Posted by I really should just start a daily column on the latest nonsense from the StopTheACLU folks. Here’s their entry for today.
The ACLU is receiving a TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR SETTLEMENT as compensation for suing the government over the way names get on the no fly list after two whiny little journalists were detained at San Francisco while checking in for a flight to boston.
For those of you that wonder how the ACLU gets their slimy, traitorous hands on our hard earned tax dollars, here ya go;
The government will compensate the ACLU for attorneys’ fees, settling a lawsuit initiated by two San Francisco peace activists who were detained while checking in for a flight three years ago.
As usual, they ignore all the important things about the case and get even the minor point they’re trying to make wrong. The ACLU won’t get the settlement money for this, the law firm that did the work pro bono will get it. In this case, that is the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in San Francisco. If they had lost the case, they would have had to eat all of the costs of the case. If they win, they’ll usually get a portion of their legal fees awarded to them and only have to eat some of those costs. But in this case, the government settled the case because they knew they would lose.
And of course, our intrepid anti-ACLUers ignore all of the important things about the case. Like the fact that the government was playing games with the discovery process, refusing to reveal why Janet Adams and Rebecca Gordon were put on the no fly list that is supposed to be reserved for suspected terrorists. These two women are no threat to anyone, but they do publish a political newsletter that is critical of President Bush. That alone apparently makes them suspect in the eyes of the government.
You don’t exactly have to be a raving leftist to be outraged that perfectly legal, in fact constitutionally protected, political expression can land you on a terrorist watch list. Or to find it absurd that the government tried to cover up the reasons why they put the women on the list by filing what the judge himself called “frivolous claims of exemption.” The government was going to lose the case and lose badly, so they settled it.
But at the end of the day this tale does have one small, amusing bit…the Bush hating enemies of Freedom that caused this ruckus in the first place won’t get one danged dime.
Actually, the plaintiffs never asked for any money, they just wanted their names cleared. And the only ones here who appear to be “enemies of freedom” are those who restrict the right of American citizens to travel freely without justification. But hey, why let those pesky facts get in the way of a good rant?
January 25, 2006
January 25, 2006