I've
been wondering when Jeb Bush was going to wake up and realize that he's
losing the nominating contest he was favored to win.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Rick Santorum Says He Decides What is Constitutional, Not the Supreme Court
Rick Santorum says says you refusing to believe what he wants you to believe is a violation of the First Amendment…
It is a good thing Rick Santorum has a snowball’s
chance in hell of getting into the White House, because like all his
fellow candidates, he has no idea how the United States Constitution
works.
According to Santorum, the legalization of gay
marriage is the “establishment of religion,” even though what it would,
in fact be, is a slap in the face to the idea of the establishment of
religion – namely, Santorum’s religion.
It is bad enough that Santorum is trying to play off
“gayness” as a religion. What is worse is him thinking that he doesn’t
have to abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling because he disagrees with
it.
The fact is – and the way this whole thing is set up – if the Supreme Court says something is constitutional, it is constitutional.
Grade-schoolers know this stuff. Why doesn’t Santorum?
We may not like what the Supreme Court says – the
Hobby Lobby ruling being a case in point, or Citizens United – but it’s
the law of the land, period. The best we can do in response (short of a
new system of government) is a Constitutional Amendment, which changes
the Constitution and therefore what the Supreme Court can rule about it.
But Rick Santorum, fresh from entertaining a voter
or two in Iowa, told Glenn Beck a bunch of Bartonesque BS – namely that
marriage equality will force boys and girls to share locker rooms (Mike Huckabee’s fantasy of showering with teenage girls becoming reality) – before he went on to claim,
This is tantamount to government establishing religion. When the United States government comes in and says this is what you are going to believe, this is how you’re going to practice your faith, this is a new religion. This violates, in my opinion, the Establishment Clause in the Constitution that says that Congress shall make no law with respect to an establishment of religion. If the government goes around and tells churches what they have to believe in and what their doctrine is, that is something that is a violation of the First Amendment.
Far from telling you what to believe, the Supreme
Court would be telling you that you DON’T HAVE TO BELIEVE what the
Religious Right is selling you. It would be affirming that you have a
right to your own beliefs, as opposed to having Rick Santorum’s beliefs stand in for your own.
What Santorum’s claim comes down to is this: “If you
don’t believe what I, Rick Santorum believe, you are violating the
First Amendment.”
Until Rick Santorum understands the First Amendment,
he should stop talking about it. You can read it for yourself. It
doesn’t say anything about marriage of any kind. Marriage isn’t
religion. To claim marriage is religion is to establish religion by
forcing everybody else to accept your definition of marriage.
My fourth grader understands that. But then he’s
reading at a 10th to 12th grade level. Based on the available evidence –
and assuming Santorum is not just obscenely dishonest – I suspect
things are reversed for Santorum.
To listen to him, you would think a Supreme Court
ruling in favor of marriage equality would force straight people to
marry members of their own sex. They protest so much you almost wonder
if that isn’t secretly what they want.
Clearly, we could ignore Santorum simply on the basis of what CNN calls his “empty diner” strategy. When only one voter shows up at your campaign stop, you know you’re not popular.
However, in what passes for a political party on the
right these days – but which is actually a religious cult – extremism
feeds extremism, and that is the real danger in claims like these.
What one candidate says, another has to at least
match, and more often, surpass, in order to keep up with the demands of
the feckless multitude. Jesus would have fed them loaves and fishes.
Republican candidates feed them extremism.
Rick Santorum, who was pro-choice until he found it
expedient to be anti-choice when he ran for office, has apparently found
it expedient to be completely stupid, and to be honest, it’s not
working out very well for him. Unless his entire goal was to appear to
be a buffoon, in which case it has worked out very well indeed.
What is amazing is that Republican candidates can say these things without any response at all from the mainstream media.
Can you imagine what would happen if President Obama
announced that he would just ignore anything the Supreme Court ruled
with regard the Affordable Care Act because he’s the final arbiter of
what is and is not constitutional? Obama, unlike Santorum, at least
specializes in Constitutional Law.
And there is precedent, after all, in Gov. Brownback of Kansas threatening to eliminate the Kansas judiciary if they rule against him. And this seems to be what Santorum is hinting at, when he says,
“If they get it wrong and the consequences are what I
suspect they will be toward people of faith (those consequences being a
bunch of stuff David Barton made up the day before) then this president
will fight back.”
Well, Rick, right now you are not even the president of one person in Iowa – she wouldn’t endorse him till she gets all the facts – And that is more than Santorum has bothered to do.
Scott Walker Intends to Rob Taxpayers to Enrich Billionaires
It is typical of Republicans to rob taxpayer dollars to subsidize
their favorite industries, and in Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker
intends on forcing taxpayers to subsidize a basketball arena…
It is no great secret that Republicans can never find a penny for
education, infrastructure improvements, social services, or safety nets,
but they have a veritable endless supply of taxpayer money to benefit
billionaires. It is typical of Republicans to rob taxpayer dollars to
subsidize their favorite industries, and in Wisconsin Governor Scott
Walker intends on forcing taxpayers to subsidize a sports arena to save a
few billionaires hundreds-of-millions of dollars.
Scott Walker’s plan
to build a new basketball stadium for the Milwaukee Bucks paid for with
taxpayer dollars is, no matter how it is viewed, an outrageous example
of corporate welfare and typical Republican corruption. Some proponents
of the publicly financed gift to billionaires claim that taxing Wisconsin residents to build a new stadium is an opportunity to reinvigorate an “economically depressed city,”
but their assertion falls short of any reasonable person’s concept of
what “reinvigorating an economically depressed city” means. However,
this is happening in the dysfunctional state of Wisconsin and the
publicly financed gift to bolster the wealth of billionaires is being
pushed by Scott Walker, so it is not meant to make economic or ethical
sense to reasonable people.
According to Koch puppet Walker, the brilliant plan to build a new $500 million
stadium for the billionaire owners of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball
franchise forces taxpayers to pay for half of the cost. What is no
mystery is that the initial $250 million taxpayer contribution, before
the typical and significant cost overruns, is exactly the amount Walker and his Republican legislature have planned to cut from the University of Wisconsin system.
