Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich drew strong criticism from Detroit city leaders and school officials Monday after calling the city a “disaster” in a national network TV interview on Sunday.

Gingrich blasted the city of Detroit, Detroit Public Schools, the United Auto Workers and Michigan’s unemployment rate during an interview on Fox News Sunday in which he talked about how he would transform Washington.

A spokesman for Gingrich, an undeclared Republican presidential candidate who has been ramping up his public appearances, singled out Detroit and its schools because they’re the “best worst-case example” of bureaucracy and “a union structure that doesn’t work.”

“We should basically, fundamentally replace the Detroit school system with a series of experiments to see if they’ll work,” Gingrich said in the interview.

Rick Tyler, Gingrich’s spokesman, said Monday that unions are to blame for many of the city’s and state’s woes, including the inability of the Big Three automakers to be competitive and the school system’s struggle to reform itself. Gingrich also cited Detroit’s massive population losses.

“Detroit is routinely pointed out as one of the worst public school systems in the entire country,” Tyler said. “It provides the best example of why we need transformational change in bureaucratic systems that don’t work.”

Detroit News

So naturally, the City, the school district, and the unions are all having a hissy.  I am not certain why.  Newt didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.

Chief Justice John Roberts walked out of a hospital in Maine Tuesday, released a day after he suffered a seizure. The White House said he told President Bush he was doing fine.

Roberts strode briskly out of the Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport, Maine, wearing a blue sport coat, open collar shirt and slacks. He waved to onlookers before getting into a waiting sports utility vehicle.

The chief justice, 52, plans to continue his summer vacation, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. She said that doctors found no cause for concern after evaluating Roberts.

Roberts was hospitalized after he fell on a dock near his summer home on Hupper Island, near Port Clyde, Maine. He had a prior unexplained seizure in 1993. Bush had called Roberts earlier Tuesday, and press secretary Tony Snow said that the president was assured the chief justice was doing well.

Breitbart

Roberts had a bit of a scare yesterday, but apparently he is doing fine. Thank God.

Oh, how I hope they find something on this guy.  It would be so sweet to see him go down.

Stevens, 83, is the longest-serving Republican senator. Federal investigators previously confirmed they were reviewing the renovation project that more than doubled the size of Stevens’ home in Girdwood, the southernmost part of Anchorage.

The remodeling in 2000 was overseen by Bill Allen, a contractor who has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators. Allen is founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.

In Washington, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko confirmed FBI and IRS agents “are conducting a court authorized search warrant in Girdwood, Alaska.” He referred additional questions to the FBI office in Anchorage.

A law enforcement official familiar with the case confirmed the raid was on Stevens’ home, and focused on records related to the ongoing VECO investigation.

The Seattle Times

A little history

During the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas, respondent Johnson participated in a political demonstration to protest the policies of the Reagan administration and some Dallas-based corporations. After a march through the city streets, Johnson burned an American flag while protesters chanted. No one was physically injured or threatened with injury, although several witnesses were seriously offended by the flag burning. Johnson was convicted of desecration of a venerated object in violation of a Texas statute, and a State Court of Appeals affirmed. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed, holding that the State, consistent with the First Amendment, could not punish Johnson for burning the flag in these circumstances. The court first found that Johnson’s burning of the flag was expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.

Burning the flag is the highest form of irony and stupidity. You are burning an object that is a symbol of the freedom that gives you to the right to burn the flag in the first place. I am not for a flag burning amendment, flag burners do more harm to their cause when they burn the flag. But The Supreme Court ruled in 1989 in Texas v. Johnson that flag burning is protected as free speech under the First Amendment.

This brings us to the present and Stanislav Shmulevich, a student at Pace University.

From lgf.

I’ve received an email from Stanislav Shmulevich, who has been arrested in New York for putting a Koran in a toilet at Pace University. And his case is even more outrageous than we first reported.

First, Shmulevich was arrested and jailed for 24 hours. Second, he’s not facing misdemeanor charges—he’s being charged with two felonies, criminal mischief and aggravated harassment.

Felonies. For putting a book in a toilet.

Third, his income is on a borderline that disqualifies him for a public defender, so he stands to suffer incredible financial hardship as well.

