So have you heard about the US Supreme Court ruling on weds?
…Exactly as predicted w/ the promotion of Alito & Roberts last year, the first major decision(s) of the new Court are directly targeting abortion. This ruling represents the first major threat against “Roe vs Wade” in 30+ years. And at this rate, with the neocon’s new solid majority on the Court (with current members Scalia & Thomas eagerly stating for the record “we think abortion should be outlawed”)… it’s not inconceivable that within the next few years or so, the USA will gain the distinction of being the only 1st-world nation which outlaws abortion.
How could this happen? The US Government is not the Taliban, right? We’re a non-radical, educated, informed country… whose women have been equal in ‘the eyes of the law’ for so long, it’s not worth mentioning (or even on the radar of young feminists). So how could 33yr-old precedent-setting “Roe v. Wade” suddenly be under attack?
Ah, but let’s take a walk back to Jr. High Civics class… Despite the high-visibility of the Presidential role, or the loud brouhaha of the legislative process in Congress… these 9 old, mostly under-the-radar ‘Justices’[sic] are fully equal in power to Congress, or the President himself. It’s right there in the Constitution– Congress makes laws, Pres signs/enforce them (or not, as we’ve been seeing for the last 7yrs), & the Court decides if those laws or enforcings are “Constitutional” or not. That’s Power. But you know what’s even more powerful? These 9 ppl DO NOT EVER LEAVE, UNTIL THEY DIE. The most we can be stuck w/ an awful, misrepresenting Pres is 8yrs, or Congressperson 4yrs. But chances are, like the Pope, we’ll be stuck w/ the current crop of Supremes for the next 20yrs or so… esp. these two new, ‘stealth neocon’ appointments.
So what’s all the fuss w/ this new Ruling, anyway? Well, they just upheld a state’s right to ban ‘partial-birth abortion’… ie, D&C past the 1st trimester. “And what’s that?” you ask… Well, specific medical techniques aside, ‘partial-birth abortion’[sic] has long been rigged as a ‘wedge-issue’ to start dismantling the basic legality of abortion; specifically, the main rationale, ie. abortion is under a woman’s “right to privacy”. By reframing abortion into “viability of a child” rather than “woman’s right to privacy” (let-alone “viability of partially-developed, non-thinking protoplasm”), the neocons & born-agains are rabble-rousing. Why call a woman “independent” & “maker of a very difficult choice”, when you can call her “baby-killer”?
To think that this could happen in a Country long self-proclaimed as “The Land of the Free”…. Well, you must remember that this same country has actually been presided-over by Republicans for 19 of the last 27 years(?)… & they’ve finally got their payoff: a solid neocon majority in the Supreme Court.
The most appalling feature of the neocon movement is its unabashed hypocrisy– they have zero hesitation proscribing moral rulings over ‘the common people’, which they themselves casually ignore. From sending the historically least amount of its sons to war, to eagerly plundering the common reserves, the average neocon acts like Raskolnikov of “Crime & Punishment” (or the ‘bad guys’ in “Knight Rider”): they’re Above the Law, judicially as well as morally.
Or in other words, when the Bushie girls have their statistically predicable mishap w/ a condom & their lunar cycle, the Bushies will pack them up on Air Force One & fly them over to Dubai or somewhere where they can have world-class medical care, pre & post-op, for their very own abortion(s). Laws, morals, money, service-to-country, abstinence… these are only ‘talking points’ for stump speeches, nicely spun by H-wood writers & pumped-up w/ strongly-framed rhetoric by Rove. Because if you think Bush & cohort truly actually believe the neocon fundamentalism they outwardly espouse, perhaps you haven’t been paying attention.
PS– Oh, & about that “Activist Judges” tag… funny how, after literally years of whining, ranting, & otherwise dirty politic’ing, labelling each & every Court decision they didn’t like as “Activist Judging”… it’s just friggin’ hilarious how the NeoCons leap at the opportunity to do a little ‘Activist Judging’ themselves. Creating ‘Policy’ from the Bench, hmm? Nothing like THIRTY FULL YEARS OF JUDICIAL PRECEPT to set the “Law of the Land”, you-know? Nah, let’s just toss that out, as soon as we have a Majority. I just hope to see these NeoCons hoist on their own petard… it doesn’t take too much to get them all attacking each other. Picture this: the Supremes pulling the plug on all ‘Right to Privacy’, & so the respective states start pushing mandatory drug screening… for everyone. Quaking now, Pill Poppin’ Rush.L?