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04/24/2005: Pacts that Bedevil us all...
Frank Rich (NY Times) has written a wonderful vivisection of the further attempts of the Religious Right, led by various Senatorial Religious conservatives, to continue to pollute the political climate with conflated principles and reactionary policies in opposition (this time) to the Judiciary and it’s Constitutional independence as the Third Branch of our government. Give a full read: A High-Tech Lynching in Prime Time about this "Justice Sunday" event.”….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….”
Be sure not to miss this “tele-evangelical” soap-opera produced in part by James “Sponge-o-Phobic” Dobson himself. Tho’ I may need a barf bag close by to make it through an entire viewing of this evil and destructive crash course in this "Spare the Flogging...Spoil the Government" mis-info-tainment for tonight's viewing displeasure.
Karen on 04.24.05 @ 06:29 AM CST
