December 2005 Archives

May 2006 bring you health and happiness!MPEG4 pricols

Over at The Malcontent, you can read the new year’s resolutions of some of your favorite gay bloggers. MPEG4 pricols

Enjoy the holiday. I’ll see you Monday.





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I had thought that the immigration reform measures passed earlier this month by the U.S. House were well short of what’s needed to stem the tide of illegal immigration. But one of those measures is the erection of another 700 miles of fence along the border in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas; reaction from the advocates of unlawful entry — “just complete fear and shock” — is encouraging. When you doubt whether your shaft has hit its target, listen for the screams.MPEG4 pricols

And then there’s this endorsement:MPEG4 pricols

Fernando Robledo, 42, of the western state of Zacatecas, says the proposals could stem migration and disrupt families by breaking cross-border ties. [Emphasis added.]

Okie, dokie.MPEG4 pricols

Finally, lest we take the matter too seriously, a little comic relief from Luis Ernesto Derbez, foreign secretary to Mexican President Vicente Fox:MPEG4 pricols

“Mexico is not going to bear, it is not going to permit, and it will not allow a stupid thing like this wall,” Derbez said.

Isn’t Luis cute? He’s going to huff and puff until he blows our house down, the sexy little bastard. Don’t you just want to pinch his cheeks?MPEG4 pricols

The irony, of course, is that were Mexico powerful and prosperous enough to make credible threats, her people wouldn’t be exiting by the millions and the wall wouldn’t be necessary.MPEG4 pricols

(Thanks to Polipundit.)MPEG4 pricols

If we’re lucky, he’ll start a trend.MPEG4 pricols

Comes now proof positive that your traffic is unrelated to how well or how poorly you blog.MPEG4 pricols

Only minutes ago on Fox News, former Democratic congressman Martin Frost asserted that “… the Fourth Amendment says American citizens can’t be searched without a warrant.” MPEG4 pricols

No, it does not.MPEG4 pricols

The Fourth Amendment says:MPEG4 pricols

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. [Emphasis added.]

Andrew C. McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, identifies twenty-eight instances in which federal law has long provided for warrantless searches and seizures. Among other things, the Government has the power to:MPEG4 pricols

• Arrest American citizens, based on probable cause, without a warrant;MPEG4 pricols

• Conduct a warrantless search of, and seize, items belonging to American citizens that are displayed in plain view and that are obviously criminal or dangerous in nature;MPEG4 pricols

• Conduct a warrantless search of an American citizen’s car anytime there is probable cause to believe it contains contraband or any evidence of a crime;MPEG4 pricols

• Conduct a warrantless search — including a strip search — at the border of any American citizen entering or leaving the United States;MPEG4 pricols

• Conduct a warrantless search of any American citizen seeking to enter a public building;MPEG4 pricols

• Conduct warrantless searches of bars or nightclubs owned by American citizens to police underage drinking;MPEG4 pricols

• Conduct warrantless drug screening of American citizens working in government, emergency services, the transportation industry and nuclear plants.MPEG4 pricols

Moreover, under the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Atwater v. City of Lago Vista, 532 U.S. 318 (2001), an American citizen can be arrested and jailed for a fine-only offense not punishable by incarceration upon conviction!MPEG4 pricols

The Fourth Amendment doesn’t say that a warrant must precede every arrest or search. It says if you want a warrant, you have to show probable cause. And it doesn’t say that the Government cannot search or arrest people warrantlessly. It says the Government cannot search or arrest them unreasonably. MPEG4 pricols

Is it unreasonable to listen for evidence of a plan to blow people up with a view to preventing it?MPEG4 pricols

“Snoopgate” is not an example of the Government acting sleazily in the war on terror. But this is. From the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Judge Michael Luttig* writing: MPEG4 pricols

Because of their evident gravity, we must believe that the consequences of the actions that the government has taken in this important case over the past several weeks, not only for the public perception of the war on terror but also for the government’s credibility before the courts in litigation ancillary to that war, have been carefully considered. But at the same time that we must believe this, we cannot help but believe that those consequences have been underestimated.

For, as the government surely must understand, although the various facts it has asserted are not necessarily inconsistent or without basis, its actions have left not only the impression that Padilla may have been held for these years, even if justifiably, by mistake –- an impression we would have thought the government could ill afford to leave extant. They have left the impression that the government may even have come to the belief that the principle in reliance upon which it has detained Padilla for this time, that the President possesses the authority to detain enemy combatants who enter into this country for the purpose of attacking America and its citizens from within, can, in the end, yield to expediency with little or no cost to its conduct of the war against terror –- an impression we would have thought the government likewise could ill afford to leave extant. And these impressions have been left, we fear, at what may ultimately prove to be substantial cost to the government’s credibility before the courts, to whom it will one day need to argue again in support of a principle of assertedly like importance and necessity to the one that it seems to abandon today. While there could be an objective that could command such a price as all of this, it is difficult to imagine what that objective would be.

You’ll want to read all 14 pages.MPEG4 pricols

(*Judge Luttig is no wide-eyed liberal. To the contrary, most conservatives would have preferred him to Sam Alito for the Supreme Court vacancy.)MPEG4 pricols

In a comment to this post about the president’s warrantless surveillance of foreign communications, Jeff writes:MPEG4 pricols

Shhhhh. Email Nancy Pelosi & tell her to keep up the good work. It’s always entertaining to watch political parties walk off a cliff.

Ain’t that it? MPEG4 pricols

Let’s set aside for the moment the constitutional question, which resolves emphatically in the president’s favor, and consider only the political question, which also resolves emphatically in the president’s favor. Come next year, an election year, the Democrats want congressional hearings on “snoopgate.” They want to berate Mr. Bush, formally and publicly, for tapping the e-mails and phone calls of people who’d like to kill Americans by the thousands. They’re going to shout it to the country: “The president is listening to al-Qaeda — and we’ll have none of it!”MPEG4 pricols

It’s amazingly stupid.MPEG4 pricols

What’s next? Will Pelosi et al hold a press conference to announce themselves in favor of moonless nights for cat burglars?MPEG4 pricols

Somebody told the Democrats, who are political nitwits, that they can win an election by providing ad footage to Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman. That person must be found and shot as an enemy of the people.MPEG4 pricols

Congressional Republicans deserve a vigorous challenge in next year’s mid-terms. They’ve governed abysmally, and irresponsibly; they’ve been unfaithful to even their own principles. The American electorate should be given an opportunity to punish them. But congressional Democrats insist on portraying themselves as even more irresponsible than their GOP counterparts.MPEG4 pricols

The Democrats are not serious about winning the mid-terms. Accordingly, they will not.MPEG4 pricols

ADDED —MPEG4 pricols

Relatedly, this from Rasmussen Reports (via Instapundit):MPEG4 pricols

Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 23% disagree.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Americans say they are following the NSA story somewhat or very closely.

Just 26% believe President Bush is the first to authorize a program like the one currently in the news. Forty-eight percent (48%) say he is not while 26% are not sure.

Does this sound like a story Howard Dean & Co. can ride to victory?MPEG4 pricols

The pushback against the yap yap continues:MPEG4 pricols

The president has the constitutional authority to acquire foreign intelligence without a warrant or any other type of judicial blessing. The courts have acknowledged this authority, and numerous administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have espoused the same view. The purpose here is not to detect crime, or to build criminal prosecutions — areas where the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirements are applicable — but to identify and prevent armed attacks on American interests at home and abroad. The attempt, by Democrats and Republicans alike, to dismantle the president’s core constitutional power in wartime is wrongheaded and should be vigorously resisted by the administration.

