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| Associate Justice Roberto Rivera Soto |
Sharp comments on Justice Rivera Soto's sit-down strike: from columnist Charles Stile in The Record (Hackensack, NJ)
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Stile: Free advice to no-show justice: Just pack it in - NorthJersey.com
Time for Justice Rivera-Soto to resign | NJ.com
State Supreme Court Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto embarrassed the court once before, over personal misbehavior that forced his fellow justices to censure him in 2007.
But now he has gone overboard. Now, he has insulted his fellow justices and accused them of partisan political motivations. More important, he is refusing to cast votes or write decisions on the cases before him.
Enough. This appointment was a mistake from the start. It is time for Rivera-Soto to resign. He is essentially refusing to do his job anyway.
This dispute has its roots in Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to remove Justice John Wallace from the court earlier this year. Until then, governors in both parties had reappointed justices in good standing, despite ideological differences. Christie was the first to attack the court’s independence by subjecting justices to a political litmus test.
Monday, December 13, 2010
The Nixon tapes remind us what a vile creature Henry Kissinger is. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
Never liked Hitchens. Never trusted the Trotskyists. But he has nailed Kissinger here.
The Nixon tapes remind us what a vile creature Henry Kissinger is. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
Maine House District 120: Trevorrow challenges incumbent Russell in Portland | The Forecaster
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| Diane Russell |
If only more of our representatives sounded these notes.
Diane Russell was returned to the Assembly by voters in Portland, Maine
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Thomas Friedman - Grim Prospects for Israelis and Palestinians
- Astonishing - and grim.
- from Thomas Friedman's Op-Ed essay, Reality Check, in Sunday's Times:
I understand the problem: Israeli and Palestinian leaders cannot end the conflict between each other without having a civil war within their respective communities. Netanyahu would have to take on the settlers and Abbas would have to take on Hamas and the Fatah radicals. Both men have silent majorities that would back them if they did, but neither man feels so uncomfortable with his present situation to risk that civil war inside to make peace outside. There are no Abe Lincolns out there.
What this means, argues the Hebrew University philosopher Moshe Halbertal, is that the window for a two-state solution is rapidly closing. Israel will end up permanently occupying the West Bank with its 2.5 million Palestinians. We will have a one-state solution. Israel will have inside its belly 2.5 million Palestinians without the rights of citizenship, along with 1.5 million Israeli Arabs. “Then the only question will be what will be the nature of this one state — it will either be apartheid or Lebanon,” said Halbertal. “We will be confronted by two horrors.”
The most valuable thing that President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could do now is just get out of the picture — so both leaders and both peoples have an unimpeded view of their horrible future together in one state, if they can’t separate. We must not give them any more excuses, like: “Here comes the secretary of state again. Be patient. Something is happening. We’re working on a deal. We’re close. If only the Americans weren’t so naïve, we were just about to compromise. ... Be patient.”
It’s all a fraud. America must get out of the way so Israelis and Palestinians can see clearly, without any obstructions, what reckless choices their leaders are making. Make no mistake, I am for the most active U.S. mediation effort possible to promote peace, but the initiative has to come from them. The Middle East only puts a smile on your face when it starts with them.
Peter Orszag - from the Oval office to Citibank in five months
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| President Obama with Peter Orszag |
When the President's former whiz-kid Director Office of Management & Budget steps into a megabucks job with a company that was recently rescued by the federal government - that is not change we can believe in. That is no change at all. That is how regulatory capture works.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Remembering Sylvia Pressler
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| Sylvia Pressler, P.J.A.D. |
"One should not just ask `what does the case hold'?, but also what is good, what is just and what is kind? Sylvia asked and answered those questions and for that we are grateful."
Deborah Poritz
Deborah Poritz, Chief Justice (Ret.), Supreme Court of New Jersey.
The 2010 Weintraub Lecture at Rutgers-Newark Law School, my alma mater, was delivered as a duet by two of the women who were among the very first to lead the New Jersey judiciary - Virginia Long, Associate Justice, and Deborah Poritz, retired Chief Justice. It was a `sisterhood is powerful' event as the two women played tribute to the late Sylvia Pressler, liberal lioness of the Appellate Division of the Superior Court, maven of the Civil Practice Rules Committee and stalwart of thirty years on the bench.
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| Virginia Long |
The Obama Tax Cuts - Austan Goolsbee, Council of Economic Advisers
Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, makes a straightforward presentation of the deal that is the subject of today's passionate debate, and of severe criticism on the left:
Gail CollinsFalling Off the Bandwagon - NYTimes.com
Gail Collins: falling off the drawing lines in the sand bandwagon.
