Military Members Getting Hosed – Homes Taken, Exposed to HIV
Of the following two stories, which do you think is worse:
1. 1,800 Veterans at a VA Hospital in Missouri may have been infected with HIV after going to the hospital for dental work.
2. Or the Texas Hose ‘Em: Military member loses home for failing to pay Home Owner’s Association fees under an incredible Texas law that allows HOA’s to foreclose on homes for failure to pay fees. And oh yeah, by the way, they don’t have to have a court hearing to do it, either. And, oh yeah, the legislators in Texas can’t get reform passed because the HOA lobby is so powerful.
I gotta go with the HIV thing, but that’s only because the guy in Texas can actually challenge the foreclosure of his home in the courts. Of course, if you ask some of the people over on Daily Kos they might disagree with me.
I posted over there yesterday that I didn’t think a gun rights group should try to overturn a federal law that bans people convicted of domestic violence from owning guns. There were actually some people, on Daily Kos no less, who disagreed with me. They called into question my moral character (really) and suggested that I was a terrible attorney. The attorney thing may be true, but I call sheesh on the moral character question. I gotta get thicker skin if I’m going to express my opinions!
Gun Rights Group Fights to Arm Abusers
The Supreme Court has ruled that the 2nd Amendment individual right to own a gun (as they ruled two years ago) applies to the states as well as the federal government via the 14th Amendment. Now, one of the first laws gun rights advocates said they want to challenge is the federal law that says anyone convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor can’t own a gun. Of all the laws they think should go, the gun rights advocates are most concerned about arming abusive husbands? Of course they are. From NPR:
TOTENBERG: Herb Titus of the Gun Owners of America sees things differently. The first priority of his group right now, he says, is to invalidate a federal law that bans the sale of guns to anyone convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor.
Mr. TITUS: I believe that the prohibition against people who’ve been convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence will probably be the area of litigation down the road.
It speaks volumes that a gun rights group wants to arm men who’ve beaten their wives. Of course, it also shows their absolute stupidity. Yesterday’s ruling dealt with state regulations. The ban on ownership of guns by abusive assholes is a federal law. Not to mention that that federal law was UPHELD by the Supreme Court
Gun Rights advocates think yesterday’s decision opens the door to have the Supreme Court reconsider the federal law. Why? Because….. uh…… why again? Yesterday’s decision does nothing to alter the legal landscape in terms of the federal law keeping guns out of the hands of abusers. In fact, in the Hayes decision in 2009 the Supreme Court, while not addressing the right to bear arms, specifically found that the law should be broadly interpreted because states often convicted abusers under battery laws, not domestic abuse laws. The Court held that if the federal law was strictly interpreted it would be dead in nearly two-thirds of the states. Hell, even Roberts, in writing a dissenting opinion, didn’t bring up an individual’s rights to bear arms. Can you imagine if the Supreme Court had ruled that the individual right to bear arms applied to the states by throwing out a domestic violence law? They may be out of touch in an ivory tower but they’re not that tone deaf.
I know I’m a crazy women’s lib, pro-choice Republican attorney white woman (really) but what the f*** is going on these days? What kind of a world do we live in where a man dressed up as a gun rights advocate touting the desire to overturn laws that protect domestic violence vicitms gets all of the press? This country needs an enema!
Tweet Roundup
**Update***
President Obama chimes in with his own Twitter blunder. Must’ve been feeling left out of this week’s Tweet Roundup:
Obama said:
“As a personal passion of the president and during his visit to Silicon Valley this week, he was at the headquarter of Twitters, where he opened his own account,” Obama said. “I have one as well so we may finally be able to throw away those red phones that have been sitting around for so long.”
