After that....back indoors for the rest of the day. Just too oppressive outside. I am finished Tom Wolfe's latest book 'Back to Blood',- disappointing,but some good parts. Ready to start the new Carl Hiassen since I am on a Florida kick due to the national focus back on this area.

Vol. 72
Vol. 71
Vol. 70
And a rerun, Vol. 6

Hope these things are keeping some people chuckling. Laughing hard would be best. But you can't bust all the guts all the time, I suppose.

Flying to L.A. in a few hours for a 48-hour lost weekend with an old friend. John Lennon, fill me now. Ahem.

any person who aids, or attempts to aid, the enemy with arms, ammunition, supplies, money, or other things; or without proper authority, knowingly harbors or protects or gives intelligence to, or communicates or corresponds with or holds any intercourse with the enemy, either directly or indirectly.

It's meant to be broad and all-encompassing, and it certainly is.

Congress is supposedly working on a shield law and it's gonna be fun watching them agree on a definition for journalist.

Obama pouted and demanded this morning that Putin secretly hand over Clappers head on a platter and secretly extradite CNN, warning that Russia will suffer secret 'serious consequences' for non-compliance, especially if he publicly embarrasses Obama by giving him the finger without keeping it a secret.

Until this morning both the secret court and the secret surveillance program had been secret secrets secretly guarded by secret secret agents.

These secrets agents are pros. Nobody knew about this secret surveillance program. Especially all the terrists secretly swimming across the oceans by the billions with knives in their teeth they are protecting you from with this secret sureveillance program that nobody knows about. Boy will they be in for a shock if they ever find out they were secretly spied on. By secret pros. Who can keep secrets secret, cuz they are pros. You know? No, you don't know. It's a secret, see.

Heads will roll over this. I mean eyes.

The FAA released a statement in response to questions about an ordinance under consideration in the tiny farming community of Deer Trail, Colo., that would encourage hunters to shoot down drowns. The administration reminded the public that it regulates the nation's airspace, including the airspace over cities and towns.

A drone "hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air," the statement said. "Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in criminal or civil liability, just as would firing at a manned airplane." link

Phillip Steel, author of the proposal, dismissed the FAA's warning with "The FAA doesn't have the power to make a law," he said.

At the time, Msgr. Ricca was director of several  Vatican residences including the one at which the pope now resides as well as one at which he stayed  while still  a cardinal.

The Italian weekly, L' Expresso, is claiming that Prelate Ricca had an embarrassing stay while on diplomatic assignment a decade ago at the Vatican embassy in Mentevideo, Uruguay, including an affair with a Swiss Guard and  encounters with local hustlers. A Vatican spokesman brushed off the story as not credible, but L'Espresso is firm in its reporting.

 Following Italian media reports last February that a secret report by cardinals that there were blackmail attempts against gay clergyman, Pope Francis was quoted as saying, "..there is talk of a gay lobby and its true, it exists."  (The "gay lobby" was not defined, although it is assumed it did not refer to a tastefully decorated foyer.)  

He calls them as he sees them.  USG and NSA

I'm not stating my opinions on the case that shall not be mentioned in this thread, but I have to say I've learned a lot and have had my mind opened because of that case.

Where else on the internet will you find a site that tolerates dissenting voices? (with exceptions for some legal issues) Where else will you find pretty much the entire spectrum of political views debated without banning? And the long-timers get open threads where topics such as food, pets, movies, entertainment and gardening gives political opponents a chance to be human together? Seriously, I have not found a single other site that has intelligent debate from a huge range of people with expertise in a huge range of fields with a range of political views.

This means that
(1) in the Martin-Zimmermann trial, J would go all out to show the defendant Zimmermann in positive light and put a dead teenager, Martin, on trial
(2) in Dominique Strauss Kahn (defendant) Vs Nafitassou Diallo, she would downplay every past egregious behavior of Strauss Kahn or argue that it was irrelevant to the case and post anything that would undermine Diallo's credibility.
(3) if Wall Street banksters are ever going to get prosecuted, they will be defendants. This means that all wall street crimes will get downplayed to defend the "rights of the accused" and the middle class and poor people who got affected by these crimes will be made to walk over hot charcoal in this blog (credibility questioned, minor infractions highlighted, etc).
(4) if Bin Laden was not killed but arrested and put on trial (as J and other defense lawyers wanted) in a criminal court, my understanding is that this blog would do its best to downplay the heinousness of his crimes (since Bin Laden was going to be the defendant) and make arguments about how the prosecution was over reaching.  

Sorry, I am not about to pray to be united with Rick Scott on anything.

And the rest of last week's comics, in case you missed any:

The "dead witness in the Whitey Bulger case" is looking to me like some combination of heat and maybe heart disease.  His body was found on a path through a wooded area some distance from his home on one of the hottest days of the summer.  The dead putative witness was supposedly not going to be called to testify b/c another government witness had earlier testified contrary to what the now-dead putative witness would have testified to.  You'll recall the now-dead guy's story was to the effect of "Whitey needed a legitimate source of income, so he made me an offer I couldn't refuse to sell him the South Boston liquor store I owned."  Unfortunately, the now-dead putative witness made a very loud, public show during his life of wanting to get revenge on Whitey through testifying, making himself into prime cross-examination fodder, a textbook example of bias.

(Reuters) - Former CIA Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady, who was convicted in Italy of kidnapping an Egyptian Muslim cleric and detained in Panama this week, returned to the United States on Friday, a State Department spokeswoman said.
...
Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman, said she had no details on whether Lady would be questioned by U.S. authorities, or whether the United States would cooperate with Italy on the case.

A Panamanian foreign ministry source said Lady was detained for 24 hours at the border with Costa Rica pending an extradition request from Italy.

He was let go because Panama does not have an extradition treaty with Italy and because documentation sent by Italian officials was "insufficient," the source said. link

Lansing-- Ruling the governor and Detroit's emergency manager violated the state constitution, an Ingham County Circuit judge ordered Friday that Detroit's federal bankruptcy filing be withdrawn.

"It's absolutely needed," said Judge Rosemary Aquilina, observing she hopes Gov. Rick Snyder "reads certain sections of the (Michigan) constitution and reconsiders his actions."

The judge said state law guards against retirement benefits being "diminished," but there will be no such protection in federal bankruptcy court....

...While experts say federal proceedings take precedence, state-level legal maneuvering could delay the process. Pension board attorneys said their pleadings could wind up in federal court, too.

"Most transparent administration in history" releases most redacted document in history.

After the courts laid out the conditions in which the government can compel email providers to turn over users' private messages, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wondered if the FBI was applying similar guidelines to text messages. So the group filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Justice Department.

"The document "does not even show the date, let alone what the policy is," ACLU spokesperson Josh Bell told ABC News.