Former House speaker Newt Gingrich appears to be running against the Constitution as much as against President Obama these days. Gingrich has been promising to round up judges who do not agree with him — statements that have even conservative figures like Michael Mukasey, former attorney general during the George W. Bush administration, denouncing him. Mukasey was the attorney general who blocked prosecutions into torture, but finds Gingrich truly scary. I am currently scheduled to be on Hardball tonight to discuss this latest attack on the judiciary.
On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Gingrich indicated that he would call judges who hand down controversial opinions to appear before Congress to answer for their transgressions and would send federal law enforcement to arrest judges failed to appear.
It is the latest attack on the judicial branch — attacks that led Mukasey to denounce his proposals as “dangerous, ridiculous, totally irresponsible, outrageous, off-the-wall and would reduce the entire judicial system to a spectacle.”
Here is one of the exchanges:
SCHIEFFER: Let me just ask you this and we’ll talk about enforcing it, because one of the things you say is that if you don’t like what a court has done, the congress should subpoena the judge and bring him before congress and hold a congressional hearing. Some people say that’s unconstitutional. But I’ll let that go for a minute.
I just want to ask you from a practical standpoint, how would you enforce that? Would you send the capital police down to arrest him?GINGRICH: If you had to.
SCHIEFFER: You would?
GINGRICH: Or you instruct the Justice Department to send the U.S. Marshal. Let’s take the case of Judge Biery. I think he should be asked to explain a position that radical. How could he say he’s going to jail the superintendent over the word “benediction” and “invocation”? Because before you could — because I would then encourage impeachment, but before you move to impeach him you’d like to know why he said it.
Now clearly since the congress has….SCHIEFFER: What if he didn’t come? What if he said no thank you I’m not coming?
GINGRICH: Well, that is what happens in impeachment cases. In an impeachment case, the House studies whether or not — the House brings them in, the House subpoenas them. As a general rule they show up.
It is the very definition of demagogy to dangle out the image of judges being clapped in irons to satisfy citizens angry over decisions by judges. Article III is designed to guarantee independence from people like Gingrich so that judges can rule in favor of the Constitution and, yes, at times take positions disliked by the majority.
Source: Washington Post
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Mike, I agree. I picked up on that way back. Not only ignorant of the law, but seems unwilling to learn from experts. Reminds me a lot of a certain family member. By marriage, not blood, thank goodness. She is a ‘bagger, absolutely certain she understands the law, although she is embarrassingly ignorant of it.
OS,
You’re right about his repetition. In his case all he’s got is his meme “liberals evil, we good”. I’m used to his type of non debater. The only thing that annoys me about him is I don’t think he’s a LEO. Good or bad, they usually know the law whether or not they follow it. That he didn’t understand that a Civil Judge can jail somebody for contempt in violation of a restraining order, is not credible.
Mike, I have noticed that Bill is getting repetitive with his talking points. That is a common theme with right wing and Randian trolls. No imagination. Like when I told him the answer in simple one-syllable words, but he keeps hectoring you and Gene to tell him the same thing I told him.
A callithumpian if I ever saw one.
Mike Spindell,
A different set of facts on the Corzine case? How so? Pleas explain your assertion?
**** Second request to get any form of a mature answer from you. You are getting to be as bad as Gene.****
You and Gene think you can dodge and evade with personal attacks in place of an answer —-an obvious concession. You clearly never took a even remedial debate class in your life.
In the courtroom we testify to evidence. Meaningless Insults and personal attacks from the stand don’t qualify as evidence under the rule of law in any state.
“You and Gene think you can dodge and evade with personal attacks in place of an answer —-an obvious concession. You clearly never took a even remedial debate class in your life.
Bill,
both Gene, OS and I have rhetorically destroyed your arguments, you’re just too ignorant to know it or deal with. As for answering your question I will after you’ve answered Mespo’s and mine, which you obviously can’t. Now as to personal attacks the record is there to see as to who started with them and who has evaded discussion. You just don’t seem to have too long an attention span, or are simply unable to utilize simple reading comprehension.
