– In petitions: The General has a petition to investigate that pervert Rep. Michael Burgess, and The Transit Riders Union wants to save Metro from devastating cuts.
– I’ve been riveted by the abortion hearings in Texas. I probably would have missed a lot of it if not for Jessica Luther
– Capitol Lake has mud snails.
– A bicyclist has died in Woodinville (Seattle Times link)
Very interesting surprise inFisher vs University of Texas at Austin, the affirmative action case before the US Supreme Court that people had been waiting for a ruling since October. 7-1 to send it back to a lower court for strict scrutiny. Justice Thomas the lone dissent, with Justice Kagan recused because of earlier involvement in the case.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....56167.html
Obama,
Socially liberal,
Fiscally Republican.
The Supreme Court punted on the Texa Affirmative Action case, sending it back to the lower courts for further review consistent with it’s decision. It was a 7-1 decision, with only the Court’s newest justice saying she would have affirmed the 5th circuit’s decision supporting the law. Justice Alito, while joining the majority, took the opportunity to say he would have rejected the Texas law.
I got the dissent wrong, it was Justice Ginsberg, not Justice Thomas.
Why do we use the term “justice” to describe Supreme Court judges? They’re not justice, they’re judges. What we hope comes out of the Supreme Court is justice, but the judges aren’t justice themselves. It’s like calling doctors “health care.” Doctors hopefully provide a health care product in their services, but nobody calls them “health care.” Calling Supreme Court judges “justices” encourages elitism on the part of these judges. After all, they’re all just a bunch of politcal appointees, so let’s get rid of the arrogant titles.
Berlosconi, the right-wing ex-politician and business mogul who owns almost all the Italian news outlets, was convicted of having sex with an underage protestute and using his influence to cover up the crime. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Of course, as the Amanda Knox case showed, appeals can drag out for years. Even if his sentence is upheld, he might not step foot in a prison for at lest four years. And at age 76, time is on his side.
@5 All the problems in the world, and you spend your time and energy railing against the labels we call the supreme court?
Seriously? That’s what important to you?
From 7,
Yes, I do. The egos of government employees need to be knocked down a peg or two.
@5 We used to have Supreme Court justices, but after Reagan and the Bushes the majority of them are, as you said, just political appointees.
@8 “The egos of government employees need to be knocked down a peg or two.”
Not nearly so much as the egos and hubris of bankers and CEOs. It wasn’t the Supreme Court who wrecked our economy.
As the decision nears on Prop8 and DOMA, some interesting stories are emerging. One is about a Mormon couple who canvassed for Prop8 in 2008, have had some second thoughts. In the intervening 4+ years, their teenage son came out as gay.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/m.....d=19451081
@8 I call BS.
You just said every government employee had a big ego and needs to be knocked down. Really?
Please post links where you posted that Scott Walker, Paul LePage and Rick Perry had big egos and needed to be knocked down a peg or two.
Does apply to your 2nd grade teacher?
Does this apply to your local fireman?
Does this apply to the FDA employee checking your food?
When you make overly broad statements like that, you sound like an idiot or a right wing tool.
We have real problems, and you are whining about labels?
5)I use the term out of force of habit.
@11 Conservatives often change their minds only when it affects them. They seem unable to understand the situation of others without being personally effected. Look at the Conservative politicians who are trying to gut food stamps who will never be poor or hungry themselves.
14)Very true. I am still wondering why Senator Murkowski(R(?)-AK) changed her position. Could be payback for 2010 led to her”evolving” on the issue. Aren’t evangelicals a key part of the right wing base that vote in GOP primaries? If it were not for her write in campaign, the GOP candidate would have won.
I just read the Tony Horwitz and the Ta-Nahisi Coates pieces in the Atlantic. These “new revisionists” are attacking a straw man that nobody but them believes in. I’ve never heard anyone portraying the Civil War as some glorious enterprise. The goal and outcome, the abolition of slavery, perhaps, but never the conduct of the war.
The descriptions of the true horrors of the Civil War are well known to anyone with even the most cursory knowledge. I learned about the slaughter, the depravity of Andersonville and the horrid conditions in grade school. The Time-Life books on the war, for shit’s sake, cover this stuff.
The New Revisionists sound very much like the old Revisionists, trying to excuse the South and minimize the evil of chattel slavery. Assholes.
Hey, how’s that overdue Washington state budget coming along?
The Seattle Weekly has a fair analysis of what the dkhead twins, Sheldon & Tom, have wrought
With a Budget in Sight, What Did Olympia’s Turncoat Democrats Really Win?
And Dominic Holden over at the SLOG wants our state Democrats to get off their own asses and take the issue to the people
Have Dems Resigned to the GOP Agenda?
