OTHERWISE

Annotated State of the Union Speech - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic

2012-01-27T16:23:00.000-05:00

Obama's hand - editing a draft.

Don't they know how to find the double-space key at the White House?

James Fallows is an excellent experienced analyst of Presidential rhetoric. He was a speech-writer for Jimmy Carter, a much less satisfying job than writing for Barack Obama who actually closely edits his own speeches even when he doesn't write the draft himself. DON'T read the excerpt below. Click on the link. Then you will find that when you put the cursor over an underlined phrase Fallows' comments pop up. - GWC

Annotated State of the Union Speech - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic:

Remarks of President Barack Obama—As Prepared for Delivery

State of the Union Address

"An America Built to Last"

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

Washington, DC

As Prepared for Delivery -

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute ^[1]to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought—and several thousand gave their lives.

We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes ^[2]has made the United States safer and more respected around the world^[3]. For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden^[4] is not a threat to this country^[5]. Most of al Qaeda's top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban's momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home.

These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America's Armed Forces.^[6] At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They're not consumed with personal ambition^[7]. They don't obsess over their differences.^[8] They focus on the mission at hand. They work together^[9].

Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example^[10]. Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs. A future where we're in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren't so tied to unstable parts of the world. An economy built to last,^[11]where hard work pays off, and responsibility is rewarded.
p.s. Fallows is not the only one making notes; Here is the National Academies Press version with links to resources about the problems of which the President spoke.

'via Blog this'Annotated State of the Union Speech - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic:

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Legal Aid Groups Planning Major Layoffs in 2012 - Law Blog - WSJ

2012-01-26T16:40:00.000-05:00

There is not much left of the War on Poverty, is there? The Legal Services Corporation is a surviving outgrowth of the Office of Economic Opportunity. OEO was the executive branch arm of Pres. Johnson's War on Poverty, which was first led by the late Sargent Shriver. Even more devastating than budget cuts is the fact that interest on lawyers trust accounts plummeted with the federal funds rate and the decline in housing sales. That device provided a great deal of the funding for legal aid and defender services nationwide.

Legal Aid Groups Planning Major Layoffs in 2012 - Law Blog - WSJ:

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Torts Today: NJ Supreme Court Upholds Enhanced Fees in Rights Cases - Again Rejecting U.S. High Court Rule

2012-01-26T08:46:00.000-05:00

The New Jersey Supreme Court has again declined to follow the U.S. Supreme Court's rejection of enhanced contingent fees in fee-shifting consumer protection and discrimination cases.

Torts Today: NJ Supreme Court Upholds Enhanced Fees in Rights Cases - Again Rejecting U.S. High Court Rule:

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Second Chances - NYTimes.com

2012-01-26T00:11:00.000-05:00

Linda Greenhouse - one of the Supreme Court's most attentive observers - is mystified at the unexpected display of compassion by usually hard-line members of the court in the case of a death row inmate whose lawyers neglected a deadline. She speculates what may underlie C.J. Roberts and Associate Justices Kennedy and Alito's decision to join Justice Ruth Ginsburg's opinion to grant relief. - GWC

Second Chances - NYTimes.com:

by Linda Greenhouse

"The Supreme Court’s decision last week giving an Alabama death-row inmate who was abandoned by his lawyers a second chance at an appeal has been justly celebrated. The 7-to-2 decision in Maples v. Thomas was a welcome display of compassion by a substantial majority of the Roberts court – for which compassion (dare I say empathy?) is not a descriptor that often springs to mind.

The inmate, Cory R. Maples, convicted of killing two drinking companions during a night on the town, had been represented during a state-court appeals process by two volunteer lawyers from the white-shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. The lawyers left the firm in mid-stream for new jobs without informing either their client or the court. Unbeknownst to Mr. Maples, the 42-day period for filing a notice of appeal expired, thus creating a “procedural default” that disqualified him from seeking a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. “In these circumstances, no just system would lay the default at Maples’ death-cell door,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the majority. Only Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented."

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Tax equity - Obama's State of the Union theme

2012-01-24T22:19:00.000-05:00

"We don't begrudge financial success in this country. We admire it. When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it's not because they envy the rich. It's because they understand that when I get tax breaks I don't need and the country can't afford, it either adds to the deficit, or somebody else has to make up the difference - like a senior on a fixed income; or a student trying to get through school; or a family trying to make ends meet. That's not right. Americans know it's not right."

Barack Obama, State of the Union address, January 24, 2012

Was Obama's use of the phrase
`built to last' a dog whistle to Deadheads?

I think that gets it right. Like other professional families we pay taxes at twice Mitt Romney's 13.9%. To say that he should pay what we pay is not envy. It is asking that those who can pay a decent share.

Brad DeLong: Ryan Lizza's Verdict on Obama so Far…

2012-01-24T17:18:00.000-05:00

Brad DeLong: Ryan Lizza's Verdict on Obama so Far…: "Obama didn’t remake Washington. But his first two years stand as one of the most successful legislative periods in modern history. Among other achievements, he has saved the economy from depression, passed universal health care, and reformed Wall Street. Along the way, Obama may have changed his mind about his 2008 critique of Hillary Clinton. “Working the system, not changing it” and being “consumed with beating” Republicans “rather than unifying the country and building consensus to get things done” do not seem like such bad strategies for success after all."

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The Summers Memo : The New Yorker

2012-01-24T11:23:00.000-05:00

News Desk: The Summers Memo : The New Yorker:

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28,000 die of HIV/AIDS in China 2011: official report - People's Daily Online

2012-01-23T23:54:00.000-05:00

28,000 die of HIV/AIDS in China 2011: official report - People's Daily Online: "BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- A total of 28,000 people died of HIV/AIDS in China in 2011, and another 48,000 in the country were found newly infected by the virus, according to an official publication on Saturday.

The report on the epidemic situation of HIV/AIDS in China, which was jointly produced by China's Ministry of Health, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS and the World Health Organization, said that the number of people living with HIV/AIDS increased by 40,000 in two years from 2009, although cases of new infections remained at a low level.

With about 780,000 people living with HIV/AIDS nationwide, including 154,000 AIDS patients, the total infection rate of the country stands at 0.058 percent, the report said."

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Silver lining for Mitt: he'll pay no taxes under Newt's tax plan

2012-01-23T23:30:00.000-05:00

newt

As good as it gets: under Newt's tax plan there would be no tax on capital gains. Under Mitt's plan people earning under $200,000 who usually don't have any capital gains won't pay any taxes on the capital gains they don't have. Under Newt's plan Mitt will pay no taxes. Clever that newt.

China Grammar Wiki. What A Great Idea! : China Law Blog : China Law for Business

2012-01-23T12:08:00.000-05:00

China Grammar Wiki. What A Great Idea! : China Law Blog : China Law for Business:

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OMG - Chris Christie as VP? Livewire | TPM

2012-01-22T13:38:00.000-05:00

Love of country - and party - that's what motivates them. Chris Christie being no exception. - GWC

Livewire | TPM:

"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on Meet the Press that he wants to be New Jersey’s governor and “I absolutely believe that come November 2012, I’m going to be governor of New Jersey.” But, if Romney called him to talk about Christie being on the ticket with him, “I love my country enough and my I love my party enough to listen.”"

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South Carolina primary is a bump in the road for Romney - Jonathan Bernstein- WAPO

2012-01-21T22:30:00.000-05:00

South Carolina primary is a bump in the road for Romney, but he’s still the favorite - The Plum Line - The Washington Post:

by Jonathan Bernstein

"I’m certainly not going to say that Saturday night was a good one for Mitt Romney, who got beaten solidly by Newt Gingrich in South Carolina (a scenario I’m afraid I called “an extreme long shot” last week). But while he would have shut down the nomination contest entirely by winning tonight, the truth is he’s probably a bit closer to winning it all now than he was after New Hampshire, and a lot closer than he was, say, before Iowa. A little history might help explain that."

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Cory R. Maples Gets Second Chance After Mailroom Mix-Up - NYTimes.com

2012-01-19T00:17:00.000-05:00

Cory R. Maples Gets Second Chance After Mailroom Mix-Up - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that an Alabama death row inmate who missed a filing deadline thanks to a mix-up in the mailroom of a prominent New York law firm must be given another chance."

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Newt Gingrich feeds the lions on M.L. King day

2012-01-17T00:18:00.001-05:00

Newt Gingrich really knows how to hit the hot buttons. The contempt in his voice and the punchlines drive the Fox Republican Presidential Debate crowd into wild cheers. The poor are lazy. They need to be taught to work. The unions are out of control - New York City should fire janitors and hire kids. "More people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history." "I'm going to continue to help poor people learn how to get a job, get a better job and learn how to own the job". Charles Blow comments in the Times "It is Gingrich's gift to make ill will sound like good will." This is how the former Speaker and South Carolina Republicans marked the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. who died in Memphis where he was supporting the sanitation workers struggle for better wages. - GWC

Jonathan Cohn: Moderate Mitt? Have You Looked At His Budget? | The New Republic

2012-01-16T20:19:00.000-05:00

Jonathan Cohn: Moderate Mitt? Have You Looked At His Budget? | The New Republic:

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What the Right Gets Right - NYTimes.com

2012-01-16T13:30:00.001-05:00

What the Right Gets Right - NYTimes.com:
by Thomas Edsall
Edsall is the author of the new Age of Austerity, and of What's the Matter with Kansas. He teaches at Columbia Journalism School
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Serial killers in China | Danwei

2012-01-16T13:22:00.000-05:00

Serial killers in China | Danwei:

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Judge: Stanford Lawyers Must Stay the Course - Law Blog - WSJ

2012-01-16T11:50:00.000-05:00

Allen Stanford - accused of
$7 billion fraud

Judge: Stanford Lawyers Must Stay the Course - Law Blog - WSJ: "The lawyers for jailed money manager R. Allen Stanford must continue to represent him at his criminal trial, which begins later this month, a federal judge has ruled.

