Light Posting Ahead

I don't know how much computer time I'll have during the next week. Should be back and running normal speed in a week or so.

Annual Southern Migration Immiment

I will be enjoying the deep south this week. Light posting ahead.

Tina Fey Honored Once Again

The woman known for her impression of Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live" will win the nation's top humor prize this year from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Tina Fey joins the ranks of Bill Cosby, Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin and others who have won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the center announced Tuesday. Fey will be the youngest honoree, having just turned 40.

[...]

This isn't the first recognition of her work. Fey was voted The Associated Press' Entertainer of the Year in 2008 by newspaper editors and broadcasters across the country after her Palin impression during the presidential campaign. Palin, of course, was the Republican vice presidential candidate.

Via Idaho Statesman

Actually John McCain would have been better off if he had chosen Tina Fey for his Vice Presidential pick instead of Side Show Sarah.

Not so strange fact of the Day

Abstinence only advocate, Sarah Palin, never talked to her own daughter about the birds and the bees and abstinence before she let her teenage daughter’s boyfriend share a bedroom with her daughter.

Surprisingly, this revelation from Bristol Palin is not in the least bit surprising. Heckuva Job Sarah.

James O’Keefe, aka “The Teabugger” to plead out

Looks like anti-acorn activist, James O’Keefe, affectionately known as “The Teabugger” by his fans will avoid jail time for his role in a phone tampering scheme at the offices of a Louisiana Senator.

The Teabugger:

is expected to enter a plea to a misdemeanor on Wednesday in federal court. He’s accused of entering federal property under false pretenses.

Originally, O’Keefe faced much more potentially serious charges. At the time of the arrests, the U.S. Attorney’s office claimed O’Keefe and three others were in the process "of committing a felony." But federal prosecutors never made the supposed "felony” clear, and the lesser misdemeanor plea of entering federal property “under false pretenses” is expected to spare O'Keefe and his co-defendants any jail time.

No felony conviction, yet. This is good news for O’Keefe as last I heard he was remanded to his Parent’s Basement awaiting charges.

The Wife of the Supreme Court’s Reported Expert on Pornography Starts Teabagging Group?

Actually, they no longer prefer the term “teabagging” and use “Tea Partier” instead.

But yes, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is into the tea partying movement. Reports have her starting a tea party website (not that there is anything wrong with it). No report if they'll hold "a tea bag the White House" event like other tea party organizations have done.

The larger question is: will Judge Thomas need to recuse himself from any upcoming cases now?

The tea party people have a rather uniquely limited view of the constitution. This participation in the tea party movement may pose a conflict of interest for the Judge or an appearance of a conflict at minimum. I’d hate for We the People to lose confidence in the High Court should Judge Thomas be the deciding vote on any case with thorny constitutional issues. The reputation of the High Court should come first.

Now that I think about it, Judge Thomas should probably sit out all cases that contain Constitutional issues from now on. It would be best for all.

Quote of the Day

The Administration ignored the fact that a majority of the American people were opposed to Obamacare. And they ignored the loss of the Teddy Kennedy’s senate seat, and ended up ramming through a bill that the country clearly did not want. That’s the behavior of a machine. So I’m first of all prepared to defend the concept that it’s a machine.

Disgraced Former Speaker Newt Gingrich

Health Care Reform took over a year to enact and passed by a majority vote. By Gingrich’s logic, all legislation that passes was rammed through.

Confederate History Month Just Won’t Go Away

[video]

A Klan re-enactment in a Georgia High School is probably not the brightest thing to do. This is especially true if the students have not been informed that it is a historical re-enactment and not the real thing.

BUSH DID IT - BUSH DID IT - BUSH DID IT!!!

The Bush Bust Bankrupted the Country. Case Closed.

Confederate History Month Drags On

Man what a drag.

The Museum of the Confederacy has raised $6 million of a needed $7.5 million in funding for a satellite location in Appomattox.

[…]

The museum’s expected completion date is “early 2012” after a projected 18 months of construction.

The museum initially planned an opening in late 2011, but was delayed by fundraising issues and an expansion of the original museum plans.

The new design is 11,000 square feet and located on eight acres of land near the intersection of U.S. 460 and Virginia 24. The proposed site is a mile away from the Appomattox Court House National Park.

The satellite location in Appomattox is part of an effort to expand the number of Confederate artifacts on display. Craghead estimated that visitors to the Richmond museum see less than 10 percent of the entire collection.

