Now this is interesting.

Who Said It: Bush or Batman? | Indecision2008 | Comedy Central

So I find it fascinating that the media has a choice story full of criminal behavoir, large sums of cash and current political leaders and keeps it all below the fold. Norm Hsu a leading Democratic Insider and Donor is captured and arrested in CO and there is virtually not a ripple in the media. There is one story at the SF Chronical that discusses Hsu’s capture and at the bitter end of the article finally surfaces the facts:

“The size and scope of Hsu’s contributions made him one of the party’s largest individual contributors. While he gave $23,000 to Clinton and $7,000 to Obama, he also gave $62,000 to New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, $50,000 to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and $50,000 to the New York State Democratic Party.

His contributions also included $38,000 to the Tennessee Democratic Party, $750 to Newsom, $1,250 to San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, and $3,500 to the 25th Ward Democratic Organization in Chicago.

and that he was a longtime criminal;

“In the 1991-92 grand theft case, Hsu was charged with bilking about 20 investors, including his ex-girlfriend, out of about $1 million in connection with a business that was supposed to provide latex gloves to another firm - only no gloves were ever bought or sold, prosecutors said.”

Fugitive fundraiser Hsu captured in Colorado

Yesterday, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, went into full denial mode with regard to any wrongdoing in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport restroom. Why now deny anything happened at all when in June, he admitted something happened and he was in the wrong.

The Police report from Senator Craig’s restroom encounter with a plain clothes officer tells it all. Apparently the officer was in the restroom doing his business in a stall and was essentially harassed by Craig; who peered into the stall for a couple of minutes then moved to an adjacent stall for a little footsie.

“Larry, you are one strange dude!”

The TPM DOCUMENT COLLECTION - Statement of Ofc.Karsnia re: Arrest of Sen. Craig

A DC Administrative Law Judge is suing a dry cleaners in DC for $65 Million dollars for a pair of pants they lost in 2002. Roy Pearson a lawyer and Judge in DC is acting as his own attorney is pissing away the Washington DC tax dollars bringing a case so lame that it would even embarrass John Edwards.

The mere fact a case like this can be brought to the DC courts provides an alarming example of how screwed up our Judicial system has become. Roy Pearson should be disbarred from the court and lose his job for being involved with something so unbalanced and wasteful.

Perhaps at some point the folks in congress will stop pandering to their respective Parties’ base with meaningless legislation and realize they need to work on some serious legal reform.

When a hardworking people in America have to put up with frivolous lawsuits from worthless lawyers with nothing but time on their hands it is a travesty! In fact it should be a criminal offense to waste taxpayers money on such clearly baseless legal efforts.

Marc Fisher - Lawyer’s Price For Missing Pants: $65 Million - washingtonpost.com

Update: June 13th

Roy Pearson’s case is being heard in the DC courts today and yesterday he broke down and sobbed like a baby in open court. He has dropped the amount of the legal suit to only $54 Million in damages (heartbreak and suffering) but the case is a foolish and wasteful as it was when I created the original post in April.

The tears were prompted by Pearson’s emotions welling up during the trial as he recalled the point at which the cleaners called him in to present him with his pants which had turned up. As noted in the Wall Street Journal Online:

“The cleaner’s lawyer, Christopher Manning, described Pearson as embittered, having emerged from recent divorce with financial problems and having held a grudge against the cleaners from a prior run-in. When did Pearson cry? Here, as described by the WaPo:

… but as he came to the part about when Soo Chung (Owner of the dry cleaner) finally told him she had found the missing pants, the tale of the $10.50 alteration that went awry proved to be too much.

“And she said, ‘These are your pants.’ ”

Pearson paused. He struggled to breathe deeply. He could not continue. Pearson blurted a request for a break, stood up, turned around and walked out of the courtroom, tears dripping from his full and reddened eyes.”

