This didn't take long. President Bush has resubmitted 20 rejected extremists for federal judgeships. Among them: Alabama Attorney General William Pryor; Priscilla Owen; Richard Allen Griffin, David W. McKeague; Henry Saad; Janice Rogers Brown and William G. Myers III.

Opponents say many of the stalled nominees opposed abortion rights, preservation of the environment and civil rights safeguards. ``It's a slap in the face of the Senate and a show of contempt for many of the issues Americans care about the most,'' said Nan Aron, director of the Alliance for Justice, which opposes a number of Bush's nominees.

Then there is William Haynes, who as General Counsel for the Department of Defense, submitted the infamous "torture memo" to Rumsfeld.

Charges that the Democrats are being obstuctionists are ill-founded. More than 200 of Bush's appointees were approved in his first term. The Dems have strategically chosen the worst of the worst to oppose. Even Harry Reid is on board so far to oppose these nominations:

Mainstream media in House Minority Leader Harry Reid's home state of Nevada has taken note of liberal bloggers' opposition to his appointment.

Bloggers and liberal Web pages called for Reid's defeat and the election instead of Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Richard Durbin of Illinois or even Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

One of the first came from TalkLeft.com, which the day after the election posted this notice: "TalkLeft supports Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, primarily on his record, yet also because he comes from a solidly Democratic state, and Republicans won't be able to successfully target him for removal the way they did [Tom] Daschle."

The article continues with opposition by several other bloggers and then notes:

Soon, liberals in the mainstream media were joining the effort.

by TChris

TalkLeft recently called attention to the stingy pardon practices of two Georges: Pataki and Bush. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger merits at least mild praise for the pardons he granted to three drug offenders who (according to his proclamation) "turned their lives around through hard work and public service and years later are pillars of their communities." Three is not a generous number -- c'mon Governor, it's Christmas! -- but it beats the number pardoned during all the years Gray Davis was in office: zero.

Proposition 200 which allows Arizona to deny benefits to undocumented residents went into effect today after a federal judge lifted a stay order.

Prop 200, which was approved by the voters in November, requires state and municipal employees to confirm the immigration status of applicants for welfare and various other public benefits. U.S. District Judge David Bury ruled Wednesday that Prop 200 did not go beyond the scope of existing federal law that requires applicants for public benefits to provide proof of eligibility.

An appeal is expected to be filed today or Monday. The law encompasses welfare, and five programs in particular:

General Assistance, Sight Conservation, Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Utility Repair, Replacement and Deposit and the Supplemental Payment Program.

Everyone likes a feel-good Christmas story, here is our's this year- from The Onion, titled Weed Delivery Guy Saves Christmas. It's off-beat, kind of funny and has nothing to do with religion. It begins:

MADISON, WI-The holidays evoke images of carolers and hot cocoa, sleigh rides through the crisp country air, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire. But for the four residents of a drafty little apartment on Johnson Street, such holiday traditions seemed nothing more than fairy tales. For, through a combination of poverty, circumstance, and plain old bad luck, these young gentlemen nearly saw their holiday dreams shattered like so many fallen ornaments.

Almost, but not quite. For although there would be no Yule log in the fireplace, a crackling blaze of another kind would come to warm the hearts of the hapless roommates. For, these four lucky friends had a guardian angel watching over them, and this is the heartwarming true story of how the weed delivery guy saved Christmas.

Follow the link for the rest of the heartwarming tale.

One of Rudy Giuliani's last feats as Mayor was to rename the Manhattan Detention Center the Bernard B. Kerik complex. Will Rudy ever live down his endorsement of Kerik?

Rudy has not been completely forthright regarding Kerik. As we reported here, in April, 2002, at Kerik's retirement dinner, Rudy called Kerik "the brother he never had." After Kerik withdrew his nomination, Rudy denied being particularly close to Kerik.

Rudy said Kerik wasn't really part of the company, despite his "vice president" title and despoite the fact that a joint venture of Giuliani Partners is named Giuliani-Kerik, LLP(now to be renamed Giuliani Security & Safety.

Giuliani said repeatedly that Kerik's role in the firm is very limited, representing "less than 5 percent" of its business. He also said that Kerik's position was largely limited to their joint venture, Giuliani-Kerik. "He's not part of Giuliani Partners," the former mayor said.