**Original Post:
The snarkiest Tweets of the week go to former Republican Senator and “Hunt For Red October” star Fred Thompson:
@FredThompson
Obama wants $600M to hire more people to guard Mex border. Surprising. Sending more guys in without announcing a withdrawl date. #ftrs #tcot 1:31 PM Jun 25thObama fires McChrystal: can tolerate “debate, but not division”. Apparently pretty tolerant of delay, departure, and defeat, too #ftrs #tcot 1:31 PM Jun 24th via web
The most self important phony tweet of the week goes to Glenn Beck:
Thank you for making The Overton Window a number 1 ny times best seller. When you are done, pass it to a friend. 9:43 PM Jun 23rd
The “I can’t tell if he’s being nice or a jerk” tweet of the week goes to Sean Hannity:
That’s too bad. Good game #USA #worldcup 4:19 PM Jun 26th
Best Tweet exchange: Conan O’Brien and Lance Armstrong
Yesterday was the longest day of the year, unless you count the time I interviewed Lance Armstrong. 12:02 PM Jun 22nd via web
@ConanOBrien all you wanted to talk about was riding bikes and shaving your legs. It was, uh, slightly freaky. 2:37 PM Jun 22nd via UberTwitter in reply to ConanOBrien
# @lancearmstrong – I was drunk. And I wanted some tips for smoother legs. Is that so wrong? 6:00 PM Jun 22nd via web
Palin Likes Obama Hitler Comparison
Sarah Palin wants her Palindrones to read an editorial comparing President Obama to Hitler. (For a black man whose people were repressed for centuries he sure turned the tables on that white majority pretty quickly to assume a position of power akin to that of Adolph Hitler. Why, just the other day I was commenting on the number of white people that were being rounded up and sent to “camps” for census “counting.” I wondered if my family and I should hide in the basement of our Asian neighbors so the Census officers couldn’t arrest us when they came to our house!)
Why is Obama Hitler this time? Well, this time he had the audacity to demand that BP finance a $20 Billion Dollar fund for victims of the oil spill. (By the way, if BP had any courage they could’ve said no to financing the fund, instead they agreed.) The editorial states:
During the worldwide Great Depression, the German Reichstag passed a law “for the relief of the German people.”
That law gave Hitler dictatorial powers that were used for things going far beyond the relief of the German people — indeed, powers that ultimately brought a rain of destruction down on the German people and on others.
If the agreement with BP was an isolated event, perhaps we might hope that it would not be a precedent. But there is nothing isolated about it.
I am so tired of this Hitler shit. I mean really. First of all, the power of the Presidency is obscene and it’s been obscene since way before Obama got into office. So far, none of those abuses of executive power have led us down the path to Nazi Germany, but they’re going to keep throwing the Hitler/Anti-Christ card out there. Whose “they?” The same people who yelled that President Bush and Dick Cheney did more to damage the Republic than any other President and Vice President before them.
Enough with the hyperbole. These Presidents have policies you don’t like. Period. End of story. Yes, there is abuse of power. Yes, at times, the Congress and the President (throughout the years) have done things that were unconstitutional. Hell, the Supreme Court of the United States subjected an entire race of people to unconstitutional racial segregation for nearly 70 years before finally overturning the “separate but equal” doctrine. There have been countless excesses and mistakes and unconstitutional actions and yet the Republic still stands. We may look like the original Star Spangled Banner, full of holes blasted into our constitution by different groups at different times, but the next morning, we’re still here. And so is your freedom. So get over it.
FUBARed
President Obama seems to be missing a crucial component of his Afghanistan policy, which is to actually have a winning one. I say it’s time for a full on occupation and show of military might with every frickin piece of military power we have diverted to Afghanistan (without taking away from Iraq – thanks for that Bush). Let’s treat Afghanistan as if it is the Eastern Front.
I mean seriously. This is not meant to be naive as to what is acceptable in this day and age of military actions, or even realistic as to what can be done in Afghanistan, but at some point, if you’re going to wage war, you have to wage war. Other than Genghis Khan, has anyone else been able to hold this frickin’ place? Now that we’ve replaced Major Kong with David Petraeus, can we really expect any better outcome? What really torques me is that this is a war that was “justified.” Of all the crap that’s happened in the last ten years, Afghanistan made the most sense. They were brutalizing their people, and especially their women, and they harbored and aided and abetted the very people who attacked our country on September 11th. Of course we would go in and fight the war. But now what? We had no plan B? No exit strategy? We were just going to turn it over to Hamid Karzai? Has anyone ever met Karzai? The guy’s a joke!
