Embrace the Dull

Stupid sexy activist judges

Matt Y notes here and here the unlikelihood that conservatives will howl over some recent judicial activism.

It got me thinking whether or not I support judicial activism (indeed if I even know what the term means).

Judicial activism is, as I define it, judicial review yielding a law (or an interpretation of a law) that is not expressly articulated in the Constitution.

The Supreme Court is sometimes derided as quasi-philosopher kings who sit in judgment, making decisions based on their unique experiences that are sometimes out-of-step with popular opinion.

At the same time, The Supreme Court is sometimes lauded as quasi-philosopher kings who sit in judgment, making decisions based on their unique experiences that are sometimes out-of-step with popular opinion.

The benefit of judicial activism is that it can sometimes bypass the tyranny of the majority and mandate something that is manifestly "right" (see: Brown v. Board). The drawback is that the court can sometimes do things that are manifestly fucked-up (see: Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson, Bush v. Gore).

I have read (in a number of places) that one of the (many) complaints against Roe v. Wade is that it bypasses legislative/constitutional action and "hides" abortion as a privacy issue. Pro-life advocates maintain (perhaps dishonestly) that they would less-opposed to abortion so long as it was determined on a state-by-state basis.

I disagree with this opinion as I think it would unfairly penalize poor women who want abortions in, say, Alabama.

So I advocate judicial activism!

But wait, I disagree with the activism demonstrated in the DC handgun ban. In that instance a community, through legislation, decided the best way to govern itself on a particular issue.

The Supreme Court thought otherwise.

So I'm opposed to judicial activism!

So that's where I stand on the issue: I have no idea.

Last Sunday on Charlie Rose, Justice Scalia said that the death penalty was clearly not a violation of the 8th Amendment because when the Constitution was drafted, the death penalty wasn't cruel and unusual.

He stated that if through legislative action, the death penalty was outlawed then so be it, but until that time the DP complies with Constitutional law.

I think Scalia is hiding behind his rigid interpretation of judicial review.

The rapid evolution of crime-scene evaluation (DNA testing) demands a moratorium be placed on the death penalty; many (most? all?) politicians lack the courage to advance this moratorium.

The lifetime appointees on the court are not subject to political winds and should institute such a moratorium.

But that's just one case that I favor activism, I'll disagree with the next one.

A poor justice would I make...

Everybody get outraged!

This is what Wesley Clark said on Face the Nation

Clark, "I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war…But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded—that wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall.

Bob Schieffer “Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences, either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down"

Clark, "Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."

D'oh!

Then everybody got krunked.

I guess what I would ask the recreationally outraged is: Do you think getting shot down in a fighter plane qualifies you to be president? If yes, why?

Because that's all Wes Clark fucking said.

This pretty much nails it:

It’s crucially important that we have a political debate in this country that’s at least sophisticated enough to be able to handle the following rather basic idea: Arguing that a person’s record of military service is not a qualification for the presidency does not constitute “attacking” their military credentials; nor can it be described as invoking their military service against them, or as denying their record of war heroism.

Anderson Cooper outed by Al Sharpton....

Is a story I expected to read right after "Palestinian Solution Found" and "John Buccigross Tea-bags Babe the Pig" but here you go....

Here's the quote:

"I may have some very conservative personal feelings but I feel you have the right to live your life differently. I may think that what you do, Anderson, is gonna put you in Hell, but I'm gonna defend your right to get there,"

Counsel for Tawana Brawly, Al Sharpton

From chiptole wraps to petrol subsidies...

Mexicans are bringers of cheap, noxious gas in all its forms.

Low Mexican Gas Prices Draw Americans

Guess the speaker...

"...the God fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle- class Protestant-or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern- or even worse, rural, apparently straight-or even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun-owning-or even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff-or even worse, male working stiff-because, not only don’t you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant, and frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new-America and until you do, would you mind shutting up?"

Answer -1997 (seriously)

Hitchens

From Slate

I am one of those who, for example, believes that the global conflict that began in August 1914 did not conclusively end, despite a series of "fragile truces," until the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He didn't support going to war, he merely supported the fact that we were in a war. Before we were in one. Even though there isn't a war. Now go away. And support the war. That we're not in.

Bureau to limit wiretapping to nights, weekends

WASHINGTON—Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time....

In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation "was halted due to untimely payment," the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies.

What the hell?

This is the kind of thing I would expect from Fox News. I really don't think that during this election cycle we should be dedicating valuable op-ed space to lessons on pube-removal.

Allafrica.com - getting in their digs

It's great to see that, despite voter fraud and hijacked elections, Allafrica.com still used the first paragraph of their story to ridicule US news coverage:

Kenya made all three major network newscasts in the United States on Monday, and for reasons nobody wanted. Only three or four minutes of a network newscast in the United States is used to cover international news, and the only other international story featured was the Bhutto assassination in Pakistan. As NBC reporter Martin Fletcher said, it is a "bad week" for democracy in Africa. The NBC anchor, Lester Holt, said the violence showed "no signs of subsiding."

Link

Congratulations to Bill Kristol

Just hired to to be a New York Times op-ed columnist.

We can now look forward to more analysis like this:

"I think there's been a certain amount of, frankly, Terry, a kind of pop sociology in America, that, you know, somehow the Shia can't get along with the Sunni, or the Shia in Iraq just want to establish some kind of fundamentalist regime. There's almost no evidence of that at all. Iraq has always been very secular."