In a case marked by unusual turns of events, Stanford’s entire defense team asked to withdraw from the case on Wednesday, 12 days before jury selection is scheduled to begin in his case."
h/t Legal Ethics Forum

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Letter From Birmingham City Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.

2012-01-16T11:40:00.000-05:00

Letter From Birmingham City Jail (Excerpts) by Martin Luther King, Jr.:

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Federal safety net programs efficiently reach beneficiaries - CBPP

2012-01-15T19:50:00.002-05:00

Critics of government claim that government bureaucracy is filled with waste and/or corruption. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities demonstrates here that federal safety net programs are very efficient in getting benefits to their intended beneficiaries. - GWC

Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Romney’s Wrong: Federal Low-Income Program Dollars Go Overwhelmingly to Beneficiaries:

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Things We're Supposed To Be Quiet About - NYTimes.com

2012-01-14T15:40:00.002-05:00

Things We're Supposed To Be Quiet About - NYTimes.com:
by Paul Krugman
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Beyond Originalism: Conservative Declarationism and Constitutional Redemption - Ken Kersch | Maryland Law Review

2012-01-14T13:03:00.001-05:00

Boston College political science professor Ken I. Kersch seeks to redeem conservative jurisprudence from the mortal sin of racism by grounding constitutional theory in the embrace of the Declaration of Independence as vindicated by the post civil war amendments 13, 14, and 15.

Embracing the natural law vision of the 18th century he develops a nationalist, quasi-religious originalism to save conservative jurisprudence from the white southern strategy that has dominated the modern Republican Party. - GWC

Beyond Originalism: Conservative Declarationism and Constitutional Redemption

by Ken Kersch

UM Carey Law | Maryland Law Review Volume 71, Issue 1:

The Declarationist narrative I have described here represents one strain of the constitutional nationalism forged by the contemporary conservative movement, with the aim of forming movement identities and allegiances, and distinguishing friends from enemies. It positions contemporary conservatives—and the Republican Party—as
the true heirs and guardians of the legacy of the American Founders, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Far from signaling a (wholly) reactionary return to pre-civil rights movement neoConfederatism, contemporary conservative Declarationism—with sometimes millennialist overtones—looks to the present, and, especially, the future. It emphasizes sin, and redemption, with a very modern focus on the sin of racism. It explains to conservatives the ways in which, through their rock-solid commitment to the first principles of the Declaration, they are the legatees of the Great Men who founded the Great Nation, and then redeemed it from the evil of chattel slavery, and from the sin of racial segregation.

h/t Balkinization

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Mandarin Smackdown! Stewart vs. Huntsman vs. Xiao Li - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic

2012-01-14T10:34:00.000-05:00

Mandarin Smackdown! Stewart vs. Huntsman vs. Xiao Li - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic:

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Inequality Obstructs Progress - Chief White House Economic Adviser

2012-01-13T00:00:00.001-05:00

Alan Krueger and Pres. Obama

Alan B. Krueger, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers has sounded a strikingly populist note. Inequality is a part of the problem, not the solution. The contrast with Mitt Romney - who describes such concerns as class warfare and the product of envy - could not be clearer. speaking on January 12 at the Center for American Progress, President Obama's chief economist declared:

My theme in this talk is that the rise in inequality in the United States over the last three decades has reached the point that inequality in incomes is causing an unhealthy division in opportunities, and is a threat to our economic growth. Restoring a greater degree of fairness to the U.S. job market would be good for businesses, good for the economy, and good for the country.

Leveling of the once sharply graduated tax code has played a large role in that - as has the steady erosion of trade union power. Reversing that trend will take a concentrated effort that no one in the political mainstream has mustered since the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt.

Split Over the Right to Effective Counsel in Immigration Proceedings - Circuit Splits

2012-01-12T16:28:00.003-05:00

This issue has been building for a while. In January 2009 - the waning days of the Bush administration - AG Michael Mukasey in the Compean case repudiated the body of law that entitled aliens to relief if their attorney was shown to be incompetent. That measure was quickly renounced by Attorney General Holder. But the bigger question is - if there is a right to due process in deportation (removal) proceedings does it extend to the right to effective assistance of counsel (which Congress has steadfastly refused to supply)? The Fifth Amendment (in the Scottsboro case - Powell v. Alabama) was the foundation for effective assistance cases before the 6th Amendment was recognized in Gideon v. Wainwright.

The Third Circuit has identified the circuit split (the 4th and 8th deny the right) as ripe for Supreme Court review. - GWC

Split Over the Right to Effective Counsel in Immigration Proceedings - Circuit Splits:

"Today’s post covers yet another circuit split over the applicability of the Due Process Clause. This time, however, the circuits disagree on whether the Clause’s guarantee of effective assistance of counsel, a component of due process, applies to aliens during removal proceedings.
As the Third Circuit recently illustrated in the following footnote, this question has produced a circuit split that can only be described as "ripe for review":
Because immigration proceedings are civil rather than criminal in nature, the Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel does not apply. Fadiga, 488 F.3d at 157 n.23. But we have recognized (along with a majority of our sister Courts of Appeals) that "[a] claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in removal proceedings is cognizable under the Fifth Amendment — i.e., as a violation of that amendment's guarantee of due process." Id. at 155; see also Zheng v. Gonzales, 422 F.3d 98, 106 (3d Cir. 2005); Xu Yong Lu v. Ashcroft, 259 F.3d 127, 131-32 (3d Cir. 2001).3"

h/t Legal Ethics Forum

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"Envy" is what drives the attacks on me: Mitt Romney

2012-01-12T14:12:00.002-05:00

Mitt Romney: "It's fine to talk about fairness of income distribution in quiet rooms and in discussions of tax policy, but...."

h/t Paul Krugman

Bitter Primaries Revealing The Real Romney | National Memo | Breaking News, Smart Politics

2012-01-11T17:47:00.000-05:00

Mitt Romney's minders are going to have to work overtime to keep him on script, and to minimize opportunities for anything extemporaneous. - GWC

Bitter Primaries Revealing The Real Romney | National Memo | Breaking News, Smart Politics:

by Joe Conason

"For Mitt Romney, Tuesday night's expected triumph in the New Hampshire primary will offer a tempting opportunity to gloat. Such unattractive conduct would no longer be surprising from the Republican front-runner, who is enduring the gradual disclosure of his personality."

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NY Times on law school accreditation - Tamanaha is skeptical

2012-01-10T16:02:00.003-05:00

Brian Tamanaha looks behind the last in the recent Times series on law schools. It treat Duncan Law School as a victim of a rigid ABA accreditation process which obstructs the school's effort s to provide lawyers to serve the impoverished Appalachian region. The school was struggling with decliing enrollment and was already on notice that it was not likely to pass muster. - GWC

Balkinization:

by Brian Tamanaha

"The theme of the final installment of the New York Times series on law schools, "For Law Schools, A Price to Play the A.B.A.'s Way," was that ABA accreditation is to blame for high tuition. The story revolved around the effort of Duncan School of Law to obtain provisional A.B.A. accreditation. In the article, Duncan administrators and the main benefactor complained that accreditation regulations were "massive, just massive." Without these requirements, they claimed, "Duncan could have cut its tuition in half, maybe by two-thirds."

The article gave the clear impression that Duncan was awaiting a final decision on whether it would receive accreditation without any foreknowledge of its likely fate."

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Torts Today: Aliens denied equal access to health benefits: Mass. Supreme Court

2012-01-07T17:16:00.000-05:00

Torts Today: Aliens denied equal access to health benefits: Mass. Supreme Court:

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The G.O.P.’s ‘Black People’ Platform - NYTimes.com

2012-01-07T16:49:00.000-05:00

Charles Blow points out that it's race-baiting time because it's voting time. The Republican Party has in the past 40 years repudiated its venerable role as the party of Lincoln. Now the contest is on to tip toe up to the line - signal resentment of the lazy (especially black) people who want welfare not work. At the high end it's Mitt Romney denouncing President Obama as the apostle of an "entitlement society", not an "opportunity society". It is facially neutral but disparate in impact.

Blow points out:

Kevin Phillips, who popularized the right’s “Southern Strategy,” was quoted in The New York Times Magazine in May 1970 as saying that “the more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans.”

The G.O.P.’s ‘Black People’ Platform - NYTimes.com:

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Postpone mandate test, Court urged : SCOTUSblog

2012-01-07T14:04:00.000-05:00

The lawyer appointed by the Supreme Court to address the Anti-Injunction Act issue in the 26 state challenge to the Affordable Care Act has urged the Supreme Court to back off. The court-appointed amicus argues in his brief :It's a tax and a taxpayer challenge is premature until it has been imposed Dismiss the appeals now and deal with the issues of the individual mandate after it becomes effective in 2015, argues Robert Long of Covington & Burling.
Lyle Denniston reports on Scotusblog.

