Cafe Hayek: Remember how urgent it was?

Cafe Hayek: Remember how urgent it was?.

Leahy, Sessions Release Sotomayor Questionnaire

(Wednesday, May 27, 2009) — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) Wednesday released the bipartisan questionnaire the Senate Judiciary Committee has asked Judge Sonia Sotomayor to complete in connection with her nomination to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Once the questionnaire is completed and returned to the Committee, copies will be made available online and in print.

A PDF of the questionnaire is available online.

via Leahy, Sessions Release Sotomayor Questionnaire.

Newsmax.com – Judicial Watch: ACORN Used in 2010 Census

In its official statement responding to the ACORN controversy, the Obama Commerce Department downplayed ACORN’s participation in the Census, and labeled “baseless” the notion that ACORN would be involved in any Census count. However, the Census Bureau offered ACORN the opportunity to “recruit Census workers” who would participate in the count. Moreover, as an “executive level” partner, ACORN has the ability to “organize and/or serve as a member on a Complete Count Committee,” which, according to Census documents, helps “develop and implement locally based outreach and recruitment campaigns.”

According to its application ACORN also signed up to: “Encourage employees and constituents to complete and mail their questionnaire; identify job candidates and/or distribute and display recruiting materials; appoint a liaison to work with the Census Bureau; provide space for Be Counted sites and/or Questionnaire Assistance Centers; sponsor community events to promote participation in the 2010 Census,” among 18 requested areas of responsibility. The documents also show the decision to add ACORN as a partner occurred in February, long after the January 15th Census partnership application deadline. (One Census official had bet “it was under Bush.”)

via Newsmax.com – Judicial Watch: ACORN Used in 2010 Census.

Obama Urges Senate Again to Swiftly Confirm Sotomayor – Political News – FOXNews.com

The vitriol in this debate moves me deeply. Instead of advice and consent on the part of Congresss we are reduced (myself included) to a state of continuous anger and ill-feeling. I do not think most are acting in malice, although it sure sounds like it. Most have legitimate concerns – Okay, Congress, present the concerns and vote on it. She has plenty of time on the bench – plenty of cases to review. Personally, I don’t care what she said when she was in college (No offense to her) – just I remember my college days (when I knew all the answers!) and I would prefer not to act of some things that I said.

What is relevant today is her current method of applying the law (I prefer this term to interpretation – courts interpret and then apply the interpretation to a particular case or circumstance) to cases before her. I also am interested in her personal views, but not to the degree as some seem to be – I myself believe strongly that abortion is morally wrong – but because the law of the land is choice, I think the court should interpret and apply that precedent until the Congress, who participate in policy, decides to actually address the issue. In the interest of fairness for other articles I have posted about SCOTUS, here is the presidents request for a quick treament.

President Obama pressed the Senate anew Saturday to swiftly confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, expressing confidence that efforts to scuttle her nomination will fail despite intensified scrutiny.

“I am certain that she is the right choice,” the president said in his weekly radio and Internet address in which he scolded critics who he said were trying to distort her record and past statements. Those include her 2001 comment that a female Hispanic judge would often reach a better decision than a white male judge.

With the Senate returning next week from recess, Obama said he hopes it begins the confirmation process without delay and he expects his nominee to be on the bench when the Supreme Court begins its new term in October.

via Obama Urges Senate Again to Swiftly Confirm Sotomayor – Political News – FOXNews.com.

American Daily Review – articles blog – Why Does Republican Mark Kirk Approve of Criminalizing Blogs?

Why is Representative Kirk signing onto a bill constructed with such overbroad language that it could criminalize bloggers?

Perhaps he doesn’t realize he’s doing so? The bill is supposed to stop “cyberbullying” and does not seem to be intentionally aimed at political blogs. The title refers to Megan Meier, the 13-year-old Missouri girl that committed suicide in 2006 over scurrilous messages that she found about herself posted on the Internet by Lori Drew, the mother of one of her classmates.

However, the language is overbroad and unclear. Because of the unclear language in the bill, this thing could easily be applied in all sorts of areas for which it is not intended, as lawyers and activists judges are prone to do.

via American Daily Review – articles blog – Why Does Republican Mark Kirk Approve of Criminalizing Blogs?.

Oath of Office (for reference)

Here is the Oath of Office administered to Supreme Court Justices:

“I, [NAME], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as [TITLE] under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.”

Crooks and Liars » Gen. Petraeus: US violated Geneva Convention, the court of law could try terrorists: we made mistakes after 9/11: Close Gitmo

Gen. Petraeus joined FOX News and Martha MacCallum today and gave a blockbuster interview, but not one Fox expected. Once again, he called for the responsible closing of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. He also said that mistakes were made after 9/11 and that the Army Field Manual is all that we need to use to interrogate prisoners. In addition, he said that we have to have faith in our judicial system and we should try the Khalid Sheikh Muhammads in a court of law. Martha tried to give him the ticking time bomb scenario to justify torture and he really didn’t bite. He did say maybe an Executive Order could be appropriate, but that it really wasn’t necessary. Petraeus repudiated pretty much most of what Limbaugh Republicans and the Rove/Newt/Cheney Party have been saying.

(rush transcript)

via Crooks and Liars » Gen. Petraeus: US violated Geneva Convention, the court of law could try terrorists: we made mistakes after 9/11: Close Gitmo.

Pajamas Media » Sotomayor: Obama’s End Run on the Second Amendment

For my NRA friends: “The Supreme Court nominee is a gun-banning radical who has ruled that cities and states can disarm you.“

Long before he was the president of the United States or even the junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama made his opposition to the Second Amendment of the Constitution painfully clear. As a director of the Joyce Foundation for eight years (1994-2002), Obama participated in the creation and funding of prohibitionist-minded anti-gun groups to the tune of millions of dollars. This fact does not surprise the millions of Americans who have responded to the threat by purchasing millions of firearms since the president was elected and who purchased at least 1.5 billion rounds of ammunition in December alone.

via Pajamas Media » Sotomayor: Obama’s End Run on the Second Amendment.

Newsmax.com – Obama’s Uncle: He’s Using Buchenwald for Political Purpose

Payne, 84, is no stranger to Americans: The Obama campaign used his WWII experiences last year to burnish the candidate’s all-American upbringing. But Obama made a gaffe when he said his great uncle liberated Auschwitz. In fact, Payne was part of the force that liberated Ohrdruf, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, in April 1945.

Payne told Spiegel that he was shocked to see his war experience, especially his “liberation” of a concentration camp, used in campaign commercials. He said he had never spoken with his nephew about the matter, nor did Obama ever express any interest in Payne’s experience.

“I was quite surprised when the whole thing came up and Barack talked about my war experiences in Nazi Germany,” Payne said. “We had never talked about that before.”

Payne doesn’t know where Obama came up with the fictitious Auschwitz connection.

via Newsmax.com – Obama’s Uncle: He’s Using Buchenwald for Political Purpose.

MINA Breaking News – American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama’s command that GM’s (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of “pure” free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

via MINA Breaking News – American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper.