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Thursday, December 30, 2010

25 STATES STICKING THEIR FINGERS UP THEIR COLLECTIVE ASSES!

From Digby:

Priorities


by digby

Yikes:

State legislators in 25 states (see list below) planned to introduce SB 1070 clones in upcoming legislative sessions, according to Immigration Impact. Of course, not all — or even most — of these laws will pass. However, Republicans picked up the most seats in the modern era of state legislatures in 2010 — more than Republicans did in 1994 or Democrats in the post-Watergate wave of 1974. Republicans hold both houses and the governorship in fifteen states (sixteen including Nebraska’s unicameral legislature).

Florida elected Republican Rick Scott — who ran ads against his primary opponent for his opposition to Arizona’s law — for governor along with Republican supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature. Scott supports “measures like the Arizona law.” When asked by Wolf Blitzer of CNN whether he would push the legislature to bring a bill to him, he said, “I don’t have to, the legislature’s already focused on it.”

Both House and Senate versions of immigration enforcement bills in Florida require aliens to carry documentation with them or risk being incarcerated and fined. Both bills state that nothing may prohibit local officials from “sending, receiving, or maintaining information relating to the immigration status of an individual.” If local officials do not comply, then the state attorney general may sue those officials. The Florida legislative session begins in March.

Legislators in Tennessee — which now has a Republican governor, House and Senate — plan to introduce a SB 1070-like bill in the upcoming session. The Tennessean reported that State Sen. Bill Ketron is drafting a bill that would criminalize illegal immigration, but attorneys are working to make sure the bill conforms with the state constitution. Ketron — like Arizona legislators — received help in drafting the bill from the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group that writes conservative “model legislation” for states.

Colorado is a good example of a state where a SB 1070-like bill stands no chance of passing. State Senator-elect Ken Lambert (R) said he would introduce a bill into the legislature next session. “I don’t care if it is litigated,” he said. “It is clearly something the people want. The will of the people has been ignored by Democrats for too long.” However, the Democratic governor-elect, John Hickenlooper, opposes the measure; incidentally, he defeated Tom Tancredo — who gained a national profile for his vehement opposition to illegal immigration — in the general election.[...]

If states don’t take up SB 1070-like bills, in-state tuition — or even admission to public universities — for illegal immigrants is likely to be a big issue, especially after the failure of the DREAM Act during the recent lame-duck session of the U.S. Congress.

But if the DREAM Act — allowing a path to citizenship for children brought to the U.S. illegally with their parents after completing two years of college or military service — cannot pass, it remains highly unlikely that Congress will pass any immigration reform in the near future. Which means many Republican-controlled states, unburdened by divided government, may fill in the gap.

—–

States with SB 1070-like legislation in the works: (PDF)

Most likely to pass: Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina

Maybe: Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia

Less Likely: Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island

I consider it a triumph of our new found tolerance and diversity that it's taken so long to get into full-on, hysterical xenophobia. Believe it or not, that's progress.

I'd just note that contrary to popular myth about the Tea Partiers being only concerned with fiscal matters, this issue is very big.

Friday, September 17, 2010

ANOTHER REASON WHY I WON'T BE IN ANY DELUSIONAL SUNSET!

This was at Alternet:

Glenn Beck To Fat People: ‘I Say Let Them Die’


Posted by igorvolsky on @ 5:38 amArticle printed from speakeasy: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasyURL to article: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/16/glenn-beck-to-fat-people-%E2%80%98i-say-let-them-die%E2%80%99/

This post originally appeared on Think Progress.

Since First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled her Let’s Move! program to fight obesity, conservatives have portrayed the effort as a government assault on personal freedoms and liberties. After the administration released a report on obesity in May, Matt Drudge ran a headline saying, “White House seeks controls on food marketing” and on his Fox News show, Sean Hannity asked: “Does every American family need a dietitian appointed by the government to tell them that this food is going to make you fat and this food is not?” Yesterday, Glenn Beck joined the act, criticizing Michelle Obama for encouraging restaurants to “offer healthier versions of the foods that we all love.” He also joked that fat people should die:

BECK: When I heard this I thought, get your damn hands off my fries, lady. If I want to be a fat fat fatty and shovel French Fries all day long, that is my choice. But oh oh, not so fast anymore. Because now we have the new fact, whether you like it or not, we have government health care now. … You know those fat people sitting on their couches? And I mean really fat. I don’t mean not like me. I mean the people who’s skin grows into the couch. … I say let them die. I say punish the person who’s been bringing them the milk shakes that allowed them to eat and not get up off the couch. Am I too harsh?

Watch it:

Beck was being facetious, but obesity is, in fact, a killer. The Wonk Room examines the obesity epidemic and details what the White House plans to do about it. (H/T: MMFA)

****************************************************
I, Hank Ramey, am fat.

Beck reminds me of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Republican Senator from Wisconsin. He died a miserable death. This was after he slandered thousands of people calling them Communists or simply "un-American".

Beck claims he's going to be "blind". Here's what I want to see done with that Glenn Goldenass Beck Asshole:

1. He can be mangled to death. After he dies, he WON'T be with his parents, wife, and kids. He will be running around naked in his psychological hell. After some torment, he asks God to help. Guess Who says, "I never knew thee"? It would be more than 1,000+ years before his Judgment Day.

2. He can be paralyzed and speechless. He'll be in an auto accident and be a quadlapegic. Each time he shits uncontrollably, he'll be unable to tell anybody he needs help. He'll be worse than what Martin Lawrence suffered in Runtledat.

3. He can be blind for real. Remember when Dan Rather was attacked? He wasn't blind, and was able to identify his attackers. Goldster Beck could be beaten severely while blind, but absent witnesses, could Beck do the same?

Beck is the ultimate, spineless, draft-dodging PUSSY! He needs to suffer like McCarthy. This bitch of a cunt doesn't deserve to be on the planet. If this is a Tea Party leader, it's 1933 in Germany again!

If cunts like Beck keep saying that fat people should die, Heaven have mercy on that PUSSY! If you want to see what pussies are, look at pictures of hanged Nazi War Criminals. Beck can join them!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

NOTE TO THE JUDAS CUNT TRAITOR NOT RELATED TO LAWRENCE O'DONNELL

If Hitler ever invaded America, Christie from Delaware would have turned Jews to the Gestapo. Well, that Judas Cunt Traitor would have been taken out and either shot or hung from the highest tree! Sorry, but Anne Frank would have been a greater writer, a great actress, or even a great politician today. Her ashes sit among ruins outside of Hamburg, Germany because some Nazi Kraut Kunts thought that certain people were not human.




Anne Frank was an "illegal", and a 15-year old human being. There are girls her age who have dreams beyond our imaginations. Follow your dreams. CARPE DEIM! (And wait till you get married before getting pregnant.) Cunts like Palin, Angle, and Delaware Christie would put women back to being barefoot and pregnant with bruises. Anne didn't want to be a second-class woman like her mother and Mrs. Van Daan.

STOP THE FUCKING INSANITY! VOTE DEMOCRAT!

UPDATE (!!!): David Irving, the Nazi denier, wants to give tours of Auschwitz. Please pass this around, especially to BRITAIN (!). To Irving, have you watched the American and British films of the conditions of the concentration camps? Have you read the Nuremberg Trial Transcripts? The January 20, 1942 Conference at Wansee Transcripts? He also says that the Diary, kept by one Anneliese Marie Frank (See her pic above.), is a forgery. Anne's Diary has been verified as vaild true account by the Royal Dutch War Museum. Our Troops and the British did not fight Hitler and the Nazis solely for their health. Then-Princess Elizabeth didn't work as a Royal Army Mechanic solely for her health. In addition to the Jews being murdered by genocide, about a million British died due to serial bombing by the Nazis. I suggest for the sake of the Crown over there, that David Irving can shut the bloody fuck up, or join Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin in that awful, shitty, bloody hell that will be prepared for them after DEATH!

VOTE LIBERAL! VOTE LABOUR! VOTE SOCIALISTE! VOTE SPD!

FUCK YOU, DAVID IRVING! SAY HI TO YOUR GIRLFRIEND, MAHOOD ADMINIJAB!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

WHY I DON'T HEAD INTO A DELUSIONAL SUNSET?



I love this song, and I also think that Sara Bareilles is sexee! However, this is my interpretation of "King of Anything". The ultimate person that can interpret "King of Anything" is Sara herself.

Now, my analysis:

Keep drinking coffee, stare me down across the table

While I look outside

So many things I’d say if only I were able

But I just keep quiet and count the cars that pass by

It is apparent that Sara didn't want to be pigeonholed. Who wants to be? Nobody wanted to be defined as somebody they're not. It has unfortunately been that way for centuries. Name your group, and everybody defines others as something they're not.
 
You’ve got opinions, man

We’re all entitled to ‘em, but I never asked

So let me thank you for your time, and try not to waste anymore of mine

And get out of here fast

I hate to break it to you babe, but I’m not drowning

There’s no one here to save

Don't bother to save Sara. Don't bother to save anybody else by trying to be condescending, and think that your opinion is superior to anybody else.
 
Who cares if you disagree?

You are not me

Who made you king of anything?

So you dare tell me who to be?

Who died and made you king of anything?

