Category Archives: Law
Rick Perry is not a Ham Sandwich
If you can indict a ham sandwich I guess you can indict Rick Perry.
The indictment by a special prosecutor criminalizes the intent of a political act. The act in question is the Texas governor’s use of his veto power as a threat against a political opponent.
That’s what governors do. They veto stuff. And it’s usually stuff their political enemies want. In this case that would be Rosemary Lehmberg’s job. She runs the Public Integrity Unit and Perry wants her to step down since she was convicted of drunk driving. As a prod he vetoed her $7.5 million budget.
The indictment is being mocked by some people who are unlikely to vote for Perry if he runs for president. Alan Dershowitz , Johnathan Chait, and the New York Times editorial page, all make that list.
Perry on Rye
One holdout, Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker, says prosecutors have broad discretion and Perry may just be out of luck. Mustard or mayo?
Military Policing
The American people don’t want the US military policing Ferguson, Missouri any more than they want it policing Mosul, Iraq. Besides it’s kind of illegal. But that doesn’t keep the Pentagon from shipping free military hardware to police forces all over the country. Your local cops are armed to the teeth with everything from assault vehicles to grenade launchers. The Washington Post says half a billion in free gear was handed out to cops last year. That doesn’t sit well with Rand Paul. Or Mark Steyn. Not to mention, cops in camo look ridiculous on main street.
Shouldn’t a ‘Ferguson’ camo pattern be, like, 7/11 & Kool-Aid logos?
Military Policing
The single bullet Barney Fife policing method may not be the way to go, but more dashboard cameras and fewer MRAPs might not be a bad idea. A convenience store camera showed that Michael Brown wasn’t the “gentle giant” he was made out to be, as he strong-armed his way to a box of Swisher Sweets. But as Steyn notes, we’ll never see the way he was killed because the cop who shot him lacked a dashcam.
Update:
Here’s Kevin Williamson in NRO on the purpose of policing. And Mark Steyn from last November on our “drift toward despotism“.
In other news, local cops aren’t the only ones we’ve armed to the teeth.
Nixon Impeachment Advice
Judge Napolitano says, “the government is out of control”.
President Obama has taken to taunting Congress about impeaching him. Speaker Boehner says impeachment is off the table.
Nixon
August 7 is the 40th anniversary of President Nixon’s resignation under the threat of impeachment. An 18 minute gap was discovered in a Watergate phone tape transcribed by Rosemary Woods. Lois Lerner has a two year gap in IRS emails.
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley says, “Obama is the president Nixon always wanted to be”. Tricky Dickey overachieved just by being himself according to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. He says Nixon’s “southern strategy” turned the Republicans into a party of racists and homophobes.
No comment from the grave of Senate constitutionalist Robert Byrd.
Update: Here’s George Will on Nixon’s lawless activities 40 years ago. He wanted to use IRS to go after his enemies but didn’t trust the top people there.
Update update: Charles Krauthammer calls Obama’s plan to grant amnesty to 5 million illegals impeachment bait (nice picture):
Such a calculation — amnesty-by-fiat to deliberately court impeachment — is breathtakingly cynical. But clever. After all, there is no danger of impeachment succeeding. There will never be 67 votes in the Senate to convict. But talking it up is a political bonanza for Democrats, stirring up an otherwise listless and dispirited base. Last Monday alone the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised more than $1 million from anti-impeachment direct mail.
High Tech Execution
There was another botched high tech execution last week in Arizona. It took two hours to kill Joseph Rudolph Wood III by lethal injection. Here’s Reason editor Nick Gillespie writing for Daily Beast.
State Exchange Subsidies
The DC Court of Appeals ruled that the Affordable Care Act means what it says. You have to buy insurance from a state exchange to qualify for a subsidy. If the ruling is upheld by the Supreme Court, ObamaCare will be in big trouble.
ObamaCare supporters are insisting that the law, as it’s written, does not express the intent of Congress. It’s just a type-o.
State Exchanges
MIT whiz Jonathan Gruber insists there is no way ObamaCare tax credits were meant to be restricted to state exchanges. And he should know, he helped write the law. Except that videos have surfaced showing Gruber insisting that if governors don’t set up state exchanges they will deny their own citizens ObamaCare tax credits. And not only that, they’ll be forced to subsidize policy holders in other states! Gruber’s response is that was a “speak-o”.
Kevin Obrien in the Plain Dealer is on the case. So is Megan McArdle in Bloomberg, and Jonathan Keim in National review.
