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Statement from Senator Thune:Senator John Thune Comments on the Nomination of Harriet Miers Today, Senator John Thune (R-SD) made the following statement regarding President Bush?s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court: ?The nomination and confirmation process of Judge...

Power Line has obtained Scooter Libby's 15 Sept. 2005 letter to Judith Miller reaffirming the waiver he gave her a year ago. Her story doesn't seem to add up....

Rocket Racing League Organized!

How cool is THIS! The Chief likes it! In the first iteration this of course seems to be atmospheric rocket planes, but inevitably it'll go beyond. Just like aircraft racing in the 20's and 30's spurred aviation development and design, there's no reason why rocket racing can't do the same thing today.

The whole concept and underlying philosophy is positive. Folks, get ready - it's coming! This is from the same guys that posted the Ansari X-prize, that led to the Rutan Scaled Composite's suborbital space flyer, so they know how to make things happen!

The more time that passes since President Dubya announced his choice of Harriet Miers for the SCOTUS, the more concerns become apparent.

Firstly, the disturbance in the political force has been noted all the way on the other side of the pond:

Bush nomination for swing vote with Supreme Court infuriates supporters

President George W Bush nominated a trusted aide for the key seat on America's top court yesterday but the choice infuriated his supporters on the Right far more than his Democratic foes.

No s--t, Sherlock! As to why...read on!

Ann Coulter, in her inimitable style of invective, PREDICTED the probable type of appointment that might be expected from Bush, based on his political record:

BOB SHRUM WITH A GOOD CAUSE

Now Bush has Sandra Day O'Connor's seat to fill. For those conservatives confident that Bush won't betray them, let's review Bush's other ideas about what constitutes a good Republican....
In 2002, Bush backed liberal Richard Riordan in the Republican gubernatorial primary in California against conservative Bill Simon....
In 2004, Bush backed liberal Republican Arlen Specter over conservative Pat Toomey in the Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania....
In 2004, Bush backed Mel Martinez for the open Senate seat in Florida and asked the magnificent Katherine Harris not to run against him, so she graciously bowed out. Martinez has since called on Bush to shut down Guantanamo. What's Spanish for "buyer's remorse"?...
This year, rumors have it that Bush is again discouraging the magnificent Harris not to run for the Senate....
Also this year, Bush is backing developmentally-disabled Lincoln Chafee over the only Republican in the race, Stephen Laffey, Harvard MBA and mayor of Cranston, RI....

As if that isn't enough to raise the hackles of a real conservative, that list doesn't even take into account the administrations domestic policy, which has acquiesced (when not actually promoting) a constant expansion of the role and power of the Federal government.

Most telling of all is Coulter's recap of the situation of the history of the GOP "establishment" (including the Bushes)with regards to the rise and eventual victory of Ronaldus Magnus. Check it out for yourself. HINT: The GOP establishmentarians were NOT very big on Reagan at all!

Her conclusion absolutely nails down the biggest difference between the gipper and the Dubya:

The secret to Reagan's greatness was he didn't need a bunch of high-priced Bob Shrums to tell him what Americans thought. He knew because of his work with General Electric, touring the country and meeting real Americans. Two months a year for eight years, Reagan would give up to 25 speeches a day at G.E. plants ? a "marination in middle America," as one G.E. man put it. Reagan himself said, "I always thought Hollywood had the wrong idea of the average American, and the G.E. tours proved I was right."

Because of these tours, Reagan knew ? as he calmly told fretful advisers after the Grenada invasion ? "You can always trust Americans." The G.E. tours completely immunized Reagan from the counsel of people like Karl Rove, who think the average American is a big-business man who just wants his taxes cut and doesn't care about honor, country, marriage or the unborn.

Michelle Malkin has a pointed and graphical MESSAGE TO THE WHITE HOUSE:

She goes on to note: "Guess it's too late." Indeed.

Just to ice the conservative s--t cake:
Democrats are relieved about Miers pick from Tim Chapman posting at Townhall.com, noting a positive reaction from the likes of Bob Beckel, Sen. Charlie "No-guns" Shumer, and Sen. "Dingy" Harry Reid. This as much as any of the above, makes the Chief think that we may be in a heap of trouble on this one!

On a more serious (if possible) note, Randy Barnett transplanted from The Volokh Conspiracy writes in the WSJ Opinion Journal based of Hamilton's writing in Federalist #76:

"To what purpose then require the co-operation of the Senate? I answer, that the necessity of their concurrence would have a powerful, though, in general, a silent operation. It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to popularity. . . . He would be both ashamed and afraid to bring forward, for the most distinguished or lucrative stations, candidates who had no other merit than that of coming from the same State to which he particularly belonged, or of being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure." (The italics are mine.)

You have to go read the piece - the Chief won't attempt to recap this, but it's sure worth a look. Also worth a look are posts here and here over across the line in Minnesnowta from Powerline - suffice it to say they aren't real impressed with this appointment either.

There's much more than this out there - Emperor Misha's Rottweiler is snarling, but Captain Ed, while not fully pleased seems to be cautiously optimistic. The Chief is trying to be also, but it's hard not to be pessimistic given the weight noted above. I hope Cap'n Ed is right, but fear he may not be. Again, time will tell.

Why Aren't We Being Told More Facts About the OKlahoma Suicide Bomber?
What are the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force Investigating?

A very interesting post. When the Chief first heard about this one, he had a real question about the first released version of events. Even the sparse circumstances reported at the tiem seemed to suggest more than was admitted to.

Read the details here, and like me, you'll have even more questions. The final bit of icing on the cake:

Finally, if Hinrichs was just a disturbed guy who decided to kill himself with a bomb 100 yards from a crowd of 84,000 people instead of simply putting a bullet through his temple, slashing his wrists or some other traditional way of doing away with himself, why is the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force now the lead agency in the investigation?

Read the whole post - terrorism sure looks likely. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then chances are, it IS a duck!

Here's another report, that the bomber was inquiring about getting a bunch of ammonium nitrate - the main ingredient in an ANFO (ammonium nitrate-fuel oil) bomb. (Remember the Murrah building?) Curiouser and curiouser!

The inimitible Quentin Riggins informs me that we've been called out by certain forces in the South Dakota blogosphere as being chicken hawks because we, generally speaking, support the war in Iraq but have not and do not serve in...

The kids over at Daily Kos are wondering about Harriet Miers' sexual orientation:She sure seems like a big ol' Texas lesbian to me. And he did pick a gay guy for Chief Justice....

From Kossack diarist "Raybin": It's become more and more apparent to me over the past five years that all the activism and non-violent protesting in the world will do precisely squat. When you're dealing with evil people who have no...

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