Ricochet Podcast: Midnight Blue

“Midnight Blue”

It’s the debut of a new Ricochet Podcast feature: The Ricochet Smack Down. This week, John Yoo and Richard Epstein enter The Octogon to argue whether the names of the so-called “Al-Qaeda 7″ ought to be made public, the legality and morality of torture, and other associated issues (see NYT article here). It’s reality TV, Ricochet style. Questions? Comments? Write us at podcast@ricochet.com. (more…)

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Tags: Al-Qaeda 7, John Yoo, Richard Epstein, torture
Posted Mar 16th 2010 at 6:22 pm in Defense, Justice/Legal, Politics | 882429 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/ricochet/2010/03/16/ricochet-podcast-midnight-blue/Ricochet+Podcast%3A+Midnight+Blue2010-03-17+01%3A22%3A33Ricochet

ACORN’s Maryland Chapter Shuttered

Group is undone in national scandal sparked by videos showing illegal activity

From today’s Baltimore Sun:

A former leader of Maryland’s ACORN chapter said Monday the group will no longer operate in the state, doomed by an embarrassing national scandal six months ago from which the organization never recovered.

An undated sign hangs on the entrance to the ACORN offices at 16 W. 25th St. A former Maryland ACORN official said the office ceased operations late last year.  You may recognize this stoop from this golden oldie.

Sonja Merchant-Jones, former co-chairwoman of the state chapter of ACORN and a board member since 1999, said there are no plans in Maryland to rebrand under a different name, a move undertaken Monday by several ACORN affiliates across the country.

Maryland ACORN ceased operations late last year, Merchant-Jones said, and all the offices in the state have closed. The group has not held a board meeting in Maryland since November, she added. (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN Baltimore, Maryland ACORN, Sonja Merchant-Jones
Posted Mar 16th 2010 at 2:48 pm in ACORN, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, News | 9083865 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/16/acorns-maryland-chapter-shuttered/ACORN%27s+Maryland+Chapter+Shuttered+2010-03-16+21%3A48%3A20Publius

That Thin Envelope: Time to Resist Racist Education Policy

Every March, college students from around the country receive either a thick or a thin envelope. For many of them, this will be the biggest event in their lifetimes. It will be a source of pride for some; envy and disappointment for others.

As Americans, we’d like to believe our meritocratic sensibilities do a great job allocating talent, but alas, the truth is that at many colleges throughout America race matters more than brains.

Proponents of affirmative action, though, present a false picture when they suggest that they’d be fine with wealthy, white kids being denied admissions in favor of lesser qualified (and often just as wealthy) blacks and Hispanics. In actuality, the people who most often lose their spots at elite colleges in higher education are Asians and Asian-Americans. [The adverse impact of affirmative action against poor whites remains a source of contention and research.]

But what would a world without affirmative action look like? Putting aside your view of whether or not should exist let’s examine how it actually works by examining such a world. In 2005, The Chronicle of Higher Education cited a paper that looked at just that question.

A [2005] study by two Princeton University researchers uses admissions data from elite colleges to portray what would happen in such a world without affirmative action. In short, black and Latino enrollment would tank, while white enrollments would hardly be affected. The big winners would be Asian applicants, who appear to face “disaffirmative action” right now. They would pick up about four out of five spots lost by black and Latino applicants.

. . .

The research looked at admissions decisions at elite colleges and found that without affirmative action, the acceptance rate for African American candidates would be likely to fall by nearly two-thirds, from 33.7 percent to 12.2 percent, while the acceptance rate for Hispanic applicants probably would be cut in half, from 26.8 percent to 12.9 percent.

While white admit rates would stay steady, Asian students would be big winners under such a system. Their admission rate in a race-neutral system would go to 23.4 percent, from 17.6 percent. And their share of a class of admitted students would rise to 31.5 percent, from 23.7 percent.

