The 51st State--It ain't Puerto Rico

So, here in Washington State a lot of folks are feeling disenfranchised. These are, by and large, those that voted for Dino Rossi (Perhaps the first Governor whose putsch preceded his inauguration.--Ed.) and who are from Eastern Washington.

Eastern Washington is that part of the state east of the Cascade Mountain range.

The following--as the link above--is from King 5, a local NBC television affiliate.

"If Washington Sen. Bob Morton has his way, he’ll soon be a resident and lawmaker in the 51st state of the United States.

To Morton, the Cascade Mountains are more than just the dividing line between wet and dry Washington. They are the indisputable wall between political ideologies that only became more apparent during the recent contested governor’s race.

The Republican from Orient is the prime sponsor on a joint memorial in the Senate that asks President Bush to create a new state east of the Cascades that would comprise 20 of the current state’s 39 counties."

I forget where I first read about an alternative proposal--sometime ago via Instapundit probably--that the Blue areas of the Nation become reservations of Libbies.

Similar to Indian Reservations they could have their own business and cultural interests and may even make items actually worth something in trade. Perhaps "peace" bongs and pamphlets on the various spoor and signs of Liberals in the wild.

That's probably more realistic. Let them have Seattle, L.A., New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C...the rest of us (U.S.?) can visit, buy vegetarian products, and bring hemp T-shirts home to our relatives.

Dershowitz on Summers

H/T to the Belmont Club.

From the Boston Globe.

As critics of Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers step up pressure for him to resign or radically alter the way he leads the university, a few professors have begun rallying to his defense.

Late yesterday, one of Harvard's most famous faculty members, law professor Alan Dershowitz, issued a statement backing Summers's presidency, in which he said the storm of opposition "sounds like the trial of Galileo."


"In my 41 years at Harvard, I have never experienced a president more open to debate, disagreement, and dialogue than Larry Summers," wrote Dershowitz, adding that "professors who are afraid to challenge him are guilty of cowardice."


Dershowitz noted that he disagreed with Summers's comments last month that innate differences might help explain why more men than women are top achievers in science and math, but he defended the university president's right to raise the proposition.


"This is truly a time of crisis for Harvard," he wrote. "The crisis is over whether a politically correct straightjacket will be placed over the thinking of everybody in this institution by one segment of the faculty."

I rarely agree with Alan Dershowitz, but the professor seems to have hit the nail on the head this time. Kudos to Professor Dershowitz.