SAVE TOOKIE

SAVE TOOKIE

Summertime...in Belmont, USA

I must say, coming home to Belmont after a long semester up at school is usually a welcome break that gives me time to relax, see friends, etc. and make that dime. However, coming home after 4 months in the south of Spain, after doing very little work, travelling the Iberia peninsula, and doing...very little work I must say Belmont seems a bit lame. It has been nice to see some people, and trying to make back all the money I spent in Spain makes me feel a little better about my financial capabilities, but I still find myself eager to get back on a plane and get a much-needed taste of Andalusian culture.

Have been reading some. Tom Wolfe and Dylan's autobiographical work "Chronicles: Volume I". For obviously apparent reasons, Dylan is not an author by trade, however reading about such a talented musician's personal journey to stardom is quite interesting. His lyrical touch is somewhat visible in his prose as is his love for the senses, mother nature, and historical facts and figures.

Not much political news on the tube. Memorial Day weekend break - they don't need a break on the Hill, they work 3 days a week as it is. Was reading up on some of Bush's potential Supreme Court judicial nominees. Let's hope it isn't as divisive a process as it was getting the Appeals Court openings filled. Better yet, let's hope Bush doesn't choose nominees who refuse to comment on issues regarding civil rights and who have records that stand far outside of the mainstream of American political views. Wishful thinking on my part. In little over a month, I am headed to Sin City - no not Las Vegas. I'm pumped up about a month-long internship in D.C. and maybe I'll get the Supreme Court nod.

Quote of the day: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin

My Soundboard

Well, here it is - a soundboard of sorts for me to post whatever I want on current events, happenings in my life, and politics (among many other things). Stay posted, or don't.

Political ruminations...

Funny how the seemingly obscure process of the Senate's Constitutional responsibility of "advice and consent" with regard to the confirmation of one and a small handful of judicial nominees for the U.S. District Courts, would ever be highlighted almost non-stop by CNN and MSNBC. Funny how the Republicans have pushed the case for the "nuclear option" (more or less doing away with an age old parliamentary rule in the Senate that was rooted in protecting the already "disproportionate" membership of the Senate) despite the fact that a majority of Americans do not support such an attack on democracy and the rights of the minority . Funny how the American people have to now accept this so-called "compromise agreement" between a small group of bi-partisan group of Senators, just because an even smaller group of Republicans with backbone agreed to save the filibuster, yet still vote for the nominees.

What is worse compromising to save the rules of the Senate and voting for a radical, far-right nominee OR agreeing to compromise and also realize the consequences (lifetime membership on the Bench) and therefore voting NO to the nominee? Democrats, on the other hand, were simply prepared to move on and get back to the more important business of the Senate (and by that I don’t mean the privatization and systematic pillaging of Social Security as we know it).

Also in the news: Amnesty International brands U.S. prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a HUMAN RIGHTS FAILURE. More (and researched information) on the judicial nominee situation, see: