Obama Topping Himself in Bad Judicial Nominations

Meet Robert Chatigny, Obama's new nominee to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals:

"But looking at the record in a light most favorable to [Michael] Ross, he never should have been convicted. Or if convicted, he never should have been sentenced to death because his sexual sadism, which was found by every single person who looked at him, is clearly a mitigating factor...He can sit on his hands and sit mute and he may find not only that the death sentence is set aside, he may find the death penalty has been abolished. He may find that he gets the life sentence that he has repeatedly said he would take in an instant if it was offered to him."

The above should be read within the context of Michael Ross having confessed to murdering 8 women, 7 of whom he raped. Also, Ross didn't want to stay his execution, but his attorney did it after being strong-armed by Chatigny.

And I thought Obama couldn't possibly nominate someone worse than Goodwin Liu. Sure looks like I was wrong.

h/t Ace

I'm Starting to Think Jonah Goldberg is Kind of Stupid

On May 8, 2010, Jonah Goldberg posted a message he got from someone about the controversial Arizona illegal immigration law. The message was purportedly from a legal immigrant who said he didn't always carry around his green card, and wondered whether just carrying his valid driver's license would be good enough. Jonah didn't provide an answer, because he obviously didn't know. However, anyone who has bothered to read the Arizona statute, particularly 11-1051 B, would clearly see the answer to this person's question is "yes," a valid driver's license is good enough. I e-mailed Jonah this information, but never got a response (not even a one-word thanks).

Curiously enough, Jonah's May 8 post no longer appears to be on the NRO-Corner site. Click here, then click the link "The Arizona Law." Why it's gone, I'm not sure. But if I had to guess, Jonah may have gotten a lot of e-mails like the one I sent him, and he realized his posting made him look foolishly ignorant.

Now Jonah is making himself look not too smart again by asking why it should be a scandal if it's proven the White House offered Joe Sestak a job in the administration in exchange for him dropping out of the Senate Democratic Party primary in Pennsylvania. This is really nothing short of incredible. Jonah Goldberg is either too stupid or ethically challenged to not recognize what is by all accounts an act of bribery. I kind of had a hard time doing so before, but now I really can't take Jonah Goldberg seriously.

Just a Whole Lotta Stupid Going On

As David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap once said, "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever." The following from the makers of the Gringo Mask, a protest against the Arizona illegal immigration law, clearly falls into the former category. How so? For one thing, the Gringo Mask makers are assuming the Arizona law permits racial profiling, which it expressly doesn't. Also, William Jacobson at his excellent Legal Insurrection blog notes that wearing a mask is legal grounds for being detained and arrested in several states - but not Arizona.

Chicago Style Politics in D.C.

If Sestak is telling the truth about being "offered" a Federal job by the White House in exchange for dropping out of the U.S. Senate Democratic primary in Pennsylvania (which Sestak has since won), then a crime has been committed.



h/t Ace

Pac Man Fever

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Pac Man video game, Google has a playable version on its home page today. Just click the "Insert Coin" button and start chomping away!

Below is purportedly the first episode of the game-inspired cartoon. Never really saw any of them when I was a kid, of course, because I'd usually be scrounging around for quarters to go to the arcade.

So-Called Americans?

Everyone's favorite impeached federal judge[now Congress critter], Alcee Hastings, rips all you "Americans" who have participated in the YouCut initiative sponsored by House Republican Whip, Eric Cantor. According to hizhonor, one of you participants is obviously Osama bin Laden.



h/t Hot Air

Happy Draw Mohammed Day!*

More info about it here, in case you don't already know what it's supposed to be about.



*That should actually be, "Happy Everybody Draw Mohammmed Day!"

So For the Sake of Consistency, L.A. Will Be Boycotting Itself or All of California

Right?

And hey, our "anti-immigrant" law, unlike Arizona's, doesn't even prohibit racial profiling!

California Penal Code §834b

a)Every law enforcement agency in California shall fully cooperate with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service regarding any person who is arrested if he or she is suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws.

(b)With respect to any such person who is arrested, and suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws, every law enforcement agency shall do the following:

(1)Attempt to verify the legal status of such person as a citizen of the United States, an alien lawfully admitted as a permanent resident, an alien lawfully admitted for a temporary period of time or as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of immigration laws. The verification process may include, but shall not be limited to, questioning the person regarding his or her date and place of birth, and entry into the United States, and demanding documentation to indicate his or her legal status.

(2)Notify the person of his or her apparent status as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws and inform him or her that, apart from any criminal justice proceedings, he or she must either obtain legal status or leave the United States.

(3)Notify the Attorney General of California and the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service of the apparent illegal status and provide any additional information that may be requested by any other public entity.

(c)Any legislative, administrative, or other action by a city, county, or other legally authorized local governmental entity with jurisdictional boundaries, or by a law enforcement agency, to prevent or limit the cooperation required by subdivision (a) is expressly prohibited.

We All Originated From "Slime" (circa 2002)

Been reviewing some of my first blog posts, and thought this was worth reposting:

It would appear as though at least one Bible translation does not contradict the Darwinist notion that man was made from slime. According to Genesis 2:7 in the Douay Rheims Bible: "And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Of course, how man was made from the "slime" remains a point of dispute between Darwinists and so-called "Creationists".

Sooo 2002

It's been a long time since I've read anything at Eve Tushnet's blog, and it's interesting to see she's still using the same blog template she had in 2002.

I wonder if Eve planned it that way in order to eventually achieve a point of differentiation from all the other blogs that's now out there. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it and trying to figure out why anyone would keep using such an obsolete template.