The Appomattox site, Craghead said, will have artifacts and exhibits related to Appomattox, including General Robert E. Lee’s uniform and sword and the pen he used to sign surrender documents at the McLean house in Appomattox Court House.

I have an idea. The Museum folks could use the new history textbooks from the Texas Board of Education to help describe the exhibits and educate the tour guides. They will want to get their facts right, I presume.

Sarah Palin Killed Conservatism?

For this guy anyway. Quote of the Day:

Today, conservatism is held hostage by that growing fringe that cheered when Sarah Palin said “...and he's worried that someone won't read them their rights”. Problem is, there is no room for a voice of reason on the Palin fringe, since her fans claim that she is the voice of reason.

Sarah Palin, a wonderful motivation speaker and a horrifying political creature, made me realize it's time to cut my conservative losses and move on. She could have been a new Ronald Reagan. She could have been a new Margaret Thatcher. Instead, she chose the rule of man, set a terrible example that will last for decades, emergized the fringe and made many of the rest run for the lifeboats.

Side Show Sarah is a walking talking disaster. I hope she will do the world a favor and get her own Jerry Springer-style reality show. There is big bux in it for her and the rest of us can get a kick watching her hold court over the issues of the day, like “what do you do if your teenage daughter gets knocked up after you let her teenaged boyfriend move into your home.”

An Axis of Incompetence?

3) Start planning now for a world that features a nuclearized Iran. Such a world may revive the value of tactical American nuclear weapons. It will require a much more explicit US nuclear guarantee to friends in the Persian Gulf. It suggests that there ought to be American military personnel permanently stationed in Israel, so as to ensure that the US too takes casualties in the event of an Iranian nuclear strike: removing any doubts about global retaliation for Iranian nuclear action. And more.

The excommunicated David Frum via Frum Forum offering a 3 point plan on Iran

Comrade Frum, the reported author of the axis of evil line, now proposes that American Troops be permanently stationed in Israel. Of course, Comrade Frum was a hardcore supporter of the invasion of Iraq that reversed the balance of power in that region leading to an unchecked Iran.

Now he proposes stationing Troops in Israel as an answer to this current dilemma which arose from following previous schemes hatched by neoconservatives.

Set Orrin Hatch Free!

Quote of the Week:

HATCH: Yeah, I do. And I’ll tell you why because I listen to these folks, I don’t disagree with them. They’re angry for good reasons. I mean, my gosh, these people in Washington are running this country right into the ground. And I think people are dog-gone angry about it.

INGRAHAM: But aren’t you part of Washington?

HATCH: Hell no. I’ve never been. I’ve never considered this a job. I’ve had, people have asked me, they said, “say Senator Hatch, don’t you just love being a U.S. senator?” My constant answer is this. No, I don’t love it at all, but I’m good at it.

Utah T’Baggers you know what to do. In two year's time you brave Baggers can release Orrin from his tiresome burden. Then he can return to his natural habitat, which as it so happens, is the Swamps of Washington, D.C.

Adios Orrin.

Compromise in Texas - Confederate History Month winds down

The term “Atlantic Triangular Trade” will not be added to the Curriculum in Texas.

Earlier in the evening, prolonged debate came over whether to include Confederate President Jefferson Davis' inaugural address with a lesson on Abraham Lincoln's philosophical views; the board decided to require students to contrast the two views.

A proposal to refer to the slave trade as the "Atlantic triangular trade" was changed to call it the "trans-Atlantic slave trade."

This is probably not a bad compromise.

School Kids in Texas can probably have some fun with old Jeff Davis. Like, say, the fact that he was wearing women’s clothing when he was captured. Or the fact that Jeff Davis was a huge and hardcore “Strict Constructionist.” Or that he became a multi-millionaire on the backs off his Triangularites slaves in the cotton trade. How about the fact that just like some members of the Texas School Board, Jeff Davis' own VP didn't care much for Thomas Jefferson either.

Reckon you can't focus on Jeff Davis's philosophical views without focusing on his support for slavery and for its expansion to new lands.

You can sum up the difference in Philosophy between Honest Abe and Jeff Davis this way: One fellow wanted to make freedom national and slavery sectional. The other fellow wanted the opposite. Would slavery expand westward over the Rockies and then southward all the way to Tierra Del Fuego or would it be contained within its then present borders. Pretty simple. Jeff Davis was on the wrong side of history.

