Still the weekend.. ;) 24 May 2009
Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, Abortion Rights, DC Politics, Democrats, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, SCOTUS, Sex / Reproductive Health, WAR!.trackback
A new collection of bathtubs designed to look like women’s shoes have gone on sale. The tubs cost up to £17,000. The user reclines with their feet at the toe end of the shoe and their head towards the heel. Water trickles from a jet at the heel Picture: SOLENT
Jeff Cohen of FAIR has a post up about the coming SCOTUS pick…
[O]n this topic (like others), Obama speaks eloquently. . . out of both sides of his mouth.
In revealing comments to the Detroit Free Press last October about his models for Supreme Court picks, Obama praised liberal lions Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan of the Warren Court as “real heroes of mine.”
Then he added: “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I think their judicial philosophy is appropriate for today.”
After noting the Warren Court’s powerful role in taking on racial segregation, Obama added a typically frustrating caveat:
“I’m not sure you need that. In fact, I would be troubled if you had that same kind of activism in circumstances today. . .
“So when I think about the kinds of judges who are needed today, it goes back to the point I was making about common sense and pragmatism as opposed to ideology.” …snip…
It’s so cute the way they call him “pragmatic”…
Less important than his direct quotes, but very interesting, is the set up Cohen provides for the article… let me just give a ringing, GOOD LUCK!
[T]he centerpiece of the Times article was a fascinating study conducted by two University of Chicago law professors (one of whom is a conservative federal appeals judge) analyzing the judicial records of the 43 justices who’ve served on the Supreme Court since 1937.
Four of the five most conservative judges of the last seven decades (Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Alito) now sit on the Court. With Anthony Kennedy at number ten, five of the ten most rightwing judges are currently on the Court. The current majority, in other words, is almost a conservative all-star team.
By contrast, among the ten most liberal judges since 1937, the only sitting justice is Ruth Bader Ginsburg – she’s number nine. Today’s other three “liberal” justices (Stevens, Breyer, Souter) are in the top 15, but outside the top ten.
All in all, that’s a rightwing-dominated Supreme Court.
The study gives credence to the claim of Justice John Paul Stevens (age 89) that he hasn’t moved left since being appointed by President Ford in 1975, but that the Court has moved right.
And it backs Stevens’ assertion that “every judge who’s been appointed to the Court” since 1971 “has been more conservative than his or her predecessor” – with the exception of Ginsburg (who recently underwent surgery related to pancreatic cancer).
The question facing Obama: Will he continue this trend of shifting the Court rightward?
Unfortunately, from what we’ve seen of Obama’s general penchant for “moderate” appointees who don’t inflame Republicans, it’s quite possible the Court will continue trending rightward – if liberals get replaced with less liberal appointees. …snip…
…it’s quite possible the Court will continue trending rightward…
More than possible…
Why do I have the sinking feeling that
I’m never going to be in a tub like that?
Not even if I wanted too. Now I feel “less than”.
I want one, damnit. LOL.
I figure I could pay it off by 2054.
I think the design needs some editing… tho of course this is only one of the designs and i haven’t seen the others. LOL Won’t be changing my tub anytime soon…
As for the Obfus-c-u- later in Chief
and his SCOTUS pic…
I know this is clouded, but when he is selling this, at least how I’m hearing it through the ObSpeak…
I can’t help but suspect lathering up (tub theme) to put , { how can I put this delicately?} a total fucking political tool, yes that’s it, on the bench… DNC, Inc. still needs to cover their ass with all the investigations poking around (crim probes barking up Richardson, Schumer and Rendell + likely investor class action against Robert Rubin’s circle…So I come back Rendell :: pushing HARD for the wif and as near as I can see hasn’t “gotten” significant spoils thus far…Seems to me that is the plum that Rendell needs , Specter wants, and the Clintonite pals would be happy with. Seems like everything is in place for them to pull Ed’s mediocre Midge out of a hat…or someone that suits the job description: Justice for Sale.
Now clearly a “Justice” Rendell (LOL how oxymoronic)..clearly she’d would have to recuse herself if anything ever got to Ed and worked it’s way up to SCOTUS on appeals, but it would be useful in other cases that could obviate even a glancing blow….
Obviously not a clue here in my end of the tub, but methinks Obama’s reaching for that type of backbrush as he speaks…
LOL. Speaking of tubs…
Look at the bather in this one.
