Presidency

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia Compares Gay Marriage To Murder! Totally Reprehensible!

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Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia has never hidden his ideological agenda on the Court, any more than Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

Both men, the most ideologically right wing of the past century, are clear in their prejudices and biases, and desire to bring America back to the 18th century, the time of the Founding Fathers, and the much promoted concept of both Justices known as “originalism”

The fact that the Founding Fathers included slave owners, treated women as second class citizens, and did not trust the masses of citizens so as to give them the vote for President or the US Senate, and limited the right to vote for white males to those who owned property in that time period, does not have any effect on either Scalia or Thomas.

If it was up to them, nothing would have changed, despite the fact that Italian Americans, such as Scalia, and African Americans, such as Thomas, were not considered human beings by most of the WASPS who dominated American government, and mistreated both ethnic groups well into the 20th century! The fact that Scalia is the first ever Italian American Justice, and that Thomas is the second ever African American Justice, seems not to have made them pause and realize the nature of progress and change!

So we know the narrow mindedness of both men, but to have Justice Scalia, who claims to be a great intellectual, and loves himself publicly, to compare gay marriage and gay rights to the horrors of murder, makes one think he is losing it completely, and needs to announce his retirement from the Court this coming June, after being in the hateful minority with Thomas on discrimination against a group, gay Americans, which has suffered more hate and prejudice than any other group in the history of the world, simply because of their sexuality, when that is none of anyone’s business!

If it is alright to have interracial marriage, or marriage between Catholics and Protestants, or Christians and Jews, all groups which have had to fight for their rights to marry, then it is alright to have two men or two women who love each other and wish to commit their lives to each other, to marry and have the benefits and security of marriage, and no prejudice, bias or hate should be allowed to get in the way of their commitment!

Scalia looked like a fool when answering the question of gay Princeton University freshman Duncan Hosie, who demonstrated great courage and dignity in his approach to Scalia, in front of a large audience.

No one is claiming that any person is free of prejudice and personal opinions, but it is totally inappropriate for a member of the Supreme Court to be so openly hostile and antagonistic as Scalia is on gay rights and gay marriage, and his behavior gives license to religious freaks and other hate mongers to continue to encourage actions and violence against gay Americans, and their and his behavior is therefore, morally reprehensible!

The Constitution, The US Senate, Exceptions To Majority Rule, And The Filibuster Crisis

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Anyone who studies Congress knows that the House of Representatives is based on majority rule, the need to have 218 votes, if everyone is voting, to pass legislation through the chamber.

One would like to think that the same idea applies to the US Senate, that 51 votes are needed to take action, or 50 votes with the Vice President casting the tie breaking vote.

But, actually, the Constitution, drawn up by the Founding Fathers, set up FIVE conditions, where a two thirds vote was needed to take action.

A Constitutional Amendment requires a two thirds vote.

A vote to remove a President, Vice President, Cabinet Officer, Supreme Court Justice, or a lower level Federal Court Judge, after an impeachment trial, requires a two thirds vote.

A treaty with a foreign nation requires a two thirds vote for ratification.

An attempt to override a Presidential veto of legislation requires a two thirds vote.

The expulsion of a Senator, after investigation of his actions and behavior, requires a two thirds vote.

That is it, no other time when the Constitution requires more than a majority vote.

However, the evil action known as the filibuster has emerged to become a monster, which bottlenecks and paralyzes Senate action in recent times.

A rarity until 2007, the filibuster dates back a century, but was rarely used. But when it was, it required the individual or the group to spend hours upon hours speaking on the floor of the Senate.

Now, with 386 “filibusters” in the past six years by the Republican minority, with none of them leading to debate for hours and hours, but simply blocking action by the threat itself, it has become clear that action should be taken against this weapon of the minority to cripple the Senate,

So action is being planned to lower the filibuster numbers required to stop action from 60 senators to a number likely to be 55, but other plans are also being developed, and the decision will be made at the beginning of the new Senate on January 3, 2013.

More discussion of the filibuster will be done by this author in the weeks leading up to that momentous decision, to try to allow the Senate to act in a manner which allows action, rather than total paralysis, which has made the Senate lose its respectability!

An Interesting Solution To The Probable Hillary Clinton-Joe Biden Rivalry For The Presidency

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After delivering a lecture this evening to a very interested audience about the Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2012, one participant came up with an excellent idea regarding the likely rivalry that will develop between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden for the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in 2016.

