Mirror of Justice

If Congress Shall Make Any Law?

July 13th, 2009 at 02:58am Under Constitutional Law

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is rocketing up the Obama Administration’s enemies list because she is asking questions no liberal wants asked and making points they certainly do not want made. Yes indeed she is. For while asking questions of Timothy, smartest man in the room, America cannot survive without him at Treasury, Geithner about past actions and current plans to allow the federal government more power to seize and manage the assets and contracts of businesses it deems, “too big to fail,” Ms. Bachmann no doubt caught the ear of Big Brother himself over in the White House. For you see, Ms. Bachmann did something that always catches the ears of liberals and lefty politicos busily scribbling words on to paper in order to secure themselves more and more power.What is this thing she did? Why, she cited the Constitution of these United States. And for yet another brief moment in a growing long line of brief moments it became clear once again that Timothy Geithner was indeed not the smartest man in the room.You could hear the uneasiness in Geithner’s voice as he was forced to attempt to answer an actual question of substance. You could also imagine at how at the same time as he was trolling for an answer in that vast, empty sea of a brain of his that he was making mental notes about who he would have to contact to make sure no such substantive questions would ever be raised again.Here is how it went down and how Geithner struggled:BACHMANN: “What provision in the Constitution could you point to … to give authority for the actions that have been taken by the Treasury since March of ‘08?”GEITHNER: “Oh, well, the — the Congress legislated in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act a range of very important new authorities.”BACHMANN: “Sir, in the Constitution. What — what in the Constitution could you point to to — to give authority to the Treasury for the extraordinary actions that have been taken?”GEITHNER: “Every action that the Treasury and the Fed and the FDIC is — is — has been using authority granted by this body — by this body, the Congress.”BACHMANN: “And by — in the Constitution, what could you point to?”GEITHNER: “Under the laws of the land, of course.”Note that not once did Mr. Geithner ever actually answer the simple question posed to him. When asked to cite the Constitutional authority for any of the actions taken by the Treasury since early last year he simply responded that Congress had given the Treasury certain powers and that they are “under the laws of the land.” But his response is a non-response. The smartest man in the room was flabbergasted and unable to answer a question that he knew that if he answered truthfully would doom all the current, past and future plans of he and his fellow travelers. Perhaps he should have borrowed President Obama’s teleprompter and had his remarks prepared for him by a speech writer.But let’s explore his non-answer answer further. Is citing Congress doing something good enough of an excuse? Is Congress’s power to make law absolute under the Constitution? Of course we all know that it is not. If it were then what powers would be reserved to the states and the people under the Tenth Amendment exactly?Geithner’s response, had it been truthful, would have been that there was no such authority for the vast, vast, vast majority of what the Treasury has done in the last year. But to answer truthfully it would mean that he would have to admit that he and his fellow liberals, both Democratic Party socialists and Republican Party socialist-lites, had violated the Supreme Law of the Land. So truthful answers to these sorts of serious questions are never things you will get from the blowhards inside the beltway.We all know that just because Congress makes a law that the law is not de facto Constitutional. If it were, no law would ever be stricken as being unconstitutional. But since many laws have been it puts the lie to any notion that just because Congress decrees from on high that the order should be accepted and obeyed. We can even go very absurd to prove this point if you like. If Congress were to, for example, pass a bill that stated all people who have blond hair and blue eyes were inferior and not subject to the same rights as people with other combinations of hair and eye colors would it be a Constitutional law? Even if everyone accepted the law would it still be Constitutional? No.Now say that we do not have to worry about Congress being so absurd all you like. That is not the point. And besides we all know that many absurd laws have indeed come out of Congress. Add to that the fact that liberals throughout time and all over the world have espoused the same sort of social and economic philosophies and have indeed sought to treat people very differently based on how they looked . The point is that if Congress did make a law stating such it would not be Constitutional just because Congress made such a law.But Mr. Geithner and the liberals in charge of our government probably have little to fear from the American public recognizing this fact. Because they know that most Americans do not have a clue what our Constitution says and that they will not understand the importance of this exchange between Geithner and Congresswoman Bachmann. Instead they will carry on in blissful ignorance as the nation burns and President Obama fiddles.

The 2008 Presidential Election, the Highest Rated Show in Entertainment Today – a Newport Beach, and San Diego Entertainment Attorney’s View

July 12th, 2009 at 10:19am Under Entertainment Law

For a Palm Springs, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Newport Beach and Orange County entertainment lawyer, there has been nothing to compare to the drama of the 2008 election. If nothing else, the entertainment value of this election has been able to keep people’s minds off the economy. Everyone has something to watch for.

