I understand Arizona has an implied consent law punishable by a one year suspension of driving privileges if a driver refuses to submit to a blood, breath, or urine test after an arrest for DUI or any offense arising from the stop. Here the Officer claimed a strong odor of alcohol and observed a traffic violation akin to reckless driving. I suspect he had probable cause to arrest and require the test. Even if he didn’t I understand from a friend of mine practicing there that the police routinely obtain search warrants based on probable cause to draw blood to conduct the test.

That is it. If you know you are likely to fail a legal test for sobriety you would be wise to keep your mouth shut. Indeed, most criminal defense lawyers I know would advise keeping your mouth shut regardless. For you to be required to submit to testing requires the officer to make an arrest. For him to make a criminal arrest he must have some basis for the arrest. Running a stop sign and failing to reply to questioning is not sufficient. Now the cop can lie and frequently they will. Smelled alcohol. Staggered when he got out of the vehicle. Nodded his head. Flushed face. Whatever. But the video camera is running.

So Barkley’s security guy was looking out for him, even if he failed to appreciate it. I wonder what Mr. Barkley or his daughter think about it?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1360191,harry-reid-blagojevich-jesse-jackson-010209.article ^

Days before Gov. Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, top Senate Democrat Harry Reid made it clear who he didn’t want in the post: Jesse Jackson, Jr., Danny Davis or Emil Jones.

Rather, Reid called Blagojevich to argue he appoint either state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Sources say the Senate majority leader pushed against Jackson and Davis — both democratic congressmen from Illinois — and against Jones — the Illinois Senate president who is the political godfather of President-elect Barack Obama — because he did not believe the three men were electable. He feared losing the seat to a Republican in a future election.

By ADAM LIPTAK, NYT
Published: January 2, 2009

WASHINGTON — Just a month after President-elect Barack Obama takes office, he must tell the Supreme Court where he stands on one of the most aggressive legal claims made by the Bush administration — that the president may order the military to seize legal residents of the United States and hold them indefinitely without charging them with a crime.

The new administration’s brief, which is due Feb. 20, has the potential to hearten or infuriate Mr. Obama’s supporters, many of whom are looking to him for stark disavowals of the Bush administration’s legal positions on the detention and interrogation of so-called enemy combatants held at Navy facilities on the American mainland or at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

During the campaign, Mr. Obama made broad statements criticizing the Bush administration’s assertions of executive power. But now he must address a specific case, that of Ali al-Marri, a Qatari student who was arrested in Peoria, Ill., in December 2001. The Bush administration says Mr. Marri is a sleeper agent for Al Qaeda, and it is holding him without charges at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. He is the only person currently held as an enemy combatant on the mainland, but the legal principles established in his case are likely to affect the roughly 250 prisoners at Guantánamo.

Many legal experts say that all of the new administration’s options in Mr. Marri’s case are perilous. Intelligence officials say he is exceptionally dangerous, making deportation problematic.

“If they adopt the Bush administration position, or some version of it,” said Brandt Goldstein, a professor at New York Law School, “it is going to be a moment of profound disappointment for everyone in the legal community and Americans generally who believe that the Bush administration has tried to turn the presidency into a monarchy.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/washington/03scotus.html

I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE LEFT WING DISAPPOINTMENT! their messiah is actually going to have to make a decision for once!

By Brendan McGarry – Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 2, 2009 10:09:24 EST

When asked how they feel about President-elect Barack Obama as commander in chief, six out of 10 active-duty service members say they are uncertain or pessimistic, according to a Military Times survey.

In follow-up interviews, respondents expressed concerns about Obama’s lack of military service and experience leading men and women in uniform.

“Being that the Marine Corps can be sent anywhere in the world with the snap of his fingers, nobody has confidence in this guy as commander in chief,” said one lance corporal who asked not to be identified.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/military_poll_main_122908/

It now says I have to wait an hour”

Well I’m not sure… I’m starting to see something.

Are you a large white breasted fellow with an unusually large overbite who lives somewhere off the coast of Australia?

It now says I have to wait an hour.

Roland Burris, the man Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich picked to succeed Barack Obama in the Senate, might get to etch another accolade into the monument he built for himself if this appointment goes through.

You see, Burris has already charted his esteemed career path on the walls of his future grave in Chicago’s Oak Woods Cemetery (pictured here). Beneath a seal of the state of Illinois, Burris lists his accomplishments to date, and there seems to be plenty of room above the bench to mention his career in the Senate – if he has one.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/1208/Roland_Burriss_Monument_to_Me.html?showall

hAAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHEWEEE! OH GOD I AM GOING TO BE SICK!!!!!!!!

Democrat U.S. governors seek $1 trillion federal assistance
Fri Jan 2, 2009

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Democrat Governors of five U.S. states urged the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to states to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5014F120090102

January 2, 2009

Israel set to begin ground war against Hamas in Gaza

Israel is poised to launch a major ground offensive into Gaza tonight after allowing hundreds of foreigners living in the devastated territory to evacuate.

After a week of air strikes that have killed at least 420 Palestinians and left scores of buildings in rubble, the Israeli army was set to fling hundreds of troops and tanks into a blitz to stamp out Hamas’s military wing, The Times understands.

Despite the looming onslaught, more Hamas rockets – which have so far killed four Israelis – were fired into southern Israel today.

The Islamist group vowed that its attacks, which have lasted for years and which finally provoked the massive Israeli campaign, would not stop.

“I call on the resistance to continue pounding Jewish settlements and cities,” said Sheikh Abdelrahman al-Jamal at the funeral of a hardline Hamas political leader killed, together with his four wives and 11 children, in an Israeli air strike on his home.
“We will remain on the path of jihad until the end of days.”