… only one side is armed.MPEG4 pricols

It ain’t pretty.MPEG4 pricols

Go vote.MPEG4 pricols

Don’t have Cathy bookmarked? Fix that.MPEG4 pricols

Texas GOP to Republican lawmakers: if you can’t get with the program, get the hell out.MPEG4 pricols

I’d surely also be targeted for defeat were I a Republican member of the Texas Legislature. Railing against the drug war, among other things, won’t endear you to paleoconservatives. But still I admire the state GOP for demanding party discipline. It helps to make elections clarifying events. “For this, we stand. All of us. If you don’t want it, don’t vote for us.”MPEG4 pricols

So far, the people of Texas have wanted it.MPEG4 pricols

If you believe these guys — and I do — the answer is “nothing,” or at least “nothing consequential.” But even the things they suggest — international sanctions or an oil embargo or both — are unlikely to work.MPEG4 pricols

We need a full-on land invasion to find and destroy the elements of Iran’s nuclear program. But that’s not politically palatable just now, is it? It doesn’t help that Mr. Bush has said nary a word to the American people about the danger Iran poses to our friend Israel or to us. MPEG4 pricols

If we won’t invade, shouldn’t we at least send a death squad to introduce a bullet to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s head? I think it contravenes U.S. law or policy to assassinate a foreign leader. If so, an operation on the qt is in good order here. In hindsight it’s impossible to argue that we shouldn’t have capped Hilter. Maybe the Mossad is suiting up.MPEG4 pricols

The hour is late and the Bush Administration is dawdling. It’s horrible to say, but I fear we’ll do nothing useful until a nuclear device goes off in Tel Aviv or New York or both. The Iranian people will pay a terrible price for that. But so will we.MPEG4 pricols

From restaurant checks to first-class plane seats, we’re putting out for our troops: MPEG4 pricols

In contrast to the hostile stares that greeted many Vietnam veterans 40 years ago, today’s soldiers are being treated as heroes throughout the year, in red states and blue, by peace activists and gung-ho supporters of the Iraq mission. The gestures are often spontaneous, affiliated with no association or cause, and credit is seldom claimed.

Have a bright and beautiful holiday! See you again Monday.MPEG4 pricols

Worried about a warrantless wiretap? Try this one on …MPEG4 pricols

You were misclassified as an “enemy combatant.” Even the U.S. military agrees that you were misclassified and should be put at liberty. But you are not at liberty. Instead, you are in your fourth year of detention at the facility in Guantanamo. A federal judge says your detention is unlawful. He also says there’s nothing he can do about it.MPEG4 pricols

Three moonshiners were among the recipients of today’s pre-holiday presidential pardons. Story and full list here.MPEG4 pricols

To learn more about presidential pardons and how to get one if you, ah, need it, visit the web site of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Pardon Attorney.*MPEG4 pricols

(*I should be more precise. You can learn from the DOJ how to apply for a presidential pardon. The odds of actually getting one, from this or any president, are rather long. Moreover, a president can grant pardons only for violations of federal law.)MPEG4 pricols

Ho, ho, ho:MPEG4 pricols

Falling fuel costs helped Americans spend more on goods and services in November, reinforcing expectations that the U.S. economy will accelerate with inflation under control entering 2006.

[…]

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said its U.S. November sales rose 4.3 percent. The National Retail Federation is forecasting an industry wide sales gain of 6 percent for the November-December shopping season, the second-biggest increase since 1999.

“The last few weeks have been very strong,”’ said John Barbour, president of U.S. stores for Toys “R” Us, in a Dec. 19 interview. “We’re feeling very good about how the holiday season is developing.”

Lower gasoline prices may increase demand, economists said. The average retail price of all grades of gas dropped to $2.30 a gallon in November from $2.77 the prior month.

In other words, the economy will still be coming on like gangbusters in 2006. MPEG4 pricols

What a truly wonderful country this could be if only the president would stop prophylactically reading the e-mails of people who plan to kill us …MPEG4 pricols

Once again, the liberal world view is inconvenienced by the facts.MPEG4 pricols

So says John Schmidt, former associate attorney general under President Clinton:MPEG4 pricols

President Bush’s post-Sept. 11, 2001 authorization to the National Security Agency to carry out electronic surveillance into private phone calls and e-mails is consistent with court decisions and with the positions of the Justice Department under prior presidents.

[…]

In the most recent judicial statement on the issue, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, composed of three federal appellate court judges, said in 2002 that “All the … courts to have decided the issue held that the president did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence … We take for granted that the president does have that authority.”

For clear, concise and authoritative commentary on this “controversy,” read the rest.MPEG4 pricols

Note especially Mr. Schmidt’s argument about FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). Even if the surveillance at issue here violates the Act, it’s irrelevant. For Congress cannot by statute limit the president’s constitutional authority. MPEG4 pricols

Washington Post:MPEG4 pricols

President Bush’s approval rating has surged in recent weeks, reversing what had been an extended period of decline, with Americans now expressing renewed optimism about the future of democracy in Iraq, the campaign against terrorism and the U.S. economy, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll.

The shrieking you hear is the sound of disappointed moonbats who thought they had this president on the run. Between now and November, the news isn’t going to get any better for them. MPEG4 pricols

Pace the conventional wisdom, the GOP will at least hold its own, and maybe pick up a few seats, in next year’s mid-terms. The economy is performing well and national security will again — at the insistence of both Democrats and Iranians — play a central role in the campaign. That translates into a Republican lock. Yes, a lock.* You heard it here first, yes? If you want to tell me now that I’m wrong and if I turn out to be wrong, you’ll have gloating rights. (I’ll even put your gloat in a post.) But if I turn out to be right, expect me to serve big slices of humble pie.MPEG4 pricols

*Meaning Republicans suffer no net loss of seats in the House or Senate.MPEG4 pricols

(I’ll concede this as a potentially small hiccup for Republicans, depending on how it plays out. But it doesn’t change my prediction.)MPEG4 pricols

Over at The Volokh Conspriacy, there’s a passionate exchange in the comments over the legality and constitutionality of the president’s decision to authorize warrantless surveillance of electronic communications. I love this observation from a lawyer in Houston:MPEG4 pricols

I don’t really have an opinion on whether the intelligence gathering that Bush authorized is permitted under the Constitution, but any Constitution flexible enough to have a right to abortion contained therein without express or implied wording is going to accomodate a lot of things.

Indeed. If the Constitution is a living, evolving document, perhaps its also lives and evolves under the ministrations of the executive and not just the judiciary. Why not? MPEG4 pricols

This one left me scatching my head:MPEG4 pricols

It’s going to be interesting seeing John Roberts presiding over the trial of his sponsor’s impeachment.

You know what would be even more interesting? To know where this dude gets the notion that a Republican-controlled House of Representatives is going to impeach this president over a hotly contested point of law and policy.MPEG4 pricols

Even if we grant, arguendo, that the president’s authorization of warrantless domestic eavesdropping exceeds what the Constitution allows, so what? If the Government has used the information to bring criminal charges against a U.S. citizen, the defendant can challenge the validity of the search and, under the exclusionary rule, have the fruits of it suppressed. That’s the remedy. If, on the hand, the Government has used the information only to disrupt terrorist plots, isn’t that what the Government is supposed to do?MPEG4 pricols

This is a fact-intensive matter. And there’s quite a bit that we — meaning the American public — just don’t know.MPEG4 pricols

Relatedly, this from law professor Orin Kerr:MPEG4 pricols

Was the secret NSA surveillance program legal? Was it constitutional? Did it violate federal statutory law? It turns out these are hard questions, but I wanted to try my best to answer them. My answer is pretty tentative, but here it goes: Although it hinges somewhat on technical details we don’t know, it seems that the program was probably constitutional but probably violated the federal law known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. My answer is extra-cautious for two reasons. First, there is some wiggle room in FISA, depending on technical details we don’t know of how the surveillance was done. Second, there is at least a colorable argument — if, I think in the end, an unpersuasive one — that the surveillance was authorized by the Authorization to Use Miltary Force as construed in the Hamdi opinion. (Link) [Emphasis added.]

