• Politics,  Supreme Court

    SCOTUS Watch: Current Make-up of the Court

    The Current Make-up of the United States Supreme Court:

    In
    Photo
    Justice Age
    (Date of Birth)
    Appointed By
    1 Ruth Bader Ginsburg 72
    (3-15-33)
    1993 Clinton (D)
    2 David Souter 65
    (9-17-39)
    1990 Bush (R)
    3 Clarence Thomas 57
    (6-28-48)
    1991 Bush (R)
    4 Stephen Breyer 67
    (8-15-38)
    1994 Clinton (D)
    5 Antonin Scalia 69
    (3-11-36)
    1986 Reagan (R)
    6 John Paul Stevens 85
    (4-20-20)
    1975 Ford (R)
    7 William Rehnquist* 80
    (10-1-24)
    1972
    (Chief: 1986)
    Nixon (R)
    8 Sandra Day O’Connor** 75
    (3-26-30)
    1981 Reagan (R)
    9 Anthony Kennedy 69
    (7-23-36)
    1988 Reagan (R)

    *Died Sept. 3, 2005.

    **Has announced plan to retire. Federal appeals court judge John Roberts has been nominated to succeed her.

    Tomorrow Flap will handicap the possible nominees for Chief Justice.

    H/T: WSJ

  • Politics,  Supreme Court

    SCOTUS Watch: Chief Justice William Rehnquist Has Died

    Chief Justice William Rehnquist has died at home.

    Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died Saturday evening at his home in suburban Virginia, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.

    A statement from the spokeswoman said he was surrounded by his three children when he died in Arlington.

    “The Chief Justice battled thyroid cancer since being diagnosed last October and continued to perform his dues on the court until a precipitous decline in his health the last couple of days,” she said.

    Rehnquist was appointed to the Supreme Court as an associate justice in 1971 by President Nixon and took his seat on Jan. 7, 1982. He was elevated to chief justice by President Reagan in 1986.

    God Bless him!

    And peace be with him and his family.

    Arberg said plans regarding funeral arrangements would be forthcoming.

    Bush was notified of Rehnquist’s death shortly before 11 p.m. EDT.

    “President Bush and Mrs. Bush are deeply saddened by the news,” said White House counselor Dan Bartlett. “It’s a tremendous loss for our nation.” The president was expected to make a personal statement about Rehnquist on Sunday.

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  • Election 2008,  Politics

    Hillary Clinton: OIL Tired

    President Bill Clinton posed with members of the Gianelli Sausage and Dinosaur Bar-B-Que concession stand during a visit with his wife Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at the New York State Fair on Friday September 2, 2005. L-R: Molly Scullin and her sister Katie-Sue Scullin of Liverpool, NY, Evan Wojtaszek also of Liverpool, NY, (Clinton), Nicole Cilani of Solvay, NY and Amy Marascalchi of Syracuse, NY.

    The Washington Post has Oil Firms Turn Katrina Into Profits, Clinton Says, N.Y. Senator Criticizes Lack of National Leadership, Freedom From Imports.

    Pressed by constituents alarmed by skyrocketing gasoline prices in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) accused oil companies of manipulating energy markets to enhance profits and decried a lack of national leadership for a plan to free the country from dependence on foreign oil.

    “I want to go after the oil companies and the oil speculators and the manipulators of the money, because they’re the ones who I think are really behind this,” Clinton told an audience in Elmira Heights on Thursday. “You have a hurricane, and all of a sudden you see prices going up like that. That has . . . everything to do with people trying to make money off the backs of this tragedy.”

    Clinton repeatedly took aim at record profits rolled up by energy giants during the last quarter as crude oil prices have continued to rise. Her rhetoric was at times angry, exasperated, frustrated and passionate. “You just cannot convince me that they are not manipulating this market,” she told another audience near Newark, N.Y.

    But, Senator, what about lowering federal and state taxes to bring gasoline to more affordable levels?

    Clinton sparred with one constituent who called for a rollback of state and federal gasoline taxes to ease the pain of increases that have pushed prices well above $3 a gallon in many places since the hurricane hit Monday morning. Clinton said that will not solve the problem.

