Author: Dean Pajevic

“Justice Clarence Thomas, acting alone,” granted a temporary stay that blocks the right of a Missouri inmate to have an abortion. (MSNBC).

Lest we jump to conclusions, Judge Thomas handles appeals from “the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Missouri. He could lift the stay over the weekend, after reviewing more legal arguments.” (However, I rather doubt he’ll lift the stay, and may take further action.)

The woman, who has said she will borrow money from family and friends to pay for the abortion, cannot raise enough to pay for transportation to the medical facility. The state of Missouri had balked at providing transportation because state law “forbids spending tax dollars to facilitate an abortion.” However, “U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple ruled Thursday that the prison system was blocking the woman from exercising her right to an abortion and ordered that the woman be taken to the clinic Saturday.” An appeals court Friday upheld Whipple’s ruling.

Judge Thomas’s stay holds, “pending a further decision by himself or the full court [SCOTUS].”

The woman’s attorney, James Felakos of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in court papers that the woman is running out of time because she is 16 weeks to 17 weeks pregnant, and Missouri bars abortions after 22 weeks.

In court papers, the woman said she discovered she was pregnant shortly after being arrested in California in July on a Missouri parole violation. She said she tried to get an abortion in California but was transferred back to Missouri before it could be performed.

I’m curious why it is that Clarence Thomas is in charge of the 8th circuit, and which states are in that circuit. I found a map, and am putting it up shortly. I also want to find a list of which justices cover which circuits — and I further want to know who decides those assignments. Are those assignments political? I.e., was Thomas given the 8th circuit because it’s a conservative area and he’ll back their more conservative rulings? The map is up — below the fold:

(From the Seattle Times editorial cartoons section and archive. Eric Devericks is great!) OPEN THREAD!

Many of you are smitten with Juan Cole’s roasting of Judith Miller at Salon. Cole calls Miller’s WMD reporting “embarrassingly bad” and says she became a “stenographer to a motley crew of neoconservative hawks and Iraqi expatriate wheelers and dealers.”

Then there’s Jane Hamsher’s grotesque BBQ image in her excellent “Grand Jury Barbecue Time.” That image is nowhere as obscene as CNN’s ghoulish “gimme-an-R-for-ratings!” fixation on the NOLA hospital “mercy killings” and that whacked-out doctor CNN keeps interviewing who said, after he walked out before outside help arrived, that it was better to abandon his patients than help them die. (Huh?)

Take in Arianna’s “Advance Word on the Times’ Judy-Culpa.” “[It’s] definitely coming on Sunday … Judy’s camp is worried that it’s going to be very hard on her.”

… I’ve been told that Miller has been “ordered” to write a first-person, what-I-told-the-grand-jury account.

[Judy heads] west this weekend to attend a conference at Cal State Fullerton called, I kid you not, “Power to the People: Unlocking Government for the Public and Press and the Blogs!” Provide your own punchline. … Miller will present a special award on Saturday honoring Mark “Deep Throat” Felt. …

You’d think Miller would be in New York, working on her first-person story and helping the Times team close its piece (I mean, it’s not like there’s not a lot riding on it).

No shit. Just like there was a lot riding on “President Bush’s staged TV event with U.S. soldiers.” (Read Pat Lang’s condemnation.) I keep thinking that if only Rove hadn’t been prepping for his four and a half hours of testimony today, Bush’s staged event would have gone off seamlessly. Cry me a river….

BYO — and PLEASE SHARE! Then let’s kick back and watch Bill Maher and his guests, “Sen. Max Cleland, editor Tina Brown, and comedian Larry Miller, Sen. John Edwards, Chief Richard Pennington, and author Tom Wolfe.” (Here’s hopin’ Catnip and Olivia bring us some of that high proof Canadian brew!)

John at Crooks and Liars works day and night, painstakingly piecing through hours of video so that we can enjoy his terrific clips. It takes a lot of special equipment, software, and servers to pull this off. He’s often exhausted, but infailingly pleasant when I request a video. The last time John and I chatted about his equipment, he told me he had five servers running (that’s expensive) and they were overloaded. He’s also good to BoomanTribune. So, if you find yourself enjoying John’s videos, links, and his wry observations — but what he writes is never mean, I’ve noticed — visit, click and/or donate.

2% milk, you ask? Nope. Two percent is the number of African-Americans who approve of Bush’s job performance. Ken Mehlman reportedly has dispatched Young Republican squads to find the few. Let’s see. Former football great Reggie (“Black people are very gifted in what we call worship and celebration”) White is deceased. Armstrong Williams? Clarence Thomas, for sure. Anybody else? … OPEN THREAD: