From the Heron's Nest Saturday morning...

The Pick: Make it Eagles 19, Giants 17. Just another knock-down, drag 'em out typical NFC East dustup. I think the Birds come out on top at home.

WaPo columnist: Racism could sway the election. I suppose so. Especially if African American voters refuse to vote for the white candidate in very large numbers.

Spencerblog can do this all by hisself. The print column is up.

UPDATE: An interview with the filmmaker. Sounds like a pretty decent liberal to me.

UPDATE II: The critics aren't giving this film much love. But then critics gave "The Master" raves. Regular moviegoers not so much. The non ravers include Mrs. Spencerblog and Daughter of Spencerblog. They hated "The Master."

Spencerblog nominates Frank J. Flemming to argue for the plaintiffs in the Pennsylvania Voter ID case. Here he is answering Frequently Asked Questions from an obviously deranged voter.

Should we take extra measures to combat voter fraud, then? I thought I 
heard that you don’t even need a photo ID to vote.

No, requiring a photo ID is a stupid idea.

Why? It just seems like common sense.

No, it’s racist sense.

How in the world is that racist?

Think about it: Why would someone want an ID with a photo of you on it? So they could see by the photo what race you are.

I’m not sure you’re making any sense.

Fighting racism is so important that you can’t always worry about making sense. Anyway, another reason photo IDs are racist is that minorities have trouble getting photo IDs.

Why would minorities have a hard time getting photo IDs?

Because… um… minority stuff that you just wouldn’t understand, cracker.

Considering all the things one needs a photo ID for, such as writing a check, boarding an airplane, and even purchasing cold medicine, if people care about minorities, shouldn’t they focus on getting them photo IDs rather than blocking the requirement for having a photo ID to vote?

No, because… um…

This is pointless. This type of voter fraud never even happens anyway. It’s science fiction. I mean, someone going to the polls and pretending to be someone else is like some sort of space alien that changes shape — that’s just crazy.

To me it seems like a really easy way to commit voter fraud that should be prevented.

No, that’s crazy, and you’re crazy. The type of voter fraud I mentioned earlier is the kind where Dick Cheney and Diebold work together to reprogram voting machines, or like when the Republicans confused old people with a butterfly ballot.

I thought the butterfly ballot was made by a Democrat and that it was so simple that even children had no problem with it.

No, that’s… shut up. The point is, the 2000 presidential election was stolen.

UPDATE: More here

Aston Township vs. Anthony Bellosi. My print column is up.

Headline: Delco not following lead of neighbors on Voter ID

Delaware County officials have no plans to follow actions made by two other counties that have decided to issue photo identification cards to any residents through county-affiliated nursing homes or colleges.

Last week, officials in Democratic-controlled Montgomery and Allegheny counties announced they would issue photo ID cards to any residents who want them through county-affiliated nursing homes or colleges.

First, since when is Allegheny county a "neighbor" to Delco?

Second, as the story makes clear, Philadelphia county officials are not "following the lead" of these two renegade counties either. Issuing photo IDs to people who have no actual affiliation with said colleges or nursing homes violates the clear requirements of the law. If Democrats want to weaken or get rid of the new law, they should elect more representatives and win a majority in the state legislature.

Furthermore, the lawsuit filed against the law has obviously failed. The Supreme Court has sent the case back to the judge who ruled it legal in the first place for review and the advice:

if Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson believes no registered voters will be prevented from casting a ballot. Otherwise, the high court said it should be halted.

But, of course, no registered voter will be prevented from "casting a ballot." Even without ID, according to the law, voters are allowed to cast a provisional ballot.

The state has streamlined the system of granting photo IDs so the actions taken by Democratic politicians Montgomery and Allegheny counties can be seen for what they are; partisan attempts to win an election at the expense of campus and nursing home security. Not to mention the security of the ballot box.

Maybe that's the reason not even Democratic-controlled Philadelphia is following this "lead."

