On the bright side, 75% of young American Muslims oppose blowing up infidels like us in the name of Islam.

One in four younger U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings to defend their religion are acceptable at least in some circumstances, though most Muslim Americans overwhelmingly reject the tactic and are critical of Islamic extremism and al-Qaida, a poll says.

* * *

While nearly 80 percent of U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings of civilians to defend Islam can not be justified, 13 percent say they can be, at least rarely.
That sentiment is strongest among those younger than 30. Two percent of them say it can often be justified, 13 percent say sometimes and 11 percent say rarely.

Of course, some have tried to justify this result by saying it really only applies to blowing up Jews over the Palestinian issue – but I don’t find that particularly comforting. Nor do I find this attempted dismissal of the poll results to be particularly convincing.

"We have crazies just like other faiths have them," said Eide Alawan, who directs interfaith outreach at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Mich., one of the nation's largest mosques. He said killing innocent people contradicts Islam.

Somehow I doubt that the number of Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, or Hindu “crazies” approaches 25% -- or that you would find many who would support murder in the mane of their faith. That is why Alawan’s attempt to downplay the poll results is so disingenuous – he knows that the numbers don’t even compare.

On the bright side, our Muslims are less likely to support the random murder of infidels than those in other countries.

U.S. Muslims are far less accepting of suicide attacks than Muslims in many other nations. In surveys Pew conducted last year, support in some Muslim countries exceeded 50 percent, while it was considered justifiable by about one in four Muslims in Britain and Spain, and one in three in France.

I would be relieved by the statistic that only 5% of American Muslims are supportive of al-Qaeda – were it not for the little qualifier that we get in the article.

Only 5 percent of U.S. Muslims expressed favorable views of the terrorist group al-Qaida, though about a fourth did not express an opinion.

Got that – one out of every four American Muslism won’t say what they think of al-Qaeda. Am I the only one who finds that result frightening? Am I the only one who thinks this might be indicative of a fight column among us?

Nor will I let this little tidbit pass.

Only 40 percent said they believe Arab men carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

I’m too astounded for words – thee is really no disputing this FACT, but some 60% of Muslims are sufficiently in contact with reality to concede the truth, despite the fact that Osama himself has claimed responsibility for 9/11!

Frankly, these results can only be described as disturbing – and certainly justify heightened scrutiny of the Muslim community in this country.

Posted by: Greg at 01:22 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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No great loss here.

A CALIFORNIAN man who tried to kill his girlfriend by leaving her in a car parked across railway lines was himself killed when an oncoming train hurled the car into him as he fled.

His girlfriend survived, the Associated Press reported.

The man drove the car to the head of a line of traffic stopped at a level crossing in the San Fernando Valley neighbourhood of Sunland on Monday, police spokesman Mike Lopez said.

The man, who was seen arguing with the woman, then parked the car on the tracks and jumped out, leaving her behind, Mr Lopez said.

A 450-tonne commuter train hit the rear of the car, launching it into the man.
The girlfriend, who was injured , was taken to hospital in a stable condition.

Who said that the universe didn’t provide its own form of rough justice?

Prayers, of course, for the injured girlfriend.

H/T NRO’s The Corner

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No great loss here.

A CALIFORNIAN man who tried to kill his girlfriend by leaving her in a car parked across railway lines was himself killed when an oncoming train hurled the car into him as he fled.

His girlfriend survived, the Associated Press reported.

The man drove the car to the head of a line of traffic stopped at a level crossing in the San Fernando Valley neighbourhood of Sunland on Monday, police spokesman Mike Lopez said.

The man, who was seen arguing with the woman, then parked the car on the tracks and jumped out, leaving her behind, Mr Lopez said.

A 450-tonne commuter train hit the rear of the car, launching it into the man.
The girlfriend, who was injured , was taken to hospital in a stable condition.

Who said that the universe didnÂ’t provide its own form of rough justice?

Prayers, of course, for the injured girlfriend.

H/T NROÂ’s The Corner

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The nutroots that control the Democratic Party haven't stopped using it since January 21, 2001. Why should we be surprised that they have turned their sites on Alberto Gonzales -- despite the fact that he is not accused of a single high crime or misdemeanor, merely carrying out a policy the nutroots dislike?

The Gonzales hearings have made plain for all to see that the highest law enforcement officer in the land is unwilling to tell the truth under oath. He doesn't recall, or he doesn't know, or he answers questions with questions, evading the issues. He can't remember his own name, his job title, details of meetings or decisions or strategies.

* * *

Let's not be shy. Let's get the "I" word -- IMPEACHMENT -- out there loud and clear. Say it, SHOUT it -- it has a good patriotic feel to it. And yes, in fact, the attorney general CAN be impeached. It is legal, it is proper, it is time.

Here is your ammunition for impeachment -- a video, a petition, a whole campaign to get the House Judiciary Committee to launch this action, NOW. We and our friends and partners at Democracy for America want and need your help.

Don't just be angry, don't just be annoyed, don't yell at the ones you love. IMPEACH GONZALES.

Let's see -- these folks were quite supportive of a president who couldn't remember having sex with a federal employee in the office, using his office to actually obstruct justice, misusing FBI files, and other actual high crimes and misdemeanors -- but they are more than willing to go after this administration and its officials for firing employees who serve at the pleasure of the president. I guess though, that it is the party, not the facts, that matter to such folks.

Posted by: Greg at 10:26 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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The NY Times is hardly at the forefront of reporting. I posted about this on May 15, when the NY Post wrote about Jerry Hauer's challenge to Rudy Giuliani.

As Rudolph W. Giuliani runs for president, his image as a chief executive who steered New York through the disaster of Sept. 11 has become a pillar of his campaign. But one former member of his inner circle keeps surfacing to revisit that history in ways that are unflattering to Mr. Giuliani: Jerome M. Hauer, New York CityÂ’s first emergency management director.

In recent days, Mr. Hauer has challenged Mr. GiulianiÂ’s recollection that he had little role as mayor in placing the cityÂ’s emergency command center at the ill-fated World Trade Center.

Mr. Hauer has also disputed the claim by the Giuliani campaign that the mayorÂ’s wife, Judith Giuliani, had coordinated a help center for families after the attack.

And he has contradicted Mr. Giuliani’s assertions that the city’s emergency response was well coordinated that day, a point he made most notably to the authors of “Grand Illusion,” a book that depicts Mr. Giuliani’s antiterrorism efforts as deeply flawed.

Seems to me that Hauer is out to make a buck off of his connection to Rudy and 9/11, and is prepared to sell him down the river to do so. Interestingly enough, this also shows the flaw of GOP elected officials being "bi-partisan" in their appointments -- the Democrat Hauer is more than willing to stab his old boss in the back as he heads into the presidential run.