Final Update (June 25): The case was dismissed by Judge Judith Bartnoff overseeing it in the DC Courts and the Cleaners were awarded court costs. Additionally the National Labor Relations Board has called for Mr Pearson to be debarred so that he can no longer serve as a judge. This case has made a mockery of the US legal system and hopefully will prompt some actions on behalf of lawmakers to prevent such frivolous cases from being brought in the future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6238364.stm

There is a HUGE misconception that the Democrats are the voice of minorities in this country and that Republicans support policies that hurt minorities. That is an assertion that is driven by the liberal media in this country. The real truth is that democrats like to over hype the problem of racism to get votes and actually enable racism in this country so they can site a problem when appealing to minority voters. I am not trying to deny that racism still is a problem in the United States, but it is not as prevalent as the far left and specifically democrats will lead you to think. The truth is there are more racist democrats than republicans in the history of this country.

For example, President Clinton’s political hero, who till this day he speaks highly off, is a former senator by the name of J. William Fulbright. Senator Fulbright was a Southern Democrat and a staunch multilateralist who supported racial segregation. He also worked to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Senator Fulbright was as racist a person as they come, and he was a big voice of the democratic party. Anyone who considers this man a political hero cannot call himself “The First Black President” or a person who cares about minorities.

Another example is former Vice President Al Gore’s father, Al Gore, Sr. Al Gore, Sr also voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The truth is that Civil Rights in this country was initiated by Republicans. More republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than democrats, and if weren’t for Republicans, that act would have never passed.

The reason Republicans are deemed racist is because they support equality for all. Republicans are against programs that counter-act racism of one group by being racist to another group, or as I like to call it, Affirmative Action. What Republican leaders hope to achieve is a society that rewards ALL people who work hard and show ambition and not a welfare state society where people are dependant on the government for everything.

The reason the Democrats so badly want you to believe that there is racism out there is for votes. A classic example is with Democrat, Mike Nifong, the DA of Durham Country. As you all may know, 3 White Duke lacrosse players were accused of rape by an African American woman. Even though there was zero evidence against these 3 players, Mike Nifong hyped up the charges through the media and called these players racist, because he wanted to capture the African American vote in Durham country. It was later found out that he withheld exculpatory evidence, lied to the courts and the media, and ruined the lives of 3 students all to get re-elected. The Duke Lacrosse case is a classic example of what a democrat will do to create racism that is not there to get votes.

Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman (CN) understands the issues in Iraq. His Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post is a well presented case for why the Democrats and others calling for immediate troop withdrawl from Iraq are confused and are responding just as al_Qaeda hopes they will.

His argument is simple: “When politicians here declare that Iraq is “lost” in reaction to al-Qaeda’s terrorist attacks and demand timetables for withdrawal, they are doing exactly what al-Qaeda hopes they will do, although I know that is not their intent.”

“The challenge before us, then, is whether we respond to al-Qaeda’s barbarism by running away, as it hopes we do — abandoning the future of Iraq, the Middle East and ultimately our own security to the very people responsible for last week’s atrocities — or whether we stand and fight.

To me, there is only one choice that protects America’s security — and that is to stand, and fight, and win.”

Joe Lieberman - One Choice in Iraq - washingtonpost.com

While the original Ridley Scott commercial has been widely hailed as the best commercial ever made it was only played once as a TV ad during the Superbowl. Since it has been played 10’s (if not 100’s) of millions of times online. Recently an anonymously posted video showed up on You Tube. The video uses most of the original but recasts the droning big brother figure with Hillary Clinton. (How appropriate!) The final message is related to how Barack Obama will make this election cycle different than the prior cycle with a Clinton running.

The blogosphere and media has been on fire analyzing how this rogue video demonstrates that with the new world order (the power of the individual using the Internet as distribution mechanism) individuals or unaffiliated groups can have a major impact on the messaging around politics without the control or consent of the politicians or their organizations.

