New Chief Justice

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 - John G. Roberts Jr. was confirmed as the 17th chief justice of the United States today in a formality that intensified speculation over who will be President Bush's next Supreme Court nominee.

The Senate confirmed the nominee by a vote of 78 to 22, with unanimous support from Republicans and with half the Democrats voting for him as well. He was sworn in at the White House this afternoon by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens amid expectations that the president will announce his next choice for the court very soon.

"I have done nothing wrong. I am innocent," Representative Tom DeLay of Texas told a Capitol Hill news conference.

DeLay's Leadership Delayed

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the powerful House Republican majority leader, was accused by a Texas grand jury today of criminal conspiracy in a campaign fund-raising scheme.

Mr. DeLay was indicted on one count charging that he violated state election laws in September 2002. Two political associates, John D. Colyandro and James W. Ellis, were indicted with him.

The indictment of Mr. DeLay, while not entirely unexpected, still reverberated through the Capitol. The House Republican rules require a member of the leadership to step down, at least temporarily, if indicted. Representative David Dreier of California is expected to replace him.

A conviction on the felony charge against Mr. DeLay, 58, carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. The lawmaker has consistently maintained his innocence and today asserted that the indictment resulted from a "purely political investigation" by the Travis County district attorney, Ronnie Earle, a Democrat.

"I have done nothing wrong," Mr. DeLay said, adding that he had violated "no law, no regulation, no rule of the House."

Mr. DeLay, speaking on Capitol Hill, described Mr. Erle, a longtime antagonist, as "a partisan fanatic" and a "rogue district attorney" and said the prosecutor had shamelessly courted journalists on "the only days he actually comes to the office."

Mr. DeLay said the charge lodged against him today was "one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in American history," one that is "a sham, and Mr. Earle knows it."

Mr. Earle, in a separate news conference, disputed Mr. DeLay's contentions. "We have over the years prosecuted a number of public officials," he said in Houston, adding that it was his duty to go after "abuses of power." In fact, he said, he has prosecuted more Democrats than Republicans.

And of course he has. That's because Democrats are more prone to criminal tactics than Republicans.

Spain Convicts Detainee of Helping to Plan 9/11 Attacks

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- A suspected al-Qaida cell leader was convicted Monday of conspiring to commit murder in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, concluding Europe's biggest trial of alleged members of the terrorist group.

Imad Yarkas, one of 24 defendants on trial, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for the guilty verdicts of conspiracy and of being a leader of a terrorist organization.

President Hu Jintao of China, center, and Vice President Zeng Qinghong at a conference in Beijing in March.

China Solidifies Power

BEIJING, Sept. 24 - Three years after becoming China's top leader, Hu Jintao has solidified his grip on power and intimidated critics inside and outside the Communist Party with the help of the man once seen as his most potent rival.

Mr. Hu, China's president and Communist Party chief, and Zeng Qinghong, vice president and the man in charge of the party's organizational affairs, have tackled the most delicate domestic and foreign policy issues as a team, governing as hard-liners with a deft political touch, former Chinese officials and scholars with leadership connections said.

Their bond is a surprise because Mr. Zeng was the longtime right-hand man of the previous No. 1 leader, Jiang Zemin. A skillful backroom political operator considered to have strong military ties, Mr. Zeng was long viewed as the only person capable of challenging Mr. Hu for power.

Instead, Mr. Zeng and Mr. Hu joined forces last year to push Mr. Jiang to retire and to give up his position as leader of China's military, party insiders said. That cleared the way for Mr. Hu to become military chief and weakened the formidable political network Mr. Jiang had constructed in his 13 years at the helm.

...you have got to be kidding me. So if we want to declare War, Who should we inform... Zeng, Hu, or Jiang?

Rita Breaches New Orleans... learned from Katrina

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 23 - Rain from Hurricane Rita sent water running over the top of a patched levee into one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods of the city this morning, quickly submerging cars and flooding empty homes wrested from their foundations.

The water rose so quickly that it had reached windows of houses up to three blocks east of the levee by late morning.

The breaches confirmed the city's fears - that its weakened levee system could not protect it against a tidal surge along Lake Pontchartrain. Hurricane Katrina had caused breaks in the levee when it hit 24 days ago.

But since then the low-lying area has been evacuated, and Dave Wheeler, operations chief of FEMA's urban search and rescue team in New Orleans, said that 95 to 98 percent of the Lower Ninth Ward had been checked for survivors and cleared.

NASA Plans to Return to Moon With New Space Vehicles

With a new generation of space vehicles designed to be more powerful and safer than the aging fleet of shuttles that will soon be retired, NASA plans to put humans on the moon again by 2018, after an absence of almost half a century, the agency's administrator said today.The next generation of spacecraft, similar in shape to the Apollo space capsules, will use an improved, blunt-body crew capsule that will accommodate up to six people, the administrator, Michael D. Griffin, said at a news conference. The new rocket could be orbiting in space by 2014.

The new program is NASA's response to the vision for space exploration laid out by President Bush on Jan. 14, 2004, five months after the Columbia accident board's report.

Mr. Bush said then that he wanted the United States "to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system." He also called for the retirement of the space shuttles by 2010 and the creation of the crew exploration vehicle for ferrying astronauts to the international space station and ultimately to the moon and Mars.

Chief Justice Nominee Speaks Volumes While Saying Little

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 - For someone accused of saying very little, Judge John G. Roberts Jr. revealed a great deal about how he will approach his work if confirmed as the 17th chief justice of the United States.

Over three days of testimony, between declining to answer questions on specific cases and legal issues, Judge Roberts made clear that his approach to interpreting the Constitution is more varied and flexible than the originalism subscribed to by Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia. President Bush has singled them out as models for the sorts of justices he planned to appoint.

President Bush answered reporters' questions today at a news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talbani.

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 13 - President Bush said today that he accepted responsibility for the extent to which the federal government fell short in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
The Bush administration has come under criticism for the federal reaction to the catastrophe, which displaced hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed large swaths of towns and cities and their infrastructure in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
The official death toll, which has been predicted to reach thousands, is now around 600 as the authorities throughout the region continue their search for victims and conduct forensic tests on recovered bodies to determine whether death was storm-related. Tens of thousands of people, at minimum, were driven out of their homes.

But will the liberals shut up about now? No, never. How could they? Bitching is what brings liberals together as one.... and they can do alot of it.

Sgt. Bill Gendhar, left, and fellow members of the Oregon National Guard preparing this morning for their sixth day of duty in New Orleans.

With Small but Steady Steps, Cleanup and Repair Progressing

NYT- NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 10 - After nearly two weeks of crisis, officials and workers here and in other devastated parts of the Gulf Coast began making small but meaningful strides Saturday in restoring services and rebuilding the shattered infrastructure.
About 700 city residents were temporarily allowed to return to their homes on Saturday to check their property and to retrieve valuables in largely affluent neighborhoods like Spanish Fort on the northern edge of the city along Lake Pontchartrain and in the Lower Garden District, flush along the crescent the Mississippi River forms around this city.
At City Hall, running water had been restored and one engineer said he expected the building to have power soon. Workers carted city property records from the basement, saying they would be refrigerated to prevent mold from damaging them.
Health officials revised the death toll to 154, from 118 a few days earlier, but said it would not be the final count. They said caution, accuracy and respect were their goals and that they would not work hastily.

The casket was carried past Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas with the help of John Roberts, the second pallbearer on its left side.

Roberts for Chief in Wake of Rehnquist

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 - The hearing on the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to be the 17th chief justice of the United States will begin at noon on Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The committee chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said the session would begin at noon on Monday with opening statements by the panel members, and that the nominee would probably make an opening statement late Monday afternoon. The nominee will be introduced by Senator John Warner, Republican of Virginia, and by Senator Richard G. Lugar, a Republican, and Senator Evan Bayh, a Democrat, both from Indiana, where Judge Roberts grew up.

Rescue Personnel Head South

As I drove back to school this weekend, I saw a very admirable sight. Hundreds of fire fighters and EMT's were heading to New Orleans this weekend to take part in the massive rescue and clean-up operation after Hurricane Katrina devestated the region. One sign above interstate 57 read "God Bless You, Return Home Safely".
I can only hope that this scene is happening around the country.

NYT- As criticism raged over the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush returned to the region yesterday, and Army engineers patched up two levees that had been breached by the storm and cautiously began pumping water out of New Orleans.

"There's a lot of work to be done," Mr. Bush told a group of mostly black victims at a makeshift shelter, the Bethany World Prayer Center, in Baton Rouge. He said that Americans' response to the disaster had been "amazing" and that "this country is going to be committed to doing what it takes to help people get back on their feet."