President Reagan’s Solicitor General Charles Fried says the health care mandate, whether you agree with the policy or not, is obviously constitutional.
That’s Kurt Waldheim on the left, in 1977, when he was UN secretary-general, a few years before all that Nazi unpleasantness came out. On the right is then-Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. And seen in-between them is Hosni Mubarak.
There’s another great one of Mubarak from that period here.
Okay, you’ll enjoy this. South Dakota state Rep. Hal Wick (R) is pushing a state law mandating people buy firearms, a law he believes is patently unconstitutional, as a way of illustrating how the Health Care Reform mandate is unconstitutional. Then our Eric Kleefeld points out that George Washington signed the Militia Act of 1792 which specifically mandates that able-bodied men purchase and maintain a gun. Then the fun begins.
I’ve seen a lot of references today to “Mubarak’s thugs.” CNN has a good rundown on who instigated the violence in Cairo and points the finger in the general direction of pro-Mubarak, state-supported provocateurs. What you might call “inside agitators.”
I don’t have much doubt that that’s broadly true. But it may miss a more important point. Mubarak could have cracked down on the protestors at any time over the last few days. But the violence didn’t erupt until Mubarak’s statement last night that he will not seek another term this year. Today’s clashes were probably not the regime’s final death rattle, but rather the beginning of the struggle to determine who emerges on top in the post-Mubarak era. Read More
Congress’ inability to police itself on ethics matters has never been quite so painfully evident as it is now.
It’s awfully peripheral to what is actually happening in Egypt but we should note that the neocon freak show in the U.S. is pointing to the crisis as evidence that President Obama is in league with the Muslim Brotherhood.
It looks like Republicans are going to relent on defining rape only as “forcible rape” — but not before The Daily Show grabbed hold of the issue last night.
Scott Bloch, the Bush era official who famously summoned Geeks on Call to wipe clean his office hard drive, may actually get jail time for his conviction on one count of contempt of Congress. The big takeaway from that is the irony that with all the politicization going on in the Bush Administration, Bloch would be the one to see the slammer.
But of interest to legal types is the argument between the judge in the case and both the defense and prosecutor about what sentence Bloch should receive. Bloch reached a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty with the expectation that he’d only get probation. But the judge has the final say on plea deals, and this judge reads the statute as imposing a mandatory minimum sentence of one month. Neither the defense attorneys nor government prosecutors have been able to convince her otherwise.
Unsurprisingly, the prospect of Hosni Mubarak’s fall from power is sending a shock through Israel and especially the Israeli security establishment. For the last three decades, Mubarak oversaw what is often referred to as a ‘cold peace’ with Israel. But in the most significant geostrategic respects, it was real peace. Egypt is the big military force on Israel’s borders. It’s always been the bigger military power than Syria while Jordan and Lebanon are only minor players in conventional military strength. Since 1979 Israel’s defense doctrines have been able to assume quiet on the southern border — something that has been key in the wars in Lebanon, actions in the West Bank and Gaza as well as making possible significant reductions in the percentage of GDP Israel spends on defense over the last two decades.
I am not convinced that the epochal developments in Egypt over the last week won’t end up being a good thing for Israel in the long run — a point I’ll return to in a minute. But there’s little question that these events are terrible for the hyper-nationalist ideology which animates the current government. It throws into question decades of Israeli military doctrine. And it turns a bright light on the hubris affecting the government’s actions over the last two years. Read More