Reverse Terri Schiavo?:

Massachusetts's highest court ruled Tuesday that the state can withdraw life support from Haleigh Poutre, an 11-year-old girl who has been in a coma since September, and whose adoptive mother and stepfather are accused of abusing her.

Haleigh, of Westfield, Mass., was hospitalized on Sept. 11 with a brain injury and multiple bruises, burns and cuts. Her aunt Holli Strickland, who adopted her, and Ms. Strickland's husband, Jason Strickland, were charged with assault, but Ms. Strickland died in an apparent murder-suicide after charges were filed.

The state Department of Social Services, which was granted custody of Haleigh, successfully petitioned a juvenile court for permission to remove life support. Mr. Strickland challenged the state in court, asking to be considered Haleigh's de facto parent and to be allowed to argue for keeping her alive.

The Supreme Judicial Court rejected Mr. Strickland's petition on Tuesday, saying he did not provide enough of her daily care to be a de facto parent. The court added that Mr. Strickland "stands charged with criminal assault in connection with injuries inflicted on" Haleigh. "To recognize the petitioner as a de facto parent, in order that he may participate in a medical end-of-life decision for the child, is unthinkable."

Note that there seems to be a strong conflict-of-interest here -- Strickland seems to want to avoid a murder rap, which he'll be pinned with the moment the girl dies -- and yet the court finds the same way as they did in Schiavo: Pull the plug.

When someone with a conflict of interest wants the plug pulled: pull the plug.

When someone with a conflict of interest doesn't want the plug pulled: pull the plug.

There's consistency here. Not in the law or logic, but in the conclusion. Whatever the fact-pattern, the plug should be pulled.

When it doubt, pull it out.

Yes, yes, that's terribly reductive, I know. But I do think it's interesting that a court can spot a conflict-of-interest, but only when the purported guardian with the conflict-of-interest is in favor of keeping the patient alive.

Posted by: Ace at 11:12 PM | Comments (45)
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In a stinging defeat for the administration, the high court ruled by a 6-3 vote that then-Attorney General John Ashcroft wrongly interpreted a federal law in 2001 to bar distribution of controlled drugs to assist suicides, disregarding the Oregon law authorizing it.

That article is a complete hash and isn't worth reading. I just wanted that "stinging defeat" thing on the record.

Althouse has a good discussion on the case. It appears the then-AG (Ashcroft) interpreted a federal law against the prescribing of overdoses as barring physician assisted suicide. I suppose the actual law contemplated, at least on its face, negligent or accidental overdoses, not intentional ones at the request of a dying patient.

Kennedy (of course) writes for the majority:

The statute and our case law amply support the conclusion that Congress regulates medical practice insofar as it bars doctors from using their prescription-writing powers as a means to engage in illicit drug dealing and trafficking as conventionally understood. Beyond this, however, the statute manifests no intent to regulate the practice of medicine generally. The silence is understandable given the structure and limitations of federalism, which allow the States "'great latitude under their police powers to legislate as to the protection of the lives, limbs, health, comfort, and quiet of all persons.'"....

...

The Government, in the end, maintains that the prescription requirement delegates to a single Executive officer the power to effect a radical shift of authority from the States to the Federal Government to define general standards of medical practice in every locality. The text and structure of the CSA show that Congress did not have this far-reaching intent to alter the federal-state balance and the congressional role in maintaining it.

So, it seems, Congress could outlaw the practice with a clearly-written law, assuming such a law could pass muster under federalism grounds... which would be difficult.

Althouse notes that several judges are inconsistent about federalism-- some upheld stronger Congressional powers over state drug laws (holding Congress had the power to limit medical marijuana use) and now reject such powers. Only O'Conner takes the states' rights position in both cases, and only Scalia takes the federal superiority position in both cases. Thomas disagreed with the previous decision, but writes that, now that it's settled law that the federal government is supreme in this area, it's "perplexing" to find some of his colleagues, who'd earlier argued in favor of federal supremacy, are now arguing the opposite.

Although this seems like the sort of case with too many balls in play to make any forecasts, it is worth noting that new Chief Justice Roberts dissented along with Scalia and Thomas.

It also seems as if Kennedy has permanently joined the four liberals, more or less, to form a "governing" five-vote majority on social-policy issues.

The NYT Seems To Get It Right: Without hyperventilating or talk of a "stinging defeat:"

The Supreme Court's ruling was, in fact, notably focused and technical. It did not address whether there is a constitutional right to die. It did not say that Congress was powerless to override state laws that allow doctors to help their patients end their lives.

It said only that a particular federal law, the Controlled Substances Act, which is mainly concerned with drug abuse and illegal drug trafficking, had not given John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, the authority to punish Oregon doctors who complied with requests under the state's law. The law allows mentally competent, terminally ill patients to ask their doctors for lethal drugs.

Then again, it's in their partisan interests to get this one right, because honesty serves their purposes. As a Constitutional matter, the issue wasn't met head-on here, which means it hasn't really been decided yet, which means that Alito (boo!) is still a threat to your liberties.

Posted by: Ace at 11:03 PM | Comments (49)
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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton used Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday yesterday to blast the Republican-led House of Representatives, charging that it's "run like a plantation."

Speaking at a Baptist church in Harlem, Clinton used the explicit racial analogy to describe Republicans who she said refuse to allow "contrary points of view" to be heard.

"When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run — it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about," Clinton said.

I'm not sure many people did know what Hillary! was talking about. However, being a student of antebellum American history, I do. So I thought I'd enlighten you all.

