Good, Bad, Ugly

Good: Well, Georgie must be so proud. Here are those adorable Iraqis demonstrating just like grownups do. Are they thanking America for overthrowing Hussein, on the second anniversary of the fall of Baghdad? Not exactly -- actually, the tens of thousands of demonstrators were there at Al Sadr's instigation, to demand that America get out of Iraq. "Mahdi Army militiamen searched people entering the demonstration area as Iraqi policemen stood to the side. Protesters burned the U.S. flag as well as cardboard cutouts of Bush and Saddam. Three effigies representing Saddam, Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- all handcuffed and dressed in red Iraqi prison jumpsuits that signified they had been condemned to death -- were placed on a pedestal, then symbolically toppled like the Saddam statue two years before. Others acted out reports of prison abuse at the hands of American soldiers . . . "
Bad: Time's Joe Klein who just wrote another column critizing democrats and their boring old "culture of law" meme. As Digby writes: "We're not in favor of inflicting particular religious doctine on those who don't believe and we don't think that the government should intrude on purely private matters. If that's a 'culture of law' count me in. There must be some kind of computer program you can buy in DC that scolds Democrats like a drunk and bitter stepmother no matter what the circumstances. If there isn't, I'm going to invent one so that Joe Klein can spend even more time kissing the flatulent asses of sanctimonious Republican gasbags who insist that James Dobson and his zombie nation represent 'real' America."
Ugly:

Just another one of Nick Anderson's great Pulitzer-winning cartoons.

Whose court would you rather be in -- Kennedy, or Delay?

And the Verdict on Justice Kennedy Is: Guilty
These people are mentally ill.
They need help. Now. They need to go away to the funny farm for a while or take a pill or talk to a good psychiatrist, or all three.
It isn't the judges that need to be stopped. It is these people.
Now they think they're going to impeach a Supreme Court Justice because he dared to change his mind on juvenile executions between 1988 and now, to write the majority decisionto stop the execution of teenagers, a practice which every other country in the world, except Somalia, has already abandoned. And they think it is outrageous judicial overreach to even mention in the decision that the US is lagging behind every other country on the planet in this regard. How uhpatriotic. Maybe its not the decision, its the implied insult they're reacting to -- gee, you mean you think some of our state legislatures are twenty years behind the times, led by a bunch of rednecks? How dare you insult our good ole boys!
Not only that, but Kennedy had the temerity to write that juveniles, because they were younger and less mature, should be given the chance to grow up -- "the state cannot extinguish his life and his potential to attain a mature understanding of his own humanity". Well, age hasn't helped to bring maturity to the people attending this conference, has it.
And in the same issue of the Washington Post is an article by a judge talking about violence toward judges, including references to the recent violence and to earlier mail bombs. Judge Roth wants congress to give more funds to the US Marshalls Service to protect judges better. Well, how convenient -- the wingnuts now know that all they have to do to intimidate judges is to dismantle the US Marshalls.
Problem solved I guess.
Or else they can adopt the Stalin solution they kept talking about at the conference -- "Death solves all problems: no man, no problem" The Supreme Court had better keep checking its mail.
It would, I suppose, be too much to expect that Bush would issue some kind of statement condemning these wingnuts -- they are, after all, his base, and so he must not dare to tell them they're wrong.
Besides, they might turn on him, next.
UPDATE: Digby has more. "It's not that these judges are "liberal activists" --- the main players in the Schiavo matter were conservative republicans, for God's sake. It's that the Republican legislatures both state and federal want to blame the judiciary for the fact that they cannot deliver on these repugnant, unamerican, demands from their extremist religious right constituency. They want something that . . . Republican judges and Democrats all agree is unconstitutional. They want to destroy an independent judiciary so they can pass unconstituional laws on a purely partisan basis with no review."

Finger bites back

Finger-in-chili accuser has litigious history Some people have just amazing bad luck, don't they?

