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Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) is not interested in a Democratic proposal to allow select judges an up or down vote in exchange for pulling other judges out of consideration. Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin said yesterday that a compromise could probably be reached if the Republicans were willing to drop the most objectionable nominees. Bloomberg is reporting that Dem leader Harry Reid may allow some judges to go through in order to salvage the Dems’ right to filibuster a Bush nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Frist isn’t buying it:

“From day one, my goal has been to get up or down votes on judicial nominees,'’ Frist told reporters today in Washington. “If by compromise you mean I will shift from my principle, then no.'’

Frist is correct, at least in principle, in realizing that a “compromise” to stop denying people a chance at confirmation is not really a compromise at all. (It’s more like someone showing up to rob you and taking “only” 90% of the cash in your house.) He’s probably right to reject this type of hold up, but the practical problem is that it would be in the interest of everyone for the so-called ‘nuclear option’ to be averted. It seems that the only way for that to happen is for the Democrats to drop their obstructionist agenda, though that seems unlikely to happen any time soon.

The confrontation over judges escalated last week when the Senate Judiciary Committee sent to the full Senate two of Bush’s judicial nominees whose confirmations were blocked by Democrats in the president’s first term. Senate Democrats prevented votes on 10 nominees in the last four years.

In February, Bush resubmitted seven of the 10 names. Frist, of Tennessee, has said he may seek a rules change that would end filibusters of judges and permit judicial confirmations with the support of 51 votes. Republicans control the Senate 55-45.

Democrats say they have the right to try to block those nominations with a filibuster, a tactic that takes 60 votes to overcome. Democrats are threatening to bring Senate business to a crawl if Republicans prevail in changing the rules.

Forgent Networks has initiated a suit against Microsoft for allegedly infringing on its compression patent known as “The ‘672 Patent“. Microsoft had originally filed a complaint seeking a declaratory judgment “noninfringement, invalidity and unenforceability of the ‘672 Patent.” Forget’s complaint stems from Microsoft’s use of the compression technology in the popular JPEG image format.

The patent was originally granted to Compression Labs, Inc., in October 1986. It did not seek royalties while it held the patent. Compression Labs and the patent were acquired by Forgent Networks in 1997. In 2002, Forgent announced that it would seek royalties and license the technology. Two years later, in April 2004, they followed through on their threat and sued 44 companies including Apple, Adobe, Dell, HP and IBM.

Microsoft is likely to receive rare support from the rest of the industry in this dispute. The disputed patent expires October 27, 2006.

The Forgent Network press release:

“Forgent intends to vigorously pursue its claims for patent infringement against Microsoft. We believe we will prevail in this action as the ‘672 Patent is valid, enforceable and infringed by Microsoft,” said Richard Snyder, chairman and CEO of Forgent. “It’s unfortunate that, despite Microsoft’s recent inquiries about licensing the patent, they chose to file a lawsuit, leaving us no alternative but to assert infringement claims against it. We are committed to the intellectual property program, and our objective remains to protect our intellectual property assets from infringement, and where appropriate to collect a reasonable royalty fee, thus maximizing shareholder value.”

Since its inception three years ago, Forgent’s intellectual property program has generated more than $100 million from licensing the ‘672 Patent to more than 35 different companies in Asia, Europe and the United States. Forgent has also initiated litigation against 44 companies for infringement of the ‘672 Patent in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division. In February of 2005, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (”MDL Panel”) ordered that these actions arising out of the infringement of Forgent’s still-image compression technology, embodied in the ‘672 Patent, be transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Subsequent to filing the litigation, four companies have entered into license or settlement agreements.

Microsoft’s pre-emptive suit:

Microsoft filed a lawsuit on April 15, 2005 claiming that the Jpeg patent is invalid, and suggesting that Forgent fraudulently obtained the patent by failing to disclose “prior art.” Prior art is a legal term indicating that the patent holder was not the first to invent the technology covered by the patent.

John Bolton’s nomination to become the American ambassador to the United Nations is becoming the latest roller coaster ride in a string of contested confirmations. A Senate committee vote on Bolton’s nomination has already been postponed until May 12th, leading Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) to call the race “too close to call.”

