Rest in peace, Justice Rehnquist. Despite my personal differences with the man's decisions, my sincere thoughts are with his family and friends:

quote:

Chief Justice Rehnquist Dies at Home Sat Sep 3,11:11 PM ET Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died Saturday evening at his home in suburban Virginia, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg. A statement from the spokeswoman said he was surrounded by his three children when he died in Arlington. "The Chief Justice battled thyroid cancer since being diagnosed last October and continued to perform his dues on the court until a precipitous decline in his health the last couple of days," she said. Rehnquist was appointed to the Supreme Court as an associate justice in 1971 by President Nixon and took his seat on Jan. 7, 1982. He was elevated to chief justice by President Reagan in 1986. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050904..._su_co/renquist

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

Good riddance. The only regret I have is that George W. Bush now gets to pack the court with another dangerous ideologue. Big business and religious right wingers will be dancing in the street when there are 2 new ultra conservative judges who are out of touch with mainstream American thinking elected.

___________________

quote:

Originally posted by MisterOpus1 Rest in peace, Justice Rehnquist. Despite my personal differences with the man's decisions, my sincere thoughts are with his family and friends:

Kind respectful words. I appreciate your sincerity, Opus. My thoughts are also with his family in their time of grief.

On a side note, I imagine there will be a significant step up and ensuing firefight across the bows of Congress now that there are 2 appointments on the line. This should be both ugly and exciting.

quote:

Originally posted by Shakka Kind respectful words. I appreciate your sincerity, Opus. My thoughts are also with his family in their time of grief. On a side note, I imagine there will be a significant step up and ensuing firefight across the bows of Congress now that there are 2 appointments on the line. This should be both ugly and exciting.

Yeah, politics unfortunately never rest. I already heard that someone from Fox News (Hannity I think) say that since Roberts was a "moderate" pick, Bush should now be able to pick a "strict constructionist".

Given the stuff we've seen on Roberts so far, if he's a "moderate" in Bush's eyes, I'd hate to see the extremist pick.

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

quote:

Originally posted by dj ... Big business and religious right wingers will be dancing in the street when there are 2 new ultra conservative judges who are out of touch with mainstream American thinking elected.

"Mainstream"??

I'd say the "mainstream" elected the more conservative Republicans over-whelmingly last election...if a more conservative Judge gets nominated, then how would you ever conceive that this is out of touch with the "mainstream"?

You're in the minority right now...get used to it!

quote:

Originally posted by donnybrasco "Mainstream"?? I'd say the "mainstream" elected the more conservative Republicans over-whelmingly last election...if a more conservative Judge gets nominated, then how would you ever conceive that this is out of touch with the "mainstream"? You're in the minority right now...get used to it!

The mainstream shares the views, according to pools, of the 48% of the country that voted for the other guy. These views, among other things entail upholding Roe v Wade, upholding women's rights in general, upholding the separation of church and state, upholding the law of keeping school-led prayers out of the classroom, upholding the right to privacy, among other things.

You have a problem with the majority viewpoint on that? Sorry, but there's a valid reason why the majority wants to uphold these views, as well as request a judge that respects and upholds similar views.

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner.

quote:

Originally posted by MisterOpus1 The mainstream shares the views, according to pools, of the 48% of the country that voted for the other guy.

I love Liberals, lol.

They're always in the "mainstream" and are "progressive"........descriptions which they're the first to assign themselves.

quote:

Originally posted by Shakka Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner.

Also known as the "tyranny of the majority", precisely the reason why democracies require a strong, impartial judiciary to uphold the constitutional rights of all citizens. Let's hope the replacements Bush chooses for the SCOTUS are committed to this ideal...

___________________
http://eschatonnow.blogspot.com/

quote:

Originally posted by donnybrasco I love Liberals, lol.

Oh, and I sure do love Wingnut Conservatives, "lol"! Especially those kind that don't do any homework for themselves to support their cute little assertions.

quote:

They're always in the "mainstream" and are "progressive"........descriptions which they're the first to assign themselves.

Well let's take a look at these "mainstream" ideas by us "progressives" and see if they are, in fact, of the majority opinion of the people, shall we?:

1. Abortion:

Which one do you like? Pew, CBS News, CNN/Gallop, ABC News/Washington Post, AP/Ipsos? Here ya go:

http://www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm

and

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pa...0/epolls.0.html
(scroll down to "abortion should be...)

Who's consistently in the "mainstream" there in regards to women's rights, champ?

