tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59820732011-10-31T18:09:47.923-05:00A Fair and Balanced WeblogEdgenoreply@blogger.comBlogger861100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1111132198618519432005-03-18T01:48:00.000-06:002005-03-18T01:49:58.620-06:00

Many folks are querulous about the idea that the Hawai'ian Daniels voted in favor of opening ANWR to drilling. This article may provide the answer - a little tit for tat with Ted Stevens in return for recognition of native Hawai'ians.

Edgenoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1111132027158131402005-03-18T01:33:00.000-06:002005-03-18T01:47:07.163-06:00

Several bloggers have posted lists (Alterdestiny, Majikthise, etc.) recently, which got me to thinking about the topic.In no particular order, here are the ten films I think were the best of the 1990s1. Schindler's List2. True Romance3. Shawshank Redemption4. Pulp Fiction5. The Usual Suspects6. Glengarry Glen Ross7. Leaving Las Vegas8. Fargo9. The Matrix10. Shakespeare in LoveHonorable Mention

Edgenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1110833554160747992005-03-14T14:50:00.000-06:002005-03-14T14:52:34.163-06:00

Make your own map of states you've visited

Edgenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1109642279896052092005-02-28T19:54:00.000-06:002005-02-28T19:59:36.480-06:00

I am happy to see at least one Pennsylvanian front and center today in the fight to unseat Rick Santorum in 2006. He's got a good site with some video up already, and just posted an introduction on Daily Kos today. What excites me is that he knows the future is not only about the netroots, its also about the traditional grassroots, and he's got the experience working traditional campaigns.Check

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1108690702153092032005-02-17T19:33:00.000-06:002005-02-17T19:43:06.246-06:00

Via Laura Rozen - Our Secretary of Defense no longer feels like he has to report his activities to Congress, except when it fits into his schedule. That's nice.At least this makes A1 of the Post: Two dozen members of the House Armed Services Committee had not yet had their turn to question Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at yesterday's hearings when he decided he had had enough.

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1078426142787966832004-03-04T12:49:00.000-06:002004-03-04T12:52:02.716-06:00

Republican Congressman Tom Cole claims a vote against the re-election of President Bush is like supporting Adolph Hitler during World War Two. It's what he said recently before a meeting of Canadian County Republicans. This comes via Calpundit and KTOK in Oklahoma City. U-S Representative Tom Cole might have stirred up Democrats by saying a vote against the re-election of President Bush is like

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1078376685541717902004-03-03T23:04:00.000-06:002004-03-03T23:07:45.310-06:00

Fire Fighters President Says Use of Fire Fighter Images in New Bush Ads Smack of Political Opportunism From Harold Schaitberger, head of the IAFF firefighters union: "I'm disappointed but not surprised that the President would try to trade on the heroism of those fire fighters in the September 11 attacks. The use of 9/11 images are hypocrisy at its worst. Here's a President that initially

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1078243199549315002004-03-02T09:59:00.000-06:002004-03-02T10:03:43.890-06:00

No way, says White House. Now-exiled Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide says that U.S. forces forced him to resign and threatened him before he capitulated and ended up on a plane to Africa. Many bloggers have already covered this news, but there were two things from the Bush administration that were outrageous and worthy of further exposition. The first is the White House's denial of

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-107774910430802922004-02-25T16:45:00.000-06:002004-02-25T16:49:01.186-06:00

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke here today on a variety of topics, including his work to protect and preserve our environment, but surprisingly, much of his speech had political overtones. At one point, he commented that of course we can all go out and buy hybrid cars, but the problem is really one that begins with the subversion of our democratic system by large corporations. I wanted to share

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1077729835105812482004-02-25T11:23:00.000-06:002004-02-25T11:26:44.326-06:00

I was somewhat surprised when the opinion came down this morning in Locke v. Davey (pdf). A Washington state college student received a scholarship from the state under a program which prohibited the scholarships from being used for devotional studies. Since the student Davey was intending on pursuing a degree in pastoral ministry, the state refused to allow him to use their money to help pay

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1077299974884305962004-02-20T11:59:00.000-06:002004-02-20T12:05:02.560-06:00

In 1981, Ronald Reagan's budget director, David Stockman, proposed classifying ketchup as a vegetable as part of Reagan's budget cuts for federally financed school lunch programs (it would make it cheaper to satisfy the requirements on vegetable content of lunches). The suggestion was widely ridiculed and the proposal was killed. In an homage to the greatest Republican President ever, the

