The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race...

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court issued opinions in a few cases. One of the cases was Parents Involved vs. Seattle School District (05-908). Here's the decision (careful, it's 185 pages long).

Simply put (very simply), the court said that race should not be an issue when assigning children to one school or another. That seems logical, doesn't it. In fact, if I remember my grade school American history correctly, a case titled Brown vs. Board of Education said pretty much the same thing. But the weird thing is that the Parents suit was filed (if I understand the situation correctly) because race was NOT being used as a criteria in assigning students to schools.

Whatever. The court did the right thing. Chief Justice Roberts wrote part of the majority opinion. Roberts is an intellectual giant, like Scalia. If you saw any of his confirmation proceedings, you know this. His opening statement to the Senate Judiciary committee was a thing of beauty. In the Parents decision, he brandishes his intellect deftly.

Behold his summary paragraph:

Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin. The school districts in these cases have not carried the heavy burden of demonstrating that we should allow this once again—even for very different reasons. For schools that never segregated on the basis of race, such as Seattle, or that have removed the vestiges of past segregation, such as Jefferson County, the way "to achieve a system of determining admission to the public schools on a nonracial bases," ... is to stop assigning students on a racial basis. The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. [emphasis mine]

What genius there is in common sense.

UPDATE - Excellent commentary, as usual, is available from the brainiacs at the Power Line.

Fairness Doctrine preview

You can bet that the lefties in the Senate will now give some serious consideration to reviving yet another awful monster, the Fairness Doctrine. After their defeat yesterday, largely won by conservative talk radio, all the lefties can see is a communication vehicle that they can't control. And uncontrolled communication is anathema to liberalism. A great commenter, Samuel Adams, brought to my attention the fact that the House overwhelmingly voted down the Fairness Doctrine, 309-115. But, we have to remember our enemy. They can be single-mindedly relentless.

Therefore, as a public service to you, dear reader, I will begin, from time to time, making Fairness Doctrine posts in order for us all to appreciate the freedoms we hold dear. These posts will seek to convey some the wisdom that liberalism can provide to different points of view. Through these posts I hope to show you the depths of understanding that the liberal mind possesses on the various issues of our day. It is my fervent wish that all of us, in the altruistic spirit of the Fairness Doctrine, gain insight into profound liberal thought.

The following is a post in accordance with the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE. It is an attempt to provide balance to Mr. Light Bulb's conservative point of view. It is only an attempt.

Bush lied, people died.

This has been a post in accordance with the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE. It was an attempt to provide balance to Mr. Light Bulb's conservative point of view. It was only an attempt.

VICTORY!!! The amnesty monster is DEAD!

Today is a day of victory for national sovereignty.

Today is a day of victory for legal immigration.

And today is a day of victory for the rule of law.

The awful monster called the Amnesty Bill is dead.

The Senate drove a stake Thursday through President Bush's plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the 2008 elections.

The monster didn't even get a majority of votes (motion to invoke cloture). It died 46-53. I'm grateful to say that both of my senators (Cornyn and Hutchison) voted to kill the monster. But Teddy Kennedy couldn't leave the issue alone. He issued this threat.

"Year after year, we've had the broken borders," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. "Year after year, we've seen the exploitation of workers."

After the vote, he said: "It is now clear that we are not going to complete our work on immigration reform. That is enormously disappointing for Congress and for the country." Kennedy, a chief proponent of the bill, said, "we will be back. This issue is not going away." [emphasis mine]

As always, Mary Jo Kopechne remains unavailable for comment.

Oh no he didn't!

Oh yes he did.

You know, I've heard all the rhetoric -- you've heard it, too -- about how this is amnesty. Amnesty means that you've got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that. [emphasis mine]

And here's the video.

The disgusting, venomous, and putrid monster that is the Amnesty Bill lives still

Like the villan that keeps coming back to life in the third reel of a bad horror flick, it just won't die.

