Courtesy praktike's burrowing into the bowels of legal reform programs. From the American Bar Association's program on promoting the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia and the Middle East, the Judicial Reform Index:

Factor 5: Judicial Review of Legislation
A judicial organ has the power to determine the ultimate constitutionality of legislation and official acts, and such decisions are enforced.

Factor 6: Judicial Oversight of Administrative Practice
The judiciary has the power to review administrative acts and to compel the government to act where a legal duty to act exists.

Factor 7: Judicial Jurisdiction over Civil Liberties
The judiciary has exclusive, ultimate jurisdiction over all cases concerning civil rights and liberties.

Factor 8: System of Appellate Review
Judicial decisions may be reversed only through the judicial appellate process.

Brought to our attention by Digby (and Avedon Carol posting on Eschaton), via a post on judicial review on ars technica. From a Congressional Research Service summary of the provisions of the REAL ID Act, which Sensenbrenner in the House has attached to the supplemental budget for Iraq and Afghanistan.

II. Waiver of Laws to Facilitate Barriers at Border44

Section 102 of the IIRIRA generally provides for construction and strengthening of barriers along U.S. land borders and specifically provides for 14 miles of barriers and roads along the border near San Diego, beginning at the Pacific Ocean and extending eastward. IIRIRA § 102(c) provides for a waiver of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA)45 and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA)46 to the extent the Attorney General determines is necessary to ensure expeditious construction of barriers and roads...

H.R. 418 [the Real ID Act of 2005] would provide additional waiver authority over laws that might impede the expeditious construction of barriers and roads along the border. H.R. 418 would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive any and all laws that he determines necessary, in his sole discretion, to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads under IIRIRA § 102...

Section 102 of H.R. 418 would amend the current provision to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive any law upon determining that a waiver is necessary for the expeditious construction of the border barriers. Additionally, it would prohibit judicial review of a waiver decision or action by the Secretary and bar judicially ordered compensation or injunction or other remedy for damages alleged to result from any such decision or action.

Hey, prak, maybe it is time for you to get shrill again, after all.

Awhile back I was reminiscing about how so many of today's most heated debates carry rather strong echoes of the past. And now we have further proof that some disputes just can't seem to ever die. The principal of McCord Middle School in Benton Harbor, Michigan has ordered the school band not to perform "Louie, Louie" in Saturday's Grand Floral Parade, held as part of the Blossomtime Festival.

Most readers will be familiar with this staple of raunchy dancing that's part of the repertoire of every band that plays at an American sporting event. What would generations of that soon-to-be-endangered species, "sexy cheerleaders," have done without a bit of bump-and-grind to "Louie, Louie." And Animal House afficianados will recall John Belushi's thoughtful explication of the significance of the lyrics. The website LouieLouie.net -- devoted to the production of a documentary on the history of the song, its composer/lyricist Richard Berry, and many of its performers -- has inventoried more than 1,600 recordings. Wikipedia reports that what is believed to be the world's largest jam session was held in 2003 in Tacoma, Washington, where 754 guitarists played a ten-minute rendition of "Louie, Louie."

For me, however, "Louie, Louie" is simply one of the great urban myths. So where else to look than that cornucopia of cultural artifacts, Urban Legends.

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Gee, when you put it that way ...

DOBBS: Are you surprised when you focus on the two deficits we just talked about, the trade deficit, and the budget deficit? The budget deficit is 3.6 percent of our GDP. The trade deficit is reaching just almost 6 percent of GDP. And the president is talking about reforming Social Security. Does that surprise you?

BUFFETT: Well, it's an interesting idea that a deficit of $100 billion a year, something, 20 years out, seems to terrify the administration. But the $400 plus billion dollars deficit currently does nothing but draw yawns. I mean the idea that this terrible specter looms over us 20 years out which is a small fraction of the deficit we happily run now seems kind of interesting to me.

Note: Warren Buffett is a very rich and successful man. George W. Bush has failed at nearly everything he's tried. To whom would you go for advice?

Yet another sign that The Party is intent on imposing its will:

WASHINGTON, May 1 - The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias, prompting some public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence.

Without the knowledge of his board, the chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, contracted last year with an outside consultant to keep track of the guests' political leanings on one program, "Now With Bill Moyers."

In late March, on the recommendation of administration officials, Mr. Tomlinson hired the director of the White House Office of Global Communications as a senior staff member, corporation officials said. While she was still on the White House staff, she helped draft guidelines governing the work of two ombudsmen whom the corporation recently appointed to review the content of public radio and television broadcasts.

Mr. Tomlinson also encouraged corporation and public broadcasting officials to broadcast "The Journal Editorial Report," whose host, Paul Gigot, is editor of the conservative editorial page of The Wall Street Journal. And while a search firm has been retained to find a successor for Kathleen A. Cox, the corporation's president and chief executive, whose contract was not renewed last month, Mr. Tomlinson has made clear to the board that his choice is Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee who is now an assistant secretary of state.

It's really hard to see this as benign, as Tomlinson claims. It may be time for me to get shrill again.