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May 31, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
So, now that lending institutions are being tasked with taking the same responsibility for sustainable debt relationships that borrowers are tasked with, how can the power to manipulate, shape or undermine the viability of the consumer markets be removed from those institutions, without undermining sustainable growth?
May 31, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Publishing models determine which texts are made available to a wide audience, and by what means. New media, like this social network, are providing new opportunities, but the crossover between print and digital media will provide bold new opportunities for making the best new ideas available to the people who can do the most with them.
May 31, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
What can we do to impede the erosion of some of our most prized social-intellectual habits of mind, rooted in organic brain structure and in social networking (from campfire to empire, parliament to newsprint, to Twitter and The Hot Spring Network), while taking advantage of the power of the web?
May 31, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
As the UN and the Red Cross express dire concerns over the humanitarian crisis emerging among the estimated 2 million people who have fled their homes in the Northwest Frontier Province, Pakistan says its military has recaptured the city of Mingora, in the Swat Valley. Taliban factions have claimed responsibility for major bomb attacks in Lahore, and have vowed to target Pakistan’s major cities.
May 29, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
This video shows conservative radio host Erich “Mancow” Muller undergoing the process known as “waterboarding”, in an effort to demonstrate that it does not amount to torture. After only 6 seconds, Muller called off the experiment and said he felt like he had experienced certain death. He said the process is “absolutely torture”.
May 27, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
In 2001, Sonia Sotomayor delivered a speech to the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, entitled “A Latina Judge’s Voice”. It was published in the Spring 2002 issue of Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, and has been reproduced by The New York Times this month online. A quote taken from that speech has raised controversy, as conservatives alleged Sotomayor declared her willingness to use race as a means of judging the law. In fact, she argued against that sort of bias.
May 27, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
ALITO: Because when a case comes before me involving, let’s say, someone who is an immigrant — and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases — I can’t help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn’t that long ago when they were in that position.
May 27, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
According to reports emerging from the Korean peninsula, the North Korean regime has over the course of two days tested a nuclear device, fired five missiles and declared that it is no longer bound by the peace treaty that ended the Korean war. In the US, FOX News Channel has already reported that Pyongyang has declared war on the United States and South Korea. The White House says it is aware of the threat, but that the current array of hostile acts is “bluff and bluster”.
May 26, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The isolated Communist regime of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has reportedly tested a nuclear device, raising fears its posturing could escalate or that the outcome of failed negotiations could be an attack on South Korea, US interests or other allies. Later in the day, it was reported North Korea had also launched at least 3 missiles, possibly capable of intercontinental range.
May 26, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: One Comment
In what promises to be one of the most controversial court rulings of the decade, the Supreme Court of the state of California found in favor of the supporters of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage by Constitutional amendment in the state. Kenneth Starr argued the case in favor of Prop. 8. The Court allows the 18,000 couples already married in legal California marriages prior to Prop. 8 to retain their married status.
May 26, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Barack Obama has proposed the closure of the extralegal prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of accused terror suspects have been held for years without charge and without access to the due process guaranteed by our Constitution. With critics defaming the president as somehow wanting to “release terrorists on US soil”, an absurd claim, Obama has now muddied the soaring poetry of his defense of our Constitution and its values with an as-yet unspecified plan to establish a “legal regime” of “prolonged detention” without charge or due process.
May 26, 2009 :: staff :: 3 Comments
First and foremost is a rigorous intellect — a mastery of the law, an ability to hone in on the key issues and provide clear answers to complex legal questions. Second is a recognition of the limits of the judicial role, an understanding that a judge’s job is to interpret, not make, law; to approach decisions without any particular ideology or agenda, but rather a commitment to impartial justice; a respect for precedent and a determination to faithfully apply the law to the facts at hand.
May 26, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Pres. Obama has chosen judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill the seat to be vacated by Justice David Souter, when he retires from the Supreme Court. Sotomayor is an accomplished jurist born to Puerto Rican parents and raised in Bronx housing projects, who has reached the pinnacle of achievement at each phase of her career. Her placement as the Court’s 111th justice would be the first for Hispanic Americans and would secure a second current seat for women.