Postpone mandate test, Court urged : SCOTUSblog:

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The president's underappreciated, undersold success stories | David Rothkopf

2012-01-06T20:04:00.000-05:00

The president's underappreciated, undersold success stories | David Rothkopf: " "

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Torts Today: Kenneth Feinberg freezes payments from BP oil spill fund | NOLA.com

2012-01-05T10:20:00.000-05:00

Torts Today: Kenneth Feinberg freezes payments from BP oil spill fund | NOLA.com:

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Robert L. Carter, Judge and Desegregation Strategist, Dies at 94 - NYTimes.com

2012-01-04T23:39:00.000-05:00

NAACP lawyers: Louis Redding, Robert L. Carter,
Oliver Hill, Thurgood Marshall, Spotswood Robinson, II

U.S. District Judge Robert L Carter was, in the view of many, the key architect of the successful desegregation strategy of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.
Torts Today: Robert L. Carter, Judge and Desegregation Strategist, Dies at 94 - NYTimes.com:

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No. 22 Harvard Loses to Fordham - 60 - 54 NYTimes.com

2012-01-04T23:27:00.000-05:00

Fordham 60 Harvard 54!
No. 22 Harvard Loses to Fordham - NYTimes.com: "The nonconference victory by the Rams (7-6) ended their 54-game losing streak against ranked opponents. The last time Fordham defeated a ranked opponent was on Feb. 26, 1978, when the Rams beat No. 18 Georgetown, 63-59.

Fordham already has won as many games this year as it did under Tom Pecora last season, his first at the university, and the Rams have beaten two notable opponents in a row. They defeated visiting Georgia Tech, 72-66, last Thursday.

“This place is a pit,” Pecora said of the cozy gymnasium in the Bronx, which was loud Tuesday even though students are still on semester break. “It can be for us what Cameron is for Duke.”

Then, as winter break descended upon Fordham’s Gothic campus, a team that features seven freshmen and four sophomores began to jell. The win over Harvard was the Rams’ third in a row, following defeats of Texas State and Georgia Tech. All at home in their little slice of New York basketball history.

Rose Hill Gym, with a capacity of 3,470, opened in 1925 and is the oldest gymnasium still being used by a Division I team. And, perhaps fitting for a team that plays in one of New York’s basketball landmarks, Pecora has assembled a squad that relies heavily on talent from the tri-state area.

Eight of the 15 players on the Rams’ roster are from New York City. Against Harvard, the starting lineup featured four players from Brooklyn and one — Chris Gaston, the team’s leading scorer — from Union City, N.J.

“That’s the only way I’ve ever done it,” Pecora said. “I’m New York, born and bred. Born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens. Live on Long Island, coach in the Bronx. Hang out in Manhattan, drive through Staten Island.”

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Political Animal - Gingrich takes off the gloves

2012-01-03T10:58:00.000-05:00

John McCain named his campaign bus the Straight Talk Express. Newt Gingrich tried that approach on CBS's Face the Nation - after absorbing the body blows of $3 million in negative adds by pro-Romney Superpacs. Steve Benen reports:

Political Animal - Gingrich takes off the gloves:

"“I have to ask you, are you calling Mitt Romney a liar?”
“Yes,” Gingrich replied.
“You’re calling Mitt Romney a liar?”
“Well, you seem shocked by it!” said Gingrich. “Yes.”"

The shocked hosts (CBS White House Correspondent Nora O'Donnell and anchor Bob Schieffer did seem shocked. Newt Gingrich replied:

Which part of what I just said to you is false?” he asked the surprised hosts. “Why is it that if I’m candid in person and I wanted to be honest in person, that’s shocking? If [Romney’s] PAC buys millions of dollars in ads to say things that are false, that’s somehow the way Washington plays the game. Isn’t that exactly what’s sick about this country right now? Isn’t that what the American people are tired of?”

Well, yes. But it is very hard for Serious People like Schieffer and O'Donnell to admit that the emperor's clothes are, well, tattered...
(The good stuff is about 3 minutes in)

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China Amends Law to Boost Occupational Illness Prevention, Control

2012-01-01T00:17:00.000-05:00

China Amends Law to Boost Occupational Illness Prevention, Control:

by CRenglish.com

"Upon the conclusion of a six-day bimonthly session on Saturday, China's top legislature adopted an amendment to the Law on Occupational Illness Prevention and Control in a bid to better protect worker's legal rights.

The amendment was added after the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the legislature, conducted a third reading of the draft, which had previously been read in June and October.

President Hu Jintao has issued an order to publicize the amendment, which will take effect from the day of its publication.

Occupational illness refers to those illnesses caused by contact with dust, radioactive materials or other poisonous, harmful elements during a worker's occupational activities with enterprises, public institutions and individual business units, according to the amended law.

The amended law highlights China's enhanced moves to simplify procedures to help those suffering from occupational illnesses and to protect worker's legal rights, as treatment for such illnesses has become a growing public concern."

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Candor to the tribunal: SEC, Citigroup and Judge Rakoff

2011-12-31T10:54:00.000-05:00

Candor to the tribunal is the command of common sense and RPC 3.3. In the high profile clash between District Judge Jed Rakoff and the SEC the agency did not inform the Court of Appeals from whom it sought an emergency stay that the judge had accelerated the briefing schedule and that a ruling by the trial judge was imminent. Nor did Rakoff know that the SEC, with Citigroup's concurrence, had sought the emergency stay. One minute before Rakoff issued an order denying the application the higher court granted the stay without the benefit of Rakoff's reasoning.

The trial court found the SEC and Citigroup's conduct to be "apparently materially misleading" and ordered the parties to provide the trial judge with a copy of all filings related to the application. The disputed order is Rakoff's rejection of a settlement and direction that the SEC and Citigroup prepare for trial. h/t Stephen Gillers/Legal Ethics Forum

Judge Rakoff Order of December 29, 2011

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Why the election matters: protecting injured vets

2011-12-30T20:32:00.000-05:00

The Department of Defense Does the Right Thing for Addicted Military Personnel « The Reality-Based Community:
by Keith Humphreys

"Tri-Care, DOD’s health insurance program, has historically refused to cover opiate substitution therapy (e.g., buprenorphine, methadone) for military personnel and family members who are addicted to pain killers and/or heroin. These life saving therapies not being covered is a tragedy and injustice at a time when addiction rates are soaring in the military.
Thankfully, DoD has wisely proposed to change Tri-Care’s insurance coverage for drug addiction treatment. This is a credit to the addiction medicine community who advocated from outside government for the change. It is also one of many reasons why elections matter: Obama-appointed officials in DoD, HHS and the White House drug policy office all pushed hard for this reform. As a result, the 9.6 million current and former military personnel and their families who are covered by Tri-Care will finally have access to evidence-based care for opiate addiction."

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Fund will be created to reimburse plaintiff attorneys working on BP litigation | NOLA.com

2011-12-30T09:39:00.000-05:00

Fund will be created to reimburse plaintiff attorneys working on BP litigation | NOLA.com:

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier has granted a hotly contested motion to create a fund that could eventually reimburse plaintiff attorneys for their work in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill litigation over the objections of several parties to the case.

Barbier's order does not actually award "common benefit fees," or the amount of money that the committee of plaintiff attorneys pressing the case for the benefit of all claimants would get to compensate them for their time and expenses.
Rather, it sets up a fund that would ultimately pay such fees, should they be awarded, and requires defendants and states in the case to begin holding back a percentage of any settlements as contributions to the fund.

A percentage of settlements reached through the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, the $20 billion fund administered by Washington mediator Kenneth Feinberg, will also be required to be contributed to the fund.

What America's Lawyers Earn - Magazine - ABA Journal

2011-12-29T23:37:00.000-05:00

What America's Lawyers Earn - Magazine - ABA Journal:

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Was the Iraq war worth it? - Bacevich: war is "normal" now

2011-12-29T23:25:00.000-05:00

The Council on Foreign Relations asked "Was the Iraq war worth it?" Andrew Bacevich deplores the narrow cost-benefit framing - and points to the vast consequences - including the `normalization' of the state of war. But that is the consequence not of the Iraq debacle but of the relentless succession of small wars - the U.S. interventions normalized by the Cold War. - GWC

Bacevich: After Iraq, War is U.S. – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs:

"Yet in inviting a narrow cost-benefit analysis, the question-as-posed serves to understate the scope of the debacle engineered by the war's architects. The disastrous legacy of the Iraq War extends beyond treasure squandered and lives lost or shattered. Central to that legacy has been Washington's decisive and seemingly irrevocable abandonment of any semblance of self-restraint regarding the use of violence as an instrument of statecraft. With all remaining prudential, normative, and constitutional barriers to the use of force having now been set aside, war has become a normal condition, something that the great majority of Americans accept without complaint. War is U.S."

'via Blog this'

Matinicus shooting case closed - Stephen Betts - Rockland - Camden - Knox - VillageSoup Gazette

2011-12-29T18:48:00.000-05:00

Matinicus Island, Gulf of Maine

Knox County Courthouse
Rockland, Maine

This is the end for legal proceedings arising from a shooting on the dock at Matinicus Island. A bitter dispute arose about the territory fished by a mainlander. One fisherman was crippled by the gunshot. The shooter and an armed companion - his daughter - were acquitted in a trial by jury in Knox County Superior Court in 2010. The civil claims have been settled now, Stephen Betts of the Knox Gazette, reports. Lives have been altered - none for the better, the full truth is known only to the participants - and not to all of them. A sad moment on a gallant island in the Gulf of Maine. - GWC

Matinicus shooting case closed - Stephen Betts - Rockland - Camden - Knox - VillageSoup Gazette:

by Stephen Betts

"ROCKLAND — The final lawsuit stemming from a July 2009 shooting on Matinicus Island during a lobstering dispute has come to an end."

