Tag Archives: Supreme Court of the United States

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Clarence Thomas: YOU apologize

10/25/2010 Nativegrl77

CREDO Action | more than a network. a movement.

Clarence Thomas: It’s time for YOU to apologize to Anita Hill.

Virginia Thomas said what?

Clicking here will add your name to this petition:

Clarence Thomas: It’s time for you to apologize to Anita Hill.

It’s been 20 years since Anita Hill courageously spoke truth to power and exposed Clarence Thomas as a sexual harasser during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

And now Thomas’ wife, a right-wing Tea Party advocate, in a move as brazen as it is offensive, has asked Anita Hill to apologize to her abuser.¹ Hill said no. We say it’s long past time for Clarence Thomas to apologize to Anita Hill.

Click here to automatically sign our petition to Clarence Thomas: It’s time for you to apologize to Anita HIll.

Twenty years ago, Professor Hill described how the now Supreme Court justice subjected her to descriptions of pornography he had watched, bragged about his own sexual prowess in graphic terms and famously reached for a soft drink in her office and remarked, “Who has put pubic hair on my Coke?”²

Dismayingly, Anita Hill was savaged in a sexist spectacle that shocked the nation, and Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court by a vote of 52-48, succeeding the legendary Thurgood Marshall.

Amidst the controversy, conservatives rushed the swearing in of Thomas. On the very day of his swearing in, the Washington Post had amassed damning evidence that corroborated Hill’s testimony, including eyewitness accounts about Thomas’ porn consumption from the manager of his local video store. Jeffrey Toobin reported that the Washington Post decided to drop the story since Thomas had already been sworn in to the court.³

Virginia Thomas is asking the wrong person to apologize. Demand Clarence Thomas apologize to Anita Hill. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Virginia Thomas is a well known Tea Party activist who founded a shadowy right-wing organization in the wake of Citizens United.⁴ Her agenda in approaching Anita Hill with her outrageous request is unclear. But it’s yet another example of brazen attempts by the Tea Party adherents to rewrite history and claim victimhood for the powerful even as they launch attack after attack on minority groups — be they women, gays, African Americans, or immigrants.

We shouldn’t ignore this bizarre incident. We should accept Virginia Thomas’ challenge and defend history as we know it.

We believe Anita Hill. It’s Clarence Thomas who should apologize. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Thank you for working for a better world.

Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets

Notes:

¹“Clarence Thomas’s Wife Asks Anita Hill for Apology,” Charlie Savage, New York Times, Oct. 20, 2010.

²“Anita Hill,” Wikipedia. Retrieved Oct. 20, 2010.

³“Under the Robes: Secrets of the Supreme Court,” Marcus Baram, ABC News, Sept. 7, 2007.

⁴“Sweet Virginia,” Lisa Miller, Newsweek, Oct. 9, 2010.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

RADICAL RIGHT: A Lifetime of “You’re On Your Own”

10/21/2010 Nativegrl77

More than seventy years ago, the Supreme Court abandoned a brief, disastrous experiment with “tentherism,” a constitutional theory that early twentieth century justices wielded to protect monopolies, strip workers of their right to organize and knock down child labor laws. This discredited constitutional theory is back — with a vengeance — endangering Medicare, Social Security, the minimum wage and even the national highway system and America’s membership in the United Nations. For the first time in three generations, the right is fielding a slate of candidates convinced that any attempt to better the lives of ordinary Americans violates the Constitution — while a number of sitting lawmakers such as Reps. John Shadegg (R-AZ) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL) are already actively pushing tentherism from within the Congress. Make no mistake, this agenda threatens all Americans, from the youngest schoolchild to the most venerable retirees.

SLAMMING SCHOOLHOUSE DOORS: Tentherism’s core tenet is that the 10th Amendment must be read too narrowly to permit much of the progress of the last century. Thus, for example, because the Constitution doesn’t actually use the word “education” — it instead gives Congress broad authority to spend money to advance the “common defense” and “general welfare” — Senate candidates like Ken Buck (R-CO) and Sharron Angle (R-NV) claim that the federal Department of Education is unconstitutional. That means no federal student loan assistance or Pell Grants for middle class students struggling to pay for college, and no education funds providing opportunities to students desperately trying to break into the middle class. And that’s hardly the worst news tenthers have in store for young Americans. Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller wants to declare child labor laws unconstitutional — returning America to the day when ten-year-olds labored in coal mines.

