Monthly Archives: June 2012

Grover’s Gonna Gitcha, Mitt

First, I guess a shout out to Chief Justice John Roberts for his completely out of character decision to step away from the side of the knuckle-dragging apologists for the plutocracy and do the right thing by upholding Obamacare*. And if you disagree that this was uncharacteristic of him, show me a Republican who was not surprised by it. Good on him. Won’t hold my breath waiting for a repeat performance, but I’m willing to be pleasantly surprised. One more like this and maybe Scalia will have an actual seizure, rather than just simulating one in his dissenting opinion.

But given the reasoning behind the court’s decision, to wit, that the individual mandate was constitutional because it is technically a tax (and of course Congress does still retain the power to tax), I’m really wondering about the effect of this on Mitt. Why? Because Mitt established a similar insurance mandate in Massachusetts, and that means he’s in violation of his pledge to Grover Norquist not to raise taxes. Now that evil, ankle-biting gnome is going to have to run honking after his party’s standard bearer like an angry goose, demanding penance (or perhaps one of Mitt’s overseas bank accounts).

Which reminds me. All these Congresspeople who signed Grover’s pledge. How, exactly, does a pledge to a someone who doesn’t even live in your district somehow take priority over your responsibilities to your job? “Oh, I promised!” Oh, right, like your other promises ever meant squat. And what sense does it make to promise to anyone that you’ll never, ever do anything? I mean, I’m about as anti-war and anti-foreign-misadventure as it gets, and I’d certainly like my leaders to promise to try to avoid war, but I wouldn’t for a minute think it was sensible to promise never, ever to go to war no matter what.

Oh, and when Grover drowns the government in his bathtub, if Mitt is president then, will he go swirling down the drain along with Social Security and Medicare? Or will those 2 good programs reject his presence and allow him to float to the surface like water was supposed to reject a witch in medieval times?

*As per a previous post, I think President Obama should get full credit for this very important (but still preliminary) step in reforming American health care. Let his name stay attached so everyone who now has access to health care and wouldn’t’ve before knows exactly who to thank.

We’re All People Now

Before the Civil War, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) helped perpetuate slavery and thus ensure that people were property. Now they’re working the other side of the street and ensuring that property is people. SCOTUS yesterday mended the last tiny hole in the fence separating people from corporations when it issued its ruling on the Montana Supreme Court case.

This is the case about the legitimacy of a Montana law written 100 years ago to keep the copper barons from overtly buying (essentially free market, auction block buying) of politicians. Actually worked pretty well, all things considered. Worked well enough to get the attention of the lawyers pimping for the oligarchy, so a challenge was issued in the state courts. The Montana Supreme Court, evidently the offspring of this law, in that they actually don’t appear to have been bought off, amazingly upheld Montana law and said No, corporations are NOT allowed to buy politicians.

Well, our corporate masters couldn’t let this ride. Enter the SCOTUS, black robes flapping like the ravens come to pluck the liver from Prometheus for daring to bring sunlight to a dark world. Their decision in the case was 1 paragraph long—or one paragraph short. Brief by any legal standard but probably pretty representative of the amount of time they took to think about it. Here’s the gist:

“A Montana state law provides that a “corporation may not make…an expenditure in connection with a candidate or a political committee that supports or opposes a candidate or a political party”…The question presented in this case is whether the holding of Citizens United applies to the Montana state law. There can be no serious doubt that it does.”

Yep, just in case anyone was wondering whether the SCOTUS had any second thoughts about Citizens United after seeing the real-world results, the answer is in and it’s a resounding “NO.” Now we and the corporations are all just one big happy people family. And we know who gets to be the daddy.