Mulroney's Irish eyes are smiling

The Globe and Mail: Scandal battering Liberals, poll shows This should win an award as the least surprising headline of the week.
It may be that not every accusation about corruption and passing around envelopes full of cash will prove to be true, but there are just so many of them that even if only half are true, its still a huge number. It all reads like a Sopranos script.
When Harper told the commons earlier this week that the Liberals had lost the moral authority to govern, I felt I could agree with him -- even though the scandal should not be blamed on Martin, it will be, and the history of democracy is littered with the corpses of politicians who had to fall on their swords because someone else couldn't keep their hands out of the till.
Mulroney, I'm sure, will not be able to stop himself from at least a tiny gloat or two -- and he's entitled, after all the misery he went through. I'm not sure that the Conservatives will be able to convince Canadians that they have earned that moral authority to govern -- I guess we'll have to see what kind of campaign it is -- but it looks like the conservatives will be able to use that same commercial, the one with the janitors sweeping up the money in the Parliament buildings.
And I will be profoundly disappointed if the writ is dropped before the Gay Marriage legislation gets passed.

We're trying

The Abstract Factory: In which Jonah Goldberg performs feats that bend the laws of space and time I guess right-wing wunderkind Goldberg wrote a column about why so many university faculty are self-described liberals, and it was all wrong, of course. In writing about the stupidity of Goldberg's arguments, computer science grad student and blogger Abstract Factory reports a greater truth:
"Now, this would merely be an occasion for a hearty laugh at the village idiot's expense, if not for what it represents in its broader media context. The fact is, Goldberg doesn't care in the least whether what he says is true and well-reasoned, and neither do his backers and readers . . . Goldberg's function is to spew forth some roughly grammatical stream of words that appear to reinforce conservatarian ideology, so that his readers can listen, nod, and feel vindicated in their beliefs. And --- this is what's really maddening, all the outrages I've brought up wouldn't matter in the least except for this point --- virtually all right-leaning commentators, running the gamut from David Brooks to Rush Limbaugh to Glenn Reynolds, whether consciously or not, perform roughly the same function, and they're wildly effective. The entire right-wing movement is like a hovercraft floating on the perpetually roaring whirlwind of sub-rational, self-reinforcing nonsense that gusts through the minds of its adherents. It goes on and on and on, and nobody stops the people who feed it; most of the time, nobody with a prominent voice even stands up to them and calls them on their nonsense. For writing this column, and numerous other pieces of garbage like it, for filling people's minds with offal, Jonah Goldberg will never face judgment; he'll die peacefully, with a fat bank account and a kid gloves obituary."
Emphasis mine.
Well, AF, we try, oh how we try. We're not going gentle into that good night. We'll blog, blog against the dying of the light.

"Nice little country you have here, folks"

Gilead
Nice little country you have here, folks.
It would be a shame if something were to happen to it.
We're not just talking to those judges anymore, you know. No, its the whole damn country that has to get with the program now. And right quick, too. Or else we might just have to do a little headbanging.
Starting with those "living constitution" judges, of course, the ones who think they can overturn one of OUR laws just because they SAY its UNCONSTITUTIONAL. When we pass a law that outlaws abortion, we don't want any judges around anymore who think they can overturn it just because it isn't fair.
But we've got to go a little further than that -- there's all those bloggers, damned traitors. Bunch of whiners. Who the hell do THEY think they are, anyway? And those anti-war protestors -- have to keep them out of sight. And anyone who thinks they have the right to ask our George a question, or wear a t-shirt with a slogan on it, or put a bumpersticker on their car, well, they've toast, too. Its really the Democrats, all of them, that are the problem with this country. The country just has to get rid of them, that's all, and let Georgie do what he knows is best -- or what WE TELL HIM to do. Whose do you think is running this country now anyway?
We're going to turn you all into decent, God-fearing Christians if we have to break every bone in your body to do it.