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1077080904569451152004-02-17T23:08:00.000-06:002004-02-17T23:11:03.733-06:00

Virginia's Senate is considering a plan to raise state taxes by $1.8 billion to deal with budget shortfalls occasioned by lower federal funds coming into the state. A key Senate committee passed a plan Tuesday that would raise Virginia's taxes by $1.8 billion each year but backs away from proposals to completely repeal the car tax and to give county governments the ability to impose a local

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1076474402362052712004-02-10T22:40:00.000-06:002004-02-10T22:42:31.340-06:00

Since gay marriage is continuing to dominate the headlines, and 'don't ask, don't tell' seems likely to continue for the near future, I thought I'd comment on one of the more insidious side effects of our government's failure to sanction equal rights for persons of all sexual orientations. The story begins with the American Association of Law Schools. In 1990, several years before 'don't ask,

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1076473436302265882004-02-10T22:23:00.000-06:002004-02-10T22:26:25.483-06:00

The last week I've been serving on jury duty here in the City of St. Louis. It was a rewarding experience, and one that I did not expect to have, considering I've been in law school for almost two years now. In most jurisdictions (if not all), licensed attorneys are exempted from jury service, and the rumor I had always heard was that law students are de facto exempt because no lawyer will

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1075787258179049492004-02-02T23:47:00.000-06:002004-02-02T23:49:56.106-06:00

Crooked Timber makes sense of all the nonsense being floated in the media lately about the CIA misleading the President, that I've included most of it, because there's no way I could've written this in four paragraphs so eloquently. It's regularly stated that the behavior of Saddam Hussein in obstructing weapons inspections led analysts to assume he had something to hide. I shared this view

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1075666486609510732004-02-01T14:14:00.000-06:002004-02-01T14:17:03.123-06:00

Governor Granholm Endorses John Kerry for President Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, Lt. Governor John D. Cherry, Jr., and Congressman Sandy Levin today announced they are endorsing John Kerry for President of the United States. Granholm, Cherry, and Levin, three of the state’s leading Democrats, are supporting Kerry because of his plan to create jobs, expand access to affordable health

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1075504098185056192004-01-30T17:08:00.000-06:002004-01-30T17:10:32.186-06:00

Dean spoke to a room full of supporters at the Missouri History Museum just now. The room was an auditorium which seats about 400, but there were people standing in the aisles, and rafters onstage, so the room probably had between 500 and 600 people in it. There were also a great number of people who were turned away into a second overflow room. Since I was one of the lucky ones to get a seat

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1075403812688351162004-01-29T13:16:00.000-06:002004-01-29T13:19:05.013-06:00

John Edwards chose to appear at Blueberry Hill tonight, which actually is a bar named for the song, or the song is named after it, I'm not quite sure which, but Chuck Berry still plays there regularly. For anyone who's been there, this would seem like an odd choice, because although it's a fairly large establishment, it's very separated into separate rooms, and as a result, Edwards spoke in the

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1075338990359654762004-01-28T19:16:00.000-06:002004-01-28T19:18:41.623-06:00

I just got home from Kerry's single appearance here at the St. Louis Community College, and thought I'd share my thoughts about it. First of all, there were a LOT of people there; much more than I expected, and though I have no experience at estimating crowds; I'd say at least 1000 people packed into a room and overflow intended for about 250. Kerry's staff was being ably assisted by the

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1075246061495877412004-01-27T17:27:00.000-06:002004-01-27T17:29:51.106-06:00

Reasonable people in this country can certainly disagree about whether states ought to execute criminals, and that's probably why we still do it. Still, there ought to be some limits on executions, and the Supreme Court in 2002 ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that states cannot execute mentally retarded individuals. A second limitation may be on its way. The Court this week granted certiorari to

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1074968590904608972004-01-24T12:23:00.000-06:002004-01-24T12:25:16.153-06:00

Sources with knowledge of the case tell TIME that behind closed doors at the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse, nearby the Capitol, a grand jury began hearing testimony Wednesday in the investigation of who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak and other journalists. As Sol Wachler has commented, "a grand jury could indict a ham sandwich." It isn't

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1074836385832775462004-01-22T23:39:00.000-06:002004-01-22T23:41:48.733-06:00

