County treasurer sues Fannie and Freddie for back taxes.
Color me unsurprised…
Tagged: Law RSS Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Jehuda
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Jehuda
I’m intrigued by this collection of essays titled Law and Magic, which “explores a unique and interesting area of legal study that covers a breadth of topics from the historical persecution of alleged witches to contemporary cases of intellectual property law surrounding magic tricks.”
I just learned a former professor of mine wrote one of the essays in it – one about copyright protection for magic tricks and performances. Who knew?
It’s available through Amazon
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Jehuda
Yes.
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WyBlog: “It’s not often that Progressive Democrats openly admit their failures. But the Newark, NJ city council has given up on its police force, and their city.”
The sad thing is they don’t think they’re giving up. They are convinced they’re doing the right thing, when in fact the policies at issue couldn’t be more bone-headed. Hey, kinda like Janice Hahn’s policy gems!
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…people out there would probably be a lot more satisfied with the verdict.
Other than that, there’s little that’s comforting about federal criminal law…
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And to be tried by court martial.
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WSJ: Flying Car Maker Gets Regulatory Clearance.
Hmm. I don’t know. That looks too much like a small airplane to me. A flying car is supposed to be a car that can fly, not a “roadable aircraft”. It’s 2011, already! Why can’t it be like these flying cars?
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Jehuda
A little late in coming, for an update, but bears mentioning 6 days after the fact: “Former UNM President F. Chris Garcia was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center this morning on charges of promoting prostitution, tampering with evidence and conspiracy, according to Bernalillo County Detention Center records.”
So who takes the cake? UNM or Columbia? I’m not talking academics, either.
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NYT: The Lawyer Surplus, State by State.
Not quite a dime a dozen, but I suppose things could eventually get to that point if the schools keep churning out these many J.D.’s…
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2008 local news report profiles the gangsters Janice Hahn freed in L.A.:
Rape, murder, and automatics! Oh, my! Those are some of the issues in CA-36. Making TRUSA’s attack ad an issue instead is a desperate attempt by Hahn’s campaign and her supporters to help her avoid responsibility for what were evidently some very poor policy choices.
At its most elemental, that’s what any election should be about: can this candidate cut it? If so, why? If not, why not? Otherwise, voters have nothing to go on but abstracts and empty words when it comes to judging the candidates courting their vote. And we know what happens when you vote on nothing but abstracts and empty words.
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Forbes: The FTC thinks your social media profile should be disclosed to potential employers:
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission gave a stamp of approval to a background check company that screens job applicants based on their Internet photos and postings…This means a search of what you’ve said or posted to Facebook/Twitter/Flickr/blogs and the Internet in general may become a standard part of background checks when you apply for a job.
Now social media demands that you behave with the same prudence your credit report demands. Good times…
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CNNMoney: “Taxpayers have spent $4 billion since 1978 on California’s capital punishment system — and with only 13 executions to show for it. That’s about $308 million per execution.”
Now Californians may have to abolish the death penalty in order to balance the state budget. But given that death row in California is such a joke, maybe it’s for the best. Just another instance of Blue State decline, I suppose…
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Jehuda
The recently released anti-Janice Hahn attack ad directed by Ladd Ehlinger was bound to ruffle feathers. Now Turn Right USA, the PAC responsible for the ad, has become the object of a DDOS attack on their website. But have they uncovered the man responsible for the attack?
Sounds like another instance of ‘Freedom of Speech for me but not for thee’, all too common among the oh-so-tolerant Left.
Now the FBI is involved. Stay tuned.
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Jehuda
The Obama administration has been full of unpleasant surprises for both sides of the political divide. The Left – if not heartbroken – must be stunned.
On the Right, we’re suffering from face-palm overdose. But we did issue many a warning about Obama back in 2008 while the Left and its media apparatch-holes (hi, Journo-List!) did everything they could to cover up or airbrush Obama’s obvious shortcomings.
Well, now we learn that what has been looking like an imperial presidency is run very much like one: NYT: Obama overruled 2 Top Lawyers In Libya War Debate. Turns out that it’s not a war when the president does it! Funny how Obama just keeps channeling Nixon.
Democrats and Lefties everywhere
must beare kicking themselves like a jilted girlfriend. But they had it coming. They’ve been sold out and lied to…but then again they sold themselves to the Hope and Change marketing machine and lied to everyone they could about it. Like some Lefties are so fond of saying: You reap what you sow…Related: More hubris and nemesis news from Ed Driscoll.
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WSJ: “To make his case that the [Citizens United v. FEC] ruling invites ‘unlimited corporate money’ to dominate politics, Mr. Colbert decided to set up a political action committee (PAC) of his own. So far, though, the joke’s been on him.”
Read the Whole Thing™. It’s a rather amusing Narrative FAIL and an Alinsky Rule 5 FAIL (of a sort we’ve seen before on Comedy Central). But there’s also something truly delicious about it: we’re witnessing one of the snarkiest, most apt, Left-tilting irony-smiths on TV – not merely immersed in an actual, naturally-occurring irony – but running right into the Great Wall of Your-Take-On-The-Issue-Is-Just-Plain-Wrong…
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Northwest Indiana Times: “Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes.”
I can’t find the text of the decision, so I don’t know exactly under what reasoning the Court reached this conclusion. But there are some quotes from it at the link. Sounds like the Court thinks it’s better to let a cop illegally bust into your home without any resistance whatsoever than to resist such an illegal entry because resisting – you know – may get somebody hurt.
Anyway, I find this holding so inconsistent with the 4th Amendment that I would hope the plaintiffs appeal it all the way to SCOTUS.
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LAT: “The Library of Congress is flipping a switch Tuesday that will open a large chunk of the national archive of more than 3 million music and spoken-word recordings for public online streaming as part of a new National Jukebox project, a joint venture between the library and Sony Music that will give free access to thousands of Sony-controlled recordings long out of circulation because of commercial or copyright issues.”
Cool.
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Professor Douglas: A Shoot-First Policy at the White House? “Given the administration’s failure to close Guantanamo, and its backtracking on civilian trials for al Qaeda’s leadership, it’s entirely within reason to consider that President Obama frankly didn’t want to deal with it. Screw it. Kill the f**ker and be done.”
It’s not only within reason. It’s part of a policy trend at the White House that the WaPo spotted in early 2010. It’s almost as if all that talk of extra-legal this and imperialist that during the Bush years was just empty rhetoric used to score political points and rally the
rubestroops. Isn’t it?UPDATE: Related: First Michael Moore, now et tu, Rosie?
Well, perhaps dead terrorists do give some headaches, after all. My head hurts just thinking about Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell at the same time…
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…as seen by John Nolte, on CNN last night.
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Wyblog: NJ Assembly votes to ban photographing children in public.
For crying out loud. You’d figure New Jersey would have more urgent matters on which to focus. Or a more sensible approach to their concerns.
If you’re a photographer, you should know your rights.
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Jehuda
Related: WSJ: Why we want to look death in the face.
UPDATE: Not up to Obama if requested under FOIA?
MORE: R.S. McCain has a robust round-up of related links.
ANOTHER ONE: Contrast with Obama’s attitude towards Abu Ghraib photos merely 2 years ago: London Telegraph: “Barack Obama to release up to 2,000 photographs of prisoner abuse”.
But those were photos of events that occurred during the Bush administration. So it’s OK to offend Muslim sensibilities with those.
It’s not a double standard. It’s the party line.
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Barney Frank is calling for tort reform: “Liberal firebrand Barney Frank (D-Mass.) broke with party orthodoxy on Tuesday by calling for restrictions on lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that experts think contribute to the nation’s growing healthcare costs.”
“The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that caps on malpractice damages could shave up to .5 percent off national healthcare spending every year.”
Said Frank: “That’s something that I would throw in if we had an otherwise overall compromise [on the national debt], because I recognize everybody’s got to give something to get this.”
So that’s the sort of spending cuts Barney Frank can get behind. He wants to balance the budget on the backs of injured plaintiffs. Doesn’t this amount to a tax on malpractice victims?
Does anyone know if Senator Frank uses botox?
