Bush Nominates Another Extremist

Oct 23 13:52 UTC 2003

Janice Brown is yet another example of George W. Bush's tendancy to
favor ideology over qualifications.  The California Judicial Nominations
Evaluating Commission rated Brown not qualified for the state supreme
court on two occasions.  In addition, a large minority of the ABA
Federal Judiciary Committee found her not qualified for the D.C.
Circuit, and *no* member of that committee rated her as well-qualified.  

She has strongly pro-corporate leanings, and is willing to ignore
established precident in order to support them.  For example, she wrote
a dissenting opinion in a case involving the firing of a worker who blew
the whistle on a company that was shipping defective parts for
airplanes, arguing that the government had no right to create exceptions
to at-will employment.  She also dissented in a case accusing Nike of
making false statements, arguing that commercial speech should be
protected in the same manner as individual speech and that a precident
set 60 years ago should be overturned:  "In 1942, the United States
Supreme Court, like a wizard trained at Hogwarts, waved its wand and
plucked the commercial doctrine out of thin air."

She has expressed strongly anti-government views in her writings and
public speeches: "Some things are apparent.  Where government moves in,
community retreats, civil society disintegrates, and our ability to
control our own destiny atrophies. ...The result is a debased, debauched
culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."

In a 1999 speech, she argued that the Bill of Rights is not incorporated
into the 14th amendment, and thus none of the First Amendment
protections restrict what state governments can do.  This is a pretty
frightening position from someone who would presumably be in line for a
Supreme Court position.

My suspicion is that the Republican majority will fully support her,
both because of her strong right-wing positions and because, as a Bush
nominee, they're practically obligated to.  Because she's black, if the
Democrats filibuster to try to block her appointment the Republicans
will play the race card.  In fact, this has already started: "She is a
conservative African-American woman, and for some that alone
disqualifies her nomination to the D.C. circuit." -- Orrin Hatch.

Links:

Alliance for Justice report:
http://www.independentjudiciary.com/resources/docs/Brown%20Report%20FINAL.p
df
Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,100900,00.html

response 8 of 35:

Oct 23 19:36 UTC 2003

As expected, klg reduces matters of priciple to matters of race.

response 10 of 35:

Oct 23 19:53 UTC 2003

Rane in resp:5 :: "neoconservative" really gets badly abused these
days.  It does *not* mean "extreme conservative."   The Bush
administration has a lot of neocons in it, but they are by no means
the whole pie, and in Congress the neoconservatives do not have 
excessive power.

The original neocons were former leftists, in some case out-and-out
communists, who switched sides in the Cold War, more or less. 
Neocons these days are more concerned with global power issues and 
support using America's power to reshape the world in our favor.
Neoconservatives led us into the recent war in Iraq, 
they'd been pushing for such a war for years before Sept. 11 2001.
 
But outside of a general tilt towards business interests and away
from individuals, I don't see the neocons as having as extreme a 
domestic agenda as is ascribed to Justice Brown in these postings.
I've never heard anyone I think of as a neoconservative argue that 
the 14th amendment should not apply to the states.
 
One might better characterize these views as "paleoconservative;"
a leading spokesman for this point of view is Pat Buchanan, who was
passionately against the war in Iraq.
 
The Neocon/Paleocon split within the Republican party pops up 
in a number of places.  In general:
  
   The Neoconservatives support the projection of American power 
   overseas, and they are passionate supporters of Israel.  
   On US social issues they are generally quiet, though I'm willing
   to listen to folks tell me I'm wrong on that.  
 
   The Paleoconservatives want to strip the Federal government of 
   power; they want America to stop meddling overseas and they are 
   critical of support for Israel.  They tend to extreme social 
   conservative views: anti-gay, pro-fundamentalist-Christian, 
   anti-social-services.  They are rabidly anti-taxation.
   In general, I characterize them as wanting to repeal the 20th 
   century.  :)
 
But I digress.

response 14 of 35:

Oct 25 05:33 UTC 2003

re 13 He's a ninja but he doesn't use a machette?! He only masturbates?!  You
live in a sorry world indeed if that's all your ninjas can do.

response 22 of 35:

Nov 7 17:46 UTC 2003

What's the "miracle" in this? It was someone  expressing an opinion. People
do that all the time.

response 24 of 35:

Nov 7 18:04 UTC 2003

I think it is very consistent for Sharpton. She is, after all, Black.