Politically, there is no question - Bush must nominate a female to replace  Sandra Day O'Connor.  She was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, and if she is not replaced by another female, it will clearly been seen as a step backwards.  Moreover, with the Chief Justice set to step down, Bush will almost certainly want to fill that position with a conservtive male.  This will leave him with relatively little wiggle room on a replacement for O'Connor.

Links:  http://althouse.blogspot.com/2005/06/if-justice-oconnor-retires-must-her.html

Novak has the story on Gonzales

Have others on this board noticed the increasingly hostile news and policy talk directed toward Syria?  It strikes me that this is the kind of lead-up that could result in a US invasion of that country.  

Immediately after invading Iraq, one began to hear outcries about members of Saddam's government escaping to Syria or the supposed spiriting of WMD to Syria so that they would not be found in Iraq.  Rapid initial speculation about a Syrian invasion in 2003 were denied by the administration.

Following the assasination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February and the more recent killing of the anti-Syrian journalist, Samir Kassir, the drumbeat against Syria is getting louder.

Philip Cooney was chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.  His sudden resignation on a Friday evening could be a turning point for official policy on greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.  Cooney, a former energy industry lobbyist with no scientific background, is being fingered as the person who edited scientific reports on global warming to minimize the environmental and economic consequences.

Lynn Sweet has done a great background piece on the pivitol role played by role played by Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (R-Ill.) in bringing the Castle-DeGette House bill to allow more federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Kirk is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a moderate advocacy group that is trying to pass a narrowly written law to allow couples to donate surplus embryos stored in fertility clinics to federally funded stem cell researchers.

Bush has vowed to make this his first veto if it ever reaches his desk. Although the Castle-DeGette bill has about 200 co-sponsors, only about two dozen are Republicans.

Senator Herb Kohl is a Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary committee.  I wrote to him to express my concern over possible use of the nuclear option to block debate on judicial appointments.

The key sentence seems to be, I will not support an attempt to drastically alter the rules of the Senate in a way that would suppress the long-standing right of the minority party to effectively act for the states they represent.

His full response follows in the extended entry:

The stock market took off last week in response to a report by the Labor Department that nonfarm payrolls grew by 274,000 in April.  This was a full 100,000 more jobs than the Wall Street consensus expectation.

It is perhaps no surprise that this report was greeted with great enthusiasm because the market has been struggling to regain an upward trend since January.  Increasing jobs numbers reflect new hiring by business and the possibility of stronger economic growth.

The question is, are these latest figures for real or are they a fluke?  Worse yet, could they have been the product of some statistical tampering?

There is no question that intelligent design exists.  Certainly forms have been created in the image of their designer.  They have two arms, a head, five fingers and are capable of hiaghly sophisticated actions.

NASA has created robots in the image of humans.

We have heard much from the Republicans lately concerning "the will of the majority" in their efforts to destroy a Senate rule that has stood for more than 200 years.  Republicans claim that they want to exercise the will of the majority by overthrowing Rule 22 of the Senate, which requires a three-fifths vote for cloture (and which not incidentally requires a two-thirds vote to change the rule).

The fact is, however, that the 55 Senate Republicans represent only 143,087,382 Americans or roughly 49.3% of the US population whereas the 44 Democrats represent 146,849,457 Americans or roughly 50.6% of the US population.

This week, Ward Churchill spoke at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater despite a tide of protest stemming from his characterization of the victims in the 9/11/2001 World Trade Center attack as "little Eichmanns".

A record of his speech is available. This evening WYOU, the public access channel in Madison Wisconsin rebroadcast a tape of his March 1 lecture in Whitewater.

While one might or might not agree with his intellectual and moral positions, one can not say that he has not thought carefully and thoroughly about the issues of American opression of domestic and foreign peoples.

