Politics Plus

The current makeup of SCOTUS is four rabid right extremists, one conservative, three moderates, and 1 liberal.  It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out where the Court will come down on most issues, especially since the fascist four have zero regard for the Constitutional r1ghts of main street Americans, if they interfere with the Republican greed of criminal corporations and the richest 1%.  Citizens United made that crystal clear.  Therefore it should come as no surprise that they are selecting cases with the intent to do more harm to the poor and middle classes.

The Supreme Court enjoys all but free rein in selecting which cases to review. From the end of one term in the summer until the start of the next, on the first Monday in October, the work of the court is to sift through thousands of petitions from parties that lost in one of the federal appeals courts or highest state courts and are eager for the justices to reverse their fate.

The kinds of petitioners favored say a lot about the court’s interests and biases. The Warren court, eager to champion individual rights, chose a large number of petitions from downtrodden people. The Rehnquist court, looking for opportunities to vindicate states’ rights, favored petitions from the states.

The Roberts court has championed corporations. The cases it has chosen for review this term suggest it will continue that trend. Of the 51 it has so far decided to hear, over 40 percent have a corporation on one side. The most far-reaching example of the Roberts court’s pro-business bias was Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. By a 5-to-4 vote, the conservative justices overturned a century of precedent to give corporations, along with labor unions, an unlimited right to spend money in politics.

Equally striking is that the court reached far beyond what the parties had argued, to make a sweeping change in constitutional law. It could have upheld the right of the conservative nonprofit group to show an anti-Hillary Clinton movie on a video-on-demand service during the primary season — without opening the door to a new era of political corruption.

The cases scheduled for argument in the next few months may appear modest. But if there is one lesson from the Citizens United ruling, it is that nothing — for this court — is inevitably modest. There are two areas of business law particularly worth watching: “pre-emption” and protection of employees from retaliation… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

The preemption question is whether or not federal law preempts state law.  This is a funny one, because Republicans are for and against it.  They think state law prevails when it comes to racial profiling, teaching pseudo-Christian dogma in schools, refusing to participate in health care reform, and more, but that federal preemption prevails when it comes to negating state laws that protect citizens from corporate criminal scams.  In my lay opinion, preemption needs to be decided case by case by the determination of compelling national interest.  When the need exists, the authority comes form the commerce clause.

The protection of employees from retaliation for such actions as unionizing and whistle blowing is clearly constitutional and in severe jeopardy.

It will take many years to restore balance to SCOTUS.  That more Republicans there are in the Senate, the longer it will take.  And if a Republican becomes President, before balance is restored, you can kiss your Constitution good bye.  That is why it is imperative that you vote.

I would love to have been there, but alas, it was much to far away.  From what I understand, it put Beck’s tiny attempt to become a religious icon to shame.  Here’s an article that describes it quite well.

Thousands of concerned Americans gathered on the National Mall Saturday to rally under the banner of “jobs, justice and education.” The rally, “One Nation Working Together,” represented an affirmation of American values, and an antidote to the ugly rhetoric of the Tea Party.

The One Nation Working Together rally included hundreds of groups representing all Americans, including Latinos, blacks, senior citizens, students, educators, members of the GLBT community, as well as social, labor and environmental activists…

…The One Nation Working Together rally created a show of force that rivals and surpasses the conservative tea party movement, a force for goodness and light, a force that must combat the evil and darkness of the Tea Party.

The Tea Party is manned by the ignorant and motivated by manufactured fear bought and produced by corporate interests, and sold by amoral fear merchants and demagogues like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.

The One Nation Working Together rally proved to be an antidote to Tea Party tyranny, offering Americans real answers, rather than hateful rhetoric… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Portland Examiner>

As good as this article was, it missed what I consider to be a main point.  Progressive change, for now, can only come from Democrats.  Uniting behind them is the only way to keep Republicans out of power.

I’m not claiming that they deserve our loyalty and support.  But the Republican Party’s most progressive positions are the progress of your resources to the rich, the progress your rights to the toilet, and the progress of your environment to oblivion.  Third party votes for national office ususlly have no effect, due to the plurality system, and should be reserved for situations like the 1st District in SC, where I have endorsed Rob Groce.  The Democrat in the race is a Manchurian candidate installed by the Republicans. 

As full disclosure, I do not believe in abortion as birth control.  I think it’s a damn lousy choice.  In my ideal world, there would be no abortion.  However, we do not live in my ideal world.  Sometimes through making dysfunctional choices, and sometimes through circumstances beyond their control, women find themselves in situations where an abortion is the best choice among the available choices that are even lousier.  A woman pregnant with a rapist’s child is such a situation.  But a significant set of the Republican party does not see it that way at all.

The GOP has always pandered to the right-wing base by promising to strip women of the right to control their own bodies. In the interest of not alienating sane people though, many Republican lawmakers make an exception in cases of incest and rape, and when a mother’s life is in danger.

But a group of ultra-conservative Republican Senate candidates — recently propelled to victory in the primaries by Tea Party groups who claim to oppose government intrusion into people’s lives — want the government to force women to carry fetuses to term, even in cases of incest or rape. Rachel Maddow, in her show on Wednesday night, called this group the “Bear Your Rapist’s Baby Caucus.” According to Raw Story, at least 78 GOP candidates for the House would qualify for this extreme voting bloc.

Here are five freedom lovers who think they should get to decide what a rape victim does with her body:

1. Rand Paul (Kentucky)…

2. Christine O’Donnell (Delaware)…

3. Sharron Angle (Nevada)…

4. Ken Buck (Colorado)…

5. Joe Miller (Alaska)…

…In addition to all anti-abortion extremists running for Senate on the GOP ticket, a multitude of House candidates also want abortion outlawed even if the pregnancy is the result of incest or rape. Amanda Terkel reported that the Republican National Coalition for Life has endorsed 63 House candidates who are pro-life “without discrimination.” Dianne Edmondson, executive director of the organization, told Terkel that there are more candidates against abortion with no exceptions in this election cycle… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Alternet>

The article includes considerable additional documentation, so I encourage you to click through to it.

I also, believe that my own beliefs make no difference whatsoever, as it is highly unlikely that I will ever be pregnant.  Therefore, it is not my choice to make.  I have absolutely no right to tell a woman what to do with her own body.  Such choices must be preserved for individual women themselves.  It must remain a woman’s right to choose.

Isn’t it ironic that the party that claims to believe in small, unobtrusive government, when it comes to protecting Americans through regulation of criminal corporations, wants to be Big Brother in the bedroom and in the doctor’s office?

If Republicans ever gain power again, they will rape women’s rights.  Count on it.  It’s up to you to stop them.  Get out and vote.  Treat your voting booth like a car.  Put it in D, not R, unless you want to go backwards.