Friday, October 21, 2005
In the news:
1) The White Sox are in the World Series. My quick breakdown is as follows: The Astros might have even better starting pitching (and I say might because they are an NL team) but they have an even worse offense. This reverses the trend of the last two teams where our offense was allowed to break out a bit against inferior pitching. What will happen here? Are we going to see nothing but 1-0 and 2-1 games? Well, that's what everyone is saying, therefore I predict a lot of high scoring games, because whenever people tout pitcher's duels, something often goes awry. And I also predict the White Sox will sweep. Yes, I said it again. And if I'm wrong, well, then I'll surreptitiously edit this post and you will never know I said it.
2) Bush's approval rating with African-Americans has dropped to 2 percent. No, that's not a typo- 2 people out of 100, down from 39% earlier in the summer. Obviously this is in the wake of Bush's horrible response to Katrina. But I'm wondering, why was his approval rating at 40% before Katrina? What was he doing for blacks that 39% of them approved? The bottom line is I believe that this shows that people don't care about anything the president unless something smacks them in the face to wake them up. And that STILL hasn't happened yet for most of the red states. Maybe if Bush disbands NASCAR, then we'll really see some numbers dropping.
3) Supreme Court Justices. I think John Roberts was a pretty good choice considering who was doing the choosing. He seems like a purely intellectual judge, and I believe that he will stick to his principle of simply ruling on the constitutionality of the laws that are passed, and not whether they are good or bad. At first, this irked me, and I finally realized what it was after listening to hours of confirmation hearings. I wanted the Supreme Court to legislate from the Bench, because the Supreme Court has a better track record than the Presidency or Congress (probably because they don't have to worry about reelection and popularity). But "they're" right- If Congress passes a bad law, that should be their prerogative as long as its Constitutional. And you know, coming from Bush, Roberts is probably as good as it gets.
3a) As for Miers, from what little everyone knows about her, I think is a terrible choice. At first, there was the initial relief by almost all the democrats that at least she wasn't a Scalia or Thomas. And because of this, plus the fact that most republicans will stay on Bush's side (it's too early in the term to go against him and erode even more support), she'll probably be confirmed as well. But I think she hasn't shown any inkling of being the intellectual that Roberts is, and many reports show her as being little more than Bush's lapdog (especially some weird personal letters to him). I think she might the most dangerous kind of judge- the kind that votes with their heart and their faith without really considering the issues and deeper reality underlying them. Basically, I'm accusing Miers of being stupid. That may be totally unfounded, but I think Bush is pretty stupid too, and yet, at least Bush has a cabinet and a bunch of advisors. Miers has her own views, her evangelical church, and a lifetime appointment if confirmed. And I have a feeling she'll probably turn out to be pretty far to the right in the end. But, the saving grace is, she's still only one vote, and no matter how dumb she is or is not, the worst she can possibly do is vote as conservatively as a hard-liner like Scalia. And I guess that's what I was expecting anyway.
4) As in Civilization 4, which comes out in 3 days. You should be very, very excited. I recommend picking up a copy as soon as possible.
That is all. Also, tell Dave and Marmar to get off their virtual asses and back into the blogging world. Their e-mails are on the left.
2) Bush's approval rating with African-Americans has dropped to 2 percent. No, that's not a typo- 2 people out of 100, down from 39% earlier in the summer. Obviously this is in the wake of Bush's horrible response to Katrina. But I'm wondering, why was his approval rating at 40% before Katrina? What was he doing for blacks that 39% of them approved? The bottom line is I believe that this shows that people don't care about anything the president unless something smacks them in the face to wake them up. And that STILL hasn't happened yet for most of the red states. Maybe if Bush disbands NASCAR, then we'll really see some numbers dropping.
3) Supreme Court Justices. I think John Roberts was a pretty good choice considering who was doing the choosing. He seems like a purely intellectual judge, and I believe that he will stick to his principle of simply ruling on the constitutionality of the laws that are passed, and not whether they are good or bad. At first, this irked me, and I finally realized what it was after listening to hours of confirmation hearings. I wanted the Supreme Court to legislate from the Bench, because the Supreme Court has a better track record than the Presidency or Congress (probably because they don't have to worry about reelection and popularity). But "they're" right- If Congress passes a bad law, that should be their prerogative as long as its Constitutional. And you know, coming from Bush, Roberts is probably as good as it gets.
3a) As for Miers, from what little everyone knows about her, I think is a terrible choice. At first, there was the initial relief by almost all the democrats that at least she wasn't a Scalia or Thomas. And because of this, plus the fact that most republicans will stay on Bush's side (it's too early in the term to go against him and erode even more support), she'll probably be confirmed as well. But I think she hasn't shown any inkling of being the intellectual that Roberts is, and many reports show her as being little more than Bush's lapdog (especially some weird personal letters to him). I think she might the most dangerous kind of judge- the kind that votes with their heart and their faith without really considering the issues and deeper reality underlying them. Basically, I'm accusing Miers of being stupid. That may be totally unfounded, but I think Bush is pretty stupid too, and yet, at least Bush has a cabinet and a bunch of advisors. Miers has her own views, her evangelical church, and a lifetime appointment if confirmed. And I have a feeling she'll probably turn out to be pretty far to the right in the end. But, the saving grace is, she's still only one vote, and no matter how dumb she is or is not, the worst she can possibly do is vote as conservatively as a hard-liner like Scalia. And I guess that's what I was expecting anyway.
4) As in Civilization 4, which comes out in 3 days. You should be very, very excited. I recommend picking up a copy as soon as possible.
That is all. Also, tell Dave and Marmar to get off their virtual asses and back into the blogging world. Their e-mails are on the left.
# posted by Stuart @ 1:29 PM 
