The culture war re-ignites

This morning I was having breakfast and the TV was showing Bush's next pick for the Supreme Court (he sure didn't waste any time, feeding my fears that Miers was just a pawn in the big scheme of things -- he couldn't appoint a radical judge right away, so he picked someone everyone opposed, for different reasons, so that he could pick that radical freak next.)

The radical freak we all feared is Samuel Alito, and I sure hope with all my heart he will not be confirmed. I sure hope the Democrats will fight this nomination to the end, including through the use of the filibuster, if it comes to that.

The guy is, simply put, a radical right-wingnut and he has proven it with years of opinions on the bench. Here is one of his latest exploits:

In the early 1990s, Alito was the lone dissenter in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a case in which the 3rd Circuit struck down a Pennsylvania law that included a provision requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses."

The Pennsylvania legislature could have rationally believed that some married women are initially inclined to obtain an abortion without their husbands' knowledge because of perceived problems - such as economic constraints, future plans or the husbands' previously expressed opposition - that may be obviated by discussion prior to the abortion," Alito wrote.

That opinion is just so crazy, I can't believe a sane person would ever express it. Abortion is such a contested issue in America, and this is the last person we want on the highest court to make decisions he clearly prejudges based on his personal views. His appointment would absolutely bring the repeal of Roe v. Wade closer to reality.

This is some more from AP:

Democrats pointed to two cases in which he had issued rulings from the bench that were rejected by the Supreme Court. More than a decade ago, he upheld a requirement for spousal notification in an abortion case. Earlier this year, with O'Connor casting the deciding vote, the high court threw out a death sentence that Alito had upheld in the case of a man who argued his lawyer had been ineffective.

While there was no immediate talk of a filibuster that would deny Alito a yes-or-no vote, Democrats also expressed dismay over rulings on gun control, immigration and the Family and Medical Leave Act over a 15-year career on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

Abortion, death penalty, gun control, immigration, health care rights. This guy is on the wrong side of every issue, and all these issues will come in front of the court within a few years. We DO NOT want some psychopath that will reject every sane argument and throw our civil rights in the crapper (and the country back in time by at least 200 years.)

This guy MUST BE DEFEATED. Period.