Frankly I agree with Dominic.
There’s no good reason not to bring the disaster of Republican obstructionism front and center to the voters of Washington.
As a person wealthier than most, my taxes MUST be raised in WA to make this the state we all want.
Why must nearly all of our Dem politicians be ball-less wonders?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA! What will our favorite klownservative jerk troll do?
http://www.salon.com/2013/06/2.....rgeted_ap/
Oh well! Our favorite klownservative jerk troll swallowing the next jawb-kweating bullshit scandal from Issa in 5,4,3,2….
On a more positive note…
Thanks to the adamant protests of civil rights organizations the murderer of an unarmed teenager saw his first day of trial where he will be judged of his guilt or innocence by a jury.
The outcome of that case may be up in the air, but the case for fighting for justice and civil rights won today with the start of the trial.
Justice is rarely a given.
Even when an unarmed youth is gunned down in your street you may need to fight hard for justice.
Sometimes we win.
Word on The Street is that David Brooks likes to be diapered and spanked.
Remember folks, you heard it here first!
20)I have come to believe that pte-trial publicity makes it hard to get an impartial jury, especially in Florida, but in this case, I will have to make an exception. It was the publicity that helped get this case to court. The impression that I got was that the Seminole County prosecutor was going to hide behind Stand your Ground and sweep this one under the rug, and Tallahassee got involved.
One more reason why the current Republican/conservative clusterfuck is doomed.
@19 Another Issa investigation goes pffftt! Issa is now 0 for ?
@20 I have little doubt that Zimmerman will be convicted of something. He was an adult; the victim was a minor. He had a gun; the victim did not. He instigated the confrontation; the victim did not. The victim was where he had a right to be, doing what he had a right to do; Zimmerman did not have a right to play cop or take the law into his own hands. He may or may not be a racist, but he certainly is a vigilant, and a teenager guilty of no crime is dead because of Zimmerman’s paranoia. I have doubts about whether the second-degree murder charge will stick, but the voluntary manslaughter charge certainly will. There’s no way he’ll walk out of that courtroom a free man at the end of his trial.
@23 The GOP is doomed by two things: Demographic trends and its own stupidity.
Something that I want to add to my post at 15, was that the family in the article that I posted, at least they were able to be accepting before it was too late. The mother in the story behind the movie “Prayers for Bobby” came to terms and changed after it was too late. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.....er_Gay_Son
During the debate in the State Legislature over the marriage equality bill, State Senator Brian Hatfield had an interesting story on why he changed his vote. Remarks made to him by former colleagues that voted for the state version of DOMA in the 90’s, who had regretted it. One told the story of not long after the vote, her daughter had come out to her.
http://blog.senatedemocrats.wa.....ality-act/
The Republican Times is now dabbling in economic advice. In an editorial that looks like it was written by Bruce Ramsey, the ST said today the Federal Reserve should let interest rates rise:
http://seattletimes.com/html/e.....esxml.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Don’t hold your breath for the Times or Ramsey to win a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for this. I happen to agree that keeping interest rates artificially low is bad policy, but that’s such a no-brainer that a kindergartner would understand it.
Do Republicans practice being this stupid, or does extreme stupidity come naturally to them?
“Amid a heated debate over a restrictive anti-abortion bill being pushed by Texas GOP lawmakers, one Republican argued that a proposed exemption for rape victims was unnecessary because assaulted women could simply turn to rape kits for abortions.
“‘In the emergency room they have what’s called rape kits, where a woman can get cleaned out,’ said state Rep. Jodie Laubenberg (R), sponsor of the controversial SB 5, according to The Associated Press. ‘The woman had five months to make that decision, at this point we are looking at a baby that is very far along in its development.’
“As HuffPost blogger Soraya Chemaly notes, that’s not the function of rape kits, typically administered to collect evidence of sexual assault. Not even close, PolitiFact Texas reports, giving Laubenberg’s remark a ‘pants on fire’ rating.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....93220.html
29)My guess is, that since the GoP platform even opposes a rape and incest exception, these comments that their lawmakers and candidates are making, is an attempt to justify their position.
“I don’t think he’s a man at all!”
Sez the guy with the cocksuckers beard.
You TeaBaggies are so amusing.
Supreme Court gutting Voting Rights Act. It will be any day now that we once again return to slavery in the South.
The first slave should be Puffy.
@ 30
Thats because, as far as the Dominionist/Fascisti are concerned, rape and incest are perfectly acceptable means of human reproduction.
It was just the coverage formula, not Section 5 itself that was struck down. Will this Congress do anything about it? Probably not, although Rep Sensenbrenner has signaled recently that he was open to working on any fix that is needed.
http://www.scotusblog.com/2013.....n-english/