Supergirl posed an interesting question: The President ordered General Lane and the Army to take over the Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO) after Hank Henshaw was captured by Kryptonians. Would this violate the Posse Comitatus Act?
The answer is….maybe? The legal analysis gets funky fast with secret government agencies fighting aliens.
The Army is expressly forbidden from conducting law enforcement pursuant to the Posse Comitatus Act:
Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
18 USCS § 1385.
The Department of Extranormal Operations is a secret Federal government agency whose mission is to safeguard the country from aliens. DEO Agents pose as FBI Agents when interacting with the public. The issue is whether the DEO is a secret law enforcement agency or secret military organization in answering whether the President’s order for the Army to take over the DEO violated Posse Comitatus.
The evidence for the DEO being a law enforcement agency is the fact the DEO actively conducts surveillance for alien activity in the United States and captures aliens unlawfully in the country. The Constitution deems the immigration of aliens as exclusively Federal issues. People v. Salazar-Merino (2001) 89 Cal.App.4th 590, 598; U.S. Const. art. I, § 8. While the Founding Fathers did not envision this provision applying to beings from other worlds, technically the DEO is very similar to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency in its mission to protect the country from “alien” aliens in the United States.
The DEO certainly has weapons similar to what the Army uses, operates out of bunkers, and does not arrest aliens, but captures them for imprisonment. There is no due process, very similar to the Army capturing soldiers of an invading army as prisoners of war.
If the DEO were a law enforcement agency task with protecting the borders from aliens from other worlds, the Army taking over the DEO would be illegal, because the Army would be engaging in direct law enforcement. These prohibited activities generally include: arrest, seizure of evidence, search of person, search of building, investigation of crime, interviewing witnesses, pursuit of escaped civilian prisoners, search of area for suspects and other like activities, and any such use of federal military troops. United States v Red Feather (1975, DC SD) 392 F Supp 916.
Passive military assistance that does not violate Posse Comitatus include the following:
Mere presence of military personnel under orders to report on necessity for military intervention;
Preparation of contingency plans to be used if military intervention is ordered;
Advice or recommendations given to civilian law enforcement officers by military personnel on tactics or logistics;
Presence of military personnel to deliver military material, equipment or supplies to train local law enforcement officials on proper use and care of such material or equipment and to maintain such material or equipment; and
Aerial photographic reconnaissance flights.
United States v Red Feather (1975, DC SD) 392 F Supp 916.
General Lane took command of the DEO from its acting director, used torture to gain information, and had his troops conduct a raid with the DEO. All of these actions look like direct law enforcement activities (and civil rights violations of an extraterrestrial alien).
If the DEO was a branch of the military authorized to conduct law enforcement, similar to the Coast Guard, then the President’s order for General Lane to take command of the DEO and engage in military action on US soil would have been lawful.
We are adding two witnesses to our San Diego Comic Fest Mock Trial of the Winter Soldier: James Buchanan Barnes, aka Bucky, aka the Winter Soldier, and Natasha Alianovna Romanoff, aka the Black Widow. We also have roles for a bailiff and courtroom clerk.
Update! We have three volunteers for Black Widow, James Buchanan Barnes, and the clerk. We still need a bailiff.
Witnesses need to be familiar with their witness statements and the events of Captain America The First Avenger and Captain America The Winter Soldier. Each witness will have a direct examination, followed by a cross-examination, and possibly re-direct. A law student will work with you on your testimony and how to be a witness.
Cosplayers interested in participating as witnesses must be able to attend San Diego Comic Fest on Saturday February 13, 2016. The fictional trial will be presided over by a Federal Judge and the trial conducted by law students. If interested, please review the witness statements and contact us on the form below.
I’m a few weeks behind (and preparing to celebrate the new year) but I had to wish 9 to 5 a happy 35th anniversary before saying goodbye to 2015! The movie stars the fabulous Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Dolly Parton (along with a hysterically evil Dabney Coleman) and is as funny as it was in 1980. Unfortunately, it’s also just as relatable as it was 35 years ago.
While the fashions and technologies featured in the film may have changed (and secretarial pools have been converted to call centers), the underlying issues are still around. All too often, women still have to deal with sexism in the workplace (even movie stars like Jennifer Lawrence aren’t immune) and are forced to work in hostile environments (politicians too).
