Without Intent: How Congress Is Eroding the Criminal Intent Requirement in Federal Law

Overcriminalized.com "“Overcriminalization” describes the trend in America – and particularly in Congress – to use the criminal law to “solve” every problem, punish every mistake (instead of making proper use of civil penalties), and coerce Americans into conforming their behavior to satisfy social engineering objectives. Criminal law is supposed to be used to redress only that conduct which society thinks deserving of the greatest punishment and moral sanction.

"But as a result of rampant overcriminalization, trivial conduct is now often punished as a crime."

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Book: One Nation Under Arrest: How Crazy Laws, Rogue Prosecutors, and Activist Judges Threaten Your Liberty  "America is in the throes of overcriminalization: We are making and enforcing far too many criminal laws that create traps for the innocent but unwary and threaten to make criminals out of those who are doing their best to be respectable, law-abiding citizens."
Amazon.com
No, the TW isn't shilling for Amazon; this is just to let you know there is a book on the subject.

Modern Stupidity

Bruce S. Thornton  "So Germany’s aggression accelerated: Austria was gobbled up, and then in September 1938 came the shameless abandonment of Czechoslovakia wrought by Neville Chamberlain with the collusion of the French. Six months later the Nazi tanks rolled into Prague, and six months after that came the invasion of Poland and the gruesome sequel of 50 million dead. As Churchill said after the war in his famous “Sinews of Peace” speech, “There never was a war in all history easier to prevent by timely action than the one which has just desolated such great areas of the globe.”"
Pacifists will get multitudes killed. They are the useful idiots evil rulers depend on.

Jihad in Sweden: Homicide Bomber Screams Allahu Akbar

Atlas Shrugs  "The jihad has come to Sweden. When I was checking on this story, the enemy media made no mention of the Islamic motivation or any connection to Islam.
"Fröken Sverige writes me :

Suicidebomber in Stockholm, Sweden, blow him self up while screaming Allahu Akbar!
But first he sent a warning to the secret police and to other islamists: Kill swedish people like Lars Vilks, kill the swedish people and their mothers and kids....

"Look at how yahoo reported this act of Islamic jihad on the West here:"
 Look for any reference to Islam or Jihadis. Go ahead; I'll wait here till you get back.

Liberal Math

Victor Davis Hanson  "Now one can argue that the seeds of the present Democratic desire for an imposed equality of result, embraced by a Howard Dean or Nancy Pelosi, is but the logical evolution from the old Democratic square deal. But there is a difference as well. In those days, except for the Kennedys, liberalism was not synonymous with big money and the desire for the elite lifestyle. These days it is and it makes it hard for liberals to square their abstraction with reality. Very wealthy people seek to be exempt from the regulations and taxes they impose on the middle classes on behalf of the poor they studiously avoid. I thought of all that when reviewing some of this week’s news."

President Obama Brings Bill Clinton In To Talk Tax Plan…And Then Leaves To Go To A Christmas Party!

Mediaite  "Seriously, what was the thinking here? This has to be one of the worst PR moves in the entirety of the administration. Obviously, Clinton is probably a more popular Democratic figure right now, but they had to imagine this would hurt Obama. I mean, letting a former president explain your tax bill while you head to a Christmas party? A Christmas party? "

Was Clinton unaware of how this looked? Was Obama? "With Mr. Obama standing largely silently at his side, Mr. Clinton took over the lectern to lend his backing to the tax compromise the White House reached this week with Republicans. And then Mr. Clinton went on, for half an hour, answering questions and holding forth on topics from triangulation to Haiti to the mortgage crisis and the nuclear arms treaty with Russia." Althouse.

Deja vu all over again -- but worse "Clinton, of course, reveled in his return to the White House podium, outlasting even the long-winded Obama. The problem Obama will soon discover is how to get rid of Clinton since he's comfortable in the White House and has nothing to lose by sticking around. Sure, Obama benefits from Clinton's ability to schmooze Congress and get legislation passed, but it will become apparent quite soon that Clinton is being effective while Obama is in the way. Looking ineffective is not a good position to be in with an election coming up." Ethel C. Fenig

‘Something Very, Very Weird is Going on in Washington’  "...even Obama’s inner circle were equally baffled by The One’s actions today."  Ed Driscoll in Pajamas Media

Help Me Bubba-Wan, You’re My Only Hope. "Here’s what I saw. I saw a current president who has never looked less interested in doing his job. I also saw a former president who never lost interest in doing that job. Obama’s demeanor and body language suggested that he’d rather be anywhere but where he was, and then he followed through and actually bolted for the door. Clinton’s demeanor was that of a passionate wonk trying to sell a policy he actually cared about, that he thought would be good for the country. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t even his own policy that he was selling."

