July 16, 2009

Hate Bill Cloture vote early Friday: Sunset on Liberty?

By Patrick Cleburne on July 16, 2009 at 6:13pm

With the Hate Crime Bill, S.909 moving towards a Cloture vote on shackling the Defense Appropriations Bill with this monstrosity at 1 AM Friday morning, the Rev. Ted Pike has put out another E-Alert
HIT THE HATE BILL WHERE IT HURTS! 16 July 09

Double Jeopardy And The Hate Crime Bill

By Steve Sailer on July 16, 2009 at 5:27pm

This is really sleazy:

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Monday announced his intent to introduce the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as a bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization bill this week.

I don't know if Leahy will be able to pull this off. Apparently, it doesn't have enough support to pass on its own, so the ploy is to attach it to something that has to pass.

Ricci and Vargas's Testimony

By Steve Sailer on July 16, 2009 at 5:27pm

You can read what the two discriminated-against firemen had to say here. (Vargas's testimony is toward the bottom here.)

It sure would have been better theatre to have plain-spoken witnesses like these guys testify first before the Senators and Sotomayor plunged into the legalistic thickets.

Disparate Impact in Business v. Academia

By Steve Sailer on July 16, 2009 at 5:26pm

One of the conundrums of American law is that cognitively-demanding tests that are legally frowned upon due to disparate impact in hiring and promotion are perfectly A-OK in the university classroom ... even when they are the exact same test.

Cloture vote on Hate Bill insertion today?

By Patrick Cleburne on July 16, 2009 at 11:05am

The Washington Postâ€™s Capitol Briefing reports

The Senate convenes at 9:30 a.m. ET to resume consideration of S.1390, the Department of Defense Authorization Act. There will be a possible cloture vote on a hate crimes amendment introduced by Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The Senate calendar linked to above says:

Hate Crimes Bill: The Christians strike back.

By Patrick Cleburne on July 16, 2009 at 3:12am

The Family Research Council has produced a fine film clip â€śHate Crimes Updateâ€ť attacking S. 909, the Hate Crimes Bill (see below). For some reason, it does not seem to be accessible on its website, but it has been picked up by a number of Christian sites (Hat Tip Causa Nostrae Laetitiae).