May 25, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Now that such institutions are being tasked with taking the same responsibility for sustainable debt relationships that borrowers are tasked with, how can the power to manipulate, shape or undermine the viability of the consumer markets be removed from those institutions, without undermining sustainable growth?
May 24, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
The influenza A H1N1 virus outbreak of this spring is alleged to have surfaced in a little town in rural Mexico called La Gloria, which happens to be next to one of the world’s most massive industrial scale pig farms. While humans cannot contract the virus by eating pork, the dire conditions and poor sanitation [...]
May 23, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: Comments Off
Roxana Saberi, a freelance journalist who has reported for the BBC and NPR, has returned home to the United States after spending 4 months in prison in Tehran. She had been convicted of spying for the US on evidence that has never been made public. Rights activists, the US government, her family, her lawyers and [...]
May 23, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The reason this legislation is so important is because there are many others — many who have written me letters, or grabbed my arm along rope lines, or shared their stories while choking back tears — who relied on credit cards not because they were avoiding responsibilities, but precisely because they wanted to meet their responsibilities — and got trapped. These are hardworking people whose hours were cut, or the factory closed, who turned to a credit card to get through a rough month — which turned into two, or three, or six months without a job. These are parents who found, to their surprise, that their health insurance didn’t cover a child’s expensive procedure and had to pay the hospital bill; families who saw their mortgage payments jump and used the credit card more often to make up the difference.
May 22, 2009 :: staff :: 3 Comments
The United Nations is now, more than ever, deploying troops around the world to act as “peacekeepers” in regions where factional conflict is entrenched and long-running. There are at least 115,000 UN peacekeepers, a record number, deployed in 20 countries around the globe. But troop levels are often low compared the size of the land-area or population that needs protecting.
May 20, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The United States Congress yesterday approved new legislation putting restrictions on credit card companies, limiting the leeway banks have in specifying terms and conditions in complex wording in long pages of fine print. The measure would also require that no lender see interest rates escalate until being at least 60 days delinquent and that rates [...]
May 20, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have laid down their arms, in order to prevent further death among the Tamil people, according to news reports. The government says the ceasefire agreement is surrender and a comprehensive victory; the LTTE say they are entering a ceasefire in order to spare end the violence. It is not known whether, in the absence of its traditional leadership, the LTTE will be able to agree to an enforceable peace or whether the group could split.
May 19, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Yesterday in Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi was tried on charges she illegally harbored a foreign national in her home, a pretext for the military junta to keep her imprisoned while the nation holds its first democratic elections since 1990, when she won but was jailed instead of being allowed to take office. She has served 13 of the 19 years since in formal detention or house arrest.
May 19, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Republican National Committee is voting this week on whether or not to adopt a fully fantasy-based platform. The party is considering a motion to rebrand the Democratic party, over which they have no authority, the ‘Democrat Socialist party’. The move has been ridiculed by some in the party, as well as by members of the FOX News team, often considered friendly to the Republican party and its agenda.
May 18, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Today’s New York Times features an above-the-fold front-page story on the apparent probability that Congress will reach agreement on using a “cap and trade” approach to curbing carbon emissions. The massive industrial output of carbon dioxide (CO2) has been found to contribute to the destabilization of the global climate and a gradual warming effect which could lead to catastrophic risks to infrastructure and public health.
May 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
TheHotSpring.net :: John Kanzius discovered, through his experience with radio technology, that the use of metal nano particles could allow a targeted way to attack cancer cells and weaken or kill a tumor. The technology came to be known as Kanzius RF therapy, and remains experimental. It uses nano-scale particles of gold or carbon, which [...]
May 18, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
As a lawyer at the Justice Department, under attorney general John Ashcroft, John Yoo came to national prominence for opinions he provided to the White House as part of the process to lay out the legal framework for abusive interrogations. Last year, in a debate with international human rights expert Doug Cassel, Yoo reiterated a point he had argued previously, that Pres. Bush had, in his opinion, the inherent right to torture, and even to torture the children of prisoners being interrogated.
