1857 – Dred Scott Case – Chief Justice Roger Taney:
“(Blacks) are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution…neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution had been intended to apply to blacks…(blacks) were so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
This being one of the few things I actually learned and then remembered until the age of 27, to me it’s the furthest our Supreme Court has ever gone to desecrate the idea that ‘all men are created equal’. My study of history (a mere speck of what I’ll know by the time I’m 50), has brought me to the conclusion that the Supreme Court will always exist as a mechanism to balance the level of inequality in our society.
In the upcoming years I expect the shrinking middle class, and the disparity of earnings from middle to upper class will become a winning political issue. Alito seems to stand on the side of business over the individual, as well as government over the individual. That being said, he’s a product of the conservative movement, which has legislated in the same way.
So it comes as no suprise that in the year 2006, Alito is the nomination to fill O’Connor’s seat. I’ve purposely stayed out of this debate until the confirmation hearings began, and now that my house is wired for sound from those hearings, it’s time to debate his positions on some of the cases he’s decided on. Personally, from all I’ve read about him, executive priviledge is the one thing I’m most concerned with.
It makes a lot of sence to me, with the past ten years of elections turning out as they have, for Alito to be confirmed. He’s a hell of a lot better than Janice Rogers Brown!
SERIOUS DISCUSSION OFF!
OK seriouslly I need a break from being serious for a while. So, that said, I found this to be funny. Yes I am a fan of Star Wars.
Alito Epiphany
“After catching up on the first day of the Alito hearings, one conclusion seems inescapable; namely, that Alito is more machine now than man; twisted and evil. He yearns to take liberals, women, minorities, gays, small children, and puppies to the Dune Sea, and cast them into the pit of Carkoon, the nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlaac, in whose belly they will find a new definition of pain and suffering as they are slowly digested over a thousand years. (Or maybe it’s the slavering maw of Cthulhu the Great. I zoned out for awhile during Durbin’s opening remarks.)
Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen. Schumer and Leahy’s feeble skills are no match for the power of the Dark Side. As for that that slimy piece of worm-ridden filth, Ted the Hutt, he’ll get no pleasure from these hearings. You can either profit by this or be destroyed. The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am.”
OK Serious discussion mode swithched back on.
Ted the Hutt, he’ll get no pleasure from these hearings.
Hey, don’t insult Jabba!!!!
Aristotle, int eh POLITICS, posits that a successful society needs a strong and large middle class for balance.
It is here that Alito’s proclivity towards elitism (Concerned Alumni of Princeton as one example) is problematic.
Still, he is a sober and intellectual man. NPR just did a story (maybe to seem more objective, as in their recent scnadal) asking people how they have changed perceprions and beliefs since 1985). I know I liked to breakdance on sheets of panelling in my driveway then (we were 11yrs old) so that’s quite a change…ha
The babble brigade is in full force, no doubt. I think Leahy’s awesome, same for Specter, Fiengold…what’s his name from South Carolina, Republican…his questioning on day two seemed more than a tad bit disrespectful, how he was cutting Alito off, treating him like a hostile witness in an effort to box him into a line of rationale that drew on past wars to justify open-ended detainment of prisoners suspected of being ‘the enemy’…
For some reason, I love watching (listening) to these confirmation hearings, but don’t seem to have enough interest after the fact to write about it all that much. I’ve figured Alito would be confirmed…and while I find a lot about him troubling, it’s only through trial and error that we humans actually learn anything in this life.
Ideology rules right now, and Alito’s ideology is the same as I hear on right-wing radio all the time.
The Kennedy-Specter spat was very entertaining…got to hand it to Ted on that one, as Specter was definitely tapped on the shoulder and told to keep those documents out of the process. I felt bad for him right then…it’s his committee, he should make the decisions, but that’s not how things work with GOP4.0
I just listened to a Podcast of some of the hearings. Ted Kennedy was entertaining. How he keeps getting elected I will never know.
I once was a member of a secret organization that had secret rituals; a subset of the Masons called DeMolay for teenagers (you had to leave after you turned 19 or 20 years old). Although I never followed up and continued on to the Masons I can not imagine what they would have asked me about that organization! It is ridiculous to think that someone would subject themselves to such treatment to obtain a seat on the highest court in the land. But there has to be some checks and balances as this is the Supreme Court we are talking about. There has to be some way of evaluating the applicants. I just think we could do better.
The comment about the treatment Justice Ruth Ginsberg might get under the current guidelines of background checks was a good point. Her association with the ACLU was very honorable but would it hold up under the scrutiny of Republican questioning, using the current guidelines of association that the Democrats are using for Alito and CAP of course, if she sat before the panel today? Not that I have a real strong opinion about Alito and his nomination but I do have a disgusting impression of the political nature of the hearings.