This is clearly the tactics of sociopaths. There are still people in the record industry that feel that women are sex objects, dogs/bitches, play-things, people to be easily manipulated, etc. These same sons of bitches are the ones that encouraged her to write "Love Song". Women are your daughters, wives, mothers, aunts, grandmothers, etc. They gave birth to you. They changed your diapers, bathed you, fed you, clothed you, helped you with your homework, took you to school and to church, etc. John Mayer had a hit song years ago telling "fathers, be good to your daughters..." The ultimate sociopaths are O. J. Simpson, Phil Spector, Scott Peterson, Brian David Mitchell, Phillip Garrido, etc. It's because most men are not taught since birth that women are human beings that care, and also share a place with men in society. These assholes that are telling Sara to be somebody else couldn't cut it as a singer and/or a songwriter themselves. They think they know everything, but don't know shit. Humility is clearly absent in these assholes. "Who died and made you king of anything" is a variant of "who died and made you king" or "who died and made you God?" Of course this not limited to women-haters. The prisons are full of them, because they let it go to their heads, and they get caught. They're like the fictitious Gordon Gecko. Thousands of polticians are also like this, and it's because we are in too many wars, and the economy is in the toilet, because they play for the highest bidder instead of serving the people.
 
You sound so innocent, all full of good intent

Swear you know best

But you expect me to jump up on board with you

And ride off into your delusional sunset

"Delusional Sunset?" Who do I picture as that? Glenn "Vick's Under the Eyes" Beck interposed on a sun during a sunset. People like Beck are State Hospital patients.

I’m not the one who’s lost with no direction

But you’ll never see

You’re so busy making maps with my name on them in all caps

You got the talking down, just not the listening

It reminds me of of the people who type in all caps thinking they know all the shit, but actually don't know shit. They're like the fake "experts" who think they know everything, but never studied the subject. They think they know everything because they think they're all shit. They are reverse King Midases, everything they touch turns to shit. Look at the United States since 1994.
 
And who cares if you disagree?

You are not me

Who made you king of anything?

So you dare tell me who to be?

Who died and made you king of anything?

All my life I’ve tried to make everybody happy

While I just hurt and hide

Waiting for someone to tell me it’s my turn to decide

I don't know why Sara had to "hurt and hide". This is certainly an issue only for her to disclose. This is certainly not just an issue over what song to write and perform. It goes back to the original premise that she didn't want to be pigoenholed and redefined as somebody she is not.
 
Who cares if you disagree?

You are not me

Who made you king of anything?

So you dare tell me who to be?

Who died and made you king of anything?

Who cares if you disagree?

You are not me

Who made you king of anything?

So you dare tell me who to be?

Who died and made you king of anything?

Who cares if you disagree?

You are not me

Who made you king of anything?

So you dare tell me who to be?

Who died and made you king of anything?

Who cares if you disagree?

You are not me

Who made you king of anything?

So you dare tell me who to be?

Who died and made you king of anything?

Let me hold your crown, babe.

What Sara is really saying is she has the record industry by the balls and dangling them from the high rise.

The entire song also has a political message. It tells these Tea Baggers that they can't demean and act against people who are different than you. The whole problem is that Tea Baggers are a bunch of sociopathic dumb stupid Nazi bunch of bull shitters clearly beholden to Corporate America. They want to ban Islam, deport all "Mexicans", keep workers unemployed where our jobs are shipped overseas for slave wages, gut our education system, and starve our seniors to death. SORRY! ALL AMERICANS WILL NOT JOIN THE GOP'S DELUSIONAL SUNSET! AMEN!

Watch Sara Bareilles - King of Anything Music Video here

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I DON'T FUCKING SUPPORT JOSEPHIEND MILLER, OR eWHITMAN!

There was an ad on my site asking cunts to support Joe Miller for U. S. Senate, or eWhitman for California Governor. If you are a Senior, do not give ANY money to Miller, or any Sarah Palin-backed candidate. In fact, give money to these candidates:

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/scottmcadams
https://donate.barbaraboxer.com/page/contribute?source=generic_web
https://secure.harryreid.com/ee/index.php/contribute
https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6235/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=3647

DO NOT GIVE MONEY TO ANY REPUBLICAN! Why support cunts, assholes, and the galactically stupid? The GOP will take your Social Security, and spend it on $300 nuts and toilet seats. They gave us the Recession like they gave us the Depression in the 1930's. BEWARE! 

Please also send Jerry Brown to his third-nonconsecutive term as Governor of California:



https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5749/t/4559/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2479

Saturday, August 21, 2010

REPEAL ALL OF SB 1070 (AND RECALL THE BASTARDS!)

I submitted this blog entry, because I'm afraid we are repeating history. This land, all of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, most of Colorado, parts of Wyoming and Kansas, and the Oklahoma Panhandle, were all once MEXICO. On January 24, 1848, we signed a treaty with Mexico, guaranteeing the rights of Mexicans and Indians still living in the stolen land as American citizens. What has this Government done? They have killed thousands of people, stolen their land, denied them the right to vote, and openly discriminated against them. For the last Century, millions of White Anglo-Saxon Polacks have all demanded that all "Mexicans", regardless of whether they were born here, which country they actually emigrated from, and what papers they have, BE DEPORTED. I have one thing to say for all of this:

FUCK YOU!


There's a very special person that is mentioned from the Article. Her name is Anneliese Marie Frank. She was born on June 12, 1929. Her father served in the Imperial German Army in World War I. Her father gave her a diary on her 13th birthday. About three weeks later, she went into hiding with her parents, her sister, and five others. She kept the Diary for 26 months, until August 4, 1944, when I believe a Judas, Wilhelm Van Maaren, called the Gestapo, who later arrested the Franks, the Van Pels, and Dr. Pfeffer. Only Otto Frank survived. Anne was born a Jew and GERMAN, and she died a Jew and GERMAN! The coup of the Enabling Act was nothing more than a violation of the Weimar Constitution. Her Diary is the best read book of all time third to the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
Recently, Marg Baker said that "they" should be put into camps. SHE CAN SUCK MY DICK AND BALLS BLUE!
This story and all other stories should be promulgated to show and prevent any and all atrocities against all Latinos. If we don't, some Ana Maria Francisquez would write her own Diario, and I shudder to hear of the consequences. Joseph Smith said by 1844 that the Constitution shall hang by a thread. It will happen. I am hoping it will not happen in my lifetime.
LONG LIVE SACRED GERMANY!
VIVE LA FRANCE LIBRE! (I say this because if France and Britain did prepare, then any invasion of Holland, Belguin, and Luxembourg would not have taken place.)
From The Tuscon Citizen:

Border Patrol takes father and leaves family on side of road in Tucson 2010

by Three Sonorans on Aug. 21, 2010, under Civil rights, Headline news





Friday nights are usually a time to relax as the work week comes to an end.

You might have to wait an hour just to get into your favorite restaurant, new movies are opening, and bars and clubs await their recently paid cogs of the capitalistic machinery for a night of libations.

For other families the night is more reminiscent of Anne Frank’s experience.

Anne Frank was an "illegal"

Beautiful human beings, intelligent humans, loving human beings… but that does not matter during certain eras of history. Certain groups of humans, children of God, our brothers and sisters on the same family tree of life, become dehumanized through the dominant power’s policy and targeted and hunted down like animals.


Life lived in hiding.

Let me say something to the dominant power — Republicanism in Arizona — about why you will never solve the problem and in fact only make things worse.

I understand your simplistic perspective “Illegal is illegal.” Wow what insight!

Speeding is illegal also, and yet the same forces behind SB1070 were the same forces behind taking the freeway cameras down because so many were being fined.

I thought illegal was illegal? What do you have to be afraid of? Just don’t break the law by speeding, and you have nothing to worry about.


But of course simplistic mantras are necessary and furthermore suffice for many living here because of our dead-last ranking in education (49th or 50th depending on your source). When education fails, human brains fail to mature and transcend into higher dimensions of existence. From our childhood of repetition — daily allegiance to a flag that was made in China, multiplication tables, prayers — some fail to see the bigger picture.

Illegal is illegal. Repeat.

What does this even mean? Who determines illegality, and you do know that second use of the word illegal is not the same first use… unless of course there is no depth to the sentence and it is simple a comparison of letter content.

Before I digress any further, let me share an experience from my Friday night.

I was headed to meet up with some friends at around 7:30pm and I got a message about cop and Border Patrol traffic incident on the south-side of Tucson. I left my camcorder with night-vision at home, but I at least could capture something from my cellphone.

I came across a group of crying children on the side of the road. They were crying for their father.


Let me preface this with something else. This disrupted family was clean. Combed hair, clean clothes, some with the highly-advanced ability to switch languages using only their brain. My point here is that they were not animals nor were they “dirty Mexicans.”

They are human beings.

Just like any human being, a mother and children will cry when their father is taken from them. The only difference between the dog-catcher and Border Patrol are the words on their vehicle. When you are Latino in Arizona, when you are unable to “show your papers” reminiscent of that other fascist era of the 1940s, you are like a dog that needs to be caught and caged.

You are not a family man. You are not a child of God. You are not a brother or sister in Christ, or whatever God you pray to. You are a dehumanized animal known only as an illegal to members of this Christian nation.