There are laws in place to prevent these issues, of course, at both the state and federal level. At the federal level, these laws include the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (which protects men and women who perform substantially equal work from sex-based wage discrimination), and the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (which gives employees the right to jury trials and the ability to recover monetary damages in cases of employment discrimination). In addition, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 addresses employees’ ability to recover for wage discrimination.
Harassment that creates a hostile work employment is also a form of employment discrimination that violates several federal laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Harassment is unwelcome conduct that is based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), and/or disability or genetic information. Harassment becomes unlawful where 1) enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment, or 2) the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive.
So there are remedies out there and the problems are getting better but they haven’t disappeared. That’s why 9 to 5 is great viewing decades after it was made – it’s still funny and relevant. And the same can be said of its leads, these many years later. Dolly just had a huge hit with her TV movie, Coat of Many Colors, and Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin were fantastic in one of my favorite TV shows of the year: Grace and Frankie. Season One was must-see binge-watching and I’m eagerly awaiting Season Two and Season Three (thanks be to Netflix, home of so much awesome original programming!).
And if you haven’t heard Dolly’s title song for the movie, please listen to it now. It’s always awesome!
Yub Nub. Ewoks are tool-welding primates that took down Imperial AT-ST Walkers and Storm Troopers with rocks, logs, and cuteness. Ewoks lived in tree villages and prepared tramps for creatures taller than Ewoks, such as human beings. Let’s not forget Ewoks were very ready to have a Rebel BBQ of Han, Luke, and Chewbacca. It is also highly possible Ewoks ate the Imperials they captured at the end of Return of the Jedi.
How would galactic society respond if humans started wearing Ewok fur? Ewoks likely would make excellent slippers for the citizens of Coruscant. People on Hoth would pay top credits for Ewok fur coats. Parents on Yavin 4 would take photos of Younglings on Ewok skin rugs (likely causing the child to turn to the Dark Side after images were shown to a prospective boyfriend or girlfriend).
There are many arguments Ewoks are a sentient species, because they have a language, established a faith system, use tools, wore skins as limited clothing, achieved non-powered flight for combat, and live in a functioning social order in a highly engineered tree village. This should be enough for anthropologists and the Republic to view Ewoks as a young pre-industrial species, despite no signs of a written language. Ewoks were nowhere near as sophisticated as Wookiees with space flight, but developmentally above Wampa.
Former Imperial worlds likely would see Ewoks as feral vermin who may or may not have eaten a family member. Ewoks contributed to the deaths of every Imperial on the second Death Star, easily over a million people. Assuming the Imperial Navy did not fire bomb Endor for revenge, the Knights of Ren establishing a fur trading company on the moon after retrieving the helmet of Darth Vader, would be evil retribution for the Empire’s defeat.
If Ewok fur became a profitable inter-planetary trade, the Republic and Resistance would put a stop to interstellar Ewok poaching. Ewoks would be deemed a “protected species,” because their poaching would generate illegal funds to fill the economic void created by the destruction of the second Death Star. This “Darth Market” enacting a Doctrine of Fur would fuel instability with criminal enterprises designed to trap Ewoks, with now out of work Imperial construction workers turning to poaching to make ends meet.
Starkiller Base could have been funded by illegal Ewok fur trading. The planet was big enough for the First Order to maintain Ewok pens to supply a galaxy hungry for fur products. Children conscripted as Stormtroopers could have been the labor force in the production of Ewok slippers, shawls, blankets, and capes, only adding the list of war crimes committed by Supreme Leader Snoke’s First Order.
Worlds under Republic control would enact a labeling guide for imported fur products to avoid Ewok pelts entering the market. Just as the United States prohibits cat and dog fur from being imported into the US, the Republic would have similar laws to prevent Ewok mittens being sold illegally.
Impressible young people might try to disrupt interplanetary Ewok harvesting ships by ramming Imperial/New Order vessels in space. These “Ewok Wars” could be a popular reality show on the core network, but would highlight extremely poor stellar-seamanship.
Anime is a fairly fresh contender for the affections of geeks in America, but nearly all media has been touched by it in one way or another. Whether it’s through parodies in popular American shows such as The Simpsons, Phineas and Ferb or Family Guy, on T-shirts in Hot Topic, or through trolling around Toys R’ Us to find that Pikachu doll on your child’s Christmas list, the chances are quite good that you’ve seen something related to anime. The big eyes, poorly-timed mouth flaps, and seemingly inappropriate vocal reactions are all common stereotypes used when a creator wants viewers to know that they are parodying the style of anime.
