Let's name a law school after Anonin Scalia. I have the perfect acronym.

Sadly the school decided to change the name to Antonin Scalia Law School which is such a let down.

After all getting all of the ASSOL's in one place could prove quite helpful.

Senator Lisa Murkowski comes out against Obama naming a replacement for Antonin Scalia, after earlier saying that he should.

I urge Pres. Obama to follow a tradition embraced by both parties and allow his successor to select the next Supreme Court justice. (4/5)

— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) February 19, 2016

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski pulled back from an earlier position that the Senate should give a hearing to a nominee to replace the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, saying Thursday that President Obama shouldn’t even nominate a replacement. 

The day before, Murkowski told reporters at a news conference that the Senate should hold a hearing on a nominee — a position setting her apart from Mitch McConnell, the leader of Murkowski’s Republican Senate majority, who said Scalia’s vacancy should not be filled. 

Then, on Thursday afternoon, Murkowski issued a carefully crafted statement from her official Facebook account saying that there shouldn't be a nominee. 

“Given the timing of this vacancy, in the middle of our presidential election, the American people will clearly be weighing in on the direction of the Supreme Court,” the statement said. “I urge the president to follow a tradition embraced by both parties over the past 80 years and allow his successor in the White House to select the next Supreme Court justice. If he ignores this precedent, I believe that extraordinary circumstances give the Senate every right to deny the nominee an up or down vote.”

There she is folks, our spineless, wishy washy, Senator Lisa Murkowski.

And the thing is that compared to the virtually invisible Koch brother owned Senator Dan Sullivan, and the idiotic Congressman Don Young, she is actually the best we have to offer.

Aren't you jealous!

President Obama plans to visit Cuba, but since that won't freak out the Right Wing enough will also skip Justice Scalia's funeral.

Courtesy of Yahoo: 

Pres. Barack Obama will make a historic visit to Cuba “in the coming weeks,” the culmination of his efforts to end a half-century of tensions between Havana and Washington, a senior administration official said late Wednesday. 

“We can confirm that tomorrow‎ the administration will announce the president’s travel to Latin America, including Cuba, in the coming weeks,” the official said on condition of anonymity. ABC had first reported the news, saying that the trip would take place in late March.

The trip, the first one by a sitting President since 1928, immediately drew fire from the conservatives.

Would @tedcruz visit #Cuba? No, “as long as the Castros are in power.” https://t.co/tZiz7EBNZC #GOPTownHall https://t.co/lv5v2fTiyg

— CNN (@CNN) February 18, 2016

.@marcorubio responds to @POTUS’ plan to visit to #Cuba. #GOPTownHall https://t.co/5Nlsme7EA8 https://t.co/Iz2L2lkEb9

— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) February 18, 2016

But apparently the President did not think that was enough to sufficiently get the conservative riled up enough, so his White House Press Secretary also made this announcement: 

President Barack Obama is preparing for a fierce battle with the Senate over the Supreme Court vacancy, but he’s not planning to attend Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral — a decision that puzzled even some of his allies and incensed conservative media. 

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest revealed the president’s plans during the daily briefing, saying Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will go to the Supreme Court on Friday “to pay their respects to Justice Scalia” while the justice lies in repose in the Great Hall. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden, who share Scalia’s Catholic faith, will be at the services instead.

I don't blame the President for not going to the funeral.

I mean could you imagine trying to make small talk about a guy who you disagreed with on almost EVERY topic?

According to End Times talk radio host Justice Antonin Scalia was ritually murdered by President Obama to mark a pagan festival. Say what?

Courtesy of Right Wing Watch:  

Yesterday on “Trunews,” End Times radio host Rick Wiles discussed “the possible occult connections” to the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, whom he concluded was murdered by President Obama and was a human sacrifice to mark the pagan festival of Lupercalia. 

Wiles explained that the “Luciferian” “devil-worshipers” who control the government are out for blood, noting that Lupercalia is observed between February 13 and 15. Scalia’s body was discovered on the 13th. “There’s always human sacrifice involved,” he said, claiming that Scalia was “killed” to mark the beginning of pagan fascism ruling over the U.S. 

“The 13th was the 44th day of 2016, Obama is the 44th president of the United States,” Wiles said, “so you have this numerology thing taking place.” 

Wiles said that the assassins who killed the conservative justice “deliberately left the pillow on his face as a message to everybody else: ‘Don’t mess with us, we can murder a justice and get away with it.’ And I assure you, there’s a lot of frightened officials in Washington today, deep down they know, the regime murdered a justice…. This is the way a dictatorial, fascist, police state regime takes control of a nation.” 

