May 2009 archive

 

In “No More Mr. Nice Guy“, Jeffrey Toobin examines how Chief Justice John Roberts is “the Supreme Court’s stealth hard-liner” in a detailed and very readable 7,500-word essay in this week’s The New Yorker. The article is well worth reading.

Toobin traces Roberts’ career as a trustworthy conservative legal footsoldier from his law school years at Harvard to his clerkship to then-Associate Justice William Rehnquist to his years in and out of public service to his first four years at the head of the nation’s highest court. Throughout his essay, Toobin reminds the reader that Roberts, born on January 27, 1955, is the youngest person on the Court veering to the right as the rest of the nation, largely, drifts to the left.

While many on the left saw through Roberts’ personable nature to see that he was the purest product of the conservative movement, unfortunately not enough Senators did. The conventional wisdom on Roberts is that he is a moderate.

But, Roberts’ moderation is his public relations front. “The Chief Justice talks the talk of moderation while walking the walk of extreme conservatism,” according to Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard.

For centuries Americans stood tall in the world.  Literally.  It would appear that the Dutch are now taller than us.  The average Dutch man is 6’1″, whereas his American counterpart is 5’9″, only one inch taller than the average Dutch woman.  Jiminy crickets: In one century they’ve had to redesign their ceilings and doorways and put extensions on the their beds!  They’re better looking and smarter!  Tall dudes make more money!  And get better chicks.  They are now using their advantage in stature to question our manliness.  Because of the situation down at Guantanamo–the fact that we’re piss-scared of giving due process to the detainees in American courts– the towering Dutch are calling us “pussies.”

If you live outside of the US, or the US centric bubble, then the incredible stupidity of the this viewpoint is obvious.

Where does the World Court reside? It resides in the Hague in the Netherlands. the Netherlands has a population of 16 million (that are not allowed to bear arms or such).

The world courts deals with the worst of the worst, anything in Gitmo pails to what these folks have done.

Let’s take those war criminals (of which dozens have been tried and sentenced) from the Balkan conflict as an example. Here is a group that still has lots of support (Serbs primarily) all across Europe. They are in cells in the Hague which is driving distance from their homeland. Not like some poor Afghan farmer totally divorced from his people, these people have strong support living with a few hours drive!! Almost nothing could stop them from attacking and trying to release there leaders (and heros), or at least taking revenge on the country they are incarcerated in. The REAL danger to this court pails to anything the perceived Gitmo people could possibly do.

Just look at the history of the Balkan conflict, its horrible geenocide and the people who did the killing, and then grab a map to see where the two countries lie, you will get the picture. Then do the same for the Afghan conflict … Kinda makes you giggle.

But, do you hear the good people of the Netherlands on the streets demanding these criminals leave or cowering under their beds at night? No, it just might be that not all folks in the globe are NIMBY and some have the balls to realize that freedom comes at a price, and you never know when you will have to pay up in full.

Could it be that a small country in “old” Europe has more balls than the gun toting folk wingnuts of the US have?

It’s fashionable now for even the right wing to invoke how wonderful Martin Luther King was, now THERE was a nice gentleman!

I remember at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, the talking heads on the teevee were aghast at the Reverend Lowery’s eulogy where he dared bring up … gasp! … politics!

A brief example:

“She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar,” Lowery said. “We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew, and we knew, that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor.”

I remember the discussions at the orange about this and was shocked when there were many who agreed Lowery was out of line saying such things at a funeral.  Propriety was important.  This did our cause no good.  Etc., etc.

Of course, Martin Luther King didn’t hesitate to call folks out at a eulogy he gave for the young girls killed at the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing:

And yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans. They have something to say to every Negro who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.

See, Martin Luther King won his struggle, in the sense of changing the frame of how Americans view civil rights.  I’m not saying the struggle is over, but the moral force of his message is such that even the most bigoted folks will give lip service to respecting him.

But it wasn’t so clear at the time.

Election reform is one of the most important issues facing our country and our world right now, even if it doesn’t get the coverage of torture or abortion.  The way that we run our elections and initiative processes determines who makes policy, the type of policy made, and the tone of our political discourse.  If we ignore it or take advantage of the electoral system, we our doing ourselves and our republic a disservice.

This week:  Ballot access lawsuits, Supreme Court election law cases, why the Hell Mike Gravel is in South Korea (hint: he’s not lost), one fourth of overseas votes go uncounted, universal voter registration proposed in New York state, and more!

Join Ed Encho, Gottlieb and I tonight at 6pm EDT on Wild Wild Left Radio, via BlogtalkRadio.

We are expecting special caller Nonpartisan, and hopefully Arthur Gilroy as his schedule permits.

We cannot help but discuss the topic that just will not die… Cheney’s apparent death grip on our government, and the spinelessness of those who refuse to oppose him.

Torture? Unresolved.

Truth & Reconciliation. No transparency.

Gitmo Closing. Confusing blockages (NIMBY or no to Bogrom/other CIA prisons)

Reid, Pelosi, capitulation. Is the CIA lying (as always) or is this more Kabuki theater to divert us? (like the Swine Flu?)

“New terrorist plots averted” More KABUKI? Or Cheney/CIA timed nicely for his speech?

Is the CIA evil genuis, or are we just morons? There job is to LIE, and they figured out early on, the path of least resistance was to lie to US! (wrong on, and got away with)

*Bay of pigs

*Nuclear Missiles in Cuba

*Vietnam

*Fall of the Soviet Union

*1st Gulf War/Kuwait

*WOMD in Iraq

*Iraq/9/11 link

Is Obama morphing into Bush/Cheney?

*Renditions/Kidnapping

*Allowing Military Tirbunal/kangaroo courts

*Wiretapping

*Whistleblower Protection

*Not prosecuting Chain of Command

*Refusal to release photos

*Leaving troops in Iraq

*Escalating Afghanistan

Cheney Himself. Ideologue or megalomaniac? Or maybe just Satan?

I know you have PLENTY to say on all this, so call in @ 646=929-1264 with your brief comments or questions!

Please call with any questions you may have, or respectful commentary.

The call in number is 646-929-1264

The live chat link will be added around 5:15.

1. The Washington Post reports a House panel passes a limit on greenhouse-gas emissions. The so-called ‘American Clean Energy and Security’ (ACES) “legislation would create a cap-and-trade system: Over the next decades, power plants, oil refineries and manufacturers would be required to obtain allowances for the pollution they emit.”

   The bill was weakened considerably by the Democrats to appease members of their own party from the South and Midwest and “to reassure manufacturers and utilities”.

   Adam Siegel at Get Energy Smart! has a round-up of reactions from President Obama and environmental groups to the news. Of his own reaction, Siegel writes:

   This bill is filled with good … and bad elements. It has strong provisions for improving energy efficiency in the United States, a weak renewable energy standard, and massive (MASSIVE) direct and indirect subsidies and payoffs for the fossil fuel industries.

   This is a challenging moment…

   Fiscal analysis of the 85% of carbon pollution permits that are to be given away results in, from 2012 through 2030, $1 trillion 61 billion dollars in direct and indirect subsidies for fossil fuels against $127.4 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy.

   Have to wonder why “Clean Energy” is in the title. Would it be more appropriate to entitle it Coal Subsidy Act? …

   Sadly, with all due respect to Chairman Waxman and Chairman Markey, ACES doesn’t merit that description.

Four at Four continues with proposed oil and gas lease changes, the governor of Washington state executive orders to cut greenhouse gas emissions, a war update from Pakistan, and the Pentagon reward KBR for killing U.S. soldiers.