Rest in peace, Justice Rehnquist.

Now we're going to see some real sh*t.
If we thought the hurricane and Roberts and all brought out the moonbats...

Go in peace, and God be with you, Justice Rehnquist.

Wow. Rehnquist was a neat guy--in my high school years I read more or less every book he ever wrote on the history of the court up through 'All the Laws But One' (I never did get to reading 'Grand Inquests'). That's a shock.

Resquiat in Pace.

I second Zorachus. This is going to get really nasty. May God give W the toughness to stick it to the Moonbats Leahy, Schumer, Biden and the others.

My prayers for his family and for God to guide President Bush in his choice for a new Justice.

One more thing. A Chinese curse says, "May you live in interesting times". Man, if so, there is some weird voodo (From NOLA?) going on!

Just finished reading through the DU thread on this. I need a shower, or another glass of wine.

I'm goin' for the wine.

Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to the idiocy that is Douchebags Unlimited?

Glutton for punishment, I guess.

I think of it as a little reminder of what we're dealing with. When ever I feel a little sorry for the Democrats I'll visit DU or Kos and get a reminder of how sick and twisted many of them are.

Hail to the Chief. I hope Bush prepared for this possibility.

Oh God, and now another empty spot on the Supreme Court.

Of course--I can't honestly see Bush topping his last appointment for sheer politically calculating genius and marvelous situational irony--Democrats and left-liberals steeled themselves for some fire-breathing ironclad conservative; they got Judge Roberts the human Rorschach Blot. And now, of course, we have the reductio ad absurdum of liberal objections to ANY conservative. (He's going to reverse Roe v. Wade! He's going to end affirmative action! Well, no we DON'T have any evidence--but, dammit, if Bush nominated him we KNOW he's a crazy radical--he just HAS to be!) Basically, they've got nothing on him; he's like Kierkegaard's single book into which a person, if confined to just that book, will eventually be able to read anything and everything--regardless of what the book actually contains.

Bush should nominate a horse to the Supreme Court--I can't imagine the reaction will be much different; a brief moment of shock, then--'You're going to overturn Roe v. Wade, aren't you? AREN'T YOU?'

Someone wake me up when we get to October. I don't have much more energy to devote to "interesting times".

Moonbat Sh*t has already started, look at the AP release:

His death ends a remarkable 33-year Supreme Court career during which Rehnquist oversaw the court's conservative shift, presided over an impeachment trial and helped decide a presidential election.

Haliburton offed him...trust me.

There was some guy (?) at DU that mentioned using a pillow to finish him off. Considering the well known health problems he had it seemed pretty delusional to think he needed help.

Or maybe it was at Kos, it's hard to tell them apart.

My favorite comment was this one:

THERE IS ONLY ONE SOLUTION SHORT OF CIVIL WAR.
Retake Congress in 2006, impeach Bush and Cheney and use a resignation and appointment strategy to get either Gore or Kerry to be Speaker of the House. One of them can then appoint the other as Vice-President. Then pack the court like Roosevelt tried to. Otherwise, it's fascism or civil war or fascism and civil war.

Nice. Sounds like they want civil war, doesn't it?

I say nuke 'em!

I question the timing.

I hate Andrea Mitchell and Stone Phillips. I f**king hate it when one reporter "interviews" another.

Phillips: "Why did it take the National Guard so long to respond?"

Mitchell: "Well, the National Guard is stretched think by the Iraq war."

That's as verbatim as I could get it. Just played on MSNBC. No mention of the governor's role in the NG's mobilization at all or the responsibility of a state to take care of its own emergency planning.

Screw the media.

Why am I in such a bad mood of late? I have plenty of reasons to be happy.

Maybe I'm just too easily annoyed.

Nice. Sounds like they want civil war, doesn't it?

Using what? SuperSoakers? ;->

I thought it was the right that was supposed to be the heavily armed gun nuts.

I''ll be rechecking the loads in my AK and AR-15 mags tomorrow though...since I am one of those heavily armed gun nuts.

Using what? SuperSoakers? ;->

Heh. True.

If such a war broke out, I would be far behind enemy lines. Maine is turning into Vermont with a coastline.

You can be one of our insurgents.

I've been reading the spin attached to photos at msnbc, now I'm in a pissy mood too.