The funeral was held outdoors because an earlier air raid had smashed the mosque where the service was due to take place. Israel said the building had been used to stockpile weapons.

Among the mounting Palestinian death toll today were three young brothers, aged between seven and 10, who were killed in one of the 30 or so strikes carried out by Israeli warplanes across the strip.

All along the border, Israeli tanks and troops have turned fields into makeshift camps from which to launch their offensive into Gaza. The Government has already mobilised more than 6,000 reserve troops and has given the green light to call up almost 3,000 more.

Artillery barrages were also being fired into the strip while aircraft dropped bombs on open ground that the army will need to cross, and where Hamas has placed mines and dug tunnels to allow its guerrillas to outflank the invaders.

Support for Operation Cast Lead is sky high in Israel, with polls showing that almost 85 per cent of the public backing the campaign.

There is also majority support for expanding it into a ground campaign, despite the dangers of high casualties in an urban battlefield against highly trained and motivated guerrillas waging war on their own turf. Almost 42 per cent of Israelis wanted the army to move in, while 39 percent favoured a continued air campaign.

Hamas has an estimated 15,000 fighters who have used the 18 months that they have controlled the strip to hone their skills and transform a militia into a small army. Hamas’s military wing has been waiting for a ground offensive to face the Israeli army in open combat, despite Israel’s vast military superiority.

The onslaught has provoked large anti-Israeli demonstrations around the world, with protest rallies held today in India, Indonesia, Turkey and Australia.

But Hamas’s call for a “day of wrath” in the Palestinian territories produced only a lukewarm response in the face of clampdowns by Israeli security forces.

Several thousand protesters marched through the West Bank city of Ramallah, while in East Jerusalem youths threw stones at Israeli security forces and some 50 women demonstrated outside the Friday prayers at al-Aqsa mosque.

The demonstrators directed their anger principally at their own Palestinian leaders, and heads of Arab countries whom they felt had not done enough to stop Israel’s seven-day incursion into Gaza.

“Abbas is with the Jews, not with the Arabs. If he really was supporting and working in favour of our Arab brother’s in Gaza, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Um-Mahr, a 66-year-old resident of East Jerusalem.

Akram Jwaeibis, 58, said Arab leaders today were afraid to do more than voice criticism of the Israeli government’s actions. “Most of them just talk. That is why we are waiting for Nasrallah. Or Haniyeh to do something more than talk.”

Diplomatic efforts to contain the crisis were growing after Israel’s surprise offensive in the days after Christmas caught the world off guard. “We are working toward a ceasefire that would not allow a re-establishment of the status quo ante where Hamas can continue to launch rockets out of Gaza,” said Condoleezza Rice, the outgoing US Secretary of State.

“It is obvious that that ceasefire should take place as soon as possible, but we need a ceasefire that is durable and sustainable,” she said.

A high-level European delegation is due in the region at the weekend, as were Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Tony Blair, the international community’s envoy to the Middle East.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5434559.ece

“Where do you get those great avatars,and how do they work?”

Well the Avatars are just pictures of me. All except for the one I had up last week of the late great Harvey Lembeck, aka Eric Von Zipper. The current one is me when I was like 8. I’m wearing my Captian Kirk Dress gold tunic. Try buying one of those now. I was going to leave my current pic up but too many people complained about my not so sweet visage so I figured a little Wayne was easier on the eyes.

As for how they work I just signed up with WordPress. Its easy and you can just add them to your profile after that.

“Hell if I had that much money I’d have the limo drive me home so I could keep boozin all the way.”

*********

Me too, but see my law of “making lots of money” above. I think his goose is pretty much cooked given these facts. Remember we lawyers can’t change facts, just spice them up a bit!

Where do you get those great avatars,and how do they work?

“I think that’s right under their implied consent law, but it is only a civil infraction by refusing in most states. You lose your license for a year, but a guy like Barkley can afford the driver–hell even the limousine.”

I see. And given Barkley’s bucks his attorney probably could argue illegal search or something on it. I’ve heard that law in MD is contestable. As for the limousine I’ve never understood why rich types like this get DUI’s. Hell if I had that much money I’d have the limo drive me home so I could keep boozin all the way.

Great pun on the Round Mound!!

I think that’s right under their implied consent law, but it is only a civil infraction by refusing in most states. You lose your license for a year, but a guy like Barkley can afford the driver–hell even the limousine.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Democrat Governors of five U.S. states urged the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country’s 50 states to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession.

The governors of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin — all Democrats — said the initiative for the two-year aid package was backed by other governors and follows a meeting in December where governors called on President-elect Barack Obama to help them maintain services in the face of slumping revenues.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5014F120090102

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY INSANE! NOW WITH A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS AND A DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT IN 3 WEEKS, DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS OF FIVE STATES WANT 1 TRILLION (TRILLION!!!!) DOLLARS IN BAILOUT MONEY!

hAAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHEWEEE! OH GOD I AM GOING TO BE SICK!!!!!!!!

” I met Mr Barkley back in the mid 90′s in the food court of Crossroads Mall in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was there with a few other team members, standing near the Shaved ICE stand munching some ICE and flirting with what appeared to be a gaggle of local school girls. The oldest looked 17. I remember asking for his autograph when he told me to “shove off, can’t you see I’m busy” and went back to getting telephone numbers from some of the girls.

A week later I read in the Salt Lake Tribune that he and the other players were in trouble for possible sex with underage girls in a Utah Hotel room. I don’t recall how the story played out but I do recall losing all respect for the man that day.”

Waynebro

A week later I read in the Salt Lake Tribune that he and the other players were in trouble for possible sex with underage girls in a Utah Hotel room. I don’t recall how the story played out but I do recall losing all respect for the man that day.

but then again. he DID state years ago that he was no one’s role model!