Federal Judge Allows Virginia Lawsuit Against ObamaCare to Proceed

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Denies Justice Department motion to dismiss:

Virginia’s lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s health care reform law cleared its first legal hurdle Monday as a federal judge ruled the law raises a host of complex constitutional issues.
U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson’s decision stemmed from Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s claims that Congress exceeded its authority under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause by requiring citizens to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

Text of the judge’s ruling is here. Thanks to Doug Mataconis for the Twitter tip.

UPDATE: Brian Kirwin at Bearing Drift:

Liberals have for months claimed that Cuccinelli’s lawsuit would be dismissed because he’d have no standing in challenging a law that won’t go into effect until 2014, or that the vaunted Federal Supremacy would squash his defense of Virginia law.
And they were wrong, again.

UPDATE II: A couple weeks ago, Smitty got this video of Ken Cuccinelli speaking at a fundraiser for Patrick Murray, in which Virginia’s attorney general talked about Rep. Jim Moran’s dubious justification for the individual health-care mandate:

UPDATE III: Philip Klein notes that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is still lying about the accounting gimmicks by which Medicare “savings” are supposed to pay for this crap.

Eric Boehlert of Media Matters Attacks Washington Post TV Critic Tom Shales

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 Christiane Amanpour made her much-ballyhooed debut as host of ABC’s “This Week” and Tom Shales — who can’t stand Amanpour — made this pointed remark:

[T]he commendable “In Memoriam” segment ended with a tribute not to American men and women who died in combat during the preceding week but rather, said Amanpour in her narration, in remembrance of “all of those who died in war” in that period. Did she mean suggest that our mourning extend to members of the Taliban?

Which provoked this screeching headline from Boehlert:

WashPost TV critic smears ABC’s Amanpour as possible Taliban sympathizer

Uh, no he didn’t “smear” her. Shales asked a simple question about Amanpour’s choice of words. The phrase “all of those who died in war” obviously could include our enemies. As for Amanpour’s sympathies, am I the only one who remembers her godawful “God’s Warriors” series?

UPDATE: Tim Graham at Newsbusters:

Sophisticates inside the networks think it’s unfair for Americans to hold Amanpour’s snooty British accent and international focus against her. But if she suggests that American war dead shouldn’t be seen by Americans as more dear to us, since that’s shallow nationalism, then why do they still call this the American Broadcasting Company?
Good point. And if ABC executives think Christiane is going to bring better ratings than Jake Tapper, they’re nuts.

You Might Be a Raaaaacist If . . .

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. . . you think Democrats are corrupt:

The politically charged decisions by veteran Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel of New York and Maxine Waters of California to force public trials by the House ethics committee are raising questions about race and whether black lawmakers face more scrutiny over allegations of ethical or criminal wrongdoing than their white colleagues. . . .

Should I even bother debunking that theme? Or is the perverse reasoning obvious enough that everyone can spot it?

File No. 100-360217

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For those who missed the weekend’s Howard Zinn FBI files story — or who prefer a straight narrative account — my latest column at The American Spectator is “The Case Against Howard Zinn”:

Howard Zinn was teaching a class, but he wasn’t yet a professor and his classroom wasn’t at a university. It was late 1951, and the students who gathered for Zinn’s lessons in Brooklyn were his fellow members of the Communist Party USA.
One of Zinn’s comrades described him as “a person with some authority” within the local CPUSA section and said that Zinn’s class was on “basic Marxism,” the theme being “that the basic teachings of Marx and Lenin were sound and should be adhered to by those present.”
That description, furnished to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by a former Communist in 1957, is included in more than 400 pages of Zinn’s FBI file made public last week.
The FBI files demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that Zinn — author of A People’s History of the United States, widely used as a textbook or supplement in many of our nation’s high schools and universities — was a card-carrying Communist at a time when the Soviet Union was America’s most dreaded enemy. . . .

Read the whole thing. It’s two pages, so it might help to click the print-friendly version — which is also convenient for sharing with your local board of education, high-school principals, college professors, etc.

Lindsay Lohan Out of Jail

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And into rehab again:

The 24-year-old actress was discharged from a suburban Los Angeles jail about 1:35 a.m. Monday. She served 14 days of a 90-day jail sentence for violating her probation for a 2007 drug case.
The “Mean Girls” star’s release doesn’t end her legal saga though. She now must go to an inpatient rehab program.

In other celebrity news, Antoine Dodson — whom you might recall from last week’s video — is now a bona fide Internet viral superstar. Of course, he’s from Alabama, land of viral superstars.

