Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kuros]

Is more conservative justices on the Supreme Court

Yes, McCain even likes Scalia. I find this odd given his stance against torture.

Do we really need another conservative President? I like McCain, but its time for 4-8 years of ideological balance as well as integrity.

[Matt_22]

[mistermasan]

how old would mac be at the end of his first term? at his second? kinda counterproductive to elect a guy who will be a guaranteed one termer.

[Kuros]

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

[kingpin]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Ya-ta Boy]

Current justices:

Roberts appointed in 2005 at age 50 = 53 this year. (by GW Bush)
Stevens appointed in 1975 at age 55 = 88 this year. (by Ford)
Alito appointed in 2006 at age 55 = 57 this year. (by GW Bush)
Scalia appointed in 1986 at age 50 = 72 this year. (by Reagan)
Kennedy appointed in 1988 at age 52 = 72 this year. (by Reagan)
Souter appointed in 1990 at age 51 = 69 this year. (by Bush)
Thomas appointed in 1991 at age 43 = 60 this year. (by Bush)
Ginsburg appointed in 1993 at age 60 = 75 this year. (by Clinton)
Breyer appointed in 1994 at age 56 = 70 this year. (by Clinton)

The next president will have to replace Stevens certainly, and most likely Ginsburg. Scalia, Kennedy and Souter are possibilities.

[Rteacher]

Some pandits speculate that if Hillary becomes President this time, she would get Obama out of the 2012 race by appointing him to the Supreme Court...

My gut feeling is that McCain won't get elected - after two disastrous terms of G.W. Bush, the public can't be so foolish as to vote for a guy who was near the bottom of his class at West Point - or can they be?

Anyway, a lot of people are trying to find some dirt on him - http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message496114/pg1

[Beej]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[igotthisguitar]

Blackwater Protesters Given Secret Trial and Criminal Conviction
By Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet. Posted January 29, 2008.

Protesters who re-enacted one of Blackwater's worst civilian massacres in Iraq got jail time, while the real killers remain free.

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Last week in Currituck County, N.C., Superior Court Judge Russell Duke presided over the final step in securing the first criminal conviction stemming from the deadly actions of Blackwater Worldwide, the Bush administration's favorite mercenary company.

Lest you think you missed some earth-shifting, breaking news, hold on a moment. The "criminals" in question were not the armed thugs who gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded more than 20 others in Baghdad's Nisour Square last September. They were seven nonviolent activists who had the audacity to stage a demonstration at the gates of Blackwater's 7,000-acre private military base in North Carolina to protest the actions of mercenaries acting with impunity -- and apparent immunity -- in their names and those of every American.

The arrest of the activists and the subsequent five days they spent locked up in jail is more punishment than any Blackwater mercenaries have received for their deadly actions against Iraqi civilians.

"The courts pretend that adherence to the law is what makes for an orderly and peaceable world," said Steve Baggarly, one of the protest organizers. "In fact, U.S. law and courts stand idly by while the U.S. military and private armies like Blackwater have killed, maimed, brutalized and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis."

A month after the Nisour Square massacre, on Oct. 20, a group of about 50 activists gathered outside Blackwater's gates in Moyock, N.C. There, they reenacted the Nisour Square shooting and staged a "die-in," involving a vehicle painted with bullet marks and blood. The activists stained their clothing with fake blood and dramatized the deadly shooting spree. Some of the demonstrators marked Blackwater's large welcome sign -- with the company's bear claw in a sniper scope logo -- with red hand prints. The demonstrators believed these "would be a much more appropriate logo for Blackwater," according to Baggarly. "We're all responsible for what is happening in Iraq. We all have bloody hands."

It took only moments for the local police to respond to the protest, the first ever at Blackwater's headquarters. In the end, seven were arrested.

The symbolism was stark: Re-enact a Blackwater massacre, go to jail. Commit a massacre, walk around freely and perhaps never go to jail.

All seven were charged with criminal trespassing, six of them with an additional charge of resisting arrest and one with another charge of injury to real property. "We feel like Blackwater is trespassing in Iraq," Baggarly later said. "And as for injuring property, they injure men, women and children every day." The activists were jailed for five days and eventually released ... pending trial.

When their day in court arrived, on Dec. 5, the activists intended to put Blackwater on trial, something the Justice Department, the military and the courts have systematically failed to do. Their action at Blackwater, the activists said, was in response to war crimes, the killing of civilians and the fact that no legal system -- civilian or military -- was holding Blackwater responsible. The Nisour Square massacre, they said, "is the Iraq war in microcosm."

But District Court Judge Edgar Barnes would have none of it.

So outraged was he at Baggarly, the first of the defendants to appear before him that day, that the judge cleared the court following his conviction. No spectators, no family members, no journalists, no defense witnesses remained. The other six activists were tried in total secrecy -- well, secret to everyone except the prosecutors, sheriffs, government witnesses and one Blackwater official. Judge Barnes swiftly tried the remaining six activists behind closed doors and convicted them all.

It was as though Currituck, N.C., became Gitmo for a day.

It's not unusual for a judge to clear a courtroom when there is a disruption by the public. Nor is it rare for judges to try to prevent activists from turning the tables and attempting to put the government -- or in this case a mercenary company -- on trial. But witnesses that day report that there was no disruption -- and the defendants say they were immediately cut off when they strayed from the narrow scope of the trespass charge to discuss Blackwater's actions or the war. So why clear the courtroom?

That may be a question for Judge Barnes in the end, but it's hard not to view his conduct through the same veil of secrecy that shrouds all of Blackwater's actions -- and the seemingly endless lengths to which the Bush administration will go to protect Blackwater.

MORE ...

http://www.alternet.org/story/75244/

[saw6436]

Once appointed Justices tend to rule based on their own conscience rather than on a conservative/liberal scale. Just ask Richard Nixon about his appointment. Overtime Justices tend to move toward moderation.

[Kuros]

[igotthisguitar]

Iraq Conflict Has Killed A Million Iraqis: Survey
Wed Jan 30, 1:55 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to research conducted by one of Britain's leading polling groups.

MORE ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080130/wl_nm/iraq_deaths_survey_dc
;_ylt=AgZN2bMbAHBGWwoCvdCXP7EDW7oF