In its latest attack on the free speech, the Obama Administration has secured a gag order to prevent activist-journalist Barrett Brown and his lawyers from discussing his work exposing online surveillance by the Administration. On this occasion, however, Eric Holder and the Obama Administration convinced a federal judge to go along. U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay in Dallas Texas has issued a sweeping gag order to prevent not just Brown but his legal team from discussing the online surveillance. The Justice Department insisted on the order to protect Brown. That’s right, they insist that, if Brown discussed the abusive surveillance by the Obama Administration, it would endanger his right to a fair trial.
This week Secretary of State John Kerry became the Sham-Wow man for the latest war by the United States. Here is how a Sham-War pitch works. Kerry announced that the Arab countries will pay for our entire war if we invade Syria. That’s right, we can simply rent out U.S. personnel like mercenaries for Saudi Arabia and Gulf nations. First we have Nancy Pelosi explaining the war literally in five-year-old terms and now John Kerry doing his imitation of Offer “Vince” Shlomi.
We have been following the abandonment of virtually core liberal values by Rep. Nancy Pelosi in her adherence to the cult of personality surrounding Barack Obama. From her attack on privacy to her new enthusiasm for war, Pelosi is the truest believer of the true believers surrounding Obama in the Democratic Party. Now she has been sharing a charming little story of how “Mimi” explained to their grandson how we are now at war. It turns out it is all about the children . . . not about the chemical weapons or reports that Obama is playing to turn the tide of the losing war for the rebels. Sort of like Save The Children . . . but with cruise missiles.
There is a very cool discovery to report this week out of Duke University, now to be known as those “Plastic Fantastics.” The team has invented a “mechanophore” a material that responds to mechanical force rather than light, heat or chemical exposure. In this case, they have invested a plastic that actually gets stronger when it is stressed. That’s right. As mechanical force or pressure is add, it gets stronger — a breakthrough that could transform material for cellphones, medical devices, prosthetic limbs etc.
Despite the obvious free speech concerns, UCLA’s undergraduate student government unanimously passed a resolution last week to declare that any use of the term “illegal immigrant” is now deemed racist and offensive. It is an example of how anti-discrimination policies are cutting deeply into free speech. Millions of people in this country are indeed here illegally. While many would prefer to use “undocumented workers,” many others believe that these individuals are illegal by definition and should not be allowed to circumvent immigration laws. It is a worthy debate with arguments on both sides. However, I am very uncomfortable with students (who historically have been voiced for free speech) declaring that use of this descriptive term is now considered racist or prejudicial.
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Another one of our close Arab allies are back in the news to remind us that basic freedoms are not part of our common alliance. Oman has shut down The Week newspaper after it published an article viewed as too sympathetic to homosexuality in the Gulf state. The country has a gay population but it insists that these citizens live like criminals under Islamic prohibitions of homosexuality. The Week is the largest circulation English-langauge weekly in the country.
Some jurisdictions have curtailed or even eliminated K-9 teams due to liability — reducing the majority of dogs to drug and bomb sniffing units. That is clearly not the case in Livingston, Montana. Mark Demaline, who cooks at the Park Place Tavern, was attacked late at night in his workplace when police found a door unlocked after hours and sent in a police dog named Bobi. What is most astonishing is not just the lack of an apology by police but the insistence of Chief of Police Darren Raney (left) that the dog “did what he was supposed to do.”
There are large protests in Romania against a plan to turn over a historic area to a Canadian company which will destroy four mountains tops, ancient Romanian sites, and use cyanide to extract gold and silver. It is a plan to devastate the environment, but the Canadians have promised local and national politicians a cut of the open-cast mine in the Rosia Montana.
There is an interesting ruling out of the Sixth Circuit this month where the court threw out a $10 million defamation lawsuit by a resort in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The resort was ranked the Number 1 on the 2011 “dirtiest hotels” list by TripAdvisor. Hotel owner Kenneth M. Seaton sued the website for defamation but Judge Thomas W. Phillips in Knoxville correctly rejected the claims in August 2012. The case is Seaton v. TripAdvisor LLC, 2013 FED App. 0255P (6th Cir.).
There is a controversy in Durham where Police Chief Jose Lopez is accused of making a vile statement about a public defender. Lopez allegedly stated that the public defender deserved to be shot in a crime because he representing accused criminals. If true, Lopez would appear to not only agree with Dick in Henry IV that “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
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Yesterday, one of the greatest minds of our generation died. Ronald Harry Coase, the Clifton R. Musser Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Chicago Law School and creator of the “Coase Theorem”, died at the age of 102. I teach Coasean theory in both my torts and legal theory classes. His rich and brilliant life is a testament to the potential of human beings in understanding the world around them through sheer intellect and logic. I had the honor of meeting Coase and it is difficult to express one’s thanks for such a beautiful mind.
A videotape out of Hawthorne, California (15 miles out of Los Angeles) is raising questions not only about police arresting a man for videotaping them in public but shooting the man’s dog when it comes to his aide. Warning: the arrest of Leon Rosby, 52, shown below, is a disturbing video with a graphic scene of the shooting of his dog, Max.
While claiming that he just needs a “limited” war against Syria to back up his “red line” threat, President Barack Obama is actually seeking a far broader mandate from Congress. The authorization would allow Obama to take any action that he “determines to be necessary and appropriate in connection with the use of chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in the conflict in Syria” as well as acting to “prevent or deter the use or proliferation” of the weapons or to “protect the United States and its allies and partners” from the weapons.”
There is a wonderful scene unfolding on Capitol Hill. In the past, President Barack Obama has insisted that he alone decides what constitutes a war and when he needs a congressional declaration. It was a claim that was challenged in federal court when I represented members of Congress. Now, however, England has refused to go along with the latest American-led military venture and there is heavy opposition in the public. Obama therefore is now saying that he wants to consult with Congress while his aides insist that he really does not need such consultation and, unless they agree with him, may just ignore them. Welcome to the new Imperil Presidency and what now constitutes checks and balances.
James Weyant could be forgiven for being just a little confused. Weyant was walking in an alley at 4 am when an Altoona, Pa., police officer pulled up next to him. Weyant was holding a pair of Guitar Hero shorts in his hand and turned toward Police Officer Mark Sprouse, who promptly shot him. The officer was cleared in the shooting. He is now suing with a 1983 Civil Rights Act complaint.
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