(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

Democratic leaders did not appreciate Hugh Chavez's little show:

Two of President Bush's staunchest domestic critics leapt to his defense Thursday, a day after one of his fiercest foreign foes called him "the devil" in a scorching speech before the United Nations. "You don't come into my country; you don't come into my congressional district and you don't condemn my president," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, was blunt in her criticism of the Venezuelan leader. "He is an everyday thug," she said.

Good show and smart show by Leader Pelosi and Congressman Rangel.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

At Daily Kos, on a few occasions, certain issues have caused dustups and have lead Markos to prohibit posts on ceratin subjects. Inevitably, on those occasions, a number of diaries will appear decrying the "censorship" and the "assaults on freedom of speech" and the "First Amendment violations." While not quite as obtuse as that, Andrew Sullivan comes close, in his defense of the "even handed" Brendon Nyhan:

Last Wednesday, controversy broke out when I slammed two liberal blogs . . . In an email Friday morning, Sam Rosenfeld, the magazine's online editor, asked that I focus my blogging on conservative targets. He specifically objected to two posts criticizing liberals (here and here) that I wrote after the Atrios controversy. I refused and terminated the relationship.

Let's assume Nyhan is telling the truth here (and he is not for the most part, but leave that aside for a second). How does this comment from Sully make any sense?

As readers know, I've been following the case of Duane Chapman, aka Dog the Bounty Hunter, and his arrest in Hawaii last week on an extradition warrant from Mexico stemming from his capture of convicted rapist Andrew Luster there a few years ago. He posted bail the following day and now awaits further proceedings.

Last night, A&E aired a special show featuring Dog and his wife Beth. A&E reports today (received by e-mail, no link yet):

Tuesday night's special on A&E Network, Dog: The Family Speaks reached 1.5 million A18-34 viewers and 2.9 million A18-49 viewers, making it the top A&E telecast in the history of the network for both demos. The special also delivered 2.6 million A25-54 viewers.

Why the interest? Is it all about Dog, or is there some politics mixed in? One of those involved in marketing the special added these thoughts in an e-mail:

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

David Broder is angry. Not at the President of course. Not at Republicans. But at those nasty foul mouthed bloggers":

Now, however, you can see the independence party forming -- on both sides of the aisle. They are mobilizing to resist not only Bush but also the extremist elements in American society -- the vituperative, foul-mouthed bloggers on the left and the doctrinaire religious extremists on the right who would convert their faith into a whipping post for their opponents.

You see, Broder has taken a whipping the past week for his inanities and yearns for the return of the rightful respect that he, as Dean of the Washington Press Corps richly deserves.

On NPR yesterday, former President Bill Clinton opposed torture of terror detainees.

In an interview with National Public Radio aired on Thursday, Clinton said any decision to use harsh treatment in interrogating suspects should be subject to court review. "You don't need blanket advance approval for blanket torture," Clinton said.

Clinton warned against circumventing international standards on prisoner treatment, citing U.S. abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, criticism of treatment at the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists and a secret CIA prison system outside the United States.

Clinton also critized Bush's program:

The deceptively titled "Student and Teacher Safety Act of 2006" has passed the House. It will result in a vast increase of wide-scale searches of public school students based on even the slightest suspicion that just one student brought drugs to school. The searches could take the form of pat-downs, bag searches, or strip searches depending on how administrators interpret the law.

The Student Teacher Safety Act of 2006 (HR 5295) mandates that any school receiving federal funding -- essentially every public school -- must adopt policies that allow teachers and school officials to conduct random, warrantless searches of every student, at any time, on the flimsiest of pretexts. Simply by claiming that one student is suspected of having drugs in the building could provide officials with authority to search every student.

I'm moved into my new place, Comcast and Qwest just left so I'm finally back online with tv again. I haven't read a paper or watched a news report since Sunday, so I'm quite a bit behind the curve. There are many comments to go through as well as two work days of voice-mail and hundreds of e-mails. I must have 100 boxes to unpack yet and my hands are already raw. It was no different moving down the street than it's been in the past to move across the city. It wasn't even cheaper.

