Please! Please! Correct me if I am wrong.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

I saw a blip stating that Monkeyboy has placed 30% of all current federal judges, and that these placements were lifetime posts. Is this true? And if so, how do we fix that?

[Eric J in MN]

1. Federal judges are appointed for life by the president.

We can start to fix the judiciary by electing a Democrat in 2008.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

3. Lifetime appointments... and 30%

so the judicial system was affected similarly to the military and all the generals that resigned... oops retired? There must have been a rash of retirements. :shrug:

[Eric J in MN]

5. Two term presidents usually appoint about half the federal judges...

...by the time they leave.

[Demeter]

2. Impeachment

And Congress better start on it, from the top on down, if we want to have our America back.

[Eric J in MN]

4. A President Cheney wouldn't make better appointments. NT

NT

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. We need to impeach BOTH of them

Actually, I think there is more evidence against Cheney than Bush.

[Demeter]

7. We Need To Impeach ALL of Them

Every single Bushbot, enabler, and fellow traveler, up to and including Lieberman, in the Executive, the Judiciary and the Congress, the media, the corporations, the non-profits, all of them.

We need to de-Nazify the nation, plug the gaping holes in the Constitution, and mend the national soul through public education, honest and transparent elections funded by public monies, equal time in the media for all opposition, and Equal Rights for all the non-white, non-male, non-hetero among us, and Universal Single Payer health care, and a tax system that performs the basic redistribution of wealth that makes a democracy work and survive. No more hoarding.

[elocs]

10. Go ahead and impeach both of them.

If you cannot convict either of them, then the status quo remains. Reality is a bitch, ain't it?

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. LOL and you really believe there isn't enough evidence to

throw the book at BOTH of them? And to throw their asses OUT?

Where ya been??

[elocs]

13. LOL! And you think you can find 16 Republican Senators to vote for impeachment?

Are you sure that all 51 Democratic Senators would vote for impeachment? LOL about that, then say hello to reality because evidently you are not there.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. When presented with the facts, I can't see how they wouldn't vote

to impeach. That is why the investigations are so important.

Conyers has been on this for a couple years now. The evidence is there. They can't ignore it.

[elocs]

15. That is why investigations should be done first, not impeachment.

Also, it is good to remember that when the Republicans impeached Clinton that there was already an ongoing investigation to give impeachment a boost, but speaking of evidence, wasn't there clear evidence that Clinton lied under oath? Sometimes evidence does not mean everything. Plus, with Nixon, the Watergate hearings that had been ongoing paved the way for his impending impeachment. There are no ongoing investigations now, so in January the Democrats will start from scratch. I am guessing that the Republicans and the White House might be good at delaying and stretching out the process as long as possible. And good luck with going to the Supreme Court for any remedy to speed things up.

[elocs]

11. Concerning federal judges,

from: http://www.afj.org/judicial/about/frequently.html

"A judge, like a President, can be impeached by Congress, but this has only happened seven times."

That's right, 7. Seven. If you intend to impeach from the top down, 2 years is not nearly enough time. Then there is also that fly in the ointment: conviction.

[lapfog_1]

8. Yes, that wouldn't surprise me at all

Mostly because it would be unusual for a Federal Judge to retain office longer than 15 years. Mostly because to be nominated, it used to be the case that you were already a judge and had been a judge for a while, and mostly judges came from the ranks of public service lawyers (both prosecutors and defense). So most federal judges were already older, at least in their fifties and retired after serving at the federal bench level until 65 or maybe 70.

However, Bush and his federalist society people have been finding and nominating young conservative lawyers, some of whom have put very little time into serving at the state level, and some that have no record of public service at all. Plus, it's common for a federal judge to remain on the bench until age 80 now.

Upshot is that we will not be able to reverse the trend of activist conservative judges even with a democratic congress and 2 term democratic president (10 years starting now). We will need 18 years of Democratic control to start to undo the damage that Bush and his cabal have caused already. The good news is that if we can forestall the installation of another judge to the supreme court until 2009 (everyone think good thoughts about John Paul Stevens and Ruth Ginsberg and even Breyer), we likely can get at least 5 into the court in a 2 term Democratic Presidency... maybe 7 (leaving only Roberts and Alito from the current court).

[HCE SuiGeneris]

9. I was afraid someone was going to

say something like that. Damn, I abhor the continuing damage that keeps making itself apparent. Thank you for your response lapfrog.