The Site is Back (Under New Ownership).

Hello everyone. We want to announce that this site along with allspinzone.com will be up and rolling within the next few weeks. My name is Rick Glaser, and Sean Callahan is a partner of mine. We are bloggers that want to have a legitimate platform to share our thoughts.

We will be making a similar announcement on the other site, and we want you to be aware that article from now and into the future are not necessarily the thoughts of Richard Blair (although we hope he agrees with most of them!).

The site is going to be fairly quiet, and we will occasionally create a new post when it seems necessary. We are however, swamped with multiple projects out there. If you have an idea, or thought you want to share let us know!

Main Site Down

Our main website, allspinzone.com, is currently down (7/14/06, 7:30PM EST) due to a power outage at the host provider. Hopefully, they'll have things back up shortly.

Admin Note - Site Location Moved

Just a reminder, All Spin Zone has moved to its new cyberlocation - http://allspinzone.com/blog. We will discontinue crossposting to the Blogger site (where you're at right now) as of Sunday, 4/17/05.

Please update your bookmarks. And, if your blog / website has ASZ linked and blogrolled, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, for Technorati's sake, change your link to the new site.

We thank you!!

Iraq Quagmire Continues

There's still a war going on in Iraq. I know, I know, that's sooooo 2004. It's still a quagmire, though. You just don't hear too much about it much on this side of the Atlantic ocean because journo's have gotten the hint - if you ain't an embed, you could be dead.

So, here's a few top stories from today:

A mass hostage taking was reported yesterday in the town of Madain. The situation is apparently very fluid and confusing, particularly when the only available information is coming out of the Green Zone in Baghdad. The Associated Press stenographer in Baghdad stated that "Sunni militants were holding dozens of Shiite Muslims hostage and threatening to kill them..."; Al Jazeera says "a senior Shia official in Baghdad said up to 150 hostages were being held, including women and children..."; AFP is reporting "Sunni militants had seized up to 80 hostages and threatened to kill them unless all Shiites left". And apparently, a rescue operation has now been undertaken - which is apparently equally as confusing - is it Iraq police or U.S. forces that are conducting the mission? Pick your news source; take your chances.

In other news (again, pick your news source), 3 U.S. soldiers were killed overnight in a drive by mortaring of Camp Ramadi, with up to a dozen more being injured. An Iraqi "commando force" officer and a police director were assassinated in separate incidents, and two of the police director's family members were also killed in the hit.

What else has been happening? Oh, there was a riot in the prison at Camp Bucca after a detainee was apparently murdered. Several detainees escaped in the subsequent confusion; most were apparently recaptured. Seven Iraqis, including three policemen, were killed in an explosion at a restaurant in the town of Baquba, north of Baghdad...

Yep. Just another weekend in paradise. Oh, and those elections that took place back in January? There still isn't a functional government in Iraq, nearly three months after the elections.

Let's tie all of this up with a quick observation. A common thread running through nearly every report coming out of Iraq these days is that Iraqi "forces" (whatever they are) are responding to events. For example, in the sketchy reports on the three U.S. soldiers being killed in Ramadi:

...Seven servicemen were also wounded in the attack, three of them seriously, the military said in a statement. The attackers were believed to have fled into a nearby mosque. But when Iraqi security forces searched it, they found no insurgents.

Again, this is not an exception - nearly all of the news articles linked in this post have the same flavor when describing military responses to the event. What this is telling me is two things: U.S. casualties are down because soldiers are venturing less and less beyond the operational wall of fortified compounds, and relying on Iraqi first responders to chase the bad guys after a firefight. Second, the focus of press releases from the Green Zone are subtly changing to support the U.S. exit strategy - a major reduction of U.S. forces if U.S. casualties decrease and Iraqi security forces take over.

This slog is a loooooong way from over. For an Iraqi insider's view, check out Riverbend's most recent posting, if you haven't already.

Heat Grows on DeLay

And the chorus grows...

WASHINGTON - One of Congress' most conservative members on Friday became the second House Republican to urge Majority Leader Tom DeLay to step aside because of the ethics scrutiny he's facing...

When the conservative newspaper in my own neck of the woods calls for The Bugman to wave bye-bye, when (for goodness sakes) hyper-conservative Senator Rick Santorum (ethically-challenged in his own right) says he should go, when a 100% rated neocon congressman opines that it's time for door to hit DeLay's ass on the way out...

I'd call that a trend.

