Lyle Denniston: Did The Founders Want Term Limits For Supreme Court Justices?

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Erik Schneider
Mike Huckabee, Former Governor of Arkansas

Mike Huckabee, Former Governor of Arkansas

Source:Constitution Daily

Damn! I found something that I agree with Mike Huckabee on. And perhaps tomorrow I’ll find something that I agree with Michael Moore on, but don’t hold your breath. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but a U.S. Justice in many ways is just as powerful as a U.S. Senator on a lot of things. U.S. Justice’s whether they are supposed to or not, can literally rewrite laws and say this is constitutional and that is not. They did that with the Affordable Care Act in 2012, to use as an example. They can also throw laws out and say this is good and this is bad. And not just to Congress and the President, but state and local laws as well.

U.S. Justice’s have a lot of power and responsibility and yet they’re the only federal officials that have guaranteed job security for the rest of their lives. Just as long as they don’t officially break the law and get impeached and convicted by Congress. And yet they have no one to report to that holds them accountable. They have all of that power and no one to say, you’re doing a good or bad job and they should continue to work, or its time for them to step down and put a fresh face on the court. Here’s an old saying, but it is as true today as it was when it was said the first time. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Why should U.S. Justices’s get lifetime job security? Why should they have something that no one else in the country has, unless you live in a state where state and local judges are lifetime appointees as well? I’m not calling for turning the U.S. Supreme Court into a political branch and having Justice’s running for election and reelection. I think that would be very dangerous and turning the court into another political body and perhaps debating society. Where a lot of very important issues wouldn’t get decided, because Justices’s don’t want to make tough political calls one way or another. And besides we already see that anyway where Justice’s tend to make calls that are already supported by their political party.

I’m also not saying that U.S. Justices’s should only be able to serve a certain amount of years and terms. Because again if They are qualified to serve and the President still wants them there, the President should be allowed to reappoint that Justice. And I just lead into what I would do. Give each Justice lets say six-year terms. And then the President would have to decide to reappoint that Justice or replace that person with someone else. And the same thing for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Make Justices like everyone else, work hard and be productive and even fight for their jobs. To get them to give the best service and judgment that they possibly can.

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BBC: David Frost Interview With Muhammad Ali (1974)

Posted on March 30, 2015 by kireschneider

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Source:BBC– interviewing The Greatest of All-Time in 1974.

“Sir David Frost interviews legendary boxing champion and former World Heavyweight title holder, Muhammad Ali. During the interview Frost presses Ali on a number of topics, particularly his forthcoming title fight with opponent George Foreman who Ali says has two chances of winning – ‘slim and none’. As the interview progresses Ali talks about his religious faith, his thoughts on the civil rights movement and integration before ending with a characteristically poetic view on how he would like to be remembered.”

From Gemma Wood

Was Muhammad Ali a great boxer? Was he a great champion? Was he a great entertainer? What he a great comedian? Was he a great poet? Was he a great civil rights spokesperson? Well, the answer to all of these questions, except for maybe poet is yes. He was all of these things and did all of these things very well. Perhaps The Greatest of All-Time doing all of these things.

That is how quick and intelligent Muhammad was. No one has known them self better and the people around him better than Muhammad Ali. And really the only mistake he’s ever made in life was fighting too long. Which of course has cost him the rest of his life. And he has to live with Parkinson’s.

But here’s a guy who dominated the media from a news, entertainment and sports perspective, as well as the heavyweight boxing division for about 15-20 years. He only time he didn’t dominate these fields was when he lost his boxing license because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. But he was the best, The Greatest of All-Time for a very long time. We never saw anyone as good pre-Muhammad Ali and haven’t seen a boxer and entertainer as good since. Muhammad Ali, is truly an American original.

Posted in Greatest of All Time, Originals | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Real Time With Bill Maher: Interviewing Mike Huckabee

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Derik Schneider

Attachment-1-543

Source:Real Time With Bill Maher– interviewing Governor Mike Huckabee (Republican, Arkansas)

“Bill speaks with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee about his political aspirations and his new book, “God, Guns, Grits and Gravy.”

From Real Time With Bill Maher

Is it just me, or does Mike Huckabee sound like he’s moderating? One of the advantages of living in such a huge vast diverse developed liberal democracy like America, is that we have all types of people, cultures and lifestyles. That we are all free to be ourselves. But we can’t force our lifestyle and way of life on to other people. And I think that is what Governor Huckabee was essentially saying, at least when it came to language and how we communicate with people.

