Prof. Chemerinsky says Justice Ginsburg “has in her power the ability to prevent a real shift in the balance of power on the court.”  —  “On the other hand, there's the personal.  How do you decide to leave the United States Supreme Court?”  —  Wow!  How much of this kind of moral pressure is being applied to the venerable Justice?

It's Reagan's party no more  —  It should cause no shortage of frustration for congressional Republicans that President Obama is in line with the Reagan legacy — and they're actively rejecting it.  Politico's David Rogers had a fine piece of reporting touching on this point yesterday.

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Strauss-Kahn Case Adds to Doubts on Prosecutor  —  Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, seemed preoccupied when he sat down with two reporters last Monday.  He already knew what the world would soon learn: his marquee prosecution, the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was falling apart.

The Failure of Al Gore Part Three: Singing the Climate Blues  —  Some readers are wondering why I am spending so much time analyzing the political problems of a former vice president.  It is not out of any personal animus toward Mr. Gore.  Though I'm not expecting any invitations …

Europe Agrees to Give Billions to Greece  —  BRUSSELS — Greece will get a vital loan installment by July 15 while work continues on a second bailout for the struggling country, euro zone finance ministers said Saturday.  —  The ministers agreed to their portion of the 12 billion euro …

On Obama's visit, presidential seal blew off his limo on I-76; it later was recovered  —  There's nothing quite like that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you just know that you've lost something important.  —  It happens to people all the time - especially travelers.

Obama's Declaration of Dependence  —  Dozens of countries have “Independence Days.”  November 25th, for example: Independence Day in Suriname.  In that instance as in most others, the designation signifies nothing more than transfer of de jure sovereignty and de facto operational control …

Here's The Legal Complaint WikiLeaks Is Threatening To File Against Visa, MasterCard  —  More than six months have passed since Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and others cut WikiLeaks' purse strings.  And if that blockade lasts six more days, the secret-spilling group plans to take its financial fight to the courtroom.

China's Stimulus  —  Word from Prime Minister Wen Jiabao : … Now obviously what Wen doesn't add to that is “and a lot of this new construction is pretty wasteful.”  But the reality is that it is.  People often say that China has a billion people.  But it doesn't.  It has over 1.3 billion people.

Biden to Union Members: If You Vote Republican, Don't Ask Me For Any Help  —  Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged it wasn't a political event, but it still didn't prevent him from sending this warning to Teamsters union members during his address at their annual convention in Las Vegas this past Friday.

Obama: We can't afford to keep every tax break  —  President Obama used his weekly address to reiterate his demand for ending tax breaks for “millionaires and billionaires” in any budget deal to raise the nation's debt limit.  —  “It would be nice if we could keep every tax break, but we can't afford them,” Obama said.