The NY Times reports:
His extensive paper trail of 15 years of opinions reveals a jurist deeply skeptical of claims against large corporations. A review of dozens of business cases in which Judge Alito has written majority or dissenting opinions or cast the decisive vote shows that, with few exceptions, he has sided with employers over employees in discrimination lawsuits and in favor of corporations over investors in securities fraud cases.
No wonder the real power brokers in the GOP are happy with Alito. I never met a Wall Street broker who gave a shit about abortion or gay marriage, but they did care about class-action lawsuits. As uber-lobbyist and GOP insider, Michael Scanlon said:
Simply put, the fat cats have been getting the ‘wackos’ to do their bidding for a very long time. But this time, they seem to have found a real wacko judge who also loves to screw the little guy.
So, it really shouldn’t surprise anyone that:
Welcome to Bushland.
Yes! In the political arena the worshippers of Mammon almost always triumph over the worshippers of the other Gods.
The evangelical masses are like the people who call in to wingnut talk radio shows. They have the illusion that they are actually participating in and shaping the debate when, in fact, they are being played for fools and patsies, falling prey to a preplanned agenda in which they are merely the echo chamber.
Once the evangelical rank and file realize that their own putative leaders are more influence by Mammon than they are by the God of Abraham, then they might begin to come to their senses. Sadly, I’m not optimistic on this score.
for braindead cults is that the more the prophesies fail, the more their leaders betray them, the more the poor zombies cling to their “faith”. That’s true whether it’s flying saucer cults, scientologists, Jim Jonesies, or Christians. That this judge, like Bush and the rest of their beloved GOP, will work to make their real lives much worse is beyond question. But that ain’t what matters when you have the cross of Jesus spiked into your brain.
I’ve begun to wonder whether liberals erred in opposing literacy tests for voting. One that asked relevant but simple questions about such things as evolution, reproduction, and archaeology might have produced a sane voter base in the US, if not a sane general population.
As is no doubt evident, my compassion for these poor fools has plumb run out. The only remaining option is how to neutralize them politically.
You’re exactly right about the propensity for cult member’s devotion to the dogma to become even stronger in the face of failed prophesy. Such is part of the dynamic of Denial; the more one’s beliefs are challenged, the more one defends them, regardless of the facts.
However, when the “cult leaders” are seen to have changed their alliegance to a different entity, (i.e. from Krishna or Jesus, let’s say, to the odious Mammon), then a different dynamic comes into play.
While many may still cling to the illusions about the integrity of their leaders, (I’m sure the despicable excuse for a human being Ralph Reed still has a loyal core of devotees, for instance), many of these cult-like followers will have become “true believers” in the dogma, with the result that they’ll see the switch of alliegance of their masters as a betrayal.
Living where I do in south Florida, I actually know quite a few evangelical extremists who are now expressing strong disenchantment with those whom they previously regarded as their own principled movement leaders. Tragically, I also know quite afew whose denial of reality is so strong, whose need to believe is so crippling, whose ignorance is so weaponized, that they are completely unmoved by recent disclosures of impropriety and greed, or of the failures of so many policies perpetrated on the country by their political/Christian heros in government.
But at least some are beginning to peel away from the grip of denial in the evangelical fascist community and in the cultic environment of extremist wingnut politics.
May I please borrow this phrase? It’s just freaking brilliant!
By all means! Spread the concept of weaponized ignorance far and wide. It is the phenomenon that’s at the root of so much of what is being perpetrated upon the world by the maniacs in power.
Hey, we’ve been saying the same thing as Scanlon but we get threats for it instead of checks with lots of zeroes…heh, but that’s ok, I bet the checks slow down real fast.
So? He “prosecuted terrorists and criminals.”
My teevee just said so.
It looks like Alito may have violated federal judicial ethics rules. The Boston Globe (via the SF Chronicle) reports that in 2002, Alito ruled in favor of the Vanguard Group mutual fund while having at least $390,000 invested in the fund. Never mind that during the Senate confirmation process for his Circuit Court appointment in 1990, he disclosed his Vanguard investment and, in written responses to a questionnaire, promised to disqualify himself from “any cases involving the Vanguard companies.”
According to the article, “Federal judicial ethics rules permit judges to rule on cases involving some mutual funds in which they have a stake, but not those in which shares convey an ownership interest in the fund.”
Alito argues that he is able to rule on cases involving Vanguard because he is merely an investor in the fund, not an owner. But Vanguard’s website is topped by a banner that announces, “Welcome to Vanguard, the client-owned investment management company built to put your interests first.”
I’m sure we’re going to be hearing more about this.
This isn’t even remotely news on the left side of the blogosphere. We could try to guess forever whether Bush was going to appoint someone socially radical or stealth; but there was NEVER any question he would only appoint big-business judges. Does he know anyone else? Any one at all ever talk to Bush about the interests of the average citizen?
So we need to get through to the rest of the country that they are in big danger with this guy deciding cases against the interests of American citizens? I’ve commented on some conservative blogs and of course they don’t care. Either they’re social conservatives with their heads in the sand or they’re libertarians who don’t believe in individual rights as much as corporate rights. I mean, really, is there any hope of getting through to a social con?
But several lawyers I work with (in Philly, 3rd Circ. land) have said they hope he gets confirmed just to get him the F*** off the Circuit bench.
But I do have to give mad props to the fellow Mercer County, New Jersey homeboy- we haven’t been represented on the Big Bench since Brennan. Actually, Alito reminds me a lot of Brennan, in a sort of Star Trek evil alternate universe twin kinda way.