The Danger That Pastor Terry Jones Of Gainesville, Florida Represents: Planned Burning Of Koran On September 11 Denounced By General David Petraeus!
It is amazing how a so called "Man of God" can be so intolerant, but as is well known, this is not all that unusual! 
Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida, a community that houses the renowned University of Florida, is about to besmirch that university town, the name of organized religion, and arouse world wide Muslim resentment, as he plans a burning of a copy of the Koran, the Islamic holy book, at his church on the ninth anniversary of September 11!
General David Petraeus, our renowned general in charge of the war in Afghanistan, has spoken up against this action, concerned that American soldiers will be more endangered by this action, and that it will sour our efforts to improve our relations with the Islamic world, which represents a billion people in the world!
This is as evil an act as Adolf Hitler ordering burning of books during the Nazi period in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, and should be seen as "a clear and present danger", as the Supreme Court termed it in Schenck V. US in 1919!
The action should be prevented by local authorities by any means necessary, and if actually perpetrated, should lead to immediate arrest and prosecution of Pastor Terry Jones as undermining national security!
There is no room for this kind of action in the delicate world situation we face now! Pastor Jones will be responsible for possible death and harm, and all good Christians and Jews must immediately protest his planned action!
Glenn Beck Becomes The Leading Demagogue In America! :(
Glenn Beck has been on a rampage lately, condemning Christianity that promotes social and economic justice, rewriting American history to such an extent that it is unrecognizable, and critical of movements that promoted advancement of equal rights for racial and ethnic minorities, women, and gays!
When ignorant people think they are being educated about American history and religion from Glenn Beck, including on his web based university (a great money maker), we are in a sad state, as Beck totally distorts reality, and has the ability to manipulate and sway people who have no clue as to what is the truth about everything Beck enunciates!
Beck distorts the Founding Fathers, and condemns any President who promotes reform, and hails conservatives such as Calvin Coolidge, Warren G. Harding, and Ronald Reagan who set back progress in so many ways!
When Beck tried to claim, on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s I have a dream speech, that he was reviving what King did, it was a total fabrication, as King denounced states rights, which had led to discrimination, nullification and interposition claims, and Jim Crow segregation in the South! But now Beck and his Tea Party and Fox News followers glorify exactly what King denounced!
Beck is a very dangerous man, as he stirs up mostly older white people to hate everyone else, and to try to "take back" America! If those who believe in progressive reform and change, and advancement of civil rights and civil liberties remain silent, then lunatics such as Beck will succeed in distorting our freedom of religion, our education system, and our civil harmony!
Beck is exploiting for his own financial benefit and his own sick ego, and he must be answered and challenged, rather than ignoring him and giving him slack!
Beck is coming close to the Supreme Court definition in Schenck V. US (1919) of speech becoming a "clear and present danger"--that is, speech which provokes and endangers, as in the concept of shouting fire in a crowded theater! He could very well incite loony followers to engage in violence, with him having no motivation except his own aggrandizement!
The Supreme Court And Democracy: Clear And Present Danger! :(
The conservative Supreme Court has done an excellent job in the past decade of undermining democracy and a fair playing field, as shown by two specific situations among others!
First, in the year 2000, in Bush V. Gore, the Republican dominated Supreme Court intervened where they had no business interfering, by deciding to settle the contested Presidential Election of 2000 by stopping the vote recount in Florida, and awarding the electoral votes of that state to George W. Bush over Al Gore, despite the fact that Gore had a national popular vote lead of 540,000! For a Court that claimed to believe in limited federal power and strict interpretation of the Constitution, they claimed the right to decide a presidential election, an arrogant and revolutionary grab of power, which by precedent now, could be utilized again in the future if a presidential election is close!
Then in January of this year, in the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court decided to overcome nearly a century of laws that prevented corporate intervention in national election campaigns, as destroying a level playing field in politics! They decided that special interest groups should have no limit on campaign spending to manipulate elections in their favor!
Both cases helped to promote the Republican cause, instead of the Court acting as a neutral arbiter! And now the news comes that an estimated $400 million will be spent by corporate groups to affect the midterm Congressional elections, as corporations work to prevent regulation and taxation, and bring about a Republican Congress favorable to them!
