Quote of the week…

There would be “no greater honor” than to have a son die as a suicide bomber, said Suha Arafat, wife of Yasser, who doesn’t have a son. “Would you expect me and my children to be less patriotic and more eager to live than my countrymen and their father and leader who is seeking martyrdom?” Suha made these comments one day before her husband’s “official denunciation” of the terror acts, under pressure from Secretary Powell.

On cross-examination…

“People who see us as evil and themselves as righteous do not suffer from blurred vision. They think they see clearly. What’s our problem?” –Cal Thomas

Open Query…

“Is the equating of murderer and victim something to get angry about? Is excusing mass murder something to be upset about?” –Dr. David C. Stolinsky

The BIG lie…

“There’s no explanation for why they’re being held. These people are being treated worse than criminals,” declaimed attorney Barbara Olshansky of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. And she might be referring to whom? Her comments came in conjunction with a class action lawsuit against Attorney General John Ashcroft on behalf of the Middle Eastern male detainees held for possible knowledge of and involvement in terrorist activities against U.S. citizens. The suit is the first to allege “jailhouse” abuse (although Jihadi manuals suggested captured terrorists make sham claims of abuse and ethnic profiling).

News from the Swamp…

Lamenting the “tax bite” on Monday, April 15th, Republicans in the House introduced and passed legislation this week to make President Bush’s tax cuts permanent – cutting taxes for income, married couples, educational savings and the estates that will presently expire in 2010. Mr. Bush urged the legislation, calling on Congress to correct this “quirk in the law” that would revoke his tax cuts in less than a decade, imposing $100 billion in new taxes on Americans in 2011 and hampering long-term economic growth. “For the good of the working people in America, for the good of families, for the good of small businesses, for the good of farmers and ranchers, we need to make the tax-relief plan permanent in the tax code.” Bill now faces significant opposition in the Senate.

The House also voted 260-161 Wednesday to make it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion, in order to circumvent state parental consent laws. The bill now goes to the Demo-controlled Senate, where the outlook is doubtful, considering that august chamber has ignored two similar House-passed laws.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) introduced legislation to assure the United States doesn’t get dragged into the UN’s “illegitimate and unconstitutional International Criminal Court.” The “American Servicemember and Citizen Protection Act of 2002” calls on President Bush to “rescind the foolish Clinton administration signature of the ICC treaty” and prohibits using any taxpayer funds for the court. The measure would also establish that any ICC actions against U.S. servicemen be deemed “acts of aggression against America.”

In the Senate a 54-46 decision this week fell 16 votes short of gaining the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Democratic filibuster on legislation for oil drilling in ANWR. Demo Majority Leader Tom Daschle drew an environmentally-friendly line in the sand when he addressed the Senate preceding the vote: “I think it really comes down to this: we are just not going to allow Republicans to destroy the environment. That’s exactly what this issue’s been about from the very beginning – whether or not you protect the environment.” (Some would argue that the issue from the beginning was a national security concern rooted in dependence on foreign oil.)

Judicial Benchmarks…

On Monday, retired Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White died at the age of 84. With Justice Rehnquist, White offered the only dissent from the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Justice White’s most famous dissenting opinion stands as a fitting tribute: “I find nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the Court’s judgment. The Court simply fashions and announces a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers [410 U.S. 222] and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes. …[D]uring the period prior to the time the fetus becomes viable, the Constitution of the United States values the convenience, whim, or caprice of the putative mother more than the life or potential life of the fetus; the Constitution, therefore, guarantees the right to an abortion as against any state law or policy seeking to protect the fetus from an abortion not prompted by more compelling reasons of the mother.”

In the halls of injustice on the left, U.S. District Judge Robert Jones ruled Wednesday that the Justice Department has no authority to overturn Oregon’s law permitting so-called “physician-assisted suicides.” (Oregon’s is the only such law nationwide carving out state permission for physicians’ complicity in their patients’ self-murder.) Judge Jones chided, “The citizens of Oregon, through their democratic initiative process, have chosen to resolve the moral, legal and ethical debate on physician-assisted suicide for themselves by voting – not once, but twice – in favor of the Oregon act.” AG Ashcroft issued a directive last November declaring – correctly in The Federalist’s view – that assisted suicide was not a “legitimate medical practice” and the several states do not have the authority under the Tenth Amendment to authorize such practice.