If your way of life is going to church seven days a week and never doing anything without praying to Jesus first, dad works hard, mom stays at home and raise the kids, the only music you listen to is country or gospel, the only channel you get to watch is Fox News or CMT, great. If you want to party like it’s still 1955 (except for the creation of Fox News) be my guess. Just as long as you don’t kidnap anyone from outside of your world and force your lifestyle on them. Or try to get big government to do that for you.

Americans can live in modern America, which is really everywhere outside of the Bible Belt. And yes, the Bible Belt covers a lot of land in America. Just not that many people. You got to go where the people are. Which is how Democrats win presidential elections with only winning half of the states or less, because they win most if not all the big states.

Or you can live in modern diverse America, where you may see five people at once who don’t look like you. And perhaps practice five different religions, or don’t practice at all. But one thing that makes us great is our diversity and freedom. We can all live our own lives, without big government forcing one lifestyle or another on the whole country.

Posted in Originals, Real Time | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

CBS News: Face The Nation- Fidel Castro (1959)

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Derik Schneider
Face The Nation

Source:CBS News– Cuban Communist leader Fidel Castro, on CBS News Face The Nation, in 1959.

“Shortly after leading rebel forces in overthrowing Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro appeared on the Jan. 11, 1959 edition of Face the Nation.”

From CBS News

This was just after the Castro Communists had taken power in Cuba in 1958, from the authoritarian Batista Regime there, after winning the Cuban Civil War. Cuba replaces one authoritarian regime from Fulgencio Batista and creates a new one with Fidel Castro.

I saw a documentary about Che Guevara last week and it featured a lot of Fidel in the same film. For obvious reasons and they essentially said Fidel wasn’t sure exactly what type of government he would replace the Batista Regime with. That he became a Marxist Communist, leftist dictatorial authoritarian after he came to power as President of the New Communist Republic of Cuba.

But Fidel was never a Democrat Socialist or otherwise. He’s always believed in socialism and what it can do for people. But never believed in governing the country through democratic means. With allowing any time of real opposition, or decentralizing power to anyone else outside of his regime in Cuba.

Posted in Classic News, Originals | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

CNN: World News Special- Pelican Bay State Prison

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Ederik Schneider
CNN - Susan Rook

Source:CNN– Former CNN anchor Susan Rook, probably back in the 1990s.

You can also see this post at FreeState Now, on Blogger.

You can also see this post at Real Life Journal, on WordPress.

“Liberal News Commentator interviewing David Tristan, Director of the California Department of Corrections.”

From Bat Man

First of all, just to speak of Susan Rook at CNN: I miss her, I wish she would come back. She’s so freakin cute and sweet and makes hard news worth listening to and watching just with her beautiful, baby-face and sweet voice. She still looks great today from the few shots I’ve seen of her online. And works as a photographer and as an agent. She’s still pretty active, just not as a news anchor.

Now as far as Pelican Bay, maybe I should be careful how I put this, but if there’s such a thing as a human zoo it would be called Pelican Bay. Or the Colorado State Maximum Security Prison. Except that animals at zoos are able to move around in their yard and are probably outside most of the day. And can eat as much as they can handle and get plenty of exercise. As well as both human and animal contact. You get almost none of that if you’re an inmate at Pelican Bay.

I’m sure most if not all the inmates at Pelican Bay are quite frankly hard-core assholes who deserve to be at a maximum security prison. But there’s a right way to do that and the wrong way. The wrong way treats these people as if they’re wild animals like grizzly bears or tigers or something. And when you treat people like that, that is how they’re going to behave. But if you punish bad behavior while at the same time giving people incentive to improve, that is what will happen in most cases. The whole carrot and stick approach.

Posted in CNN, Originals | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Politics & Prose: John Dean- The Nixon Defense

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Rik Schneider
John Dean

Source:Politics and Prose– Former White House Counsel to President Richard Nixon, John Dean speaking at Politics and Prose in Washington.

“What did the president know, and when did he know it? That was the iconic question of the Watergate scandal and Dean, who served as Nixon’s legal counsel, argues that it remains to be answered. Using his own transcripts of conversations with Nixon and his circle as well as drawing on archived documents, Dean resolves the outstanding mysteries surrounding the break-in and cover-up. (Penguin Press)”

From Politics and Prose

Not being there or even being alive in 1972, I would say that President Richard Nixon was involved in the Watergate burglary coverup the day he found out about it. The President is on tape like the day after they find out about in June, 1972 as telling his Chief of Staff to direct the FBI not to go into this Watergate business any further, period. I first heard about that in the early 1990s when I was in high school. President Nixon didn’t have someone on his team in the White House to say, “with all due respect sir, this is very important story and case. We can’t cover it up. It would be bad for American justice and bad for this administration.” Perhaps being a big more diplomatic, but he didn’t have someone to tell him no. And this is what should be done instead.

