Free Talk Live

A House subcommittee is set to shed new light on the problem of sexual assault in the military today, when it will hear testimony on sexual assault numbers, prevention and response as part of its ongoing investigation into the issue.

"A woman who signs up to protect her country is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire," said Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), who introduced a bill this summer to increase and encourage the investigation of prosecution of sexual assault and rape cases in the military and is attending today's hearing.

Congressional bribery/extortion caught on tape! My description needs to be longer.

The 2nd Circuit US Court of Appeals has ruled that recording an in-person conversation without the knowledge of all parties is only a violation of federal wiretapping law if the person making the recording intends to use the recording for illegal purposes. At least in the states that do not have explicit laws against recording cops, this should nullify the abuses of wiretapping laws against people recording in public.

"You've heard the phrase "power corrupts," but have you looked at the evidence that suggests this is actually supported by a variety of studies? Julian Sanchez points us to a report that looks at some of the studies of people in power (which actually builds off of a Wall Street Journal article on the same topic -- beware the paywall), which notes, first, that getting into a position of power is best done by being kind and empathetic (rather than nasty and backstabbing), but once you get there, study after study suggests that people lose some aspect of critical thinking skills"

This fall a Supreme Court decision could force the police in Florida to require warrants before secretly installing GPS trackers. As of now, they do need a warrant saying it does not violate the Fourth Amendment.

"The police can't be trusted to police themselves," public Defender Howard Finklestein said. "There must be a check on police behavior or it will become an abuse of power. And the check has always been the Fourth Amendment."

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has taken a bold stand against government over-reach: She is five days late paying her property taxes.

Are you tired of politicians not being subject to the same rules as we are? The executive branch can't use wiretapping on congressman, despite the fact that they can use the patriot act on the rest of us. Now, the patriot act is bad, but shouldn't politicians be subject to the same rules as the rest of us?

A prosecutor says a judicial watchdog agency is investigating a north Georgia judge for allegedly pre-signing warrants for law enforcement officials.

Congresswoman Martha Roby (R-Ala.) is sponsoring HR 205, The Geometric Simplification Act, declaring the Euclidean mathematical constant of pi to be precisely 3. The bill comes in response to data and rankings from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, rating the United States' 15 year-olds 25th in the world in mathematics.