Category: Society
Jeff Olson, 40, is facing a potential 13-year jail sentence for perhaps the world’s most costly sidewalk art. A former aide to the U.S. Senator from Washington, Olson used water-soluble statements like “Stop big banks,” and “Stop Bank Blight.com” outside Bank of America branches last year to protest the company’s practices. He eventually gave up his protest but prosecutors later brought 13 charges against him. Now a judge has reportedly banned his attorney from “mentioning the First Amendment, free speech, free expression, public forum, expressive conduct, or political speech during the trial.” It appears someone associated with Bank of American could finally go to jail, but it will not by the bank officials in the financial scandal. It is the guy writing slogans in chalk in the sidewalk.
In Idaho, South Fork Industries appears to have found a way to turn Islamophobia into a windfall. The ammunition manufacturer is selling a new line of pork-laced bullets that they say will keep Muslim terrorists from entering heaven. However, the theory that these “Jihawg Ammo” bullets are “haram” and thus a barrier to heaven is contested by actual Islamic scholars. If true, could the company be sued for false advertising or does such a claim require proof of a divinely excluded terrorist who was shot by an unclean bullet? The website calls it “Peace Through Pork.”
Continue reading “Idaho Company Offers Pork-Laced Bullets To Keep Muslim Terrorists Out Of Heaven”
Matthew (6:24) says that “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” but we have recently seen ministers who seem focused on the latter than the former in their personal matters like St. Louis Pastor Alois Bell who scratched out a 18 percent tip for a large party and wrote in a “0” next to “I give God 10% why do you get 18.” The waitress was later fired from Applebee’s after Bell complained about her going public with the slight. Rev. Bell was widely ridiculed as a craven hypocrite. However, she could apparently open a new ministry of the “Good Work of Mammon” Church with Australian Rev. Terry McAuliffe, of St Paul’s Anglican Church. A couple, Clyde and Lesley Bevan, own the Friends Restaurant and dropped a $6500 gold and diamond bracelet in the carpark. It was missing for months. They were delighted when a new “friend” called to report that he picked up the bracelet until he told them that he wanted half the value if they wanted it back. Rev. McAuliffe insists that it is just a case of mammon from heaven: “I have been given a gift fallen from the sky.”
There is disturbing video out of Lakeland, Florida where a police officer, Dustin Fetz, is under attack for ordering a woman to shake her bra during a search for drugs at a traffic stop. There appears no basis for the drug search, which are becoming more and more common on the roads as drivers find themselves accused of minor traffic violations but then subjected to full drug searches.
Continue reading “Florida Police Force Under Fire For Demeaning Treatment Of Woman In Roadside Stop”
Below is my column today in USA Today on the criminal complaint against Edward Snowden. I have been criticizing the charge under the Espionage Act as abusive and a mistake by the Administration. President Barack Obama has been criticized for years for his use of the controversial 1917 Act. He is responsible for six of the nine total indictments ever brought under the Act. More than all presidents before him and putting Richard Nixon to shame. He has used the act against sources for journalists and only recently was criticized for the attacks on the free press under his Administration. I do not question the basis for prosecution of Snowden for the disclosure of classified information or any theft of such documents. However, the effort to put him away for life does raise an interesting contrast with prior cases, which is the subject of today’s column (slightly expanded from the print version).
Continue reading “AMERICA’S ANIMAL FARM: SNOWDEN AND THE SQUEALER”
Our civil liberties and our economy may be in the tank, but all is right with the world today as the Stanley Cup returns to its natural resting place: Chicago.
Continue reading “There Is A God: Blackhawks Win The Stanley Cup”
This morning I will be in front of the Supreme Court to discuss the expected rulings on same-sex marriage, voting rights, and racial diversity in college admissions. It is the last ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas Austin that brings back many personal memories for me. I will be with Jake Tapper giving legal analysis from virtually the identical place I was standing in 1977 when Regents of the University of California v. Bakke was argued before the Court. I was a 16 year old congressional page during the large protests for and against affirnative action. I remember walking out of the House of Representatives where I was a leadership page and getting swept away by the crowds. I found a spot near today’s CNN site to watch this passionate display of free speech. What is most striking is that 36 years later little has truly been resolved in how race can be considered by universities — or the struggle of the Court to find a consistent approach to the question. Update below: The Court ruled 7-1 to impose a higher standard for review under strict scrutiny.