While certainly younger and newer faces will compete with both Clinton and Biden for the Presidency, the potential rivalry presents a real problem, not only to their friendship and admiration for each other, but also for their boss, President Obama, who owes a great deal to both of them, and would, most certainly, rather not have to pick between them, or look ungrateful to either of them.

The solution would be, as this person said, to select one of them for the first vacancy on the Supreme Court, most likely to replace Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, in 2013 or 2014.

Either one could sit on the Court and do an excellent job, but probably Hillary Clinton would be the better choice overall for the Court, a job that is highly prestigious, but far less intense than being Secretary of State or President. And she could serve for as long as she wanted, and it would be likely to please her husband, President Bill Clinton, immensely, and save her the rigors of a Presidential campaign.

It would give Joe Biden the chance to be the nominee if he can overcome younger opponents in the primaries and caucuses, but his age of 74 in 2016 would not be a plus, although he does possess immense energy.

At worst, he could become Secretary of State under another Democratic President in 2017, or be the second choice for the Supreme Court, if a second vacancy developed during the second Obama term.

The point is that both Hillary and Joe are treasures, and they could serve in other less, but prestigious positions, and continue their contributions to American government in their older years!

Federal Government Needs To Administer All Federal Elections, Including Registration And Mechanics Of Enforcement

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The election debacle this year, including attempts to deny registration and voting itself, by partisan Secretaries of State in many states, mostly Republican governed, requires at major reform, taking partisanship out of the election process.

Congress has the authority to do this in the Constitution, and therefore, could federalize all elections for Congress and the Presidency, including national registration and the mechanics of operating the election process, so as to make it fair, and also to insure no discrimination or politics in the voting process.

Of course, states rights advocates will fight against this, because they wish to continue their abuse of power, and deny people the basic right to vote.

But the world watches, and is shocked at how Neanderthalish is our whole process of electing Congress and Presidents, so it is time for reform!

2012—The ULTIMATE “Year Of The Woman”!

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The year 1992 was called “The Year of the Woman”, as we saw more women elected to public office twenty years ago, than at any other time in American history.

Well, now, step aside, as 2012 is now the TRUE “Year of the Woman”!

In 2013, there will be TWENTY women in the US Senate, and SEVENTY SEVEN women in the House of Representatives!

Additionally, the state of New Hampshire will be the first state to have an all female leadership, as Governor, in the US Senate, and in the House Of Representatives!

With so many women having political influence, and with the likelihood of one or more women planning to run for President in 2016, the role of women is rapidly becoming one of great admiration and significance historically!

America In 2012: African American President, Irish Catholic Vice President, Mormon Presidential Candidate, Supreme Court Of Catholics, Jews, Women, African American And Hispanic, And The Third Woman Secretary Of State!

Ronald 2 Comments

In the midst of all the turmoil we are going through politically, America should sit back and marvel at how far this nation has come by 2012.

We have an African American President, Barack Obama!

We have an Irish Catholic Vice President, Joe Biden, the only Catholic since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

We have a Mormon Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.

We have a Supreme Court consisting of six Catholics (Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor) and three Jews (Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan), and also an African American (Clarence Thomas), an Hispanic, (Sonia Sotomayor) and three women (Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan) on the Court.

And we have the third woman Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, after two earlier ones (Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice (one with Jewish heritage and one African American).

So we have a lot to be proud of in 2012, with the tremendous amount of diversity!

Firsts In Presidential Election Contests: Path Breaking Moments!

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Now that Mitt Romney has become the official GOP Presidential candidate, another barrier has been broken in Presidential contests.

As the first Mormon Presidential candidate, Romney has accomplished what one could call a “civil rights moment”.

We have had to wait a long time for new attitudes to develop, but we have so far accomplished the following:

1928–first Catholic nominee for President, Al Smith.
1928–first Quaker President elected, Herbert Hoover
1928–first Native American Vice President elected, Charles Curtis
1960–first Catholic President elected, John F. Kennedy
1968–first Catholic Vice Presidential candidate, Edmund Muskie
1984–first woman Vice Presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro
2000–first Jewish Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Lieberman
2008–first African American President elected, Barack Obama
2008–first Catholic Vice President elected, Joe Biden

And notice that with the exceptions of Hoover, Curtis and Romney, all of the “firsts” were by the Democratic Party, NOT the Republican Party!

Some Facts And Figures Appropriate For Memorial Day

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As we honor veterans of all of our wars, with survivors from World War II on to the present on Memorial Day, it is worth some time to reflect on what war means.

