Tuesday Roundup

The Washington Times this morning was an exceptionally fruitful source of material:

Justice concludes black voters need Democratic Party

KINSTON, N.C. | Voters in this small city decided overwhelmingly last year to do away with the party affiliation of candidates in local elections, but the Obama administration recently overruled the electorate and decided that equal rights for black voters cannot be achieved without the Democratic Party.

The Justice Department's ruling, which affects races for City Council and mayor, went so far as to say partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their "candidates of choice" - identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black.

The department ruled that white voters in Kinston will vote for blacks only if they are Democrats and that therefore the city cannot get rid of party affiliations for local elections because that would violate black voters' right to elect the candidates they want.

So can we count this as official legal recognition of black voting tribalism? I'm sympathetic to the complaint: party identification often saves even me the hard work of learning about candidates in advance. But the voters of Kinston ought to have the power to make this decision for themselves, and the DOJ is stretching its mandate under the Voting Rights Act to the breaking point.

Climate bill aids authors' states

A little noticed Environmental Protection Agency analysis shows that the pending climate-change bill in Congress would particularly benefit the states represented by its primary authors.

The analysis, obtained by The Washington Times, shows that the states that would benefit most from the climate legislation that passed the House in June include California and Massachusetts. The bill was co-authored by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, California Democrat, and Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat.

As I predicted, "global warming" is just another frontier in government rent-seeking.

U.S. scientist Charged with Spying; Accused of dealing with Israel

An acclaimed former NASA scientist was arrested Monday on charges that he attempted to sell sensitive defense secrets to a person he thought was an Israeli intelligence officer.

Stewart David Nozette, 52, worked in top government jobs from 1989 to 2000 and had access to military satellite programs and nuclear weapons programs, according to court papers that were unsealed Monday after the scientist was arrested at his Chevy Chase home.

I remember having some sympathy for Jonathan Pollard when he received a life sentence for spying for an "allied" country. But then I found out that the Israelis traded some of Pollard's product to the Soviets, which may have cost the lives of several CIA east-bloc operatives. So I'm inclined to throw the book at any foreign spy.