His tenure on the Supreme Court spanned three decades, from 1811 to 1845. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Story was elected to the Hall of Fame. His views on the Constitution of the United States are still widely respected.
On November 18, 1811, President James Madison nominated Story to the Supreme Court of the United States. The Senate confirmed the appointment on February 3, 1812. At the age of thirty-two, Story was the youngest person ever appointed to the Supreme Court. While on the Supreme Court, Story served as a delegate to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1820 and was a Professor of Law at Harvard, where he wrote a series of nine commentaries on the law, each of which was published in several editions. Story served on the Supreme Court for thirty-three years. He died on September 10, 1845, at the age of sixty-five.
This quote from him caught my attention:
“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people in order to betray them.”
- Joseph Story – Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 2d ed. (1851), vol. 2, chapter
Is that not a very near perfect summation of where America is today? The wise ARE mocked, and the honest are called “extremists”. Many of our citizens are blithely ignorant of our Constitution, our founders, our founding principles, and of our history. And some of the worst cases of ignorance occur in well-educated Americans. This is, I believe, because our education system is about idoctrination, not education.
If this were Jeopardy, you would ring in and answer with the question. In this case Lonely Conservative asks the right question. Why is Bob Menendez still a US Senator?
Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is no stranger to scandal, but the latest allegations against him would have meant the end of his political career if he had an R next to his name rather than a D. Not only is he under an ethics investigation for accepting the gift of chartered flights to the Dominican Republic, there are also charges that the chairman of the foreign relations committee was having sex with underage prostitutes while in that foreign country. So, why is he still a senator? Because, he’s a Democrat from New Jersey.
The sad truth is this. Powerful politicians from both parties do bad things. Politicians from both parties get caught. But, it seems, for the most part, only Republicans have the decency to resign. This is true in part because the media makes far more of Republican scandals than Democrat scandals. It is also true that Republicans have more of a sense of what is right, even when they do wrong. And, sadly, it is true because Democrats care about power more than morality, or decency. And yes, that applies to Democratic voters as well, except that rather than placing power over morals, Democratic voters place their own sense of entitlement, as in entitled to some of everyone else’s money, above morals.
This brings me to another answer, to a question I have asked quite a bit. Given the lack of character, the lack of respect for the Constitution, and the lack of interest in the will of the people most Democrats openly display, why would anyone be a Democrat? The answer? Because they know Democrats will keep the handouts coming. And if that offends you as a Democrat, do not blame me. The truth hurts, so, instead of attacking me go take a long look in the mirror.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Why is John McCain so angry? Forty years after the Vietnam POWs came home, the most famous of them is angrier than ever. Why is America, why are we fighting the Vietnam war all over again in the United States Senate? The ticked off vitriol against Chuck Hagel, what is it about is? Is it for show? Is it about something Hagel said in the cloakroom? Is it about the basic unfairness of Vietnam itself that some went and some didn’t? Is it about Lyndon Johnson’s inability to either win that war or end it? What is it that burns so deeply in John McCain these days? It seems to excite those who knew nothing of Vietnam, but for hard reasons want to replay it again and again in Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya and Syria and, yes, eventually in Iran. Well, tonight, we dig into the deep well of resentment burning in John McCain’s patriotic heart.
A resentment not against the North Vietnamese who imprisoned and toured him all those years, not against George W. Bush and his political henchmen who tried to stain McCain’s reputation back in 2000, but against a guy who fought against fear and rallied against wounds just like he did in the same army of America’s long nightmare in Vietnam, Chuck Hagel. A nightmare by the way whose flashbacks must haunt still the mind and heart of John Sidney McCain. I’m joined by David Corn of Mother Jones and Joy Reid of the Grio. Both are MSNBC analysts. Both of you, sir and lady, are younger than me but I’m absolutely convinced we’re watching a flashback. Watch this. Here is Senator John McCain. Did he a long, angry windup before he launched into his first so-called question. It was really an indictment for a former Senate colleague and former friend and fellow Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel. It included putdowns as well as references to Vietnam.
