states rights

States Rights And Taxation: Chief Justice John Roberts Asserts Federal Authority And The Right To Tax

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Republicans are furious with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who has made it clear that he believes in federal authority, as on health care and immigration, and also in the right to tax for the public good.

Expect that there will be calls for his resignation, not that he will listen!

Expect that he will get death threats, and that right wing talk show hosts and Fox News Channel will stir up animosity, as he is seen as a “traitor” to the President (George W. Bush) and the party that gave him the prestigious position as Chief Justice!

But Roberts has the potential to be a statesman in the long run if he continues to defy the party that promoted him, and does what is right to do–fight states rights, and assert the right to tax!

Trying To Decipher The “Republican” Brain: Crazy, Lacking In Reality And Ethics

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Republicans used to be a reputable major political party, and have a lot to be proud of in their history of 158 years.

But there is little to be proud of in 2012, as Republicans seem to have lost their minds, their ethics, their morality, their ability to understand reality!

How else to explain the following:

A vast majority of Republicans believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya, is a Muslim, is a Socialist, a Fascist, a Communist, and wishes to destroy America.

The deficit issue began with Barack Obama, ignoring $2 trillion investment in failed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and $1.3 trillion in tax cuts to the top two percent of the population under George W. Bush.

The Federal budget can be balanced with only program cuts, not tax increases ever again.

Global warming is a hoax, and evolution is just a theory, and God will always protect all of us from harm from the climate, and mankind walked the earth alongside dinosaurs.

Iraq caused September 11, and we found Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

Since there is no body, how do we know that Osama Bin Laden was really killed by US Navy Seals?

Contraception is evil, and knowledge to adolescents about sex is evil, and it is all a plot to promote gay sex and abortions.

All Hispanics and Latinos are illegal immigrants, and they are all criminal elements that must be deported en masse.

Barack Obama is easily the most corrupt President we have ever had in American history, including Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush.

The collapse of Wall Street in 2008 was due to too much regulation, and was caused by Democrats and liberals.

The entire New Deal and Great Society is unconstitutional, and needs to be repealed, and return us to the days of states rights, instead of a powerful national government.

America was designed to be a theocracy, and we are a Christian Republic, and if we follow Jesus Christ, we will be just fine.

Science is atheism, and should be dismissed as propaganda to turn America away from God and Jesus Christ.

The list goes on, but this is enough to tell any sane person that the GOP has gone amuck in its craziness about the real world we live in!

The Momentous Month Of June 2012 In The Supreme Court: Health Care And Illegal Immigration

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June 2012 will go down in history as one of the most momentous months in the history of the Supreme Court.

The Obama Affordable Health Care Law will be judged as to whether it is constitutional, and allow a mandate on all citizens to purchase and have health insurance. This is the crux of the Obama Presidency in the first term, and will have a dramatic effect on the Presidential and Congressional elections of 2012, along with impacting millions of citizens no matter what the decision.

The Court will also decide the constitutionality of the Arizona SB1070 law, dealing with the right of that state and others to control illegal immigration, seen as an issue of human rights by many, and also as an issue of states rights against the American national government.

There will be other cases decided, of course, but the main attention will be paid to these two crucial cases, which, no matter what the decision of the Court, will have an enduring effect on the nation for many years into the future!

Conservatives Who Support The Obama Health Care Law: Charles Fried, Laurence Silberman, Jeffrey Sutton

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Three major conservative leaders have made clear by statements and actions that they believe the Obama Health Care law is constitutional under the commerce clause of the Constitution.

Charles Fried, who was Solicitor General under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, was highly critical of some of the questioning by conservative Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court this past week. Fried said health care is interstate commerce, and that Congress has the right to regulate interstate commerce. The arguments utilized in questioning are “phony rhetoric” in Fried’s mind.

Judge Laurence Silberman of the DC Court Of Appeals upheld the Obama Health Care law as constitutional in one of the cases brought by states before circuit courts on the way to the Supreme Court, decided on November 8, 2011. He has been a federal judge for 27 years, appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1985, and is a good friend, of all people, of Justice Clarence Thomas, who is seen as a guaranteed vote against the Obama Health Care law.

And Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the 6th Circuit Court Of Appeals upheld the health care law on June 29, 2011, and is seen as a leader of the conservative Federalist Society! He was appointed by George W. Bush, and is considered a disciple of Justice Antonin Scalia! He is well known as a states rights advocate!

So go figure!

This tells us ANYTHING can happen on this Court decision, and not to come to a conclusion this early that the Obama Health Care law is going to be overturned!

Rick Santorum And Barry Goldwater Would NOT Be Friends!

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Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater was the MOST right wing nominee for President we have ever had, and lost in a massive landslide to Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

Barry Goldwater was an economic conservative, who was against the New Deal, wishing Robert Taft, the earlier conservative Republican leader, had become President, because he wished to repeal the New Deal, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower institutionalized the New Deal as the first Republican President since Herbert Hoover. Goldwater wished to make Social Security voluntary, rather than required as part of the tax collection, which it had been for a quarter century.

Barry Goldwater was also a foreign policy conservative, who believed in ultimate confrontation with the Soviet Union and any foreign enemy, including potential use of nuclear weapons.

Barry Goldwater appealed to states rights advocates, and although supportive of the broad concept of civil rights for African Americans, he criticized the civil rights movement and its leaders, and accepted the backing of Southern segregationists.

BUT with all of his faults, one thing Barry Goldwater was NOT–a social conservative a la former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.

Barry Goldwater was NOT a believer in the role of religion in government, and was a major critic in later years of the Christian Coalition, and the Moral Majority, led by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and other evangelical Christian ministers.

Barry Goldwater never believed it was the business of government to interfere in private life of individuals and their families, so did not support the Pro Life Movement against abortion rights for women.

Barry Goldwater never believed it was anyone’s business to condemn or vilify people because of their sexual orientation, and so supported the rights of gay men and women.

Barry Goldwater believed that all Americans should be allowed to serve in the military, so was against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” interfering with the right of gay men and women to serve our nation, asserting that he did not care what one’s sexual orientation was, as long as he or she could “shoot straight!”

Barry Goldwater would have been mortified to see a candidate who condemned sexual relations except for procreation purposes, and to observe a candidate speak out against the use of contraception by couples for their family planning and the health and welfare of women.

It is clear that were Barry Goldwater alive and active today, he would repudiate Rick Santorum as a social totalitarian, an extremist, a dangerous man to give power to, as there is nothing worse than a “Puritan” trying to promote morality by force!

Conclusion: Barry Goldwater and Rick Santorum would NOT be friends!

Barry Goldwater came across as whacky, extreme, untrustworthy to be our President, and he often “shot from the lip”, getting himself into major troubles that could be exploited by Democrats and President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. IF Rick Santorum ends up as the GOP nominee in 2012, the same weaknesses will get him in major troubles that could be exploited by the Democrats and President Barack Obama!

Rick Santorum: 2012 Most Important Election Since 1860? He May Have It Right!

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Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania Senator, and leading Mitt Romney in the Michigan polls, is becoming the center of more attention, having to defend Foster Friess, his “sugar daddy”, who is keeping Santorum going financially. Foster Friess made fun of women and contraception, suggesting that years ago, before birth control pills, women would put aspirin between their knees to prevent pregnancy! What an amazing statement, and all Santorum can do is say he is not responsible for what his financial and other supporters say! If he was to take responsibility, he might lose his financial support, so of course, no principles, Rick, except your own aggrandizement!

But now, Santorum today has gone further, to state that the 2012 election is the most important since the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, 152 years ago!

What an interesting comparison! It is VERY CLEAR that he is appealing to white blue collar workers, north and south, craftily reminding them that before 1860, without saying it, that we did not have to worry about civil rights, human rights, such as the reality that African Americans were mostly in slavery, women had no rights, immigrants were being victimized by the American (Know Nothings) party, that government was small and based on states rights, that labor had no rights, that we exploited natural resources without regard for the environment, etc. In other words, the “good old days”, before that “dastardly” Republican named Abraham Lincoln had to “ruin” everything, and then other Republicans like Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and George H. W. Bush, and others in Congress, and of course northern Democrats and Democratic Presidents had the nerve to “change” things away from what they were in 1860.

