Conservative in Texas had some thoughts about grassroots support for SS reform after hearing the results of a poll on the radio that indicated popular support is declining. He emailed David Limbaugh with his idea and David has some thoughts on this as well.

David says:

It seems to me that bloggers, by definition, are a grassroots phenomenon. But they are like grassroots on stilts because their work is immediately published and potentially explosive in terms of its ability to reverberate to the corners of the earth instantly and efficiently. Some might argue that the very notion of a concerted blogging effort is counterintuitive, since one of the best attributes of bloggers is their independence. But they don’t have to sacrifice their independence to become part of an organized effort with whose goals they happen to agree.

Link to the White House’s page on SS Reform here.

Link to the WSJ article here. (Subscription required. I don’t have one so I don’t know exactly what it says).

Update: link to USANext , Building a Legacy of Freedom for Families

In the first bill signing of 2005, President Bush signed Class-Action Fairness into law.

Full text of the remarks are here.

Overall, junk lawsuits have driven the total cost of America’s tort system to more than $240 billion a year, greater than any other major industrialized nation. It creates a needless disadvantage for America’s workers and businesses in a global economy, imposes unfair costs on job creators, and raises prices to consumers.

We have a responsibility to confront frivolous litigation head on. I will continue working with Congress to pass meaningful legal reforms, starting with reform in our asbestos and medical liability systems.

Via Fox News: The Iowa Supreme Court decided today that Illegal Aliens do not have the right to get driver’s licenses in the State of Iowa.

Mark Hunacek, an assistant attorney general, said federal courts have concluded there is no constitutional right for illegal aliens to have a driver’s license.

“We conclude the state’s licensing scheme is rationally related to the legitimate state interest of ‘not allowing its governmental machinery to be a facilitator for the concealment of illegal aliens,’ ” the court said.

Since Jeff has joined me, this isn’t just Kim’s Thoughts and Observations anymore… Now it’s Musing Minds. URL is the same…

The NY Times (big surprise there) has an op-ed piece by Napolitano – apparently Stewart’s prosecution was a travesty of justice and simply an attempt to “intimidate defense lawyers.”

As I stated here, the real travesty is attorneys abusing their position and corresponding solicitor and client privilege to carry out such criminal acts. In doing so, they threaten the foundation of the privilege itself. That, your honour, is the real threat to future litigants. That is why communications in furtherance of a criminal acts are not privileged. While a thoughtful discussion as to how to preserve otherwise lawful communications in the process may be warranted, Napolatino chooses instead to victimize Stewart and cast aspersions on the motives of Justice officials.

As for intimidating defense lawyers, if the Stewart decision intimidates lawyers from committing such acts in the future, mission accomplished. It’s called deterrence, one of the corner stones of the criminal justice process. Lawyers not abusing the privilege (and I presume that’s by far the vast majority) have nothing to fear. As for those few who do, they are not above the law.

Update: Welcome Dirty Harry Readers