Okay usually I would mock this as batshit crazy talk, but I seriously do not think that a bat could shit this much crazy.

I would like to seriously ask how somebody like this is not only NOT in a rubber room someplace, but is allowed on the radio to spread this kind of lunacy?

Samantha Bee's take on the filling of Antonin Scalia's now vacant Supreme Court seat, is a must see.

Favorite line:  

“Let’s just have a Supreme Court vacancy for a year because some chinless dildo wants a Justice who will use his gavel to plug up your abortion hole.” 

I LOVE this show!

While everybody is lamenting the passing of Justice Scalia, let's take a moment to allow Bill Maher to remind us that he was essentially a religious nutjob.

I found this video the other day on Reddit, and thought it was definitely something that we needed to see again.

As sad as it is for the Scalia family to lose ole Grandpa Antonin, to be honest it might be the best thing to happen to this country in quite a few years.

Just saying.

According to the new Ted Cruz attack ad electing Donald Trump would be the end of the world as we know it. Hyperbole much?

Courtesy of Twitchy:  

Ted Cruz has a new ad out titled “Supreme Trust” that goes after Donald Trump on potential SCOTUS picks, saying that “we’re just one Supreme Court justice away” from losing on “Life. Marriage. Religious liberty” and “the 2nd Amendment.” The ad also shows the clip of Trump telling Tim Russert that he’s “very pro-choice” and would not support a ban on partial-birth abortion.


Okay so according to the gloom and doom ad up above allowing Trump to choose the next Supreme Court Justice would mean the loss of "life, religious liberty, marriage, AND the 2nd Amendment?"

Who's he going to nominate, the Terminator?

Look I am in complete agreement that we don't want Donald Trump to choose any Supreme Court Justices.

However to be honest, if I had to choose between Trump doing the job and Ted Cruz making the choices, I am all in for a Trump presidency.

But let's face it, neither one of those bozos are going to be doing any nominating, because they are not going to get anywhere near the White House.

And the reason for that is because on the day that Anonin Scalia passed away liberals from all over the country sat up and said, "Shit just got real."

So yes my friends we are going to be showing up in droves, black, Hispanic, gay, female, middle class, religious and non-religious combined together to make the most unbeatable voting block in the history of this great country.

And not only are we going to deny the White House to the Republicans, yet AGAIN, but we are going to make sure that the Supreme Court is filled with as many intelligent, fair minded, and reasonable people as possible.

Count on it.

Leave it to Senator Warren to have the final say concerning the replacement of Scalia on the Supreme Court.

The sudden death of Justice Scalia creates an immediate vacancy on the most important court in the United...
Posted by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren on Sunday, February 14, 2016

And there you go, nuff said.

You know every time I read something like this from Warren, I wish SHE were on the Democratic ballot in this elections cycle.

Because if she were it would change EVERYTHING.

Sarah Palin of course laments the passing of Justice Anonin Scalia, and supports Republican efforts to stop Obama from replacing him.

I don't understand a word of this thing, but I support everything it says that supports what I think.

Courtesy of Palin's only remaining place to exercise her First Amendment rights her Facebook page: 

The passing of Justice Antonin Scalia today is a great loss for America. May we never lose the contributions he bequeathed us - a firm belief in Constitutional government and passionate dedication to justice. Prayers are with his family.

"A great loss for America?" Really?

Like I said I feel badly for Scalia's family, but I think a large number of Americans feel as if a new day has dawned, and that progress is now within our grasp.

Which is apparently something that Palin fears might be true:

Let's hope they are sincerely committed to this!
Posted by Sarah Palin on Saturday, February 13, 2016

Yes let's hope that the Republicans in the Congress ignore their own pledges to uphold the Constitution, and instead do everything in their power to obstruct the twice elected President from exercising his right and constitutional responsibility to nominate a replacement for the deceased Justice.

THIS is how Palin, and a whole lot of her fellow conservatives, pay their respect to the Founding Fathers.

But hey, at least she has not accused Obama of having Scalia murdered.

Well at least not yet.

And you all thought the biggest bang for your entertainment dollar was watching the GOP debates.

That is going to be NOTHING when compared to this fight over replacing Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.

NOTHING!

Justice Antonin Scalia found dead! Update!

