LAWYERBRUCE

www.bruceabrennananddekalbilandtheworld.blogspot.com

www.lawofficeofbruceabrennan.yolasite.com

www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com

http://lawofficeofbruceabrennan.law.officelive.com

http://lawofficeofbruceabrennan.webs.com

http://www.lawyerbruceabrennan.webstarts.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/attorneybruceabrennan

Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase an interesting and inexpensive read.

http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/497984-ebook.htm

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)

www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.

https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/dashboard NEW SOURCE FOR BOOK

Check out the site below. Paybox is a new site, competing with PayPal, etc. Sign up is free. It seems good for small businesses or ebay users.

http://www.paybox.me/r/lawyerbruce

“Some men are discovered; others are found out.”

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Illinois raises taxes by nearly doubling them with no restraints on spending.

January 12, 2011: January 12 is … Feast of Fabulous Wild Men Day. Another day just for Glenn.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND

The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

I am having surgery on Thursday. Depending on how that goes, I may not post on Friday. If I can write it in advance, I will post something. I will be back as soon as I can.

The Illinois legislature passed the large tax increase nobody wanted but the people that get to spend the money. The personal tax rate goes up to 5%, an increase of 67%. Other taxes also go up that will drive businesses out of Illinois. The legislature lied to us again by claiming it is a temporary tax increase. I bet. I also predict the legislature will spend the increased income on pet projects and on welfare and not bail the State of Illinois out of its financial mess.

Our government at work or work outsourcing, pushing its job and responsibilities onto private industry, without knowing the facts or thinking through the consequences of the impact of its decisions. In the last decade several States and the Federal government made laws electronically tracking the sales of cold medicines. The sellers had to put the product containing pseudoephedrine behind counters. Buyers had to sign for the drug when they purchased it. The Government said this would stop the Methamphetamine trade. It also allowed the government access to citizen’s personal medical information.

Now comes word the laws do not work. In fact, they have created a lucrative market for purchasers to buy the cold medicines and sell them to meth producers at a large markup. Meth related activity was up in 2009 by 34%. In 2008, meth incidents rose 34% in Arkansas, 65% in Kentucky and 164% in Oklahoma. All of these rises in meth activity are after the various laws took effect. How many times have laws the government passes to much fanfare and publicity do the results go unnoticed? Let’s hope the sponsors of the national legislation are as quick to grab credit for this screw up as they were to promote their efforts in passing the laws initially. Fat chance!

Pat Quinn was recently sworn in for a four year term as governor he was actually elected to. His first legislation was to increase taxes by 67% on individuals plus other taxes. His thirty minute inaugural speech made great promises but failed to mention a single plan or detailed measure to accomplish any of the promises he lied about in the speech. Some things just never change. If Pat Quinn is the best person to run our state, Illinois really sucks when it comes to political leaders.

Arizona legislators effectively told the Westboro Baptist Church to go to hell. Arizona lawmakers today passed emergency legislation to bar Westboro Baptist Church members from picketing the funerals of the Tucson shooting victims, and outraged residents vowed to protect mourners from any protesters. The measure, passed unanimously by the House and Senate, would prohibit protests within 300 feet of funeral sites. The bill now goes to Gov. Jan Brewer, who is expected to sign it this evening. Way to go Arizona. Perhaps another resident of Arizona, who can legally carry a concealed weapon, will be forced to use it on the morons from this Church. We, or I, can only hope.

Arianna Huffington, author and columnist who runs the popular online site the Huffington Post was met by Port Authority Police officials at New York's La Guardia after ignoring crew orders to turn off her Blackberry on a United Express flight from Washington's Dulles.
After Huffington's defiance, another passenger confronted her, leading to both of them being questioned by police after the flight landed. Both were released without being charged, reports the New York Post. The other passenger was identified as Ellis Belodoff, 53, of Plainview, N.Y. Belodoff got up from his seat in protest of her continued chatting and texting, sources tell the Post, and ignored warnings to stay in his seat as he leaped up to complain. Another example of someone thinking the rules do not apply to them. Arianna, follow the rules or go home.

