If you’ve got a few minutes to kill today, this slideshow following Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign for re-election to the U.S. Senate in New York is well worth watching. It’s narrated by the photographer and there are some great candid shots of Senator Clinton. I happened to like the one at left, where she’s hugging bill just before taking the stage to give her acceptance speech at the NYState Democratic Convention.
Popularity: 4% [?]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This isn’t Texas, but I found this quite interesting:
The case of a Maryville man charged in connection with the burning of an American flag was bound over Tuesday to the Blount County Grand Jury.Blount County General Sessions Judge Hugh E. DeLozier Jr. denied a motion by the Blount County Public Defender’s Office to dismiss the charge of desecration of a venerated object against Andrew Elisha Staley, 19, of Maryville.
Staley allegedly took the flag on the night of July 4, 2005, from a Clark Street residence and burned it.
Maryville police officers reported they found Staley standing over the burning flag. Staley allegedly fled on foot when spotted, was apprehended by police and arrested. He also faces five other related charges, including theft, unlawful consumption of alcohol, evading arrest, criminal littering, and setting fire to personal property.
In a motion to dismiss, Tiffany Deaderick of the Blount County Public Defender’s Office argued that the charge of desecration of a venerated object as applied to Staley’s “alleged conduct” violates the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Deaderick cited Texas v. Johnson (1989), “holding that the First Amendment … prohibited conviction of a defendant who had been charged under a virtually identical statute after committing virtually identical conduct as” her client.
Once again, as appalling as I find it to burn a flag, I find it more appalling to try to criminilize the activity that is clearly free speech. Now, being drunk and stealing the flag is another matter entirely, but burning it is constitutionally-protected free speech. Period.
Popularity: 16% [?]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[Via Stateline.org; Reprinted in accordance with their rules.]
Democrats and Republicans will spar for control of more than a dozen narrowly divided state legislatures this year as they vie to break a near deadlock of party power in the nation’s statehouses.
Popularity: 6% [?]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In a story I’ve been following over at Political State Report, a federal judge has ruled that State Senator Ophelia Ford cannot be ousted unless that state’s senate devises uniform guidlines for judging voting irregularities.
It’s an interesting case, and one I’ve been following for some weeks. For more, read my post at PolState.
Popularity: 7% [?]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It seems Texas isn’t the only state with a litigious school funding battle on its hands. In Montana today, that state’s governor told an education group suing the state that they could either support his administration’s goals or go back to court. Quite ballsy, to say the least. There’s more over at PolState.
Popularity: 6% [?]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans may permanently lose up to 80 percent of its black population if people displaced by the disaster aren’t able to return to damaged neighborhoods, according to a Brown University sociologist’s analysis.
AP noted that Professor John R. Logan, in findings released Thursday, claimed that if the city’s returning population was limited to neighborhoods undamaged by Katrina, half of the white population would not return and 80 percent of the black population would not return:
Popularity: 10% [?]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A record $5.1 million found its way into the coffers of the various candidates for Iowa governor last year, AP reports:
→ continue reading
Popularity: 6% [?]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Embattled Nevada State Comptroller Kathy Augustine has decided to run for state treasurer this election cycle, reports the Reno Gazette-Journal’s Inside Nevada Politics. Augustine, the only Nevada official to be impeached and censured for her actions in office will reportedly run in spite of the 2004 scandal which left many wondering why she wasn’t removed from office.
→ continue reading
Popularity: 6% [?]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Boston Globe, via Stateline, has an excellent story concerning a judge ripping on the state of Massachusets for illegally forcing thousands of mentally ill children “to endure unnecessary confinement in residential facilities” because the state did not provide adequate care for them at home. It marks a major legal victory to advocates for low-income children.
Popularity: 5% [?]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tennessee Politics, via the the Noxville News-Sentinel’s No Silence Here weblog, are reporting that Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen’s campaign inadvertantly sent out a campaign email to a number of state employees, which the campaign has already admitted to and appologized for. → continue reading
Popularity: 7% [?]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Get Capitol Annex's Daily Update |
Capitol Annex Archives by date and category may be found here.
blog advertising is good for you
Do you know that you can Stumble on a Random Article!
