I hated the judicial compromise of the Senate 14 and wrote many times it would just postpone the explosion until a later day. Armando at Daily Kos says that day is upon us.

So where are we? Right back where we started. The Nuclear Option. Does Frist have 51 votes? But this time the whole country will be watching. This time we have a standard to measure against - Justice O'Connor.

Will the Republican Party, under the glaring lights of a SCOTUS fight, fully reveal itself as the Party of Dobson, as it did during Schiavo? Do they have a choice? Frankly, it is the Republican Party that is in a bind right now - piss off Dobson or piss off the country. Right now I am betting on them pissing off the country.

And Dems have 48 votes against the nuclear option. Can we get 3 more?

Update: Digby has some new thoughts on the 14 who compromised us.

From David, NYC at Daily Kos:

"Whatever happens with the Supreme Court nomination battle that is about to ensue, it's going to happen fast. Here are some things you can do right now:

• If you have a cell phone, sign up for People at the American Way's Mass Immediate Response site. This way, you'll be able to receive text message action items instantly as events break. (If you signed up during the nuclear option fight, you'll need to re-sign up.)
• Also sign up with the Save the Court, another PFAW website devoted specifically to this issue.
• Recruit friends and family members to the cause.
• Write to the President, telling him he should choose a consensus candidate to replace O'Connor.
• Sign MoveOn's "Protect Our Rights" petition.
• Contact your Senators to tell them the same thing.
• Contact members of the media and tell them you think Bush should nominate a consensus candidate. PLEASE be polite, be brief (200 words or less), and don't do copy-and-paste jobs - put things in your own words.

If you have a blog, please post these action items on your site. If you don't, e-mail them to your like-minded buddies and relatives.

"

As America celebrates Freedom today, here are some thoughts on what freedom means:

And some thoughts on what it means to be an American.

Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), who supports efforts to reinvestigate the Oklahoma City Bombing, has been trying for weeks to meet with Terry Nichols at the AdMax prison in Florence, CO where Nichols is serving his life sentence. The meeting took place last week, and LA Weekly has this extensive account. Rohrabacher is pursuing theories that Timothy McVeigh had the help of middle-eastern men to carry off the bombing.

To me, as one of McVeigh's trial lawyers, the interesting part of the LA Weekly article is that Nichols' has finally admitted he robbed Roger Moore, the Arkansas gun dealer.

Terry Nichols' mother is giving interviews as well, and says Terry didn't know what McVeigh was going to do with the bomb he helped McVeigh build. She says Terry thought McVeigh was going to bomb a monument. The LA Weekly article says,

This is kind of interesting....Four U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq have converted to Islam while there. George Douglas is the latest.

Dr. Ziad Al-Fahdawi, a witness to the event, said that the soldier, George Douglas, recited the two creeds [“There is no god but God, and Mohammad is His prophet”] in The Mosque of Mohammad’s Presence after asking the mosque’s imam to witness his conversion to Islam. Douglas was reported as saying that he is certain that Islam is the best religion that a person could espouse, for its teachings of forgiveness, nobleness, love, righteousness and courage. When Douglas was finished with his declaration, the mosque attendants shouted “Allahou-Akbar” [God is Greater] and embraced and congratulated him.

The American soldier then changed his name, as of May 30th, from George Douglas to Mujahed Mohammad. He also explained that he was very moved by the courage of the people of Fallujah, their stance as Arabs and Muslims, and their readiness to defend their country and to die for the liberation of their land, no matter what pretexts the invaders give for their aggression.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like President Bush is going to decide on his nominee for the Supreme Court and then disclose it to Democratic Senators. That's hardly what the Dems had in mind when they said they expect to be consulted about a possible Supreme Court replacement. Reuters reports:

Bush is expected to move quickly on the nomination after he returns from the Group of Eight summit in Scotland at the end of next week. Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch said on CBS' "Face The Nation" he had spoken to Bush on Saturday and expected a nominee within a couple of days after Bush's return.

....Bush has invited Specter, Leahy, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Minority Leader Harry Reid to meet him on Friday to discuss the vacancy.

It doesn't sound like there will be any discussion, only an announcement by Bush to the Dems. Sen. Arlen Specter said today he'd like both sides to "tone down the rhetoric."

Not a chance.

Some readers are reporting problems posting comments. There was a problem at TypeKey's end a few days ago that supposedly is fixed. But Mike Ditto will take a look soon, so bear with us.

Also, one reader complained that the gray font used in the text of the comments section isn't dark enough - is anyone else having a problem with that? Any suggestions?

by TChris

Another example the USA's increasing intolerance: the fashion police are harassing teachers.

In Georgia's Miller County, skirts must reach the knee. Elsewhere in the state, hair curlers are disallowed in Harris County and male teachers in Talbot County must wear ties two or three times a week.

It's good to know that school boards are doing the hard work that ensures an excellent education for our children.

Moroccan Younis Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hayari was killed in a gun battle this morning in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This strikes me as more of a press release than an AP news article, but here are the details:

In a swift and telling victory, Saudi anti-terror forces killed al-Qaeda's top leader in the key U.S. ally in a gunbattle Sunday, but experts warn the kingdom still faces a surge in attacks despite its two-year crackdown on militants.

The 90-minute battle in the eastern Rawdah district, an upscale neighborhood in the capital Riyadh, was the latest blow dealt to Osama bin Laden's group in Saudi Arabia, whose leaders have either been killed or captured since authorities launched an unrelenting offensive against it in 2003.

Victory? Isn't this just one more person who won't be telling us where Osama is?

Over at the Huffington Post, Lawrence O'Donnell has some sharp words for Robert Luskin, Karl Rove's lawyer, in response to Luskin's denial yesterday. Today, O'Donnell says (snip):

Luskin claimed that the prosecutor “asked us not to talk about what Karl has had to say.” This is highly unlikely. Prosecutors have absolutely no control over what witnesses say when they leave the grand jury room. Rove can tell us word-for-word what he said to the grand jury and would if he thought it would help him. And notice that Luskin just did reveal part of Rove’s grand jury testimony, the fact that he had a conversation with Cooper. Rove would not let me get one day of traction on this story if he could stop me. If what I have reported is not true, if Karl Rove is not Matt Cooper’s source, Rove could prove that instantly by telling us what he told the grand jury. Nothing prevents him from doing that, except a good lawyer who is trying to keep him out of jail.

The Observer has an article on the new type of Iraqi prison camps. Torture certainly didn't end with Saddam.

Secret torture chambers, the brutal interrogation of prisoners, murders by paramilitaries with links to powerful ministries... Foreign affairs editor Peter Beaumont in Baghdad uncovers a grim trail of abuse carried out by forces loyal to the new Iraqi Goverment.

[link via Buzzflash, which adds, "The un-American new world of Bush's Iraqi torture camps. Bush replaced Saddam's torture chambers with American sanctioned ones."]

by TChris

Former Wisconsin governor and senator Gaylord Nelson died today. Nelson "founded Earth Day and helped spawn the modern environmental movement."

A conservationist years before it became fashionable, Nelson was recognized as one of the world's foremost environmental leaders. Then-President Clinton presented Nelson with a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 for his environmental efforts.

Rest in peace, Gaylord.