Justice Stevens to Retire from Supreme Court

Justice John Paul Stevens made it official this morning. He is retiring from the Supreme Court at the end of the term. His most likely successor is Elena Kagen, a lady solicitor general. Dianne Wood is another contender but she is liberal on abortion issues and would be the hardest to confirm. The third leading candidate is a guy, and the guy is the easiest to confirm but he had a conservative streak on criminal issues and so many of the civil libertarian left might object. Justice Stevens was appointed by President Ford as a right of center candidate, but he became the anchor of the liberal block of four. Stevens will be turning ninety in a couple of weeks. People had been expecting him to retire but Justice Stevens wasn’t sure whether or not it would be this year. He only hired one law clerk instead of the traditional four, and this was a tip off. Stevens broke with tradition in that he liked to put on his official black robe himself rather than have the usual assistance. People say Stevens has an “independent streak” in his rulings. He wrote in a dissent to the Bush verses Gore decision that “While we may never know who the winner of this year’s Presidential election, we know who the loser is and that is the American system of justice”. Stevens was confirmed in just nineteen days by a vote of 98 to nothing, and it’s highly doubtful whether that fear will be repeated. Back when Al Franken was on the radio they played that song “Hang on, Stevens, Stevens hang on” because liberals feared that he might die or something while President Bush was still in office. As I wrote a few postings back, I’d go hard left on this one to stem the rightward drift of the High Court. President Obama only needs eight republicans to break rank to get a confirmation. One cannot help but think Stevens took present party balance into consideration for retiring this year. It could be argued this is the round to get set for a major battle in congress. Justice Ruth Bater Ginsburg is expected to be the nest to retire.

Bart Stupac has decided not to run for reelection as congressman. This is the author of the famous Stupac amendment that outlawed abortion in the recently passed Health Bill. It is suspect that the barrage of pro life hysterical callers drove him from not seeking office due to their venomous remarks. This is a sad thing. I find it disturbing that, as the saying goes, “bad money drives good money out of circulation”. And so it is that the bad apples in the barrel are taking over congress, raising the threat that the next congress will be much less responsive to the American people and far more responsive to the intimidating tactics of the tea party political right. As it stands now about as many Republicans are not running as are Democrats. But I feat this will change. People like Chris Dodd are shoving aside their nobler instincts in favor of the easy bucks.

It could be said that A Sarah Palin – Michelle Bachman ticket would be the ticket from Hell. But they both were at some rally M C’d by Sean Hannity. Sarah Palin made the statement that this Nuclear treaty with Russia is like the school bully going around to people and saying “Hit me and I won’t hit back”. I had that happen when I was six and in the first grade. This third grader comes up to me while I was walking home and says to hit him because that’s the way you make friends with him. Well, I did it, and of course got clobbered. The President responded to Palin merely by saying “I don’t think Sarah Palin is very qualified to talk about Nuclear armlements. The least she should do is learn how to pronounce “Nuclear”. At the Vice Presidential debate of 2008, Sarah Palin was asked a question on Nukes. She just said that basically it would be better not to exchange missiles. Of course that’s only because her Republican tea bagger friends hadn’t told her how to come down on this issue yet. Republicans are really upset about this Nuclear Arms treaty because it cuts our warheads by one third. But the thing is there hero and professed mentor, Ronald Reagan, signed a Nuclear Arms treaty with the Soviets. But back then they weren’t bothered by that. But now Republicans want to keep all their options open as to who they kill and how they kill them in the next war. However this treaty does not affect defensive missile installations we may deploy in the future in Europe. However our side has been warned that should we try and put in any new missiles Russia will pull out of this treaty. Personally I don’t know I would sign this treaty if I were President. Frankly I don’t think I’d care. I’d just look at the poll numbers and make my decisions from those. Randy Rhodes says she would love a Palin – Bachman ticket because it would draw a clear line in the sand and provide a target easy to campaign against. Most of the people cheering at this rally appeared to be women. (It was radio) This treaty has to pass the Senate by a two thirds majority and once again, eight republicans will have to break ranks with their party for the treaty to be approved.

People in the old Reigellian Federation were making the “V” symbol for Villanova to win, when Villanova was in contention. Contrary to what I said, Villanova is championed by the “Portland” Reigellians or the dominant race of Reigellians who pretty much make all the laws for Reigel VI. The Romulan connection that I had made previously must have been a mistranslation or something because the “Portland” Reigellians have been sponsoring Villanova since at least 1985. Xavier is the team backed by the Romulans. In a related note, it seems the Sirius A natives make a distinction between Romulans that have been on their planet a long time, who are from either Toronto or Hamburg, as opposed to the refugees from Regelus V from the great disaster of 1989 on their home planet. There seems to be an increasing urge to return to their home planet now that ecological restorations are making progress - and the Sirius A people are basically saying “Don’t let the door hit you on your way out”.