He was “Otto”, the inflatable co-pilot in “Airplane”! [Hat tip: Crooks and Liars]
First (and Probably Last) Impressions of Supreme Court Nominee Roberts
I’ve purposely avoided listening to the blogosphere and the talking heads on TV. When I read the “leak” that he was the nominee, I checked out his record. His record as a judge is not very extensive, and his record as an attorney appears to be one in which he argued in favor of conservative causes (and/or conservative clients). The … Read More
Timing Is Everything
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush is close to a decision on his first nominee to the Supreme Court and could make his announcement as early as Tuesday, Republican sources said. Wow. Okay. "The time is now,” said a Republican strategist close to the White House of Bush’s announcement. Why is the time “now”, Mr. Republican-Strategist-Close-To-The-White-House? Sources said the timing of … Read More
Perjury About Abu Ghraib
Not that anyone is going to do anything about it—this is, after all, a Republican White House and Congress—but: WASHINGTON – (KRT) – An Army general who has been criticized for his role in the treatment of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has contradicted his sworn congressional testimony about contacts with senior … Read More
In The Mind Of A Killer/Molester/Kidnapper
Joseph Duncan allegedly kidnapped two children in mid-May—8 year old Dylan Groene and his 9 year old sister, Shasta. He did this after murdering the kids’ older sibling, mother, and mother’s boyfriend. And it appears that Duncan later killed Dylan. Fortunately, Duncan was apprehended this past weekend, and Shasta was rescued. Duncan left behind an eerie blog called “Blogging the … Read More
Supreme Court Rules On Valerie Plame Journalists
The Supreme Court ruled today that journalists cannot avoid grand jury subpeonae asking them to reveal their sources (or, put another way, that journalists can face jail time for failing to reveal their sources in response to a grand jury subpoena). This puts the plaintiffs, Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper and The New York Times’ Judith Miller, in a precarious position. … Read More
Supreme Court Rules On Ten Commandments
BREAKING NEWS: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ten Commandment displays are not permissible in courthouses. Well, that’s what the headlines are screaming at the moment. The devil, as they say, is in the details. For example, is the Decalogue permissible if it is part of a larger display about the origins of law? UPDATE No. 1: Decision was 5-4, … Read More
Supreme Court Watch
Monday is going to be fun. The Supreme Court is expected to hand down the final decisions of the term—one of them dealing with the Ten Commandments—and then, it is widely thought, Chief Justice Rehnquist (who is ailing) will announce his resignation from the bench. And then we’re in for months of wrangling about the replacement nominee. Conventional wisdom is … Read More
Roy Moore – Potential Pain in the GOP Ass?
The Boston Globe suggests an interesting future scenario. Roy Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who refused to follow a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state’s judicial building, is pretty popular in Alabama. And he’s set to run for Governor in 2006 against a rather lackluster tax-raising incumbant governor. If … Read More
Corruption So Startling, Even GOP Stalwarts Take Notice
You know it’s bad when even GOP senators want to know why the White House is hiding information from Congress on what John Warner called “the most significant defense procurement mismanagement in contemporary history.” Both Warner and John McCain, as well as Carl Levin want to know why the White House is sending redacted emails and other materials to the … Read More
Supremes Harsh Our Mellow
The case is Gonzales v. Raich (PDF format), better known as the medical marijuana case. The Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that the federal government can (in effect) outlaw medical marijuana use despite the fact that some states (ten of them) have made it legal. What the case is about is federalism and the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. For … Read More
Supreme Court Gets It Right
As if on cue in the wake of the Koran desecration debate, the Supreme Court—unanimously—talks about religion and prisoners in this recent ruling: The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Tuesday that a new federal law requiring prison officials to meet inmates’ religious needs is a permissible accommodation of religion that does not violate the separation of church and state. The … Read More
Judicial Activism
It’s one thing (a constitutional thing) for a private citizen to criticize another citizen’s religion, but this is entirely different . . . and unconstitutional: An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge’s unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to “non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.” The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion … Read More
Thoughts On The Nuclear Option
I have no particular warm spot in my heart for the filibuster. I don’t particularly loathe it either. I just view it as one of many silly and arcane congressional rules that has been around for decades, like the entire committee process which can effectively kill bills from even being considered. If I could make the rules for Congress, I … Read More