MORE ENHANCEMENTS to the PorkBusters site, including links to blog posts on the topic. Add yours!

THE NEW YORK TIMES has a rather positive profile of Judge Alito in tomorrow’s edition. “Judge Alito’s jurisprudence has been methodical, cautious, respectful of precedent and solidly conservative, legal scholars said. In cases involving the great issues of the day – abortion, the death penalty and the separation of church and state – Judge Alito has typically taken the conservative side. Yet he has not flaunted his political views inside or outside the courthouse. Friends say Judge Alito seems to have inherited a distaste for shows of ideology from his father, an Italian immigrant who became research director for the New Jersey Legislature and had to rigorously avoid partisanship.”

On the other hand, there’s this smoking gun: “As for Judge Alito’s trumpet skills, the former band leader said, ‘he certainly was no virtuoso.'”

HERE’S AN INTERESTING PROFILE of anti-debt crusader Dave Ramsey, who I recently discovered once lived in Maryville, Tennessee, where I went to high school. We may even have been students at UT at the same time, though I never knew him. But I’ve enjoyed his show, which provides a lot of interesting insights into how people get in trouble with money. And the piece notes something I’ve noticed: His debt counseling is often marriage counseling, too. Another thing we have in common: We both hate the new bankruptcy bill.

LOADS MORE LIBBYGATE STUFF over at Tom Maguire’s.

GREG DJEREJIAN OFFERS advice for President Bush.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Sissy Willis is working the phones.

JOHN FUND:

As President Bush prepares to make a new appointment to the Supreme Court, the lessons of the failed Miers nomination are still being absorbed.

One that deserves study is how a lightning-fast news cycle, a flat-footed defense and the growth of new media such as talk radio and blogs sank Ms. Miers’s chances even before the megabuck special-interest groups could unload their first TV ad. Ms. Miers herself has told friends that she was astonished at how the Internet became a conveyor belt for skeptical mainstream media reports on her in addition to helping drive the debate.

It seems like the GOP is catching on. Ken Mehlman, who waited a week and a half to talk to bloggers last time around, had a conference call with Republican bloggers this afternoon. I wasn’t there, but Michelle Malkin has links to posts from people who were.

HYBRIDBLOGGING: So, I went ahead and bought the Toyota Highlander hybrid SUV this weekend. So far I’m quite happy.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the mileage depends a lot on driving style. Yesterday I drove into campus and it got (based on the trip computer) 22.6 miles per gallon — not bad for an SUV in town, but nothing huge.

Today I drove in, late enough that there was no more traffic than on Sunday morning, and made a point of watching the little indicator that tells you whether you’re running on gas or electric power. Still driving about the same speed as yesterday (typically around 40-45) and taking the same route, but driving so as to maximize the amount I was on electric power, I got 37.7 miles per gallon. Coming home at rush hour, with stop and go traffic, I didn’t do as well, finishing up at 30. One problem with the Highlander is that it’s so peppy that you tend to drive it harder unless you think about it. Okay, that’s not really a problem.

Somebody told me the other day that a hybrid car was a good “branding” thing for me, because I’m a “political hybrid” blogger. I’m not sure what that means, exactly, but it ‘s kind of cool. What I really am is a gadget-head, which made the hybrid more appealing — in fact, I realized that I now don’t own a normal car at all: The Mazda has a rotary engine. Maybe I’m just odd. But at least I get good mileage!

The other interesting thing is that despite the Libbygate affair this weekend, and the Alito nomination, I’ve gotten more SUV-mail than I’ve gotten email on any other topic. I guess people care about this stuff.

UPDATE: Reader John Henry emails:

I have an Escape Hybrid and love it. It takes a bit to get used to driving a car without the engine running though…

I have been asked, by everyone that found out I bought a hybrid, if I thought it would pay off (gas savings vs extra initial cost) in the long run. I did the math and at $3 a gallon, it will take about 60-70k miles to pay off the initial cost with the gas savings. I drove over 100k on my last car and over 200k on the car before that, so it is likely to pay off in that respect. Personally I chose it because it is much cleaner than the conventional version. I have several requirements on my 4 wheeled vehicle, including the abilty to carry 4 adults comfortably and a large volume of carrying capacity covered. The choice between the Ford and the Toyota was actually a matter of the dealerships I have available. I have an exceptionally good Ford dealer available and have an exellent relationship with the entire staff (sales, sevice, management, and even the detailer), and I have not been impressed with the other dealerships (including the other Ford dealers) in my area.

I would be interested to hear (or more precisely, read on your blog) your thoughts on the subject.

