babbling blue

Citing the inability of a SCOTUS justice to wear blue to work, Harriet Miers has withdrawn her name from consideration. Who knew she was such a slave to fashion?

So what happens now? Nothing good, surely. It’s nice to see that I wasn’t the only person with the little conspiracy theory I came up with right after the nomination.

A friend of mine said that Rove might have actually been behind this nomination, allowing someone to go forward who would get very little support, so that any opposition to the next nominee could be portrayed as obstructionism. And that next nominee will likely be a very far right ideologue, or as my friend said, Darth Vader.

Restless Mania

At least we know Darth Vader wouldn’t have a problem wearing a black robe every day.

Attorney: And that’s why it’s critical to our society that we protect the civil rights of those held in government custody. Thank you.
Justice Vader: I find your arguments quite disappointing, counselor. [makes squeezing gesture with thumb and index finger]
Attorney: [gasps] [chokes] [falls down dead]

It’s nice to see there is at least one conservative out there that actually thinks rather than regurgitating terms like “strict originalist” or “strict constructionist” that they don’t really understand. Even though our goals and philosophies are definitely not aligned, I have to respect the Conservative Princess for that.

Do you really want an strict Originalist? No. No conservative really wants that. What conservatives do know is that they have no idea what they want. They only believe that they want an Originalist because it means that Roe could get overturned, but newsflash! someone who spells an end for Roe in the Originalist sense, might take a strike or two at Federalism and the Commerce Clause every once in a great while.

While I don’t think Miers was a very qualified candidate, nor that she wasn’t a crony, I am more afraid of who is coming next than I was of her. Anyone who doesn’t fear Darth Vader is probably mentally deficient.

I’m willing to bet we’ve all heard variations of that phrase used many times. And I’m further willing to bet that most people who say it have no idea what torture is really like. I know I don’t. And I hope I never need to find out. But who knows?

With timing that was a result of prescience or coincidence, the episode of “Commander in Chief” last night dealt with torture. Specifically torture of a terror suspect by the U.S. government. This is a warm topic right now. It should really be hot, but people don’t seem to care as much as they should.

In the real world (as opposed to the fictional world on “Commander in Chief”) the Senate recently passed–overwhelmingly, though not unanimously–an amendment to the defense spending bill that outlaws torturing a prisoner in U.S. custody. And now our warm & fuzzy Vice President is coming out against it–the amendment, that is. That’s right, Dick Cheney wants us (via the CIA) to torture people.

So now Mr. Cheney is trying to persuade members of a House-Senate conference committee to adopt language that would not just nullify the McCain amendment but would formally adopt cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment as a legal instrument of U.S. policy.

Washington Post Editorial

In the fictional world I mentioned, the Attorney General authorizes torturing a terror suspect to prevent an impending attack. She did this after the President said “I don’t want to hear that he was tortured” which the AG took to mean it was ok to torture the guy, but the Prez didn’t want to be told. This didn’t go well.

The AG’s position was that these terrorist scum (and I do believe terrorists are scum, don’t get me wrong) don’t deserve our protection.

I think President Mackenzie Allen’s response to this was spot on:

The rules are not there to protect them. They are to protect us. Other nations follow us. If we torture there is nothing to prevent other countries from doing the same, to our citizens.

The arguments against cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (torture) are:

1. It is wrong/immoral. This is a nebulous, subjective argument. I’m not saying I don’t believe it, but it’s not the strongest point.
2. It is unreliable. This is a stronger argument as it can be supported with fact, not just feeling.
3. It sets a bad example. The point the fictional President made is a strong one as well. If we can torture, so can everyone else.

Just say no to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the government. That’s what bad guys do.

I often see fliers about missing pets, and it always breaks my heart. It’s so sad to think of someone losing a beloved pet in this big city, where their chances of getting them back must not be very good. Lately I’ve seen a few fliers that mention that the pets need medication. Perhaps that’s meant to appeal to those who would find an animal and just keep it, without regard to who the proper owner may be. But it just makes me sadder; those poor animals have even less chance of survival than most lost pets.