Falling Off the Bandwagon - NYTimes.com
Falling Off the Bandwagon - NYTimes.com
Why Progressives Should Accept the Tax Deal - ReligiousLeftLaw.com
"I think it is surprising that Obama got as good a deal as he did – particularly since he started the process by negotiating with himself. I am not sure the tax cuts are a good idea - even for the middle class (politically mandatory as they may be). We would be better off with a jobs program that would rebuild our infrastructure and a more generous welfare program (welfare benefits even for the disabled are indefensibly stingy). But the perfect should not be the enemy of the good or even the not-so-good-but-the best-we-can-get."
Steve Shiffrin
"The Democrats have established that the Republicans are acting like moral lepers. They have teed up the issue for 2012. Of course, there is an urge not to accept a compromise with the corrupt. But would the Democrats get a better deal in 2011 with a House controlled by Republicans and an easy filibuster in the Senate? And, if the middle class tax cuts are held up while both parties haggle, who is to say that the Democrats will not get a healthy share of the blame? After all, this is the same electorate that voted in the representatives of greed. "Why Progressives Should Accept the Tax Deal - ReligiousLeftLaw.com
Steve Shiffrin , Cornell Law School, is author "The Religious Left and Church-State Relations (Princeton U. Press 2009)
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Social Security Fund Untouched: Accounting for the Payroll Tax Cut
NJ Ethics Committee Blocks Surety's Demand that Attorney Protect Surety
The New Jersey Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics reviewed an inquiry from an attorney who represents the administrator of an estate. Opinion 719, published today, is binding in New Jersey, though any party affected (or bar association) may petition the state's Supreme Court for review.The Administrator was required by the Surrogate to obtain a surety bond. The Administrator, however, had poor credit and the surety companies to whom he applied set conditions for issuance of the bond. The conditions included an agreement by the attorney that the attorney will remain involved in the matter; will pay the bond premiums; will protect the interests of the surety as well as the client administrator; will provide legal services “for the benefit of the surety”; will exercise joint control over estate assets; and will notify the surety if the client administrator breaches his or her fiduciary duty. The inquirer asked whether he may, consistent with the Rules of Professional Conduct, comply with such conditions. The Committee finds that compliance with these conditions is prohibited by the Rules of Professional Conduct:
An attorney who complies with these requirements becomes a co-fiduciary with the client administrator. The attorney may not, consistent with the Rules of Professional Conduct, provide legal services to a client administrator under these circumstances.
Unemployment extension: Obama gets stimulus $$
The letter here is the plea to the President and Congressional leadership by leading progressive economists to do just that. More on the positive elements of the plan later: including the payroll tax cut.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
67 stents, 28 coronary angiograms, and a crippled healthcare system
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| Eric Topol, MD |
Eric Topol, director of cardiology at Cleveland Clinic/Case Western asks in this video does this make sense? One man - 28 angiograms, 67 stents? We will hear in the coming debate on health care reform about the dangers of government rationing of health care, and scare tactics using distorted claims about Canada and England. But like the star cardiologist who inserted 30 stents in one day and was rewarded by Abbott Labs - even after the whistle blue - we should look at case reports like this and ask:
Are there any controls for over-treatment in our system?
The hospitals benefit from the fees, as do the manufacturers, and interventional cardiologists.
The tort system is an after the fact remedy - not an efficient regulator.
Everyone hates pre-clearance by insurance companies or government (Medicare and Medicaid ) .
Do you have a better idea?
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| heart attack diagram |
In PISA Test, Top Scores From Shanghai Stun Experts - NYTimes.com
So to improve our competitiveness in math and science we should send them Republican Congressmen who will explain why we should abolish the federal Department of Education and encourage them to do the same, so that their scores drop down to our level. It's kind of a reverse Sputnik moment strategy.
click on image to enlarge
Sen. Kerry on the tax cut debate (pre-deal)
A very competent presentation by John Kerry. Remember that most of the 65 seats the Democrats lost were in pretty conservative places or places with rather narrow margins for Obama in 2008. How to win them back is they key question. We will be fighting over taxes for the next two years - that's what today's deal guaranteees.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Can Obama Win Back His Base? - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com
Politics is the art of the possible, so compromise is a must. For Obama the problem, surprisingly, is the vision thing. Not the vision of peace, the vision that goes beyond race and beyond national chauvinism; but the vision to persuade people that he has got the fire to claw back what we have lost in the years of conservative ascendancy - now that the right has got its mojo back.
This piece in the Times is worth a look. It is comments by several observers.
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