First Time in 25 Years

On Monday the Supreme Court issued an order affirming the lower court's decision in American Isuzu Motors v. Ntsebeza because the Court lacked a quorum (six Justices) to hear the case.  Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kennedy, Breyer, Alito recused themselves from consideration of the petition for cert. because of investments in(or, in Kennedy's case, familial connections to) some of the many corporations involved in the dispute.  For more, check out SCOTUSblog's discussion here.

 

(By the way, expect a lot of "catching up" posts about the Court on here over the next few days .)

Another Great Day for West Virginia's Reputation

The Financial Times has an article up right now --linked to on Drudge-- about Obama's inability to win West Virginia.  To sum up the piece, Obama has no chance of prevailing here in the primary or the general election because West Virginia voters, and Democratic voters in the southern part of the state in particular, are racist hillbillies.  Unfortunately for our state's reputation, the reporter on the story found his way down to Mingo County (which is in the heart of southern West Virginia, for those not from our great state) , where he ran across more than one... well, racist hillbilly.  The beginning of the article:

Like most people in Mingo County, West Virginia, Leonard Simpson is a lifelong Democrat. But given a choice between Barack Obama and John McCain in November, the 67-year-old retired coalminer [sic] would vote Republican.

“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coalmining [sic] town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.

Mr Simpson’s remarks help explain why Mr Obama is trailing Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, by 40 percentage points ahead of Tuesday’s primary election in the heavily white and rural state, according to recent opinion polls.

I opined a while ago that I didn't think Democrats in West Virginia were ready to vote for a black presidential candidate.  I took some flack for that argument because I didn't have any empirical data to back it up (a point that was well taken, as I later conceded).  The FT story doesn't really present any empirical evidence on the point either, but it certainly demonstrates that it's not hard to find a racist dumbass in Mingo County.

The Perils of Not Hiring a Lawyer To Go Over Your Policies

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Three small-town eighth-graders in Minnesota were suspended by their principal for not standing Thursday morning for the Pledge of Allegiance, violating a district policy that the principal now says may soon be reworded to protect free speech rights.

...

The school's handbook says all students are required to stand but are not required to recite the pledge. The same is true for all four schools in the district, a school official said.

Apparently, news of West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette hasn't fully penetrated into the wilds of Minnesota yet.

Is Hillary Toast? Yeah. Almost Certainly. Probably. Without (Much) Doubt.

If Hillary Clinton had won Indiana by a double digit margin on Tuesday and made North Carolina a close fight the talk now would be about whether Barack Obama's candidacy was on the verge of going under.  But although the overall winner in each of those states was the same as in that Hillary-triumphant hypothetical, in the wake of Hillary's narrow win in Indiana and decisive loss in Carolina the punditocracy has pronounced Obama the winner of the Democratic nomination.  So what's Hillary's strategy in pushing onward?  Simply put, to rack up landslide victories among the very white and rather conservative Democratic voters in West Virginia and Kentucky and hope that some massive new Obama scandal emeges.  Thus, the thinking of her adherents must go, to avoid the nomination of a clearly unelectable Obama Democratic power brokers would allow Hillary's delegates from Michigan and Florida to be seated at the convention and the superdelegates would shift in mass to her camp.

The chances of that series of events happening?  Very low, of course.  Still, it appears that the first prong of her strategy may well bear fruit: a recent poll taken in regard to the May 13th primary  shows her ahead by a two to one margin among West Virginia Democrats.  Hillary's chances are now very long indeed, but still it will still be quite interesting to see what the media buzz is on Wednesday (especially regarding Obama's continuingly poor performance among non-highly educated whites) if Obama loses West Virginia by 30 points on Tuesday.

Yet More Good News From D.C.

Via the AP:

WASHINGTON - Federal agents raided the office and home of U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch on Tuesday while investigating whether the nation's top protector of whistle-blowers destroyed evidence potentially showing he retaliated against his own staff.

Computers and documents were seized during the raid on the special counsel's downtown office, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing inquiry. At least 20 agents were still on the scene as of mid-afternoon Tuesday.

Bloch's home, in a Virginia suburb of Washington, also was raided, the officials said.

More here.

Jindal on Leno

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (a.k.a. "The New Hope") was on Leno last week, talking about the progress that's been made in combating corruption in Louisiana and addressing the speculation that he's on McCain's short list for the GOP vice-presidential nomination.  The segment is embedded below:

 

A Big Conservative Win... in London

In case you missed it, "Red" Ken Livingston, the socialist mayor of London and great friend/defender of anti-American leaders like Hugo Chavez, has been dumped by the electorate of that city in favor of Tory candidate Boris Johnson.  Now granted, Johnson is a conservative by British standards rather than American standards, but his victory in what might now be once again the greatest city in the English-speaking world (sorry, New York) is still worth a hearty cheer.

William Jefferson Clinton, Firsthand

As my West Virginia readers should know, the West Virginia primary is coming up on May 13.  Although there's little doubt that Hillary will decisively win our state's Democratic nod for the presidential nomination on that day, on Thursday this week the would-be First Gentleman made a couple of campaign stops in Morgantown and Clarksburg.  I had some free time on Thursday morning and went down to see his "front porch" stump speech in a nearby run-of-the-mill residential neighborhood.

My impressions?   Clinton completely lived up to at least one of his reputations: he was quite late in arriving for the event.  As for the substance of the speech itself, it was a typical Democratic bread and circuses address (I really wish I could take credit for that descriptor), promising --on Hillary's behalf, or course-- everything and anything to everyone and anyone.  The crowd was somewhat small and only somewhat enthusiastic, though they did respond when Clinton  flashed a bit of his charisma and rhetorical skills. 

Most noteworthy portions of his speech:  at the beginning and end when he told West Virginia Democrats not to vote for a candidate "who looks down on you."  Most unintentionally funny portion: when, rambling a bit, he said something to the effect of "when I was in office, we had rules."  Even many of the hardcore Democrats in the crowd chuckled/cringed a bit at that one.

The High Cost of Health Care Is Caused by Insurance Companies (Not)

Beating up on health insurers is one of the favorite pastimes of American politicians (though they don't catch nearly as much flack as oil companies, of course).  Mark Gimein at Slate debunks three oft-stated myths about health insurers: the profits of private insurance companies are a big component of health care costs, private insurance clearly costs more than government-run plans offering the same coverage, and mergers of health insurance companies drive up health care costs.

So if private insurers aren't to blame, who is?  The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, and especially in our constant hunger for the latest and greatest medical techniques, devices, and drugs, whether or not their increased cost is justified by increased benefit.