(Via New York Personal Injury Law Blog)
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Consumerist: Allegations of photography cause plane evacuation.
If you’re a photographer, you should know that you have rights (via BoingBoing).
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Actually, it should be legal nationwide, but sometimes Dhimmitude gets in the way: Koran-burning bus driver Derek Fenton to get his job back.
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There was more to it than 12 Angry Men: “Lumet’s vision and moral critique of the law was always depicted as urban, gritty and dehumanizing—the tormented faces of failed humanity everywhere.”
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Bolivian Law to Give Nature Human Rights.
Does that mean disease, parasites, and pests, too?
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San Francisco’s Politics of Dancing…are a little on the fascist side: San Francisco’s Entertainment Commission is considering to require that club goers have their IDs scanned and maintained for at least 15 days, and made available to the police on request.
A prime example of Liberal Fascism, if you ask me. How many conservatives do you think populate San Francisco’s Entertainment Commission?
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Jehuda
That seems to be the lesson of the Great Revolt of the HuffPo Pawns, according to R.S. McCain, and I would agree:
The only requirement for membership in the “progressive community” is sufficient naivete to believe that your volunteer efforts accomplish anything other than enhancing the wealth, power and status of your so-called “leaders.”
McCain is talking about the labor organizer type who used to blog at HuffPo for free and – in typical Leftie fashion – has decided to claim for himself and other similarly situated bloggers a share of the windfall Arianna came upon in exchange for selling the website to AOL. This claim is being made via a class action, instead of with mere angry words.
I haven’t read the complaint in full and am unfamiliar with all the relevant facts; but speaking in generalities, I am certain no judge would ever find the right to profit-sharing arises from volunteered services. It’s always possible that there’s a big fat loophole in the old HuffPo terms of use that would allow for such a claim, but what are the odds?
And for that reason, perhaps, the plaintiffs’ complaint alleges deceptive business practices and unjust enrichment, not a right to profit sharing in and of itself. But were the volunteer bloggers in a business relationship with the HuffPo when they were mere volunteers? Can they in fact be cheated out of money that they were not expecting to receive? Was the site ever deceptive about the fact that it was making money? Who could ever be surprised about how valuable the site had become?
Unjust enrichment occurs – generally – when a party derives benefit from another unfairly. But what’s so unfair about willingly working for free for a company that never presented itself as a non-profit?
How could a volunteer ever be seen as a “modern-day slave” unless he or she was forced to volunteer? Who was cracking the whip other than the writers themselves and their drive to immanentize the Eschaton?
Closing thought: Lefties can’t seem to make up their mind about Wal-Mart:
I thought Wal-Mart was all progressive and stuff…
UPDATE: McCain links. Thanks!
“In my view, the Huffington Post’s bloggers have essentially been turned into modern-day slaves on Arianna Huffington’s plantation,” he said. “She wants to pocket the tens of millions of dollars she reaped from the hard work of those bloggers….This all could have been avoided had Arianna Huffington not acted like the Wal-Marts, the Waltons, Lloyd Blankfein, which is basically to say, ‘Go screw yourselves, this is my money.’” -
Jehuda
“A man trying to pay a fee using $2 bills was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail after clerks at a Best Buy store questioned the currency’s legitimacy and called police.”
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No recounts or lawsuits?
Of course, if Walker’s bill does make it to the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, it would be most appropriate if Kloppenburg recused herself from the case. Right?
UPDATE: TOM links. Thanks! Plus, murmurs of ballot hanky panky and the inevitable recount.
MORE: Ed Driscoll links with related content…and pessimism. I can’t blame him.
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An important cog in the machine: Meet the former RIAA lobbyist who recently made it to the federal bench…and is coincidentally presiding over a massive peer-to-peer file sharing lawsuit.
This legislation the White House is pushing dovetails nicely with the above, doesn’t it?
As for Obama’s promises that lobbyists won’t find a job in his White House, I guess he never said anything about keeping lobbyists out of the judiciary.
That sound you hear is millions of rubes slamming their palms on their faces…
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WSJ: 9/11 Suspects to Face Military Trial at Guantanamo: “Officially reversing previous plans for a civilian trial in New York City, officials familiar with the matter said.”
