Ted Kennedy on Alito

[courtesy of Basil]

This is a quote of Ted Kennedy regarding Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, spoken to Alito:

SEN. TED KENNEDY (D-MA):

“You Have Obviously Had A Very Distinguished Record, And I Certainly Commend You For Long Service In The Public Interest. I Think It Is A Very Commendable Career And I Am Sure You Will Have A Successful One As A Judge.”

Then, there's Frank Lautenberg:

SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D-NJ):

“I Believe Mr. Alito Has The Experience And The Skills To Be The Kind Of Judge The Public Deserves – One Who Is Impartial, Thoughtful, And Fair. I Urge The Senate To Confirm His Nomination.”

Surprised? Well, it was fifteen years ago, when Kennedy was on the Senate Judiciary Committee (Lautenberg in the Congressional record), and George H. W. Bush nominated Alito. It will be interesting to hear what Kennedy will say now, but logic dictates it will be very hard for the Democrats to fight Alito without contradicting past statements some have made, or looking bad in general. While this theoretically would be the exact kind of battle they would use a filibuster on, as it is likely the last very important appointment Bush will make, it is more likely a terrible one to filibuster, as the Republicans' use of the nuclear option will be viewed as wise and neccessary by the general public.

Either way, an excellent choice politically (as well as the aforementioned judicially) for President Bush and the Republican Party.

UPDATE: The GOP has added quotes from today, and is calling it Ted Kennedy vs. Ted Kennedy.

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA): "Rather Than Selecting A Nominee For The Good Of The Nation And The Court, President Bush Has Picked A Nominee Whom He Hopes Will Stop The Massive Hemorrhaging Of Support On His Right Wing. This Is A Nomination Based On Weakness, Not On Strength." (Sen. Ted Kennedy, "Kennedy Statement On Nomination Of Judge Samuel Alito To Supreme Court," Press Release, 10/31/05)

• Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA): "[The President] Put Forth A Nominee With A Troubling Record On The Rights And Freedoms Important To America's Families." (Sen. Ted Kennedy, "Kennedy Statement On Nomination Of Judge Samuel Alito To Supreme Court," Press Release, 10/31/05)

• 
  

Very distinguished record; troubling record. Which is it?

Technorati tags: Altio.

Bush Chooses Samuel Alito

A great pick, from what I've read. I read and then skimmed the Wikipedia piece on him, and like his decisions and how he came to them. I also read through most of the famous "Menorah" display case (thanks Chaim), and there, too, I liked what he wrote.

Michelle Malkin has a roundup of dozens of bloggers on Alito - they know a lot more than I do, and they all think he's a great choice. Even DovBear thinks it's a good one, for now at least.

Technorati tags: Alito, SCOTUS.

PorkBusters 2.0

Instapundit and The Truth Laid Bear's Porkbusters project has been revamped by the Bear, and is now even more clear. Along with many other bloggers, I support the Fiscal Watch Team Offset Package, and hope it continues to gain momentum. The FWTOP details the supporting senators, the opposing senators, and updates nightly the supporting bloggers, while explaining what PorkBusters is all about on the side. It also lists pork by representative and by state, and explains how to find pork, and how to submit pork to PorkBusters - along with the responses of Representatives that Busters have received. Another great job by the Bear and Glenn.

Technorati tags: Porkbusters.

Bush On Road To Success

[edit: Welcome OpinionJournal.com and Best of the Web readers! Please feel free to check out the rest of SerandEz - BOTW fans may especially enjoy The Roe Effect or Roe vs. Gay from a while back, which are among the posts in the Best of SerandEz scroll to the left.]

After a couple weeks of holidays, it's been hard trying to figure out where to start blogging from: Miers' withdrawal, Libby's indictment, the UN trying to shield Syria, Coburn's amendments to cut pork getting shot down... etc. Instead, I'm going to look ahead from this point.

