Quote of the week…

“We are the victims of terror. This is a war that we did not start. That we did not want. But we reached a point where we could not take [the terror bombing attacks] any longer and the terrible thing seems to be the [world’s] cynicism that we are the ones who are being blamed.” –Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon

On cross-examination…

“Oil and Israel don’t mix.” –Rep. Ron Paul

Open Query…

“Sharon would not ask America to stop its search for the terrorists responsible for Sept. 11 and possible future attacks. Why do we make such a request of Israel?” –Cal Thomas

Exposing the BIG lie…

Robert Woodson, notable black community activist who heads the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprises, is impressed with the President’s high marks from an increasing number of black Americans. “It’s becoming apparent to many blacks that they were lied to by the civil rights community through its hate-filled campaign to demonize Bush,” says Mr. Woodson. “Now [blacks] are meeting the legitimate item.”

News from the Swamp…

In the Executive Branch, President Bush offered a stirring defense of a total ban on human cloning Wednesday, calling on the Senate to pass legislation sponsored by Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback and Louisiana Demo Sen. Mary L. Landrieu. (The House of Representatives passed a similar cloning ban last year.) Mr. Bush said, “Life is a creation, not a commodity. Our children are gifts to be loved and protected, not products to be designed and manufactured. Allowing cloning would be taking a significant step toward a society in which human beings are grown for spare body parts and children are engineered to custom specifications. And that’s not acceptable.” While Mr. Bush distinguished between reproductive cloning (to birth cloned humans) and research cloning (to create and destroy human embryos for medical studies and treatments), he further noted the impossibility of preventing human embryos ostensibly created for research being diverted to reproduction.

(And the President acted none too soon, as Italian “fertility” experimenter Severino Antinori told a reporter at a fertility conference in the United Arab Emirates last week that one of his Arab patients is pregnant with the world’s first cloned human.)

In yet another unfortunate development in President Bush’s domestic agenda (Sociocrats Teddy Kennedy et al. in tow), he reauthorized the $6.5 billion Head Start program, including an additional $45 million to tell us what we already know – that Head Start has failed to teach children to read, but does just fine as a means of institutionalizing three- and four-year-olds.

Attorney General John Ashcroft announced charges against a lawyer and her associates who have been facilitating terrorist contacts for militant Islamic cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman. The blind sheikh, who is linked to al-Qa'ida, is serving a life sentence for conspiring to commit terrorist attacks on New York, and has known ties to the 1993 plot that first damaged the World Trade Center. We are shocked – SHOCKED! – to note that defense attorney Lynne Stewart previously represented anti-war terrorists in the Weather Underground and mafia assassin Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano.

On the Hill, they’re back from Easter break, and in the inimitable words of Will Rogers, “Congress met. I was afraid they would.”

In the House of Commons, an attempt to begin modest protections of citizens’ rights to anonymity while participating in political advocacy, attached to a taxpayer protection act, was defeated by Demos in the House Wednesday. But that would make compiling political enemies lists harder, wouldn’t it?

The House Judiciary Committee voted 32-2 to split the Immigration and Naturalization Service into its two component (and indeed opponent) parts, one for immigration enforcement and the other for citizenship services. Coincidentally we are sure, Congressional Quarterly Weekly reported on the INS restructuring bills – beginning on Page 911. (And on a related note, an INS sweep of San Diego’s Lindbergh Field turned up 9 illegal workers with access to secure airport areas; some have committed deportable crimes besides the immigration felonies.)

In the House of Lords, Tom Daschle really knows how to bring home the truth about campaign finance reform … literally home to South Dakota. Though he recently went on record blasting the dollar influence of “out-of-state special interests,” a new report from the Center for Responsive Politics offers a slightly different perspective: 85% of Daschle’s own campaign capital comes from “out-of-state special interests.”

Judicial Benchmarks…

An Ohio state appeals court struck down a decades-long ban on citizens’ right to carry concealed weapons, concluding the restriction is an unconstitutional violation of the right to self-defense. Framers of the Ohio constitution “put the citizens’ rights up front,” said Mark Painter, presiding judge of the 1st Ohio District Court of Appeals. “We believe they meant what they said.” The state attorney general will appeal the ruling to the Ohio Supreme Court.

