Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Judge not, if you’re going to be this stupid


I generally don’t comment or try to pass judgment on what appears on the editorial pages of other newspapers. They buy the ink and paper; they can say what they want. But an editorial in Sunday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette contained an idiotic editorial endorsing Republican Joan Orie Melvin of Pittsburgh, shown at left, for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over Democratic candidate Jack Panella of Easton. The editorial spent seven or eight paragraphs outlining the backgrounds of the two well-qualified candidates. Then the paper got to the crux of the matter: announcing who it was endorsing, and why. The endorsement went to Melvin. Why? I kid you not, the two reasons cited by the paper for picking a candidate for the Supreme Court were: 1. Because she lives around here, and, 2. Because she's a woman. Really. I'm not making this up. The editorial said that “all things being equal, we tend to favor a candidate from the west over one from the east.” Does a Supreme Court justice’s zip code really matter in terms of the decisions they make on the court? And all things are NOT equal. There are always substantive differences between the candidates, and it's the newspaper’s job to determine what those are and to suggest which candidate would best serve ALL the people of Pennsylvania. The other reason was even more ridiculous. Because a female justice is stepping down, the P-G believes she should be replaced by another woman. So, what we can take from this is that the Post-Gazette believes Melvin is the better choice for the Supreme Court not because she would do a better job than Panella, but because she has the preferred reproductive organs. It's ludicrous. I'm not in any way suggesting that Melvin is or is not the better choice for the high court. But surely there's a better way to make that determination.

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21 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What happened to actual job performance as a criterion? At least they didn't say she had nice legs.

October 27, 2009 at 4:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wonder how much of this might be the P-G's attempt to hand out an endorsement to somebody on the right. I heard from someone who worked there that the P-G higher-ups apparently fret over the perception that the P-G is the "liberal paper" of the two Pittsburgh dailies.

--Brad Hundt

October 27, 2009 at 6:09 PM  
Anonymous x anonymous said...

You know a wise white woman coming from the streets of SW PA could make better sound judgments than a man! Wait, I heard that before somewhere.

Look Lewis black said it best. If you are inspired by the President of the United States, than you probaly found inspiration in your high school principal!

I have doubt that the PG will influence anyone to vote for any certain judge.

Tons of things to write about, you pick a judge and a taco story? How about "indecision leads to the deadliest month in Afghanistan"? Or "Obama played more rounds of golf in 9 mths than Bush did in 8 years"?

October 28, 2009 at 12:25 AM  
Blogger Brant said...

Instead, how about this: "Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq leads to highest death toll ever in Afghanistan." I never cared how much golf Bush played (or how much time he spent at the ranch in Texas), and I don't care if Obama plays golf to relax.

October 28, 2009 at 6:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How about this story instead? "Dumbass former president sticks successor with Afghan decision he deferred while pursusing revenge against Saddam?" Not that I think any Afghan "strategy" -- except hightailing it -- will work. Russia found out the hard way. God, we have such a short memory.

October 28, 2009 at 11:12 AM  
Blogger Ellipses said...

I hear he's played more basketball than FDR and Reagan combined!

October 28, 2009 at 12:55 PM  
Anonymous x anonymous said...

Instead, how about this: "Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq leads to highest death toll ever in Afghanistan." .......

Hey if Obama didn't like the job he was getting into, he shouldn't have ran for the office! 9 mths after he has been in office I still hear him saying it's all Bush's fault. I will not defend G.W. by any means, but when is our Commander in Chief going to take responsibility for something?

I will say one thing for the positive side of the war in Afghanistan. The mission was to disrupt the ability for Al Qaeda to train in Afghanistan. Mission complete.

Seems like the new mission is to set up a puppet govt, and to guard the poppy fields. Under Commander in Chief Obama he wants to pay the Taliban to switch sides. Also, I have read that the CIA is paying the Poppy Druglords for thier harvest. Where is all that Poppy going? There still is a herion problem in SW PA is there not?

Look, I would respect Obama more if he would make his mind up and stand by it. If he pulls out, fine, but when the General on the ground says he needs more troops to do the mission, (set up a puppet govt) give him the troops. How are they going to hold second round of elections if we can't protect the polling stations? If Afghanie boys aren't willing to protect thier homeland then why should we protect thier homeland?

Maybe Obama should just pull out and apologise to the Al Qaeda!

October 28, 2009 at 4:02 PM  
Anonymous x anonymous said...

