The Commentariat -- March 26, 2013
**SCOTUSblog is tweeting updates of oral arguments. ...
... The New York Times' "The Lede" has live commentary. ...
... Adam Liptak & Scott Shane of the New York Times: "As the Supreme Court on Tuesday weighed the very meaning of marriage, several justices seemed to have developed a case of buyer's remorse about the case before them. Some wondered aloud if the court had moved too fast to address whether gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry." ...
... The Washington Post story, by Robert Barnes & Carol Morello, is here. ...
... Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog analyzes the Justices' remarks, with a concentration of Kennedy, who seems to want to skip the whole thing. "Ooh, my sinecure for life is too hard."
... The oral arguments in the Prop 8 case:
... Here's the Court's unofficial transcript of the arguments in the Prop 8 case (pdf). ...
... Attorneys David Boies & Ted Olson, attorneys opposing Prop 8, comment after the oral hearing:
... Sarah Erickson-Muschko of SCOTUSblog has an excellent series of links to news and opinion pieces on the two gay rights cases the Supreme Court will hear today. I won't try to duplicate her effort.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Paul Ryan's House budget:
**Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation, in the Washington Post: "Beneath all the partisan bickering, bipartisan majorities are solid for a trade policy run by and for multinationals, a health-care system serving insurance and drug companies, an energy policy for Big Oil and King Coal, and finance favoring banks that are too big to fail. Economist James Galbraith calls this the 'predator state,' one in which large corporate interests rig the rules to protect their subsidies, tax dodges and monopolies. This isn't the free market; it's a rigged market.... Bloomberg News estimated that the subsidy they are provided by being too big to fail adds up to an estimated $83 billion a year."
Natasha Lennard of Salon: "In recent months, especially in light of Aaron Swartz's suicide and Andrew 'Weev' Aurnheimer's prison sentencing, calls for reform to or disposal of the Computer Fraud and Abuses Act (CFAA) have amplified to a fever pitch.... Following Swartz's death, Rep. Zoe Lofgren proposed legislation, 'Aaron's law,' which aims to stop the government bringing disproportionate charges in cases like Swartz's. The draft cybersecurity bill circulating on Capitol Hill since last weekend, unlike Lofgren's, appears to expand the CFAA, not limit it.... TechDirt highlights one of the most perturbing suggested amendments includes changing the law such that 'conspiring' to commit what might be crimes under the CFAA would amount to actually committing the actual acts."
Bettina Boxall of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama on Monday established five new national monuments, including one in Washington's San Juan Islands and one in northern New Mexico." ...
... Which of course horrified Republicans.
President Obama spoke about immigration reform at a naturalization ceremony yesterday:
Jillian Rayfield of Salon: "Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., announced on his Facebook page that after some 'evolving,' he now officially supports gay marriage." ...
... Zack Harold of the Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail: Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) announced yesterday that he no longer supported DOMA.
We taxpayers paid for this so-called parody, along with another "spoof" of "Gilligan's Island." Thanks a lot, IRS. Good call. CBS obtained the video through a Freedom of Information Act request "after the IRS earlier refused to turn over a copy to the congressional committee that oversees tax issues: House Ways and Means":
... Josh Lederman of the AP: "... according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service...' the federal government spent ... nearly $3.7 million ... last year on the four living ex-presidents and one presidential widow. Topping the list in 2012 was George W. Bush, who got just over $1.3 million last year.... The $3.7 million taxpayers shelled out in 2012 is about $200,000 less than in 2011, and the sum in 2010 was even higher... With ex-presidents able to command eye-popping sums for books, speaking engagements and the like..., the report raises questions about whether the U.S. should provide such generous subsidies at a time when spending cuts and the deficit are forcing lawmakers and federal agencies to seek ways to cut back."
Justin Sink of The Hill: "Connecticut's U.S. senators on Tuesday admonished the National Rifle Association for robocalls to residents of Newtown, Conn.... 'With these robocalls, the NRA has stooped to a new low in the debate over how to best protect our kids and our communities,' Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats, wrote in a letter to NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre. 'We call on you to immediately stop calling the families and friends of the victims in Newtown.' The robocalls ... urge Newtown residents to lobby their state representatives against an effort to pass stricter gun controls in the state." ...
