November 2005 Archives

You can hear the oral argument in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood here. (Link requires, and launches, Real Player.) The case, heard today by the U.S. Supreme Court, concerns the “constitutionality” of a New Hampshire statute requiring that a parent be informed when a minor child seeks an abortion.freedownload change dvd to vcd

I put constitutionality in quotation marks because of course the statute is constitutional. (Where in the text or history of the Federal Constitution can you find injunction against a state statute requiring that parents be told when their children seek medical treatment?) The real question is whether the statute can be reconciled with the relevant body of constitutional law, as refined mostly recently by Associate Legislator Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.freedownload change dvd to vcd

If the Court invalidates New Hampshire’s statute, as I think likely, I’d re-pass a modified version that requires parents be informed after their child has an had an abortion. Is there a “constitutional right” for a child to not only have an abortion, but to also keep it a secret from her parents? The absurdity of the Court’s abortion jurisprudence should in all instances be highlighted.freedownload change dvd to vcd

ADDED — Good gawd! Notice the psychotic questioning from Justices Souter, Kennedy and Breyer. They’re suggesting to you — or more precisely, to New Hampshire’s attorney general, Kelly Ayotte — that the statute is unconstitutional because (get a load of this): freedownload change dvd to vcd

There may be an instance, albeit not even life-threatening, where 1) the child nevertheless has to have an abortion right now (right now!), 2) doesn’t want her parents informed, 3) not one judge can be located to grant judicial by-pass (no cell phones in New Hampshire, one supposes), and 4) the girl’s blood pressure is presently high, thus somehow, someway, in Justice Breyer’s medical judgment, preventing her from having children in the future unless she kills this one now and without her parent’s knowledge! freedownload change dvd to vcd

I’m glad to see that others also thought the president’s speech on immigration reform was a whole lot of nothing.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Here’s what should be done:freedownload change dvd to vcd

• Impose stiff fines plus jail time for employers who hire illegals. The sentence need not be long. Six months would do. (It’s the fact, and not the length, of the term that it will get the attention of middle class bosses.) Go after ‘em hook and tong.freedownload change dvd to vcd

• Mexican nationals working in the United States send home billions in remittances. Tax those remittances at a confiscatory rate — say, 60% — when they’re sent by check or wire. But allow the nationals to take cash across the border tax-free. This will courage them to earn money, save it and then take it — and themselves— home.freedownload change dvd to vcd

• Launch a massive guest worker program, sufficent to meet the needs of the U.S. economy, but make it open only to those who are outside the U.S. at time of application.freedownload change dvd to vcd

In Riviera Beach, Florida, the rich plan to run amok:freedownload change dvd to vcd

In what has been called the largest eminent-domain case in the nation, the mayor and other elected leaders want to move about 6,000 residents, tear down their homes and use the emptied 400-acre site to build a waterfront yachting and residential complex for the well-to-do.

Unbelievable. And unAmerican.freedownload change dvd to vcd

I trust the Republicans who control the Florida Legislature will put a stop to this. And if they don’t, I hope Florida Democrats are smart enough to recognize opportunity when it kisses them in the face.freedownload change dvd to vcd

On the one hand we’re told:freedownload change dvd to vcd

WASHINGTON — More cocaine is likely to come into the United States from South America as the U.S. diverts resources from its drug-control strategy to hurricane relief and the war on terror, congressional investigators say.

The report prepared by the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, found that U.S. cocaine seizures from 2000 to 2004 increased by 68 percent to a record 196 metric tons in the “transit zone,” the area between the U.S. and South America.

On the other hand we’re told:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The report, an advance copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, offers a sobering look at the future of government efforts to stymie America’s $65 billion illegal drug habit. (Link)

So despite a record increase in seizures, illegal drug sales still make for a $65 billion industry. In there any sense in which we can speak of that as a stymied effort?freedownload change dvd to vcd

When are we going to stop our silly pretending?freedownload change dvd to vcd

Umm, hmm:freedownload change dvd to vcd

ST. LOUIS — A gay political organization is asking for an investigation of a drag show at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Greater St. Louis, Charles Stadtlander, said he attended the Oct. 14 drag show.

He raised concerns that the show mocked heterosexual audience members, that performers wore revealing outfits, used inappropriate language and simulated sex acts.

Umm, hmm.freedownload change dvd to vcd

I stopped giving money to Log Cabin in 2004, after it rendered itself politically irrelevant by refusing to endorse Mr. Bush for re-election. I see the group’s political instincts have not improved.freedownload change dvd to vcd

If you rebuff the Republican presidential nominee, support abortion on demand and call for same-sex marriage by judicial fiat, can you really draw the line at a drag show? With what constituency does that posture win traction? freedownload change dvd to vcd

I joined many others in worrying that Senate Republicans had made a mistake in delaying Sam Alito’s confirmation hearings until January. The liberal pressure groups, we feared, would use the extra time to subject Judge Alito to the death of a thousand cuts. But perhaps we feared for naught:freedownload change dvd to vcd

WASHINGTON — So far this year, the civil rights and women’s groups opposed to President Bush’s conservative court nominees have been rebuffed, rebuked and rejected. And that’s just by Senate Democrats.

Now, in the early stages of the most momentous Supreme Court nomination struggle in nearly 15 years, these organizations seek Democratic cohesiveness and then hope to enlist enough Republicans to keep Judge Samuel Alito from taking the swing seat held by Sandra Day O’Connor. It won’t be easy.

Bloomberg:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Fresh reports depicted a buoyant U.S. economy as consumer confidence, new home sales and durable goods orders surpassed forecasts.

The Conference Board, a New York-based research group, said its consumer confidence index rose to 98.9 this month from 85.2, the biggest rise in more than two years. Purchases of new homes jumped to a record last month and orders for long-lasting equipment, such as aircraft and machinery, rose twice as much as predicted, according to Commerce Department data.

“Coming after the energy shocks and Katrina, it’s a remarkable spring-back,”’ said Ethan Harris, chief U.S. economist at Lehman Brothers Inc. in New York. “The economy seems to have an underlying resilience.”

“Guns and Alzheimer’s don’t mix” — headline, Daily Pressfreedownload change dvd to vcd

Jay Cost, political scientist and blogger:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Democratic dreams and Republican nightmares of a turnover in congressional control are therefore not very realistic.

In a long but cogent piece at Real Clear Politics, Mr. Cost explains well why the Republican congressional majority is in no danger, at least not in 2006. freedownload change dvd to vcd

His essay is also a primer on why informed observers ignore national, generic ballot polling data on questions of congressional control.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Pace the conventional wisdom, I think Republicans will perform well in the 2006 midterms. But beyond that, all bets are off. Here’s a big reason why:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The budget outlook — and the problems facing the GOP — promise to get much worse. Medicare’s costly new prescription drug benefit, an $18 trillion unfunded liability sponsored by the White House and Republican leadership, starts in January. Just two years from now, in 2008, the enormous Baby Boom generation will begin retiring, ceasing income tax payments and starting to collect benefits, leading to a budget squeeze unprecedented in U.S. history.

“We’re seeing the future,” said Bruce Bartlett, a former Treasury official in the George H.W. Bush administration and tax-cut advocate. “The decisions that have been made over the last five years have resulted in the chickens coming home to roost.” [Emphasis added.]

If Congress is unable or unwilling to control spending, a sea of red ink will eventually force it to raise taxes. And when it does, the Republican coalition will implode. It has before.freedownload change dvd to vcd

The one election year when I didn’t vote for the GOP presidential candidate was 1992. I cast a protest vote for the Libertarian nominee. But millions of Republicans deserted to other quarters. Ross Perot, running as an independent, took 19% of the popular vote — almost all of it at the expense of George I, who had signed what was then the largest tax increase in American history. Eight years of Democratic control of the White House followed. freedownload change dvd to vcd

Rank and file Republicans put up with a lot of crap of from our party. But we will not put up with a party that takes a still larger share of our income to fund a bloated Government. For that, you don’t need a Republican Congress or president. Democrats will do just fine. (Although in fairness to President Clinton, he was much more fiscally conservative than George II has been.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Washington Post:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Democrats fumed last week at Vice President Cheney’s suggestion that criticism of the administration’s war policies was itself becoming a hindrance to the war effort. But a new poll indicates most Americans are sympathetic to Cheney’s point.

Seventy percent of people surveyed said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale — with 44 percent saying morale is hurt “a lot,” according to a poll taken by RT Strategies. Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale.

The results surely will rankle many Democrats, who argue that it is patriotic and supportive of the troops to call attention to what they believe are deep flaws in President Bush’s Iraq strategy. But the survey itself cannot be dismissed as a partisan attack. The RTs in RT Strategies are Thomas Riehle, a Democrat, and Lance Tarrance, a veteran GOP pollster.

Their poll also indicates many Americans are skeptical of Democratic complaints about the war. Just three of 10 adults accept that Democrats are leveling criticism because they believe this will help U.S. efforts in Iraq. A majority believes the motive is really to “gain a partisan political advantage.” [Emphasis added.]

Well of course it hurts the morale of our troops to say they’re fighting for a lie and should be withdrawn immediately. And of course the Democrats are leveling their “criticisms” for political reasons. They want to wound this president, and they don’t care what their calls for surrender mean to the troops, the Iraqis or U.S. security.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Politically, the Democrat Party is as serious as cancer. But morally, it is no longer a serious party. The American people know this, which is why, disgusted as they are with the Republicans, they will not turn the Congress over to the Democrats.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Sunday Times:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Angered by negative portrayals of the conflict in Iraq, Bruce Willis, the Hollywood star, is to make a pro-war film in which American soldiers will be depicted as brave fighters for freedom and democracy.

It will be based on the exploits of the heavily decorated members of Deuce Four, the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, which has spent the past year battling insurgents in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.

Willis attended Deuce Four’s homecoming ball this month in Seattle, Washington, where the soldiers are on leave, along with Stephen Eads, the producer of Armageddon and The Sixth Sense.

[…]

He is expected to base the film on the writings of the independent blogger Michael Yon, a former special forces green beret who was embedded with Deuce Four and sent regular dispatches about their heroics.

Yon was at the soldiers’ ball with Willis, who got to know him through his internet war reports on www.michaelyon.blogspot.com. “What he is doing is something the American media and maybe the world media isn’t doing,” the actor said, “and that’s telling the truth about what’s happening in the war in Iraq.”

Willis has also put a $1 million bounty on the head of Osama Bin Laden or any other major al-Qaeda figure.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to Michelle Malkin.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

[New video next Sunday.]freedownload change dvd to vcd

I miss the days when Republicans had principles:freedownload change dvd to vcd

WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled Congress, in a departure from the traditional GOP support for states’ rights and limited federal rule, has been moving on a number of fronts to curtail state and local powers over matters important to business groups and advocates of tighter national security.

The recent moves by Congress have begun to provoke objections even in states that are socially conservative and have pro-business governments.

“It does appear that Congress is becoming increasingly unplugged from the states,” said Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican. “It’s a real growing source of frustration for both Democratic and Republican governors.”

There are days when I’m really quite stunned by how undisciplined my party has been in the exercise of power. Had you told me ten years ago that the hallmarks of a Republican Congress would be prolific spending and a betrayal of federalism, I would have said you were nuts.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Note to file: power corrupts even (especially?) Republicans.freedownload change dvd to vcd

ADDED — Relatedly, I heard the economist Thomas Sowell say again today in an interview on Fox what he has said many times before: “Democrats are the only reason to vote for Republicans.”freedownload change dvd to vcd

When you buy a gun from any reputable dealer — which is to say, any dealer with an FFL (federal firearms license) — your purchase will usually be submitted for clearance to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, operated by the FBI. (If you have a state-issued, federally-approved license to carry a handgun, your purchase is generally exempt from clearance. In most states, the background check for a carry license is more stringent than the federal background check for a purchase. If you’ve passed the former, you cannot fail the latter.*)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Most of the data the FBI relies upon come from the states. If the data are incomplete, the FBI may clear a purchase prohibited by federal law. And so it has, more than once:freedownload change dvd to vcd

WASHINGTON — In Alabama, a man with a history of mental illness killed two police officers with a rifle he bought on Christmas Eve.

In suburban New York, a schizophrenic walked into a church during Mass and shot to death a priest and a parishioner.

In Texas, a woman taking anti-psychotic medication used a shotgun to kill herself.

Not one of their names was in a database that licensed gun dealers must check before making sales — even though federal law prohibits the mentally ill from purchasing guns.

In many states, privacy laws prevent the sharing of mental health records with law enforcement. Federal legislation to require the sharing of the records is meeting resistance, but not from the gun rights lobby. It comes from the mental health lobby:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Michael Faenza, president and chief executive of the National Mental Health Association, said forcing states to share information on the mentally ill would violate patient privacy and contribute to the stigma they face.

