The List Is In and other oddities

(Note; Apologies for the recent typos and grammatical miscues. They are caused when my eyesight disppears.)

My lady Elizabeth Warren made the list. A Methodist from Oklahoma she brings an expertise on regulatory law to a court that will be ruling on healthcare reform, financial reform and rollbacks of the social welfare net. John Kyl wanted mainstream--although I doubt whether he would know what it was. While Elizabeth comes off as an archetypical "American"-- she is a liberal. But I worry about Ariana Huffngton's 'mala ocho" on this one. Warren also has never written anything on social issues and hasn't left a paper trail on anything political. And hailing from Oklahoma, would she get the vote of Obama's friend Tom Coburn?

Republicans say they aren't likely to filibuster the nomination. What don't the moderators just laugh at them?

George Will let the cat out of the bag when he told the television audience that conservatives indeed like activist judges. He cited Citizens United as an example of the decision they like to see.

I feel sorry for Michael Steele. I checked the RNC website and they had a long list of Republican achievements over the years. First Asian, Black Hispanic politicians elected. Remember Hiram Fong? The Transcontinental Railroad. The Emancipation Proclamation. The Passage of the 14th Amendment. First women mayors. Fighting for the Integration of the military. Land Grant Colleges. Howard University. Fighting for the Civil Rights Act. Later: Reapprochment with China, Arms Treaties. Then Ronald Reagan--Tax Cuts. Fall of the Berlin War. Bush I--Gulf War . Bush 2--Tax Cuts, Iraq War, Tax Cuts (I kid you not). Except for the last guy, it would make an interesting party. Like Judge Stevens. Or Senator Brooke. The problem with this montage is that the Republican party now believes in nothing of what is represented as its history. Maybe tax cuts--that's it.

Let's salute great Republicans like ...Arnold Palmer. Especially on the day of the Masters. I feel like creating a Grand Old Party Club where its history can be preserved while it's being destroyed.

(This section magically appeared here and not after Elizabeth Warren.)

Our lesbian Pamela Karlan has made the list again. She is beyond qualified as I said before and she would make Tony Scalia's mind explode. The problem is not so much the sexual orientation but the volume of published work on a range of topics such as federalism.

Cass Sunstein is on the list and seems to generate hostility from both the right and left. He currently is in the Office of Regulatory Affairs at the DOJ. A long-time friend of Obama, Cass Sunstein has written about everything and possesses a libertarian streak. Progressives claim he is weak on civil liberties and issues surrounding executive power. I think they are mistaken.

When Obama was in the Senate and on the campaign trail, he consulted Sunstein about how the Bush Administration could make the legal arguments they did. Sunstein would try to make the arguments with constitutional reasoning for the national surveillance program, the military commissions,etc. But my understanding was that he was asked to as a devil's advocate rather than someone who actually believed in any of it. His other writings would seem to contradict these positions. But his nomination would set off firestorms on the left and the right. Also, he's one of Glenn Beck's favorite Obama Leftists. What would happen if a real Leftist appeared?

Harold Koh made the list. He would be attacked because he has talked about lessons provided by international law. Conservatives have attacked him for being a partisan Democrat and polarizing Yale Law School. A more polite and sensitive man you could never meet. The record at Yale is dramatically different from what conservatives say. But they did light up the Senate on his last hearing.

A surprise name and one which should be considered as viable is Rhode Island's Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. A fresh face, very well-spoken, he succeeded Lincoln Chaffee. I believe he has been a prosecutor and a U.S. attorney. He's clearly a liberal. But it would almost impossible for me to see how a white protestant sitting Senator could be rejected in this day and age.

The Nuclear Security Summit is opening. At least two things will come from it. First, both Russia and the United States will sign an agreement to dispose of their fissible materials going back to the Cold War. There should be a broader agreement from all the countries to secure vulnerable civilian and military materials within four years. Perhaps,the biggest bonus will be to educate the assembled countries on the threat of nuclear terrorism and gain some cooperation among countries to thwart efforts by terrorist groups to get a nuclear device.

Al Qaeda wants to bomb the World Cup in South Africa. An interesting PR move.

The Vatican took time off from its pedophile scandals to forgive the Beatles and call them a "blessing and a miracle". Well, it did take them a bit to get around to Galileo.

Liz Cheney's favorite "Arab" (Pashtun) Hamid Karzai wants to block the NATO summer offensive in Kandahar. He wants to open up negotiations with the Taliban and asked them to surrender their arms. The high must be great in the mountains around Kabul.

The Pakistan ISI, our staunch allies in the war on terror, seems to have released a few top Talibun leaders. It's clear to me that they have their own favorites. The released semed to be from the Quetta segment, which follow Mullah Omar.

South Africa is investigating the complaints that Eugene TerreBlanche had sexually abused his farm hands and cheated them out of their money. This was alleged to have provoked the killing of the white supremacist leader. Racial tensions have gone sky high with this murder and the display of swastikas at his funeral. The white extremist wanted the government to create a bantustan for white people. He should have just moved to Virginia and been declared a honorary citizen of the confederacy.

The far-right looks like they are making a blazing comeback in Hungary. And on this Holocaust Remembrance Day reports are that anti-semiticism has spiked throughout Europe. The monsters don't die, they sleep for a while.