The Walrus and The Carpenter

by matttbastard

Y’know what’s really tragic?  The fact that in 2008 we are still seeing op-eds from the likes of John fucking Bolton.

Yeesh.

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Popcorn Sunday: Nazi America: A Secret History

by matttbastard

Documentary detailing the history of the Nazi movement in the USA.

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The Stone Wall Against Oppression

Happy Pride from everyone @ bastard.logic

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Uncle Steve Awarded Human Rights Medal (Say What?!)

by matttbastard

“I wonder how long it will take them to figure out that my name isn’t ‘Stephen Lewis’?”

You have got to be shitting me:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today became the first Canadian to receive the B’nai Brith International President’s Gold Medallion, in recognition of the Government’s efforts to fight discrimination and uphold human rights in Canada and around the world.

[...]

In presenting Prime Minister Harper with the award, B’nai Brith International President Moishe Smith, a resident of Ottawa who is the first non-American president of the organization, cited a number of actions the Prime Minister and the Government have taken to advance human rights and oppose discrimination, including:

Unequivocally supporting Canada’s role in the UN-sanctioned mission in Afghanistan;

Refusing to sign a resolution denouncing Israel’s right to self-defence at the 2006 Francophonie Summit;

Suspending relations with the then Hamas-led government in Palestine, for its refusal to renounce terrorism; and

Delivering a heartfelt apology acknowledging the overtly discriminatory Indian Residential Schools program.“Prime Minister, whether in opposition or in government, you have always portrayed a leadership style that speaks of principle and honesty,” said Mr. Smith.

Y’know why irony was unavailable for comment, Alison? Because it just committed suicide.

Related: Bob Hepburn on how certified humanitarian Stephen Harper is “snubbing” a true Canadian human rights icon, the *ahem* “disgraceful” (hey, wasn’t irony’s festering corpse lying face down a moment ago?) outgoing UN Human Rights Commissioner (and former Supreme Court of Canada justice) Louise Arbour.

When [Arbour] announced her resignation, diplomats from across Europe and other parts of the world sang her praises. Some presented her with flowers. Canadian diplomats, though, barely acknowledged her presence, issuing only a bland, terse statement acknowledging that Canada would continue to support human rights.

Later, then foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier tried to assuage the outrage from human rights groups over Canada’s dismissive response by issuing a short statement praising Arbour for “expanding the concepts of human rights and fundamental justice.”

Since then, Harper and his government have remained silent, except for Toews’ ugly outburst.

Is Harper so small-minded that he cannot speak for himself about Arbour and her accomplishments?

Is such pettiness a sign that Harper is once again out of step with most Canadians, this time when it comes to recognizing the need for a progressive, courageous champion for human rights?

Yes and yes.

Simple answers to simple questions.

But hey, at least Uncle Steve has a shiny medal from B’nai Brith to ease his (non-existent) conscience.

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Supreme Court of Canada Unanimously Defrosts Libel Chill

by matttbastard

The Globe & Mail:

The media should not live in constant fear of facing a libel suit every time a provocative commentary is published or broadcast, the Supreme Court of Canada said yesterday in a major ruling won by controversial Vancouver radio broadcaster Rafe Mair.

In a 9-0 decision that modernizes the defence of fair comment, the court found that Mr. Mair did not defame Christian-values advocate Kari Simpson when he denounced her stand on a book-banning controversy.

“An individual’s reputation is not to be treated as regrettable but unavoidable roadkill on the highway of public controversy, but nor should an overly solicitous regard for personal reputation be permitted to ‘chill’ freewheeling debate on matters of public interest,” Mr. Justice Ian Binnie said.

Judge Binnie said that the key to a defence of honest belief – particularly in an era when extravagant overstatement is common – should lie in whether an honest person could have held the same opinion.

“We live in a free country, where people have as much right to express outrageous and ridiculous opinions as moderate ones,” Judge Binnie said. “In much modern media, personalities such as Rafe Mair are as much entertainers as journalists.”

Score one for the chronically hyperbolic Canadian media personalities who live and die on the alter of outrageous and ridiculous opinions (ahem).

