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I Felt Just the Same Way …

By Bronwyn's Harbor on June 29, 2010 at 12:24 AM in Current Affairs

… during today’s hearing for the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Which reminds me: I need to get a tape of Senator Patrick Leahy to play when I’m hit with insomnia. No. Wait. Actually, he annoys me so much that I’d get too agitated to sleep. Uh, did any of you watch today? Is the deal sealed? Is there any reason to watch? Actually, there may be one interesting reason:

A dark cloud hung over the assemblage today. We have a weakened and unpopular president who’s not in a position to get what he wants at this point in time. While they’re still the minority, the Republicans can use their air time to remind November’s voters of what’s wrong with the president, his party, and his nominee.

The Republicans sought every opportunity to remind listeners that Kagan lived in the rarified air of the Ivy League schools and hasn’t had much “real world” experience. They pointed out that she treated the military, they claim, with disdain when she made it difficult for military recruiters to work on the Harvard campus.

The GOP senators hammered home that Obama and his ilk are a bunch of socialist, peacenik, anti-military, elitist liberal know-it-alls. And they’ll keep doing that throughout the hearing. Just in case any voters are listening.

Unless today’s salvos from Jeff Sessions et al. were warm-ups for a filibuster. Which the pundits concur isn’t likely to happen.

—————————————

Video from TownHall.com.

  • EllenD

    Well jbjd and I appear to be the only ones awake now.
    I think this confirmation is a foregone conclusion.
    (yawn).

  • Peggy Sue

    I’m still awake [though not for long].  No, I did not listen to the hearings today.  I usually try to run these hearings in the background while I’m working on something else.  But today, I could only concentrate on one thing, which I had to get done.  From the sounds of it I only missed a yawn session. 

    But the dueling video shots?  Now that’s funny.  And yes, I think Kagan will get confirmed and the Republicans will get to grandstand.  Not that the Dems won’t make boring speeches.  I heard a bit of John Kerry waxing eloquent on Kagan’s credentials.  Another snooze fest.

  • jbjd

    EllenD, yes, but, you didn’t think I would let you go gentle into that good night, did you? 

    There was talk that the SCOTUS’ decision today reafirming an individual right to own a gun exposed J. Sotomayor’s less than candid answers during her confirmation hearings, and made likely that questioners would want more of a guarantee that Ms. Kagan means what she says.  She claimed in her opening statements today that she would review cases with an unbiased eye.  Questioning begins tomorrow.  What do you suppose are the chances anyone will ask Ms. Kagan about whether this portends she will be impartial, at least when it comes to hearing cases argued before the bench by Professor Larry Tribe?  (I still can’t get over how many people were bamboozled by his amicus brief to the Senate when they were getting ready to pass the non-binding resolution S511 declaring JMc a NBC.  They think he said, JMc is a NBC because he was born on a military base.  Not so; he said JMc is a NBC because his parents worked on the base!  Here’s the quote, in an article whose heading gives readers the wrong impression.

    “Based on the original meaning of the Constitution, the Framers’ intentions, and subsequent legal and historical precedent, Senator McCain’s birth to parents who were U.S. citizens, serving on a U.S. military<img style=”display: inline ! important; height: 10px; width: 10px; position: relative; top: 1px; left: 1px; padding: 0pt; margin: 0pt; float: none; border: 0pt none;” src=”http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/2_bing.gif”/> base in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936, makes him a ’natural born citizen’ within the meaning of the Constitution,” the review found.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23841816/

    I know Larry Tribe; he is no Learned Hand.

  • jbjd

    <img style=”cursor: pointer; display: none;” src=”http://cdn.js-kit.com/images/icon10-external-url.png” title=”http://jbjd.wordpress.com”/>
    EllenD, yes, but, you didn’t think I would let you go gentle into that good night, did you?   
     
    There was talk that the SCOTUS’ decision today reafirming an individual right to own a gun exposed J. Sotomayor’s less than candid answers during her confirmation hearings, and made likely that questioners would want more of a guarantee that Ms. Kagan means what she says.  She claimed in her opening statements today that she would review cases with an unbiased eye.  Questioning begins tomorrow.  What do you suppose are the chances anyone will ask Ms. Kagan about whether this portends she will be impartial, at least when it comes to hearing cases argued before the bench by Professor Larry Tribe?  (I still can’t get over how many people were bamboozled by his amicus brief to the Senate when they were getting ready to pass the non-binding resolution S511 declaring JMc a NBC.  They think he said, JMc is a NBC because he was born on a military base.  Not so; he said JMc is a NBC because his parents worked on the base!  Here’s the quote, in an article whose heading gives readers the wrong impression.  
     
