Saturday, November 05, 2005
The Idiot Factory
There must be a factory where they turn previously sensible people into idiots. Nothing else can explain the outbreak of stupidity in the media exemplified by this Richard Reeves column. Some choice quotes:
Unless he [Alito] turns out to be a secret partner of Jack Abramoff or a member of a terrorist cell, Alito is clearly qualified for the high court.
Really? Those are your standards?
But I suppose that in Bush's America, corruption and self-dealing is a kind of qualification. How about the fact that Alito gave a written promise to the Senate that he would recuse himself from judging cases involving Vanguard because he had significant holdings through them, then broke his word and did so anyway He denies that he had any knowledge Vanguard was involved even though it is named as a respondent in the case!
The point is not whether Alito had a genuine conflict of interest. I don't think he did. But he violated his word and created an appearance of conflict through egregiously dishonest, self-dealing behavior. Haven't any of the Busheviks read the parable of the talents? Alito was trusted in a small matter and he lied. Should he be trusted with one of the 20 most powerful positions in government?
Since perjurer Thomas and perjurer Rehnquist met Reeves's standards, Alito will do as well?
since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the Republicans have been the party of ideas
Um.
Ideas like Supply Side Economics, Privatization, and The Rapture?
Ideas like Cakewalks in Iraq and Transforming The Middle East and Ketchup Is A Vegetable?
I'll put ideas like Keeping Trust With Seniors, Universal Healthcare, The Right to Organize, Fiscal Responsibility, and the Family and Medical Leave Act up against those any day.
[Democrats] have to remember that the Constitution gives presidents the right to choose Supreme Court justices.
Really? My Constitution says that "He [the President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to ... appoint ...Judges of the supreme Court..."
Now, suppose you have two dollars in your wallet. I have the power, by and with your advice and consent, to buy a hamburger. Does that give me the "right to choose" my hamburger? If I want to eat, it doesn't. If you are a Hatfield, I would be well advised not to choose a hamburger sold by a McCoy. What a president has, according to the American Constitution, is the right to suggest.
Maybe Reeve has ceased to be an American. In this column, he talks like a Tory.
Excellence counts. Alito seems an example of that...
Excuse me, Mr. Reeves, but the function of hearings is to determine just who Samuel Alito is and whether we want to trust our nation to him. Excellence-- by which I take it you mean he went to the right law schools and got good grades--may count. It doesn't count more than whether he can keep his word.
You're very glib, Mr. Reeves in denouncing the Democratic leadership, who do deserve to be flayed, though not for the reasons you suggest. As visionaries, they may be on the sick list. You're in the ICU.
Comments:
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The Vanguard story is a real trust-breaker. Will the people of the Untited States, will our Senators, even just tolerate, let alone promote to the highest court in the land a person who says he will recuse himself from any case involving Vanguard, then refuse to do so, then rule for Vanguard?
Untrustworthy and self-serving. If this story doesn't sink him, then we may as well open up the Supreme Court to demons and archangels.
Maybe we have, already.
Untrustworthy and self-serving. If this story doesn't sink him, then we may as well open up the Supreme Court to demons and archangels.
Maybe we have, already.
Archangels I would not believe, shrimplate.
Demons... well...
What's clear is that the job review process is broken. Notions like the idea the president has the "right" to appoint whoever he wants are exposed by a total incompetent like Michael Brown. The poor of New Orleans were a human sacrifice, not really different from those offered to Baal, offered up to presidential vanity through Congressional irresponsibility.
Bush may have the power to lead us into destruction, but the Congress has a duty to try to stop him.
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Demons... well...
What's clear is that the job review process is broken. Notions like the idea the president has the "right" to appoint whoever he wants are exposed by a total incompetent like Michael Brown. The poor of New Orleans were a human sacrifice, not really different from those offered to Baal, offered up to presidential vanity through Congressional irresponsibility.
Bush may have the power to lead us into destruction, but the Congress has a duty to try to stop him.
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