It will be interesting to see how Bugman's continuing problems play on the Sunday talk shows tomorrow.

Bill Frist's Hustle

Definition: Hustle

Synonyms: action, ante, bet, challenge, chunk, fifty-fifty, fighting chance, flier, gamble, handle, hazard, hedge, hunch, long shot, odds on, outside chance, parlay, play, pledge, plunge, pot, risk, snowball chance, stake, toss-up, venture
Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist is playing with fire. Let's stipulate one thing right up front - this guy isn't stupid. Maybe deluded or deranged, but not stupid.

Why on God's green earth would Bill Frist, one of the most powerful men in America, align himself with a Reich wing fundamentalist telethon that's the broadcast equivalent of American Taliban Wankfest 2005? I just don't get it. The guy is supposed to be, above and beyond everything else, a politician. And I don't think anyone could argue that he's not going to be making a lot of new friends with his participation in the "Justice Sunday" gig. That he would align himself with someone as far on the fringe as Tony Perkins speaks volumes more than I or anyone could possibly write.

Chuck Currie, a progressive Christian blogger, takes on the entire concept of Frist's sellout (or buy-in, as the case may be) better than almost all of the outraged words I've read in the Left Blogzome this evening. I encourage you to click through to Currie's article, and offer your support. Here's a teaser:

...This purely political event disguised as a religious event is the most obscene use of religion in a political context since the Republicans declared last fall that Democrats planned to ban the Bible...

...Don’t be fooled into thinking Bill Frist or his right-wing allies represent Christianity. What they truly represent are political hacks willing to misuse Christian tradition for their own political agenda...

I'm very pleased to see mainstream Christians like Currie speaking up. We can only hope that in the coming few days, Dr. Bill Frist will have a Tom DeLay moment - and decide that discretion is the better part of political valor. We call on him to disavow this divisive (and unnecessary) use of a religious "event" to further the reich wing agenda. That Frist (or any Republican) would use the currently hypercharged political environment for their own ill-gotten gains is beyond the pale.

But not entirely unexpected.

Gambling Retirement Money

News item: Wall St. Suffers Worst Day in Two Years

I'm sure many readers remember their tears as they opened their 401K statements in the months after the "bubble burst" back in the late 1990's. What had seemed like a free ride to an excellent retirement was suddenly exposed for the risk that it was - a crapshoot.

Any investment is a gamble. And one of the cardinal rules of gambling is: the odds are always in favor of the house, no matter what the game. A working knowledge of any game of chance can reduce the odds (and the risk), but never so much as to remove the house advantage.

In the past few days, a lot of Wall Street gamblers have seen their portfolios shrink substantially. The markets have been treading water for months, but this week may indeed signal a significant turn to a bad bear market. I know, I know...investment advice always tells you to invest your money for the long haul, but still...

How long is "long haul"? How many out there still haven't seen their 401K's recover from the drubbing they took 5, 6, or 7 years ago? Is that long enough? Driving home tonight, I heard a very interesting analogy between 401K's and Bush's privatization Ponzi scheme - in the '90s, people were willing to risk dumping their own cash into 401K's for two reasons:

1. The return was excellent at the time AND
2. They knew that if worse came to worse, there was always the Social Security safety net.

When all is said and done, risk perception will sink George Bush's grandiose plans for his legacy (privatizing Social Security). History isn't on his side.

A Few Items Concerning Gays and Lesbians

In Texas you can be fired for being a Lesbian
Merry Stephens is finding out, even after coaching the town Girl's Basketball teams to record results. Hey, look, though, they've got to pay her two years of salary. Steve Gilliard also pipes in on this one. I give him credit, but I didn't get the story from there. Today I had some time to read all of the last couple days of the New York Times! Ah, sweet luxury. . .

Speaking of sports and gays
Sports Illustrated came out with a poll timed for the broadcast of Ring of Fire, the documentary about the boxer Emile Griffith set to be broadcast on April 20th on USA. The full poll shows what you think it would, that more and more people are becoming accepting of gays and lesbians, but also that most people think advertisers are unwise to hire gay and lesbian athletes as spokespeople. Ho hum. The real gem here is the long story about Emile Griffith, a man who climbed to the top and subsequently fell, evidently all the time tortured by his sexual identity.

