May 26 2009 show notes

o President Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court is an important decision that will have an impact on the United States long after his administration.

o Republicans are committed to a fair confirmation process and will reserve judgment until more is known about Judge Sotomayor's legal views, judicial record and qualifications.

o Until we have a full view of the facts and comprehensive understanding of Judge Sotomayor's record, Republicans will avoid partisanship and knee-jerk judgments - which is in stark contrast to how the Democrats responded to the Judge Roberts and Alito nominations.

o To be clear, Republicans do not view this nomination without concern. Judge Sotomayor has received praise and high ratings from liberal special interest groups. Judge Sotomayor has also said that policy is made on the U.S. Court of Appeals.

o Republicans believe that the confirmation process is the most responsible way to learn more about her views on a number of important issues.

o The confirmation process will help Republicans, and all Americans, understand more about judge Sotomayor's thoughts on the importance of the Supreme Court's fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law.

o Republicans are the minority party, but our belief that judges should interpret rather than make law is shared by a majority of Americans.

o Republicans look forward to learning more about Judge Sotomayor's legal views and to determining whether her views reflect the values of mainstream America.

President Obama on Judicial Nominees

o Liberal ideology, not legal qualification, is likely to guide the president's choice of judicial nominees.

o Obama has said his criterion for nominating judges would be their "heart" and "empathy."

o Obama said he believes Supreme Court justices should understand the Court's role "to protect people who may be vulnerable in the political process."

o Obama has declared: "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old-and that's the criterion by which I'll be selecting my judges."

Additional Talking Points

o Justice Souter's retirement could move the Court to the left and provide a critical fifth vote for:

o Further eroding the rights of the unborn and property owners;

o Imposing a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage;

o Stripping "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance and completely secularizing the public square;

o Abolishing the death penalty;

o Judicial micromanagement of the government's war powers.

North Korea has supplied Syria with some of the with some of their nuclear technology, which is like destabilizing to the Middle East. Here's the one hand on this. On the one hand, there's two hands here, on the one hand is behaving like a rogue actor, like a non-state actor. They're, you know, detonating a nuclear weapon is a defiance of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, it's a defiance of the United Nations treaties, it's agin' the law.

On the other hand, I would suggest that what we are seeing in North Korea right now is the logical and arguably, from their point of view, intelligent response to the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive war. And it's one of the reasons why probably Iran is thinking that they need a nuke as well.

Because what Bush essentially said to the world is, 'if you don't have nuclear weapons, we're going to invade your country, steal your oil, destroy your national treasures, rape your women, kill your men, and occupy you for a hundred years. If you do have a nuclear weapon, we'll yell about you a lot. That's what George Bush said. That's the Bush Doctrine in a nutshell.

And Kim Jong-il, he may be crazy, but he's not nuts. Or what's the, maybe, he may be crazy but he's not stupid, or whatever. The bottom line is, he looked at this situation, he said, 'axis of evil, huh? I'll show you'.

Frankly I think that what we need to do in this, and I'm very, very pleased that Hillary Clinton's at the head of the State Department right now, and that we've got some rational people in the State Department. Can you imagine if this had happened during the Bush administration? Well, probably they would have just ignored it and pretended nothing was going on, because Bush, like all bullies, does not take on somebody who can actually fight back. But this is an opportunity, I think, frankly, for some good diplomacy, and we need it very much.

Protective duties, or duties on those foreign articles which are the rivals of the domestic ones, intended to be encouraged. [B]y enhancing the charges on foreign articles, they enable the national manufacturers to undersell all their foreign competitors.

II. Prohibitions of rival articles or duties equivalent to prohibitions.

Considering a monopoly of the domestic market to its own manufacturers as the reigning policy of manufacturing nations, a similar policy on the part of the United States in every proper instance, is dictated, it might almost be said, by the principles of distributive justice; certainly by the duty of endeavoring to secure to their own citizens a reciprocity of advantages.

III. Prohibitions of the exportation of the materials of manufactures.

The desire of securing a cheap and plentiful supply for the national workmen, and, where the article is either peculiar to the country, or of peculiar quality there, the jealousy of enabling foreign workmen to rival those of the nation, with its own materials, are the leading motives to this species of regulation. …

IV. Pecuniary bounties [industry direct financial subsidies].

This has been found one of the most efficacious means of encouraging manufactures, and it is in some views, the best. Though it has not yet been practiced upon by the government of the United States (unless the allowances on the exportation of dried and pickled fish and salted meat could be considered as a bounty) and though it is less favored by public opinion than some other modes. Its advantages, are these -- It is a species of encouragement more positive and direct than any other, and for that very reason, has a more immediate tendency to stimulate and uphold new enterprises, increasing the chances of profit, and diminishing the risks of loss, in the first attempts.

