Good afternoon . . .
The Senate moved forward on another judicial nomination. It is the sixth time in the last month the Senate has voted to confirm a Bush appointed judge.
By a 73-24, the Senate voted to confirm Thomas Griffith to a seat on the US District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Griffith is well-known to the Senate as he was the general counsel during the Clinton impeachment.
There was some minor opposition to the Griffith nomination specifically by Sen. Patrick Leahy.
In a related story, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has told Democrats that he expects the nomination of John Bolton to come to a vote later this week.
Senate Confirms Griffith for Appeals Court - Yahoo! News
--
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is known as a far-right liberal who is unable to work in a bi-partisan way with the Republican leadership in the House. Conyers relationship with House Judiciary chairman, Jams Sensenbrenner (R-WI) is so soured that Conyers began in December to hold "forums" in committee rooms.
These forums are so much like committee meetings that Democrats who attend the sessions refer to Conyers as "Mr. Chairman." A titled reserved for "real" committee chairman chosen by the House leadership. Since the "forums" are held in committee rooms, C-SPAN has televised some of them to a national audience. (Note: C-SPAN of late has become just another liberal media outlet.)
The Republican majority has advised the Democrats that they must make it clear that these "forums" are not official committee meetings. Conyers has refused to do so.
Now the leadership has advise Conyers that they need to find another location for their forums. "They were unwilling or unable to make those changes," Lungren said. "At this point, if they want to hold these forums, they'll have to find some other place to do it."
Without a committee room available for the forums, Democrats are seeking other locations.
There is nothing wrong with the Democrats holding "forums" to get their message to the public. In fact, it is probably a good thing. Unfortunately, Rep. John Conyers is doing it the wrong way and misleading the public and witnesses that appear at these meetings. He should know better and either participate in the process by the rules or find himself even more out op the mainstream.
Judiciary GOP pulls the plug on Conyers 'forums'
--
A New Jersey state appeals court ruled today that the New Jersey constitution does not require recognition of same sex marriage.
In a 2-1 ruling, the court said that legislators must change marriage laws before gay couples may wed.
Without legislative action, "there is no basis for construing the New Jersey Constitution to compel the state to authorize marriages between members of the same sex," Appellate Judge Stephen Skillman wrote for the majority.
With a dissenting vote, the case will be heard by the state supreme court.
N.J. Court Rules Against Same-Sex Couples - Yahoo! News
--
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has denied any involvement in the scandal-riddent Oil For Food program administered by the UN.
Investigators are "urgently reviewing" a memo that may demonstrate Annan knew about a contract to a company that employed his son.
The memo describes a Paris metting between Annanofficialsicals from a comoany that later won a $10 million dollar contract with the UN. Cotecna Inspections, SA employed Kojo Annan to oversee the contract.
If accurate, the memo could contradict a major finding of the Independent Inquiry Committee — that there wasn't enough evidence to show that Annan knew about efforts by Cotecna, which employed his son, Kojo, to win the contract. Cotecna learned it won the contract on Dec. 11, 1998, days after the meeting.
A UN spokesperson said Annan has no recollection of the meeting.
Memo Suggests Oil-For-Food Link to Annan - Yahoo! News
--
More tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment