Jay at Stop The ACLU recently had the chance to interview Congressman Robert Aderholt of the Fourth District of Alabama, in regards to a piece of legislation he's introduced called the "Constitution Restoration Act". Check out the interview here.

Aderholt gives this basic description of what the act is intended to do:

Basically, the purpose of CRA is to restrict the appellate jurisdiction of the US Supreme Court and the lower Federal Courts of the United States.

It removes jurisdiction of the federal government from any case that involves the acknowledgment of God by a Public official. CRA allows each State to say for themselves how they want to approach the issue of religious expression and, in particular, the acknowledgement of God. I would argue that simply acknowledging God would be something the Framers would not want the Judicial branch involved in.

Read the rest of the interview here. Aderholt also shares his feelings on the ACLU, foreing law affecting American law, and the NSA terrorist surveillance program.

I don't see who would have a problem with this, except judicial activism supporters and those fake being offended by the 10 Commandments because they need an issue to whine about and it seems God is the number one target lately.

The Idaho Statesman, via Red Orbit has more.

 

h/t Drudge

This is hilarious! Supreme Court proceedings bore Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to sleep! Even funnier is the paragraph this paragraph that describes the non-incident, and how her colleagues basically look at her but seem to not want to disturb her. Haha, this is just too weird.

The subject matter was extremely technical, and near the end of the argument Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dozed in her chair. Justices David Souter and Samuel Alito, who flank the 72-year-old, looked at her but did not give her a nudge.

RightWinged.com has obtained this exclusive photo...

Sleep tight Ruthy

Update:
Expose The Left has a courtroom sketch of Ginsburg sleeping... that can't be real, can it? His video link isn't working at the moment..
By the way, many are wondering if this would get just the passing "who cares" mention it is getting if it were one of the conservative justices...

More:
Captain's Quarters, Eckernet, Just Barely Inside The Beltway, John Lott

UPDATE
Wow! World Net Daily says that this is an actual artist's court room sketch of Ginsburg sleeping while the SCOTUS was in session.

 

hat tip: Drudge Report

I wonder what Ted Kennedy thinks about Justice Alito opposing the Supreme Court conservatives on his very first case, by voting to stay an execution in Missouri

via Ap by way of Breitbart

New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito split with the court's conservative Wednesday night, refusing to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate contesting lethal injection.

Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who had won a stay from an appeals court earlier in the evening. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported lifting the stay, but Alito joined the remaining five members in turning down Missouri's last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.

Earlier in the day, Alito was sworn in for a second time in a White House ceremony, where he was lauded by President Bush as a man of "steady demeanor, careful judgment and complete integrity."

He was also was given his assignment for handling emergency appeals: Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. As a result, Missouri filed with Alito its request for the high court to void a stay and allow Taylor's execution.

The court's split vote Wednesday night ended a frenzied day of filings. Missouri twice asked the justices to intervene and permit the execution, while Taylor's lawyers filed two more appeals seeking delays.

UPDATE: My two favorite bloggers, Michelle Malkin and Expose The Left, already beat me to this. Geez they were fast... That's the last time I step away to take a shower... Well, not really.

UPDATE AGAIN: I am sitting here wondering what the libs will say about this, and see that the Kos Kids already have a poll on Alito's motivations for this decision. Results so far:

 

Ya gotta love McClellan, man. If you've ever seen the abuse this guy endures in a press conference, you've got to have a lot of respect for him. Anyway, it's always funny to see the Washington robots loosen up a bit, and he takes a couple humorous jabs at Kerry in this little sample I was able to catch the clip of on FNC earlier.

January 28, 2006 -- WASHINGTON — President Bush's spokesman yesterday ridiculed Sen. John Kerry for "yodeling" for a filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito "from a five-star ski resort in the Swiss Alps."

"It was a pretty historic day. This was the first time ever that a senator has called for a filibuster from the slopes of Davos, Switzerland," chortled White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

"I think, even for a senator, it takes some pretty serious yodeling to call for a filibuster from a five-star ski resort in the Swiss Alps," he added. ...

Haha, not bad Scott.

CAPTION CONTEST: What's Scott saying?

