Good morning!

I realize my title may be construed as harsh, but don’t you think that if the safest place in the U.S., The White House, is majorly breached and the Secret Service are responsible for protecting our president and his family, and they don’t, they pretty much suck. Either that or they’re just not concerned about the well-being and safety of the president and his family, as they should be, and then well…that still sucks. I do, therefore, think my title is appropriate. Because it is their job…they are getting paid to protect the First Family. 

And then that brings to light another question of “Is their racism involved here?” I know, I know…I’m always accusing and illuminating racism…..But there is just too many layers breached and too many opportunities to prevent that breach that just didn’t happen, and should have.

And now we are privy to the fact that this fence jumper, Omar Gonzalez, actually made it further into the White House, all the way into the East Room, wielding a knife, rather than just entering the reported foyer. Hello! A knife kills  - we’ve seen sick evidence this past month on how easily a knife can kill. If one of the Obama girls was grabbed by Gonzales…well, we all know what could happen with a knife.

How did this happen when the Secret Service are supposed to be the best…are supposed to protect the president and his family?

Let’s not forget that Gonzalez was stopped twice before, and he was caring guns/ammunition, maps to the White House, etc., were found on him and nothing was done then.  Wha’at??!!

Here’s the write from CNN.

Officials: Fence jumper made it into East Room of White House

Washington (CNN) – The man who jumped the White House fence earlier this month and breached the mansion’s doors actually made it farther than originally thought, officials said Monday.

Omar Gonzalez, a 42-year-old Iraq war veteran who had a knife in his pocket, overcame one Secret Service officer and ran into the East Room of the White House, where he was then subdued, a federal law enforcement said.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who was provided the information by whistleblowers during his congressional investigation into the incident, also confirmed the details of what now appears to be a wild chase through the main floor of the White House, first reported by the Washington Post.

The Secret Service had previously stated that Gonzalez was stopped after entering the front door of the North Portico.

Gonzalez ran through much of the main floor, past a stairway that leads up to the first family’s residence, and was ultimately stopped at the far southern end of the East Room. He also reached the doorway to the Green Room, an area that looks out on the South Lawn.

No shots were fired inside the White House, the federal law official said.

Official: Secret Service twice interviewed, released would-be White House intruder

The Secret Service has not yet commented on the new details.

“I could not be more proud of the individual agents, but I worry that Director (Julia) Pierson and the leadership there at the Secret Service is failing them,” Chaffetz said Monday on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

Pierson will face tough questions at an already-scheduled hearing on Tuesday before the House Oversight Committee.

A Republican from Utah who sits on the committee, said he wants to know why an audible alarm in the White House had been muted after ushers said it was making too many noises.

And shortly after the incident earlier this month, the Secret Service issued a statement saying officers “showed tremendous restraint and discipline in dealing with” Gonzalez.

Chaffetz said he has a problem with that, too.

“I don’t want tremendous restraint,” he said. “I want to see overwhelming force to deter somebody. When you have the situation where you have the apparent lax security, you’re unfortunately going to invite more attacks. And that’s the concern.”

Pierson sent a letter to committee chairman Darrell Issa last Friday raising concerns about an holding open discussion on security issues and urged the chairman to allow some of her testimony to take place in a classified setting.

“Simply put, publicly airing the very security measures employed by the Secret Service and the various challenges we confront at the White House complex will arm those who desire to cause injury – or worse – to the President and First Family with critical information, and doing so would be beyond reckless,” Pierson wrote.

How the Secret Service could beef up White House security

CNN has learned from a Democratic source on the Oversight Committee that Issa has agreed to Pierson’s request, and will hold a separate, classified session on Tuesday.

The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, praised the decision to protect the agency’s mission.

“This is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, but an American issue, and the last thing we should do is give people like Gonzalez a road map for how to attack the President or other officials,” Cummings said in a written statement to CNN.

Readers: I agree with the reporter…”Restraint?” C’mon, bring the intruder down! This is the protection of the president of the United States and his family. This was not some thug on the streets; this was in the White House. If you can’t discern the difference or the degree of importance here, you shouldn’t be the Secret Service director. Yeah, I’m addressing you Ms. Pierson.