Senator McCain is not my favorite Republican, and I have been critical at times of his politics, but frankly, Matthews comments are deplorable. What the Hell has loud mouthed Matthews who looks like Newt’s retarded little brother ever done? Seriously what? I mean besides being a loud-mouthed fool who sounds like he is either drunk, or habitually stupid, or both. John McCain sacrificed for this nation while fighting Communists. Matthews, today, serves as nothing more than a useful idiot for modern-day Leftism. What an absolutely despicable excuse for a man Chris Matthews is.
Obama’s oration dealt to a large degree with how he came to understand what a U.S. senator is. “Now, even though my mother and grandparents took great pride that they had voted for him,” said Barack Obama of Inouye, “I confess that I wasn’t paying much attention to the United States Senate at the age of four or five or six. It wasn’t until I was 11 years old that I recall even learning what a U.S. senator was, or it registering, at least. It was during my summer vacation with my family — my first trip to what those of us in Hawaii call the Mainland.”
The story of the trip set up the punch line. He told Inouye’s mourners that “my mother that summer would turn on the TV every night during this vacation and watch the Watergate hearings,” and he was forced to watch, too. Of course, the senator who “fascinated” him most was “this man of Japanese descent with one arm, speaking in this courtly baritone, full of dignity and grace.”
This story would work only if Obama had toured the United States during the summer of the Watergate hearings, 1973, when he was eleven years old going on twelve, but in his memoir Dreams from My Father, he tells another story — a much more specific one. Yes, he made the same trip, but he did so “during the summer after my father’s visit to Hawaii, before my eleventh birthday.” This would have been 1972, when Watergate was still a third-rate burglary that had gotten little media traction.
In Dreams, Obama mentioned a Kansas City stop along the way, and Madelyn’s youngest brother in suburban KC would later provide photographic evidence of the same. He confirmed the year as 1972. This disparity did not stop Obama from relating in Dreams how in that elusive summer he “watched the Watergate hearings every night before going to bed.” There was no mention of Senator Inouye. He was apparently trying to make some other point.
Wow, just wow. THIS is what we reelected? A narcissist liar?
Dominican hookers, to be specific. This is what we’re hearing about the sex scandal involving a “powerful senator” in a sex scandal being touted by Drudge, with a story by the Daily Caller promised late tonight.
Domincan hookers you say? Maybe they are just doing the Horizontal Bop with a man who American hookers just will not do?
Well, do not expect this to get much attention from the media types, unless it is a headline that reads something like Humanitarian Bob Menendez reaches out to help underprivileged Dominicans.
In interviews, the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000 acre resort in the Dominican Republic. They claimed Menendez agreed to pay them $500 for sex acts, but in the end they each received only $100.
The women spoke through a translator in the company of their attorney, Melanio Figueroa. Both asked that their identities remain obscured for fear of reprisals in the Dominican Republic.
When shown a photograph of Sen. Menendez, the women said they recognized him as the man with whom they’d had sexual relations at Casa de Campo this spring. Both said they were brought to the resort with the understanding they would be paid for sex.
Neither knew the identity of the man at the time. Both claimed to recognize him later as Sen. Menendez.
“He called him[self] ‘Bob,’” said one.
Who knows if these allegations are true, if they are, well, men paying for sex is not too uncommon and Menendez is single, divorced, so it is not like he is cheating, but still, this is not the way a United States Senator ought to conduct himself., especially on a trip funded by our tax dollars. Stacy McCain asks a pertinent question, one that hits on the accusation that Menendez cheated these women out of money.
Remember this the next time a Democrat says they care about workers! Via Milton Wolf
At the end of the clip, she claims she was being sarcastic. Look, I am a sarcastic guy, and that was not sarcasm, that was a Leftist showing how much Marxist Kool-Aid she has consumed.
