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Of course, Justice David Souter who was appointed by Republican President H.W. Bush and who has surprisingly aligned himself with the left-wing cabal on the U.S. Supreme Court decided to retire when a Democrat President, Barack Obama was elected.

NPR has learned that Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the current court term.

The vacancy will give President Obama his first chance to name a member of the high court and begin to shape its future direction.

At 69, Souter is nowhere near the oldest member of the court. In fact he is in the younger half of the court’s age range with five justices older and just three younger. So far as anyone knows, he is in good health. But he has made clear to friends for some time that he wanted to leave Washington, a city he has never liked, and return to his native New Hampshire. Now, according to reliable sources he has decided to take the plunge and has informed the White House of his decision.

Factors in his decision no doubt include the election of President Obama, who would be more likely to appoint a successor attuned to the principles Souter has followed as a moderate-to-liberal member of the court’s more liberal bloc over the past two decades.

In addition, Souter was apparently satisfied than neither the court’s oldest member, 89-year-old John Paul Stevens, nor its lone woman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had cancer surgery over the winter, wanted to retire at the end of this term. Not wanting to cause a second vacancy, Souter apparently had waited to learn his colleague’s plans before deciding his own.

Justice Souter was a disappointment to conservatives and the fall-out over his choice by the first President Bush divided conservatives in his re-election bid which he lost to Bill Clinton.

Flap cannot help but think that this retirement, announced conveniently after Senator Arlen Specter’s switch to the Democrat Party is a poke in both President Bushs’ eyes and the GOP.

The philosophical balance of the court will most likely not change with President Obama’s appointment of a successor. By the way, with the Democrat super majority in the United States Senate, the GOP will have NO ability to give any meaningful advice and consent anyway.

This is what a new Pew Research poll says.

A new poll conducted by Pew Research finds the support for legal abortions has dropped to its lowest level in 15 years.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 31-April 21 among 1,521 adults, finds President Barack Obama’s abortion advocay could be sparking a shift to the pro-life side of the abortion debate.

The Pew poll found 46 percent of Americans say abortion should be legal in most cases (28%) or all cases (18%) and 44 percent of Americans believe that abortion should be illegal in most (28%) or all cases (16%).

That two point margin in favor of abortion is the lowest margin since 1995 as Pew, and other polling firms, have been asking the same polling question of Americans across the country every year.

The proportion saying that abortion should be legal in all or most cases has declined to 46% from 54% last August.

Currently, 44% say abortion should be illegal in most (28%) or all cases (16%), up slightly since last August (41%).

Breaking down the polling results by social groups and comparing them with Pew’s results in August, men saw a 10 percent pro-life shift and women a 5 percent shift between polls.

Older voters 50 and up experienced a greater shift (10-11 percent) to the pro-life position making abortions illegal while voters under 50 saw a five percent pro-life shift.

Politically, there has been notable decline in the proportion of independents saying abortion should be legal in most or all cases; majorities of independents favored legal abortion in August and the two October surveys, but just 44% do so today.

Here are the charts:

And, who says that America is moving LEFT on social issues? That is not to say that abortion anytime soon will return to being illegal but there is clearly a disfavor in this pro-death grizzly procedure.

Sad, but true.

It has taken a while.

The White House is issuing a health advisory to anyone who traveled on President Barack Obama’s trip to Mexico, after a member of the U.S. delegation came down with flu-like symptoms – and tests on that staffers’ family showed they are probably infected with the swine flu.

After saying just last week that no one who traveled to Mexico City for the president’s visit contracted the flu, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced that a lead advance person for Energy Secretary Steven Chu came down with flu-like symptoms after the trip and appears to have spread the flu to three members of his family.

Tests on the individual came back negative – probably because too much time elapsed after he got back – but tests on his family showed they have the influenza virus. A test for the swine flu strain – known as H1N1 – showed they are probable for that.

The individual, of Maryland, traveled to Mexico City on April 13, began to feel ill on April 16, and as of today is back to work, Gibbs said. Gibbs declined to name the man, but said he did not come within six feet of President Obama, although he was present at a dinner Obama attended.

The man flew back to Washington on a commercial United Airlines flight that landed at Dulles airport.

And, there you go -  why public health advisories and precautions are always prudent.

You don’t play around with the influenza virus or other contagions. Look at what has happened to Mexico City.

Stay tuned……

Did anyone think that Miss California Carrie Prejean could get away from filming a traditonal marriage ad for the National Organization for Marriage?

No, and it didn’t take long for the gay marriage character assassins to come out of the woodwork.

Breat implants indeed.

If I were Carrie, I think I would want to get away from Donald Trump and NBC as soon as I could secure another gig.

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You betcha and the Alaska Governor can be found here: @AKGovSarahPalin

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be on American Chopper tonight.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin recently welcomed the crew from Orange County Choppers – whose custom motorcycle business is featured on TLC’s American Chopper – to Anchorage where show star Paul Teutul Sr. researched building a bike to honor Alaska’s 50-year anniversary of being a state.

“It means so much to the state of Alaska that these guys are building this bike that will honor statehood here,” Palin says in the episode, airing April 30 at 9 p.m.

Paul Sr. hangs out with the Governor in her office and talks about the Alaskan weather, snowmobiling and fishing in the summer. “I inherit whatever [husband] Todd rejects from the year before,” Palin says.

After inviting the OCC crew back for the summer months, she suggests having fun Alaska style, saying, “We’ll ride the bike to the fishing hole.”

Although initially nervous about the meeting, Paul Sr. says that he felt Palin was “a real down to earth person to talk to.”

And, as you can see, this is not the first time that Paul Teutul, Sr. has been with the Governor.

Flap’s going to watch.