Whether or not any call ever comes to pass depends on whether or not any new allegations of ‘employee abuse’ surface about Bolton. A former USAID legal adviser, Lynne Finney, was the latest on the hit parade. On Friday, Finney claimed that Bolton had screamed at her when she refused to follow one of Bolton’s orders. She made her allegations known in a letter to the High Priestess of Nonpartisan Credibility, California’s Barbara Boxer. USA Today reports:

According to the letter, a copy of which Boxer’s office e-mailed to USA TODAY, the incident took place in late 1982 or early 1983, when Bolton, as the top lawyer at USAID, outranked Finney. She was on the staff as a legal adviser. Boxer’s office verified that Finney sent the letter.

Finney wrote that Bolton approached her because she was a member of the U.S. delegation to the governing council of the U.N. Development Program. “He said he understood that I had established good working relationships with delegates from other countries,” she wrote. “He wanted me to convince those delegates to weaken the U.N. code restricting marketing and promotion of infant formula in developing countries.”

Finney said she refused, citing studies showing that use of formula was killing babies in the developing world because it was overly diluted or mixed with dirty water.

Bolton “shouted that Nestlé (a maker of formula) was an important company and that he was giving me a direct order from President Reagan,” she wrote. When she still refused, “he screamed that I was fired.”

Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, recently named Pope Benedict XVI by the papal conclave, thought of ascending to the papacy as a “guillotine”. He said he prayed, asking God that he not be elected the 265th supreme pontiff, but “evidently this time He didn’t listen to me.” ABC News reports:

For the first time since his election, Benedict shed light on his feelings inside the conclave during an audience with fellow Germans.

Speaking in his native tongue, Benedict told the audience that at one point during the conclave, when it became clear he was garnering many votes, a fellow cardinal slipped him a note reminding him what he had preached before the conclave about Christ calling Peter to follow him even where he did not want to go.

Benedict, 78, said he had hoped to spend his last years living quietly and peacefully.

“As the trend in the ballots slowly made me realize that in a manner of speaking the guillotine would fall on me I started to feel quite dizzy,” a smiling Benedict said, clearly joking. “I thought that I had done my life’s work and could now hope to live out my days in peace. I told the Lord with deep conviction, ‘Don’t do this to me.’”

When Dan Rather rode off into the sunset at CBS News, it was said that he’d still do a few stories every now and then. Last night was an all-star performance, as Rather sat down for some tips from some of America’s top poker players. (See the video here.)

Dan Rather was joined by Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harmon and Chris Moneymaker, among others, who spent a lot of time talking about how great they are. Rather, in his trademark deadpan, stated that Moneymaker’s move on Farha at the 2003 World Series was “known as the Bluff of the Century.” Another highlight was Rather being given the essential poker players’ hardware: a baseball cap and sunglasses.

I think we could call this rock bottom for the man who anchored the CBS News desk for so many years.

He’s been the ambassador to Iraq, Mexico, Honduras, and the Philippines, as well as the United States’ representative at the United Nations. Now, John Negroponte heads into waters charted by none before him. Late this afternoon, the U.S. Senate confirmed Negroponte to be the first ever United States Director of National Intelligence. For the 65 year-old with foreign policy credentials that would impress even James Monroe, it will be a unique challenge. “He’s going to carry heavy burdens,” said Pat Roberts (R-KS), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Fox News reports:

In announcing Negroponte’s nomination in February, President Bush said, “If we’re going to stop the terrorists before they strike, we must ensure that our intelligence agencies work as a single, unified enterprise.”

West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the intelligence panel, has said he spent 90 minutes with the incoming chief, discussing issues including whether changes are needed in Negroponte’s powers.

“Reform of the intelligence community will involve stepping on the turf of some of the most powerful bureaucracies in Washington, first and foremost among those is the Department of Defense,” Rockefeller said Thursday. The Pentagon controls 80 percent of the intelligence community’s estimated $40 billion budget.

Opposing the nomination was Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who has said Negroponte ducked a number of issues at his confirmation hearing this month. Wyden has questioned whether Negroponte had adequately reported human rights abuses as ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s.

“I believe the record of the ambassador’s service there is particularly telling in terms of his judgment and his willingness to confront difficult facts, which I believe are two key requirements for the director of national intelligence,” Wyden said.