Courtesy of the San Antonio Express News: 

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead of apparent natural causes Saturday on a luxury resort in West Texas, federal officials said. 

Scalia, 79, was a guest at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, a resort in the Big Bend region south of Marfa. 

According to a report, Scalia arrived at the ranch on Friday and attended a private party with about 40 people. When he did not appear for breakfast, a person associated with the ranch went to his room and found a body.

Well holy crap!

I knew these old guys would start dying off soon, but I kind of thought it might happen in the NEXT administration.

This is going to be a quite the game changer.

Yes I realize I should probably express some sympathy here, but the guy WAS 79 years old, and he WAS Antonin Scalia, so the best I can do is give my condolences to his family.

Update: Yep this is going to go as we expected.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

It took only a few minutes after news broke of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's death on Saturday for conservatives to demand that Senate Republicans block any replacement nominated by President Barack Obama. 

It took just a little while more for Republican leadership to agree with them. 

In a swift statement designed to warn Barack Obama against even nominating a replacement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pledged to sit on his hands for the remaining 11 months of the president's term. 

"The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice," the statement read. "Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President."

I have been saying for months how important it is to elect a Democrat to the White House to appoint Justices for the opening sure to come in the next eight years. 

Justice Scalia's death has now driven that point home.

No more screwing around, it's time to get serious.

Justice Antonin Scalia believes that the government should favor the religious over the non-religious.

Courtesy of NOLA: 

Government support for religion is not only justified by the Constitution, it was the norm for hundreds of years and it helped the United States become a free and prosperous nation, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday in Metairie. 

Speaking before a small crowd at Archbishop Rummel High School, Scalia delivered a short but provocative speech on religious freedom that saw the conservative Catholic take aim at those who confuse freedom of religion for freedom from it. 

The Constitution's First Amendment protects the free practice of religion and forbids the government from playing favorites among the various sects, Scalia said, but that doesn't mean the government can't favor religion over nonreligion.

 Scalia goes on to suggest that when Thomas Jefferson first invoked the idea of the "wall of separation between church and state," that he did not intend for it to be taken literally since he also mentioned God in the Declaration of Independence, and penned Virginia's religious freedom law.

However it is within that Virginia religious freedom law that Jefferson wrote the following:

That our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry.

That therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right.

You know to me that sounds very much like a man who absolutely does not want special privilege provided to those who profess a faith in any god or adherence to any particular religion.

And that is even before taking into account the Jefferson Bible, where he methodically removed all mentions of miracles and left only the words ascribed to Jesus that he felt reflected his moral teachings.

No Scalia is wrong, dead wrong.

But even if he is right about the "common practice" of Christianity during the time when the country was formed, that time is long past and if we as a nation to not progress past the superstitions and ignorance of our forefathers we will find ourselves left in the dust by the rest of the world.

In fact in many ways, we already have.

Presidential candidates react to Supreme Court decision on Obamacare.

First up we have Hillary, who could not be more thrilled.

A great day! Add your name if you agree: Affordable health care is a basic human right → http://t.co/5xR3n1XDoc pic.twitter.com/kATncnkfGq

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 25, 2015

However her opponents on the other side of the aisle are not quite as jubilant.

(Statements courtesy of HuffPo)

Jeb Bush: 

I am disappointed by today’s Supreme Court ruling in the King v. Burwell case. But this decision is not the end of the fight against Obamacare. 

This fatally-flawed law imposes job-killing mandates, causes spending in Washington to skyrocket by $1.7 trillion, raises taxes by $1 trillion and drives up health care costs. Instead of fixing our health care system, it made the problems worse.

Aww, Jebbie's got the sads.

And he is by no means alone.

Marco Rubio:

I disagree with the Court’s ruling and believe they have once again erred in trying to correct the mistakes made by President Obama and Congress in forcing Obamacare on the American people." 

“Despite the Court’s decision, ObamaCare is still a bad law that is having a negative impact on our country and on millions of Americans. I remain committed to repealing this bad law and replacing it with my consumer-centered plan that puts patients and families back in control of their health care decisions. We need Consumer Care, not ObamaCare. 

Rand Paul: 

This decision turns both the rule of law and common sense on its head. Obamacare raises taxes, harms patients and doctors, and is the wrong fix for America's health care system. 

Rick Perry: 

The Obama Administration has ignored the text of the Affordable Care Act time and again, and today’s ruling allows them to continue to disregard the letter of the law. While I disagree with the ruling, it was never up to the Supreme Court to save us from Obamacare. We need leadership in the White House that recognizes the folly of having to pass a bill to know what’s in it. We need leadership that understands a heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all policy does nothing to help health outcomes for Americans. 