You see, if they were to recognize the divine soul within Latinos, the “temple of the Holy Spirit” or all that other stuff these same haters of humans learn on Sunday morning, these types of Friday nights would not happen. Most Latinos are Christian also, so where is the fellowship?


One last thing.

Not all parts of SB1070 were delayed. If you are driving in a vehicle and at least one passenger is undocumented, even if they are your family member you are now charged with “human smuggling.”

Then when you see crime stats that show an increase in “human smuggling” in Tucson, and people freak out, and then even more National Guard are called out to deal with this emergency, well now you know a little more about who these “human smugglers” are.

So much is contained in a word. If only Arizonans had the proper educational training to understand how a brain even creates the conception of words and how their meaning is derived as neural transmission via synapses between neurons…

Snap out of it Three Sonorans! Illegal is illlegal, repeat!



How soon we forget…

Sunday, August 1, 2010

MY VERSION OF BAD ROMANCE

By Stefani "Lady Gaga" Germanotta:

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!


Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!

Caught in a bad romance

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!

Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!

Caught in a bad romance

Rah rah ah-ah-ah!

Ro mah ro-mah-mah

Gaga Ooh-la-la!

Want your bad romance



Rah rah ah-ah-ah!

Ro mah ro-mah-mah

Gaga Ooh-la-la!

Want your bad romance



I want your ugly

I want your disease

I want your everything

As long as it’s free

I want your love

Love-love-love

I want your love



I want your drama

The touch of your hand

I want you leathe-studded kiss in the sand

I want your love

Love-love-love

I want your love

Love-love-love

I want your love



You know that I want you

And you know that I need you

I want it bad

Your bad romance



I want your loving

And I want your revenge

You and me could write a bad romance

(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!)

I want your loving

All your love is revenge

You and me could write a bad romance



Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!

Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!

Caught in a bad romance



Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!

Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!

Caught in a bad romance



Rah rah ah-ah-ah!

Ro mah ro-mah-mah

Gaga Ooh-la-la!

Want your bad romance



I want your horror

I want your design

‘Cause you’re a criminal

As long as your mine

I want your love

Love-love-love

I want your love, uhh



I want your psycho

Your vertigo stick

Want you in my room

When your baby is sick

I want your love

Love-love-love

I want your love

Love-love-love

I want your love



You know that I want you

And you know that I need you

(‘Cause I’m a freak bitch, baby!)

I want it bad

Your bad romance



I want your loving

And I want your revenge

You and me could write a bad romance

(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!)

I want your loving

All your love is revenge

You and me could write a bad romance



Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!

Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!

Caught in a bad romance



Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!

Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!

Caught in a bad romance



Rah rah ah-ah-ah!

Ro mah ro-mah-mah

Gaga Ooh-la-la!

Want your bad romance



Work-work fashion baby

Work it

move that bitch crazy

Work-work fashion baby

Work it

move that bitch crazy

Work-work fashion baby

Work it

move that bitch crazy

Work-work fashion baby

Work it

I’m a freak bitch baby



I want your love

And I want your revenge

I want your love

I don’t wanna be friends



J'veux ton amour

Et je veux ton revenge

J'veux ton amour

I don't wanna be friends

[J'VEUX TON AMOUR

VIVE LA FRANCE LIBRE!

SI SE PUEDE!]


Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!

(I don't wanna be friends)

Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!

Caught in a bad romance



(I don't wanna be friends)

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!

Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!

(Want your bad romance)

Caught in a bad romance

(Want your bad romance)



I want your loving

I want your revenge

You and me could write a bad romance

(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!)

I want your loving

All your love is revenge

You and me could write a bad romance



Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!

(Want your bad romance)

Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!

Caught in a bad romance

(Want your bad romance)

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!

(Want your bad romance)

Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!

Caught in a bad romance



Rah rah ah-ah-ah!

Ro mah ro-mah-mah

Gaga Ooh-la-la!

Want your bad romance

WHO REALLY WROTE SB 1070?

It wasn't a zealous apostate. It was a descendant of a Croatian immigrant at FAIR.

From Alter Net:

Az’s immigration law was penned by a hate group


Posted by Devona Walker on @ 4:12 pmArticle printed from speakeasy: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasyURL to article: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/07/28/azs-immigration-law-was-penned-by-a-hate-group/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet

Why does the mainstream media ignore that when covering it?

The immigration mess in this country is not a fake problem. But the debate surrounding how you solve it is completely artificial. Immigration reform has been the most politically divisive issue in this country for going on six years. That is insanely idiotic when you consider that both sides essentially agree on how to solve it. You cannot find one (unless you are talking to those racist nativists) anti-immigration group that honestly believes this country can or should deport millions of illegal immigrants. Likewise, you cannot find one pro-immigrant advocate who believes we should not do more to enforce the rule of law and secure our borders.

It all boils down to who is going to blink first. Who is going to take up this fight, which is political suicide in the short-term for Democrats and in the long-term for Republicans? [The later, look at California after Proposition 187.]

And which one do you do first? Do you secure the borders first? Or do you start a legal process by which illegal immigrants currently in the country can begin a process of becoming a legal citizen? Yes, amnesty folks. Despite all the vitriol on the anti-immigrant side of things, there is not one expert among them who does not believe that “amnesty” in some form must be a part of solving our current immigration mess.

Today, a judge in Arizona temporarily shot down the most controversial parts of the state’s stringent immigration enforcement law. It should be noted that she would not have taken that step if she had not thought there was considerable merit in the federal case against the state of Arizona.


The truth is the law doesn’t have a chance of becoming law as it is written. It does not merely encourage, but requires racial profiling. But it also violates due process. It sets up a system in which the innocent can be indefinitely detained without any proof they are illegal. Validating someone’s immigration status at present takes several days and the Department of Homeland Security has already been sued several times for detaining legal citizens. [See the song, video, and movie "Born in East L. A."] If the federal government can’t get it right, with all the resources and training available to them, how do you think some small-town Arizona cops will fare? [They also wanted us to "read the bill". They should have READ THE FUCKING CONSTUTITION, but it's a useless point with them. More to come.]

But the really inexcusable thing about this whole immigration farce is that the folks penning these “enforcement-only” immigration statutes around the country, know these laws are not enforceable or legal.

The little-known secret behind this whole “anti-immigrant” movement is that the laws are not written by individual legislators, but the legislative arm of a far right anti-immigrant group called FAIR, that is the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Each bill serves as test legislation for future bills. They have built this movement entirely upon bias, fear and emotion and have no intention of actually helping resolve the immigration mess in this country. Their ultimate goal is to repeal the 14th amendment, which is citizenship by birthright. They want to create a situation where you are not necessarily a U.S. citizen simply be the act of being born in this country. They feel citizenship should be reserved onto to children born in this country and whose parents were also American citizens. They also feel admittedly that Latinos, not necessarily illegal immigrants, are a threat to our country.

It should be noted that in our last presidential election we had two choices, Sen. John McCain and Barack Obama. If these birthright folks had their way, neither would be eligible for U.S. citizenship. Obama’s father was Kenyan and McCain wasn’t actually born in this country.

It should also be noted that the far right folks fueling the anti-immgration debate and writing the immigration statutes are not at all in line with most Americans concerned about the rate of illegal immigration, the impact on social services, public schools, or necessarily the potential that exist for the Mexican drug war to spill over into U.S. cities. These folks are not even in line with groups like the (conservative) Center for Immigration Studies, they are simply exploiting the immigration tensions that exist to further their nativist movement.

The last 11 states that enacted immigration statutes had direct connections to FAIR. FAIR is a fairly controversial group. It has been listed since 2007 by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. It’s not necessarily immigration legislation that caused them to receive this distinction but because of its historical ties to a Eugenics Foundation (Eugenics is a pseudo-science founded in the late 1800s that deals with the improvement–as by control of human mating–of hereditary qualities of a race or breed). [It was also this movement that created scientific racism, which isn't based on science at all. It is scientific racism that was the foundation of Plessy v Ferguson (1896), and 58 more years of racial segregation. It was also the basis of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany to commit genocide of six million Jews and millions more non-Germans.]

SPLC has also investigated FAIR’s founder John Tanton, a guy who has been warning for years, not about illegal immigration, but a “Latino onslaught.”

“In a majority of the states where legislation has been proposed or discussed, the leading lawmakers behind the bills are associated with FAIR’s legislative arm, a group called State Legislators for Legal Immigration (SLLI) that operates in at least 35 states,” it was reported in Colorlines.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, FAIR has received more than $1 million in grants from the Pioneer Fund, a group that promotes the notion that blacks and Latinos are inherently less intelligent than whites. [Since scientific racism and segregation are not based on constitutional law, it is no wonder why trolls on various internet groups continue to repeat FAIR's nonsensical bull shit. It is clear that they want segregation back. The Fourteenth Amendment abolished the nonsense that Blacks and everybody else was inferior. There was no constitutional basis for "separate but equal" in the first place. It was based on clearly untested fear and prejudice that is based on copmplete ignorance. While the forefathers initially made Blacks as three-fifths of a person, it was intended in the long run that at least every man would be free and equal as intended. They (FAIR) don't like the Warren and Burger Court rulings, and don't like the current civil rights laws on the books. They want to go back to the way they were in 1896. They are like the KKK without the bedsheets.]

