Tuesday
Feb162016
The Commentariat -- Feb. 17, 2016
Wowza! President Obama has two middle fingers: one for Senate Republicans & one for all the GOP presidential candidates. CW: I understand the tactical reasons for his reticence to criticize Republicans during his first term, but I surely wish he had spoken like this back in 2009 & '10. ...
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday offered an extended critique of the Republicans running to replace him, describing them as 'troubling' to people around the world and singling out Donald J. Trump as someone who would not be a serious president":
... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Tuesday vowed to nominate a Supreme Court justice who is 'indisputably qualified for the seat,' and he scoffed at Republican suggestions that the process should be halted until after the November presidential election and a new administration takes office." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Coming Soon -- An American Show Trial. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Mitch McConnell's message to the White House after Antonin Scalia's death on Saturday seemed unequivocal: Don't even bother sending a Supreme Court nominee to Congress, we won't act on it. But on Tuesday, some Republicans were signaling they're open to at least holding hearings, if not allowing a confirmation vote.... Essentially, the GOP message is this: We respect Obama's decision to make a nomination, even though that appointee stands no chance of being confirmed. It's a more nuanced view than an outright blockade, and suggests that the optics of barring a Supreme Court nominee from even a courtesy hearing are making some Republicans queasy." ...
... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that he had not ruled out holding hearings on President Obama's eventual nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. 'I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decisions,' Mr. Grassley said, according to Radio Iowa. 'This is a very serious position to fill and it should be filled and debated during the campaign and filled by either Hillary Clinton, Senator Sanders or whoever's nominated by the Republicans.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... This story has been updated with a shared byline: Steinhauer & Mark Landler. New Lede: "President Obama on Tuesday challenged Republicans to offer any plausible rationale for refusing to consider a Supreme Court candidate to replace Justice Antonin Scalia..., and he pledged to nominate someone with an 'outstanding legal mind' who cares about democracy and the rule of law. 'The Constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now,' Mr. Obama said during a news conference after a meeting in California with leaders of Southeast Asia. He said the Constitution demands that a president nominate someone for the court and the Senate either confirms or rejects. 'There's no unwritten law that says that it can only be done on off years,' Mr. Obama said. 'That's not in the Constitutional text.'" ...
... Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg thinks the GOP's knee-jerk obstructionim is a sign the party is running skeert: "For a party with faith in itself and in the American project, a Supreme Court vacancy is worthy of a pitched, strategic battle. But Republicans don't believe they have a popular judicial or political philosophy, and they are so dependent on the court's activist conservative bloc that a potential shift of a single judge is deemed catastrophic." ...
... The Ladies & Gentlemen of the Right Have Left the Government. Steve Benen: "Republicans' willingness to cause a breakdown in modern governing isn't the result of broken laws, but rather, abandoned norms. Federal policymakers have long been able to do what GOP lawmakers are now doing, but traditionally, officials saw such tactics as simply unacceptable. There were certain steps responsible adults in positions of authority just would not take -- they could go to unprecedented extremes, but a sense of propriety led to a recognition that such radicalism should be avoided.... Before the Obama era and the radicalization of Republican politics, the idea of federal legislators trying to sabotage American policies seemed genuinely ridiculous, but that's no longer the case." ...
... CW: I think Benen is wrong on this. For all of my adult life, the House & Senate have been filled with obstructionists. In the bad old days they were Southern Democrats & a few Joe McCarthy & Barry Goldwater types. In the wake of the civil rights movement, they became Republicans from everywhere but the Northeast. Newt Gingrich shut down the government as surely as Ted Cruz would. Republicans delegitimized Bill Clinton even though many of his policies were pretty damned conservative. The big difference is that there are many more wingers in the Congress now, so many more that they have the power to shut down government functions -- as in this refusal to consider a Supreme Court nominee -- and they do. I don't blame Republicans; I blame the ignorant bastards who vote for them. ...
... Charles Pierce: [CW: On January 20, 1801, months after Thomas Jefferson defeated him in the presidential race], "John Adams [who was a true 'lame duck' president,] went out and nominated John Marshall to be chief justice of the United States.... On January 27, 1801, Marshall was unanimously confirmed; the man who virtually invented the current role of the Supreme Court as an equal branch of the government was himself the nominee of a lame duck president. If you're going to argue what the Founders 'would have done' in a certain situation, it's helpful to look at what they actually did." (Emphasis added.) ...