Even though the price of a ticket is far beyond the
reach of most Wisconsin residents whether they live in Milwaukee or
not, Walker explained that his plan rob $80 million from all Wisconsin
taxpayers and the remaining $170 million will be pilfered from “a
variety of sources at the local level and truly protects the taxpayers.”
Walker also claimed that “It’s also something I can say is good for
lawmakers anywhere in the state.” One state official who will benefit
from taxpayers’ largesse to billionaires is Milwaukee County Executive
Chris Abele, one of the key architects of the taxpayer-funded sports
arena and gift to billionaires.
Abele, promised, with all his heart, that the brand new stadium would “generate millions of dollars in property value and provide a great return on investment.” There is a very good reason Abele raised the point about property value and a “great return on investment;”
charging taxpayers to build the stadium will increase his property’s
value and generate millions of dollars in income for him. Abele recently
purchased a $2 million condominium directly next to the site of the proposed arena as well as the restaurants and stores developers plan to surround it with.
According to Milwaukee economics professor Michael Rosen, “The
appreciation for that condo will go sky-high; it will appreciate like
crazy when that stadium gets built. He has an interest in this, even
though his job as public official is to look out for this community, but
I’m not saying that’s why he bought it.” Fine, if Rosen is
unwilling to say it, this column has no such reservations; Abele
certainly bought the property next to a major development to take a
substantial profit at taxpayers’ expense. It is why Walker and Abele’s
plans to build the stadium is “an example of typical Republican corruption,” as well as a blatant example of “corporate welfare”
funded by cash-strapped Wisconsin taxpayers; most whom will never be
able to afford a $60 – $80 ticket to watch a basketball game.
Walker’s plan has been criticized by progressives and wingnuts alike, and at a public meeting
earlier this week, a large crowd rightly took exception to the idea of
using hundreds-of-millions of taxpayer dollars to build a sports complex
that only benefits billionaires. In fact, besides robbing taxpayer
money meant for education, law enforcement, firefighters, and roads, the
attendees were livid that public land worth
$9 million was sold to the team’s billionaire owners for a measly 1
dollar. Walker claims that giving free taxpayer money, and public land,
to billionaires is an incredibly wise means of investing in the
Milwaukee economy even though economists claim that is patently false.
According to economics professor Michael Rosen, “You
could do more for the local economy by taking a plane over the city of
Milwaukee and dropping $500 million dollars down. That would generate
more economic activity than building a stadium. People have a fixed
entertainment budget. So if they go see the Bucks and spend $60 or $80
on a ticket, that’s money they’re not using to go to the theater or
movies or out to eat. That’s why stadiums have no positive impact on
economic growth.” Rosen also made an important point that since most Bucks’ players do not live year-round in Milwaukee, the “millions of dollars in their salaries will not benefit the community.”
Rosen, an economics professor is, of course, absolutely right according to a 2004 Cato Institute study
criticizing taxpayer-subsidized sports’ stadiums. Dennis Coates and
Brad Humphreys wrote that economic projections for subsidized stadiums
are always vastly overstated; “The wonder is that anyone finds such figures credible.”
In fact, over the years there have been several Cato studies that
examined what they label “absurd economic claims of stadium advocates”
and found that; “The
lone beneficiaries of sports subsidies are team owners and players.
Indeed, the results of studies on changes in the economy resulting from
the presence of stadiums, arenas, and sports teams show no positive
economic impact from professional sports.” However, there is always
a very positive economic impact for developers and the politicians
reaping campaign donations for pushing taxpayer-funded projects that
benefit their billionaire donors.
Republicans
never seem to lack ways of stealing from taxpayers, particularly the
poor and middle class, to enrich the already wealthy whether they own
corporations or sports’ franchises. Scott Walker is no exception and his
antipathy toward Wisconsin residents, and education in particular, is
epitomized by his crusade to build a sports stadium that benefits no-one
but the Milwaukee Bucks’ billionaire owners and multi-millionaire
players. As Michael Rosen opined, “Our elected officials need to better
look out for the people of this community, who need parks, who need
social services and health care.” However, Republicans are incapable of
looking out for the people of any community because their entire focus
is looking out for billionaires and in Scott Walkers’ case it is a cabal
of billionaires who own the Milwaukee Bucks.
Protesters Win Court Award Against Walker's Wisconsin
Looks like Scott Walker wouldn't be able to handle ISIL after all.
Senate Republicans Just Literally Voted Against Clean Water
Republicans are using the ruse that farmers will have mud puddles regulated to push their pro-polluter agenda.
Georgia Releases Kenlissia Jones After Illegal Detainment But Threatens More Charges
Georgia is releasing 23-year-old Kenlissia Jones from the Doughterty
County Jail, where the black mother to a toddler has been illegally
detained, but they are threatening her with more charges…
Apparently trying to save face after realizing that
they had no legal leg to stand on, Georgia is releasing 23-year-old
Kenlissia Jones from the Doughterty County Jail, where the black mother
to a toddler has been illegally detained for allegedly taking a drug to end her pregnancy. She was facing a possible charge of “malice murder.”
But her nightmare is far from over.
This is the end result of many Republican allegedly
“pro-life” laws around the country, and naturally, it ended up violating
all kinds of personal liberties and Constitutionally-protected rights,
as well as interfering in medical care and making Jones’ toddler suffer.
It also sends a message that women can be arrested for being pregnant,
which is not exactly an incentive.
National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) said in
a statement that it “applauds Dougherty County Prosecutor Gregory W.
Edwards’ conclusion that there is no legal authority for charging a
pregnant woman with the crime of murder for having terminated her own
pregnancy. As the prosecutor explained in this detailed legal analysis
released today, no Georgia law permits prosecution of women for murder
or related criminal charges based on pregnancy or the outcome of their
pregnancies.”
