The new Afghanistan Constitution (discussed) is rather interesting.

As public servants, the officials of the State must be presumed to have a high degree of competence in deciding how best to discharge their governmental responsibilities. A State, in the ordinary course, depends upon successor officials, both appointed and elected, to bring new insights and solutions to problems of allocating revenues and resources. The basic obligations of federal law may remain the same, but the precise manner of their discharge may not.


This is from the conclusion of recent opinion stating that the enforcement of a consent decree that springs from a federal dispute and that furthers the objectives of federal law does not violate the Constitution. It honors federalism, but reminds us that respecting the role of states in our constitutional system need not ignore the national limitations placed on states. Or, at times, vice versa. This is sometimes forgotten, especially via creative readings of the Tenth and Eleventh Amendments. A fair and balanced method, as I suggest here in a case involving federal discrimination law and state obligations relating to court access, is surely possible.

Democratic Candidate Lit: You can get a decent feel of those running for president by checking out their campaign books. I discuss John Edwards' (lively, populist, and Southern) creative technique here and Wesley Clark's (intelligent, somewhat above the fray, but critical all the same) policy tome here. From what I saw of it, John Kerry's (idealistic, good for you, but somewhat hard to connect to) book fits the bill.

As does Howard Dean's (bland and somewhat impersonal, generally anti-everything Bush, standard Democratic rhetoric, and proud of the people's movement nature of his campaign), which also shows his savvy by being available in a cheap paperback version. And, no, I still don't quite know why this guy suddenly decided that he in particular (1) should be and (2) could be elected president. His foreign policy limitations are also avoided. I, like most of the country, have not read the bios of the rest of the bunch.

TV: Caught part of one of the final few episodes of Friends ... the show has gotten some praise the last couple of years for its serious plots, but this is not quite why I originally started to watch the show. These guys are all grown up, except maybe Joey; thus, it's a good time for the show to end, leaving Joe as the one still on t.v.