Robert “Sheets” Byrd is the senior Democrat in the US Senate. Tonight he is being honored with a party marking his 88th birthday. It is sponsored by Hillary! Clinton and the rest of the Democrat female senators.

The location of the party for the former Klansman, the serial filibusterer of civil rights legislation, the only senator to vote against the confirmation of both Supreme Court justices, and the spewer of the “N-word” on national television, is particularly outrageous. It is the home of abolitionist, civil rights pioneer, and life-long Republican Frederick Douglass.

Potential Clinton opponent Jeanine Pirro has shined a spotlight upon this outrage.

"It's outrageous and shocking that Senator Clinton and her Democrat colleagues would choose Frederick Douglass' house to honor Senator Robert Byrd who has a history of involvement with hate groups and has used racial slurs publicly," said Pirro spokeswoman Andrea Tantaros.

I wonder – will the former Klan leader and other guests be shuttled to the party in Rosa Parks’ bus?

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Proving once again that they have more in common with the objects of their adoration than with the human race, there has been another case of “animal rights” terrorism.

Animal rights extremists have targeted the widow of a former pharmaceuticals agent who has been dead for more than a year.

Kathryn Grant, 51, and her teenage son were at home when the family car was torched by fanatics who later boasted on a website "your decisions will come back to haunt you forever even when you have gone".

Mrs Grant said: "I cannot believe they have done this knowing Alex was no longer managing director."

The intended object of the act of terrorism, Alex Grant, the former managing director of the UK division of Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical conglomerate, died in March.

Not that the terrorists cared about that. Their goal is terror against any who dare to disagree with them – and their bereaved families. They even brag about their intent.

A recent addition to the Bite Back website - used by the Animal Rights Militia, Animal Liberation Front and other extremists - said: "This year we have been keeping many senior personnel from HLS's customers and suppliers under intense surveillance. One such person was Alexander Grant, East Sussex. Grant was a senior director of Roche who are a major customer of Huntingdon Life Sciences. We were planning an attack on Grant a few months ago but then realised that he had just died of a heart attack.

"In October we carried out the operation at Grant's address planting two incendiary devices under an expensive four-wheel drive, totally destroying it. People who sign contracts with or deal with Huntingdon need to realise that your decisions will come back to haunt you forever even when you have gone."

The time has come to treat these folks like al-Qaeda.

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The headline on this Washington Times article is dead wrong.

While he said he opposes such attacks, Howard Dean fell short of condemning them on Monday, for the second time showing that the Democrat Party remains the natural home of racists and race-baiters, as it has been since its birth.

"I oppose any effort to make an issue of a candidate's ethnicity in a political campaign, including in the Maryland Senate race," Mr. Dean said.

He issued the written statement after Maryland Republican Party Chairman John M. Kane prodded him to apologize for remarks he made Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

That really is not much of a disavowal, in my opinion. He opposed racist attacks upon GOP candidates, but he did not condemn them, did not urge that they stop, and did not urge other Democrats to speak out against such racism.

And then Dean, who cannot bring himself to forthrightly condemn real racism, found it necessary to bring up imaginary racism for partisan purposes.

"I also call on Chairman Mehlman to join me in condemning Republican secretaries of state who continue to make it harder for African-Americans around the country to exercise their right to vote," Mr. Dean said.

Unfortunately for Dean, such claims have been debunked in every investigation of alleged voting rights violations.

Perhaps even more pathetic was this complaint.

The DNC also circulated an e-mail that quoted Mr. Kane in May describing Mr. Dean as the "socialist-endorsing party chairman," an apparent reference to Mr. Dean endorsing the Senate run of U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a registered independent and self-described "democratic socialist."

I guess that means that the plain, unvarnished truth is now unacceptable if it paints Dean in a bad light.

What I find particularly interesting is that the so-called “Party of Civil Rights” found the Dean statement to be so unimportant that it did not even add it to its news release page. Ditto Dean’s own political organization, Democracy for America. I guess that they both are too embarrassed by the Screamin’ Deanie to put his words where they might be available to the public at large.

ALSO COMMENTING: Blogs For Bush

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I pass the construction site for the new Bayport terminal on my way home from work every day It is a couple of miles from my house.

Yesterday, I saw a bunch of squad cars and some television trucks at what is nothing more than an industrial construction site.

Seems they made a surprise discovery.

Authorities on Monday were combing through an area near the new Bayport terminal after a work crew discovered a human skull.

Pasadena police and officials with the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office, including an anthropologist, were called to the site in the 12800 block of Port Road about 9:45 a.m.

After searching the area for other clues, police also found a leg bone and a shirt, Pasadena police spokesman Vance Mitchell said.

"We are not sure if it is a man or a woman," Mitchell said of the skull found in a field near where a crew was surveying.

Additional testing will determine if the skull and the leg bone were from the same person.

Mitchell said it appears the skull had been in the field for some time because there was no flesh on it.

This may slow down the construction for a bit.

I'll let you know if it is anything really exciting.

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The stupid things that some people say will amaze you. As a teacher, I have a million of them from my students – and their parents. But I really want to read this book by a judge in the Spring Break paradise of South Padre Island, Spring Break: A Judge's View From the Bench.

Most have to do with public intoxication, and the often silly excuses defendants give.

"I am always glassy-eyed, talk with a slur and walk with an unsteady balance," said one.

Guilty, said the judge.

The 60-year-old judge sits in front of a colorful seascape mural and wears tennis shoes when holding court on the weekends. In general, he said, he tries to keep things a little lighter during spring break.

"My primary rule is if I have to sit up there all day, by God, they have an obligation to entertain me," he said. When he hears snickers, he tells those in the courtroom: "Go ahead and laugh. I'm going to laugh with you, because most of the time it's so darn stupid."

Like the defendant who threw a beer can out of a pickup truck and hit a police car.

"I informed him that this is Texas," Colwell wrote. "You are supposed to throw the beer cans from the cab into the back of the pickup, which has been well known for years as a traveling wastebasket."

A student from New York appeared before the judge and did not fight his indecent exposure charge, instead asking what his punishment would be.
Colwell wrote: "Instead of explaining again that in the United States you are innocent until proven guilty, I said, 'This is Texas. We don't allow men to go around exposing themselves to young ladies. We have a tree out back, and we're going to hang you.' The defendant turned pale. Being from N.Y., with tales of the Old West in his head, he actually believed me."

So far, Judge David Colwell has sold around 500 copies. Too bad he isnÂ’t hawking it on Amazon

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Violating the First Amendment rights of a middle school student cost the Oceanport, New Jersey schools $117,500.

"While my parents and I are happy the case is resolved, most importantly, I'm hopeful this will help ensure that free-speech rights of students aren't trampled on again in the future," said Dwyer, who is now in 11th grade.

