freshwest

freshwest's Journal

May 10, 2015

It passed Congress in 1972. They can't do it alone. The states defeated the ERA:

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal rights for women. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman.

In 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time. In 1972, it passed both houses of Congress and went to the state legislatures for ratification.

The resolution in Congress that proposed the amendment set a ratification deadline of March 22, 1979. Through 1977, the amendment received 35 of the necessary 38 state ratifications. Five states later rescinded their ratifications before the 1979 deadline, though the validity of these rescissions is disputed. In 1978, a joint resolution of Congress extended the ratification deadline to June 30, 1982, but no further states ratified the amendment before the passing of the second deadline, leaving it three short of the required threshold. Several feminist organizations that dispute the validity and the permanence of the ratification deadline, along with also disputing the validity of the five rescissions, continue to work at the federal and state levels for the adoption of the ERA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment

I'm not sure why people don't know this, and I am not saying you don't. Control of Congress is very important, but state houses matter just as much. It may not even pass both houses of Congress now. In fact, it's highly doubtful.

The current rightwing plan as stated by Paul Ryan and Rand Paul is more likely than the ERA or CU amendments going anywhere.

The GOP intend to form an Article V Convention as established in the US Constitution. They only need sufficient GOP state legislatures to call for one. They have stated that is their goal in controlling state legislatures.

As of this year, the break down in the state houses by part are:

State houses controlled by a Democratic majority: 16

State houses controlled by a Republican majority: 33

http://ballotpedia.org/Partisan_composition_of_state_houses

Article Five of the United States Constitution describes the process whereby the Constitution may be altered. Altering the Constitution consists of proposing an amendment or amendments and subsequent ratification.[1]

Amendments may be adopted and sent to the states for ratification by either:

Two-thirds (supermajority) of both the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States Congress;

OR

By a national convention assembled at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (at present 34) of the states.

To become part of the Constitution, an amendment must be ratified by either (as determined by Congress):

The request of legislatures of three-fourths (at present 38) of the states;

OR

State ratifying conventions in three-fourths (at present 38) of the states.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Five_of_the_United_States_Constitution

So the GOP is a few states short. Paul Ryan said in 2012 that they intend to repeal the 14th Amendment to eliminate Birthright Citizenship. But it also includes Due Process and Equal Treatment Under the Law. It cannot be overstated how much of current law is dependent on the 14th. The 4th Amendment has proven insufficient to protect women's and did not work for Dred Scott, due to bigotry.

It took a Civil War to get the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments ratified. There are some GOP and RWNJs who want to abolish the IRS (16th Amendment) and Women's Sufferage (19th Amendment). They have been pushing for both for 20 years, and their main allies have been various media pundits. The message has been put out in forthright manners as well as subtle ones by repetition and auxiliary means and it's been working. You can kiss degrees of income inequality arguments aside without the governmen't ability to level taxes without the IRS.

Others want to eliminate all after the 10th Amendment (the basic states' rights philosophy). The Tenthers will eliminate everyhing after that.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Additional_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution

They GOP, Libertarians, Koches, et al. are close to their goal. The ERA and CU amendments feel good but they do not fit political reality. So while getting a better Congress is quite important, the work is in the states and that is where the GOP trumphs the Democrats in off year and local elections.

Time is not on our side. An Article V convention is in our future unless we diversify state legislatures with Democrats. And this is the toolbox the RWNJs are keen to use. There is no reason to believe they will do anything remotely liberal, progressive or anything else we want to happen with that power.

In fact, they've already announced their plans. Rand Paul wants to redefine citizenship as beginning at conception. He has been frustrated by Obama's constant refusal to pass his national person hood law that he has attached to every CR.

JMHO...

May 10, 2015

A few thoughts on Jefferson fucking Davis!

May 10, 2015

Meh!

I live in an - earthquake, tsunami, lahar, volcano, sinkholed, forest fire, flash flood, yellowstone caldera. etc. - prone zone.

And we get the air from Asia (Fukishima, China, etc.) plus windstorms, white outs, blah, blah, blah and baggers, too.

I operate on the Strawberry and Tiger system. We're all doomed.

May 10, 2015

Yes, they have. The GOP and Constitutionalist parties have both pushed this for decades.

They are angling for an Article V Convention to rewrite the United States Constitution, from the state houses. They are keeping count and making sure the legislators will march in lockstep. That is why they elect anyone, no matter how outrageous who will vote their will. They are very close to that majority, if they do not already have it, to call for it.

We can rest assured with a GOP POTUS it will happen. With an Article V concvention, the great tool box to make the Constitution fit the Koch agenda will be opened and the government will rewritten to set up their system. Check ALEC or Reid and Sander's revelations that I have posted here to see what they intend. They have nearly fulfilled it now.

It is all legal. I don't know if the ERA will be ratified in time to stop them, no more than an amendment to overturn Citizens United. Obama said immediately after CU that a grassroots movement would be required to do this and he was talking about from the statehouses. It was the state houses that denied us the ERA before. In the meantime, the media did its job and people did not vote, enabling more of the Koch agenda to be enacted.

They want Birthright Citizenship, Due Process and Equal Treatment Under the Law, all part of the 14th repealed. Rand Paul wants the convention to rewrite the 14th to declare who is a person under the Constitution will be and we know Rand Paul (R- national personhood bill) intends to take that back to conception. Or since the GOP doesn't know when that occurs, at ejacultion. Women = Concubines.

