-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Royce C. Lamberth, chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, issued what has been termed a “scathing” opinion in which he writes that the Obama administration’s superseding of “the Court’s authority is an illegitimate exercise of Executive power.” Lamberth has gained a reputation for his unique writing flair, and this opinion, which includes a line from Shakespeare, is no exception.
On Huffington Post this week, John Cusack has published an interview with me on the record of the Obama Administration. For full disclosure, John and I grew up together in Chicago and our families have been very close since childhood. With John, I was part of the Piven Theater company with Anne and Joan Cusack (also with Aidan Quinn, Jeremy Piven, Bill Macey, and others involved with the company). John and I continue to discuss politics and philosophy – a regular past time over the holidays for decades over kitchen tables in Evanston and Chicago. In this interview, we shared some of our mutual sense of betrayal by President Obama of core civil liberties in the United States. I have previously written (See e.g., here and here and here) about the harm caused to civil liberties by Obama as well as the harm he has caused to the civil liberties movement. This is also a debate that we have had on this blog over the dilemma facing many civil libertarians voting in this election.
Continue reading “My Interview With John Cusack on Civil Liberties and Obama”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
The issues discussed on this blog are wide-ranging even though at base we are all about upholding the Constitution and ensuring civil liberties. The disputed election of a President began this millennium in controversy, underlined by a horrific terrorist attack and the prosecution of two unnecessary wars. These wars have lasted longer than any other American war save for the Viet Nam debacle. They have resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians, more than eight thousand of our troops, tens of thousands of soldiers with crippling injuries and unprecedented suicide rates among both active and inactive members of our armed forces. Trillions of dollars have been wasted on these adventures in the imperialistic pursuit of empire and no end is in sight, although our complicit corporate media has ceased to find interest in coverage of the continuing devastation.
As we know the linchpin for these phony wars was the attack on 9/11 by a team of Saudi Arabians purportedly working for Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. However, the blueprint for this endless quest for America Hegemony was made public in 1997 with the publishing of the manifesto for the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century . This conceptualization laid out plans for a putative American Empire and its’ signatories prominently included those who would become part of the administration of George W. Bush. A list of those signatories will continue after the page break, with the most prominent in bold links. Continue reading “Lest We Forget”
Rep. Todd Akin had no sooner won Missouri’s GOP Senate primary this month than he seemed eager to hand over the election to incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. Akin instantly became a national sensation with a shocking statement about how “legitimate rape” rarely results in pregnancy.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
In light of Elaine’s excellent discussion of the radical voting record of Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential pick, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, I got to thinking just why would Romney pick such a radical Congressman to be be his Vice President? I understand that Mr. Romney would want an individual who has conservative credentials to improve his standing within his own adopted party and within the Tea Party. But Mr. Ryan has serious baggage with his now infamous Ryan Budget that attacks the middle class and the poor, all for the purpose of retaining and enlarging tax cuts for the wealthy. Why would Mitt take on Ryan’s baggage when he is facing challenges on his lack of transparency on his tax returns?
It seems that the answer to those questions may all relate back to the Koch Brothers and the princely sum of $100 Million dollars!
Continue reading “Did the Koch Brothers Just Buy a Vice President?”
Civil libertarians have been concerned for years with the move toward greater use of the military in domestic operations by both President George W. Bush and now by President Barack Obama. The military continues to shift resources for prepare for large-scale domestic operations. Most recently, the Marines moved to create a battalion to allow the military to “be capable of helping control civil disturbances, handling detainees, carrying out forensic work, and using biometrics to identify suspects.” Now the Small Wars Journal, a respected publication closely followed in the U.S. military, has published an article entitled “Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A ‘Vision’ of the Future” by retired Army Col. Kevin Benson of the Army’s University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Jennifer Weber, a Civil War expert at the University of Kansas. It lays out not just the military but the legal basis for military operations to crush domestic insurrections in the United States.
By Mike Appleton, Guest Blogger
In 1984 Leonard and Harriet Nobelman purchased a condominium with the assistance of an adjustable rate mortgage loan from American Savings Bank. Six years later, the Nobelmans encountered financial difficulties and filed Chapter 13 proceedings in bankruptcy court. At the time of their filing, their mortgage balance, including accrued interest and late fees, was $71,335.00 and the fair market value of their home was only $23,500.00. Accordingly, the Nobelmans proposed a reorganization plan which treated the difference between the mortgage balance and the fair market value, a total of $47,835.00, as unsecured debt.
Under bankruptcy law, the reclassification of indebtedness exceeding the value of the collateral from secured to unsecured status is known as a “cramdown.” This is a commonly used device that effectively “strips” the lien of a security interest down to the collateral’s value. It enables a debtor to retain property while insuring that the secured creditor will recover at least as much as it would realize from a foreclosure sale of the property.
