Confessions of a Pilgrim

Wow. Just Wow. While I typically agree with Shakespeare on the fate of lawyers I am also typically having alittle fun with the venerable profession. Now comes news that Lawyers blogs are considered ADVERTISING by the Kentucky Attorney’s Advertising Commission. Ben Cowgill’s(related to Brad by chance?) blog on Legal Ethics has been all but shutdown while he argues his, and others, points that this is really a free speech issue. It seems that the KAAC wants to charge Ben $50 for every entry he makes claiming that his “advertising” has changed and the rules require a new filing fee. Thankfully for Ben, they’ve allowed him to continue posting while a final decision is beaten out.

Stay tuned to his blog for details…this may be too much of a complex legal issue for us little people to understand.

Senator Dan Kelly responded to my piece from January with a well founded argument in support of Senator Stephenson’s election to the Kentucky Senate. I was swayed by the argument not only by his rhetoric but, I admit, a willingness to allow Senator Kelly a certain benefit of the doubt. Now, DC Political Report has chimed in with his comments. So, again, I’ll respond here…

I’m afraid that you have been duped by the senator. He has used a common rhetorical trick, replacing one word with a similar word, to try to get around a complex legal issue.

That’s always a possibility Mr. Sachs! So let’s have a look at Section 32 of the Kentucky Constitution and dissect it.

Section 32 of the Kentucky Constitution

Qualifications of Senators and Representatives.

No person shall be a Representative who, at the time of his election, is not a citizen of Kentucky, has not attained the age of twenty-four years, and who has not resided in this State two years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof in the county, town or city for which he may be chosen. No person shall be a Senator who, at the time of his election, is not a citizen of Kentucky, has not attained the age of thirty years, and has not resided in this State six years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof in the district for which he may be chosen.

So, criteria to be a Senator are:

• Must be a Citizen of Kentucky
• At least 30 yrs old
• has resided in Kentucky for the 6 years prior to the election

The only thing in dispute here is the third item and the word used is Reside. Hopping over to Websters we find the definition of “reside” as:

re·side

1. To live in a place permanently or for an extended period.
2. To be inherently present; exist: the potential energy that resides in flowing water.
3. To be vested, as a power or right: the authority that resides in the Supreme Court.

Hmmm…at this point I have to wonder if Mr. Sachs may be correct. However, the same word, “reside” is used in Section 145 of the Kentucky Constitution:

Every citizen of the United States of the age of eighteen years who has resided in the state one year, and in the county six months, and the precinct in which he offers to vote sixty days next preceding the election, shall be a voter in said precinct and not elsewhere but the following persons are excepted and shall not have the right to vote.

If the two words have the same meaning, and it is disingenous to suggest otherwise, then why do we have absentee ballots for expatriots and military personnel? So let’s have a look at Senate Kelly’s position that Judge Wilett required legal domicile rather than residency. To do that we need the definition of domicile:

dom·i·cile

1. A residence; a home.
2. One’s legal residence.

So now we have a legal residence(domicile) and a being inherently present(to reside). There was never a doubt as to where Senator Stephenson spent her evenings. She was inherently present in Louisville Kentucky. She drove across the bridge to Indiana to go to school. In an effort to save some treasure she rented an apartment or paid for a post office box to establish a legal residence in Indiana.

Dunno Mr. Sachs…you are going to have to provide me with alittle more information on this complex legal issue because right now it seems pretty clear to me. I wasn’t duped by Senator Kelly. I was duped by a politically motivated Press here in Kentucky.

Now, it’s important for Mr. Sachs to understand, I honestly want to see all sides to this issue but I don’t want any legalistic garbage. If I have to have legalistic garbage to understand this then something needs to be changed or thrown out. If average citizens can’t understand the legal process, assuming they are sincerely interested in understanding it, then the legal process must be changed.

Back in January I posted about the disputed Senate seat in Louisville currently held by Dana Seum Stephenson. I’m a small little blog out here so I honestly didn’t expect a response from either Senator Williams or Kelly. I was also depending on RELIABLE news from the various media outlets. My normal approach is read as much as I can, find the common threads, read between those lines, and PRAY that something is accurate amongst them. Apparently this time I was misled in my practice…tortured as it is. Senator Kelly sent me a comment! Thank you Senator! Allow me to respond a bit here…

I wish you had seen the entire text of my remarks. Dana Stevenson meets the technical reqirements of Section 32 of the Constitution.