Continue reading “A Familiar Scene And An All-Too-Familiar Question: The Supreme Court Returns To The Question Of Race [UPDATED]”
Continue reading “A Familiar Scene And An All-Too-Familiar Question: The Supreme Court Returns To The Question Of Race [UPDATED]”
A troubling conviction has now become a troubling precedent for the first amendment. A right-wing Internet radio host, Harold C. Turner, was earlier convicted of threatening three federal judges. Turner, 48, posted comments attacking the three appeals court judges who had upheld a ban of handguns in Chicago. He was charged with a single count of threatening to assault or kill the judges with the intent of impeding their official duties. The referenced judges testified against Turner. They are Judges Frank Easterbrook, William Bauer, and Richard Posner. Now the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has upheld the conviction in decision that could expose more speech to criminal penalties.
Continue reading “Second Circuit Upholds Conviction Of Radio Host For Attacks On Judges”
We have another controversial dog shooting case. Cathy Luu and her family say that an El Monte police officer shot their 2-year-old female German Shepherd, named Kiki inside their fenced-in front yard while looking for a runaway teenager. What is different about this case is that a home security camera recorded the scene and it contradicted the account of the two officers.
Canine contraband is the newest crime wave in Beijing. China is cracking down on large dogs under a new law in classic Chinese authoritarian form: Police bearing nets and metal snares are roaming the streets in search of Labradors, Dalmatians and collies and other sizable dogs.
Continue reading “Canine Contraband: China’s Crackdown On Large Dogs Gets Ugly”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty-(Rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
We often hear the term “school reform” used often by politicians of all stripes. Chicago’s politicians are no different when it comes to talking about and taking action on so-called school reform. Recently, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is a big fan of the charter school program and a former investment banker, decided that the best way to “reform” Chicago Public Schools was to close 49 schools and terminate 550 teachers and another 300 school staff employees!
“On June 14, the Chicago Public Schools sent layoff notices to 850 school employees, including 550 teachers. The layoffs will hit hardest at those teachers working in African-American and Latino communities. These are the communities that were targeted in the system’s recent decision to close 49 schools – the largest single school closure in US history.” Truth-out Continue reading “Rahm Emanuel’s Reform of the Chicago Public Schools”
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
I never much liked Paula Deen’s cooking. Filled with butter and gravies and things like Krispy Creme Donuts for hamburger buns, Paula seemed too culinarily eccentric … to foodie excessive … too health oblivious even for a southern cook in 1813 much less 2013. Her story though, like her southern twang, had a certain charm to it: single mother of two left penniless makes ends meet by selling food-to-go out of her home kitchen and works her butt off until she reached the top of the sundae’s cherry with three shows on the Food Network and some spin off shows for her two sons.
Continue reading “The Name That May Not Be Spoken: Paula Deen,The “N” Word, And The ’60s South”
We have seen a continuing array of spins by the White House and its allies to excuse the massive assault on privacy in the recently revealed warrantless surveillance programs. This effort has included perjury by high-ranking officials, an effort to redefine privacy in a new surveillance-friendly image, ever increasing claims of averting “plots” and misdirection toward other “threats” to privacy. However, one of the consistent claims has been that no content of communications was reviewed — an argument that itself is fallacious. Now however it appears that even that assurance is false. There are various reports that the content of the warrantless communications was accessible. Now, it has also been confirmed that there are two documents dated July 2009 and signed by Attorney General Holder allows the NSA to use “inadvertently acquired” communications.
Continue reading “Report: NSA Allowed To Use “Inadvertently Acquired” Communications”
Superior Court judge Carlia Brady, 41, is to stand trial for “knowingly harbor[ing]” a fugitive charged with armed robbery in her Woodbridge home and never calling the police. She was arrested on Tuesday and charged two counts of hindering the apprehension of Jason Prontnicki, 41.