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They are going to let the commander-in-chief be the commander-in-chief.

In grudging concessions to President Bush, Democrats intend to draft an Iraq war-funding bill without a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and shorn of billions of dollars in spending on domestic programs, officials said Monday.

The legislation would include the first federal minimum wage increase in more than a decade, a top priority for the Democrats who took control of Congress in January, the officials added.

While details remain subject to change, the measure is designed to close the books by Friday on a bruising veto fight between Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress over the war. It would provide funds for military operations in Iraq through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

Democrats in both houses are expected to seek other opportunities later this year to challenge Bush's handling of the unpopular conflict.

While the war may be unpopular, the cut-&-run-&-surrender proposals of the neo-Copperheads are even less popular -- especially when they are loaded up with pet pork projects. America wants victory -- and may get it, if the Democrats can beforced to continue backing down.

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But I guess he hadn’t – not that this formality makes any significant difference.

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico formally announced his candidacy for president here Monday, launching a bilingual campaign for the Democratic nomination that emphasized his Hispanic heritage, his extensive diplomatic and political experience and his knowledge of issues.

Richardson, 59, the son of a Mexican mother and half-Mexican father, drew a large crowd of supporters -- and, perhaps as importantly, reporters -- to a ballroom in downtown Los Angeles for the announcement, which had been all but a foregone conclusion for many weeks. Richardson chose to launch his bid in California, the state where he was born, in part to attract as much media attention as possible in a race that already includes numerous high-profile candidates.

I don’t think that playing up his ancestry will work – as my students tell me, with a name like “Bill Richardson” they consider him to be just another white guy. I’m sure that reflects the view of their parents as well.

Posted by: Greg at 02:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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But I guess he hadn’t – not that this formality makes any significant difference.

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico formally announced his candidacy for president here Monday, launching a bilingual campaign for the Democratic nomination that emphasized his Hispanic heritage, his extensive diplomatic and political experience and his knowledge of issues.

Richardson, 59, the son of a Mexican mother and half-Mexican father, drew a large crowd of supporters -- and, perhaps as importantly, reporters -- to a ballroom in downtown Los Angeles for the announcement, which had been all but a foregone conclusion for many weeks. Richardson chose to launch his bid in California, the state where he was born, in part to attract as much media attention as possible in a race that already includes numerous high-profile candidates.

I don’t think that playing up his ancestry will work – as my students tell me, with a name like “Bill Richardson” they consider him to be just another white guy. I’m sure that reflects the view of their parents as well.

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I think a probe of these companies may be in order – but would regulating them lend legitimacy to what is essentially the sale of snake-oil?

For those who support it, it offers the reward of "carbon neutrality" without having to lower one's standard of living. To critics, it allows guilt-free pollution. Either way, the burgeoning carbon offset industry needs more oversight, say two members of Congress.

In a letter to the Government Accountability Office, Republican Reps. Tom Davis of Virginia and Darrell Issa of California asked for an investigation into emission offset programs.

About 60 different companies sell carbon offsets to U.S. consumers but operate under virtually no standards, the congressmen said. They cited reports alleging that some organizations get money for emissions that don't exist and that others make large profits on cleanups that would have taken place anyway.

"We want to understand the products sold in these markets and make sure they are doing what they say they are," said Davis, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

"Offsets are becoming a convenient shortcut for individuals and industry to become 'carbon neutral.' Now that we see legislation introduced to direct the federal government to do the same thing, we need a complete picture," Davis said.

Frankly, the notion of selling “carbon offsets” seems no more legitimate to me than the notion of selling indulgences in the Middle Ages – with the additional drawback that while sin is real, man-made global warming is not. I’m therefore troubled by the notion of a governmental imprimatur upon what is effectively a fraud upon the gullible – or, if you really believe in man-made global warming, a license to go on sinning. Where are the latter-day Luthers?

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I guess there are limits to paternity tests.

Twin brothers Raymon and Richard Miller are the father and uncle to a 3-year-old little girl. The problem is, they don't know which is which. Or who is who. The identical Missouri twins say they were unknowingly having sex with the same woman. And according to the woman's testimony, she had sex with each man on the same day. Within hours of each other.

When the woman in question, Holly Marie Adams, got pregnant, she named Raymon the father, but he contested and demanded a paternity test, bringing his own brother Richard to court.

But a paternity test in this case could not help. The test showed that both brothers have over a 99.9 percent probability of being the daddy— and neither one wants to pay the child support. The result of the test has not only brought to light the limits of DNA evidence, it has also led to a three-year legal battle, a Miller family feud and a little girl who may never know who her real father is.

"'Did you sleep with him [Richard Miller] while in Sikeston for the rodeo?'," Cameron Parker, Richard's lawyer, said she asked Holly Marie Adams in 2003 court testimony, to which she answered "'Yes ma'am.'" "She then said she went to appellant's [Raymon Miller's]home where they had sex later that night or early the next morning," Parker said.

IÂ’m sure glad IÂ’m not the judge in this case. Personally, though, I like the idea of splitting the support payments 50-50 -- after all, they both played, so they both can pay.

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That is the charge made by some former employees in the lawsuit of Jared Paul Sterns against News Corp of America. Stern and former NY Post employee Ian Spiegelman make some startling claims.

For example, Spiegelman claims that Murdoch ordered his editors at The Post to kill any negative stories about President Clinton and his wife Hillary.

He also said that Murdoch ordered a story about a Chinese diplomat and his visits to a New York strip club to be killed because it might have angered the Communist regime and endangered News Corp's broadcasting privileges in China.

It also suggests that Murdoch cancelled the publication of a book, by Harper Collins, a News Corp subsidiary, by former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten that was critical of the Beijing regime.

At the same time, claims Spiegelman, Harper Collins was ordered to publish a flattering book about Communist Party boss Deng Xiaoping, written by his daughter Deng Rong. Although Spiegelman claims it is "stunningly awful" Deng Rong was given, he alleges, a $1 million advance.

And there are other juicy allegations in the case as well – this one could be incredibly titillating and fodder for all sorts of fun press stories as the case moves forward.

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It is really pretty straight-forward. Any honest commentator would have to recognize that the Democratic Party is responsible for the following attrocities.

1. Preserving and enhancing the legal-standing of the institution of slavery in the ante-bellum South against all humanitarian calls for reform;

2. Extending the peculiar institution of slavery into Texas and Missouri;

3. Attempting to extend the institution of slavery into California, Kansas and other US territories and states;

4. Extending into free-states the slave-masters' legal right to retrieve their "property", escaped slaves. (Dred Scott);

5. Initiating the secession of the Southern states to preserve slavery upon the election of Abraham Lincoln, a Republican with abolitionist views;

6. Undermining the North's resolve to preserve the Union and emancipate the slaves (Democrat Copperheads);

7. Terrorizing freed black Republican politicians and voters during Reconstruction in order to ensure election of white Democrats;

8. Disenfranchising black voters to make the entire South a one-party state (Democrat), a political monopoly not broken until quite recently;

9. Via their control of Southern state governments, instituting Jim Crow laws in the 1880s and preserving them until 1965 (America's apartheid);

10. Governing the South in a manner that tolerated, concealed and surreptitiously-supported racial terrorists such as the Ku Klux Klan, who murdered southern civil rights activists;

11. Resisting Federal enforcement to end racial segregation as initiated by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower.

If reparations are due for slavery and the subsequent failure of the promises of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to be fully realized by the freed slaves and their descendants, they are clearly the responsibility of the institution that committed itself to maintaining the subjugation of African-Americans for an additional century after they were emancipated through the efforts of the Republican Party.

Send all demands for reparations to:

The Dishonorable Howard Dean
Chairman
Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003

Posted by: Greg at 02:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What more needs be said about this crowd?

A group hoping to abolish horse-drawn carriage tours of New York will crack the whip on Boston if they persuade the Big Apple to just say nay to “animal slaves.”

“These are two international cities that will get along just fine without carriage rides,” said Edita Birnkrant, New York City campaign coordinator for Connecticut-based Friends of Animals

“People only see the surface of it, where it looks so romantic. It’s a complete life of misery for a horse: noise, traffic, pollution. They’re like animal slaves. It’s their whole lives until they either die or just get too old or sick to work anymore. I’m surprised more of them don’t drop in the street,” she said.

One day these people will figure out that animals are not people. Or maybe not – they are liberals, after all.

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It seems pretty clear that Fred Thompson is going to jump into the presidential race -- his departure from Law and Order was probably the biggest sign, along with his increased number of columns and appearances. Now one key supporter, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, is spreading this word.

I can tell you that Thompson will be making an announcement NLT the first of July. I have had one phone conversation with Thompson and I'm convinced he is getting in the race. Others who have talked to him are also convinced.

I know Jerry Patterson, and find him to usually be a reliable source and astute reader of the political tea-leaves. he wouldn't stick his neck out like this unless it were going to happen.

Posted by: Greg at 10:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is a story that has to warm the heart of anyone with a sense of decency and fair play. After having their season canceled last year and three teammates falsely accused of rape, the Duke lacrosse team is back -- and at the top of its game.

The Duke lacrosse team defeated North Carolina 19-11 to advance to the final four of the NCAA tournament. Carolina jumped to an early 6-1 lead, but from that point on Duke outscored the Tar Heels 18-5. Last week, Duke defeated Providence 18-3, so it's becoming clear how dominant this team can be when it's clicking.

Next up is Cornell, a team that finished the season unbeaten, defeated Duke in Durham, yet somehow received only a fourth seed in this tournament. Cornell got by Albany with a 12-11 overtime victory in its quarterfinal match.

Final Four, baby --capping a season which saw their teammates vindicated and their persecutor brought down. These young men have to be the sentimental favorite of the nation -- except for rabid racists, feminists, and other moonbats.

Posted by: Greg at 10:34 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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And to be honest, I think it would work just fine in this country, too.

The officer, a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force, felt he had no choice. So he stood up in front of his squad of 30 to 40 people.

“I said, ‘Right, I’ve got something to tell you,’ ” he said. “ ‘I believe that for us to be able to work closely together and have faith in each other, we have to be honest and open and frank. And it has to be a two-way process, and it starts with me baring my soul. You may have heard some rumors, and yes, I have a long-term partner who is a he, not a she.’ ”

Far from causing problems, he said, he found that coming out to his troops actually increased the unit’s strength and cohesion. He had felt uneasy keeping the secret “that their boss was a poof,” as he put it, from people he worked with so closely.

Since the British military began allowing homosexuals to serve in the armed forces in 2000, none of its fears — about harassment, discord, blackmail, bullying or an erosion of unit cohesion or military effectiveness — have come to pass, according to the Ministry of Defense, current and former members of the services and academics specializing in the military. The biggest news about the policy, they say, is that there is no news. It has for the most part become a nonissue.

The Ministry of Defense does not compile figures on how many gay men and lesbians are openly serving, and it says that the number of people who have come out publicly in the past seven years is still relatively low. But it is clearly proud of how smoothly homosexuals have been integrated and is trying to make life easier for them.

We know how to handle the integration of homosexuals into the military -- Truman provided the model when he integrated the armed forces nearly 60 years ago. Those who cannot accept the change in policy are unfit for military service -- and should be discharged.

Posted by: Greg at 10:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm glad to see that some folks in a position of power are starting to speak out about the problem of field testing for state exams.

Place a group of school superintendents in a room, and the conversation inevitably turns to testing students.

At a recent meeting in Houston, the topic drawing the most wrath was state-mandated field testing. These are tests that don't count for anything but instead allow the testing company to try out questions for future exams to ensure fairness and reliability.

About 80 percent of schools in Texas had to give students at least one field test this year. In coming years, high school students could face more of these tryout tests because state lawmakers appear intent on replacing the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills at some grade levels with a dozen new end-of-course exams.

"With field testing, you're just testing kids to death," said David Anthony, superintendent of the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. "The field testing's about to go out the roof if they pass the end-of-course exams. It will be worse."

Students could get some relief under pending legislation. The House has passed a bill that would limit field tests at a school to once every four years. The Senate's version would keep field testing to an every-other-year practice statewide — but only after the end-of-course exams are developed.

My school has lost at least one day a year to field testing every year in the last five -- and some of our most academically challenged kids have lost more due to their being pulled out of class for additional field testing of the specialized tests for special education and ESL students. Everyone knows these tests don't matter, so the kids simply do not try.

And then you get the objection that came from one of my students, who just failed her math TAKS by one question -- after taking a test with several embedded field test questions. Since those questions didn't count towards her score, isn't it possible that she actually met the standard on the test she took -- only to have enough correct answers excluded from her score to keep her from passing? Isn't it possible that she spent extra time on questions that didn't count, causing her to miss questions that did? I wish I had a good answer for her.

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You have to wonder what he has on her, that the Speaker stands by a guy with such a long history of sleaze and corruption.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is defending a close Democratic ally whom Republicans want to reprimand for threatening a GOP lawmaker's spending projects.

Pelosi, D-Calif., said she had "no idea what actually happened" during a noisy exchange in the House chamber last week between Reps. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., and Mike Rogers, R-Mich.

"What I do know is that Congressman Murtha has — enjoys — an excellent reputation in the Congress on both sides of the aisle," said Pelosi in a broadcast interview taped Friday and aired Sunday.

"He writes the defense appropriation bill in a bipartisan way each year and with the complete involvement of the Republicans as to who gets what on the Republican side," she said.

Murtha is a 35-year House veteran who leads the House Appropriations subcommittee on military spending. He is known for a fondness for earmarks — carefully targeted spending items placed in appropriations bills to benefit a specific lawmaker or favored constituent group.

Three observations.

First, I thought the Democrats considered earmarks a bad thing -- but Murtha is the King of Earmarks. Was last year's campaign strategy a case of selective outrage at the practice?

Second, the House Democrats decisively rejected Murhta when Pelosi backed him for a high leadership post earlier this year due to the loud outcry over Murtha's sleaze. Does that sound like folks having high regard for him -- or her, as the new Speaker of the House?

Third, Murtha is n tape indicating his willingness to take bribes during the Abscam case -- and was even named an unindicted co-conspirator. Doesn't that give her any pause before she defends him?

Of course, since Nancy admits she really doesn't know what happened in the confrontation on the House floor, does her opinion really even matter?

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One has to wonder if these two moonbats hang by their feet beside one another as they sleep -- because Elizabeth Kucinich is, if anything, stranger than Dennis.

Kucinich met her husband-to-be two years ago when she visited his office in the House of Representatives with her boss as a volunteer worker for the American Monetary Institute, an offbeat group dedicated to reforming the “unjust monetary system."

It was love at first sight for both of them. Immediately after their meeting, Dennis Kucinich phoned a friend and said: “I’ve met her [my future wife].”

He was mesmerized to receive a business e-mail from Harper with her usual signature line from "Kama Sutra," one of her favorite films: “Knowing love, I shall allow all things to come and go, to be as supple as the wind and take everything that comes with great courage. My heart is as open as the sky.”

He proposed at their second meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., and they married three months later. The actress Shirley MacLaine attended their wedding.

“I knew at once I really wanted to marry this man,” Elizabeth Kucinich said. “When you know it, why hang around?” It was Dennis’s third marriage, but by the time he met Elizabeth he had been single for more than 20 years.

If Dennis were elected, they would make a great team, Elizabeth said.

“Can you imagine what it would be like to have real love in the White House and a true union between the masculine and the feminine?”

Well, they would certainly be more of a union of masculine and feminine than th last pair of Democrats to occupy the White House -- but I don't think we have to worry about the Kucinich family ever taking up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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Some folks fall prey to drug and/or alcohol addiction. In such cases, there needs to be some sort of intervention and treatment to deal with the addiction.

That is where StoneHawk, a drug rehab facility in Michigan, can be of assistance. StoneHawk provides drug addiction and alcoholism treatment using the Narconon program, which is a program that focuses on addiction as a biochemical process that can be overcome using behavioral approaches, with education providing of skills to assist an individual through daily life problems and disorders. StoneHawk is not a program of medical intervention, so it doesn't substitute one drug for another, which is really nothing more than a switch in drugs to be abused, with the twist of multiple addictions. The Narconon program's rejection of that approach is therefore a healthy thing in my eyes.

Hopefully you will never need a drug or alcohol rehab program, and neither will those you love. If you do, though, please consider StoneHawk as an option.

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At least among those who count -- the folks who actually participate in the caucuses.

Mitt Romney has sprinted ahead of presidential competitors John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in a new Iowa Poll of likely Republican caucus participants.

The Des Moines Register poll shows Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, is the top choice of 30 percent of those who say they definitely or probably will attend the leadoff Iowa caucuses in January.

McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, nips former New York Mayor Giuliani for second place — 18 percent to 17 percent.

However, things could go differently if the list of candidates changes.

Other polls taken in Iowa this month, presenting a different lineup of candidates that included Newt Gingrich and Fred Thompson, have shown Giuliani, McCain and Romney bunched together. The former U.S. House speaker and former Tennessee senator have said they are considering presidential bids but have not taken steps toward running.

Rudy's abortion problem and McCain's immigration problem may be sufficient to give the nomination to Romney -- provided there are no significant new entries into the presidential race.

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He hasn't been charged in the case -- yet. But does a judge who is the president of a company that actively violates our nation's immigration laws deserve to be on the bench?

Two corporations charged in an alleged plot to supply undocumented workers to Keppel AmFELS, an oilrig manufacturer based at the Port of Brownsville, are apparently run by a state district judge.

Judge Leonel Alejandro, who is presiding judge of the 357th District Court in Brownsville, has not been charged in the case, but he said he helped start Port Fabricators, which provided workers to AmFELS.

The two companies behind Port Fabricators, CPEP Inc. and LAMC Inc., and former employees Rolando Villanueva, 31, and Ernesto Casas, 33, of Brownsville, were named in a 15-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Brownsville earlier this month.

Alejandro is the president of both CPEP and LAMC, and the public record reflects he was AmFELSÂ’s attorney before taking his seat on the court in January 2003.

“Several years ago, I helped develop Port Fabricators at the Port of Brownsville and still have some involvement with the company,” Alejandro said in a prepared statement to The Herald. “The company has continuously cooperated throughout the process. It would not be appropriate to comment further given the preliminary information we have at this time.”

The corporations, Villanueva and Casas are charged with a combination of crimes, including conspiracy to produce, sell or transfer fraudulent employment documents to the workers, hiring more than 10 undocumented workers, accepting fraudulent documents, transferring fraudulent documents and using the identification of others.

Will there be action taken to remove this man from the bench pending the outcome of this case -- given that he appears to give the phrase "criminal judge" a whole new meaning.

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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are Cheney's Chess Moves in the Middle East by Joshuapundit, and Don't Bury Your Heads in the Sand. by Iraq the Model.  Here is a link to the full results of the vote) in a post. 

Here are the full tallies of all votes cast:

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When I was younger, i never saw much of a need for Renters insurance, After all, didn't my landlord have a responsibility for anything that went wrong in my place?

I got lucky -- I never had anything serious go wrong. The same can't be said for the apartment below me, which got flooded when a pipe broke, destroying most of the furniture. They didn't have Renters insurance either -- and got no compensation for the damage because the problem was not due to any fault of our landlord. That was when I decided I needed to get some -- and I kept it as long as I rented a place.

Don't be foolish -- get yourself some Renters insurance -- and here is where you can find great rates here in Houston

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After all, the incompetent anti-Semite from Plains did a lousy job as president.

Former President Carter says President Bush's administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.

The criticism from Carter, which a biographer says is unprecedented for the 39th president, also took aim at Bush's environmental policies and the administration's "quite disturbing" faith-based initiative funding.

