April 10, 2008 archive

The National Lawyers Guild has issued a press release calling for University of California at Berkeley’s Boalt Hall law school to fire Professor John Yoo. The NLG calls for the rescission of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 provisions that allow immunity and the prosecution of Yoo as a war criminal. Meanwhile, yesterday, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) threatened to subpoena John Yoo to testify about the memo at a May 6 hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.

The declassification and release of Yoo’s memorandum to William Haynes, General Counsel of the Department of Defense, written in March 2003, has caused a firestorm in the press. Yoo’s memo is the smoking gun for those looking for evidence of how the Bush Administration flouted basic human rights law, the UN Convention Against Torture, and the U.S. War Crimes Act to initiate a campaign of torture against detainees swept up in the aggressive U.S. military and covert campaigns that followed 9/11.

New York has a new budget:

After reaching an agreement late Tuesday with Gov. David A. Paterson on the last unresolved pieces of the state budget, the Legislature passed the bills on Wednesday that will complete New York’s $122 billion spending plan for the next year.

The new budget, which relies on an array of taxes and fees for smokers, banks, hair salon patrons and others to keep the state’s 200,000-person government running, comes as New York faces one of the most uncertain economic outlooks in recent years.

Among the taxes and fees New Yorkers will have to pay are a $1.25 increase in the state cigarette tax. The new budget also closes a loophole in the state’s tax law that allowed online retailers like Amazon.com to avoid charging New York State sales tax on purchases.

A plan to raise income taxes on New Yorkers who earn more than $1 million a year was not included.

Meanwhile:

Millions of dollars worth of counterfeit tax stamps were seized and a Jordanian man arrested as part of a major undercover investigation into tobacco smuggling in New York, authorities announced Wednesday.

The arrest comes as some authorities voice concern about whether New York state’s planned $1.25-per-pack hike in tobacco taxes, taking the price of a pack in the city to about $9, will fuel demand for contraband cigarettes.

Health surveys have found that more than a third of New York state smokers already regularly buy cigarettes from untaxed sources.

State Department of Taxation and Finance Commissioner Robert L. Megna said his agency has stepped up its campaign against contraband cigarette trafficking over the past year.

Stupid is as stupid does.

The second season starts tonight.  

6 weeks of intense, all out, hard hitting (but no fighting), super fast competition for the oldest, most venerated trophy in professional sports.

Matchups:

Eastern Conference

1 Montreal Canadiens

8 Boston Bruins

2 Pittsburgh Penguins

7 Ottawa Senators

3 Washington Capitals

6 Philadelphia Flyers

4 NJ Devils

5 NY Rangers

Western Conference

1 Detroit Red Wings

8 Nashville Predators

2 San Jose Sharks

7 Calgary Flames

3 Minnesota Wild

6 Colorado Avalanche

4 Anaheim Ducks

5 Dallas Stars

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Tonight’s Games

Senators v. Penguins  

7:00 PM ET

Rangers v. Devils

7:00 PM ET

Avalanche v. Wild

9:00 PM ET

Flames v. Sharks

10:00 PM ET

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HockeyDharmites have already started making their picks.

(Not too late to make yours if you haven’t already done so.)

I’m picking the Sharks to win the whole thing, and incurring the eternal wrath of 73’s entire family by predicting that both the Flyers and the Wild will not get past the first round.

__

And remember, a hot goalie can take a team a long way…

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Update:

Pens shutout Sens 4-0

Rangers beat Devils 4-1 (a lot closer game than the score shows)

Update 2:

Avs over Wild in OT 3-2

Flames burn Sharks 3-2 (ucc is looking like a genius right now).

The Olympic Games have been the scene of several high-profile political statements over the past three-quarters of a century. Take a look at these photos and see which ones made an impact:

A story that has been bubbling up in Mexico finally has made its way back to the surface in the U.S. news. The New York Times reports State oil industry’s future sets off tussle in Mexico.

A bitter debate over what to do about Mexico’s ailing state oil monopoly has dominated national politics here in recent weeks, tapping strong emotions on both sides and resurrecting the political fortunes of the leftist leader who narrowly lost the 2006 presidential election.

The corporate framing is immediate in the opening graph of the story, but that’s not unsurprising from the NY Times. What is surprising is that normally stories from Mexico do not often make the news in the United States. This story is different, because: “At stake in the debate is not only the future of the Mexican economy but also the supply of oil to the United States.” Even news from Mexico is framed by the interests of the United States. As of 2007, Mexico still had an estimated 12.4 billion barrels of untapped oil reserves, or 10 percent of the world’s crude, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

Editor’s Note: The web site for Blue Indiana expired and cybersquatted with spam links. The link has been removed. TMC

OMG. Democratic candidate Barry Welsh, who has been endorsed by EENR has been punched in the face by a Republican official! I just heard about this via Blue Indiana:

A Republican voter registration deputy faces battery charges after he tackled a newspaper reporter and hit the Democratic 6th District congressional candidate after a contentious Delaware County Election Board meeting this afternoon.

The meeting had just ended when Will Statom, GOP registration deputy and secretary of the local Republican Party, attacked Star Press reporter Nick Werner while Werner was interviewing Ball State University student Johanna Perez about hundreds of last-minute voter registrations for Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign.

“He did not seem very happy that we were stating our opinions,” Perez said afterwards about Statom.

Werner said Statom seemed critical of his reporting, sarcastically saying to make sure he screwed up the story again.

Statom had just walked past Werner when Statom turned around and pushed Werner against the wall, grabbed him and they fell to the ground, according to witnesses.

Barry A. Welsh, Democratic 6th district congressional candidate, who attended the meeting, stepped in, and Statom turned around and hit Welsh in the eye.

“When Nick went to the floor, I tried to break it up,” Welsh said.

I told RiaD I would do how and why the government is raping senior citizens but this just came in and it is further confirmation of how elite parasitic asshole international bankers are going to “recoup” their “losses” from the “savings and loan” “scandal”.  I have also pondered other possible, and in light of the past seven years, plausible futures in the coming dystopia!

Oh, no, it’s a “controlled access” transportation corridor.  Well, The Berlin Wall could also have been called a “controlled access” transportation corridor.