“It’s just not fair. On the one hand, we want there to be very limited access to guns,” Faenza said. “But here you’re singling out people because of a medical condition and denying them rights held by everyone else.”

What pap! We also “single out” the blind and deny them a driver’s license. Their condition is the reason for, and reasonably related to, the denial. Where do some people get the idea that the Government should never make any distinctions, no matter how sensible, among its citizens?freedownload change dvd to vcd

(*To learn whether your state license qualifies as a federally-approved exemption to NICS, see this chart from the ATF.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Charles Moore, in the London Telegraph, on why Israel’s fate is our fate:freedownload change dvd to vcd

All I want to ask my fellow Europeans is this: are you happy to help direct the world’s fury at the only country in the Middle East whose civilisation even remotely resembles yours? And are you sure that the fate of Israel has no bearing on your own? In Iran, the new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes the link. The battle over Palestine, he says, is “the prelude of the battle of Islam with the world of arrogance,” the world of the West. He is busy building his country’s nuclear bomb.

Reuters (via Yahoo News):freedownload change dvd to vcd

LONDON — The British Broadcasting Corporation has upheld a complaint against one of its journalists who said in a radio report she cried when a dying Yasser Arafat was flown from the West Bank in 2004.

Barbara Plett made the remark in a dispatch for the “From Our Own Correspondent” program describing how she felt when a helicopter carrying Arafat, who was gravely ill, took off from his compound, according to a BBC Web site.

“When the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose from his ruined compound, I started to cry,” she said in the 30 October, 2004 broadcast.

I know I have to choke back tears whenever a terrorist dies. Don’t you?freedownload change dvd to vcd

It doesn’t bother me that major media outlets are usually possessed of a liberal bias.* It bothers me that they resolutely refuse to declare it. This is one of the major differences between bloggers and traditional journalists. The former wear their bias on their sleeves; the latter pretend they have none. But it’s difficult for humans to escape their bias. Even decisions about what to present as news and how to present it will reflect the worldview of the source.freedownload change dvd to vcd

On any given day at Memeorandum, you’ll find right-wing bloggers emphasizing one story while left-wing bloggers are emphasizing another. “News” is in the eye of the beholder. And then, if you pay attention to diction, you’ll notice subtle but important differences in how conservative and liberal bloggers characterize whatever news they’re emphasizing. Right-wing bloggers may report that President Bush said; left-wing bloggers may report that President Bush claimed. Both words impart the same general idea, but they don’t impart the same impression. In neither case, though, is anybody pretending to be objective or “fair and balanced.”freedownload change dvd to vcd

Like the legacy media, the blogosphere is biased. But unlike the legacy media, it’s transparently biased. And there’s a lot to be said for that.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(*I assume here that only a liberal could weep for a dead Arafat.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Good gawd: watch the video. In the second half, you’ll see what you only heard in the first half.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Story here.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to Polipundit.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Our guys and gals in uniform are doing good work in a lot of places, and I’m happy to oblige a request from one of them. Folks, go here please.freedownload change dvd to vcd

What if Michael Moore had made a documentary of the Civil War? Here’s the video.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to Homocon.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

What a shock.freedownload change dvd to vcd

In the debate over same-sex marriage and civil unions, you hear a good deal about hospital visitation as a right to which gay couples are supposedly deprived. Although this claim is probably sympathy-producing, it’s also bogus. I’ve been an RN for 12 years; I know for a fact that you don’t have to be anything more than the friend of a friend of a friend to visit a hospitalized patient. Hospital visitation policies are now so lax as to be nonexistent. freedownload change dvd to vcd

Meanwhile, there’s something you almost never hear about in the debate over same-sex marriage, even though it’s something of which gay couples are in fact deprived. It’s called spousal privilege against compelled testimony. Heterosexual couples have it; gay couples don’t. Case in point:freedownload change dvd to vcd

NEW YORK — A gay man charged with helping his lover loot a wealthy school district has asked a judge to rule that state law protecting spouses from having to testify against each other also applies to same-sex partners.

Stephen Signorelli, fighting charges that he stole at least $219,000 from the Roslyn, New York, school district, is seeking to bar testimony by his longtime companion, Frank Tassone, the district’s former superintendent.

[…]

In a motion filed before a judge in Nassau County, Signorelli sought to bar such an appearance, saying he and Tassone deserved the same protection as a heterosexual couple.

On the view that the trust and intimacy of marriage would be undermined by requiring them to take the stand against one another, the law exempts heterosexual spouses from compelled testimony. Gay spouses enjoy no such exemption.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Now admittedly, a cry for spousal privilege in criminal proceedings isn’t as sympathy-evoking as a cry for hospital visitation. But the former is at least a cry to remedy an actual inequality.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Go now and let Jeff break you up. The dude’s a riot.freedownload change dvd to vcd

freedownload change dvd to vcd

If you’re a small-government, South Park Republican, you have exactly one true representative in Congress: Ron Paul (R-TX). A consistent advocate of fiscal restraint and personal freedom, he’s the most libertarian member of the House. He’s also my political hero, even though — or maybe because — the party bosses can’t stand him:freedownload change dvd to vcd

In 1996, Paul was again elected to the House as a Republican. Mainstream Republican Party figures backed the incumbent, Greg Laughlin, a Democratic representative who had switched parties in the wake of the Republican takeover of Congress. Laughlin attempted to portray Paul’s views as extreme and eccentric. However, Paul won the primary and went on to win the general election.

Leaders of the Texan Republican Party made similar efforts to defeat him in 1998, but he again won the primary and the election. The Republican congressional leadership then agreed to a compromise: Paul votes with the Republicans on procedural matters and remains nominally Republican in exchange for the committee assignments normally due according to his seniority.

In an interview published today in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Rep. Paul tells the truth about federal spending.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(By the way, God bless the people of Texas’ working-class 14th Congressional District, who keep Ron Paul in the U.S. House even though he doesn’t bring home a dime of bacon.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Good. And when they find the “war on drugs” itself deeply troubling, they’ll demand a change in the law. For it’s the “war” — and not a judge’s opinion — that occasions this sort of outrage in the first place. freedownload change dvd to vcd

Reuters (via Yahoo News):freedownload change dvd to vcd

NEW YORK — U.S. consumers are heading into the holiday season in a much cheerier mood now gasoline prices are easing and the economy appears to be shaking off the impact of Hurricane Katrina, data on Wednesday showed.

[…]

The University of Michigan’s final reading of consumer sentiment for November rose to 81.6 from 74.2 in late October, beating analysts’ forecasts of a rise to 80.5, according to sources who saw the subscription-only report.

“It looks like the economy is stabilizing after the hurricane-related stresses and we’re heading into the holidays with an upturn in confidence that is encouraging and bodes well for the good consumer spending over the next month or so,” said Gary Thayer, chief economist at AG Edwards & Sons in St. Louis.

Well, she certainly looks heartbroken:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Umm, hmm.freedownload change dvd to vcd

A must-see video. Enjoy.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to Gay Patriot.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

The future of American politics in a nutshell:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The most depressing prospect is that this will be the status quo for years to come. Liberals will shriek about GOP radicalism and conservatives will whine about the lack of it. And we’ll all have to make do with 2% milk.

When word came yesterday of the Catholic Church’s decision to ban gay seminarians, I asked a secular question: could the American branch of the Church make do without homosexual priests? But I didn’t express a view on the decision itself. I’m not a Catholic; it’s not for me to say. Moreover, as I understand Catholic theology, it’s not even for the Catholic laity to say. Church doctrine comes from the hierarchy, as revealed — or so the hierarchy claims — by God in Scripture. It’s not up for a vote.freedownload change dvd to vcd

The Left now tells us — quite rightly, I believe — that “creationism,” also known as “intelligent design theory,” doesn’t belong in our Nation’s classrooms because a belief in God as creator is a matter of faith, not science. Even if creationism is correct, it’s still not science, which is the study of “how the natural world works, with observable physical evidence as the basis of … understanding.” [Italics added.]freedownload change dvd to vcd

But if faith can’t answer questions of science, isn’t the corollary proposition also true, namely that science can’t answer questions of faith? And isn’t it wildly presumptuous for a political hack to admonish the Catholic Church on its own theology? Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, on the Vatican’s ban of gay priests:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The Catholic Church is showing an aversion to both the teachings of Christ and science. (Link)

Questions: What “science” is Mr. Solmonese referring to? And in any event, why should an institution of faith yield to science? On questions of Catholic theology, to whom should we expect that most people will defer: a secular gay political organization, or the Vatican? Finally, if secular political outfits are to remark upon religious beliefs adverse to the interests of gays, why aren’t the fatally anti-gay beliefs of Islam more pressing than non-violent Catholic beliefs?freedownload change dvd to vcd

I hope you have a safe, enjoyable holiday weekend. freedownload change dvd to vcd

This is mind-boggling asininity:freedownload change dvd to vcd

FARIBAULT, Minn. — A trip to the restroom resulted in a trip to the hospital for a Bloomington man who accidentally shot himself in the hand over the weekend at a gun show.

Faribault Police Sgt. Richard Larson said the 59-year-old man shot himself while removing his gun from a hook in a bathroom stall while attending the 31st annual Faribault Rifle and Pistol Club gun show on Sunday morning.

The man was taken to a local hospital, where he was treated and released by Sunday afternoon.

From this we can deduce that the ole boy was carrying his sidearm “free style,” i.e. stuffed down the front of his pants, itself an act of incredible stupidity. And then, when he had to drop trouser to tend to his back end elimination needs, the question presented itself: “What to do with the gun?” At that point, he had no good options.freedownload change dvd to vcd

freedownload change dvd to vcd

Sidearms belong in a holster, one that covers the trigger guard. As you can see from the picture, I prefer kydex to leather.freedownload change dvd to vcd

In addition to safety, which is paramount, there’s another good reason to holster your handgun. In the event your concealment technique fails and you get “made,” i.e. seen as carrying a gun, you’re less likely to create panic if the gun is holstered. People will assume you’re “supposed” to have it. (And indeed, if you have a license to carry, you are supposed to have it.) But even the most devoted advocates of the Second Amendment will wonder about a man with a gun stuffed down the front of his pants. Criminals don’t holster their firearms.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to Ravenwood’s Universe.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

The irony will be lost on some:freedownload change dvd to vcd

A Guantanamo detainee is suing to be allowed to have a copy of the Bible. The prison only allows inmates to have the Koran. After the prisoner’s lawyer shipped him a Bible, along with two volumes of Shakespeare, prison officials confiscated the package. Although a judge has not sorted out the dispute, the prison has recently “cleared for release” the Shakespeare plays.

If you don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s a bad idea to get into a public spat with Justice Scalia.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Direland:freedownload change dvd to vcd

… I always thought it was a serious mistake for some sectors of the U.S. anti-war movement to have embraced [George] Galloway as an anti-war spokesman on his recent American speaking tour. Now, this repulsive and opportunistic pandering to homophobia by Galloway and his party’s leadership as part of their electoral strategy ought to make American opponents of the war shun them. Period.

(Hat tip to Will.) freedownload change dvd to vcd

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The many Democrats who initially supported the war would like to explain away their votes by claiming they were misled by the President. That claim is the real lie.

If this policy is taken seriously, can the American Catholic Church — with its shortage of priests, and a disproportionate number of gays among the ones it has — stay in business?freedownload change dvd to vcd

ADDED — From the Washington Post:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The document does not call for the removal of gay men who are already serving as priests …

Because local school districts lack control over their tax rates, the state’s school finance system is unconstitutional, the Texas Supreme Court held today. But, the Court said, the schools are not inadequately funded.freedownload change dvd to vcd

A state district judge, Democrat John Dietz of Austin, ruled last year that the school system was inadequately funded: freedownload change dvd to vcd

He cited evidence of a widening gap in educational achievement between “the haves and the have nots” and said Texas faces a bleak future if it fails to spend more on public education.

Why is poor educational achievement necessarily a sign of inadequate funding? Why isn’t it a sign that some parents don’t care about the education of their children? Or even a sign that some kids are not teachable?freedownload change dvd to vcd

I live in the Houston Independent School District, and every year the district charges me more in property taxes than it did the year before. For even though the state had, until today, capped the tax rate, the district makes it an annual habit to reappraise the value of my home. The value invariably rises by ten percent, which is, just coincidentally, the statutory maximum. This is the experience of homeowners all over Houston. And yet, year after year after year, HISD performs abysmally. There is no relationship between the amount of money the district takes in and the quality of education it puts out. As Justice Scott Brister noted in dissent:freedownload change dvd to vcd

… there is no end in sight; if the past is any indication, the new funding will not last long, and public education will not change much.