H/t The Robert Bond Papers

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John McCain: Domestic Violence is Hi-fucking-larious

by matttbastard

Now here’s a surefire strategy to win over those mythical feminist Clinton supporters who refuse to support Obama no matter what–channel the spirit of Henny Youngman:

As the Huffington Post reported, McCain in an interview with the Las Vegas Sun headed for the gutter while trying to explain why he did not choose Republican Governor Jim Gibbons (now in the midst of a messy divorce and previously the subject of sexual assault allegations) as his Nevada campaign chair:

McCain: I appreciate his support. As you know, the lieutenant governor is our chairman.

Q: Why snub the governor?

McCain: I didn’t mean to snub him. I’ve known the lieutenant governor for 15 years and we’ve been good friends….I didn’t intend to snub him. There are other states where the governor is not the chairman.

Q: Maybe it’s the governor’s approval rating and you are running from him like you are from the president?

McCain: (Chuckling) And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago…

I’m sure clever one-liners like that totally crack up his man-crushing Beltway fanclub during bourbon-fueled late night josh sessions on the Straight Talk Express, but it’s a safe bet they aren’t the sort of entreaties that feminists (or, I’d wager, most women in general) find particularly persuasive.

Yr doin’ it wrong, McSogynist.

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What Good Am I Dead?

by matttbastard

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Overcoming Our Fear of Terrorism – Fareed Zakaria

by matttbastard

Fareed Zakaria on what might happen if/when the US is again struck by a terrorist attack.

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Ralph Nader Deals Race Card Against Obama, Reminds Apathetic Media and Public That He’s Still the #1 3rd Party Spoiler (Fuck Bob Barr!)

by matttbastard

Honourary soul brotha Ralph Nader was utterly shocked when Illinois State University president (and alleged POC) Al Bowman declined to sip from the third party pimp cup – photo by Andrew Benning

Re: “talking white” – what Shark-Fu said:

Black is not a monolith and we do not all think, act, talk, eat, pray, fuck, sing, dance, vote or manifest anger the exact same motherfucking way.

You goddamn fucking right.

Also see Liss, Steve M, and Ta-Nehisi Coates for more on Nader’s racist dumbfuckery.

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A Kinky Greeting Card

by matttbastard

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A Novel Concept: Make Them Work For Our Votes

by matttbastard

Must-read post from KathyG on how to make Barack Obama–and politicians in general–better:

Over this past election season, on websites and listservs and in conversations, I’ve seen an awful lot of cheap, hacktacular electioneering in favor of one candidate or another. But at the end of the day, I don’t think there was ever all that much of a difference between Hillary and Barack. Or between those two and Edwards, for that manner. Hillary and Barack had voting records and positions on the issues that were closet to identical. They’ve both taken shitloads of money from Wall Street, and it’s pretty clear to me that each of them is captive to corporate special interests. Indeed, I interpret Obama’s recent rightward shift — Furman, Messina, the remarks about NAFTA, the FISA compromise — as saying to the corporate interests, “Never fear — we’ll be playing ball as usual with you folks.”

As president, either Barack or Hillary, or Edwards, would be infinitely better than any Republican, but from a progressive point of view, each of them would also far short in some pretty profound and powerful ways.

But you know what? Ultimately, I don’t think that they as individuals are to blame for that. I don’t think Barack, or Hillary, or Edwards, are bad people. I don’t think that Barack Obama, for example, went into politics so he could sell civil liberties down the river in favor of giveaways for the telecom industry. But the incentive structure in politics these days is such that he decided he had more to gain by supporting the FISA “compromise” than by opposing it.

This is where we, as liberals, progressives, lefties, activists, whatever-you-want-to-call-us, come in. I do not believe that our interests are best served by the kind of cheap electioneering we saw over the primary campaign. What would be far more effective would be an independent movement that makes strategic alliances with various political candidates but is also distinctly separate from them.

Instead of shilling for Barack, or Hillary, or whoever, we should have been pressuring the candidates to work for our votes. We should have been pressing them to take firm, non-negotiable positions in favor of things like no immunity for the telecoms, or immediate withdrawal from Iraq with no residual troops. Instead, we were really cheap dates. And when you act like suckers, don’t be surprised when something like Obama’s support for the FISA compromise comes back and bites you in the ass.

