Democrat shortsightedness in the Judges Battle

They seem to forget that their obstruction of GWB's appointments could be mirrored next year by Republicans obstructing anyone a President Obama might put up. They are certainly giving the GOP a good excuse to do so

Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal decried Senate Democrats' obstruction of judicial nominees as "unprecedented in its stinginess," and noted that "[w]e'll soon see if Republicans will take this lying down." The answer came the next day, when GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell forced Senate clerks to read aloud the entire 491-page substitute amendment to the climate change bill. Kudos to Sen. McConnell, who explained that the tactic was intended "to give [Democrats] time to contemplate and consider the importance of keeping your word in this body."

McConnell was referring to Majority Leader Harry Reid's broken promise to confirm three appeals court nominees before the Memorial Day recess, as well as Reid's sure-to-be-broken earlier promises to meet the historical average (17) for appeals court confirmations by an opposition Senate in a president's final two years. In fact, McConnell noted, judicial confirmations are proceeding at a historically slow pace:

"If you look at judicial confirmations in a presidential year, you have to go back to 1848, . Zachary Taylor, to find the last time the pace has been this slow."

Of course, what Senate Democrats have mind is 2009 rather than 1848, as Sen. John Cornyn explained last week:

"It is becoming increasingly clear that the majority party is . attempting to run out the clock in hopes of a Democratic President appointing hard left, judicial activists in 2009. We will not let this happen."

But Democrats should not count their judicial activists before they're confirmed. As noted by the Washington Times, Sen. McConnell "issued the starkest threat to date that Republicans will retaliate next year if a Democrat wins the White House." Specifically, McConnell said

"It strikes me it's to their advantage to defuse this issue, because around here, what goes around comes around. That's happening today. It could happen next year. Surely, they're not so shortsighted as to think, 'Goodness, just a few months from now we could be processing nominees that we like.'"

Of greatest concern is confirming one or more of the Big Three nominees: Bob Conrad (4th Cir.), Steve Matthews (4th Cir.), and Peter Keisler (DC Cir.). The key will be whether GOP senators remain resolute, and so far the signs are good. When Wednesday's slowdown produced only a little movement on Reid's part - specifically, an agreement to hold confirmation votes for three district court nominees - Sen. McConnell continued to press Democrats by refusing to give consent for Senate committees to meet while the Senate was in session Thursday. McConnell promised to keep up the fight until Democrats back down from their obstruction of judicial nominees....

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Hooray! A great day for the Irish!: "Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has said substantial referendum returns show that Ireland has rejected the European Union reform treaty. Electoral officials expect to confirm the result later. Mr Ahern based his conclusion on tallies of votes produced nationally by election observers as well as early official returns. They showed the "no" camp ahead in the vast majority of Ireland's 43 electoral constituencies, while pro-treaty voters were clearly ahead in only a few. The expected result will send shock waves throughout the EU. Ireland was the only member to subject the Lisbon Treaty to a popular vote, while other countries have been ratifying the painstakingly negotiated pact only through their national governments".

Israel is too tolerant: "Hamas fires a massive barrage of rockets into Israel today and the media doesn't even cover it. The continued focus is the demonization of the Jews. The endless clubbing and derision of the Jews softens the collective psyche for a second holocaust. The morbid schadenfreude the international community has for the beleaguered Jew is beneath contempt. Israel is alone. She answers to no one. She is responsible for her own survival. The Jewish people have to get off their asses and throw that thieving Jewicidal summabitch Olmert out."

Australia stymies eBay: "Online auction site eBay has failed in its bid to force it customers to use PayPal - a company it owns - to pay for items on the website. Last night the ACCC said it proposed to revoke eBay's application to enforce the use of PayPal for all transactions, saying it was a threat to competition. "The ACCC is concerned eBay (would) use its market power to substantially lessen competition," ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said. US-based eBay estimates it has about five million Australian users and contributes $2.6 billion to the domestic economy. The online auction site announced in April that from June 17 it would no longer allow direct deposits, money orders or personal cheques as payment options. The controversial change would have left buyers and sellers with two options: cash-on-delivery or payment via the online commerce website PayPal. The management of eBay said the changes were aimed at improving transaction security." [One would think that U.S. antitrust laws could be used to similar effect]

Bungling Brits can't even run nuclear subs safely: "A minister and the head of the Royal Navy made public apologies yesterday after a report into the deaths of two crew who were killed in an explosion on a nuclear submarine uncovered safety flaws and dangerously defective equipment. Leading Operator Mechanic Paul McCann, 32, and Operator Mechanic Anthony Huntrod, 20, were killed on board HMS Tireless when an oxygen-generating device blew up as they activated it during a training exercise under the Arctic ice cap on March 20 last year. The board of inquiry discovered that 996 of the "Scogs" (self-contained oxygen generators) had been defined as unserviceable and placed in a hazardous waste store. But they had been put back into service, regraded "A1" and the relevant paperwork had been changed. Royal Navy military police also found that the sodium chlorate briquettes in the containers, which had to be ignited to produce oxygen, had been removed from drying ovens too soon, which had led to cracks."

One British Conservative still fights for liberty: "The Conservative Party was tonight reeling from the extraordinary resignation of one of their most senior frontbenchers to fight an unprecedented "single-issue" by-election. David Davis, a right-winger and one of the Tories' political heavyweights, stunned Westminster by announcing he was quitting as both an MP and Shadow Home Secretary to fight against the Government's "strangulation" of British freedoms. Mr Davis, who lost the 2005 Tory leadership contest to David Cameron, has been the driving force behind Tory opposition to Gordon Brown's plans to extend detention without charge for terrorist suspects from 28 to 42 days. He is known as a staunch libertarian."

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The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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