Dwyer created the Web site containing criticism of Maple Place School in April 2003, on his own time from his home computer. Comments posted on the site's "guest book" section angered school officials, who suspended Dwyer for a week, benched him from playing on the baseball team for a month, and barred him from going on his class trip, among other discipline. The district's lawsuit said anti-Semitic remarks were posted on the site, which Dwyer denied writing.

"The school district has never — to this day — explained to us what rule or policy our son violated," said Kevin Dwyer, Ryan's father.

Maybe a few more big payouts like this will cause zero-tolerance crazed administrators to think critically before slapping students with draconian punishments for infractions that are no infractions at all – especially when it involves the illicit limitation of rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

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So says the Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand on Monday a Florida law that generally bars convicted felons from voting, even after they have completed their term of prison, probation and parole.

The high court rejected an appeal which argued that the law could be challenged under a section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits voter disqualification based on race.

Every state in the nation, except for Maine and Vermont, prohibit, to one degree or another, felons from voting. Fourteen states, including Florida, generally bar felons from voting even after they have served their sentences and have completed their terms of probation and parole.

Approximately 5 million felons who have been released from prison are legally disenfranchised, civil rights experts have estimated. About 1.4 million black men remain permanently disenfranchised.

The appeal to the Supreme Court involved eight Florida citizens who brought the class-action lawsuit on behalf of more than 613,000 Florida felons who are barred from voting even though they have completed their prison sentences and their terms of probation or parole.

Under the law, felons are barred from voting for life unless their civil rights have been restored by Florida's Clemency Board. Attorneys who challenged the law said that Florida, Alabama, Kentucky and Virginia were the only states that disenfranchise first-time offenders for life.

The lawsuit challenged the law, which was initially adopted in 1868 and revised 100 years later, for violating the Voting Rights Act and for disproportionately disenfranchising blacks.

Now we can question the wisdom of such laws, but not their constitutionality. It does not even take much legal scholarship to reach the result announced today. After all, one simply needs to go to the Fourteenth Amendment.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

In other words, the Constitution itself settles this matter, granting the states the right to impose such bans on felon voting. The solution, then, is in the legislatures of the sttes that impose such bans, not the courts.

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Once again, we have proof that the racist apple does not fall far from the DNC tree. Howard Dean will not apologize for or condemn racial attacks upon Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.

The RNC Chairman, Ken Mehlman, points to the problem.

"He's had racial epithets thrown at him. He's been derided on a Web site that the Democrats have. And while some Democrats in Maryland have criticized it, there's been utter silence from national Democrats on this important issue," Mr. Mehlman said.

"I would also hope he'd condemn the following: There are a whole bunch of Democratic candidates and Republican candidates around the country. But Charles Schumer and the [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] chose one candidate [Mr. Steele] to go after his credit report and engage in identity theft against him," Mr. Mehlman said.

The response to these issues by Dean? Self-centered, self-absorbed complaining, and not a word about the acts of racism coming out of his own party.

Mr. Dean declined to address the statements against Mr. Steele, but said, "I didn't hear Ken condemning the chairman of the Maryland party when he called me an anti-Semite."

The funny thing is that the Maryland GOP Chair has never said any such thing; while there was a controversy about the words of the GOP Chairman in New York, he never made the statements referenced by Howard Dean. I guess this is another one of Howard Dean’s lies – in the service of the traditional racism directed by the Democrat Party against black Republicans, a custom that dates back to Reconstruction in his party.

So much for the leader of the so-called “Party of Civil Rights”.

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Once again, we have proof that the racist apple does not fall far from the DNC tree. Howard Dean will not apologize for or condemn racial attacks upon Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.

The RNC Chairman, Ken Mehlman, points to the problem.

"He's had racial epithets thrown at him. He's been derided on a Web site that the Democrats have. And while some Democrats in Maryland have criticized it, there's been utter silence from national Democrats on this important issue," Mr. Mehlman said.

"I would also hope he'd condemn the following: There are a whole bunch of Democratic candidates and Republican candidates around the country. But Charles Schumer and the [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] chose one candidate [Mr. Steele] to go after his credit report and engage in identity theft against him," Mr. Mehlman said.

The response to these issues by Dean? Self-centered, self-absorbed complaining, and not a word about the acts of racism coming out of his own party.

Mr. Dean declined to address the statements against Mr. Steele, but said, "I didn't hear Ken condemning the chairman of the Maryland party when he called me an anti-Semite."

The funny thing is that the Maryland GOP Chair has never said any such thing; while there was a controversy about the words of the GOP Chairman in New York, he never made the statements referenced by Howard Dean. I guess this is another one of Howard Dean’s lies – in the service of the traditional racism directed by the Democrat Party against black Republicans, a custom that dates back to Reconstruction in his party.

So much for the leader of the so-called “Party of Civil Rights”.

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HeÂ’s at it again. IsnÂ’t there a judicial rule about the filing of frivolous lawsuits?

A Sacramento County man says he will file a federal lawsuit in the coming week demanding the U.S. Treasury remove the words "In God We Trust" from American currency.

Michael Newdow is the same man who led a legal effort to ban the recitation of the pledge of allegiance in public schools because of the phrase "under God."

Newdow says the words "In Good We Trust" on currency is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. He adds it, "excludes people who don't believe in God."

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Newdow's challenge of the pledge of allegiance because he's not the custodial parent of a student forced to say the prayer. The activist has since recruited other families who also oppose the pledge to re file the suit. It is now pending in the federal appeals courts.

Newdow says he has little patience for those who say the references to God are appropriate because of the country's history.

"It's not the history that counts. It's not the patriotism. What it is, is these people want to get their religious views in our government," he said.

And you want yours there, Michael – whether or not the rest of America agrees.

Oh, and by the way, the Supreme Court just let stand the dismissal of a suit exactly like yours.

A U.S. appeals court ruled that the lawsuit failed to show that the display had no legitimate secular purpose, that it has the effect of endorsing religion or that it has resulted in an excessive entanglement of government and religion.

The appeals court said Congress first authorized the phrase "In God We Trust" on coins in 1865, and Congress made it the national motto in 1956. It is inscribed above the speaker's chair in the U.S. House of Representatives and above the main door of the U.S. Senate chamber.

Attorneys for the two lawyers asked the justices to set aside the appeals court's ruling and send the case back for reconsideration in view of the Supreme Court's decision in June that Kentucky courthouses violated church-state separation by putting copies of the Ten Commandments on display.

The high court rejected the appeal without any comment or recorded dissent.

So I guess that you will just have to deal with being oppressed by all of the majority who find that phrase inoffensive. Head out to North Korea, Cuba, or Red China if you want official atheism.

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Wisconsin is one of the states that is likely to vote on preserving the traditional definition of marriage in 2006.

In the next 12 months, Wisconsin voters should expect to become familiar with what might be the most talked-about two sentences of the 2006 campaign season.

"Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state."

That's the language of a proposed constitutional amendment on track to be on statewide ballots by next Nov. 7.

