The greatest detective ever to work for the LAPD has passed. Feel free to share your favorite episodes and films by the great Mr. Falk

While the topic of marriage equality has dominated the media the last few days the issue of DADT remains important and I came across some comments that I thought worth sharing “Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution is pretty simple. It says, ‘Raise an army.’ It says absolutely nothing about race, color, creed, sexual orientation.” How dare we, then, exclude a group of people who want to do the same thing you do right now, something that is honorable and noble?” Now I think these...

While I have been reluctant to make too much of this story news is coming out this morning that he will resign from the House, hopefully allowing us to focus on real stuff. A news conference is set fot 2pm in New York.

The court voted 4-3 to uphold the law and was very critical of the lower court ruling. This particular case centered on whether the legislature violated the open meetings law which requires 24 hours notice of votes on a law. This law was passed with only 2 hours notice. The court based the decision on the fact that the 24 hour law is held to apply to regular committee meetings but not to conference committee meetings. There was a specific exemption written into the law for this purpose. Needless...

A federal judge has upheldJudge Walker’s ruling striking down Proposition 8, rejecting a challenge that claimed the ruling was invalid because Walker is gay and thus could theoretically benefit from the ruling. This was hardly an unexpected ruling, I’ve spoken with supporters of Proposition 8 who agreed that this was a pretty weak argument. If a gay judge cannot rule on same sex marriage then wouldn’t that prohibit a married judge from ruling on divorce or a female judge from ruling...

A ruling from the US Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California has found that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional because it prevents same sex couples from filing a joint petition for bankruptcy. Section 3 prohibits the federal government from recognizing same sex marriages and thus prevents same sex couples from filing joint tax returns, getting social security benefits, etc. Since a significant part of my practice is bankruptcy I found this ruling interesting....

Lots of ink and electrons being spilled on the GOP debate but to me it is just further proof that President Obama is likely to win re-election in 2012. You can toss back and forth which of the GOP contenders did better but the fact is nobody turned in a stellar performance. One of the keys to winning an election is connecting with the voters and that is the one area in which President Obama does extremely well while none of the GOP contenders seem to have mastered the technique yet. Recently Tim...

Not exactly stunning news. According to a review by the Federal Housing Administration the bank ‘significantly hindered’ the investigation into problems with mortgages by failing to provide information, refusing access to employees, etc. Wow, a big corporation does something potentially crooked and then fails to cooperate with those looking into whether they did something potentially crooked. Next thing you know murder suspects will be reluctant to cooperate with the police.

Imagine my surprise that the President wants to extend the payroll tax cut into 2012. I haven’t checked my archives but I am pretty sure I called that one back when they first passed the cut. The only question is whether Obama really wants to extend the cut or if he wants to use this as a political ploy to block GOP proposals he opposes. My guess is in the end both sides will come together on this one. Nobody wants to be pegged as ‘increasing taxes’ during an election year (technically...

Word coming out now that Congresscritter Weiner is going to seek a leave of absence from the House to obtain professional help. This could be a step towards eventual resignation when he decides to step down ‘on the advice of my doctors’.

According to reports from Associated Press the top staffers to Newt Gingrich’s Presidential campaign have resigned en masse. No reported reason yet for the resignations but you would have to assume there is a story there. CNN indicates his campaign manager Rob Johnson and ‘other top aides’ have resigned. Some say it relates to his taking time off for a vacation. If so it seems silly to me that taking a trip in May 2011 is an issue for the 2012 campaign. To be fair I think all but...

I’ll let their video speak for itself, but it seems pretty darn outrageous they couldn’t make an exception for the men and women in service. At the same time one would think the military could have been clearer with the troops on policy. A general messup all around it seems Delta has said they are ‘looking in to it’ while the military says the troops may be reimbursed by them. Huff Po has coverage as well Here is the take from Stars and Stripes

I have often been critical of Shultz for his hyper partisan attitude but I have to give credit that he’s calling out one of his own. Admittedly he may be doing so in this case for equally partisan reasons (IE Weiner is hurting his cause) but fairness demands I acknowledge the statement. Click here to watch the video courtesy of RCP

Update: Weiner just confessed that he did what he was accused of. He did take the original picture and he did intend to send it as a direct message (IE a private email) and accidentally sent it as a tweet (IE a public posting). He also confessed that sent many pictures and had online ‘relationships’ with many women over the last 3 years and that he has continued some of these after his marriage. It’s still largely to me an issue between himself and his family with regard to the...

On this day in 1944 a group of brave men came ashore in France. Forty years later President Reagan delivered the following remarks, which are worth rereading every year. If you prefer you can watch the video as well We’re here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe...

As is often the case, listening to my morning radio show (armstrongandgettyradio.com) has given me a topic to opine upon. One of the hosts is a recent dad and given the unusually wet weather we’ve been having in Northern California he has been taking his son to the local mall to burn off a little energy in the play area. As with most play areas there is a sign with a few rules. You cannot have food or drink in the play area, you have to remove your shoes (to prevent messing up the carpet) and...

Reports out today that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has accepted an offer to travel to Saudi Arabia to obtain ‘medical care’ for injuries sustained in a recent attack. If true this could be a face saving way for him to step down from power as heading to another country for ‘medical treatment’ is often code for such a move. Yemen has been plagued with protestsas part of the Arab Spring movement. It is unclear at this point who would take over if Saleh did flee but it...

According to Steve Martin’s twitter feed the great Wally Boag has passed away For generations of Disneyland visitors, Wally’s show at the Golden Horseshoe was a must see. It still (I believe) holds the record for the longest running show ever. Here is some of his magic (please check for more on Youtube)

This story has been very big in Northern California for the last few days and I suspect it is going to be very big nationally pretty soon. The basic story is that a woman called Alameda County (Oakland area for non Californians) fire and police telling them that her 57 year old son had threatened to commit suicide by walking into the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay. Rescuers arrived on the scene to see the man standing neck deep in water about 150 yards offshore. The water, while cold, was...

As a preface to this post I don’t care one way or the other about the tweet. It’s between Weiner and his family and to a lesser degree his constituents. I do find it a tad hypocritical in that if it were a GOP House member in the scandal Weiner would likely be screaming for their immediate resignation. But again that’s between him and the voters. However I do find it interesting that on the one hand he says he was hacked but on the other hand cannot say this picture is not him. Now...

Seems that it is not as unusual as some would have us think

I’m usually pretty much a law and order guy but this conviction seems proper to me. To summarize the story, two armed teens entered a pharmacy and tried to rob it. They threatened the clerk on duty but the pharmacist/owner had a gun and shot one of them. The other fled the scene. The pharmacist chased the 2nd suspect to no avail. Now up until this point I think what he did was proper. He was defending himself and his employee. Might not have been smart to chase the 2nd suspect but it was not...

Are you going ?

The Supreme Court voted 5-3 to uphold an Arizona law which in effect shuts down businesses for hiring illegal immigrants. Justice Kagan did not participate, presumably because she had been US Solicitor General during the lower court reviews of the case. Those opposing the law said it was improper because of federal control over immigration law, but the Congress had included provisions in the legislation they passed which specifically allowed states to regulate licensing. In the case of the Arizona...

An interesting article from the Wall Street Journal on the potential impact of tax increases. Obviously just as an article from a progressive web site would have a tilt, this one does too, but at the same time math is math.