Now this morning we have the hearings going on questioning the Secret Service Director, Ms. Pierson, on why her agents did nothing. And they are drilling her…and rightly so. Did you watch? My opinion has not changed. This woman and all of the agents need to be fired. Obama has a big pair, no doubt, but when it comes to the actions, or lack thereof,  from the Secret Service, he is being way too soft and lenient. This is his safety and the safety of his family. Fire them all. 

And if that isn’t reason enough to be fired, Ms Pierson is also being drilled about the gun shots that were fired at the White House and entered into the White House in November 2011. The agents heard the gun shots, smelled the gun shots being fired, heard the sound of debris falling…and still did nothing. They claim that the gun shots were merely a construction vehicle backfiring nearby. Yeah…6-8 backfires. I don’t think so.

It wasn’t until days later that a housekeeper noticed some damage in the White House and found bullet holes. Wha’at??!! It takes no training to look around for evidence of bullet holes but it seems that the Secret Service didn’t bother to do something as simple as that. There lack of action shows very little concern for the safety of the First Family.

When the repub’s biggest goal is to destroy Obama, they will do whatever is necessary.  The repub controlled House of Representatives put in place a drastic budget cut and the Secret Service had requested a staff reduction of over 300 employees in 2013. They also went from 13 training as year down to 6 and now there are no trainings. Not that less Secret Service agents should affect the ability of the ones on duty doing his or her job, nor do you need training to snoop around for bullet holes. The housekeeper certainly doesn’t have any training. All it takes is a little caring and curiosity. But when training is eliminated, what kind of message do you think this sends?

The media won’t address it but I will. Would these budget cuts and a reduction in Secret Service agents have been made if Obama was a white man?  Is it unfair to say that if Obama was white, Gonzales would’ve been taken out? Not to mention that if Gonzales were black would he ever have been able to set foot inside of the White House, let alone have gotten in as far as he did, without being brought down?

This whole thing is shocking. Fire Ms Pierson  and all the agents.  

What are your thoughts? What are your questions? Blog me. 

Aimee: As I mentioned, Ruth didn’t need anyone else to agree with her nomination of Mark, but I did ask if anyone else wanted to nominate him and you gave your vote. :) He is a member.

Lewis: I did a search and found this, “Hundreds of voters are disenfranchised by North Carolina’s new voting restrictions,” which is what I am assuming you are referring to. Do you know the verdict from last Thursday? I could not find it.

Dave: And according to the above quoted write, even Vets who were registered and whose registration was incorrectly terminated while he was away fighting for our country. Repubs will do whatever it takes to win.

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

I know you are politically savvy, and I don’t want to inundate you with talk about how important these midterm elections are, because I know you know this. So between now and election day, I am choosing wisely when it comes to posting writes that bring up this very subject. Writes, that I feel, need to be read.

From Think Progress.

Manipulating The Vote

How Republicans In Three States Are Trying To Change The Game

Conservative legislatures and Secretaries of State across the country have taken draconian steps to limit access to the vote, from voter ID laws, to limits on early voting, and now to manipulating the ballot and registration processes. Each of these actions were done in the name of protecting the integrity of the voting process, while having the actual impact of shutting out certain demographics: communities of color, low-income, young and elderly voters and veterans, among others. Right now the November elections in several states are poised to occur under a cloud of uncertainty and suspicion because of these actions.

Georgia: Blocking Eligible Voters from Registering

Last week, Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp sent a memo saying he had received “numerous complaints about voter applications submitted by the New Georgia Project,” a voter registration effort aimed at increasing turnout by African American voters. This week, after the group challenged Kemp’s claims and said Kemp’s office had held up more than 50,000 voter registration forms for months, Kemp changed his tune.

In audio released by Better Georgia, Secretary Kemp says, “Democrats are working hard, and all these stories about them, you know, registering all these minority voters that are out there and others that are sitting on the sidelines, if they can do that, they can win these elections in November.”