In at least seven of the 11 states where these “immigration enforcement” statutes have been proposed, there are legislators “drafting” them that are member’s of FAIR’s state legislator’s group and Arizona is no exception.

In South Carolina, it was Rep. Michael Pitts. Pitts is a listed as a member of SLLI. The language in the South Carolina bill is strikingly similar to the one in Arizona. In Missouri, SLLI member Rep. Brian Nieves signed on as a co-sponsor of a draconian anti-immigrant bill recently referred to a legislative committee. In five other states–Maryland, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah and Texas–the same is true.

Kris Kobach, a lawyer who works with the FAIR legal arm, IRLI, helped write Arizona’s SB 1070. [From Croatia, how amazing?]

Why is Arizona any different?

Well, until now, FAIR’s strategy appears to be to have been to eat away at the rights of immigrants along the margins. That is, all the states up until this point, have not had significant immigrant populations or problems in terms of illegal immigration. Instead, FAIR chose conservative strongholds where they would be able to find legislators who found it politically advantageous to propose stringent immigration enforcement statutes. But in terms of really affecting the lives of immigrants, these bills were not that consequential — as those states do not have large populations of immigrants. This, of course, also meant there would be little resistance and pushback from Latino voters.

The difference in Arizona is that it does have a large Latino population. After Arizona, they will probably be emboldened enough to take on Florida, New York, Texas and California. [They already failed in California with Proposition 187.] Arizona is a very critical test case for the anti-immigration crowd. And this federal suit is equally critical when it comes to stopping the madness long enough to address the problem at hand.

Read the story.

***************************************************************

Devona Walker is a veteran print journalist. She has worked for The Associated Press and the New York Times company. Currently she is the senior political and finance reporter for theloop21.com. She lives in Columbia, Missouri where she is working on a Master's in Public Policy and her first novel.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

LIKE ANGLE, LIKE PALIN

It goes to show you that when Republicans are in trouble, they don't want the press to cover them, which is why they run like pussies and cunts.

From theimmoralmajority.blogspot.com

Sarah Palin admits she quit as Governor because of the media.


From the Daily Caller:



From a remote location on an island off Alaska’s coast, former Governor Sarah Palin is blasting what she describes as the “sick puppies” in the media who immediately and ruthlessly attacked her when Sen. John McCain picked her as his running mate during the 2008 presidential campaign.



By "attacked her" she really means "investigated her", which to Palin must have seemed like an attack since, up until then, the Alaska media had rolled over to have its tummy rubbed every time she walked into the room and rarely asked her any difficult questions, or in Palin parlance, "gotcha questions."



In exclusive remarks to The Daily Caller, Palin described “hordes of Obama’s opposition researchers-slash ‘reporters’” descending upon Alaska in the days after she was picked by McCain.

She said the media became a key reason she decided not to finish out her term as governor and faults, in part, the McCain campaign for failing to vigorously defend her.



I have heard that "hordes of Obama opposition researchers" claim since the day Palin was picked as Old Man McCain's arm candy, but in fact most of the reporters who came up here were simply trying to learn more about this newly minted national politician who hardly anybody knew anything about.



Hell I was doing research as well, and I can assure you that NOBODY paid me a dime to do so.



Palin chose to be a public figure at the highest level, as a candidate in a presidential campaign, arguably inviting the most intense scrutiny imaginable.



“It was too obvious to me, my family, my administration and anyone else who knew me (and my record) that we were in a defenseless position the minute I gave my acceptance speech and the hordes of Obama’s opposition researchers-slash ‘reporters’ had descended upon Alaska,” Palin told The DC.

Palin, whose conflicts with key McCain campaign staffers are infamous, said the campaign could have stood by her more firmly.



“To not have had the McCain campaign staff defend my record was an insurmountable challenge, because once a bell is rung, it’s impossible to un-ring,” Palin said.



I believe what Sarah is referring to here is the McCain campaign's refusal to lie about Todd Palin's membership with the Alaska Independence Party.



“It didn’t help, either, that the hours and hours of interviews with the likes of Katie Couric resulted in a few minutes here and there of selected snippets of my annoyed answers. (I naively had not believed at the time of some of the badgering questions [for example, questioning my pro-life position] that the editing process would fulfill their biased purpose),” Palin said.



Another ridiculous accusation.  Palin also recently looked like an idiot while being interviewed by Bill O'Reilly, was THAT also edited?  The truth is that the woman always looks like an imbecile unless somebody asks her only soft ball questions or scripts them with her ahead of time.  And often that does not help either.



“I said, ‘Enough. Political adversaries and their political friends in the media will not destroy my State, my administration, nor my family. Enough.’ I knew if I didn’t play their game any longer, they could not win. I would not retreat, I would instead reload, and I would fight for what is right from a different plane.”



So there you have it from "Mama Grizzly" herself.  Palin quit the job she was elected to, because she simply could not stand up to the media and the bloggers.



There you go Republicans, THAT is the woman who energizes your base like no other, the woman who is the darling of the Teabaggers who are actively hijacking your party.



Good luck with that.



By the way, just so we are all on the same page, NOBODY fears the media unless they have something to hide.  Remember that.

Friday, July 23, 2010

THEY SHOULD CONTINUE TO STOP OFF-SHORE DRILLING

From theimmoralminority.blogspot.com:

I have a new hero and his name is Judge Ralph Beistline, the man who said NO to offshore drilling in the Chukchi Sea.

From ADN:



U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline said the Minerals Management Service failed to analyze the environmental effect of natural gas development despite industry interest and specific lease incentives for such development. The agency analyzed only the development of the first field of 1 billion barrels of oil -- despite acknowledging that the amount was the minimum level of development that could occur on the leases.



The agency also failed to determine whether information it acknowledged was missing before the sale was relevant or essential under environmental law, or whether the cost of obtaining that information was exorbitant.



Beistline enjoined all activity under the lease sale pending additional environmental reviews.



Caroline Cannon, president of the Native Village of Point Hope, an Inupiat Eskimo whaling community of more than 700 on a peninsula jutting into the Chukchi, said news of the decision brought tears of joy in the village.



You know I think that last line, pretty much says it all.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

KEITH OLBERMANN IS SO SPOT ON!

"You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?", Mr. Welch to Sen. Joe McCarthy, now a dead man.

Glenn Beck should not be a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He is not a Christian of any kind by any remote way.

Jesus Christ fed the poor, healed the sick, and raised the dead. He gave the Sermon on the mount on the basis of "come, follow Me." He chased thieves out of the Temple.

He died on the Cross. He told the thief next to Him, "for tomorrow you will be in Paradise." He died. He went to the dead in the dark. He visited all the righteous, taught all the repentant, and opened the Gates of Heaven.

He then left His tomb.

Mary Magdaline was looking for Him. She thought He was the gardener, and begged to take His body.

Jesus came back.

He also visited the Native Americans, the Polynesians, and the Ten Tribes.

---------------------------------------

"Senator [Dan Quayle], I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." Sen. Lloyd Bentsen in the 1988 Vice Presidential Debate.

Beck, I was in the Pre-Existence. I was with Jesus Christ. I knew and still know Jesus. He is my Best Friend

You sir, are no Jesus Christ.

You don't know Jesus Christ.

As Keith Olbermann would say, "you sir, are an idiot."

YOU ARE A MOR-ON!

You weren't the first. It was Andrew Notsobriteassbitch that launched the attack on Shirley Sherrod. The clip where it was claimed that she discriminated against a White farmer was severely edited. The point was to show that Obama is a "racist", and will hurt and discriminate against White people. The entire Fux Propaganda Channel is trying to promote this and other allegations, such as Obama was born in Kenya, and that Obama is some sort of "Muslim" "Socialist" or "Fascist". 

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., was born on August 4, 1961, the 17th anniversary of the day Anne Frank and seven others were arrested by the Gestapo (Richard Belzer, the future Det. Munch, was also probably riding in his birthday present with his cousin, the future Arthur Fonzerelli, that day.), in Honolulu, Hawai'i. He was not born in Kenya, or anywhere out of the United States. They don't like Obama as President, BECAUSE HE IS BLACK. 

Hitler didn't like Jews, because they were Jews.

"They passed a law in '64 to give others a little more.", Bruce Honrsby and the Range, "That's the Way It Is".

GET THE FUCK OVER IT!

THIS IS 2010, NOT 1960!

The Republican Party is no longer the Republican Party of 1860. It is a shell of the Democratic Party of 1860.

Ayn Rand Paul stated on the Rachel Maddow Show that he wanted segregation back. The Republican Party and its supporter, the Fux Propaganda Channel, have not condemned Paul; therefore, they are just as racist as the Southern Democrats were in the 1960's. Ask Latinos in Nazizona.

---------------------------------------------

"She [Anne Frank] asks as if we started the War. Did we start the War?", Herman Van Pels ("Van Daan"). "The Diary of Anne Frank".

"We didn't start the fire! It was always burning as the world was turning!" Billy Joel, "We didn't start the fire!"

