Justice Clarence Thomas - Mental Midget and Religious Extremist

I have frequently made the case as to why Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is unfit for the Supreme Court bench - or in reality, any other judicial position given his utter inability to separate his own religious beliefs and religious based prejudices from his rulings.  As shockingly horrible as the conservative majority opinion was in the case of Town of Greece v. Galloway, which focused on whether or not it is constitutionally acceptable to begin the meetings of legislative bodies with prayer, Thomas went on to suggest that under the U.S. Constitution, the federal government probably could not establish an official religion, the states could perhaps do so.  For non-Christians, the message is clear: go f*ck yourselves.   A piece in the Washington Post looks at Thomas' dangerous and frightening views.  Here are excerpts:

The majority opinion pointed out that the town made a good-faith effort to bring in prayer leaders from a variety of religious backgrounds and that there is a long tradition of legislative prayer — even sectarian legislative prayer — not being deemed coercive or unconstitutional.

But Clarence Thomas, in his concurring opinion, went even further on the subject of the establishment of religion. That whole clause is just a federalism thing, he argued. States might well be able to establish religion, if they really wanted to.

“The Establishment Clause provides that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.’ ” Justice Thomas quoted in his concurring-but-wishing-they’d-gone-further opinion. “As I have explained before, the text and history of the Clause ‘resis[t] incorporation’ against the States. … If the Establishment Clause is not incorporated, then it has no application here, where only municipal action is at issue. As an initial matter, the Clause probably prohibits Congress from establishing a national religion.”

Probably.

Sure, James Madison’s original draft of the First Amendment was a good deal stronger: “The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship … nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed.”

Thomas went on to note that, when the Founders were Founding, plenty of states had established religions. It was the done thing.

But that wasn’t for want of opposition — some of that from the Founders themselves. In fact, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were both heavily involved in the battle for religious freedom in Virginia. Discounting Jefferson as someone who liked to go through his Bible excising passages he considered impractical, it still seems fair to consider what Madison had to say on the issue. And he felt quite strongly.

He offered up some fiery words on the subject during a debate over a “a Bill establishing a provision for teachers of the Episcopal religion” in Virginia, noting: “If ‘all men are by nature equally free and independent,’ all men are to be considered as entering into Society on equal conditions; as relinquishing no more, and therefore retaining no less, one than another, of their natural rights. Above all are they to be considered as retaining an equal title to the free exercise of Religion according to the dictates of Conscience. Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess and to observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offence against God, not against man…”

Freedom of religion, as the Founders experienced it, was definitely “of” and not “from.” To live out one’s religious beliefs undisturbed was the reason many had come to America in the first place. Madison wished for the vigorous establishment of freedom of religion because he thought this would benefit both Church and State. He wrote to Edward Livingston on July 10, 1822, that “Religion Flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.”

There's more, but the take away is that "originalists" like Thomas and Scalia seek to willingly do violence against the freedom of religion that the Founding Fathers wanted for ALL citizens, not just Bible thumping Christians.

The Stupidity of the Tea Party

It's amazing how the Koch brothers, Mitt Romney and the plutocrats use the bigotry and prejudices of the Tea Party crowd to manipulate these cretins into supporting those who are their own worse economic enemies.  I guess their hatred for gays, minorities, et al, supersedes their common sense.    Bigotry in this case carries a high price.

Truth About Palin's Idiocy Begins to Come Out

Many of us realized early on that Sarah "Bible Spice" Palin was utterly unfit to be vice president - or perhaps even a dog catcher in states other than Alaska - and now the real stories of her stupidity are all starting to spill out. Personally, I continue to believe someone (or multiple people) from the Christian Right picked her and foisted her on McCain in exchange for Christianist support. Obama needs to find out who that was so he can send them a personal thank you note for likely losing the election for McCain. Should the GOP keep Paklin as its standard bearer, I think we will see many years of Democrat rule. Crooks and Liars as a sampling of Palin's idiocy (which shows why the anti-knowledge and anti-intelligence Christianists love her):

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Carl Cameron does one of those Now-it-can-be-told stories Fox likes to do. In this episode we learn that:

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1. Palin did NOT know Africa was a continent.
2. She did NOT know who the parties to NAFTA were. [Hint: U.S., Canada, Mexico]
3. She threw dramatic temper tantrums over bad press.
4. She refused to prepare for the Gibson or Couric interviews.

