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A Public Defender


I know it when I see it

Finally, my favorite subject: pornography. Everyone has to have heard of Justice Potter Stewart’s words which form the title of this post, written in a concurrence in Jacobellis v. Ohio, on the issue of “obscene” videos. And almost no one knows what it means. After a flurry of decisions in the 1960s and 70s (Stanley v. GA, Smith v. CA, Miller v. CA, Jenkins v. GA) attempting to define exactly what is obscene and what is protected and just who can be prosecuted with and ending up with a mess of a Constitutional doctrine, the Supreme Court – and the general American public – seem to have given up on pornography altogether. No one really cares anymore and there’s hardly ever a prosecution for the production, sale and possession of adult pornography.

A Connecticut Law Blog

Law School Poll
Posted on July 29, 2011 by Ryan McKeen

If you could go back to the moment in time before you enrolled in law school, knowing what you know now, would you enroll?

Only In Bridgeport

Foster Wants To Run A BOE Slate – Another Election Storm? – Marilyn Moore Seeks City

UPDATE: Democratic mayoral candidate Mary-Jane Foster, who opposes the state mothballing the Bridgeport BOE, wants to run a slate of school board candidates on her ticket. She is asking local election officials to release petition papers to secure signatures from registered Dems for BOE candidates. Democratic Registrar of Voters Sandi Ayala is asking state elections officials for guidance in light of a state takeover of city schools.

Wait, What (Jon Pelto)


DEEP Commissioner Ends Popular Consumer Hotline for Utility Problems

In the end, it’s all a matter of priorities and it turns out that the Malloy Administration doesn’t consider a consumer hotline that received 45,000 calls last year from Connecticut consumers in search of help a high enough priority.

Worse, adding insult to injury, the funding for this key consumer service doesn’t even come from state’s taxpayers. The service is paid for by a surcharge on the utility companies.

Despite that, Dan Esty, Governor Malloy’s new commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, has decided to end the hotline and lay off the state workers who have been helping consumers deal with the problems that they are having with their utility companies.

The new DEEP was created through the merger of state’s Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Public Utilities Commission and the Energy Division of the Office of Policy and Management.

And now, thanks to a story by Jon Lender in today’s Hartford Courant, we learn that one of Commissioner Esty’s first decisions was to end the successful Consumer Utility Call-in Center. See Courant story http://www.courant.com

/news/politics/hc-consumer-unit-laid-off-0728-20110727,0,4861075.story

CTNewsJunkie

OP-ED | Dear EMILY’s List . . . Really? by Sarah Darer Littman

Dear EMILY’s List,

I am a registered Democrat and a pro-choice woman, and I appreciate the goal of your organization. I’ve even given you money in the past.

But here’s the thing. When I decide who will get my vote, it’s based on a lot more than whether or not my candidate has a penis. My thought process is considerably more complex, because, as I’m sure you’ll appreciate, we women are thoughtful, intelligent and educated and we want the best possible candidate regardless of sex, sexual orientation, religion or any other discriminatory factor.

That’s why I was appalled to see that you’d endorsed a flawed candidate like Susan Bysiewicz in the U.S. Senate race. Perhaps you didn’t do your research or actually talk to people in Connecticut?

If you had, you might have learned of the candidate’s overweening ambition, well-known in these parts, which led her to make an ill-advised leap from running for governor (where she had a comfortable lead in the polls) to the attorney general’s race, without, apparently, checking to see if she met the legal requirements for the job (she didn’t)...

CT Blue by JCW

Santorum: Ignorant or Liar? We report, you decide.

ABC is asking the Republican candidates to explain the foreign made t-shirts and other doodads that their campaigns are distributed.. Rick Santorum...:

“

Made in the Dominican Republic,” he answered: “It’s tragic that so many products in this country are made outside of this country. And what we have to do is create a different dynamic. I think my policies are very clear that we have to go out and make setting up a business in this country productive.

Unfortunately under this administration and frankly previous administrations we have had had a unfriendly environment, particularly to the textile business.

You probably can find a T-shirt occasionally made in the United States but it’s harder and harder to do. That’s the tragedy. It’s a case in point of the tragedy of those kinds of jobs that should be in the United States but are not.”

Matter of fact, it takes about 3 seconds to find a t-shirt made in this country, as the Google demonstrates. These Republicans really should learn that it’s far easier these days to uncover a lie than it used to be. But then, since the media rarely calls them on their lies, maybe they just don’t care.

Soccer Safari by Mike Levitt
Bob Bradley Axed As U.S. Men’s Soccer Coach

So who will this new mystery manager be? Will it be Klinsmann, who famously turned down the job in 2007 because Gulati and U.S. Soccer wouldn’t give him complete control of the system from the ground-up? Will it be Jason Kreis, the former American player now coaching Real Salt Lake in MLS? Then again, it could it be another longtime MLS coach like Sigi Schmid, Dominc Kinnear, or Peter Nowak.

One long shot? Former U.S National Team captain and current U.S. Youth Soccer Technical Director Claudio Reyna. Reyna, who played in Germany, Scotland, and England, is making huge strides in changing the youth soccer curriculum in this country, but has no managerial experience. Considering the need to overhaul the system and Reyna’s involvement at the game’s elite levels, he could be the perfect middle ground for the decision makers.

As interesting a prospect as Reyna may be, given soccer’s relative popularity stateside these days, we will likely see an international name. If not Klinsmann, who must be the odd-on favorite for the job, it may be someone else in the European ranks of the caliber of Italian Marcelo Lippi or Dutchman Guus Hiddink.

Connecticut Bob

Save the FITP

Connecticut's Film Industry Training Program (FITP) is currently being threatened by budget cuts. This program is essential to creating a workforce for the many feature films that are being produced here in Connecticut. Right now there are quite a few major features scheduled here during the next several months, with high profile stars such as Robert De Niro (above), Meryl Streep, Robin Williams...