Last Call For Full Court Depressed

Meanwhile, Republicans are continuing to openly talk about destroying the federal judiciary in response to rulings on Obamacare and marriage equality.  A Senate GOP hearing Wednesday had all kinds of nutjobs espousing a "solution" to the "problem" of having a Supreme Court at all.

Wednesday’s hearing -- titled “With Prejudice: Supreme Court Activism and Possible Solutions” and convened by the Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts, which Cruz chairs -- presented the latest wave of efforts to attack the Supreme Court for straying from the high hopes conservatives had after Bush nominated Samuel Alito to the seat vacated by the more moderate Sandra Day O'Connor. 

“When I see what’s happened at the Supreme Court level, it strikes me as a foreign, unhistorical approach to law. It’s just breathtaking, some of the things that have happened,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said during the hearing. 

One witness, John Eastman -- a Chapman University law professor who also serves as the chair of the board for National Organization for Marriage -- suggested constitutional amendments allowing states by a majority vote to override “truly egregious” decisions by the court and a supermajority of Congress to do the same.

Another witness, Edward Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, threw out an assortment of ideas, including changes to the constitutional amendment process itself, opportunities to override decisions, more avenues to remove bad judges, and term limits. 

"The Court’s extraordinary abuses also call for consideration of extraordinary
responses," he said.

So please tell me again how Republicans are no different from Democrats, when Republicans are holding Senate hearings about how to destroy the Supreme Court as revenge.  Please, entertain me.

By the way, these people are insane.  And unless we decide to show up at the polls and stop them, they will control the whole ball of wax in 2017.

Red, White, Black And Blue

Greg Sargent notes that a new Washington Post poll is not exactly good news for the idea that Hillary Clinton (or any other Democrat) will magically do better with working class white voters than President Obama.

The new Washington Post/ABC News poll starkly illustrates the challenge Democrats face in this regard. It turns out that an overwhelming majority of non-college whites believes the U.S. economic system is stacked in favor of the rich — but far more of those voters also think Republicans, not Democrats, have better ideas to address that problem. 

The Post/ABC poll finds that 68 percent of Americans think the U.S. economic system generally favors the wealthy rather than being fair to most Americans (only 27 percent believe the latter). Some 69 percent of white non-college voters believe it favors the wealthy, somewhat higher than the 61 percent of white college-educated voters who believe the same. 

But look how non-college whites break down on the question of which party has the better ideas to make the economic system fairer: 

Non-college whites overwhelmingly believe the economic system is not fair to most Americans, but substantially more of them prefer GOP ideas on what to do about it. By contrast, other groups are much more evenly divided on this question. Among college-educated whites, Republicans lead by a much smaller 46-38. Independents are almost exactly split. And in a bit of good news for Dems, moderates favor their ideas by 45-34. But among non-college whites, GOP ideas enjoy a 21 point advantage.

If only 29% of non-college white voters think the Democrats are better for them economically after seven years of a Democratic president actually putting in policies that help them. then the Democrats need to kiss working class white voters goodbye.

Chasing these folks, especially at the expense of black and Latino voters (I'm talking to you, Jim Webb) is a guaranteed disaster.

The reality is that Republicans have succeeded in framing Obamacare, executive action on immigration, and international trade deals as benefiting those people at the direct expense of "good ol' boys".  White resentment is the driving force behind the Republican party right now (see Donald Trump). Putting Hillary or Bernie in isn't going to change that.  The GOP austerity regime is being sold as "We'll take away health care and jobs and entitlements away from them and never you.  Trust us."  It's working, unfortunately.

As a result, Democrats need to remember who voted them into the White House, and who ran from them in 2010 and 2014 in midterms.

Luckily, President Obama seems to be well aware of that distinction.

Jobapalooza Mini-Update

More good news on the employment front (not that anyone seems to still care about the Obama economy these days).

The fewest Americans in four decades filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, continuing to unwind an early-July surge that was probably tied to mid-year factory shutdowns and school vacations. 

Jobless claims plunged by 26,000 to 255,000 in the week ended July 18, the fewest since November 1973, a report from the Labor Department showed on Thursday in Washington. The median forecast of 47 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 278,000. Volatility is typical for this time of year as auto plants retool for the new model year and school staff varies with summer holidays, a department spokesman said as the data was released to the press. 

Claims continue to hover near historically low levels as employers are retaining workers to cater to a pickup in demand following a slump in early 2015. Combined with steady hiring across states, the improvement will help sustain household spending, the biggest part of the economy.

“Claims will remain low for the foreseeable future,” Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina, said before the report. “Businesses are having a tough time finding the workers they need. They expect sales to grow.”