Top Ten Ways The House Of Representatives Is Like "A Plantation"

10. Just like on a plantation, it's still all about the cotton, sugar & tobacco

9. The most junior slaves on a plantation were invariably assigned the least desirable offices, often in the basement of the Russel Building

8. Congressmen are paid over $170,000 per year, just a fraction more than what slaves were paid; plus, slaves had to pay for their own stamps, if you can imagine such barbarism

7. Slaves were often subject to the indignity of being jetted off to Boca Raton golf courses to be lobbied on okra subsidies

6. Two words: "Majority Whip." Do I have to spell it out for you?

5. Slave-masters were notoriously cruel and arbitrary about allowing their slaves to "extend and revise" their remarks for the Congressional Record

4. Whether it's the "manacles" of having one's amendments voted down or actual, literal manacles holding your body as you bake in the punishing noontime sun, hey, it's all still basically just "chains of oppression," right?

3. Slaves were often looked down upon as the lowest rung of society, hardly fit to acknowledge even as human beings; Congressmen... well, more or less the same

2. Just like slaves did after a backbreaking day's toil in the fields, Congressmen end their days by heading over to Ted Kennedy's Georgetown bachelor pad for hookers & foosball

... and the Number One Way In Which The House of Representatives Is Like a Plantation...

1. Like slaves, Congressmen are openly bought and traded

Posted by: Ace at 10:11 PM | Comments (23)
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The man has taken utter shamelessness and turned it into something positively sublime.

An online casino has a piece of Capt. Kirk. Actor William Shatner has sold his kidney stone for $25,000, with the money going to a housing charity, it was announced Tuesday. Shatner reached agreement Monday to sell the stone to GoldenPalace.com.

"This takes organ donors to a new height, to a new low, maybe. How much is a piece of me worth?" he said in a telephone interview.

GoldenPalace.com is noted for its collection of oddities, which includes a partially eaten cheese sandwich thought to contain the image of the Virgin Mary.

"This is a bold new addition to our fleet," GoldenPalace.com Chief Executive Officer Richard Rowe said in a statement.

The money will go to Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for the needy.

Thanks to Allahpallooza, which is a better f'n' name than Link Mecca, if you ask me. Which you didn't, so I'm just offering my opinion on the matter.

Posted by: Ace at 05:26 PM | Comments (19)
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A coming attractions for military hardware, shot like a movie. Mostly command and control type stuff, with lots of wired soldiers and coordination from a guys in a van, but some aerial and ground spybots too.

Thanks to Craig, via SondraK.

Posted by: Ace at 04:16 PM | Comments (20)
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Unbelievable:

A DETECTIVE is facing disciplinary action by his force for referring to a career criminal as “pondlife” in a private conversation with another officer. The detective constable, who faces possible dismissal from his job, has been told that the criminal “might have been offended” had he heard the remark, although he was not present at the time.

Critics call the investigation -- with dismissal as a possible conclusion -- "ludicrous," but that's hardly any consolation. No one should even have to say the obvious.

The guy is a convict several times over, too.

We pretty much lost two wars to these guys? Really? Did the Treaty of Ghent involve our custodianship of their balls?

Thanks to James.

Posted by: Ace at 04:03 PM | Comments (25)
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And the A.Q. Khan nuclear network.

Posted by: Ace at 03:51 PM | Comments (19)
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This is just that much more evidence of why there needs to be a major blood-letting in the Democratic party, and soon. Heads need to roll. ROLL. People need to lose their jobs, en masse. After 2000, no one took responsibility. After 2004, no one took responsibility. And now it's happening again. Our wonderful party leaders are sitting back and scratching their heads wondering why the country isn't simply running into our arms while they sit back and do nothing to earn the country's respect and loyalty.

Preach it, sister. You've got me convinced.

These guys have seen too many episodes of The West Wing. They really think the path to electoral domination is through full-on liberalism.

Cool fact about Dick Cheney: He's been nuturing Aaron Sorkin's career for years for just this purpose.

More delicious, nougaty insantiy here.

Via the Blogometer.

Correction: I incorrectly wrote "Kristallnacht" when I meant to reference the Night of the Long Knives. Thanks to Otho Lawrence for the correction.

Posted by: Ace at 03:17 PM | Comments (77)
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Via Insty, fun stuff about everyone's favorite semiplanetoid Trans-Neptunian Object:

The scheduled launch of the New Horizons spacecraft Tuesday afternoon, and a successful, nine-year journey to Pluto, would complete an exploration of the planets started by NASA in the early 1960s with unmanned missions to observe Mars, Mercury and Venus.

"What we know about Pluto today could fit on the back of a postage stamp," said Colleen Hartman, a deputy associate administrator at NASA. "The textbooks will be rewritten after this mission is completed."

Old Textbook: Icy.

New Textbook: Mostly icy.

Old Textbook: Cold as shit.

New Textbook: Cold as fuck.

She's A Fast Machine: Assumedly she keeps her motor clean:

New Horizons will lift off on an Atlas V rocket, which was rolled to the launch pad Monday, and speed away from Earth at 36,000 mph, the fastest spacecraft ever launched. It will reach Earth's moon in about nine hours and arrive in 13 months at Jupiter, where it will use the giant planet's gravity as a slingshot, shaving five year off the 3-billion-mile trip.

Posted by: Ace at 02:41 PM | Comments (23)
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Hee, hee, hee:

"How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about," he said.

"New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina. It is going to be a chocolate city after. How is that divisive? It is white and black working together, coming together and making something special."

He also added that he meant to note that "chocolate" is especially delicious with a squirt of lemon (Asians) and cherry (American Indians), too, plus whatever flavor Samoans and Sikhs might be.

Video: ...at the Political Teen, of course.

Thanks to not_steve_in_hb, by way of steve_in_hb.

Posted by: Ace at 02:31 PM | Comments (26)
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