Snapler

March 13, 2010

Haiti Relief; Don’t Get Played

I don't know who was responsible for EarthQuake relief in Haiti but I do know where the relief came from: USA.

I like to complain about US foreign policy just as much as the next guy but, here's one case where the Red, White and Blue were right on time. I don't know who made the call. I don't know if it was Obama, Sec of State Clinton, or whoever, but it was the right call. Thank you. This isn't to say that other nations didn't pitch in immediately; Brazil was here, Mexico was here, Italy was here, France was here, the Dominican Republic was here, but some one had to take a leadership position and it was the United States. The US came in strong and on time. The US presence gave a sense of calm to the Haitian people.

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Hillary Clinton and Israel

Not since George H.W. Bush tried to stop Israeli settlement activity has an American president openly confronted Israel. Now Barack Obama, first through vice-president Joe Biden, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is admonishing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about expanding settlements. Just as he has begun to make the case publicly for health care, so Obama is now starting to demand progress in the Middle East.

Obama, in other words,is going for broke. He has not given up on his insistence upon an Israeli-Palestinian peace. Instead, he's doubling down, much as he did in Afghanistan. Anyone who thinks that Obama lacks boldness should think twice.

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March 11, 2010

Jon Stewart On Beck’s Massa Interview: Why The Night ‘Wasn’t A Total Loss’ (VIDEO)

On Wednesday night, Jon Stewart made the case for why Glenn Beck's now notorious interview with recently forced out Congressman Eric Massa wasn't a 'total loss.' At the end of the hour with Massa, accused of 'groping' his staffers, Beck declared to the camera, 'America, I'm gonna shoot straight with you. I think I've wasted your time. I have wasted an hour of your time. And I apologize for that.'

Stewart: "It appears that Glenn Beck has come up with his new sign off phrase. His 'Good Night and Good Luck.' Every show he can now end with: 'I think I've wasted an hour of your time. And I apologize for that. See you tomorrow.'"

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Preparing for a Disaster

Top Ten Supply Lists for Earthquake and Other Disaster Preparedness

Seems like the world is getting pretty shaken up, literally, lately. What with the series of devastating earthquakes, mudslides, blizzards and tornadoes that have dominated the news lately. We've all likely done what we could for others in terms of volunteering and donating -- but as moms we've got to think in terms of protecting our own families, just in case it happens in our backyard. Even those living in pretty neutral spots that don't typically incur the wrath of Mother Nature are wary. Makes sense since nobody knows where disaster is going to strike next.

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March 10, 2010

Jihad Jane, Colleen LaRose, Recruited Terrorists And Plotted Murder, Prosecutors Say

PHILADELPHIA (AP)-- A suburban Philadelphia woman "desperate to do something" to help suffering Muslims has been charged with using the Internet to recruit jihadist fighters and help terrorists overseas, even agreeing to move to Europe to try to kill someone, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Authorities said the case shows how terror groups are looking to recruit Americans to carry out their goals.

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March 8, 2010

Exploring What It Means to be a Terrorist

With the incident at the Washington, DC Pentagon Metro station last week we have two occasions in a few weeks of someone who was reported to be obsessively paranoid about the US Government taking his own and others' lives in a futile and misguided, if not to say insane, attempt to express his rage.

I have no doubt that the blogosphere and the print pundits will be very busy in weeks to come analyzing and parsing what all this means, and I don't feel any great need to add my theories to the mix. I do wonder about one thing, though. To my knowledge there has been no suggestion in media or government reports that these were acts of terrorism. In fact, in the Austin case and perhaps by the time this is published in the Pentagon case as well some commentators have gone to great length to argue that the acts were criminal in nature and were explicitly not terrorism. Why?

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March 7, 2010

Darien Murders: Bond Denied For Johnny Borizov And Jacob Nodarse, Both Charged With Homicide (VIDEO)

Prosecutors say the gunman who fatally shot a couple and their son in their Darien home Tuesday was hired to commit the crime.

Jacob Nodarse, the first suspect in the case, was arrested and reportedly confessed to the murders in Florida. But now, police have also arrested Johnny Borizov, who they believe hired Nodarse to commit the murders.

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Confessions of a Sentencing Judge

There is no worse nightmare for a judge than learning that a criminal defendant whose charges you have dismissed, or who you have released on bail or probation, or who has completed a term of incarceration which you imposed, has committed a serious crime. Fortunately, I never had that experience, but I certainly worried about it constantly. When it appears that a woman may have been raped and murdered by a known sex offender who was within the justice system, the family and the public's outrage is palpable and certainly understandable, as in the case of Chelsea King.

How does this happen? My experience has been solely in the federal courts, where few crimes involve acts of violence like murder and rape. But I suspect that most of the state courts operate in the same or similar fashion. First, let me assure you that it is nothing like the TV judges, who rap their gavel, impose sentence or render a decision in a flash and then say: "Next case."

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Damien Triple Murders: Johnny Borizov Hired Jacob Nodarse To Kill, Both Charged With Homicide

Prosecutors say the gunman who fatally shot a couple and their son in their Darien home Tuesday was hired to commit the crime.

Jacob Nodarse, the first suspect in the case, was arrested and reportedly confessed to the murders in Florida. But now, police have also arrested Johnny Borizov, who they believe hired Nodarse to commit the murders.

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March 5, 2010

Also About Us: South Asians and Civil Rights

Every year, the South Asian Bar Association of New York (SABANY) awards fellowships to law students who will be pursuing unpaid summer internships in the public interest. The fellowship winners are recognized at a reception, where an experienced South Asian public interest attorney speaks about a current social justice issue that he or she is working on.

The event is attended by a broad cross-section of the desi legal community in New York, and non-lawyers as well. My first year at the event, an attorney for whom I had once interned spoke about Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, a case that had wound its way to the Supreme Court and succeeded in challenging the voluntary desegregation policies adopted by school districts in Seattle and Louisville. She talked about that case in relation to the threats to affirmative action that emerged in the two Michigan lawsuits that made it up to the Court in 2003, and against the backdrop -- ever-present in matters of race and education -- of Brown v. Board.

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