By the way, Frank’s likely not posting today as he has to see to some personal business (don’t worry, SarahK & Buttercup are fine).
So… I’m working as fast as I can to get to stage 7: cruel mockery of the left.
Remember, comedy = tragedy + time.
Um… anyone got a time machine I can borrow?
Harvey,
tragedy + time = pushing up daisies
Which is where the country is headed.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.
I’m at “Pity Party” stage. Therefore, I am going to bake a lot today and gain 10 lbs. That’ll show ’em.
What stage?
Pre-drinking stage. Especially at 08:30 in the morning.
I’m at the stage where I am trying to figure out how to spin the fact that the Supreme robe-wearers decided all this qualified as a Tax can be used against ‘the one.’ See, it’s not healthcare… its a tax!
It’s only 10:32am cst here, but I’m at the “It’s five o’clock somewhere,” stage. Still to sober to accept it, but I’m working on it.
Harvey, no time machine, just a case of Macallan to assist in the Rip Van Winkle-ing. Think it’s time to crack the seal and get numb for a bit. The Sovs had their vodka, I’m sticking with the single malt until that she-wookie and her dietary stormtroopers tax it out of affordability and begin force-feeding us nothing but kale and soy.
When was the last time a lib justice went rogue and starting voting on our side?
*sigh*
Roberts and the libs should have to show proof that they read the whole law before judging it Constitutional.
Well, the significance of the Tea Party just grew exponentially. We got some in in 2010, and we’ll get some more real Americans (as opposed to Harvard and Yale graduates who have spent a lifetime being groomed to “play the game” for one side or the other) voted into the House in November. More in 2014.
It’s time people stopped accepting the Supreme Court as this imaginary “final deciders” of all things Constitutional. Nowhere in the Constitution are they granted that power. So, Congress can still strike down Obamacare, Roe v. Wade, or ANY other decision issued by the un-elected Supremes. It’s time that they began to exert their “seperate, BUT EQUAL” powers to do so.
First step: Replace John Boehner with a conservative with a backbone, who is willing to work around what’s left of the Republican “good ol’ boys” club to pass legislation repealing Obamacare, and several other SCOTUS dictates.
…that should be “voted into the House and Senate”
Game, set, match, country done. The fix is in
Listen to this story about a woman from Canaduh who would have died if she didn’t come here for cancer treatment ($100,000) this is the future:
http://audio.wrko.com/a/58379923/shona-holmes-is-a-patient-who-fled-canada-to-seek-life-saving-medical-treatment-in-the-united-states.htm
about 2:30 in
I guess we won’t have to worry about those evil Canadians coming here and using our once great health care system any more. (and paying for it)
Remember, now that “everybody has to buy insurance” at least half of everybody won’t have to. The word everybody now means 50%, sort of like unfair means fair.
I just got up. Let The Gloating Begin!… Wait… WHAT???..
er… “Finally those capitalist pigs will pay for their crimes, eh?”
No matter what happened with Obamacare, the president’s fate was sealed. If the mandate was defeated, then that is a rallying point to mock Obama with. Since it was upheld, it is a rallying point for conservative to oust the louse anyway. And, the thing that Son of Bob states, true. The mandate was found constitutional, but that doesn’t mean the law has to stick around.
In light of today’s decision, it is high time that the States call a Constitutional Convention in order to sharply curb the powers being usurped by the “Federal” goverment and return those powers to the inividual States as originally stated in the Constitution.
If the next election turns out like this asinine decision by the SCOTUS, then it is time to open up the fourth box and water the Tree of Liberty. Because right now, although Mittens is ahead of Il Douche in some of the polls, he is not far enough ahead to overcome the margin of fraud that the Democrats use and have been using for decades.
Wrong, stop with the panic, Moon Nukers. The opinion is genius, beyond Machiavelli and maybe even Zhuge Liang.
First point. The Commerce Clause has been limited.
Second. This is deemed a “tax” sorta like it was deemed “passed” and a federal tax can’t be waived. All the favoured darlings of Team O just lost their precious economic preference token.
Third. The repeal of a tax can not be blocked by filibuster.
Fourth. Obaka was proven a big liar, by now giving us what ends as the largest tax increase in history. Who’ll want him back now?
Roberts just played the most brilliant game I’ve ever seen. Son of Bob called it right. Roberts just told us all, “We can’t save you from them forever, it’s time you put on your big boy pants.”
Let this morning be a wake-up call to everyone who thinks the Presidential Election is a ‘Done Deal’.
The same people who voted Obama in the last time are STILL OUT THERE! And You Can’t Fix Stupid!
