Category: Media

Congress, Constitutional Law, Justice, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

Health Insurance and Rebate Checks

Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

I have to admit that I was not aware that the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, as its detractors call it, mandates that the insurance companies who don’t spend at least 80% of premium money on actual medical care expenses, must send rebates to policy holders.  “But the rebate provision of the law — the fruits of the so-called “80/20 rule” — is about to kick in big time, as millions of Americans receive rebate checks or premium reductions from insurance companies who have failed to spend enough on patient care. This cash could be a true game changer in public attitudes about whether the law actually is beneficial and good public policy. The rebate provision of the law has been known and discussed in health care policy circles for months, but has largely flown below the radar in the political world and for voters—until now.”  Time   Continue reading “Health Insurance and Rebate Checks” →

Bizarre, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics

Iran Sentences Cartoonist To Be Flogged For Insulting Politician

Iran has long been flog-happy in its imposition of medieval Sharia laws. Now, it has sentenced cartoonist Mahmoud Shokraye to receive 25 lashes for drawing a caricature of Iranian MP, Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani, that the MP found insulting. As you can see, it is a pretty mild cartoon but Iranian officials stand by the punishment.

Continue reading “Iran Sentences Cartoonist To Be Flogged For Insulting Politician” →

Constitutional Law, Media, Politics, Society

White House: President Is “Crystal Clear” On His Position On Gay Marriage . . . He Has No Firm Position On Gay Marriage

No wonder President Obama is so supportive of evolution, he finds it essential to explain both scientific and political developments. Faced with Vice President Joe Biden’s moment of honesty in a weekend interview that he is “comfortable” with same-sex marriage, White House Spokesman Jay Carney appeared to have a brain aneurysm in trying to respond to questions about the President’s position on one of the most fundamental civil rights issues of our generation. Since Biden had clearly “evolved” into supporting same-sex marriage, the reporters wanted to know the status of the President’s long evolution. It appears that Australopithecus evolved faster that President Obama on this civil rights question because Carney kept repeating he is still “evolving” over and over again.

Continue reading “White House: President Is “Crystal Clear” On His Position On Gay Marriage . . . He Has No Firm Position On Gay Marriage” →

Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, International, Lawyering, Media, Military

Defense Counsel in Gitmo Trial Wears Hijab To Court And Asks For Women To Cover Up In Deference To Muslim Defendants

Cheryl Bormann, counsel for defendant Walid bin Attash, has created a stir over wearing a hijab to the military tribunal and asking other women to cover up out of respect of the Muslim sensibilities for the defendants. I have received a fair number of calls on this from reporters and lawyers due to my past representation of Muslims in national security cases. I believe the display was a professional and tactical mistake and I would not want someone on my team to try to make such an extreme accommodation to a client.

Continue reading “Defense Counsel in Gitmo Trial Wears Hijab To Court And Asks For Women To Cover Up In Deference To Muslim Defendants” →

Academia, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

What The %#@!$*

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger

The following link was sent to me by Otteray Scribe, who is among the most erudite and respected people among those who frequently comment on this blog. He is an extremely well educated man, with masterful writing ability and a creatively active mind. The title of his E mail to me and the other guest bloggers was WTF? and this is what he wrote:

“This is beyond strange.  Horace Boothroyd III is disabled and apparently has nothing to do but sit at his computer.  He monitors everything going on regarding OWS and police misconduct.  I won’t try to describe this, but it is more than passing strange. Might be worth following up.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/03/1088516/-Occupy-Minnesota-WTF-Cops-picking-up-sober-Occupiers-and-Drugging-them-for-Training-

When someone who I like and respect as much as I do Otteray Scribe, is at a loss for words to describe something, I take notice. When I clicked the link and read this story from Daily Kos, my own reaction mirrored his: WTF? It took me more than twelve hours to respond to his E mail because I needed to let it gestate in my own mind and figure out just what to write about.

Rather than me regurgitating the story I think it is an important one for the readers to view for themselves and present their own take on the why, wherefore and implications inherent in the story.

While allowing you make your own judgments, let me give my bottom line opinion on all of the issues and questions the story raises and let’s see what you the reader makes of it on your own. I believe that the actions detailed in this story are indicative of our beloved America fast moving towards becoming a police state, in the same manner that the USSR, its successor Russia and China are police states. That is that all protest against the status quo is to be repressed. The police/security/intelligence/military forces are not only to act as agents of this repression, in many instances on their own volition without sanction, but also are taking part in the use of counter-insurgency techniques towards those elements within the society deemed dangerous to the status quo. In the minds of those in power openly and behind the scenes the question of what is threatening to the country is in most instances a self-serving rationale for what is politically/economically threatening to them. We must ask ourselves are we to be mere observers meekly silent for fear of our own security, or will we act openly to oppose the destruction of the Constitution of the United States and with it our rights and freedoms?

Academia, Constitutional Law, International, Justice, Media, Military, Politics

When Mass Murder is Political

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger

As people here no doubt know I am quite opinionated and rather definite in my views, perhaps to a fault some might say. In this piece though I must admit that I have mixed feelings as to what is right and what is wrong, in the issue I write about. The recent thread on this blog: Trophy Terrorist: Obama Suggests Romney Would Not Have Ordered the Killing of Osama Bin Laden: http://jonathanturley.org/2012/04/30/obama-suggests-romney-would-not-have-killed-osama/  engendered a lively debate on the propriety of summarily executing a purported mass murderer. In my mind as I viewed the back and forth of the thread, including my own comments, I began to think of the trial of Anders Behring Breivik in Norway for killing 77 people, the fact that he was using his trial for publicity to advance his racist cause in Norway and that at worst he was facing only twenty-one years, though it “might” be extended for life.

Had Osama Bin Laden been captured and stood trial it would have created a worldwide sensation. It would have had to have been televised, since the clamor for an “open” trial would have been deafening and I would have added my small voice to the clamor. The necessity of fairness to the defense would have followed the same dictum, since a publicly perceived unfairness would result in a U.S. public relations disaster, for obvious reasons. Therefore, this trial could have been used as a stage for stirring up the “terrorist” pot and perhaps as a great recruiting tool for Al Qaeda. My question is: faced with such potentially explosive results from a trial, is the government justified in simply killing to preclude a greater evil? To be honest I’m not completely certain where the equities of these situations lie as I’ll explain.  Continue reading “When Mass Murder is Political” →

Academia, Congress, Courts, Environment, Free Speech, Media, Politics, Science, Society

PBS: Why I Watch, But Don’t Contribute

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger

On September 16, 1962 Edward R. Murrow, who was the greatest TV Journalist and a particular hero of mine http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=murrowedwar, premiered the opening of Public Television on Channel 13 in New York City. You can watch that very short broadcast in this link so you can understand the mission of this station at its beginnings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gr-QxU1Sz0

At the age of 17, I watched Mr. Murrow enthralled as he laid out the defined purpose of this station, which was to provide educational, non-commercial television, that would innovate new programming to educate/inform and amuse its’ listeners. This opening occurred two weeks after the death of my mother. My father (who would die a year later) and I watched this show together, bonded by the sorrow we shared and by the fact that Ed Murrow had been someone whose news shows we three had watched together for a decade. Given that he was a ninth grade dropout, my father was a man of intellectual depth who read Camus, Sartre and was a devotee of avante garde cinema. He passed his tastes on to me. So for us, this was a momentous event, given the inanity that characterized much of commercial TV with its’ intellectual paucity. This beginning initiated an emotional link with me to the concept of public TV that has lasted ever since.

In the years that followed Channel 13 would become an anchoring member of the Public Broadcasting System. I was a dedicated viewer and modest financial contributor via yearly membership. I could go into a litany of the presentations that informed me, moved me and entertained me through the years, but that is not my purpose here. Somewhere along the way from the beginning of non-commercial television until today, I became skeptical about contributing to it, while still availing myself of it’s’ services. I write about why this skepticism developed and why it remains. Continue reading “PBS: Why I Watch, But Don’t Contribute” →

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

Georgia Legislators Move To Give School Officials New Powers Over Internet Student Speech

We have been discussing the increasing disciplining of students and teachers for comments and photos on social media sites. Just yesterday in a story out of Indiana, we saw students expelled for comments viewed as bullying. Now, Georgia legislators are moving to make this controversial trend an actual law for schools to discipline students for mean comments on sites like Facebook. This comes at the same time that a lawsuit shows how the common law can serve as an adequate protection for victims, in my view.