There are likely to be 10 to 12 marriage amendments on state ballots in 2006. Given WisconsinÂ’s traditionally liberal/progressive outlook, expect it to be a battleground state in this important cultural fight.

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Somehow I doubt that the supporters of academic freedom for the likes of Ward Churchill will say a word in protest of the imprisonment and flogging of Mohammad al-Harbi, who was taken to court by his colleagues for daring to speak contrary to the Saudi governmentÂ’s religious edicts.

Al-Madina newspaper said secondary-school teacher Mohammad al-Harbi, who will be flogged in public, was taken to court by his colleagues and students.

He was charged with promoting a "dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the Gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer," the newspaper said.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, strictly upholds the austere Wahhabi school of Islam and bases its constitution on the Koran and the sayings of the prophet Muhammad. Public practice of any other religion is banned.

And this isnÂ’t the first time a teacher has been punished for such apostate comments.

Come on, folks, when are you going to speak out in favor of the academic freedom of teachers in other countries? How about religious freedom?

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It must be hard to be Abe Foxman. After all, it must be difficult to live with such a high level of paranoia untreated by medication.

"Today we face a better financed, more sophisticated, coordinated, unified, energized and organized coalition of groups in opposition to our policy positions on church-state separation than ever before. Their goal is to implement their Christian worldview. To Christianize America. To save us!"

As Hillel Halkin points out, his paranoid rambling is filled with rank hypocrisy, since the ADL and other Jewish groups have done the same thing for years. What is Foxman really afraid of – the imposition of religious values through legislation, or simply the imposition of someone else’s values?

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Well, I don't know why we should be surprised -- Howard Dean wouldn't know the truth if he found it chewing on his tie.

Dean charged it was hypocritical for conservatives to denounce the possibility of a procedural hurdle known as a filibuster against Alito, a federal appeals judge since 1990.

Dean noted conservatives had helped force President George W. Bush's earlier nominee, White House counsel Harriet Miers, to withdraw without even getting a hearing.

"How dare they have an ad saying we want an up-or-down vote on Judge Alito, when they wouldn't give one to Harriet Miers?" Dean told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Uhhhhh -- wrong, Howard.

I don't know of a single conservative who opposed giving Ms. Miers a vote. We simply warned the White House that we, the members of his base who did the legwork to get him elected, were not supportive of the nomination and that we would be urging GOP senators to vote against Ms. Miers. We reminded him that the defeat of the Miers nomination would weaken him, and suggested that he would do better to act from strength by withdrawing the nominee before she was defeated or confirmed with significant opposition from his own party. There was no one on the GOP side talking about there not being a vote.

on the other hand, the Democrats have regularly taken the opposite position. They seek to prevent any vote, regardless of whether or not the nominee has a majority behind him or her. Where conservatives would have permitted a vote even if they were to lose, liberals don't want a vote at all if they are going to be defeated.

With the possible exception of Hugh Hewitt (who I believe to have been unhinged on the Miers matter), no one on the Right considers a urging the withdrawal of a nominee to be the same as filibustering a nominee.Our method was to urge reconsideration -- the Left's method was an act of obstructionism. That Dean does not recognize the difference is indicative of either dishonesty or dementia.

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Of all the evils that manifested themselves in the Twentieth Century, the evil of Communism is clearly the most insidious.

Even today, this malignant ideology is supported and defended by those who have always lived in freedom. They deny the relaity that was lived and which is testified to by the millions who survived the brutal Communist regimes that oppressed (and which still oppress) billions. Such defenders of Communism are no better than the Holocaust denying stooges who seek to explain away the gas chambers and crematoria of the Nazi death camps.

Such defenses of this ongoing manifestation of oppression must be countered, lest today's generation be fooled and future generations forget the horrors committed by the various manifestations of Communism.

Red State and Chequer-Board (Pejman's new home) are both offering suport to the building of The Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, DC. I wholeheartedly join in their endorsement of this project, and encourage donations to The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Under Public Law 103-199, our Foundation is authorized to design, construct and maintain an international Memorial to the more than 100 million victims of communism. In April 2005, the National Capital Planning Commission formally approved a site for our Memorial at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., New Jersey Avenue, N.W., and G Street, N.W. It is across from the Georgetown University Law Center and only two blocks from Union Station and the Metro.

In October 2005, the National Capital Planning Commission gave preliminary approval to our design--a 10-foot bronze replica of the "Democracy" statue erected by Chinese students in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and based on our own Statue of Liberty. We will receive final approval at the November NCPC meeting.

Our next step is to raise all the funds needed to build and maintain the Memorial--approximately $700,000. We have raised two-thirds of this amount. We have received challenge grants of $125,000, meaning we need to raise $125,000 from supporters like you.

We rightly remember the millions who died at the hands of the Hitler and the Nazis. Do what you are able to commemorate those who suffered and died from Communism.

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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are The Intellectual and Moral Bankruptcy of Today's Left by Dr. Sanity, and The Arm of Decision by Vodkapundit.  The full results of the vote are posted at the Watcher's site.

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Students from Sam Houston State University have written a book about high school mascots here in Texas. You know, some of them are quite unusual, with great stories behind them.

It's the single-name schools that attract the attention.

Like the Hutto Hippos, a name that goes back to 1915 when a hippo escaped from a circus train in Austin and finally was found in a creek near Hutto, about 25 miles to the northeast.

In the 1924 yearbook at Mason High School, the football team was called the cowpunchers, another term for cowboy.

As the years went by, the name got shortened to the Punchers, and it survives. The school plays in the Puncher Dome.

Local economies factor into many of the names. In the 1940s, the Rockcrushers of Knippa got their name when a rock-crushing plant moved there, and Rocksprings adopted the name the Angoras when it became "The Angora Goat Capital of the World."

Brazosport High School, along the Gulf Coast, has the Exporters. Robstown has its Cottonpickers, and Port Isabel, at the southern tip of the state on the Gulf of Mexico, has the Fighting Tarpons.

Some were obvious. In Hamlin? The Pied Pipers. Muleshoe? The Mules. And in Winters? The Blizzards.

Other one-of-a-kinds include the Porcupines of Springtown, who trace their mascot to a 1920s basketball player who suggested the name because people feared the animal's sharp quills. Local folks quoted in the book are more inclined to remember the awful smell of a real porcupine adopted by students in the 1960s.

Itasca's Wampus Cats owe their birth to a 1921 school pep rally where the term apparently was yelled out by a cheerleader. According to the book, it's either a Cherokee evil spirit, a legendary ferocious half-man, half-wildcat wandering Georgia or a striped cat from Tennessee.

The Mighty Red Ants of Progreso are named not for the pesky insect but for the nickname a beloved teacher called her students when the district had only one elementary school. When the high school was built, it was filled with her "little red ants."

In the book, football coach Elvis Hernandez is quoted as saying the school name prompts fans from opposing schools to greet his teams with signs of: "Got Raid?"

You have to remember -- historically, the local high school team was the focus of life in a community.

In some places, it still is.

During the Hurricane Rita evacuation, my wife and I stopped in Gainseville, Texas to fill her prescriptions. The hot topic of conversation between the pharmacy staff and the locals who were waiting to get their medication? That evening's homecoming game.

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Eugene Volokh offers a great analysis of the opinions written by Samuel Alito as a Judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

What do we see here in Judge Alito? Not an O'Connor, Scalia or Rehnquist; rather, a judge with his own mix of conservatism, libertarianism and egalitarianism, a cautious jurist who seems likely to move the court toward a slightly more claimant-friendly view of free speech and religious freedom--and a slightly more government-friendly view of the Establishment Clause.

In other words, he will be a justice whose jurisprudence on First Amendment issues would be very close to my own views -- and, I believe, much closer to that of the Founders. Be sure to read this important article.

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Sajida al Rishaw is supposed to be dead now, killed in one of the homicide bombings in Jordan this week. She lives only because her bomb failed to detonate.

"We went into the hotel," she said. "He (my husband) took a corner and I took another.

"There was a wedding in the hotel. There were women and children.

"My husband executed the attack. I tried to detonate and it failed. People started running and I ran with them."

My suggested method of execution? Boil her alive in bacon grease as an example to every other Islamist who might think of killing the innocent in the name of their barbaric beliefs.

Thus always to the enemies of humanity.

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Now I donÂ’t consider this to be a big deal. If Tom DeLay could have made all of this go away via a misdemeanor plea to an obscure violation of campaign finance law, no one other than the most partisan Democrat would have considered it to be a substantial problem.

Lawyers for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) tried unsuccessfully in late September to head off felony criminal indictments against the then-majority leader on charges of violating Texas campaign law by signaling that DeLay might plead guilty to a misdemeanor, according to four sources familiar with the events.

The lawyers' principal aim was to try to preserve DeLay's leadership position under House Republican rules that bar lawmakers accused of felonies from holding such posts. DeLay was forced to step down as leader on Sept. 28 after the first of two grand jury indictments.

The last-minute negotiations between the lawyers and Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle were arranged after DeLay made what Earle considered a seriously damaging admission about his fundraising activities during an Aug. 17 meeting with the prosecutor in Austin.

Now what was the “damaging admission”?

At that session, DeLay acknowledged that in 2002 he was informed about and expressed his support for transfers of $190,000 in mostly corporate funds from his Texas political action committee to an arm of the Republican National Committee in Washington and then back to Texas, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition that they not be named.

Those transfers are at the heart of the prosecutor's investigation of the alleged use of corporate funds in the 2002 Texas elections, in violation of state law. In the prosecutor's view, DeLay's admission put him in the middle of a conspiracy not only to violate that law but also to launder money.

Now the problem is that Earle is making a really big leap here – arguing that DeLay’s support for the move after it was underway constitutes a conspiracy.

Asked what his role was in creating TRMPAC, DeLay said it was his vision and his idea, the sources said. But he reiterated that he knew only in general terms about its day-to-day operations. DeLay said he was also generally aware of a plan to shift money between Texas and Washington. It called for pulling together $190,000, sending it up to Washington and getting the same amount sent back to Texas for state election campaigns.

According to matching accounts provided separately by the sources, DeLay was asked whether such a deal happened and responded yes. Asked if he knew beforehand that the deal was going to happen, DeLay said yes. Asked how he knew, DeLay said that his longtime political adviser, Ellis, came into his office, told him it was planned and asked DeLay what he thought. DeLay told Earle that he recalled saying, "Fine." He added that he knew it was corporate money but said it was fine because he thought it was legal.

In other words, DeLay did not conceive the plan, he took no part in implementing the plan, and his only response was to say he thought the plan was fine because he believed that the plan was legal – and based upon the practices of Democratic PACs in the state of Texas, that was a legitimate belief. I’d even be willing to bet that the plan had been thoroughly vetted with the group’s lawyers long before any transfers were made. But most importantly, there is clearly no evidence of intent to violate the law, nor of a desire to violate the law. Even more importantly, one would be hard pressed to make this acknowledgement into a conspiratorial move.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect is that Ronnie Earle wanted a guilty plea without either party being certain that the actions in question even constituted a crime.

The principal reason the deal foundered was that DeLay's attorneys wanted to postpone his plea until after the Texas appellate courts had ruled on the validity of the state election law provisions at issue, the sources said. Under their proposal, if the courts agreed the law was invalid, then all charges would be dismissed and the promise of a plea forgotten. For the two years it might take to resolve the issue, DeLay would be able to keep his post.

Earle insisted instead that DeLay enter a plea with the court immediately. He was willing only to defer punishment until appeals related to the validity of the law were exhausted; striking any other deal would show undue favoritism to DeLay, several sources said he argued. But DeLay's defense team felt such a decision would gravely damage the majority leader's political standing.

In other words, Earle wanted an admission of criminal conduct without there being a ruling on the proper manner of construing the statute. He was more concerned with getting the plea he wanted than with getting it right. That is clearly a sign of an unethical prosecutor who is out of control.

Linked to: My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Stop the ACLU, wizbang, Bright and Early, The Political Teen, Jo’s Cafe, Stuck on Stupid, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Conservative Cat, MacStansbury, Something and Half of Stomething, Big Dog’s Weblog, Choose Life, Adam’s Blog, Third World County, Uncooperative Blogger, Point Five, Basil’s Blog, NIF, 10ft2ft.

Posted by: Greg at 11:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Once again, an Islamist apologist for terror has attempted to dictate policy to a sovereign country via a threat of terrorism – and then denied that he ever made a threat.

Ireland is putting itself at risk of an attack from Islamic militants by allowing Gulf-bound U.S. military planes to refuel on the island, a leading radical British Muslim lawyer said on Friday.

Anjem Choudary, who is being investigated by Irish police over comments made during a university debate on Thursday evening, said media reports that he believed Ireland was a "legitimate" target were incorrect, however.

"I am not threatening the Irish, nor am I giving any veiled threats, but it seems that when a Muslim warns of potential danger then they are seen as terrorists and extremists," Choudary told Reuters by phone during a visit to Dublin.

"When politicians say the same thing, then it's considered to be political analysis and obviously it's no problem whatsoever."

According to Ireland's transport ministry, over 900 aircraft carrying U.S. military personnel or weapons landed in Ireland or used Irish airspace during the first nine months of this year.

Fine, Mr. Anjem, then hear this loud and clear. If you continue to threaten the well-being of non-Muslims, then you risk being smeared with bacon grease and lynched by outraged non-Muslims. I’m not saying that I believe you to be a legitimate target for such an attack, nor am I making a veiled threat – I’m simply offering an analysis of the possible consequences of your words and warning of the potential danger. I hope you don’t see me as a terrorist or extremist for offering that warning.

