Making it clear that he believes that it is not his role to represent either the membership of the GOP or the people of the state of Florida, Senator Mel Martinez vowed to hold his breath until he turns blue.

The Chairman of the Republican Party on Friday lambasted Democrats and Republicans who helped kill an immigration bill in the Senate and challenged them to come up with a solution beyond ``just build a fence along the border.''

``The voices of negativity now have a responsibility to come up with an answer,'' RNC Chairman and U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, R-Fla. said.

``How will you fix the situation to make peoples' lives better? How will you continue to grow the economy? How will we bring people out of the shadows for our national security and for the sake of being a country that is just?'' he demanded.

In other words, he still doesn't get that 75% of Americans reject the bill he supported, and that the bulk of the GOP grassroots found its provisions repugnant. Rather than attempt to represent the beliefs of the overwhelming majority of Americans (or even the overwhelming majority of Republicans), Martinez has made it clear that he refuses to do anything other than attempt to revive the dead bill for a third go-round.

Martinez promised to work with members of the U.S. House of Representatives to try to revive the legislation, a measure the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials supports.

Yep -- a real man of the people, that Mel Martinez. So much so that he is prepared to ram the flawed amnesty plan down the throats of the American people, whether they like it or not.

Well, Mel, I've got a plan for you, one that I articulated the other night after the American people one in the Senate. Here it is again, with an addition based upon your comments.

So this time American citizens win and border-jumping immigration criminals -- and the craven politicians who support them -- lose.

Now it is time for some real immigration reform.

Build the fence/wall IMMEDIATELY. Set up a working system to verify legal status of every employee -- if VISA and MasterCard can verify the validity of my credit card in a matter of seconds, the US government should be able to do the same with regard to eligibility to work. Impose meaningful fines upon those who knowingly hire illegals -- and follow up with prison sentences for repeat offenders.

And, of course, as always there is one more element.

Round 'em up! Ship 'em back! Rawhide!

But based upon Mel's comments, I'd like to include this little addendum to the plan.

1. Fire Mel Martinez as Chairman of the GOP.
2. Expel Mel Martinez from the US Senate.
3. Revoke the citizenship of Mel Martinez.
4. Deport Mel Martinez back to Cuba, where his top-down leadership style and contempt for the voice of the people would make him a valuable asset to the Castro regime.

Now who can we get to include this new addition in the next round of immigration legislation?

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Fortunately it didn't go off.

London escaped what could have been its worst terrorist attack this morning when a car bomb packed with nails, gas canisters and containers of petrol apparently failed to detonate outside a popular West End nightclub hosting a 'ladies' night'.

Police were called to Tiger Tiger nightclub on Haymarket near Piccadilly Circus shortly before 2am when smoke was seen coming from the inside of a Mercedes car parked outside. Unconfirmed reports said that a man had been seen running away from the vehicle.

Inside officers discovered "significant quantities" of petrol, believed to be 60 litres, plus nails and gas cylinders.

The bomb itself was packed with nails to act as shrapnel.

If the device had exploded, police said that the shrapnel would have killed or injured anyone within a wide area. The bomb could have caused a fireball as big as a house followed by a large shock wave.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland YardÂ’s counter-terrorism command, said: "It is obvious that if the device had detonated there could have been significant injury or loss of life."

While later reports question the size of the bomb and the competence of the bomb-makers, it is clear that this was a serious attempt to terrorize London again.

Hot Air has a roundup of coverage, including a mention of the second vehicle which has caused the closure of Park Lane in London -- could there be a multi-bomb plot in the midst of Wimbledon and on the eve of the Princess Diana tribute concert?

MORE AT Michelle Malkin and the Counterterrorism Blog.

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Sad and shocking -- and not surprising, given the number of teen pregnancies in this country.

A middle school janitor doing end-of-school cleaning Thursday found what appeared to him to be a human fetus in a trash bag inside a locker, police said.

Police are unsure what was in the trash bag, and its contents were turned over to the Dallas County Medical Examiner, Dallas police spokeswoman Sr. Cpl. Janice Crowther said.

"It is hard to determine what is in the bag,'' Crowther said. "If it is a fetus, it has been there quite a while.''

A janitor was cleaning out Ben Franklin Middle School on Thursday when he came across the trash bag inside a locker in the girls locker room.

It could be several weeks before the medical examiner makes a determination, Crowther said.

Did someone bring her abortion for show-and-tell? And will the school's solution be to stop allowing students to use lockers rather than encourage abstinence?

UPDATE: No fetus -- just rotten oranges.

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Frankly, I don't know how anyone can get by today without having credit cards packed away in their purse or wallet. Used responsibly, such little conveniences can be a life-saver in emergency situations. But how do you sort through the many credit cards out there? What you need is a site that lets you compare credit cards.

You often have a chance to transfer balances from one card to another. This can save you a wad of cash. If you have typical card with a 15% interest rate, it is possible to find opportunities to transfer the balance from that card to one of the many low-rate balance transfer credit cards that are available for a year or longer! Or maybe you can get an offer of a interest free credit cards which will allow you to make some of those purchases with no interest for an extended period of time. Either way, you save if you act responsibly with your credit.

Of course, you do need to behave responsibly with that credit. Never take out more than you can afford to pay back, or else you find yourself in a real jam.

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Has a stake been driven through the heart of the amnesty bill?

The Senate voted today to effectively block efforts to overhaul the nationÂ’s immigration laws, meaning that the issue is most likely dead until after the 2008 elections.

Needing 60 votes to bring debate on the contentious bill to an end — a step called cloture — and move it toward passage, proponents of the bill could only muster 46 votes in favor today, with 53 opposed.

In the debate leading up to the vote, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said, “If we do not invoke cloture, the bill is dead.”

So this time American citizens win and border-jumping immigration criminals -- and the craven politicians who support them -- lose.

Now it is time for some real immigration reform.

Build the fence/wall IMMEDIATELY. Set up a working system to verify legal status of every employee -- if VISA and MasterCard can verify the validity of my credit card in a matter of seconds, the US government should be able to do the same with regard to eligibility to work. Impose meaningful fines upon those who knowingly hire illegals -- and follow up with prison sentences for repeat offenders.

And, of course, as always there is one more element.

Round 'em up! Ship 'em back! Rawhide!

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I'm so pleased to see a leader in the field of education saying what those of us in the classroom know and say among ourselves -- NCLB has resulted in lower standards.

Thanks, Montgomery County School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast said yesterday that the federal No Child Left Behind law has created a culture that has education leaders nationwide "shooting way too low" and that it has spawned a generation of statewide tests that are too easy to pass.

In a meeting with Washington Post editors and reporters, Weast said the federal mandate, with its push for 100 percent proficiency on state tests, has driven states toward lower standards that don't prepare most students for college or careers.

"I think we've got to adjust up," he said. "Or at least give some flexibility for those who would like to adjust up."

Now you do get the obligatory state flunky intoning that the test is a floor, not a ceiling", but that is nothing but a pious lie. When the expectation is that 100% of the students pass a test, you lower the floor -- which puts the ceiling even further out of reach for everyone.

