Saturday - March 10, 2007
(Un)Happy Birthday
Saturday Silliness
Friday - March 09, 2007
TGIF
So cool your heels and toss down a few ice cold brews. You deserve it! Giddyap!
Lost!
Hehehehe. I seem to not be able to get away from the Sunny South lately. I wonder if it has anything to do with this really Glowbull Warmed winter this year. Yep, we’re over CONUS and the USAF base below is very important in the War On Terror. If you can’t figure it out from those hints you better turn in your wings, Zoomies.
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(Photo from Google Earth Desktop)
DC Gun Ban Struck Down!
Still reading the ruling, but the DC Court of Appeals has ruled that the District’s absolute ban on handguns is bogus.
Here is the ruling itself.
As I read, I find the court’s slapping around of the district pretty enjoyable. Here’s a sample:
In determining whether the Second Amendment’s guarantee
is an individual one, or some sort of collective right, the most
important word is the one the drafters chose to describe the
holders of the right—“the people.” That term is found in the
First, Second, Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments. It has
never been doubted that these provisions were designed to
protect the interests of individuals against government intrusion,
interference, or usurpation.
We also note that the Tenth Amendment—
“The powers not delegated to the United States
by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are
reserved to the states respectively, or to the people”—indicates
that the authors of the Bill of Rights were perfectly capable of
distinguishing between “the people,” on the one hand, and “the
states,” on the other. The natural reading of “the right of the
people” in the Second Amendment would accord with usage
elsewhere in the Bill of Rights.
The District’s argument, on the other hand, asks us to read
“the people” to mean some subset of individuals such as “the
organized militia” or “the people who are engaged in militia
service,” or perhaps not any individuals at all—e.g., “the states.”
See Emerson, 270 F.3d at 227. These strained interpretations of
“the people” simply cannot be squared with the uniform
construction of our other Bill of Rights provisions.
This is big folks.
**Update
Even if “keep” and “bear” are not
read as a unitary term, we are told, the meaning of “keep”
cannot be broader than “bear” because the Second Amendment
only protects the use of arms in the course of militia service. Id.
at 26-27. But this proposition assumes its conclusion, and we do
not take it seriously.
Ouch.
**Update II
Bitchslapping the 9th Circuit 
As we noted above, the “Militia” was vast, including all
free, white, able-bodied men who were properly enrolled with
a local militia officer. By contrast, the Ninth Circuit has
recently (and we think erroneously) read “Militia” to mean a
“state-created and state-organized fighting force” that excludes
the unorganized populace. As Judge Kleinfeld noted, the Ninth Circuit’s
decision entirely ignores Miller’s controlling definition of the militia.
** Update III
The conclusion
To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment
protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right
existed prior to the formation of the new government under the
Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for
activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being
understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the
depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from
abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear arms had the
important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the
citizen militia. The civic purpose was also a political expedient
for the Federalists in the First Congress as it served, in part, to
placate their Antifederalist opponents. The individual right
facilitated militia service by ensuring that citizens would not be
barred from keeping the arms they would need when called forth
for militia duty. Despite the importance of the Second
Amendment’s civic purpose, however, the activities it protects
are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual’s
enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued or
intermittent enrollment in the militia.[snip]
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court
is reversed and the case is remanded. Since there are no
material questions of fact in dispute, the district court is ordered
to grant summary judgment to Heller consistent with the prayer
for relief contained in appellants’ complaint.
Wow. Just wow.
Motivational Poster Of The Day
The Trophy
Larry Wright - The Detroit News
Shooting Elephants in a Barrel
-- by Ann Coulter
March 7, 2007
Lewis Libby has now been found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice for lies that had absolutely no legal consequence.
It was not a crime to reveal Valerie Plame’s name because she was not a covert agent. If it had been a crime, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could have wrapped up his investigation with an indictment of the State Department’s Richard Armitage on the first day of his investigation since it was Armitage who revealed her name and Fitzgerald knew it.
With no crime to investigate, Fitzgerald pursued a pointless investigation into nothing, getting a lot of White House officials to make statements under oath and hoping some of their recollections would end up conflicting with other witness recollections, so he could charge some Republican with “perjury” and enjoy the fawning media attention.
As a result, Libby is now a convicted felon for having a faulty memory of the person who first told him that Joe Wilson was a delusional boob who lied about his wife sending him to Niger.
This makes it official: It’s illegal to be Republican.
