Politics Blog

Mike Fisher was the GOP candidate for Pa. Gov. back in 2002. Despite pre-election media “polls” alleging he would lose by 15-20 points, when the ballots (and the Democrat ghost, felon and multiple votes) actually were counted, Fisher put in a decent showing. He took 45% of the vote to “Fast Eddie” Rendell’s 53%.

Before running for governor, Fisher had a long career as a criminal prosecutor and a Republican state legislator, along with a stint as the attorney general of the Keystone State.

Mike Fisher has been a federal appeals court judge for the last two years.

The Senate confirmed Fisher to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals – on which Sam Alito also happened to sit – back in Dec. 2003. With no opposition. By voice vote.

Of course, that was back when the angry left was screaming and shouting about Bush, Saddam, Iraq, the economy, oil prices, and Gitmo, so perhaps everybody was distracted, no?

Wait a minute.
Waaait a minute.

The angry left *still* is screaming about those things. And nervous and non-voting conservatives *still* are keeping them in business by tuning in and subscribing.

In any event, I decided to surf the Net to see how Judge Fisher was panning out.

* * *

In this case, Judge Fisher threw out a plea by a foreign national to reverse the denial of his request for asylum and to prevent deportation. Meaning the claimant was ordered removed from the country.

Here a panel including Judge Fisher smacked around a crime-bot and dismissed his appeal of an order in which he got hammered on good time credits for his criminal sentence and resulting stay at Club Fed.

In this case, Judge Fisher threw out an appeal by a claimant whose request for SSI and federal disability benefits had been denied.

Here Judge Fisher threw out a claim for breach of contract and so-called “bad faith” against a liability insurance company.

In this case, Judge Fisher upheld the dismissal of a multi-plaintiff lawsuit against a local school district in connection with constitutional claims related to a survey of its students’ lives and experiences. It’s a complicated case with a multitude of issues, several of which revolve around the so-called “constitutional right to privacy.”

Just before having to acknowledge U.S. Supreme Court cases in which rights to privacy have been found (many people including yours truly would say “invented"), Judge Fisher made a comment that speaks at high volumes about one of his core judicial philosphies:

The United States Constitution does not mention an explicit right to privacy and the United States Supreme Court has never proclaimed that such a generalized right exists.

Indeed.

I could go on and on, but I’ll stop right there.

Mike Fisher is 61 years old.

He’s likely to remain on the bench – deporting people, throwing out claims for public-money disability benefits, tossing lawsuits against insurers, beating down crime-bots, and being a solid constructionist on statutory and constitutional issues – for two decades or even more.

-- Jayson

Carlos Bea is one of the 40 jurists the Senate GOP has confirmed to the federal appeals courts since President Bush first took office in 2001.

Yeah, forty. Well, actually, there were forty-two confirmed circuit judges. But Michael Chertoff became DHS Secretary and John Roberts was elevated to Chief Justice.

Getting back to Judge Bea, he sits {gulp} on the Ninth Circus and was nominated after serving on the San Francisco Superior Court.

So, he’s one of those Souters about which perma-angry conservatives twitch and fume, right?

Wrong.

In this case, Judge Bea proved his conservative bona fides by dissenting from the majority of the Ninth Circus in connection with a public school racial gerrymandering/forced-integration plan by the City of Seattle.

The money quote from Judge Bea:

Up to now, the American ‘melting pot’ has been made up of people voluntarily coming to this country from different lands, putting aside their differences and embracing our common values. To date it has not meant people who are told whether they are white or non-white, and where to go to school based on their race.

* * *

[T]he majority does not hesitate to endorse the [School] District’s use of the racial tiebreaker. Rather than recognizing the protections of the individual against governmental racial classifications, the majority instead endorses a rigid racial governmental grouping of high school students for the purpose of attaining racial balance in the schools . . . . I do not share the majority’s confidence that such a plan is constitutionally permissible.

* * *

The way to end racial discrimination is to stop discriminating by race.

Indeed.
Amen.

Joining Judge Bea in that anti-"affirmative action"/pro-freedom dissent were Judges Kleinfeld, Tallman and Callahan.

Judge Callahan, like Judge Bea, was nominated by George W. Bush.

Judge Kleinfeld was appointed to the federal bench by Reagan, then elevated to the appeals court by George H.W. Bush.