If we want real change in this country, the place to look for it is not in our so-called leaders, but in ourselves. What we need, in short, is a movement. Without such a movement, President Obama is not going to be able to achieve a whole lot more than President Clinton or President Carter did. But with such a movement, we may actually get somewhere. FDR was able to achieve great things because he had the strong support of a powerful labor movement. Similarly, the civil rights movement was the wind at LBJ’s back. But I ask you, what will President Obama have?

Huh.  An independent movement pressuring candidates to “work for our votes”.   Kinda sounds like the pre-Netroots blogosphere, until Chairman Kos decreed that it was now the sworn duty of DFHs to make sure Democrats (even the dreaded DINOs) get elected, regardless of how progressive they may (or may not) actually be.

You sucker MC, you just ain’t right.

PS-read the whole damn thing.

h/t Hysperia

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Carnival of Feminists #59

by matttbastard

Clicky clicky the fist to check out the latest bloggeriffic compendium of feministical awesomeness, courtesy CoF founder Philobiblon.

h/t Jack Stephens

Image originally uploaded by Cross-stitch ninja, reposted under a Creative Commons licence

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McCain on Foreign Policy: Preserving the Status Quo?

by matttbastard

Big Media Matt disputes the notion that John McCain’s foreign policy record represents a departure from that of the outgoing administration.

Related: Fareed Zakaria on McCain’s “radical” foreign policy proposals:

We have spent months debating Barack Obama’s suggestion that he might, under some circumstances, meet with Iranians and Venezuelans. It is a sign of what is wrong with the foreign-policy debate that this idea is treated as a revolution in U.S. policy while McCain’s proposal [that the United States expel Russia from the G8 and exclude China from any expansion] has barely registered. What McCain has announced is momentous—that the United States should adopt a policy of active exclusion and hostility toward two major global powers. It would reverse a decades-old bipartisan American policy of integrating these two countries into the global order, a policy that began under Richard Nixon (with Beijing) and continued under Ronald Reagan (with Moscow). It is a policy that would alienate many countries in Europe and Asia who would see it as an attempt by Washington to begin a new cold war.

Check out the full text of McCain’s March 26th speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, which, according to Zakaria, “[alternates] between neoconservative posturing and realist common sense…like it was written by two very different people, each one given an allotment of a few paragraphs on every topic.”

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Quote of the Day: Michelle Obama and the ‘Ultimate Outsiders’

by matttbastard

It’s interesting…how John McCain’s hotheaded ways are admired as part of his so-called maverick qualities, a willingness to follow his passions and go against the grain; it’s part of his essential Americanness. Michelle Obama’s candor, by contrast, is seen as entirely foreign and not a little threatening. Yes, he’s given more slack because he’s a man. (And yes, Teresa Heinz Kerry, another independent-minded presidential candidate’s wife, got similarly roughed up by the media in 2004.) But Michelle is given zero slack because she’s a woman and black. And let us never forget, in the bigger picture, black anger — or even just plain old dissatisfaction — always raises the specter of slavery and the unfinished business of social justice. In any context, to say nothing of a presidential election of historic proportions, such anger threatens a still widely accepted narrative of America as a good place, a fair place. Presidential elections are all about voters connecting emotionally to candidates, identifying with them, and Michelle is not making that connection happen as easily people would like. But her reasonable expectation that we see her reality, some of which is shaped by a difficult racial reality, is part of the paradigm shift that we are resisting like mad. In a discussion of what Obama’s candidacy could mean, NBC’s Chris Matthews lauded Barack but dispensed with American racial matters as “all that bad stuff in our history.” A recent New York Times profile, in distinguishing Michelle’s background from that of her husband, described her as being “a descendant of slaves” — as if that’s a unique fact rather than a collective one that applies to the vast majority of the millions of black Americans whose families have been here for hundreds of years. That slavery is even remarked on at all says much about how blacks are still viewed by their fellow Americans, even sympathetic ones, as the ultimate outsiders.

- Erin Aubry Kaplan, Who’s afraid of Michelle Obama

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Admiration is still swelling

by matttbastard

I love you, Ms. LaCoeur.