... Jonathan Allen of Politico: "Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are threatening to filibuster gun-control legislation, according to a letter they plan to hand-deliver to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office on Tuesday." CW: C'mon, you knew Aqua Buddha Man could not sound reasonable for longer than 24 hours. Time's up.
John Avlon of the Daily Beast/Newsweek: "... federal investigators are now interviewing former [Michele] Bachmann campaign staffers nationwide about alleged intentional campaign-finance violations. The investigators are working on behalf of the Office of Congressional Ethics, which probes reported improprieties by House members and their staffs and then can refer cases to the House Ethics Committee." CW: I'm sure any testimony Madame 8 Pinocchios gives will be totally truthful. ...
... Austerity, Yes, But Not in My District. Greg Sargent: "... there's nothing like a few spending cuts in your own district to concentrate the mind. [Michele] Bachmann is, understandably, upset to hear that the Federal Aviation Administration — as part of its move to close air traffic control towers across the country due to sequestration's spending cuts -- will be closing two towers in Bachmann's district. And she’s suddenly making sense, putting out a statement decrying the sequester cuts and calling for a more 'responsible' approach."
Andrew Cohen of the Atlantic remembers legal writer Anthony Lewis, who died Monday.
Senate Race
Margaret Chadbourn of Reuters: "Senator Tim Johnson, the Democratic chairman of the powerful banking committee, does not plan to run for re-election when his current term ends in 2014.... Johnson, 66, a three-term senator from South Dakota, has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday in his home state to discuss what his aides described as 'his future plans.' His retirement would leave a vacant seat in a conservative-leaning state that could be difficult for Democrats to defend as they try to protect their majority in the Senate." CW: I'll say.
Local News
Alex Pareene of Salon: "Looks like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is going to try to be president now.... Walker is 'collaborating on a book with Marc Thiessen....' It is an I would like to be president sort of book.... Thiessen is a very poor Washington Post opinion columnist who wrote a book in which he strung together a series of distortions in support of the thesis that torture is great." CW: read the whole post. Walker continues to work hard to beat my own governor Rick Scott to the title of America's Worst Governor.
It Could Happen to You. An innocent man is released from prison after 23 years; a school teacher and her principal have their careers restored after 10 years -- all falsely accused/convicted under investigations conducted by retired NYPD Det. Louis Scarella. Michael Powell of the New York Times reports.
Michael Gordon of the New York Times: in a speech to be delivered at the University of Southern California tonight, David Petraeus will say he is "keenly aware" he's a first-class jerk. Meanwhile, he's been getting lots of job offers. Keen.
Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic remembers Anthony Lewis, who died Monday.
Right Wing World *
Boehner, Not as Crazy as His Caucus. Boehner flip-flops again, this time on ObamaCare, which a few weeks ago was "the law of land" but now is a law the House will "continue working to scrap." Steve Benen: "The problem isn't necessarily that the House Speaker is a right-wing ideologue, but rather, that he's weak in the face of pressure from right-wing ideologues." ...
... CW: as I've said before in some form or another -- if Boehner were a patriot, he would seek out about 30 of his lease crazy members, and work with Pelosi to get some reasonable legislation through the House. If he can tell Harry Reid to go fuck himself, he can tell a bunch of disloyal Tea Party crazies the same.
Andrew Stiles of the National Review: Pushing back against criticism of his continued support for gay-lovin' Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), GOP chair Reince "Priebus cited former governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas as an example of someone who could be 'a model for a lot of people in our party' in terms of discussing issues like marriage and abortion. 'I always tell people: Listen to Governor Mike Huckabee,' he said." ...
... Steve Benen: "OK, let's ... 'listen to' Mike Huckabee on culture-war issues. We might hear, for example, the former Arkansas governor suggest a national quarantine for those who are HIV positive. Huckabee has also equated homosexuality with 'pedophilia, sadomasochism, and necrophilia,' and compared gay marriage to drug addiction. Huckabee has also compared legal abortion to slavery and the Nazi holocaust."
You Can't Make Up This Stuff. Carol Kuruvilla of the New York Daily News: "Some members of the tea party are boycotting Fox News for being too liberal. The activists, who call themselves the Tea Party Fire Ants, say that Fox News has gone soft on some issues, like immigration and the attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. They organized a boycott that lasted from March 21 to March 24, demanding that the station ... turn even harder right.... Its organizers are more than willing to switch over to the One America, a new conservative network that will launch in July." Via Steve Benen.
