alito ?

[duckplucker]

does anybody know any thing about this alito guy?

it seems like the press was all over roberts, but i haven't heard much about this guy.

do you think he will stamp out reproductive freedom?

are the lefties just worrying too much?

is our country doomed now that we will have a very conservative high court for the next 20 years or so?

or do you think its a good thing that W. gets to put in 2 righties?

[slam]

i think alito would probably be a good supreme court justice. yes, i disagree with him on a number of issues, and i'd imagine that the chances of the court overturning roe v. wade would go up significantly.

but it's the president's perogative to appoint judges, and congress' to approve the nomination. with those two branches of the government firmly in the hands of the republicans, of course we're going to get some more conservative judges on the court.

i think it sucks, and i think it's going to suck for a long fucking time, but them's the brakes. our country was stupid enough to put all those asshats in office, so we'll get what we fucking deserve.

however, i don't think alito is a madman like scalia. i will be somewhat disappointed if the democrats choose to filibuster him on this. i've listened to some of the confirmation hearings, and alito sounds like a pretty bright guy with a lot of experience. i really don't believe in having a litmus test for supreme court justices, even on abortion.

[withoutcanseco]

i highly double CE will respond. i'm starting to think it's just one of the normal members of the board posting those quotes under an assumed name.

[Soul Queen]

i think alito would probably be a good supreme court justice. yes, i disagree with him on a number of issues, and i'd imagine that the chances of the court overturning roe v. wade would go up significantly.

but it's the president's perogative to appoint judges, and congress' to approve the nomination. with those two branches of the government firmly in the hands of the republicans, of course we're going to get some more conservative judges on the court.

i think it sucks, and i think it's going to suck for a long fucking time, but them's the brakes. our country was stupid enough to put all those asshats in office, so we'll get what we fucking deserve.

however, i don't think alito is a madman like scalia. i will be somewhat disappointed if the democrats choose to filibuster him on this. i've listened to some of the confirmation hearings, and alito sounds like a pretty bright guy with a lot of experience. i really don't believe in having a litmus test for supreme court justices, even on abortion.

I have also read some of Alito's responses (granted they were paraphrased). He seems like an intelligent individual to me. I believe that cnn.com has posted his replies to key issues at the hearing. Though right now I can't seem to find them. I will try to dig them out for general consumption.

I need to read more about him to formulate a solid opinion. First glance, he's not crazy. I think today, Cnn has different verdicts that he has given as a judge.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/06/alito.keycases/index.html

[JVO]

Because I am lame and have no life, I have watched about 5 hours of the confirmation hearings and let me tell you, it is like masterbating with a cheese grater. The entire thing is an insult to everyone's collective intellegence. Each Senator potificates for 6 minutes about whatever policy they feel is important, careful to get the best possible face time, and then, as though they forgot that Alito was even there, they will quickly ask him to answer an incredibly complicated legal question (which generally has nothing to do with what they were just talking about) with a Yes or No answer. To which Judge Alito will respond by stating Stacie (precidence) without giving any feeling as to how he would rule. Then the aforementioned Senator grumbles about how he is running out of time right before he goes on another 6 minute disertation about how this is the only time they will ever have to question the judge because there is no accountability or term limits on Justices (to which they will roll their eyes). Then as the Senator begins to ask his second question in the last half hour, Chairman Specter (who has been dead for about 25 years) interupts to inform the Senator that his time has run out.

That pretty much sums it up. Occasionally a Senator (always someone who is obviously drunk and has no idea what he is talking about i.e. Teddy Kennedy) will make a statement or an explanation about a particular theory of law, to which Alito will respond by saying that said Senator has no idea what he is talking about and that everything the Senator just explained is wrong. To which the Senator will respond by stating, "I don't want to get bogged down in specifics" right before moving on to ask the Judge a question about a specific Justice's ruling on a specific case. To which the judge will respond by saying that the Senator only wants to get into specifics when asking complated questions, yet wants to ignore specifics when inaccurately explaining some theory. To which the Senator responds by stammering for a few minutes and rolling his eyes only to forget what his question was. For a while I believed that Pres. Bush was the dumbest elected official in the U.S. but honestly, Bush looks like a rocket scientist next to the fossils that are on the judiciary committee. At one point during Kennedy's questioning, Alito talked about Marbury v. Madison which completely confused the Senator who apparently never took an 8th grade social studies class.


