More opportunities for LAWYERS

THIS is from the CSM newspaper and addresses the issues discussed in my recent blogs.

Supreme Court justices have not resolved the question of “whether, in cases where information has been acquired unlawfully by a newspaper or by a source, government may ever punish not only the unlawful acquisition, but the ensuing publication as well,” concludes a Congressional Research Service analysis of the issue [PDF] published on October 10.

The closest the high court has come to ruling on this issue may have been the famous 1971 Pentagon Papers case, in which justices rejected a Nixon administration plea that they stop the New York Times and the Washington Post from printing a leaked top secret study of the history of US policy in Vietnam.

It was a landmark ruling in regards to US press freedoms. But what the ruling rejected was the government’s efforts to enjoin publication. A majority of justices appeared to indicate that it would have been possible for the administration to prosecute the two big US papers after they had printed the material. (Many of the judges weighed in with separate opinions, so it’s not entirely clear what they would have agreed upon in regards to this particular issue.)

The Nixon White House did not go down that road, however. And administration efforts to prosecute leakers Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo were dismissed due to "prosecutorial misconduct."

If they do decide to bring a case, US prosecutors today would likely charge Assange or WikiLeaks with violations of the Espionage Act, a broad 1917 law.

The language of this statute is sweeping. On its face it prohibits any person from communicating to anyone not authorized to receive it “any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States.”

The law says nothing about emails, but it was passed at the end of World War I, remember.

“The unclear language of the statute threatens to impinge upon rights protected by the first amendment,” wrote US Circuit Court judge Russell Winter in a 1980 opinion.

Court rulings in recent decades have indicated that to bring a case prosecutors might have to prove the communicator in question intended to injure the US. WikiLeaks founder Assange may have fulfilled this requirement by talking in interviews about his desire to undermine with his actions what he sees as corrupt aspects of US policy.

“He’s gone a long way down the road of talking himself into a possible violation of the Espionage Act,” said Floyd Abrams, an attorney who represented the New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case, in a recent National Public Radio broadcast interview.

It’s still possible that judges could rule that the First Amendment protects WikiLeaks’ actions, of course. Freedom of speech is a basic US constitutional right. What Assange and WikiLeaks may have done, however, is set up a lawyer's dream of a case which would allow the Supreme Court to resolve a conflict between two basic rights – the right to speak, and the right of the US to hold close its secrets.

The FOURTH ESTATE

According to WIKIPEDIA...The concept of the Fourth Estate (or fourth estate) is a societal or political force or institution whose influence is not consistently or officially recognized. It now most commonly refers to the news media; especially print journalism. Thomas Carlyle attributed the origin of the term to Edmund Burke, who used it in a parliamentary debate in 1787 on the opening up of press reporting of theHouse of Commons of the United Kingdom.

When the Bill of Rights was written, our founding fathers had NO IDEA that someday a person could pull a phone (unknown) out of his pocket, access the internet (unknown), go to Wikipedia (unknown) and learn things. Government and left wing whackos are fond of saying this about the Second Amendment "Our founding fathers had no idea we would have machine guns and assault rifles, they were thinking of muskets when they wrote this amendment." Well, does that apply to the press as well? Does the First Amendment end at Poor Richard's Almanac? Does the advance of technology and the creation of online news organizations constitute " the Press?" When does conscientious news gathering and reporting become whistle blowing? Beware the Government's reinterpretation of your freedoms. It is insidious. They divide and conquer by throwing up a bogeyman for you to hate like Osama bin Laden, or Adrian Assange, and then convince you that there's just TOO MUCH FREEDOM of speech, don't you agree? Reread "1984" wherein the author describes the "2 minutes of hate" where they put up an image of Emanuel Goldstein, and everyone pointed to the TV screens and spewed vitriol at this evil man, the cause of ALL of our problems. Give up freedom in exchange for safety and you will end up with NEITHER.

