President Bush hasn't vetoed a single bill, a modern day record for veto-free government.

Although the streak could end next month - Mr. Bush is threatening a veto if Congress eases his restrictions on federal funding for stem-cell research - the Bush era thus far underscores a historically high-water mark of collegial cooperation between Congress and the White House, experts say.

Given the bloat of the Highway Bill, perhaps divided government isn't such a bad idea after all.

In this all-new episode of Imperial Judges, North Carolina joins Kansas as states where education funding is directed by His Royal Highness from behind a court bench.

This judge does not have the power to tell the legislature how much money to spend, no matter how much he wants that power. The legislature should absolutely ignore him and do their job. In a more perfect world, the legislature would start proceedings to remove the judge for him attempting to usurp the power of the legislature.

I much agree. The Legislative branch must act, and forcefully, to assert the soverign power of the People over the Judiciary. Throughout the country. (And no, this doesn't mean that the minority party gets to determine who goes on the Supreme Court...if you think so, go back to first grade and re-learn what "democracy" means.)

This is un-freakin-believable. After taking their houses via eminent domain to build a shopping center, New London, Connecticut now has the temerity to charge the former homeowners back rent!

The U.S. Supreme Court recently found that the city's original seizure of private property was constitutional under the principal of eminent domain, and now New London is claiming that the affected homeowners were living on city land for the duration of the lawsuit and owe back rent. It's a new definition of chutzpah: Confiscate land and charge back rent for the years the owners fought confiscation.

In some cases, their debt could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Moreover, the homeowners are being offered buyouts based on the market rate as it was in 2000.

This gives new meaning to "outrage."

Quincy is on this. As is Coyote Blog, BizzyBlog, and Catallarchy.

Original headsup via Reason Hit and Run.

Elsewhere in this episode of Imperial Judges: Ohio judge freaks out over criticism:

"Former Ohio attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner and the editor of a news blog, Bryan DuBois of Sandusky, Ohio, have been charged with intimidation and retaliation because a judge filed a complaint against them, claiming that he was intimidated by them and their charges of judicial corruption."

To allay his feelings of persecution, this "Jurist" has had the pair incarcerated, and has barred any communication with the outside world or with one another. Forget that silly ol' Constitution thingy - "that don't apply if'n you're a-talkin' 'bout me!" What, is this guy Judge Roy Bean? Is he on Indian Territory, or not otherwise subject to U.S. Code?

Perhaps it's time for a good solid discussion of the Second Amendment and the root causes of the American Revolution. Oops, that's probably "intimidating" too for the Right Honorable Judge Richard Markus.

via No Government Cheese.

Update: The Ohio Supreme Court has slapped down Judge Richard Markus and his lapdog proscecutor Mark Mulligan.

In what appears to be an ongoing attempt to taint a potential jury pool and wrongly use the criminal justice system and his public office to malign and attempt to discredit a critic who has levied charges of public corruption against him, Ottawa County prosecutor Mark Mulligan last week again attempted to ridicule and prejudice his critic and nemesis, former attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner by stating that her handwritten motion to dismiss charges of criminal contempt filed against her by a judge were the “chaotic ramblings of a disturbed person”.

The reason the motion was handwritten was because at the time it was filed, Baumgartner was incarcerated at the Cuyahoga County Jail in northern Ohio, having been indicted on numerous felony counts of intimidation, retaliation and possession of a criminal tool, a laptop computer, for having criticized visiting retired judge Richard Markus, 75, when he was presiding in a civil case against her last fall.

She was being held on an unlawful detainer of $360,000 cash only bond---such high bails allowed by law only in capital cases, a violation of the Eighth Amendment which states that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

First woman selected as President's head chef:

Cristeta Comerford was chosen from hundreds of applicants to head the executive kitchen. A naturalized U.S. citizen from the Philippines, she will be the first woman and first minority to hold the post.

Comerford has been an assistant chef at the White House for 10 years. She worked under former executive chef Walter Scheib III, who resigned in February.

Researchers discover that yes, richer people are happier.

The results showed that the richer people were relative to their peers of the same age, the happier they tended to be.

