Jonah Goldberg ROCKS. Clip of the day. No doubt.

Better off dead - Washington,DC,USA.........Ralph Neas himself has been seen by the campfire carving notches into the stock of his rifle, muttering, "Pain don't hurt." No one knows when the fight's coming ...

Do you agree with Jonathan Adler?

Normally, I do. In this contrarian piece on the recent property rights decision, I'm not so sure I do.

Watermelons in China

July 4th for many of us means picnics, BBQs, fireworks and of course,
watermelon. I'll bet many of you think you can carve up a watermelon
pretty well, eh?

One of the winners of a watermelon carving contest in China. Man, do they
take watermelon carving seriously or what?

Clips of the day on Judicial Nominations

My personal favorite is Jonah Goldberg's column.....just gotta love it.


Bush Aides Ready To Act On Top Court: Outside Advisers Join Strategy Session: By Jan Crawford Greenburg CHICAGO TRIBUNE
“Following a strategy session with outside advisers last Friday on how to rally support for a potential Supreme Court nominee, a small group of President Bush's closest aides is poised to take a short list of names into the Oval Office should Chief Justice William Rehnquist step down.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com

Dewine's Name Gets Floated For Supreme Court: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Tuesday he's been talking to Democratic leader Harry Reid about nominees for a potential vacancy on the Supreme Court - and Reid on Tuesday mentioned Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine as a possible nominee.”
http://news.enquirer.com/

Minority Leader Suggests Controversial Court Nods: By Margaret Talev MISSISSIPPI SUN-HERALD
“Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that he is recommending at least three Republican senators, all lawyers with anti-abortion records, as nominees in the event of a Supreme Court vacancy.”
http://www.sunherald.com

Frist Slams Democrats' Treatment of Nominees: by Mitch Evans HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE
“’Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.) ripped Senate Democrats on Tuesday for their treatment of President Bush’s judicial nominees, calling their attacks a “partisan campaign of character assassinations.”’
http://www.humaneventsonline.com

Better Off Dead; Jonah Goldberg, National Review.
In Washington, conservatives and liberals are quietly loading up on drinking water, D batteries, and extra ammo, in preparation for the coming battle over judges. Ralph Neas himself has been seen by the campfire carving notches into the stock of his rifle, muttering, “Pain don’t hurt.” No one knows when the fight’s coming, but everyone knows it is. But while we’re digging fresh foxholes and listening to our Vera Lynn records, waiting for the blitzkrieg, it might be worth taking a step back to look at the big picture.
http://www.nationalreview.com

Good to know, Senator Kennedy.

If there were any questions about Senator Kennedy's political modus operandi, this morning's paper in Boston put those to rest. Check out this "thinly veiled threat" to any political opponent.

Wonder if they have a drive-through.....

Oh yeah. They're abused. Wonder if this was the menu at the Hanoi Hilton, or on the Bataan Death March, or in any REAL gulag?

By the way -- it is a real copy of the menu at Gitmo for those of you who think I am kidding.

Making the rounds.....

Supreme-court-vacancy-will-anyone-retire-oh-my-gosh-who-knows Day humor........

Gonzales is Spanish for Souter.

Yes, you can! Well, sorta.

Got this at 11:02 AM.

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

THE SUPREME COURT HAS RULED THAT TEN COMMANDMENTS DISPLAYS ARE ALLOWED ON GOVERNMENT PROPERTY.

Ok. Well, that clears things up.

Nomination/vacancy announcement trends.....

Nominee -- Vacancy -- Vacancy Announced --
Nominee Announced

Stephen Breyer -- Blackmun -- 4/6/94 -- 5/14/94 (38 days later)
R.B. Ginsburg -- White -- 3/19/93 -- 6/14/93 (87 days later)
Clarence Thomas -- Marshall -- 6/27/91 -- 7/1/91 (4 days later)
David Souter -- Brennan -- 7/21/90 -- 7/23/90 (2 days later)
A. Kennedy -- Powell -- 6/26/87 -- 11/11/87 (138 days later)
Robert Bork -- Powell -- 6/26/87 -- 7/1/87 (5 days later)
Antonin Scalia -- Burger -- 6/17/86 -- 6/17/86 (0 days later)
Wm. Rehnquist -- Burger -- 6/17/86 -- 6/17/86 (0 days later)
Sandra O'Connor -- Stewart -- 6/18/81 -- 7/7/81 (19 days later)

No you can't!

Got this at 10:12 AM

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

SUPREME COURT RULES DISPLAY OF TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC AND GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

No vacancy at the Supreme Court Inn.....

At least for today, according to Fox News.

SEIU is at it again......

A great take by Steve Milloy in the NY Sun on the Service Employees’ International Union’s (SEIU) new recruiting strategy – corporate intimidation.

Milloy points out that SEIU is “waging an aggressive war against business” and cites the group’s pressure campaigns against Advocate Health Care, Kaiser Permanente, Catholic Healthcare West, Tenet Healthcare, Wackenhut, Alutiiq, and everyone’s favorite punching bag these days – Wal-Mart.

Has anyone noted that SEIU was one of the top donors to Dems in the last election cycle? It should also be noted that unions have now also become quite interested in the judicial nominations battle. Since they apparently have their workers' money to burn, these little projects like intimidating businesses will no doubt take on a legal angle as they fund a wide variety of cases across the nation in courts presided over by....how shall we put it...sympathetic judges with an activist agenda to grind.

I think I'm going to make a special trip to Wal-Mart this weekend. Just cause.

What's wrong with Kansas?