Citigroup, Wall Street, and the Fleecing of the South (pdf) This is an excellent piece of investigative journalism that ought to get wider press. What would you think about an organization that helps get loans to "mostly low-income, blue-collar and minority consumers snubbed by banks and credit card companies [and] ... middle-class consumers who have hit hard times because of layoffs or credit

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1074834760490939442004-01-22T23:12:00.000-06:002004-01-22T23:14:43.746-06:00

Via Pandagon: This is full text, from the Miserable Failure web site itself (click here for the press release): Remarks by the President to the Press Pool Nothin' Fancy Cafe Roswell, New Mexico 11:25 A.M. MST THE PRESIDENT: I need some ribs. Q Mr. President, how are you? THE PRESIDENT: I'm hungry and I'm going to order some ribs. Q What would you like? THE PRESIDENT: Whatever you

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1074755626935911932004-01-22T01:13:00.000-06:002004-01-22T01:16:50.546-06:00

I've long said that there are about 3 million Americans who ought to be vociferous supporters of President Bush, those that are in the top 1% of income earners, and who are tremendously aided by a President who recklessly reduces not only their marginal income tax rates, but also reduces the income the majority of them earn for capital investment. Put another way, they are pleased that Mr. Bush

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1074671430821726512004-01-21T01:50:00.000-06:002004-01-21T01:52:30.936-06:00

In atypical fashion, I'm not going to source this entry, as it's merely my musings on what happened over the last 36 hours. Commentators have posited that Howard Dean's support is soft because many of his supporters are primarily ABB (anyone but Bush), and secondarily Deaniacs. I think there's something to this. Last night's results merely reinforce the notion that policy is not what drives

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1073973134808919072004-01-12T23:52:00.000-06:002004-01-12T23:54:56.570-06:00

It seems like stringing together words to form coherent sentences which then proceed to the form of a logical argument with valid premises and induction or deduction leading to a conclusion should be a prerequisite to appearing on print in our nation's editorial pages. This is not so. Novak writes about Howard Dean and religion in his latest failure to make logical arguments. Let's dissect,

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1073970565275935642004-01-12T23:09:00.000-06:002004-01-12T23:09:46.526-06:00

Gov't Seeks Probe Amid O'Neill Interview The Treasury Department is seeking an investigation into whether a classified document might have been shown during a TV show in which former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill spoke out against the Bush administration. "They showed a document that had a classification term on it, so we referred this today to the Office of Inspector General," [Treasury

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1073889102557125292004-01-12T00:31:00.000-06:002004-01-12T00:32:50.836-06:00

The State of Florida really knows how to hurt a kid. It has money for sports stadiums. It lavishes billions of dollars' worth of tax breaks and other goodies on private corporations. It even has money for a substantial reserve fund. But, in an episode of embarrassing and unnecessary tightfistedness, it has frozen enrollment in a badly needed state health insurance program for low-income children.

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1073879743761669262004-01-11T21:55:00.000-06:002004-01-11T21:56:04.173-06:00

The new Time magazine includes an article reviewing comments made by former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill about what it was (and is) mostly like in the Bush White House. So, what does O'Neill reveal? According to the book, ideology and electoral politics so dominated the domestic-policy process during his tenure that it was often impossible to have a rational exchange of ideas. The incurious

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1073710165158575952004-01-09T22:49:00.000-06:002004-01-09T22:49:45.266-06:00

My fiance just asked me a question to which I didn't have a good response. Why can't public school systems be run like universities?  Why can't they have fundraising departments and alumni development offices, and take tax-deductible donations from the community and their alumni? Why can't this money be used to build new schools and pay teachers higher wages? We just finished watching an old

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1073605993652515172004-01-08T17:53:00.000-06:002004-01-08T17:54:26.583-06:00

I am supporting General Wesley Clark for President. Not only as a "celebrity" but as an American citizen and as a mother. I want my children to grow up with the same opportunities that I had - to know and understand what's going on in the world and to travel that world safely and with pride. I guess that might influence someone's vote. There's been talk about how useless endorsements are, but

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1073594691354840842004-01-08T14:44:00.000-06:002004-01-08T14:45:10.950-06:00

U.S. Helicopter Crashes in Iraq, 9 Killed There's not much else to say, other than that these brave Americans will not have the President attend their funerals, will not be honored when their bodies return home, and oh, that the helicopter didn't "crash" - it was shot down by Iraqi insurgents. A U.S. Black Hawk medivac helicopter crashed Thursday near this stronghold of the anti-American