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None of this really came out during the Presidential campaign because of course it was told "off the record". There are a few ways to look at this, the most interesting being is why they felt the need to spill the beans the day after the election. Are the knives really out on Sarah Palin? Sure seems so. Time will tell.

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Smith: Now that the election is over, Carl, tell us more about those reports of infighting between Palin and McCain staffers.

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Cameron: I wish I could have told you more at the time but all of it was put off the record until after the election. There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lack the degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency. We’re told by folks that she didn’t know what countries that were in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that being the Canada, the US, and Mexico. We’re told she didn’t understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country just in itself ... a whole host of questions that caused serious problems about her knowledgeability. She got very angry at staff, thought that she was mishandled.....was particularly angry about the way the Katie Couric interview went. She didn’t accept preparation for that interview when the aides say that that was part of the problem. And that there were times that she was hard to control emotionally there's talk of temper tantrums at bad news clippings......

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Notwithstanding that there is to be an avalanche that will continue for many days now we’re told of story upon story of the foibles of Sarah Palin.

Calling Out Sarah Palin, a Cretin and Liar

Even a casual reader of this blog would quickly figure out that I REALLY do not like Sarah Palin and view her as a frightening menace. The fact that the Republican Party I once belonged to could nominate such a cretin for Vice President is a testament to how low the Party has fallen and why so many moderates have left the Party like rats fleeing a sinking ship. To be a Republican today, it is nearly a prerequisite that one have a lobotomy first. What I find perhaps the most disquieting about Palin is that she - very much like the Chimperator - is utterly oblivious to her own limitations. Nothing is more dangerous than an over confident stupid person because there is no telling what lunacy they may undertake. Oh, wait. There is one thing worse: an overly confident stupid person who is a pathological liar like Sarah Palin. Keith Olbermann - who I like particularly because he will call out both liars and fools - has a special comment that looks at the Palin menace and hypocrisy. Here are some highlights:

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In the self-pronounced area of expertise of the Governor of Alaska—energy—the real experts of both parties are at a loss to figure out any way, even'drill, baby, drill', that might lower gas prices before 2018. We are at war in two countries and a lame duck President with no reason to check his own imbalance still has dreams of one more.

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Yet, the Governor of Alaska wants to talk about somebody Barack Obama doesn't know very well, and what this somebody Barack Obama doesn't know very well, did, during the year Obama was eight and the Governor of Alaska was in pre-Kindergarten. And she wants to talk about Reverend Jeremiah Wright. And she doesn't object to being introduced with a reference to Barack Obama's middle name. Well, this is my suggestion.

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We, America, also need to forgive poor Sarah Palin of Wasilla, Alaska. They are both in situations that are beyond their ability to cope. They are both stuck in a crucible caused by forces they cannot comprehend. They are both unable to understand what they are doing. After stumbling through a clumsier version of it at Englewood, Colorado, the Governor of Alaska said Saturday at Carson, California: "Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.”

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Governor, Conservative groups have thus far spent ten million dollars this year trying to make something, anything, out of the brief interaction on a charity board between Sen. Obama, and a rehabilitated former domestic radical from the '60s and not even Conservatives have been stupid enough to buy the snake oil, that this was either a close relationship or a nefarious one.

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But of course, you know better, Governor. You're smarter than the rest of us. A reporter asks you a horrible gotcha question like'which newspapers do you read' and it takes you four days to come up with an answer, and somehow it's the reporter's fault. The reporter asks you to name one Supreme Court ruling with which you disagree other than Roe vs. Wade and even though you'd commented on just such a case from Alaska no less not three months ago your eyes turn into a big neon sign reading "Vacancy” and you insist it's because that evil media asked the wrong question.

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So you're the genius Governor, and it's your supporters and the undecided voters who are the dopes who are now going to believe the same mickey-mouse crap that Sen. Clinton couldn't get to stick, and Sean Hannity couldn't get to stick, just because it's you adding that word "terrorist” and that phrase "palling around” and dropping the "g” in pal-ling.

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And of course, Governor, those same dopes, and we media morons, we are not smart enough to ask about that pesky Alaskan Independence Party, and why you recorded a speech for its convention last March, and why your husband remained a registered member of it until 2002, even though it was founded by a man named Joe Vogler who wanted Alaska to secede from the United States. The way the South seceded, precipitating the Civil War. The same Joe Vogler who once said: "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government, and I won't be buried under their damn flag.”

