Category: Justice

Pirate Bay.org Being Hauled into Court Again

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Swedish law is fairly lax, and my guess is that they proprietors of the site will win.

They are are being charged with conspiracy to breach copyrights.

Considering the fact that , “seven parliamentarians from the ruling conservative party called in a newspaper opinion article last month for the decriminalization of file sharing.”, and the fact that the Pirate party has more members than the Greens, I’m not surprised that they are relying on public defenders.

This is being driven by the US, and everyone knows it.

Illegal Aliens Kill Unionization Drive

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I found this little tidbit in a story about cutbacks and layoffs in the newspaper industry:

A few years ago, he said, some drivers talked about organizing, but the idea went nowhere. The problem, he went on, is that on the north side, 80 to 90 percent of the drivers are in the United States illegally. I have no idea if that number’s accurate, but I believed him when he said he’s one of them. “When you are illegal in this country you have to be patient,” the English-speaking driver explained. “So I think that is one of the reasons—they need the money, they have no papers to work, that’s why they keep quiet. They know if they complain they will get fired. We think the main Tribune, they don’t know nothing about this.”

Apparently they don’t. Tribune spokesman Michael Dizon e-mailed me that “it is against Chicago Tribune policy to publicly discuss how fees for delivery services are negotiated.” But he added, “Our company does not hire undocumented workers to deliver our newspapers. Tribune Company contracts with independent businesses to deliver products. In turn each independent contractor enters into his or her own contracts with sub-contractors to perform delivery results.”

This is why the US is so schizophrenic on illegal aliens. The powers that be use them to drive down wages and prevent union activities, which they like (and any guest worker program has the same effect), but the average American understands that it’s against the law.

That’s why, when I made some proposals about deterring illegal immigration, they focused on the demand from employers.

This is Harsh

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Well, it looks like the Republicans are starting to swift boat each other, as shown by this anti-Huckabee ad, put out by Victims Voice, a 527 with unknown funding.

The principal of the organization, one Keith Emis, claims that it was done by him and a friend, and that they only spent money on tape and gas, but I think that this is too well produced for that.

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Of course, the whole story shows a startling lack of unawareness. The cheerleader who was raped was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, so there was a great hue and cry from the right wing that Wayne Dumond was railroaded because of who was governor at the time.

Mike Huckabee set him free, but he did so because a lot of people, many of them not in Arkansas pressured him, because it doesn’t matter if you are raped, if you are related to Bill Clinton.

Military Ignoring “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” At Least Until You Come Home

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Actually the soldier in question is suggesting that the Military’s policies on gays serving may be changing, because he told his CO’s that he was gay, and because he’s been out for years.

Nope:

“This particular soldier’s unit only recently returned from the war to Fort Hood, Texas, so it’s premature to speculate on any future actions until the young man’s situation can be considered by his chain of command,” Boyce said in a statement.

Translation: Now that you’ve done your tour, and we no longer need you, you will be separated, you will have no benefits, and we want that enlistment bonus back.

Tenet and Other CIA Officials Lawyer Up

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It’s been known for some time that Jose Rodriguez has retained Bob Bennet, and now George Tenet has retained Howard Shapiro, a former FBI general coundil.

Additionally, Roy Krieger, who has represented a large number of CIA employees is getting inquiries.

These folks are experiencing the prisoner’s dilemma, and assumign that this investigation runs past January 21 of next year, the one who rolls to the prosecutor first wins.

It’s clear that these tapes were destroyed to prevent an investigation.

Mukasey Appoints Patrick Fitzgerald to the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys

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Honestly, I have no clue as to what this appointment means.

Based on Mukasey’s statements on waterboarding, I was convinced that he was Bush and His Evil Minions&trade bitch, but this would seem to indicate otherwise.

What is the role of this committee? Does this mean anything, or is it just a title and a pat on the head?

He was on the committee before, but was not reappointed by Abu Gonzalez after he started investigating the Plame leak.

The pourpose of the committee appears to be, counseling “the attorney general on law enforcement issues.”

