Caricature Kate et William: légère dérive?

Caricature Hamas et flotille 2

Obama doctrine

Caricature cerveau républicain

DSK: la maire Bloomberg "patine" autour du "Perp walks"

Bien des observateurs, particulièrement dans les médias français, critiquaient cette pratique qui consiste à faire circuler, menottes aux poignets, devant les caméras et les photographes, les gens arrêtés pour un crime. Après avoir appuyé cette façon de faire au moment de l'arrestation de DSK, le maire de New York change maintenant de discours et de ton...

"As the case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn appears to be falling apart, so is something else really important: Mayor Michael Bloomberg's support for perp walks.

When Strauss-Kahn was initially arrested back in May, many people in France decried the way he was paraded in front of the media. Bloomberg disagreed. "If you don't want to do the perp walk, don't do the crime," he said at the time.

Though Bloomberg did qualify his remarks. "The real sad thing is if somebody is accused, does the perp-walk, and turns out not to be -- have been guilty," he said. "And then society really does -- should look in the mirror and say, you know, 'We'd better be more careful the next time.'"

But after a New York Times article described how the case against DSK might be falling apart, Bloomberg walked it back: "We have done perp walks for the benefit of newspapers and television for a long time," he said Tuesday. "I've always thought that the perp walks were outrageous."

"If somebody is innocent, and even if they're guilty, they're not guilty until they're convicted and yet we vilify them for the benefit of theater, for the circus," he said. "You know, they did it in Roman times, too. It's nothing new.""

Casey Anthony: un jugement qui dérange

Un procès qui a soulevé l'intérêt de millions d'américains, celui d'une mère, Casey Anthony, accusé d'avoir tué son enfant. Après onze de délibérations, un jury de 7 femmes et cinq hommes en arrive à la conclusion qu'elle ne l'a pas fait. Bien des gens sont étonnés du verdict... Surprise et déception pour plusieurs...

Un lien pour une analyse et plus bas un vidéo.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/07/05/florida.casey.anthony.legal/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Caricature républicains: on se peinture dans le coin!

G.O.P.: toujours un parti normal?

La division au sein du Parti républicain et l'influence du Tea party devraient inquiéter les dirigeants. Les dernières négociations au Congrès démontrent les limites de la stratégie... Sans compter qu'il sera difficile de trouver un candidat (ou une candidate) qui plaise à une grande majorité...

""New York Times columnist David Brooks says that Republicans have managed to extract huge concessions from Democrats in the debt ceiling negotiations, but the strict opposition to raising taxes has transformed the GOP from "a normal conservative party" into "an odd protest movement."

Brooks writes:

If the Republican Party were a normal party, it would take advantage of this amazing moment. It is being offered the deal of the century: trillions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for a few hundred million dollars of revenue increases.
A normal Republican Party would seize the opportunity to put a long-term limit on the growth of government. It would seize the opportunity to put the country on a sound fiscal footing. It would seize the opportunity to do these things without putting any real crimp in economic growth.
The party is not being asked to raise marginal tax rates in a way that might pervert incentives. On the contrary, Republicans are merely being asked to close loopholes and eliminate tax expenditures that are themselves distortionary.
This, as I say, is the mother of all no-brainers.
But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/27/debt-ceiling-negotiations-deficit_n_885111.html#s280957&title=The_Stock_Market

No pain no Spain?

Caricature Hamas et détenu israélien...

Caricature publiée dans le Jewish journal of greater Los Angeles...

Constitution américaine: une crise pour le plafond de la dette?

Il y a déjà plusieurs semaines que les discussion entourant le plafond de la dette (ou le hausse ou pas) constituent une épine au pied de l'administration Obama. Les négociations avec les républicains sont dans une impasse et le 2 août, considéré comme une date butoir pour le paiement de la dette, approche rapidement. Il y a plusieurs jours je présentais ici une solution musclée envisagée par des conseillers et/ou des sénateurs démocrates: invoquer le 14e amendement pour contourner les républicains et hausser le plafond. Voici ce que dit cet amendement: "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law...shall not be questioned.".

Si cette possibilité est constitutionnelle, il y aurait un prix politique important à payer pour contourner les élus du Congrès. Petit topo sur le site de Talking points memo.

"But even if it's correct, and even though Republicans are holding the debt ceiling hostage to unpopular conservative legislative priorities, it's not a step the administration wants to take, or would be able to take lightly.

Conversations with experts indicate that the president would likely need one of the most powerful offices in the government to agree with this view before they could blow past the debt limit. And even if Obama got the go-ahead, the White House would have to be prepared for epic political and legal battles with the GOP, which would no doubt follow if Obama took such drastic action.

Because the constitutionality of the debt ceiling is such a weighty question, experts say the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel -- the office tasked with keeping the Executive Branch in compliance with the law -- would likely have to issue a formal opinion on the question, and the administration would have to be prepared to defend its decision in court, in Congress and before the public.

"The president would not rely solely on the views of [the Office of Management and Budget] and Treasury even if they agree on the question, because of the novelty, and because of the Constitutionality of the question," said Steve Bradbury, who headed OLC during President George W. Bush's second term.

The current impasse bears a striking resemblance to a similar debt limit showdown between then-Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton in 1995. In that fight, as in the current one, the country teetered precariously on the edge of default, and the administration approached OLC for its informal advice on what methods the Secretary of the Treasury could use to delay hitting the debt ceiling.

Documents posted by the Clinton Library (PDF) lay out the process the Clinton White House followed as it tried to pull the country back from the brink."

Le reste de l'article mérite aussi un détour:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/constitutional-crisis-the-political-and-legal-risk-of-ignoring-the-debt-limit.php?ref=fpa