Glenn Goldenass Beck is a fraud. He advertises for Goldline. Goldline has ripped off thousands of people for thousands of dollars, including seniors. He is also a liar, and is not close to be a journalist. The Fux Propaganda Channel is just that, a cable channel to spread unfounded conservative propaganda, and then pose it as news. It is a giant amonium nitrate (bull shit) factory. Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, and the rest of the staff are no better than Joseph Goebbels, and the Ministry of Information and Propaganda. 

I say all this because Shirley Sherrod was asked to resign by sending a text by cell phone on the way back to Athens, Georgia, because she was going to be a topic of Glenn Beck's show on the Fux Propaganda Channel.

Beck is a liar, fraudster, and thief. He should be excommunicated from the Church. I would not sustain him in any Church Office! His ass should be dragged to Congress and interrogated and interviewed by a House Committee. It does not matter if he is blind, HE IS ALREADY SPIRITUALLY BLIND! His acts in destroying people should force him to be humble. He is nothing more than Father Coughlin and Morton Downey, Jr. Beck is an embarrasment to the Church. He should, for his mental and physical health, must quit his radio and TV shows, if he is ever going to be closer to God again. If he doesn't, the Fux Propaganda Channel signed it's own death warrant. They are Joseph Goebbels and Joseph McCarthy combined, and if they don't understand it, then we are not the United States of America, but United States Hospital. Welcome to the Insane Asylum.

Sharron Sherrod should get her job back. Obama ought to quit pretending that the Republicans are going to be "bipartisan" when they want to go back to the days between 1994-2008. FUCK THEM! They started the Great Depression in the 1930's and started this Recession. It wasn't the Democrats. Between 2001-2009, the Republicans spent monies like they're the bunch of drunken sailors. It fine time in 2010, this November, more of them should be defeated, not less. Nancy Pelosi will remain the Speaker, and Harry Reid (Righteous and sane man) will remain the Senate Majority Leader. The Republicans and the Fux Propaganda Channel all drank the Kool Aid. So did Tom Vilsack. He should text his resignation on the Beltway.

Nikita Khrushchev said in "Enemy at the Gates", "He's [Marksman Vasili Zaytsev] making the Germans shit in their pants!"

The Republicans and the Fux Propaganda Channel should shit their pants.

Rue Britannia.

Viva la Revolucion!

Vive la France Libre!

Es lebt unser heiliges Deutschland!

United We Stand!

Go to hell Glenn Beck!

KEITH OLBERMANN IS SO SPOT ON!

This is also from theimmoralminority.blogspot.com:

Keith Olbermann's Special Comment for July 21, 2010.




Hard to hear. But extremely important that it be heard.

More from digbysblog.blogspot.com

Civil Rights and Shirley Sherrod's Family


by batocchio

Earlier this week, Digby posted some of Shirley Sherrod's speech - the parts Andrew Breitbart and his team chose to hide. (Media Matters has the video.) If you haven't seen it yet, it's pretty moving and thoughtful.

Three recent posts delve more into her story, her father's and her husband's.

"Hosie Miller: Shirley Sherrod's dad, and a casualty in a forgotten war," by Will Bunch:

How unusual was it for a black man to be killed by a white man in the Deep South up through the mid-1960s with no one brought to justice. Way too common. We hear a lot about one particular killing in Mississippi -- the 1964 murder of a trio of civil rights activists that included two white college kids from up North -- but in reality dozens of black men were killed for taking a stand, for trying to vote or just on a whim. If you want to read something sobering, check out this letter from 2007 from the Southern Poverty Law Center, asking the FBI to investigate some 74 additional unsolved deaths from the era.

"The civil rights heroism of Charles Sherrod," by Joan Walsh:

People who care about civil rights and racial reconciliation may eventually thank Andrew Breitbart for bringing Shirley Sherrod the global attention she deserves. Really. Her message of racial healing, her insight that the forces of wealth and injustice have always pit "the haves and the have-nots" against each other, whatever their race, is exactly what's missing in today's Beltway debates about race. What's even more amazing, but almost completely unexplored in this controversy, is the historic civil rights leadership role of her husband, Charles Sherrod, an early leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who served on the front lines of the nonviolent civil rights movement in the early 1960s.

Despite Breitbart's attempt to cast Shirley Sherrod as The, um, Man ("The Woman" doesn't have the same ring), out to keep oppressed white folk down, under our first black racist president, she turned out to be the opposite, an advocate of justice for everybody. Given that history, it's fascinating to learn more about her husband, an early SNCC leader known for being willing to work with white volunteers even after tension developed over the role of whites in the organization. Charles Sherrod is important for much more than the fairness with which he treated whites, but given Breitbart's attempt to make his wife the poster woman for black "racism," that footnote to his leadership history is particularly noteworthy. If there's anyone more clueless about our civil rights history than Breitbart, as well as more abusive to it, I'm challenged to think of who it might be. He tests my commitment to nonviolent social change, but I'll share the work of Charles Sherrod to remember my values.

"Shirley Sherrod and the Dark History of Baker County," by Elizabeth Holtzman:

The bad news is that the forces of racism and those who cower before it are alive and well. The good news is that both the Spooners, the poor white farmers that Ms. Sherrod helped, and Ms. Sherrod were able to reject that racism to find what connected them. The best news would be if the country would decisively cast off the legacy of Sheriff Screws, Sheriff Johnson, and all the racist evil they represent.

Out here in L.A., some of the local PBS stations have been re-running Eyes on the Prize this year. I doubt Breitbart will watch it, but it seems it's always timely.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

WHAT ABOUT SEX OFFENDERS?

From sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com:

Marc Klaas' daughter Polly was murdered when she was 12 years old and he has
devoted his life to protecting children from murderes/sex offenders since then.
Are the laws in place which limits sex offenders to where they can live really
helping or are they backfiring? Marc Klaas says that there needs to be a way to
differentiate certain sex offenders from others and then make the punishments
equal.


Video Link |
YouTube Channel


NOT EVEN THE NEW YORK GOVERNOR IS IMMUNE

From: sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com:

Original Article


07/08/2010

By Mark Hamblett

Former Governor George E. Pataki and other officials can be sued for the involuntary civil commitment of violent sexual predators without notice or a hearing upon the completion of their prison terms, a federal judge has ruled.

Southern District Judge Jed S. Rakoff concluded that Mr. Pataki, the former commissioners of the New York State Department of Correctional Services, the state Office of Mental Health and others are not shielded by qualified immunity for actions that "rather blatantly violated plaintiffs' constitutional rights."

The inmates were shuttled directly from prison to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center after Mr. Pataki unilaterally promulgated a Sexual Violent Predator Initiative in September 2005. He acted after the Legislature several times failed to enact a civil confinement statute.

Judge Rakoff said the governor's initiative ran afoul of U.S. Supreme Court case law and, in any event, "no balancing of public and private interests can remotely justify what happened here."

The state Attorney General's Office has appealed Judge Rakoff's decision in Bailey v. Pataki, 08 Civ. 8563, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Both the office and Mr. Pataki, now of counsel at Chadbourne & Parke, declined comment yesterday.

Six plaintiffs sued Mr. Pataki and several officials alleging a politically motivated conspiracy to violate their civil rights.

The governor's program authorized involuntary civil commitment pursuant to New York Mental Hygiene Law §9.27, which allows two state-employed psychiatrists to commit, without a prior judicial hearing or determination, "any person alleged to be mentally ill and in need of involuntary care and treatment."

But in 2006, the New York Court of Appeals ruled in State ex rel. Harkavy v. Consilvio, 7 N.Y. 3d 607 (2006), that post-release commitment could only occur through Correction Law §402, which permits transfers of inmates to civil confinement in a psychiatric facility only upon a judicial determination made after notice, hearing and examination by court-appointed psychiatrists.

Before the Harkavy decision, the six plaintiffs were all near the end of their prison terms when they were transferred to the psychiatric facility.

After briefing and oral argument, Judge Rakoff dismissed some claims against some of the defendants. But he left in place allegations against Mr. Pataki and his former aides under 42 U.S.C. §1983 for violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth amendments, conspiracy under §§1983 and 1985, state constitutional claims and state law claims for negligence and gross negligence, and claims by three of the plaintiffs for false imprisonment.

'Essential Requirements'

In his opinion Tuesday, Judge Rakoff cited Vitek v. Jones, 445 U.S. 480 (1980), in which the U.S. Supreme Court called involuntary psychiatric commitment "a massive curtailment of liberty" that cannot be done without adequate due process protection, including notice and a hearing.

"The fact that a citizen has been previously convicted of an offense involving sexual violations in no way deprives him of this protection," Judge Rakoff said, adding that the plaintiffs' evidence shows that "none of the essential requirements set forth in Vitek was met."

The plaintiffs, he observed, were transferred "without the slightest advance notice" after being evaluated by two physicians prior to transfer. And he said there was nothing in the record, when viewed in a light most favorable to the plaintiffs, that suggested it was infeasible to accord procedural safeguards to the inmates.

The judge rejected the defendants' claims that their actions were objectively reasonable and not in violation of clearly established law. He added that "it would have been the easiest thing in the world" to follow all the required procedures.

"This is so obvious that no reasonable defendant official could have failed to miss it," Judge Rakoff said.

