The featured article this week, “The Filibuster and the War on Women”, will connect the dots between the blockade Senate Republicans have put around D. C. Court of Appeals (pledging to filibuster anybody President Obama might nominate to fill its three vacancies) and the effects of the radically conservative decisions that court produces (an injunction upholding a employer’s right to impose his moral code on his employees’ health insurance).
This week’s two most important legal decisions (the injunction I just mentioned, and removing an injunction that blocked Texas’ new anti-abortion bill, instantly closing 1/3 of the state’s abortion clinics) both were written by Bush-appointed judges that Democrats tried to block, but let through when Republicans threatened the “nuclear option” to end filibusters altogether. Will Harry Reid go there?
The weekly summary has a lot to cover: What’s up with all those policies canceled under ObamaCare? The LAX shooting. The food stamp cuts that took effect Thursday, and the ones looming in Congress’ budget negotiations. NSA spying hits home for the Germans. Science studies the political impact of believing in the Devil. The copyright wars restart. Syria keeps chugging along towards destroying its chemical weapons. Middle class neighborhoods are shrinking. And the Miley Cyrus/Robin Thicke video is much more amusing with a David Attenborough soundtrack.
No predictions about timing this morning. I’ll get stuff posted as soon as I can.
The Weekly Sift 