"Sober as a Judge" is so "last-century" now.

It does appear we are going back to the 19th century era of drunk judges, who worked for various politicians, criminals, & criminal-politicians.

didn't cosmic used to be a cool guy?

Kavanaugh's having an alcohol problem isn't the issue. Lying about it is.

If American Liberals would stop being candy asses about government policy and actually vote in democratic elections and played to win instead of expecting the merits of a debate club argument to carry the day, the outcome would be different.

If the US Senate appoints the inadequate and prevaricating Kavanaugh to its Supreme Court:

Six of the nine justices will be Roman Catholics (including one who is now Episcopalian), and three Jewish.
Four will have gone to Harvard law school, and four to Yale law school.
Four were born in New York state (three in the city), and one in New Jersey.
The far-right Federalist Society will have had a hand in the appointment of three.

Should the enthusiasm displayed by Democratic voters over the last 18 months, translate into a Democratic majority in the House and possibly the Senate, you can be assured that there will be hell to pay for Justice Kavanaugh – as there should be.

Democrats owe it to our country to be impartial and thorough and go wherever the facts take them – no more, no less. If the evidence leads to Kavanaugh's impeachment, so be it, but finding the truth must be our top priority.

As much as I dislike Brett Kavanaugh and everything he represents, I dislike the permanent damage being done to our institutions even more. The legitimacy of America’s highest court is under assault – we must do everything in our power to restore it.

The government sh!tshow continues...

Social justice and a fair outcome are just the lame whining of losers.

Why Conservatives prevail is because they have an agenda and don't give a f*#k about the considered opinions of their worthy opponents.

There seem to be a lot of privileged self hating white men posting here about hating other privileged white men because they're white and privileged and.... stuff...

There seem to be a lot of privileged self hating white men posting here about hating other privileged white men because they're white and privileged and.... stuff...

Jim, you are oversimplifying things. Telling people "just vote" isn't enough. Its been tried over and over. Millions have been spent on campaigns to get the vote out. It helps, but it is not enough.

bitterness is a result of feeling aggrieved about something. your tone is bitter.

The bloody process & Kavanaughs qualifications aside, what is most worrying to me is the continued erosion of our political discourse and process, and the perception of illegitimacy that may result from the politicization of the judicial branch of government.

Fat Dad
Oct 8, 2018 - 06:50am PT
So Edward T, if the Dems are encouraging harassment are the Republicans encouraging attempted rape on 15 yr. old girls?

He has created a major accomplishment with unemployment as low as the early seventies,too bad wages don’t bring much more than they did in that era.

The “unemployment rate” as a measure of economic health is extremely misleading these days,

The “unemployment rate” as a measure of economic health is extremely misleading these days, because it excludes all the people who gave up looking for a job. This group has ballooned in recent years for several key reasons that we ignore at our peril:

automation in the workplace
shifting of job mix to require more intelligence and skills, but our lack of investment in education does not provide enough qualified workers

So our politicians can give a pat on the back “economy is great!” But I see about 10x the homeless tents next to freeways and abandoned lots and people living in their cars parked in city parking lots than I did just 5 years ago. Seriously.

Here is why the wages aren’t going up: there are tons of unemployed people who would contribute to our economy if they had a chance, who are sitting on the sidelines, who are “employed” but paying most of their Uber income to make car payments and refill gas and buy new tires, and oh yeah one kid fell off his bike and broke an arm so there goes
6 month of savings and hope the landlord doesn’t increase rent or we’re in the street.

I don't think so. But they do seem attached to antiquated notions of due process and innocent until proven guilty.

....Kavanaugh is a psychopath....

what have you gained by Kavanaugh's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court (other than gaining something that the Dems opposed)?

answer to the dumb question:

they got the judge they wanted

It will be up to Roberts to restore the legitimacy and prestige of the court. Another series of 5-4 sweeping decisions on hot button issues may permanently destroy the court’s reputation.

Like apogee said, one argument could be the hope that he helps to overturn Roe v. Wade but, apart from that, I don't get how Joe Republican thinks this will be good for him apart from the 'my side won' argument.

why dems are losing

In yesterday’s vote to confirm Justice Kavanaugh, the 50 senators voting yes represent states covering just 44% of the U.S. population or 143 million Americans. That’s less than a majority, less than the 181 million Americans represented by the senators voting no (you might say the “Senate popular vote”). Yet the nomination was confirmed.

apogee

Oct 8, 2018 - 09:25am PT
"...antiquated notions of due process and innocent until proven guilty."

