From Moonbattery:

Proving yet again that it will undermine our country any way it can, the ACLU is suing the State of Rhode Island, the state police, state police Supt. Steven M. Pare, Trooper Thomas Chabot, and a “Jane Doe” trooper they haven’t been able to identify for apprehending a van full of illegal aliens.

The van was pulled over when the driver failed to signal before changing lanes. The troopers had a look inside and found 14 illegal aliens, whom they escorted to the federal Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Providence.

According to the ACLU, this constitutes a violation of Rhode Island’s Racial Profiling Prevention Act. Evidently, the police are allowed to have a look inside vehicles they pull over only if they are driven by Caucasians.

As if having 14 people crammed into a van isn’t sufficient reason to suspect they might be illegals. This is just another in a long line of ACLU positions designed to cause as much harm to American interests as possible.

Analysis: Al-Qaida in chat rooms

The German government wants to spend roughly $165 million over the next three years to combat Internet-related terrorism activities, in the wake of an arrest of a terror suspect who used the Web to disseminate al-Qaida videos.

It was last week’s biggest news in Germany: Police Tuesday near Osnabrueck, in western Germany, arrested a 36-year-old terrorism suspect, identified only as Ibrahim R., after they had searched his apartment and computer.

. . .Police had surveyed him for more than a year and found that he downloaded and disseminated audio and video messages by al-Qaida bosses Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Officials said he likely didn’t have direct contacts to al-Qaida, but what he shared with the terror network was a profound hatred against the United States and the West, hatred that he discharged onto the Web.

Rolf Tophoven, a German terrorism expert, recently told United Press International that the Internet, used for “propaganda and inciting purposes,” has become the Islamists’ most important recruitment tool.

If this man had been arrested in America, the ACLU would be springing into action to defend his “free speech” rights.

Arguing that liberal judges in the past improperly established new political rights such as abortion, Scalia warned, “Someday, you’re going to get a very conservative Supreme Court and regret that approach.”

“On controversial issues on stuff like homosexual rights, abortion, we debate with each other and persuade each other and vote on it either through representatives or a constitutional amendment,” the Reagan appointee said.

“Whether it’s good or bad is not my job. My job is simply to say if those things you find desirable are contained in the Constitution,” he said.

I think the headline here is rather telling. “Scalia Defends Positions in TV Debate”. It was a debate. That means that the two participants were both defending their positions as well as attacking those of the opposition. The headline, however, paints it as if Scalia was particularly defensive. The implication being that his opinions are errant, and in stronger need of defense.

Update: It looks like someone agreed with me as the headline has been changed. It now reads as the much more informative and less opinionated, “Scalia, ACLU Head Face Off in TV Debate”.

Ending all doubt that they are much more interested in advancing radical liberalism than protecting “civil liberties”, the ACLU has filed suit to stop Arizona education reforms from being enacted, reports Cato-at-liberty.

On what grounds does the ACLU claim to oppose this policy, you ask? They assert that ?it violates state constitutional provisions prohibiting public funding for religious schools and mandating that the state provide a general and uniform public school system.?

The first objection is not likely to hold water, given that the AZ Supreme Court already ruled, in Kotterman v. Killian, that tax credits do not constitute public funding.

The second challenge is more interesting, having been inspired by the astonishingly inventive Florida Supreme Court ruling that struck down that state?s A+ voucher program early this year. Will foes of educational freedom find this argument a winner in AZ? Not knowing much about the AZ Justices, it?s hard to say. The argument certainly did not work with Wisconsin?s Supreme Court when it was used against Milwaukee?s voucher program during the 1990s.

Compendium Files: Education

Hat tip: NewsBusters

Lichtblau offered this lame defense in response to a question from fellow guest Heather Mac Donald, who wrote critically about the Times’ report for the Weekly Standard: ?The idea that we?re alerting terrorist to the idea that their finances may be tracked I think is misguided. I think they?ve been alerted to that for the last four-and-a-half years by President Bush and by numerous aides, including former Treasury Secretary Snow and others. That drumbeat has been constant from the administration, and it?s such a poorly kept secret, if you can call it even that.?

In other words, his big scoop? Old news.

Mac Donald challenged Lichtblau?s central premise: ?If it?s so universally known, why is this a front-page story that the Times was proud to publish? You can?t have it both ways?.How do you explain the Hambali [the Bali bomber caught as a result of the SWIFT surveillance] case? If everybody knew this was going on, then either you don?t need to run the story or you can?t explain how you were able to catch terrorists through this program.?

Not only are his pathetic arguments annihilated on this point, but there’s another issue entirely that they aren’t facing. By exposes programs like this we risk losing cooperation from other countries. When we can’t keep anything secret, other countries won’t be willing to cooperate with us for fear of terrorist retaliation or radical leftwing hysteria, which we are already seeing.

If Lichtblau would just open his eyes, the proof that his decision was wrong is unfolding right before our eyes. StopTheACLU covered how the ACLU is now working with European leftwing extremists to try and stop the program.