No more ring around the collar.
Hopefully they’ll merge with DIEBOLD. LOL.
Aroooo!
The Worst Case Yet Against Gay Marriage
lol…what an ass. No wonder he’s on his 3rd wife.
And the militarist bent too.
“we march up the aisle “
What planet is this guy from?
The “wedding-planning, nest-building fun”?
Mr Marital Bliss Nest Building Fun has never undertaken a whole house remodel I see. Talk about sublimating one’s immediate erotic desires.
What we need is
A Defense of Monogomous Couples again Nest Building Fun Act
that would shield all otherwise rational couples from considering taking on other lovers just for the extra pair of hands on the job…
What we need is
A Defense of Monogomous Couples again Nest Building Fun Act
rofl
And what’s “the kinship system”? Some secret club?
Yep, As anyone ,
“in the trenches” (LOL – or on the ladder) will tell you,
Gay, Straight, or Bi-
NEBUFU (Nest Building Fun)
is the great moral turpentine of our day.
NEBUFU (Nest Building Fun)
Great band name.
he so needs to cease and desist. really…
well, he’s already had three divorce lawyers tell him exactly that.
This is like Gingrich the serial non-monogamouser and Bennett the gambler lecturing us all…
I really wish people would keep their pathologies to themselves
I must say it has been as drippy and hypocritical as ever.
After the moment, he turned to the people golfing with him and said “Now watch this drive.”
Maybe he could drive a ball from the Arizona Memorial in Hawai’i some Memorial Day.
I overheard this funny/sad conversation today at a coffee shop, a fine example of how corporatism has infested EVERYTHING, how an entire generation is so used to it that it doesn’t seem weird to them, and why there is no left.
There is a guy, out on the corner across the street, trying to get people interested in the WI environmental group he works for. I don’t know if he was just handing out literature or getting signatures, but anyway he takes a break at a nearby table with two of his friends. One of them starts asking about how that group is to work for, and the “activist” says they’re all right, and that Enviromental Group A is hiring.
The other guy says, “really? I’m looking for a job, and it’s been a year since I worked for Environmental Group B, so the non-compete clause has run out.”
I think “NON-COMPETE clause?!?!” (yes, I’m shamelessly eavesdropping, since my friend is inside getting another tea).
So activist guy says, “Oh, that’s good. I had to sign one too, when I started with Enviromental Group A.”
BOTH of them think this is perfectly normal and reasonable.
Street level grunts for “activist” groups have to sign non-compete clauses? What are they competing for? Oh, that’s right … they’re not about the “cause”, they’re about the MONEY generated by mailing lists and etc.
This country is so done.
I had not heard of that.
It would make it hard to find jobs in the non profit sector I would think. And really unless you are a favored child, jobs often don’t last in that arena…. they are, or can be, tied to various campaigns, as I understand it.
It struck me as odd, yet sadly not surprising.
Angry Arab links to the Arabic report at Maswary.com, no English version offered.
Lying Pieces of Shit.
Secret Israeli Report: Venezuela, Bolivia Supplying Iran With Uranium For Its Nuclear Program
Oooo it’s “secret”. As published in the Journal of Deception, The Shit Stirrers Review, and the Shiny Metal World News.
Overwhelmingly, to their credit, the comment thread at HuffPo calls the whole thing BUULSHIT.
well, they had to find a new imaginary source of illicit uranium, after the non-existent source in Niger was revealed to REALLY not exist.
Gary Younge has a good piece up in the Guardian on Ob’s recent flips and flops. Or whatever one calls them…
Good piece, indeed:
.
.
.
No mercy for Pelosi, either.
IOZ… and a good thread.
I gather from the thread that over in Digby Dingleland… the misguided are saying things like “he’d do the right thing but he is being threatened”, or is “being blackmailed”. Or similar. As IOZ added “they kidnapped themselves”. Bingo.
Was this dumbest hire ever? Let’s hire someone who is under threat all the time, or so we tell ourselves. What bullscheisse.
IIRC this in fact was a bizarre idea of William F Buckley’s a few years ago. With his barely suppressed homosexual issues, a very very bizarre train of thought…
that’s horrible
wu ming’s
outstanding rejoinder on DK :
BRAVO!
oh i think we are WAY past the simplicity of the Willie Horton ad. Perhaps ”oceanstar17” has been visiting Pluto.