However, as any reasonable person would think, NAPW
notes that she never should have been arrested in the first place and as
a result of the state’s actions, “Ms. Jones had to endure the trauma of
arrest, imprisonment, and the profound violation of her rights to
physical liberty as well as medical and personal privacy.” They
continued, “It is especially troubling to see a young black mother of a
toddler charged with a crime that carries the death penalty.”
Ms. Jones was arrested after seeking care at a
hospital, where a social worker turned her in to police for having
allegedly tried to give herself an abortion. This is how they do it in
Georgia, and not just Georgia, as we pointed out in the first article
about Jones’ arrest and illegal detainment,
“Anne Bynum in Arkansas was arrested for “concealing a birth”, and
“abuse of a corpse” after she took medication to terminate her pregnancy
at home. Purvi Patel of Indiana was convicted and is serving 20 years
in prison for what Indiana called feticide.”
Not only was she falsely imprisoned, held without
bond and her constitutionally-protected rights grossly infringed upon by
the eager stupidity of Georgia law enforcement’s agenda-laden inability
to understand basic law (a pro-life group was telling them the law did
not allow them to do this), but her medical and personal privacy was
obscenely violated without her consent.
But the prosecutors aren’t going down so easy. Being
forced to release the young mother, they’ve rooted around for anything
they can charge her with in what looks to be a daft and transparent
effort to avoid being sued for their epic mishandling and personal
violations of the young mother, and have landed upon a misdemeanor
charge of “possession of a dangerous drug,” among other unnamed
possibilities.
Oh, what a thug, you’re thinking. Hardcore drugs?
Sure she deserves it. But wait. The drug Georgia prosecutors are
charging her as having allegedly possessed is misoprostol, which is not a
dangerous drug, according to people who actually know things. That
would be the World Health Organization and medical researchers.
Small government Georgia is going to prosecute the
single mother of a toddler whom they falsely imprisoned because she
allegedly took a drug that is used “safely around the world” for many
reasons (obstetric and gynecological — areas about which the Georgia law
enforcement must inaccurately fancy themselves as expert as some
Republicans in Congress).
NAPW pointed out that the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists oppose threatening women with arrest in relationship to their pregnancies “because it deters women from seeking help and, as a result, undermines maternal, fetal, and child health.”
So the next time a woman needs medical care during
her pregnancy, she will probably avoid it if there is any way she could
be charged with malice murder, which is exactly the opposite of
pro-life.
“Pro-life” apparently excludes women, as we see from Governor Scott Walker’s (R-WI) latest bill, Republicans aren’t making exceptions in their policing of your medical decisions even for the life of the mother or incest.
They are all about entitling the father to sue the doctor for
’emotional and psychological distress’ no matter what his relationship
with the woman, which Walker’s law allows.
NAPW is calling for the prosecutor to drop all
charges, “Because public health, fairness to pregnant women, and
fundamental principles of human rights and dignity prohibit the use of
state power to arrest and punish women for being pregnant and for the
outcomes of their pregnancies, NAPW calls on Mr. Edwards to drop all
charges against Ms. Jones.”
Ms.
Jones needs a good lawyer and she needs to sue the state, the police
officer who arrested her, the prosecutor’s office, and the entity where
the social worker is employed. There’s a bounty of things to sue for,
and it needs to happen or else these folks are just going to continue
making up laws to suit their religious ideology.
Mike Huckabee faces class-action suit over robo-calls promoting cheesy 'christian' propaganda flick
* Note the sarcasm
The 'christian' Co-Author Of Mike Huckabee Books Was Caught Duggaring A Child
A
2012 police investigation of Perry's alleged offenses found that "the
allegations of sexual battery were sustained" but that the statute of
limitations had expired.
Fox News Helped The Duggars Cover Up New Child Abuse Investigation In Arkansas
The DHS in Arkansas has launched a new investigation
into the Duggars, and it looks like Fox News helped Jim Bob and
Michelle cover up the new investigation into the welfare of their
children.
InTouch Weekly reported:
The Duggar family is under investigation again
by the Arkansas Department of Human Services and police were called when
the family refused to cooperate, In Touch magazine is reporting
exclusively in its new issue that hits newsstands today.
A representative from the Washington County DHS
called 911 on May 27 at around 11 a.m. asking for police assistance when
DHS was not allowed to see the minor they were concerned about.
….
After identifying himself as a Washington
Country DHS employee and stating the Duggar family address, the caller
tells the 911 operator, “We have an investigation and I guess they’re
not being cooperative. We have to see the child to make sure the child
is all right. So we just need police assistance.”
The Duggars first interview with Fox News aired on June 3.
Fox News had days before the Duggar interview to learn about and
disclose to their viewers the new investigation, but they did nothing.
It is possible that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar lied to Megyn Kelly and
Fox News. It is just as possible that Fox News never bothered to look
and invested themselves in supporting the Duggars.
If Fox News was not aware of this new investigation,
it is because they didn’t want to know. The new investigation also
explains why the Duggars and Kelly put so much effort into trying to
discredit the police and social services. Fox News defended a family
that was uncooperative with the authorities and under a new
investigation related to the welfare of their children.
Fox
News put propaganda ahead of facts, and now they have to explain why
they didn’t know that the Duggars family was again under investigation.
Whether Megyn Kelly and Fox News acted intentionally or not, they helped
to hide a key fact from their viewers. Fox News turned a blind eye to
what they didn’t want to see and now have to deal with the consequences
of the decision to put partisan politics ahead of the welfare of
children.
Fox News Is Unraveling As Their “Objective Witness” To McKinney Pool Party Is A Convicted Felon
Fox News is unraveling as their support for the Duggars has blown up
in their faces, and the "objective witness" to the McKinney Pool Party
incident is a liar…
Megyn Kelly
needed to assure viewers that the horrific violence enacted upon a
15-year-old black teenager by Corporal Eric Casebolt during the McKinney
pool party debacle, as well as the same officer drawing his gun on two
other black teenagers for no justifiable reason, was not racially
motivated.
