The Speaker for the Dead: Antonin Scalia and the Truth By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout

[Omaha Steve]

People pay their respects to the flag-draped coffin of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the Great Hall of the US Supreme Court building in Washington, February 19, 2016. (Stephen Crowley / The New York Times)


http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/34919-the-speaker-for-the-dead-antonin-scalia-and-the-truth

Monday, 22 February 2016 10:33
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed

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For a long time now, I've been waiting with diligent patience to write three articles: One on the passing of former President George W. Bush, one on the passing of former Vice President Dick Cheney and one on the passing of now-former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

The novelist Orson Scott Card developed, in his writings, an idea for someone known as the Speaker for the Dead. A Speaker does not spit-polish and shine the departed at the graveside, doesn't eulogize inflated greatness or create a polite fiction to please and soothe. The Speaker tells the unvarnished truth about the one going into the ground: the good, the bad and the ugly.

Today, I stand as Justice Scalia's Speaker for the Dead.

FULL story at link.

[11 Bravo]

1. Thanks for this, OS.

I miss Will, and DU is the worse for his absence.

[Owl]

2. My sentiments exactly.

[malaise]

3. Great read

Thanks to you and WP
Rec

[leftstreet]

4. DURec

[monmouth4]

5. Absolutely wonderful. Thank you for posting this...n/t

[phantom power]

6. "Scalia approached his duties with a broad sense of entitlement, exclusion and venom"

[phantom power]

7. Damn, this really sums it all up:

Just... wow.

Justice Scalia, by way of his argument in Bush v. Gore to stop the vote counting in Florida, was instrumental in giving us George W. Bush, which gave us Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, September 11, the ongoing Afghanistan War, WMD lies, the Iraq war with millions dead and maimed and displaced, the horror of ISIS, torture as accepted policy, surveillance as a fact of life, the assassination of constitutional law, absolute corporate rule, the disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the demolition of the US economy.

Why? Because of his interpretation of the "questionable legality" of counting all the votes cast. Teachers from now until judgment day will speak of Bush v. Gore in the way they speak of Dred Scott and Brown v. Board as pivot points in history, moments that changed the world. Scalia's was not a positive moment, and bodies are still hitting the floor because of it.

[Iggo]

8. Well, goddam!

[mnhtnbb]

9. Well done, Will Pitt.

I am waiting in great anticipation of the sequels for Dick and George.

[alarimer]

10. For someone who was so "brilliant", he sure was wrong a lot.

It is convenient that his legal principles seemed to only apply to conservative issues. Funny, that.

[Hotler]

11. ......

A good read Mr. Pitt. Thank you.

[HughBeaumont]

12. K & R. No quarter for the asshole who installed W, Inc.

This wasn't legal precedent, this was a coup and Scalia was just as much a participant as Diebold, Katherine Harris, John Prescott Ellis, the Brooks Brothers Rioters, Karl Rove and Jeb!.