'via Blog this'

ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 | ABA Board of Governors / Commission on Ethics 20 20

2011-12-29T17:38:00.000-05:00

Michael Traynor and Judith Miller chairs of the ABA Ethics 20/20 Commission report on the work so far. - GWC

ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 | ABA Board of Governors / Commission on Ethics 20 20:

The summary memorandum is HERE.

'via Blog this'

The Anti-Entitlement Strategy - Thomas Edsall - - NYTimes.com

2011-12-25T23:55:00.000-05:00

In a December 19 editorial in USA Today Mitt Romney delivered his counter to President Obama's progressive big thematic speech in Ossawotomie, Kansas. Romney declared the choice is between an "Entitlement Society or an Opportunity society". Obama framed the issue as whether we care for each other or pursue radical individualism. So the opposing candidates (it's a given the Romney gets the GOP nod) agree on what they differ about. Romney will run on the politics of resentment against Obama and the politics of hope (a job made much harder by the protracted difficulties and relentless opposition he has faced as President). - GWC
The Anti-Entitlement Strategy - NYTimes.com:
by Thomas B. Edsall

(Journalism professor, Columbia University)

"Romney’s goal is to persuade swing voters of the imminent moral and material danger that Obama and the Democratic party pose. Here are three more lines from the Romney op-ed.
Over the past three years, Barack Obama has been replacing our merit-based society with an Entitlement Society.
If we continue on this course for another four years, we may pass the point of no return. We will have created a society that contains a sizable contingent of long-term jobless, dependent on government benefits for survival.
Government dependency can only foster passivity and sloth.
This is not the Republicanism of compassionate conservatism, far from it. In recent weeks, the former Massachusetts Governor has laid down a set of markers planting himself firmly on the right – just as Obama has begun to stake out a more leftward position. In outline, we are seeing the beginning of the general election campaign.
Romney’s adoption of an anti-entitlement strategy comes at a time when he appears to be looking up from the primaries toward Election Day, which suggests that his hard-line stance will be central to his campaign against Obama and not just a temporary maneuver. We are headed toward an ideological confrontation over the next 11 months of an intensity rarely seen in American political history."

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President & Mrs. Obama - holiday message

2011-12-25T21:58:00.002-05:00

Barack and Michelle Obama's Christmas message (which makes a special appeal for military families) is excellent. Speaking as Christians they speak as members of the community - without a hint of the "Christian nation" intolerance to which some yield. - GWC

Medicaid Cuts Are Part of Larger Battle in Maine - NYTimes.com

2011-12-24T11:27:00.000-05:00

Paul LePage (Craig Dilger - NY Times)

Maine Governor Paul LePage, a guy with a rags to riches story, is a practitioner of the politics of resentment. Quick with one liners of the Reaganesque`welfare cadillac' sort, he eases the way for draconian Medicaid cuts for those with no resources - like the childless adults whose eligibility for assisted living he would end. The Times reports: - GWC
Medicaid Cuts Are Part of Larger Battle in Maine - NYTimes.com:

"AUGUSTA, Me. — At a town hall meeting in the rural western part of the state last week, a woman asked Gov. Paul R. LePage if he could confirm a worrying rumor she had heard: that poor out-of-staters flock here because the public benefits are so generous.

Yes, he could. “If you come across from New Hampshire at 8 o’clock in the morning, by 4 o’clock in the afternoon you will have subsidized housing in the state of Maine,” the governor declared. “We need to change the rules.”"

This month Mr. LePage announced a plan to reduce Maine’s Medicaid rolls by 65,000 people — about 18 percent of the total. He is asking the Republican-controlled Legislature to make childless adults and all 19- and 20-year-olds ineligible for the program, known asMaineCare, and to tighten income requirements for parents. He also wants to eliminate an array of optional benefits, including dental care and room and board at assisted living centers.
'via Blog this'

Judges Cancel Case Assignment Experiment - Law Blog - WSJ

2011-12-24T00:49:00.000-05:00

Loretta Preska - Chief Judge of the federal District Court in Manhattan has announced an amendment to the court's procedures. She has ordered revocation of the rule that a single judge shall handle all cases - civil and criminal - that arise from related transactions. This rule has enabled Judge Jed Rakoff to bring before him all the cases related to the SPIC v. Wilpon cases arising from the Madoff ponzi scheme. There appears to be a sense that Rakoff's high-profile may have gotten a little too high. - GWC

Judges Cancel Case Assignment Experiment - Law Blog - WSJ:

'via Blog this'

CLOSE THE ROMNEY LOOPHOLE

2011-12-23T22:34:00.000-05:00

CLOSE THE ROMNEY LOOPHOLE:

by Citizens for Tax Justice

"GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's personal wealth, estimated at $190 to $250 million, has been in the news a lot lately, including the sweet retirement deal he negotiated with Bain Capital, the private equity firm he used to head. The stories confirm CTJ director Bob McIntyre's comments to Time Magazine that Romney's multi-million dollar income is likely taxed at the special low 15 percent rate imposed on dividends and long-term capital gains.

This makes Romney a good poster child for the "Buffett Rule," the principle that millionaires should not pay lower effective tax rates than middle-income people. One step towards implementing the Buffet Rule is to close the loophole that allows "carried interest" (the fund managers' share of the deal they get as compensation) to be taxed at the 15 percent rate even though it is not truly capital gain."

'via Blog this'

Getting the Facts Straight: Payroll Tax Edition — The Monkey Cage

2011-12-22T23:41:00.000-05:00

Nolan McCarty, Princeton political scientist, explains how the Republicans and the Democrats get it wrong about consequence of cutting the Social Security payroll tax. The Republicans lie - claiming the cuts endanger seniors' benefits. (he explains). But the Dems just say the shortfall will be made up from "general revenues". They miss the opportunity to explain how the Social Security system actually works. It is not a pension you fund with your taxes. Social Security is an inter-generational transfer tax (we are paying our parents benefits with our current taxes).
A candid explanation is 1) the cuts get "paid for" by the government borrowing the money to pay the Social Security trust fund. 2) the surplus built up during the baby-boomer's working years will run out in/about 2025 when the pyramid turns upside down.

Getting the Facts Straight: Payroll Tax Edition — The Monkey Cage

This is because Social Security payroll taxes are and have been too low. Payroll income above $110,000 is not taxed for social security purposes. That mistake was made 20 years ago and Republicans - who are hostile to the very idea of Social Security - have refused to allow the "cap" to rise for the past 22 years (read my lips, the Grover Norquist pledge, etc.) And of course Democrats intimidated by the popular appeal of lower taxes have been complicit in this.

'via Blog this'

Firm hired to evaluate Ken Feinberg's oil spill claims process | NOLA.com

2011-12-22T10:55:00.000-05:00

Despite the campaign rhetoric that the Obama administration is committed to excessive regulation, it finds itself without an established mechanism to govern or assess the response by BP to its statutory obligation to pay compensation for both interim and permanent losses to those who suffered losses due to the Gulf oil spill which damaged natural resources and led to widespread economic dislocations. The Times-Picayune reports: - GWC

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday selected a New York consulting and investigations firm to evaluate Kenneth Feinberg's oil spill claims process. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perrelli sent a letter Wednesday to BDO Consulting's offices in New York and Houston urging the firm to immediately begin its review and report its findings by March.

Houma Courier archive, via APKenneth Feinberg at a meeting in Lafourche Parish in March.

"Where it has performed well, the people of the Gulf deserve to know that they have been fairly served," Perrelli wrote, referring to the Feinberg-run Gulf Coast Claims Facility. "Where it has fallen short, we must take appropriate steps to ensure that victims of the oil spill are fairly treated and properly compensated."

Feinberg has welcomed the independent evaluation and already agreed to pay for it. That caused Perrelli to warn BDO that it must stay "fully independent" from the GCCF. "While Mr. Feinberg has agreed that the GCCF will pay the costs associated with the review, your work will be overseen and directed by the Department of Justice," the letter said.

Firm hired to evaluate Ken Feinberg's oil spill claims process | NOLA.com:

'via Blog this'

Reality. What a Concept? | Talking Points Memo

2011-12-21T16:07:00.000-05:00

JOSH MARSHALL DECEMBER 21, 2011, 4:02 PM 90

No one disagrees at this point that the politics of the payroll tax stand-off is awful for Republicans. But in the midst of that realization there is chatter from folks at the Journal and a lot of flotsamy pundits to the effect that it is a dramatic political failure that Republicans have managed to make President Obama into the champion of tax cuts for average Americans.

To say that it is a stunning political failure suggests that the impression is wildly out of line with objective reality. But that’s not true. The President has been pushing middle and lower-middle class tax relief as the most viable (at least the most politically viable) path for stimulus. He’s redoubled on it in the last six months. But it was actually a major part of his original stimulus bill that passed with no Republican support in the House and virtually none in the Senate. Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans have been pushing a mix of budget cutting and tax cuts for high income voters. And they still are.