From the People’s Republic of Colorado, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals struck down a statewide referendum on parental consent. In its 2-1 decision, the court ruled that requiring minors to notify parents before an abortion was unconstitutional because “the language of the Parental Notification Act is clear that there is no health exception.” We checked and double-checked and we’re pretty sure the phrase “health of the mother” doesn’t appear anywhere in the Constitution. Then again we skipped over the section that contains other ubiquitous phrases like “right to privacy” and “separation of church and state.”

From the Left…

After last week’s outrageous claims Bush(41) had advance knowledge but did not warn of 9/11, Georgia Demo Rep. Cynthia McKinney is under scrutiny for taking campaign money from terrorists and their supporters. According to FEC records, McKinney accepted $500 from an employee of the Council on Arab Islamic Relations (CAIR) and took $1000 from Abdurahman Alamoudi, the founder of American Muslim Council, who once proclaimed, “We are all supporters of Hamas…. I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah.”

And another chapter of the “Rainbow RICO” Report: Je$$e Ja¢k$on released his income tax returns, and we are shocked – SHOCKED! – that top donors to his “charities” are nearly identical to those previously threatened by Ja¢k$on’s activist groups with boycotts or other sanctions.

To wit: General Electric execs agreed to meet Je$$e Ja¢k$on on Thursday in response to his letter denouncing the company because, as a GE spokesman put it, “Minority bankers felt that they weren’t able to participate in the debt offering to the degree they wanted, and that is legitimate.” We suppose next year, GE will show up as a “major donor” to one of Ja¢k$on’s “charities.”

The Commissars…

Have you been wondering this week just how many of your tax dollars are squandered on programs you object to? The figures are in estimating one such outrage. The General Accounting Office released numbers from a July 2001 to January 2002 investigation of 35 government agencies for spending on suveillance technology, finding “17 reported obligating $51 million to [red-light, photo radar and biometric camera surveillance] as of June 2001, with the largest amount reported for facial recognition technology.”

Regarding the redistribution of your income…

We dearly hope readers of The Federalist are not among those waxing ecstatic at the prospect of an IRS “refund” – as if it’s wonderful news the central government took too much of your money and is belatedly giving it back. But contemplate this: Uncle Sam spends $150 billion annually on welfare programs to subsidize and support single-parent families, yet only $150 million a year trying to reduce out-of-wedlock births. “In other words,” noted Rep. Joseph Pitts, (R-Pa), “we spend 1,000 times as much money supporting single-parent families as we spend encouraging parents to commit to raising their children together.”

More to the point Mr. Pitts: “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents….” –James Madison

From the department of military readiness…

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced formation of a new Unified Command Plan, now to include NORTHCOM to defend the continental United States: “The creation of NORTHCOM means that we now have a command assigned to defend the American people where they live and work, and it will be functioning in a supporting role to civil authorities as occasions arise.” (The command would likely be based at Colorado’s Peterson AFB, current home to North American Aerospace Command, which would be subsumed into the new organizational structure.)

From the states…

From coast to coast, they are in the red! And, no, we are not talking about Bush Country versus Goreland. At least 40 of the 50 states are mulling over the question “Budget cuts or new taxes?” because of a potential $27 billion shortfall. That’s a whole lot of tax addiction…. Typical of such ruminations is the announcement from New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey, who was elected last November after pledging not to raise taxes, that his new budget includes proposed higher cigarette and corporate taxes. After his inauguration, once safely ensconced in office, McGreevey explained his promise only referred to sales and income taxes. McGreevey claimed hardship because New Jersey’s expected budget shortfall is “the biggest of any state in the nation, and perhaps the biggest in national history.”

And the usual suspects are up to no good in the formerly Golden (now “Gray”) State. You will recall The Federalist alerted you some months ago about Ward Connerly’s most recent efforts to turn back government racial categorization of citizens, with the California Racial Privacy Initiative. Now dickering is in progress between the initiative’s backers and inertial government forces for the status quo – at issue is the pace of qualifying signatures and the final date the initiative will appear on state ballots. Stay tuned – the last time such a “divisive” plan was in front of California voters during a general election, conservative voters swept Republicans into office.