Otteray Scribe
Again, you are 100% correct on the Corzine case.
Spindell,
A different set of facts on the Corzine case??? How so? Please explain in terms of at least one of Gene’s definitions of Probabal Cause and
As for Europe tax rates—The response I got refers to income tax rates and corporate tax rates. In addition we do not have a VAT…yet. although Dems want it in the worst way, and they are willing to bring our country to the brink of bankruptcy to get it.
But in the U.S, believe it or not, we pay many more taxes than just INCOME tax! I said that the rich of this country pay more of a % of their income in taxes than their European counterparts.
Please note: I did limit it to just federal INCOME tax rates, as the responder did. And why would anyone respond like that? because it is easy to dodge the issue by focusing solely on federal income tax RATES.
And if you owned a business, or owned property, or invested in American business or commodities, or were part of the 53% of us who actually pay income taxes TOO, or you lived in state run bankrupt by liberal politicians, you would know exactly what I am talking about!
As AWNOWLD said, Americans can’t flush the toilet without paying a tax. Just because you don’t know what the so-called rich pay doesn’t mean they don’t pay it.
Mike, do you know what the income level is to get into the second highest income tax rate in CA?
(Is it worth it to expect these guys to answer any questions, or should I just let them wallow in the liberal fantasy world that increased taxes on the rich will bring Heaven to earth?)
Bill,
Merry Christmas to your family and may they be spared your constant inane bloviation, lack of facts and delusions on this day of peace. By the way when are you answering Mespo’s question and my questions? Oh, that’s right you can’t, so you ignore it. Also when do you provide evidence for your assertions, or perhaps you’ve become so good at “testilying” in your arrests, you feel you don’t need evidence? You’re in the wrong venue here Bill and the smoke coming from your ass smells bad.
Bill,
The answer is above.
God helps those who help themselves.
Isn’t that what you believe?
Now dust off that brain or borrow one and go back through all the information presented above.
Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat forever.
Isn’t that what you believe?
Ask not for whom the fish tolls, Bill. It tolls for thee.
GENE—Yet again…
WILL CORZINE GO TO JAIL IF AN EMPLOYEE(S) MISAPPROPRIATED CLIENT FUNDS?
This is hilarious! I can’t get Gene to answer a question again! The answer is, either “yes,” “no” or “maybe.”
You are willing to type a paragraph of excuses why you will not answer, but then write, “I’m not retyping it for you or copying it.” LOL
Gene, this is very weak of you.
Another F grade for Gene in the high school debate class.
Telling, very telling indeed!
Bill,
It doesn’t matter anyway. Like I said, you’d just ignore what I say, stomp your feet, and type up whatever is next on your script anyway. In this case, “like asking any liberal ideologue to justify their political positions.” Ooooo. Liberals bad! The issue was law, not politics. You were shown a sufficient lawful reason for an act done (that is what “justify” means in the context of a discussion of the law). You’ve had the issue adequately explained – more than once. The correct answer to your question is contained in the infromation above. I’m not retyping it for you or copying it. Scroll back up and read what was said. You figure it out. It’s all there. You can do it, Bobby Bouche! There’s a frog muffin in it for you if you get the correct answer.
It just became Christmas Day here in the eastern time zone.
May all have a good day, a good week and a good new year to come.
And an end to war. I had the strangest dream…..
Gene,
I agree with you about the purpose and value of licencing attournies.
“Licensing exists to make sure that practitioners have the training required and have demonstrated competency in that field.”
I would just note that it a shame we can’t find a way to make sure that Practitioners have a heart and a soul as well so we could rate their moral qualifications also.
Then again if you have ever had surgery; you might question your surgeons soul statis as well.
And Insurance salesmen and claims specialists. No soul here. Nope not a shred.
