A Federal Judge in New York didn't like the outcome of recent elections, so he gave residents extra votes to make things more fair for Hispanics.

Voters in Port Chester, 25 miles northeast of New York City, are electing village trustees for the first time since the federal government alleged in 2006 that the existing election system was unfair. The election ends Tuesday and results are expected late Tuesday night.

Although the village of about 30,000 residents is nearly half Hispanic, no Latino had ever been elected to any of the six trustee seats, which until now were chosen in a conventional at-large election. Most voters were white, and white candidates always won.

Federal Judge Stephen Robinson said that violated the Voting Rights Act, and he approved a remedy suggested by village officials: a system called cumulative voting, in which residents get six votes each to apportion as they wish among the candidates. He rejected a government proposal to break the village into six districts, including one that took in heavily Hispanic areas.

The underlying premise here is inherently bigoted. Robinson's reasoning is that a fair system is segregated and not integrated. Apparently only Hispanics should represent Hispanics, and using Robinson's logic Hispanics themselves are so prejudiced that they would not deign to vote for white people.

Perhaps Robinson, a Bush appointee, should have recused himself from the case since he is presumably non-Hispanic and could not possibly rule in their best interests.

This post was updated to correct inaccuracies. Thanks to ParatrooperJJ for keeping us honest.

Obama makes it a habit of bowing to other heads of state...

China's Premier Wen Jiabao

Saudi Arabia's King Abdulla

Japan's Emperor Akihito

China's President Hu Jintao

It's getting embarrassing...

So Rahm Emanuel referred to a bunch of Democrats as "fucking retards" and now there is a big debate about the word retarded. It seems to me that whatever the change the word to, it will eventually become a slur. Didn't this happen with moron and idiot, which both started out as clinical terms (moron meaning mildly retarded, and idiot meaning extremely retarded).

Now, striking out at Rahm Emanuel for using the term as an epithet seems valid to me. I do this whenever someone describes something foolish as "hokey" because I consider it a slight to my beloved Hokies. It is a valiant, albeit challenging, effort to reclaim the medical roots of the term.

But trying to wipe the so-called "R-word" from the public lexicon seems extreme which is what they are now doing. Personally I don't like political correctness and would prefer to call a spade a spade. Calling someone who is retarded.. retarded should not be a crime.

But then I noted the shift way back in 2003:

I don't watch a lot of VH1, but they were doing these 1980s Strikes Back specials, so I turned off the v-chip and tuned in. During the course of the program, VH1 is interviewing several celebrities about their take on the 80s. Naturally when dealing with celebs and 1980s pop culture, there is some swearing and nudity, which VH1 bleeps over or censors for regular TV. But, I could not help but notice that they bleeped over the word "retarded". To put it in context, an actress was discussing the TV show LA Law, and she commented that her favorite character "was the retarded man".

If the character was indeed retarded, they shouldn't bleep someone for referring to him as such. Doing so seems.... retarded.

When it comes to sending more troops to Afghanistan, Obama voted "Present". But there's one enemy the White House is more than willing to take on: Fox News.

The White House is calling on other news organizations to isolate and alienate Fox News as it sends out top advisers to rail against the cable channel as a Republican Party mouthpiece.

Top political strategists question the decision by the Obama administration to escalate its offensive against Fox News. And as of Monday, the four other major television networks had not given any indication that they intend to sever their ties with Fox News.

But several top White House officials have taken aim at Fox News since communications director Anita Dunn branded Fox "opinion journalism masquerading as news" in an interview last Sunday.

Am I the only one that thinks this sort of behavior is not very "Presidential"?

Obama's multiple snubs of the Brits are going largely unreported in the United States. But the British Press won't let Obama get away with the fact that his gift to PM Brown had no class.

The Prime Minister gave Mr Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet.

The unique present delighted Mr Obama because oak from the Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute, was carved to make a desk that has sat in the Oval Office in the White House since 1880.

Mr Brown also handed over a framed commission for HMS Resolute and a first edition of the seven-volume biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

Obama gave the British Prime Minister a set of DVDs. (Not even Blu-Ray) How much you wanna bet they were region 1?

I thought George Wallace was dead?

District of Columbia schools are going to start paying kids for not acting up.

For years, school officials have used detention, remedial classes, summer school and suspensions to turn around poorly behaved, underachieving middle school students, with little results. Now they are introducing a program that will pay students up to $100 per month for displaying good behavior.

Courtesy of the Washington Post, the Ass. Press brings us another game of guess the political party. Our Governor, with help from a prominent Virginia lawmaker are planning to increase the tax on gasoline.

A Senate committee has endorsed legislation increasing Virginia's gasoline tax by 6 cents a gallon.

The Finance Committee sent the bill to the Senate floor on a 9-5 vote Wednesday, the third day of the General Assembly's special session on transportation. But even if the full Senate passes the bill, it faces almost certain death in the House of Delegates, which is controlled by anti-tax Republicans.

Senator Richard Saslaw's bill would phase in the gas tax increase a penny a year over six years. The bill also includes a variety of regional tax increases to pay for projects in northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

Governor Tim Kaine also has proposed tax and fee increases to raise about $1 billion a year for transportation. His proposal, which does not include a gas tax increase, is pending in a House committee.

The article doesn't mention either politician's political party, so you'll just have to guess.