Take a look for yourself and compare the original Apple 1984 commercial with the politically aimed mashup.

The Mashup

The Original

Update: The forces of Hillary have come blazing back with a response to the creative coup of the 1984/Hillary mashup. Unfortunately for Clinton the response is just a piss poor rehash of the exactly the same ad but with Obama in place of the talking Hillary in the commercial. The lack of imagination demonstrates the fact that Hillary supporters are less than bright. In addition to the creative drought in the Hillary response. the lack of poor quality of editting of this response is laughable. The result is that the response video is so lame it just calls more attention to the creative and well done original Anti-Hillary ad. Check out the Hillary response video for yourself:

The Lame Imitation

A recently published book (Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate Conservatism) by Arthur Brooks, professor of public administration at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University is causing a stir. The analysis in the book suggest that while self categorized Liberals talk about how much they care about others self professed conservatives actually give of themselves and their money to better humanity. In fact, the research suggests that at all income levels and regardless of ethnicity conservatives tend to step up and contribute while the liberals tend to be the most vocal and at the same time contribute little to nothing.

A review of the book in the Wall Street Journal is insightful stating: “our era’s common sense of the matter — that the political left is more compassionate than the political right, and that America is a remarkably ungenerous nation by world standards — is demonstrably inaccurate. In fact, Sen. John Edwards’s repeated claim that there are ‘two Americas’ turns out to be correct but misstated: The line of separation runs most saliently not between the haves and have-nots but between the gives and the give-nots, between those Americans who respond to social needs with their own money and time and those who do not.”

The book’s data analysis demonstrates that “Conservative households give 30% more to charity than liberal households. … perhaps most interesting of all, in states in which George W. Bush got more than 60% of the 2004 vote, charitable giving averaged 3.5% of income, as compared with states in which Mr. Bush got less than 40% of the vote, in which the giving averaged a mere 1.9% of income.”

It should come as no surprise that social conservatives with their belief in responsibility of the individual and desire for smaller government would take it upon themselves to donate time and money while the liberals believing that corporations and Government should shoulder all the responsibility for the world’s ills would walk away muttering about creating yet another entitlement that wealthy taxpayers could finance.

You can read the Wall Street Journal review of the book online at the Maxwell School site (or online at Wall Street Journal Online if you are a subscriber)

This book should be mandatory reading for your favorite outspoken liberal. It just goes to show you that “Talk is cheap”

Nearly everyone on the planet has know been made aware of the enormous threat posed to the flying public by harmless household liquids combined to become deadly explosive cocktails. The Register (an online publication) took an opportunity to research the subject and has concluded that all the furor is nonsense. They detail the ingredients and procedures necessary to actually produce the explosive end product. The Register concluded that it would be easier to bring on board the end product TATP (interestingly not a liquid at all but a non-descript white powder) than try to mix a batch while in the air.

They also conclude as do I that the current tempest in a teapot about necessary changes to the security procedures at airports is pointless and misdirected.

Read the article at the Register

By now most of you have at least heard of the latest 911 conspiracy video called ‘Loose Change’. Assembled by a cadre of creatins this video (2 hours)goes through a bunch of news reports and unclassed Government memos to offer proof that the 9/11 events were planned and executed by the Government. Even the most gullible among us should see this for what it is ‘a bunch for total crap’.

I am a regular reader of Maddox’ “Best Page in the Universe” website. The guy has a great sense of humour and tells it like it is. Maddox has a post that is quite entertaining on the subject of this video and is well worth a read. (You might also appreciate his past posts on various subjects as well)

Maddox take on the Loose Change Video

Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson says that God caused Ariel Sharon’s stroke to punish him for “dividing God’s land.” In a moronic series of remarks Robertson suggested that; “God says, This land belongs to me and you’d better leave it alone.” Is Robertson suggesting that the omnipotent being that created the earth from nothing, actually cares about human imposed boundaries on the planet?