    “We can get some temporary relief, but that’s not the answer, and we don’t have the leadership we need to stand up and fight for what should be the answer and the sacrifices people should be willing to make,” she said.

    So…. what, Senator pray tell do you propose?

    More domestic oil production in Alaska?

    More refineries?

    More nuclear power facilities?

    Senator, where have you been and where was President Clinton during his 8 years in office?

    Clinton criticized the new energy bill, which she opposed, as inadequate to solve the country’s long-term energy problem. She said the United States has regressed over the past three decades, since the first oil shocks of the early 1970s. “We’ve had 30 years to do some things we haven’t done,” she said. “In fact we’ve gotten, we’ve gone backwards in many respects.

    “I am tired of being at the mercy of people in the Middle East and elsewhere, and I’m tired frankly of being at the mercy of these large oil companies,” Clinton said.


    All whine and no beef.

    Propose some solutions or just be quiet.

    H/T Powerline

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  • Arnold Schwarzenegger,  California,  Election 2006,  Politics,  Special Election 2005

    Arnold Schwarzenegger Watch: Recovery, Reform and Rebuilding

    California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, left, and Director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Henry Renteria, right, leave a news conference in downtown Los Angeles, Friday, Sept. 2, 2005, after asking California residents to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

    The San Jose Mercury News has Schwarzenegger hints at bid for re-election.

    Stopping just short of announcing that he’ll seek re-election next year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday said that he’s someone who likes to finish what he starts and added that his plans will be clear within weeks.

    “I will be talking about that this month,” Schwarzenegger told newspaper columnist Daniel Weintraub, who was guest-hosting on Sacramento radio station KTKZ. “But as you know, I’m a man that always goes and stays all the way through until we get done, so I’m looking forward to working for the people.”

    Remembering the Governor has already won the election for reform this November, he is positioning himself well for the 2006 elections.

    In a recent interview with KCRA television in Sacramento, Schwarzenegger also dropped re-election hints: “I’m a follow-through guy,” he said. “I don’t walk away from things that I think are unfinished.”

    Several Republican strategists have urged Schwarzenegger to announce his intentions sooner rather than later. That would reassure donors concerned about backlash from the Democrat-controlled Legislature if they contributed to Schwarzenegger and his initiative campaign.

    Listen to the lefties whine:

    “What’s the drama? Either he’s going to run or he’s not,” said Gale Kaufman, campaign consultant for the union-backed Alliance for a Better California, which opposes Schwarzenegger’s initiatives. “Right now, I’d rather he act like a governor for awhile, doing important things.”

    She added, “We like running against people with a popularity of 34 percent.”

    The fact is the leftie public employee unions, including the Alliance will drop a whole bunch of money trying to protect their status quo this November.

    The Alliance’s media campaign has been very effective in driving down Schwarzenegger’s polling numbers but his reelection is over a year away.

    Will they have the money after November’s election, a contested June Democrat primary and with a division within the national labor movement.

    Doubtful.

    They have shot their wad and now must resort to free media plays while stalking the Governor’s travels.

    Schwarzenegger is pushing special election initiatives to control spending and grant him new budget powers; empower retired judges, rather than legislators, to redraw the state’s political districts; and require public school teachers to wait five years, instead of two to become permanent employees.

    So far he is neutral about what may be the election’s most significant issue — a ballot measure that would curb the ability of public employee unions (among Democrats’ biggest donors) to raise money from members for political purposes. But Schwarzenegger is widely expected to endorse it soon.

    On Thursday, the California Teachers Union contributed $21 million to defeat the union dues measure and the governor’s spending limit and tenure measure.

    $21 million raised from a special dues assessment of their members and $21 million that cannot be used in a media campaign agaisnt the Governor in 2006. The CTA should have cut a deal with
    Schwarzenegger when they could.

    Meanwhile the Governor is raising money and preparing his 2006 campaign themes.

