Theodore's World

McCain-Feingold’s Electioneering Communication Prohibition Held Unconstitutional as Applied to Genuine Grassroots Lobbying
James Madison Center for Free Speech

Today the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that the ban on corporate electioneering communications is unconstitutional as applied to the three grassroots lobbying ads for which Wisconsin Right to Life (“WRTL”) sought judicial relief in WRTL v. FEC. Judge Leon wrote the opinion and was joined by Judge Sentelle in the majority of the three-judge court.
The ads were run in 2004 when WRTL did radio and television ads urging people in Wisconsin to contact Senator Kohl and Senator Feingold and ask them to oppose the ongoing filibusters of President Bush’s judicial nominees. Because Senator Feingold was a candidate, WRTL had to stop running its ads when the electioneering communication prohibition period began. WRTL sought judicial relief to continue running its ads, which was denied at the time.
Today the District Court first decided that the grassroots lobbying ads were not the functional equivalent of express advocacy, as the U.S. Supreme Court had required in its analysis in McConnell v. FEC (which upheld the electioneering communication only against a facial challenge). Second, the District Court held that the FEC had not met its burden of proving that the prohibition was narrowly tailored to a compelling state interest as applied to the ads. So the Court held that the prohibition was unconstitutional as applied to these ads.
James Bopp, Jr., attorney for WRTL comments: “This is a victory for the right of the people to lobby their members of Congress on upcoming votes even if there is a pending election. This grassroots lobbying is simply self-government at work, which is protected by the First Amendment.”

Wild Thing’s comment……
I wish this whole idiotic law would be overturned. How can free speech be bound by so many rules and restrictions, and still be free? It cant!!! McCain teaming up with Fiengold tells you everything you need to know about McCain.

As all of you know this blog is very pro military and we support the troops always. This is a special time of year being the Christmas Holidays. We would like to thank all of our soldiers that are returning home. You have been in our prayers and we are so grateful to you. Thank you!
America soars proud and free because of the hard work, courage and dedication of heroes like you. God bless you.
A special thank you to Rhod’s son who has just returned from Iraq. WELCOME Home!
Rhod has two other son’s that are still away from home as well. One in Iraq and another in Afghanistan.
— Wild Thing and everyone here at Theodore’s World

Report Says Berger Hid Archive Documents (under a construction trailer)
WASHINGTON (AP) –
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 to unlawfully removing and retaining classified 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.
Inspector General Paul Brachfeld reported that National Archives employees spotted Berger outside the building, bending down and fiddling with something white around his ankles.
The employees did not feel at the time that there was enough information to confront someone of Berger’s stature, the report said.
Later, when Berger was confronted by Archives officials about the missing documents, he lied by saying he did not take them, the report said.
Brachfeld reported that on one visit, Berger took a break to go outside without an escort while it was dark outside.

“He headed toward a construction area. … Mr. Berger looked up and down the street, up into the windows of the Archives and the DOJ (Department of Justice), and did not see anyone,” said notes prepared by the inspector general’s office.

“He then slid the documents under a construction trailer, according to the inspector general. Berger acknowledged that he later retrieved the documents from the construction area and returned with them to his office.”

“He was aware of the risk he was taking,” the inspector general’s notes said. Berger then returned to the Archives building without fearing the documents would slip out of his pockets or that staff would notice that his pockets were bulging.

The notes said Berger had not been aware that Archives staff had been tracking the documents he was provided because of earlier suspicions from previous visits that he was removing materials. Also, the employees had made copies of some documents.
In October 2003, the report said, an Archives official called Berger to discuss missing documents from his visit two days earlier. The investigator’s notes said, “Mr. Berger panicked because he realized he was caught.”

The notes said that Berger had “destroyed, cut into small pieces, three of the four documents. These were put in the trash.”

After the trash had been picked up, Berger “tried to find the trash collector but had no luck,” the notes said.

The significant portions of the inspector general’s report were redacted to protect privacy or national security.
Berger’s lawyer, Lanny Breuer, said in a statement that the contents of all the documents exist today and were made available to the commission.
For his guilty plea, Berger was fined $50,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and barred from access to classified material for three years.