UPDATE: Not on Antoine, but on Lindsay:

If Lohan violates any rules during her treatment, the court could be notified and the judge could potentially throw her back in jail for violating probation, legal experts say.
She also faces a year of random drug testing. The actress must stay clean and sober until August 2011, when her probation term is over. She is, however, allowed to take a number of prescription medications.

BTW, I know that Lindsay is currently a blonde, but (a) I didn’t want to go to the trouble of downloading a new picture, and (b) how stupid is it for a redhead to go blonde? That’s like a cry for help, or something.

Sweet, Sweet Argument From Authority

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by Smitty

Via Memorandum, we have Steve Benen assuming the position for the Priesthood

One of the uglier strains of modern conservative thought is pervasive anti-intellectualism. As Faiz Shakir noted today, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) offered a rather classic example of “Fox News Sunday.”

Host Chris Wallace noted that “a number of top economists” believe that the nation, right now, needs “more economic stimulus.” Boehner replied, “Well, I don’t need to see GDP numbers or to listen to economists; all I need to do is listen to the American people.”

That’s actually kind of crazy — the “American people,” en masse, lack the qualifications and background needed to make sweeping decisions about complex economic policies. It’s why our system is built around the notion that voters will choose sensible representatives to do this work for us — evaluate a situation, consider the judgment of experts, and ideally reach a wise decision about the way forward.

In reply, one of the saddest of the slak-jawed Lefty poses is its fetishing of Argument from Authority. The general form is:

1. Source A says that p is true.
2. Source A is authoritative.
3. Therefore, p is true.

The current American political/economic form is:

  1. Over the last century, Washington DC has declared itself the sole source of all wisdom and power.
  2. If you have doubts, based upon the national debt, budget deficits, impenetrable legislation, non-grasp of Constitutional basics, &c, you might be a conservative/raaaaacits/terrorist.
  3. Shut up.

To quote Thoreau: “Simplify, simplify”. Complexity is something that creeps into all systems. It is fought vigorously by non-idiots, and espoused by (a) fools, and (b) those who stand to make temporary gains from complexity.

Of course, not having gone to their schools, I’m advised to stand in silence while these economists abet the picking of my pockets.

Murder in Monroe County, Tennessee

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A couple weeks ago, Patrick at Political Byline called attention to the murder of Jim Miller in Monroe County, Tennessee. As it was reported July 19:

MADISONVILLE, Tenn. — Investigators are tight lipped, rumors are flying and a community is in shock by the discovery Saturday of a body that is widely believed to be Monroe County Election Commission Chairman Jim Miller, stuffed in the trunk of a burning car.
Late Monday afternoon, it was announced that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation had become the lead agency of the four agencies investigating the case.

Because I was up to my ass in alligators at that time, I didn’t follow up, but the story is intriguing, because Miller’s death had the hallmarks of a mob-style assassination:

The homicide victim tentatively identified as Monroe County Election Commission Chairman Jim Miller had been shot in the head three times, according to authorities.
Tenth District Attorney General Steve Bebb said Thursday he has not seen the autopsy report, but has been informed of the head wounds by law enforcement officers.
“One shot in the back (of the head), two in the front,” Bebb said. “That’s what I’ve been told.”
Bebb told the News Sentinel that Monroe County Deputy Sheriff Kenny Hope, who has been placed on administrative leave in connection with the investigation, is not classified as a suspect.

Still more mystery:

Jim Miller’s friends in Monroe County remain puzzled over the many rumors and theories about who killed the successful businessman, farmer and Republican political figure. . . .
Anderson, Heuer and several others who knew Miller agree on two things: They feel it is highly likely that he was killed by someone he knew, and it probably took more than one person to commit the crime.
Miller was more than six feet tall, stout and strong, and would likely defend himself in a robbery or confrontation, they said.

Conspiracy theories are beginning to swirl, and Dan Collins at Piece of Work in Progress suggests that maybe I should solicit Shoe Leather Fund contributions to go report this story in person. Three problems: (a) I just got back from Vegas five days ago, (b) I just racked y’all for the Stogie Emergency, and (c) my heart was making my next trip to Delaware to cover the Christine O’Donnell campaign.

Nevertheless, so you can get an idea of what’s involved, it’s about 520 miles one-way from my house to Madisonville, Tennessee. At 20 cents a mile for a 1,040-mile round-trip, that’s $208. Throw in three days of meals at $15 a day, three days of cigs at $10 a day, plus a couple nights in a cheap motel at $50 a night — call it $400 total for the trip.

Shall I go to Tennessee? Or Delaware? Perhaps both? And will anyone hit the tip jar enough for either trip so that I’ll have a little leftover to sweeten up Mrs. Other McCain and also buy a few cases of fireworks?