The Ohio Constitutional Marriage Bill is Producing Unintentional Problems
Of course, any time you make a law it will cause unintentional problems, which is why the constitutions of all states make DAMN sure it is tough to amend that document. Ohio is seeing the results of what happens when you make a law based on fear. The Amendment, you see, eliminates protections for all people cohabitating, not just gays and lesbians. As such, spousal abuse charges are being thrown out of court, at least in situations where the folks are no longer "spouses" under any Ohio legal definition. Stupid legislators make stupid laws, and scared ones make even stupider laws.

Queer Eye spawns some new networks, according to CBS
Will they get along happily, asks CBS? Dang it, I hope not. They should fight and scratch for market share just like all enterprises, and that will make them stronger. What's that tone in the CBS article implying these folks should play nicey-nice? Q Television and HereTV are the pay channels, with MTV running out its own Logo on basic cable channels. Yes, I think the premise of Adored: Diary of a Male Porn Star on HereTV is pretty out there. Sure to get some viewers, I bet.

Can't you just hear those Radical Right Wing Chrisitan Clerics gnashing their teeth?

Webs of Deception

Finally, the Dems have realized the power of the web and have taken to a full-frontal assault on Tom Delay and his many "ethically challenged" if not down-right criminal political activities.

DEMS WISEN TO WEB
Dems ready fresh approach to bring color to ethics charges dogging GOP leader
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched a website that aims to bring new attention to ethics charges hounding House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), RAW STORY has learned.

The site, named "House of Scandal," echoes a similar site launched by the Washington watchdog Citizens for Ethics earlier today. But the decision for the Democratic Party to back such a sharp online slap at the Republican leader marks a new strategy by the party to add interactivity to a series of scandals dogging the House Republican leader that have often been too complex for the average voter.

In a bold move, the Democratic campaign committee has also replaced their own website with the DeLay-themed extravaganza.

Perhaps most significantly, the site attempts to tie the entire membership of the House Republican caucus to their embattled leader. Residents of any district will be able to pull up a listing for their congressmember (if he or she is a Republican) and see statements and contributions related to DeLay.
...

CREW also launched a Delay-related website called www. JackInTheHouse.org, it's a site dedicated to the many dealings and associations of Delay pal Jack Abramoff.

Rawstory has put together a "ties that bind map" - it's a BIG map.

Oh yeah, speaking of deception, you remember that "Blue Ribbon Commission" on voting reform, the one Jimmy Carter is on? It seems there's a bit of deception with that as well. (gasp)

Questions surface regarding legitimacy of Baker-Carter election reform commission

Serious questions of conservative partisanship have surfaced surrounding an electoral reform commission co-chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and erstwhile Secretary of State James Baker, RAW STORY has learned.
Election reform? Republicans and Democrats embark on election reform with help from voting companies, front groups, pundits and a few genuine election reform groups peppered in.

The Carter Center denies any involvement with the Baker-Cater Commission on Federal Election Reform even though they are on much of its literature. Carter stepped down from the center in March.

Perhaps most significant, however, is the partisan makeup of those on the Commission's panels. In a situation reminiscent of GOPUSA and Gannongate, a recent election reform group has seemingly sprouted from nowhere and in short order landed a seat at the table.

See this BradBlog post as well for previous information on the panel.

Pulled from this post at the BradBlog:
The silent scream of numbers

As they slowly hack democracy to death, we’re as alone — we citizens — as we’ve ever been, protected only by the dust-covered clichés of the nation’s founding: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

It’s time to blow off the dust and start paying the price.

The media are not on our side. The politicians are not on our side. It’s just us, connecting the dots, fitting the fragments together, crunching the numbers, wanting to know why there were so many irregularities in the last election and why these glitches and dirty tricks and wacko numbers had not just an anti-Kerry but a racist tinge. This is not about partisan politics. It’s more like: “Oh no, this can’t be true.”

You're going to want to finish reading the rest.

Radical Lawmaker Bill Frist; Activist Judge Antonin Scalia

The adverbial phrases in front of both of those names fit, right?

Ted Rall is a mind reader. He must be, because he and I are on a very close karmatic wavelength. Either that, or he's stealing my intellectual property.

Nah, that would never happen on the web.

Anyway, earlier this week, Rall published a column that dissects the demonization and marginalization of people / places / things by the use of modifiers and adverbs in news stories. Without paying direct homage to Frank Luntz, he at least acknowledges the impact that the paid spinners have on news writers turing a journalistic phrase. See if this rings a bell:

... Labeling bias works to marginalize political outsiders while powerful elites receive their full honorifics. Howard Dean was antiwar firebrand Howard Dean but George W. Bush was never referred to as pro-war crusader George W. Bush. The press calls the founder of the Moral Majority "the Reverend Jerry Falwell," not "radical cleric Jerry Falwell." Even the word "cleric" implies foreignness to a xenophobic public; American religious leaders are the more familiar "ministers" rather than clerics. Instead of telling readers and viewers what to think with cheesy labels, why not let public figures' quotes and actions speak for themselves? Besides, well-known players like al-Sadr and Falwell don't require an introduction.