Wild Thing’s comment……
Just 3 years! How the heck could they give him such as light sentence when he admitted that he stashed the documents and retrieved them later. Not only is he NOT going to jail for the rest of his life for taking documents that have the same classification as our nuclear secrets (probably to modify them to protect Clinton’s legacy), he’ll also be able to access classified documents after 3 years? Berger is a common thief. He did this intentionally. He should never get a security clearance again. I don’t care who he is. And what is even more concerning is what Berger put in the files than what he took out of them.
Remember when we used to execute people for this sort of behavior? Not only is he walking free…but he was included in on the ISG.
There have been reports in the past how Berger was a “workaholic” as Clinton’s National Security Adviser —-always seen surrounded with top-secret documents—often working late.
(1) He was on-duty when our technology was sold to China.
(2) He was on-duty when we bombed the aspirin factory, advising Clinton it was manufacturing deadly chemicals.
(3) He was on-duty during Somolia, and Kosovo, and Hatti, and all the other wonderful military success stories of the Clinton administration.
(4) And then there’s the infamous Clinton pardons, including the biggest tax cheat in US history—Mark Rich—who absconded, then renounced his US citizenship to evade US prosecution.
(5) Clinton also pardoned 16 terrorists—members of the FALN—- so Hillary could get Latino votes for her Senate run in NY’s large Puerto Rican population. The Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) was involved in more than 100 bombings in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s.”
(6) And let’s not forget the bombing of the Chinese embassy. Then-Pres Clinton went to Norfolk making a “solemn promise” to the families, friends and shipmates of the USS Cole to avenge their deaths. But when the opportunity presented itslef, he squandered it. Clinton flunky Burger blamed the misstep on the Pentagon. As if anyone in the Pentagon would pass up the chance to avenge the sailors of the USS Cole.

Muslims addition on the wall above the men praying. This IS what their so called religion is about, death and destruction. And their Muhammad is no one to respect, unless of course you are Bash Pharoan in article below.
Muslims claim curriculum on Islam is inaccurateNortheast Booster.com
Some Muslims in Baltimore County say lessons involving Islam being taught to seventh- and 10th-graders in public schools are inaccurate.
Bash Pharoan, president of the Baltimore chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, says resource sheets, called “Islamic Life,” given to seventh-graders studying world cultures and “World Religions” for 10th-graders in world history classes, not only misrepresent Islam, but show disrespect to the prophet Muhammad.
For three years, Pharoan says, he has unsuccessfully petitioned the Baltimore County school board to review the way Islam is presented in public school classrooms.
Joe Hairston, county school superintendent, said his “teachers do not use materials that contain inaccurate information.”
Pharoan disagrees, saying the resource sheet on Islam belittles the prophet by referring to him only as “Muhammad.”
“We always say ‘Prophet Muhammad,’ ” Pharoan said. “Omitting the word ‘prophet’ is disrespectful.”
The resource sheets state the Muslim prophet’s “main goal was to get people to accept Allah and to spread the faith of Islam. Muhammad justified his attacks to his followers by explaining that to weaken those who opposed the spread of God’s word was a virtue, and that those who fell in battle would be rewarded in heaven. Thus, the idea of the jihad became the holy war of the Muslims against ‘the unbelievers.'”
This reference, Pharoan says, inaccurately portrays Islam as a religion that embraces the use of force.

Wild Thing’s comment……
It will be accurate if they teach about how Muhammad was a slave master, rapist, murderer, thief and pedophile. Pharoan says he wants it to be an accurate depiction. Ok so they should also be teaching about the planes into buildings that kill 3000 people. Bombing trains in Madrid. Bombing subway cars in London, chopping thousands of heads off. Be sure to include those things, cuz you want to be accurate.
Personally I don’t think Muslims really want an accurate historical depiction of Muhammad. I am sick of Muslims wanting this, wanting that , enough is enough. Or if he is going to be taught in public schools tell the kids the whole truth about this pervert. I can not recall ever being taught about religion when I was in school except for the crusades.
There will be no end of this if the folks in Baltimore give an inch. Everything offends these people. Quit even trying to appease them. When they complain, say ya-ya-ya and drop the complaint in the toilet, flush, wash hands and get on with real life.

