ObamaCare in the courtroom

http://terrellaftermath.com/

ACLJ: ObamaCare is the Issue - Not the Supreme Court   "What's both interesting and troubling is the fact that some on the Left are attempting to put the Supreme Court itself 'on trial' for ObamaCare. At least one liberal group contends if the Justices reject ObamaCare including the individual mandate, which forces Americans to purchase health insurance under penalty of law, this will play into the hands of President Obama's re-election campaign which would use this loss as a rallying point to challenge an activist judiciary."

If Obamacare Is Overturned, Can Democrats Recover?  " "If the whole thing goes down, I think it's pretty tough for the president," said Howard Dean, the physician and former Democratic National Committee chairman. "I think he's probably going to win reelection anyway, but does he want to start all over again?" On the heels of a court rejection, he said, "I don't think [health care reform] could come back. Not the whole thing." (Dean, however, believes the mandate isn't necessary and could be removed from the law without consequence.) "

"The Judicial Watch letter also references is the lack of cooperation by the DOJ in responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests previously submitted by Judicial Watch for records pertaining to Justice Kagan and the PPACA."


Judicial Watch Asks Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan to Directly Address Obamacare Recusal Controversy  "Justice Kagan has said that she was not “substantially” involved in the DOJ discussions regarding Obamacare’s constitutional or litigation issues.  The White House, despite repeated inquiries, has refused to confirm to Judicial Watch that Justice Kagan was “walled off” from Obamacare defense discussions while at the Department of Justice (DOJ)


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                                                                               Caricatures by DonkeyHotey

The state of free speech on campus

Daily Caller  "Once again, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE, where I work), has sorted through the hundreds of colleges and universities across the nation that severely restrict the First Amendment rights of their students, and is ready to present a “dirty dozen” of colleges that have attacked freedom of speech with such zeal that we cannot help but (dis)honor them. While it was difficult to choose from such a wide talent pool, certain schools took our breath away with their dazzling performances. So here, in no particular order, are the winners of this year’s 12 Worst Colleges for Free Speech: "...

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: CHRISTIAN CAMPUS GROUPS CAN’T REQUIRE LEADERS TO HAVE SPECIFIC BELIEFS   "Currently, four campus groups violate this policy, as they require their leaders to maintain Christian messages. Club heads argue, though, that leaders responsible for planning Bible studies should actually believe in the material they are preaching. The campus groups in question are the Christian Legal Society, Beta Upsilon Chi, Graduate Student Fellowship and Fellowship of Christian Athletes."

Parents of murdered British students criticise Barack Obama

UK Telegraph    "The parents of two British students murdered in Florida have criticised President Barack Obama for his lack of compassion over their sons' deaths."
....The 17 year old, who shot the men as they begged for their lives, will die in prison.

....

The powerfully built teen even looked bored as emotional DVD presentations about the dead men prepared by their grieving parents were shown in court.

....Later speaking after Tyson was jailed Davies and Hallett lashed out at Mr Obama saying the deaths of their friends was "not worthy of ten minutes of his time."

Davies said:"We would like to publicly express our dissatisfaction at the lack of any public or private message of support or condolence from any American governing body or indeed, President Obama himself."Mr Kouzaris has written to President Obama on three separate occasions and is yet to even receive the courtesy of a reply."It would perhaps appear that Mr Obama sees no political value in facilitating such a request or that the lives of two British tourists are not worthy of ten minutes of his time."

"The rebuke follows Mr Obama's personal intervention into the shooting in Florida of a young black teenager by a white-Hispanic neighbourhood watch captain."

Shawn Tyson, Florida Teenager, Gets Life Sentence For Killing British Tourists James Cooper and James Kouzaris  "In a case that generated blaring tabloid headlines in the U.K. press, a Florida teen is facing life in prison without parole for murdering two young British tourists who got lost and wandered into a housing project where their convicted killer lived."

More from the British press here.


"Their expectation that the president “feel their pain” is understandable but also unreasonable."  "The senseless murder of Cooper and Kouzaris were true tragedies and their families have received justice as Shawn Tyson will never again be free. Their expectation that the president “feel their pain” is understandable but also unreasonable. Had the president not taken every opportunity he could to isolate politically advantageous local cases and elevate them to national prominence, the Cooper and Kouzaris families would have had to limit their expectations.