Indeed.freedownload change dvd to vcd

If you want to know why I’m not worried about my party’s chances in next year’s midterms, the answer is easy. We’re running against Democrats:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Democrats might have seen this as a signal not to push too hard on the war lest they risk uniting a fractured Republican Party. But they didn’t heed it. By midweek Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, introduced a resolution aimed at pushing political moderates to oppose the war in Iraq. His plan called for “redeploying” U.S. troops out of Iraq over the next six months, leaving a “rapid reaction force” in the region and then pursuing U.S. goals through “diplomatic” means. It was a crafted political proposal that was meant to be an alternative to “staying the course” while not calling for outright withdrawal. It was a return of “peace without victory.” And it backfired.

Five months after the U.S. Supreme Court said the Government could take their property and give it to the rich, the Kelo holdouts — buoyed by public outrage — have stayed put.freedownload change dvd to vcd

And it’s not the president:freedownload change dvd to vcd

To the charges that Bush “cherry-picked” intelligence, the commission co-chaired by former Democratic Sen. Charles Robb found that the intelligence available to Bush but not to Congress was even more alarming than the intelligence Congress had.

The Silberman-Robb panel also concluded, after a detailed investigation, that in no instance did Bush administration authorities pressure intelligence officials to alter their findings. [Emphasis added.]

Of course, it would have made no difference had the Democrats been given all the intelligence available to the president. As it was, they didn’t even read what they had.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Perhaps the Democrats can parlay their ignorance into a campaign slogan for the 2006 midterms: “Bush should have given us more to not read!”freedownload change dvd to vcd

Oh, sweet Jesus. The work of a .45 caliber Glock, which the owner treated as unloaded:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Bless his heart. There’s no need to rag on this fellow. He’s undergone nine hours of surgery and now faces some permanent loss of function in his hand. That’s penalty enough, don’t you think? No need to pile on. Besides, he’s already ragged on himself. ¹freedownload change dvd to vcd

The rules of firearms safety — culled from eons of experience by millions of gun owners — progress in a logical, stepwise fashion. The objective is to prevent injury or tragedy. Each rule builds on the ones preceeding it.freedownload change dvd to vcd

• Rule No. 1: Every gun is always loaded. Even if you “know” your gun is not loaded — this fellow shot himself with an “unloaded” gun — you still treat it as if it was loaded.freedownload change dvd to vcd

• Rule No. 2: Never allow the muzzle of your gun to sweep anything you are unwilling to damage or destroy.freedownload change dvd to vcd

• Rule No. 3: Keep your finger off the trigger until you have aligned sights on target and made a decision to fire.freedownload change dvd to vcd

• Rule No. 4: Be certain of your target and of what lies beyond it. (Bullets often overpenetrate target. Fortunately, this guy’s Black Talon overpenetrated to a Snap-On tool box.) freedownload change dvd to vcd

¹ Glock owners will recognize this fellow’s description of the disassembly procedure wherein he shot himself. For the non-Glock owner: he was taking his gun apart to clean it. This is perfectly acceptable, even necessary. But to field strip a Glock for cleaning, you must depress the trigger before you can take the slide off the frame. With magazine removed from the well, and after racking the slide, locking it back and then visually inspecting the breach for the absence of a bullet, I recommend use of a pen light with adapter to flood the barrel with light. (See image below.) If light does not exit the muzzle, “something” is blocking it, yes? It really shouldn’t be possible for a bullet to get lodged down in the barrel. But I encourage this extra step anyway. Like the instructors who trained me, I’m a safety nazi. freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to Xavier, another nurse with a gun.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

The consequences of irresponsible posturing:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Domestic political considerations, including particularly the “Bush Lied!” attacks and the overwhelming opposition of the Democrats to the Bush Doctrine in general, have effectively precluded the Bush Administration from adopting an effective response to the Iranian threat. While the Bush Administration could engage in bellicose rhetoric, of varying degrees of bluntness, it is doubtful that any foreign observer would be impressed at this stage, given the difficulties being experienced by the Bush Administration in even sustaining a national consensus for seeing the Iraqi war to a successful conclusion. This week’s Senate resolution only compounds those problems. Surely, it is obvious by now that foreign enemies of the US have become at least as adept at reading the domestic political situation in Washington as the N. Vietnamese were 30 years ago. It seems we are bound to repeat that history, but this time in a much more dangerous context. [Emphasis added.]

Our enemies aren’t the only ones who know this. Our friend Israel knows it, too. As late as August 2004, when the U.S. declared that it would not abide a nuclear Iran, many analysts believed that America’s willingness to act was all that prevented unilateral Israeli action:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Unlike in the early 1980s when Israel found itself isolated in perceiving a threat from Iraq’s nuclear program, the prospect of US-led multilateral pressure against Iran casts a unilateral strike in a more-problematic light.

With National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice warning last week that the US won’t tolerate a nuclear Iran, Israel is much more likely to act in tandem with its most powerful ally rather than electing to go it alone, observers say.

Yeah, well. That was then; this is now. The Democrats’ lies have had consequences.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Iran has called for Israel’s annihilation. One morning in the not distant future, members of the Israeli cabinet are going to sit at a conference table and listen intently as a military intelligence officer presents compelling evidence that this selfsame Iran is on the verge of acquiring a deliverable nuclear weapon. In June 1981, Israel bombed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. But the bombing of a single site won’t be possible this time:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Even the very ability of Israel’s military to repeat the decisive strike achieved at Osirak appears doubtful. While the Iraqi nuclear effort was concentrated at the Osirak plant, nuclear experts say the Iranians have dispersed their program at multiple sites, some of which are hidden underground.

That makes a repeat performance of the clean and decisive blow against Iraq almost impossible, analysts say. Not only is it unclear how Israeli forces would eliminate underground centrifuge installations, but the task of locating all of Iran’s nuclear targets requires a high degree of intelligence and risk.

“I don’t think there’s an option for a preemptive act because we’re talking about a different sort of a nuclear program,” says Shmuel Bar, a fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. “A hit-and-run preemptive attack can’t guarantee much success.” [Emphasis added.]

With Israeli air strikes likely to be of no avail, and with an American ground assault out of the question, Israel, herself a nuclear power, will contemplate the remaining option. She’ll likely have in mind this admonition:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Moments before dispatching Israeli pilots to bomb Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981, army Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan is said to have depicted the importance of the mission in stark terms: “The alternative is our destruction.”

ADDED — Today from Associated Press (via CNN):freedownload change dvd to vcd

TEHRAN, Iran — Parliament approved a bill Sunday requiring the government to block international inspections of its atomic facilities if the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency refers Iran to the Security Council for possible sanctions.

[…]

The United States and European Union want Iran to permanently halt uranium enrichment. But Tehran says the nonproliferation treaty allows it to pursue a nuclear program for peaceful purposes, adding it will never give up the right to enrich uranium to produce nuclear fuel.

The 35-member IAEA board of governors meets Thursday. In a preparatory report, the U.N. agency found that Iran received detailed nuclear designs from a black-market network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic program. Diplomats say those designs appear to be blueprints for the core of a nuclear warhead.

He-he:freedownload change dvd to vcd

For God’s sake, people: don’t stand right by the conveyor belt. Stand 7-8 feet back. That way we can all see whether our bags are coming — and I won’t have to kneecap you when I take my heavy bag off the belt.

Sam’s the man:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Oral argument in the United States Supreme Court may be the toughest assignment in American law. It requires weeks if not months of intensive preparation, intimate familiarity with an often sprawling paper record, and the ability to anticipate and finesse the barrage of sometimes eccentric questions from the justices.

Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush’s nominee for the court, argued 12 cases there, losing 2. He was fully prepared for 11 of them. In his most important and hardest argument, though, he was pinch-hitting on two days’ notice.

The reviews of that argument, in 1984, were nonetheless excellent. “Disputes over the First Amendment are so important, and so often botched, that it’s always a relief to hear one argued well,” Jim Mann wrote in The American Lawyer. “Alito handled himself particularly well under questioning from the court.”

Courtesy of Oyez, you can hear Sam Alito argue for the Government in FCC v. League of Women Voters, 468 U.S. 364 (1984).freedownload change dvd to vcd

Apropos the post immediately below, this from the latest issue of U.S. News & World Report:freedownload change dvd to vcd

For years, Americans have worried about the country’s porous borders, but in the past year or so the concerns have grown significantly, polls show, and for good reason. Changes in law enforcement operations have forced smugglers of drugs and illegal aliens into ever more isolated areas, increasing the number of deaths and the level of violence to a point where even the most hardened enforcement officials are alarmed. The number of arrests made by Border Patrol agents is one of the few reliable measurements of the rising influx. That number dropped right after 9/11, but it has since been climbing. In fact, the cost of protecting the nation’s borders has increased 58 percent since 9/11, but in three of the four years since the attacks, the number of people nabbed by the Border Patrol still increased. In the fiscal year that ended in September, the Border Patrol reported 1.19 million arrests, compared with 932,000 in fiscal year 2003. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States has grown from 8.4 million in 2000 to 11 million today.

As a result, the political ferment over immigration has never been greater. An October CBS News poll showed that 78 percent of Americans think the government is not doing enough to control the borders; talk shows bristle with demands for action. Terrorism is also a concern. Adm. James Loy, a former No. 2 at the Department of Homeland Security, has said that intelligence “strongly suggests” al Qaeda is eyeing the southern border as a path of least resistance to strike inside the United States.

Associated Press:freedownload change dvd to vcd

SCRANTON, Pa. — Federal officials say the arrest of 125 workers at a construction site for a new Wal-Mart distribution center should serve as a warning to employers who hire illegal immigrants.

All 125 workers arrested in the raid will be deported, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials said Friday. The workers from Mexico and Central America were detained Thursday at the site outside Pottsville, about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

“Employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens, and those who utilize false documents to gain employment, face significant criminal and administrative charges,” said John Kelleghan, acting special agent-in-charge for the immigration agency in Pennsylvania.

According to a spokesman for Wal-Mart, the workers were employed by a subcontractor, not by Wal-Mart.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Question: will the contractors, as Mr. Kelleghan’s remarks suggest, face investigation to determine whether they violated federal statute, which makes it unlawful to knowingly hire illegal aliens? freedownload change dvd to vcd

A “practice or pattern” of hiring illegals subjects the offender to jail time. When company officials start going to prison, the market for illegal labor will start to dry up.freedownload change dvd to vcd

But prosecutions won’t solve the underlying problem. We need immigration reform that acknowledges the needs of our economy. Millions of low-skilled workers come here because we have work for millions of low-skilled workers. And whether by implementing a guest worker program — albeit not one that rewards law-breaking — or by recalibrating our immigration quotas, we should welcome them. We need people who want to work. But we also need them to come through regular, aboveboard channels. Illegal entry enriches seedy smugglers, fosters violence, endangers the aliens themselves, discourages assimilation, damages the environment, undermines respect for the rule of law and creates a danger to national security. freedownload change dvd to vcd

Harry Reid is an ass clown:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., failed to read a specially prepared National Intelligence Estimate detailing Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs in the days before he voted to authorize President Bush to use force to invade the Arab state.

Human Events reported that Reid admitted last week he did not examine the report, which was prepared at the request of Senate Democrats by CIA Director George Tenet, even though Reid has been at the forefront of a political effort alleging the Bush administration misled Congress and the nation in its march to war against Saddam Hussein. [Emphasis added.]

From the Human Events article:freedownload change dvd to vcd

In an April 7, 2004, article by Dana Priest, the Washington Post reported that few members of Congress read the full 92-page October 2002 NIE. “No more than six senators and a handful of House members read beyond the five-page National Intelligence Estimate executive summary, according to several congressional aides responsible for safeguarding the classified material,” the Post said.

On the November 13 edition of “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D.-W.Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told host Chris Wallace, “There were only six people in the Senate who did [read the NIE], and I was one of them.” Rockefeller said he was “sure” that Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts (R.-Kan.) had also read it.

Roberts confirmed to me that he had in fact read the report. But it turns out that Reid did not.

At a November 15 press conference, I asked Reid and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.): “The Washington Post reported that six senators read that NIE in 2002 before the vote to authorize the war. Did both of you read it?” Reid at first said: “As indicated last week, Sen. [Carl] Levin [D.-Mich.] has worked very hard to make that public. Now, everyone has read it. Everyone has read it.”

But following up, I asked: “But before you voted for the war —”

Reid said: “We’re talking about six senators. The answer is, if you ask me, I didn’t read it. But I don’t know who did. But there’s a hundred senators, not six. And some members of the Intelligence Committee may have read it. I don’t know.” [Emphasis added.]

Of course, he didn’t read the NIE because he undoubtedly thought it unnecessary. In October 2002, he’d already heard years earlier from the Clinton Administration that Saddam had WMDs and was the “greatest security threat” America faced. freedownload change dvd to vcd

ADDED — This picture says it all. The Democrats were not misled and they know it. Their complaints have nothing to do with the quality or scope of the pre-war intel given to them. Their complaints are about the exercise of American power, which they despise. After all, this is a Nation of red state yahoos led by an idiot from Texas — although if you take the Democrats at their word, the “idiot” was smart enough to dupe them!freedownload change dvd to vcd

Given the opportunity to vote for an immediate redeployment of U.S. forces in Iraq, the Democrats have shown themselves to be political whores without the courage of their “convictions:”freedownload change dvd to vcd

The House voted 403-3 to reject a nonbinding resolution calling for an immediate troop withdrawal.

“We want to make sure that we support our troops that are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will not retreat,” Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said as the GOP leadership pushed the issue to a vote over the protest of Democrats.

[Warning: if you don’t blog, the first two sections of this post may not be of interest to you.]freedownload change dvd to vcd

Nominations are now open for the 2005 Weblog Awards.freedownload change dvd to vcd

freedownload change dvd to vcd

Let me say first that I know nothing about generating massive website traffic or winning Weblog Awards. I know only this: bloggers who want to keep blogging must find a way to make their sites interesting to themselves. Every link and every post must in some way gratify the site’s owner. Bloggers who write for others quit blogging.freedownload change dvd to vcd

This is not to say that bloggers shouldn’t take an interest in their readership. But it is to say, as Rebecca Blood did, that “If you allow yourself to begin posting entries based on what you think someone else wants you to write, you are missing the point of having a weblog.”freedownload change dvd to vcd

Polibloggers in particular are vulnerable to an especially debilitating illusion, namely that we can persuade people of something. We almost certainly cannot. Brian Leiter, a professor at the University of Texas and a wildly liberal blogger who is usually in error, is dead-on here [emphasis added]:freedownload change dvd to vcd

I am sometimes presented with the following criticism: “Your rhetorical style won’t persuade anyone who doesn’t already agree with you.” That is no doubt true, but, as we’ve just remarked, it is quite rare to persuade anyone by a careful, reasoned argument — indeed, so rare, that I don’t see it as worth the effort to try to do so on a blog.

…

But the criticism also presupposes that I want to persuade. I shall let the readers in on a secret (though I suspect it is obvious to my regular readers): I am not interested in persuading anyone.

… my goal in posting on various political topics is simply to alert like-minded readers to ideas and evidence and arguments which help strengthen their convictions regarding the truths they’ve already understood or glimpsed, as well as to give some expression to our collective outrage and dismay.

That describes the nature of the blogger’s proper interest in his readership.freedownload change dvd to vcd

As I’ve written before:freedownload change dvd to vcd

When I sit to blog, I just assume that my readership agrees with me, at least in the main. Accordingly, I try to post items that likeminded readers will find informative, engaging, useful or amusing. To borrow from R.W. Emerson’s letter to Walt Whitman, I endeavor to post material that stikes the South Park Republican as “fortifying and encouraging.” Or that causes him to call his congressman. Or that induces him to shake his head in disbelief.

Likewise, readers of poliblogs should know it’s exceedingly improbable that they will dislodge a blogger from his well-settled views, or call him a name he hasn’t already heard. Now and again I’m astonished to get e-mail from an outraged liberal who evidently fancies himself the first person ever to call me a “self-loathing homosexual” on account of my conservatism. I’m 40 years old. I’ve been a Republican since I was teenager. The first presidential candidate I voted for was Ronald Reagan. Do you think I’ve not heard “self-loathing homosexual” a bazillion times already? And yet, I’m still unmoved.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Whatever else blogging may be, it is not a medium of persuasion.

According to StatCounter, I’ve had 77,795 unique visitors so far this year. In the world of blogging, that’s a very number small indeed. Moreover, most of those readers came only once, never to return. (Some came here on Google searches, looking for everything from porn to images of rainbows.) But guess what? I’m thrilled with the small traffic I get. I began blogging to have fun, to record what I’ve read on the Web and to clarify my own thinking. That any number of others have joined me, whether to their pleasure or chagrin, is all gift. freedownload change dvd to vcd

The Weblog Awards are good fun. (By the way, you can nominate your own blog.) But know this: the best most bloggers can hope for on an Internet of 20 million blogs (with hundreds more added daily) is not to win an award. The best we hope for is to be true to own views, expressed in clear and grammatically correct prose, and then to be grateful for ever how many people we’re lucky enough to either infuriate or encourage.

While I’m meta-blogging, kudos to Carsen for launching what appears to be the first alliance of gay and lesbian bloggers. Known an Spectrum Bloggers, the alliance is already growing fast.

In my ongoing battle against spammers, I’ve decided to close comments to everyone except those with a TypeKey identity. Most of the people who comment here occasionally already have one. If you don’t, you can get one at the link. A TypeKey is free, requires no personally identifying information and can be used on any Movable Type blog that requires comment registration.freedownload change dvd to vcd

I’ve done this before — closed comments to non-TypeKey users — only to back off when a couple of people complained. I won’t back off this time. Spam is too annonying, Movable Type blogs too ubiquitous and a TypeKey too easy to obtain to not require people to authenticate their (pseudonymous) online identity. freedownload change dvd to vcd

The House GOP leadership will presently afford congressional Democrats an opportunity to go on record in favor of surrender to the enemy.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Let’s see how many of these nattering bitches actually put their votes where their mouths are. freedownload change dvd to vcd

ADDED — Scurry, scurry: “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office had no immediate comment.”freedownload change dvd to vcd

ADDED II — “Don’t make us vote our mouths:”freedownload change dvd to vcd

“A disgrace,” declared House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “The rankest of politics and the absence of any sense of shame,” added Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat.

Heh, heh, heh.freedownload change dvd to vcd

An anonymous law student now in externship at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit relates his experience. Of one of the judges, the student writes:freedownload change dvd to vcd

For many this would be dull and degrading. For externs, however, this acknowledgment of our existence is life saving. In that almost 6th Sense moment, you have the distinct impression he sees your physical form as present in the room. Sometimes, he even responds to words coming out of your mouth. That is not to say that he often ‘responds’ to you, but that his comments may drift in the general direction of a topic that you have mentioned.

(Thanks to Howard Bashman.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Associated Press (via Yahoo News):freedownload change dvd to vcd

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court will release audio tapes immediately after argument sessions in upcoming cases involving abortion rights and a protest of the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gays.

Television cameras are barred from the court and reporters are not allowed to use tape recorders.

In major cases the court releases same-day audio tapes, which were first used in response to news media requests in 2000 when the court heard Florida ballot recount appeals that determined the outcome of the presidential election.

The court announced Friday that it had decided to follow the same procedure for the Nov. 30 argument about New Hampshire’s parental consent abortion law and the Dec. 6 argument in a case that asks if the government can withhold federal funds from colleges that bar military recruiters in protest of the policy on gays.

The abortion case is Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood (Docket No. 04-1144; link to briefs in PDF); the “don’t ask, don’t tell” case is Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (Docket No. 04-1152; link to briefs in PDF). freedownload change dvd to vcd

If these tapes are made available online, I will of course post the link.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Forced by the evidence and the votes of their own senators to concede that in 2003 the intelligence showed Iraq in possession of WMDs, the Democrats are saying now that they didn’t have all the intelligence. Mr. Bush, we’re told, withheld some of it. freedownload change dvd to vcd

So what was Mr. Bush withholding in February 1998 when he was governor of Texas and Madeleine Albright was Secretary of State for the Clinton Administration? This is what she told a town hall meeting at Ohio State University [emphasis added]:freedownload change dvd to vcd

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. On behalf of my colleagues and myself, thank you very much for coming. During the next hour and a half, we plan to discuss with you why the confrontation between Iraq and the world matters to us as Americans; how it developed; and what our strategy is for settling it in a way that leaves us, our friends in the region and the entire world safer.

Iraq is a long way from Ohio, but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face. And it is a threat against which we must, and will, stand firm.

In discussing Iraq, we begin by knowing that Saddam Hussein, unlike any other leader, has used weapons of mass destruction even against his own people. In fact, he is a repeat offender, having used them both in the battle and against his people.

When the Gulf War ended seven years ago, Iraq was required to destroy such arms, and a special United Nations commission, called UNSCOM, was created to verify that and to see that weapons would not be replaced. Despite repeated Iraqi obstruction, UNSCOM has uncovered and destroyed more of those deadly weapons than were demolished during the entire Gulf War. But the evidence is strong that Iraq continues to hide prohibited weapons and materials.

Here’s the transcript.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Absorb this: for short-term political gain, the Democrats are undermining the morale of American troops in harm’s way and lying about an issue of national security.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Washington Times:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Democrats said yesterday that Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s confirmation is not guaranteed as senators kept the focus on a 20-year-old document in which the Supreme Court nominee asserted that the Constitution “does not protect a right to an abortion.”

Not guaranteed? Yes it is.freedownload change dvd to vcd

First, the votes are there to confirm Judge Alito. Second, as Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) makes clear in this op-ed [reg req’d] for the Omaha World-Hearld, there isn’t going to be a filibuster — or, more precisely, if there is a filibuster, it will be broken.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Over at Blogs for Bush, Matt Margolis writes: “I think the Democrats are seriously considering a filibuster.” Perhaps. But I suspect the Democrats want to save the filibuster for a nomination that could actually put Roe in jeopardy. (Even assuming that John Roberts and Sam Alito would vote to overrule Roe, there are still five votes on the Court for sustaining it.) For now, it’s at least as likely that the Democrats are trying to sound tough for the left-wing interest groups to whom they’re politically beholden.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Bruce Bawer:freedownload change dvd to vcd

What they’ve reaped, alas, is a generation of Muslims, many of whom view their neighborhoods as colonies amid enemy territory — and who demand this autonomy be recognized. In Britain, imams have pressed the government to designate part of Bradford as being under Muslim law. In Belgium, Muslims in the Brussels neighborhood of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek consider it to be under Islamic jurisdiction. In Denmark, Muslim leaders have sought similar control over parts of Copenhagen. In France, an official met with an imam at the edge of Roubaix’s Muslim district out of respect for his declaration that it was Islamic territory. In many cities, police have stopped patrolling certain enclaves, the authorities having effectively ceded control to local religious leaders.

Gerard Alexander of the University of Virginia, as quoted by George F. Will:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Perhaps conservatives were naive to expect any party, ever, to resist rent-seeking temptations when in power. Just as there always was something fatally unserious about socialism — its flawed understanding of human nature — is it possible that there has also been something profoundly unserious about the limited-government agenda?

It’s an excellent essay.freedownload change dvd to vcd

The answer depends on whether you’re in Houston or Los Angeles.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Now Houston isn’t New York or LA, both of which I’ve visited many times; they’re fabulous cities, and they can offer you things Houston cannot. But good housing at an afforable price isn’t one of them.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Jon Henke is waiting for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Bridges to Nowhere) to resign, as promised.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Don’t wait up, Jon.freedownload change dvd to vcd

P.S. “It’s a cheap stunt by the GOP:” Alaska gets the pork anyway. freedownload change dvd to vcd

As a class, the elderly are the most self-absorbed, pampered people in America. They are straddling their grandchildren with crushing debt and setting up their middle-aged adult children to face vicious blowback when they themselves become old.freedownload change dvd to vcd

This undoubtedly explains why some describe the AARP as “dangerous.”freedownload change dvd to vcd

You know those bogus e-mails that litter your inbox with promises of riches if only you’ll divulge your bank account and PIN numbers? I got one today from a woman who’s dying of cancer and wants to will me $1.5 million:freedownload change dvd to vcd

I have been touched by God to donate from what I have inherited from my late husband to the you for the good work of God, rather than allow my relatives to use my husband hard earned funds ungodly.

Well, praise God!freedownload change dvd to vcd

Alas, she says I can’t come over in person to pick up a check (so as to begin my godly spending promptly), or even call to tell her how much I know the Lord (& Taylor’s) would appreciate her generosity:freedownload change dvd to vcd

At the moment I cannot take any telephone calls right now due to the fact that my relatives are around me and my health status.

At the moment right now, her relatives and health status are keeping her off the phone, but not the Internet?freedownload change dvd to vcd

Watching America, a website devoted to foreign press coverage of the United States, has relaunched with a jazzy new look.freedownload change dvd to vcd

How much did these little deprivations of liberty cost the taxpayer? And to what end?freedownload change dvd to vcd

San Diego Union-Tribune:freedownload change dvd to vcd

WASHINGTON — More people were arrested for marijuana offenses last year than at any time in U.S. history.

