8/28/2005

israel

The "history" of israel can be shown thru maps, and associated written material. The two comments linked below are:
  1. History of Israel and Palestine in VERY Easy To Understand Maps: "There has never been a civilization or a nation referred to as "Palestine" and the very notion of a "Palestinian Arab nation" having ancient attachments to the Holy Land going back to time immemorial is one of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated upon the world!"

  2. Lessons From the Swiss Cheese Map: "Why have Israeli-Palestinian peace talks ignored the importance of good mapmaking?"

The first suggests that Greater Israel is a natural area for the Jewish nation and the second suggests that the breakup of the Oslo II peace talks may have been paritally caused by bad graphics that showed that Palestine area as "cantons" and thus unacceptable.

8/24/2005

links-24

Yet another set of links that have no organization, but that I want to save.
  • RSS Reader software , rss-specifications.com
  • Blog Navigator, RSS/Podcast
  • FeedDemon, RSS / Podcast reader ($30.00)
    • IPodder, the cross-platform podcast receiver
    • Ziepod is an easy-to-use toolkit to reach and manage audio-based content published through podcasts.
  • TouchGraph -- intersite link maps
  • Startup Organizer provide quick access to all of the programs that are automatically started when you turn on or log on to your computer
  • Hardware
  • Blinkx reads what you have on your computer screen and automatically links you to related information local and remote.

Florida

A friend has pointed out the two columns by Krugman on the 2000 Florida recount, See Comment 1)

This is a set of links to the various sites that might be useful in discussing this.

8/19/2005

questions

Roberts once wrote:
the personal beliefs of judicial candidates do not matter because "their ideology should have no role in the decisional process," (News Hounds)

Questions for Roberts
  1. Sen. Charles Schumer 20 , (Right Voices comment)
  2. Dallas Morning News 5
  3. People for the American Way 20, (from DailyKos)
  4. Reason 7

Discussion of reasonable questions:
  1. WeMatter.com Which topics are appropriate: Criminality, Qualifications, Judical Style, Idology, Positions, Personality?
  2. Washington Post
  3. John Roberts's Judicial Temperament (Brad DeLong)
  4. Propriety of Asking Judge Roberts to Comment on Specific Past Supreme Court Rulings , Part 1 Part 2 (FindLaw's Writ, Vikram David Amar)
  5. Originalism and Unenumerated Rights by Armando (DalyKos)
  6. Reasons To Go On Living -- Does anyone believe in a "living Constitution" anymore? (Slate)
  7. The Politics of the SCOTUS Confirmation -- the public now thinks the Senate should consider a Supreme Court nominee's positions on issues in addition to his or her legal background (Daily Kos)
Google search

8/04/2005

activist-

Objective Criteria (resources)

Still trying to get a set of OBJECTIVE definitions of Judicial decisions: It seems to me that any decision can be 1 of 8 outcomes based on which "side" won and which lost,
  1. Constitution WON, Federal law lost
  2. Constitution WON, State law lost
  3. Federal law WON, State law lost
  4. Constitution lost, Federal law WON
  5. Constitution lost, State law WON
  6. Federal law lost, State law WON
  7. Law WON, Individual lost (procedural)
  8. Law lost, Individual WON(procedural)
DEMOCRATIC -- One way of classifying these is that 1,2, and 3 are Anti-Democratic, Dictatorial, in that the most local democratic law lost, 4,5 and 6 are Democratic in that the most local government won, and 7 and 8 are probably best not categorized in this way.

FEDERALIST -- Another way to classify these is that 2,3 and 1? are Anti-Federalist, National, and 5, 6, and 4? are Federalist

Previously discussed in Activist: Constitutionist , Simplicity , Corporate , Social control




Level of "Discovery"

Another topic is the level of discovery that it is "reasonable" to do with respect to a Supreme court appointment

  1. Criminality -- Is the Judge a criminal now, or has he been in the past?
  2. Qualifications -- Is the Judge educated enough, smart enough, experienced enough to serve? -- Note: There has been some disagreement as to whether a judge should be rejected if he is not highly qualified, e.g.: a) Not approved by the AMA, b) We need judged for the common man {TBD}
  3. Judicial Style -- How does the judge decide cases, Based on a Dead Constitution, a Living Constitution, or? based on a set of core moral principals?
  4. Moral leaning -- What is the morality of the judge, e.g. Conservative, Liberal, Religious, Atheist, Fundamentalist, Weak Christian, Jew, Moslem, etc? -- In general, there seems to be a conscientious that we do not admit to considering these, as well as those below, in the approval process, though if a judge seems to, or is suspected as likely to, generally decide according his leanings or positions, then it is probable that these will be explored and considered regardless of the profession to the contrary.
  5. Positions --How would a judge decide on specific "hot" button issues? -- Abortion, Disabled, Free Enterprise, Gay, Gender, Race, etc. Certainly there are people, groups, etc. that either feel strongly about certain issues or are willing to use these issues to further their addenda.
  • Personality and History. -- Is the Judge a nice person, do lots of other people like him, did he rise from the low class... -- This is either stated, in general by his supporters, or criticized as the "politics of personality" if it is negative. (Note: I am not sure where this should be in the aboee list)
In general the people who feel that the Judge should be confirmed state that only the first few should be considered and were in the past, where as those who might oppose the Judge or the nominator tend to explore more of these levels.

Also see: Judgments , Activist , Candidates ...



Resources

C-Span ^f"Roberts" (June 19, 1997, How the Supreme court works)
Resources on the Web (SctNomination)

Offical Supreme court site

Oyaz site > podcasts > Roberts > [feedback]

FindLaw Citation Search
    U.S. = e.g. 410 U.S. 113.