... Emily Bazelon, in the New York Times Magazine: "If every justice must have credentials like those currently serving on the Supreme Court, then the definition of who is qualified has become exceedingly narrow.... Former federal judges were in the minority on the Supreme Court until the 1970s.... The politician who left the greatest mark on the court is probably Earl Warren, a former governor of California.... Maybe it's time for a magic ingredient -- one that would bring a kind of wisdom to the court it currently lacks and would shake up the inevitable political battle to come, by introducing an element of surprise." ...
... Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Justice Antonin Scalia's body will lie in repose at the Supreme Court before his funeral is held, offering the public a chance to pay their respects, court officials said Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Capitalism Is Way Too Awesome. Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "During the 2008 financial crisis, Neel Kashkari worked tirelessly to save the nation's largest banks. As a senior Treasury Department official in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, he helped those banks grow larger than ever. On Tuesday, he said it was time to think about breaking them up. 'I believe the biggest banks are still too big to fail and continue to pose a significant, ongoing risk to our economy,' Mr. Kashkari said at the Brookings Institution, delivering his first public speech as the new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.... 'We need to move before we as a society have forgotten the lessons of '08,' he said.... Mr. Kashkari's remarks caused a stir in Washington.... Mr. Kashkari is a moderate Republican and a former employee of Goldman Sachs.... [Sen. Bernie] Sanders ... released a statement on Tuesday saying he was 'delighted' by the speech."
James Queally & Joel Rubin of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal judge ordered Apple to help the FBI access encrypted data hidden on a cellphone that belonged to the terrorist couple who killed 14 people in San Bernardino last year, according to a three-page decision handed down Tuesday." ...
... Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive of Apple, has released a statement in which he says that a court order that directs the company to help the F.B.I. unlock an iPhone could threaten the privacy of its customers. Mr. Cook's statement, a letter to Apple customers, was posted on the company's website on Tuesday night, several hours after a judge in California ordered Apple to unlock an iPhone used by one of the gunmen in the December attack in San Bernardino, Calif, that killed 14 people. In his statement, Mr. Cook called the court order an 'unprecedented step' on the part of the United States government and he said that Apple would not comply." ...
... CW: Yes, Tim, because mass murderers have the expectation (even though they're dead) of privacy, too. And the order is an "unprecedented step" only because the lengths to which Apple has gone to encrypt its phones is unprecedented. That's nutso, buddy.
David Sanger & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "In the early years of the Obama administration, the United States developed an elaborate plan for a cyberattack on Iran in case the diplomatic effort to limit its nuclear program failed and led to a military conflict, according to a forthcoming documentary film and interviews with military and intelligence officials involved in the effort. The plan, code named Nitro Zeus, was designed to disable Iran's air defenses, communications systems and key parts of its power grid, and was shelved, at least for the foreseeable future, after the nuclear deal struck between Iran and six other nations last summer was fulfilled." CW: Just remember, people, President Obama is a total wimp. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race
Annie Karni of Politico: "Hillary Clinton on Tuesday offered a veiled rebuke of Bernie Sanders, arguing in a sweeping speech on the state of race in America that his fight to end economic inequality does little to address the systemic racism gripping the country." Clinton's full speech is here. ...
... Justin Moyer of the Washington Post: In her speech, Clinton tied Republicans' refusal to consider any Obama nominee to racism:
The Republicans say they'll reject anyone President Obama nominates no matter how qualified. Some are even saying he doesn't have the right to nominate anyone, as if somehow he's not the real president.... You know that's in keeping what we heard all along, isn't it? Many Republicans talk in coded racial language about takers and losers. They demonize President Obama and encourage the ugliest impulses of the paranoid fringe. This kind of hatred and bigotry has no place in our politics or our country. -- Hillary Clinton
Yeah, she's pandering. And yeah, she's right. Except the "paranoid fringe" is yuuuge. -- Constant Weader
Azi Paybarah of Politico: "Hillary Clinton took her campaign to shore up African-American support to Manhattan on Tuesday, meeting with civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, in the offices of the National Urban League on Wall Street...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Bernie Sanders sought Tuesday evening to rally black college students as he the continues efforts to make inroads with African-American voters. Speaking at historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta, Sanders focused on his plan to reform the nation's criminal justice system and push for free college tuition....Sanders spoke of 'institutional racism' in his stop on a tour of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which was attended by more than 4,800 people, according to the school. Before the event, rival Hillary Clinton's campaign issued a statement slamming Sanders for leaving students at historically black colleges 'out in the cold.' Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), a Morehouse alum, argued in the statement that Sanders' plan for tuition-free school at public colleges and university doesn't invest in private colleges like Morehouse." ...
... Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "State Sen. Vincent Fort, the No. 2 Democrat in the Georgia Senate, flipped his endorsement on Tuesday from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders. He instantly becomes one of the Vermont senator's top surrogates in the South, where his campaign has picked up support from only a handful of black elected officials. The Atlanta Democrat made his decision public just hours before Sanders is set to speak at a Morehouse College rally aimed at enticing black voters to give his campaign a second look." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Bill Scher in Politico Magazine on what & how Bernie Sanders could win even if he loses to Hillary Clinton.
Jacob Heilbrunn in Politico Magazine: "The most basic problem for the Republican Party isn't that Donald Trump is so strong, but that his competitors are so weak.... It was [George W.] Bush's rapid abandonment of a bromidic 'compassionate conservatism' and foreign-policy restraint that exposed the GOP as a fatally divided party devoid of ideas. Thus, in debunking the GOP's hollow men and bringing the Bush-Cheney era to a close, Trump is essentially kicking in a rotten door.... The irony of the new darling of the party's disenchanted base is that his open divergence from the putative ideology of that base is near-complete. Trump preaches Trumpism; he doesn't seem to care at all what the official party doctrine is supposed to be." ...
... Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "... the stubborn popularity of Mr. Trump, who defies Republican orthodoxy on issue after issue, shows how deeply the party's elites misjudged the faithfulness of rank-and-file Republicans to conservatism as defined in Washington think tanks and by the party's elected leaders." ...
... All Black Men Look Alike. Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "At a campaign stop in South Carolina on Tuesday, [Donald] Trump repeatedly referred to retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson as 'Obama.' 'What Ted Cruz did to Obama, where he said that Obama had quit the race and take our votes," Trump began to say before being corrected by his audience. In fact, he was referring to an incident in which members of Cruz's campaign spread reports suggesting that Carson was dropping out of the race on the day of the Iowa caucuses." ...
... CW: Schreckinger's lede is tongue-in-cheek: "Donald Trump can't keep his Midwesterners straight." I'd say Politico does not allow its writers to indicate outright that Trump is so fundamentally racist that he "can't keep his black men straight." There are, of course, a few corollaries to Trump's Freudian slip, such as, "All Mexicans look alike." and "All A-Rabs look alike." It seems quite possible that President Trump would accidentally bomb Jordan when he meant to bomb Syria. ...
... In case you think Trump supporters will be all upset to find out their candidate is a hard-wired racist, Charles Pierce, with the help of Public Policy Polling, will disabuse you of that notion. ...
... Oh, & here's Trump, allowing himself to be dragged into the Scalia-was-murdered conspiracy theory. Listen to the audio. I love the part about how a "U.S. marshall appointed by Obama himself" was part of the cover-up. The charge is a little vague, but then conspiracy theorists do have to sort of gloss over facts or invent them outright. ...
... MEANWHILE, Torturing Women Is Hilarious. Mike Zapler of Politico: "When Marco Rubio vowed to keep the Guantanamo Bay prison open if he becomes president, a man in the crowd piped up with a suggestion: 'Waterboard Hillary!' The standing-room-only crowd at a campaign rally laughed in approval, and Rubio played along. 'I don't want to know what he said .. the press is here,' Rubio joked. 'I didn't hear what they said," he added with a shrug. "I know it wasn't a bad word, that's all that matters.'" CW: Think about that for a second. Rubio thinks a "joke" about torturing a former first lady & secretary of state is laugh-worthy; he just doesn't want to get caught on tape saying so. He also thinks he's qualified to be POTUS.
Have We Mentioned that Republicans Don't Care about Deficits? Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: ... Ted Cruz's plan to impose a flat 10 percent tax on all personal income and greatly lower the corporate tax rate would cost the federal government at least $8.6 trillion over a decade, according to a new analysis. The plan would be the second most expensive tax proposal in the GOP presidential field, with only businessman Donald Trump offering a proposal that would add more in government debt over the next 10 years, according to data released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... CW: Gosh, however will Tailgunner Ted make up for that honking big deficit? Oh, I know, cut programs for the needy & the deserving. Luckily for me, That Damned Cat has turned up her nose at the catfood pate', so I've got enough to keep me in kitty-canapes for quite some time. Always look on the bright side of life. ...
