Conservative commentator Robert Novak is back in the news. This time it is not for mowing down pedestrians in his sports car. Instead, Novak has refuted all of those defenders who insisted that he would never have intentionally blown the cover of a CIA operatives. In a new interview, Novak says that he would out CIA Valerie Plame again despite knowing that she was under cover. While he previously indicated that he should not have revealed her name, he now says that he would have knowingly blown her cover despite the violation of federal law and impact on national security. Why? Because of the bad things people have said about him.
Category: Politics
The video below is Hollywood’s response to the passage of Proposition 8: a full-throated, star-studded musical. There is something quintessentially Hollywood in all this.
Continue reading “Proposition 8: The Musical”
The tough economic times are producing some highly questionable revenue measures by cities and states. One of the most problematic is the growing trend for towns, cities, and counties to charge citizens to use of police or fire services in emergencies. At least 24 states have such laws on the books and private contractors are pushing for every state to allow them to collect from crime and fire victims.
Continue reading “Fire Sale: Fire and Police Departments Charging Victims for Services”
An interesting case has emerged out of Loveland, Colorado. J.P. Weichel, 40, has been criminally charged for libel for statements that he made on CraigsList under a nineteenth century law. Weichel allegedly made the comments in Craigslist’s “Rants and Raves Section.” Weichel says that he “was just venting.” It is a rare case of such defamation that is made even more rare by the use of a criminal versus civil charge.
Continue reading “Rants and Raves: Man Criminally Charged for Alleged Libel on Craigslist”
The Capitol Visitor Center has finally opened as a symbol of congressional over-runs and poor management. Years late and many millions over budget, the Center is a towering example of the inability of Congress to balance its own checkbook. The only problem may be stinking citizens and rotting souls. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that members will celebrate that they will no longer have to “smell the tourists” while Sen. Jim DeMint has denounced the building as being Godless.
With the unanimous vote of the bipartisan Minnesota Board of Canvassers against his demand for the counting of rejected ballots, Al Franken (D) is suggesting that he may ask the Senate (with a democratic majority) to simply order the counting of the ballots and hand him the victory over incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). It is the nuclear option in the Constitution and rarely used for obvious reasons.
Continue reading “Nuclear Option: Franken Lawyer Suggests He May Invoke Senate Option to Trump State Board”
Congratulations to everyone who regularly posts at this blog. Our blog has made the top 100 legal blogs in the annual survey by the ABA Journal. [OK, there is no trophy but I figured we needed something] The Journal is now taking votes on various categories from professor/legal theory blog (including this blog) and various other categories like crime and technology. This blog is in the top ten for professor/legal theory blogs and you can vote on the ranking by click vote now here.
Continue reading “Turley Blog Makes Top 100: Vote Now For Your Favorite Blogs”
There is a bizarre holiday display in Washington. On one side is a Nativity scene and on the other is a atheist display denouncing religion. Tis the season for our endless debate over entanglement of church and state. Yet, here, a Wisconsin group takes an obnoxious approach that secretly should delight those who want to prolong this culture war.
Continue reading “Happy Holiday, You God-Enslaved Zombie: Atheists Get Their Own Holiday Display”
One of the strangest cases in years is now over in Connecticut, but the resolution is hardly satisfying. Connecticut substitute teacher, Julie Amero, 41, pleaded guilty plea to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge and agreed to pay a $100 fine as well as surrender her credentials to teach in the state of Connecticut. The case seems a troubling example of prosecutorial over-zealousness and computer illiteracy.
Continue reading “Pop-Up Justice in Norwich: Connecticut Teacher Stripped of Credentials and Forced to Plead Guilty to Crime Due to a Likely Computer Glitch”
I predict palm readers will soon appear in Livingston Parish, Louisiana. Alright, I had a little help from a federal court in New Orleans. A court has ruled that the parish prohibition on soothsaying, fortune telling, palm reading, clairvoyance, crystal ball gazing, mind reading, card reading “and the like” is unconstitutional. Now, the parish government has voted to rescind the law and allow the tarot cards to fall. Other cities are following suit in addressing these prohibitions.
California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) has officially opened an investigation in the role of the Church of Latter Day Saints in financing and failing to report nonmonetary contributions to support Proposition 8 — the successful resolution that barred same-sex marriage. The investigation was requested Californians Against Hate.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman has struck down Florida’s ban on the adoption of children by gay people. She found that the law was unconstitutional given the absence of any legal or scientific reason that sexual orientation should be the basis for such a prohibition.
Continue reading “Florida Court Strikes Down State Ban on Gay Adoptive Parents”
Parents at Condit Elementary School in Claremont, California have forced the kindergarten to bar children from dressing in traditional Thanksgiving outfits as based on racial or ethic stereotypes. After 40 years of this tradition, no one Pilgrim hats, Indian outfits, or bonnets.
Continue reading “California Kindergarten Students Told Not to Dress Up for Thanksgiving”
Connecticut Judge E. Curtissa R. Cofield is at the center of a firestorm after an arrest for drunk driving during which she hurled racial epithets at a black police officer. She also succeeded in striking a police cruiser with her BMW. Cofield, who is also black, is now the subject of both a criminal proceeding and a proposed legislative investigation.
Continue reading “Connecticut Judge Arrested for Drunk Driving After Hitting Police Cruiser and Hurling Racial Epithets at Black Officer”
The symbolism is perfectly exquisite. President George Bush, who has given out fewer pardons than any modern president, felt that he could not leave office without releasing Leslie Owen Collier of Charleston, Mo., who pleaded guilty in 1995 to unlawfully killing three bald eagles in southeast Missouri. Bush is generally viewed as the most hostile president to environmental protections in modern times. His pardons seemed to reflect that profile with another pardon going to a hazardous waste violator who was given a mere probation sentence. I will be discussing the Bush pardons with Rachel Maddow tonight.
Continue reading “Bush Pardons Man Who Killed Three Bald Eagles”