He said the plaintiffs had put forth evidence that could lead a jury to conclude that the officials knew they were violating the inmates' rights but persisted "in a deliberate decision taken for political reasons."

"To deprive plaintiffs of their constitutional rights for political gain can never be reasonable," he said.

And while Mr. Pataki and the other defendants "vehemently" deny they acted for political advantage, he said, "plaintiffs have proffered sufficient competent evidence to make this a jury question."

Plaintiffs' attorney Ameer Benno said it was absurd for Mr. Pataki and others to claim qualified immunity because they are being indemnified under Public Officers Law §17.

"The whole doctrine of qualified immunity is based on the idea that public officials should be able to act in a way that is bold and decisive without fear of personal litigation," Mr. Benno said. "This perpetrates a fraud on the community, which is not aware that these officials are not going to pay out of their own pocket."

Assistant Attorneys General Edward J. Curtis Jr., Jane R. Goldberg and Matthew Silverman represent the defendants.

After Mr. Pataki left office in 2006, the Legislature enacted Article 10 of the Mental Hygiene Law, which established a process for civil confinement of sexual offenders.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

NO ACTUAL INNOCENCE PROVISION? BULL FUCKING SHIT!

This is clearly judicial activism by these conservative Judges. Instead of doing their duties; they're are finding ways not to handle justice.

From circuit9.blogspot.com:

Lee v. Lambert, No. 09-35276 (7-6-10) (O'Scannlain joined by Wolle, D.J.; concurrence by N. Smith). AEDPA does not have an innocence exception to its statute of limitations. That was the decision by the 9th, where the panel reversed and remanded a granting of relief by a district court. The petitioner had been convicted of various counts of child molestation in Oregon, but his challenge, with a compelling innocence claim, was outside AEDPA's statute. The 9th chose this case to quash any assumption that there was an exception for innocence, stating that it was basically a waste of time and judicial resources and that district courts are deciding cases differently (see pp. 9533 & 9534). The decision by the 9th boils down to the plain language of the statute and that Congress was aware of such a possible judicial created exception, but did not fashion such an exception in the final legislation. The decision by the 9th creates a circuit conflict with the 1st, 5th, 7th, 8th, and now 9th, aligned against the 6th. N. Smith concurred, focusing on the lack of AEDPA deference given to the state courts by the district court under AEDPA.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

YOU GO CINDY!

General Atomics ought to shit their pants.

From cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com:

General Atomics Afraid of Peace of the Action by Cindy Sheehan

Jackwagons


Cindy Sheehan

Last week I was getting ready to head out to DC for Peace of the Action’s Sizzlin’ Summer Protest when I got a call with a 202 (DC) area code. This is how the conversation went:

Me: Hello, this is Cindy.

Caller: Hello, my name is (I forget) from PM Realty in Washington, DC.

Me: And? What can I do for you?

Caller: I was looking at your website and I noticed that I represent one of the clients you are going to protest next week and I want to know what you are planning.

Me: I am protesting a lot of places, which do you represent?

Caller: I represent the landlord?

Me: The landlord of the White House? Can you please be more specific?

Caller: I represent the landlord where General Atomics has offices.

Me: Oh (this was what I thought he was talking about), and what do you want to know?

Caller: Well, exactly what do you have planned?

Me: Well, I can tell you what we don’t have planned—we aren’t going to call a drone strike on the building and drop a hellfire missile on it.

Caller: I have to protect my clients.

Me: From what? Peace activists?

Then I hung up.

Today, my colleague, Josh Smith and I went to 1899 Pennsylvania Ave where General Atomics has its offices to recon for our protest tomorrow. If you go to the website of General Atomics, not only will you find out exactly where its offices are (they are not hiding), you will find out that General Atomics builds Predator unmanned aerial vehicles that are used by the US military to drop Hellfire missiles from thousands of feet above on to mostly civilian targets and have killed thousands of innocent people.

When we arrived at the building that is directly across the street from the World Bank in the NW quadrant of DC, we walked right in the front door and right up to the front desk (Josh was wearing his Peace of the Action shirt) and asked a uniformed security guard what floor GA is on. She looked at a list on the desk and said: “Third floor.” We thanked her and left. The reason we wanted to confirm that GA is in the building is because when we protested at the Joint Command for the Gulf Disaster in New Orleans, there was some controversy if we were protesting at the right place.

So, Josh and I left GA and walked across the street to the CVS to grab a cold drink. We walked back across the street to head for the Metro at Faragut Wast, and three men were congregated in front of 1899 Penn Ave checking us out. Two of the men were “suits” and one was a black man who was dressed in street clothes, but with a badge around his neck.

I took some pictures of the entrance and the address, and the black man quickly approached us. He said: “We want to know why you entered the building and asked what floor General Atomics was on.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Security for General Atomics,” he answered.

Josh: “We asked because we wanted to know what floor it was on.”

Security: “Why do you want to know?”

Me: “It’s really none of your business.”

Josh: “Just stay away from us.”

Security: “Okay, okay.”

Then we walked away.

We cut through some buildings on the way to the Metro Station so I could find a bathroom. Josh and I went down to the train platform and were chatting about and chuckling about General Atomics being so concerned about a few people standing in front of their building with a banner, when Josh said: “Hey, isn’t that the security guy!?”

I turned around to where Josh was pointing, and sure enough, he was walking past us with a ball-cap on, carrying a backpack. When he saw that we recognized him, he sheepishly tipped his cap to us and said: “Hey, how’s it going?” Then he walked past us.

A train pulled up that wasn’t ours, so we jumped on it and tried to make our way back to where we were staying in a non-direct way.

So—what is this all about?

On Monday, my wallet was stolen and literally a few minutes after it was stolen, someone tried to use it at a DC Target Store to buy EXACTLY 911.00 worth of merchandise.

What are these evil “Jackwagons” up to?

What does Jackwagon mean? I don’t know, but I heard it today and liked it and without using profanity, it fits!

If you are able, join Peace of the Action as we protest an evil war profiteer in DC. (Safety in Numbers).

For more info go to www.PeaceoftheAction.org

PS: If Josh and I “disappear” call General Atomics and ask what they did to us.

FINALLY, THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES NAZIZONA

Now if the pass immigration reform in Congress, we'd be in business.

From bsnorrell.blogspot.com:

U.S. Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Arizona's Racial Profiling Law
ACLU and Other Groups Also Challenging Law Laud Obama Administration's Action
BY ACLU

WASHINGTON, July 6 -- The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit today challenging Arizona's recently enacted racial profiling law known as SB 1070. In taking this extraordinary action, the federal government has sent a clear message that it will not tolerate state laws that invite racial stereotyping and profiling and interfere with federal immigration priorities and policies.
The American Civil Liberties Union, along with a coalition of leading rights groups, filed a lawsuit in May challenging the constitutionality of the law.
The civil rights coalition includes the ACLU, MALDEF, National Immigration Law Center (NILC), Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) – a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice – ACLU of Arizona, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP is serving as pro bono co-counsel in the case.

The following statements can be attributed to members of the coalition, as listed below.

Lucas Guttentag, Director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project:

"We commend the Obama administration for taking this critical step to negate Arizona's unconstitutional usurpation of federal authority and its invitation to racial profiling. The administration's lawsuit is a cannon shot across the bow of other states that may be tempted to follow Arizona's misguided approach. We will continue to aggressively pursue our legal challenge and welcome the Justice Department's participation in the battle to preserve American values of fairness and equality."

Linton Joaquin, General Counsel of NILC:

"States planning to follow in Arizona's misguided footsteps should take note: the United States cannot and should not allow immigrants and communities of color to be targets of hateful racial profiling legislation that puts their civil liberties on the line. We are pleased to see that the government has exercised its legal right to protect the rights of those within its borders and ensure that federal issues remain squarely in the federal domain."

Alessandra Soler Meetze, Executive Director of the ACLU of Arizona:

"The Obama administration's action against this 'show me your papers' law sends a loud and clear message against state laws that institutionalize racial profiling of Latinos and result in an erosion of trust between law enforcement and the community. There has been a long history of racial profiling of Latinos in our state, particularly in Maricopa County, causing witnesses and victims of crime to be less willing to come forward. We will fight vigorously to keep this law from going into effect, and welcome the administration's efforts toward the same goal."

Julie Su, Litigation Director, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, a member of Asian American Center for Advancing Justice:

"We welcome the Department of Justice's action against Arizona's law that invites racial profiling of anyone who might be perceived as being foreign, including Asian Americans. We hope the DOJ's challenge to this discriminatory law signals a willingness on the part of the federal government to address the myriad ways that our country's broken immigration system affects Americans and those who seek a better life by coming to America. We need federal action to prevent more cities and states from introducing copycat measures that violate core American values of fairness and equality."

Chris Newman, Legal Director, NDLON:

"The Department of Justice has the legal and moral obligation to challenge SB 1070, not just to protect civil rights in Arizona but also to defend the federal government's exclusive authority to define and implement United States immigration policy."

Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and Chief Executive Officer of the NAACP:

"In filing this lawsuit, the Obama administration has taken a strong and principled stand against Arizona's discriminatory law. African-Americans have the misfortune of being all too familiar with the pernicious effects of racial profiling, and we welcome the addition of the administration to the broad spectrum of organizations already challenging this unconstitutional law. Laws that encourage discrimination have no place in this country. We are confident that the courts will prevent it from ever taking effect."