Officers of the Government are forever doing things only to be told later by (often divided) courts that they weren’t supposed to be doing them, either because they violated the Constitution or statutory law; this is true even when the extant law was clearly in the Government’s favor. Here are some examples.MPEG4 pricols

A president’s policy decisions may be unlawful or even unconstitutional and still not be criminal. Even if Mr. Bush’s policy decisions relating to domestic surveillance exceed what the Constitution or federal law allows, he has hardly done anything for which Republicans would impeach him. Anybody who thinks otherwise is a political bed wetter.MPEG4 pricols

Fugetaboutit. It ain’t happening. MPEG4 pricols

Just in case you have any doubt that Iran intends nuclear war against Israel or the United States or both, this video should erase it. [Link launches media player]MPEG4 pricols

Meanwhile, there are murmurs of an assassination attempt against Iran’s president. (Identity of would-be assassins unknown.) But this attempt, if even it occurred, apparently failed. I have an RSS feed devoted to all things Iran — one should keep tabs on the planners of the Apocalypse — and no conventional media outlet has report of it.MPEG4 pricols

18 U.S.C. § 793 (d): MPEG4 pricols

Whoever, lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it …

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both. [Emph. added]

Who leaked this to the New York Times? The Times says it got the information from “government officials.” Who are those officials? Shouldn’t the Justice Department find out — and then put them in front of a grand jury?MPEG4 pricols

President Bush will address the Nation tonight at 8 p.m. CST on the war in Iraq. He’ll speak from the Oval Office.MPEG4 pricols

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that the United States is “now entering a critical period for our mission in Iraq, and the president will talk about what we’ve accomplished and where we’re headed.”

And the Hong Kong police give it:MPEG4 pricols

Helmeted police with riot shields used pepper spray foam and high-pressure water hoses to drive back the demonstrators as the clashes escalated.

And here you’ll notice the police have batons the size of baseball bats:MPEG4 pricols

A good time was had by all.MPEG4 pricols

If you say you’re gay, can anyone prove you’re not?MPEG4 pricols

According to county treasurer Frank O’Leary, “It’s our dream come true:” MPEG4 pricols

Property-tax evaders and parking-ticket scofflaws in Arlington County take notice: Officials are collecting outstanding taxes and fines at the rate of about $900 an hour with the help of an electronic roving eye.

County officials last month began using the BootFinder, a small, hand-held camera that scans license plates of parked cars to identify people with delinquent property-tax bills and unpaid parking tickets.

[…]

Two treasury workers patrol the city in a van, aiming the camera at the license plates of parked cars. The camera is connected to a laptop computer that compares the license owner’s name against a database of persons with outstanding taxes or fines.

If a car’s owner has any unpaid taxes or fines, the computer audibly informs the camera’s operator, who calls the treasurer’s office for verification. After the information is verified, the workers remove the car’s license plates and place a bright green levy sticker on the driver’s side windshield.

[…]

Arlington isn’t using the camera because it has an unusual problem with outstanding debts, Mr. O’Leary said. “We’re just always looking for new ways to skin the cat.” [Emph. added]

This is why I’ll never serve on a traffic court jury. I won’t convict. Traffic citations aren’t about public safety — ever notice how ticket-proof cops drive? — they’re about revenue generation.MPEG4 pricols

(Thanks to Joshua.)MPEG4 pricols

Movement:MPEG4 pricols

The House acted Friday to stem the tide of illegal immigration by taking steps to tighten border controls and stop unlawful immigrants from getting jobs.

But lawmakers left for next year the tougher issue of what to do with the 11 million undocumented people already in the country.

The House legislation, billed as a border protection, anti-terrorism and illegal immigration control act, includes such measures as enlisting military and local law enforcement help in stopping illegal entrants and requiring employers to verify the legal status of their workers.

It authorizes the building of a fence along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border.

But it put off consideration of a guest worker program, which President Bush and many in Congress say must be part of a lasting solution to the illegal immigrant crisis. [Emph. added]

The vote was 239-182. Roll call.MPEG4 pricols

And as for the millions of illegals already here?MPEG4 pricols

Nobody is advocating the deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants, said Republican Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, sponsor of a guest worker measure.

Without a temporary worker program, he said, “We simply won’t enforce the law, and that’s the dirty little secret here.”

We don’t have to deport them, Rep. Flake. We can induce them to deport themselves. Launch a massive guest worker program but open it only to those who make application from outside the United States, just as several lawmakers have proposed. Give illegal immigrants competition and then put them at a competitive disadvantage, i.e. offer their employers the easy choice of cheap, legal labor from a guest worker program, or the prospect of time in the penitentiary for hiring the undocumented.* People at a competitive disadvantage usually go out of business.MPEG4 pricols

(*The bill passed yesterday provides criminal penalties for hiring illegals.)MPEG4 pricols

Bob Novak is an ass clown extraordinaire and now he’s leaving CNN and taking his antics to Fox:MPEG4 pricols

Novak walked off the set in August during a political debate after James Carville said that he’s “got to show these right-wingers that he’s got a backbone.”

Novak quickly apologized, but CNN never let him back on the air.

Storming off the set at CNN is not the funniest thing Mr. Novak has ever done. The funniest thing he’s ever done was to suggest that Senate Democrats were attempting to kill the late Strom Thurmond, then frail and elderly, by voting him to death with repeated calls for cloture!MPEG4 pricols

Sweet:MPEG4 pricols

“Before, we had a dictator, and now we have this freedom, this democracy,” said Emad Abdul Jabbar, 38, a teacher acting as supervisor at the Ahrar school polling site. “This time, we have a real election, not just the sham elections we had under Saddam, and we Sunnis want to participate in the political process.”

A 60-year-old merchant, Abdul Kader al-Saffar, and his wife, Ammal Abdul Razzaq, 40, who voted with their three sons, agreed. “We have found candidates in this election we can trust,” Mr. Saffar said, referring to the Iraqi Consensus Front, a moderate Sunni group that had several of its political workers killed during the campaign.

Another thing many Sunnis seemed to agree on was the possibility of a reconciliation between the Americans and the Sunnis, and a distancing of the Sunnis from some of the Al Qaeda-linked insurgent groups. Many were critical of American troops, saying, as Mr. Saleh did, that “they came as liberators, but stayed on as occupiers.” But pressed on the question of an American troop withdrawal, most seemed cautious, favoring a gradual drawdown.

“Let’s have stability, and then the Americans can go home,” said Mr. Sattar, the store owner. Told that this sounded similar to President Bush’s formula for a troop withdrawal, he replied: “Then Bush has said it correctly.”

(Thanks to Blogs for Bush.)MPEG4 pricols

In a comment to this post, a reader writes:MPEG4 pricols

Giuliani? Are you kidding? You’d vote for that gun-grabber?

Indeed I would. Let me explain.MPEG4 pricols

I proceed from the assumption that context matters. In 2004, I — and 1.1 million other gays and lesbians — voted to re-elect George W. Bush even though Mr. Bush had announced his putative support for a Federal Marriage Amendment. How could I — how could we — do that? For starters, the FMA was hardly the most pressing issue facing the American electorate. If you believe, as I do, that as citizens we have some obligation to consider things beyond our own self-interests, then you’ll look at the big picture when deciding for whom to vote. In 2004, the war on terror was the big picture; and there was no serious case to be made for John Kerry as the prosecutor of it.MPEG4 pricols

Secondly, two things were as clear then as they are now. 1) Mr. Bush isn’t going to do much to get the FMA passed. Yes, he’s made favorable mention of it in a couple of speeches. But that’s been the extent of his “effort.” And in any case, there just isn’t a lot a president can do about constitutional amendments. He can lend his moral support to them, but he plays no formal role in their ratification. Relatedly, 2) there aren’t the votes in the Senate to pass the Amendment. So if we allow ourselves to be practical for a moment, we’ll admit that George Bush’s nominal support for the FMA just doesn’t matter. We could hardly say the same about his views on the war on terror generally or the war in Iraq particularly.MPEG4 pricols

As a gun owner and supporter of the Second Amendment, I most assuredly do not share Rudy Giuliani’s sympathy for gun control. But gun control isn’t going to play an important role in the 2008 presidential election; indeed, outside of liberal enclaves like San Francisco or Chicago, gun control is dead. And even the Democrats have no inclination to exhume it. As candidate or president, Mr. Giuliani isn’t going to champion any new gun-grabbing measures, and if he did, a Republican-controlled Congress isn’t going to enact them. In short, like Mr. Bush’s support for the FMA, Mr. Giuliani’s support for gun control is functionally irrelevant. That may not make him an ideal vote for gun owners. But it makes him a safe vote.MPEG4 pricols

William F. Buckley Jr. once admonished conservatives to vote for the “rightward-most viable candidate.” But how to judge the candidate’s rightwardness (or viability)? We judge it in context, of course. In a campaign wherein it was a live question whether the United States should return to the gold standard, the candidate in favor would be the rightward-most. But do you think we’ll be talking about that in 2008? We won’t be talking about gun control, either.MPEG4 pricols

ADDED — It’s all academic. It looks like Giuliani won’t run.MPEG4 pricols

Story here; roll call here.MPEG4 pricols

You’ll note that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was one of five Republicans who voted “no.” Be not deceived. His vote was purely procedural. Under Senate rules, as under Robert’s Rules of Order, a member who votes with the prevailing side can subsequently ask for a reconsideration of the motion. Members who vote with the losing side cannot.MPEG4 pricols

Stick it in your ear.MPEG4 pricols

(Note to Mr. Bush: take the Journal’s advice. Go to Baghdad and address parliament.) MPEG4 pricols

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is the favorite for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, according to a CNN/USA Today poll.MPEG4 pricols

In the big picture, Mr. Giuliani is a strong leader and would make for a fine president; in the small picture, he can mop the floor with John McCain’s ass. Both are reasons to vote for him.MPEG4 pricols

How, exactly, does this differ from existing U.S. law and policy?MPEG4 pricols

ADDED — I intented that question expositorially. Perhaps the new measure does differ from existing law and policy. But if so, how it differs is not readily apparent.MPEG4 pricols

ADDED II — Perhaps this is the answer. John McCain’s proposal goes beyond torture, already illegal, and bans the unpleasant : MPEG4 pricols

Because we’ve been able to use techniques like stress positions, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding on terrorists for the last few years, we have undoubtedly had a lot of success in getting information out of key terrorists that we’ve captured. In fact, the use of those sort of interrogation techniques probably has a lot to do with why Al-Qaeda hasn’t been able to follow-up on 9/11 in the United States.

However, now that we’ve put political grandstanding above national security and completely handcuffed our military investigators, we can expect a big slow down in the amount of intelligence we’re getting from captured Al-Qaeda operatives…

More here.MPEG4 pricols

Let Chewbacca add a note to your Christmas.MPEG4 pricols

(Thanks to Ace of Spades.)MPEG4 pricols

How small and petty opponents of the war should feel today:MPEG4 pricols

Iraqis voted in a historic parliamentary election Thursday, with strong turnout reported in Sunni Arab areas and even a shortage of ballots in some precincts. Because of the large turnout, the Iraqi election commission met in emergency session and extended voting for one hour after long lines were reported at some sites …

Associated Press (via Yahoo News):MPEG4 pricols

BOSTON — Republican Gov. Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he will not run for a second term next year, fueling speculation he will seek the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

According to the article, Gov. Romney’s Mormon faith may spell trouble:MPEG4 pricols

“His religion is a significant problem because many evangelical Christians do not believe that Mormons are Christians,” [political analysis Stuart] Rothenberg said. “To the extent that we have controversial religions in this country, LDS (Latter Day Saints) is one of them.”

I’m not so sure. I was raised in the Church of Christ, a deeply conservative and evangelical sect. Its members refer to their church as the church and think of themselves as the only true Christians. George Bush, they will tell you, is going to hell. He is, after all, a Methodist. But I would wager that Mr. Bush carried the Church of Christ vote handily.MPEG4 pricols

Planet Out:MPEG4 pricols

WASHINGTON — Gay and lesbian advocacy groups believe gay aging issues were purposefully left off the table in this week’s White House Conference on Aging.

The White House conference, held every 10 years, was strongly scripted this week to eliminate resolutions from the floor or other avenues for gay rights advocates to bring community concerns to light, gay organizational leaders said. They had hoped to broach issues like funding of elder care services for gays and lesbians and economic security for a growing number of gay seniors. [Emphasis added.]

Those are gay-specific issues? Who knew? Somebody tell these clowns to get off our turf.MPEG4 pricols

A few days ago, I ran a poll and asked whether, based on what was known at the time, you would have shot Rigoberto Alpizar. As you’ll recall, Mr. Alpizar was the manic depressive shot dead by federal air marshals after claiming he had a bomb. MPEG4 pricols

Two hundred thirty-three readers voted. The results are here. In brief, ya’ll are a tough crowd.MPEG4 pricols

I don’t agree that this is “stifling free speech.” After all, the protests did occur and they will again, even if people suspect they’re being watched. But I do agree that it’s creepy for the military to be monitoring the constitutionally protected conduct of U.S. citizens.MPEG4 pricols

Relatedly, for the reasons cited here, I would have voted “no” on renewal of the Patriot Act. But I didn’t get to vote. Your congressman did. The roll call is here.MPEG4 pricols

Knight Ridder Newspapers:MPEG4 pricols

WASHINGTON - A new congressional report questions the reliability of key U.S. government data on cocaine trafficking, price and purity levels, raising fresh doubts about Bush administration claims that it is making progress in the war on drugs.

[…]

Since 2000, the U.S. government has spent $6 billion in an effort to disrupt the international drug trade. Most of the money has been directed at Colombia, which supplies about 90 percent of the cocaine available in the United States.

[…]

Cocaine seizures reportedly rose from 117 metric tons in 2001 to 196 in 2004. And just last month, [drug war czar] John Walters triumphantly announced the price of cocaine rose 19 percent and purity declined 15 percent over a seven-month period this year - evidence to him that cocaine is getting scarcer.

But by the Government’s own admission, as much as 675 metric tons of cocaine entered the U.S. last year. Does that sound “scarce” to you?MPEG4 pricols

I live just outside of downtown Houston, at the intersection of Crack and Whore. If you look out the back window of my second-story condo at the open air drug market on the street below, the Government’s claims of progress in the “war on drugs” will invoke incredulity. MPEG4 pricols

As a civilian who has for several years now legally and safely carried a gun — a .45 caliber Glock, mind you — there are times when news from the blue states leaves me gawking:MPEG4 pricols

Retired Chicago police officers will be getting letters in the mail soon saying the city won’t certify them to carry guns — a move that angers the head of the local Fraternal Order of Police.

Congress passed the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004 to allow retired and off-duty officers across the country to carry concealed weapons.

But the city is worried about the liability of allowing retired cops to carry guns when they haven’t gone through refresher training or undergone mental and physical fitness evaluations.