Something else that I noticed is that the Senators are only in the room while they are questioning Alito. Once they are done with their questions, they are outta there. So they obviously know the entire thing is a farse, and nobody really cares about the answers, the entire thing is just a way for the Senators to get face time on T.V. All the judge has to do is not answer any of the questions, which apparently is very easy to do, and try his best not to tell the Senators to fuck off despite the fact that these jackoffs are ripping him and his family for no reason other than getting on tv.

I think Alito will be a fine Judge. He is touted as Sandra Day O'Connors replacement and that is exactly what he will be. He is going to be another moderate in a court full of moderates. The only thing I know for sure is that he is smarter than every single member of the Judiciary Committee combined.

I personally like conservative justices because I am a firm believer in limiting goverment interference. I don't think Alito is conservative though (nor Roberts). We have created a mockery in which no free thinking judge will ever be nominated, let alone appointed. If I were President, and I had the opportunity to nominate two justices, I would first nominate the most liberal, tree huggin, baby killin, gun takin bastard I could find. I would then nominate the biggest prayer in school, ban American flag burnin, Executive power touted, Son of a Bitch on the planet. Then the two could spend the next 40 years arguing the finer points of democracy. That is the way the system was supposed to be. Now all the judges care about is being moderate and following precedent.

btw. roe v. wade will never, never, never, never, never be overturned. There is a greater chance that the Supreme Court will reinstitute slavery, then to overturn Roe V. Wade.

[matty]

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid24428.asp

While I certainly wouldn't call Alito gay-friendly, he at least has the good sense to recognize the rights of individuals. Most of the time. He is DEFINITELY moderate, in my opinion. He may not always vote the way I want, but I expect him to do so about half the time, which is the best I could hope for, really.

[duckplucker]

jvo: thanx for watchin that shit and giving a report. way to take one for the team!
what makes you think roe v. wade will never be overturned? I see that as a lynchpin (sp.) precedent which protects the people from gov't interference when it comes to family planning. it seems like every new justice is a new threat to take away our freedom. so tell me why are you so sure that roe v. wade will stand?

seems like every body thinks this guy is moderate........... which is better than right-wing i suppose.

[JVO]

If Roe v. Wade were overturned there would be a revolution of the likes we have not seen since the civil war. The split between righties and lefties would be so severed that it would be difficult for us to continue as a unified country. Also, the Court would just wait until a couple pro Roe justices were added and switch back, and that would be a very very bad precident to set. I think by in large, the Supremes are most interested in keeping domestic tranquility (while at the same time interpreting the Constitution), and reversing Roe would do the exact opposite of that. Also if Roe were overturned it would open up a huge black market for abortion clinics that would not be required to follow any type of health requirements. The spread of disease, increase in birth defects, increase in infections, increase in illegal px's would sky rocket. I really don't think most Republican Congressmen would want to make Abortion illegal either because they would lose one of their major arguing points. Just like Democrats don't really want socialized health care (as evident by the lack of Democratic support Clinton got when he tried to do so), they just want to have something to bitch about. The only way the two party system can survive is if there are these defining issues to argue about. In many instances, it is in the best interest of Congressmen to NOT fix problems, because if they did fix them they would have a difficult time getting elected. That is why Social Security is described as the third rail of politics. You touch it, and regardless of what you do, you die. Best to just leave it screwed up, so that both sides have something to argue about.

Now, I certainly could be wrong about Roe, and I would not be surprised if partial birth abortions were banned by the Supremes (which I really would not have a problem with), but I don't think the Supremes would ever reverse such an important decision. It would be like reversing Plessy v. Ferguson or Brown v. Board of Education.

[larryhead]

I concur with JVO... great points.

[bubz_bluez]

nice explanation on the roe vs wade

bubz