Time to clean out the aggregator —
ITEM: Democratic congressional leaders, eager to give a preview of the “fiscal responsibility” we might see under a (veto averse) Obama presidency, are calling for yet another “stimulus package,” complete with infrastructure pork and warm fuzzy feeling block grants to states to help them crowd out private citizens from buying foreclosed properties. Most recent post here.
ITEM: California’s married gay couples are getting stark reminders that federal DOMA still denies them many rights and privileges. One example: marrying a non-citizen. As I have noted repeatedly (one example here), neither the Obama campaign nor the Democratic Congress seem particular eager to promise much of anything on repealing DOMA.
ITEM: The White House has announced that President Bush will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. I have long denounced anyone from any free or even semi-free nation who attends, participates in or even watches any part of this human rights disgrace.
ITEM: Yet another call for credentialing of bloggers, this time in the European Parliament. Warns an activist MEP:
“It is clear that a Harvard professor of international relations is likely to treat, for instance, the Middle East peace process or European integration in an educated and balanced manner,” she added. “The same trust cannot be put in a radical high school student from Gaza or a Eurosceptic who has never been out of his village.”
Most recent post here. (Via Curious Snippets.)
ITEM: Three tour operators in Philadelphia are challenging plans to require them to obtain licenses based in part on passing a test on city history, tourist-oriented facts, etc. The lawsuit argues that the licensing regime violates the First Amendment right to free speech. Previous post here.
ITEM: For those who enjoyed the recent “Tyson Homosexual” incident, here’s the same error in reverse and without bigotry:
Note that the mere presence of the word “Gay” got this story listed under Yahoo!’s “Gay News” category. I have seen such errors before, especially on holiday weekends (i.e., when the backup staff are propping up the “professional” news organizations).
