Tag Archives: law

Tangled Web

1 Reply

This election’s shaping up to be another humdinger.

THE HOARY QUESTION OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

In the middle of a contentious election, in the fourth year of an administration that didn’t win the popular vote, in an era of ennui, this is the probably the worst possible time to ask one of the hardest questions of our political life. But that is also why this question cannot be avoided:

Should the Electoral College survive in its current form, or at all?

Florida 2000: The Sequel

Newspapers and magazines have been full of stories raising the disturbing possibility that the 2004 presidential election could once again end up in the courts: Will we wake up on Nov. 3 not knowing whether George W. Bush or John Kerry will be president for the next four years? Will the Supreme Court intervene again? How did things end up this way? Didn’t the country learn anything from the Florida debacle of 2000?

Who’s Checking Whom?

3 Replies

"Regardless of the emotion and political activism that led to Bush pushing 'Terri's Law,' there is a system of checks and balances in place to ensure that no one person makes a decision that could be a matter of life and death."

Isn't that the power Michael Schiavo wants? Anybody want to respond to this Pitt News op ed?

Need-to-Know Basis

Leave a reply

The Freedom of Information Act doesn’t do a lot of good if all the facts in a document
are redacted. This
article, about the ACLU’s fight against certain provisions of the Patriot Act,
suggests that much of what is redacted is quite innocent and need not be kept secret
for national security purposes. This may well be true since this administration
has displayed a frightening level of paranoia. However, it may be that there is
an important connection to be made from such seemingly innocent information. One
might find, with significant effort, a worrisome connection that the feds discovered
and saw fit to hit. Such a connection might even reflect badly on someone in the
intelligence community or even the federal government. Then again, maybe I’m just
being paranoid myself

Anyhow, I think it’s far too easy to hide information with the flimsy excuse that
it’s a matter of national security. I don’t doubt that a great many things are,
but I find it hard to swallow that everything hidden truly qualifies.