Bring them Home Now Tour - Day 4

As we were dropping off the leftovers from Camp Casey to help out those 'suffering' from the Hurricane, we got the news that the chief justice of the Supreme Court had died. A few of the guys from the Crawford Peace House started cheering, but stopped when they realized Rehnquist wasn't a Jewish name.

The death of the man who led the highest court is a sobering piece of news. I mean, between this and that hurricane, it will take a miracle for the media to start paying attention to me and the crusade I'm leading again.

I just hate how the media is focusing so much on that storm. It's not like we've never seen a hurricane before. Hel-lo! It's just some wind and rain, people! When compared with the folly that is killing our precious babies in Iraq, the hurricane is a second-tier story at best.

Today, only one camera was there to record my daily vigil at Casey's cross. Do you have any idea how hard it is to cry for one camera? Sometimes, it feels like the whole media has turned against me.

The other day, some dick of a NPR reporter started asking me hard questions that I didn't feel like answering. I wanted to ask him whether he was being paid by the Zionists, but my publicist told me to end the interview. I think it was an opportunity lost. The truth needs to get out there. Bush's war, the war that killed my poor sweet Casey, was planned by Zionists and Halliburton.

I think our message was starting to get through, then the hurricane hit and Rehnquist died. The major media is AWOL right now. My only hope is that the Maine media will pick up the slack - after all, we're protesting an air show.

Surely that's got to be good for a few minutes of tape.

Peace.

I've been reading the spin attached to photos at msnbc, now I'm in a pissy mood too.

I just don't believe I've ever seen the media act so irresponsibly and so incuriously. They aren't interested in the facts - it's all about heartbreaking photos and video clips.

Television news ruined journalism. The camera truly is the eye without a brain.

Slublog said: No mention of the governor's role in the NG's mobilization at all or the responsibility of a state to take care of its own emergency planning.

Slublog, please read the following and tell me what part you don't understand:

In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort. The new Department will also prioritize the important issue of citizen preparedness. Educating America's families on how best to prepare their homes for a disaster and tips for citizens on how to respond in a crisis will be given special attention at DHS.

From: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home2.jsp

Interesting reactions on this thread. Note that Republicans control the White House, the Senate, the House, and the majority of the governors' seats in the nation. And yet, with another Supreme Court vacancy, we all feel a collective "oh, crap" coming on. Why? If elections mean anything at all, this ought to settle a lot of conservative nerves.

I guess we just realize that elections don't mean much of anything anymore. We all know that as insane as the Lefties are, they have the power to drive us crazy with moonbattery in high places -- e.g. politicized Judiciary Committee meetings and over-the-top irresponsible press releases and grandstanding.

I suppose the reason we feel like elections don't mean as much anymore is because two of the four sources of political power in this country (the Supremes and the media) are completely non-responsive to political pressure via the ballot box.

R.I.P., Rehnquist. Whether people loved you or hated you, at least they always knew where you stood. I'm not looking forward to the poltical fighting you will leave behind.

Ummm, there IS a coordinated comprehensive federal response.

That local INCOMPETENCE and INEPTNESS has made this an order of magnitude harder to accomplish than during prior disasters apparently escapes liberidiots. I'm not sure the fed planners planned on having the relief efforts being ATTACKED by armed gangs the MAYOR and GOVERNOR failed to suppress (indeed allowed to form and flourish).

In spite of all that, the federal response has happened FASTER than any other prior disaster that I'm aware of - certainly faster than Andrew/Ivan/Charlie, etc.

[grouchy look] I missed Slub's AIM when I passed out. He has to try again or I'll get annoyed. Check that; I'm already annoyed. I'll get... oh, whatever comes after that.

Slubs, AIM me before 1600 tomorrow, will you? That's when I have to get dressed for the second time in two days, so I'll cry again if you don't. And if I've passed out once more stay online. It's tiresome, hunting you down.

Rest in peace, sir. Thank you for your service.

Now . . . let's renominate Bork as CJ of SCOTUS, and get some serious shit rolling.

izzadem,

Your comment is rather disingenuous. Please read this and tell us what part you don't understand.

How about we (1) get Roberts confirmed as an associate justice, (2) raise Thomas to CJ, and (3) nominate New Orleans' own Edith Clement (a conservative woman from the Fifth Circuit) as the other new associate?