Music at the top of the charts through the years;

1948 Ballerina - Vaughn Monroe
Civilization - The Louis Prima Orchestra
I’ll Dance at Your Wedding - Buddy Clark with the Ray Noble Orchestra
I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms) - Eddy Arnold

1956 Memories are Made of This - Dean Martin
The Great Pretender - The Platters
Lisbon Antigua - Nelson Riddle
Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford

1964 There! I’ve Said It Again - Bobby Vinton
Louie Louie - The Kingsmen
Popsicles and Icicles - The Murmaids
Love’s Gonna Live Here - Buck Owens

1972 Brand New Key - Melanie
American Pie - Don McLean
Let’s Stay Together - Al Green
Would You Take Another Chance on Me - Jerry Lee Lewis

1980 Escape (The Pina Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes
Rock with You - Michael Jackson
Do that to Me One More Time - The Captain & Tennille
Coward of the County - Kenny Rogers

1988 So Emotional - Whitney Houston
Got My Mind Set on You - George Harrison
The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson
I Can’t Get Close Enough - Exile

BRUCE A. BRENNAN

DEKALB, IL 60115

Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com

www.brucebrennanlaw.com

www.brucebrennanlaws.com

www.bruceabrennananddekalbilandtheworld.blogspot.com

www.lawofficeofbruceabrennan.yolasite.com

www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com

http://lawofficeofbruceabrennan.law.officelive.com

http://lawofficeofbruceabrennan.webs.com

http://www.lawyerbruceabrennan.webstarts.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/attorneybruceabrennan

Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase an interesting and inexpensive read.

http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/497984-ebook.htm

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)

www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.

https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/dashboard NEW SOURCE FOR BOOK

Check out the site below. Paybox is a new site, competing with PayPal, etc. Sign up is free. It seems good for small businesses or ebay users.

http://www.paybox.me/r/lawyerbruce

“Too much of a good thing is wonderful.”

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

"Where did you get them shoes?"

January 11, 2011: January 11 is … National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day.

It is too cold for that where I live.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND

The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

Oregon gave Auburn all they wanted but Auburn won the National Championship in big boy College Football last night. It had to be the shoes. I have never seen uglier shoes in my life than those won by the Oregon Ducks. I don’t understand why they had to dress like ducks when Auburn did not have to dress like tigers. I could hear Steeley Dan all night, who once said, “Where did you get those shoes?”

It was still a pretty good game even if the fashion statement was for the birds. Congratulations Auburn.

The Illinois State legislature went home over the week end and heard from the electorates. A 75% tax increase plus other huge raises in corporation taxes and sin taxes was too much. The legislators heard this all week end long. When they got back to Springfield, it was obvious a new plan was needed. Do you think this was the legislators listening to us or were they scared by the shooting in Arizona and did not want to pass this enormously unpopular law with the shooting so fresh in our consciousness? The Illinois Legislature chickened out. They cannot even screw up properly. The old adage that voters have short memories also means voters have good short memories which currently include the Arizona carnage. Taxes are nearly always raised shortly after an election. This provides the legislators with the longest time period available before the next election. This cowardly approach goes on in all States and at the Federal level.

Another worry for parents who live in West Virginia, the Parkersville News and Sentinel reports State Sen. Erik Wells has introduced a bill to yank your driver’s license if your kid misses 10 or more days of school. You'd get a warning after the fifth unexcused absence. No word on how the new law would address sick or injured children, children who leave the State or area because of an emergency, children who are suspended from school or those missing days for religious reasons. The West Virginia legislature considers 2,000 bills a year, about 200 become law.

West Virginia is a small state. You have to wonder if 200 new laws every year are really needed. This does not include county and city ordinances or government regulations from all sources. And, of course, the Federal government enacts hundreds of laws every year along with the regulations that go with the new laws. Sounds like we got away from the concept put forth by Thomas Jefferson, "The government is best which governs least." This quote is also attributed to Thomas Paine, the writer of “Common Sense” Henry David Thoreau wrote a similar quote but not until the 1840s. Whoever wrote it was right but our government officials have decided not to follow the advice. That is too bad. Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Tom DeLay, the former Congressman from Texas, and U.S. House Majority Leader, was sentenced to three years in prison Monday for money laundering. The only witness testifying on behalf of DeLay at his sentencing hearing was former Illinois Congressman and Speaker of the Houser, Dennis Hastert.