In order to accomplish this rather Herculean task
given the video, Megyn Kelly had on Sean Toon as a “witness” and a
“resident”, who explained “what really happened.” Yep, watch Fox and you’d think Toon is just a random dude who called the police because he was worried about the music being played and some teenagers were accusing “residents” of being racist. Totally out of the blue, you understand.
“Witness” explains it’s not racial:
Sean is a guy who only wanted to be known by his
first name, which should have at least sparked a warning enough that her
producers did a background check. I did it yesterday. And guess what?
Dude has a record.
Dude was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in
September 2000, for which he served 75 days in jail, according to the Guardian.
This doesn’t mean that his account isn’t accurate,
but it does call into question his character when he is justifying
violence. It would give a reasonable person pause with one conviction
(wait for it).
After all, Toon was one of the people who called
police, and his wife Barber Toon was also at the pool party Friday
night. In fact, Sean’s wife is the person seen in the original fight
(including what looks like pulling a teenager’s hair) that caused her
husband to call the police. He left that part out.
Yet her husband Sean is such a stellar member of the
community that the police took his word for things and Officer Eric
Casebolt, who has now resigned after abusing his authority, took it upon
himself to round up all of the kids of color. Based on the words of a
convicted criminal. But race is totally not an issue.
Why were only dark skinned kids chased down and
tackled to the ground? (To be clear, there is only one officer who
behaved in an overtly racist and violent manner, the rest tried to keep
things calm and did their job properly, even restraining him at one
point.)
Buzzfeed
reported that Fox and Friends replayed Toon’s version of events in the
morning. They also report that it was actually Toon, Kelly’s “witness”,
who yelled racist things at the teenagers:
What Toon has failed to mention, though, is that he was part of a group of adults that, according to teens at the pool party, initially made racist comments to the mostly black youths, sparking a violent fight.“I’m 100% sure that he said, ‘You should go back to the Section 8 [public] housing where you’re from because you don’t belong in our neighborhood,'” Grace Stone, a 14-year-old white McKinney resident who defended her black friends, told BuzzFeed News. “That’s when I went off. I called him an asshole. He had no right to say that. You shouldn’t be that hateful. That’s when [one of Toon’s female acquaintances] came up to me and said, ‘You don’t talk to adults like that.’ She was saying I needed to do something with my life and find a nice path for myself.”
So died the ridiculous notion that this wasn’t
racial. And it’s starting to look like the “witness”, who was years
earlier was arrested for aggravated assault, wasn’t so innocent.
But the bad news isn’t done yet. This Toon guy,
Megyn Kelly’s “witness”, was also convicted in 1999 of felony criminal
mischief and he pled guilty to killing and maiming animals as an
18-year-old.
Sean Toon was convicted of torturing animals and served 285 days in jail, according to records obtained by the Guardian:
Sean Toon was sentenced to more than nine months in jail after pleading guilty to killing and maiming prize farm animals and covering them in paint, according to court records in Texas. He was separately sentenced to two and a half months for an assault…As a teenager, Toon had two serious encounters with the criminal justice system. He could not be reached for an interview. Asked whether he had any comment about his past crimes, his wife said in a text message: “In the end you will get what you deserve.”
So that’s a charming threat by the wife, the one in
the video who is pulling the hair of a teenager. You know, the fight
that started this whole McKinney pool party debacle. Good thing the
police took Toon’s word for things.
But not nearly as charming as the details (WARNING,
graphic) that caused Toon to not only be arrested, but expelled from
school:
“Cows and pigs were cut and bruised, apparently beaten with wooden boards. And baby turkeys were slain, their limbs torn apart,” the Dallas Morning News reported at the time. Dale Gardner, a teacher in the school district’s agri-science and technology program, told the newspaper: “It was brutal. There’s no way to describe it. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The police officer who resigned is blaming emotional distress,
because like every doctor, nurse and medic knows, dealing with
emotionally disturbed people is a pass for becoming an aggressive
lunatic on their next patient.
This concludes today’s episode of “It’s not racial!”
brought to you by a twice convicted criminal and animal killer, his
hair-pulling wife, and the white police officer who acted violently and
aggressively based on their word.
Megyn
Kelly is already looking dubious at best after her assist-style
“interview”/public relations broadcast on behalf of the Duggars, which it turns out she conducted days after the Duggars refused to cooperate with the DHS who were concerned about a minor in the home. Fox News’ rising star is on a roll.
Friday, June 12, 2015
The Daily Drift
Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!
The Truth Be Told is read in 203 countries around the world.
We're having a delicious Banana Split, but none for Republicans ... !
Today is - Banana Split Day
Don't forget to visit our sister blog Carolina Naturally
Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Argentina - Brazil - Canada - Colombia - Dominican Republic - El Salvador - Guatemala - Nicaragua Puerto Rico - United States - Venezuela
Europe
Albania
- Bosnia/Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia - Czech Republic - England -
France - Georgia Germany - Ireland - Italy - Latvia - Luxembourg -
Netherlands - Norway - Portugal - Romania - Russia Scotland - Spain -
Sweden - Wales
Asia
India - Indonesia - Iran - Iraq- Lebanon - Malaysia - Mauritius - Pakistan - Qatar - Saudi Arabia Singapore - Sri Lanka
Africa
Egypt - Morocco - South Africa
The Pacific
Australia
Georgia Woman’s Constitutional Rights Violated After Pregnancy Related Illegal Arrest
A Georgia woman has been illegally arrested and had
her constitutional rights violated after a social worker told police
officers that she terminated her pregnancy by taking abortion pills.
23-year-old Kenlissa Jones of Georgia has been
arrested and charged with malice murder and possession of a dangerous
drug because she terminated her own pregnancy with LEGAL abortion
medication. She is being falsely imprisoned in the Dougherty County
jail.
