Maybe John McCain can get the “undocumented workers” to send him money:

McCain

Maybe John McCain can get the “undocumented workers” to send him money:

McCain

Brit Michael Hodges can’t wait for London to become Londonistan.

In an Islamic London, Christians and Jews

And how much would recent history have changed, had Ahhhhnuld, instead of calling the Sacramento nannies “girlie men,” called them “epicenes“?

I’d be willing to help, too. Anything to ease the burden on our busy Congresspeople. Maybe we could think of it as “doing the jobs that Congressmen won’t do.”

I’ve noted before how amusing I find it that people call me a “Clinton hater” or a “Bush fan,” when I think that my take on both presidents is reasonably objective. When I criticize Bill (and Hillary) Clinton as corrupt, this is the kind of thing that I’m talking about. The Clinton years were this kind of thing non stop, but it was rarely reported, or if it was, the press (who were in love with both of them) bent over backwards to excuse it.

What was Sandy Berger hiding when he gave up his law license?

What is at stake is more than what we think and say about Sandy Berger. It is more than the legacy of Bill Clinton and of George W. Bush. It is more than the prospects for Hillary Clinton becoming the Democrats’ presidential nominee and ultimately the President. All of these, of course, are wrapped up in this story.

Our security and vitality of the rule of law in America are at stake as well. That should concern all whose lives and loved ones may be at risk if our nation follows the wrong path, not knowing everything that should inform our judgments. It should concern all who respect the law, all who have labored as lawyers and judges, as honorable government officials and voices for even-handed justice.

Sadly, this story doesn’t interest the Justice Department, which disposed of the criminal charges leniently based in part on false information from Berger. When faced with the fact that Berger had access to original documents on two occasions before Archives’ employees became suspicious enough to start marking documents, the Justice Department declared with confidence that no documents had been taken – they asked Berger if he had taken anything during those visits, he said no, and they let the matter rest.

This is just one more example of either incompetence on the part of the Bush administration, or more of the waging of war on it by the bureaucracy, or perhaps something worse.

The WSJ has an article today on backdating:

Brocade Communication Systems Inc. agreed to pay a $7 million penalty to settle … the backdating scandal, according to people familiar with the matter…. Brocade first struck a deal to pay $7 million in March 2006, but the settlement was held up as the number of companies under investigation for backdating options expanded to more than 100….

Republicans, in general, oppose [fines for backdating] as a double hit to shareholders, who already have been penalized once for being defrauded. Democrats argue that penalties serve as deterrents.

There was not necessarily fraud on the shareholder because it’s in a shareholder’s interest to use backdated options to pay executives. They don’t have to use as many of them because they are intrinsically worth more (H. Jenkins), but are also not taxed as highly as more regular dated ones where the date wasn’t coincidentally the lowest price of the quarter.

Putting that aside, fines in general should not be paid by the damaged party, but should be paid as a deterrent–and as compensation! How about the following proposal: the company pays the fine to the shareholders of record on the day before the news that false accounts were filed. That way the ongoing shareholders aren’t hurt and the shareholders that sold after the bad news came out and the stock tanked will be compensated by the new ones who bought after the news. Just like how shareholders are treated when a company goes ex dividend.

Here’s another controversial idea to increase deterrence: don’t prosecute companies for common practices until you’ve given them sufficient warning to change their ways. Otherwise the prosecutors are doing what Dr. Strangelove accused the Russians of doing:

[T]he… whole point of the doomsday machine… is lost… if you keep it a secret! Why didn’t you tell the world, eh?

The Constitution guarantees no ex poste facto laws in Article I, Section 9, but we are still working on no ex poste facto judicially implemented regulation.

Who watches the watchmen? Do we need four independent judiciaries with each one’s scope determined by the others like the four redundant computers on the space shuttle? No need to curb the SEC and prosecutors of public companies–the companies are helping themselves. By going private.

It will drive the Bush deranged crazy, but liberal Richard Cohen recognizes that George W. Bush is a liberal.

In the middle of a war in which some people say “support the troops by bringing them home,” crassly treating them as victims for cynical political purposes, it’s important on this Memorial Day to remember that it is not our job to protect them, but theirs to protect us, and how astonishingly bravely and selflessly they do it.

[Update a few minutes later]

Jules Crittendon has a roundup of Memorial Day links.

[Update at 1 PM CDT]

Michael Yon has some Memorial Day thoughts from Anbar province:

Q has already made it to Germany and is about to be flown home. CSM Pippin is on his way to Germany. Along the way, excellent groups like Soldiers