Continue reading “Georgia Legislators Move To Give School Officials New Powers Over Internet Student Speech” →

Bizarre, International, Media, Politics, Religion

Dead Letter? Egyptian Necrophilia Law Called Hoax By Mubarak Supporter

We have been discussing the story that ran on various sites about the consideration of an Egyptian law that would allow husbands to have sex with their wives up to six hours after death. Our last blog noted that some were still reporting the story while others have questioned the truth of the story. Now a story below appears to have debunked the story, at least in part. While not addressing the alleged consideration of lowering the age for marriage of girls to 14, the story says that the “farewell intercourse” law claim was made by Amr Abdul Samea, a supporter of the deposed Hosni Mubarak. An Islamic cleric did in fact say that Muslim men (and women) could have sex with their dead spouses up to six hours after death, but there is no indication that this view was put into a proposed law.

Continue reading “Dead Letter? Egyptian Necrophilia Law Called Hoax By Mubarak Supporter” →

Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Religion, Society

Unorthodox Exception Or Preferential Treatment? Brooklyn District Attorney Refuses To Release Names Of Orthodox Jews Accused Of Child Abuse

There is an interesting story out of Brooklyn. The Brooklyn District Attorney routinely releases the names of charged individuals — as do all prosecutors. However, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has decided not to release the names of Orthodox Jews charged with child sex abuse in deference to their “tight-knit and insular” community. That seems like preferential treatment given a particular religious group — a group with considerable political power in New York.

Continue reading “Unorthodox Exception Or Preferential Treatment? Brooklyn District Attorney Refuses To Release Names Of Orthodox Jews Accused Of Child Abuse” →

Columns, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

Nothing Succeeds So Much As Failure: Obama Could Use A Loss In The Immigration Case

Below is today’s column in the USA Today on the arguments this week in the immigration case, Arizona v. United States. (Docket No., 11-182). At issue is Arizona’s Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (S.B. 1070) directing state law-enforcement officers to cooperate and communicate with federal officials regarding the enforcement of federal immigration law. Beyond the difficult constitutional and statutory questions in the case, there is another element to the case that could come within months of the 12th anniversary of Bush v. Gore

Continue reading “Nothing Succeeds So Much As Failure: Obama Could Use A Loss In The Immigration Case” →

Bizarre, Criminal law, Media

South Carolina Man Arrested For Assaulting Reporter On Live Television

Justin Moore, 20, has learned assaults are best committed in some place other than before a live audience on evening news. Ashley Taylor, 23, was doing a live report on rising crime for WMBF in the area. Moore seemed intent on confirming the story by shoving her out of the way, grabbing her microphone and screaming “I am that nigger!” into the camera. He was later arrested by the Myrtle Beach Police Department.

Continue reading “South Carolina Man Arrested For Assaulting Reporter On Live Television” →

Columns, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court, Testimony

Zimmerman: Media Circuses Make for Bad Justice

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger

At this point, to be honest, all of the back and forth regarding “evidence” in the Zimmerman Case that has occurred here over a number of threads has been mere speculation that misses the salient issues raised by this case. The real (admissible) evidence will be presented at the trial and a hopefully an unbiased jury will make its decisions. The issues that we need to discuss from my perspective are:

1. Did the Sanford Police make a mistake in releasing Zimmerman rather quickly and allowing him to retain his gun, which was potential evidence?

2. Was there undue outside influence used upon the police to end their investigation quickly?

 3. Is there a degree of probability that in many Stand Your Ground venues, had the victim been white and the protagonist of color, that the protagonist would have been immediately arrested?

4. What are the purposes of a business oriented lobbying group, like ALEC, in getting “Stand Your Ground” Laws passed?

5. Is this once again an instance where a media circus has poisoned the ability to have a fair trial? Continue reading “Zimmerman: Media Circuses Make for Bad Justice” →

Bizarre, Media, Politics

Gingrich: Fox News Is Not Fair Or Balanced

Fox News and Newt Gingrich (who once held a Fox contract) are exchanging blows today after Newt Gingrich accused Fox of an overwhelming bias in favor of Mitt Romney and, even worse for diehard Fox fans, said that CNN offered more balanced and fair coverage. Fox responded that Gingrich was auditioning for “a CNN gig.” That might be a needed job after Gingrich’s $500 check to enter the Utah primary bounced. Now Gingrich is selling the names and addresses of his donors to the highest bidder.

Continue reading “Gingrich: Fox News Is Not Fair Or Balanced” →