It’s sad to me, to see a top military defense attorney soo disillusioned with the justice system that he is leaving his rather high and respected post. Its rare nowadays to see a seasoned soldier leave the army he was once highly committed to. The article names several reasons for Vokey’s departure, but what it boils down to for me, is that current administration is pushing around the law and disregarding the constitutional due process on which this whole country was once build.
Consequently it makes me wonder, how long will it be until the civil courts are being pushed around in the same way the military are? Is civil or public defense law is even a viable work option anymore?

I realize that to most people, these issues are the least of their concerns. In fact i’m sure most americans are not worrying about having their civil liberties taken away, although every day that becomes more and more of a threat.
However, as i was reading the morning WSJ with my morning cup of delicious Pete’s coffee i ran across an article that was titled “Pentagon Forbids Marine to Testify”, so of course i read it.
It talked about how this morning an email from Bush administration forbid a Marine Corps lawyer from testifying before Congress about the severe techniques of torture employed by the US interrogators…. basically once again proving the fact that the current administration must be stopped before it destroys this country by playing it’s version of king of the hill.

I guess it’s just a little hard to believe in democracy when things like that happen in a country that claims to have founded the very concept. It seems to me that in the political process there are few things that are more sacred than due process of the law and once that line gets blurred we are headed for some shady times.

In his speech, amongst other things, president Ahmadinejad said that the Iranians “…don’t believe in nuclear weapons, period“. Well as a reasonable person living in 21st century I got to believe him when he says that their nuclear research are peaceful. I mean he would have to be an idiot to say that very sentence and then turn around and do otherwise. He as well as other leaders in the middle east knows that if something catastrophic occurs the US, EU, Russia and many others will blow him and his people out of the water. Judging by his responses to some questions at Columbia he is not a religious fanatic, in fact according to his speech he is an “academic” if nothing also.

I mean really, if they ever decide nuke anyone surely he knows that retaliation by everyone (even the countries that are not soo exited about America) would be quite tragic for him.

I think that the United States does take it a little too far with this whole “Iran has nuclear weapons thing“. If the president, seemingly educated individual stands there and says to the world “We do not want to nuke anyone” I believe him. That doesn’t mean that the United Nations should just forget about Iran and not monitor the activities there, but i think that UN and others need to take a step back and just watch how things progress. There is always time to send a few bombs their way…but as the war in Iraq shows, it’s probably not the best option.

Anyway, here’s a WSJ video that “analyzes” his speech… O yeah .. and just so you know “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.“.. the president says… hmm .. go figure..

until next time…

only in America do people have time and money to finance and organize these idiotic campaigns.
To avoid misunderstandings , let me preface this post by saying that i love this country and the freedom of speech. This freedom of speech and the mere existence of these [anti and pro] groups is actually part of what makes this country great.
Every individual no matter what their beliefs and convictions are, is entitled to his or her opinion, and to exercise that right, heres mine…

Not to say that all of PETA’s campaigns and efforts are as ridiculous as this one, but i find this particular idea a very ignorant one. Feel free to read what it says on this site, but my reaction to this is: “nonsense”.
I love animals just like all the other civilized (sane?) people. But this going a little too far.
PETA’s main argument on that page is that “Circuses chain‚ cage‚ and hurt animals.” and i tend to disagree with that.
Of course, there is animal cruelty that goes on in circuses, just as there is cruelty that goes on in animal shelters and in homes of so-called “loving pet owners”, but generally people that dedicate their lives to working with animals, be it circus, zoo or any other establishment that deals with captive animals tend to actually like what they are doing.. So to imply that circuses hurt animals is very ignorant.

I grew up with animals, i took care of them, i loved them and eventually i saw these very animals go through the typical course of domestic animal life (ie: they ended up on our table). But seeing animals die to feed our family didn’t make me a psychopath (although some may argue it may be too early to tell:).
PETA, on their site, suggests that because children identify with animals, seeing them in circus will make children want to go and hurt them outside of circus. Well that’s just as ridiculous as federline’s “rap career”.
It seems obvious to me that if we would concentrate in teaching family values in schools, educate the numerous racial groups to be more tolerant of each other and so forth we will accomplish a lot more than by not taking kids to circus.

Just as i though that PETA’s website has exhausted all of the ways to be a complete waste of my time i ran across the “Kentucky Friend Cruelty” campaign…. and thought, “wow”

Once again this organization is outdone itself, where also can you see both of these idiots on the same page?
I mean why wouldn’t i take this seriously?
A porn star with a cocaine addiction and bad boob job, and a man that’s been exploiting and perpetuating racial tensions to benefit his pocketbook, both campaigning to make sure chickens are slaughtered properly? Awsome…… Shouldn’t they campaign for chickens to not be slaughtered at all?
As you can imagine i have something to say about this also, but i have to get back to work, so this is the end of my literary marvel.

Even though there is irrefutable evidence pointing towards the killer, russian government refuses to extradite, because apparently there is a law that prohibits extradition of citizenry, well what happens to other laws that get neglected over there? why is it that law is only taken in consideration when it’s convenient for the government? Why is it that the government of russia is stomping all over the human rights and civil liberties of the people with no remorse or consequences. Isn’t this why the UN and other world-wide governmental enteties were formed?

It seems to me that although there is much attention drawn to the obvious issues, in africa and elsewhere, there is very little attention on countries like russia where the civil liberties and human rights are just as neglected as they are in other conflict regions.
Further, it seems to me that some of those conflict regions do not really want the help anyway, they are still killing each other (even though they are the same nationality and race) and still believe that sleeping with virgins is going to cure their aids.

So wouldn’t it be more productive to turn the efforts and help the democracy really shine in the areas where bulk of the population does have some rationale and actually wants help? Where most of the issues can most likely be resolved through diplomacy …

Maybe Oprah should go to russia and spread her goodness there? Oh wait, that wouldn’t be right, maybe Martha Stewart better do that…

anyways, that’s my thoughts for the day…

now i will probably have to go into hiding, since i mentioned kremlin officials (and Oprah) in a negative light… and apparently that’s not allowed…

For those of you following the AutoAdmit message board scandal, this just in:
The Law Blog has learned that law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge rescinded its job offer to Anthony Ciolli, the 3L at Penn Law who resigned as “Chief Education Director” of AutoAdmit last month. His resigned in the wake of a WaPo exposé on how the site in part served as a platform for attacks and defamatory remarks about female law students, among others (see our earlier post here).
Charles DeWitt, a managing partner at Edwards Angell’s Boston office, where Ciolli was slated to be a litigation associate, told the Law Blog: “He worked for us last summer. He’s not going to work for us in the fall.”

Click here for full article…

Really, i love when all sorts of fanatics of particular issue try to piggy back off tragedy to push forward issues that normally no one would really care for but now with people getting shot they think they have some substance.
Somehow i find it hard to understand that well educated and ( i hope ) reasonable people that are running those groups are unable to see that even if you ban guns all across the USA (or whole north America for that matter) psycho’s and criminals will be able to obtain them just the same. I know it’s hard to believe but drugs ( especially on todays college campuses ) all be it illegal, are sometimes easier to get than good fish at a local supermarket.

So case in point people, this is ridiculous, we should be mourning the lost and looking for way to help those affected and not trying to piggy back the political agenda’s while people are in pain.

click here to view video

In any case, the speech (English transcripts of which can be found here) that The President of Ukraine gave yesterday during Easter celebrations in Kiev was quite interesting. It seems that based on that speech one can say he is truly attempting to bring about some positive changes.

Coincidently, over the weekend i ran into another interesting site. This site (ran by some guy from Moscow) deals with documenting various cars and transportation methods for Moscow’s government administration, police, etc. Well, what interesting about this whole thing is that he has some amazing pictures of idiotic governmental spending. Police officers driving $120k BMW, Porsche’s …etc… Needless to say due to the license plates and paint jobs cars you can see here are government property meaning that people of Russia (many of whom are living below poverty line) paid for these “luxury” vehicles from their communal pockets.

Basically to sum it up, China is getting ready for the Olympics, which means a little house cleaning. Part of that house cleaning is removing the signs that have been amusing to tourists and businessman for years.

Yesterday most of the popular press was reporting what we’ve came to see as a typical day here in the states; more violence in Iraq. And as i was reading some articles about the yesterday’s bombings at a university in Iraq i couldn’t help but feel mournful about the senseless killing that left 65 dead and over a 150 wounded. Although i remain sad for the loss of life that occurs in that region on daily basis I am dismal more so about the people doing actual killings.

According to the US press, about 90 Iraqi’s died on daily basis last year alone. Let me point out that most casualties from the suicide bombings and so forth are Iraqi’s civilians. As a functioning, reasoned individual i find this rather bizarre. While harboring such incredible hate towards western world, particularly American’s, crazies in Iraq continue to shoot up their own people. Not only that, but yesterday they killed bunch of people that were actually trying to get educated.

I mean even Hitler understood the importance of education and the fact that if he wanted to make bombs, guns, better tanks, etc.. he needed people to work in the labs and engineer these things, hence he needed educated people that would be able to do that. So never mind about the actual killings themselves, obviously such things are never warranted, but to kill your own people and more so people that might eventually further your cause? That seem to be just plain stupid.

Somehow this whole ordeal with Iraq and the senseless internal killings that occur in Africa makes me nostalgic for the old days where wars had some purpose to them.