From the Left…

The International Criminal Court this week became a reality, and is slated to open July 1st. This week saw ratification by 60 signatory nations necessary for activation of this execrable idea, which would override protections the Constitution provides U.S. citizens in legal actions. While expressing “reservations,” our former national embarrassment Bill Clinton signed on (it was one of those whatever “is” is things). The Senate has not even considered approving it, Mr. Bush currently opposes it, and moves are afoot to request he remove the U.S. “signature.”

The Commissars…

While they were busy approving visas and such for Islamic terrorists, we now we learn that INS head Doris Meissner ordered destruction of a contemporaneous e-mail memo concluding that Elian Gonzalez, rescued into liberty by his mother’s sacrifice of her life, might be saved instead of returned to Maximum Red Leader Fidel Castro’s island prison. Documents recently brought to light describe how Meissner instructed INS lawyers to destroy evidence of a conference call raising the question of Castro’s coercive influence contributing to the demand for the boy’s repatriation into Communist control.

Regarding the redistribution of your income…

The only things that are certain in life are death and taxes … and death taxes and tax taxes. It is estimated that the Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT) will affect a third of all taxpayers by 2010. The AMT was intended to close a tax loophole on the wealthy, but in fact serves to stifle business growth and ends up being paid by those who are paying most of the taxes to begin with. The AMT has become “a tax on a tax”; in fact, it’s so bad that the IRS itself is seeking to have the law repealed.

And General Accounting Office just released a report stating that taxpayers who choose the Standard Deduction on their 1040 pay an average of $438 per year MORE in taxes than they would if they itemized all their deductions.

From the department of military readiness…

Lessons have been learned. Preliminary assessments at the half-year mark indicate that the bombing campaign in Afghanistan has been substantially more effective than any to date. National security analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute summed up: “This is by far the most accurate bombing campaign ever. What the Air Force and Navy are doing today with smart bombs is the realization of a dream.” (Or nightmare if you are on the receiving end!) The Navy’s success rate for accurately hitting designated targets was at 75 to 80%, and the Air Force’s figures (without releasing precise numbers) were said to be about the same. (Of course, Navy and Marine aviators don’t have meal service on board like those Air Force guys, and the runways are much shorter! Semper Fi!)

From the states…

Two new pieces of abortion legislation this week…. In Virginia, Gov. Mark Warner vetoed legislation banning partial birth abortion. Conversely, Alabama’s state senate passed the Woman’s Right to Know Act, requiring abortion clinics to provide women information regarding the health risks involved in the procedure, the state of development of the unborn child and alternatives to abortion.

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura declared a state proclamation honoring abnormal sexuality by identifying June as “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration Month,” while yet once more refusing Minnesota’s participation in the National Day of Prayer on May 2nd this year.

In Philadelphia, the school reform commission decided to turn over 75 of the worst schools among the city’s 265 to private education companies and other organizations – vaulting to the biggest school privatization move to date.

In economic news…

“Wealth is created by Americans – by creativity and enterprise and risk-taking. But government can create an environment where businesses and entrepreneurs and families can dream and flourish.” Reminiscent of the Reaganomics we all know and love, this statement by President Bush underscores the administration’s desire to facilitate the growth of small business by reducing government intervention and red tape. The President’s new initiative on small business includes tax incentives, easier health care options for employees of small businesses, giving small business a seat at the table of the federal regulatory process, and granting full access to bids on government contracts (saving tax dollars along the way). This encouraging news demonstrates the President’s proactive commitment to small business, recognizing this sector as the cornerstone of the economy and the chief impetus for job creation and fiscal growth, with every American the beneficiary.

In business news…

From the “First Amendment” Files, porn king Bob Guccione, grand potentate of the Penthouse empire, is living a riches to rags story as his magazine’s subscriptions plummet. Guccione has resorted to placing his art collection and his mansion as collateral for a double-digit million-dollar debt. He attributes the decline in subscriptions to the overwhelming availability of free porn on the Web. (Was that a cheap shot at The Federalist!)

