The Problem is: it’s Perfectly Legal for Them to Lie to Us.

This always surprises people: the Courts have ruled that news organizations can tell lies whenever they choose. Freedom of speech, don’tcha know. Jane Akre, an award-winning Journalist, was hired by Fox News affiliate WTVT to be, well, a journalist. You know, someone who reports news.

To Fox’s surprise, she and her team found some news. News that one of Fox’s sponsors did not like at all. So Fox ordered her to put some lies in the broadcast, to keep the sponsors happy and the money rolling in. Ms. Akre refused, on grounds of professional ethics.

Fox then fired her and her husband; they sued, and the court’s ruling, incredibly, made it clear that there was no law requiring that news organizations provide truthful content. None. Nada. Zippo. Zilch. Lies are A-OK for those upon whom we rely for accurate reporting.

That ruling, as we look back, opened the Falsehood Floodgates the rest of the way for politicians and their BFFs in the Infotainment Industry. One may still sue for libel, although it is very hard to win and takes years. One may sue over a false advertisement, but those cases are likewise hard to win and take years as well.

Meanwhile, Fox and their compadres repeat their lies so often in the interim, the lies wind up being believed to be true by a large majority of Americans. A few recent examples: Benghazi, Obama’s birth certificate, and much of the Michael Brown coverage.

This writer loves him some First Amendment, yes he does. However, there is no reason not to be able to require that news providers at least put a label on lies: call ’em “editorials”, or “speculative”, or “unproved”. It would be better to make the lies illegal, but the Roberts court ain’t gonna outlaw lies. Not with the current load of Bushbots and Reaganistas forming the majority, anyway.

So, Gentle Reader, remember that you really CAN’T trust anything you read in the papers or see on the TeeVee. You are being lied to 24/7/365 by at least some of the “news” sources you have heretofore relied upon for information. You’ll have to keep a line open to Snopes, FactCheck, Politifact, and other such sources before you can believe Thing One the newsies tell you.

Because in modern America, it’s legal for rich corporations, “news” outlets and politicians to lie to you whenever they want, about whatever they want, however they want.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Supreme Court “Republicans” are helping to Steal another Election.

Ohio’s stinking “Republican” Secretary of State John (“Yes, the kind that pays for whores”) Husted has finally hit the US Supreme Court jackpot: the five partisan Wingnuts thereon are helping “Republicans” steal yet another election:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The nation’s highest court on Monday granted an emergency plea from state officials to block a lower court’s order expanding statewide early voting days and times.

The court issued its order without an opinion or explanation, noting the court’s liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Kagan would not have granted the stay. Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy voted to grant the stay.

Ohio’s disastrous 2004 election shows the state cannot operate an election on only one day, argued attorneys for the ACLU. In papers filed in Supreme Court on Saturday, they said early voting, including Sunday “Souls to the Polls” events, have become woven into the fabric of Ohio’s democratic process.

“That election [in 2004] resulted in waiting times to vote that stretched into the day after Election Day and failed to provide meaningful access to the ballot for tens of thousands of Ohio voters,” they wrote. “Ohio thus comes to court with dirty hands.”

And the Repubs amongst the Supremes, who illegally installed an illegitimate occupant (Bush the Lesser) to the office of the Presidency, have even dirtier hands. Hands they now proudly display, filth and bloodstains plain to see.

All pretense of legitimacy is now gone, and the Roberts Court has fully revealed its true intent: the permanent takeover of our government by their ideological “soul” mates and paymasters in the GOP. Surprised? You shouldn’t be.

The Teapubbies announced their intention to do so back in the 1970’s. In the Powell Memo, they laid out their plan to seize control of the media, the economy, and the government. Click the link and read it.

The only way, and by that I mean the ONLY F***ING WAY to save this country from the tender mercies of the Rightish Inquisition is for the rest of us to VOTE in this election. Vote against every Elephant on every ballot in every race. Take back the House and keep the Senate.

That way, some actual jurists can be placed on the Supreme Court, replacing the corrupt partisan Repub motherf***ers who just f***ed tens of thousands of us out of our right to vote.