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Will the people of Iran rise up and seize their own freedom?

IranÂ’s parliament on Wednesday night agreed to press ahead with plans to introduce fuel rationing in the face of panic and rioting across the country over the proposals.

The protests presented a rare public challenge to Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the president, whose popularity has been based on his pledge to share oil revenues more fairly and cut living costs for ordinary Iranians.

After attending a closed parliamentary session addressed by the interior and oil ministers, Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, IranÂ’s parliamentary speaker, said fuel rationing, introduced at midnight on Tuesday, had to continue, to thwart US threats and the possibility of sanctions hitting petrol imports.

Though Iran is one of the world’s biggest oil producers, its lack of refineries means it must import about 40 per cent of its petrol – of which it consumes about 75m litres a day. Iran imported $4.9bn (£2.45bn) of petrol in the year to March 20. This year, however, the government is authorised by parliament to import only $2.5bn.

Sanctions appear to be working to destabilize the regime -- perhaps there will be no need for US intervention to free Iran.

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In 1954, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that public schools cannot determine campus placement based upon a student's race. Today, over five decades later, in a 5-4 decision, the same rule was applied by the United States Supreme Court -- but four "liberal" justices effectively sought to overrule Brown v. Board of Education in order to permit districts to assign students to a school other than the one closest to their home based upon the student's race.

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected school assignment plans that take account of students' race in two major public school districts. The decisions could imperil similar plans nationwide.

The rulings in cases affecting schools in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle leave public school systems with a limited arsenal to maintain racial diversity.

The court split, 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts announcing the court's judgment. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a dissent that was joined by the court's other three liberals.

Perhaps the single best part of the opinion authored by the Chief Justice is this little bit of common-sense wisdom that was lost on the minority but should be carved on granite in every town square in America.

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

Justice Thomas was eloquent, powerful, and a bit more scholarly with this observation, but not nearly as pithy.

"What was wrong in 1954 cannot be right today," Thomas said. "The plans before us base school assignment decisions on students' race. Because 'our Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens,' such race-based decisionmaking is unconstitutional."

It is important here to remember something about these two school desegregation/integration plans. These were not campus assignments pursuant to a court order to remedy past segregation -- in one case there was never a desegregation order and in the other the order had been lifted by the supervising court. But in each case the district decided that the race of a student should be the basis for the assignment of children to a campus other than the one that their place of residence would ordinarily dictate. A majority today rejected that concept -- although one Justice in the majority seems to be prepared to go wobbly on this bedrock principle of civil rights in education and join the minority in repudiating Brown v. Board of Education in some instances.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote a concurring opinion in which he said race may be a component of school district plans designed to achieve diversity.

He agreed with Roberts that the plans in Louisville and Seattle went too far. He said, however, that to the extent that Roberts' opinion could be interpreted as foreclosing the use of race in any circumstance, ''I disagree with that reasoning.''

Particularly frightening is that the dissenters dared to claim that the majority's position upholding Brown's core principle -- that school assignments based on race violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment -- constituted an assault on Brown and that their repudiation of that principle constituted the ultimate fulfillment of it!

Justice Stephen Breyer, in a dissent joined by the other liberals on the court, said Roberts' opinion undermined the promise of integrated schools that the court laid out 53 years ago in its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

"To invalidate the plans under review is to threaten the promise of Brown," Breyer said.

The problem is that Brown does not call for integration -- it calls an end to legally-mandated segregation. Indeed, "integration" of schools is not required by the Constitution and would, in most places, require an unconstitutional distribution of benefits and burdens based upon race of the sort banned under Brown to accomplish.

The other day I asked if the precedent in Tinker v. Des Moines was dead? Based upon the willingness of a substantial minority of the court to abandon the fundamental principles of Brown v. Board of Education and the lack of firm resolution to uphold that seminal decision on behalf of equality of all students based upon race on the part of a fifth, I am left fearing for the future of race-neutral treatment in public education, even as I celebrate the decision in today's cases.

UPDATE: The New York Times, of course, comes out firmly in favor of violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in an editorial that ought to be called "Civil Rights: They're A Black Thing".

I wonder -- would they have been equally supportive of a plan designed to make sure that predominantly white schools didn't become "too black" and denied transfers for that reason?

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I've mentioned before that I live within four blocks of Galveston Bay in the Clear Lake area of the Houston metropolitan area. As such, I have lots of opportunities for using a boat, but unfortunately don't have the means to buy one.

Well, maybe I do, if I go for an inflatable boat. Such a watercraft might not be ideal for going too far out into the Bay itself, but most of the local bayous and lakes (even Clear Lake itself) would be navigable for purposes of fishing, which is what I'd be interested in doing. I like the idea of an inflatable pontoon boat for getting up close to shore or maneuvering into some of the close quarters out there, like around some of the structural supports in Taylor Lake. I suppose I could also try a zodiac inflatable boat, but I don't know that it would be as good for my purposes. On the other hand, a 2 person inflatable kayak is definitely not what I want or need -- aside from being impractical for a fishing trip, I am just too out of shape to paddle myself around these big bodies of water -- though I wish I had taken up that sport 20 years ago so that i would be in better shape.

One nice thing about inflatable boats -- they are easy to transport and much easier to afford than most other boats you would consider. Like I said, that means I might just be able to afford one some day.

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This would be an interesting development in the Catholic Church -- but is it nearly the calamity that liberals think it is?

It was one of the most radical reforms to emerge from the Second Vatican Council. The Mass, root of Roman Catholic worship, would be celebrated in the local language and not in Latin.

Now, little more than a generation later, Pope Benedict XVI is poised to revive the 16th-century Tridentine Mass.

But wait -- it is not an abandonment of the post-Vatican II liturgical reforms. Rather, it is simply the grant of greater freedom to use the Tridentine Missal -- revised and updated to eliminate any hint of anti-Semitism in light of Vatican II reforms -- where there are a sufficient number of people to warrant it.

And there is a pastoral need, both among Catholics who have remained loyal to the Vatican and schismatic groups that Benedict seeks to bring back into the fold. While I never found the Tridentine Rite to be particularly moving, I understand that there are those whose spirituality does benefit from the older form. Ultimately, it is the meeting of those spiritual needs that is central to the Pope's decision, which is appropriate given his role as the universal pastor of the Catholic Church.

UPDATE: Looks like the Pope has signed off on this and will shortly be passing the word to the faithful through the bishops.

Pope Benedict XVI has approved a document that relaxes restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass used by the Roman Catholic Church for centuries until the modernizing reforms of the 1960s, the Vatican said Thursday.

Benedict discussed the decision with top officials in a meeting on Wednesday and the document will be published in the next few days, the statement said. The meeting was called to ''illustrate the content and the spirit'' of the document, which will be sent to all bishops accompanied by a personal letter from the pope.

Now there are a variety of objections from the usual suspects to allowing this change -- including objections from Jewish groups to Good Friday prayers for the conversion of the Jews. However, given the Great Commission to go forth in the world and make all its inhabitants disciples, I don't see where that should carry any weight with those who still believe that Scripture means what it says and says what it means.