All six of the jurists who signed onto the pro-race quota majority opinion were nominated to the Ninth Circus either by Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton. Only Judge Tallman – a post-1994 Clinton appointee – went against the racial gerrymandering position of the Clinton/Carter Cartel.

That’s quite analogous to the sorts of voting patters we see in the U.S. Senate, isn’t it?

Yep.

Six of seven Democrat-appointed judges voted in favor of government-imposed racial quotas.

Whereas three of the four GOP-appointed judges (Judge Kozinski wrote separately, concurring in the majority’s result but not its reasoning) vehemently were against that concept.

6/7 = Democrat judges in favor of gummint racial quotas.
4/4 = GOP judges against gummint racism.
3/4 - GOP judges willing to strike down Seattle’s public school racial quota system.

Go figure.

-- Jayson

There are some truly serious issues Congress could choose to tackle. This is not one of them. (Link via Steve Schippert)

-- Lorie Byrd

More evidence that Judge Alito is my kind of judge:

Late on an October night in 1974, Memphis, Tenn., police officer Elton Hymon responded to a call about a break in. At the scene,a neighbor said she’d heard glass shattering and pointed to the house next door. Hymon went behind it. He heard a door slam. Someone ran into the yard and stopped at a 6-foot-high chain-link fence at the yard’s edge. Hymon shined his flashlight at the person and saw a teenager who he could tell was unarmed. Hymon called, “Police, halt.” The teen started climbing the fence. Hymon shot him in the back of the head, fatally. Edward Garner was a 15-year-old black eighth grader. He was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed about 110 pounds. A purse and $10 were found on his body.

After Edward Garner’s death, his father sued, arguing that his son’s civil rights had been violated. The 6th Circuit, one of the federal courts of appeal, agreed, ruling that Garner’s shooting violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable seizures. In the process, the court struck down a Tennessee statute based on an 18th-century common-law “fleeing felon” rule, which allowed police to use deadly force against a felony suspect who was trying to elude arrest. In the Garner case, the 6th Circuit said that before shooting a suspect, a police offer must have probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a danger.

…

In 1984, the Memphis Police Department and the state of Tennessee appealed the 6th Circuit’s decision to the Supreme Court. Samuel Alito, then a lawyer in the Solicitor General’s office, was assigned to help decide whether the Reagan administration should take sides. “I believe that the decision below is wrong,” Alito wrote in a cover note, referring to the 6th Circuit’s ruling

…

“Was the shooting reasonable?” Alito asked. His answer was yes. “Many of the facts recited by the court of appeals"—like Garner’s youth and minor crime—"seem essentially irrelevant.” To Alito, the case came down to this: If Officer Hymon shot, “there was the chance that he would kill a person guilty only of a simple breaking and entering; that is essentially what occurred. If he didn’t shoot, there was a chance that a murderer or rapist would escape and possibly strike again.”

-- PoliPundit

Job Creation - 2005 - Aggregate

Over the past eleven months, the economy has created 2,438,000 net jobs, of which 1,840,000 have been on the payrolls of established companies.

The following high-paying labor sectors have added substantial quantities of net W-2 jobs during that period:

262,500 - Health care services.
209,600 - Professional services.
132,400 - Finance & Insurance.
296,000 - Construction.
52,300 - Real estate.

Unemployment Rates

8.3 - Nov. 1975.
7.0 - Nov. 1985.
5.6 - Nov. 1995.
5.0 - Nov. 2005.

Wage Growth

For lower-tiered workers – non-managers in the services sectors and production-line workers in the factory sector – average hourly wages increased in November for the twenty-third consecutive month. Over the past year, average hourly and weekly wages for those workers both increased 3.2 percent.

Tax Cuts

President Bush’s major slate of tax cuts – across-the-board reductions in income tax rates, reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains, and massive tax breaks for small businesses – were enacted in May 2003.

The effect of those tax cuts on total non-farm payroll employment throughout the economy can be measured as follows:

Payroll Jobs

May 2000 - 131.9 million.
May 2001 - 132.2 million.
May 2002 - 130.3 million.
May 2003 - 129.8 million.
May 2004 - 131.4 million.
May2005 - 133.4 million.
Nov 2005 - 134.3 million.

That sharp increase in payroll employment following those tax cuts – and despite the effects of the dot.com bust, 9/11, oil prices, Iraq, etc. – nearly is as much of a *coincidence* as a trust-fund liberal malcontent sucking up to Daddy Money Bags after finding out the latter might be thinking about changing his estate plan.

