I haven’t blogged this, as the idea that an elected politician is a criminal is not really a shock.

But since she is now playing the race card, I want to weigh in.

A brief summary of the issue.

(from St): McKinney punches Capitol Hill police officer

According to sources on Capitol Hill, U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) punched a Capitol police officer on Wednesday afternoon after he mistakenly pursued her for failing to pass through a metal detector.

Members of Congress are not required to pass through metal detectors.

Sources say that the officer was at a position in the Longworth House Office Building, and neither recognized McKinney, nor saw her credentials as she went around the metal detector.

The officer called out, “Ma’am, Ma’am,” and walked after her in an attempt to stop her. When he caught McKinney, he grabbed her by the arm.

Witnesses say McKinney pulled her arm away, and with her cell phone in hand, punched the officer in the chest.

Her official response:

An interesting twist to my previous story on Body Armor.  In that post I reported how the troops are refusing to wear the body armor being sent.

In this story, the military is now banning the use of non government issue armor.  I have to admit I am getting confused.  First we are not sending enough, and the troops ahve to buy their own.  Then we are sending too much and they wont use it.

Can we please make up our minds?

Army Bans Use of Privately Bought Armor

WASHINGTON (AP) - Soldiers will no longer be allowed to wear body armor other than the protective gear issued by the military, Army officials said Thursday, the latest twist in a running battle over the equipment the Pentagon gives its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Army officials told The Associated Press that the order was prompted by concerns that soldiers or their families were buying inadequate or untested commercial armor from private companies - including the popular Dragon Skin gear made by California-based Pinnacle Armor.

The recent sightings of Mexican being raised to signify protest at immigratoin reform has been fairly well reported, but today it has entered a new chapter.

At Apache Junction High School in Phoenix, a student raised the Mexican flag over the top of the US flag, only to have it pulled down- And burned.  Via Drudge:

Mexican flag burned at Apache Junction HS

Tensions over immigration reform heightened in the Phoenix area’s East Valley Thursday when students raised a Mexican flag over Apache Junction High School — and then other students yanked it down and burned it.

"I know (they) shouldn’t have burned the Mexican flag," said Jacob Stewart, a 16-year-old sophomore. "I heard it was raised above the American flag and that just irked me."

He said the turbulence was tied to debates going on in the state Legislature and Congress, where ideas ranging from offering illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship to making them felons are being floated.

Freshman Chelsea Garcia, 15, and junior Brittany Ramage, 16, said the unrest had more to do with long-running racial tensions at the school.

The immigration issue has sparked a lot of heat from all sides, and promises to be a central issue for some time to come, particularly in the mid term 2006 congressional elections and in the upcoming 2008 presidential election.

Looking at the discussions, articles and demonstrations, I am not sure that all parties are even close to being on the same pages in understanding what the issues are.  We see demonstrations that are more about separatism, nationalism and even a sense that some want to conquer the southwest for Mexico. 

Hmm….In Hollywood’s case, maybe that’s ok….

We hear about racism, and national security; terrorism and discrimination; and even racial supremacy.  But what is rare is a focused discussion of the nuts and bolts of immigration.

So as a public service I will provide that context.  This is hardly a comprehensive review and essay, but I want to boil out the emotional rhetoric and determine which aspects are the most important.

Looking at the issue I break it down like this:

OK, let me start by saying that I support public education.

OK?  I have friends who belittle it, preferring homeschool and such.  I see public education as a necessity, something that ensures an educatoin to all.

That said I have been one of those unruly parents that challenge schools to actually teach, and I have been unafraid to confront the schools that I don’t feel are doing this.  In the course of this, I have been a real pain in the ass of a couple of stupid administrators.

As the years pass though, I get more frustrated by the bullshit I keep seeing get passed off as education, as well as the incredible lack of sense in the policies around the country.  I now whole heartedly support education alternatives, such as charter schools because our public schools have come down with a bad case of stupid.

Here is a case in point:

School’s ‘Holocaust’ Experiment Upsets Parents

Several parents in Apopka, Fla., are upset over a surprise school "Holocaust" project that some say tormented children, according to a Local 6 News report.

In an unsurpising twist the NY times has reported the FISA Judges testimony in a completely different light.  It is hard to compare this to the story I posted from the WA Times, they seem like they are totally different events.

Big shock huh?

From Powerline:

Judges on Secretive Panel Speak Out on Spy Program

WASHINGTON, March 28 — Five former judges on the nation’s most secretive court, including one who resigned in apparent protest over President Bush’s domestic eavesdropping, urged Congress on Tuesday to give the court a formal role in overseeing the surveillance program.

In a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the secretive court, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, several former judges who served on the panel also voiced skepticism at a Senate hearing about the president’s constitutional authority to order wiretapping on Americans without a court order. They also suggested that the program could imperil criminal prosecutions that grew out of the wiretaps.

It won’t stop the storm of lies and accusations, but the real experts in the FISA wiretaps have spoken: 

FISA judges say Bush within law

A panel of former Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges yesterday told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that President Bush did not act illegally when he created by executive order a wiretapping program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).

The five judges testifying before the committee said they could not speak specifically to the NSA listening program without being briefed on it, but that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not override the president’s constitutional authority to spy on suspected international agents under executive order.

"If a court refuses a FISA application and there is not sufficient time for the president to go to the court of review, the president can under executive order act unilaterally, which he is doing now," said Judge Allan Kornblum, magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and an author of the 1978 FISA Act. "I think that the president would be remiss exercising his constitutional authority by giving all of that power over to a statute."

Well even the students know how to take a concept and twist it completely out of proportion.

The students in the LA area again protested the proposed immigration laws, and decided that immigration wasn’t necessarily the issue, nor was illegal immigration.

Their issue is apparently conquest.  From Michelle Malkin:

Go to her link for more pictures.

Well when they are Ann Coulter dolls that he can torment and sexually violate, yep.

A little levity is fine and certainly we can all have some expression, but I still think this is a bit weird.  He seems obsessive and a little er….strange.

Sean Penn Has an Ann Coulter ‘Torture Doll’

Actor Sean Penn was apparently interviewed for an upcoming issue of The New Yorker magazine. According to a couple of sources, Penn was quoted in the piece as having a plastic doll with the likeness of Ann Coulter that he “likes to abuse when angry.”

As reported by ContactMusic.com (hat tip to Drudge): “The Oscar-winner actor has hated Coulter ever since she blacklisted his director father LEO PENN in her book TREASON. And he takes out his frustrations with Coulter, who is a best-selling author, lawyer and television pundit, on the Barbie-like doll.”

The Post Chronicle reported:

“‘We violate her,’ the ornery actor tells The New Yorker about his mini-Coulter. ‘There are cigarette burns in some funny places. She’s a pure snake-oil salesman. She doesn’t believe a word she says.’"

Yea, I think someone has some ’splaining to do…

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/28/D8GKOD080.html

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked her Russian counterpart on Tuesday for a "serious investigation" into reports that Russian intelligence fed U.S. battle plans to Saddam Hussein, the State Department said.

Rice made the request in a telephone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. The call came four days after the Pentagon released a report citing captured Iraqi documents that described the information exchange.

"The point we’re making is, this is a report we take seriously and we are asking the Russians to look into it," Ereli said.

Even so, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld seemed to downplay the report. He said it may be worth looking into, but said he first heard about the allegations when the Pentagon issued the publication last Friday.

"It merits looking into," Rumsfeld told Pentagon reporters.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that U.S. officials "still don’t know if the translation is 100 percent accurate" or if the report contained "real information or disinformation."