AP News Headlines:

Bush nominates conservative for Supreme Court

“Judge Alito is unquestionably qualified to serve on our nation’s highest court. And on the bench, he has displayed a judicial philosophy marked by judicial restraint and respect for the limited role of the judiciary to interpret the law and not legislate from the bench.” – Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

“Unlike (Miers) nomination, which was derailed Thursday by Bush’s conservative allies, Alito faces vocal opposition from Democrats.”

“The nomination of Judge Alito requires an especially long, hard look by the Senate because of what happened last week to Harriet Miers. Conservative activists forced Miers to withdraw from consideration for this same Supreme Court seat because she was not radical enough for them. Now the Senate needs to find out if the man replacing Miers is too radical for the American people.” – Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Samuel Alito’s conservative views
earned him nickname ‘Scalito’

Alito has endorsed abortion restrictions

However we must remember that…
A new justice will not make the difference on Roe v. Wade in the court’s present configuration. Besides the moderate O’Connor, five of the eight other justices have endorsed a woman’s right to the procedure.
As an appeals court judge, Alito was required to follow Supreme Court precedent, which he did.
In 2000, for example, Alito was among the judges who ruled that a New Jersey law banning late-term abortions was unconstitutional, following high court precedent.

Just one more pro-life justice can’t overturn Roe v. Wade. We need one or two more to flip that.

Mr. Alito’s Speech following his nomination

Reaction to Alito nomination

Bloggers Reaction:

Powerlineblog:
Alito is a solid choice. Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid have already come out against him; another good sign

We’re about to get the fight over Constitutional principles that conservatives have looked forward to for years.

Hugh Hewitt: (no link due to questionable ad)
“Judge Alito is a great nominee, and as a result a great political battle lies ahead.”

Michelle Malkin

“This is a nominee the Right can get behind.”

Sen. Bill Frist on Fox News (via Jason Smith): “If the Democrats are looking for a fight, we’ll be up for the fight. We won’t back down… We’re gonna get an up or down vote on the Senate floor and if the Democrats want a fight, they’ll get one.”

ConfirmThem.com:

“For my own part, I’d also like to thank President Bush. He’s given us a nominee worth fighting for. Before the Miers nomination, one of our bloggers (I believe it was feddie), asked the President to “cowboy up.” He has. And it’s time for us to do the same.”

As well as…

“Dems — filibuster this!”

The Confirm Alito Coalition is up @ GOP Bloggers

Travis’ Comments:
YIPPEE!
This is the kind of justice the U.S. conservative movment has been dreaming of!
Now, let’s get him confirmed!

Square Talk Radio’s comments on Miers downfall should be up today. Look for a new show soon. Also, Virtue Mag is sure to have an article.

Michelle Malkin has a huge amount of updates.

Nicknamed “Scalito” for views resembling those of conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito Jr. is a favorite son of the political right. Appointed in 1990 by George H.W. Bush to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Alito has earned a reputation for intellectual rigor and polite but frequent dissent in a court that has been historically liberal. His mettle, as well as a personable demeanor and ties to former Republican administrations, has long had observers buzzing about his potential rise to the high court. “Sam Alito is in my mind the strongest candidate on the list,” says Pepperdine law Prof. Douglas Kmiec. “I know them all . . . but I think Sam is a standout because he’s a judge’s judge. He approaches cases with impartiality and open-mindedness.”

A New Jersey native, the 55-year-old Alito received a bachelor’s degree from Princeton and graduated from Yale Law School. He worked in the solicitor general’s office during the Reagan administration and was a U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey when George H.W. Bush nominated him to the Third Circuit. His 15 years on the bench have been marked by strong conservatism on a case-by-case basis that avoids sweeping opinions on constitutionality.

In 1997, Alito authored the majority opinion upholding a city’s right to stage a holiday display that included a Nativity scene and a menorah because the city also included secular symbols and a banner emphasizing the importance of diversity. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Alito was the sole dissenter on the Third Circuit, which struck a Pennsylvania law that required women seeking abortions to consult their husbands. He argued that many of the potential reasons for an abortion, such as “economic constraints, future plans, or the husbands’ previously expressed opposition . . . may be obviated by discussion prior to abortion.” The case went on to the Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court’s decision 6 to 3.

Harry Reid hates him.

“This is not one of the names I’ve suggested to the president,” Reid said yesterday of Alito on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

“In fact, I’ve done the opposite,” he said. “I think it would create a lot of problems.”

Well, boo-hoo.

Here is the video. David Frum likes this nominee. As do I.

Stay tuned to Square Talk Radio for a late show, that was recorded before we knew who would be nominated. We predicted a woman, which was incorrect. But we also predicted Bush would choose a conservative, and that the Right would get behind this nominee full-force. We knew he’d made an ingenius move with nominating Miers first, then removing her. Brilliant.

After taking shelter in a location on Florida’s east coast near the community of Melbourne, Wilma crossed the state in the morning and early afternoon. Pounding rain and fast winds caused power outages throughout the state, the storm covering nearly all of Florida for several hours.