More than 770,000 people were cited for marijuana-related violations in 2004, according to the FBI’s latest annual uniform crime report. Almost 90 percent of them were charged only with possession.

With the risk of arrest up, surely the number of pot smokers is down, right? Wrong:freedownload change dvd to vcd

“We’re seeing a lot of marijuana, and a lot of seizures and arrests,” said Lt. Richard Rotha, commander of the San Diego Police Department narcotics enforcement unit. “It’s probably the most available of any of the illicit drugs. It’s pretty consistent.”

So people are still doing as they wish with their own lives and bodies? Imagine that! freedownload change dvd to vcd

More:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Despite the uptick in enforcement, marijuana use has declined only slightly since 1997, according to federal data analyzed by the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project, which seeks to reduce marijuana penalties. Marijuana availability and daily marijuana use among 12th graders, for example, was the same as in 1975, despite a tripling of the arrests since the 1980s, according to the Policy Project and other groups working to legalize marijuana.

“Present policies have done little if anything to decrease marijuana’s availability or dissuade youth from trying it,” said Pierre, the executive director of NORML. He said a majority of young people in the United States now report having easier access to pot than to alcohol or tobacco.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Government that subsidizes tobacco production says it’s concerned for the pot smoker’s health:freedownload change dvd to vcd

“We think the use of marijuana is consequential, and there is a health impact for the users,” said David Murray, drug policy analyst for the White House Office of Drug Control Policy. “We are saying, ‘This is a risk you are taking’ if you use marijuana. It’s a public health problem.”

Of course, the Standard American Diet (SAD) is by far a greater public health problem than pot smoking. Are we going to start arresting people for what they eat? Why not?freedownload change dvd to vcd

Another voice for sanity:freedownload change dvd to vcd

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina should consider decriminalizing illegal drugs as it tries to stem the need for additional prisons, a former state Supreme Court chief justice said Monday.

Burley Mitchell, the state’s top judge from 1995 to 1999, said the war on drugs in North Carolina and nationwide has been “a total failure” that has filled up prisons. The money saved if police no longer made arrests and courts no longer handed out sentences could be used to treat drug addicts, he said.

“What if we decriminalized drugs? Then you’d knock out all of the profits of every dealer and more to the point, the big producers,” Mitchell said at a Raleigh luncheon crowd interested in prison reform. Drug demand also would go down due to lower supplies, and drug-related crimes such as robbery and murder also would fall, he said.

Meanwhile, the “DARE Generation” rebels:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The “drug war” has long faced scattered, mostly libertarian voices of dissent. It’s now beginning to face organized, topic-specific political opposition. And that, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing. freedownload change dvd to vcd

… is not what they were saying then.freedownload change dvd to vcd

A devastating video:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Yesterday, when I wrote this post, I was wondering where in the heck the RNC was. Now I know: in production. Well done, guys. Very well done.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Associated Press (via MSNBC):freedownload change dvd to vcd

Republicans countered with their own nonbinding alternative that the Senate approved on a 79-19 vote. Five Democrats sided with the majority party.

France readies herself to surrender one last time:freedownload change dvd to vcd

France always thought it had one last resort, one ready strategy for fending off the rage of its Arab street: beyond avoidance lay appeasement. No country in the West has done more to cultivate world Arab opinion, to appease Arab terrorists, to ostentatiously oppose American Middle East policy (Iraq above all), to champion the signal Arab cause of Palestine. It was no accident that Yasser Arafat chose Paris as his place to die — Paris, after Jerusalem, his second holiest city.

Paris burns anyway. As the French seem to learn every 70 years, appeasement does not work. It merely whets the appetite. And the angry alien young were already hungry. (Link)

The day of reckoning draws nigh:freedownload change dvd to vcd

As Congress and the White House struggle to trim up to $50 billion from the federal budget over five years — just 3% of the $1.6 trillion in deficits projected for that period — budget experts say the nation soon could face its worst fiscal crisis since at least 1983, when Social Security bordered on bankruptcy.

Without major spending cuts, tax increases or both, the national debt will grow more than $3 trillion through 2010, to $11.2 trillion — nearly $38,000 for every man, woman and child. The interest alone would cost $561 billion in 2010, the same as the Pentagon.

The bloggers are coming:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Isn’t this all a little pie-in-the-sky, however? Who could imagine supplanting the venerable Associated Press wire service, for instance?

“We’d be foolish not to try,” Simon replied, grinning toward Johnson. “You’re sitting four feet away from the guy who ended Dan Rather’s career.”

But still not hard enough:freedownload change dvd to vcd

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska — President Bush escalated the bitter debate over the Iraq war on Monday, hurling back at Democratic critics the worries they once expressed that Saddam Hussein was a grave threat to the world.

“They spoke the truth then and they’re speaking politics now,” Bush charged.

Bush went on the attack after Democrats accused the president of manipulating and withholding some pre-war intelligence and misleading Americans about the rationale for war.

“Some Democrats who voted to authorize the use of force are now rewriting the past,” Bush said. “They’re playing politics with this issue and they are sending mixed signals to our troops and the enemy. That is irresponsible.”

You’re being far too gentle with them, Mr. President. It’s more than irresponsible. It’s morally reprehensible. And it’s unpatriotic. The Democrats are lying about an issue of national security, undermining the morale of American soldiers in harm’s way and damaging the reputation of the United States. What other conclusion to reach, except that their ambition to power is stronger than their love of country?freedownload change dvd to vcd

No matter how disgusted I become with the Republicans’ domestic politics and with their abandonment of conservative principles — and from immigration to spending to federalism, I am deeply disgusted — I will still vote for them. The alternative is indecent.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to Polipundit.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

What a truly horrid idea.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Andrew Sullivan moves his blog to Time.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Today Newsweek tells us:freedownload change dvd to vcd

… the French riots aren’t about a culture clash. They are about jobs.

Let’s assume that’s correct. The French are screwed.freedownload change dvd to vcd

They simply will not undertake major, job-creating economic reform:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Yet for all these difficulties, a sort of magical thinking around economic issues still pervades Europe. Even with 20 million people out of work on the Continent, it’s almost an article of faith among French, German and Italian voters that their woes can be put right by simply tinkering with the system. Minor evolution of Europe’s social system is required, not revolution. Anyone suggesting that a more radical overhaul might be needed is instantly “Merkelized.”

The Democrats attempt to smear Sam Alito.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Reminder: a new episode of the HBO original series Rome airs tonight at 9 p.m. EST. An encore of last week’s episode airs at 8 p.m. EST.freedownload change dvd to vcd

And here, from Right Wing Nation, a more informative review than the one I provided, praising the series’ historical accuracy.freedownload change dvd to vcd

The Republicans are dead. Long live the Republicans:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Because state legislatures created mostly safe U.S. House seats after the past round of redistricting following the 2000 census, few congressional districts are truly up for grabs. Most districts are either reliably Republican or reliably Democratic, making credible, well-funded challengers of either party difficult to recruit.

Right now, no more than three dozen House seats are in play, and a few of those are held by Democrats. Open seats are more likely to change party than are those districts where an incumbent is seeking reelection, and retirements by a couple of entrenched Republicans give Democrats strong opportunities for takeovers. But Democrats are hoping more veteran Republican representatives will choose to retire this cycle.

For Democrats to retake the House, they will need to defeat about a dozen Republican incumbents, most of whom have turned back previously aggressive challengers. That’s a tall order.

[…]

The numbers in the Senate are even worse for Democrats. Republicans currently hold only 15 of the 33 Senate seats up for election next year, even though the party maintains a 55-45 majority in the Senate.

Freud called it projection:

… [the president’s left-wing critics] conveniently overlook the fact that if Bush lied, a long list of liberal icons have also been lying for a very long time, some from before the time he arrived in the Oval Office.

Liberal illusions are burning with the Peugeots:

The elephant isn’t really there, the media assure us. “The violence in France has not taken on religious overtones,” said The New York Times. “Islamic ideology and leaders play no role in the disturbances,” said The Washington Post.

But the “disaffected youth” shout “Allahu Akbar” as they toss Molotov cocktails into churches and synagogues. They talk of turning Paris into “Baghdad on the Seine.”

French arrogance and racism, and the sclerosis of the French welfare state, help explain why the elephant hasn’t assimilated. But the larger reason is that the elephant has chosen not to.

One of five questions for Muslims:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Why is only one of the 47 Muslim-majority countries a free country?

According to Freedom House, a Washington-based group that promotes democracy, of the world’s 47 Muslim countries, only Mali is free. Sixty percent are not free, and 38% are partly free. Muslim-majority states account for a majority of the world’s “not free” states. And of the 10 “worst of the worst,” seven are Islamic states. Why is this?

Next, the promotion of safer sex by banning the sale of cock rings to women:freedownload change dvd to vcd

… an ordinance that seeks to reduce the murder rate by disarming [gun] owners who are not criminals makes about as much sense as fighting alcoholism by prohibiting beer sales to Mormons.

(For the links, thanks to Real Clear Politics.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, on public referenda on same-sex marriage:freedownload change dvd to vcd

“What I really want people to understand is rather than seeing these as political contests, these are really profound, unfair, bordering on immoral elections,” Foreman told Reuters on Saturday. “Imagine if this was being done to a minority in Kosovo — people would be outraged.”

Yeah, and imagine if leaders of the gay community didn’t analogize torture and murder to free elections in which gays and lesbians participate — people would be pleasantly surprised!freedownload change dvd to vcd

Does Mr. Foreman think that kind of moral obtuseness is persuasive? Or does he believe that emotion is a substitute for reason? Or what?freedownload change dvd to vcd

Perhaps there’s less of it than before, but the rioting in France continues.freedownload change dvd to vcd

This is addendum to the post immediately below. freedownload change dvd to vcd

It has always troubled me that not only were U.S. intelligence agencies evidently wrong about the nature and scope of Saddam Hussein’s WMD programs as of 2003, but so also were the intelligence agencies of many other countries, including Israel. How can that be?freedownload change dvd to vcd

Pound for pound, the Israelis arguably have the fiercest military of any nation in the world. The Israelis are also understandably paranoid. That makes them not the sort of people the world wants in receipt of bogus intelligence warning of a danger to their security interests. freedownload change dvd to vcd

It was morally justifiable to depose the butcher Hussein even if he didn’t have WMDs. (Yes, other tyrants thrive under American forbearance. Many violent thugs also escape justice, but the patrolman isn’t wrong to catch the ones he can.) Still, this whole bloody affair should give us some pause — and the creeps — about the now apparent limits of human intelligence gathering.freedownload change dvd to vcd

This, from the Washington Post, you’ve probably already seen. (If Instapundit has something up, everyone has seen it, yes?) But I post it here as ready reference for future use and because it’s an important truth:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The administration’s overarching point is true: Intelligence agencies overwhelmingly believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and very few members of Congress from either party were skeptical about this belief before the war began in 2003. Indeed, top lawmakers in both parties were emphatic and certain in their public statements.

Game, set, match.freedownload change dvd to vcd

See one of its faces.freedownload change dvd to vcd

What’s the new conventional wisdom? Oh yes, the sky is falling for Republicans. Here’s still more “evidence” for that theory:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The Democratic National Committee under Howard Dean is losing the fundraising race against Republicans by nearly 2 to 1, a slow start that is stirring concern among strategists who worry that a cash shortage could hinder the party’s competitiveness in next year’s midterm elections.



From January through September, the Republican National Committee raised $81.5 million, with $34 million remaining in the bank. The Democratic National Committee, by contrast, showed $42 million raised and $6.8 million in the bank.

And this is before Howard Dean — whether on his own or under goading from Karl Rove — once again says something to help heal the fissures and restore the fraternalism among Republicans. And you know he will.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Scott McClellan, White House press secretary:freedownload change dvd to vcd

It is also regrettable that Senator Kennedy has found more time to say negative things about President Bush than he ever did about Saddam Hussein. (Link)

That’s the problem with today’s Democrats. They’re more likely to condemn the imperfections of democracy than the immorality of tyranny.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Finally, Mr. Bush answers the liberal liars:freedownload change dvd to vcd

TOBYHANNA, Pa. —President Bush, in the most forceful defense yet of his Iraq war policy, accused critics Friday of trying to rewrite history and charged that they’re undercutting America’s forces on the front lines.

“The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges,” the president said in his combative Veterans Day speech.

“While it’s perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began,” the president said.

