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You are here: Home / Politics / War on Terror / War on Terror aka GSAVE® / Scalia or a Right-Wing Blogger

Scalia or a Right-Wing Blogger

by John Cole|  June 25, 20088:46 am| 31 Comments

This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®, Assholes

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This is just great. Antonin Scalia’s grenade-tossing editorializing in the Gitmo decision contained wingnut nonsense and urban legends.

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Previous Post: « Government By Four Year Olds (alternate title: “Thank Goodness the Adults Are in Charge”)
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31Comments

  1. 1.

    El Cid

    June 25, 2008 at 8:51 am

    Scalia was correct. Since the entire globe is now part of the battlefield in the Warronterra, any place on the Earth to which detainees were released counts as “returning them to the battlefield.” So there.

  2. 2.

    Elvis Elvisberg

    June 25, 2008 at 8:54 am

    Scalia is a right wing blogger. Particularly in affirmative action cases.

    “Why bother mentioning originalism, much less applying it? No, let’s just call set-asides for minority-owned contractors the exact same thing as Plessy v. Ferguson. Good enough for government work, or the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal.”

  3. 3.

    jibeaux

    June 25, 2008 at 8:57 am

    Man, ObWi is top notch.

  4. 4.

    4tehlulz

    June 25, 2008 at 9:03 am

    BREAKING: Sky is blue!

  5. 5.

    Zifnab

    June 25, 2008 at 9:03 am

    Scalia? Spouting right wing talking points and taking a monster crap on the Constitution? Le Gaspe. Say it ain’t so.

    If he didn’t have Thomas sitting next to him, he’d be the biggest hack on the bench.

  6. 6.

    RSA

    June 25, 2008 at 9:04 am

    Scalia is a right wing blogger. Particularly in affirmative action cases.

    I also don’t see much difference in his views on torture:

    STAHL: If someone’s in custody, as in Abu Ghraib, and they are brutalized, by a law enforcement person — if you listen to the expression “cruel and unusual punishment,” doesn’t that apply?

    SCALIA: No. To the contrary. You think — Has anybody ever referred to torture as punishment? I don’t think so.

    STAHL: Well I think if you’re in custody, and you have a policeman who’s taken you into custody–

    SCALIA: And you say he’s punishing you? What’s he punishing you for? … When he’s hurting you in order to get information from you, you wouldn’t say he’s punishing you. What is he punishing you for?

    Nice parsing there.

  7. 7.

    rob!

    June 25, 2008 at 9:11 am

    i think we need a President Obama, just so he can pack the court with more liberal judges, who can then be the “cool kids” in the SC chambers, talking amongst themselves, pointing and giggling at Scalia.

  8. 8.

    El Cid

    June 25, 2008 at 9:18 am

    rob! for the win.

  9. 9.

    Gregory

    June 25, 2008 at 9:39 am

    Antonin Scalia’s grenade-tossing editorializing in the Gitmo decision contained wingnut nonsense and urban legends.

    You were expecting maybe well-founded reasoning and unassailable logic?

  10. 10.

    mark

    June 25, 2008 at 9:45 am

    OT, Nader accuses Obama of “talking white”.

  11. 11.

    Teak111

    June 25, 2008 at 9:58 am

    Hang on Stevens, just 7 more months. There was a reason Scalia was passed up for Chief. Probably some heroics inside the Admin that we will never know about, some tiny pocket of resistance that managed to get Roberts.

  12. 12.

    Incertus

    June 25, 2008 at 10:07 am

    If he didn’t have Thomas sitting next to him, he’d be the biggest hack on the bench.

    I’ve seen a very good argument, made by Publius I believe, that Scalia is the bigger hack. Apparently, Thomas actually believes his own rhetoric and sticks to it, even when it means he winds up ruling against his interests. Scalia just comes up with what he wants the result to be and then finds a way to bullshit. Lately it seems like he’s not even trying anymore.

  13. 13.

    slippytoad

    June 25, 2008 at 10:13 am

    Scalia long ago gave up any claim intellectual, legal, or moral credibility.

