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Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News call for mayor to step down 3/24/2008, 10:12 p.m. EDT The Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — The city's major newspapers on Monday called for the resignation of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in the interest of what's good for Detroit after he was charged with perjury and other offenses. Editorials urging Kilpatrick to quit were posted on the Web sites of the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News. The Free Press said: "If Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick loves Detroit as much as he says he does, he has to quit." The editorial added: "Detroit cannot afford...

LUFKIN — Mae Smith, the 64-year-old mayor of the teeny Central Texas town of Holland, seized the civic center lectern like a dragon-slayer ascending the throne. In a fiery red pantsuit and a voice that echoed without the help of a malfunctioning microphone, she and her cohorts revealed to a crowd of about 50 souls clad in denim and plaid a little-known weapon against the foe of all in the room: Gov. Rick Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor. The weapon, Smith said, doesn't involve marching on the Texas Capitol, like more than 1,000 did last year, some on tractors and horses. It...

AUSTIN — Toll road critics were turned down in their request for wide-ranging transportation department documents, but a judge gave them more time to narrow their request as part of a lawsuit against the state. Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, led by San Antonio resident Terri Hall, sued the Texas Department of Transportation in September to fight the department's toll road efforts. The group claims the "Keep Texas Moving" promotional campaign violates a ban on state officials using their authority for political purposes. It also wants to stop agency officials from lobbying Congress to allow more tolling. On Thursday,...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will keep the U.S. Senate in session over the Thanksgiving break because he wants to block President Bush from making any recess appointments. Roll Call is reporting that Sen. Reid inserted a statement into the record Friday stating that he will "hold the Senate in a series of pro forma or nonvoting sessions" to prevent Bush from exercising his appointment power. Reid said, “While an election year looms, significant progress can still be made on nominations. I am committed to making that progress if the President will meet me halfway.

Liberal Senators Complaining About “Obstructionism" on Iraq Legislation Use the Same Tactics They Now Condemn to Block Judicial Nominees Project 21 members say the liberal Senate leadership, which has embarked on an overnight session to "highlight Republican obstructionism" on consideration to legislation to withdraw troops from Iraq, is hypocritical, as these senators have used the same tactics they now condemn to block the confirmation of President Bush's judicial nominations over the past six-and-a-half years. "The immoral duplicity of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his henchmen once again unambiguously shows there are no depths too low for liberal politicians to...

Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of bribery, money laundering, obstruction of justice, violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, racketeering and conspiracy at a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va. Jefferson is free on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond -- he took an oath affirming he would make future court appearances in lieu of paying the bond Jefferson had been in the crosshairs of a Virginia U.S. attorney's office for allegedly accepting bribes to steer business to a communications firm in Nigeria and soliciting bribes to benefit various companies owned by his family. A grand jury returned...

IN ELEMENTARY school, recess is a time for fun and games. The same is true, unfortunately, in the nation's capital. President Bush last week took advantage of a Senate recess to appoint three controversial figures to positions — including a major ambassadorship — that ordinarily require confirmation. In the spirit of the playground, Vice President Dick Cheney yukked it up with talk show host Rush Limbaugh about how the administration had gone around the Democratic-controlled Senate, which returned this week. "You go on vacation, this is what happens to you," joked Limbaugh. "If you're a Democrat," Cheney replied. Sam Fox,...

WICHITA, Kan. — Kansas' attorney general, a vocal abortion opponent, charged a well-known abortion provider with illegally performing late-term abortions, but a Sedgwick County judge on Friday threw out the charges after less than a day. Judge Paul W. Clark dismissed the charges against Tiller after Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston said her office had not been consulted by Kline. Clark signed his one-page order only hours after Kline's complaint against Tiller was unsealed. Attorney General Phill Kline's office did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Kline lost his re-election bid in November and leaves office in three weeks....