But what about blacks at selective colleges? Who are they? Again, The Chronicle of Higher Education,

(more…)

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Tags: affirmative action, racism
Posted Mar 16th 2010 at 9:47 am in Culture, Education, Justice/Legal, News | 8983460 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/cjohnson/2010/03/16/that-thin-envelope-time-to-resist-racist-education-policy/That+Thin+Envelope%3A+Time+to+Resist+Racist+Education+Policy2010-03-16+16%3A47%3A49Charles+C.+Johnson

Monckton On Climate Hoaxers: ‘Jail The Lot’

Wednesday evening, I had the honor of attending a presentation given by noted ‘climate change’ skeptic Lord Christopher Monckton, sponsored by the Bull Run Republican Women’s Club in Manassas, Virginia.

As I didn’t think it appropriate to ask a long-winded Chris Matthews-type question, I essentially wanted to know (with all the revelations of deliberate fudging of climate data to “prove” global warming is happening) what the legal ramifications on the players could be, considering how many billions of dollars cities, states, businesses, corporations, as well as whole nations have spent going “green”, not to mention the adverse effects on developing nations?

Lord Monckton’s response was direct and to the point: “Jail the lot!”

(more…)

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Tags: Christopher Monckton, climategate, global warming
Posted Mar 12th 2010 at 7:03 am in Environment, Justice/Legal | 87798200 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bparks/2010/03/12/monckton-on-climate-hoaxers-jail-the-lot/Monckton+On+Climate+Hoaxers%3A+%27Jail+The+Lot%272010-03-12+15%3A03%3A45Bob+Parks

Obama Spiked ACORN Investigation: Judicial Watch Releases FBI Documents

By Tom Fitton

Documents released today by Judicial Watch reference serious allegations of corruption and voter registration fraud by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform (ACORN), as well as the Obama administration’s decision to shut down a criminal investigation into these matters.

Two specific complaints were filed against ACORN for alleged voter fraud in October 2008 by Lucy Corelli and Joseph Borges, Republican Registrars of Voters in Stamford and Bridgeport, Connecticut, respectively. As part of its continuing investigation into alleged criminal activities of ACORN, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents concerning this matter with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

According to Corelli, on August 1, 2008, her office received 1,200 ACORN voter registration cards from the Secretary of State’s office. Over 300 of these cards were rejected because of “duplicates, underage, illegible and invalid addresses,” which “put a tremendous strain on our office staff and caused endless work hours at taxpayers’ expense.” Corelli claimed the total cost of the extra work caused by ACORN corruption was $20,000. Likewise, Borges contended that: “The organization ACORN during the summer of 2008 conducted a registration drive which has produced over 100 rejections due to incomplete forms and individuals who are not citizens…” Among the examples cited by Borges was a seven-year old child who was registered to vote by ACORN through the use of a forged signature and a fake birth certificate claiming she was 27-years old. By burdening these election officials with fraudulent registrations, ACORN put those who legally registered at risk of not being put on voting rolls at all.

The FBI and Department of Justice opened an investigation. However, the Obama Justice Department, while noting that ACORN had engaged in “questionable hiring and training practices,” closed down the investigation in March 2009, claiming ACORN broke no laws.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, acorn scandal, Barack Obama, black panthers, doj
Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 2:48 pm in ACORN, Justice/Legal, News, Obama, Politics | 87930153 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/11/judicial-watch-releases-fbi-documents-on-acorn-investigations/Obama+Spiked+ACORN+Investigation%3A+Judicial+Watch+Releases+FBI+Documents2010-03-11+22%3A48%3A12Publius

Court Dismisses ACORN Suit vs. ‘Pimp’, ‘Hooker’ and Breitbart.com

Ben Sheffner, at Copyrights and Campaigns Blog, has the breaking story:

A state court in Baltimore has dismissed ACORN’s lawsuit against James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles, and Breitbart.com LLC after the plaintiffs failed to serve the complaint on the defendants within Maryland’s 120-day limit.

28218713-ACORN-v-O-Keefe-Docket

It was with great fanfare that ACORN, along with two recently-fired employees of its Baltimore office, sued last September over thesurreptitious taping of the employees advising O’Keefe and Giles on running a prostitution business out of a house. ACORN’s general counsel, Arthur Schwartz, told the Washington Post at the time that the defendants, young filmmakers O’Keefe and Giles, plus Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart.com LLC, which disseminated the videos, had committed “clear violations of Maryland law” against audio recording without consent from all parties. But ACORN appears to have lost interest in the case since filing it, confirming my suspicion that it was little more than a press release on pleading paper.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN lawsuit, acorn scandal, ACORN videos, Andrew Breitbart
Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 11:35 am in ACORN, Justice/Legal, News | 87882134 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/11/court-dismisses-acorn-suit-vs-pimp-hooker-and-breitbart-com/Court+Dismisses+ACORN+Suit+vs.+%27Pimp%27%2C+%27Hooker%27+and+Breitbart.com2010-03-11+19%3A35%3A21Publius

The Constitutional Case Against Progressives

[Do not read this article without a copy of the Constitution, and if you do not have one handy, shame on you (link here).]

