During the recent Sotomayor hearings we were treated to a lot of posturing from the axis of inanity; Senators Cornyn (TX), Sessions (AL), Coburn (OK), & Graham (SC) regarding the evils, ills, and dangers to the continued existence of the whole of Western Civilization from so-called "activist judges".
It is important for us to take note that each of these fools is what can only be characterized as white-southern-middle-aged-white-male. Now, some of that fits me too, but, I assure you, my mama didn't raise the sort of fool that these good old boys' mamas did.
Here's what they mean, and what exposes their racist roots, when they bitch and warp like snot-nosed five-year-olds about activist judges:
Smith v. Allwright (1944) The Supreme Court extends the Fifteenth Amendment voting rights protections to African Americans barred from Texas' all-white primary elections.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) Unanimously, the Supreme Court overturns fifty years of precedent and rules that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment that had been used to protect segregation in public schools in fact prohibits segregated schools.
Heart of Atlanta v. United States (1964) Here the Supremes ruled that an Atlanta motel is involved in interstate commerce and therefore subject to the Commerce Clause in Article 1 of the Constitution. This allowed African Americans to sleep in in an all-white establishment from which they had been barred since reconstruction.
Katzenbach v. McClung (1964) Ollie's Barbecue in Birmingham, Alabama would not serve or seat African Americans in the dining room instead shoving their orders out through the kitchen door. Again the Commerce Clause, because Ollie's had an annual income of $70,000, was successfully invoked and Ollie's had to begin seating and serving African Americans in the main dining room.
OK, now I understand, I think. An activist judge is one that strikes down a Jim Crow law regardless how long it's been in effect or depth and breadth of the precedents surrounding it.
Wouldn't it be nice if just once the corporate main stream media would call these SOBs on their racist crap instead of leaving it to bloggers like me? Just once, please.
29 July 2009
There Are Loonies Among Us - I Blame Reagonomics
OK, spare me the e-mails, I know this is not politically correct, well-informed or one bit sensitive, but there are people among us who belong in the loony bin. Some even have positions of high visibility and some amount of import. CNN's Lou Dobbs comes to mind.
This crack-brained, mentally deficient jackass, who once rode the crest of the xenophobic wave of vilification of undocumented workers from Mexico, is now pandering to the slobbering morons who have taken up the notion that President Obama can't really be the president since he is not truly an American. Yep, people actually believe and espouse that line of racist crap.
Those people, before Reaganomics closed down the state mad-houses and insane asylums, would have been gibbering their nonsense wearing straight jackets in rubber cushioned rooms while waiting their electroshock, lobotomies and Thorazine injections. I told you this was not going to be politically correct, but then, let's understand this, truth and history very often are not.
At least they would be causing no harm.
This idiotic and utterly insane notion regarding Obama's birth has been rebutted repeatedly and now even Dobbs' colleagues at CNN are distancing themselves from him faster than from the flatulent guy in the movie theater.
CNN president, Jon Klein, has refuted the absurd notion that Obama is not truly a US citizen by birth. But, and it's a big, big BUT, Klein has not done anything to quell Dobbs' incitement of those loonies who should be in some sort of protective mental facility.
Now, MoveOn.org has created an online petition to "The Most Trusted Name in News" to quickly resolve the Lou Dobbs problem in a credible manner.
It reads, in part, "Dobbs' relentless promotion of outlandish conspiracy theories that President Barack Obama's birth certificate seriously damages CNN's credibility..."
Simply click on the MoveOn link highlighted above and join with me in signing the petition. Otherwise, I'm sending someone after your butt with a butterfly net!
This crack-brained, mentally deficient jackass, who once rode the crest of the xenophobic wave of vilification of undocumented workers from Mexico, is now pandering to the slobbering morons who have taken up the notion that President Obama can't really be the president since he is not truly an American. Yep, people actually believe and espouse that line of racist crap.
Those people, before Reaganomics closed down the state mad-houses and insane asylums, would have been gibbering their nonsense wearing straight jackets in rubber cushioned rooms while waiting their electroshock, lobotomies and Thorazine injections. I told you this was not going to be politically correct, but then, let's understand this, truth and history very often are not.
At least they would be causing no harm.
This idiotic and utterly insane notion regarding Obama's birth has been rebutted repeatedly and now even Dobbs' colleagues at CNN are distancing themselves from him faster than from the flatulent guy in the movie theater.