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Read this now (The honeymoon is over)

by matttbastard

Renee of Womanist Musings is guestblogging at Feministe for the next two weeks. Her inaugural post is a must-read:

When you think of the Niagara region immediately the mind turns to the majestic falls. Some who have spent more than an afternoon here will think of places like the Welland Canal, The Skylon Tower, Fallsview Casino, Clifton Hill, and maybe even the dearth of reasonably priced hotels, and restaurants. The aforementioned sites are the Niagara region you are supposed to think about. It is what you will find printed in all of those handy little pamphlets, that the tour guides like to give out. Yes the safe family destination, where everything is bright and sunny. What you will not hear about are the women that have been killed here since 1996.

I know y’all can’t help but go and read the rest. Is hard going due to the subject matter–trigger warnings most definitely apply–but is a vital endeavour. Go.

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Quote of the Day: Projection is Illuminating

by matttbastard

It looks as if the concerns that some people have about Mrs. Obama tell us less about her and more about them. Once again, we seem to have an abundance of paranoid white folks who see a black separatist lurking around every corner.

Even in elite corners. How did a corporate lawyer with degrees from Princeton and Harvard and a record of bringing together whites and blacks in her position as a hospital administrator get transformed, in the minds of some, into a black militant with a chip on her shoulder and a score to settle with white America?

[...]

What did the 44-year-old mother of two girls do to deserve the accusation, or at least the insinuation, that she’s anti-white? In the words of one of her friends and classmates at Harvard Law School, what she did was shatter the assumptions of many people about “what it means to be an African-American woman.” Here you have an accomplished, intelligent and outspoken black woman, and many Americans are at a loss about how to handle that combination. They’d rather try to destroy her than have to deal with her.

- Ruben Navarette, Michelle Obama’s Bad Rap

Related: Rupert Cornwall does his goddamndest to wrest the WOTD title from Justin Gimelstob with this straight-to-the-bottom-of-the-birdcage column from today’s Independent on how Michelle Obama is oh-so “prickly and resentful.” Well, I’m pretty sure she resents bogus racist/sexist ‘analysis’ from asshat pundits like Cornwall. Kate Harding and Michelle Obama Watch (h/t) have more on Cornwall’s crass idiocy.

Also see this Comment is free post from MOW founder Gina McCauley on the inevitable Stepford rebranding of Michelle Obama.

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Blogging isn’t dead, it just smells that way.

by matttbastard

We’ve come a long way, baby!

Sigh.

h/t Chet (who yoinked it from Digby).

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Wanker of the day (Atrios who? Is Internet tradition.)

by matttbastard

“She’s a [bleep],” Gimelstob said of Anna, using a word that rhymes with “kitsch. “We’re gonna kick her [bleep],” he added, using a word that almost rhymes with “kastle.”

[...]

“Wait until you see on July 23, she’s gonna be serving 40 miles an hour and I’m gonna be just plugging it down her throat….We do exhibitions together and I’ll mock her, and make fun of her. I’ll just make her know that she’s stupid….I’m sure she’ll rue the day that she has to come here and actually share space with me.”

The Junkies asked whether she knows that they’ll be facing each other; “probably,” Gimelstob said. “She might not even be smart enough to read the schedule.”

They asked if he would serve at her head; “No, I’m gonna just serve it right into the body, about 128, right into the midriff,” he said.

And they asked what would happen if Kournikova made a move on Gimelstob. You know, a Biblical move.

“Definitely not,” he said. “I have no attraction to her, because she’s such a douche….I really have no interest in her. I wouldn’t mind having my younger brother, who’s kind of a stud, nail her and then reap the benefits of that.“

- Justin “Bobby Riggs Jr” Gimelstob, securing his membership in the ‘yr doin it wrong’ school of trash talk.

“If she’s not crying by the time she walks off that court, then I did not do my job.” Oh, you did your job, Justin–you’ve ginned up attention for your stupid overpriced tennis exhibition by trollishly utilizing misogynistic slurs (and channeling the spirit of The Battle of the Sexes) in a disingenuous attempt to manufacture a controversy (mission accomplished!). And now we (as in humourless feminazi bloggers) are fulfilling our duty by getting pissed the fuck off and sharing our displeasure with those who pay your salary.

