Iowa And Marriage

Lots of chatter, just now as regards their state supreme court’s ruling on marriage. (PDF)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling Friday finding that the state’s same-sex marriage ban violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian couples, making Iowa the third state where marriage is legal.

 

In its decision, the court upheld a 2007 district court judge’s ruling that the law violates the state constitution. It strikes the language from Iowa code limiting marriage to only between a man a woman

It strikes me that the ruling is on the letter of the law, but not the intent… thus using the society’s law against the society. My best guess is that we’ll see an amendment process starting. Trouble is, I also think that the earliest we’ll see the refferendum is 2012.

And some think Mrs. Clinton is smart.   Mrs. Cinton wants to reach out to the moderate Taleban.   I say there are no moderate Taleban, except in Mrs. Clinton’s fervid imagination:

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday at a U.N. conference on Afghanistan that Taliban members in Afghanistan who abandoned extremism must be granted an “honourable form of reconciliation.”

“We must also support efforts by the government of Afghanistan to separate the extremists of al Qaeda and the Taliban from those who have joined their ranks not out of conviction, but out of desperation,” Clinton said at an international conference on Afghanistan in the Hague.

Gateway Pundit:

Gruesome video shows Taliban flogging teenage girl.
The Taliban flogged a 17 year-old girl in public for in Pakistan’s northwestern region of Swat, where Sharia law was introduced after the government reached a truce with the Taliban in February. The girl was seen in public with a man who was not her husband.
This is what happens when you allow the Taliban to control a region.Courtesy Gateway Pundit,

 Times(UK), has the video :

This grainy footage appears to show a 17-year-old girl being beaten by Islamic radicals in Pakistan’s northwestern region of Swat, where Sharia law was introduced after the government reached a truce with the Taleban in February.

Did I metion due process?   Ironic footnote:

WASHINGTON (BP)–When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received Planned Parenthood’s highest honor, it came in the name of a woman who promoted eliminating “the unfit” from the human race.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) presented Clinton with the Margaret Sanger Award at its annual awards dinner March 27 in Houston, Texas. Sanger founded an organization in 1916 that became Planned Parenthood.

Mrs. Clinton does not seek to protect the rights of women,, either born or unborn.   The Baptist got this one right.

I bow to no man.   Barack Obama debases himself on the World Stage, Michelle has the video.   No person bows to any man in my name.    Does Barack Obama bow in your name?

The sharp tack, Clarice Feldman, American Thinker:

I am quite certain that this is not the protocol, and is most unbecoming a President of the United States.

If I had wanted a President, on his knees, I would voted for Monica Lewinsky.

Those of you with Ipod phones can now access BitsBlog Online. I’ve had the BitsBlog Mobile Edition working for some time with other smart phones, but I think I’ve finally got it working for Ipods, too.

You’re welcome.

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere…The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

This is the “All This and a Cookie Too” edition.

• Buying the Tea: I see  Reynolds has a map up of Tea Party Protests up. Neat idea, really. I’m not sure I subscribe to Billy’s read of them.
  

  The tea parties bring me nothing like hope. I see in them people who were happy enough to live and abide the compromises, vast and minute, that necessarily brought them to their straits now, and far too little understanding of what was lost, when and how, and why it mattered. In that, I see no way for them to pitch themselves against the dominant ideology of the era. In the truest dimensions of this fight, they can be bought or otherwise fended-off at relatively small expense to the rising machine.

  Mmmmpfhhh. I’m not convinced they can be bought off, in majority.  Sometimes you need to be brought to the edge… to your “Paul on the Damascus Road Moment” (TM).  I agree, they bought into the stuff too willingly over the years. But the numbers an types of people out on the front lines now, tells me we’re dealing with a totally different dynamic now… that what’s been going on in the last month or two has given them the shock treatment needed to teach the lessons. For the most part, these are not people who have ever come out on the front lines like this before. We exepect scenes of protest from those supporting socialism in all it’s forms, not those speaking and working against it.  That’s a seed change. Someone that foundationally shaken,  and someone who has gone through such a change will not easily be bought off going forward.  And an odd thing; I’ve got a cup of “Constant Comment” in one had as I dictate this. Tea party indeed. Further thoughts.

