The Washington Times:

Solicitor General Elena Kagan is too political, too leftist, too inexperienced and too disrespectful towards existing law to be confirmed for the U.S. Supreme Court. As Ms. Kagan’s nomination hearings begin on Monday, what we now know about her should disturb fair-minded Americans, and should embolden moderate senators of both parties to avoid rubber-stamping her for a lifetime appointment. The pressure should be most intense not on Republicans, but on Democrats who claim moderation and yet try to explain away Ms. Kagan’s history of leftist proselytizing.

From Robert Bork:

“Ms. Kagan has not had time to develop a mature philosophy of judging,” said Bork, adding that the former Harvard dean’s tenure in academia did not offer her the experience necessary to serve on the high court.
“The academic world is not a place in which you learn prudence and caution, and other virtues of a judge, and she has not had experience anywhere else that I know of,” Bork said.

Ron Bonjean:

Writing for the Daily Princetonian, Kagan wrote about “real Democrats” who are “committed to liberal principles and motivated by the ideal of an affirmative and compassionate government.” She added: “Where I grew up–on Manhattan’s Upper West Side–nobody ever admitted to voting Republican. The real contests for Congress and the state legislatures occurred in early September, when the Democratic primary was held. And the people who won those races and who then took the November elections with some 80 per cent of the vote were real Democrats–not the closet Republicans that one sees so often these days but men and women committed to liberal principles and motivated by the ideal of an affirmative and compassionate government.”

Judge Bork’s takes will be mocked and dismissed out of hand by Democrats, but the Times op-ed reveals eight significant points of serious concern. Justice Sotomayor provided two to three sketchy issues for Senators to poke at. Kagen will be opposed on grounds far more significant and demonstrable.

Hearings begin Monday and all of Kagen’s Clinton era documents have not yet been released. Some sort of hold-up could occur this weekend. But as Kagen’s astonishing lack of experience and leftist ideological stands become more public, political pressure on Senate Democrats will increase. Do they want to go to the mat for Obama this close to the November elections?

Aside from Kagen’s thin resume and troubling legal and academic record, Republicans have additional ammunition as support for her nomination has dropped ten points since May. The man that Democrats continue to loathe and hold as a standard in Robert Bork could become relevant again if Kagen’s hearings begin to remind observers of his.

Posted under OBAMA WATCH, POLITICS

Lorrane Ausley writes a letter to the editor of the Palm Beach Post and clearly indicates her opposition to FCAT. Here’s a bit:

It’s time to replace the FCAT with true testing measures that help our students reach higher goals. It’s time for Florida to rethink policies that dole out core and vital government functions to politically connected private contractors whose only real skill is knowing how to offer the lowest level of service at the lowest bid. It’s time for the political insiders to accept the fact that the FCAT is an experiment that has failed us, our schools and, most important, our kids

As a would-be CFO, Ausley is quite right to speak directly to the cost of FCAT for Florida’s taxpayers. She pointedly calls out the failure of “leaders to do anything about it.”

The current GOP legislative leadership has no intention of doing anything about FCAT as it is crucial to SB6. They intend to resubmit the Bill again under a GOP govenor. Both Rick Scott and Bill McCollum favor SB6 while state wide Democrat candidates have clearly come out against the measure. This distinction between the two party’s offers voters one of the fall’s clear choices.

FCAT and SB6 are not winners for Republicans. McCollum is far too invetested with his party and Jeb Bush to change. If the race for the GOP nod tightens, it could benefit Scott with some voters to pull the rug on FCAT and SB6.

Posted under EDUCATION, FLORIDA POLITICS

From Jeff Solocheck’s fabulous education blog, The Gradebook, come’s this letter to the editor:

SaveDuvalSchools.org.

Posted under EDUCATION, FLORIDA POLITICS

Leader John Boehner will send $1 million of his own to the effort:

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has pledged to contribute $1 million to congressional Republicans’ campaign efforts this fall.

The top House Republican has said Republicans could compete in as many as 100 congressional districts this November, and the NRCC’s support could be key in converting many of those opportunities.

Competitive in 100 seats? Wow. Florida #2 has already been established to be one of those races. The Democrats will do alot to defend the seat whether their nominee is Allan Boyd or Al Lawson as their majority will depend on it. Alot of money is going to be spent in the district after the late August primary by both parties.

Posted under FLORIDA #2

From Victor Davis Hanson:

The reality of Barack Obama is that he was an inexperienced community organizer with an undistinguished record as a Senate newcomer. A perfect storm of popular anger at eight years of George Bush, a lackluster John McCain campaign, Obama’s landmark candidacy as an African-American, a disingenuous campaign promising centrist and bipartisan governance, and the financial meltdown in 2008 got the relatively untried and unknown Obama elected.

That’s about where we are now, with our president playing a character right out of Greek tragedy, who, true to form, is railing about the unfairness of it all.