As far as the “Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade,” goes, I assume it will be differentiated from the Interstate Slave Trade. After the “Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade” was banned in 1809, the Interstate Slave Trade really took off with a Million Folks sold across state lines.

Jeff Davis and his fellow plantation owners in Mississippi profited from the interstate slave trade in a big way.

Atlantic Triangular Trade - Confederate History Month Continues, Unfortunately

Confederate History Month just won't die.

Now Wingnuts in Texas are trying write the "Slave Trade" out of their textbooks.

[video]

The Slave Trade is to be renamed the Atlantic Triangular Trade if the Wingnutopian ideologues on the Texas Board of Education get their way. That really rolls off the tongue.

Just how many folks of African descent were sold into "Triangularity?" Better checkout a textbook in Texas to find out.

When did "Triangularity" end in Texas? A popular answer used to be "Juneteenth." This is the term used to refer to June 19, 1865, the day when Union sailors announced the end of the Civil War War of Northern Aggression and read aloud the Order of Emancipation in Galveston, Texas freeing the "Triangularites."

And to think how far we have come as a nation when the First Lady can say that though her ancestors were "Triangularites," she now is raising her children in the White House.

Progress, Man. Progress. Thanks Texas.

Official Counter-Revolutionary Spin of the Day

K-Lo delivered the news this morning that readers should not be surprised by the news that a New Deal Style Democrat defeated a Tea Bag Fueled Republican in the PA-12 special election. Nothing to see; went as expected; all is well remain calm; move along, etc. However, there is more to this story than K-Lo's official spin.

PA-12 has been trending GOP and is full of blue collar conservatives that they need to win if the GOP is to take back the House. As a matter of fact prominent Republican have been raising expectations of a grand and glorious victory. "We're going to win" is what GOP Commissar Michael Steele told the WaPo.

But it didn't happen. After the election Steele proclaimed victory anyway:

"This race should serve notice to Democratic officeholders everywhere that no seat is safe and that voters will not accept business-as-usual."

A victorious defeat! However other party heretics leaders disagree:

“If you can’t win a seat that is trending Republican in a year like this, then where is the wave? [...] It would be a huge upset not to win this seat.”

RhINO in Name Only Fmr Congressman Tom Davis (R-VA)

Davis, an apparent counter-revolutionary and dreaded "RINO" further noted that PA-12 does not bode well for any wave in November.

I proclaim this Davis quote as the official counter-revolutionary spin of day!

K-Lo posts the “official” spin to be disseminated to the Masses

What is the wingnuttariat supposed to think about the special election in PA-12? The GOP candidate ran a tea bag style rant against San Francisco liberals and lost.

Thanks to K-Lo, the official spin is in.

The Democrats were more motivated in this race. This ain't the end of a trend. It's just another special election, in a Democratic district, and on a big Democratic primary day. And a Democrat won. Disappointing. But not paradigm-smashing shocking. And not devastating.

Probably a grain of truth to this. However it has been a 50-50 district in the last 2 presidential elections and this is the big race of the day in them there parts.

Left unreconciled by the "Official Spin" is the fact that a couple of Tea Bag style candidates in Kentucky did quite well last night against the candidates promoted by the GOP establishment. The Tea Bag guy in PA-12 did not get across the finish line despite the big bux from the GOP, the energy and the favorable political environment.

Another Opinion outside the official propaganda apparatus:

“Republicans have no excuse to lose this race. The fundamentals of this district, including voters' attitudes towards Obama and Pelosi, are awful for Democrats. And Democratic party registration advantages here are just as obsolete as GOP's advantages in Upstate New York were last year. Timing is no excuse for Republicans either. This special election, not the competitive statewide Democratic primaries held the same day, will be driving turnout on May 18th. With both candidates and party committees plus some outside groups likely to be up on air with full buys between now and the election, there will be far more dollars spent per vote on the PA-12 race than on the Senate or gubernatorial primaries.”

[Cook Political Report, 4/27/10]

Quote of the Day:

When the economy plunged into crisis, many observers — myself included — expected a political shift to the left. After all, the crisis made nonsense of the right’s markets-know-best, regulation-is-always-bad dogma. In retrospect, however, this was naïve: voters tend to react with their guts, not in response to analytical arguments — and in bad times, the gut reaction of many voters is to move right.

