Ross is love.

Desired outcome.

The Supreme Court today, for the first time in history, ruled a gun law unconstitutional on second amendment grounds. In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that the handgun ban in the District of Columbia is unconstitutional. The full opinion is not available, so I'm speculating to some extent, but not wildly. The ruling suggests that, for the first time, the federal government is now essentially in charge of gun laws at a local level, and that localities should be severely limited in the extent to which they can impose restrictions on gun use. Chicago's handgun ban will also likely be invalidated.

In the debate over the second amendment, the historical context is consistently lost. At the time the amendment was written, most localities in the US had gun control ordinances, and many places had policies that we would find highly restrictive today. The second amendment was never, ever, intended to prevent localities from imposing restrictions on gun ownership and use within a given locality. The intent was to prevent the federal government from moving in and, through legislation or other action, disarming a state or locality and thus leaving it defenseless in the face of tyranny. The drafters would have likely found an interpretation that, in effect, allows the national government to move into a locality and dictate local gun ownership rules as being every bit as tyrannical. Again, I haven't read the full opinion as it's not yet available, and this may tie into DC's special relationship with congress and therefore be a more narrow ruling than advertised, but everything I've seen so far indicates that it's a fairly broad ruling.

Those who call themselves conservatives enjoy little more than railing on and on about "activist" judges, reinterpreting the constitution and making law from the bench. Though I'm sure the ruling will be praised in those quarters, it's another instance of hypocrisy: just because you happen to like the outcome, doesn't make it conservative. This ruling, if it reads as it appears it will, suggests a new interpretation of the constitution involving a further massive expansion in federal power. The increasingly mediocre legal minds on the court are no rarely any more concerned with strict interpretation or judicial philosophy, but only with producing a politically desired outcome. That's not conservative, but it is worrisome.

Update: OK, so I still haven't read the full opinion, because they're really long, and I have a job. Some of the original reporting, thought, indicates that the decision is even broader (and more tortured) than I'd believed. Apparently the Supreme Court has, for the first time, decided on a rock solid interpretation of the Second Amendment: it doesn't depend on a collective right to defense; the majority interpretation is now that individuals have an almost inviolable right to bear arms. No higher court has ever interpreted the second amendment as broadly. Any law that restricts your ability to act with a gun "for the purpose of immediate self-defense" is out the window, including trigger lock prohibitions. Licensing requirements are still OK, as are restrictions on guns in government buildings. And it's still OK if felons are prevented from packing heat. Bear in mind what I've said above, and also keep in mind that when the federal government moves in to ensure your right to carry a gun in almost all circumstances, they're simultaneously taking away your right to live in a community without guns, and the right of a locality to make those decisions, as the constitution clearly intends.

George Carlin.

Bullshit Thursday.

After repeated promises during the early part of the primary campaign to accept public financing and the spending limits inherent to that system, Barack Obama today announced that he'll be foregoing public financing in favor of private contributions. The public financing system is designed to reign in spending on presidential campaigns by providing candidates with a match of around $80 million dollars and limiting spending. This was a cornerstone of his campaign in the early-going, part of his promises of a new kind of politics, and a promise that he used against primary opponents who had not agreed to accept public money. On the one hand, this decision was a no-brainer. Raking in the kind of bucks that Obama pulls in, it would have been silly to accept the spending restrictions that would have come with public financing. On the other hand, this makes his earlier promise either a bald-faced lie, or a broken promise, and I'm sick to death of both. There's a lot of spin about the "broken" system of public financing, and about how Obama's small donor network is like public financing, in many ways. Bullshit. That's your first major promise broken, Senator. Any more and you're not going to look very much different from your opponents. Everyone on the big liberal seems to be on the spin machine with this one, but I would expect John McCain (who's been no finance saint himself this season) to be called to account for something like this, and I won't hold Obama to different standards. We need to be better. He needs to be better.

John McCain will be accepting public financing.

Speaking of John McCain, he's now suddenly open to reconsidering oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska, "in light of this changed economic environment". On numerous occassions in the past, as early as the day before he made that statement in Missouri, he and his campaign have strongly oppossed ANWR drilling. For some voters, though, there's nothing more huggable than a few dozen oil platforms, and those folks are McCain's new intended audience. Unsurprisingly, McCain's plan to cut oil prices also involves offshore drilling of every state with oil: a plan which would take about seven years and net us about, at the best, a fairly negligible amount of oil. California is estimated to have about a quarter of the nation's offshore oil resources, and is refusing. Now, act surprised when I point out that McCain leads all Senators and Presidential candidates in contributions from the oil industry.

You could get salmonella.

Stuff:

¶ Scott McClellan, the most recent and highest-ranking advisor to leap off the H.M.S. President Bush well after that boat sank, was invited and has accepted an invitation to appear before Congress to testify about the cover up and potential obstruction of justice by senior White House officials in the Valerie Plame leak. He'll appear on June 20.

¶ Dare I say it? Oh, of course I do: ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES! Not very clever on my part, but there you have it. If they were all gems, I'd be getting paid for this nonsense. Anyway, don't eat the tomatoes. You could get salmonella. Cherry and grape tomatoes are supposedly OK, but I'm just going to skip them for the time being. You won't be able to get sliced tomato on your burger for a while, either, as the big chains are all yanking them. Am I right to be angry that I go to great lengths to avoid eating meat, and they still manage to smear my veggies with chicken poo? Factory farming, my friends: it's bad news, I'm tellin' ya.

¶ I could tinkle I'm so excited about this. Golden Girls' reunion at the TV Land Awards. If you call me Sunday night, something better be on fire. And it better not be the TiVo.

