Conservatives Do Not Believe In States’ Rights

The most conservative judges on the Supreme Court since the 1930s issued a decision yesterday that said police could racially profile people in Arizona.  Some of the writings and statements made yesterday were overtly political – exactly what judges should not be.  The politicization of the Supreme Court by right wing extremists has reached new heights with this group.  That was the state of affairs forecasted to occur by non-partisan experts asked to comment on President Bush’s unqualified nominees.  And that is the state of affairs that has developed.  Based on the aforementioned writings, the conservative judges defended the so-called “right” of Arizona to “defend” itself against people that those in power don’t want in the state: brown people.

Is the immigration system broken?  Yes.

Are most government systems broken?  Yes.

Why are they broken?  Because those same right-wing extremists have put policies and personnel in place to ensure the systems don’t operate as they were designed.  The more they can wreck things, the truer their complaints that government doesn’t work rings true.  It’s called fulfilling their own prediction.

But hold on one moment.  Those same so-called “pro-states’ rights” folks are equally silent on the right of Montana to enforce a 100-year old law to keep corruption out of government.  Folks used to publicly pay for legislators – including U.S. Senators – to get the policies they individually wanted implemented.  The people of Montana stood up to that kind of nonsense.  Alito, Romney, Limbaugh and all the other right-wing nuts out there didn’t say word one about Montana’s right to pass a state law in the absence of national laws and a broken election system.

There are dozens of corporate media articles proclaiming Romney’s unwavering belief that states’ rights are paramount.

Except that it isn’t.  The corporate media is part of the problem.  If they sold themselves as stenographers, dutifully copying down everything fed to them by whatever source they could dredge up, that would be one thing.  But they continue to try to pass their industry off as legitimate.  The results?  Declining participation in a democratic process.  Disapproval of all branches of government.  These conditions won’t last forever.  Movements will arise and succeed in putting the ship back on course.  The wealthy and powerful won’t like it, but that’s not the real issue.

At the end of the day, conservatives believe in states’ rights.  Except when they don’t, which is more often than when they do.

Boehner, Geithner, Obama and Firings

One thing I didn’t see mentioned in any of the recent discussions about Rep. Boehner’s idiotic demands that President Obama fire Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; the head of the National Economic Council, Larry Summers, and other members of Obama’s economic team.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I didn’t think Geithner or Summers should have been in the administration in the first place.  Much like my warnings about the dangers the neocons posed back in 2000 when Bush was putting them in charge, the pro-Wall Streeters shouldn’t have been put in charge of an economic team for this President.  At least not if changing our economic policies and practices were on the President’s agenda.  Since they were, it was clear early on that Obama wasn’t serious about stopping the upward transfer of wealth that has characterized this nation’s last couple of generations.  Or holding the gamblers on Wall St. accountable for nearly destroying the largest economy in the world.

No, Rep. Boehner’s demands were absurd because he’s concern trolling.  He would much rather see President Obama seem to fall flat on his economic face than actually ensure the economy worked for anybody but the richest 1%.  Anything Boehner can appear to do to throw up roadblocks, Boehner will do.

But here’s the part I haven’t seen discussed.  If Geithner, Summers or any of the other people Boehner is calling Obama on to fire were nearly anybody but who they were, the White House would have fired them already.  Think that sounds crazy?  What happened to Van Jones?  He was an expert in his field.  But based on a right-wing manufactured controversy, he lost his post.  What happened to Shirley Sherrod?  She was successful in her job.  But again, based on a right-wing manufactured controversy, she lost that job.  Quicker than Van Jones lost his, by the way.

What, oh what do these two have in common that Geithner and Summers don’t?  Geithner and Summers are theoretically doing the job they’re being asked to do, despite the negative effects on most Americans.  What could it be?  Could it be that both Geithner and Summers are white while Van Jones and Sherrod are black?  Does anybody seriously think that if Geithner and Summers were black and Boehner or anybody else on the fringe right were demanding that they be fired, regardless of how absurd that demand was, that they wouldn’t be fired.  I sure don’t think so.

Birther Billboard In Denver, CO

One thing that irritates me about the birthers (people who, despite objective proof to the contrary, insist that President Obama is somehow not a U.S. citizen) is they don’t understand the responsibilities that accompany their 1st amendment right of free speech.  It’s not terribly surprising that the same people who scream at liberals for not accepting responsibility for their actions are in fact guilty of what they’re accusing others of – it’s a hallmark of hypocrisy.

What’s disturbing is the level of racism and underlying hatred and fear of everything with which the right-wing doesn’t identify.  Today’s unfortunate example: Wolf Automotive, a Colorado car dealership, has donated space on a billboard they regularly pay for in Wheatridge, CO (a small suburb of Denver) for a poster questioning whether Barack Obama was a legitimate President or part of a jihad.

While people have the freedom of speech, this purposeful display of hatred clearly steps over bounds of civility.  Remember, these are the same people that demanded every American pay constant tribute to George Bush, who wasn’t elected in 2000, but instead selected by 5 Supreme Court members to his position.  Anybody who didn’t agree with Bush was instantly and then constantly derided as traitors by the faux patriots that cropped up around the country.  Now they’re trying to delegitimize Barack Obama’s position as President – a position that he cleanly and clearly won by a huge margin (a bigger margin than Bush ever enjoyed).

This billboard is a local result of the racist radio shock-jock Peter Boyles.  Peter could be the poster-child of the birther movement.  He’s an older, white, angry male who makes his living pushing hatred and fear.  It wouldn’t matter if President Obama went to Peter’s studio or house with his birth certificate, Peter would still stoke ignorant peoples’ fears.  Someday, somewhere, a birther will lash out and hurt or kill someone.  When that happens, Peter and everybody else like him will hide behind the 1st Amendment rights they so callously abuse today.

John McCain Rally Video

John McCain supporters sharing their anti-American views for the camera.  Disgusting.

Schaffer Family Values on Display

Well, well, well. It turns out Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer isn’t the only member of his family to have a problem regarding the enslavement of people. His flap over supporting servitude on the Mariana Islands has never been fully explained. Now it’s obvious that, like a good Republican, he molded the values of his family. His son Justin’s Facebook page displayed a series of bumper stickers, one of which read, “Slavery Gets Shit Done”. My, oh my. What a lovely family you’ve raised, Bob. Another sticker shows Jesus in front of a Confederate flag with an assault rifle in his hand and has this text, “What Would Republican Jesus Do?”. Other stickers demean women. Obama is shown in one photoshopped onto a picture of bin Laden in front of the White House. The imagery goes way beyond childish. It’s disgusting and displays a patterned way of thinking that is simply unacceptable.

According to the Denver Post, Justin issued a written apology, taking full responsibility and trying to deflect fall-out by saying the values presented within the page directly contradict what he was taught at home. The apology does nothing, in my opinion. I’m sure he is sorry he got caught and that it might affect his father’s campaign, but such cavalier use of pro-slavery and anti-anything not white and male is a reflection on the environment he grew up in. I don’t see any evidence that he’s sorry he’s racist or bigoted.

These type of values have no place in the U.S. Senate. This is just one more example that Bob Schaffer is unfit to represent Colorado. His job would be to represent all Coloradans, not just white, male, racist bigots. His previous time in Congress and his family’s actions clearly show he couldn’t do that.