What is wrong with Utah?

In 49 states, 98 percent of the states that make up the United States of America, Bush is at or below 50 percent. The only one where a majority of its residents support the President is Utah with a 58% to 39% approval-disapproval rating. (source: SurveyUSA - 50 State POTUS 02/06 Sort By State )

Why? Does it have to do with the general conservatism of Utah, and its overwhelming support of him in 2004 (I believe he got around 75% in the Beehive State)? Does it have to do with Bush's religious conservatism, which match up nicely on a great many "moral values" with Utah (drinking, gays, death penalty, abortion, etc.)? Or does it have to do with the nature of the LDS religion itself and the way it manifests itself in Utah?

I have talked to many LDS people living outside of Utah who tell me that they have been to or lived in Utah and they just couldn't stand the Utah "version" of their faith. Some said it was holier than thou, others that it was overly conformist and Orwellian in feel. Could it be that a desire to follow the herd, to blindly support authorities is more prevalent in Utah and in particular LDS Utahns? I don't know and I am not going to conjecture any further, since I don't want to be accused of bigotry.

I respect the LDS religion and my LDS friend's faith and devotion to their Church. I can understand their feelings on abortion, the death penalty, drinking, smoking, and a few other things. That is not to say that I agree with their viewpoints or beliefs, although I must say that I love the restrictions on drinking and smoking in this state. I think it makes for a cleaner, safer society.

But what I don't get is their support of Bush. This is a man that routinely lies, swears, was an alcoholic until age 40, might have done illegal drugs, got himself out of war via connections, supports cigarette companies and other polluters, who has stated that he is acting on God's blessing when he lies to get us into war, and so on. I can't find much Christian in Bush the man or Bush the office. He is jealous, vengeful, hateful, hypocritical, deceitful, arrogant, incompetent, and irresponsible.

In a ward meeting in American Folk, a man got up to testify and stated that he was a green beret, and that if anyone spoke ill of the president (or his policies) or the war specifically, he would like to "finish it outside." That is, he threatened physical violence. Others have reported that similar (although less blatant) statements have been made at their local ward/stakehouse. So too have other LDS Utahns said that their meeting house is more tolerant. But the tolerant ones, at least anecdotally, seem to be outnumbered by the intolerant according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

I think it is sad that there is no room for discussion of the war when the LDS Presidency has not taken any official stance on it. Sure, they have said support the troops and support the commander in chief, but even the Unitarians would agree with that.

[Correction: on closer inspection, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Alabama approve of Bush with a 50+% rating. However, Utah's is still the highest and has never sunk.]

head of the class

So today we taught again this mornning. A large portion of that was eaten up by a test we gave as part of the mid-terms and the requirement thereof. I was amazed by how many kids got 55% or below (1/3 at least). Some questions were a bit tricky now that I think about it if you weren't paying attention in class, but really, if you listened and took notes (we let them have a 1 page cheat sheet), you should have been fine.

In fact, because of extra credit, one kid got a 103. Many kids just gave up or made up crazy answers. And spelling was out of this world. But hey, I appreciate the effort for the most part. I think we have them whipped into some sort of shape after my partner gave them a pop quiz next time.

Fridays are always joke days for me at the law school, so I too half-listened while grading the High Schoolers tests. I am happy for the nicer weather after this bitter snow days and even happier for a long weekend and positive blood test results on my kidneys. (oh and I don't have HIV or Hep, which is good too). My sister the doctor ordered lots of tests but I had enough blood to spare.

In political news, I am amazed to some degree that Harry Wittingham appologized to Cheney for Cheney shooting him in the face. Notice in the photos you see of him his face is bruised but that the side that is shown in the left side, and he was hit on the right. So who knows what that side looks like. I hope Harry is feeling fine, and can go back to being an evil GOP lawyer soon.

McCain hypocrisy watch

So remember first off that McCain was a member of the Keating Five before he "got religion" and became a campaign finance crusader. It was a goal to save his own skin.

So then McCain signed up with liberal and contrarian Sen. Russ Feingold to eliminate soft money and close each and every loophole...once someone got in trouble (see the sudden desire to close the 'American Indian' loophole or 527 or sham 501(c)(3)s).