Glen Firebaugh, from Pennsylvania State University, who led the study, said: "We find, with and without controls, that the higher the income of others in one's age group, the lower one's happiness.

Oxygen loss probed in crash of Cypriot airliner in Greece:

A man whose cousin was a passenger said he received a cell phone text message minutes before the crash. ''He told me the pilots were unconscious. ... He said: "Farewell, cousin, here we're frozen," Sotiris Voutas said -- indicating the plane was cold, a sign of decompression.

There are no good ways to die, but this sounds more horrible than most. Eerily reminiscent of Payne Stewart's demise.

OpinionJournal :

Absolutist interpretation of free-speech rights, with no injunction against "shouting fire in a crowded theater," has protected extremists such as Mr. Qatada and Omar Bakri Mohammed, who recently fled Britain after two decades of preaching hatred and violence. Allowing Muslims to practice their religion freely is the act of a free society. But looking the other way while radical clerics praise suicide bombers in Israel and America and encourage their acolytes to attack their neighbors is an abdication of governmental responsibility.

For every right there is a responsibility. If you want to preach hatred, do not be surprised when the mob with torches and pitchforks (or, in Texas, shotguns) arrive at your doorstep telling you to shut up.

Israel begins removing settlers from Gaza:

Israeli troops fired in the air Monday to keep back hundreds of Palestinians, including a few dozen masked gunmen, who were marching toward southern Gaza's Gush Katif bloc of settlements in celebration of the impending withdrawal. The crowd burned a cardboard model of an Israeli settlement, complete with an army watchtower.

I suppose it's too much to ask that the Palestinians accept this Israeli peace gesture with some small amount of decorum.

Bush's neighbor engages in some firearms practice:

While about 60 in Sheehan's group held a religious service Sunday morning, a nearby landowner, Larry Mattlage, fired his shotgun twice into the air. Sheriff's deputies and Secret Service agents rushed to his house but did not arrest him.

"I ain't threatening nobody, and I ain't pointing a gun at nobody," Mattlage said. "This is Texas."

Mattlage said he was initially sympathetic toward the demonstrators, but that they have blocked roads in the area and caused traffic problems. He said he fired his gun in preparation for the dove-hunting season, but when asked if he had another motive, he said, "Figure it out for yourself."

No Government Cheese has it about right:

Heh.

Louisiana Libertarian has also had enough:

f you want the latest on that woman out in Texas who is disgracing the memory of her son to score political points, go somewhere else. This blog will not give her the platform her and her allies desire.

Henceforth and with appropriate hat-tip to Louisiana Libertarian, should I be forced to comment About That Woman In Texas and her far-out pals, I'll use the acronym TWIT. Should you think that acronym is unseemly to use for a "grieving mother," just go check out what TWIT has said about Israel, for instance. I don't think losing a son in Iraq is a license to spew anti-Semitic rhetoric. Saying that, I'm not sure that shooting off a shotgun is necessarily a good idea either.

Little Green Footballs has everything you really need to know about TWIT, mercifully relieving from me the need to comment further. I'm outa here on this topic.

A bill was signed into law last week by President Bush. I bet you haven't heard of it. This bill requires essentially all prescriptions to be gathered into government databases. If you're taking Prozac, Big Brother will know.

Todd over at Dangerous Liberty makes a point:

While standards and penalities for misuse of information are in supposedly a part of this bill, once the data has been misused, a penalty on the abuser doesn't undo the damage.

While I think Todd's inital reaction of "another reason to hate Bush" is a bit knee-jerk, he does modify that somewhat from "hate" to "extremely dislike". I'll agree that it's time for the libertarian right to crank up the heat on this Administration and this Congress on the whole spectrum of issues. That's why it's so frustrating that the Loony Left gets all the press.

There are serious issues out there but nobody wants to discuss them seriously. As usual, the Republicans get the words right but can't quite ever seem to do the right thing in the end.

Update: As Todd notes his original post was that it was a "valid reason to hate Bush" not "another reason . . . "--as opposed to the BS reasons dredged up by the Left. His comment regarding this is in, well, the Comments.