RTFA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7011522.stm

Microsoft is reported to be in talks to buy a stake in Facebook that could value the social networking website at as much as $10bn

At the end of TFA, it says that facebook expects to make $30 million this year.

RTFA: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_frie…

The defendant would only be justified in killing the deceased when you should find that the circumstances showed that the deceased had so far forgotten his duties as an officer, and had gone beyoud the force necessary to arrest defendant, and was about to kill him or to inflict great bodily injury upon him, which was not necessary for the purpose of making the arrest.’
This charge was duly excepted to.
We think the court clearly erred in charging that the policemen had the right to arrest the plaintiff in error, and to use such force as was necessary to accomplish the arrest, and that the plaintiff in error had no right to resist it.
The evidence as to the facts immediately preceding the killing was contradictory; the prosecution showing a killing when no active effort was at that very moment made to arrest, and the defendant showing an intended arrest and a determination to take him at that time at all events, and a move made by the deceased towards him with his pistol in sight, and a seeming intention to use it against the defendant for the purpose of overcoming all resistance. Under these circumstances the error of the charge was material and prejudicial.
At common law, if a party resisted arrest by an officer without warrant and who had no right to arrest him, and if in the course of that resistance the officer was killed, the offense of the party resisting arrest would be reduced from what would have been murder if the officer had had the right to arrest, to manslaughter. What would be murder if the officer had the right to arrest might be reduced to manslaughter by the very fact that he had no such right. So an officer, at common law, was not authorized to make an arrest without a warrant, for a mere misdemeanor not committed in his presence.

This is a Supreme Court ruling in which the defendant killed a cop who was illegally attempting an arrest. The ruling states that if the police aren’t acting legally, then the act of killing the arresting officer is not murder, but is rather reduced to manslaughter. Of course, this particular case is very nuanced, so RTFA. This ruling makes it clear that the police are still subject to the law. An illegal arrest is still illegal. The police do not have special protection from the law. If the police action is not predicated on the law, then the police are NOT free to act as they choose.

Applying this ruling to the “UF Taser” case, we find that a citizen may reasonably resist illegal arrest, even to the point of slaughtering the arresting officer. The police must tell you they are arresting you, they must have good reason to arrest you, and if they don’t, then your actions to resist arrest are legally defensible. By resisting, the police may (illegally) brutalize you, but at least YOUR actions are legal. Be warned that the the modern police will probably murder you if you defend yourself, irrespect of the SCOTUS ruling. Just know that, from the grave, you can smile because you were morally right. Hmph.

To hilight the key opinion of the Supreme Court:

We think the court clearly erred in charging that the policemen had the right to arrest the plaintiff in error, and to use such force as was necessary to accomplish the arrest, and that the plaintiff in error had no right to resist it.

Say it with me: the officer did NOT have the right to erroneously arrest the plaintiff, so the officer did NOT have the authority to use force to accomplish the arrest, and the plaintiff DID have the right to resist.

Although you might temporarily lose your freedoms, so long as justice is alive, those officers will be dismissed, and you will have sacrificed for the advancement of US justice. Of course, if justice were completely healthy, then there would be no reason to get beaten up and imprisoned by the police, but that’s the essence of the “security versus freedom” dilemma.

In the UF Taser situation, this kid was charged with resisting arrest. Well, that charge clearly needs to be dropped.

Once again: RTFA. This stuff is edgy.

RTFA: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i1odejEActt5Dtx…

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times’ ombudsman says the newspaper violated its standards when it gave the liberal activist group MoveOn.org a $77,508 price break on a full-page advertisement targeting Gen. David H. Petraeus.

The organization paid $64,575, instead of the standard $142,083, for the ad questioning the war in Iraq, public editor Clark Hoyt wrote in a column published Sunday.

RTFA: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297766,00.html

President Bush is predicting that Hillary Clinton will win the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, according to a new book, ‘Evangelical President,’ set for release on Monday and written by FOX News contributor Bill Sammon.

RTFA: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070924/ap_on_re_us/mi…

HUNTINGDON, Tenn. - Mary Winkler convinced a jury she was physically and emotionally abused by her preacher husband before she shot him to death. Now, after a short jail sentence, she is trying to persuade the courts to let her have her children back.

This woman kills her husband with a shotgun to the face and gets 7 months in prison. Reading the article, it sounds like she has a good chance of getting her kids back too. Hmmm, who was it that said fairness is kinda important to justice?

RTFA: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070924/ap_on_re_us/ir…

Ahmadinejad smiled as Columbia President Lee Bollinger took him to task over Iran’s human-rights record and foreign policy, and Ahmadinejad’s statements denying the Holocaust and calling for the disappearance of Israel.

“Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” Bollinger said, to loud applause.

He said Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust might fool the illiterate and ignorant.

“When you come to a place like this it makes you simply ridiculous,” Bollinger said. “The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history.”

This is a very interesting article. I highly suggest reading TFA.

RTFA: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070924/ap_on_sp_bo_ne…

MESA, Ariz. - Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson pleaded guilty Monday to charges of drug possession and driving under the influence stemming from a traffic stop last year as he was leaving a nightclub.
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Tyson quietly acknowledged to a judge that he had cocaine and was impaired when he was stopped for driving erratically in Scottsdale on Dec. 29.

RTFA: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/09/23/r…

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 23 (UPI) — More than 20 retired U.S. generals have gone public with their disapproval of how the United States has approached the war in Iraq.

Retired military leaders like Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton said that they chose to openly voice their displeasure with the current U.S. administration’s approach to the war after finding their advice ignored by top-ranking officials, the San Diego Union-Tribune said Sunday.

“The ethos is: Give your advice to those in a position to make changes, not the media,” Eaton said. “But this administration is immune to good advice.”

RTFA: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/weekinreview/11b…

It starts as a dispute over translating Persian but quickly turns on whether the United States (with help from Israel) is doing to Iran what some believe it did to Iraq — building a case for military action predicated on a faulty premise.

“Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to wipe Israel off the map because no such idiom exists in Persian,” remarked Juan Cole, a Middle East specialist at the University of Michigan and critic of American policy who has argued that the Iranian president was misquoted. “He did say he hoped its regime, i.e., a Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse.” Since Iran has not “attacked another country aggressively for over a century,” he said in an e-mail exchange, “I smell the whiff of war propaganda.”

Old article - made recently popular by digg leftists. For some reason the digg population seems to hate Israel and defend Iran on a daily basis. While I accept the above article is most likely true and Ahmadinejad was probably misquoted, he’s still a scumbag. And, let me make the obvious statement, Iran is worse than Israel. I apologize for introducing my bias, but I am presenting evidence to support the opposing opinion.

RTFA: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2007/09/19/4…

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - Drinkers of Moosehead beer in Ontario are being advised to stock up on their favourite brew after thieves made off with more than 100,000 cans and bottles.

Two tractor-trailers carrying 70,000 cans and 44,000 bottles of Moosehead Lager were stolen early Wednesday morning at a transport company’s facility in Mississauga, Ont.

No TV an no beer makes Homer something something…

RTFA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/oxfords…

The fastest driver ever caught in a routine speed check in the UK has been sentenced to 10 weeks in jail.

Timothy Brady, 33, of Earls Crescent, Harrow, north-west London, pleaded guilty at Oxford Crown Court to dangerous driving.

Brady was clocked at 172mph in a Porsche 911 Turbo in a 70mph zone on the A420 in Oxfordshire on 27 January.

He was banned from driving for three years and will have to take an extended driving test to get another licence.