Of course, the kind of people Santorum is appealing to, in most cases, have no knowledge of what he is talking about, except in small snippets. But Santorum has a veiled message, and is promoting a “culture” war, of them against us!

This “culture war”, trying to take away separation of church and state that our Founding Fathers gave us; promotion of constant war overseas; and advocating the advancement of corporate America against the very blue collar whites that he claims to represent, IS the new “war”, just as important as the Civil War, as it is indeed the NEW “Civil War” for the future of American freedom and opportunity!

What The Fox News Channel South Carolina Republican Presidential Debate Revealed

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Last night’s Fox News Channel South Carolina Republican Presidential debate revealed a lot about the Republican Party and about South Carolina, none of it good!

It demonstrated that the Republican Party is willing to live the past–a past of racial discrimination, denial of the right to vote, talk of secession veiled in the term “states rights”, willingness to condemn the poor in the name of veiled code words, and to promote a radical right wing extremism that would promote prejudice, and a “them” versus “us” mentality.

It also demonstrated that the Republicans have no intention of trying to avoid war, when war is possible, by their tough stand against diplomacy, and their veiled threats against Iran, even with the knowledge that America was bankrupted by Iraq and Afghanistan, and the American people wish to avoid further foreign conflicts.

The audience was very outside the norms, by booing Ron Paul over foreign policy; cheering Newt Gingrich with his racial political appeal to a group of obvious Dixiecrat types who would have voted for Strom Thurmond in 1948; being supportive of Rick Perry in his claim that the national government is attacking the rights of the people of South Carolina and Texas; and the general disrespect to refuse to honor the memory of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr on the national holiday which they were against from the beginning.

Nothing has changed in South Carolina, which started the Civil War; was one of the most viciously racist states in the era of segregation; and has demonstrated no concern for its large poverty stricken population, a majority of it white, although the image is left that they are all African American.

South Carolina remains one of the most backward states in many different statistical areas, but after all, they have their beliefs in their Christian faith, totally distorting the message of Jesus Christ!

With Ron Paul Having His “Surge” In Iowa, The Investigation Of His Record Begins!

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Texas Congressman Ron Paul has been very appealing to libertarians, and was in fact the Presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party in 1988.

Having run as a Republican for President in 2008, the only repeat candidate along with Mitt Romney, Paul is presently first in some Iowa public opinion polls as the Iowa Caucuses of January 3 get closer.

So Paul is having a “surge”, as earlier Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich have had. Only Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman have not had a “surge’ as the search for the non Romney candidate continues.

So now that Ron Paul is being paid more attention, let us look at the facts about a man who has been around a long time, and has taken positions on all kinds of issues, meaning at least some will be seen in a positive light, depending on the person looking at Paul’s record. But there is plenty to be disturbed about!

But face the facts: There is no way that Ron Paul can be the GOP Presidential nominee, and if he looked as if he was going to be, there would be such a ganging up on him by the Republican Party, which despite its claims, is NOT a libertarian, isolationist party as Ron Paul basically is.

What is objectionable about Ron Paul, in no special order?

1. Ron Paul has in the past, in a newsletter he now disavows, but was under his name, stated racist, anti Semitic, and anti gay statements. While he is not the only Republican to make racist or anti gay statements, the fact that he said them in a newsletter many years ago makes him even more objectionable, since it is harder to refute.

2. Paul is for taking America out of the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and all free trade agreements. He is perceived as an isolationist.

3. He is highly critical of Israel, the only Republican candidate to be so, and yet does not see Iran as a threat for the future with the development of nuclear weapons.

4. Paul is for wiping out most government agencies and their bureaucracies, including Education, Commerce, Homeland Security, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Energy. He also would love to eliminate the Federal Reserve Board. None of this is going to happen, no matter what criticisms there might be of these agencies.