Vote, vote, vote. Take all your friends and family too. Vote while you still can.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Shop at Hobby Lobby IF you hate women and the Constitution, and want your Boss’s religion crammed down your throat.

That is pretty much what Hobby Lobby is saying. They are demanding the right to discriminate against the  American women who happen to work for them; to dictate the religion of all their employees; and to dump certain of their business expenses onto we the taxpayers.

For those readers who have not followed the case: before ObamaCare, it was easier to get insurance coverage for Viagra than for birth control. This was so obviously, stupidly unfair that the ACA said “stop that discriminatory s***”. So far, so Constitutional, you would say, and you would be right.

But the Fundagelical He-Man Woman-Haters club at Hobby Lobby got all hairy hosed off at having their “right” to f*** over the womenfolk amongst them taken away, so they claimed a ridiculous “Religious” case against the ACA and that “despicable Kenyan” Prexy who stole it from the Romneybots. That idiotic claim is up before the Supremes this week.

And the bad thing is, the Roberts court is as likely to rule on the basis of partisanship as they are the Constitution. So this bit of illegal bulls*** might be made legal by those right-wing robed barbarians. If that happens, we the people will have to render justice.

And we can do so without breaking a single law: we just stop shopping at Hobby Lobby or any other business they are involved in. Run them into the ground and on to bankruptcy.

Because if these misogynistic motherf***ers have no business, they’ll have no employees to discriminate against.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

How We Know the Fix is In (And Why We Might Win Anyway):

The Supremes are backstage, discussing and preparing for their Big Show, when they shall ponce on out in their matching outfits and belt out their next hit: “ACA, Live or Die”. However, from what we all saw at the final dress rehearsal in March, there are reasons to worry about the show (and the reviews).

All right, enough with the showbiz simile, let’s bring the blunt, focusing on three big areas of concern.

1] Justice Scalia not only hasn’t read the bill on which he is to rule, he doesn’t want to – says it’s too much work. How do you render a decision when you don’t know the facts? You make stuff up. The idea that our Supreme Court will create judicial precedent using a toolbox composed of laziness, ignorance and preconceptions does NOT help this writer to stay in his happy place.

2] Silent Clarence’s wife has made over a million bucks from companies with an interest in the outcome of the case, which means ol’ Clare himself (being married to her and all) has seen over a million bucks come in from those litigants. But he has not recused himself. Seems like a pretty blatant conflict of interest, but D.C. has become so beholden to the green and folding that no one seems to care that a sitting “justice” is in a position to make money off his rulings. That is some scary stuff, folks.

3] The question of “who is in the market” is central to the case, and it seems like a slam-dunk – EVERYBODY is in the market, even if they are healthy (just ask Ulrich the U.). I mean, DUH, everyone gets sick or injured now and again, and rarely do they know of such events in advance. Thus Congress has the power to regulate via the commerce clause. But the justices (all of whom have used health care, and should thereby know better) were acting as if there were some question about who was in the market. Can we please cut back on the crack at judicial hookah parties?

But as bleak the outcome and dire the potential for an act of judicial activism that would rival Bush V. Gore (in which the Supremes previously usurped the powers given exclusively to Congress, and said Congress rolled over and showed their pale, quivering bellies); as much as partisanship, sloth and greed do seem to indicate that the court will screw the majority of we poor citizens; there is a glimmer o’ hope.

During questioning, two justices in particular (Roberts and Kennedy) seemed to grasp the notion that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution applies because, well, it is effing obvious that it does. If even one of them rules on that logical basis, we’re in and the health care industry has to let the light shine in on its hitherto hidden financial practices. Otherwise, wellwhatthehell, might as well shut down the Legislative Branch and send them home, since the Supreme Court will have taken over the job of making law.

Next time – Damfino at the moment, but in this crazy-arsed world, there is sure to be something to blog about.

P.S.: Mr. B & C actually worked in the health care field for a fair few years, and on the financial side at that, so he speaks from experience when he doth so bloggeth.