Dumb, but not criminal

My Blahg notes that Conservatives can have stupid ideas too -- Criticism of Grewal continues
This MP apparently thinks it should be OK to give someone a visitors visa if they can post a bond of some fantastic sum like $100,000 -- or, I suppose, they could drop their firstborn male child off at the Canadian airport on their way into the country and then pick him up on the way back.
This pales, of course, in comparison to what is coming out about the sponsorship scandal -- Grewal may be dumb, but it doesn't sound like he is a criminal.

Prizewinner

One of a gallery of cartoons by Nick Anderson, who won the Pulitzer for them.
And while you're at the Pulitzer site, check out the AP photos that the right-wing blogs are making all the fuss about -- "how dare they give the prize to photos which actually show how tough it is for the American soldiers in Iraq?"

Oh, shit

Separatism's unlikely ally
Quebecers were angry enough last spring about the idea that they could be bribed into continued loyalty to confederation by a few garden show sponsorships.
Thus, 50 seats for the Bloc last June.
But now its even worse.
The Toronto Star notes that there is no real secret about what the Gomery inquiry is hearing, publication ban or not. Since 2002 the Star has been publishing stories about the story behind the story of the sponsorship scandal ". . . Liberals took a system they inherited from Brian Mulroney's Tories and fine tuned it until federal advertising, polling and communications contracts worth millions were being used to pay the party's bills in Quebec and beyond."
So let me get this straight -- the Liberals have been saying for the last year that they secretly spent millions in sponsorships because they were trying to keep the country together. But actually there was a secret inside the secret. They were actually secretly spending the money to help the Liberals continue to get elected.
Oh, Quebec will hit the roof. And the rest of us should too.
I suppose Chretien and Galiano could have talked themselves into seeing this as "keeping the country together" by preventing the Bloc from getting elected.
Sorry, folks, that ain't gonna cut it.
The Star writes "Should Gomery find that Liberals were breaking the law as well as the rules not to rescue the country but to hide the costs of campaigns before passing the bills to taxpayers, the already diminished brand will be in the dumpster. For those who care more about the country than the party, the consequences are ominous. Strategists are already connecting the dots that lead from another strong Bloc Quebecois election result to leader Gilles Duceppe's expected defection to the Parti Quebecois, then to the anticipated defeat of Premier Jean Charest's unpopular Liberal government and, finally, to another referendum. Instead of crushing separatism, the Chicago tough-guy tactics used on Chretien's watch have given new life to a cause prematurely judged to be on life support . . . Nor is the rubbery asymmetrical federalism preached by Stephen Harper and practised by Paul Martin reassuring. Facing a strong, impressively deft Duceppe, a weak prime minister would have trouble resisting the transformation of an already loose federation into one worth considerably less than the sum of its parts; or worse. That's the opposite of what Chrétien wanted, intended and spent his long life in politics trying to achieve. But once unleashed, dark forces are hard to control and the genie of the Quebec sponsorship scandal is now wandering free, wreaking havoc. By the time its evil work is done, Jean Chrétien, the life-long separatist-fighter, may find his place in history rewritten as the movement's misguided secret weapon."

"Nice little courtroom you've got here, judge."

Senator Links Violence to 'Political' Decisions
Nice little courtroom you've got here, judge. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it.
You know how these things go, judge. Its not me you have to worry about now, its my boys.
You know how they get when they're angry.
And judge, I'm sorry to say you've made them pretty angry with all these constitutional decisions you've been making, thinking that's your job now to tell us God-fearing patriotic American citizens whether what we want to do is constitutional or not. Like deciding all the witnesses who said Terri Schaivo wanted to die were right, and accepting all those doctors saying she was basically brain dead. And before that, telling states they couldn't execute teenagers even if they wanted to. And even telling Texas that they couldn't prosecute gay men for having sex.
You just can't be doing that kind of thing anymore, judge, making decisions like that just as though it was your job. Its not, not any more. You got to just be leaving that kind of decision up to me and the boys, or you'll be sleeping with the fishes. Kapishe?

Sad, isn't it.