UPDATE: The AP sez new Voter ID laws could delay outcome in a close election.

Of course they could. Provisional ballots and all that. But better to get it right than have the election stolen by either party.

The president speaks out against "root causes" of Muslim outrage: American free speech. Disgusting.

UPDATE: The AP claims...

... he strongly defended the U.S. Constitution's protection of the freedom of expression, "even views that we profoundly disagree with."

If this is his idea of defending the 1st Amendment, he really couldn't care less about it.

Washington Post "fact checker" gets "four pinocchios" from Washington Post columnist.

... and say 'so long' to the American Dream too.

It's time to retire the American Dream -- or at least give it a long vacation. We ought to drop it from our national conversation. This would be a hardship for politicians and pundits, who use "the American Dream" as a rhetorical workhorse embodying goals embraced by almost all Americans. That's the problem. The American Dream has become so expansive in its meaning that it stifles honest debate and harms some of the very people it is intended to help.

At least Washington is doing well even if it's not doing good.

Chester Township comes to its senses; helps Angela Prattis feed neighborhood kids.

Teacher unions' leaders give themselves a "gold star" for going on strike in Chicago. The WSJ gives them the space to pat themselves on the back for sticking it to the taxpayers. Skip their drivel and go right to the comments. Vox populi.

Voter distrust of the media hits new high...

And Obama calls it "reprehensible and disgusting" Oh, wait. No, he doesn't. Such outrage is only expressed for "art" that offends Islam.

UPDATE: By the way, the ads the Obama Administration is running in Pakistan trying to explain how Americans believe in "religious tolerance" are ridiculous. The protesters and terrorists in these countries HATE RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE. They DON'T BELIEVE IN IT!

What part of Sharia Law doesn't this administration understand? Bin laden is dead. Bin ladenism is alive, spreading, ugly and dangerous.

Making a federal hate-crimes case out of an intra-sect religious spat. This sounds like a simple assault case. Maybe throw in a couple of harassment or terrorist threats charges. But a hate crime?

Is it a hate crime when an Amish community shuns on of their own?

Is it a hate crime when the Catholic church denies communion to a pro-abortion politician?

Is it a hate crime when a black person shoots another black person for playin' the dozens?  

I keep getting all those Obama Campaign emails from?

He's creepy.

Pedophiles are expert liars and deceivers. They have to be to survive. My print column is up.

In the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell explains why pedophile cases are really, really hard - the Sandusky case included.

Gladwell notes that even seasoned psychologists are fooled by some pedophiles who are very good at deceiving people. They are also experts at exploiting naive and vulnerable people, including the parents of their victims.

Read the whole thing here. And learn something.


 

Reason's Jacob Sullum sez:

Sandra Fluke’s claim to fame, aside from provoking Rush Limbaugh's misogynistic ire, is that she chose to attend Georgetown Law School, knowing full well that the Catholic university's student health plan did not cover birth control, and then demanded that the policy be changed, under force of law, as a matter of "reproductive justice." Although Fluke could have picked a different school, she told The Washington Post last February, "I decided I was absolutely not willing to compromise the quality of my education in exchange for my health care." 

Fluke's sense of entitlement and her casual resort to the use of force made her an ideal speaker for last week's Democratic National Convention, where she was joined by many others who believe justice requires that they receive whatever they want (including automaker bailouts and cheap student loans), even if other people have to pay for it. This mentality is so pervasive among Democrats that they seem unable to distinguish between defending rights and soliciting subsidies.

They don't call it Reason for nothing. Read it all.

In Radnor, rabid skunk attacks old lady. Here's the video...

Captain America becomes Commander in Chief. Hulk to head Health and Human Services.

Welcome to the first installment of Spencerfakts. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Mark Steyn:

So, on a highly symbolic date, mobs storm American diplomatic facilities and drag the corpse of a U.S. ambassador through the streets. Then the president flies to Vegas for a fundraiser.

