It's the day before the Supreme Court is set to rule on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, President Obama's landmark legislative accomplishment that could define his legacy. How did we get to this point where the Court could display such severe judicial activism? Ezra Klein lays out the conservative movement that's been building over the past two years and how Republicans have artfully developed a permission structure that paves the way for SCOTUS to rule against the mandate.
Obama holds on to a narrow lead over Mitt Romney in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, leaving the race in a virtual dead heat. But the important takeaway is that the perception of Romney's business record is dipping into negative territory, especially in swing states, where only 18% viewed his business experience positively and 33% viewed it negatively. Could it be that Democrats have found an effective line of attack against Romney as a true believer in outsourcing?
The NRA is throwing its weight behind a contempt citation of Eric Holder claiming that the Fast and Furious gun-walking program was actually "a political attack on the 2nd Amendment and that the Justice Department facilitated a crime to further their gun control political agenda." Wait a second, that sounds familiar. Maybe it's because Steven Colbert parodied that very argument last week.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) were both victorious in the toughest electoral challenges of their careers, showing that incumbency still counts for something.
And sadly writer, filmmaker, and trailblazer Nora Ephron, famous for writing classic romantic comedies like “Sleepless in Seattle” and “When Harry Met Sally,” passed away last night in her beloved Manhattan after a battle with leukemia. We will never forgot you, auld friend.
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The NRA believes "gunwalking" is an attack on the 2cd amendment? Of course it wasn't under the Bush administration, and the POTUS hasn't proposed or passed any anti-gun laws even though they have claimed he has been attacking gun and ammunition laws since he's been in office and they claim he will launch the real attack if reelected despite zero evidence.
That's the problem with the Republican Party. They live a fact-Free existence. All unicorns and magic underwear. They believe that trying failed policies again and again will eventually bring fruition because guys in suits in thousand dollar haircuts say so. They believe Medicare and Social Security is for losers even though they themselves rely on Medicare and Social Security. They believe unions are evil even though they themselves belong to unions. Fox, the NRA, the religious organizations, you have to give it to them, they really learned a lot about manipulation of the undereducated and easily fooled from the Germans of the mid twentieth century.
The ruling tomorrow on the individual mandate section of the Affordable Care Act (if that is in fact what the ruling will be on) will be very entertaining given that this was originally a Republican plan worked out with the insurance industry over the course of many long years.
I can only imagine the position that the activist right wing jurists find themselves in right now. On one hand they probably don't want to offend their corporate donors in the insurance industry who they've worked with for so long to achieve this victory. After all they have the American citizens in such a position where they are required to buy insurance in vast numbers thus bringing down the cost of coverage and of course increasing profits. Additionally, with that many more people covered undoubtedly the insurers will have to employ more people, something that hasn't been mentioned at all by the media.
But the right wing media, or should i say activists, just couldn't help themselves and as usual threw a temper tantrum, thus shooting the Republican thinkers in the foot. The real conservatives don't want to give up this deal but the extremists have convinced the base the "evil Obama" has forced a devilish communist potion down our throats. As usual Limbaugh and Fox have forced the Party between a rock and a hard place. So what will to jurists do? Alienate the insurance companies or alienate their base? I don't think there's any doubt Scalia will vote against the mandate because he believes he IS Rush Limbaugh, but as far as the others go? It's anyones guess. Ha! Ha! Ha!
IMMIGRATION"AT"HEALTHCARE-Every man appears to admit that PATRIOTISM is a virtue,and that a man should love his COUNTRY.But the question arises at every corner-what is OUR country?conservatives sees it,as SUFFICES to love your own STATE.It is pretty clear that SUPREME COURT,at all events is WRONG,their conservative patriotism is mere SELFISHNESS,and has no MERIT at all of a PUBLIC NATURE.@
Ah but do they? In fact Republicans love corporations first, states rights second, federal government third. Observe the latest ruling by the right wing Supreme Courts ruling where they said that Montana did NOT have the right to ban corporate election money in that state.
I don't know who's feeding the drama fires with that claim about Orrin Hatch facing the toughest "electoral challenge of his career," but that one is nonsense. He faced a tougher challenge years ago from a Democratic opponent. Once he got past the convention (where Bob Bennett was torpedoed by two Tea Party sorts; Bennett would've won any primary challenge handily), he was home free except for having to spend a bit of his campaign money.
And of course Hatch has Utah junior Senator Mike Lee to make him look like a moderate.
In the annals of history, Hatch is giving Reed Smoot a serious run at the "Biggest Senate Doofus from Utah" lifetime achievement award. Alas, where is Ogden Nash when we need him?
The NRA blackmailing the US Congressmen with regard to their vote against Holder.
The Republican's blackmailing the American people by refusing to pass any jobs bills.
Wall Street Republicans blackmailing Americans by refusing to spend 2-3 trillion dollars on the economy.
The Republicans sure love blackmailing the American people don't they? One would almost think they were terrorists trying to overthrow or destroy our government. It sure would be nice if we just would have some professional adults who did their jobs for once.
Has anyone done a background check on Darrell Issa? Well, I went on Wikipedia and the things they said about him were appalling and made me wonder how he became a congressman in the first place and placed in a position to characterize Attorney General Holder.
Money my friend. Darrell is extremely rich and very powerful.
Thursday
WILL MIRACLES NEVER CEASE
Amazing Roberts decision. A truly pro life decision. The private insurance companies are clinking their glasses and celebrating . Uninsured are celebrating....Real PRO LIFERS are celebrating. This decision supports better lives.
After the decision to uphold Fineman quickly posted this at Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-fineman/health-care-law-supreme-court-decision_b_1633709.html
I stated this over at Huffington post for Howard
"you sure were ready to post this one. Hope we get to read what you had written if the decision had gone the other way. MIRACLES WILL NEVER CEASE....WHEE HEE”
Can you ask Fineman about what he had written to be ready if the decision had gone the other way
Must reads Chris and Hardball team
U.S. Sanctions Policy on a Collision Course against Iran; Increasing Tensions with China
http://www.raceforiran.com/
"
America’s policy on Iran-related secondary sanctions is on a collision course with itself as well as China. Secondary sanctions violate the United States’ obligations under the World Trade Organization and are, thus, illegal. (While a WTO signatory may decide, on national security grounds, to restrict its trade with another country, there is no legal basis for one state to impose sanctions against another over business that the second state conducts with a third country.) If Washington actually imposed secondary sanctions on another state for, say, buying Iranian oil and the sanctioned country took the United States to the WTO’s Dispute Resolution Mechanism, the United States would almost certainly lose the case.
Given this reality, the whole edifice of Iran-related secondary sanctions is in reality a house of cards. It rests on an assumption that no state will ever really challenge the legitimacy of America’s Iran-related extraterritorial sanctions—and this means that the United States cannot ever really impose them. Instead, successive U.S. administrations have used the threat of such sanctions to elicit modifications of other countries’ commercial relations with the Islamic Republic; when these administrations finally reach the limit of their capacity to leverage other countries’ decision-making regarding Iran, the United States backs off.
The Obama Administration is bringing this glaring contradiction increasingly to the fore, by supinely collaborating with the Congress to enact secondary sanctions into laws that give the executive branch less and less discretion over their actual application. This dynamic is now coming to a head in the Administration’s dealings with China."
REVIEW
Peter Beinart Indicts Israel
AIR TRAVEL
The Pat Down's Just the Start
Iran
You Can Stop War
On 'The Crisis of Zionism': Why you should read Peter Beinart
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/06/24/on_the_crisis_of_zionism
http://www.emptywheel.net/2012/06/27/our-other-assassination-program-mafia-hitmen-hidden-from-congress/
http://www.emptywheel.net/
great visual up at Prof Cole’s
Supreme Court declines to take US Health Care in Direction of Sub-Saharan Africa (Map)
Well, we dodged the bullet of looking like Zimbabwe on this issue. But we still need a single payer system. And the court exempting states from medicaid expansion could leave millions uninsured.
http://www.juancole.com/2012/06/supreme-court-set-to-take-us-health-care-in-direction-of-sub-saharan-africa-map.html
Amen sister!