Do you believe that due process occurred in this case?

That the FBI investigation was adequate?

From the start, the Repubs tried to thwart Garland's nomination by whatever means necessary. They played hard and dirty... and still won.

about 10 days ago, 538 had the Dems chance of getting control of the Senate at 31.7%. Now it's 21.1%.

Except that it wasn't just Kavanaugh/Ford...it was also (at least) Ramirez. As has been said about the Clintons over and over, where there's smoke, there's fire.

And I'm curious as well...what is it about Kavanaugh's qualifications and demonstrated judicial history that makes you believe he was the best fit for the job? Given his history as a judge, what decisions do you think he's going to make on the court that will likely benefit your life? (Reasonably specific examples would be appreciated.)

10b4me


Fixed it for you

Except that it wasn't just Kavanaugh/Ford...it was also (at least) Ramirez

Both of you (ET & blah) are speculating that Kavanaugh was not involved in either incident. No-one knows (and we may never know) for sure, but the point is that it's a high-stakes position, and allegations deserved a reasonable investigation. Three days...involving only 9 sources out of list of closer to 50...with the scope limited by the WH....this was not sufficient.

If you take it at face value that this investigation was adequate, then why have you obsessed over HRC’s emails for years? Seems like pretty selective discrimination.

Also to mention ,the whole birther thing,really.

Oh I forgot,old white men.

I just don’t get it

Investigations & the FBI are bad if they aren’t in the interests of Republicans

Both of you (ET & blah) are speculating that Kavanaugh was not involved in either incident. No-one knows (and we may never know) for sure, but the point is that it's a high-stakes position, and allegations deserved a reasonable investigation. Three days...involving only 9 sources out of list of closer to 50...with the scope limited by the WH....this was not sufficient.

Flip it around, guys. If these were the conditions under which Hillary's emails were investigated...with Obama limiting access to certain sources...with a critical mid-term election barreling forward...Republicans would have a sh#t-fit about it.

I'm not in the camp of concluding Kavanaugh was guilty of any of this, but it deserved better investigation than it received. And to believe that it was short-shrifted for any other reason than the impending election is just plain naive &/or politically blind

A reasonably thorough investigation (more than three days, and involving a reasonable spectrum of sources, w/o the influence of a WH that has a vested interest in a judge like this) that brought no more corroborating evidence would have instilled more confidence in people.

On the other hand, it seems unlikely that further investigation would have revealed anything (I agree with Edward on that point). The only plausible evidence would have been other people's testimony. And if anyone involved would have wanted to say anything derogatory to Kav, they could have / would have. So the lack of a more thorough investigation was likely immaterial.

frostback

Oct 9, 2018 - 07:22am PT

Looks like Eddie and the ST right wingers made this vid

Look,they do not care what kind of person their president is ,why would they care what kind of person their judge is going to be.

Obama didn’t have a vested interest in getting a judge like Garland approved, rather than a judge like Gorsuch approved?

All presidents and all administrations have a vested interest in furthering their objectives. That’s what they do. That’s why people vote for them to do the things they do.

So we didn’t get as robust an investigation as we’d like to have gotten.

Still though, we got an investigation. That’s good right?

“No Department policy contains a specific prohibition on overt investigative steps within a particular period before an election,” the report notes. But the department has “a longstanding unwritten practice to avoid overt law enforcement and prosecutorial activities close to an election, typically within 60 or 90 days of Election Day.” The IG reported that some officials put the time period at 60 days, while others cited a 90-day timeframe.

In each of the past three presidential election years, the sitting attorney general has issued a reminder memorandum, though not for midterms.

Q: Does the president have to attend any of the official or ceremonial swear-ins?

CNN:

No, but it has become a recent tradition. For the first 150 years, there was almost no presidential involvement. The first swear-in ceremony at the White House was in 1940, when President Franklin Roosevelt invited Justice Frank Murphy. Every president since has attended an oath ceremony for at least one of his appointees. And every current member of the court except Sotomayor has had an oath ceremony at the White House. Several of these were symbolic, since the justices may have already been sworn in officially earlier, so they could begin their work right away.

What else was there to investigate?

One person's recollection from 36 years ago. Full of holes. None of the supposed witnesses backed her story.