With individual premiums up more than 50 percent and nearly 5 million people losing their health plans, Americans deserve better than what we’re getting with Obamacare. It’s time we repealed Obamacare and replaced it with truly affordable, patient centered-health care reform, and I look forward to laying out my ideas on this issue.

(That's all bullshit by the way.)

There were also tweeted responses from the clown car:

#ObamaCare ruling is judicial tyranny. http://t.co/Di6WjxOc3y

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) June 25, 2015

Deeply disappointed by #SCOTUS ruling. Fundamental increase of govt control. I'm working to ensure next Pres repeals and replaces #Obamacare

— Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) June 25, 2015

Today's Supreme Court ruling is another reminder that if we want to get rid of #Obamacare, we must elect a conservative President #RICK2016

— Rick Santorum (@RickSantorum) June 25, 2015

And what Santorum said should be a lesson to Progressives that they must all turn out to vote in order to ensure that the next Supreme Court Justices selected are not Right Wing lunatics like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

Speaking of Scalia here are some not to be missed portions of his dissent on this ruling. (I especially like the "jiggery-pokery" line.)

All in all with this, and Bristol's admission that she is pregnant, it has been a pretty damn good day for your friendly neighborhood blogger. 

Is Antonin Scalia a young earth Creationist?

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

Justice Antonin Scalia spoke on Thursday at his granddaughter’s graduation from a Catholic high school in Bethesda, Maryland. During the speech, however, the sitting Supreme Court justice offered a subtle nod to young earth creationism, the belief that that the earth was created by God and is only several thousand years-old. 

“Class of 2015, you should not leave Stone Ridge High School thinking that you face challenges that are at all, in any important sense, unprecedented,” Scalia said, adding that “Humanity has been around for at least some 5,000 years or so, and I doubt that the basic challenges as confronted are any worse now, or alas even much different, from what they ever were.” 

Humanity began to develop much more than 5,000 years ago. Early human ancestors began to diverge from the chimpanzee lineage about six million years ago. The first members of the species Homo sapiens are believed to have lived in Africa about 100,000 years ago, and cave paintings and other evidence of human culture exist that are believed to have been created 50,000 years ago. 

Young earth creationists generally believe that God created the earth within the last 10,000 years. This is a fringe view, however, within Scalia’s Catholic faith. In 1950, Pope Pius XII wrote in a letter to bishops that the Catholic church “does not forbid” research or discussions regarding “the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter.” More recently, in 1996, Pope John Paul II wrote a similar letter to bishops saying that evolution is “more than a hypothesis.”

Remember this idiot is not simply a judge in traffic court, he is a justice on the freaking Supreme Court!

And let me remind everybody that if a Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, or Mike Huckabee wins the presidency in 2016 that he will be joined, or replaced, by others just as ignorant and backward thinking as he is.

Seems accurate.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia does not think the that the separation of church and state means the government cannot favor religion over nonreligion. Did I mention that he is on the Supreme Court?

So here are a few things that Justice Scalia said to the audience of the Colorado Christian University on Wednesday courtesy of the Washington Times:  

“I think the main fight is to dissuade Americans from what the secularists are trying to persuade them to be true: that the separation of church and state means that the government cannot favor religion over nonreligion,” Justice Scalia said. 

Okay for those who may not know, the 1st Amendment says the following:  

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

So my question would be IF the Congress were to favor a religion, which religion would it be, since the first amendment clearly states that they cannot favor one over another?

If the laws support Christianity then it steps on the rights of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, practitioners of Jainism, Taoists, Rastafarians, Wiccans, etc., etc., etc..

Which is kind of the reason that the amendment is usually interpreted to avoid favoring any religion over another, or over the nonreligious. And wouldn't you hope that a Supreme Court Justice might know that?

But wait, there's more:  

“We do him [God] honor in our pledge of allegiance, in all our public ceremonies,” Justice Scalia said. “There’s nothing wrong with that. It is in the best of American traditions, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. I think we have to fight that tendency of the secularists to impose it on all of us through the Constitution.” 

Yes, when we were a less educated, and less homogenized society, it may have seemed reasonable to allow certain religious groups to dominate the public arena. But we are far removed from those bygone days, and thankfully our founding fathers provided us with a blueprint of how to right the wrongs of past myopic leaders, and to finally have the all inclusive paradise that the authors of the Constitution always imagined.  