That’s the message of a recent paper by the economists Markus Brückner and Hans Peter Grüner, who find a striking correlation between economic performance and political extremism in advanced nations: in both America and Europe, periods of low economic growth tend to be associated with a rising vote for right-wing and nationalist political parties. The rise of the Tea Party, in other words, was exactly what we should have expected in the wake of the economic crisis.

K-Thug.

But according to the Baggers it is the conduct of everyone else that resembles fascists extremists – not them. Projection I guess.

Republican Congressman who besmirched the honor of the great states of Kentucky and Tennessee announces resignation in SHAME

Word on the internets has it that Congressman Mark Souder (R-IN) is resigning from congress after it became known that he had an affair with a (Female) aide. Souder, unlike fellow rapscallions David Vitter (R-LA), “John” Ensign (R-NV) and Larry Craig (R-ID) will step down immediately apparently following Eric Massa’s (D-NY) lead instead.

Souder, if you recall, first became famous carrying water for Branch Davidian nutjob David Koresh (who was taken down by the federales under Janet Reno). All Koresh did was have sex with minors, after all posited the congressman. Why all the fuss from the feds? In defense of Koresh, Souder added:

“Do you send tanks and government troops into the large sections of Kentucky and Tennessee and other places where such things occur?"

I believe Souder later apologized (presumably for singling out Kentucky and Tennessee and not including Alabama and Mississippi in his slanderous charge as well). I don't recall if apologies were offered to any Minor Children victimized by adults, however.

Souder as it happens is from the other side of the Ohio River, the north side. Officially this means he is not from the South. So I take this as meaning that Souder took care to avoid such sordidness with a minor. If he didn’t, we may need to send the militia into Indiana as well.

Also Family Values!

UPDATE : It gets worse. Souder shot pro-abstinence video with his mistress in 2009. Looks like she is not a minor. Hold off on sending the Militia into Indiana for the time being.

UPDATE: Even Worse. Apparently, Souder was an advocate of "Traditional Marriage." Usually this does not include a wife, two kids and a mistress or two. Rather I suspect his defense of "Traditional Marriage" meant he was concerned about who should not be allowed to get married.

Vast Global Warming Conspiracy Grows Even Vaster

All good right wingers know that Global Warming is a Hoax. As a matter of fact, it is the greatest hoax known to mankind according to some of the zanier folks out there.

Today, word is out that there are some new players furthering this hoax. Some Devious fellows at that. These new participants in the Warming Hoax are lizards, who, along their scientist allies have joined up to scam the public.

A new study reveals that all over the world, many lizard species are going extinct. [ tricksy scientists report ] in this week's Science that the reason for the mass extinctions is clear: global climate change. Now, global climate change models often predict species extinctions, but [tricksy scientists] compare recent and historical surveys of lizard species and find, for example, in Mexico, 12% of lizard populations in Mexico have gone extinct since 1975.

Since Global Warming is fake, a good winger should suspect that these foreign born lizards are not becoming extinct, but rather have gone into hiding in furtherance of the Global Warming hoax. Perhaps scientists have bribed them with offers of increased habitat if they stay out of sight until carbon emissions are capped. Alternately, it is possible that some have moved north to take jobs from hard working American lizards, thus vacating their former habitat which leads to the appearance of an extinction.

Sneaky Bastards.

One can’t be certain for sure. But there has to be a simple explanation that the tricksy scientists don’t want folks to know about.

Rookie missteps to haunt Kagan?

This is the best there is?

Elena Kagan could not resist the laugh line.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor had just posed a hypothetical about the law barring "material support" for terrorism-related organizations, at issue that day. Would the law cover "teaching these members to play the harmonica," Sotomayor asked.

As solicitor general, even a new one, Kagan had to know the unspoken rule about hypotheticals: Don't fight them; don't say "that's not my case."

But the droll faculty dean in her could not contain itself. "The first thing I would say is there are not a whole lot of people going around trying to teach al-Qaeda how to play harmonicas," Kagan said. Kagan must have forgotten that former professor Antonin Scalia was in the room, eager to pounce. "Well, Mohammed Atta and his harmonica quartet might tour the country and make a lot of money," Justice Scalia said.

He got the laughter, and Kagan saw the need for damage control. "I'm sorry," she said. "I don't mean to make fun of the hypothetical at all, Justice Sotomayor, because I think you're raising an important point."

