Archive » 2005 » March

David Limbaugh brings us up to date with some haunting, unresolved questions. Blogs for Terri has much more. Legislators in Florida are trying to intervene: Lawmakers proposed a measure Monday that would block doctors from denying food or water to someone in a persistent vegetative state with the intention of causing death. That could set [...]

The gents at Power Line (who I was thrilled to meet last week here in D.C.; VRWC alert!) point us to an excellent interview at The American Enterprise with the always candid and courageous John O’Neill. Read the whole thing. And, hey, anybody know whatever happened to this loon? Update: We have a Lawrence O’Donnell [...]

Remember this little story of a Girl Scout and her dad getting hassled by N.Y. cops for selling cookies? The N.Y. Post has a nice follow-up: March 14, 2005 — A “cookie angel” has bought 1,000 boxes of a Long Island Girl Scout’s goodies in hopes of sweetening her recent unpleasant encounter with the NYPD. [...]

Here’s a video of one of the many TV interviews to come with Atlanta hostage Ashley Smith, the extraordinary woman who survived a night with now-captured courthouse gunman Brian Nichols. She has come forward with moving details about her faith, her husband’s own violent death, her five-year-old daughter, and her compassionate interaction with a monster. [...]

…in Lebanon?

Matt at Blackfive reports that the UAW parking fiasco that we first blogged about last week has been “resolved:” I just received word that the UAW is backing off. The US Marine Corps Reserve Battalion Commander had already made the decision to not allow any drilling Marine Reservists to park in the UAW lot – [...]

Washington is now shocked, shocked that illegal aliens were able to use fake Social Security numbers to get jobs at a nuclear power plant. Not-so-newsflash: They’ve also been caught on nuclear sub bases and at airports (most recently, while maintaining passenger and cargo aircraft) and at food plants that manufacture MREs for soldiers. And in [...]

…remember the words to the National Anthem?

A new immigration enforcement sweep in New York nets 20 illegal alien gang members. From AP: Federal agents have 20 Long Island gang members in custody who are in the country illegally as part of a large scale, nationwide gang violence sweep. Authorities said the suspects are primarily members of the MS-13 gang that had [...]

In the New York Times yesterday, Maureen Dowd bemoaned how difficult it is to be a woman with opinions–or whatever she calls the half-cooked rhetorical omelette she dumps onto the Times op-ed platter every week: In 1996, after six months on the job, I went to Howell Raines, the editorial page editor, to try to [...]

The People’s Daily Online interview of Washington Post managing editor Philip Bennett, which I shined light on last week, is getting quite a bit of attention now thanks to a Drudge link. Here are some reactions from around the ‘sphere: – Scott Johnson, Power Line, “If the transcript accurately reflects the mixture of Bennett’s own [...]

The never-ending Ward Churchill saga continues. Pirate Ballerina has a four-page rant reportedly from one of his ex-wives, “Dr. M. Anne Jaimes” of San Francisco. She essentially accuses him of stealing her work and says he is guilty of “being Indian careerism.” (Links are to PDF pages.) It’s a wacky enough diatribe that it rings [...]

Abdullah Mehsud, one of 10 enemy combatants released from Guantanamo Bay who had returned to his terrorist ways abroad, reportedly died this week of wounds sustained in a gun battle with Army forces. After his release from U.S. custody, he went back to Pakistan and became a celebrity for kidnapping two Chinese civilians. (Simon World [...]

The Washington Post reports on the broadening of the United Nations sex scandal: The United Nations is facing new allegations of sexual misconduct by U.N. personnel in Burundi, Haiti, Liberia and elsewhere, which is complicating the organization’s efforts to contain a sexual abuse scandal that has tarnished its Nobel Prize-winning peacekeepers in Congo. The allegations [...]

Note updates below. Internet Haganah, drawing on this Arab News article, reports that a member of a terrorist group has posted to the Internet a do-it-yourself plan to make a homemade hydrogen bomb. Internet Haganah found some interesting details about who may be responsible: we note that he posts using roman, not arabic, letters in [...]

