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So what do you think about Samuel Alito?

The only thing I could gather is that Judge Alito was pretty evasive in answering questions. Example from a NYT article asking for his opinion regarding the case regarding a government’s ability to take property for economic development under eminent domain:

“It touches some very sensitive nerves. When someone’s home is being taken away using the power of eminent domain, that is, that is a blow to a lot of people, even if they’re going to get compensated at fair market values for their home.”

What kind of answer is that? It’s a typical response I would expect from a politician. It’s not the type of response I would expect from someone up for the Supreme Court. But I’m not surprised. This kind of dog and pony show has been around for a long time. Just look at the Clarence Thomas hearings. No one remembers the actual questions; they remember the pubic hair in the Coke.

At least these hearings haven’t sunk to that level. I guess that’s a positive thing…

For now on, if you “annoy” someone online without disclosing your true identity, you can face fines and up to two years in prison.

Wha? Who decides what’s annoying?

Now as long as you annoy someone and don’t lie about who you are, you’re good. But lie about who you are, you might be going to the slammer!

Do you think Pat Robertson actually believes the stuff he says?

First, he said that the president of Venezuela should be assassinated. Then he told the people of Dover, PA not to pray to God if a natural disater hit their town because they voted out a school board that favored “intelligent design.” Now he is saying that Israeli PM Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke at the hands of God.

Hasn’t he lost all credibility yet? These comments are not constructive at all. Instead he just seems to want to incite controversy. What is going to be his next wild idea?

It was good to see Dick Clark doing his New Years Eve thing again. Did anyone else notice that he got a little confused on the countdown? It was down to about 30 seconds, and all of a sudden he started counting from 20.

Regardless, New Years Eve means Dick Clark. For every countdown that I can remember, he was there. I wish him many more trips to Times Square and to continue his recovery from his stroke.

Did anyone notice that Regis (famed for “saving” ABC) was doing the countdown on Fox, while Ryan Seacrest (Fox, of American Idol (ugh…) fame) was on ABC? I found that to be an interesting switch.

Here’s to a great 2006!

Where do I even start?

The NYT disclosed that President Bush signed an order allowing the NSA to conduct wiretaps and eavesdrop on U.S. citizens. Now it wasn’t on entirely domestic communications, but communications which international in some aspect.

How hard would it be to get a court order allowing this? It wouldn’t take too much work to do, especially since they could use secret Foreign courts to get it. It’s just another example of this administration’s contempt for due process. Warrentless searches totally circumvent the idea of checks and balances.

I was listening to a program on the way home from work yesterday, and the host asked people what they thought about this development. He only spoke to a few people, but no one was up in arms. And that was scary. The overriding attitude was, “I have nothing to hide, so why not?” But that’s not the point – there are certain rules and laws that everyone must abide by, regardless of how “bad” someone may be.

In some welcome news, I am glad to see some members of the Senate finally wake up and start to question the Patriot Act. This all goes back to something I mentioned a while ago. We need to have working checks and balances in place. There needs to be a reason for obtaining a warrent to search someone, but the House version of extending the Patriot act.

What do you think? How has your opinion changed with the news disclosed this week?

Update (6:56 pm) – To drive the point home, a student at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents for requesting “The Little Red Book” by Mao Tse-Tung to read for a class.