The lowest weekly jobless claims number in my lifetime, but somehow the problem is Obama is terrible for the economy or something.

Yes, finally, we're seeing the shoe on the other foot after 2008: employers are scrambling to find workers, which means more workers entering the job market, which means more money in the pockets of households and hopefully higher wages across the board, which means more people buying products, creating more demand for workers.

Positive feedback loops can be wonderful things.

StupidiNews!

• The Pentagon is denying increased drone strikes in Somalia are for suppressing Al-Shabaab militants ahead of President Obama's visit this week to neighboring Kenya.
• New York's state wage board unanimously voted to recommend raising the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour for fast-food workers by 2018.
• US Defense Secretary Ash Carter made a surprise visit to Iraq while on a Middle East trip, meeting with US commanders and Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi.
• A federal appeals court in Kentucky has ruled that accidentally calling somebody else is not protected by right to privacy, and that whoever hears you when you do is not liable.
• The Obama administration is backing off accusing China of the massive OPM database hack earlier this year because proving it would reveal information the US doesn't want public.

Last Call For Murder In His Eyes

Next time you ask yourself thinking "Why would a woman still not report sexual assault in 2015" please recall the awful case of Maine's Brittany Irish, who reported assault and most likely ended up kidnapped and wounded because she did.

The parents of a woman police say was kidnapped during a shooting rampage that left two people dead believe the gunman was furious at her when he found out she went to police saying he abducted and sexually assaulted her days earlier.

Rick and Kim Irish told The Associated Press that Anthony Lord had become obsessed with their 21-year-old daughter, Brittany Irish, before abducting her and attacking her on July 15, two days before the shooting rampage. 

Because of his lengthy criminal record, Lord knew he would be going back to prison and didn't care about the consequences, the parents said. 

"He knows he was going to jail for life for what he did to Brittany ... so he was just going to go out with a bang," Rick Irish said Monday at the family's home in Benedicta, where police say Lord fatally shot Brittany Irish's boyfriend, Kyle Hewitt, and shot and wounded her mother before kidnapping her early Friday. 

Afterward, police say, Lord fled from the Irishes' home and shot three other people, setting off a manhunt that shut down roads in parts of northern Maine and sent panic through several small rural towns where violence is so rare that residents usually leave their homes unlocked. 

Police have not publicly said what they believe motivated the shootings, which they say killed the 22-year-old Hewitt and 58-year-old Kevin Tozier, whom Lord happened upon during his crime rampage, and wounded three others. The Irishes said Brittany Irish also was wounded in the arm during the shootings. 

Lord, 35, is charged with kidnapping and murder. He remained in the Aroostook County Jail after making a brief court appearance via video link Monday. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a message from the AP on Tuesday seeking comment on the sexual-assault allegations.

So again, she reported the assault to the police, and the cops did...nothing.  Then when Lord found out about it, he kidnapped her and killed two people when things seriously went off the rails. If you want to know why women don't report sexual assault 100% of the time when it happens, it's because police don't protect victims 100% of the time.

It's a heartbreaking and all too common story in America.

Her New Favorite Crush

So if there are any remaining questions about the goal of the Wingnut Perpetual Outrage Machine and the kinds of things they want to accomplish with fake videos, this USA Today op-ed should answer them rather neatly.

This is stomach-turning stuff. But the problem here is not one of tone. It’s the crushing. It’s the organ harvesting of fetuses that abortion-rights activists want us to believe have no more moral value than a fingernail. It’s the lie that these are not human beings worthy of protection. There is no nice way to talk about this. As my friend and former Obama White House staffer Michael Wear tweeted, “It should bother us as a society that we have use for aborted human organs, but not the baby that provides them.” 

Richards worked to discredit the video by complaining it was “heavily edited.” But the nearly three-hour unedited video — a nauseating journey through the inner workings of the abortion industry — was posted at the same time as the edited video. Richards intoned menacingly that the video was “secretly recorded.” So what? When Mitt Romney was caught by “secret video” making his 47% remarks, the means of attaining the information was not the focus of the story.

By the way, the Kirsten Powers piece is entitled "Crush Planned Parenthood". Her new book is called "The Silencing: How The Left Is Killing Free Speech" which is odd, because she has a regular weekly column in the nation's largest daily newspaper in which to espouse her views.

As a matter of fact, the right wing regularly gets to say whatever the hell they want to, as evidenced by Powers and a wide array of GOP presidential candidates all screaming about how they are being "silenced" to anyone within earshot.

But the women who want and need these clinic services that Planned Parenthood provides? We don't get to hear their side of the story so much over the noise from the right, now do we?

