Tag Archives: politics

Can I get some of what he’s smoking?

19 Mar

Liberals should back abortion ban
By Don Saxton

Excerpt

Civil liberties? I think I remember civil liberties…

19 Mar

Patriot Act: The Home Version is a grand piece of satire. Go see it.

Even some Republicans see the corruption has gone too far

19 Mar

Hefley’s bill aims for tougher rules on ethics issues

Excerpt

19 Mar

Public Comments by Justices Veer Toward the Political

Speeches by Supreme Court justices are usually sleepy civics lessons studded with references to the Federalist Papers and the majesty of the law. That seems to be changing.

Full article behind cut

Operation Swarmer

19 Mar

Time Magazine – On Scene: How Operation Swarmer Fizzled
Not a shot was fired, or a leader nabbed, in a major offensive that failed to live up to its advance billing

You ask why I even bother?

18 Mar

History will scold those who stayed silent

I understand where Feingold and Conyers are coming from. Where good and frustrated people all over the country are coming from. History’s verdict is all we have left. And when tomorrow calls today to account, some of us want to be able to say, we stood up. We called out. We were not silent.

It is small solace, but it is solace, nonetheless.

I love Leonard Pitts. If you read me, you really should read him.

‘Choose Life’ plate upheld as free speech

18 Mar

6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says Tennessee has 1st Amendment right, too

The state would be within its rights to issue specialty license plates reading “Choose Life” while denying a plate encouraging abortion rights, a U.S. appeals court ruled yesterday.

Messages on Tennessee license plates are government speech, not a public forum as the American Civil Liberties Union argued, the majority decision of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. While one-sidedness may be “ill-advised” on politically charged issues like abortion, the court ruled there’s nothing in the First Amendment that prohibits it.

What is happening to the judiciary in this country? Is it fear, as Sandra Day O’Connor suggests?

EDIT: I have become aware that my original intent was not made clear. Let me state it bluntly. Government has responsibilities. Government does not have civil rights. Civil rights are what we use to protect ourselves from the encroachment of government. That was the thought process behind my question above.

x-posted to

Sandra Day O’Connor speaks out

18 Mar

Supreme Court justices keep many opinions private but Sandra Day O’Connor no longer faces that obligation.

I, said O’Connor, am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning. Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and former communist countries where interference with an independent judiciary has allowed dictatorship to flourish, O’Connor said we must be ever-vigilant against those who would strongarm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.

See this related op-ed piece in the Houston Chronicle.

O’Connor did the country a service by lending her stature to a warning against reckless threats upon the judiciary. As a private citizen with unique credibility, she owes something more. She should make public a transcript of her comments and detail her concerns so more Americans can hear them. The time for discreet silence has passed.

17 Mar

Allard’s linking of senator, terror “out of bounds”
By Anne C. Mulkern
Denver Post Staff Writer

Apparently, the pressure is starting to have an affect…

Article excerpt

More on Senator Feingold’s censure resolution

16 Mar

Yesterday, in an interview for Fox News Radio, Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) accused Senator Russ Feingold (D – WI) of “[siding] with terrorists” by introducing a resolution to censure George Bush.

Senator Feingold’s censure resolution seeks to hold the President accountable for authorizing a domestic spying program that clearly violates federal law and for misleading the country about its existence and its legality.

To question Senator Feingold’s patriotism and suggest that he is “siding with terrorists” by seeking to hold President Bush accountable for violating federal law is despicable.

Click on the following link to join me in calling on Senator Allard to apologize publicly:

http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/petition/allardapologize/klged

Click on the following link for an audio clip of Allard’s attack on Senator Feingold:
http://www.ProgressNowAction.org/AllardAudio

EDIT: To clarify, I didn’t write this. It’s a direct lift from an action email.

X-posted to