Has anyone noticed that the "hate Bush" contingent in Europe and Canada is OUT. Conservatives are replacing them. In Germany it is a pro-American woman. This is happening even in the face of speech code laws and an absolute Leftist monoploy on the press. : )
MUST READS:
EXPLAINING THE PANIC ON THE LEFT
by Hugh Hewitt
With the confirmation of Judge Alito a near-certainty, the Nans, Kates, and Ralphs are bellowing "Here There Be Monsters" as they issue dire warning after dire warning of the direction the remade SCOTUS will take.
But they know, as do all the senators and most serious Court watchers, that there is no imminent threat to Casey/Roe, even if Chief Justice Roberts and soon-to-be-Justice Alito join in a bloc with Justices Scalia and Thomas. Even if Justice Kennedy was to change his view and join in ending the Roe Era and consigning it to the same bin of history as the Lochner Era, access to abortion would remain as the law of the land throughout most of the land.
Despite this, the left is genuinely panicked, and it is interesting to focus on the source of that panic. Its roots are in a greatly oversimplified view of the individual justices' beliefs and a vastly understated complexity of the Court's work, but it is a real panic nonetheless.
The four-square box below is NOT intended to represent accurately or even closely the real views of the justices. Rather, it does represent the left's beliefs about the beliefs of the justices.
By "theist" I mean those who hold a belief in a God who is not indifferent to the actions of men and women. "Secularists," by contrast, believe that the existence of such a God is, at best, unknowable.
"Constitutional majoritarians" are believers in checks and balances and separation of powers and the federal system, but also subscribers to the view that majorities working through representative institutions must ultimately control the direction of the country, bound only by the Constitution's directives.
"Elitist countermajoritarians," by contrast, believe that no matter what popular opinion expressed through representative institutions may believe, that there are certain policy choices that must be imposed on the country, even if there is no clear constitutional backing for such a choice, and even if that choice has no history of legislative consent. In recent years, elite countermajoritarians have, for example, been committed to the aboliton of the death penalty and for the imposition of same sex marriage, but they have many other policy preferences as well.
Many of the left's opinion leaders are secular, elite countermajoritarians. Many more, while holding a sincere belief in God, are so committed to the idea of a public square empty of God that their political choices are indistinguishable from those of avowed secularists who reject the very idea of God.
You can read the rest of Hugh's commentary at (scroll 1/4th the way down the page)
http://hughhewitt.com/
BUSH SKATING CIRCLES AROUND THE DEMOCRATS
By Froma Harrop
It's always painful watching President Bush skate circles around the Democrats. Believe me, I take no pleasure in the sight.
Bush's figure eights were on display recently when he warned Democrats to tread carefully on the war issue in the midterm-election campaign. Speaking before the Veterans of Foreign Wars, he said Americans know the difference between "honest critics" and "defeatists who refuse to see that anything is right."
Reporters sharply asked Bush spokesman Scott McClellan whether the president was stifling dissent. And Rep. John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat, repeated his call for an immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.
Stifle dissent? Are you kidding? The more leading Democrats talk the wrong way about Iraq, the better off the Republicans are. Do Democrats think Bush was offering sage advice to help them in the upcoming elections? He was setting bait, to which they immediately rose.
You can read the rest of this Democrat's assessment at
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-1_13_06_FH.html
THE BATTLE OF PRINCETON
Borking has lost its bite.
By Daniel Henninger
The grand hulk of Ted Kennedy ranted that he wanted to subpoena the papers of former National Review publisher William Rusher to get to the bottom of Samuel Alito's membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton. At this moment, one sensed that perhaps at last the ghost of Robert Bork had finally been laid to rest. Borking was once a Democratic smear tactic. This week--amid intellectually exhausted and politically befuddled Democrats--it became a laugh track.
You can read the rest of the commentary at
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/dhenninger/?id=110007810
What do you mean by speech code laws?
I sure have, now we see the Conservatives in Canada (of all places) on the rise