The "Progressives" New "Court Packing" Scheme

[boomerang]

You expect someone with that kind of last name to act mature?

You know, actually, I think he probably got the shit beat out of him on nearly a daily basis in school and it's got his head fucked up. I both feel both sorry for him and repulsed by his actions.

 

[Jhhnn]

This has been discussed to death but keep the hate alive man! Fuck yeah!

Righties haven't acknowledged it at all, preferring obfuscation and duh-version as exhibited in this thread. Would you say he's incompetent, or that his omission was deliberate, an act of hubris? Go ahead, take your pick, because it's one or the other.

Speaking of hate, why you hatin' on the black man, man? Psst, we know...
One more leftie on the court and all the decisions will go your way. The fact that you'll go to these lengths to continually drag up what is nothing more than a minor issue all the while hating a black Supreme Court justice solely because he's a conservative is really sad.

Oooh! Race Card! Thomas' appointment reeked of tokenism at the time, and that hasn't changed one whit. Of all the educated and erudite black men in this country, Republicans picked an obvious sellout, elevated him to the SCOTUS as a token replacement for one of the finest legal minds of the era, Thurgood Marshall. He hasn't deviated a millimeter from their expectations, either. They'd have picked him as a house slave in the antebellum South- he's just their kind of ideal servant, perfect in every way.

 

[comptr6]

You expect someone with that kind of last name to act mature?

Hahaha!

The guy acts like a 12 year old, and is even dumberer. And to top it off he's a liberal jew from NY. It couldn't get any worse.

 

[Craig234]

Thomas lying under oath and therefore being unqualified to serve on SCOTUS suddenly morphs into court packing in the minds of some.

Funny, when Nixon was forced to resign, with the GOP greasing the skids after the final tape release, no one came up with that novel defense.

Both democratic and republican public officials at all levels have been impeached, but they get impeached on the basis of a provable crime or breech ethics, and at no time in American history can I recall a conspiracy to get rid of public officials on the basis of political party.

Some Republicans CLAIMED that - and it was an important factor in the Republican decision to abuse impeachment by using it against Clinton as 'revenge for Nixon'.

And when FDR tried to pack the courts, the method was quite different. Because FDR tried to take advantage of a loop hole, in the fact that SCOTUS membership had never before been defined as nine and only nine. And by adding some more FDR friendly justices to the then nine members, FDR could dilute the dominance of the then majority anti FDR justices. As it is, the FDR court packing scheme got shot down.

FDR faces a seriously misguided ideological court blocking his efforts to help the country on ideological grounds.

Not the right-wing version they were enforcing the constitution as designed, but rather not enforcing the constitution to 'legislate from the bench.

But of course, the right largely blesses that, when it's their agenda.

When FDR's admittedly ambitious effort to address the problem failed - and he suffered disaproval for trying it - the issue was resolved mainly when the court, possibly shaken by the effort, shifted their rulings to be more favorable to his programs. Look at some of the court's worse rulings - under FDR, in the late 19th century - and you can better understand the problem.

But removing Thomas for perjury is not court packing and instead rests on the seriousness of Thomas's ethical breech. But I am confident that Thomas will get fairly judged by what amounts to a bi-partisan panel.

I haven't yet looked into this latest issue. Thomas' problem is radical ideology, which isn't grounds for impeachment, so if he committed an impeachable offense, it'll just be a lucky coincidence that happens to help the court and the country. I'm dubious of his being impeached unless the crime is pretty serious, though at least the Republican House has no say in the matter, given their position would be corruptly guaranteed.

 

[Craig234]

Anthony Weiner is all you need to know in regards to this. His maturity level is about that of a fifteen year old.

You're an idiot. Weiner has shown himself an excellent, morally concerned, passionate Congressman.

 

[manimal]

You're an idiot. Weiner has shown himself an excellent, morally concerned, passionate Congressman.

I too love the Weiner!


Having lived in NYC for years before moving back to the midwest I grew to really appreciate him!


Peter King on the other hand...

 

[Jhhnn]

I too love the Weiner!


Having lived in NYC for years before moving back to the midwest I grew to really appreciate him!


Peter King on the other hand...

Peter King is the new Joe McCarthy wannabee...

