Darn it, I can’t stop listening to Fox News. Not because it’s compelling, but because they’re so stupid and biased that it makes me laugh out loud while I’m listening in the car.
Today’s issue seems to be the Democratic filibustering of these presidential federal justice appointees. Basically what’s going on - and if you listen to other actually real news shows instead of Fox, you might not know this or think it’s as important as Fox does - is that the Democratic minority of senators is standing on the floor discussing the merits of judges and the selected appointees, and this is holding up the vote. The thing is, the Democrats know that when the vote is called, the judges will be approved by the required majority, simply because they’re outnumbered by Republicans who want to see these people sitting on the bench. If they leave the floor, they lose the vote - there’s no way to avoid this. So they just… keep… talking.
Well, the Republicans are pissed off, and I can see why. The Democrats essentially have no chance of preventing these people from getting the four open positions on judicial courts, so the delay tactics get them nothing. I feel bad for the Democrats because they just suck so much. I should really quantify that, huh?
While Republicans are often able to point at specific instances of apparent Democratic stupidity (no matter how contrived or veiled in half-truth), all the Democrats seem to be able to do in return is whine about how unfairly they’re being treated. Compare any political radio broadcast. The Republicans are often on the offensive, saying how stupid Democrats are, and presenting completely unreasonable/unfair plans for their initiatives. The Democrats are often simply whining about this or that with no plan of action for correcting it. Politicians are just a big group of wealthy folks who can’t see over the fence to know what the other guys are trying to grow in their shared fertile soil, yet they hate the other guy so much that they blindly fling bricks over hoping they hit someone, and end up crushing their tomatoes. Meanwhile, we’re all wondering how we’re going to finish making our BLT without any ingredients. But back to the point I was trying to make…
The problem with judicial confirmation is exactly what that twit E.D. Hill on Fox News says it is: People elected Republicans, Republicans are in the majority, don’t the people want Republican appointees on the bench? Yes, it’s exactly that, E.D., except you’re not giving the full picture.
Republicans were voted into these offices by some margin. Republicans do not represent the whole of the United States. If you really want to represent America on the bench (and you darn well should!), you will appoint justices that are fractionally equal to the ideals of the people. Saying that the democrats will have their turn when they’re in power creates an unneccessary teeter-totter of balance that this country doesn’t need in the future. It should have nothing to do with what party is currently in power.
But our system doesn’t work that way for some reason.
This is how it currently works, broken down into small numbers: 1000 people support capital punishment, and 999 people don’t. Because the supporters outnumber the opponents by one person, all of the judges that would decide on the matter will be appointed by people who support capital punishment, and all of the judges will be approved by senators that support capital punishment. There’s something wrong in that, don’t you think?
The Democrats are in the right state of mind - not all of these appointees should be Republican - but it’s a shame they don’t have any power (nor would any minority in the senate) to affect any change, and now they’re floundering trying to, what? Show their disapproval? Make more fools of themselves than they often already do? Guys, it’s frustrating, but you either need to change the process or move on, and what you’re doing isn’t helping anyone.
I am amused by Fox News and Fox & Friends in that they’ve reported their decidedly not “fair and balanced” viewpoint on this endlessly for the past few days, yet have failed to mention anything about the cause of power. It’s just like they’re convinced that the election of mostly Republicans really is a mandate from the people to appoint and approve all Republican candidates for judicial benches. This is just not true, and it sickens me that any weak-minded Americans could listen to or watch that tripe and be convinced of the half-truth.
For the record, I don’t side with either party. Actually, I would mostly agree with the Republican stance on things, but these days they’ve gone off the religious deep end. I hesitate to agree with anything Bush Jr. says, and use a critical eye - as anyone should of any government policy or activity - to examine everything that comes out of Washington.
As far as Federal Court Justices are concerned, I am currently more interested these days in protecting the rights of common citizens than in protecting corporations, specifically in this changing world of copyright, intellectual property, and individual rights both defined and implied. These issues are going to be too important in the near years to appoint far-right judges into important permanent positions who could end up making poor choices on these hard issues. This is the main reason why I didn’t want to see Bush elected, and one of the more significant reasons why I think our country is going to suffer from this administration for many years to come.