"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history," Carter told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a story that appeared in the newspaper's Saturday editions. "The overt reversal of America's basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me."

Excuse me, but the single least competent individual to occupy the Oval Office during my lifetime was this pea-brained peanut farmer. After all, he decimated the military and our intelligence services, helped bring hostile regimes to power in both Iran and Nicaragua, presided over the worst economy in the last four decades and did such a poor job that the liquor-addled lecher Ted Kennedy even looked like a better choice to many of his fellow Democrats (and fellow Americans in general).

UPDATE: Great response from the White House.

“I think it’s sad that President Carter’s reckless personal criticism is out there,” Fratto told reporters. “I think it’s unfortunate. And I think he is proving to be increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments.”

But then again, Jimmy Carter was irrelevant from about November 1979 onward, so I don't know that it would be fair to characterize him as "increasingly irrelevant". After all, his despicable abandonment of the Shah and his ball-less response to the Iran Hostage Crisis can arguably be seen as marking the start point of the Islamist reaction against America.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Outside the Beltway, Is It Just Me?, The Virtuous Republic, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam's Blog, Big Dog's Weblog, Webloggin, Phastidio.net, The Amboy Times, Cao's Blog, Colloquium, Jo's Cafe, Right Celebrity, Wake Up America, Stageleft, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, stikNstein... has no mercy, Walls of the City, The World According to Carl, Nuke's news and views, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, and High Desert Wanderer, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Tax debt can be one of the worst problems you can run into financially. After all, with Tax debt you have the full force of the government coming after you, not just some company or individual.. What's more, such debts can often be collected by means not allowed to other creditors.

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It has been rumored for some time that Tony Blair would likely convert to Catholicism after his time as prime Minister came to an end. I’d figured it had something to do with the established nature of the Anglican Church in Great Britain – but certainly not this.

He is widely considered to have remained an Anglican because of the potential complexities of conversion while in office.

Some lawyers believe the 1829 Emancipation Act, which gave Roman Catholics full civil rights, may still prevent a Catholic from becoming Prime Minister.

Clauses in the Act state that no Catholic adviser to the monarch can hold civil or military office.

It does raise an interesting issue – and one would hope that it would also raise calls for that limit on religious liberty to be changed.

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Seems to me that Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich makes a really valid point here – while it is great that we celebrate student-athletes for their accomplishments, we really need to be much more serious about honoring the kids who are doing the heavy lifting of education. You know, the valedictorians and other kids who are excelling at the curricular activities of a school, not the extracurricular ones.

Michael Dotson wanted to be his high school valedictorian because he hates to see his mother sad.

He hated how sad she seemed when he was in 7th grade and started making C's and D's instead of A's. So when he entered Julian High School, he vowed to shape up.

"If I didn't have my mother and I was valedictorian, it would be like, so what?" he said Thursday, sitting in an office at the school. He's a heavyset young man with a soft voice who wears baggy jeans and braids his hair.

"When I found out I was valedictorian, I thought: My mother's going to be the happiest person in the world."

And this young man has succeeded in more ways than one.

By junior year, he realized he had a real shot at graduating first in his class. He studied a little harder. He wound up as one of only 17 boys among this year's 86 Chicago public school valedictorians.

The principal at Julian had hoped Dotson would go to Tuskegee, a revered African-American university in Alabama. Dotson, who hopes to be a video game programmer, chose the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Ariz., a school he discovered at a Navy Pier college fair.

He was sold by the brochure about "geeks at birth" that showed a fetus working at the computer.

Nudged by school officials, he applied to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a scholarship. The day the letter arrived, his mother ripped it open. He hadn't even wanted to apply, knowing the odds were against him.

She shouted for joy.

"I was my calm self," he said. "Then I went into my room and called a friend and started screaming."

I know how hard it is to get one of those scholarships. We’ve had kids at my schools win National Merit Scholarships and other prestigious awards but not make the cut for the Gates awards. This young man has shown his ability, and also his individuality – he could have given in to the pressure to pick a college other folks wanted him to attend, but he instead followed his own heart in making that choice.

Yet into Michael Dotson’s life there has come tragedy – his mother recently suffered a stroke. But the good news is that she will be there to see her son graduate from high school at the top of his class, a tribute to his effort and her parenting skills.

Its great to see one of these kids get recognition for this ort of success, but it also makes me stop and think about the out-of-whack priorities we set. Last week, one of our alums (a former student of mine) was brought back to campus to give a motivational speech to a group of kids who might charitably be labeled as “troubled”. He is a starter in the NFL (tagged as his team’s franchise player) and making millions – and is someone of whom we are all quite justifiably proud due to his success and his high moral character. And yet no one would ever think of bringing back one of his classmates, the valedictorian who got accepted at MIT and who is now finishing medical school here in town, or his sister who went to Harvard and is now a microbiologist, or his other sister who followed them to academic excellence and who is finishing her final year at Harvard with a degree in science. These young people grew up in the same neighborhood and faced many of the same challenges as that much-admired football player, but for some reason we seem unwilling or unable to hold them up with the same sort of pride and respect for their accomplishments. Why not – and what can we do to change that?

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Outside the Beltway, Is It Just Me?, The Virtuous Republic, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam's Blog, Big Dog's Weblog, Webloggin, Phastidio.net, The Amboy Times, Cao's Blog, Colloquium, Jo's Cafe, Right Celebrity, Wake Up America, Stageleft, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, stikNstein... has no mercy, Walls of the City, The World According to Carl, Nuke's news and views, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, and High Desert Wanderer, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Seems to me that Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich makes a really valid point here – while it is great that we celebrate student-athletes for their accomplishments, we really need to be much more serious about honoring the kids who are doing the heavy lifting of education. You know, the valedictorians and other kids who are excelling at the curricular activities of a school, not the extracurricular ones.

Michael Dotson wanted to be his high school valedictorian because he hates to see his mother sad.

He hated how sad she seemed when he was in 7th grade and started making C's and D's instead of A's. So when he entered Julian High School, he vowed to shape up.

"If I didn't have my mother and I was valedictorian, it would be like, so what?" he said Thursday, sitting in an office at the school. He's a heavyset young man with a soft voice who wears baggy jeans and braids his hair.

"When I found out I was valedictorian, I thought: My mother's going to be the happiest person in the world."

And this young man has succeeded in more ways than one.

By junior year, he realized he had a real shot at graduating first in his class. He studied a little harder. He wound up as one of only 17 boys among this year's 86 Chicago public school valedictorians.

The principal at Julian had hoped Dotson would go to Tuskegee, a revered African-American university in Alabama. Dotson, who hopes to be a video game programmer, chose the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Ariz., a school he discovered at a Navy Pier college fair.