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1073453446693544422004-01-06T23:30:00.000-06:002004-01-06T23:31:06.053-06:00

I don't know how much coverage this will get, or if people will really understand the (enormous) difference between his plan and what Mr. Bush has done, but it's a pretty good plan, politically and sensibly. Under Wes Clark's Families First Tax Reform, a family of four making up to $50,000 will pay no federal income taxes and all taxpaying families with children making up to $100,000 will get a

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1073203555352145772004-01-04T02:05:00.000-06:002004-01-04T02:07:02.360-06:00

Games without frontiers - another horrendous Dean = McGovern article. While I appreciate the notion that history is supposed to prevent us from repeating our mistakes, this idea that Dean is an unelectable left-wing nut is absurd. Let's dissect Mr. Lawrence Kaplan's argument, shall we? This has done nothing to dissuade the Dean-is-no-McGovern chorus from adducing evidence to bolster their case

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1073190238785920432004-01-03T22:23:00.000-06:002004-01-04T01:30:38.543-06:00

I got the first season of The West Wing on DVD for Christmas, and we've been watching a few episodes every night. First off, I heartily recommend it. One of the episodes we watched yesterday had a subplot about a homeless Korean War veteran who died of exposure near the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial on the Mall. He was wearing a coat that Toby Ziegler (the W.H. communications director) had

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1072847421587286822003-12-30T23:10:00.000-06:002003-12-30T23:11:18.513-06:00

Special counsel to investigate leak of CIA agent's identity It's about damn time. In JULY, a senior White House official violated federal law by disclosing the name of an undercover CIA agent to the press. In SEPTEMBER, the news finally broke and the CIA forced the President was forced to ask the Justice Department to investigate. Now, in DECEMBER, we finally see action independent of the

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1072767163989043302003-12-30T00:52:00.000-06:002003-12-30T00:53:00.916-06:00

Army admits it has deliberately shortchanged Guard on gear. The deployment to Iraq of a combined Illinois-Iowa National Guard Chinook unit without required anti-missile defenses did not reflect an oversight or lack of coordination between the Guard and the Army. Rather, it was the consequence of decisions made years ago by the Army to buy only a portion of the Guard's air defense equipment,

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1072767023112462222003-12-30T00:50:00.000-06:002003-12-30T00:50:40.073-06:00

A young woman here in St. Louis is recycling old computers and donating them for free to disadvantaged folks to help bridge the digital divide. At age 29, Haas could be pursuing a lucrative high-tech career. Instead, she shuns a paycheck to pursue her high-tech vision. This young entrepreneur wants to bridge the digital divide by providing every needy family in the St. Louis area with a working

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1072551852883086462003-12-27T13:04:00.000-06:002003-12-27T13:05:24.890-06:00

Dana Milbank and Mike Allen update us today in the Washington Post on the Justice department's investigation into the White House's alleged violations of federal law when they allegedly outed the name of an undercover CIA agent for political reasons. You tell me what's wrong with these two paragraphs: White House officials profess to be unconcerned about the outcome of the investigation. Some

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1072495866025855762003-12-26T21:31:00.000-06:002003-12-26T21:31:22.420-06:00

It's not every day you find a kindred spirit less than 300 miles away. Today was such a day for me, when I discovered what Doug Sohn has been up to in Chicago. At Hot Doug's, a hot dog is a fine-dining experience. As Doug Sohn, the 41-year-old owner, says, it's "the finest in encased meats, my friend." Opened two years ago, Hot Doug's is part of a national trend to make hot dogs the new sushi.

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1071997621105485612003-12-21T03:07:00.000-06:002003-12-21T03:07:16.390-06:00

Bush declares: "We must get rid of Arafat" Bush's comments came in a brief exchange with the paper's correspondent during a Christmas drinks party in Washington, several hours after a keynote speech by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Thursday in which he outlined plans for unilateral disengagement from peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Saddam was held by Kurdish forces, drugged and

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1071901173953380332003-12-20T00:19:00.000-06:002003-12-20T00:19:48.813-06:00

Thanks to Kos for drawing my attention to baseball-related blogs. I know it's not baseball season, but I've added Redbird Nation to the blogroll since it's pretty much always baseball season in St. Louis.