The recent murder of the husband and mother of Federal judge Joan Lefkow has revealed an exceedingly ugly side to right-wing hate groups. Stories in the New York Times, the CultNews.com, the Chicago Tribune, and NBC News paint a picture of a loving family that has been stalked and murdered by a network of viscious criminals and racists that extends all over the globe and who are particularly active here in America.  

Somehow they never fail to disappoint.  When right-wing bigots do not get their way, they resort to violence and murder.  the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building by Timothy McVeigh is perhaps the most conspicuous example, but the recent murder of the husband and mother of Federal judge Joan Lefkow certainly falls in this category.

We do not yet know whether these murders are related to previous death threats by right wing white supremacist Matthew Hale,  but photos of Judge Lefkow's family posted on the Stormfront.org white pride website are certainly suspicious

This evening, as on most recent Tuesdays, I watched Frontline.  The program this evening was entitled "A Company of Soldiers".  If you did not have a chance to see it, you should try to watch in a re-run - or check out the website.  Of all the Frontline programs I have seen, this was one of the best.

It was also one of the most disturbing.  I respect the difficult job that our military has been asked to perform in Iraq, but I really wonder whether we are gaining any support by blowing up buildings, shooting civilians and killing dogs.

It is interesting that on every previous occasion that Secretary Rumsfeld has chosen to address the press, he has spoken spontaneously.  He is so confident of himself, that he always gets out there in front of reporters and spews all that tripe - asking rhetorical questions that he immediately answers- dodging the tough issues with platitudes.

Today, when he had to offer condolences to the relatives, he actually read his statement. It was clear that he had been rehearsed and instructed to sound contrite. What crap.

I really can't stand the arrogance of this man.., Our country would be a lot better off if he had never become involved in government.

Social Security is fiscally sound over the next few decades, but a large majority of Americans under age 50 doubt that they will realize meaningful benefits from the system.  

To make matters worse, Americans are not saving enough on their own to provide for the retirement lifestyle they expect.

Bush's plan, which will borrow trillions of dollars to privatize Social Security, will almost certainly require cuts in Social Security System benefits down the line, but he refuses to consider new taxes to pay for the changes he has proposed.

There is a potential compromise position.  Rather than divert funds from Social Security taxes, require employees and employers to pay 2% and 1% respectively of salaries into personal retirement investment accounts.

So have you heard the latest in the "tax reform" news from the White House?  They want to eliminate the Federal deduction for state income taxes.  Just by chance this happens to hit the blue states the hardest.  You know, all those "tax the rich" liberals in Boston, New York, Chicago and San Francisco who believe in a role for government in establishing social priorities...

They must figure that is the only way they can get the states to reduce marginal income tax rates. If they make it really painful, they might be able to force us all into a regressive tax system like Alabama where they depend on sales taxes to run the school system.

For anyone who has not yet tested the Firefox browser, you are in for a pleasant surprise.  The single best feature is its automatic blocking of pop-up ads.  If this does not seem like much you must think you have been inured to the innundation of the American Ad Council.

Without really causing you to understand why, using the Firefox browser imbues a sense of tranquility, relative peace and quietude.

So are you ready to move on beyond Mr. Softee's Explorer?

This country needs more competition in the lower house of Congress.  The founders set their term of office at two years with the intention of having House Congressional representatives constantly defend their seats.  It also gave special powers to the House.  It is the only body that can initiate legislation to tax or spend money.  The Founders assumed that with rapid turnover, this legislative body would always reflect the current mood of the electorate.  

With redistricting in recent years, incumbent seats in the House of Representatives are virtually unassailable.  Districts are drawn to allow incumbents to be re-elected easily.  Corporations and wealthy individuals know that incumbents won't be removed, so they attract much higher levels of campaign contributions.

What we need is a new system that will assure competition in the House of Representatives.

The following entry is part of an email that I received this morning from a colleague who lives in Liviv in the western Ukraine.  Their situation is clearly uncertain and possibly dangerous.  We can only hope that the Bush administration takes appropriate steps to assure the safety of the opposition party and its supporters.  I have resisted the temptation to edit.