AP caption: Murder suspect Brian Nichols is led to a waiting vehicle by an unidentified police officer at the FBI office in Atlanta, Saturday, March 12, 2005. Reader Wayne L. comments: The killer of an Atlanta judge is shown being taken into custody by a woman cop, after this same killer took a gun away [...]

Well, well, well. Check this out from The Sunday Times-World: March 13, 2005 Italy to stop paying ransoms John Follain, Rome THE Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has promised President George W Bush that he will not pay more ransoms to free hostages in Iraq. The Italian government has denied newspaper reports that $6m (£3.1m) [...]

Creative art meets ballot counting in Los Angeles: Without informing mayoral challengers, Los Angeles City Clerk Frank Martinez ordered election workers Tuesday night to use blue highlighter pens to re-ink thousands of voters’ ballots that had “bubbles” partially or faintly filled in, the Daily News learned Friday…. “I’ve never heard of anything like this before,” [...]

An aggrieved atheist has won his longtime battle against a 43-foot cross that stood on a mountaintop in the San Diego area. AP reports: A 43-foot cross is to be removed from public land after a 15-year legal battle came to an end this week when the City Council rejected a proposal to transfer the [...]

Associated Press has details on Karen Hughes’ new role: President Bush will nominate one of his closest longtime advisers to a key State Department post in an effort to help repair the United States’ image abroad, especially in the Arab world, a senior administration official said Saturday. The official, who spoke on the condition of [...]

Jeff Quinton continues to update his coverage on the Atlanta courthouse shooter. AP reports that a U.S. customs agent was discovered shot to death in north Atlanta this morning: [H]is blue pickup truck, pistol and badge were missing. Officials were trying to determine if the slaying was related to the courthouse rampage Friday. The body [...]

This Washington Post editorial is mostly critical of the Bush Administration’s handling of the Josa Padilla case, but it includes an important concession: In one important respect, we think Judge Floyd was too tough. He ruled that the government had no right to detain as an enemy combatant a U.S. citizen who had been arrested [...]

Airline security gets a bad report card from the Coalition of Airline Pilots Association. More here. Related: – The “Kill Me First Dress Code” – Air Rage – Air Rage, Pt. II – Dressed for Failure – Another Air Marshal Outrage – Update on the Air Marshals – Another Fine Air Marshals’ Mess

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg ruled that three bloggers have to divulge confidential sources in the lawsuit brought by Apple Computer Inc. Associated Press reports: Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg ruled in Apple’s favor, saying that reporters who published “stolen property” weren’t entitled to protections. “What underlies this decision [...]

Virginia is one of only two states with gubernatorial races this election year. The current governor, Mark R. Warner, is a Democrat. But a new poll shows Republicans have a good shot at picking up the seat. Attorney General Jerry Kilgore is beating Democrat Tim Kaine by 10 points. John Behan has the details. I [...]

With the War on Christmas behind us, it’s time for the War on Easter to begin.

Breaking… After a week of turmoil in Parliament, Tony Blair’s Prevention of Terrorism Act has been approved–with significant concessions: Blair said that if opponents backed the bill he would give parliament a chance to amend it after the next general election, widely expected in May, if his government was still in power. Opposition Conservative leader [...]

No, we’re not turning into Wonkette, but our friend Spokane Spokesman-Review columnist Dave Oliviera has an exclusive blog post on the sicko high school kid who sent semen-covered brownies to another student on Valentine’s Day. Dave has posted the complete police report at Huckleberries Online. Here it is: Blechhh.

Reader Brian Leone passes on the following observations related to the Atlanta courthouse shootings: [T]he California Supreme Court issued an opinion in 2002 that sent ripples through the legal community. They ruled it was a violation of a defendant’s rights to have him fitted with a shock belt as a security measure. The case sent [...]

Jeff Quinton at Backcountry Conservative is liveblogging media coverage of the Atlanta courthouse shootout and has tons o’ links. Michael King, Georgia-based blogger, is also keeping an eye on Atlanta while the search for the fugitive gunman continues. Atlanta traffic billboards are alerting commuters. Here’s what they’re flashing. Atlanta Journal-Constitution coverage is here, including a [...]