• Ho-Hum… Just another Democrat party funding scandal:  I suspect that part of that life changing revelation is the contsnat drumbeat of Democrat funding scandals. Murtha who should have been gone long ago, and Pelosi as well, are wrapped up just now in the PMA thing.  And the thing is, they can no longer blame these events on Republicans trying to stir up trouble. The Republicans are sitting back and watching, but that’s about all they CAN do.  This one’s all on the Democrat party. And trust me, the American people have noticed.
• Number One: Mark Levin’s book continues to do well.  It deserves to, from what I’ve seen of it.
•  Romney just lost my vote: And needs to get off the radar screen.  The message being sent by the people is that government is the problem. He still thinks it’s the solution. Bye, Mitt. we don’t need you. But you know, maybe the Democrat party can use you. God knows, they’ve used everyone else.
•  Dodd’s Done:  It’s official: Chris Dodd is toast.
  

  Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd trails former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, a possible Republican challenger, 50 – 34 percent in the 2010 Senate race, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today, as voters disapprove 58 – 33 percent of the job the Democratic incumbent is doing, his lowest approval rating ever.

  Matched against two other possible Republican challengers, Sen. Dodd trails both State Sen. Sam Caligiuri 41 – 37 percent and former ambassador Tom Foley 43 – 35 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.

  Now, look, I understand that the Democrats are creating a scapegoat, here. They’re busy throwing Dodd to the wolves in the hopes that they themselves won’t be eaten. Which is not to say that Dodd doesn’t deserve this. He does, and for more than this. But please, gang, let’s not lose sight of the fact that the Dodd is only the surface of this thing.

• D’Oh!!!  The Simpsons on a postage stamp?  Apparently so.   I can’t help but think, though with less people using the mails than ever, that the postage stamp is less of an honor than it used to be.

• You’re not supposed to ask that, Ann: An interesting question from Ann Coulter…
  

  WHY IS RICK WAGONER FIRED AND NANCY PELOSI STILL WORKING?

  There’s this, too:

  Apparently, it’s OK for Obama to fire the head of General Motors, but Bush can’t fire his own U.S. attorneys.

  Ain’t it real…. Go read.

•  Boom: Joyner’s changed his comments system. Not sure I like it.  I could get used to it, I guess, but there’s a number of WP plugins that’ll do the job better without trashing the current discussions.  This one he’s got certainly dropped the bomb on at least half a dozen very hot threads.

Thank God for Doctor Krauthammer.

You can spin this every which way. And…it will be over-spun because it’s all we have. So we’re going to have to go with it.

 

But I look at it a little more simply. I’m no Richard Feynman, but I can do elementary arithmetic. Five months ago the Democrats won this seat with 62 percent. Last night it was a split 50-50. That’s a 12 percent drop in less than half a year.

 

And I think it’s explained by the fact, among other things, that the magical mystery tour of Obama is over, and that charismatic era is done.

And that, in the end is what’s going on here. In just that short space of time, the Democrats have lost 12% in their own district. Apparently, part of the message here… and it’s one you’ll note the press ignoring… is that coat tails work in both directions. If things are this bad only two months out, what we going to see two YEARS out, at the mid-terms?

OK, Forget that when President Obama gave the queen of England an Ipod, she had already bought one a couple years ago. 

What did he load the thing with? A collection of his own speeches.  Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that by Obama’s lights, it’s all about him?

To the people of England; Please don’t think this moron represents us, in any way, shape or form.

I said in last night’s Ramble:

But why is it lost? Because until that moment, those kids had never heard of it, had never been taught about it, until the scene Robinson describes to us. I’m not making accusations agaist Robinson, or Billy for that matter, just connections. Isn’t the scene at Doncaster trying to tell us, I wonder, that we’re not teaching the humanity side of the equation well enough to the future generations?  We’ve spent a lot of time dealing in the law, but have we spent enough time,  enough effort, in teaching the society, the morality, the human side of the equation, that the law was supposed to uphold? I submit that may of these problems like Doncaster are a direct result of not teaching the next generation what their own history is.  And so rudderless, they succomb to anyone/anything claiming authority over them. They’ve forgotten their cultural history… and with it their freedom, and what it means.

I suppose you’d better go and read the whole thing, because what I’m going to say here won’t be self-explanitory.