There’s nothing surprising about this. This is and has been a big focus of the President’s. Republicans have either ignored it or actively opposed it. They’ve just got it down to a pivot where it’s really obvious who is blocking it. It’s just reality. There’s nothing clever about it.

JOSH MARSHALL

Josh Marshall is editor and publisher of T

Reality. What a Concept? | Talking Points Memo:

'via Blog this'

PrawfsBlawg: Cavazos v Smith I

2011-12-21T11:29:00.000-05:00

PrawfsBlawg: Cavazos v Smith I:

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Christopher Hitchens - unlamented

2011-12-20T09:45:00.000-05:00

Christopher Hitchens died last week and the commentariat has been awash in adulatory obits, with a handful of exceptions, such as The Nation's Katha Pollitt (who recognizes he was a slanderer, a drunk and a bully but nonetheless finds kind words to speak of the dead man). Maybe he was rhetorically brilliant and rapier witted. But I signed off on him a long time ago. Hitchens was, in my view, an enemy of the left, even while he claimed to be of it. The only consistent theme in his thinking was stridency.

An exemplar of the nastiest characteristics of the British upperclass, his left phase was as part of the Trotskyite International Socialists whose principal targets have always been on the left - whether the communist parties which were denounced as "state capitalist" or the social democratic parties which are denounced as sell-outs. This was a very comfortable posture for a Tory who was going through his "left phase".

But when the big test of his political life came he was firmly on the wrong side. He was an unrepentant celebrant of the second Iraq war, as can be seen in this essay A War to be Proud Of which appeared in the Weekly Standard in 2005 - long after it was plain that this was a war to be ashamed of.

In his late phase as an iconoclastic atheist he was able to avoid the problem of his central moral failure by famously debating under BBC auspices the similarly flawed Catholic convert Tony Blair on the topic of whether religion plays a positive social role.

The Congressional Quagmire - David Frum

2011-12-20T09:08:00.001-05:00

David Frum is a very smart guy who is at war with himself. It's not that he is a RINO like conservatives charge. It's that his Republican Party - the one that preceded Richard Nixon and the southern strategy - doesn't exist anymore, and cannot be willed back to life. So it leaves him and Michael Bloomberg virtually homeless. And he is too smart to go for the `third party' dead end. - GWC
Congressional Quagmire | FrumForum:
by David Frum

"Why do we have to agree now on how to balance the budget later? Isn’t emerging from this economic slump a big enough challenge? No creditor is demanding an early budget-balance plan. On the contrary, the world is eager to lend the US money at bargain rates. Congress is so consumed by tomorrow’s problem that it will not address today’s crisis.
This is the real-world consequence of the wrong idea introduced to US politics that it is debts and deficits that caused the slump, rather than the other way around. For the moment, it’s all farcical. It could easily turn tragic."

Virtual Law Offices OK'd by California State Bar

2011-12-18T23:47:00.000-05:00

The California State Bar Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct has issued an advisory Draft Formal Opinion Interim No. 10-0003. It answers this question:

May an attorney maintain a virtual law office practice (“VLO”) and still comply with her ethical obligations, if the communications with the client, and storage of and access to all information about the client’s matter, are all conducted solely through the internet using the secure computer servers of a third-party vendor (i.e., “cloud computing”)?

The short answer is Yes. But additional diligence may be required to assure confidentiality of communications and safeguarding of client data.

'via Blog this'

Competition hasn’t worked in health care - The Washington Post

2011-12-18T23:04:00.000-05:00

The Ron Wyden(D-OR) - Paul Ryan(R-WI) "bipartisan" compromise on health care would be disaster. Ezra Klein explains. - GWC
by Ezra Klein
Competition hasn’t worked in health care - The Washington Post: "Republicans and Democrats have the same problem with the Congressional Budget Office: it refuses to score competition between health-care plans as a surefire way to lower the cost of health care.

This annoyed Democrats during the health-care reform debate, as it meant the Affordable Care Act didn’t get any credit for the competition it would foster on its exchanges. It’s annoying Republicans now, as it means their Medicare-reform plans need to impose blunt spending caps if the CBO to certify them as deficit reducing.

But the CBO is in the right here: No matter how much sense competition makes in theory, no matter how obvious it is that it will drive down the price of health care, the fact is that it keeps failing when we put it into practice."

'via Blog this'

For Law Schools, a Price to Play the A.B.A.’s Way - NYTimes.com

2011-12-17T23:01:00.000-05:00

It's common sense: there are too many lawyers: except that when you look at it most people are underserved. So there aren't enough lawyers - not enough that ordinary people can reach to get the advice they need. One reason: the cost of legal education. Some blame the ABA. Others (including me) blame the steady cutbacks in suppport for public universities. The Times keeps after the ABA. - GWC
by David Segal For Law Schools, a Price to Play the A.B.A.’s Way - NYTimes.com:

"THE library at the Duncan School of Law may look like nothing more than 4,000 hardbacks in a medium-size room, but it is actually a high-tech experiment in cost containment. Most of its resources are online, and staples like Wright & Miller’s Federal Practice and Procedure — $3,596 for the multivolume set — are not here.
“We have a core collection,” says Sydney Beckman, the school’s dean, “and if someone needs something else, we provide it.”
Duncan, which opened two years ago, has 187 enrollees, all of whom have wagered that this library — and everything else about the school — is up to scratch. Because before these students can practice in every state, Duncan needs the seal of approval of the American Bar Association, the government-anointed regulator of law schools."

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NJLJ - Gingrich plan threatens judicial independence

2011-12-17T21:24:00.001-05:00

The New Jersey Law Journal editorial board, in a rare statement addressed to a candidate for office, sharply criticizes former Speaker Newt Gingrich. - GWC
Copyright ALM media 2011. Reprinted with permission. No further reproduction without permission .

Triumph or Tragedy?

The Norman Rockwell painting of an African-American child escorted to school by a federal marshal is an iconic image of the shame of segregation and the triumph of justice, of federal supremacy over local intolerance as the judgment of Brown v. Board of Education was enforced in Little Rock, Arkansas. Repudiating the defiance of segregationist Gov. Orville Faubus, the Supreme Court declared inCooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1 (1958):

"Article VI of the Constitution makes the Constitution the 'supreme Law of the Land.' In 1803, Chief Justice Marshall, speaking for a unanimous Court, referring to the Constitution as 'the fundamental and paramount law of the nation,' declared in the notable case of Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 5 U. S. 177, that 'It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.' This decision declared the basic principle that the federal judiciary is supreme in the exposition of the law of the Constitution, and that principle has ever since been respected by this Court and the Country as a permanent and indispensable feature of our constitutional system."

But that moment of triumph — of finally realizing the power of the post-Civil War 14th Amendment — was not triumph but tragedy, according to presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich. In Position Paper No. 9 of his "21st Century Contract with America," he writes that he would reverse what we have all considered to a fundamental element of our constitutional system — judicial review:

"In the fifty-three years since Cooper v. Aaron, the Supreme Court has become a permanent constitutional convention in which the whims of five appointed judges have rewritten the meaning of the Constitution and assigned to themselves the last word in the American political process. Under this new all-powerful model of judicial supremacy, the Supreme Court — and by extension the trail-blazing Ninth Circuit Court and even some bold or arrogant district judges — federal judges have been able to redefine the Constitution and the law unchecked by the other two co-equal branches of government."

We disagree. The Constitution, for better or for worse, means what the Court says it means. The principle of judicial independence demands that we accept that precept, even when we think a Court decision is wrong. In such a circumstance the Constitution itself provides a narrow, rarely achievable mechanism for amendment.

Politics too provides a legitimate route to change: a president may appoint and the Senate may confirm as judges men and women who will revisit questions previous confronted. We recognize the frustrations of this system. As readers of this page know well, we have often disagreed with Court decisions. But while we criticize the Court, we will defend its independence against attacks from either end of the political spectrum. We wish, most likely in vain, that all of the candidates in 2012 would do the same.

December 17, 2011

The Nullification Chronicles Roll On - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic

2011-12-17T21:09:00.000-05:00

John Calhoun- architect
of nullification

The Congress is finally moving ahead on a budget bill and a temporary extension of the payroll tax cut. End of obstructionism and modern "nullification"? Unfortunately no.

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post explains again why obstructionism creates public hostility to both Democrats and Republicans, but eventually makes sense as a pure-political strategy for the GOP since a failure to govern inevitably weakens the incumbent president most of all.

This is really the way to run a modern country.The Nullification Chronicles Roll On - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic:

'via Blog this'

Sources of the National Debt

2011-12-15T21:02:00.002-05:00

Since the umpteenth Republican Presidential Debate is tonight (sponsored by Fox News) and there is certain to be misrepresentation about the Obama administration's economic policies. So here's a chart to rebut some of it. (for the full size chart click HERE)

Newt Gingrich: end of the surge | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

2011-12-15T11:23:00.000-05:00

The Newt bubble is popping.
And NO, Ron Paul will not be the Republican nominee.
Get ready for Mitt Romney. - GWC
Newt Gingrich: end of the surge | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk:
by Josh Marshall/Talking Points memo

"We've officially reached the end of the Newt Surge and – whether the data support the thesis or not – moved on to the Establishment Counter-attack. After a week or so of stunned silence, the Republican establishment, under the very uneasy leadership of Mitt Romney, has roused to the unavoidable truth (now backed up by hard data) that nominating Newt Gingrich means all but giving up any chance of taking the presidency in 2012."

