Space Plane

This looked interesting (I found it on Drudge).  The X-37 is slated to launch at the beginning of the new year.

While the X-37, a product of Boeing's "Phantom Works" at Lambert Field, in St Louis, does not carry people, it is a reusable space vehicle, which should cut down on costs.  Also, not being man rated it should be even cheaper.

Here is an item on an early drop test from the (Scaled Composites of Mojave, California) White Knight.  The actual launch into space will be via an Atlas:

Tucked inside the shroud of an Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), the winged craft will be boosted out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, orbit the Earth and then make an auto-pilot landing in California.

We land UAVs every day in a remote fashion and the Soviet Union landed a Space Shuttle size vehicle on auto-pilot after boosting it into space.  This should work out fine.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Rejected vs the Nominated

There was an interesting article in The Washington Post on Senator Jeff Sessions meeting with Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

The reason it is interesting is that 23 years ago the US Senate, and the Panel on which he is now the senior Republican, rejected Mr Sessions for a Federal Judgeship.  The Senators on the Judicary Panel thought that he was racially insensitive, a charge being hurled at Judge Sotomayor by those who actually have no vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  To quote from the WashPost:

If things had gone as planned in 1986, the conservative Alabama prosecutor would have been confirmed to a lifetime appointment to a federal judgeship.  But allegations of racism cast Sessions as a throwback to the Jim Crow South, and the Senate Judiciary Committee voted down his nomination. Stunned and embarrassed, Sessions returned home to Mobile as a man undone.

For his part, Senator Sessions claims that he will deal with this in a fair manner.

"I've felt sorry for the poor person in the pit getting grilled," Sessions said in a recent interview.  "I don't think you'll find that I've abused any witness.  And I don't like vindication."

At the end of the day the Republicans have only seven votes on a panel with 19 members.

It still comes down to the Judge herself.  If she has a skeleton heretofore unknown or if she says something that outrages the left, she will end up like Senator Sessions, not being confirmed.  Otherwise, it is all about what kind of show the Republicans wish to put on.  So far it looks like the adults are taking the approach that "everything is good, but don't push us around."  These are, after all, US Senators.  They expect to be treated with a certain amount of deference.

Regards  —  Cliff

Comments on Instapundit

Here it is—Comments.

Many will not know what this means, but the short of it is that Law Professor Glenn Reynolds was away and turned over the site to Law Professor Ann Althouse. She, in turn, turned on the comments button for one post.

While in the back of my mind Instapundit used to have comments, but then it didn't and hasn't for a long time.  People were thrilled to just be able to claim that they had posted a comment.

But, the adult leadership was soon back.

Regards  —  Cliff

Hurricane Season

No, I am not talking about my Wedding Anniversary today.  I am talking Hurricane Season as announced by FEMA, here.

I know, this is Lowell and we haven't had a hurricane since the 1930s, which was the last century.  But, not recently doesn't equal never, as The Boston Globe said this morning.  I can't find it on the Boston.com website, but in the "G" Section (Page 23) is a picture of a fishing trawler sitting on some rail track, with a derailed train further down the track.  In the near part of the picture you can see where the track has been undermined and twisted.

Under the title "Small craft warning," the article says:

Today marks the start of hurricane season in the Atlantic.  The storms rarely reach this far north.  The most famous reminder that rarely doesn't mean never occurred on Sept. 21, 1938.  The Great New England Hurricane ranks as the sixth-costliest US hurricane (in constant dollars).  Ninety-nine people lost their lives in Massachusetts alone.  That the hurricane occurred during a full moon on the autumnal equinox made the storm surge especially devastating.  This Globe file photograph shows one result:  A fishing trawler deposited on the tracks of the New Haven Railroad in Stonington, Conn.  The derailed train behind the trawler hardly looks unusual by comparison.

Frankly, the train behind the trawler looks like it is not coming back to upright.

When I was young I got to walk in the eye of a hurricane, when we lived in South Jersey.  It was really interesting.  But, before and after, it was breaking branches and making a lot of noise and rain.

