Educate yourself and stop being a Useful Idiot.
I am skeptical of all information and people until I research it myself.
June 30, 2012
The Roberts Rules
The Chief Justice rewrites ObamaCare in order to save it.
Thursday was destined to be an historic day for American liberty, and it was, though the new precedent is grim. The remarkable decision upholding the Affordable Care Act is shot through with confusion—the mandate that's really a tax, except when it isn't, and the government whose powers are limited and enumerated, except when they aren't. One thing is clear: This was a one-man show, and that man is John Roberts.
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Former solicitor general Paul Clement on the legal implications of the Supreme Court decision. Photo: Associated Press
The Chief Justice ruled that ObamaCare's mandate violated the Commerce Clause, joined by the Court's conservative bloc, but he also said that the mandate fell within Congress's power to tax, joined by the Court's liberal bloc. In practice this is a restraint on federal power without real restraint—and, worse, the Chief Justice had to rewrite the statute Congress passed in order to salvage it. The ruling will stand as one of the great what-might-have-beens of American constitutional law.
The novel question raised by ObamaCare's command to buy health insurance or else pay a penalty—the first-ever purchase mandate in U.S. history—was whether Congress could create commerce in order to regulate it. In his 1-4-4 opinion, Chief Justice Roberts writes that construing the Commerce Clause as the Obama Administration argued "would open a new and potentially vast domain to congressional authority. . . . The Framers gave Congress the power to regulate commerce, not to compel it, and for over 200 years both our decisions and Congress's actions have reflected this understanding."
Note that this rejection of federal compulsion, which the four conservatives supported albeit in dissent, is the same one that the liberal legal establishment spent years deriding as frivolous and beyond debate: Of course Washington has carte blanche to do whatever it wants to do. "That is not the country the Framers of our Constitution envisioned," the Chief Justice writes, before going on to envision it himself by grounding the mandate in Congress's power to "lay and collect Taxes."
According to Chief Justice Roberts, the penalty is merely a tax on not owning health insurance, no different from "buying gasoline or earning income," and it thus complies with the Constitution. This a large loophole. The result is that Washington has unlimited power to impose new purchase mandates and the courts will find them constitutional if Congress calls them taxes, or even if it calls them something else and judges call them taxes.
That was true with ObamaCare. The Pelosi Democrats explicitly structured the mandate as a regulatory "penalty." Congress voted down a direct tax in 2009. Supreme Court precedents going back to the 1920s and 1930s define penalties and taxes as mutually exclusive and critically different.
Every lower court that heard the health-care cases rejected the taxing argument. Administration lawyers devoted only 21 lines of their reply brief to this argument and it barely came up at oral arguments. The Chief Justice in effect revised the statute in order to find it constitutional.
But if the mandate is really a tax, why doesn't the law known as the Anti-Injunction Act apply, which says that taxes can't be challenged legally until they've been collected? The Chief Justice actually rules that the mandate is a tax under the Constitution and a mandate for the purposes of tax law.
In their brutal (and, in a rarity, jointly signed) dissent, Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito write that the Chief Justice's logic "is not to interpret the statute but to rewrite it. . . . One would expect this Court to demand more than fly-by-night briefing and argument before deciding a difficult constitutional question of first impression." They score the Chief Justice for carrying "verbal wizardry too far, deep into the forbidden land of the sophists."
Justice Kennedy dissented angrily from the bench, and it is to his credit that he defended the federalist system of shared powers that is the hallmark of his years on the Court. The particular tragedy is that four Justices would have overturned not merely the purchase mandate but all of ObamaCare as unconstitutional. Only John Roberts prevented it.
One telling note is that the dissent refers repeatedly to "Justice Ginsburg's dissent" and "the dissent" on the mandate, but of course they should be referring to Ruth Bader Ginsburg's concurrence. This wording and other sources suggest that there was originally a 5-4 majority striking down at least part of ObamaCare, but then the Chief Justice changed his mind.