In a statement, the group National Advocates for
Pregnant Women said that there are no criminal statutes back up the
arrest, “There are no criminal statutes in Georgia that permit
punishment of women based on pregnancy or pregnancy outcomes — and the
constitution, as well as human rights principles, prohibit such punitive
laws directed to pregnant women….We call on leading anti-abortion
organizations, who have publicly and repeatedly said that they oppose
punishing women for having abortions, to stand with Kenlissa Jones and
against the growing use of criminal laws to punish women for abortions
or pregnancy outcomes. People who seek medical attention for any aspect
of pregnancy — including prenatal care, labor and delivery, miscarriage,
stillbirth, or abortion — should not fear arrest. There is no role for
police or prosecutors in reproductive health. Public health, fairness to
pregnant women, and fundamental principles of human rights and dignity
prohibit the use of state power to arrest and punish women for being
pregnant and for the outcomes of their pregnancies.”
Jones is not alone. Anne Bynum in Arkansas was
arrested for “concealing a birth”, and “abuse of a corpse” after she
took medication to terminate her pregnancy at home. Purvi Patel of
Indiana was convicted and is serving 20 years in prison for what Indiana
called feticide.
Enough is enough.
Women
are having their constitutionally-protected rights violated and
further, being arrested and thereby falsely imprisoned to serve a
religious ideology that has no place overtaking
constitutionally-protected rights. What needs to happen here is Jones’
family need to sue the state of Georgia, the police department that is
illegally detaining her, the police officer who arrested her and
District Attorney Greg Edwards who continues to hold her, in spite of
being told that the law doesn’t support their charges or arrest.
Obama and Science Score A Big Win As Judge Tosses Challenge to Climate Change Rule
Some will call this a win for President Obama or the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which it is – albeit an expected
one. But it’s really a win for all of us who are based in reality and
thus realize that poisoning our environment is killing people.
On Tuesday the first judicial challenge to President Obama’s Clean Power Plan rule was tossed out
by a federal appeals court, which ruled that the regulations are only
proposals and thus can’t be judged yet by the court. The plaintiffs
(energy companies and states) filed too soon.
So sad.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the opinion
concurring with the ruling, “Petitioners are champing at the bit to
challenge EPA’s anticipated rule restricting carbon dioxide emissions
from existing power plants. But EPA has not yet issued a final rule.
It has issued only a proposed rule. Petitioners nonetheless ask the
Court to jump into the fray now. They want us to do something
that they candidly acknowledge we have never done before: review the
legality of a proposed rule. But a proposed rule is just a proposal. In
justiciable cases, this Court has authority to review the legality of
final agency rules. We do not have authority to review proposed agency
rules.”
Oh dear. Before wingnuts get all outraged about
the “activist” courts, Kavanaugh, who was staff secretary under former
Republican Pretender the shrub and worked for dumbya during the Florida
recount of 2000 as well as helping to get former Democratic President
Bill Clinton impeached, was appointed by a Republican. Yes, the shrub, who is
sort of not the guy to mention if one is pretending that the courts are
stacked against Republicans.
The June 2014 EPA proposal
is part of President Obama’s goal via executive action to reduce carbon
pollution by 30% from the power sector by 2030. This is naturally
upsetting for climate destroyers because it sets the first ever carbon
pollution standards for existing power plants. The White House charges
that power plants are responsible for one-third of all domestic
greenhouse gas emissions.
The EPA describes the rule as follows:
In this action, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing emission guidelines for states to follow in developing plans to address greenhouse gas emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired electric generating units. Specifically, the EPA is proposing state-specific rate-based goals for carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector, as well as guidelines for states to follow in developing plans to achieve the state-specific goals. This rule, as proposed, would continue progress already underway to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired power plants in the United States.
Score one for President Obama’s executive actions on
climate change, and a bigger one for the environment and the people’s
health. Even the historically biased justices won’t hand
conservatives/energy companies a free pre-pass to continue to poison us
all.
Obviously,
Republicans who largely stand against regulating what is killing us
aren’t “pro-life”, and neither is anyone else who argues against
reasonable efforts to reduce carbon pollution.
Koch-Republican Austerity Is Killing Michigan Democracy And Poisoning Residents
Bad things generally happen when corporate fascist take over
government and eliminate democracy, and it is a fact of life many
Michigan citizens have learned the hard way;…
It is curious that Republicans became the party of
austerity economics on January 21, 2009 at the same time a new
Democratic President began his first term in office. For eight years
prior to Barack Obama’s inauguration, Republicans took America’s economy
to the brink of collapse with two unfunded and unnecessary wars of
aggression against Muslims, gave outrageous unfunded tax cuts to the
wealthiest Americans, cost millions of Americans their jobs, homes, and
retirement savings, and spent like spoiled children with their daddy’s
credit card. Indeed, the idea of fiscal responsibility and, to a greater
extent, austerity became successful buzzwords for Republicans
complaining loudly that the nation was suffering under crushing debt
they only noticed the minute a Democrat occupied the White House.
That debt and deficit fear-mongering success led to
the election of so-called fiscally responsible and austerity-minded
governors in 2010 that promptly used every means at their disposal to
enact Draconian spending cuts; not to reduce state debts and deficits,
but to fund tax cuts for corporations and the rich. One of the means
employed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to impose austerity on the
state was appointing “emergency financial managers” to run cities like
dictators with unchallengeable power.
Today there are numerous Michigan cities and school
districts run by one “state-appointed” Koch acolyte under Michigan’s
emergency manager law enacted by governor-turned-dictator Rick Snyder;
all under cover of every economy’s death knell – austerity. Of course,
it is austerity meant only for government and the population; not the
rich or corporations. The idea of imposing harsh cost-saving measures is
a nothing more than cover for a democracy-killing fascist coup by Koch
Republican Governor Rick Snyder.
