Tuesday Reads: Debt Ceiling Chicken, Roberts vs. Roe, Rove on Obama, NewsCorp, and Casey Anthony Rumors
Posted: July 19, 2011 Filed under: abortion rights, Barack Obama, John Birch Society in Charge, just because, morning reads, Psychopaths in charge, Republican politics, Surreality, The Media SUCKS, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics, unemployment, voodoo economics, We are so F'd | Tags: abortion, armageddon, balanced budget amendment, Barack Obama, Casey Anthony, Federal debt ceiling, Harry Reid, James Murdoch, John Boehner, Justice John Roberts, Karl Rove, media, NewsCorp scandal, Roe v. Wade, Rubert Murdoch, Sean Hoare, U.S. Supreme Court, veto warning, whistleblowers 30 Comments
Good Morning!! I know we’re all sick and tired of the debt limit battle, but there is going to be a vote today in the House–on a stupid bill that includes a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. What a joke! And with only about two weeks to go until armageddon.
Anyway, let’s get the depressing news out of the way first. From Politico: Debt ceiling debate turns ‘scary’
Washington’s frayed nerves showed through Monday amid tough talk on the right, a White House veto threat, canceled weekend passes and the top Senate Democrat likening default to a “very, very scary” outcome even for those “who believe government should be small enough to drown in a bathtub.”
“What will it take,” asked an agitated Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), “for my Republican colleagues to wake up to the fact that they’re playing a game of political chicken with the entire global economy?”
House Speaker John Boehner confirmed a POLITICO report that he had met again privately with President Barack Obama at the White House on Sunday to try to get debt talks back on track. But ignoring Obama’s veto warning, Boehner will press ahead Tuesday with House votes on a revised debt ceiling bill that shows no sign of compromise on the spending and tax policy differences behind the crisis.
Indeed, with the Aug. 2 deadline exactly two weeks away, the House GOP is doubling down its bet with 10-year statutory spending caps intended to wring $5.8 trillion in unspecified savings from the government during the next decade — more than twice the $2.4 trillion debt ceiling increase that is allowed. And in his haste to act, Boehner will bring the so-called Cut, Cap and Balance bill to the floor under exactly the type of procedure he has said he abhors: limited debate and with no real review by any legislative committee.
Yes, the psychopaths and John Birchers are in charge, and there’s nothing we can do but wait and hope.
The Nation has a good article about the ongoing war on women by Amanda Marcotte and Jesse Taylor: How States Could Ban Abortion With Roe Still Standing
The Supreme Court granting states the power to ban abortion with Roe still standing seemed outlandish even just a few years ago, but the appointment of John Roberts to Chief Justice shifted the equation. Roberts specializes in decisions that reverse the spirit of precedent while leaving intact the letter of it, like when he squashed large chunks of Brown v the Board of Education while claiming to uphold it. To make it legal to ban abortion in the states, all the court needs is a law that eliminates legal abortion while dodging the logic of Roe v Wade.
Many state legislatures appear to be doing just that, writing legislation which Nancy Northup, the president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, describes as “part of an ongoing effort around the country to choke off women’s access to abortion by any means necessary – either by forcing doctors out of practice, banning procedures outright or demeaning women.”
How would the Roberts Court invalidate Roe without actually overturning it?
Until recently, Roe has been considered an insurmountable obstacle to states that wish to ban abortion. The conservative side of the Roberts bench, however, will likely view the Roe decision as a seesaw with women’s rights on one side and the state interest in the fetus on the other. Currently, most of the weight is on the woman’s side for three months, some weight moves over to the state’s side for the next three months, and then most of the weight moves to the state’s side for the last trimester.
Roberts has two options for reshaping Roe: the first is to claim the state’s interest in fetal life starts even sooner, using bogus science to claim we know more about the fetus than we did 1992, when Planned Parenthood v Casey was decided. The second option is to change the court interpretation of individual state rights and compelling state interest, while leaving Roe’s framework technically in place. The court could, for instance, define the state’s interests more broadly, allowing it to regulate differently within the (technically) still-operative Roe framework. This would allow a state like Kansas to claim to still have legal abortion while burying would-be abortion providers under so much red tape they couldn’t keep a clinic open. It would also allow states like South Dakota to create so many hoops for women to jump through to get abortion that women simply wouldn’t be able to do it. The right to choose would theoretically exist, but only to the extent states deign to recognize it.
Yikes!
This struck me funny–Karl Rove isn’t all that impressed with Obama’s fund-raising.
According to CBS radio’s Mark Knoller, who also serves as the unofficial White House press corps statistics king, the president attended 31 fundraisers in nine states during the last three months. That is more than a fundraising reception or dinner every three days.
Rove doesn’t think Obama can keep up that pace.
Thirty-one fundraisers in a quarter is a big strain on any president’s schedule. Mr. Obama can’t keep that pace up and not just because he’s got a day job. There are also just so many cities capable of producing $1 million and only so many times you can hold a million dollar fundraiser in them.
