I have to admit, I am really torn on this one folks. Fredericksburg City Council just approved $100K of the taxpayers dollars to cover legal expenses incurred as a result of the 18-count lawsuit rendered by former Councilman Gordon Shelton et al. The problem is who to be angry with for the cost? Council for hiring a $500/hr attorney or Shelton for bringing the lawsuits to light? I’m inclined to blame the latter, but $82,000 and rising for legal fees? On the taxpayers’ dime? What did we do to deserve this legal fee? Of course, when you break it down by count, the cost of the legal fees per count is far less than the $7,380 bill for the FOIA lawsuit brought against Shelton and the ‘Gang of Five’ that the taxpayers had to foot the bill for.

And polls are indicating that the president was effective last night in convincing the public on Iraq by nearly 11%. My favorite part of the State of the Union:

This dictator, who is assembling the world’s most dangerous weapons, has already used them on whole villages – leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind, or disfigured. Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained – by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape.

If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning.

Apologists for Saddam Hussein can rant all they want for peace, but peace without justice is not peace; it is tyrrany. Go get ’em, Mr. President!