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[From diaries by susanhu w mini-edits.] The Washington Post has an article on prospective SCOTUS Justice John Roberts’ position on women’s rights.

From the article:

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. consistently opposed legal and legislative attempts to strengthen women’s rights during his years as a legal adviser in the Reagan White House, disparaging what he called “the purported gender gap” and, at one point, questioning “whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good.”

Further explanation of the context later in the article:

His remark on whether homemakers should become lawyers came in 1985 in reply to a suggestion from Linda Chavez, then the White House’s director of public liaison. Chavez had proposed entering her deputy, Linda Arey, in a contest sponsored by the Clairol shampoo company to honor women who had changed their lives after age 30. Arey had been a schoolteacher who decided to change careers and went to law school. MORE BELOW:

And on women’s pay in the work place

In internal memos, Roberts urged President Ronald Reagan to refrain from embracing any form of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment pending in Congress; he concluded that some state initiatives to curb workplace discrimination against women relied on legal tools that were “highly objectionable”; and he said that a controversial legal theory then in vogue — of directing employers to pay women the same as men for jobs of “comparable worth” — was “staggeringly pernicious” and “anti-capitalist.”

The article notes that these documents from the Ronald Regan library are likely to be the last of what we will see on Roberts as the administration has declined to disclose papers from Robert’s time as Justice Department’s deputy solicitor general (from 1989 to 1993).

Related Diary: Why Didn’t Judge Roberts Recluse Himself

How awesome is this
From Boing Boing

I’ve discussed the matter with my blog colleagues, and we would like to hereby issue a challenge to Kent Hovind and his supporters.

We are willing to pay any individual *$250,000 if they can produce empirical evidence which proves that Jesus is not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

and the update

Recently converted Pastafarians are adding matching reward funds to the Boing Boing Intelligent Design Challenge. Jason Kottke of kottke.org (Link) and Sean Bonner of metblogs (Link) have each offered an additional $250,000. This brings the total purse for anyone capable of proving that Jesus is not the son of Flying Spaghetti Monster to $750,000.

On July 29, 2005, the “Border Protection Corps Act” was submitted to the House of Representatives by John Culberson (R-TX) and 47 other house Reps.  Per the Bill

To authorize the Governor of a State to organize and call into service a militia of able-bodied and eligible citizens to help prevent individuals from unlawfully crossing an international border and entering the United States anywhere other than a port of entry, to appropriate funds to support this service, and for other purposes.

From Findings

The uniquely devious, criminal, cowardly, and fanatically determined nature of the terrorist criminal organizations and individuals that have declared war on the people of the United States compel the Congress to invoke its constitutional authority to authorize all able-bodied and eligible United States citizens to serve in a militia in defense of our international borders under the direct command and control of the Governors of the border States.

And where will this new militia come from?

From Program Authorized

The Governor of a State is authorized to call eligible United States citizens into service in the militia, and to equip, train, discipline, and otherwise control the operation of such militia forces in defense of the international borders of the United States under such terms, conditions, and requirements as are contained in the laws and constitution of the State.

And what will be happening to those arrested, you may ask?

All individuals taken into custody under subsection (b) shall be promptly delivered to a Federal law enforcement authority. A Federal law enforcement authority may not release any individual so detained in the United States. All such individuals shall be removed to the country from which they entered the United States, but only after Federal law enforcement authorities are fully satisfied that each individual so removed is not a violent or dangerous criminal, a terrorist, or a potential terrorist, in which case that individual shall be prosecuted in the United States to the fullest extent provided by law.

Do you think your Governor should have an Army?  Once recruited, will these individuals be eligible for fighting in Iraq, like the Reservists?  And most importantly can a Governor institute a Draft?

Cross Posted at Ourword.org

From American Rights at Work

It is a regular pastime for co-workers to chat during a coffee break, at a union hall, or over a beer about workplace issues, good grilling recipes, and celebrity gossip. Yet a recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) allows employers to ban off-duty fraternizing among co-workers, severely weakening the rights of free association and speech, and violating basic standards of privacy for America’s workers.

I guess when your party doesn’t back you the sharks start closing in.

UPDATE: As an ironic aside, Wapo has this article

The president departed Tuesday for his longest stretch yet away from the White House, arriving at his Crawford ranch in the evening for a stretch of clearing brush, visiting with family and friends, and tending to some outside-the-Beltway politics. By historical standards, it is the longest presidential retreat in at least 36 years.

