Legal Commentary

News from America guaranteed to prompt terrorist belly laughs

Posted on April 17, 2009
This makes me laugh too, sorta ? but it simultaneously makes me want to weep, for my profession and my country, and for what the former has done to hamstring the latter's desperate fight against the terrorists who would destroy us if they could (first and third bracketed portions mine, others by TIME): The CIA desire to use insects during...

Surviving Somali pirate captured by U.S. Navy should face death sentence under U.S. hostage-taking law

Posted on April 12, 2009
God bless the United States Navy! And what a spectacular Easter blessing for the brave Captain Richard Phillips of the MV Maersk Alabama and his gallant crew and grateful family! Three of the four pirates who were holding Captain Phillips on the Alabama's lifeboat were shot dead, apparently through the exceptional marksmanship and professionalism of Navy SEAL snipers...

The world will little note, nor long remember, the angle of Obama's bow from the waist to King Abdullah; but ...

Posted on April 10, 2009
I'm in a particularly crusty mood at the moment, and this post may draw disagreement from many or maybe even most of those who read it. That's okay. I've just been working up to a rant, and I have to let it out. ******* In March 1936, my father was a 14-year-old in rural Lamesa, Texas, and he was fairly...

"I don?t know what the term is in Austrian"

Posted on April 06, 2009
One might think a degree in political science (with a specialization in international relations) from Columbia University, followed by service as chair of the European Affairs subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, might have given Barack Obama some clue as to the language spoken by the people of our NATO ally, Austria...

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Today's spam email header that's least likely to pique my further interest

Posted on April 02, 2009
"It will be hard for women to resist the temptation not to sleep with you."

Real "Kansas values" from candidate Rob Wasinger

Posted on April 01, 2009
I was grousing yesterday about the Obama campaign's pretense that its candidate was imbued with "Kansas values," so it's perhaps karma, or perhaps just happy coincidence, that I received an email from a trusted blogospheric friend today directing me to a post on Redstate...

Barack Obama: multi-cultural success, fiscal disaster

Posted on March 31, 2009
This is an interesting article about President Obama on Politico.com. The gist is that because "his background is more exotic than the typical president," he therefore has "more touchstones and cultural reference points than any predecessor ? and he is not shy about invoking them in all manner of forums to make all manner of points": As candidate, he often...

Rahm Emanuel, "former investment (cough*scoundrel*cough) banker"

Posted on March 27, 2009
Hugh Hewitt points to a Chicago Tribune article which points out that Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel "made at least $320,000 for a 14-month stint [as a board member] at Freddie Mac that required little effort," and probably many tens of thousands more from stock sales...

Fisking Obama's latest attack on the GOP

Posted on March 25, 2009
From a short report, mostly comprising direct quotations, at Politico.com: President Barack Obama chided Republicans for criticizing his agenda without being able to name priorities of their own. ?The Republican Party right now hasn?t sort of figured out what it?s for,? Obama said during a Monday interview with regional press, according to a transcript posted Tuesday by the Louisville Courier-Journal...

Beldar & daughter catch the Houston Dynamo's season opener

Posted on March 22, 2009
Last night, I attended my first-ever professional football game ? errr, well, perhaps I should say professional fútbol game ? along with my youngest daughter, Molly, and several members of her middle school soccer team. It was the season opener for the Houston Dynamo, the 2006 and 2007 Major League Soccer champions...

So you think we're better off spending money on pork than on keeping the F-22 Raptor production lines going?

Posted on March 21, 2009
Without air superiority, America isn't a superpower. It is exactly that simple. "No one would dare challenge America in the air," say those who want to slash defense spending. "We don't need more cutting-edge aircraft because the ones we already have are sufficient to intimidate all of our possible opponents...

When will Obama succumb to the pressure and begin to Wag the Dog?

Posted on March 19, 2009
Conrad 'Connie' Brean: And it's most certainly NOT about the B-3 bomber. John Levy: There IS no B-3 bomber. Conrad 'Connie' Brean: I just said that! There is no B-3 bomber. I don't know how these rumors get started! ? Dialog from Wag the Dog (1997) Through adroit triangulation, fierce stonewalling, the constant spin of the perpetual campaign, and other,...

While I wasn't blogging, I was lecturing lawyers on ethics

Posted on March 16, 2009
I had many distractions from blogging during my hiatus, but one was preparing a continuing legal education paper and lecture. I like lecturing on ethics topics. That's not because I consider myself an expert on legal ethics. I'm not ? and indeed, I begin every such lecture with full disclosure that I'm nothing more than one of the audience members'...

It's "Morning-After in America"

Posted on March 15, 2009
I've taken a multi-week hiatus from blogging during the Obama Administration's honeymoon, but David Broder has declared the honeymoon to be officially over now. (Many thanks to those who've sent me encouragement or expressed concern via comments or emails during my silence...

Stupidest tool with internet access and some semblance of an audience who's commented upon the Obama inauguration

Posted on January 21, 2009
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.... ? Barack Obama, Inaugural Address upon becoming the 44th President of the United States. There is simply no excuse for United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts bungling the presidential oath of office to such an extent that Barack...

