Liberty and Justice for All!

Today is the day that the NFL Players Association gets their day in court to try and start the process of overturning these suspensions. I don’t know how that one will turn out. However, I hope common sense wins the day.

The other case is the conspiracy theorist case that is being heard by the Supreme Court on the issue of Obama being a natural born citizen. The justices are going to determine if they will hear the case or not. Personally I think the court will either vote 9-0 or 8-1 to not hear the case because it has no merit. Here is why.

A) Obama was born in Hawaii. The Governor of Hawaii has stated that they have the “long form” and that it is sealed.

B) The “certificate of live birth” has been verified by several sources. Under Hawaii law, that form can be used in a court of law as evidence that Obama was born in Hawaii. I have a feeling that the court would defer to the states when it comes to the record-keeping of who as born in that state.

C) We don’t follow the citizenship laws of other countries. One of the points made in the case being heard today is the idea that since Kenya allowed for all children of the people who resided in Kenya (when it became a country) to be automatically granted Kenyan citizenship. This citizenship expired if by 21 the child did not pledge an oath of allegiance to Kenya. So currently, Obama does not have dual citizenship. More important is that just because a country states that IT considers a person to be a citizen of that country, it doesn’t mean that the United States will concur. If this wasn’t the case, then every four years when we elected a President one of the countries who does not like us could just grant that President citizenship in their country and the person would no longer be able to serve because he would be a “dual citizen”. Conspiracy theorists tend to be stupid, but I am shocked that even they cannot see the logic behind that argument. The bottom line is that under US Law, a natural born citizen of this country cannot have his or her citizenship status eliminated without his/her consent. So if Kenya grants him citizenship, or if his parents filled out paperwork for him as a child in Indonesia, it doesn’t matter. He cannot lose his citizenship unless he specifically asked for it once he became 18. Period. End of story.

Of course, when the court rules today that the case has no merit, I am sure that the conspiracy theorists will not shut up about it (since we still hear about 9.11 being an inside job from the 9.11 truthers). And if Obama does provide the “long form” to the court and the court does rule that it is valid, I am sure that the conspiracy theorists will just say that the paperwork is fraudulent. Because at the end of the day, it is not the Constitution that matters to these people. What matters to them is stopping Obama from being President.

Update: I should have called this post “trial trifecta”. OJ will be sentenced today as well.

Update 2: OJ is going to Jail. No word on the Obama case.

Update 3: The judge ordered that Will Smith and Deuce can play this Sunday! h/t Jeffrey

Update 4: As I reported in another post, SCOTUS refused to hear the Obama case.

Since others are jumping in with their guesses, here are my predictions.

This is what I feel is the absolute maximum number of votes that Barack Obama can get.

However, this is the map that I predict will win Obama the election.

I also predict that Bill Jefferson will defeat Helena Moreno and move on to the general election. Personally, I have some real problems with voting with Helena Moreno (namely her acceptance of the endorsement of the R.D.O.). However, I just cannot bring myself to “vote for the crook”.

Finally, I predict that Landrieu will defeat Kennedy for the Senate seat but that the Democrats will only manage to get 59 seats (though I hope I am wrong and we manage 60).

Update: I think we may have 60 in the bag, thanks to Chambliss refering to black voters as “the other folks” who are voting. Good job Saxby. Way to show your true colors.

The numbers are astounding and these are current as of Monday at 6:30 (people still voted after 6:30 because of long lines).

Democrats lead Republicans in early voting by a nearly 2 to 1 margin and account for nearly 60% of the early voters.

If McCain has any weakness in Louisiana (I am not saying he has one, but if he does) it has to be the fact that Democrats have a much better get out the vote machine so far. If this keeps up through tomorrow (the end of early voting) then election day may be very interesting.

And even if this doesn’t help Obama win Louisiana, it has to help Mary Landrieu (who just nabbed another big Republican endorsement in Dave Treen).

Today, Elizabeth Hasselback, speaking at a Palin rally, falsely accused Barack Obama for being a hypocrite for supporting equal pay for equal work while supposedly not paying his women staffers equally. How did Hasselback (or whoever gave her the information) determine this? Well, they took the combined salary of all the men and divided that total by the number of men and compared that to the salary of all the women and divided that total by the number of women. I guess it never occured to her that this is an illogical way to look at the data. (And here is the data on Barack Obama’s senatorial staff payroll).

Now, using our thinking caps we can all see how Republicans are just desperately trying to find some attack to nail Obama with and they miserably.

Now, these are two of Obama’s staffers. This is the amount of salary they made over 6 months. Hmm, seems to me that JOAN made more than NICHOLAS. Now, unless Joan and Nicholas have some weird parents, it looks like the woman makes more than the man.

If you look at all the Staff Assistants on his payroll you will see these employees worked for Obama the entire 6 months.