That's the actual title of one of the plenary sessions for the liberal "Take Back America" conference. These folks actually believe that there is something wrong with middle America -- the red states -- because they just won't "get with the program" and vote like the blue states.

These folks are also talking about how to effectively "mirror" the VRWC. Good luck with that, fellas.

They had forty years of complete media domination, control of Congress, sometime-control of the White House and plenty of time to get their message out and make a mess of things. They really don't like competition in any context, do they? And they really have no idea that repeating a message that is not going to be accepted in the first place is not going to be accepted if they just keep repeating it.....louder and with greater frequency. Message acceptance is the key factor, friends. Not message repetition.

Byron York has a good piece on this conference today.

One for the Road

Craig Shirley says that if it weren't for one cop going out for a drink (while on duty).......Watergate may never have happened. Interesting footnote in history.

From the "Where the Heck are the Parents" file....

Yet another unbelievable tale of our waste deep wade into Gomorrah. (No longer "Sliding toward Gomorrah" as Bork's book title aptly suggested at the time. Now we are "Marinating in Gomorrah.")

ROCK THE HYPOCRISY

For those of you fed up with MTV's Rock the Vote campaign -- clearly dedicated to dragging our nation's youth toward leftist causes -- here is an opportunity to fight back. That's right. Fight back, don't just sit there thinking about how much the Rock the Vote campaign stinks. DO SOMETHING.

Rock the Hypocrisy. Protest coming soon so check it out now and RSVP.

Deep Throated Last Laugh.

How Bob Woodward was scooped by Vanity Fair mag. As Felt put it so well years ago, "Follow the money."

Pop some corn, pull up a lawn chair and watch the fun. This is gettin' good.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/politics/02woodward.html?ei=5094&en=489eb8edf71bb989&hp=&ex=
1117684800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

In Defense of Certainty....a must read by Charles Krauthammer

http://www.time.com/time/columnist/krauthammer/
article/0,9565,1067816,00.html

The Democrats ever-increasing intolerance to those who embrace "deeply held personal beliefs" is explained in this Time Magazine piece by Charles Krauthammer.

Also, of course, not to be missed, is David Limbaugh's landmark book on the subject "Persecution" -- which documents the gradual acceptance of the unfettered persecution of those who do have "deeply held personal beliefs."

Judicial nominations clips

Some interesting clips of the day on the Judicial nominations issue.....

Saying Goodbye to a Great One; by Scott Johnson WEEKLY STANDARD
“Of big bands, a big man and Janice Rogers Brown. When Lyndon Johnson made the historic appointment of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court in 1967, all was not sweetness and light. The honorable gentleman who had formerly served as Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan--West Virginia's Robert Byrd--believed that Marshall was too liberal and asked FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to look into Marshall's possible Communist connections.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content
/Public/Articles/000/000/005/676wfxsr.asp

The “Mainstream” Doesn’t Run Through Main Street:Defining the terms…since the Gang of Fourteen wouldn’t; By Andrew C. McCarthy NATIONAL REVIEW
Opinion is divided about whether, and how badly, Republicans got snookered in the deal struck last week by the so-called “Gang of Fourteen” (seven senators from each party) to halt momentum toward a rule change that would have ended confirmation filibusters and guaranteed each of the president’s judicial nominees an up-or-down vote.
http://www.nationalreview.com/mccarthy
/mccarthy200506010758.asp

A dead deal; By Linda Chavez TOWNHALL
“Pardon me while I wipe the egg off my face. Last week I was one of only a handful of conservatives praising the Senate compromise on judicial nominees, which preserved the filibuster while guaranteeing several of President Bush's most conservative nominees an up-or-down vote.”
http://www.townhall.com/columnists
/lindachavez/lc20050601.shtml

President says he'll consult on Supreme Court hopefuls: Bush cites filibuster deal, says he still aims to fix Social Security; By G. Robert Hillman THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
“Buffeted by a bruising battle in Congress over his appellate court nominees, President Bush pledged Tuesday to consult with the Senate on his appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news
/washington/stories/060105dnnatbush.1023ea9bc.html

Stevens' mum on confirmation vote part of Senate procedure; By Sam Bishop FAIRBANKS NEWS MINER
“Sen. Ted Stevens spent months advocating a vote on President Bush's judicial nominees, but on the first confirmation vote after a compromise ended the lengthy stalemate over Senate filibuster rules, the Alaska Republican said neither "yea" nor "nay."”
http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2898230,00.html

Filibuster 'deal' was constitutional abuse; Editorial CENTRE (PA) DAILY
“The so-called "compromise" by 14 Senate "moderates" over the nomination of judges to the federal bench was a victory for an institution and a defeat for the Constitution. It also ignored the results of the last election and revealed, once again, that at least some Republicans apparently suffer from power attachment disorder -- an inability to handle the responsibilities that come from being in the majority.”
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily
/news/opinion/11776054.htm

Christian groups criticize DeWine's role in compromise; By Joh McCarthy ASSOCIATED PRESS via AKRON BEACON-JOURNAL
“Two conservative Christian groups took to the air to criticize U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine for his part in a Senate compromise that broke a logjam holding up three of President Bush's judicial appointments.
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news
/state/11783627.htm

Pretty much sums up the situation.

Red letter day.

Deep Throat Identified. Woodward and the Washington Post scooped.

Tomorrow, the "Grassy Knoll Gang ID'd: Names Named."

Thursday, "Area 51: Tickets Go on Sale for Public Tour and Aliens in Concert."

Friday, "Bigfoot Unplugged."

Given how wierd this news week has started out, anything is possible.