Some Americans may recall that Snyder’s dictatorial
power-grab under the guise of Republican austerity does much more than
abolish democracy by stripping residents of their local voting rights
and voices; it gives Snyder’s appointed demi-gods unquestioned power to
do any and everything that strikes their fancy including, but not
limited to, eliminating a city’s charter, dismissing
democratically-elected officials, shuttering schools, and ending
services the emergency manager deems too costly such as delivering safe
drinking water. It is, according to Snyder, all in the name of good old
Republican “fiscal responsibility” and austerity politics; something
Snyder traverses the nation to spread to all 50 states.
Snyder launched a national tour, “Making Government Accountable: The Michigan Story,” to ‘sell‘ democracy’s demise in Michigan to the rest of the country. His tour was funded by a “secret”
nonprofit that is, naturally, secretly funded by a group of
‘undisclosed’ donors advocating for austerity and small government. As a
clue to which undisclosed donors are paying Snyder to promote
Michigan’s drive to abolish democracy, it is relatively well known that
Snyder is a sleazy American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
operative (the Kochs fund ALEC).
Snyder’s salesmanship and promotion of how best to
hasten democracy’s demise and impose ugly austerity was rewarded when
New Jersey’s corrupt Governor Chris Christie recently appointed Snyder’s
bankruptcy lawyer and former Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr to
“legally advise” Atlantic City on its finances. It was a Christie move
that the Detroit Free Press described “as a takeover” similar to Snyder’s coup d’état in the Motor City.
Bad things generally happen when corporate fascist
take over government and eliminate democracy, and it is a fact of life
many Michigan citizens have learned the hard way; by being poisoned. One
city “neglected” to inform its residents for over a year that
its water supply was laced with human waste, bacteria, toxins, and
cancerous chemicals. Of course, no Republican-imposed abomination story
is complete without noting that despite the consequences to residents,
there was no media coverage of Flint Michigan’s filthy brown,
chemical-laced, and toxin-laden drinking water.
A little over a year ago, Flint’s Snyder-appointed
emergency manager imposed some Republican austerity and fiscal
responsibility on Flint residents and ordered the city to stop buying
water from the Detroit Water Department. Instead, the manager issued an
order that Flint residents would drink, cook, and bathe in water drawn
directly from the Flint River the Ford Motor Company used as a “a
longtime dumping ground.”
The fiscally responsible move meant Flint realized a whopping budgetary savings of $12 million
a year it could then contribute to help fund Snyder’s corporate tax
cuts while Flint residents started getting very, very sick. Eventual
tests on the austerity water source revealed
there were high levels of E. coli and fecal bacteria in the water, as
well as high levels of a very dangerous carcinogenic chemical cocktail,
trihalomethanes; also known as THMs.
For several months the city concealed the presence
of THMs because they are known to increase cancer rates, kidney failure,
and birth defects. Local residents began to suspect that something ugly
was in the “austerity” water when they began breaking out in mysterious rashes, experiencing severe diarrhea, and witnessing
their eyelashes and hair falling out. When what was left of Flint’s
neutered city council foolishly voted to “do all things necessary” to
get Detroit’s safe drinking water back, Snyder’s emergency manager
immediately shut them down and labeled their impertinence
“incomprehensible.”
The poisoned water, and lack of redress from a
Snyder-appointed emergency tyrant, has many city residents not only sick
and losing their hair, they are frustrated and now many of them are
slightly confused. After being told the idea of returning to a clean,
safe water source was “incomprehensible” by Snyder’s emergency manager,
two notices were sent out the same day, packaged in the same envelope,
to further pollute the poisoned water issue.
One notice was printed in black-and-white and stated
quite bluntly that, “Our water system recently violated a drinking
water standard.” There was no information on how much or what toxins
were in the water, what kind of bacteria was making residents sick, or
the types of carcinogens the people had ingested over the previous year;
likely because explaining the danger borne of austerity and fiscal
responsibility was as incomprehensible as it would have been costly to
print more than nine words in black ink on white paper. However, in the
same envelope there was a “flashy colored” glossy notice with a
celebratory message that said, “We are pleased to report that City of
Flint water is safe and meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
guidelines. You can be confident that the water provided to you today
meets all safety standards.”
One recipient commented that, “I can only surmise
that the point was to confuse us all.” No, the point was to silence
residents’ complaints of severe diarrhea, hair loss, and mysterious
rashes that a fancy-colored notice meant they could no longer attribute
their sicknesses to the poisoned river water; water, by the way, that
Flint residents are still drinking, cooking, and bathing in because if
there is one thing a Snyder-appointed tyrant is not going to countenance
is incomprehensible impertinence of resident’s demanding a clean and
safe water source.
There are several other abominable consequences
Michigan residents are suffering due to Republican austerity and fiscal
responsibility, and although they are clear and present dangers to
residents’ health and well-being, the death of democracy means they have
no recourse or ability to make necessary changes. Michigan residents
did, in fact, overwhelmingly vote to repeal Snyder’s emergency financial
manager act, but within two months during a lame-duck session Snyder
pushed a stronger act that was “referendum-proof” in yet another assault on democracy.
Since
then, Snyder’s little hand-picked tyrants have unilaterally shut down
entire school districts, closed down entire fire departments, outsourced
and privatized police departments, and sold off public parks and city
buildings. All in the name of Republican austerity and fiscal
responsibility to fund tax cuts for the rich and hasten Koch-imposed
privatization on Michigan. It is a portent of what the Koch brothers
envision for America when they complete their fascist coup d’état that
is much closer than Americans are ready to admit but know that without a
robust and democratic intervention is in the offing.
Montana Republican: Why Should Americans Retire? Noah Never Did And He Was 600 Years Old
Here’s what happens when a creationist tries to use the bible to justify screwing over workers.
Idaho Republicans: Public schools should use the bible as a science and law textbook
Members of the state’s Republican cabal have
published a set of proposed resolutions following a central committee
meeting this past weekend among Idaho wingnuts.
Bobby Jindal Remains Grover Norquist’s Puppet Governor Despite Louisiana Budget Mess
Despite Louisiana facing a gaping 1.6 billion dollar budget
hole, Governor Bobby Jindal (R) is still trying to honor his “no tax
pledge” to anti-tax agitator Grover Norquist. To avoid raising taxes,
Jindal is trying to push for crippling cuts to higher education and
social programs.
