Rand Paul: Just Because SCOTUS Says It's Constitutional, 'Doesn't Make It So'

June 28, 2012 10:00 AM
Rand Paul: Just Because SCOTUS Says It's Constitutional, 'Doesn't Make It So'

Apparently, someone was asleep during his US Government class:

Black caucus to stage walkout during Holder contempt vote in House

Source: The Hill

Black caucus to stage walkout during Holder contempt vote in House
By Jordy Yager - 06/27/12 06:57 PM ET

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) plan to stage a walkout during Thursday’s vote on whether to place Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

The CBC is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday to discuss the details of the walkout and is planning to circulate a letter to House Democrats requesting that they join them on the Capitol steps for a press conference during the contempt vote.

The move comes less than 24 hours before the House plans to vote for the first time in history to hold a sitting attorney general in contempt of Congress for not complying with a congressional subpoena. Holder is the first black attorney general in U.S. history.

The walkout is reminiscent of a similar move made by Republicans in 2008 during a Democratic-led vote on whether to hold two senior staffers in President George W. Bush’s administration in contempt of Congress.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/235229-black-caucus-to-stage-walkout-during-holder-contempt-vote-in-house

Study: ‘Stand your ground’ laws result in an additional 4 to 7 killings per month

Using homicide data from 2006 to 2008, the years after a wave of legislatures passed such laws in 2006, the researchers found that “Stand Your Ground” laws, which provide protection for deadly use of force in self-defense in a public place, results in a “significant increase in the number of homicides among whites, especially white males.” The results are found to be specific to “Stand Your Ground” laws and the effect doesn’t extend to other laws passed in the interest of self-defense.

“According to our estimates, between 4.4 and 7.4 additional white males are killed each month as a result of these laws. We find no evidence to suggest that these laws increase homicides among blacks,” the researchers write in the paper. “Our findings raise serious doubts against the argument that Stand Your Ground laws make America safer.”

“At least some of the people getting killed are bystanders, which is more than enough to raise serious concerns about these laws,” Professor Tekin told Raw Story. He said in research they’re prepping for a published journal article that includes more recent data, they’re actually finding their results will show a stronger effect on net deaths as more data is included.

The working paper also finds, “(Stand Your Ground) states have a higher percentage of black population, more likely to have a Republican governor, higher incarceration rates and more police officers. These states also tend to be more urban, and have a higher poverty rate.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/27/study-stand-your-ground-laws-result-in-an-additional-4-to-7-killings-per-month/

Obama up by 5 in new FOX News poll

Obama up by 5 in new FOX News poll!
The FOX News poll of 912 registered voters from June 24-26 shows Obama with a 5-point lead over Romney 45%-40%.

It also has Obama's job numbers at 48% approval and 43% disapproval.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/interactive/2012/06/27/poll-voters-say-neither-candidate-has-plan-for-economy/
via:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/27/1103743/-Obama-up-by-5-in-new-FOX-News-poll

GOP Plan To Replace Obama Care:

Fox News Justice

Poll: Americans pick Obama over Romney to handle an alien invasion

Source: The Hill






Poll: Americans pick Obama over Romney to handle an alien invasion
By Alicia M. Cohn - 06/27/12 01:21 PM ET

More Americans are confident in President Obama’s ability to handle an alien invasion than in Mitt Romney’s, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

In a survey conducted for the National Geographic Channel, 65 percent said they’d pick Obama to deal with an invading alien force over Romney. Obama also took the confidence vote among 68 percent of women surveyed, likely a key voting bloc in this scenario as well as in the November election.

In addition, about 79 percent of those surveyed think the government has kept information about aliens and UFOs a secret from the public. Despite that widespread suspicion, only 36 percent actually think UFOs exist, 17 percent don't, and 48 percent aren't sure.

The White House is pretty sure, though, and last December officially announced that the government has found “no evidence” of extraterrestrial life and no "credible information" indicating a cover-up.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/235101-poll-americans-pick-obama-over-romney-to-handle-an-alien-invasion

... House Progressives Will Seek Single-Payer Plan If Mandate Goes Down.