That’s a lame excuse. Were they its true concerns, the city could easily enough require the retired officers to undergo refresher training and mental and physical fitness evaluations. But the truth is that Chicago believes only agents of the Government should have guns. The Leviathan covets its monopoly on justifiable force. MPEG4 pricols

If people start to think of themselves as primarily responsible for their own safety under the rule of law, what else might they start to think of themselves as responsible for? And where would all of that responsibility-taking leave the Government and its legions of trough-feeding employees?MPEG4 pricols

At root, the gun debate is never about guns.MPEG4 pricols

Of the 94 homicides in San Francisco so far this year, 74 of them reportedly remain unsolved. So not only can the city not protect its citizens from murder, it can’t even locate and prosecute the perpetrators. And yet, San Francisco wants to take handguns, a tool of self-defense, away from law-abiding people.MPEG4 pricols

The Second Amendment Foundation, among others, has filed suit to block the handgun ban, set to take effect Jan. 1. SAF won its fight against an earlier San Francisco gun ban. Here’s hoping it wins again.MPEG4 pricols

I thought ya’ll might enjoy these:MPEG4 pricols

I still haven’t quit laughing.MPEG4 pricols

(Thanks to my bud Chris.)MPEG4 pricols

“Democrats not impressed with Bush speech on Iraq,” headline, AP MPEG4 pricols

And (like, wow!) they’re doing it already:MPEG4 pricols

The announcement Monday is a departure from the nomination of Justice John Roberts for U.S. chief justice, when several gay rights groups chose to wait until after his confirmation hearings before speaking out.

But whether it’s before, during or after the hearings, or when the moon is full, their opposition is as inevitable as it is futile.MPEG4 pricols

ADDED: You have to love the kettle calling the pot black:MPEG4 pricols

Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal, said Alito puts his personal agenda above the principles enshrined in the Constitution. “Unfortunately, what our analysis reveals is that Judge Alito has a political agenda different from that required of members of the judiciary,” he said. “It is based on his personal political ideology and stands apart from any principle that can reasonably be located in the Constitution.” [Emphasis added.]

But of course Mr. Cathcart and the others oppose Sam Alito precisely because they know he will not act on their personal political ideology and announce rights — such as one to same-sex marriage — not “reasonably located in the Constitution.” In other words, they condemn him because he won’t do the very thing they purport to condemn!MPEG4 pricols

Sometime between now and March, the world is going to become a more dangerous place:MPEG4 pricols

Israel’s armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed.

The order came after Israeli intelligence warned the government that Iran was operating enrichment facilities, believed to be small and concealed in civilian locations.

[…]

Defence sources in Israel believe the end of March to be the “point of no return” after which Iran will have the technical expertise to enrich uranium in sufficient quantities to build a nuclear warhead in two to four years.

Unfortunately, Israel is unlikely to destroy Iran’s nuclear program with a conventional military strike. The best she can hope for is to degrade it. And the Iranians are likely to retaliate, perhaps by causing trouble in Iraq. But at least for now, what else to do?MPEG4 pricols

Professor Bainbridge says “… the US will come in for a lot of the blame if Israel attacks Iran. It is not in our national interest to let Israel use US-supplied weapons in a lone wolf capacity. We have no business letting Israel drag us into a wider war in the Middle East.” But it’s worth remembering that Israel is herself a nuclear power. And if you leave people with nothing but a hammer, everything looks like a nail.MPEG4 pricols

In a normal market, the law of supply and demand operates to determine product availability and to resolve the conflict between cost and quality. Depending on what you want — and on what you’re willing and able to pay for — you can buy shoes at Gucci or Wal-Mart or a dozen places in between. Alas, if you cannot afford even the shoes at Wal-Mart, you’ll go barefoot.MPEG4 pricols

America’s health care system is not in a normal market. On the one hand, HMOs, PPOs and the Government* subject the system to an almost across-the-board pressure for cost containment. On the other hand, law and public policy require a universal standard of care insensitive to cost. When the paramedics take you to an ER following an automobile accident, it won’t matter whether you’re a king or vagabond. Through legislation, regulation and litigation, society says you must receive state-of-the-art care, regardless of whether you can pay all, part or none of your bill; this is true even if you were the drunken driver who caused the accident. MPEG4 pricols

On the pricing side, we treat our hospitals like the private businesses they usually are. But on the supply side, we treat them like public utilities. This puts them in an untenable situation. So what do our hospitals do? MPEG4 pricols

They cheat.MPEG4 pricols

One of these days, when either we get political leadership capable of thinking beyond the next election or when the system collapses — I’m betting on the latter — we’ll finally have an honest national discussion about health care financing. Just because modern medicine can do something, does that mean it must do it? In every case? Without regard for cost? MPEG4 pricols

If the answers are “yes,” “yes” and “yes,” what’s the billing address?MPEG4 pricols

(*The Government alone now pays for roughly half the health care in the U.S.)MPEG4 pricols

Okay, we’ll take your Lieberman if you’ll take our McCain. Deal?MPEG4 pricols

Admittedly, this trade won’t help the Democrats on the war front. But another shade of Sanctimonious Ass will at least match their decor.MPEG4 pricols

Washington Post:MPEG4 pricols

Mental health practitioners say they regularly confront extreme forms of racism, homophobia and other prejudice in the course of therapy, and that some patients are disabled by these beliefs. As doctors increasingly weigh the effects of race and culture on mental illness, some are asking whether pathological bias ought to be an official psychiatric diagnosis.

If you read the full article, you’ll notice a pattern to the examples of this “pathological bias:” a man who hates gays; a man hostile to blacks; a woman afraid of Jews; a man fearful of Asians. But there’s not one example of a gay, black, Jew or Asian with enmity toward others. How very … politically correct. MPEG4 pricols

I especially enjoyed the Post’s lead example of this new fangled disorder:MPEG4 pricols

The 48-year-old man turned down a job because he feared that a co-worker would be gay. He was upset that gay culture was becoming mainstream and blamed most of his personal, professional and emotional problems on the gay and lesbian movement.

These fixations preoccupied him every day. Articles in magazines about gays made him agitated. He confessed that his fears had left him socially isolated and unemployed for years: A recovering alcoholic, the man even avoided 12-step meetings out of fear he might encounter a gay person.

“He had a fixed delusion about the world,” said Sondra E. Solomon, a psychologist at the University of Vermont who treated the man for two years. “He felt under attack, he felt threatened.” [Emphasis added.]

So here we have a socially isolated, chronically unemployed man with a history of alcoholism who suffers from fixed delusional beliefs of persecution. And for this the good doctor needs a new diagnostic classification? I’m only a nurse, hon, but hear me now: put down the latte, put on the Berkenstocks, bike over to the hospital’s medical library and look up ‘paranoid schizophrenia.’ It’s an oldie but a goodie. MPEG4 pricols

… is to let Democrats talk. MPEG4 pricols

Quiet on the set please. Roll tape. MPEG4 pricols

It really is a Merry Christmas:MPEG4 pricols

People are feeling better about the economy and their own financial situations, a hopeful sign they’ll act more like Santas than Grinches while holiday shopping. The RBC CASH Index, based on polling by Ipsos, showed that consumer confidence clocked in at 85.5 in December, the second-highest reading of this year.

The pickup builds upon the rebound in consumer confidence staged in November, when the index jumped to 81. That revival came after confidence had been stuck in the doldrums in September and October, reflecting worries about sky-high energy prices and other fallout from the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

Economists attributed the December improvement to a retreat in gasoline prices, a ramp up in hiring and solid growth being logged by the overall economy.

This is nifty. Among other things, you can view the results of every vote in Congress since 1991 and keep track of your congressman’s voting record via RSS feed.MPEG4 pricols

And they don’t mince words:MPEG4 pricols

Members of the black leadership network Project 21 are criticizing the decision of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to formally oppose and call for a filibuster of the nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court in advance of Senate hearings.

Confirmation hearings on Judge Alito are scheduled to begin on January 9, but CBC members — including Senator Barack Obama, who will actually cast a vote on the nomination — voted unanimously to oppose the Alito nomination over a month in advance of those hearings.