On a side note when are people, the US citizens, going to get tired of the state of politics today? The Alito hearings and the Abramoff scandal are a disgrace. This guy Abramoff is a sleeze bag. All those associated should go to jail and he should as well. Despite Howard Dean’s arguments to the contrary there are some nervous Democrats on Capitol Hill right now. This is not a strictly Republican issue. The Republicans are probably guiltier, in numbers, in this case than the Democrats but that is just this case. The fact that our elected officials are involved in something like this should be the issue, not weather they are Democrats or Republicans and that should always be the issue. The use of one side or the other to such scandals as political clout or revenge is almost as bad as the scandal itself. Investigation and then accountability are the only ways to fight this. No more plea bargains or slaps on the wrist. Put the guilty parties in jail. Period. Stop the which hunts because someone does not hold the same political opinions you do or you perceive a previous wrong to revenge. These actions make you just as bad as Abramoff .
The Star Wars passage that I left in the comment above was not mine and I forgot to link to the author. It was just something I found funny and thought you might like as well regardless of your opinions on the hearings and Alito. The link is here: http://www.professorbainbridge.com/2006/01/alito_epiphany.html
Sorry for the confusion.
I am growing tired of caring anymore. It makes no difference. Politics will never change. I tried to change things once during a presidential election by voting for someone who really wanted to change things and who had no way of winning just to make a point. Did it change anything? Did my voicing my opinion here change anything? Did my letter to my congressman change anything?
I see no changes. Only power hungry political opportunists. Washington just keeps chugging along.
Ideology rules right now, and Alito’s ideology is the same as I hear on right-wing radio all the time.
That is called the mainstream. You don’t hear it on Air America :- )
The Kennedy-Specter spat was very entertaining
I thought that was great too, Kennedy wanting to supoena himself to get domuments from his own library (Library of Congress and he’s in Congress). If this ever gets traction I sure hope Kennedy complies with his own supoena or else he’ll have to find himself in contempt of Congress and file an ethics charge against himself.
Image the headlines – Drunken fat bastard wrestles self to ground, placing self under citizens arrest.
Like Bugs Bunny once said “What a maroon!!!”
Ahhhhhh, I’m having too much fun with this, but hey, it’s “laughing-stock” Ted Kennedy.
I don’t listen to Air America – or any political talk radio for that matter. A new years resolution. Every second of it is poison…I’d convinced myself that a portion of Franken, Rush, Howie Carr would balance everything out, but all it really did was make me a little bit dumber than I was the day before.
It’s 2006 and I’m a big boy now. I can make up my own mind from now on.
Kennedy could have walked down the street and pulled those records? What do you base this on? Something you heard on talk radio perhaps?
Right, you do know that all those talkers lie regularly, yes?
If you or anyone else is under the impression that one side of it is 100% truthfull and the other is 100% dishonest, it’s time to graduate. We’re all interested and smart enough to figure it out on our own.
I’d like to see proof that Kennedy had access to those files all along. Because to me it sounds like something a pundit would make up.
One last addition of final thoughts on the hearings. If you still can not see around your political bias to see the smear job attempted by the Democrats maybe this will help your vision. 20-20 vision is a good thing.
If anyone should know what this guy Alito is about it is these people. Before you claim party politics this woman was appointed as a U.S. Appeals Court Judge by the Clinton administration. The actions of the Democrats on the panel says volumes about thier motives in this obvious smear campain.
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/012814.php
This is truly extraordinary. Extraordinary that Judge Alito’s colleagues have turned out to defend him against the Democrats’ smears; extraordinary that the Democrats themselves couldn’t be bothered to stick around to hear what this distinguished group of judges had to say. After all, if the Democrats were actually interested in what kind of judge Sam Alito is, these are precisely the witnesses who could tell them. If the Democrats really thought that Alito’s judicial opinions reflect poorly on him, these are exactly the people who could answer their questions, and, if they are correct, confirm their fears. But the Democrats apparently knew that wasn’t going to happen. The only conclusion one can draw is that the Democrats knew they were smearing a fine man and a fine judge. But the fact that they didn’t even have the decency or respect to stay and listen to Alito’s colleagues is disgusting.
A good roundup of thoughts, including the above, can be found here:
The Woman the Democrats do not want you to hear.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004276.htm
More here from Cox & Forkum who, to thier credit, have the gonads to link some negitive views of Alito. Plus they always have great (conservative) cartoons.
http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/000753.html