WASHINGTON -- The last thing House progressives want is for the Supreme Court to strike down President Barack Obama's health care law. But if the high court rules Thursday that some or all of the law is unconstitutional, progressives are ready to renew their push for the model of health care they wanted all along: the single-payer option.

"It's easy to see it's a good idea," Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told The Huffington Post. "It's the cheapest way to cover everybody."

Ellison said all 75 members of the caucus have already signed onto a bill by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) to create a single-payer, publicly financed, privately delivered universal health care program. The proposal would essentially build on and expand Medicare, under which all Americans would be guaranteed access to health care regardless of an ability to pay or pre-existing health conditions.

House progressives pushed hard for a single-payer option, such as the "Medicare for all" approach, during the health care reform debate in 2009. But House Democratic leaders couldn't come up with the votes to pass the proposal, and progressives ultimately caved on the idea in order to pass the president's plan, on the reasoning that some reform was better than none at all.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/house-progressives-single-payer-health-care_n_1630777.html

Limp Balls: "Mitt Romney blew it"

On Tuesday, Limbaugh expressed his frustration with Romney's reaction, calling it "tepid" and a "red flag" for the campaign. The radio host declared that "Mitt Romney blew it" with his response.

"The Romney campaign was not ready for primetime on this illegal immigration Arizona decision," Limbaugh insisted, noting that it was the first time he thought that in a while. He added that he thought the campaign has been doing a "superb job" rapidly responding to new developments.

He argued that immigration was too important an issue for Romney to hold back on. "You can't live off of Obama's gaffes, like the economy's doing fine... forever," he said. "You gotta be a proud, eloquent defender of the Constitution when your opponent is stomping all over it."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/rush-limbaugh-mitt-romney_n_1630624.html

Scalia Skewered & Left On The Hanger To Dry - By Conservative Icon Richard Posner

He is very concerned with the fact that the Obama administration recently announced a program suspending deportation efforts directed at more than1 million illegal immigrants under the age of 30. He quotes President Obama as having said that the program was "the right thing to do." Justice Scalia says that it "boggles the mind" to think that Arizona could be contradicting federal law by enforcing applications of federal immigration law "that the President declines to enforce." He says that the federal government "does not want to enforce the immigration laws as written, and leaves the States' borders unprotected against immigrants whom those laws would exclude." The federal government is "refus[ing] to enforce the Nation's immigration laws."

These are fighting words. The nation is in the midst of a hard-fought presidential election campaign; the outcome is in doubt. Illegal immigration is a campaign issue. It wouldn't surprise me if Justice Scalia's opinion were quoted in campaign ads. The program that appalls Justice Scalia was announced almost two months after the oral argument in the Arizona case. It seems rather a belated development to figure in an opinion in the case.


..............

In his peroration, Justice Scalia says that "Arizona bears the brunt of the country's illegal immigration problem. Its citizens feel themselves under siege by large numbers of illegal immigrant who invade their property, strain their social services, and even place their lives in jeopardy." Arizona bears the brunt? Arizona is only one of the states that border Mexico, and if it succeeds in excluding illegal immigrants, these other states will bear the brunt, so it is unclear what the net gain to society would have been from Arizona's efforts, now partially invalidated by the Supreme Court. But the suggestion that illegal immigrants in Arizona are invading Americans' property, straining their social services, and even placing their lives in jeopardy is sufficiently inflammatory to call for a citation to some reputable source of such hyperbole. Justice Scalia cites nothing to support it.

..................

As of last year there were estimated to be 360,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona, which is less than 6 percent of the Arizona population—below the estimated average illegal immigrant population of the United States. (So much for Arizona's bearing the brunt of illegal immigration.) Maybe Arizona's illegal immigrants are more violent, less respectful of property, worse spongers off social services, and otherwise more obnoxious than the illegal immigrants in other states, but one would like to see some evidence of that.


MORE!!!
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_breakfast_table/features/2012/_supreme_court_year_in_review/supreme_court_year_in_review_justice_scalia_offers_no_evidence_to_back_up_his_claims_about_illegal_immigration_.html