Kemp delaying the processing of more than 50,000 voter registrations could change the outcome of the elections if people are unable to vote. His comments suggest he is fine with that.

Kansas: Manipulating the Ballot to Help the Republican Incumbent

On Thursday, September 18, the Kansas Supreme Court told Secretary of State Kris Kobach to remove the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Chad Taylor, from the November ballot, per the candidate’s request. Kobach had refused to do so since Sept. 3, when the candidate first made the request, after he learned that a ballot with incumbent Republican Senator Pat Roberts against Independent Greg Orman showed the independent winning.

Ballots were scheduled to begin being mailed this Saturday in Kansas, but Kobach announced he would tell the Kansas Democratic party to pick a replacement by noon September 26, according to the Kansas City Star. Kobach said his office would “review the legal options if Democrats fail to comply,” and cited a federal law in saying he could delay sending overseas ballots.

Incumbent Republican Senator Pat Roberts is behind in a head-to-head matchup with Greg Orman, as much as six percent. A Roberts loss could threaten the Republicans’ chances of taking over the Senate in the next Congress. Instead of getting out the vote, Kobach tried to rewrite the ballot, reversing course this afternoon and announcing that Kansas will actually start sending out overseas ballots without a Democratic nominee listed.

Wisconsin: Changing the Law at the Last Minute

A week ago, a federal appeals court ruled to reinstate Wisconsin’s voter ID law, requiring voters to show photo identification when they vote. The 2011 law has been challenged in the courts for years, and this ruling was unprecedented in its timing: less than two months before the election. Like the others, the justification for this law was the always elusive voter fraud, when in reality it would serve todisenfranchise roughly nine percent of the state’s voters. In 2010, Governor Scott Walker won by just 124,638 votes, and he appears to be in an even closer race this year.

ACLU’s legal team estimates “the state would have to process and issue 6,000 photo IDs every day between now and November 4 in order to serve all” the impacted residents who don’t have one now. Additionally, several thousand absentee ballots have already been sent to voters and many have been returned, without an ID check.

The immediate concern in Wisconsin is the ability of the state to enforce a major change in election law less than two months before the election. The change impacts 300,000 voters, enough to easily change the outcome of an election that had only 2.1 million voters in 2010.

BOTTOM LINE: Georgia, Kansas and Wisconsin in no way represent the entire picture of voter suppression efforts in states across the country, but the recent events in these states highlight how Republican efforts to cutoff access to the vote have real impacts in elections. In cases like Georgia and Kansas these are clear efforts to change the outcome of elections in favor of their party. Americans deserve better when it comes to their most basic of rights.

*****

Readers: It is vital that people are able to vote. The repubs are doing all they can to prevent Dems from getting to the polls. We must do all we can to get them there.

Blog me.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

“Just noticing…”

From The Huff Po:

What Happened When A Biracial Woman Was Photoshopped In 18 Different Countries

What makes someone “beautiful”? It’s a difficult question to answer, as we learned earlier this year from journalist Esther Honig‘s Photoshop experiment, in which she sent a picture of herself to photo editors in 25 countries around the world and asked them to “Make me beautiful.” The variety of results she received — some lightening her already pale skin, some darkening it, some adding makeup, some adjusting the skeletal structure of her face – challenged the idea that there is an ultimate kind of beauty, a “perfect” woman.

But when journalist Priscilla Yuki Wilson replicated Honig’s experiment, she found that her biracial identity caused things to play out differently.

(Story continues below.)

“In contrast to Honig’s results, where her face became a canvas to express more than a dozen contrasting beauty standards, I found that my face actually challenged the application of photoshop in this instance,” Wilson wrote in a post on her personal blog. “As a biracial women there is no standard of beauty or mold that can easily fit my face.”

Half Japanese and half black, Wilson has fielded the question “What are you?” far too often, compounding her struggle with society’s unattainable standards of beauty.

“I am living in a culture that’s still adjusting to my kind of face,” she explains. “I was taught that my natural self did not comply with conventional standards set forth by society, saying fairer skin is better, straighter hair is more attractive, and that skinny tastes good.”