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Fritz's Skate and Surf is a great action sports shop in Miami -- you've probably seen it if you have ever been on the Strip. Well, they have a website selling their products, including now-classic rollerblades (I doubt you can even buy rollerskates with keys today) and heelys for active folks looking for a bit of skating fun. Check out all of their action sports gear at their website -- 123Skate.com.

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Seems like the chattering class is having wet-dreams about getting rid of Dick Cheney. In the latest example, we have a call to impeach Cheney over what amount to policy differences and questions of style. But the problem with the argument is that it really is less a case for impeaching the vice president than it is for impeaching President Bush.

The Constitution does not expressly forbid the president from abandoning his chief powers to the vice president. But President Bush's tacit delegation to Cheney and Cheney's eager acceptance tortures the Constitution's provision for an acting president. The presidency and vice presidency are discrete constitutional offices. The 12th Amendment provides for their separate elections. The sole constitutionally enumerated function of the vice president is to serve as president of the Senate without a vote except to break ties.

In contrast, Article II enumerates the powers and responsibilities of the president, including the obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. A special presidential oath is prescribed. Section 3 of the 25th Amendment provides a method for the president to yield his office to the vice president, when "he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." There is no other constitutional provision for transferring presidential powers to the vice president.

Yet without making a written transmittal to Congress, President Bush has ceded vast domains of his powers to Vice President Cheney by mutual understanding that circumvents the 25th Amendment. This constitutional provision assures that the public and Congress know who is exercising the powers of the presidency and who should be held responsible for successes or failures. The Bush-Cheney dispensation blurs political accountability by continually hiding the real decision-maker under presidential skirts. The Washington Post has thoroughly documented the vice president's dominance in a four-part series running this week. It is quite a read.

In the end, President Bush regularly is unable to explain or defend the policies of his own administration, and that is because the heavy intellectual labor has been performed in the office of the vice president. Cheney is impeachable for his overweening power and his sneering contempt of the Constitution and the rule of law.

The problem, of course, with this argument is that the President DOES have the power to delegate executive authority to a wide array of advisers and appointees -- indeed, the presidency has never been a one man job, hence the need for the Cabinet and a White House staff larger than many small towns If a president (any president) can delegate to appointed and/or civil service employees, then surely a delegation to the elected Vice President is not forbidden by custom, law, or the Constitution itself.

Fein, of course, rightly recognizes that George W. Bush would never be impeached -- and certainly not removed, by the Democrats in Congress. So instead he proposes going after Cheney, who is truly despised by the Left. The problem is that any removal that might come to pass under this scenario would result in the appointment of a new Vice President by George W. Bush -- one who must be confirmed by the Democrats unless they wish to look supremely arrogant in their attempt to overturn the results of the 2004 presidential election by disrupting the line of succession to clear the way for Nancy Pelosi to take the presidency.

SO who would be the likely nominee for VP in such a scenario? I could think of several individuals who would frighten the crap out of the Dems -- Condi Rice, Newt Gingrich, or another respected conservative -- who would suddenly be thrust into the position of front-runner for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. Faced with an incumbent VP, one with a great deal of good will from his or her recent elevation to the new office, the chances of the Democrats electing one of their own would be greatly diminished.

So come on, Cheney-haters -- take your best shot. Anything you do will serve to strengthen the GOP

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Hey vato! You gotta see the camisetas over at TChirts.com, the home of many funny t-shirts with a Latino flair. Really, you can find shirts for tu madre, your sancha, and even la abuelita. And there are plenty of shirts for los machos tambien.

OK, enough with the Spanglish this gringo teacher has picked up from a room full of Hispanic kids. I have to tell you, I suspect that I might just end up seeing shirts like these around school this year -- I know that the soccer guys (and girls) at my school would just love to have the Mexico World Cup shirt, and probably even the Diego Maradona shirt as well.

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So much for Paris Hilton taking responsibility for her actions and acknowledging responsibility for her own decisions.

Paris Hilton may have a feud going with someone who isnÂ’t best-known for nightclubbing: her former lawyer.

The ex-jailbird heiress is “furious” with Richard Hutton, the lawyer who represented her in her DUI case, says a source close to the Hilton family, who claims that her camp is looking into possible legal action against him.

“The way this case was handled was a disaster,” the insider says. “Nobody goes to jail for DUI that long. It was all the lawyer’s fault and we’re looking into what recourse we have.” The source says legal action may be in the future.

Because we know, of course, that Hutton made her drive drunk, violate the terms of her probation, and behave like an arrogant little bimbo throughout the entire fiasco.

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Now here are some folks I find working around my neighborhood on a frequent basis -- All-Tex exteriors, one of the top siding and window companies in the Houston area. They've done work for several neighbors in town, as well as a number of the homes around the school where I teach. Experts with James Hardie siding and Simonton windows, they are also responsible for a lot of Houston decks. With a reputation for craftsmanship and reasonable prices, they really are one of the best-known companies for home exterior work here in Houston. So whether you are after Vinyl Replacement Windows, Decks, Siding, Pergolas and Covered Porches, you need All-Tex Exteriors.

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She ruled as queen over the land of Egypt nearly 3500 years ago. Her tomb was found by Howard Carter (who later discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun) over a century ago -- as was her mummy, which he left sealed in anther tomb as unimportant due to the lack of any identifying inscriptions or items.

Now, though, this ignored mummy has been identified as Queen Hatshepsut -- whose successor tried to erase all trace of her 15 year reign over the Valley of the Nile.

The British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered Hatshepsut's tomb while excavating at the Valley of the Kings in 1902. When he properly explored the tomb in 1920, two years before his famous discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb, Mr Carter found two sarcophagi, one for Hatshepsut and the second for her father, but both were empty.

Speculation about the riddle has, for years, focused on a separate tomb now known as KV60, which Mr Carter found and opened in the spring of 1903.

Inside he found coffins of mummified geese, which he removed, and the partially disturbed and decaying coffins of two women lying side by side. One bore the inscription of Sitre-In, Hatshepsut's wet nurse, the other was anonymous.

As the tomb was not royal it received little attention until the Egyptologist Donald Ryan reopened it in 1989. The sarcophagus marked with the name of the wet nurse was taken to Cairo museum, and the second unnamed sarcophagus remained behind.

Mr Hawass decided to re-investigate the mystery surrounding Hatshepsut for a television special to be aired by the Discovery network and his team removed the second sarcophagus to Cairo for a CT scan.

"That is the only mummy I have removed from the Valley of the Kings," he said.

The scan revealed that this mummy was an obese woman between the ages of 45 and 60 who had bad teeth. She also suffered from cancer, evidence of which can be seen in the pelvic region and the spine.

In search of more clues, Mr Hawass suggested a CT scanner be used to examine artefacts associated with the queen. One of those was a small wooden box that bore the cartouche, or royal seal, of Hatshepsut and contained a liver.

Embalmers typically eviscerated the dead before embalming them but preserved the organs in jars and boxes.

The CT scan also revealed a tooth in the box. Mr Hawass called in a dentist, Galal El-Beheri from Cairo University, who studied the scans of the tooth and of several female mummies.

