Busy, busy, busy (updated)

Patterico has a prosecutor's view on the idiot decision to move the terrorists and illegal combatants to civil courts:
Although Hot Air and others have linked the clip, I haven’t seen anyone else focus on this particular statement, which I found very revealing. Commentators (including myself) have been arguing that Holder and Obama chose federal court because they thought they could win anyway, and make some Grand Point about due process. But this quote indicates that Holder and Obama actually think they have a better chance in federal court.

Combine that with Holder’s frank admission (which he quickly backed off of) that he might not choose this forum if he were not confident of success:

If I was concerned about the forum not leading to a positive result or if I had a concern — a different concern, you know, we would perhaps be in a different place.

And you can see that what we have is an administration that is choosing where to try the detainees, not based on some principle or neutral protocol (as they claim), but based on where they can win. They’re rigging the game.

And if they lose, they won’t let him go anyway.

This is just further evidence that the KSM trial will be a show trial.
Yeah. And it looks so good for the "We will show what a fair trial is" bullshit, doesn't it? Great for the image, and all. And let's note this from earlier:
Gotcha. Hey, anything else going on? Let’s read on to paragraph 12 of the article, shall we?

Administration officials say they expect that as many as 40 of the 215 detainees at Guantanamo will be tried in federal court or military commissions. About 90 others have been cleared for repatriation or resettlement in a third country, and about 75 more have been deemed too dangerous to release but cannot be prosecuted because of evidentiary issues and limits on the use of classified material.

We told you about this category in earlier posts. The concept of holding people without trials was discussed by Obama in a May speech. In May, Karl fleshed out the details: some detainees will be held because we can’t try them — and some might even be tried and acquitted . . . and then held nevertheless.

Kinda makes KSM’s trial seem like a show trial, huh?


Hey, President B. Hussein Cartman Obama, if you'd make a damned decision instead of playing games while our troops are fighting and dying, you wouldn't have to worry so much about leaks, now would you?


I do sympathize with these students, having gone through kids finding out tuition & fees are going up- again- twice; it's tempered by the thought that most of these people probably thought having the state of CA take care of everything for them by taxing the life out of everyone(every else, that is) was just fine; but now that there's nobody left to tax to death, and they'll have to pay more... Probably a bunch of them working part- or full-time to pay their tuition and fees and bullcrap, and some with parents trying hard to cover it, they're the ones really getting screwed.
Update: look at this crap:
Mark Yudof, president of the UC Board of Regents, noted that students who come from families earning less than $70,000 will pay no tuition whatsoever, thanks to financial aid programs.

"If you make less than $70,000 a year, you will not pay any fees. You not only won't pay the increase, you won't pay the base. And if you make between $70,000 and $120,000, we'll pay half of the increase in the initial year. So the access is still there," said Yudof ...
And that's just not good enough for them. Damn.


I guess SEIU is a bunch of thugs no matter who they have to threaten to keep their image up:
Last week at a city council meeting in Allentown, Pa., a top official of the local Services Employee International Union chapter ranted about 17-year-old Scout Kevin Anderson’s park clean-up work. Anderson devoted some 200 hours to the job in order to earn an Eagle Scout badge. He picked up trash and helped clear a 1,000-foot walking path with fellow members of Boy Scouts Troop 301 of Center Valley.
But SEIU’s Nick Balzano gave them hell instead of thanks.

Balzano disparaged altruistic efforts in city parks and asserted that “there is (sic) to be no volunteers” since his union members were laid off. He then issued a witch hunt threat: “We’ll also be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails. We may file another grievance on that.” Citing union rules, he gave the Allentown city council, the Boy Scouts, and all potential volunteers an iron-fisted ultimatum: “None of them can pick up a hoe. They can’t pick up a shovel. They can’t plant a flower. They can’t clear a bicycle path. They can’t do anything. Our people do that.”
...
...SEIU headquarters in Washington immediately blamed “the disreputable Fox News and other right-wing outlets like Michelle Malkin’s accuracy challenged blog” for the backlash. While decrying their critics’ “fiction,” SEIU distanced itself from Balzano, denying that he was a top union leader and dismissing his remarks as “unauthorized.”