“The Congressional Black Caucus’s rush to condemn Judge Alito in advance of the hearings is an unambiguously proof-positive indication of their contempt for the spirit of our constitutional order,” said Project 21 member Mychal Massie. “It also clearly shows who their masters are. The CBC has clearly aligned itself with the extreme liberals who share their contempt for those who would uphold the Constitution as it was envisioned by our Founding Fathers.”

Let me be very clear: based on what was known to them at the time, I think the federal air marshals who shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar were justified, legally and morally.* It was a good shoot, and I am not second-guessing their on-the-scene judgment.MPEG4 pricols

But having said that, I have to tell you I don’t think I would have pulled the trigger. From the moment the story first broke, I thought the then-unidentified Mr. Alpizar was a harmless nut, not a terrorist. That was my gut reaction. Perhaps I would have felt differently had I been on the scene. I can’t say for sure. But I think I would have trusted my gut; if so, I would have walked up to Mr. Alpizar, maced him in the face and snatched away his bag. But I would not have capped him.MPEG4 pricols

I’m curious to know what you think you would have done. Like me, I know that several of you carry guns in your capacity as private citizens. And while you and I won’t be armed in the sterile area of an airport, we could face this kind of situation in other public settings. MPEG4 pricols

Based on what was known at the time, would you have shot Rigoberto Alpizar? (Even if you don’t own or carry a gun, answer anyway.)MPEG4 pricols

(*I judge the air marshals’ conduct by Texas law. In Texas, it doesn’t matter what the perpetrator was doing, or even whether he was actually armed. It matters what the shooter reasonably believed at the time. I do not doubt the air marshals reasonably believed that Mr. Alpizar was a terrorist with a bomb.)MPEG4 pricols

BOSTON — Supporters of a 2008 ballot initiative to eliminate gay marriage delivered petitions with more than 170,000 signatures to the secretary of state on Wednesday.

The move by the Massachusetts Family Institute and its supporters was the next step in their quest to overturn the 2003 court ruling that made Massachusetts the only state with gay marriage. The initiative also seeks to ban same-sex civil unions.

For the opponents of gay marriage, this is risky. I’ve seen polling data — alas, I can’t find the link now — that suggest Massachusetts voters have acclimated to same-sex marriage and are not inclined to overturn it. They’ll have another two years to acclimate further before voting on this initiative.MPEG4 pricols

Have the supporters of this initiative pondered the possibility, and perhaps the probability, that they will lose? Not that it’s gone anywhere now, but the Federal Marriage Amendment is doomed forever if even one state gives democratic legitimacy to gay marriage.MPEG4 pricols

Massachusetts Family Institute, be careful what you ask for.MPEG4 pricols

Thank you, Howard Dean:MPEG4 pricols

Strong antiwar comments in recent days by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean have opened anew a party rift over Iraq, with some lawmakers warning that the leaders’ rhetorical blasts could harm efforts to win control of Congress next year.

Several Democrats joined President Bush yesterday in rebuking Dean’s declaration to a San Antonio radio station Monday that “the idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong.”

The critics said that comment could reinforce popular perceptions that the party is weak on military matters and divert attention from the president’s growing political problems on the war and other issues. “Dean’s take on Iraq makes even less sense than the scream in Iowa: Both are uninformed and unhelpful,” said Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.), recalling Dean’s famous election-night roar after stumbling in Iowa during his 2004 presidential bid.

I did predict this.* Of course, predicting it took no particular acumen. Anyone who pays even casual attention to Howard Dean knows he’s a nut, fated by the gods to do far more harm to Democrats than Republicans.MPEG4 pricols

Come next year’s elections, the GOP should, by rights, have its ass handed to it. In our hearts, we Republicans know this, yes? We’ve governed abysmally and repeatedly abandoned our principles, with a view to scarcely anything but our own dominance. If you made a video of the Republican Party under George W. Bush, you’ve have to title it “Tops Gone Wild.” We’re screwing everybody. MPEG4 pricols

And yet, we’re not going to lose the midterms; indeed, it’s not incautious to say that we may pick up a seat or two. The reason for this is found in Walter Williams’ crystallizing observation: “Democrats are the best reason to vote for Republicans.”MPEG4 pricols

After a drink or two, I might even muse that continued Republican governance was the will of Providence. For a party to govern as badly as the GOP has governed and yet remain in power, it must have the complicity of the opposition. What, if not divine intervention, explains that?MPEG4 pricols

(*There will be still more. Howard Dean is not done aiding the Republican congressional campaign.)MPEG4 pricols

Lots of folk will say “I told you so:”MPEG4 pricols

U.S. military recruiters, seeking full access to law schools that protest the armed forces’ policy on gays and lesbians, received support in their legal fight from most Supreme Court justices.

During a one-hour argument session in Washington, the Bush administration said it has the power to withhold millions of dollars in aid unless universities give military recruiters the same access to students as other prospective employers. An attorney for the law schools argued they have a free-speech right to refuse to help employers who discriminate.

“You’re perfectly free to do that if you don’t take the money” from the government, Chief Justice John Roberts told the law schools’ attorney.

The government provides almost $35 billion a year to universities, according to the American Association of University Professors. At issue is a federal law known as the Solomon Amendment that requires universities to give military recruiters equal access to campuses or lose those funds.

The Court’s ruling may not come until July, but I don’t think the outcome can be in doubt. This is really a simple Spending Clause case. You don’t have to be in favor of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” — and I’m not — to acknowledge that the law is on the Government’s side.MPEG4 pricols

C-SPAN provides this audio of the oral argument. [Link requires, and launches, Real Player.]MPEG4 pricols

Well, this is flattering — and a wee bit embarrassing. Right Side of the Rainbow is a nominee in the 2005 Web Log Awards for Best LGBT Blog. (By the way, looking at the nomination entries, I think this fellow is the responsible party. You’re a sweetie, Srcastic.)MPEG4 pricols

Boi From Troy is the returning champion, and from the early voting it looks as if he’ll have to fend off a strong challenge from the guys at Gay Patriot. The other nominees include:MPEG4 pricols

• Queer Visions
• Pam’s House Blend
• Gay Orbit
• Shades of Gray
• Brat Boy School
• Classical Values
• Good as You
• Troubled Diva
• The Malcontent
• Blog Active
• Towleroad
• HomoconMPEG4 pricols

Please visit them all. You’ll come away with new bookmarks.MPEG4 pricols

You can vote here for your favorite gay blogger. You can vote once every 24 hours. Voting started yesterday and ends December 15. MPEG4 pricols

You’ll find the nominees for other categories here. (Relatedly, let me put in a plug for a gay blogger who was nominated for Best Humor Blog. Jeff at Beautiful Atrocities is the funniest guy in the blogosphere.)MPEG4 pricols

See the video. (Warning: explicit content; not work safe. Requires Macromedia Flash Player.)MPEG4 pricols

What makes us think this is the kind of problem we can “war” our way out of?MPEG4 pricols

The San Francisco Chronicle carries this report on that city’s imminent ban on handguns, as viewed by a lesbian who owns one.MPEG4 pricols

To understand the coming conflict between Iran and Israel, it can be informative to compare and contrast what the experts say with what Israel and Iran say, or do. Consider, for example, the following stories, all from today’s headlines.MPEG4 pricols

USA Today:MPEG4 pricols

Iran’s growing nuclear program has suddenly emerged as a campaign issue in Israel’s March elections. Top politicians have ratcheted up the tough talk against Iran, led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bold call for a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear installations.

[…]

Judith Kipper, a Middle East specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, called Netanyahu’s comments “a desperate political move.” She said such remarks would make it difficult to have a “rational and sane discussion” about policy toward Iran and undermine U.S. and European efforts to curb the Iranian nuclear program.