According to Jill @ Feministe, Gimelstob is gainfully employed in the US by The Tennis Channel. Email them at general@thetennischannel.com and let them know what you think about Gimelstob’s comments. Even better, via Kate in comments at Feministe, here’s a list of some of The Tennis Channel’s sponsors:

• Wilson Sporting Goods – racquet@wilson.com
• Tennis Warehouse – info@tennis-warehouse.com
• Tennis Court Online – http://www.tenniscourtonline.com/ContactUs
• IMG Academies – laura.young@imgworld.com
• Lacosta – http://www.lacoste.com/usa/main.html – contact form

Something tells me it that, after all this is over, it won’t be Kournikova who’s crying.

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Obligatory FISA Compromise Post

by matttbastard

It really is the circle of life in Washington. And, yes, Obama totally deserves the WOTD moniker for rolling over right along with the rest of ‘em.  “[A] colossal failure of leadership” is putting it mildly; with this so-called “compromise”, Obama and the Democratic Party have collectively given the legislative finger to the rule of law, securing themselves a dubious legacy:

…in 2006, when the Congress was controlled by Bill Frist and Denny Hastert, the [Bush] administration tried to get a bill passed legalizing warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty, but was unable. They had to wait until the Congress was controlled by Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to accomplish that.

Heck.  Of.  A.  Motherfucking.  Job.

Fucking hell.

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Newsflash: White People Don’t Have To ‘Prove’ Their Citizenship

by matttbastard

I love the smell of double-standards in the morning.

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John McCain Women’s Clinic.

by Isabel

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McSame sez Drill, Drill, Drill!

by matttbastard

They laugh alike, they walk alike, sometimes they even talk alike:

MCCAIN PLAN: “There Are Areas Off Our Coasts That Should Be Open To Exploration And Exploitation.” During a media availability in Arlington, Virginia, John McCain said, “I also believe that lifting the moratoria from off-shore drilling or oil and natural gas exploration is something that we should place as a very high priority… I certainly think that there are areas off our coasts that should be open to exploration and exploitation. And I hope we can take the first step by lifting the moratoria in order to do so.” [McCain Media Availability in Arlington via CQ Transcriptions, Virginia, 6/16/08]

BUSH PLAN: Bush Called For Oil Drilling In the Outer Continental Shelf. President Bush said, “This morning, I asked Democratic Congressional leaders to move forward with four steps to expand American oil and gasoline production. First, we should expand American oil production by increasing access to the outer continental shelf or OSC. Experts believe that the OCS could produce about 18 billion barrels of oil. That would be enough to match the current oil production America for almost 10 years. The problem is that congress has restricted access to key parts of the OCS since the early 1980′s. Since then, advances in technology have made it possible to conduct oil exploration in the OCS that is out of sight, protects coral reefs and habitats, and protects against oil spills. With these advances, and a dramatic increase in oil prices, Congressional restrictions on exploration have become outdated and counterproductive. Republicans in congress have proposed several promising bills that would lift the legislative ban on oil exploration in the OCS. I call on the House and Senate to pass good legislation as soon possible.” [President Bush statement, 6/18/08]

That flip-flopping sound you heard was McCain’s carefully crafted faux-credibility rolling over in its grave.

Related: Matt Taibbi:

The reality is that the once independent-thinking McCain has by now completely remade himself into a prototypical, dumbed-down Republican Party stooge — one who plans to rely on the same GOP strategy that has been winning elections ever since Pat Buchanan and Dick Nixon cooked up a plan for cleaving the South back in 1968. Rather than serving up the “straight talk” he promises, McCain is enthusiastically jumping aboard with every low-rent, fearmongering, cock-sucking presidential aspirant who’s ever traveled the Lee Atwater/William Safire highway.

H/t Hilzoy in ObWi comments.

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What Would You Do for a Monkey?

by matttbastard

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Placeholder + Stephine Beck Update

by matttbastard

Sure would be nice if blogging, not The Day Job, paid the bills. Alas, my primary source of income has been extra demanding the past little while, hence the minimal/sporadic blogging from yours truly. Hopefully things lessen up soon–and that my wonderful, magnanimous, ever-so-talented cobloggers continue to occasionally remind everyone that, yes, this is actually a group blog.

