Entry: Supreme Court Chin Dimple Wednesday, July 20, 2005



politics
As you should know by now, President Bush announced his first judicial nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) last night in a televised interuption to regularly scheduled programming.  Despite my unanswered emails of objection to the corporate offices of many broadcasting networks, Dubya's C-Span style press briefing was televised.  Sadly, reruns of "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" were interupted, but luckily not for very long.  I won't need to study ten thousand posts on alt.soc.tv.buffy on usenet newsgroups in order to follow the storyline next week.  Priorities.

Dubya's nomination of John Roberts will hopefully satisfy his socially conservative core constituency.  The conservative nutbag slogans of "judicial tyranny" and "legislating from the bench" and "we just want an up or down vote" are so tedious to me, it makes my teeth hurt.  It's almost as troublesome to hear those phrases as it is hearing the Democrusader carefully articulate the word "i-dee-ahl-loe-gee" over and over and over again.

It's not as bad as when I hear him tell an audience of soldiers and marines that "he supports them and appreciates their sacrifice."  God bless America, yadda yadda.  Puppetry and lies.  Just shut up.  Sometimes, when I hear Dubya's voice on TV, I wish he would just go ride his bicycle while eating a pretzel, if you know what I mean.

But, I am more hopeful that everyone gets pissed off.  That way, hated Democrats in the Senate -- like Clinton, Kennedy, and Kerry -- will make useless accusations and the confirmation hearing will be turned into a political nightmare theater of witnesses testifying about pubic hairs on beverage cans, as happened with Justice Thomas and witness Anita Hill.

Unfortunately, John Roberts looks like a stereotypical stand-up guy from the 1950's.  He looks like he has been been recruited straight out of a movie studio's central casting of some black and white situational comedy (sitcom).  Who is going to complain about justice Dick Van Dyke?

Nonetheless, I know that opposition groups like People for the American Way and MoveOn.Org will find some way to bitch about this supreme court nomination from Dubya.  I realize that they capitalize on the moment for fund raising, but I actually don't care that they do that.  If I cared about people exploiting the moment, I'd first be outraged about the far right-wing nutbags exploiting Terri Shiavo for political purposes, wouldn't I?

Oh, yeah.  I was a bit pestered at Tom Delay about the Shiavo thang.  What a tool.  Well, like I said, hopefully, John Roberts will be confirmed in the Senate without the indignation of pubic hair testimony, or questions about his preference for having his wife wear a creepy pink suit to the White House, or having a son acting up in front of the press in some sick, light blue, Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit.  That's just toddler fashion abuse.

Despite John Robert's manly dimpled chin, last night he dressed his family up in pastel colored business suits and they all looked like the pastel houses featured in the bucolic neighborhood from the Tim Burton movie "Edward Scissorhands."  It was like a 1970's high school prom nightmare with cheap pastel-colored suits snatched up at the last minute from the Sears and Roebucks mens wear department.  That level of Stepford creepiness should be illegal.

But, perhaps Dudley Do-Right doesn't care about fashion -- except whether or not he will be wearing the robe of a Supreme Court judge.  Whatever.  Moose and Squirrel, Moose and Squirrel, Moose and Squirrel.

Do me a favor.  Don't get too distracted and caught up in the minutia that is likely to be dragged out concerning John Roberts.  He'll probably become a decent justice, anyway.  Don't be distracted by another Bush bag of tricks.  Rather, turn the focus of the media back onto Karl Rove, the Downing Street Memo, and getting it right in Iraq so everyone's sons and daughters serving in the military in that sand trap of a country can return home safely and soon.

[Headphones] :: Birthday-partyparty mix (lo-fi stream) - RX

   9 comments

Lyly
July 20, 2005   06:22 PM PDT
 
John Roberts looks like the 'Tron' version John Edwards. Did you know he did a defense for Playboy mag for Hogan & Hartson? From Excite.com:
http://www1.excite.com/home/careers/company_profile/0,15623,1103,00.html

"Practiced Litigation

The firm's litigation team is quite impressive - it argued 12 cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court between 1997 and 2000. The appellate practice is headed by John Roberts, named one of the top 10 civil litigators by The National Law Journal in 1999.

Bunny ears

Lovers of mildly racy daytime TV will applaud Hogan & Hartson's First Amendment victory before the Supreme Court on behalf of Playboy Entertainment Group, the cable television programming subsidiary of Playboy Enterprises. The Court affirmed, 5 to 4, a permanent injunction against Section 505 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. What this effectively means is that Playboy is free to transmit its fleshy broadcasts 24 hours a day instead of confining them to hours of the day when children are less likely to view them. This is the first Supreme Court decision affirming that even the most trashy cable television is entitled to the highest level of First Amendment protection."
J f Z
July 20, 2005   06:32 PM PDT
 
Holy shit, Lyly ... don't make me like this guy! LOL. Awesome linkage. Thanks.
Sinister Ninja
July 20, 2005   10:36 PM PDT
 
I'll admit that I was a little nervous about learning of the nomination... with the current trend of American government, my cynicism made me raise the red flag and take alarm when the headlines hit.

Forgive the pun, but I guess the jury's still out on this one.
Lyly
July 21, 2005   03:02 AM PDT
 
Naw John, I'm not worried about you loosing your cynicism. Roberts and his family look like some creepy 50s advertisement for a new car or neighborhood or something. Made me shiver.
melicious!
July 23, 2005   11:56 AM PDT
 
Defending our right to twenty-four hour porn is all fab and dandy - its swaying toward overturning Roe v Wade that has me scurred...
J f Z
July 23, 2005   05:54 PM PDT
 
Hi Mel :) Mouse-over the link to the MP3 if you really want fab and dandy. Heh.
Cascokat (Penny)
July 26, 2005   09:38 AM PDT
 
Bozo-boy (aka Dubya) in general scares the hell outta me. I'm willing to give the guy a chance from what I've heard/read so far but I'm hoping this Mr. Roberts character doesn't follow his "moral high ground ethics" in his legal decisions. Roe v Wade is a HUGE issue and if he goes along with Bozo-boy's attempt to overturn it, it's gonna get ugly. Fast.
J f Z
July 27, 2005   01:36 PM PDT
 
I totally understand the fears that many people have concerning the abortion issue and this SCOTUS nomination. At the same time, I did hear that John Roberts stated that "Roe was established law" during his appelate court confirmation hearing in 2003 (or whenever that hearing took place).

The only political TV advertisements I've personally seen are from the conservatives calling for his confirmation promoting the simple-minding up-or-down vote slogan. I think most of the groups on both sides are wasting their money and polluting the judicial branch of government with everything that is sickening about the current state of electoral politics.

Even though I think he will likely be confirmed rather easily, the Senate confirmation hearings will tell the tale. Perhaps the 1950's TV Dad (John Roberts) has some totally unhelpful skeleton in his closet involving sex with farm animals that could be revealed.

But, that is in a perfect world, this is Walgreens.
J f Z
July 27, 2005   01:50 PM PDT
 
Lyly: About, Playboy. Although I have looked it up to verify my suspicions, I think the victory in allowing Playboy to broadcast 24/7 might have more to do with the fact that the Playboy channel is not only a paid subscriber cable TV channel, but also blockable by V-chip technology in TV sets (which was mandated by the Telecom Reform Law of which the CDA was a part).

Conservatives always target porn whenever they can. It's an easy target that bobs up with the 1st amendment protection and then sinks down because of the subjective gray area of "community standards."

I think the Playboy suit was narrow enough to be fairly straight forward as being protected entertainment while also complying with all the 'good faith' measures required to keep that same entertainment away from children.

Leave a Comment:

Name


Homepage (optional)


Comments