supreme court nominee

Turns out Alito also defended the Regan administration in warantless
wiretaps.

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito defended the right of government
officials to order domestic wiretaps when he worked for the Reagan Justice
Department, documents released Friday show.

He advocated a step by step approach to strengthening the hand of
officials in a 1984 memo to the solicitor general. The strategy is similar
to the one that Alito espoused for rolling back abortion rights at the
margins.

The release of the memo by the National Archives comes when President
Bush is under fire for secretly ordering domestic spying of suspected
terrorists without a warrant. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen
Specter, R-Pa., has promised to question Alito about the administration's
program.

The memo dealt with whether government officials should have blanket
protection from lawsuits when authorizing wiretaps. "I do not question that
the attorney general should have this immunity," Alito wrote. "But for
tactical reasons, I would not raise the issue here."

Despite Alito's warning that the government would lose, the Reagan
administration took the fight to the Supreme Court in the case of whether
Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell, could be sued for authorizing a
warrantless domestic wiretap to gather information about a suspected
terrorist plot. The FBI had received information about a conspiracy to
destroy utility tunnels in Washington and kidnap Henry Kissinger, then
national security adviser.

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I been wondering that since Bush feels he has the power to break the law and
since his current Supreme Court nominee, Sam Alito, shares the same
"constitutional" values as Bush will that make him even more of a threat to the
high court. Well it turns out Alito will get to answer on that:

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. was warned
yesterday by two key senators that he will be expected to comment on the
revelation that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to
monitor the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens without
seeking a court order.

In separate letters to Judge Alito, Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the
chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., its ranking
Democrat, told the nominee to expect questions about the surveillance
program, which Mr. Leahy said "is but one of several areas where the court's
role as a check on overreaching by the executive may soon prove crucial."

In his letter, Mr. Specter stopped short of asking Judge Alito if Mr.
Bush violated the Constitution by authorizing surveillance of persons
thought to have ties to al-Qaida without obtaining a warrant from the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

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That is a very important question and either way he goes will lead to
problems. I bet he is talking to John Roberts right now trying to learn some
question dodging tactics that were common play during the Roberts confirmation
hearing.

President Bush has announced that he will not release papers on the embattled
Harriet Miers.

Via
Reuters:

Bush says won't release papers on Miers

President George W. Bush, citing confidentiality, said on Monday he would
refuse to release documents showing what U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet
Miers recommended to him as a White House lawyer.

"That would breach very important confidentiality, and it's a red line
I'm not willing to cross," Bush told reporters.

Senate Democrats and Republicans have sought White House documents
related to Miers' work for Bush as they prepare for her confirmation
hearing, set to begin on November 7.

At the start of a Cabinet meeting, Bush again praised his embattled
nominee. Miers has come under fire from Democrats for once backing a
constitutional amendment to ban abortion, and has been challenged by
conservatives who see the appointment as cronyism and fear she may fail to
move the Supreme Court to the right.

"Harriet Miers is a fine person, and I expect her to have a good, fair
hearing," Bush said.

Bush has refused to turn over the internal documents before, including
many requested in the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Chief Justice
John Roberts.

In this case, both Democrats and Republicans had asked for the additional
information, arguing little is known about Miers, who was Bush's personal
attorney in Texas and who has never served as a judge.

"Requests ... have been made by Democrats and Republicans about paperwork
out of this White House that would make it impossible for me and other
presidents to be able to make sound decisions," Bush said.

A crime has been going on inside the internet. It is one
that I myself am guilty of, along with the community of bloggers out there
focusing on such stories as the Valerie Plame scandal and the Supreme Court
nominee. It is now my duty, not only as a blogger, but also as a citizen of
humanity to spend the justified attention on this highly important issue that
will be facing America soon.

The produce industry has decided to do away with those
pesky labels that so viscously annoyed shoppers throughout the years. Everyone
should know the ones I am talking about. You get home and are ready to make
yourself a BLT. You reach in your grocery bag to pull out your tomato. Now you
prepare to clean it, only to fight that annoying piece of paper that someone has
glued onto it which tells you that in fact it is a tomato.

Luckily the good folks in the produce industry have
realized the agonizing pain these labels put us through and have now developed a
new technique. Instead of burdening us with that sticky, slimy piece of fiber,
they will now “tattoo” the name of the item into its skin using laser
technology. This is the kind of technology we need.

This makes me proud of our country. Just think of what it
could be like if those scientists had to sit there and waste their time on
something like stem cell research. Thank God our Congress has prevented that, so
more important technologies like fruit tattooing can be discovered.

An anonymous source within the White House has told the

Associated Press that the search for a Supreme Court nominee has greatly
accelerated and could come as early as today. The article also states that
President Bush could very well be looking at appointing a female to the court.

A quick decision by the President on this important issue should come as no
surprise. The President is saying he wants to get the conformations moving along
so that we can have a justice seated by the time the court reconvenes in
October. This makes logical sense, but could there be another reasoning behind
this rapid acceleration in looking for someone to fill the vacancy in our
highest court?

The Bush White House has been the center of controversy the last week. The
decision process the President is going through has been greatly overshadowed by
the growing scandal revolving around Karl Rove. The President seems to be
stepping up his search for a nomination in order to bring another news story to
the front pages. This White House is known for its manipulation of headlines.
Karl Rove is the master behind that. The fact that this report is coming from an
anonymous source inside the White House, where anonymous sources is a bad
subject right now, really leaves one to wonder if that could be the reason.