I usually try to class myself as one of those who tries to keep up with current events as they happen, but this story completely slipped under my radar screen. If I have not heard or read about it, chances are you haven’t either. All of us could ask the question, “Why hasn’t the MSM been all over it?”, but we all know the answer. If this report ever sees the light of day, Senator Hillary Clinton’s chances of getting elected President are about as good as Howard Dean’s are, and that’s not very good.

Imagine my surprise when I read the following article written by Tony Snow for Town Hall yesterday. This will get you started:

“By all accounts, the 400-page Barrett report is a bombshell, capable possibly of wiping out Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential prospects. At the very least, it would bring to public (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

We awakened yesterday with new hope for Senate Republicans. We saw some progress in the filibuster wars, with Republican leadership at last starting to verbalize what everyone in the base was wanting to hear. But alas it was short lived as is evidenced by the postponement of nomination hearings for John Bolton as ambassador to the UN.

The United Nations has become so corrupt, scandal ridden, beneath comtempt, and irrelevant in recent years, it will take a tough minded individual as ambassador to help straighten it out. John Bolton is just such a person. Power Line has the details in their article entitled, Senate Slanderfest to Continue. Here is a portion:

“ANOTHER UPDATE: Rich Lowry got an email from a “well-informed source”:

A few tidbits…

1. The Senate went into a special recess so Bolton could (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

Hugh Hewitt has been criticized for his stance concerning pulling the money out from under Republican Senators who don’t support breaking the filibuster on Judicial Nominees. See his article entitled, Convenient Red Lines, and Rules Made to be Broken, especially part 2. Here is the best part:

“But the Republican Party stands for two things above all others: The robust defense of the country and the rule of law. A “Republican” who deserts on either of these two issues is simply taking themselves out of the very, very big tent. Disagreement on every issue is possible, whether abortion, taxes, immigration, or defense appropriations, and details on legislation can divide Republicans of good faith over and over again. Individual senators can oppose individual judges –a vote against Judge Bork, though shocking to me, wasn’t a declaration against the rule of law for example.

But the radical use of the filibuster is a direct departure from the Constitution’s anticipation of a majority vote on presidential nominees, and the idea that preserving this illegitimate weapon of an out-of-control minority for future use by a minority GOP is doubly offensive. “Blue slips” and majoritarian power in the Committee are not assaults on the Constitution, but the sustained assertion of a 60-vote super-majority on the floor of the Senate is. Defend that practice and you are defending a shredding of the Constitution, and out of the GOP you should go.”

Confirm Them, has all the latest on the confirmation war.

Finally, Red State Rant, has so many good articles today, we didn’t have time to read all of them.

Hugh Hewitt is again encouraging the Senate Republicans to get on with the show in an article entitled, The Tipping (Away) Point. Hugh’s point is made quite clearly. If Senate Majority Leader Frist does not put down a schedule for the constitutional option and win, Republicans will lose in the 2006 election cycle. Here is a portion of his article:

“The political risks of continued dithering are outlined in my WeeklyStandard.com column, “Lead the Way.” Put bluntly: If the GOP loses or refuses the battle over the filibuster, it will lose the 2006 Senate elections, a set of contests it could actually win if the base thought there was any point to winning elections.”

This is another portion:

“So Senator Frist should lay out a schedule leading to the vote, and Senator Specter should march the blocked nominees through the Judiciary Committee, or the GOP as a whole should use the extraordinary procedure to bring them to the floor. Even if six or more GOP senators defect, at least the activists will know who they can trust and who they ought to punish. It is that simple.

You can encourage these steps by e-mailing any GOP senator or by calling their office at 202-225-3121.”

This is “the” most important political issue in two centuries. The Democrats have made it so by their unconstitutional filibustering of Judicial Nominees. It is well past time for Senate Republicans to lead in this situation, and exercise their constitutional duty.

Perhaps the Senate Republicans need to find a cure for their particular torment which we wrote about here.

Testicularitus. Never heard of it before? Probably because it isn’t a word yet. We just made it up today.

We can’t find any reference to this word in any online dictionary, nor can we find it in any internet search engine. So we are going to claim it as our own. This word is being coined today in much the same way as the word “Pajamahadeen” was coined by Jim Geraghty of National Review Online. Mr Geraghty used “Pajamahadeen” in response to the comment by Jonathan Klein, (former executive vice president of CBS News) who described bloggers in a debate on the O’Reilly Factor. The quote from the debate is printed in The Wall Street Opinion Journal in an article by John Fund, entitled, I’d Rather Be Blogging.

Jonathan Klein said, “You couldn’t have a starker contrast between the (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

The title above is borrowed from another poor country boy from Missouri, Rev. Lou Barton. The PCB was privileged to listen to Bro. Lou, as we used to call him, preach that sermon in person a few years ago. He was using as his text the story of the plagues and the effect they had on Pharoah in ancient Egypt during the time of Moses. The particular verse in the story was, Ex 8:9-10 (BBE) quoted here:

9 And Moses said, I will let you have the honour of saying when I am to make prayer for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs may be sent away from you and your houses, and be only in the Nile.
10 And he said, By tomorrow. And he said, Let it be as you say: so that you may see that there is no other (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)