Posts Tagged ‘history’

The Tube court

Posted: March 3, 2009 by datechguy in tech
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The NY Times note another change is how things are done:

The Supreme Court is entering the YouTube era.

The first citation in a petition filed with the court last month, for instance, was not to an affidavit or a legal precedent but rather to a YouTube video link. The video shows what is either appalling police brutality or a measured response to an arrested man’s intransigence — you be the judge.

Such evidence vérité has the potential to unsettle the way appellate judges do their work, according to a new study in The Harvard Law Review. If Supreme Court justices can see for themselves what happened in a case, the study suggests, they may be less inclined to defer to the factual findings of jurors and to the conclusions of lower-court judges.

Like every other change of this nature, when it first happens it is interesting, the time will come with it is the norm, but its worth noting.

If the Anchoress is echoing me…

Posted: February 24, 2009 by datechguy in Blame Bush, opinion/news
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…then I know I’m on the right track:

Seems increasingly like all the “Fascist Bush” caterwauling was the usual fake, dishonest theater meant as a means to an end – the end being to destroy the hated “election stealer” and his legacy, and not much more.

But you know, for someone who “did everything wrong,” his policies suddenly seem wise and right to some surprising people.

It’s easy to campaign and criticize. It’s much more difficult to govern, especially knowing that if you don’t keep the country safe, you don’t get re-elected.

And if you don’t get re-elected, good heavens! How can you continue and complete the coup?

Even with restrictions to free speech and the press watching your back as much as possible, and destroying all possible rivals, it will be very hard for them to spin it if people start saying, “at least Bush kept us safe, not like Obama.”

The whole article is one of the best things I’ve read in a while. She put it much better then I did and launches a defense of the Bush Administration that is well deserved.

Arthur vs Carter watch, I didn’t think it was possible…

Posted: February 23, 2009 by datechguy in arthur vs carter, war
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…for the Obama administration to get this low:

The Obama team was not only silent on the new “Israel is racist” language, it also said nothing when faced with Holocaust denial. Negotiators from the European Union suggested on Wednesday a new provision to “condemn without reservation any denial of the Holocaust and urges all states to reject denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full, or in part, or any activities to this end.” Iran–whose president is a Holocaust-denier–immediately objected and insisted that the proposal be “bracketed” or put in dispute. The move blocked the adoption of the proposal and ensured another battle over the reality of the Holocaust in April–at these supposedly “anti-racism” meetings. After Iran objected, the chair looked around the room, expecting a response. He said: “Is there any delegation wishing to comment on this new proposal by the European Union? It doesn’t seem the case. We move on.” U.S. delegates said nothing, even after the prompt.

The official US delegation of the Obama administration was not willing to officially object to Holocaust being in dispute. Can’t make Iran angry.

Since the Obama administration is not a Pseudo Bishop without actual standing in the Catholic Church I suspect the media will not jump on this at all, but the Arthur Carter Watch does:

Carter 11 Arthur 4

Via Glenn

The Indispensable man

Posted: February 23, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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The American Spectator has a first rate article tweaking the attempt to Blame Hoover for the actions of Bill Moyers during the LBJ era:

The Washington Post’s scoop, and Moyers’s non-denial denial, regurgitates a familiar excuse: Hoover did it. In this time-worn script, the FBI director plays the role of Mephistopheles, with various liberal presidents cast as the innocent with the pesky devil upon his shoulder.

He goes through the litany of the Democratic/liberal and concludes thusly:

J. Edgar Hoover is necessary to square the soaring liberal rhetoric on civil liberties with the atrocious civil liberties records of liberal presidents. With an ideology extolling civil liberties crashing into its record of smashing civil liberties, ideologues reshape the facts to fit the ideology. The blame-Hoover template asks readers to believe that the president takes orders from the director of the FBI rather than the reverse. It portrays the world-class arm-twister Lyndon Johnson as a man prone to crying uncle, Woodrow Wilson as secretly opposing his administration’s policies, and the Kennedys acceding to electronic surveillance on Martin Luther King only for his own protection.

If Hoover didn’t exist liberal authors would need to invent him.

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Unrelated thought, would you like the idea of Hoover in charge of homeland security right now? I would.

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