Homespun Symposium XVII

From the Discerning Texan, this week's Homespun Symposium:

The US Constitution requires a "supermajority" only in the following instances:

* Article I - To expel a member of Congress
* Article I - To convict in an Impeachment Trial
* Article I - Legislation can be enacted over a Presidential veto if two-thirds of each house approves
* Aritcle II - The ratification of treaties
* Article V - To amend the Constitution
* 14th Amendment - To restore the right of federal service to Civil War Confederates who had previously sworn allegiance to the United States
* 25th Amendment - Two thirds of both houses can conclude the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.

The Constitution does not require a supermajority to approve judges, however it does give the President the authority to appoint federal judges "with the Advice and Consent" of the Senate.

In Federalist 66, Alexander Hamilton wrote:

"It will be the office of the President to nominate, and, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint. There will of course be no exertion of choice on the part of the Senate. They may defeat one choice of the Executive, and oblige him to make another; but they cannot themselves choose--they can only ratify or reject the choice he may have made."

Here then is my question:

Given the facts listed above, and given the recent attention to the judiciary resulting from the Terri Schiavo and other controversial decisions of an "active judiciary", does the President of the United States have Constitutional authority to an up or down (simple majority) vote on his judicial nominees? If not, describe the basis of Constitutional law under which this right is forfeit.

Please email marvin at marvinhutchens dot com with the permalink to your response and it'll be added here.

Enjoy.

Homespun Response

Discerning Texan
Bunker Mulligan

2 3 4 New Bloggers

Quid Nimis
Quintonotes
Americans for Freedom
Dignan's 75 Year Plan

Best Of Homespun Bloggers March 27th, 2005

Blog d'Elisson

Burying Paul

It is a gloriously sunny spring day, and we have a job to do. We have to bury my friend Paul.

Less than a week ago, Paul had been presiding over his family’s Passover seder. He and wife Andi were making preparations for elder son Alec’s Bar Mitzvah in two weeks. Now Andi stands at a graveside lectern, bravely swallowing her tears as she says her last goodbye to her husband of eighteen years. And now, with tremendous courage, Paul’s two young sons take turns delivering their own farewells to the father that just three days before had been playing and joking with them.

Musing

They got one right

For all the grief I give the Canadian government, I have to admit that this time, they got one right.

The Canadian government has denied Jeremy Hinzman (and perhaps, by extension, other deserters from the US military) refugee status in Canada.

The Bull Speaks!

Well, get out the Kleenex box

"I don’t remember what all Capt. Ziegler said, but he mentioned “Your wife, a marine forever”."

Weapon of Mass Distraction

Mother Arrested For Trying to Stop 14-Year-Old’s Abortion

This story has been lost in the news from Florida this week, but it deserves just as much attention: A woman in southern Illinois was arrested March 17 for trying to stop her 14-year-old daughter’s abortion -- after her daughter was taken out of school against her specific instructions.

MuD&PHuD

Damn it! Stories like this make me sick with sadness and rage:

BEMIDJI, Minn. (AP) - A high school student went on a shooting rampage on this Indian reservation Monday, killing his grandparents at their home and then seven people at his school, "grinning and waving" as he fired, authorities and witnesses said. The gunman was later found shot to death. It was the nation's worst school shooting since the Columbine massacre in 1999.

Citizen Blogger

And then there's this reason to have a Living Will

So let's just say that you fall down and hit your head, God forbid, and become comatose or awake in a vegetative state. Boy, that's a hard sentence to start a story with, isn't it? The point here being, you are unable to speak for yourself. Now let's say that you do have a right to live and you would like to exercise said right with hopes that friends, family, citizens, judges, and doctors will fight for you to stay alive. So far, so good?

2 3 4 New Bloggers

Oh How I Love Jesus
Where The Dolphins Play
Scared Monkeys
espresso roast

Best Of Homespun Bloggers March 20th, 2005

Bill Karl

Baltimore's Sammy Sosa, the only man to hit 60 home runs in three different seasons, is among seven players being subpoenaed by Congress to appear this Thursday at hearings investigating baseball's steroid scandal. In addition, the committee has demanded a variety of documents and records, including before and after photos like the ones shown above.

Eric's Random Musings

Hot!

I promised to post more of my "When I Wore Green" the other day in a comment, but I've been somewhat stuck on what to post. Not that I don't have a lot of memories and many that are worth sharing, but nothing was quite inspiring me. Today, as I realized that summer here in California was quickly approaching I started thinking about the men and women of our armed forces who are in the Middle East. And remembering just what that part of the world is like in the summer time. To tell you the truth, unless you live in Phoenix you probably have no real idea of what summer there is like.