If God wanted the borders of Israel left as they were before Gaza and parts of the west bank were turned over to the Palestinians then why did the Lord wait until after to “Smoat” Sharon? Wouldn’t a bolt of lightning from the heavens in advance of the turnover have delivered a more clear and undeniable message?

The fact that Robertson is still fogging a mirror after repeated remarks clearly demonstrating his limited mental capacity is a testiment to the fact that the Lord has better things to do than deliver object lessons. In my opinion an omnipotent power would in all likelihood, prefer to see peace in the middle east than as Robertson suggested in August of last year the US should assassinate Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez.

CNN.com - Robertson suggests God smote Sharon - Jan 5, 2006

Clarence Ray Allen a convicted murderer is 75. He has been on death row for decades due to California’s lengthy death row appeals process. Now he is seeking clemency based on the fact he is old and sick. How does this make sense to anyone?

Clarence Ray Allen was Allen was convicted in 1982 for ordering the murders of three individuals while serving a life sentence at Folsom State Prison for the murder of a young woman in 1974. The individuals who he conspired to have killed were witnesses in his original murder trial in 1974.

He is scheduled to be executed on January 15th and has run out of options with regard to an appeal of the sentence and conviction. Leave it to the bleeding heart liberals to now say that ‘he should not be put to death because he is old and infirm’. Do these supposed good citizens care that Clarence was personally responsible for the premature death of four (4) persons? They appeal the to the mercy of the Governor for this man who is afflicted with blindness and crippled to the extent he requires a wheelchair.

Perhaps if more thought were given to the victims of crimes than to the perpetrators, the liberals across the country would come to the obvious conclusion that this man deserves to die. The only travesty here is that he has outlived his victims by more than 25 years.

Clarence you made a reservation for death years ago. Let justice be served with your demise. If the issue is the use of lethal injection on someone so infirm, perhaps a pillow over the face for a few minutes might be viewed as more humane by the bleeding hearts. In any case either alternatives are more humane in my opinion than the sawed off shotgun blasts that took the lives of his victims.

Want the facts? SFGate Story

Who covers this story from the liberal’s perspective? NPR of course. NPR : Death-Row Septuagenarian Seeks Clemency

In the battle over the proper education of our children with respect to evolution this week two events of note.

The Kansas ‘board of ignorance’ voted Tuesday that students will be expected to study doubts about evolution, a move that defied reason and the nation’s scientific establishment. In a clearly contradictory statement:”This is a great day for Kansas,” board president Steve Abrams said. “This absolutely raises science standards.” Abrams in this case has clearly demonstrated his lack of ability for cogent thought.

Kansas’ criteria challenge evolution | IndyStar.com

Meanwhile voters in Dover, Pa., delivered their judgment this week by voting out eight of nine school board members who decided that ninth-grade science students must be told the concept is an alternative to evolution. Perhaps Kansas residents should take a lesson from this and tell Abrams and his moronic cohorts to take the snake oil they are selling and leave the state for good.

Four days have passed since New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin argued with the Federal Authorities about his misguided plan to repopulate New Orleans. The passage of this short period has proved once and for all that Mayor Nagin is clueless. For days Nagin insisted that it was important to repopulate the city in spite of water shortages, lack of power and emergency medical support for returning residents. Against counsel from better informed Federal officials Nagin specifically invited residents to return. After a public debate where he is hammered with the fact there was yet another storm (Rita) that has been on the radar for days which might impact New Orleans, Nagin finally retracts his invitation to repopulate the city on the 19th.

Now less than four days later the storm and rain surge from Hurricaine Rita has breached a major levy and is in the process of reflooding the ninth ward of New Orleans. This damage has essentially proven that Nagin’s plan to bring back the residents was misguided at best and more truely qualified as harebrained.