In business news…

Good news if you are tired of Spam in your breakfast e-mail. San Francisco law firm Morrison & Foerster is suing a company that sends out unsolicited commercial e-mail. Predictably, the attorneys’ own e-mail in-boxes filled up with another kind of unsolicited messages: “Thank you!” and “Go get ‘em!” from grateful Netizens.

The “Non Compos Mentis” Department…

Time magazine’s Margaret Carlson chimed in on what she called Team Bush’s “incoherent” Muddle East policy. “Bush has moral clarity, but moral clarity in this situation doesn’t work. This is a political situation. That’s why the policy isn’t coherent.” Earth to Maggie!

Court Jesters…

This month’s “Legal Lotto” Award goes to trial lawyers who use the civil rights of the handicapped as a smoke screen to profit from the Americans With Disabilities Act. Friend of The Federalist Clint Eastwood, whose restaurant was once sued for ADA violations in not providing adequate “access,” noted, “Once they sue ya, you’re screwed. They ride off in a Mercedes. The disabled ride off in a wheelchair.”

Memo to Mr. Eastwood: We’d love to hear you ask a trial lawyer, “So are you feeling lucky…?”

And remember when 15-year-old Charles Bishop stole a small airplane and crashed it into a Tampa office building, killing himself. He left behind a note expressing sympathy for Osama bin Laden. Now his mother, Julia Bishop, is endeavoring to cash in on her son’s death, filing a $70 million wrongful death lawsuit against drug maker Hoffman-La Roche, alleging the company’s Accutane acne medicine caused the boy to commit suicide.

Culture comment…

National spelling and geography bees being won by homeschooled kids has educrats scrambling for excuses. Paul Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators (AKA American Ass'n re Skool Honchos), complains that homeschoolers have an unfair advantage because they spend more time on memorization than kids in government schools do. We’re still searching for the crux of his argument….

The National Fatherhood Initiative released a report putting the number of children not living with their biological fathers at 24 million. As if it weren’t already obvious, the report indicated that these kids are less likely to perform well in school and more likely to be involved in crime. Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family explained, “What we as a culture need to do is really be serious about developing policies and attitudes that champion fatherhood where we appreciate and value fathers like we ought to.”

On the frontiers of science…

A recent study in the new journal “Criminology & Public Policy” bears out common sense and common experience: Restrictive gun laws aimed at firearms-selling businesses have not reduced crime. The study investigated data from 1994 to 1998, targeting original sales sources for guns used in crimes and the numbers and types of firearms sellers throughout the study period. A key finding: “Dealers who dropped out of the gun selling market tended to be low volume sellers while dealers who remained in business after the reforms were instituted were larger, high volume sellers who sold two-thirds of guns that were recovered by police as part of criminal investigations.” Indeed, Clinton-era federal laws drove 70 percent of small business “kitchen table” gun dealers out of the field, but that did not stop criminals from gaining access to firearms that are tools of their trade.

Around the world…

The U.N. Human Rights Commission voted 40-5 this week in favor of a resolution for the establishment of a Palestinian state by “all available means, including armed struggle.” While condoning Palestinian terrorism, the Commission likewise condemned Israel for defending its citizens against such acts.

Spanish authorities are looking into the background and contacts of suspected Jihadi financier Ahmed Brahim, taken into custody in Barcelona last weekend. Brahim is quite likely to have met at least once during the terror plot planning stages with lead 9-11 terror hijacker Mohammed Atta.

And U.S. forces pulling anti-terror shifts in the Philippines are actually doing double duty, as they are also planting electronic listening devices in the South China Sea capable of tracking submarines. Of most interest would be signals from Red China’s recent acquisitions – quiet Song-class SSG diesel submarines bearing anti-ship cruise missiles.

And last…

The Washington Times reported this week, “British Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered 16 million doses of smallpox vaccine after Vice President Richard B. Cheney visited last month.” To the best of our knowledge, our friend Dick Cheney is not a carrier!