* Brought to you with a lotta help from Steve Benen.
News Ledes
New York Times: "The leader of the rebel group that seized power in the Central African Republic, Michel Djotodia, announced Monday that he was suspending his country's Constitution, dissolving its Parliament and initiating a three-year 'consensual transition.' Residents reported a precarious calm returning to the capital, Bangui, on Tuesday with less shooting and looting than on previous days, and some markets reopening. But there were also human rights violations by the rebel group, Seleka, according to an activist there."
AP: "Banks across Cyprus remain locked Tuesday after financial authorities extended the country's bank closure, fearing worried depositors will rush to drain their accounts.... All but two of the country's largest lenders had been due to reopen Tuesday, after being shut since March 16...."
Reuters: "Taliban suicide bombers< killed at least five policemen in Afghanistan's restive east on Tuesday, officials said, in a three-hour attack that coincided with a visit to the country by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The pre-dawn attack on a police compound in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan's largest city, came as the country braces for the beginning of the spring fighting season in the 11th year of the war." ...
... Washington Post: Afghan businesswomen with whom Kerry met "... had specific requests: better access to credit, government contracting set-asides for women-owned businesses and, from Mahmoodi, more soccer pitches for women.... The Obama administration has said ... [that] the kind of large-scale foreign help that Afghanistan will need is likely to be partly contingent on safeguarding gains for women."
AP: "Syrian opposition representatives took the country's seat for the first time at an Arab League summit that opened in Qatar on Tuesday, a significant diplomatic boost for the forces fighting President Bashar Assad's regime. In a ceremonious entrance accompanied by applause, a delegation led by Mouaz al-Khatib, the former president of the main opposition alliance -- the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition -- took the seats assigned for Syria at the invitation of Qatar's emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani."
AP: "Italy's highest criminal court on Tuesday overturned [American] Amanda Knox's acquittal in the slaying of her British roommate and ordered a new trial, prolonging a case that has become a cause celebre in the United States."
Share Article
Reader Comments (20)
Marie: re the worst governor derby--don't overlook Brownback and Jindal. They seem to be running neck in neck for the title of state government destroyer.
Yàll can puff up the Johnny-come-lately aspirants to the title of Greatest Republican Governor, I`ll stay with my hero Rick Perry. Going by the appendix in Gail Collins` As Texas Goes, he inherited an almost perfect Republican state and still manages to improve on perfection annually.
"... CW: as I've said before in some form or another -- if Boehner were a patriot, he would seek out about 30 of his lease crazy members, and work with Pelosi to get some reasonable legislation through the House. If he can tell Harry Reid to go fuck himself, he can tell a bunch of disloyal Tea Party crazies the same."
excellent point.
Patriotism's got nothin' on tanning beds and 5 o'clock merlot's, not to mention the infamous check episode.
Ahh... yes, cowichan, but Perry's a has-been even his part is tiring of him.
I am out of the loop on almost everything of political importance, and--sad to say--on Reality Chex. Sun and tennis have interfered drastically with my ability to read and digest anything relevant.
However, I did read Chris Hedges' Truthdig article "The Day That TV News Died" and almost had an attack of seriousness. Yikes. If you have not read it (and/or: if Mme Marie has not posted it), here it is:
http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/71-71/16642-focus-the-day-that-tv-news-died
Talk to y'all soon. I return from Palm Springs to real life in early April.
Andrew Kohut of Pew on the effect of the mad right on Republican prospects:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-numbers-prove-it-the-republican-party-is-estranged-from-america/2013/03/22/3050734c-900a-11e2-9abd-e4c5c9dc5e90_story.html
"CW: C'mon, you knew Aqua Buddha Man could not sound reasonable for longer than 24 hours. Time's up."
@CW You have a most generous time allowance for Aqua Buddha, I think Charlie Pierce gives him five minutes. Seems 'bout right to me! (probably too long by four minutes, anyway)!
Re: Teabagger Insects distraught over the liberalism of Fox "News"?
Isn't that a bit like members of Murder, Inc. criticizing Al Capone for not being violent enough?
Or members of the Klan upset with Bull Connor for being soft on segregation?