Dubya may have two appointments to make. He may choose to promote an associate justice to chief justice, then fill that associate justice's seat. That's what happened when Reagan promoted Rehnquist to chief justice. Remember, in the case of a tie, the chief justice casts the tie-breaker - and ties could happen frequently once Roberts becomes the eighth justice.

In this scenario, I could see Dubya promoting Scalia or Thomas to chief justice. A Thomas nomination would bring Democrats' inbred racism bursting forth. I'm sure we'd see lots of Rall cartoons depicting Thomas as Stepin Fetchit, complete with exaggerated lips and sleepy eyes. It would be a good appointment judicially, and politically it would be brilliant.

As for the new associate justice, I'd love to see Richard Posner on the court - a libertarian who's written some terrific books - but there are lots of others out there who would do a good job and set the Dems to gnawing their limbs in fury.

They're going to hate us whatever we do, so we might as well do the right thing and have some fun while we're doing it.

megan - sorry about that. I'll try to get on AIM later today. It's been acting funny lately, though. I think the ads they've put in the program have screwed it up.

Slublog, please read the following and tell me what part you don't understand:

I think Michael Brown screwed up and should be fired immediately.

But, unlike most of those who seek political gain from this tragedy, I think we have to actually look at what happened on all levels so we can ensure it doesn't happen again. If the left is successful in blaming Bush and ignoring the role of the state and local government in this tragedy, nothing will change in the state of Louisiana.

I wrote a long pice in another thread about the role of the state and local governments in disaster relief. I'll be honest with you, though. I don't think you're interested in facts. The left and the media have already made up their minds about who's at fault.

Interesting reactions on this thread. Note that Republicans control the White House, the Senate, the House, and the majority of the governors' seats in the nation. And yet, with another Supreme Court vacancy, we all feel a collective "oh, crap" coming on. Why? If elections mean anything at all, this ought to settle a lot of conservative nerves.

I don't feel good about his passing, but I don't feel anything close to a collective "oh, crap" coming on either. This is an opportunity for a Republican to shape the next 30 years of SCOTUS decisions. The ensuing battle with the Dems isn't going to be any worse than it has been in the past. They'll be nastier and more vicious in their lies, but they have much less power than before so they won't be able to change the outcome. That's probably why they'll be screaming more this time around.

Frankly, this whole series of events started me thinking that, apart from whatever other qualities he may have, President Bush has an almost superhuman patience with fools and an incredible fortitude that keeps him from descending to the levels of his attackers. How he restrains himself from firing back insults at the likes of Kennedy and Leahy is beyond me.

Thank Goodness he is like that, but I'd stilll wish one day to hear some Churchillian reposte to skewer the idiots in Congress.

Scalia as chief. What are they going to do? Argue he is unqualified? Appoint Lustig, Wilkerson, or Brown. That is when the moonbats will go nuts. Then nuke them and be done with this nonsense everytime there is an appointment.

Where's Ace? Don't tell me he got lucky and is having his brains fucked out as we speak. :)

Agreed jmchez, and he surrounds himself with the same type of people. If you watched Russert interview Michael Chertoff this morning you have to wonder how somebody can exhibit such self-restraint. As a side note, if anybody here ever gets interviewed by Tim Russert and you don't want to answer the tough questions just start crying. I'm sorry if that sounds cynical and normally I'd have sympathy for a local official but this was too much.

Hubbs?

Nah, Ace is just on one of his famous Val-U-Rite ™ benders.

This is going to turn out to be a really crappy year for the libs.

They think they are winning right now. On the lefty discussion boards, they are crowing about how weak Bush is, so he'll have to appoint someone of whom they approve.

I have to say I woke up this morning totally depressed. And then I heard a noise a big grunt. You know what it was? It was the liberal media and the rest of the crazy liberals have one big collective orgazim on national television. I felt so dirty I had to take a shower. I'm just hoping and waiting that someone speaks up soon on national tv in defense of Bush and points out the total lack of leadership by the mayor and the crybaby governor. Just once I wish Someone high in the Bush administration would defend themselves.

ABCNEWS had a poll up that said the majority of Americans didn't blame Bush for the NO disaster, but then they did their damndest to make Bush look bad.

