One more… Recall that lovely poem the president wrote to his wife, Laura? Laura stated at the National Book Festival Gala (full text here at the White House website):

We delight in great works of literature and especially in the works of budding new artists. President Bush is a great leader and husband - but I bet you didn’t know, he is also quite the poet. Upon returning home last night from my long trip, I found a lovely poem waiting for me. Normally, I wouldn’t share something so personal, but since we’re celebrating great writers, I can’t resist. Dear Laura, Roses are red, violets are blue, oh my lump in the bed, how I’ve missed you. Roses are redder, bluer am I, seeing you kissed by that charming French guy. The dogs and the cat they miss you too, Barney’s still mad you dropped him, he ate your shoe. The distance my dear has been such a barrier, next time you want an adventure, just land on a carrier. I’m happy to be the inspiration behind this poem.

Well… Laura was on “Meet the Press” two weekends ago, and when Tim Russert went to ask Laura about the poem, she had a different story:

Well, of course, he didn’t really write the poem. But a lot of people really believed that he did. That evening at the dinner, what some woman from across the table said: “You just don’t know how great it is to have a husband who would write a poem for you.”

I guess the woman at dinner was right. Laura really doesn’t know.

Two more news stories came across my desk that point out further excesses being taken by the federal government. The first is a biggie. You may have heard about the draft of the “PATRIOT II” legislation that leaked early last year, and the public outcry that resulted. It contained provisions that expanded on the government’s erosion of due-process rights we all have that began under the first PATRIOT Act. (You do know that the government can get a record of your patronage at your local library, and that the library can’t even tell you the feds were there, right?) Most of the really controversial provisions were stripped out of the sequel legislation, but they’ve found their way back in, in other bills. For example, on the same day that the army announced it had captured Saddam, President Bush signed into law that allows the FBI to obtain records about you from your financial institution, without having to go to a judge first. In addition, the law expands the definition of “financial institution” to include travel agents, car dealerships, insurance companies, casinos, jewelry stores, real estate agents, hotels, and even the post office. And, just like with the libraries, those businesses cannot mention to anyone, especially not the subject of the investigation, that the records were taken. I’d like to think that much if not all of this would get overturned in courts, but it’s hard to file suit when you don’t even know that the law is being used against you. Remember also that this is not some executive order issued by the White House. This law, just like the original PATRIOT Act, was approved by a majority of our legislators. Likely, yours was among them. The second one is just odd. There are new labor rules in place that expand the rights of workers to overtime pay. You probably know someone who was switched to salary instead of hourly and thus lost out on overtime pay. It happens a lot, and one of the new rules says that you can’t do this to workers who make under $22,100 a year. The labor department says with one breath the new rules will increase net American wages by $895 million, and nearly all of that will go to lower-income positions. But with the next breath, the department spells out to employers how to get around the rules. For example: “cut workers’ hourly wages and add the overtime to equal the original salary” or, more simply, make them work the same amount of money for more hours of work. Labor department spokesman Ed Frank says, “We’re not saying anybody should do any of this,” but there you go.

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I’ve been too busy lately to care much about politics. It’s an election year, so I was going to get caught back up in a hurry, but at present, it just wasn’t something I had time for. My mistake. Take a look at this article in American Conservative Magazine (if you’re a conservative) or the San Francisco Gate (if you’re liberal). It documents the White House’s practice of setting up “Free Speech Zones” in cities where the president is visiting, and putting anyone with signs critical to the administration within those zones. The zones are (of course) no where near the president, so all he sees are those praising him. Those who manage to slip critical signs along the “parade routes” have been arrested on charges including trespassing, obstructing without violence, and disorderly conduct. In one case, a mother and her crying five year old daughter were arrested and taken away in separate squad cars. One man in South Carolina, Brett Bursey, was arrested for holding a “No Blood for Oil” sign amid hundreds of pro-Bush signs on the roadside and charged him with trespassing. Five months later, a South Carolina judge threw out the charges, saying that you can’t charge someone on public property with trespassing. Right away, US Attorney Strom Thurmond, Jr. filed charges against him for the Justice Department. The charge: “entering a restricted area around the president of the United States”. (Never mind that he was one of hundreds there.) If convicted, he faced six months in prison and a $5000 fine. The federal judge denied Bursey’s request for a jury trial, stating that this was merely a petty offense. The verdict in Bursey’s trial is expected this afternoon, and you can find most of the court documents thus far and links to news sources here. You may want to specifically look at the two latest briefs from the trial. Bursey filed a brief claiming he is the victim of illegal selective prosecution. Seems straightforward enough – he is the only one of “thousands” of people within the so-called restricted area to be prosecuted. The Justice Department’s response is beyond maddening. More so than perhaps anything else in the last two years, my government has embarrassed me with this filing. In short, it claims that the prosecution is not selective because since Bursey was told he was in the restricted area and told he had to leave but didn’t, he knowingly violated the restricted area and thus committed a crime. The other thousands of people didn’t know they were in a restricted area, and thus had no intent and thus committed no crime. I can’t fathom how Strom can sign his name to such a brief and feel good about it. I’ll stop here, at least until the verdict gets announced today. UPDATE : He’s been found guilty. Nothing good can come of this.

You know those things you think but don’t say because society frowns upon those sorts of things? Paul Grahm has a nice essay about such heresies titled What You Can’t Say.

With the new year comes a slow revival of the farm. Unusually good weather (for a weekend) allowed me to get an early start on bed prepwork, and tomorrow will bring a return to the farm photo of the day. That’s right… the random repeat is over!

Here comes another year, and it looks like this one might be the most event-filled yet. As a brief cryptic comment posted from the cameraphone last week announced, my wife and I are expecting our first child, due in very early August. We’ve been looking for a care provider for us who can help us acheive a natural birth, and we have a promising candidate across the state line in South Carolina. We’d wanted a home birth, but those are illegal in Georgia. There is a network of “underground” midwives in the state, but none were close enough to us to be comfortable accepting us as patients, so we adapted the plan a bit. In South Carolina, midwives are legal and state licensed, so there is no sculking around needed. I’m really excited, and more so since my fellow former junta leader Jason is going through the same thing, and only a week or two behind.

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