I often read ABA Journal as a great source of legal stories. The journal however has been the center of controversy this month after reporting on the results of a study on the preference of secretaries vis-a-vis male and female partners. The study by Professor Felice Batlan interviewed 142 secretaries at larger law firms and produced a surprising result: not a single secretary preferred female partners. When the ABA Journal reported that surprising fact, professors accused it of fostering gender stereotypes, misrepresenting the results of the study, and displaying a sexist view of the work. Some demanded a retraction and apology from the ABA Journal.
Continue reading “ABA Journal Under Fire For Coverage Of Survey Of Legal Secretaries”
Category: Politics
Reporters and columnists often wait until Friday for the White House to do things that it does not want covered extensively in the press. This Friday’s news dump was the firing of Maj. Gen. Peter Fuller for saying what most everyone is saying about our ally, Afghan President Hamid Karzai — he is nuts. Remarkably, Fuller said if much more nicely, expressing concern whether Karzai is “isolated from reality.” My own disappointment is that Fuller did not add that Karzai’s family is little more than a criminal enterprise fostering corruption and drug trafficking.
Continue reading “Obama Administration Fires General For Calling Karzai “Erratic” and “Divorced From Reality””
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
A milestone passed by most of us this past week. It seems that the Patriot Act birthday cake added a 10th candle this week and there was no party! The infamous Patriot Act turned 10 this week and a decade of attacks on our personal liberties went unnoticed by our Main Stream media. You can probably remember that the act passed with little opposition in the House and with only 1 member of the Senate in opposition. Continue reading “A Decade of Misplaced Patriotism”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
According to a Washington Post article, a “treacherous milestone” was reached earlier than expected when Social Security went “cash negative” last year. With high unemployment and the subsequent loss of payroll taxes, the outlays of benefits outstripped the income from payroll taxes. There’s just one small detail that the article didn’t take into account: the interest income on the government bonds that the Social Security trust fund generates. When the interest income is added to the payroll tax income, Social Security is ‘cash positive,’ that is, more money is coming into the system than is going out.
Continue reading “Has Social Security Gone ‘Cash Negative’?”
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
In an article titled Another Weapon for OWS: Pull Your Money Out of BofA, Matt Taibbi wrote that “when it comes to commercial banking, Bank of America is as bad as it gets.” He said he believed the markets seemed to agree as the bank had a credit downgrade recently “to just above junk status.”
He continued: The only reason the bank is not rated even lower than that is that it is Too Big To Fail. The whole world knows that if Bank of America implodes – whether because of the vast number of fraud suits it faces for mortgage securitization practices, or because of the time bomb of toxic assets on its balance sheets – the U.S. government will probably step in to one degree or another and save it.
After the credit downgrade in September, Bloomberg reported that Bank of America “moved derivatives from its Merrill Lynch unit to a subsidiary flush with insured deposits…” Taibbi said the transfer involved trillions of dollars in risky derivatives contracts.
Continue reading “Bank of America & The Great Derivatives Transfer”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg surprised many when he stooped to the level of Rush Limbaugh to push the Big Lie, that it was the government that caused the mortgage crisis. Bloomberg claimed that “It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and to give mortgages to people who were on the cusp.” Bloomberg added that members of Congress “were the ones who pushed Fannie and Freddie to make a bunch of loans that were imprudent, if you will.”
Fannie and Freddie don’t make loans. Whom does Bloomberg think he’s fooling?
We have previously discussed how leaders in both the United States and Europe have focused on atheists and secularists as one of the greatest threats facing the free world. Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) seemed to take this to a new level in arguing this week that if the nation did not reaffirm “In God We Trust” as our national motto, we are inviting anarchy and accepting that we are nothing but “worm food.”
Continue reading “Is “In God We Trust” The Only Thing Standing Between Us and Anarchy?”
The French satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo, in Paris was firebombed this week by what are believed to be Muslim extremists for printing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in a four-page supplement with other cartoons as part of its “freedom to poke fun” series.
Continue reading “Extremists Firebomb French Newspaper After Publication of Mohammad Cartoon”
Herman Cain believes that he has found the fingerprints on the knife in his back in the expanding sexual harassment scandal . . . Rick Perry. The Cain camp has said it was Perry’s campaign that leaked the story to Politico in a hit job on Cain. Of course, there still remains the question of who told the Perry campaign about the allegations in the confidential settlement. Yet, according to the New York Times article below, there were plenty of folks who were aware of the allegations — and contradict Cain’s account. In a race to the bottom, Perry’s people have pointed fingers at the Romney camp.
Continue reading “Et Tu, Perry? Cain Accuses Perry Campaign As Source Of Sexual Harassment Claims”
There is an interesting legal question at the heart of the still unfolding scandal over whether Republican Presidential contender Herman Cain engaged in sexual harassment. Women accusing Cain were reportedly given a settlement with a gag provision — a common element to such settlements.
Continue reading “Did Cain Trip The Wire? Attorney Suggests Breach of Confidentiality Agreement”
In Mason, Texas, handgun instructor Crockett Keller has become an instant celebrity after his ad offering lessons and documentation for concealed weapons . . . unless you voted for Obama or are a Muslim or non-Christian Arab.
Continue reading “Meet Crockett Keller — Bigot with a Gun”
A Northern California school police officers union under fire after they sold T-shirts with a picture of a child behind bars and the slogan: “U raise ’em, we cage ’em.” The Twin Rivers Police Department in North Highlands has ended further sales after the objections of citizens.
Continue reading “Police Union Under Fire For T-Shirts Reading “U Raise ‘Em, We Cage ‘Em.””
Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright surprised many this week in calling a press conference to discuss an assault on a woman in one of the city parks. Wright used the opportunity to repeatedly call on all of the citizens to arm themselves and expressed frustration that someone with a weapon did not come along and take care of Walter Lance, 46, rather than have him dealt with by the justice system. Wright began his news conference by saying, “Our form of justice is not making it. . . . Carry a concealed weapon. That’ll fix it.”
A writer for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has published a startling blog entry that, if true, should be a major story on the government’s indoctrination of flawed historical and constitutional accounts in training foreign military personnel. The article below discussed material used in International Military Student Officer (IMSO) program run by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. It is run by the military but is under the supervision and direction of the Secretary of State. The author from MRFF, Chris Rodda, quotes from the material used in the training and it is pretty shocking.
Continue reading “Separation Anxiety: Is the Obama Administration Teaching Foreign Soldiers A Distorted View of Constitutional Law and History?”
I have previously raised concern over the treatment of Herman Cain by the media and Democratic activists because of his race. While I have strong disagreements with Cain, I find it discomforting to see how his race is such a preoccupation with Democrats. This weekend, I was taken aback by the statement of Democratic strategist and MSNBC analyst Karen Finney that Cain is “a black man who knows his place.”
Continue reading “Democratic Strategist: Republicans Like Cain as a “Black Man Who Knows His Place””