Flash Mobs

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A flash mob (or flashmob) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails. The term is generally not applied to events organized by public relations firms, protests, and publicity stunts.

Flash Mob – Sound of Music – Antwerp Station

Flash Mob – Opera Company of Philadelphia “Flash Brindisi” at Reading Terminal Market

Flash Mob – T-Mobile Dance – Liverpool Station

Times Square Wells Fargo Flash Mob

 

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Nike’s “Write the Future” World Cup Ad

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Hover your mouse over the “360p” and choose “1080p HD”. Then click on the 4 arrows to the right to view full screen.

For all videos on this blog, I recommend choosing the highest dpi (480, 720 HD, 1080 HD, etc.) where available, then trying full screen for HD dpi choices.

 

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Chris Matthews on Leno – BP Oil Spill & Cheney

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The Arizona Immigration Law’s Fatal Flaw

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Control of immigration to and the legal presence in the United States is, by definition, the job of the federal government. Enforcement is carried out by the federal Immigration & Naturalization Services and its successor, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Patrolling and protecting the land borders of the United States is the US Customs & Border Protection, a law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security. It doesn’t get more federal than that.

The federal government handles stuff that would be impractical to leave to the individual states. Foreign policy and war are obvious examples. We can’t have Virginia making treaties with Paraguay or California declaring war on Poland. Similarly, it’s not left to Montana, New York and Idaho to protect their parts of the US-Canadian border. Or to Arizona to protect its part of US-Mexican border. The US government has usurped that power, not leaving it to the states under the 10th Amendment.

Article VI, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution is known as the Supremacy Clause because it provides that the "Constitution, and the Laws of the United States … shall be the supreme Law of the Land." It means that the federal government, in exercising any of the powers enumerated in the Constitution, must prevail over any conflicting or inconsistent state exercise of power. The Supremacy Clause does not “trump” the 10th Amendment.

Why did Arizona need to enact this law to control the number of illegal immigrants in the state? Because there was no such law allowing it to do so. Certainly no federal law and obviously no Arizona law granted state law enforcement officers the power to question immigration status. In fact, it is common practice in state and municipal law enforcement agencies to ignore immigration status in the course of enforcing state and local laws.

The federal government assuming authority over areas of regulation and control to the exclusion of the states is known as preemption. It even has a legal doctrine named after it – federal preemption. When a state or local government tries to get into an area of traditional federal control, it is challenged on the constitutional grounds of federal preemption.

It is my opinion that the courts won’t like the Arizona law and, being result oriented, will look for a means to strike it down. And, when the constitutionality of the controversial Arizona immigration law is challenged in court, the ultimate decision will be on the grounds of federal preemption.

Preemption as the basis for a decision will avoid the controversial issue of racial profiling. Federal courts, particularly the Supreme Court, usually avoid deciding controversial issues whose time has not yet come. Why get all bogged down in thorny racial profiling issues when the court can strike down the Arizona law via preemption? Striking down the law on grounds of preemption also prevents the Arizona legislature from redrafting the law to conform to a subjective constitutional standard for profiling. Once preemption is established, that’s it. How a state would go about immigration enforcement is irrelevant as it “can’t even go there” in the first place.

July 28 update: Arizona Federal District Court Judge Susan Bolton issued a temporary injunction against the controversial provisions of this law on the basis of the preemption doctrine under the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution.

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US Troops March in Red Square

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Big deal, you say? You must be under 30. For those who grew up with bomb shelters for protection against nuclear attacks from the Soviet Union (which mainly included today’s Russia), our military marching under the US flag in Red Square outside the Kremlin walls was a stirring, memorable sight. Little more than 25 years ago such a headline would have heralded the vanquishing of the Soviet Union by NATO forces.

Instead, on May 9, 2010 US troops marched along side Russian troops in Russia’s annual Victory Parade. At the invitation of President Dmitri Medvedev to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, Russia’s WW II allies sent delegations to its 2010 parade. For the first time in history American troops marched through Moscow’s Red Square. In peace.

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Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Free Republic not happy over the George Rekers escort scandal

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Free Republic not happy over the George Rekers escort scandal

 

From another blogger who sampled the religious right’s reaction to the Rekers scandal. What he found: ludicrous denials and counterattacks. Click on over for a chuckle.

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The Minister Doth Protest Too Much: Rekers & His Rent Boy

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