Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Talks Constitution, Women And Liberty On Egyptian TV

Appearing on Egyptian television before concluding a four-day trip in Egypt, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg extolled the virtues of the U.S. Constitution but urged Egyptians to look to other countries' newer constitutions for guidance as they craft their own in the coming months.

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo's website noted in a Feb. 2 release that Ginsburg concluded her trip to Egypt "following four days of discussions and programs in both Cairo and Alexandria with judges and legal experts as well as law faculty and students." She had intended to "'listen and learn' with her Egyptian counterparts as they begin Egypt's constitutional transition to democracy," according to the embassy.
Yet while Ginsburg's interview, posted on YouTube on Wednesday, lauded the Founding Fathers' "grand general ideas that become more effective over the course of ... more than two sometimes-turbulent centuries," she also said she "would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012," given its original exclusion of women, slaves and Native Americans.
Since World War II several other models have emerged that offer more specific and contemporary guarantees of rights and liberties, she said, pointing to South Africa's constitution, which she called a "really great piece of work" for its embrace of basic human rights and guarantee of an independent judiciary. She also noted Canada's charter of rights and freedoms and the European Convention of Human Rights.
"Why not take advantage of what there is elsewhere in the world? I'm a very strong believer in listening and learning from others," she said.
Among those currently sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court no other justice has publicly advised another country on the creation of a constitution. In 1960, eight years before he became a justice, Thurgood Marshall traveled to Kenya to draft its bill of rights, which he modeled after the European Convention on Human Rights. Unlike the U.S. Constitution, the Kenyan document guarantees rights to education, health, welfare and a right to work.
Nevertheless, Ginsburg spent most of the 18-minute interview spelling out all the ways the Egyptians could take inspiration from the United States' Constitution, from the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech and a free press to the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause that she, as a lawyer in the 1970s, convinced the court to expand to protect women's rights.
"We were just tremendously fortunate in the United States that the men who met in Philadelphia were very wise," Ginsburg said. "Now it is true that they were lacking one thing," she continued with a chuckle. "And that is that there were no women as part of the Constitutional Convention."
"It's a very inspiring time -- that you have overthrown a dictator and that you are striving to achieve a genuine democracy," Ginsburg told Al Hayat TV. "I think people in the United States are hoping that this transition will work and that it will genuinely be a government of, by and for the people."
Jan. 25 marked the one-year anniversary since the start of the Tahrir Square protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak's nearly three-decade regime.
When asked by her interviewer how best to draft a constitution and protect it from contemporary political pressures (perhaps alluding to Islamic parties' dominance in the new parliament's lower house), Justice Ginsburg answered, "A constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom."
"If the people don’t care, then the best constitution in the world won’t make any difference," she said.
"The spirit of liberty," she continued, "has to be in the population."

This Story Appeared Earlier on The Huffington Post

Susan Powell Husband Josh Powell Murders Kids Commits Suicide During Supervised Visitation

Josh Powell, husband of missing and presumed deceased Utah woman Susan Powell,  deliberately set off an explosion Sunday afternoon killing himself and the couples two young sons Charles and Braden Powell.
Apparently, according to sources familiar with the case, the children were beginning to vocalize what happened to their mother, saying, according to some reports, "Mommy was in the trunk."

A case worker arrived with the children for the court ordered supervised visitation was blocked entry by Powell, and shortly thereafter the home exploded.
Powell's father is awaiting trial for various sex charges including child porn and voyuerism, and Josh was just denied custody of the children in favor Susan’s parents, The Cox’s.

The Blackburn Report wishes to extend our sincerest condolences to The Cox family and members of the Powell Family .
Sadly, it seemed, from the beginning of the case that Josh murdered his wife, and got away with it.
But they say, "The Postman allways rings twice."

It is just so tragic that the children were murdered when Powell felt the "jig was up".

Bill Maher: "Atheism Is a Religion Like Abstinence Is a Sex Position"

During last night's New Rules segment, Bill Maher noted that "Until someone claims to see Christopher Hitchens' face in a tree stump, idiots must stop claiming that atheism is a religion." He goes on:

Not only is atheism not a religion, it's not even my hobby. And that's the great thing about being an atheist -- it requires so little of your time....

There is a growing trend in this country that needs to be called out, and that is to label any evidence-based belief a "religion." Many conservatives now say that a belief in man-made climate change is a "religion," and Darwinism is a "religion," and of course atheism -- the total lack of religion -- is somehow a "religion" too, according to the always reliable Encyclopedia Moronica.

To believers he says, "You don't get to put your unreason up on the same shelf as my reason." Then he un-baptizes Mitt Romney's dead father-in-law, because hey -- if religious people get to do wacky things like that, why not atheist Bill Maher?

Romney: "I'm Not Concerned With the Very Poor" (While Fellow .001%ers Pony Up for His Super PAC)

Oh, dear. Robot Romney's wires have malfunctioned again, jut when he should have been soaking up his win in Florida last night.

Check out this unfortunate soundbite from a CNN interview this morning, in which the .006%er said he wasn't concerned about the very poor:

The Washington Post reports on the exchange:

“I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there,” Romney told CNN. “If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90 percent, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.”

Host Soledad O’Brien pointed out that the very poor are probably struggling too.

“The challenge right now — we will hear from the Democrat party the plight of the poor,” Romney responded, after repeating that he would fix any holes in the safety net. “And there’s no question it’s not good being poor and we have a safety net to help those that are very poor . . . My focus is on middle income Americans ... we have a very ample safety net and we can talk about whether it needs to be strengthened or whether there are holes in it. but we have food stamps, we have Medicaid, we have housing vouchers, we have programs to help the poor.”

As one of the richest Americans with a now-revealed low tax rate and numerous offshore accounts, Romney can't come off this callous about the safety net--particularly when so many Americans are one misfortune away from joining that group.

He's just setting himself up for a giant swat-down in the general election here--particularly given today's FEC filings and what they reveal about his donors. From the New York Times:

The filings to the Federal Election Commission, the first detailed look at a crucial source of support for Mr. Romney, showed his ability to win substantial backing from a small number of his party’s most influential and wealthy patrons, each contributing to the super PAC far more than the $2,500 check each could legally write to his campaign.

...

Millions of dollars came from financial industry executives, including Mr. Romney’s former colleagues at Bain Capital, who contributed a total of $750,000; senior executives at Goldman Sachs, who contributed $385,000; and some of the most prominent and politically active Republicans in the hedge fund world, three of whom gave $1 million each: Robert Mercer of Renaissance Technologies; Paul Singer of Elliott Management, and Julian Robertson of Tiger Management.

By Sarah Seltzer | Sourced from AlterNet