Ok, I am convinced.  Jefferson is friggin crook trying to hide behind privilage.  A lying cheating bribe taking crook.

Besides the cash in his freezer from the bribe he took, he tried to hide evidence from the FBI when they searched his house last August.  How much more blatant can you be?

Congressman Tried to Hide Papers, Justice Dept. Says

The Justice Department yesterday vigorously defended the recent weekend raid of Rep. William J. Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office as part of a bribery investigation, asserting that the Democratic lawmaker attempted to hide documents from FBI agents while they were searching his New Orleans home last August.

The government questioned in a 34-page motion filed in U.S. District Court here whether it could have obtained all the materials it had sought in a subpoena if it had not launched the surprise raid on Jefferson’s congressional office May 20. According to the government filing, an FBI agent caught Jefferson slipping documents into a blue bag in the living room of his New Orleans home during a search.

Albet Einstein once said that Insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

By his definition these people may have embraced that philosophy.

War protesters in Olympia blasted with pepper spray, 22 arrested

Dozens of people protesting Iraq-bound military shipments were blasted with pepper spray and 22 people were arrested in continuing war protests at the Port of Olympia.

Two people were arrested for failure to disperse and the rest for criminal trespass Tuesday night after protesters tore off a gate, entered port property, lay down and refused to leave, Thurston County sheriff’s Capt. Bradley Watkins said.

For the second straight night pepper spray was blasted at the demonstrators repeatedly, on one occasion after some protesters hurled bottles and rocks at 60 to 70 law enforcement officers from the Washington State Patrol, sheriff’s office and Olympia and Tumwater police, said Watkins, the incident commander.

No one was seriously injured, and after the arrests the number of protesters dwindled from several hundred to about 100, he said. About three dozen held a late-night vigil, some stayed overnight and more demonstrators arrived Wednesday morning.

Free assembly is a simple concept really.  Anyone can gather to protest and exercise their free speech rights.  I support it, I love it…when it is peaceful.

Get violent however?  Meet Mr Pepper Spray.

Here in Washington, Seattle may be the home turf to the local Liberals, but not too far to the south, Olympia reveals its own hotbed of liberal activism.

Anti-War Protesters Pepper Sprayed at Port of Olympia

Police fired pepper spray as about 150 anti-war protesters tried to enter the Port of Olympia as part of ongoing demonstrations against the shipment of Army equipment to Iraq.

Protesters chanted "Out of Olympia, Out of Iraq" as they rocked a chain-link gate to the port late Monday, and at least three tried to use wooden boards to pry the gate open, The Olympian newspaper reported. A 50-ton piece of equipment was moved to reinforce the gate on the other side.

Idiots.  First warning sign: a fence.  Second sign: police.

Breach fence, meet police.  Meet police, meet Me Pepper Spray.  Duh.

The SCOTUS, in a divided ruling laid down limitations to the claims of whistleblowers in a decision that affects millions of government employees.

Justices Set Limits on Public Employees’ Speech Rights

The Supreme Court declared today, in a ruling affecting millions of government employees, that the Constitution does not always protect their free-speech rights for what they say on the job.

In a 5-to-4 decision, the court held that public employees’ free-speech rights are protected when they speak out as citizens on matters of public concern, but not when they speak out in the course of their official duties.

"We hold that when public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, the employees are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court.

In writing the decision that reversed the Ninth Circuit today, Justice Kennedy noted that the Supreme Court has made it clear in previous rulings "that public employees do not surrender all their First Amendment rights by reason of their employment." On the other hand, he wrote, "When a citizen enters government service, the citizen by necessity must accept certain limitations on his or her freedom."

The culture of corruption takes another blow, and once again it is a Democrat, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid.  He of course denies all wrong doing, but the timing here was no better or worse then most of the other recent ethics scandals.  Harry Reid still has to answer questions about Casino money from Abramoff’s clients.

The tickets themselves are only an ethics issue because Reid was worjing on Federal oversight legislation of the boxing industry.

He and fellow Democrats love to point fingers, but their continued accusations about corrupt Republicans get more hollow each time they do.

Senate Leader Took Free Boxing Tickets

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid accepted free ringside tickets from the Nevada Athletic Commission to three professional boxing matches while that state agency was trying to influence him on federal regulation of boxing.

Reid, D-Nev., took the free seats for Las Vegas fights between 2003 and 2005 as he was pressing legislation to increase government oversight of the sport, including the creation of a federal boxing commission that Nevada’s agency feared might usurp its authority.

