United States: Supreme Court To Hear Defense Of Marriage Act Cases (click here)

08 January 2013

The Supreme Court has granted the petition for a writ of certiorari for Windsor v. United States and Perry v. Hollingsworth,...

...In Windsor v. United States (click here), the Supreme Court is likely to determine the constitutionality of DOMA Section 3, which bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages in the application of all federal laws including immigration and employee benefit laws.  The issue presented is whether DOMA violates the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection....

Watch recording for case: Perry v. Hollingsworth, No. 11-17255 (click here)

...On the one hand, (click here) the Court could rule that the fundamental constitutional right to marry should be restricted by sex, protected by the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and immediately in force in all fifty US States. On the other, they could rule that this is a standard policy question to be decided by each state, whether by state courts, legislature or popular vote. Were they to rule in this way, the process would continue as it did in November, with a steady and growing number of states providing for equality, but leaving gay people in states like North Carolina waiting some time.

This court battle arose after California voted for Proposition 8 in November 2008, the same day they voted for Barack Obama for president....

The military sequester needs to be directed to BRAC

This isn't that difficult and virtually painless. There is an ongoing procedure within the military infrastructure and it needs to be expanded to international deployment as well.


Introduction to BRAC (click here)

Base realignment and closure (BRAC) is the process that DoD uses to reorganize its installation infrastructure to more efficiently and effectively support its forces, increase operational readiness, and facilitate new ways of doing business. The BRAC process enables DoD to better match existing facilities to its changing military requirements.

Congress authorized the first BRAC Round in 1988 (BRAC I). Designed to promote modernization, reduce operating costs, and eliminate excess military infrastructure, this first round focused on closing large-scale operations and redefined how DoD conducted its everyday operations....

Additionally, the needs of the State Department, where the military can address security, needs an independent study commission. There is no reason for duplicity or voids within the security needs of those deployed abroad.

The last round of BRAC was in 2005. Reconvene the commission and get the sequester over with. This is ridiculous. The USA military is costing the USA fiscal hardship and to think they can't react to it with troops deployed home is outrageous.

Military hardware manufacturers and current contracts also need to be evaluated for the continuation of their contracts in the reality of today's military. Overruns that have to be made past an understandable COST OF PRODUCTION analysis are out of the question.

We don't build it simply because it was started! If the military puts the USA into fiscal bankruptcy what good is it?

Research and development of any aircraft cannot run in the trillions. That is completely out of the question. 

The R&D of such aircraft has to go to the engineers at NASA who can best design aircraft to withstand stress and applications of national security. 

Sometimes I think NASA forgets they are part of the aeronautics of this country. I do believe its has roots there. Design and engineering of specifications to manufacture should be perfected in NASA's drawing rooms and labs. New materials that work for the benefit of the USA National Security are a place of mastery at NASA. They did have the tiles that made the Shuttle possible. 

NASA houses some of the best engineers this country has to offer; putting together a viable aircraft to protect this country is child's play to them. When the USA enlists the private sector to produce state of the art aircraft it should simply be a matter of getting BIDS on plans already carved in stone!

If NASA can assemble an aircraft to survive a flight in the tail of a comet and then disengage to return home with acquired information, it can do anything.

In the USA, and possibly Europe, "Means Testing" is the future of entitlements.

If the USA wants to wean itself off Entitlements, that's fine. It is the will of the people. There can be no abrupt program to simply stop them with people 55 or younger.

There are those that may never need Entitlements as they grow older, but, that doesn't mean the entitlements should not exist.

I believe 'means testing' is vital to the best outcome of our nation and the need for any individual to receive entitlements.

Disability can take away every dime of wealth. When our young people see investment to their best outcomes as opposed to entitlements they are also ignoring worst case scenarios that will place them in very bad outcomes.

When the global economic collapse of 2008 hit, I can only imagine the panic that struck those unable to work, but, deeply invested for their daily needs and quality of life. For the USA to consider complete dissolution of Entitlements is grossly negligent of government.

Until it is obvious the Entitlements are stable for more than two generations, I don't see why there should be any change in them EXCEPT for means testing. 

Means Testing will remove some of the burden of 'future need' and will begin to provide a realistic picture of the needs of low income earners whom have contributed to this great country, but, will never have the method to secure their sunset years in a real way.

Unions have to do their part and be partners with the USA to encourage benevolent and intact retirement plans AND safe work places where disability is a word of the past.

OPEC needs to ask its customers what they are doing to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions?

That was GREENHOUSE GAS emissions.

OPEC needs to demand a reduction in GREENHOUSE GAS emissions from its customers. Seriously. That is a REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GASES, not simply a change in strategy to produce the petroleum domestically while still receiving imported oil.

The people of Saudi Arabia are unhappy about their future as their oil reserves are exported at a faster and faster rate. They want a future for their children and it is not just about the heat in the desert.

