Typical right wing?

From Newsweek this week: "Right now, I wouldn't vote Democratic if Jesus Christ was running." Judy Deats, a Texas Republican, who is standing by Rep. Tom DeLay in his re-election bid despite the fact that his association with lobbyist Jack Abramoff has made him vulnerable to political opposition for the first time in more than 20 years.

Is it true that if God himself was opposing the Republican party, that constituents would stand by their candidate? I guess we don't really need to worry, because if God was trying to stop Evil, He wouldn't leave it up to an election. There'd be something wicked cool like a flood or a plague...

Justice Roberts: Tanned, Rested and Ready to Legislate from the Bench.

So much for conservative restraint. Chief Justice Roberts was ready to repeal the 4th Ammendment this week, and in doing so, was ready to write a new law by judicial declaration.

In yesterday's decision Roberts wrote the dissent (vote was 5-3). In the case, a wife gave permission to police to search her home (she was angry at her husband, said he was a cocaine user, and they would find evidence of this); her husband, also present, explicitly denied permission to search. The police searched, found evidence of cocaine use, and arrested the husband.

Roberts:: "In a concluding paragraph of his dissent, he said: 'The majority reminds us, in high tones, that a man's home is his castle, but even under the majority's rule, it is not his castle if he happens to be absent, asleep in the keep or otherwise engaged when the constable arrives at the gate. Then it is his co-owner's castle.'"

Here, Roberts is complaining that the majority was silent on a question of law which was not before the court: what should happen if the second co-owner was not present?

Roberts faulted the majority for declining to address a hypothetical question of law -- not the question before the court, and a question that's likely to come up in the future, sure, but a hypothetical question nonetheless. What do the police do if the co-owner is not present?

That is, per definition, legislating from the bench.

This is going to get interesting.

Bush Administration Getting Ready to Enforce Discrimination

The Bush administration just altered their regulation for security clearances. The policy used to say that sexual orientation was not a basis to disqualify an individual for a security clearance. The new policy says that sexual orientation cannot be the sole basis to disqualify an individual for a security clearance.

So, if you're ugly too......

Link

3rd Anniversary Euphemisms

Since Erica and I share our wedding anniversary with the start of the Iraq War (almost), it looks like we are going to have a big drumbeat of pre-anniversary war news coverage every year until the troops come home, thus I expect, each year for the rest of our natural lives.

Jon Stewart was noting our joint anniversary this week on the Daily Show, and asking what the traditional gift for a 3rd anniversary is. I have consulted Wikipedia and the answer, apparently, is "leather." My oh my.

Erica and I will mutually decline, I think, but one has to marvel at the appropriateness of this gift if one imagines (as Jon did) it coming from the US occupiers to their oh-so-civilly occupied Iraqis. Just think of all the uses! Helmets and body armor, for one. Gloves. Jackets. Whips, straps, and restraints. Thong underwear! Not a one of them out of place.

All of which also brings to mind - yes - Fox News. I was watching the closed captions on one of their programs while at the gym today (no other bicycle free), and noticed one of their anchors discussing, as a key bullet point on the current situation in Iraq, "sectarian violence." And I was thinking about the key Administration Message of the Day: Iraq is not descending into civil war. Of course, they had been forced against all evidence into making this denial because their ex-poster-boy for Iraqi democracy, Ayad Allawi, stated clearly to the BBC that this was exactly the right characterization. So you've got to have sympathy for the Administration on this one, given the awkwardness of their position from the get-go.

But then you parse the meaning of that Fox News phrase, "sectarian violence," and you realize that even these gents are no longer with the program. Truly a leather anniversary, all around.

It's Here!

Ah, Spring!

I've gone Centigrade

I didn't think it could ever happen to me. Are the degrees bigger or smaller, I'd have to think to myself, and then it's subtract 32, divide by 2, and that's about right.

But, no, now, after 2 years, I have an instictive feeling for what the temperature is outside in Centigrade.

"My gosh! It must be 12 degrees out today!" I said -- (a) joyfully; (b) ruefully; (c) completely ignorantly. Correct answer: (a). It's been a cold winter, and the termperatures finally broke 10 this past weekend, with a high of 12 (that's mid-60s -- which takes us well out of the freezing range we're usually in).