What President Nixon essentially had was a team of loyalists. A team of yes men who believed in him so much, or at the very least believed in how far they could go with him. They weren’t there to say this is what should be done here and there and give their advice. But to find out what the President wanted to do and go about accomplishing those things the best way that they can. President Nixon didn’t have a good team in his White House at least when it came to people who knew what was right and wrong and what should be done. Other than maybe Al Haig who was his second and final Chief of Staff who told him when it was time to step down and resign.

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The Intelligent Channel: Alex Cherian: Jayne Mansfield on Visiting U.S. Troops in Vietnam (1967)

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Erik Schneider

Jayne Mansfield

Source:Intelligent Channel– Hollywood Babydoll Jayne Mansfield, talking about her trip to Vietnam, in 1967.

“Archivist Alex Cherian presents a highly emotional 1967 film clip of actress Jayne Mansfield returning home from a goodwill tour of U.S. troops in South Vietnam. Clip is copyright Young Broadcasting of San Francisco, Inc. Special thanks to Pat Patton and KRON-TV for helping make this material publicly accessible. For more info, visit the San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive at:SFSU.

Background: Actress, singer, model, and accomplished musician Jayne Mansfield, 1933-1967, was one of the iconic American entertainers of the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in numerous films with co-stars such as Cary Grant – winning a Golden Globe and other awards along the way – television programs including “What’s My Line?”, “The Jack Benny Program,” “The Bob Hope Show” and “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and dominating many print publications of the time. See also:Jayne Mansfield.”

From the Intelligent Channel

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on Blogger.

It’s great to see the human sides of great Hollywood celebrities and entertainers that Jayne Mansfield was (even if it was for just a brief period) because thanks to their handlers and themselves we generally only see them at their best. Meaning their strongest, that is when they are sober and not in trouble, but living well and staying out of trouble. But they are humans just as well who aren’t always at their strongest. And visiting troops in a military hospital during a war could break anyone down. And leave them with memories that they’ll never forget because of the injures that they’ve seen at the hospital.

Jayne Mansfield talking about an American troop who was twenty-five and I guess about to lose his leg if he hadn’t already lost it. That troop wasn’t the only twenty-five year old soldier who lost a leg in the Vietnam War. And I imagine this soldier survived this war. Unlike a hundred-thousand or so American troops who didn’t in that war.

You can be against the war, but still support your troops. People who didn’t choose to go over there in many cases. Who were drafted, but ended up surviving the experience in good shape physically. Or coming away with serious injuries, or simply not making it out Vietnam alive.

I don’t know how Jayne thought about the Vietnam War, or if she thought anything about it to be honest with you. She wasn’t known as a Hollywood political activist (to put it mildly) unlike Jayne Fonda who is perhaps the most famous Hollywood political activist of all-time. But to see her go over there and support all of those young American men and women who in many cases weren’t there by choice, because they were drafted into the military, is pretty impressive. This is something that she didn’t have to do. Nor did Raquel Welch when she went over in the late 60s as well to entertain them. And she deserves a lot of credit for that.

Posted in Baby Jayne, Hollywood Goddess, Originals | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Allan Gregg: ‘Tom Hayden on His Life as a Political Activist’

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Derik Schneider

Tom Hayden

Source:Allen Gregg– New-Left political activist Tom Hayden, talking to Canadian talk show host Allen Gregg.

“Tom Hayden on His Life as a Political Activist.” Originally from Allen Gregg, but the video has since been deleted or blocked on YouTube.

I was hoping this interview would be about if not mostly about if not the whole thing being about the 1960s: the New Left, anti-war movement, the Vietnam War and everything else from that period. Especially since Allan Gregg was interviewing Tom Hayden. One of the key leaders of Students For a Democratic Society and the New-Left in this period. Before Occupy Wall Street was literally born, but the late 1960s version of OWS. But at least half of this interview is about the current Iraq War and 2008 in general. Especially since this interview was done in 2008.

Being that as it may, what Iraq and Vietnam have in common is they are both wars by choices. At least from America’s point of view of getting involved in something that at the very least could be argued had no business being involved in, in the first place. And for what, to build a liberal democratic utopia in a country that doesn’t have any type of democracy up until new pre-2003. And this liberal democratic utopia was supposed to be put together by Neoconservatives in the Bush Administration (of all people) which isn’t that different from what Neoconservatives wanted to do in Vietnam in the 1960s.

The anti-war New Left of the 1960s, were middle-age, yuppy, Baby Boomers by 2002-03 when the drive for the 2003 invasion of Iraq was put together. When Congress gives President Bush the authority to go into Iraq.

Most of the New Left of the 1960s grew up and moderated and became spouses and parents and working good middle class jobs and even starting their own private businesses. They became capitalists and private enterprisers in the 1980s and 90s and so on. Which was one thing they were trying to get rid of in the 1960s and 70s. People tend to moderate with experience and knowledge.

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Later With Bob Costas: ‘Camille Paglia Trashes Gloria Steinem Wing of Feminism (1992)’

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Ederik Schneider
Camilla Paglia

Source:Culture On The Offensive– Author and columnist Camilla Paglia, talking to NBC’s Bob Costas in 1992.

“Camille Paglia talks Gloria Steinem feminism vs 1920-30s Feminism, on Later with Bob Costas.”

Source:Chandra Sekhar

Good thing that Camille Paglia was never a U.S. Senator, because they would never be able to shut her up. They would never be able to go home, Congress would always be in session, because the Senate was always in session. The House would be on vacation, with the Senate always open for business. Well, always open to listen to Camille Paglia, if they hear very fast.

Congress would have to create a new police force of Sergeant of Arms who would simply be there to shut Camille Paglia up and get her to yield the floor to some poor freshman senator, whose been waiting for months to finally be able to speak on the floor. Because Senator Paglia has been speaking the whole time.

But having said all of that, I probably agree with just about Camille Paglia says about radical Feminists. People who I call man-hating dykes who essentially hate straight men and male masculinity. And are always putting down straight men, especially Caucasian men and especially Anglo-Saxon Caucasian men with southern or rural backgrounds.

It’s not feminism or Feminists who are the problem. What they believe in is very mainstream. Which is equal rights and treatment for women under law. That men and women should be treated equally under law and not given special treatment either way for simply being a man or woman. Which all Americans believe in. Well, everyone to the Left of Mike Huckabee or Rick Santorum, but not has Far-Left as radical Feminists who see women as better than men.

As far as Anita Hill, I’m one of the last people who would ever be a fan of U.S. Justice Clarence Thomas. Never heard of the man before President Bush appointed him to the Supreme Court in the summer of 1991. Shouldn’t be surprising since I was only 15 at that point.

But even back then it seemed somewhat surprising to me that Anita Hill would finally make public her allegations once the Thomas Senate confirmations hearings finally started in I believe October of 1991. Maybe Professor Hill thought she should’ve been the one appointed to the Supreme Court in 1991, instead of her former boss Clarence Thomas.

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Frost/Nixon Interviews: The Second Term

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Rik Schneider

As far as messing around with other people’s elections, that is something that the United States shouldn’t be involved with. If that kind of thing happened here and you could make a strong case that it did in 1996 with President Bill Clinton’s reelection from the People’s Republic of China, we would be freaking out in America over that and did. Congress actually investigated that election both in the House and Senate in 1997. Let other countries elect their own people and then make the best of it as far as how you relate with them. In defending your own interests and standing up for human rights in other countries. That is how you build up credibility with other countries and their people.

As far as Vice President Spiro Agnew, it always brings a big smile to my face every time I hear that. And not because a fellow Marylander made it to the Vice Presidency of the United States. But how would someone of a Spiro Agnew’s limited experience in and out of government makes it that far in this country. One thing you can say about the Richard Nixon White House and before that their political campaigns that ran Dick Nixon’s 1968 and 72 presidential campaigns, is that they didn’t do their homework on their own people. Spiro was already suspected of being corrupt when he was Governor of Maryland in the mid and late 1960s. You can see why President Nixon didn’t give his Vice President a lot of work and didn’t keep him very busy. Because he wasn’t very impressed with him and didn’t see him as much of an asset.

President Nixon was investigated for more than just Watergate in Congress, when the House of Representatives looked into his financial affairs as President in 1974. They reported that the President owed taxes to the IRS that he by law of course was obligated to pay back. But a lot of people owe back taxes that they haven’t paid back. And in most cases they’ve put that off because they can’t afford those taxes because they’ve run up debt. And are looking to put their tax payments off. I’m sure President Nixon had the money to pay his taxes assuming that the only income he earned while as President was his presidential salary. So I don’t know why he had back taxes to begin with.
Frost/Nixon

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