How photo editors in 18 countries and the European Union responded to Wilson’s request is representative of the variety of expectations that cultures around the world have for women, and how universally difficult it can be to fit in.

Check out Wilson’s collection of paradigm-challenging edits:

• Vietnam
  
• India
  Priscilla Yuki Wilson
• Mexico
  Priscilla Yuki Wilson
• USA
  

• USA
  
• USA
  
• United Kingdom
  

• The Netherlands
  
• Switzerland
  
• Sri Lanka
  
• Slovenia
  
• Singapore
  
• Algeria
  
• Macedonia
  
• Macedonia
  
• Portugal
  
• Montenegro
  
• Israel
  
• European Union
  

This photo was not identified by Wilson as having been edited in a specific country. Instead, it was attributed to the European Union as a whole.

• Brazil
  
• Albania
  

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post said incorrectly that Wilson’s image was Photoshopped by editors in 21 different countries and the European Union. In fact, the photo was edited in 18 countries and the EU.

*****

Interesting, huh? Notice which country did the most photoshopping. Thoughts? Bog me. 

Ruth: Your nomination of LSOS is duly noted. Anyone else want to jump in on this nomination for Mark? Not that it is necessary to make him a member, but I was just curious.:)

Linda: Business as usual with FOX.

I HOPE everyone has a wonderful Sunday! Thanks for being here with me. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

This girl always wanted to be a fighter pilot – she was destined to do what she is doing…which is kicking some ISIS butt. Watch out misogynists – a girlz is on your ass! Congrats to Maj. Mariam Al Mansouri!

The write from CNN.

UAE’s first female fighter pilot led airstrike against ISIS

(CNN) – Maj. Mariam Al Mansouri may be ISIS’ worst nightmare.

The first female fighter pilot in the United Arab Emirates, she led a strike mission this week against the terror group, that country’s ambassador to the United States said Thursday.

“She is (a) fully qualified, highly trained, combat ready pilot, and she led the mission,” Yousef Al Otaiba told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

The UAE has joined the United States and a handful of other Arab nations in conducting airstrikes against ISIS in Syria.

This summer, the group declared the establishment of a “caliphate,” an Islamic state stretching across the territory it has conquered. It maintains strict rules for women, who are lashed for infractions such as not being fully covered.

Al Otaiba said the campaign against ISIS basically boils down to the question of what type of society one wants.

“It’s important for us — moderate Arabs, moderate Muslims — to step up and say this is a threat against us. This is more of a threat against us than it is against you. This is not just a threat to our countries. This is a threat to our way of life,” the ambassador told MSNBC.

CNN spoke to Al Mansouri earlier this year about her work. She had wanted to be a fighter pilot since she finished high school, but had to wait until women were allowed.

“At that time, the doors were not open for females to be pilots. So I had to wait almost 10 years for the decision to be taken,” Al Mansouri said.

She stressed there’s no difference between men and women when it comes to defending their country.

“We are in a hot area so that we have to prepare every citizen,” Al Mansouri said. “Of course, everybody is responsible of defending their country — male or female. When the time will come, everybody will jump in.”

*****

Happy Saturday everyone!

Blog me. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

From Think Progress:

BREAKING: Federal Appeals Court Withdraws Decision Defunding Obamacare

In July, two Republican judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed down a decision defunding much of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This effort to implement Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) top policy priority from the bench was withdrawn on Thursday by the DC Circuit, and the case will be reheard by the full court — a panel that will most likely include 13 judges. In practical terms, this means that July’s judgment cutting off subsidies to consumers who buy insurance plans in federally-operated health exchanges is no more. It has ceased to be. It is, in fact, an ex-judgment.

The reason why this matters is because the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, known as Halbig v. Burwell, are hustling to try to convince the GOP-dominated Supreme Court to hear this case, where they no doubt believe that they have a greater chance of succeeding than in the DC Circuit, as a majority of the active judges in the DC Circuit are Democrats. The Supreme Court takes only a tiny fraction of the cases brought to their attention by parties who lost in a lower court — a study of the Court’s 2005 term, for example, found that the justices granted a full argument to only 78 of the 8,517 petitions seeking the high Court’s review that term. The justices, however, are particularly likely to hear cases where two federal appeals courts disagree about the same question of law.