Since Teddy Kennedy walked away from a dead girl with only a wrist slap (which was knocked down to a mild talking-to, plus time served: zero), Democrats have apparently become a protected class in America, immune from criminal prosecution no matter what they do.
As a result, Democrats have run wild, accepting bribes, destroying classified information, lying under oath, molesting interns, driving under the influence, obstructing justice and engaging in sex with underage girls, among other things.
Meanwhile, conservatives of any importance constantly have to spend millions of dollars defending themselves from utterly frivolous criminal prosecutions. Everything is illegal, but only Republicans get prosecuted.
Conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh was subjected to a three-year criminal investigation for allegedly buying prescription drugs illegally to treat chronic back pain. Despite the witch-hunt, Democrat prosecutor Barry E. Krischer never turned up a crime.
Even if he had, to quote liberal Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz: “Generally, people who illegally buy prescription drugs are not prosecuted.” Unless they’re Republicans.
The vindictive prosecution of Limbaugh finally ended last year with a plea bargain in which Limbaugh did not admit guilt. Gosh, don’t you feel safer now? I know I do.
In another prescription drug case with a different result, last year, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (Democrat), apparently high as a kite on prescription drugs, crashed a car on Capitol Hill at 3 a.m. That’s abuse of prescription drugs plus a DUI offense. Result: no charges whatsoever and one day of press on Fox News Channel.
I suppose one could argue those were different jurisdictions. How about the same jurisdiction?
In 2006, Democrat and major Clinton contributor Jeffrey Epstein was nabbed in Palm Beach in a massive police investigation into his hiring of local underage schoolgirls for sex, which I’m told used to be a violation of some kind of statute in the Palm Beach area.
The police presented Limbaugh prosecutor Krischer with boatloads of evidence, including the videotaped statements of five of Epstein’s alleged victims, the procurer of the girls for Epstein and 16 other witnesses.
But the same prosecutor who spent three years maniacally investigating Limbaugh’s alleged misuse of back-pain pills refused to bring statutory rape charges against a Clinton contributor. Enraging the police, who had spent months on the investigation, Krischer let Epstein off after a few hours on a single count of solicitation of prostitution. The Clinton supporter walked, and his victims were branded as whores.
The Republican former House Whip Tom DeLay is currently under indictment for a minor campaign finance violation. Democratic prosecutor Ronnie Earle had to empanel six grand juries before he could find one to indict DeLay on these pathetic charges—and this is in Austin, Texas (the Upper West Side with better-looking people).
That final grand jury was so eager to indict DeLay that it indicted him on one charge that was not even a crime—and which has since been tossed out by the courts.
After winning his primary despite the indictment, DeLay decided to withdraw from the race rather than campaign under a cloud of suspicion, and Republicans lost one of their strongest champions in Congress.
Compare DeLay’s case with that of Rep. William “The Refrigerator” Jefferson, Democrat. Two years ago, an FBI investigation caught Jefferson on videotape taking $100,000 in bribe money. When the FBI searched Jefferson’s house, they found $90,000 in cash stuffed in his freezer. Two people have already pleaded guilty to paying Jefferson the bribe money.
Two years later, Bush’s Justice Department still has taken no action against Jefferson. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently put Rep. William Jefferson on the Homeland Security Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat, engaged in a complicated land swindle, buying a parcel of land for $400,000 and selling it for over $1 million a few years later. (At least it wasn’t cattle futures!)
Reid also received more than four times as much money from Jack Abramoff (nearly $70,000) as Tom DeLay ($15,000). DeLay returned the money; Reid refuses to do so. Why should he? He’s a Democrat.
Former Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger literally received a sentence of community service for stuffing classified national security documents in his pants and then destroying them—big, fat federal felonies.
But Scooter Libby is facing real prison time for forgetting who told him about some bozo’s wife.
Bill Clinton was not even prosecuted for obstruction of justice offenses so egregious that the entire Supreme Court staged a historic boycott of his State of the Union address in 2000.
By contrast, Linda Tripp, whose only mistake was befriending the office hosebag and then declining to perjure herself, spent millions on lawyers to defend a harassment prosecution based on far-fetched interpretations of state wiretapping laws.
Liberal law professors currently warning about the “high price” of pursuing terrorists under the Patriot Act had nothing but blood lust for Tripp one year after Clinton was impeached (Steven Lubet, “Linda Tripp Deserves to be Prosecuted,” New York Times, 8/25/99).
