As Expected: Kagan Refuses To Recuse Herself From Deciding, as a Judge, On the Constitutionality of ObamaCare That She Advocated For as an Administrative Official
— Ace

Ethics don't apply when you're waging truth.

nder federal law (28 U.S.C., 455(b)(3)), judges who have served in government must recuse themselves when they have “participated as counsel, adviser or material witness concerning the proceeding or expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy.”

A federal judge is required by law to recuse himself “in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

“This has been interpreted to mean that the mere public expression of a legal opinion isn’t disqualifying. But this is no routine case,” the Journal said in July. “Kagan should not undermine public confidence in her fair-mindedness by sitting in judgment on such a controversial case that began when she was a senior government legal official.”

Posted by: Ace at 08:09 AM | Comments (166)
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Ted Rall Calls for Armed Revolution; MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Offers His Endorsement of the Idea
— Ace

I don't want to ever hear a goddamn thing from the left about the supposed tendency to violent solutions on the right.

Not a goddamn thing. Ratigan should be fired immediately.

Here's an excerpt from Rall's book that Ratigan is pimping:

A war is coming. At stake: our lives, the planet, freedom, living. The government, the corporations, and the extreme right are prepared to coalesce into an Axis of Evil. Are you going to fight back? Will you do whatever it takes, including taking up arms?Â…

More at the link. Verum Serum asks:

Ironically, it was only about a month ago that Sharon Angle was excoriated by several MSNBC talking heads for making a reference to “2nd amendment remedies.” Is Chris Matthews going to call out Ted Rall and/or Dylan Ratigan for letting him promote this? Rachel Maddow wanted to know if Angle’s language was finally too extreme. Well is it still extreme when it’s coming from the far left over your own TV channel, Rachel? If so, maybe you should poke your head down the hall and say something

Nickels and Dimes! Less dangerous hypocrisy at MSNBC via Hot Air, where Johnny Dollar has mashed up Rachel Maddow's claims that MSNBC isn't a political operation fundraising for candidates versus reality.

Posted by: Ace at 07:45 AM | Comments (259)
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Beinhart's Revisionism
— Geoff

We've become accustomed to the President seizing credit for the policies of his predecessor, while simultaneously blaming his predecessor for all the ills we currently face. Today Peter Beinhart takes a page out of President Obama's book, revising history and trying to paint the President as some sort of tough foreign policy guy.

Here's the lede:

Peter Beinart on why Obama's cozying up to China's rivals this week—and how his policy is more hawkish than Bush's.

Obama more hawkish than Bush? Sounds a little unlikely, doesn't it? So let's check out his supporting evidence.

Beinhard Sez	Reality
Obama conducted joint naval exercises Vietnam	Bush conducted joint exercises with Japan, India, South Korea, the Phillipines and created the Proliferation Security Initiative (hated by China)
Obama is negotiating a nuclear deal with Vietnam	Bush negotiated a nuclear deal with India
Obama is drawing closer to Indonesia	Bush began the push to restore bilateral military ties with Indonesia
Obama "has been more aggressive than the Bush administration in selling arms to Taiwan"	The Taiwan arms deal was initiated, negotiated, and signed by Bush. In fact Obama held back the F-16s that were supposed to be part of the deal, and the deal itself is being held up until 2011 by the administration.
"Hillary Clinton ambushed the Chinese by rallying 12 countries to protest its territorial incursions"	...and that did what, exactly?
"now Obama is visiting India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan, the four Asian countries most crucial to its effort at balancing Chinese power"	Obama is continuing Bush's efforts in all four countries

It is pleasing to see the Secretary of State pushing the Chinese a bit, but thus far it's only been a bit. And it's nice to the President starting to note the importance of challenging Chinese consolidation of Asia. But he's lost two years already, and for every ASEAN meeting where we promote US interests, there are several SCO meetings where China continues to wrap its arms around Asia.

China may not be as substantial a threat as it appears to be, but there's no question as to threat it wants to become. Bush realized it belatedly, assuming at the start that economic interests would outweigh geopolitical ambitions. Obama failed to learn from Bush's lesson, even though the signs were much more obvious by the time he assumed office.

So was Obama really "more hawkish" than Bush? Not at all. Obama has been hawkish for Obama, but for Bush, this was routine. Protecting American interests, forestalling emerging threats, forging alliances - it's all in the job description.

I'm genuinely and pleasantly surprised to see Obama be as 'aggressive' as he is. I didn't think he had it in him. But I hardly think that continuing your predecessor's policies promotes you to a 'more hawkish' status.

Meh - it was a stupid point anyway - the question is not who is more hawkish, but whether this foreign policy approach will succeed. To my mind, it's too little, too late. But I had already ceded that battle by the end of the Bush administration.

Now it's just a question of how long it will take China to absorb Taiwan and boot us out of Asia. At our current rate, I'm giving those 5 and 10 years, respectively. And after that things will get really ugly.

Posted by: Geoff at 07:09 AM | Comments (68)
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Week 9 Moron Pick Results
— Dave in Texas

Well the Bengals almost made a game of it last night, didn't they?

Here's this week's round up, via Ben and CDR M. The only way I moved up was Gabriel forgot to put his picks in.

Quarreyman: 74
Bruin22: 73
Reggie Bush's Birth Cert: 72
joltin' j: 72
Portnoy: 71
ConservativeintheCity: 71
Bush League: 70
Khatmandu Yaks: 70

Notables:
Ben:63
DrewM: 62
CDR M: 60
Russ from Winterset: 59
DiT: 57
Gabe Malor: 49

57 is pretty bad, but it could be worse I suppose.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:09 AM | Comments (33)
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Financial Briefing: A funny thing happened on the way to the bankruptcy hearing
— Monty

The barbaric yellow metal is now trading above $1400/oz. Near a peak? In a bubble? Who knows? Given the recent news, I doubt it. I have a feeling that gold has quite a bit of room to run yet.