THANKLESS LABOR: Tenther candidates have even worse plans for working age Americans. Miller and West Virginia GOP Senate candidate John Raese both claim that the federal minimum wage is unconstitutional — a position the Supreme Court unanimously rejected in 1941. If you’re a person of color or a woman or a person of faith than you are also out of luck, because Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul agrees with Justice Clarence Thomas that the ban on employment and pay discrimination is unconstitutional (don’t try to get a meal on your lunch break either, because both men feel the same way about the ban on whites-only lunch counters). Significantly, the constitutional doctrine which supports the minimum wage is the same one which supports child labor laws and bans on discrimination, so when a candidate comes out in opposition to any one of these laws, it is likely that they oppose all of them. To top this all off, Alaska’s Miller even claims that unemployment benefits violate the Constitution, so Americans who are unable to find work in the new tenther regime will simply be cast out into the cold.

AN IMPOVERISHED RETIREMENT: Social Security may be the most successful program in American history. Without it, nearly half of all seniors would live below the poverty line. Yet, because words like “retirement” don’t specifically appear in the Constitution, tenthers think that Social Security is forbidden. Indeed, Social Security has not just been labeled unconstitutional by specific GOP candidates, the Republican Party’s “Pledge To America” embraces a tenther understanding of the Constitution which endangers both Social Security and Medicare. Tenthers respond to claims that they would abolish America’s entire safety net for seniors by pointing out that state governments could still create their own retirement programs, but such a state takeover of retirement programs is economically impossible unless America forbids its citizens from retiring in a different state than the one that they paid taxes in while working. Some tenther candidates have also suggested that Social Security can survive so long as it is privatized, but privatization would impose significant new risks on seniors, create new administrative costs, force benefit reductions and cost more money than the present system. In other words, the right has a simple plan for American families: making sure that everyone at the dinner table is completely on their own.

~ my 2cents ...

TGIF …&some News

10/01/2010 Nativegrl77

Today is not just the first day of October; my dad if alive would be celebrating his 94^th birthday fishing; needless to say i probably would be there with him and later it would be fresh seafood and a flan for desert. RIP dad. The leaves here in the 206 are changing colour even more than last month and while the weather is always a mixed bag with a chance of rain the folks who know say the 206 will be in the high 70’s by the end of the day… ahhh the dog days of summer are still here tho waning away.

I feel the need to breathe deep in reaching up to the sky then slowly release your breath through your nose and repeat when needed.

It’s Friday and President Obama’s schedule will be busy as changes to his administration, fundraising for democratic candidates continue. This is a day of shake-ups and announcements in the White House what with Rahm leaving, Elena Kagan‘s Supreme Court’s investiture ceremony is on Friday, Thad Allen transfers his authority off to another while the folks in Congress run to their own states to campaign like it’s their last. The President has been out there on the campaign trail trying to educate, inform and get folks left of center to understand what is at stake if we do not get off our arse and vote. I do not know about other states but most people here vote by mail, which works out for me because you can peruse the pamphlet take you time to understand the issues, props, or initiatives and then vote it private and send it right back, you can even check to see if your vote was counted online. It is a great system.

It is also the day before the One Nation Rally the 10-2-10 event and at first glance it was exciting. The idea that so many people wanted to take the time to organize an event that would not just show solidarity for those of us who are left of center. The event would also be a moment to show our support, and express what has been done so far by the Obama administration and what still needs to get done if the changes we all voted for can become a realization was and still is an amazing feat. However, the last few weeks have made me slightly apprehensive. I am appreciative that progressives, liberals others have been willing and able to not just come together but invest money in the rally but is this a rally of support or will folks get on stage and suddenly talk bad about our President in ways that will sabotage the November election. The mid-term elections usually are not a big deal because normally the changes only affect folks in their own states; this is going to affect everyone because the issues are on a Federal level the changes will affect everyone. It is important that we all need to understand why the stakes are so high. In 2008 53% voted to change the status quo now those votes are now at risk and while changing the status quo should be the issue that holds this Democratic Party together the fact is some of the more left of center did not get their way and are now in the News almost on a daily basis. I get it and I understand freedom of speech, I just do not want to hear so much of the negative on national TV because it could give the Republican Tea Party an edge it could mean votes though if it meant losing votes that easily then they clearly were not left of center at all. So, keep it real keep it fresh and keep the negative under control.

Definitely excited to see the 10-2-10 event on national television I will also be waiting to count the numbers of barbs thrown at our President while watching. I am hoping that the backstabbing, subliminal messages kept at a low level. Is that too much to ask for?

