Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Rant time ( no pics)

"As an optimist I am left with much sorrow
That I may well become a pessimist tomorrow
All that was sweet has turned very bitter;
And this wide world has grown so narrow."
-Rostam Keyan

Now for my rant:

Shouldn't the Supreme Court be a reflection of the people that is serves? It is the highest institution that to this day upholds that laws that give us our rights as Americans. But today the whole schematic of the court is changing. With the departure of O'Conner there will be only one woman. And there has never been a justice of Hispanic descent. According to the 2004 Us census (http://factfinder.census.gov) women make up 51.1% of the general population. And Hispanics are by far the largest minority group in America making up 14.2% of the population. Where is the representation?
Dubya has hit another one out of the ballpark for his GOP buddies with the nomination of Justice Alito. The republicans, who have been looking sheepishly to the ground the past few weeks, suddenly seem to have just cause to celebrate. It is if they think we could forget all of the fallacies of the Bush Administration. Am I about to forget about the slow federal response to Katrina, over 2000 soldiers being killed in a senseless war, high gas prices, Tom Delay, Libby, Harriet Miers being bullied(yes, she was bullied) into withdrawing her name from the nomination? All of that shit is fresh in my mind.
Hopefully there will be a battle of epic proportions during the senate confirmation hearings of Justice Alito. I am willing to bet that the Dems are not going to be as accommodating as the Reps have been to Alito. Surely his record as a justice in PA will be brought up. Most notably his record on abortion cases. One of the most celebrated cases was that of Planned Parenthood vs.
Casey in the early 90's. Planned Parenthood was attempting to reverse a few PA laws that among other things A) required a woman to get consent from her husband before having an abortion; B) a minor would have to get permission from a parent before getting an abortion; and C) a woman would have to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion and be supplied with state approved literature about alternatives to abortion.
In Justice Alito's dissent he stated that a woman should first discuss abortion with her husband because there could be many mitigating factors that could sway her decision. If she became aware of these factors she may find out that an abortion is not the best decision after all. Oh yes, Justice Alito, life is that easy. Just brew a pot a coffee, call in your husband and have a good ole tete a tete. He will make everything better; besides all women need to be barefoot and pregnant, now get in the kitchen and make dinner, bitch. Surely I would discuss something of that magnitude with my husband or boyfriend, but I don't want the government telling me that I have to do so. I am very capable of making my own relationship decisions. Fortunately this case made it's way to the US Supreme Court were the law forcing women to get a husbands consent was reversed, but it gives us a clear view on Alito's position.
We are moving into scary times. It is as if all the progression of the last 100 years is slowly seeping away. We live in a time where people are left to die on their rooftops, respectable reporters are forced to face jail time just to defend their basic free speech and press rights, and the rift between left and right is growing larger by the minute. Programs that promote the religious friendly "abstinence-only" sex education are receiving more federal dollars than programs that teach safe sex alternatives such as condoms. Is this right? Is this healthy?
The fine dotted line between church and state is quickly fading. Policymakers seem to be hell bent on pushing their archaic views on us. Enlightenment has gone out of style. But, hey, what do I know. I am only a woman. Maybe I should just get pregnant, get a husband to dictate how I should live my life, pray to a God that I probably will never see, get a gun, and watch Nascar. Yee-fucking-haw.