I feel pretty much the same way. I hope, for the sake of the country, that gas prices don’t reach the point where my hybrid pays off quickly via fuel economy. I’m glad to hear good things about the Ford Escape. My local Ford dealer, alas, isn’t up to that level — some years ago we walked after agreeing to a price on a Ford Focus and returning a couple of hours later to pick up the car, only to have the salesman “apologize” and tell us that due to a “mistake” it would cost us $1500 more than we agreed to. I’d never patronize them again, after that. That’s one reason why I didn’t bother trying the Escape. The Explorer, however, is a pretty good SUV if you don’t mind the terrible mileage. (More on that here).

MIKE KREMPASKY has a must-read item on Internet free speech.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM being rolled out via the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Read this, too.

CATHY SEIPP writes on her lung cancer. Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: A response.

MORE RACE RIOTS IN PARIS.

MARK LEVIN: “On ABC’s ‘Good Morning America,’ Linda Douglass reported that Sam Alito ‘is another white male.’ Actually, as I think about it, he’s less white than the show’s anchor, Charles Gibson. Alito’s skin tone appears to me to be more olive.”

Actually, in the New York Times it appears to be more of a lime green.

UPDATE: SCOTUSBlog has a roundup of Alito decisions, and here’s a roundup by Shannon Duffy, reported to be the inventor of the “Scalito” nickname.

ERIN CHAPIN VIDEOBLOGS beer-related difficulties in Knoxville.

ALITO UPDATE: Orin Kerr looks at an Alito abortion decision that’s getting less attention. I spoke to a colleague in the hallway a few minutes ago who has argued before Alito and likes him. He said Alito was way too conservative for his taste (not surprising), but that Alito is fair and smart. He thinks Alito is a lot like John Roberts as a pick. Ann Althouse, meanwhile, thinks he’s a stronger choice than John Roberts. More here from Julian Sanchez.

UPDATE: David Hardy looks at Alito and the Second Amendment.

KATRINA RELIEF MONEY being diverted to Alaska?

IT’S AN ALITO-NOMINATION POLL over at Hugh Hewitt’s.

IN THE MAIL: My law school classmate Gene Sperling’s new book, The Pro-Growth Progressive : An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity. This looks quite interesting, and seems in some ways to resonate with things I’m saying in my forthcoming book. I’ll be writing more about it after I’ve had a chance to read the whole thing. Just the notion that “pro-growth” and “progressive” should go together, of course, will seem radical in some quarters.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: PorkBusters has entered Version 2.0. N.Z. Bear explains Senator Coburn’s new bill to cut spending, and what’s going on. (More on that bill here).

N.Z. Bear has also set up a new interactive PorkBusters tracking page that records support from Senators, bloggers, and the like in graphic form. Weigh in!

And here’s a snazzy new PorkBusters graphic, by Karl Egenberger. Feel free to use it. Note that the pig is starting to look worried. . . .

MORE ON OIL SANDS: “The Julian Simon effect is already occurring.”

STUART BUCK POSTS on the origins of “Scalito.”

THIS WEEK’S Carnival of the Capitalists is up!

ABORTION AND SPOUSAL NOTIFICATION: As several people point out, that’s going to be an issue with regard to Alito. I’m not sure what I think about this issue, but looking at the Pennsylvania statute I notice a lot of exceptions, one of which is this: “Her spouse is not the father of the child.”

I’m not sure about Pennsylvania, but in many states her spouse — even if he’s not the father of the child — would still be on the hook for child support. Likewise, if he didn’t want children, but she disagreed, lied to him about birth control, and got pregnant. And he certainly couldn’t force her to have an abortion if she did so, even if his desire not to have children was powerful, and explicitly expressed at the outset. (The usual response — “he made his choice when he had sex without a condom” — never comes up in discussions of women and abortion.)

So where’s the husband’s procreational autonomy? Did he give it up by getting married? And, if he did, is it unthinkable that when they get married women might give some of their autonomy up, too?

The problem here is that you can say “my body, my choice” — but when you say, “my body, my choice but our responsibility,” well, it loses some of its punch.

Somewhat related earlier post, here.

YOU DON’T TUG ON SUPERMAN’S CAPE: Brian Maloney reports that some people, afraid of Michelle Malkin’s new book, are launching preemptive attacks. This strikes me as unwise . . . .

UPDATE: Amazon-review flamewar underway!

MAUREEN DOWD MAY NEED A DATE, but Meryl Yourish needs a job. If you can’t help out one, see if you can help the other!