Category: Media

Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, International, Media, Military, Politics, Uncategorized

Cheney Offers Tortured View of History In Defending Waterboarding

250px-46_Dick_Cheney_3x4I have long argued in my column as well as numerous blog postings that our country is legally bound to prosecute people responsible for ordering torture during the Bush Administration. There is no question that water boarding is torture as recognized by President Obama, Attorney General Holder, the United Nations and virtually every expert in this field. However, while you may want to try to rewrite legal precedent (as did John Yoo and Jay Bybee in their infamous Torture Memos), you should not try to rewrite history. That is what former Vice President Dick Cheney appears to be doing this month. He told Chuck Todd on Sunday that we never prosecuted anyone for water boarding — an assertion that I and others have repeatedly raised over the years. The statement is simply false and adds historical revisionism to legal revisionism in our sordid foray into torture.

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Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Society, Torts

Is The Threat of David Boies To Media Over Use Of Hacked Documents Real?

Sony_Entertainment_Network220px-David_Boies_2011_ShankboneThere are continuing rumblings in the media about the threat of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) lawyer David Boies over media sites using material hacked from the studio, including embarrassing emails where executives dish on leading stars like Angelina Jolie and the disclosure of contract information. Boies has warned that such material must be ignored or destroyed and suggested legal repercussions in the use of “stolen information.” But how serious is this threat? In my view, not very.

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Bizarre, Media, Society

The Brady Bunch: Tom Brady Accused Of FCC Violation For Silent F-Bombs

240px-Tom_Brady_2011fcc-seal_rgb-largeMany of us watching the Patriots-Packers game so Tom Brady throwing a fit on the sideline after a bad play. He clearly was saying “f–k” over and over again but there was no audio. Those silent F-bombs however are now the basis for a series of complaints to the Federal Communications Commission from people who said that they, even if they could not hear what he said, they knew what he said and were left shocked and angry. It creates an interesting basis for a FCC: the silent F-Bomb. It is almost a Zen-like Administrative Law question: Little Grasshopper, if a silent F-bomb explodes on a sidelines and no one is around to hear it, did it make a legal sound?

Continue reading “The Brady Bunch: Tom Brady Accused Of FCC Violation For Silent F-Bombs” →

Academia, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Media, Politics, Society

Iowa Professor Creates KKK Statue To Protest Racism After Ferguson . . . The University Removes Art As Students Demand The Firing Of The Professor

Facebook We recently saw rather bizarre case of a college president having to publicly apologize for saying the “all lives matter” rather than “all Black lives matter” in supporting protests over the Ferguson and New York grand jury decisions. (Ironically, I listened this weekend to protests where leaders chanted “all lives matter” in Washington). Now, Serhat Tanyolacar, a University of Iowa visiting professor and printmaking fellow, has been denounced for a piece of art designed to protest racism after the decision. Iowa officials have declared the art to be the equivalent to hate speech and ordered its removal within hours — with President Sally Mason denouncing the art and apologizing profusely. Now, however, students are calling for the artist to be fired and for a new speech-regulating committee to be established for such public forums.

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Free Speech, International, Justice, Media, Society

Snowden, Greenwald, And Poitras Receive Prestigious Human Rights Award In Berlin

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

220px-Edward_Snowden-2In another showing of international support for the activities in revealing to the public the abuses of the NSA, whistleblower Edward Snowden, journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras each received the Carl von Ossietzky award in Berlin today.

The award is bestowed to honor those who exhibit extraordinary civic courage or commitment to the spread or defense of human rights.

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Bizarre, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Military, Politics, Science, Society, Supreme Court, Uncategorized

The CIA Lost Its Soul and Took Ours With It

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Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contributor

This past week’s news reports of the Senate report on the CIA Torture program were both distressing and enlightening.   I was dismayed to not only read what the full extent of the CIA’s Torture program was, but also when I read pundits and former CIA officials claim that rectal rehydration was merely a medical procedure! I was further discouraged when commenters on this blog made claims that waterboarding and other torture tactics were either necessary or what the devils deserved.