The “Non Compos Mentis” Department…

“You know what I’m thinking [the explanation for so many people having a negative opinion of Bill Clinton] is? I’ve thought about this a lot. My latest pet theory is projection – the psychological theory that says you take things you hate most about yourself, project them onto somebody else and attack them for that.” –Clintonista Paul Begala

Memo to Paul: There is a more rational psychological explanation for Clinton’s apologists: denial. It’s not just for court defenses anymore.

Court Jesters…

This month’s “Legal Lotto” Award: “Drunks have some rights, too.” –Plaintiff Jerry Lawrence’s lawyer on why his client, seriously injured from colliding with a police car while bicycling drunk, deserved a $95,485 award. Fortunately, a Louisiana appeals court this week threw out the award

Culture comment…

The Marriott Hotel in Manhattan Beach, California, this weekend will be site of the Leather Leadership Conference, which organizers depict as “the country’s only event to focus on developing and strengthening the leadership and management skills of our SM/Leather/Fetish community leaders and activists … to foster the ongoing growth and development of sex-positive culture.” The Manhattan Beach Marriott ads tout it as “a youthful, energetic and stylish hotel with a resort feel.” Later this month, Howard Johnson’s St. Louis, Missouri, affiliate will also be hosting the “Beat Me In St. Louis” confab for sadomasochists. Attendees will be offered “Dungeon Parties” at the event, but we certainly hope HoJo’s honors its ad pledge “Kids Stay Free” and keeps them from exposure to this perversity.

Faith Matters…

Pulitzer winning assistant managing editor of the Washington Post, Bob Woodward, keynote speaker at this year’s Business Expo 2002 in Providence, was asked about President Bush’s “religious conviction.” Woodward, who spoke very admirably of Mr. Bush, replied, “It’s sincere and genuine. I accept it at face value.” He added, “As a journalist I like somebody who is straight and direct,” an obvious dig at the previous White House inhabitant.

On the frontiers of science…

News that ethical research may overtake and supersede the press for human cloning…. For the first time ever, Australian medical researchers have successfully injected adult stem cells from a coronary patient’s bone marrow into his heart, in attempts to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels. The end-stage coronary artery disease patient will be monitored for results of the operation. And a California man suffering from Parkinson’s disease has had the symptoms relieved by retransplantation of neuronal cells grown from his own brain’s “adult neural stem cells.”

Around the world…

In a speech broadcast over the state-run Iraqi media, Saddam Hussein announced, “The Iraqi leadership declared the complete stoppage of oil exports starting from this afternoon April 8 for a period of 30 days when we will further decide policy or until the Zionist entity’s armed forces have unconditionally withdrawn from the Palestinian territories.” This move, intended to punish U.S. support of Israel, can only be a bluff. Hussein has declared stoppages in the past, which simply means that Iraqi oil goes through back channels to reach the international market. The only real punishment would be an embargo on Iraqi oil – to punish Hussein’s support of Arafat’s Palestinian terrorists.

In addition to Syria stepping up aid to terror attackers launching salvos across the Lebanese border at Israel, two weeks back an explosion ripped a Syrian munitions factory, where Scud missiles and nonconventional weapons are made. Syria has tested Scuds and chemical warheads at a site just south of the facility.

And is it anti-Israel or anti-Semitic? Protests in the Islamic “streets” portend jihad and worry the diplo-babblers. A blast outside Africa’s oldest synagogue in Tunisia killed six. In Paris, a school bus carrying Jewish students was hit with stones Wednesday, and hooded assailants armed with metal bars attacked teenagers from the Maccabi Bondy association’s amateur soccer team – all of which follows the most serious incident of the March 31 burning of a synogogue in Marseilles. French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin exclaimed, “No matter what is happening in the Middle East … anti-Semitic acts are totally unacceptable. We must keep the peace on our soil.”

And last…

Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Jackass), proclaimed in an interview with a Berkeley Leftcoast radio station: “What did this administration know [about 9-11] and when did it know it? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered? What do they have to hide? … What is undeniable is that corporations close to the administration have directly benefited from the increased defense spending arising from the aftermath of September 11th.” (The Federalist is on the case, Ms. McKinney – we will get back to you on this one!)