Where does President George W. Bush go from here? US deaths in Iraq have hit 2,000, which sadly has the anti-war crowd celebrating. Harriet Miers' has withdrawn her nomination for the Supreme Court, which has just about everybody celebrating but Bush. Syria plotted to kill a Lebanese leader, and the leader of the world organization responsible for doing something about it tried to protect Syria instead. Tom Coburn put forward at least two amendments to cut pork, and just 13 Senators voted for it - including just one Democrat, Russ Feingold, who is looking more and more like a great Presidential candidate who sticks to his principles.

Things seem to look terrible for Bush - and yet, I think this is going to turn into a great success story.

Think long-term: There are two major actions Bush made in his first term: Toppling the Hussein regime in Iraq, and the tax cuts/economic policies he implemented. The Iraqi people, for all the horrible things that are still happening there, are progressing very nicely, including passing a constitution - just a couple of years after the war. That is a major success story, and somewhat unprecedented in history. Meanwhile, the economy has been running so well, nobody even brought it up for a while until the hurricanes hit - and yet, GDP rose 3.8% anyway. Bush is - wisely - sticking to his guns and refusing to raise taxes to make up the losses, as taxes would not solve the problem, only exacerbate it; as evidenced by the large rise in tax revenue, despite [re: because of] lower rates.

This forced the country to think of other ways of coming up with revenue - notably, not wasting it on pork projects. Bloggers rallied (and still are rallying) with Porkbusters, while Senator Coburn pushed to cut the pork in the Senate. At the same time, Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers was met with opposition by conservatives and liberals alike, most importantly conservative bloggers. After enough poor feedback and other issues, Miers withdrew. Now, an interesting side note that has come from these issues is the dialogue that has been started between the Republican Party and conservative bloggers (which I've discussed a few times).

Bush, meanwhile, had the time and reasons to refocus. We will see who he'll nominate, but let's assume it is someone of the Janice Rogers Brown mold. The Democrats will be hard-pressed to fight a nominee they passed so strongly the first time around; and she will likely prove to be a solid justice. [edit:] He nominated Samuel Alito in place of Miers, and the Democrats will have a hard time convincing Americans that this nomination is worth a filibuster - especially when they've spoken so highly of him in the past. Toss in the threat of the nuclear option to get rid of filibusters, and the likelihood of Alito not making it to the bench is extremely low. Add in the already confirmed [and excellent choice] Chief Justice John Roberts, and Bush's impact on the Court could be felt for 30 years. Meanwhile, if Bush does begin cutting some of the pork from the budget, the already decreasing deficit could disappear - an incredible feat for a President who has presided over both 9/11 and a slew of major hurricanes.

Toss in the Middle East: In the next 3 years or so, Iraq should slowly grow stronger and stronger. If the US decides to take action against Syria (or Iran, for that matter), the already changing Middle East will learn democracy even faster. Bush's allowing Israel to direct the path they take is proving wise, and forcing the Palestinian people to choose democracy or terror. While it is still unclear which will win out, at least now they are battling over it.

If the President would also work on Social Security, he could go down as one of the most effective Presidents in history. His nomination of Ben Bernake to succeed Alan Greenspan as the Fed chairman was received with... quiet. The little that has been said has been mostly positive - just randomly clicking around on the Democratic Underground shows that the left thinkers believe him to be an excellent choice, much as the right does. If he can help push the neccesity to fix Social Security, to make the tax cuts permanent, and to seriously consider a different tax system, Bush will have covered just about every major issue - both foreign and domestic.

The biggest trick is to let his policies stay in place for as long as possible. Most of Bush's policies take the right approach - long-term fixes so problems do not recur; planned out ideas that do not rely on external revenues (taxes etc.) or fixes to sustain themselves. Unfortunately, many politicians rely on short-term fixes that make people happy enough to keep poll numbers high. It will take a dedicated President to let Bush's policies ride their course and build up this country and the rest of the world.

If - and this is not a small if - the people and politicians of this country can support the President, and if Bush himself can refocus his energies on doing what is in the best interests of this country for the long-term, rather than trying to broker compromises that serve nobody's interests, this country will be far better off. I think that the current situations have allowed Bush to realize this, and we will look back on this somewhat darker hour as the turnaround point of this Presidency. In the end, Bush will utilize this opportunity to push the proper - long-term - agendas and set this country for a healthy, prosperous, and safe future.