... Nick Gass of Politico: "Ted Cruz's campaign sent a letter to TV stations across South Carolina and Georgia on Tuesday, demanding that they stop airing what it calls 'a false attack ad' from the conservative super PAC American Future Fund that goes after the Texas senator on national security. 'The ad falsely claims "Cruz proposed mass legalization of illegal immigrants." Ted Cruz has never introduced, outlined, or supported any policy that would give legal status to illegal immigrants,' wrote Eric Brown, general counsel to the campaign...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
... CW: So in the last 24 hours the top three GOP candidates have showed, among their other many stellar qualities, that one is a racist, one is a sadist & one is a whiney baby who dishes it out but can't take it. Millions of real Americans will vote for these assholes. ...
... In other whiney-boy news, Jeb! wants CBS "News" to apologize to him for mentioning reaction to a tweet of his titled "America" that featured a picture of a gun with Jeb!'s name on it. People urged him not to commit suicide. ...
That engraved gun Jeb! seems to think represents America!? Rees Shapiro of the Washington Post: "While the company [that manufactures & gave Jeb! the gun] is known as FN America, it is actually a subsidiary of FN Herstal, a foreign corporation based in Belgium.... During World War II, the company was requisitioned by the Nazi military and its factories produced thousands of weapons for Axis troops, including pistols carried by Nazi officers and pilots.... Today, FN Herstal supplies countless arms to the U.S. military...."
... AND in communal whiney news, Jonathan Chait has an excellent post on winger reaction to Donald Trump's heretical remark that George W. Bush was the POTUS on September 11, 2001. "Republicans have walled inconvenient facts about the Bush administration's security record out of their minds by associating them with crazed conspiracy theorists. It is epistemic closure at work: Criticism of Bush on 9/11 and Iraq intelligence is dismissed because the only people who say it are sources outside the conservative movement, who by definition cannot be trusted. The possibility that the Republican Party itself would nominate a man who endorses these criticisms is horrifying to them." ...
All right, you've covered your ass now. -- President George W. Bush, responding to the CIA's presentation of the briefing memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US," August 6, 2001 ...
... Martin Longman, in the Washington Monthly, writes a succinct history lesson on the George W. Bush administration's serial denials of an impending Al Qaeda attack.
Beyond the Beltway
Adding Insult to Injury. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "Flint residents were paying more for their [poisonous] water than just about anyone else in the country.... In January 2015, the Flint water system charged more for its services than any other of the 500 water utilities in [a] survey [conducted by the non-profit Food & Water Watch]." (Also linked yesterday.)
Maxine Bernstein of the Oregonian: "A federal judge Tuesday ordered Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy to remain in custody pending trial on a complaint stemming from his 2014 standoff with federal agents trying to round up his cattle grazing on public land. U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice M. Stewart found Bundy, 69, remains a danger to the community and a risk to flee, citing his 'ongoing defiance of federal court orders.'... A six-count federal complaint out of Nevada charges Cliven Bundy with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, assault on a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction of justice, interference with commerce by extortion and two counts of carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence." ...
... The government's complaint is here. It's a doozy. The memo seeking Bundy's detention is here. It's an even creepier read.
Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: "An embattled University of Missouri professor has again found herself to be the subject of public scrutiny, after a video surfaced that shows her engaged in a verbal confrontation with police. Melissa Click, an assistant professor in MU's communication department, was suspended last month, in the wake of an encounter she had with a student journalist during protests on the Columbia, Mo., campus in the fall." Includes video. CW: The Post is too fastidious to say so, but elsewhere I read that she told an officer "to get your fucking hands off me." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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Reader Comments (25)
I don't know if anyone caught this piece about Sheldon Adelson and his Republican money bags: "http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/sheldon-adelson-macau-casinos-lawsuit".
I wonder how many times Nino was Sheldon's dinner guest...?
A brief language rant:
I understand its usage to denote a certain ritual, but isn’t “lie in repose” an odd expression? What else would a couple hundred pounds of dead meat be doing? A tap dance?
@D.C. - Reading the headlines on my tiny screen before I put my glasses on, I saw the phrase as "Scalia's body will lie in response" [to any questions put to it].