CNN president, Jon Klein, has refuted the absurd notion that Obama is not truly a US citizen by birth. But, and it's a big, big BUT, Klein has not done anything to quell Dobbs' incitement of those loonies who should be in some sort of protective mental facility.
Now, MoveOn.org has created an online petition to "The Most Trusted Name in News" to quickly resolve the Lou Dobbs problem in a credible manner.
It reads, in part, "Dobbs' relentless promotion of outlandish conspiracy theories that President Barack Obama's birth certificate seriously damages CNN's credibility..."
Simply click on the MoveOn link highlighted above and join with me in signing the petition. Otherwise, I'm sending someone after your butt with a butterfly net!
28 July 2009
Now Is The Time
Let us not pretend anymore that the process is fair, that good and stout-hearted people will prevail, or that our representatives in Washington will, on their own, act in our best interests. They will not. They will always act in their own self-interest and unless we collectively make it in their best interest to support health care reform they will not!
In Washington, it is always easier to stop something than to bring about change. That is a fact. That is our history, both recent and past.
Consider health care reform. When we last took a run at doing something about the deplorable and tragic health care situation in the United States in the early 1990s there were around 35-million decent Americans without health care coverage. We chose to do nothing and now, a decade and-a-half later we are approaching 50-million uninsured Americans, many of them vulnerable children and older people. The very people who often are in the most need of health care, particularly preventive care.
Yet our representatives in Washington are about to vacate while there will be no vacation from need of those worthy Americans who have no health care coverage. Sure clinics, charities, and some public institutions offer some help, but, the need and demand is so immense, so dire, and so immediate and unrelenting that many people must go without attention and assistance. In some cases these people become sicker and in some cases they die. Such is truth and such is fact. But, our representatives vacate without finishing the job?
They claim things are moving too fast. Too fast? In 1945 President Harry Truman went before congress and called for universal health care for all Americans. Too fast? The Kaiser's Germany enacted a universal health care plan for its citizens in the nineteenth century. Too fast? I don't think so, the time is right now! And quite well overdue at that!
Special interests (Insurance Oligarchs and Drug Tsars) are spending $1.4-million a day to lobby congress. That number will increase as their TV ads, timed to hit the air while our representatives are participating in their annual slumming forays in their home districts, begin playing during our favorite TV shows. In some markets will be worse than election time.
The right-wing reactionaries are trying to divide us with scare tactics of loss of choice, socialized medicine and health care reform paying for federally funded abortion. Oh yeah, they're going all in on this one. No deceit is left out. No lie is left untold.
If you've never picked up the phone, if you've never written a letter, if you've never visited a district office to take your desires and concerns to your representative and senators, now is the time. Otherwise, this opportunity will pass and things will remain unchanged...well not exactly really; at some point, that 50-million uninsured will become 60-million or more.
In Washington, it is always easier to stop something than to bring about change. That is a fact. That is our history, both recent and past.
Consider health care reform. When we last took a run at doing something about the deplorable and tragic health care situation in the United States in the early 1990s there were around 35-million decent Americans without health care coverage. We chose to do nothing and now, a decade and-a-half later we are approaching 50-million uninsured Americans, many of them vulnerable children and older people. The very people who often are in the most need of health care, particularly preventive care.
Yet our representatives in Washington are about to vacate while there will be no vacation from need of those worthy Americans who have no health care coverage. Sure clinics, charities, and some public institutions offer some help, but, the need and demand is so immense, so dire, and so immediate and unrelenting that many people must go without attention and assistance. In some cases these people become sicker and in some cases they die. Such is truth and such is fact. But, our representatives vacate without finishing the job?
They claim things are moving too fast. Too fast? In 1945 President Harry Truman went before congress and called for universal health care for all Americans. Too fast? The Kaiser's Germany enacted a universal health care plan for its citizens in the nineteenth century. Too fast? I don't think so, the time is right now! And quite well overdue at that!
Special interests (Insurance Oligarchs and Drug Tsars) are spending $1.4-million a day to lobby congress. That number will increase as their TV ads, timed to hit the air while our representatives are participating in their annual slumming forays in their home districts, begin playing during our favorite TV shows. In some markets will be worse than election time.
The right-wing reactionaries are trying to divide us with scare tactics of loss of choice, socialized medicine and health care reform paying for federally funded abortion. Oh yeah, they're going all in on this one. No deceit is left out. No lie is left untold.
If you've never picked up the phone, if you've never written a letter, if you've never visited a district office to take your desires and concerns to your representative and senators, now is the time. Otherwise, this opportunity will pass and things will remain unchanged...well not exactly really; at some point, that 50-million uninsured will become 60-million or more.