"Not only was the fat lady from KV-60 missing a tooth but the hole left behind and the type of tooth that was missing were an exact match for the loose one in the box," Mr Hawass said.

The exact dimensions of teeth are unique to each mouth. The molar tooth in the box fits within a fraction of a millimetre with the space of the missing molar in the mouth of the mummy. The minuscule difference could be due to erosion of the gums after the tooth was extracted.

This is utterly incredible -- and shows how there is still so much to be learned about ancient civilizations through the work of archaeologists. This will be one to share with my students this fall.

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We all know people who like to get stuff for free -- and maybe you are one of those folks. Well, you can get lots of Free Samples and Savings over at MySavings.com. When I peeked in a few minutes ago they had pages of free stuff for teachers like me, and lots of other neat stuff. I even found a good resource for my diabetes and a road atlas for my next trip. more...

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No doubt this will be Exhibit A on the need for the Fairness Doctrine in the eyes of local Democrats.

Filling in for conservative talk-show host Michael Berry Tuesday morning, Houston lawyer Geoff Berg was direct with KPRC radio's listeners.

"I am a moderate," he announced. "Michael is a right-wing fanatic. We are going to disagree."

He was on point.

Listeners — and apparently advertisers — disagreed so much that KPRC/950 AM fired Berg after one day on the job, ending his brief stint as a talk-radio host.

"Right after the show, the producers told me that I'd done a great job as host," Berg said Wednesday.

"(But) later in the day, they said don't come back."

Berg's defense of gay marriage and adoption displeased KPRC listeners, many of whom were used to Berry's more conservative take on social and political issues.

"There were truly some vicious calls, but that's fine," he said. "That's what you'd expect in this business."

In this case, it was clearly market forces that knocked Berg off the air. And while I consider that to be too bad (and wish I had put him on when I ran out for breakfast this morning), I also believe that this is how it is supposed to work -- if the audience does not want a host, the station should not keep him around.

On the other hand, there are those who think radio listeners are little children who must be fed their broccoli, and would insist that Berg have a regular spot on KPRC in order to make sure that the station is "balanced" -- even if the listeners don't care to hear what Berg has to say, they need to swallow what Mama says is good for them before they are allowed to consume what they want.

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Their attorneys have sought to close the courtroom to the press and the public because they don't like the coverage from the media. Fortunately, the judge in the case is issuing his rulings based upon American law, not sharia law.

A federal judge overseeing a lawsuit filed by six Muslim men who were removed from a US Airways flight last fall has declined to limit public access to the case.

Omar T. Mohammedi, a New York attorney for the six Muslim scholars, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he sought limited media access because he felt some of the coverage of the case has been biased against his clients.

"When you think of the media, and the way they have been portraying this case, it has not been very helpful. It has been biased," Mohammedi said. "That has caused a lot of stress, a lot of stress on our clients, as well as made it difficult for us to handle this case ... in a manner that it should be handled."

Mohammedi wanted the court to coerce press coverage favorable to his client -- or prevent press coverage completely by closing all proceedings and records to the media and the public at large. Someone needs to tell him that this is not the American way -- but then again, we have repeatedly seen how much respect Islamic radicals like these have for the American way.

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Forging the papers needed by illegal aliens to qualify for amnesty.

The head of a Mexican forgery ring was convinced he could make phony documents that illegal aliens could use to indicate fraudulently that they were eligible for a new amnesty, says a government affidavit recounting wiretapped phone calls the man made.

Julio Leija-Sanchez, who ran a $3 million-a-year forgery operation before he was arrested in April, was expecting Congress to pass a legalization program, which he called "amnesty," and said he could forge documents to fool the U.S. government into believing illegal aliens were in the country in time to qualify for amnesty, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent said in the affidavit.

In recounting a wiretapped telephone conversation, ICE agent Jason E. Medica said he heard Mr. Leija-Sanchez tell an associate the forgery ring could "fix his papers" to meet the requirements of a legalization program such as the bill the Senate is debating today.

"When Leija-Sanchez said 'if there's an amnesty, he can fix his papers,' Leija-Sanchez was referring to the possibility of pending legislation which would allow a certain class of illegal aliens to remain in the United States, as long as they can prove a term of residency in the United States with no convictions," agent Medica wrote.

"When Leija-Sanchez said 'he can fix his papers,' he was referring to the fact that the organization could fraudulently create or alter documents to falsely prove the requisite residency period," the agent wrote.

I guess they are just doing the jobs that American forgers won't do.

Posted by: Greg at 01:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 271 words, total size 2 kb.

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It's enough to make you feel sorry for Ronnie Earle, the corrupt, partisan, rogue prostitute prosecutor in Travis County. The Texas courts have AGAIN ruled that you there has to be a law on the books before you can charge someone with violating it.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today refused to reinstate criminal conspiracy charges against former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two co-defendants.

DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and political consultants Jim Ellis and John Colyandro were accused of conspiring to violate state election laws in the 2002 elections for the Texas House. But lower courts threw out the indictment on grounds that conspiracy to violate the election code was not a crime until 2003,

A majority of the Court of Criminal Appeals agreed.

DeLay, Ellis and Colyandro were charged with plotting to funnel illegal corporate campaign contributions to several Republican House candidates in 2002, when the GOP gained its first House majority of modern times.

According to his spokesman, Ronnie Earle and his staff are "reviewing" the decision. I don't know what there is to review -- the Court of Criminal Appeals is the highest court in the state when it comes to criminal law (Texas has, effectively, two supreme courts -- one for criminal cases and the other for civil cases). There is no federal issue at work here. The bogus charge is dead -- and with it, I suspect, any chance of getting a conviction on the other charges has disappeared, given that Earle's case against Delay depended first proving that he violated the conspiracy law.

It's no wonder, given his history of unsuccessful prosecutions of political opponents and prosecutorial overreaching, that Earle is regarded as the Texas equivalent of Mike Nifong.

Posted by: Greg at 04:57 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 294 words, total size 2 kb.

After all, government canÂ’t be letting the people decide what they want to hear, can we?

Democratic leaders say that government has a compelling interest to ensure that listeners are properly informed.

“It’s time to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “I have this old-fashioned attitude that when Americans hear both sides of the story, they’re in a better position to make a decision.”

Now let’s take a look at that argument – the “compelling interest” standard has been used by the courts to allow exceptions to the First Amendment in the past – and not just in the case of broadcast media. Does the government also have “a compelling interest to ensure that” readers of newspapers, magazines, and websites are also “properly informed”? What Durbin has proposed here is nothing less than a standard that would allow the federal government to censor all media in the name of ensuring that We the People are “properly informed” – according to our Lords and Masters with the federal government.

Posted by: Greg at 04:05 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 185 words, total size 1 kb.

Well, like we didn’t already know that Rosie was “with the terrorists.” Now she is posting pictures of her daughter dressed as a little terrorist.

Unemployed gabfest queen Rosie O'Donnell, who last went to war with Elisabeth Hasselbeck only to retreat from her position on "The View," has drafted a reinforcement in the form of her waif-like 4-year-old daughter Vivienne Rose, better known as "Vivi."