May 17, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Obama said the major crises facing the United States and the world “do not discriminate” by race, nation, or creed. He said that finding “common ground, recognizing that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a single garment of destiny” was key to success, as a society, but would not be easy. He cited human frailty, selfishness, fear and envy, devotion to “immediate self interest and crass materialism”, as obstacles to achieving necessary solutions to the world’s problems.
May 17, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
We must decide how to save God’s creation from a changing climate that threatens to destroy it. We must seek peace at a time when there are those who will stop at nothing to do us harm, and when weapons in the hands of a few can destroy the many. And we must find a way to reconcile our ever-shrinking world with its ever-growing diversity — diversity of thought, of culture and of belief.
May 17, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The president of Notre Dame University, Father John Jenkins, explained, before conferring the day’s first honorary degree, that a doctoral degree is the highest honor a university can confer upon an individual, given as recognition of a career of academic study and profound achievement in a given field. He then added that while a doctoral degree is conferred in part due to the recognition of great scholarly potential, an honorary doctorate is granted in recognition of an individual’s having achieved genuine and unique improvements in the world, a much more difficult thing to accomplish.
May 17, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Upon entering the hall for the Notre Dame University graduation, Pres. Barack Obama received a 3-minute standing ovation that repeatedly interrupted the beginning of the ceremonies. Pres. Obama’s message of community, responsibility and volunteer service, is seen to resonate broadly with the Notre Dame graduates, most of whom have given service to communities here and abroad.
May 16, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
The ruling party of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh has expanded its presence in parliament. Singh is expected to be asked to serve a second 5-year term for the professorial PM. Singh is also credited with a unique reputation for clean dealing and a steady term of service presiding over 9% growth for the Indian economy.
May 16, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Barack Obama yesterday announced he would reinstate the military tribunals system implemented by the Bush administration to try suspects held at the Guantánamo Bay prison camp. The new round of tribunals would apply only to a handful of suspects and will require modifications to the process, as voted by Congress.
May 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Pres. Barack Obama today spoke of his grave concern for the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, where some 190,000 displaced people are now at risk for disease, hunger, or the ongoing violence between government forces and the Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels. Obama called on the LTTE to lay down its arms and allow civilians to flee, and he called on the government to allow civilians to find genuine security from military action and to cease all bombardment of civilian areas.
May 15, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
New reports from Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) suggest as many as 1 million people may have fled their homes to escape fighting between Taliban insurgents and government military forces. The Pakistani military lifted a curfew in the town of Mingora, in the Swat Valley, for 8 hours to allow civilians to evacuate, in advance of what it says will be a total assault against all militant positions there.
May 15, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
As we made our way around the world we encountered love, hate, rich and poor, black and white, and many different religious groups and ideologies. It became very clear that as a human race we need to transcend from the darkness to the light and music is our weapon of the future. This song around the world features musicians who have seen and overcome conflict and hatred with love and perseverance.
May 15, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Now, some graduating classes have marched into this stadium in easy times – times of peace and stability when we call on our graduates to simply keep things going, and not screw it up. Other classes have received their diplomas in times of trial and upheaval, when the very foundations of our lives have been shaken, the old ideas and institutions have crumbled, and a new generation is called on to remake the world.
May 15, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Norm Coleman, who is still locked in a long and hotly contested recount and lawsuit process for the 2008 Minnesota race for the US Senate, has become involved in an FBI investigation into the dealings of a “longtime benefactor”, Nasser Kazeminy. Kazeminy is being investigated for fraud in relation to his management of a company called Deep Marine Technology.
May 15, 2009 :: Severino Villalonso :: Comments Off
Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s leading opposition figure and pro-democracy activist, has been removed from her home less than one month before her house arrest was due to be lifted. She was detained by the military junta on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest by meeting with an American citizen in her home.
May 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There are questions about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her having revealed only recently that she had been briefed about harsh interrogation techniques. She has said the briefings were classified and that the contents were not permitted to be discussed, even with members of Congress who were not present. The CIA and some Republicans opposing the push for hearings, an independent investigation or a truth commission, have said Pelosi was briefed thoroughly on the nature and application of “enhanced interrogation techniques”.
May 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
The private memoirs of former Chinese Communist party (CCP) leader Zhao Ziyang are to be published, as we near the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests and the massacre that ended them. The diaries will be published this month, under the title Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Zhao Ziyang.