Will one candidate improve business conditions in San Diego or Orange County more than the other? Will the Vice Presidential pick be able to swing voters in one industry or another over the other candidate’s vice presidential pick? What new slimy negative attack ad is one candidate using to unfairly tear down the other and divide the county?

If it weren’t for politics right now, there would be nothing to be excited about in the entertainment field. Saturday Night Live ratings have gone through the roof because of one thing, politics. Their spoofs on the election have so much interest that they now have shows on Thursdays and Saturdays.

All the usual suspect celebrities who are usually in the news getting into scraps at night clubs, being arrested, having children, selling baby photos, gaining weight, losing weight, all seem to be behaving themselves.

So as an entertainment attorney, I have to say, thank goodness for politicians. Politics which used to be the stuff of boring discussions and something you would never discuss on a first date, is suddenly the topic of the day. And talk about drama….

The first thing we hear as we get home from work and turn on the TV is that the economy is about to sink into a deep hole and if we don’t give $700 billion on top of the almost $400 billion we’ve already spent on financial institutions, life as we know it will disappear. I would have only imagined such dire consequences before this announcement if aliens were about to invade and we needed $700 billion to build the largest ray gun. But this announcement wasn’t on a remake of War of the Worlds, it was on the news, on CNN, and everywhere.

And then there was the drama of working out the bailout plan. It’s on, it’s off. There’s been a breakthrough. Oops, spoke too soon. The McCain campaign is being suspended. Nope, wrong again. Then the bailout is passed and Europe goes into a tailspin almost as fast as Sarah Palin’s star is fading and John McCain’s campaign is headed for the dumpster. Then the negative campaigning starts in earnest.

Suddenly nobody cares what the greatest box office movies were for the week. Are they even showing movies anymore? This political drama is too good to miss. Besides, who can afford the popcorn and drinks at the movies anymore?

Now people are rushing home to see the latest poll numbers and to see the latest skits on Saturday Night Live. What zingers will the candidates have for each other? Will Sarah Palin be able to answer a question better than her rambling ludicrous answers she gave to Katie Couric? Is Letterman going to keep skewering McCain.

And you have the polls that are like following a horse race. First one candidate is ahead by a nose, and then the other is by a whisker. Then one candidate turns on a burst of speed as the other rushes for the wire.

This beats a close football game by a mile.This election has everything and they say they always save their best ads for the last. Don’t you dare touch that dial. This is entertainment for the ages. 

If you have an entertainment law, copyright or trademark issue in San Diego, Newport Beach, Irvine, Orange County, La Jolla, in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Palm Springs or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your Newport Beach Entertainment Lawyer and your San Diego Entertainment Attorney. Be sure to hire a California law firm with entertainment law experience who can serve areas such as Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Anaheim, Irvine, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Newport Beach, Carlsbad, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fullerton, Del Mar, San Diego, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Buena Park, La Jolla, Oxnard, Ventura, La Quinta, and Santa Barbara so you are properly represented.

If you have an entertainment law, or copyright dispute of any kind, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn how we can assist you.

What New Artists and Musicians Can Do to Keep From Being Taken Advantage of – See a California Music & Entertainment Lawyer

July 12th, 2009 at 04:19am Under Entertainment Law

There is probably no other profession than the music business where so many people will try to take advantage of you when you are starting out as an artist or musician if you don’t have a lawyer. Whether you or your band hails from Carlsbad, Encinitas, Del Mar, Solana Beach in San Diego, Anaheim or Santa Ana in Orange County, or Palm Springs, whether you developed your talent in La Jolla, or at Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach or Santa Barbara, and whether you live, studied or performed in Hollywood, Westwood, Santa Monica, Venice, Malibu, Palm Desert or La Quinta, when you are just starting out, the entertainment industry sees you as someone whom they can take advantage of.

Music contracts are notoriously long, complicated and almost undecipherable to all but a music lawyer. Thirty page contracts are nothing unusual in this business. And there are so many contracts you will be faced with as a musician. Sign the wrong contract and you can be married to a bad agent, promoter, manager, distribution deal, publishing deal or record company and have your career over before it ever began.

Besides the issues you will face with copyrighting your music and trademarking your band name and logo, if you have one, there are management contracts, recording contracts, publishing contracts, agent contracts, distribution deals, licensing contracts, promotion deals, festival and concert contracts, producer agreements and that doesn’t even get into the complex issues contained in many of these agreements.

A music lawyer must have knowledge of synchronization rights, digital rights, peer to peer file swapping, sampling, mechanical licenses, copyright infringement, publishing, advertising law, immigration, employment law, negotiation, ring tones, and have a good understanding of how music is made from mixing to mastering, from the roles of the producer to the needs of the musicians.

And yet, for the music lawyer, there is little that is as rewarding as being part of the recording process or helping a band make it to the big time.

