More Senate Obstructionism

Not withstanding the best efforts of senators during last week’s 36-hour marathon Fox News Channel photo op, yet another Bush judicial nominee is languishing on the Senate docket:

The Senate is blocking another of President Bush�s judicial nominees � but this time it�s Republicans and not Democrats playing the role of obstructionists.
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) last week sought unanimous consent to take up the nomination of Leon Holmes to a seat on the U.S. District Court in Arkansas.
. . .
But at least four centrist Republicans expressed doubts about Holmes, based on statements culled from some of his writings. The four are Arlen Specter (Pa.), Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (Maine), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas).

Why is it that these senators aren’t fulfilling their Constitutional duties? Is it because Republicans don’t want conservative white Southern males to succeed? Are they uneasy with giving a lifetime appointment to one who, when writing on a total abortion ban, stated that “concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with the same frequency as snowfall in Miami”?
Whatever the case, it isn’t these senators who are holding up the vote:

Hutchison, noting that Senate Republicans just finished a futile marathon anti-filibuster effort to overcome Democratic opposition to six Bush nominees to federal appellate courts, said, “I will not ever stop a vote from coming to the floor. That�s what we talked about for 36 hours last week.”
Pryor, who once practiced law with Holmes, a Republican, in Little Rock, noted that he has been �languishing� on the Senate�s calendar for more than six months. Pryor said he is “perplexed” as to why Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) hasn’t scheduled a floor vote on the nomination.

Perplexing indeed.
Via Daily Kos.

Trade Position Clarified

This makes sense:

The United States on Wednesday insisted it remains committed to free trade despite new quotas on some clothing from China, a move that angered Beijing and apparently led to the suspension of large U.S. farm commodity purchases by China.
Growing tensions between the two trading partners were evident a day after the United States unveiled the quotas, with a delegation of Chinese wheat buyers postponing a trip to the United States planned for late November or early December.
. . .
“The administration is committed to free trade,” U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters traveling with Bush in London.
However, McCormack also said the United States was intent on “fully enforcing our trade laws,” an apparent reference to a U.S.-China trade arrangement that allows Washington to set “safeguards” against import surges of specific goods.

Of course. We support the free flow of goods, except for the goods we’re going to restrict. Glad we cleared that up.
Seriously, there’s got to be a number of administration officials who have about had it with bizarre marriage between electoral politics and economic theory in current U.S. trade policy.

NASCAR: An Affirmative Action Bastion?

This is funny:

Ku Klux Klan members were apparently busy distributing a newsletter and fliers as some local residents found them attached to their mailboxes on Monday, Local 4 reported.
The newsletter called “The Flame,” along with a flier, was attached by rubber bands to mailboxes in Ypsilanti and Pittsfield Township.
The materials reportedly called for the boycott of McDonalds, NASCAR and Coca-Cola for what the KKK says are the companies’ tendency for discriminating against whites by hiring blacks and Hispanics.

NASCAR? I’m admittedly not a knowledgeable NASCAR fan; for all I know its pit crews and support staff could be teeming with blacks and Hispanics. But from what I’ve seen (the drivers), NASCAR is about as diverse as North Dakota.
Via Lean Left.