But now that he is running for president, he tossing aside foibles, hiring Bush fundraisers and pioneers left and right (today he hired Bush's NH fundraiser, someone who will be useful to prove support for a candidate inside the Granite State). More hypocritically, he letting himself be a money raising prop to people who gather funds in largely unregulated (or compared to the federal system underregulated) amounts.

In seeking to reach his goal [of raising $120 Million], Schwarzenegger is offering large donors personal access. Invitations to a March 20 dinner in Beverly Hills offer "head table seating with the governor" for two and six photos of couples with the governor for those who contribute at least $100,000 to his reelection campaign and the state GOP. The dinner's star speaker is Sen. John McCain..."The important thing is that all the rules within the state are followed, and the senator himself is not soliciting large donations," said John Weaver, a McCain strategist.

That's a pretty fine line. McCain isn't soliciting large donations for himself, but soliciting them for his friends, whom he can later ask political favors from in the primaries.

Let's say the GOP 2008 primary is between George Allen and John McCain (which CPAC straw polls show are by far the most liked candidates) and that McCain took NH but Allen took SC, the rest of the other states have been pretty even but now it is Super Tuesday and California is the biggest prize. Don't you think helping out Arnold get re-elected (let's hope CA voters aren't that dumb twice) would mean that the Governor would endorse and work for McCain?

a peek inside the mad house

From Hotline on Call:

We heard Mike Allen refer to this on Larry King Live, and this morning, The Note offers up this nugget: "Sources close to the Vice President say that there was actually a statement prepared either by Cheney, or with his help, to be delivered Sunday morning after the accident. It was something the White House suggested -- and might have been prepared with some White House help. But it was determined by his advisors and by him that morning that it was too 'convoluted,' and might not be the best way to proceed. They decided it might be best to have somebody who actually witnessed the accident explain what happened. For some reason, they thought that would seem more 'credible,' hence, the involvement of Katherine Armstrong. They now see that this was likely bad judgment."

Here's what Allen said last night: "And, Larry, the vice president and one of the staff members actually had worked up a statement that they considered releasing on Sunday morning but it was so obtuse and elliptical that it was decided that that would just cause even more of a frenzy, so they waited to do it this way."

So they couldn't even swallow the lies that they were preparing to give on the story. I wonder what it said, because the story that they did come out with via a lobbyist and an appointed ambassador, was pretty pathetic. Maybe they thought saying the same thing through a different source really would be more believable.

Meanwhile, when did the President hear about it? What about Scotty? Was Scotty's communications team crafting the story? Was Karl Rove? These folks are pathalogical lairs. Forthcommingness and honesty is just about the last thing that would come to mind.

Sure, Clinton's first reaction was to duck the hard truth about his womanizing nature, but he didn't shoot anyone in the face, neck, and chest. Nor did he lie to go to war in Kosovo or Haiti. As far as I can tell the CYA of the Clinton White House was on unnecessary non-scandals that were turned into scandals by zealous GOPers like Barbara Comstock. The CYA of the Bush White House involve Iraq, outing a CIA agent for political gain, information on key legislation (Medicare plan B, Energy policy, spending bills for Iraq/Afghanistan, etc.), warrantless domestic spying, Katrina, and much more.

Dick Cheney firmly believes that the executive can do whatever it wants and doesn't have to share any information. In fact, information sharing is a sin or necessary evil in the Cheney world view. And this was just the latest example.

friendly fire

by using this title, i can link together various semi-related topics.

Like Dick Cheney accidently shooting a 78-old friend from 30 feet away while the Abassador to Switzerland looked on. And then no one wanted to report it, except the campaign donor whose land they were on at the time 18-hours later. Oh and the man is still in intensive care. Much has already been said about this, and even my sleepy East High students knew about it and asked me what happened.

And now for the main thrust of my article, I ask that there be no more pieces from bloggers on how DINO one primary candidate is, and how the other is so much better, without laying out any policy positional differences. The number one offender of this is Michael in Chicago on MyDD. I have no way of judging other than money and polling at this point which candidate is better for Henry Hyde's seat. But just because the D-trip supports Duckworth over Celigis (sp?) doesn't mean that Duckworth is enherantly worse. There may be reasons to support Duckworth other than the fact that the bloggers liked the other canidate last time (fundraising ability, appealability to more voters, etc.). Same goes with Sharrod Brown and Paul Hacket.