Apparently when it comes to Virginia's Democrat Governors, campaign promises don't mean shit. The sad thing is that the voters don't even care that they're being lied to. I said this about Mark "I will not raise taxes" Warner (who passed the largest tax increase in Virginia's 400 year history). Apparently Tim "no new gun control" Kaine is cut from the same cloth.

House of Delegates Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R) writes:

When then-Gov. Mark R. Warner announced his proposal for the largest tax increase in state history after the legislative elections of 2003, he broke a campaign promise. As a gubernatorial candidate two years earlier, Warner stressed that he would not raise taxes, appearing on television screens across Virginia proclaiming, "Let me set the record straight, I will not raise taxes."

For Warner, breaking a promise that played a key role in his election has not, to date, carried any discernible consequences. Warner was praised by the editorial boards of several newspapers [shocking!], received almost exclusively fawning press coverage and left office with high approval ratings.

And then there's current Governor Tim Kaine:

Like Warner, Kaine promised he would not raise taxes. Moreover, he made it a point to specifically reject raising taxes for transportation, declaring in his campaign advertisements that Virginia couldn't tax and pave its way out of gridlock.

Of course, Kaine broke that promise his first week in office, proposing a massive statewide tax increase for transportation. The most prominent feature of Kaine's proposal would have increased the taxes paid by Virginians when buying a vehicle by 67 percent. After failing in his first two years to get the General Assembly to enact that increase, he is now prepared to call a special session and appears poised to promote it a third time.

His position on tax increases is not the only key commitment made by candidate Kaine that has been discarded by Gov. Kaine. As a candidate, Kaine's campaign Web site proclaimed, "As the next governor of Virginia, he will not propose any new gun laws." That promise went by the wayside earlier this year, when Kaine became the most prominent backer of a measure that would have regulated the sale of firearms between private individuals at gun shows.

Someone should tell CNN that superdelegates don't count until they actually vote:

Sen. Barack Obama inched closer to the Democratic nomination Tuesday as endorsements from superdelegates trickled in.

Sen. Barack Obama is closing in on the 2,118 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. Obama is now four delegates short of the 2,118 needed to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, according to CNN's count.

I wonder if they are counting Teddy Kennedy and Robert 'KKK' Byrd, both of whom have declared for Obama (and may not be well enough for the convention).

UPDATE: CNN just declared Obama the winner, even though no superdelegate votes have been cast.

In times of budget shortfalls, people usually make do with less. When money gets tight, people will postpone their vacations, put off buying that new car, or start packing their lunch to make ends meet. But not the government.

When the government faces economic shortfalls, they simply use the threat of lethal force to take more of the citizens money. Such is the case in suburban Loudoun County (Virginia).

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, struggling with a sudden downturn in the housing market and a population that grows ever larger, approved a 19 percent increase in the property tax rate yesterday that will send the average bill soaring by more than $300 this year.

Driven by a new Democratic majority, the board narrowly approved a $1 billion spending plan that requires an 18-cent increase in the tax rate to $1.14 for each $100 of assessed value. The plan is expected to result in a 6.5 percent increase in the average homeowner's tax bill.

Dipping into the $108 million "rainy day fund" to cover the $25 million shortfall was quickly dismissed as an option. Apparently it never rains on the government either.

To be fair to Democrats, even the board's two Republicans were pushing for "a more modest increase". Because in today's poltical world even largesse is bipartisan. Notice that cutting spending on social programs and other vote-buying schemes was never even considered.

The twisted logic of a Virginia liberal:

- Governor orders Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) to speak against bill
- ABC objects to bill on behalf of the administration
- Bill passes
- Governor vetos bill because ABC objected to it

Governor = asshat

If you think the decline in the housing market is going to show up on your tax bill, think again. In Fairfax County (VA), the government appears to have jacked up their assessments for land value to cover the deflation.

What stunned [Fairfax resident Cathlin Bowman] was the gaping disparity between the value of the 1951 brick-and-shingle house on Barbee Street and the land under it. The 11,500-square-foot lot, assessed at $301,000 last year, is now worth $501,000 -- an increase of 66 percent.

Her house, assessed at $266,590 in 2007, is now valued at $63,930 -- a decrease of 76 percent.

Hoping to take advantage of the housing dip, I had been shopping for a new home in Fairfax. Now maybe I'll continue to rent.

Back in July, we noted that an unelected government "transportation" authority was appointed by the legislature to levy all sorts of new taxes on Northern Virginia, including new taxes on home sales, rental cars, and hotels. It was a novel idea, in that the Legislature could raise taxes without actually voting to raise taxes.

Well, the Virginia Supreme Court has given them the smack down.

The decision by the state's highest court prevents the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority from financing more than $300 million a year in regional highway and transit projects. The authority has already begun collecting new taxes and fees for projects such as a new interchange on the Fairfax County Parkway and the widening of the Prince William Parkway.

Basically, if the Virginia Legislature wants to raise taxes, they have to do it themselves and face the political fallout.

In related news, the Virginia Legislature will likely be calling a special session this summer.

[Sen. Charles J. Colgan (D-Prince William)] said lawmakers should explore a statewide tax increase to fund transportation projects.

Why am I not surprised? The idea of paying for new roads by cutting spending on social programs and other unnecessary vote buying schemes isn't even an option.