Organizations and attorneys on the case, Friendly House et al. v. Whiting et al., include:

ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project: Guttentag, Omar Jadwat, Cecillia Wang, Tanaz Moghadam and Harini P. Raghupathi

MALDEF: Thomas A. Saenz, Nina Perales, Cynthia Valenzuela Dixon, Victor Viramontes, Gladys Limon, Nicholas Espiritu and Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal

NILC: Joaquin, Karen Tumlin, Nora A. Preciado, Melissa S. Keaney, Vivek Mittal and Ghazal Tajmiri

ACLU Foundation of Arizona: Dan Pochoda and Annie Lai

APALC: Su, Ronald Lee, Yungsuhn Park, Connie Choi and Carmina Ocampo

NDLON: Newman and Lisa Kung

NAACP: Laura Blackburne

Munger Tolles & Olson LLP: Bradley S. Phillips, Paul J. Watford, Joseph J. Ybarra, Susan T. Boyd, Yuval Miller, Elisabeth J. Neubauer and Benjamin Maro

Roush, Mccracken, Guerrero, Miller & Ortega: Daniel R. Ortega, Jr.

More information about the Arizona law, including an ACLU video and slide show, can be found at: www.aclu.org/what-happens-arizona-stops-arizona

SOURCE American Civil Liberties Union

PALIN A NOMINEE; YES. PRESIDENT PALIN? NEVER!

If she ever becomes President, I'm Anne Frank!

From theimmoralminority.blogspot.com:

Chris Matthews lays out how Palin could win the GOP nomination, and he is absolutley right. And the people who should be the most frightened by that prospect are in the GOP.

The question of whether Sarah will, or won't, throw her Naughty Monkey Pumps into the ring is now academic. She will.


She cannot win the general, and I seriously doubt she will win the primary, but she is DEFINITELY going to run! That is why there is such a push to tie up all of the loose ends in Wasilla and to get Levi back into the camp.

I am currently scouring the state looking for REAL patriotic Alaskans willing to come forward and tell the unvarnished truth about Sarah Palin. If you are one of those people, or know one, please contact me at gryphen2009@yahoo.com. I will be more than happy to listen to your story.

Monday, July 5, 2010

IT'S TIME OBAMA TO PACK THE SUPREME COURT

It seems that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court want their own judicial activism. They're fucking hypocrites. They don't want "judical activism" on liberal issues, but only on conservative ones. Fine, it shouldn't happen. We should have more liberal Justices on the Supreme Court to prevent going back to the Stone Age. If it encourages more liberal judicial activism, then hell yes. The Warren and Burger Courts were right in the first place.

See the L. A. Times.

RUSHED LIMBURGER NEEDS TO KEEP HIS PROMISE TO MOVE TO COSTA RICA

From digbysblog.blogspot.com:

Inalienable Gasbags


by digby

Rush Limbaugh says Elena Kagan wants to flush the Declaration of Independence down the toilet:

KAGAN: Senator Coburn, I believe that the Constitution is an extraordinary document, and I'm not saying I do not believe that there are rights pre-existing the Constitution and the laws, but my job as a justice is to enforce the Constitution and the laws.

RUSH: And to hell with the Declaration of Independence. She is basically just throwing the whole concept of natural law down the toilet and flushing it. She is throwing the Declaration of Independence down the toilet. [Did she say or imply it? Bull shit!]

I wonder how he explains the arch conservative Texas School Board's decision to downgrade Jefferson in their schoolbooks because they've traced "separation of church and state" to him.

Conservatives have a very hard time with the founding documents because they really don't believe in human rights --- they believe in property rights, which they confuse with freedom. Glenn Beck even changes the terms of the Declaration by making up a story out of whole cloth about how Jefferson originally wrote "life, liberty and property," but it was changed to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" by northerners in the Continental congress because of slavery. It didn't happen.

I just have to share this extended comment by Rush about inalienable rights. It's hilarious:

Rush: Now, I know the Declaration of Independence is not law, but the Declaration of Independence defines us as a people. One of the reasons why this is one of the greatest countries on earth is the Constitution and the founding documents -- all of them, including the Declaration. "We are all endowed by our Creator, certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. If the government, whatever branch, will not stand for those things, who will? Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves, held the Declaration above even the Constitution, its ideals at least.

So it makes sense that those who seek to re-enslave us, loosely defined, would feel the opposite way. They've convinced themselves that there is a "living, breathing Constitution," which means there's no Constitution at all. [Shows how much Rushed is a stupid dumb fuck cunt!] The Constitution is what they want it to be at any given moment. So inalienable rights -- an absolute guaranteed by God no less -- they find threatening. [Must be on Oxycotin all of these years, the last 60 of them!] And we're about to put somebody who obviously holds this view on the United States Supreme Court. I wonder if Elena Kagan would agree that all human beings have an alien right to live in the United States and become US citizens. [Fine, support amnesty, you shithead!] Obama clearly does. Obama vomited the cliche line: "These people are only seeking a better life." The implication was, "They're only seeking a better life! Who are we to tell 'em they can't have a better life?" So I guess the people coming here illegally, they got all kinds of rights and we're going to make sure that they are enshrined somewhere. In the process, the natural rights and conferred rights of American citizens are going to take a hit administered by this administration. [What citizens? Corporate "citizens"? People with money? Of course, but Rushed doesn't give a shit about the middle and poor classes, so why the fuck does Unclear Asschannelled put him on 600 stations? To copy the movie "Network"?]

I guess Rush thinks our "Creator" didn't mean for all those aliens to have inalienable rights -- indeed, those "natural rights" are reserved for Americans. Like I said, very confused.

If you haven't read the Declaration recently, it's worth looking at today. It, along with Bill of Rights, is the best realization of the founders' idealistic vision.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

HAS ARIZONA CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? NO!

From bsnorrell.blogspot.com:

Arizona's White Supremacy: A New Look for Old Racism


Art by Marco Frucht.

Article by Brenda Norrell

Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

TUCSON- Arizona's new push for racist laws by the governor and legislators exposes a truth that many want concealed. Not only have white racists taken over control of Arizona lawmaking, but they are now battling to disguise their intentions, and the fact that racism toward people of color thrives in Arizona.

For Indigenous Peoples living in their homelands on the US/Mexico border, the racial profiling is already constant. People of color are already constantly stopped, detained and questioned for no reason by the US Border Patrol and police along the border.

Both the US Border Patrol and police officers along the border act with impunity. They stop, detain and question people without reason. (This even happens to me, a news reporter, when I travel with Tohono O'odham. I am stopped, detained and questioned for no reason.)

The abuse does not stop here. Ofelia Rivas, O'odham human rights activist, has been handcuffed and thrown up against a police vehicle as a Tohono O'odham police officer, a non-Indian, tried to silence her. She has been held at gunpoint by Border Patrol. Other O'odham have been beaten by Border Patrol agents, some in front of their young children.

As for the migrants in the desert, it only takes a look at federal court records in Tucson to see that US Border Patrol agents get away with murder. They shoot and kill people for throwing rocks. They murder people at close range without provocation.

Unless one lives in the border region, and is either a person of color, or spends time with people of color, the truth is not always apparent.

Racism thrives within the US Border Patrol and in police departments along the border, from California to Texas.

The Arizona governor and legislators will not be able to conceal the racism that infests Arizona. Marciopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a living symbol of racism in Arizona, a living symbol that injustice and racism flourish in Arizona law enforcement.

The armed patrols stalking migrants in the desert are another dangerous infestation of racism, one of the many hate groups in Arizona.

Racists in Arizona are always looking for laws and rhetoric to avoid the truth, to put a new spin on their quest for power.

But the truth is, the United States was colonized by immigrants, immigrants who murdered entire Indian Nations and kidnapped, tortured and murdered blacks as slaves. The colonizers of the United States carried out a holocaust.

Just as Arizona lawmakers want to put a spin on their racism, the United States conceals the true foundation of its colonization, which was carried out by murderous white immigrants.

WE WERE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME! THE REALITY OF SARAH PALIN

On Facebook, I've called Sarah Palin a cunt. Why? She's the stupidest bitch around. Born an Idawhore, she is raised either by just as ignorant parents or is an older sister who feels that she  has to be better than everybody else. I have a sister like that (but she's still a Democrat). The problem is that Sarah feels that she doesn't have to be better than everybody else; SHE IS BETTER THAN ANYBODY ELSE, despite her limitations. If she was going to be a journalist, what type of education did she get?

Now, I don't always like Jim Hill. However, he's a better football player than most Americans (Hell, he played for the Chargers.). He knows football, and has been off and on KNXT/KCBS-TV and recently with KCAL-TV for over 35 years. When Jim Hill jumped to KABC-TV, KCBS-TV hired Keith Olbermann from KTLA, and he became the sports anchor until 1992 when KCBS-TV changed general managers, and insisted on having Jim Hill back. KCBS-TV then fired Olbermann, despite being over-qualified and sarcastic. Olbermann didn't become a hit on KTLA by doing what Palin did, merely read from a teleprompter and whose only qualification was having tits and ass. Olbermann wasn't a Mr. Olympian, quarterback, pitcher, point guard, or jockey, but he delivered sports news with eloquence, even though Hill still had 15 years experience at the time. Playing favorites at KCBS-TV don't work very well still, and they haven't been doing good since 1975 when they fired Jerry "From the Desert to the Sea, and to all of Southern California" Dunphy as Anchor. Both Olbermann and Hill are qualified as Sports Anchors. Who the fuck is Sarah Palin?

