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November 03, 2004
i do not adhere to the strict father model.
i'm totally depressed.
later i am going to write a lot of very specific stuff about why another four years of bush makes me extremely depressed and fearful, which is something i should have been doing all along.
topics to be covered will likely include:
- why a faith based presidency flies in the face of the principles on which our nation was originally founded
- why it is important that women have a right to privacy and control over their own bodies
- why it is deeply offensive and wrong to me for there to be laws that dictate who can and cannot be married.
- why the weapons of mass destruction were a huge red herring, and why we never should have invaded iraq, ever, regardless of whether they had nukes or not.
- why it is extremely dangerous for the US to piss off the entire world. actually, that one is probably self-apparent.
- ...and many more.
stay tuned.
Posted by lisa at November 03, 2004 08:54 AM | TrackBack
Comments
let's not forget about the supreme court justice who is, apparently, on death's door...
ugh.
Posted by: christa on November 3, 2004 09:42 AM
Well, if nothing else, we all did OUR part. If there are more sheep in the US, there's not a whole lot we can do about it.
Posted by: Steve Meister on November 3, 2004 10:01 AM
lisa--you rock.
christa--actually, rehnquist is one of the more conservative judges. i'm personbally more worried about stevens, who is over 80 and was planning on retiring a couple years ago. how much longer can he hold on? also, i've heard that bush wants clarence thomas to be the next chief justice. so yeah, actually, let's all keep rehnquist in our thoughts . . .
Posted by: alicia on November 3, 2004 10:30 AM
Argh.
Posted by: Phil on November 3, 2004 01:06 PM
rehnquist is the most conservative judge on the bench, i think. (thomas is a close 2nd.) but when he retires/dies it is now bush who nominates his (likely conservative) replacement. we would have been better served if kerry got to make the nomination... at least then we might have had a chance of keeping roe v. wade from being overturned.
though, truth be told, the only judges that are making it to the bench anymore are blandly moderate.
"the west wing" featured an interesting scenario last season... the opportunity for the prez to nominate two judges to fill two supreme court seats. he ended up (after much wrangling) nominating one very conservative judge and one very liberal judge. the argument is that no one is served by having namby-pamby moderate decision-makers, and that america thrives on passionate debate... and that nominating two "extreme" candidates would be better for the country than two moderate judges.
that would never happen in the real world, of course, but it was interesting to watch on tv.
Posted by: christa on November 3, 2004 01:26 PM
i believe bush may actually have the opportunity to appoint four supreme court judges? i don't have good info on this.
i get the NARAL mailings, which come out for every judge that Bush gets to appoint, which is not just Supreme Court judges. He's been stacking the judicial system with radically conservative judges for the last four years.
Although we are now virtually guaranteed that Bush will achieve his goal of having Roe v. Wade overturned, that is not the only problem. The judicial system is being stacked, and the judges that are appointed aren't going to be going anywhere after four years, so this is a lasting legacy in one entire branch of our government.
With the Oval Office in wildly right-wing hands, the Judicial system heading that way, and Congress even more that way... we effectively no longer have any checks and balances.
Posted by: lisa on November 3, 2004 01:40 PM
People have been predicting three supreme court appointments, but I read (I think in that Suskind article a couple of weeks ago) that Bush is hoping for four.
But maybe Stevens can hold on for a few more years. He's a spry old fellow!
Posted by: Sarah on November 3, 2004 03:59 PM
Stacked? That sounds awfully like "rigged". And I cannot believe that is the case. Especially since a president hasn't won both the electoral and popular vote since 1988. Call it naive or whatever, but the people spoke. While I wouldn't call it a decisive victory (heavily divided is more like it), it's still a legal victory.
As far as the nominations go, it's not unheard of for a President to nominate even three or four Supreme Court Associate justices. Reagan ® nominated four justices (one supreme court justice and three associate justices). Nixon ® also nominated four. In fact, besides Washington who nominated 10 justices, Franklin Roosevelt (D) nominated more justices than anyone else with eight (over two terms).
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/members.pdf
Posted by: Dan LaMee on November 3, 2004 04:54 PM
Bush'll have to hurry -- there's a congressional election halfway through his term, and he'll be a lame duck his last 2 years. So he probably only has a couple full years to do everything he'd like to.
Posted by: Steve Meister on November 3, 2004 05:16 PM
can i add another terrifying entry to your list, lisa?
think for a moment about the republican ticket in 2008. if history is any indication, dick cheney will be the nominee.
Posted by: christa on November 4, 2004 05:17 PM
i don't think so, for 3 reasons:
(1) he'll be 67 and he has a history of heart and other health problems
(2) even though he's only 5 years older than GWB, i think he's perceived as being from an older political generation
(3) unlike Bush, he has no "regular guy" folksy charm to offset his creeping Voldemort/Sidious evil
Posted by: georg on November 4, 2004 07:22 PM
yeah, i actually think that charisma is kind of the bottom line.
barak obama, baby. obama. the man, his wife, and his kids just drip charisma.
Posted by: lisa on November 4, 2004 07:27 PM
Hey! Leave Sidious out of this. I'd be much happier had the dark lord of the sith won the election than these fools.
Posted by: jobi-won on November 4, 2004 07:54 PM
I just ordered one of these:
http://wigu.com/shop/eagle.html
Posted by: Steve Meister on November 5, 2004 11:16 AM
ok, so a) your comment won't post right away because i have to approve it first and b) you might get a server error but your comment probably posted anyway and c) previewing doesn't work so i've removed the preview button.