Clipmarks | Law Clips

NIXON vs. BUSH

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 02:46:30 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

NIXON vs. BUSH....Matt Yglesias, riffing off a David Broder column, wonders why the public demanded Richard Nixon's resignation three decades ago but hasn't risen up with the same fury to demand George Bush's:

I wasn't alive in 1973-74. I have a vague sense that at that time America's elites operated with some sense of conscience and dignity, and it was taken for granted even among Republican leaders that one couldn't just break the law. These days, a misleading deposition taken in the course of a frivolous lawsuit aimed at avoiding the revelation of an affair is a grave national crisis, but it's taken for granted that only a lunatic would believe that Bush or any of his henchmen should be held accountable in any way for repeated violations of the law. I don't really know what changed, or why David Broder and other gatekeepers of elite consensus can't see that something's gone wrong here, but I'm not happy about it.

Alleged Police Car Joyride Lands Teen In Jail

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:43:15 GMT

clipped by: Rain7128

Clip Source: abclocal.go.com

Police in Dillon, a small town near the North Carolina border, say a 13-year-old with an interest in law enforcement twice stole a police cruiser and took it out to do some patrolling.

Kucinich Uses July 4 to Call for 'Rule of Law'

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:27:37 GMT

clipped by: Wisco
clipper's remarks: Good on him. CNN put out a poll today showing that 69% think "the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be disappointed by the way the nation has turned out overall."

Seems to me there's a way to fix that.

Clip Source: rawstory.com

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has been at the forefront of the attempt to push for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and last month presented 35 articles of impeachment to Congress.

Now Kucinich has released an Independence Day message which invokes the words of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to urge support for impeachment and the restoration of the rule of law.

"Some Democratic leaders say impeachment's off the table," Kucinich begins. "So let's set a new table for our nation, upon which we place the Constitution, and where we demand that all those who've taken an oath to defend it keep their promise and protect our nation from the threat within. Please go to kucinich.us now and sign the petition which calls for impeachment. This is the one petition that will make a difference because I will be personally delivering it to your member of Congress."

[Video]

Tags: news

FBI To Join The "Presumption of Guilt" Parade BushCo Favors

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:28:59 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Civil rights become a fond memory.

Clip Source: www.suntimes.com

The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups.

Although President Bush has disavowed targeting suspects based on their race or ethnicity, the new rules would allow the FBI to consider those factors among a number of traits that could trigger a national security investigation.

Currently, FBI agents need specific reasons — like evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated — to investigate U.S. citizens and legal residents. The new policy, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press, would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious.

Critics say the presumption of innocence is lost in the proposal.

An updated text of the Declaration of Independence

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:07:09 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Kind of cool, kind of silly, but nicely done -- the Declaration of Independence rewritten in modern language. Meant seriously, not as some kind of joke.

Clip Source: rob.orangejack.com

We the Thirteen

An open letter to the King of Great Britain
Posted July 4, 1776 by John Hancock

Dear King,

Our Congress here in the thirteen united States of America are declaring today that we are separating political ties with you. We believe that it’s only fair that we tell you why.

First of all, there are a few rights that we believe are plainly obvious:

All men are created equal
God has given us rights that can’t be taken away by man: life, liberty, and our pursuit of happiness.

Although God gives these rights, man creates Government to secure these rights. If a Government isn’t protecting these rights then it is the right of the people to make changes to the Government — or make a new one. This new Government should be organized and based on these principles to ensure Safety and Happiness.

We declare ourselves free of the rule of the British crown and all political connection to Great Britain.

We rely on God’s protection and we pledge to each other our lives, fortunes, and honor.

Tags: politics, history, language, law

Debate rages over wind farms in Spafford

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:16:07 GMT

clipped by: CohoctonWindWatch

Clip Source: www.9wsyr.com

proposal to regulate certain types of windmills has hit a nerve in one Onondaga County town.

A week from Thursday, Spafford will hold a public hearing on the law aimed at private windmills, but it's ignited a much larger debate.

Tags: industrial wind, alternative energy, environment, wind turbines

Rove Refuses to Appear Before House Panel

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:02:22 GMT

clipped by: Wisco
clipper's remarks: Geez, what the hell's the problem here? Quit dicking around and arrest him.

Someone want to tell congress they can do that?

Clip Source: www.politico.com

Karl Rove, former White House deputy chief of staff and President Bush's top political adviser, is refusing to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify on "politicization" within the Justice Dept. Rove had been scheduled to appear next Thursday, July 10.

Rove's refusal to respond to a Judiciary Committee subpoena drew a stern response from Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Commercial and Administrative Law subcommittee.

"We want to make clear that the subcommittee will convene as scheduled and expects Mr. Rove to appear, and that a refusal to appear in violation of the subpoena could subject Mr. Rove to contempt proceedings, including statutory contempt under federal law and proceedings under the inherent contempt authority of the House of Representatives," Conyers and Sanchez wrote in a letter to Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin.

Tags: news

Sharia law SHOULD be used in Britain, says UK's top judge

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:31:39 GMT

clipped by: Smoke TNT
clipper's remarks: Britain may finally be dead.

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

04th July

The most senior judge in England yesterday gave his blessing to the use of sharia law to resolve disputes among Muslims.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips said that Islamic legal principles could be employed to deal with family and marital arguments and to regulate finance.

He declared: 'Those entering into a contractual agreement can agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.'

Explosive: The Lord Chief Justice's endorsement of Sharia law has already created huge controversy

Lawyers warned that family and marital disputes settled by sharia could disadvantage women or the vulnerable.

Tories said that legal equality must be respected and that rulings incompatible with English law should never be enforceable.

