President Bush finally bowed to pressure from the radical right and nominated Judge Sam Alito this morning to replace the failed nomination of crony and not-conservative-enough-for-the-ultra-right-wing Harriet Miers.

While this nomination of an extremely conservative judge is an obvious attempt to pander to the radical right in hopes of returning to their good graces, it’s also a symbolic middle finger to every moderate and progressive in America who don’t, as Amy Poehler of SNL put it this weekend, believe that Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs to church every Sunday.

While a certain number of people may think this is a good move, the fact is that the President has choosen to replace a moderate conservative free thinking woman with an ulta-conservative pro establishment man in the Supreme Court, and that’s too bad for the rest of America. More soon..

Long anticipated indictments finally came down today against the Vice Presidents Chief of Staff, more could be on the way against the Presidents Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and VP Cheney will be called as a witness to trial in the coming months.

Like I’ve been saying for months, there’s a culture of corruption in the White House and these indictments are just the beginning of what we’re going to learn about that corruption in the coming months and years.

“Americans want to be assured that the next administration will bring honor and dignity to the White House.” George Bush, August 2000

So after a month of “She’s the best for the job… I have complete confidence she’ll be nominated” pronouncements, Harriet Miers is out as a nominee for the Supreme Court.

The next nominee will undoubtedly be someone with the stamp of approval from the ultra right wing of the Republican party, who flexed their muscle and got Miers withdrawn. So much for that “No matter what you say about George Bush, he’s his own man and makes his own decisions” line I’ve heard a thousand times in the last four years.

This move makes it crystal clear that the small percentage of Americans who make up the ultra right want nothing less than someone who will be an ideologue when making judgements (especially on abortion), and that they own President Bush.

So much for “I’m a uniter, not a divider”, but then again, so much for anything the President has ever said, because this move proves above all others that he’s not working for what the majority of Americans want, he’s working for the bible beaters who think they’re going to heaven and we’re all going to hell.

So let’s get ready for a new nominee who will make the wingnut right happy and who’s sole qualification – and purpose – for being on the Supreme Court will be to outlaw a woman’s right to choose.

By the way, nice timing on the withdrawl. Not everyday you can time the withdrawl of a Supreme Court nomination with indictments coming down against top administration officials.

2,000 American soldiers have now died in Iraq.

Just over a year ago, that number was at 1,000, and what I said back then still is true today:

Sadder still, the administration has yet to define a clear exit strategy.

Apparently the only thing that’s changed since then is the rate at which are troops are being killed.

Shame on Dems and Republicans on this one:

The U.S. Senate tonight defeated an amendment by Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) by a vote of 15 to 82 that would have blocked funding for two extravagant projects in Alaska and directed $125 million from those projects to the repair of the Twin Spans Bridge over Lake Pontachartrain which was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Kudos go to my Senator – Russ Feingold of Wisconsin – who was one of only four Democrats to vote for the reallocation of funds away from the ‘bridge to nowhere’ in Alaska to the reconstruction in Louisiana where the money is really needed.

First she was just unqualified, now Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers looks plain unprepared as well:

Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers flunked her first test before the Senate Judiciary Committee by providing “incomplete” and “inadequate” responses to her questionnaire, committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and ranking Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said Wednesday. – San Francisco Chronicle

You know it’s bad when even Arlen Specter is dragging you down, but never fear Harriet, your hero and benefactor George W. Bush will clear up the confusion!

Secondly, the questionnaire that she filled out is an important questionnaire, and obviously they will address the questions that the senators have in the questionnaire — or as a result of the answers to the questions in the questionnaire. But one thing the questionnaire does show — if people look at it carefully — is Harriet’s judicial philosophy. – George W. Bush

At which point he leaned one elbow on the podium, winked, and blurted out his trademark over confident ‘heh’ – which despite being a signature gesture of his presidency is a move more appropriate of a half drunk frat boy at the tail end of $2 pitcher night making his move on the attractive bartender.

So what to do about Harriet’s nomination to the highest court in the land? As a registered Democrat, it’s hard to know where to stand. At the end of the day, the Democrats don’t have any power to reject or approve her confirmation because of our minority party status, but does that mean we should just go with the flow or work to stop her nomination? Should we be happy with the stealth candidate who’s beholden to the religous right, knowing that if she doesn’t get approved, Bush is likely to send someone even more conservative in her place to appease his critics on the ultra right?

That’s my biggest fear right now personally. I see how pissed off the wacko right wing is about not having a nominee who is on the record as being very anti-choice. This all goes to the sense of entitlement they feel as the official political party of God and all, but I’m worried about the kind of judge they’d force on Bush if Harriet Miers doesn’t work out. I’m fully expecting their ideal choice to be one of the people who gives their kids a placard with a picture of an aborted and decomposed fetus to parade up and down busy streets, and that’s just the kind of person they’d start the consideration at.

Seeing what becomes of Miers over the next month will be interesting, especially in the context of how much pressure the religious right puts on the president to withdraw her nomination in favor of a stricter anti-abortion nominee. That will be the real litmus test of this whole process after all, seeing how much influence a very small but very powerful group of people have in this country.

Funny how yesterday’s news cycle had wall to wall coverage of the first day of Saddams trial, which included a plea(!) and a “scuffle”, but you have to search far and wide to hear anything about troop and civilian casualties.

Four American soldiers and 26 civilians were killed yesterday in Iraq, the same day that Condi Rice insisted we’d be ‘victorious’ in the war against insurgents to a Senate committee.

In the next week, we’re going to hit the 2,000 mark for American soldiers killed in Iraq which will probably generate some interest among the media before they go back to reporting on shark attacks and hurricanes while waiting on the big news story of the next year: Saddams televised trial of the century. If anyone thought the Scott Pederson or Michael Jackson trials were an overblown media circus, just wait for this one.

We’ll focus on that for a time while soldiers continue to die, innocent citizens get caught in the crossfire, and our administration continues to try reassure us with more rhetoric about Winning the War on Terror ™ and Staying the Course.(tm)

The title of the AP story pretty much sums it up:

Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged

It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday’s vote on a new Iraqi constitution. – AP

..and I’ll add to that by saying the responses given by the captains seemed 100% scripted to. Watching it today, I could see one man’s eyes continually moving from left to right as if he were reading a teleprompter or cue card.

Is there anything that’s real about this administration, besides the depths to which they’ll sink in order to advance their own transparent propoganda?