According to a report fresh off the AP Wires, Bush will renominate Roberts for Chief Justice before leaving on a trip to the Gulf States later today. Frankly, I'm not at all surprised...I was begining to think that it might be a good political move for Bush to do so. It gives him a young, healthy nominee whose confirmation is virtually assured. Plus, since O'Connor has said she will stay on until her replacement is seated, it allows the court to begin the next term with a full bench.
The big question is who will now be nominated to fill O'Connor's seat. Will Bush try to push through another Scalia on Roberts's coattails?
Sorry -I'd just hate to see this turn into a one-issue forum when there are so many other important things for progressives to tend to, as well.
Today's topic is one that has been a pet peeve of mine for some time: Unfair and predatory practices within the telecommunications industry. For instance, when I signed up for my cellphone, I chose the $29.99/month plan. My last bill was $36, even though I had no roaming charges or overage fees. I can deal with the $3 of taxes, but that still leaves another $3 of "Regulatory Programs Fees" and Universal connectivity Charges." Sure these things are in the fine print of the contract, but it's still dishonest. If they advertise a $29.99/month plan, I want to pay only $29.99 per month!
Which brings me to my next rant: Most carriers don't even offer a $30/month plan anymore. The cheapest plans you can buy these days are $35/month, and I'm sure it won't be long before it becomes $40/month. Cell phone companies hate people like me who use fewer than 200 minutes a month. And don't even get me started on the long term contracts!!
This isn't just limited to cell phone companies, of course. The same type of nickle-and-diming occurs with cable TV and broadband internet, too. Progressives ought to stand up to these oppressive oligopolies and say, "Enough is enough!"
Or maybe The Last Supper? I'm not sure I'm going to be able to sleep after reading this highly disturbing article. Some choice quotes:
"Thank you, Lord, for these students. Build them up as your warriors and your ambassadors on Capitol Hill."
They learn to view every vote as a religious duty, and to consider compromise a sin.
Jesus would approve of a call for lower taxes: "God calls on us to be stewards of our [own] money."
Hannah Woody, for instance, came away from the institute's seminars confident that abolishing the Department of Education is not just a Republican goal, but also a Christian imperative.
I'm Jewish, not Christian, and yet I still feel like my religion is being hijacked by these people. Read More »
-55% of Americans disaprove of Bush's overall job performance,
-50% describe him as dishonest,
-60% think the country is on the wrong track, and
-56% describe Bush as "arrogant."
Yet 64% see him as "strong," 63% as "likeable," 56% as "intelligent," and a whopping 55% as "dependable."
I am crazy or is there something absurd about these numbers?
Well, I finally made it. It was a lot more difficult and time-consuming than I had expected, but I managed to put together a 44-point program for progressive politics. (Don’t you love alliteration?)
The first thing you figure out when trying to create a list like this is that you will quickly run out of broad generalities. I ran dry at about 12, and while a more creative mind might manage to squeeze out a few more, it wouldn’t be able to reach forty-four. So you have to get specific. That actually turns out to tax the imagination even more than thinking in generalities, and the last seven or so were extremely difficult. So I started browsing CP and other sites, looking for inspiration. So now I present to you my 44 points, organized into seven general categories.
(Two caveats: 1. I am not a professional, nor am I running for office. Therefore, in many cases, I cannot provide a means to these ends. But I’m sure there are people out there could fill in those gaps.
2. Some of these ideas are bad politics --they would destroy the campaign of any candidate that dared to mention them aloud. But they are all good policy, and being a progressive means standing up for what’s right, even when it’s unpopular.)
The AP wire is reporting that Bush called Roberts this afternoon after lyunch with the Australian prime minister. So much for any hope of an easy confirmation process...
Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing. I was watching Hardball a little while ago, and someone quoted Senator Biden (D, DE) as telling Ginsberg at her nomination that she shouldn't answer questions about how she would rule on specific issues. The thrust, of course, was to accuse Democrats of shifting standards, but I agree. Having judicial nominees testify before the Senate only dates back around forty years, and I think it is a bad idea.