Governor Jindal’s dogmatic refusal to find ways to raise revenue has made him incredibly unpopular with Louisiana voters.
His stubbornness has also created conflict with state GOP lawmakers who
recognize the severity of the state’s budget mess and are now arguing
that raising taxes has become necessary for Louisiana’s fiscal survival.
Eleven Republican lawmakers wrote a desperate letter pleading with Grover Norquist
to rethink his “no tax” position, and to give the legislature credit
for the tax cuts they have already implemented over the past seven
years. Norquist, predictably was unmoved and made no attempt to alter
his fundamentalist anti-tax position. The fact that Republican state
lawmakers in Louisiana feel that they have to beg for Norquist’s
permission as they consider legislation is troubling in its own right,
but Jindal is so thoroughly bought that he doesn’t even question
Norquist’s decrees.
Jindal is paying no heed to lawmakers or to
Louisiana residents because he apparently has his eyes set on running
for President. He would rather say he never raised taxes during a
presidential debate, than find a way to fix the fiscal disaster he has
created in Louisiana. He is willing to burn bridges in his home state as
long as he can ingratiate himself to Grover Norquist, the Washington
DC-based president of Americans for Tax Reform.
Like so many other ambitious Republican politicians,
Jindal has accepted the Norquist “no tax pledge” as an article of
faith. He is happy to take his marching orders from Norquist because GOP
politicians who wear Norquist’s anti-tax seal of approval, seem to
think they are bullet-proof in election contests. In Republican circles,
opposing tax increases is worn as a badge of honor, no matter how much
damage the ideology actually causes in the states where it is applied.
Bobby Jindal has become so steadfastly loyal to
Norquist, that he has forgotten who he works for. Jindal’s job is to
represent the people of Louisiana, but the puppet governor apparently
believes he works for Grover Norquist in Washington D.C. As Jindal
contemplates a run for the presidency, he may soon discover that voters
are looking for a leader and not a puppet.
Bobby
Jindal is content to let the man who wants to shrink the federal
government to the size it can be drowned in a bathtub, pull his strings.
Dancing to his master, Jindal is already watching Louisiana drown.
However, there is no reason American voters should let Grover Norquist’s
puppet governor flood the rest of the country with his fiscal
irresponsibility as well.
Even Republicans Think That Marco Rubio’s Financial Scandal Is A Big Problem
Several Republican agitators are saying that the
scandal involving Marco Rubio’s debt and personal finances is legitimate
and could be a big problem for his 2016 pretender campaign.
Politico spoke to several Republican agitators who discussed a New York Times story about Marco Rubio’s struggles surrounding excessive spending and debt:
“The parking ticket hit was bullshit, but this
is real,” one Republican agitator said. “They were trying to lump them
together when they are two different things, so that’s the Times fault.
But Marco shouldn’t be able to get away from one legit story about how
he can’t manage his own finances because the other story was bullshit.”
…..
“Marco made 800,000 on his book, plus his Senate
salary,” one Republican agitator said. “Then the Rubio people are
like: The Times are just attacking a normal guy with normal problems!”
“It’s fine, I get the playbook, but they
shouldn’t be allowed to just spin that,” the strategist said. “I don’t
think there’s anyone in Iowa who has student loan debts and an 80,000
boat and a 50,000 car.”
The stories about Rubio’s excessive spending and financial issues are nothing new. In 2012, Reuters reported,
“Before joining the Senate last year, his name surfaced in an Internal
Revenue Service investigation of the Florida Republican Party’s use of
party-issued credit cards. He frequently had used his party credit card
for personal use, and later reimbursed the card company for about
$16,000. Rubio’s handling of his personal finances contrasts sharply
with the image of him on his Senate website, which highlights Rubio’s
efforts to prevent Washington from piling up debt.”
At best, Marco Rubio is a hypocrite. At worst, he is
a reckless spender with a history of shady deals who can’t be trusted
manage his own checkbook, much less run the country. The New York Times
piece contains too much detail to be easily dismissed and has opened the
door for more journalists to dig into Rubio’s financial history.
Republicans
may be hoping that they can bury the Times piece as a partisan hit job,
but Rubio wasn’t living the life of an average American, and his
reckless spending skeletons may doom his presidential campaign.
Chris Christie Calls For Starting A War With China
At a Goffstown, New Hampshire town meeting on Monday, New Jersey's Chris Christie advocated adopting a “military approach” to dealing with China.
Although the New Jersey moron has not officially kicked off his
candidacy, his foray into discussing foreign policy in the first GOP
pretender primary state, left little doubt about his intentions.
Christie told the town hall audience
that America needed to take a “military approach” and let the
Chinese ”know there are limits to what they’re allowed to do.” In
discussing China’s activity in the South China Sea, Christie added:
That is an issue that we can handle militarily by going out there and making sure that we show them that we don’t respect their claims to these artificial islands in the South China Sea that they’re building, that they’re saying are theirs that are hundreds and hundreds of miles from the coast of China and are clearly in international waters. We need to send that signal to the Chinese very clearly that we do not acknowledge nor will we respect their claims to those areas.
Christie has been trying to gain traction
in the crowded GOP pretender field, but he has been unable to set
himself apart from other candidates. Social wingnuts distrust him,
and free market fundamentalists have better options as well.
Chris Christie’s comments on China appear to be an
effort to win over neo-wingnut foreign policy hawks. Though Jeb Bush and South Carolina's Lindsey Graham
may also be vying to carve out that niche, Chris Christie raised the
ante by hinting at taking military action against China.
The problem for Christie is that talk is
cheap and while his calls for military action may sound like tough talk,
he lacks a realistic plan for how to conduct such action without
triggering potentially dangerous consequences. It is one thing to engage
in bellicose saber-rattling rhetoric on the campaign trail to drum up
votes, and quite another matter to engage in a confrontation with
China’s large military force.
