Can’t we admit that the best legal representation is a right which should be available to all Americans? Aren’t we tired of those poncy, bourgeois bastages sucking up all best lawyers? It’s time.

If this National Journal report is accurate, Marco Rubio may be pulling a George Patton down in Florida, pivoting 90 degrees from his assumed target and heading for a new battle. Two Republican sources said today that even as former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio campaigns for retiring GOP Sen. Mel Martinez’s Senate seat, he has been calling around to top Republican donors and activists in the state to discuss the idea of switching from the Senate primary against GOP Gov. Charlie Crist and...

There’s a lot going on this week, with nary a slow news day in sight, and my co-host Cindy and I will be taking to the airwaves once again this morning for another edition of Mid Stream Radio in case you’d like to join us. Our guest will be Rick Moran of Right Wing Nuthouse (and occasional guest author here.) We’ll be figuring out exactly how awful our country must be to consider having CIA agents kill terrorists, as well as why we’re bothering with Sonia Sotomayor’s...

“Be Careful What You Wish For.” While I didn’t vote for Barack Obama, I must still confess that I was one of the ex-Republican, libertarian leaning folks who found reason to quietly cheer his election. On some of the key issues of the day, I was simply done with the GOP. I couldn’t stand our foreign policy under Bush and I was horrified at the prospect of having another Republican stacking the Supreme Court with more bodies in the mold of Roberts and Alito, throwing off the...

The confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are dragging through their second day, and it’s getting harder to stay awake while watching them. Thus far, not only are there few surprises, but I tend to agree with Ben Pershing at the Washington Post, who has concluded that the Democrats no longer really care if they get a single Republican vote coming out of committee. They know they can get at least a few in the full Senate vote and this was a done deal before it started. The...

I was searching for some way to add to this analysis by Robert J. Samuelson at the Washington Post, but frankly I’m just not that smart. If you want to step back from the partisan walls and see why the Republicans have been doing a bad job at planning for the country’s economic future and the Democrats’ current plans are making it worse, follow the link and read the entire thing for yourself. Warning: None of you partisans on either side will be happy. But here’s a quick money...

Out here in the Empire State, plenty of funds from the original Porkulus bill have arrived. But instead of going into shovel ready projects and the creation of new jobs, our perennially budget challenged state government has channeled the funds into making up shortfalls for their poor planning and inability to mange the public purse. New York state has used most of its economic stimulus funding so far to plug holes in its budget and has spent very little on new highway construction, according to...

I suppose I really have become a bit of a cold-hearted old curmudgeon in my golden years, because I know I should have a lot more sympathy for this poor girl. And yet, I still laughed. Teen Girl Falls In Open Manhole While Texting NEW YORK (CBS) ?It was an accident waiting to happen — an open sewer and a 15-year-old girl who was texting while she walked. Alexa Longueira, a high school sophomore, was walking along Victory Boulevard near Travis Avenue on Staten Island Wednesday evening when she...

I was alerted to yet another controversial court case involving the dreaded “morning after pill” by our friend Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. This particular drama is playing out in the 9th Circuit Court of appeals and deals with a pharmacy being told by the courts that they must provide Plan B. Pharmacists are obliged to dispense the Plan B pill, even if they are personally opposed to the “morning after” contraceptive on religious grounds, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. In...

… well, with me, I suppose. The folks over at Jumping in Pools invited me to do a quick Q&A hit covering a range of topics including Sarah Palin, Porkulus Mk. II and some prognostication on Presidential races in 2012 and beyond. Since I know you can never get enough of my wit and wisdom here, feel free to swing by and say hi over there. http://jumpinginpools.blogspot.com/2009/07/interview-jazz-shaw.html

As any of our more left leaning regular readers will tell you, I’ve not been shy about criticizing President Obama when I find him heading in directions which I feel are not in our best interest. And yes, I must admit to the guilty pleasure of giving the President the occasional poke in the ribs when he’s caught in some faux pas. Unfortunately, the recent kerfuffle over Obama allegedly admiring the rear view of an attractive young lady during his European tour qualifies as neither. I’ll...

Anyone remember a certain Democratic Presidential candidate last fall who complained bitterly (and correctly, in my opinion) about the many “signing statments” which George W. Bush used to skirt around legislation he didn’t care for? Yeah, me too. But it seems that, having moved his own bags into the West Wing, Barack Obama thought he’d give old W. some credit and take a shot at it himself on a new bill regarding the World Bank and I.M.F. The conditions on World Bank and IMF...