Anyway, while life continues to get in the way of living for yours truly, please do head over to Womanist Musings for an update on the Stephine Beck case. To summarize: in response to a broad spectrum of outrage, the Crown is filing a motion of appeal with the Ontario Court of Appeal to overturn the 1 day sentence given to Wayne Ryczak after the St Catharines resident was convicted in the death of Beck, a local sex trade worker. Thank fucking reason.

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Ugh.

by matttbastard

No.

Just…no.

h/t Michelle Obama Watch

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Cynical Psychic Friends Network

by matttbastard

Shorter Andrew Sullivan:  “Now that Hillary’s no longer a factor, I’m gunna take a break from teh horserace, jump on the ‘Iraq is too werking!!!1′ bandwagon, and then boldly endorse Johnny McMaverick.”

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PSA: Michelle Obama Watch

by matttbastard

From the creators of What About Our Daughters:

Michelle Obama Watch is a nonpartisan effort to monitor the media’s treatment and depiction of Michelle Obama, the most visible African American woman in popular culture. Michelle Obama Watch will become the repository of the good, the bad, the ugly and the indifferent.

Add Michelle Obama Watch to your bookmarks/blogroll/RSS feeds.

Also:

What About Our Daughters has received credentials to cover the 2008 Democratic National Convention. We are asking for your support in making sure that the voices, stories, and perspectives of African American women and girls are woven into the fabric of this historic event!Please consider donating by clicking our donate button in the sidebar.

Please give what you can and help WAOD make it to Denver!

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Eggs

by sassywho

The coolest picture you’ll see today. Yay for ovulation!

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Quote of the Day: On Saying Sorry

by matttbastard

…I had a chance to watch the prime minister’s apology for the residential schools and the subsequent speeeches [sic]. I wish I were in Canada to take part in a moving moment in Canadian history. I hope, as I am sure almost all Canadians do, that as a society we can collectively start to tackle the problems that so many aboriginal communities face.

But, please, let the apology not become an icon, something that we pull out from time to time and admire and then put away again. Let it not be something that makes us feel good about ourselves so that we can avoid thinking about the things that should shame us.

Apologies are a fashion today, and on the whole a good one. This past February, the Australian government finally said sorry for the decades-long practice of seizing its Aboriginal children from their families and giving them to white families to be brought up “white.”

Apologies are good both for those who are admitting their past sins and those who receive them. Accepting the past, as the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission showed, is an important step towards moving into the future. But words are cheap if they are not preceded by serious thought and followed by serious action.

What did it really do when Tony Blair apologized for the Irish potato famine? Or when the descendant of the notorious Elizabethan Sir John Hawkins apologized for slavery? Are such apologies anything more than easy sentimentality? And what do apologies mean when they are not accompanied by any significant acts of restitution? Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said “sorry,” but significantly did not explain what his government was going to do about the lot of present-day Aboriginals.

What is Canada going to do for today’s Aboriginals? I am still waiting to know. I don’t want to think that dwelling on the past a way of avoiding dealing with the present.

- Margaret MacMillan

It’s a bit of a mystery…why Stephen Harper is only apologizing today for the residential schools program. The program certainly merits a plea for forgiveness, but it was only part of the program aimed at eliminating Indian culture and completing the European domination of the country.

You could argue that, since Canada didn’t exist as an independent country until it was already too late for the natives, the broader campaign wasn’t really our doing. That would make it the fault of somebody in London or Paris, since they were the ones calling the shots at the time. But stealing an entire country demands more than just a government order; it requires the enthusiastic participation of the general population, which in Canada’s case was willingly given.

So, strictly speaking, the apology given in the House of Commons today should be for the overall willingness of Canada’s founders to participate in the subjugation and humiliation of the First Nations before, during and after 1867, viewing it as a necessary evil towards establishing a new nation in their place. It derives from the same sense of guilt the Catholic church plays on, the need to recognize the roots of the entity you belong too [sic].

I don’t know why the government isn’t doing that. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact the subjugation and humiliation goes on to this day; that the government, and Canadians in general, are embarrassed and frustrated that the poverty of so many native communities continues to resemble third world countries rather than prosperous, pleasant Canada. It may also reflect the continued lack of a clear understanding of what to do about it. Begging forgiveness might highlight too much that the government doesn’t have a solution.