The Senate voted Tuesday to jump-start a stalled immigration measure to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants. President Bush said the bill offered a "historic opportunity for Congress to act," and appeared optimistic about its passage by week's end.

The pivotal test-vote was 64-35 to revive the divisive legislation. It still faces formidable obstacles in the Senate, including bitter opposition by GOP conservatives and attempts by some waverers in both parties to revise its key elements.

Here's the roll call. How did your senator vote?

"Tear down this wall!"

Twenty years ago today...

In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.

And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control.

Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it? We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

One man, sure in his convictions, standing up to the enemy.

William Jefferson FINALLY gets indicted

Well, he's a democrat. They get to live their lives by lower standards. Had he been a Republican, he would only have needed to fart at the wrong time to get an indictment like this.

Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., was indicted Monday on federal charges of racketeering, soliciting bribes and money-laundering in a long- running bribery investigation into business deals he tried to broker in Africa.

The indictment handed up in federal court in Alexandria., Va., Monday is 94 pages long and lists 16 alleged violations of federal law that could keep Jefferson in prison for up to 235 years. He is charged with racketeering, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, money-laundering, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

But why did it take two years?

Almost two years ago, in August 2005, investigators raided Jefferson's home in Louisiana and found $90,000 in cash stuffed into a box in his freezer.

At least there seems to be plenty of evidence.

Court records indicate that Jefferson was videotape[d] taking a $100,000 cash bribe from an FBI informant. Most of that money later turned up in a freezer in Jefferson's home.

and this

Brett Pfeffer, a former congressional aide, admitted soliciting bribes on Jefferson's behalf and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Another Jefferson associate, Louisville, Ky., telecommunications executive Vernon Jackson, pleaded guilty to paying between $400,000 and $1 million in bribes to Jefferson in exchange for his assistance securing business deals in Nigeria and other African nations. Jackson was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

Both Pfeffer and Jackson agreed to cooperate in the case against Jefferson in exchanges for their pleas.

Poor Bug Eyes will find it tough to keep her "most ethical" label now.

RNC losing donations over amnesty bill

Against the President's wishes, people who usually contribute to the Republican National Committee seems to not want to.

"Every donor in 50 states we reached has been angry, especially in the last month and a half, and for 99 percent of them immigration is the No. 1 issue," a fired phone-bank employee told the Washington Times.

I guess the RNC got the "un-patriotic" list to call.


Fantastic picture and hat tip to World Net Daily.

It is time to let him go

The effortlessly brilliant Peggy Noonan has hit the nail on the head.

For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. You don't like endless gushing spending, the kind that assumes a high and unstoppable affluence will always exist, and the tax receipts will always flow in? Too bad! You don't like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad.

But on immigration it has changed from "Too bad" to "You're bad."

The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up." On Fox last weekend he vowed to "push back." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want "mass deportation." Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are "anti-immigrant" and suggested they suffer from "rage" and "national chauvinism."

I love our president. He was absolutely the right man (I believe, God's appointed man) for the right time for our nation. No one can argue that Algore would have performed nearly to the degree that W did after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

But, for some inexplicable reason, on the issue of amnesty for illegal immigrants, honest people can no longer disagree. On this issue it's his way or you must be a fear monger.

President Bush sounded like he hoped to sever ties with the remaining 30 percent who like him when he went after critics in his party this week over opposition to his latest immigration plan.

"If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill's an amnesty bill," Bush said during a stop in Glynco, Ga. "That's empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our citizens."

It was his harshest public backhand yet to the conservative bloggers, commentators, politicians and CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, all gassing about how the bill amounts to amnesty.

It is time to let him go. He never was a true conservative. Let him hoist his lack of conservativeness on his own petard.

2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season Starts Today!

The 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season starts today! Do you have a plan? Here is the City of Houston's plan. Here is Harris County's Homeland Security & Emergency Management web site.
But the most important question: will you follow your plan?