Ahenakew: didn't know he was being taped when he called Jews a "disease"
"David Ahenakew says he had no idea he was being taped when he told a reporter that Jews were a 'disease' and he never figured his comments would be published."
Excuse me -- this man was speaking to a reporter, and he had been a politician for, what, two decades?
As noted later in the story, "The Saskatoon StarPhoenix reporter who taped the conversation, James Parker, testified that his recorder was right in Ahenakew's face . . . "

Gom-mercy

Peace, order and good government, eh?: Reserving judgement for now
POGGE has the links for the inquiry testimony and also some wise advice: "What people are reacting to is hearsay and anonymous second-hand reporting on testimony from someone who's facing criminal charges and apparently decided to sing like a bird. He may have told the truth and he may have tried to spread the blame as widely as possible. I'm inclined to reserve judgement until things settle down and we get some decent, sourced reporting on what's going on."
But it does sound pretty bad for the liberals.

This be the verse

I didn't realize until I read Amanda's Pandagon post at Feminist Blogs, but April is National Poetry Month.
Now, I've been waiting for an excuse to put this poem on my blog. It's not personal -- actually, my own parents didn't do too badly by me, and neither did my husbands, though of course we both have some loveable quirks to this very day! And our kids still like us, as far as we can tell. But I think its a great poem, nonetheless:

This Be The Verse - Philip Larkin

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.

Good Bad Ugly

Just a quick roundup of the good, the bad, and the ugly:
Good - "Our regulation says that if a woman goes to a pharmacy with a prescription for birth control, the pharmacy or the pharmacist is not allowed to discriminate or to choose who he sells it to or who he doesn't sell it to. No delays. No hassles. No lectures." Illinois Pharmacies Ordered to Provide Birth Control
Bad - "Your attempt to intimidate judges in America not only threatens our courts, but our fundamental democracy as well." DeLay Wants Panel to Review Role of Courts
Good - ". . . there's something about historical depth of human experience that Catholicism represents that commands my respect, even if the church's behavior doesn't always earn my admiration. . ."Shoes of the Fisherman
Bad - "The many anecdotal reports of voting irregularities create a context in which the possibility that the overall vote count was substantially corrupted must be taken seriously." National Election Data Archive Project (thanks to Frog for this story)
And here's the ugly:

"Its about hierarchy, power and control. It is not about life."

You MUST read this Juan Cole gendered analysis of how the Schavio case connects theoretically to the Iraq invasion. Gender-based analysis of power relationships uses the theory of patriarchy (rule of the fathers) as the structure for social analysis. It applies in all sorts of areas where, at first glance, the male/female dicotomy does not seem evident or applicable but wherever relations of power are central to understanding. The insights this type of analysis provides are unique and meaningful:

How does Bush square all the violence he has unleashed in the world with his praise of 'life?' What is the link between war-mongering and being 'pro-life?' It turns out that anti-abortionism is not about life at all. It is about social control. It helps establish a hierarchical society in which men are at the pinnacle and women kept barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. Likewise, the Schiavo case was in part about the religious Right dictating to Michael Schiavo how he must lead his private life. This campaign is not really about life at all, as the examples of the raped woman or the woman whose pregnancy puts her life in danger demonstrate. It is about control, and the imposition of a minority's values on others. And that is why the Iraq war is the perfect symbol for the anti-abortionists. Colonial conquest is always a kind of rape, but now the conquered country must bear the fetus of Bush-imposed 'liberty' to term. The hierarchy is thus established. Washington is superior to Baghdad, and Iraq is feminized and deprived of certain kinds of choices. And that is also how the Schiavo case makes sense in the end, because the religious Right feminized Michael Schiavo, made him into the pregnant woman seeking an 'abortion,' and wished to therefore deprive him of choice in the matter. If hierarchy is gendered, then the persons over which control is sought are always in some sense imagined as powerless women. Powerful non-fundamentalist men and uppity Third World countries that won't do as they are told are ultimately no different from feminist women seeking an abortion. All must be subdued, in the view of the Christian Right. It is about hierarchy, power and control. It is not about life.