"But the President invited this present condition – he should have employed more foresight from the start of his term. Unfortunately for grieving families like those of Cooper and Kouzaris, they now have a legitimate complaint."

PJ Tatler: Britain Waits For Obama to Comment Movingly and Eloquently on Gun Murders of White Tourists by Black Youth   "I’m confident that Mr. Obama will want to comment on this case. Because if he didn’t, some observers might jump to the conclusion that the leader of the free world was little more than a shameless, race-baiting opportunist who was more interested in firing up one of his core constituencies head of November’s election than in seeing justice done.

"And that would come as an awful disappointment to his many adoring fans here in Britain – none more adoring than Prime Minister Cameron himself."

Police surveillance video of Zimmerman may show head injury

Daily Caller

"The Orlando Sentinel’s Rene Stutzman reported on March 26 about portions of what Zimmerman told police during that interview.

" “With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who eventually shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old, then Trayvon climbed on top of George Zimmerman and slammed his head into the sidewalk, leaving him bloody and battered,” Stutzman reported, relating the account Zimmerman reportedly gave police that night.

"Zimmerman’s lawyer, Craig Sonner, is reported to have said his client felt, at that point, like “one of them was going to die that night,” so he pulled the trigger, shooting and killing Martin."

Newsbusters: Did ABC News Purposely Use Unnecessary Chyron to Cover Up Zimmerman's Head Bruise?    "So what do you think Dear Reader? Was that obtrusive chyron merely an innocent mistake or a coverup attempt by ABC News? And does ABC News reporter Matt Gutman need to see an eye doctor?"
Perhaps a bit paranoid, but the press has only its biased points of view to blame for the pervasive mistrust we have of them.


From Black Quill and Ink:  All That Is Needed Is A Spark….
"I realize that I say this with almost absolute certainty, I am. Tensions are high in America. Classes are divided. Races are divided. There is a gender divide. Added to this tension are the baiters, those who innocently or by design are stoking the tension for political or monetary gain. We all know the players: Jackson and Sharpton primarily, supported by liberal media in MSNBC and celebrities. Chaos is about to explode and will the Trayvon killling be the spark?"


Mychal Massie's Daily Rant:   Self-Inflicted Victimization Redux  But on March 10, 2003, when Detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin were murdered execution style in cold blood, while trying to rid the neighborhoods of machine-gun dealing teen-agers, none save their fellow detectives, families and fellow brothers /sisters in police work grieved or attended their funerals. There were no protests. Susan Sarandon wasn’t there, Sharpton and Jackson didn’t lead marches. It was just two murdered detectives.
....It is time for America to stand up to those who malign, but offer no remedy. If the so-called black leadership wants to lead, I submit they must do so by confronting this lingering malignancy that threatens generation after generation and prohibits any hope of prosperity. White guilt and taxpayer dollars are not the cure for those who accuse but fail to take personal responsibility. Self-inflicted victimization should not be a way of life, it should be a crime relentlessly confronted.

More on the media that influences our family and friends

Headlines Control the Narrative. Guess Who Controls the Headlines?  "Last Thursday, Rush Limbaugh, addressing one of the Associated Press’s latest offenses against journalism,suggested that we “regard every AP story, particularly this year, as nothing more than a propaganda piece for the reelection of Barack Obama.”

"Good idea — and of course, that goes for ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Bloomberg News, and virtually the entire establishment and entertainment press. Many if not most of their reports betray an ever more obvious preference for four more years of Obama."

...."The Google News feed review was a truly discouraging experience, especially when imagining how a politically disengaged user might process what I saw. Here is some of it:"

...."Last Thursday’s hands-down champ for misleading headline of the day was at the AP, also known to yours truly as the Administration’s Press."

...."The time to react to the proliferation of election-influencing device-driven deception, dreck, and drivel from the propagandist press is growing short."

