Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty-Guest Blogger
Following up on the continuing saga of the debt default crisis and our earlier articles, I had a few more thoughts on how the crisis should be handled. The first suggested solution came from President Clinton who argued for it in a recent interview. Continue reading “Can The Default “Crisis” Be Solved Unilaterally?”
Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
If you’ve never heard of King Lincoln v. Blackwell, don’t be too surprised. Project Censored calls the outsourcing of the 2004 Presidential elections in Ohio “one of the most censored stories in the world.” Originally filed on August 31, 2006 in Ohio, King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell is an ongoing civil case to decide if the the Ohio Secretary of State at the time, Kenneth Blackwell, violated the Civil Rights Act (42 USC §§ 1983 and 1984) and the 1st, 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution by conspiring to “deprive and continue to deprive Ohioans of their right to vote and have, in fact, deprived and continue to deprive Ohioans of their right to vote by, in a selective and discriminatory manner, unfairly allocate election resources (such as voting machines), institute a system of provisional ballots, purge voter registrations, and broke the bi-partisan chain of custody ballots”. The vote at the heart of the issue is the 2004 Presidential election where, in defiance of exit poll data, there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush.
New filings include a revealing deposition of the late Michael Connell. Connell died shortly after giving his deposition in a small plane crash that is described as “suspicious”*. In life, Connell served as the IT guru for the Bush family and their personal minister of propaganda, Karl Rove. Connell ran a private IT firm called GovTech that created the controversial electronic voting system that Ohio used during the election. GovTech’s system transferred Ohio’s vote count late on election night to a partisan Republican server site in Chattanooga, Tennessee owned by a company called SmarTech. That is when the alleged vote shift happened that led to Bush’s unexpected victory.
Continue reading “Dead Men Do Tell Tales (Of Rigged Elections)”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
A coalition of conservative groups filed for an injunction in a Livingston County, New York Supreme Court (a trial court in NY parlance) asking the judge to overturn New York’s same-sex marriage law. New Yorker’s for Constitutional Freedom (NYCF) seek to enjoin operation of the law claiming that procedural requirements for the legislation were ignored, legislators were promised huge campaign contributions in exchange for their vote by NYC Mayor Bloomberg, and that Governor Andrew Cuomo violated the three-day review period by falsely issuing a “message of necessity” to the Legislature to speed up passage of the legislation. Through their lawyers, Liberty Counsel, the conservative action group also claims the public and lobbyists were shut out of the process.
Continue reading “NY’s Marriage Equality Act Sees First Court Challenge”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty-Guest Blogger
I have a slightly different take on the debt ceiling discussion started by Mike Appleton earlier. The Debt ceiling issue is on every cable and broadcast TV channel and on just about every website and blog including here on Prof. Turley’s blog. The debt limit and its feared default has controlled the airwaves for weeks now, and it isn’t going to end soon if the news reports are to believed. The Democrats want increased revenue and the Republicans want cuts only to spending in order to convince both sides to do something that was done about 19 times during the preceding administration without much fanfare from either side. No matter who you support there is an easy solution to the problem and the majority of Americans agree with it. The Hill Continue reading “The Solution to the Debt Crisis is an Easy One.”
Submitted by Mike Appleton, Guest Blogger
Humorist Tom Bodett observed on NPR’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me” this weekend that if we raise the debt ceiling any higher, we won’t be able to paint it. In addition to being funny, his comment was more intelligent than most of what passes for debate on the issue.
Raising the debt ceiling is hardly a difficult decision to make, requiring that Congress answer only the following questions:
1. Are we unable with existing revenues to pay our debts as they become due?
2. Do we have the ability to borrow the funds necessary to cover the shortfall?
3. Will the additional borrowing push us over the existing debt ceiling?
If the answer to these questions is “yes,” the debt ceiling needs to be raised. Congress has always managed to get through the process rather easily, voting to increase the debt ceiling 74 times since 1962. So why the current impasse on a routine matter? Continue reading “The Phony Debt Ceiling Debate”
Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
Last Thursday, July 21, the Texas Board of Education in an 8-0 unanimous vote opted to keep teaching evolution in high school biology classes using approved scientifically accurate textbook supplements from established mainstream publishers. They did not approve of the creationist-backed supplements from International Databases, LLC. Four times as many people showed up to testify in favor of the scientifically accurate texts as showed up to oppose them.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
A startling thought occurred to me recently and that is while I’m only approaching the age of sixty-seven, I have lived in eight decades on this planet. Every one of those eight decades has had an American involvement in a foreign war. To be sure there is a massive degree of difference in magnitude let’s say between World War II and Grenada, but both were wars nonetheless. There is a common thread in all of these involvements that goes beyond the immediate causes and that is the quest for Empire. A persistent undertone in American thought has been expansive since Jefferson made The Louisiana Purchase. While this need to expand hasn’t always been present in the public political debate as a motivation, those whose thoughts held sway over the political and intellectual backbone of our country openly discussed it. While America, which initially remained primarily an agrarian nation, was expanding into the vast frontier of this continent, our dreams of empire focused on taming the country and overwhelming its Native American population. By the mid Nineteenth Century, the industrial revolution influenced American thought and the need to expand to acquire natural resources, replaced agrarian needs, while making the taming of the frontier more urgent.