I love my new place though, and I'm thrilled I won't have to go through this again for quite some time.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

From TRex, via Steve Gilliard:

During a news conference last week, [Georgia Republican Governor Sonny] Perdue said, "It is simply unacceptable for people to sneak into this country illegally on Thursday, obtain a government-issued ID on Friday, head for the welfare office on Monday and cast a vote on Tuesday," according to a transcript provided by Perdue's press office.

Richard Hofstadter is right again:

Amid the current dizzy political scene--with its snake-oil preachers, and anti-Darwinian Social Darwinists , and Indian casino rip-off artists, and a president whose friends say he thinks he is ordained by God--Hofstadter's sharpness about the darker follies of American democracy seems more urgently needed than ever.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

It seems almost a made up story, but apparently true:

A Maine couple accused of tying up their 19-year-old daughter, throwing her in their car and driving her out of state to get an abortion were upset because the baby's father is black, a Maine sheriff said Tuesday.

Katelyn Kampf, who is white, told Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion that her mother "was pretty irate at the fact that the child's father was black, and she had made a number of disparaging remarks about that," he said. The Kampfs were apparently taking their daughter to New York to try to force her to get an abortion there, police said.

It seems to me that the pro-choice position could not be exemplified more clearly. A nineteen year old woman (we can quibble about parental notification later) has a right to privacy and liberty. This right includes the control of her own body. The apparent attempt by the Kampfs (no jokes please) to impose their will on Katelyn Kampf is precisely what the right to privacy is about. It is not pro-abortion - it is pro-liberty, pro-choice. It was and is Katelyn Kampf's right to decide about her pregnancy, no one else's. Not the state's. Not the parents. Not the husband/boyfriend. Just hers. If she chooses to carry to term, then her choice must be respected. If she chooses to terminate her pregnancy, that too is her choice. That is her right. Her fundamental right to privacy. Not her fundamental right to have an abortion. Her right is the right make her own private decision and have it be respected. By everyone.

by TChris

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down!

Unless you're a senator. If you're in the Senate, you might want to build a fence around the country -- or at least the southern half of the country (or at least 700 miles of the southern border), despite the easier time terrorists would have crossing the northern border. Maybe Robert Frost didn't know any senators.

The idea of building a ridiculously expensive and environmentally harmful 700 mile fence is problematic. Okay, let's be plain: it's just stupid. The concept nonetheless enjoys support among elected officials of both parties. Fortunately, as with the proposed legislation concerning the interrogation and trial of terror suspects, it is Republican squabbling that has so far saved us from a stupid idea.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

Hugh Hewitt's replacement blogger appears to believe that Virginia conservatives are antisemitic. How else can you explain this reaction to the George Allen is Jewish story:

[T]he attempt to "tar" Allen as a Jew in a southern state was at the very least disturbing, and I actually consider it sickening.

Tar Allen as a Jew? In a Southern state? Say what? Frankly, Dean Barnett's statements seems pretty overtly anti-semitic to me. Does Hugh Hewitt tolerate this type of stuff? Maybe Hugh should not be handing the keys to someone like Barnett.

More.

by TChris

As TalkLeft reported here, state and federal judges restrained the implementation of successive versions of Georgia's voter ID law. The first version, nullified by the federal judge, was a transparent effort to impose a poll tax designed to make it more burdensome for poor people to vote. The second version, restrained by the state judge, continued to burden disadvantaged voters. The state judge (predictably labeled an "activist" by Republicans because he actively followed the law) yesterday transformed his temporary restraining order into a permanent injunction.

"Nowhere in the Constitution is the legislature authorized to deny a registered voter the right to vote on any other ground, including a possession of a photo ID," he wrote.

These pesky constitutions have a way of foiling Republican plans to achieve a government that will be permanently controlled by Republicans. It's back to the drawing board for Republicans in the Georgia legislature, who will undoubtedly try to cook up another law to disenfranchise voters who might not vote for Republicans.