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Al-Qaeda commander Abu Zeid killed in Mali
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Home Front: Politix
Sotomayor, Kagan dominate issue debate on SCOTUS
Thought about using the title: "Harridians Dominate Court," but thought better of it. This article is not so much about the issue before SCOTUS as it is about current make-up and dynamics of the court. If the article is credible, the newest appointees are a reflection of the appointer. The conservative majority is still intact depending upon the issue. However, the article underscores the importance of who is elected as POTUS and his/her ideological make-up.
For a quarter-century, Antonin Scalia has been the reigning bully
No editorializing here, fortunately, from the Post...
It's an opinion piece by Dana Milbank, whose legal expertise is on a par with Tom Friedman's wordsmithing
My bad, I should have guessed...
of the Supreme Court, but finally a couple of justices are willing to face him down. As it happens, the two manning up to take on Nino the Terrible are women: the court's newest members, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

The acerbic Scalia, the court's longest-serving justice, got his latest comeuppance Wednesday morning, as he tried to make the absurd argument that Congress's renewal of the Voting Rights Act in 2006 by votes of 98 to 0 in the Senate and 390 to 33 in the House did not mean that Congress actually supported the act. Scalia, assuming powers of clairvoyance, argued that the lawmakers were secretly afraid to vote against this "perpetuation of racial entitlement."

Kagan wasn't about to let him get away with that. In a breach of decorum, she interrupted his questioning of counsel to argue with him directly. "Well, that sounds like a good argument to me, Justice Scalia," she said. "It was clear to 98 senators, including every senator from a covered state, who decided that there was a continuing need for this piece of legislation."

Scalia replied to Kagan, "Or decided that perhaps they'd better not vote against it, that there's nothing, that there's no -- none of their interests in voting against it."

Justice Stephen Breyer defused the tension. "I don't know what they're thinking exactly," he said, changing the subject.

The styles of the two Obama appointees are different. Sotomayor is blunt and caustic, repeatedly interrupting. In an opinion this week, she harshly criticized a Texas prosecutor for a racist line of questioning. She has been on the interview circuit publicizing her memoir.

Kagan is choosier about when to interject herself, but she's sardonic and sharp-witted. ("Well, that's a big, new power that you are giving us," she said, mockingly, when a lawyer tried to argue that the justices should overrule Congress's discrimination findings.)

Both are more forceful than the Clinton appointees, the amiable Breyer and the frail Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The two new justices are sending a message to the court's conservative majority: You may have the votes, but you're going to have a fight.

Wednesday's voting rights case was typical. Surprisingly, the five conservative justices seemed willing to strike down a landmark civil rights law (the provision that gives extra scrutiny to states with past discrimination) that was renewed with near-unanimous votes in Congress. Conservative jurists usually claim deference to the elected branches, but in this case they look an awful lot like activist judges legislating from the bench.

Sotomayor allowed the lawyer for the Alabama county seeking to overturn the law to get just four sentences into his argument before interrupting him. "Assuming I accept your premise -- and there's some question about that -- that some portions of the South have changed, your county pretty much hasn't," she charged. "Why would we vote in favor of a county whose record is the epitome of what caused the passage of this law to start with?"

Moments later, Kagan pointed out that "Alabama has no black statewide elected officials" and has one of the worst records of voting rights violations.

Scalia and Justice Samuel Alito tried to assist the Alabama county's lawyer by offering some friendly hypotheticals, but Sotomayor wasn't interested in hearing that. "The problem with those hypotheticals is obvious," she said, because "it's a real record as to what Alabama has done to earn its place on the list."

Sotomayor continued questioning as if she were the only jurist in the room. "Discrimination is discrimination," she informed him, "and what Congress said is it continues."

At one point, Justice Anthony Kennedy tried to quiet her. "I would like to hear the answer to the question," he said. The lawyer got out a few more sentences -- and then Kagan broke in.
Debate is good.
Debate is good. However, of late, rudeness is rampant in Washington and it has replaced debate. Maybe it's always been that way (it just doesn't seem that way.) Civility and respect have disappeared--in Congress, SCOTUS, with POTUS, and towards Americans. One would think that the newest members think their opinions are the most important in the room. The SCOTUS back and forth on the Voting Rights issue sounds like some of the debates (?) viewed on Fox, there is little debate and much over-shouting to dominate the time. For example, recently Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), appeared on Sean Hannity. The debate, if it can be called that was a complete waste of time for Hannity as well as viewers as Ellison used the leftwing attack strategy of shouting over the other person. Power, domination, and strong-arm tactics are the rule of the day.
Sotomayor continued to pipe up, even when Solicitor General Donald Verrilli was defending the Voting Rights Act -- at one point breaking in as Alito was attempting to speak. Chief Justice John Roberts overruled her. "Justice Alito," he directed.