I don’t know… I’m smelling a 57-state landslide here. Always remember that the “polls” showed Jimmy Carter slightly ahead on the morning of Election Day 1980.
So what product shall we make everyone buy next? I’m thinking everyone not prohibited should be forced to buy either a shotgun or a rifle. Then how about a gun club membership and show that they spend a certain amount every year on ammo.
Bad idea. We don’t want armed liberals. And this administration already hands out free firearms to organized crime.
I turned to drinking as the economy spiraled downward. It didn’t work. Fresh out of coping mechanisms.
Here’s another way of looking at it.
SCOTUS says that Obama can’t force male drivers under the age of 20 to give him a sloppy in the back seat of a limo once a month because that’s unconstitutional. But, he can impose a tax of thousands of dollars per year on any driver who refuses to give him a monthly sloppy.
Supporters of Obamacare have been swearing up and down that this isn’t a tax, that it’s valid provision under the Commerce Clause. But it was ruled to be a violation of the Commerce Clause, and is a valid tax. But it’s a tax paid to private companies. Which is weird. So Obamacare won, but at the cost of a fairly alarming precedent.
I have never donated to a political candidate. Until today. Before I could not imagine throwing my money at Mitt Romney. Well, times, they are a changing.
Charon, Great post!
When the underpinnings of the rule of law collapse, there is no law.
“Because I said so,” is not law.
The very idea of a Constitutional Republic now only lives on in a minority of minds.
I wallowed at the self-pity state for about 3 1/2 minutes. I moved on to p*ssed for a little while. Now, I’m at calculating. As me said, I’ve just contributed to Romney. It’s time to check out volunteer opportunities.
After Romney wins, it’ll be time for we the Tea Party to march on Washington to put some small amount of steel into Republican backbones. Perhaps it’s best that Sarah Palin is still unattached politically.
During the Battle of Bastogne, the first time the gerries asked Gen. McAullife for surrender terms, McAullife replied that yes, he was ready to consider terms of German surrender. When the German general asked again, Gen. McAullife replied with one word:
NUTS!
Anger. And I’m staying at anger.
Liberals wouldn’t let a little thing like the Supreme Court get in their way. THEY wouldn’t stop fighting. We can’t either. Not now, not ever.
Burma and Mxy…yep!
Despite its massive destructive success, Pearl Harbor is considered by military historians to have been one of the largest military failures in history, as it woke the sleeping giant in America. Today was a different type of Pearl Harbor.
@SOB…great minds think alike. I swear I was posting this at the same time you were.
I’m thinking along the same lines as Charon here, though I’ll reserve my judgement of Robert’s move as being either genius or insane, as there is generally a fine line between the two.
Politically speaking, I don’t think any outcome would have helped Obama. If anything today’s ruling might hurt him more as those who rarely vote Republican may do so simply to get rid of Obamacare. But that isn’t really enough in my opinion.
IF, by this ruling, the commerce clause has finally been reigned in, then that is very significant. The government has been driving a Mack truck through that “loophole” for over a century. But, opening up a new hole by declaring it a tax may be too high of a price. If Roberts had sided with the other four justices, they could have slammed shut the Commerce Clause and stricken down Obamacare in one shot. But the fact that Roberts was the deciding justice tells me there is some method to this madness.
FormerHostage – well quoted.
FH. Yamamoto also had the foresight (Bit of a history geek here) to warn both Tojo and the Emperor to their faces. “On the open ocean, I can give the Americans a hard fight for only a year. We dare not attack the mainland United States, there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
I still maintain the Roberts quote would be a bugle sounding Revelry. No more staying home to “teach the GOP a lesson” about their McCains. We vote. As Heinlein once said, a Vote is force. The exertion of force over the focus and effort of our beloved Nation. Presidential, downticket to county dogcatcher. It’s beyond time we stop worrying about our Rights being stripped, and start acting as if those Rights are also the Responsibilities they were written to be.
So the FDA can now approve a drug, and HHS can mandate coverage for it…so who can I sue when a doctor, who is now paid by the Gov’t prescribes a drug that kills/maims a family member? I don’t think the folks at 1-800-BAD-DRUG are going to have the cajones to take on Uncle Sam.
@Charon
WOLVERINES!!!!
Anger. I’ve been at that stage since my 20’s
Just like the old adage of seeing something half empty instead of half full, many are viewing the Supreme Court’s decision on Obamacare as a purely negative outcome. Sure, I would have liked the court to rule constitutionally and in a responsible fashion. Sure, I would have preferred the court use the law to base their decision instead of failed socialist ideologies. It would have also been nice to see the court use their power for the good of the nation instead of heading it towards a path of bankruptcy and despair.