* * *

Note: Raw data here, here and here.

-- Jayson

Here are excerpts of a press release and news conference that will not receive headline treatment by the likes of CNN, MSNBC, NPR, the major networks, the big-city papers, the major blogs, or especially by NRO:

Since taking office, the President has directed an increase of border security funding of 60 percent, and has added resources to hire an additional 1,900 Border Patrol agents. And just a month or so ago, the President signed an appropriations bill that will provide an additional thousand agents, and 2,000 additional [detention] beds, which [ICE] can use to detain people that [it] apprehend[s].

* * *

[ICE is] in the process this year of . . . [moving] from ‘catch-and-release’ to ‘catch-and-remove,’ meaning that people who [ICE] catch[es] at the border are not going to be released on bail; they are going to be held until they are removed back to their home countries.

* * *

[ICE is] moving systematically – nationality by nationality – to apply expedited removal and catch-and-return across the border.

With respect to Hondurans and Brazilians and Nicaraguan [and Guatemalan] nationals apprehended across the entire Southwest border, they’re all now in expedited removal, and that’s allowed [ICE] to decrease the processing time [for removal] from an average of 90 days to approximately 32 days.

* * *

[S]ince [ICE] started the Secure Border Initiative, [the federal government] has removed more than 3,000 non-Mexican illegal aliens using expedited removal, including approximately 300 Honduran nationals every week . . . .

* * *

For the entire fiscal year [2005], the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended over 1.1 million total illegal incursions . . . . Within that group of 1.1 million . . . over 165,000 [were non-]Mexicans . . . . [A]bout 139,000 [of the 1.1 million] . . . were apprehended . . . illegally [returning] . . . [into] the country.

That’s not even the tip of the iceberg.

That press release goes on for scores of paragraphs. DHS Secretary Chertoff fielded numerous questions too.

Read the whole thing.

-- Jayson

Here are some random musings derived from the political wires:

Border Control

in Maryland:

“Bethesda Lawyer and Washington, D.C. Law Firm Plead Guilty to Immigration Fraud.”

Read the whole thing.

The World’s Smallest Violin

is playing for this rancid piece of garbage.

The World’s Smallest Violin - Part II

is playing for this crime-bot.

Man, I’m all broken up inside about all these crime-zombies getting sentenced to death and executed and such. I’m so distraught I might even have to go to Starbucks, get a mocha, and then read the sports section of the Sac Bee for a while.

$$$$

Total incomes for Joe and Jane Casual Voter and others on Main Street increased above and beyond inflation in four of the last five months; the one down month being that which was affected by Hurricane Bush, er, Katrina.

Rising incomes.
GDP growth of 4.3% last quarter.
Four years of positive GDP growth.
Two-plus years of *strong* GDP growth.
Nearly 2 million W-2 jobs created this year.
Nearly 2.5 million total jobs created this year.
Nearly 4.5 million W-2 jobs created since June 2003.

Yep.

But I suspect 1/3 of those out there in TV Land nevertheless *believe* the country is mired in a recession – even as many of them are driving to Nordstrom in their new Land Rovers.

What liberal media?

What problem with public-sector edukaytion?

What problem with by-rote Democrats being divorced from reality?

Oppressive Gummint

in France.

{gulp}

Oppressive Gummint - Part Deux

Students at two city high schools face $103 fines if they curse while defying teachers or administrators. School police officers already have fined about two dozen students.

{gulp}

That’s in Georgia, right?

Nope.

Tennessee? Alabama? North Carolina? Mississippi?

Nope.

Connecticut.

-- Jayson

Townhall.com is sponsoring a great project called Thank a Soldier Week. The “week” begins December 19th, but you can go to the Thank a Soldier site and send your email thank you now.

Drew Bond was recently at the Country Music Awards collecting thank you’s from country music artists. My favorite of the video clips was from George Strait telling the troops “Merry Christmas.” You can view the clips at the Thank a Soldier site.

Although the name is “Thank a Soldier,” the thank you extends to all members of the armed forces. It is a great idea. Please add your thank you today.

Recently I pointed readers to USO’s Operation Phone Home which is working on getting calling cards for servicemen and women overseas. A reader sent me the link to Subscriptions for Soldiers , which matches soldiers to those interested in donating gift subscriptions of participating magazines for them. You can send an AAFES gift certificate to those in the service at this site.

