Potential presidential contenders Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee will all make appearances in Iowa this month, throwing more speculative fuel on the already fiery debate over the Republican party’s pick for the 2012 election.
Their visits are also turning the state into a culture war battle ground, and Huckabee launched a fresh attack this weekend by celebrating the national “significance” of Iowa’s decision to oust three state Supreme Court justices who approved same-sex marriage.
“The significance and historic nature of the judicial elections here in Iowa were far bigger than the borders of Iowa,” said Huckabee in a speech at an evangelical gathering Sunday. “It was a very important statement that voters made, a statement that resonated across the country and one that I think will give legs to a larger movement over the next few years.”
The Iowa justice recalls were a rallying cry for social conservatives this overwhelmingly money-minded election year, and Huckabee made sure to stay on top of the waning tide: he stoked the flames in June by refusing popular Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ calls for a “truce” on social issues.
“The issue of life and traditional marriage are not bargaining chips nor are they political issues. They are moral issues,” Huckabee insisted at the time. Though certainly heartfelt, Huckabee’s latest outburst also reveals insight into his 2012 strategy.
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Stephen West, aged 48, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday November 9th 2010 in the US state of Tennessee.? The United States Supreme Court has refused to review his case despite new evidence being available which clearly shows that Stephen is not guilty of the crime for which he is to be put to death.?? Please support his request for clemency by signing this petition and also by writing to :-
Governor Phil Bredesen
Governor's Office
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243-0001
Phone:?????????????615.741.2001??????
Fax: 615.532.9711
Email: Phil.Bredesen@tn.gov
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If Sabbar Kashur were Jewish, he would not have been convicted of rape.
But while Kashur is many things, he is not Jewish. He’s an Arab living in Jerusalem — a married man and father of two. He is a man who met a Jewish woman at the grocery store two years ago, spoke with her for 15 minutes, and engaged in what both parties agree was consensual sex in a nearby building. He’s since been convicted in an Israeli court — for, of all things, so-called “rape by deception.”
That’s because according to the complaint filed against Kashur and early reports on the case, Kashur lied about his ethnicity, indicating that he was Jewish. Later, it emerged that Kashur never stated his ethnicity, but only offered his nickname — DuDu, which is a common Jewish nickname in Israel, and one that Kashur has gone by his whole life. “My wife even calls me that,” Kashur explained.
Kashur’s adultery and alleged lying may be immoral, but they should not be punished as crimes.
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To put it bluntly, one of the only things Americans need less than gun deregulation is another hole in the head. Thanks to House Democrats, we may receive more of both.
Under pressure from the gun-rights lobby, House Democrats might exempt the National Rifle Association from pending campaign finance legislation. As you might recall, earlier this year, the Supreme Court upended 100 years of campaign finance restrictions, determining for the first time in the 223-year history of our Constitution that corporations are equivalent to human beings under the First Amendment. It was a startling chapter in the Roberts Court’s embrace of conservative judicial activism — one that disgusted the American public and earned a central role in coverage of President Obama’s second State of the Union address.
Since that remarkable demonstration of judicial prerogative, Democrats have included campaign finance reform among the planks in a populist platform that they hope will mitigate losses in the mid-term elections. That political calculus, however, is giving way to pressures from the NRA.
While conservative politics undergoes an identity crisis, with moderates losing out to the looniest elements of the hardcore right, Democrats on Capitol Hill seem bent on sacrificing their principles to maintain the broad tent that brought them electoral landslides in 2006 and 2008. The latest lamb sent to the slaughter? Common-sense gun regulation.
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