With word out that Justice Souter is about to hitch up the buckboard and head back to New Hampshire we have already heard speculation about his successor and how they will impact the direction of the court. However there is an old saying about what happens when you assume, and those of us who are watching from the outside as well as those working from the inside at the White House should take it to heart. For one thing, I would not make book on the fact that Judge Sotomayor is a lock to get the...

A few days ago I posted about the demise of the moderate wing of the Republican party. To expand on that I decided to run some statistics on the relative Republican and Democratic positions in 1980 versus today, as well as give a bit of a look at the future math. To say the least the figures are not encouraging for the Republicans though we all know that numbers do not always play out as expected. For purposes of my analysis I looked at two regions of the country, one generally seen as Democratic...

In a move that could signal that endangered Republican Senator Jim Bunning is going to retire, State Treasurer Trey Grayson (R) has announced he is forming an exploratory committee to run for ther Senate in 2010, reportedly with the approval of Bunning. Speculation is Bunning will announce his retirement in the coming weeks. This would be good news to Republicans as Bunning was seen as very vulnerable, though it does increase their open seats.

News breaking this morning that Chrysler has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the first automaker to do so since 1933. Details at this point are sketchy but it seems likely that some form of company will emerge from the process, although certainly in a very different form. The merger with Fiat does appear to be on track so that means that they will be working in the process too. The New York Times has a primer on the process and the reports seem to suggest this will be a fairly short case, which means...

Newsweek has an interesting article about the need to get the military out of politics in Pakistan. As the article details, the army has not done much good and has actually caused a great deal of instability in the government. Meanwhile there are growing concerns about a possible Taliban takeover in the increasingly unstable country. President Obama is worried about a possible collapse of the government. From what I’ve seen out of the various ‘experts’ on the region there is not...

The House has voted to approve a new hate crimes law named after Matthew Shepard. The vote was 249-175.  The bill has been introduced in the Senate but a vote is not yet scheduled. President Obama has indicated he would sign the bill if it makes it to his desk. The law would broaden current laws to include attacks based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender identity or mental or physical disability. Current laws already allow federal jurisdiction over crimes based on race, color, religion...

A mind blowing post from a conservative perspective on how the GOP should deal with Election 2010. Perhaps the most amazing quote comes from Senator DeMint who says: “I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don’t have a set of beliefs.” The Republicans would do well by nominating someone like Ridge, indeed he would probably be a slight favorite over Specter. But the hard liners seem...

In reporting the decision of Senator Specter to the Democratic party most of the articles touch on the fact that he has been a member of the Senate for 29 years. In reflecting on his remarks about the increasingly narrow base of the Republican party it might be worth our time to take a look back at the origins of his career. He was first elected to the US Senate in 1980, the year of the Ronald Reagan landslide. That sweeping victory brought the Republicans to control of the Senate for the first time...

Being a political junkie I had to watch all of the talking heads commenting on the shift of Arlen Specter to the Democratic party. As is often the case, they each tended to get some of it right and some of it wrong On the left, while I do not always agree with Rachel Maddow on the issues she is often quite entertaining in her analysis of the issues of the day. However this evening she seems to me to have taken a very odd two step in her examination of the switch of Arlen Specter to the Democratic...

Memo: I originally posted this last week but given the events of this morning, with Senator Specter switching parties I thought it worth bumping up. Right wingers in the party have long condemned/attacked/etc Senator Specter for being a RINO and said they would love to dump him. Well today they got what they want which means the Democrats are all but certain to get 60 seats this year. Senator Specter may not always vote exactly the way party leaders wanted but he was with them on a number of issues...

In 1898 Republicans in Indiana were concerned about winning a race for Congress in the 6th District. It was an open seat and the party had two major problems in holding it. The first was the black vote, which at that time was still heavily Republican. But in this particular year black voters were, for one reason or the other, upset with the local GOP. There was no danger they would vote for the Democrat but they might stay home on Election Day. The second problem was with a local political figure,...

The internet has brought a number of wonderful advances to society and one of the more interesting (and frequently useful) are web sites like E-Bay. The site provides a wonderful ability to sell items you no longer need and to buy products at cheaper prices. However there are certain things that simply should not be sold, whether on E-Bay or anywhere else for that matter. For example we do not allow people to sell themselves, or to sell stolen property or to otherwise violate the law. But I have...