Posted by: Greg at 11:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What would happen if a public university tried to set up a set of special program to provide lucrative fellowship to white or male students (or – horrors – exclusively to white males) to the exclusion of women and minorities? There would be howls of outrage, and the courts would shut down the program in a flash. What’s more, minority politicians like Barack Obama would be demanding investigations and criminal charges.

But when programs are set up which apply equally repulsive criteria to exclude whites or males based upon race or sex, these same race-baiters remain mute on the issue of discrimination – and attack those who demand equal treatment in the distribution of government benefits.

President Bush's administration has threatened to sue Southern Illinois University, alleging its fellowship programs for minority and female students violate federal civil rights laws by discriminating against whites, men and others.

In a move Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said "just doesn't make sense," the U.S. Justice Department charged that three SIU programs that aim to increase minority enrollment in graduate school exclude whites, other minorities and males, in violation of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act.

"The University has engaged in a pattern or practice of intentional discrimination against whites, non-preferred minorities and males,'' says a Justice Department letter sent to the university last week and obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The letter demands the university cease the fellowship programs, or the department's civil rights division will sue SIU by Nov. 18.

The university, of course, is fighting – and claiming since there are other programs that allow for white men to get fellowship, the racially and sexually exclusive programs are acceptable. The problem is, though, that the programs that are open to white men are not limited to white men – they also allow the participation of those who are entitled to receive the exclusive awards – meaning that the programs allow those individuals to receive two bites at the apple while white men get only one – based only on race and sex.

Oh, and Obama went a bit further in his comments on the challenge to the program.

A spokesman for the Justice Department's civil rights division declined comment Thursday, but Illinois' junior U.S. senator ridiculed the maneuver as a "cynical" bid to distract public attention from Bush's sagging popularity.

"One of my concerns has been with all the problems the Bush administration is having, that they'll start resorting to what they consider to be wedge issues as a way of helping themselves politically," Obama said.

"If anything, the White House should be doing everything it can to encourage more engineering students and Ph.D.'s. It strikes me as a completely unnecessary and divisive move and one that I think may be pretty cynical in its motive," Obama said.

Hey, I agree – the White House should be encouraging more engineering students and Ph.D.’s. However, it must do so in a way that complies with the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution and the various and sundry civil rights laws of the nation. How, Senator, could you possibly defend these programs when the person in charge of them makes the following definitive statements regarding them?

Pat McNeil, an assistant dean and administrator of the Underrepresented Fellowships Office, said she knows of no white students who have applied for the Bridge or Proactive Recruitment programs.

The Web site describing the Bridge program specifically says it is only open to members of underrepresented minority groups. Several white women who have "overcome hardship" have been awarded the Graduate Dean's Fellowship, even though women outnumber men at the university. White men need not apply, however. "I'll be upfront with you -- no white male will get this award,'' McNeil said.

Got that, sir – “no white male will get this award.” You would be up in arms if the statement were “no black male will get this award.” The difference is, I’m up in arms over racial discrimination regardless of the race of the victim. You, on the other hand, are only concerned if it is your race getting unconstitutionally excluded from participation in government programs. That, sir, is rank hypocrisy.

Oh, yeah, about the comment that no white students had applied for two of the programs – could it be that the cause lies in the explicit exclusion of whites from the program? After all, who is going to apply for a program that states in the application packet that they will not be considered for selection?

MORE ON THIS TOPIC: LaShawn Barber, Discriminations, Infinitely Prolonged, Independent Conservative, Ed Driscoll, Free Will, Sofyst-ication, Smegmaster, Small Town Veteran, In The Agora, Red State, Marked Up, Holy Coast, IndyLaw, Dave Hayes, and Sensible Mom

La Shawn has what I think is the most compelling argument against programs like the one at SIU.

A government with the power to discriminate in favor of blacks also has the power to discriminate against blacks. Remember that.

Amen, my sister.

LINKED TO: My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Stop the ACLU, wizbang, Bright and Early, The Political Teen, Jo’s Cafe, Stuck on Stupid, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Conservative Cat, MacStansbury, Something and Half of Stomething, Big Dog’s Weblog, Choose Life, Adam’s Blog, Third World County, Uncooperative Blogger, Point Five, Basil’s Blog, NIF, and 10ft2ft.

Posted by: Greg at 11:45 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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I wish I had come up with this.

Professor Lino A. Graglia of the University of Texas School of Law compared the modern Supreme Court to Iran's "grand council of ayatollahs," which has the power to veto legislation at will. The court had become like Plato's "philosopher kings," Professor Graglia said, but worse: "Philosopher lawyers."

Could someone provide me with a link to GragliaÂ’s entire speech?

Posted by: Greg at 11:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Once again, Bishop Julius Jia has been imprisoned for his faith. It is the eighth time in two years that the spiritual leaders of Catholics loyal to the Pope in the Diocese of Zheng Ding has been arrested.

The Chinese authorities have arrested a bishop belonging the underground Roman Catholic Church, a US group says.

The Cardinal Kung Foundation said Julius Jia Zhiguo was taken from his home in the northern city of Zhengding.

Two priests from his diocese - Li Suchuan and Yang Ermeng - were arrested on Monday.

In China, there is a state-sanctioned church for Roman Catholics, but there is also a bigger, unofficial church that is loyal to the Pope.

The foundation said the bishop had refused to cut links with the Vatican and affiliate himself with the state-controlled church.

Sanctions are a must in this instance. I urge the US government to end most favored nation trading status with the Red Chinese government. Furthermore, I join with the Cardinal Kung Foundation in urging that the International Olympic Committee move to cancel the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and to relocate the games to a free nation not under the thumb of a repressive dictatorship. The Communist regime in Beijing must be forced to respect the human right to freedom of religion.

Please offer your prayers for Bishop Jia, and also for Father Li Suchuan and Father Yang Ermeng, priests of Bishop JiaÂ’s diocese, who were arrested the previous day and are believed imprisoned with their bishop.

May God strengthen them in this time of persecution, and may He hasten the day when all Chinese people may worship freely and without coercion from their atheistic overlords.

Posted by: Greg at 12:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It has only been about a week since Sony was caught installing system damaging software on computers without disclosing the nature of the program. Now it appears that they have left the door open to hackers, too.

A computer security firm said on Thursday it had discovered the first virus that uses music publisher Sony BMG's controversial CD copy-protection software to hide on PCs and wreak havoc.

Under a subject line containing the words "Photo approval," a hacker has mass-mailed the so-called Stinx-E trojan virus to British email addresses, said British anti-virus firm Sophos.

When recipients click on an attachment, they install malware, which may tear down a computer's firewall and give hackers access to a PC. The malware hides by using Sony BMG software that is also hidden -- the software would have been installed on a computer when consumers played Sony's copy-protected music CDs.

