Hell Freezes Over: Speaker Boehner Admits More Amendments Than Just The 2nd

image of a misty eyed John Boehner
Speaker John Boehner learning a law affects his friends

Just like when the Republicans were upset that the sequester they voted for would actually affect them and so they voted to fix that specific part, when it came out that the Department of Justice used the Patriot Act to secretly obtain phone records of the Associated Press, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) admitted that there is at least one more amendment to the Constitution besides the 2nd. What he complained about is what supporters of civil rights complained about before and after passage of the Patriot Act. Now that it is being used to investigate a friend of the Republican Party, the GOP is upset.

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More BS From The Gun Lobby

created image of a pistol on top of peanuts
Some Gun Nuts?

On Wednesday President Obama announced some initial plans to address the uptick in mass killings due to the ease of obtaining military style guns with high capacity ammunition clips. Of course the gun lobby lost their minds about it because they falsely believe that any regulation is equal to banning guns. The truth is, reasonable regulation will lower the chance of more Newtown type mass killings. Many of the screeching arguments used by the gun lobby are weak and don’t hold up to logic and reason.

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Rights Shouldn’t Be Subject To A Popular Vote

image of copy of US Bill of Rights

Imagine if we took votes on what people could believe in, speak about, or who people could love? That doesn’t sound fair at all, right? People who support gay marriage know what I mean. That’s why when I read almost 250,000 people had signed a petition on the White House website to legally label the Westboro Baptist Church a hate group, I actually had a problem with the petition. While I agree with the point, Fred Phelps and his church are way off the crazy scale, just imagine if you were on the wrong side of popular opinion. As much as I dislike the Westboro Baptist Church, this petition shows why we shouldn’t let rights be put up for a popular vote – PERIOD.

Here is the text of the petition:

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New Merchant of Death: The NRA

image of a gun

The NRA may not have pulled the trigger at the elementary school in Connecticut but they can’t avoid any blame since they fight for little or no gun laws and benefit from and promote an irrational public fear that drives gun sales. The press conference they held on Friday 12/21 proves the point that they don’t really care about mass killings accomplished after their hard work. They now join tobacco and alcohol producers who also refuse to accept any blame for killing people and work to get legal protection. They have joined the merchants of death.

Here is the main take away from the NRA press conference:

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Scalia: “Yes you can discriminate against women…”

US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave another interview that continued to show how much of an ass he really is and made me wonder why he hasn’t been retired yet. He is yet another conservative that is hypocrisy personified.

In a recent interview Scalia actually said:

“Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t. Nobody ever thought that that’s what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws. You don’t need a constitution to keep things up-to-date. All you need is a legislature and a ballot box. You don’t like the death penalty anymore, that’s fine. You want a right to abortion? There’s nothing in the Constitution about that. But that doesn’t mean you cannot prohibit it. Persuade your fellow citizens it’s a good idea and pass a law. That’s what democracy is all about. It’s not about nine superannuated judges who have been there too long, imposing these demands on society.”

The Originalist

The problem is the 14th amendment isn’t as open as Scalia thinks:

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Just like if Congress intended God to be in the Constitution it would have put Him in it, probably in 1868 the men who wrote the amendment weren’t thinking of women but don’t you think that if women were not to be protected they would’ve written “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of male citizens of the United States…”

Scalia’s Archie Bunker mentality was rejected by the Supreme Court in 1971 which confirmed women were equally protected.

It’s nice that Scalia falls back on his original intent doctrine but fails to remember that judicial review of laws isn’t specifically in the Constitution and I doubt the framers thought corporations are people covered by the Bill of Rights either.