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Later on today in Washington, the hearing to confirm Elena Kagan as a United States Supreme Court Justice will begin. While I made the rounds of the US Sunday Public Affairs Shows, I saw Jeff Sessions expressing "concerns" about her nomination and possible confirmation.

For those who may not know who Jeff Sessions is, he is the Senior Republican on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. The concerns he has expressed are simply laughable. I would also suggest that he harbors profound resentment because he was rejected for a judgeship during the Reagan Adminstration. I have to also continue to question the true intentions of the Republicans. They seem to like Alioto and Roberts, but not Kagan.


It was the Roberts Court that struck down Campaign Finance. It has been the Roberts Court and the Renquist Court that gradually began to peel away the erosion of civil liberties over the past 100 years to adhere to some notion of pure constitutionalist principle which seems to negate the fact that we are in the 21st Century.

The role of the loyal opposition is to raise legitimate questions and present alternatives. Simply being obstructionist will not do. I have to question whether the Republicans truly understand that.

On a side note, I just saw a report that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg's Husband died of cancer. She was also on the short list of possible Justices who had contemplated retirement, too. As for Cancer itself, When will be able to tame the ravages of Cancer?
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June 24 was the day that the iPhone 4.0 was officially released in the United States. I wanted to experience a "first-day" release of a product and decided to see what it is like. It was, to say the least, an adventure.

When I first went out to try and get it, the servers were overwhelmed. I was able to get around it through getting into my iTunes account. I was able to figure this out thanks to one forthcoming Apple Store employee. The customer-centric focus of the team there blew me away.

When I got there, there was already quite a line. I was in the reserved line..and it was not as bad to those who had lined up to Purchase. The American Free Enterprise Spirit was alive and well, though. Some folks had gotten there the night before. People were walking around selling their spot for $ 60. Some were selling it as high as $100. I suppose if you were pressed for time, it was worth the Some got there at 9 PM the night before. This was not as bad as one out in Dallas who had camped out a week before to be the first one who got it.

So it began the day!!!

During the day, I was talking with people on the line. One of the folks in line was talking about bids on EBay for reservations going up to 800 Dollars. This was just crazy!!! What I marveled at was how Steve Jobs was able to pull people in and keep people's fascination on the gadgets. He is a genius at understanding what people want and how to make it as simple as possible.

What is clear is that people continue to be hooked on Gadgets. I have to wonder whether it was worth the six hours spent online. I suppose it was. We'll see, though.

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Tidbits From Iran

June 25th 2010 03:07
Iran has faded from the "headlines" Although the pundits have been at it and the US Congress has been hot and heavy on the case. The US Senate has just passed additional sanctions against the Government which I will be studying and releasing a write-up soon. What is clear is that sanctions so far have not worked. Iran was under sanctions for 8 years and yet it continued on during the war. The story in the New York Times about how the Iranian Shipping company avoids detection is just example of how Iran has evaded sanctions and will continue to do so.

There are two additional interesting developments that warrants close attention. The first one is Ahmadinejad's attempt to take control of Iran's biggest University, Azad. It is one of the most profitable univerisities and the biggest in Iran. Rafsanjani founded it and his eldest son is one of the trustees. Parliament has apparently blocked it. But, the attempt to take over Azad will continue to be a microcosim of the power struggle that will continue. For now, all the internal opposition can do is to relegate itself to meetings and facebook pronoucements.

The second very disturbing development is the allegation that the three hikers in Iran were actually kidnapped by a rogue Revolutionary Guard Unit by crossing into Iraq. The commander is right now supposedly on death row. Apparently they were an extortion and kindnapping racket. Nation Magazine--which investigated this-- is very good at being onpointe on this. If that is in fact the case, Iran should release these three poor souls immediately so that they can return to their lives.

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As I write this, Al Jazeera is reporting that there has been an attack on a bus in Istanbul with deaths. This is on top of the recent killing of soldiers in Turkey that has triggered additional security measures by the Turkish Government.

Moving to the United States, a guilty plea by the terrorist who sought to blow up a car on Time Square. He said he was a soldier wanting to avenge the death of muslims. What I find sickening is how he used Islam to justify his crime. He noted that he was going to plead guilty 100 times over. Now, he'll have 23 hours a day to think about it.
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Natalee Halloway was a young U.S. teenager who had just graduated and was spending her summer in Aruba. She was never to see America again. She disappeared in Aruba. Her mother and family fought a valiant effort to bring her alledged killer to justice. They were not successful because the 22-year Dutch kid got away in part due to the incompetence of the judicial folks in Aruba.