And how are the liars reacting to the truth? By lying some more, of course. This today from Sen. John Kerry, a lout and fraud who represents Massachusetts:freedownload change dvd to vcd

I wish President Bush knew better than to dishonor America’s veterans by playing the politics of fear and smear on Veterans Day. This administration misled a nation into war by cherry-picking intelligence and stretching the truth beyond recognition.

But that’s not what this self-serving prevaricator said in 2002 when, seeing the same intelligence Mr. Bush was seeing, he voted for the war:freedownload change dvd to vcd

I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force — if necessary — to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security.

Moreover, Kerry was one of several Democratic senators who pressed President Clinton “to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq’s refusal to end its weapons-of-mass-destruction programs.” [Emphasis added.]freedownload change dvd to vcd

Among others, John Kerry is a liar without honor or decency, and without regard for the damage his lies may have done to this Nation’s security posture or its international reputation. He’s a gutless, self-promoting disgrace. And I’m elated that Mr. Bush has finally decided to engage him and his ilk. It’s overdue.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Reportedly, Congress intends to put cameras in the Supreme Court. Here’s why:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The bill would require that Supreme Court proceedings be broadcast unless a majority of justices voted no in an individual case, and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), committee chairman, said that the coverage would put “legitimate pressure” on the Court. Specter has criticized the Court for overturning federal statutes in language insulting to Congress, and he said Wednesday that “Americans would be flabbergasted” by the Court’s disrespect of Congress.

No we wouldn’t, you self-absorbed ass clown! Disrespect for Congress is an American tradition!freedownload change dvd to vcd

If you’re not watching the HBO original series Rome, you are missing some of the very finest programming on cable television. It’s utterly engrossing. The next episode, “The Spoils,” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. EST. See a promotional clip here. (You can see an encore presentation of last week’s episode, “Triumph,” at 8 p.m. EST.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

It’s not possible to bring you up to date on all the particulars if you’re joining the series only now. But in brief, Julius Caesar has vanquished the opposition in the Senate and assumed dictatorial powers. He plans an ambitious program of social reform. But as a tyrant, he has many enemies.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Magnificently acted on well-designed sets, Rome is truly must-see TV.freedownload change dvd to vcd

How pathetic has the GOP become? In a Republican-controlled Congress, the leadership can’t find the votes to cut even $54 billion in spending over five years.freedownload change dvd to vcd

As frame of reference, the Federal Government now spends $2.47 trillion annually.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(*See this.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Associated Press (via ABC News):freedownload change dvd to vcd

WASHINGTON — The increase in the number of people without health insurance has occurred largely because of illegal immigration, a study found.

Researchers at the RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank, analyzed data received from about 2,400 people in Los Angeles County in 2000 and 2001, and applied that information to the nation’s undocumented population at large.

The number of uninsured adults in the United States grew by about 8.7 million between 1980 and 2000. If the trend for Los Angeles County held true for the rest of the country, about a third of that growth can be attributable to illegal immigrants.

Anybody who works in a hospital knows this is true. Go to the emergency rooms or obstetrics units of the major hospitals in any big city and you’ll see institutions providing huge amounts of uncompensated care. Well, the care is uncompensated by the illegal aliens themselves. It is compensated by you and me in the form of higher taxes and higher insurance premiums. freedownload change dvd to vcd

It’s just not possible for a hospital to buy supplies and equipment and pay for labor without passing those costs on to someone. And when they can’t pass them on, they close. There’s now a cottage industry in this country dealing in closed hospitals.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Ronald Rotunda, professor of law at George Mason University, in a written opinion requested by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA, on Judge Alito’s supposed conflict of interest in a case involving a mutual fund company:freedownload change dvd to vcd

I have evaluated the situation and conclude, for the reasons discussed below, that neither federal statutes, nor federal rules, nor the Model Code of Judicial Conduct of the American Bar Association provide that a judge should disqualify himself in any case involving a mutual fund company (e.g., Vanguard, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price) simply because the judge owns mutual funds that the company manages and holds in trust for the judge.

…

The judge’s ownership of shares in a mutual fund (e.g., the Vanguard Index Fund) is not an ownership interest in the Vanguard Company itself anymore than my ownership of a saving account makes me an equity owner of the Saving Bank. (Link) [Link opens PDF]

This nonsense should give you a good idea of how desperate the Democrats are vis-a-vis this nomination. [Req. req’d.]freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to Bench Memos.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Today, Down Syndrome. Tomorrow, …freedownload change dvd to vcd

The Online Coalition, led by Markos Zuniga of Daily Kos and Michael Krempasky of RedState, needs your help.freedownload change dvd to vcd

More here. freedownload change dvd to vcd

When liberals and conservatives are against something, it’s almost certainly a bad idea.freedownload change dvd to vcd

The violence abates.freedownload change dvd to vcd

The Washington Post “informs” us that Republicans are experiencing “intensified anxiety” following elections in which two Democratic gubernatorial candidates won seats already held by Democrats. But as even the Post is forced to admit, “Off-year gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey have proved to be unreliable predictors of elections …”freedownload change dvd to vcd

Gee, ya think? Democrats also won those contests in 2001 — the year before Republicans went on to win the 2002 midterms.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Moreover, thanks to computer technology, U.S. House districts are now so gerrymandered as to make defeat of the incumbent party nearly impossible in all but a few cases. Whatever the mood of the country, the Democrats simply cannot reprise the 1994 Republican surge. It’s no longer structurally possible. And, albeit for other reasons, their prospects in the Senate aren’t any brighter.freedownload change dvd to vcd

The U.S. House of Representatives votes today on the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which would cut $54 billion in federal spending over the next five years. The bill’s passage is in doubt. Every Democrat is expected to vote ‘no,’ and 30 Republicans have not committed to voting ‘yes.’ (A list of the uncommitted Republicans is here.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Tim Chapman:freedownload change dvd to vcd

This is the first time spending cuts like this will be passed since 1997. GOP aides … conceded the historical importance of this event. As one leadership aide put it, “if we fail to pass this bill this time around, we may never be able to do a spending cut bill like this again.”

Andrew Roth:freedownload change dvd to vcd

News reports suggest that this bill will be tough to get through the House, but it shouldn’t be. This modest proposal only slows down the growth rate in mandatory spending by one-tenth of one percent over five years. Fiscally, it is not a heavy lift.

Happily, the bill also includes a rider that would finally get the Ninth Circus Circuit Court of Appeals under control:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The legislation to split the court … would create two appeals courts and essentially isolate California in a 9th Circuit joined only by Hawaii, Guam and the northern Mariana Islands. The rest of the states in the current 9th Circuit would shift to a new 12th Circuit.

…

Republicans have made reshaping the judiciary a priority, and the 9th Circuit is considered a plum target because it is the only appeals court left dominated by Democratic appointees. Unlike past attempts to divide the court, the House and Senate versions not only call for splitting the 9th Circuit but also for adding new federal judges to courts around the country. The House version would add more than 60 federal judges nationwide, including seven to a newly formed 9th Circuit.

… the House legislation was attached last week to a budget spending-reduction bill, making it tougher for Democrats to torpedo it in the Senate, where the split effort has run aground in the past. [Sen. Diane] Feinstein vowed to resist the maneuver, but everyone involved in the debate views the House approach as proof Republicans are pulling out all the stops to break up the court.

Thanks to Cox & Forkum, which has an excellent roundup of commentary, including this:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The meaning of Multiculturalism becomes clearest when it confronts the religion of Islam.

The Muslims also denigrate reason, not in favor of personal emotion but in favor of an equally subjective faith; in Islam, two and two make five if Allah wills it. As for the relationship of Islam to other cultures, the Koran is very clear. People of other cultures are to be forcibly converted to Islam — under threat of death — except for a few whose existence may be tolerated so long as they accept the status of “dhimmi,” second-class citizens who dutifully accept a whole series of restrictions lest they offend the sensibilities of Muslims.

Multiculturalism is a program for self-imposed dhimmitude. I have already pointed this out in stories I have posted about the absurd lengths to which Western Multiculturalists are willing to go to expunge our own culture out of an obsequious respect for Muslim “sensibilities.” The examples range from the trivial (removing a public sculpture of a pig in rural England, because Muslims consider the pig an “unclean” animal) to the ominous, such as Britain’s proposed law making it a crime to criticize someone else’s religion — essentially banning dissent against Islam.

But nowhere are the results more ominous than in France. The riots there are described as the product of France’s failure to “assimilate” Muslim immigrants from North Africa, and various reasons are cited for this failure. But the most fundamental reason is that Europe has long ago lost any real interest in assimilating its immigrants. Indeed, it has rejected the very idea of assimilation.

Despite the state constitutional amendments banning them, Dan Morgan at No Speed Bumps says the battle against gay marriages is already lost.freedownload change dvd to vcd

I think the battle was lost even earlier than Dan does. Calls for gay marriage are not the cause of change; they are the result of it. With the adoption of no-fault divorce laws, our society transformed marriage into an institution concerned chiefly with the happiness of couples. And if marriage is about the happiness of couples, there’s no good reason the couples in question can’t be gay.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(By the way, wouldn’t it be fascinating to present voters with a constitutional amendment banning no-fault divorce when presenting them with one banning gay marriage? Can people handle that much cognitive dissonance without their heads exploding?)freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to Vodkapundit.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Suppose your spouse or partner agrees, over your objection, to let the police search the house. If you are arrested as a consequence of the search, did the police violate your Fourth Amendment rights? The U.S. Supreme Court will answer presently.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to Howard Bashman.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Day 13: a curfew didn’t work. Imagine that.freedownload change dvd to vcd

PROP. 2: Ban on gay marriagefreedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE X — So Harris County is now reporting today’s numbers and the ‘no’ vote did slightly better here than statewide: 73-27. But that’s not enough to change the statewide results. Final: 76-24.freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE IX — As of 9:30 p.m., Harris County is reporting ‘early vote’ totals only; the split mirrors the statewide figures, 76-24; however, the early vote is usually heavily conservative. So I’ll be interested to see whether the percentages change as today’s vote comes in.freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE VIII — Dyke-o-rama: Houston’s mayor, Bill White, has been re-elected with more than 90% of the vote. Meanwhile, openly lesbian city controller Annise Parker ran without opposition and openly lesbian candidate Sue Lovell has earned a run-off spot for an at-large council seat, with her closest competitor nine points back. More here.freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE VII — The figures at 8:45 p.m. still include no results from Harris County. [This post bumped to top. See post below for non-Texas results.]freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE VI — Houston Chronicle:freedownload change dvd to vcd

AUSTIN — A state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage championed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry and social conservatives won overwhelming voter approval today as Texans decided nine proposed amendments.

I never had any doubt Prop. 2 would pass, and handily. I had hoped that the ‘yes’ vote might be held to 70% or less — and it still may, although the numbers are admittedly not now encouraging.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Despite today’s defeat — one in a series — I believe as strongly as ever that the question of gay marriage is properly answered by the people and not by the courts. Same-sex marriage is inevitable. Opposition to it is generational, and the law will change when the electorate changes. If the change is forced prematurely by judicial fiat, gay marriage will become the new Roe of American politics.freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE V — As you can see from the 8 p.m. figures, the ‘yes’ vote has pushed passed 70%, although there are still no results from Harris County (Houston).freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE IV — Servers for the conservative blogosphere are apparently overloaded. I can’t log on to any of the major sites.freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE III — In early voting, Prop. 2 was defeated in Travis County (Austin), where turnout ran well above the statewide average. No returns yet from Harris County (Houston), home to 1 in 5 Texas voters.freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE II — The first (statewide) results you see above are from early voting. I’m now cautiously optimistic that we may hold the ‘yes’ vote to no more than 70%.freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE — Polls closed. Results from early voting soon.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Polls in Texas are open until 7 p.m. CST.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(For the graphic, thanks to Red State.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

At last report, Democrat Tim Kaine was leading Republican Jerry Kilgore in the race for Virginia governor. [Democrat Kaine the winner in Virginia governor’s race.]freedownload change dvd to vcd

No results yet from the race for New Jersey governor. [Democrat Jon Corzine the winner in New Jersey governor’s race.]freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE VI — California proposition results here.freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE V — New York Times:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Ohio voters rejected a package of election revision measures yesterday that were inspired by President Bush’s disputed re-election victory in the state last year.

The initiatives, backed by Democrats, labor unions, government reform organizations and the Internet-fueled activist group MoveOn.org, would have stripped the secretary of state’s office of the authority to conduct elections and made it much easier to vote absentee. The package also included strict new limits on campaign contributions and the creation of an independent panel to redraw legislative district lines.