"This leaves Sony in a real tangle. It was already getting bad press about its copy-protection software, and this new hack exploit will make it even worse," said Sophos's Graham Cluley.

Later on Thursday, security software firm Symantec Corp. also discovered the first trojans to abuse the security flaw in Sony BMG's copy-protection software. A trojan is a program that appears desirable but actually contains something harmful.

Time for the law to take on this abusive business practice – and for civil courts to award serious damages.

And fortunately, the first civil suit has already been filed.

Sony BMG is facing three lawsuits over its controversial anti-piracy software.

Revealed in late October by Windows expert Mark Russinovich, the software copy protection system hides using virus-like techniques.

One class-action lawsuit has already been filed in California and another is expected in New York.

Digital rights group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), is also gathering information from users to see if a case can be brought.

Combined with the investigations by several governments, Sony may be in for a serious financial hit from which it may never recover.

Posted by: Greg at 12:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And hopefully taking it rectally from 72 male virgins .

In what could be the biggest breakthrough in Southeast Asia's counter-terror campaign in more than two years, Indonesian police are set to confirm that the man behind the region's deadliest terrorist bombings is dead.

Australia, scores of whose citizens have been killed in Indonesian terror attacks, welcomed the news that Azahari bin Husin, a Malaysian, apparently committed suicide during a standoff with police at a house in East Java Wednesday.

Canberra conceded, however, that the battle against Islamist terror in the region would continue for years.

Three men were killed after they evidently detonated a large bomb, following a series of smaller explosions. DNA tests are pending, but Australian federal police commissioner Mick Keelty said Thursday Indonesian police were convinced the remains included those of Azahari.

The death of Azahari, described as the master bomb maker for the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network, would be a major coup for Indonesia and the most significant success in Southeast Asia's fight against the group since the 2003 arrest in Thailand of JI operations chief, Hambali.

Azahari, a geophysics professor who trained at terrorist bases in Afghanistan and the southern Philippines, is believed to have succeeded Hambali, who is in U.S. military custody.

Indonesia and Australia hold him responsible for bombings in Bali in 2002 and again last month; on a Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003; and outside the Australian Embassy in the city last year.

More than 250 people were killed in the four attacks, including 92 Australians, at least 72 Indonesians, and seven Americans.

Keep on cleaning out the scum, boys, and maybe we can see an end to Islamist terrorism.

And might I send a fond wish to Azahari in his new infernal home -- BURN, BABY, BURN!

Posted by: Greg at 11:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If this had been a conservative event. You know, a pro-life demonstration, a support the troops rally, or a campaign event for a proposition to ban gay marriage.

But it wasn't. It was a rally against the president, against the war, and against the troops, sponsored by a bunch of Communists.

World Can't Wait -- an anti-Bush, anti-war group, recently staged nationwide protests. The organization coordinated rallies in Chicago, Seattle, New York, San Francisco -- and Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Unified School District took things a step further. The district helpfully agreed to provide buses -- that's right, buses -- as well as "adult supervision" to the nearly 800 high school students who walked out of 10 high schools. District officials said they thought it best to provide adults and transportation, since, you know, the kids intended to go to the rally, anyway. "Our issue . . . was safety," said the district's chief operating officer, "and I think we fulfilled our mission, frankly."

But this must have been OK – there were no conservatives in sight, the event supported anti-American values, and its not like LAUSD students learn anything during the school day anyway – after all, roughly 70% of students fall below the national average on standardized tests.

Posted by: Greg at 11:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If this had been a conservative event. You know, a pro-life demonstration, a support the troops rally, or a campaign event for a proposition to ban gay marriage.

But it wasn't. It was a rally against the president, against the war, and against the troops, sponsored by a bunch of Communists.

World Can't Wait -- an anti-Bush, anti-war group, recently staged nationwide protests. The organization coordinated rallies in Chicago, Seattle, New York, San Francisco -- and Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Unified School District took things a step further. The district helpfully agreed to provide buses -- that's right, buses -- as well as "adult supervision" to the nearly 800 high school students who walked out of 10 high schools. District officials said they thought it best to provide adults and transportation, since, you know, the kids intended to go to the rally, anyway. "Our issue . . . was safety," said the district's chief operating officer, "and I think we fulfilled our mission, frankly."

But this must have been OK – there were no conservatives in sight, the event supported anti-American values, and its not like LAUSD students learn anything during the school day anyway – after all, roughly 70% of students fall below the national average on standardized tests.

Posted by: Greg at 11:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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He was in the US illegally, but the Austin PD cut the guy loose after investigating him for child molestation. Two years later, David Diaz Morales broke into the home of 18-year-old former co-worker Jenny Garcia Hayden and stabbed her to death.

Garcia Hayden's parents think Austin police knew Diaz was a Mexican citizen living in the country illegally and should have called immigration authorities.

"What happened (to Jenny) happened because he was illegally in the country and was not deported," Garcia said.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Austin, names Police Chief Stan Knee and Assistant Chief Rudy Landeros as defendants.

It claims the city and police department have illegal policies that restrict employees from communicating with federal authorities about the immigration status of people in Austin.

The suit seeks a court order to prevent such restrictions by the city.
The city's lawyer, Anne Morgan, said Austin doesn't have a policy to prohibit employees from calling immigration officials.

The City Council has approved a resolution labeling Austin a "safety zone" where all people "are treated equally, with respect and dignity regardless of immigration status," Morgan added.

Given this is Austin, it is likely that the order was given that officers not report border-jumpers and over-stayers encountered during the course of ordinary police work. As a result, a girl is dead.

It is time for the courts to give the order that all immigration criminals be reported to immigration authorities by police.

Posted by: Greg at 11:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, al-Zarqawi has turned on his homeland, and its ruler, King Abdullah.

Three nearly simultaneous bomb blasts tore through hotels here Wednesday night, killing more than 50 people and sending fear and panic through the streets of the normally tranquil city.

Jordanian authorities immediately shut down many of the capital's main roads and deployed dozens of ambulances, police cars and military vehicles to help evacuate the wounded to a half-dozen overflowing hospitals. The country's land borders were closed about an hour after the attacks.

At least one American was among those killed in the bombings and at least two others were wounded, the U.S. Embassy in Amman reported Thursday.
Al Qaeda in Iraq, a group headed by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the bombings in a statement posted Thursday on the Internet.

The statement said the attacks were carried out by "a group of lions" from the organization, the major foreign-led insurgent group fighting in neighboring Iraq. "After studying and observing the targets, the places of execution were chosen to be some hotels that the tyrant of Jordan has turned into a backyard for the enemies of Islam, such as the Jews and crusaders," the statement said.

Jordanians are furious, and do not support the attack on their nation by Islamists.

After the claim of responsibility, hundreds of angry Jordanians rallied outside one of three bombed hotels Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The demonstrators shouted slogans such as, "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!