@D.C. Clark & Nisky Guy: I too think the phrase, which I take to be an idiom, is odd. Inasmuch as Scalia's body is to be placed in the Supreme Court building, the term "lie in state" would have been more appropriate.
"Lie in repose" is sort of a demotion from "lie in state"; I'll bet the choice of terms was John Roberts'. As Roberts certainly has a protocol officer to advise him, I'll bet the demotion was deliberate.
MORAL: Even if you have a job-for-life, don't piss off the boss. Or you'll be sorry when you are dead.
Marie
I might not have been totally wrong earlier when a mentioned Nino being Adelson's dinner guest, "https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/02/17/justice-scalias-death-and-questions-about-who-pays-for-supreme-court-justices-to-visit-remote-resorts/". This corruption, for that's what it is, is what kills Democracy. Fairness and transparency are necessary for any well functioning democratically inclined governing.
Being the good Catholic he was, may they should have skipped the show and taken Il Nino straight to the local putridarium.
@Citizen625: That is exactly the point I intended to make once Justice Scalia's remains had been put wherever they're to finally be deposited. I may still elaborate on your point. I'm glad you made it, even if I'm too delicate to comment adversely on the person who inhabited the body set to "lie in repose."
Marie
Oooh! Great word, Unwashed. New one on me. Thanks.
I am going to be in town this week -- exhibit at the National Gallery and a play at the Folger. Maybe I'll stop in to see the old crock. Might carry a pillow in case I need to sit down. Those marble benches are cold and hard. Who would mind?
OK, enough sick humor for one day -- I'm done.
@Unwashed: I had never heard of a putridarium, either. But for those of you interested, here's a short piece on their usage. Dem bones, dem bones dem dry bones.
Marie
Thanks Marie, for the link.
Disinterring skeletal remains has been pretty common in Europe. Especially in areas where space in sanctified graveyards is limited. Where families own ancestral plots in churchyards, old bones are often dug up and placed in ossuaries to make room for newly deceased members.
In the graveyard scene in Hamlet, the skull of Yorick the court jester is dug up while making a grave for Ophelia. Which brings me to one of my all time favorite lines:
Hamlet, addressing the skull: "Now get you to my lady’s chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come. Make her laugh at that."
Apparently this suggests that human reproduction actually involves males.
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/fighting-abortion-restrictions-with-a-bill-on-viagra/?ref=opinion
Repose?
Imagination being what it is, I find it pleasant to pay no mind to the prospect that there might not be some sort of afterlife. If there is, my fondest wish is for Scalia to bump into certain founding fathers while on the lookout for the lofty eternal perch he will be sure must be his due (no larking about with dirty liberals or shiftless blahs from ages past and most certainly no gays, although I'm pretty sure he shuffled of this mortal coil--thanks to D.C. I'm on a Hamlet quotation kick now--secure in believing that gays and lesbians have no place among "decent" folks in the great beyond) whereupon, having followed with with great interest his career arc towards that gratuitous exercise in legal vacuity, Originalism, they will tell him in no uncertain terms that, jurisprudentially speaking, he has screwed the pooch. And wonderfully, too.
Which brings me to the questionable concept of Scalia ever being in repose. Of course, as has been suggested, his mortal remains are not dancing any jigs lately, but I can't believe that much repose is in the cards for him in this afterlife of my imagining, repose also being defined as a state of mind, a state of being free from worry and mental turbulence. I picture Nino up (or down) there as being just as much a superior, contentious, disputatious, high-handed insult engine as he was on earth. Perhaps he'll take up with famous historical malcontents, cantankerous squabblers, and puritanical Mrs. Grundies.
But even if he does find repose, the best will come when he gets to watch all his finely crafted legalistic conniving come a cropper on the shoals of true justice. Of course he'll do his best to ignore, discredit, or deny any such outcome, which would put him, I suppose, in the way of lying in repose.
I suppose.
Putridarium!
Such a word! Such scant opportunities for its use.
Damn. Well, leave us brook no arguments against trotting it out in the future upon the most slender of excuses.
"Oh my, what a horrible state this hotel room is in."
"A veritable putridarium, my dear. Alert room service, with all speed!"
I did say slender, didn't I?
Y'all can thank Umberto Eco for the word-of-the-day. I recently finished his latest book, Numero Zero, in which a scene took place in one of them. Based on the word's root I had an idea of what it was related to but had to look it up to be certain (this often happens with Ak's writings as well.) Under current circumstances it seemed appropriate for Scalia's journey to the other side.