WIN WIN

The ASPCA has teamed up with the TSA and the combined agency will now be called ASPCTSA. As part of their ongoing program to rid our airspace of terrorism AND save all those animals in the pound, all the dogs currently in shelters will be trained as special agents. Gone are the worries as to whether the agent who is "feeling you up" at the gate is being titillated by the experience and has to take a cold-shower break every once in a while. The doggies are totally dispassionate about their work. So, once you get over the initial discomfort of a Rottweiler plunging his face into your crotch the screening process will be a piece of cake. Brings new meaning to "the Friendly Skies." Man's best friend comes to our rescue again. As soon as Lassie gets Timmy out of the well, she will be reporting for duty at an airport near you. Good girl.

Arrogant, Misguided, and Ultimately Not Helpful

“National security of the United States has been put at risk,” insisted Holder, adding “The American people themselves have been put at risk by these actions that I believe are arrogant, misguided and ultimately not helpful in any way.”

Apparently, my understanding of the law is a bit out of date. It appears that it is now a crime to be arrogant etc. (see above) and if one is, then an international manhunt must ensue and the guilty party must be brought to justice. Somewhere near Walden Pond, Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau, the author of "On Civil Disobedience" must be spinning in his grave. If arrogance were a crime, then impeachment proceedings against our president must begin immediately, followed by the other 535 residents of the Capitol building. Whether Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, is a low-life bottom dweller like John Edwards, for example, is really not the issue. I have heard (on TV) all sorts of comments about how he does not deserve First Amendment protection because he is not a member of the press. Lets see now, who gets to determine if you are a member of the press? Eric Holder? Is Assange any less a member of the press than say... Ariana Huffington? Or Matt Drudge? or Chris Matthews? Some pundit yesterday said that only reporters that work for publicly traded companies like the New York Slimes, I mean Times, deserve "Freedom of the Press" status. WTF?

So, I feel strongly both ways. Assange is a dirtbag, and he deserves freedom of the press protection under our Bill of Rights. In my view, the ultimate arrogance is how the government classifies through some arcane process, everything SECRET and therefore if you really want to know how things work in Washington, you get charged with espionage or treason. Unless you work for a "publicly traded newspaper." Assange is minor-league arrogant compared to even the lowest ranking congressman, or for that matter local politician. His motives may be absolutely "unholy" and he may be a rapist as he is being charged (remember how forgiving Hollywood was of Roman Polanski) but I know that I am uncomfortable when the Attorney General comes after someone for felonious arrogance. Perhaps we would all be safer with Assange behind bars. On the other hand, lets do it for a real crime, not because his actions are "Ultimately not helpful." Oh, and lets find out once and for all who in our government gets to decide which chosen members of society are members of the press. They were so all encompassing about freedom of religion (same First Amendment) in the most recent Mosque controversy but apparently being an internet blogger or a publisher of a college newspaper is not enough to have freedom of the press. Whoops...Blogger? That would be me.

Life is like a box of chocolates

Sometimes you bite into one and it is solid chocolate, the dark kind that lasts and lasts. Other times you get a gooey mess. After a while you learn to squeeze them just a little when no one is looking to tell what you are probably going to bite into. Experience is a great teacher. I wish I could convince young people, and I mean 30-somethings, that we 60-somethings have learned a few things that we would gladly share that might save them a few miles of bad road. Unfortunately, it is like teaching a pig to sing... you don't get anywhere and it annoys the pig.

My children, and your children think that their parents are senile, went though life with their heads in the sand, and couldn't possibly have anything worthwhile to say in the context of our modern "speed-of-light" society. Sometimes when I try to help by making a suggestion, I feel like that guy (Bruce Willis' character) in Sixth Sense who is dead throughout the whole movie but doesn't realize it and then it dawns on him why nobody seemed to acknowledge his presence. I hope I did not spoil the movie for you but if you haven't seen it by now, then you share in the blame. It seems I am jumping from movie to movie, but there is much to be learned from watching movies. I remember one particularly interesting line from "True Lies" when Tom Arnold says to Arnold Schwartzenegger " You think you are their parents... their parents are actually Axel Rose and Madonna" implying that, as Jesus said..."A prophet is without honor in his own country." Total strangers can have more influence on your kids than you have.