There was an aspect of this I brushed aside, and have been told in feedback this morning I should have hit that point harder. In truth, I outright ignored it, as I shouldn’t have. Here it is: The kids obviously wanted to learn. Billy says:

Right then and there, however, it occurred to me for a fleeting moment that all is not yet lost.

I know the feeling well… it’s those glimmers that keep me thinking we’ve got a chance.  Obviously, that feeling is the central part of the piece… both the one Robinson writes and the one Billy adds to it. (Again, a nice peice) What is going missing here in my response, is a recognition of that desire to learn what it is to be American, on the part of Robinson’s kids, and of the people Billy speaks of, as well. And yes, I understand we’re ‘only’ talking about Music. But music, in my view, connects us with our history at a very personal level, like few other things can.

As such, what we’re discussing here isn’t merely an appitite for music and sounds we’ve never heard before, like some Bohemian taste-monger from the Village.  We’re talking about wanting to culturally connect with our past. 

What I ignored in that Ramble was that desire, that interest… and it’s that which I think gives us hope for the future.  It’s something that we as a people, and as individuals need to respond to. All isn’t lost, so long as that desire is there. The question is, and the point I was trying to make last night… are we feeding it enough to keep it alive?

The only question a whore asks is if you have got the money.    Give a whore, your money and get for what you paid.   Take the money and do as you are told is exactly Eric Holder’s approach to the law, Carrie Johson, Washington Post:

Justice Department lawyers concluded in an unpublished opinion earlier this year that the historic D.C. voting rights bill pending in Congress is unconstitutional, according to sources briefed on the issue. But Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who supports the measure, ordered up a second opinion from other lawyers in his department and determined that the legislation would pass muster.

 Andy McCarthy, National Review:

Nevertheless, Miranda – a truly preposterous legal decision – is a sacred cow of the Left. If the Justice Department had abandoned it, major Democrat constituencies would have gone nuts. So Holder’s Department refused to defend the statute and actually argued in the Supreme Court that a conviction and sentence won by its own federal prosecutors should be reversed. As is apt to happen when the Justice Department discredits its own case, the justices went along for the ride

There is a simple, legal and constitutional method for DC residents to get voeting representation in Congresss, retrocesssion back to Maryland.   The fact is that Holder’s boss, Barack Obama, wants to cook the books to giave another seat to the ‘rate.    What every Obma wants, Holder will deliver.

Life’s mystery solved. We now know why there are so many more male comedians than female.   And so more female dye jobs.

Palinmania strikes Hot Air.  Twelve pictures of Sarah, one story.

Here we go again.  Minnesota Redux?

‘Rats like to raise taxes, her the first of many:

The price of smoking went up on Wednesday.
Federal tobacco taxes went up April 1 as part of an increase to pay for expanded federal health insurance programs for uninsured children.

The federal tax on cigarettes is now $1.01 per pack, up from 39 cents. Federal levies on rolling paper, cigars and other tobacco products also jumped.

 Gird your loins.

Think how bad it would have been, had the democrats had not passed Porkulus.  That crashing sound you hear is the economy, Obama’s economy.

Is ‘engagement’ just a code word for stupidity, Christian Science Monitor:

Washington – President Obama is taking another step down the road of engaging America’s adversaries with the decision to seek a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, a group President Bush had shunned.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced in a statement Tuesday the reversal of Bush’s policy of remaining outside the council as a way of protesting its makeup and work. “With others, we will engage in the work of improving the UN human rights system,” Secretary Clinton said, with the goal of “advancing the vision of the UN declaration on Human Rights.”

The Obama administration can not engage in their much touted “smart diplomacy” with stupid diplomats.

Curses foiled again.   The Internet lives. 

The Light has left the schedule, News Briefs

CBS has announced that after 72 years and more than 15,700 episodes, Guiding Light, the longest-running soap opera on TV, will air its last show on Sept. 18.

See Eric I told you that those old incandescent bulbs never last.

Congress which has demonstrated only an ability to destroy an economy, now wants to micromanage your paycheck, Bryon York, Washington Examiner:

It was nearly two weeks ago that the House of Representatives, acting in a near-frenzy after the disclosure of bonuses paid to executives of AIG, passed a bill that would impose a 90 percent retroactive tax on those bonuses. Despite the overwhelming 328-93 vote, support for the measure began to collapse almost immediately. Within days, the Obama White House backed away from it, as did the Senate Democratic leadership. The bill stalled, and the populist storm that spawned it seemed to pass.

