All Eyes on California

Because Wednesday is going to be a big day.

A San Francisco federal judge on Wednesday will issue a much anticipated ruling in the Proposition 8 trial, a decision that will be a first step in a long legal process to decide whether California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage violates the federal constitution.

Unfortunately, it won't mark the end, but at least another step in the process will be behind us.

Either way the judge decides, the losing side is expected to appeal the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Most legal experts expect the case to ultimately be decided in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Also, unfortunately.

Two Noteworthy Items of Interest

Gee. As if we don't have enough to be concerned about already, the tea-bagger mantra, "I want my country back," has some added relevance for all of us.

#1

In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer.

Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists.

And #2

Want to invoke your right to remain silent? You'll have to speak up.

In a narrowly split decision, the Supreme Court's conservative majority expanded its limits on the famous Miranda rights for criminal suspects on Tuesday – over the dissent of new Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said the ruling turned Americans' rights of protection from police abuse "upside down."

[...]

This decision means that police can keep shooting questions at a suspect who refuses to talk as long as they want in hopes that the person will crack and give them some information, said Richard Friedman, a University of Michigan law professor.

The long arm of the law is getting longer.

RIP Democracy! Nice Knowing You

This Supreme Court ruling today basically took our political process, tied a boulder around it, and tossed it into the high seas.

Sweeping aside a century-old understanding and overruling two important precedents, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.

[...]

The 5-to-4 decision was a doctrinal earthquake but also a political and practical one. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision, which also applies to labor unions and other organizations, to reshape the way elections are conducted.

[...]

Justice John Paul Stevens read a long dissent from the bench. He said the majority had committed a grave error in treating corporate speech the same as that of human beings. His decision was joined by the other three members of the court’s liberal wing.

Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, an author of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, called the ruling “a terrible mistake.”

And it's not the first time the Court has made one of those.

Not that we didn't need a shake-up in politics, but as this week has shown, we can't seem to go but one direction: the wrong one.

Today’s ruling upends the nation’s campaign finance laws, allowing corporations and labor unions to spend freely on behalf of political candidates. With less than 11 months before the fall elections, the floodgates for political contributions will open wide, adding another element of intrigue to the fight for control of Congress.

At first blush, Republican candidates would seem to benefit from this seismic change in how political campaigns are conducted in America. The political environment – an angry, frustrated electorate seeking change in Washington – was already favoring Republicans. Now corporations, labor unions and a host of other organizations can weigh in like never before.

The five assholes in robes have managed to do what I never imagined: make the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision seem petty and minor.

I am angry, saddened, stunned, and nauseated. How many days before we see the first blast of special-interest advertising? You can bet the film crews are already loading up equipment. Scripts are being written as I type.

Another Thorn for the Right-Wing

Thankfully we have one breath of fresh air in the midst of the health care debacle. By a vote of 68 to 31, the Senate has confirmed Sonia Sotomayor as our next Supreme Court justice.

Democrats celebrated the successful nomination and relatively smooth confirmation process as a bright spot in a summer when they have been buffeted by several challenges, including rocky progress on their attempts to overhaul the nation’s health care system, President Obama’s falling approval ratings, the climbing unemployment rate and other lingering economic problems.

Shortly after the vote, President Obama said he was "deeply gratified" and confident that Judge Sotomayor would become an outstanding justice. The ideals of "justice, equality, opportunity" that guide the high court are the very ones that made the judge’s "uniquely American story" possible in the first place, the president said.

Now if we could only have such a smoothly paved road to health care reform complete and total overhaul. I'll have to get to this another day but I simply cannot fathom why we have subsidized childhood education for those who wish to use it (and private schools for those who don't), subsidized transportation networks (where toll roads aren't creeping in), subsidized fire departments, police departments, and military (coupled with the highly-successful private industry aspect). We even have subsidized health care for the elderly.

But when it comes to the working folks, or those who have been laid off, or those who are simply too poor to afford insurance, we just can't have that kind of "socialism" involved in our health care, despite the fact that we can handle "socialism" in the form of the aforementioned benefits.

I just don't get it.

This all reminds me of the push to get the US to adopt the metric system back in the 1970s. That went nowhere fast. I recall some of the same freak-outs from the right-wing back then, that the metric system was some Communist plot so that when the Russians marched in, we'd all be set to their liking and they wouldn't need conversion charts.

Delusional then, delusional now.

