Tag: Nominees

SCOTUS This And SCOTUS That

It is after Labor Day and the cowards in the Congress are back at work…..and they will be drilling the new nominee for SCOTUS….

Early fireworks: The Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing got off to a lively start on Tuesday as Democrats repeatedly interrupted the opening statement of Republican Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reports the Hill. One Democrat after another spoke up to demand that the hearing be postponed until they can see thousands of documents that have been withheld in regard to the Supreme Court nominee. Protesters in the audience also interrupted, but Grassley said the hearing would not be delayed. “If we cannot be recognized I move to adjourn,” said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal. “We have been denied real access to the documents we need,” he said, calling the panel’s handling of the matter a “charade.”

Kavanaugh, for his part, intends to tell the committee that he will be a non-biased judge. “I don’t decide cases based on personal or policy preferences,” Kavanaugh says in excerpts of his opening statement released in advance, per the Washington Post. “I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge,” Kavanaugh says. “I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge.” (Kavanaugh’s attorney released thousands of pages ahead of the hearing, but not enough to appease Democrats.)

But why would Kavanaugh’s nomination and hearings be so contentious?  For one he is a self-described conservative….but there is more…..

President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are expected to be contentious as Democrats plan on grilling the nominee on his judicial record and legal philosophy.

The battle has been controversial from the start since the nominee will be filling the seat of retiring justice Anthony Kennedy, the court’s swing vote on many key issues including abortion rights, affirmative action and same-sex marriage

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/03/brett-kavanaugh-controversial-supreme-court-nominee-five-reasons/1143100002/

For your information….do you understand how the supreme court works?

SCOTUS Failures

As we wait for the Congress to return after Labor Day and get to work (sound raucous laughter)…….

Oh goody….Our Dear Leader gets to nominate another ankle grabbing conserv for SCOTUS….but over the years there have been a few unsuccessful attempts to become a judge on the highest court of the land…..(side note:  It use to be a noble institution now it is nothing more than the politicians and business controlling the nation through rulings)

Most of us old farts remember Bork and that woman that GW Bush, Rosemary “something”, put up and then withdrew…..but how far back does this sort of thing go back in our nation’s history?

Surprise…..Surprise….it goes as far back as the very beginning….

Since it was established in 1789, presidents have nominated 162 people to the Supreme Court, but only 125 have been confirmed. Turns out, there’s a long history of fights over who gets on the bench, Ayers says.

“As you know, the two-party system is in turmoil. People … simply aren’t going to give the other guys a chance to make something,” he says. “And of course, we all know this is such outsize importance because it’s for life. And so, as ugly as other fights are, there’s nothing quite like a Supreme Court justice fight.”

http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/07/05/failed-supreme-court-nominations-history

There is the rub…..the nomination is more about ideology than it is independence of the Judiciary……it is who gets to do what…..the nation is seldom in the equation.

The fight for the confirmation is nothing new and the history of SCOTUS shows us that people failing to meet the requirements of the nomination process is nothing new.

Class dismissed!

Turn The Page!

SCOTUS And Dark Money

I have always dislike the fact that in state politics our judges are picked by voting….that leaves these candidates open to lobbyists and donors that can demand from them…..

Our Dear Leader gets to pick yet another Judge for the Supreme Court……judges that should be referees…judges that should have no partisan stands….judges that should be politically neutral…..but in the last few decades our judges for the high court are more and more partisan in their stands….this makes activist judges and it does not matter who the president is……

In recent elections money is considered as a person….so money pours into these nominations……blame Citizens United……and now we have another judge for the Supreme Court……

This is an op-ed from the Valley News….I apologize but I posted the whole op-ed to be sure that my readers had a chance to see what I am going on about…..

Editorial:  Dark Money Now Infects Judicial Selection

Before President Donald Trump tapped Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, the dark-money spigots were already beginning to open. As politics increasingly defines judicial nominations, confirmation battles for major judgeships are looking more and more like political campaigns, with shadowy groups pouring cash into national advertising and lobbying initiatives while keeping their donors and spending decisions opaque.

This deprives Americans of information about who is backing nominees to some of the most powerful seats in the land, and it increases the likelihood that judges and politicians will feel pressure to make decisions that partisan spending networks demand.

