board.

[Warty]

Notice the tantalizing hint of cellulite.

[Mr. Creosote]

Better get a bucket. I think I'm gonna be sick.

[Michael]

"Last time I went shopping I told my husband that I was so glad I wasn't skinny because then I would have too many options and would be in the stores forever."

She then proceeded amputating his other leg.

[wylie]

If you are using Firefox and NoScript addon, please mark jezebel.com as trusted.

Nice try.

[wingnutx]

She was a guest on Redeye once, so how smart can she be?

[Admiral Akbar]

The longer I spend in academia, the more I am happy that Fem-Gen Majors are never given real positions of power except as University Presidents. While the damage they have done their, especially to the sexual lives of their students, is immense, at least they can only cockblock you for four years, whereas if they ran the corporate world, they could cockblock you for 40.