Fact: U.S. Department of Labor records from 2008 (their most recent filing), show that Balzano is no rogue, rank-and-file member. He currently serves on the SEIU local’s Executive Board and previously served as president.

Fact: The union tried to minimize Balzano’s grievance threat as “inappropriate.” But the dirty open secret is that public-sector unions have routinely attacked volunteer workers who threaten their stranglehold.

Last June, union officials in Baraboo, Wisconsin filed a complaint against volunteer firefighters who built sandbag barricades to protect the city from record flooding. They whined that city Department of Public Works employees should have been called first and demanded overtime pay (for work they didn’t do) to compensate them.
Wonderful bunch of union people, aren't they?


More "You can speak out and work to influence bills; as long as you agree with what I think" from a Democrat.


Just wonderful how the justice system is working in Missouri with County Counselor Patricia Redington:
One wonders just what exactly if anything new is being done. Three months seems a long time to wait to bring charges, especially in the case of Kelly Owens, where the incident is on video camera and witnessed by a police office. The answer given by Redington is noncommittal, and basically says ‘we’re looking into it.’ But are they? The pressure of the police report, the line drawn between St Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch and the Obama truth squads, and the background stories on Perry Molens and Kelly Owens got local citizens up in arms and interested KMOX reporter Kevin Killeen enough to ask some questions. This is Redington’s response to Killeen’s questions.

Six people were arrested by St. Louis County Police, with at least two suspects booked on suspicion of assault. But the person who will decide whether to file charges, St. Louis County Counselor Patricia Redington, is still sorting it all out. “There were multiple altercations and police involvement,” Redington said. “We’re looking at the whole evening and the charges that may be filed as a result of that.”

Redington says there were half a dozen possible criminal incidents at that event and she plans to announce her findings all at the same time. She did not give KMOX a timetable for the announcement. But, according to Redington, the incident, ‘definitely has not been swept under the rug.’”

It’s interesting that Redington says the incident is not being swept under the rug. I wonder if she would admit that it has been slowed to a crawl so as not to bring to light the fact that five HCAN supporters were arrested the week that Margarida Jorde sent out instructions on how to counter Townhalls? And let’s not forget Jake Wagman, the silenced reporter arrested that night. If the Post Dispatch had done their job as a news organization and asked a single question about the event anytime after August 14th, perhaps we wouldn’t still be waiting to find out if it’s acceptable to punch and kick your political opponents to send a message. It is only when KMOX contacts Redington that we hear the investigation is moving forward. And yet the question remains whether Redington is telling the whole truth, or counting on the local press to cut her some slack.


One of the many immigrants who became a U.S. Citizen. And has done damn well, for self and country:
Boy Who Fled Vietnam as a Boat Person Returns 34 Years Later as the Commander of a US Navy Destroyer
In 1975 when he was 5 years old Hung Ba Le and his family escaped Vietnam in a fishing boat and were eventually rescued by a US Navy ship. Later they settled in Virginia. Now 34 years later Le is commander of the US Lassen which made a goodwill visit to Danang last week.
Escaped with nothing from a communist dictatorship, and made it to this? Worked his ass off to get there. Good for him.


Jesse Jackson is still a racist bastard; can you imagine if someone said "You can't be white and support this bill!" ?


President Obama, you suck. You're putting off making a decision, by doing so you're putting these troops lives in more danger AND endangering this country, and you stand there and tell them they're a good photo-op? You just flat suck.


Speaking of sucky politicians, Sen. Chuck Schumer is a high-rating member of that class.


Moe's right: this is just freakin' amazing:
There’s something… pure… in this hysterical (again, parse as you choose) title found on Indymedia: ‘Fascist Obama Jails Framed Ill People’s Lawyer Lynne Stewart.’ And here I thought that wanting to bomb the United Nations was a nutball-far-extremist-right-fringe fantasy. Live and learn.

Got something to put together for later; for now, brass to put in the tumbler, grass to mow and edge.