O'Donnell posted a video and photo of her little soldier on her Web site Rosie.com on Tuesday, which drew immediate reaction — some not so kind — about the media transformation of her daughter from little princess to bullet-toting guerrilla fighter.

I'm surprised that Vivi isn't wearing a little suicide vest -- you know, like the one the Taliban tried to get a six-year-old to detonate recently.

I wonder if this will secure her Joe Scarborough’s slot on MSNBC – making that cable network “fair and balanced” in the eyes of America’s Left.

Posted by: Greg at 03:47 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 161 words, total size 1 kb.

Well, like we didn’t already know that Rosie was “with the terrorists.” Now she is posting pictures of her daughter dressed as a little terrorist.

Unemployed gabfest queen Rosie O'Donnell, who last went to war with Elisabeth Hasselbeck only to retreat from her position on "The View," has drafted a reinforcement in the form of her waif-like 4-year-old daughter Vivienne Rose, better known as "Vivi."

O'Donnell posted a video and photo of her little soldier on her Web site Rosie.com on Tuesday, which drew immediate reaction — some not so kind — about the media transformation of her daughter from little princess to bullet-toting guerrilla fighter.

I'm surprised that Vivi isn't wearing a little suicide vest -- you know, like the one the Taliban tried to get a six-year-old to detonate recently.

I wonder if this will secure her Joe Scarborough’s slot on MSNBC – making that cable network “fair and balanced” in the eyes of America’s Left.

Posted by: Greg at 03:47 AM | Comments (66) | Add Comment
Post contains 164 words, total size 1 kb.

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Dismiss the suit. Fine the plaintiff. Disbar the lawyer.

A Romeo woman is suing the manufacturer of Starburst Fruit Chews in Macomb County Circuit Court in Michigan for "severe and permanent personal injuries" she received while eating the candy.

The attorney for Victoria McArthur filed the lawsuit Monday against New Jersey-based Master Foods USA asking for more than $25,000. She alleges that when she bit into a yellow Starburst fruit chew in April 2005, she began to feel pain in her jaw, and then began having difficulty opening her mouth.

This should be dismissed on the legal theory of “Shit Happens!”

And if this case is not dismissed, my mom broke a tooth on a chocolate chip in an ice cream cone from Basking Robbins. Can she recover for the pain and suffering?

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After all -- who really gives a tinker's damn about what the American people think about this legislation?

Legislation to overhaul the nation's immigration laws cleared a key hurdle yesterday when the Senate voted 64 to 35 to take up the measure again after a nearly three-week break. But opponents of the proposal insisted they would scuttle it by week's end.

The procedural vote squeezed past the 60-vote threshold needed to bring the bill back for debate, but even advocates said that was the easy part. The immigration bill must run a gantlet of 26 politically charged amendments and clear another 60-vote hurdle tomorrow to cut off a filibuster before a final vote Friday.

The bill's most ardent opponents forced the Senate clerk last night to read all 26 of those amendments in their entirety as a delaying tactic. "This is going to begin some very heavy trench warfare," Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said. "It's going to be like World War I."

Still, Bush administration officials who have championed the proposal insisted that a bill once left for dead was now on its way toward passage.

"We are confident in Senate passage, because we look at the alternative, and the alternative is nothing," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.

"In the end, logic, common sense and wisdom will prevail," added Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, in a shot against detractors, who continue to say the immigration bill's border security provisions are unworkable and its path to citizenship for 12 million illegal immigrants amounts to "amnesty" for lawbreakers.

And lest you doubt that this is an amnesty bill, even the President admitted that it is in a rare moment of truthfulness on the subject.

"You know, I've heard all the rhetoric — you've heard it, too — about how this is amnesty," Bush told supporters of the bill at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. "Amnesty means that you've got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that."

Tony Snow and the White House Press office released a statment "correcting" the president's true statement.

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Well, this one is loony even for Ron Paul.

New Hampshire's convicted tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown have gained a new supporter: presidential hopeful Ron Paul.

In an interview with RogueGovernment.com, the Texas congressman compares the Browns to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Junior. He says the Browns are suffering like those leaders.

The Browns are holed up in their Plainfield, New Hampshire home and have threatened violence against federal officials if marshals come to arrest them. They were convicted of an elaborate scheme to hide millions of dollars in income. Their protest has become a rallying cry for anti-tax activists and militia members.

So now it appears that the renegade Republican has sided with convicted felons who threaten to murder law enforcement officials who attempt to take them into custody. This is support for terrorism by any other name -- if true.

However, Ron Paul denies that it is true.

Texas Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul said he did not compare a New Hampshire couple who refuses to pay taxes with Ghandi.

On Fox News Channel today, Paul said he doesn't know much about the case of Ed and Elaine Brown on Plainfield, N.H. but that he, like Ghandi, doesn't believe in violence to protest wrongs and it has appeared that the Browns have chosen another path.

I've not seen the interview, but I wouldn't be surprised if the initial report is true. After all, the site with the original interview describes it as follows.

Lee Rogers interviews Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul about a myriad of issues in this interview. Lee discusses the following topics with Dr. Paul in this half hour interview.

Abolishing the Federal Reserve and the IRS, the restoration of honest money, the plunge protection team, the government standoff with Ed and Elaine Brown over the income tax, the broken health care system, abolishing big government agencies, the CIA/NSA, global government, the New World Order, the North American Union, semi-secretive organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations, American imperialism around the world, the billion dollar embassy being built in Iraq, the fraud of the global war on terror, illegal immigration, the move to tax and regulate the Internet by the establishment, the coming world ID system, the move towards fascism in America, the possibility of martial law being declared in the United States, the prospects of a new independent investigation into the attacks of 9/11 as well as the prospect of impeaching George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

In other words, Paul is associating with the radical fringe of the conspiracy movement. I think giving the interview to this fellow should be reason enough to disqualify Ron Paul from any serious consideration as a candidate -- especially given that it is incredibly easy to believe that the initial press report is true. After all, given the fact that Ron Paul gives aid and comfort to 9/11 conspiracy theorists and Truthers, would you really be all that surprised if he did come out in support of the Browns?

Fortunately, we at the national level have other choices besides Ron Paul. And in Texas CD14, GOP primary voters have the opportunity to replace Paul with Friendswood City Counncilman Chris Peden.

Posted by: Greg at 03:42 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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1 I've not seen the interview, but I wouldn't be surprised if the initial report is true.

Why would you write a blog post on this topic without first taking 10 minutes to YouTube the interview?

Posted by: Zydeco at Tue Jun 26 20:17:29 2007 (jP57f)

2 Its funny that the IRS can convict someone without even doing it in court. But thats not the point... civil disobedience is a forum of decent, I'm not saying they should not arrest them. But saying that if they come close they will open fire, could be a bit far.

I think Ed and Elaine Brown are doing this because this is the best way they have thought of to fight the IRS witch they believe is not just nor legal.

Posted by: Gabe at Tue Jun 26 22:29:59 2007 (enHhX)

3 Zydeco -- because I couldn't get the interview to download due to bandwidth issues (on my end -- I can't wait until I change ISPs next week). However, I presented both sides of the issue to my readers, and directed them to the site where the interview is available.