    “Based on the original meaning of the Constitution, the Framers’ intentions, and subsequent legal and historical precedent, Senator McCain’s birth to parents who were U.S. citizens, serving on a U.S. military base in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936, makes him a ’natural born citizen’ within the meaning of the Constitution,” the review found.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23841816/  
     
    I know Larry Tribe; he is no Learned Hand.

  • jbjd

    EllenD, yes, but, you didn’t think I would let you go gentle into that good night, did you?     
       
    There was talk that the SCOTUS’ decision today reafirming an individual right to own a gun exposed J. Sotomayor’s less than candid answers during her confirmation hearings, and made likely that questioners would want more of a guarantee that Ms. Kagan means what she says.  She claimed in her opening statements today that she would review cases with an unbiased eye.  Questioning begins tomorrow.  What do you suppose are the chances anyone will ask Ms. Kagan about whether this portends she will be impartial, at least when it comes to hearing cases argued before the bench by Professor Larry Tribe?  (I still can’t get over how many people were bamboozled by his amicus brief to the Senate when they were getting ready to pass the non-binding resolution S511 declaring JMc a NBC.  They think he said, JMc is a NBC because he was born on a military base.  Not so; he said JMc is a NBC because his parents worked on the base!  Here’s the quote, in an article whose heading gives readers the wrong impression.    
       
    “Based on the original meaning of the Constitution, the Framers’ intentions, and subsequent legal and historical precedent, Senator McCain’s birth to parents who were U.S. citizens, serving on a U.S. military base in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936, makes him a ’natural born citizen’ within the meaning of the Constitution,” the review found.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23841816/    
       
    I know Larry Tribe; he is no Learned Hand.

  • EllenD

    Thanks for your pov on that jbjd.
    But your comment:
    Sotomayor’s less than candid answers during her confirmation hearings
    gives rise to the question of whether ANYONE is candid. Right now this whole procedure is as illuminating as watching a person carefully navigating a minefield.

  • EllenD

    I’m on the Pacific so I have a reason to be up this late. But I think you two are central time?
    Good night gang. I’ve enjoyed your company.

  • jwrjr

    How can anyone trust any Obama supporter to mean what they say?

  • HARP

    Someone had better ask her if she believes, whether or not the commerce clause has limitations.

  • Michelle from the Resisitance

    I’m on the Mediterranean, just woke up to learn what I was missing while I was sleeping. Judging from Franken, not much.

  • Michelle from the Resisitance

    “If you cannot say what you mean, your majesty, you will never mean what you say and a gentleman should always mean what he says.” – from The last Emperor

  • Michelle from the Resisitance

    “If you cannot say what you mean, your majesty, you will never mean what you say and a gentleman should always mean what he says.” – The last Emperor

  • Recovered Demoholic

    Everything about this stinks — content to delivery.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBqdKKKRrrg

  • creeper

    If you were bored watching those hearings, they were going exactly according to plan.  Move along, people.  Nothing to see here.  Don’t question our nominee’s (or president’s) love of country.  Just tell your Senators to vote for confirmirmation, like good little Democrat lapdogs.

  • kenoshamarge

    Funny how language changes over time. Back in “my” day what you call Sotomayor’s “less than candid answers” during her confirmation hearings are what we old farts would call lies. Same for “spin” and “flip-flop”.

    I too believe that Kagen will be easily confirmed although the Republicans will “have” to make a bit of a fuss to placate their base.

    Feminists will be happy with the “bone” tossed to them by this administration gender-wise and a woman who will tell us as little about herself as if humanly possible will be confirmed for life to the highest court in the land.

    Supreme Court Justices are now just as corrupt as politicians. They will lie, spin and evade to attain the position they want. And unlike the hapless pols who must in time face the voters, these people have their job for life.

  • karen for Clinton

    There seems to be a whole lot of people sleeping when POTUS, VPOTUS speak as well as at hearings.   A man fell off his chair on stage in Kentucky while Biden gave a short speech at a GE factory that was given mucho stimulus dough for factory improvements. 

