This blog is designed to be of technical assistance to those who follow it. From time to time however, this blogger will give a brief take on current events.
First the swearing in of a new Associate Justice of the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) Elena Kagan.
If the dean of the Harvard Law School is not qualified then who is? But here is my take. First she is not a scholar of the US Constitution which is badly needed on the court as it continues to pretend that it can overturn former precedent willy nilly and ignore even the strict construction of the Constitution that led Associate Justice Hugo Black to become regarded as a member of the Court. His insisting on the destruction of his personal papers was a shattering blow to an accurate history of the SCOTUS. Nonetheless his willingness to defend statements in the Constitution like "Congress shall make NO law" would have made fascinating and enlightening reading.
Okay as to Ms. Kagan. Again no questions asked or answered by the Senate or her on the tough issues of national security, homeland security, and federalism. Strangely I welcome Arizona pursuing its immigration enforcement law just because these issues need to be sorted out by SCOTUS and protection of the border and control of immigration is definitely an issue of HS/HD! So in fact we continue to face the prospect that SCOTUS will carve new ground and ignore the meagre and often strange precedents that exist, like its past upholding of Asian Exclusion Law which prohibited Japanese and Chinese from becoming US citizens until as late as the McCarran-Walters Act (otherwise destructive to Constitutional norms IMO) until 1952. So time will tell.
Second subject, Haiti! By Labor Day we will have a better picture but here is my take. First, the US cannot even provide the adquate sheltering needed for the over 1M Haitians still displaced by the January Earthquake. Clean water and adequate food and security is still a huge issue as the US continues to pretend that there is an operating Haitian Government. This pretension will be ended IMO by Labor Day. The government like that in Afghanistan is a corrupt US puppet.
Third subject! The GOM BP Catastrophe. Methane! We have no idea what exactly has happened to the chemistry of the GOM and no idea of impacts on landfalling oil on flora and fauna. BP looking more and more like it will be able to lay off all of its costs on the federal taxpayer. Note NO federal litigation files yet against BP not even protective TRO's on document destruction or manipulation of evidence.
So that's all folks for now.
