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ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A jury is scheduled to hear closing arguments Wednesday in the bribery trial of a former Louisiana congressman .. William Jefferson, a Democrat .. is accused of receiving more than $400,000 in bribes .. Jefferson's attorneys argue that their client was essentially acting as a private business consultant and never violated bribery laws.

1. The foetus cannot be taken seriously as a person An unborn baby in its 7th week after conception Before I knew much about the abortion debate, I was entirely uninterested in the unborn baby. When it was mentioned, I accepted uncritically that the "foetus" was just some sort of overdeveloped sperm of no value or worth. Pro-abortion rhetoric convinced me that the baby in the womb was somehow an entirely different class of human from you or me, as though the mere act of leaving the womb and inhaling oxygen conferred humanity on someone. I'm not sure I considered...

WASHINGTON - As a senior member of the House ethics committee, Rep. Jim McDermott (news, bio, voting record) had an obligation not to disclose the contents of an illegally taped telephone call involving House Republican leaders, a lawyer for one of the House Republicans said Thursday. Just as a federal judge should not reveal confidential information about a case, McDermott should not have given reporters access to the taped telephone call, regardless of how it was obtained, said lawyer Michael Carvin. "He had a duty not to disclose, therefore he can't claim First Amendment rights" allowing him to make the...

SAN DIEGO – The First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco announced Thursday that it would hear oral arguments Feb. 14 in the case challenging the constitutionality of the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act, known as Proposition 71. Under the California Constitution, the Appeals Court must render a decision in the case within 90 days of the hearing, absent additional briefings required by the court. The plaintiffs in the case – People's Advocate and the National Tax Limitation Foundation (represented by the Life Legal Defense Foundation), and the California Family Bioethics Council – are appealing an April...

In nearly two years since John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney took part in this city's same-sex marriage rebellion, the couple has filed three rounds of tax returns, buried a mother, vacationed in Europe and attended five weddings - four involving a bride and a groom. These are the typical joys, sorrows and rituals of couples who have been together for nearly two decades. Yet for Lewis and Gaffney, one of 4,037 pairs whose San Francisco-issued marriage licenses were invalidated by the California Supreme Court, daily domesticity also brings reminders of the legal rights they do not have and are suing...

Answering Pro-Abortion PoliticiansIf you've ever written to a pro-abortion politician about the right to life, you've probably received a form letter that utilizes one of several worn-out arguments. Let's review how we answer them.1. "I respect your views, but I have to represent all the people." Our response: That's what we're trying to say to you. If you neglect the unborn, you are not representing all the people. Roe vs. Wade excludes them from protection; we demand that they be included. A public servant cannot legitimately ignore an entire segment of the public that is being destroyed.2. "I'm personally opposed...

Wachovia to pay reparations for slavery? I’m afraid that I have finally had it with the entire topic of slave reparations and the level of groveling to which corporate America has sunk, and I am closing all Wachovia accounts. Am I a crazy, southern, white supremacist? Hardly. I am, in fact, as northern and schooled in liberal philosophies as they come. I used to play in the tunnels (although they weren’t so much tunnels that connected to anything as they were just large dug out hiding areas) under my grandmother’s house and take great pride that our family in past...

Will President Bush show John McCain and the rest of the ‘Filibuster Five’ why it’s unwise to pick a fight with a Texas Cowboy? Or, like every moderate Republican (and the French they work so hard to emulate), will Mr. Bush, Senator Frist, and company simply surrender? In the battle for the judiciary—undoubtedly the most important non-terrorism related issue we face—the American people need to know which George W. Bush is going to show up at the shootout. Will it be the man that supported McCain’s campaign finance reform bill in an effort to set a new 'tone,' let Ted...

SAN DIEGO - A federal judge heard arguments Wednesday on The Associated Press' request to dismiss a lawsuit that claims the wire service violated copyright and privacy laws by publishing photos of Navy SEALs and Iraqi prisoners that an AP reporter discovered on the Internet. Lawyers for the AP asked U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Miller to throw out the case under a California law that allows quick dismissal of lawsuits that can be shown to stifle free speech. Six Navy SEALs and the wives of two of the special forces members sued the AP in December in state court....

Famed Clinton pollster Stanley Greenberg is, I think, correct, but for the wrong reasons when he says that Democrats have lost major elections in recent years because they have not "run with conviction." It's true that they haven't run with conviction, but it's not because they lack convictions as much as that they can't risk being open about them. Greenberg said the Democrats' major weakness today is that "they do not know what they stand for, they don't know their policy direction, they don't know their underlying values, they don't know who they fight for." As a Democrat, Greenberg can't...