A tip of Beldar's cap to Juan Williams

Posted on January 21, 2009
For my money, the best pundit of the just-past election and transition season, friends and neighbors ? either in print, on radio, or on TV ? has been Juan Williams, who draws his paychecks from the perhaps improbable combination of NPR and Fox News. That doesn't mean I've agreed with him more than I've agreed with any other pundits...

Regarding Obama's inaugural address

Posted on January 20, 2009
The Forty-Fourth President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, began his inaugural address with a fib.\*/ No, I don't mean the salutation ? "My fellow citizens" ? for I have never been among those who were captivated with any of the various theories about Obama's birthplace or years in Indonesia or the like...

Takedown and pin

Posted on January 17, 2009
Regular readers, long-suffering souls that you be, may recall this same handsome young man's photo in a post from last February that also included a video clip. Through an act of great self-discipline, I'm going to limit myself to no more than two posts, and only a later one with video, in which I will permit myself to brag on...

Of Sputnik babies, paratroopers, and senators: Why Caroline Kennedy's "qualifications" are a bad joke

Posted on January 04, 2009
The first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched on October 4, 1957, and burned up upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere on January 4, 1958. About mid-way through its effective life, on November 26, 1957, my mom launched me in Lamesa, Texas. And on the very next day, in New York City, Jackie Kennedy launched her daughter, Caroline Bouvier Kennedy...

Review: Beldar & kids see Jim Carrey's "Yes Man"

Posted on January 03, 2009
My oldest daughter, Sarah, was working today, but I took my sons Kevin and Adam and my younger daughter Molly to a Saturday afternoon movie matinée. None of the choices were terribly appealing, but they opted to take a chance on Jim Carrey's latest comedy, "Yes Man...

Rather seeks trial to promote his revisionist history, but the world still can't look to CBS News for the actual truth

Posted on December 23, 2008
Charles Johnson and Glenn Reynolds are not the only ones who are dismayed by the "revisionist history" being pushed by Dan Rather and uncritically repeated by National Public Radio. I played a small but enthusiastic part as one of bloggers who were scrutinizing Dan Rather, "60 Minutes," and CBS News during the 2004 Rathergate controversy...

Renewing Texas drivers licenses online

Posted on December 23, 2008
In consulting the Texas Department of Public Safety's website to find out the location of the nearest drivers license renewal office, I learned today that I, and many other Texans, are able to renew our drivers licenses entirely over the internet, paying by credit card and promising (via an online click) that we haven't incurred some new visual or other...

Review: Blackberry Storm cellphone

Posted on December 19, 2008
I. Background: Curmudgeonly lawyer as early adapter In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was an early adapter for cell phone technology. That's when I was a big-firm lawyer who traveled a lot and who did not at all like being out of telephone contact or riding in ordinary taxis...

Review: Blackberry Storm cellphone

Posted on December 19, 2008
I. Background: Curmudgeonly lawyer as early adapter In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was an early adapter for cell phone technology. That's when I was a big-firm lawyer who traveled a lot and who did not at all like being out of telephone contact or riding in ordinary taxis...

Beldar predicts that Blagojevich won't be impeached until convicted in court

Posted on December 14, 2008
This post may may make some people in Illinois mad at me. I'll have to risk it. Prof. Ann Althouse is having fun ridiculing Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's efforts both before the press and before the Illinois Supreme Court. Madigan is trying to persuade that court to effectively remove Gov...

Problems leaving comments here?

Posted on December 14, 2008
TypePad is making some improvements under the hood, and I think some of them may be causing conflicts with some of the customized templates I'm using for my comments. At least as I perceive the problem, it starts with the moment I click on the data entry field for the comment text ? that's where I start getting odd behavior,...

Unabashedly oldschool (tragically unhip) blogging

Posted on December 09, 2008
For the record, in response to Wired's claim (h/t Instapundit) that blogs are "so 2004": My blog has always been for "long-form writing," as my masthead conspicuously warns. I'm generally satisfied with how my posts fare in search engine rankings. I don't think my commenters are 'tards...

Minnesota court of appeals affirms Craig conviction

Posted on December 09, 2008
I wrote quite a bit last year about Sen. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig (R-ID)'s pathetic attempts to withdraw his guilty plea for disorderly conduct in a Minneapolis-St. Paul airport restroom, and after reading the trial judge's opinion rejecting that attempt last October, I concluded that for purposes of any appeals, Sen...

There was nothing "culpable" about the 2003 Texas redistricting

Posted on November 26, 2008
I'm angered to read the following passage in a very silly and badly informed article called The End of Gerrymandering, and in particular, I'm dismayed to read it in the Weekly Standard: But Republicans have not been without culpability, especially in recent years...

Beldar's reaction to rumors of Hillary for SecState

Posted on November 19, 2008
Per the AP: Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, was expected to decide soon whether to take the job [of Secretary of State in the Obama Administration], which associates said she believes is hers if she wants it. Transition officials for President-elect Barack Obama said the former first lady had not formally been offered the job and other candidates have been vetted...

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