UPDATE IV — New York Times:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a billionaire Republican who spent more than $66 million to keep his job another four years, handily won re-election tonight, defeating Fernando Ferrer, a longtime Bronx politician hoping to be the first Latino elected mayor.

With 57 percent of the votes counted, Mr. Bloomberg had 56 percent of the vote compared with Mr. Ferrer’s 41 percent.

UPDATE III — CNN now projecting Democrat Jon Corzine winner of the New Jersey governor’s race.freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE II — CNN now also projecting Kaine the winner.freedownload change dvd to vcd

UPDATE I — AP now projecting Kaine the winner.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Daily Telegraph:freedownload change dvd to vcd

France was struggling to overcome one of its gravest post-war crises last night as every major city faced the threat of fierce rioting that began 12 nights ago and now seems to have spun out of control.

Despite an assurance from Philippe Douste Blazy, the foreign minister, that France was “not a dangerous country,” the spread of violence prompted the Foreign Office in London to warn travellers that trouble could break out “almost anywhere.”

…

Although the disorder began on the intimidating sink estates of Paris’s northern suburbs, trouble had been reported yesterday in the early hours from most regions of the country. Even areas such as Brittany, the Loire and Bordeaux, favoured by British holidaymakers and second-home hunters, have now been drawn into the worst wave of unrest in France since the spring revolt of 1968 set in motion the downfall of Gen Charles de Gaulle.

French police unions, saying the “civil war … spreads a little more every day,” have called for the dispatching of troops. How long until the French Government heeds their call?freedownload change dvd to vcd

Debra Saunders:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Coverage of the riots by major American media has been incomplete. Headlines have referred to “angry French teens” and “angry immigrants.” That’s misleading. According to a French official, most of these rioters are French born — the children or grandchildren of African and Arab immigrants. The word that is missing in the headlines, and that comes in later paragraphs in news stories, is: Muslim. Hence, the frequent rioters’ cry: Allahu Akbar. God is great. Not that you’ll read that in The New York Times.

But were the rioters fundamentalist Christians, that’d be the headline in the Times, wouldn’t it?freedownload change dvd to vcd

Voters in Texas go to the polls today to decide the fate of nine proposed amendments to the state’s constitution.freedownload change dvd to vcd

An unscientific, online poll by KPRC-TV, Houston’s NBC affiliate, has marriage-banning Prop. 2 passingly narrowly, 50-45. The actual ‘yes’ vote will of course be higher than that; but maybe this survey bodes well for hopes of turning out a 30% ‘no’ vote.freedownload change dvd to vcd

I’ll have all the returns tonight.freedownload change dvd to vcd

That’s a French policeman holding a shotgun shell. But guess what? It’s not his.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Yes, it’s exactly what you think. The situation is getting worse:freedownload change dvd to vcd

“They really shot at officers. This is real, serious violence. It’s not like the previous nights. I am very concerned because this is mounting,” one police officer said.

The rioters have now torched 4,000 cars, and shot and injured between ten and 30 police officers. freedownload change dvd to vcd

Fellow Republican blogger Matt Margolis of Blogs for Bush, in an otherwise satisfying post, yields to this overstatement: freedownload change dvd to vcd

Looks like the Democrats aren’t willing to risk losing their precious and unconstitutional judicial filibuster …

Now the filibuster is anti-democratic and there’s a case to be made for having the Senate abolish it. But “unconstitutional”? Come on, Matt. Article 1, Section 5: “Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings …” freedownload change dvd to vcd

Aren’t we Republicans supposed to believe in reading and following the Constitution’s text?freedownload change dvd to vcd

New York Times:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The Supreme Court rejected the position set out by Judge Alito in a dissent in an abortion case. But in at least three other cases, it adopted the position advanced in his dissent.

Frank B. Cross, a law professor at the University of Texas who has compiled a database tracking how the Supreme Court reviews appellate decisions, said: “This is the [third highest] of anyone in the database.¹ It shows that when [Alito’s] court took an important and controversial case and got it wrong, from the perspective of the Supreme Court, he identified that and dissented. Indeed, his dissent may have been part of what got the Supreme Court’s attention.” (Link)

If Professor Cross is right, his observation takes on even more significance when you consider how the Supreme Court works. Unlike the regional courts of appeal, which must take almost all cases appealed to them from the district courts, the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction is discretionary. Last Term, for example, the Court issued opinions in only eighty cases.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to The Buck Stops Here, whose very nice blockquote formatting I’ve decided to adopt.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

¹ When the Times article linked above first appeared on November 3, it erroneously reported that the Supreme Court had adopted more of Judge Alito’s dissents than of any other appeals court judge. In fact, Judge Alito ranks third in such dissents. The Times has corrected the error.freedownload change dvd to vcd

As point of reference, there are 179 federal appeals court judges.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Listen to this! [Link launches your media player.]freedownload change dvd to vcd

And then go here to help keep it on the air.freedownload change dvd to vcd

This is correct:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Judge Alito’s conservative record strongly suggests that he would be unwilling to read new rights into the Constitution. But his cautiousness also suggests the possibility that he could be reluctant to overturn a precedent like Roe.

Incidentally, the same holds true of John Roberts. Both Roberts and Alito are brilliant and accomplished jurists. In broad strokes, they share President Bush’s philosophy of judicial restraint and conservatism. Conservatives have no business opposing them. But neither judge is a clear vote to overturn Roe.

This is also correct:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Rather than exploding Roe with a 5-4 decision — the judicial equivalent of dynamite — it may be preferable to simply let termites eat away at Roe until it collapses on its own.

This is a slight variant on an argument made by my former Con Law professor Jack Balkin (a staunch liberal and abortion-rights supporter), who has argued that “the issue is not whether Roe is overruled. The issue is whether it is hollowed out and made practically irrelevant.” I’d put it a little differently: if, over time, Roe is “hollowed out and made practically irrelevant,” it will become ripe for overruling. And the reversal will come as less of a shock to the country.

The rest of Patterico’s fully correct post is here.freedownload change dvd to vcd

From reading their comments here and there in the blogosphere, I think many conservatives and liberals alike are under a false impression. Contrary to their belief, the Alito nomination is not immediately pivotal to Roe’s future. Even if Roberts and Alito were willing to join Scalia and Thomas in overruling Roe outright — which is, as Patterico notes, doubtful — that still gets us only four votes. There are nine members of the Court (9 - 4 = 5).freedownload change dvd to vcd

Since I assume no deficiency in the rudimentary math skills of the blogosphere’s readership, I conclude that people are unfamiliar with either the composition of the Court or the voting patterns of its members or both. But whatever the case, any rejoicing or howling about the imminent demise of Roe is unfounded.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Moreover, if ever we do get a Court willing to hollow Roe out incrementally,* it will take years to do it. For a long time yet to come, the “constitutional right” to an abortion is secure.**freedownload change dvd to vcd

(*If you think the coming battle over the Alito nomination is going to be something to behold, watch what happens if one of the Court’s liberals retires or dies on Bush’s watch. Bolt the doors, baby.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

(**And, of course, even the overruling or hobbling of Roe guarantees nothing, except that abortion would again be subject to democratic regulation, which, in many states, would mean hardly any regulation at all.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Newsweek:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Over the next several weeks, Democratic activists will go all-out to paint Alito as a hard-line conservative. He will be branded “Scalito,” a perfect twin for Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the Supreme Court’s most reliably right-wing votes on issues such as abortion and gay rights. The left-wing interest groups, which have been preparing for years for a once-in-a-generation fight to stop a right-wing judicial appointment, are planning on flooding the airwaves and Internet with anti-Alito diatribes. They see Alito as another Robert Bork, the conservative Supreme Court nominee they blocked with a furious lobbying campaign in 1987 during the Reagan administration.

They may have picked the wrong man. Alito, 55, is, like Scalia, an Italian-American from New Jersey, but he has a different judicial temperament. Scalia (like Bork before him) is charmingly acerbic, outspoken and doctrinaire. Alito is none of the above. He is modest and dweebish; he does not opine with bold strokes or from preconceived notions but rather analyzes meticulously, tirelessly, tediously and, usually, colorlessly. (Link)

Such was his reputation in high school for reason, modesty and impartiality, reports Newsweek, that a joke issue of the school paper ran a headline reading: “SAM ALITO DEFEATS GOD IN LANDSLIDE ELECTION FOR RULER OF THE UNIVERSE.”freedownload change dvd to vcd

And what did his classmates at Princeton think? “Apparently, he sounded like a justice to other students. His Princeton yearbook predicted that Alito would ‘eventually warm a seat on the Supreme Court.’”freedownload change dvd to vcd

It has reached Paris.freedownload change dvd to vcd

May I suggest …freedownload change dvd to vcd

Want background as well as arguments for and against each proposition? Go here [link opens PDF].freedownload change dvd to vcd

And if you’d like a handy guide — marked with your own preferences — that you can print and take with you to the polls, click here [again, link opens PDF].freedownload change dvd to vcd

“Some in GOP regret pork-stuffed highway bill” — headline, MSNBC

*Oh, here’s why: freedownload change dvd to vcd

But with spiraling war and hurricane recovery costs, the pork-laden bill has become a political albatross for Republicans, who have been promising since President Bush took office to get rid of wasteful spending.

What? You didn’t think they were suffering pangs of guilt over the abandoning of principle, did you?freedownload change dvd to vcd

Here’s what Muslim youths in France were doing before they began rioting:freedownload change dvd to vcd

In primary schools, the report cites instances of first grade boys’ refusing to participate in coed activities and Muslim children’s refusing to sing, dance, or draw a face. In one school, restrooms were segregated: some for Muslim students and some for “French.” Some lunchrooms were segregated, by section or table. Some students required halal meat; at one school, the principal provided only halal meat for everyone.

With Muslim proselytizing on the rise, the report states that students are under pressure to observe Ramadan, the annual month during which Muslims fast during the day. In some high schools, it is simply impossible for Muslim kids not to join in, whether they like it or not. Obin cites one student who tried to commit suicide because of intimidation and threats from other kids over this issue. Obin also emphasizes that many conversions to Islam are taking place under duress.

Inevitably, the report records rampant “Judeophobia,” to use the term in vogue in France. Among even the youngest students, the term “Jew” has become the all-purpose insult. Obin deplores the fact that principals and teachers do not strenuously object to this, treating it simply as part of the youth culture. Even more serious is the increase in assaults on Jews or those presumed to be Jewish. Usually the assailants are Muslim students. Sometimes the victims are, too: One Turkish high-school girl was relentlessly harassed and bullied at school because her country is an ally of Israel. The section of the report on anti-Semitism winds up with this sad conclusion: In France today, Jewish kids are not welcome at every school. Many are forced to switch schools or even conceal their identity to escape anti-Semitism.

Jews aren’t the only target of this Islamist primitivism. The other target is, of course, females:freedownload change dvd to vcd

The biggest social change entailed by this Islamization, Obin reports, is a deterioration in the position of females. Teenage girls are forbidden to play sports and are constantly watched by an informal religious police made up of young men, sometimes their own younger brothers. Makeup, skirts, and form-fitting dresses are forbidden; dark, loose trousers are the strongly recommended attire. To go to the blackboard in front of a class, some Muslim girls put on long coats. Often, they are forced to wear the headscarf, or hijab, and forbidden to frequent coed movie theaters, community centers, and gyms, or even to go out at all on weekends. Lots of young women were afraid to tell the Obin team what punishments are in store for them if they disobey. Not only female students but also female teachers, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, are frequently subjected to sexist remarks by male teenagers.

And then there’s this:freedownload change dvd to vcd

According to the report, Muslim students perceive a large gap between the French and themselves. Even though most of the Muslim kids are actually French citizens, they see themselves as Muslims first, and more and more of them hail Osama bin Laden as their hero. In their eyes, he represents a victorious Islam triumphing over the West.

(Thanks to Weapons of Mass Destruction.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

ADDED — By the way, France is now bracing to spend yet another night ‘celebrating its diversity.’freedownload change dvd to vcd

Yesterday, a French official said the worst of the rioting was over. He was in error:freedownload change dvd to vcd

AUBERVILLIERS, France — Marauding youths set fire to cars, warehouses and a nursery school and pelted rescuers with rocks early Saturday, as the worst rioting in a decade spread from Paris to other French cities. The U.S. warned Americans against taking trains to the airport via strife-torn areas.

A savage assault on a bus passenger highlighted the dangers of travel in Paris’ impoverished outlying neighborhoods, where the violence has entered its second week.

Attackers doused the woman, in her 50s and on crutches, with an inflammable liquid and set her afire as she tried to get off a bus in the suburb of Sevran Wednesday, judicial officials said.