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1071803253257267932003-12-18T21:07:00.000-06:002003-12-18T21:10:28.346-06:00

They could have led the front page with Tom Kean's story from yesterday, but no. They had to lead with an article beating up on Howard Dean. Dean's Remarks Give Rivals Talking Points His Readiness to Lead Is Questioned The problem here is that the article doesn't address his readiness to lead at all. At all. Yet that's what someone who glances at the front page of today's Post reads.

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1071777864783077332003-12-18T14:04:00.000-06:002003-12-18T14:08:52.233-06:00

The Bubble of American Supremacy While I realize George Soros is hardly nonpartisan, he also lays out the neoconservative plan fairly well in this article, and I think it's worth reading. It compares the Bush doctrine to a stock market bubble, built on misconceptions and self-actuating results. September 11 could not have changed the course of history to the extent that it has if President

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1071714040397531062003-12-17T20:20:00.000-06:002003-12-17T20:20:54.600-06:00

Unbelievable. [T]he chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented. Appointed by the Bush administration, [Thomas] Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame. "I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1071690840465789302003-12-17T13:54:00.000-06:002003-12-17T13:54:14.910-06:00

2003: A Year of Distortion for the American People Just read it. No teasers. Well, alright, just one. Because I think this is an issue that Democrats ought to be shouting from the top of their lungs (along with all the other issues, but I don't hear enough about this). VETERANS WHITE HOUSE CLAIM: "Honoring Our Commitment to Veterans: America owes veterans and those on the front lines of

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1071647867874510602003-12-17T01:57:00.000-06:002003-12-17T01:58:01.370-06:00

Raich v. Ashcroft, No. 03-15481, was handed down today by the 9th Circuit. The panel, by a 2 to 1 vote, ruled the federal Controlled Substances Act unconstitutional when applied to patients growing their own medical marijuana. This makes sense of course - Congress passes most of its laws under the "Commerce Clause" - Article 1, section 8, paragraph 3. The Congress shall have power ... [t]o

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1071618208356605942003-12-16T17:43:00.000-06:002003-12-16T17:43:42.106-06:00

My mother lent me this book over the summer and it sat on a shelf until yesterday. I picked it up for my balcony reading breaks, and was pleasantly surprised. One of the essays therein contains an essay called "The Joy of Sesquipedalians." Probably quite a few of you are where I was in thinking that a sesquipedalian is a six-legged animal. It's actually not. Main Entry: ses·qui·pe·da·lian

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1071617539240891372003-12-16T17:32:00.000-06:002003-12-16T17:32:33.100-06:00

I'm still behind swamped in exams, but I'll get to pressing matters next week. I just had to share this piece from The Left Coaster which pretty much sums up how I feel about Howard Dean. I know he isn't perfect - I don't agree with all his policy points, but I want someone to represent me in this presidential election who will fight George Bush and who will fight to get the truth out. And not

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1071117100854682512003-12-10T22:51:00.000-06:002003-12-10T22:51:43.350-06:00

Everyone is talking today about the latest directive out of the Pentagon that restricts who can bid for prime contracts in the reconstruction process in Iraq. It seems pretty obvious that this is either petty spite, or just more cronyism at work. And of course, it can't help James Baker, consigliere, in his quest to get our "allies" to forgive Iraq's debts. As Josh Marshall points out, the

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1071117240252232252003-12-10T22:34:00.000-06:002003-12-10T22:34:12.440-06:00

This year's Nobel Peace Prize winner says the September 11 attacks have been used as an excuse to violate international law and human rights. Well. Yes, that's true. "Regulations restricting human rights and basic freedoms ... have been justified and given legitimacy under the cloak of the war on terrorism," she said And that's just in the United States. You don't want to know what we're up

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1070991325903774852003-12-09T11:35:00.000-06:002003-12-09T11:35:37.833-06:00

Meteor Blades, guestwriting for Kos, started a post this morning to discuss possible VP nominations on a Dean ticket - it's a pretty interesting read with some real good choices, especially the comments section. If I were to make a pick now, I'd probably go with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who has legislative experience with 15 years in the House, foreign policy experience as ambassador

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1070927993240996842003-12-08T17:59:00.000-06:002003-12-08T18:00:05.316-06:00

A friend of mine just called to let me know that according to the Associated Press: Former Vice President Al Gore plans to endorse Howard Dean for the Democratic presidential nomination, a dramatic move that could tighten Dean's grip on the front-runner position. Obviously, this is huge. I felt out of the loop since I hadn't heard this or read it, but it apparently just broke moments ago.