Sounds like more of that sophisticated set of policies meant to bring about ‘Change’.
You know, really sophisticated. Unlike a Rube.
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Glenn Greenwald: “There’s no question that Obama’s commencement of this war without Congressional approval, and especially Hillary Clinton’s announcement that Congress has no power to restrict the President in any way, are acts of pure imperial lawlessness.”
I recently claimed on Facebook that Glenn Greenwald got punked by Obama just like so much of the Leftie base, as I commented on Greenwald’s Miranda lament from last week. A couple of friends were quick to point out that Greenwald couldn’t have gotten punked because he criticized Obama’s FISA vote back in 2008 – just months before the election – so that I shouldn’t even try to turn this into an “I told you so” moment (yes, I have Leftie friends).
But if you read his FISA vote column, Greenwald tries to have it both ways. He says that what Obama did was wrong – no excuses allowed – but then he writes this: “It is just as imperative today as it was yesterday that the sickly right-wing faction be permanently removed from power and that there is never any such thing as the John McCain Administration”. No qualifiers, no caveats. The implication being that a non-right-wing president – such as Obama would be, if elected – was just what the doctored ordered.
Of course, Greenwald could have also switched his support to Nader or some other candidate other than Hillary or Obama right there and then. But he didn’t. And he wasn’t going to. By then, he was already the victim of the Obama campaign’s sophisticated marketing/propaganda operation.
You know, really sophisticated. Unlike a rube…
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But not quite extinct yet: Judge puts California’s job-killing greenhouse gas law on hold.
Let’s see how it does on appeal…
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NYT: Yale Law School library will allow students to check out “therapy dog” to help manage stress.
Dogs are great. And I know The Rhetori-canine made a big difference in my life when I was in law school. But keeping a dog on campus to help de-stress 1L’s smells of animal cruelty. Plus, what if it eats your homework?
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Jehuda
Is it the end of the world? No, but I can’t help agreeing with this sentence in regards to the deplorable treatment of Private Bradley Manning (aka as Wikileaks’ star correspondent): “You can’t be unaware of this, Mr. President. Silence gives consent.”
But it’s not just POTUS’s silence that is deafening here. Not a word from anti-waterboarding paladin Nancy Pelosi? Bill Maher? Keith Olbermann? 60 Minutes? Michael Moore?
Then again, it shouldn’t be only liberals who raise a stink about this. But given that Abu Ghraib and waterboarding were prominent Leftie rallying cries, you can’t help but to wonder if they stopped caring about torture as an issue sometime after the Obama Inauguration…
H/T: Insty.
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Forbes: Documents Reveal TSA Research Proposal to Body Scan Pedestrians.
Why don’t we just go ahead and rename the Department of Homeland Security as the Ministry of Privacy? I mean, if you’re going to go Orwellian, go all the way. Plus the whole Obama presidency has been a big, steaming bag of Doublethink on the issue of privacy anyway.
Just ask all the rubes who were convinced – and tried to convince us – that Obama would be ushering in a 4th Amendment utopia. I’m sure they’ll have plenty to say about it, after they’re done blushing…
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Mere tea leaves, but hard to ignore:
NYT: Obama disavows involvement in protests.
Joe Klein – yes, the Joe Klein – is sounding a little bit like Andrew Breitbart about the whole thing…
UPDATE: Blunder!
So Markos was whistling past the graveyard. It was the Left’s turn, but they made the wrong move…
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James Sherk: FDR warned us about public sector unions:
The founders of the labor movement viewed unions as a vehicle to get workers more of the profits they help create. Government workers, however, don’t generate profits. They merely negotiate for more tax money. When government unions strike, they strike against taxpayers. F.D.R. considered this “unthinkable and intolerable.”
Word.
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Advantage: Homeowner: “They still had not responded to his letters or agreed to fix his premiums, as required by law. So he filed for a sheriff’s levy. This directs the sheriff to seize and sell the debtor’s property to pay up. In this case, it was the local branch office of Wells Fargo mortgage, the ones who had been ignoring him all these years.”