Technorati tags: President, Bush.

NFL Picks - Week 8

11/1 UPDATE: I won!

I've decided to put these up every week to show how my system is working... I talked about this previously here. I have adjusted my system to take the Aikman Efficiency Ratings (available on FoxSports) of each team, add together their offensive and defensive ratings, and add 10 ratings points to the home team. I then choose as a winner the team with the higher rating in each game, and weight the points based on ratings differential. For further details, read the previous post on this. Meanwhile, here are this week's picks:

[Home teams in CAPS; (my)Winners in Bold.]

Arz 12 DAL W
Gb 10 CIN W
W Oak 1 TEN
Was 8 NYG W
L Cle 3 HOU
W Chi 7 DET
Min 14 CAR W
Jax 2 STL W
Mia 5 NO L
Kc 9 SD W
Phi 4 DEN W
L Tb 13 SF
Buf 6 NE W
Bal 11 PIT W

As of this moment... my Browns - the 3 - are tied with Houston [edit: down a FG], while Jacksonville, which I have 2 against, just pulled ahead of St. Louis. Oakland, which is my 1, is only up by 2 over Tennessee. The others all have solid leads to blowouts going on. Interesting, no?

[UPDATE:] St. Louis just pulled ahead of Jacksonville, so my own Browns are my only losing team at this point. Ouch.

[UPDATE:] Browns tied it up. I'm running at 6-0-2.

[UPDATE:] Bears sacked Garcia, ran it the fumble for a TD. Browns down 3, but driving with 2 minutes left. Again, 7-1 with the Browns the 1... EDIT: Fumble was overturned, so Bears-Lions is still tied. Dilfer just underthrew 4th-and-18 to a wide-open Antonio Bryant and it was tipped, and the Browns lose. Ugly.

[LATE GAMES:] San Diego and Denver are walking all over KC and Philly, and the others I'm losing tight. 7-1 in the early games, thanks to the Bears defense. I've lost just 3 points - not bad... gotta love math. [MORE:] Lost the tight ones, but now if NE and Pittsburgh both win I'll win my pool for the week. Other people lost more on the late games...

{Update} Nice! Both the Pats and Steelers won, so I won this week. We'll see if this happens again next week (hopefully! :) ). As a note, last week I was in a rush and did it quickly - I used my system, but adjusted it the wrong way, and tied for first. Had I done it properly, I believe I would have won then as well. As the weeks pass, the system improves, because flukes have less weight.

Technorati tags: NFL, Picks, Pool.

Haveil Havalim #42; ARGH!

The ARGH! is not on Haveil Havalim - Batya did an amazing job again in putting this week's HH together. The ARGH! is about an (in my eyes) excellent and [for the first time in a while] well-written post I wrote last night that disappeared when I clicked Submit. Now I have to start over... Meanwhile, check out Haveil Havalim. For those who don't know...

“Haveil Havalim,” ”Vanity of Vanities” is the Jewish-Israeli blogging carnival consisting of posts from blogs all over the world. It’s hosted by different bloggers each week and coordinated by Soccer Dad. The term “Haveil Havalim” is from Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, which was written by King Solomon, who built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other “excesses” and realized that it was nothing but norishkeit, “hevel” or in English “vanities.”

Technorati tags: Jewish, Israel, Haveil Havalim, Carnival.

StatCounter is Down...

StatCounter, counter of millions of blogs, is partially down. And here, I just thought I was writing so poorly lately that people stopped coming. So, even though that is NOT the case, it still made me realize I haven't been as focused lately - so I'll try and improve.

NY Times - Half The News That's Fit To Print

I'm not quite sure where I saw this first, but it was either Michelle Malkin or LittleGreenFootballs.

The New York Times wrote an article after the US death toll in Iraq reached 2,000. Near the end of the article, it mentions a letter by a Corporal Jeffrey Starr.