Where do these fucking people come from?
And can I quit writing interrogatory sentences now?
On the Supreme Court hearings today.
The justices have, in many instances, declined to hear cases or thrown out decisions based on their reliance upon the concept of legal standing. They have not been shy about using this tactic to either get the result they wanted with a nice little Pontius Pilate shrug, "Hey, what could we do? Our hands were tied. Those people had no standing to bring suit" or to put off having to deal with the case at all.
But in the case of Prop 8 they are hearing arguments on an initiative brought by groups in exactly that position: no standing.
Why the switch? Okay, don't answer that.
As to the rationale for the far-right's definition of marriage that is in play here, there is a simple answer. There ain't one. At least not one that should pass muster in any courtroom in the land.
Why?
Wingers base everything on what the Bible says so if we're going to use that as the basis of a legal argument why aren't we abiding by all the other crazy bullshit in Leviticus and other books that declare slavery legal, that declare the selling of women legal, that order the deaths of men who shave their beards on the first Tuesday after Flag Day, or clearly indicate that anyone eating pork fried rice with duck sauce should be burned at the stake, or some crazy nonsense.
Okay, so that argument is right out. In fact, the biggest bunker busting bomb to any argument based on religion is that no court should be considering using a religious text as the basis for imposing a law covering all Americans. Or ANY Americans.
It's just not, well, it's just not American. And it ain't legal.
But that's never stopped the wingers on the Court before and I doubt it will today. They won't say the Bible is the basis of their decision but for all intents and purposes, it will (or may) be. For Scalia it will be something like "But shit, that's how we've always done it!"
Religious nutjobs, er, make that Christian nutjobs, want everyone to abide by what they believe. If the wingers on the Court bow to their wishes, no matter what legal machinations they rely on, they should all be kicked off the bench.
I'll be waiting over here on this desert island for word of that happening. Just stick the message in a bottle.
It's either fitting or ironic or depressingly au courant that the building housing the Miami Herald will be demolished and replaced with a casino.
An enterprise given to reporting facts about the world displaced by one given over to separating suckers, who will show up with their superstitious, desperate hopes of a big payday, lucky charms in hand, from their money. "Spin the wheel, baby. Here goes the kids' tuition!"
Sounds very much like the world right-wingers pray for: A factual, clear-eyed view of the real world replaced by groundless faith in a fantasy world. And of course corporations raking in monstrous profits makes that picture complete.
@Akhilleus. Nice analysis of the Prop 8 defendants' argument. Here's how Amy Howe of SCOTUSblog summarizes their central arguments:
"The proponents also emphasize that Proposition 8 simply 'restore[d] the traditional definition of marriage' that has been in existence for centuries, and which rests in no small part on a desire to ensure that children 'will be born and raised in stable and enduring family units by their own mothers and fathers.' This concern does not apply to same-sex couples, who cannot produce children, but in California those couples can enter into 'domestic partnerships,' which give them essentially all of the rights and responsibilities of marriage, just without the label. Finally, noting the victories for supporters of same-sex marriage in the elections held just a few months ago, the proponents urged the Court to leave the 'public debate' about same-sex marriage to the democratic process."
It seems to me that under this theory of the definition of "traditional marriage," states or the federal government could ban any couple from marrying if they could not or did not plan to have natural or adopted children whom they would provide with "an enduring & stable family unit." No woman over the age of about 45 could obtain a marriage license. States could require both men & women to "prove their fertility."
"Traditionally," no U.S. state has ever required that couples wishing to marry swear they plan to have children. Such an oath isn't written or implied in "traditional" religious marriage vows, either, in case Father Scalia hadn't noticed. Marriage has always been a contract between two people, although the state has an interest in the marriage because it confers certain rights & responsibilities on married people. (I think even polygamists usually marry once at a time.) And of course that's the point. If you give some adult citizens the right to marry, then the Constitution demands that all adult citizens have that same right.
BTW, there's nothing in the "traditional" marriage vow that requires the couple to have a sexual relationship, in my reading. I have no doubt that a (tiny) percentage of couples marry for financial or other reasons of convenience, with neither contemplating an intimate physical relationship. I guess "traditionalists" might argue that these non-sexy couples were scamming the system.