    Certainly, the governor has been talking longer-term. He has said that his three-step plan for California involves recovery, reform and rebuilding. With 2005 being his “year for reform,” aides say Schwarzenegger next year will focus on rebuilding some of the state’s crumbling infrastructure. The governor himself cited highways and ports as priorities.

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    Cross-posted to the Bear Flag League Special Election Page

  • General

    Hurricane Katrina Watch: Evacuations Pick Up Steam

    Thousands of New Orleans residents gather at a evacuation staging area along Interstate-10 in Metarie, La., on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005. The residents were either evacuated by air or walked to the Interstate to escape the city still besieged by flooding and no electricity.

    The ASSociated Press has Evacuation Finally Begins to Pick Up

    Planes, trains and buses delivered refugees to safety on Saturday as the evacuation of this ruined city finally appeared to pick up steam.

    Buses had evacuated most people from the frightening confines of the Superdome by early morning. At the equally squalid convention center, thousands of people began pushing and dragging their belongings up the street to more than a dozen air-conditioned buses, the mood more numb than jubilant.

    But, medical care has been delayed.

    At Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, thousands of people remained in a triage center, many of them dying for lack of medical care.

    “The hallways are filled, the floors are filled. There are thousands of people there,” said Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who was at the airport. “A lot more than eight to 10 people are dying a day. It’s a distribution problem. The doctors are doing a great job, the nurses are doing a great job.”

    Workers repair the broken 17th Street levee Saturday, Sept. 3, 2005 in New Orleans.

    There is much work to do.

    Please go here and give generously.

    Please visit Flap’s charity and make your online contribution today.

    Thank you!

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  • USC Football

    College Football: It’s Game Day!

    It’s game day and the start of college football season.

    Flap attended USC and guess who he supports?

    Reggie Bush, a Heisman finalist in 2004, could win it this year.

    But, he will have to beat returning Heisman winner, Matt Leinart.

    Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart passed for 33 touchdowns with only six interceptions last year.

    Today’s Game:

    The two-time defending national champion USC football team begins its quest for an unprecedented “three-Pete” when it travels to Hawaii for the 2005 season opener. The Trojans have never lost in 5 games against the Warriors; in fact, victories over Hawaii have been part of 2 of USC’s national championship seasons (1978, although that win wasn’t easy, and 2003). Troy is riding a 22-game overall winning streak and a 9-game road win string, and has also won its past 7 season openers. USC also has never lost a season opener following its previous 10 national title campaigns. The Trojans, No. 1 in the AP poll since the final 2003 ranking, have rarely lost when top-ranked. It’s the first time Hawaii has faced the nation’s No. 1-ranked team. USC has fared well against current Western Athletic Conference foes, winning 25 of 26 meetings. Head coach Pete Carroll’s Trojans are loaded with talented, marquee players on offense, including 2004 Heisman Trophy-winning QB Matt Leinart, the dangerous TB duo of Reggie Bush (a 2004 Heisman finalist) and LenDale White, perhaps the nation’s top receiving corps in WRs Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith and TE Dominique Byrd, and a veteran offensive line whose fivesome are all in line for post-season honors. The question is how will the defense, which led the nation in rushing defense and turnover margin last fall, fare after losing 4 All-Americans. Key Trojan defenders include S Darnell Bing, LB Dallas Sartz and DEs Lawrence Jackson and Frostee Rucker. All-American P Tom Malone returns, but there’s a new placekicker. Hawaii, coming off an 8-5 season and a win in the Hawaii Bowl, features the wide-open offensive attack of seventh-year head coach June Jones (whose Warrior coaching debut came against USC in 1999) and a new defense coordinated by former NFL head coach Jerry Glanville. It’s the start of the post-Timmy Chang era at Hawaii, as a new quarterback must fill in for the NCAA record-setter. UH, which lost 13 starters from 2004, sports a duo–OL Samson Satele and DE Melila Purcell–who earned various All-WAC honors last season. The game, which could sell out in 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium, will be shown live on ESPN2 (USC’s first appearance on that air).

    The Complete USC Press Release is here.

    The Los Angeles Times has First Payment Will Be on the Lei-Away Plan.

    See you at 4:05 PM PDT on ESPN2