Wonkette

* At a summit in Vietnam President Bush confronts regional economic realities, North Korean diplomatic complexities, and some goofy, goofy pajamas. [NYT, Time]
* Supreme Court Justices Roberts and Alito do battle over whose mildly amusing dinner party quips are better. [WP]
* Pentagon internal review of Iraq war uses football metaphors for policy options. Typical. [WP]
* Gay-marriage ban may go to a ballot in Massachusetts. [WP]
* Charlie Rangel wants to make politicians “think twice” about starting wars and believes legislation to renew the military draft will do that. Plans to propose the legislation, “as soon as we start the new session.” [WP]
* New pointless coin to celebrate old pointless Presidents. [NYT]

The TV people were faked out by the Court today too. And unlike us, they brought all this crap with them.

Earlier today, we brought you the first installment of pictures from our field trip to the Supreme Court this morning. We thought it would be the final day of the Term. We thought wrong.

Now, the rest of our photo essay. Check out the pics, after the jump.

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Today Wonkette took a field trip to the U.S. Supreme Court. We were all excited, ’cause we — like many others — thought it might be the last day of the Term.

The Court would hand down decisions in all its big-ticket cases — like the Texas redistricting case, and the Guantanamo Bay detainee case. Maybe a justice would announce his or her retirement. We might be present for the making of history.

As it turned out, the SCOTUS faked us out. Moving into overtime, they announced that tomorrow will be the last day of the Term. Perhaps their recent night at the movies caused the justices to fall behind in their work.

Nevertheless, our visit to the Court was worthwhile. Even though the decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld will have to wait until tomorrow, we did get to watch Justice Kennedy try to explain the confusing raft of opinions in the Texas redistricting case. And we swooned when the hunky Chief Justice started talkin’ dirty to us, about Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on “Consular Relations”…

After the jump, part one of our two-part photo essay on our day with the Supremes.

Update: Part Two is available here.

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The conventional wisdom was that Samuel Alito, if confirmed to the Supreme Court, would turn out to be Antonin Scalia’s trusty conservative sidekick. Hence the popularity of the nickname “Scalito.”

But maybe the conventional wisdom was wrong. Justice Alito has only been on the Court a few months, and he’s already pissed off Nino. Tony Mauro of the Legal Times reports:

Alito wrote Zedner v. United States for a unanimous Court on Monday, siding with a criminal defendant in a dispute over interpretation of the Speedy Trial Act. But Scalia, while joining the decision, wrote a concurrence criticizing Alito for citing the legislative history of the statute, which Scalia believes is irrelevant.

“Because the use of legislative history is illegitimate and ill advised in the interpretation of any statute — and especially a statute that is clear on its face — I do not join this portion of the Court’s opinion,” Scalia wrote.

The lovers’ quarrel explained, after the jump.

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Because Wonkette is a family blog — with just a soupcon of assfucking — we’re showing you this G-rated picture of Justice Antonin Scalia, with all five fingers raised.

Justice Antonin Scalia goes hunting with Dick Cheney. But in case you need more support for the proposition that Nino is the coolest, most bad-ass justice on the Supreme Court, consider this report from the Boston Herald:

Minutes after receiving the Eucharist at a special Mass for lawyers and politicians at Cathedral of the Holy Cross, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had a special blessing of his own for those who question his impartiality when it comes to matters of church and state.

“You know what I say to those people?” Scalia, 70, replied, making an obscene gesture under his chin when asked by a Herald reporter if he fends off a lot of flak for publicly celebrating his conservative Roman Catholic beliefs.

“That’s Sicilian,” the Italian jurist said, interpreting for the “Sopranos” challenged.

Considering how much we drop the F bomb around here, Justice Scalia is a man after our own heart. Can you believe that he flipped someone the bird with bits of the Eucharist still between his teeth? Cert denied!

(We love Cheney for the same reason, since he used the F-word on the floor of the U.S. Senate. And we have lots of other reasons for loving Cheney too.)

Update: This post is the subject of a correction/clarification.

More evidence of Scalia’s coolness after the jump.

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In a long but interesting article in this morning’s Washington Post that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the Alito nomination, we learn the following: MORE »