“A war of words is not something anyone needs now,” she said. “The U.S. and EU are trying to get Iran to calm down its nuclear program. Netanyahu pouring fuel on the fire is not going to help.” (Link)

Reuters:MPEG4 pricols

WASHINGTON — Iran is confident enough of its diplomatic position to risk a major confrontation with the United States and Europe over its nuclear program, a U.S. report said.

[…]

The report said, “Iran’s leaders appear to have calculated that they can withstand the diplomatic pressure they are likely to face in the coming months from the United States, the Europeans and many members of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), and that even if sanctions are imposed, Iran has the will and financial resources to ride them out.” (Link)

World Tribune:MPEG4 pricols

WASHINGTON — Geopolitical limitations render Israel’s air force militarily incapable of halting Iran’s nuclear weapons program according to a new report published the by U.S. Army War College.

The report asserts Israel lacks the military capability to locate and destroy Iranian nuclear assets. The report said the Israel Air Force cannot operate at such long distances from its bases.

“The Israeli Air Force has formidable capabilities and enjoys unchallenged supremacy vis-à-vis the other Middle East air powers, but Israel has no aircraft carriers and it cannot use airbases in other Middle East states,” the report entitled “Getting Ready for a Nuclear-Ready Iran,” said. “Therefore its operational capabilities are reduced when the targets are located far from its territory.” (Link)

Reuters:MPEG4 pricols

TEL AVIV — Israel has ordered two German submarines at a discounted price of some $325 million each after Berlin agreed to accept payment over 10 years, Israeli security sources said on Monday.

They said despite deep cuts foreseen for Israel’s defence budget, top brass decided the new Dolphin-class submarines were needed to counter long-range threats like Iran, whose nuclear programme has raised fears it is seeking atomic weapons.

Israel, believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear power, already has three of the diesel-powered Dolphins. (Link)

[In each case, emphasis added.]MPEG4 pricols

Now not all the expert opinion is incompatible with reality. For example, even if Israel can use submarines to reach Iran’s nuclear assets, she still has the problem of finding them, just as the experts note. But the point still stands: to get the whole story, you have to read beyond what the experts say.MPEG4 pricols

“American Association for Affirmative Action Announces ‘Serious Reservations’ About Supreme Court Nominee Samuel Alito” — headline, Yahoo NewsMPEG4 pricols

A quote from Robert W. Ethridge, president of the AAAA:MPEG4 pricols

The record emerging suggests that Judge Samuel Alito is not prepared to represent all Americans …

As a Supreme Court justice, let’s hope Sam Alito is not prepared to “represent” any Americans, for the Court is not a representative institution. When doing its job properly, the Court says only what the law is, not necessarily what it should be.MPEG4 pricols

The Houston Chronicle provides this summary of all the bills now pending in the House or Senate relating to illegal immigration.MPEG4 pricols

In theatres December 9. See the trailer.MPEG4 pricols

(On a Mac or dial-up connection? Go here.)MPEG4 pricols

We’ve gone to war before over bogus intelligence:MPEG4 pricols

The murky events in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964 propelled the United States into the Vietnam War. Over three days, the U.S. government reported two attacks on its destroyers. The first assault by North Vietnamese PT boats on August 2 provoked only a protest from Washington. On the cloudy night of August 4, two U.S. ships detected another apparent ambush. They fired their guns in response, claiming to have sunk several enemy boats. The incident prompted Lyndon Johnson to order airstrikes and obtain what amounted to a declaration of war from Congress.

Within a few years, though, public doubts grew about the second incident. There was no physical evidence of an attack, though Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara assured Congress in 1968 that the intelligence was “unimpeachable.” He was referring mostly to North Vietnamese naval communications intercepted by the National Security Agency. In 1984, a U.S. News cover story quoted two top intelligence officials from the period expressing strong doubts about those reports. (More here.)

Now, a newly declassified NSA study—and over 140 formerly top secret intelligence reports—confirm just how wrong McNamara was.

Read the rest.MPEG4 pricols

The declassified Gulf of Tonkin documents are here.MPEG4 pricols

[New video next Sunday]MPEG4 pricols

If this is true — if we get credible confirmation — please remember these.MPEG4 pricols

Take a moment now to look in your local yellow pages and figure out where you’ll get them. And if confirmation comes, do not tarry. It’s a prudent precautionary step in case trouble reaches our shores, and you and I won’t be the only ones taking it. MPEG4 pricols

Associated Press (via Yahoo News):MPEG4 pricols

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday on the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gays, then immediately release audio tapes of the proceeding.

[…]

The case to be argued Tuesday, deciding the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment, deals with whether federal funds can be withheld from colleges that close their campuses to military recruiters in a protest of the current military policy toward gays.

The case is Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic & Institutional Rights, 04-1152.

Come Tuesday, I’ll have a link to the audio.MPEG4 pricols

The case, on appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, presents the question “whether the court of appeals erred in holding that the Solomon Amendment likely violates the First Amendment to the Constitution and in directing a preliminary injunction to be issued against its enforcement.”MPEG4 pricols

The Solomon Amendment, 10 U.S.C. 983, provides that no “funds available to the Department of Defense may be provided by grant or contract to any institution of higher education that has a policy of denying, or which effectively prevents, the Secretary of Defense from obtaining for military recruiting purposes … entry to campuses or access to students on campuses.” MPEG4 pricols

In brief, the law schools want to continue to receive federal money while barring military recruiters from campus on account of the Pentagon’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. To this end, they claim the Solomon Amendment is violative of the First Amendment. The appeals court agreed; the Supreme Court will not.MPEG4 pricols

Prediction 1: The Government will prevail.MPEG4 pricols

The schools could maintain their ban on military recruiters by declining to take federal money. This leads to Prediction 2: When they lose, the schools will not decline to take federal money and will instead lift the ban on recruiters. It’s always so much easier to stand up for your principles when you’re on somebody else’s dime.MPEG4 pricols

(The Government’s brief, via the American Bar Association, is here; surprisingly, the ABA does not provide a copy of the law schools’ brief. If anyone knows where it can be found online, I’ll link it too.)MPEG4 pricols

Comes now word of tomorrow’s war in today’s headlines. From USA Today:MPEG4 pricols

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s hard-line constitutional watchdog approved a bill Saturday blocking international inspections of atomic facilities if the nation is referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, state-run television reported.

[…]

The bill will strengthen the government’s hand in resisting international pressure to permanently abandon uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for either nuclear reactors or atomic bombs.

Meanwhile, from the Chicago Tribune:MPEG4 pricols

MOSCOW, Russia — Russia has agreed to sell anti-aircraft missiles to Iran as part of a $1 billion arms deal that would significantly increase Moscow’s military cooperation with Tehran, Russian news media reported Friday.

[…]

The missiles, known by the NATO designation SA-15 Gauntlet, are deployed on tracked vehicles and designed to strike aircraft or cruise missiles flying at altitudes up to 20,000 feet at a range of 7 miles, according to the Federation of American Scientists’ Web site.

[The newspaper] Vedomosti, citing two unidentified sources, said Russia would sell 29 missile systems to Iran and that the weapons would complicate a potential air strike by the U.S. or Israel on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, which Russia is helping to build.

A warning:MPEG4 pricols

WASHINGTON — Outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Friday that America’s exploding budget deficit and a protectionist backlash against soaring trade deficits could disrupt the global economy.

On a day when he was being honored in London for his nearly two decades in the world’s highest profile economic job, Greenspan restated some familiar worries.

He said U.S. deficits are set to soar with the pending retirement of 78 million baby boomers and he suggested that Congress consider trimming Social Security and Medicare benefits because the government probably has promised more than it can afford, especially in health benefits.

