Unfortunately for the Bush haters he doesn’t follow the typical Bush hating, Republican Hating America Hating line. The man has principals that go beyond a party, or ideology. He is what I would call a true liberal (like me). His piece today in the Wall Street Journal is as usual brilliant. I would really like to have a beer with this guy, but I think he prefers scotch?

Going way over the top at Americablog With comments like this from anonymiss:

Or this Gem by Anonymous (it seems a very popular moniker for kooks)

At least Sockmonkey lends a voice of reason:

Plenty of religious bigots in the Democratic Party as Aahpat illustrates:

Sukabi would not be outdone responding to my comment with this bit of wisdom….Gasp Republicans are Racists and Nazis!

Let’s not leave out the anti military contingent Flootsnot chimes in with:

Honestly it is frightening to me that these people claim to be Democrats (sockmonkey excepted).

James Webb is a very smart man with some very interesting opinions on Vietnam and Iraq.

Liberal Rapture is a great center left Blog I I came across today. Like me they think the Democratic party will need ideas to win elections.

Betsy as usual has lots of links to lots of smart people talking about Alito.

The ispo comic is really funny today (isn’t it always?). I get all geeked up when I see someone from Thailand has been on the site.

Cox and Forkrum sums up the Dem reaction to the scooter libby indictment well.

If you haven’t visited the porkbusters site yet. Do it right now. I support the Fiscal Watch Team Offset Package and I strongly encourage you to do the same. Call your congressman and Senators and tell them you support cutting the pork barrel spending in your state and expect them to vote accordingly. They have an extensive list of pork by state and district. You can come up with one or two your state doesn’t need. Feel free to leave comments regarding pork in your state you think shound be eliminated.

Thank you again to the political teen for another Open Trackback day.

Now that President Bush has nominated Sam Alito to the SCOTUS, No doubt a highly qualified candidate (confirmthem.com has lots of background). I fully expect more than a few Dem Senators, and the left wing groups like Nan Aron’s Alliance for Justice and Ralph Nees’ People for the American Way to push for a filibuster. I have no idea if they will succeed or fail, but our country will be lesser for it.

Either we will end up with the constitutional or nuclear option implemented (lowering the threshold of senators needed to confirm a judge), or a highly qualified judge will be denied a seat on the SCOTUS solely based on his judicial philosophy.

This is one more step on the slippery slope away from our founding fathers original intent. Shame on both parties for their role in it.

I sincerely hope for our country’s sake I am wrong and he is confirmed by a majority of the Senate.

Ok this is weird. Major K made this post about the Iraqi Constitutional Referendum and subsequent coverage by CNN International on Oct 17. Then some whacko posts a comment on his site and says she is the Administrator of the CNN Fan Website.

An exchange ensues. Very interesting to see how an America hating freak goes berserk.

I encourage you to read the whole exchange. Does anyone else find it weird and stalker like that CNN news has a fan site?

I will be out of town so I hope you all enjoy this stuff as much as I did. Confirmthem.com has the scuttlebutt on the next SCOTUS Nominee.

Crime & Federalism has some interesting observations about Judge Alito.

For the record my pick would be Janice Rodgers Brown. She just has such a compelling story. Politically it would be very interesting to watch. The Dems would pull out all the stops to scuttle her nomination. The Republicans would claim they were sexist and racist. It could be one of the most crushing defeats ever for the GOP or it could be the catalyst needed to actually put the black vote up for grabs. Which would be a great thing for this country and black voters. It also might actually settle once and for all where the public stood on judges making it up as they go or strictly interpreting the constitution.

Arnold Beichman has a very interesting read in the Washington Times about life for Arab Women

A small excerpt:

Read the whole thing. It just might make you think twice about how a half billion women are treated in the Islamic world.

For those who don’t already know. The Weekly Standard had this today

Anyone surprised by the duplicitous cheese eating surrender monkeys? Oh did I tell you I didn’t care much for France?