I personally like Hacket in this one more than Brown, if only because Hacket got in first and didn't pretend like he wasn't going to enter the race only to enter in later. Brown just strikes me as more of a stereotypical pol than Hacket. Of course, whatever Ohio democrats decide is ok with me. Ditto for IL primary voters.

It is just completely unproductive to smear candidates without actually having any real policy discussion. I am fine with people not supporting Casey in PA because of his abortion stance, or is support of Alito (again on abortion most likely), but you can't deny that he stands the best chance against Santorum based on polls.

Again, go ahead and bash Lieberman and Cuegular (sp?) for their support of Bush policy's and contrast the differing positions of their oposition.

But don't bash John Morrison in Montana because the DLC named him as a new dem of the week (I did) or because he was a member of the DLC's 100 to watch a couple years in arow. The DLC supported Morrison because he looked like he would run for governor or senator down the road, and was vaguely in line with their political philosophy. I haven't heard much about Tester's positions other than his support by (1) Kos and (2) Pearl Jam. I like both, but that doesn't do it for me. Morrison supported ways of increasing health insurance coverage for Montana's children, he knows about water issues and western issues and can explain it to easterns in a way that will get positive changes made in Washington. Tester is an organic farmer whose district was republican in the state senate. That's about all I know of him. That, and as Kos points out, he has a donkey and the word "democrat" in his web banner. Who cares?

Oh and Morrison is currently polling ahead of Burns, while Tester is behind Burns (and Morrison has more money than Tester).

Whomever wins these contested primaries will need our support come November in order to have a chance of taking back either house of Congress. So please, if you prefer a candidate, state your reasons why in policy terms, not conspiracy/slur terms.

Long days

Wednesdays are long for me, but made only longer when they are sandwiched by long Tuesdays and long Thursdays like this week. Yesterday, I taught in the morning (7:45) with my fellow law student, worked for 4 hours at the DA's office, then went to school until 7:30. After that, I played basketball from 8:30 to 9:30 (I ate dinner and changed at a Subway restaurant). I didn't get home until 10 PM.

Today, I didn't get home until 8:45 and I had been going since 9 AM. Tomorrow's schedule is just like Tuesdays. At least Friday will be light, with a mid morning class, a lunch meeting and a afternoon class. I have the opening ceremonies to watch up at my parent's house while they are away. The big screen awaits.

In other commentary, I am impressed at how quickly messages can be solidified for the Democratic party/liberals on the lefty blogostan. [For example, see the reaction to the furor over CS King's funeral] Great talking points emerge from the big blogs, and evidence to back up the ideas emerge either within the group blogs or becomes linked to the big ones. Now all Democrats need is the ability to get this honed message out to the non-blogging public.

That requires getting real air time on cable news channels, which are becoming angry conservative AM talk radio with pictures and fancy graphics, or newsprint, which is filled sniveling cowardly bootlickers like the NYTimes staff and the WaPo editorial board. Occasionally, there are some good journalists, like ex-TIME now Slate's John Dickerson. Dickerson, while still a creature of the beltway, at least has a code of ethics and knows a rat when he smells one (and isn't afraid to point out the rat).

Soon, TV and radio may die away as effective messengers to the voters/opinion shapers. Blogs like Daily Kos are growing so rapidly that soon their "circulation" numbers will trump not just big papers like NYTimes, but all papers COMBINED.

Democrats have a built in advantage as consensus builders who like to argue out crap forever, while GOPers like the unity of top down messengers like talk radio, cable news, or op-ed columnists. Democrats need to learn how to use free tools effectively, and not just spam us bloggers for money twice a week. Like I care about the LG race in Alabama.

post-super bowl heartburn edition

This is my photo of the day. I know the person who put it up there mistyped, but I think it is a Freudian slip. The media is so gutless, so willing to report smears and pathetic arguments as "both sides" instead of the truth, that this caption is partially true. Norah doesn't sell herself for sex, but she is paid to be unnecessarily deferential to the White House's arguments and the Republican-controlled congress. That makes one an informational whore, not a sexual prostitute.