Others who took note:
Gee Dubya, Irish Pennants, Right Hand of God, Elephants in Academia

 

UPDATE - 1/28 3:00pm CT: Hillary joins the the Filibuster march, and The Political Teen has the story. But why would she do this? She already made a huge mistake with the "Plantation" remark, and polls show that she (at this point) doens't have a chance in hell of winning in 2008. Kerry and Kennedy were already looking foolish enough alone on this thing, doing nothing but playing politics (which Harry Reid admits)... So why would Hillary makes such a dumb move? Some advisor in the Clinton machine is slipping lately. Or maybe the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy should take credit for Hillary's earlier than expected downfall.

Stop The ACLU is on this, as is Sister Toldjah.

UPDATE 1:08pm CT: Not that we didn't already know this would be coming, but Fox News just reported that Kerry and Kennedy don't have the votes. So basically all they did was just revealed themselves, once again, as pathetic partisans. Nice work boys. Only thing that could make this any better is if you have Howard Dean come make some insane and unpredictable comments.

Yesterday we all had a good laugh at Kerry and Kennedy's desperate filibuster attempt as most other leading Democrats weren't getting on board with them, and people like Robert Byrd were actually supporting Alito. Kerry only made himself look like a bigger loser by trying to pull this, and even Harry Reid didn't want anything to do with a filibuster. What a difference a good nights rest can make, eh Harry? (via Fox News)

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada earlier offered little support for a filibuster, saying there had been enough time to debate the nomination, adding, "no one can complain on this matter that there hasn't been sufficient time to talk about Judge Alito, pro or con."

But he seemed to change his tune on Friday.

Reid, who said Alito was a "bad choice," said he would sustain a filibuster should an opportunity come around.

"We're going to have a vote Tuesday morning," Reid said during a U.S. Conference of Mayors event. "Everyone knows there are not enough votes to support a filibuster, but it's an opportunity to people to express their opinion on what a bad choice it was to replace Sandra Day O'Connor."

So despite opposing the filibuster yesterday, on the grounds that like it or not, there's been enough time for debate. Now you support it, strictly to play politics? It's okay now so that people can "express their opinion", even though you know the filibuster doesn't stand a chance? Thanks for clearing that up Reid, we appreciate all the hard work you do in Washington... No really, we love that the Democrats have accomplished nothing in the past few years, unless you count pouting like babies and being the obstructionist Party of No.

Sadly Harry, you and your buddies still haven't learned that to get your way, you'll need to connect with America and win some elections... otherwise I guess your side is stuck at the plantation.

Others:
The Political Teen, more from The Political Teen, Michelle Malkin, more from Michelle Malkin, Stop the ACLU, Bullwinkle Blog, Lifelike Pundits, Mike Janitch, Public Figures Beware, Macsmind, Drumwaster's Rants, Below The Beltway, Iowa Voice, Small Town Veteran, Publius Rendezvous

UPDATE: It seems like it's official now, the Dems can't get the votes for the last ditch filibuster attempt. The President would now like to make a statement.

My fellow citizens, I understand this is a sad day for Senate Democrats. And all I have to say is: cry about it. And I offer you this box of tissues to share.

 

UPDATE: The Political Teen has video up of a CNN correspondent explaining the situation. Luckily it looks more and more like Kerry is just making of a fool of himself. If he is seriously thinking about running for President again in 2008, he should have sent some nobody out to call for a filibuster so he wouldn't look like such an idiot when it backfires. Or maybe Kerry doesn't want a filibuster at all. Maybe he just wants to be able to come out later and say he was for the filibuster before he was against it.

Hat tip Drudge for being first on this, as usual...

Read all about Kerry's call to filibuster the Alito nomination here, via CNN.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry has decided to support a filibuster to block the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, CNN's Congressional Correspondent Ed Henry reported Thursday.

Kerry, in Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum, was marshaling support in phone calls during the day, Henry said.

He announced his decision Wednesday to a group of Democratic senators, urging they join him, Henry said. Kerry also has the support of his fellow Massachusetts senator, Democrat Edward Kennedy.

Some senior Democrats said they are worried that the move could backfire.

Republicans need 60 votes to overturn a filibuster.

Senior White House officials said the move makes the Democrats look bad, and Republicans already have enough votes to overcome any filibuster attempt.

I suspect The Political Teen will have more to come, but just has a CNN screen shot up at the moment.

Interestingly, this development comes as more Dems back Alito. I'm obviously no fan of Byrd and don't know much about Johnson.. but it's just kind of funny that I read that story along side Kerry's call for a filibuster.