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It’s Almost Time to Dream About What We Would Like Law Schools to Look Like— Last Installment on the History of Legal Education « SALTLAW

2011-12-15T01:43:00.000-05:00

Last of a four part series on legal education in America. - GWC

It’s Almost Time to Dream About What We Would Like Law Schools to Look Like— Last Installment on the History of Legal Education « SALTLAW:

by Hazel Weiser

Society of American law Teachers

"Perhaps it is time for all of us to ask the question: what does it mean to be a lawyer? As we go through this final year of the comprehensive review of standards governing law schools, perhaps we need to reexamine the concept of the “citizen lawyer” proposed by Thomas Jefferson: a class of residents who will act in the public good and not just for private gain"

'via Blog this'

Marines’ Haditha Interviews Found in Iraqi Junkyard - NYTimes.com

2011-12-15T00:52:00.000-05:00

Marines interview transcripts
were found in this trailer

By chance (though luck is the residue of design) a New York Times reporter saved 400 classified documents from the flames - official U.S. investigation of the killings of civilians in Haditha, Iraq. Evidence of U.S. soldiers traumatized and embittered by war. Never brought to justice, that escape embittered the Iraqis who refused to allow American soldiers to stay unless they would be subject to Iraqi justice. A deep irony for those, like me, who have traveled abroad to lecture on the virtues of American justice. - GWC

Marines’ Haditha Interviews Found in Iraqi Junkyard - NYTimes.com:

by Michael S. Schmidt

"BAGHDAD — One by one, the Marines sat down, swore to tell the truth and began to give secret interviews discussing one of the most horrific episodes of America’s time in Iraq: the 2005 massacre by Marines of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha."

'via Blog this'

China’s Latest Legal Crackdown - U.S. - Asia Law Institute

2011-12-14T00:38:00.000-05:00

this piece appeared first in the Asian edition of the Wall Street Journal. - GWC

China’s Latest Legal Crackdown - U.S. - Asia Law Institute:

by Jerome Cohen

"Before the end of this month, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress will review the second draft of a proposal for comprehensive revisions to China’s Criminal Procedure Law. Despite some tweaks made under public pressure, it’s clear the revisions will be one step forward and two steps back for justice, at least for the politically controversial."

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Do GOP Voters Care About Electability? — The Monkey Cage

2011-12-14T00:29:00.000-05:00

The short answer is YES. The Intrade market shows Romney to be the most electable. When GOP voters learn that they move sharply in his direction.

Do GOP Voters Care About Electability? — The Monkey Cage:

'via Blog this'

Torts Today: Arizona v. United States : SCOTUSblog

2011-12-13T13:13:00.000-05:00

Torts Today: Arizona v. United States : SCOTUSblog:

'via Blog this'

The indebted lawyer: Brian Tamanaha - Balkinization

2011-12-13T01:06:00.000-05:00

When I started law school in 1970 Boston University (which I turned down for Rutgers) cost $2,500/year. My first law job (as a business rep doing arbitration at Actors Equity) paid $13,500 - almost twice the cost of a private law school. Today law school costs nearly $150,000 and the average salary is $65,000 +/-. - GWC
Balkinization: by Brian Tamanaha

"Some of the recent criticism of law schools, including the article in the Times, has had anti-intellectual overtones. That is unfortunate. But it is not anti-intellectual to criticize legal education for being too costly for 45,000 law students (annually) nationwide because ABA/AALS accreditation standards impose the same "research university" model on all law schools. (As the author of six books in legal theory/law and society, it goes without saying that I value intellectual pursuits.)
Legal academics have responded to recent criticisms defensively or apologetically or defiantly. That is all beside the point. We should instead acknowledge that there is a serious problem with the economic structure of legal education and look for ways to solve it."

'via Blog this'

Gingrich: The cartoon professor

2011-12-13T00:44:00.000-05:00

The degraded Republican Party debates are a reality TV show version of genuine debates - like that among the 2008 Democratic candidates who actually debated three different health care plans - Hillary Clinton's, John Edwards's excellent plan, and Barack Obama's [which lacked the individual mandate Edwards and Clinton said was necessary].
Now that Herman Cain is gone and Rick Perry reduced to an SNL character we have the rise of the insufferable Newt Gingrich (whose bubble will burst - before November 2012, and probably before the GOP convention). Stephen Budiansky does an excellent take-down. Read the whole thing, not just the block quote below. - GWC
Stephen Budiansky's Liberal Curmudgeon Blog: The cartoon professor:

"I have been perplexed for some time why Newt Gingrich is routinely acknowledged even by his bitter enemies within the Republican Party as a "genius," but the answer turns out is simple: he acts exactly like one of those obnoxious elitist intellectual know-it-alls that the right-wing no-nothings think is the hallmark of an intellectual. He is constantly reminding us of his doctorate in history; he routinely claims he understands issues more deeply than anyone else; he has made a career of denouncing or (when he had the authority) eliminating professional expertise that might challenge his own certain pronouncements; and he is a veritable fount of crackpot "big" ideas (mining minerals on the moon, protecting the United States from sci-fi doomsday scenarios, and "fundamentally transforming" everything as a first step to doing anything."

A Republican Doubles-Down on Nullification - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic

2011-12-12T00:21:00.000-05:00

James Fallows is sounding the alarm on the routinization of the filibuster - an anti-majoritarian tactic permitted by Senate rules - and embraced with historically unprecedented frequency by the Mitch McConnell-led Republican Senate minority; and the just-say-no approach of the Republican majority in the House. Fallows calls it nullification: the adoption of a practice of refusal to cooperate: e.g. the rejection of Richard Cordray as director of the Conumer Financial Protection Bureau. - GWC

A Republican Doubles-Down on Nullification - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic:

'via Blog this'

Economist's View: "Structural Adjustment for the Middle Class?"

2011-12-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

Economist's View: "Structural Adjustment for the Middle Class?":

'via Blog this'

Newt Gingrich - overturning Marbury v. Madison and judicial review

2011-12-11T01:59:00.001-05:00

The Norman Rockwell painting of an African American child escorted to school by a federal marshal is an iconic image of shame and the triumph of justice, of federal supremacy over local intolerance as the judgment of Brown v. Board of Education was enforced in Little Rock, Arkansas. Repudiating the defiance of segregationist Governor Orville Faubus, the Supreme Court declared in Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1 (1958):

Article VI of the Constitution makes the Constitution the "supreme Law of the Land." In 1803, Chief Justice Marshall, speaking for a unanimous Court, referring to the Constitution as "the fundamental and paramount law of the nation," declared in the notable case of Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 5 U. S. 177, that "It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is." This decision declared the basic principle that the federal judiciary is supreme in the exposition of the law of the Constitution, and that principle has ever since been respected by this Court and the Country as a permanent and indispensable feature of our constitutional system.

But that moment of triumph - of finally realizing the power of the post-Civil War 14th Amendment, was not triumph but tragedy for Newt Gingrich. In Position Paper No. 9 of his "21st Century Contract with America" Newt Gingrich writes with his characteristic hyperbole that he would reverse what we have all considered to be a fundamental element of our constitutional system - judicial review:

In the fifty-three years since Cooper v. Aaron, the Supreme Court has become a permanent constitutional convention in which the whims of five appointed judges have rewritten the meaning of the Constitution and assigned to themselves the last word in the American political process. Under this new all-powerful model of judicial supremacy, the Supreme Court -- and by extension the trail-blazing Ninth Circuit Court and even some bold or arrogant district judges — federal judges have been able to redefine the Constitution and the law unchecked by the other two co-equal branches of government.

A link to the full paper is below. For Gingrich the Constitution means whatever he wants it to mean.

Bringing the Courts Back Under the Constitution NEWT 2012 Position Paper SupportingItem No. 9 of the 21st Century Contract with America:Restore the proper role of the judicial branch by using the clearly delineated Constitutional powers available to the president and Congress to correct, limit, or replace judges who violate the Constitution.

Republican Senators Refuse To Allow Confirmation Vote On Richard Cordray, Nominee For CFPB. Obama Vows To Fight. | The New Republic

2011-12-11T01:23:00.000-05:00

Richard Cordray -Consumer Protection nominee filibustered

As James Fallows has pointed out - we are facing the "new nullification": the Republicans' use of their Senate minority to turn the Senate into a body that requires a 2/3 majority. Their sheer obstructionism distorts the constitutional scheme. - GWC
"The Senate on Thursday took up the nomination of Richard Cordray, President Obama’s choice to lead the new consumer protection board. It did not vote to confirm him. The outcome isn’t at all surprising. But it’s important to take a step back and understand just what is happening here, because Republicans aren't simply weakening consumer protection. They're also weakening American democracy"

Republican Senators Refuse To Allow Confirmation Vote On Richard Cordray, Nominee For CFPB. Obama Vows To Fight. | The New Republic:

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Do Palestinians Teach Their Children to Hate?

2011-12-11T01:14:00.000-05:00

One of the frustrating things about watching the Republican Presidential debates is that almost any lie can be told if it is part of the alternate culture in which they live. Among tonight's frustrating moments was the claim by Michelle Bachmann that Palestinian school books teach children to hate by counting dead Jews. That myth has bee debunked by Nathan J. Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University.