Sonia Sotomayor Picked for SCOTUS

Sotomayor is Obama's SCOTUS pick!

Now the fun part begins.

Judge Sotomayor is Mr. Obama’s first selection to the Supreme Court, and her nomination could trigger a struggle with Senate Republicans who have indicated they may oppose the nomination. But Democrats are within reach of the 60 votes necessary to choke off a filibuster, and Republicans concede that they have little hope of blocking confirmation barring unforeseen revelations.

Initial reaction to the selection reflected party divisions and signaled that Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee would be spirited.

Spirited indeed. Let the Republicans have their rants, their meltdowns, whatever. Go ahead and continue to alienate women and Hispanics in one double whammy.

This should be an interesting evening for tequila, "Hardball," and "Countdown" since a California Prop 8 ruling is also forthcoming shortly.

It's Official: We Elected a Moderate

Forget all the paranoid right-wing racist emails which still litter the internet regarding President Barack Obama. (I still love saying that after 8 years of the previous asshole. PRESIDENT Barack Obama!)

Forget most of the radical change those of us on the far left hoped for with his election. Barack Obama is simply a moderate. And that's still very refreshing after what we've been through.

Now Mr. Obama is preparing to select his first Supreme Court nominee to replace retiring Justice David H. Souter. In interviews, former colleagues and students say they have a fairly strong sense of the kind of justice he will favor: not a larger-than-life liberal to counter the conservative pyrotechnics of Justice Antonin Scalia, but a careful pragmatist with a limited view of the role of courts.

“His nominee will not create the proverbial shock and awe,” said Charles J. Ogletree, a Harvard professor who has known the president since his days as a student.

Mr. Obama believes the court must never get too far ahead of or behind public sentiment, they say. He may have a mandate for change, and Senate confirmation odds in his favor. But he has almost always disappointed those who expected someone in his position — he was Harvard’s first black law review president and one of the few minority members of the University of Chicago’s law faculty — to side consistently with liberals.

The News is SOOOO Good, I Need Higher Definition to Enhance My Appreciation

It's been about 31 months since I blew my anticipated $1500 HDTV budget on a big-ass 70-inch Sony tv which cost about five times as much. That's typical konagod. And in typical konagod procrastination, I'm just now getting around to upgrading my Dish Network service to an HD package. Here's the new dish.

I was a bit surprised to learn that we were not replacing our existing dish (which we still need for standard definition broadcasts), but we need a 2nd dish for the HDTV stuff. The old one is the one you can see in this next shot below -- the dish closer to the house, and the new one is installed on a post out by that tree left of center. Neither dish is really obnoxiously in your face -- especially not from the patio so I'm happy about that.

And boy, I can hardly wait to turn on the news tonight. It wasn't exactly a slow news day.

A barrage of bad news including yet another record high for oil drove stocks sharply lower Thursday, hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 360 points to their lowest level in almost two years.

The market also worried about fresh signs of trouble in the financial, high-tech and automotive industries. Negative analyst comments sent shares of General Motors Corp. stock to their lowest point in more than three decades.

Oil futures shot past $140 after the head of OPEC predicted the price of a barrel of crude could rise well over $150 this year and Libya said it may cut oil production.

Are we having fun yet? That's enough to overshadow the latest 5-4 Supreme Court ruling. Hey, look on the bright side. As the situation continues to deteriorate, we can start blowing our heads off if necessary.

Here we go....

Another 5-4 Supreme Court Decision

The Supreme Court worries the hell out of me with these 5-4 decisions. Even though they usually have been the right decisions, I'm a firm believer that right decisions shouldn't be decided by one vote margins; they should be overwhelming.

The Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, on Wednesday that sentencing someone to death for raping a child is unconstitutional, assuming that the victim is not killed.

We are essentially one bad Supreme Court appointment away from being a big step closer to Iran or China, and therefore less "American" -- whatever the hell that means. Hell, even Mexico abolished the death penalty in 2005!

“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court. He was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

The court overturned a ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court, which had held that child rape is unique in the harm it inflicts not just upon the victim but on society and that, short of first-degree murder, no crime is more deserving of the death penalty.

[...]

The dissenters were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., generally regarded as the conservative wing of the tribunal.

"Generally regarded?" Please. Allow me to dissent. They are the obnoxiously fascist wing of the tribunal. Killing people for their crimes is not a conservative value.