Ugh

by Ugh The Scene:  Saturday, Pizza Joint The Players:  Ugh, Ugh’s almost 3 year old The Setting:  Pizza ordered, just sat down to wait. Almost 3 Year Old (cheerily):  I want pizza! Ugh:  Okay, it’s coming soon. [30 seconds later] A3YO (cheerily):  I want pizza! Ugh:  Don’t worry, it’s coming. [30 seconds later] A3YO (cheerily): … Read more

by Ugh The dribs and drabs of N!S!A! and other U.S. intelligence apparatus spying news continue to flow from the Edward Snowden FilesTM and elsewhere.  Here is a story about how even "incidentally" collected information is stored and searched.  Most disturbingly (to me at least, there are many other disturbing details) in that story, is … Read more

by Ugh I had the, um, pleasure of being called for potential jury duty today.  I was not placed on a jury (although likely would have been had I been closer to the front of the line) but had some thoughts about it and the US criminal justice system generally. First, I'm not sure I'd … Read more

by Ugh The glorious U.S. Supreme Court will issue its decision in the Hobby Lobby case this morning around 10am.  SCOTUSblog will have live coverage. Hard to call this one.  I can see 5-4 for the Hobby Lobby, or 5-4, maybe even 6-3 for the other side.  More likely, given the various issues, it will … Read more

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

by Ugh Not sure LJ is putting one up for Friday given his current location (although he's closer than Voyager 1) so for y'all's enjoyment, here you go. That Syria thing sure took a turn.  I think it essentially reflects that Obama, at bottom, really didn't want to bomb them, although he was clearly going … Read more

by Ugh The New York Times: Beginning in 2000, as encryption tools were gradually blanketing the Web, the N.S.A. invested billions of dollars in a clandestine campaign to preserve its ability to eavesdrop. Having lost a public battle in the 1990s to insert its own “back door” in all encryption, it set out to accomplish … Read more

by Ugh Let's do this.   Bombing Syria:  good? bad? unknown?  If the last, then good?  Bad?   Who/what would we be acting on behalf of?  The United States/American people?  The United Nations?  Some subset of the latter?  The Assad opposition?  Noble ideals?  A "red line"?  Some of the above?   Perhaps the question I'm … Read more

by Ugh In another edition of "russell asks," he queries why we can't/don't tax wealth rather than income.   There are a number of reasons for this, some better than others.  Let's assume the federal government set a wealth tax at 2%.  First question is: 2% of what.  Presumably of the fair market value of … Read more

by Ugh Reuters reports: A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement … Read more

by Ugh Prosecutors are sort of a strange duck in the lawyer world, as they are not charged by the ABA model rules with putting client interests – i.e., the government – first.  The ABA rule on "special responsibilities" of prosecutors is here, and the comment to the rule is here.   The model rule … Read more

by Ugh It seems that there is a bit of a to do about the information the NSA collects on Americans.  Whether or not this is "legal" – from a statutory or Constitutional perspective – it's a bit troubling. First, it has been done in complete secrecy outside of government officials (until these reports).  Second, … Read more

by Ugh As I noted in a comment, another post on the IRS exempt organizations scandal.  As usual, all the links to everything you would ever want to know about it are available at the taxprof blog, who for some reason is determined to number the days (as if there is going to be some … Read more

by Ugh In this post the role of Theo will be played by the GOP. As most of you have no doubt heard, the IRS has admitted targeting right-leaning organizations applying for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code for extra-scrutiny.  There will be an official Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report … Read more

A month ago a commentor asked about the practice known in the tax community (and more broadly) as "transfer pricing" and reigning in some of its effects.   As background, "transfer pricing" generally (very generally) refers to how to account for transactions between related entities for tax purposes.  That is, if wholly owned subsidiary A … Read more

by Ugh From the front page of today's Wall Street Journal (copying from the paper version – emphasis supplied): The Pentagon has redesigned its biggest "bunker buster" bomb with more advanced features intended to enable it to destroy Iran's most heavily fortified and defended nuclear site. U.S. officials see development of the weapon as critical … Read more

by Ugh O rly? From President Obama's statement last Friday night after the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Massachusetts: One thing we do know is that whatever hateful agenda drove these men to such heinous acts will not — cannot — prevail. Whatever they thought they could ultimately achieve, they've already failed. They failed because the … Read more

by Ugh This week SCOTUS decided MISSOURI v. MCNEELY, opinion available here, essentially saying that the "natural dissipation of blood-alcohol" did not, on its own, constitute an exigent circumstance, one of the current exceptions to the warrant requirement of the 4th Amendment.  Hence, the ensuing blood test showing that McNeely was clearly above the legal limit could not … Read more

A commenter asks "What are the chances of any kind of meaningful simplification (never mind reform) of the tax code any time soon?" The answer is: slim to none on both.  "Tax simplification" is everyone'ssecond choice here in DC, which is to say that everyone (individuals, the Congress, companies, etc.) has their preferred tax favors that are much more important … Read more