Mediaboss Marketing

It wasnt part of the jobs message he planned to pitch, but Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that immigration reform would help boost the economy.

Immigration reform will help our economy, but youve got to secure the border first, the Ohio Republican said after a speech at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute. Weve got a mess and everyone knows weve got a mess.

His immigration comments, in response to an audience question, werent part of his prepared remarks. They followed a 20-minute-speech in which Boehner laid out his five-point plan to jump-start Americas economy.

The AEI address served as the GOPs closing argument before the November midterm elections and came just as the House was wrapping up its final day of votes before sprinting to the campaign trail.

Boehner didnt offer many surprises in his speech: He called for fixing the U.S. tax code, cutting spending, reforming the legal system, reining in federal regulations and boosting education.

And the Speaker said opening up more areas for oil exploration and building the Keystone XL pipeline would really get our economy humming.

We do these five things in a meaningful way, along with the coming energy boom, we can reset the foundation of our economy for the next two or three generations and beyond, Boehner said.

Boehner argued that GOPs first priority should be tax reform. He said all the focus on so-called corporate inversions where U.S. corporations buy foreign companies and move their headquarters abroad to avoid taxes was short-sighted.

Inversions are really just visible symptoms of a much deeper problem: our tax code is terrible. No one understands it, certainly not the IRS, Boehner said. So all this talk about inversions is just making the problem smaller.

Its fussing over a divot when the road is loaded with potholes.

More here:
Boehner: Immigration reform will help economy

It wasnt part of the jobs message he planned to pitch, but Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that immigration reform would help boost the economy.

Immigration reform will help our economy, but youve got to secure the border first, the Ohio Republican said after a speech at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute. Weve got a mess and everyone knows weve got a mess.

His immigration comments, in response to an audience question, werent part of his prepared remarks. They followed a 20-minute-speech in which Boehner laid out his five-point plan to jump-start Americas economy.

The AEI address served as the GOPs closing argument before the November midterm elections and came just as the House was wrapping up its final day of votes before sprinting to the campaign trail.

Boehner didnt offer many surprises in his speech: He called for fixing the U.S. tax code, cutting spending, reforming the legal system, reining in federal regulations and boosting education.

And the Speaker said opening up more areas for oil exploration and building the Keystone XL pipeline would really get our economy humming.

We do these five things in a meaningful way, along with the coming energy boom, we can reset the foundation of our economy for the next two or three generations and beyond, Boehner said.

Boehner argued that GOPs first priority should be tax reform. He said all the focus on so-called corporate inversions where U.S. corporations buy foreign companies and move their headquarters abroad to avoid taxes was short-sighted.

Inversions are really just visible symptoms of a much deeper problem: our tax code is terrible. No one understands it, certainly not the IRS, Boehner said. So all this talk about inversions is just making the problem smaller.

Its fussing over a divot when the road is loaded with potholes.

View post:
Boehner: Immigration reform will help boost the economy

Im delighted to report that yesterday the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals handed down Ex parte Thompson (Tex. Ct. Crim. App. Sept. 17, 2014) (8-to-1, with Judge Meyers dissenting without opinion). This was a UCLA First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic case, in which my student Samantha Booth and I wrote an amicus brief on behalf of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. (Many thanks again, by the way, to Cam Barker (YetterColeman LLP) for all his help as local counsel.)

The courts opinion is a victory for the right to take photographs in public even when a statute barring such photograph is limited to photography of people without their consent and with intent to arouse or gratify sexual desire, but of course equally when the photographs lack such an intention. The court struck down the Texas improper photography statute, which read,

A person commits an offense if the person:

(1) photographs or by videotape or other electronic means records a visual image of another at a location that is not a bathroom or private dressing room:

(A) without the other persons consent; and

(B) with intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person.

Heres a quick summary of the courts reasoning:

1. Taking photographs in public places is generally constitutionally protected, because photographs regardless of their artistic merits are generally protected expression, and the act that creates the end product is likewise protected:

The camera is essentially the photographers pen or paintbrush. Using a camera to create a photograph or video is like applying pen to paper to create a writing or applying brush to canvas to create a painting. In all of these situations, the process of creating the end product cannot reasonably be separated from the end product for First Amendment purposes. This is a situation where the regulation of a medium inevitably affects communication itself. We conclude that a persons purposeful creation of photographs and visual recordings is entitled to the same First Amendment protection as the photographs and visual recordings themselves.

2. This First-Amendment-protected conduct doesnt lose its protection even when the photographer is intending to arouse or gratify sexual desires:

See the original post:
Volokh Conspiracy: Texas highest criminal court strikes down improper photography statute

Texas highest criminal court struck down part of a law banning upskirt photos on Wednesday, arguing that photos taken without permission in public are entitled to First Amendment protections. Outlawing improper photography or visual recording, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals panel ruled, would be a violation of federal free-speech rights and a paternalistic effort to regulate the photographers thoughts.

The camera is essentially the photographers pen and paintbrush, Judge Sharon Keller wrote in the courts 8-1 opinion. A persons purposeful creation of photographs and visual recordings is entitled to the same First Amendment protection as the photographs and visual recordings themselves.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the case involved Ronald Thompson, who was charged with 26 counts of improper photography in 2011 after taking underwater pictures of swimsuit-clad children at a San Antonio water park. Thompson challenged the constitutionality of the improper photography ban before his case even went to trial, claiming that a plain reading of the law would place street photographers, entertainment journalists, arts patrons, pep rally attendees and even the harmless eccentric at risk of incarceration.

Prosecutors argued that the laws intent element for example, trying to do something unlawful like taking an illicit photo of someone without their consent should place the expressive activity outside the bounds of First Amendment protection. But, according to the appeals panel, protecting citizens from being made the subject of expressive surreptitious photography unknowingly or without permission is actually the governments way of protecting them from being thought of sexually, which runs the risk of infringing upon other peoples First Amendment rights.

Protecting someone who appears in public from being the object of sexual thoughts seems to be the sort of paternalistic interest in regulating the defendants mind that the First Amendment was designed to guard against, Keller wrote. We also keep in mind the Supreme Courts admonition that the forms of speech that are exempt from First Amendment protection are limited, and we should not be quick to recognize new categories of unprotected expression.

A legal scholar told the Chronicle that the court issued a sound ruling, saying that it cannot be made a crime in the United States to look at someone in public and think lascivious thoughts about them. But such an analysis fundamentally misunderstands the difference between looking at someone in a public space and photographing them without consent. The thinking of lascivious thoughts is irrelevant, because thats not what laws against taking upskirt photos and other illicit creepshots are meant to prevent. They are meant to prevent the violation of peoples physical autonomy in public spaces; they are meant to prevent sexual harassment. Apparently, though, its not harassment when its just a surreptitious photo thats art.

Original post:
Texas court throws out upskirt photo law, because banning creepshots is paternalistic

Hillary Clinton Returns to Iowa - LoneWolf Sager
Jonathan Karl and the powerhouse roundtable are in Iowa for Hillary Clinton #39;s first return trip to Iowa since the 2008 presidential campaign. - LoneWolf The Three Muskadoggies "Please.......

By: LoneWolf Sager

See the article here:
Hillary Clinton Returns to Iowa - LoneWolf Sager - Video