If this manipulation of politics, that the Supreme Court has been engaged in promoting, is not somehow overcome by legislation, the likelihood is that Congress, and also the Presidency, may become a permanent GOP majority that will continue to promote the rich and the powerful, and set out to destroy the reform legislation and regulatory laws put into place under Democratic administrations and Congresses since the 1930s!
This country could revert to the Gilded Age and 1920s mentality, and negate the Progressive Era, New Deal, Great Society, and the Obama reforms of the past year and a half!
This country could potentially become a nation that destroys Social Security, Medicare, and programs that benefit average Americans! As ordinary Americans come to realize that the rich elite are exploiting them and undermining much that has been done to promote equality and opportunity and fairness, the danger of bloodshed and violence and civil war based on economics increases, and destroys the American dream that has sustained us as America has become a better place for all of us!
The Final Punishment Of “Birther” Orly Taitz Over Frivolous Lawsuit!
The Supreme Court did a great deed today when they rejected "Birther" Orly Taitz's appeal of a $20,000 fine for her frivolous lawsuit in federal court over her contention that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, but rather in Kenya!
Taitz has been the most egregious promoter of hate and deception by her ridiculous lawsuit, which wasted a lot of taxpayer money, and was finally rejected!
Taitz was fined for her misbehavior and outrageous language, and appealed to Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, who rejected it, and then it was sent to the entire Court by Associate Justice Samuel Alito, so as to end the case for good!
The Court dismissed the suit, and that puts the issue to rest, except in the sick minds of Taitz and other "Birthers" who refuse to accept the reality that Obama was born in Hawaii!
At least, Taitz is being punished in having to pay the fine, and if she continues to attempt to disrupt federal courts by her misbehavior, a prison term would be very appropriate! Hopefully, she will finally shut up and go back to dentistry, although the author cannot imagine anyone wanting to have their teeth examined or treated by this nutcake whacko woman, who herself is an immigrant! Unbelievable!
Arnold Schwarzenegger And Jerry Brown Call For Gay Marriages To Resume In California NOW!
Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic candidate for Governor Jerry Brown (also a former Governor and present Attorney General) of California have called upon the federal district judge who declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional to allow the restart of gay marriage in the state!
The argument is that if the judge believes gay men and women are being denied equality under the law as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, then there should be no delay in resuming gay marriage, leaving it up to the higher federal courts to later ban it, if that were to happen!
The call by Schwarzenegger and Brown will likely push faster action by the circuit courts, and will probably lead to the Proposition 8 matter reaching the Supreme Court level much sooner, possibly in the new term of the Court due to begin in October and go through June of 2011!
It is hard to imagine that the Supreme Court will be able to evade this controversial subject, or refuse to consider it, so it seems very probable that the year 2011 will be a path breaking year on gay rights, not only in regard to gay marriage, but also the soon to be ended "don't ask, don't tell" policy affecting the military!
Elena Kagan Confirmed As Associate Justice Of Supreme Court!
Solicitor General and former Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan was confirmed today by a vote of 63-37 to be the newest Associate Justice of the Supreme Court!
Kagan became the fourth woman in the Court's history, and the second appointment of President Obama! She also became the first non judicial experience member of the Court since William Rehnquist!
She received the support of all Democrats, except Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson! She also received the backing of only five Republicans--Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, Judd Gregg, Lindsey Graham, and Richard Lugar, as compared to the nine Republicans who backed Sonia Sotomayor last year (who won her seat by a margin of 68-32)!
Kagan can be seen as a worthy successor to John Paul Stevens, who served the fourth longest time on the Supreme Court, and she inherits a seat not only occupied by Stevens, but earlier by William O. Douglas (longest serving Justice in history) and Louis Brandeis (often considered the number one or two Supreme Court Justice in history)!
A Major Victory For Civil Liberties And Human Rights: Proposition 8 In California Declared Unconstitutional!
The decision of a Federal District Court judge in California today, declaring that Proposition 8 (denying gay men and women the right to marry) was unconstitutional, is a major victory for civil liberties and human rights! 
This is not a question of religious belief! No one is forced to become a part of gay marriage! If you do not like two gays being married, you can have your view, but you don't have the right to tell others who to marry!
Only 43 years ago, people of different races could not marry, until the Supreme Court declared it constitutional in 1967! Not everyone likes interracial marriage, but who cares? It is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS who marries whom, as long as they are consenting adults!
