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Ramblings From the Ragged Crumbling Edge Of The Reality-Based Community

Saturday, October 29, 2005

I Forgot 

...I hear that all the time. I'm a parent of a high school junior and a seventh grader, so it comes with the territory. Heck, I've even said it myself on occasion. There is one significant difference between me or my children and Scooter Libby. We say it when somebody forgot to carry out the garbage or ask a teacher a specific question or remember to set up an appointment for one child at the eye doctor when there for the other child's appointment. We have never said it with regard to who told us what about something that's of major importantance to our lives; that's the difference between us and Libby...

...with the compelling nature of the case that Patrick Fitzgerald laid out against Libby, there probably isn't much of a case that can be made except for the "I forgot" strategy. That's going to be a tough row to hoe, in large part because the timeline does not include a two-year gap between the events that led to his indictment and much of the testimony against him. A lot of the contradictory evidence to his claims came last year. Even more to the point, the questions about WMD claims that Joseph Wilson raised came at a particularly delicate moment for the Bush administration, because it was at a time when the entire question about that primary rational for the invasion was starting to come into increasingly pointed question. A year out, or even two years out, it's hard to believe that anyone could be confused about from where he first acquired certain pieces of information that are central to such an important issue. This alleged forgetfulness didn't happen two years out, though; some of it happened not all that terribly long after the investigation began. This isn't "what did you have for breakfast on June 15th" forgetfulness; this is "where were you when you heard that your grandmother died" forgetfulness...

...this is just one of those stupid games we are going to have to play, where we pretent that there was just one guy who may or may not have a better memory that half a dozen other witnesses instead of recognizing that there was probably a concerted effort by an administration that has a history of such behavior to play a little hardball with an opponent. The conventions of sportsmanship and our democratic principles dictate that one say "good luck with that" (even if a little taste of sarcasm leaks through), but this time - and with these people - it's impossible to muster even that false sentiment...
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:02 PM 0 comments

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Wielding The Recall Stick Over Measure 37 

...one of the problems with Oregon's wide open initiative process is that, while it doesn't often attract the best and the brightest, it does make the most aggressive come flocking. The fight over Measure 37 is a case in point. Subsequent to Marion County Circuit Judge Mary Mertens James' ruling that Measure 37 was unconstitutional, not just procedurally but on its merits, a Silverton businessman named Tom Steffen has filed a recall petition against her. His reasoning is, to say the least, fascinating:
"If a judge is going to overturn 1.6 million Oregonians' votes, she can't be surprised there's going to be action," Steffen said.

He said his motivation for filing for James' recall was to show the state and national governments that citizens are serious about keeping judges working within the voters' will.

Apparently, under Mr. Steffen's construct, if the citizens of Oregon were to decide to vote by initiative to reinstitute slavery, a judge's determination that this measure violated both the Oregon and U. S. Constitutions (as Judge James found in the Measure 37 case) would be grounds for recall because of that jurist's repudiation of "the voters' will". It's all part of the same sort of meme that we hear from conservatives all the time and even more so now during the effort to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. It's all about "activist judges" "legislating from the bench" to thwart "the will of the people". As is usually the case, it's a smokescreen for some other agenda that can't support its own weight in public. Measure 37 was never about some poor, belabored retired couple that just wanted to build a home on their 20 acres of agricultural land but couldn't because of stringent land use laws enacted after they bought the property. It was about people who wanted to cash out big and the developers wanting to score in a hot realty market by turning peach orchards into subdivisions and pasture land into gated communities. Measure 37 had an appeal because of that robust, outdoorsey, classic wild-west property rights patina that was slathered all over it - that whole "It's my land and I'll do what I want" gig - but at heart it was an effort to subvert the land use laws for fun and immense profit. More to the point, whether the constitutional justification is sound or not, it did just exactly what the judge said it did, and it wasn't just bleeding-heart liberals that saw a danger in the creation of that priveleged class; agricultural interests also understood the inherent risks of waking up some morning to find 200 new suburban neighbors immediately downwind of their pungent cattle pastures...

The recall process has tended to get a little out of hand over the last few years, and now we're witnessing perhaps the most disturbing example. Recalling judges because of a single disputed decision is a dangerous move; it threatens the independence of the judiicary and creates the potential for a peculiar tyranny of the majority even if the majority is wrong on the merits. It doesn't matter whether the issue is Measure 37 or a measure that - say - prohibited the hiring of registered Republicans. The proper venue for addressing a judge's ruling that is felt to have been wrongly decided is the appelate system; that's what it's there for. "The voters' will" is hogwash; any half-bright bonehead with enough cash and a good public relations firm can create all sorts of misguided "voters' will" that passes neither the 'sniff test' or constitutional muster. Recalling judges in cases like this is nothing more or less than an act of intimidation and raises some disturbing questions about the proper application of all the elements of democratic processes...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:43 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Self-Destructing Because You Can 

...there are a couple of scenarios under which Gee Dub could pull back on his Harriety Miers SCOTUS nomination that might - if not stem the bleeding - at least minimize the continual accumulation of cuts and bruises that his administration has had to absorb over the last several months. He's already laid the groundwork for the most likely escape route by declaring flat out that his odd little prissy lap dog terrier will learn to fly Marine One before he allows anyone to see Miers' correspondence created as his personal White House lawyer (Memo to Gee Dub: real man fighter pilot jocks own big ol' bird dogs, not perky little terriers. Hell, real ranchers have a pickup bed full of border collie-mix mongrels, not perky little lap dogs. Quit being so embarrassing in your canine choices). One exit scenario that the Bush Monkeys most certainly would not care to entertain is the sort that has all the appearance of knuckling under to a rabid fringe minority core. That particular rabid fringe minority core, sadly enough for our embattled president, has no particular problem with forcing him to knuckle under...

