Hannah Poling was the first autistic child to be paid from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund for her autism. Her Family on Good Morning America Talking about the case and the relationship between vaccines and autism.
A furious effort by Liz Cheney to label seven Justice Department lawyers who previously defended Guantanamo detainees as terrorist sympathizers appears so contrary to the American legal tradition that it puts her at odds with the man responsible for getting her father elected vice president. Back in January 2007, Ted Olson — then a lawyer in private practice but previously a lead counsel in Bush v. Gore and solicitor general of the United States — co-authored a short article for Legal Times in which he called efforts to demonize detainee defense lawyers as antithetical to American values. “The ethos of the bar is built on the idea that lawyers will represent both the popular and the unpopular, so that everyone has access to justice. Despite the horrible Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, this is still proudly held as a basic tenet of our profession,” Olson wrote. “When government officials are called ‘war criminals’ and when public-interest lawyers are called ‘terrorist huggers,’ it not only cheapens the discourse, it scrambles the dialogue. The best solutions to these difficult problems will emerge only when the best advocates, backed by weighty resources, bring their talents to bear. And the heavy work of creating solutions for these complicated issues can only move forward when the name-calling ceases.” Olson co-bylined the piece with Neal Katyal, now the Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States and himself a defender of Gitmo detainees’ rights. Katyal won a key …
I read an excerpt from an email written by Congressman D-Ohio Dennis Kucinich. I apologize in advance for misreading a few words and some minor admissions. TRANSCRIPT: Protecting the public interest in any economic “bailout” The US government has been turned into an engine that accelerates the wealth upwards into the hands of a few. The Wall Street bailout, the Iraq War, military spending, tax cuts to the rich, and a for-profit health care system are all about the acceleration of wealth upwards. And now, the American people are about to pay the price of the collapse of the $513 trillion Ponzi scheme of derivatives. Yes, thats half a quadrillion dollars. Our first trillion dollar compression bandage will hardly stem the hemorrhaging of an unsustainable Ponzi scheme built on debt “de-leverages.” Does anyone seriously think that our public and private debts of some $45 trillion will be paid? That the administration’s growth of the federal debt from $5.6 trillion to $9.8 trillion while borrowing another trillion dollars from Social Security has nothing to do with this? Does anyone not see that when we spend nearly $16000 for every family of four in our society for the military each year that we are heading over the cliff? This is a debt crisis, not a credit crisis. Just as FDR had to save capitalism after Wall Street excesses, we have to re-invigorate our economy with real – not imaginary – growth. It does not address the never-ending war on the middle class. The same …