Palin is the bitch you want to beat up in Carson, California in broad daylight. She is a diva bitch who thinks she knows everything, but actually doesn't know shit! She sits on a pedastal thinking that she's all holier than thou. She is actually a sociopath, which is now typical of the Republican Party. I don't like Hill, but after seeing Sarah for the last two years, Hill can do a better job at being the Governor of Alaska (In a good way, not like what Tony Montana said to Seidelbaum after he got arrested.).

If McCain got elected as President, we certainly would have been in a Depression with Marie Antoinette Palin of Idawhore/Alaska next in line. People would be so sad and pissed, doctrines such as Communism would be appealing as it was in 1932. In the ghettos, it would have been worse than the French Revolution, because that Revolution was at least organized hell. She still wants offshore drilling. TELL THAT TO THE PEOPLE OF LOUISANA! She no concept on anything correct. She makes the actual Marie Antoinette look like Kirsten Dunst in real life. She attracts the stupid American types who have no clue on constitutional rights, economics, history, etc. She believes in being Born Again as in God does everything and provides. Yeah, right! God invented physics, and He knew that if people have to do anything, effort must be applied. This issue was already conclusively decided before the Creation. Satan and his followers went down to Earth without a body because he wanted to force everybody to be good, and everybody to get back to Heaven. On top of that, he wanted all the Glory. Sound familar?

Olbermann, now of MSNBC's "Countdown", has called her an idiot. That is being too nice. If she ever became President, she would make Nixon a liberal Democrat. (And hell, Nixon was a crook!) Nobody with a college education would vote for such a cunt. She lacks compassion for people, especially the poor and minorities. Why would she support Jan Sewer and SB 1070? She doesn't give a shit about Latinos. She also doesn't give a shit about Asians and Blacks. I was in a cunt rant against Palin when she said in 2008 "S---- beat the Bitch" as in Obama get the nomination over Hilary Clinton. 

President Barack Obama did not earn his title by being on "America's Most Wanted", by ditching school and tagging private property, by playing Nintendo all day, by rapping about rape, or being a drugged-up overhyped athlete. His mother made him do his homework at 4:00 a. m. in the morning. Name a Black parent that does that. Not many. Our President does not need to be referred to a title of a now-discredited restaurant! He was very elected, and he EARNED the title as President of the United States. Bush had to get help from the U. S. Supreme Court in 2000, and the Ohio Supreme Court in 2004 to be SELECTED as President. President Obama has a MANDATE! Bush is a spoiled spoon bitch and cunt! As for the cunt Palin, she needs to be left on a iceberg drifting from Alaska! We need brains not stupidity at the White House, and to quote Vice President Joe Biden, "YES, IT'S A BIG FUCKING DEAL!"

Now, from deadlawyer.blogspot.com:

The Myth of the Constitutional Lawyer

My favorite news columnist today referred to Barack Obama as a “constitutional lawyer.” I forgive her, because the term was relevant to her point, even though there really is no such thing.


When I was a twenty-something law school graduate aspiring to be the world’s greatest trial lawyer, I landed a job working for a large insurance carrier. The position had been a stepping stone for many of the most respected and successful trial lawyers in my city, as it offered a wealth of courtroom experience and the opportunity to dole out millions of dollars in settlements in a short period of time to feeding-frenzied personal injury lawyers.

For a relatively modest salary, expense account, and company car, I exclusively defended lawsuits against employers insured by our company brought by employees who claimed to be disabled on account of a work-related injury. This was a specialty area of practice, with a dearth of paperwork, and the primary function the development of favorable trial testimony from tricky witnesses.

The critical component of any case’s value was expert medical testimony. Whether it be an orthopedic surgeon, neurologist, heart specialist, or psychiatrist; a medical expert was required to prove or disprove disability. The employee’s lawyer would hire a doctor to examine the guy (or gal) and to testify the guy was in his opinion disabled, and we would hire one to examine him and testify he was not. They had their whores; we had ours.

Because courts move at the pace of a physically-challenged snail, and because they schedule trials and witness testimony therein like a cable TV company on acid (“sometime between 9 am and 5 pm tomorrow, next week, any Tuesday afternoon on a first-come, first-served basis; or one of those same times six months from now”), doctors are usually allowed to testify by deposition. The lawyers, a court reporter, and the doctor hold court in the doctor’s back office.

Medical opinions are rendered in response to the legal device known as the hypothetical question. You ask the doctor to assume a certain set of facts, hopefully for your sake the relevant facts developed or to be developed in all the other trial testimony, and then ask for his opinion based on those assumed facts. It’s the other lawyer’s job to object like crazy to the question because the assumed facts are all BS.

One day at one such deposition about a year into the job, a well-established plaintiff’s lawyer who once held my job asked the standard hypothetical question, and because I wanted to impress him, I let loose with a series of pro forma, dippy-shit objections to his question. As the court reporter struggled to keep up with me, the other lawyer chuckled inwardly. Incredulous, he looked at me with the disdain reserved for someone who was wasting his time, and declared “I suppose next you are going to object because it’s unconstitutional.”

I grinned and stood admonished, as there is almost nothing more irrelevant to the everyday practice of law than the United States Constitution.

The Constitution broadly defines the authority of the Supreme Court, the extent of and limitations on Congressional and Executive power generally. Those powers do not have to be explicitly stated, they can be “implied”, or ancillary to one of the powers specifically listed in the Constitution. That notion is reinforced by the “necessary and proper” clause of Article I, Section 8.

The document also broadly outlines a “federalist” system, where a national government coexists with the government of each of the states. Amendments to the Constitution generally have further ensured in general terms the protection of individual rights, and further defined limitations on federal or state power.

The bottom line is that rarely does a legal problem or question get answered by a reference to a specific part of the Constitution. The provisions of the document are interpreted through a series of ostensibly precedent-setting appellate case decisions by the Justices of the Supreme Court—in other words—largely according to the politics of the day. Politics change, and what were case precedents one day can get overturned the next. What might be constitutional in one era; segregation for example, may be reversed and held to be unconstitutional in another.

The pace of constitutional interpretation and change thereto has but minuscule bearing in the professional lives of 99.8% of all lawyers. State trial courts almost never declare laws or practices unconstitutional, and state appellate courts do so with only slightly more frequency than almost never. Federal trial judges will occasionally in egregious cases declare a law or practice unconstitutional; however, much of constitutional doctrine is developed in case controversies by the federal courts of appeals, with the final rules determined by the United States Supreme Court largely through its power of discretionary review, called “certiorari”.

“Constitutional lawyers” in effect are lawyers who practice regularly in the United States Supreme Court, a very select group. Though many of them are brilliant, able, and scholarly, it is not necessarily their ability to understand the Constitution that qualifies them for their jobs. More often, it is their work and political connections combined with their familiarity with the practices of the United States Supreme Court and its Justices that result in their employment and appellation as “Constitutional lawyer.”

Barack Obama probably said the word “constitution” once during his two summers in Chicago as a clerk with the law firms of Sidley Austin and Hopkins & Sutter, and he would have been referring to his ability to digest the food and drink at a firm function rather than the eighteenth century document.

Obama secured a plumb job right out of law school at the University of Chicago in order to write his first book, and he almost immediately thereafter became an instructor in Constitutional Law at the law school without ever having practiced law. He was, in name, hooked up with a Chicago civil rights and neighborhood development law firm for a few years while he taught Constitutional law, but my bet is that he was fairly inactive with the firm. He then became state lawmaker, then President. He hardly ever practiced any law at all, much less enough or the type to be called a “Constitutional lawyer.”

That does not mean; however, that he is not extremely well-qualified. It is hard to say what effect his racial background had, because it surely cut both ways. He was held back in some ways because he was black, and he advanced in some ways because he was black. Regardless, you do not graduate from Columbia, graduate from Harvard Law School where you serve as editor of the Harvard Law Review, and teach Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago unless you are an exceedingly gifted, brilliant, and hard-working man.

Nor do you become state lawmaker and rise to the office of the President, particularly given his background of relatively few, if any, connections to wealth and power, unless you are an exceedingly skilled and effective politician.

Compare those qualifications with, say, a “constitutionalist” beauty pageant contestant who found it necessary to attend 4 different relatively small colleges in the Northwest, who takes a job as a sportscaster reading a teleprompter (not that there’s anything wrong with that), shortly thereafter marries into an Alaskan fishing business, becomes the mayor of a small town in Alaska, and then rises to Governor of Alaska, a job she quits halfway through to acquire riches from her new-found 15 minutes of fame as the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 2008.

I suppose in large part it depends on your politics, but let’s get real, this is really a no brainer—who would you rather have appointing people to interpret the United States Constitution?

We do not need to kill the Constitutional Lawyer, he never really existed. The Politicians do.