Miss OK is OK

I also personally think Ms. Woolard is a lot hotter than the pole dancing/might be a Hezbollah supporter gal who won.

Miss USA "Shocker"

Well, if she is Muslim, she's obviously of the more liberal variety.

AG Holder Won't Say "Radical Islam" Has Been A Cause For Terrorism

With so much supporting empirical evidence, you kind of have to wonder why.

New Blog Format

Hopefully soon.

Sarah Palin Shouldn't Have Endorsed Carly Fiorina

Actually, Palin really shouldn't have endorsed anyone in the California U.S. Senate Republican primary. Reason being is that it has predictably caused a riff among her supporters in California, many of whom are rightly suspicious of Carly Fiorina's conservative credentials. The fact that Fiorina was an advisor to McCain's presidential campaign and Chuck DeVore is the only bona fide conservative running in the GOP primary (who has as good a chance of beating Barbara Boxer as Fiorina and Tom Campbell) suggests that Palin's endorsement is less than sincere. I, myself, asserted in the com-boxes at the Conservatives4Palin blog that Palin's endorsement amounted to nothing more than cynical payback to McCain (oh, the flak I got for that!). Further support of my assertion can be seen in Palin's endorsement statement where she mischaracterized Fiorina's father as a humble "schoolteacher" of children (the late Joseph Sneed was a law professor at both Cornell and Stanford, and later the law school Dean at Duke).

Will this endorsement by Palin come back to politically hurt her? Maybe. At least in my eyes, though, her credibility as a principled conservative has been diminished.

Update: I just caught this from Palin's update to her endorsement of Fiorina: "And most importantly, Carly is the only conservative in the race who can beat Barbara Boxer." The issue of whether Fiorina is a conservative aside, Palin's assertion is most surely incorrect, as the Rasmussen poll I linked to above actually shows DeVore slightly ahead of Fiorina in a head to head contest against Boxer.

Happy Belated Star Wars Day!

h/t Darth Vader

Liu-dicrous Responses

Ed Whelan of National Review's Bench Memos blog has the following 4-part analysis of the responses given by Berkeley Law prof and 9th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Goodwin Liu to written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

I sort of quickly read through all four parts, and my general take is that Goodwin Liu either literally refused to say anything without good reason, or he effectively contradicted things he's said in the past and is hoping not too many people will discover (e.g., calling free enterprise, private property ownership and limited government code words for an ideological agenda that is hostile to environmental, workplace and consumer protections).

California Dust Bowl

It's a man (mostly Democrat) made phenomena.

On a springtime drive through the Central Valley, it's hard not to notice how federal and state governments are hell-bent on destroying the state's top export — almonds — and everything else in the nation's most productive farmland.

Instead of pink blossoms and green shoots along Highway 5 in April, vast spans from Bakersfield to Fresno sit bone-dry. Brown grass, dead orchards and lifeless grapevine skeletons stretch for miles for lack of water. For every fallow field, there's a sign that farmers have placed alongside the highway: "No Water = No Food," "No Water = No Jobs," "Congress Created Dust Bowl."

Locals say it's been like this for two years now, as Congress and bureaucrats cite "drought," "global warming" and "endangered species" to deny water to this $37 billion breadbasket through arbitrary "environmental" quotas.

It started with a 2008 federal court order that stopped water flowing from northern tributaries on a supposed need to protect a small fish — the delta smelt — that was getting ground up in the turbines of pump stations that divert the water south. The court knew it was bad law, but Congress refused to exempt the fish from the Endangered Species Act and the diversion didn't help the fish.

h/t Powerline

Goodwin Liu: Intemperate Defamer Extraordinaire

This hack really doesn't deserve to be a judge (via The Wall Street Journal):

Speaking of the nomination of now Chief Justice John Roberts, Mr. Liu opined that words like "'free enterprise,' 'private ownership of property,' and 'limited government'" are "code words for an ideological agenda hostile to environmental, workplace, and consumer protections."

On the nomination of now-Justice Samuel Alito, Professor Liu was even nastier. In a statement reminiscent of Ted Kennedy's slur against Robert Bork, Mr. Liu wrote that "Judge Alito's record envisions an America where police may shoot and kill an unarmed boy to stop him from running away with a stolen purse; where federal agents may point guns at ordinary citizens during a raid, even after no sign of resistance...where a black man may be sentenced to death by an all-white jury for killing a white man...and where police may search what a warrant permits, and then some."

Really, for Obama to nominate someone to the Federal judiciary who would make these sort of outrageous and reckless statements says something about the president's ability to evaluate character. But we kind of already knew that when he nominated the "Wise Latina" to the Supreme Court.

Democrats Have Absolutely No Sense of Self-Awareness

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy is bitching about Republicans allegedly "stonewalling" the confirmation hearings of unqualified ideological hacks like Goodwin Liu (who actually deserves to be filibustered). Leahy, of course, is ignoring the indisputable fact that Obama court nominees are getting hearings at a much faster rate than Bush nominees ever did. The craphead from Vermont (what is it with that state? - see, e.g., Howard Dean and Bernie Sanders) also doesn't seem to remember that he was instrumental in delaying the hearings of several Bush nominees, and voted to filibuster the nominations of Miguel Estrada and Samuel Alito.

So the only I thing I can take away from the hypocritical bloviations of Dems like Patrick Leahy is that they either have no sense of self-awareness, or they're counting on all of us to basically be stupid and not have a memory. Or perhaps it's a combination of both.