Category: Uncategorized

Justice, Politics, Uncategorized

Blocking the Vote: A Look at Who Is Behind Republican Efforts to Erect Voting Barriers in America

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

Last December, the NAACP released a report titled Defending Democracy: Confronting Modern Barriers to Voting Rights in America. The report reveals “direct connections between the trend of increasing, unprecedented African American and Latino voter turnout and an onslaught of restrictive measures across the country designed to stem electoral strength among communities of color.”

Benjamin Jealous, NAACP President and CEO, said, “It’s been more than a century since we’ve seen such a tidal wave of assaults on the right to vote. Historically, when voting rights are attacked, it’s done to facilitate attacks on other rights. It is no mistake that the groups who are behind this are simultaneously attacking very basic women’s rights, environmental protections, labor rights, and educational access for working people and minorities.” He added, “Voting rights attacks are the flip side of buying a democracy. First you buy all the leaders you can, and then you suppress as many votes as possible of the people who might object.”

I should add that African American and Latino voters aren’t the only people who are being targeted by the “block the vote” effort. Young people and the elderly in some states may also face hurdles if they hope to exercise their right to vote in the November elections.

Continue reading “Blocking the Vote: A Look at Who Is Behind Republican Efforts to Erect Voting Barriers in America” →

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When Immunity Becomes Impunity: German Police Stop North Korean Ambassador From Fishing Without License . . . Ambassador Invokes Diplomatic Immunity and Keeps On Fishing As Police Watch

German police recently thought that they had just another illegal fishing incident at the Havel River in Berlin when they stopped a man and demanded his license. The man immediately informed them that he had no license and continued to fish. When they told him it was illegal, he promptly identified himself as Si Hong Ri, North Korea’s ambassador to Germany and apologized. He then continued to fish. Si Hong Ri had no identification on him, so the police were forced to call for their office to produce a picture of the ambassador and then stood there as Si Hong Ri continued to fish with immunity and impunity.
Continue reading “When Immunity Becomes Impunity: German Police Stop North Korean Ambassador From Fishing Without License . . . Ambassador Invokes Diplomatic Immunity and Keeps On Fishing As Police Watch” →

Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Justice, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court, Uncategorized

The DHS Wants to Know Who’s Spreading the News (or Expressing an Opinion), Your Rights Optional

Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger

Freedom of speech is a well established right in this country and rooted in the 1st Amendment.  “Congress shall make no law [. . .] abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”.  The U.N.’s  Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19 reads, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”  Within the United States and our jurisprudence there are some exceptions to this freedom, but by in large (up to this point in history) the restrictions are both reasonable and necessary: the Miller test for obscenity, child pornography laws, laws prohibiting speech that incites imminent lawless action, restrictions on fighting words, regulation of commercial speech such as advertising, copyright and patent laws protecting authors and inventors control over their work, and the prohibition of slander and defamation.

Let’s be clear here that the subject isn’t just free speech, but anonymous political free speech.

Here at Res Ipsa Loqitur, there is a long standing policy of allowing anonymous posting to comments and protecting poster’s anonymity.   The decision to post under your own name or not is entirely yours.  This policy encourages free speech while allowing that having an unpopular or minority point of view should not have negative political consequences for the speaker or unnecessarily complicate their lives simply for expressing their views.  Many political insiders and Washington professionals have told Professor Turley that they enjoy reading this blog and have enjoyed posting anonymously.  The only posters here required to use their real identities are the guest bloggers and the requirement is voluntary.  None of us were coerced into using our real names.  When offered the honor of being a guest blogger, it was simply (and I think I speak for all the guest bloggers when I say fairly) a requirement in assuming editorial responsibilities.  However, all of this raises an important question.

Do you have a right to anonymous political free speech?

According to the Supreme Court, you do.  According to the Department of Homeland Security, you don’t.  They’ve hired General Dynamics to track U.S. citizens exercising this critical civil right.