What a mess... anyway, I think this only stands to backfire on the Dems.

UPDATE: Check out the lefty blogs on this... they're all singing Kerry's praises for "growing a pair" and taking a stand, etc.... pathetic.

More:
Michelle Malkin, Stop the ACLU, Bullwinkle Blog, Lifelike Pundits, Mike Janitch, Public Figures Beware, Macsmind, Drumwaster's Rants, Below The Beltway, Iowa Voice, Small Town Veteran, Publius Rendezvous

 

Why doesn't this hypocritical Kool Aid Guy stunt double just give it up? Ah well, anyone really surprised at this Drudge Exclusive: Teddy's Last Gasp On Alito:

DRUDGE Exclusive: Teddy's Last Gasp On Alito Fri Jan 20 2006 13:29:15 ET

THE DRUDGE REPORT has learned Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) office is behind a last ditch effort to stop Judge Samuel A. AlitoÕs confirmation before next week's vote using a 2004 recusal request.

THE DRUDGE REPORT has obtained a complaint filed by H. Gerard Heimbecker of Upper Darby, PA accusing Alito of not properly listing the Heimbecker v. 555 Associates case in his Senate questionnaire.

Kennedy legal aide James Flug is behind the efforts to push this latest attack. The veteran aide has been criticized for Sen. Kennedy's misfires during the Alito hearing last week. Flug was reportedly behind the attacks Kennedy used against Alito related to the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP) and Vanguard recusal case.

In the 2004 case, Heimbecker not only filed a request for Alito to recuse himself but also the entire Third Circuit as well.

One Capital Aide aware the situation challenged Heimbecker's credibility. "The individual who filed this complaint is clearly a serial litigant. It will be interesting to see how far the Democrats will push this and what the mainstream media will make of it."

Developing...

By the way, this comes on the heels of his other last ditch effort...

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin on that one. She has the rundown on that whole situation, including video, so check it out.

Others:
Conservative Outpost,

 

I didn't catch any of the Alito hearing coverage yesterday, but it sounds like I missed something really interesting.

Michelle Malkin breaks it down. Basically a bunch of Judge Alito's colleagues showed up and came out in extremely strong support of him. Even Clinton appointee, U.S. Appeals Court Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, came out in a show of great support for Alito.

Michelle has the video of this CLINTON APPOINTEE praising Alito. She also got the transcript from the Washington Post and here's quick a sample:

And you have heard the most glowing things said about Sam as a colleague on our court. I embrace every glowing statement.

But the biggest story I think is that the Dems ran for the hills. So lets see, they spend a few days bashing and attacking someone in such a disrespectful and vicious manner... try to paint him as racist and sexist... throw tantrums about documents that have been looked over and nothing was to be found, simply because their "star witness" who was going to say all these things about Alito, was removed because he compared chickens to Holocaust... but after all of that, they don't have the decency to sit and listen to these people?

From Michelle Malkin:

Chuck Schumer walked out before the judges started to speak. Teddy Kennedy showed up late, stayed for 10 minutes, then left. Pat Leahy put on a dour face for a short time, and also bailed. Dianne Feinstein, to her credit, remained for the duration and asked respectful questions.

I don't think it's any surprise that the Senate Dems of the past few years have been nothing but shameful, but how disrespectful is this? But as always, the MSM gives these weasels a pass. Don't expect to hear much about this other than on a few blogs.

UPDATE: I guess I can't blame them for not showing up... this doesn't look like it was much fun in previous days

Thanks to reader David Lunde for the photoshop

More:
Confederate Yankee isn't surprised by this "cut and run"
Blacke Knight's Hideout has some very harsh words for the Dems
Confirm Them remembers the Clarence Thomas hearings
Catholics in the Public Square has an interesting round up of events
Professor Bainbridge has a run down including Wendy Long's take

 

Okay, it's no surprise that Hollywood is overwhelmingly liberal, including late night talk show hosts. Conan O'Brien is no exception, but he can still be hilarious. I particularly love when he has a bit about a (fake) upcoming made for TV movie about whatever the big political news story is at the moment. The bit basically goes: he announces the upcoming made for TV movie, and that he was able to obtain the secret cast list that he then shares with us.

Obviously the big story this week is the Alito hearings, and Conan didn't fail to deliver the goods. Hilarious. Download the video below.