V. Premiums [incentives for production, innovation, or quality].

These are of a nature allied to bounties, though distinguishable from them, in some important features. Bounties are applicable to the whole quantity of an article produced, or manufactured, or exported, and involve a correspondent expense.

Premiums serve to reward some particular excellence or superiority, some extraordinary exertion or skill, and are dispensed only in a small number of cases. But their effect is to stimulate general effort. Contrived so as to be both honorary and lucrative, they address themselves to different passions; touching the chords as well of emulation as of interest. They are accordingly a very economical mean of exciting the enterprise of a whole community.

VI. The exemption of the materials of manufactures [raw materials] from duty [import tariffs].

The policy of that exemption as a general rule, particularly in reference to new establishments, is obvious. It can hardly ever be advisable to add the obstructions of fiscal burdens to the difficulties which naturally embarrass a new manufacture; … exemptions of this kind in the United States, is to be derived from the practice, as far as their necessities have permitted, of those nations whom we are to meet as competitors in our own and in foreign markets.

VIII. The encouragement of new inventions and discoveries [patents and copyrights].

The encouragement of new inventions and discoveries at home, and of the introduction into the United States of such as may have been made in other countries; particularly those, which relate to machinery.

This is among the most useful and unexceptionable of the aids, which can be given to manufactures. The usual means of that encouragement are pecuniary rewards, and, for a time, exclusive privileges. The first must be employed, according to the occasion, and the utility of the invention, or discovery: For the last, so far as respects "authors and inventors'' provision has been made by law.

IX. Judicious regulations for the inspection of manufactured commodities [regulation and inspection].

This is not among the least important of the means, by which the prosperity of manufactures may be promoted. It is indeed in many cases one of the most essential. Contributing to prevent frauds upon consumers at home and exporters to foreign countries--to improvement quality and preserve the character of the national manufactures, it cannot fail to aid the expeditious and advantageous sale of them, and to serve as a guard against successful competition from other quarters.

The reputation of the flour and lumber of some states, and of the potash of others has been established by an attention to this point. And the like good name might be procured for those articles, wheresoever produced, by a judicious and uniform system of inspection; throughout the ports of the United States. A like system might also be extended with advantage to other commodities.

X. The facilitating of pecuniary remittances from place to place [a stable currency and banking system].

The facilitating of pecuniary remittances from place to place is a point of considerable moment to trade in general, and to manufactures in particular; by rendering more easy the purchase of raw materials and provisions and the payment for manufactured supplies. …

XI. The facilitating of the transportation of commodities [transportation infrastructure].

Improvements favoring this object intimately concern all the domestic interests of a community; but they may without impropriety be mentioned as having an important relation to manufactures. There is perhaps scarcely any thing, which has been better calculated to assist the manufactures of Great Britain, than the ameliorations of the public roads of that kingdom, and the great progress which has been of late made in opening canals. Of the former, the United States stand much in need; and for the latter they present uncommon facilities. …

SARS. Flu comes back more transmissable/contagious but less virulent as a rule? It can be very transmissable before people get sick. So for SARS they grabbed everyone who had a temperature. How SARS was stopped, and why can't we do same with flu?. With flu people can be very contagious before they have a temperature. A lot of people with it have gastroenteral symptoms. With SARS people are only contagious with high fever, so people are not walking around, and most transmission was in hospitals. China brought it under control, and she saw it, they found that lying about it did not work, so told the world, and lots of people headed for the countryside. They set up roadblocks, fever check stations everywhere, people were checked many times a day. Any one with fever was isolated.

People can also shed the flu virus 5 days after symptoms, or have no symptoms, so you cannot contain the flu. What should we do? Cry wolf, assume something nasty will come and be prepared with vaccines, drug supplies, instructions for health professionals, symptoms. We are out of masks. Catch now for immunity against a more serious version later? No, there's no guarantee.

Who do these people suppose will be buying all these cars in America, when nobody has jobs anymore?