The Hollywood Liberal

Vandals in Orlando spray-paint cars with anti-Obama messages.
Approximately 60 cars parked across from the Orlando city hall Saturday night were damaged by “politically-motivated” vandals. Some spray-painted notes with messages such as “Obama smokes crack” and racial epithets. “Business cards left on the cars disparage both Barack Obama and John McCain.” “I’m driving by and every car I see has been hit with […]

Approximately 60 cars parked across from the Orlando city hall Saturday night were damaged by “politically-motivated” vandals. Some spray-painted notes with messages such as “Obama smokes crack” and racial epithets. “Business cards left on the cars disparage both Barack Obama and John McCain.” “I’m driving by and every car I see has been hit with spray paint,” witness Mike Lowe said. “There is so much damage to them. There is messages written on them and the vandals left their business card, which is crazy.”

Obama’s America Is Canada - Washington Times

How Gun Control Lost
Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune

Hagel Would Consider Post With Obama
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) “declined to endorse his party’s likely presidential nominee, John McCain, and said he would consider serving as secretary of defense in a Barack Obama administration,” according to Bloomberg.

However, Hagel did say he would remain a registered Republican — at least for a while.

Said Hagel: “I don’t know forever, but right now I’m not considering changing my registration.”

Ireland Debates Statutory Rape

With good reason, almost nobody believes that it should be legal for an adult to have sex with a ten year old child. But what about the 18 year old who participates in a sex act initiated by a 16 year old? What if the 16 year old lied about his or her age to the 18 year old?

The age at which a teenager is legally entitled to consent to sex varies from state to state, but tends to be in the range of 16 to 18. Some states treat “statutory rape” as a less serious offense if the adult and minor are not separated by more than 4 years of age. Some permit a defense of “mistake of age,” but most do not.

Two years ago Ireland's Supreme Court struck down a statutory rape law because it did not permit a defense that the adult was reasonably mistaken about the minor's age. The Director of Public Prosecutions supports a referendum to restore the “strict liability” law; that is, mistake of age would not be a defense. Meanwhile the Irish parliament struggles to replace the law. It must decide whether to set an age at which the defense of mistake will not apply, and where to set the age of consent. Here's one view that American states would do well to adopt: trust juries. [more …]

All parents want to protect their children, but their support for a strict liability law wanes when it is their 23-year-old son who is jailed for child rape when he has consensual sex with a 16-year-old girl who tells him she is 18 and looks 21. Juries know when an age gap is defensible or not: without adequate protections, restoring the offence of statutory rape may create as much injustice as it is intended to prevent.

They Need Enemies
The behavior of Cheney and others only makes sense if that’s the case.

Perhaps, as Mitt suggested, nuclear nonproliferation is just a liberal position. 

Immigration Hard-Liners and John McCain: Strange Bedfellows or Forever Star-Crossed?
McCain was the anti-immigrant movement’s least favorite candidate and now they face a hard choice: support him or sabotage their party.

Obama Social Networking Group Forms — To Pressure Obama On FISA
There’s been a bunch of speculation about what will happen after the election to the formidable Internet social networking tools Obama’s Internet operation has spawned, such as the networking groups over at MyBarackObama, for instance. Well, here’s one interesting possibility:…

When Anonymity Fails, Be Nasty, Brutish and Short
Dana Milbank, on David Addington’s testimony yesterday….