Top on the list of major outside spenders is the Judicial Crisis Network, which pledged $7 million in 2016 for a pressure campaign to block Obama high court nominee Merrick Garland, plus $10 million the following year to help Neil Gorsuch get confirmed to the seat. The network has already announced it would spend $2.4 million on Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Like many big outside spenders, the Judicial Crisis Network is a registered 501(c)(4) nonprofit, a designation in the tax code created to benefit civic groups such as volunteer fire departments that has become a major vehicle for hiding political money. An analysis from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found that the network’s major donor has been the Wellspring Committee, which has links to a married couple that organizes conservative dark-money groups.

The Judicial Crisis Network is far from the only conservative outside spender active in the Kavanaugh fight. Americans for Prosperity, a group tied to the Koch brothers’ network, has promised a seven-figure effort. The Great America PAC and Great America Alliance, the latter a 501(c)(4), have pledged $5 million, in part because the groups’ strategists see the nomination battle as a way to rally Republicans before November’s midterm elections.

Liberal groups are also participating in the independent-spending frenzy. Demand Justice, a relatively new organization working against Trump judicial nominees, has promised to spend $5 million. The group is set up such that its funding is arguably even more opaque than the nonprofits against which it competes. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Demand Justice’s fiscal sponsor is the Sixteen Thirty Fund. The fund did not respond to questions about its donors.

Congress should close the loopholes that enable organizations clearly created for big-money partisan politics to benefit from tax-exempt status and to disclose little information. Though this is primarily an issue involving political campaigns, it is clearly an increasing problem in judicial selection, both in places where judges are directly elected and where they are chosen by elected officials.

But the prospect for reform is dim. In the days when the corrupting power of money in government was an issue Congress appeared interested in addressing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other opponents of cracking down argued that spending restrictions were unwise but that everyone could agree to the second-best policy of requiring donor transparency.

Now that transparency is the only thing lawmakers might conceivably demand, McConnell and his allies have opposed it.

Dark money is the bane of democracy…..time to get busy and get rid of this enemy of proper government…..Dems are just as guilty as thee Repubs….they all have a master that they report to…..that needs changing!

We no longer have 3 branches of government….Executive, Legislative and Judiciary…….now we have two branches Legislative and Executive with the Judiciary being a branch of the Executive…..our check and balances is slowly being eroded away.

Tea For The Tillerson–Redux

I have said many times that the most important position in the new cabinet forming is that of the SecState…….and as the confirmation hearings begin for the Trump nominee, Tillerson, it might be a good idea to get a handle on his positions on different issues…but first during his confirmation hearing Sen. Rubio stated when he wanted Tillerson to call Putin a war criminal……

Rubio addressed that relationship immediately, asking Tillerson if he’d label Putin a “war criminal.” When Tillerson replied that he “would not use that term,” Rubio described the deaths of 300,000 Chechen Republic civilians in Putin-ordered bombings and the killing of civilians in Aleppo by Russia-backed Syria. Tillerson hedged, saying he’d need to see classified information first. “None of this is classified,” the New York Times quotes Rubio as replying. “People are dead.”

Wait!  I do not support this guy but this is a bit hypocritical…..would you label Obama a war criminal for the civilian deaths drone strikes cause?

Onward to Tillerson on the issues……

Rex Tillerson is a bit of a cipher on U.S. foreign policy, unless you view international relations purely through the lens of energy interests.

As the former chief executive officer and chairman of ExxonMobil Corp., Tillerson has vast experience dealing with foreign governments, security threats, as well as the State Department. But as an oilman, his goal was solely financial profit, not furthering the interests of the United States. “I had to do what’s best for my shareholders,” Tillerson told shocked State Department officials in 2011 after ignoring their pleas not to circumvent Iraq’s central government by making a deal directly with Iraqi Kurds. During his professional career, Tillerson has largely judged success through dollar figures, not nebulous measures such as whether a foreign state is becoming more democratic or more human rights friendly.

Source: Tillerson on the issues – POLITICO

Our reputation on the international stage and we had best pick the right person for the job…..I do not think this is the right person.

“My First 100 Days”

Now that the GOP has it “presumptive” nominee, Donald trump…..he has started trying to sound like a presidential candidate…..he has even given his adoring public his itinerary for his first 100 days…..

