Holy Georgian Empire alert

My beloved home state has taken several more steps lately towards recognizing Christianity over the establishment clause. The state legislature has recently pasted three bills furthering the widely recognized (albeit, textually debatable) Christian principle of banning abortion. The three bills make it mandatory for a women seeking an abortion to pay for an ultrasound, allows pharmacists to legally refuse to fill prescriptions for drugs that terminate pregnancy, and makes it two crimes to kill a pregnant woman.

The real bastard in language is 16-5-28, (a):

"For the purposes of this Code section, the term 'unborn child' means a member of the species homo sapiens at any stage of development who is carried in the womb."

Of course this paves the way for a women who has an abortion to someday be charged with murder. The forced out of pocket ultrasound is of course a completely unnecessary medical procedure, and thus unethical. For those lucky enough to have insurance, they should be covered. I guess the legislature is less concerned with poorer women, who are more likely to seek an abortion because they would be unable to provide economically for the child.

Allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions because of personal beliefs grossly misunderstands the roll of a pharmacist. It is not their job to determine which drugs people are allowed to take. That is a doctor's job. Their job is dispense the prescribed drugs in the manner indicated by the doctor. Would we allow a doctor to refuse to treat a patient in the proper way due to medically arbitrary personal beliefs? No. They would have their license revoked, as should any pharmacist who assumes a roll greater than their training or authority provides. If I ran a drug store, I would fire any employee who refused to fill a legitimate prescription.

And all of this comes on the heels of another provocative decision to place the ten commandments in a display at the capitol along with other historical documents, in an attempt to downplay its obvious religious endorsement, as now ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court. I don't suppose it bothers them that first commandment (the "no other gods before me" one) is in direct contradiction with the very ideals of freedom which the constitution aims to protect?

Nail, head, all that

From an editorial in today's New York:

"The Bush administration has followed a disturbing pattern in its approach to the war on terror. It has been perpetually willing to sacrifice individual rights in favor of security. But it has been loath to do the same thing when it comes to business interests."

More photos

It's beyond frustrating to not have the media call attention to the obvious flaw in the US response to more picture of prisoner abuse surfacing. Our government calls their release "irresponsible" which, I would think, begs the question of how they would describe the behavior they document...

Guantanamera

So the UN has issued a well crafted and legally sound report calling for the closure of the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, and the US has responded by saying that the UN has thereby discredited itself. Some things that struck me:

1. We're forcefeeding prisoners on a hunger strike, often intravenously? I'm pretty sure forcing anything into a conscious and objecting prisoner's body is a serious violation of human rights. We don't have a right fast or refuse medication?

2. Bush and the boys think this discredits the UN? This report mirrors the feelings of the world community with an accuracy that makes me wonder why they didn't do this sooner. Isn't the purpose of the UN, and the nation system in general, centered around coalitions of weaker states being able to criticize and restrain stronger ones short of war? Regardless of what you think about Guantanamo, it's pretty clear this will increase support for the UN worldwide.

I still don't like hunting

I'm a little disapointed with all the air and blog time the Cheney hunting accident has been getting. He didn't mean to do it, it's not a conspiracy, neither to kill him or distract the news cycle. Can progressives please focus on developing and implementing good policy, rather than poking fun at the VP, which makes us both look like, and actually become, assholes?

Show some game, damn it!

I'm listening to an mp3 of the oral arguements in Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (challenging a statute withholding federal funds from schools that won't let military recruiters on campus. The schools say the army's refusal to admit homosexuals violates the school's non-discrimination policy, and thus the statute violates their 1st amendment rights).

Whatever you think of the issue, the lawyer for FAIR is either unprepared or not very good at this, because he can't even get his own arguements straight. Stevens and Breyer are practically hand feeding him, and he still can't keep his case on track.

Now granted, it's pretty obvious the court favors Rumsfeld on this one, and that's not an easy thing to overcome, but damn...try and show a little game there...

The Erie Doctrine and Snoop Dog

Why oh why do they wait until the week between Thanksgiving and exams to teach 1Ls the Erie Doctrine, one of the most complicated issues in all of Civil Procedure? Give us some time for it to sink any!

So, while pouring over a hornbook trying to grasp the ins and outs of Erie's evolution (my prof is big on that kind of thing, I get a text message from my girlfriend, and the following conversation ensues:

"How goes the work?"

"Well, it's clarificaiton of when to apply federal or state law in a diversity action...Sound fun to you?"

"Yee-haw! Party time!"

"Yeah, me and Justice Brandeis got bitches in the living room, getting in on..."

Ditry South

The governor of Georgia, Sonny “Pigpen” Perdue, has decided he doesn’t like his chances for reelection if he remains the only candidate covered in the dirt. So he gets one of his shameless goons, Doug Grammer, chairman of the Georgia Federation of Young Republicans Clubs, to start the dirt throwing and file frivolous ethics charges against Democratic candidates Mark Taylor, and more importantly, Cathy Cox.

Morton Brilliant, the Campaign Manager at Cathy Cox for Governor, had a wonderful response, as reported in the AJC:

Morton Brilliant, spokesman for the Cox gubernatorial campaign, said the complaints are about trying to "create controversy where none exists." For example, the complaint states that Cox's office used state telephones to call campaign contributors, including Glennis Bench. Bench contributed to Cox's campaign, but she's also her sister, Brilliant said.

The dark side of globalization

Oh noes...