People who haven’t had pets of their own often fail to understand the attachment an owner develops for their animal. A pet becomes a loyal friend and a beloved member of the family. Losing a pet, whether it dies or disappears, is a painful experience.

I always kind of hope when I see a “Lost Pet” sign I’ll look up and see the little rascal scurrying across the street nearby so I can return it. But that hasn’t happened yet.

JUDGE MICHAEL MCCONNELL
U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, appointed by G.W. Bush, 50 years old
Has criticized Bush v. Gore and the Clinton impeachment, but also Roe v. Wade (he signed a statement in 1996 supporting a constitutional amendment banning abortion). Has plenty of things to make Democrats happy; you hope they can overcome that one big one!

New World Man presents: My favorite candidate for the Supreme Court
brought to you by Quizilla

Five completely driverless vehicles, controlled entirely by onboard software, finished a 132 mile race through the desert. The winner was “Stanley”, a VW Touareg (what was VW thinking with that name?) from Stanford University. They received a prize of $2 million of taxpayer money.

The competition, called the Grand Challenge, took place for the second year in a row. None of the entries made it past 8 miles last year. This year was a vast improvement, with 5 of 23 completing the course, and several others getting pretty far. The race was sponsored by DARPA.

The “sentimental favorite” this year was “Kat-5″, a Ford Escape Hybrid designed by students in Metarie, La. They finished in 4th place, a very impressive showing.

My Way News: Driverless VW Wins $2 Million Robot Race

I was eating my cereal (Life) and skimming various blogs, mostly related to the big news of the week–Harriet Miers. And I came across this little nugget that almost caused me to spew milk all over my monitor. I’ll post it in its original form first, and then again with my own annotations.

Am I upset about, or worried, that President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court?

No. Not in the slightest bit.

President Bush is a man of consistency, and he is doing nothing different today than he was doing two, three or four years ago. He makes decisions based on gut instinct, not “popular consensus” or polls. He is a man of integrity and strong convictions. While he has upset many people in his “disillusioned conservative base”, he has remained consistent through the five years of his Presidency, and I do not see why the next three years should be, or will be, any different.

(emphasis in original content)

Let’s look at the meat and potatoes of this again, with my comments in italics:

President Bush is a man of consistency (Oh yeah, he’s consistent all right. Maybe not about facts, but about his agenda. See the cartoon below.), and he is doing nothing different today than he was doing two, three or four years ago. (This is true. Still fighting a war that was supposed to be short. Still driving the national debt higher and higher.) He makes decisions based on gut instinct (Yeah gut instinct is what I want the most powerful man in the world to use to make decisions.), not “popular consensus” or polls (Or little things called “facts”.). He is a man of integrity (BWAHAHAHA!) and strong convictions (Yes he’s stubborn and won’t re-evaluate his opinions regardless of what changes or information becomes available) . While he has upset many people in his “disillusioned conservative base”, (There are two types of conservatives right now, disillusioned and illusioned.) he has remained consistent through the five years of his Presidency, and I do not see why the next three years should be, or will be, any different. (He hasn’t done anything right yet, why start now?)

Blog post taken from: Slobokan’s Site O’Schtuff

Well the right-wing hypocrisy is already starting, complete with rationalizations:

John Roberts and even Ginsburg could refuse to answer questions and rely on their past qualifications. Harriet Miers does not have such qualifications and therefore should not be allowed to avoid answering any questions. Republican senators should force her to stand up and say “I believe that the constitution means what it says and nothing else.” Republicans on the court must win assurances that Ms. Miers will not become another in a long line of stealth candidates to go very very wrong.