And Gabe -- Edd and Elaine Brown were convicted in a federal court, and each was sentenced to over 5 years in prison. Edd Brown has a history of criminal violence unrelated to this case. If you want to support these violent felons, feel free to do so -- but if you do, why don't you march on down to the local penitentiary and demand the release of all the rapists and murderers, while you are at it.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Wed Jun 27 01:56:48 2007 (ya687)

4
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can't win without help
no brains, talent, or ethics

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5 You wrote yourself "On Fox News Channel today, Paul said he doesn't know much about the case of Ed and Elaine Brown on Plainfield, N.H. but that he, like Ghandi, doesn't believe in violence to protest wrongs and it has appeared that the Browns have chosen another path."
The ap has now issued a correction to the story. I like how you use the words "aid and comfort" the same words in the constition for treason. Just watch and you will soon see what happens when you dont pay the goverment its "protection" money.

Posted by: ray at Wed Jun 27 03:25:28 2007 (giyLS)

6 Rest assured, Ray, that I picked those words intentionally -- after all, the "Truthers" and their ilk regularly side with the terrorists against the American government and American people.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Wed Jun 27 03:50:14 2007 (r+Ftq)

7 Ron Paul -- proof that even a Looney Tunes character can be elected to Congress.

Posted by: Carl at Wed Jun 27 05:43:53 2007 (xovYK)

8 There's a difference between hating and being suspicious of your government, and believing in / supporting terrorists. I'm no truther, but anyone who says I have to love my Federal Government is hopelessly naive and completely blind to all the evil that it does. Come on folks - take off the jackboots, and let's start moving away from the police state.

Posted by: bret at Wed Jun 27 05:54:42 2007 (Z9WUn)

9 Direct, un-apportioned taxes were not allowed under the original constitution. The legality of the 16th amendment is questionable and no one is answering the questions.

Our founding fathers opposed central banks. Now all of the money raised from the income tax goes to paying off the *interest* on the federal debt. The Federal Reserve is a private for-profit corporation.

Posted by: mike at Wed Jun 27 06:16:43 2007 (FtDXY)

10 It is a shame that reporter Margot Sanger-Katz, who hangs out with the others at the Brown property, did absolutely NO research on this before she sensationally and erroneously claimed that Ron Paul was a 'supporter' of the Browns on her Concord Monitor blog when he had never even heard of them.

Ron had absolutely NO idea who the Browns were before being asked this question on television the other day about the IRS and such. He is no supporter of their tactics, or of non-payment of taxes. He is however, like Steve Forbes and other politicians before him, an advocate of getting rid of the IRS.

The libelous AP picked up and embellished the story, then it went out everywhere.

You really should not be perpetuating a story that draws inferences that should not be drawn.

Ron is the most respected Congressman on the hill -- what makes you think he'd support violence at this point in time? It is ludicrous.

Katz has had to print a retraction and the AP article is being pulled from wherever it appears, since it was unresearched and unverified.

http://www.yourconcord.com/primaryblog/capital_beat_extra_ron_paul_on_the_browns

You would be wise to do the same.

Posted by: NH at Wed Jun 27 08:33:18 2007 (unNmM)

11 Ah now that I've read further down I see you are pushing an opponent of Ron's in the Congressional race. Now I see the reason for your smear job.

Smearing Ron, the most respected man in Washington, will not get your candidate any traction in Texas...

Posted by: NH at Wed Jun 27 08:47:50 2007 (unNmM)

12 I find it amusing to be told that I don't know what will fly in Texas -- especially given that I am currently sitting 1 1/2 miles from Ron Paul's congressional district, where I know there are hordes of Republicans chomping at the bit to get rid of him.

And if linking to a candidate's website constitutes "pushing" that candidate, would you also argue that I am "pushing" roguegovernment.com by linking to the interview?

Posted by: RhymesWithRight at Wed Jun 27 08:58:42 2007 (rtzPv)

13 Are these different than the "hordes" of voters that repeatedly re-elected Dr. Paul with comfortable margins? I think not, yet I agree that Dr. Paul is probably serving his last term in congress.

There's a lot of power in the national republican party structure. Paul's bid for the presidency has pissed them off. Look for no less than 10 "candidates" in the next congressional primary. It's a nefarious tactic that has served the party well in the the past when they have seen fit to discipline those who dare to oppose the party.

Ron Paul thinks additional 9-11 investigation and disclosure would be good...

...Party Spin: Ron Paul thinks 9-11 was an inside job

Ron Paul praises Gandhi for peaceful civil disobedience, urges consideration of consequences for those who choose to disobey...

...Party Spin: Ron Paul marches in lock step with nutjob tax evaders.

He hasn't made a dent in the official polls, and the MSM is still faithfully ignoring him. But it's pretty clear to me that he's got more than a couple of neocon republicans seriously worried.

It should be interesting to see his campaign contribution disclosures. If his reportings are not suppressed by the neocon spinners, that is...

Posted by: bob at Thu Jun 28 09:11:10 2007 (yDIf3)

14 Actually, Bob, that would be the same voters -- folks who have tolerated his idiosyncrasies because we agree with 75-80% of what he of what he does. These would be the same folks, though, who find his recent statements and actions -- and those of his "true believer" supporters -- embarrassing and unacceptable and who also recognize that if Ron Paul wants to be president that he considers CD14 to be a consolation prize. As a result, they want someone else to fill that congressional seat -- someone who won't embarrass them and who really wants to represent the district.

Ron Paul's repeated statements about 9/11 make it clear that he is with the nutjobs on the issue. Similarly, his viewing convicted felons who threaten to kill law enforcement officers as the equivalent of Gandhi is, dare I suggest, more than a little bit over the top.

Ultimately, though, Ron Paul is known by the company he keeps -- and that company drags his reputation down big time.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Thu Jun 28 10:43:36 2007 (9TSMO)

15 By the way, Bob -- If Ron Paul's support were as deep as you claim it is, it wouldn't matter if there were 100 candidates running in the primary, because he would sweep them all. Now if you consider the voters having a choice at primary time a "nefarious tactic", then I suggest that you really don't believe in the right of the people to govern themselves -- or perhaps you believe that Ron Paul has a divine right to be king congressman in CD14.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Thu Jun 28 10:47:50 2007 (9TSMO)

16 Gee Greg, don't get so uptight. It's not like he could win the nomination or anything!

Posted by: bob at Thu Jun 28 11:24:02 2007 (yDIf3)

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Last week, MSNBC did a piece on the political contributions of journalists -- and noted that they are overwhelmingly to left-wing politicians and causes. Now personally, I have no problem with such donations if they are disclosed. After all, journalists are Americans (though I'd argue many are rather unAmerican) and have a right to participate in our political system.

Indeed, I agree with Randy Cohen, whose column, "The Ethicist" is syndicated by the New York Times.

Cohen had given $585 to MoveOn.org in 2004, when it was organizing get-out-the-vote efforts to defeat Bush. Cohen at first told MSNBC.com that he thought of donating to MoveOn.org as no more out of bounds than giving to the Boy Scouts.