So, check the website of FEMA and see if there are some things you need to consider.

Regards  —  Cliff

Sotomayor re Discrimination Cases

I have been criticized for skimming the MSM and blogs for my information, rather than doing original research, but (a) I am back to work and so my time is limited and (b) I am not a law school graduate and (c) I have no law clerk (although I know who could fill in on a part time basis).

Now here comes the SCOTUSBLOG with an examination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor's record on discrimination cases during her 11 years on the Second Circuit.

In sum, in an eleven-year career on the Second Circuit, Judge Sotomayor has participated in roughly 100 panel decisions involving questions of race and has disagreed with her colleagues in those cases (a fair measure of whether she is an outlier) a total of 4 times.  Only one case (Gant) in that entire eleven years actually involved the question whether race discrimination may have occurred.  (In another case (Pappas) she dissented to favor a white bigot.)  She participated in two other panels rejecting district court rulings agreeing with race-based jury-selection claims.  Given that record, it seems absurd to say that Judge Sotomayor allows race to infect her decisionmaking.

So, in light of that, let me more specifically state my case.

The Republicans in the US Senate should take the strategic♠ view and while asking serious questions that go to the root of her judicial philosophy, treat her with the respect and dignity that has been so lacking on the part of Democratic Senators during hearings for people like Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.  She is a freebee.  She is replacing a liberal, so nothing lost on the Court. She is going to be approved unless she upsets some of the Democratic Senators.  The Republicans in the US Senate should keep their powder dry and wait to see what is coming down the trail next.  The principle of "Conservation of Enemies"♥ applies here.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  From Wikipedia:  "In military terms, tactics is concerned with the conduct of an engagement while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked.  In other words, how a battle is fought is a matter of tactics: whether it should be fought at all is a matter of strategy."
♥  Andrew Krepinevich's law of the conservation of enemies: Don't make any more than you need to have at any given time. I lifted this from a post on Afghanistan by Tom Ricks.

Filibuster of Supreme Court Nominee?

So here we have Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper of ABC news saying "First President in US History to Have Voted to Filibuster a Supreme Court Nominee Now Hopes for Clean Process." As Instapundit says, "Heh. That’s their headline, not mine."

As you might have expected, Senator Kerry was tied up in this.

I post this for the irony.

Regards  —  Cliff

PS:  For the record, I think the Republican Senators on the Judiciary Panel should give her a firm but fair questioning and then vote for her, unless something really bad shows up, like sedition.  Same for the Republican Senators in the full Senate vote for confirmation.  No credit will be given, but it will be a base upon which to build for the next nominee, if that person should be left of Judge Sotomayor.

Out Back Question of the Week

When I walked into the Out Back Jess asked me what the question was and noted that she had checked the blog and had not seen a question posted.  I have been, I admit it, a slacker.  The fact that I have gone back to work should be no excuse.  One needs to have one's priorities straight.

So, I had to invent one on the spot. Of course, I went with the easy one.  Who was recently nominated to be the new Justice on the US Supreme Court?  Jess knew that it was not someone from the "Lower 48," but her guess of Sarah Palin showed awareness, but a certain lack of context.  I gave her the hint "from Puerto Rico."  In the mean time, another greeter, Britney was saying that she knew who it was.  You could see it right there on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't bring it forward. So, we had the person on the phone—the Other Cliff—pass along the name.

The name is Sonia Sotomayor, a Newyorkian.

The key here isn't that no one knew the name, but rather that young people are interested in what is going on and aware. Knowing the names—that is an insider thing.  Knowing that things are happening is what the voters need to know and then closer to the election more detail is required.  It is just like flying a low-level mission to a target.  At 420 knots (483.7 mph or 8 statute miles per minute) you need the right map for the right part of the mission.  You need a general overall map for starting out (maybe 1:2,500,000), then a map with some detail enroute (1:500,000), and then a detailed map (1:200,000) for when you get to the target area.

Regards  —  Cliff