Other News …

**There are 5million people yet to register to vote

**NASA will lay off 1200 workers

**October is Breast Cancer awareness month

**AIG has a plan to payback $$ owed to the govt ahead of time with stocks in return they keep their payraise structure….

**Seattle, Greenlake will be experience major cuts to services rendered,the Mayor has announced a meeting at the Green lake library is scheduled for 10/16 from 11am-1pm be there to give your input on Saturday

**Boeing is taking plane orders from Air China

**BMW has recalled over 200thousand cars V8 and V12 engines

**Reports are that more people are going to the emergency rm instead of a Doctor -HCR when fully implemented government will save approx $$4million once exchanges are started u[

**Washington State needs to get informed about the local side to the November elections …1098,1107 and more have major cuts and changes that will impact us for a very long time get educated

**Meg Whitman’s husband says it’s possible he saw Social Sec letter

CSPAN …

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) Speech on Afghanistan
Today

Kendrick Meek for Senate Campaign Rally with Fmr. V.P. Al Gore
Thursday

White House Briefing with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
Thursday

House Democrats Press Conference on Adjournment
Thursday

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) Remarks at AEI
Thursday

House Oversight Cmte. Hearing on Johnson & Johnson Recall
Thursday

Senate Banking Cmte. Hearting on Financial Overhaul
Thursday

House Judiciary Subcmte. Hearing on Economic Benefits of Immigration
Thursday

Congress Adjourns for Midterm Elections
Thursday

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

CONGRESS: The 100 Vote Senate

09/16/2010 Nativegrl77

It’s common wisdom that nothing gets done in the U.S. Senate without a 60 vote supermajority, but this common wisdom is entirely too optimistic. Although only a small minority of senators object to any one of President Obama’s judicial nominees, confirmations have slowed to such a glacial pace that Republican control over federal trial courts increased since Obama took office. Likewise, a massive 372 bills that passed House during the Obama presidency have yet to receive a vote in the Senate. Only a handful of these bills were even remotely controversial in the House, and 44 of them passed the House unanimously. Such obstruction works, even against uncontroversial bills and nominations, because the Senate’s system of filibusters, delay tactics and secret holds empowers just one senator to bring the institution to a standstill. The Senate does not operate by majority rule; It does not really even operate by supermajority rule. Increasingly, the Senate can only act unanimously.

THE TOOLS OF OBSTRUCTION: The most valuable commodity in the Senate is not votes, it is time. Sixty senators can break a filibuster through a process known as “cloture,” but filibustering senators can force up to 30 hours of post-cloture debate once a filibuster is broken. Although 30 hours may not seem like a lot, when you multiply it across the hundreds of judges, ambassadors and other officials that require Senate confirmation — not to mention the 372 unpassed bills — it adds up to more time than there actually exists to move business forward on the Senate floor. For example, take Obama’s 44 unconfirmed judicial nominees. At 30 hours per nominee, it would take nearly two months to confirm each of these judges, and that’s assuming the Senate worked around the clock on both weekdays and weekends, and that it passed no bills, confirmed no other nominees, and took up no other matters for this entire period. Moreover, in part because just one senator can initiate a filibuster, it’s possible for the Senate’s single most radical member to bring the entire body to a standstill. To top all of this off, that one senator often doesn’t even need to reveal who they are thanks to “secret holds.” According to one count, there are 132 secret holds on Obama’s judicial nominees and no way to know who is behind them.

THE COST OF OBSTRUCTION: The Senate is not a rubber stamp, and it can and should reject bills that don’t deserve to be law. But as long as the right can — under cover of secrecy — delay Senate business into oblivion, it is unlikely that more than a few the 372 languishing bills will ever be considered on their merits. Beyond essential bills to prevent catastrophic global warming and mitigate the damage caused by the Supreme Court‘s egregious decision allowing unlimited corporate funds into American elections, these bills were almost entirely uncontroversial in the House. They include measures to prevent prisons from becoming breeding grounds for AIDS, to authorize relief for torture victims, and to ensure that college dorms are equipped with fire sprinklers. Even bills to enable a full investigation into BP’s catastrophic oil spill and to ensure that BP is held accountable for this spill are being denied a Senate vote. Meanwhile, obstructing Obama’s judicial nominees has one purpose: maintaining the right’s stranglehold on the federal judiciary. Until this stranglehold is broken, everything from health care reform and stem cell research to the environment and the fairness of American elections is in jeopardy.

THE POWER OF ONE: Obstructionism could get a whole lot worse if any one of the Tea Party’s radical slate of candidates joins the Senate. Under the Senate’s anachronistic rules, just one senator can forbid any Senate committee from holding hearings after 2pm. Likewise, a single senator can demand that every proposed amendment to a pending bill be read aloud — wasting hours of time in the process. Indeed, the Senate’s ability to function is built upon unanimous consent agreements. If just one senator refuses to join any of these agreements, the body will effectively shut down. This is not an academic concern. When Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle served in the state legislature, it was common to say that bills passed “62 to Angle,” because of Angle’s pattern of casting solitary “no” votes. Likewise, Kentucky GOP candidate Rand Paul has promised to oppose any budget which includes a penny of deficit spending, effectively demanding that the Senate do the impossible. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who is already staking out a role as the leader of the Senate’s emerging extremist faction, admitted that his goal for the Senate is “complete gridlock.” In other words, next year’s Senate class could include a number of senators who simply aren’t in touch with reality, and it only takes one to sabotage the entire legislative body.