Another member of the 1/5, Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr, rejected a $24,000 bonus to re-enlist. Corporal Starr believed strongly in the war, his father said, but was tired of the harsh life and nearness of death in Iraq. So he enrolled at Everett Community College near his parents' home in Snohomish, Wash., planning to study psychology after his enlistment ended in August.

But he died in a firefight in Ramadi on April 30 during his third tour in Iraq. He was 22.

Sifting through Corporal Starr's laptop computer after his death, his father found a letter to be delivered to the marine's girlfriend. "I kind of predicted this," Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. "A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances."

The quote was 100% accurate. The Times, however, chose to cut the next few - extremely important - lines from its article. Thankfully, his uncle e-mailed Michelle Malkin the rest of the letter.

Yesterday's New York Times on-line edition carried the story of the 2000 Iraq US military death[s]. It grabbed my attention as the picture they used with the headline was that of my nephew, Cpl Jeffrey B. Starr, USMC.

Unfortunately they did not tell Jeffrey's story. Jeffrey believed in what he was doing. He [was] willing put his life on the line for this cause. Just before he left for his third tour of duty in Iraq I asked him what he thought about going back the third time. He said: "If we (Americans) don't do this (free the Iraqi people from tyranny) who will? No one else can."

Several months after Jeffrey was killed his laptop computer was returned to his parents who found a letter in it that was addressed to his girlfriend and was intended to be found only if he did not return alive. It is a most poignant letter and filled with personal feelings he had for his girlfriend. But of importance to the rest of us was his expression of how he felt about putting his life at risk for this cause. He said it with grace and maturity.

He wrote: "Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."

What Jeffrey said is important. Americans need to understand that most of those who are or have been there understand what's going on. It would honor Jeffrey's memory if you would publish the rest of his story.

May he rest in peace.

Pictures from LA (well, one, anyway...)

Ser & KickBoxer at Pizza World. They both hate the picture, but Serach said I could post it - so this will have to do until I touch up the rest and decide which to put up. :)

Hastert Blogs; Coburn Listens to Bloggers

[Previously on this subject: Politicos Pay Attention to Blogs (intro) and Unprecedented: House Republicans Invite Bloggers (in action).]

More and more instances of the Republican members of Congress having excellent conversations, discussions, and dialogue with bloggers keep popping up. Dennis Hastert has actually begun his own blog - and it has substance! Senator Coburn, who has been a strong leader in the battle against pork (ala Porkbusters), recently had a nice conference call with many leading blogs to discuss pork in the budget.

The best, and most interesting line:

Senator Coburn said that he hoped this would be the first of regular calls with bloggers on the subject.

Good.

I don't mind repeating this again and again:

It will be interesting to see if this type of activity continues, and to what extent. If this begins to become a trend (we've seen a small number of politicians pay attention to PorkBusters - but only after receiving notice), we may see a re-shaping of the political world as we know it. I think that whichever party truly latches on to the idea - not through paying lip service, but by truly paying attention to the blogosphere - will become far stronger, and fast. This should not be done irresponsibly, as has been done in the past by Presidents (and others) who too closely followed national polls. But the logical reasoning of bloggers, their analyses, and their sometimes ingenius ideas should not be ignored.

The Republican National Committee has taken the first step. Will more follow?

We can only hope.

Fun On 76th Ave...

...unfortunately. When we got back from the airport yesterday, we walked into our apartment reeking of gas. We also heard a screech of tires, and then lots of yelling and noise. After calling 311, I was connected to the fire department, who sent their customary 2 trucks for a simple gas leak. However, they couldn't get up our block, which was blocked by about 4 or more police cars and ten or more officers who were arresting at least one person and yelling at another to "Give the keys, because this car is not going to be here one way or another. We'll tow it if we have to. Give the keys NOW!! No more games!!" Apparently, there was a very drunk driver who was chased by a number of officers, then pleading with them not to arrest him because it was some kind of holiday. Meanwhile, the firemen seemed somewhat disappointed with our little gas leak, and we had to go elsewhere for the night while our apartment aired out - no easy feat, considering most of our friends are asleep at 2 a.m. Thankfully, 24Girl and her guests figured out sleeping arrangements for us at her apartment, though we only got to sleep at about 5. Anyways, the posts I want to write continue to be delayed. Argh.