I went to go see "Good Night, And Good Luck" last night.

It was pretty well done cinematography wise, it had the feel of an old
(50s) movie beyond the fact that it was in black and white. The film
made me sad because there doesn't seem to be a Murrow
(except maybe Anderson Cooper) out there to challenge the current McCarthyesque
tactics of the current administration and their lackeys in Congress.

A Patriots-free Super Bowl just isn't the same for me. As much as I was rooting for the Steelers, I still had trouble caring as much. How sad that Tom Brady tossed the official coin instead of calling heads or tails and actually playing in the Super Bowl. And weren't those ads lame? The only "good" ones were the AmeriQuest ones, the McGyver one, and the Emrald Nuts one.

I remember back in 2000 or 1999, the ads were fantastic. Like that E-Trade one with the monkey ("Well we just blew $2 million, what are you doing with your money?"). All those Christian conservatives that yelled at the networks and the NFL over Janet Jackson when she and JC plotted the scheme to attract sales to her records. If you should be mad, be mad at Mr. Jackson who beat his children into being 1) a child molester 2) drug/alcohol addicts 3) a flasher to a billion people 4) just plain crazy [LaToya] and who knows what happened to Tito. The creativity has gone out the window in favor of super bland ads.

Here is another Super Bowl that was effective: WhatistheMaxtrix.com the ad for the movie that left me confused and intregued. Wow, that was neat I thought, I wonder what that ad was for. Then people explained to me it was a film. With Kenu Reeves? Well, I did see Bill and Ted's and that Budda movie, I must be a sucker for Whooa!

medicial reform

recently I have been having some health scares and have been seeing various doctors. And now from personal experience, I can tell my dear readers that our system is completely out of wack.

Because it is an employer-based and profit-motivated system, we get loads of unnecessary tests to bill to insurance rather than to make sure something is nothing. In the rest of the developed world, their health care system is dramatically cheeper and their life expectancy is just as good or better (Japan) than ours.

Why? They don't have loads of officials trying to weasle there way out of paying for something, or asking for people to fill out and copy the same forms a billion times. They share as much equipment and patients as possible, making the cost per a patient dramatically lower.

When the focus is on cost rather than profits, we will practice preventative medicine rather than letting millions of Americans wait until they have to go the emergency room until they get expensive care. There will still be precautionary tests, but we won't have doctors insisting on expensive tests that serve no purpose when it doesn't effect their bottom line.

By pooling patients and doctors, we can reduce medicial insurance and malpractice premiums, instead of creating thousands of little boxes to put people in. The more I think about our system, the madder I get and the more irrational and unnecessary it seems.

The rich could still have supplimental care so that all our super specialists could make their big bucks and do all their fancy tests with pricy machines, but most people would not need to use those super specialists except in rare cases of acute problems.

All this fear of socialism has gotten us into this prediciment. Our people are earning less because premiums go up while wages stay stagnant or lower. Americans are quickly having a competitive disadvantage relative to Europe Canada, etc. when it comes to companies wanting to employ people here. Why else would GM make noises about a single-payer system.

Here's a thought: change federal law so that states like Maine and Massachusetts could try out a single payer system. Then if it works in a place like Massachusetts, with all its teaching hospitals and specialists, it can work nationwide. What is Congress afraid of? Political donations from Pharma and insurance companies drying up?

update on teaching

so today I taught again, and it was much better.

part of the solution was that I had 30 minutes less time to teach. Another part was that I purposely slowed down and did some review with candy. Every time a kid answered a question correctly, I threw candy at them.

This got at least 5 people talking, but I would love to hear more ideas of how to involve more students.

I also was able to make it somewhat interesting to them by telling them about Utah's exonoree, Bruce Goodman and how the trial system and appellate process works.

On Friday, I plan on having them all act out the McDonald's coffee case, with some being witnesses and the rest being the jury. Any thoughts on how to wake the kids up, use up 1.5 hours, and make it fun are welcome. Thanks to commmentors who talked me off the proverbial ledge after Monday's train wreck.

orwellian traditional media

If say a lie enough times, does it become true? Hamas' victory was a surprise. Bush is popular. Bush is winning the political battle on warrantless domestic spying. Democrats are divided. Democrats are weak on defense. Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman are the ones Democrats should listen to. DeLay is just a conservative guy, and everyone does it. Both parties have their hand in the Abramoff cookie jar.