I wonder if this will make CNN's Recession Watch.

How asinine can Democrats get? The House voted to increase taxes on oil and gasoline, because the price is too high.

The House approved $18 billion in new taxes on the largest oil companies Wednesday as Democrats cited record oil prices and rising gasoline costs in a time of economic troubles.

I wonder if this will make CNN's Recession Watch.

Much to the delight of liberals everywhere the sole conservative Republican candidate, Fred Thompson, has dropped out of the 2008 Presidential Race.

"Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States," he said. "I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people."

I'm not sure what to do at this point. I refuse to hold my nose and vote for liberals like Huckabee or McCain, and I will not vote for gun bigots like Giuliani. That pretty much leaves Romney, who is not much of a friend to freedom either.

With choices like that, I might be sitting home on election day.

Ever since Bush won in 2000, Democrats have been looking for ways to tweak the Electoral College so that Gore could have won. Now Geek is worried about New Jersey's plan to change how they determine their slate of electors. Apparently they are planning to make it so voters in New Jersey don't really matter by giving their votes to which ever candidate wins the National "popular vote".

If this change is as Geek describes it, not much would change. Yeah, NJ would have voted for Gore in 2000 (they did anyway) but they would have gone Bush in 2004 (which they didn't).

This only matters if carried to the extreme. If ALL states did this the electoral college would be all or nothing nationwide, and candidates would no longer campaign outside of the major cities. That's the downside to a popular vote. It's this downside that would keep other states from adopting such a model. Why would North Dakota give away their votes based on how people in New York, Texas, and California voted? They'd have to be stupid to outsource what little influence they already have.

What's worse is what Colorado attempted to do. They tried to apportion their votes based on the state's popular vote. That would assure that their votes would almost always be split 50/50 to 60/40, making their state essentially worthless for campaigning. No candidate would step foot in Colorado just to get a mere 1 or 2 net votes.

Here's more proof that once levied, taxes and fees rarely ever go away:

(Virginia Democrat) Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Wednesday that he wants to keep the $1 fee that was added to the cost of vehicle registration primarily to help pay for the Jamestown 400th commemoration even though the celebration is over. . .

In 2003, the General Assembly raised the cost of vehicle registration by $1 to collect an additional $6 million a year.

About $4 million was spent on an 18-month series of events marking the 400th anniversary of the founding of America's first permanent English settlement.

The remainder was divided between the Department of Motor Vehicles for driver's license security and the Virginia Land Conservation Fund.

Reminds me of the Spanish-American War tax, which just ended this year (the tax, not the war).

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV is complaining the the Bush Administration won't confirm his nominations to executive positions. Yes, you read that right. Harry Reid is making nominations to the President's cabinet. What's more, since he's not getting his way he's putting the Senate on auto-pilot to prevent the White House from using it's Constitutional authority to make recess appointments.

...Reid said the White House has been unwilling to confirm nominations Democratic leaders have made to agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"I indicated I would be willing to confirm various appointments if the administration would agree to move on Democratic appointments," he said. "They would not make that commitment. As a result, I am keeping the Senate in pro forma [session] to prevent recess appointments until we get this process on track."

A "pro forma" session is a pretend Senate session whereby some poor schlub has to give up his holiday break and hold 30-second meetings with himself. Now that's progress!

There's an election every year in Virginia, and this year Fairfax County Board Chairman Gerry "Hit and Run" Connolly comes up for re-election. Connolly is best known for two accomplishments. First, the Fairfax Democrat has raised taxes every year he's been in office. Property taxes have doubled, and we still can't get the roads repaired.

Perhaps Connolly's greatest was his ability to get out of "Hit and Run" charges using his executive priviledge.

[Judge Craig] Johnston, in issuing his not guilty ruling, said Connolly's "position and his duties have caused him to be oblivious to what is going on in his car."

So here we have a guy who isn't even qualified to drive a car, and he's probably going to be re-elected to run the largest county in Virginia.

Whatever you do, don't ask President Kerry questions about the 2004 election or he'll have the cops taser your ass. Watch the video as Kerry makes jokes while the poor guy (who appears to be a Kerry supporter) is tasered repeatedly while restrained.

When Warner announced his plans to retire, I kinda figured that Warner would try to capitalize on a little name recogntion. Now it's official. Former Democrat Governor of Virginia Mark Warner is once again running for Republican Senator John Warner's seat in 2008. (The two had run against each other in 1996.)

Personally, I don't like either Warner. John Warner has been Senator of Virginia for about 114 years. He was a ranking member on the Senate Armed Services committee and has historically looked out for our veterans. Growing up in a military town, we were taught to admire John Warner. But during his last term he's taken a big swing to the left. His having spoken out against the war, in favor of gun control, and in favor of bigger government has left me wanting a true conservative. Frankly, I'm glad he's stepping down.

But that no-good lying son of a bitch Mark Warner isn't any better. CNN follows the liberal media template by constantly referring to him as the "popular" former governor. But I wonder how popular he really is. At one point he was considered to be Virginia's golden boy. Media pundits were talking about a Mark Warner - George Allen matchup for the 2008 Presidential election. We all know that Allen's political career was torpedoed by the Washington Post's constant harping on his use of the non-sensical term "macaca" (which is sometimes considered offensive in remote regions of the Congo). But what happened to Mark Warner? If Warner is so popular why did he decide against running for the White House in favor of a quest for the Senate?