Loaded labels are commonly used to influence the public's feelings about groups of people as well as individuals. Under Ronald Reagan the Afghan mujahedeen, who received CIA funding and weapons that they used to fight Soviet occupation forces, were called "freedom fighters." Iraqis who take up arms against U.S. occupation troops, on the other hand, are called "insurgents," a word that implies rebellion for its own sake. This was the same term used by the New York Times and other mainstream media to refer to anti-U.S. fighters in Vietnam during the 1960s. Only later, when the Vietnam War became unpopular, did American newspapers begin calling the former "insurgents" members of an infinitely more patriotic-sounding "resistance...

While Rall is a wee bit behind the curve with this column, he hits the bullseye.

(Thanks to one of our Zonebots, Eric, for the pointer to Rall's article.)

It is Time for Progressives to Show Their Faith

It appears the Republicans are going to get explicit in their campaign for the "nuclear option," with Bill Frist joining Radical Right Ring Christian Clerics in a blatant political event on April 24th. (I'll ignore for the moment that the meme set to come out of this event, that "Democrats are anti-faith," is so blatantly political that it SHOULD threaten the tax-exempt status of the religious groups involved. But, hey, why the FUCK didn't the New York Times report anything on that issue?)

As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as "against people of faith" for blocking President Bush's nominees.

Fliers for the telecast, organized by the Family Research Council and scheduled to originate at a Kentucky megachurch the evening of April 24, call the day "Justice Sunday" and depict a young man holding a Bible in one hand and a gavel in the other. The flier does not name participants, but under the heading "the filibuster against people of faith," it reads: "The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias, and it is now being used against people of faith."

Organizers say they hope to reach more than a million people by distributing the telecast to churches around the country, over the Internet and over Christian television and radio networks and stations.

Seems clear to me. A whole conference arranged for by Radical Right Wing Christian Clerics with the sole purpose of labelling Democrats as "anti-Christian" and Bill Frist is headlining the conference scheduled to be broadcast to radical right-wing churches throughout the nation. That violates the non-profit status of those churches, but make no mistake, absolutely nothing will be done to enforce the tax laws. This is Bush's Administration, after all.

Two things. Progressives of faith need to speak up. They need to say specifically that faith belongs in the heart, and also in caring for others. They need to decry the kind of demonization the Radical Right Wing Christian Clerics view as moral. Demonization = moral? How twisted can they get?

Second, we need to support Republicans like John McCain, who has said he will not be voting for the Nuclear option.

On Thursday, one wavering Republican, Senator John McCain of Arizona, told a television interviewer, Chris Matthews, that he would vote against the change.

"By the way, when Bill Clinton was president, we, effectively, in the Judiciary Committee blocked a number of his nominees," Mr. McCain said.

Bush on Payolagate : No Regrets

George Bush held court with editors from around the country at a conference in Washington yesterday. Editor and Publisher captured the essence of Bush's time on stage, but one thread that seemed to weave through the entire affair - he has no regrets about anything.

In answering a question about the administration's reliance on paid shills to push administration agendas:

In response to questions from editors at the annual American Society of Newspaper Editors conference, the president also declined to comment on subpoenas for reporters in the Plame case and said that government payments to commentators, such as the 'pundit payola' Armstrong Williams received, are acceptable as long as they are disclosed.

In other words, the only problem he sees with the ongoing pay-for-propaganda scandal is that the reporters and pundits involved got caught.

(Where have we heard the "got caught" theme before?)

Beyond the payolagate issues, Bush also addressed the issue of administration propaganda disguised as "soft news" pieces, which are then peddled by government agencies to local news outlets as broadcast filler. Again, no regrets. Only that they got caught. And he shifted responsibility from the agencies that produce the propaganda to the news outlets that run the clips without identifying them as government produced. His choice of words were interesting, especially on a day that the Senate passed legislation forbidding the use of such propaganda tactics.