Continue reading “The DHS Wants to Know Who’s Spreading the News (or Expressing an Opinion), Your Rights Optional” →

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Dog Sniff Case Granted Cert

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

This case has everything a Fourth Amendment nerd could want, it’s got curtilage, sniff tests, and unreasonable searches. The case is Jardines v. State in which Miami, Florida, police, supported by DEA agents, conducted a “sniff test” by a detection dog, a chocolate lab named Franky (left). The warrentless sniff test, based on an anonymous tip, occurred at the front door of Jardines’ private residence. Franky alerted to the odor of narcotics and a search warrant was obtained. The search found marijuana was being grown inside the home.

Continue reading “Dog Sniff Case Granted Cert” →

Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, Politics, Religion, Society, Uncategorized

The Day Happy Died: New Year To Bring End To Happy Hours In Utah

The New Year brings a host of new laws that kick in on the first. For citizens in Utah, the New Year will bring an end to Happy Hours. That’s right, the heavily Mormon state has continued its harassment of citizens who drink and outlawed “drink specials.”
Continue reading “The Day Happy Died: New Year To Bring End To Happy Hours In Utah” →

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A Christmas Truce

Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

During the miserable trench warfare of WWI, a night of humanity offered some hope of peace. Arthur Conan Doyle called it  “one human episode amid all the atrocities.”  If Christmas means anything, it surely means this:

Christmas Day, 1914

My dear sister Janet,

It is 2:00 in the morning and most of our men are asleep in their dugouts—yet I could not sleep myself before writing to you of the wonderful events of Christmas Eve. In truth, what happened seems almost like a fairy tale, and if I hadn’t been through it myself, I would scarce believe it. Just imagine: While you and the family sang carols before the fire there in London, I did the same with enemy soldiers here on the battlefields of France!

Continue reading “A Christmas Truce” →

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WREATH: An Acrostic Poem

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

Here’s an acrostic poem that I wrote a few years ago. If you read down the left side of the poem, it spells out the word “wreath.”

Wrapped around itself,

Red-ribboned

Evergreen, fragrant of winter forests,

Adorned with berries, baubles, bells of gold,

Tacked to the front door…

Home for the holidays.

 

Happy Holidays to all!!!

Columns, Congress, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society, Uncategorized

The Real Insurance Frauds

 
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger

It’s Christmastime again and since my childhood, long ago, the Frank Capra film “It’s A Wonderful Life” has been shown time and again in this season, providing a message of redemption, hope and joy that we associate with this time of year. You all know the plot about selfless George Bailey (James Stewart) a man who has sacrificed his dreams for others and because of his selflessness winds up running the Bailey Building and Loan Association, of Bedford Falls, NY. Because of George this institution has provided home loans for the poor of this rural community and serves as its bank. With the Company on the verge of bankruptcy, through duplicity, George is on the verge of suicide distraught over the losses to those he loves and worried by needs of the average people of his town. You all know this plot and if you don’t its summary is here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Wonderful_Life#Plot . I must warn you, perhaps it’s the time of year but I choked up reading the plot, yet again, as I do every time I see this beloved movie.

This introduction has not been made because I’m about to write about banks, or the depredations of the banking industry. Others here and our host have already written extensively on the predatory nature of the banking industry and the harm it has caused to our country. My point of this opening is that we have all grown up with certain mythologies about businesses that provide financial services to the public. This film has had a place in defining that American mythology, in this instance about a bank of sorts, whose leader believes in aiding the community first and profits second. Myths shape our thinking and from my youth I still remember the ad slogan “You have a friend at Chase Manhattan”.

We’ve discovered that banks are anything but our friends. Their bottom line has surpassed service to the point that each customer is looked at as a “cash cow”, to be plundered incessantly with usurious interest and fees for what should be free services. But what about “You’re in Good Hands with Allstate”, “Nationwide Is On Your Side”, or “Like A Good Neighbor State Farm is There”?  Surely the Insurance industry supplies the safety net we want for our homes and cars. Do they? Last week I was sent an article by the Independent Claims Adjuster handling my interminable case for mold damage to my home. He’s helping greatly so this isn’t about me, but the article he sent certainly puts into context all the delays in the process and how property insurance companies are maximizing their profits at the expense of their customers. Continue reading “The Real Insurance Frauds” →

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Business As Usual: What the Collapse of MF Global Reveals about Financial Reform in the USA

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

Nomi Prins, a former investment banker who once worked for Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns, recently appeared on Democracy Now! Amy Goodman questioned Prins about the collapse of MF Global and John Corzine’s testimony before Congress.