Read it all.

UPDATE: More from Andrew McCarthy:

Democrats and their sharky Obamedia defense lawyers are in a snit. For three dreamy convention days in Charlotte, they told themselves that, for the first time in decades, it was their guy who had the upper hand when it came to national security. Now that bubble has burst, the way contrived narratives do when they crash into concrete challenges. At that point, an airy president of the world won’t do; we need to have a president of the United States, a job that has never suited, and has never been of much interest to, Barack Obama.

Defense against foreign enemies is the primary job of the president of the United States. The rationale for the office’s creation is national defense — not green venture capitalism, not rationing medical care, not improving the self-image of the “Muslim world,” not leaving no child behind, not blowing out the Treasury’s credit line. Yet, though we are entering the late innings, foreign policy and national defense have not been factors in the 2012 campaign.

The violence directed at Americans embassies in the Middle East is not the fault of the President's feckless foreign policy and HE should NOT be criticized. So demands the MSM of the Romney campaign.

Pathetic.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, there was no media outrage when candidate Obama used the deaths of 9 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan to criticize the Bush/McCain foreign policy in 2008.

It's really nPa. Dems say Voter ID is no big problem.

CARLISLE, Pa. -- As a volunteer for President Obama's campaign in this suburban enclave tucked into the rolling hills of Cumberland County, Elisabeth Sims asks every prospective voter she contacts whether he or she is aware of Pennsylvania’s new voter identification law. 

Obama staffers have coached Sims to offer instructions for obtaining an acceptable form of ID, but the only requests for assistance she’s fielded in the past month of phone banking and door-to-door canvassing have been from elderly or disabled residents who need a ride to the polls on Election Day. 

“In my phone calls, I haven’t had one person who’s said that they didn’t have ID, and I’ve made hundreds of calls,” Sims said.

As I wrote here, Voter ID works without disenfranchising anyone.

Of course, telling Democratic voters that Republicans want to suppress their vote maybe a good motivational tool, especially since this president hasn't given Democrats much to vote for besides high unemployment and socking it to the rich." But you use what you've got in an election cycle.

This is the face and the voice of Chicago's striking public school teachers. They must be very proud.

Our con men are getting dumber and dumber. What made David Palmer think he could walk into an empty foreclosed upon U.D. home, take possession of it and rent it, without getting arrested?

He makes Gennaro Rauso look like Bernie Madoff.

Meanwhile in the comments, "Mandingo" claims:

Other nationalities do this all day long, but you never here (sic) about it. But as soon as Black people "get hip" to it. (sic) The rules change. In fact, to all you hater's (sic), did you know that Muslim's (sic) dont (sic) pay any interest on mortgage's (sic) , it's against there (sic) religion. So, dont (sic) hate because were (sic) using the laws to work for us. Talk to your congressman.

I spent numerous hours (and columns: see here and here for examples) making sure that the criminal hijinks of Mr. Rauso (an Italian-American) were heard about. It still took federal prosecutors years to put him away.

As for the claim that Muslims don't pay any interest on their mortgages, it being against their religion and all, don't you believe it. Plenty of Muslims in this country purchase homes by qualifying for and paying interest on their mortgages. There are a few Muslim banks that operate under Shaira law, that don't permit "interest" payments but they make financial arrangements that amount to interest payments even if they don't call them that. Otherwise how would they stay in business? In Minnesota, there is a program for devout Muslims that helps them purchase a home without interest payments. They do it by having them pay the interest upfront. That also means, I believe, that these new homeowners have to forego the mortgage interest deduction provided by the Great Satan.

But definitely ask your congressman about this. Congressional staff can always use a good laugh.

Thanks to slavery. And I thought it was the welfare state and lawyers. Silly me.

P.S. Is Dylan aware that slavery abounded in the world long before the U.S. was even founded? If so, why not "World ruined thanks to stigma of slavery"?

Why did his grandson express such contempt for him?