Not anticipating the “Mohammed Atta’s Harmonica quartet” attack was a major screw up, no doubt. But then again, other folks didn’t anticipate Atta’s actual attack after being warned about it in advance. So maybe this ain’t much after all.

Personally, I am disappointed with the low quality of wingnuttery generated by this high court nomination. Where is the next “Pro-Allah Anti-Jesus” style charge? Instead we have complaints about Kagan’s ability to drive a car and about kicking military recruiters from the back of the bus.

How long will it be before Big Ed Whelan plays the Eco-terrorism card?

Remember with the really good wingnuttery, all it needs to do is to feel good to be good. Besides, if the GOP is going to vote against her en mass just like with Justice Sotomayor, they’ll need a reason to do so. Without some high quality wingnuttery, they’ll have to provide actual reasons behind their vote. You can’t have Orrin Hatch speaking without a script. Bad news there, man.

Pat Buchanan Calling for Quotas?

If Elena Kagan is confirmed to the Supreme Court, she will be the 3^rd Jewish member of the 9 member court. She’ll serve with with 6 Catholic Members.

Apparently these numbers compared to the actual ratio of Jews and Catholics in the public at large concern Pat Buchanan.

What about representation on the Court for white protestants or protestant fundamentalists, asks Pat? According to Buchanan, the fundamentalist is most underrepresented group in America

— nay, the most unrepresented minority, the largest group of our fellow citizens never to have had one of its own sit on the U.S. Supreme Court in the modern era

I don’t know about that. Of the 111 Supreme Court justices (soon to be 112), over 90 were or are identified as Protestant. Of these 90 plus, it’s hard to say how many were Creationists and/or Fundamentalists but odds are that a reasonable portion of the 90 would clear this hurdle.

The Wingnuttariat has drunk the Kool-aid

The bank bailouts probably saved the world economy from a great depression. They also violated the everyday sense of fairness of millions of Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike.

Angry Democrats can be mollified a little by the Obama message. “Yes, the bankers got a huge handout. But see, I have a smaller handout for you.”

Republicans are unappeased. They want handouts for nobody.

Unfortunately, people eager for a strong message can be undiscriminating about the messenger. I remember in the late 1970s how much conservatives disliked Jimmy Carter’s “age of limits” message. We believed in growth, opportunity, technology – so much so that many of my friends fell (briefly) victim to Lyndon Larouche’s mad ideology, which exploited those good themes to bad ends.

The same holds true today for the Ron Paul ideology. Conservatives do not want to believe that the bank bailouts averted a financial collapse. That desire renders them vulnerable to the Paulites, who positively welcome a financial collapse as a necessary prelude to the construction of their gold-standard utopia – a fantasy world in which the fluctuations of the credit market are eliminated by the worse-than-the-disease cure of abolishing most forms of credit in the first place. [em-mine]

Purged Ex-GOP Comrade David Frum

This is an example of the Wingnuttariat buying into the phony ideology known as Free Market Fundamentalism. After a generation of chicanery from GOP elites, the unwashed masses believe in this nonsense.

Have fun with it fellows. You have nobody to blame but the middle aged white guy that you see in the mirror each morning.

The Coming Right Wing Meltdown?

Solicitor General Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court provides an important opportunity for a national conversation on the proper role of the judiciary in our system of democratic republican government. Senators, in particular, should follow the President's lead and advice in questioning the nominee closely about her view of the role of judges, and oppose confirmation if they find that she espouses a view contrary to the one they believe to be proper under the Constitution. To this end, as Kagan herself noted in relation to previous Supreme Court nominees, it is imperative that she answer questions about particular issues, including abortion, marriage, and the role of religious faith in American public life. For her to decline to answer such questions would be not only to contradict herself but to undermine the valuable opportunity for a serious discussion of the role of courts that her nomination presents.

~ Robert George

I thought high court nominees were supposed to talk about Baseball. You know - they are supposed to talk about how the judge is merely an umpire calling balls and strikes. What is this new found admiration for a potential judge’s view on hypothetical matters not yet before the court? Guess things change.

I suspect the reaction to these hearings will be like this from Big Ed expressing dismay that Justice Sotomayor did not give him or his posse much to spin out of context.

Unfortunately this is what these exhibitions have become. When Orrin Hatch faithfully parrots the wingnuttery ginned up by the wingnut welfare set, why would you expect anything else.