Here’s the funny part:
Even though at least $35 million (almost half the total Obama/DNC haul) can be credited to just 244 well-connected “bundlers,” Team Obama made a big thing of their 260,000 new small dollar donors. But that means only 292,000 donors from his last campaign have renewed their support for the re-elect so far. That’s just 6.6 percent of the 3.95 million people who donated to the ’08 Obama effort, only a quarter to a third of what most reelect campaigns could expect from renewal efforts at this point.
Perhaps there really is donor fatigue among the legions of stalwarts who put Mr. Obama in the White House the first time.
Yeah, I’d say there’s probably quite a bit of “donor fatigue” among the unemployed and underemployed masses.
British police are still insisting that the death of News of the World whistleblower Sean Hoare is not suspicious; but no one trusts the police because they were apparently taking bribes from Murdoch employees to help in stalking celebrities and other NOTW targets.
We’re being prepared to find out he died of an overdose by being reminded that Hoare had drug and alcohol problems. But so far we don’t have a cause of death. I say he was suicided. Even if he died of natural causes, no one will believe it.
Some people are beginning to question whether Rupert Murdoch can keep control of NewsCorp in the face of this growing scandal.
Independent directors of New York-based News Corp. have begun questioning the company’s response to the crisis and whether a leadership change is needed, said two people with direct knowledge of the situation who wouldn’t speak publicly. Rebekah Brooks, the former News International chief who Murdoch backed until last week, was arrested yesterday in London.
“The shell of invulnerability that Rupert Murdoch had around him has been cracked,” said James Post, a professor at Boston University’s School of Management who has written about governance and business ethics. “His credibility and the company’s credibility are hemorrhaging.”
Murdoch’s son James is also in big trouble and may not survive the investigation.
Finally, despite the threats of the media and the public alike to boycott Casey Anthony and consign her to oblivion, lots of people are still obsession about her. The latest frenzy is the media’s efforts to find out where Anthony has disappeared to. I thought that’s what everyone wanted her to do?
The Orlando Sentinel asks: Where in the World is Casey Anthony? My answer is “who cares?” But it seems lots of people still do. News crews and helicopters attempted to follow the SUV that Anthony got into after she walked out of jail, but
Anthony’s exact location was lost when the SUV stopped at the parking garage of the building where fellow defense team member Cheney Mason works.
Droves of journalists and spectators waited for hours at nearby Orlando Executive Airport, where many guessed Anthony would board a private plane and head out of town.
But there was no clear sign of Anthony boarding a plane and no flight manifests immediately available that would indicate who was on board the handful of flights that departed the airport early Sunday.
The secrecy surrounding Anthony’s whereabouts continued to fuel the rumor mill Monday as the media and public tried to figure out where the 25-year-old is holing up and when she’ll resurface.
The latest rumor is that Anthony is staying at Geraldo Rivera’s residence in Puerto Rico, but Rivera denies it.
Defense attorney Cheney Mason says that Anthony is “safe” and that hundreds of people have offered to help her.
Whatever. I really thought ignoring her was a good idea, but I guess it isn’t going to happen.
That’s all I’ve got for today. What are you reading and blogging about?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Political theater — the Republicans want to get their voices/faces out there in the media. I don’t really think that any of them are concerned. And then we have Cantor betting against the US for his own financial gain.
About Justice Roberts — that sob got voted in by the democrats. Roberts is exactly why I knew that the dems part of the war on women.
I’m going back to my SciFi novel . . .
That should have said — Roberts — that SOB . . . is exactly why I knew that the democrats are part of the war on women.
The war on women really does mean a death warrant for thousands of women — World health statistics and the death via pregnancy statistics. Bug eyed Roberts is forcing his religious belief on women. We told them this would happen.
What sci-fi novel are you reading?
Have to post this link…I don’t think you have it in your post BB:
Bill Clinton: I’d use 14th amendment – Jennifer Epstein – POLITICO.com
Now to read your post BB.
Thanks!
and Bubba continued…Clinton said that raising the debt ceiling “is necessary to pay for appropriations already made.” Congressional Republicans, he said, “can’t say, ‘Well, we won the last election and we didn’t vote for some of that stuff, so we’re going to throw the whole country’s credit into arrears…The reason that raising the debt limit is so unpopular is that people think you’re voting to keep [increasing] deficit spending, instead of voting to honor obligations that were already incurred,”
The last Dem POTUS can explain is so simply
Here’s one for you Minx–
Sean Hoare feared for his life before he was found dead: “Someone’s coming to get me!”
Damn, that is a shame…
I see that the police are saying he “killed himself.”
Just watching the hearing and I get the feeling the Murdochs are going to get off.
Remember David Kelley…. supposed suicide. The guy who said Tony Blair sexed up the reasons for the Iraq war.
Hopefully I will say no more about this:
But how are her parents who have not worked in 3 years able to afford their home and its upkeep and still drive late model cars when not taking vacations during this same period of time? And having a lawyer on hand to speak on their behalf?