I don't like the idea of Justice (JC!) Roberts, but I don't think this is a fight we can win. I also don't think it is a fight that we can come out of with any sort of advantage. It seems too much like preaching to the choir, and while it might shore up the base, I think it would do very little to help (and probably would hurt) efforts to win back centrist voters.
I don't think the political blood-letting is going to be worth it for either side.
Last Thursday, an Op-Ed piece by Christoph Cardinal Schönborn appeared in the New York Times. Cardinal Schönborn is the archbishop of Vienna, and was lead editor of the official 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church.
In the article, he discusses the Catholic Church's position on evolution. In particular he says,
Ever since 1996, when Pope John Paul II said that evolution (a term he did not define) was "more than just a hypothesis," defenders of neo-Darwinian dogma have often invoked the supposed acceptance - or at least acquiescence - of the Roman Catholic Church when they defend their theory as somehow compatible with Christian faith. But this is not true...
Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense - an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection - is not.
...Indeed, in the homily at his installation just a few weeks ago, [Pope] Benedict [XVI] proclaimed: "We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary."
ABC announced this morning that it was pulling a planned reality series entitled "Welcome to the Neighborhood." The premise of the show was to be that three white, conservative families from --where else?-- Texas must choose a new neighbor to live in the house across the street. The catch? One family is black, another is Hispanic, one is a gay couple, etc. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation expressed strong concerns about the show, saying the people who saw only the first episodes might come away thinking that discrimination is "not that big a deal," even though ultimately, the show is about promoting tolerance and diversity.
The punchline though, is this. The uber-conservative Family Research Council also urged ABC to pull the show. As you might guess, their concerns were not at all the same as those of GLAAD. Why did they want the show off the air?
(wait for it)
They were afraid it would make evangelicals appear "judgemental and foolish."
As if they needed any help!
The Supreme Court ended its session today, and William Rehnquist still reigns as Chief Justice. Nor has O'Connor or Stevens given any indication of retiring. My thoughts? The justices (even the conservative ones, except maybe Scalia) are fed up with the rhetoric coming out of Congress (and the right in general) threatening judicial impeachments. If there's anything that judges of all political stripes hold sacrosanct, it's their judicial independence.
I haven't seen this anywhere in the main-stream press...I picked it up out of the Jewish weekly The Forward.
The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colarado is facing allegations of religious deiscrimanation against Catholics and non-Christians, as well as proseltyzing by evangelical Christians (from faculty as well as students). In a report dated April 28th, Americans United for Separation of Church and State documented several instances of religious coercion, and urged Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to take action to rectify the situation. Read More »
I had this idea myself, a few weeks ago. Last night, while talking to a moderately conservative friend, I discovered that he had had the same idea. Tonight, I found this link in another friend's blog. So I guess it's not as crazy an idea as I had thought. Y'all should check it out, and sign the petition!
Computers suck. I did this once already, but it took me so long to write it, that my login expired. Which meant that when I clicked “save,” it didn’t actually save. So now I have to start allll over. I’m going to be smart from now on, though. I’m typing this in Word, and I’ll just copy and paste it when I am done.
This is my second blog. Knowing how much trouble I have keeping up with the first one, it’ll be interesting to see if I can maintain two. But my old blog is largely a personal diary for my friends, and I try to keep politics out of it. So this will be my outlet for political whining, where hopefully other people will appreciate it and agree. Of course, if you don’t agree, feel free to tell me so --engaging conversation is another perk of this forum.
Today’s entry stems from a Star Trek episode (TOS #38: The Apple) that I happened to catch on the Sci-Fi channel this afternoon. [Yes, I am a huge Star Trek Geek, or at least I was until Rick Berman ruined the franchise.] For those who are not well-versed in the Gospel according to Rodenberry, a quick summary of the episode will suffice… Read More »
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