I also wish I had had your comments in context. The way the media presented it you sounded like a smug politician playing fast and loose with your power. I was shocked at the time that you would be that cavalier with the position that we, your constituents, had entrusted you with. I didn’t think that was you. We’ve never met but I follow you on the Senate floor and those comments, as presented, were quite a suprise.

Judge Wilett was simply wrong. He applied a standard of legal Domicle for six years. The constitution only reqires that the Senator have “resided in Kentucky for six years”. There is a big difference. As you know a person may have a legal Domicile, i. e. where he or she votes and claims legal residence and not actually live in that state (e.g. Soldiers, Business people like John Y Brown, jr. prior to running for election as Kentucky Governor).

On the other hand a person may have multple residences like many of the Florida snowbirders with homes in multiple states. These people have regularly resided in more than one state. That is what Dana Stevenson did

That is an excellent differentiation and your reasoning is sound. Former President Bush did the same thing having legal domicile in Texas while having a residence in Maine.

She moved her Domicile to Indiana to qualify for resident tuition during the first 2&1/2 years of the six year period. However, during that same time, she continued to maintain the residense in Kentucky she bought 10 years ago and lives in now. She has continued to work there for the last 10 years as a teacher, coach and after school tutor for ACT prepartion. She paid State property and income taxes.

This is where we may diverge on our opinions. While I understand the reason she did it I’m not sure I agree with that reason. Ms. Stephenson had to know she was interested in maybe running for the Senate or some elected office. I’m all about transparency these days since the “loyal” opposition seem to be gunning for anything even remotely conservative. Just as Governor Fletcher has failed the transparency test with this Transportation debacle, Ms. Stephenson also failed the test. As you well know Senator, in politics there’s the TRUTH and there’s the TRUTH as the media will spread it. Since the media “informs” the public of a candidates positions and short comings, both Governor Fletcher and Ms. Stephenson should have known that they had to be as clean and proper as possible. Ms. Woodward’s tactics surprises no one. She saw an opportunity to sway things her way and she took it, probably under the advice from someone out on US 60 ( that’s where the Ky Dem Party HQ is for you non-Kentuckians).

From what you have told us Ms. Stephenson was perfectly legal and moral in her decision to take advantage of resident tuition in Indiana. Unfortunately it opened her up to a mess. A mess that could have been avoided.

Governor Fletcher was doing the same thing that every Governor before him has done. A new governor wants people he trusts in positions of authority. No problem there. Unfortunately, it has always had the stench of favoritism whether it was Governor Shelby or Governor Patton. Governor Fletcher had to understand that the “loyal” opposition was going to be gunning for him. Particularly when one considers who was elected to the positions of Auditor and AG. Everyone in Frankfort knew that something exciting was going to happen. Why couldn’t the Governor keep things squeaky clean? No appointments of friends without some form of open screening of the candidates. The latest appointment is the General Counsel John Roach to the Supreme Court. I’m sure there is no doubt to Mr. Roach’s qualifications for this post. Would there have been a huge problem by allowing Mr. Roach to go through a process similiar to any other State Employee for the purposes of determining fitness and merit? Perhaps a nod from the KBA?

Ah well…that’s for another post entirely…moving on…

These are the facts that were enough for me. Remember the constitution only reqires that a legislative candidates Domicile or “citizenship” be in Kentucky “at the time of the election”.
.
.
.
Finally, the most critical factor is that Senator stevenson won the election. this is how we select our represenatives, not by last minute court challenges.

In light of what you have revealed to us, I agree. This was a typical tactic of the “loyal” opposition. US Senator Boxer would be proud. I apologize to you for placing your name in the same column as President Clinton. I’ll have to drive to Springfield and mow your lawn or something.

Your last paragraph is beautiful and really hits the nail on the head for so many of the tempests that swirl around Frankfort:

Unfortunately the media has never presented all of the information before the Senate. Both major papers want a new election because they hoped a Democrat would win. But the people have already spoken for this term

And here’s hoping they continue to speak Senator. Thanks for stopping by!

Learned over the past day or two of another child butchered in Florida by a known sex offender. How many more are we going to allow?

Here in Kentucky there are several registered sex offenders that are non-compiant with their registration according to the State Police’s online registry which they state is NOT OFFICIAL…but still a good place to check to protect your kids. Just go here and supply the county in which you live to get a complete list of registered sex offenders in your area.