    He also committed an impeachable offense, IMHO, by going duck-hunting with The Face-Shooting One when a judgment on his company was pending.

    He’s a whore, nothing more.

  14. 14.

    jrg

    June 25, 2008 at 10:17 am

    If reality has a liberal bias, and half of what Scalia wrote was true, that means that Scalia’s opinion is fair and balanced.

    Calling a lie a lie is stifling dissent. Therefore, by telling the truth, you are an anti-American Nazi who wants more Americans to die in a terrorist attack.

    If these right-wing lies were not so dangerous to the Constitution, the rule of law, and our way of life, they would be downright funny.

    Partisan hacks like Scalia are trying to turn this country into a dictatorship where anyone can be imprisoned, for any amount of time, without the ability to face their accusers or the charges against them.

    Why is that so fucking difficult for the right wing to understand?

  15. 15.

    Shygetz

    June 25, 2008 at 10:30 am

    But Scalia is a serious scholar, you guys! He’s super serious!

    Fastest way to know you’re dealing with someone who has no idea what they are talking about is to hear them describe Scalia as having any consistent legal philosophy. He’s an ends-justify-the-means guy, through and through, and has been for a long, long time.

  16. 16.

    RSA

    June 25, 2008 at 10:33 am

    What gets me is Scalia’s undeserved reputation of basing his arguments on principle. Saying, “If we release anyone from Guantamo, Americans will die,” is pure pragmatism. (That is, it’s a judgment call based on probabilities.) So, what’s the principle? That x number of people incarcerated without possibility of challenge is worth y American lives? Please show your work.

  17. 17.

    El Cid

    June 25, 2008 at 10:35 am

    Once I made the mistake of believing all those who assured me that Scalia, though right wing, had some keen legalistic mind. I went to a speech of his, and it was a huge pile of inane straw-man crap.

    After that I concluded that the right wing view of a keen legal mind was one that could, you know, like, quote books & sh*t, and like, you know, mention a case by name — in other words, if a right wing Supreme Court justice knows more about Supreme Court cases than, say, a random sample of people encountered in a shopping center, then he’s a keen legal mind.

  18. 18.

    Andrew

    June 25, 2008 at 10:48 am

    What gets me is Scalia’s undeserved reputation of basing his arguments on principle. Saying, “If we release anyone from Guantamo, Americans will die,” is pure pragmatism. (That is, it’s a judgment call based on probabilities.) So, what’s the principle? That x number of people incarcerated without possibility of challenge is worth y American lives? Please show your work.

    No, Scalia is quite principled. Ir’s just that the principle is, “Fuck you, dirty hippies.”

  19. 19.

    The Moar You Know

    June 25, 2008 at 10:55 am

    mark Says:

    OT, Nader accuses Obama of “talking white”.

    Ralph Nader showed his true colors as a bought and paid for GOP operative back in 2004.

  20. 20.

    Wilfred

    June 25, 2008 at 11:08 am

    Scalia is just reflecting the opinion of the people

  21. 21.

    Scott H

    June 25, 2008 at 11:32 am

    I could never understand the appeal of Scalia. Okay, I lie. Scalia speaks to the authoritarianism so deeply craved by so many people and so devoutly wished by the self-styled plutocracy. Scalia may be well-versed in the Constitution, but, obviously, everything he knows, he despises.

    Also, not that it has anything to do with qualification for a seat on the Court, Scalia has all of the gravitas of a sweated bowling shirt.

  22. 22.

    Frank Jacobs

    June 25, 2008 at 11:55 am

    STAHL: Well I think if you’re in custody, and you have a policeman who’s taken you into custody–

    SCALIA: And you say he’s punishing you? What’s he punishing you for? … When he’s hurting you in order to get information from you, you wouldn’t say he’s punishing you. What is he punishing you for?

    So is it fair to say that if you’re being tortured harshly interrogated for the amusement of a sadistic asshole, you aren’t being punished by the strict “constitutional” definition of the word?

  23. 23.

    TenguPhule

    June 25, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    The keen mind of the Right Wing Justice is as sharp as a knife made out of butter.