27 July 2009
Happy Birthday Medicare!
In Texas there are 580,000 people who are afflicted with chronic and acute health conditions including; diabetes, heart disease, end state renal failure and obstructive pulmonary disease. At least one in four of these people are likely to be without health insurance.
Were it not for Medicare that percentage would be even higher. At last count (2008) there are 2,778,553 Medicare recipients in the state. Of those, 81% are 65 years and older and within that group 37% are 74 years and older.
July 30th is the 44th anniversary of Medicare. Despite its critics, Medicare is an extremely effective program having reduced senior poverty by two-thirds. Now, as we are engaged in a health care reform debate in Washington we are also presented with opportunities for the state’s older people and many of the state’s 25% uninsured.
We should be calling on our representatives and senators to do several things:
Help All Older Texans. Find an affordable way to allow Texans age 55 – 64 to buy into Medicare. People in this age group need medical care more often, especially for preventative care. Nationally, over 5-million in this age group have no health care insurance.
Close the donut hole. This coverage gap in Medicare Part D means that about one in four seniors will spend several months paying full price for their prescriptions while still paying their premiums. This forces older Texans to make risky, sometimes life threatening choices about whether they will take the medicines prescribed by their doctors.
Make Long-Term Care Affordable. We need to demand that whatever health care bill is presented to the President includes the CLASS Act by Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative Frank Pallone. It would create an insurance program to help middle class families with the cost of long-term care. Few working families and older Texans are prepared for what will happen when a loved one will need long-term care.
Assist Employers Who Provide Health Care Coverage. Eliminating or reducing tax benefits given companies who provide health insurance would cause many to stop offering affordable health care to their employees. These benefits should not be taxed.
Hold the Insurance Oligarchs Accountable. One of the most contentious issues in the current debate is that of the “public plan” option. This would create an affordable, government-backed insurance plan as an alternative to buying private insurance. These big insurance oligarchs make a lot of money off our getting sick. A public plan will keep their premiums and business practices in check. If they are doing the best they can, why should they fear a little healthy competition?
Not only do older Texans have a stake in the health care debate, but we also worry about our children and grandchildren in these difficult times. Working together, we can create a health care reform plan that helps Texans of all ages.
Were it not for Medicare that percentage would be even higher. At last count (2008) there are 2,778,553 Medicare recipients in the state. Of those, 81% are 65 years and older and within that group 37% are 74 years and older.
July 30th is the 44th anniversary of Medicare. Despite its critics, Medicare is an extremely effective program having reduced senior poverty by two-thirds. Now, as we are engaged in a health care reform debate in Washington we are also presented with opportunities for the state’s older people and many of the state’s 25% uninsured.
We should be calling on our representatives and senators to do several things:
Help All Older Texans. Find an affordable way to allow Texans age 55 – 64 to buy into Medicare. People in this age group need medical care more often, especially for preventative care. Nationally, over 5-million in this age group have no health care insurance.
Close the donut hole. This coverage gap in Medicare Part D means that about one in four seniors will spend several months paying full price for their prescriptions while still paying their premiums. This forces older Texans to make risky, sometimes life threatening choices about whether they will take the medicines prescribed by their doctors.
Make Long-Term Care Affordable. We need to demand that whatever health care bill is presented to the President includes the CLASS Act by Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative Frank Pallone. It would create an insurance program to help middle class families with the cost of long-term care. Few working families and older Texans are prepared for what will happen when a loved one will need long-term care.
Assist Employers Who Provide Health Care Coverage. Eliminating or reducing tax benefits given companies who provide health insurance would cause many to stop offering affordable health care to their employees. These benefits should not be taxed.
Hold the Insurance Oligarchs Accountable. One of the most contentious issues in the current debate is that of the “public plan” option. This would create an affordable, government-backed insurance plan as an alternative to buying private insurance. These big insurance oligarchs make a lot of money off our getting sick. A public plan will keep their premiums and business practices in check. If they are doing the best they can, why should they fear a little healthy competition?
Not only do older Texans have a stake in the health care debate, but we also worry about our children and grandchildren in these difficult times. Working together, we can create a health care reform plan that helps Texans of all ages.
24 July 2009
What Sort of Liar is Perry...You Decide
Back in the day, when Texas men were men, and Texas women were damned glad of it, someone told me that in Texas there are only two kinds of liars. Liars and damned liars.
