Wrentham Selectman Robert Leclair believes that there is a long overdue problem that needs to be addressed on Beacon Hill: parents having sex in their homes while awaiting a divorce. One could call this the ultimate nanny state legislation except that it includes sex with the nanny or anyone else while a divorce is pending — Schwarzennegger take note.
Continue reading “Don’t Try This At Home: New Law Would Bar Sex in Home By Couples Awaiting Divorce”
Category: Politics
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has stepped up to respond to John McCain’s recent denouncing of both waterboarding and the effort to claim that our torture program led to the killing of Bin Laden. Santorum told an interview that McCain, a torture survivor, just doesn’t understand interrogation and then gave a frightening defense of torture that would have made Pol Pot blush.
Continue reading “Sanctum Santorum: Former Senator Says McCain Doesn’t Understand Torture”
I have long been a critic of our trademark and copyright laws for years as companies claim an ever-widening array of common names and symbols — suing over everything from the right to use of an apple in a logo to using expressions like “who dat? Now, Walt Disney has filed for trademark rights to the name “Seal Team 6” only days after the Bin Laden operation.
Continue reading “The Mouse Captures The Seals: Disney Moves To Claim Trademark to “Seal Team Six””
There is an interesting audio recording (below) from a man, Mark Fiorino, 25, who was confronted by a Philadelphia police officer about carrying a gun in public. Fiorino is allowed to open carry in the city, but the officers appeared completely ignorant of their own directives and became increasingly hostile to Fiorino’s effort to show them that he was lawfully carrying the weapon. After concluding that he was right, he was released . . . only to be charged later with disorderly conduct based on his effort to show the officers that they were wrong about the law.
Continue reading “Philadelphia Police Wrongly Accuse Man of Gun Violation in Abuse Confrontation And Then Charge Him Instead With Disorderly Conduct”
In California, Denise Keller, says she is trying to keep children safe from gambling. The mother of two daughters has filed a class action against Chuck E. Cheese for games that she says is just a form of toddler gambling. Before those five-year-olds turn “whac-a-Mole” into whacking mob moles, Keller wants the chain to held liable for violating California’s gambling laws. She even found a lawyer in such a Quixotic lawsuit, attorney Eric Benink.
Continue reading “California Mother Sues Chuck E. Cheese As An Unlawful Gambling Operation”
The international Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has announced that it will seek the arrest Muammar Gaddafi for crimes linked to the brutal suppression of demonstrations against his 42-year rule. I do not question the violations committed by Gaddafi. However, I remain uneasy about the criteria used to determine which dictators are prosecuted. The world is crowded with such leaders accused of crimes against humanity. In nearby Syria, President Bashar al-Assad is accused of killing hundreds of protesters and, in Iran, thousands of protesters have been arrested — some executed and others raped or tortured. Even in the United States, we have officials who are accused of war crimes in the use of torture. The point is not to suggest an equality or comparable likeness in the alleged crimes of Libya and the United States. Rather, there remains a concern over selective enforcement in ICC actions.
Continue reading “International Criminal Court Moves To Arrest Gaddafi For Decades of Abuse”
IMF President Dominique Strauss-Kahn last week was widely viewed as heading to the French Presidency. He is now viewed this week as more likely to head to an American jail. In an extraordinary criminal complaint, Strauss-Kahn is described as a sexual predator who spontaneously assaulted a hotel maid. And we thought former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz was an embarrassment.
Continue reading “IMF President Strauss-Kahn Arrested For Assault of New York Hotel Maid”
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
I wonder how many people are aware that there is a special day that has been set aside by Congress to commemorate the signing of the Constitution each year.
From the Library of Congress:
Constitution Day and Citizenship Day is observed each year on September 17 to commemorate the signing of the Constitution on September 17, 1787, and “recognize all who, by coming of age or by naturalization, have become citizens.”
This commemoration had its origin in 1940, when Congress passed a joint resolution authorizing and requesting the President to issue annually a proclamation setting aside the third Sunday in May for the public recognition of all who had attained the status of American citizenship. The designation for this day was “I Am An American Day.”
This weekend, Baltasar Garzón, the Spanish judge who ordered the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, received the ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism in New York. My roughly two-hour interview with Garzón before his receiving the award proved quite newsworthy with Garzón discussing subjects ranging from the charges that he is facing in Spain to current issues of human rights violations by the United States to the threats to assassinate him. Most notably, Garzón criticized the Obama Administration for rolling back on the Nuremberg principles and violating international obligations to prosecute individuals for torture and war crimes.
Continue reading “Baltasar Garzón Receives Human Rights Award and Criticizes Obama Administration For Violations of International Law”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
While Republicans have been trying to leech the credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden, President Obama has upstaged them by laying out his immigration reform plan. This is a signature political issue that the Republicans have tried to make their own. However, the E-Verify program will test whether they really want to solve the problem or whether, like bin Laden, they’re more interested in maintaining the issue for its political usefulness.
Continue reading “An Effective Solution to Illegal Immigration”
The trustees of City University of New York have finally approved an honorary degree for the playwright Tony Kushner after a controversial trustee blocked the degree over his personal disagreement with Mr. Kushner’s views on Israel. Many are now calling for the resignation of trustee Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld (left) who has suggested that Palestinians are not human and said that a “teach in” about the 9/11 attacks at the school was an act of “sedition.”
Continue reading “CUNY Trustee Under Fire After Nixing Honorary Degree For Tony Kushner”
There is a revolving door theme in today’s posts. We saw yesterday how Communications Commissioner Meredith Baker was made senior vice president of Comcast-NBC, Phillip A. Hamilton, a former Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates, has been convicted of leveraging his office to secure a paying position with Old Dominion University. He now will be sentenced for federal program bribery and extortion under color of official right.
Continue reading “Former Virginia Legislator Convicted In Scheme With Old Dominion University”
Critics are charging this week that Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Baker has given this swamp-based city another glaring example of how to turn public service into personal gain. Just four months after voting to allow the merger between Comcast and NBC Universal, she has been given a high-paid job as senior vice president of governmental affairs by . . . you guessed it . . . Comcast-NBC.
Continue reading “Revolving Door: FCC Commissioner Votes For Comcast/NBC Merger And, Four Months Later, Given Position As Senior Vice President in Comcast-NBC”
In Wisconsin, there is now record of the West Bend School Board ever rejecting an application for a student club at a high school . . . until now. You guessed it, students wanted to form the Gay-Straight Alliance clubs at East and West high schools but were denied approval by a 3-3 vote of the board. Board President Randy Marquardt opposed approval of the club.
Continue reading “Try The 4-H Club Instead: Wisconsin Board Refuses To Approve School-Sponsored Club for Gay Students”
A Gallop poll shows that fifty-two percent of Americans want a third party — a continuing majority from earlier polls showing as much as 58% who oppose the monopoly of power by the two leading parties. The question is how we can call ourselves a democracy when the two parties are able, through ballot barriers and other means, to prevent a major third party from emerging in the United States. I previously wrote about these barriers and the need for a third party.
Continue reading “Majority of Americans Still Want Third Major Party”