@CW, thanks for including a link. Had I not been on my remote device I would have included one. Also, you've mentioned in the past that U.E. was a friend of your late husband and fellow partisan. How I would've loved to have been a fly on the wall listening to their conversations!
A friend sent me a text last night about what seems to be trending on right-wing social media, memes that have bled into places like Facebook, where his wife noticed this latest crock.
It appears that street level Confederates are picking up on all the querulous bullshit started by the Big Idiots and are declaring that not only should the president not be allowed to fulfill his constitutional responsibilities, but even if they did allow such an affront, he has no business doing so because...here it comes....he's not qualified to name anyone to the Supreme Court. "After all" one commenter added, "...wasn't he just a community organizer, some kind of Communist?"
Well, no...how 'bout editor of Harvard Law Review, taught constitutional law at Chicago for 12 years, state senator for eight years, US senator for another four and twice elected President of the United States. If those aren't qualifications, I don't know what would satisfy. I suppose these idiots think that Rush Limbaugh or Ted Cruz are better qualified.
But the best qualification is this: The Constitution says he gets to do it. This isn't some thing whereby we just sort of let him do it and can say "No" if we don't feel the guy is qualified. George Fucking W Bush, a complete imbecile in many areas, but especially where the law is concerned, named two members of the current court. And his first choice was one of his Texas hanger-ons, Harriet Miers. Might as well have nominated Karl Rove. Qualifications my ass.
This shit will never stop. Good for the president for telling these shitheads to stick it up their ass.
And speaking of Mitch McConnell and all of his reptilian cohorts
in Congress (yes, turtles are actually reptiles, testudinata) it would
appear to me that they all suffer from reptile dysfunction.
Apropos of one of the links, above, I was running through some former justices with a friend the other day and recalled that Earl Warren came from a candidate pool completely forgotten today. As a governor he didn't have the luxury of residing in a world, like John Roberts, where racism is no longer, or in a world, like Tony Kennedy, where influence can only take the form of actual bribery, the kind where some bag man hands off a bundle of cash for political favors, nor did he work in a world, like Sam Alitos, where real lives can be cast aside for questionable casuistries manufactured to hide their real provenance and impact. He had to deal with real problems on the ground. I'm sure this perspective aided his ability to make reasonable and just decisions as much as an education in recondite legalistic perambulations.
And although I think it will be a long time 'til we see another Earl Warren on the court (he being so fondly remembered by Confederates, for one), it might not be bad to have future justices whose legal temperaments have been given a good going over by real world considerations.
But then, one must be careful of what one wishes, no?
For instance a former governor, one who did an honest and thorough job, who believed in the efficacy of good government and was at pains to serve all his constituents and abide by the rule of law, would be an excellent choice and might not be hard to find, unless one began trolling through red states.
For instance, one would want to steer clear of governors who destroyed their state in the name of ideological purity (Brownback), or who used their home state as a piggy bank for cronies and a lab experiment in hinky wingnut scams for their personal aggrandizement (Walker), or a crass misogynist, racist, and thug (LePage), or one who poisoned his constituents for money (Snyder) and to prove that his allegiance is to the Confederacy, not to the people of his state. Or one who drove his state to the bottom of the list of almost every index of livability, health, education, and safety, because Wingnut, (Jindal), or....
Well, the list goes on and on and on.
Guess we'll forgo winger pols.
If you google "lying in state" vs "lying in repose" , there is widespread agreement that in the US, "lying in state" specifically means the US Capitol (rotunda).
Here are Supreme Court Justices' (current and past) statements on Scalia's death, Ginsberg's is quite lyrical. Alito, not so much. His wife rates dual mention, same as "Nino".
http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/2016/02/14/statements-supreme-court-death-justice-scalia/80376540/
Just got a chance to watch the president's clips from yesterday posted above. If you simply put the current Confederate candidates in the clown car up against Barack Obama and told each one to speak for five minutes, cogently, coherently, to make solid and defensible points, without notes, I don't think any of them could do it. Cruz, maybe, but there'd be a load of boilerplate and lies and snide maunderings, spit out between those pursed lips. Trump can't even eke out a declarative sentence without stopping three times. Rubio can only recite what he's memorized (wouldn't it be great to switch out his next "speech" card with lines from the "Wreck of the Hesperus"? Sen. Rubio, what can you tell us about the condition of the ship of state? "She struck where the white and fleecy waves, looked soft as carded wool, but the cruel rocks, they gored her side, like the horns of an angry bull. Okay?" "Ah....yeah, sure. Okay."). I'm just so happy to have had a smart guy in the White House, someone who can think clearly and speak with elegance and lucidity, not to mention someone who has a sense that "morality" is not just a punch line for the rubes.
