Who knows?

The news in the UK is obviously still dominated by the London bombings. In the US the appointment of a new judge to the Supreme Court is grabbing the headlines, and yesterday Chief Justice Rehnquist was admitted to hospital. He is suffering from cancer and his condition is clearly deteriorating, meaning that Bush is likely to be able to fill at least two spots with his own judges. Whether or not this leads the Court to take a lurch to the right is not clear. Rehnquist is a very conservative judge, so his replacement would not affect the balance of the court. The confirmed retirement of Judge O'Connor could potentially lead to a move to the right, but she has been moderately conservative in most cases anyway.

Millions of dollars are going to be spent on the "campaign" with each side attacking the suggestions of the other. Ultimately it will make no difference. Bush will decide, and with Republicans dominating both Houses, he will most likely get his way. His right-wing religious backers will demand ultra conservative appointments, however Bush will be aware that to do that would threaten the "broad coalition" of voters that the Republicans have managed to build since his first election. Moderates may well be put off by such nominations and the Republicans current position of dominance in American politics could be threatened. Because of that, it is likely that Bush would go for a more moderate judge. Then again, he may not care and simply wish to shape the Supreme Court in line with his views. We shall have to wait and see.

The weather outside is once again scorching and what am I doing? Packing and sweating buckets. It's amazing how much crap you can accumulate in a year. I'm lacking the will to sort through at the moment so it's just being chucked in a box to be dealt with at a later date.... presumably when I unpack.