How Many Catholic Male Supreme Court Justices Does It Take To Ruin A Country?

Oh, just a simple majority.

That's all.

John Roberts....A Fantasy

INTERIOR: the chambers of the Chief Justice of the United States' Supreme Court--day

[John Roberts, an insignificant man in a black robe, stands before a full length mirror]

Roberts: Well, today's the big day! Yep, the big day. Obamacare, heh heh heh.  Frankly, I don't see what the big deal is. I think liberals just like to complain about things. I'm very happy with my health insurance, and so is everyone I know. Scalia, and Alito, and Thomas. And sometimes Kennedy. You never can tell with him. It's something, though, to hold the fate of millions of people in your hands. Makes me kind of giddy.

[A 3 headed devil, bearing a remarkable resemblance to Rush Limbaugh and the Koch brothers, appears on his right shoulder]

Devil: You know what you have to do, don't you?

Roberts: Yes, Master. I do.

Devil: Just like Citizens United.

Roberts: Yes, Master.

Devil: This will finally be the end of our first--and last--black President.

Roberts: Yes, Master.

[An angel, who is the spitting image of Abe Lincoln, appears on his left shoulder]

Angel: Now John, you don't really want to do that, do you?

Roberts: Who are you?

Angel: I'm the better angel of your nature.

Devil: Shut up!!

Roberts: I didn't know I had one.

Angel: Oh John, we all do. It's just hidden in some people.

Devil: Shut the fuck up!!

Angel: John, don't pay any attention to them. They're living in the past and we're talking about the future. The future. Listen, do you really want to be remembered as the biggest asshole in the history of the Supreme Court?

Roberts: I thought that was Scalia.

Angel: Besides him I mean.

Roberts: No! No, I don't!

Angel: Good, there's hope for you yet.

Devil: God damn it!

[The 3 headed devil disappears in a puff of smoke. The angel chuckles and then he, too, disappears]

Roberts: The better angel of my nature. Wow!

[Roberts brushes the dandruff off his shoulders, and exits]

Fade to black

Heaven

I don't put much faith in an afterlife...

But if there is one, I'd pay good money to someday see Justices Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito explain to Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and Franklin how corporations are people and money is speech.

I'm guessing there would be much amazement and even some laughter from our Founders.

And imagining what would happen if that noted "originalist" Antonin Scalia, whose belief in his own intellectual superiority is somewhat detached from reality, began to lecture Tom, James, John and Ben about what they really meant, fills me with immeasurable, dare I say heavenly, joy.

Gutless

Being essentially an understanding, compassionate, bleeding heart liberal, (I consider these to be virtues, by the way), I'd like to think that President Obama had no choice but to go along with the latest Republican attack on the well being of the American people.

The Israelis may have the luxury of saying that they don't negotiate with terrorists, but when the terrorists are duly elected members of the United States' Congress it is a slightly different matter. And when the credit and honor of the nation is at stake in addition to the economic well being of much of the world, well...

It is true that nothing good can get through the House of Representatives at this point. The Tea Party Jacobins have scared whatever little sense there was out of the other Republicans. So maybe this is the best deal he could get. I don't know.

I do know that Mr. Obama is a cautious man who likes to calculate and re-calculate and run through every possible hypothetical. And it may indeed be the case that invoking the 14th Amendment, and telling Boehner and Cantor and McConnell and the rest of the scum to go to hell, might have ended up with the Supreme Court--which at this point is about as corrupt an institution as I can imagine--having to decide the matter. So what?

Let Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Kennedy, and Alito--the Supreme Corporatists--explain to their "owners" why they let the US default. I for one don't think they have the balls to do it. I mean, what would their country club buddies say?

But now we'll never know.

One thing is for certain: if you believe in the hereafter, then at some point Barack Obama will have to answer to Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, MLK, RFK, LBJ, Gene McCarthy, and Teddy Kennedy for what he's helped the Republicans do to the citizens of this country.

A Confederacy of Dunces

I'm not sure what to make of the Republican Party these days. In the latest Presidential poll, Michele Bachman is in a statistical dead heat with Mitt Romney. Now Romney has been known for at least four years as the man who will change his position on any issue to best reflect the views of whichever constituency he is trying to appeal to at that time. His flip-flops make John Kerry ("I was for the war before I was against it") look like a statue of rectitude. Remember, Romney was the man who brought healthcare reform to Massachusetts, before he decided that almost the same plan is terrible for the country. He was pro-choice before he was pro-life. And the list goes on. Meanwhile, Bachmann is the gift that keeps on giving to comedians nationwide.Ssomeone needs to install a switch somewhere in her brain that prevents her every thought from reaching her tongue. As Keith Olbermann put it, "that woman is an idiot." What does it say about the Republicans that these two candidates are currently leading in both the Iowa and national polls?

In the meantime, we have the tea party folks who keep chanting something to the effect of we must take America back. My question is, "from who?" I should think they would want to take it back from the corporate oligarchy that is strangling the middle class and our republic even as we speak. That doesn't seem to be the case though. We have Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, a justice so morally deficient that he doesn't even try to hide his conflicts of interest on cases he is charged with deciding -- and I can tell you everytime which side of the case he will choose, without my having to bother reading the briefs. Justices Alito, Scalia and Roberts are not much better, and Justice Kennedy continues to disappoint with almost every decision since he represents the deciding voice on almost every case. I'm not speaking here of the "social" cases -- although abortion is surely going to fall this way as well. I'm speaking more of the financial cases -- with this court, whatever corporate America wants, corporate America gets.

Next let's look at those twin stalwarts of the Republican Party in the Congress, Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor. Turns out that on close inspection each stands to benefit from screwing the rest of us. If Ryan's budget somehow were to pass, then Congressman Ryan will make a small fortune by privatizing Medicare. If the U.S. defaults on its debt by not raising the debt ceiling, then Cantor will make wheelbarrows full of money. See, he's been betting AGAINST treasury bonds. It's no wonder he decided to walk out on the debt ceiling talks last week. The chutzpah these guys show knows no bounds.

I could go on this way for some time -- but to be quite frank, thinking about the modern Republican Party and the disastrous effect it is having on the country I so proudly served is giving me a massive headache.