Padilla Sues John Yoo

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I don’t quite get how this would work legally, Yoo is probably indemnified by the fact that he worked for the DoJ, but the fact that he’s being sued by a man whose tortured into near insanity is poetic justice, at least.

My damages would be to have him imprisoned for a few years under the conditions that Padilla was.

Or, we could just render him to Saudi Arabia.

Then, or course, my delusions of civilized behavior kick in, and I say, “Send him to The Hague, where he can cool his heels with other war criminals”.

A New Nigerian Scam

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It seems that the only things that Nigeria makes the news for these days is oil related unrest, various forms of fraud, and one of the highest indices of corruption in the world.

The latest one is a Nigerian firm, Lagos Analysis Corp. (Lancor), suing the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) non profit over a “4 shift keyboard“, which allows for better handling of multiple languages.

The kicker is that the OLPC has not shipped any of the keyboards.

Oh, and that one of the principals at Lancor, served time for bank fraud.

Also, it appears that there is no valid patent in the first place.

Go, Groklaw is your friend, and it appears that there is a crooked judge in Nigeria.

Criminal Probe of CIA Coverup Started

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This is a significant step, though it is my understanding that by assigning someone from Connecticut, it means that they are not technically a special prosecutor.

Obviously the fact that a criminal probe has been opened is significant, and the man assigned, John H. Durham, was the one who successfully investigated and prosecuted the FBI agents who protected James “Whitey” Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi because they used them as informants.

However, I do not expect him to be given much in the way of freedom over his investigation.

More Proof that Obams Will Be Disasterous Down Ticket

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Yes, once again, Barack Obama is doing his best to validate Republican talking points. This time, he’s going after Edwards for being a “trial lawyer” while he did community activism.

There is a lot of talk about how Hillary mightt be a problem for people running for lower office, but having a presidential candidate who is running on Republican talking points is far, far worse.

Obama is the wanker of the day.

Edwards response is this tape from one of his clients, the mother of the little girl whose guts were literally sucked out by a faulty wading pool drain.

Not only is he going after a lawyer who has done heroic things, he is going after the whole concept of people protecting themselve from greedy corporations with these heroic lawyers.

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Barak Obama can kiss my shiny metal ass.

FWIW, Molly Ivors comes to the same conclusion.

Jumping Carcharodon megalodon

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Yep, the RIAA is at it again.

This time, they are claiming that copying from a CD to your computer is a copyright violation, so if you want to mix on your iPod, you are SOL:

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry’s lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are “unauthorized copies” of copyrighted recordings.

My Proposals on Immigration

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Note that I don’t mention a fence. I think that addressing the demand pull is what should be done first….After about 1/3 of the illegal aliens in the US entered legally and overstayed their visas.

My Proposals:

  • Change the law penalizing employers for hiring illegal aliens. Make it for negligently hiring illegals, not knowingly hiring illegals. It’s easier to prosecute, and the defense is ordinary care.
  • Create a new law for those who knowingly hire illegals, include long prison sentences, and asset forfeiture.
  • Create a bounty program for illegals. If an illegal alien rats out an employer, they get a 5 year green card. These green cards can be added up, or used to bring the rest of his family across the border.
  • Add a cash bounty for ratting out employers for legal residents.
  • Increase the fees on H1b and L1 visas so that it will always more expensive to go this route. If you really need that guy you should be willing to pay 50 grand in fees.

This increases the regulatory cost of employing illegals, and so reduces the demand.

Even New Labour Sick of Anti-Terror Laws

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It looks like Gordon Brown is looking at a revolt among his own party regarding his proposal to extend the period of detention without charge in terrorism cases from 28 days to 42 days.

It probably does not help that Sir Ken Macdonald QC, Head of the CPS and Director of Public Prosecutions, in addition to, “the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith and the former Lord chancellor Lord Falconer.”

What I don’t get about the current politics in Britain is how the other parties are not exploiting the current situation.

Brown is floundering, Blair was remarkably unpopular, and that was before his conversion to Catholicism, which from what I’ve read, both historical and current stories, is a very big negative to the British public.

Why the Tories or Lib-Dems are unable to pick up significant seats in these circumstances is completely beyond me.