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Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 20, 2014 17 Comments
Via @MarkCuban: Some background, Patent Troll Says It Owns Podcasting; Sues Adam Carolla, HowStuffWorks:
We've written a few times about a patent trolling operation called Personal Audio. Like so many patent trolling companies, who's actually behind it is something of a mystery, but it does have an empty office in East Texas that no one ever goes to. It sued Apple and others claiming that it held patents on the concept of "playlists" and actually scored some victories. Amazingly, it sued Apple multiple times over the same patent, arguing that small changes to its products were new violations. Well, the company is back with a "new" patent, 8,112,504, called a "System for disseminating media content representing episodes in a serialized sequence" and appears to be claiming that podcasting itself violates the patent -- and has sued three podcasters, including Adam Carolla's "ACE Broadcasting," HowStuffWorks and Togi Entertainment.
Carolla's funding site is SAVE OUR PODCASTS LEGAL DEFENSE FUND:

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 20, 2014 7 Comments

It's okay to sing along...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 19, 2014 64 Comments
I don't think we've written here yet about the Bundy Ranch standoff, mostly because we didn't have enough information about the situation to make a judgment about what really was going on. And I didn't have enough time to figure it all out. Was it, as some portrayed, a heroic struggle against an overbearing and overly aggressive federal government (in which case we might have taken the side of the underdog) or, as Harry Reid has portrayed it, a bunch of domestic terrorists looking for a shoot up? Or somewhere in between? Which gets me to the title of this post, "What if Bundy Ranch Were Owned by a Bunch of Black People?," which is the question posed by Jamelle Bouie at Slate.com:
A few things. First, this entire incident speaks to the continued power of right-wing mythology. For many of the protesters, this isn’t about a rogue rancher as much as it’s a stand against “tyranny” personified in Barack Obama and his administration. Second, it won’t happen, but right-wing media ought to be condemned for their role in fanning the flames of this standoff. After years of decrying Obama’s “lawlessness” and hyperventilating over faux scandals, it’s galling to watch conservatives applaud actual lawbreaking and violent threats to federal officials.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on April 19, 2014 12 Comments
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) had a close call with a train on Friday while at a news conference with Milford Mayor Ben Blake about railway safety. From WGGB/ABC40:
It was a close call at a Friday event for U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut. Ironically, he was holding a press conference about increasing railway safety across the state. That’s when a passing train sped by, just inches away from Blumenthal’s back. [...] The event was aimed at decreasing safety violations on the railways. Blumenthal says there were 139 violations since 2004. He says per 100 miles of track, Metro-North had five times the number of safety defects than any other commuter railroad in the country.
It was just as Mayor Blake said, "Safety, as you know, is paramount," when the train whipped by and temporarily disrupted the news conference. As news reports and other sites reporting on this story have pointed out, that yellow safety line is there for a reason.  It's a good idea to stand behind it. Video report from WTNH/News8, via BizPacReview below:

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Posted by Mike LaChance on April 19, 2014 6 Comments
If there's one person in America who wants people to stop talking about Obamacare, it's Obama. In recent appearances, the president has gone out of his way to declare that the debate is over and the law is here to stay. Obama is obviously trying to cement that notion in the minds of Americans so they'll be less receptive to changes should the Republicans win the senate in 2014. What Obama doesn't seem to know or be willing to acknowledge is that the debate is continuing in spite of his wishes. George E. Condon Jr. recently wrote in National Journal...
The Debate Over Obamacare Is Hardly Over President Obama opened his press conference Thursday with a bold proclamation that "the repeal debate is and should be over." But his declaration of victory in the long-running war over his health care overhaul did not last long. Only five questions later, he was forced to offer a softer, almost wistful acknowledgement of the reality that there are many more battles to wage and the debate could go on for years.

Posted by Bryan Jacoutot on April 19, 2014 9 Comments
Last week, a bill led by Ted Cruz unanimously passed the House and Senate, and recently came to the President’s desk for signature.
Cruz quickly and quietly worked to unveil a proposal in recent days that would ban Iran's recently appointed ambassador to the United Nations from entering the United States. He spent last weekend negotiating with New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the third-ranking Senate Democrat and a vocal critic of the Iranian government. Over the course of those conversations, the senators agreed to tweak Cruz's bill to make it amenable to Democrats, who on Monday night passed the bill unanimously and without debate. These days, getting a bill passed by either chamber is enough of an accomplishment for most lawmakers. But Cruz quickly identified a House sponsor, Colorado Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn, who took up the cause and convinced House GOP leaders to bypass the committee process and allow for a quick vote. The measure passed unanimously on Thursday without debate as House lawmakers left town for a two-week recess.
President Obama, who felt the bill was outside the constitutional authority of Congress to enact, has signed the bill into law but signaled in a “signing statement” he will not enforce it in situations he deems improper.

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 19, 2014 3 Comments

Noted rich liberal to teach income inequality for a gigantic pile of cash. CUNY to Pay Paul Krugman $225K to Teach Income Inequality Everyone reacts differently when they feel they're not being treated equally. Some people just give up and cheat. Academic Dishonesty on the Rise at Harvard Or deny...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 19, 2014 40 Comments
In Elizabeth Warren's new book, A Fighting Chance, Warren claims to be "hurt and angry" that people criticized her claim to be Native American, specifically Cherokee.  Warren blamed the Scott Brown campaign, the local Republican Party, and "some blogger." In fact, Warren has no one to blame but herself for her false claim to be Cherokee.  Read Elizabeth Warren Wiki, and these posts responding to the claims in her book: Warren will be launching a nationwide book tour.  Someone who wants to meet Warren is Twila Barnes. Barnes is the Cherokee Genealogist whose groundbreaking genealogical research exposed the falsehood to Warren's claims.  Barnes and her team of Cherokee genealogists traced Warren's family lines back to the early 1800s and documented that Warren's family not only was not Cherokee or other Native American, but also that they never lived as such: Barnes also debunked much of the "family lore" used by Warren to justify claiming Native American status.  One of my favorites was Barnes' discovery that Warren's maternal great grandfather, on the supposedly Cherokee bloodline, was featured in the local newspaper in 1906 as being white and having shot an Indian. And also Barnes' discovery that Warren's parents' wedding was joyously announced in the local newspaper, which would contradict Warren's claim that her parents had to elope because her father's family would not tolerate their son marrying an Indian.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on April 18, 2014 0 Comments

A roundup of links for your Friday evening reading. An interesting read, via HotAir: From The Week, The Democrats have a mega-donor problem...

Posted by New Neo on April 18, 2014 10 Comments

It's the holiday season, one of those rare years when Passover and Easter come close together, as they did during the original Easter. So I get a twofer when I wish my readers "Happy Holidays!" In recent years whenever I've attended a Seder I've been impressed...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 18, 2014 3 Comments

Does not fit the narrative....

Posted by David Gerstman on April 18, 2014 21 Comments
Is there anything that the U.N. does right? I noticed a story earlier this week, Apology for UN refusal to stop Rwanda genocide. The context for the apology is the twentieth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.
Former New Zealand ambassador Colin Keating issued the rare apology during a council meeting to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the genocide and examine what has been done since to prevent new genocides. The open session elicited praise for the U.N.'s stepped-up commitment to put human rights at the center of its work but widespread criticism of its failure to prevent ongoing atrocities in Syria, Central African Republic and South Sudan.
Keating was the President of the Security Council twenty years ago. Of course, another U.N. official was in charge of peacekeeping operations at the time one million Rwandan's were killed. His name is Kofi Annan. Despite his failure to prevent the genocide he was promoted to Secretary General of the United Nations. (There is even a Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Training Centre in his native Ghama. It's as if he actually succeeded at his job. The job he's good at is funding vanity projects.) To be sure Annan apologized for his failure ten years ago. Two months ago, U.N. diplomat, Lakhdar Brahimi also apologized:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 18, 2014 58 Comments
Chelsea Clinton has announced she's pregnant. Congratulations. Best wishes for mother and child. It would be perfectly natural for Hillary to show off the grandbaby, particularly if, as expected, she runs for President. I can envision the family, including grandbaby, on stage at the Democratic National Convention in 2016 as Hillary accepts the nomination -- maybe with Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow playing in the background Hillary more than anyone needs humanizing, in what already is a multi-year rebranding project. And Hillary isn't waiting for the arrival to publicly express her joy: https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/statuses/456903198834700288 Will Hillary be treated like Sarah Palin was back in 2008, when Palin appeared with her own child Trig, and was accused of using him as a prop? From the Legal Insurrection archives:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 18, 2014 32 Comments
Steve Lynch is a Democratic Rep. from Massachusetts who doesn't hesitate to buck the party line from a centrist point of view, and to speak openly about problems in the party and with party positions. Lynch ran for Senate to fill John Kerry's seat, but lost in the primary to now-Senator Ed Markey. Lynch recently was interviewed by The Boston Herald about upcoming Obamacare problems and how devastating they will be for Democrats. That runs contrary to cut current news cycle Democratic spin that (allegedly) meeting sign up goals means electoral problems related to Obamacare are over.
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, the lone member of the Bay State delegation to vote against Obama­care four years ago, now predicts the law’s botched roll-out will not only cost Democrats valuable House seats but could even jeopardize their control of the Senate in this year’s hotly contested midterm elections. “We will lose seats in the House,” the plain-talking South Boston Democrat said in Boston Herald Radio’s studio yesterday, delivering a harsh diagnosis. “I am fairly certain of that based on the poll numbers that are coming out from the more experienced pollsters down there. And I think we may lose the Senate. I think that’s a possibility if things continue to go the way they have been ... primarily because of health care.”
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