Arlen Spector brings up a good point

With Judge Roberts confirmation a given, the Democrats worst nightmare is just round the corner. In this juncture, Sen Arlen Spector's suggestion today with regard to naming Jude O'Connor's replacement was a pretty good one, I think...

Specter suggested that the president wait awhile, and said he had talked to O'Connor about staying on through the full 2005-06 term.

"It would be quite a sacrifice for her, but she's prepared to do it if she is asked," Specter said. "By next June we'll know a lot more about Judge Roberts ... than we do today."

see full report

Arnie vs. Bill Clinton for California?

Arnie announced last Fri that "he'll be back" running for re-election in 2006. The Democrats have a battle on their hands. I think, despite his low ratings, Arnie will come back to power unless Democrats field a very strong visible candidate. At present neither State Controller Steve Westly or State Treasurer Phil Angelides meet this requirement in my opinion.

There are rumors that another movie star (Warren Beatty) or maybe even Bill Clinton might run for Governor of California. Frankly, I think it will be a great match up if Bill Clinton took on the challenge (I sure hope he does). With Hillary planning for White House bid in 2008, having hubby Bill in-charge of California might not be a bad after all?

India's donation for Katrina Relief

India donated to Red Cross for Katrina Relief. Pretty impressive! India also played a major role in assisting other countries hit by the Tsunami earlier this year. Besides, almost every day there is talk in the US media and in political circles about being competitive with India and China.

Clear sign of a growing south asian power!

What happened to the Karl Rove issue?

Swept away by Katrina, and Judge Roberts? No word either about the NYT columnist who went to jail. That's pretty sad.

Judge Roberts Confirmation

I have been following the Judge Roberts confirmation hearing. My first since the controversial Clarence Thomas days more than a decade back. Here are a few thoughts that come to mind.

1. At some level these hearings are a farce. No candidate will ever state his position on specific issues. You can't figure the guy out unless he is willing to talk. Since the President nominated him, he is certain to meet his requirements. He is a relatively unknown entity to warrant a filibuster. So what's the point of all this drama anyway?

2. Judge Roberts was very impressive overall in my opinion. He is extremely articulate, very pricise and to the point in his answers, has incredible amount of facts and figures at his finger tips, appeared very deft at avoiding issues, never lost his cool or fell into any traps, and overall seems like a reasonable guy. Its hard to tell if his likely to turn out to be an "activist" judge. Interestingly enough the conservatives are not exactly complaining about him, and this certainly raises suspicions about his true colors!

3. Can't these senators be brief when asking questions? I thought the goal is to try and get the candidate to speak? Time and again, I noticed that the questions were so long winded and the answer very often in contrast was so short!

4. I think it ridiculous to have lifetime appointment for these Judges. Roberts is just 50 and could be there for another 40 years! Why can't other qualified judges be given a shot at the job as well. Ten year term, maybe even 15 years, but more than that I think is completely crazy.

Bush might finally have a victory to celebrate. His move to nominate Judge Roberts as the Chief Justice saved everyone of an extra hearing and the relatively "unknown" nature of the candidate helped expedite the process. The real battle for now will be the Sandra O'Connor replacement.

BJP split inevitable

The BJP has been slowly but surely heading towards a split. At the present moment it sounds like the party is in denial. One after another the dissidents are being hauled up, expelled, yelled at, and what not. If the Manmohan Govt. completes its term, at the present rate, the BJP self-destruction will be complete by that time. In the current state, it unlikely they can even play the role of credible opposition. Its sad to see a party that ruled for an entire term, quite creditably (in fact), fall apart and appear so lost.

John Roberts: Chief Justice nominee

John Roberts goes from virtual unknown to Chief Justice. Man, this is quite a power trip for this guy! I thought some of the current judges on the supreme court might be aspiring for this top job? Don't they have some kind of seniority consideration for this post? Maybe not. This is a clear case of a total outsider walking in and taking the top job. The guy is in his fifties and is likely to hold the top job for a few decades! Wonder why no one is talking about trying to change the rules of the game especially when the country is so sharply divided.