Buried Under Bigotry, Con't

Well, the story of how nutjobs in Farmersville, Texas are calling on town leaders to reject a Muslim cemetery is bad enough, especially since the town's Baptist minister is the one leading the charge. But right on cue, the story just got a whole lot more awful.

“When somebody dies they bury them at that time. They don’t know whether they were shot, diseased or anything else. All they do is wrap them in a sheet from the grave and bury them,” Troy Gosnell told the local CBS station. 

Patricia Munroe voiced fears that local drinking water could be polluted. 

“We used to grow onions here. We sure enough don’t want to be growing bodies,” said another resident, Mont Hendrick. 

Feelings ran high at a town meeting earlier this week, where direct action was proposed to prevent the Muslims pressing ahead with the project. 

Take and dump pig’s blood and put pig’s heads on a post so they won’t buy the land,” one resident said.

Why no, 14 years after 9/11, America is still as Islamophobic as ever, and the real shame is thinking that this ridiculousness is limited to a podunk town in Texas and not the people you know.

Alia Salem with the Council on American Islamic Relations of Dallas, tried to dispel locals’ concerns. 

“They are fearful of what they don’t understand and hopefully it’s an opportunity for us to come together and learn a little bit more about each other and hopefully dispel some of those misconceptions.

Americans don't learn squat.  Good luck with that.

StupidiNews!

• Cincinnati police are investigating the death of Samuel Dubose, an unarmed black man shot and killed in the head by a white Cincinnati police officer on Sunday.
• President Obama made his final appearance on Jon Stewart's Daily Show last night, with Stewart leaving the show in less than three weeks.
• Greece's parliament faces another tough vote on EU bailout provisions as lawmakers will vote on banking and justice system reforms.
• Contract workers at both of New York City's major airports will walk off the job tonight, demanding higher wages as airlines rake in record profits.
• FCC head Tom Wheeler is signing off on AT&T's $48.5 billion buyout of satellite service DirecTV, with a number of conditions set for internet and cable TV competition.

Last Call For Your Religious Freedom Update

Tea Party types are very eager to push "religious freedom" as an excuse to disobey laws they don't like.  Of course the problem with that is they then turn around and use the same excuse to go after other religions they don't like.

A Florida gun store owner has announced that Muslims are now banned from his gun shop. 

Andy Hallinan, owner of Florida Gun Supply in Inverness, says that, effective immediately, his store is a “Muslim-free zone.” 

In a controversial video posted online, he speaks of the history of the Confederate flag and goes on to say, “Our leaders are telling you Islam is a peaceful religion full of tolerance and love and hope. Don’t believe their lies.” 

Hallinan stated that last week’s deadly shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was the final straw for him. 

He is also offering concealed-carry classes for free and is opening his gun range to anyone who wants to use it.

Is this legal?  Well, given the fact that the Supreme Court last year said that "closely held religious beliefs" trump laws in the now infamous Hobby Lobby case, who's to say that as a business owner that Mr. Hallinan's religious beliefs allow him to do what he wants?

I guess religious freedom only applies when it's Christianity.  That's where Hobby Lobby put us last year, and I'm sure one of these will head to the Supreme Court soon to test those boundaries.

Better hope we have a President who nominates the kind of justices that will put a stop to this.

Otherwise, it was nice knowing democracy rather than theocracy.

International House Of Whinecakes

Republicans have been outmaneuvered by President Obama and the United Nations on Iran, and they are very very angry about it.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) slammed the Obama administration on Monday for backing a United Nations's vote on the Iran nuclear agreement, citing "bipartisan skepticism" of the deal in Congress. 

“It is inappropriate to commit the United States to meet certain international obligations without even knowing if Congress and the American people approve or disapprove of the Iran agreement," the Tennessee Republican said. "There is bipartisan skepticism about whether this deal can prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and bipartisan concern over allowing the leading exporter of terrorism access to well over $100 billion in cash." 

The chairman of the influential committee added that "the administration's decision to endorse this agreement at the U.N. prior to a vote in Congress on behalf of the American people is contrary to the spirit of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act." 

His comments came after the U.N. Security Council unanimously endorsed the Iran nuclear deal earlier Monday in a 15-0 vote.

Nice to know that 1) Congressional Republicans believe themselves smarter and more informed than the entire UN Security Council, and 2) that these snotheads thought the UN Ambassador was going to veto the bill because the GOP hasn't quite finished pitching a fit over something they can't do anything about.