The Justices may never confirm this informed speculation. But if it is true, this is far more damaging to the Court's institutional integrity that the Chief Justice is known to revere than any ruling against ObamaCare. The political class and legal left conducted an extraordinary campaign to define such a decision as partisan and illegitimate. If the Chief Justice capitulated to this pressure, it shows the Court can be intimidated and swayed from its constitutional duties. If this was a play to compete with John Marshall's legacy, the result is closer to William Brennan's.
The Court did rule 7-2 against ObamaCare's expansion of Medicaid, the supposedly voluntary federal-state program that once covered only the poor. The majority included liberal Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, who held this expansion to be unconstitutional because the feds commandeered state resources.
The problem is that this also involved rewriting the law. The majority merely created an opt-out that Governors and states could elect to preserve some measure of independent control, instead of telling Congress to start over. Still, this is the first time the Court has found a law enacted under Congress's spending power to be unconstitutionally coercive.
But this and even the five votes limiting Congress under the Commerce Clause pale against the Chief Justice's infinitely elastic and dangerous interpretation of the taxing power. Nancy Pelosi famously said we need to pass ObamaCare to find out what's in it. It turns out we also needed John Roberts to write his appendix.
PETERBOROUGH — Jackie R. Whiton of Antrim had been a six-year employee at the Big Apple convenience store in Peterborough until a single transaction sent her job up in smoke.
The store clerk was fired after she refused to take a customer’s Electronic Balance Transfer card to pay for cigarettes.
Whiton said a young man came in to the store to buy two packs or cigarettes on May 29. When she asked him for his ID, he handed her his EBT card.
EBT cards are used for both food and cash assistance programs. There are two types of cards: one can only be used for food. The other can be spent on anything and used just like a debit card.
Whiton said she did not think EBT cards could be used to purchase cigarettes and refused to sell to him. The two “had a little go-around” as the line got longer behind him, said Whiton.
“I made the statement, ‘do you think myself, that lady and that gentlemen should pay for your cigarettes?’ and he responded ‘yes,’ ” Whiton said.
The next day Whiton said the customer’s foster mother came to the store to complain. Whiton received a call later that day from the company’s home office in Maine, telling her it had received a complaint about her and reprimanded her.
“I said I would bow out gracefully and give my notice because I didn’t want to be a part of it. I’m 65 years old, you know?” Whiton said.
Charles E. Wilkins, the general manager of the C.N. Brown Co. that runs the stores, said the EBT cards in the cash phase could be used for any items, including alcohol, tobacco and gambling. Wilkins said the company gave Whiton the option of staying but she said she would not accept the cards anymore.
“She didn’t think it was right and just wasn’t going to sell to people in that program anymore,” Wilkins said.
Whiton said when she came to work the next day, her manager asked her how much notice she was giving. When she responded “a week,” she was told the home office had just called and fired her.
Wilkins said she would have had to accept the cards within that week.
Whiton said she was not looking for another job.
Whiton said she does not object to using the programs for food assistance, but does not think a person should be able to use public funds to buy cigarettes.
“They can’t even buy toilet paper with the EBT grocery cards but they can buy beer and cigarettes with the EBT cash cards,” Whiton said, “Go figure.”
June 21, 2012
StopRush’s Own Illegally Recorded Phone Call Exposes OFA, Soros, Van Jones, and 500 Automated Twitter Accounts
Filed under brimstone and fecal: Matt... seriously? Ffs. Now I have to explain to America just what a clumsy fool you are, and I'd rather be eating bacon.
Matt Edelstein has finally stepped in his fecal-laden cat litter this time. It appears that someone infiltrated his Stop Rush group and punked them all. When they were finally getting wise to the spy, Edelstein thought he would outsmart the infiltrator (Neal Rauhauser would be proud of you, Matt) when he decided to record the call that these excerpts were taken from. Problem is, Edelstein didn’t realize that when he sent this illegally recorded phone call out to his “trusted” co-conspirators of Stop Rush, this recording would find its way back to “Randy”, the infiltrator. What a coup, Mr. Infiltrator! According to Florida law, which deems Florida a two-party consent state, Randy likely has grounds to prosecute Mr. Edelstein, and possibly the entire Stop Rush group for aiding in a conspiracy against him.