Advertizing people. Now here is a group of predators to rival a shark. These people not only have no soul; these people go home at night and eat their own children piece by piece and sell the kids on the idea that they can get a much better deal on a new foot at……………
Happy Happy Christmas thoughts from the land of Eutopia where life is beautiful all the time.
Corzine is vulnerable to prison time if he aided and abetted a crime by an employee. There is a principle called “knew or should have known” that may apply. If he knew it was going on and did not put a stop to it immediately he could/would be liable for both civil and criminal penalties.
If the fired the employee and reported the crime to law enforcement as soon as he learned of it, he is in the clear, although there may still be civil penalties.
But you knew that.
Mike Spindell…if you paid taxes like the 53% of us who do, you would KNOW exactly what I am talking about.
Bill,
I’ve been self-supporting since age 18 And have paid taxes each of the 50 years since then. What is absurd if you are a cop is you’re. paying. more. in taxes percentagwi than the rich people whose politicians. you vote for.
As for anyone answering your Corzinee question it is not only a different set of facts, but you threw it in only because. he’s a Democrat and you think we’d defend him. In that spirit than. do you think that David Vitter should have gone to jail for paying hookers to service him while he wore diapers? A silly question no doubt but mentioned to give an example of your use of non sequitors instead of facts. No answer yet I see to LK’s link to Europe’s tax rates. Face it Bill you’re just blowing. smoke and that’s illegal in your State unless you have a medical. condition.
Getting Gene to directly answer a question for which he has no answer is like asking any liberal ideologue to justify their political positions.
Note: Whenever your debate opponent evades a question with personal insults or lie, the your opponent has conceded defeat.
Gene such debate tactics, (and I am being kind with that term) will earn you a failing grade in any high school freshman debate class.
You either answer my questions directly, not with non-applicable copy and paste stuff you googled in your frantic search for support, or you will continue to be the source of great entertainment of those watching you squirm.
Come on, you have got to be better than that.
I’ll ask you yet again….(I have never debated a guy in which I had to be so persistent to get a real answer out of him. It’s like I know in advance that the first three times I ask Gene a question he apparently does not know how to answer, I will get a personal insult as one answer, a cut and paste from something he googled that might be vaguely related, or with shocking delusion insists he answered the question to justify avoid answering the question.)
WILL CORZINE GO TO JAIL IF AN EMPLOYEE(S) MISAPPROPRIATED CLIENT FUNDS?
Now how tough can this question be given your definition of “respondeat superior.”
I know Gene, this is going to be a very uncomfortable situation for you. But it could be therapeutic for you as well. Try it…answering a direct question with a direct answer.
mespo,
It is proven scientifically…that a rock is incapable of thinking or showing emotion….
Pietro:
” Americans know nothing about the Nurnburg Trials (also spelled in English: Nuremberg) because we have no sense of history. It would behove civil rights lawyers to invoke the international precedents at Nuremberg and invoke the International Code of Human Rights in U.S. Courts whether in criminal proceedings or in civil rights section 1983 cases. ”
******************
Actually, Pietro, we cite Nuremburg quite often on this blog. In fact, I mentioned it on this thread on 12/21/2011 at 9:23. To make a statement about all Americans is foolish as we are a nation of over 300 million people and very few statements apply to all of us. What is ridiculous, however, is ridiculing a people who brought you the lessons of Nuremberg in the first place. Europe, you see, was quite busy at the time either oppressing its fellows or, with rare exceptions found in the Underground Movement, cowering in fear at a tyrant it created. We Americans seemed to have a good enough sense of history then to save the democracies of Europe and in the process heard precious little criticism as American blood was spilled liberating the homeland of the Europeans. I agree we should invoke Nuremberg more often as it was American justice on display there and we are rightly proud of it.
Bill, “Sorry but I can’t let this liberal lie go by without a few facts.
The wealthy in this country pay more as a percentage of their income in taxes than do the wealthy of most industrialized countries.”
