Land Of The Flea

Statist Media Courtesan: All Rights are “Infringe”-able

"The cliché about shouting fire in a crowded theater was coined to justify a horrible Supreme Court ruling that upheld the prosecution of an individual who used his rights under the First Amendment to protest the draft during World War I. Rather than building on such bad precedents we should be correcting the abuses they produced. Leaving those matters aside, however, Andrea Mitchell apparently doesn’t understand that even in those cases, the government did not infringe rights through prior restraint – that is, pre-emptively punishing people for crimes they haven’t committed. That’s one of the myriad evils embodied in so-called gun control measures." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStatist Media Courtesan: All Rights are “Infringe”-able

Iran plans to phase out dollar, euro in foreign trade: Econ. min.

"Iran's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini says the country plans to phase out dollar and euro in its future international transactions after the US and the European Union (EU) imposed sanctions on Iran. '[Iranian] government has made up its mind to phase out vehicle currencies such as dollar and euro in its [foreign] trade,' Hosseini told reporters. He added that after the imposition of sanctions on Iran by the US and the EU, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) immediately moved to change the country's hard currencies reserves into euro and gold which 'was beneficial to the country.'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIran plans to phase out dollar, euro in foreign trade: Econ. min.

Debate intensifies over ‘draconian’ cyber crime laws after Aaron Swartz’s death

"As funeral services were held for Internet activist Aaron Swartz, the debate intensified over what some called a 'draconian' US computer crime law used by allegedly overzealous prosecutors. An online petition calling for the removal of the prosecutors in his case garnered more than 31,000 signatures Tuesday and some of Swartz’s supporters blamed a 1986 computer crimes statute for his suicide. Swartz, who was just 14 when he co-developed the RSS feeds that are now the norm for publishing frequent updates online and went on to help launch social news website Reddit, hanged himself in his New York apartment on Friday." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDebate intensifies over ‘draconian’ cyber crime laws after Aaron Swartz’s death

Glenn Greenwald: Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann: accountability for prosecutorial abuse

"Prosecutors are vested with the extraordinary power to investigate, prosecute, bankrupt, and use the power of the state to imprison people for decades. The US has become a society in which political and financial elites systematically evade accountability for their bad acts, no matter how destructive. Those who torture, illegally eavesdrop, commit systemic financial fraud, even launder money for designated terrorists and drug dealers are all protected from criminal liability, while those who are powerless - or especially, as in Swartz's case, those who challenge power - are mercilessly punished for trivial transgressions." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann: accountability for prosecutorial abuse

Here’s The List of 23 Anti-Gun Executive Actions President Obama Announced Today

"Gun Violence Reduction Executive Actions. Today, the President is announcing that he and the Administration will: 1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system. 2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system..." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHere’s The List of 23 Anti-Gun Executive Actions President Obama Announced Today

Wyden asks Obama’s terrorism chief for rules governing assassination of U.S. citizens

"'Senior intelligence officials have said publicly that they have the authority to knowingly use lethal force against Americans in the course of counterterrorism operations, and have indicated that there are secret legal opinions issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that explain the basis for this authority,' Wyden wrote. 'I have asked repeatedly to see these opinions, and I have been provided with some relevant information on the topic, but I have yet to see the opinions themselves.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWyden asks Obama’s terrorism chief for rules governing assassination of U.S. citizens

Bernanke urges Congress to lift debt ceiling

"US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday urged Congress to raise the nation’s borrowing limit as Democrats and Republicans battle over the federal budget. 'It’s very, very important that Congress take the necessary action to raise the debt ceiling to avoid the situation where the government doesn’t pay its bills,' Bernanke said at a University of Michigan forum. The United States ran up against its current borrowing limit of $16.4 trillion at the end of 2012, but the Treasury says it is using 'extraordinary measures' to extend the limit until late February." Continue reading →

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The Architect of Obamacare is Now Cashing in By Using Obamacare to Sue Insurers

"After nearly three years at the Department of Health and Human Services, longtime insurance regulator and plaintiff’s attorney Jay Angoff is returning to DC-based Mehri & Skalet, PLLC as a partner, where he will lead the firm’s insurance and healthcare practice. Is it relevant that the man who helped craft Obamacare’s regulations on insurers will now make lots of money by suing insurers based on those regulations? Think about the incentives at play here: If you are a lawyer working for the government, and you shape the laws in such a way as to make lawsuits easier, you are then making yourself more valuable to a potential future employer." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Architect of Obamacare is Now Cashing in By Using Obamacare to Sue Insurers

Americans Realize Washington Is the Problem, Support Cap to Control Spending

"Here’s some new polling data that seems very encouraging. Americans, by an overwhelming margin, think that Washington is causing serious harm to the nation. That same poll also found strong support for a limit on federal spending, which warms my heart since I’ve been trying to build support for a Swiss-style spending cap in America. I also was shocked to see another poll that found French and Italians were more supportive of spending cuts than Americans." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmericans Realize Washington Is the Problem, Support Cap to Control Spending

ICE Agents Raid Wrong House In Moore, OK

"With guns drawn in the home he's lived in for over 10 years, Estrada says agents realized after about five minutes they had the wrong guy. But he says he was kept in handcuffs for another 40 minutes to be fingerprinted. He says he was even asked for his green card. Carlos says he's done nothing but try to do what's right and obey the law. He's been a legal U.S. citizen since 1988. He was told he had been under surveillance by ICE agents for three years and was showed a picture of himself at his job in 2010." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingICE Agents Raid Wrong House In Moore, OK