I have already given my view of the Inauguration Speech. However, I just read MSNBC’s Chris Matthews comparison of this unremarkable speech to the Gettysburg Address. I previously tweeted about the now formulaic approaches of Fox and MSNBC to covering the president. However, this comparison demonstrates the detachment from the actual observed news once filtered through these cable programs.
Continue reading “Chris Matthews: Obama Speech Akin To Gettysburg Address”
Below is my column today in USA Today on the Inauguration Speech of President Obama. Unfortunately, my family got back and reported that the Jumbotron or giant screen was malfunctioning so they missed the entire inauguration speech. Thousands of people were similarly deprived by whatever contractor was handling the screen — a terrible disappointment for thousands who came from all over the country.
Here is the column.
Continue reading “The Obama Inauguration: A Case Of Hope Over Experience”
President Barack Obama is set to give his inauguration address today. The crowd is much smaller than his first term as is his popularity. The new Gallop poll shows Obama at a 49 percent popularity rate. While he remains personally popular, the overall popularity rate below fifty percent is comparable to Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford — two presidents who ultimately languished in office.
Gun Appreciation Day across the country was marked by various gun shot wounds. At the Dixie Gun and Knife Show in Raleigh, North Carolina, the owner of a 12-gauge shotgun was asked to remove his gun from its case at a security check point and accidentally discharged the weapon — wounding three people.
We previously discussed the scandal surrounding Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway who was accused of an array of misconduct leading to her resignation from the Court. Many of us wondered why she had not been hit with a criminal indictment. Now she has. Only a few days before leaving the court, Hathaway is now officially indicted of fraud.
We have yet another mindless enforcement of a zero tolerance rule. A 5-year-old Pennsylvania girl was suspended from kindergarten after she who told another girl that she was going to shoot her with a pink Hello Kitty toy gun that blows soapy bubbles. Originally, the charge was “terroristic threats” against the student. The Mount Carmel Area Elementary School in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania reduced the charge but still suspends the kindergartener to end her reign of soapy terror.
This was the unsettling scene this weekend after a man walked up to the head of an ethnic Turkish party in Bulgaria and tried to fire in the head of Ahmed Dogan, 58, the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. The gun used by Oktai Enimehmedov, a 25-year-old Bulgarian national and ethnic Turk, was a non-lethal “gas pistol” which will lower the potential charge for the assailant.
Continue reading “Bulgarian Politician Attacked In Public Speech”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty(rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
On the eve of President Obama’s Inauguration for his second term, I thought it might be useful to look more closely at one of his policies that is not working for students or parents. I am referring to his educational policy, better know by its marketing name, Race to the Top. This “quaint” title for his corporate backed privatizing plan hides the negative impact it has had in the schools themselves. It is has led to school closings and teacher firings for the sole purpose of school districts being eligible for the Race to the Top grants from the Federal government! Continue reading “Obama’s Race to the Bottom”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
While I’m not a lawyer, I do write for this legal blog by the invitation of its creator Jonathan Turley. I first arrived on the scene here many years ago because since the age of ten I have had been interested in the nature of the broad spectrum of civil rights issues faced by this country. My interest became an obsession at the age of ten. My parents, who were quite liberal, allowed me to stay up way past my bedtime to watch Ed Murrow bravely attack Sen. Joseph McCarthy for his Communist Witch Hunt, by documenting the anti-constitutional excesses he used to destroy people’s lives and careers. Months later they kept me home from school to watch the Army/McCarthy Hearings which directly led to McCarthy’s downfall. On our twelve inch, black and white TV I watched this famous scene:
“On June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army–McCarthy hearings, McCarthy accused Fred Fisher, one of the junior attorneys at Welch’s law firm, of associating while in law school with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), a group which J. Edgar Hoover sought to have the U.S. Attorney General designate as a Communist front organization. Welch had privately discussed the matter with Fisher and the two agreed Fisher should withdraw from the hearings. Welch dismissed Fisher’s association with the NLG as a youthful indiscretion and attacked McCarthy for naming the young man before a nationwide television audience without prior warning or previous agreement to do so:
“Until this moment, Senator, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is a young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came into my firm and is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us. Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to that lad. It is true he is still with Hale and Dorr. It is true that he will continue to be with Hale and Dorr. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty I would do so. I like to think I am a gentle man but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.”