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    June 25, 2008 at 1:06 pm

    Wilfred Says:

    Scalia is just reflecting the opinion of the people

    A. The role of a Supreme Court Justice is not just to reflect the opinion of the people.

    B. The majority in the piece you cite reject the use of torture.

    OT, but keeping to the theme. A Headline I Love:

    Dems tell Justice Department to probe Bush on torture

    I agree that Bush should be probed early and often.

  25. 25.

    DBrown

    June 25, 2008 at 1:27 pm

    Scalia is the sickest, most pervert looney to sit on the bench since pre-jim crow law days; the man is a nutcase to end nutcases. The shit head believes in the devine right of kings -really, the ass wipe thinks that kings were better than ‘sicko-voting’ because god (little g intended) selected a king to rule people. The man (Scalia) is an enemy of the US and should be put in GITMO and tortured until he confesses – hell, add a few months after he confesses for being such a sick, worthless pile of shit with brains more worthless than shit.

  26. 26.

    Calouste

    June 25, 2008 at 1:53 pm

    “At least 30 of those prisoners hitherto released from Guantanamo Bay have returned to the battlefield.”

    So Justice Scalia, considering you are on the Supreme Court, I assume you weigh your words carefully?

    So when you say “returned to the battlefield” you imply that these 30 prisoners were guilty of fighting against the US army? So why weren’t they convicted by the court system you are suppossed to be the pinnacle of? Or does innocent until proven guilty no longer apply in your rotten little mind?

  27. 27.

    Chuck Butcher

    June 25, 2008 at 1:55 pm

    The Seton Hall paper which I used makes more points than just that Scalia’s argument was based on discredited info.

  28. 28.

    mcmillan

    June 25, 2008 at 3:08 pm

    The shit head believes in the devine right of kings

    Really? I hadn’t heard that claim about Scalia before, anybody got a link to where that comes from?

  29. 29.

    Wilfred

    June 25, 2008 at 3:41 pm

    The majority in the piece you cite reject the use of torture.

    Americans should be ashamed of the results of that poll. The fact that enough aren’t is why we deserve pigs like Scalia.

  30. 30.

    Brachiator

    June 25, 2008 at 4:41 pm

    Wilfred Says:

    The majority in the piece you cite reject the use of torture.

    Americans should be ashamed of the results of that poll. The fact that enough aren’t is why we deserve pigs like Scalia.

    Yawn. The average of the 19 countries surveyed came out to 57% against torture. While some countries clearly did better than the US on this score, others were worse. And I have to wonder about a result that shows that 66% of Chinese oppose torture, even though that country savagely represses Tibetans and its own people.

    mcmillan Says:

    The shit head believes in the devine right of kings

    Really? I hadn’t heard that claim about Scalia before, anybody got a link to where that comes from?

    This comes close (though it’s not just Scalia). Even though Bush gets derided as an idiot, you have to note the disciplined consistency with which the Bush Administration has expanded the power of the presidency, and has selected officials and jurists who are on board with their agenda. Here is a bit from a Boston Globe story (Scalia’s dissent gives ‘signing statements’ more heft):

    In his dissenting opinion to the Supreme Court’s decision on Guantanamo Bay military trials earlier this month, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave a presidential signing statement significant weight in determining the meaning of a statute, marking a milestone in the debate over the Bush administration’s expansion of executive power….

    In a 1986 memo that surfaced last year amid his confirmation fight, [Samuel] Alito — then an official in the Reagan administration — wrote that presidents should use signing statements to record their own interpretations about the meaning of new statutes. If a question arose about a law’s meaning, Alito wrote, judges could look to the statement for guidance, rather than relying solely on its legislative history.

    “Since the president’s approval is just as important as that of the House or Senate, it seems to follow that the president’s understanding of the bill should be just as important as that of Congress,” Alito wrote in a memo dated Feb. 5, 1986.

    He warned, however, that “Congress is likely to resent the fact that the president will get in the last word on questions of interpretation.”

  31. 31.

    gypsy howell

    June 25, 2008 at 6:37 pm

    who will rid us of these meddlesome priests?

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