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Governor, them's strong words, hah? Did he wink as he said 'em? You betcha! So, where does Joe Vogler rank on the scales of "terrorists who would target their own country?" Your opponent's guy Ayers wound up on a volunteer anti-poverty committee in Chicago. But your guy Vogler wound up founding a group that wanted to rip one of the stars off the American flag! Well, ok, Governor, Vogler's more your husband's guy. So it's your husband who's been "palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.” But I'm assuming you've been "palling around” with your husband.

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Governor? Bill Ayres? Your hubby was in this secessionist hate group for which you recorded a video. Governor? Jeremiah Wright? That pastor you credit with helping you become Governor, is either a con man or a psycho who believes he can tell which woman in the village is the witch, and which woman is the governor. And Governor, there's also "The U.S. Council On World Freedom.” You should ask Sen. McCain about that outfit and why he had to scat away from it 22 years ago.

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Because if you think the terrorism con, and the racism sting are going to do anything but bury you and Sen, McCain, you need to pick up one of those how-many-ever newspapers you read and check the headlines to find out what people are really worried about right now. Otherwise, when you said "the heels are on, the gloves are off,” you got as close to telling the truth as you've ever gotten, and without really knowing it.

Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart

I saw the above chart on AmericaBlog and it is too fun, yet sadly an accurate description of what Palin did last night. The thought of her potentially a heart beat away form the presidency is terrifying. The rest of the world must think Americans have truly gone insane.

Skepticism of Palin Growing

Meanwhile, polling is showing that people are beginning to wake up to just what an irresponsible choice Sarah Palin was for the GOP vice presidential slot. Let's be candid: from the interviews I have watched, Sarah makes the typical soccer mom look like a NASA physicist. It's down right painful to watch her babble like a cretin on issues about which even average individuals could discuss more coherently. If the GOP thinks Palin is representative of women (other than Christianist women), then American women should be outraged by the insult. I truly hope that McCain/Palin go down to defeat and that perhaps the GOP will wake up to the fact that appeasing the nutcase Party base translates into alienating all other voters. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:

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With the vice presidential candidates set to square off today in their only scheduled debate, public assessments of Sarah Palin's readiness have plummeted, and she may now be a drag on the Republican ticket among key voter groups, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

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Though she initially transformed the race with her energizing presence and a fiery convention speech, Palin is now a much less positive force: Six in 10 voters see her as lacking the experience to be an effective president, and a third are now less likely to vote for McCain because of her.

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Nearly a third of adults in a new poll from the Pew Research Center said they paid a lot of attention to Palin's interviews with CBS News's Katie Couric, a series that prompted grumbling among some conservative commentators about Palin's competency to be the GOP's vice presidential standard-bearer. The Pew poll showed views of Palin slipping over the past few days alone.

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About half of all voters said they were uncomfortable with the idea of McCain taking office at age 72, and 85 percent of those voters said Palin does not have the requisite experience to be president. The 60 percent who now see Palin as insufficiently experienced to step into the presidency is steeply higher than in a Post-ABC poll after her nomination early last month. Democrats and Republicans alike are now more apt to doubt her qualifications, but the biggest shift has come among independents.

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In early September, independents offered a divided verdict on Palin's experience; now they take the negative view by about 2 to 1. Nearly two-thirds of both independent men and women in the new poll said Palin has insufficient experience to run the White House. . . .

Palin now repels more independents than she attracts to McCain. The share of independent women less apt to support McCain because of the Palin pick has more than doubled to 34 percent, while the percentage more inclined to support him is down eight points.

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Despite Palin's slip in public assessments, the boost she has provided among some core segments of the GOP base has not faded. Enthusiasm for McCain's candidacy among Republicans, conservatives and white evangelical Protestants climbed sharply after the party's convention in St. Paul, Minn., where Palin made her debut, and it has held relatively steady since.