    GE made lots of money from their curly light bulbs for their MSNBO whoring.   Now they’re going whole hog into the energy saving appliances, and of course will continue to tout their mercury CFC bulbs.

    The powers that be scare the crap outta me these days.

  • karen for Clinton

    Recovered Demoholic,  that video is very interesting.  Naked Emperor has consistently had outstanding video releases.  They must have a crack research team.  She comes off sounding so ignorant and pathetic.  Her reasoning is ridiculous and not the least bit worthy of being considered for this highest court.  What was her point?  Was it that our laws don’t matter and won’t be enforced anyway?  Good God.

  • AbigailAdams

    jbjd:  How weird.  At about the time you were writing this I was reading “Learned Hand: The Judge’s Freedom Before the Law” (the orginal title: “How Far Is a Judge Free in Rendering a Decision?”) 

    This was in the bio on Judge Hand:  “Under his guidance the Court was one of the most respected in the country…”  

    We are in grave danger of losing the division between the congress and the judiciary.  I think it is becoming increasingly evident.  Do we have to pass more laws ensuring a complete court review of all new legislation now? 

  • ces

    I’ll be the token contrary voice and say, “Well, B43 got Alito and Roberts….”

    Partisan hacks, all, whether qualified or not. It’s just funny who any of these guys will go against their own long-held principles to settle one narrow case (even though they don’t even argue the specific case involved).

    State’s Rights!!!!…but pssst, not for the 2nd amendment… [sigh]

    /contrarian

  • karen for Clinton

    Here’s the link to Biden in Ky. They say it was the heat.  It was the heat – all that hot air coming out of Joe’s mouth:

    http://www.wave3.com/global/story.asp?s=12720647

    Here is another clip, this one on Bill and the oil spill and what he thinks of bo.  Again, read between the lines and listen carefully. 

    http://money.cnn.com/video/fortune/2010/06/27/f_gf_clinton_bp_oil.fortune/index.html

  • Sassy

    I only watched nominee Kagan’s opening statement. I concur with jbjd that the more newsworthy item was the Court’s ruling on gun ownership.
    Along that line, the NRA scored a buy-in to the House passed legislation that counters the Court’s ruling on corporate donors, which resulted in their public scolding at the State of the Union speech. Unions, the Sierra Club, and AARP are exempted from disclosure of donors, as well. Rumour has it that it will not make it through the Senate.
    I have found past confirmation hearings interesting, but now feel that the party of the president is the only relevant issue!

  • creeper

    Far too much stammering on that Clinton video. 

    I’m getting sick and tired of “reading between the lines” where Bill and Hillary are concerned.  It’s that crap that’s taken us down this miserable road, where no one even says what they mean let alone tells the truth. 

    If they can’t tell it straight up I wish they’d shut up.  This obfuscating isn’t helpful.

  • helenk

    http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0628/white-house-adviser-dozens-citizens-assassination-targets/

    Did anyone ask about the legality of this executive order?
    One thing why do it the other why talk about it?

    WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

    PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE CHATTERING PEOPLE RULE

  • karen for Clinton

    I couldn’t disagree more.  That man is a great American, he is clear and focused as always and gets right to the core of the issue.

    If big dawg called it as it is there would be chaos.  He is clearly holding the ob administration accountable as he says in the vid.  Listen to what he says about blowing it up, letting in the foreign skimmers, etc.  right on the nailhead and he should be running this debacle.  Clear as day.  And btw, what stammering?  No teleprompter, no note cards, just a focused mind speaking carefully and intelligently.

    Bush was a dolt and dangerously so, controlled by his handlers and not his own man.  Obama was just as qualified as Dubya and just as scary.    Thankfully we’ve had one man who was Presidential and oddly enough, his wife is worthy of the title too. 

  • ~~JustMe~~
  • oowawa

    The Bill Clinton video regarding the oil spill: there were a few very puzzling things about this.  First of all a big WTF?  Have the Navy blow up the well to stop the gusher?  And then pile debris on top of it?  WTF WTF WTF!?!?  He appears to distrust the relief well solution.  Does he know something we don’t?  Very puzzling.

