Over the last few weeks, there has been a lot of news coverage and discussion about a couple key Supreme Court decisions. The biggest - Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. - is the one that allows "secular" businesses to opt out of laws that they feel violate the owners' religious beliefs (in this case - contraception). The other - McCullen v. Coakley - eliminated "buffer zones" at abortion clinics as a violation of the 1st Amendment. In other words - no contraception, and when you have to deal with the consequences, you aren't getting any protection from the insane anti-choice crowds. Lost in all of the noise are the results of some of the other cases, which can also have a fairly significant effect on our lives. Here are a few of them...
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Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec
Date: 07/08/2014 10:28:42
Good Morning. Today is our 4,657th day in Afghanistan. We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com: US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 2,333 Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,119 We find this morning's Cost of War passing through: $ 1, 547, 719, 900, 000 .00 So...suppose you're a vet, and you're just hanging around your local VA hospital waiting for another appointment when your heart decides to attack you. You're already in the hospital, so it should be a simple matter for somebody to scoop you up and run down the hall to the ER, right? Astonishingly, this is not so.
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Yesterday, on Meet The Press, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson had to repeatedly correct the host regarding the crisis we are seeing of children coming into the United states from Central America. DAVID GREGORY: You heard the mayor of Murrieta, “Why now? Why so many?” Is part of the answer that the administration, through some of its executive actions, have said, in effect, “Look, if you come, we’re going to let you in?”
SECRETARY JEH JOHNSON: First of all, David, the reason we’re seeing this influx has to do primarily with the conditions in the three Central American countries that they’re leaving from, the push factor.
DAVID GREGORY: More than– and it’s double, though?
DAVID GREGORY: Could it be 90,000 this year?
SECRETARY JEH JOHNSON: Honduras is in a really bad place right now. El Salvador, Guatemala. The push factor is what is driving this recent influx. In addition, we know that the smuggling organizations, the criminal smuggling organizations, are putting out a lot of disinformation about supposed ‘free passes’ into this country that are going to expire at the end of May, at the end of June. “Just give us your money and we’ll get you into the country by the end of the month.” It’s like a used car salesman saying that the sale’s going to expire at the end of the week.
DAVID GREGORY: But that’s not all misinformation, Mr. Secretary. There is deferred action on some children, passed in 2012, that will allow some children of illegal immigrants to stay.
SECRETARY JEH JOHNSON: Well, that’s the point we keep stressing. The deferred action program is for kids who came to this country seven years ago. It’s not for anyone who comes to this country today, tomorrow or yesterday. And the legislation that the Senate passed, which provides for an earned path to citizenship, is for those who were in this country in 2011. It’s not for those that are coming here today. )
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Time to GO!
Author: velveeta jones
Date: 07/06/2014 14:14:51
I was going to do an open blog today because I have to work and it's just so hard to be creative - or even think - with a busy day looming. But I thought I'd leave you with this discussion nugget. Something that's been on my mind since last years dismantling of the Civil Rights Act. It is this: Justice Thomas must go.
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Again, this happens.
Author: TriSec
Date: 07/05/2014 11:42:45
Good Morning. Happy Fifth! I'm sure that those of you that didn't get a hurricane yesterday enjoyed your holiday. Well, ours was a disaster; many things from yesterday were postponed to today, and our local fireworks aren't even happening until tomorrow, but I digress.
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Fluffy Friday
Author: wickedpam
Date: 07/04/2014 13:54:19
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Not Narrow at all.
Author: Raine
Date: 07/03/2014 13:20:36
The Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed that its decision a day earlier extending religious rights to closely held corporations applies broadly to the contraceptive coverage requirement in the new health care law, not just the handful of methods the justices considered in their ruling.
The justices did not comment in leaving in place lower court rulings in favor of businesses that object to covering all 20 methods of government-approved contraception. . Continue reading...
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Courting Disaster
Author: BobR
Date: 2014-07-02 10:12:11
(Note: Updated at 11:13 AM EDT - see bottom)Monday's Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case has created a firestorm of opinions, predictions, anger, and calls for boycotts of Hobby Lobby. There is certainly cause for concern, and there are certainly things to be upset about, but it doesn't help when false information, exaggerations, and absurd predictions and analogies are tossed around. It's important to look at this rationally first before formulating a response. The biggest misconception (or exaggeration) is that this allows any company to prevent women from getting birth control. In reality, the decision was based on Hobby Lobby's problem with 4 specific types of birth control: - 2 types of IUDs
- 2 types of so-called "Morning After pills"
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Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec
Date: 07/01/2014 10:19:04
Good Morning. Today is our 4,650th day in Afghanistan. We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com: US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 2,332 Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,120 We find this morning's Cost of War passing through: $ 1, 545, 949, 050, 000 .00 We'll start briefly in Iraq this morning. We're all aware of what's going on over there, but the overall magnitude has not been reported well here in the west. This past month has been deadlier to Iraqis than an entire decade of war was for Americans.
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Back to Reality
Author: Scoopster
Date: 06/30/2014 11:56:30
I'll get this one started today. I saw this article yesterday and couldn't help but wonder if it'd get anywhere near as much attention in the media (or from the usual RW goons) as Bergdahl's return.
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