-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
President Obama’s middle east speech contained this exact quote: “The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.”
So started the insanity. The fact that this has been the U.S. policy over several administrations seems to be lost on the outraged.
Continue reading “The Right’s Nutty Reaction to Obama’s Middle East Speech”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Republicans have decided that their talking points should be about the national debt instead of, say, job creation. To that end, Rep. Paul Ryan, on one of those Sunday morning talk shows, said “We need to address the drivers of our debt.”
That’s a great idea.
Continue reading “Rep. Paul Ryan Wants to Address the Drivers of Our Debt”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is the subject of much speculation as a potential contender for the GOP presidential nomination. The former Eli Lilly executive turned politician has taken the conservative state to even lower lows of right-wing foolishness by sponsoring legislation to deny children of undocumented workers in-state tuition rates and increasing fines on Indiana employers who hired their parents. Daniels is also no foe of big business as he famously leased the Indiana Toll Road for 75 years to a Spanish conglomerate for $3.85 Billion dollars.
Continue reading “Republican Presidential Hopeful Loses Bout To Gym Door”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Former President George W. Bush has a strange way of keeping a low profile. Following his reported sore ego for not being afforded enough credit in the demise of Bin Laden, Bush declined an invitation to go to New York and appear with President Obama at “ground zero.” The ex-President, it was said, wanted to keep a “low profile.” That desire didn’t stop him though from traveling to New York the following week and giving three speeches to hedge fund managers for a cool $450,000.00.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
The Wall Street Journal is doing its part. In an article meant to show the futility of taxing the wealthy to close the deficit, the WSJ instead lies with numbers. The WSJ article purports to show that the bulk of taxable income lies with the middle class and without entitlement cuts along the lines of the Paul Ryan model, soaking the middle class is the only option available. They show a graph supposedly depicting that the bulk taxable income lies with the middle class. The graph in question is displayed full size below the fold.
The graph made the usual rounds among the protect-the-wealthy blogs. Surprisingly, it was the pro-business Tax Foundation, in its Tax Policy Blog, that debunked the WSJ graph. Unsurprisingly, the debunking post that embarrassed the WSJ was pulled by the Tax Foundation. But the memory hole isn’t what it used to be, the debunking post can be found here.
Continue reading “Protecting the Wealthy – By Deception”
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”
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”