The religiously-tainted right wing fringe of the Republican party is perfectly convinced that not only is its particular viewpoint in ascendency - a belief that is not supported by any meaningful survey of American opinion - but is also hungering for its own real-world version of the Book of Revelations, where the fundy right finally engages all of those evil liberals in the final fight to the death over just the sort of SCOTUS nominee that would judicially bring all of their dreams of social and political dominance to reality. There isn't any need to link to examples because anybody who's reading blogs like this is sufficiently well informed to already know this. Theirs is a scorched-earth policy; they expected pitched battle where they emerge to the victorious outcome of a Patricia Owens - or two...or three -that will constitute a conservative majority in the Supreme Court that for the next generation would, in its own judicially activist way, bend society back to some conformance with their world view. There's two near but complete misses that they suffer with this approach, particularly when they engage in a national ad campaign to force Gee Dub to pull this nomination. In the first place, most folks live near the middle; a relatively straightforeward presentation of the the religious right's agenda with all of it's intrusions on personal life would send them screaming toward the exits (and it's important to note that Bush has never been willing to discuss most of that agenda in middle-of-the-road settings; it's all about codes and nods and winks). In the second place, the last thing in the world that any Bushco handler would ever want to experience would be the impression that they allowed pubic pressure from any source could somehow control their actions. This, after all, is the administration that prides itself on insisting that it doesn't read the polls; it just does what it thinks is right. With the weakened status of Bushco in these troubled times, the risk of appearing to have bowed down to a particular interest group simply sends a further signal of weakness to anybody who notices...

...this latest ad campaign is the sort of idea that any good liberal could only hope the winger element would engage, with no reasonable expectation or hope that even the most brain-dead wingnut would actually engage in such a divisive or disabling manner. But there they are, right out there for God and everybody to see. Right-wing pressure that forces The President to withdraw his nomination is a display of weakness and kowtowing to particular interest groups that this group of fixers and hustlers and scum can't possibly want to have happen, since it blows up all of their carefully crafted scripts. This ad campaign isn't helpful; if successful, it forces Gee Dub to withdraw Miers' nomination because it was a stupid idea. No scandal; no illegal housekeeper. Just pressure. The ad is self-destructive to the goals of the religious right because of the damage that it could do to the religious right's main man. The only thing I can think of to say is "You go, boys and girls. Make Gee Dub know where you stand. It's the only right thing to do...

...and thanks for the help...
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:19 PM 0 comments

Monday, October 24, 2005

Unbuttoning the Escape Hatch 

...there was a time, oh...say yesterday, when it looked like there was going to be some sort of strange Dance from Hell in the chambers of the Senate Judiciary Committee where angry conservative Republican Senators would form the Devil's own coalition with somewhat conciliatory but questioning Democrats to deliver a punishing shot to the throat of an already reeling Bush administration by dumping all over his nominee to the Associate Supreme Court Justice position that Sandra Day O'Conner has expressed a powerful interest in vacating. While there couldn't be a better prospect for Democrats than another torpedo delivered into the side of the flaming wreckage known as the Good Ship Bushco, there is a sudden suggestion that defeat may be snatched from the jaws of political victory by Gee Dub's insistence today that he will not release any of Harriet Miers papers from her time as White House Counsel. In other words, the Fix Is In...

From Talk Left, we learn that any suspicions that games are being played over the generally cool response to Miers' nomination and the search for a graceful exit are not necessarily paranoid ramblings. The Political Wire points out that this refusal to release documents gives Gee Dub the space to pull Miers nomination if the Senate conservatives decide to push the issue. Do I smell a deal here? Does that sickly sweet smell wafting across the political landscape suggest that the Bush Monkeys and their core constituency have been able to get their hands on a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card to save everybody the pain (OK, so not so much for everybody) of watching a brutal case of fratricide that would potentially break the back of Bushco?

Those of us of...ahem...a certain age learned thirty years ago that sometimes there can be fire when there isn't even a hint of smoke. If, as could very likely be the case, we see a sudden withdrawal of the Miers nomination - supposedly because of an executive privilege dispute - you can be sure to understand that a deal has been done, that the right has backed off to allow space for the Bush Monkeys to make a stab at recovering from this self-inflicted wound and coming back into the fold. Mortal combat against anybody to the left of John Birch is what all these gangs are all about; there's a minority agenda needing to be shoved down the country's throat, and that can only be accomplished if Gee Dub and America's version of the Iraqi Sunni's keep on the same page. The first gentle unsteady step toward backing out of the Harriet Miers mess has been taken by the Bushies and how all the lead actors play their roles over the next several days will be an interesting bit of theater to watch...
Posted by: Jack K. / 9:50 PM 0 comments

You Get What You Pay For 

...like every other aspect of this blog, I selected Haloscan for comments because it's free. Therefore I shouldn't complain too much when everything goes knackers, like Haloscan comments have been for hours and hours now. Found a fix in their 'Forums' section from a clever user, however, so they are fixed...for now...
Posted by: Jack K. / 10:44 AM 0 comments

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