Other Alito Blogging:
Michelle Malkin: ALITO WATCH: BIGGEST SENATE WINDBAG
The Political Teen Video Blogs: Schumer: Abortion Is a Constitutional Right Because Free Speech Is (VIDEO)
Decision '08 is confident Alito will be confirmed.
Outside the Beltway guages the press reaction
Real Clear Politics links us to a great Michael Goodwin column from the New York Daily News.
Right Wing News has some hilarious paraphrasing of a Kennedy / Alito exchange

Linkfests / Open Trackbacks: Right Wing Nation, Adam's Blog

 

Remember yesterday, how I busted on the media for their prewritten story about Bush and Alito having breakfast, and Alito heading off to the hearings? As I said, it wasn't the normal liberal media bust, but a lazy media bust that time. I mean what kind of responsible media writes the story many hours before it even happens? Imagine if anything changed... would the old version be a collector's item?

Anyway, just curious if anyone found any prewritten stories today? I haven't, but I could have missed something. Either way, get the roundup of yesterday's events and what's to come from the AP via Yahoo! News here.

The article has a picture of Alito, his wife, and his sister as well. Let's Play a Game with it:

My guess: Ted Kennedy, got a little too worked up during one of his Bush bash rants. Seconds later a foul odor was easily detectable and the Alito family does their best to politely pretend they didn't notice.

More Alito blogging...
Outside the Beltway remarks on judicial nominees ability to decline answering certain questions.
Patterico talks about Kennedy's statements that were intended to paint Alito as racist. Plenty of bloggers are outraged, but Patterico thinks Kennedy (in a Michael Moorish way I guess) was being "slick" with the wording, to stay out of trouble.
Real Clear Politics wonders what Kennedy's comments even have to do with the matters at hand.
Wizbang wonders why Kennedy, of all people, is riding someone about something from their younger days.
Decision '08 has quotes on Alito from a few of the other usual suspects.

 

Alito was thrown to the wolves today, and the Senate Dems (as expected) took the opportunity to bash Bush, and as always display their angry bitter distain for anything relating to the President.

Alito confidently told the Senate:

"A judge can't have any agenda, a judge can't have any preferred outcome in any particular case, and a judge certainly doesn't have a client,"

Schumer delivered the expected rhetoric:

"You give the impression of being a meticulous legal navigator, but, in the end, you always seem to chart a rightward course,

"In an era when the White House is abusing power, is excusing and authorizing torture and is spying on American citizens, I find Judge Alito's support for an all-powerful executive branch to be genuinely troubling,"

OH YEAAAAAAAH!

RightWing Nuthouse has kind words about today's coverage by the establishment media.
Blogs for Bush, like myself, isn't surprised by anything out of the Dems today.
Sister Toldjah links us to a well put together Alito hearing schedule from TownHall.com

 

This is always annoying to me, and I probably see it more than my fair share being such a night owl. The media pre-writing a story. Setting aside the liberal media busting for a minute, this is just more of a lazy and/or weird media thing. The schedules are so set in Washington that the media can often write the story before it comes out. Like this one from the AP, via Yahoo! I didn't think anything of it when I read the headline: Senate Hearings to Begin for Samuel Alito, because that's accurate.

I started to read the article and got just a handful of paragraphs in and found this:

After receiving some last-minute encouragement from Bush at a White House breakfast Monday, Alito was scheduled to head to Capitol Hill for the start of nomination hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Ten-minute opening statements by the panel's 18 members were likely to consume the session, with direct questioning of Alito beginning Tuesday and expected to last at least two days.

Wow! I was shocked. It was 4:30 am here (CT), meaning that Alito and the President had already wrapped up breakfast and the hearings were about to begin at 5:30 am ET?! Boy, perhaps I've been wrong in saying that lawmakers haven't been doing anything but flapping their gums for the cameras in recent years, if they're truly getting up, eatting breakfast, and heading off to important business by 5:30 am.

Double wow! If I wasn't shocked enough, I scrolled up and found the time the article was posted. You ready for this? 2:37 am ET!!!. I guess they wanted to make the early bird special (Randy makes "ba dum tsss" rimshot drum noise for intentionally cheesey joke). I got the image for you, as I imagine the link won't work for long:

Sarcasm and joking aside, back to the point... Why do these lazy journalists put these stories out on the wires prematurely? Again, I don't think this is at all my usual busting on the liberal media... but just on the laziness, or whatever it is that causes them to do this. Writing stories about things that haven't happened yet, and using the words "was" and "were" about the events seems just a tad irresponsible, no?

