Absolutely essential history in that documentary.

I'd also recommend this song of Randy Newman's:

https://m.

I commit myself as a bulwark AGAINST going down that road.

Given that actual American blood was shed in order to achieve the successful codification and enumeration of the precious rights in both Second and Fourteenth Amendments (and all the rest of our Constitutional rights besides), how about we as Democrats be the ones who REALLY stand up for the whole Constitution? We can let the Trumpuglicans be the ignorant revsionists...


-app

She systematically excluded any discussion of single-payer from her show until it was too late.

I called twice when the health care debate was happening, and each time when I got through (to ask about single-payer) the operator ("Dorie," I think at the time) told me that my question or point was not germane to the conversation. I translated that as "we find single payer to be outside the realm of acceptable possibilities."

I count that as a dirty trick. These days, I'm thinking that she considers Bernie Sanders to be outside the realm of acceptable possibilities as well, and is ready and willing to employ similar dirty tricks.

While my second example may not have universal agreement on DU, Diane Rehm also never (and I mean NEVER) lets facts get in the way of her advocacy for more gun control laws.

I agree that she often hosts and facilitates a good discussion. But there seem to be a few issues where she has an axe to grind, and with them she can be ruthless and play dirty. I actually like and appreciate that she is as every bit as much an advocate for women's health and reproductive freedom issues. Anti-choicers can get away with no shit on her show, and that's rare in mainstream media.

-app

Is the effort to de-fund Planned Parenthood a Bill of Attainder?

All the discussions I have heard and read about Republican efforts to de-fund Planned Parenthood seem to state that Planned Parenthood would be specifically and arbitrarily excluded from receiving federal funds for normal and proper non-abortion medical services to women. This specific and arbitrary exclusion strikes me as the very definition of a Bill of Attainder:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_attainder

As the Wiki link notes:

The United States Constitution forbids legislative bills of attainder under Article I, Section 9. The provision forbidding state law bills of attainder, Article I, Section 10, reflects the importance that the framers attached to this issue.

Within the U.S. Constitution, the clauses forbidding attainder laws serve two purposes. First, they reinforced the separation of powers, by forbidding the legislature to perform judicial or executive functions—since the outcome of any such acts of legislature would of necessity take the form of a bill of attainder. Second, they embody the concept of due process, which was partially reinforced by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. The text of the Constitution, Article I, Section 9; Clause 3 is "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed".