A little bit of hypocricy

John Kerry is insisting on the release of the records of soon to be Supreme Court Justice John Roberts according to this article. Excuse me, but in light of what we have learned from the last election, does John Kerry have the right to demand anybody's records for anything? I believe we are still waiting to see all of his.

tip o' the hat to K-Lo at the corner

Potterville

It appears that the new installment of the Harry Potter series of books sold just over 9 million copies in the first 24 hours. In the United States alone it sold at a rate of 250,000 copies per hour. It easily beat out the previous record holder, which was the previous Harry Potter book, by about 1-1/2 million copies sold.

I don't have a whole bunch to say about this, other than the fact that I was the first kid on my block to buy it. I have only read about 5 or 6 chapters, but so far so good. I will keep everyone updated on how I like the book, but I will not tell anyone what is happening in the book. If you haven't read any of these books, I would encourage you to start. They are well written and a whole lot of fun.

UPDATE: I am now about 3/4 of the way through and have nothing to say but, wow. JK Rowling is a superb story teller. There is not so much action in this edition, but the storytelling is pretty good. It looks like she is setting up the 7th and final chapter for the major showdown.

UPDATE: Having finished the book a few days ago, I can only say that I really look forward to chapter 7 of the series. I have seen the reports from various critics putting the book down, but I have to disagree. I found the story to be clear, well written and a lot of fun. While book three is still by far my favorite, I found this book to be extremely entertaining and would recommend it to anyone who loves a good story.

Nominee Time

The president has announced that he is ready to name a replacement for Supreme Court Justice O'Connor at 9:00 PM tonight. The odds on favorite at this time is Edith "Joy" Clement from the 5th circuit court of appeals in New Orleans.

I am not huge on judicial nominations or the nominees themselves. I can only hope that the president will keep his word on the type of judge he would nominate. We will find out in a couple of hours.

UPDATE: Oops! Serves me right for listening to the media!

Chief Justice Rehnquist

Chief Justice William Rehnquist was hospitalized last night because of a high fever. He was taken by ambulance to an Arlington, VA. hospital.

At 80 years old and suffering from thyroid cancer this obviously can't be good. For the good of the court, it is time for him to step down and let a replacement be named. He has served his country well, although I don't agree with all of his decisions, for many years and we owe him our gratitude and our prayers.

With his "That's for me to know and you to find out" comment about when he will retire, my belief is he will wait until a replacement is confirmed for Sandra Day O'Connor before he steps down. We should also be watching for a possible announcement from another prominent female justice on the high court in the next year or two.

The Wedding

This past Saturday my beautiful daughter Jamie was married to my now son in law Brian. I couldn't be happier for both of them. He of course, married a beautiful, intelligent young lady, and she to a kind and handsome young man. If it hadn't been for my performance a couple of cell phones, and missing of the lighting of the unity candle, the ceremony would have been flawless!

Jamie and Brian, I am truly happy for you, and may God bless you both for the rest of your lives.

Rove

That damn (sorry) Karl Rove. Just when you think you have him, the truth comes out.

When is the blame going to be placed on the real culprit? This investigation is more about Matthew Cooper, Judith Miller and Joe Wilson than it is Karl Rove. After days of the witchhunt for Rove's blood, the MSM has realized that he hasn't leaked any information and is now after his job because they accuse him of lying to the president.

The president stands by him and the media should take a hike. They have been looking for 4-1/2 years to try to pin something on this administration and have failed miserably. Maybe that is where all of this comes from. This president, unlike previous ones, is an honorable and decent man. Where there is honor and decency, there is no corruption, and the mainstream media can't take it.

333 Billion Dollars

No, that isn't my net worth. No, it isn't the amount of the next powerball or megamillions jackpot. 333 Billion dollars is what the budget deficit is. So is this good news or bad. With my schedule I don't have time for bad news. The new budget deficit was announced today and it is 94 billion dollars less than was previously reported just 5 months ago.

So what does this mean? This means that President Bush's policies are working....duh. This president has passed 5 tax relief bills since he became president. I know that the left doesn't want to hear this, but tax cuts work and historically that can be proven out. Just in recent history you can look to the Kennedy administration, as well as Thatcher, Reagan and now Bush.

Am I happy with a 333 billion dollar deficit? Well, kind of. It has also been historically proven that when you have an economic deficit, you spur a period of economic growth.

The big question is will the democrats give the president the credit he deserves. Stop it....my side hurts....you're killing me...

Minnesota politics

In my humble opinion, the whole shutdown of the Minnesota government could, and should have been avoided. At this point, I have no problem saying to the people of that state (which I lived in for 30+ years) to vote each and every one of the legislative body out of office. It comes down to a simple point and doesn't matter if you are a democrat or republican. All the members of the legislature were voted into office to do a job. They did not do their job. There are now 9,000 people who are out of work because they didn't do their job.

They should no longer have their jobs.

Justice O'Connor

Supreme court justice Sandra Day O'Connor sent her letter of resignation to President Bush this morning. While this was not a complete shock, it was a little unexpected. The far left has been reeling all day. Moveon.org has already started the media blitz focusing pretty much on the abortion angle, and the usual suspects on the democrat side of the senate aisle have joined in.

This is going to be a dirty, nasty fight, and I pity the nominee who actually has to go through the process. Senator's Reid, Kennedy and Durbin, not to mention How-Weird Dean are going to hit this nominee with everything that they have.

On the other side, President Bush will, and should nominate who he thinks is the best candidate for the job. During his campaign he promised that he would have no litmus test for a supreme court nominee. Now is his time to deliver on that promise. If it were Justice Rehnquist who had retired, the opposition would not be so great. The left would figure that it would be a conservative for a conservative. Justice O'Connor has been a "swing vote" in the court voting on both thte conservative side and leaning to the liberal side, although she voted conservatively more often than liberal.

My view is simple. President Bush is going to nominate a judge who will interpret the the constitution and not legislate from the bench. The left, of course will go ballistic and mount a filibuster against the nomination. The constitutional option will take place and there will be no more filibusters against judicial nominees allowed.

Between the beginning of the process, which is already happening, and the end result, there will be much gnashing of teeth. This is going to be dirty. There will be several senators who will be running for re-election who will be looking for another job in 2006 because of their vote on this nomination.