2. Stricter laws on gun control:

http://www.pollingreport.com/guns.htm

3. Pro-environment, and Bush not doing enough for it (by all acounts, doing exactly the opposite):

http://www.pollingreport.com/enviro.htm

4. Gay marriage OR civil unions (I purposely tie them together, as most Lefties would accept either/or):

http://www.pollingreport.com/civil.htm

and

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pa...0/epolls.0.html
(scroll down to "policy towards same-sex couples")


5. Social Security and Bush's privatization scheme:

http://www.pollingreport.com/social.htm

6. Taxes and whose being fairly taxed, including corporations:

http://www.pollingreport.com/budget.htm

7. The importance of balancing the budget:

http://www.pollingreport.com/budget.htm

and

quote:

Balanced Budget: Sixty-seven percent of Americans believe that the fact that the United States will have federal budget deficits for the foreseeable future is either "a crisis" or "a major problem" (Gallup/CNN/USA Today Poll, January 2003). Seventy percent of Americans prefer a balanced budget to more tax cuts (CBS News Poll, February 2002), and 53 percent would give up their tax cuts to balance the budget (CBS News Poll, February 2002). Sixty-three percent of Americans believe that we "should work to maintain a balanced budget consistent with our values" (Penn & Schoen, July 1998). http://www.independentnation.org/moderate_majority.htm

8. School prayer and the separation of Church and State:

quote:

Sixty-nine percent of Americans agree with the statement "I have no problem with a quiet moment, but I'm against any stricture that says 'You will pray.'" (Newsweek Poll/Princeton Survey Research, September 1995). This poll was updated eight years later by the Luntz Research Companies (August 2003), again showing similar results: Sixty-three percent of Americans continue to agree that a quiet moment should be permissible, but reject the idea of mandatory prayer in public. In addition, an overwhelming 84 percent of Americans opposed the contested federal court ruling that the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional (Gallup Poll, June 2002). Americans don't want religion imposed upon them or unreasonably forced out of the public realm by activist lawsuits. http://www.independentnation.org/moderate_majority.htm

9. Universal healthcare:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/livi...31020_poll.html

And the majority of physicians appreciate it as well:

quote:

"more than half of academic physicians, including most medical school deans, now endorse single payer (national health insurance), as do 40% of small business owners." http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_...cfm?DR_ID=19344

10. Serious public misgivings on the Patriot Act, with some 71% disagreeing with the secret search provisions, and 1/2 not too happy with the FBI right to secretly search citizens' records:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/t...riot-main_x.htm


11. No Child Left Behind flop:

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twinc...on/12457579.htm

http://www.boston.com/news/educatio...public_schools/


12. Disapproval of Iraq invasion:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168174,00.html

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/03/iraq.poll/


13. People believing Bush is honest:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8561443/


14. And, of course, Bush's overall approval rating. Fuck, just choose one from Google:

http://news.google.com/news?q=bush%...lr=&sa=N&tab=wn


You can also find the majority disapproval marks on Bush and the economy in those articles cited in #14 as well
----------------------------

So who's in the mainstream, champ? You actually given this topic a thought before opening your mouth?

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

^^^LOL

You sure like to invest in "polls" versus the reality of "votes".

Bottom line is; If he is so out of touch with the majority of the country, then he wouldn't have been re-elected.

Now if you'd like to take my "poll", bend over.

quote:

Originally posted by donnybrasco ^^^LOL You sure like to invest in "polls" versus the reality of "votes".

"^^^LOL"

You sure like to ignore points that directly refute your assertions.

quote:

Bottom line is; If he is so out of touch with the majority of the country, then he wouldn't have been re-elected.

Re-election was back in November, champ. Times change quickly on many issues (like Iraq - most analysts agree this issue was what won Bush his re-election). And that only constitutes, what, not even 50% of the total number of eligible voters. Of course I give those nonvoters no excuses, nevertheless they do have an opinion on matters.

Furthermore, the vote itself does not reflect better campaign strategies and grassroot movements that effectively won Bush his election. Kerry's strategies, most would agree, were shit, and he certainly wasn't the best candidate out there. Unfortunately the hapless Dems. and their DLC realized this too little, too late.

Finally, many people are fucking idiots, and I say that with conviction. Thomas Frank was right on the fucking mark when he mentions the typical Kansas voter - they get sold on issues like abortion and gay marriage to vote for the fundamental GOP douchebag (like Brownback, for example), and then get bent right over while Brownback effectively caters to business corps. that fuck these low wage workers right up the ass. The moderate Republicans (whom are consistently more affluent here in KS - i.e. Kansas City) look at these low-wage idiots and wonder why they keep voting for these fundy hacks, but they don't say a word because these hacks continuously give the affluent the better deal in tax breaks and economic interests.

Most voters are clueless and fail to examine their nominees further. Nothing could be done about that.

quote:

Now if you'd like to take my "poll", bend over.

Well I didn't realize you have some sexual tendencies with the same sex. Sorry hon, I am taken, and my wife probably wouldn't like your sexual advances too much.

But I do hope you come out of the closet soon - your party does tend to vote quite often against your personal interests...

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...