Fourth, his name and photograph were published in several newspapers in New York, and he and his mother were ambushed outside the court by reporters. In a case like this, clearly with the potential to enrage radical Muslims, this is so irresponsible of the media that it borders on criminal.

Do we still live in a country that values free speech? This case is pretty good evidence that we do not. Mr. Shmulevich is caught in a Kafkaesque nightmare right out of the Soviet Union, and it’s all happening at the demand of the Muslim Student Association and the Council on American Islamic Relations.

Stay tuned. This is not over.

Desecrating the flag is protected as free speech but make sure not to flush a Koran down the toilet, we would not want to offend anyone. Wow, just wow.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) came a step closer to suggesting he will not run for president as he praised other Republicans on “Fox News Sunday.”

He confirmed he recently had dinner with Fred Thompson, adding that the former Tennessee senator would be a “very formidable candidate.”

Politico

I figured that Gingrich wouldn’t run if Thompson did.  This isn’t definitive, but it sure looks as if that is how it will turn out.

WASHINGTON — The Senate overwhelmingly passed Sen. Lindsey Graham’s legislation Thursday to spend $3 billion in emergency funds on fortifying the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Senate voted 89-1 for Graham’s amendment to a $37.6 billion appropriations bill for the Homeland Security Department.

“Three billion dollars is serious money to be used in a serious way to regain operational control of the border,” Graham said in an interview after the vote. “The vote was overwhelming because everybody agrees that the broken borders we have today are not in our national security interests.”

Graham’s amendment would provide full funding for 700 miles of fencing on the southern border, hiring 23,000 more Customs and Border Patrol agents and building detention facilities to hold an additional 45,000 illegal immigrants.

The State

Interesting.  Perhaps Grahamnesty is finally feeling the heat from the folks back home.

Another aide to Fred Thompson’s campaign-in-waiting resigned last night, two sources close to the campaign confirm.  Tom Frechette had been effectively serving as campaign manager Tom Collamore’s deputy.  Collamore was removed from his post Tuesday and given a “senior adviser” role.  Like Collamore, Frechhette was said to have chafed under the heavy influence of Thompson’s wife, Jeri.

Politico

It seems that something is going on behind the scenes, but as to what, it’s hard to tell.  Of course, Thompson still has yet to even officially declare his running.

I can see why some Republicans are considering dropping out of the GOP debate when you have questions like these.

“For anybody not under a government health program, it provides the resources to access health coverage,” Burr said in an interview this morning.

The proposal calls for raising money by taxing the health-care benefits that many workers now receive through their employers. Those health premiums now are tax-free.

The money then would be used by the U.S. Treasury to offer refundable tax credits. Individuals would receive $2,160, or up to $5,400 per family.

For those with employment-based coverage, the credits would be enough to cover the tax bill on all but the richest insurance plans, Burr said.

For people without employment-based health care, the tax credits could be used to pay for private health insurance or other health-care costs.

Raleigh News & Observer

Putting aside the fact that the Federal Government has absolutely no business whatsoever being involved in anyone’s health care, this bill is a tax increase. Sure, they may give you a credit, if I am reading this right, when you file your taxes, but that is after the end of the year when you get your lump sum refund. The tax will be steadily coming out of your check throughout the year I assume, so you are paying piece by piece each week and waiting for the government to give you your money back later on. No thanks.

Besides, I don’t see this passing the Senate anyway, because when they say the credit will cover the cost of all but the richest health care plans, they are talking about union members. The Democrats will never go for that.

A U.S. judge on Thursday struck down as unconstitutional a local law designed to crack down on illegal immigration, dealing a blow to similar laws passed by dozens of towns and cities across the country.

U.S. District Judge James Munley said the city of Hazleton, 100 miles north of Philadelphia, was not allowed to implement a law that would fine businesses that hire illegal immigrants and penalize landlords who rent rooms to them.

“Federal law prohibits Hazleton from enforcing any of the provisions of its ordinances,” Munley wrote in a 206-page opinion following a federal trial in which Hazleton’s law was challenged by civil rights groups.

Reuters

Not good.  I wonder if Barletta will take it to the Supreme Court.