Exposing Scientists as tricksy and false

The Hockey Stick Graph showing rising temperatures recorded during the end of the 20^th century concerns right wingers greatly. They are apparently not concerned with melting polar ice caps, the shrinking Greenland Sheet or disappearing Glaciers, but this chart showing a sharp rise in temperature really, really pisses off the wingers. Go figure.

As such, one of the scientists behind the chart (a dude named Mann) is the target of right wing ire. So much so that the wingnut Attorney General from Virginia has targeted Mann with a Civil Investigative Demand related to work he performed while he was at the University of Virginia.

This seems overdue to some:

The situation at hand seems abundantly awkward. Attorney General Cuccinelli appears to be afflicted with a syndrome epidemic among states attorneys general: the desire to make colorful, headline-grabbing declarations. He wouldn’t be the National Association of Scholars’ ideal pick for someone to take a serious look into the backfiles of Professor Mann’s career. Was there anything dubious in Mann’s “Paleoclimatic Reconstructions of the Arctic Oscillation” or “Resolving the Scale-wise Sensitivities on the Dynamical Coupling Between Climate and the Biosphere” or “Decadal Variability in the Tropical Indo-Pacific:--three of the five University of Virginia projects that fall under Cuccinelli’s review? Chances are that Cuccinelli and his staff will have a hard time deciphering the scientific protocols in this work and discerning whether Mann was on the up-and-up or slanting the analysis. Yet as in the East Anglia emails, some of the side chatter could reveal habits of mind and character that do cast light on the larger question of the scientific integrity of Mann’s work. [em-mine]

Peter Wood, anthropologist, reader of Powerline Blog and director of the National Association of Scholars (an apparent Wingnut Welfare Outfit).

Seriously, you think it’ll be difficult for lawyers to decipher years and years of scientific research. No! Really.....?

In other words what is desired here is not a peer review of the science (which could be helpful) but a fishing expedition conducted by a known loon to give Climate Deniers something else to spin out of context to create the next great wave of fake outrage.

You know who else is/was part of the Global Warming Conspiracy to fool Ol’ Woody at NAS and Powerline Blog writers? How about bureaucrats from the Bush Administration. Here is an archived page from the National Climate Data Center posted during the Bush Administration. You know what is there? Professor Mann’s Hockey Stick charts, that is what. And remember, according to the folks at PowerLine Blog, George W Bush is an absolute GENIUS. The Hockey Stick Chart must be true then, right?

It got to be tough to be a winger these days. Everyone is against you. The arctic ice is melting without permission. Plants are growing farther north than they are supposed to be growing. The Scientists are ALL tricksy and false. Retired Generals and Admirals have published reports showing how climate change will lead to national security challenges with some of those same folk committed to reducing the Carbon footprint of the Armed Forces. Man it is tough to be a winger. Hockey Sticks really Suck, too.

H/T Powerline Blog

UPDATED: Web links added.

Ball and Strikes, Baby - Balls and Strikes

David Brooks is unimpressed with Elena Kagan:

Kagan has many friends along the Acela corridor, thanks to her time at Hunter College High School, Princeton, Harvard and in Democratic administrations. So far, I haven’t met anybody who is not an admirer. She is apparently smart, deft and friendly. She was a superb teacher. She has the ability to process many points of view and to mediate between different factions.

Yet she also is apparently prudential, deliberate and cautious. She does not seem to be one who leaps into a fray when the consequences might be unpredictable. “She was one of the most strategic people I’ve ever met, and that’s true across lots of aspects of her life,” John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor, told The Times. “She is very effective at playing her cards in every setting I’ve seen.”

Tom Goldstein, the publisher of the highly influential SCOTUSblog, has described Kagan as “extraordinarily — almost artistically — careful. I don’t know anyone who has had a conversation with her in which she expressed a personal conviction on a question of constitutional law in the past decade.”

Kagan has apparently wanted to be a judge or justice since adolescence (she posed in judicial robes for her high school yearbook). There was a brief period, in her early 20s, when she expressed opinions on legal and political matters. But that seems to have ended pretty quickly.

She has become a legal scholar without the interest scholars normally have in the contest of ideas. She’s shown relatively little interest in coming up with new theories or influencing public debate.

Her publication record is scant and carefully nonideological. She has published five scholarly review articles, mostly on administrative law and the First Amendment. These articles were mostly on technical and procedural issues.