After the beating he took at that hands of Hillary Clinton in New York’s 2000 Senate race, plenty of observers thought that Rick Lazio’s political career might have drawn to a close. They may prove wrong, though, if the former congressman winds up being the next Governor of New York. Before you begin guffawing over the idea of a Republican taking the helm in this bluest of blue states, there are a few background facts you should consider. This is the subject of my latest column at Pajamas...

This evening at 8 pm Eastern, I’ll be joining the panel at The Rick Moran Show on Blog Talk Radio for “Palinpalooza.” The question before the combined sages of political prognostication will be, “Is Sarah Palin’s Career Dead?” I know what you’re thinking… how did we get such an obscure topic which absolutely nobody else is talking about? Well, that’s just how we roll. You’d never be able to guess it, of course, but I’ll be taking...

The “rule of law” is, when you stop to think about it, one of the most lofty, powerful concepts we have. Particularly in America, it embodies a meaning which goes beyond the generalized legal maxim that all decisions should be made by applying and respecting known, accepted principles from your body of laws. It’s really something more than that. It’s the idea that the body of laws itself is the final arbiter – that no person or group of people is equal to or above those...

Our mountain adventure draws to a close, as we prepare to head back down to civilization again. While I’m in for a bit more vacation time still, I hope that most of you at least had a nice, long weekend to relax and unwind from the daily grind. Last night I stepped outside and walked into a perfect moment, as the full moon was rising above the mountains, shining down onto the lake in front of me and the loons were singing in full voice. I captured it for you as best I could in the hopes of...

Poor weather can, on occasion, make for fine photography. Today’s specimen is a picture from yesterday evening, approaching one bay where bass are often found in years other than this one. It was a brief window between rain showers and fog was settling down over the forest and the lake. When that happens, all sounds become muted, as if cotton candy had been stuffed into your ears. At a time like that, it’s not hard to imagine the various sounds from the forest as all being caused by hulking...

Yes, you knew it was inevitable. Even though I’m on vacation, I had to be tempted out of hiding after Governor Palin’s bombshell announcement. With that in mind, I will direct your attention to my column this weekend at Pajamas Media. The actual title is, “Sarah Palin Commits Political Suicide,” but I really preferred, “So Long and Thanks for all the Fisheries.”

I would like to extend my wishes to all of TMV’s loyal readers for a happy, safe and patriotic fourth of July. The first of today’s pictures will show you that Old Glory is flying in fine form, even up here in the remote mountain regions. That shot was taken on Wed. evening shortly after we arrived, during one of the few breaks in the cloud cover. We’ve not seen that much open sky since then. Whether you plan on heading out to watch fireworks, firing up the barbecue or just relaxing,...

Being socked in by repeating lines of storm fronts, I find myself with more time for those pesky internets than I might have liked. Today’s exhibit in photography is an interesting effect found when rain clouds totally swamp a set of mountain peaks, with ghostly tendrils hanging down from the main cloud body like moss on a tree. There’s an entire line of mountain peaks beyond there which can not be seen for the density of the clouds. (As usual, be forewarned… the full size image...

Since I likely shall not get to do as much publishing as normal over the next week or so, I would share with our readers a bit of vacation experience. (And, according to some of you, a period of decompression which I’ve been badly in need of. I agree. I’ve been much more short tempered of late, and I offer my apologies for that.) In any event, if you click on the thumbnail image in the upper left, you’ll get a brief taste of what I’m currently up to. (Warning: The full size...

It seems that the GOP is setting its sights on some first and second term House Democrats who they see as being vulnerable. In particular, they’re looking at the new members in traditionally red districts who voted for the energy bill. The National Republican Congressional Committee is planning to air TV and radio commercials and unleash robocalls against Democrats who hail from districts that could be adversely affected by the narrowly passed legislation, are GOP-leaning or both. Those likely...

As already noted by Joe Windish, the Supreme Court has overturned the decision of the 2nd Court of Appeals in the case where results of a promotion exam failed to produce advancement for a sufficient number of minority candidates. While the ruling itself will likely come as no surprise to many observers, the close, 5-4 margin tells me that we still have a looming divide in our legal system and no way to address it. Frankly, I would like to be more surprised that we could find four SCOTUS justices...

President Obama’s selection to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Cass Sunstein, is running into a stiff headwind regarding some previous writings on the subject of animals’ rights. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) has blocked President Obama’s candidate for regulation czar, Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein, because Sunstein has argued that animals should have the right to sue humans in court. Indeed, in his 2004 book, Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions,...

It’s an unfortunate comment on the current state of our democracy that Congress routinely passes bills which virtually none of the members have read. Hope is also rapidly eroding that the White House will actually post all proposed legislation on the web far enough in advance that at least we could read them before they come to a vote. But at a bare minimum, up until now they seemed to at least stick with a policy of having a final copy of the bills in existence so they could have theoretically...