Politics

Dirty Business

Clarence Thomas
When I was taking a con-law class, the Professor told us that it's a well known and open secret in the legal community that Clarence Thomas regularly sleeps through oral arguments on the Supreme Court, but for whatever reason, the national press doesn't report on it.

Regardless of how often he naps through his job, one thing is certain: he contributes far, far less to the Court than any other Justice. He writes almost no opinions, and barely participates in Court business. He's a cipher, only there to vote staunchly conservative.

It seems the press is finally taking notice of his half-ass work ethic.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two years and 142 cases have passed since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas last spoke up at oral arguments. It is a period of unbroken silence that contrasts with the rest of the court's unceasing inquiries.

Hardly a case goes by without eight justices peppering lawyers with questions. Oral arguments offer justices the chance to resolve nagging doubts about a case, probe its weaknesses or make a point to their colleagues.

Left, right and center, the justices ask and they ask and they ask. Sometimes they debate each other, leaving the lawyer at the podium helpless to jump in. "I think you're handling these questions very well," Chief Justice John Roberts quipped to a lawyer recently in the midst of one such exchange.

Leaning back in his leather chair, often looking up at the ceiling, Thomas takes it all in, but he never joins in.

...

"I can't really say that it's unfair to say that I'm silent in that context. I would like to, though, be referred to as the 'listening justice,' you know," Thomas said. "I still believe that, if somebody else is talking, somebody should be listening."

Ooh, ooh, can I be known as the 'Listening Law Student'? Just show up to class, nap or stare at the walls, and get an A without any work?

Pleeeease?

It's good enough for the Supreme Court!

Source: CNN.com

Blackout
So 60 Minutes did a story on Governor Don Siegelman's show trial in Alabama, run by Republican operatives and a judge who admits to a rivalry with the Governor and refuses, after 20 months, to produce a trial transcript that is legally required to be presented within one, and that Siegelman needs to make his appeal and get out of jail, etc etc.

The CBS station for Northern Alabama, owned by Bush operatives, mysteriously went off the air during that part of 60 Minutes. They say it was 'technical' problems.

Yeah, sure it was.

Scott Horton of Harper’s magazine reported late last night that CBS was directly pointing back at the local outlets as the cause of the problem.

"I contacted CBS News in New York and was told that 'there is no delicate way to put this: the WHNT claim is not true. There were no transmission difficulties. The problems were peculiar to Channel 19, which had the signal and had functioning transmitters.' I was told that the decision to blacken screens across Northern Alabama 'could only have been an editorial call.'"

Ahh, Republicans. Shout down your opponents, silence them, intimidate them whatever it takes. Any way you can, to get them to shut up and behave. Or else.

Source: Raw Story

Sniggering Children
So there's a long-time GOP operative named Roger Stone. He's one of the original 'Dirty Tricksters', having worked for Nixon himself at the age of nineteen. He's then had gigs for a wide variety of Republicans running skullduggery of one type or another.

Now he's running a 'group' against Hillary Clinton. Of sorts.

So what's Stone up to? Fortunately, he laid the whole scheme out to The Weekly Standard.

It's this simple: it's all about the group's acronym, which, used in conjunction with Hillary Clinton, is supposed to be irresistibly humorous. That is the beginning and the end of it. The group will not be running ads in any form and will not be making any robocalls. They'll be making T-shirts. That's it. You can buy them for $25 on their website:

TPM is a bit shy of using the acronym, thoguh they do show the graphic. Here, let me clue you in. It's called Citizens United Not Timid. C.U.N.T., in short.

Their logo is designed to suggest a woman's anatomy too. They expect to make a brisk business calling Clinton a cunt on t-shirts to sell to Republicans.

I wouldn't bet against their success.

Source: TPM Muckracker

Mark Halperin
So Time Magazine employs this hack, Mark Halperin, as a political writer. If you can call his ignorant screeching into the void 'writing'.

His latest take is a column on how McCain should attack Obama, specifically ways he can that Clinton cannot get away with. On that last part, getting away with it, he might be right.

11. Emphasize Barack Hussein Obama’s unusual name and exotic background through a Manchurian Candidate prism.

OH OBAMA IS A SECRET MUSLIM MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE OH WE MUST DEFEAT HIM NOBLE REPUBLICAN VOTERS.

Give me a break already. Haven't we had enough of this?

Source: Time Magazine

Tucker Carlson Is A Moron
Good old boytie boy is apparently mad that, when assigned a client by the court to defend, Clinton did her job instead of betraying her professional ethics and failing to represent a client that he, Tucker Carlson, doesn't like.

Summary: Referring to a Newsday article about Hillary Clinton's representation of a man accused of raping a 12-year-old girl, Tucker Carlson said on his MSNBC program: "Now their defense is, 'Well, that's what lawyers are supposed to do.' In other words, it's legal, therefore it's allowed. I guess my response would be, it's still repulsive and immoral." In fact, the Newsday article made clear that legal experts agreed that Clinton was simply fulfilling her legal and ethical obligation as the defendant's lawyer, a job she was reportedly assigned by the court.

You only get legal representation in Tucker's world if you're accused of something he approves of. Unless you're a Republican; then you can sleep with as many underage boys as you like and that's ok, I suppose. I don't remember Carlson trying to railroad Mark Foley.

Source:Media Matters

Hillary Clin-Ton, Alien Overlord
So Hillary's really getting desperate now, and her campaign, staffed by incompetents and scum (or both in one like Mark Penn), have decided to go with a whisper campaign. Hey, it worked for Bush against McCain in South Carolina!

As I noted with a link in the update to the post below, the Clinton campaign got even sleazier over the weekend when they sent an email to the media featuring a picture of Obama dressed in the traditional regalia of a Somali elder he had donned during an official visit to Africa. The email had its desired effect--it's already feeding into the right's "Obama is a secret Muslim" attacks. Rush Limbaugh was ranting about the "Obama dressed like a Muslim photo" earlier today.

How did the Clinton campaign respond when asked about it? Well, lets look at the statement issued by Clinton spokesperson Maggie Williams:

If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed.

Yes, she really blamed it on Obama. You see, the Clinton press team thinks you are stupid.

Yes, they've officially jumped the shark. They're trying to inflame the 'Obama is a Secret Muslim' smear that Halperin thinks is so clever.

I'm officially done with these morons. I wish I'd gotten around to researching my post about Obama's corruption issues before now though. Sigh. I think I'll just write in Joseph Stalin this year for preznit. It's not like it'll be close, with Obama the nominee and St. John McCain's financial woes.

Source: Jesus' General