In the second clip however, the one about the Supreme Court nomination, he makes a mistake. He states that he hopes elected officials (Confederates in this case) will "rise above day to day politics" when approaching the Supreme Court nomination process. Sorry, Mr. President, these losers never even make it to the level of day to day politics. The entire enterprise of politics is looked upon with horror by Confederates and the civic retards who put them there. They've gone beyond the Party of No. They now incarnate the Party of Never.
Cliven Bundy: hypocritical moocher.
The memo (see Marie's link, above) from the feds basically telling Bundy, his lawyers, and gun-humping supporters to tell their story walking if they expect him to be granted bail, gets right to the heart of the matter in this tale that has electrified treason-minded Confederates whose collective brain power couldn't run a Lionel HO locomotive around three feet of track with a good shove to start it off downhill.
He's nothing but a grifter. A con man, a liar, and a cheap and cowardly crook (not to mention a serial and criminal abuser of his animals). According to the feds:
"Bundy claims he has strong anti-federal government views, proclaiming that the federal government cannot own land under
the U.S. Constitution. These are not principled views–and certainly they have no merit legally–but nonetheless serve conveniently as a way for Bundy to somehow try to convince others that he has some
reason for acting lawlessly, other than the obvious one: it serves his own ends and benefits him financially"
Yeah. What he said.
So much for all that ridin' around wavin' the flag happy horseshit. It's nothing but money for Bundy and his brainless clan. No Justice, no "Code of Honor", no "Fightin' for Freeeedom" and "layin' down mah life fer 'merica" bullshit.
Money.
That's it.
What a pig. Keep this asshole in jail 'til he pays every dime he owes us then make him serve time for all the laws he's broken. And make sure Sean Hannity is in the next cell for aiding and abetting. If they end up in a NH pen they can hammer out "Live Free or Die" license plates until the second outcome obtains.
Fuckers.
@Diane: According to Wikepedia & several other sources, "lying in state" means having one's body placed in a significant public building, usually for the purpose of allowing the public to view the body & pay respects to the deceased. The Supreme Court building counts. It need not be a federal building; a governor's body, for instance, might be placed in a state capitol building.
Marie
"For most federal officeholders, lying in state is the rare honor granted by the United States to a deceased official wherein his or her remains are placed in the rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., for public viewing. The casket is guarded by members of the armed forces. By regulation and custom, only Presidents, military commanders, and members of Congress are granted the honor of lying in state. (US)"
The lead in for the Wikapedia cite gives a general definition, but each country is different in its specific protocol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lying_in_state
"But when you're talking about official U.S. government funerals, "lying in state" has a special meaning: You're only lying in state in the formal sense when your body is in the Rotunda of the Capitol Building in Washington."
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2005/09/lying_in_state_vs_lying_in_repose.html
A list of those "lying in state", in the US Capitol rotunda (updated 2015) for those who might be interested.
Several former chairmpersons of the Council of Economic Advisors have written a letter to the Sanders campaign asking that they stick to fact-based economic claims, provable economic claims.
https://lettertosanders.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/open-letter-to-senator-sanders-and-professor-gerald-friedman-from-past-cea-chairs/
@Diane: The Wikipedia page has changed since I read it an hour ago. It previously listed the justices who have been laid in state. Now it says they were laid in repose.
Marie
Could we then say that those that lie while serving a state do not deserve a "lying in state" no how, no where? Or even those that by some miracle don't lie, if not part of the military complex, been a President or are one, and all members of Congress don't get a lying in state, but are able to lie elsewhere wherever that may be. Hooray for protocol––lying in repose or lying in the grass, it all comes down to a body laid out for public viewing somewhere at sometime.
I recall at my father's sort- of Irish wake, a good friend of his came all the way from many states away to pay her respects. She wore a cream colored dress with a large brim hat to match with bright red cherries along the brim. She wore this outfit, she told me, because "your dad woulda loved it–-he was never one for gloom." And the drinks flowed.
So here's to Nino––he'll never meet an angel, but maybe someone with bright red cherries in her hat will remember him well.