Most bloggers say this is the right wing talking points trumping reality and the the media is buying them out of fear of being labled "liberal."

But in reality, it is the only propetual motion machine. I think the media have been conditioned to think this way, and when conservatives say it, well that's nice too for the media.

It is the media that are living in fear asking permission for what they should cover and how they should cover it.

sleepy in salt lake city

so today was my first day teaching at East High School. Way back in the 1930s my grandfather graduated from East as a validictorian. These days I roamed a completely different hall filled with minorities and kids who I swear should still be in middle school. Were kids really that small when I was in 9th grade? I was over six feet and growing facial hair at the time, so I am not a good judge.

Anyway, back to the story. I was expecting the real teacher to be giving them a little quiz on the constitutional convention but he decided to scrap it to be nice to them (or because he was too lazy to draw up a quiz). So these minutes I thought I had to kill where not there.

I got up there and ploughed through the first day's topic (introduction) and low and behold I had over an hour left. Crap. Was it because I didn't explain stuff adequately? Because the kids were half awake? Because they don't care? I tried to get them engaged by asking them if they had a driver's license, if they had a credit card, a cell phone, etc. to show them that the law is important to them. So with this hour left, I had them read the next unit (lawmaking) and then talked about that.

So now my Wednesday topic became monday part II and my reading for friday (the court system) became my reading for wednesday. For those of you who teach or have teached, any suggestions? I am thinking of having a review section at first on Friday and then going on to the the Courts. All suggestions are welcome.

The kids are dressed either grungy (white boys), hip hop (minority boys), stripes (nerdy white girls), and tight shirts (all girls). I even got a semi-flirty girl telling me good job and to calm my fears. Oh I hope she doesn't think that smile will get her anywhere. Especially since she showed up late.

living in terror for the sake of fear

Right now there are about 32,500 stories on Google News about bird flu. That is insane. I am sick and tired of seeing stories on the news about what the latest thing is that we should be afraid of. Terrorism in America happened long before September 11, 2001. The traditional media have been bombarding us with stories of unsafe drugs, consumer products, technology (remember Y2K?) roads, potential biological agents (remember the killer bees?) for at least a decade.

Why? Because fear sells. People tune in to learn what they should avoid and what they need to be concerned about. The Bush administration knew this as people in the ad business, so they sold fear to sell the president's policies and ultimately, his reelection. We had to be afriad of Saddam, a non-threat. Of social security collapsing. Of dirty bombs. Of "what kind of message that [Democratic policy] sends to the terrorists/evil doers." Enough is enough.

Americans need to kick their fear habit cold turkey, and the media need to stop feeding into the cycle of fearmongering. Enough exposes. This country was not built on living in fear, but living free. Free from fear in fact, we fought to keep British troops out of our homes and lands (see the 3rd Amendment), from tryannical rulers, from fear itself in World War II.

I for one am not going to live in fear. Avian flu is not going to happen any time soon if at all. It is like monkey's writing hamlet. While we were busy being afriad, Soviet nuclear caches go unguarded, Iran has started up its nuclear program, North Korea has build more nuclear weapons, and Osama bin Laden is still alive making silly attempts a truce. Forgive me if I don't watch the Oprah on bird flu and don't stock up 3 weeks worth of food, medicine, and batteries.

meet the mayors

today as I was waiting for my TRAX train up to the University, I saw Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson across the street. Who should be talking to him but Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Carroon. They must have had some meeting together downtown or something. It was funny to watch some people walk past in utter ignorance, and others recognize either one and stop and talk to them. Of the five to six people that strolled past, two talked to the mayors for some time.

It was a pretty amusing sight. I thought that if something were to knock out both of them at that moment, it would knockout 2/3s of the most prominantly elected Utah Democrats.

On Wednesday, I get to oberserve the civics class that I will be teaching in next week. It is classic TV high school, complete with the head football coach as civics teacher. I wonder how much material these students will be able to cover as we are planning on doing two "chapters" (which are like 5-10 "pages" of a HS text book covered in side bars, pictures and other crap to keep your MTV attention span brain on task) a day. This is a graduation requirement and it will be interesting to see the level of today's Utah public education.