—————-
First off, I’m not going to argue that because you’re so wrong it is just a flaming waste of time; it doesn’t bear an argument, just a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_of_Europe
“Tell us Gene —under your ever changing theory of probable cause and definition of respondeat superior, will Corzine go to jail if one or more of the MF Global employees misappropriated customer funds?”
First of all, my statement of the factual nature of probable cause in issuing an arrest warrant for civil contempt of court hasn’t changed once nor has my definition of respondeat superior. Second, why bother, Occifer Bill?
You’d just ignore what I say, stomp your feet, and type up whatever is next on your script anyway. Since your typical responses are conclusions that ignore the facts and the law, I’ll just forego answering your question. Why don’t we skip the middle man and you just tell us what you erroneously think the law is? It will save a step.
“The accumulation and concentration of wealth then an today have the same components, lack of government regulation and (now) low taxes on the wealth class.”
Sorry but I can’t let this liberal lie go by without a few facts.
The wealthy in this country pay more as a percentage of their income in taxes than do the wealthy of most industrialized countries. We have one of the most “progressive” (a Karl Marx term) tax systems in the world. As a percentage of their income, the wealthy pay far more than any other tax group in America.
Under the Bush tax cuts “for the rich” the tax burden shifted so far up the income ladder that 47% of Americans now pay no income tax at all, and in fact, a significant percentage get welfare payments from the tax payers.
My son, who is 25 years old and still on my health insurance plan, pays no rent, (but earned about $18,000 last year) filed his tax returns and got a so called “refund” 2.5 times more than he owed.
The welfare state is collapsing right under our feet. And all but the Tea Party is oblivious to it.
The only way the welfare state can survive, temporarily, is by borrowing the money. The welfare state survive as
Greece is over as a welfare state. Spain is done. Portugal is done. Great Britain has a few years left and it will fall like Greece. Italy is about a year from collapsing.
The only thing keeping the Scandinavian countries afloat is oil. And we know how evil oil is!
The U.S. will follow Europe in 5 years if Obama’s policies stay in place. Not that the GOP is much better.
And the political strategy of the left is to blame the rich because as always, socialism and the welfare state, has collapsed.
“”The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
As a welfare state, our gov’t long ago ran out of the taxpayer’s money. To keep this welfare state afloat, our gov’t has been borrowing money form kids yet to be born!
“Sorry but I can’t let this liberal lie go by without a few facts.
The wealthy in this country pay more as a percentage of their income in taxes than do the wealthy of most industrialized countries.”
Sorry Bill,
But this is a typical example of the crap you spin out. Where are your reference links for these “facts”. You are acting like Newt and most tea baggers: You throw shit on the walls and hope it sticks. I will say this for you you absorb the propaganda you listen to very well.
In what was referred to as the Judges Trial at Nurnberg in 1946 the United States prosecuted German judges and lawyers who destroyed the protections of the German constitution and opened the door to the persecutions and killings. The Nazis would have applauded Newt at the time of the enactment of the Nurnberg Laws of 1935-36. We as a country prosecuting war criminals would have prosecuted Newt. This Judges Trial was after the Internaltional Tribunal conducted its trials and was prosecuted by the United States Military Tribunal. See Whitney Harris, Tyranny On Trial which is still available in paperback. Whitney was a prosecutor in the first round of trials. He was a good man, good writer, died at age 97. Americans know nothing about the Nurnburg Trials (also spelled in English: Nuremberg) because we have no sense of history. It would behove civil rights lawyers to invoke the international precedents at Nuremberg and invoke the International Code of Human Rights in U.S. Courts whether in criminal proceedings or in civil rights section 1983 cases. Our 14th Amendment is becoming the butt of jokes in our judiciary and the present majority on the Supreme Court has receded to an Unreconstructed posture– meaning they reject the Reconstruction amendments to our Constitution (13, 14, 15). So, is Newt a Nazi? Ya.