Dr. Sanity has a Carnival of the Insanities Extravaganza! (with bonus mini-carnival included at NO EXTRA CHARGE!)

GOP Bloggers points us to a Forbes piece which states:

Democrats confirmed Friday that they will make a last-ditch attempt to slow Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito’s momentum by delaying the first vote on his candidacy. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in the waning minutes of Alito’s confirmation hearing that unnamed Democrats will “exercise their rights” to put off next week’s scheduled Alito vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Dems have already had their delay, however. Watch this video from 11/03/05. (Political Teen)

In it, Senator Specter says,(emphasis mine)

Our staffs have been stretched very, very thin, having given up August and we had to go through a difficult scheduling process to have Chief Justice Roberts seated by October 3rd, but we did that. And then we had a difficult process with Miss Harriet Miers, and we finally worked that out with the consent of Senator Leahy to start on November 7th. And I said to Pat a few minutes ago, after all these years of training and practice, I’ve turned into being a professional scheduler, that’s all I do is schedule. So we have worked through the process and my preference on a starting date is January 2nd, which would have given us hearings on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th, with an exec on Tuesday the 10th, and floor action on the 11th, 12th and a vote on the 13th, but that allows for a week’s holdover as a matter of right by any senator. And January 2nd is a difficult day, technically it’s a holiday. We could work on a holiday around here,if we really had to. And it implicates Hanukkah, I’m told. But we could have done that. Not me, I’m not giving up Hanukkah. But at any rate, Senator Leahy and I have worked through it, and since it could be delayed for a week in any event, by any senator, who wants to hold it over for a week that we would put that week back at the start, on the 9th, with the good faith understanding that our intent would be to go to an executive committee meeting on the 17th, the day after Martin Luther King holiday. So that the schedule will be we will start hearings on at noon on the 9th. And we’ll have them Tuesday the 10th, Wednesday the 11th, Thursday the 12th, Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th if necessary. We will then go to the exec on the 17th, and here we can’t get everybody bound in writing to waive it in advance, but Pat Leahy and Arlen Specter have had had no problems, nor have we anybody on the committee, of not fulfilling what we’ve said we’d do as a matter of good faith intent which will put the executive session on the 17th, we finished that with Chief Justice Roberts in the morning, and then we would go to the 18th, 19th, and 20th for floor debate with the vote on the 20th. Now that would require senators coming back. Senator Frist has been apprised of this every step of the way, as has Senator Reid. Senators Frist, Reid, Senator Leahy and I met earlier today, and there are a lot of people…

(the video ends there)

Senator Specter does say,

…we can’t get everybody bound in writing to waive it in advance, but Pat Leahy and Arlen Specter have had had no problems, nor have we anybody on the committee, of not fulfilling what we’ve said we’d do as a matter of good faith intent which will put the executive session on the 17th…

which gives the Dems an out of a sort, but does leave them reneging on a “Good Faith” agreement. Leahy in particular, agreed to this. Now he’s allowing some “unnamed”democrats to renege on the good faith agreement for him.

Good Faith just doesn’t mean anything to them, does it?

Blogs for Bush has more.

John Hawkins has a post on term limits (as part of his Friday Q & A series). He says that imposing term limits might be tough, 1. because reps would have to vote themselves out of a job and 2. that a constitutional amendment is tough to pass.

He is correct on those points, but I would like to add that the Founders didn’t want representatives to make a career out of politics.

Granted, I am remembering this from high school (way too long ago), but I remember that the terms set for the House and for the Senate were set that way for a reason. House members terms were set for two years so that someone could take some time out of their regular life to represent their neighbors in Congress, but not too much time. The doctor, lawyer, business owner, farmer, could take a few years and be part of the process.

The Senate term was set at six so that there would be some continuity in congress. The founders did not want the entire congress to change every two years.

Look at what we have now: professional politicians rather than real representatives of the people.

News & Politics

NZ Bear has the following:

An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers

We are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us all of the time. But we do agree on this: The new leadership in the House of Representatives needs to be thoroughly and transparently free of the taint of the Jack Abramoff scandals, and beyond that, of undue influence of K Street.

We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather than simply influence Members.
But we are certain that the public is disgusted with excess and with privilege. We hope the Hastert-Dreier effort leads to sweeping reforms including the end of subsidized travel and other obvious influence operations. Just as importantly, we call for major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in Congressional operations and in the appropriations process.

As for the Republican leadership elections, we hope to see more candidates who will support these goals, and we therefore welcome the entry of Congressman John Shadegg to the race for Majority Leader. We hope every Congressman who is committed to ethical and transparent conduct supports a reform agenda and a reform candidate. And we hope all would-be members of the leadership make themselves available to new media to answer questions now and on a regular basis in the future.

Signed,
N.Z. Bear, The Truth Laid Bear
Hugh Hewitt, HughHewitt.com
Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.com
Kevin Aylward, Wizbang!
La Shawn Barber, La Shawn Barber’s Corner
Beth, MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Lorie Byrd, Polipundit
Jeff Goldstein, Protein Wisdom
Stephen Green, Vodkapundit
John Hawkins, Right Wing News
John Hinderaker, Power Line
Jon Henke / McQ / Dale Franks, QandO
James Joyner, Outside The Beltway
Mike Krempasky, Redstate.org
Michelle Malkin, MichelleMalkin.com
Ed Morrissey, Captain’s Quarters
Scott Ott, Scrappleface
John Donovan / Bill Tuttle, Castle Argghhh!!!

go here to sign on.

Sigmund, Carl, and Alfred have a great post of helpful hints.

I’ve been thinking of posting these for a few days, and Sigmund, Carl, and Alfred have given me a great opportunity to do so.

These two hints are processed food related.