Tonight the TV Land network aired their annual TV Land awards program. Among the honorees this year was Magnum PI which won the ‘Hero award’. When he accepted the award, Tom Selleck showed what a class act he is. Rather than using his speech to talk about the show or himself, he chose to talk about those he considers to be the true heroes, our military veterans. He delivered a very emotional speech which left a number of people in tears. In opening his remarks, Selleck declared that...

While we often get into heated debates at TMV I think the weekend can be a time for us to relax a little bit with some lighter topics. While I am sure some of us could manage to make any topic overheated I think it is a nice idea to have something simple for the next couple days. So here are a couple subjects to debate/discuss/etc 1)  What is the oldest TV show you can think of where the major cast members are all still alive ? For purposes of this debate major characters are defined as those in...

The acting Chief Financial Officer of troubled Freddie Mac has been found dead in his Virginia home. According to news reports he was the victim of a hanging and police suspect suicide. Whether this is simply the result of overall stress of the job or because of some new bad news is unclear. In any case our deepest sympathies to his family. These are tough jobs and since Mr. Kellerman was new to the job (he took office in September) it is unlikely he was responsible for the mess, he was just trying...

This Friday we are supposed to see the release of the bank stress tests by the government. In theory these tests are supposed to show how some banks are strong and help to build confidence in the system. While the details of how the system will work remain sketchy I am not particularly confident about it. Admittedly I am far from being a banking expert but then again look at what the so called experts managed to do with the system so far. The core of the problem for me is that I don’t see how...

For those who may not have seen it, there is an ad out there which once again tries to portray the fight over same sex marriage as ‘the gays are gonna steal your kids’. It is quite disgusting. Well there is a very funny response, which I think shows a light response to a nasty ad

Among the many things to come out of President Obama’s recent visit to the Summit Of  The Americas is the issue of whether or not we should expand ties to the nation of Cuba. Needless to say this has raised the hackles of the hard liners in the Cuban American community and has also served as a point of attack from the right. As my readers will know I have not always supported the President and have sometimes been quite critical of him and his policies. But when it comes to the Cuban embargo...

In what is almost certainly going to result in a showdown at the US Supreme Court, the 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals has incorporated the 2nd amendment into the 14th amendment. In simple terms this is the first time that the 2nd amendment has been applied to limit the actions of an individual state, in this case the county of Alameda in the state of California. Without getting too complicated in legal mumbo jumbo, the Bill of Rights was originally considered to only apply to limit the actions of the...

A while back I wrote about how I was concerned that the coming collapse in the commerical real estate market would make the residential meltdown look mild in comparison. While I would be quite happy to be wrong about this I think the first shoe has dropped with the bankruptcy of a major mall owner. When you combine a slow economy with lots of major anchor renters dropping out the future does not look particularly bright. I’ve discussed it with other folks in the bankruptcy world and few of...

I don’t often pass these on but the coordination and planning of this one was just too amazing to ignore

Others have already opened discussions on the debate over the necessity of paying taxes, the price of civilization, etc. So I will take another tack (which does not preclude subjecting you a tome on my views of taxes later) For those who read us, and for the few among those who respect my views, let me offer a bit of advice. File your taxes and file them now ! I don’t care if you can’t afford to pay, I don’t care if you don’t like filing, get those returns in now. Why you...

As I have been following coverage of the rescue of Capt. Phillips and the reaction from various political site I find some of the reactions less than sincere. Let me make my own views clear from the start. I think the Navy Seals as well as all of their comrades deserve a major pat on the back. I also think that everyone in the Obama adminstration from the President on down deserve praise for their very effective handling of this crisis. To that end I am disturbed by some right leaning sites like...

Music producer Phil Spector has been convicted of murder in the death of actress Lana Clarkson. Sentencing will be on May 29th. So to review California law. Murdering your parents is legal. Murdering your ex wife is legal, sort of. Murdering your wife is usually legal. Murdering a woman in your living room is usually illegal. At least if you are a rich and connected celebrity.

In ancient times the strongest words a person could utter was “Civis Romanus sum” or “I am a Roman citizen”. You could, according to legend, walk the length and breadth of the known world protected only by those words. People would refrain from harming you simply because they knew if the smallest harm came to you that the response of your government would be swift, sure, and in the case of those who did the harm, quite unpleasant. Today we have received the fantastic news...