More news that comes as a surprise to no one.

The Senate today voted 78-22 to confirm Judge John Roberts as the nation's 17th chief justice. Senate approval capped a two-month process surprisingly free of the partisan rancor widely expected when President Bush nominated Roberts in July. All of the Senate's Republicans, and about half of the Democrats, voted for Roberts. Roberts is the successor to William Rehnquist, who died earlier this month.

More important things to fight for

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A federal judge declared Wednesday that the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional, a decision that could potentially put the divisive issue back before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ok, there might be a case for this. You shouldn't compel children to recite it, God shouldn't be a part of it, etc. etc.

But really, come ON! Don't we have more important things to worry about? I realize its rather un-liberal of me to take this stance. Wait no, I don't think it is. I would much rather these people spend their time and money making sure poor children are fed, homeless are housed, and real violations of civil rights are fought.

This is tantamount to the woman who files a sexual harassment claim because she sees a married man hug a single woman in the office. It gets in the way real issues people are going through, it taints the credibility of the fight against religious rights violations as a whole.

Why can't we step back and see the big picture? Will this bring meaningful change? No. Will it change the minds of people who believe this sort of language belongs in our government, that God has a place in government? No. It only irritates them. Because at the end of the day, its a small, petty cause and shows nobody how religious oppression can really affect someone's life.

Crimes against us all.

United States of Shame - New York Times

In June 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, fretted to The Times-Picayune in New Orleans: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

Not only was the money depleted by the Bush folly in Iraq; 30 percent of the National Guard and about half its equipment are in Iraq.

Ron Fournier of The Associated Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans last year. The White House carved it to about $40 million. But President Bush and Congress agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-filled highway bill with 6,000 pet projects, including a $231 million bridge for a small, uninhabited Alaskan island.

Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained for by running something called the International Arabian Horse Association - admitted he didn't know until Thursday that there were 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in the New Orleans Convention Center.

Was he sacked instantly? No, our tone-deaf president hailed him in Mobile, Ala., yesterday: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."