“With his third term as chief justice coming to a close amid three explosive cases last week, John Roberts has proved to be almost everything conservatives hoped and liberals feared.” The Chicago Tribune recalls his pledge in 2005: “I come before this committee with no agenda, no platform. I will approach every case with an open mind.” Yet, “in his three years on the court, Roberts has never sided with the more liberal members against his conservative brethren in a close case.”
Update
At the end of the last Court term, the Center for American Progress produced an anlysis showing that both Roberts and Alito voted together nearly 90 percent of the time.
That’s the title of my new article in Salon. I had proposed “The political fight of the century,” but the editors wanted a stronger headline — and subhead:
Conservatives can’t stop the impending catastrophe with anti-government rhetoric. But they can prevent progressives and moderates from stopping it by blocking aggressive climate legislation. Progressives and moderates will need all their political skill and tenacity to overcome the obstructionism of the anti-science, anti-technology conservatives. This is unlike any previous political fight; it is a fight to save the health and well-being of the next 50 generations, a fight to preserve our way of life. Losing is not an option
I haven’t actually attended very much of the DLC’s National Conversation (seemed more fun to go out and see Chicago) but I did catch most of Markos, the Great Orange Satan himself, on a panel with various other worthies. Not much of interest was said, really, but at one point he did call Joe Lieberman “an asshole” and received applause from many and no boos or dissent from anyone else.
Haven’t done one of these in a little bit, and the schedule’s going to be kind of hectic for the next few days between traveling to and from Aspen and trying to attend/cover the Ideas Festival but what are you guys interested in?
This business about the Hold Steady not having any groupies seems tragic to me — there are many worse bands out there, and not very many better ones. Surely they deserve a groupie or two.
John McCain doesn’t know how to use a computer. John McCain doesn’t know when he last pumped gas or what it cost. John McCain owns seven homes and forgot to pay taxes on one of them for the past four years. But at least he’s not an elitist like Barack Obama. He earned his money the old-fashioned way — marrying an heiress.
Today, CNN’s Late Edition re-broadcasted an August 22, 1999 interview with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in which McCain expressed support for overturning Roe v. Wade, while also noting that the action “would condemn young women to dangerous and illegal operations”:
Ultimately, I would like to see the repeal of Roe v. Wade, but to do it immediately, I think, would condemn young women to dangerous and illegal operations.
Watch It:
Throughout the 2000 campaign, McCain hedged on the issue. Just two days earlier, on August 19, 1999, in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, McCain said that he “would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade”:
I’d love to see a point where [Roe v. Wade] is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary. But certainly in the short term, or even in the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade.
Unfortunately, now that he is the presumptive nominee of the Republican party, McCain is no longer concerned for the “young women” who will undergo “dangerous and illegal operations” if Roe v. Wade is repealed. In fact, on his campaign website McCain argues that the decision “must be overturned” to restore “constitutional balance”:
John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench. Constitutional balance would be restored by the reversal of Roe v. Wade, returning the abortion question to the individual states. The difficult issue of abortion should not be decided by judicial fiat.
While his rhetoric has waffled back and forth, McCain’s voting record throughout his entire public career has been consistentlyanti-choice. That’s why McCain gets a zero from women.
Today, CNN’s Late Edition re-broadcasted an August 22, 1999 interview with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in which McCain expressed support for overturning Roe v. Wade, while also noting that the action “would condemn young women to dangerous and illegal operations”:
Ultimately, I would like to see the repeal of Roe v. Wade, but to do it immediately, I think, would condemn young women to dangerous and illegal operations.
Watch It:
Throughout the 2000 campaign, McCain hedged on the issue. Just two days earlier, on August 19, 1999, in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, McCain said that he “would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade”:
I’d love to see a point where [Roe v. Wade] is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary. But certainly in the short term, or even in the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade.
Unfortunately, now that he is the presumptive nominee of the Republican party, McCain is no longer concerned for the “young women” who will undergo “dangerous and illegal operations” if Roe v. Wade is repealed. In fact, on his campaign website McCain argues that the decision “must be overturned” to restore “constitutional balance”:
John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench. Constitutional balance would be restored by the reversal of Roe v. Wade, returning the abortion question to the individual states. The difficult issue of abortion should not be decided by judicial fiat.
While his rhetoric has waffled back and forth, McCain’s voting record throughout his entire public career has been consistentlyanti-choice. That’s why McCain gets a zero from women.
UPDATE: On January 26, 2000, a reporter asked McCain, “If his 15-year-old daughter became pregnant and believed that she wasn’t ready to bear a child, would McCain block her from getting an abortion?” McCain answered “No,” he would not:
McCain first said that the ”final decision” on ending a pregnancy would be made by his daughter, 15. An hour later, he contacted reporters with a clarification: ”I misspoke,” he said. ”The family decision will be made by the family, not by” his daughter alone, he added. [AP, 1/26/2000]
Carl Zimmer and Paul Ehrlich are talking about the need for alternative modes of transportation. He rightly makes the point that there’s a difference between designing a city for cars, and designing a city for people. Also makes the somewhat idiosyncratic point that with transit “you could at least be having a drink on your way home”:
I’m not sure a drunken commute is really the ideal we need to be aspiring toward. But it’s certainly true that walking or transit is the best way to get home after doing some drinking. The main alternative, after all, is drunk driving with the attendant car crashes leading to death, disfigurement, and disability. We take a certain level of that for granted right now but driving — and especially driving after consuming even only a drink or two — is a pretty high-risk behavior in the scheme of things and reducing its incidence would be a major boon.
Approximately 60 cars parked across from the Orlando city hall Saturday night were damaged by “politically-motivated” vandals. Some spray-painted notes with messages such as “Obama smokes crack” and racial epithets. “Business cards left on the cars disparage both Barack Obama and John McCain.” “I’m driving by and every car I see has been hit with spray paint,” witness Mike Lowe said. “There is so much damage to them. There is messages written on them and the vandals left their business card, which is crazy.”
“With his third term as chief justice coming to a close amid three explosive cases last week, John Roberts has proved to be almost everything conservatives hoped and liberals feared.” The Chicago Tribune recalls his pledge in 2005: “I come before this committee with no agenda, no platform. I will approach every case with an open mind.” Yet, “in his three years on the court, Roberts has never sided with the more liberal members against his conservative brethren in a close case.”
Approximately 60 cars parked across from the Orlando city hall Saturday night were damaged by “