He was sold by the brochure about "geeks at birth" that showed a fetus working at the computer.

Nudged by school officials, he applied to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a scholarship. The day the letter arrived, his mother ripped it open. He hadn't even wanted to apply, knowing the odds were against him.

She shouted for joy.

"I was my calm self," he said. "Then I went into my room and called a friend and started screaming."

I know how hard it is to get one of those scholarships. We’ve had kids at my schools win National Merit Scholarships and other prestigious awards but not make the cut for the Gates awards. This young man has shown his ability, and also his individuality – he could have given in to the pressure to pick a college other folks wanted him to attend, but he instead followed his own heart in making that choice.

Yet into Michael Dotson’s life there has come tragedy – his mother recently suffered a stroke. But the good news is that she will be there to see her son graduate from high school at the top of his class, a tribute to his effort and her parenting skills.

Its great to see one of these kids get recognition for this ort of success, but it also makes me stop and think about the out-of-whack priorities we set. Last week, one of our alums (a former student of mine) was brought back to campus to give a motivational speech to a group of kids who might charitably be labeled as “troubled”. He is a starter in the NFL (tagged as his team’s franchise player) and making millions – and is someone of whom we are all quite justifiably proud due to his success and his high moral character. And yet no one would ever think of bringing back one of his classmates, the valedictorian who got accepted at MIT and who is now finishing medical school here in town, or his sister who went to Harvard and is now a microbiologist, or his other sister who followed them to academic excellence and who is finishing her final year at Harvard with a degree in science. These young people grew up in the same neighborhood and faced many of the same challenges as that much-admired football player, but for some reason we seem unwilling or unable to hold them up with the same sort of pride and respect for their accomplishments. Why not – and what can we do to change that?

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Outside the Beltway, Is It Just Me?, The Virtuous Republic, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam's Blog, Big Dog's Weblog, Webloggin, Phastidio.net, The Amboy Times, Cao's Blog, Colloquium, Jo's Cafe, Right Celebrity, Wake Up America, Stageleft, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, stikNstein... has no mercy, Walls of the City, The World According to Carl, Nuke's news and views, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, and High Desert Wanderer, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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On you and me, thatÂ’s who!

Everyone takes a hit. Forty-five million working families with two children will see their taxes increase by nearly $3,000 annually. They’d see the current child tax credit cut in half — from $1,000 to $500. The standard deduction for married couples is also cut in half, from the current $3,400 to $1,700. The overall effect on married couples with children is obvious: Far from shifting the burden onto the wealthy, the Democratic budget drives up taxes on the average American family by more than 130 percent.

Seniors get hit hard too. Democrats like to crow that only the richest one percent of Americans benefit from the stimulative tax cuts Republicans passed in 2001 and 2003. What they rarely mention is how much seniors benefited from those cuts in the form of increased income as a result of lower taxes on dividends and capital gains. More than half of all seniors today claim income from these two sources, and the Democratic budget would lower the income of every one of them by reversing every one of those cuts.

I thought that it was only the top 1% of Americans who needed to pay more according to the Democrats. Looks like it is going to be all of us – and as I see it, my taxes will be going up a couple of grand. That’s OK, though – I’m sure we will be able to do without our medications until the middle of October, when this school teacher and his disabled wife will have finally paid off the additional taxes we owe for being among the super-rich who disproportionately benefited from the Bush tax cuts.

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Jonah Goldberg points out that there often are “good guys” and “bad guys” in a civil war – and that the argument that Iraq is a civil war is not a compelling one for adopting a cut-&-run-&-surrender policy as advocated by the neo-Copperheads.

Why is it obvious that intervening in a civil war is not only wrong, but so self-evidently wrong that merely calling the Iraqi conflict a civil war closes off discussion?

Surely it canÂ’t be a moral argument. Every liberal foreign policy do-gooder in Christendom wants America to interject itself in the Sudanese civil war unfolding so horrifically in Darfur. The high-water mark in post-Vietnam liberal foreign policy was Bill ClintonÂ’s intervention in the Yugoslavian civil war. If we can violate the prime directive of no civil wars for Darfur and Kosovo, why not for Kirkuk and Basra?

If your answer is that those calls for intervention were “humanitarian,” that just confuses me more. Advocates of a pullout mostly concede that Iraq will become a genocidal, humanitarian disaster if we leave. Is the prospect of Iraqi genocide more tolerable for some reason?

Indeed, there is no way one can argue that intervention in Kosovo or Darfur are defensible while intervention in Iraq is not. For that matter, many folks still struggle mightily over our failure to intervene in the brief and bloody events in Rwanda, which can also be argued constituted a civil war. I fail to see the moral calculus that would allow for intervening to stop genocide while not doing so in an effort to forestall such genocide.

Then there are those who take the fatalistÂ’s cop-out: Civil wars have no good guys and bad guys. TheyÂ’re just dogfights, and we should stay out of them and see who comes out on top. But thatÂ’s also confusing, because not only is it not true, liberals have been saying the opposite for generations. They cheered for the Reds against the Whites in the Russian civil war, for the Communists against the Fascists in the Spanish civil war, and for the victims of ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia and Sudan. Surely liberals believe there was a good side and a bad side in the American Civil War?

Indeed, most civil wars do, in fact, have an identifiable dichotomy of “good guy” and “bad guy”, to use Goldberg’s simplistic terms. With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that the world would have been a better place had the Whites won in Russia. Knowing what we do about Communist regimes, one can reluctantly conclude that the better of two sides won in Spain. And would anyone argue that a Serbian victory in Yugoslavia or an Islamist victory in Sudan and their accompanying genocides would be better for America or the world? Would one seriously argue that a Confederate victory over the Union would have been a neutral outcome?

In the end, America has an interest in who wins in Iraq – as do the Iraqi people. It is strategically, not to mention morally, imperative for us to act in the best interests of our nation and the Iraqi people – and to reject the defeatist cries of the nay-sayers who invoke the phrase “civil war” as if it were a magic talisman.

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Military posts have never been a public forum for political activity. These folks must therefore lose their case.

Last year they stopped short of the U.S. Military Academy gate. This year, anti-war protesters hope to go a few steps further.

As Vice President Dick Cheney prepares to deliver commencement remarks at West Point on May 26, local activists are headed to court for permission to protest the Bush administration inside the Academy on Graduation Day.

It's a type of civil disobedience that's never been permitted at the nation's oldest military college.

But Goshen civil rights attorney Michael H. Sussman and members of the Democratic Alliance of Orange County say they are seeking to set precedent. A federal judge has agreed to hear their request for an injunction this morning in White Plains.