We still don’t know the identity of the infiltrator, but he claims to be a “Blue Dog” Democrat who doesn’t like leftist extremists like Edelstein and his neo-Marxist proletarians. The flunkies in Edelstein’s little circle, which includes Neal Rauhauser, have put a “burn notice” out on Randy. I won’t link the site that posted the “burn notice”, but you can see what they posted to Pastebin here: http://pastebin.com/ymqmvGN3
Note how they lumped Ali Akbar into their burn notice about Randy: “People on Twitter are saying he might be connected to the fraudulent felon faggot, @Ali Akbar and his wingnut circlejerk, the National Blogger’s Club @NatlBloggers. Prove this … For Great Justice.” I love when leftists show their true colors and call a gay/bi man a “faggot”. Their hearts are indeed dark.
Guess what? They’ve just tipped their hand with the Pastebin post. This is an obvious direct link from Matt Edelstein/Stop Rush to Rauhauser/Kimberlin vis–Ã –vis this “burn notice”. You can see Neal’s telltale indentations in the beginning of the document. (We’ll be exposing and further elaborating on this connection in a upcoming piece).
Edelstein and his friends at Stop Rush have secretly attempted to silence Rush Limbaugh by ginned-up groundswell via social media. Basically, what they’ve done is utilize numerous Twitter sock puppets (fake personas, either automated or managed by a real person) to target Rush’s advertisers and then inundate them with hundreds of accounts for the purpose of creating the appearance of an outcry against Rush amongst the everyman on Twitter, which is an obvious lie. This is a direct violation of Twitter’s TOS.
Considering all the different leftist groups and individuals involved in this drama – from illegally recorded phone calls to SWATtings and death threats, all for the purpose of suppressing dissenting political speech – I’d say there’s plenty of cause for federal law enforcement to approach this situation from more than a couple angles.
Matt Edelstein (aka @Shoq), The Proprietor of The “Professional” Stop Rush Organization Knows Van Jones And The Head of OFA Very Well
Sources have reported that Edelstein likes to brag about his relationship going back to the time that Van Jones was working at the White House in the Obama Administration. How high does this cabal of leftist kooks go?
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: Randy, I can pick up the phone and call the director of OFA, can you? Can them? Okay. I can pick up the phone and call the battle states – battleground state director of OFA. Can you? Can they? Okay, so I don’t care what somebody at OFA – some flunky level in Texas told you about OFA. I have extremely good relations with OFA. I have extremely good relations with Van Jones and many other people. So whatever people are telling you is bullshit.
(End Transcript)
The Soros Connection
Edelstein doesn’t like his sock puppets to reference Soros or Alinsky. Good call, Matt. When Edelstein says, “Here we are NOT trying to look like George Soros plants”, does he mean that they really are? And doesn’t Stop Rush have its roots with Angelo over at MMFA? Looks like it sure does. But, Soros’ organizations have never given MMFA any money, right? Ahem. Nothing to see here, America.
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: What was in Travis’ – I guess, I think you said it was Travis’ mind – what was the logic behind all those demonic account names with old, tortured faces, link(ing) to people like Saul Alinsky and George Soros. What was that about, exactly?
Randy: That was some of my staff being stupid and I told you I had a talk with them, and I did
Matt: But why would they – why
Randy: They were just being silly, Matt! That’s all. They’re young college grads, you know?
Matt: But did you explain to them how that looked?
Randy: Yes, I did.
Matt: It was very damaging! We’re still paying for that! [pause] It looked really bad! Here we are NOT trying to look like George Soros plants – and they’re linking to George Soros’ picture?! And Saul Alinsky’s website?! That is just a little bit nutty, Randy!
