PUBLIC MARKS from jasontromm with tag politics

A public-school handout urging young children in Virginia to attend a "Pagan ritual" tomorrow to "celebrate Yule" is sparking objections from concerned parents. "Amazing -- government schools ban orthodox Christianity, but allow an openly pagan organization to proselytize six-year-olds!" one observer who asked for anonymity told WND.

These should be easy days for Republican Gov. Mark Sanford who's far ahead of his Democratic challenger in cash and ads in the final week before Election Day. Despite leading the GOP ticket that's dominated state politics for a decade, Sanford's penny-pinching political style and libertarian leanings have peeved party regulars. He often says he's running his campaign like he's one vote short of securing his second term.

Recently, the White House announced that this year’s federal budget deficit would be $296 billion. Believe it or not, that was taken as good news: Earlier projections had pegged the deficit as high as $425 billion. Next year, the deficit is predicted to rise to $339 billion. If we continue this way, we will be guilty of, in George Washington’s words, “ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden of which we ourselves ought to bear.”

In Chicago, an ambulance driver refused to transport a patient for an abortion. In California, fertility specialists rebuffed a gay woman seeking artificial insemination. In Texas, a pharmacist turned away a rape victim seeking the morning-after pill.

South Dakota moved closer to imposing some of the strictest limits on abortion in the nation as the state Senate approved legislation that would ban the procedure except when the woman's life is in danger. ()()Could this bill lead to the test case that will be used to overturn Roe v. Wade?

Supporters of the abortion movement have deceived mankind with bumfuzzling statements that Partial Birth Abortion is a rare occurrence, being performed "less than 500 times a year on only fetuses that are severely deformed." However, as early as November 1995, Ron Fitzsimmons, then executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, admitted on ABC's Nightline that he lied when he asserted the procedure was used rarely and only on fetuses and women whose lives were in danger. At that time, Fitzsimmons estimated 5,000 Partial Birth Abortions were performed annually and "primarily done on healthy women of healthy fetuses."

The hunter shot by Dick Cheney said Friday that "accidents do and will happen" and said he is sorry for all the hullabaloo and scrutiny the incident has brought upon the vice president and his family.

Liberal Democrats waged an eleventh-hour attempt Monday to block Samuel Alito's Supreme Court confirmation, arguing that he would tilt the high court further to the right.

Kennedy was the architect of an unprecedented tactic: using filibusters to polarize the Senate along party lines thus denying the confirmation of qualified conservative judges. In Bush's first term the Senate Democrats used that tactic successfully against at least 10 nominees for judgeships on circuit courts.

Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans on Thursday charged their Democratic colleagues with trying to smear Samuel Alito's reputation and character because they haven't been able to find anything legally wrong with confirming him to the Supreme Court.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote in the landmark case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) that “if there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.” His words were a ringing affirmation of the freedoms of conscience and expression that are central to American liberty.

With abortion and executive privilege to be two huge issues facing Samuel Alito during his confirmation hearing this week, the Supreme Court nominee said Monday that a good judge always keeps an open mind and that no person is above the law.

The politicians are pushing to raise the cost of your health insurance again. Of course, that's not how they describe what they're doing. They claim to be exercising compassion when they propose to force insurance companies to include mental illness in every health-insurance policy.

In addition to celebrating the birth of our Savior, Christmas is also a time when "nice" children eagerly await a gift in their stocking. On the other hand, those who are "naughty" are told that only a lump of coal awaits them. In politics, this practice would yield record profits for the coal industry as the Democrats have set new standards in obstruction, attacks, and rhetoric.

I hate it when I am sympathetic to arguments on both sides of an issue as it threatens my image as a benevolently close-minded, dogmatic, doctrinaire ideologue.

The White House is seeking the help of Republican activists in Iowa and New Hampshire to pressure GOP senators with presidential hopes to support Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.

The essence of bigotry is denying others the same rights you claim for yourself. Green bigots are a classic example.

Blogs have given individuals of any and every background the ability to freely speak their minds and share information with anyone who chooses to read it, at any time they wish to do so.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Our president is very generous with other people's money. Worse, he is generous with the money of people who are in no position to object, either because they are too young or because they haven't been born yet.

Voter fraud is also a threat to minority voters.

"You are a toy!" -- Woody to Buzz Lightyear