Strict Construction doesn't belong anywhere near our USA Constitution.

The 'Republican Standard' of strict constructionist is a manipulative methodology designed to weaken the USA Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The 'idea' that Judges are simply 'puppets' to the Legislative Branch is completely "W"rong. The USA Constitution and Bill of Rights has three branches of government as 'CHECKS and BALANCES' to power. When strict constructionists are placed on The Supreme Court it weakens the power of the Judiciary while pandering to the Legislature.

Why is that DANGEROUS to freedom and democracy?

It is dangerous to the USA people, because, if the Legislature passes poor and/or exploitive laws there is no other venue to defeat those laws except the court system. The Judiciary has to be responsive to the impact of laws on the people of this nation. Laws can be victimizing and cause issues with crime and social injustice, therefore, the Judiciary has to have insight to the people that live within the laws of this country.

There is no such thing as 'activist judges.' It is political rhetoric.

There were two events today occuring within our Judical System concurrently. A new Justice to the USA Supreme Court and an appeal to the California Marriage laws. I have no doubt that the nominee of President Obama will face the question, "Do you believe the USA Supreme Court should rule on Same Sex Marriage and why to do you hold that opinion?"

The decision to place Judge Sonia Sotomayor in nomination to the Supreme Court was more than admirable. She is eminently qualified, there should be no challenge to her nomination. If there is one can literally call it racism. The woman belongs on the Supreme Court. The insight she brings with her considering her heritage is completely invaluable. She will be a great Justice.

I thought the video by The New York Post 'picked up' the entertaining humor of President Obama that occurs at times of joy. "Here Comes the Judge." Very cute and a little bit of fun at a time in our country when fun doesn't come easily.



The marriages that occured while under the law upholding gay marriages stand as they should. I found that to be a real coup by the gay community. Any legislation and/or court challenges now have to take into account 'why' a drastic change occured that ended the rights of those that had come before. Not only that, but, 18,000 legal marriages will speak loud and clear to the benefits and glory of marriage over 'partnerships.'

Partnerships belong in contract law. Marriage is a matter of the heart. The gay community is absolutely correct in pursuing their unalienable right to marriage. I believe the decision today, regardless of its validity in Constitutional Law by 'grandfathering' the 18.000 marriages serves a sincere and stark reality regarding 'bigoted populous' decisions made in the privacy of a voting both and supported by vicious hate mongers.

Gay members of the USA should have the very same rights as their straight oppositioners. The ruling to uphold the proposition banning equal rights to the gay community was due to a federal law that cast its shadow on the proceedings today. The Defense of Marriage Act compelled the California Judiciary to make the decision today. I really believe their hands were tied to act any differently.

Unfortunately, The Defense of Marriage Act will cause these decisions UNTIL it is challenged at the Supreme Court. It is 'challengeable' by the way. It is discriminatory and insults the Equal Protection Clause as well as insulting the Due Process Clause as 'the legality' of marriage is simply a matter of 'legal process' and SHOULD BE blind to gender of the participants in the marriage.

The gay community is more insightful than any of its straight constituentes. Why? Because by insisting they are 'more than partners' in a relationship they hold on to the REALITY of 'pursuit of happiness' when choosing a life time mate. Having a mate is far more than just a partnership and the 'culture and language' of this country supports its unique place in 'quality of life.'

To challenge the gay community and its unalienable right of love, affection and longing for a lifetime mate, actually defeats and insults the entire cultural component of marriage in the society. To discriminate based on gender in applying 'equal rights' is to say 'gender' is a valuable component allowed under the law to distinguish equality. THAT reality is an oxymoron. One cannot discriminate and have equality at the same time. The same 'type' of reality is why Brown vs. Board of Ed was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1954. The 'language' of the Constitution was used to victimize children and I might note that the Brown decision wasn't made correctly UNTIL there was a Black member on the court.

The argument that 'won' the decision with Brown was the fact that 'equal protection' was unfairly leveled at all parties. In other words, all the children, whether black or white were the victim of segregation and NONE were treated equally. If those same dynamics are included in the Gay Marriage Right, it is all the people that are victim to the law. The Defense of Marriage Act even in its verbiage 'pits' homosexual vs heterosexual otherwise it would not need a DEFENSE. The law attempts to elevate a false sense of righteousness and victimizes not only the gay community, but also members of the heterosexual community that seek to 'include' all people in Civil Rights. The law victimizes us all and not just one community with equal protections. The entire idea that the gay community is treated equally doesn't even come close when the 'quality of life' and 'pursuit of happiness' is considered.