With Donald Trump as the presumptive GOP nominee, there’s now a stronger-than-ever chance that President Trump will be sworn in next January—and his first 100 days in office will have just finished by this time next year. The New York Times interviewed Trump three times and spoke to aides and analysts to find out what those 100 days might be like. Some highlights:

  • Inauguration Day will involve some “beautiful” galas, but also the rescinding of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration, Trump says.
  • Trump says on Day 1, he will also speak to military and Homeland Security officials about sealing the border with Mexico. Talks with wall-builders will soon follow.
  • Trump says his first day in office will also involve phone calls to the CEOs of companies like Ford and Nabisco, warning them that they will face 35% tariffs for moving jobs out of the US. “The markets would be fine,” he says.
  • Trump knows which foreign leader he would call on his first day: none of them. “I wouldn’t be calling them up right away and getting more entangled,” he says.
  • Trump and his advisers say the first 100 days will be all about negotiations, most of which will take place in his new office. “The Oval Office would be an amazing place to negotiate,” he says. “It would command immediate respect from the other side, immediate understanding about the nation’s priorities.”
  • By the end of the 100 days, Trump plans to have a ban on Muslim immigration in place and to have made progress in delivering other major campaign promises, including repealing ObamaCare.
  • It’s still going to be the White House, not the Trump House: He “had no ambitious renovation plans,” the Times notes.
  • Trump says he is going to make big changes fast and not everybody will like them—but there’s nothing to worry about. “I know people aren’t sure right now what a President Trump will be like,” he says. “But things will be fine. I’m not running for president to make things unstable for the country.”

And the peasants danced.

Cute slogans and great applause lines….but that is about as far as any of it will go.

Please do not get too excited….you do recall that there is a Congress that does little to nothing and all his “plans” must go through the Congress.

Do you really see much of his “promises” being law in the first 100 days?

Thanx everyone for your attention this past week….now I begin my weekend of solace and meditation…..hopefully you will enjoy yours also.

The Ryan Fantasy

The big news of the week is that Paul Ryan will not seek nor accept the GOP nomination in 2016.  It has the pundits on the MSM stage jerking off at the prospects of speculation that they excel at during these times.

I personally, do not think that his denial is at all the final word….but I have been mistaken before and there is a possibility that may be the case with this situation.

The magazine, The American Conservative, does not agree with me and has cobered the fantasy of Ryan becoming the nominee….

Politico reports that Paul Ryan isn’t running a phantom campaign for president despite some appearances to the contrary:Ryan’s orbit firmly believes that, in a few months, everyone will look at him.

Speculation about Ryan’s intentions strikes me as little more than this year’s version of the 2012 fantasy candidate gossip that a few pundits indulged in last time. During the 2012 cycle, we kept hearing from Bill Kristol et al. that it wasn’t too late for the field to include more candidates, and one name after another was floated to stave off the boredom of Romney’s inevitable victory. This year the outcome is much less certain, but the desire to find a new candidate late in the process is still there. Ryan was the subject of such speculation in 2011 and again in 2014 and 2015, so it was probably bound to start up again now that it looks as if there really could be a contested convention. But it still doesn’t make sense, not least because Ryan seems genuinely unwilling to fill the role that is being created for him.

Source: The Ryan Fantasy | The American Conservative

I can see why he might decline the nomination…..I mean if he accepted and was beat in 2016 then his chances for a later run might be sadly limited…..after all anyone self-centered enough to spend that much time body building would take a massive hit to his ego…..

Make NO mistake…Ryan wants to be president…he may not want to admit to it….but he wants it more than a bacon cheeseburger.

SCOTUS: The Most Worthless Story Of The Day

We just had a few primaries that have shown that this race is far from over….now the media will speculate their butts off until the next round of votes comes in.

Now Obama has made it another speculation bonanza for the media by picking his man for the Supreme Court…..we already know that the Senate will play a game wioth this for as long as they can and the media will have something to use for those lag times between primaries.

So sports fans meet the man pegged with the enviousness job of dealing with the US Senate…..and the “reporting” is already flying…..

