Category Archives: Odds and Ends

 

March 5th, 2007

Official in Charge of U.S. Attorneys Resigns

The developing scandal around the firing of U.S. Attorneys around the country, apparently for political reasons since they were all doing good jobs, has just intensified.

Michael Battle, Executive Director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, has resigned.
(Via American Constitution Society Blog)

It seems inevitable that he will be subpoened to testify about who gave the marching orders for the firings, and what the basis was for those terminations. And if he is no longer working for the Department of Justice, he will be free to speak a bit more candidly than if he were. Which is bad news for the genius who thought firing good people was a good idea.

Update — As per Fox News, Official Resigned “About a Month Ago”. He was apparently unhappy about orders from above that he was to purge the U.S. Attorneys for what appears to be purely political purposes.

see also: U.S. Attorney Imbroglio: The Story That Keeps on Giving (WSJ Blog)

 

February 7th, 2007

New York Senator To Propose Crosswalk Ban On iPods, Cell Phones And Other Devices

No, the headline is not a joke. From a local TV station:

A state senator from Brooklyn said on Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation that would ban people from using an MP3 player, cell phone, Blackberry or any other electronic device while crossing the street in New York City and Buffalo.

NewsChannel 4 reported that Sen. Carl Kruger is proposing the ban in response to two recent pedestrian deaths in his district, including a 23-year-old man who was struck and killed last month while listening to his iPod on Avenue T and East 71st Street In Bergen Beach.

“While people are tuning into their iPods and cell phones, they’re tuning out the world around them,” Kruger said. The proposed law would make talking on cell phones while crossing the street a comparable offense to jaywalking.

Maybe the Senator should just put a big “kick me” sign on his back. While New Yorkers are often seen as liberal with respect to government intrusion in our lives, this seems to go well beyond the pale.

Chance of passage? Someplace around zero.