Do Palestinians Teach Their Children to Hate?:

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A larger welfare state can mean a lower deficit - Ezra Klein - WaPo

2011-12-08T16:33:00.000-05:00

A larger welfare state can mean a lower deficit - The Washington Post:

by Ezra Klein

"...the United States’s debt burden is the product of an insufficiently large welfare state — at least with regard to health care. To see a stark illustration of that thesis, head to the Web site of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and download their health-care statistics for Canada and the United States.As recently as 1965, the cost of those two systems competed neck-and-neck. That year, Canada spent 5.9 percent of its GDP on health care. The United States spent 5.7 percent. But around that time, Canada was transitioning to its current single-payer system.

Over the next four decades, the growth of health-care costs slowed in Canada while it accelerated in the United States. By 2009, Canada was spending 11 percent of its GDP on health care — and covering everyone. The United States was spending 17.4 percent of its GDP and leaving 45 million uninsured. In dollar terms, we’re spending $3,600 more per person, per year, than Canada.If the United States had Canada’s health-care system, and Canada’s per capita health-care costs, we would have a much “larger” welfare state, but we wouldn’t have a deficit problem. Assuming we weren’t spending that money elsewhere, we wouldn’t even have a deficit."

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A plain blog about politics: Recess Review

2011-12-08T16:10:00.000-05:00

Today's rejection of Richard Cordray to head up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Republicans have blocked by invoking the 60-vote filibuster rule left President Obama a few options:

A plain blog about politics: Recess Review:
by Jonathan Bernstein
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ABA takes charge of Law School Grads' Employment Data

2011-12-07T08:27:00.001-05:00

In a marked change the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar - which has a quasi-monopoly hold on legal education requirements - will take direct responsibility for law school graduates's employment data. Several schools have been sued for posting misleading data and the financial crisis has focused attention on the problems of debt-burdened law grads unable to find sufficiently lucrative employment. The December 3 ABA Section Council Statement's key changes, according to American Lawyer Media (ALM) are:

• Law schools will report their graduate employment and salary data directly to the ABA, rather than through the National Association of Law Placement.
• Graduate employment information will be made available to the public faster. Instead of being published two years after a particular class graduates, the data will be collected earlier in the year and will be made public approximately one year after graduation.
• Law schools will have to report whether graduates are in jobs funded by the schools, themselves. They will have to stipulate whether graduates are in jobs requiring bar passage; positions for which J.D.s are an advantage; professional positions that do not require a J.D.; non-professional positions; and whether jobs are long-term or short-term.

President Obama: "In America, We Are Greater Together" | The White House

2011-12-06T21:15:00.000-05:00

In the most important economic speech of his presidency, Barack Obama went to Osawatomie Kansas to channel Teddy Roosevelt's speech a century ago. For the first time, as Robert Reich observed, a President addressed directly both the political ideology and the structural economic challenges that threaten America's favorite self-image: land of opportunity. In one of the highlights of a speech (HERE is the transcript) that should be read, the President said:

"But this isn’t just another political debate. This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, and secure their retirement.

Now, in the midst of this debate, there are some who seem to be suffering from a kind of collective amnesia. After all that’s happened, after the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, they want to return to the same practices that got us into this mess. In fact, they want to go back to the same policies that have stacked the deck against middle-class Americans for too many years. Their philosophy is simple: we are better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.
Well, I’m here to say they are wrong." VIDEO of this highlight

President Obama: "In America, We Are Greater Together" | The White House:

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Hey, Reporters (Filibuster Vocabulary Edition) - Jonathan Bernstein/ A Plain blog

2011-12-06T20:08:00.000-05:00

A plain blog about politics: Hey, Reporters (Filibuster Vocabulary Edition):

by Jonathan Bernstein

Remember, Senate Republicans -- breaking with precedent -- declared as soon as Barack Obama was elected that they would institute a true 60 vote Senate, which means that they have resolved to filibuster ever single bill and every single nomination, something that has never been done before. And they've followed through; I believe that they did allow one nomination to get through without 60 votes this year, but that's about it.

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Gingrich Ranks His Brain: As Smart as Reagan, Smarter Than Fox News - Politics - The Atlantic Wire

2011-12-05T23:51:00.000-05:00

Gingrich said his long absence from elected office could actually work in his favor, as he explained to The New York Times Magazine in 2009. Gingrich siad he buys into the theory of English writer Arnold J. Toynbee that leaders have to go away for a while before they can come back and lead. “I believe in the sense that, you know, De Gaulle had to go to Colombey-les-Deux-Églises for 11 years ... Departure and return. And someone once said to me, if you don’t leave, you can’t come back, because you’ve never left."

I promise that I won't obsessively post articles about what a fruitcake Newt is. But just for its archival value, this post by The Atlantic covers a good deal of his megalomania.- GWC

Gingrich Ranks His Brain: As Smart as Reagan, Smarter Than Fox News - Politics - The Atlantic Wire:

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Rubio’s False Bio: Why It Matters | FrumForum

2011-12-05T20:47:00.000-05:00

Sen. Marco Rubio

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is on the shortlist of many for VP. But he was recently busted for claiming on his Senate website that his parents fled Castro. Actually they came here when Castro was in exile - before he returned to the island to begin a guerrilla war in the mountains.
Rubio offered an implausible explanation:
“My understanding of my parents’ journey has always been based on what they told me about events that took place more than 50 years ago — more than a decade before I was born. What they described was not a timeline, or specific dates.”

Really? They were never clear to you - an aspiring politician - and you never asked What happened to you under Castro? When? Why? How you did you flee? And what did you do when you got here? Actually the answer is clear: he lied about his family history and he lied when he got caught because central to his public identity is the anti-communist street cred that comes from being from a Cuban family that "fled communism". Being from a family that immigrated to America to improve their economic situation is problematic for a Tea Party favorite these days.
Rubio’s False Bio: Why It Matters | FrumForum:

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Rumors Of Extramarital Affair End Campaign Of Presidential Candidate Who Didn't Know China Has Nuclear Weapons | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

2011-12-04T12:59:00.000-05:00

"One thing America has learned from this campaign is that running for President is a dirty business." - Herman Cain

Rumors Of Extramarital Affair End Campaign Of Presidential Candidate Who Didn't Know China Has Nuclear Weapons | The Onion - America's Finest News Source:

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Kaiser Health Tracking Poll -- November 2011 - Kaiser Family Foundation

2011-12-01T15:20:00.000-05:00

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll -- November 2011 - Kaiser Family Foundation: "After taking a negative turn in October, the public's overall views on the ACA returned to a more mixed status this month. Still, Americans remain somewhat more likely to have an unfavorable view of the law (44%) than a favorable one (37%).
The survey also finds that individual elements of the law are viewed favorably by a majority of the public. The law's most popular element, viewed favorably by more than eight in ten (84%) and "very" favorably by six in ten, is the requirement that health plans provide easy-to-understand benefit summaries. Also extremely popular are provisions that would award tax credits for small businesses (80% favorable, including 45% very favorable) and provide subsidies to help some individuals buy coverage (75% favorable, including 44% very favorable), as well as the provision that would gradually close the Medicare doughnut hole (74% favorable, including 46% very favorable) and the "guaranteed issue" requirement that prohibits health plans from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions (67% favorable, including 47% “very” favorable)."

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Legal Laughter with Vince August

2011-11-29T21:01:00.001-05:00

New Jersey attorney and part-time Municipal Court Judge Vincenzo Sicari has two crafts: lawyer and comedic actor. He is serious about both, as one can see in this in depth interview about his acting career under the stage name Vince August. New Jersey's Advisory Committee on Extrajudicial Activities has directed him not to appear on the ABC program "What Would You Do?". The Committee concluded that his appearance "could create an appearance of impropriety under the Code of Judicial Conduct."

Sicari has challenged that ruling. His appeal is pending before the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

What Newt and Mitt have in common - Ezra Klein

2011-11-29T18:32:00.001-05:00

Ezra Klein sets out a lot facts about the two candidates.

But let's remember the basic differences:

Mitt Romney is an opportunist of the classic sort: he calculates his positions as to how they will advance his short and long-term objectives.

Newt Gingrich is an unguided missile with grandiose ambition who flip-flops without regard to principle or long-term objective. He was for so many things before he was against them that he could keep an army busy trying to track them. Fortunately we have a lot of horse-race journalists who will do that for us.

But the Obama team should keep its eye on the ball: Romney - who is the inevitable nominee, and who - because he has not been in Congress - cannot be strangled with his party's record. - GWC

What Romney, Gingrich and Obama have in common - The Washington Post:

Romney and Huntsman vs. the Rest | FrumForum

2011-11-26T14:25:00.000-05:00

David Frum is what today's conservative ideologues call a RINO. What scares me is not his politics - but that his favorites Romney or Huntsman will win - and be beholden to the rest of the Republcan party - instead of being in a center-left coalition where they might actually do some good. - GWC

Romney and Huntsman vs. the Rest | FrumForum:

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The Military-Civilian Gap: Fewer Family Connections | Pew Social & Demographic Trends

2011-11-25T21:39:00.000-05:00

Russ Hoyle has been working on a project he calls The Divide - the growing gap between those who serve in the military and the rest of us. Both my mother and father are WWII vets (Navy - both!). For people of my generation the WAVE is the only surprise. WWII was a mass mobilization. So was Korea, and Vietnam. Three of my college classmates died in Vietnam. My dear friend John and my neighbor George were there too - and a lot of my peers. In the 2d Iraq war two of my second cousins served (one in combat): but I have no ties to any others. The Pew foundation reports. - GWC

The Military-Civilian Gap: Fewer Family Connections | Pew Social & Demographic Trends: "The Military-Civilian Gap: Fewer Family Connections
By Kim Parker

A smaller share of Americans currently serve in the U.S. Armed Forces than at any time since the peace-time era between World Wars I and II. During the past decade, as the military has been engaged in the longest period of sustained conflict in the nation’s history, just one-half of one percent of American adults has served on active duty at any given time. As the size of the military shrinks, the connections between military personnel and the broader civilian population appear to be growing more distant."