Criminal prosecution is a surrogate for political warfare, but in this war, Republicans are gutless appeasers.
Bush has got to pardon Libby.
on 03/09/2007 at 01:25 PM
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
40 Reasons to Ban Guns NOW!
H/T to J.S. for the list
40 Reasons to Ban Guns
1. Banning guns works, which is why New York, DC, Detroit & Chicago cops need guns.
2. Washington DC’s low murder rate of 69 per 100,000 is due to strict gun control, and Indianapolis’ high murder rate of 9 per 100,000 is due to the lack of gun control.
3. Statistics showing high murder rates justify gun control but statistics showing increasing murder rates after gun control are “just statistics.”
4. The Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, both of which went into effect in 1994, are responsible for the decrease in violent crime rates,which have been declining since 1991.
5. We must get rid of guns because a deranged lunatic may go on a shooting spree at any time and anyone who would own a gun out of fear of such a lunatic is paranoid.
6. The more helpless you are the safer you are from criminals.
7. An intruder will be incapacitated by tear gas or oven spray, but if shot with a .357 Magnum will get angry and kill you.
8. A woman raped and strangled is morally superior to a woman with a smoking gun and a dead rapist at her feet.
9. When confronted by violent criminals, you should “put up no defense - give them what they want, or run” (Handgun Control Inc. Chairman Pete Shields, Guns Don’t Die - People Do, 1981, p. 125).
10. The New England Journal of Medicine is filled with expert advice about guns; just like Guns & Ammo has some excellent treatises on heart surgery.
11. One should consult an automotive engineer for safer seat belts, a civil engineer for a better bridge, a surgeon for internal medicine, a computer programmer for hard drive problems, and Sarah Brady for firearms expertise.
12. The 2nd Amendment, ratified in 1787, refers to the National Guard, which was created 130 years later, in 1917.
13. The National Guard, federally funded, with bases on federal land, using federally-owned weapons, vehicles, buildings and uniforms, punishing trespassers under federal law, is a “state” militia.
14. These phrases: “right of the people peaceably to assemble,” “right of the people to be secure in their homes,” “enumerations herein of certain rights shall not be construed to disparage others retained by the people,” and “The powers not delegated herein are reserved to the states respectively, and to the people” all refer to individuals, but “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” refers to the state.
15. “The Constitution is strong and will never change.” But we should ban and seize all guns thereby violating the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendments to that Constitution.
16. Rifles and handguns aren’t necessary to national defense! Of course, the army has hundreds of thousands of them.
17. Private citizens shouldn’t have handguns, because they aren’t “military weapons’’, but private citizens shouldn’t have “assault rifles’’, because they are military weapons.
18. In spite of waiting periods, background checks, fingerprinting,government forms, etc., guns today are too readily available, which is responsible for recent school shootings. In the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s,anyone could buy guns at hardware stores, army surplus stores, gas stations, variety stores, Sears mail order; no waiting, no background check, no fingerprints, no government forms,...and there were no school shootings.
19. The NRA’s attempt to run a “don’t touch” campaign about kids handling guns is propaganda, but the anti-gun lobby’s attempt to run a “don’t touch” campaign is responsible social activity.
20. Guns are so complex that special training is necessary to use them properly, and so simple to use that they make murder easy.
21. A handgun, with up to 4 controls, is far too complex for the typical adult to learn to use, as opposed to an automobile that only has 20.
22. Women are just as intelligent and capable as men but a woman with a gun is “an accident waiting to happen” and gun makers’ advertisements aimed at women are “preying on their fears.”
23. Ordinary people in the presence of guns turn into slaughtering butchers, but revert to normal when the weapon is removed.
24. Guns cause violence, which is why there are so many mass killings at gun shows.
25. A majority of the population supports gun control, just like a majority of the population supported owning slaves.
26. Any self-loading small arm can legitimately be considered to be a “weapon of mass destruction” or an “assault weapon.”
27. Most people can’t be trusted, so we should have laws against guns, which most people will abide by because they can be trusted.
28. The right of Internet pornographers to exist cannot be questioned because it is constitutionally protected by the Bill of Rights, but the use of handguns for self defense is not really protected by the Bill of Rights.
29. Free speech entitles one to own newspapers, transmitters, computers, and typewriters, but self- defense only justifies bare hands.
30. The ACLU is good because it uncompromisingly defends certain parts of the Constitution, and the NRA is bad, because it defends other parts of the Constitution.