Indonesian Rainforests won't hold up as carbon sinks forever if there continues to be a lack of water vapor at the Intertropical Convergence Zone. 

OPEC needs to find LEADERSHIP and not just profits.

The USA is looking for a Progressive Female Director? I've got one for you. (click title of entry for official website - thank you)

Where are the nominations for Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Picture?

Somehow, when the only available boyfriends belong to a gang or when those gang member's childhood is marred with criminal content in a drug economy, the choices for a life strategy are minimal. Somehow, becoming that doctor was too much of a postponement for him in his own definition of masculinity. 

It is an excellent picture. 

The content of the community is incredible. Under every advantage society afforded them, the people in this movie failed to achieve their dreams. At every turn, they imploded into their reality as adults.

The Democrats are correct. Those are not partisan words.

The Democrats have been carrying the dialogue OF PROBLEMS regarding the USA for over three-quarters of a CENTURY.

It is time to realize the nightmares they have been talking about have arrived.  The reality of THAT TRUTH is not enough. The Republicans are seeking to turn loose every aspect of indecency as an insult to civility as a political advantage. We cannot do that anymore. We really can't.

Reconciling the dialogue with Republican Insurgents/Extremists is not the path we all need. They need to come to their knees of reality and get over themselves. It is the only path. Heck, get rid of McConnell in 2014. We can't afford him or his type anymore for reasons of reality. It is just the way it is. We cannot afford the regressive agenda of the GOP. We really can't. Fact. Not fiction.

The Brave New World of inclusion of all the people of the USA is the only way to move forward. Oppressing reality through the oppression of the dialogue and the people is not the reality we can afford anymore.

In immigration, one of the aspects noted to be a so called 'selling point' for encouraging Republicans to sign on to legislation is to ask for back taxes. NO WAY. There needs to be a 'means test' for any 'asking' for back taxes. Back taxes is a huge hurdle to people already working within the USA economy. It is outrageous to ask the poor, after inclusion, to remain poor.

We need to get on with all this. Today. Not the next decade.

With the Third World facing problems of the infiltration of terrorists nations and the Climate Crisis having arrived, the Democrats can proudly state they never lied to the American people. They have carried the message of truth for nearly a century.

With respect to a chained - CPI for SSI: NO! A means test is necessary and a structured benefit based on that means test is FIRST required.

In introducing a Chained CPI to SSI there needs to be a means testing attached to it. A Chained CPI is too much to ask of the poor. This is the elderly and the disabled. How are they going to do to fight back from a fixed income falling in value against the cost of living? It is hideous. It is completely immoral and unrealistic.

The Democrats need to work with the Entitlement's Actuaries to find effectiveness it extending the integrity of SSI, Medicare and Medicaid. They need to apply Means Testing and a Chained CPI with Means Testing and move forward in the understandings that brings.

Tax Reform is a requirement in the USA. The longer there are loopholes,the longer there will be strategies around paying taxes.

The USA needs a poverty agenda. It needs a poverty agenda domestically and internationally. 

Domestically, we know when people are in poverty they cannot improve their quality of life or increase economic growth. That has to change. 

Internationally, the global community and all the ongoing summits need to include in their priorities changing the outcomes of programs that enforce poverty rather than destroy it. The world cannot go on forever committing vast sums of monies to Third World countries after disaster hits or in post-war reparations. Each country has to have a sustainable economy built to elevate their living standard. They need to have their sovereignty granted to them. Finally, they need to participate in real world scenarios of economic growth. Each nation needs to have a self supporting economy with only a percentage of it coming from trade with others. 

China is an example of how The West fails itself, both, in their customer base in the USA and in a self-supporting economy within China. China needs to address its' internal economy as it addresses its dual monetary policy. These changes are important, but, in the case of China it needs to ease into a new paradigm of economic growth. 

The Chinese leadership has been addressing that in recent speeches to global audiences. As its internal economic stability improves, it can scale back its exports and increase stability. China cannot continue on an export economy only. It is a huge whole in its national security. The USA can 'tool up' overnight for economic growth because of its education infrastructure. But, China does not have that ability and IN THAT is the reality it is very vulnerable from economic shifts.

The Chinese CAN address its dual monetary reality. As they bring about a growth economy within the country, they can introduce its international currency as a new hope for the people. They can begin to trade in small quantities their old currency for the new. It will provide a point of hope for the future of China as seeking to participate in a solidly real way as a global economic power. Small increments have to happen otherwise China will see an economy of money exchange as now exists in IRAN. Fear of losing their day to day coping through vast money changes to each Chinese family will cause pandemonium there. Small introductions to new currency will work and increase the sovereign strength of China.