A reminder – these people MUST be considered law abiding citizens if they are compliant with their registration. We do not know the circumstances that landed them on the SOR. Consider your own self at the age of 18. If your boyfriend or girlfriend at the time was under 18 and you were sexually involved you were, by statute, committing rape and if charged would have been placed on the SOR. Something to consider before going overboard with this thing.

There is a rant here as well. What in the WORLD is going on in Florida??? How can ANY JUDGE allow a convicted sex offender walk out on a SECOND CHARGE with bail at $200??? Why offer bail at all? Don’t these bone heads know that it’s OUR children at risk? Our daughters, sons, sisters, and mothers??? You notice that these cowards won’t try this crap with men. They have to have something to control, to torture while they scream for mercy. There is no penalty too steep for anyone who would harm a child. Castration is too easy. Skinned alive and submerged in paint thinner occassionally might do it but even then they would bleed out too fast.

Any child rapists out there…come visit me for alittle mountain justice sometime. I’ll cure you…I promise.

[update] I love this guy. Ya gotta go read about the dangers of .45 caliber brain tumors.

Fellow Republicans, it’s time to be crystal clear in our transparency. We simply cannot endure the ethics whining about Congressman Delay, Governor Fletcher, and Kentucky Senate President David Williams.

How difficult is it to play the game without the APPEARANCE of impropriety? I’m not saying DeLay, Fletcher, and Williams are crooked. I AM saying their behavior hurts the party and we just don’t need that right now when Democrats, local and national, are doing everything they can to stop this national conservative swing. Clean up your acts fellas. Like Senator Santorum said today:

I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves

So come on lads…quit giving the Dems something to crow about.

What does Illegal Immigration and Social Security have in common? The NYT reports it could be boon to the struggling program.

This article has some of the most incredible claims I’ve ever read(aside from the DU that is). They begin the article with a tale of woe:

STOCKTON, Calif. – Since illegally crossing the Mexican border into the United States six years ago, Ángel Martínez has done backbreaking work, harvesting asparagus, pruning grapevines and picking the ripe fruit. More recently, he has also washed trucks, often working as much as 70 hours a week, earning $8.50 to $12.75 an hour.

And then the wrapper for this diatribe:

Not surprisingly, Mr. Martínez, 28, has not given much thought to Social Security’s long-term financial problems. But Mr. Martínez – who comes from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico and hiked for two days through the desert to enter the United States near Tecate, some 20 miles east of Tijuana – contributes more than most Americans to the solvency of the nation’s public retirement system.

So here we have Mr. Martinez busting his tired and obviously oppressed arse while contributing to my parent’s Social Security. Am I supposed to say “Thank You”? How about “Get the 4377 out of my country if you don’t want to enter it legally!”.

I could continue with the illegal immigration rant but the Times has a different idea…

Last year, Mr. Martínez paid about $2,000 toward Social Security and $450 for Medicare through payroll taxes withheld from his wages. Yet unlike most Americans, who will receive some form of a public pension in retirement and will be eligible for Medicare as soon as they turn 65, Mr. Martínez is not entitled to benefits.

He belongs to a big club. As the debate over Social Security heats up, the estimated seven million or so illegal immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year.

Oh! So I *AM* supposed to say “THANK YOU” as well as offer the benefits to this criminal? “Thank you Sir! May I have another”? Good Grief. Someone have a paperbag? I think I’m hyperventilating!

After reading a bit further I find that it’s actually a GOOD thing that the criminals will not receive benefits:

Illegal immigrants help even more because they will never collect benefits. According to Mr. Goss, without the flow of payroll taxes from wages in the suspense file, the system’s long-term funding hole over 75 years would be 10 percent deeper.

Yet to immigrants, the lack of retirement benefits is just part of the package of hardship they took on when they decided to make the trek north. Tying vines in a vineyard some 30 miles north of Stockton, Florencio Tapia, 20, from Guerrero, along Mexico’s Pacific coast, has no idea what the money being withheld from his paycheck is for. “I haven’t asked,” Mr. Tapia said.

The “suspence file” mentioned in the above quote is where the SocSec Admin places all W2’s that have false SSNs. I’m not even getting into that argument…it’s just one more episode of not enforcing our laws.