Wilma also sent a strong warning ahead of herself. Late at night on Sunday, several tornadoes touched down near Cocoa Beach and the neighboring Merritt Island, where NASA’s Cape Canaveral is located. One such twister passed directly by the location where I was. Allow me to dramatize for a moment and explain how tense this was. Although I’m sure this isn’t true with more powerful twisters, these tornadoes were almost completely silent, meaning the only way to know they were coming is to listen for the fierce rain that always accompanied them. A sort of panicky feeling descends as the constant light drizzle cuts off and is replaced by dead silence for a minute or two before the ceiling above your head is pounded with a strong volley of rain. Fortunately for us, the tornado diverted course and passed harmlessly into a wildlife refuge that was literally across the street from the location. This has apparently occurred elsewhere in Florida, and not always with harmless results, as one might imagine. However, such reports are still coming in at this point and my situation (having come back to Lee County) isn’t very conducive to information flow.

Power has been disabled throughout much of the state, but generators are being brought online by the minute. Land lines are unreliable, and many power lines are down. It is midnight as I write this, so I’ll have to wait until dawn to find out more. The city of Naples, which is just a few miles south of me, received the direct hit from the hurricane, so a close-up examination will be necessary at some point in the near future. Until next time, stay with VirtueMag.

How many total people has Osama bin Laden killed? And what percent were Americans? Muslim? Jew?

Does anyone know?

They say the prices get a boost. Either way, someone is looking to make an extra buck, and with all these hurricanes that someone is living high.

Well, actually they dodge the dolphins thrown at them because of Wilma.

I’ll bet it’s interesting to play NFL on Friday…must feel really odd.

Hours from beating the record HT: Brendan Loy

...WILMA STILL INLAND AND DRIFTING NORTHWARD OVER YUCATAN…
...HURRICANE FORCE WINDS HAVE PERSISTED OVER YUCATAN FOR 24 HOURS…

A HURRICANE WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR ALL OF THE FLORIDA KEYS…
INCLUDING THE DRY TORTUGAS AND FLORIDA BAY. A HURRICANE WATCH
MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH
AREA…GENERALLY WITHIN 36 HOURS.

Yeah…drifting North. And the Florida keys are being evacuated. Here’s a look at the TD:

And it looks fine for us up here on the east coast, as the Hurricane accelerates out to sea, but we’re keeping an eye on it.

Ocean waves surged over the narrow strip of land holding Cancun’s resort hotels Saturday as Hurricane Wilma crawled over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, keeping some 30,000 tourists huddled in hotels and shelters amid shrieking winds and shattering glass.

The slow advance of the storm, which killed 13 people in Haiti and Jamaica last week, gave Florida more time to prepare but meant another day of misery for people riding out 120 mph winds and flooding in hot, leaky shelters with little food and water.

After battering Cozumel Island with 140 mph winds Friday, Wilma came ashore overnight near Playa de Carmen in a sparsely populated area of luxury resorts about 30 miles south of Cancun and creeped toward this city, weakening to a Category 3 storm.

The storm was expected to pummel the tip of Yucatan all day Saturday before moving into the Gulf of Mexico, curling around Cuba’s western end and sprinting toward Florida for an expected landfall Monday.

Source

Cancun is getting hit hard:

Storm Track: “Right now I am at a loss for words to express what must be happening in Cancun. ... A surface station on Cancun reported a wind gust to 133 mph before all contact was lost. The devastation there must be staggering. Wilma remains a very strong hurricane capable of doing tremendous damage. The center is barely crawling to the north-northwest at 3 mph. With this long of a duration, it’s hard to imagine what will be left in Cancun.”

What do we have to worry about when this hurricane hits Florida?

Wilma is a huge storm, and will be able to maintain much of her strength if she remains over land only 36 hours or less. ... I’d give Wilma a 20% chance of arriving on the Florida west coast as a Category 3 or higher storm, 40% as a Category 2, 30% as a Category 1, and 10% as a tropical storm. On Florida’s east coast, knock these value down by half a Category (10 – 15 mph). The region of Florida most at risk is no clearer than three days ago, and could still be anywhere from the Keys to middle of the state.

The greatest threat to Florida will be from Wilma’s storm surge and winds, since she will be moving too fast to dump more than 5 – 10 inches of rain. The rain will be concentrated on the north side of the hurricane, since there will be some cold air there that will trigger more condensation. Areas to the north of the eye’s passage will see winds a full Category—25 to 30 mph—lower than those on the south. This is because the storm’s high rate of forward motion, near 25 – 30 mph, will add to the windspeeds seen on the south side of the Wilma’s counterclockwise rotation, and subtract on the north side. Storm surges tend to be worse with large and faster moving hurricanes, so I would expect a storm surge higher than average on the west coast of Florida. If Wilma is a Category 2 hurricane at landfall, expect a storm surge characteristic of a Category 3 hurricane. Storm surge flooding should be only 2 – 4 feet on the east coast of Florida, and wind damage will be the main threat there. Since the storm will be moving so fast, the duration of hurricane force winds will be just a few hours.

Brendan Loy has more.
Two more Pictures…

Saddam defiant as ever. Sick.

I’m dead serious. Sometimes I wonder if the MLB, the NBA, and the NFL are all rigged. What do you think? Monday night’s homer by Pujols wasn’t rigged? Or was it?

They say it’s not scripted, but sometimes I wonder. But, I live for this, so I’ll put that behind me. Maybe.