One scans her public speeches looking for a strong opinion, and one comes up empty. In 2005, for example, she delivered a lecture on women and the legal profession. If ever there was a hot-button issue, it’s the mommy wars, the tension between professional success and family pressures. Kagan deftly summarized some of the research showing that while women do well in law school, they are not as likely to rise to senior positions at major firms. But she didn’t exactly take a stand. “What I hope to do is start a conversation,” she said. [em-mine]

Excellent.

According to Brooks, Kagan is non-ideological. She is deliberate, prudential and cautious. She expresses few opinions on what the law ought to be or on political matters. She does not take a stand on perfecting society, on newfangled theories or influencing debate.

This is perfect.

If I've learned anything from reading Big Ed Whelan and his posse at the NRO it is that the proper role of a judge is to call balls and strikes. That is all. Lord knows that we don’t need a judge who has opinions or is interested in policy. That would be bad.

Balls and Strikes, baby. Step 1 - apply law to facts. Step 2 - Issue Ruling. Step 3 - Have Breakfast. That is it. You don't need to have opinions on what the law ought to be or about policy and other lame issues like that.

The law simply.... is. I've learned this all at the NRO, so I know it is true.

The fact that Kagan appears not to have taken strong public stands on issues involving the law would, in fact, be good. I don’t understand why Brooks would have issues with this approach to picking a judge. I have not run the google, but my guess is that he was a big supporter of the nomination of Chief Judge Roberts. By this standard it looks like Kagan is a grand slam.

Lighten up Brooksie and wait for the hearings.

Global Warming Conspiracy Grows by 255 more scientists

In the wingnut-O-sphere everybody who’s anybody knows that anthropogenic global warming is fake, right? Right.

All good right wingers know that there are only about 50 people in the entire world who really understand the science surrounding global warming (which is fake, btw). Further, according to Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX), these 50 rascals are responsible for duping all the other lesser scientists into falling for the greatest Hoax known to mankind. The Congressman said it on C-SPAN so you know it has to be true.

So the news that 255 scientists from the US National Academy of Science, consisting of researchers and University Professors from around the United States (including some former Confederate states as well), have signed a letter proclaiming AGW to be a serious threat must be very disturbing but all too predictable at the same time. Actually, this may mean that goddamn commies have taken over the National Academy, but that is a conspiracy theory for another day.

Here is what these poor souls have been duped into believing by the tricksy 50:

Many recent assaults on climate science and, more disturbingly, on climate scientists by climate change deniers are typically driven by special interests or dogma, not by an honest effort to provide an alternative theory that credibly satisfies the evidence. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other scientific assessments of climate change, which involve thousands of scientists producing massive and comprehensive reports, have, quite expectedly and normally, made some mistakes. When errors are pointed out, they are corrected. But there is nothing remotely identified in the recent events that changes the fundamental conclusions about climate change:

(i) The planet is warming due to increased concentrations of heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere. A snowy winter in Washington does not alter this fact.

(ii) Most of the increase in the concentration of these gases over the last century is due to human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

(iii) Natural causes always play a role in changing Earth's climate, but are now being overwhelmed by human-induced changes.

(iv) Warming the planet will cause many other climatic patterns to change at speeds unprecedented in modern times, including increasing rates of sea-level rise and alterations in the hydrologic cycle. Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide are making the oceans more acidic.

(v) The combination of these complex climate changes threatens coastal communities and cities, our food and water supplies, marine and freshwater ecosystems, forests, high mountain environments, and far more.

Poor fellows must not know that Al Gore sucks and Hockey Stick, too. Climate e-mails!

Two Climate Activists on Ice Flow. One Activist appears to be concealing a Blow Torch. Bastard.

Congressman Barton stands to become chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee if the GOP re-takes the House in the 2010 midterms. Something to think about.

Quote of the Day:

"I was also going to give a graduation speech in Arizona this weekend. But with my accent I was afraid they would try to deport me."

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Sarah Palin sounds kinda Canadian to me. And I recall reading that she has fond memories of the Canadian Health Care System from her youth. Arnold may have a point. Maybe Side Show Sarah ought to avoid Arizona. Reasonable suspicion, that is all I am saying.

To Purge or not to Purge?

What does the Defeat of Bob Bennett mean? Here are dueling Quotes for the Day from Erick Erickson.

One, today:

Here’s what Bob Bennett’s loss does not mean — conservatives have not won a huge victory. Yes, it was great. But it was one battle in a larger war of disentangling relationships. […]

It is not, as some like to say, a purge. It never has been. It is an insurrection and a necessary fight.