Prejudice and hate and narrow mindedness must not be allowed to deny a group of Americans, estimated at 3 to 10 percent, the rights that the rest of us have! This is not something that should be based on a vote of the people, as the people can be wrong, as they have often been, and are not entitled to deny other people their basic human rights!
Of course, this is only the beginning, as the decision will be appealed to the Federal Circuit Courts, and ultimately is likely to go to the Supreme Court!
No one knows how the Supreme Court would rule, but the odds seem good that Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was the decisive vote in the gay rights case of Lawrence V. Texas might side with four other Justices thought likely to back gay marriage--Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Stephen Breyer!
Additionally, there are hints that Justice Antonin Scalia, despite his anger at the Lawrence V. Texas decision, has stated that there is no compelling state interest in interfering with the right of marriage, so who knows? He just might be on the side of the right of gays to marry, when the case comes to the Supreme Court!
So we just might be seeing a 6-3 decision by the Supreme Court, making this the last basic human rights issue to be decided by the Supreme Court!
Conservatives who oppose this basic human right, and religious zealots who preach hate and prejudice, are going to be seen in the future as part of the dustbin of history, as once again, being on the wrong side of the concept of human rights!
Target Stores Should Be Boycotted: Citizens United Case Rears Its Ugly Head! :(
In January, in the Citizens United Case, the Supreme Court changed a long held legal restriction on corporations spending money on political campaigns!
Now the effects of that decision are coming home to roost! Target Corporation of Minneapolis has decided to spend money and intervene to back an extremist right wing Republican candidate for Governor in that state!
The Republican nominee supports the Arizona immigration law; supports the abolition of the minimum wage; and endorses a group that condoned the execution of gay people!
Target gave $150,000 support to this candidate, state representative Tom Emmer, and has defended its support! Of course, if the minimum wage disappeared, Target could join Walmart in being anti union, and attempting to pay the lowest possible wages to its workforce, with no sense of morality as to what it is doing!
Under these circumstances, all progressives and liberals should cut up their credit cards, and refuse to spend their money at an organization with such despicable views, and such a high level of arrogance!
Women Justices And The Changing Supreme Court: Is It For Real?
The Supreme Court seems more and more to be a very conservative, almost reactionary, Court in so many ways, but David Broder of the Washington Post believes that having three women on the Court at the same time (Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan) has to affect the Supreme Court in ways hard to fathom now!
The author hopes the role of women will have a positive effect, but the problem is that it is likely that Ruth Bader Ginsberg will leave the Court before the Presidential election, and that it will be impossible for Obama to select a replacement as liberal as Ginsberg has been!
This is particularly true with a Senate bound to be of a smaller Democratic majority, and even the slight possibility of a GOP majority!
So it seems likely that in comparison to now, the Supreme Court might actually be MORE conservative, as a result, than it is right now!
1935 And 2010: Big Business Declares “War” On The American President! :(
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was starting the third year of the New Deal programs to tackle the Great Depression. His party, the Democrats, had gained a resounding mandate in the midterm elections, winning 9 seats in the House of Representatives and 9 seats in the Senate, the best performance ever for a sitting President in the first midterm election after being elected!
1935 also saw a major attack by big business corporations, declaring "war" on the New Deal as socialistic, and dangerous to American freedoms and liberty. They formed the American Liberty League and allied with right wing groups to attempt to stop the New Deal in its tracks! The nerve of the President to promote regulation and want to tax wealthy people was their rallying cry!
Now we are in the year 2010, and big business is early in beginning its attack on President Obama on the same grounds and using the same propaganda! The fact that financial regulation has just passed the Senate infuriates big business and conservative interests, which have now been responsible for having created the economic conditions that caused the Great Depression and the Great Recession!
Now the Supreme Court has made it easier for big business to get involved in political action designed to undermine the Obama Administration, and these interests are, therefore, not waiting until past the midterm elections, as they want to influence those results, and insure that nothing like 1934 occurs!
Big Business has made profits even in these difficult times, but refuses to spend to hire people and promote the economy, and it makes one wonder if the purpose is to insure that economic conditions are so bad four months from now as a method to insure the failure of the Obama agenda in the next two years!
Just as FDR faced an antagonistic Supreme Court in the 1930s, Obama has a Court determined to promote big business now during his time in office. The common themes of FDR's time and Obama's time are a reality, but the battle for Obama to maintain enough support to gain passage of the rest of his agenda goes on!