As I remember those months that Beth Halloway, Natalee's Mother, was on US Cable News, I wondered whether the kid was going to finally shoot himself in the foot. Well, that moment occurred. The kid was picked up in Chile after being implicated in the death of a Peruvian Girl. This showed that there is justice. I hope that they throw the book at him, jail him for life and throw away the key. It won't bring his victims back, but will at least allow their souls to rest in peace and allow their families some degree of closure


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Scott Brown: Hero or Villain

June 3rd 2010 06:15
Scott Brown is the junior Senator from Massachuttes. I wrote about his election in Outsider Views and rejected the notion that his election was the pivotal moment that told the country of the anti-incumbent mode that has everyone under the gun who has been in office for a long time. But, he has proven to be an interesting change, to say the least.

As I have been periodically assessing what he is up to, the one sentence that has resonated in my mind has been, "...I work for the people of Massachuttes". He has been a reliable 41st Vote for many Republican attempts to counter Obama Adminstration initaitives. But, he has broken rank. What I think he seems to realize that in order to survive and win re-election, he has to cater to his liberal state's electoral base and do what is reasonable


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David Cameron and Nick Clegg have taken charge in the UK. It has been an interesting few days to say the least:


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As I contemplated the next stage of "outsiders" during my sabatical, I was shocked at the scenes coming out of the Gulf. I am assessing the situation and will be talking about it, soon.

The key thing I am trying to contemplate is how the debate continues to hover around oil. The average per gallon of price is around $ 3.15 in Southern California. It seems to me that this incident in the Gulf that will destroy the fishery industry and valued natural resources should wake up the country. That is not happening because of the power of Big Oil


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I have been writing about the World Economic Tsunami throughout "outsiders" over the past year and a half. Although the Obama Adminstration tells us that they have turned the corner, that "happy talk" is yet to be translated into real results.

This past week saw Al Jazeera talking about the the very plight that the average person is facing now. It featured the shutdown of a Hugo Boss Factory in Cleveland. The production moved to Turkey because the private Equity Firm that owned it felt that the factory was not competitive enough. Despite the euphoria by the President about the creation of 162,000 jobs, the fact remains that the United States has to create 10 Million Jobs just to be back at the level of employment before the economic meltdown that began in late 2006


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Burma continues to suffer. The thugs want to have their way. Yet, Burma's National League of Democracy continues to be the voice of reason and courage in the midst of so much repression.

Over the last 24 hours, I was gratified to see that they had decided against participating in the so-called election charade that the thugs have arranged on advise of their courageous leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The thugs have set the rules, have picked the so-called commission to run it and now will make sure that their role is enshrined going forward. The tragedy would have been compounded if they participated


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Ann Coulter in Canada....

March 25th 2010 07:31
Ann Coulter is a very interesting character. I have written about her in Outsiders because as a professional provocateur, she has been quite vocal in expressing her views. She was the go-to person for Conservatives before Glenn Beck, Bill O"Reilly and Sean Hannity began filling the airwaves.

She was making the rounds in Canada making speeches. She got a bit upset because she was given a rough reception. As she wrote in Human Events, "...Posters advertising my speech have been officially banned, while posters denouncing me are plastered all over the University of Ottawa campus. Elected officials have been prohibited from attending my speeches. Also, the local clothing stores are fresh out of brown shirts......Welcome to Canada! The provost of the University of Ottawa, average student IQ: 0, wrote to me—widely disseminating his letter to at least a half-dozen intermediaries before it reached me—in advance of my visit in order to recommend that I familiarize myself with Canada's criminal laws regarding hate speech


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The moves by leading publishers of content to start monetizing their digital content continues to fascinate me. New York Times, Pearson (Publisher of the Financial Times) & News Corp (owners of the Wall Street Journal, New York Post & Many other properties) have been leading proponents of this move to start monetizing this. I have been sceptical of this and it seems as if my scepticims has been validated with a recent Pew Research Center study.

What has been happening to traditional media circles has been a clear attempt to try and figure out how to stay relevant as New Media continues its' onslaught. Those of us who are New Media Practitioners have to continue to make sure that we act ever more responsibile and advoid partisanship. Although the rise of Huffpost, Daily Beast and Tucker Carlson's new venture is to be commended, there needs to be more


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The True State of the Peace Talks (Source: http://www.economist.com)


Israel has had quite a week. As I write this, Israel has shut down the West Bank and Jerusuleam. There is a massive Security Crackdown which I have been assessing throughout the day. I have to wonder what Israel is thinking by adding fuel to the underlying fire. There was the diplomatic fiasco of the additional homes while Joe Biden was in Isreal which I reported on in KP's sister site, Smooth Political. The Economist' KAL captured this in such a way that leaves me simply speechless. Now, there is Jerusleam


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