 

[Craig234]

Peter King is the new Joe McCarthy wannabee...

To be fair, he still pales - there is no nationwide blacklisting of many people for being Muslim (yet), as there was with McCarthy.

The other day, I caught a documentary of old tv shows, which talked about the Honeymooners, and covered the history that Jackie Gleason's original actress playing Ralph Kramden's wife was gotten rid of because of McCarthy's blackballing, and replaced by the one we know best from the TV show. Many people were destroyed, evilly.

 

[manimal]

To be fair, he still pales - there is no nationwide blacklisting of many people for being Muslim (yet), as there was with McCarthy.

Many people were destroyed, evilly.

What scares me is that scores refuse to learn from history. How many times must we blindly enter a war and fall on our own sword...how many times must we attempt trickle down before we drown...how many times must we vilify those we do not understand...



The anti-intellectualism of the current climate will be remembered in history...

 

[Drift3r]

Hahaha!

The guy acts like a 12 year old, and is even dumberer. And to top it off he's a liberal jew from NY. It couldn't get any worse.

You are joking right?

 

[comptr6]

Spoken like a undercover liberal.

Yeah you caught me.

I'm a secret liberal that reads freerepublic. Nice edit.

 

[UberNeuman]

What scares me is that scores refuse to learn from history. How many times must we blindly enter a war and fall on our own sword...how many times must we attempt trickle down before we drown...how many times must we vilify those we do not understand...

The anti-intellectualism of the current climate will be remembered in history...

Hate is a powerful animal...

 

[Drift3r]

Yeah you caught me.

Nice edit.

New account that jumps into P&N spouting off extreme and almost comical political rhetoric from day one is completely suspect.

 

[manimal]

Hate is a powerful animal...

it does turn man to manimals!


"I have watched the manimals go buy--- buying shoes, buying
sweets, buying knives. I have watched the manimals and cried
buying time, buying ends to other peoples lives."


Andy Partridge

 

[piasabird]

We need term limits on the Supreme Court and in Congress!

 

[werepossum]

We need term limits on the Supreme Court and in Congress!

Seconded.

 

[soundforbjt]

Hahaha!

The guy acts like a 12 year old, and is even dumberer. And to top it off he's a liberal jew from NY. It couldn't get any worse.

You guys know what Micheal Savage's real name is right?

It's Weiner!!

 

[werepossum]

You guys know what Micheal Savage's real name is right?

It's Weiner!!

And just like Anthony, he lives up to it!

 

[Craig234]

We need term limits on the Supreme Court and in Congress!

For Congress it's a horrible idea, for reasons I'm going to have to hotkey for people who miss it the first 50 times.

For the court, I'm more ambivalent. There are advantages to the status quo, and harms to replacing Justices more often, but the failures with the radical 4 - if McCain had been elected we'd be screwed even more - show the price of having bad Justices appointed for decades.

But having people who spend that long on the constitution developing expertise - cough, cough most - probably outweighs the benefit of the revolving door.

Their independence has benefit to preventing short-term gain of apporving the latest policy that' has political pressure - that leads to court stacking with agendas.

This is why the Federalist Society ideological move to take over and radicalize our legal system is so harmful.

It's only been held off for a brief period while Obama is President.

Remember, as bad as some decisions have been in recent years, that most important better rulings it seems have had the four right-wing radicals voting the other way.

I'd leave the terms of both branches alone- as they have been since the founding.

 

[sportage]

No one is above the law. Even the "law".
Bye Bye Tommy.

 

[Craig234]

On the issue at hand, there is blame for the Senate for approving him - the 52 who voted to, that is, not the 48 who voted no. And there is blame for his former girlfriend for leaving Anita Hill who did the right thing, and was massively attacked by liars on the right for it, alone and staying silent when it could have helped - and probably would have prevented his approval, IMO.

While I think he deserves to be impeached, the evidence does not seem clear enough to me to do it, no 'smoking gun' of his lying to Congress.

However, the evidence would have been enough to vote 'no' on his nomination.

It's not that he had a porn fetish - who cares - it was most importantly his willingness to lie about his abuse of people, and that abuse.

Of course, the other radical right lied as well, about things like respecting precedent.