Victor Davis Hansen says it like no one else can

Mr. Fitzgerald is conducting a press conference as I type and he sounds pretty damn serious. 5 counts against Scooter Libby including perjury and obstruction of justice that could land him in prison for the next 30 years. This does not look good for Scooter Libby who has resigned. The good news for the white house is Karl Rove seems to be in the clear(for now). There will be lots to talk about to be sure and the Dems will have a field day.
The political teen has video here.

for open trackback Friday. Also thank you to Mike at Ipso Facto for all his patience in helping this newbie blogger.

And I have added Haloscan so folks can trackback to their blogs. Lets hope it works. Oh and sorry to those who have made previous comments. It seems the new trackback feature deleted them when I added it.

The Real Politik philosophy and foreign policy is not only a proven failure it is morally wrong and un-American. Yes I said it.

Krauthammer is right on the money. Scowcroft and his ilk (Kissinger comes to mind) went adrift somewhere during the cold war. They called it a necessary evil to consort with and support dictators and despots. They claimed we could not fight every battle at once and if we didn’t support them the Soviets would. Maybe they were right. Well the Soviet Union is long gone, so should be the real politik policies that spawned Al Qaeda, Wahabism, The house of Saud, and condemned more than a billion people to be ruled over by all sorts of heinous regimes.

Some have described the Neo-Cons as Liberals with guns. Well that’s me. I voted for Bush in 2004 (I voted for gore in 2000.) not only because I believed he would defend this country vigorously , but because when he talked about bringing democracy to the greater middle east and ending tyranny it gave me chills and tears of pride ran down my cheeks. He was talking about the America I grew up loving and believing was the greatest country in the world that for some unexplainable reason I was so lucky to be born in.

I don’t know how the transformation came about but somewhere somehow Republicans started talking more like Dems and Dems more like the GOP. I hardly recognize my party today.

Spreading democracy throughout the world used to be a Liberal Ideal. Harry Truman believed it and fought for it, John F. Kennedy believed it and fought for it. Nothing defined that once core Democratic belief than these words by John F. Kennedy at his 1961 inaugural. They are now on his gravesite inscription at Arlington National Cemetery:

Let every nation know
Whether it wishes us well or ill
That we shall pay any price - bear any burden
Meet any hardship - support any friend
Oppose any foe to assure the survival
And the success of liberty

In the long history of the world
Only a few generations have been granted
The role of defending freedom
In the hour of maximum danger
I do not shrink from this responsibility
I welcome it

WOW!

Where are those Democrats today?

Many would say now they are called Neo-Cons. If thats true then count me as one of them.

The truly said thing about today and what has happened the last 3 weeks is that the actions of some in the Republican Party have not just hurt their party, it has hurt the country. It has hurt every one of We The People. This has made the judicial appointment process harder and more partisan and more beholden to ideological litmus tests for every nominee in the foreseeable future.

Nominations are the prerogative of the president. The constitution is quite clear on this point. (All of her detractors know this!) Every one of us as a responsible informed citizen needs to consider this before we ever pull the lever, punch the chad completely through so it doesn’t hang, or cast our final electronic ballot.

Every one of these so called “conservative movement” originalists I.E. David Frum, Georgie boy Will, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Mark Levin, Is a hypocrite. They are all now just as guilty as the left of crucifying a nominee in public when they know damn well she can not defend herself. And Why? Because either they had doubts about how she would vote on Roe, or simply out of jealousy that one of their high priests didn’t get the nod. Neither is justification for the coup d’tat they pulled. They have injured us all. I for one will not forget it nor forgive them so quickly.

JUDGE BORK for God sakes BORKED Ms. Miers! This great man who was worshiped by the movement brought shame on himself and his movement with his cruel and unjust attack on Ms. Miers. I invite Judge Bork to point to the article and section in the constitution that explains the qualification/s she failed to meet. And don’t try to tell me David Frum doesn’t have some personal issue with Ms. Miers. Always condescendingly throwing in how he likes her But she’s too dumb, But she’s too unorganized (YES he did say that), always quoting anonymous sources to assure us of her ineptitude. With friends like that who needs enemies?