Strike up the band! Ben Affleck, the star of such superflicks as Gigli, Paycheck, Dogma, and Armageddon, is engaged to Alias’ star Jennifer Garner. Affleck and Garner worked together on the movie blockbuster Daredevil, in which Garner played a role she recently reprised in one of the few movies I’ve ever seen get an “F” rating by a number of reviewers, Elektra. Garner’s other quality flicks include Dude, Where’s My Car?, Catch Me If You Can — in which she plays an expensive call girl — and 13 Going On 30. It’s a match made in Heaven.

People and Star magazines are reporting the upcoming nuptials based an anonymous “close friend” of Affleck’s. Affleck made big news with his 2002 engagement to Jennifer Lopez. (The couple was satired in what was recently voted the greatest South Park episode of all-time.) That couple split, however, in January 2004. Affleck and Garner have tried to keep their relationship out of the papers, and have only made one public appearance together. The 33 year-old cradle-robbing (Affleck is 32) Garner was divorced in March 2004 from actor Scott Foley. The Scotsman has a scoop:

Affleck is said to have popped the question at Garner’s 33rd birthday party in California last weekend. He went down on bended knee with a £260,000 (500,000 dollar), 4.5 carat Harry Winston ring, Star magazine reports.

Slowplay will be all over this big story, that’s a promise.

Jumpin’ Jim Jeffords (I-VT), the man who left the Republican Party in 2001 to break a tie and give the Democrats short-lived control of the Senate, will not run for re-election in 2006. Jeffords is expected to make an official announcement today in Burlington, Vermont.

The 70 year-old Jeffords had previously stated that he planned to seek another term, but recent health concerns may have dissuaded him. Jeffords was elected to the House of Representatives in 1974 and the Senate in 1988.

United States Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, the former Republican Governor of Nebraska, unveiled “MyPyramid” yesterday, a set of twelve ‘food pyramids’ that replaces the old pyramid which has been the authority on graphical food group distribution since 1992. MyPyramid is tailored to different individuals, as a person’s activity level and caloric intake needs are factored into the scheme. “One pyramid does not fit all of us,” according to Johanns, “so we created 12 different ones.”

The new food pyramid has a bitchin’ color scheme and a guy who looks like he could outrun his AOL counterpart.

Some people are complaining that the pyramids don’t really ‘fit’ anything meaningful. The pyramid, for instance, recommends wide ranges of food quantities in certain food groups (do I eat six servings of grains or eleven?) and doesn’t delineate the size of servings. The pyramid counsels people to use fats and oils “sparingly”. “Sparingly” is hardly a figure you can wrap your hands around. The Department of Agriculture has set up MyPyramid.com to offer more specific guidelines, based on one’s age, sex, and activity level. The New York Times reports:

MyPyramid is about the ability of Americans to personalize their approach when choosing a healthier lifestyle that balances nutrition and exercise,” Mr. Johanns said at a news conference. “Many Americans can dramatically improve their overall health by making modest improvements to their diets and by incorporating regular physical activity into their daily lives.”

The Agriculture Department says that 80 percent of Americans recognized the 1992 pyramid. But Mr. Johanns acknowledged that few followed its recommendations.

This time, the pyramid is a series of vertical color bands of varying widths. The bands of fruits and vegetables combined take up the most space, followed by grains, with the narrowest bands still belonging to fats, oils and sugars. Also new is the stick figure walking up the left side of the pyramid to match the guide’s slogan: “Steps to a healthier you.”

The MyPyramid website seems to have a few kinks to work out. The first time I visited it, it told me I had already submitted information, which had me as a 51 year-old female. When I then changed my information and submitted it, the website sputtered and whirred for a least a minute, and produced no information.

Condoleezza Rice’s trip to Moscow hit a sizable snag today when the hotel at which she was scheduled to stay had a bomb scare. The Renaissance Hotel in Moscow was Rice’s original destination, but after hearing of the bomb threat, Rice was diverted to the American embassy. The New York Times reports:

Ms. Rice was scheduled to have an official dinner this evening. It was not immediately clear to what extent the bomb scare would alter those plans.

On Wednesday, she is scheduled to meet Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and other officials.

She told reporters on the airplane that during her talks in Moscow she would raise issues related to Russia’s democratization effort, including the worrisome centralization of power in the Russian presidency at the expense of the Duma, or parliament.

The bomb threat has since been reported to have been false.