He is staying fast, staying in the race. Great interview by Dana via Donald Douglas
Akin, 65, portrayed himself as a man of principle, unwilling to give up his fight just because of comments that he portrayed as a minor misstep. “One word, one sentence, [on] one day out of place and all of a sudden the entire establishment turns on you,” Akin told Loesch, whose syndicated show is broadcast from KFTK-FM in St. Louis.
Here is the interview
Well, the stakes are pretty high, I hope he wins, but if he doesn’t it could really hurt the GOP nationally. But, if he does win, it might help end the current climate where one stupid statement or clumsily worded answer can kill a campaign.
Oh what to do about Missouri GOP Senatorial candidate, and current Representative Todd Akin and his gaffetastic statement about women, rape and abortion. First here is the comments that has him in hot water
Some Conservatives are saying that Akin ought to depart his race to unseat Claire McCaskill. Michelle Malkin, for example
The question for Republicans in Missouri is whether sticking by self-inflicted-wounded Akin is more important than securing a U.S. Senate majority.
Michelle’s basic point is this. Retaking the Senate is more important than sticking by Akin. There is a lot of merit to that. William Teach, however, has a differing view
You have many Republicans calling for him to give it up. Sean Hannity sounded like he wanted Akin to abandon his campaign earlier on the radio. Republicans and Crossroads GPS have apparently pulled out. National Review has called on Akin to step aside. So does Scott Brown. And John Cornyn. Many Republicans and Conservatives have gone all squishy as they so often due in the face of adversity.
Fortunately, some are standing up for Akin, such as social conservatives (of which I’ve been critical in the past). This is what we should all be doing. To be impolite and risk alienation, Republicans need to grow a spine. Akin is up 11 over McCaskill. Go on the offensive, bring up her Obamacare and Stimulus votes (among others), and highlight her “forgetting” to pay her taxes while demonizing “rich” people. For f*ck’s sake, you have a president who is quick to insult American citizens, especially Conservatives, and often in a nasty way. He called Americans lazy and soft. He said Americans “aren’t thinking clearly.” I could go on and on and on. Who will you replace Akin with? Bueller? Bueller? You replace him now and it is a guaranteed loss.
Buck up and stand up.
PS: Akin has a lifetime rating with the American Conservative Union of 97.24. He’s been helpful way more than hurtful. Maybe this is the kind of Conservative we need.
I love the sentiment Teach expresses here. The fact is we, Republicans, DO throw up our hands too quickly, and we DO, lose our heads over gaffes Republican candidates make. there is, I fear, a culture of accepting lower standards in the GOP, especially amongst the establishment types. I, like Teach, am pretty damned tired of that. Of course, to be fair, so is Malkin.
Akin is a pro-life candidate thus leans towards life when discussion abortion. It’s not shocking knowledge to Missourians who selected him as the GOP nominee for senate and lean towards him in the latest polling. Democrats want to make social issues the focus on the campaign as opposed to the economy, where they’re losing, and Akin’s interview gave them them the momentary opportunity they needed to shift attention away from the lagging economy.
it’s clear that Akin has become a national liability, in part because his apology was round-about, in part because Republicans are not forgiven as easily as Democrats (remember how the press and Democrats reacted to allegations of rape made against Bill Clinton), and in part because Republicans who control the money and political leadership have been left with no choice but to do everything withing their power to distance themselves.
So, what to do? I lean, at least my heart does, more towards siding with William Teach here. Akin does possess that solid record, he does have that significant lead, and Claire McCaskill is an incredibly weak candidate, with a record that voters will want to boot out. So, yes, go on the offensive, focus on her record, and Akin’s. But, here is the seminal point. If he is going to be thrown overboard, and certainly PLENTY of Conservatives are throwing him overboard, then he really has zero chance. So, maybe, in this case it is best he take his leave.
Stacy McCain weighs in and places much of the blame for this mess on the GOP establishment
This horrible botch can be blamed squarely on the Missouri GOP Establishment, which lined up behind Akin against Tea Party-backed — and Sarah Palin-endorsed – candidate Sarah Steelman in the primary two weeks ago.