Some reports say they are both receiving monthly “disability payments” and living off the proceeds of videos and pictures of Caylee they sold to the media. Is that too not “blood money”?
Cindy Anthony has done nothing but lie to law enforcement and the media and did so again with her perjured testimony offered up on the witness stand by declaring it was she who conducted those computer searches yet she will not face any charges. Meanwhile there are suggestions that she is eager to have contact with Casey and wants her back in the home. George does not agree.
This is a seriously messed up family dynamic when one member publicly accuses her father and brother of molestation, invents a fictitious nanny, leads law enforcfement on a wild goose chase, allows volunteers to search for a dead child, deposits that child in a swamp, and sits back and watches her parents disintegrate before her eyes yet her mother wants her to return home? Think nothing of it? All is forgiven? Pass the peas please?
The key to Casey’s psyche rests in the actions of her mother. She takes “unconditional love” to heights unprecedented.
As soon as Casey hits rock bottom look for this mother and daughter to effect a reconciliation since it is apparent that one cannot function without the other and boundaries are unheard of in this dynamic.
How long must the public pay for these bloodsuckers lifestyle before it rebels?
GOP has no backup plan after vote today.
*Most* congressional Democrats??
Thanks for the round up!!
Thirty-one fundraisers in a quarter is a big strain on any president’s schedule. Mr. Obama can’t keep that pace up and not just because he’s got a day job.( lol!) There are also just so many cities capable of producing $1 million and only so many times you can hold a million dollar fundraiser in them
Yeah but he will not rest!
…, I’d say there’s probably quite a bit of “donor fatigue” among the unemployed and underemployed masses.
lolsob!
Murdoch’s son James is also in big trouble and may not survive the investigation.
It’s interesting how Joe C says the reason this is happening is because James Murdoch
is not reactionary like Dad…and the powers that be don’t want him running the Brown Shirt Media Empire. James might be thinking it’s just a business, instead of a weapon . Some explanation is needs why their modusoperandi of 30 years is suddenly a problem.
Perhaps this will stop when James Murdoch is no longer in line to take over…and they will pretend it’s legit again…
Whatever. I really thought ignoring her was a good idea, but I guess it isn’t going to happen.
not until the next big trial /murder thing fills the void…
Yeah but he will not rest! 😆 poor man NEVER rests 😆
Man arrested for trying to hit Rupert Murdoch with shaving cream pie:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14193124
How old is Rupert’s wife?
I don’t know. Does she look young or something?
She looks like she’s half his age, if that. Of course, that kind of money can buy a lot of plastic surgery.
According to Wiki, she is 42:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendi_Deng
I thought she was about my age…that she is married to a man twice her age just gives me the willies.
I believe everything I read on Wiki, btw. 😉
This may surprise you (or not). The biggest all-time recipient of contributions from News Corp is president Obama. http://bit.ly/pHKqUS
Yes, I think I had read about that a while back…no surprise, just like the big contributions on wall street.
surprises me!!!! 🙄
Okay, #Iowa, your politics are way out there
Take a look at the photoshop artwork…the Iowa Family Policy Action Center…
The website as a picture of Barney Frank smoking a big ass cigarette, the headline says:
“What’s worse, Smoking or Sodomy”
I guess the answer would be both… either one will get you f*cked up.
Oh, and that answer is said with a huge does of snark.
And one more link for you…Suburban Guerrilla » Blog Archive » WTF?
Every time I see that winning the future I know think Charlie Sheen … Winning!!! Tiger Blood!!!! i.e. Bugfugcrazy!!!!
Ha, I think of the scene in the Aviator…way of the future, way of the future…crazy yes?
I’ll add to the WTF — I download articles every day for my own files. I was trained to do academic research and I’m always following one line of research or another. Some collee grad never crack a book once they have their degree (Republicans perhaps).
0bowma is a vindictive ass — remember his history — he gets rid of all opposition. EVERY single political campaign he has fought dirty. One example — when he was running for US Senator — Ryan’s sealed divorce papers were opened — he trashed the whole family. Intimate facts should remain out of public view. We witnessed the way he trashed Sen. Clinton. Knowing how a person’s past behavioral responses means that we can make some good guesses on how he will react in similar situations now and in the future.
So we will certainly be seeing anyone who publicly opposes 0bowma to be taken down. He really reminds me of Nixon. It is impossible to list all the people and organizations Nixon went after. I personally know one couple who had to deal with their HOME being bugged. The wife was in the MA program with me and remarked that her home was bugged her husband was a lawyer working for the Justice Department, Low level. Their bedroom was bugged. She told me that amazingly enough they got used to it and censored themselves.
With modern technology and computer programs the intrusion would be much worse — it wouldn’t surprise me if 0bowma goes after more people. The fact that this researcher was being monitored to the extent that the gov knows how much downloading he has done is what is scary.
OK. I’m going back to re-reading DUNE — SCI FI — plus some really trashy novels.