Month: August 2010

Elena Kagan Confirmed As Associate Justice Of Supreme Court!

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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)!

Essential Action Needed For “99er” Unemployment Compensation Extension!

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We have reached a stage unseen since the Great Depression, having a few million people who have been unemployed through no fault of their own for 99 weeks, nearly two years, and without much hope any time soon for employment opportunities!

These people are heavily middle class, who have been suffering financially and emotionally in a way none of us wish to experience!

To wake up for nearly two years without much hope, particularly with the millions of people unemployed in late 2008 and the first half of 2009, and to face the reality that each job out there has between 5-6 competitors on average, requires immediate action by our government to prevent these people from becoming homeless, living on the streets or out of their cars if they still have one, and going hungry and without medical care!

Many of these people had never experienced unemployment before, and many are highly educated and trained, and many are family people, with wives, husbands, and children!

To tell these people, sorry, you have gained 99 weeks of unemployment, and now you are on your own, is to tell them basically that they can “go to hell”, and that this nation does not give a damn about them and their future!

Here, it is appropriate to bring a religious statement into this discussion: “There but for the grace of God go I!” To say that this misfortune could never happen to us is a sign of cockiness, arrogance, and lack of care for other human beings!

When we have many people taking better care of their pets than we deal with misfortune of human beings, it is time for what Senator Debbie Stebanow of Michigan and others are sponsoring right now! Give small business tax credits to hire workers for a guaranteed 52 weeks of employment, and meanwhile give these unfortunate workers an extension of 20 more weeks of unemployment compensation!

This can be done before the Senate and House go on break, and with only a few Republican votes, and it is essential that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi keep the Congress in session until and when this legislation is approved!

Barack Obama And The Revival Of The Auto Industry!

Ronald 4 Comments

A year ago, Republicans and conservatives were criticizing the Obama Administration for intervention in the auto industry, which many considered nearly dead and not worth saving!

Now, a year later, there have been six months of improved conditions in the auto industry and profits are being made, and it is obvious that President Obama did the right thing in deciding to assist General Motors and Chrysler!

Many failed to realize that it was not just the auto industry itself that was at stake, but also many allied industries that would have suffered a complete collapse if the auto companies had not seen federal intervention to keep them alive and kicking!

While the Michigan and Midwest unemployment rates are still very high, the fact of signs of improvement is a testimonial to the fact that the Obama Administration did the right thing in deciding to help keep the auto industry alive! So congratulations, Mr. President! 🙂

Charlie Crist Abandoned By Two He Promoted To Their Public Positions! :(

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Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who is running as an Independent for the Senate this fall, is learning rapidly what it is to be abandoned by two people that he promoted to their public positions, and it does not make either of these individuals look very appreciative! 🙁

First, he was abandoned by George LeMieux, who he appointed to replace Senator Mel Martinez almost a year ago, to fill the remaining 16 months of that term, but who chose to endorse Marco Rubio for the Senate! Now it is rumored that LeMieux plans to challenge Democratic Senator Bill Nelson for his reelection contest in 2012, although the appointed Senator has shown no statesmanship or principle at all, and is obviously a traitor as well! 🙁

Now, the news comes that Lieutenant Governor Jeff Kottkamp, who was an obscure state senator when Crist picked him to be his running mate in 2006, is also abandoning his boss, and backing Marco Rubio for the Senate! Kottkamp was a nonentity as Lieutenant Governor, except for the news that he was very loose in his use of an expense account to travel, at the expense of taxpayers! In other words, he was as irresponsible in the use of public money as Marco Rubio was while Speaker of the state House! 🙁

Both LeMieux and Kottkamp will go down as traitors to Crist, who made them what they became, and with Crist ahead in the polls for the Senate race, what they are trying to prevent, his victory for the Senate seat, will hopefully be a failure!

And then when either one goes for higher office, such as LeMieux for Nelson’s Senate seat, it would be appropriate for Crist to support Nelson based on record, but also based on incompetence that LeMieux has demonstrated in his short time in the US Senate, plus disloyalty! 🙁

The Ultimate Outrage: House Republicans Vote Against Health Care For September 11 First Responders! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

One of the most outstanding examples of anger on the House floor within memory occurred last week when NY Congressman Anthony Weiner erupted after House Republicans, with the exception of a few, refused to support a bill to provide health care to first responders on September 11, 2001, who have had numerous health issues as a result of exposure to the horrific environmental conditions created by that terrorist created nightmare! 🙁

There has not been any issue that the GOP has responded to that shows any decency, any humanity, any compassion–and yet supposedly this party is favored to win seats in the midterm election! 🙁

This is also the party whose members still include people who believe the “birther” myth, that Barack Obama is not a citizen and was born in Kenya! 🙁

It is sadly clear that this party would reject Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower as RINOS (Republicans In Name Only), were they to be alive today! 🙁

Finally, Federal Government Aid To States For Education And Medicaid Support!