As China seeks to stabilize and grow its infrastructure, QUALITY of their products has to be on it's agenda. There have to be reassurances their 'health' products and 'food' products meet standards to nations they are trading with, otherwise, their markets will be removed though lack of consumer base by the choices those consumers make rather than simply what is available.

Russia just needs to keep doing what it is doing. I like Medvedev. Putin has to stop taking on the mantle of the angry communist.  

Look, when the old Soviet Union under Kruschev invaded countries it didn't go over well. It didn't go over well anywhere including the invaded country. In the long run, the invasions caused huge ethnic divides as factions against the invasion looked for points of strength to oppose it. 

Medvedev left the mighty Kruschev and his war machine behind. He went to nations willing to have him in diplomacy and built alliances. Medvedev let the nation in alliance with Russia to work with its people. Come on Vladimir. Tomorrow is about stability, not war. The planet cannot handle this mess between The West and The East anymore. AND, while Russia can counter its carbon footprint with its vast wilderness, the Russia carbon footprint increases with oil exports. Hello?

Oh, one more thing. Put up a memorial to Kruschev. The USA does to its leaders regardless of how malicious they have been. Why deny responsibility? 

Vladimir. Do me a favor? When talking to Cameron, will you ask him to stop being a imperial power and talking down to the colonies. They aren't colonies anymore!

Earth is a planet with an atmosphere. Anyone looking for water vapor for the Intertropical Convergence Zone? There are scientists that believe they have found it and it is not coming back any time soon.

January 21, 2013

...Polar mesospheric (click here) clouds have been observed from all human vantage points in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres—from the surface, in aircraft, and from the International Space Station (ISS) —and tend to be most visible during the late spring and early summer. Some atmospheric scientists seek to understand their mechanisms of formation, while others have identified them as potential indicators of atmospheric changes resulting from increases in greenhouse gas concentrations....

As a point of FACT, the Intertropical Convergence Zone has't recovered since the most recent disruption of it while Australia is still burning.

We don't need politics in regard to the Climate Crisis, we need leadership and we need it now!

The USA has to go forward with the Sequester.

Four decades of Republican strategy for our National Defense is completely wrong going forward.

The Republicans have no ideas. They just don't. Their answer is to do as they have always done. They postpone and postpone and postpone GOVERNING to pander to cronies.

By Billy House and Chris Frates

Updated: January 18, 2013 | 1:34 p.m.
January 17, 2013 | 5:42 p.m.

...House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., (click here) said Republicans at a closed-door retreat in Williamsburg were weighing a short-term increase in the country’s borrowing limit, giving all sides time to work on a broader fiscal plan in March that would include substantial spending cuts.

“Sometimes you’ve got to lay down a sacrifice bunt,” said Rep. Dennis Ross of Florida about the debt ceiling increase. He said there was a realization among his House GOP colleagues that they had to be ready to deal when negotiations began....

The MILITARY SEQUESTER will require furloughs where as the DOMESTIC SEQUESTER will mean non-profits have to double their efforts to address the condition of the poor. Let the furloughs begin, because, it is not going to be the same anyway.

There is absolutely no use in moving forward in the same manner we have for decade after decade since Eisenhower for a National Defense for the USA. The USA is not going to shed blood in order to be the world police anymore.

The USA has witnessed a huge error in it's National Defense when Algeria came forward to handle the insult to it's sovereignty. There has been gross negligence of Third World countries to live in the same century The West does. As a result, countries like Iran and North Korea have put nuclear weapons before the well being of their own people. NO MORE! If that strategy continues, the USA will be in a hemisphere full of nuclear weapons. THAT IS NOT A NATIONAL DEFENSE. That is not a strategy, that is Wall Street and Republicans with no ideas.

As witnessed with Algeria, The West needs to move into a DIPLOMATIC PROMISE to move forward with the Third World rather than without them. We need to bring aid and alliance to these nations. I am quite sure Russia and China has already tried. 

The USA military's strategy in the Third World by rolling in a huge military machine to secure things back home is no longer a real solution and to ignore that is not only a mistake, it will bring war to the USA borders.

No more nukes.

Non-proliferation and MEANING IT!

Alliances of strength where the USA actually elevates the people of other nations and is appreciated for it. Rather than nation's cowering in fear and seeking weapons to level the playing field.

No more! Absolutely no more!

Since World War I the USA has sought weaponry to protect itself from war. It has fought wars in foreign lands. There is no nation on Earth that wants war. Other nations want to prosper, but, every time they begin the most minor of hope to that end they are invaded because their resources are fought over by rebels and their achievements are removed and destroyed. What could have happened in Algeria could have begun a world war in the long view.

No.

The Third World has to be addressed. Nations need their sovereignty guaranteed to them and a global peace has to be envisioned and sought. The ICONS of peace these days are Nuclear Treaties between Russia and the USA, Olympics now known to have been contaminated by Wall Street and G20, G8 and G, G, G, meetings as an expression of success toward that peace.