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1070780435574719442003-12-07T01:00:00.000-06:002003-12-07T01:00:47.220-06:00

Back in August, when I was watching Al Gore's speech in New York (RealMedia content)about the multitude of false assertions that George Bush's administration has made, I was struck by his quotation of a Nobel Prize winning economist, George Akerlof, that what the Bush administration was primarily engaged in was a "form of looting." Paul Krugman's op-ed piece in the New York Times Friday

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1070689070949401212003-12-05T23:37:00.000-06:002003-12-05T23:38:01.796-06:00

As some of you know, I'm in my second year of law school and it is exam season. Blogging will be infrequent at best for the next two weeks (as well as the last two weeks).

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1070688929172126622003-12-05T23:35:00.000-06:002003-12-05T23:35:40.050-06:00

With the GOP's economic policy reduced to its lowest demoninator it really only has two purposes: cutting taxes and rewarding its financiers. If that weren't bad enough, the GOP now is equating not giving a tax cut with raising taxes. Michigan is trying to eliminate its budget deficit. So let's see how the common sense test would work. You have to do one of two things to resolve the budget (

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1069798586169301972003-11-25T16:16:00.000-06:002003-11-25T16:16:34.633-06:00

Part Three of the L.A. Times series is up today. This one is about the battles between unions, particularly the UFCW and Wal-Mart, over the opening of "SuperCenters" in California, 200,000+ square foot behemoths that sell traditional Wal-Mart discount products and groceries, and would likely destroy smaller competitors and cost California thousands of union jobs, to be replaced by the low-wage

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1069781990667859492003-11-25T11:39:00.000-06:002003-11-25T11:39:58.750-06:00

A quick note in response to something I read over at The Left Coaster. The energy bill is apparently dead for now, which is a good thing. One of its more intrusive and outrageous provisions was granting exemption from liability to manufacturers of MTBE, which apparently turns out to cause cancer and lots of other health problems. Well, if a company polluted the land with something that causes

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1069781373110757622003-11-25T11:29:00.000-06:002003-11-25T11:30:40.586-06:00

54-44 was the final vote in the Senate to pass this horrifying package today. Most controversial of all, the legislation would create a limited program of direct competition between traditional Medicare and private plans, beginning in 2010. Conservatives argued that would help bring down the cost of Medicare over the long run, while critics said it would privatize the program and lead to “cherry

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1069737145356719752003-11-24T23:12:00.000-06:002003-11-24T23:13:15.996-06:00

I listened to ABC News on the radio tonight at their top of the hour update. Although they neglected to mention that Warren Spahn died today at the age of 82, they did mention the Medicare bill which will now be voted on tomorrow. This is what they said, and this is practically verbatim: Democrats criticize the bill because it will force some seniors to pay more for their coverage. Republicans

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1069648740053192892003-11-23T22:39:00.000-06:002003-11-24T08:30:40.783-06:00

The L.A. Times (registration required) is attacking this question in a three-part story beginning today (courtesy of CalPundit). On the one hand: Wal-Mart's penny-pinching extends to its own 1.2 million U.S. employees, none of them unionized. By the company's own admission, a full-time worker might not be able to support a family on a Wal-Mart paycheck. By squeezing suppliers to cut wholesale

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1069564564151843302003-11-22T23:16:00.000-06:002003-11-22T23:22:50.483-06:00

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale a tale of a fateful night, that started at Big Pharma's house, and ended with an awful sight. The Speaker was a jolly lobbier, the President's voice was clear, Medicare set sail that day, for a slow and painful death. A slow and painful death. The House of Representatives approved the god-awful Medicare bill last night 220-215. After a

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1069437264551223012003-11-21T11:54:00.000-06:002003-11-21T11:54:31.366-06:00

Opponents of a massive energy bill on Friday blocked the Senate from taking a final vote and sending the measure to President Bush. On a 57-40 vote, supporters failed by three votes to cut off debate on the legislation, which they said would increase and diversify energy production and provide farmers an economic boost by expanding use of corn-based ethanol It's not over yet - keep up the

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1069400093722752442003-11-21T01:34:00.000-06:002003-11-21T01:35:00.813-06:00

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has an extremely well-written (and long) article in Rolling Stone next issue. I recommend reading it in its entirety. Here's a couple teasers: I am angry both as a citizen and a father. Three of my sons have asthma, and I watch them struggle to breathe on bad-air days. And they're comparatively lucky: One in four African-American children in New York shares this

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1069286789040042442003-11-19T18:06:00.000-06:002003-11-19T18:06:36.060-06:00

What's the Budweiser slogan? True.

