Current Events Round Up: I Say Alito, You Scalito, Budgets Lose Moral Ground, Healthcare American Style, CIA and Torture?Nooo..., Paris is Burning

After last week's rather lame roundup, I've decided to make up for it this week with a mega-post, so here we go.....

I say Alito, You say Scalito
Last week I mentioned that Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination and I thought that wasn't such a bad thing. I also mentioned Scooter Libby's indictment. The White House decided to kill two birds with one stone on Monday by nominating Samuel Alito to replace Sandra Day O'Conner on the Supreme Court. Not only did the nomination begin the confirmation process, it also (very temporarily) took the media away from the leak scandal.

Immediately, conservative groups praised Alito and liberal ones disparaged him. All that money saved up by these interest groups for a public fight over the nomination has to be spent and it looks like it very well may be. The left has deemed Alito "Scalito" in reference to the most outspoken conservative justice on the court, Antonin Scalia, in hopes of shaping public opinion about him. The right simply praises his judicial excellence and his consistently "conservative" rulings over the past 15 years.

I must say, I can't complain about his credentials. The guy's got what it takes both experientially and mentally. The spin I've read doesn't really give his rulings a fair shake ( what can we expect from a few hundred words or interest group's press releases?) I can't say I necessarily agree with all of the rulings I've read about, but there is certainly solid reasoning behind them and he appears to have a consistent philosophy. Is he conservative? Yep. But the bigger question is whether he's qualified and a good person to protect our rights under the constitution. I'll be interested to listen to the hearings, but I suspect he'll be confirmed next year. The Democrats don't have much ammunition right now other than ideological disagreements and I'm not sure that will be enough. Of course, everyone who voted against Roberts must vote against Alito, both as a matter of intellectual honesty and political reality, but I think that will have exactly the same results.

The best thing I've read so far on this is an op-ed by Michael Kinsley titled "What's Too Conservative?" It's short, intelligent and even-handed.

Budgets Lose Moral Ground
I was hoping I wouldn't have to revisit this, but both the House and the Senate are really making a mess of things. First, they feel they can SPEND without limit on their pet projects (see the Transportation Bill), then they cut taxes. As an antidote to the increasing budget deficit, they then CUT spending on those who are the most vulnerable: the poor and the immigrant. At the same time, they seek to violate our environmental integrity by opening up ANWR to oil drilling with little to gain but some modest income and relatively little oil. The following articles lay it out: Food Stamp Cuts Are On Table House Plan Would Affect 300,000
and Senate Passes Plan to Cut $35 Billion From Deficit.

I'm an advocate for fiscal responsibility, but it seems the height of hypocrisy to vote to spend money on pork-barrel projects on one hand and against Medicaid, food stamps and farm subsidies on the other. I would have much more respect for these guys if they were consistent, even if I disagreed with their cuts. Fiscal responsibility means sometimes raising taxes as well.

Healthcare American Style
Here's a shocker for you: Americans pay more for health care than other Western countries and get worse care. Really? That's shocking, just shocking! It's true. The for-profit scam that we call healthcare here in America (for-profit hospitals in collusion with insurance companies) continues to increase prices while we get less and worse for our money. That's the marketplace at work. The study, commissioned by the Commwealth Fund, found Great Britain to have the best performance. Perhaps socialized medicine is actually a good idea? Signs point to yes.

Additional benefits of a British-style system? Medicare and Medicaid, no need for it. Union strikes for better health-care? No need. Actually getting the medication you need instead of choosing between prescriptions and food. It's time to get over the archaic fear of the "s" word and start thinking about what is actually good for the country (although a few insurance companies might disagree.) I suspect this will likely occur when a state (Oregon, California, Washington, Vermont? Come on guys, we can do it!) passes a state-based universal health-care solution. I hope the dominoes start to fall soon.

See:
For Americans, Getting Sick Has Its Price Survey Says U.S. Patients Pay More, Get Less Than Those in Other Western Nations

US leads way in medical errors: study

CIA and Torture?Nooo...
I'm feeling a bit cheeky today, so the tone is a bit sarcastic, but it's about time we face up to it: America is a purveyor of torture. From the CIA-trained Central American death squads of the 80's to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, we like to talk the talk but we don't walk the walk. We would like to think that our government doesn't do such things, but it's not true. Recently revealed secret CIA detention centers in Eastern Europe add evidence to the argument that parts of our government act above and outside US law and international conventions (which, if ratified ARE US law - see The Constitution of The United States)

The fact is, that we are all created in the image of God and we are expected to treat each other as such. To say that the ends justify the means is a slippery slope that leads to moral ruin. Justice may be upheld without resulting to cruelty and, I would argue, torture circumvents justice. Even if it isn't technically torture, our treatment of prisoners has both violated the Geneva Conventions (Guantanamo Bay) AND the basic tenets of Just detention. It's time we draw clear and bright lines, act justly and humanely and refuse to accept anything less.

See: US defends foreign detentions

Paris is Burning
This is a huge news story that isn't getting much play here in the US. If riots were going on for a week in New York City, we'd hear about it. It seems to be mentioned in passing here. I mention this mostly because it's important to know about. Firstly, it could (and has) happened here. The roots of the rioting are class and race inequality sparked by economic squalor and perceived injustice. This is similar to Watts or LA riots, with the explosive addition of religious tension. I hate to keep beating the same drum, but I think the roots of this event are in a failure of justice. Human sinfulness abound on both sides of this conflict, but had they (and we) a society that "loved mercy, acted justly and walked humbly with our Lord" (Micah 6:8) we would find a much less volatile situation.

See: French riots spread beyond Paris
Rioters Attack Trains, Schools and Businesses in the Paris Suburbs