Supreme Court Sex Change

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Thursday November 03, 2005 · 6:36 PM PST

2005/11/03 · 18:36

The discussion about the fitness of Judge Alito for the Supreme Court is bound to go on for many more weeks. Even though hearings have not begun, his writings show that he is substantially more conservative than his predecessor.

He also differs in another important way. He is male.

President Bush He certainly had lots of experienced candidates to choose from. Fully 24% of the federal bench consists of women. Justices Ginsburg and O'Connor make up 22% of the Supreme Court. Even this is a severe under-representation of women in our society, but it is a lot better than the 11% representation that will result from the confirmation of Alito. Read More

First hand report from New Orleans

biotecchie

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Tuesday September 20, 2005 · 6:50 PM PDT

2005/09/20 · 18:50

As a native of New Orleans, I watched with horror as Hurricane Katrina approached, and then reflected with astonishment when the administration tried to deflect onto Mayor Nagin and Gov. Blanco criticism aimed at the Feds for not moving fast enough.

Friends in Louisiana have been sending notes back and forth - some of which reflected the Washington spinmeisters.

After the jump, I am posting an email from one friend who was affected by the storm. It was sent to a group of classmates in response to some of the right-wing criticism, and it has been edited only to improve clarity of some abbreviations protect personal information, or to emphasize a few points. Read More

Finally David Brooks "Gets it"

biotecchie

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Friday September 02, 2005 · 5:09 PM PDT

2005/09/02 · 17:09

OK, so maybe I am not fully ready to applaud everything he says, but tonight on the News Hour, David Brooks really laid into the administration. He essentially said that the federal response to hurricane Katrina was the last straw in a line of failures by the Bush administration. Cover-up of lies about why why we went into Iraq; inadequate planning for public safety after the invasion, Abu Ghraib, the tax giveaways to corporations and the wealthy and now, a completely inadequate failure to respond to the catastrophe in the gulf coast.
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DeLay's Pork Barrel Energy Research

biotecchie

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Sunday July 31, 2005 · 8:23 AM PDT

2005/07/31 · 08:23

Passage of the energy bill ended last week after a long fight over principles and priorities and in the end was about political power.

Depending on your perspective, the bill either did not do enough to lower gasoline costs or it failed to establish meaningful fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks. It made no provision for reducing greenhouse emissions, and it seems unlikely to increase domestic petroleum production.

An estimated 58 percent of the tax breaks go to coal, oil, gas, electric utilities and nuclear power, and another 36 percent is aimed at energy efficiency, renewable sources and cleaner cars like the new gasoline-electric hybrids - raising the question, "Why it is necessary to introduce tax breaks to purchase vehicles for which there is a long waiting list?"

Its most egregious fault - and no doubt the element that assured its passage through the Republican-controlled House, is the blatant use of political power to introduce targeted pork-barrel spending.
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There's no fuel like an old fuel

biotecchie

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Wednesday July 27, 2005 · 9:19 PM PDT

2005/07/27 · 21:19

So who woudda thunk it? The Bush administration tried to delay the release of an EPA report on automotive fuel efficiency until after passage of the energy bill...

Why, you ask?

Perhaps because it is irrelevant to the legislation? Perhaps because we have already achieved energy efficiency in transportation?

Noooo.... It is because fuel efficiency is no better today than it was in the late 1980's, and it would be too embarrassing to release a news story that shows our current policies are not working.
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The neighbor didn't know Valerie's job

biotecchie

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Sunday July 24, 2005 · 7:27 PM PDT

2005/07/24 · 19:27

One of the lines of defense we are hearing from the Bush spin cycle is that Rove could not have broken the law because it was an "open secret" that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA.

Well, this is a lie because the CIA considered her to be a covert agent, and if anyone with clearance who knew about her status were to have leaked it, that would have been a crime as well.

At the same time one needs to ask whether or not Joe and Valerie Wilson kept this information secret from those around them. We know from Joe Wilson's public statements that the answer is "no one knew" Read More

Ed Rogers is a political lackey

biotecchie

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Wednesday July 13, 2005 · 4:56 PM PDT

2005/07/13 · 16:56

I just finished listening to Ed Rogers on the News hour, and I think I want to puke. This guy is a total political hack. Why in the world did Karl Rove put him up for this job? Obviously because he had very few others to turn to. Rove is becoming isolated and he needs to call in whatever troops he has left. It will only be a few more days until we begin seeing the rats leave the ship. After all, they got up and lied for Rove multiple times now, and the crap is starting to come home to roost.

Who will be the next to fall? Scottie? ...another big fat liar.

This administration can't tell the truth from a lie - and then they can't accept responsibility for their own asinine actions. Read More

It will have to be a female

biotecchie

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Friday July 01, 2005 · 4:55 PM PDT

2005/07/01 · 16:55

Politically, there is no question - Bush must nominate a female to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. She was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, and if she is not replaced by another female, it will clearly been seen as a step backwards. Moreover, with the Chief Justice set to step down, Bush will almost certainly want to fill that position with a conservtive male. This will leave him with relatively little wiggle room on a replacement for O'Connor.

Links: http://althouse.blogspot.com/2005/06/if-justice-oconnor-retires-must-her.html

Novak has the story on Gonzales

Is Syria the next target for invasion?

biotecchie

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Saturday June 11, 2005 · 11:31 PM PDT

2005/06/11 · 23:31

Have others on this board noticed the increasingly hostile news and policy talk directed toward Syria? It strikes me that this is the kind of lead-up that could result in a US invasion of that country.

Immediately after invading Iraq, one began to hear outcries about members of Saddam's government escaping to Syria or the supposed spiriting of WMD to Syria so that they would not be found in Iraq. Rapid initial speculation about a Syrian invasion in 2003 were denied by the administration.

Following the assasination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February and the more recent killing of the anti-Syrian journalist, Samir Kassir, the drumbeat against Syria is getting louder. Read More

Philip Cooney takes the fall for greenhouse policy

biotecchie

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Saturday June 11, 2005 · 9:52 PM PDT

2005/06/11 · 21:52

Philip Cooney was chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. His sudden resignation on a Friday evening could be a turning point for official policy on greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Cooney, a former energy industry lobbyist with no scientific background, is being fingered as the person who edited scientific reports on global warming to minimize the environmental and economic consequences. Read More

Stem cell vote in the House

biotecchie

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Monday May 23, 2005 · 11:10 AM PDT

2005/05/23 · 11:10

Lynn Sweet has done a great background piece on the pivitol role played by role played by Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (R-Ill.) in bringing the Castle-DeGette House bill to allow more federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Kirk is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a moderate advocacy group that is trying to pass a narrowly written law to allow couples to donate surplus embryos stored in fertility clinics to federally funded stem cell researchers.

Bush has vowed to make this his first veto if it ever reaches his desk. Although the Castle-DeGette bill has about 200 co-sponsors, only about two dozen are Republicans.
Read More

Senator Kohl on the Nuclear Option

biotecchie

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Tuesday May 10, 2005 · 4:23 AM PDT

2005/05/10 · 04:23

Senator Herb Kohl is a Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary committee. I wrote to him to express my concern over possible use of the nuclear option to block debate on judicial appointments.

The key sentence seems to be, I will not support an attempt to drastically alter the rules of the Senate in a way that would suppress the long-standing right of the minority party to effectively act for the states they represent.

His full response follows in the extended entry: Read More

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