I hope Rudy and Judy move to the Hamptons and live happily ever after, far away from electoral politics.

Sara Olson of California was married to an al Qaeda member before 9/11. She tried to tell the FBI and they ignored her.

Saraah Olson says she watched as her then-husband, Hisham Diab, and his group transformed local teen Adam Gadahn into an America-hating fanatic who she says is the masked man who promised in an al Qaeda video message released in Pakistan late October that the "streets of America will run red with blood."

Olson says blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and other bin Laden deputies stayed at her home.

Olson said she repeatedly tried to notify the FBI of her husband's suspicious activities, but that she was never taken seriously. "I'm in hell," Olson remembers thinking after she recognized Abdel-Rahman in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. "I have entered the bowels of hell and I'm going to be here forever. And I've only been married seven months. I've got a terrorist in my house."

A statistical breakdown has been performed on the 440 inmates doing time in New York under the Rockefeller drug laws who may be eligible for release when the new law goes into effect (referred to as A-1 felons.) Bottom line: They differ in several ways from both the general prison population and lower-level drug offenders.

There is a greater percentage of A-1 felons born abroad, particularly in the Dominican Republic, as compared to the general prison population. There are more hispanics and fewer blacks than in the general population. For example, 1/3 of the A-1 inmates are black while 50% of the general population and 60% of low level drug offenders are black. Only 8% of A-1's are white--there is a greater percentage of whites in the general population.

Experts disagree on the reason for the disparate numbers. The only good news is that there are fewer A-1 inmates these days.

Time Magazine's Man of the Year is old news already. Out today is P.C. Magazine's People of the Year and it is a joint award to Blogger.com 's Evan Williams, Meg Hourihan, and Paul Bausch, and Ben and Mena Trott of Six Apart , (creators of Movable Type and Typepad). I got a little surprise reading the first paragraph - TalkLeft is now an "accredited member of the Fourth Estate."

Blogs—short for weblogs, or online diaries—have been around for more than a decade. But this year, the blog found a new role as an accredited member of the fourth estate. Select bloggers were allowed the same access as traditional journalists at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, among them Patrick Belton at Oxblog.com and Jeralyn Merritt at www.TalkLeft.com, powered by blog tools Blogger and Movable Type, respectively.

Also prominently featured: Technorati.

Technorati, a blog-tracking service, keeps tabs on over 3 million weblogs in what has come to be known as the blogosphere. According to Technorati, a new weblog is created every 5.8 seconds, or about 15,000 new blogs a day. There are blogs out there for everyone, and the audience is growing: A February 2004 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project says about 11 percent, or about 50 million, of Internet users are regular blog readers.

Thanks, P.C. Magazine.

Too funny. Talk about the politics of crime, via Wonkette who got it from Roll Call: A legislative staffer for Barney Frank caught a Republican staffer stealing a plasma TV from a hearing room in the Rayburn building. An update via e-mail to Wonkette suggests it's not a lowly staffer:

just found out this guy is NOT some lowpaid staff a**...he's the f**king republican chief economist on the small bidness committee!!!!

Martha Stewart is halfway through her five month prison term. As a Christmas message on her website to her fans , she is advocating sentencing reform:

She suggested Americans should push for reforms in federal sentencing guidelines for nonviolent first-time offenders and particularly for drug offenders, who she said would be better served by rehabilitation than prison.

Martha's job in prison has been cleaning, sweeping and vacuuming - which, she says, she'd rather be doing in her own home. More from Martha's Xmas message:

I beseech you all to think about these women -- to encourage the American people to ask for reforms, both in sentencing guidelines, in length of incarceration for nonviolent first-time offenders, and for those involved in drug-taking. They would be much better served in a true rehabilitation center than in prison where there is no real help, no real programs to rehabilitate, no programs to educate, no way to be prepared for life "out there" where each person will ultimately find herself, many with no skills and no preparation for living.

Martha's lawyers filed this brief (pdf) today in her appeal.

Bernie Kerik announced today he is leaving Giuliani Partners in order to "clear his good name."

Much more likely, in my opinion, he was forced out by Rudy who finally realized he couldn't control the damage--to himself or his firm.

Let's hope this takes care of Rudy's further political ambitions. Between ex-wife Donna Hanover and Kerik, Rudy won't withstand the heat any better than Kerik.