Someone take a second, go over to the Daily Kos, and please explain the difference to Steve between the International Criminal Court and the Belgian practice of charging anyone, anywhere, and claiming to have jurisdiction. He is confused, again.
John Cole started Balloon Juice early in 2002. Those who have followed along know that this has been quite the journey.
Curious
Does anyone know why Tacitus’s website is loading for April?
*** Update ***
He was hacked. He is fixed. All is good.
Happy Blogiversary
Go wish TalkLeft a belated Happy Blogiversary.
WaPo on Class Action Suits
The WaPo appears to come out in favor of the House Bill to modify Class-Action litigation:
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES passed a bill last week that would take a modest but important step toward fixing America’s broken system of class action litigation. The bill’s passage is no surprise; the House has passed it in previous Congresses as well. The big question now is whether it can pass the Senate, where it has previously stalled. A class action bill has been reported by the Judiciary Committee and is awaiting action by the full body. But its prospects remain cloudy. Yet no area of U.S. civil justice cries out more urgently for reform than the high-stakes extortion racket of class actions, in which truly crazy rules permit trial lawyers to cash in at the expense of businesses. Passing this bill would be an important start to rationalizing a system that’s out of control.
Last week, Yglesias and others called this bill horrible:
Any thoughts?
Bill Keller Gets IT
Bill Keller, in a few paragraphs, ends the ‘Bush lied” debate once and for all (if it were only that simple- there will be months of partisan bickering ahead of us):
The threat was a dictator with a proven, insatiable desire for dreadful weapons that would eventually have made him, or perhaps one of his sadistic sons, a god in the region. The fact that he gave aid and at least occasional sanctuary to practitioners of terror added to his menace. And at the end his brazen defiance made us seem weak and vulnerable, an impression we can ill afford. The opportunity was a moment of awareness and political will created by Sept. 11, combined with the legal sanction reaffirmed by U.N. Resolution 1441. The important thing to me was never that Saddam Hussein’s threat was “imminent”
Call Your Representative
This is an important piece of legislation:
If a coalition of congressmen has its way, the government’s temporary moratorium on Internet-access taxes could soon become permanent.
This week, a House of Representatives committee is expected to consider a proposal that would bar states from imposing levies on Internet service, but would not affect their ability to collect sales taxes.
The Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act, introduced by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), would make permanent a moratorium the congressman initially introduced in 1998. The current ban is set to expire in November.
Cox urged support for the measure, backed by more than 30 other representatives, partly on the grounds that taxes would make it harder for lower-income Americans to afford Internet service.
“The average American does not need new taxes, especially on their Internet access,” he said, citing a recent Commerce Department report that found families making less than $25,000 per year represent the fastest-growing segment of the Internet population.
Email your rep. Write your rep. Call your rep. Then do the same thing for your Senators.
You Knew This Was Coming
It was only a matter of time before someone did this.