Pom-Pom Police

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Bad Ballots

At least 82 felons in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, voted illegally in last year's presidential election. And the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports as many as 600 voters potentially cast illegal ballots in the last election. This assessment comes in the midst of a federal investigation of possible voter fraud in Milwaukee, which reveals that 1,200 votes came from invalid addresses, and that 1,300 registration cards could not be processed because of missing information. Here's the most telling statistic — there were 7,000 more ballots cast than there are recorded voters in the city.

Flag Flap

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has voted unanimously to urge Mayor Gavin Newsom to lower the flag over city hall to half-staff — a way of expressing the board's opposition to the war in Iraq. Mayor Newsom, who incidentally also opposes the war, has refused. He says the flag is traditionally lowered only by order of the governor or the president.

One board member called Newsom's decision "deplorable." But a spokesman for the mayor says that board member should "join us in criticizing President Bush and supporters of this war — not the people who actually agree with him."

Coed Cohabitation

The State University of New York has rejected a proposal to allow coed dorm rooms on campus. The resolution wasn't sponsored by young men and women looking for a more convenient romantic arrangement. Instead, it was proposed by homosexual students, who said they'd prefer to live with a member of the opposite sex over an intolerant same-sex roommate. Students pushing for the resolution called the current dorm policy — "heterosexist." But in voting down the proposal, the student senate said residents should be paired based on compatible living habits, and not on sex.

Pom-Pom Police

What could be more wholesome and all-American than high school cheerleaders? Well, one Texas state legislator wants to crack down on high school cheerleaders because their performances are "just too sexually oriented." Houston Democrat Al Edwards says he objects to teenage girls, "shaking their behinds and going on, breaking it down"

What's more, he says it's hard to tell teenagers that sex should be saved for marriage when their coaches are "helping them go through those kind of gyrations." Edwards has proposed a bill that would cut state funding to any school district that knowingly permits a "vulgar" cheerleading performance.

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report