Yoo Son of a Bitch

As you have to have heard by now, President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court vacancy coming up because of David Souter's retirement. Needless to say, the right wing scream machine is already set on screech. And, of all people, John Yoo has something to say about it, as he's all about the law or something. Here's part of Yoo's lament:

Conservatives should defend the Supreme Court as a place where cases are decided by a faithful application of the Constitution, not personal politics, backgrounds, and feelings. Republican senators will have to conduct thorough questioning in the confirmation hearings to make sure that she will not be a results-oriented voter, voting her emotions and politics rather than the law.

Now you can see where Yoo would be against feelings, as they only leave you with something to torture and thereby make you vulnerable. But Yoo, of all people, saying politics has nothing to do with application of the law? (And you have to love the modifier "personal" before politics--as opposed to the impersonal kind the Republicans practice, I guess.) Let's revisit Bush v Gore and see how much the Supreme Court is politics free.

Bad Day at Black Robes

That sneaky Supreme Court: I was convinced they would overturn Roe v. Wade (1973) first, but instead they went for Brown v. Board of Education (1954)! How novel of them. How enterprising. How soon does the next plane leave for Canada.

Then again, BushCo overturned the Barons v. King John (1215), so nothing should surprise me.

The Supremes Sing "Fetal Love, My Fetal Love"

The Supreme Court reminded us you can't spell "mean" without "men" today in its 5-4 decision to uphold a law that bans a type of late-term abortion. I doubt I have to tell you which Justice voted which way, but what's most telling is the majority had to write two opinions, as Scalia and Thomas (or is that Scaliathomas, since Clarence packed up his tiny brain and handed it in a paper bag to Antonin) insisted they were prepared to go all the way and over-turn Roe v. Wade. Pretty interesting given Thomas didn't even have an opinion on the matter when he was up for Senate approval.

CNN reports:

President Bush, who signed the law in 2003 and appointed two of the justices who upheld it, said the prohibition "represents a commitment to building a culture of life in America."

Bush also said, "We plan to start arming fetuses--got our scientists who don't believe in global warming working on making them tiny little automatic pistols. That way they can protect themselves, shoot up them doctors if they try to pull anything funny like one of them DLC's or whatever they call 'em."

He went on to claim, "Today's decision affirms that the Constitution does not stand in the way of the people's representatives enacting laws reflecting the compassion and humanity of America."

"After all, it's huMANity not huWOMANity. If a woman or two dies because of pregnancy complications, it's ok as long as the baby makes it. Heck, it might be a boy."

$ilent but Deadly

Maybe this won't work for you, but I've got your tailpipe emissions problem in as nutshell right here--I follow the link from Talking Points Memo to the New York Times and get distracted from the story about the Supreme Court by the video running to the right of the article. I know it's an ad, but it's in motion. And it's an ad for? The Porsche Cayenne, which as a base model--and who buys a Porsche to get the base model?--gets 20 mpg.

You can rebuke the administration as much as you want, but there's a whole lot of corporate rebuke that needs to happen, and nobody has the stomach for that. Sadly, someday soon no one will have the lungs....

UPDATE: The next time I followed the link I got the bizarre Netflix zombie ad, which might be fitting, too.

Truth Dig My Ass

OK, that title was a bit more painful than I meant it to be, but it seems that if anyone actually read me, I'd be able to assume I've been plagiarized. For what should Truth Dig post just this Sunday but an article that begins:

Just days after former Vice President Al Gore received an Academy Award for his global-warming documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” the United States Supreme Court handed Mr. Gore a stunning reversal, stripping him of his Oscar and awarding it to President George W. Bush instead.

For Mr. Gore, who basked in the adulation of his Hollywood audience Sunday night, the high court’s decision to give his Oscar to President Bush was a cruel twist of fate, to say the least.

But in a 5-4 decision handed down Tuesday morning, the justices made it clear that they had taken the unprecedented step of stripping Mr. Gore of his Oscar because President Bush deserved it more.

You loyal readers might recall (I say might as I know many of my loyal readers drink, just to keep up with my pace) that on Monday, February 26 I blogged the following:

In stunning news today, the U.S. Supreme Court convened for a special session and by a 6-3 decision voted to rescind the Best Documentary Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth. Chief Justice John Roberts said, "First, I'd like to thank William Rehnquist for stepping down, even if he had to die to do so. Second, we determined that for the good of the nation we had to act and save them from the uncertainty we have about global warming. The best way to do that, we thought, was to prevent them from seeing anything that might make them think global warming exists. It turns out the voting in Palm Beach in particular largely went for the powerful doc Pat Buchanan's Ten Ways to a Better Bris and then there were the hanging Chads--both Lowe and Everett didn't seem to vote. Third, we had a good long talk with James Baker, who was happy to be listened to again after the Iraq Study Report."

Antonin Scalia went even further with his comments, claiming, "We're also going to take away Melissa Etheridge's Oscar and give it to Mary Cheney. Right-wing, VP-sired, Coors-working lesbians we can tolerate, but all the other ones...."

And now Truth Dig won't even post the comment I tried to leave on the site--you'd think Wendy McCaw was running the joint and not Robert Scheer.

[UPDATE: Truth Dig did add my comment. That's lefties for you--somehow I get 2 issues of the Nation on the same day, too.]

Alas, I am not an award-winning comedy writer like Andy Borowitz, who, according to his bio, created The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. That too, of course, was stolen from me, as I long-shopped the tv comedy The OG: Original George, but network execs felt that I was too black and would threaten mainstream America. To think I could have been Will Smith.

Won't Get Gored Again

In stunning news today, the U.S. Supreme Court convened for a special session and by a 6-3 decision voted to rescind the Best Documentary Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth. Chief Justice John Roberts said, "First, I'd like to thank William Rehnquist for stepping down, even if he had to die to do so. Second, we determined that for the good of the nation we had to act and save them from the uncertainty we have about global warming. The best way to do that, we thought, was to prevent them from seeing anything that might make them think global warming exists. It turns out the voting in Palm Beach in particular largely went for the powerful doc Pat Buchanan's Ten Ways to a Better Bris and then there were the hanging Chads--both Lowe and Everett didn't seem to vote. Third, we had a good long talk with James Baker, who was happy to be listened to again after the Iraq Study Report."

Antonin Scalia went even further with his comments, claiming, "We're also going to take away Melissa Etheridge's Oscar and give it to Mary Cheney. Right-wing, VP-sired, Coors-working lesbians we can tolerate, but all the other ones...."