For hundreds of years Virginians have been trying to succeed from something. Failing to be the first to succeed from the Union in 1860-61 during pre-civil war era has left a bitter taste in those born and bred from the state . Virginian Edmund Ruffin was the first to fire a shot during the civil war in on April 12, 1861, at 4:30 a.m at Fort Sumter, which was a claim to fame many Virginians wanted.
Virginia today is know different than 149 years ago, as it the first state trying to distance itself, or succeed from Presidents Obama's health care reform plan. As a resident of the state for over 36 years, I can tell you that this is not the first time the state has had an ass backwards mentality to how rules, regulations, laws, and the U.S. constitution applies to its daily life.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on March 23, 2010,filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia challenging the Constitutionality of the federal health care bill passed on March 21, claiming that it exceeded the Federal government's power under the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution.
Today at 12:49 pm Virginia federal district judge Henry Hudson ruled that the Affordable Care Act’s individual requirement to purchase health care coverage violated the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, but did not issue an injunction baring enforcement of the provision. “The power of Congress to regulate a class of activities that in the aggregate has a substantial and direct effect on interstate commerce is well settled,” Judge Henry Hudson a George W. Bush appointee writes in the ruling, before adding, “but these regulatory powers are triggered by some type of self-initiated action”.
Virginia's Attorney General Cuccinelli is already using today's ruling to raise money for future campaigns, as within hours of Judge Henry E. Hudson’s decision that the individual mandate portion of the health care law is unconstitutional, a celebratory Cuccinelli ad appeared on the Drudge Report asking supporters to sign his anti-Obamcare petition — and donate to Cuccinelli’s campaign war chest.
Since his election in 2009, Cuccinelli has become a hero to the witless Tea Party fanatics, as well as a bogeyman to the left, for taking hard-line stances against health care reform, climate change research, and gay rights. His conservative crusades have garnered plenty of press attention, making him the highest profiled attorney general in the country, and thus setting the stage for a gubernatorial campaign in 2013.
Like judge Hudson, Cuccnelli's is not shameful of, or exclusive to controversy. Cuccinelli's less than formidable background includes:
- Campaign contributions controversy - Cuccinelli has been criticized for his handling of $55,500 in campaign contributions from Bobby Thompson.
- Utility regulation - Cuccinelli previously worked as an energy industry lobbyist, the Attorney Generals Office continues to represent the public interest in rate cases before the State Corporation Commission.
- Female breast on Virginia seal - Cuccinelli was against the state seal showing a bare breast, the breast of Roman Goddess Virtus which was adopted in 1776. He has since recanted his buffoonery on this issue.
- Using kill health care reform for his pulpit for campaign funds for his bid to be Virginia's next Governor.
Other controversies by VA AG are: extradition of Jens Soering to Germany, Cyberbullying, and Usury.
The "FAIR" Judge that ruled today has many claims and links to right wing extremism. Why didn't this judge rescues himself from this decision, when he has both ties to the states attorney General, and too the political party that opposes the bill? This "fair" judge owns a Republican strategy firm that has fought against health care reform since its inception, and AG Ken Cuccinelli gave nine thousand dollars to this firm. Hmmmm.
The reoccurring theme that everything not of the Republican way is always "unconstitutional" certainly reigns loud and clear here.
American diplomats cry foul with Chinese rule of law, and yet we can't get two tea baggers to keep their hands out of the political cookie jar.
Most honest Americans will deduce correctly that coercion and other illegal unethical laws apply her as well.
To be sure, the legal fight is far from over. Hudson’s ruling will be appealed to the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and may even end up before the Supreme Court. Appeals are also pending in other circuits and a federal judge will hear arguments Thursday in a challenge brought by a coalition of 20 state attorneys general led by Florida’s Bill McCollum (R).
This lawsuit is an attempt to overturn the work of the democratically elected branches of government -- which is nothing new when dealing with right wing extremism.
We saw this with the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act - constitutional challenges were brought to all three of these monumental pieces of legislation, and all of those challenges failed, so too will the challenge to health reform.
Let it be known that to date, two previous judges ruled that Obamacare is "constitutional".
President Obama commented after the ruling saying "Keep in mind this is one ruling by one federal district court. We've already had two federal district courts that have ruled that this is definitely constitutional," Obama said. "You've got one judge who disagreed. That's the nature of these things."
After the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House in 1865, the fiery Southerner (Edmund Ruffin) penned these last words in his diary:We at NFTOS emit and transmit Ruffin's sentiments to the Republican establishment.
"I here declare my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule—to all political, social and business connection with the Yankees and to the Yankee race. Would that I could impress these sentiments, in their full force, on every living Southerner and bequeath them to every one yet to be born! May such sentiments be held universally in the outraged and down-trodden South, though in silence and stillness, until the now far-distant day shall arrive for just retribution for Yankee usurpation, oppression and atrocious outrages, and for deliverance and vengeance for the now ruined, subjugated and enslaved Southern States!"
50 million Americans are without health care readers. Not having health care is a serious risk to our national fiber and backbone. Many small companies cannot afford to provide health care, and if they did provide it they would be out of business. The number of uninsured adults in the United States continues to rise, with 1 in 4 adults under 65 reporting they were without health insurance at some point in this year.
Among middle-income adults — those earning two to three times the poverty level, or between $43,000 and $65,000 a year for a family of four — 1 in 3 were without insurance for some part of this year. Overall, 59.1 million Americans of all ages had no health insurance for at least part of the year before their interview, up from 58.7 million in 2009 and 56.4 million in 2008.
This data allows us to debunk two myths about health care coverage, the first myth is that only the poor are uninsured, as half of the uninsured are over the poverty level.
The second myth, is that “it’s only healthy people who are uninsured — that young people are healthy and make a choice not to be insured.” In fact, two of every of five people without insurance during the year had at least one chronic condition, like diabetes, hypertension, or asthma, and were far more likely than insured people to go without care they needed.
UNACCEPTABLE America!
Pass health care reform now, and ensure during the next Virginia voting session that Ken Cuccinelli is a "one term" Attorney General.
Post Script - Every Republican congressman and woman should be forced by law to "opt out" of Government provided health care!
NFTOS
