Here’s why he did it: Ordinance defied common sense, allowing men to use women’s bathroom/locker room for instance. That’s why I signed bipartisan bill to stop it — Pat McCrory (@PatMcCroryNC) March 24, 2016 … which kind of reminds me of when Edith Bunker of “All in The Family” couldn’t understand how a man could be in love with another … Read More
North Carolina General Assembly’s Horrible LGBT Discrimination Bill
A draft version of the bill that the legislature is set to consider during the special session confirmed the worst fears of the LGBT community and anyone remotely interested in civil liberties, or even municipal governance, in North Carolina: Speaker Tim Moore and the Republicans are going to destroy the ability of local governments to govern themselves. First reported by … Read More
Garland
Is it hard to do cartwheels over President Obama’s choice of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland today. Professor Epstein seems to think he’s a good liberal… … but you always have to question the methodology of these things. Merrick Garland is 63 years old and currently serves as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of … Read More
Obama’s Three Supreme Court Nominees
They are not as progressive as some might hope. This is a feature, not a bug, of Obama’s choices. He wants to nominate a Supreme Court justice that can’t be dinged for being a radical communist. So who are these guys (and yeah, they’re guys…)? Srinivasan, 49, was born in India and emigrated as a young child with his family … Read More
Missing The Point
The award goes to Gersh Kuntzman of the New York Daily News for writing this: No disrespect to the jury in the Erin Andrews case, but I can’t breathe. The Fox Sports reporter just got a $55 million award for the pain and suffering of being videotaped naked in a Nashville hotel room in 2008. Fifty five million dollars because people … Read More
Footnote on Scalia
Thanks New York Times for casual mention about something that — if Scalia hadn’t died — would go unreported: WASHINGTON — Antonin Scalia was the longest-tenured justice on the current Supreme Court and the country’s most prominent constitutionalist. But another quality also set him apart: Among the court’s members, he was the most frequent traveler, to spots around the globe, … Read More
Not Mentioned In The Debate — Another Mass Shooting
Guess it isn’t newsworthy to the right: A gunman killed three people in shootings that ended at a lawn care company in Kansas on Thursday, authorities said. An additional 14 people were injured — 10 of whom are in critical condition at local hospitals. The shooter was also killed by police, bringing the total number of fatalities to four. Authorities … Read More
Now That Scalia’s Body Is Cold….
… let’s get real about this guy. Jeffrey Toobin: Antonin Scalia, who died this month, after nearly three decades on the Supreme Court, devoted his professional life to making the United States a less fair, less tolerant, and less admirable democracy. Fortunately, he mostly failed. Belligerent with his colleagues, dismissive of his critics, nostalgic for a world where outsiders knew … Read More
Hate Is The New Black
Whole Lot of Hatin’ Going On: The number of hate groups on the American radical right expanded from 784 in 2014 to 892 in 2015 – a 14 per cent increase, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC released the statistics Wednesday in a new report, The Year in Hate and Extremism. With the increase in hate … Read More
Apple And The FBI Order
Interesting little development going on in the tech/privacy world and, depending on who you believe, a possible turning point for the better/worse. After the San Bernardino shootings, the FBI seized the iPhone used by shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. The FBI has a warrant to search the phone’s contents, and because it was Farook’s work phone, the FBI also has permission … Read More
Hamilton on the Appointment of Justices to the Supreme Court
[The President] shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the … Read More
The Scalia Gambit
Without question, the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia has set all sides of the political spectrum into a frenzy. Everybody is weighing, but the stupidest comments are coming from Republicans who say that Obama shouldn’t nominate a justice at all because there is an election coming up. Rand Paul, who supposedly loves the Constitution, says that Obama has a … Read More
Breaking: Scalia Dead at 79
Just coming over the news. Found dead at a West Texas “luxury ranch”, whatever that is. UPDATE: Very quick initial thoughts (I will “eulogies” him later.) The political implications of this are huge. For one thing, this Supreme Court term had many important 5-4 issues in front of the Court, or… what would have been 5-4. Immigration, climate change, even … Read More
The Ballad of the Malheur Patriots (Song of the Oregon Wildlife Refuge Standoff)
Kinda brings a tear to the eye:
Activist Supreme Court Rules On Climate Change
Crazy: In a major setback for President Obama’s climate change agenda, the Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the administration’s effort to combat global warming by regulating emissions from coal-fired power plants. The brief order was not the last word on the case, which is most likely to return to the Supreme Court after an appeals court considers an expedited … Read More