And as stories get out about how the NO police cut and run, and that Bush had to personally urge Blanco to call for an evacuation, among all the other tales of local government incompetence, Bush is going to be fine.

It also helps that the left has been so deranged with the assaults on him, that people just start to discount what they say. "Oh its just those Bush haters again".

It would be nice though if someone in the administration started blasting the incompetence of Blanco & Co.

Go to MSNBC and watch Campbell Brown smack down Nagin (sorry, too lazy to put up a link right now. The Miller's are kicking in)!

I LOVE Campbell Brown.

About NOLA: There's enough blame to go around, but little, if any, should go to GW. Maybe his FEMA chief, but GW seems to have done all he could to get the Dems in power in LA, MS & AL moving. The reaction from the moonbats reflect what they don't want to say out loud: It is the responsibility of the feds to protect every life from every sort of ill from cradle to grave. The individual has only the responsibility to accept what the guv'mint throws at them for free.

About CJ of SCOTUS: Renquist was a good man, but his record was hardly impeccable (from a right-wing conservative point of view). He helped move the court back toward the center, but hardly made it the ruination of the country the likes of Biden & Kennedy would have us believe.

It would be nice if GW woke up and discovered he did get a majority of the votes for pres. last November, and a majority of the senators are also from his party, if not his particular persuasion in that party. Twist some arms! Unfortunately, he will probably go the way of his immigration policies and ignore the fact the country is going to hell in a fast-ride handbasket, take the easy way out, and nominate another lib in moderate clothing. Not exactly what the country, the Constitution, or he citizens need at this point in our history. Renquist was probably the single best thing Nixon ever did for the country, especially considering what kind of a "moderate" he turned out to be. Maybe Nixon was foxier than the Dems gave him credit for. It affected the country for a third of a century, and had he put another Warren there, we wouldn't have the chance to voice our opinions now, I'm sure.

Here in the Brown interview link.. You can tell that she knows he is a total lying sack of feces, but doesn't want to bust PC rules to say it. Still, I think that the message gets across clearly, especially when he chooses not to really answer her 2 main questions. The next logical questions would be:

1) Did New Orleans follow its own disaster relief plan, and if not, why not?

2) Why would you direct 20,000 people to a place with no food, shitters or security?

"I don't feel good about his passing, but I don't feel anything close to a collective "oh, crap" coming on either. This is an opportunity for a Republican to shape the next 30 years of SCOTUS decisions. The ensuing battle with the Dems isn't going to be any worse than it has been in the past. They'll be nastier and more vicious in their lies, but they have much less power than before so they won't be able to change the outcome."

I'm well aware that it's an opportunity to shape the next 30 years, my fear is that, due to Republican wussiness and Lefty hystrionics, it will be an opportunity lost to political cowardice. Right now, Republicans are playing defense for Roberts while simultaneously wondering if he's another Souter, playing defense on Katrina (the height of ridiculousness, given the failures of state and local government), and just won the most pathetic of "victories" with John Bolton and a handful of federal judges.

You might be right to note that the ensuing battle won't be any worse than in the past -- although I have to say, Democrats have this off way of continuing to sink to new lows. But if Democratic character assassination stays at the normal level while Republican defense is weakened, that makes for a bloodier-than-usual battle.

IMO, this should be an open and shut case. Bush doesn't have to run for re-election, and he should be able to throw enough political wieght to hit the nuke button and nominate the reincarnation of Robert Bork (the actual Bork being perhaps too old to be a good choice). But the difference between what he should do and what he probably will do, it seems, has led a lot of conservatives to think "oh crap."

Time to turn the Lib's own political weapons against them:

1. Nominate Clarence Thomas for Chief Justice - and let the Dems know anyone objecting will be called "racist" from now through the next five elections.

2. Push Roberts nomination - and let the public know if the Dems object they, not he, are preventing looters and rapists from being brought to justice.

3. Find a very conservatice judge (who is preferably both black and female) and nominate her if she has the approval of Robert Bork. (and DARE the Dems to object:)

The libs want affirmative action, let them have it good and hard!

Goddamnit, I whined until Slubs AIMed me not once but thrice, and then I managed to be away from the bloody computer each time. :( Sorry Slub.

Bork is, sadly, too old. Plus he looks like "Porky." Not that it's a beauty contest, but still.