The answer may be taxes. Mark Warner ran for governor on a "no new taxes" platform. On the campaign trail he said, "I will not raise taxes, I will not raise taxes, I will not raise taxes." (Although he later tried to deny he'd ever even said it). But once he was elected, Mark Warner changed his tune.

Almost immediately after winning election, Mark "I will not raise taxes" Warner asked the General Assembly to raise the state sales tax. Although that effort failed, he vetoed a repeal of the death tax. Warner thought that dead people weren't paying their fair share. They had won life's lottery and even death is no excuse for not paying confiscatory taxes.

Then he pushed for and received the LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN VIRGINIA'S 400 YEAR HISTORY. Warner claimed that Virgina's financial situation was grim. He said our AAA bond rating was at risk and that if we didn't immediately raise taxes, we'd suffer a disaster of biblical proportions. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling. Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes. The dead rising from the grave. Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. . .mass hysteria. And it worked. Hapless Republicans gave him what he wanted.

Just weeks after Warner signed the LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN VIRGINIA HISTORY, it was discovered that Virginia was actually running a budget surplus. A big surplus. A $1 Billion (with a "B") surplus. And Warner knew it all along. The reason he pushed the tax hike through so quickly was to beat the good budget estimates being made public. And when constituents complained and asked that the tax increase be canceled in light of the "new" information, their pleas fell on deaf ears. Instead Warner and the other money-grubbing politicians began planning out new new ways to spend the extra money. Our money.

Whats more, while all this played out Virginia's roads completely deteriorated. Every time the subject of transportation funding came up, Warner and other Virginia politicians (Republicans included) claimed there was no money for roads. Warner told us if we wanted our roads fixed, we'd need to dig a little deeper.

And deeper we dug. Warner's legacy was his Democrat protoge Tim Kaine and subsequent years of tax hikes. And our roads? Well, they still suck because there's never enough money.

How come Democrat politicians are allowed to illegally tap cell phones, enrich themselves with crooked land deals, and get caught red-handed with $90,000 in cash in their freezer, while Republicans are persecuted just for being gay and trying to get a little some some?

You could argue that it is hypocritical of Senator Larry Craig to be anti-gay if he is gay himself. But you could also argue that it's hypocritical for someone who gets $400 haircuts to make poverty the centerpiece of his campaign platform, or to take illegal campaign contributions while criticizing your opponents "culture of corruption".

Of all the crimes taking place in Washington, being gay isn't one of them.

The Dorset County Council (UK) is tackling big issues like truth in pastry advertising:

A baker has been told to rename her novelty 'Pig Tarts' because they do not contain any pork.

Val Temple, who runs Sgt Bun Bakery, Weymouth, Dorset, said that she was shocked when Dorset County Council's trading standards department told her she must change the names of the novelty cakes.

She also said she was told to rename her 'Robin Tarts', as the bird does not feature in the ingredients, and her 'Paradise Slice' would also have to have a new moniker because it doesn't come from paradise.

Remember Wednesday Addams trying to sell lemonade to a girl scout?

Girl Scout: Is this made from real lemons?
Wednesday: Yes.
Girl Scout: I only like all-natural foods and beverages, organically grown, with no preservatives. Are you sure they're real lemons?
Pugsley: Yes.
Girl Scout: I'll tell you what. I'll buy a cup if you buy a box of my delicious Girl Scout cookies. Do we have a deal?
Wednesday: Are they made from real Girl Scouts?

For awhile I didn't have any phone service at all. Except from my family I rarely get calls at home and local phone service was costing me upwards of $50 a month. Sure the local telco advertised $29.99, but taxes and bullshit regulatory charges were easily another $20.

So, I cut it off for a few years. Then a little over a year ago I got Vonage. They advertised $14.99 a month for limited service. The 500 minutes a month would be more than enough for my use. (I typically use anywhere between 15 and 100 minutes a month.)

But lately the bill has been creeping higher and higher. The past two months it's been $19.49, meaning 23% of my bill is taxes. Regulatory Recovery Fee: 99 cents; Emergency 911 Cost Recovery Fee: 99 cents; Federal Universal Service Fee: 92 cents; State Communications Service Tax: 85 cents; and a State 911 Fee: 75 cents.

That's $4.50 (including TWO 911 fees) on a $14.99 phone bill. An effective tax rate of over 30%. Maybe it's time to get rid of my phone again, or switch to one of the discount VoIP services.

After it became clear that Democrats won the House, Stephen Colbert called it quits. Hilarious.

I'm amazed that Democrats were able to gain so much traction without taking a stance on anything other than they hate President Bush.

Oh, and two words for those who would push the Dems to impeach President Bush: President Cheney. [And Re-elect President Cheney in 2008. Re-elect President Cheney in 2012. :) ]

How long before the Democrats start pushing their leftist agenda: higher taxes, cut and run in Iraq, gun control, expensive social entitlements, minimum wages, amnesty for illegal aliens, global warming regulation, etc?

Where are all the stories about election year shenanigans? When Republicans win we get stories of rigged voting machines, voter fraud, and scaring black people away from the polls.

Where are the UK Headlines asking how could 54,000,000 Americans be so smart?

Have the terrorists won? Its only a matter of time before we get the next Osama video praising Americans for electing Democrats.

Will Alec Baldwin move back to America now?

Will the Angry Left be supplanted by the Angry Right? Only time will tell.

Yes, that is Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez inviting members of the U.N. to join his socialist book club.

I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it. Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, "Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States." [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.] . . .

Taranto has more.

Whenever you criticize them, Democrats are always talking about the "chilling effect" on free speech.

This must be what they're talking about.

Thomas H. Kean, the Republican who chaired the 9/11 commission and is a co-executive producer of the film, said in an interview that he recently asked for changes that would address complaints raised by the former aides to President Bill Clinton and that ABC is considering his request. . .

Democrats ratcheted up the pressure yesterday. Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and four Democratic colleagues wrote to Robert Iger, chief executive of the Walt Disney Co., ABC's corporate parent, urging him to cancel the movie. The Democratic National Committee obtained more than 100,000 signatures on a petition demanding cancellation. Jay Carson, a spokesman for former president Bill Clinton, called ABC's plan to air the movie "despicable."

[...]

Kean said the filmmakers have made changes -- in one case, reshooting an entire scene -- based in part on his recommendations. "The suggestion that this is some right-wing group in Hollywood is absurd," he said.

Over the normal course of a criminal investigation, it is sometimes prudent to serve a search warrant in order to peek around someone's house for hard evidence to support said investigation. There are legal safeguards in place to protect Constitutional rights, and these are rules that average Americans have lived under for generations.

But in a classic case of "rules for thee but not for me", Congress is letting investigators know that they are not average Americans. Serving a warrant on one of the Congressional elite, no matter how much evidence there is backing it up, is a no-no. How dare you treat grand exalted Congressmen as mere citizens. At least that seems to be the thinking up on the hill.

When the feds raided the apartment of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) and uncovered $90,000 in bribe money stashed in his freezer, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle cried foul. Speaker Hastert went so far as to call the seizing of bribe money unConstitutional.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) expressed alarm at the raid. "The actions of the Justice Department in seeking and executing this warrant raise important Constitutional issues that go well beyond the specifics of this case," he said in a lengthy statement released last night.

"Insofar as I am aware, since the founding of our Republic 219 years ago, the Justice Department has never found it necessary to do what it did Saturday night, crossing this Separation of Powers line, in order to successfully prosecute corruption by Members of Congress," he said. "Nothing I have learned in the last 48 hours leads me to believe that there was any necessity to change the precedent established over those 219 years."

I think it's high time that Congressmen be subjected to the laws they force on the rest of us. Let Ted Kennedy be given extra scrutiny in the airport. Make Jim McDermott obey eavesdropping laws.

Those who make the laws should be expected to follow them just as we are expected to.

Both Democrats and Republicans "said the tactic was unduly aggressive and may have breached the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government."

When I was in school, I was taught that we had a system of checks and balances. That Congress made the laws, while the Executive enforced the laws. I guess they don't teach that in private school.

It's official. Politicians have no shame.

A series of scandals on Capitol Hill have national lawmakers pushing for stricter ethics rules, but not the Atlanta City Council. Council members voted 11-2 to relax ethics standards, allowing any city employee to accept unlimited meals and tickets to local events from lobbyists.

What's more, Atlanta's ethics officer points out that measure doesn't require the person buying the meals to be present at the time and notes that staffers are not required to disclose the gifts.

One council member tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the measure simply "made sense," adding that meals and tickets wouldn't influence his decisions.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin has promised to veto the new rule, but overriding her veto only requries 10 votes. The measure originally passed 11-2, but with the media spotlight shining brightly several councilmen have already said they will not vote to override a veto.

Rush Limbaugh reached an agreement with prosecutors whereby he continues his treatment while paying them off for all the money they spent violating his privacy rights. In exchange, prosecutors are dropping the charges. What strikes me as peculiar is this revelation from the CBS News report:

Limbaugh also must continue treatment for his acknowledged addiction to painkillers and he cannot own a gun.

What does gun ownership have to do with it? For starters, Rush isn't being convicted of anything. He is only agreeing to conditions to get them to drop the charges and discontinue their witch hunt. Why would gun ownership even be a condition of the agreement?

Methinks it illustrates just how unreasonable the Palm Beach County Prosecutors are being.

Dana Milbank at the Washington Post is having a little fun with the Congressional hysteria over gas prices.

"Since George Bush and Dick Cheney took over as president and vice president, gas prices have doubled!" charged Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), standing at an Exxon station on Capitol Hill where regular unleaded hit $3.10. "They are too cozy with the oil industry."

She then hopped in a waiting Chrysler LHS (18 mpg) -- even though her Senate office was only a block away.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) used a Hyundai Elantra to take the one-block journey to and from the gas-station news conference. He posed in front of the fuel prices and gave them a thumbs-down. "Get tough on big oil!" he demanded of the Bush administration.

The state of New York, home to Chuck Schumer, imposes the highest gas tax in the nation. And it's calculated per dollar (instead of per gallon) so it will only increase as gas prices increase.

Why doesn't Maryland just outlaw Wal-Mart? They don't seem to value them as one of the state's largest employers.

Maryland lawmakers bucked the will of the state's Republican governor and the nation's largest retailer yesterday, voting to become the first state to effectively require that Wal-Mart spend more on employee health care.

