Academic

AALS Mid-Year Conference in Constitutional Law

Posted on June 03, 2008
This week I will attend the Association of American Law Schools Mid-Year Conference in Constitutional Law in Cleveland, Ohio from 3 June to 6 June 2008. Here's the statement of the reason for this conference: "Constitutional law is always changing, but the changes since the last AALS professional development program on constitutional law are particularly dramatic...

Chutzpah, Thy Name is William Kristol!

Posted on June 02, 2008
William Kristol's column today in the NY Times "What Obama Left Out" says more about Kristol than it could ever say about Obama. Kristol, famous, inter alia, for being one of the most strident voices urging war with Iraq and then Iran, but never thought it necessary to serve his country during the Vietnam War has the gall to fault Obama for not recommending military service to Wesleyan graduates...

Hillary's "Playing to 15"

Posted on June 02, 2008
On 13 January 2007, ECA published a post "Playing to 15."  The point of that post was to show that as a young man George W. Bush could not accept defeat.  Whenever he would be on the verge of losing a game, he would change the rules or alter what counts as victory...

THE BIG LIE": Bushian Style

Posted on May 30, 2008
For many Americans, a little familiarity with human nature, made it quite clear that President Bush and company cooked the intelligence on Iraq. We knew that the administration and its neocon hit men wanted to invade and conquer Iraq for oil, to protect Israel, and generally to try to impose "democracy" on new governments in the area which would then owe their existence and allegiance to the great white father in Washington...

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Truth, Justification, & American Law

Posted on May 28, 2008
The concept of truth is the most obvious and (yes simultaneously) the most arcane concept in legal reasoning. In one sense, no lawyer or judge can do without the idea of legal truth. Indeed, the goal of a trial is to fairly arrive at the truth...

Audie Murphy: An American Hero

Posted on May 26, 2008
I just saw (again) "To Hell and Back," the story of Audie Murphy, the most decorated combat soldier in American military history. He entered the Army at the age of 16, after being turned down by the Marines, Navy, and paratroopers.  By 19, he had became an Lieutenant and won the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest America decoration, and a host of other decorations from the United States Belgium, and France...

Has Hillary No Shame?

Posted on May 24, 2008
In explaining why she should remain in the race for the Democratic Party's nomination for president, Senator Clinton ironically may have nailed the coffin of her campaign shut. By appealing to RFK's assassination as illustrative of a future contingency revivifying her chances for the nomination, Mrs...

Olbermann's "special comment" on Clinton's Invocation of RFK's Assassination

Posted on May 24, 2008
Consider Keith Olbermann's "special comment" last night on Mrs. Clinton's remark about RFK's assassination.The only way to meet this justified firestorm is for Mrs. Clinton to offer a morally satisfactory apology to Mr. Obama and then withdraw from the race...

Protesting Yoo's Views on Torture

Posted on May 19, 2008
Law students at the University of California-Berkeley protested at Saturday's graduation against Professor John Yoo's presence of the law faculty. "Some 50 protesters, clad in orange jumpsuits and black hoods to emulate the infamous photos of prisoners in Iraq, picketed UC Berkeley's law school graduation ceremony Saturday, demanding that the university fire Professor John Yoo for his authorship of the Bush administration's policies on torture...

Does Bush Equate Diplomacy with Appeasement?

Posted on May 16, 2008
                            "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."                                                                       ---John F...

Rumsfeld's Master Plan

Posted on May 14, 2008
Beginning in earnest with the end of the current regime, historians will document just how duplicitous the Bush-Cheney administration has been regarding the war in Iraq. Here's one littel-known item: "Three weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks, former U...

Hillary Plays the Race Card

Posted on May 12, 2008
Race continues to play a role in American society, but there exist different ways to include it in political campaigns. Some ways are clearly benign and important while other ways are clearly suspect. Senator Clinton use of race is the latter. She is precariously flirting with racial innuendo...

"Hillary's Last Great Hope"

Posted on May 10, 2008
Several remaining questions must be answered before Senator Obama will be in a position to concentrate his energies on the Fall election. First, when will Mrs. Clinton throw in the towel? Second, will she do irreparable damage to Obama, the Party, and herself in continuing to battle aggressively, some say ruthlessly...

Fox-News and Rush Limbaugh: Enemies of Democracy

Posted on May 09, 2008
American "journalism" contributes to democracy's demise when it acts duplicitously, recklessly, or when it attempts to game the electoral system. Indeed, deliberative democracy cannot tolerate for long, intentional deception on the part of the media. Nor can civil society tolerate admonitions to game the electoral system by urging voters to cast their votes strategically in an opposing Party's primary in order to help select a weaker opponent in the fall...

Clinton's "Nuclear" Option to Win the Nomination

Posted on May 07, 2008
After Tuesday's primaries, it seems the only possible way for Senator Clinton to win the nomination is to count her wins in Florida and Michigan. Can Senator Clinton win the nomination by persuading the Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations? Will she deploy this "secret weapon" defying Party loyalty and commonsense? Consider Thomas B...

Is Obama a Deliberative Democrat?

