A repository for Marcospinelli's comments and essays published at other websites.

Barack Obama Promised A New Kind Of Politics, But Played The Same Old Game

Saturday, September 1, 2012


In 2002, on the issue of abortion, Sotomayor upheld Bush's 'Global Gag Rule' (the policy of withholding funds for international groups that offer family planning information and services, including abortion).  

On the issue of discrimination, she frequently rules against plaintiffs.  For example, in 2004, she ruled against African-American corrections' officers who said they were retaliated against for filing discrimination complaints.

Sotomayor certainly doesn't look at the law through the prism of how it serves the interests of the People.

And Sotomayor was with the Scalia-Thomas-Alito faction that boycotted the SOTU - Sotomayor was in Guam, addressing a group of students and swearing in new members of the Guam Bar Association, a first for a US Supreme Court Justice (are you kidding, Sonia, missing the most public showing of US democracy and the 3 branches of government by leaving the US for a 5 day trip to Guam?).

In claims against big business, Sotomayor (herself a former corporate lawyer) wrote the dissent in a 2-1 decision that ultimately favored victims' families.  This was concerning the 1996 crash of TWA flight 800 off of LongIsland.  Sotomayor wrote, "The crash hadn't occurred in US territorial waters, therefore victims' families shouldn't have had the right to sue for extra damages."  She wrote that the judges who disagreed with her were ignoring legislative history and earlier case law," saying "their decision was a legislative policy choice which shouldn't be made by the courts".  

That's conservative talk.

We need more Earl Warrens.  What we don't need are politicians looking to avoid a fight, and want to work "in a bipartisan manner".  Republicans declared war on Democrats years and years ago, while Democrats keep trying to "make nice".  Democratic politicians have gotten fat and lazy, feathering their own nests while Republicans have made long inroads into furthering corporate interests.  

Whether Democrats are inept or corrupt, the result is the same: They have failed to protect the interests of the 99%.  And all that they're putting out this campaign season is warmed-over Republican-like policies when drastic populist steps need to be taken.

About Barack Obama 2012
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

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