Music at the top of the charts on this date;

1947 For Sentimental Reasons - Nat King Cole
Ole Buttermilk Sky - The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Mike Douglas & The
Campus Kids)
The Old Lamplighter - The Sammy Kaye Orchestra (vocal: Billy Williams)
Divorce Me C.O.D. - Merle Travis

1955 Mr. Sandman - The Chordettes
The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane - The Ames Brothers
Hearts of Stone - The Fontane Sisters
Loose Talk - Carl Smith

1963 Telstar - The Tornadoes
Go Away Little Girl - Steve Lawrence
Hotel Happiness - Brook Benton
Ruby Ann - Marty Robbins

1971 My Sweet Lord/Isn’t It a Pity - George Harrison
Knock Three Times - Dawn
Black Magic Woman - Santana
Rose Garden - Lynn Anderson

1979 Too Much Heaven - Bee Gees
My Life - Billy Joel
Sharing the Night Together - Dr. Hook
Tulsa Time - Don Williams

1987 Walk Like an Egyptian - Bangles
Notorious - Duran Duran
Shake You Down - Gregory Abbott
Give Me Wings - Michael Johnson

BRUCE A. BRENNAN

DEKALB, IL 60115

Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com

www.brucebrennanlaw.com

www.brucebrennanlaws.com

www.bruceabrennananddekalbilandtheworld.blogspot.com

www.lawofficeofbruceabrennan.yolasite.com

www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com

http://lawofficeofbruceabrennan.law.officelive.com

http://lawofficeofbruceabrennan.webs.com

http://www.lawyerbruceabrennan.webstarts.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/attorneybruceabrennan

Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase an interesting and inexpensive read.

http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/497984-ebook.htm

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)

www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.

https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/dashboard NEW SOURCE FOR BOOK

Check out the site below. Paybox is a new site, competing with PayPal, etc. Sign up is free. It seems good for small businesses or ebay users.

http://www.paybox.me/r/lawyerbruce

“No great scoundrel is ever uninteresting.”

Monday, January 10, 2011

The insanity, F. Lee Bailey and Rod Stewart.

January 10, 2011: January 10 is … Peculiar People Day. We all know someone who this day was made for.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND

The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

On this date: 1994 Trial of Lorena Bobbitt who cut off her husband's penis, begins.

The nine year old girl that was killed by the Tucson gunman, Christina Taylor Green, was born on September 11, 2001. She entered this world under tragic circumstances her country could not protect her from. She left this world under tragic circumstances the authorities in her country could not protect her from. She was the granddaughter of former Cubs manager, Dallas Green and had been featured in the book, "Faces of Hope, Babies Born on 9/11, about children born on September 11, 2001.

Activist Judges have for some time now made law from the bench they felt couldn’t get done at the ballot box. Now the citizens, luckily a minute minority, have started using this idea with

one refinement; they are trying to accomplish with a bullet what they cannot get done at the ballot box. This craziness has to stop in a hurry. The police must develop a deadly force strategy. The only legal issue surrounding this shooter’s culpability is his sanity. The insanity defense is rarely used and it is used successfully in less than 15% of the cases it is used in. If the police were to use deadly force in obvious situations, the insanity defense would be used even less frequently. This is the country where the majority rules. I think the majority would have no problem with the shooter being dead right now. It sure would be cheaper and cause less pain and suffering to the victims and their survivors.

It is going to be a few days before this massacre is off the front page. Perhaps it should be that way but when the next mass shooting happens, and it will happen, it should get just as much attention. It is unfortunate anyone was killed but those that died at the hand of the Tucson shooter are no more important than the next group of victims, like those shot and killed outside a Baltimore night club. The dead there included a policeman. Where is that uproar by the press?

F. Lee Bailey is a 77 year old attorney who, it seems, does not want to stay out of the limelight. Bailey first came to the attention of this country when, as a young attorney, he volunteered his services to Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler. He did little good in that case as DeSalvo was never exonerated and was killed in prison in the 70s. Bailey was the attorney for Patty Hearst in her 1976 trial for bank robbery. He lost that trial and Hearst went to prison. She was granted a Presidential Pardon by Jimmy Carter.