Scalia was not about to surrender his title of worst-behaved justice.
Nope, no editorializing at all...
He mocked the civil rights law as he questioned the government lawyer. "Even the name of it is wonderful," he said. "The Voting Rights Act: Who is going to vote against that?" (Verrilli cautioned him not to ignore actual votes of Congress in favor of "motive analysis.")

But Scalia's mouth was no longer the loudest in the room. When the Alabama county's lawyer returned for his rebuttal, he managed to utter only five words -- "Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice" -- before Sotomayor broke in.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/01/2013 07:48 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I for one accept the "Harridian" title.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/01/2013 8:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Civility and respect have disappeared..

Usually returns after a lot of blood and death upon the ground. Then people rediscover civility and hearing. It's the ability to hear the phrase "are you prepared to die on that hill?" with literal implications. It spirals downward again, slowly or quickly, depending upon the distance the generation is from the last great spilling. Unfortunate, but it is human behavior.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/01/2013 9:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Obama's Pissed, the wheels are coming off, Thank a Republican, WE stood up to him and said
NO
,and people see it.

The Bullshit stops here, and Obama hates it, No more fooling people, he's ruined, and he knows it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/01/2013 9:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Eh... what?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/01/2013 14:39 Comments || Top||

#5  I would use a particular word - but it would be insulting to female canines.....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/01/2013 15:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Redneck Jim: Yeah, keep thinking that. We're a long way off from getting my Generation to admit they're wrong.

Lord I was born with a stupid bunch.
Posted by: Charles || 03/01/2013 19:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Part of KNOWING you're stupid, is doing something about it.

You're doing something.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/01/2013 22:32 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Washington’s tilt toward Syria’s rebels will cause more harm than good
John Kerry, the new U.S. Secretary of State, sat down with Syrian opposition chief Moaz AlKhatib on Thursday and announced that Washington will begin supporting those elements of Syria’s rebel opposition it deems palatable.

First off, arming fighters battling against Bashar al-Assad’s regime is not on the cards. Flak jackets, “training” and, apparently, ready-made dinners, however, are. Where this will take place – what border country is willing to host the Americans – is still unclear, though an American presence has been in place in Jordan since last summer while to the north, rebels have more-or-less free reign over Syria’s border with Turkey.

So what’s about to change? In all likelihood, very little.

Washington, more specifically the White House, has refused to back rebel groups even when the State Department and the Pentagon privately pushed for such a move last summer. As a result, it would be unwise to expect the floodgates to open even after this new departure.

It’s more likely President Barack Obama has realized that Mr. Assad’s days are numbered, and has been convinced it’s better to have a modicum of political leverage with the government that comes after Mr. Assad than to have none. (Let’s not kid ourselves into thinking Washington and other world capitals want to get involved in Syria to prevent a humanitarian disaster).
Posted by: tipper || 03/01/2013 09:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Very sad to say, but "humanitarian disaster" as used in this context is a both a short and long-term dividend. The only reason we're not wading fully in is the bear, and I quietly wonder if perhaps we are not in discreet communication and agreement with him.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/01/2013 9:52 Comments || Top||

#2  I think that since the Saudis are purchasing weapons somewhere and sending them through Jordan, the US really doesn't need to do anything about that part of it.

With respect to providing nonlethal help, well that won't make us many friends in the rebel ranks but we wouldn't have many friends anyway.
Posted by: lord garth || 03/01/2013 14:42 Comments || Top||

#3  As per VARIOUS, the Syrian Rebs say they need Guns, N-O-T Butter from the US = POTUS Bammer.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/01/2013 22:33 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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2Hezbollah
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1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Govt of Sudan
1Govt of Syria
1Taliban

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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2013-03-01
  Al-Qaeda commander Abu Zeid killed in Mali
Thu 2013-02-28
  Syrian Rebels Say They Killed Hezbollah Deputy Chief
Wed 2013-02-27
  Syria Rebels Push into Police Academy as Jets Strike
Tue 2013-02-26
  Over 50 killed in battle for Syria police academy
Mon 2013-02-25
  Taliban suicide bombers hit Afghan cities, Kabul attack foiled
Sun 2013-02-24
  Karzai orders US special forces out of Afghan province
Sat 2013-02-23
  Syrian Rebels Claim To Seize Nuclear Facility
Fri 2013-02-22
  Boko Haram Denies Ceasefire, Pastes Threat Posters In Borno
Thu 2013-02-21
  Bombing in Indian Hyderabad, at least 11 killed
Wed 2013-02-20
  French nationals kidnapped in northern Cameroon
Tue 2013-02-19
  Mortars land near Syrian presidential palace
Mon 2013-02-18
  Five killed in attack at government office in Peshawar
Sun 2013-02-17
  Egyptian police publicly beat to death man suspected of killing officer
Sat 2013-02-16
  Bomb kills at least 20 in Pakistani city
Fri 2013-02-15
  Meteorite Hits Urals, Up to 500 Injured

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