UPDATE:

“How can the African defeat the white man,” Onyango would tell his son Barack Sr., “when he cannot even make his own bicycle?” In Onyango's words, "The white man alone is like an ant. He can be easily crushed. But like an ant, the white man works together. His nation, his business--these things are more important to him than himself....Black men are not like this. Even the most foolish black man thinks he knows better than the white man. That is why the black man will always lose."

But not if he's running for President of the United States, is half white and presents himself as a post-racial man, able to bequeath racial absolution to whites for the sins of their ancestors.

I think we can all agree that it was wrong for a Hooters restaurant employee to refer to an Asian-American couple as "Chinx."

I think we can all agree that it was stupid of the employee to type "Chinx" in the place on the receipt that IDs their customers.

I think we can all agree that the server responsible should be either disciplined or fired.

But can we also agree that it would be wrong and conniving for the victim of this slur to collect a cash settlement for the pain and suffering he allegedly endured for having been referred to in this way by a Hooters server?

I mean really.

Kisuk Cha, of Philadelphia, an unemployed computer programmer who immigrated to the U.S. 12 years ago, certainly has learned a thing or two about the ways of America. He has learned that when one is the victim of the ignorant stupidity of a 17-year-old girl you go after her employer and try to get money. That is the American way.

According to the story :

In the lawsuit, which was filed Monday afternoon in federal court in Brooklyn, Mr. Cha’s lawyer, Daniel D. Baek, elaborated:

“He was so overwhelmed that he just wanted to go to bed to sleep, but was too angry to do so,” Mr. Baek wrote. “This incident has continued to cause him mental anguish. He is haunted by the ridiculing giggles and stares of his persecutor. He does not feel welcome at Hooters and indeed questions whether he is welcomed at any non-Korean establishments.”

The lawsuit names the chain’s parent company, Hooters of America, and the owners of the Hooters franchise in Fresh Meadows. It also includes two employees, one of whom is unidentified and the other of whom is identified only by the name she printed on the receipt, “220 Shenika.” It seeks unspecified damages for violations to Mr. Cha’s “federal, state and common law rights.”

In an interview with New York Times, Mr. Cha said that he was so "distraught" after reading his receipt that he couldn't eat and had to throw the food away.

Hooters corporate launched an immediate investigation. The 17-year-old, ID'ed only by her signing the receipt "220 Shenika," admitted her responsibility and resigned.

So now we have two people out of work. Mr. Cha and "Shenika."

Now, can we all agree that it is likely that Shenika, based on her name alone, is African-American? If so, can we also agree that the number of young African-Americans who are out of work in this country is a national tragedy? As of June the black unemployment rate was over 14 percent. For teenage black kids it's a staggering 39.3.

Wouldn't a better outcome of this situation have been for Mr. Cha to have informed Hooters that a young employee had ignorantly used a racial slur to identify him and his girlfriend and had been so dumb as to put it on a receipt? Mr. Cha then could have suggested this girl be talked to and properly trained so as to avoid such a regrettable mistake in the future. That way, she might have been able to keep her job and learned something to boot.

But then Mr. Cha would have had to foregone the possibility of a cash settlement for his pain and anguish at the hands of a 17-year-old girl. And his lawyer, one Daniel D. Baek, wouldn't have been able to get his name into the New York Times for correcting this important civil rights violation.

Meanwhile, thousands of Asian-Americans in this country today are routinely discriminated against by institutions of higher learning in the name of "diversity." Asian Americans who have better grades and test scores are turned down for admission to elite colleges by admissions officers so that lower-performing, whites, blacks and hispanics can be admitted. 

For more on that story read this.

The department’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating a complaint it received in August that Harvard rejected an Asian-American candidate for the current freshman class based on race or national origin, a department spokesman said. The agency is looking into a similar August 2011 allegation against Princeton as part of a review begun in 2008 of that school’s handling of Asian-American candidates, said the spokesman, who declined to be identified, citing department policy.

