To What Party Does This Mother … Belong?

Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:05 pm by McGehee [Courting Disaster] [Elections] [Wackadoodle] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

Drew Brees wants no part of his mother’s political aspirations. The NFL quarterback and Westlake High School graduate has told Mina Brees, an Austin attorney, to stop using his picture in TV commercials as she runs for a spot on Texas’ 3rd Court of Appeals, saying their relationship is now “nonexistent” after souring six years ago. [...] Drew Brees led Westlake to a state championship in football before graduating in 1997 and becoming the starting quarterback at Purdue University. He signed a six-year, $60 million contract in the past off-season with the Saints. During his senior year at Purdue, he said, their relationship crumbled after he refused to hire her as his agent. He said she later undercut his dealings with other agents and tried to sell a book about him to Sports Illustrated without his knowledge. » Austin American-Statesman:   NFL player tells mother to stop using his image in political ads Answer below the fold. » Read more "To What Party Does This Mother … Belong?"

You Tell ‘Em, Nino

Sun Oct 22, 2006 9:37 am by McGehee [Courting Disaster] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

Deeply controversial issues like abortion and suicide rights have nothing to do with the Constitution, and unelected judges too often choose to find new rights at the expense of the democratic process, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday. Scalia, during a talk on the judiciary sponsored by the National Italian American Foundation, dismissed the idea of judicial independence as an absolute virtue. He noted that dozens of states, since the mid-1800s, have chosen to let citizens elect their judges. “You talk about independence as though it is unquestionably and unqualifiably a good thing,” Scalia said. “It may not be. It depends on what your courts are doing.” Scalia added, “The more your courts become policy-makers, the less sense it makes to have them entirely independent.” » AP: Scalia Rips Judges on Abortion, Suicide “Judicial independence” was never intended to mean “judicial unaccountability.” Leaving the removal of irresponsible judges to a Congress that won’t even hold its own members accountable—and will seat an impeached federal judge as one of its members—is tantamount to guaranteeing that judges will never be held accountable at all. The Constitution needs to be amended to limit the amount of time a federal judge may sit without at least being renominated and reconfirmed. A periodic public examination of a judge’s record is the most reasonable first step in reining in the imperial judiciary. And if that proves unsatisfactory, we can move on to the next step. Eventually we may have to choose between direct election or, God forbid, legalized assassination.

Yes, Virginia, There Are Traitors

Wed Oct 18, 2006 9:35 am by McGehee 2 comments [Courting Disaster] [Wackadoodle] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

People betray their country for several different reasons, most commonly money or ideology. While many traitors live deeply troubled lives, and a touch of megalomania and messianic fervor often motivates them, none of the traitors I am familiar with have been certifiably crazy. Which makes sense, since an agent worth recruiting by a foreign power needs to be lucid enough to avoid detection, and stable enough to be entrusted with enough power or responsibility to betray. That is what makes the case of Susan Lindauer so unusual. My first venture into punditry dealt with the arrest of Susan Lindauer on various charges, amounting to her acting as a paid agent for Saddam’s intelligence service. Lindauer worked for several Democratic lawmakers, including Representatives Zoe Lofgren and Peter DeFazio, and Senators Ron Wyden and Carol Moseley-Braun, and also wrote for Fortune and U.S. News & World Report. According to her indictment, Lindauer worked with Iraqi agents based in New York starting in 1999, and even met them in Manhattan on September 19, 2001. That’s right: eight days after the atrocity of September 11, Lindauer was allegedly meeting with enemy intelligence agents somewhere near the ruins of the World Trade Center. (According to the New York Times, her last job with Congress ceased in 2002, so she was allegedly working for both the Iraqi government and ours at the same time.) She is also charged with flying to Baghdad in 2002 to meet with Iraqi intelligence agents (who dubbed her “Symbol Susan"), accepting money from them, and then attempting to influence American foreign policy. Apparently she contacted a distant relative, then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, about mediating the crisis between President Bush and Saddam. After her arrest, it emerged that Lindauer was...not all there. Two court-appointed doctors found her mentally incompetent and unfit to stand trial. » Clinton W. Taylor: Turncoat or Straitjacket? Her father, John Lindauer, was the 1998 Republican nominee for governor of Alaska, surely the low point for Republican gubernatorial politics up there. His nomination was later renounced by the Republican Party of Alaska after it was determined he had lied on financial disclosure forms, but it was too late to remove his name from the ballot (besides, the top state election official, the lieutenant governor, was seeking re-election on the Democrat incumbent’s ticket). If Alaska Republicans don’t reflexively spit whenever the name “Lindauer” is spoken in their presence, I’d be very surprised. But when I learned that Susan Lindauer was John’s daughter, I wasn’t surprised at all. Sadly, given the state of our judicial system, I am also not surprised (unlike Taylor) by this: What did come as a surprise, however, was that she was freed from custody last month. She refused to take antipsychotic medication. A judge refused to order her to be medicated forcibly, and instead ordered her set free. Another judge will decide whether and how she will stand trial. Nor by this: An essay about Lindauer’s release at the left-wing website TPM Cafe quoted from my piece, but neglected to discuss the allegations of espionage for the Iraqi resistance. When I saw that, I began to wonder whether there was a groundswell to rehabilitate Lindauer’s reputation as a left-wing activist. Soon another journalist for a Takoma Park, Maryland paper contacted me for an upcoming retrospective on the Lindauer case. And recently I saw an article in the Detroit News about an FBI raidlast month on the Michigan headquarters of Focus on American and Arab Interests and Relations, an anti-war advocacy group. Who should be quoted defending the charity, but... They can’t all be certifiably insane. Can they...?

