kpete
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Scalia should resign
WED FEB 27, 2013 AT 10:27 PM PST
Scalia should resign
bydoctor oFollow
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President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law in memory of the blood that was shed on the Edmund Pettis bridge that day of the people who died before and after that day defending the right to vote. Justice Scalia, voting is not an entitlement to be taken at the whim of whatever party is in power in Congress or a state legislature. It is the foundation of everything America stands for: equality, democracy, popular election of the government and its accountability to the people. People died for it, for us, so that we can live in a democracy.
That includes you, Justice Scalia. You took the same oath to uphold the Constitution, including the 15th Amendment, that President Johnson did. Bloody Sunday is part of your national history. Jimmie Lee, whose death at the hands of an Alabama state trooper led to Bloody Sunday, died so that you could live and prosper in a true democracy. The little children blown to bits in a southern church by people who didn’t think Negros were entitled to vote died for the democracy you live in today, for the Court that has room for your black and female and Hispanic colleagues.
The fact that you don’t know that; the fact that you see voting as an entitlement, not a right – the most important right in the Constitution - disqualifies you from the bench. As brilliant as you are, your 1950's conservative ideology has blinded you to the history and the basic premise of American democracy. And your partisanship has led to an insult to the memory of those who were beaten and firehosed and whipped and shot and killed to enshrine this right in the Constitution that you are supposed to know and understand and protect.
You should apologize to every American and especially to those whose deaths gave us the Voting Rights Act. And then you should leave the bench.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/28/1190408/-Scalia-should-resign
Obama administration to express support for gay marriage before Supreme Court
Source: NBC
Obama administration to express support for gay marriage before Supreme Court
By Pete Williams, Chief Justice Correspondent, NBC News
Administration officials say the Justice Department will urge the U.S. Supreme Court to allow same-sex marriage to resume in California, wading into the protracted legal battle over Proposition 8 and giving gay-rights advocates a new court ally.
After first suggesting it would not get involved, the Obama administration will file a friend-of-the-court brief late today in support of the two gay couples who launched the fight over the issue four years ago, the officials said. Today is the last day for filing briefs in support of the couples' position.
The administration last year signaled it might stay on the sidelines. In May, when President Obama first said that "same-sex couples should be able to get married," he added that it was not a matter for the federal government.
But he appeared to express a different view in January during his inaugural address when he said, "Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well."
Read more: http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/28/17134418-obama-administration-to-express-support-for-gay-marriage-before-supreme-court?lite
What a wonderful story. Just watch:
Mitchell Marcus, the basketball team manager for Coronado High School in El Paso, Texas, is developmentally disabled. He loves the game, but isn't able to play competitively. Nonetheless, Coach Peter Morales decided to put him in a game against Franklin High School.
His teammates wanted to give Mitchell a chance to sink a basket. But even after several attempts, Mitchell was unsuccessful. Franklin High School gained possession of the ball. That's when Franklin High player Jonathan Montanez passed the ball to Mitchell for one more shot. Watch the video to see what happened next.
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/best-thing-youlre-going-see-all-day#sthash.IknoEGtI.dpbs
New Documents Show Reagan Gave Go-Ahead To Mayan Genocide
New Documents Show Reagan Gave Go-Ahead To Mayan Genocide
By Susie Madrak
Robert Parry on a newly-released document that spells out how President Ronald Reagan promoted genocide in Central America:
Soon after taking office in 1981, President Ronald Reagan’s national security team agreed to supply military aid to the brutal right-wing regime in Guatemala to pursue the goal of exterminating not only “Marxist guerrillas” but their “civilian support mechanisms,” according to a newly disclosed document from the National Archives.
Recently discovered documents at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, also reveal that Reagan’s White House was reaching out to Israel in a scheme to circumvent congressional restrictions on military equipment for the Guatemalan military.
In 1983, national security aide Oliver North (who later became a central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal) reported in a memo that Reagan’s Deputy National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane (another key Iran-Contra figure) was approaching Israel over how to deliver 10 UH-1H helicopters to Guatemala to give the army greater mobility in its counterinsurgency war.
According to these documents that I found at the Reagan library – and other records declassified in the late 1990s – it’s also clear that Reagan and his administration were well aware of the butchery underway in Guatemala and elsewhere in Central America.
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http://consortiumnews.com/2013/02/21/how-reagan-promoted-genocide/
Exclusive: The Woodward, Sperling emails revealed
We have obtained, exclusively, the exchange. Here it is:
Bob:
I apologize for raising my voice in our conversation today. My bad. I do understand your problems with a couple of our statements in the fall — but feel on the other hand that you focus on a few specific trees that gives a very wrong perception of the forest. But perhaps we will just not see eye to eye here.
But I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim. The idea that the sequester was to force both sides to go back to try at a big or grand barain with a mix of entitlements and revenues (even if there were serious disagreements on composition) was part of the DNA of the thing from the start. It was an accepted part of the understanding — from the start. Really. It was assumed by the Rs on the Supercommittee that came right after: it was assumed in the November-December 2012 negotiations. There may have been big disagreements over rates and ratios — but that it was supposed to be replaced by entitlements and revenues of some form is not controversial.
(Indeed, the discretionary savings amount from the Boehner-Obama negotiations were locked in in BCA: the sequester was just designed to force all back to table on entitlements and revenues.)
I agree there are more than one side to our first disagreement, but again think this latter issue is diffferent. Not out to argue and argue on this latter point. Just my sincere advice. Your call obviously.
My apologies again for raising my voice on the call with you. Feel bad about that and truly apologize.
Gene
From Woodward to Sperling on Feb. 23, 2013
Gene: You do not ever have to apologize to me. You get wound up because you are making your points and you believe them. This is all part of a serious discussion. I for one welcome a little heat; there should more given the importance. I also welcome your personal advice. I am listening. I know you lived all this. My partial advantage is that I talked extensively with all involved. I am traveling and will try to reach you after 3 pm today. Best, Bob
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/exclusive-the-woodward-sperling-emails-revealed-88226.html#ixzz2MCqi37Wv
"Will Woodward be sent to the FEMA camps-euthenized by death panel-or just killed quietly?"
MomsUnite @gullsnest
Lanny Davis in intrvw on WMAL this am claimed threats from WH too re his columns @jtLOL. Suspects same staffer too. Pls report!
1:28 PM - 28 Feb 13
[div class="excerpt"]
Matt Yglesias ✔ @mattyglesias
Will Woodward be sent to the FEMA concentration camps, euthenized by a death panel, or just killed quietly like Vince Foster?
3:09 AM - 28 Feb 13
Moe Lane @moelane
You know, now would be a helluva time for somebody who was a mole on the new Journolist-equivalent to publish the last 12 hours' archives.
4:05 AM - 28 Feb 13
MORE:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/02/28/the-man-who-trolled-the-world/
F*ck you Bob Woodward
What burned me was the quote:
"Can you imagine Ronald Reagan sitting there saying, 'Oh, by the way, I can't do this because of some budget document?'" Woodward said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "Or George W. Bush saying, 'You know, I'm not gonna invade Iraq, because I can't get the aircraft carriers I need?'
Why no, Bobby I can't. By the way, can you imagine barack Obama selling arms to Iran to finance an illegal war in Nicaragua? Can you imagine Barack Obama invading Iraq under false pretenses, cherry picking debunked intelligence all the way?
F*ck You Woodward. Tell us how you saved democracy for us.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/27/1190370/-F-ck-you-Bob-Woodward
Maybe Scalia is Too Black to Vote
Maybe Scalia is Too Black to Vote
by BooMan
Wed Feb 27th, 2013 at 09:41:16 PM EST
Things you can learn on the Internet:
That's cool. One of my four great-grandfathers emigrated from the very northern tip of Italy through Ellis Island and settled in Hoboken, New Jersey. What's more, little Antonin Scalia grew up in Hamilton, New Jersey, which is only 15 miles from where I grew up in Princeton, New Jersey.
As everyone who has seen True Romance and believes Quentin Tarantino's version of history knows, all Sicilians are "part-eggplant." Ever since that movie came out in 1993, people have been debating the degree to which Sicilians really do have black ancestry. Try battling through the Google results to find any decent scientific data on the subject.
Maybe Antonin saw that movie. Maybe he's overcompensating a bit. Maybe we should have his mitochondrial-DNA tested to see if he's white enough to vote in Alabama.
I'd say that if Scalia is any more than 4% black, we should just consider him black and ask him to correctly tell us how many jelly-beans are in a jar before we allow him to register to vote. Maybe he doesn't know that at the time that Lincoln was running for president that one of the biggest constituencies that Republicans had to pander to were members of the Know Nothing Party who thought that Sicilians were no better than negroes and should be barred from entering the country.
- See more at: http://www.boomantribune.com/#sthash.VnzXwIeP.dpuf
Woodward Wets His Pants: "A Very Senior Person" At WH Made Him Feel "Uncomfortable"
Bob Woodward said Wednesday that a “very senior person” at the White House told the veteran journalist and author “you will regret” faulting the Obama administration for the present fight over sequestration.
“It was said very clearly: ‘you will regret doing this,’” Woodward said on CNN’s “The Situation Room.” “I’m not going to say who, a very senior person. It makes me very uncomfortable to have the White House telling reporters you’re going to regret doing something you believe in.”
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http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/285423-woodward-claims-white-house-threatened-him
The White House denies it. A White House official tells us: “Of course no threat was intended. As Mr. Woodward noted, the email from the aide was sent to apologize for voices being raised in their previous conversation. The note suggested that Mr. Woodward would regret the observation he made regarding the sequester because that observation was inaccurate, nothing more. And Mr. Woodward responded to this aide’s email in a friendly manner.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/02/inside_the_woodward_fainting_couch.php?ref=fpblg
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