From the ironically named blog,the-rubber-stamp

Very interesting. W has chosen his nominee to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on SCOTUS. He chose Harriet Miers. This process is going to be fun to watch. The headline on my homepage wasn’t something like “Bush taps woman for O’Connor replacement” or “Harriet Miers chosen as Supreme Court nominee”. Rather, it was “High Court Nominee Has Never Been a Judge”

The thing that excites me about Harriet is that this choice doesn’t seem to be popular among conservatives. That’s a good sign. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Most conservatives seemed to be hoping (and expecting) someone more like Scalia or Thomas (in other words, stalwart extreme right-wing nutjobs).

What they got is someone who isn’t a known quantity, but may be somewhat moderate. We don’t know because, as the headline above helpfully points out, she’s never been a judge. She hasn’t argued before the Supreme Court either. She has, however, contributed to the campaigns of both Republicans and Democrats (Al Gore, 1988). Right now, we have little to use to gauge her political philosophy on any major issues. That includes abortion.

I predict we’ll be seeing some characteristic right-wing hypocrisy during the confirmation. Conservatives that applauded John G. Roberts for not answering questions will insist that Miers respond to the same. And attack her if she doesn’t.

But what if she’s being set up to fail? Miers is seen as a strong Bush loyalist (one thing that worries me if she does get confirmed). It’s conceivable that she would agree to take one for the team. If she isn’t confirmed, the argument will be that she isn’t experienced enough; she may even draw comparisons to Michael Brown. Republicans will use the term “experienced” but they’ll mean “conservative”, of course. So let’s say she’s turned away, with the primary reason being lack of experience. That opens the door wide for Bush’s so-called second choice to be someone with a lot of experience and a rock-solid conservative history. Someone more like Scalia or Thomas. W could then simply say “You asked for experience, and that’s what I gave you.” It would be difficult for Democrats to fight off such a nominee in that situation.

At this point, that’s nothing more than a conspiracy theory in my head. But it’s something to think about. And it’s completely within the abilities of Karl “Lucifer” Rove to conceive and orchestrate.

In my humble opinion, unless we learn something more drastically wrong with her, we should grudgingly confirm Harriet Miers to the court. Because we really could do much worse.

Up until now this site has flown under the radar of any spammers. I haven’t had to install any anti-spam plugins for the site comments. I may have been getting some spam emails (I don’t pay attention to what address they’re sent to, or even open them) but not a huge number.

But today I got my first comment spam. It was attached to my post on the super expensive mobile homes, and it was for mortgage and refinancing. Fortunately this blog software is crafty and didn’t allow it to be posted without asking me first, so it will never see the light of day.

Perhaps I should be flattered my little site has been “discovered” by spammers. But it was probably inevitable regardless of popularity or lack thereof. With the increasing ease of searching blogs (like with google’s new blog search engine) this type of thing could be happening a lot more. To everyone.

Lately I seem to have a lot of these little periods where I fall off the side of the blogosphere. Yes, I realize spheress don’t have sides so I therefore can’t fall off of one. But let’s just pretend it’s the 1300’s and we don’ t know the world of blogs isn’t flat like Deborah Messing’s chest.

Anyway, my point is there are lots of gaps of a week or more in my blog. I would apologize, but I don’t regret. I’m not getting paid for this, I’ll write as seldom or as often as I want. So there!

I’ve been in Florida for a week. Not a business week, a calendar week. I got here 7 days ago, plus a few hours. It’s not nearly as exciting as it sounds, trust me. It’s for work. While I did have the weekend free, that wasn’t thrilling either. As I’ve not been feeling the greatest, it was a pretty laid-back weekend. My boyfriend did come visit however, for which I’m immensely grateful. (Thanks, hun!) I will be flying home to Chicago tomorrow evening.

Meanwhile there was another hurricane, but not as bad as the last. It was good to see some lessons were learned. And now W is over-compensating for his previous lack of caring and action. Also there have been Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. They have been largely uneventful, partially because he hasn’t answered so many questions. While I have stuff to say on this topic, I’ll save it for a separate post.

That’s all I have to say for now. Maybe I’ll post again soon. Or maybe not. I’m off to find some dinner.