June 14, 2004, Pledge Hammer
Well, at least the Grown-Ups are in charge of the Supreme Court: the four grown-up justices (Stevens, Breyer, Ginsberg and Souter) wisely saw an opportunity NOT to throw a seemingly mortally wounded Bush-Cheney campaign a life-line, and ducked the stupid, bullshit lawsuit brought by Herr Doctor Professor Michael Newdow on behalf of the child he doesn't have custody of, dismissing the case that found the "under God" portion of the pledge of allegiance on the grounds that Newdow lacked standing to bring the case.
OF COURSE THE WORDS UNDER GOD IN THE PLEDGE ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL. But this is America: we teach our moron masses different things, with mixed signals everywhere. Only the elites actually get to learn about things like constitutional rights, i.e., why church and state are separated (you know-- to prevent, say, the President of the United States from funneling government money to his favorite churches in exchange for their faith-based political support.) Hence, there is the "correct" decision, and the "right" decision. The four grown-ups (bizarrely joined by Kennedy but not by O'Connor, who joined two of the three children in insisting on upholding the blatantly unconstitutional pledge-- Scalia recused himself, realizing his vote wasn't needed-- unlike in the Cheney case) did the right thing here, ducking the question-- following the doctrine that if a court can avoid ruling on a constitutional question-- it SHOULD avoid ruling on that question.
I commented on this around two years ago when this first came out: its the great social trade-off we've been making for well over a century. Its called "You keep your guns and we'll keep our porn". Bringing in the vanities of a few atheist blowhards to do something that's technically right, but that endangers the polity's delicate balance, is something that should deservedly be crushed. That Herr Dr. Newdow never bothered to marry his child's mother and/or obtain custody of their daughter AND THEN still had the vanity to bring this case on his daughter's behalf was... fortuitous (I kind of hoped either the district court or circuit court of appeals would have seized this and tossed him out of court... but NOOOOOOOO....!!!) Thankfully, the child's mother DID NOT go along with his bullshit.
Well, the four grown-ups would have been boxed into a horrible position: they couldn't hold something unconstitutional constitutional-- had they not ducked the question, they would have resulted in a 4-4 tie (Scalia recused), meaning... AFFIRMED. We could then roundly expect condemnations from the entire Congress-- but-- we would be looking at fresh meat for the Bush campaign. Best not to give Bush anything-- if you ask me, a meaningless (and really harmless) constitutional abuse is a small price to pay if it helps get us regime change here to avoid the evisceration of the ENTIRE Constitution.
BTW, Mrs. TD wisely suggests that an appropriate alternative is to get rid of the whole God-damned pledge of allegiance in its entirety. Well, on this Flag Day, 50 years to the day after the damned "Under God" was put in (gotta separate ou'selves from the Godless commies, you know), we get this decision. The pledge was thought up by a secular minded Presbyterian minister... largely to sell flags. The fact is-- only the Phillipines (a former... American... colony) and us have something as STUPID as a loyalty pledge that we inflict on our own youngsters. To be honest, its one of the less offensive attributes of our Prussian-inspired industrial worker training and conformity program known as "universal public education"... but we really should get rid of the pledge entirely. I'm all for that.
The joke is that so many Americans will get worked up over this meaningless horseshit (Americans like, say, the Raving Atheist, who started his blog because of this case, or of course, Mr. Newdow himself, and the entire Congress, which condemned the original decision). Few will pay attention to the most important Supreme Court case of our generation, the Hamdi, Padilla and Gitmo cases... coming down the pike... which literally stand for the proposition of whether or not the President is a dictator. THOSE cases are what matters, instead of some symbolic horseshit.
(Come on, TD... tell us what you really think...)
Comments
Of course, as a reactionary authoritarian, I favor just cutting out all that symbolic euphemism, and making it read "I pledge allegiance to Our Noble Leader...." That cuts right to the chase. What matters is that it's "one nation, under W", and the rest of this current argument is just a silly distraction which the court was wise to duck. This November's selection will decide what we're under for the next four years, or maybe until the Rapture they're trying to arrange, so I have to yawn about this phony "issue".
Posted by Ayn Clouter at June 14, 2004 11:35 PM
TD & All Liberalles,
The 9/11 Commission reports solid evidence that the original date for the Al Qaeda attacks on the U.S. was in May, 2001, four months into the Bush presidency. I know that the commission is not as good a source as the Iraqi Communist Party, but now we can only conclude that the plans for the September 11 attacks were hatched on January 20, 2001, and Bush should have nailed them in his first 100 days in office. I will not mention that Bush spent the first four months replacing everything that the Clinton people stole from the White House, including the w's from the typewriters. My apologies to liberals and Clinton lovers everywhere. It was only when they got that badass out of office that OBL and Atta had the balls to fly planes into our buildings. Why did I ever doubt our Great Protecter. He deserved all those nice things W said about him as they hung the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Degenerate. Bush should have done in 100 days, with Clinton appointees at the helm, what Fatboy couldn't do in almost 3,000 days.
In the words of that great genius Joe Biden, "mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa." I suppose that we should root for Lurch in November, if for no other reason than to keep Fatboy's wife, hereinafter referred to as Fatboy Slim, from running for President in 2008.
