An emailer puts it succinctly:
In this case, all the liberal judges (Stevens, Ginsburg, Souter, Breyer) voted for the ban on state laws regarding medical marjuana, and conservative judges (Thomas, Rehnquist, O’Connor) were the only ones to vote against the ban. (Moderately liberal Kennedy also voted for the ban, as did conservative Scalia, though he had different reasons, ultimately making a 6-3 decision). This case, of course, has less to do with marijuana itself as states vs. federal rights — true conservatives see this and similar arguments as states rights issues that should not be dictated by the federal government.
The main reason traditional conversatives and libertarians complain so much about Bush so much is that he’s NOT much of a conservative in the historical sense (only the social one), and on so many issues wants the federal government to set policies for all 50 states whether they have shared values/needs or not — in other words, the exact same thing conservatives hate about liberals. So you ultimately have a lot of conservatives agreeing with Bush’s ideals, but not how he’s going about them. And, conversely, you have situations like this, where Bush gets his supreme court victory not by conservative justices who agree with him on the morals, but by liberal justices who believe the federal government should always trump states rights. Strange bedfellows indeed.
Not so strange, actually, Statists – of right and left – have much in common: primarily, a low priority for individual liberty and federalism. Bush fits easily into this mold. But this was Thomas’ finest hour.
U.S. CHURCH ATTENDANCE: It may not be nearly as high as most of the media would have us believe. Here’s a very interesting analysis.
ELECTION TIME: It’s must be that time of year in Oxford. When you’re there, as I was, running for political office in the Union, it becomes completely absorbing. Gossip is crucial. One of my key advantages in running for president was that my room-mate was editing the college newspaper’s gossip column. I think I would have been toast without him. As it was, I only just pulled it out. (If memory serves, I won by 15 votes out of well over a thousand.) Now, with the web, there’s no filter for gossip at all. There’s even this web-page.
The Dish 