Bye-Bye, LA...

After a wonderful, relaxing week in LA, Ser, Kickboxer, and I are returning back to New Yuck. Apparently, I've completely missed the news the past couple of days, including the White Sox winning the World Series, Miers withdrawing her nomination, and my own tying for the win in my NFL Pool. (Bad, okay, good...)

Ushpizin update: Kickboxer (who we convinced last week to join us in LA for a few days) joined us Sunday, and watched Ushpizin - was completely drawn in by the movie, and really liked it. It's apparently showing in some areas of New York as well as here in LA, and the actress (Rand's wife) had never acted before in her life - not as I wrote in the last post.

LA update: Went to Ventura on Monday afternoon and walked around - got a ticket for a meter that had expired - even though 20 minutes earlier it had said 1:39. More on that (and the rude police officer) later. Ventura was nice/cute; last night we drove around with my good friend PhotoMan [he's an incredible photographer - Heritage hired him to take pictures on one of their trips to Europe and all the concentration camps et al; one of his pictures won an award I believe], ate at Pizza World, then drove around a bit - witnessing a helicopter and cops with guns checking out a bank and then driving around Rodeo Drive and Benedict Canon before heading back. Today we are probably going to head out to Universal Walk, primarily because it's right near here and our flight is at 3:30 out of Burbank.

When we get back tonight I'll hopefully be able to post some more substantive stuff; perhaps I'll post pictures from our trip, though I always seem to have trouble with uploading them onto Blogger... anyone know a good way of doing it? Thanks!

Best of Me [not "me" Me] Symphony #100

The 100th edition of the Best of Me Symphony is up! Congratulations Gary on this milestone. I haven't had the chance to read through the posts yet, but I'm sure it's excellent, as it has been every week I've read it so far. He also was kind enough to mention my Roe vs. Gay post from a while back.

Ushpizin

Ser and I saw Ushpizin in Encino on Friday with her aunt and cousin. It was an excellent poignant film, and important to see - if only to encourage more videos like it to be shown here in the US.

It was interesting, touching, well-acted... just an overall very well-made film. For those who haven't heard of it - it's a film starring Shuli Rand. Rand was an Israeli actor who was chozer b'tshuvah (became religious) through Breslov [a type of Chassidus (Hassidism) - much focus on serving God with joy] and stopped acting. He ran into a director, who essentially questioned how he could not possibly do another movie with Rand. Rand explained some of the restrictions he would face which essentially prohibited making a movie. The director, who was not religious, told him to write all his restrictions, and he would create a movie around them. They also consulted with Rand's rabbi, who in addition to being very positive about the idea, made them promise to include Rand's wife (also a chozer b'tshuvah actress I believe) in the film, and allowed them to film within the Breslov community to make it quite authentic.

The director said his primary focus in the film was to show irreligious Israelis the lives of charedi (Haredi) Jews from within, as he felt that many chilonim (irreligious Jews) have a hatred for the charedim from a pure lack of understanding of them. The movie has been quite a hit in Israel (from my understanding), and we heard an excellent line that an irreligious Israeli had said: "For about an hour and a half, I actually liked the charedim."

The movie itself is about a very poor couple (Rand and his wife) who are both Breslover chozrim b'tshuvah but have not been able [to their frustration] to have a child. They cannot afford what they need for Sukkos, including a Sukkah, an esrog [citron], and most food - and they receive a couple of interesting guests for the holiday as well. It's very much worth seeing, and for anyone in LA, take out two hours to watch it. I'm not sure where else it's being shown, but I'm sure there's ways of finding out online.

Moadim L'Simcha! (Happy holidays!)

So much to write...

...So little time. Ugh. There's so much I want to post and read right now, but it's a waste to come to Los Angeles - in beautiful weather, I might add - and sit inside at a (slower) computer all day. Therefore, most of the blogging will have to wait until after I get back next Thursday. Meanwhile, the Political Teen and others wrote about their experiences at the Capitol (which I discussed earlier), and it's interesting - another thing to analyze later.

