Last Call For Nullification Nonsense

South Carolina could become the first state to openly pass a blatantly unconstitutional nullification law for Obamacare, wasting taxpayer money and forcing the US government to fight it in court.

A proposed bill, on special order in the state Senate, would allow the state attorney general to take businesses, including health insurers, to court if he “has reasonable cause to believe” they are harming people by implementing the law. The bill already has passed the House.

If it passes, the bill could push South Carolina to the forefront of Obamacare resistance, giving the state’s Republican leaders a national stage. It also could push South Carolina into yet another costly legal battle in the federal courts that, critics say, is unnecessary and avoidable.

“It is going to get us in court, as we all know. But ... it is worth the risk to see if we can protect our state from this far-reaching federal legislation,” state Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, one of the lawmakers pushing for the Senate to pass the bill this week before it adjourns for the year.

Many Senate Democrats, and some Republicans, dismiss the bill as nothing more than a symbolic political salvo meant to provide fodder for lawmakers’ legislative newsletters and campaign signs. But health-insurance companies are worried the bill could complicate further their efforts to navigate the regulatory landscape.

“We need to make sure that companies – health-care providers in South Carolina – aren’t faced with situation where the federal government says you must and the state government says you cannot,” said Bob Coble, an attorney for Nexsen Pruett who represents several hospitals.

Which is the point:  the same people who say the federal government is using the coercive power of the state to hurt citizens are the ones passing a law expressly giving the state AG the right to use the coercive power of the state to hurt citizens.  Awesome.

Also, the point is to elicit political change by subjecting businesses, insurers, providers, and citizens to harm over their political choices and letting them know that if they are caught disagreeing with the SC GOP, they face serious and harmful reprisal. 

There's a term for that, and it begins with the letter "T".

Let that sink in for a bit, what these assclowns are doing, then tell me again they're not virulently racist sacks of manure.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/06/03/2800482/obamacare-nullification-bill-on.html#storylink=cpy

Batter Up (To No Good)

If what ESPN's reporting Tuesday evening is true, then the sport of baseball's about to take another Steroid Era fastball to the junk with no cup, as a major provider of performance-enhancing drugs is ratting out his all-star clients.

Major League Baseball will seek to suspend about 20 players connected to the Miami-area clinic at the heart of an ongoing performance-enhancing drug scandal, including Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun, possibly within the next few weeks, "Outside the Lines" has learned. If the suspensions are upheld, the performance-enhancing drug scandal would be the largest in American sports history.


Tony Bosch, founder of the now-shuttered Biogenesis of America, reached an agreement this week to cooperate with MLB's investigation, two sources told "Outside the Lines," giving MLB the ammunition officials believe they need to suspend the players.

One source familiar with the case said the commissioner's office might seek 100-game suspensions for Rodriguez, Braun and other players, the penalty for a second doping offense. The argument, the source said, is that the players' connection to Bosch constitutes one offense, and previous statements to MLB officials denying any such connection or the use of PEDs constitute another. Bosch and his attorneys did not return several calls. MLB officials refused to comment when reached Tuesday.

Bosch is expected to begin meeting with officials -- and naming names -- within a week. The announcement of suspensions could follow within two weeks.

Gonna be a weird All-Star game with no actual all-stars playing, considering about a score of them are about to get dump trucks dropped on them from Bud Selig's office.  And A-Rod getting 100 games out?  That's pretty much lights out for his career.

Not that I'm all broken up about any Yankees getting the hook for a century or anything.

Going For The Throat

President Obama, having gotten Judge Sri Srinavasan appointed to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals without any fuss whatsoever, now unveils the full majesty of his move:  appointing three more judges at the same time to fill the remaining three seats on the court's bench.

The president’s simultaneously nomination of the three judges for the D.C. Circuit, first reported by CQ Roll Call on May 10, sends a strong message that he intends to push for the nominees in a way that he has not lobbied for his other lower-court choices. Obama had never appeared alongside a judicial nominee other than for the Supreme Court, according to advocates.

The D.C. Circuit is widely considered the second-most-powerful court in the nation because of the important national security and administrative law cases it hears. It received its first new judge since 2006 last month when the Senate confirmed Sri Srinivasan, the former principal deputy solicitor general in the Justice Department, in a unanimous vote. Senate Republicans had twice filibustered Obama’s previous choice to the court, Caitlin J. Halligan, whose nomination was withdrawn earlier this year.

Obama nominated Patricia Ann Millett, an appellate attorney in Washington; Cornelia T.L. “Nina” Pillard, a law professor at Georgetown University; and Judge Robert L. Wilkins of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Senate confirmed Wilkins to his current post by a voice vote in December 2010.

Republicans are now stuck having to pass all three nominees and giving the President exactly what he wants, or filibustering the nominations and facing a bully pulpit call for the nuclear option to end judicial filibusters.

Either way, the President wins.  I love it.

StupidiNews!

• Flooding along the Mississippi River has forced evacuations north of St. Louis as a second levee breach in two days threatens thousands of residents.
• House Republicans are moving forward with legislation that would ban all abortions in America past 20 weeks.
• A federal bankruptcy judge has removed the last major obstacle to US Airways merging with American Airlines and becoming the world's largest air carrier.
• A new report finds fewer US families are dealing with medical bankruptcies, indicating health care costs are on the way down.
• A new ruling from the International Trade Commission in Samsung's favor could ban the sale of older Apple iPhone and iPad models in the US.