You want some scary chart-fu? Here's some scary chart-fu for you.

Yes, Virginia, States can indeed go bankrupt. They won't call it that, of course, but simply reciting a law that says a State can't go bankrupt doesn't magically dispel the problem. The big question is whether Uncle Sugar will allow a big state to feel the inevitable effects of insolvency: beginning with bond-debt default. Any solution (beyond the obvious one of forcing the insolvent states to liquidate their assets, discharge their debts and obligations via the courts, and restructure) is likely to be ugly and satisfying to absolutely no one.

more...

Posted by: Monty at 03:18 AM | Comments (142)
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Top Headline Comments 11-9-10
— Gabriel Malor

Hello, World.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:56 AM | Comments (79)
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Overnight Open Thread
— Maetenloch

Directly Downwind Faster Than the Wind: Updated

A while back I covered the debate over whether a wind-powered vehicle could travel directly downwind faster than the wind itself. Intuitively it seems wrong yet sometimes your intuition will fool you. And this is one of those times.

So this past July a group of "DDWFTTW" (Directly Downwind Faster Than The Wind) enthusiasts built a wind-powered cart and raced it in the Mojave desert in front of representatives of the North American Land Sailing Association (NALSA). And they were able to achieve a speed of at least 50mph while going downwind in a 20mph wind and this was duly recognized by the NALSA authorities.

I've actually met Rick Cavallaro through business and he's a very sharp engineer. So if if Rick claims he's achieved DDWFTTW and NALSA has certified it, then I think the DDWFTTW question has finally been answered affirmatively.

Here's some video of their test run last July:

more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:38 PM | Comments (812)
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WSJ Reporter Sudeep Reddy: "This Palin woman has her facts wrong".....Sarah Palin: "I got them from YOUR newspaper"
— Russ from Winterset

Epic pwnage or just some hero worship from all the "snowbilly princess" groupies? I'm going with pwnage.

Step 1: Excerpts from an upcoming speech from Sarah Palin to a trade group are printed at NRO.

Step 2: Sudeep Reddy, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, criticizes Ms. Palin's remarks about inflationary pressures on consumers. Takeaway line: "Grocery prices haven't risen all that significantly, in fact."

Step 3: The inevitable Facebook post from Ms. Palin discusses the sourcing of her assertion:

Mr. Reddy takes aim at this. He writes: “Grocery prices haven’t risen all that significantly, in fact.” Really? That’s odd, because just last Thursday, November 4, I read an article in Mr. Reddy’s own Wall Street Journal titled “Food Sellers Grit Teeth, Raise Prices: Packagers and Supermarkets Pressured to Pass Along Rising Costs, Even as Consumers Pinch Pennies.”

The article noted that “an inflationary tide is beginning to ripple through America's supermarkets and restaurants…Prices of staples including milk, beef, coffee, cocoa and sugar have risen sharply in recent months.”

4. Step 4: Oh SNAP! It is ON!

Well, the Wall Street Journal IS a pretty big newspaper. You can't expect a person to read EVERY article they've published in the last week or so..........unless that person is a Wall Street Journal Reporter. (EDIT - sentence corrected thanks to the keen eyes of logprof in the comments)

Yeah, that's right. Sarah Palin is STUPID. Keep repeating that story, MSM. All the voters out there might forget the Official Narrative if you let stories like this one run unopposed.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 04:12 PM | Comments (453)
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George W. Bush On NBC
— DrewM

Pimping his new book.

The book and the interview looks pretty interesting.

Posted by: DrewM at 04:01 PM | Comments (79)
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Federal Court Blocks Oklahoma Ban on Sharia Law
— Gabriel Malor

CAIR took the State of Oklahoma to court late last week after the voters passed a constitutional amendment that would ban state courts from using Sharia law. Today, a federal judge ordered the the state board of elections temporarily not to certify the result of the election.

Oklahoma voters approved the amendment in last week's elections by a 7-3 ratio. But the Council on American-Islamic Relations challenged the measure as a violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange issued a temporary restraining order Monday morning that will keep state election officials from certifying that vote.

"What this amendment is going to do is officially disfavor and condemn the Muslim community as being a threat to Oklahoma," said Muneer Awad, executive director of CAIR's Oklahoma chapter and the lead plaintiff in the suit. In addition, he said, it would invalidate private documents, such as wills, that are written in compliance with Muslim law.

In fact the text of the amendment does no such thing. Here it is:

The Courts ... when exercising their judicial authority, shall uphold and adhere to the law as provided in the United States Constitution, the Oklahoma Constitution, the United States Code, federal regulations promulgated pursuant thereto, established common law, the Oklahoma Statutes and rules promulgated pursuant thereto, and if necessary the law of another state of the United States provided the law of the other state does not include Sharia Law, in making judicial decisions. The courts shall not look to the legal precepts of other nations or cultures. Specifically, the courts shall not consider international or Sharia Law. The provisions of this subsection shall apply to all cases before the respective courts including, but not limited to, cases of first impression.

Didn't see anything about invalidating wills in there. Did you?

Anyway, the amendment is on hold because of the court order until a hearing on Nov. 22, at which time the judge will decide whether or not to block it while the case is pending.

If this whole thing sounds familiar, see California, circa 2008 in regards to Prop 8.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:27 PM | Comments (284)
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