The bill will require private companies with more than 10,000 employees in Maryland to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on employee health benefits or make a contribution to the state's insurance program for the poor. Wal-Mart, which employs about 17,000 Marylanders, is the only known company of such size that does not meet that spending requirement.

Of course if Wal-Mart is required to spend more on health care, guess where that money is coming from. It's not just Wal-Mart shareholders who are footing the bill. Customers will be paying via higher prices, and employee's will be paying in the form of lower wages.

And when Wal-Mart looks to open up a new store or distribution center, they may decide that Maryland is a little too expensive. They may find it's more prudent to build in neighboring Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, or West Virginia.

Here's a new one. A British security guard successfully sued for being the beneficiary of affirmative action.

A BLACK police bodyguard who protected the Duchess of Cornwall has won [~$52,000 USD] compensation after suing Scotland Yard for "over-promoting" him because of political correctness.

Sgt Leslie Turner -- the first black personal protection officer to guard the royal family -- will receive the "racial discrimination" payout after reaching an out-of-court settlement with London's Metropolitan Police.

His representatives argued he landed the prestigious job as Camilla's bodyguard only because he was black.

It was claimed that as a result of being over-promoted and not receiving proper training and support, Sgt Turner made mistakes which led to him being re-assigned.

He argued that he was "over-promoted" into a job for which he was not qualified and could not succeed.

(Via Taranto.)

Mark "I will not raise taxes" Warner, who pushed through the largest tax increase in Virginia's 400-year history is now crowing about having extra tax money laying around.

In Virginia, Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) is leaving a $1 billion surplus to his successor, Timothy M. Kaine (D), and the Republican-controlled legislature.

Kaine and the lawmakers have said they intend to spend much of that money on one-time projects that will not create permanent spending obligations that would be difficult to fulfill should the economy falter. Members of both parties have talked about road construction and cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.

Virginia's top Republican senator, Finance Committee Chairman John H. Chichester (R-Northumberland), has called for the surplus to be used for "non-habit-forming expenditures."

Notice tax cuts never seem to be an option. Economists are predicting that the economic boom won't last. (Now that's going out on a limb.) Of course the economic boom hit before Warner raised taxes, and his massive tax hike certainly won't help things.

The Florida Supreme Court struck down the state's school voucher program. Rather than rule on the traditional "separation of church and state" argument, they instead ruled that all Florida schools must suck equally.

In a 5-2 ruling, the high court said the program undermines the public schools and violates the Florida Constitution's requirement of a uniform system of free public education...

Chief Justice Barbara Pariente said the program "diverts public dollars into separate private systems parallel to and in competition with the free public schools," which are the sole means set out in the state constitution for educating Florida children.

Actually, vouchers raise the money available per student by removing a student, but only a percentage of the student's funding. (For instance if the state spends $10,000 per student and the voucher is for only $5,000 there is actually more money available per remaining student.)

But you have to love the Marxist reasoning that competition with the "free" schools is bad for the students that attend said "free" school. Instead of celebrating free markets where people have the freedom to choose the best schooling for the best price, government school advocates prefer to keep poor kids in underperforming schools where teachers swear off any measure of accountability and unions hold all the cards.

You may want to remove some of the breakables before you read this one.

Prosecutors argued that confessed child-rapist Mark Hulett, 34, of Williston deserved at least eight years behind bars for repeatedly raping a littler girl countless times starting when she was seven.

But Judge Edward Cashman disagreed explaining that he no longer believes that punishment works.

"The one message I want to get through is that anger doesn't solve anything. It just corrodes your soul," said Judge Edward Cashman speaking to a packed Burlington courtroom. Most of the on-lookers were related to a young girl who was repeatedly raped by Mark Hulett who was in court to be sentenced.

The sex abuse started when the girl was seven and ended when she was ten. Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of eight to twenty years in prison, in part, as punishment.

[snip]

Judge Cashman. . .revealed that he once handed down stiff sentences when he first got on the bench 25 years ago, but he no longer believes in punishment.

"I discovered it accomplishes nothing of value; it doesn't make anything better; it costs us a lot of money; we create a lot of expectation, and we feed on anger," Cashman explained to the people in the court.

After being convicted for raping a 7 year old girl repeatedly over a four year span, Hulett was sentenced to just 60 days.

Democrat Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, says that the Democrat's strength is in their lack of unity and message. They don't have a plan and they're proud, dammit.

"There is no one Democratic voice . . . and there is no one Democratic position," Pelosi said in an interview with Washington Post reporters and editors...

If Democrats are able to win the majority next year, Pelosi pledged aggressive oversight of the administration on issues including the war, intelligence and how the government responded to Hurricane Katrina.

Pelosi said Democrats scored significant victories recently, the biggest coming on Social Security, on which she said Democratic opposition to Bush's proposed private or personal accounts blocked any hopes the White House had for changing the government retirement insurance program this year.

Pelosi thinks that the Democrats were going to ride into the House Majority on a wave of good ethics and credibility. Well, not having a plan worked for Kerry. Oh wait...

"...George is out of time on his unemployment and he works harder than ever on his scheme to get a 13 week extension..." -- Plot description for Seinfeld Episode #34, The Boyfriend, part I.