One of the worst things to come out of that infamous Rolling Stone article about McChrystal was the information that he had tried to visit Karzai to get his permission to launch an offensive but was turned away cause Karloser was napping! Seriously. I know Obama has gotten s*** for playing golf during the oil disaster (dumb ass) but how do you justify napping in a country that has literally totally and completely gone to the dogs? Didn’t have enough interesting items on his plate to warrant working through the day?
It’s time to to gut Afghanistan with some good old fashioned World War II occupancy. Remember the Potsdam Declaration? Remember when you could issue a document and the countries of the world would unite? No? Just me? We have no allies in Afghanistan. It’s just us. But what if we issued the following statement:
(1) I-the President of the United States, representing the hundreds of millions of my countrymen, have decided that the Taliban in Afghanistan shall be given an opportunity to end this war.
(2) The prodigious land, sea and air forces of the United States, many times reinforced by their armies and air fleets from the west, are poised to strike the final blows upon the Taliban. This military power is sustained and inspired by the determination to prosecute the war against the Taliban until they cease to resist.
(3) The might of the aroused free peoples of the world now converging on the Taliban is immeasurably greater than that which, when applied to the resisting Nazis, necessarily laid waste to the lands, the industry and the method of life of the whole German people. The full application of our military power, backed by our resolve, will mean the inevitable and complete destruction of the Taliban armed forces and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Afghanistan homeland.
(4) The time has come for the people of Afghanistan to decide whether they will continue to be controlled by those self-willed militaristic terrorists whose unintelligent calculations have brought the country of Afghanistan to the threshold of annihilation, or whether they will follow the path of reason.
(5) Following are our terms. We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives. We shall brook no delay.
(6) There must be eliminated for all time the authority and influence of those who have deceived and misled the people of Afghanistan into embarking on world terror campaign, for we insist that a new order of peace, security and justice will be impossible until irresponsible terrorism is driven from the world.
(7) Until such a new order is established and until there is convincing proof that the Taliban’s war-making power is destroyed, points in Afghanistan territory to be designated by the United States shall be occupied to secure the achievement of the basic objectives we are here setting forth.
(8) The Taliban military forces, after being completely disarmed, shall be permitted to return to their homes with the opportunity to lead peaceful and productive lives.
(9) We do not intend that the Afghan people shall be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation, but stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our people. The Afghanistan Government shall remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Afghan people. Freedom of speech, of religion, and of thought, as well as respect for the fundamental human rights shall be established.
(10) Afghanistan shall be permitted to maintain such industries as will sustain her economy and permit the exaction of just reparations in kind, but not those which would enable her to re-arm for war. To this end, access to, as distinguished from control of, raw materials shall be permitted. Eventual Afghanistan, participation in world trade relations shall be permitted.
(11) The occupying forces of the United States shall be withdrawn from Afghanistan as soon as these objectives have been accomplished and there has been established in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Afghan people a peacefully inclined and responsible government.
(12) We call upon the Taliban to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Taliban armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Afghanistan is prompt and utter destruction.
Seriously. Get in there. Finish it. NOW.
Green Hornet
Holy Shit! Where’s the Tylenol!?!
I totally stole that headline from my sister/Chevy Chase. USA! USA! USA! Donovan’s last minute extra time goal sends the US on to the next round of the World Cup! All rejoice! I want to see what Glenn Beck does now that the United States could play Germany in the next round. The idiot pronounced that he (and “real” America) hate soccer but he also hates all things Hitler related. What to do Becks? Wait, can’t use “Becks” in a post about soccer when referring to Glenny. USA! USA! USA!