The state has a 1 billion dollar surplus. Will we spend it on roads to commute to bedroom communities? Tax cuts? Or will the legislature improve education funding, cut adminstration and get the state out of competition with Mississippi with last in the nation schools? I wonder if the two mayors I saw today will speak about it with them...but then again, who will listen to them but the scant powerless democrats?

1600 Pennslyannia Madison Avenue

Every time the Bush Administration wants to engage in a major policy change, the sound like an ad agency. Remember that they saber rattling they did in August 2003, chief of staff Andy Card said you don't roll out a new product in August? So they launched It after Labor Day, a little thing called the Iraq war. When things don't go well, this president that doesn't care about polls goes to local media outlets on the theory that they won't ask as tough as questions as the national media.

Just ask Utah's Chris Vanocur and his Peabody about that one.

Most of their communications staff seem to come from the corporate and ad world. and instead of solving problems, it seems the communications staff go to work and making people think there is no problem or that there is another more pressing problem (see Saddam, Social Security, etc). it is really amazing to see their utter unwillingless to address any problems other than with a speech.

I guess you could also call the Bush White House post-modernist too. There is no reality for them, there is only everyone's own perception of what reality is. and so if they can change enough people's perceptions boom, there reality is changed. Too bad that bombs keep blowing up and terrorist recruitment and activity seem to increase rather than decrease while "the insurgency is in its last throes."

Another distraction technique they use is to equate known bad things with other things they don't like. Like Osama and Saddam...they would purposely confuse the two and intermingle the two topics. Or now, Osama and liberals. By saying that Osama's tape "sounds just like Michael Moore" it distracts people from the fact that its been like 5 years since we were attacked by bin Laden and he is obviously not dead or captured.

I didn't like Fehrenheit 9/11 that much, I thought that bowling for collumbine was a much better film, and I think Moore says stupid stuff all the time, but he doesn't sound anyhing anything like Osama. Even Moore or Sean Penn isn't dumb enough to call for a truce. I would say that bin Laden sounds like Star Jones! Man, I can't think of a worse insult to bin Laden, or anyone for that manner to be compared to than Star Jones.

Burns doesn't learn

For the junior Senator from Montana's 71st birthday, he is spending it with the only people he really loves--Abramoff tied lobbyists.

Instead of going back home to the Big Sky state, or hanging out with family or staff, Burns is going to make his birthday party into a at a fundraiser sponsored by Cassidy & Associates--the same folks that used to be Alexander Associates--until so many of their staffers were pleading guilty that they had to close shop briefly and rename themselves. Either Burns needs cash so badly that he has to go through the most tainted of sources, or he is just clueless, or politically suicidal. Or all of the above.

Hat Tip The Fix and Political Wire.

me MIA

two nights ago, I woke up very hot so I took off my shirt and went back to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, I was feeling achey, weak, and sweaty. The day turned out terrible as I was shivering indoors with my coat and gloves on. Boring classes were even worse. And because my wife had choir practice last night, I had to ride my bike to and from school because otherwise I wouldn't get home until 9:30 or 9.

I staggered into my house, make myself instant stuff and climbed into bed. About 30-45 minutes later, I took a shower and felt better. My wife babied me when she got home, and then I got so hot that I broke out in a sweat. My temp at that point was a little over 100 degrees. With the help of theraflu and gatorade, I feel better today, but not 100%.

Interestingly, my butt and lower back hurt. I wonder if it is from bicycling or how I sat up to eat or what.

Soon, I will be teaching a high school class 2 to 3 times a week with my friend whom I know from my days interning for Rep. Matheson. The girl I was originally scheduled to work with (whom I knew from High School and the year I lived in DC) dropped out last minute because of the conflict with her clinic. In some ways, I think this will be a better pairing for me. Expect postings on my experience with high schoolers in the next couple weeks.

King and Alito

So today is the day we celebrate the life work of Martin Luther King Jr. this is the day that folks spend 5 minutes to say racism still exists and we still have progress to make. And people will wonder what is life was like, and these days people remind the audience that Dr. King was vehemently against the Vietnam war and probably would have been against this war too had he lived.