"We admire those colleagues who participate in their communities — help out at the local school, work with Little League, donate to charity," Cohen said in an e-mail. "But no such activity is or can be non-ideological. Few papers would object to a journalist donating to the Boy Scouts or joining the Catholic Church. But the former has an official policy of discriminating against gay children; the latter has views on reproductive rights far more restrictive than those of most Americans. Should reporters be forbidden to support those groups? I’d say not."

Now I'd argue that his slanted comments against the Boy Scouts and borderline-bigoted comments about the Catholic Church show some other reasons why he probably isn't fit for the field of journalism or a column of the sort he writes (aside from the fact he has no formal training in ethics), he is essentially right. In a society that values expressive speech, why should those who speak for a living be banned from speaking as private individuals?

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Well, maybe.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces have been spotted by British troops crossing the border into southern Iraq, The Sun tabloid reported on Tuesday.

Britain's defence ministry would not confirm or deny the report, with a spokesman declining to comment on "intelligence matters".

An unidentified intelligence source told the tabloid: "It is an extremely alarming development and raises the stakes considerably. In effect, it means we are in a full on war with Iran -- but nobody has officially declared it."

"We have hard proof that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have crossed the border to attack us. It is very hard for us to strike back. All we can do is try to defend ourselves. We are badly on the back foot."

The Sun said that radar sightings of Iranian helicopters crossing into the Iraqi desert were confirmed to it by very senior military sources.

Now I've got some question about the veracity of the report -- but if it is true, what will be the response of the Bush Administration? And will the Democrats still advocate unilateral retreat -- or will they instead insist upon petitioning Iran to negotiate the terms of America's surrender?

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A 1% increase (adjusted for inflation) in 2006 over 2005 -- and an increase of over 3% if one excludes disaster relief donations (there were no major disasters in 2006 -- but somehow Bush doesn't get credit for this like he got blamed for the 2005 hurricanes).

This increase shows two important things. First, the American people are a generous people who will rise to meet the needs of our country without crippling taxes. Second, it shows that the economy is fundamentally strong.

Giving historically tracks the health of the overall economy, with the rise amounting to about one-third the rise in the stock market, according to Giving USA. Last year was right on target, with a 3.2 percent rise as stocks rose more than 10 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis.

"What people find especially interesting about this, and it's true year after year, that such a high percentage comes from individual donors," Giving USA Chairman Richard Jolly said.

Individuals gave a combined 75.6 percent of the total. With bequests, that rises to 83.4 percent.

It isn't corporate giving that produces these results -- it is individual generosity.

Furthermore, this should be an indication of which Americans are most generous.

The biggest chunk of the donations, $96.82 billion or 32.8 percent, went to religious organizations. The second largest slice, $40.98 billion or 13.9 percent, went to education, including gifts to colleges, universities and libraries.

About 65 percent of households with incomes less than $100,000 give to charity, the report showed.

Religious donors and those of relatively modest means gave the biggest percentage of the money -- voters who tend towards the conservative side of the spectrum, not wealthy liberals.

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Republicans are often asked if opposition to Roe v. Wade is a litmus test in the selection of judges. In light of these comments by Gov. Bill Richardson establishing a litmus test for judicial nominees, other Democrats be asked if support of that bloody precedent is a litmus test for the selection of future Supreme Court justices in a Democratic administration?

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Friday that if he is elected president, he would use abortion as a litmus test for Supreme Court nominees, rejecting candidates who don't support the 1973 decision legalizing abortion.

"I know that I am going to upset some people," Richardson said. "I would say, 'Do you believe Roe v. Wade is settled law?' and if they say, 'Yes,' they have a good chance of being picked. If they say 'No,' I will not pick them."

Dred Scot v. Sanford and Plessy v. Ferguson were both beloved precedents for Democrats in their day, and considered "settled law" by that party before they were overturned. Richardson therefore fits well in the tradition of his party in establishing a litmus test in support of a decision that says some human beings are less equal than others under the US Constitution.

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And with him, one more bit of history passes on into the mists of time.

Charles W. Lindberg, one of the U.S. Marines who raised the first American flag over Iwo Jima during World War II, has died. He was 86.

Lindberg died Sunday at Fairview Southdale hospital in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, said John Pose, director of the Morris Nilsen Funeral Home in Richfield, which is handling Lindberg's funeral.

Lindberg spent decades explaining that it was his patrol, not the one captured in the famous Associated Press photograph by Joe Rosenthal, that raised the first flag as U.S. forces fought to take the Japanese island.

In the late morning of Feb. 23, 1945, Lindberg fired his flame-thrower into enemy pillboxes at the base of Mount Suribachi and then joined five other Marines fighting their way to the top. He was awarded the Silver Star for bravery.

"Two of our men found this big, long pipe there," he said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2003. "We tied the flag to it, took it to the highest spot we could find and we raised it.

"Down below, the troops started to cheer, the ship's whistles went off, it was just something that you would never forget," he said. "It didn't last too long, because the enemy started coming out of the caves."

Lindberg is the last of the survivors of that flag-raising. May he rest in peace, and may his service to this country never be forgotten.

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And the plaintiff, seeking tens of millions for a pair of misplaced pants, gets not a penny.

The D.C. administrative law judge who sued his neighborhood dry cleaner for $54 million over a pair of lost pants found out this morning what he's going to get for all his troubles.
Nothing.

In a verdict that surprised no one, except perhaps the plaintiff himself, a D.C. Superior Court judge denied Roy Pearson the big payday he claimed was his due.
Delivering her decision in writing, Judge Judith Bartnoff wrote 23 pages dissecting and dismissing Pearson's claim that he was defrauded by the owners of Custom Cleaners and their "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign.
"A reasonable consumer would not interpret 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' to mean that a merchant is required to satisfy a customer's unreasonable demands or to accede to demands that the merchant has reasonable grounds to dispute," the ruling said. " . . . The plaintiff is not entitled to any relief whatsoever."

Now it is possible that Pearson will not only lose his pants, but his shirt as well.

Financially, he could soon be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees incurred by the owners of Customer Cleaners. Attorneys for the Chungs have said they will seek such payments, as well as sanctions against Pearson for bringing the lawsuit. Bartnoff said in her ruling that she would decide those issues after both sides have filed their motions, counter-motions and legal briefs.
Professionally, Pearson could find himself out of his $96,000-a-year job as an administrative law judge for the District government.

This was clearly a case of abuse of the legal system, given the Chungs made repeated offers to go above and beyond the call of duty to make him whole, even offering early on in the case to give him more than enough money to replace the entire suit – after the judge insisted that the pants the owners produced for him (complete with the original tags that match his receipt) were not his despite matching the suit jacket.

PearsonÂ’s behavior will also likely cost him his appointed judgeship, because his term is up and his conduct has shredded any credibility he might have. After all, any man who can become so emotional over a pair of pants really doesn't have teh staility to be trusted to do justice, does he?

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That is the question that springs to mind in the aftermath of today’s decision in the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case. In allowing a public school to punish a student who unfurled a banner off school grounds based upon a perceived violation of the school’s policy against permitting advocacy of drug use, that is a reasonable question. Does Tinker v. DesMoines, the seminal case dealing with student First Amendment rights, survive this decision?

