Old Rebel: Elena Kagan Approved as the 112th Supreme Court Justice

Glad that's over with. The suspense was killing me.

Hey, I wonder how she'll vote on the Prop 8 appeal when it reaches the Supreme Court? More grueling suspense!

Items of Interest, 30 June 2010

Laura Wood, Catholic Feminism and the Popes
Defense Review: SOCOM Cancels FN Mk-16 SCAR-L (SCAR-Light) 5.56mm NATO Rifle/Carbine/SBR Weapons Program. Will the FN Mk-17 SCAR-H (SCAR-Heavy) 7.62mm NATO Variant Survive? Only the Shadow Knows.
Fabius Maximus, COIN as future generations will see it (and as we should see it today)

Free the Animal: Learning to Walk and Out with the Vibram Five Fingers and in with the Soft Star RunAmoc

Some people are not suited for office:
Female Senator Brings up Vampires, Werewolves in SCOTUS Confirmation Hearings
The Senate Jumps the Shark

Energy Bulletin:
Crazy Ideas For Crazy Garden Farmers (original)

Gene Logsdon, OrganicToBe.org

I wonder if a book titled A Guide To Insane Farming would sell, especially when, upon opening the book, the reader would encounter descriptions of how farming is actually done today. But what I’m talking about at the moment are ideas that really are off the grid, outside the box, beyond normalcy, agronomic lunacy.

The Peak Oil Crisis: The Real Gulf Crisis (original)

Tom Whipple, Falls Church News-Press

Counterpunch:
Ralph Nader, 36 Questions for Elena Kagan
Alan Farago, BP's Temple of Doom

Asia News:
Asian stock markets fall, doubts about recovery in China
Nikkei at minus 2.13; Hong Kong and Shanghai negative. Consumer confidence in the U.S. falls, forecasts for growth in China reduced from 1.7 to 0.3 (April). Yen strengthens, penalizing exports from Japan.

Asia Times:
The anatomy of an attack on Iran
The strategic and political realities of a possible Israeli air strike against Iran's nuclear facilities are complex, while the coordination of logistics and tactics of such a long-distance mission - 1,600 kilometers on a straight line from Tel Aviv to Iran's uranium enrichment site in Natanz - would be equally daunting. - David Moon

Gates open on departure
The Chinese government harbors no illusions that the change in leadership at the Pentagon when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates steps down will bring a fresh start. On matters affecting overall strategy, force structure and military posture in Asia and elsewhere, President Barack Obama is the chief architect of the tougher edge to policy. - Peter J Brown

Petraeus circles two camps
With General Stanley McChrystal out of the picture in Afghanistan, pressure is growing on US President Barack Obama to move up his July 2011 troop withdrawal timetable and get behind a negotiated settlement with the Taliban. Voices calling for an open-ended military commitment are equally strident. Incoming General David Petraeus is soon to reveal how he will weave his way between the two camps. - Jim Lobe

Elena Kagan

Washington Post: Solicitor General Elena Kagan nominated
USDOJ: Office of the Solicitor General

Jim Bovard links to this piece by Gleen Greenwald: The case against Elena Kagan. Today, from Counterpunch: Kagan Will Move the Court Further to the Right by Marjorie Cohn. And from Spencer Ackerman, Elena Kagan, a National Security Enigma, Has Embraced Executive Authority.

It seems that if we know anything about her, it is this: she will preserve the Federal government's usurpation of power (especially by the Executive Branch), along with whatever distorted reading of the Constitution that it requires.

Right Now - Elena Kagan, the Weekly Standard's choice
James Corum, Barack Obama's Leftist Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is a terrible choice
Glenn Thrush, What the Elena Kagan pick says about President Obama
Rick Garnett, Kagan Proves Elections Matter
10 Things You Should Know About Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan's (Non) Record

Edit. Daniel Larison, A Tale of Two Nominees

U.S. President Barack Obama announces Solicitor General Elena Kagan (R) as his nominee for Supreme Court Justice in the East Room at the White House in Washington May 10, 2010. (Reuters/Daylife)

WASHINGTON - MAY 10: Solicitor General Elena Kagan smiles after U.S. President Barack Obama announced her as his choice to be the nation's 112th Supreme Court justice during an event in the East Room of the White House May 10, 2010 in Washington, DC. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the former Harvard Law School dean would be the first justice to join the high court without prior judicial experience since William Rehnquist in 1972. Kagan was selected by Obama to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. (Getty/Daylife)

U.S. President Barack Obama waves goodbye next to Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Solicitor General Elena Kagan (C) after announcing Kagan as his nominee for Supreme Court Justice in the East Room at the White House in Washington May 10, 2010. (Reuters/Daylife)

It looks like another affirmative action pick: Obama picks Elena Kagan as Supreme Court nominee. Obama may be a corporatist in so far as he is beholden to the corporations, but he is also a true believer when it comes to radical egalitarianism.