I bring this up because I have just returned from Miami. It is a booming third world country in the south of Florida where blue eyes are a rarity, and NOT going through the red light will get you hit in the ass by the car behind you. Almost everything is different. One cannot live there successfully at a level lower than the UPPER middle class. Middle-middle does not cut it. The public schools are so awful that unless you want your kid knifed during recess in the third grade, you have to send the little dear to a private school like Ransom Everglades, or Carrolton where tuition is that same as the gross national product of Honduras. By the time you pay your car lease, your taxes, and your condo fees, unless you are doing something that generates income while you are not there and uses OPW (other people's work) or you are 7 feet tall and and play basketball, you can't afford to send your kids to school, except for the free one...with the onsite police substation and emergency room.

I say this because (of experience) when I raised my kids, they were smart enough to go to a gifted school where the worst violence was when another student hit you with his slide rule or pocket protector. This is a whole new world, somewhat less so in Sarasota. A kid might be safer going to school in Baghdad than going to a Miami public school. So now is the time to start thinking of a "better mousetrap" in ones chosen profession rather than working ones fingers to the bone by the hour. There are not enough hours in the day to salt enough filthy lucre away to pay private school tuition. Trying to recreate the life you lived in Smallville SRQ, in Nueva Havana, is an impossibility unless you have the ability to insulate yourself from the herd the way they do in the real third world. We have traveled there and seen the chauffeurs and walls and guard dogs, and all the rest that separates the haves from the have-nots in those countries south of the border. It is a natural way of life thought South and Central America. Folks living in Miami need to understand that they are not really living in the US. The rules of middle America do not apply. Those of Buenos Aires or Santiago are the ones Miami lives by. Two classes, haves and have nots. To get into the "have" class takes more effort than most people are willing to exert. Without it though, you get to be a "have-not" with just a little more stuff than your homeys.

I WENT TO BARNES AND NOBLE

I went to my local Barnes and Noble bookstore a while back looking for a book on traditional manliness. In a world where Heather has two mommies, and Gays in the Military is more important to congress than solving the economy, I was just looking for something written about the essence of a traditional man…kind of like a western version of Japanese Bushido. At that time, the whole store was divided into topical sections. Most of it still is except for the huge NOOK section for the sale of their e-reader. There were stacks for Judaica, Christian Inspiration, Eastern Studies, Gay and Lesbian Studies, and of course Women’s Studies. I walked around and around and could not find “Men’s Studies” anywhere. I went to the help desk and asked ”Where is the Men’s Studies section?” The woman in plain shoes behind the counter wryly replied “everywhere.” I asked her what she meant by that and she told me that the whole world and the whole bookstore was controlled by men and other than the small sections labeled otherwise, the rest of the store was the Men’s Section.

I was not in the mood for an argument so I wrote to the head office of Barnes and Noble and told them of my experience. I received a 20% discount coupon and a letter that said they were looking into it. When last I visited B and N, there still was no dedicated men’s section. I guess men are not as “well stacked” as women. The whole zeitgeist of men’s issues vs women’s issues and the inequality thereof began to materialize in my head. I could not help noticing that women were given “minority” status even though they are numerically the “majority.” I read the other day about the supposed problem of the RICH exploiting the POOR in America. The author said that it was the Poor who exploit the Rich. When you think about it, 50% of America pays no income taxes and some people pay 30-50% of the money they make to the government in one form or another. So it is with this gender issue. Are women really the “weaker sex?” Are they a “minority in any sense?” I will share with you an old male expression… Women are over 50% of the population, have 70% of the money, and 100 % of the expletive deleted.

I have discussed my appointment with my Urologist next week. I had my lab done. It is for the PSA test that men should get to help screen for Prostate Cancer. A digital rectal exam in the office, coupled with the Prostate Specific Antigen blood test is a good thing to do every year. When is the last time you saw this mentioned on TV? There are countless Erectile Dysfunction advertisements, and the occasional Low-T commercial but nothing about the prostate. Are you aware that Prostate Cancer kills more people than Breast Cancer? Why would you know that? There is no Prostate cancer month or Sidney B. Komen association. I even saw a bumper sticker on a pickup truck yesterday that said “Save the TaTas “ referring to breasts. Men care about breasts and the women who bear them (no pun intended). Can the same be said of women and the diseases that afflict men?