The move threatens to antagonize a handful of Senate Republicans, including Corker, who are undecided on the deal, as well as key Democrats who remain skeptical. The vote has also drawn backlash from all corners of the Republican conference, uniting leadership and the party's 2016 candidates.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the majority whip, called the administration's backing of the vote "an affront to the American people."

"The administration is more concerned about jamming this deal through than allowing the scrutiny it deserves," the Texas Republican said. "Congress will carefully examine this agreement and, regardless of what the U.N. believes, vote it down if it jeopardizes American security and paves the way for a nuclear-armed Iran.” 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is running for president, also called the vote "an affront to the American people," addng that it is "further evidence of a weak president trying to sell a bad deal."

Yes, a 15-0 UN Security Council unanimous vote indicates a "weak president trying to sell a bad deal" alright.  Or maybe everyone realized that the GOP was going to try to wreck the deal regardless, and rightfully the Security Council ignored them.

During the closed-door talks in Vienna on limiting Iran’s nuclear program, Secretary of State John Kerry argued that theUnited Nations Security Council should not vote on lifting sanctions on Iran until Congress had a chance to review the deal. 

But he ran into a wall of opposition from Iran, Russia and even the United States’ closest European allies, who argued successfully that Security Council action should come first, according to Western officials.

Clowns, these GOP members of Congress. You lost, shut up, go home.  Even 41% of Republican voters back the Iran deal. I guess they're stupid and want us to die in a nuclear holocaust too, huh?

Naah, it's all a tantrum that in the end, signifies nothing.

Checking On Grandpa's Guns

Various federal agencies participate in the federal background check system for firearms purchases as far as reporting information into the system, but there's been one huge loophole in that arrangement for years: Social Security has never been required to do so.  President Obama is expected to change that, and that could mean major differences for millions of older Americans.

Seeking tighter controls over firearm purchases, the Obama administration is pushing to ban Social Security beneficiaries from owning guns if they lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs, a move that could affect millions whose monthly disability payments are handled by others.

The push is intended to bring the Social Security Administration in line with laws regulating who gets reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, which is used to prevent gun sales to felons, drug addicts, immigrants in the country illegally and others.

A potentially large group within Social Security are people who, in the language of federal gun laws, are unable to manage their own affairs due to "marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease."

There is no simple way to identify that group, but a strategy used by the Department of Veterans Affairs since the creation of the background check system is reporting anyone who has been declared incompetent to manage pension or disability payments and assigned a fiduciary.

If Social Security, which has never participated in the background check system, uses the same standard as the VA, millions of its beneficiaries would be affected. About 4.2 million adults receive monthly benefits that are managed by "representative payees."

The move is part of a concerted effort by the Obama administration after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., to strengthen gun control, including by plugging holes in the background check system.

But critics — including gun rights activists, mental health experts and advocates for the disabled — say that expanding the list of prohibited gun owners based on financial competence is wrongheaded.

Other than change the law, there's not much Congress can do about that.  Which federal agencies participate in the NICS system is determined by the executive, not the legislative branch.  This is simply using the power Congress gave the presidency.

Having said that, I'd need to see the details of how Social Security status would be used to determine eligibility to purchase a firearm before commenting.  A blanket "no" on anyone having their Social Security managed by someone else doesn't seem like the best idea, but then again it is the same standard that the VA uses and I have yet to hear anyone complain about that.

Of course, Republicans are going to go apeshit and lie and say Obama will take guns away from all Social Security recipients, or something equally false and stupid.  But Republicans have lost battle after battle with supposedly "lame duck" Obama over the last seven months.  I don't see them winning too much at this point.

StupidiNews!

• Turkish police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in Istanbul protesting the deaths of at least 31 people killed in a terrorist attack Monday in the Syrian border town of Suruc.
• Federal law enforcement investigators are looking into the 2014 trip made by Chattanooga shooting suspect Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez to Qatar.
• In case anyone was wondering, North Korea says it does not want nuclear talks with the US and other UN Security Council members, calling its nuclear program "essential deterrence".
• Several top executives from Japan's Toshiba Corp., including President Hisao Tanaka, have resigned over a $1.2 billion accounting scandal that overvalued the company over six years.
• Hackers are holding the database of online "discreet encounter" site Ashley Madison hostage, saying details of the site's 37 million user profiles will be released unless the site shuts down.

Last Call For Buried Under Bigotry

Meanwhile, in "The First Amendment simply doesn't apply to YOUR filthy religion" news...

Muslims say they're looking for a place to bury their dead. Locals say it's a plot to gain a foothold in their small rural Texas town.