(End Transcript)
500 Automated Twitter Accounts?!
Leave it to leftists to fully embrace whatever means necessary to silence their opponents’ free speech in America. In this case, they’ve violated Twitter’s terms of service by creating 500 sockpuppet accounts. Imagine an advertiser getting swarmed with varying anti-Rush messages in rapid succession all day long when Stop Rush decided to target them. It would probably be overwhelming to ordinary corporate social media personnel.
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: Yeah, who are the real accounts you are using
Randy: I can’t – I’m not going to sit here and name every single –
Matt: No, no, I don’t mean – I don’t need their real names. I need their Twitter handles. See –
Randy: Oh, I don’t know Matt. I’d have to go through ‘em. God, we have four or five hundredTwitter accounts.
(End Transcript)
Malkin and Rush Babes
Edelstein is going “crazy” about Michelle Malkin’s counterattack! Here he refers to the Rush Babes as the Stop Rush Babes. He’s worried about their counterattack too. Edelstein’s afraid of chicks! And then he dogs @FeminaziSlut. No wonder he’s afraid of chicks; he treats them like crap behind their backs. Ahem… Laffy…
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: Okay, anyway, I’m going to stop – stop raising my voice before I go hoarse but I’m just gonna tell you that I’m getting – I’ve gotten more “tsuris,” an Old Yiddish word, about all of this stuff and it’s making me crazy. Michelle Malkin is launching a new counterattack, the Stop Rush Babes people are launching a new counter-attack; I’ve got to get this group focused and stop wasting time on bullshit.
Randy: Well Matt, just –
Matt: Let me finish, let me finish –
Randy: Okay.
Matt: There’s a lot of bullshit everywhere, okay, whether it’s innocent bullshit like @FeminaziSlut’s, who uses names and memes that aren’t very attractive to anybody.. (phone rings)
(End Transcript)
OH NOES! DANA LOESCH AND JAMES O’MUTHERFREAKINGKEEFE!!!
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: People are afraid of Dana Loesch –
Randy: You know what I understand – I understand what Molly told me years ago: being paranoid – being slightly paranoid is like being slightly pregnant: it tends to get worse.
Matt: Right, but we all know what O’Keefe and these people are capable of.
Randy: Oh, for God’s sake Matt.
Matt: Randy, I’m telling you what people say to me.
(End Transcript)
Laffy Fishes For Information?
Edelstein is probably going to make his situation with GottaLaff worse here. Doh! You remember that 20,000 word novel he wrote about their falling out that he published then deleted, right?! I guarantee she does!
(Begin Transcript)
Randy: So, you know –
Matt: (interrupting) Okay, see, but there are these constellations of things that are – like the GottaLaff case, right –
Randy: Well, I don’t – that’s bullshit. I’ve never talked to Laffy ever.
Matt: And I’m willing – I’m willing to chalk that up to Laffy, because Laffy tends to fish for information.
(End Transcript)
Stop Rush Hires An Investigator To Spy On Their Own
Fun! Who doesn’t like an investigation? I wonder who their investigator is. He sounds very thorough and “professional”.
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: Stop, stop, stop [sic]. You told – you gave Julie an address for a law firm, right? She went ahead and shared that with a private investigator on Twitter.
Randy: That’s fine!
Matt: I know that, okay? I know –
Randy: I own the building! I don’t care what they look into – fine!
Matt: You what?
Randy: I own the building!
Matt: You own whatever it was, 1018, or whatever it is.
(End Transcript)
He Unfollowed Me On Twitter! WAH!!!
Edelstein gets mad about his interaction with a Stop Rush sockpuppet named Allen Cohen. It unfollowed him. Sad panda.
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: So tell me this, okay, then tell me this: what of all the stuff that you’re doing and what you own that will at least validate that Randy Hahn isn’t just a guy on Twitter who’s making a lot of connections.
Randy: Who wants to know? That’s what I want to know.
Matt: A lot of people want to know. Lots of people want to know. And they –
Randy: Who?
Matt: T-t-the general meme is you seem to be collecting a lot of information on progressives, and it has people concerned.