However, anime has not just emerged into the view of the public through parodies. Within the last two decades, many anime have been given the spotlight on popular networks such as Cartoon Network, IFC, and Sy-Fy. Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z, and Sailor Moon are perhaps the three shows most attributed to the 1990’s, but if you were up late and watching television often, you may remember tuning in to the occasional episode of Tenchi Muyo and Yu Yu Hakusho. It may have been as recently as this week that you’ve had to tell your kids to finish their homework before they could watch Naruto, Parasyte or Bleach.
While you may have seen one (or all) of these shows at some point, you may still be scratching your head and wondering what anime actually is. It actually depends! “Anime” is the term that the Japanese use to describe ALL animation, a nickname created by shortening the romaji animēshon (“animation”). In America however, the term “anime” applies almost exclusively animation originating from Japan. Printed comics in Japan are known as “manga,” and just as with the term “anime,” Americans usually reserve the term for graphic novels with a Japanese origin.
Despite the fairly recent attention anime and manga has received from the general masses, it has been around far longer than many of us. The very first anime can be dated as far as 1907-1911, when a 3-second film loop tentatively titled Katsudō Shashin was discovered in Kyoto in July 2005. It consists of fifty frames stenciled directly onto a strip of celluloid depicting a young boy in a sailor suit who writes the kanji for “Katsudō shashin (moving picture,)”, turns, removes his hat, and offers a salute. The creator’s identity is unknown. However, it was not until the 1948 establishment of Toei animation that anime began developing into the serial cartoons that are so popular today. Osamu Tezuka, known lovingly by many fans as “the father of manga,” created the manga series Astro Boy in 1952 and it was animated for television in 1963. It set the stage for the modern structure of an anime; a serial animation with a combination of self-containing episodes, several episode-long arcs, and long-running plots weaved into the entire series. The majority of modern anime however, cannot boast a 193 episode count like AstroBoy. Today, most anime contains 12-13 episodes per season, and run for roughly 1-4 seasons.
Because the term “anime” did not always have the marketing pull on American audiences it once did, many shows were not touted as anime when they aired, which results in many adults not realizing that their favorite show as a child was in fact, an anime (Speed Racer, Kimba the White Lion, and Mobile Suit Gundam, for example. I distinctly remember my mother stepfather being extremely excited over the possibility of family bonding after finding out that Speed Racer was an anime).
However, there is a large number of steps between the original release of an anime and it showing up on your television. An anime is usually adapted from a pre-existing manga, just like how many movies are adapted from books. After the vast amount of planning necessary for any artistic project to come into creation, the main director creates a storyboard (organizes illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of providing a visual displaying how the show will unfold) the anime for the animators and writers. In most cases, the voice actors (or “seiyuu”) for the characters do not enter the picture until the visual portion of the show is in development.
Upon the completion of the anime it will air in Japan. At some point a show may be licensed by an American company which will usually then give the show a “dub,” in which the original seiyuu are replaced by an English cast for American audiences. I would like to think that the streamlining of the dubbing process has contributed to the rise in the popularity of anime because it allowed many shows to be suitable for broadcast television, and more appealing to those who prefer to listen to the show in a language they understand rather than read subtitles. I would also like to think that it contributed to the rise in popularity because well, that’s the part where I come in.
I have worked in the anime industry since 2013 as an English voice actress. The average dubbing process in my experience begins with receiving a phone call or email offering them a role (a decision made by the show’s automated dialogue replacement (ADR) director), and informing them the amount of hours it will take for them to record the role. After they have accepted, the recording dates are scheduled. Recording an entire show is often done in a matter of weeks, so depending on an actor’s schedule, the length of recording sessions may vary. The longest I have recorded, for example was 9 hours straight when I had to leave the state the following day. If an actor’s schedule is open, they normally opt for several days of 4-5 hour chunks if the role is a substantial one.
