Taft signs

Patriot Act for Ohio

On Wednesday, Gov. Bob Taft signed what critics call the Ohio Patriot Act, a package of laws that its

sponsor, Sen. Jeff Jacobson, R-Butler Twp., said “will put Ohio on the front lines of fighting terrorism.”

Among its provisions,

the legislation, effective in April, will create criminal offenses for terrorism, allow police to require ID to enter a transportation

hub, and prohibit people in public places from refusing to disclose their name, address or date of birth to police when the officer

suspects the person witnessed or is involved in a violent felony.

The bill will also require those seeking state contracts,

employment or some licenses to fill out a questionnaire affirming that they are not involved in terrorism. [mjh: also

known as a “loyalty oath”.]

I had read that there was also a provision to discourage local

governments from expressing their objection to the USA (gag me) PATRIOT Act, as many cities — including Santa Fe — have done. mjh

mjh’s blog —

Ohio Patriot Act

In Ga., Abramoff Scandal Threatens a Political Ascendancy By

Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post Staff Writer

One of the most damaging e-mails was sent by Abramoff to partner Michael Scanlon,

complaining about Reed’s billing practices and expenditure claims: “He is a bad version of us! No more money for him.”

…

After Reed first entered national politics as executive director of the Christian Coalition, he described to the Norfolk

Virginian-Pilot his tactics in mobilizing Christian conservatives to sway elections: “I want to be invisible. I do guerrilla warfare. I

paint my face and travel at night. You don’t know it’s over until you’re in a body bag. You don’t know until election night.”

Protecting Abortion Rights by ELLEN GOODMAN

This is the only

clinic in the state and this is the only day in the week when a woman can get an abortion in South Dakota. Today, they’ll be treated by

one of four doctors flown in from Minneapolis because it’s impossible to recruit locally. …

One clinic, one day, one

doctor. [mjh: for an entire state.] This is what it’s like in South Dakota right now under

Roe v. Wade. It’s also like this in North Dakota and Mississippi, and not very different in Arkansas or a dozen other states.

Anti-abortion lobbyists here boast that South Dakota is the legislative laboratory for testing and imposing state restrictions. …

It goes without saying that South Dakota is one of seven states with a “trigger law” ready to ban abortion if Roe is overturned.

But something else requires saying: it’s possible to add so many burdens onto the back of Roe that it collapses without ever being

overturned. …

But the question is not just whether [Alito would] overturn Roe. It’s whether he’d let it be

crushed. In 10 years, more than 400 state regulations have been added and more are coming. When do burdens that force

women to state-shop for their rights become “undue”?

How does a law that allow police to arrest you if you don’t show an ID *and* requires a loyalty

oath *and* discourages municipalities from expressing opposition to the USA PATRIOT ACT (a deceitful name) — how does such a law get

passed “with barely a word of dissent”? Because people are scared and legislators are scared of the people. We have nothing to fear but

fear itself. mjh

FOXNews.com –

Politics – New Ohio Law Allows Cops to Request ID

Ohio Republican Gov. Bob Taft on Wednesday signed a bill into law passed by

the state legislature with barely a word of dissent. Supporters of the state’s security measure, which takes effect in 90 days, say

it’s a tool the state can use in fighting terrorism. …

But dissent is building over authority given to police officers, who can

now ask, “What’s your name?” as a tool to fight terrorism. Failure to identify oneself could land an individual in jail.

Critics

call the measure the Ohio Patriot Act. The law also requires those applying for state driver’s licenses to sign a form that they

haven’t supported terrorist organizations.

mjh’s

blog — Let Me See Your ID

US News Article | Reuters.com
By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The U.S. government

paved the way on Wednesday for oil drilling in an Alaskan region used by migrating caribou and birds, three weeks after Congress blocked

energy development in the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Interior Department gave final approval to develop the

Teshekpuk Lake region, setting up an oil-lease sale in September. The decision came a year after the Bureau of Land Management

recommended drilling in the region, which lies west of the wildlife refuge on Alaska’s North Slope.

Teshekpuk’s 389,000 acres

had been protected from oil exploration since the Reagan Administration. In 1998, when former President Bill Clinton opened some areas of

the North Slope to the oil industry, the Teshekpuk Lake area was kept off-limits.

Alito’s club ties prove

troubling decades later Ruben Navarrette Jr.

I’m troubled by three things in all this: that Alito could have been a member of

such an exclusionary group in the first place; that he saw fit to brag about being a member to win favor with the right-wing

hard-liners in the Reagan Justice Department, many of whom took on the dismantling of affirmative action programs as a pet project; and

that he refuses to own up to this now by claiming that he doesn’t remember the first thing about the group.

That, I don’t like.

Alito Disavows

Controversial Group
Nominee Touted His Membership in 1985
By Dale Russakoff, Washington Post Staff Writer

As a Princeton

alumnus and professional basketball player, Bill Bradley in 1973 renounced his membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton, calling it a

“right wing” organization that opposed the admission of women and minorities to the school.

Two years later, another distinguished

alumnus and future U.S. senator, Bill Frist, co-wrote a report denouncing the group for “grossly inaccurate” attacks on the school’s

policies and a “narrow ideological perspective” that had done “a disservice to the university.”