President Clinton's national security adviser removed classified documents from the National Archives, hid them under a construction trailer and later tried to find the trash collector to retrieve them, the agency's internal watchdog said Wednesday. The report was issued more than a year after Sandy Berger pleaded guilty and received a criminal sentence for removing the documents. Berger took the documents in the fall of 2003 while working to prepare himself and Clinton administration witnesses for testimony to the Sept. 11 commission. Berger was authorized as the Clinton administration's representative to make sure the commission got the correct classified materials....

ABC News has learned that charges will be filed against 7 Marines and One Navy Corpsmen. The charges are expected to include murder, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in relation to the killing of an unarmed Iraqi civilian in the town of Hamdania.

The disciplinary arm of the N.C. State Bar dropped charges of felonious misconduct against two former Union County prosecutors Friday because of a 1999 clerical error at the state Supreme Court. The State Bar had charged Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer with lying, cheating and withholding evidence in a 1996 death penalty case. The ruling Friday marks the second time that Honeycutt and Brewer won on procedural grounds before the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission, which sits as judge and jury in disciplinary cases. . . . Prosecutors around the state are concerned that the case is damaging their reputation and...

(CNSNews.com) - As announced last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to meet today -- Tuesday -- to vote on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. But it's not going to happen as planned. Despite protests from Republicans, Democrats on the committee have pushed back the Judiciary Committee vote by one week, to Tuesday, Jan. 24, invoking their right to do so under Senate rules

The N.C. State Bar has challenged the dismissal of disciplinary charges against two former Union County prosecutors, saying they committed felonies to win a death penalty conviction. Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer were charged with lying, cheating and withholding evidence in the 1996 murder trial. Honeycutt, the former district attorney in Union County, has since returned to private practice; Brewer is now a District Court judge in Richmond County. Last week, the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission cited a missed deadline in dismissing the case against them. But the bar's lawyers say there is no deadline to bring charges because the...

The New York Sun reports that Democrats blocked the adoption of a resolution denouncing Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his anti-Semitic remaeks and Holocaust denial until a demand for an Iranian plebescite and self-determination free of the Guardian Council had been removed. The objection officially came from Senator Wyden (D-OR), who then told the Senate that, uh, he didn't have a problem with the resolutuion, but that his colleagues did -- who displayed their intestinal fortitude by hiding behind Wyden's skirts: When Mr. Santorum moved to introduce the resolution last Friday, Senator Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, registered an unusual...

WASHINGTON — The Senate blocked the defense spending bill Wednesday in order to force out provisions on oil drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. The measure had been put into a must-pass defense spending bill in an attempt to get the drilling through the Senate despite opposition. Drilling supporters fell four votes short of getting the required 60 votes to avoid a threatened filibuster of the defense measure over the oil drilling issue. Senate leaders were expected to withraw the legislation so it could be reworked without the refuge language. The vote was 56-44. Click here to see how...

The United States and China should have a joint energy research and development program, a senior US Senator said, warning that the two powers could go to war in their insatiable quest for depleting foreign energy supplies. "We are heading towards two thirds by each country on dependence on foreign oil. Let's recognize this problem before it becomes an intense competition which can actually lead to military conflict," said Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic Senator from Connecticut. "Let's do it by each trying to diversify to clean fuels, alternative fuels, hybrids, electric plug ins," he told reporters after speaking at a...

Libby indicted on obstruction of justice, false statment and perjury charge...

The White House signaled on Monday that President Bush may bypass the Senate and appoint John Bolton, his embattled nominee for U.N. ambassador, to the post temporarily as hope faded for a Senate vote on the nomination. Congressional aides said a recess appointment could be announced as early as Friday night, immediately after the Senate is scheduled to adjourn for the monthlong August break. A recess appointment would allow Bolton to take up the U.N. post but he would serve only until January 2007. The nomination of the blunt-spoken conservative has been held up by accusations he tried to manipulate...

