Day: May 17, 2010

Hawaii Settles The Issue Of Barack Obama’s Birth: He Was Born In Hawaii! :)

Ronald 1 Comment

The “Birther” movement has been very active and refusing to concede that President Barack Obama was, indeed, born in a hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii.

This craziness has continued despite contemporary newspaper reports of his birth to his parents. All kinds of people, including some members of the Republican Party, including Michele Bachmann, have been unwilling to drop this farce of an issue!

Orly Taitz, the California dentist and lawyer who has been the titular leader of the “Birther” movement, refuses to give up the fight to declare that Obama is not eligible to be President, because, according to her, he was born in Kenya!

But now, the Hawaii state government, led by Republican Governor Linda Lingle, has made a public statement of the facts of Obama’s birth information, and she has said she personally saw his live birth certificate in the archives, and that no more will the state government react to the nearly 50 requests a month for proof about Obama’s birth!

Realize that this is no Democrat or liberal saying this! It is the REPUBLICAN governor of the state, certainly NOT a liberal, who says this!

So Orly Taitz, Michele Bachmann, and all of the other crazies who continue to promote this issue–it is time to cease and desist, or be considered certifiable for admission to a mental hospital! 🙂

Two Civil Liberties Decisions Of The Supreme Court That Make Sense!

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The Supreme Court made two decisions today on criminal law that makes sense, and protect civil liberties!

In one case, Graham V. Florida, the Court divided 5-4 with the four liberal Justices joined by Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote on the Court, who more often votes with the conservatives, but not this time!

The case involved the issue of whether a juvenile offender, who had committed crimes short of murder, could be imprisoned for life automatically, and the decision was to reject that. Justice Kennedy, the author of the opinion, said it was generally accepted nationally and internationally that such a viewpoint was wrong, with only eleven states and mostly Florida cases having sentenced juveniles to life without parole on non murder cases.

The fact that Kennedy used the international argument upset Justice Clarence Thomas, who said foreign practices are irrelevant to our laws and Constitution.

The struggle over whether foreign law should have any impact on our courts is a heated one, and it shows just how important Justice Kennedy is on the Court, as the truly “swing” vote on the Court, which he has been for many years now, with a tightly divided Court!

In another case, US V. Comstock, the Court by 7-2 declared that a sexually dangerous convict could be held beyond the terms of his sentence, as a way to protect the public from him being a menace on the streets of the country.

While at first thought, it would seem that this is a denial of civil liberties, it seems fair that if someone is seen as a threat to the public because of inability to control sexual impulses, based on clear and direct medical and psychological evidence, then the protection and promotion of safety of citizens must be foremost!

Interestingly, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas were in the minority on this case! It proves once again that both Justices are indeed hard to understand in their thinking!