Guest Post by Morbo Federal Appeals Court Judge Richard A. Posner has penned a new book titled Catastrophe: Risk and Response, which examines various disasters that could befall humankind. Posner discusses the usual eco-threats — global warming, pandemics, massive earthquakes and so on — but I found his discussion of man-made disasters more interesting, specifically, […]
Guest Post by Morbo Under Republican rule, the quality of “experts” testifying at Congressional hearings has definitely taken a dive. Case in point: On Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights heard testimony on the Federal Marriage Amendment. One of the witnesses, who was called by Sen. Sam Brownback […]
Guest Post by Morbo It drives me crazy that some fundamentalist Christians insist that their dogmatic faith bestows upon them a superior form of ethics and morality — and then proceed to act like complete and utter sleazeballs. Fundamentalists claim to worship an awesome God who holds them to a higher standard of behavior. Time […]
University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein has a tremendous piece in the LA Times today, arguing among other things, “What we are seeing, for the first time, is a fundamental challenge to the rule of law itself.” Sunstein was referring, of course, to the recent efforts launched by today’s Republican crusaders against the federal […]
For months, the White House has publicly maintained the fiction that presidential events are “public” and that Bush is exposed to “different viewpoints.” Now, however, the Bush gang is trying a slightly different tack. President Bush today is scrapping the usual format for his cross-country campaign to fix Social Security. Instead of just pitching his […]
Let’s see, Republicans are attacking the courts and judges, we’re on the verge of full-scale political war in the Senate over judicial nominations, and GOP officials are attending radical right-wing, anti-judiciary conferences at which Republican activists literally embrace a Stalin-like approach to rulings with which they disagree. And how does Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist […]
Less than a week ago, Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) called Tom DeLay an “embarrassment to me and to the Republican Party” and publicly called on him to resign as Majority Leader. Many waited anxiously to see who, if anyone, would follow Shays’ lead. Days went by, but more GOP ire was directed at Shays than […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * California comptroller Steve Westly, a Dem who became a multimillionaire as an eBay official, has been a key ally of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yesterday, however, Westly broke with the governor and hinted at […]
Almost three weeks ago, the Washington Post ran a front-page item on pharmacists who are refusing to fill prescriptions when medications violate their “personal moral or religious beliefs.” It caused a fuss, but the scope of the issue was not altogether clear. It was a solid article, but it was vague about how serious a […]
Needless to say, any lawmaker who voted for that painfully ridiculous bankruptcy bill ought to be ashamed of themselves. But on top of the legislation’s absurd anti-consumer provisions, it’s also worth noting that Tom DeLay and other House Republicans limited debate to just two hours and didn’t even allow congressional Dems to offer an amendment […]