5. Paul promotes letting states decide most matters dealt with by the national government, and thinks climate change is a hoax, and advocates stopping interference with religion’s influence in government, including the teaching of intelligent design over evolution.

6. He is a strong believer in pro-life without exceptions; against any government intervention in the environment; any regulation of guns; and any aspect of affirmative action.

7. Paul opposes any kind of amnesty for illegal aliens, any support of any kind for them, and birthright citizenship for their children born in the United States.

8. Paul believes only in excise or sales taxes, and the wiping out of the income tax, and refuses to support any spending programs that create new debts.

Also, a study by a political science journal, The American Journal of Political Science, came to the conclusion that, overall, Paul has the most conservative voting record of all 3,320 members of Congress from 1937 to 2002!

So the attacks on Ron Paul as outside the mainstream, even of the GOP, is rapidly growing!

Today Is Constitution Day: How About Truly Understanding The Constitution, Instead Of Politicizing It For Right Wing Propaganda?

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Today is Constitution Day, the day in 1787 when 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia agreed to sign the Constitution that they had fought over in four months of debate, and with the element of compromise predominating!

Ever since, the Founding Fathers and what they did has been interpreted in many different ways, and it has become the passion of the Tea Party Republicans and conservatives to distort the meaning of the Constitution and the intentions of the Founding Fathers!

The Constitution has been viewed by these right wingers as promoting a limited national government, advocating states rights, and promoting combination of church and state.

They fail to understand that the Constitutional Convention was a reaction to the states rights, limited national government of the Articles of Confederation, which led to anarchy, chaos, and economic emergency, and proved the need for a strong central government.

They fail to understand that Section 8 of Article 1 on Congress allowed for the “elastic clause”, that Congress shall have the power to enact legislation to “make all laws which are necessary and proper” and to “provide for the common defense and the general welfare”. The Founding Fathers understood that no one could accurately predict the future, and the national government had to have authority to expand the meaning of the Constitution in order to survive and be viable in the long term future of the nation!

The Founding Fathers also clearly understood that while religious freedom should be protected, that there was a need to prevent a theocracy, a control of government by religious viewpoints, and they would be shocked at the attempts of religious fundamentalists to force their moral and spiritual views on American politics and society!

This is the truth and the reality of the Constitution and its meaning for America 224 years after the Founding Fathers, NOT conservatives but rather liberals of their time period, used their joint wisdom and intelligence to create the greatest constitutional document ever created by mankind to govern a free people!

The Escalating Extremist Rhetoric Of Rick Perry: Reckless And Irresponsible!

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Texas Governor Rick Perry has only been in the Republican Presidential nomination race for less than 72 hours, and already, we are witnessing escalating extremist rhetoric that makes him the most dangerous and reckless potential nominee of the GOP since Barry Goldwater!

Wait until Perry begins his vicious attacks on Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, and even Michele Bachmann!

This man has displayed already, while Governor of Texas, that he has no limits to irresponsible statements, as witness his threat two years ago that Texas might secede from the Union, even though that is an illegal, unpatriotic, and treasonous statement to make 150 years after the Civil War!

Perry has the gall to suggest that the Federal Reserve under Ben Bernanke, trying to deal with the Great Recession, is promoting treason by trying to stimulate the economy and promote investment and job growth. It is part of his desire to strip the federal government of any control over the destinies of the American people, and instead promote the old, outworn doctrine of states rights, despite the fact that Texas and almost all other states have done a horrible job of dealing with the needs and problems of their citizenry!

Perry also has a lot of nerve to suggest that Barack Obama does not love his country, when he has suggested Texas leave the Union. He is promoting a continuation of the “Birther” myth, that Obama is not out to defend his country’s interest, even though Obama has been much more successful than George W. Bush in his pursuit of terrorists, including the massive use of drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the removal of more terrorist leaders of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, including the greatest accomplishment of all, Osama Bin Laden, in two and a half years, than Bush and Dick Cheney could bring about in eight years!

Rick Perry will stop at nothing in the politics of personal destruction of Barack Obama, and soon, his GOP opponents will discover the viciousness of this man who makes George W. Bush look like a moderate!