A line is being drawn in the sand between the statists and Americans, and I use the term American in the grandest sense.  The United States of America represents one of the last bastions of traditional liberalism, which is why the Left should no longer be identified as liberal, but rather we should continue to identify its members as progressive statists.  The Left believes the precepts of our Constitution have failed society, and thus, we must look towards the “enlightened democracies” of socialized Europe for guidance in the progression of American society.

We hear the mantra of rights professed daily by the progressives: education, work, social security, health care, etc.  And since we do not live in a state of nature, the guarantor of those rights must be the government.  This is the definition of a statist, and adherence to these beliefs is inherently in opposition to the Constitution.  The Founders recognized that government could NEVER be the guarantor of rights which is why so much of the Constitution is written in terms of limiting powers conferred upon the government.

Take for example Article I § 1:

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives (emphasis added).

(more…)

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Tags: Constitution, privileges, Progressive, rights, statist
Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 8:37 am in Culture, History, Justice/Legal, Politics | 86262229 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jwales/2010/03/11/the-constitutional-case-against-progressives/The+Constitutional+Case+Against+Progressives2010-03-11+16%3A37%3A48Josie+Wales

If Guantánamo Closes, use ADAK!

I have to say, I did not agree with Sen. McCain during the 2008 campaign when he took the Guantánamo issue off the table by endorsing candidate Obama’s call to close it. The U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is an ideal place to hold military tribunals for jihadists captured on the battlefield. And it would still be the ideal place to hold Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year old Nigerian jihadist, who tried to blow up his inbound jet in Detroit on Christmas Day.

Claims that detainees were being mistreated there were false. Capt. Pete Hegseth of Veterans for Freedom served at Guantánamo during the time that Newsweek and other liberal sources were spreading false claims that U.S. guards had “defiled” copies of the Koran. These false reports circulated throughout the world and sparked riots among Muslims.

Capt. Hegseth served a year at “Gitmo” with the New Jersey National Guard. He supervised guards at the detention facilities. He set the record straight. The only time their Korans were besmirched was when the detainees themselves threw human waste on their guards. Gitmo was never Abu Ghraib. No photos of abuse by guards ever came out of Gitmo, because there was none.

But if, after all is said and done, sensible voices in Congress do not prevail, then I have a recommendation for where the detainees should be held and tried. Adak was an important naval installation throughout the Cold War. It’s an island in the central Aleutians, that thousand-mile chain off Alaska.

(more…)

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Tags: Department of Justice, Gitmo, jihadist
Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 5:33 am in Defense, Justice/Legal, News, Obama | 8763891 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kblackwell/2010/03/11/if-guantanamo-closes-use-adak/If+Guant%C3%A1namo+Closes%2C+use+ADAK%212010-03-11+13%3A33%3A24Ken+Blackwell

National ID Card Being Considered By Senators

As Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are working on a Senate version of comprehensive immigration reform and it includes a very controversial idea.  There is a provision in the draft bill to force all Americans to possess a biometric ID card.  Sources on Capitol Hill confirm to Big Government that the idea of a national ID card is part of the comprehensive immigration reform bill being negotiated between Graham and Schumer.

Laura Meckler of the Wall Street Journal reports:

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

Under the pre-text of halting illegal immigration, Congress may consider forcing citizens to carry an ID card as a condition of citizenship.  For those who mistrust big government and treasure freedom, this idea should be revolting and a shocking example of a bad idea run wild.  American citizens’ freedoms have been eroding over the past few years, yet this idea is much more than an erosion of rights.  It is an all out assault on the idea that Americans have a natural right to be free of government monitoring. (more…)

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Tags: Charles Schumer, Lindsey Graham, national id card, Wall Street Journal
Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 12:31 pm in Congress, Defense, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 87086309 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2010/03/10/national-id-card-being-considered-by-senators/National+ID+Card+Being+Considered+By+Senators2010-03-10+20%3A31%3A46Capitol++Confidential

Milwaukee Police Ignored ACORN Voting Fraud Cases

From Daniel Bice, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Milwaukee police officers sat on their hands for months last year instead of investigating possible voter fraud cases from the 2008 general election.