By now it is clear that the media is focusing on two flawed liberal themes with respect to the disaster in the Gulf Coast. 1) Allowing unlimited whine time for the democratic politicians to complain about the Federal response. 2) How awful it is that all the poor ar taking the brunt of the storms aftermath.

In an effort to deflect a real examination of what went wrong and why the local politicians and the national dems and liberals want George Bush and the federal Government to take the blame for what they see as a less than timely response. In New Orleans hundreds of school buses sit underwater while the New Orleans Mayor and Lousiana Governor shout about how the Federal Government should have responded to the needs of those trapped by the flooding more rapidly.

A detailed and well informed blog post by Bryan Preston points out the stupidity of the finger pointing by the democrats and how a large portion of the human tradgedy could have been avoided in the first place had local politicians and authorities simply done their jobs.

APOCALYPSE NOW IN NEW ORLEANS

The position that somehow the poor are somehow being punished more by this disaster than they deserve is frankly misguided. I am certain that many poor individuals and families are suffering as a result of this event but in general you reap what you sow. The liberals have created the current situation and refuse to remove the self imposed blinders to see how. Over the years we have created welfare state where individuals were made to feel that they were not responsible for their circumstances nor needed to personally sacrifice and work to improve them.

I believe that a good accounting of where we stand today and how sad a state of affairs has been created by well intentioned but misguided liberal principles is titled:An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State

“Tails you loose and heads I win” is the game partisan Democrats and their mainstream press admirers are playing with the Administration. Two major issues demanded attention as result of Katrina’s visit to the USA: 1) energy and 2) rescue and relief. The Bush administration tackled both, initially giving energy the most visibility. “Tails you lose” as the critics fault the Bush team for not addressing rescue and relief more visibly earlier. “Heads I win” as there is little doubt that the critics would have faulted the Bush team had delayed it’s full court press on energy.

Credit is due the Administration for sound decision-making and wise leadership in giving actions taken to address the issue with national impact the earliest visibility. Shame to the critics for trying for political advantage when the President and his team are doing the right things in the right order.

In her politicized campaign to meet with President Bush, Cindy Sheehan has become the lightning rod for the liberals and their whining. All the while ignoring the fact that she had in fact already met with President Bush in June of last year shortly after her son Casey Sheehan was killed. Her husband is divorcing her and I suspect Casey would disown her as well if was he alive. I ran across a post entitled “SHE IS NOT WORTHY OF HER SON” that captures my feelings on her misguided crusade.

It captures what I believe to likely represent what would be Casey’s perspective on his Mom’s political pandering and I quote:

“Why can’t you be proud of me, mom?

Why are you turning my sacrifice into a political playing card for anti-American fools who will never ‘move on’ from their hateful agenda, who love seeing the Iraq death toll—-miniscule compared to earlier wars’—-inch up every day, who would like nothing better than to see America retreat in dishonorable defeat, just so that they can say, We told you so? Is that was passes for patriotism to your evil masters—-gloating over their own country’s discomfiture? Not in my book, mom, and not on my watch.”

The full post is well worth reading.

Additional interesting background on this “tempest in teapot” is the wikipedia entry on Cindy as it factually captures the 180 degree flip flop that Cindy has taken on the war and President Bush. All in all quite enlightening.

A friend of mine recently forwarded me a message that provides an overview of the emergence of Conservatives and Liberals. I have searched to try to ascertain the originator of the message to no avail. It’s widely posted but with no attribution. I do feel that the basic premise of the supposed history rings true. You either create value or not.

History began some 12,000 years ago. Humans existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunter/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the winter and would go to the coast to live on fish and lobster in the summer.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundations of modern civilization, and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups: Liberals & Conservatives. Once beer was discovered, it required grain, and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early human ancestors were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That’s how villages were formed. ok

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as “the Conservative movement.”

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting, learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q’s and doing the sewing, fetching and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the liberal movement. Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as ‘girlie-men.’ Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy and group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years, conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass. Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare.

Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists, are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn’t “fair” to make the pitcher also bat. Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, soldiers, athletes, and generally, anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to “govern” the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America. They crept in after the Wild West was tame and created a business of trying to get MORE for nothing.

Here ends today’s lesson in world history.

August 5, 2005

President George Bush White House Washington, DC 20002

Dear George,

Your recent comments on the inclusion of ‘Intelligent Design” in curriculum for public schools are over the line. Please see a prior post on the recent debates in Kansas if there is any question as to whether I believe “Intelligent Design” is a bunch of crap.

Get Back to the business at hand. Focus on Iraq and how to be efficient in securing our country. Focus on the Economy and how to continue the Jobs Engine.

But in short don’t soil yourself and the reputation of your wife as an educator to propose the teaching of PC Hogwash in our schools to satisfy a vocal minority. A majority of your supporters disagree with the agenda of the Christian conservatives.

Regards,

John Menkart

The recently released autopsy report of Terri Schiavo has proved 1) She was less likely to be cured than a pet rock is to talk and 2) her condition was not the result of any misdeeds by Michael Schiavo. This apparently dismayed Jeb Bush and his bible pounding supporters. Jeb has now announced that he has asked a prosecutor to investigate the supposed delay in the 911 call at her original medical emergency when she was found unconscious in 1990 by her husband Michael.

Jeb is grasping at straws to ‘kiss up’ to his Radical Christian base. He is waving as his evidence a statement made by Michael Schiavo in a 1992 medical malpractice trial that he found Terri unconscious at around 5am and that he called 911 at around 5:40am. Jeb announced that he has asked the Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney Bernie McCabe requesting an investigation. He specifically says in his letter to McCabe, “In light of this new information, I urge you to take a fresh look at this case without any preconceptions as to the outcome.” Is he kidding? Does he really classify a statement made in 1992 (13 years ago for the math challenged like Jeb) as “new information”. Does he believe for a second that the insurance companies involved in the multi-million dollar payout that resulted from this 1992 case would have not investigated this in detail and used it as evidence that the doctors were not responsible for the outcome if it was even remotely possible.

Jeb give it up! Michael Schiavo has suffered enough through this protracted years long nightmare carrying out the wishes of his wife to die with dignity. Based on the facts of the case Jeb’s perspective is “braindead” and he is proving that Terri’s level of mental function was only slightly more diminished than his own.

A formal autopsy report on Teri Schiavo has been released and concludes that it was not possible that Teri was semi-conscious as her parents contended. In fact her brain was so damaged it weighed half of what a normal human brain would have and the parts of her brain associated with vision were essentially gone so she was blind. (So much for the nonsense her parents spouted about her responding to faces and a ballon.)

There are no winners in this sad case, but I for one am pleased that the autopsy was performed to determine the facts. Her parents had strenuously objected to the autopsy after her death.

Perhaps now the religious right and the republican leadership will realize how inane it was to insist that she should be allowed to live on the chance she could recover fully with treatment.

Read the full autopsy report.

Howard Dean is at it again. Infamous for totally losing control and screaming like a maniac after losing the Democratic primary ballot in Iowa, Howard is unfortunately making less sense now than he did then.

He went on the record last week slamming all republicans as having “never made an honest living in their lives,” and going on to say that the republican party is “pretty much a white, Christian party.” Asked about it on the “Fox & Friends” show, GOP Party Chairman Ken Mehlman joked that “a lot of folks who attended my Bar Mitzvah would be surprised” he heads a Christian party.

Now as quickly as they shunned him during the primaries Democrats are distancing themselves from the moronic rants of ‘Dr. Dean’

Howard: Don’t you wish your problems were as simple as when you said this?

Members of congress today overwhelmingly approved a military funding bill containing an amendment that mandates the 50 states actually ensure that when they issue a Drivers License the recipient actually is a legal resident of the country. Across the land individuals, states and groups have decried this act for a variety of reasons a vast majority of which are fluff and red herrings.