Packing the Court : A Recipe for Disaster My dad was a “Roosevelt man” through and through; but, in 1937 ,Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to make an end run around the checks and balances of the Constitution by “packing” three additional judges-all sympathetic to his goals-into an all-new ,Roosevelt-friendly, 12 judge Supreme Court. In doing so, he lost the respect of the people like my dad, and came close to being swept out of office by an angry electorate. The people understood very clearly, FDR already had control of the House and the Senate. If he could secure control of...

Seven years later, the pain lingers for some. “Since ‘Seinfeld’ ended its first run, no new network sitcom has come along that even compares with it in terms of intelligence and wittiness -- especially not at NBC, which each fall stands for New Bad Comedies,” Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales wrote in July 2003, after watching Jerry Seinfeld perform his standup routine. It’s cute that he slips the words “first run” in there, as if there may eventually be a “second run.” There won’t be. The actors have plenty of cash, and aren’t likely to tarnish their franchise with...

Before President George W. Bush could grasp his next breath following his announcement of Justice John G. Roberts for the U.S. Supreme Court, Democrat Senators Chuck Schumer and Patrick Leahy stumbled to the minority party reaction podium for a quick precursor to the upcoming litmus test they have planned for the new nominee. They don’t even attempt to deny it anymore. “All questions are legitimate,” New York Democrat and Judiciary Committee member Charles E. Schumer said earlier this month. “What is your view on Roe vs. Wade? What is your view on gay marriage?” Schumer took great pains to be...

By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 5 minutes ago Congressional action on Social Security legislation, President Bush's top domestic priority, may not come anytime soon. The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who earlier predicted his panel would deal with a bill in early June, said Wednesday it may not get to it until September at the earliest. Meanwhile, the head of the Senate Finance Committee said he hoped a meeting Thursday morning might spur some action, though he was not sure it would. Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., said the schedule for his Ways and Means committee...

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement seems sure to lead to a brutal political battle over the confirmation of her replacement. There is no indication that George W. Bush intends to nominate someone who appeared on a recent list of nominees acceptable to Senate Democrats. This would be to cede the appointing power from the president and the Senate majority to a minority in the Senate. Nor is there any indication that People for the American Way or the Alliance for Justice will not oppose any Bush nominee with every ounce of strength they have. These groups exist for the purpose...

The Senate Democrats' #2 compares the American military to Nazis, Stalinists, and Pol Pot's killer, and the story never gets near to the cover of the Washington Post. Karl Rove makes a valid assertion about the behavior of liberals, backed by evidence, and the fake outrage of those Senate Democrats makes page 1, but in a story without the pointed reply of George Pataki which happens to pivot on Durbin's slander. At least the New York Times included a portion of the Pataki quote, which has now vanished from the original Newsday article. But there is no MSM bias, right?...

Democrats blocked another attempt Monday by the Senate to confirm John Bolton to become U.N. ambassador, delivering a second-straight setback to President Bush even as he left the door open to temporarily installing Bolton on his own. The Republican-run chamber fell six votes short of the 60 it needed to end Democratic delays that have prevented a roll call on confirming the tough-talking conservative. The vote was 54-38 in favor of ending the delays. The tally left Bush facing stark choices — most of which could leave him appearing weak at a time he is facing sagging poll numbers and...

We’ve received a lot of calls over the last few days regarding the procedures to be followed if, in fact, a vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States takes place at the end of the term. As it stands right now, it appears that the Supreme Court term will end during the week of June 27th. It is conceivable if a vacancy takes place, it could be announced the last day of the term. It is also probable that the White House would make an announcement as to the appointment of the replacement within 48 hours. There is...

I constantly hear liberals decry the policies of George W. Bush, using catch phrases like “out of the mainstream” and “dangerously irresponsible” to describe them. Apparently, if you repeat something often enough, using the same carefully crafted terminology, and applying to it with the same condescending tone each time, it magically becomes the truth... at least in the minds of leftists. And, of course, the primary policy target of left-wingers in Congress remains the war in Iraq, even though nearly all of them supported it initially. As recent polls show support for the war waning, liberals all over the country...

