Kn@ppster
by Thomas L. Knapp

01/09/06

Another hospital visit -- this time for side effects of medicine he's been taking for a foot problem -- and so it's time for the question to be asked again: Is it time for Vice-President Dick Cheney to step down? I say 'yes,' but not for the reasons you probably think...

http://tinyurl.com/8r4cx


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

ETC, phone home

National Review
by Adam B. Schaeffer

01/09/06

Has the age of vouchers ended? The Florida supreme court struck down vouchers last week in a disquieting decision that avoids federal issues entirely, thus evading an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and opening up another rationale for denying vouchers to needy children. But Governor Jeb Bush's administration is quietly working on a plan to save school choice for thousands of children in Florida who use vouchers by using education tax credits instead. Although the recent court decision is a terrible blow against educational equity, it illustrates how important it is to pick the best policy in the first place. Education tax credits are quickly becoming, out of necessity, the last best hope for school choice in most of the country...

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/schaeffer200601090815.asp


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The Price of Liberty
by Lady Liberty

01/10/06

It's becoming more and more obvious as time goes on that we're expected to say, write, and read the 'right' things; that we need to be careful of those with whom we associate, even loosely; that our travel and our activities will be monitored to ensure we behave in certain ways; and that those of us who don't toe the line will be added to lists and databases, visited by federal agents, and could even find our lifestyles compromised. If we don't have anything to hide, we're supposed to welcome random searches when we travel on airplanes or subways; we're expected to cooperate with being patted down like the meanest of criminals just because we happen to have a ticket to Sunday's game...

http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/06/01/09/ladylib.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The Free Liberal
by Fred E. Foldvary

01/10/06

Everybody knows that government is wasteful, but most of us have only a vague notion of the details of excessive spending. There is now a very useful book listing the federal projects that waste our resources and how this waste could be reduced. The book is Downsizing the Federal Government by Chris Edwards, published in 2005 by the Cato Institute. The U.S. federal government spent $2.5 trillion in 2005, most of which is either unnecessary or replaces programs better done by the states or by private enterprise. Edwards explains how the 'culture of spending' keeps expanding federal waste...

http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/001787.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland

01/09/06

After revelations about President Bush ordering surveillance of Americans without obtaining warrants, the boundaries of executive power will undoubtedly be one of the principal issues raised at the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. The conservative Alito has publicly endorsed the theory of the unitary executive, which takes a broad view of presidential authority. Alito's liberal critics say his record has been too obsequious to expanded executive power. The position of these two camps seems peculiar. Many of today's conservatives, such as Alito, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Cheney's chief of staff David Addington, believe that the presidency is not muscular enough. In fact, the vice president, contrary to most scholarship on the issue, feels that, in recent decades, the executive branch has been emasculated. Yet conservatives also tout their custodianship of the original intent of the framers of the Constitution. The nation's founders would turn over in their graves if they were to learn of the modern imperial presidency...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1651


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Boston Globe

01/09/06

Worried that the case of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff may trigger a backlash at the polls this fall, Congress is showing new interest in sweeping changes to rules on lobbying, with Republican leaders poised to embrace major alterations they'd rejected when Democrats introduced them last year. Yesterday, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert announced that he would 'move forward aggressively and quickly to have the House of Representatives address lobbying reform.' 'Now is the time for action,' said Hastert, an Illinois Republican. He directed a top lieutenant, House Rules Committee chairman David Dreier, to spearhead the effort. Senate majority leader Bill Frist also publicly committed to changing laws and legislative rules to 'improve transparency and accountability,' shortly after Abramoff pleaded guilty last week in connection with a bribery scheme...

http://tinyurl.com/9olzb


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CNN

01/09/06

U.S. officials are opening personal mail that arrives from abroad when they deem it necessary to protect the country from terrorism, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman said Monday. News of the little-known practice follows revelations that the government approved eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without judicial oversight after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which sparked concern from civil liberties advocates and some lawmakers, who called for congressional hearings...

http://tinyurl.com/dx6p7


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

MSNBC

01/09/06

The federal judges who were bypassed when the Bush administration ordered warrantless wiretaps in the United States received a secret briefing Monday on details of the surveillance. Separately, a former FBI director and other lawyers questioned whether the surveillance is legal. The classified briefing at the Justice Department had been requested by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, presiding judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10781204/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Houston Chronicle

01/09/06

Texas' highest criminal court today rejected U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's request to throw out criminal indictments against him or order an immediate trial on a charge of money laundering. DeLay, R-Sugar Land, had filed the request as part of an effort to get an immediate resolution to his case so he could regain his position as U.S. House majority leader. But DeLay on Saturday removed himself from contention for the spot, prompting a new House Republican caucus leadership election...

http://tinyurl.com/9hwyo


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

David Corn speculates on the possibility that the Abramoff scandal might grow larger than Abramoff's wide-ranging dealings. "Once prosecutors penetrate a corrupt organization (say, the mob) and begin nailing people, they frequently find sources who squeal on others and disclose crimes unrelated to what brought the investigators knocking."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010906F.shtml