Ad Hoc Politics

By Jayson ~ December 17th, 2005 @ 2:27 pm

Random musings derived from various stories that struggled to get past the filters of the Skyy Vodka brigades:

As *Shocking* as High Crime Rates in Big Liberal Cities Controlled For Decades by Democrats

Murders Reach a 10-Year High in Boston

The execution-style slayings of four young men in a basement music studio this week cast a spotlight on a crime wave that has pushed murder in Boston to a 10-year high.

While the murder rate nationally has dropped over the past decade, some cities — such as Boston and Philadelphia — are seeing it spike. In Boston, the number of slayings has more than doubled in the past several years, climbing from 31 in 1999 to 71 so far this year.

Man, next thing you’ll tell me is that big liberal cities controlled for decades by Democrats have the worst public schools, high teenage pregnancy rates, high relative poverty rates, high general crime rates, low graduation rates, and high pollution rates too.

Oh, right, never mind.

What the heck happened to librulz utopia?

The ACLU Won’t be Happy

Bible studies allowed in dorms

The University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire has suspended its ban against dormitory resident assistants leading Bible studies in their rooms, in response to protests from politicians and conservative groups who said the policy violated religious freedom.

On a different but related topic, perhaps some enterprising young reporter for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel will go ahead and grill MediaCrat Gov. “Diamond” Jim Doyle about that school policy?

Or perhaps not.

Law & Order/Border Control

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) . . . announced the Port of Lisbon as the 42nd operational Container Security Initiative (CSI) port to target and pre- screen maritime containers destined for U.S. ports…

Wow. Forty-two of them, huh?

There’s more:

Today, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) . . . announced that the Republic of Honduras will participate in the Container Security Initiative (CSI) for cargo destined to the U.S. through the Port of Cortes to be targeted and pre-screened for terrorists and terrorist weapons.

Do NRO and Buchanan know about that gummint program?

Anyways, I blame Chertoff. And Bush.

Federalism/Judges

A federal judge in San Francisco rejected a stay of execution Friday for a 75-year-old man who is scheduled to be executed next month at San Quentin State Prison.

* * *
In his decision, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said [Gov.] Schwartzenegger should be the one to decide if Allen’s ill health could be a factor in his bid for clemency.

‘There is no question that plaintiff is old and infirm,’ White wrote. ‘These factors may be factors to be considered in a bid for clemency. But it is not for this federal court to intrude on the prerogatives of the state executive to determine what information he requires in deciding whether to have mercy on a condemned prisoner.’

(Emphasis added.)

Indeed.
Amen.

Of course, I have complete confidence each and every denizen of the Sullivan/Drezner/Ivy League grad school “federalism” brigades (phffttt) are as happy about that ruling as they would have been if a judge somewhere else had prevented the feds from blocking attempts under state law to engage in assisted suicide.

Right?

On a different but related topic, Judge White was nominated by President George W. Bush.

Go figure.

Lastly, regarding the inevitable liberal media bias angle that permeates virtually every news story in America, it’s not until the eighth graf of that nine-graf S.F. Chron piece that Joe and Jane Casual Voter might learn old grampa is on death row for: