CaliLaw Review

Obama Tax Cuts and Stimulus

2010-09-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

Did anyone commenting here read (elsewhere) about the latest Obama business TAX CUT? If they think about it, I don't believe anyone is against the government giving us our money back, or spending it to help jump start job creation (we're so bad off, government or private sector really doesn't matter). It sounds good -- in theory. Problem is, the Federal Government is in the red, it doesn't have the money to spend, so the spending is debt. Taxpayers are ultimately supposed to foot the bill (in the future), but it's unpopular, and can hurt the recovery. Dems or GOP do the same stunts for obvious political reasons and to manipulate public opinion, so expect more for the next 2 years and beyond (whoever wins midterm or in 2012). Trouble is, tax cuts (of any kind), mean the government brings in less to pay down the debt, so it will continue to borrow from countries like China at the same time it's making them richer from "free trade" that always seems to benefit everyone but US citizenry. I'm not a Republican (anymore) and certainly have no love for the Tea Party or other right wing groups, but am reaching the conclusion that Federal spending is a problem and Keynesian economics will not aid this recovery as it seemed to during the Great Depression. New Protectionist have good arguments for microeconomics replacing Globalization with more stable and sustainable Localization. In a trade war, the US would win, because of abundant resources and educated workforce. Tragically, the US is so indebted to foreign governments that it may already be too late to stem the tide and break the cycle of borrowing and giving away our future,

Not In California - What's Wrong with the Arizona Immigration Law

2010-05-19T20:36:00.001-07:00

http://www.truthout.org/behind-the-arizona-immigration-law-gop-game-to-swipe-the-november-election58877

Requiem for the Dream Ticket

2008-09-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

It is perverse irony that Barack Obama probably feels his struggle, ambitions and dreams for the Whitehouse were snatched in an instant by a young usurper who came out of nowhere and overshadowed his celebrity and air of inevitability and destiny. Sound familiar?

Why Rev. Wright is Not Wrong

2008-04-25T15:36:00.000-07:00

Perhaps going public will hurt the media and the political attack dogs Hillary Clinton and the Republican Right Wing have set on this man. Reverend Wright is still a Man of God, who has much greater moral authority than those who have publicly used him for their purposes. By all accounts, he has a lifetime of achievement and community service that reflect the best in our nation. ABC News and most other mass media are too exploitative to honestly report his sermons and life's work in context, and are too cowardly to defend him on the basis of the First Amendment their profession is charged to protect. That same First Amendment guarantees our right to religious freedom, freedom of religion and freedom to assemble. The Rev. Wright persecution and exploitation challenges all of these core values and is a test our the wisdom of our nation and our times. Bill Moyers is one of the few remaining TV journalists with integrity, and the Editors of CaliLaw Review have only praise for his courage to remind us what the First Amendment means, and how the scourge of McCarthyism is very much alive in our country. It has no place in our Democracy, and we should all hold the highest contempt for those who strive to resurrected it.

8th Amendment and the RIAA verdict

2007-10-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), won a case against Jammie Thomas, a Minnesota resident, Ojiibwa tribe native and mother of two. The fine of $220,000 plus legal fees made Ms. Thomas not only the first individual in the U.S. convicted in trial of music piracy, but a striking reminder of how justice can be perverted when large corporations seek to make an example of individual citizens with less means to defend themselves. Is the 8th Amendmend of the United States Constiutution ignored in today's legal system? It reads:

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

As much as the Jena 6, this case brought attention to unequal prosecution in America, the Jammie Thomas case shows our courts are increasingly neither fair, or just. The freedoms we hold dear are in peril, and it can only be hoped this is appealed on 8th Amendment grounds, to the U.S. Supreme Court if needed. Towards that end, we encourage donations at http://freejammie.com.

Free Speech and the Taser Incident

2007-09-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

Sentator Kerry's website invites comments on this topic, but doesn't post any of them. Therefore, I submit my post to the Senator here:

One website expressed a view I've heard over and over as the incident becomes a free speech debate. The view was that intervening -- telling the officers to STOP isn't something a politician would do, but it's what a man would do. I do not know what kind of man you are, sir, but I voted for you in 2004. I wasn't naive to think of you as some sort of hero, but I believed you had the courage of your convictions, and would do more to safeguard the Consitutional freedoms we hold so dear. I was deeply troubled that none of that courage surfaced when it was tested by this seemingly innocuous event. I remember Kent State. This was not it, but you saw the face of Fascism only a few feet away, and blithly turned away.

.: Reinstrate the Draft - Military :. .: All American Patriots :.

2006-11-25T01:28:00.000-08:00

.: Rev. Jackson Comments on Congressman Rangel's Proposal to Reinstrate the Draft - Military :. .: All American Patriots :.

Civil Liberities In the Election

2006-11-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

Will the mid-term rise of the Democratic congress change the prospects of improved respect for Civil Liberties or revision of the Patriot Act? See article and have your say!

2006-11-11T13:12:00.001-08:00

2006-10-10T05:10:00.000-07:00

Barrons Educational Series Inc - Barrons How To Prepare For The LSAT: Law School Admission Test (Barrons How To Prepare For The LSAT Law School Admission Test

Exclusive: HP May Face Civil Charges - Newsweek Business - MSNBC.com

2006-10-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

Exclusive: HP May Face Civil Charges - Newsweek Business - MSNBC.com

The Self Defeating War -- Bush, an American Nero

2006-09-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

George Soros wrote perhaps the most succinct assessment of the worst policy since Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD):

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060930/cm_huffpost/030591

At least the proposition of MAD was that insanity could be a deterrent. The Bush/Rice/Rumsfield "war on terror" is all incompassing foreign/domestic policy that seems to have blinded the current administration to the inevitable conclusion of our present course, which is no less than the destruction of our Republic. Our future is burning as never before, and History will judge whether our Democracy prevails or we have doomed ourselves to repeat failures of past Empires by ignoring its lessons.

What Did Bush Know and When Did He Know It?

2005-09-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

"When we get the big hurricane and there are 10,000 people dead, the city government's been relocated to the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain, refugee camps have been set up and there $10 billion plus in losses, what then?'" - Shea Penland, geologist and professor at the University of New Orleans - Risk & Insurance Article December, 2000

PBS: Now, with Bill Moyers -- City in A Bowl, September, 2002

Reuters AlertNet - Brain dead American woman gives birth to girl

2005-08-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

Reuters AlertNet - Brain dead American woman gives birth to girl
Stranger then Fiction Concept idea: this could be the basis of a sci-fi horror tail of a group that discovers a market to artificially inseminate brain-dead women to give live births...

CNN.com - Should Plame sue Rove? - Jul 29, 2005

2005-07-30T10:42:00.000-07:00

CNN.com - Should Plame sue Rove? - Jul 29, 2005

Why Terri Schiavo Matters

2005-03-30T07:16:00.000-08:00

Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide

At 25, Terri became incacpacitated after less than 5 years of marriage. The 15 years since has brought her husband another woman and children, and he should not have rights to make life or death decisions on her behalf. We will be judged as a civilsation by how we treat severely disabled and aged. There are thousands of like this poor woman. A system that says mercy killing is illegal but allows state sponsored death by starvation is a monstrous horror.