America Supports You links to “over 150 non-profit organizations dedicated to helping our troops and their families.” It is an amazing resource.

As you can see from the sampling above, there are many really good programs out there matching those in the armed forces with those who want to do something to show them how much they are appreciated. Americans are good and generous people and the outpouring of support for those defending our freedom is truly inspiring.

Please list your favorite way to support the troops in the comments section.

-- Lorie Byrd

Is it just me, or does it seem that everytime John Kerry opens his mouth to say something about Iraq that he decreases his presidential chances? I don’t have a clue what his position on Iraq is. It changes with the wind, and he just drones on and on when he addresses the subject. I get the feeling when I hear Kerry talking about Iraq that he goes on for as long as he can hoping to stake out every conceivable competing position. Didn’t he learn anything in 2004?

Update: I had not seen this Kerry quote before I read it in the Hotline’s Blogometer today:

John Kerry is getting hit by conservatives for criticizing Bush for using military backdrops, and saying: “Every troop I’ve met in Iraq comes up to me and says, ‘Thanks for speaking out on this.’” While the line has not been published in any MSM outlets, it apparently came from his post-Bush speech rebuttal, and seems to have been 1st posted at The Corner by John Podhoretz, who scoffs: “Every single one? Gee, I really don’t believe him.”

I was inclined to agree with Podhoretz, but then wondered how many of the troops would actually choose to speak to him. Jonah Goldberg had the same thought.

Update II: David Limbaugh has a good column on the Democrats’ problems answering the President on the Iraq War. I especially like his description of John Kerry’s positions on the war as “ever-tortured.”

-- Lorie Byrd

While angry leftists in the media have spent the better part of the last five years projecting their self-loathing at George W. Bush, and nervous conservatives in turn have kept them on the air by watching their flotsam & jetsam programs, Bush and the GOP Senate caucus have been busy, under the radars, stacking the federal appeals courts.

There have been well over three dozen conservative/Republican jurists confirmed to the appellate levels of the federal bench since Bush took office. The far leftists who control the current version of the Democrat Party only tried to Bork a few of them. The remainder of Bush’s appellate nominees sailed through the Senate without so much as a peep from the MediaCrats.

We’ve already taken a look at the doings of Judges Owen, Rogers Brown, Sykes, Rogers, Sutton, and McConnell.

Another judge to which attention should be paid is Steven Colloton of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Colloton clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist. He then worked for Bush 41’s Justice Department. Then he worked {gulp} in Ken Starr’s Independent Council’s Office.

Uh, yeah, *that* Ken Starr.

Prez Bush eventually made him a United States Attorney. Then appointed him to the federal appeals court.

Judge Colloton was confirmed in Sept. 2003. Only one Senator – Fritz Hollings – voted “no.”

Yeah, me too. I’ve not been able to figure that out. You would think a guy who worked for Ken Starr would have been spat upon by the MediaCrats.

On theother hand, and as alluded to above, keep in mind the Democrats’ rich and angry puppet masters often are playing checkers while those of us here on Planet Reality are playing chess. Just ask Senate Majority Leader Tom . . . Tom D . . . Tom Dash . . ., oh, whatever.

Moving on:

In this case, Judge Colloton threw out a “civil rights” and “excessive force” lawsuit that was filed against two cops after the plaintiffs were arrested in connection with a traffic stop and the ensuing discovery of dope in their possession.

The money quote from Colloton:

Police officers are not expected to parse code language as though they were participating in a law school seminar . . . .

Amen.

Here Judge Colloton threw out a request to overturn an administrative order of deportation. Meaning the claimant was ordered removed from the country.

In this case, Judge Colloton threw out a petition by a labor union to set aside an administrative ruling denying the union’s claims for unfair labor practices.

In this case, Judge Colloton threw out a disability claim against various state vocational rehabilitation agencies.

Here Judge Colloton threw out a jury’s verdict against a railroad company in connection with massive injuries suffered by a person struck by a train.

This judge ain’t a bleeding heart “librule,” that’s for sure.

He’s 42 years old.

IOW, Judge Colloton will be tossing out personal injury verdicts, ordering people deported from the country, throwing out lawsuits against cops, dismissing public-money disability claims, and smacking around labor unions for decades, Chief.

Decades.

-- Jayson