 

But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the “Pay for Performance Act of 2009,” would impose government controls on the pay of all employees — not just top executives — of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government

[…]

Rep. Alan Grayson, the Florida Democrat who wrote the bill, told me its basic message is “you should not get rich off public money, and you should not get rich off of abject failure.”

I agree with Representative Grayson, kind of, sort of.   I would redact to read:

“you should not get rich off public  service, and you should not get rich off of abject failure.”

The biggest recession since the Great Depression is the result of Grayson and inept fools like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.   Congressionmen should not be getting rich when they have been utter failures at their jobs, which includes protecting our wealth, not their’s.   Congressman Grayson, you are a failure.  Return the taxpayer’s money.   Do so now.

Hat tip:  Michelle.

Addendum:  ( Bumped)

Neil Cavuto, Fox News, lays into Grayson, video:

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit.

You know what Eric?   If Neil ever gets tired of working for Rupert Murdock, we should Neil him blog here for free.

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘shpere… The BigsBlog Nightly Ramble

This is the Teleprompter Edition.

We have written a virus that only works on Teleprompters, as demonstrated here, on the President’s prompters in Washington  a few days ago. I gather that all 12 of the prompters loaded into Air Force One for the G20 trip, were infected with this virus.  Given his proclivity for reading whatever is placed there, our hit rates should skyrocket for a few days.

• The Bug: So, Conflicker didn’t turn out to be the doomsday thingie everyone figured on? Gee, big shock.  Yeah, I made mention of it, once, and last night…but that’s about all… because frankly, that’s all that ever happens with these scare scenarios.
• Yeah, right: These are the people that will save Detroit? The Politico:
  

  …what’s  in the driveways of White House aides? A lot of foreign cars, as it turns out.

  A survey of West Executive Drive, where White House staffers park, revealed only five American cars out of 23 –a Dodge Grand Caravan, two Ford Escapes, a Jeep Cherokee and a Cadillac.

  The lot was sprinkled with BMWs, Mercedes, Hondas, Toyotas, Saabs, Audis, Volkswagens and a Volvo.

  Tell me again how I shouldn’t be concerned.

• But where will you go? Remember I said I was seriously considering moving out of New York? Here’s a couple of reasons why.On the other hand, where do we go? Farm Country? Apparently not. Art Smith has more details at Conservative Reader.   I begin to seriously wonder if there’s any escape from these facist morons.

• Do Democrats EVER pay their taxes?  Apparently not. Here we go again, this time with Kathleen Sebelius who didn’t get around to paying $7000 owed until just prior to her confirmation hearing. The Tax Prof blog has the details.  Is it some kind of requirement that Obama nominees must be tax cheats?
• A great post from The Deceiver:
  

  So, you think it’s unfair to criticize Joe Biden for the actions of his daughter. And you could be right. But did you say the same thing about Bristol Palin? Her pregnancy was supposed to prove something bad about her mom’s advocacy of abstinence education. (Even though Sarah Palin also advocates teaching birth control, which somehow always gets left out of such arguments.) Her private, personal decisions have been strewn all over the media landscape. She’s been torn apart everywhere from Good Morning America to Saturday Night Live. And what she did isn’t even illegal.If Bristol Palin’s actions reflect badly on her mom, why don’t Ashley Biden’s actions reflect badly on her dad?

  Oh, and let’s not forget another acquaintance of Joe’s who was known to snort a line or two in his time. You now know him as Mr. President.

  You know you’re not supposed to ask stuff like that.

• I feel a long-form column coming on:  Want an indication of how easily we can sweep these idiots from power?
  

