Supreme Court: “Police Don’t Need No Steenkeeng Search Warrant”

And the trend continues. As corporations gain more and more “rights,” people’s individual rights are disappearing one by one. The Corporate Arm of the Republican Party (formerly known as the Supreme Court) has ruled that the police only need a search warrant if it’s raining, you’re wearing a flannel shirt and a green car just drove by.

In Lexington, Kentucky, police arrested a man after barging into his home without a search warrant. They claimed they didn’t need a search warrant because they smelled marijuana. And the Supreme Court has ruled in their favor, 8 to 1. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the only dissenter.

Maybe the only solution is for every individual American to incorporate. Become a one-person corporation, put “Inc.” or “LLC” after your name, and Presto: Instant Freedom!

For conservatives, there really does seem to be an inverse ratio when it comes to how much “Freedom” they want for corporations versus individuals.

Take freedom-loving Arizona for example. State Senator Russell Pearce (R—Inbred) has plans for protesters in Arizona. He wants to have them locked up in a tent city in the middle of the desert.

Russell Pearce absolutely worships his fellow neckdrooler, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and wants to be just like him. At a Phoenix Chamber of Commerce meeting, Pearce was asked how he would respond to protesters who disagree with Arizona’s conservative agenda. His response:

“I’ve spoken with the sheriff, and he has some nice buses that hold a lot of people. We’ve also got some tents with a view.”

The executive director of the Arizona AFL-CIO said:

“I find it deeply chilling that an elected official finds it funny to discuss jailing a group of people expressing their First Amendment rights. Suggesting a police crackdown before a rally has even occurred is just more of the same intimidation, threats and innuendo we’ve come to expect from Senator Pearce and his crony, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.”

Arizona Cracking Down on Payday Lenders

Finally, some good news about Arizona. This state is a hotbed of rightwing activity. Everyone’s heard of Sheriff Joe “Have You Killed A Swarthy Immigrant Today?” Arpaio. And there’s a rightwing Republican who might unseat John McCain this November because McCain is too liberal. (???)

But Arizona is just about to remove one of our society’s most malignant tumors: the payday loan industry.

Several years ago Arizona established a 36% cap on annual interest rates. Payday lenders were granted a temporary exemption from the law, and that exemption expires this June. Arizona’s payday lenders often charge more than 400% annual interest. (No, that wasn’t a typo.) And now they’re wailing that a 36% cap is so restrictive, they’ll just have to shut down their entire loanshark operation in Arizona. Good fuckin’ riddance.

Checksmart is a nationwide payday lender that operates in eleven states, including Arizona. Make that ten, as of this June. Their CEO, Ted Saunders, sobbed that consumers “are looking for a dog to kick. They want to find a villain. They’ve done a good job of painting a big X on my back.”

Bang!

Arizona won’t be the first state to get rid of payday loansharks. North Carolina — another state you don’t associate with meddling socialist bureaucrats — and the District of Columbia have already done this. Hopefully more states will follow suit.

If the Republicans were still in power, the payday loan industry could have fallen back on the banking industry’s favorite tactic: bribing Congress into deleting all of those pesky state laws. When it comes to state versus federal authority, the Right has two soundbites: “States’ Rights!” and “a patchquilt of state and local regulations.” And whichever soundbite they’re blurting out at the moment, they completely forget about the other one. It never existed.