Again you would think a Supreme Court Justice might understand that.

“Our [the court‘s] latest take on the subject, which is quite different from previous takes, is that the state must be neutral, not only between religions, but between religion and nonreligion,” Justice Scalia said. “That’s just a lie. Where do you get the notion that this is all unconstitutional? You can only believe that if you believe in a morphing Constitution.”

Or in reading it.

“If I had the other view of the Constitution — that it was an empty bottle, which was to be filed by my court, and it was my responsibility to decide … all these massive ethical questions — if they were all my call, I couldn’t sleep at night,” Mr. Scalia said. “And some of my colleagues have said, ‘Oh, we agonize a lot.’ I don’t agonize at all. I look at the text, I look at the history of the text. That’s the answer. It’s not my call.” 

So what we have learned is that Justice Scalia really does not completely understand the document that he is sworn to uphold,  clearly panders to the religious right, and that his ignorance allows him to sleep like a baby.

Well great, now that I know all of that, how am I going to be able to sleep?

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's take on the devil and the Atheists who do his bidding. Uh oh!

There is a new interview with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, that is rather shocking in many ways. Scalia comes off as an extremist on almost all fronts, and somebody who should certainly NOT be sitting on the Supreme Court.

However there was one portion which I found especially troubling. Take a moment to read through it and tell me if you agree.

Courtesy of New York Magazine:  

You believe in heaven and hell? 

Oh, of course I do. Don’t you believe in heaven and hell? 

No. 

Oh, my. 

Does that mean I’m not going? 

[Laughing.] Unfortunately not! 

Wait, to heaven or hell? It doesn’t mean you’re not going to hell, just because you don’t believe in it. That’s Catholic doctrine! Everyone is going one place or the other. 

But you don’t have to be a Catholic to get into heaven? Or believe in it? 

Of course not! 

Oh. So you don’t know where I’m going. Thank God. 

I don’t know where you’re going. I don’t even know whether Judas Iscariot is in hell. I mean, that’s what the pope meant when he said, “Who am I to judge?” He may have recanted and had severe penance just before he died. Who knows? 

Can we talk about your drafting process— 

[Leans in, stage-whispers.] I even believe in the Devil. 

You do? 

Of course! Yeah, he’s a real person. Hey, c’mon, that’s standard Catholic doctrine! Every Catholic believes that. 

Every Catholic believes this? There’s a wide variety of Catholics out there … 

If you are faithful to Catholic dogma, that is certainly a large part of it. 

Have you seen evidence of the Devil lately? 

You know, it is curious. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He’s making pigs run off cliffs, he’s possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn’t happen very much anymore. 

No. 

It’s because he’s smart. 

So what’s he doing now? 

What he’s doing now is getting people not to believe in him or in God. He’s much more successful that way. 

That has really painful implications for atheists. Are you sure that’s the ­Devil’s work? 

I didn’t say atheists are the Devil’s work. 

Well, you’re saying the Devil is ­persuading people to not believe in God. Couldn’t there be other reasons to not believe? 

Well, there certainly can be other reasons. But it certainly favors the Devil’s desires. I mean, c’mon, that’s the explanation for why there’s not demonic possession all over the place. That always puzzled me. What happened to the Devil, you know? He used to be all over the place. He used to be all over the New Testament. 

Right. 

What happened to him? 

He just got wilier. 

He got wilier.

Isn’t it terribly frightening to believe in the Devil? 

You’re looking at me as though I’m weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil! Most of mankind has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the Devil. 

I hope you weren’t sensing contempt from me. It wasn’t your belief that surprised me so much as how boldly you expressed it. 

I was offended by that. I really was.

Let me remind you that this man is one of only nine individuals sitting the United States Supreme Court and he believes that the Devil is a real person. 

Not only that but he seems confused as to why there are far fewer demonic possessions today than in centuries past, and seems to believe that Atheists are doing Satan's work.

And yes Scalia is right about the rest of the country. A Gallup poll from 2007 stated that 70% of Americans believe that the devil is real.

However as troubling as it is to recognize that the majority of my fellow countrymen believe that there is a constant tug of war between two great supernatural powers, one good and one evil, and that we are simply pawns in their conflict, at least THEY are not sitting on the Supreme Court!

P.S. By the way did anybody else think that Scalia sounded drunk during this interview?

(H/T to The Friendly Atheist)