Mr. Martinez and Mr. Tapia are being used. They are criminals that are being used. At first, as usual, I thought of the days of the “peculiar institution” where the Plantation owners lived on the backs of their slaves but this is worse. The Times and their sources seem to be supporting the idea of illegals paying into the Soc Sec system. They are willing to look past the violation of at least TWO federal laws for the sake of the Marxist Ideal of Income Redistribution under the guise of the Social Security System.

For a long time I’ve wondered what the Democrats plan is for Social Security Reform. I guess we know what it is now.

• Help Immigration Criminals by giving them driver’s licenses
• Placing the kids of Immigration Criminals in public schools and Universities
• Allow their employers to falsify W2s
• Take that money and prop up the Social Security System

Now don’t remind me that the children born in the US are Citizens. Those aren’t the kids I’m talking about….of course we would never know if they were born here or carried in like so much luggage because we as a Nation just don’t seem to give a …um… an excrement.

With the killing of Terri Schiavo, the death of Pope John Paul II, and the NCAA tournament there has been precious little media time for the goings on on the Mexican – Arizona/US border. Depending on who you read you might read:

• Armed volunteers plan to patrol Mexican border; some fear bloodshed could result
• Minuteman Project causes concern in Mexico
• A volatile situation building on U.S.-Mexico border

The AP gets closer to “journalism” with this title: “Volunteers to help patrol Mexican border”

I wasn’t there for the big shindig last week but from the reports I’ve read…as well as the silence from the Anti-Christian Left Union…I can only guess that there was no Poncho Villa-esque slaughter of “militia” members nor Black Jack Pershing raids into Mexico. The Immigration Blog and the Freeps had their “reporters” on the scene.

For the life of me I can’t understand why President Bush doesn’t support the necessity of protecting our southern border. I know he has a long relationship with President Fox of Mexico but it should be pretty clear that El Presidente’ is ENCOURAGING his people to violate US Law. Now with the birth of the Minutemen he sends his army to the border region. Why? Does he really think that these citizens are a threat to Mexico? Probably so since his people are literally killing themselves to get into the US…must be pretty bad south of the border.

Here in Kentucky we have a seasonal influx of Mexican workers. One has to wonder how many are legal and how many are not. Perhaps it’s time for the “Hunters of Kentucky” to help the illegals get legal. No, that is not a veiled threat. If we have illegal immigrants in our State we should give them an opportunity to get legal. If they choose NOT to get legal…we deport them back to Mexico and send President Fox the bill.

Wednesday a student at Toliver Elementary in Danville reported

…she had been approached outside the school but on school grounds by an older, white male with gray hair, and she claimed (that the older, whte male) asked her to go with him,” Newell said. “The girl declined and immediately ran inside the school and told the principal of the incident.”

Remember earlier this week I posted about the Kentucky Sex Offender Database and the number of non-compliant folks? Take a look at this guy and tell me if the description isn’t abit too similiar(sadly the picture is only viewable in IE):

Charles Lyons

Perhaps the little girl could look at the picture and see if this is the man?

I was reading about the various abductions of little girls, including the alleged abduction this morning in Lexington, and feeling my blood pressure rise. I visited the Kentucky Sex Offenders Registry and saw something that troubled me. There are two offenders in Mercer county that are currently not compliant with their registrations. Where are these two guys?

EUGENE MARQUART
Charles Lyons

Or…more importantly…where are the children of Mercer County?

I went on to look in some other counties with non-compliant sex offenders:

• Jefferson: 49
• Fayette: 8
• Kenton: 7
• McCracken: 3

and that’s where I stopped looking. What’s being done to find these people? Clerical error on the part of the State Police?

This information shouldn’t be difficult at all to find and these faces need to be made public…VERY public.

I listed 4 of the largest counties in Kentucky but these guys can travel like anyone else. A VERY brief look at the KySOR finds 67 people that are on the SOR but are not compliant. It only takes one.

And before someone goes down the road of, “You can’t harass these people!”, I’m not advocating that. I just want to know where they are. I want them to follow the law and register. You know…like what we DON’T do for illegal aliens?

It’s been talked about for a while but it looks like it’s going to happen thanks to the Hitachi plant in the community.

With the growing number of Meth labs in our community it’s a matter of time…no it isn’t…it’s necessary NOW to offer the Constabulary a way to drop attackers in a non-lethal manner. Of course it’s only a matter of time before someone gets zapped and they sue because of “police brutality”. *SIGH*.

