Why Am I Not Surprised At Scalia?

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has said he would have dissented in the 1954 Brown vs the Board of Education case, which struck down separate but equal schools. He also said that the Brown decision was one that the "majority liked better." He likened it to "creating new rights that no one thought existed." Although, he said that it was a better idea, that did not make it right.

Well Mr. Scalia, the Constitution states at its beginning that all men are created equal. Segregation meant less rights for one group, and separate schools were segregation and less education for one group. If that isn't unconstitutional, then I do not know the meaning. If I didn't know that this man was put on the bench of the US Supreme Court by a Republican majority, I would be pulling my hair out wondering what in the world he is doing in that position.

It seems as if every time we turn around, another nightmare from the Bush Administration flashes it ugly head. Scalia is definitely a serious nincompoop, who has no business being where he is. Unfortunately, he is relatively young, so we will have to put up with him for many years to come. Hopefully, the rest of the justices will be of reasonable intelligence and able to provide some balance to his seriously flawed decisions.

Health Care and the Public Option

Health Care reform has been a hot topic since the election campaign, when President Obama made it a center piece of his campaign. He promised to try to do something about it. Oddly enough, he has worked hard to keep this promise. The Republicans have worked harder to block, it for no other reason than to try to gain political points. Interestingly, I do not think they have gained anything, but I do think they have lost much prestige due to their underhanded methods and the frankness of their negative rhetoric.

The GOP openly created havoc at so-called town hall meetings around the country with their rude and loud plants causing trouble and making it appear to some that the entire country is against health care reform. Nothing, of course, is farther from the truth as the American people are straining hard to make ends meet and pay for health insurance that continues to rise in cost as coverage weakens. Last week we received a letter from our Congressman, Nathan Deal (R), one of the most corrupt members of Congress, according to one non-partisan watchdog group. Mr. Deal wrote that the entire country is against health care reform. I responded on his website and advised him that he needed to rethink that statement.

It appears that some kind of health care plan is on the immediate horizon. It also appears that there will be a public option on the table. The interesting thought that has occurred to me is whether there will be a rush to sign up, when a public option is made available. My guess is that many of those town hall shouters and gun toters will be some of the first ones in line. Oh, they will complain about "government run" health care, but they will quietly take advantage of it, just like those who cannot wait until their medicare takes affect. I think they call that talking out of both sides of the mouth.

Another interesting thought is the future of health care for those who are on 401k retirements and have no company retirement health care. Private health care insurance is outrageously high. I wonder what will happen to those folks when they retire, if there is no public health care option. Will they stick it out until age 65 or higher if the rules change? Will they have no health care between retirement and Medicare age, or will they simply have to work until age 65 in order to keep reasonably cost effective insurance.

One wonders how many of those folks who will really need a public option in the future have been among the loud mouthed nincompoops at town halls. Then there are the loud, rude, and uncouth teabaggers. I wonder how many of them are secretly hoping for a public health care option. I expect there are many closet public option folks, who are anticipating a cheaper option and will knock the closet door down, when it becomes available.

The Obama Thesis Hoax and All Those Email Lies

This past week Comedian Rush Limbaugh jumped upon a report of a partial disclosure of President Obama's senior thesis at Columbia in which he is quoted as writing about the flaws of the the free market and the Constitution. Limbaugh and other right wingers jumped upon this months old story as if were were breaking news and, of course, gleefully reported Obama's hatred of capitalism and his disregard for the U.S. Constitution.

The problem? It was of course a satirical piece, written many months ago by some blogger, who said that a Time magazine columnist had read the thesis and released ten pages of it. Midway through his program, Limbaugh was informed that the information was false. He continued with it as if it were true. Nothing new with Limbaugh. If his lips are moving, there is a good chance that he is lying to begin with.

This story is not unlike the many emails that circulate through cyberspace and end up in our inboxes courtesy of the right wing sheep, who, like Limbaugh, gleefully pass them on as evidence of the President's Muslim, Communist, and Socialist leanings. Let us not forget his illegal birth, as well. They would never consider double checking such trash before they forward it onward. That would spoil their fun.

I have a penchant for checking the wildest of them out and then replying with documented facts. It is amazing how quiet my incoming mail from those folks becomes. They simply do not want to know the truth. If it is turned on them, they often get mad and send no more emails at all. Eventually some of them resume emailing me, but no more political trash comes through. One long time friend of ours has almost completely cut off communication with us after several corrections were sent in reply to the outrageous emails during the campaign last year.

I have never stooped so low as to let politics interfere with a friendship, but these folks simply cannot accept the truth. It is mostly racism that fuels the hardcore of these email forwarding fools, just as is the case with the venomous opposition to the President across the country. There is simply no other explanation for it. It is sad and even sadder when some conservative politicians have the decency to rebuff such trash and are then shouted down and cursed as cowards by the right wingnuts. Once has to wonder how much farther these idiots will go to push the Republican party over the final cliff.