"We cannot let this moment slip away."

"This isn't the party I'd planned, but I sure like the company..."

"The chief hurdle for Clinton's presidential bid wasn't whether she could do the job; Democrats never doubted she would make a good president. Ironically, the biggest question she faced for much of the race is one she answered clearly by the time she left it: whether America was ready for a woman president. No one asks that question any longer. For all the sexism she encountered as the first woman with a serious shot at the White House, voters themselves made clear they were ready." - Slate.com's Bruce Reed

A very short bit about walls.

Do we give our friends too much power, or too little? I get done chastising myself for building walls around all the important parts, just in time for someone to find a week spot and punch me in it. Do we all do this to each other? We should try harder to not do that, I think.

Listen to me, gettin' all emo... Christ.

¶ On a side note, I got me that new Aimee Mann album, @#%&*! Smilers, which includes the song "31 Today." I took that as a sign of something or other, even though it's just under a month late. It's sorta about the way that you spend your life (or I do, at least) moving the "gonna have it all figured out" bar out. I'm putting my new one at 60, which is at least evidence that I've figured out that there's way too much to figure out.

¶ Also (and I'd like to make it very clear that I'm not complaining here): it's damn hot today.

Edible wonder.

Two weeks...two recipes from the Sunday paper. That's right: we've become the kind of people who make things that we find in the USA Weekend. America's premiere culinary-and-Tony-Danza-related-gossip magazine. The first bit of prep led to a delightful Chilled Cucumber & Tomato Soup with Fresh Dill. Delightfully summery, and didn't involve the stove upon which I tend to incur burns and the like. The second recipe came from an ad for Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk. A product that sounds straightforward enough, but that I didn't actually understand until I had a can of the stuff. Turns out it looks a lot like vanilla frosting, and tastes kinda like milk. That recipe led to the Strawberry Whipped Sensation, perfectly named for a trailer-park picnic; but, a warning: it's frozen, so keep it on ice.

I don't know what any of this says about me, but it turns out I sure do like recipes from the Sunday paper. What edible wonder will this weekend bring? Stay tuned to find out.

My boo.

If by 'boo' you mean 'beard'...oooh.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is moving to make the end of the campaign official with an event Friday or Saturday to declare her full support of Senator Obama. She began today with a speech before the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, saying: ”Let me be very clear, I know that Sen. Obama will be a good friend to Israel.” Obama has had trouble with Jewish, particularly strongly pro-Israel, voters during the campaign, so I'm sure he's happy for the plug.

All you need.

Politics got you down? Morrissey knows just what you need.

Gay-boy crush at the end of the road.

The democratic primary ends today. I can begin to move on with my life, presumably get over my gay-boy crush on Hillary Clinton, and blog about something else for a bit. I can go back to fixating on my usual stuff: environmental policy, the latest episode of Battlestar, the jews. Etc.

The last two states, Montana and South Dakota could give Clinton the sort of "finish on a high note" that I'm sure she'd love. Polling is minimal and sketchy for those states, because who-the-hell-thought-they'd-matter, but she's up in South Dakota big and tied in Montana. Again, if those polls hold.

Several superdelegates (including Jimmy Carter) have moved in Obama's direction on the last day of the primary, leaving him within a hair of getting the 2,118 delegates currently needed to claim a majority. (Clinton picked up a 1/2 vote delegate from Florida, as well). The AP is actually officially calling the election for Obama, which I find exceedingly distasteful given the matter of a few short hours remaining during which people have to vote. As a practical manner, they're not wrongb, but they have no actual authority to declare a winner, and it seems snotty to tell people in the final states that there's no point whatsoever in going to vote when it'll all shortly be a fait acompli.

There's all kinds of speculation about what kind of speech Hillary will be giving from New York tonight. The general feeling is that it won't technically be a concession, but it'll be something close. Also gossip about whether the two campaigns have begun to work together on brining their very distinct sets of voters together in November, and how that would work. Hints that Clinton wouldn't sneeze at VP, and there have been hints that Obama wouldn't sneeze at offering. Or, they may hate each other. Like I say, lots o' speculation. As far as I'm concerned, it's a winning ticket. A lot of Clinton's most die-hard supporters don't see Obama as the natural second choice. Many hispanic americans, blue-collar workers, and middle-class women who voted for Clinton are taking a good, long look at John McCain right now. In fact, his campaign is making it a part of his strategy. We shall see.

Speaking of, McCain will be giving a speech tonight proclaiming the beginning of the general election. If a tree falls in the woods...

9pm - Mercifully cutting off a weirdly rambling and negative speech from Senator McCain, CNN is declaring Barack Obama the presumptive Democratic nominee with the close of polls in South Dakota. Clinton is on track for a victory there, but the minimum delegates that he'll receive put him beyond the 2,118 needed for victory. Assuming it becomes official in August, he'll be the first black major-party nominee in US history. He'll also have received the second most votes for any democratic nominee ever.

10ish - Clinton wins South Dakota. Speaks. Will "not be making any decisions tonight" though praises Obama. Maya Angelou looks on.

"I understand that a lot of people are asking what does Hillary want? I want to end the war in Iraq, I want to turn this economy around, I want healthcare for every American and...I want every person who voted for me to be respected and heard."

Obama projected to win Montana. He's expected to speak shortly, though I'm already past my bestime, so I may have to YouTube it tomorry. The CNN crew is red faced angry that she didn't technically concede, and I rather enjoy that. They're all screaming at James Carville, who's also a bit tickled by the whole thing.

Though I'm a bit conflicted...still, historic night. Lots of work to do.