Favorites of Left Don’t Make Obama’s Court List
So, “lefties”/pwogies, how is that brainless cult worship thing working out for you?
he elevated teh conservatives and the wee wittle FEDERALISTS at the Harvard Law Review. People did not pay attention.
Oh FFS.
I can’t write for shit but I can READ.
HuffPo Linkedthru from The New York Review of Books
Bill Bradley Pwinceton Pwog turned HedgeFundie
with Roubini and Krugman Soros, et al. {-Like singing to a preschooler:
Which one of these is NOT like the other one? NOT like the other one?}
The Crisis and How to Deal with It
By Bill Bradley, Niall Ferguson, Paul Krugman, Nouriel Roubini, George Soros, Robin Wells et al.
::
Bill Bradley: How far are we along in a recovery? When the market price of Citicorp drops from 60 to 1, and then comes back to 3, I don’t think that’s a recovery. Warren Buffett buys Goldman Sachs, and after he buys, the price drops 45 to 50 percent, and if he’s going to break even on the investment he’s got to earn 9 percent for the next twelve years, I don’t think that’s a recovery.
POOR WARREN!
Saddle Up, Citi SUCKERS, so says Bradley.
What blubbery crap from
Mr. Uni-Chin To Head Connected Bradley.
Just shilling shit for Robert Rubin’s Citi crimes and the other Jersey-residing Street Captains like Corzine of Goldman Sachs.
And Bradley is now some white-shoe Hedge-peddler himself.
Of COURSE he isn’t talking about selling Citi’s slop to Hedge Funds
and “Wealth Management”.
They’ll BROKER the Scheisse getting PAID
to cover their derivative positions to boot. What a brazen SCAM.
Just naked Personal bankruptcy, there, Mr. Bill Bradley,
former rubbery pacifier and teething Pretzel to the Pwog “Left” .
{LOL, – eh, BEFORE GORE WAS “MARTYRED”.}
FRAUD.
The Short and skinny
before this Jersey asshole is all assholed out.
Bradley is trotted out to stick us with Citi, to cover Goldman Sach’s and the boutique hedgers like Bradley’s derivitive exposure as Citi implodes.
We can now see the Wall of the Tsunami coming in. The Derivitives and CDS wave is about to collapse onshore. But don’t worry. We have Bambi Geithner on the beach, trying to sip out where the water line once was, and, sensing trouble like tenderhoofs do, he’s holding up his paw with that quizical look on his face.
I’m out. Heading for cover(s).
I am very worried it will all collapse. I mean we could stumble along for years, but… it seems we have already been doing that. So……………. what’s next? No good answer as I see it.
And the wars go on.
someone just sent me this… dairy by someone named ‘bubbanomics” have not had a chance to read it yet…
Geesh
I will send up a ecumenical high five to the Episcopalians. There si a service tonight at Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill, iin preparation for the ruling tomorrow on Prop 8… gays and straights in attendance. No thought, ever, from that corner, to joining the nutty Catholics and Mormons in this hedious foolishness…
In all the hoopla I read of a couple of their churches that have supported gays for decades and offered services of marriage or commitment or fellowship or whatever they called it..
It split the Episcopalian church Mcat. And among Lutherans, furthered the divides between different branches [ELCA on the one hand, Missouri Synod, etc. on the other].
Not that I really care… I did grow up ELCA and on the liberal sides of the Epicopalian and Catholics churches [my crazy religious folks got me confirmed in all 3]…
But yes – among Episcopalians, it’s a huge issue – I believe it started sometime in the late ’90′s or so when they started ordaining openly gay ministers. [ELCA did that sometime in the early '90's].
Well the Robinson business seemed to just drive some of them insane. Plus any earlier liberalisation. Here in Ca they just seem quite mild. I am sure many members of Grace Cathedral voted in support of Prop 8 (and to deny SS marriage) but there also seems no problem about reaching out.
The Catholics keep a parish out in the Castro and are very happy to serve gays. Just so far tho… I have read the rationalisation of the gays who worship there. Pretty sad stuff. ‘Cuz Niederrauer the local Catholic High Holy will not be stopping.
You know me… I’m always suspect of the religious… never know what they’re thinking… What was it Joyce [as Bloom] said… ‘very efficient organization’.