The problem is that as a practical matter, unsecured creditors, whether in reorganization or straight liquidating bankruptcies, seldom receive any of the amounts owed to them. So American Savings Bank, staring at the potential loss of more than half of the mortgage principal, filed an objection to the Nobelmans’ plan. The ensuing litigation odyssey required three years and produced a Supreme Court decision that has particular significance in the current housing crisis.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
It seems that almost everywhere you look, some State is trying to reduce the number of early voting days, purging the voting rolls and making it harder for citizens to cast their votes. The State of Florida has recently attempted to remove legitimate voters off its voter rolls and the State of Georgia recently attempted to restrict the time when a military absentee ballot can be counted as I wrote about earlier on this blog. Georgia Now, we have some hard evidence of just who is getting removed or impacted by the various State’s attempts to cure the imagined Voter fraud problem! Continue reading “Just Who Gains From Voter ID Laws?”
The House and Senate Ethics Committees are notorious for their lack of serious enforcement of ethics rules — more often serving to deflect criticism of members. For that reason, when one of the committees actually takes action it is a notable moment. In the case of Rep. Laura Richardson, the Committee found an array of seven disturbing violations including improperly pressuring her official staff to campaign for her, destroying evidence and tampering with witness testimony. In addition, the Committee found that Richardson showed “utter disdain” for the committee and its investigation. Yet, despite this shocking list of alleged violations including destruction of evidence and witness tampering, the Committee is only seeking a reprimand and $10,000 fine.
Continue reading “House Ethics Committee Finds Rep. Richardson Guilty of Destroying Evidence, Witness, Tampering And Other Violations”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw) Guest Blogger
I have discussed the Second Amendment and the difficulties I have in allowing citizens to own semi-automatic weapons and large capacity clips of ammunition in the past, but Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in a recent Fox News interview, just took my concern over semi-automatic weapons and shot it down.. with a shoulder firing rocket! Continue reading “Rocket Launchers and the Second Amendment”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
I have written in the past about corporations dodging taxes, but this latest story out of Washington takes the cake. Susan Ford, an executive with Corning, Inc. testified recently at a House Ways and Means committee meeting and made the following claim. “American manufacturers are at a distinct disadvantage to competitors headquartered in other countries. Specifically, foreign manufacturers uniformly face a lower corporate tax rate than U.S. manufacturers, and virtually all operate under territorial systems which encourage investment both abroad and at home.” Think Progress That is a very strong statement coming from Ms. Ford. What is really interesting is that her claim that foreign companies face a lower corporate tax rate would be important issue, if it only was true! Continue reading “Corporate Liars and the Lies They Tell”
Many of us have been highly critical of the decision of President Obama to allow our involvement in the Iraq and Afghan wars to continue. We continue to lose men and women in these countries and spend billions of badly needed revenue in countries where we are increasing despised. Indeed, Iraq is now becoming one of Iran’s closest allies and supporting that country in conflicts with the United States. While accepting hundreds of billions, Karzai has called the U.S. the enemy and said that he wished that he was fighting with the Taliban. We have been comparing the costs bankruptcies of cities and closing of programs with the billions spent or simply lost to corruption in these countries, particularly Afghanistan where the Karzai government has reportedly allowed billions to be stolen by Karzai family and associates. Now our postal system is facing default and its future is again in doubt. While Congress is unsure of whether to save this basic service for citizens, it has done little as many billions of dollars are stolen or wasted in countries like Afghanistan. It is perfectly insane.
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Elizabeth Warren, a lawyer who is an expert in bankruptcy law and the woman responsible for the creation for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Massachusetts. She is running against incumbent Scott Brown, aka Senator McDreamy. Brown, a Republican, won Ted Kennedy’s senate seat in a special election in 2010. He was helped in his bid to win the election by the Tea Party, lots of campaign contributions from big banks, and Martha Coakley—his Democratic opponent who proved to be a truly inept political campaigner.
We have had a number of discussions on the Turley Blawg about Brown’s opponent Elizabeth Warren this year (here, here, here, and here). I thought it time to shed some light on Scott Brown who has focused much of his campaign talk calling into question Elizabeth Warren’s credibility because of her claim that she has Native American ancestry.
Brown has been criticized by Warren—as well as by other democrats, Massachusetts residents, and members of the news media—because he has spent so little time discussing substantive issues that are of true import to his constituents and to this country.
During the recent coverage on the health care decision, I had repeated occasion to disagree with co-commentators who heralded the Roberts decision as a triumph for the Court in regaining credibility and getting beyond ideological divisions. That seems curious to me since the vote was still 5-4 and was fractured into multiple opinions. The Roberts opinion in my view was also fundamentally in conflict with itself and re-wrote the federal law in a new image. It appears that the opinion did not alter the opinion of the public, either. If anything the public’s view of the Court has worsened after the decision.
Continue reading “Poll: Supreme Court’s Standing Falls Further After Health Care Decision”
The Rich couple is back in the news. If you recall, President Bill Clinton pardoned billionaire trader Marc Rich in one of the most unwarranted presidential acts under the pardon power — a pardon rightfully denounced as little more than a payback for a wealthy supporter by Clinton. Now, Rich’s wife, Denise, has given up her U.S. citizenship — reportedly to avoid taxes. Clinton should be doubly ashamed of his association and assistance to this couple.