Tom Engelhardt:
With Cartwright as a possible exception, the members of the national security state, unlike the rest of us, exist in what might be called "post-legal” America. They know that, no matter how heinous the crime, they will not be brought to justice for it. The list of potentially serious criminal acts for which no one has had to take responsibility in a court of law is long, and never tabulated in one place. Consider this, then, an initial run-down on seven of the most obvious crimes and misdemeanors of this era for which no one has been held accountable.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2005—Extremist Sunday:
Tomorrow in Louisville Senator Frist and his allies will demonstrate a level of blatant extremism and hate that one thought had been removed from respectable discourse in our country. Now we find it embraced by the Republican Leader of the Senate. Frank Rich has some thoughts:
The fraudulence of "Justice Sunday" begins but does not end with its sham claims to solidarity with the civil rights movement of that era. "The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias," says the flier for tonight's show, "and now it is being used against people of faith." In truth, Bush judicial nominees have been approved in exactly the same numbers as were Clinton second-term nominees. Of the 13 federal appeals courts, 10 already have a majority of Republican appointees. So does the Supreme Court. It's a lie to argue, as Tom DeLay did last week, that such a judiciary is the "left's last legislative body," and that Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, is the poster child for "outrageous" judicial overreach. Our courts are as highly populated by Republicans as the other two branches of government.
The "Justice Sunday" mob is also lying when it claims to despise activist judges as a matter of principle. Only weeks ago it was desperately seeking activist judges who might intervene in the Terri Schiavo case as boldly as Scalia & Co. had in Bush v. Gore. The real "Justice Sunday" agenda lies elsewhere. As Bill Maher summed it up for Jay Leno on the "Tonight" show last week: " 'Activist judges' is a code word for gay." The judges being verbally tarred and feathered are those who have decriminalized gay sex (in a Supreme Court decision written by Justice Kennedy) as they once did abortion and who countenance marriage rights for same-sex couples. This is the animus that dares not speak its name tonight. To paraphrase the "Justice Sunday" flier, now it's the anti-filibuster campaign that is being abused to protect bias, this time against gay people.
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Tweet of the Day:
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show: Trying to find the podcast? Congration You Done it! Cliven Bundy's got Marco Rubio Syndrome.
Greg Dworkin tells us Digby's won a Hillman, points to
NYT's 2014 analysis, and says Medicaid expansion's pretty popular.
Joan McCarter says birth control coverage's pretty popular, too. And so's the AR "private option." More of the Gop "no backsies!" theory of governance. ALEC goes Bundy & Grijalva pushes back. Nixon (a 3rd one) to face impeachment? Bill Cassidy imagines a pivotal historical role for himself. NFL cheerleaders join the fight against wage theft. And listener Gilbert Aquino takes a stab at answering our theological questions.
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