Chris Christie’s rhetoric is irresponsible, and
America would do better to reject him in favor of a more sober and
diplomatic leader. The last Republican president launched a costly and
needless war in Iraq. One can only imagine how much worse trying to
start a war with China would turn out.
Wisconsin Just Made Sure Guns Get Into The Hands Of The Angry And Vengeful Sooner
Unfortunately, this isn’t surprising anymore… Montana off-grid survivalist killed family, then himself, because wife was ‘mocking’ him
Brownback Will Eliminate Kansas’ Judiciary If It Fails To Rule In His Favor
Republican Sam Brownback signed a bill into law that
eliminates the state's entire judicial system if the Supreme Court rules
against an 'administrative law'
At America’s founding, there were provisions made to
ensure there would never be an absolute ruler unrestrained by law or
constitution, or one who could ever usurp legitimate sovereignty to
ultimately control everything. The world has witnessed tyrannical rulers
of horrible character who used power oppressively or unjustly, and
although every state in America follows the federal model of separation
and balance of powers, it appears the Koch brothers’ Kansas is on the
verge of becoming a dictatorship with trickle down moron Sam
Brownback as the sole authority.
Late last week governor trickle down signed a bill
into law that eliminates the state’s entire judicial system if the
Supreme Court rules against an ‘administrative law’ Brownback’s
Republicans passed to neuter the judiciary and end the state
government’s separation of powers. Tyrants just cannot tolerate either
separation or balance of powers and Brownback is finished answering to
the Kansas Supreme Court or abiding by the Kansas State Constitution. It
is not Brownback’s first attempt at consolidating all state power in
his office, or eliminating judicial oversight over state laws.
Brownback’s action last week verifies that he is more than willing to
eliminate any branch of Kansas government that “gets in his way” or
refuses to follow his dictates.
The Kansas Supreme Court fell afoul of Brownback’s good graces last year when it ruled
that due to his trickle-down tax cuts for the rich, drastic cuts
in public school funding in poor districts violated Kansas’
Constitution. The High Court’s Justices ordered Brownback’s legislature
to correct the problem in a timely manner to fully comply with the
state’s Constitution. However, instead of following the Constitution or
the Court ruling, Republicans retaliated against the Justices and passed
an “administrative law” stripping the Court of its constitutional
authority to appoint local chief judges or set district court budgets.
No matter how it was framed, the Republican ‘administrative law’ was a
warning to the Supreme Court justices that Sam Brownback rules Kansas
and as a tyrant it is he who determines what is constitutional and what
is not according to his economic ideology.
When they ruled that Kansas’ public schools were
grossly underfunded, the Justices did not declare, as they should have,
that Brownback’s cuts to education were “wholly unconstitutional.”
Instead, they held out the option of revisiting the issue after giving
Brownback and the Republican legislature an adequate amount of time to
comply. If Brownback and Republicans failed, the Justices would mandate
the Republican legislature adequately fund education according to the
Kansas Constitution. Of course, with the state bleeding revenue, fully
funding education would have required tax hikes and Brownback promptly
threatened the Justices with “political reforms” such as supreme court
recall elections, slashing the retirement age for justices, and
instituting partisan elections. Subsequently, now that the court has “an opportunity to strike down the administrative laws,”
Republicans quickly passed, and Brownback signed, the law last week
that completely defunds the entire Kansas judiciary if the court does
not back down and cede all constitutional ruling authority to Sam
Brownback.
No matter how one interprets it, Brownback’s
‘administrative law’ is a gross violation of Kansas’ Constitution giving
the Justices authority to strike it down. However, like most
Republicans, armed militias, and twisted tyrants, Brownback believes he,
and he alone, is the ultimate arbiter of just what is and what is not
constitutional in Kansas. To make his point, and to impose executive
branch tyranny in Kansas, trickle down Sam and his Republican
legislature are threatening the state Supreme Court with extinction if
it refuses to obey his edict and uphold an administrative law Brownback
ruled is constitutional. No matter how the Justices react, they are
effectively powerless because if they rule against Brownback the entire
state judiciary is eliminated, and if they back down Brownback’s
administrative law stays in effect and gives conservative state courts
purview that once belonged to the state supreme court.
Brownback is daring the Kansas Supreme Court to rule
according to the Kansas Constitution and declare the Brownback
“administrative law” unconstitutional. It is highly likely that is the
outcome Brownback is seeking so he can eliminate all judiciary funding
and put an end to the judicial branch of Kansas’ government leaving the
Koch legislature and executive branch as the sole authority in Kansas.
What Brownback has the Koch Republican legislature
doing is extortion pure and simple, and the action of a tyrant and a
bully. To threaten the state’s Supreme Court with a simple choice of
either obeying Brownback unconditionally, “or cease to exist”
is sheer tyranny, outright oppression, and actions of a fascist
dictator. Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein would recognize Brownback’s
machinations as those of a world-class tyrant and grant him permanent
membership in their special dictator’s club. It is a distinction trickle
down Sam would relish and likely take to the next level and permanently
disband the state legislature and crown himself god-governor for life.
It is important to note that the only thing the
Kansas Supreme Court has done is its due diligence in pushing Brownback
and the Republican legislature to uphold their “very basic constitutional duties;”
something both Brownback and his Republican legislators swore to
uphold, but only if it fits the Koch brothers’ vision of Kansas and a
portent of the Kochs’ vision for America.
Obviously
that vision entails destroying the Kansas judiciary if it fails to
rubber stamp Brownback’s Koch agenda of underfunding education to pay
for tax cuts for the rich. The lesson playing out in Kansas is one the
federal judiciary had better take to heart if it wants to remain in
existence. The Kochs already own Congress and most of the Supreme Court
so it is no stretch to imagine Republicans repeating the actions of the
Kansas legislature in stripping authority from the federal judiciary and
then eliminate the judicial branch altogether if a federal court dared
rule that Republicans lack authority to neuter the judiciary, or to be
like Sam Brownback and become a constitution unto themselves.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)