Better yet, why don't we send the 60,000 that the General wants to Pakistan and surround them? Then fight them on our own terms instead of the hit and run squads they are running?

October 28, 2009 at 4:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Even better yet, pull out of the Middle East altogether and let them kill themselves off like they always have. If the big powers hadn't arbitrarily divided up the area at the end of WWI, maybe all this could have been avoided. Let's blame them.

October 28, 2009 at 5:10 PM  
Blogger Lori said...

(Shakes head repeatedly and blinks to see if I read what I just read.) Wow, this country is in trouble.

October 28, 2009 at 5:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

x anon -- good point about the poppy fields. This really gores my ox. We seem to be protecting the poppy fields, the heroin is sold in the US drug markets, money sent to the Afghan war lords to fund the fighting against US troops.

I understand that the rules of engagement prevent the US troops from burning the poppy fields. Is that right? This the source of funds to support the waring effort on their behalf. I also understand the Afghan poppy fields supply the vast majority of the heroin throughout the world. If not, what percentage?

What is wrong with this picture? Or, do I not have the story right?

October 28, 2009 at 9:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's actually a very liberal endorsement. We've got to keep those quotas up, the heck with deciding which one would actually be better on the bench.

October 29, 2009 at 12:29 AM  
Anonymous Chuck D said...

I hear he's played more basketball than FDR and Reagan combined!

Surrounded himself with more socialist and marxist than Fidel!

Spent more money than every other president combined!

Keep going on here.

Chuck D.

October 29, 2009 at 12:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Back to the original subject and the one that requires a vote on Tuesday (hence actually more relevant than issue that will not be decided by all of us). The PG reason is right on one thing, someone from our region. It does matter and it does effect decisions. The woman issue is WAY over done, but both parties push this crap to appease urban professional women that vote on gender and the Orie woman have nice legs btw for their age.

Seeker of the Truth

October 29, 2009 at 3:30 AM  
Anonymous x anonymous said...

Anonymous @ October 28, 2009 9:03 PM

Everything you said is about right. We give the druglords in Afghanistan large amounts of money not to harvest thier crop. Then we spend more money on thier crops buy sticking in well trained security (our army).

Now here is something some of you don't know or don't want to know. Our troops will secure a poppy field till it's time for harvest, most of the time it's national guard unit on these fields. They then will get orders to move to another field that 85% doesn't exist and when they come back to the first poppy field the crop is gone. The DEA will tell the national guard units that they burned the crop. Poppy farming is like a 5 billion dollar a year business.

If we are doing such a great job on reducing the crop, why can we find a herion junkie on almost every corner? Where do you think the DEA is shipping the crop?

This isn't just going on in Afghanistan, Iraq grows a lot of pot!!! DEA has been in South America for how long now? The war on drugs is a failed joke, as is the war on terror. The Patroit Act was to fight terrorist. That was how G.W. sold it. How many stories have you read about Americans getting charged with terrorist acts that had nothing to do with terrorism? I guess as long as it doesn't happen to us or one of our loved ones, we turned the blind eye and keep our mouth shut.

We can all hang together or we shall hang separately! Wake up! That feeling you have in your gut is called courage when you question the acts of your federal govt or the local cop as he tazes a man to death while he is in handcuffs. We live in one of the best nations that the world has ever seen, but somewhere along the way we let special interest groups, failed policies,big bankers and lobbyist rob us blind.

Keep in mind we have a constitutionalist that wants to be President and not pass the buck by saying it's the other guys fault. He wants to fix this nation. He is the true change. He is from Pittsburgh!

Ron Paul **== 2012

October 29, 2009 at 2:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This blog has jumped the shark.

October 30, 2009 at 4:58 PM  
Anonymous Tap Dance Mat said...

You have good views of the matter. I enjoyed reading your article.

October 30, 2009 at 5:03 PM  
Anonymous FIGHT THE NEW WORLD ORDER said...

we should be talking abou the copenhagen treaty! That makes America pay taxes on C02 while China refuses to ever sign such a bill. i think this is going to cut the throat of this nation.

don't ever waste a good crisis!

October 30, 2009 at 5:41 PM  
Anonymous Steven Owswald said...

Brant has always been into the new world order.

November 1, 2009 at 1:47 PM  
Blogger Brant said...

Say what?

November 1, 2009 at 3:47 PM  
Anonymous Big Richard Swift said...

I remember when brant wrote about the new world order was in pittsburgh at the g-20

good post brant! you should do more work like that!

November 1, 2009 at 4:45 PM  

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