Randy: Oh God Matt. Come on –
Matt: Hey – listen to me. Listen to me carefully: the reason why Allen came up is I just made a call, okay? The reason why Allen came up is that Allen’s name in the Google group, right, he’s my name! Now why would that happen, Randy?
Randy: What?!
Matt: I’m telling you the name he supplied was one of my plant names that I use on the web to confuse the Right. Okay, he used my name as his display name – it’s not my name, it’s not my real last name but he used it, okay? Now why would he do that? Then, hold on, at the same time – at the same time, why would he – when I asked the other day; I DM’d him, I said: “Do you know where Randy is, I’m trying to reach him?” and he sniped at me and said: “It’s not my day to watch him!” Okay? And then he blocked me. He unfollowed me on Twitter! That was disconcerting, needless to say.
(End Transcript)
More Investigator Talk
Edelstein forgets he’s already told Randy who got in touch with the investigator above. Oops!
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: The next thing… I, I, I… I’m just looking at some scratch notes I have here. This next thing is this investigator that somebody got in touch with, ok… says that he’s already found that you’ve represented having gone to two colleges. Columbia and another one. And that you graduated two different years. I don’t have the references, but…
Randy: Well…
Matt: On the web.
Randy: Well, that can. Well.
(End Transcript)
Fake Names All Over the Internet
Matt Edelstein loves fake identities.
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: So, so you put that up as a distraction like I –
Randy: Yes!
Matt: Like I put up false names. I got fake names all over the internet.
(End Transcript)
People Like Brooks Bayne!
Edelstein’s still suffering butt-hurt about me outing his real name. Since leftists love transparency so much, I was just trying to help him with that. He’s registered in Florida under the name “Matt Edelstein” as a Democrat. I sure hope he’s not lying about that name. Isn’t illegal voter registration a crime? Matt would never commit a crime though. Well, I mean other than illegally recording phone calls. In this excerpt, he’s upset about a Stop Rush sockpuppet who used his real name.
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: He unfollows me and he’s using one of my weird plant names that only people like Brooks Bayne has used. People like Brooks Bayne are always calling me Matt Edelstein, which is NOT my name.
Randy: Matt, hold on.
(End Transcript)
My Name Is Matt Edelstein
Edelstein takes umbrage with a sock puppet named Cohen who calls him by his name. Matt likes to lie about his name.
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: What I’m saying is he keeps using my plant name, which I use with a lot of people. I use it with you, I use it with most people until I absolutely meet people face-to-face and know who they are. They’ve been using that name for years and all of the sudden he starts using it. That’s what tells me, right, that people are connecting with – usually with right wingers, or looking on the web and looking for information (on) me. So what kind of message is he trying to telegraph to me? Why does he use that fake name of mine? It makes no sense.
(End Transcript)
Really Odd Comments About Krystal Ball
Edelstein is very defensive about the Allen Cohen sockpuppet insulting Krystal. In fact, he’s dismayed that the sockpuppet would suggest Krystal isn’t a serious commentator (the seriousness of “if you multiply that by a factor – by several factors…”). DAMN YOU ALL! DON’T YOU DARE IMPLY THAT FACE DILDO SUCKER KRYSTAL ISN’T A SERIOUS COMMENTATOR!!!
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: Then he made some odd tweets about Krystal that alerted her, okay? He made some strange tweets that you could read as almost insulting to Krystal. I – I don’t know what they were, but they were strangely worded.. almost suggesting that she wasn’t a serious commentator – if that’s how you could take it, okay. But he does seem to have a good sense of humor and it’s hard to read him sometimes, okay. But really (garbled)
(End Transcript)
I Need To Focus On Rush Babes
Edelstein’s sad about having to deal with being infiltrated. He’s getting “killed” by Rush Babes! He needs to focus! What’s that? Angry Black Lady? On Hal’s show? Shiny things! Focus!
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: Okay, but again, the issue comes down to this, okay. I need to be – I am too busy to be dealing with allegations about various people when we need to be focused on challenging Rush Babes which is my priority, right? That’s – that project is killing us right now and I need to address all my attention to that – Oh Jesus, Angry Black Lady is on the Hal Sparks and I’m missing it. umm.. the uhh..
