Month: October 2005

Newly confirmed US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts begins his tenure today with one of the most controversial issues of the day: the right to die with dignity as determined by individual states. During his confirmation hearings, he posited himself as a person who had the skill necessary to sway the court from closely decided decisions in order to reach a clear consensus. This will be his first test. We will also have the opportunity to discover if he is, indeed, a justice who refuses to be a right-wing activist. The stakes in this case are enormous.

Here’s some background courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor:

WASHINGTON – Oregon is the only state in the nation where an individual diagnosed as terminally ill can ask a physician to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs.

Since 1997, when the Oregon Death With Dignity Act took effect, more than 200 individuals have requested medical help to end their lives.

Supporters of the law call the process physician-assisted death. Opponents, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft, view it as state- sanctioned killing, and say it is incompatible with a physician’s role as healer.

Wednesday, after four years of litigation, the issue arrives at the US Supreme Court where the justices must decide whether Mr. Ashcroft’s efforts to undermine the Oregon law were a valid exercise of federal power.

At issue is a clash between the power of the federal government to reinterpret and enforce the nation’s drug laws versus the power of the states to regulate the practice of medicine in ways supported by elected state officials and twice approved by Oregon voters.

[PLEASE WELCOME CATNIP as a new front-pager! She’ll do a fabulous job, and we are so honored that she agreed to take this on. She’ll also cover for BooMan on Sundays since the Boo has wanted a day off for a long time. — I didn’t want to post this welcome at the top because I didn’t want to spoil Catnip’s first story being picked up by the RSS FEED ! — Susan (susanhu)]

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Are there so many cracks now that Harriet Miers’ nomination may crumble? From George Wills’ condemnation of Bush’s decision-making and choice to Trent Lott’s dismay (calling it a “mistake”) to this — “Cracks begin to emerge in mantle of Republican majority” — just in from John Byrne, publisher and editor-in-chief of Raw Story.

Byrne writes in an e-mail, “The mainstream press has yet to pick up on the fact that Brownback, Lott and Warner are all suddenly challenging Frist’s control of the Senate — which may spell trouble down the road. Meanwhile, the Gang of 14 is meeting at 4:30.”

In fact, the media has featured Trent Lott’s statements before the cameras today — the footage has been replayed hourly on MSNBC and CNN. And Scarborough and others are talking up Brownback’s opposition. (Of course, meanwhile, the increasingly laughable NYT — the paper of record no more? — has done another shoddy job of vetting its source on Miers’ background.)

Byrne has written a fine piece that puts it together for us:

WASHINGTON — It began on a quiet Thursday afternoon in May. Fourteen senators from both parties reached across the aisle to form a pact that ensured that a longstanding rule preserving the rights of the minority party – the Democrats – would survive.

That evening, Republican leader Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) took to a nearly empty Senate chamber to denounce the deal. His voice was defiant but tempered with defeat – Republicans would not get an “up or down vote” on their President’s coveted judicial nominees.

In retrospect, the deal likely marked the first crack in the levee of the Republican Congress. Since then, a fissure in Senate Republican discipline – paired with the triple indictment of House Republican mastermind Tom DeLay (R-TX) – has sent the conservative caucus spiraling into increasingly entropic waters.

On Tuesday, two leading Republican senators broke ranks. The first was Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KN), who signaled that he might oppose Harriet Miers, President Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court.

More BELOW:

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  Remember that scene in the original Star Wars where Luke, Leia, Han Solo and Chewy are being squeeeeezed in the trash compactor?  That’s what the economy is doing right now: gasoline, heating, food, health care, and everything else is costing more while wages don’t even keep up with inflation.  

   Fortunately, I’ve had a chance to hone my frugality skills over the last few years as we tried to homeschool our daughter on a one teacher income.  Oh yeah, and we paid off a student loan and moved from Alaska….

I think it’s time we shared our best tips with each other.  

Go below for the fall frugal fest…

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Matt Rothschild over at the Progressive website has another one of those stories that just makes you want to yell – but not too loud, someone might hear and report you:

On September 20, the Secret Service paid a call to Selena Jarvis, a high school social studies teacher in North Carolina, to discuss a poster one of her students had made illustrating the right to dissent.  Details below the fold…

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Is it possible that the Government of the United States or some agency of the Government placed a small biological weapon in the midst of the Mall area where 100 to 200,000 thousand protestors gathered to protest the war on September 24th? Would this discourage future protests?

This from the Washington Post:

Biohazard sensors showed the presence of small amounts of potentially dangerous tularemia bacteria in the Mall area last weekend as huge crowds assembled there, but health officials said they believed the levels were too low to be a threat.

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