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1069214153457178002003-11-18T21:55:00.000-06:002003-11-18T21:55:59.566-06:00

Apparently, law enforcement officials may be charging Mr. Limbaugh with money laundering, in addition to whatever they have on him on substantive drug trafficking/possession charges. This is interesting to me, since my White Collar Crime class just started its discussion of money laundering today. Here are the pertinent charges, which, if true, provide almost an open and shut case. Authorities

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1068837725260936032003-11-14T13:22:00.000-06:002003-11-14T13:22:10.853-06:00

Watch her speech from last night. What a great Senator. For now, go here and choose Part 15 (10pm - 12am) and forward to about 29:30 where Senator Hutchison is trying to defend Carolyn Kuhl by saying that her decision in a case where a drug salesman was present during an operation without the patient's consent was okay, because even though she dropped the drug company as a party, she kept the

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1068767604916630112003-11-13T17:53:00.000-06:002003-11-14T13:36:00.560-06:00

Republican Senators have hijacked Senate business this week, now extending their endless debate to 39 hours over the issue of 4 ideologues who President Bush nominated to be federal judges. The Republicans continue to harp that the Democrats are not allowing them to exercise their constitutional duty by continuing to threaten filibusters on the nominations of these four judges. As I've said

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1068753359821348462003-11-13T13:55:00.000-06:002003-11-13T13:56:04.590-06:00

Updating this post, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary removed Roy Moore from office today. Kos thinks Moore is going to end up as the Governor of Alabama. That's a pretty scary thought, since he apparently has no qualms with ignoring federal law; and ignoring direct orders from the government. That sounds about like what Alabama was up to about 150 years ago.

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1068700029835724102003-11-12T23:07:00.000-06:002003-11-12T23:10:38.363-06:00

Well, that's about every day, but this one struck me as particularly bad tonight. W.H. to let 9/11 panel review briefings This refers to the bipartisan independent commission investigating the 9/11 attacks which for months has sought specific documents from the White House only to be stonewalled by an administration that claims it wants to get to the bottom of this just as much as the victims

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1068483469454650902003-11-10T10:57:00.000-06:002003-11-10T11:00:21.903-06:00

Well, not really, but they did grant a petition for a writ of certiorari this morning in two cases, now consolidated, concerning the legality of challenges to detention of enemy combatants captured overseas and held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Rasul v. Bush and Al Odah v. United States (pdf file) will be heard and only the following question will be addressed: Whether United States courts lack

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1068157056787855642003-11-06T16:17:00.000-06:002003-11-06T16:17:40.410-06:00

Amazing but true, the far-right media machine has successfully held CBS entertainment to a higher standard of truth regarding the docudrama, “The Reagans” than the news media manages to hold the Bush administration regarding the war in Iraq Eric Alterman's piece only gets better from there. I'm not as convinced he is that it's a good thing, since I don't necessarily believe that the fact that

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1068147524136398742003-11-06T13:38:00.000-06:002003-11-06T13:38:47.580-06:00

I shouldn't be surprised by this, yet it convinces me all over again that we are going about education reform the wrong way. Teachers have read off answers during a test, sent students back to correct wrong answers, photocopied secure tests for use in class, inflated scores, and peeked at questions then drilled those topics in class before the test, according to records obtained by The

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1068009069522131212003-11-04T23:11:00.000-06:002003-11-04T23:11:12.773-06:00

Oh yes. He sure was. And some of them didn't like it too much. That's hard to imagine when we do things like this: The refusal of the White House to accredit members of the Australian Parliamentary press gallery to cover the visit of US President George W Bush is a fundamental affront to free speech, Cunningham MP Michael Organ said today. "The White House has refused to allow members of

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1068008662428031092003-11-04T23:04:00.000-06:002003-11-04T23:04:25.780-06:00

Howard Dean is asking his supporters to vote later this week on whether or not he should accept federal matching funds. Dean took some heat for even considering foregoing matching funds because he had been such a staunch supporter of them in the past. As most people familiar with the situation realize, this is a no-brainer. As Dean notes: "For the Republican primary election, even though he