However, in the Supreme Court’s infinite wisdom they voted to uphold the Marxists principles which Obama holds so dearly. Though many despair because of this mindless decision, I see a positive side that far outweighs the negative which seem to hang so heavily over America’s future.
Why? The answer is simple and can be summed up in one word: Complacency. It might seem over simplistic but it actually makes sense when you think about. First, you have to ask yourselves what got General Secretary Obama elected? It was the opposite of complacency: Motivation.
What the Democrats did in the last presidential election was motivate their base to go out and vote in droves. They got them to the polls. Through rhetoric such as hope and change they made everyone out in American feel as if they alone could make a difference just by voting for Obama. They made it feel that a vote for Obama would change the country for the better; a vote for Obama would make your life better; a vote for Obama would turn America into a true utopia. Though Obama and his failed policies could do none of this, people felt as if he do all of this and more. They were thus motivated to go out and vote.
However, times have changed. Obama is in power and his greatest assault against American freedom and Capitalism, Obamacare, was upheld. Now I ask: where’s the motivation to Obama’s supports? They already have what they want. If, however, Obamacare was repealed, there would have been a battle cry sent out by Obama and his Himmler-esk cronies. They would have berated the Republicans, chastised the courts and made it a point that if Obama were voted out of power this November, things would go back to the way things were during former President Bush’s times. Obama would have sent the fear of God into people and made them think if Romney got into office, a Republican-driven Supreme Court would repeal civil rights, women’s suffrage and all welfare-type programs. They would have painted a picture of the future filled with despair, filled with greedy capitalistic clones of Romney economically squashing the other 99% of society.
Instead of chanting, “Remember the Maine, down with Spain”, they would be shouting, “Remember Obamacares, throw Romney down the stairs!” (Maybe not exactly, but I just wanted it to rhyme). It would have again provoked the masses to go and cast a vote towards economic insolvency- I mean for Obama.
Now you have to ask: who is motivated now? I can tell you. All the Republicans, members of the Tea party, the working class, people who actually pay taxes and everyone who owns any size business across the country. Now, we have the motivation. We have the battle cry. We have more a reason now to vote Obama out of office than before!
In fact, I’d like to thank the Supreme Court for their ruling. For at this moment the tide has turned against Obama and the path to his exit from the White House has become visible. Thank you for your nearsightedness. Thank you for your demagoguery. Thank you for total disregard to the Constitution. For it is through this act of total ignorance that we Americans will take back the White House and elect a real American into office!
I love the enthusiasm, but praising Roberts as a brilliant tactician gob-smacks of denial. I’m stuck in the shock stage, so you’re still a step ahead of me, but this being IMAO and not IYAO:
(1) The Commerce Clause is limited to existing markets but taxes are not, and given the expressed equivalence, there is no real limit. Can someone please name one thing that this new limit would prohibit in practice?
(2) Are all the waivers really invalidated? That would be awesome. But I fear you may be projecting logic onto Obama. SCOTUS just wrote a new law, it’s up to Obama to execute it.
(3) The repeal of a tax cannot be blocked by filibuster. That is helpful.
(4) Obama will not be reelected regardless of PPACA, unless the economy does a 180.
My concern is that gutting PPACA will appease The People and there will be no deeper resolve to restore the original intent of the Constitution by Amendment. There’s no other way: liberal Justices are unmoored from all but the most blatant meaning and conservative Justices are moored to their precendent.
I think I live in a constant state of all of the stages of grief at once.
w00t! Tired American makes my comment look short by comparison! Maybe mine has a shot to be read now. 🙂
Fly, have you read the opinion as written? It serves well to remove any doubt of Roberts’ prowess.
In short, the defense invoking the tax argument forced him to rule it constitutional on those grounds, at least until cited precedent can be revisited. Ruling the tax argument valid showed the tyrant’s hand long before it was ready, in fact, when the tyrant was at it’s weakest. This new limit, prohibits exactly what we wanted. “If the commerce clause argument passes, then they can force us to buy anything.” Well, they can’t. Now they have to go on record not just as forcing us to do something “for our own good” but also for blatantly imposing a tax if we refuse. That’s a self defeating proposal neither the left or the right have the power to ignore.
Who votes for a politician that now must blatantly make everyone in the country spend money on either their new mandate, or their new tax. Pick one, oh wait, you voted for the other guy? Crap. Shame we’re not so far entrenched in power over a helpless citizenry that we can ignore the election. Wish I’d thought of that first…
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You got me, Charon, I haven’t read the whole opinion yet.
