What’s next for defenders of marriage?

Wikimedia

Wednesday’s Supreme Court rulings on marriage, while hardly unexpected by most traditional marriage advocates, have nonetheless left social conservatives disappointed.  For supporters of traditional marriage, the saving grace of the rulings was that they did not apply to the 35 states with definition of marriage laws or constitutional amendments.

 

That situation is likely to change.  If, as Justice Kennedy wrote in United States v. Windsor, a traditional marriage definition “violates basic due process and equal protection principles” then it is likely that future Supreme Court rulings will invalidate the right of the states to keep marriage between a man and a woman.  This may come through a direct challenge to a state constitutional marriage amendment or through the Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause, which requires that states respect “the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.”  Barring a change in the balance of the Court, it is likely that the justices will continue to chip away at traditional marriage.

Read the rest on  National Elections Examiner

GOP revolt blocked Boehner attempt to limit spending

Speaker Boehner (Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia)

According to a report by Dick Morris, Republican rebels scuttled a last minute attempt by Speaker John Boehner attach an amendment to the fiscal cliff deal that would have tied spending cuts to the tax increases. If the amendment had passed, it would have sent the bill back to the senate which would have had to vote to accept or reject it.

Bloomberg and CBS News also reported on Boehner’s attempt to tie the tax increases to spending cuts. According to CBS, the amendment would have required 217 Republican votes to pass. The final bill garnered 85 Republican votes and was passed primarily with Democratic support.

Read the rest on Examiner:

http://www.examiner.com/article/gop-revolt-blocked-boehner-spending-amendment?cid=db_articles

Ga. charter school referendum sparks controversy

A sign urging opposition.

The presidential race isn’t the only reason to go to the polls over the next few weeks. One big reason in Georgia is the charter schoolsreferendum. In Georgia, this ballot measure has generated almost as much confusion and controversy as the election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

Charter schools are public schools that receive public money, but are exempt from many normal rules in exchange for being more accountable. Charter schools cannot charge tuition and often have waiting lists for admissions. In some cases admissions are assigned by lottery. Although politically popular, charter school results are mixed. Some studies have indicated that they do not perform better than traditional public schools, while others paint a better picture.

Read the rest of this article on Examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/article/charter-school-ballot-measure-sparks-confusion-and-controversy

Does Obamacare establish a secret police force?

Lt. Gen. William Boykin

I recently received in my email a video of Lt. Gen. (Ret.) W. G. Boykin entitled “Marxism in America.” I recognized Gen. Boykin’s name, but could not immediately place him. As the video went viral, many other Georgians likely received it as well and wondered whether Boykin’s claims were true.

It took only a brief search to find that Gen. Boykin has a distinguished record as an army officer. Boykin’s career began in 1971 as an infantry lieutenant in Vietnam. He joined the elite Delta Force in 1978 and served within the unit 1993. He was the Delta operations officer for the 1980 attempt to rescue the hostages being held in Iran as well as the 1983 invasion of Grenada. He also took part in 1989 invasion of Panama and the hunt for drug lord Pablo Escobar in Colombia. In 1993, he advised the government during the Waco standoff with David Koresh before taking command of the Delta contingent in Somalia that was tracking Mohammed Farrah Aidid. He was wounded in a mortar attack after the Battle of Mogadishu (the battle depicted in Blackhawk Down). Afterward, he held a number of desk jobs until his retirement in 2007. These included Deputy Director of Special Activities at the CIA and Commanding General of the US Army Special Forces Command, where he helped plan the Special Forces strategy for the War on Terror.

To read the rest of this article, please click the links below:

Part 1:
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/does-obamacare-establish-a-ready-reserve-police-force

Part 2:
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/does-obamacare-establish-a-ready-reserve-police-force-part-2