Two hours after the divided DC Circuit panel released its opinion attempted to defund Obamacare, a unanimous panel of the Fourth Circuit upheld the health subsidies that are at issue in Halbig. Thus, so long as both decisions remained in effect, Supreme Court review was very likely. Now that the full DC Circuit has vacated the two Republican judges’ July judgement, Supreme Court review is much less likely.

Although it is possible that the full DC Circuit could agree with the two judges who voted to cut off health subsidies to millions of Americans, this outcome is unlikely. The plaintiffs’ arguments in this case are weakand are unlikely to move judges who do not have a partisan stake in undermining the Affordable Care Act.

The litigants seeking to undermine Obamacare through this lawsuit — Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R), who filed a brief supporting the plaintiffs in this case, admitted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the purpose of this lawsuit is to cause “the structure of the ACA” to “crumble” — waged a two front effort trying to convince the full DC Circuit not to vacate their two GOP colleagues’ decision. The first half of this effort was a brief the plaintiffs filed with in the DC Circuit urging the full court to give the case a miss — although the argument raised in this brief is rather unusual. In essence, it broke down to three claims:

1. This case is really important. And potentially very disruptive. According to the Halbig plaintiffs, “continued uncertainty” over whether Obamacare will be defunded “is simply not tenable, given its enormous consequences for millions of Americans, hundreds of thousands of businesses, dozens of states, and billions of dollars in monthly federal spending.”
2. If the full DC Circuit agreed to hear the case, however, that “would cause delay without providing any certainty,” because the Supreme Court may ultimately decide to take the case.
3. Thus, the DC Circuit must not near this case, and it must “proceed immediately” to a “final resolution by the Supreme Court.”

On the surface, this argument may have some appeal, but it collapses upon a fairly minimal amount of scrutiny. It would indeed be disruptive if much of the Affordable Care Act were defunded, and the existence of this lawsuit does raise some uncertainty over whether or not that will happen. It would be even more disruptive, however, if President Obama were deposed because the Supreme Court held that he was born in Kenya, or if the federal tax code were held unconstitutional, or if people could immunize themselves from the law by declaring themselves “sovereign citizens.” If the mere fact that a plaintiff raises a potentially disruptive legal argument were grounds for removing all obstacles to immediate Supreme Court review, then the Court’s docket would be clogged with cases brought by birthers, tax protesters and sovereign citizens.

The reason why this doesn’t happen is that the justices typically use the lower courts as a mechanism to screen the few cases raising issues that are difficult enough to warrant Supreme Court review from the vast bulk of cases that do not. This is one reason why the justices tend to hear cases where two courts of appeals disagree — because that disagreement is a sign that the case is sufficiently challenging that it requires a definitive ruling from the nation’s highest Court. When the full DC Circuit announced they would rehear the case, by contrast, that was an indication that the two Republicans who blocked the subsidies may be outliers who reached an idiosyncratic result in an easy case. The fact that all six of the other judges who have considered the Obamacare subsidies have also upheld them also lends credence to this view.

Perhaps recognizing that their legal arguments against further DC Circuit review were not likely to carry the day, Obamacare’s opponents turned to the conservative press to litigate their case in the media. A full hearing by a federal appeals court, what is known as an “en banc” hearing, is an unusual proceeding. But the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure provide for en banc review when a case “involves a question of exceptional importance.” The plaintiffs in this case admit that “[t]here is no doubt that this case is of great national importance” in their most recent brief to the court — so they actually admit that this case warrants en banc review.

Additionally, the official commentary on the federal rule dealing with en banc hearings explains that “[i]ntercircuit conflict is cited as one reason for asserting that a proceeding involves a question of ‘exceptional importance,’” so that is a second reason why this case was a prime candidate for en banc review.