Interestingly enough, this attack comes on an Arab state that is ruled by members of the family of Muhammad himself, IslamÂ’s founding prophet.

King Abdullah is a 43rd generation descendant of the Prophet. Who, then, is better to determine the proper teachings of Islam and the proper way of life for a Muslim– the descendant of Muhammad, or a gang of upstart terrorists who murder indiscrimiantely?

Posted by: Greg at 11:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Jack Kelly of Irish Pennants points out this "minor" error by CNN's Carol Lin.

Hard to say because it's been 11 days since two African- American teenagers were killed, electrocuted during a police chase, which prompted all of this.

Uh -- they weren't American, Carol.

Posted by: Greg at 11:46 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I mean, who in their right mind would have thought that Weddington would have supported any GOP nominee?

The attorney who won the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established abortion rights says she will likely oppose Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, but is still studying his writings and opinions before taking a formal position.

"At this point, I will assume I will eventually come out against him," Sarah Weddington said Wednesday after a speech at Ohio State University. "The question we have to ask is, would we want to live in an America he would envision?"

Alito voted for a Pennsylvania decision that would have required a married woman to consult with her husband before seeking an abortion — a ruling that retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor voted with the majority to strike down.

Abortion will be a key topic at Alito's confirmation hearings in January. Alito, 55, recently told senators in a private meeting that he had "great respect" for the precedent set by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade but did not commit to upholding it.

I'm not sure what Judge Alito would do with Roe, as he has given mixed signals on the issue. But given that Weddington is one of the most extreme advocates of unrestricted, government-funded abortion on demand, wqhy would any person expect her to do other thna oppose any nominee to the right of Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

Posted by: Greg at 11:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've got season tickets for the Houston Texans, so I would be glad to see Bob McNair's franchise do just about anything to improve fromthe dismal 1-7 start that we have seen this year.

But signing Terrell Owens is something that would make me walk away fromt eh four-season-old franchise. He is a malignant influence upon the game of football.

So it is with great relief that I read this from the Houston Chronicle.

Texans owner Bob McNair would love to have a chance to acquire a lot of NFL players to help solve his problems, but Philadelphia receiver Terrell Owens is not one of them.

During a break in preparations for Sunday's game at unbeaten Indianapolis, McNair was asked if he would consider signing Owens once Philadelphia has washed its hands of him.

"He's almost dismantled the Eagles; why would you wish that on us?" McNair said with a laugh. "I've already got enough problems."

The Texans are 1-7 and in need of help at a lot of positions, but McNair wouldn't consider the controversial Owens, who has been suspended for four games by the Eagles and was placed on the reserve/suspended list Wednesday.

Owens is hoping an independent arbitrator will rule that he can play this season — if not for the Eagles then for another team.

"Some things can overcome talent, and he's figured out how to do that," McNair said. "Football's a team sport, and when a player thinks he's more important than the team, it's just not going to work."

Amen, Bob. The last thing we need is the arrival of T.O. and his Circus of Self-Promotion here in Houston.

Posted by: Greg at 11:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I understand a motherÂ’s grief at the likely execution of her son. But IÂ’m sorry, the fault lies with her son and the hate-filled value system he learned at his motherÂ’s knee and in the Islamist mosques the family frequented, not with the US. After all, this Canadian family is closely connected to Osama bin Laden, a fact long known and acknowledged by the Canadian government. Every male member of the family, in fact, has fought for al-Qaeda.

The mother of a Canadian teenager charged with murder and held at Guantanamo Bay accused Americans of acting like gods Tuesday and slammed Ottawa for doing nothing to help her son.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Maha Elsamnah lashed out at both Washington and Canada's federal government over the detention and treatment of her Toronto-born son, Omar Khadr, 19, who faces the death penalty if convicted by a special U.S. military tribunal. "The Americans are gods now," Elsamnah said from her east-end Toronto home.

"The Americans can do anything. They make the law. Nobody can tell them anything. Nobody can disagree with them."

What did this poor boy do? He merely tossed a hand grenade at American soldiers in Afghanistan, killing one and wounding another. This Islamist sow should be thankful that her son has lived this long in the relative comfort and luxury of Guantanamo Bay at American expense, instead of being killed and left to be consumed by vultures. After all, an American medic saved him instead of letting him die from his wounds. Terrorist scum have no rights that the civilized are bound to respect – but we allow them limited protections because we choose to be better than them.

Mama Maha sits in Canada demanding the Canadian government do something for her Canada-born son. I agree – the Canadian government should pay for the bullets with which this little Islamofascist is executed, and the bacon grease in which they are dipped before the execution takes place.

Posted by: Greg at 02:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Sounds like Chief Justice John Roberts is getting into the swing of things on the Court, with a bit of help from his new colleagues.

At the end of the first week of the Supreme Court's new term, the justices assembled to discuss the week's cases, and, following protocol, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. stated his own views first. Then, in keeping with the court's tradition for the justices-only conference, the new chief called on the others, one by one.

He did so in order of seniority, referring to his colleagues in the most formal terms. First, "Justice Stevens," followed by "Justice O'Connor" and then "Justice Scalia."

Justice Antonin Scalia interrupted. "I will always call you Chief," he said. "But to you, I'm Nino, and this is Sandra, and this is John."

This vignette, described by Justice Clarence Thomas at a judicial conference in Colorado Springs late last month, is deliciously revealing of a Supreme Court in the midst of a generational shift.

A classy move by Scalia – but also one that is a necessity for a younger man joining a select group as not merely an equal, but as the senior among them.

Enjoy the Linda Greenhouse piece this anecdote comes from – it tells us how Roberts is touched by this change, and how his coming has lightened the mood of the Court.

Posted by: Greg at 02:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The exercise of severals human right has resulted in the imprisonment of a Chinese pastor.

A prominent pastor in Beijing's underground Protestant church was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for illegally printing and distributing Bibles and other religious books, in a case that has attracted attention from Christian groups in the United States and elsewhere.

The Beijing People's Intermediate Court handed down the sentence immediately after it convicted Cai Zhuohua, 34, of conducting "illegal business practices," said his attorney, Zhang Xingshui. Two co-defendants were also convicted and sentenced to prison, he said.

Why such outrageous conduct by the Chinese government?

"Objectively speaking, religion is a breakthrough point for Western anti-China forces to Westernize and split China," said Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Bureau of Religious Affairs. But he said that did not mean all religious problems should be considered "infiltration," adding "there is no so-called persecution of religious people" in China.

The silence of the Left is deafening. I guess they are too busy wailing and gnashing teeth over Gitmo Islamists to be troubled by the persecution of Christians for engaging in crimes that would generally be recognized as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion in civilized countries.

Posted by: Greg at 02:08 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The exercise of severals human right has resulted in the imprisonment of a Chinese pastor.

