Sunday, May 22, 2005
Judicial nominees
Take a look at the Judicial nominee records of the extremist Bush is trying to inject into the system . These are life time seats.
TAKE ACTION: Urge your senators to stand firm in opposing these controversial nominees.
The American people do not want judges who make, rather than interpret, the law. Rather, they understand the need to have federal judges who will protect the critical rights and protections Americans cherish, including clean air and clean water, privacy in our homes, safety in our workplaces, and equality for all Americans.
However, the records of President Bush's nominees are out of touch with the mainstream:
TAKE ACTION: Urge your senators to stand firm in opposing these controversial nominees.
The American people do not want judges who make, rather than interpret, the law. Rather, they understand the need to have federal judges who will protect the critical rights and protections Americans cherish, including clean air and clean water, privacy in our homes, safety in our workplaces, and equality for all Americans.
However, the records of President Bush's nominees are out of touch with the mainstream:
- Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, whose nomination to the Fifth Circuit was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2002, took campaign money from Enron and Halliburton and then ruled in their favor.
- Alabama Attorney General, William Pryor, whom Bush placed on the Eleventh Circuit through a recess appointment, raised money from corporations doing business in the state that he was supposed to be policing. Pryor has called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history" and has argued that the Supreme Court should cut back on the protections of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Family and Medical Leave Act.
- California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, nominated to the DC Circuit, has suggested that the Social Security system is unconstitutional and accused senior citizens of "blithely cannibaliz[ing] their grandchildren."
- Attorney Thomas Griffith, nominated to the DC Circuit, has argued against a key component of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (which bars sex discrimination by educational institutions), raising broad concerns about his approach both to that landmark law and to other critical areas of civil rights law.
- Idaho lawyer William Myers III, nominated to the Ninth Circuit, has compared federal laws protecting the environment to the "tyranny" of King George III over the colonies.
- Department of Defense General Counsel William Haynes, nominated to the Fourth Circuit, played a central role in the decision to hold American citizens as enemy combatants with virtually no access to civilian courts or to counsel, and the decision to hold detainees at Guantánamo Bay without the protections of the Geneva Convention.
- Federal district court judge Terrence Boyle, nominated to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, has a long history of hostility to civil rights precedents, one-sided support for states' rights, as well as an unusually high rate of reverse decisions.
- David McKeague, federal district court judge in Michigan nominated to the Sixth Circuit, has shown hostility to civil rights plaintiffs, has narrowed federal protections for the environment, and ignored the separation of church and state.
- Attorney Brett Kavanaugh, nominated to the DC Circuit, has less legal experience than virtually any Republican or Democratic DC Circuit judicial nominee in more than 30 years, but a long history of partisan politics that includes defending the conduct of former independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
- Richard Griffin, a Michigan state court of appeals judge nominated to the Sixth Circuit, has shown hostility to workers and civil rights, as well as the rights of the accused.
- Michigan Court of Appeals judge Henry Saad, nominated to the Sixth Circuit, has displayed a willingness to distort the law and manipulate facts.
Monday, May 09, 2005
New America Same as the Old
http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=5625
Book author is Andrew J. Bacevich, who also wrote a terrific article in a think tank journal "Wilson Quarterly", Winter 2005 "World War IV".
Book author is Andrew J. Bacevich, who also wrote a terrific article in a think tank journal "Wilson Quarterly", Winter 2005 "World War IV".
Bacevich is a West Point Grad. who served in Viet Nam and is now Professor of International Relations at Boston Univ. He argues that American interventions into the Middle East go back decades and has had many banners. All these American interventions have unfolded because of a fateful decision made decades ago- the American way of life requires unlimited access to foreign oil.
Here is yet another case of "Embedding" in which U.S. military is used to extend economic and other interests of America. Foreign policy is molded to fit what our society collectively values. In this case, society puts value on an oil-dependant economy and life-style. Americans get cars, petro-chemicals, industrial might, higher standard of living, jobs, and more. Any threats to access of foreign oil threatens all of that. So it is automatic that our foreign policy would be joined at the hip with what Americans collectively want for themselves. Americans apparently are incapable of introspection so will not see the connection between life-style choice and the government/military apparatus that secures their lifestyle. Or Americans see such connections but choose to continue on path of unrestrained consumption without regard to implications. Either way, American hedonistic values are embedded into government, foreign policy, military intervention, and commercial interests here and abroad.
Meanwhile, commercial interests are embedded in successive administrations, in American way of life, in our foreign policy, and into the history of U.S. military going to Spanish-American War. "Embedding" has great explanatory power but it requires a detached academic view instead of a partisan view in which corporations are singled out as the villain or the administration is perceived as a rogue. Looking for "the villain" gets in the way of understanding the SYSTEM with all the players, including the general population.
"Embedding" lends itself to a "Systems Analysis". We have to look at the dynamics of all players, including our general population- a huge constituency of consumers and voters. It is inappropriate to single out one administration as a rogue perpetrator. Bacevich reviews the deep history and points to a fateful decision decades ago, upheld by successful administrations, and powerfully validated by Americans through their choices. The dynamics between huge constituency of consumer/voters and their government must be studied to understand how America got into this mess in Iraq. But somehow, when things turn our badly, folks look for a scapegoat and will not look to themselves for why things happen as they do.