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Thanks to the two Maine Republican Senators (Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins), the Senate was able to overcome a GOP filibuster and provide $26 billion in aid to the states, to help support education and medicaid, and partially relieve the crisis in state budgets in this worst economy of the past 75 years!

Approximately 160,000 teaching positions nationally will be saved, and medicaid assistance to the states will help to plug the shortfall which threatened the continuation of the essential programs for the poor and handicapped!

The House of Representatives had adjourned for the summer break, but will return next Tuesday to pass the bill and help to relieve the economic crisis for the coming year!

Again, however, the Republican leadership in the Senate, headed by Mitch McConnell, complained that the states should not receive this extra aid, an amazing assertion when McConnell’s own home state of Kentucky is one of the poorest, most backward of all the states, and yet McConnell seems to have no concern! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AND DISGRACEFUL! 🙁

The United Nations And The “Bike Riding Conspiracy”: Tea Party-GOP Lunacy In Colorado Governor’s Race! :(

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You would think that the Tea Party Movement has reached the high point of craziness, what with Rand Paul running for the Senate in Kentucky, and Sharron Angle running for the Senate in Nevada! But if you thought that was as loony as things could get, you have not heard of Dan Meas!

Dan Meas is competing for the GOP nomination for Governor in Colorado, and seems to be ahead of his opponent, Scott McInnis, a former Congressman who has been accused of plagiarism!

But Maes is a Tea Party favorite who claims that the Denver mayor, John Hickenlooper, who will be the Democratic nominee for Governor and is heavily favored, has been promoting bringing the city under United Nations control by promoting BIKERIDING! 🙁

This is also the state where Tom Tancredo, former Congressman and GOP Presidential candidate in 2008, and a loony nativist, is running as an Independent for Governor!

Under the circumstances, the Republican Party of Colorado is going off the deep end, with the best choice for them being to select the “plagiarist”, and hope that Tancredo flops on his face politically as an Independent!

So the Tea Party Movement further undermines the Republican Party, and makes them look more and more whacko, loony, and outside of the political mainstream! 🙁

An Amazing Alliance: David Boies And Ted Olson!

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The California District Court case today, declaring Proposition 8 unconstitutional, was won because of the strong arguments of an amazing alliance of two leading attorneys–David Boies and Ted Olson!

David Boies is a liberal Democrat and Ted Olson is a conservative Republican, who opposed each other in the Supreme Court case of Bush V. Gore, which led to the Court declaring the vote count in Florida over, and awarding the state’s electoral votes to George W. Bush over Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential Election!

But the two men now have joined together in an impressive alliance, based on the idea that gays have the same rights as other citizens, and that prejudice and discrimination cannot be allowed to deny basic civil liberties and human rights, including the right to marry!

Olson was Solicitor General under President George W. Bush, and therefore has argued cases before the Court other than the Bush V. Gore case! Boies also has a very impressive record in court on numerous cases, so this is an alliance of power!

Hopefully, the two men will go down as the equivalent of Thurgood Marshall was in the Brown V. Board of Education case in 1954!

The battle must still be fought through the higher courts, but with such stalwart figures behind the gay marriage case, hopefully the moral and right thing will win out, and justice will be served! 🙂

A Major Victory For Civil Liberties And Human Rights: Proposition 8 In California Declared Unconstitutional!

Ronald 1 Comment

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!

There Is No Global Warming Or Climate Change! Yeh, Right! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, conservative talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and most other conservatives and Republicans claim there is no global warming or climate change!

Of course, they are right, heh? NO, THEY ARE TOTALLY WRONG, and the evidence continues to grow! 🙁

We are on the way to the warmest year on record, and July could be the hottest month since weather data were first collected in the late 19th century!

At the same time, Russia has been suffering from the highest temperatures on record, and dealing with disastrous wildfires unseen in their recorded history!

We have seen warmer weather conditions in the past decade than at any time since records have been kept!

We are seeing more and more erosion of shorelines all over the world, and the rapid deterioration of icebergs in the Arctic at an alarming rate!

As carbon emissions rise, the crisis is growing worse, but yet the Congress is unable to gain support across party lines to deal with the environmental crisis that the planet faces!

Instead, we are being told that there is no crisis, and instead we are allowing so called “religious” zealots to defy our scientists who warn of impending disaster in the next century!

The argument seems to be that if we “pray” enough, then we can overlook science in favor of religion! Faith will solve our problems, rather than observable evidence based upon research and investigation!

When religion and science mix, religion wins, science loses, and mankind suffers! 🙁