Very few pundits or commenters seem to care if the so-called Enhanced Interrogation techniques were legal or ethical when the CIA resorted to them shortly after 9/11.  This “debate” over the actions taken in our name by the CIA has gone from a report based on the CIA’s own words to denials that the techniques were torture, to claims that great intelligence value was gained using the torture and claims that it was a biased report written by Democrats. Continue reading “The CIA Lost Its Soul and Took Ours With It” →

Free Speech, International, Media, Politics

Police In Turkey Arrest Journalists And A Newspaper Editor After A Nationwide Crackdown

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Flag of TurkeyWe have written HERE and HERE of the continuing effort by the Erdogan Government of Turkey in attacking opposition by heavy handed actions against journalists and media critical of the government and President Erdogan. In another sign of the descent into suppression of opposing views the Turkish government ordered its police forces to raid the newspapers and publications deemed to have links to a rival of the President

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Academia, Media, Society

Welcome Cara Gallagher

542939_3812264539126_468486008_nI am delighted to announce the addition of another weekend contributors, Cara Gallagher, to our crew. Cara teaches government, politics, and law to high school students at The Latin School of Chicago. She is a wonderful writer will bring a new and fresh perspective to RIL. We have benefited from writers — both as contributors and commenters — from wide social, demographic, and professional spectrum. One of the most interesting aspects of this blog is to see how differently people view the same issues or images. While our discussions are often passionate, we strive to maintain a civil and diverse discussion. I believe Cara will be an exciting new voice as a commentator.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Religion

New Zealand Man and Two Myanmar Citizens Arrested For Posting Advertisement Of Psychedelic Buddha Wearing Headphones

buddhaWe have yet another crackdown on free speech in the name of religion. A New Zealand bar manager in Myanmar was arrested with two Myanmar employees for “insulting Buddha” by posting an advertisement showing a psychedelic image of Buddha wearing headphones. Philip Blackwood was arrested with the bar’s owner, Tun Thurein, and an employee. The men could be sent to prison for two years because the image insulted Buddhists.

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Media, Society, Torts

[Not] Above The Law: Federal Court Clears Defamation Suit Against ATL For Trial

250px-Above_the_Law_scales_logoDavidLatU.S. District Judge John Tharp Jr. has cleared the way for the blog Above the Law to stand trial for defamation and invasion of privacy in an action brought by Illinois attorney, Meanith Huon. Huon brought suit over coverage of her criminal trial for an alleged aggravated assault against a woman who responded to a Craigslist ad seeking promotional models. ATL is a popular blog for legal gossip and stories that was founded by David Lat. Lat is the Managing Editor and Elie Mystal the Editor on the website. Both are named defendants in the lawsuit (with a long list of other defendants).

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Academia, Criminal law, Media, Society, Torts

Washington Post Publishes Details On Journalistic Lapses By Rolling Stone In Alleged Rape Story

220px-Rolling_Stone_February_1_2012_coverScreen Shot 2014-12-11 at 7.52.39 AMThe Rolling Stone Magazine and it writer, Sabrina Rubin Erdely (right), are facing yet another story detailing the astonishing lapses in journalistic ethics and practices related to its article about a rape on the University of Virginia campus. Among the most starting is a statement by Erdely that a key student would not speak with her about the rape out of loyalty to his fraternity. That student says that Erdely never contacted him and that he would have been more than willing to speak to her. As for the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, it confirmed that it did not host any registered social event the weekend of Sept. 28, 2012.

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Courts, Criminal law, Lawyering, Media, Society

DUI Charges Against Texas Judge Dropped For Lack of Evidence . . . Then Police Release Video Of Judge Stumbling Through A Sobriety Test

judge16n-2-webLast November, questions were raised over a decision of prosecutors to drop all charges against 13th Court Justice of Appeals Nora Longoria for alleged drunk driving. There were concerns of special treatment but prosecutors insisted that they simply lacked sufficient evidence. Now it appears that there was a dash cam video that clearly shows Longoria unable to complete sobriety tests. It would seems a fairly easy case for prosecution.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, International, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society, Uncategorized

Bail-Ins and Empty Pockets

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Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor

The Banksters are at it again.  You may recall an article that I wrote in March of 2013 which detailed a plan agreed to by the Bank of England and the FDIC which would allow banks to grab depositors funds in order to avoid a bank failure. The prime example given in that article was a similar plan that was put into action in Cyprus. Similar plans were on the books elsewhere, but the Cyprus grab had actually been activated.

Now it seems that the joint FDIC-Bank of England agreement from December of 2012 was not enough to make the Banksters whole in the event that their derivative gambling went south.  The idea has gone global and it puts all of our deposits, and even our pension investments at risk! Continue reading “Bail-Ins and Empty Pockets” →

Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Media

Should Michael Brown’s Stepfather Be Criminally Charged For Inciting A Riot?

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Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson indicated this week that they are “pursuing” an investigation into whether comments made by Michael Brown’s stepfather Louis Head (shown here in the white cap) should be charged for his inciting a riot for his response to the news that there would be no indictment of Officer Darren White. While I certainly do not condone the language, I have long been a critic of such “violent speech” prosecutions and I believe that such charges would violate his free speech rights and ignore the mitigating factor of a family member in a highly emotional position that night. Warning: profane words are contained in the story below and the videotape.

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