May 13, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
A former FBI interrogator today told the first Congressional hearing into “enhanced interrogation techniques” —an alleged regime of systematic torture— that waterboarding was slow, ineffective and unnecessary. He told the hearings, from behind a screen used to protect his identity, that after he had used non-abusive legal interrogation techniques to elicit useful information from Abu Zubaydah, CIA ‘contractors’ took over, waterboarded him, and the suspect “shut down” and refused to talk.
May 13, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The president of the United States has taken what is perhaps his most problematic decision, in terms of following through on bold promises about ethics and transparency reform. The decision to withhold Pentagon photographs reportedly showing extreme interrogations was made due to concern the images could inflame violence against US personnel overseas.
May 12, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: Comments Off
Sri Lanka’s government has expelled three reporters for the UK-based Channel 4 News. Nick Paton Walsh, producer Bessie Du and cameraman Matt Jasper, were detained by police in the town of Trincomalee, in eastern Sri Lanka, after reports highlighting the conditions facing refugees who fled the fighting between government and rebel forces.
May 12, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The US economy has faced serious challenges on a number of fronts, over the last few years, contributing to a complex downturn with little easy salvation in sight. In order to transition to this new era of recovery and slower growth, the US consumer will have to cut back drastically on luxury spending, and the market will have to rely less on the easy flow of consumer credit.
May 12, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
The release of Roxana Saberi —an Iranian-American journalist sentenced to 8 years for espionage by an Iranian court allowing her little due process and with no known credible evidence against her— is an important victory for advocates of both fair trial and press freedom. But as her story, which played out on a global stage, has highlighted the need for action to curb persecution of journalists, questions are being raised about the treatment of journalists in the US ‘war on terror’.
May 11, 2009 :: staff :: 4 Comments
The wind-power generation paradigm is wind turbines turning due to the pressure of oncoming winds. The standard is a single fan with three blades that turns at a relatively slow and constant rate to maximize energy extraction from wind currents passing over the blades and turning the turbine. The ‘WindCube’, however, fits a wind-amplification paradigm, a possible first-step to a new era in wind-turbine technology.
May 11, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis took off this afternoon at 2:01 EDT, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. The mission —STS-125— will be the last scheduled mission to service the 19-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, in an effort to extend its working life at least 5 more years into the future. It will entail at least 5 planned spacewalks to repair and upgrade the telescope’s equipment and power-sourcing.
May 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The US system of healthcare is fundamentally broken. Nearly 50 million people have no coverage at all. Add to that the 13 million undocumented immigrants who are unable to buy healthcare or qualify for government programs, and we have over 60 million inhabitants of the US with zero access to affordable healthcare. Every single uninsured inhabitant of the US pushes costs up, as the system has to absorb unpayable emergency healthcare costs for those individuals. So, for practical reasons as well as moral, we need to take seriouly that every person has a right to medical treatment.
May 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, jailed in Tehran on allegations of espionage, has had her sentence reduced from 8 years to 2 years, suspended for 5 years. Iranian officials announced today that she was free to leave Evin prison immediately. Saberi, originally detained for buying a bottle of wine, was subsequently charged with reporting without government credentials, then espionage. Her trial was a 15-minute closed-door hearing in which no defense was permitted.
May 10, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The lawyer representing Roxana Saberi in an Iranian appeals court today has expressed hope, saying he is “optimistic she will be acquitted”. Ms. Saberi was convicted in April by an Iranian court of spying for the US, a charge related to her conducting journalistic activity without a government-issued license to do so. There has been an international outcry calling for her unconditional release, and Iran’s president ordered the courts to hear her appeal.
May 9, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln faced the challenge of proving himself worthy of national leadership, with only 2 years experience in the House of Representatives, 11 years prior to his candidacy. He arranged to deliver a major policy address in New York City. The topic was daunting: he would make the argument in favor of federal control of slavery in the territories which might become new states. Southern states where slavery was not only legal but was the structural basis for their economic culture, were opposed to such a policy, believing it would lead to the powerful and populous northern states forcing Congress to ban slavery throughout the US. [transcript follows comment...]
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