It seems we are talking with Iran. But I thought Senator Obama said the administration was lacking for not doing so.

President Bush would veto a multibillion-dollar House bill extending government farm and nutrition programs because it doesn’t do enough to reduce subsidies to growers, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Wednesday.

Charlotte Observer

Why is the Federal Government subsidizing farmers at all?  Where is that in the Constitution?  This bill prevents subsidies to farmers with incomes of more than $1 million a year, so a farmer who makes $750,000 deserves a subsidy?  The only true reform is to completely eliminate the subsidies altogether.

Johanns also criticized a proposal by Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, to pay for $4 billion in nutrition and food stamp programs by taxing overseas businesses that have subsidiaries in the United States. Doggett is on the Ways and Means Committee, which is charged with finding the nutrition money.

“I find it unacceptable to raise taxes to pay for a farm bill that contains virtually no reform,” Johanns said.

Republicans on the Agriculture panel have supported the committee bill but have said they would not want to vote for a bill that raises taxes.

Johanns praised a proposed amendment by Reps. Ron Kind, D-Wis., Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and others to further cut back on subsidies and steer more money toward conservation, aid for specialty crops like fruits and vegetables, and nutrition and rural development programs.

“We see that as a real attempt at reform,” Johanns said.

Kind’s effort, which he said could cost $13 billion less, has divided Democrats and caused concern among farm-state lawmakers who argue it would devastate agricultural programs and cost the party its newly won majority.

Well, at least they just admitted what is actually important to them

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) plans to review the Senate testimony of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel A. Alito to determine if their reversal of several long-standing opinions conflicts with promises they made to senators to win confirmation.

Specter, who championed their confirmation, said Tuesday he will personally re-examine the testimony to see if their actions in court match what they told the Senate.

The Politico

Once again you can count on Arlen Specter to suck up to the far left and spit on the American people.  He is accusing Roberts and Alito of not living up to their promise to respect precedent.  Well, if that precedent was a bad decision, why should it be held up?  Should the Supreme Court have held up Plessy v Ferguson in 1954 so that we would still have segregated schools today?

The idea for a review came to Specter when he said he ran into Justice Stephen G. Breyer at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado.

Breyer, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, drew attention last month for suggesting that Roberts and the conservative majority were flouting stare decisis, the legal doctrine that, for the sake of stability, courts should generally leave past decisions undisturbed.

“It is not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much,” Breyer said, reading his dissent from the bench to a 5-4 ruling that overturned school desegregation policies in two cities.

Oh, cry about it.  This is coming from the man who looks to international laws to base his decisions.  Breyer deserves to be removed from the court simply for that.  When have we seen conservative Supreme Court justices going around bad mouthing the left leaning ones on the court?  Where were the probes into Breyer, Stephens, Ginsburg, and Souter when they upheld eminent domain for nonessential government use?  Or how about when they stepped on the First Amendment by upholding CFR?

I sure hope George Bush is still proud of himself for keeping Specter in the Senate.

This story is gaining more traction but I doubt it will have lasting effects. His spokesmen have denied it to their chagrin but Fred has used the weak “lawyers don’t always agree with their clients” defense.

I can’t help but post this eBay auction for The Ultimate Boxed G1 Transformers Collection. 275 items total: 101 Autobots, 81 Decepticons, and 92 Transformers Licensed Products all in mint condition for the low, low price of $1,000,000.

Another expansion of government by another RINO on the Left Coast.

Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith wants to increase federal cigarette taxes to expand children’s health insurance.

If approved, his plan to raise the tax as much as 60 cents a pack could couple with a proposed state increase to leave smokers paying an extra $1.45 a pack to light up.

Smith’s announcement on Tuesday follows his endorsement last week of Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s proposal to expand the state’s children health insurance program by increasing tobacco taxes 84.5 cents a pack.

“For a country as wonderful as ours, it is to me unthinkable that there are so many children who go without basic healthcare,” said Smith, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the health care program.

The Oregonian

I agree, Gordon, it is a shame, but it’s not your job to be their nanny. A child’s health care is the responsibility of his parents, not the Federal government. The more of a role Washington keeps taking in parenting America’s children, the less responsible parents are going to become.

