More of a lateral move, considering she has never held a judgeship (is that a word?).

As much as I like the idea of Hillary meeting Scalia and Thomas head-on, I would much rather see someone like Bruce Fein who seems to actually get the Constitution. While I know little of Fein beyond the position he publicly took recently, Clinton has no special knowledge of Constitutional law that would qualify her for SCOTUS.

Of Course, neither do Scalia, Thomas, or Roberts, for that matter...

Posted at June 27, 2008 1:10 PM in response to Hillary Belongs in the Cabinet

Gee, I don't know - maybe we could just get the insurance companies out of the health care business? Insurance companies take, what, 30% or so off the top of every stinkin' dollar spent on health care. The dollar is weak enough as it is, but when you get only 70% of the value you pay for, it's no wonder the system is broken.

Market-based solutions such as conservatives like to advocate for only work when you have a true market. But when my daughter broke her arm, we didn't shop around. We didn't call the various urgent-care centers and get quotes. We didn't get on the Internet and visit William Shatner's favorite orthopaedics bargain website. There is no free market in essential health care services.

It is therefore entirely in the realm of government to regulate what is essentially a public good to ensure adequate, affordable, accessible health care for all citizens. When the American people finally comprehend this and demand that their representatives serve the people instead of the insurance industry we will begin to attain the quality of health care our skilled practitioners and technology can provide.

Posted at June 26, 2008 7:43 PM in response to Hillary Belongs in the Cabinet

Exactly. The people of NY elected her to the Senate. They should have their Senator.

Besides, health care in our country doesn't need some executive branch regulatory band-aid fix; it needs a legislative solution. And if Hillary is so all-fired-up to fix our health care system, she needs to be in the Senate to do so.

Posted at June 26, 2008 7:28 PM in response to Hillary Belongs in the Cabinet

More and more I'm convinced that most people are ignorant of our civic structure. They don't understand the importance of the Constitution, or they confuse it with the Delaration of Independence. They don't understand what habeas corpus means, let alone that it predates our nation by several centuries. Most Americans seem to think it's a CSI sort of thing - if you don't habeas a corpus you don't have evidence of a crime...

Posted at June 21, 2008 6:06 PM in response to Why Obama's Support For FISA Cave-In Is Such A Downer

I'll direct you to another issue, as documented in the book Energy Victory by Robert Zubrin.

While Zubrin really goes off on Islamic fundamentalism, his main point is this: by shifting from a petroleum based vehicle fuels infrastructure to an alcohol-based vehicle fuels infrastructure we can introduce true market forces back into the transportable energy industry.

It would take legislation that requires all new gasoline-engined vehicles sold in the US to be flex-fuel compatible: capable of running on any blend of gasoline and alcohol. Please note that he's not just talking about ethanol, but also methanol, which he says is much more easily produced from non-food crops with less energy input. BTW, energy-in/energy-out studies blithely tend to ignore similar analysis of gasoline, as Zubrin points out, and fail to include the energy required to run our massive import protection force (the military) without which we couldn't get oil for refinement to this country.

By moving to alcohol as a vehicle fuel Zubrin contends we would open up new markets for countries whose export capacity is restricted to agriculture products, and that are capable of producing a surplus of non-food feed stock. By allowing methanol in the mix we diminish the displacement of food feedstock into fuel production as some argue is happening now with corn for ethanol. Most important, we reduce the capacity of the oil-producing nations to hold our economy hostage and turn our dollars against us as economic weapons.

For more details see www.energyvictory.net (I'd insert the link but I'm not sure how to do so). Just paste the URL into your browser.

Posted at June 18, 2008 12:31 AM in response to New Technologies for Our Energy Future

... or should we start posting recipes? I know a good one for pizza with faces of popes on it.

Posted at June 14, 2008 7:07 PM in response to Facile-i-tatrix: Facilitate This

... or should we start posting recipes?

Posted at June 14, 2008 7:06 PM in response to Facile-i-tatrix: Facilitate This

It is essential for the success of a Deomcratic presidency that all re-electable Democratic US Senators keep their seats in Congress and not be pulled for Cabinet duty.

As much as I feel sometimes that gridlocked government is the safest kind, there are so many important issues facing the next president that a filibuster-proof Dem majority in the Senate is crucial.

Posted at June 14, 2008 4:45 PM in response to Read Joe Biden's "Promises to Keep" - Detailed Post

Indiex, you have a potty mouth. Go sit in a corner for a while. You can come out when you can say, "I'm sorry and it won't happen again."

Abraham speaks hyperbole for emphasis - I understand. A more diplomatic argument would state that Hillary is such a divisive figure in American politics that, at a time when healing and moving forward is crucial, it is imperative for Hillary to continue being what she is doing well - representing the people of the state of NY in the US Senate - and nothing more.

Posted at June 14, 2008 4:06 PM in response to Kathleen Sebelius: My Guilty Reasoning

My "exactly" was echoing Purple State, BTW.

Posted at June 14, 2008 3:38 PM in response to Supreme Court v. Bush