Yielding to my contrarian impulses, I decided to see if I could figure out a good reason for Republicans and other Conservatives to oppose the privatization of Social Security. And I did! Going to the Social Security Administration website and using the Quick Calculator there to estimate what I’m likely to receive when I retire, not too many years from now, I see that I will receive the maximum benefit, about $2,000 a month in 2005 dollars. Now, my other investments, including my PRAs (Private Retirement Accounts, but I call them my “401k” and my “Roth IRA”) will yield a...

The opposition to the President’s nomination of Alberto R. Gonzales as Attorney General focused the attention of Congress, and America, on allegations that Mr. Gonzales’ authored an advisory memorandum for the president that at least implicitly approved the torture of prisoners in the War on Terror for the purpose of obtaining information. The broad claims of Democrats who opposed his nomination were that any opinion supporting the use of psychological or physical pain or duress for the purpose of eliciting information from a prisoner, or detainee, i.e., torture, mild or severe, is wrong, and should have disqualified Mr. Gonzales from...

Government workers and their unions say that scrapping traditional public pensions, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed last week, would make it hard for the state to hire and keep qualified workers. It would rewrite the long-standing deal in which government workers trade better pay for more secure retirement, they say. Backers of the overhaul disagree, saying government workers now approach pay parity with the private sector. New 401(k)-style accounts will let workers change jobs without giving up retirement benefits, they say, encouraging a healthy rate of turnover. The reality is more complicated than either side depicts. Take the issue of...

The Two Johns: What's Your Next Speech Going to Be About? (Election Levity, II) Written by Gregory Borse Friday, October 22, 2004 Al Gore’s Gore TV--a new cable channel that promises to speak to kids in their twenties in a language they can relate to--released more footage from the reality series, ''The Two Johns.'' The series, which follows two rich, white liberals as they plot their strategery for winning of the White House in 2004, is currently being shot and producers intend a November 3, premiere. In this snip, the two Johns discuss campaign speechmaking. Commenting on the footage, Gore...

October 15, 2004 Bush vs. Kerry -- It's a Debate Knock Out George C. Landrith In 1946, then-heavyweight champion Joe Louis was asked how he would do against the lighter and faster challenger, Bill Conn. Lewis said, “He can run, but he can’t hide.” Lewis was right. In the eighth round Lewis knocked out the more nimble Conn, leaving him sprawled on the canvas. President George W. Bush has been saying John Kerry can run from his 20-year liberal Senate record, but he cannot hide. In the final debate, Bush bore down on his verbally nimble challenger and knocked Kerry...

Debatable Debate Impressions, Part II Edwards – More than a Pretty Face? by Bob Redman (7 Oct. 2004) In my article about the first debate between Bush and Kerry I enumerated eleven of the many cheap shots which Kerry made. During the vice-presidential debate on Tuesday evening, Edwards repeated and/or elaborated on the cheap shots, and added some of his own. A detailed analysis of the whole tissue of obfuscation would run to several pages which most of you wouldn’t read to the end. I therefore content myself with the elucidation of only one of Edward’s trial lawyers' devices which...

Cheney Outshines Edwards; North Korea Outshines Iraq Written by Isaiah Sterrett Thursday, October 07, 2004 This is what happens when you choose your running-mate solely on the basis of his superior use of hairspray. Several days ago I was taking advantage of Al Gore’s best and most well-known invention, the world-renowned ''Internet,'' when I came across a column he’d written for The New York Times. (Someday, when I serve as vice president under an impeached, disbarred miscreant and then run a miserable presidential campaign which I lose to a virtually unknown politician from a dusty state, I look forward to...

http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=10146 Debate Score: Bush 1, Kerry 0 Written by Gregory Borse Monday, October 04, 2004 In order for the creeping dynamics of the race for the presidency to change as a result of the first presidential debate, two things had to happen: President Bush had to commit a major gaff and Democratic challenger Senator Kerry had to hit a home run. Neither happened. Still, this first debate offered an opportunity--as a result of the fact that the two participants performed so well--a real contrast between the candidates. For all the harping before the first of the three scheduled debates, about...

John Kerry woke up last Tuesday morning confused and agitated. As he realized, his propensity towards prevarication and exaggeration are now well known by voters. In politics, that stuff usually works with a significant segment of the population simply because they are uninformed. Didn't work as well this time, though. Voters are starting to laugh at Kerry. Or even worse, voters are starting to disregard Kerry. Quite often, campaign staff, reporters and Republican hecklers make up a significant part of the crowd at his lightly attended campaign appearances. Clearly, the Kerry campaign is having a few little problems. One problem...