A cake walk confirmation just got interesting....

Supreme Court Justices: Term limits?

Why don't Supreme Court justices have term limits? I don't understand the logic behind these life time appointments. The US produces so many lawyers with great credentials, so why should this privilege of being on the Supreme Court be restricted to just a few individuals.

Its sad to see Chief Justice William Rehnquist drag himself to court despite his poor health. Sure, its a personal decision and he wants to continue serving. But when the country has so many qualified individuals can't we give the poor guy some rest? (Btw, I truly admire his resilience and commitment, and this is nothing personal towards him or other cancer patients).

I just think its crazy to have lifetime appointments for any post. Getting rid of it will certainly help reduce the partisan nature of the battle that goes in the appointment and confirmation process. Some kind of system where every President gets to appoint a couple of Supreme Court justices or something on those lines.

BJP headed for a split?

The differences between the hardliners in the BJP and those in the Advani camp who aspire to embrace a more moderate veneer are increasing by the day. I think its only matter of time before the split in the party occurs. At the present time there is little sign of unity and no sign whatsoever of the next line of leadership emerging and gaining control of the party and crafting its future. As the Congress govt is cruising along in its second year in power, the BJP in its current form appears to be headed towards self-destruction.

John Roberts: President Bush's master stroke

The Democrats were all geared up for tet another battle as President Bush was ready to announce his Supreme Court nominee. With the selection of John Roberts, President Bush has foxed his opponents once again. A virtual unknown, the Democrats are going to have a hard time digging up dirt on this candidate. The conservative groups appear to be pretty happy with this choice too. In short, President Bush has kept his base happy and made life hard for his oppenents.

At present it looks unlikely that fighting John Roberts candidacy will win them any political mileage. It might be prudent for the Democrats to pass on this battle and instead go after the Karl Rove controversy.

Further increase in toll!

Read over the weekend that come 2007 the toll on bay area bridges are going to be increased by a dollar. The toll will be $5 for the Golden Gate bridge! This toll increase is simply insane. Combined with the ever increasing gas prices, simply getting to work is slowly becoming such an expensive affair. No wonder jobs are going overseas!

Democrats must pick their battles

Ever since the elections last year the Democrats have been struggling to develop a coherent strategy. Without a majority in either the senate or the house, the President has a strong chance of pushing ahead with his agenda. Faced with this predicament, the Democrats are inclined to oppose anything and everything simply because of the ideological differences. At present it sounds like they raise a hue and cry each time (judicial nominees and other appointments) and then finally go away empty handed. Unfortunately, this will not help their cause, especially in the long run. It might be prudent to develop a comprehensive strategy, which involves picking a few battles and somehow trying to win them. Else they will just come across as being obstructionist and this might worsen their tally in the years to come. The Bolton nomination is yet another test of their strategy.

I get the feeling that politics in the US is fast becoming like West Bengal politics (!!) -- the same party is always in power, the opposition is just their to fill some seats and make some speeches with little influence on policy.

Lebanese cab driver

I had an interesting chat on a recent cab ride. I asked the driver, who happened to be Lebanese, what he thought of the happenings in the middle east, particularly the war in Iraq. And boy! This guy was like volcano, he could talk non-stop. It was an interesting perspective nevertheless from a middle east native. So here is the dump as verbatim as I can remember......

"Its great that there is change happening in Lebanon. Happy that Syria is forced to withdraw. Its all thanks to the war in Iraq. I fully support the war in Iraq. You think American' s want to kill people? You have lived here for so many years. You know this is not true. Saddam was killing innocent Iraqis. Iran and Syria are behind the insurgency. I support an attack on Iran and Syria!!! But for the war, you think Syria would withdraw? You think India Pak would talk peace? ....How many universities did Saddam build? I wanted to study computers but there weren't good universities in Lebanon. The Arabs think they can drive the Israelis into the sea or wherever and then live peacefully. Its not realistic. Everytime they fought the Israelis they failed. Lebanon has so many Palestinian refugees who never left after the last war with Israel. You are lucky you are from India. You have good schools there because its a democracy....."