Bailey thrust himself into the O. J. Simpson trial. He was given a small role by lead attorney Johnny Cochrane, mostly because he was white. Simpson won his murder trial but not because of Bailey. Bailey is seeking more headlines. I suspect a book is coming soon. He now insists he has proof of Simpson’s innocence. F. Lee Bailey is defending Simpson's 1995 acquittal on charges of murdering his ex-wife and her friend. In his first written account of the trial, but likely not his last, Bailey has posted a 46-page paper on his website in which he presents evidence he says proves Simpson's innocence. The 77-year-old Bailey tells the Portland Press Herald that the document, called "The Simpson Verdict," is an effort to reveal evidence not heard before and to explain why he has maintained Simpson's innocence in the face of attacks from critics. He also wants a few headlines but he does not mention this.

After the Simpson case, Bailey lost his law license for stealing or failing to accurately account for a client’s money. The client was charged with drug smuggling and apparently Bailey was paid in cash that the government wanted back since it was generated by illegal activity. Bailey fought the government and, once again, lost.

Top of the music charts on this date throughout recent history;

1946 Symphony - The Freddy Martin Orchestra (vocal: Clyde Rogers)
It Might as Well Be Spring - The Sammy Kaye Orchestra (vocal: Billy
Williams)
I Can’t Begin to Tell You - Bing Crosby with the Carmen Cavallaro
Orchestra
White Cross on Okinawa - Bob Wills

1954 Oh! My Pa-Pa - Eddie Fisher
Changing Partners - Patti Page
The Gang that Sang ‘Heart of My Heart’ - The Four Aces
Bimbo - Jim Reeves

1962 The Lion Sleeps Tonight - The Tokens
The Twist - Chubby Checker
Peppermint Twist - Joey Dee & The Starliters
Walk on By - Leroy Van Dyke

1970 Raindrop Keep Fallin’ on My Head - B.J. Thomas
Someday We’ll Be Together - Diana Ross & The Supremes
I Want You Back - The Jackson 5
Baby, (Baby I Know You’re a Lady) - David Houston

1978 How Deep is Your Love - Bee Gees
Baby Come Back - Player
You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim) - Rod Stewart
Take This Job and Shove It - Johnny Paycheck

1986 Say You, Say Me - Lionel Richie
Party All the Time - Eddie Murphy
That’s What Friends are For - Dionne & Friends
Morning Desire - Kenny Rogers

Born Roderick David Stewart on this day in 1945, the 5th son of Robert and Elsie Stewart spent his happy childhood doing what he did best: playing football (soccer) and singing. He excelled at the first, becoming captain of his school’s team. Then, for his 14th birthday, Rod’s father bought him a guitar.

That was the start of something big. Music auditions and emulating British and American folk artists convinced young Rod that he needed to play a harmonica. Soon he was singing with The Ray Davies Quartet (The Kinks) as their lead singer – only to irritate some with his now signature scratchy voice.
He was just 18 when he took on another signature – his spiked hairstyle – and earned the nickname, Rod the Mod! From folk music, to rock ‘n’ roll, to rhythm and blues, Stewart was running the gamut of popular music and writing some of his own. However, he wasn’t winning attention in any area until he joined the group, Faces. Going solo in 1969 led to the beginning of winning in every direction for the throaty, extremely versatile singer. From the international smash hit, Maggie May to the even bigger hit, Tonight’s the Night to the 1978 chart-topper, Do Ya Think I’m Sexy, Rod Stewart was charming audiences around the globe. Two more decades of hit songs followed, including a version of Have I told You Lately that made one think Rod was singing only to you.
It would be hard to recognize that the seemingly quiet, retiring artist singing just to you was the same man who performed in 1994 at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro to the largest concert crowd in history: 3.5 million fans celebrating New Year’s Eve and Rod Stewart.
And, although he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, Rod Stewart was never awarded with a Grammy (he had 14 nominations) until 2005 when his Stardust… The Great American Songbook, Volume III was voted the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. It was also the first time in 25 years that he had another #1 hit. That same year, Rod Stewart was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Today, audiences the world over have made the man with the most distinctive voice in pop music an icon and have purchased way more than 100 million of his records. Rod the Mod, now in his fifth decade as a performer, is still singing, selling more records and gaining new fans. And, he still plays in a senior soccer league in California.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN

DEKALB, IL 60115

Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com

www.brucebrennanlaw.com

www.brucebrennanlaws.com

www.bruceabrennananddekalbilandtheworld.blogspot.com