The 4th did not protect women any more than it did Dred Scott, so the 14th and other Civil War amendments had to be passed. People who think they are voting against 'anchor babies' are really putting their own liberty and rights of citizenship at risk, but they don't think about what they are really supporting. Imagine a GOP trifeca and endless war. Many of the GOP envision a Starship Trooper form of citizenship, where only those who serve in the military will have the right to vote. The rest are just their servants and have no voice.

And like the Koch brothers and Grover Nordquist, Libertarians and Truthers, they want the IRS gone. To make sure those pesky laws never show their faces again.

Who can forget Ann Coulter and since then other women's remarks that women should not be voting?

Like LGBT, women are suspect, they are 'the wrong sex.'

We need the ERA more than ever. It would make all the restrictive laws lose their powers, but we must get control of the state houses to make it happen. The Senate can introduce this but it cannot makes it laws, as it is merely a proposal to the states, AFAIK.

And who controls the states? The ones who showed up in 2010 and 2014 to vote. What a nightmare.

May 9, 2015

Morning, Sea:

May 9, 2015

Well, not for any Democrat, anyway. That's been obvious for a very long time. One doesn't just...

Turn off the disdain and dissing when one goes from online to the real world. What is said here is what is said to family, friends, coworkers and in the voting booth.

This has just been a game, years of messing with the heads of Democratic voters here. And the lurkers and websurfers who see the word Democratic in the domain and want information.

What they see is bitterness and vitriol that appeals to no one.

It literally runs away Democrats and potential Democratic voters.

As 1StrongBlackMan wrote:

And "Mission Accomplished" could be heard whispered throughout the land. (It seems)

GOP: "Government doesn't work" ... Check!

Libertarians (right and left): "Government is evil" ... Check!

Tea Party: "Government doesn't work and there is no difference between establishment republicans and establishment Democrats" ... Check!

"Liberals/Progressives": "Government is evil and there is no difference between establishment republicans and establishment Democrats" ... Check!

The media has played this narrative on a 7-day, 24-hour loop.

Result: Only 15% of the American people pay close attention to the only mechanism for change.

Nicely played, Oligarchs!

May 9, 2015

He better say outta there, then!

May 8, 2015

Oh, no, no, no! They hate, hate, hate each other! See this picture:

The Dalai Lama hates her too:

I can post more haters, but really, it's getting late.

May 8, 2015

OMG! If the USA didn't exist, they'd have to pick another proto-bully to blame for everything.

Can't stand the suspense! Bombs away!

May 8, 2015

kpete, kpete, kpete! I will have to explain this to you. As a native Texan, here are 10 facks:

FACK #1:

Texas is illegally occupied, as it never really re-joined the Union after the traitorous War of Northern Aggression! The South, er, Texas, will rise again!

FACK #2:

Texas was split into 5 states because the Yankees were afraid of Texans and JEALOUS. They still are and we know this. Back off!

FACK #3:

Texans were first in promoting religious liberty. The Mexican government snookered them into being part of their Empire to turn them into Catholics. They refused to submit to such tyranny. The allegation that the settlers were in violation of Mexican laws against slavery, are totally bogus! Every red-blooded Amurican had slaves. Get over it!

FACK #4:

The Mexicans did not have the machismo to deal with the native population, so they gave grants to Real Menz to move there and drive them away. That is why the Texas Rangers are still revered in Texas to this day. Just watch the show Walker: Texas Ranger and you will learn all about it.

FACK #5:

Alaska is not the biggest state in the Union. As soon as that ice melts, you will understand that Texas is still the biggest and greatest state in this hemisphere. Oh, and a Republic, too. Tough stuff, Union lovers!

FACK #6:

Texas embraced the death penalty because some people 'just needed killing.' The rest of the country seems to think this is Europe or some other bleeding heart liberal place. Once you all grow up, you will agree with whatever Texas does.

FACK #7:

Texans do not give a damn what they rest of the nation thinks of them. And never will. Texans look down on all of you. Because you are not as special as Texas. Yes, we really believe that. Now go and hide under your beds.

FACK #8:

Texans are well aware of the fack that Obama and other wild eyed commies are always trying to steal OUR OIL. We have more than once planned to join OPEC. 'Let the bastards freeze in the dark' is what they think of those Damn Yankees who want our oil.

FACK #9:

We are the freedom-est, most liberty-ness, most grandest of all peoples. Except for little ladies who don't know their place, which is barefoot and pregnant, and other such uppity folks. In time, you will learn our ways. We are coming for you.

FACK #10:

Obama began his campaign in the same state from whence came the destroyer of our Gawd given rights to own slaves and other things granted by the Constitution. He wants to be the new Lincoln.

And he is trying to force us to accept the return of the Damn Yankee Carpetbaggers and the illegal Reconstruction on us again.

He will not win, and we will take back all the states that we gave up to join the Union under the mistaken idea that America did respect our Gawd given rights. Thus, we need our own army, loyal to the Republic of Texas. The penalty for trespassing can be death by landowners. Fear us, we are not going away.

Addendum:

This is satire. But it all whas been said for many years. So apply the

icon liberally. Just don't do that when a member of the freedom loving Open Carry brigade is looking at you. Since, well, they might just decide you 'need killing.'

Oh, and thanks for the maps. I will be sure to pass those around, so Alex Jones and the Tea Party folks will block the roads where they attempt to attack. Which means there will be a target rich environment, and we will have a grand hunting party shooting in all directions at once.

Note:

The pronouns in this post are quite jumbled up. My apologies to our resident grammar nazis. Sorta.

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