"[U.S. District Judge Stanwood] Duval ruled that those who have not yet received FEMA aid to rent an apartment or move into a trailer can stay in their government-paid hotel rooms until two weeks after their application is approved or denied." -- Washington Post, December 12, 2005.

Dependency is ugly, and it never ceases to amaze me how hard people work to get a free ride. Let us not forget that Hurricane Katrina hit in August. The February date will, for some people, mark six months of sitting around doing nothing but sponging off the taxpayers.

Countertop blasts the gun grabbers on the left for assuming all blacks with guns are bad guys.

It's the one that says Bad Motherfucker.

The liberals have a new history book, and it's paid for with taxpayer dollars. At $12 a copy, it's pretty popular with history teachers too. The book starts out: "The primary purpose of this textbook is not to fill your heads with a lot of facts about American history and government," and it doesn't.

"Textbooks in American government have always differentiated between the 'delegated powers,' those given to the federal government, and the 'reserved powers,' those powers that remain with the states and the people," Dr. Quist notes. "This book uses the term 'delegated powers' several times, but it never uses the counterpart term 'reserved powers.'"

"In this textbook, there are no rights reserved to the states or the people. All rights reside with the federal government."

It's even worse on the Second Amendment. Most of the text focuses on gun control. Where it does address the Second, it gets it wrong.

"The Second Amendment (right to bear arms) was mentioned in the earlier historical development section of the text, but there it was included only under the heading of controversial issues, and the emphasis was on gun control, not the right to bear arms," Dr. Quist observes. "In addition, the Second Amendment was inaccurately defined as being the right of states to have a militia, not as a personal right to own and bear arms."

Your tax dollars at work.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrinarita and New Orleans flood, many home lenders offered borrowers a moratorium on mortgage payments. They gave homeowners a little time to get back on their feet, but now that the time is up borrowers are crying foul. The Washington Post tugs at the heartstrings with stories of homeowners who mistakenly thought missed payments would be deferred for up to 30 years.

The Gaskells said they thought that meant monthly payments would resume in December, with the three missed payments due at the end of their loan. But last week, they said, their mortgage lender called to say they needed to make all three payments now -- or face late fees and penalties as well as an adverse credit report.

That's why you should always keep three months worth of expenses in the bank. Then there's this:

But as the moratorium on payments comes to an end, borrowers, lenders and investors holding the notes are heading into uncharted territory, without clear guidance from the government or a historical precedent for what to do next.

Give me a break. If you owe money, you pay it back. If you're unable to pay it back you negotiate a payment plan suitable to both parties. If you cannot reach an agreement you head to civil court, where the law is almost always on the side of the lender. (I'm beginning to understand why banks want these kind of people to get mortgage insurance.) And if a person absolutely cannot afford to get back on their feet, they start foreclosure proceedings. That's nothing new to the lending industry.

It's really quite simple. But for some reason people figure that being hit by a hurricane or flood (as opposed to a fire, earthquake, or any number of disasters) gives them special status.

A high school English teacher in Vermont is coming under fire for using his classroom to express his personal political beliefs. Thirty-six year old Bret Chenkin says he isn't shy about sharing his political views with students. He claims that questions he put on a student quiz are being taken out of context.

One example: "I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes." "Coherent" is the right answer.

Well, we can't all be as brilliant as high school English teachers.

Lesson #1: Hiring illegal immigrants is no big deal. They are just doing jobs that Americans don't want to do. Unless you're Wal-Mart:

A raid by federal, state and local authorities at a Wal-Mart Stores construction site in Pennsylvania netted about 125 arrests for alleged immigration violations.

The illegals were actually working for a subcontractor, not Wal-Mart.

Lesson #2: Price gouging is wrong. Making people pay higher prices that the market will bear is evil, and should be illegal. Unless you're Wal-Mart.

But the study did not address some of the most trenchant criticisms of the company. It did not compare Wal-Mart's benefits policies with those of its competitors, nor did it look at whether Wal-Mart's low-wage jobs lead employees to seek out government programs such as Medicaid. That issue was the catalyst for legislation passed earlier this year in both Suffolk County and New York City to force the big-box retailers to pay a greater share of their employees' health benefits.

Wal-Mart's study also largely avoided hard-to-quantify social concerns, such as whether Wal-Mart diverts sales from downtown shopping districts and, in doing so, damages the character of America's small towns and neighborhoods. Even less tangible effects -- such as the retailer's using its market dominance to pressure musicians into changing lyrics and CD cover art that it deems objectionable -- are not addressed in Wal-Mart's study.

Howard Dean wants to keep the voters on a need to know basis, and he tells Tim Russert on Meet the Press that right now we don't need to know.

Russert: But there's no Democratic plan on Social Security. There's no Democratic plan on the deficit problem. There's no specifics. They say, "Well, we want a strong Social Security. We want to reduce the deficit. We want health care for everyone," but there's no plan how to pay for it.

Dean: Right now it's not our job to give out specifics.

There's a reason they call it Taxachusetts. Democrats in the legislature voted to retroactively raise the state's capital gains tax rate and send out bills for additional taxes owed from the 2002 tax year.