More posts to come on Sukkos, Miers, Blogging & Politics, etc.!

Meanwhile, a Ben story:

S.I.L. Layah: "Do you like the meat? Grandma's a good cook!"

Ben: "Yeah.......... And Grandpa's a good eat."

Classic.

200th Post!

Wow. I started this blog one 4AM out of sheer boredom - then, after about 2 months of sporadic posting, starting to really enjoy it. Now, I'm at 200 posts - and thousands of hits. I hope y'all are enjoying reading it as I am writing it - Chag Sameach [Happy Festival] to all, and wish us a safe flight to the City of Angels in just a few hours!

Joining SerandEz in the future is S.I.L. - my sister-in-law, Layah. Welcome, Layah! Her posts will more often deal with life, life issues, happiness, spirituality, and what we can learn, leaving me with all the stuff that doesn't really matter. Nice. :)

As a quick note on Sukkos, whose schedule many other bloggers have been complaining about...

We flew in Monday morning from New York to my parents' house in Cleveland. I did not go to sleep Sunday night, as we had to pack up for two very different climates and ten days, and I had much to take care of at home. I managed to get about an hour of sleep on the flight, and we got a ride from Akron to Beachwood, where my dad picked us up.

I was immediately dispatched to get all the bamboo poles from the back of the garage, buried under some blankets and a plank on top of a ledge you need a ladder for. I then had to carry all of them to the sukkah, put them through some windows, come all the way around, and put them all up - no simple feat. You have to lift each pole up through the window, through the roof of the porch (which the fiberglass roof cranks up and rests against the side of the house), and balance it on the beams - but there's a wall on one side, and a raised siding on the other, so you have to put each pole all the way through on a slant, then straighten it. It also requires making sure you switch off thin and thick ends of the poles. Once most of the roof is covered, this is almost impossible, as you can't stick your head through, and can't see what you're doing.

After finishing the schach, I had to do the decorations - of course, the posters are just too small to fit well on the wall beams, so that took maneuvering, and after putting up all the chains and placing all the fruits nicely on the far end on a ledge (so pretty...!), I was finished. As often happens in Cleveland, it started to rain 20 minutes before Sukkos started. My father decided to crank down the roof over the schach to keep the sukkah dry, as we usually do. All of a sudden... SNAP! CRASH!!!

The cable that lets the roof go up and down snapped, and the roof crashed down right on the sukkah. The fruits went flying, which my 3-year old nephew found hilarious, and my father was devestated. A sukkah with a roof is not much of a sukkah. We ate in a different neighbor's sukkah each meal (and turned down many other kind offers), and had a wonderful Yom Tov - and I didn't realize until today that all my work was for naught. Hmph. That's what I get for complaining, I guess...

Chag Sameach! Ironic - "The Merciful One will re-establish for us the Sukkah of David which fell." My father's name is David. This kind of thing seems to happen every year...

Another mention from DovBear!

Though it's not as flattering as the last time, anyone who reads DovBear knows that a good bashing is the highest form of flattery he gives. Then again, I can't really complain: The first time I mentioned DovBear on my blog, I debated about whether to add him to blogroll:

DovBear has a tendency to say things that are misrepresentative and biased, but at the same time does back up much (well, some) of what he says. While I disagree with most of what he says, he often posts items which I could not have said any (well, much) better. He's a flaky moderate leftist with burts of right-wing straight-thinking, and does an excellent critique of many problems in the Orthodox Jewish world. [Orthomom does it better.] At the same time, he argues well in his comments (the true blood of his blog), though there's still a strong bias to the left that takes a while to break through. So, as much as I may disagree with him, he's still (kinda) worth reading - and now it's to your left.

So I guess I'm not one to talk.