It’s an incredible claim, but it’s coming from a credible source:

Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf, the Milwaukee County prosecutor responsible for overseeing campaign and election issues.

“Honestly, the Milwaukee Police Department largely ignored your double voter (and other) referrals received in January 2009 for the first six months of 2009,” Landgraf wrote in an e-mail to a city elections official on Jan. 26.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN fraud, ACORN voting fraud, bruce landgraf, double voting, milwaukee police
Posted Mar 9th 2010 at 11:29 am in ACORN, Justice/Legal, Local Government, News, Politics, State Politics | 8679048 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/09/milwaukee-police-ignored-acorn-voting-fraud-cases/Milwaukee+Police+Ignored+ACORN+Voting+Fraud+Cases2010-03-09+19%3A29%3A03Publius

ACORN Workers Charged with Felony Voter Fraud

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Five Wisconsin residents have been charged with criminal counts of voter fraud in the November 2008 general election, state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced Monday.

Two of those charged – Maria Miles, 36, of Milwaukee, and Kevin Clancy, 26, of Racine – worked for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the embattled community organizing group.

“The complaint alleges that Miles and Clancy submitted multiple voter registration applications for the same individuals, and also were part of a scheme in which they and other (special registration deputies) registered each other to vote multiple times in order to meet voter registration quotas imposed by ACORN,” the Van Hollen news release says.

Both were charged with one felony count.

ACORN could not be reached for comment Monday.

(more…)

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Tags: absentee ballots, ACORN, ACORN voter fraud, JB Van Hollen, Milwaukee ACORN
Posted Mar 9th 2010 at 7:36 am in ACORN, Justice/Legal, News, Politics, State Politics | 8662656 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/09/acorn-workers-charged-with-felony-voter-fraud/ACORN+Workers+Charged+with+Felony+Voter+Fraud2010-03-09+15%3A36%3A10Publius

Exclusive: Pentagon Lawyers Push Back Against Holder’s GITMO Attorneys

Some Defense Department lawyers are worried. Actually, quite a few of them are. They see a train wreck coming with the Obama administration’s evolving Guantanamo Bay detainee policies. Since it is DOD lawyers tasked with much of the footwork for administration decisions, they see firsthand how disorganized, inept, and ideologically extreme the handling of the issue has been. The DOJ, now thoroughly politicized and partisan under Eric Holder, is lock step with Obama’s White House on the issue, and is thoroughly at odds with its legal counterparts in the DOD. At a time when former Guantanamo Bay detainees are battling US forces in Afghanistan, and Jihadists are resurgent worldwide, the country can ill afford the administration’s criminalizing of admitted terrorists or of enemy combatants captured in battle against US forces.

What DOD lawyers are worried about are second-order effects. Namely, the unanticipated consequences of decisions made without due consideration or examination of facts. They are deeply concerned that the administration’s political appointees making decisions on the issue are as likely to be chosen for ideological purity as they are for their acumen on applicable laws. The political appointees are perceived by many in the DOD as caring more for their political ideological creed than for the safety of US citizens, or for the responsible stewardship of tax dollars. It is Leftist canon that Guantanamo Bay be closed, the risks and consequences be damned. Every policy decision pursuing that goal equates to thousands of man hours for DOD lawyers and millions of dollars.

DOD attorneys, including prosecutors and defense attorneys of all political stripes, are of the opinion that closing Guantanamo Bay is an illogical and irresponsible political move made without the facts, and one that will cost billions. No stateside facility has the resources Guantanamo Bay does. As for which stateside facility should replace Guantanamo, the administration cannot make up its mind. As Obama’s minions position for optimum political influence, they have flitted from military sites in Leavenworth, Kansas and Charleston AFB, South Carolina, to civilian facilities in Standish, Michigan and Thomson, Illinois.