The movement has to go forward. This is a generational problem exacerbated by 'politics' enhanced by a culture of fear. It is morally wrong to be allow fear of any member of this country. To realize The Defense of Marriage Act actually identifies that fear, is to realize, how very "W"rong legislation can be and how completely it victimizes citizens when passed for the purpose of politics over Civil Rights.

Plenty of drenching rains.

May 26, 2009

1930z

UNISYS GOES East Visible Satellite (click title to entry for 12 hour loop - thank you.)

May 26, 2009 2:12 pm US/Eastern
Flash Floods Hit Maryland And D.C. Region (click here)
WASHINGTON (AP) ―
The D.C. area is still soggy after heavy rains that snarled the morning commute.

As workers returned Tuesday from a three-day weekend, flash floods caused havoc in Washington and some parts of Maryland and Virginia. Authorities had to rescue motorists stranded in high water, and several roads were closed.
High winds brought down some trees, including one that fell on the George Washington Parkway and blocked southbound lanes near Roosevelt Island for a time.
Thousands of people lost power as a result of the weather, and some traffic lights were knocked out.

05/26/2009
May Brings Heavy Showers (click here)

Metro News Statewide
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service say localized downpours are possible out of many of the thunderstorms that will move through West Virginia into Wednesday.
Residents in part of Lincoln County saw such a downpour on Monday.
"It was an extremely heavy rain. I was out in it and I can't tell you the last time I've seen rain quite that heavy," Lincoln County Office of Emergency Services Director Allen Holder said. "Luckily, it didn't last too long."...

Record rainfall floods FL towns (click here)
Nearly 1,000 buildings damaged in Volusia County alone
BY VICKI DESORMIER, DAYTONA BEACH, May 25, 2009

While hurricane season doesn’t officially start until June 1, recent tropical-like rainfall in Florida found many residents cleaning up from flooding, or waiting for the water to recede, instead of focusing on usual holiday activities over the Memorial Day weekend.
Less than a month ago, emergency officials were warning the severe drought could produce damaging wildfires, Instead more than 1,000 buildings have been damaged following record May rains....

The USA reputation under Bush/Cheney is one of a dangerous country without moral authority.

Published on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 by the Los Angeles Times (click title to entry - thank you)
'Axis of Evil' Rhetoric Said to Heighten DangersMany foreign policy observers think Bush's phrasing, although effective on the home front, caused serious damage abroad
by Maura Reynolds

WASHINGTON -- It was a catchy phrase. Perhaps too catchy.
A year after President Bush used the State of the Union address to declare Iraq, Iran and North Korea an "axis of evil," the phrase has taken on a life of its own. With this year's address scheduled for Jan. 28 and the U.S. on the cusp of war with Iraq, the legacy of the "axis of evil" weighs heavily on the speechwriters and policy-makers hard at work on Bush's speech....

North Korea, no different than any other enemy of the USA believes they will be doing the world a favor. There are those in the world that would believe same. Bush gave our enemies ever reason to move against us and North Korea is the 'little engine that can."



At this hour the coalition of USA military forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq and free its people and to defend the world from grave danger. (click here)



CBC - The Fifth Estate - The Lies That Led To War (click here)
Submitted by cactuspat on Tue, 2007-04-03 10:35.
Since the US-led invasion four years ago, the fifth estate has covered Iraq and the war on terror from virtually every angle--the military, ... all » media, intelligence, politics--revealing aspects of the story that you didn't find anywhere else. Now, as the White House warns about the latest threat in the region, this time from Iran, it's worthwhile looking back to examine the deception, suspect intelligence, even lies, that convinced the world of the rightness of targeting Saddam Hussein....

Bush/Cheney in their zealotry leading up to the war in Iraq 'set up' the USA to be defeated. There are dangers at every border to USA with escalating capacity at even near borders. There is every reason for the other major power in the world to want the USA impuned of any military potential. There are more 'solid' reasons to believe the USA is incapable of 'stable benevolence.'


Bush/Cheney gambled they could dominate The Middle East and prove to the world the 'last' Superpower was indeed something to fear. It didn't happen and today the USA is compromised and 'has learned its place' in the global status of sovereignty in the world. There is no ONE Superpower that can dominate all the world's resources or its people.


Bush, on March 19, 2003; was nestled in zealotry against Saddam Hussein whom had verbally threatened hsi father in an international venue. Iraq was a war for oil and revenge and Kim resolved himself to 'end it.'


Analysis
Bush's 'Axis of Evil' Comes Back to Haunt United States (click here)
By Glenn Kessler and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff WritersTuesday, October 10, 2006; Page A12
Nearly five years after President Bush introduced the concept of an "axis of evil" comprising Iraq, Iran and North Korea, the administration has reached a crisis point with each nation: North Korea has claimed it conducted its first nuclear test, Iran refuses to halt its uranium-enrichment program, and Iraq appears to be tipping into a civil war 3 1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion....

