Courthouse News Service: Block on NSA Spying Put to En Banc D.C. Circuit - By TIM RYAN

Online here. This is Larry Klayman's case. Reading the post it appears Klayman seeks an appellate en banc hearing, but it is unclear whether the D.C. Circuit will grant one.

Klayman quoted within the news service item:

Klayman announced Monday evening that he wants the full D.C. Circuit to review the stay, saying "even one day that the Constitution is violated is one day too much."

"Now, obviously gun-shy after the Paris terrorist attacks, the appeals court has again put its head in the sand and not stood up for the privacy rights of We the People," Klayman said in a statement. "Importantly, as Judge Leon pointed out, the Obama [administration] and his NSA had not been able to show, on the court record that its mass surveillance stopped even one terrorist attack, here or overseas."

If the record does indeed show no proof of effectiveness, it not only breaches privacy, but is wasteful, and in Matt Look terminology, NSA intrusions represent a government want, not a need.

The NSA since Klayman first filed suit has remained the NSA, doing as the NSA does. It was a hell of a job they did in Paris. How can you argue against that?

____________UPDATE___________
Some of the media editorialize one way, some the other. Readers may think as they like, while I agree with media opinion.

Crazy Ben in Nevada, "I'll see your fence, and raise you one.' A fence-fence here, a fence-fence there, everywhere a fence-fence, ...

Las Vegas Sun reports:

The retired neurosurgeon, who had appeared in Arizona on Saturday, pointed to the efforts in state in Yuma County in proposing how he would try to secure the border. He again said it could be done easily in a year and suggested prosecuting all first-time offenders, installing a double fence and using technology-driven surveillance to cut down on the percentage of illegal crossings.

"You can pretty much get it to 100 percent," he said of his proposal.

Carson also said that eliminating "any kind of benefit that a person who is illegal could get" would be key to cutting the perception of incentives.

With a double fence they could use tigers.

Yes. Hobbs likes Calvin's suggestion. Between the fences a no-mans-land, "No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." You could put Grover Norquist between the fences too.

When younger it was easy to think of unions as progressive. It is getting harder and harder to believe.

Hey, look at Bernie.

This link. I hope they knock on other people's doors.

Sure, if it comes to something like Hillary Clinton vs. Ted Cruz, she has my vote.

Not my enthusiasm. No way.

My vote.

Dynastic seems the posture of convenience in these times.

I always have had respect for Al Gore, when he won the Presidency and was undercut by a rigged court, he came through the entire thing with class.

What I have no respect for is a cramdown.

At least Al's not smiling vacuously. But, still ...

The Big Dog town, and its streets. Have they thought about using a franchise fee?

A half month old MPR post, here, but worth notice. Franchise fees are a regressive form of taxation, without any real hearing mechanism in place before a franchised utility services provider can terminate a non-paying (non-winter) account; so due process is a consideration.

Readers of the linked item will see franchise fee usage was not mentioned. It is just an idea that for no real reason popped into mind upon seeing the article about street upkeep.

Wholly unrelated, and Ramsey-centric, the town's Charter Commission will meet Dec. 10, with it mainly a pro-forma short session and one absent of front burner considerations, unlike the case in the recent past in Ramsey. Commissioners will attend and form a quorum, meeting annual duties, but any citizens attending might be disappointed in substantive matters not being at issue.

Wait until next year?

"Neither Hegseth nor Concerned Veterans for America will be endorsing a candidate this election cycle."

The headline is the final paragraph, here.

What the item omitted, there will be no GOP primary/pre-convention endorsement.

After that, this Koch brothers front will fall in line with their minders, and put on blinders, Hegseth then saying,

"GOP candidate [fill in the blank] is hunky dory; worthy of my love and endorsement."

Hegseth only works the one side of the street. His view of rectitude. Comparable to Karl Rove.

An Indiana blogging lawyer writes of our good friends, Mr. Flaherty and Mr. Collins.

Take the post as one man's opinion, with David Flaherty's opinion likely to differ:

Real estate experts with whom I've spoken tell me there is no way the proposed 28-story, $121 million luxury apartment tower Flaherty & Collins plans to build at the site of the former Market Square Arena site can ever cash flow. It perplexed me why even with the nearly $25 million the City of Indianapolis contributed to the politically-connected developer for the costly tower that any lender would ever loan money to the company that has a past history of building costly high-rise buildings only to file bankruptcy before work was completed. It turns out that the hucksters are relying on the controversial EB-5 immigrant investor program to raise a substantial part of the capital it needs for the project.

Under the EB-5 program, wealthy foreign investors from countries like China, India and Saudi Arabia can purchase green cards to immigrate to the U.S. by investing between $500,00 and $1 million in a qualified business project in the United States. The program has been rife with fraud. [...]

[...] shouldn't Indianapolis City-County Councilors have been told that Flaherty & Collins planned to bring dozens of foreigners to the U.S. as part of its plan to build it's city-backed deal before they signed off on it? I recently inquired of council sources about rumors Flaherty & Collins was having trouble financing the project. The council was assured there were no hang-ups in financing.

[...]

It's not like drug money or something? The truth is that Flaherty & Collins will have no idea where these investors got their money and won't care. As long as they're ponying up their $1 million contribution to an investment doomed to be a colossal failure, who cares where they got their money. The firm is ensured of making a large sum of money from development fees from the project so whether it succeeds or fails as a going concern is of no concern to them. It's other people's money, after all. One point that's not mentioned is there is an annual cap of 10,000 visas that can be issued each year under this program. That cap was reached for the current fiscal year on May 1, which means new visas won't become available until the next fiscal year begins on October 1.

The Star wasn't much concerned at the time, although Russell does include in his story the fact that Mayor Ballard's former deputy mayor of economic development, Deron Kitner, who brokered the deal between the City and Flaherty & Collins, is now working as the company's general counsel.[...]

The post is dated May 17, 2015, so do not regard it as current news.

But is it currently relevant, to Ramsey? That would be if the town government contemplates any further involvement with the Flaherty firm. Let us hope it is news that is irrelevant to Ramsey.

One phrase in that story that is a bellringer, "... other peoples money ...". The author uses the term "hucksters," and that reminds me of the Darren Lazan - Ryan Cronk mischief over who Ryan Cronk really was in things, and whose table he really fed at.

And then the part about the influential public official's after-the-fact employment by Flaherty's firm. Champion a deal and who knows what may happen.

Ring the bell, if you see anything offensive in this kind of arrangement becoming - indeed being entrenched.

This Reuters link. Brigands will be as much a brigand as allowed to be, and brigands having ill-regulated authority over essential medicines is a worse form of brigandry.

"Brigandage" is today's word of the day.

Also on Reuters, this Trumped up story.

And the pundits disclaim any hint of Donald Trump's appeal, saying antiestablishmentarianism is a puzzling but fleeting thing. Actually, the more, the merrier, given John Ellis Bush and Hillary Goldman-Sachs Clinton as the establishment.

The one caveat, does any sensible person really trust Donald Trump in what he is saying beyond his proposal to rig the tax system even more favorably to those having parked enormous wealth overseas while awaiting a gutting of corporate taxation rates in our nation? When Trump says he'd allow the brigands to bring their billions back into our nation scot-free, I believe him.