"These people want to have it inside the gate, and West Point says they don't authorize (protests) inside the gate," said the group's lawyer, Stephen Bergstein. "But if they can be there in a peaceful way, they should be allowed to be there."

Nonsense.

Posted by: Greg at 12:28 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I just love it when liberals set up a strawman to attack the GOP. Michael Kinsley does exactly that in this current Time column.

The official position of the Republican Party on abortion is more extreme than most people realize. All of its recent platforms have declared that "the 14th Amendment's protections apply to unborn children." The 14th Amendment is the one that protects fundamental rights and "equal protection of the laws." If "unborn children" are a protected group under the 14th Amendment--like blacks, women and so on--abortion is unconstitutional. A state couldn't legalize abortion even if its citizens wished to. Women who procure abortions and doctors who perform them would have to be prosecuted for murder, just like a woman who hires a gunman to kill her child. Death-penalty states would have to either stop executing murderers or start executing women who have abortions.

Actually, not quite, Michael. Yes, abortion would be banned in all states, but that would not require that abortion be treated as first degree murder or force the execution of abortionists and their clients. Just as there are currently multiple different criminal penalties for various sorts of homicide, abortion could be treated at any of those levels – or even placed in its own class. For that matter, criminalization of abortion would not be required – after all, there is no constitutional requirement that a state have laws against murder.

None of this, though, matters to Kinsley – who would rather alarm folks than illuminate them. After all, Kinsley knows that most Americans support sharp limits on abortion, if not an outright ban. So Kinsley has to scare people – and isn’t about to let the actual facts get in the way. You know, things like this from the next paragraph in the platform.

We oppose abortion, but our pro-life agenda does not include punitive action against women who have an abortion.

But then again, when you want to paint your opponents as heartless extremists it wouldnÂ’t do to tell the whole truth.

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1 Why would your party not punish active participants in murder?

Posted by: Dan at Sun May 20 06:35:39 2007 (IU21y)

2 As that question comes from a member of the party that celebrates those murders and considers committing them to be a civil right, I won't even dignify that with an answer.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun May 20 10:05:34 2007 (4g2Ps)

3 Actually, Dan, I do -- but given the refusal of you and your party to even acknowledge abortion as the taking of a human life, I don't see where any answer I give will satisfy you.

But then again, your party didn't see blacks as humans until the 1960s, so why should I be surprised at the callousness of the Democrats today?

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun May 20 11:36:54 2007 (4g2Ps)

4 You don't know my position on abortion, and I'd strongly suggest that you stop leaping to assumptions.

Expletive.

But, seriously, how do you square that logic? If abortion is murder, how can you possibly excuse the mother from her involvement? Is it that murder is okay in that circumstance - for the mother, anyhow? Is it that the fetus is not really worthy of protection? Is it not really murder, after all?

Or is it that the picture of sending crying young women to prison for a choice many choose to make is a bad public relations image for the anti-choice lobby?

Posted by: Dan at Sun May 20 12:01:51 2007 (IU21y)

5 Well, Dan, your choice of terminology clearly puts you in the anti-life left-stream of the Democratic Party -- so now I don't have to leap to any conclusions about your being an anti-lifer.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun May 20 12:21:11 2007 (ayoM5)

6 And Dan, if you read the platform in question, you would know the answer:

Our goal is to ensure that women with problem pregnancies have the kind of support, material and otherwise, they need for themselves and for their babies, not to be punitive towards those for whose difficult situation we have only compassion. We oppose abortion, but our pro-life agenda does not include punitive action against women who have an abortion. We salute those who provide alternatives to abortion and offer adoption services, and we commend Congressional Republicans for expanding assistance to adopting families and for removing racial barriers to adoption. We join the President in supporting crisis pregnancy programs and parental notification laws. And we applaud President Bush for allowing states to extend health care coverage to unborn children.

The short answer, as you can see, is one of compassion for someone who clearly has not been able to access the resources necessary to bring that child to term. On the other hand, the abortionist in such situations is clearly profiteering off the misery of others, and is clearly a more morally culpable -- and is usually as serial killer to boot.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun May 20 12:46:30 2007 (ayoM5)

7 That doesn't make any sense.

I think you know that.

If a woman gives birth, and is in a difficult situation, you would not support her decision to kill the child, would you?

Being in a "difficult situation" is not typically a murder defense. Is killing a fetus murder or not?

What if Paris Hilton gets pregnant, out of sheer sluttiness and a stupid refusal to use contraception? What if she would face no particular difficulty in having the child? What if she decided to abort because she thought it would be funny to piss of the religious right? Why would that not be premeditated murder? Why would she get off scot free?

Are you SURE this isn't just a PR issue? Because it would be a whole lot more consistent if you treated murder like murder, don't you think?

As for your jumping to conclusions, you're quite silly. These are difficult issues I've struggled with for years. I find that most people on both sides have shallow and stupid reasoning. The platform is certainly guilty of that. I'm beginning to suspect you may, as well, though I'm eager to be proven wrong.

Posted by: Dan at Sun May 20 15:07:54 2007 (IU21y)

8 Actually, I find any reasoning that doesn't lead to a pro-life position to be inherently shallow and stupid -- not to mention based in selfishness and self-indulgence.

From my experience dealing with those who have had abortions, most of them have not particularly been willing participants. I think of the 17 year old girl whose boyfriend and his mother took her "for shopping and lunch" and then drove to the regional abortuary and informed her that she could go in and have the procedure done -- or call her parents (who didn't yet even know she was pregnant) and a have them drive 100 miles to pick her up from the parking lot. I think of the one who took a home pregnancy test and was pressured into the abortion by her boyfriend -- only to discover, after she and her parents went to court to force access to her medical records from the facility that she had never been pregnant in the first place. And yes, I think of a number of clients when I worked at the homeless shelter who were told that abortion was their only option by "compassionate" people who had "struggled with the issue".

And yes, Dan, I'm sure it isn't just a PR issue -- but if folks like you insist, we could certainly execute both the serial-killer/abortionist and the woman who he/she had actively victimized.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun May 20 15:25:17 2007 (e74fy)

9 RWR - You're not answering the question. Is it unanswerable for you?

If a woman has other options, but chooses to have an abortion, why should she not be punished?

Posted by: Dan at Sun May 20 15:33:16 2007 (IU21y)

10 Ideally -- yes.

As a practical matter, however, preventing the injustice of punishing women like I mention above necessitates allowing such a woman to escape punishment.

But if you would like, we can just execute them all, just to avoid offending your sensibilities.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun May 20 21:34:27 2007 (Y4tHr)

11 RWR -

I suspect that many on the right would, in fact, be eager to execute them all - I don't doubt your own sincerity, but I do doubt the sincerity of many of your cohorts.