Each studio is manned by a director and engineer. The director is the one who gives us the information we to know about the character, and decides the lines should be read. Because we only get to see the scenes of the show that our characters are in, it is up to the director to instantly know what emotion we should be conveying, and any nuance or subtleties that should be included that are not apparent from the scene in front of us. A director needs to know their show inside and out, so watching the entire show several times before casting is not uncommon.
The engineer is, in my opinion, the human equivalent of a unicorn. They are mythical creatures who can turn the mundane into the extraordinary. Alright, maybe it’s not that extreme, but engineers are the people you can thank for the crisp, amazing sound coming from your television. An audio engineer not only records the dialogue, but also removes mouth clicks, pops, breaths, and any other kind of vocal ugliness in real time. They are the ones who can move our lines in the audio mix to fit the mouth flaps, which saves hours of repeating lines, and many heads of hair from being pulled out. Finally, when all of the dialogue is recorded, an audio engineer “mixes” the entire audio track, adding special effects and making sure the balance between the music and every single line is just right.
Then you’ve got the actor, who has been quarantined to the recording booth, a tiny sound-proof room within the studio, who reads the lines from the script. The way we do this is through a dual monitor set-up. One computer has the script, which the director scrolls throughout the session to allow the actor to see their lines. The other television has the show playing with lowered audio, so we can see the mouth movements and try to speak in a way that fits within those movements as closely as possible. The ability to read fast is a must for voice acting, because you may only have time for a quick glance at the script before it’s time to speak. As an example of a recording booth and the recording process, I’ve attached a video of a live recording session from the anime Beyond the Boundary. What you do not see is the scrolling script, but as I am recording I am also watching the same clip of animation.
As you can probably guess, the process of acting for anime is a fairly rigorous one, and very different from stage, screen and even Western animation. Some notable differences in the process is:
1. We may not even know our characters until we step in the booth, let alone our lines.
2. The scripts and our speaking styles need to be modified to fit pre-existing mouth flap animations.
3. We are always replacing an actor, and therefore we never are the sole face for the character.
Each of these factors present their own challenges for English Anime actors. The first two are technical difficulties; they make the job challenging, but a well-written script and honed cold-reading skills allow us to overcome those obstacles.
The third, however, is where I think the hardest part of the job comes from.
Geeks in any fandom are passionate, loyal, and have time after time proven to be one of the most efficient groups of people in getting their voices heard that I have ever seen. In anime, however, this can prove to be an extremely stressful fact for the actors. Being an anime voice actor usually does not provide a stable income at all, let alone enough to be considered an “A-lister” celebrity. It does not provide a person with any fame or recognition outside of a very niche group. Therefore, most actors are just your run-of-the-mill average Joe with perfectly ordinary lives and financial worries like anyone else. Many of us enjoy social networking and browsing the internet like anyone else, because unlike the “A-listers,” we rarely have to wade through thousands of tweets or messages directed at us on a daily basis. This means that when messages are directed at us, the chance that we’ll see them are pretty good.
Because we are have often replaced a prior actor from a different language version of the anime, the success of our performance in a dub is often determined by fans based on how “close” we came to the original performance, even if the determining fan is completely unfamiliar with the language. Because of the differences in the Japanese and English language structure, the difference in vocal chords between different actors, and the cultural barriers that may necessitate jokes or phrases being written differently for the dub, a dub is very rarely an exact English replication of the original material. To some fans, any difference at all is seen as “cheapening” the product rather than as an artistic decision made in hopes of improving the English language version of the show.