31. Charlton Heston, a movie actor as president of the NRA, is a cheap lunatic who should be ignored. Michael Douglas, a movie actor as a representative of Handgun Control, Inc. is an ambassador for peace who is entitled to an audience at the UN arms control summit.
32. Police operate with backup within groups, which is why they need larger capacity pistol magazines than do “civilians” who must face criminals alone and therefore need less ammunition.
33. We should ban “Saturday Night Specials” and other inexpensive guns because it’s not fair that poor people have access to guns too.
34. Police officers have some special Jedi-like mastery over handguns that private citizens can never hope to obtain.
35. Private citizens don’t need a gun for self- protection because the police are there to protect them--even though the Supreme Court says the police are not responsible for their protection.
36. Citizens don’t need to carry a gun for personal protection, but police chiefs who are desk-bound administrators who work in a building filled with cops, need a gun.
37. “Assault weapons” have no purpose other than to kill large numbers of people. The police need assault weapons. You do not.
38. When Microsoft pressures its distributors to give Microsoft preferential promotion, that’s bad; but when the Federal government pressures cities to buy guns only from Smith & Wesson, that’s good.
39. Trigger locks do not interfere with the ability to use a gun for defensive purposes, which is why you see police officers with one on their duty weapon.
40. Handgun Control, Inc., says they want to “keep guns out of the wrong hands.” Guess what? You have the wrong hands.
Thursday - March 08, 2007
Through The Looking Glass
“Good Morning, Iraq”
Photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Michael R. Holzworth
Lost!
Now I’m happy - even though I’m lost again. We’re still over CONUS and down South somewhere. This USAF base below is my second favorite base of all (see yesterday’s “Lost!” for my favorite). I went to the 3rd, 4th, 7th and 8th grade here. I also left my tonsils and my appendix in the base hospital below. Final hint: the next two weeks is probably the best time of year to be assigned to this base. Mheh-heh ...
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(Photo from Google Earth Desktop)
Motivational Poster Of The Day
Couey Guilty In Jessica Lunsford Murder Case
MIAMI (MSNBC) - 5:53 p.m. CT March 7, 2007
A sex offender was found guilty Wednesday of kidnapping and raping a 9-year-old girl and burying her alive in a case that led to a crackdown around the country on people convicted of sex crimes.
Jurors deliberated about four hours before returning the verdict against John Evander Couey in the slaying of Jessica Lunsford, who was snatched from her bedroom in February 2005 about 150 yards from the trailer where Couey had been living.
Her body was found in a shallow hole, encased in two black plastic trash bags. She had suffocated and was found clutching a purple stuffed dolphin.
- More ...
Lying in darkness with the overwhelming weight of dirt piled on top of the plastic bag imprisoning her. Bleeding and in pain, crying her eyes out and not understanding why the mean man hurt her. Slowly suffocating to death. Left with nothing to comfort her but a small, stuffed purple dolphin. Nine years old. Dead.
The Inside Scoop
Confession: I have this recurring fantasy that creeps into my dreams every once in a while. I usually wake up afterward in a very aroused state. The dream involves a mud-wrestling match, kinda like the one in the movie “Stripes”. I am in the John Candy role in my t-shirt and boxer shorts referreeing the match. I’m drunk and soaked in beer (thanks to my buddies) and I stand awaiting the entrance of the contestants.
Here’s the kicker ... the match is between Ann Coulter (on the right) and Maureen Dowd (on the Left). Both are clad in panties and bra - and nothing else. They enter the ring and warily circle each other as I try to stay out of the way. Suddenly, the two tigresses spring at each with teeth bared and nails clawing at the opponent. Mud flies, animal growls rise and fall as underwear goes flying. Suddenly I’m tripped and fall into the mud with the female tornado going on around me and on my head as naked female flesh presses against ....
Then I usually wake up. Damn!
My Very Own Juror
-- By MAUREEN DOWD
(NY TIMES) - March 8, 2007
But let’s get back to the media decrying the media, and the incestuous Beltway relationship between journalists and sources. Listening to all the lamentations, I excitedly realized I had a potentially incestuous relationship with a source inside the Beltway.
I went to Nativity grade school in D.C. with Juror No. 9, Denis Collins. I had an unrequited crush on his brother when I was in seventh grade. His dad was my dad’s lawyer, and both were Irish immigrants. My brother Kevin coached his brother Kevin in touch football. Our moms were in the Sodality together. His mom once chastised me for chatting up a little boy in church. We started in journalism together, Denis at The Washington Post as a sportswriter and Metro reporter, and me at The Washington Star as a sportswriter and Metro reporter.