The U.S. Education Department is probing complaints that Harvard University and Princeton University discriminate against Asian-Americans in undergraduate admissions.

Hooters obviously takes claims of ethnic discrimination against Asians more seriously than Princeton and Harvard. But then these schools would no doubt be more sensitive in their handling of a young black student who showed Shenika's sort of ignorance toward a fellow classmate. She would be counseled, not thrown out of school. 

Teachers walk in Chicago. Godfather brings a knife to a gunfight.

This is how Democrats behave when they have Secret Service agents to protect them.

What could he be saying to her?

Fact-checking the Dems claim of "saving the American auto industry. Somebody gets it right.

... with the death penalty and it's not all that the scum bag who killed his daughter is still gulping air. My print column is up.

Considering the lousy jobs report and the level of unemployment the last three years, President's Obama harshest critic could be Candidate Obama from 2008.

From the AP: 

CLINTON: "Their campaign pollster said, 'We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.' Now that is true. I couldn't have said it better myself — I just hope you remember that every time you see the ad."

THE FACTS: Clinton, who famously finger-wagged a denial on national television about his sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky and was subsequently impeached in the House on a perjury charge, has had his own uncomfortable moments over telling the truth. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," Clinton told television viewers. Later, after he was forced to testify to a grand jury, Clinton said his statements were "legally accurate" but also allowed that he "misled people, including even my wife."

Can you even believe this trash? Liberals are furious and they have every right and reason to be. This isn't fact-checking. It an ad hominem attack on Clinton's credibility. He lied once so take everything he says with several thousand grains of salt. I mean, I do. And if some other snarky opinion columnist wants to remind people that Clinton is a lying, cheating, snake-oil salesman, they should have at it. But this is supposed to be an objective journalistic exercise in holding politicians accountable for what they just said. And nothing Clinton said in the above quotation is inaccurate. Romney's campaign pollster did say "We're not going to let our campaign by dictated by fact checkers." And good for him.

Bill Clinton is, no doubt, regretting his tribute to the Fact Checkers club. In their silly effort to appear even-handed, the AP attacked Clinton personally and unprofessionally. In so doing, they've only revealed the appalling nature of their project. They are doing journalism a huge disservice. And they need to STOP!

After keeping silent for days about his sensational GOP Convention talk, Clint Eastwood speaks...

“President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”

Who does he think he is? Bill Clinton?



Never mind. Clint's was a lot funnier and less angry than Bill.

... Arthur Bomar would have already been dispatched to his just reward. My print column is up.

During the Benediction at Democratic Convention Cardinal he said:

Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed to us so powerfully in your Son, Jesus Christ, we thank you for showering your blessings upon this our beloved nation. Bless all here present, and all across this great land, who work hard for the day when a greater portion of your justice, and a more ample measure of your care for the poor and suffering, may prevail in these United States. Help us to see that a society’s greatness is found above all in the respect it shows for the weakest and neediest among us.

THE FACT-CHECKER'S FACTS: There is no independent proof that God exists.

Romney turns Clinton on Obama

Obama's speech moving indoors. Because of weather? Or because... HE COULDN'T FILL THAT...

H/t Ann Althouse...

Just watched Bill Clinton and I love him... for reasons I'll explain later.

UPDATE: Ah, hell a picture's worth a thousand words.

He makes Obama look like the rookie he is by comparison.

... James Taranto "fact-checks" Ted Strickland.

Strickland even violated the seasonal armistice in the War on Christmas: "If Mitt [Romney] was Santa Claus," he said, "he'd fire the reindeer and outsource the elves."

THE FACTS: Santa Claus has already outsourced all production to the North Pole, which is not within the U.S. And whereas Claus is portly and has a white beard, Romney is trim and clean-shaven. Thus the premise of Strickland's statement is false. In symbolic logic, a false premise implies anything. We therefore rate Strickland's statement as "true."

