Tag Archives: culture

Blue about Blue Slips?

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For a long time—nearly a century, according to Senator Dianne Feinstein (D, CA)—the Senate had a tradition (not a rule) that Senators from the home State of a judicial nominee had to approve that nominee—send forward a “blue slip” before that nominee could be considered, or even sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The administration of President Donald Trump has tended to disregard that tradition.  In fact, he’s sent seven—according to Feinstein, again—appellate court nominees to the Senate over “the objection of home-state Democrats” and—the horror—gotten them confirmed, including a number to the California-based 9th Circuit.

Feinstein’s latest peeve concerns Ken Lee and Dan Collins, whom Trump has nominated—to the 9th Circuit.  Both Feinstein and her California colleague, Senator Kamala Harris (D) withheld their blue slips for both of these two judges.

Feinstein is pretending to object on the basis of tradition, which itself cynically holds tradition to be inviolate, no matter the circumstances.

Democratic senators have made and continue to make good faith efforts to find consensus picks for the circuit courts.
As Senator Harris and I have made clear, we’ve been willing to work from the start with this president to choose consensus, mainstream nominees to the 9th Circuit….

Except that they have not. These two nominees, along with the other Trump nominees—and confirmations, including to the 9th—are textualists: they hold that the Constitution (and laws) mean what they say; they are not open to reinterpretation according to a judge’s view of the “needs” of society.  It doesn’t get any more mainstream than that. Indeed, any lack of consensus just shows how out of touch with our supreme Law, how out of the mainstream, modern Liberal judges are.

But the fact is, Feinstein and her fellows are not objecting on the basis of tradition.  They’re objecting on the basis of the loss of their ability to dictate who they will permit to be nominated, their ability to avoid open debate on the fitness of a nominee.

We’ve seen, too, the quality of the “faith” with which Feinstein and her fellows have been willing to work from the start with this president on judicial nominees.  These Progressive-Democrats made that clear with their smear campaign on then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The blue slip policy is a tradition the Progressive-Democrats have badly abused to the point of its partisan destruction.

Yet Another Veterans Administration Failure

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Here is another failure of the VA to take care of our veterans as they are charged to do, and as the VA’s motto promises they’ll do.  Here is another casual dishonor of that promise [emphasis added].

More than 1,000 Department of Veterans Affairs patients in Kansas didn’t get proper follow-up care after initial colonoscopies last year, a problem that was addressed only after a whistleblower repeatedly reported it, according to a government watchdog.
The watchdog found patients didn’t get follow-up screenings on time and when they did, often didn’t get the results in a timely manner because of [a string of excuses].

Here’s that motto which the VA has so routinely dishonored:

To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan

After all this time, and with VA failure rate continuing unabated, it’s time to get off the dime and get rid of the VA altogether.  As I’ve said many times, commit this Failure Administration’s current and putative future budgets to vouchers for our veterans so they can get the care they need and want from the doctors they choose, the clinics they choose, the hospitals they choose.  It’s time to unshackle our veterans from the VA’s determined resistance to perform.

 

Veteranos Administratio delende est.

Progressive-Democrat Disingenuousness

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The manufactured anxiety of many Progressive-Democrats and their support entities over release of the Mueller report is breathtaking.

Senator and Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I, VT) wants

the whole damn report.

Senator and Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren (D, MA)”

The American people deserve to see the full report.

Senator and Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar (D, MN):

Today, like everyone else, I want to see that Mueller report.  It’s time to make the entire report public. That’s justice.

Senator and Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Kamala Harris:

…a short letter from Trump’s hand-picked Attorney General is not sufficient.”  The American public deserves transparency and accountability and the Mueller report must be made public for a full accounting of what happened….

Congressmen and Committee Chairs of six House Committees, Jerry Nadler, Adam Schiff, Elijah Cummings, Maxine Waters, Richard Neal, and Eliot Engel wrote a letter to AG William Barr demanding release of the report “within a week.”

Senator Patrick Leahy (D, VT):

The next step: the full release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, with its underlying evidence, and with only limited redactions for truly classified material. Not a summary.

Congressman Peter Welch (D, VT):

The American people have a right to know what’s in his report.  If the Attorney General refuses to make it public, Congress should demand its immediate release and subpoena it if he refuses.

Public Citizen:

[Nine] in 10 Americans believe the complete Mueller report should be public…. The demand is vocal, obvious, and must be met.

What these folks are carefully ignoring as they emphasize their hysteria is that Barr has already, and repeatedly, promised as complete a release as the law and DoJ regulations allow and as quickly as possible.

This disingenuous personally aggrandizing worry should be kept in mind during the campaign season.

Risks

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Or, perhaps, threats.

Take careful note of this tweet from Matthew Brennan.  Not only does this system know who Brennan is without any input from him (this time).  It knows where he is and where he’s going.

Imagine that identification and tracking ability in the hands of Government.  The government in the tweet is the PRC’s, but that’s not the only government spreading surveillance systems around the nation like butter on warm toast.

 

H/t to ralf.

On Whose Side Are They?

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We’re about to find out.  Do Progressive-Democratic Party primary candidates for President support Israel and the United States’ support for Israel, or do they think their base is more important?

Progressive advocacy group MoveOn.org is urging 2020 presidential candidates to skip a pro-Israel lobby group’s conference in Washington next week.
The three-day conference will be headlined by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Vice President Mike Pence (R), Senate [Minority] Leader Chuck Schumer (D), Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D).

MoveOn says that the vast majority of its membership insist that

any progressive vying to be the Democratic nominee for President should skip the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) conference.

If Progressive-Democratic Party candidates choose to stand with MoveOn during this primary season, what will the primary winner say to the American people whose votes he wants—and who do support Israel and our nation’s relationship with Israel?

If he claims support for Israel after standing with MoveOn’s demanded boycott, how will any American voter believe him—the bulk of us who will hear him change away from his primary campaign position, and that base who will hear him betray them?

Here are the Progressive-Democrats who’ve already shown their backs to Israel, declining AIPAC invitations:

  • Senator Bernie Sanders I, VT)
  • Senator Kamala Harris (D, CA)
  • Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, MA)
  • Ex-Congressman Robert Frances O’Rourke (D, TX)
  • Ex-Obama HUD Julian Castro (D)
  • South Bend, IN, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D)
  • Congressman John Delaney (D, MD)