Romney (FLDS) was running a close second to McCain but he suddenly out of the blue dropped out of the race. We all know the enormous amount of money Romney spent in the Republican Race and then how he just suddenly dropped out. It is telling that Romney (FLDS) is speaking before the Texas State Republican Convention as a fill-in for Presumptive nominee John McCain at a time when the Texas State Supreme court is due to return 400 children to a Ranch teeming with child molesters and complacent and complacent adult women. I am not objecting to a Mormon in the White House.Finally if McCain chooses Romney he will definitely bring into question whether McCain is a pervert and is making visits to the FLDS ranch in his free time.

http;//blackhippychick.wordpress.com

Another victory today for the Constitution of the United States as the Texas Supreme Court has just ruled against the CPS in their kidnapping of the children of the FLDS sect.

Today the Texas 3rd District Court of Appeals ruled that Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) errored when it removed more than 450 children from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) YFZ ranch in Eldorado, TX last month.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled today that the grounds for removing the children were "legally and factually insufficient" under Texas law

 Nothing is so interesting and revealing as our Society's believes and actions about freedom than in the field of "religious" freedom.  The recent incarceration of the El Dorado Texas group is a prime example.  Does the Government have an interest in outlawing polygamy? Should arranged marriage be a violation of law?  What's the "correct" age of consent?  Are these issues a matter of law or religion?

Texas Child Protective Services said today at a custody hearing for a child born to one of the YFZ Ranch children that the agency no longer believes the mother is a minor.

New court hearings are scheduled to start again in San Angelo on May 16 regarding this matter. In the meantime, there were a couple of interesting stories on the Today show this morning.

I've been keeping track of the views of various political parties regarding the FLDS situation in Texas. In particular, I've been wondering if Democrats (maybe I'm using the wrong sample by visiting this site???) give a shit about maintaining Constitutional rights or is it just hot air when they protest the Bush admin trampling rights when it comes to 'national security' with unsubstantiated 'child abuse' being the cover used to trample the rights of others (for example, the Susan Estrich opinion piece published a couple days ago).

In case there are some that think I'm 'too far out there', please take the time to read the recent ACLU statement below:

Based on the definition of genocide adopted by the United Nations, it appears that a case can be made that the state of Texas is in violation of this Convention by removing FLDS children from their parents regardless of their respective guilt or innocence on allegations of child abuse and tranferring the children to the Texas foster care system (which is basically run by other religious groups)

Law makers in Texas have also admitted that laws (regarding age of marriage) were changed in Texas less tham 3 years ago to specifically target the FLDS community. Even if some members of the FLDS community have violated those laws (and they may not have, since such acts may have transpired in other states where it was perfectly legal), it is clear that Texas is selectively enforcing those laws as other groups have not been targetted.

I have highlighted the clauses of particular interest from the United Nations.

and it's not what comes out of the read end of their fabled longhorns.

Despite claims that have arisen onsite that 'no documentation' of child abuse exists to back up the Texas authorities' decision to raid the FLDS compound, AP today provided yet more emerging details of the results of the raid.

It's now been over three weeks since the state of Texas, acting on a call allegedly from a 16-year old "abused child bride" inside the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints Compound in Eldorado Texas

I’ve been away for over a month getting moved into the new house, which meant packing and unpacking two households (boy, was my mother a packrat), painting the master bedroom and bathroom and the dining room to mitigate the depressing effect of the Tacky Khaki the builders painted the entire house, and getting an 87-year-old deaf and cranky father  settled in.

Frankly, I haven’t missed the campaign diaries  at all.  But when I got back, I did search to see what had been said about the Texas polygamy case. I wasn’t surprised that there were only 4 diaries on it. This sort of issue is frequently ignored here. Three of them  were about the possible violation of the religious freedom of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS), the sloppy  handling of the raid,  and how terrible it was that these people are being persecuted for being weird or different and members of a non-mainstream faith. I wish I could say that surprised me, but it didn’t.  Certainly the protection of civil liberties is extremely important--but so is protecting children and women

Taking a break from the Hillary/Obama debates to see what people here are thinking about the situation with the FLDS compound in Texas where authorities raided the compound based on an apparently bogus phone call and then proceeded to remove 416 children from their parents.

NOTE: This is NOT a bash Hillary diary, she just happened to write a book with a very catchy title.

    Everyone is aware that the State of Texas took custody of 416 minors from an FLDS compound. The way I see it, the intentions of the state are good, but the implications are frightening and the procedures have been ugly. The reason for the raid was a supposed call from an unidentified 16-year-old girl, who claimed she was raped and beaten by her 50-year-old husband. After the jump, I have provided some issues I hope are dealt with logically and humanely:

I'm taking a break from the all-BitterGate format to recommend a couple of books I serendipitously happened to read recently. Both have helped me process the freaky events coming out of the Texas polygamy compound -- and understand why the public (or just the media) seems to be tilting toward sympathy for the many-wived men and their Little-House-in-the-Prairie-like ladies.

The Scarlet Letter
By David Glenn Cox

What a can of worms our forefathers opened up with their beliefs about religious freedom. Of course, they were only seeking escape from state-sponsored religious dogma and forced contributions. Overall, religious freedom has been a successful experiment but with some notable failures. Quakers were beaten and murdered for their pacifist beliefs and more than one or two snake handlers have failed the ultimate test of sanctification.

One of the biggest child-custody cases in US history is rapidly unraveling as legal professionals increasingly raise concerns about the manner in which the original raid was carried out, the treatment of the children removed from their families and the conditions imposed on the mothers of the children.