Deputy Erick Barkman said:

They are becoming a necessary evil, It sure beats shooting them

I don’t know about that Deputy. I’d have to think about that long and hard for some…like these people who are on the Sex Offender Registery but are presently unaccounted for.

oh yeah…The Kentucky State Police are a Microsoft Only Shop…ya gotta use Internet *wretch* Explorer to view the pictures of these swine.

Finally we’re getting somewhat unfiltered reports on the action earlier this week by some of our own Kentucky boys and girls against the barbarians.

What makes me particularly proud is the fact that the soldiers from Richmond are almost certainly descendants of members of the 8th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry like me. I’m sure that Col. Sidney Barnes and the rest of the lads were looking down on these people with pride. Bet they were talking about what happened at Chickamauga(Read the Brigade(Num 192) and Regimental(Num 194) after action reports) when the line broke but this time it was different. As my buddy EW might say, “There they were surrounded on all sides!”.

A 30-minute firefight ensued Sunday morning, pitting 10 guardsmen against dozens of insurgents. When the shooting ended, 26 guerrillas barbarians [edited for honesty] lay dead and another was mortally wounded, while six others were wounded and another was captured unharmed.

Read the above and thought of this song…complete with Midi file for the aural impaired.

Note to Barbarians: Don’t Mess with Kentuckians unless your odds are better than 3:1 in your favor and even then…no guarantees.

[UPDATE: And then I read this on Smash's site...good news indeed...]

Stumbled across this on Crypto-god Bruce Schneier’s blog.

Daniel Solove(George Washington University, Assoc. Prof Law) and Chris Jay Hoofnagle(Dir. EPIC) released their A Model Regime of Privacy Protection on March 10th. It’s a very good layout of the challenges we face with regard to protecting our private information along with ideas as to how to handle the challenges.

Good Points:
1) Meaningful Informed Consent. They reference the fact that Gramm-Leach-Bliley is ineffective with regards to opting out of data sharing(Section 2-a) . They go on to recommend a notification procedure when policies are changed at companies like ChoicePoint.

2) One-Step Exercise of Rights. Ever tried opting out of spam? Sure, they log the fact that your email is active but they also put you through 7 layers of hell before they say, “Oh alright”. With ChoicePoint Et al keeping “cradle to grave” records on virtually everyone and selling them to the highest bidder it becomes critically important that we, the creators of those records, have a way telling them to get bent. Solove and Hoofnagle recommend a central mechanism for folks to use similar to the DO NOT CALL list operated by the FTC.

3) Secure Identification. Social Security Numbers are a big NO NO. They are used everywhere from your movie rental place to the…well…the Social Security Administration. Solove and Hoofnagle recommend the use of passwords. Biometrics are wonderful but if they are stolen the resulting damage is practically unstoppable short of killing the victim. This opens up a whole other can of worms with the likes of Paris Hilton and her cell phone woes.

Not So Good Points

Won’t list them chapter and verse because I really like the ideas they talk about overall and don’t want my own political leanings to cloud that fact. The big problem I have with alot of their recommendations is that they, Solove and Hoofnagle, drop the responsibility of protecting this information primarilly in the lap of the FTC. There is passing mention of implementing fines for companies that break the laws but the oversite of those laws is left to the FTC.

Dunno…this is an EXCELLENT starting point but I think there’s still work to be done. I am going to try and make sure this finds its way to a desk at Kentucky’s Legislative Research Commission.

Let me give alittle background here for you non-Kentuckians that may be reading this. First, Kentucky is probably second only to Louisiana for our political mechinations. It’s not at all uncommon for votes to be bought with all manner of promises, contraband, and cash. It’s not at all uncommon for our Senate and House to be embroiled in various tempests. In the summer of 1999 Republicans took control of the State Senate for the first time ever in what some called a “bloodless coup”. Many trees were killed to print the rhetoric following that event. Ever since politics in Kentucky has been a rough and tumble game. In 2003 Kentucky elected Ernie Fletcher to be Governor ending 32 years of Democratic “rule” in the Commonwealth.

Now then…in the last election a Senate seat was up for grabs in Louisville. Two fine ladies ran for the office. The day before the election Democrat Virginia Woodward sues in Jefferson Circuit Court to disqualify Republican Dana Seum Stephenson; claiming Stephenson didn’t meet state residency requirements and the brawl began. Read the full story here. Meanwhile…my rant continues…

(more…)