Tag: law

Ministry of Truth has an essay up on First Amendment Rights.  

We had rights — at one time.  

We still have rights — IF you are granted them.  

The upcoming case, Citizen’s United vs FEC, will be Justice Sotomayor’s debut case on the Supreme Court.  The case, however, has taken a strange and dangerous turn:

Citizens United, a conservative group, brought suit arguing that it should be exempt from the restrictions of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law for a movie it made that was sharply critical of Hillary Clinton. The organization said it should not have to disclose who financed the film.

Instead of deciding the case before it, the court engaged in a remarkable act of overreach. On June 29, it postponed a decision and called for new briefs and a highly unusual new hearing, which is Wednesday’s big event. The court chose to consider an issue only tangentially raised by the case. It threatens to overrule a 1990 decision that upheld the long-standing ban on corporate money in campaigns.

Why would the Supreme Court take a case that has a defined decision (whether or not the making of a political movie puts the makers under the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Law restrictions) and suddenly wish to hear arguments about another issue?

That answer should be obvious: they want to give corporations, and their money, more say in our political process.  

Those who obey “laws” are losers.  Those who game the laws are winners.

Law is for losers; Game Theory for winners.

Seems a parsimonious explanation, e.g., Wall Street, War Crimes, eh?

discuss.

I specifically invite IOZ and Greenwald, but please be inclined to a FREE-FOR-ALL.

Please also include human nature, as opposed to “rationality,” as a causal factor.

An intro to “selection pressures versus markets” would also be desired.

Thenk Q.

(Suppositions due by my birthday.)

MASSIVE UPDATE: IOZ’s opening statement:

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration will largely retain Bush era airline safety policies, the White House announced. Officials explained that these old policies were necessary to protect the future from the threats of the past.

“Everything that is currently happening will immediately reach a state of having happened,” said Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. “Therefore, it is in our vital interest.”

In a statement released later in the day, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that “in an increasingly legal world, we need to take every lawful illegal step possible to ensure that action is taken.”

The civil liberties community gesticulated and made several sounds indicating frustration.

However, administration officials remained committed. “Obviously it is impossible to wage cyberwar against the United States from outside of the United States,” said a spokesman. “But if you can get a laptop physically inside of American borders, all bets are off.”

The Internet could not be reached for comment by press time.

Aced.  15-love (l’oeuf).

(And I wasn’t expecting anyone to even rsvp.)

Their arguments have always been, and continue to be especially from their propaganda machines, TV and Radio, that what they did was cleared by the administrative lawyers, as I heard one say this morning “Highly experienced Lawyers!”, and they were are then legal!

The George Washington University National Security Archives have posted up the reports, side by side, from the Bush administration, in May 2008, and the newly released same report from the Obama administration, August 24th 2009.

While the newly released CIA Inspector General report, as redacted as it is, has raised eyebrows with the techniques used during interrogations, I found some items that raised MY eyebrows:

231.  During the course of this Review, a number of [CIA] Agency officers expressed unsolicited concern about the possibility of, recrimination or legal action resulting from their participation in the CTC Program.  A number of officers expressed concern that a human rights group might pursue them for activities.  Additionally, they feared that the Agency would not stand behind them if this occurred.

232. One officer expressed conern that one day, Agency officers will wind up on some wanted list to appear before the World Court for war crimes stemming from activities.

Another said, “Ten years from now we’re going to be ‘sorry we’re doing this … [but] it has to be done.” He expressed concern that the CTC Program will be exposed in the news media and cited particular concern about the possibility of being named in a leak.

Glenn Greenwald has a great article on this issue.