Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Mail Flying From Yemen Targeting Jewish Chicago Targets Are "Credible Terrorist Threat"
The Washington Post reports that "President Obama said Friday that packages mailed from Yemen and intercepted in the last 24 hours contained explosive material and represented a "credible terrorist threat. The packages, mailed via UPS and FedEx, were addressed to two places of Jewish worship in Chicago, the president said. Obama, speaking four days before the midterm elections, did not specify any new security measures that would be taken or say that the nation's terrorist alert level had been raised. But he described the threat as serious, and pointed once again to Yemen as the source, saying his top terrorism adviser, John Brennan, had been in touch with that country's president. The two packages were intercepted at different locations, one on a UPS plane at the East Midlands airport near Nottingham, England, and the other at a FedEx facility in Dubai. Officials provided no detail on the kind of explosives found. U.S. counterterrorism officials believe the foiled attack may have been orchestrated by the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, which has been behind a series of recent attempts to strike the United States." Tweet
Mohammed Is Now Most Popular Name For Boys Born In...England!
The AFP reports that "Mohammed was the most popular name for newborn baby boys in England and Wales in 2009, according to official data released Wednesday." Tweet
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
November 2010 California Voter Guide
State Offices:
* Governor - Meg Whitman (Republican). Though it seems Governor Moonbeam has pulled ahead and is likely to win this one.
* Lieutenant Governor - Pamela Brown (Libertarian). Republican Abel Maldonado supported the largest tax increase in California history (in fact, the largest State tax increase in U.S. history) under the Governator last year. However, given how Democratic San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is a hardcore liberal, I can understand if some people plug their noses and vote for Maldonado anyway so as not to waste a vote. Plus, Brown is a libertarian economics professor, and that being a rare breed, it might be worth it to keep her in academia.
* Secretary of State - Damon Dunn (Republican). You should watch this biographical video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCNJQ5MhJIE or Hannity's profile of this candidate at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ-YMEDHr5k&feature=related to know why he deserves to win this race with enthusiastic support.
* Controller - Tony Strickland (Republican)
* Treasurer - Mimi Walters (Republican)
* Attorney General - Steve Cooley (Republican). My choice of John Eastman did not win the Republican primary, but Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley is still an easy choice over uber-lib San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris.
* Insurance Commissioner - Richard Bronstein (Libertarian). Like Maldonado, Republican Mike Villines last year also supported the largest tax increase in California history.
Federal Offices:
* US Senator - *IMPORTANT VOTE* Carly Fiorina (Republican), give Senator "Ma'am" the boot, and this is especially important because the race is still possibly in striking distance for Fiorina.
Propositions:
19 - Yes. I don't think marijuana possession should ruin someone's life by giving them a criminal record, and its a waste of resources to be prosecuting people for possession of marijuana. Also, the federal government needs to be sent a message that it is the proper role of the State of California in our federalist system to maintain the power to determine its own drug policies. Voting "yes" is sending a message to Eric Holder that he can take his DC threats of "vigorous enforcement" of federal marijuana laws and shove it.
20 - Yes. Take the power to draw and gerrymander Congressional districts out of the hands of the politicians in Sacramento.
21 - No. California does not need an extra car tax to "fund" parks, Californians pay enough taxes as it is.
23 - *IMPORTANT VOTE* Yes. California should not be inflicting upon itself a cap and trade scheme while unemployment is above 12%.
24 - No. The title is deceptive as it says that it "repeals recent legislation that would allow businesses to lower their tax liability," but if one reads the description it then says that it will result in "increased state revenues...from higher taxes paid by some businesses." Don't be fooled, send a message to Sacramento to leave businesses alone and stop hiding their tax grabs in deceptive language.
25 - No. Do not change the 2/3 legislature vote requirements for anything except a tax cut.
26 - Yes. This one actually fights tax increases.
27 - No. This one is in opposition to Proposition 20. Don't be confused. Yes on 20, No on 27 which gives the power to the political hacks to draw the districts. Any proposition that is about "consolidating authority" with the Sacramento politicians is deserving of opposition.
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Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Debating Constitutional Interpretation: Originalist Georgetown Professor Nicholas Rosenkranz vs. Liberal Stanford Professor Pamela Karlan
Though the debate has a lot of legal back and forth and the liberal attempts to couch her views in some sort of coherent legal theory, the bottom line is that she openly admits that if she were to oppose a future President Sarah Palin nominee to the Supreme Court it would be based simply on the nominee having the "wrong views." She then admits that if they were to say that "I am an originalist" that she would "not have a response to that... [I]f you really are an originalist...I don't have a response to that other than to say I don't like your method because I think you ought to also look at changed social understandings... but if you are uninterested in precedent and you are uninterested in popular understanding of the term than I don't have anything to say to you... Of course I would say to people to vote against a Constitutional nominee who is against your Constitutional vision, but beyond that I don't know what I can say." What she could say is what Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to William Johnson in 1823: "On every question of construction, let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
To watch the debate for yourself visit http://www.acslaw.org/node/17012.
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