Mike Rathbone at Hot Air: “Hey, I Voted for Steelman.” More than 60 percent of Missouri GOP primary voters voted for either Steelman or businessman John Brunner.
UPDATE II: National Review is calling for Akin to “step aside” and the terrible thing, from a Republican standpoint, is how unnecessary this disaster was. It was an unforced error in an easily winnable race against an unpopular Democrat incumbent, and it was caused by the predictably timid Republican impulse to back the “safe” candidate who, as in so many previous instances, proved to be not really safe after all.
Damn.
I can tolerate a lot of things in politics, but I despise incompetence.
All I can do is sigh. McCain is right about that. Stacy also points out something I thought when I watched video of Akin’s statement. Why the Hell didn’t he take the right route in answering?
Whenever supporters of abortion start throwing up arguments based on exceptions, the proper response is to point out that well over 90 percent of abortions have nothing whatsoever to do with such exceptions, but are strictly a matter of choice: post-conception birth control. And the pre-Roe history demonstrated that permitting abortion under specific exceptions resulted in those exceptions being abused. The rape exception resulted in false accusations of rape, and the “health” exception resulted in doctors fictionalizing health risks, including false determinations of mental health risks.
If we can ever come to a consensus as a society that abortion is a homicidal act that ought to be against the law, then we might start having a productive conversation about ending it. However, so long as we have “respectable” people who advocate abortion as a good thing — indeed, as a pseudo-sacred constitutional “right” — no meaningful discussion is possible.
The “respectable” people who advocate abortion are paid for their advocacy, and have an articulate elite to echo their viewpoint, while those who speak on behalf of the sanctity of life — well, we’ve got dumbass Republicans like Todd Akin, you see.
Just another quick thought, if Akin does step aside, and I think he will, who would run in his place? Would that candidate have a legitimate shot to win? The election is just over two months away.
I like David Dewhurst, although some of his campaign tactics have turned me off. Overall he is a good man, and would likely make a very good Senator. However, Ted Cruz will make a better Senator in my view, so he will get my vote against Dewhurst next month. And, yes, of course, I will fully and actively support either candidate for that Senate seat! Here is a good video from Roderic Deane
A proposal that rich Americans and corporations bear the brunt of paying off much of the federal deficit is catching fire as liberals and progressives are urging President Obama not to give in to GOP demands that no taxes be considered in the talks to boost the deficit ceiling. [Read the U.S. News debate: Should Congress raise the debt limit?]
A letter to Obama posted on Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ Web site already has 4,500 signatures and that is expected to surge after he addresses the issue in a late afternoon Senate floor speech today.
“Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share,” the Vermont Independent urges.
“At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Streetfinancial institutions. A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending.”
Republicans have rejected new taxes as part of an agreement to trim the deficit and offset the $2.4 trillion boost in the national debt ceiling.
The whole letter is at the link, read it if you have the time, and a desire to pull your hair out in clumps.
Steve and Lance are Packer fans, Cheese Heads, you know good guys with questionable taste in football teams, and head gear. But, as much as I like these two, I am not looking forward to their big heads the next two weeks. And, as bad as their boasting will be, can you imagine how bad they will be after the Steelers punk the Packers? Maybe Lance and Steve could buy a Troy Polamalu wig and wear them? Hmmmm, here is a picture or two for the Burri boys to ponder, and, I guess a bit of Rule 5 for the ladies
Race baiting is big business in America, and for the Left, business has been good for years now. Donald Douglas has the latest example of race baiting to win a political fight. In this case it is over illegal immigration. And, as usual, the Left accuses their opponents of activities they themselves practice!
