Obama Health Care

A Reminder: The Supreme Court Determines The Future!

WIth the Supreme Court term about to end on Thursday, and all of the tumult about the upcoming decision on the Affordable Care Act, and the decisions today on immigration, corporate spending in campaigns, and juvenile sentencing for life terms for murder fresh on one’s mind, it is again important to remember what most Americans don’t even know or realize: The Supreme Court determines the future, more than any part of American government!

A lifetime job, with total freedom to say and do what one wants, is a great power, and we are now suffering from the reality that Ronald Reagan may be dead for eight years, but two of his appointments to the Court (Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy) are still dictating much of what happens in America; George H. W. Bush’s appointee, Clarence Thomas, is not going away anytime soon; and George W. Bush’s two appointments, Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, will be around for at least two more decades on the Court, assuming good health!

And now with Scalia and Kennedy being 76, and Clinton appointees Ruth Bader Ginsberg being 79 and Stephen Breyer being 73, it is certain that one to four appointments are likely to be made by the winner of the 2012 election.

Can we afford President Romney shaping a Court that will be to the “right of Attila the Hun?”

It would destroy the chance for fairness, equity, humanity on the Court, and would continue the corporate conquest of American government going on with the Citizens United case, and the new Montana case just decided, that reaffirmed that earlier, disgraceful, decision!

It cannot be emphasized enough that NOTHING matters more than the Supreme Court and the federal circuit judges in this upcoming Presidential election! Economic policy and foreign policy are much less significant than constitutional law!

Obama and his supporters NEED to bring up this issue regularly, and never stop referring to it, with the hope that it will penetrate the brains of the American people!

An Acceptable Compromise: Contraceptive Services For Women Of Religiously Based Employers To Be Offered Gratis By Insurance Companies

President Barack Obama has announced that contraceptive services for women who work for religiously based employers, such as universities and hospitals, will not have to be paid by the religious group as part of their health care plan, but instead will be a requirement for insurance companies to cover without charge.

This takes away the issue of religious liberty, which has been promoted incessantly by supporters of the Catholic Church and other religious groups, and exploited by the Republican Party and its Presidential candidates. Our belief in freedom of religion made it necessary for the administration to reconsider its handling of this part of the Obama Health Care legislation, which itself will be considered as to its constitutionality in the next few months by the US Supreme Court.

One can be assured, however, that politics will be utilized, and that this controversy will not disappear from the Presidential campaign, but it seems a win for women’s rights, as well as religious liberty!

The Texasfication Of America: Is This What We Want?

Governor Rick Perry of Texas has come out charging like a bull as a Presidential candidate, offering Texas as a model for America, but is it?

Texas is low down in the list of states in the following areas:

1. Educational spending and attainments and curriculum accuracy
2. Health Care spending and coverage
3. Minimum Wage Jobs
4. Environmental Protection from pollution
5. Corporate Regulation in the public interest
6. Stratification of wealth between rich and poor.
7. Mistreatment of Mexican American citizens
8. A backward legal system with high crime rates and execution numbers.

Besides all of the above, Rick Perry would like to wipe out most of the reforms of the 20th century, including:

1. 16th Amendment–Federal Income Tax
2. 17th Amendment–Direct Election Of Senators
3. National Labor Relations Act
4. Federal Education Programs
5. Environmental Protection Agency
6. Consumer Products Safety Commission
7. Medicaid, Medicare as we know it, and Obama Health Care
8. Occupational Safety And Health Administration
9. Food Stamps and Unemployment Compensation
10.Corporate and Banking Regulations
11.Repeal of Social Security

We will be learning a lot more about Rick Perry as time goes on, and as research by journalists is completed, but is not the above enough reason to reject Rick Perry for President of the United States?

It is clear that Rick Perry would be the most reactionary, right wing candidate for President since Barry Goldwater in 1964!

Enough said!