Not one time - not once - did he acknowledge that the concept of "open government" requires a high threshold of transparency in order to be held accountable "by the consent of the governed". In fact, he went out of his way to make sure the editors knew that his administration does, in fact, despise the media and any kind of investigative light thrown into the dark corners of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Regrets? He's had a few. But mostly that he got caught.

And yesterday afternoon, the department heads from Ministry of Truth applauded politely, on cue.

Wide to the Right

The President threw out the first pitch yesterday in the debut of the new Washington Nationals. The tradition started with another Republican Yale graduate, William Howard Taft. But it should be remembered that Mr. Taft made a very fine jurist as Chief Justice after his tenure as President, while Mr. Bush will be explaining to his grandchildren that, no, he was not doing the "hustle" in this picture. Or is he auditioning to be the new partner in Seigfried and Roy?

Take a Test Drive - Open Chat

The new chatroom is open for business - and we think you'll like it. Simply go over to ASZ's new home, and click on "progressive chat" on the top menu bar. There is no need to register in the chatroom, but the software will remember you if you do, and registering "reserves" your name for future chats.

Come on over and give it a whirl!

Indentured Servitude Act of 2005

Well, no surprises here - the Bankruptcy Bill passed this afternoon, and will be on a fast track for approval by Maximum Leader.

Here's what's most distressing: a whole lot of Democrats sold out to the banking and credit card industries, and voted for this legislative abomination that's been roundly criticized on the left and right. That's the only way this bill could have passed by a 302 - 126 vote.

I'll post a link to the roll call vote as soon as it's available.

Republicrats - Two Sides of the Same Coin.®

Cassi Niemann: Maryland Gay Rights Poster Gal!

There's an article in the Washington Post yesterday that covers two votes that happened in Maryland concerning gay and lesbian Marylanders, one to give rights of visitation and medical decision-making to partners, and the other expanding a hate-crimes law. Featured is Maryland Delegate Doyle L. Niemann, (D-Prince George's). He said he voted in favor for his daughter Cassi.

Cassi is only 25, and she doesn't seem all that politically plugged in, but this whole thing got her on the cover of the Washington Post. She's a lesbian, as you might imagine, and awfully proud of her Dad. You can see it all in her words on her blog.

I bow down humbly to Doyle Niemann.

Tax Day Eve - How Your Tax Dollars Work

Under normal circumstances, the Heritage Foundation website is one of the last places in the cyberworld I'd send you for information on anything. But I will give the Heritage wonks this - they are true conservatives (at least in a fiscal sense), rather than the neofaux con's that populate the 495 Beltway these days.

As tomorrow's dreaded tax day approaches, an article on how George Bush's administration is spending your money finds that:

Washington will spend $22,039 per household in 2005 -- the highest inflation-adjusted total since World War II, and $4,000 more than in 2001. The federal government will collect $18,248 per household in taxes. The remaining $3,791 represents the budget deficit per household, which, along with all prior government debt, will be dumped in the laps of our children...

The five highest cost line items (excluding Social Security) out of each household's contributions are:

• Defense: $4,451
  
• Low-income programs: $3,559
  
• Interest on the federal debt: $1,582
  
• Federal employee retirement benefits: $838
  
• Education: $627

Zero in on number 3 - the interest on the federal debt.

That's the "birth tax". Or as future financial historians may characterize it, the "Bush tax". Your children and grandchildren thank you.

WalMart and Rick Santorum: Perfect Match

Well, it would be perfect if they sold puppies. . .

Read all about it at Attytood. Will Bunch has it all spelled out, including the folks in Santorum's district who are protesting the coming WalMart store while he's riding on their jet.

Eric Rudolph - Fundamentalist Jihadist or Plain Old Nutjob?

Following his plea deals in Birmingham and Atlanta yesterday, Eric Rudolph released a "manifesto" through his attorneys. It's excerpted several places on the web, but it might be worth your while to read the entire statement for insight into Rudolph's thought process. Here's a few snippets you won't find on CNN or Fox:

...Absent any corroborative fact or witness to explain why I was in Birmingham that day, a city I have never visited before, and a good reason for fleeing to the woods for five years, I was fighting an uphill battle. Add to these two paramount facts Washington's junk science about explosive residues, a media obsessed with the specter of right wing extremist violence, we had an extremely difficult case to win. But Washington had a problem and this is why they entered into this deal.

The problem that they had was that a significant minority of the population, especially here in Northern Alabama, regarded what happened there at the abortion facility on that day of Jan. 29, 1998, as morally justified...