IT IS NOT ENOUGH.

Real measurable peace going forward is to realize there is STABILITY throughout the world with BENEVOLENT leaders. Leaders willing to live with the hopes and dreams of their people and not oppress them. In a chronic global conversation, there is no oppression anymore. In places where cell towers do not yet exist, there is profound misunderstanding of reality and the next burgeoning war when people organize with al Qaeda to overcome their ineffective and hideous government. That is exactly what has occurred in Mali. 

In Mali, a grossly impoverished people turned to the only force available to them to stop the hideous killing of their holy men by an ineffective government. The USA can't afford that anymore, as if it ever could. Those deaths directly interpreted into a rebel force moving into Algeria. Ultimately those deaths IN REAL MONEY equates to billions and billions of war planes, bombs and blood and treasure the USA can no longer afford. 

We need to turn to a far different venue of National Defense called PEACE. We need to teach the Republicans how to spell it in case they don't know how to do that. 

So, the military sequester is correct and important in reducing the hideous amount of money the USA now spends on a National Defense WITHOUT a strategy so much as the backing of Wall Street. The USA needs to pivot from it's path of disaster for it's children and to a place where it can flourish while containing damage to it's only planet.

Call me crazy, but, the ATF needs a Director. I am sure Senator Grassley would agree.

I don't know about anyone else, but, pointing a figure as Attorney General

Holder in the light of this new information and realizing there has been no 

director for this agency for a half decade or more simply because CONGRESS
would not allow it, clearly illustrates how very dysfunctional Congress has become.

And for the Wall Street Journal that wants to state this promotes the NRA position. Like, huh, what? Where does that come from? This agency is in dire need of a director. Hello?

The Body Count in the USA since the Sandy Hook tragedy is more than 1500 today (click here).


Updated January 17, 2013, 8:12 p.m. ET

By EVAN PEREZ

WASHINGTON—A former federal official (click here) who helped oversee an ill-fated effort to stem gun trafficking is under investigation for allegedly carrying on a private trade in firearms—a potential new blow to the agency that is poised to play a big role in the administration's gun-control efforts.

The official's alleged private gun trade came to light when Mexican authorities asked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to trace the origin of firearms found at the scene of an hours long gunfight in November between members of the Mexican military and suspected drug-cartel gunmen, according to U.S. law-enforcement officials. Among those killed in the fight was a Mexican beauty queen, authorities said.

The investigation is being conducted by the inspector general of the Justice Department, which houses the ATF. In recent weeks, the internal watchdog told Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) in a letter that it is investigating the gun purchases by George Gillett, the former No. 2 official in the ATF's Phoenix office. The letter was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

One pistol recovered near the scene professional of the November shootout in Mexico was allegedly purchased by Mr. Gillett, according to ATF records that Sen. Grassley cited in a letter to the Justice Department's inspector general....

Just as a reminder to Congress.

This was the National Mall today, 2013. You know, you been to one Obama inaugural, you been to 'em all.

National Mall, January 20, 2009

Okay, honeymoon is over. Hey, I am impressed. The NRA certainly knows were to draw the line when arming a nation against each other.

You know. If I were arming an angry 15 year old desensitized to love and affection and thinking of human beings as human beings rather than objects; I'd want him to have a military style weapon. Absolutely. You know, why leave anyone behind? The grieving. The questioning as to why. Get it over with. Carry out that Oedipus complex in an expedient way and be happy. Could not have done it better with the American society if I tried. I mean, take it from me, there is a level of humanity in that. "They shoot horses, don't they?"

Impressive. Mass burials. Before ya know it, entire communities will have no pain when it is all over.

By Matt Pearce

January 20, 2013, 9:18 p.m.

Five people killed in a weekend shooting at an Albuquerque home (click here)  included a volunteer fire chaplain and three "very young children," officials said Sunday. A 15-year-old family member was arrested and charged with the slayings.

"Multiple weapons were apparently used, including one assault rifle," Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston told reporters in a televised news conference.

Deputies responded to the house on Saturday night. The victims -- which included two girls and a boy -- were each apparently shot multiple times.

In a statement late Sunday, the sheriff's office identified the victims as Greg Griego, his wife Sara, and the children: Zephania, 9; Jael, 5; and Angelina, 2, the Associated Press reported.

Sheriff's spokesman Aaron Williamson confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that the suspect is 15-year-old Nehemiah Griego, who has been arrested and charged with two counts of murder and three counts of child abuse resulting in death.

One of those killed was Greg Griego, who was identified as Nehemiah's father in a biography that has since been removed from the website of the Albuquerque Calvary Church. A church leader told KOB-TV that Griego, a pastor, had taken a leave of absence from the church last year....