- Kelly McParland

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In Which matttbastard Puts the Habeas Decision in a Partisan Context

by matttbastard

Ages of the majority:

Stevens 88
Ginsburg 75
Kennedy 71
Breyer 69
Souter 68

Ages of the minority:

Scalia 72
Thomas 60
Alito 58
Roberts 55

The LA Times:

Whoever is elected in November will probably have the chance to appoint at least one justice in the next presidential term. The court’s two most liberal justices are its oldest: John Paul Stevens turned 88 last month, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 75.

McCain promised that, if elected, he would follow President Bush’s model in choosing Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.

That could establish a large conservative majority on the court for years. With conservatives in full control, the court would probably overturn Roe vs. Wade and the national right to have an abortion. The justices also could give religion a greater role in government and the schools, and block the move toward same-sex marriage.

If elected, Obama would be hard-pressed to create a truly liberal court. But by replacing the aging liberal justices with liberals, he could preserve abortion rights and maintain a strict separation of church and state.

Related: Marcy Wheeler provides a detailed report on today’s Center for Constitutional Rights conference call on the Habeus decision:

• The 40 to 60 people who have already been determined not to be enemy combatants will now have court assistance in finding a way and a place to be released. One of the key issues for these men is that they often come from countries like Syria where, if they were to return, they would be tortured. A number of them have petitioned to be released to third countries, in some cases where they have family. DOD has refused to consider this up until now. This ruling gives courts the ability to provide for relief to those being held even after they were determined not to be enemy combatants.
• There are roughly 260 people at Gitmo who have not received a Combat Status Review. Over a hundred have already petitioned for Habeas, and a number of those have been stayed awaiting this ruling. Some of those stays require the petitioners to restart their petition within 10 days of the ruling, so you’re going to see them move into a Habeas process within the next two weeks.
• Michael Ratner, the head of CCR, stated that he believes in many of these cases, the government will be unable to prove it has reason to detain these people–either because the evidence is tainted or because there is no evidence. So the government may be forced to release many of these men as well.
• It’s unclear where and how these Habeas petitions will be heard–so it’s an open question whether detainees will be able to come to DC to present their case.
• Carol Rosenberg, my favorite journalist covering the show trials, asked if the government will rush to charge detainees under the Military Commissions Act. Gutierrez responded that they’re really limited by whom they can charge; she put the number at around 60-80 people who they have enough evidence to charge.

More on Boumediene from skdadl @ pogge, SCOTUSBlog (round up here), Hilzoy, David Barron and Marty Lederman, who notes that there were two questions that the court did not answer, but, as Lederman goes on to explain, did provide hints as to where it was leaning:

1) Would habeas rights extend to alien detainees held in foreign locations other than Guantanamo (such as Bagram)?

and

2) What is the substantive standard for who may be indefinitely detained?

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Transformette!

by Isabel.

If you want to avoid spoilers for the new Transformers movie, I recommend that you don’t read the leaked call sheet. However, you probably still want to check out the new girly-bot that is set to appear in the anticipated sequel.

Pink paintjob? Check.
High-heeled shoes? (wtf???) Check.
Barbified body type? Jesus-fucking-check.

Vomiting all over my keyboard in disgust? Check, check, and a slimy pile of more check.

Why does a motorcycle need breasts?

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Do Open Borders Benefit All? – Viv Regan

by matttbastard

Viv Regan, Assistant Director of WORLDwrite, on how open borders and freedom of movement benefit all members of a society.

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Re: Impeachment

by matttbastard

What Stageleft said:

[M]y bet is that both the [House] and the Senate will shrug and opt for no controversy because there’s an election coming and everybody knows that Bush is done for anyway.

The word cowards comes to mind.

Indeed.  Show us the stained dress, Keebler. Otherwise, it’s a sure bet the impeachment option will, in the immortal words of House Leader Nancy Pelosi, remain “off the table”, and the vicious circle will continue unbroken:

Related: CSPAN Junkie has posted Kucinich’s presentation to the US House of Representatives in its entirety.

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Ben Kinchlow: Blacks Voting Dem ‘Partake’ of ‘Evil Deeds’

by matttbastard

“Plantation politics?” Hoo boy. I see that the wingnuts are still using trojan negros to carry an inherently racist message over the boundaries of good taste.

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