The Boston Globe reports that in the middle of the 2002 tax year, the Massachusetts legislature raised the capital gains tax to 5.3%. Taxpayers affected by the tax hike paid a higher rate for the second half of that year. Well in 2004, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that mid-year tax hikes were illegal, and that the state had to either raise taxes effective January 2002 or January 2003 but not in between. Well not wanting to refund the 6 months worth of higher taxes that were paid in 2002, Democrats in the legislature voted (in 2005) to make the tax hike retroactive back to January 2002. Tax bills for the difference owed were sent out this week, and taxpayers will have 30 days to remit payment.

But the news isn't all bad.

Yesterday, seeking to blunt the political fallout of the unusual tax increase, House Democrats approved a Senate measure to waive interest on the new capital gains payments and to exempt any taxpayer who owes $100 or less. That bill would shave about $45 million off the $150 million to $205 million that the tax hikes will reap, LeBovidge said. It would also reduce the number of people who owe money from 48,000 to 40,000, he said.

That's right the generous Taxachusetts legislature isn't going to charge interest or penalties on back taxes from 2002 that they just this year decided were owed.

Drilling for oil in the section of ANWR that was set aside for drilling for oil has been dropped by the House of Representatives. The measure had already passed the Senate. We will continue to be slaves to foreign oil, thanks to spineless Republicans in the House.

The decision to drop the ANWR drilling language came after GOP moderates said they would oppose the budget if it was kept in the bill. The offshore drilling provision was also viewed as too contentious and a threat to the bill, especially in the Senate.

Last week, the Senate included ANWR drilling in its version of the budget, so the matter will have to be thrashed out in negotiations between the Senate and House if the budget is approved by the House.

Protection of the Alaska refuge from oil companies has been championed by environmentalists for years. The House repeatedly has approved drilling in the refuge as part of broad energy legislation, only to see their effort blocked each time by the threat of a filibuster in the Senate.

Budget bills are immune from filibuster, so including it in the budget lowered the Senate votes required from 60 to 50.

Hokie Pundit points out hypocrisy at Virginia Tech. When a campus group tried using the words "Virginia Tech" and a bible verse on the same literature, they got the smack down from school administrators. Apparently they consider mentioning "Virginia Tech" and "God" in the same sentence as an unConstitutional establishment of a national religion.

But 'tis the season for Rocky Horror, and the university apparently looked the other way when logos and trademarks were used to promote a pre-Halloween screening of the cult classic film. Virginia Tech logos were not only altered from their original appearance (you gotta click through to see the photo), but the fliers were handed out at student dining halls.

In their guidelines, they say that the � symbol must accompany any university marks and that the use of university marks should be tasteful. The � is certainly missing, and I think it'd be pretty hard to say that the Hokie Bird in a black teddy with fishnet stockings is "tasteful."

Senate Democrats and Republicans are suggesting that 'Big Oil' profits should be seized (at the point of a gun mikem) and handed over to the poor. Democrats went so far as to propose a 50% tax on the price of oil.

Lee Raymond, chairman of Exxon Mobil Corp., Jim Mulva, chief executive of ConocoPhillips Inc., and John Hofmeister, president of the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, will be among the industry executives to be questioned at a Senate hearing, according to congressional and industry officials.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because a final list of witnesses is not complete.

The three companies together earned more than $22 billion during the July-September quarter this year when crude oil prices soared to $70 a barrel and motorists were paying well over $3 gallon at the pump after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast...

There is growing distress among both Republicans and Democrats in Congress about the huge profits reported by oil companies last week.

On Tuesday, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Finance Committee, said oil companies �should do their part� and donate some of their third-quarter earnings to low-income families and senior citizens having trouble paying energy bills, including high heating bills this winter...

Meanwhile, Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., renewed their call for passage of a windfall profits tax on oil companies. They hoped to put such a proposal � a 50 percent tax on the sale of oil over $40 a barrel � into a tax bill later this month, they said. The revenue would be given to consumers in form of an income tax rebate.

Just who do they think pays taxes? Taxes are not paid by nameless, faceless corporations. Corporations COLLECT taxes, not pay them. The money must come from either the shareholders in the form of less shareholder earnings and equity, the employees in the form of decreased wages and benefits, or the consumers in the form of higher prices.

What's more it amounts to nothing more than government price controls which will end up causing shortages and gas lines.

But then politicians have always preyed on the masses' economic ignorance. Alan Reynolds points out that the oil profits are nothing more than inventory profit.

That national average for absentee ballots is 14 percent. The average percentage of absentee voters in Detroit constantly hovers above 30 percent, and it appears as though most of the ballots are filled out by election officials.

Among findings by [Detroit] News reporters were ballots cast by people registered to vote at abandoned and long-demolished buildings; a master voter list with 380,000 incorrect names and addresses -- including people who have died or moved out of the city; and a practice of hand-delivering ballots from senior citizens and disabled voters that were filled out in private meetings with Currie's paid election workers.

Recounts are also a big problem.

When two separate recounts were requested by losing City Council candidates, county canvassers deemed 40 of 107 precincts selected for recount couldn't be recounted due to irregularities such as broken ballot box seals and numbers of ballots not matching the number of votes recorded on election night...

Different witnesses in different lawsuits have testified that they've seen election workers filling out absentee ballots themselves after the polls had closed. Other findings included a fire that made a recount of ballots impossible, and incapacitated voters who have no knowledge of the Mayor and no memory of voting in any election.