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Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 28, 2009 11 Comments
I listened to much of day two of the Illinois Senate impeachment trial of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. This was the day when the smoking gun would be revealed, in the form of four audio tapes just released by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Despite the claims...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 27, 2009 0 Comments
James G. Lindsay, the former General Counsel of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), has issued a detailed 84-page report harshly critical of UNRWA’s policies with regard to Palestinian refugees. The report is titled “Fixing UNRWA...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 27, 2009 0 Comments
Hamas set off a massive roadside bomb at the Gaza border, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding several on the Israeli side of the border. In return fire, one Palestinian was killed. So how do British papers report the story? Here are the headlines: The...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 26, 2009 1 Comment
Last October was our first Halloween in Ithaca, New York. Because I couldn’t tend to the door, I put a box of candy on the front porch, with a sign that said “Please be honest, take just one.” This being Ithaca in the month before...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 25, 2009 3 Comments
On Monday, January 26, 2009, the impeachment trial of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich begins. Nominally, the trial will be held by the Illinois Senate with the Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court presiding. In reality, this case is, and always has been, under the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 25, 2009 2 Comments
Estimating the size of crowds traditionally has been an art, not a science. The art part of crowd-estimating leaves much to the artist’s interpretation. Police departments often go with their “gut” feeling based upon experience with prior events, or a helicopter flyover. In the case...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 24, 2009 2 Comments
You know the old saying, “those who can’t do, teach.” When I was in private law practice, I took that saying as gospel. Now that I teach, I’m not so sure I like it, or that it’s true. I think a better phrase might be,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 24, 2009 2 Comments
An air strike from a Predator drone killed 15-20 people in the tribal areas of Pakistan yesterday. According to most reports, the targets were al-Qaida operatives. Presumably, the CIA, NSA, and other government intelligence agencies had intelligence information as to the location of the operatives...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 23, 2009 0 Comments
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich just finished a press conference in which he claimed that he is not participating in the Senate impeachment trial, scheduled to start Monday, because the Senate impeachment trial rules deprive Blagojevich of a fundamentally fair hearing. Blagojevich is right that he...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 23, 2009 2 Comments
Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans …. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 22, 2009 0 Comments
As if the flubbed oath of office wasn’t enough, it has now been revealed that the all-star musical ensemble at Barack Obama’s inauguration didn’t play the music you heard live. The honorable Itzhak Perlman, Gabriela Montero, Yo-Yo Ma, and Anthony McGill actually played on the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 22, 2009 5 Comments
Dramatic increases in domestic drilling were offered as the answer to many of our economic problems last summer when gas was approaching $4 per gallon. Even Democrats were forced to recognize the need to open up some offshore drilling, and pressure was building to drill...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 21, 2009 0 Comments
Symbolism counts for a lot. In a highly symbolic move, Barack Obama’s first President-to-President phone call was to Abu Mazen, a/k/a Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and President of the Palestinian Authority: In a flurry of telephone calls from the Oval Office,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 21, 2009 6 Comments
I really wanted to put my disgust at Bush Derangement Syndrome behind me in approaching Obama. Yes, Obama and his supporters (i) repeatedly lied about Bush lying us into war, (ii) distorted the court rulings on Gitmo to create the false impression that Bush is...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 20, 2009 0 Comments
On the morning of the inauguration, when attention was focused on the peaceful transition of power from George Bush to Barack Obama, the NY Times disclosed that it had taken out a loan from Mexican financier Carlos Slim on terms that would shame the worst...
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