Obama would have been ok with all the platitudes if he had actually been the centrist, bi-partisan healer he ran as. Instead we got, “I won.” Frightening to those of us whom tried to tell people what this man was about, his presidency has been far worse than we imagined it would. The statist’s policies, the Chicago way tactics, the leftist foreign policy, and the incompetence all have manifested in ways once unimaginable.

Posted under DEMOCRAT TAKEDOWN, OBAMA WATCH, POLITICS

From Monty Neill of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing:

FairTest and our allies propose a robust and effective assessment and evaluation system that would include three key components: limited large-scale standardized testing, extensive school-based evidence of learning, and school quality review process

Neill points out that multiple-choice tests like FCAT and End-of-Course exams are not utilized in other countries:

Many nations with better and more equal education outcomes test only one to three times before high school graduation and largely avoid multiple-choice questions. The emphasis is on quality, not quantity. Better tests would help U.S. schools, but based on criteria set by the Department of Education, the next batch of tests aren’t likely to be much better than current ones. And we’d still waste time and money testing too many grades. Congress should require statewide tests once each in elementary, middle and high school. States could cut back to what many did before No Child Left Behind, when improvement was faster than it is now.

Neill’s position details why so many oppose current reform efforts and legislation such as SB6. Floridians have a decade of experience with FCAT and understand that it has created a dominating culture of testing in our schools that overwhelms learning. Both NCLB and the Obama administration’s Race to the Top mean more of the same.

The Answer Sheet provided this link.

Posted under EDUCATION, FLORIDA POLITICS

And naturally blame it on Israel. From Con Coughlin:

Now I hear that Hizbollah has its own plans to get involved in the new flotilla with the sole aim of heaping further international condemnation on Israel. Incredible though it might seem, my Lebanese sources tell me that senior Hizbollah officials have even discussed the notion of using explosives they captured from Israel during the 2006 war to blow up one of the ships while it is en route to Gaza, and blame the incident on Israeli recklessness.

Far-fetched though this may seem, with tensions between Iran and Israel approaching crisis point over Iran’s refusal to abandon its uranium enrichment programme I can easily understand why Tehran might be encouraging Hizbollah to indulge in some drastic action that will divert attention away from Iran. In the unseen dirty war between Israel and Iran, in which Iranian nuclear scientists regularly go missing, and unexplained “accidents” occur at Iran’s nuclear facilities, I suppose anything is possible, even something as mad as Hizbollah blowing up an aid ship destined for its Hamas allies in Gaza.

Always on the outlook for a “reason” to attack Israel, this would certainly do it for Hezbollah. Iran will be taking part in the flotilla this time. They could assert that they were attacked by Israel as well.

H/T: Jerome Di Costanzo

Posted under MIDDLE EAST WATCH

Rattler Nation calls attention to Allen Boyd’s troubling membership on the Farm Subsidies Appropriation Committee and the fact that his farms have received $1.5 million from it.

Federal farm subsides aren’t private funds, but your tax dollars paid to farmers. It seems that Allen Boyd hasn’t been shy when it comes to receiving a substantial share of your tax dollars — his farm ranks among the top 3 percent nationally.

Rattler Nation also posts a YouTube ad attacking Boyd from the Florida Whig Party. Independent Paul McKain formerly was a member of the party.

Posted under FLORIDA #2

You really didn’t think Willie Meggs would be prosecuting any Democrats did you?

At any rate, the Boyd campaign disagrees with Meggs:

“The facts are that Sen. Lawson has already admitted to taking property that was not his, and only returned the property at the request of the Tallahassee Police Department three days later,” said Boyd campaign manager J.R. Starrett. “The video camera that he aggressively took out of the hands of one of our staffers was damaged beyond repair.”

The camera was damaged, so Lawson’s staff said an identical model was bought and, because the congressman had left the parade, given to Boyd’s son David later Saturday. The original camcorder resurfaced and Lawson’s campaign posted a 30-second clip of the confrontation on YouTube.

The YouTube video is further evidence that Boyd intends to get his opponent on camera:

Lawson is heard in the clip, asking Mason who he works for and why he was at his offices.

The clip ends with Mason saying, “Sir, can you let go?”

Here’s more on the amount of campaign cash available to the candidates.

Posted under FLORIDA #2, Uncategorized

The excellent Louisiana politics blog, The Hayride, provides a link to a blogging colleague, Christopher Tidmore. The later’s report reveals some potential weakness in the Democrat Party appartus in the Crescent City.

And, even if Cao should lose, either Independent, Clay or Vassel, already enjoys enough political support that either has the potential of besting Richmond. In the “First Past the Post” system adopted in Louisiana Congressional elections almost six years ago, the victor could easily win with just 35% of the vote–or less.

Whether on not the Republican Cao prevails is not the point. What is the point is that the local African-American community is not rallying around the Democrat candidate. Three prominant members of the Black community running against Cao could easily deliver the seat back to the Republicans.

Why hasn’t the local Democrat Party been able to instill party discipline? Is this a local phenomena or is it a potential trend among Black voters to look elsewhere than with the Democrats?

Posted under POLITICS