It was still pitch black outside on that February day when Maria Juega's phone rang shortly after 5 a.m. The caller was a stranger, her voice nearly hysterical. She told Juega that someone was knocking on the door and yelling "policia." That door, Juega learned, stood between the "policia" and seven illegal immigrants. If the caller opened the door, like so many others around New Jersey had done in the past year, she would see the home swarmed by immigration agents, and her friends and relatives hauled away in handcuffs and deported.

With the Senate scheduled to seek a vote on the president's nomination of John Bolton today, Democrats are threatening a last minute parliamentary maneuver to block the vote. Yesterday Senator Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut urged his colleagues to vote against the closing of debate on the floor of the Senate until the State Department provided him and his colleagues with outstanding requests for intelligence on a speech Mr. Bolton was blocked from giving on Syrian proliferation. Mr. Dodd also renewed a request from his party for the names Mr. Bolton requested of American officials in National Security Agency intelligence...

A Little Brief on the "Hillary Issue": 1. Hillary wants to be President, Nothing Less. 2. Hillary needs to keep her Senate seat to be a large voice in the 2008 election. 3. Hillary needs to demonstrate her ability to win an election in today's political climate. Her senate re-election will, in part, determine in her national electibility in the public's mind. 4. We should defeat her in NY. 5. Jeanine Pirro is likely to run as a Moderate Republican to defeat her. 6. "Pirro 2006" in NY. Spread the Word. ;-) ANNOUNCEMENT: http://cbsnewyork.com/topstories/topstoriesny_story_143111337.html May 23, 2005 5:06 pm US/Eastern...

In the afterglow of the bipartisan accord announced Monday night to avert a Senate showdown on changing the filibuster rule, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist emphasized Tuesday that he wasn’t a party to the deal and would quickly try to implement the rule change if Democrats resumed use of the filibuster to derail President Bush’s judicial nominees. Frist’s proposal, which he calls “the constitutional option,” and which his foes call “the nuclear option” would lower the threshold for ending Senate debate on a judicial nominee from 60 to 51. Monday night’s bipartisan deal prevented a vote on Frist’s proposal, as...

As the foliage bursts forth into its spring magnificence, the vernal quietude up on Capitol Hill--never too peaceful in any season--will be further rent this week by howls of protest, sniveled cries of injustice and the general despair of the defeated. And that’s just the Washington press corps. First up after the Highway Bill, Bill Frist is expected to schedule a Senate vote on the nomination of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton, the left’s bogeyman of the month, survived the Democratic wringer and was reported out of the Foreign Relations Committee even after a few...

The saga of obstructionism that is the entirety of the Democrat agenda on Capitol Hill may well turn a new corner soon when Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn) stops the unprecedented filibuster by Democrats of President Bush’s judicial nominees. "It is time for 100 senators to decide the issue of fair up-or-down votes for judicial nominees," a statement read from Frist‘s office. The statement also announced that two nominees, Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown, would be the ‘focus’ of their attention. Since these two well qualified women have been termed ‘conservative’ the Democrats have decided they should not get a...

Democrats are bickering again. It seems that one Democrat, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) has decided not to be an obstructionist member of the party of NO and offer something constructive to the discussion of saving Social Security. In fact, it seems that Rep. Wexler will be having a press conference on Monday to announce his plan for saving Social Security. I commend Mr. Wexler for being the first Democrat to step out and put forth a thought that is more extensive than the word NO on this matter. He has even gone so far as to urge fellow Democrats to...

By Kalani Leifer Opinions Columnist Friday, May 13, 2005 last updated May 12, 2005 7:58 PM In the spirit of one of Stanford's most enduring and productive traditions, White Plaza has once again become the stage for political demonstration. Don't worry, though, you won't find anything controversial like mock same-sex marriages or miniature anti-abortion cemeteries. And while the present display of youthful involvement is being staged by a partisan organization -- the Stanford Democrats -- it should by all means be a bipartisan endeavor. One of the U.S. Senate's own most enduring and productive traditions, the filibuster, is in danger...