Now, mind you, we've always had double talkers; polticians, lawyers, insurance salesmen, and football team owners from Arkansas, but what I'm talking about here is the sort of low-down S.O.B. that will climb a tree to tell a lie rather than stand flatfooted on God's good earth and speak the truth.
And, I guess with the Yankee influx of the seventies and eighties we've been gentled down some, which accounts for so many woman going around with tight jaws, there's emerged a third sort of liar: The Hypocrite.
I got this e-mail yesterday from Boyd Ritchie, the chairman of the Texas Democratic party and from it you'll see that our dunce cap wearing governor is the third sort. A big-time hypocrite.
Dear fellow Democrat,
In sharp contrast to Governor Rick Perry's soapbox crusade about big spending in Washington, a bipartisan review of the recently approved state budget proves that his anti-stimulus rants are the height of hypocrisy.
A recent analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman's Jason Embry, shows that "Texas reported that it relied most heavily on stimulus dollars, using those dollars to provide 96.7 percent of the gap-closing solution" [Austin American-Statesman First Reading blog, 7/23/09].
The fact that Perry and his fellow Republicans relied on federal stimulus funds more than any other state to balance Texas' budget shows that blaming Washington is nothing more than campaign rhetoric designed to distract Texans from his dismal, failed record as Governor.
Furthermore, in a fundraising letter, Perry postulates there are "two models of governing: the Washington model that talks the talk about limited government while delivering record earmarks and increasing bureaucratic control, and the Texas model of balanced budgets and fiscal restraint" [Politico, 7/23/09].
When it comes to double-talk, Rick Perry's so-called "Texas model" is long on political posturing and short on restraint and balance.
It's no surprise that Perry is feverishly courting the extreme partisans who vote in the Republican primary, given the competition he faces from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is heating up her own appeals to the same extremists after spending years as a do-nothing Republican Senator who opposes everything and offers no solutions to improve health care and the economy.
In light of this report that brings the Governor's hypocrisy into broad daylight, it's clear that Texans deserve better than a choice between the tired old rhetoric of Republican politicians like Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison. We can only Move Texas Forward by electing Democrats. With your support and your help, we can make that a reality in 2010.
Your fellow Democrat,
Boyd L. Richie
Chairman
Texas Democratic Party
Now, mind you, we've always had double talkers; polticians, lawyers, insurance salesmen, and football team owners from Arkansas, but what I'm talking about here is the sort of low-down S.O.B. that will climb a tree to tell a lie rather than stand flatfooted on God's good earth and speak the truth.
And, I guess with the Yankee influx of the seventies and eighties we've been gentled down some, which accounts for so many woman going around with tight jaws, there's emerged a third sort of liar: The Hypocrite.
I got this e-mail yesterday from Boyd Ritchie, the chairman of the Texas Democratic party and from it you'll see that our dunce cap wearing governor is the third sort. A big-time hypocrite.
Dear fellow Democrat,
In sharp contrast to Governor Rick Perry's soapbox crusade about big spending in Washington, a bipartisan review of the recently approved state budget proves that his anti-stimulus rants are the height of hypocrisy.
A recent analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman's Jason Embry, shows that "Texas reported that it relied most heavily on stimulus dollars, using those dollars to provide 96.7 percent of the gap-closing solution" [Austin American-Statesman First Reading blog, 7/23/09].
The fact that Perry and his fellow Republicans relied on federal stimulus funds more than any other state to balance Texas' budget shows that blaming Washington is nothing more than campaign rhetoric designed to distract Texans from his dismal, failed record as Governor.
Furthermore, in a fundraising letter, Perry postulates there are "two models of governing: the Washington model that talks the talk about limited government while delivering record earmarks and increasing bureaucratic control, and the Texas model of balanced budgets and fiscal restraint" [Politico, 7/23/09].
When it comes to double-talk, Rick Perry's so-called "Texas model" is long on political posturing and short on restraint and balance.
It's no surprise that Perry is feverishly courting the extreme partisans who vote in the Republican primary, given the competition he faces from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is heating up her own appeals to the same extremists after spending years as a do-nothing Republican Senator who opposes everything and offers no solutions to improve health care and the economy.
In light of this report that brings the Governor's hypocrisy into broad daylight, it's clear that Texans deserve better than a choice between the tired old rhetoric of Republican politicians like Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison. We can only Move Texas Forward by electing Democrats. With your support and your help, we can make that a reality in 2010.
Your fellow Democrat,
Boyd L. Richie
Chairman
Texas Democratic Party
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