Hint # 1: When making instant oatmeal for a child, put the dry oatmeal and half the water called for in a bowl. Mix well. Microwave on high for 30 seconds. When it’s done, add cold milk for the other half of the water called for. Mix well again. The oatmeal has a good consistency and is cool enough for a small child to eat.

Hint #2: When preparing boxed macaroni and cheese, drain the macaroni and leave the strainer in the sink, full of noodles. Put the butter (or margarine) and the milk in the pot and heat until the butter is melted. Turn off the heat. Add the cheese powder and stir until creamy. Take the strainer full of noodles out of the sink, dump into the pot of cheese sauce, stir and serve. This ensures that the cheese sauce is creamy and not lumpy at all.

Family & Friends, Children, Cooking

As you know, in October, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for Israel to be “wiped out from the map.” Now, he’s restarted his “research” by breaking the IAEA seals on the Isfahan nuclear power plant.

This map (click image for original) has been cropped to show Israel and its more immediate surroundings.

I haven’t seen any mentions of the fact that if Israel were to be “wiped out from the map”, so would Palestine. Also affected could certainly be, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. Depending on what Ahmadinejad and his “goons” could possibly come up with in terms of the size of any warhead used against Israel, Cyprus, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia may be affected as well. Perhaps even Turkey.

Iran needs to be reigned in immediately.

The U.S., France, Germany, and the U.K. can not be the only ones dealing with Iran’s delusions. Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the Saudis must start bringing pressure on Iran.

Iran, News & Politics

Welcome A Lady’s Ruminations and Gateway Pundit readers! Please have a look around!

Yesterday, when the little guy and I got back from running some errands, the little guy decided to play.

I was starting the chili for dinner and he said to me, “OK, you be the scener and I will be the action and cutter.”

I asked him what he was talking about.

He said I would be the scener because I was the “guy in the scene” and he would be the action and cutter because he would say “action” and “cut”.

Then he started his directing…

I was to walk to the edge of the cliff (the kitchen rug), open the pretend door, and crawl across the bridge (one line of tiles on the floor).

I told him I wasn’t going to crawl across the bridge, but I would walk across it.

He said, “Action!”

and away we went…

Children, Family & Friends

Yesterday the temperature was in the mid-fifties.

This morning it has sleeted, and is now snow mixed with rain.

January weather…

Musings

It is happening all across the nation. The ACLU sue city counsel after city counsel over praying in Jesus name. They don’t sue to stop all prayer, but in every case the target has been Christian prayer. They even fought for the right of a Wiccan to pray at a counsel meeting. Many times it doesn’t even take a lawsuit. They just type up a threatening letter and that does the trick. This was the case in Fredericksburg. But one man isn’t taking things lying down.

Fredericksburg City Councilman Hashmel Turner has filed suit against his fellow council members, saying the council’s newly adopted prayer policy violates his constitutional rights.

Turner is being represented by the Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit group that advocates for free expression issues.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Richmond, asks the court to rule that the city’s prayer policy is unconstitutional, and to order that Turner be allowed back into the council’s prayer rotation.

The council voted 5-1 in November to adopt a policy of offering non-denominational prayers devoid of any Christian or other specific religious references.

Turner abstained from that vote, and Councilman Matt Kelly voted against the policy.

The vote came after Turner had been excluded from the council prayer rotation for more than a year. The council got a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union in July 2004 saying that the civil liberties group would file suit if Turner continued to invoke the name of Jesus Christ in his prayers.

Turner, who is pastor at First Baptist Church of Love in Fredericksburg, had always closed his prayers before council meetings by invoking the name of Jesus Christ before the ACLU complaint.

On the same night of the November vote for the nondenominational prayer policy, Turner asked to be put back into the prayer rotation, and to give the opening prayer before the Nov. 22 council meeting.

Mayor Tom Tomzak said today he asked Councilwoman Debby Girvan to give the prayer at that meeting instead of Turner, because, “I did not want to unleash a 1,000-pound gorilla-the ACLU-on the City Council.”

However, Tomzak said he does believe Turner’s rights are being violated, and the suit filed today is “a lawsuit that I probably agree with.”

“He’s a very passionate man, a man of faith and a man of principle, and he believes his rights have been violated,” Tomzak said of Turner.

Neither City Council members nor City Attorney Kathleen Dooley had seen copies of the lawsuit earlier today.

The suit calls the new prayer policy “an unlawful attempt by the City Council to prescribe the content of prayers given at City Council meetings by Turner and other members of City Council.”

John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, said Turner approached his organization last fall, saying he believed his rights were being violated. “All he wants is to say Jesus Christ at the end of the prayer,” Whitehead said. “He’s not asking for any money. … It’s a very simple suit.”

One would think that it would be simple, yet the ACLU don’t seem to get that. Religious expression in America is under attack. It is a shame that an organization that claims to protect our rights are the number one censor of Christian religious expression. If they were trying to get rid of all prayer at counsel meetings, we would have a different argument, but they are targeting Christian prayers and individual expression. It is good to see this man is standing up for his rights. More people should do so.

Currently there is legislation, introduced by Representative Hostettler that could put a stop to these ridiculous lawsuits. Hostettler’s proposal would amend the Civil Rights Attorney’s Fees Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, to prohibit prevailing parties from being awarded attorney’s fee in religious establishment cases, but not in other civil rights filings. This would prevent local governments from having to use taxpayer funds to pay the ACLU or similar organization when a case is lost, and also would protect elected officials from having to pay fees from their own pockets.

SIGN THE PETITION TO STOP TAXPAYER FUNDING OF THE ACLU

This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay at Jay@stoptheaclu.com or Gribbit at GribbitR@gmail.com. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 115 blogs already on-board.

Crossposted at Stop The ACLU

Religion, ACLU, Law

The best ever Blonde joke at Donald Sensing’s…