Heh!

The Science is in: Organic food no more nutritious than regular chow. It's just another marketing ploy for saps. I heard three freaked-out progs talking about this on NPR the other morning. I felt sorry for them and then went to Burger King.

An oldie but a goody...



And it ain't just Teachers' Unions that are the problem. The simple answer? Make union dues voluntary.

... MoDo gets it wrong again:

Last week, Republicans struggled to answer the Dada question about Mitt Romney: “Can he be human?” This week, Democrats struggle to answer the Dada question about the once-thrilling Obama: “Can he be exciting?” 

The question is: Can he be competent?
The anwer: Doubtful.

Democrat spokeswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz quotes the Ambassador to Israel as saying "what the Republicans are doing is dangerous for Israel." The Ambassador categorically denies it. Then DWS denies ever having said it on national TV. But there's a tape of her saying exactly that.

Question: What is the Democrat standard for honesty during this campaign? Can a top spokesman for the Democratic party tell at least one obvious lie on national TV and get away with it?

Answer: Probably.

It took several days, but Kathleen Parker finally gets Clint...

Just as “Doonesbury” creator Trudeau gave readers simple symbols by which to imagine and mock political figures — Dan Quayle’s feather; George W. Bush’s asterisk; George H.W. Bush’s point of light — Eastwood gave Republicans a near-perfect metaphor for their nemesis.

Democrat pollsters urge Obama to move to the center...



Sorry, Barry, we really did try to make it.

... these frauds do a lousy job. My print column is up.

UPDATE: You know what they say about great minds. James "Best of the Web" Taranto gives even more examples of bad, biased "fact checking."

Obama's popularity drops among female voters.

The pretensions of "fact-checking" revealed. Clive Crook goes delightfully ape on WaPo's Glenn Kessler.

Newt creams libs on just who the real extremists are when it comes to abortion: Democrats and journalists in the MSM.

CBS "fact-checks" Clint. Finds he lied about having Obama in the chair next to him.

In have crossed paths with another GOP-hating Maureen Dowd column, Roger Simon observes:

The truth is that Democrats are great at the rhetoric of compassion, but their policies produce bureaucratic entanglement and economic immiseration. To hear Maureen Dowd tell it, Mitt Romney is heartless plutocrat.  Yet he contributed some 16 percent of his not-inconsiderable income to charity (Obama gave 1 percent of his) and the convention was full of accounts of his personal generosity and kindness.  The effort to demonize Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan must confront one insuperable obstacle. Both are kind, generous, loving men who have devoted themselves to their families and their communities. 

Read the whole thing.

... so sez the O campaign. It doesn't get much cruder than that.

UPDATE/CORRECTION: It wasn't the Obama campaign but a web site supporting the Obama campaign.

More here.

UPDATE: My favorite...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — President Barack Obama lampooned the just-completed Republican National Convention as better-suited to an era of black-and-white TV and " trickle-down, you're on your own" economics Saturday, and declared that Mitt Romney "did not offer a single new idea" to fix the economy.

"There was a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices, but no one actually told you what they were," Obama said in Iowa, chuckling, as he set out on a three-day tour of battleground states in the run-up to his own convention. Later, Obama said, the Republican gathering was so rooted in the past, there should have been a rabbit-ears antenna on the convention hall.

We look forward to hearing President Obama's "new ideas" to fix the economy next week. New ideas, not old ones like his failed and wasteful stimulus program, propping up public employee unions, the Solyndra debacle, nixing the Keystone XL Pipeline, and his failed take over of GM with taxpayer dollars. 

It seems his one new idea is to do for other industries what he did for GM, as noted recently by George Will:

After a delusional proclamation — General Motors “has come roaring back” — Obama said: “Now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in every industry.” We have been warned.