This is where that passion and loyalty to a given franchise can be very hard to deal with for actors. I often see actors chastised for fans for having an “ugly” voice, or not speaking in a pitch that a fan prefers, or simply for a fan’s distaste of one line-read. While celebrities in mainstream media have to deal with vitriol on a daily basis, they often do not have the time or personal accounts necessary to actually see it. Voice actors are much more accessible, through both online avenues and anime conventions. The ways in which this chastisement manifests, however, can sometimes be hard to deal with. The following are all responses over dissatisfaction over an actor’s performance in a dub:
“A number of years ago I was at an autograph session and as I was signing autographs for a young man, he said “I’m sorry.” I asked him, “for what?” The young man then said “this is for what you did in Gantz” and slapped me as hard as he could. He grabbed his stuff (which I had just finished signing) and took off running.” – Christopher Ayres (Kei Kurono in Gantz, Frieza in Dragonball Z Kai)
“[I] sent in a VO audition… and my agent called me later to say they thought I wasn’t Asain/Japanese enough for the role. I’m Nisei and full blood Japanese from a long line of Samurai and buddhist priests.” – Tadao Tomomatsu (Mr. Shake Hands Man in Banzai, Detective Furokawa in Heroes)
“I have a high pitched voice and get cast to play 12 year olds a lot. Due to the monotone delivery the characters require I recently read a message from a fan that I don’t deserve to be paid for what I do because I am a failure.” – Caitlynn French (Shiro in No Game no Life, Ai in Sunday Without God)
“I remember we were at Anime USA and this little girl went on for five minutes about how perfect the Japanese voice for Rei was and how much mine sucked in comparison. Then she ended it by telling me to say something in Rei’s voice so everyone could see what she was talking about.” – Amanda Winn Lee (Rei in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Heather Mason in Silent Hill 3)
“I’ve had fans message me to tell me if they ever met me in person they would “punch me in the face” for “ruining their favorite character.” The same girl said I “deserved to die for my terrible performance.” I also had someone on Twitter juxtapose a picture of me next to Predator (sans mask) saying we looked the same.” – Brina Palencia (Ciel Phantomhive in Black Butler, Mad Moxxi in Borderlands)
While this is a very small amount of examples, they highlight a very large source of apprehension and worry when it comes to recording for an anime. And while these are extreme, every actor will eventually deal with harassing messages, personal attacks and an overall air of hatred for each role they complete. Therefore, I believe that the hardest aspect of voice acting for anime is also one of the most crucial; developing the resilience and ability to self-care needed to handle these instances with dignity and acceptance.
That being said, while dissatisfied fans are often the loudest, they are merely a vocal minority. There is nothing better than finding the fans who have been brought even the smallest amount of joy by a project you worked on. I’ve always believed that at everyone’s core there is at least some desire to help others, and providing entertainment has been an unexpected way to do that while I work towards my law degree.
I’ve also been lucky enough to become a huge fan on many of the shows I have worked on. The anime I have had the privilege to watch after completion have had complex storylines and art direction that I never would have expected from a cartoon. The plots run the gamut; action, romance, fantasy, and even horror. While it may not seem up your alley, I think that if you look, there’s something for everyone.
If you’re reading this as a fan of anime, I’d like to take this moment to thank you for the support and loyalty that keeps this industry chugging. If you haven’t seen one before but are intrigued, here is a database of legal sites (both free and subscription services) where you can sample some anime and see if anything piques your interest;
My grandmother threw family Christmas Eve celebrations like they were a 1980s Bruce Springsteen concert.
She was a German-Irish farm girl who grew up in Iowa during the Great Depression. She learned in the “Dust Bowl” what it was like to go without.
Those experiences gave her a resolve to make sure Christmas Eve was a blow out event for her daughters and ultimately grandsons. If she were still alive today, she could vlog best practices on making Christmas special for children.
How did she excel at making Christmas magical for others? First, she understood everyone in the family. She would pick up gifts over the course of the year, wrap them, and hide them in her walk-in closet. Secondly, that woman was an amazing cook. She understood from her childhood on a farm the importance of a good meal for those who spent their days doing hard labor. Every meal was made with love.
I am dutifully seated to my grandmother’s left.
The Christmas Eve dinner was oyster stew before church, because seafood was a luxury item for those in Iowa. The tradition moved west with my grandparents to California (for the record, cold cuts were also made on Christmas Eve, because oyster stew definitely skipped the third generation). After what seemed like a church service that lasted an eternity to any child, we would return home to shred wrapping paper like it was an Olympic sport. Christmas Day was a full feast of prime rib and adventure with the entire family.
Grammy admiring her handiwork in 1979.
My grandmother’s forever glowing spirit is what made Christmas special, not the gifts she gave. She brought people together. She took the time to plan, prepare, and skillfully execute a holiday plan that left generations with a lifetime of happy memories.
Christmas 1977, sporting the Star Trek “Where No Man Has Gone Before” Look.
I wish everyone had such positive Christmas memories, but life has more than its share of challenges for many. Hardship can severely diminish hope. My grandmother lived through the Great Depression and World War 2, an extended period of fear that gave her extreme determination to help others during her life. As I think about this Christmas, and those in need, I am reminded to always be kind to others.