  • FLDemFem

    I was born in Germany, and I am a Natural Born Citizen. How, you ask?? My father, an NBC, was Vice-Consul with the Embassy in Germany, and therefore employed by the government abroad, with diplomatic status, ergo, I am an NBC. By the way, Mom was an NBC too. Children born to US citizens serving abroad, either in the foreign service or military, are considered natural born citizens. This covers McCain, as well as thousands of people born abroad while their parents were serving their country.

  • Peggy Sue

    Bombing the site is on the table, oowawa.  As scary as it sounds it’s being proposed as a last ditch effort if those relief wells fail.  What makes Bill Clinton’s statements interesting is that he’s the first public official to mention it.  But if you go to The Oil Drum [populated by a lot of oil professionals and techs], they’ve been discussing it for weeks on end, the pros and cons.  The problem from what I can glean is that the oil was drilled in an unstable canyon on the ocean floor.  Some people feel that ir could work, while others suggest it could lead to the seabed collapsing.  Matt Simmons suggested the bomb solution early on and was pooh-poohed as an alarmist.  There have been other articles floating around at Oilprice.com and elsewhere.

    But this thing is catastrophic and we are not being told the truth. Add all the toxic dispersants that BP has spread all over everything, the methane connection that could blow and there’s a reason I’m not sleeping well right now.

    But Bill Clinton let the cat out of the bag.  If efforts fail, they’ll use a damn bomb.

  • FLDemFem

    Looks like “lip service” to me. Bill said he would support Obama, and he is. He is saying what they ask him to say, but in a way that makes it rather iffy. Lip service, done by a pro. I don’t think Bill will be able to keep silence on this much longer. I think he is sickened by the systematic destruction of the southern coasts. And I think he is near the limit of his self-control on the support Obama promise, too. He won’t do or say anything that may compromise Hillary’s ability to do her job as SOS.  Hillary should be resigning soon, and then the tides will break. God help Obama when they do, because no one else will be stepping up to help him. 

  • FLDemFem

    I was wondering one thing about the newest SCOTUS ruling..does it apply to the hunting regulations for each state as well? They restrict the types of guns allowed for various game. So now can people go hunting in the state and national parks with AK-47s?? That would be an interesting test case for the law, don’t you think?

  • Onofre’s arm

    More specifically, ask her If she believes it was the intent of the Founders for the commerce clause to be a pathway for the Federal government to seize control of 1/6 of the private market.

  • Onofre’s arm

    More specifically, ask her If she believes it was the intent of the Founders that the commerce clause could be used as an excuse for the Federal government to seize control of 1/6 of the private market.

  • Peggy Sue

    I cannot imagine Bill Clinton sitting still for what’s going on in the Gulf.  I also heard him speak to the financial situation and give a very clear and succinct explantion of what we could be doing to increase jobs. And he said quite distinctly our financial system is broken.  He’s worried that severe austerity programs will crush the most vulnerable–the unemployed and those who will become unemployed. 

    As always, he sounded presidential.  I find it amusing that they’re trotting Bill Clinton out whenever a tough how-to explanation is needed.  Clinton’s gift was always his ability to take complex issues and make them understandable to the public.  Whereas the present Administration speaks gobbelty-gook. 

  • ~~JustMe~~

    On Day 2 of hearings, Kagan employs artful dodge
    WASHINGTON – It didn’t take long.

    Twelve minutes into Day 2 of Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearing for a
    seat on the Supreme Court, she found herself trying to explain away her own words.

    Kagan knew that questions about her 1995 article on Supreme Court confirmation hearings were coming, and she was ready.

  • Onofre’s arm

    I’ve always been amazed by Bill’s ability to talk out of his ass, and this is another perfect example. What’s even more amazing is the strength of the Clinton Kool-aid that gives it’s chuggers the ability to translate that ass talk into an oracular masterpiece.

    Blow up the well? That’s about the same as fixing a small leak in a tire by blowing a bigger hole in it. Ever see the DPW try to fix a leaking water main by piling a bunch of shit on top of it. HA HA HA HA HA!!! What a fucking idiot!

    An explosive charge anywhere along the well casing would only fracture the rock and create thousands of new but smaller pathways for the pressurized petroleum to follow. Instead of having a single, well defined pipe restricting the flow to single point that preserves  the possibility that it MIGHT be capped, or make it easier to collect the flow, the same amount of oil would be emerging from thousands of cracks and fissures (the way it does naturally in Seeps) and THEN we’ll either have to live with years of steady oil leaks, or tap into the reservoir with new wells and drain it dry as quickly as possible.

