Philadelphia Judge Deborah Griffin has many positive things on her resume: a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, the first black student to win the Missouri-Columbia Law School moot court, and overcoming great challenges in her childhood to become a lawyer. The one omission was that she has a felony record. She is now facing possible removal from the bench. Continue reading “Philadephia Judge Faces Removal for Hiding That She is a Former Felon”
Category: Politics
As President Bush appears to be winning over House Democrats to join their Senate counterparts in granting immunity, President Bush says in this video that it is not enough to wipe out roughly 40 civil liberties lawsuits — citizens need to say “thank you” to the telecom companies for their “patriotic” actions. The fact that the program constitutes a crime under our laws is besides the point. The real issue is who will thank telecoms for not allowing a bunch of laws stand in the way of warrantless surveillance of their customers. Continue reading “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Telecoms: Bush Calls On All Americans to “Thank” the Telecoms”
The United States Marines Corps is finally responding to international outrage over Marines the video below of a Marine throwing a puppy over a rocky cliff in Iraq. The Marine is called by the name Motari on the video and bloggers believe that they have identified the culprit.
Continue reading “Semper Fido: Investigators Close in on Marine Who Threw Puppy Off Cliff”
The Senate Democrats have again caved on the issue of torture, unanimously confirming
Chicago federal Judge Mark Filip to be the second-in-command at the Justice Department despite his refusal to answer the simple question whether waterboarding is torture — a fact established by U.S. and international courts. As with the telecom immunity controversy, the Senate delayed the vote to suggest that they were actually taking a stand on torture and then voted with the White House to avoid a final confrontation on the question. Continue reading “Senate Unanimously Confirms Filip for No. 2 Position at Justice Depsite His Refusal to Answer Torture Question”
Mukasey’s Paradox;
On further review, his manipulations on torture and contempt are a beautiful, twisted thing. Continue reading “Mukasey’s Paradox”
Feminist leader Gloria Steinem attracted considerable attention this weekend after she rejected John McCain’s heroic period as a POW in the Hanoi Hilton as over-rated and suggested the Hillary Clinton was a better president because she was not “trained to kill.” McCain cannot lift his arms above his shoulders due to the beatings and torture that he endured in Vietnam. Continue reading “Gloria Steinem Says McCain’s POW Experience Over-Rated”
According to Amnesty International, the good people in the Iranian justice system are about to add another outrage from their prehistoric legal system. The group says that two gay men, Tayyeb Karimi and Yazdan, will soon be killed by throwing them off a cliff. The group estimates that 4000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Iranian revolution. Continue reading “Iran to Kill Two Gay Men By Throwing Them Off Cliffs”
Civil libertarians are alarmed by Sunday’s interview with the House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes, suggesting that the House may surrender on the telecom immunity question. For a short period of time, it appeared that for once members of Congress would actually stand on principle and refuse immunity. Now, Reyes is saying that he is open to “compromise” and that a deal may be close. Continue reading “House Intelligence Chairman Indicates that House May Capitulate on Telecom Immunity”
There is an interesting controversy brewing at Harvard University. The university has banned men from one of its gyms to create women-only hours – to accommodate Muslim women. While the effort is a commendable effort to accommodate a part of the Harvard community, it also constitutes a serious question of gender discrimination. Continue reading “Religious Tolerance or Gender Discrimination? Harvard Goes to Women-Only Hours at Gym”
A divided Virginia Supreme Court upheld the conviction Jeremy D. Jaynes under the state’s 2003 Anti-Spam Act. While many of us hate to admit it, he may have a point that the law is constitutionally flawed. This is one that may be heading to the Supreme Court. Continue reading “Spam and the First Amendment: Virginia Supreme Court Upholds Anti-Spam Law”
A recent disclosure raises the disturbing question: is the president gets a call at 3:00 am for a joke, who do you want to answer the phone? Apparently, not John McCain. McCain was asked in 2003 for his funniest joke and this was the unnerving response. Continue reading “A Question of Competence: Is McCain Funny Enough to be President?”
In a remarkable ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul Borman has ordered firebrand attorney Geoffrey Fieger to pull TV commercials critical of the Bush Administration. Borman ruled that such ads threatened to influence the jury pool in Fieger’s upcoming trial for making illegal contributions to the John Edwards 2004 presidential campaign. It is an extremely rare ruling that pits judicial administration against the first amendment. Continue reading “Federal Court Orders Geoffrey Fieger to Pull Anti-Bush Administration Ads from TV”
All of the major candidates – including Clinton, Obama, McCain, and Huckabee – have made plays for the religious vote by voicing positions on faith and seeking the endorsement of religious leaders. However, they are also discovering that mixing politics and religion is a risky business. This week, both McCain and Obama face some serious baggage that came with religious allies. Continue reading “Getting Entangled in Church-State Relations: Faith-Based Politics Causes Problems for the Leading Presidential Candidates”
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) has introduced legislation that would declare that any child born abroad to citizens serving in the United States military to be natural born citizens for the purposes of the constitution. It is a admirable bipartisan effort to resolve any questions about McCain’s eligibility under Article II. However, it is not the first time such legislation has been introduced and it is not clear if it would be sufficient. Continue reading “Legislation Introduced to Remove McCain’s Panama Problem in Seeking Presidency”
Tim Goeglein, special assistant to the president and deputy director of public liaison, admitted this week that he has published plagiarized work. His undoing was at the hands of a blogger, Nancy Nall, who found that one column was lifted from the writings of a former Columbia and Dartmouth professor, Jeffery Hart. Nall and others now claim that there were other columns. Late Friday, reports indicated that Goeglein has resigned. Continue reading “Blogger Uncovers Plagiarism by Senior Bush Official”