A prominent pastor in Beijing's underground Protestant church was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for illegally printing and distributing Bibles and other religious books, in a case that has attracted attention from Christian groups in the United States and elsewhere.

The Beijing People's Intermediate Court handed down the sentence immediately after it convicted Cai Zhuohua, 34, of conducting "illegal business practices," said his attorney, Zhang Xingshui. Two co-defendants were also convicted and sentenced to prison, he said.

Why such outrageous conduct by the Chinese government?

"Objectively speaking, religion is a breakthrough point for Western anti-China forces to Westernize and split China," said Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Bureau of Religious Affairs. But he said that did not mean all religious problems should be considered "infiltration," adding "there is no so-called persecution of religious people" in China.

The silence of the Left is deafening. I guess they are too busy wailing and gnashing teeth over Gitmo Islamists to be troubled by the persecution of Christians for engaging in crimes that would generally be recognized as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion in civilized countries.

Posted by: Greg at 02:08 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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One of the pre-eminent “truths” anti-American Leftists have put forward in the Wilson-Plame affair is that a CIA referral to the Justice Department is proof that a crime has been committed – and that someone has committed treason. I’ve argued against this absurd notion on Leftist sites over the last couple years that this is not so, as a request for an investigation proves nothing. Leftists, of course, reject that argument because it is politically convenient for them to do so.

So, without further ado, let us note that a crime has been committed in the leaking of reports of secret prisons abroad, and that the Washington Post cooperated in treason by printing the story.

The Central Intelligence Agency has asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation to determine the source of a Washington Post article that said the agency had set up a covert prison network in Eastern Europe and other countries to hold important terrorism suspects, government officials said on Tuesday.

The C.I.A.'s request, known as a crimes report or criminal referral, means that the Justice Department will undertake a preliminary review to determine if circumstances justify a criminal inquiry into whether any government official unlawfully provided information to the newspaper. The possibility of this new investigation follows by less than two weeks the perjury and obstruction indictment of I. Lewis Libby Jr., then Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, in a leak case involving other news reporting about a national security issue.

Republican leaders in Congress also jumped into the matter over The Post's article, asking the Intelligence Committees of the House and the Senate on Tuesday to investigate whether classified material had been disclosed. At the same time, the Senate rejected a Democratic call for an independent commission that would conduct an investigation into claims of abuses of detainees in American custody.

Eric C. Grant, a spokesman for the newspaper, said it would have no comment on the new developments concerning its article. A spokesman for the C.I.A. said a crimes report had indeed been sent to the Justice Department but would not otherwise comment.

The front-page article, published last Wednesday, said the agency had set up secret detention centers in as many as eight countries in the last four years.

Surely the Left will now demand the prosecution of all involved Washington Post employees for the crime of disclosing this classified information – and the shutting down of the paper for engaging in treasonous activities.

Or are they just a bunch of hypocrites?

Posted by: Greg at 02:07 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Regardless of my beliefs about the moral acceptability of homosexual activity, I have great respect for most gay men and women I know – and a great respect for the inherent dignity of every person regardless of sexual orientation. That’s why I find the outcome of this attempted gay-bashing to be quite satisfying up to a point, and outrageous in an entirely different sense

Lucas Dawson had just returned from an audition for "American Idol," and planned to tell his friends all about his experience on Oct. 29.

But while walking to the bus stop to catch a ride downtown, around 10:30 that Saturday evening, Dawson ran into four teenagers less than one block from his East Mount Airy home.

"They started calling him 'faggot,' saying 'You're gay,' stuff like that," said David Dawson, Lucas' stepfather.

Lucas Dawson crossed the street, near Upsal and Musgrave, to avoid trouble, but he later told his family, the group threw a basketball at him, rushed him, and started pummeling him.

"One of them punched him in the mouth," David Dawson said. "They knocked him to the ground. They kicked him. They stomped him. They called him faggot."

Dawson, 21, of Upsal Street near Magnolia, managed to get to his feet, and he pulled out a small pocket knife. He waved it at the crowd a few times, David Dawson said, trying to push them back.

Then, he ran.

Gerald Knight, 17, allegedly followed and then reached out to grab Dawson, who still had the knife in his hand.

During the ensuing struggle, Dawson plunged the knife into Knight's chest.
Knight, of Hortter Street near Chew Avenue, died at Einstein Medical Center less than an hour later, police said.

Sounds like justice to me, an act of self-defense that should be applauded. But instead, Dawson is facing voluntary manslaughter charges in KnightÂ’s death. And since his family could not raise bail, Dawson has spent a week in jail for protecting himself from further assault. If convicted, the only real victim this incident could face 30 years in jail.

WhatÂ’s more, the other assailants have already made it clear that they intend to crry out further violence against their victim.

One of the other teens told him, "Now we're going to have to shoot you."

Lisa Dawson said that even if the charges are dropped, she fears for her son's safety.

"I don't feel like he can come back home," she said. "There are three people out there who already made a threat."

I cannot tell from the article, but it seems like the real criminals in this incident remain free and have no charges pending.

The sad reality is that this whole situation could have been avoided if the government still believed that law-abiding free men and women have the right to defend themselves in the face of a vicious assault. And true justice in this case would have been done if Luca Dawson had been carrying a sidearm of size to have put down all four rabid animals who assaulted him whether the cause was his sexuality, robbery, or just plain old evil.

Posted by: Greg at 01:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Remind these folks that the power to pardon is a presidential prerogative established by the Constitution – and that their advice and consent is neither required nor desired.

The Senate's top Democrats challenged President Bush on Tuesday to rule out a pardon for I. Lewis Libby, a former top White House aide who faces trial on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury in the CIA leak case.

"We also urge you to state publicly whether anyone in the White House - including White House counsel Harriet Miers or Vice President Cheney - has already discussed the possibility of a pardon with Mr. Libby," added the letter, signed by Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and three other members of the leadership.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan declined to rule out a pardon when asked about the issue by reporters before Democrats sent their letter. "I'm not going to discuss an ongoing legal proceeding. And I'm not going to speculate about any matters relating to it," he said.

At a news conference, Reid launched an extraordinary attack on Cheney, whom he said had been involved in the "manipulation of intelligence to sell the war in Iraq" as well as "leaking classified information to discredit White House critics."
He challenged the president in personal terms, urging him to "avoid falling in the footsteps of his father who pardoned six men, some were convicted, some were indicted in the Iran-Contra scandal."

I’ll half agree with Half-Truth Harry Reid on this matter. The President does need to learn from his father. But the lesson needs to be that he should not give in to Democrat demands – for if he does, their attacks will continue and they will add criticism of his weakness to his list of faults.

And Mr. President, I urge you to pardon Scooter Libby – on November 5, 2008, as the final votes are counted for the election of your successor. Do not leave this loyal American twisting in the wind for a manufactured crime that resulted from an investigation of a legal activity.

Posted by: Greg at 01:45 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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