Given our constitutional underpinnings and the magnificent sentiments of the Declaration of Independence, many felt qualms about our displacement of Native Americans in our expansion westward. Darwin’s Origin of The Species, published in 1859 became an instant sensation for intellectuals worldwide and for those with the power to shape a nation’s thought processes. Social Darwinism, survival of the fittest, was the new model for developing rationales and mythologies, which absolved the country of residual guilt in our struggle with the native population and allowed opinion shapers and ideologues to frame the issue in terms of the struggle of civilization against savagery.
Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
More potential bad news for Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. as Thursday’s Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is preparing subpoenas relating to alleged foreign bribery and alleged hacking of voicemail of Sept. 11 victims. This is in addition to a separate FBI probe into the alleged hacking of voicemail of Sept. 11 victims and a possible FCPA-related (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) investigation by the SEC related to allegations of bribing police in Great Britain. There are also a substantial number of civil suits springing up related to the activities of News Corp.’s now shuttered News of the World operation. While Murdoch and News Corp. have attempted to contain the damage done by the News of the World U.K. phone hacking scandal, it seems like their efforts are failing as the investigation into their operations expands across the Atlantic. The real question lies with A.G. Eric Holder’s Department of Justice willingness to act.
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty-Guest Blogger
It is probably just me, but it seems that every time we hear about a proposed deal to extend the debt limit and avert a government shutdown and a debt default, the plan does nothing more than cut the taxes on the wealthiest Americans and Corporations. The latest proposal by the so-called Gang of Six is just one more example of Congress attacking the Middle Class. Continue reading “The Gang of Six and Their War on Main Street”
Here is my column this morning in the New York Times. As is the case (even on my own paper, USA Today), the writer does not select the titles. In this case, “One Big, Happy Polygamous Family” seems a bit mocking. Thus, I have added my own title.
Continue reading “Privacy Without Politics: Why The Sister Wives Lawsuit Is About Privacy Not Polygamy”
Contributed by: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
All society’s see themselves as “civilized” which connotes that they are humane in their treatment of all within their purview. One society will compare their society towards another, disparagingly in most cases, seeing the “other” as less “civilized” and more barbaric. We all know the clichés about the cruelties of Mexican, or Turkish prisons for instance and our American tendency is to look down our noses upon the barbarity of those countries in dealing with all prisoners, not just felons. How smug we are in our self-satisfaction that America is a modern culture with no hint of the backwardness and barbarism of less modern cultures. In my view this has been merely the legerdemain of mass delusion. I say delusion because the sad truth we all know is that many of our prisons and many of our Jails are “hellholes”, perhaps only degrees better than certain other more “barbarous” Nations are. Our literature and media have for years dealt with the harshness of our prison system. Indeed our gallows humor puts forth the hardly clichéd image of prison rape as a fit punishment for some. A current story conveys our dilemma in seeing the truth of our own lack of civilization, dealing with those who commit crimes both of heinous and victimless nature. Continue reading “How Should A Civilized Society Deal With Criminals?”
There is an interesting case out of Fairfax County in Virginia where an eighth-grader was pulled from his class and interrogated by a police officer and school officials on this smoking pot after-school hours and off campus. The case shows the continuing uncertainty over when police officers are required to give Miranda after the Supreme Court’s decision in J.D.B. v. North Carolina (below).
Continue reading “When Should Schools Give Miranda? Virginia Case Shows Continuing Uncertainties After J.D.B. Ruling”
For weeks, many of us have been shocked by the use of controversial Al Sharpton as a host on “MSNBC Live.” We have followed Sharpton’s long litany of alleged criminal violations and race-baiting tactics. Now, as if to show that it can match Fox’s hiring of Glenn Beck and CNN’s hiring of Nancy Grace, MSNBC is reportedly close to giving Sharpton the slot held by Cenk Uygur.
Continue reading “Report: MSNBC Close To Naming Al Sharpton Host of Prime Time Show”
Two of my clients in the pilots litigation flagged an article by conservative Republican activist and attorney Debbie Schlussel reporting that I am funded by the Bin Laden family and using the Brown family as a front for an Islamic radical agenda. Ms. Schlussel previously attracted national attention by writing in the aftermath of Bin Laden’s death “1 down, 1.8 billion more to go.” She was also denounced for her statement that CBS reporter Lara Logan deserved to be raped while covering the protests in Egypt — a statement rightfully criticized by David Drumm (which she attributes to me). The article by Ms. Schlussel is clearly defamatory and neither she nor her attorney has responded to inquiries over the last couple days.
Continue reading “Turley Demands Retraction and Apology From Conservative Attorney and Radio Host Debbie Schlussel”
When Kelly Ballentine was given several parking tickets, she lucked out by getting a lenient judge: herself. The Lancaster Magisterial District Judge dismissed a no-parking ticket and an expired registration ticket in December and a no-parking ticket in January.
Continue reading “Pennsylvania Judge Under Fire For Dismissing Her Own Parking Tickets”