Via a Yahoo! News search, these others had picked it up off the wires too:

Remember it was about 5:30 am ET when I searched this, and check out the times when the story was posted to these sites... Again, WOW! Bush and Alito must be wiped before the afternoon's first Seinfeld rerun comes on.

(as always, click images for full size)

By the way, I think I forgot to mention in earlier posts, The Political Teen has great video exposing Schumer's hypocrisy, as it pertains his feelings on the ABA rating weighing on SCOTUS nominees.

 

Well, I'm not sure what happened, but the "bombshell witness" I mentioned earlier , that the Dems were lining up to take down Alito, will no longer be testifying.

I should have caught this earlier, but luckily Captain Ed caught it, allowing me to throw this update up for you. He's got the whole wrap up on it, so I'll let you check it out there.

The only thing I'd like to add is a question.... What will they do now? This loud angry bunch of Dems has never let something like this get in the way of their ranting and raving. I suspect we'll see enough Unhinged behavior for Michelle Malkin to fill another book. Sure Alito may mop the floor with them like Roberts did, but you can bet we'll see some real nutcasery out of desperation.

And if losing that witness wasn't enough to send these folks off the deep end, perhaps Alito's colleagues coming to his side will... Again, Captain Ed is all over it.

Predictions? Like I asked in the first post: Please post your predictions. Will we seem Dems yell? Cry? Throw things? Wear white t-shirts with fake blood on them and chant a crazy chant, like that crazy woman I'm sure we've all seen the clip of.

 

Drudge has uncovered plans for the latest attack on SCOTUS nominee Alito, by the always vicious and angry Dems.

Just listen to the tone of this statement from a Democrat Capitol Hill staffer:

“Put a fork in Scalito. It doesn’t matter that Alito didn’t write it, it doesn’t matter that Alito wasn’t that active in the group, Foote wrote it in CAP’s magazine and we are going to make Alito own it.”

Apparently the Dems plan to "finish off" Alito, by implying he's a racist and a sexist for being part of this CAP group at Princeton. It just seems like the latest desperation move by the Party of No to try to knock down anyone Bush puts up. They remind me of kids who protest because they don't like their babysitter. Is it just me, or does it seem like the only thing the Dems show up to work for these days is to oppose anything to do with the President?

Seriously, what is with the Democratic Party in the past few years? Anyway, that's another story, but the bottom line is these jokers need to give up these "scandals" they and their media try to create on an almost daily basis, and try to win some elections... and not by hoping that the Republicans numbers are just so bad that they win by default, but by actually winning because people actually support them.

Anyway, back to the attack on Alito. I'm not sure, but I have a hunch it won't be the "bombshell" they are hoping and I think the public is about fed up with all the delays at this point. We need these elected officials to get something done, not looking for cable news channel microphones to trash talk the President and his nominees.

Back to Drudge's findings quickly, he uncovered that the "star witness" is to be a freelance journalist named Stephen Dujack. It has been uncovered some interesting this about Mr. Dujack. It appears that he donated to the John Kerry campaign, is such a far left radical that in 2003 he compared slaughtered chickens to Holocaust victims:

“Like the victims of the Holocaust, animals are rounded up, trucked hundreds of miles to the kill floor and slaughtered. To those who defend the modern-day Holocaust on animals by saying that animals are slaughtered for food and give us sustenance, I ask: if the victims of the Holocaust had been eaten, would that have justified the abuse and murder?”

Anyway, read the Drudge's entire story and make up your own mind and your guess is as good as mine how this will all play out.

more...

The Anchoress says "This is just sickening", and I think that properloy sums it up...

Stop the ACLU feels the same way and think we're about to see a real battle:

If this report is true, the democrats are showing just how low they will go. Hang on tight folks, its gonna be a rough ride from here on out.

I assume everyone else, while sharing the same outrage at the Demorats (typo?), isn't shocked by this. I mean have you been watching this bunch of shameful people for the past couple years... I was almost stupid enough to think they might settle down after the 2004 election, but they've only gotten worse!

Leave a comment with your prediction on the Alito confirmation proceedings. Will he get in or not? What sort of antics should we expect from the angry Dems?