JONATHAN TURLEY

There is an interesting ruling out of Oregon where the Court of Appeals ruled that teeth cannot be treated as a dangerous weapon for the purposes of establishing a basis for first-degree assault conviction of Scott Russell Kuperus II. It is a clear case of prosecutorial over-charging and a trial judge who failed in protecting against such abusive claims.
Continue reading ‘Taking the Bite Out of Crime: Oregon Court Rules Teeth Are Not Dangerous Weapons’

Submitted By Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger

When someone mentions the United States Chamber of Commerce to me, I automatically think of the recent claims that were made that the Chamber solicited campaign donations from foreign corporations during the last election cycle. “A ThinkProgress investigation has found that the Chamber funds its political attack campaign out of its general account, which solicits foreign funding. And while the Chamber will likely assert it has internal controls, foreign money is fungible, permitting the Chamber to run its unprecedented attack campaign. According to legal experts consulted by ThinkProgress, the Chamber is likely skirting longstanding campaign finance law that bans the involvement of foreign corporations in American elections.” Think Progress   While that may be an atrocious and possibly illegal funding of domestic elections with foreign money, I am not currently interested in that “activity” of our friends at the Chamber of Commerce. Something else caught my eye! Continue reading ‘The United Chamber of Hacking?’

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez appears to have run out of Earth-based disasters to blame on capitalism. Chavez’s latest unhinged rant concerns Mars, which he has suggested had a thriving civilization that was wiped out by Martian capitalists.
Continue reading ‘Hugo Chavez Takes On Martian Capitalists’

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

William Dudley, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, recently visited Queens where he got a “street-corner” education on the cost of living. Evidently, the Federal Reserve has been trying to sell its monetary policy to average folks—who aren’t exactly buying into to its talking points.

Dudley, a former chief economist for Goldman Sachs, gave a speech in Queens in which he spoke about the economy’s progress and the Fed’s successes. When the question and answer period rolled around, people in the audience wanted to know why the prices for food and gas were rising. As noted in a Wall Street Journal article—“the Fed doesn’t think food and gas prices matter to its policy calculations because they aren’t part of “core” inflation.”

Continue reading ‘Let Them Eat…iPads!: William Dudley Antoinette Visits Queens’