Phew! I had barely managed a few words on the 25 min cab ride. But I was exhausted. I got of the cab and headed for my flight.

Deep Throat: Top 10 reasons why now?

10. He was sick of seeing Bob Woodward raking in the moolah for three decades.

9. At 91, it was about time he collected his real retirement package.

8. He was encouraging the FBI to come out with the truth on Iraq.

7. He was sick of hearing his grandson call him a "girlie-man".

6. It was a pre-emptive strike before Al-Zawahri claims to be Deep Throat.

5. He saw Paris Hilton's Carl's Jr. ad and had a change of heart (oops it was a heart attack!)

4. He heard that the Bush administration was planning to attack Iran because they had evidence that Deep Throat was living in Iran.

3. He had a Reagan moment.

2. Someone introduced him to President Bush as Deep Throat, the President said, "mmhh...that's a nice name, never heard that before!"

1. Mark "Felt" it was time he finally took his own advice to follow the money!

Mani Shankar Iyer's comments

It certainly helps to have well educated qualified individuals as ministers. Check out this article with interesting quotes (from Tom Friedman of NY Times book release function) from Mani Shankar Iyer, Union Minister for Petroleum in the Manmohan Singh ministry. The current government in India a strange mix of extremes, especially when it comes to the ministers and there pedigree.

Quote of the day!

"There is only a veneer of democracy in the United States, and we have a real democracy," he said, brushing aside suggestions that Iran's election rules unfairly favor the hard-liners who control much of the government. "Election laws are so complicated in your country that people have no choice but to vote for one of the candidates who are with one of the two parties." Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president of Iran. Check out the complete article in NY Times. (registration required)

While there might be some partial truths in this, its ironical that it has to come from a politician in Iran!

Senate Crisis: What a pity!

The US Senate crisis appears to have been averted.

After all the excitement created by the Presidential elections last year, there has been a relative lull on the US political scene. Barring the boring opposition (which systematically ended in failure) from Democrats to virtually every nominee proposed for every single post by the President, there has hardly been any new exciting developments since the Presidential polls (with Howard Dean in charge there is some hope of an literal outburst sooner or later). Unfortunately, just when it seemed like some new excitement will creep into the mainstream the Senators have arrived at a comprise. What a pity! (They just saved the world from a few thousand hours of TV analysis and speculation and several thousands of pages of online commentary!)

Diplomatic traffic

In case you haven't noticed, the number of foreign dignitaries visiting India in the last few months has been truly phenomenal. In my lifetime I have not witnessed this level of diplomatic traffic. Top leaders from China, Iran, Pak, Japan, Afghanistan, Russia, USA, to name a few. Hopefully India can leverage some of these relationships to land a permanent seat on the UN security council.

Peace process "irreversible"

On his recent visit to India, President Musharraf insisted on adding the word "irreversible" as part of the joint statement with India. Firstly, what's he trying to tell the world? Previously the peace process was reversible?

For a guy who is infamous for his political and diplomatic doosras, this one was some kind of master stroke? Didn't find much in the press either explaining what he might have meant by "irreversible". One thing is for sure, the confusion from the statement is certainly irreversible.

New Pope

I was surprised at the euphoria over the announcement of the new Pope. Radio and TV networks dropped regular programming to focus on the announcement. I was really surprised that NPR dropped its morning program to report live on the announcement. Its possible that media acted in a similar fashion in Europe, or at least parts of it. I can understand a quick announcement followed by return to regular programming, but this was not the case! Maybe this is an extension of the red states-blue states split facing the US, maybe the majority are in favor of this from the media.