Here’s a list of the people who we know have NOT been interviewed:

A suitemate of Kavanaugh’s has now told the New Yorker he remembers hearing at the time about the incident Deborah Ramirez has recounted. Ramirez, who has been interviewed, had claimed that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a dorm party at Yale. The suitemate, Kenneth G. Appold, now says he is “one-hundred-per-cent certain” that he was told the culprit was Kavanaugh. He does say he never discussed this with Ramirez, but he claims an eyewitness described the episode to him at the time. Appold has tried to share this story with the FBI, but there’s no indication the FBI is willing to hear from him.

A classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Georgetown Prep now strongly challenges one of Kavanaugh’s assertions under oath. The person told the New Yorker that he heard Kavanaugh talk repeatedly about Renate Dolphin as someone “that everyone passed around for sex” (the witness’ words), and even heard Kavanaugh singing a rhyme that included the words “you wanna get laid, you can make it with REE-NATE.” Kavanaugh (and many others) described themselves in their yearbook as a “Renate Alumnius,” but Kavanaugh has denied under oath that this was a sexual reference, claiming, ludicrously, that it was intended to show “affection.”
This classmate is not named by the New Yorker. But he put his name on a statement to the FBI and Judiciary Committee that makes this claim, and he is prepared to talk to the FBI. There is no indication this happened.

James Roche, one of Kavanaugh’s roommates at Yale, has written a piece for Slate that claims Kavanaugh lied under oath about his use of slang and his drinking. Roche claims that Kavanaugh “regularly” blacked out. Roche has offered to talk to the FBI, but there’s no indication this happened.
Roche also pointedly added of Kavanaugh: “He said that ‘boofing’ was farting and the ‘Devil’s Triangle’ was a drinking game. ‘Boofing’ and ‘Devil’s Triangle’ are sexual references. I know this because I heard Brett and his friends using these terms on multiple occasions.” Roche concluded that Kavanaugh “has demonstrated a willingness to be untruthful under oath about easily verified information.”

NBC News reports that the FBI has not contacted dozens of people who could potentially corroborate the allegations against Kavanaugh or testify to his behavior at the time. This includes many people who knew either Ford or Ramirez at the time, and people who actually approached the FBI offering information.

The Post reports that Ramirez’s lawyers provided the FBI with a list of more than 20 people who might have relevant information, but “as of Wednesday, Ramirez’s team had no indication that the bureau had interviewed any of them.”

Blasey Ford’s legal team today put out a list of additional people who have not been contacted by the FBI, some of whom were prepared to corroborate that she had in the past discussed being the victim of a sexual assault by a federal judge.
Neither Ford nor Kavanaugh have been interviewed by the FBI.

As the Brookings Institution’s Susan Hennessey points out: “It is inconceivable they could close a real investigation without re-interviewing Kavanaugh.”

Kavanaugh is toast if an impeachment is launched as his lying to congress is beyond question now

Something tells me we haven’t heard the last of Nikki Haley. She has managed (thus far) to leave Trump’s administration with good graces, but she’s an unusually strong, independent voice in the GOP who hasn’t been afraid to call out Trump when she needed to. . . . She’ll be back, I betcha.

I'm damn sure she would strive for some level of presidential decorum that this POS POTUS has no fooking clue as to how to display.

How’s that swamp draining coming along?

Once again American Liberals decide to use acting smug as an offensive position again an opponent who doesn't give a sh#t.

An April 2018 poll from Quinnipiac, for example, found that Haley had a 75-9 approval rating among Republicans — and a 55-23 rating among Democrats. In these polarized times, the idea that one of Trump’s top allies could maintain such high favorables among both parties beggars belief, yet Haley managed to pull it off.

But I like coffee...

And I like it like I like my women

Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.

Oct 10, 2018 - 06:42am PT

Cold and bitter?

Kavanaugh was just put on the Supreme Court.....

How's that resistance thingy going with you?

Once again American Liberals decide to use acting smug as an offensive position again an opponent who doesn't give a sh#t.

Set a course of policy everyone else can understand and get behind !

Sears reportedly preparing for bankruptcy filing as soon as this week

You're projecting, again.

2 decades of poor business decisions, lack of tech investment and a mountain of leveraged debt are the issues at Sears.

Fat Dad ,thanks ,I am going to Cornell ,part time ,co operative extension.

Lol.

Yes,when I am 62 , I will be a Environmental Engineer.

compromise, currently an outdated concept.

Nibs

thanks for posting...
are there enough of us just left/right of center to form a third party?

One big problem is the fringes are dominating the national conversation.

Both Brett and Ashley Kavanaugh served in the Bush administration

The right/center party called Democrats is not a fringe. It's the middle