But my post today is to remind people that was only 42 years ago. That none of the progress that was made was inevitable. Heck, King's birthday didn't become a holiday until the 1980s, and even then Republicans and Southern Senators had be dragged kicking and screaming. My parents were alive and aware when the civil rights movement broke out and I am sure many of my readers lived through it as well. It can all go back, history is not a 1-way street.

And with the selection of folks like Alito, the doors of discrimination will be able to open up more and more. Alito to me looks like a modern-day Roger B Taney, a justice has no respect for the law other than his ability to twist it into any shape he finds satisfying. Precedent say abortion is legal? No problem, just let Sam's "open mind" get cracking. The commerce clause gives congress the right to prohibit discrimination by private persons? Alito's got a few ideas (see his US v. Rybar opinion for creative use of commerce clause powers).

Alito isn't just conservative, he is reactionary. He is finally getting to let out all his frustration with being a nerd and unliked in college or law school by most people. His anger at how the world was changing while he was in school, and his efforts to strike back in the Reagan administration. Bush had this view too, when those damn women and minorities had to ruin his old Yale.

So again, my message is vigilance. We have to protect the progress that has been made in the last 40-50 years and strive for more progress. For universal access to health care, a national education system that puts other nations to shame, to good jobs and retirement security. We are a society that values its children, its old, its poor, its discriminated, its sick, its infirm, we don't throw them at the mercy of the winds anymore. And so we can't let others chisel away protection that we have worked so hard to build up over the years with circular logic and terrible reasoning filling the United States Reporters.

diggin' up 'balance'

How come Republicans can find has-beens with axes to grind to say anything bad about veterans and no one in the media calls it. But if some actual ex-administration official speaks the truth, they are labeled as spiteful liers by the traditional press?

Just compare what they said about Richard Clarke versus Don Bailey. Bailey, who lost to Murtha over twenty years ago in a primary, claims that Murtha told him he lied to get his purple hearts. First of all, even if that was true, which there is nothing behind it but lies...but even if it was true, how does that make what Murtha says about the war less true? He still would be a decorated war veteran and ex-Marine who has been the head of the House Defense Appropriation Committee and has garnered great respect for the brass at the Pentagon. He voted for the war. And now he strongly believes based on what he has been told by military folks in the field, that the war is unwinniable and that we need to go home.

Now, I don't know if I agree with Murtha. I think there is a lot of truth to what he says though. And I have more reason to trust him than say, Scott McClelland or Dick Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney or George W. Bush.

So why do we have to listen to repeated baseless attacks against veterans who oppose the war in Iraq? Why do these charges recieve any air time. One word: balance. THe right wing brutalized the traditional media into beliving that since the journalist themselves were culturally liberal, their news was similarily liberal. Of course, the TRUTH or FACTS are not liberal or conservative or moderate. They are just facts or truth. And the fact is, the war is not going well. The fact is, our troops keep dying and there is absolutely no stablity or security over in Iraq. In terms of everyday municipal services, life is worse post-Saddam than pre-Saddam. The electricity is off days at a time, there are Carter-style gas lines, no trash pick up, etc. Sure they have democracy, but what good are free elections if those elected will make your country Iran II?

can't get enough hearing highlights

Today's the last day of Senators questioning the nominee. Next up, interest groups gone wild!

But first, some irony (not Atlantis Morissette-style) Sen. Biden said Supreme Court nominees are so mum about the major legal issues at their Senate confirmation hearings that the hearings serve little purpose and should probably be abandoned. According to the NY Times, "Mr. Biden used about 1800 words in his 20 minutes Wednesday, down from about 3800 words during his 30 minutes Tuesday. In each case, Judge Alito got in about 1,000." Some more Biden moments, from the Times: "Discussing the Family and Medical Leave Act, he noted that his own wife, daughter-in-law and daughter had all worked through their pregnancies until the time that they gave birth. He noted that his daughter was now in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. And he reiterated once again that he was an 'Irish Catholic kid from Claymont' who would not have been comfortable in the old days at Judge Alito's alma mater, Princeton."

Mrs. Alito broke down in tears yesterday. No one knows whether this was due to tremenous boredom, the Democrats' attempts at attacking Alito's character, or Republicans' at asking him overly soft questions.