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that students can face limits on their rights to free speech.

Schools can rein in students' speech if it can be interpreted as promoting illegal drug use, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court's opinion.

The case stemmed from an incident in January 2002 in which a crowd of students, townspeople and teachers gathered on a public street in Alaska across from a high school to watch the Olympic torch relay pass in front of them as part of a parade in support of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games.

Student Joseph Frederick wanted to make a statement about his First Amendment rights in front of the television crews covering the event. As the crowd thickened, he unfurled a banner with the message "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

Frederick had been bothered in his senior year by the lack of attention to the issue of freedom of speech in the United States, and at his school in particular.

In briefs, Frederick argued that he was only trying to assert his rights and that the message was not an attempt to "spread any idea."

Now the opinion in the case is not yet up on the SCOTUS website, so I have not had a chance to read it yet. However, it might be that last little admission that made the difference. I wonder if a banner reading “Legalize Pot” and displaying the logo of NORML (National Organization for the Repeal of Marijuana Laws) might not have resulted in a different decision, given that it would have clearly been express advocacy on a public policy issue.

On the other hand, we have repeatedly seen a trend in recent years towards allowing public schools to ban even serious speech of a political and religious nature on the grounds of “offensiveness”. In practice, this has meant that schools have repeatedly been permitted to censor speech opposing legal abortion and questioning the morality of homosexuality, not to mention objecting to affirmative action programs. The basis for such bans have been policies against racial, sexual, and sexual orientation harassment and the desire of the school to promote an unambiguous message of inclusion (of everybody except those who dissent from the officials position on these contentious public policy issues).

As a result, this case leaves me very worried. Tinker held that students do not surrender their civil liberties at the schoolhouse gate. Could it be that we are reaching the point that students do, in fact, require that students surrender those liberties? Rather than recognizing (as in West Virginia v. Barnette in 1943) that no public official, high or petty, shall define what the orthodox and acceptable opinions shall be held and expressed, we are going to permit school boards and their employees to determine what speech on matters of public importance shall be considered acceptable?

Perhaps most importantly, this decision leaves me a very basic question – how does one prepare students to exercise their full rights as citizens of a free society in an educational setting where their civil liberties are regularly suppressed and their exercise punished? Are we instead educating them to be serfs or subjects rather than free men and women?

UPDATE: No sooner do I post this than the slip opinion in Morse v. Frederick appears on the SCOTUS site.

UPDATE II: Having read the opinion, it is clear that the holding of the court is that the War on Drugs overrides the First Amendment -- at least if you are a student at school. -- because Congress has declared anti-drug education to be a compelling government interest. This is not good.

UPDATE III: Justice Thomas, in his concurring opinion, indicates that he would overturn Tinker completely because it is not grounded in the Constitution. I guess he doesn't believe in the word "no law" in the First Amendment. This is particularly troubling due to the requirement that students attend school -- therefore resulting in the government mandating that the spend a part of the day in a setting in which their constitutional rights would be suspended.

UPDATE IV: Alito and Kennedy concur together in order to specifically affirm the central holding in Tinker.

JUSTICE ALITO, with whom JUSTICE KENNEDY joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court on the understanding that (a) it goes no further than to hold that a public school may restrict speech that a reasonable observer would interpret as advocating illegal drug use and (b) it provides no support for any restriction of speech that can plausibly be interpreted as commenting on any political or social issue, including speech on issues such as “the wisdom of the war on drugs or of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use.” See post, at 13 (STEVENS, J., dissenting).

They support Tinker, but still support what Justice Thomas calls an "ad hoc exception" to that case's central holding.

UPDATE V: Justice Breyer would have avoided the First Amendment question entirely and instead held for "qualified immunity" imposing a prohibition on the suit.

UPDATE VI: Fantastic dissent by Justice Stevens (joined by Justices Ginsburg and Souter) defends Tinker and points out that this case establishes a First Amendment exception previously rejected in American jurisprudence -- namely that mere advocacy of illegal behavior, absent an actual threat of imminent lawlessness, can be suppressed and punished.

Having read the opinions, I expect that the holding in this case will be used to justify the continued suppression of speech by religious and conservative students on issues like abortion, gay rights, and affirmative action, with schools arguing that the student speech on those matters undermines the mission of the school by contradicting the school policy on the matter. This will effectively further the notion that schools are indoctrination centers, not educational institutions.

MORE AT A Blog For All, Phi Beta Cons, Betsy's Page, Hot Air, Volokh Conspiracy, Stop the ACLU (Twice), Reason's Hit & Run, ProfsBlawg, Althouse, SCOTUS Blog (Twice)

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Not that the anti-war crowd really gives a damn what the troops think, but it might be useful to hear what they have to day. Somehow, though, I doubt that "supporting the troops" will include following the advice of those who know the war best.

· A deadline for withdrawal is an incentive for Iraqi political compromise. Levin thinks we ought to pressure Iraq's government with a warning tantamount to saying: "You better fix the situation before we leave and your country descends into chaos." He should consider the more likely result: an American exit date crushing any incentive for Iraqi leaders to cooperate and instead prompting rival factions to position themselves to capitalize on the looming power void.

My experience in Iraq bore this out. Only after my unit established a meaningful relationship with the president of the Samarra city council -- built on tangible security improvements and a commitment to cooperation -- did political progress occur. Our relationship fostered unforeseen political opportunities and encouraged leaders, even ones from rival tribes, to side with American and Iraqi forces against local insurgents and foreign fighters.

· We can bring the war to a "responsible end" but still conduct counterterrorism operations. The problem with this argument is what a "responsible end" would mean. What is "responsible" about the large-scale bloodshed that would surely occur if we left the Iraqis behind with insufficient security forces? What is "responsible" about proving al-Qaeda's thesis that America can be defeated anywhere with enough suicide bombings?

The senator also seems to believe that America will have success fighting terrorists in Iraq with a minimal troop presence, despite the fact that 150,000 troops have their hands full right now doing precisely that.

· We are "supporting the troops" by demanding an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Levin says that "our troops should hear an unequivocal message from Congress that we support them." He explains his vote to fund and "support" the troops while simultaneously trying to legislate the war's end. But what kind of "support" and "unequivocal message" do the troops hear from leaders in Congress who call their commanders "incompetent" or declare the war "lost"?

Such statements provide nearly instant enemy propaganda to every mud hut with a satellite dish in Iraq and throughout the Arab world. These messages do not spell support, no matter how you spin them. And they could inspire insurgents, making the situation more dangerous for our soldiers and Marines.

Veterans know firsthand that numerous mistakes have been made in the war. But that does not change the unfortunate reality: Iraq today is the front line of a global jihad being waged against America and its allies. Both Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri have said so.

Those who seek withdrawal from Iraq are really proposing a policy of surrender that devalues every sacrifice made by the troops fighting against the forces of Islamofascist terrorism. Far from supporting the troops, such anti-war activists who back such a policy spit in the face of men and women in uniform just as surely as they did during the Vietnam war.

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