The August getaway is Bush’s 49th trip to his cherished ranch since taking office and the 319th day that Bush has spent, entirely or partially, in Crawford — nearly 20 percent of his presidency to date, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS Radio reporter known for keeping better records of the president’s travel than the White House itself.

Cross Posted at Ourword.org

I think instinctively we all know that no entity would willingly cut off its own food supply and so, while I don’t smoke, I’ve never felt at ease with the government making money off of the Tobacco Industry.

Today I read that Senator Tom Carper- Delaware (D) has submitted a bill to tax internet pornography 25%.

The Delaware Democrat is proposing a 25 percent tax on the purchase of pornographic material online.

The collected tax money would go to a fund to help police prosecute online child pornographers.

The provision is part of the Internet Safety and Child Protection Act.

No doubt he capitlozing on Hillary’s war against “Grand Theft Auto.”  But I can’t help wondering – If the Government subsidizes Tobacco Farmers, what will this mean to the Porn Industry?

This article from the San Diego Union Tribune (warning – the UT is very conservative)

A Tijuana man who last weekend said he was shot shortly after crossing the border illegally into the United States is sticking to his story, despite some reports that he may have been shot in Mexico.

Carlos Alfonso Estrada Martinez, 38, was one of two Mexican citizens shot in separate incidents during the early hours of Saturday in the border region between Tecate and Campo.

In statements he made to officials, Estrada had said he was about 200 yards inside the U.S. when he was hit about 1 a.m. A second man who was shot about an hour later said he was assaulted just south of the border fence in Mexico.

Yesterday, Estrada was recuperating from a gunshot wound to his left buttock at his Tijuana apartment.

He said he was among a group of six people crossing into the United States and had just made it past the border fence. He said they were walking north when he saw a laser dot tracing up and down the front of his body.

Quotes from the Minute Men

Jim Chase, the Oceanside resident who organized the three-week border watch, said none of his people have fired any weapons. But he added that while he turns away people he considers extremists, he has been running into people conducting their own patrols who are not with his group.

“It doesn’t scare me, but it is scary from the standpoint of these are people who have not gone through me to pledge to be nonracist and nonviolent,” Chase said earlier this week.

An Oath.  Good thinking Jim.

From Army Times

The Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to raise the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service.

Under current law, the maximum age to enlist in the active components is 35, while people up to age 39 may enlist in the reserves. By practice, the accepted age for recruits is 27 for the Air Force, 28 for the Marine Corps and 34 for the Navy and Army, although the Army Reserve and Navy Reserve sometimes take people up to age 39 in some specialties.

The Pentagon’s request to raise the maximum recruit age to 42 is part of what defense officials are calling a package of “urgent wartime support initiatives” sent to Congress Monday night prior to a Tuesday hearing of the House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee.

Some effort is being made to present this as though people over the age of forty are beating down the military’s door.  I listened to a story on NPR on Saturday about a 42 year old that wanted to enlist, and then in Stars And Stripes there is this

“I also think that we make a mistake in the military by having people automatically be forced out in the event that they may wish to stay in,” he said.

I see this as a way to force people that would be aloud to retire to stay.  I was wondering what the crowd here thought of the new change.

From Raw Story

A column penned by the doyenne of right-wing rhetoric Ann Coulter has come under fire for alleged plagiarism, RAW STORY has learned.

Much of Coulter’s Jun. 29, 2005 column, “Thou Shall Not Commit Religion,” bears a striking resemblance to pieces in magazines dating as far back as 1985–and a column written for the Boston Globe in 1995.

Heal Ilsa, Heal!

Democrats need to reach out to voters who oppose abortion rights and promote candidates who share that view, the head of the party said Friday.

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told a group of college Democrats that their party has to change its approach in the debate over abortion.

“I think we need to talk about this issue differently,” said Dean. “The Republicans have painted us as a pro-abortion party. I don’t know anybody in America who is pro-abortion.”

 http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-dean-abortion,0,3645289,print.story?coll=sns-ap-
nationworld-headlines

 

I have no words.

From Bad Politics

just received a note from a friendly source suggesting that Rehnquist will announce his retirement tomorrow. Last Friday morning, this same person told me that O’Connor would step down (3-4 hours before it hit the AP wire).