Posted on May 02, 2008
With Joe J. Andrew's jumping ship, Americans must decide whether there's any difference between the old and the new forms of politics. The old politics--"interest-group politics"--seeks to formulate policy goals, join with like-minded individuals, and then wage war against other interest groups without any active conception of a just war or appropriate ways to battle...

The Clinton-Obama Disgrace/Debate

Posted on April 25, 2008
Click here for Jim Chen's jeremiad against the media's handling of the last Democratic presidential debate.

Hitchens & Sullivan: Boys Will Be Boys: No Matter How Homophobic

Posted on April 23, 2008
I suppose even homosexuals, and their friends, can engage in homophobic jibes with temerity. Sullivan is a self-professed, proud gay man. I have no idea what Hitchens' sexuality involves. But Hitchens' homophobic remarks and Sullivan's enabling compliance is neither funny nor cute, but again reveals the dark side of Christopher Hitchens...

Why Not Hillary

Posted on April 21, 2008
Democrats, devastated by the reign of George W. Bush, indeed, any American convinced the last seven years have dealt the greatest blow to American constitutional democracy since the Civil War, should support neither Hillary Clinton nor John McCain. Why? Because neither Senator Clinton nor Senator McCain has a commitment to honesty in politics...

Cheney's Criminal Conspiracy Continues

Posted on April 16, 2008
Dick Cheney's repeated lies to the American people surely qualify him for the gold medal in mendacity. But the Vice-President's successful scheming to keep the President out of the loop concerning his own administration's decisions authorizing torture indicates the complete absence of even an elementary moral sense...

Cheney's Criminal Conspiracy

Posted on April 16, 2008
Dick Cheney's repeated lies to the American people surely qualify him for the gold medal in mendacity. But the Vice-President's successful scheming to keep the President out of the loop concerning his own administration's decisions authorizing torture  indicates the complete absence of even an elementary moral sense...

Why Doesn't Bill Clinton Just Shut Up?

Posted on April 14, 2008
Bill Clinton is at it again. In the 1931 movie Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein admonishes Fritz, his disabled assistant who relished tormenting the creature to "Leave it alone, Fritz, leave it alone." Bill Clinton needs to heed the warning and leave his wife's campaign alone...

Will Billary Destroy the Democratic Party's Chances to Win in November?

Posted on April 11, 2008
Recent reports suggest the extended campaign for the Democratic nominee for president is damaging, perhaps irreparably, the Democrats chance to defeat Senator McCain in November. Here's a taste: "Republican Sen. John McCain has erased Sen. Barack Obama's 10-point advantage in a head-to-head matchup, leaving him essentially tied with both Democratic candidates in an Associated Press-Ipsos national poll released Thursday...

John McCain: Bush Lite and Kerry Redux

Posted on April 09, 2008
John McCain was repeatedly tortured during his imprisonment in North Vietnam. Understandably, he now says he opposes using torture as a method of interrogation in fighting the war on terror. Nevertheless, he has supported Mr. Bush's veto of a prohibition of torture, including such techniques as waterboarding which Senator McCain candidly acknowledges is torture...

Civil War, Proxy War, & America's 100 Years in Iraq

Posted on April 07, 2008
Check out CBS-News story about our success in Iraq. While few people talk about civil war anymore, it seems that such a war has been on fire for some time.  This civil war is fractionated between different parties.  It's not just a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites; it's also between different factions of Shiites...

The Results of America's First Constitutional Coup D'etat

Posted on April 04, 2008
The past seven years will be noted as resulting from the first genuine coup d'etat in American politics.  No I do not mean that the military marched into he nation's capital, seized the president and elected leaders and began to govern.  In the United States, coups have more insidious...

A Republic or a Democracy? The Revolution of 1800 and the Foundations of American Democracy

Posted on April 02, 2008
Americans lionize the nation's Founders for crafting and successfully instantiating the enduring idea of self-government into our political traditions. Like everything else, the Founders' legacy consists of the good and the bad. The good finds itself in republican democracy, the only political organization that respects the inherent value of all members of the polity...

Tavis Smiley on Patriotism & the Media's Hypocritical Treatment of Black and White Provocateurs

Posted on March 31, 2008
Tavis Smiley, PBS talk-show host and journalist, never impressed me as anything more than a pleasant man. Frankly, I could never sit through an entire episode of his show because Smiley seemed to lack any discernible substance. I've misjudged people before, but this time was a doozie...

Is Hillary This Sinister?

Posted on March 29, 2008
Check out Maureen Dowd's column this week speculating on the reason Hillary's remains in a campaign she can't win: "Even some Clinton loyalists are wondering aloud if the win-at-all-costs strategy of Hillary and Bill--which continued Tuesday when Hillary tried to drag Rev...

Stanley Fish Should "Think Again"

Posted on March 28, 2008
In a recent column, Stanley Fish argues that it is nonsense to believe that the recent flap over the role of superdelegates in choosing a Democratic candidate for president includes ethical considerations at all. Just as the purpose of the Electoral College is countermajoritarian, so too is the purpose of Democratic superdelegates...

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