Top Items:
Washington Post:
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Judge Samuel Alito's Nomination to the Supreme Court — SPECTER: Senator Cornyn? — CORNYN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. — Judge Alito, welcome to the committee, and to your family as well. — I'm a little surprised to learn that you have a triply high burden for confirmation here.
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Fred Barbash / Campaign for the Supreme Court:
Judge Alito's Statement — Judge Alito tried to communicate several important points in his testimony, in an apparent attempt to answer some of the critics of his nomination as well as to provide support to his allies. — First, he stressed, there is a great difference between being a lawyer representing a client and being a judge.
Discussion:
Feministe, Althouse, Betsy's Page, LiberalOasis, Stop The ACLU, Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt
Washington Post:
Alito Stresses 'Rule of Law' in Opening Statement — Senate Questioning Of Supreme Court Pick Begins Today — Samuel A. Alito Jr. sought to reassure senators yesterday that divisive policies he once advocated as a government lawyer do not necessarily signal how he would rule if confirmed …
New York Times:
Alito Tells Senators That 'Rule of Law' Is Paramount — WASHINGTON, Jan 9 - Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. began his public drive for a seat on the Supreme Court today by offering a reassurance of his belief that judges should have no agendas of their own, but he steered clear of any discussion …
Jesse J. Holland / Associated Press:Alito Pledges to Do What the Law Requires
Discussion:
Confederate Yankee
Lindsey Powell / SCOTUSblog:Alito Hearings: 1/9/2006 — 3:39: Specter adjourns the hearing until Tuesday morning.
Ramesh Ponnuru / The Corner on National Review Online:
DURBIN DISTORTS — Kennedy also spoke of Alito's "clear record of support for vast presidential authority, unchecked by the other two branches of government." Others spoke similarly. None of them offered any real evidence bearing on the question of how Alito would likely rule in cases turning on the scope of executive power.
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Roland Flamini / UPI:
Corridors of Power: The lady was a spy — WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) — Susanne Osthoff, the German archeologist kidnapped by Iraqi gunmen on Nov. 25 and released before Christmas was connected with her country's intelligence service, the BND, and had helped arrange a meeting with a top member …
Discussion:
The Belmont Club, TigerHawk, Jihad Watch, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta, Flopping Aces and Clarity & Resolve
Kip / A Stitch in Haste:
New VAWA "Annoying" Clause is Indeed Annoying — But Not to Blogs — The libertarian wing of the Blogosphere is very much abuzz about this report regarding an extension to the Violence Against Women Act to cyberspace: … Some hasty stitches: —The relevant code section is 47 USC 223.
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Kaimipono D. Wenger / Concurring Opinions:Annoy someone online (anonymously); go to jail
Discussion:
The Volokh Conspiracy, TAPPED, SayUncle, Running Scared, Ace of Spades HQ and Instapundit.com
Christian Science Monitor:
Reporter abducted in Iraq — BAGHDAD AND PARIS - Jill Carroll, a freelance journalist currently on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor, was abducted by unknown gunmen in Baghdad Saturday morning. Her Iraqi interpreter was killed during the kidnapping.
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Haaretz:
Early diagnosis could have prevented brain hemorrhage — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon received anticoagulant drugs despite suffering from a disease of the blood vessels in the brain which, if diagnosed, would almost certainly have prevented doctors from prescribing these drugs …
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Lawrence Solum / lsolum.blogspot.com:
Blogging, Legal Scholarship, and Academic Careers — Introduction — Three days ago, I participated in a panel at the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools on blogging and legal scholarship. The panel was organized by Dennis Patterson and my copanelists were bloggers Randy Barnett and Victor Fleisher.
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Digby / Hullabaloo:
Freeping The Court — I watched the Roberts hearings and couldn't help being impressed by the guy even though I knew he was way too conservative for me. He was obviously intelligent, confident and smooth and I ended up thinking that anybody who was smart enough to keep a good distance between himself …
Discussion:
Science And Politics
Washington Post:
Lobby Firm Is Scandal Casualty — Abramoff, DeLay Publicity Blamed For Shutdown — One of Washington's top lobbying operations will shut down at the end of the month because of its ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House majority leader Tom DeLay.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
Greg Sargent / TAPPED:
JOE KLEIN PHONES IT IN — AGAIN. Ezra is right to shred Joe Klein's column below — because it's only the latest example of the Time columnist's regurgitation of the GOP talking point that Dem criticism of the Bush administration amounts to nothing more than opposition to fighting terrorists.
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Geoffrey R. Stone / The Huffington Post:
Why the NSA Surveillance in Unlawful — For those readers interested in a serious and thoughtful analysis of the legality of the President's authorization of NSA surveillance on American citizens, I recommend the following, which was written and signed by fourteen constitutional scholars …
Discussion:
The Road To Surfdom
George F. Will / Washington Post:
For the House GOP, A Belated Evolution — Before evolution produced creatures of our perfection, there was a three-ton dinosaur, the stegosaurus, so neurologically sluggish that when its tail was injured, significant time elapsed before news of the trauma meandered up its long spine to its walnut-size brain.
Matthew Yglesias / yglesias.tpmcafe.com:
Matt Yglesias Front Page — Carts, Horses, and Judges — The scant merits of his nomination aside, I think it's unlikely that we'll see a serious anti-Alito effort from Democrats on the Hill. The political judgment going into that strategy may be mistaken (I tend to find the case …
Reuel Marc Gerecht / Washington Post:
'Hearts and Minds' in Iraq — As History Shows, Ideas Matter More Than Who Pays to Promote Them — Once again we are confronted with stories about how the Pentagon and its ubiquitous private contractors are undermining free inquiry in Iraq. "Muslim Scholars Were Paid to Aid U.S. Propaganda," reports the New York Times.