Yet you would never guess these facts if you read the conservative Wall Street Journal’s opinion page, which claims that “if the D.C. Circuit rehears the case en banc, it would be a sharp break from history.” Nor would you learn it from the National Review, which suggests that “the recent D.C. Circuit panel decision on Obamacare exchange subsidies inHalbig v. Burwell doesn’t meet the D.C. Circuit’s very high standard foren banc review.” Or if you read the Volokh Conspiracy, a popular libertarian legal blog read by many judges and their law clerks, which claims that “the bar on en banc rehearing in the D.C. Circuit has been higher than the bar for certiorari in the Supreme Court.”

The subject of how a federal appeals court should handle the purely discretionary question of whether or not they wish to rehear a particular case rarely makes national headlines. Nor do opinion writers of any kind normally dive into arcane rules of federal appellate procedure. It is difficult to read the conservative media’s protests regarding en banc review as anything other than an attempt to paint the court’s decision to rehear the case as a partisan decision — rather than what it is, a decision that is clearly consistent with the federal rules governing these circumstances. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal op-ed quoted above it quite explicit in its claim that a decision to grant an en banc rehearing would be a partisan decision — “Those who claim that the D.C. Circuit will rehear the case en banc do no service to the court’s judges, who know the threat that overtly politicized en banc rehearings pose to the court’s collegiality.”

Now that the DC Circuit has ignored these attempts to scare them off with accusations of partisanship, this case no longer meets the usual criteria for Supreme Court review.

*****

Readers: The repubs are always claiming that they don’t like judges that make law from their decisions, that should be made by the legislature. They like to call them “activist judges.” However, that only seems to be true unless the judge is enacting law from the bench that they can’t get passed legislatively. Typical hypocrites conducting politics as usual, looking to do whatever needs to be done to benefit their needs.

The fact is, repubs have been in collusion with many of the judges they have appointed at the federal level to do just that. They know that they have five bought and paid for members of SCOTUS, so if it makes it to that court they will have their law passed without having to be concerned with a presidential veto.

As we all know, so far they have been doing pretty well with that tactic. So they are now trying it with Obamacare in the federal district where they have bought and paid for federal judges. In the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia the republicans got 2 of their judges to disagree with all the other federal districts with a decision that defunds Obamacare. They were hoping to get a diversity in different federal districts to compel SCOTUS to take up the issue and their five S.T.A.R.K. would defund Obamacare on a 5 – 4 decision.

Thankfully, this time the two crooked judges had their rulings overturned at the federal level. If they hadn’t the disgusting republicans would have deprived millions of healthcare, all to defeat Obama. If we don’t defeat these animals at the polls, this country will truly be destroyed. They are determined to take the country back to the “good ‘ol days” when white males were truly America’s Affirmative Action Beneficiaries, where government actively gave white males preferential treatment and status above OTWs and white females. Don’t ever make the mistake and get lazy  thinking they won’t give it their best to get there.

Thoughts? Blog me.

 Mike, TM: All I can say is that Obama is thinking with his big head and he’s got a big pair. He’s not just the president of the U.S., he is a world leader, influencing others to join him – something no other president has ever done – another first for Obama. Simply awe-inspiring.

Social Butterfly: I am right there with you even before you schooled me on what you know about Hillary Clinton. (Thank you.) I just didn’t totally feel it with Hillary, but like you, I will vote for her if she is the Dem on the ticket. Therefore I will back her because I will do anything to keep the Dems in power.

I am a huge supporter of Elizabeth Warren, and would support her wholeheartedly if she were the Dem candidate.  If Clinton hadn’t run before and lost to Obama, Warren would probably go for it, and like Obama, she could be the underdog that could win. Unfortunately, Clinton supporters are not going to let Hillary lose twice, and Warren knows she would split the party by running. If Warren runs it will most likely be after Clinton or whoever wins the presidency in 2016 – Let’s make it a Dem again. (Ugh, I can’t believe I am even talking about 2016 – Let’s get through the  midterms first eh?!)

 Zen Lill: Happy that you did your homework, found good doctors to be on your team, and the growth is gone. Thanks for sharing your story. I HOPE it will inspire others to take action as you did. Be well.

Howie et al: Happy Jewish New Year!

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

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