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Individual liberty anywhere is a threat to the Progressive-Collectivist Cause everywhere.
(from Kimberly Strassel at wsj.com)Congress earlier this year punched through audacious yet unvetted health legislation, a slapdash political product that is now proving to be an historic embarrassment in its legal shoddiness. The Justice Department is in fact having to play games to defend it, which has only further provoked the courts.
And really, is that such a surprise? The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is one of the bigger, more complex pieces of legislation in U.S. history. Yet Democrats never gave it the respect it deserved.
Look at any other consequential piece of legislation, and the record is brimming with sober congressional investigations into its legal merits and ramifications. ObamaCare? It was a largely unread, 2,700-page fiend—crafted in secret, fed on deal-making, birthed on late-night votes. The Senate and House judiciary committees didn't hold hearings. The record is bereft of letters from congressional chairmen requesting Justice Department legal analyses of the bill. Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus actually ruled out of order an amendment that would have required expedited judicial review of the individual mandate. Asked about the bill's constitutionality, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's only retort was: "Are you serious?"The result is a bill that is "in its design, the most profoundly unconstitutional statute in American history; in its execution, one of the most incompetent ones," says David Rivkin, the lawyer who represents the 20 state plaintiffs in the Florida suit. The best example is the individual mandate, the requirement that all Americans buy insurance or pay a penalty.
Democrats' first drafts of ObamaCare all decisively called this penalty a "tax." Legally, that made sense; few dispute Congress's authority to tax. But as the unpopularity of the bill grew, fewer Democrats wanted to vote for a "tax," and President Obama didn't want to own one.
So Democrats went to plan B. That was to make up an entirely new legal theory—to wit, that the federal government is allowed, under the Commerce Clause, to penalize Americans who do not take part in a specific economic activity (buying insurance).
Based on the results of the 201o Census, eight U.S. states will gain a total of 12 House districts, and 10 states will lose those 12 Congressional seats.(from benzinga.com)Fact 1: Of the 8 states that will gains districts (Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Washington), all states except Washington are Right-to-Work states.
Fact 2: Of the 10 states that will lose districts (Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, and New Jersey), all states except Iowa and Louisiana are Forced-Unionism states.
The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Native Americans die (1862)
The Communist Party of India is founded (1925)
The Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR (1991)
b: Mao Zedong (1893), Albert Gore Sr. (1907), Lynn Martin (1939), Gray Davis (1942); d: Dietrich Eckart (1923)