Barbara Walters Nabbing Exclusive With Fidel Castro
Jossip
While ailing Fidel Castro has been keeping the press at bay to avoid the off chance they might, like, hint that he’s nearly dead, we hear 20/20’s Barbara Walters is on her way to scoring an exclusive get with Cuba’s leader. Not only that: She’s taking Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez along for the ride.
An insider tells us the ABC queen is set to fly down to Venezuela for a meeting with Chavez and then galavant northeast to the island nation for a sit down with Castro. We checked with a well-placed insider at ABC, who says the plans are moving ahead and that the interviews could take place as early as next week (Christmas time, y’all), but the details are not yet a definite go.
Meanwhile, another tattler tells us ABC staffers, at least, have been on Castro death watch as recent as last week, standing by waiting for the “red alert” newsroom wire chime. Which would’ve put a real damper on Babs’ very merry, very Communist Christmas

Wild Thing’s comment……
Well we will see if she does this or not. The stupid part is that she wants to. I’m not surpirsed she already picked sides when she said the day after 9-11 that she would not wear a Flag pin because it might show taking sides. Taking sides????? WTF
I would take sides anyway I could, any day, all day 24/7 against Islam. How hard has that got to be to take sides against this vile enemy of Islam. Amazing!

The Washington Post
President Bush acknowledged for the first time yesterday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and said he plans to expand the overall size of the “stressed” U.S. armed forces to meet the challenges of a long-term global struggle against terrorists.
As he searches for a new strategy for Iraq, Bush has adopted the formula advanced by his top military adviser to describe the situation.

“We’re not winning, we’re not losing,” Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. The assessment was a striking reversal for a president who, days before the November elections, declared, “Absolutely, we’re winning.”

In another turnaround, Bush said he has ordered Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to develop a plan to increase the troop strength of the Army and Marine Corps, heeding warnings from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill that multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan are stretching the armed forces toward the breaking point. “We need to reset our military,” said Bush, whose administration had opposed increasing force levels as recently as this summer.
Bush chose a different term than Powell. “I haven’t heard the word ‘broken,’ ” he said, “but I’ve heard the word, ‘stressed.’ . . . We need to reset our military. There’s no question the military has been used a lot. And the fundamental question is, ‘Will Republicans and Democrats be able to work with the administration to assure our military and the American people that we will position our military so that it is ready and able to stay engaged in a long war?’ ”
Wild Thing’s comment…….
Morale alone, how do you think all the troops in Iraq feel when they hear their commander in chief telling the world that they’re not winning? It’s doubly bad when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs says the same thing.
Even during the worst days of the summer of 1940, Churchill never said “we aren’t winning”. FDR never said “we aren’t winning”. Neither did Lincoln during the Civil War. Acknowledging challenges and struggles is one thing. Coming out and and saying that we’re not wining is another. Instead Bush should mention how Saddam and his whole regime was rolled up in a few weeks, how tens of thousands of terrorists have been killed or captured, how terrorist leaders continue to be eliminated!! the US now has Iran and Syria encircled by air, ground and naval units orders of magnitude greater than they were on 9/10/01.
For entire article you can read it here…….

(more…)

Zucker Video-Compares Baker/Iraq Study Group To Neville Chamberlin’s “Peace In Our Time”

Wild Thing’s comment……
Zuker is great at doing these and he is right on with this video. We all know how Baker can’t bow low enough to Iran or his Saudi masters. He cant lick their boots fast enough, and he cant wait to sell out Israel.

Nancy Pelosi’s Modest Coronation Plans
Canada Free Press
Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, Democrat from California, has big, expensive plans for commemorating her ascension to the head of the “People’s House” in early January.
Indeed, the bug-eyed lady from San Francisco has slated a four-day gala of pomp and circumstance that will make the installation of Pope Benedict XVI by the Vatican seem absolutely skimpy by comparison.
To begin with, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Labor Council delegation of 50 people will be jetting back East to participate in the first coronation of a queen in American history—excepting only the first swearing-in ceremony for Barney Frank several years ago.
The main event is scheduled for noon on January 4, when the U.S. House meets to elect Pelosi in a formal process expected to take several hours.
On the evening of January 4, Pelosi will be honored at a concert/fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Admittance will be pricey, at $15,000.