By the way, Bill Clinton? At the game? I thought it was bad luck, but then it paid off in the end! Hope he comes to all the other games. Hope Donovan takes all the shots instead of Altidore. What’s up with the blast into the stands instead of the open net in the first half Jozy? Yikes. All’s well that ends well.
Really, Catholic Church? Really?
I’m two years late on this rant and only just heard about it this morning on NPR. Back in 2008, before the full force of the sex abuse scandal had gripped the Catholic Church, the Vatican was confronted with a much more serious problem: women priests! In a bizarre effort to serve the Lord, and more importantly in a way not authorized by the Vatican, women were actually trying to become priests so they could help make disciples of Christ. The audacity! The criminality! The Vatican knew that this kind of problem was going to get out of hand quickly. It knew women were going to start walking around wearing collars, offending the eyes of parishioners everywhere! To save the poor, abused Catholics the Vatican took serious steps to punish any woman caught trying to be a priest: they would be automatically excommunicated.
Yep. Really. According to Reuters:
But some offences, including heresy, schism, and laying violent hands on the Pope, are considered so disruptive of ecclesiastical life that they trigger automatic excommunication, or “latae sententiae”.
The decree says that women priests and the bishops who ordain them would be excommunicated “latae sententiae”.
There will be no transfer to another diocese, no reassignment to a convent, no chance to rehabilitate yourself. If you’re a woman, and you commit the “sin” of serving Christ as a priest in the Catholic church, and some poor bishop tries to make you into a priest, you’re both out. Done. No questions asked.
Now, if you’re a male priest and you allegedly force an 11-year-old boy to have oral sex with you, the obvious solution is to move you to another diocese where you can continue to work despite the fact that you get convicted of sexually abusing minors for which you merely have to pay a fine after which you’re allowed to resume your pastoral duties. After all, Christ obviously would want convicted pedophiles to be given a second chance. And he would obviously want women who were trying to be his disciples to just be kicked out no questions asked.
Yeah. That makes sense. Blessed are the cheese makers.
Give Oil Spill Proceeds to the Gulf Coast States
**UPDATE***
Greater legal minds than my own (doesn’t take much) have offered an even better solution: forfeiture. Under the criminal statutes the United States Government can seize all profits from criminal activity. The term “profits” can encompass quite a large swath. Therefore, if they do charge BP with a crime, they can seize all the profits from the spill as forfeiture for the victims. Duh. And I thought I wasn’t sleeping through law school….
**ORIGINAL POST****
BP is getting a little bit happier these days since they’ve managed to siphon off about 11,000 barrels of oil from the spill onto a tanker ship. Projections are, once they got another ship down there (God knows why they didn’t have another ship standing by) they’ll start raking in about 20,000 barrels of oil a day. Given that the current price of oil is $71.33, BP, in just seven days, will have about $9,344,230 worth of oil on their hands. So, has any one asked what BP plans to do with all those barrels of oil? Sell it?
President Obama keeps saying BP is going to clean up the mess it made and pay for it. Sounds like they’ll have quite a lot of money on their hands to help with the cleanup. We now know, thanks to the United States Supreme Court, that all those barrels of oil can be taken by the federal government. In Kelo v. City of New London, Connecticut the Supreme Court abrogated the rights of private businesses to not be condemned by ruling the government can take private property in furtherance of economic development so long as it serves some kind of public purpose. I’d say, condemning the well and taking all the profits from the spill in order to create a stimulus package for the gulf coast states’ economies serves the public purpose. You have to do some legal limbo, but the United States Attorney in Louisiana could file condemnation proceedings tomorrow and sort it out later.
Of course, in a normal circumstance, BP would expect to be compensated for losing all that money. Surely, haha, they would see the public relations folly of trying to ask for their money back. If they do want it back, however, I’ll bet there’s case law out there that says we don’t have to compensate them. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. And no, it doesn’t set a dangerous precedent as to other private property owners as this is an “extraordinary and unforeseen occasion.”
It’s a win win solution. Unless you’re BP. And if you are, who cares what you think?