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1067967037531323682003-11-04T11:30:00.000-06:002003-11-04T11:31:15.640-06:00

The Supreme Court yesterday denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in the Alabama Ten Commandments case. In case we had forgotten, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore thinks that: [t]he monument properly acknowledges "God as the source of the community morality so essential to a self-governing society." Lower federal courts had ruled that Moore violated the Constitution's ban on government

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1067665358102612232003-10-31T23:42:00.000-06:002003-10-31T23:42:39.890-06:00

Thanks to corrente for pointing out another lie straight from the lips of the woman who is now in charge of our nation's Iraq strategy, Condi Rice: From the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York (central to the war on terror, I'm sure): President Bush's national security adviser said on Thursday that the Clinton and other past administrations had ignored evidence of growing terrorist threats and

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1067628475795847832003-10-31T13:27:00.000-06:002003-10-31T13:27:57.770-06:00

From CNN: James Nichols, the brother of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, says he was tricked into appearing in the documentary "Bowling for Columbine," according to a federal lawsuit filed against filmmaker Michael Moore. For anyone who's seen "Bowling for Columbine," it seems wildly implausible that this is the case. Nichols appears slightly off his rocker, but willfully

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1067578147276366712003-10-30T23:29:00.000-06:002003-10-30T23:29:08.976-06:00

Newly added to Edge Law tonight. It's amazing how much you can do online these days with little to no html/xml/css knowledge.

Edgenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1067574860543840902003-10-30T22:34:00.000-06:002003-10-30T22:34:22.160-06:00

From the upcoming Nov. 10 issue of Fortune Magazine In fall 1996, Michael Eisner, the chairman and CEO of Walt Disney Co., decided he had made a big mistake. Just a year earlier he had hired Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz as Disney's president. Ovitz had flopped, badly. The men needed to find a way to disengage without unduly embarrassing either of them. So, they used money. Lots of

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1067558388174075712003-10-30T17:59:00.000-06:002003-10-30T23:32:39.396-06:00

President Bush has nominated California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and is once again bashing Democratic Senators for blocking his nominees. Is he right? Let's see, as the Washington Post describes: Justice Brown is one of the most unapologetically ideological nominees of either party in many years. In speeches, she has openly

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1067542972699569992003-10-30T13:42:00.000-06:002003-10-30T22:06:58.853-06:00

The Center for Public Integrity, which is "a Washington-based research organization that produces investigative articles on special interests and ethics in government," or in other words, presumably nonpartisan, released a report today detailing the contracts given to American corporations to rebuild Iraq. THE STUDY of more than 70 U.S. companies and individual contractors turned up more than

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1067494102108061792003-10-30T00:08:00.000-06:002003-10-30T00:08:19.020-06:00

Lean Left posts an interesting contribution from Dennis Miller of all people, who thinks we ought to take NASA's budget and dedicate it to rebuilding our nation's rail system. I've been thinking about rail travel quite a bit lately, from a visit to the Museum of Transportation here in St. Louis to trips to Chicago that I wish I could take reliably on a train to an syndicated article I read last

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1067488715613238612003-10-29T22:38:00.000-06:002003-10-29T22:38:33.263-06:00

A federal judge has set the stage for an unusual clash over assertions by reporters for four news organizations that they need not disclose the names of their sources, a traditional journalistic practice that underpins much of news reporting in Washington. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson late last week ordered journalists at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1067048666621843242003-10-24T21:24:00.000-05:002003-10-24T21:24:26.786-05:00

Last week, the Senate voted to approve President Bush's ludicrous $87 billion appropriation for Iraq without adequately demanding a coherent plan for how that money would be spent. These twelve Senators stood up for their taxpaying constituents in demanding that the President have actual plans grounded in reality and backed up with facts before acceding to his every whim and demand. Boxer (D-CA

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5982073.post-1066944087519793372003-10-23T16:21:00.000-05:002003-10-23T16:23:25.826-05:00

Okay. This isn't new. Lawsuit filed against Sony, Wal-Mart over game linked to shootings Thompson has made similar claims in the past and lost, notably a $33 million lawsuit against video game makers stemming from the 1997 school shooting near Paducah, Kentucky, by a 14-year-old boy. I actually wrote a brief on this very issue last year, though it was a local ordinance trying to restrict

Edgenoreply@blogger.com0