They’ll None of ‘Em Be Missed

Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:51 pm by McGehee [War] [Courting Disaster] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

Well okay, there’s only one. So far. A California-born convert to Islam, accused of making a series of al Qaeda propaganda videos, became on Wednesday the first American charged with treason since the World War Two era, U.S. Justice Department officials said. Fugitive Adam Gadahn, 28, who is believed to be in Pakistan, was accused of treason, which carries a maximum punishment of death, and providing material support to al Qaeda, they said. According to the charges, Gadahn appeared in five videos broadcast between October 2004 and September 11, 2006, giving al Qaeda “aid and comfort ... with the intent to betray the United States.” “Gadahn gave himself to our enemies in al Qaeda for the purpose of being a central part of their propaganda machine,” Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty told a news conference. “By making this choice, we believe Gadahn committed treason—perhaps the most serious offense for which any person can be tried under our Constitution,” he said. » Reuters: U.S. brings first treason case in over 50 years People, we’re at war. By definition, when we’re at war we have enemies. If you adhere to them, as this bird has done, that’s treason. I still don’t understand why Jihad Johnny Walker Lindh didn’t get charged with treason.

Libby’s Going to Scoot

Thu Sep 21, 2006 6:24 pm by McGehee [Courting Disaster] [Wackadoodle] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

...er, I mean skate. The judge in the CIA leak case ruled Thursday that if Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald feels that admitting certain classified documents at the upcoming trial of I Lewis “Scooter” Libby can jeopardize national security, Fitzgerald can then move to dismiss the perjury charges against Libby. Judge Reggie Walton cannot automatically allow classified materials to be admitted at trial. He first must go through a series of closed hearings under CIPA regulations. CIPA, the Classified Information Procedures Act, protects and restricts the discovery of classified information in a way that does not impair the defendant’s right to a fair trial. It also allows the government to propose a redacted version of a classified document as a substitution for the original, having deleted only non-relevant classified information. In his ruling this morning, the Judge Walton, has given a technical legal victory to Libby’s attorneys concerning the admissibility of classified materials they want to present at trial for their defense. » NBC News: Fitzgerald given way out of Libby CIA leak case Fitzmas was already going to be a sparse affair, what with Roast Rove and Cheney Fricassee having already been removed from the menu. But now even the one dish Fitzgerald had in the oven—Scooter Pie—isn’t baking according to the recipe. Fear not, BDS sufferers! I’m sure the Republican Party will pitch in for a large pizza. But you’ll only get one topping. Crow.

Congress Weighs In

Thu Sep 21, 2006 6:57 am by McGehee [Courting Disaster] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

There’s a power struggle going on in Georgia between the people’s elected representatives on the one hand, and state and federal judges on the other who seem to think it’s better to let illegal aliens and dead people vote than to ensure legitimacy to our electoral process. And now Congress is weighing in. The House yesterday passed legislation that would require voters to show a valid photo identification in federal elections over the overwhelming objections of Democrats who compared the bill to segregation-era measures aimed at disenfranchising Southern blacks. » Washington Times: House bill to require voter ID Get that? Stopping those constitutionally ineligible to vote (like non-citizens, the deceased, and those who have already voted somewhere else) from voting, is exactly like trying to thwart the 1964 Voting Rights Act. But Democrats, siding with groups that work on behalf of minorities and illegal aliens, called the bill a “modern-day poll tax” and said it would place an insurmountable burden on voters and infringe upon their voting rights. Rep. Brian Bilbray, California Republican, countered that the real infringement upon voting rights would be allowing fraudulent votes by the dead or illegal “to cancel out legitimate votes.” “That is the violation of the Voters Rights Act that we have not addressed,” he told colleagues before the vote. Democrats, who have long demanded reforms to the federal voting process, yesterday dismissed Republican concerns about voter fraud. “Show me the examples of the problem you’re trying to solve,” demanded Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat who accused Republicans of trying to appeal to the “fear and—yes, perhaps—the prejudices of people.” The prejudices of those who think only live U.S. citizens should be allowed to vote in U.S. elections—and those only once. You’re a light socket, Steny.