    For anyone who finds anything remotely intelligent in what seems to be Clinton’s latest stand-up routine in the above interview, I hope life is comfortable for you on the lowest rungs of the evolutionary ladder. 

  • Peggy Sue

    Lower rungs of the evolutionary scale?  Speak for yourself, Onofre.  Your ignorance is stunning.

  • honestlawyermostly

    OA– I don’t understand the concept of blowing up the well.  In order for something like that to work, it seems to me that the explosion would have to melt the rock around and over the well into something like lava and then there would need to be sufficient force holding the “lava” in place until it solidifies.  Is this what the bomb proponents are saying will happen?   

  • Onofre’s arm

    Ooooo ouch PS, how shall I ever recover from such a crippling slam down.  :-D

  • oowawa

    HLM–Here’s a video I posted some time ago that supposedly shows the Russians sealing off a gas leak with an A-Bomb.  Is it genuine?  I don’t know.  Clinton specified a non-nuclear possibility.  I’m clueless.  Is Bill?  Maybe.  Vlad is probably very amused by all this.

  • ces

    From what I’ve read, that’s the problem….their “ruling” wasn’t very clear. A lot of this, while sounding like a ‘victory’ for guns’ rights, just gets kicked down to the lower courts.

    So, who knows?!?  [shrug]

  • honestlawyermostly

    Thanks for the video oowawa.  I had not seen it.  Assuming it is genuine, imagine doing that at 5000 feet.  There’s hardly anything that could go wrong.  I keep looking at the glass on my desk and it’s looking more and more like it is half-empty.

  • Onofre’s arm

    HLM, What you described, a high heat explosion (like an A-bomb) that would fuse the rock, would only work with the right type of rock, and it would have to be very deep. 

    In the Russian clip that oowawa provided, if I understand it correctly, the A-bomb isn’t detonated right at the well, but away from it so that the explosion doesn’t sever the well but pinches it and chokes it off. And yes, the high heat may have fused the rock nearer the explosion more than simply fracturing it. 

    There are interesting glass like formations called Fulgurites that are made when lightning hits the ground and fuses the soil almost instantly into tubes, at temperatures over 3,000 ‘F. It’s the silica (quartz sand) that melts to form the “glass”. Unfortunately, sandstone and fractured limestone are usually the formations that hold the petroleum, and the cap formations that hold the oil in place are usually shales that are formed from clay minerals and organics, and I’m not sure how well shale would fuse at high temperatures, it might just fracture more than fuse. Quite often in the Gulf, the cap formation is Halite (salt) since it is impermeable and isn’t dissolved by oil (we use salt formations to store petroleum for this reason) and the melting point of salt is only 1473 ‘F, so it might be easier to fuse a salt formation. I wish BP would publish the details of the actual geology they drilled through at this well, but such information is usually a closely held secret for obvious reasons.

  • jbjd

    FDF, JMc was only made a U.S. citizen by law, retroactively. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/us/politics/11mccain.html?_r=1

    Thus, by definition, he cannot be said to have been “natural” born. 

    The laws regarding citizen are fact-specific.  One size does not fit all.

  • Onofre’s arm

    She claimed she is not sure how she would characterize her politics. Yeah……….right………she doesn’t know what her politics are. I guess she just hasn’t given it much thought, even while being immersed in the political world for years. Politics? Duh………What’s that?

    She knows damn well what her politics are, but it’s still not generally acceptable to admit that you’re a Marxist in this country. But she and the rest of the progressives are sure as hell working their asses of to change that.

  • karen for Clinton

    Agree with most of what you said, Peggy Sue. 

    I’ve been for blowing it siince the start of this whole mess.   Other countries have done it with success and have offered their expertise.

    BP has lied since the start. 

    I put my trust in Bill.  He is certainly much smarter than any of the posters here and unlike them he doesn’t get his information by pulling it from a hat.

  • KC

    Yep, I think Bill’s statement is the first step in leading us down the road to understanding that this disaster is an absolute catastrophe, perhaps an extinction-level event. We’ll probably hear other higher-ups also begin to drop hints at how bad it is. (And didn’t Obama claim in his speech that the oil would be 90% contained by about now????)