Federal Judge rules National Prayer Day is unconstitutional

From the Washington Times:

A federal court in Wisconsin decided Thursday that the country's National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional because it calls on citizens to take part in religious activity.

U.S. District Court Judge Barbara B. Crabb [an apointee of former President, Jimmy Carter] ruled that the statute that created the National Day of Prayer violates the Constitution's prohibition against the government establishment of religion...

Even though the Obama administration apparently did not concur with this ruling, it is worthy to note that the President, last year, opted not to have a prayer service in the White House.

Other news:

Benazir Bhutto 'left to mercy of assassins by security chief'

Lieberman, Collins warn they'll issue subpoenas over Ft. Hood shootings if the administration fails to turn over information

Sen. Collins told reporters today:

“Sadly, for the past five months, we have been stymied by this Administration in our attempt to gain access to the documents and people that we need to interview in order to better understand what the government knew about Major Hasan prior to the attack. We have taken step after step, made offer after offer, to accommodate any legitimate concerns expressed by the Administration. Unfortunately, what we’re dealing with are not legitimate concerns, but rather what seems to be an inexplicable determination to stalemate and slow-walk our investigation.”

"I want to just emphasize again that we do not take the step of issuing subpoenas lightly. When I was chairman of the [Homeland Security & Governmental affairs] Committee we were forced to issue five subpoenas of Bush administration officials, and I took that step very seriously as well. But once again, we have come to a point where we're not going to be able to carry out our very important independent, bipartisan investigation without the access to these documents and individuals. Therefore, we've concluded that we have no choice but to issue the subpoenas unless the situation changes dramatically over the weekend."

Other News:

From The Foundry - 'Tax Day' coincidence?

The Associated Press reported last week: “Tax Day is a dreaded deadline for millions, but for nearly half of U.S. households it’s simply somebody else’s problem. About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009.”

A new Gallup poll out this week finds that 45% of Americans believe “the amount of federal income tax you have to pay” are “about right.”

47% of Americans pay no taxes and 45% believe what they pay is about right. What are the odds that these are the same Americans?

Other News:

McCain Throws Down the VAT [Value-Added Tax] Gauntlet