This was a sure thing. I could get him to come over to my house and spill all the secrets of the jury that had convicted the highest-ranking White House official to be found guilty on a felony since Iran-contra days. Unfortunately, Denis spilled them on the way over. By the time he got to my house, he was already so overexposed he announced, “I’m sick of hearing myself talk.”
From the moment he stepped out of the courthouse and into the press mob in his green Eddie Bauer jacket, Denis became the unofficial jury spokesman, bouncing from Larry King to Anderson Cooper and “Good Morning America.” I thought there still might be enough jury dish for me until I heard him say “Huffington Post blog.”
“Blogs are the future, right?” he said, explaining that he’d already posted his diary of adventures in federal court — right down to our incestuous Catholic past, which came up in the voir dire, when he also mentioned living across the alley from Tim Russert and working at The Post for Bob Woodward, and his nonfiction book about spying and the C.I.A.
“I was the perfect storm,” he said. Instead of me milking him for information, he tried to milk me for information. He asked about the pitfalls of being in a media maelstrom. “Somebody called me up today and said: ‘Turn on Rush Limbaugh. He’s saying terrible things about you.’ ”
I asked him how he would feel if W. pardoned Scooter.
“I would really not care,” he replied. “I feel like the damage has been done in terms of his reputation and the administration’s reputation.”
And what about the calls for Dick Cheney to resign or get the boot?
“Here’s the thing: Libby followed Cheney’s instructions to go talk to reporters, but there’s no evidence at all that Cheney told him to lie about it. So the question is, was Libby just kind of inept at getting this story out?”
on 03/08/2007 at 11:45 AM
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Editorials • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • Satire • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Astronaut Story Follow-Up
I’m glad the Navy is doing the right thing with this woman. She still faces criminal charges and the Navy is going to postpone judgment until that case plays out. In the end she will probably be forced out of the Navy but in the meantime she can receive psychiatric care and work on getting her life (and her head) back together. After all, how many of us can claim to never have done anything this incredibly stupid in our lives? Think glass houses and stones, people ...
Astronaut Dismissed By NASA, Will Take Navy Assignment
(WASHINGTON POST) - Thursday, March 8, 2007
Astronaut Lisa M. Nowak has been dismissed by NASA and will return to active duty in the Navy, officials said yesterday. Nowak has been charged with attempted kidnapping and other felonies in connection with a late-night encounter in Florida with a woman she saw as a rival for the affections of astronaut William A. Oefelein, a Navy commander.
Navy spokeswoman Lydia Robertson said Nowak will begin her new assignment on March 21, working with the Chief of Naval Air Training in Corpus Christi, Tex. Navy officials have said they will decide whether Nowak should face military charges after her criminal case runs its course.
The public dismissal of Nowak appears to be the first in the history of the astronaut corps, said space historian Roger D. Launius of the Smithsonian Institution. He said Nowak is also the first active-duty astronaut charged with a felony.
Nowak, 43, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping and burglary with assault, stemming from her Feb. 5 confrontation at Orlando International Airport with Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman. Nowak was released on bail and is wearing a monitoring device on her ankle.
The Heat Is On
I would like to think my e-mail to President Bush that I sent a couple of days ago had something to do with his reluctance to even consider a pardon at this point but the truth is that it would be political poison for Dubya to pardon Libby now. We’ll see how this plays out over the next week or so. Meanwhile, two Border Patrol agents still sit rotting in prison, getting beat up by Hispanics. They need to be pardoned right damn now!
Bush Deflects Pressure To Give Libby a Pardon
Clemency Before 2008 Election Could Be Politically Risky
(WASHINGTON POST) - Thursday, March 8, 2007
Libby’s allies said Bush should not wait for Libby to be sentenced, and should use his executive power to spare Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff the risk of prison time for lying to a grand jury and FBI agents about his role in leaking the name of an undercover CIA officer. But the prospect of a pardon triggered condemnation from Democrats and caution from some Republicans wary of another furor.
Defense lawyers for Libby said they are focused on seeking a new trial and appealing Tuesday’s jury verdict, while making clear that they believe the president should step in. “Our number one goal is to see Scooter’s conviction wiped out by the courts and see him vindicated,” attorney William Jeffress Jr. said in an interview. “Now, I’ve seen all the calls for a pardon. And I agree with them. To me, he should have been pardoned six months ago or a year ago.”
