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May 3rd, 2009:

A Second Look | Won’t You Join Me?

May 3rd, 2009
by Tom.
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Here is the text of a letter I wrote to my Senators via Health Care Now!

Ultimately, we need a single-payer health care system in the United States. That should be the end result of health care reform. It must guide the direction we take when you begin the road to reform. How far down that road to single-payer or universal care we start is up to the Senate.

I know that big insurance is a formidable lobby, but that is all they are, just another lobby. You must remember that the indigent and working poor have no lobby so it is up to you to lobby for them.

A public health system that is competitive with private insurance is a start. I understand that there are Senators that do not want the government to be the cause of an entire industry’s failure. But, you must consider that the insurance industry can and must make room for a government sponsored program that will benefit the millions of people for who’s care they are unwilling to provide.

As you begin the process of hammering out a health care plan, keep in mind that the health insurance industry must make concessions. Be the lobby for us.

Please join me and send a letter to your Senators. This is a matter of vital imporatnce so take a couple of minutes to let them know where you stand.

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A Second Look | Specter Against 2 Things Good for America. Puppy Killer!

May 3rd, 2009
by Tom.
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via Specter Won’t Back Public Health Care Or Employee Free Choice Act (VIDEO).

Democrats eager to see what kind of Senator Arlen Specter would be now that he has left the Republican Party likely weren’t counting their blessings after watching his appearance on “Meet the Press” this Sunday.

The Pennsylvanian, while insisting that his switch in party affiliation was driven as much by values as politics, nevertheless came out forcefully against two of progressives’ most cherished policies.

The two things Spector won’t back is the Employee Free Choice Act, and a Public Health System. Spector is planning to join the filibuster of the EFCA. Since the reconciliation procedure is expected to be used to bypass the filibuster on the Public Health System he will vote nay on that too.

He is trying to spin this as “the Democrats knew what they were getting” or “the I told the Democrats how I would vote before I came over”. Spector is trying to be all gruff and set in his ways.

At several other points, Specter did lay out areas in which he had “diverged materially from the Republican line,” including raising the minimum wage, the stimulus package and abortion rights. But he went to great lengths to insist that he did not, as reported, tell Democratic leadership or the White House that he would be a loyal party member.

“I did not say,” he told host David Gregory, “I would be a loyal Democrat. I did not say that.”

Underneath all that is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican in sheep’s clothing, just another right-wing liar.  He’s getting irritated feeling badgered about Democratic Party platform issues because he is actually still a Republican. The only difference here is that he is trying to get re-elected in a state that has turned more blue and he sees what happened to Lincoln Chafee as a portent of his own political demise. He doesn’t want to leave the Senate by a huge defeat from the right. Leaving his Republican Party after so many years was his only hope to save his own ass. The decision to join the Democratic Party was not based on ideology but survival. Does this remind us of Lieberman? You betcha!

Here’s where Spector tries to confuse the press by connecting the fear he has for his own ass to what he says are “34 judges” not confirmed because the Republicans did not have a majority.

“The [conservative] Club for Growth has undertaken campaigns to defeat moderate Republicans in the primaries knowing that they would lose in the general election. Take one case that was slightly different on procedure and that was Linc[oln] Chafee. The Club for Growth beat Linc Chafee, made him spend his money on the primary,” Specter explained.

He went on to cry about what the Club for Growth did to Lincoln Chafee. It is like six degrees from Kevin Bacon. If Chafee had been re-elected there would have been a Republican majority, and if there had been a Republican majority, then there’s these 34 judges that would have been confirmed and they would not have gone home pouting.

The real reason these judges weren’t confirmed is that the majority of the Senate saw that these judges were ideologues and right-wing activists that Bush was trying to cram into the court system.

Spector really says, “I’m terrified of the Club for Growth. I’m terrified that I won’t get re-elected. That is why I’m voting against the good workers of America. That is why I can’t let the poor have health care. I have to kill their kid’s puppies because I am still a Republican.” I say, “Go back where you came from!”

F*ck him. The Dems don’t need him.

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A Second Look | Orrin Hatch is Looking for Activist Judges.

May 3rd, 2009
by Tom.
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via Orrin Hatch: Obama Speaking In “Code”.

WASHINGTON — A senior Republican on the Senate committee that will consider President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee says he’s worried the president might pick a judicial activist instead of someone who bases decisions on the law.

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah says Obama’s comment last week about naming a justice who understands Americans’ problems and has empathy for people is “code” for putting in place a person who legislates from the bench.

Here’s some activism for ya, Orrin. Look no further.

Laurence H. Silberman: right-wing activist judge

Laurence H. Silberman is a Federal Appellate Judge for the District of Columbia. Last year, in March of 2007, he wrote the opinion in the case Parker v. District of Columbia holding that the District’s ban on ownership of handguns violated the Second Amendment. In a 2-1 decision the Appeals Court struck down a law that was written and passed by the city’s democratically elected government. The long standing ban on handguns had achieved the status of settled law then along comes a right-wing shill for Reagan/Bush and throws out another protection of the innocent in favor of the gun lobby and the NRA.  From Common Dreams contributor, Jesse Jackson, March 2007:

The boneheaded decision not only ignores precedent, it also reveals the real threat of a court system packed with right-wing zealots. Silberman is a notorious right-wing operative, deeply compromised by his partisan involvement in the effort to smear Bill Clinton. He is the kind of justice that President Bush denounces regularly — a judicial activist, prepared to elevate his own political ideology over that of the elected representatives of the people, and eager to engage in judicial lawmaking if it fits his ideological bent.

The Appellate Court for the District of Columbia’s activism set up the Supreme Court’s activism, voting 5-4 upholding the lower courts’ decision. Right-wing activist judges once again ruled against the people in favor of guns.

Remember the acronym “RATS”. It stands for the right wing of the Supreme Court -  Justices Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia who ruled in the majority and they were able to convince Kennedy, who is the swing vote now that Ginsberg is gone.

In a city, and at a period in time, where a hand-gun ban is not only necessary in light of the crime involving guns but demanded by the people as a protective measure, then to have right-wing activist judges come along and laugh at the democratic process that put the law in place, is the epitome of what Orrin Hatch would call “legislating from the bench”.

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