The MSM has been telling Americans less that the truth on the detainee issue. Americans have not been told how well thought out was the construction of Guantanamo Bay. Its courtroom was designed by the William and Mary Law School – it is state of the art, capable of handling testimony involving top secret evidence. It has a media center. As for the detainees, forget the horror stories that represent the disinformation tactics of terrorist sympathizers who aim to sway public opinion. Detainees receive the best in medical and dental care. They have daily access to soccer fields. They have exercise areas that overlook the Caribbean, books and movies, as well as a menu where they can choose from several entrée’s cooked to Islamic Halal standards.

They are not tortured and they never were.

(more…)

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Tags: detainees, eric-holder, Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay, jihadists
Posted Mar 8th 2010 at 5:28 am in Defense, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, Obama, Politics | 8564272 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2010/03/08/exclusive-pentagon-lawyers-push-back-against-holders-gitmo-attorneys/Exclusive%3A+Pentagon+Lawyers+Push+Back+Against+Holder%27s+GITMO+Attorneys2010-03-08+13%3A28%3A57Capitol++Confidential

Health Care and the Left’s Perverted Definition of ‘Rights’

One way that leftists have managed to keep alive their dead, defeated, bankrupting theories on issues like so-called health care is by perverting the definition of very basic terms.

The word “right” is one of the most glaring examples of a definition that’s been distorted by the intellectual house-of-horrors mirror that is leftist theory.

Image: CATO Institute

Every American has the “right” to health care they argue.

They’re right. Every American does have a right to health care. In fact, they have that “right” right now. They have the right to buy insurance. They have the right to not buy insurance. They have the right to pay out of pocket. They have the right get a second opinion. They have the right to rub a little dirt on it and suck it up. They have a right to help out  a friend in need.

What they don’t have is the “right” to health care in the perverted leftist sense of the word.

A “right,” in the traditional American lexicon laid out by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, is something that exists by virtue of our humanity. It is “inalienable” and we are endowed with these rights by our creator. No government or institution has the power to take away these rights. You exist, therefore these rights exist.

In the leftist sense of the word, though, a “right” is something very different. In fact, it’s not a “right” at all: it’s a handout provided to you by government, often at exorbitant costs to society.

“I have the ‘right’ to health care!” the leftists demand angrily. “Therefore, the government must provide it for me!”

(more…)

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Tags: Canadian Health Care, government health care, government rights, health care, health insurance
Posted Mar 6th 2010 at 12:07 pm in Culture, Healthcare, Justice/Legal, Politics | 85050247 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kbyrne/2010/03/06/health-care-and-the-lefts-perverted-definition-of-rights/Health+Care+and+the+Left%27s+Perverted+Definition+of+%27Rights%272010-03-06+20%3A07%3A22Kerry+J.+Byrne

Subprime Mortgage Crisis Hits Whorehouses

It looks like Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes is on track to win another endorsement from ACORN!

This week, Hynes announced that “no criminality has been found” after his investigation of the videotapes made by investigative journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, which show ACORN employees counseling the pair on getting a mortgage for a house of prostitution.

(They got a choice of government loans: Phat Fannie Mae, Prince Freddie Mac or Barney Fresh Daddy Frank … aka “Sir Fix-A-Lot.”)

I’m just glad to know that Hynes conducted a thorough “investigation” first. Who did he have screen the videotapes, Gov. Paterson?

If his investigators had actually watched the videotapes, they would have found ACORN employees apparently advising a pimp and prostitute on how to defraud mortgage lenders, deposit prostitution money in a bank, hide money from the government and avoid detection while running a whorehouse with teenage girls from El Salvador.

I’m not a lawyer — oh, wait, yes, I am — but I count approximately a half-dozen state law crimes being discussed on those tapes, from money laundering to advancing prostitution.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, Barney Frank, Brooklyn DA, Charles Hynes, Eliot Spitzer
Posted Mar 4th 2010 at 1:54 pm in ACORN, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 84442103 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/acoulter/2010/03/04/subprime-mortgage-crisis-hits-whorehouses/Subprime+Mortgage+Crisis+Hits+Whorehouses2010-03-04+21%3A54%3A38Ann+Coulter

Political Witchhunt: Update-Why Joe Bruno Will Be Exonerated

Those liberals, reformers, good-government types, New York Times editorial writers and Albany Times Union reporters who were toasting the conviction of long time New York Republican Senate Leader Joe Bruno, will soon have the smile wiped from their elitist faces. Joe Bruno has committed no crime and his exoneration will likely come from the U.S. Supreme Court.