Two, six months ago:

In short, I have said for a while now that where the right can win, the GOP should go right. The right can win in Utah. And the way to do that is to purge Bob Bennett.

Utah will have a convention. Last year, Utah Republicans threw one member of Congress out in the convention. Next year, we should encourage them to do the same and do it to Bennett.

It looks like yesterday’s Purge is today’s insurgency.

Baggers Bounce Bob Bennett Bigtime

On Saturday, the guillotine fell one more time as Senator Bob Bennett was unable to sway enough of the 3500 delegates at the GOP nomination convention to move on to the Utah Senate Primary. That’s right, just 3500 Whack-tivists were enfranchised to determine if Poor Bob got a chance to keep his job. He didn’t. Instead, Utah voters will choose between Neo-Hooverite Tim Bridgewater and Bagger Mike Lee. Looks like the Senate is sure to drop several per capita IQ points next year.

This thing about it is that Poor ol’ Bob is significantly more popular with ordinary Republican voters than either Bridgewater or Lee.

You can’t choose your family Bennett, but you can choose your friends. Poor Bob Bennett chose some real winners! You are next Orrin.

I never thought about it just that way

The other day I came across a quote from Grover Nordquist proclaiming that the word “Teabagger” as a reference to members of so-called Tea Parties was the new “n…” word. Norquist mind you, once compared the effect of the Estate and Gift Tax on the wealthy to the Holocaust, so he is probably not a good authority on the bounds of rhetoric.

Several months ago, there was a dialogue over at the Corner pondering the same question in a different way:

“I myself am afraid that ‘teabagger’ is here to stay. And perhaps conservatives will ‘own’ the insult, as they say? Or maybe they have owned it already? Alternatively, is ‘teabagger’ to be a conservative N-word, acceptable -- even joyously employed -- among conservatives, but nasty and impermissible from liberals?”

This “conservative ownership” of the “T…B..” word did not come to pass, as I have seen no post on The Corner where Victor Davis Hanson is greeted with a “W’sup teabagga” salutation. Thus it appeared like “Teabagger” was here to stay. And Teabagger does seem to fit. It came from the Tea Party people themselves, their signs, buttons and banners. You can see it on Foxnows in calls to “Teabag the Whitehouse.” These folks started using the label and now it has stuck. And it does seem like an accurate term to describe folks who decorate themselves with teabags.

In many ways, the term “Teabagger” is an apropos term to describe such people.

• Tea Party Groups arose in popular form as Astro turf Groups organized to express outrage at imaginary tax increases.
  
  
• Tea Partiers tell you they are angry about the size of government, national debt and budget deficit, but express no anger at President Bush. Under Bush’s watch the National Debt DOUBLED, the size of government expanded at a fast rate, the scope of government power grew and the budget went from structural surpluses to structural deficits as far as the eye can see. However, this is all OK. Nothing to see here. Move on.
  
  
• Tea Partiers tell you they are concerned about socialism and if we want to understand their political ideology read the Federalist Papers. However the Federalist papers were largely written by Alexander Hamilton who was a fierce advocate of a strong kick ass central government, a national bank, a quasi-government run manufacturing sector (socialism?), and believed that the President and Senators should serve for Life. People of that day often accused Hamilton of being a monarchist. Oops.
  
  
• Tea Partiers tell you they are concerned about the government taking away your freedom, but expressed no concern over the Arizona law which (initially) granted government officials the authority to detain anyone who looked or sounded different.

What we have is a fake activist group which initially adopted a stupid name (Teabaggers) to describe their petty group. Why is it surprising they choose a stupid name and why should we care?

However, this post go me to thinking:

I don’t refer to members of the Tea Party movement as “teabaggers” because I think that’s (a) juvenile and (b) and insult to the men and women of the teabagging community.

Yeglesias may have a point. Sure it is juvenile, but they picked the name and it fits as I have described above. However, to the extent there is an actually teabagging community, it would indeed be inappropriate to compare members of that community to the teabaggers of the tea party activist groups. Something to think about – the original teabaggers, such as they are.

Maybe it is time to use a different label. Maybe I’ll drop the “Tea” and just use the term “Bagger” from now on. And if the Baggers ever take a serious stance on making government work while reducing budget deficit perhaps they’ll be treated with a concomitant level of respect. Until then … T’Baggers or Baggers for short will have to do.