Unprecedented: House Republicans Invite Bloggers

Before this week's holiday began, I found it interesting that the Republican National Committee had sought out the thoughts and opinions of a number of conservative bloggers regarding the Harriet Miers nomination. The idea of bringing bloggers in is important as it is neccessary to

show what the blogosphere is made of. Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, RedState, PoliPundit... These are people - constituents - who are seriously debating and questioning the decisions of their leaders. Sometimes, they agree; sometimes, they don't. But they have reasons, logic, and facts at their fingertips that factor into their decisions.

It will be interesting to see if this type of activity continues, and to what extent. If this begins to become a trend (we've seen a small number of politicians pay attention to PorkBusters - but only after receiving notice), we may see a re-shaping of the political world as we know it. I think that whichever party truly latches on to the idea - not through paying lip service, but by truly paying attention to the blogosphere - will become far stronger, and fast.

As mentioned there,

the logical reasoning of bloggers, their analyses, and their sometimes ingenius ideas should not be ignored.

The Republican National Committee has taken the first step. Will more follow?

We can only hope.

It appears more steps are following - and big ones, at that. A number of bloggers from larger blogs were invited to Washington to participate in "an exclusive interview opportunity." The invitation reads:

The House Republican Conference Invites Bloggers to the Capitol this Thursday for an Exclusive Interview Opportunity With House Republicans.

For the first time ever, Bloggers are invited to meet directly with House Members and blog from the Capitol. Members will be stopping in throughout the day to meet with bloggers and discuss the House Republican record of successful economic policies, their commitment to fiscal responsibility, and the details of the historic proposed budget amendment that is expected to reach the floor later this week.

The Political Teen (Ian Schwartz) is planning on attending, as are Matt Margolis of Blogs for Bush and Eric Pfeiffer from The Buzz. Many cannot make it, as it is on very short notice - including Instapundit, Polipundit, La Shawn, and it seems Michelle Malkin.

The hope is that this will include far more discussion and not become a simple meet-and-greet where Congressmen try to wow or fool bloggers with simple rhetoric. Considering they invited somewhat 'heavyweight' bloggers, this would seem to be the case. It is hard to imagine they would invite quality bloggers who are sure to post every detail within minutes unless they actually are planning on listening to what they have to say.

While it is a shame neither Instapundit nor N.Z. Bear will be on hand, as it likely will discuss PorkBusters and issues similar, the Bear has set up a page for bloggers who are there to update everyone on what is going on. The RNC was even open to an ongoing conference call for people to speak with/listen to representatives, but ultimately deemed it impractical for this event.

This small meeting could turn into a landmark event. While it is extremely important that the bloggers clearly state the issues with the pork, the concerns with the transportation bill, and the problems with the plans for rebuilding after Katrina, it is equally important that they impress upon the respresentatives just how quickly any issue is understood, interperted, commented on, and read by thousands of constituents. Within minutes, any idea or opinion - or the lack of either - is known by the public; and if they like what they're hearing, that will reflect very positively on the representative. But if the bloggers disagree with the answer, with reasons, proofs, and statistics to back them up; or worse, become impatient with the stalling - the representative is sure to hear about it.

Representatives, as mentioned earlier, should not just follow anything the blogosphere says - they only must recognize how important it is to listen to their voices. The RNC is taking incredible steps toward realizing this neccessity, and should be praised for it.

Now, let's see if they listen.

Technorati tags: PorkBusters, RNC, Bloggers, Republicans, House.

Now available at: Cafe Oregano.

Chag Sameach!

Blogging will undoubtedly be sporadic over the next 10 days, as SerandEz head out to Cleveland for a few days followed by Los Angeles for a week to spend Sukkos with family - Ezzie's parents for the first days, Ser's sister for chol hamoed and the last days.

We wish everyone a wonderful Yom Tov and a Chag Kosher V'Sameach!

(For all those not familiar with Sukkos, I'm not sure where to point you... try Wikipedia entries for Sukkos or Sukkot or Tabernacles... Good luck!)

[EDIT:] As noted in the comments, try Aish.com!

Technorati tags: Sukkos.

Best of Me Symphony #99

The BOMS #99 is up, including my old post, "A Soldier in Gaza."

Check it out.

Technorati tags: Carnivals, BOMS.