  BBS News Photo

  It was that house fire in Doncaster the other day. Did you hear about that?  House fire, people trapped and dying. Neighbors want to help save the people inside. Local cops prevent them from doing so.. and stand and watch the people die, that they were sworn to protect, including a five year old girl. Read Mark Steyn:

  The characteristically moronic behavior of the braindead British coppers transformed it from a family tragedy to a national metaphor. I have written recently in Canada of the disturbing passivity of the “citizenry”, but Britain’s nudged it on a stage: Even if you understand the obligation to act in such a situation, the state will forcibly prevent you and (if recent form is anything to go by) ensure that if you disobey them you’ll be prosecuted — pour encourager les autres to remain obedient sheep to the government shepherd.It’s interesting to read the words of the South Yorkshire Police spokeszombie:

  The senior officer in charge is confident we handled this incident as professionally as possible. In a situation like that you could end up with more deceased bodies than you had in the first place

  Well, there weren’t any “deceased bodies” at the time Her Majesty’s constabulary showed up. And there might not have been any had they not shown up at all. The incident has strange echoes of that fire at a school in Saudi Arabia not long after 9/11, where the fleeing schoolgirls escaped the blazing building but, because they were unveiled, were beaten back by the stick-wielding religious police to die in the flames. In both cases, the emergency responders who are supposed to save you (or at least make an attempt) instead wind up killing you — because a rote prostration before rule enforcement trumps their basic humanity.

  What kind of person is so risk averse as to allow such things to happen?  Since we’re talking about a happening in England perhaps it’s best to quote Sir Winston… (thus, I suppose, annoying Obama and company…)

  The Optimist sees Opportunity in every danger, the pessimist sees danger in every opportunity.

  Frankly, I’ve always viewed pessimism as a coward’s way out.  If something fails, you’re covered from your lack of trying; it was doomed to failure anyway, right?  With big government types, we’re dealing,  dear reader, with cowards of the first order, and there’s going to be no clearer indication of that cowardice than this incident, and the governmental shoulder shrugging in reaction to it. Relience on the all powerful government is a coward’s brand. Given that, it should be a fairly simple matter for even a very few people of courage who still have their roots in the basic rights of humanity… rights which government, being force, not morality,  ignores, to stomp this big government stuff in a hurry.

• I was struck by Billy Beck’s writing, yesterday, as I often am. In going over Steyn’s comments just now, I wonder a bit at the takeaway within the context of the Doncaster thing mentioned above. Different topics… at least they’re intended that way, but I wonder. Stay with me here…  I don’t think he intended this, but in my mind this brushes up against the Doncaster thing, in an interesting way. Billy:
  

  “Just then my two oldest children thundered down the hall to burst into my room.

  ‘We just found the coolest song,’ said my daughter, a senior in high school.

  ‘You’ve got to hear it,’ her brother, a sophomore said, handing me his iPod.

  I inserted the earbuds. A growling, boogie-woogie like piano. Drumsticks on a cymbal. A sudden, lush upwelling of saxophones, followed a moment later by a trumpet blast.

  ‘”Little Brown Jug,”‘ I said, after listening for only a few seconds. ‘Glenn Miller and his orchestra.’

  My daughter and son exchanged a look of amazement. ‘How did you know?’ my daughter asked.

  ‘Your grandfather,’ I replied.”

  Peter Robinson — “Little Brown Jug — The Sheer Innocent Americanness of Glenn Miller”

  OK, as I say, I know Billy is looking at this from a totally different wavelength. But I wonder as I read it why these kids had to discover Miller’s work for themselves, by accident, instead of being taught it as a simple matter of being American.  Have we forgotten so much of our history? I fear we have.  I say that after reading the whole of Robinson’s column.  Clearly, these kids were not taught the history that Robinson himself was, at least until this incident.   Robinson suggests that the song…

  … represented not merely a glittering artifact in itself. It was the product of an entire lost civilization. …

  But why is it lost? Because until that moment, those kids had never heard of it, had never been taught about it, until the scene Robinson describes to us. I’m not making accusations agaist Robinson, or Billy for that matter, just connections. Isn’t the scene at Doncaster trying to tell us, I wonder, that we’re not teaching the humanity side of the equation well enough to the future generations?  We’ve spent a lot of time dealing in the law, but have we spent enough time,  enough effort, in teaching the society, the morality, the human side of the equation, that the law was supposed to uphold? I submit that may of these problems like Doncaster are a direct result of not teaching the next generation what their own history is.  And so rudderless, they succomb to anyone/anything claiming authority over them. They’ve forgotten their cultural history… and with it their freedom, and what it means.