Richard Fernandez: "...spreading sensational but faked news in order to produce a media jolt." "Even the most basic facts becomes surprisingly irrelevant. Media Matters, for example, apologized to Matt Drudge after accusing him of being a “racist demagogue” for running a fake photo of the victim — only to discover it was actually a real photo. You would have thought Media Matters would know true from fake to play the fact-check game, but really, why would factuality be important?"

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Media Matters’ Desperate Need to Focus on Rush Limbaugh  "Media Matters put its years-in-the-making astroturf campaign to strip Limbaugh of his sponsors into effect right as Bill Kristol, Alan Dershowitz, and others were getting media traction. That Media Matters had had its astroturf campaign against Rush just sitting on a shelf collecting dust was uncovered by Prof. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection on March 15, 2012. Lefties tried to laugh off the astroturf charge, but two days ago an excellent bit of investigation revealed that Jacobson was, in fact, right."

GOP Worries New Navy Shipbuilding Plan Cuts Fleet While We 'Pivot' To Asia

AOL Defense  "Republicans think the Navy's new 30-year shipbuilding plan marks a fundamental mistake: cutting the size of the fleet from 313 to 300 or so when we are increasing our focus on the Asia-Pacific."
....
"But one of the nation's most respected naval analysts says the new shipbuilding plan, which does see the number of ships dip to 279 in 2014 from the earlier planned fleet of 287, offered a much less glum assessment."....

Obama’s Message to Iran?

Emanuele Ottolenghi  "According to Reuters and other news sources, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may have carried a message from President Obama to Iran’s leaders during his two-day visit to Iran. Erdogan discussed Iran with Obama at the Seoul nuclear summit, so it is plausible he was asked to deliver a message to Iran.

"What that message could be is, of course, entirely a matter of speculation. But like what Obama said to Russian outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev about giving him space until after the election, one could imagine a similar message to Tehran: “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.” "

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/03/28/97853

DEBKAfile: Obama’s back-channel to Tehran bypasses allies Erdogan and Netanyahu

Barack Obama and Tayyip Erdogan get together

US President Barack Obama this week gave his two allies, the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu, a lesson in the politics of expediency, when Tuesday, March 20, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced exemptions for 11 nations from new US financial sanctions against countries that don’t reduce the Iranian oil purchases by June 28.
"The countries benefiting from this concession are Britain, Germany Belgium, France, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Spain, Holland, Poland and Japan."....
...."At all events, the Obama administration appears to be rethinking sanctions as a bludgeon for turning Tehran away from its nuclear weapon aspirations.
Those second thoughts were closely reflected in a new assessment coming from London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies Friday, March 23, which asserted that sanctions were having an effect – “but just not the effect they were supposed to have.”
They have made the Iranians more not less committed to pursuing a nuclear weapon, it was said, and “had the knock-on effect of pushing oil prices to levels threatening the global economy.” "

Why we fear ObamaCare

   My own father died nearly destitute, largely because of my hypochondriac mother who required bags-full of prescriptions and a schedule filled with doctor appointments. 
    Another good friend was forced out of his home due to the oppressive expenses of caring for his wife with Alzheimer's; the same happened to another relative whose wife had dementia. I see what long-term illness can do to a family's finances and desperately wish something could be done to help.
    But I also see how the present solution of Pelosi-Obama's vast plan can reach into every corner of our lives; and make no mistake about it, this government or one like it will.

    Liberal solutions unfailingly bring about mediocrity in everything they touch and you can be sure this will happen to medical practice.
    I saw socialized medicine during a three-month stay at the Camp Lejeune hospital where dependents of Marines seeing doctors were given the standing appointment time of 0800. There the room was filled with mothers and children, waiting in folding metal chairs for their turn with a doctor to come. Their number gradually grew smaller through the day while the remaining children grew more and more restless with no place for them to play, only to run around the rows of steel chairs where their mothers continued to wait. By the afternoon, there were only a couple of families left, waiting since 8 am. All this because the hospital was government-run and had no incentive to encourage patients' selection of them as medical provider.