Now, the lowest salary is $13,999.92. The people who got paid the lowest salary are named ERIC, JASON, and INDIRA. So individually, more men than women got the lowest salary. So why does Jeffrey get paid more than Indira? Well Jeffery has worked for Obama since July 10th, 1006 (not counting his internship). Indira has worked for Obama since March 26th, 2007. Seems rather clear why Jeffery would make more than Indira for the same position. He has more experience.
Mary, who is the highest paid female staff assistant (and 2nd highest paid staff assistant overall) only makes $15,999.96 compared to Jeffery’s $18,000. Why is that? Well, Mary has worked for Obama since January 3rd, 2007. So she worked for Obama longer than Indira but less than Jeffery. So it seems to make sense that Mary would get paid more than Indira but less than Jeffery, doesn’t it?

And this goes under the assumption that if you have the same job title that you will have the same responsibilities (something that cannot necessarily be assumed).

It is obvious that the Republicans are reaching now. I really think we all need to sit back question Mrs. Hasselback’s view.

The paper that endorsed Bush in 2000, made no endorsement in 2004, and has been a solid supporter of ultra-conservative Bobby Jindal has decided to endorse Barack Obama for President.

There are very few undecided voters in Louisiana. I am not sure what percentage of those voters based their decision on who the T-P endorses. So I doubt this will help Obama win Louisiana.

However, if anything, you should read the comments afterwards. Interesting to say the least.

My personal Barack Obama for President blog is now online. I will be making my election commentaries there and leave this blog for mostly local (or unrelated national) issues.

Along with the launch of that new blog comes two new items in the lj4a store. Check them out!

His speech tonight was amazing. He combined genuine praise for Hillary, showed respect for the good things McCain has done, and attacked with both logic and wit the faults in the McCain campaign.

 The gem comment was “We need to be as careful getting out of Iraq as we where careless getting in”. Brilliant.

I really hope that the party will be able to come together. Now that we have a presumptive nominee, I have a couple of ideas I am going to roll out over the next couple of days. So stay tuned.

To all those Hillary supporters who are saying that they wouldn’t vote for Obama, I have two points.

A) She would accept the V.P. nomination if it would help the Democrats win the White House. She is a team player, you should be too!

B) Imagine the idea of eight years of Hillary as V.P. followed by eight years of Hillary as President. Sixteen more years of a Clinton in the white house. That should be music to your ears and should drive the Conservatives crazy.

Just sayin…

I have been trying to figure out the exact problem the Democrats are having this election. It shouldn’t be that hard. You have a Republican presidential candidate who is going to follow in the footsteps of President Bush if elected. Well, I figured it out.

This election should have been a referendum on the Bush Administration and those Republicans who continue to blindly follow Bush’s failed policies. However, it has become a referendum on “making history” and how we should do it (by either electing a black man or a woman to be our president).

This is not just a recipe for failure in the 2008 general election. This also loses sight of the main point of fighting for civil rights. We are not supposed to be supporting people because they are a woman or belonging to a minority group. We are supposed to try and treat all people equally regardless of their gender or ethnicity. As Dr. King said, judging people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.

And yes, I completely  understand and accept the argument that a black person is likely to think that a black president would understand the needs of the black community (just as a woman might think that a woman president would understand the needs of women). That is all well and good for the individual. However, for the party as a whole, we need to get off of the idea that electing our candidate will make history. We need to get back to the idea that if John “Bush Wannabe” McCain gets elected, that our rights and civil liberties will BE history.

According to Bayou Buzz, LAGOP Executive Director Matt Parker (Jindal’s homeschooled homeboy’s  brother in law) stated this about Mary Landrieu and her failure to respond to Nagin’s endorsement of Barack Obama:

Today’s endorsement raises more questions than answers.  In a press release announcing today’s endorsement, Nagin cited ‘Obama’s advocacy for the people of

Louisianaand working men and women across the county’ and specifically his work to address the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.   Does Mary Landrieu disagree with Nagin?  Why won’t Landrieu stand up and let Louisianans know why she won’t endorse Obama?”

Say what?!?!?! Mabye Landrieu doesn’t want to take sides. Maybe Landrieu would be happy voting for either of the two Democrats against John 100 years in Iraq McCain. Maybe Landrieu figures that she can be silent in a race where the presumptive Republican nominee didn’t get the most votes in the Republican primary. Maybe Mary Landrieu didn’t feel that she needed to make an anouncement over an endorsement by someone else. Or maybe, just maybe, Mary Landrieu doesn’t feel the need to answer to the head of the party who is trying to unseat her. I would at least go with the last one, though others may be valid as well.

This is just a silly question raised by Matt Parker. Now, is he the voice of Cartman? Or is that Trey Stone? See, I got the names mixed up and even those are better questions than the brainchild of Homeschool’s brother in law.

The idea that Nagin’s endorsement raises more questions than it answers is absurd. I guess the Republicans set the bar low when they chose their executive director.