How Not to Win a Defamation Lawsuit

Sat Aug 5, 2006 5:47 pm by McGehee [Courting Disaster] [Wackadoodle] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

Memo to Senile Jack: When someone sues you for defaming him, don’t respond by defaming him. Rep. John Murtha, responding Wednesday to a defamation lawsuit filed by a Marine accused of killing Iraqi civilians in 2005, mistakenly said Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich had been “charged in the incident at Haditha.” In fact, no charges have been filed against anybody. » Robert Novak: Murtha’s Mistake Memo to Senile Jack’s constituents: Send this wacked-out SOB home!

ACLU Goes to Bat for Phelpsies

Sun Jul 23, 2006 3:17 pm by McGehee [Courting Disaster] [Wackadoodle] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

You’d think with the Patriot Act allegedly sending people to Gitmo for checking out the wrong library books, the ACLU would have to be more judicious in picking its battles. A Kansas church group that protests at military funerals nationwide filed suit in federal court, saying a Missouri law banning such picketing infringes on religious freedom and free speech. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, Mo., on behalf of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church, which has outraged mourning communities by picketing service members’ funerals with signs condemning homosexuality. The church and the Rev. Fred Phelps say God is allowing troops, coal miners and others to be killed because the United States tolerates gay men and lesbians. » Washington Post: ACLU Sues for Anti-Gay Group That Pickets at Troops’ Burials I wonder how Fredo knows it isn’t because the United States tolerates him?

Go Get ‘Im

Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:36 am by McGehee 1 comment [Our Times] [Courting Disaster] [Yee-haw!] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

In May, New York authorities accused a Smyrna gun store of illegally supplying guns that sometimes ended up in the hands of criminals. The gun store fired back on Thursday. In a $400 million lawsuit filed Thursday in Cobb County, Adventure Outdoors said that New York officials libeled and slandered several gun shop owners by referring to them as “rogue gun dealers.” The suit takes aim at New York and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. » AJC: Cobb gun store files lawsuit against N.Y. Bloomberg has become known as “The Nanny” because of his paternalistic statist proclivities since succeeding Rudy Giuliani as New York mayor. He has sought to ban every choice ever made by ordinary people, of which he happens to disapprove—except gun ownership, which was already all but banned outright in New York City decades ago. But of course he still zeroes in on lawful gun ownership by law-abiding Americans as something that needs to be stamped out even if he has to go far beyond his jurisdiction to do it. Not that this is anything new for the Big Apple’s big cheeses; once after a highly publicized stabbing murder in a New York subway, then-mayor David Dinkins told reporters the crime illustrated the need for more stringent gun control in the city. There has actually been talk of Bloomberg running for president. I don’t think he’d do too well in the red states.

‘One Side, Amateur!’

Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:28 pm by McGehee [Courting Disaster] [Wackadoodle] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

Fitzmas has apparently become Grinchmas, once and for all. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Valerie Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador, accused Cheney, Rove and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby of revealing Plame’s CIA identity in seeking revenge against Wilson for criticizing the Bush administration’s motives in Iraq. » AP: Former CIA Officer Sues Cheney Over Leak As soon as I saw that headline on Protein Wisdom (h/t), I had the exact same conclusion that Jeff offers: Although I will say that this suggests to me that Fitzgerald’s investigation is over. Robert Novak’s recent revelation about two of the three sources he claims for the Plame/CIA link was spurred, according to Novak, by Patrick Fitzgerald’s having told him that part of the investigation involving Novak was over. Some had already speculated that meant the case itself is about to be closed (except for prosecuting Scooter Libby). So, apparently Jabberin’ Joe Wilson has reached the same conclusion; a civil case proceeding during Fitzgerald’s investigation would almost certainly run the risk of interfering with that investigation. And since Fitz didn’t give Wilson Rove’s head on a stick via criminal proceedings, Wilson’s gonna try it his way. I figured when David Corn’s allegations about this “outing” business first came to my attention that there was no substance to it. Someone at the CIA foisted a boondoggle on taxpayers with that criminal referral.

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