A Common Thread in Bush's Failings

Today's Washington Post has a good op-ed by Ruth Marcus that looks at the underlying causes for the disastrous presidency of the Chimperator. Back early on in his first term I had described in an e-mail to some former GOP compatriots what I thought would be Bush's downfall (unfortunately, little did I realize how much he'd drag the rest of the nation down with him). One word catches all of the causes in one: hubris. In addition to thinking he has a direct line to God, the Chimperator is far too self-enamored and apparently never asks himself the question of "what if I'm wrong?" Hubris leads to so many other failings, including contempt for others and a feeling that no consultation is needed with those who might just have another perspective. Unfortunately, this mindset in my experience is all too common among the "I've been saved" Christianist set. Closed mindedness and a refusal to believe in objective facts often leads to terrible consequences. Here are some column highlights:

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The improbable topic of today's column is Monica Goodling and the federal budget deficit. You might think that the two of these have nothing in common save the happenstance that both are the subject of devastating new reports. . . But the linkage goes beyond the adjective. The ousted Goodling and the lingering deficit are twin manifestations of the Bush administration's overarching contempt for government and blind adherence to ideology.

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This administration will leave office having trashed the place -- and I'm not talking about a few "W's" pried loose from White House computer keyboards by the exiting Clinton crew. I'm referring to the myriad ways in which this administration, dismissive of the role of government, abused the enterprise it was entrusted with overseeing. My favorite sentence in the Goodling report sums up the hiring practices in the department's supposedly nonpartisan career ranks: "Tell Brad he can hire one more good American."

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Most administrations find ways to keep the Goodlings under control and the grown-ups in charge. The trouble with this one is that it is riddled with Goodlings Gone Wild, incapable of or unwilling to distinguish between the proper pursuit of political aims and the responsible administration of government.

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So what's the deficit got to do with it? The deterioration of the nation's budgetary picture under the reckless stewardship of this administration is the fiscal equivalent of the Goodlingization of the executive branch. President Bush put adherence to Republican theology -- taxes must be cut -- over prudent governing.

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The difference is that President Ronald Reagan, facing such daunting deficits, changed course and undid about one-third of his earlier tax cuts. Bush, by contrast, is determined to insist, on his way out the door, that the tax cuts he once said were required by the surplus he inherited are now required by the deficit he is creating. . . . Monica Goodling was not the problem. She was the symptom of an administration so certain of the correctness of its worldview that it never pauses to reconsider.

The Chimperator and the GOP Convention

I find it all too appropriate - Divine justice perhaps - that the GOP is fretting over what to do with the Chimperator as the GOP Convention date gets closer. The same people who blindly rubber stamped and supported the cretinous Chimperator's every move are worried about him being too visible at the Party's August Convention. Heaven forbid that his visibility remind the public that all John McCain is offering is a Bush III regime. As if the first two Bush terms have not caused disaster enough. I sincerely hope that the Chimperator remains out of touch with reality, continues to see himself as a major asset for the Party and refuses to be invisible. The GOP establishment created, supported, and otherwise enabled the monster and it is only fair that they must live with the consequences. The nation is certainly paying a price for their misdeeds. Here are highlights from a New York Times story that looks at the GOP's distress:

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What if your family was planning a big end-of-summer bash (a Grand Old Party, you might call it) but preferred that you not be seen — or heard? That is the question hanging over President Bush, with eight weeks to go until Republicans gather in St. Paul to nominate Senator John McCain as his successor. Convention planners, the White House and the McCain campaign are wrestling with how to choreograph a proper send-off for Mr. Bush — sure, his poll numbers are in the tank, but he is still the party leader and president of the United States — while hustling him out the door in time for Mr. McCain to look like his own man.

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A convention is a pivot point, and the theatrics and imagery are often more important than the words. For Mr. McCain, of Arizona, the convention imagery will be especially important, because he must show that he wants to take the nation in a new direction, away from Mr. Bush, yet he cannot escape Mr. Bush’s dominance of Republican Party politics for the last eight years.

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This year, of course, Mr. McCain is trying to escape from Mr. Bush’s shadow. Most Republicans say Mr. Bush should play whatever role Mr. McCain wants him to. Some, like Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, simply wish Mr. Bush would keep out of it, though few would say so openly. “I don’t think there are a lot of people who want to see him at the convention,” said Mr. Rohrabacher, who is especially irked with Mr. Bush for his stance on immigration. He said the president “should stay home from the Republican convention, and everybody would be better off.”

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[T]he crux of the Republicans’ 2008 convention quandary: If the imagery coming out of St. Paul looks like a McCain-Bush hug fest, the Arizona senator will turn off voters who are through with Mr. Bush and want to move past him. If the imagery looks like Mr. McCain is trying to file for some kind of Republican divorce, it will turn off party conservatives who are already skeptical of Mr. McCain. So Republicans may just have to grit their teeth.