Slartibartfast

by Ugh I'm sure folk have read about the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from Taliban custody in exchange for transferring five Taliban mutant super-terrorists (worse than Magneto!), formerly held at Gitmo, to Qatar.  And likely the assorted related and unrelated right-wing outrage that has accompanied the exchange, most of it predictably misdirected, offensive, and/or irrelevant. … Read more

by Ugh Not sure if LJ was going to put one up, but talk about whatever.  New unemployment numbers, Final Four, the forthcoming release of a portion Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA torture jamboree, Letterman retiring, doing your taxes, etc.  I guess the new baseball season too, if you must.

by Ugh SCOTUS released its latest Campaign Finance opinion today in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission.  The opinion can be found here, a short SCOTUS Blog analysis here, and more reportorial report here.  In short, the decision removes the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (as amended) restriction on the overall amount of money donor can … Read more

by Ugh I see McClatchy is reporting: The CIA Inspector General’s Office has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations of malfeasance at the spy agency in connection with a yet-to-be released Senate Intelligence Committee report into the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation program, McClatchy has learned. That would be  the 6,300-page report on the … Read more

by Ugh I see that ESPN's "Outside the Lines" is reporting that football players at Northwestern are attempting to unionize.  I'm not an expert on labor law, the National Labor Relations Act, or the National Labor Relations Board.  It seems that the key question is whether football players should be considered employees under the Act. … Read more

by Ugh Today SCOTUS heard arguments on NLRB v. Noel Canning, regarding when the President can make so-called recess appointments to fill vacancies in Executive Branch positions that require Senate confirmation, without Senate confirmation.   This is allowed by Art. II, Sec. 2, which reads in pertinent part "The President shall have Power to fill … Read more

by Ugh Corporate "personhood" is in the news again with SCOTUS granting cert in the Hobby Lobby case to determine: Whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)…, which provides that the government “shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” unless that burden is the least restrictive means to further a compelling governmental interest, … Read more

by Ugh As I'm sure everyone knows, Senate Democrats got rid of the filibuster for non-SCOTUS judges and other executive branch nominees yesterday.  This was followed immediately, of course, by Republicans making various threats, saying Democrats would be sorry for doing so.  So, for all intents and purposes, the filibuster is dead.  I assume that … Read more

by Ugh I am currently exploring private schools for my oldest child for kindergarten next fall.  We live in the DC area and there is an astonishing (at least to me) number of private schools for children of all ages.  Some are pre-K through 12th grade, some through 8th, and some only through 3rd grade. … Read more

by Ugh Since the ACA has come up in so many threads lately I thought I'd ask what a functioning, "conservative" market in health care in the United States looks like?  It's not clear to me from comments what such a thing would be or how it would operate. Do we all have insurance?  Do … Read more