The Sharia Council of Britain: (from right to left) Dr Suhaib Hasan, Maulana Abu Sayeed and Mr Mufti Barabatullah preside over marriage cases at their headquarters earlier this year

Tags: muslims, islam, britain, islamofascism

I told you it was coming

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:57:48 GMT

clipped by: sillysam
clipper's remarks: Yes, by all means use sharia law when settling family disputes. Honor killings are all the rage.

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Sharia law SHOULD be used in Britain, says UK's top judge

The most senior judge in England tonight gave his blessing to the use of sharia law to resolve disputes among Muslims.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips said that Islamic legal principles could be employed to deal with family and marital arguments and to regulate finance.

He declared: 'It is possible in this country for those who are entering into a contractual agreement to agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.'

Sharia law SHOULD be used in Britain, says UK's top judge

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:31:36 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

The most senior judge in England tonight gave his blessing to the use of sharia law to resolve disputes among Muslims.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips said that Islamic legal principles could be employed to deal with family and marital arguments and to regulate finance.

He declared: 'It is possible in this country for those who are entering into a contractual agreement to agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.'

In his speech in an East London mosque Lord Phillips signalled approval of sharia principles as a means of settling disputes so long as no punishments that conflict with the established law are involved, and as long as divorces are made to comply with the civil law.

But his remarks - which give the green light from the highest judicial office to the informal sharia courts already operated by numerous mosques - provoked a storm of criticism.

New FBI Profiling Authority

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:36:10 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: More police state jazz for us all to cherish.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

WASHINGTON - Nearly 40 years ago, the FBI was roundly criticized for investigating Americans without evidence they had broken any laws. Now, critics fear the FBI may be gearing up to do it again.Tentative Justice Department guidelines, to be released later this summer, would let agents investigate people whose backgrounds - and potentially their race or ethnicity - match the traits of terrorists.

Such profiling faintly echoes the FBI’s now-defunct COINTELPRO, an operation under Director J. Edgar Hoover in the 1950s and 1960s to monitor and disrupt groups with communist and socialist ties.

Before it was shut down in 1971, the domestic spying operation - formally known as Counterintelligence Programs - had expanded to include civil rights groups, anti-war activists, the Ku Klux Klan, state legislators and journalists.

“These programs resulted in the bureau, at times, effectively stepping out of its proper role as a law enforcement agency,” the FBI acknowledges on its Web site.

Four Construction Workers Killed Every Day Building America

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:34:15 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Incompetence in OSHA--another of the problems facing the next Admin.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Every day an average of four construction workers are killed as they go about building America.

When miners, firefighters and law enforcement officers are killed in the line of duty, their stories become news. We hold vigils and we mourn their loss publicly - as we most certainly should. Yet when construction workers are killed, their tragedy too often goes unnoticed, as if the cost of building America must be injury or death on the job

Construction work is dangerous, and those who do it understand the inherent risk of their occupation. However they should not be expected to deal with unnecessary and avoidable hazards. Unfortunately, that is exactly what many face because they lack sufficient power to protect themselves and the agency tasked with providing protection for them - the Occupational Safety and Health Administration - too often falls short.

While 8 percent of the U.S. workforce is employed in construction, construction workers suffer 22 percent of workplace fatalities.

Crack annoyance squad wanted

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:37:27 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Feeling seems to be running high on this one. $5500 fine for an offensive T-shirt.

Clip Source: www.smh.com.au

Morris Iemma leads a Government whose members have displayed a truly impressive array of human failings. If we limit the list just to convicted criminals, it has harboured in its ranks a drink driver and a pedophile, not to mention a number of serial speeders. So it's no wonder an official visit from a man who can absolve sins is appealing to the State Government. But it's probably also not a surprise that the Government has, yet again, demonstrated bad judgment and made a bad law.

Thanks to the World Youth Day Amendment Regulation signed by the the Deputy Premier, John Watkins, on June 25, doing something which "causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day" could now lead to a criminal conviction.

The point here is that the new offence is built on concepts - inconvenience and annoyance - which are vague, subjective and not sufficiently serious to justify imposing a criminal sanction.

Tags: pope, upsets, sydney

Yorkshire Dialect

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:22:50 GMT

clipped by: judect
clipper's remarks: This afternoon I'm researching the Wakefield dialect for a character in my new novel, Mother-in-Law, Son-in-Law. This is a great site where you can hear verse written and read by Yorkshire folk.

Clip Source: www.yorkshire-dialect.org

The vagaries of the Yorkshire Dialect are many and various, but there exists a band of enthusiasts (Colloquially known as Tykes) who are determined to see it continue by the creation of original Yorkshire Dialect Verse. Many of the authors here are members of the Wakefield & District U.3.A.

Clip Source: www.yorkshire-dialect.org

Tags: yorkshire, dialect, regional dialect, wakefield, mother-in-law son-in-law

U.S. officials condoned Kurdish oil deal

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:37:56 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: From the article....

"Kurdish officials have clashed with Baghdad over the national oil law, which will determine how contracts are awarded and how revenues are distributed. The northern Iraqi region has signed several exploration deals with foreign firms, which Baghdad says are illegal."

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials condoned Hunt Oil Co. efforts to obtain an exploration deal with Iraq’s Kurdish regional government, contrary to public statements discouraging it, according to documents cited by a congressional committee.

When the agreement was announced in September, it was criticized as undermining efforts to strengthen Iraq central government, which still had no national oil revenue-sharing law.

Bush administration officials expressed public concern and denied any knowledge of the contract.

On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman released e-mails and letters obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that appeared to show the opposite.

“Contrary to the denials of administration officials, advisors to the president and officials in the State and Commerce Departments knew about Hunt Oil’s interest in the Kurdish region months before the contract was executed,” Waxman, a California Democrat, wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Tags: oil, iraq, kurdistan, empire, u.s.