Corzine has claimed that he never directed anyone at MF Global to misuse investors’ funds.  A witness named Terry Duffy, however, has testified that “Corzine was aware of loans that may have used customer money.” Duffy is chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

In her interview with Amy Goodman, Prins spoke about a clip of Corzine’s testimony that she and Goodman watched: “We’re listening to someone try and dodge his way out of responsibility and accountability, which is very much what all of the CEOs on Wall Street have done through the subprime crisis and through past crises.” Prins added, “And for him to sit there in front of Congress and talk about ‘not intending’ and ‘I didn’t know’ and ‘I didn’t instruct’ and ‘I didn’t misuse’ and all these sort of legal maneuvers around this issue really is deplorable.”

Continue reading “Business As Usual: What the Collapse of MF Global Reveals about Financial Reform in the USA” →

Columns, Congress, Environment, International, Media, Politics, Society, Things That Tick Me Off, Uncategorized

The US Chamber of Commerce, the Enemy Within?

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger.

During the Cold War a phrase “The Enemy Within” became popular. It was a reference at first to Communist subversion exemplified by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s witch-hunt.  Later it was used with other issues such as in Robert F. Kennedy’s book “The Enemy Within” which dealt with corruption in the Labor Movement, specifically Jimmy Hoffa and his teamsters. Recently, Michael Savage, right wing talk show host, wrote a book using that same title, though in this case referring to liberals and progressives as being seditious. The connotation of this phrase is that the group so labeled represents an internal movement that is so dangerous to the interests of the United States, that it can be seen as subversive.

Some may be shocked then by the title of this post. Almost all of us have grown up thinking of the Chamber of Commerce as a uniquely American Institution. Throughout the US whether in cities or in hamlets, the business community has banded together to promote local commerce and build interrelated networks. When we think of this, we think mainly of local small businesses, which are the backbone of this nation’s economy. To be honest until this week I’ve never give much thought to the Chamber of Commerce until as a MoveOn.com member I received a petition from an affiliated new organization called SumOfUs.

“SumOfUs is a brand-new global movement of consumers, investors and workers using our collective economic power for good. Together, we will work to hold the world’s corporations accountable to the public interest and move our global economic system towards social equity, democratic principles, and long-term sustainability.” http://googlequitthechamber.org/about/

The purpose of the petition was to get Google to follow the lead of other large corporations and quit the US Chamber of Commerce. The petition made various claims regarding the US Chamber of Commerce which I’ll deal with in this post.

However, I wouldn’t present this post without doing some research on the “Chamber” and its’ activity to look into the validity of the claims being made by the SumOfUs organization. In doing this research I came to realize that in my opinion the United States Chamber of Commerce is an organization that does not act in the best interests of this country and that one can call it subversive, even though it is not treasonous. These are my reasons for this belief. Continue reading “The US Chamber of Commerce, the Enemy Within?” →

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A Sordid Tale of Discriminatory Lending Practices and “Ghetto Loans”

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

In the aftermath of the financial crisis back in 2008, a number of conservative commentators—including Mike Huckabee and Neil Cavuto—blamed minorities and low income people for the subprime mortgage mess. According to some of these conservatives, the responsibility for the mortgage mess lay at the feet of the Community Reinvestment Act and the poor/minorities among us who took out subprime mortgages. There didn’t seem to be any mention of banks and their predatory lending practices being at fault in any way.

Well, James Theckson, a former banker who was a regional vice president for Chase Home Finance in southern Florida, claims that banks are mostly culpable for the subprime mortgage fiasco. He told Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times that his team wrote $2 billion in mortgages in 2007—and that some of them were “no documentation” mortgages. Theckson said, “On the application, you don’t put down a job; you don’t show income; you don’t show assets. But you still got a nod.” He continued, “If you had some old bag lady walking down the street and she had a decent credit score, she got a loan.”

Continue reading “A Sordid Tale of Discriminatory Lending Practices and “Ghetto Loans”” →