A proposal to bring a Muslim cemetery to Farmersville has stoked fears among residents who are vehemently trying to convince community leaders to block the project. The sentiment reflects an anti-Muslim distrust that has been brewing over the last year in parts of Texas, most notably 25 miles away in Garland — the scene of a deadly May shooting outside a cartoon contest lampooning the Prophet Muhammad. 

"The concern for us is the radical element of Islam," David J. Meeks, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, told The Dallas Morning News. He said he thinks the cemetery would be the first step toward a broader Muslim expansion in town. 

"How can we stop a mosque or madrassa training center from going in there?" he asked, referring to a type of Islamic school. 

Change "mosque" to "church" or "synagogue" and ask that again, buddy.  Then read the Constitution.

The issue is flaring up as Farmersville leaders consider a 35-acre development request from the Islamic Association of Collin County, which faces a shortage of space to bury members of its faith. Although the area already has a Buddhist center and Mormon church, residents showed up in force at a recent town meeting to oppose allowing a Muslim cemetery, which would include an open-air pavilion and small retail component that would run along a busy highway through town. 

As ridiculous as this is, the town's mayor can smell the impending lawsuit coming a mile away, and is scrambling to talk the Baptist bigots down.

"There's just a basic concern or distrust about the cemetery coming into town," said Mayor Joe Helmberger, who calls the townspeople's worries unwarranted. 

He said the cemetery would be approved as long as the town's development standards are met, pointing out that the U.S. was founded on religious freedom and that the association is simply trying to secure a burial site.

Farmersville better hope this passes, or the town government will probably get sued out of existence, and they know it.

Berned In The Past

It's nice of the Washington Post to remember that Bernie Sanders first became a Senator from Vermont with more than a little help from Wayne LaPierre and the NRA.

A few days before Election Day in 1990, the National Rifle Association sent a letter to its 12,000 members in Vermont, with an urgent message about the race for the state’s single House seat.

Vote for the socialist, the gun rights group said. It’s important.

“Bernie Sanders is a more honorable choice for Vermont sportsmen than ­Peter Smith,” wrote Wayne LaPierre, who was — and still is — a top official at the national NRA, backing Sanders over the Republican incumbent.

That was odd. Sanders was the ex-hippie ex-mayor of Burlington, running as an independent because the Democrats weren’t far enough left. He had never even owned a gun.

But that year, he was the enemy of the NRA’s enemy.

Smith had changed his mind about a ban on ­assault weapons. The NRA and its allies wanted him beaten. They didn’t much care who beat him.

“It is not about Peter Smith vs. Bernie Sanders,” LaPierre wrote, according to news coverage from the time. “It is about integrity in politics.”

Today, Sanders is a senator and a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, drawing huge crowds with his calls to break up big banks, increase taxes on the rich and make college free. The election of 1990 launched him. When Sanders won, he became the first socialist in Congress since the 1950s.

That campaign also marked the beginning of Sanders’s complicated relationship with the ­issue of gun rights — the one area where Sanders’s Democratic presidential rivals have been able to attack him from the left.

Having said that, Sanders currently has a big fat F from the NRA on guns, and has voted for banning high-capacity magazines and against decreasing the federal waiting period on guns from 3 days to 24 hours.

On the other hand, Sanders has voted to allow firearms in carry-on bags on Amtrak trains, and voted several times to protect gun manufacturers from lawsuits.  It is a complicated relationship, and it's one that Sanders has to answer for as far as I'm concerned.

The Disunited States Of Europe

French President Francois Hollande believes the Greek financial crisis indicates that it's time for a central European government.

“Circumstances are leading us to accelerate,” Hollande said in anopinion piece published by the Journal du Dimanche on Sunday. “What threatens us is not too much Europe, but a lack of it.”

While the euro zone has a common currency, fiscal and economic policies remain mostly in the hands of each member state. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi made a plea this week for deeper cooperation between the euro members after political squabbles over Greece almost led to a rupture in the single currency.

Countries in favor of more integration should move ahead, forming an “avant-garde,” Hollande said.

“Europe has let its institutions weaken and the 28 European Union member countries are struggling to agree to move ahead,” Hollande said on Sunday in a text which was also a homage to his mentor Jacques Delors, a former European Commission President who proposed similar ideas.

Draghi called for the creation of a shared treasury within 10 years in a joint proposal with politicians including European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem last month.

The call for a central, ruling EU government that would have binding control over all EU member states isn't new by any means, but in the wake of the massive fracturing of Europe between pro union forces like Hollande in France and "fix your own damn problem" Chancellor Merkel and Zee Germans, I don't see how this has any realistic chance of working.

If anything, the disintegration of the eurozone and the EU seems far, far more likely at this point.