Dear Senate Majority Leader Frist: I would respectfully ask that you pull your caucus together and suggest that it vote to adjourn the current sesssion of the Senate. After weeks of slander and inuendo against John Bolton, because he dares to not be bullied by an arrogant State Department bureaucracy (who think they, not the president, makes our foreign policy) we now have the specter of Barabara Boxer putting the 'non-constitutional, anti-democratic, anti-representative government Senators "hold" on Mr. Bolton's nomination. It is clear that neither you nor a sufficient portion of your caucus have the ability to achieve the legitimate...

Sen. Joe Biden, in his laborious monologue to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee concerning the appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, denied he and other Democrats were on a witchhunt against Bolton. Granted. The fight isn't about Bolton but President Bush. Their primary purpose is not to smear Bolton, though that's a sacrifice they're willing to make; it's to thwart the president's foreign policy, with which they radically disagree. It's to prevent him from exercising his constitutional authority to appoint qualified and respectable individuals to represent him in various departments of government. Would someone please tell...

Op-Ed Columnist   A Turning Tide for Bolton   By DAVID BROOKS   Published: May 12, 2005 Usually the bug dies. When a presidential nominee is treated like an ant under a magnifying glass under the noonday sun, when he has the full scrutiny of the media and Congressional investigators focused upon him, he usually gets incinerated. But over the past two weeks John Bolton's confirmation prospects have gotten stronger. What happened? On April 19, Bolton's nomination was knocked off-track by Senators Chris Dodd and Joe Biden at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing. They made powerful presentations against Bolton, which...

Democrats learned obstruction from the masters: the GOP WASHINGTON — The stakes in politics are about to get a lot higher. The partisan battles in the coming weeks — on judges, Social Security and Tom DeLay — are part of a larger struggle in which Republicans are seeking to establish themselves as the dominant party in American politics. Essential to their quest is persuading Democrats, or at least a significant number in their ranks, to accept long-term minority status. The current acrimony in politics is incomprehensible unless it is understood as the inevitable next act of a long-term struggle. Its...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist plans for Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen to be the judicial nomination on which he uses the "nuclear option" against Democratic filibusters later this month, according to Republicans familiar with his plans. Justice Owen, first nominated to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals four years ago yesterday, has often been seen as the most likely nominee to be pushed though. And when Mr. Frist, Tennessee Republican, made his final offer to Democrats last month to avoid a showdown, he mentioned only one nominee: Justice Owen. The Republican sources, both on and off Capitol...

On Thursday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to vote on President Bush's nomination of John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations. But that is now in doubt, as Sen. Joseph Biden, the panel's ranking Democrat, warns that Democrats might seek another delay in voting on this nomination that was originally scheduled for a vote three weeks ago. The pretext for the Biden complaint is that the State Department hasn't provided evidence of how Mr. Bolton used intelligence information in his speeches. Although Sen. John Kerry, another member of the Foreign Relations Committtee's anti-Bolton bloc, could not...

A Sermon by a Pseudo-ReverendIn the beginning, there was FDR. In his “infinite” wisdom, FDR created a program called Social Security. And liberals saw that it was good. And behold, FDR set up Social Security as a "temporary" government program, in which a 2% Social Security tax (divided equally between the taxpayer and their employer) would be paid to the government. And it came to pass that FDR promised Americans that the 2% tax would never increase, and the maximum wage to be taxed would remain $3,000 until the end of time. In looking to the future, FDR prophesied that...