  Think about that in a political context, for just a moment, with me; Around half the voters in the last election, have no clue who Ronald Reagan was, or why he is important to our history, being at most four years old when he left office.  Those same voters have no clue as to the social and moral fabric that made up our country for the past several generations, indeed, mostly having only the slightest clue about what makes up the mores of their parents, being given at best a twisted view of them by our so-called educational system, and largely abesentee parental units.  Does anyone not think that’s going to affect us going forward?

  OK, this bit has gone on overlong for a Ramble, I know. These get that way sometimes. But I would urge you, look at the kids in your life… and not just yours. How will they represent us going forward, basing as they do, their perceptions about what we are/were on what we teach them?

• Idiots: Interesting, how there are so many protestors at the G20 summit. They’re protesting, supposedly, against Capitalism. What they don’t understand is at the G20, they have what amounts to the world socialism conference… being the biggest collection of anti-capitalists ever seen… inculding, alas, Obama. And these protestors think themselves smart, I’ll bet.
• NY20 is a dead heat. Now, doubtless we’ll hear all about how this is a victory for the Democrat party. Given this is their seat being defended, even a near loss seems an odd thing to be hoisting a flag of victory over. Then again, given these are members of Obama’s Democrat party. So, since when do claims of victory have to make any sense? Sorta like the G20 protestors come to think of it.

Fanatics who like to bill themselve as Pro-Choice are anything but pro-choice. The only choice these lunatics support is the mother’s decision to kill her unborn, Andy Barr, Politico:

Tim Kaine, the Virginia governor and President Barack Obama’s hand-picked choice as the head of the Democratic National Committee, infuriated abortion-rights groups Monday by signing legislation that gives abortion foes a long-sought victory.

[…]

The revenue from the specialty plates would go to crisis-pregnancy centers, which many abortion-rights backers believe proslyetize against abortion and encourage women to keep unwanted children

Pro-death groups like NARAL, support abortionists killing unborn children for thousands of dollars, but object to asking the mother to let her child live.

Hat tip and more, Ed Morrissey, Hot Air:

More to the point, why is the phrase “Choose Life” such a threat to NARAL and Planned Parenthood?  At least for the latter, convincing fewer women to have abortions cuts into their revenue stream.  They’re going to lose money if women “choose life” and they’ll get to kill fewer fetuses

Follow the money.

James Joyner at OTB, this morning brings news abot the latest action of Eric Holder’s Justice Dept:

Attorney General Eric Holder has dropped the case against Ted Stevens, NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports.

A jury convicted Stevens last fall of seven counts of lying on his Senate disclosure form in order to conceal $250,000 in gifts from an oil industry executive and other friends. Stevens was the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, however, he lost his bid for an eighth full term in office just days after he was convicted. Since then, charges of prosecutorial misconduct have delayed his sentencing and prompted defense motions for a new trial.

According to Justice Department officials, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has decided to drop the case against Stevens rather than continue to defend the conviction in the face of persistent problems stemming from the actions of prosecutors.

The judge in the Stevens case has repeatedly delayed sentencing and criticized trial prosecutors for what he’s called prosecutorial misconduct. At one point, prosecutors were held in contempt. Things got so bad that the Justice Department finally replaced the trial team, including top-ranking officials in the office of public integrity. That’s the department’s section charged with prosecuting public corruption cases.

With more ugly hearings expected, Holder is said to have decided late Tuesday to pull the plug. Stevens’ lawyers are expected to be informed Wednesday morning that the department will dismiss the indictment against the former senator.

Says James:

Unfortunately, while I have no reasonable doubt that Stevens was guilty of the crimes with which he was charged, I also believe Holder is doing the right thing here. It’s well past time to reign in federal prosecutors who, in high profile cases, seem willing to use any means necessary to get their man.

…
So, good for Eric Holder for making the hard, right call here. Let’s hope it sends the right message.

Bitsblog salutes Margaret Johnson. fifty-nine, wheelchair mobile and heat packing mana, Austin Fenner, New York Post:

This pistol-packing granny, who shot a man she accused of mugging her in her wheelchair, wishes she had finished the job — because now, he’s suing her for millions.

“I’m a peaceful person. I wish that I had killed him,” said Margaret Johnson, 59, whose grandfather, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson, once ruled Harlem’s underworld and was immortalized in several hit movies

As for Deron Johnson, this blogger hopes that Maragret asks for a jury trial.   You go girl.  Remember, while God man man, Colonel Colt made them equal.