El Novakio on Schumer's sad efforts to nail Roberts and the shear lack of basic understanding of the nature of the judiciary by the Dems:
Both Biden and Schumer would have turned judicial nominees into political candidates, who would then gain overwhelming support for confirmation by endorsing a liberal laundry list. Roberts responded to Biden that judges "decide cases according to the judicial process, not on the basis of promises made earlier to get elected or promises made earlier to get confirmed."
Roberts has won the argument. Law writer Stuart Taylor Jr., in an Aug. 1 Legal Times article, indicated he had changed his mind and now felt that if Democrats "ever succeed in forcing nominees to detail their views, it will not only corrupt the integrity and independence of new justices. It will also, perhaps, open the way for presidents to pack the court with people who have virtually pledged their votes on a long list of issues." Taylor cited the position by Laurence Silberman, a senior judge on the District of Columbia Circuit Court, that every case must be tried on its merits and weighed against the Constitution rather than decided on broad considerations of social philosophy. That is precisely the standard put forth repeatedly by Roberts.
I'm back................
Go Chuckie Go Chuckie, its your birthday, its your birthday:
For the next decade, whenever there is a terrorist attack anywhere in the world, there will be those blaming it on America: if only America had not been distracted from the war on terrorism by the war in Iraq, if only America had not stirred Muslim resentment and increased al-Qaeda recruitment by invading Iraq.
Nonsense. The "distraction" argument is the most obvious nonsense. What exactly is the U.S. not doing in the war on terrorism that it would be doing if it weren't in Iraq? We are supporting a fiercely antiterrorist democratic government in Afghanistan, hunting al-Qaeda in the impossible terrain on the Pakistani frontier, coordinating with just about every secret service in the world to disrupt terrorist communications, movement and funding. What is it about Iraq that "distracts"?
As for the recruitment claim, when was the seminal period of al-Qaeda recruitment--indeed, the period during which it created its entire worldwide infrastructure? The 1990s. No invasion of Iraq. No invasion of Afghanistan. The Clinton years saw the most open, accommodating, apologetic U.S. foreign policy since World War II. In fact, the 1990s was the decade of Muslim rescue: the U.S. intervened militarily, and decisively, to save three Muslim peoples--the Bosnians, the Kosovars and the Kuwaitis--from conquest and catastrophe. Yet it was precisely during that era of good feeling that al-Qaeda not only recruited for but also conceived, planned and set in motion the worst massacre of Americans in history. So much for the connection between American perfidy and anti-American terrorism.
Al-Qaeda always invents some excuse, some historical injury to justify its barbarism. Today Iraq, yesterday Palestine and, when all else fails, Andalusia, a bin Laden staple that refers to the Muslim loss of Spain to Ferdinand and Isabella (in 1492!). Various casus belli are served up as conditions change. Only the gullible and the appeasers buy them. Now we're told that the Iraq invasion has increased al-Qaeda recruiting.
From the Times (UK):
According to witnesses, Van Gogh begged for mercy and tried to reason with his assailant. “Surely we can discuss this,” he kept saying as the shots kept coming. “Let us talk it over.”
Van Gogh, who had angered Islamists with his documentary about the mistreatment of women in Islam, was reacting like BBC reporters did yesterday, assuming that the man who was killing him may have some reasonable demands which could be discussed in a calm, democratic atmosphere.
But sorry, old chaps, you are dealing with an enemy that does not want anything specific, and cannot be talked back into reason through anger management or round-table discussions. Or, rather, this enemy does want something specific: to take full control of your lives, dictate every single move you make round the clock and, if you dare resist, he will feel it his divine duty to kill you.