OK to be fair, no one knows if this was intentional or not, but as the article below notes, there are enough obscure holidays that Google will give celebrity to via creative logo mods, that them doing nothing on Memorial Day does seem odd at best.

If it was some anti military or anti war demonstration, well that is their right.  But it is fairly childish.  WND certainly makes the case that this is deliberate, but that is unclear.

If it was an accidental oversight, one might ask why so much attention is given to so many other days, many of which are not even recognized here, and so little attention given to our Federal Holidays.

Either way, it is a slap in the face of Vets.  My Father in law who passed away a few years ago was a World War II vet.  He deserves better.

Google forgets Memorial Day? 

Search engine’s catchy holiday logos have honored Earth Day, Persian New Year – but not war dead

The debate over allowing or banning funeral protests is essentially one that seeks to balance respect with free speech. 

The free speech advocates, Such as the disgusting Rev Fred Phelps, say free means anywhere any time.

The other camp suggests that sometimes respect for the fallen and their grieving loved ones outweighs that.

Common sense suggests that there is a reasonable expectation of dignity and respect at a funeral that most normal people would honor. and even in areas of free speech there is a time and a place for everything.  

In this case, Common sense teamed up with respect and they, with the help of Congress and the President seem to have won the day…for now:

Bush Signs Funeral Protest Ban

President Bush has signed into law a bill that prevents demonstrators from disrupting military funerals. The measure is aimed squarely at the Reverend Fred Phelps, an ultra-conservative clergyman from Kansas who has been picketing the funerals of Iraqi war dead, claiming that God hates the U.S. for its tolerance of homosexuality. Phelps has also made news for protesting the funerals of AIDS victims. He also demonstrated at the funeral of slain gay man Matthew Shepherd, claiming that Shepherd deserved what he got and displaying signs reading "God hates fags."

I am reposting this from last year, not just because I am too lazy to write a fitting tribute this year, but because in reading it, it struck me how much like last year this year has been.

So, I am reposting it because a lot of what was said and was happening here is still relevant this year.

Sometimes things don’t change all that much…sadly.

Originally posted May 30, 2005

We went to visit Nancy’s parents as they lay in rest at Mt Tahoma National Cemetery yesterday. Being Memorial Day Weekend, the place was of course decked out with flags and such.

Now I am not a big fan of cemeteries, but I admit the peaceful settings in this one are fairly awesome. It is set in a very natural environment, each section of plots separated by trees, and it is far enough from the city to be fairly quiet and serene.

Let me start by saying  that I really do like and admire Tony.  When a lot of the right wingers were on the partisan band wagon he was not afraid to be critical.  He is right wing conservative, no doubt.  No one can accuse him of being a moderate or neutral.

But he was not afraid to be a little out of step with the administration, something somewhat rare in some conservative circles..or liberal for that matter.  Writers at HuffPo don’t devote a huge amount of time taking their liberal leaders to task either.

Now that he is Press Secretary, he is the voice of the administration.  In the matter of immigration, he has long since voiced on radio his unhappiness about the lack of immigration policy,  From my memory only, he is much in line with the President on this.  Secure the borders, register the aliens (amnesty essentially), make a guest worker program and shut down illegal employers.  His columns on Townhall seem to support this.

Most of these are not terribly hard to debate.  Most people see the need for a new type of guest worker program, everyone (except Mexico) wants to secure the border, and most people agree businesses that hire illegals need to be dealt with.

The MSM loves to look down on bloggers as just a bunch of hacks, but apparently the Court’s see them as filling the same role as the traditoinal pres.

Apple loses court bid to identify source

A state appeals court on Friday rejected Apple Computer Inc.’s bid to identify the sources of leaked product information that appeared on Web sites, ruling that online reporters and bloggers are entitled to the same protections as traditional journalists.

"In no relevant respect do they appear to differ from a reporter or editor for a traditional business-oriented periodical who solicits or otherwise comes into possession of confidential internal information about a company," Justice Conrad Rushing of the 6th District Court of Appeal wrote in a unanimous 69-page ruling.

"We decline the implicit invitation to embroil ourselves in questions of what constitutes ‘legitimate journalism," he wrote. "The shield law is intended to protect the gathering and dissemination of news, and that is what petitioners did here."

The online journalists are thus entitled to the protections provided under California’s shield law as well as the privacy protections for e-mails allowed under federal law, the court ruled.