...At various times in history men and women of good conscience have had to decide when the lawfully constituted authorities have overstepped their moral bounds and forfeited their right to rule...

...There is no more fundamental duty for a moral citizen than to protect the innocent from assault. This in inherit in the values of all higher civilizations. You have the right, the responsibility and the duty to come to the defense of the innocent when the innocent are under assault. Would you protect your children from the clutches of a murderer? Would you protect your neighbors' children when they were under assault? If you answered yes to both of these, then you must support the use of force as justified in attempting to prevent the murder that is abortion...

...There are those who would say to me that the system in Washington works. They say that pro-life forces are making progress, that eventually Roe v. Wade will be overturned, that the culture of life will ultimately win over the majority of Americans and that the horror of abortion will be outlawed. Yet, in the meantime thousands die everyday...

Along with abortion, another assault upon the integrity of American society is the concerted effort to legitimize the practice of homosexuality...This effort is commonly known as the homosexual agenda. Whether it is gay marriage, homosexual adoption, hate crimes laws including gays, or the attempt to introduce a homosexual normalizing curriculum into our schools, all of these efforts should be ruthlessly opposed. The existence of our culture depends upon it...

There was a time in the not too distant past when most reasonable people would have pooh-poo'd Eric Rudolph an ideological loon (at least in polite company) on par with Theodore Kaczynski. But then, even the UniBomber had his admirers. In reading Rudolph's manifesto, though, it's pretty clear that his statements fit more or less hand-in-glove with recent loony statements coming from "respectable" fringe lunatics.

Om-day T-Lay, anyone?

And there will come a time in the not too distant future when Rudolph's actions will be openly lionized by the Fox News-approved morons camped out on the periphery of the radical right. When Eric Rudolph entered his plea deal, he did so with no expectation that he'd spend the rest of his life behind bars. He knows that someone will eventually spring the lock for him, and he'll walk free again one day.

There are a lot of people out there who, if not overtly agreeing with Rudolph's actions, at least sympathize with the "moral forces" that drove him. Some of those people are running the country.

Scalia Scorned

Sometimes browsing at Atrios, then digging a little further, makes a nice morning exercise. Duncan notes that Antonin Scalia got an earful at NYU's Vanderbilt Hall Tuesday night:

April 14, 2005 -- WHEN U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (above) spoke Tuesday night at NYU's Vanderbilt Hall, "The room was packed with some 300 students and there were many protesters outside because of Scalia's vitriolic dissent last year in the case that overturned the Texas law against gay sex," our source reports. "One gay student asked whether government had any business enacting and enforcing laws against consensual sodomy. Following Scalia's answer, the student asked a follow-up: 'Do you sodomize your wife?' The audience was shocked, especially since Mrs. Scalia [Maureen] was in attendance. The justice replied that the question was unworthy of an answer."

I suppose, given the definition of sodomy as encompassing oral and anal sex, that he's probably tried it. (I wonder if he had an unfortunate incident with teeth or something. . .) But that's not as important as noting there are lots of groups speaking up wherever the man goes. The Washington Square News Editorial blasts NYU for inviting him, but the Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression has honored Mr. Scalia. Figures he'd be honored in the South, huh? As reported in the Hattiesburg American, Mr. Scalia is being given the Muzzle Award.

The Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression included the seizure when it handed out its 2005 Jefferson Muzzle awards given for perceived squelching of free expression.

Each year, the awards mark the April 13 birthday of Thomas Jefferson, the nation's third president and First Amendment advocate.

The Marshals Service was recognized for seizing the tape recorders of former Hattiesburg American reporter Antoinette Konz and Associated Press reporter Denise Grones during a Scalia speech at Presbyterian Christian High School on April 7, 2004.

Neither reporter had been told before the speech they could not use tape recorders. The marshal said she was following Scalia's orders.

"The Justice has stated that it is his First Amendment right not to speak on radio or television when it is not his wish to do so. Yet, the personal preferences of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice do not give the U.S. Marshals Service the legal authority to seize and destroy the private property of a reporter," the Jefferson Center noted in a prepared statement.

It is high time Mr. Scalia got an award he will be proud to place on his mantlepiece. Just imagine Mr. and Mrs. Scalia nuzzling on the couch and contemplating a sexually illicit act, at least according to the Justice. Mrs. Scalia whispers in his ear, but Antonin is too caught up admiring his Muzzle Award to take the hint. She then gazes up at him, swears under her breath, and stalks into the kitchen.

Ah, how beautiful.