28 June 2010

Another Outrage from the Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, June 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday that state and municipal laws banning handguns for self-protection in the home are unconstitutional.

Another outrage committed by a dim-witted and extreme conspiracy of judicial activists. To say America is dying would be more than a metaphor. In this case, her death will come in a hail of gunfire which will end with her writhing in agony in a pool of her own blood.

When Antonin "Fat Tony" Scalia created a personal gun right with his ludicrous Heller opinion, we entered a new era of jurisprudence. No longer are we bound to the actual text of a law. Now we can invent things such as "prefatory clauses" to dismiss parts of laws we don't like. In that vein, I encourage all officials charged with maintaining law and order to declare this latest outrage of out-of-contol judicial activism from the Supreme Court merely a "recommendatory opinion" carrying no burden of compliance.

16 June 2010

More Nonsense by Patrick J. Buchanan

In Bailing Out Politicians Now?, Buchanan takes a shot at the President's attempts to maintain government services by sending some money to the states.  Set aside the fact that he's wrong.  Buchanan says, "Obama, with his $800 billion stimulus, bet it all on the public sector. It appears not to have worked."  Sorry Pat, it just ain't so.The stimulus was the only thing that kept us out of a full depression.

No, he's also wrong in the implication the past stimulus and any future stimulus are too costly.  The cost of government is irrelevant if we have the services we want. The question is, what services do we want? The answer to that question, if history is to be a guide is, all of them.

Americans love big government. The bigger, the better. From the earliest days of the Republic, we've demanded more and more from government and real Americans have objected only when government left some need unmet. Buchanan and the rest of the shills and hacks of the AmeriCorporate media who protest the cost of government without considering the object of government serve only the narrow special interests of the monied classes and the ideological extremists of the extreme right with their ranting and railing.

11 June 2010

Worse Than a Bail-out

John Boehner (R-OH) said US taxpayers should help BP pay for cleaning-up BP's oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.  Eventually, he took-back his comment but the bell can't be unrung.  Presumably, Boehner and the rest of the usually highly regimented Republicans want to bail-out BP.

I thought we weren't doing bail-outs anymore.  They caused such a stir last time I thought we swore off.  Now we find the Republicans were just kidding.   Big rich BP, a company which earns $20 billion dollars a year, BP Bailout? , is facing a cost of about one years's profits to clean-up the mess it's made. 

Is that too much to ask? 

Apparently, the Republicans, ever-faithful defenders of capitalist profits, think it is.  They didn't mind when GM, a major employer of everyday Americans, was facing liquidation.  "Let it fail" they screamed.  Apparently, jobs for Americans mean nothing to the Republicans but profits for foreign capitalists are a different thing.  Even if the profits are just a bump in the road, profits for capitalists are sacred to Republicans.

This is despicable.  It's an outrage approaching treason.

05 June 2010

Mexisrael

When the Israelis attacked the relief mission to Gaza, Conservative pundits naturally lept to their defense.  Among them was David Limbaugh who wrote:

In reviewing the available facts about the Israeli storming of the Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla, two conclusions emerge: 1) The Israelis were justified in their actions, and 2) the Israelis will continue to be unjustly condemned by the world community.

Consider:

Israeli is surrounded by nations and entities either dedicated to its destruction or decidedly hostile to it. In the past five years, Hamas has fired some 10,000 missiles into Israel from Gaza.

With that background and pursuant to its existential right to self-defense, Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza to prevent the delivery of weapons into the area that could and probably would be used by Islamic terrorists in more attacks against Israel.

World Press Rushes To Condemn Israel -- as Usual


Set aside, for a moment, Limbaugh's rationalizations of the Israeli assault on the aid ships and ask yourself how you would feel about a
similar situation in the American southwest.

Suppose Mexicans had crossed the border of, say, Arizona, and had established a community in definance of American law. Suppose, further, they eventually gained the support of the international community, declared themselves independent and made the native born occupants of the new country, Mexisrael, second class citizens.

Would you feel the interlopers were justified in killing Arizonans who tried to aid their former countrymen now living within the borders of Mexisrael?