Samuel Alito--the worlds most terrifying man.
I've been holding off on talking about Alito for a while. Most of it was an attempt to gather an opinion on the guy. Some of it was an attempt to not be bitterly depressed over the fate of my country. After watching a bit of the guy's confirmation hearings, and reading the liveblogging of the whole thing over at firedoglake, I can be silient no more on this matter.
There are several reasons why Alito terrifies me. First is that the Bush adminstration clearly does have a litmus test. Not an abortion litmus test, but a pro-imperial Presidency litmus test. In reality, it should be common knowledge by now that Bush's #1 priority is protecting his own damn ass from any possible accountability that it might need to encounter. This is the common bond that has joined all of his executive and judicial nominees together. The danger inherent in the abortion debate has served partially as a way for Bush to distract from this power grab. The importance of the bill of rights should be readily apparent to anyone who has studied 9th grade civics, so I won't get much into that matter. On this matter, I would like to first cite Alito's previously stated belief in the Unitary Presidency. This is a legal philosophy dating back to Andrew Jackson. Jackson argued that, since the President is the only person in government directly elected by the entire nation, then therefore, the President deserves final say when branches of government have a dispute on legal matters. Under Alito, the Supreme Court will not intervene in the President's attempts to spy on American citizens.
Second, there is the obvious abortion issue. Alito's dissent in the appelate hearing of Planned Parenthood v. Casey should be terrifying to most anyone, particularly with regard to the claim that the state has the right to require spousal notification for an abortion. He has refused to call Roe v. Wade the settled law of the USA, and has similarly refused to reject his 1985 statement that Roe should be overturned, merely trying to explain that he was arguing for an advocate, and that wouldn't necessarily be his current positions, without saying that he still doesn't think that Roe should be overturned. As reddhead implies, this is just a game of dodgeball. But, the clearest indication that this appointment is clearly all about abortion should be the chorus of enthusiastic support that Alito is getting from every conservative nutazoid in the world. They are careful to not mention abortion, but that only makes it weirder, as they talk about abortion virtually nonstop until the nomination that could have more of an effect on the abortion issue than all of the partial birth bans in the world comes up. Certainly not fishy at all. Yeah. sure.
Finally, there is the simple case that Alito is clearly just a liar on the matter of his memebership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton. Lying to Congress, under oath, should be, in and of itself, reason to not confirm him.
So, the question becomes, what should be done about him. 1) Everyone should call their Senator and ask them to oppose this nomination, and to vote to keep the US Senate's cloture rule as it is. 2)Tell your friends about Alito. 3) Remind them, if they bitch about up-or-down votes, that the Republicans fillibustered LBJ's nomination of Abe Fortas to be Chief Justice in 1968
This is a scary moment in the history of our country. I hope the Dems are up to the challenge they now face.
There are several reasons why Alito terrifies me. First is that the Bush adminstration clearly does have a litmus test. Not an abortion litmus test, but a pro-imperial Presidency litmus test. In reality, it should be common knowledge by now that Bush's #1 priority is protecting his own damn ass from any possible accountability that it might need to encounter. This is the common bond that has joined all of his executive and judicial nominees together. The danger inherent in the abortion debate has served partially as a way for Bush to distract from this power grab. The importance of the bill of rights should be readily apparent to anyone who has studied 9th grade civics, so I won't get much into that matter. On this matter, I would like to first cite Alito's previously stated belief in the Unitary Presidency. This is a legal philosophy dating back to Andrew Jackson. Jackson argued that, since the President is the only person in government directly elected by the entire nation, then therefore, the President deserves final say when branches of government have a dispute on legal matters. Under Alito, the Supreme Court will not intervene in the President's attempts to spy on American citizens.
Second, there is the obvious abortion issue. Alito's dissent in the appelate hearing of Planned Parenthood v. Casey should be terrifying to most anyone, particularly with regard to the claim that the state has the right to require spousal notification for an abortion. He has refused to call Roe v. Wade the settled law of the USA, and has similarly refused to reject his 1985 statement that Roe should be overturned, merely trying to explain that he was arguing for an advocate, and that wouldn't necessarily be his current positions, without saying that he still doesn't think that Roe should be overturned. As reddhead implies, this is just a game of dodgeball. But, the clearest indication that this appointment is clearly all about abortion should be the chorus of enthusiastic support that Alito is getting from every conservative nutazoid in the world. They are careful to not mention abortion, but that only makes it weirder, as they talk about abortion virtually nonstop until the nomination that could have more of an effect on the abortion issue than all of the partial birth bans in the world comes up. Certainly not fishy at all. Yeah. sure.
Finally, there is the simple case that Alito is clearly just a liar on the matter of his memebership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton. Lying to Congress, under oath, should be, in and of itself, reason to not confirm him.
So, the question becomes, what should be done about him. 1) Everyone should call their Senator and ask them to oppose this nomination, and to vote to keep the US Senate's cloture rule as it is. 2)Tell your friends about Alito. 3) Remind them, if they bitch about up-or-down votes, that the Republicans fillibustered LBJ's nomination of Abe Fortas to be Chief Justice in 1968
This is a scary moment in the history of our country. I hope the Dems are up to the challenge they now face.
posted by Valatan @ 10:26 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home