As a citizen of this country I am incensed at the negative spin surfacing about this act. It is the right thing to create legal requirement that States ensure they issue licenses to legal residents. Wasn’t it always the understanding of legal residents here that States would not issue these critical documents to just anyone?

The fact that states are calling this an unfunded mandate is nonsense. The Federal Government is holding States accountable to perform reasonable due diligence before issuing a license. They aren’t asking states to do anything more than validate that they issue these nationally recognized documents only to individuals that in fact can be accounted for as legal. I consider myself a reasonable person and I expect that this sort of approach be taken in any case. The fact that the States are whining now just points up the fact that until now they just shortcut and issued licenses to anyone who could fog a mirror.

Groups like Amnesty International reknowned for being more concerned about the rights of criminals and terrorists than the rights of the US Government to protect legal residents wellbeing, has now taken to disparaging the act for it’s possible consequences on asylum seekers. The group says; “The Real I.D. Act allows a judge to deny asylum for lack of consistency in any statements, oral or written, sworn or not, made at any time.” Ok so where is the problem? Some foriegn national comes to the US and tells conflicting stories as to why they are here seeking asylum and that should be not be considered by a Judge hearing the Asylum appeal? I would consider this critical to be considered in the course of a decision to grant or deny asylum. Amnesty International is once again spouting total fluff.

I for one applaud the Congress for putting action ahead of rhetoric and taking a proactive approach to Homeland Security.

Now Tom DeLay wants a review of the “Failure of the courts to protect Teri Schiavo.” I for one want to see Tom DeLay get a slap just for suggesting that the courts were somehow obligated to rule against all legal precedence and in favor of Schiavo’s parents. Perhaps Tom just has forgotten that there are three branches of Government each designed to check and balance the others.

This type of overreaching actions by elected officials is uncalled for and inappropriate. I will do my part to see that the republican party suffers if they don’t get a handle on DeLay and all the other politicians pandering to the ‘anti-abortion lobby with this case.

DeLay should consider the fact that many republican voters believe in choice and also want to minimize the role of Government in affairs like end of our lives. If you truly want us to vote for the other party, keep up this nonsense. As a life long Republican this issue with respect to my chosen party really gets my goat.

It seems to me that after some digging there is clearly more going on in the Terri Schiavo case than meets the eye. Essentially as far as I can tell there are numerous facts that are being ignored by the Right-Wingers so anxious to preserve the life of this women. From my perspective most of the folks involved or seeking to be involved are self serving and could actually care less about Terri as long as their objectives are obtained.

Since 1993 when Terri became brain dead from a heart attack brought on by Bulimia the opportunists in her family started to position. In fact it is a documented fact that the rift between her husband and her family was brought on when the family argued over the the proceeds from the medical malpractice settlement. A January 2000 article gives some background that in present day is missing from the debate.

All in all I believe that virtually everyone has their own agendas. The Politicians in Washington and Jeb Bush are using this case as some sort of platform to tout the high value they place on life. I would like to see their living wills as given their public positions on the subject anything less than a documented desire to be kept alive at all costs (even if they had the mental facilities of a ‘pet rock’) would be hypocrisy.

The family has long since lost sight of what is important with respect to Terri. Even asking for a part of the settlement awarded to Schiavo is ghoulish and discredits their opinions entirely. The Schindler’s have created a website which upon even casual review is a lame attempt at propaganda when compared to an even cursory examination of the actual facts. If it was my daughter I hope I never would use her as a pawn to get revenge after her useful life had passed. As hard as it would be I would hope that I could let go after 15 years.

Frankly the whole argument is tainted when you start to dig in and understand the facts and motivations of those involved. I for one believe the central lesson here is everyone should make sure they have a living will that documents their desires. If only to avoid being used like some sort of political football while your organic remains age and fester in a non-recoverable state of brain death.