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The GOP's dual-trigger nightmare - Ezra Klein - Washington Post

2011-11-25T19:32:00.000-05:00

I have been of the view that President Obama actually came out pretty well on the debt limit fiasco and on last year's budget negotiations. Key to this view is that the Bush tax cuts were extended until after the election - when they expire. That puts them at the center of the presidential campaign - a point in the Democrats' favor - because the focus will be on middle-income tax cuts and upper-income tax increases. Do nothing and taxes go up for both. Obama's veto power is effective there. The "automatic trigger" cuts are defense-tilted and exempt Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare benefits. Ezra Klein explains. - GWC
Wonkbook: The GOP's dual-trigger nightmare - The Washington Post:

by Ezra Klein

There are two triggers. One is an extremely progressive spending trigger worth $1.2 trillion that goes off on January 1, 2013. The other is an extremely progressive tax trigger worth $3.8 trillion that goes off on...January 1, 2013. If you count reduced interest payments, the two policies alone would reduce future deficits by about $6 trillion. That's far more than anything the supercommittee came close to discussing. It's distributed far more progressively than anything the Democrats have even considered proposing. And all that needs to happen for it to pass is, well, nothing.
Republicans can't stop these triggers on their own. They need Senate Democrats and President Obama to join them in passing an alternative, or they need House and Senate Democrats to join them in overturning President Obama's veto of their alternative. So the only way for Republicans to avoid this dual-trigger nightmare is to somehow convince Democrats to bail them out. And for that, they have two points of leverage.

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1863 Abraham Lincoln - Thanksgiving Proclamation

2011-11-24T11:49:00.001-05:00

October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States
A Proclamation
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
Abraham Lincoln

h/t David Frum

GOP Presidential polls - dynamic graph | Talking Points Memo

2011-11-24T11:38:00.000-05:00

This dynamic `roll-over' graph of the GOP presidential polls shows the roller-coaster ride for the Not-Mitts. Romney reminds me of the Mondale campaign - in which I committed early and was rewarded with a seat on the National Platform Committee. Mondale did not clinch until June when he took New Jersey and California. Progressives resisted him as a compromiser - preferring Gary Hart or Jesse Jackson. The feel was like that we see now toward Obama by Move-On and Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
Obama's dilemma is that people were once ecstatic, then set-back by the Tea Party's surprising rise, then frustrated when Obama did not slay the dragon. - GWC

A Sight to Behold | Talking Points Memo:

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Alliance for Justice Praises Letter from 52 Members of Congress Calling for Investigation of Clarence Thomas' Disclosure Lapses | Alliance for Justice

2011-11-23T13:20:00.001-05:00

The ideologically tendentious Clarence Thomas wears his politics on his sleeve. He copiously lauds his Tea Party wife, speaks of grave threats to the Constitution in ways that suggest he is certain to find a way to vote to gut the Affordable Care Act. They are reasons why progressives intensely dislike his decisions. But such ideological commitments are not grounds for recusal. Justice Thomas does seem vulnerable, however for failure to make honest disclosures about his wife's income. It is a story that won't die. Now 52 Democratic Members of Congress have appealed to the Chief Justice. - GWC
Alliance for Justice Praises Letter from 52 Members of Congress Calling for Investigation of Clarence Thomas' Disclosure Lapses | Alliance for Justice:
"Alliance for Justice today expressed strong support for a letter sent by 52 members of Congress, spearheaded by Reps. Louise Slaughter and Earl Blumenauer, calling on the U.S. Judicial Conference to investigate possible violations of the Ethics in Government Act by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The letter echoes a similar request from Alliance for Justice and Common Cause made on October 5, 2011."

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MODERNIZING CONSERVATISM

2011-11-23T11:53:00.000-05:00

Despite the stunning resurgence of conservative politicians after Obama and the Democrats swept the 2008 elections - all is not well for the conservative movement says an American Enterprise institute writer. Frankly I don't understand the conservative creed. I just don't "get" the preference for small government, for the private sector, etc. Effective appeals to me, efficient appeals to me. But I have no inherent preference on which serves us better - public or private. - GWC

Breakthrough Journal: Issue 2 : MODERNIZING CONSERVATISM:

STEVEN F. HAYWARD

Anti-government conservatism is ascendant. Republicans will likely retake the Senate and may take back the White House in 2012. The Tea Party is the most significant social movement since the anti-war movement of the late sixties. But, warns Steve Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute in an article for the Fall/Winter issue of theBreakthrough Journal, conservatives have plenty of reason to worry. The 50-year libertarian project to shrink the welfare state is a manifest failure. Government is bigger than ever. Tax cuts didn't "starve the beast" -- for decades, the evidence shows, they grew it. What is a serious conservative to do? Rethink everything.

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Tax Cut Calculator - American Jobs Act

2011-11-23T00:38:00.001-05:00

HERE is the LINK

The Great Rope a Dope trick | TPMCafe

2011-11-22T16:17:00.000-05:00

The Great Rope a Dope trick | TPMCafe: "Barack Obama learned a political trick from Muhammad Ali called Rope a Dope. For you youngsters, this refers to the epic Rumble in the Jungle Heavyweight fight against George Foreman in 1974. "

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Merck Agrees to Pay $950 Million in Vioxx Case - NYTimes.com

2011-11-22T16:05:00.000-05:00

Merck Agrees to Pay $950 Million in Vioxx Case - NYTimes.com: "The Department of Justice said on Tuesday that Merck will plead guilty and pay $950 million to resolve investigations into its marketing of the painkiller Vioxx.

The agency said Merck will pay $321.6 million in criminal fines and $628.4 million as a civil settlement agreement. It will plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge that it marketed Vioxx as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis before getting Food and Drug Administration approval.

Merck stopped selling Vioxx in 2004 after evidence showed the drug doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke. In 2007, the company paid $4.85 billion to settle around 50,000 Vioxx-related lawsuits."

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Lincoln, Slavery and the Kansas-Nebraska Act

2011-11-22T14:55:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in class today that the common law tradition radically unites property and personal liberty (and has a weak conception of the common good). To illustrate the power of the liberty point; and that American slavery exposed American claims of liberty as hypocritical here are two passages from Abraham Lincoln in the book I am reading at the moment:The Fiery Trial - Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner.

Torts Today: Lincoln, Slavery and the Kansas-Nebraska Act:

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I am 66 years old

2011-11-22T14:34:00.001-05:00

h/t James Fallows

And the Super Winners Are… | FrumForum

2011-11-22T12:39:00.000-05:00

And the Super Winners Are… | FrumForum: "“Winners and Losers” headlines abounded after the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (JSC) whimpered to an end.

One of the most interesting analyses was in The Hill, written by Bob Cusak, although we disagree with some of his picks.

Here is our analysis. “and, the winner is…the Democrats!”

Here’s why we pick the Democrats as overwhelming winners in the past 11 month of the Fiscal Follies:"

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Torts Today: Elizabeth Warren '76 remembers Rutgers Law years

2011-11-22T12:35:00.000-05:00

Torts Today: Elizabeth Warren '76 remembers Rutgers Law years:

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Andrew Sprung: Was the Budget Control Act a 60-yard punt for Obama?

2011-11-21T23:24:00.000-05:00

OK, this is really inside baseball - but these budget negotiations really are complicated. Here's the basic fact: the Bush tax cuts (which reduced the Clinton tax increases to 39.5% for top earners) expire at the end of 2012 - having been extended by last Christmas's budget deal.

The Bush tax cuts obliterated the Clinton budget surplus and combined with the two major wars, the prescription drug benefit, the recession, and the stimulus to create the deficit.
Therefore the biggest step toward reducing the deficit is to let the Bush tax cuts expire. BUT those cuts went very deep - affecting the majority of earners - while benefiting high earners the most.

So the big issue of the 2012 campaign which begins now with the Super Committee's end - will be which Bush tax cuts will be allowed to expire. If NOTHING is done they all expire: so everybody gets a tax increase.

xpostfactoid: Was the Budget Control Act a 60-yard punt for Obama?:

by Andrew Sprung

"Nor do you have to credit Obama with playing multidimensional chess to think he may have achieved his chief goal at relatively modest cost. As the debt ceiling deadline approached, he drew one line in the sand -- not, as his allies craved, getting some mix of revenues into any deal, but rather gaining the power to raise the debt ceiling enough to last until 2013 without any further hostage taking scenarios. If you assume that a) Obama wanted a deal that included at least as much in cut spending as the Budget Control Act mandates [$1.2 trillion]; b) he is willing to live with the large defense cuts if he can't renegotiate them on his own terms; c) he will finally make a firm stand on the Bush tax cuts in 2012, insisting on either a restoration of the Clinton era top marginal rate or tax reform that provides more revenue than just that sunset would yield; and d) once Boehner backed out of the summer deal, a good outcome was impossible without and until Obama's reelection... then maybe he tacked his way to the lowest risk/highest yield strategy available to him."

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