If something isn’t done to trim benefit costs, the resulting budget deficits would “cast an ever-larger shadow” over the future living standards of Americans, Greenspan said …

When it comes to the public purse, it’s really quite sobering to ponder how deeply irresponsible the president and Congress have been.MPEG4 pricols

In 2010, only four years from now, the United States will spend as much to service the interest on its debt as it will on its military.MPEG4 pricols

“Democrats lack unified position on Iraq” — headline, ABC NewsMPEG4 pricols

Of Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito, Sen. Arlen Specter said yesterday:MPEG4 pricols

He raised a sharp distinction, as he put it, between his role as an advocate and his (current) role as a judge. With respect to his personal views on a woman’s right to choose, that is not a matter to be considered in the deliberation on a constitutional issue of a woman’s right to choose. The judicial role is entirely different. (Link)

Yes, and most of us could say with a straight face to any senator exactly what Sen. Specter reports Judge Alito as having said. And then, as Supreme Court justices, we’d proceed to gut Roe hook and tong. MPEG4 pricols

I know that my personal views on abortion — which are mildly pro-choice, at least for the first trimester — have nothing whatsoever to do with my view that the Federal Constitution does not guarantee a right to have an abortion. MPEG4 pricols

This suit must fail. (More later.)MPEG4 pricols

MORE (updated at 7:10 p.m.):MPEG4 pricols

First, a snippet of the story for anyone who hasn’t clicked the link:MPEG4 pricols

In a case involving a California high school girl who was openly gay at school, a federal judge has ruled that the girl, Charlene Nguon, may proceed with a lawsuit charging that her privacy rights were violated when the principal called her mother and disclosed that she is gay.

Now for a couple of caveats. First, the comments that follow are not legal analysis. They are political commentary. In other words, I express no opinion whether this young woman is entitled as a matter of existing law to prevail on her claims. I mean only to say that if the law is on her side, gays and lesbians — and their straight allies — must view the law as wrong.MPEG4 pricols

Second, I rely here on the facts as reported by the New York Times and by a federal judge in California, who granted in part and denied in part the defendants’ motion to dismiss.MPEG4 pricols

Third, I proceed from assumptions shared by most South Park conservatives, namely:MPEG4 pricols

• homosexuality itself is morally neutral;MPEG4 pricols

• homosexuals are not entitled to anything to which heterosexuals are not entitled, and heterosexuals are not entitled to claim a privacy interest in their public behavior;MPEG4 pricols

• the terms “gay” and “lesbian” are political labels.MPEG4 pricols

From the Times’ report and the judge’s order, it’s impossible to determine what exactly Principal Ben Wolf supposedly told Charlene Nguon’s mother. (Can anybody provide a link to the actual lawsuit? It probably contains the specifics.) According to the judge, Ms. Nguon alleges that Mr. Wolf “bluntly [revealed Ms. Nguon’s] sexual orientation to her parents” without her knowledge or consent. [Emphasis added.] But that can’t be quite right, can it? The principal could not have revealed what he does not know, and he does know Ms. Nguon’s sexual orientation. The only thing the principal knows is what he was told by Ms. Nguon herself, or what he has seen with his eyes and heard with his ears — Ms. Nguon reportedly engaged in frequent public displays of affection with another female — and what he infers from what’s he seen and heard.MPEG4 pricols

Sexual orientation describes a state of affective, romantic and sexual inclination. It is a subjective experience, not empirically verifiable by others.* The best evidence any of us ever have of another’s sexual orientation is self-declaration. If a woman tells you she is heterosexually or homosexually inclined, you will usually have scant reason to doubt her. But in any event, you cannot actually know what’s going on in her head and heart. Moreover, you risk error if you infer sexual orientation on the basis of behavior alone. In prisons across America, men who would describe themselves as heterosexually oriented engage consensually in homosexual behavior. Does that make them “gay?” It does not. It doesn’t even make them homosexuals.MPEG4 pricols

“Gay” is a term of political empowerment, used by people who describe themselves as homosexually oriented. That’s the meaning of the word. And although it can be used inaccurately or pejoratively, Ms. Nguon does not claim that she has been misidentified or defamed. (I assume here that Mr. Wolf called her “gay.” Again, I would like to read the suit.) MPEG4 pricols

So if she does not allege to have been wrongly identified or defamed, what’s her beef? There are two possibilities. 1) Whether or not she’s homosexually oriented, which is only for her to say, Ms. Nguon wishes that Mr. Wolf had not described to her mother conduct that he personally observed, or relayed statements Ms. Nguon had herself made. “She often kisses another girl.” “She holds hands with another girl.” “She uses terms of endearment with another girl.” “She says she’s gay.” Or 2) The principal, in reliance upon inference, called Ms. Nguon “gay,” a political term she in fact embraces, but only when it suits her.MPEG4 pricols

If case of the first possibility, it’s risible to assert a privacy interest in public conduct. If you don’t want others to know what you’re doing, don’t make them witnesses to what you’re doing. In case of the second, Ms. Nguon would take a term of political empowerment and imbue it, when it inconveniences her, with secrecy and shame. This, self-respecting gays and lesbians should not abide. We cannot allow the conflicted to define us. Not every homosexual is gay. But every gay is an open homosexual. You see the difference, yes? If some homosexuals want to get in the closet, I say let them go and leave them in peace. But if not, they should know the union shop rule applies: take the benefits, pay the dues.MPEG4 pricols

I don’t know what homosexuals will think about this case. But I know what gays should think about it.MPEG4 pricols

(*Otherwise, what sense does it make to speak of an unmarried, non-dating, celibate priest as homosexual or heterosexual?)MPEG4 pricols

ADDED — Ms. Nguon also alleges that Mr. Wolf enforced against her a nonexistent policy prohibiting public displays of affection; she further alleges that this nonexistent policy was not enforced against heterosexual displays of affection. If so, that’s a whole other matter and one for which she would have my complete sympathy. MPEG4 pricols

Good news if you live in Wisconsin: the state troopers association has announced its support for concealed carry legislation. The association asked only that legislators amend the bill to let police know whether the owner of a vehicle has a license to carry a firearm. (Texas does something similar; here the state puts a notation on your driver’s license rather than on your vehicle registration. And if you’re carrying at the time of a traffic stop, you’re required to present your concealed carry license along with your driver’s license.)MPEG4 pricols

Meanwhile, this from David Collins, superintendent of Wisconsin state police:MPEG4 pricols

“Having more people carrying around loaded, hidden weapons under their coats … will not make Wisconsin any safer,” he said. “It could put the public at risk, and it will make the job of law enforcement more difficult and more dangerous.”

No, it most certainly will not. I defy Mr. Collins to cite even one example from any state with concealed carry of a licensed citizen shooting a police officer. It. Has. Not. Happened. MPEG4 pricols

If this bill becomes law,* Wisconsin will become the 47th U.S. state to make some provision for its citizens to carry firearms. Why doesn’t Mr. Collins think the experience of forty-six states relevant to evaluating the accuracy of his predictions?MPEG4 pricols

(*Alas, Gov. Jim Doyle is likely to veto the bill.)MPEG4 pricols

ADDED — As a comment to this post, rightwingprof writes:MPEG4 pricols

Wait a minute. If you’re carrying in your vehicle, you have to tell the policeman? Are you kidding? You are required by law to tell him?

I’ve said for years Texas is not a gun friendly state. This is just one more reason it’s not.

In Texas, if you’re carrying a concealed weapon when you’re stopped by a patrolman, you’re not required to disclose that fact per se. Rather, you’re required to present the officer with your concealed carry license when you present him with your driver’s license. (See Texas Government Code §411.205.) In all probability the officer will then ask whether you are in fact armed, and if so, that you keep your hands visible.MPEG4 pricols

Does this make Texas a not gun friendly state? I report. You decide.MPEG4 pricols

And he apparently intends to answer, having asked the court to reschedule his Monday duty date.MPEG4 pricols

This dangerous situation is my nomination for the most important but underreported story in world affairs.MPEG4 pricols