Those crazy NKoreans… let off a couple of missiles. Please please let this not require a speech.
hmm Feingold pens a public letter to El Heife. It is very mild. Obama meets alone, one on one (maybe Biden or Gregg Craig, other minders -LOL-, are there, but the conservative is alone) with wingers, most recently with Coburn for instance… I wonder if he will bother with RF.
SOTOMAYOR
hmm California Supreme Court is expected to go at 10 AM PT.
And Ob at 10:15 AM ET:
Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:
President Obama to Announce Supreme Court Nominee at 10:15 a.m. ET [8:14 a.m. ET]
I hope Ob Goes with Gallagher.
Or Carrot Top.
Maybe Sigfried now, and Roy later.
What’s the catch?
I’m curious to read what ya’ll think.
Well…..I am waiting…..I want to know what to think.
………..!!!!!!!!!!Kidding!!!!!!!!!!
So who is she??
Catholic #6.
Upheld Bush’s Global Gag rule on Abortion.
Here’s what Ted Olsen – brace for impact-
ah “noted?” in Christianity Today
The Sotomayor Decision Pro-Life Groups Like
In 2002, she rejected a challenge to Bush’s Mexico City Policy.
Ted Olsen
Shortly after President George W. Bush reinstituted the Mexico City Policy (which bars government funds to groups that support or perform abortion), the Center for Reproductive Law & Policy sued.
The pro-choice group’s argument was that the Mexico City Policy unconstitutionally violated rights of speech (since it couldn’t “actively promote” abortion) and association (it couldn’t work with abortion rights advocacy groups overseas) as well as the constitution’s Equal Protection Clause (it wasn’t on “equal footing” with prolife groups in competing for funds).
When the case came before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Sonia Sotomayor (whom President Obama this morning nominated to the Supreme Court) ruled against the Center for Reproductive Law & Policy.
“The Supreme Court has made clear that the government is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position, and can do so with public funds,” Sotomayor wrote.
Does that mean she’s pro-life? No. It means she had read Rust v. Sullivan, the 1991 Supreme Court’s decision that said Congress could prohibit federal funds for “programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”
Deferential. Safe. IMO, anyways. Won’t make a bean’s pile of difference on decisions. The time to get het up was , oh,
the LAST 4 nominations…
Sorry. Olsen piece quoted from article link throigh
“blah blah bla…..family planning”
When I say “Safe” I mean FOR THE PTB.
I’m Looking forward to mcat’s take on the Cali SC ruling …
I heard while driving they upheld the Ban but the current marriages will stand..WTF?
What are the Courts in this dumbass country going to do?
Treat Gay Marriage like its TROUT SEASON now???
I’m out.
Well I figured it would come out this way, barring some discovery of COURAGE in doses, over the 90 days. I was asleep when it was annouced, so have to read the vote and the reactions.
They, the justices, were clearly warned that the pro Prop 8 forces would seek recall of the judges if they voted to support SSM. Nothing to sniff at here, sad to say, they recalled three judges here, the Chief Justice, Rose Bird and two justices, Cruz Reynoso and Grodin. That was over the death penalty (we now have it reinstated as of 92).
Jesusfuckingchrist. 6 to 1.
From page 2 in the Times:
How ironic that anyone in Mexico City with money has never been denied an abortion.
Well ti is legal now in Mexico City… It saves people having ot make it to Chula Vista, over the border.
Well that is the point mattes, rich women were never denied abortions. They were checked into the hospital for a medically necessary D & C.
I would say that ruling or finding or writing from her is a pivotal reason she was chosen. Ob plays sick games with abortion. IMO he is opposed, but he was birthed politically in a liberal enclave, Hyde Park, and had to mouth the local pieties.
1976, the Hyde Amendment.
They knew they could isolate and vilify poor women first and make the first crucial inroad. And of course the Democrat aligned, as opposed to being INDEPENDENT, pro choicer groups, like NOW and NARAL… signaled early that they would nto ask Obster to reverse the Hyde Amendment.
And we all know his bait and switch on the Freedom of Choice Act, which would return us to Roe v Wade and stop all the state prohibitions that are permitted under Casey, from 1992.
Sorry, I don’t vote for conservatives and I did not vote for Ob.
gnu post
LINK
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