Are you suggesting that PPACA would not have passed if it were framed as a tax instead of as a mandate? If so, SCOTUS just converted a law from one that was passed into one that would not have been passed, and calling them equivalent.
Isn’t there a rule against ruling on a tax before it takes effect? If this is a tax, hasn’t he invalidated his own ruling?
Jimmy,
Are you dyeing your locks red? 8:30 in the morning is NOT too early to be drinking.
So the ruling says Obamacare is not constitutional under the commerce clause but can still squeak by for the moment since it amounts to a new tax?
Announcing that socialists have a right to tax is like announcing that the French have the right to surrender, most people would have been astounded to hear otherwise.
Carolyn oh Carolyn, there is a sweet mommy you are.
SCOTUS, specifically Roberts, also said. “It’s not our job to save you from your legislative mistakes.” Yeah, probably wouldn’t have passed if they had been even close to honest about it from the beginning, but we also know this: it was passed via a series of shady tricks because enough of the opposition saw through the lies in the first place. The point is, we all have work to do to ensure that kind of crap doesn’t happen again. Solidify republican (not party, ideology) control of our Republic once again. We are not a Democracy, and have no room for Democrats who attempt to destroy our unique form of government. Our candidates must be shaped, as much as they’re chosen. We put a politician in any office not because we trust they can make decisions for us, that’s what the libtards do. We elect a representative to office who will, at the risk of his defeat and public ridicule, actually represent us, be shaped in his policy direction by what we demand of us and be terrified for the sake of his Nation, of the eventual consequences of defying us.
The days of looking for the next conservative are over, the days of Being the government in America must begin again. This can only happen if we support one another, communicate and solidify our opinions, and present, en masse as a unified front, those positions to our representatives in every office. Arguing with the left is pointless, they’re dumb but determined pack animals. Just like their mascot.
We the People, We the Sovereign.
Moon Nuking WOLVERINES!
Martin, roughly yes.
Karen, for the purposes of the Tax Anti-Injunction Act, they are saying that it is literally a penalty, not a tax. For the purposes of finding it constitutional, they are generalizing that it amounts to a tax. Apparently, SCOTUS finds this circularity amusing.
That’s what bugs me, Charon — it is precisely their job to save us from our representative’s unconstitutional legislative mistakes. Given precedence, either decision was justifiable. It was a close call. Roberts chose to change the mandate into a tax rather than requiring Congress to do that.
Anyhow, onto acceptance! Your rallying cry somehow reminds me of Braveheart. I like it. =)
One thing I’ll add is that the rules need to change, not just the players. Some people want the ideal President and Congress. I think we need to rally around specific changes that will limit their power to the point where their corruption matters less and less.
I’ll pray for your kids, Tired American. You can pray for mine – although they’re adults now and own more guns than I can count….
Karen, you are correct. A court cannot rule on the Constitutionality of a tax before it is implemented, as no one has yet been harmed by the tax. However, Roberts made up the rules as he went along. He actually claimed in his ruling that since the government wasn’t calling this a tax the court could rule on it…then went on to claim it was Constitutional because it was a tax. Roberts is a jackass. A coward and a jackass.
Fly: It is their job to save us from unconstitutional legislative mistakes, but not just plain bad and stupid law that otherwise passes muster. However disappointing it might be that it passes on tax grounds, and the current implications of such, the precedent was there. Also, thanks. ;>
Son of Bob: The backside of that is Roberts accepting it was a tax at the forefront of the argument, stating it can not be ruled on, and the constitutionality of the mandate by commerce clause would still be upheld by technicality of not being ruled on until challenged again.
John Roberts should join the cast of “Game of Thrones” (I mean, they’re not exactly sticking to the books’ text already). OR, wait a tick, here’s an idea that just occurred to me – let me pitch it…
“OK, you’ve got 20 seconds…”
Thanks. OK, the cast from “Game of Thrones” step into the TARDIS, and end up in Washington D.C., where they continue their power struggles by taking over the Supreme Court.
“That’s stupid.”
Of course it’s stupid! That hardly disqualifies it from network syndication! And with the Supreme Court’s recent decision throwing out the whole “no nudity” thing, the timing is perfect! The show itself would be a double entendre. It will be a HUGE hit!
“Hmmmm…. It is still missing something.”
Well, how about they all live together, and at home in the evenings they play folk music? *
(* reference?)
Hey! Does this mean that Pelosi finally found out what is inside this bill?
“He may be mad, but there’s method in his madness. There nearly always is method in madness. It’s what drives men mad, being methodical.”
― G.K. Chesterton