The unholy alliance of leftist groups seeking to keep John Bolton from winning Senate confirmation to be the new U.S. ambassador consists of Democrats, globalist worshippers at the altar of the sacred United Nations, a motley crew of demented liberals huddling in the sanctuary of MoveOn.org, and a nest of bureaucratic termites eating away at the innards of the CIA and the Department of State. Democrat senators are leading the charge against Bolton, aided by the one-worlders and the members of the deranged left, all employing the kind of distorted rhetoric which is their stock in trade, but the ammunition...

WND Exclusive Commentary Where's the beef, Sen. Voinovich? Posted: April 22, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Kimberly Fletcher © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Today, I am sad to say, one of my own senators took part in obstructing the will of the people. It was Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, who was the voice that stopped the John Bolton appointment from leaving committee and going to a vote in the Senate. The good senator wasn't able to take the time to make it to the hearings, but he certainly took the time to show up and obstruct the process. The Los Angeles Times...

There has been a lot of fuss about what Under Secretary of State John Bolton did say or should not have said when he spoke to the Heritage Foundation a few years ago. Well, I know what he said because I was there. (See my write-up of the speech, "U.S. Says China, Russia, Cuba, Syria, Libya Abet Terrorism.") Bolton issued warnings about what America's enemies were up to. If his words are deemed "undiplomatic," it's because the mushy-mouthed striped-pants types at the State Department have a heart attack whenever they hear someone in their midst using plain English to stand...

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid doesn’t seem to get the fact that George W. Bush won the presidential election last November. He also doesn’t get that the Republicans picked up five seats in the Upper Chamber. That’s called a mandate. Despite this, Reid believes he can negotiate, or even dictate, which judicial appointments can be voted on in the Senate. That’s utterly preposterous, and it’s one of the many reasons why Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist must put Reid and the rest of the filibustering Senate Democrats in their place once and for all. There is no political or constitutional...

[FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES, JAN. 1, 1995] Time to Retire the Filibuster The U.S. Senate likes to call itself the world's greatest deliberative body. The greatest obstructive body is more like it. In the last season of Congress, the Republican minority invoked an endless string of filibusters to frustrate the will of the majority. This relentless abuse of a time-honored Senate tradition so disgusted Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, that he is now willing to forgo easy retribution and drastically limit the filibuster. Hooray for him. For years Senate filibusters--when they weren't conjuring up romantic images of...

URGENT: Majority Leader Bill Frist IS GOING TO PULL THE TRIGGER to end the blockade against President Bush’s judicial nominees, but the outcome is still in doubt. Dear Friend: In fact, high-level sources in the Senate are telling us that Majority Leader Frist will deploy the “Constituional Option” -- dubbed “nuclear” by the liberal media -- possibly within the NEXT FEW DAYS. We’re winning Senators one-by-one -- getting them to see the necessity of using the Constitutional Option. But there are still seven Republican fence-sitters! Your Blast Faxes are turning the tide, and that's why it is vitally important that...

John Bolton, President Bush’s nominee to be Ambassador to the United Nations, is a certified tough guy. That’s one of the reasons we support him wholeheartedly and without reservation, for the job. Under different circumstances, different qualifications might be in order, but one of the unique requirements of the presidency is perspective of time and circumstance, including the selection of key administration personnel. This time and this circumstance dictate a John Bolton to be Ambassador to the U.N. The organization that was once the hope for world peace of Miss America contestants and their political counterparts is broken, corrupt and...

Nine Current Dem Senators Voted To End The Filibuster in 1995, But Now Focus On Obstruction Dem "Party Of Nine" Voted To End All Filibusters In 1995: In 1995, Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) And Eight Other Democrats Now Serving In The Senate (Bingaman, Boxer, Feingold, Harkin, Kennedy, Kerry, Lautenberg, And Sarbanes) Supported Ending All Filibusters. In 1995, the only Senators on record supporting the end of the filibuster were all Democrats, nine of whom are still serving in the Senate. (Karen Hosler, "Senators Vote 76-19 To Maintain Filibuster," The [Baltimore] Sun, 1/6/95; S.Res. 14, CQ Vote #1: Motion Agreed To...