In his first comments on the case since the verdict, Bush told CNN en Español that he has to “respect that conviction” but that he “was sad for a man who had worked in my administration.” Bush did not rule out a pardon but implied that it is not imminent. “I’m pretty much going to stay out of it until the course—the case has finally run its final—the course it’s going to take,” he told Univision during an interview before a trip to Latin America that begins today.
No one knows better than Libby how politically hazardous a pardon can be. Before he became Cheney’s chief of staff, Libby served as an attorney for Marc Rich, the financier whose pardon by President Bill Clinton in the last hours of his administration provoked a storm of complaints. Now Libby finds himself in the same situation as his onetime client, hoping for a president’s beneficence.
The pardon power is enshrined in the Constitution and is completely at the president’s discretion. In recent decades, presidents have been increasingly reluctant to use it for fear of political trouble. When they have exercised it in controversial cases, they typically have waited until their terms were at an end, as Clinton did with Rich, Susan McDougal, Roger Clinton and others, and as George H.W. Bush did in pardoning former defense secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and others implicated in the Iran-contra arms-for-hostages case. Libby is the highest-ranking White House official convicted of a felony since that scandal.
Otherwise, pardons in recent times generally have been granted to people who were convicted years earlier of nonviolent crimes and who have completed their sentences and redeemed themselves. Bush has granted 113 pardons over six years, nearly a modern low, and has never pardoned anyone who had not been released from prison. He has commuted the sentences of three others.
Libby probably faces a prison sentence of 1 1/2 to three years for lying about his role in the disclosure of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame, wife of war critic and former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. But Libby could avoid jail time until after the 2008 presidential election through appeals, according to legal specialists—timing that would make a pardon easier for Bush politically.
Libby’s defense team intends to seek a new trial and possibly appeal his conviction on four felony counts. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton has scheduled sentencing for June 5, when many lawyers expect him to allow Libby to remain out of prison pending appeals that could last through late 2008.
Some Republicans said yesterday that Bush should wait for that process to play out. “It’s probably too early for the White House to reach a determination,” said former congressman Robert S. Walker (Pa.), adding that Libby “is certainly entitled to take this into the appeals process, and I don’t think it should be interfered with.”
But if Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald insists that Libby begin serving his sentence right away and Walton agrees, it could force the question sooner. “Then the issue could ripen very fast,” said Bradford A. Berenson, a former Bush White House lawyer, who said he expects a debate within the White House about what to do.
“It seems likely that the vice president will advocate for a pardon,” he said. “What’s less clear is whether the president would agree.”
on 03/08/2007 at 11:10 AM
Judges-Courts-Lawyers • Politics • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Encore!
This is just way too embarrassing for words to describe. Ordinary human beings like us should never have to be subjected to this horror. There ought to be a law against it. Doesn’t the Geneva Convention protect me from this? As a Southerner, I am deeply offended. Click on the image below and wait for the Flash popup window to open.
“Private” Property
The notion of private property is one ingrained into our cultural concience. We value it very highly, as evidenced by the severe backloash over the Kelo decision by the SCOTUS last year. But what are your children learning about private property from their teachers? If they are in Government school, you can bet your kitten that they are learning that private property is a bad thing.
A simple example that Neal Boortz has been touting for years is the annual “School Supplied Shuffle”, whereby kids are told which supplies they need to buy for the upcoming year, then when they arrive in class for the first day, all those supplies are gathered into one pile to be used by those who need them, when they need them. Thos sissors and crayons and glue sticks that your child painstakingly picked out for his very own immediately become the property of the state, to be distributed to those who need them. “From each according to his ability, to each acording to his need”
I now read of a bed-wetting liberal teacher in the Seattle area who has taken it a step further. The full article is subscription only, but you can see the gist here.
As they watched their elementary-age students playing with Legos, Ann Pelo and Kendra Pelojoaquin saw some disturbing trends.
In the current issue they describe how some kids hoarded the “best” pieces, denied their classmates any access at all to the pretend town they were building, and displayed other undesirable behavior surrounding ownership and the social power it conveys.
So the teachers banned Legos, and worked with the kids to surface the issues raised by the ways they had been using the popular building blocks.
Makes me want to puke.
on 03/08/2007 at 10:49 AM
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Insanity • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
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