Kohl sought to get Alito to say good things about O'Connor and that he would be just like her on the SCOTUS. Alito refused to go along, saying he would be the same guy that HW Bush appointed to the 3rd circuit.

Feingold says assume all procedures are perfect - is there a contitutional right to not be executed if one is innocent? Alito again stresses the procedural protections in place to prevent this.

Schumer showed little patience to sit and listen to Alito's rather lengthy responses, which were drawn out and utterly neutral explanations of methods of analysis: how he would approach a case, rather than how he would decide it. Schumer then tried a kind of multiple choice approach [no pens and bubble sheets jokes please]: "Judge, I'm going to give you two interpretations of the Commerce Clause....Which one is closer to your view of the Commerce Clause?" A. Congress can do whatever B. Morrison/Lopez rock C. Can we go in the way back machine to 1937?

Specter asks Grassley to tell Alito his Anita Hill story in order to give Alito a brief respite. Grassley says that during the Anita Hill hearings many people confused him with Specter and berated his questioning of Ms. Hill.

Turning to the "unified executive" theory, Sessions asks a hard question: "There are only three branches, aren't there?" Alito: Last time I checked. Previously, Sessions noted that Alito's sister is at the hearings and they were debate partners in school. Wants to know who was better. Alito takes the 5th.

more Alito fun

Biden, who rambled about being a Ivy League parent for a while yesterday, donned a a Princeton Univ. hat to show how he too was a concerned alumni of princeton (CAP).

Coburn expressed anger that Sen. Durbin changed his mind on the abortion question, but wasn't there. When Durbin got there, he was upset about the comment and wanted to respond, but Coburn was no longer there. When Coburn was there, and Durbin was only 20 seconds into his response he referred to Sen. Hatch, who, of course, wasn't in the room. Specter said they would have to get the 3 Senators in the hearing at the same time. Meanwhile, they are supposed to be asking questions to some guy who is could replace Sandra Day for life, what was his name again?

Kennedy motioned for the committee to go into executive session to consider issuing a subpoena for records related to Concerned Alumni of Princeton. Specter, caught off guard by Kennedy's motion, scolded Kennedy for not mentioning the proposal in advance. Kennedy said he sent Specter a letter on 12/22 requesting the "William Rusher papers" from the Library of Congress. Kennedy: "If you're going to rule it out of order, I want to have a vote on that." Specter to Kennedy: "I'm not going to have you run this committee" Specter: "There was no letter, which I received... I take umbrage at you telling me what I received." Then Kennedy presented Specter's reply to Kennedy's initial letter. Oops.

Sen. Feinstein wants to try "one more time" to get him to give her a satisfactory answer on Roe. She says that according to the Washington Post, yesterday Alito used a phrase to describe stare decisis -- that precedent "is not an exorable command" -- that the former Chief Justice used in a case in which he was arguing for overruling Wade. Did he mean to use it in the same way? Alito and Feinstein discuss whether one should believe everything one reads in the Washington Post.

And a congressional hearing wouldn't be complete without a sports or war analogy. Grassley Compared Alito to a quarterback whose team is ahead in the fourth quarter, charged that Democrats are going to keep "trying to sack you." "They haven't hit you all day," he said, so expect some "last minute Hail Marys." GROAN.

Hatch spent most of his time lobbing softball questions to Alito that allowed him to rebut criticisms made over the past two days by Democratic senators.

HATCH: But most employment discrimination cases really are decided at the lower level. ALITO: Most of them are. HATCH: And when they get up to your level it's generally decided on technical or a procedural basis. Am I wrong in that? ALITO: No, that's correct, Senator.

And now for some boring actual questions about pressing constitutional issues:

LEAHY: But does the president have unlimited power just to declare a statute -- especially if it is a statute he had signed into law -- to then declared that unconstitutional, and he’s not going to follow it?
ALITO: If the matter is later challenged in court, of course, the president isn’t going to have the last word on that question. That’s for sure. And the courts would exercise absolutely independent judgment on that question. It is emphatically the duty of the courts to say what the law is when constitutional questions are raised in cases that come before the court.
LEAHY: Now, that is an answer I agree with. Thank you.