When McCarthy tried to renew his attack, Welch interrupted him:
“Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild. Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
McCarthy tried to ask Welch another question about Fisher, and Welch cut him off:
“Mr. McCarthy, I will not discuss this further with you. You have sat within six feet of me and could have asked me about Fred Fisher. You have seen fit to bring it out. And if there is a God in Heaven it will do neither you nor your cause any good. I will not discuss it further.”
The gallery erupted in applause.”
The drama of this distinguished lawyer chastising one of the most powerful men in the United States and silencing his cruelty was one of the defining moments of my life. It spurred a lifelong interest in the Constitution, the Law and the rights of the American People. Today, among other ills, I believe that our American Criminal Justice System is broken. Let me explain why I believe that. Continue reading “America’s Broken Criminal Justice System”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby’s founder and CEO David Green has filed a lawsuit challenging the health care mandate to provide what Green “believe[s] are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance.” Green goes on to say: “Being Christians, we don’t pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don’t cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill.”
The District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma denied Green’s motion for a preliminary injunction The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit denied the applicants’ motion for an injunction and Justice Sotomayor also denied the application for an injunction pending appellate review.
by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
In yet another episode of “Cops Behaving Badly”, we have Officer Gracie of the LAPD giving citizen 34 year old Chris Jackson of Venice, California, a ticket, allegedly for “riding on the wrong side of the bike path” after Jackson complained about the officer’s motorcycle blocking the bike path. The “officer” at first claims the ticket is for riding on the wrong side of the bike path. When challenged by Jackson that 1) he was passing on a dashed line and 2) that he knew of no law covering unsafe passing on the bike lane, the real reason Jackson was being ticketed came out.
He was being ticketed for disagreeing with the officer.
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
The fight on Capitol Hill for gun control may be just a sideshow to the real threat to male security. Reports from Washington State suggest an even more dangerous weapon of choice. Fifty-one-year-old Donna Lange has been taken into custody for murder. Witnesses claim the Everette, Washington resident threw her boyfriend down in the trailer they shared and suffocated the man. She was found straddling the poor victim with her ample chest completely covering his face. Lange outweighed her boyfriend by about 20 pounds in case you’re wondering. Arriving paramedics tried to resuscitate the unnamed boyfriend but to no avail. There was no explanation for the curious smile on his face. (Ok, that’s a bad joke, sorry).
Source: Huffington Post
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Click to enlarge.
Solution below the fold.
Good luck.
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Manti Te’o may not be the last of the true romantics. The Heisman Trophy runner-up and supposed victim of an on-line girlfriend hoax wrought by an acquaintance stands a distant second in the wine and chocolates line. Meet Manatee County (FL)’s own James Flenniken, unpolished thief (allegedly) and dedicated romantic. Beneficiary of an impending date with a lady, Flenniken hopped on over to the local Wal-Mart and helped himself to $80.00 worth of beef steak, wine and beer according to a report in the Bradenton Herald. Nabbed by an alert loss prevention worker, our love struck grifter told police he did the deed to “impress a lady.” The officers –obviously no fans of best-selling author Nora Roberts — were unimpressed and charged Flenniken with petty theft. He was held later without bond in the local hoosegow and thus frustrating any chance at true love. No word on the lucky lady. I’m betting on Winona Ryder. The couple seems to have a lot in common.
Source: Bradenton.com
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
I am still in Salt Lake City, but we have had a great number of inquiries on yesterday’s hearing in the Sister Wives case. The two motions for summary judgment were argued with the state presenting its case through lead counsel Jerry Jenson and my presenting the case for the Brown family. Judge Clark Waddoups was obviously well-versed in the record and asked probing and fair questions to both sides. He has now taken the case under review for a final decision on the merits. I prefer not repeat or comment on statements in court from either myself or the judge. A few articles from the hearing are linked below.
Continue reading “Sister Wives Case Now Set For Final Ruling”