I speak from the point of view of an attorney with a passion for the protections of the law.

In 1770, a rowdy mob of Massachusetts colonists accosted and provoked British soldiers until they responded with lethal force and committed the Boston Massacre.   The soldiers were arrested and placed on trial where their convictions seemed imminent out of sheer populace outrage.  One bold lawyer rose in their defense, John Adams, who in his closing argument reminded the jurors that “the law no passion can disturb.  Tis void of desire and fear, lust and anger . . . it is deaf, deaf as an adder to the clamours of the populace.”

Today the populace is clamoring at Joe Bruno.  They protested – protested! – His recent defense fund fundraisers, and blogs, abound with smug joy at the Senator’s conviction.  Meanwhile, the facts and flaws of the case have disappeared into the ruckus.   Nary a soul concerns itself with the serious constitutional misgivings of a law that has floundered through the federal circuit courts because no knows what it means.  Consider the helpless inquisition of Judge Jacobs in the Rybicki case, now Chief Judge of the Second Circuit – the same federal circuit hearing the Bruno case:

How can the public be expected to know what the statute means when the judges and prosecutors themselves do not know, or must make it up as they go along?

Or consider Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who says that “it is simply not fair to prosecute someone for a crime that has not been defined until the judicial decision that sends him to jail.”

(more…)

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Tags: albany times, Andrew Cuomo, antonin scalia, Joe Bruno, John Adams
Posted Mar 4th 2010 at 11:51 am in Justice/Legal, News, Politics, State Politics | 8433834 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bschiffman/2010/03/04/political-witchhunt-update-why-joe-bruno-will-be-exonerated/Political+Witchhunt%3A+Update-Why+Joe+Bruno+Will+Be+Exonerated2010-03-04+19%3A51%3A17Barry+Schiffman

The Constitution Matters: It Means What It Says

The Constitution and the Second Amendment are in the spotlight this week on two fronts.  First is that oral arguments are being held in the McDonald v Chicago case to possibly apply the holding in Heller to the states.

In addition, Senators are beginning their evaluation of the judicial nomination of Berkeley professor Goodwin Liu to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a vote that will tell a great deal about Senator Reid’s adherence to Constitutional principles such as those specified in the Second Amendment.

Senator Reid has a terrible record on judicial nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court.  In DC v Heller, there were four dissenters from the holding that the right to bear arms is an individual right.  Harry Reid had a chance to vote on three and he voted for each one – Breyer, Souter and Ginsburg.  Harry Reid has a chance to vote on four of the majority justices, and he voted against three of them – Thomas, Alito and Roberts.  If Harry Reid had been successful in defeating any of these three, Heller would have been in jeopardy.  That’s six out of seven bad votes on the Supreme Court.

Four of those bad votes were cast in his very first term, when my primary opponent Sue Lowden was his loyal contributor.

There will be hearings on professor Liu, but I am specifically interested in a particular book he co-authored on jurisprudence entitled “Keeping Faith with the Constitution.”

(more…)

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Tags: Goodwin liu, gun control, gun rights, Harry Reid, judicial nominations
Posted Mar 4th 2010 at 9:46 am in Congress, Culture, Justice/Legal, News, Politics, State Politics | 84014125 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dtarkanian/2010/03/04/the-constitution-matters-it-says-what-it-says/The+Constitution+Matters%3A+It+Means+What+It+Says2010-03-04+17%3A46%3A12Danny+Tarkanian

Let the Bribes Begin: Obama Offering Judgeships to Secure Health Care Votes

Yesterday, The Weekly Standard reported that President Obama hosted 10 Democrat House members at the White House last night:

Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he’s obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson’s brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Apparently, Obama thinks that Matheson’s brother is qualified to become a federal judge:

“Scott Matheson is a distinguished candidate for the Tenth Circuit court,” President Obama said. “Both his legal and academic credentials are impressive and his commitment to judicial integrity is unwavering. I am honored to nominate this lifelong Utahn to the federal bench.”

