The Pledge Is Unconstitutional

Karlton said he was bound by precedent of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in 2002 ruled in favor of Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow that the pledge is unconstitutional when recited in public schools.
The Supreme Court dismissed the case last year, saying Newdow lacked standing because he did not have custody of his elementary school daughter he sued on behalf of.
Newdow, an attorney and a medical doctor, filed an identical case on behalf of three unnamed parents and their children. Karlton said those families have the right to sue.
Newdow hopes that will make it more likely the merits of his case will be addressed by the high court.

"All it has to do is put the pledge as it was before, and say that we are one nation, indivisible, instead of dividing us on religious basis," Newdow told The Associated Press.

Of course, Newdow's egocentric crusade has had the net effect of doing precisely what he stated he wished to alleviate by filing suit: dividing America on religious basis. In this case, the division is pretty stark, as Ian Schwartz points out:

Athiests account for 902,000 or 0.4% of the US population. Those who believe in a God or some sort of a higher being account for over 86% of the US population. It is amazing that such a small minority can rule over a large majority.

Not so amazing when you think about it, though. On his 9/14 WABC radio program, Mark Levin noted that there are only around 1,000 federal judges, and as demonstrated by Karlton's ruling, they exercise far more power than even the tiny minority that Newdow belongs to.
We have reached a point where groups of Americans who are out of the mainstream and account for a miniscule percentage of the population have gained the ability to game the entire system by appealing to an even more infinitesimal minority, the federal judiciary, to force their views on the better part of 300,000,000 people.
The judicial confirmation hearings going on now, and the ones that will be going on in the very near future, mean everything because the people being considered, if confirmed, are empowered to ultimately rule on what constitutes the American way of life itself. As it stands, that sure ain't what it used to be.
I've got a lengthy plane trip planned for next month. I'll be purchasing this and reading it on the ride.

LA Official Distributes Relief Supplies To Self

A case study in why people don't trust government officials:

Police found cases of food, clothing and tools intended for hurricane victims at the home of the chief administrative officer for a New Orleans suburb, authorities said Wednesday. Officers searched Cedric Floyd's home because of complaints that city workers were helping themselves to donations for hurricane victims. Floyd, who runs the day-to-day operations in the suburb of Kenner, was in charge of distributing the goods.
Police plan to seek a charge of committing an illegal act as a public official against Floyd, and more charges against other city workers are possible, police Capt. Steve Caraway said.
The donations filled a large pickup truck four times. "It was an awful lot of stuff," Caraway said.

It's like looting, just more organized. Instead of going out and finding stuff to steal, Cedric Floyd, whose responsibilities include coordination of emergency management procedures, waited for the relief supplies to arrive, and then kept them handy so that he could supply them to himself and other city workers.

Disgusting. The AG has said that once all the materials collected are processed as evidence, they'll be distributed to hurricane victims who desperately need them.

Cedric Floyd better get himself a talented lawyer, because he is really, really screwed. Have fun finding a sympathetic jury. I wonder how many of the cronies who were in on this will flip and testify against him.

Strangely, a spokesman for the mayor tried to throw a little political cover Floyd's way:

Philip Ramon, chief of staff to Kenner Mayor Philip Capitano, has said city officials were investigating the alleged pilfering but added that many employees were themselves hurricane victims.

Note to Philip Ramon and his boss, Mayor Capitano: Everyone in Kenner was a hurricane victim. That doesn't give the ones on the city payroll the right to help themselves to a private stash of donated relief supplies that the chief administrative officer has set up in his home.