    I desperately wish those mentioned here could have been taken care of, but never by committed socialists whose supporters hang Che posters and communist flags in their offices.  TD

Tony Branco cartoon

Hanson: Faith-Based Energy Policy

Victor Davis Hanson:  

Obama is like a sound-track for the Disney ride "Pirates of the Caribbean," warning danger ahead and yet not animated enough to do anything to help

"New oil development will create thousands of jobs, worry speculators that America will soon release lots of oil on the world market, and provide a window to produce alternative energies without slapdash, Solyndra-like boondoggles. Drilling is a win, win, and win choice — and so known to everyone except the president and his shrinking number of reactionary advisers, who prefer green faith to hard science."

http://netrightdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Cartoon-The-Stick-Up-ALG-600.jpg

Morning Bell: And Now the Supreme Court Must Decide

Heritage: This author feels the law may be struck down, but I'm afraid to get my hopes up for the same reason  I'm concerned that Obama will be re-elected: I'm a pessimist; someone who thinks the glass is only half-full. TD
"In making his final argument in defense of Obamacare, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli alluded to the Constitution’s preamble and its call to “secure the blessings of liberty” in his justification for Congress’ actions. Paul Clement, arguing on behalf of Obamacare’s challengers, eloquently responded to Verrilli’s call to the Constitution:

Let me just finish by saying I certainly appreciate what the solicitor general says, that when you support a policy, you think that the policy spreads the blessings of liberty. But I would respectfully suggest that it’s a very funny conception of liberty that forces somebody to purchase an insurance policy whether they want it or not. And it’s a very strange conception of federalism that says that we can simply give the states an offer that they can’t refuse, and through the spending power which is premised on the notion that Congress can do more because it’s voluntary, we can force the states to do whatever we tell them to. That is a direct threat to our federalism.

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/03/29/97888

Seven of Obamacare’s Biggest Failures from the Last Two Years "The parts of the law already in effect were thought by its proponents to be its most popular, but as detailed in Heritage’s “The Obamacare Two-Year Checkup: More Reasons for Repeal,” the law is already proving ineffective in some cases and harmful in others. Here are some of the biggest failures of Obamacare highlighted by the paper:"...

American society is being torn to shreds with not a bit of concern expressed by President Obama

Roger L Simon: Obama, the Democrats, and The Society for the Preservation of Racism  "The reason is evident. Increasingly, racism – and more generally the division of our country into racial and ethnic interest groups — is all the Democrats have. The rest of liberal/leftist ideology is disintegrating all around them, as fragile and illusory as the welfare state itself.

"Without racism – or more exactly the putative existence of racism – the Democratic Party would be an association of overpaid trade union executives, unemployed Occupy movement sympathizers and trial lawyers. In other words – mighty small."

'Kill Zimmerman' Twitter account launched  "The account probably won't survive the day, but it is illustrative of the extreme level of hatred on the left generated by this tragedy. And, of course, the double standard of "civility" that the left constantly uses when whining about the political discourse in America."  Extreme language.

I think we can be sure these people are Obama voters. Can you imagine what they would do around this country if Obama was, oh, say impeached for something or perhaps lost the next election by a very narrow margin. Imagine the violence if the next election went for the Republican the way the Gore-Bush election did. TD

Neal Boortz: Are you freaking kidding me? Skittles should donate profits?  ...."After all, the ruler of this country has spoken out against the profit motive and has gone to great lengths to cast business profits as an evil plague on mankind.  That’s what Marxists do."... 

From Black Quill and Ink: Insider Warned Us – Obama’s Racial Division Plan Now Underway   "With a major dip in the polls and his health care bill in real jeopardy of being overturned, Obama is becoming desperate to win reelection. His secret weapon…RACE RIOTS AND CIVIL UNREST."

"The race card, the racial thing – whatever it’s gonna be called, it is the number one asset this administration believes it has to win in 2012.  Their own polling data has shown that to be true over and over again.  But how far are they willing to push that?  Race.  The charges of racism?  I believe all the way if they have to.  And they are gonna get people stirred up.  And if Barack Obama doesn’t win re-election, watch them stand back while the riots break out, and watch them mouth the words “Burn baby burn.” "

 Milton Reid , blogging at Black Quill & Ink

Rich Terrell

Al and Jesse hit pay dirt!

AntiAntiUnderground  with a hat tip to iowntheworld.com