President Obama announced his choice to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court: Merrick Garland, chief judge of the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC. He’s “one of America’s sharpest legal minds” and is “uniquely qualified,” said Obama at the White House Wednesday morning. Some coverage:

  • At 63, Garland is relatively old for a nominee, which may have factored into why he was selected, reports Think Progress.
  • At SCOTUSblog, Tom Goldstein writes that Garland “would not be among the Court’s most liberal Justices.” In his detailed handicapping of the leading choices, he adds that Garland is “very deeply respected.”
  • NBC News has a bio, noting that Garland is seen as a “moderate.”
  • Garland worked in the Justice Department for becoming a judge, and his leading role in the Oklahoma City bombing case “helped shape” his career, reports the New York Times. He also oversaw the Unabomber case.
  • Garland and his wife have two daughters, notes ABC in its “everything you need to know” file.
  • The Washington Post digs into some of the political pros and cons of picking Garland, noting that foes have 20 years of decisions to pore over.
  • Garland stood out even as a student back in 1970, notes this tweet of an old newspaper blurb.
  • Garland was confirmed to the DC court in 1997 with the support of seven current GOP senators, notes the AP. But Senate Republicans have vowed to not even allow hearings on any nominee in this election year.
  • Democrats were tying the GOP’s opposition to a bill on late-term abortion, reports Politico

Why worthless?  NO one American cares at this point.  But that will not stop the endless mind numbing speculation that the MSM excels at giving the American public.

Me?  I’m going to go sit in the garden and think of better days.

Who’s On First?

The big speculation this week will be the spin and the lip flapping that will come out on just who will be the next Supreme Court appointee…..and then of course will be the inevitable games played by those worthless, no spine Repubs in the Congress….they will play the game for as long as they can…..and their speaking points will be numerous and just as moronic as always…..

But all that aside….who will Obama pick to replace Scalia on the Court?

Who will make the list?

With the death of Antonin Scalia, the longest-serving justice on the Supreme Court, comes the inevitable question of who might succeed him on the bench. Some of the bigger names being floated, via USA Today and Roll Call:

  • Sri Srinivasan: The 48-year-old Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit judge tops both lists. He sailed unanimously through Senate confirmation in 2013, and he’d be the first Indian-American to sit on the high court.
  • Patricia Millett: The 52-year-old sits on the DC Circuit Court with Srinivasan, and has argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court.
  • Merrick Garland: Another DC Circuit Court justice; he’s moderate, and his name was brought up for the Supreme Court nomination that ultimately went to Elena Kagan. Possible down side: He’s 63, and a bit older than most potential nominees.
  • Amy Klobuchar: The 55-year-old Minnesota senator’s name is mentioned with an eye toward a contentious Senate that might be less likely to block one of their own.
  • Deval Patrick: The 59-year-old former Massachusetts governor spent time in the Justice Department, and is a close friend of President Obama.
  • Kamala Harris: California’s 51-year-old attorney general is seen as a rising Democratic star, and is currently running for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat.

The rest of the list is here.

My guess would be either Klobuchar or Patrick…..Klobuchar knows the ins and outs of Congress and she was always a supporter of Obama’s policies……and then maybe Patrick….a good Dem and a minority……but the best bet would be Srinivasan….

We will not know until he makes his picks known…..who do you think will be the appointee?

It’s Benghazi–AGAIN?

This is a pathetic story!  Graham is using Benghazi to win his primar4y….he is being primaried from the Right and he needs something that will divert attention….this is a pathetic attempt to do just that…….

As reported by Time magazine……..

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday he will block President Barack Obama’s nominees for executive branch positions until survivors of the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi testify before Congress.

“And where are the survivors? Fourteen months later, the people who survived the attack in Benghazi have not been made available to the U.S. Congress for oversight purposes,” Graham said on Fox & Friends Monday morning, referring to the attack in Libya that left four Americans dead, including the top American diplomat there. “So I’m going to block every appointment in the United States Senate until the survivors are being made available to Congress.”

Graham, a Republican, has been a critic of the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi attack and its aftermath.

His vow comes on the heels of a 60 Minutes report Sunday that revealed new details about the sophistication behind the attack. Critics have accused the White House of misleading the public in the first days following the attack, when the Administration’s public statements portrayed it as a random act of mob violence rather than a coordinated terrorist assault. The 60 Minutes report includes interviews with eyewitnesses who described warning signs in the days leading up the assault, like al-Qaeda flags flying in the streets of Benghazi and online postings stating al-Qaeda’s intentions.

Survivors?  I thought that there were NO survivors of the attack that all 4 people were killed…….do we need to rehash this faux scandal again….just to massage the political ego of a tired old man?

Just once I would like to hear a politician with ideas anbout saving this country from ruin….but NO..they have to use some mental trickery to get elected and then we learn what worthless a/holes they really are….when it is too late!!

NOTE:  As normal when I single out an individual in a post I send them a copy of the post by email and welcome their input…..Graham is more than welcome to respond and I will publish his response or challenge….I wait!