Randy: What?
Matt: She’s on Hal Sparks. Anyway, so –
(End Transcript)
What The Fuck Are You Talking About?
I may use this as a ringtone. The hilarity. Matt’s pissed. He sounds like a brony even when he’s mad.
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: Well Randy you have to stop saying shit like that, because you say you don’t play around with social media – I met you on social media! So what the fuck are you talking about?
(End Transcript)
Gila Jones Is a What?
More on Gila Jones’ political ideology. She’s the odd peanut in the bunch. It looks like she came from Texas oil money and moved to conservative Orange County, CA. Anyone who could align with this neo-Marxist bunch of misfits is NOT a conservative, regardless of what she claims. She did run for California state senate as a Democrat.
(Begin Transcript)
Randy: Well, Matt, we didn’t trust those people.. and I certainly don’t trust Gila.
Matt: And why don’t you –
Randy: We know Gila a hell of a lot better than you know Gila, trust me.
Matt: And why don’t you trust Gila again?
Randy: Why?! ‘Cause of her politics and her family! Because of her politics and her family situation she had here in Texas for years and years and years. She goes there and tries to masquerade as a liberal?
Matt: She’s not masquerading. That’s not – that’s incorrect. She doesn’t masquerade as a liberal. She clearly maintains that she is a conservative Democrat who really doesn’t think that Rush Limbaugh is very helpful. So that’s not true. It’s actually quite cautious to say that she’s not a liberal. So that’s incorrect. She’s very – she discloses quite clearly –
Randy: I could’ve given her some really good campaign information. Moderate will never win anything.
Matt: Well that’s a different issue. That’s – you know that that’s discussing politics. The point is she does not represent herself as a liberal Democrat, or liberal at all. So – and she works very, very hard, and a lot of the effectiveness of the organization –
Randy: Well, let me ask you something Matt. Do you think a lot of the Progressives in that group want to hear that she’s running around, that she thinks it’s a great idea that her Republican – her quote “old Republican friends” – Mormon, her “old Mormon Republican friends” – people don’t wanna – progressives don’t want to hear any of that crap.
Matt: Who, who – you lost me – who are her “old Republican friends?”
Randy: You didn’t see the group email that she sent?
Matt: (pauses) Which one?
Randy: The one that she sent about her “old Mormon Republican friends.”
Matt: You mean two weeks ago?
Randy: I guess so, yeah!
Matt: Yeah, but she’s just like that. (Talking over Randy) She’s just talking about the need to be a moderate, in the middle, that’s all she’s talking about.
Randy: Oh, we need a moderate like we need a hole in the head.
Matt: Well, either way, that’s a [different] matter – she’s adamantly against Rush Limbaugh. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what her personal politics are. We’re trying to be an all- inclusive big tent in the Stop Rush movement; and there are a lot of people on the left AND the right who don’t like what Rush is doing.
(End Transcript)
Matt Has a Delaware Corporation
Perhaps this is where the Stop Rush domiciled their organization. We are still compiling our research on this.
(Begin Transcript)
Randy: Neither does yours.
Matt: Yes it does! My company does exist! It absolutely exists! It’s a Delaware corporation!
(End Transcript)
Let Me Watch Krystal Ball
In hilarious conclusion, it seems Edelstein’s finally had enough of Randy when Krystal is on whatever he’s watching. (I’m guessing MSNBC!)
Later Randy, Matt’s already in a trance two seconds into Krystal’s segment. Beat it, Randy, or whatever the hell your name is, you scruffy Texan – Matt’s got his hand full.
(Begin Transcript)
Matt: Yeah, alright, that’s good enough for now. We’ll chat on Monday morning. Let me watchKrystal; it’s important. Thanks Randy.
(End Transcript)
Are any of you Stop Rush people starting to feel uncomfortable? Now is your time to bail. Don’t let the neo-Marxist scumbags drag you down with them on their rapidly sinking ship. Tick-tock…