This legislation is also running concurrent to another piece of legislation by the Socialist Democrats to increase the Federal Cigar Tax from five cents to TEN DOLLARS. That’s right, a 20,000 percent increase, for the children. It is always for the children, after all.

For those of you political junkies out there 18 Dougherty Street, an online video platform in the UK, has an interesting panel on the upcoming By Elections in the UK and how the blogosphere across the pond is making a difference. The two big races are Sedgefield, Tony Blair’s old seat, and Ealing Southall which is a majority minority district that has never elected a Conservative.

Onslow County Commissioner, Joe McLaughlin, has entered the race for North Carolina’s Third Congressional District, challenging incumbent Walter Jones in the Republican Primary. McLaughlin claims he is running against Jones in response to Jones’ leftward shift over the past few years and frequent siding with Democrats on key votes. On McLaughlin’s Web site he does not indicate where he stands on the issues as of yet.

Politico notes that Jones has raised a poor amount of cash in the second quarter for being a primary election target, however, McLaughlin has raised even less than Jones.

Gold’s book is a scathing look at the depths to which the present Republican Party has fallen and the way George W. Bush and his Vice President, Dick Cheney, have come to represent everything that Republicans have fought against from the days when Lincoln first led the party.

Gold makes no bones about it. He wants the present GOP to die so it can be born again to its former principles. The elections of 2008 are likely to bring out masses of Democrats who feel rejuvenated by the failures and missteps of the White House and the GOP. The recently reported falloff of financial support for the GOP, estimated to be as high as forty percent, might actually suggest they’re doing something wrong.

More than a few Republicans who simply do not want to live in an America that intrudes into the most private decisions of people’s lives, that throws overboard the Constitutional protections of privacy, judicial protections, and whose elected representatives have engaged in an orgy of spending, are desperately seeking real conservative leadership.

The American Conservative Union Foundation

I strongly recommend reading Caruba’s article in its entirety as it is truly an eye opener to just how far off the track the Republican Party has gotten, especially under President Bush. While I agree with Caruba’s observations and future consequences if the party does not restructure itself, I take difference with his opinion of how to resolve it.

Mr. Caruba feels that in order for the Republican Party to return to its small government roots conservatives need to withhold their votes from Republicans. Losing, presumably badly, will be what it takes for the party apparatus to open its eyes and recognize its own failures. While he is probably correct I think there are likely better ways to go about it and achieve the same results.

There needs to be more primaries and people at the grassroots level need to be more active in recruiting for them and putting in the time to give them the momentum they need to bring on a formidable challenge to an incumbent who has sold out the voters. This can accomplish a purified party without sacrificing the GOP’s influence in legislation.

The problem with simply staying home on Election Day is that it gives more power to the Democrats to put forth their Socialist agenda, and therein lies the danger. There are a countless number of government programs that have been around for decades which spurn mediocre or failed results that we have been unable to do away with time and time again. President Bush envisioned a plan far superior to Social Security, but it went nowhere. Does anyone honestly want to punish Republicans for a few years by giving the Democrats a hefty enough majority if the end result will be the annihilation of our health care by the socialist party forcing us into a single payer system? Remember, we’ll be stuck with it for life.

This is the danger of Caruba’s position, but I support the same goal he is trying to reach.

Republican Melissa Hart is planning a comeback bid to regain the congressional seat she lost to upstart Democrat Jason Altmire, according to sources with whom the former congresswoman has spoken.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

While I have met Melissa Hart several times and think she is a very pleasant individual, this is not the news I wanted to hear. Her Congressional record on fiscal discipline is abominable. She was apart of the status quo Republicans that kept on voting to spend, spend, and spend some more. When Jeff Flake introduced his 19 pork stripping amendments last July, Hart voted against every single one of them. I think I even wrote a post on here blasting her and Congressman Tim Murphy (PA-18) for their votes as I was living in Pittsburgh at the time.

I don’t know what her chances are. PA-4 is about an even R/D district, but leans slightly to the right. Hart only lost re-election by 4%. She could reclaim. Several Congressmen in the past have done it so it’s not unheard of. I just think maybe they could have found someone a little more reliable.