The steep ticket price was necessary to keep the party’s base—homeless bums, drug addicts, welfare cheats, convicted felons, illegal aliens, et al.–from crashing. Therefore, an “entertainment tax” of $14,999 per ticket seemed to make perfect sense, at least from a warped liberal perspective.

On the morning of January 5, Pelosi will be the host for a “People’s House” event in the historic Cannon Caucus Room across from the Capitol. She will spend an hour or two meeting and greeting anyone who wants to line up to say hello—excepting, of course, Republicans and miscreants from the party base as identified above.
After that, it is simply a matter of time until Pelosi and Harry Reid, her co-conspirator in the U.S. Senate, ruin America’s economy, military, foreign policy, space program, and funnel any remaining funds in the U.S. treasury to poor illegal aliens from Mexico.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
I remember how with the last two presidential inaugurations and all the attending inaugural balls eetc., we heard over and over again anfd from the LEFT about how too expensive it is. “Couldn’t that money be better spent somewhere else?” And then we found out, no, these are corporate contributors and political contributors. “Well, couldn’t they give their money to something else? Why does it have to be so expensive? Why do we have to go into such pomp and circumstance? It’s just over the top.” None of that will be said about Nancy Pelosi’s coronation.
So guess what I am saying it about Pelosi. hahaha Whoever goes to this has to shell out $15,000 and thatIS nuts!

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Kerry in Iraq
Sen. John Kerry said meeting with American and British troops in Iraq on Saturday helped clear his thoughts about what needs to be done to stabilize the country and he looked forward to hearing ideas from Iraqis.

Today was very informative and very helpful in crystallizing some of my thoughts insofar as what we can negotiate . . . and what needs to be accomplished,” Kerry told The Associated Press by telephone.

“I certainly learned more about what the troops can or can’t achieve,” he said.

At Camp Warhorse in Diyala, northeast of the capital, Kerry said he also met local Iraqi officials responsible for one of the most sectarian-charged areas of the country.
Kerry declined to elaborate on how the visit affected his views on Iraq because his meetings continue Sunday. He is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for a firsthand assessment on “what’s possible in the political dynamics.”

Wild Thing’s comment…..
A person doesn’t have to be an expert in reading body language to get the message the troopers are sending in those photos. I just wish that Kerry would go away! But I bet he will not, and will most likely run for president!
So much for being a traitor to America and not be punished for it. Kerry has gotten away with our troops being tortured more then they already were in Vietnam and he acts like he is soooo innocent. I hate him!!!!

Mujahedin fighters return to Spain from Iraq: report
MADRID – Mujahedin fighters have returned to bases in Spain after gaining combat experience in Iraq and are now a potential threat to European security, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Sunday.
Potential? Nah, they must be back to reconstitute La Convivencia.
According to El Pais the fighters worked alongside cells controlled by late Al Qaeda senior leader and Jordanian extremist Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, killed in June.

‘They are the new Trojan horse of Al Qaeda and its satellites on our territory and they are already preparing themselves,’ deputy director of the European police network Europol, Mariano Simancas, told El Pais.

‘They represent a serious threat for the countries of the European Union,’ Simancas added.

El Pais quoted anti-terrorist sources as saying that an unspecified number of formerly Spanish-based Algerians and Moroccans who had gained experience in handling arms and explosives in Iraq had now returned.

‘But they are doing nothing for the moment. They are biding their time, which complicates things when it comes to making arrests,’ one unnamed expert told El Pais.

Two years ago, Simancas told a parliamentary investigation into the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings that Islamic terrorism was an ongoing major security threat and that it was not possible to know ‘100 percent’ where radical groups might strike.
In midweek Spain arrested 11 suspected Islamist militants in Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta on suspicion they were planning attacks ‘of a terrorist nature.’