Over at The Agitator, Radley Balko says liberal outrage over Judge Henry Hudson’s ruling that the individual mandate is un-Constitutional causes him to wonder if we accept any Constitutional restraints on what the federal government can do.
Putting aside what’s codified Bill of Rights, which was ratified after the main body of the Constitution, do you believe the Constitution puts any restrictions on the powers of the federal government?
If your answer is yes, what restrictions would those be? And what test would you use to determine what the federal government can and can’t do?
[…]
If your answer is no, that is, that the Constitution puts no real restraints on the federal government at all, why do you suppose they bothered writing and passing one in the first place?
The short answer is, “yes, of course.” READ FULL POST
Just a quick local note: I’ll be in the Pacific Northwest this week discussing The 15 Biggest Lies About the Economy. I’d love to see some AlterNetters come out! And I promise not to actually read passages from the book at these book readings, because there’s little in this world that’s duller.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, I’ll be at the University Village Barnes and Noble at 7 pm. Here’s the info.
Then on Wednesday, onto Portland, where I’ll be discussing my favorite lies at the First Unitarian Church, located at SW 12th and Salmon. That also starts at 7 pm.
Again, if you’re in the area, I’d love to see you.
Even by the perverse standards set by the opinion-shapers in the editorial pages of the Washington Post, David Broder’s offering today stands out as a unique blend of moral depravity and intellectual laziness.
I know that Democrats have fallen into a peck of trouble and may lose control of Congress. But even if they do, Obama can still storm back to win a second term in 2012. He is that much better than the competition.
[...]
But if Obama cannot spur that growth by 2012, he is unlikely to be reelected. The lingering effects of the recession that accompanied him to the White House will probably doom him.
Can Obama harness the forces that might spur new growth? This is the key question for the next two years. READ FULL POST
The New York Times reports that employees in a Canton, Ohio McDonald’s received a pamplet with their pay-checks this week urging them to vote Republican “or possibly face financial repercussions.”
The pamphlet appeared calculated to intimidate workers into voting for Republican candidates by making a direct reference to their wages and benefits, said Allen Schulman, a Democrat who is president of the Canton City Council and said he obtained a copy of the pamphlet on Wednesday.
The pamphlet said: “If the right people are elected, we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above the current levels. If others are elected, we will not.”
It then named three Republican candidates after stating, “The following candidates are the ones we believe will help our business move forward.”
Schulman, a lawyer, told the Times that the practice violates a state law prohibiting electioneering materials from being attached to pay-checks. A spokesman for the national chain said the move represented, “an unfortunately lapse in judgment” on the part of the store’s owner, Paul Siegfried, who released a statement through the company apologizing for offending any potential customers.
A central theme in my book, The Fifteen Biggest Lies About the Economy, focuses on the Corporate Right’s constant efforts to obscure the vast differences in the economic interests of working people and management and investors — between Bill Gates and the guy who cleans Bill Gates’ pool. READ FULL POST
According to Opensecrets, we’ve achieved an ignominious milestone, as third-party spending in this off-presidential year, at $455 million and counting, eclipsing the total from the 2004 cycle.
If outside groups spend another $130 million, which seems possible, then they’ll break the record set in 2008.
In other words, if you feel overwhelmed by an unusually heavy barrage of sleazy attack ads and endless robo-calls, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait until 2012. READ FULL POST
An enormous amount of attention has been paid to the impact that unlimited corporate spending will have — is having — on our political system. But what about our judicial system? District attorneys are elected, as are judges in many jurisdictions.
Alan Grayson painted the clearest picture of what the Citizens United decision looks like in the real world when he said — and I’m paraphrasing — ‘a lobbyist can now walk into my office and say, ‘I’ve got 2 million dollars to spend in the final weeks of this race. I can spend it for you, or for your opponent — the choice is yours.’ Now that’s real power.’ READ FULL POST
The campaign of Nevada senate candidate Sharron Angle, deeply steeped in the Right’s ‘liberal media’ conspiracy theories, has gone from bizarre to surreal.
Angle had a closed-press appearance at the Microsoft Licensing office in Reno today. A phalanx of local TV crews and reporters showed up to try and get a comment from her.
According to one reporter on the scene, Angle arrived about 40 minutes late. She spoke for about five minutes inside.
As the event was coming to a close, a campaign staffer in a car near the assembled press reportedly spoke loudly into his cell phone, saying: “She’s Ready? She’s coming out now?”
Two women then got into his car, while Angle apparently went out a side door, avoiding TV cameras altogether.
Perhaps someone on Angle’s staff is a fan of The Prisoner of Zenda.
I go to the Gold’s Gym in San Francisco’s Castro district. I jokingly refer to it as The Gayest Gym In The Universe* (or at least the known universe–perhaps there’s a gym on a yet-undiscovered rainbow-colored planet with a strict ‘no straights allowed’ policy). READ FULL POST
I won’t shed a tear over Juan Williams’ involuntary departure from NPR any more than I mourned journalism’s loss when CNN shit-canned Rick Sanchez. Williams should have lost his job long ago for his lazy analysis, and it always amazed me that Sanchez got that gig in the first place (despite having a few good moments).
I certainly don’t think either should have lost their jobs over what seemed to me rather indirect expressions of petty-but-all-too-common bigotries. But the larger point, for me, is that if we’re going to have a culture of rigidly enforced political correctness in our media, it has to apply evenly. READ FULL POST
This, via Matt Duss (by email), is an interesting story. Here’s the deck:
List of potential donors prepared by then-opposition leader in 2007 provides peek into his fundraising industry in US. Officials include extreme rightists, people who got in trouble with law.
And a taste:
Benjamin Netanyahu’s list of potential donors, which was prepared ahead of the 2007 primary elections, was published Friday by the Yedioth Ahronoth daily.
One of the documents, which includes comments in Netanyahu’s handwriting, provides a peek into his fundraising industry in the United States. The then-opposition leader erased from the list people he believed would not give him money for the Likud primary elections. He divided the others into four categories according to whether contacting them is “worth the effort.” READ FULL POST
