Oh Boy

Chief Justice Rehnquist has died. Now things get really interesting.

24 Comments on “Oh Boy”

  1. Steve Brady:

    “September is going to be craaaazy.”

    I actually considered titling this entry “Holy Shit Fuck! The World is Coming to an End!” since that’s actually how I feel about what this means. But in the end I decided on decorum.

    But, honestly: Holy shit fuck, man. The world is coming to a friggin’ end.

  2. But in the end I decided on decorum.

    Ditto, at least on my own blog. I probably just need to sleep on it.

    We news junkies are screwed. Katrina, Roberts hearings, new nomination hearing, possibly a separate CJ hearing, state funeral?, Plame?, Estate Tax, Iraq, all at once. And classes start Tuesday. Ugh.

  3. Although, in a way, this might be good timing. People are probably paying pretty close attention to the world right now, and this may actually be a chance to inform people just exactly what the court has done under Rehnquist.

    No Violence Against Women Act? Rehnquist.

    States can permanently disenfranchise felons, even after they’ve served their time? Rehnquist.

    The government could draft only men? Rehnquist.

    A state could punish only men for statutory rape? Rehnquist.

    States aren’t required to provide attorneys for discretionary appeals? Rehnquist.

    etc., and that doesn’t even get into all the race cases.

  4. We are so fucked.

    Which is pretty much what I said back when Fearless Leader got his court case decided.

    Anybody care to join in my new hobby–drinking heavily? It seems to work for the Russians…

  5. Let me start by saying that I have sympathy for the man’s family.

    Let me next say that, once again, the Bush administration gets a get-out-of-jail-free card. As soon as pressure from the press on the government’s poor response to Katrina gets to be too much, Bush will pull out a nominee to distract the major networks. Plame/Rove, anybody?

    K

  6. Well, I guess Pat Robertson got his wish for another vacancy on the Supreme Court. Hope he’s happy with two and will stop publicly praying for vacancies.

  7. Are the days of Roe numbered?

    They can keep chipping away at it (and technically, Roe isn’t good law anymore anyway – that’s Casey v. Planned Parenthood). But there’s still Ginsburg, Souter, Stevens, Breyer, and Kennedy.

    What’d be really funny is if there are suddenly four as-far-right-as-you-can-go justices on the Court, Kennedy grows more “liberal.” That’d be a hilarious backfire, considering conservatives are just worried about another Souter.

  8. How does the death of a conservative justice on the Supreme Court change anything, much less be the end of the world? Rehnquist was a dissenter in Roe vs. Wade. His dissenting vote will probably now be replaced by somebody else’s dissenting vote. So?

    (Yes, I know there are other cases in the world than the big RvW, but that’s the one that gets everyone so het up.)

  9. Well the buffer zone is gone, Eric. 5-4. And the chipping away will increase.

    The truly conservative wing was Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas. Rehnquist and Scalia both nominally have respect for precedent, although they could both play fast and loose when they really wanted to.

    Thomas does not, proudly so. He knows the original meaning of every word in the Constitution, and even if a hundred years of cases say otherwise, then they should all be summarily thrown out, real-world consequences be damned.

    So replacing Rehnquist with someone like Thomas, as opposed to someone like Scalia, makes the Court move even further to the right.

    As for Roberts, he’s probably the real new Rehnquist in terms of judicial philosophy, so there’s another shift there.

  10. Replacing Renquist with another conservative won’t have much affect on Roe. Expect a much slicker nominee (like Roberts) who will have a very different opinion on Griswold v. Connecticut. And, like Roberts, be much more sympathetic to the idea of an imperial presidency, whom it is the court’s duty to support, rather than serve as a check.

    So: expect more rights for those who can pay for them, specifically big business. Don’t be surprised if things like labor regulations follow the enviromental ones into oblivion. Learn to love the third amendment, as it’s the only one that’s going to remain intact. The second will serve to distract a decent percentage of available activists with an irrelevant wedge issue until their other rights are gerrymandered into uselessness.

  11. Am I the only political optimist (even if a fairly conservative Republican) that’s hoping maybe we’ll get an actual moderate in a nomination? Maybe I’m expecting too much of the current administration. Though if Rove gets it, even I fear the result.

  12. … I Have To Say These Words Touched Me On Just How Hard It Is To Be Poor, I’m Not Exactly Rich, But Not Poor Either I Really Dont Know How It Feels, Yet Im Thankfull For This Being Here Im Thankfull For Me Being Able To Read This, For I Have Been Living With A Friend Mine, His Parents Kicked Him Out Of His House And So He Had Nowhere To Live, But Thankfully I Found Out And Put A Stop To It, So He Now Live’s With Us. But Now I Know A Small Amount Of What It Must Of Been For Him Through His Elementary Days, I Truly Am Sorry For Anyone Who Has Experienced This Pain And Known They Cant Do Anything About It Because You Dont Have The Money To Go To School Or Somtimes Eat. So Whomever Is Reading This. If You Have The Same Problems As My Friend Did Dont Keep To Yourself About It, Dont Let Other People Find Out You Need Literrally Help To Stay Alive, Talk Not Neccicarilly Just Make Sure Everyone Pity’s You But,.. If I Could Explain This It Would Be Easier, Like They Said “Being Poor Is Like Running In Circle’s” Please To Everyone Who Can Move There Leg’s Use Them To Do Whatever You Can Do For Anyone Better Live Your Life Without Regretting A Single Day Than Have That Pain Inside Knowing You Did Somthing Wrong, Im Sorry Truly, Please You Arent Nothing One Day Thing’s May Change. I Speak Of This On A Friend Of Mine Named Phillup Who Had Same Or Worse Living Conditions. And Of A Friend Of Mine Who Adored When It Rains. And Here’s A Thing He Told Me I Put This In Everything I Post So Yea…