Posted by They Call Me Mr. Crabcake at June 15, 2004 12:38 PM
Wasn't the SC supposed to hand down a ruling in the quack-quack case this month? That seems rather significant as well, not so much in legal terms, but in political effect. I have this funny feeling it's going to quack Cheney's way. If Scalia had believed it would not be close, he would have recused himself to avoid the flack (he's not stupid). His failure to recuse tells my finely tuned to the soul of the court ear that we had a 4-4 with Scalia the number 5.
Posted by WallyCoxLives at June 15, 2004 02:20 PM
Ayn--
Couldn't have said it better. Enough of the mindless worship of coloured cloth: let us openly swear allegiance to Dear Leader outright, that way we needn't waste the High Court's time that could be better spent helping Dear Leader consolidate power.
Crabcakes--
Glad to have you on board. As you know, I'm not going to stand here and say I didn't take my shots at Clinton when he was in office. I did. But once a President leaves office-- he gets to be gone and forgotten. Insisting its still his fault is against the American way... and I'm not going to stand here...
WallyCoxLives--
Say-- have you met Hassan Bar Sinister? He was a voice in the Underdog Show when it was dubbed into Arabic... just figured, maybe... WCL--great minds must think a lot, because I made PRECISELY that same comment (probably on someone else's blog) the very day Scalia announced his REFUSAL to recuse from the Cheney case-- he KNEW that was going to be a 5-4, and he couldn't afford to let Dick down! I agree that the Cheney case is infinitely more important than the Pledge case, but its still less important than the unlawful combatant cases (though both smack of the imperial presidency thing).
Posted by the talking dog at June 15, 2004 02:42 PM
Who is this Wally Cox?
I maintain no files on him.
Should he go for an airplane ride, or perhaps a solo drive through the desert?
Posted by Hassan Bar Sinister at June 15, 2004 03:05 PM
When Sweet Polly's in trouble I am not slow, for it's hip-hip-hip and awaaay I go.
Posted by WallyCoxLives at June 15, 2004 03:31 PM
For those who are interested, the voice of Simon Bar Sinister (jn the Underdog series) was performed by Allan Swift, who also did the voice of Riff-Raff, among others.
Posted by WallyCoxLives at June 15, 2004 03:36 PM
Who are Sweet Polly and Allan Swift? Why don't I have files on them too?
Posted by Hassan Bar Sinister at June 15, 2004 05:55 PM
I always had a thing for Sweet Polly Purebread.
I'd like to give her a case of crabs,
as we like to call it.
Posted by They Call Me Mr. Crabcake at June 15, 2004 07:49 PM
Oh-- so she's your type? Come on... SHE'S A DOG!
Posted by the talking dog at June 15, 2004 10:48 PM
See, what I love about this is the reasoning. It's not establishment (I guess Rehnquist still has to pretend he believes in establishment) because it's ceremonial religion and it doesn't mean anything.
Well, then, WHAT'S THE FUCKING POINT?
Ahem. Thank you.
Posted by julia at June 15, 2004 10:48 PM
When I read The Brethren, I came away with respect fror Rehnquist. Now, so many years and rulings later, I have lost all respect for his decisions and, consequently, for him. He's another hack who uses the language of law to make his biases into law.
Posted by WallyCoxLives at June 16, 2004 08:13 AM
Fine, TD.
So she's not as pretty as Penelope Pitstop.
But I can't believe you'd be so shallow.
Posted by They Call Me Mr. Crabcake at June 16, 2004 12:25 PM
I was never into cartoon characters, not matter how hot. They're so 2-dimensional, you know?
Posted by WallyCox'sLiver at June 16, 2004 01:37 PM
I meant "no matter how hot."
Pickled again!
Posted by WallyCox's Liver at June 16, 2004 01:40 PM
Now cut that out!
Posted by WallyCoxLives at June 16, 2004 02:12 PM
Wally,
No offense, but, I always thought of you as a Poor Man's Don Knotts.
Posted by They Call Me Mr. Crabcake at June 16, 2004 08:27 PM
Um, Mr Crabcake? I use the handle WallyCoxLives. I'm not actually Wally Cox. Wally Cox died, unfortunately, by his own hand in February 15, 1973.
But Don Knotts was a fine actor, no doubt about it. His work in How to Frame a Figg has never been given its proper recognition. Mr Knotts will be 80 years old in July. He is still working in show business.
And WallyCox'sLiver? Cut that out!
Posted by WallyCoxLLives at June 17, 2004 10:58 AM
WallyCoxLives,
Thanks for the information about Mr. Cox.
I was sorry to hear that he died by his own hand.
I'm even sorrier to hear that that is the only way that you have sex.
Posted by They Call Me Mr. Crabcake at June 17, 2004 06:26 PM
I doubt that you could be sorrier about that than I am.
Posted by WallyCoxLives at June 17, 2004 06:32 PM
Splendid retort, Wally.
Posted by They Call Me Mr. Crabcake at June 17, 2004 06:57 PM
Thank you. You're a gentleman and an appetizer.
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