Why Latin America Turned Against Israel

Big Peace  "When we understand the trends that led to Latin America’s hostile act against Israel, we realize two things. First, while Israel might have come up with a way to delay the action, it probably couldn’t have prevented it. And second, given the US policy trajectory, it is again obvious that the only one Israel can rely on to defend its interests – against Iran and the Palestinians alike – is Israel."
 And the God of the universe, who centuries ago promised to return Israel to their land:

“Behold, I am bringing them from the north country,
And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth,
Among them the blind and the lame,
The woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together;
A great company, they will return here.
“With weeping they will come,
And by supplication I will lead them;
I will make them walk by streams of waters,
On a straight path in which they will not stumble;
For I am a father to Israel,
And Ephraim is My firstborn.”

From chapter 31 of the writings of the prophet Jeremiah in the land of Israel.

Van Jones: We are coming for the media and that’s not all

Hot Air  "Look, we’ve done a great job so far over the last 2 years with the Tea Parties, but if we relax now because we have a Republican House, then we risk losing everything we’ve worked for. The next 2 years are the most crucial if we want to get our country back and we MUST carry the torch for freedom even higher. We must force the Republicans to use every available chance to hammer home the message that the radicals are in DC and they are trying to steal our liberty, our country. And we must fight them off. That means calling the President out for who he is to, because he is one of them."

Rhetoric Rides Again

Thomas Sowell  "Many people earning an annual income of $125,000 a year do so only after years of earning a lot less than that before eventually working their way up to that level. For politicians to step in at that point and confiscate what they have invested years of working to achieve is a little much.
"It also takes a lot of brass to talk about taxing "millionaires and billionaires" when most of the people whose taxes the liberals want to raise are neither. Why is so much deception necessary, if your case is good? "

Rush Limbaugh Attacks GOP Leadership: “Where Is The Republican Vision?”

Mediaite "Right now, there is no Republican position. Everything we’re hearing is what the Democrats think and what they want. Where is the Republican vision? Have you heard them say it? Have you heard Mitch McConnell articulate the Republican vision here? Have you heard Boehner? Have you?”"

Obama's Moral Universe

American Spectator "A lot has changed since Obama’s candidacy, but one thing that has remained the same is that Obama himself -- whether he’s urging people to expect more or schooling them on why they should be happy with less -- is always the righteous one."
Philip Klein

From Audacity to Animosity  "Instead Mr. Obama said, essentially, that he hates the deal he just agreed to, hates the people he made the deal with, and hates even more the people who'll criticize it. His statement was startling in the breadth of its animosity. Republicans are "hostage takers" who worship a "holy grail" of "tax cuts for the wealthy." "That seems to be their central economic doctrine." "
Peggy Noonan

He's Barack Obama!  From JibJab.

At Obama's side, Clinton backs tax deal

Yahoo  "Obama said it was a "terrific meeting" and then yielded to Clinton. The voluble former president took center stage, and Obama left part-way through his remarks, saying he had holiday parties to attend. Clinton not only provided an economic tutorial but riffed on several topics, including the need for the Senate to ratify a U.S.-Russia nuclear treaty."

Filibuster-mania: Socialist Bernie Sanders blocks Senate tax deal (Updated)

Google Images

Michelle Malkin  "It’s hour five of FiliBernie! — the class war demagogue Bernie Sanders’ filibuster of the tax deal on the Senate floor."

Senator Bernie Sanders and his oath "Several AT contributors (including me) have clearly explained why the American Constitution is wholly incompatible with socialism. These reasons are mainly because first; the government can never, ever be the purveyor of our rights, and second; our Constitution is a charter of negative rights and negative liberties. These concepts are both diametrically opposed to socialism."


A Rebuttal to Bernie Sanders  "We're talking about small businesspeople, $250,000, 500,000, 750,000, these are the people that employ other people and they are not paying a tax rate of 16.6%. To pay an effective tax rate of 16.6% you're paying tax on dividends, not income. There is no way people at 36% -- trust me on this -- there is no way people paying 36% are paying an effective rate of 16. By the way, the effective rate definition is a little misleading itself. And Bernie Sanders knows this." Rush Limbaugh