    “Someone Once Told Me They Adored It When It Rains, For He Felt The World Being Washed Away Cleansed Out Of All Its Miserie’s And Left With The One Thing It Could Have.. Little Droplets Of Hope Left By The Rain Which Deluded The World, Which Inspired Him To Start A Bright New Day… Now I Know Why He Left Us.. So That He Could Be That Droplet He Always Believed In And Be That Hope That Drove Him To Find Peace Within Himself…Thanks Friend

    And I May As Well Tell The Rest Of The Story Also Well, I Got That From A Friend Of Mine Who Adored It When It Rains, He Died Of Cancer Sad To Say, He Told Me That Phase 3 After He Died, It Was Raining Hard That Day His Mother Asked Me To Pick Him Up After Chemotherapy And Knowing He Was Already Sick I Shouted Loudly And Pulled Him Out Of The Rain Because He Might Catch A Fever, He Then Looked Up At Me With A Big Smile And Said “You Know I Always Adored When It Rains You Know Why!? Because I Can Feel Peace Within Myself Knowing I Can Leave People I Love Without Regretting A Single Day That I Spent With All Of You… Dont Worry, I’ll Flood The World If I Ever See You Guys Weeping Over Me.” After That The Words Kinda Stuck In My Head… He Woulda Been A Great Violinist, At Least He Is In A Better Place..:)

    Thanks For Reading.

  13. About Being Poor again:

    Being poor means when you see a rise in price of laundry detergent at the dollar store rise a $1.50, you go, oh Damn!!!

  14. How can anybody be sane knowing that:

    1. When you have one rat in a box with cheese, it will live contently. But when you put 100 rats in the same box with the same amount of cheese, they will eventually kill themself. So much for overpopulation of the planet.

    2. When Preachers, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce and all the other prophets tell you the WWW 3 will start in Persia (Iran & Iraq), when we are in Iraq now and contemplating striking nuclear facilities in Iran.

    3. Knowing that Israel stated back in December of 2005 that they was going to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities at the end of March 2006.

    4. Knowing the American propaganda machine has starting pushing for an attack.

    5. Knowing that Israel has spies in Iran trying to locate those nuclear facilities at this time.

    6. Knowing that Donald Rumsfield made $5 million dollars on his stock in the company that makes Tamilflu (bird flu vacine).

    7. Knowing that the US government is wanting to explode a 700 ton bomb in June 2006 in the Nevada testing area spraying radioactive waste that has accumulated over the years into the atmosphere.

    8. Knowing that the half life of radioactive
    uranium-234 is 244 thousand years, uranium-235 is 704 million years, uranium -238 is 4.5 billion years.

    9. Knowing that flouridated water is now link to cancer.

    10. Knowing that back in November of 2005 somebody attempted to shoot down a 737 enroute from LosAngeles to Chicago with a shoulder held rocket. Only to have the government say it was a bottle rocket. Never knew a jet flying that low. (120205 homeland security podcast)

    11. Knowing that back in January 2006, there was over 300 Arab nationals in predominantly “white” area trying to take tests on how to drive semi’s. What a bang.. (021806 homeland security podcast)

    12. Knowing that back in January 2006 (again), there were Mexican troops firing on our border guards while on US soil using China manufactured weapons. (021106 homeland security podcast)

    13. Wondering why the national media doesn’t cover these events but you can download the podcast from the US government stating this.
    alertusa.com/weeklyupdate.xml

    14. Knowing that Rumsfield is an arrogant bully that does not listen to our Generals, thus possibly sacrificing thousands of American soldiers lives and wounding much more.

    15. Knowing that in 2019 there is going to be an asteroid travel so close to our earth (between the earth and our satellites), only to come back 7 years later with a strong possibility of hitting our planet. (space.com)

    16. When you listen to television preachers calling for the death of other countries (Venezula) presidents – not dictators.

    17. Knowing that the government does know what the Gulf War Syndrom is, but we have thousands of depleted uranium shells all over the area.

    18. Knowing that famine, water shortages, severe weather changes are a sign of something really bad a coming. Go back to #1 & #2 and forget about global warming plus all those missing icebergs.

    19. Knowing that we can use biodiesel (corn,beans, wood chips, grass, used oil from resteraunts, etc) in our fuel instead of on oil we get from the middle east. (ask Willie Nelson)

    14. Knowing that Brazil (the same size as the USA) uses sugar cane as bio-fuel and is almost a self-suficient regarding powering their nation.

    15. Knowing that USA put a man on the moon and Brazil didn’t.

    I can go on but my finger is tired. Welcome To The Cuckoo Nest

  15. I have read both Old Soldiers & The Ghost Bregades. I am 61 and spent almost 30 years in an army uniform, I was very impressed. I hope you continue with the theme of the Colonial Union. In a few years I hope to have a collection of at lease eight books you have written about the Colonial Union. Thank you for the enjoyment I received from reading your books.

    Ronnie J. Morrow, SFC, Ret

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