My advice to musicians just starting out and being presented with any type of contract is that having their contract reviewed by a music lawyer is essential. You are likely being presented with the most one-sided type of contract in any business or profession. They are written by the attorneys for the company or manager who is handing it to you with absolutely no attempt to be even handed.

Worst of all, at this stage in your career, you have little leverage. No matter how good you think your music is, the music world is littered with great musicians who signed horrible contracts that stifled if not ended their careers. If you have to do an extra gig and save the money to have a contract reviewed, that’s what you need to do. Get yourselves a good music lawyer. Not a divorce lawyer. Not a trial lawyer. An entertainment lawyer who knows the music business and one, preferably, who is interested in music and who is willing to listen to your music.  

If you have an entertainment law, copyright or trademark issue in San Diego, Newport Beach, Irvine, Orange County, La Jolla, in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Palm Springs or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your Huntington Beach Entertainment Lawyer and your Anaheim Entertainment Attorney. Be sure to hire a California law firm with entertainment law experience who can serve areas such as Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Anaheim, Irvine, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Newport Beach, Carlsbad, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fullerton, Del Mar, San Diego, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Buena Park, La Jolla, Oxnard, Ventura, La Quinta, and Santa Barbara so you are properly represented and get the compensation you deserve.

If you have an entertainment law, or copyright dispute of any kind, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn how we can assist you.

Why Sarah Palin is the Best Darn Comedy on TV Today – a Newport Beach Entertainment Attorney’s View

July 11th, 2009 at 04:19pm Under Entertainment Law

It really doesn’t matter if you are Republican, Democrat or Independent, whether you live or work in Hollywood, Los Angeles, or live in Malibu, or live and work outside the entertainment industry anywhere from Orange County to San Diego, from Carlsbad, or Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe and San Marcos to Newport Beach, Laguna Beach or Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Anaheim, Irvine or Yorba Linda. Even if you live in Montecito or Santa Barbara, Temecula, Palm Desert, La Quinta or Palm Springs, you have got to love Sarah Palin for the comedy she has brought back to television and to this election. 

 

Before I even start this article, there will be some out there who will say Sarah Palin is being picked on. Whether or not you believe that to be true or false, this candidate is giving us some of the best comedy a politician has ever given us, and at a time when we have never needed it more. Saturday Night Live could never have hoped for a better candidate to skewer.

 

Who knew that the straight man or in this case straight woman would turn out to be Katie Couric?

 

First there was Sarah Palin’s attempt to explain her position that by the fact that Alaska is geographically close to Russia, that she has foreign policy experience. Couric asked why Palin’s experience in Alaska enhances her foreign policy credentials.

 

Palin: Well, it certainly does because our next door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia –

 

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations for example, with the Russians?

 

Palin: We have trade missions back and forth. We do – it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia – as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our State.

 

Has anyone yet figured out what any of her answer to Katie Couric’s question means? One has to believe she was testing her skill as a deadpan comedian because she followed up this answer with an even better answer.

 

Couric: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping those big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

 

Palin: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we’re ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the – it’s got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes, and reigning in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we’ve got to see trade, as opportunity not as competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. The bailout is a part of that.

 

Political science majors in college and election campaign advisors will be studying both of these answer for years. But just grasp if you will how, in her second answer,she is able to connect the dots. The bailout, Palin says, makes her and other Americans ill. So the bailout needs to bail out health care, presumably, so we can get over our illness with the bailout. This is masterful.

 

But the bailout is also about job creation (whose?), reducing taxes (really?), reigning in spending (all $700 billion worth?), and trade (this is part of her comedy routine apparently). And then in the spirit of Halloween which is just around the corner, she says trade should be seen as an opportunity, not just as a scary thing. Brilliant. But she forgot to mention Christmas and being a maverick cleaning up Washington. Rats.

 

As an entertainment attorney who also handles election law, campaign finance law and political law, Sarah Palin has it all. She is rejuvenating comedy to it’s highest art form and making political junkies of us all.

 

This isn’t just comedy or entertainment. This is politics at it’s most lucid. Or is that ludicrous?  

 

If you have an entertainment law, copyright or trademark issue in San Diego, Newport Beach, Irvine, Orange County, La Jolla, in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Palm Springs or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your Beverly Hills Entertainment Lawyer and your Malibu Entertainment Attorney. Be sure to hire a California law firm with entertainment law experience who can serve areas such as Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Anaheim, Irvine, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Newport Beach, Carlsbad, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fullerton, Del Mar, San Diego, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Buena Park, La Jolla, Oxnard, Ventura, La Quinta, and Santa Barbara so you are properly represented.

 

If you have an entertainment law, or copyright dispute of any kind, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn how we can assist you.