Matheson’s background reads:

(more…)

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Tags: federal judge, jim matheson, ObamaCare, presidential appointment, scott matheson
Posted Mar 4th 2010 at 7:03 am in Congress, Healthcare, Justice/Legal, News, Obama, Politics | 83874107 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sahiller/2010/03/04/let-the-bribes-begin-obama-selling-judgeships-to-secure-health-care-votes/Let+the+Bribes+Begin%3A+Obama+Offering+Judgeships+to+Secure+Health+Care+Votes2010-03-04+15%3A03%3A08SusanAnne+++Hiller

ShoreBank, Sharia Law and Bank Bailouts

We all know what the words “debt,” “taxpayer,” and “interest” mean, but how many people know what the words “jizya”, “dhimmi” and “Grameen” mean? In order to understand the precipice of disaster that the banking system is resting upon today, one must understand all these words, and then some. No solution can be found by only understanding the first three. Only an illusion of understanding exists until the latter, and more, like “jihad” and “Sharia Law”, are considered.

The jizya amounts to a tax paid by Non-Muslims to Muslims in order that they may live in peace. A fair comparison is money paid by business owners to neighborhood thugs in order to gain protection. Think Mob. Engaging in this endeavor creates the status of dhimmi – a willingly subservient protected group of third class subjects. Let’s just call this what it is – extortion based slavery. Let us also understand that this is an endgame of this thing called “jihad”.

From the Koran:

(9:29) – “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”

(30:39)  And whatever you lay out as usury, so that it may increase in the property of men, it shall not increase with Allah; and whatever you give in charity, desiring Allah’s pleasure– it is these (persons) that shall get manifold.

(3:130) O you who believe! do not devour usury, making it double and redouble, and be careful of (your duty to) Allah, that you may be successful

(2:275) Those who swallow down usury cannot arise except as one whom  Shaitan has prostrated by (his) touch does rise. That is because they say, trading is only like usury; and Allah has allowed trading and forbidden usury. To whomsoever then the admonition has come from his Lord, then he desists, he shall have what has already passed, and his affair is in the hands of Allah; and whoever returns (to it)– these arc the inmates of the fire; they shall abide in it.

You get the idea.

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Tags: Allah, bailout, banking, dhimmi, Economy
Posted Mar 4th 2010 at 5:37 am in Culture, Economics, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, News, Politics, federal spending | 8285095 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/centralillinois912project/2010/03/04/shorebank-sharia-law-and-bank-bailouts/ShoreBank%2C+Sharia+Law+and+Bank+Bailouts2010-03-04+13%3A37%3A12Central+Illinois++9%2F12+Project

Will Bishopgate Finally End Congressman Delahunt’s Career?

Yes, the Chavez-supporting Bill Delahunt I wrote about several weeks ago is the same Bill Delahunt who when he was district attorney let Amy Bishop, the neurobiologist who gunned down her colleagues, get away with murdering her brother in 1986. Delahunt and the ex-chief of police are pointing fingers about who screwed up what, while the State’s U.S. Attorney looks into Bishop’s possible involvement with an attempted bombing. Brought into the mix most recently, is Amy Bishop’s mother, the political big wig, Judith, who may have had a role to play in the younger Bishop’s release.

It remains to be seen who dropped the ball on Bishop, but what’s without question is that Delahunt has been a horrible public servant — and that’s not even counting his failure to prosecute career criminal-murderer, Myles J. Connor Jr., who Delahunt not only failed to prosecute, but even went so far as to testify on his behalf!

No, unfortunately, Delahunt has a long, long record of shaddy ties and incompetence, as he tries to keep the country safe.

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Tags: alabama shooting, amy bishop, Bill Delahunt, Dan lungren, death penalty
Posted Mar 3rd 2010 at 11:01 am in Big Labor, Congress, Earmarks, Justice/Legal, State Politics | 8019451 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/cjohnson/2010/03/03/will-bishopgate-finally-end-congressman-delahunts-career/Will+Bishopgate+Finally+End+Congressman+Delahunt%27s+Career%3F2010-03-03+19%3A01%3A47Charles+C.+Johnson