Which clip will the MFM show? The one on top, where Professor Kent Wong, Director of UCLA’s Center for Labor Research and Education, lauds immigrant students for working hard toward their dream of education and opportunity in America, or the one at bottom, where he excoriates the racist “old white men” in the U.S. Senate, to wild cheers from the crowd. And note at the second clip all this talk about “displacing millions of Americans … in their jobs, seats in college, and elections.” That’s a classic summary statement on the neo-communist left’s reconquista revolutionary agenda:
“We will win the dream act soon — very soon,” he exclaimed. “When that day comes, we will celebrate with millions and millions of people of people across this country who are standing with you tonight. Who stand for justice, who stand for democracy and equal opportunities for all.”
“When that day happens, the young people of the DREAM Act movement, will go on to accomplish and do great things with your lives,” he said. “You will go on to become lawyers, teachers, doctors and members of the US congress to replace those old white men… You are the hope and future of this country. You are hope and future of your generation.”
If Dream Act Amnesty passes, millions of Americans will be DISPLACED and REPLACED in their jobs, seats in college, and elections.
Here are the two videos Douglas referenced, I got sick watching this prick, doing his damnedest to sell out American sovereignty. First we see, and hear the playing of the Race Card
Now listen to who the REAL racists are!
Do these fools ever seriously consider that perhaps they should try to take the example of America and try to change THEIR NATIONS? Instead they break in to our nation, and demand hand outs? If they wish to come here LEGALLY, then God bless them! But I am fed up with these miscreants who want to tear down American sovereignty.
Given our politicians addiction to pork, it just might work. They can stop legislating and start BBQing, think of the money they would NOT be spending, except on wood, spices, sauces, and meats of course. And they could sell their BBQ and raise oodles of money to support revenues. And, to boot, the American people would have plenty of money to buy the BBQ. I mean, since Congress would be BBQing instead of spending our money before we could even make it.
Yesterday the Senate voted 83-15 on cloture for the Obama-McConnell-Boehner Tax-Pork Bill. The GOP Leadership got snookered once again, apparently telling Obama in the meeting which led to this folly: ‘Please sir, may I have another’. Barry and his Socialist pals were happy to oblige and they gave it good and hard.
Stacy McCain:
How did they get 80+ votes for cloture? Pork. This bill contains more pork than a Carolina barbecue shack….
So high is the pork content of this monstrosity that the Democrats who vote for it are all in Walter Reed Hospital this morning having their arteries cleaned out.
Five Republicans voted against it, including Jim DeMint, the man who I am now convinced, more than ever, should be leading the GOP in the Senate. Granny Mitch should be sent to the Dog Track along with Crying John ‘Boner’ Boehner [who can bring his Kleenex along].
Of course, if Michelle Obama finds out about the whole BBQ idea, well……….
Funny thing about that clip, the First Lady says that kids spend so much time in school, that the government should at least make sure the kids are eating right. So, perhaps the kids are simply spending too much time in school? We could shorten their days, skip lunches altogether, and save tremendous amounts of money. Of course, then schools would have to focus on teaching, rather than indoctrinating. The teachers union would freak out too. Of course, if the teachers union hates the idea, then you know it would benefit the kids. Since we all know the teachers union are all about themselves and not about educating children.
You gotta love Bob Belvedere!In a blogging kind of way of course!
DATELINE ALASKA: Sources close to Robert ‘Bob’ Belvedere’s pants are reporting that a desperate Senator Lisa Murkowski has enlisted the help of the evil Mr. Freeze, notorious nemesis of Batman, to help her in her quest to survive as a U.S. Senator from Alaska.
A campaign worker for the embattled Republican, who wishes to remain anonymous as Hell and therefore hid behind a beaver mask in an igloo, told Mr. Belvedere’s pants that: Things are getting pretty desperate up here. That lawyer sent from the national GOP wasn’t very much help because he told the senior staff that Ms. Murkowski has a ‘snowball’s chance in Hell’ to win the nomination fair and square. That’s not what they wanted to hear at all…oh, no, no, no. So the Senator herself called her old friend Mr. Freeze [they had briefly dated many years ago and remained friends, as I understand it].
darcprynce
Dave C
Gatordoug