So therefore, the following statistics gathered about the effects of war on America:

4,488 have died in the Iraq War, and 1, 973 in Afghanistan, for a grand total of 6,461 men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their nation. And about 35,000 veterans of both wars have been wounded, with about 20 percent of this total severely wounded!

24 Presidents have served in the military, out of 43 total, a little less than 60 percent.

29 presently serving US Senators and 21 percent of members of the US House of Representatives (about 92) have served in the military.

Only 3.3 percent of the American population, about 10 million people, have served in the military.

27-30 veterans are interred in Arlington National Cemetery every day.

124, 909 American veterans, both men and women, are interred in foreign soil.

Finally, 67,000 veterans are homeless and on the streets on any given night, and this is the greatest injustice imaginable!

Not one veteran should be homeless or jobless as a result of his service to his country, and much more needs to be done to help these people who gave of themselves to their country, returned, and have not been able to fulfill the American dream!

Rare Popularity Of Former “Living” Presidents In Past Century: TR, Ike, Reagan, Clinton

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The Presidency tends to cause the decline of popularity of those who hold that office, because they have to make controversial and difficult decisions which undermine their image after four or eight years in office.

In the past century, in the time of modern media exposure, which makes the Presidency a national concern on a daily basis, most Presidents, upon leaving office, have seen their public opinion rating collapse, and usually, only after they die, does their image, and respect for the difficult decisions they made, revive their popularity among both scholarly experts and the general public.

This discussion, of course, must eliminate those Presidents who did not survive the office, including Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. However, FDR and JFK would remain highly popular in death on a regular basis since their deaths, while Harding’s brief popularity after his tragic death collapsed upon learning of the sex and other scandals during his Presidency, and he has not recovered in ratings by any group.

The only Presidents who remained generally popular after leaving office were Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H. W. Bush left office after defeat, and none of them were well regarded after their time in office. Carter and Bush had the bad luck of being followed by popular Presidents Reagan and Clinton, and Bush has had the bad luck of having both his predecessor and successor well regarded, making his time in office look quite unimpressive by comparison.

Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge and Lyndon B. Johnson left office, with each under a cloud of disrepute, with Wilson seeing the defeat of the Versailles Treaty ratification and membership in the League of Nations; Coolidge seeing the coming of the Great Depression crash on Wall Street within months of his retirement; and Johnson having to bear the burden of the Vietnam War: and all three died within four years of retirement, highly unpopular.

Taft regained respect for his service as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Richard Nixon gained respect for his foreign policy expertise in his long 20 years of retirement, but did not gain popularity for the rest of his lifetime; Harry Truman also had 20 years of retirement, but only gained popularity and respect after his death; Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter started to be regarded better as the years went by, with Carter about to surpass Herbert Hoover in longevity after the Presidency, but still condemned by many experts and the general public; and George W. Bush remains unpopular and seems resigned to the fact that he may not gain popularity or respect until he has passed from the scene.

Eisenhower and Reagan retained their public popularity in their post Presidency despite scholarly criticism of their time in office, and both are now regarded more highly, even by scholars, than they were when they were retired and alive.

TR and Clinton share a special bond, as both were young when leaving office; both were highly verbal and opinionated and constantly made news; both had charisma and were loved by the general public in their post retirement years; and TR actually ran for President on a third party line, while Bill Clinton would love to run again, as many Americans wish he could be President again, but of course, the 22nd Amendment prevents that, so instead, the push for his wife, Hillary Clinton, to try for the Presidency again in 2016 is growing!

No Time For Ignorance Or Narrow Mindedness In the Presidency Or Vice Presidency!

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The candidacy of Sarah Palin for Vice President introduced the factor of total ignorance and lack of knowledge of the Alaska Governor in 2008.

We cannot afford another Sarah Palin running for either Vice President or President. We also cannot afford any candidate who would advocate or believe the following ideas:

Anyone who denies the significance of science; anyone who allows religion to be the dominant factor in his or her judgments; anyone who does not have a basic knowledge of our government and history; anyone who believes that it is fine to deny people the right to vote on flimsy grounds; anyone who promotes veiled racism and nativism; anyone who believes we should go back to the 18th century concept of the world; anyone who denies the dangers to the environment; anyone who advocates women going back to the 1950s and earlier; anyone who believes that hard won labor rights should be taken away; anyone who advocates keeping 50 million Americans from having basic health care; and anyone who believes that a college education should not be a goal to promote among young people–anyone who advocates or believes these eleven points—should not be allowed to become our President if we wish to look to the future, rather than go back to our checkered past!