Okay, I've had enough with talking. The USA has to act and now !

...France called for new sanctions, while the U.S. and Japan pushed for strong action against North Korea for testing a bomb that Russian officials said was comparable in power to those that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II....(click title to entry - thank you)

Kim is an old man with a dream to a goal to fulfill. If one has been reading the North Korean newspapers they have been filled with self-righteosness.

I absolutely believed there would be a missile launch this morning, but, I have expected it to be a nuclear strike of some kind into South Korea, possibly targeting the USA military base.

I profoundly believe Kim and North Korean leadership will carry out an atrocity while the world watches. This cannot continue. There is every indication that the AGGRESSIVE stance North Korea is taking is to intimidate and it will use the 'astonished mindset' in the world to its advantage.

Russia, China and the USA have to RESOLVE to destroy any capacity North Korea has to launch a nuclear holocaust into South Korea, possibly Japan. There needs to be an immediate 'presence' of naval vessels from the three super powers as a blockade to any supplies or warnings of any troop movements to the South.

Kim will launch and I believe he will be immune to retaliation of any nuclear capacity. His armies will be ready to fight any war, as he already stated in March. For the reason of protecting the region further, I am confident he believes there will be no nuclear strike back into North Korea for the sake not furthering the holocaust. Russia and China are not immune and are not necessarily safe.

At this point, the leader of North Korea is a crazy old man with nothing in his life worthwhile except securing his country the way he sees it before he dies. After all who wants to be a pip-squeak in the history books. In looking back over the past decades, the world has set North Korea on this path thinking it could control the outcome. He'll launch. There HAS to be an eminent presence of military strength in the seas around North Korea. The three superpowers have to contend with the disaster they have 'set up' over the last fifty years.

The launch of short range missiles is a direct act of aggression and the rhetoric from earlier this year is proof nothing will stop the inevitable. He called the testing in March peaceful. It was nothing but lies. Russia, China and the USA must confront the reality that North Korea is more ambitious than it should be or is prudent to be and is completely unpredictable. The more North Korea 'plays' the more acceptable it will become and they'll use that tolerance to their goals. This is a far more unstable circumstance than anyone wants to admit !

If I were Kim, I'd launch at the USA military base in believing it has been the problem the entire time and give opportunity to unite the North and South based on the removal of a USA component that has kept them apart the entire time. Don't under estimate that assessment !

N Korea holds nuclear test (click here)
May 25, 2009
North Korea said it successfully conducted an underground nuclear test, calling the move part of measures to bolster self-defence.
--Reuters
Duration: 2 min 10 sec


SKorea military forms crisis team after nuke test report Troops were put on heightened alert and are closely monitoring movement of NKorea troops. (click here)
Mon, May 25, 2009AFP
SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea's military on Monday formed a "crisis management" team of general-level officers after North Korea announced it had carried out a nuclear test, the defence ministry said.
"Top military officials led by the defence minister are holding an emergency meeting after forming a crisis management team," a ministry spokesman said.
A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said troops were put on heightened alert "and are closely monitoring movement of North Korean troops."...

If it were me, I'd get out of town, too.

...The minister was to leave for Beijing Tuesday before flying to Singapore to attend a regional security forum there and to hold talks with US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, he said.
"The minister will also cancel his trip to Singapore if cross-border tension rises," the spokesman said.


North Korea Fires Short-Range Missiles, Yonhap Says (Update2) (click here)
By Heejin Koo and Viola Gienger
Last Updated: May 26, 2009 03:48 EDT
....The Obama administration is seeking a unified international response to North Korea’s actions, and South Korea agreed today to join a U.S.-led program to prevent weapons shipments. Japan’s lower house of parliament today unanimously adopted a resolution condemning what it called a “reckless act” and urging the government to impose tougher sanctions on the communist regime....



March 8th, 2009 Posted By Pat Dollard (click here)
PYONGYANG/BEIJING, March 9 (AP) - (Kyodo)—North Korea warned Monday that any move to intercept what it calls a satellite launch and what other countries suspect may be a missile test-firing would result in a counterstrike against the countries trying to stop it.
“We will retaliate (over) any act of intercepting our satellite for peaceful purposes with prompt counterstrikes by the most powerful military means,” the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army as saying.
If countries such as the United States, Japan or South Korea try to intercept the launch, the North Korean military will carry out “a just retaliatory strike operation not only against all the interceptor means involved but against the strongholds” of the countries, it said.
“Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war,” it added....