I guess it’s intrinsically more aesthetic to think of a breast exam rather than a rectal one. Nonetheless, everybody on the planet knows the color of the Breast Awareness ribbon, it’s PINK. What is the color of the prostate ribbon? If there were one, it might be brown. There is none and there is NO prostate month, and basically men are dying, including my close friends and all we hear about is Women’s diseases. The ED advertisements are not about saving lives and are not in any way a balance for the overwhelming attention given to Breast disorders.

In an effort to not be anything like our present government, which seeks to level the playing field by tearing down the rich and redistributing to the poor, I do not propose taking anything away from the women’s movement that has done such a fantastic job raising breast awareness. Rather, I would propose that men learn from this activism and start to take Men’s issues more seriously. Half jokingly I invented a brown awareness ribbon but if that’s what it takes, lets get on it. Get’er done.

Equal pay for equal work is a female outcry in the business world. I have no argument with this. Everyone who does the same work should get the same pay. In fact, I am a supporter of 100% equality in America. I just wonder why women have not clamored to be included in the requirement that men have to register for the draft at age 18? You’ve seen the signs in the post office. It’s from our Government, the one that has the Civil Rights Commission. The sign says “MEN, 18 years old…”

Women make up at least 50% of medical and law school student populations. What an amazing sign of progress. Studies, which are as reliable as the polls taken in this recent election, very reliable, have described what this will do for medical care in this country. The quality of care will be as good or better. There will however be far more dermatologists and radiologists, and other specialists that work in the daytime. There will be fewer trauma surgeons and those that have 18 hour days and no time off on the weekends. Women are not dumb enough to go into those specialties. They go into fields where they can have a family, and a home, and a life. Their lifetime careers are abbreviated. A male doctor graduating from medical school will probably work in medicine until he goes on Social Security and even later. Women stop working as doctors at a much earlier age. This is absolute proof that they are smarter than men (old calypso song). This will lead to a shortage of not only doctors in general but specialists to treat the really nasty accidents and conditions that happen unexpectedly at all hours of the day and night. Couple this with the entitlement that everyone in America deserves healthcare and you better line up now to get your annual physical in 2014.

You are watching TV news. There is a plane crash or a sinking ship. The newscaster tells you that there are 127 fatalities including women and children, like they are somehow even less fortunate. This reminds me of the old tradition on the Titanic of “women and children first” into the lifeboats. OK, I don’t exactly know here I stand on this. As the old saying goes “I feel strongly both ways.” One the one hand, I really love the women and children in my life. They are inherently more physically defenseless than most men (though these days there are plenty of Metrosexuals who would get their asses kicked by the average female athlete). On the other hand, are we selling equality or aren’t we? Equal pay, equal lining up to get into the lifeboats. Kids are a whole ‘nother thing.

I plan to write a Book about Men, their issues, the discrimination against men, and the machismo or whatever that keeps men from having the resources that women have, like Susan B. Komen, and Breast Month, and Oprah. I am going to do a study of the topics discussed on every show on TV and then divide them into Men and Women centricity. I am not advocating a radical change in the way men relate to one another, it is too ingrained. We would rather bond on the football field or in battle than over coffee and a Danish, and shopping for shoes. That may be as it should be. Men and women are intrinsically different despite what the bright bulbs in Washington say. We are biologically different. And it’s not just because of that line in Kindergarten Cop…”Men have a penis and women have a vagina.”

FINAL CAR DECISION

After a long and comprehensive search, the new IslandOracleMobile has finally been purchased. Gone are the concerns of "will my car get dinged when I park it in the mall parking lot?" or "should I get white, gray, or brown?" and of course "can I delete the comprehensive coverage from my insurance policy?"

In addition to being a "classic" and having significant carrying capacity for such things as fertilizer, or migrant farm workers, it has high-bling alloy wheels. Look for me at my local 7-11 buying a 6 pack of Modelo Especial.