Sunday, May 7, 2006

Men at Work

I spent some time this evening mucking around with the design of this website. If you logged in here between around 9 PM and 11:00, things may have looked a bit weird but I think I'm finished for the time being. There will be more changes but not for a while.

• Posted at 11:16 PM · LINK

Unreasonable Discussion

A number of blogs are discussing that exchange that General Michael Hayden had with a reporter last January. Depending on which news source you read, Hayden may or may not be about to replace Porter Goss as head of the C.I.A. so his concept of governmental power could matter even more than it already does.

In fairness, there is a way to interpret Hayden's remarks that isn't quite as clueless as he may have seemed that day. The reporter, Jonathan Landay, suggested that the government has to have probable cause to execute a search that does not violate an American's right against unlawful searches and seizures. That's not exactly right, either. The Fourth Amendment says there can be no unreasonable searches and seizures, period. That's probably the point Hayden was trying to make.

As a reader of this site, Robert Cosgrove, wrote to me, "The fourth amendment requires that searches be 'reasonable.' Where a search requires a warrant, the warrant must be based on probable cause. However, many searches do not require a warrant, including searches of lockers by school authorities, searches incident to arrest, protective sweeps and weapons pat-downs, and others."

This may be splitting hair strands right down to the scalp. We agree that searches must be "reasonable." Beyond that, you can interpret the part about "probable cause" to say that is the standard required to obtain a warrant where one is necessary. Or you can interpret it to say that "probable cause" is the quality that makes any search, with or without a warrant, "reasonable." Both interpretations get you to pretty much the same place.

If you buy the distinction, the General's error came when the reporter asked, "Does it not say 'probable cause?'" Hayden said no, which left him wide open to the charge that he really didn't know those words were in the Fourth Amendment. But he may have meant, "No, it does not say that in quite the way you're presenting it." In which case, his mistake was not in also saying something like, "Yes, I know the words 'probable cause' are in the Fourth Amendment," and explaining the precious distinction he was trying to make.

Below, we have a link to a video of the exchange as it was presented at the time on Countdown With Keith Olbermann, so you can judge for yourself. Thanks to Roy Sorenson for suggesting I post it.

• Posted at 3:02 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Jared Bernstein writes a film noir detective thriller about...the economy.

• Posted at 9:59 AM · LINK

Things I'm Not Buying - #4 in a series

Perfume that recaptures the wonderful aroma of fresh Play-Doh.

Now, if they could just bottle the smell of Revell Model Cement, they'd have something.

• Posted at 1:53 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

A Broadway moment from The Drew Carey Show. Not much more to say about it than that.

• Posted at 12:56 AM · LINK

The Colbert Video

For some reason, I'm still getting e-mails from folks asking where they can view the infamous Stephen Colbert speech from last week. C-Span seems to have forced its removal from about three of the eighty thousand websites that have posted it. Guess it's getting tough to find.

Google Video has it, apparently put there by C-Span. In fact, you have your choice. This link will take you to a video of the whole dinner. That runs a little more than an hour and a half and includes arrivals, some highlights from past White House Correspondent's Dinners, Bush's routine with the impersonator, and then Colbert. Or this link will show you just Bush's segment. Or this link will show you just Colbert's 24 minutes. They've configured these so you can't download, even with KeepVid...but you can watch online.

• Posted at 12:55 AM · LINK