Obama’s supposed rescue of “the auto industry” — note the definite article, “the” — is a pedal on the political organ he pumps energetically in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and elsewhere. Concerning which:

He intervened to succor one of two of the U.S. auto industries. One, located in the South and elsewhere, does not have a long history of subservience to the United Auto Workers and for that reason has not needed Obama’s ministrations. He showered public money on two of three parts of the mostly Northern auto industry, the one long entangled with the UAW. He socialized the losses of GM and Chrysler. Ford was not a mendicant because it was not mismanaged.

Today, “I am GM, hear me roar” is again losing market share, and its stock, of which taxpayers own 26 percent, was trading Thursday morning at $21, below the $33 price our investor in chief paid for it and below the $53 price it would have to reach to enable taxpayers to recover the entire $49.5 billion bailout.

President Obama laughs a lot at silly Republicans. He tries to get his audiences laughing too. 23 million out of work and a deficit of $16 trillion. What's not to laugh at?

An interesting story about the release of two rape suspects after the Delco DAs office couldn't manage to bring them to trial in a timely fashion.

MEDIA COURTHOUSE — A pair of men accused of rape and related charges for an alleged assault on a Darby woman in February were ordered released on nominal bail Friday, pending a trial in October.
Emmanuel Benson, 22, and Henry Besson III, 27, both Liberia natives, have been charged in the Feb. 28 assault that allegedly took place at an unregistered boarding house on the 700 block of Pine Street, where the two men were living with numerous other individuals.
Judge John Capuzzi cited a Pennsylvania statute known as Rule 600, which states that incarcerated defendants must be brought to trial within 180 days from the date on which the complaint is filed. Defense requests for continuance are not computed in that time frame.

The story makes clear that prosecutors are waiting for lab tests to help make their case but forensic evidence has not been processed making it impossible to bring the case to trial.

Sounds like Judge Capuzzi did exactly the right thing in releasing these two men to home monitoring.
The reported facts of the case make it sound like a He Said/She Said deal, with the young woman claiming the men forced to drink alcohol and not actually knowing what happened to her.

The accused allegedly made some sort of admissions during police questioning that their lawyers want to have suppressed. What's likely is that they (or one of them) admitted to having sex with the woman but claimed it was voluntary.

DNA evidence from two condoms found at the scene turned out not to match the defendants. This unlicensed boarding house sounds like a lovely place. But at least some of its inhabitants are practicing safe sex.

Anyway what's right is right and the law is the law. You either try the accused within the statutorily required time frame or you let them go. These men deserve the same presumption of innocence as any other criminal defendant. And the same legal protections. They have already spend six months in jail for a crime that may not have even happened.

It sounds like the DAs case is mediocre at best. But that's tough. Either try 'em or set them free.  

Meet Gloria Romero, a teachers union's worst nightmare.

Former Los Angeles Lakers Coach Phil Jackson once referred to Sacramento as a "cowtown," but Gloria Romero, a pro-labor Democrat who served as California's Senate majority leader from 2001 to 2008, takes exception to the belittling description. The capitol building in Sacramento, she says, has "the eighth most powerful economy in the world under that dome," and it operates not unlike other wealthy kleptocracies. "There's no other way to say it politely. It's owned."

Topping the list of proprietors is the California Teachers Association, which she calls the most muscular union and political player in the state. Then there are the unions for nurses, prison guards, firefighters and police. Call them California's "deep state."

Ms. Romero now heads the California chapter of Democrats for Education Reform, a large tent of liberals who are as diverse as an Occupy encampment but united by a common desire to improve accountability in public schools. The group supports Democratic school reformers running for political office and promotes legislation that toughens standards.

But before taking up her current charge, Ms. Romero served a dozen years in the legislature, where she was known for trying to clean up the capital's cronyism and corruption.

It wasn't exactly glamorous work, but it was eye-opening. "I've sat in all of those backroom meetings," she says. "That thing, if walls could talk, well think of me as a wall, and I'm talking. I've had it."

A Navy SEALS mom speaks truth to power.