In a hopeful sign that the legacy media may stop romanticizing the general lawlessness of which this barbarity was a part, you’ll note that the rioting youths have been downgraded from “angry” to “marauding.”freedownload change dvd to vcd

AFP:freedownload change dvd to vcd

WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill to build a 3,200 kilometer (2,000 mile) wall along the US border with Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out.

The legislation aims to “create a border security fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico,” said House of Representatives members Duncan Hunter of California and Virgil Goode of Virginia in a statement.

GOP legislators are also reportedly considering whether to end birthright citizenship, known as jus soli. But that would almost certainly require a constitutional amendment.freedownload change dvd to vcd

In the “war on drugs,” pain relief is the newest front: freedownload change dvd to vcd

In an escalating dispute over how the government regulates powerful painkilling drugs, the Food and Drug Administration is seeking to prevent renewal of a provision that last year gave the Drug Enforcement Administration final say over allowing new narcotic medications on the market.

The FDA’s deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs, Scott Gottlieb, said yesterday that the agency opposed the legislation, which for the second year in a row was added by the House to the yearly appropriations bill for several major departments.

“Specific language attached to the appropriations bill would ultimately delay access by physicians and their patients to important, safe and effective pain management and palliative care medicines,” Gottlieb said. He said giving DEA authority over traditional FDA territory could upset “a delicate balance for managing both safety and access.”

Although the dispute is ostensibly over a limited change in how controlled drugs are approved and labeled, it has become something of a stand-in for a larger battle over whether DEA’s actions are intruding into the practice of medicine and denying pain sufferers relief they need.

Now the FDA has a self-interested reason for protecting its turf. I’ll stipulate to that. But back when I worked with the pharmaceutical industry, I met often with officials of the FDA’s drug regulating apparatus. These officials rather enjoyed approving and then superintending medicines that help people. (Like most regulatory agencies, the FDA is sympathetic to the interests it regulates.) So while the FDA’s own bureaucratic needs are implicated here, so is its sympathy for doctors and patients:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Faced with what it considers to be a growing problem with diversion and abuse of prescription drugs, the DEA has arrested scores of doctors, pharmacists and other health care workers in recent years on charges that they improperly wrote or filled prescriptions for narcotic drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin.

The DEA initiative has alarmed pain-management specialists, and some are convinced that many patients are now being under-treated for pain as a result. They fear that the same kind of pressure the DEA exerted on doctors will now be exerted on the FDA.

While the FDA is an agency of regulation, the DEA is an agency of prohibition. The FDA is likely to assume your doctor knows best; the DEA is likely to assume it knows best. The institutional mind-set of the FDA is to oversee the use of drugs; the institutional mind-set of the DEA is to make war on the use drugs.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Conservatives are adverse to government generally. But that shouldn’t keep us from distinguishing among its agencies, or from acknowledging that in the bureaucratic turf battles, the identity of the winner sometimes matters.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSBlog:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. is now not only a member of the Supreme Court but also, for the time being at least, is continuing to serve as a judge on the D.C. Circuit. That lower court on Friday released an opinion in which Roberts participated as Circuit Justice, taking full part in a ruling by a three-judge panel that had heard the case before he was nominated to lead the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary. (Link)

The opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Banner v. United States is here [link opens PDF]. It begins:freedownload change dvd to vcd

Before: CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS, Circuit Justice,¹ and ROGERS, Circuit Judge, and EDWARDS, Senior Circuit Judge.²

Footnote 1 reads:freedownload change dvd to vcd

¹ Chief Justice Roberts was a member of this court when the case was briefed and argued and is designated Circuit Justice of this court. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 42, 43(b).

Statesman-Journal:freedownload change dvd to vcd

SALEM — A judge today upheld the gay marriage ban that was adopted by Oregon voters in 2004, sweeping aside arguments by gay rights supporters that the measure is flawed.

In his ruling, Marion County Circuit Judge Joseph Guimond rejected opponents’ arguments that Measure 36 contained too many changes that should have been voted on as separate amendments and that it was improperly submitted to voters.

Today’s ruling was the latest setback for gay rights backers in Oregon, where more than 3,000 marriage licenses were granted to same-sex couples in Multnomah County in the spring of 2004 before a judge halted the practice.

The court’s order is here [link opens PDF].freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to Howard Bashman.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Associated Press (via MSNBC):freedownload change dvd to vcd

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina — An anti-American rally turned violent Friday as more than 1,000 rioters clashed with police, setting bonfires in the streets and destroying storefronts across about six square blocks less than a mile from the inauguration of the fourth Summit of the Americas.

Yeah, burn your own neighborhoods down! That’ll show Bush!freedownload change dvd to vcd

Reuters:freedownload change dvd to vcd

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to restrict the seizure of private property for private development by denying local governments federal economic development funds for two years if they take such a step.

The “Private Property Protection Act of 2005” would bar the federal government, states and localities from using their power of eminent domain to seize property for private economic development projects such as shopping centers or condominiums.

The vote was 376-38. Here’s the roll call.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(Thanks to PoliPundit.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

One official says the worst is over. freedownload change dvd to vcd

Questions: why are rioting youths invariably described by legacy media as “angry”? How does the reporter know they’re angry? Doesn’t it seem as if rioting kids are often having fun? So why not use a more empirically verifiable description — one that doesn’t require mind reading — like “insolent” or “lawless”? freedownload change dvd to vcd

Jihad Watch:freedownload change dvd to vcd

… it is ultimately not a problem of disaffected youth who just need jobs and money, but of youth who consider the French government a foreign power, and one that ultimately must be replaced by a very different kind of government. (Link)

(For both the editorial cartoon and the link, thanks to Cox & Forkum.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

Ace of Spades calls down Andrew Sullivan for comparing a White House invitation to Mary Cheney’s longtime lesbian partner with the practices of the segregationist South. freedownload change dvd to vcd

I understand and agree with Andrew’s point that Heather Poe is not to Mary Cheney as Henry Hager is to Jenna Bush. Spouses are not dates. (The White House listed both Poe and Hager, Jenna’s boyfriend, as “guests” to a dinner with Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.) But Andrew is over-the-top in comparing this slight to a state law that required a black woman to give up her bus seat to a white man. Even if we’re displeased by its failure to acknowledge the nature of Ms. Cheney’s relationship, it is surely progress when the White House of a conservative Republican president invites an openly lesbian couple to a state dinner. There was a time, not even that long ago, when such a thing would have been unimaginable.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Change of this sort is hard for people, Andy. (Hell, how many gays and lesbians still keep themselves in the closet?! Should straight America move faster than even gays and lesbians are moving?) Give the president and Mrs. Bush at least a little credit. They are trying.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Judge Robert Bork on why conservative justices should not be reluctant to overrule Roe:freedownload change dvd to vcd

… overturning Roe v. Wade should be the sine qua non of a respectable jurisprudence. Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito will hear a lot about stability in the law, the virtues of stare decisis, and the reliance many women have placed on that decision. The obtrusive fact is that constitutional law has never been stable. Precedent counts for less in constitutional law than elsewhere for the very good reason that the legislature can correct the Court’s mistake in interpreting a statute, but the Court is final when it invokes the Constitution and only the Court can correct its own mistakes. For that reason, many justices have made the point that what controls is the Constitution itself, not what the Court has said about it in the past. Cases like Roe, that some will claim must not be disturbed, were themselves repudiations of prior understandings of the Constitution.

If judgments about the prudence of overruling are invoked, the justices should take note of the fact that Roe lies at the center of the bitter polarization of much of American society. In countries where the issue is decided democratically, no such intense animus exists. Compromises are worked out and each side knows that it is free to continue the public debate in hope of doing better next time. That was, and would be again, the case in America if the subject of abortion were returned to state legislatures and electorates. Overruling Roe would not, as some Democrats will claim, make abortion illegal, but merely the subject of democratic regulation. We have paid a high price for a ruling that rests upon nothing in the Constitution and was arrived at in an opinion of just over 51 pages that contains not a line of legal reasoning.

A must-read: Opinion Journal provides a nice summary of how the Democrats are lying to us about Mr. Bush lying about the war.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Après nous le déluge.freedownload change dvd to vcd

(“After us, the deluge:” a premonition of social and political collapse attributed to Madame de Pompadour, mistress to Louis XV.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

ADDED — Get more, including video, here: “SEVENTH NIGHT OF VIOLENCE IN PARIS IS WORST YET!”freedownload change dvd to vcd

Associated Press (via Yahoo News):freedownload change dvd to vcd

WASHINGTON — Online political expression should not be exempt from campaign finance law, the House decided Wednesday as lawmakers warned that the Internet has opened up a new loophole for uncontrolled spending on elections.

The House voted 225-182 for a bill that would have excluded blogs, e-mails and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission. That was 47 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed under a procedure that limited debate time and allowed no amendments.

The roll call is here. I note with pride that 179 Republicans voted yes and only 46 vote no. Of the Democrats, only 38 voted yes while 143 voted no.freedownload change dvd to vcd

If the United States is hit with an outbreak of the deadly Asian bird flu, conventional infection control practices will play an important role in containing it:freedownload change dvd to vcd

… the Pandemic Influenza Plan offers specific instructions to local health officials: The sick or the people caring for them should wear masks.

Tuck away this tidbit: the N95 respirator mask is the kind of mask they’re talking about. [Link provided for image only; not an endorsement of the supplier. — Ed. ] These are the masks we use in the hospital. freedownload change dvd to vcd

Should word come that the bird flu is making person-to-person transmission anywhere in the world — something that has not happened yet — take that as your cue to acquire a box of N95 masks. Your local medical supply house should carry them. You’ll need these masks if you have to care for anyone infected. freedownload change dvd to vcd

More good news for Judge Alito:freedownload change dvd to vcd

WASHINGTON — The 14 centrists who averted a Senate breakdown over judicial nominees last spring are showing signs of splintering on President Bush’s latest nominee for the Supreme Court.

That is weakening the hand of Democrats opposed to conservative judge Samuel Alito and enhancing his prospects for confirmation.

If only two of the seven Republicans in the “Gang of 14” are unwilling to abide a filibuster of Alito — and two have already indicated that they are unwilling to abide it — that gives the GOP leadership the votes it needs for the so-called nuclear option, assuming all other forty-eight Senate Republicans hold steady. For if the Senate divides 50-50, the president of the Senate — the vice president of the United States — is entitled to cast the tie-breaking vote.freedownload change dvd to vcd

As I’ve indicated before, I don’t believe the outcome here can be in doubt. This is more proof for that view.freedownload change dvd to vcd

ADDED — Patterico has a point. There is no evidence of “splintering” in the Gang of 14; two Republican members have said they would not support a filibuster, but no Democratic member has signaled an intention to either filibuster or back a filibuster.freedownload change dvd to vcd

In conducting its business, the U.S. Supreme Court wasn’t always as sophisticated as it is today.freedownload change dvd to vcd

In Lawrence, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a state law prohibiting private, consensual gay sex. So what does that have to do with local zoning laws? Maybe more than you think.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Day six.freedownload change dvd to vcd

Frenchmen, why do they hate you?freedownload change dvd to vcd

ADDED — Photos here. (Thanks to Little Green Footballs.)freedownload change dvd to vcd

In a rare display of public spiritedness, the Democrats today shut down the Federal Government’s spending apparatus and interrupted a C-SPAN feed. freedownload change dvd to vcd

Pray tell, will there be more?freedownload change dvd to vcd

And “outing” those who employ illegal immigrants is one of them.freedownload change dvd to vcd

They don’t mix.freedownload change dvd to vcd

That from Samuel Alito’s 90-year-old mother, who presumably speaks with authority on her son’s views.freedownload change dvd to vcd

I don’t take his personal opposition to abortion as proof that Justice Alito would vote to overrule Roe. There are judicially conservative reasons (e.g., stability in the law) for affirming what was wrongly decided as an original matter. But I’m also not worried about it, one way or the other. Count me among those who truly believe that a judicial nominee should not be judged on whether he will produce a particular outcome in a particular case. The nominee’s general approach to the law is what counts.freedownload change dvd to vcd

As I think I’ve noted before, in roughly one-fourth of the cases in which the U.S. Supreme Court issues opinions, Justices Scalia and Thomas vote opposite of one another. Yet nobody would describe either man as anything but a bona fide judicial conservative.freedownload change dvd to vcd

His record shows that Samuel Alito will bring excellence, integrity and modesty to his work as one of the Nation’s nine justices. Whether he decides that Roe is a constitutional abomination of such magnitude that it must be overruled, or that for prudential reasons it cannot be overruled, we can trust he will explain himself with clarity and reason; and his view will flow not from personal policy preferences but from a principled approach to the law. Utlimately, that is all we can ask.freedownload change dvd to vcd