Marie
Marie,
In typical winger families, married women who would rather not have sex probably have no choice. As Michele Bachmann is wont to say, women should be submissive and do their wifely duties. But most wives don't have the emergency "get out of sex whenever you don't feel like it" equipment she has.
All she has to do is point those scary spinning pinwheel peepers at ol' Marcus and he'll be stuffing any idea of dancing the prone polka back in the closet. Which is where he seems to spend most of his time anyway...
(Sorry, but it's been a while since I had a chance to riff on the Queen of Crazy.)
@Akhilleus. Perhaps the closet is Marcus' refuge in more than the just popular cultural vernacular. Frida, my beloved bulldog, gets that Bachman look when she sees a nasty big dog biscuit. We call that havin' the crack eye. I suspect Bachman's "wifely duties" are limited to matching Marcus' ties and shirts for which he must temporarily remove himself from the closet.
Walker may think he has a shot at the Presidency, but I hold to my theory that ugly people don't get elected. Bobby Jindal fails the aesthetically pleasing test - badly. Walker is rockin' that lazy-eye at the camera and projecting his Koch purchased indentured servitude like the dweeby wimp who gets his lunch money stolen....every single day. The Kochs have a specific agenda in Wisconsin for which Walker is the perfect patsy. Funding him for a Presidential run? Not so much. But the dream keeps Walker in line and on task.
Yes, the rich are different from you and me---for starters, they do not give a fig for the unemployed or the effect of the sequester. And, despite Krugman's unremitting efforts, an overwhelming majority of the rich feel that the budget deficit is the most important problem facing the nation. Oh, and they have the clout to make the MSM and Congress to follow their views.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/rich-americans-politically-active_n_2949976.html
@Diane, re: Great American Beauty Contest. I think you're right. On the GOP side, I think that leaves us with John Thune, Lisa Murkowski, Babyface Rubio,
Joe McCarthyTed Cruz, Bob McConnell, Susana Martinez, Brian Sandoval & maybe some other governors whose pictures I've never seen (I've seen Chris Christie's picture). Rob Portman had potential but ... the gay thing.Marie
Looks like the Supremes will decline any grand gesture one way or the other on Prop 8, but the haters' lawyer made another plea for defining marriage as man + woman = babies, which, as Marie pointed out earlier today, requires a very circumscribed, narrow view of that institution, an argument that is ultimately a loser for all the excellent reasons she proferred.
Sounds like Scalia opened up his usual can of smartass, asking Ted Olson to provide him with the exact time and date when it became unconstitutional to discriminate against gays. He is SUCH a prick.
Tony Kennedy, it seems, is having a heart to heart with his conscience.
Another interesting ploy brought by the defenders of hatred: they were swinging for the fences on this one (when don't they?) by demanding that the justices take their pinched, hateful, arrogant views and apply them across the board to all 50 states. And can that be right now, please?
They're obdurate assholes, I'll give them that.
Marie linked KVH's piece in the Washington Post. KVH further linked this piece by James K. Galbraith:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2006/05/predator-state
If you weren't depressed enough by the current state of affairs, read this. This was written in 2006. What's changed? Not much--maybe for the worse.
Ha ha. Justice Kagan -- and later Justice Ginsburg -- made the same argument I did above. Kagan kinda backed the Prop 8 attorney into a corner -- something, something, infidelity. Scalia piped in with something stupid about Strom Thurmond.
Marie
Hmmm... I have to ponder on the Beauty Contest List. However, I suspect that any candidate that has a whiff of minority heritage about them and all non male contenders would be relegated to the VP slot. Can't have them people trying to get all Presidential - Lord have Mercy!
Kennedy comes from my city and Akhilleus, I can confirm he has little or no conscience. When he was appointed, C4 was used to extract him from membership in the Sutter Club, an ancient boys only enclave. There is still a minutely detailed dress code for specific areas of the building (no ties on the roof). This excerpt is the only current reference to female attire: " Ladies should dress accordingly." I think they mean the dominatrix outfit is fine, but not on the roof. Its awfully scary to have such a fundamental (yikes shades of Gingrich sorry) issue in the hands of a fussy, self absorbed legal mind of midgetary proportions.
Diane,
This Sutter Club sounds like the kind of place where punk bastards from places like the Cranbrook School go after they're through torturing kids in high school. Does that dress code say anything about how members must wear their hair?