Musing

It's not like they weren't warned that Kyoto was going to be expensive

The full cost to Ottawa of meeting Canadaÿs targets for fighting global warming under the controversial Kyoto accord could exceed $10-billion, senior federal cabinet ministers have been warned. Thatÿs twice what the federal government has budgeted so far for Kyoto.

Watch for Kyoto cost estimates to hit $40 - $50 billion by the end of 2005. After all, the Canadian government will have to start buying credits for some 300 million tonnes of CO2 in the next few months. If you are very generous and allow that their "plan" to reduce emissions will cover 200 million of those 300 million tonnes (it won't), the remaining 100 million tonnes, at an unreasonably low estimate of CDN $15 per tonne (expect the real number to be around CDN $60 + per tonne), will cost $1.5 billion.

Its A Matter Of Opinion

Get Out Of My Life!!

Here in Australia it will take nothing short of a secret agent in your house watching your every move to provoke our apathetic arses into some form of revolt. Don’t worry though, it’s on the way.

Redhunter

"The Naysayers"

To those caught up in the headline of the day, it is easy to see every setback as evidence that we are going to lose and that we better pull back now. Successes seem minimal, and losses are magnified. It is the nature, and indeed the duty, of the press to tell us of what is going wrong. But by concentrating on this we lose our perspective. For if one goes back in history and looks at any war that we have fought from the Revolution on, they are far from glorious stories of victory where we all linked arms and marched off to defeat the enemy.

The Southern Conservative

Hot 97, Al Sharpton, and Sunday Morning

For me, it’s the beginning of a strange day when I find myself drinking my morning coffee, reading the newspaper, and commenting to my wife about how I agree with Al Sharpton. I’d hope it’s obvious that the coffee and the newspaper aren’t what made the morning seem weird to me.

The Terriorists

Imitatin' Humanity

Don't understand humans killin' humans, 'cept maybe durin' a war. I know there are bad people out there who seem to like kilin'. And there are probably some bad animals out there with the same problem. For the most part, though, when we kill stuff it's for eatin'. 'Course there's always the survival of the fittest part to be considered. Ya' don't see a antelope herd on the run from a cheetah takin' time to stop and help the old or very young who can't keep up. For thousands of years it was only the fastest, healthiest, and smartest who made the grade--at least until we figured out how to con humans into protectin' us. (You might wanna' rethink that "dumb animal" label. You don't see us deprivin' ourselves so you can
have a nice house and yard, do you?)

MuD&PHuD

Affirmative Discrimination

A few days ago I briefly ranted about the official Affirmative Action policy at the University of Happyland (where I work). Georgina (Release the Hounds!) commented that she disagreed with me and that she is planning to discuss this very issue at her blog. Although I don't think she's started in on this yet, I had a minute and thought I'd make another comment or three. Here's her stand:

Weapon of Mass Distraction

MythArc Radio Podcast #3

MythArc Radio #3 features the first half of our two-part interview with Dr. Michael S. Heiser, a scholar with a Ph.D. in Biblical Hebrew and Ancient Semitic Languages. His studies are very closely related to the theme of the MythArc, the spiritual war that has raged since Adam and Eve walked in Eden.

We asked Mike about the nature of the supernatural world:
* What is the Divine Council?
* What implications does the Divine Council model have for
Christian theology?
* Why should Christians care?

Homespun Bloggers Tech Support

Today I sent out an email to (hopefully) all Homespun Bloggers requesting volunteers who are willing (and able) to act as Tech Support to current and prospective Homespun bloggers. It has become increasingly obvious of late that my knowledge base is sorely inadequate to take care of the various technical questions I receive.

So, thank you in advance to all the Homespun members willing to provide some help to the less technologically knowledgeable. I will be adding Tech Support member contact info here as it rolls in and I will add a link to the sidebar.

2 3 4 5 6 New Bloggers

Media Soul
E-Involved
phin's blog
team hammer's musings
Bill Karl
Blog d'Elisson

Homespun Symposium XVI

This weeks Homespun Symposium question comes from Bunker Mulligan.

Senator McCain, who has his own personal non-profit organization which allows him to bypass his own campaign finance reform law, would like to see blogs taken down a notch.

Why should anyone in this country support his law as it exists? Who will take a stand and get their "representatives" to rescind this law? What did we see during this last campaign which shows this law is of value?

Email marvin at marvinhutchens dot com with a permalink to your response and it'll be included below.

Enjoy.

Homespun Responses

Bunker Mulligan
Dagney's Rant
Major Dad 1984
Ogre's Politics and Views
XBIP

Best of Homespun Bloggers March 13th, 2005

Proverbs Daily

Why We Are Choosing Private School

I work hard and my wife works even harder staying at home with our kids but the result of all this hard work is only one income. Sending 2 or 3 kids to private school is really going to stretch our budget. So the question we often get from
our friends both Christian and otherwise is, "Why send your kids to private school when public school is free?" Let me respond to that question in detail here.

Musing

Dan Rather - biased to the end

The folks at AIM.org continue to provide a valuable public service by (once again) exposing Dan Rather’s biased ‘reporting’ on the communist Italian jounalist, Giuliana Sgrena. AIM editor Cliff Kincaid quite rightly noted that Rather is using the bad news from the front as part of his habitual left-wing, anti-American game plan. ... Kincaid further noted that while Rather goes to great lengths to ferret out every detail about possible legal or moral infractions on the part of US leaders and the US military, he forgets or purposefully ignores obvious and important details about the activities of those who are accusing the US of impropriety. ... I suppose that none of us should be surprised that Dan Rather has chosen to carry on his left-wing diatribe during the final minutes of his waning career. Rather than admitting he was wrong and attempting to repair some of the damage his overt bias and
underhanded tactics have caused, Dan Rather is going down proudly displaying his bias as an olympic athlete would display a gold medal.

The man is incorrigible.

David M

Annan Courts Hezbollah

AP headline: "U.N. Must Accept Hezbollah, Annan Says."

...The difference between Bush's sentiments and Annan's is telling. It is telling of the leadership each man provides; but more important, it is telling of the effectiveness of the two entities they lead. While Bush's US continues its emergence as the global leader in the defense of freedom and opposition to terror, Annan's UN slouches toward irrelevance.

Weapon of Mass Distraction

Fred on Evolution

I found this observation interesting, coming as it does from a non-Christian: "[E]volutionists are obsessed by Christianity and Creationism, with which they imagine themselves to be in mortal combat. This is peculiar to them. Note that other sciences, such as astronomy and geology, even archaeology, are equally threatened by the notion that the world was created in 4004 BC. Astronomers pay not the slightest attention to creationist ideas. Nobody does--except evolutionists."

MuD&PHuD

Under My Skin

Here are two things that get way, way, deep under my skin.

First, my place of employment. Day to day, awesome. Policies, terrible. I realize that policies are dictated by powers that are beyond the control of anyone I know personally...but that only serves to amplify my frustration. Here is part of a broadcast email we received not too long ago. The topic is hiring policies and Affirmative Action:

Considerettes

Here's proof that terrorists, and Hezbollah in particular, are afraid of democracy.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Nearly 500,000 pro-Syrian protesters waved flags and chanted anti-American slogans in a central Beirut square Tuesday, answering a nationwide call by the militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group for a demonstration to counter weeks of massive rallies demanding Syrian forces leave Lebanon.

Homespun Bloggers Radio, Program #6 released!

The sixth Homespun Bloggers Radio program is on the air! We've got quite an eclectic mix of segments this time around. Here's the list of contributors:

• ZuDfunck (of ZuDfunck) gives us a 70s hippie flashback to an old, but extremely popular, service called Dial-a-Trip which he hosted. But Zud has fast-forwarded to the 21st century, and he gives us some of his updated advice.
  
• Doug Payton (Considerettes) talks to Bill Bennett about his concerns that engaging China in the world economy will keep us from holding them accountable for their human rights record.
  
• Andrew Ian Dodge (of Dodgeblogium) discusses a "kerfuffle" going on with the mayor of London, England. It's yet another example of an inappropriate Nazi reference made by someone who just won't apologize for it.
  

To listen, click here or on the "Homespun Bloggers Radio" button to the right. The current audio feed is a loop of shows #5 & #6. Also, you can click here to download a high-quality version of the show. (Scroll down on the right side to download previous shows.) The 4 previous shows can also be heard by clicking here or on "Previous Show(s)" beneath the HBR button.

Homespun Bloggers: If you're interested in participating, E-mail me at "frodo at thepaytons dot org". It's open to all members.

Visitors: If you'd like to get on the air with HBR, just join our band of bloggers and you're eligible. (And immediately getting over 100 links to your own blog ain't so bad either!)

2 New Bloggers

austin's blog
Somewhere on A1A

Best Of Homespun Bloggers March 3rd, 2005

Just War Series - Discrimination

"The principle of discrimination means that one may not licitly make attacks in which noncombatants are directly intended to be killed" The words "directly" and "intended" are critical. However, before we can even discuss these concepts, we
must sort out what constitutes "combatant" and "noncombatant" status. We will also discuss how much risk our forces should accept in order to avoid killing noncombatants.

Three Men and a Blog

Let’s protect the Telecoms!

Municipalities are now exploring providing their residents with free Internet access. Towns such as Austin, Philadelphia and Cincinnati. Residents get the benefit of free internet access, (at this stage) the towns get a little free publicity, and the businesses hosting the hotspots get more traffic, and potentially more sales. When a service is provided by the government, the potential to be a boondoggle is great – even greater when technology is involved