It seems strange that the anti-choice crowd would have such an easy-going attitude toward murderesses - my unscientific impression is that this is the same crowd which hoots in dismay whenever an accused asserts his or her rights.

On the other hand, it does fit into a certain paternalism I've seen on the side of state-enforced decision-making - those silly little women are too stupid to decide what to do with their bodies. I, too, have known women who have undergone abortions, and they have not all been the downtrodden victims this plank would seek to protect. It's not really logical to excuse an entire class of murderers because a few of them might have been in a jam. That's kind of like allowing all women to murder their husbands because a few of them might be battered spouses.

It also seems a little suspicious that this unexpected burst of illogical compassion for criminals happens to coincide with the avoidance of taking a position which would doom the movement at the polls. It looks more like a calculated decision to criminalize in increments.

Twice you've offered to execute them (ironic for a "pro-lifer"). Your quickness to flip-flop on this issue suggests that Republicans may be less than determined to protect women from murder prosecutions.

Posted by: Dan at Sun May 20 23:13:09 2007 (IU21y)

12 Actually, Dan, you seem to once again have missed the sarcastic nature of my response. You are the fellow with the blood-thirsty streak -- but then again, your support for abortion already showed that, didn't it.

And Dan, we pro-lifers are more than willing to allow women to do whatever they want with their bodies. The problem is, of course, that they are doing something to the bodies of their children. And while I'll agree that they may be morally culpable, compassion dictates that we as a society show the sort of mercy they are unwilling to show their children.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon May 21 14:03:52 2007 (3f8E9)

13 Compassionate enough to let them off for murder, but not compassionate enough to let them choose whether or not to have a child. Interesting.

But, less rhetorically, I appreciate your honesty. There is nothing other than the right wing's "compassion" to prevent murder prosecutions. If anyone feels secure in relying on the right wing's "compassion", I admire their faith. Personally, I'm seeing a huge maternity ward being added on to Gitmo.

Posted by: Dan at Tue May 22 00:44:53 2007 (IU21y)

14 Fine Dan -- if you insist, we can implement capital punishment for the women, too. Anything to keep you anti-lifers happy and content, with plenty of blood flowing (like the 45 million plus killed since Roe).

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Tue May 22 11:14:43 2007 (39aMb)

15 Is that a joke or not, RWR? You've got no assurance beyond your never-seen-before right-wing "compassion" that we won't see prosecutions. Most of the nation knows that republicans are liars and extremists.

You're trying to have it both ways. Ban abortion because it's murder, but treat the ladies kindly because they're a kinder and gentler brand of murderer. It doesn't make sense.

Except from a PR perspective.

Posted by: Dan at Tue May 22 12:44:18 2007 (IU21y)

16 Like I said, Dan -- we'll execute them if you anti-lifers insist upon it. After all, you folks must have the blood you rejoice in, one way or another.

By the way -- Moloch would be proud of you people.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Tue May 22 13:14:55 2007 (F7csV)

17 Was the Liberty University Napalm Terrorist pro-life?

Posted by: Dan at Tue May 22 14:09:55 2007 (IU21y)

18 You really had to scrounge to find a sick puppy like that -- whose actions would have been condemned by Falwell himself -- to try to discredit the pro-life movement, especially since there is no apparent connection between the two. Sort of like connecting the Unabomber and Al Gore, since they both spout the same sort of radical environmental kookery.

Of course, you and I might both agree that if this moron had managed to successfully use these devices on the Fred Phelps Klan (loyal Democrats all), America would be a better place.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Tue May 22 14:26:52 2007 (qAmhO)

19 You know, I'll go ahead and admit that using the Rightwinger Napalm Terrorist in this discussion was a bad misdirection. It doesn't really fit into the discussion, and I think we've said about all we have to say here. We agree, I think, that it is not logical to refuse to punish women who have abortions, if abortion is deemed to be murder, and we agree that the only prevention for such criminal prosecutions is rightwing "compassion". I have no faith that such a thing exists, and you do. We'll have to agree to disagree.

(Unless I toss in another red herring . . .)

Posted by: Dan at Tue May 22 14:36:33 2007 (IU21y)

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Aside from his betrayal of the troops and readiness to surrender, John Murtha has long left a trail of slime and corruption in his wake. This charge should therefore come as no surprise -- and be seen as entirely in character.

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) threatened to deny any further spending projects to a Republican who challenged him over an earmark, his antagonist has charged -- a potential violation of House rules.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) had challenged money that Murtha inserted into an intelligence bill last week.

Rogers turned the tables later that night by saying he would propose a reprimand of Murtha for violating House rules.

The Republican is planning to insert a transcript of their exchange in the Congressional Record to document the potential violation.

The privileged resolution will also require a House vote to reprimand Murtha for his comments, according to a copy received by Politico. Rogers is expected to file it on Monday.

It does not call for an investigation by the ethics committee.

Bravo to Rogers for bringing this matter to the public -- but it also needs to go before the Ethics Committee. And I'm curious -- will the Democrats show anything approaching the level of outrage they always showed over Tom DeLay? Or will they continue to accept corrupt members as they have in the past, even as they talk a good game about ethics while shielding them?

Posted by: Greg at 10:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Utterly disgusting -- threatening to reveal a private tragedy if someone tells the truth.

Floyd Landis's sleepy, scientific arbitration hearing in Malibu, Calif., morphed into a pulp-fiction blockbuster yesterday.

Greg LeMond, like Landis an American Tour de France champion, disclosed in testimony that he had been sexually abused as a child and received a call Wednesday from Landis's manager, who threatened to reveal the secret if LeMond showed up to testify.

Shortly after LeMond dropped those bombshells, the manager, Will Geoghegan, apologized to LeMond and admitted he made the call, LeMond said. Subsequently, Landis attorney Maurice Suh told Geoghegan, "You're fired," while they were still standing in the hearing room.

"It was a real threat, it was real creepy, and I think it shows the extent of who it is," LeMond said before leaving the Pepperdine University law school after his spellbinding day. "I think there's another side of Floyd that the public hasn't seen."

Cross-examination of LeMond, designed to expose his motives and impeach his credibility, was called off because LeMond refused to answer questions about Lance Armstrong.

Before LeMond received the threatening call from Geoghegan, his testimony was supposed to be about conversations he had with Landis shortly after news of his positive "A" urine sample had been leaked to the press.

LeMond said he urged Landis to come clean if his backup "B" sample also came back tainted.

Disgusting -- utterly disgusting. And bravo for Landis, who fired Geoghegan on the spot. Too bad it is clear he cheated, and deserves to be banned fromt eh sport.

Posted by: Greg at 10:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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