Hobby Land--What Does God Want Me Not To Pay For?

++Hobby Land made news the last Jewish Holiday because they didn't have materials to make Jewish holiday decorations because Jewish Holidays were not part of their product calendar. Now the corporation has appealed to the Supreme Court for a religious exemption from paying for health insurance that would cover contraceptives. Now,they have insured for 14 types of contraceptives previously but they now think--contrary to medical opinion--that two cause abortions. This last point seemed to impress Judge Kennedy.

++Judge Roberts is trying desperately to find a narrow solution for "closely-held" companies to avoid the contraceptive mandate. 

++Jeffrey Tobin in the New Yorker had an excellent piece on the gallant women on the Court dominating the debate and handing his hate back to Clement arguing for Hobby Land.

++Lawyer Mike Papantonio takes a unique position as a liberal on this question. He would love HobbyLand to win the case. A successful litigator against the tobacco companies he argues that the corporate veil, the protections of the owners against personal suits and claims against their personal property would be torn, opening up a field day for lawyers seeking punitive damages from closely held corporations.

++He points out that usually the Roberts Court sides with corporations 93% of the time. But he claims this case is a horror show for companies. He notes that there are no amicus curiae briefs filed by any companies or the Chamber of Commerce. 

++Others argue that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act violates the establishment clause. Previously passed in the late 1990s,this was a reaction to the Supreme Court,led by Tony Scalia,ruling that American Indians did not have the right to use peyote in their religious ceremonies. What then are real religious convictions?

++The Supreme Court previously ruled against an Amish-run firm that believed in self-sufficiency and did not want to pay the Social Security taxes.

++What if a company has as its religious convictions not to pay taxes? Or if owned by Christian Scientists, not wanting to pay insurance that covered blood transfusions? 

++The women justices raised the question whether employers can make decisions for employees and particularly determine the treatment of women employees.

++Can companies really have a religious dimension when they have nothing to do with religion per se,just that their owners might belong to one? Why not discriminate against gays or if your a Mormon against blacks? 

++The men on the Court seem to lean toward HobbyLand and getting rid of the contraceptive mandate in Obamacare. Of course,with the exception of Breyer, they are all Catholic.

++Vast majorities of Democrats,Republicans,Independents, Catholics, Protestants and Jews are against any restriction on contraception. Can a billionaire religious zealot,if he really has a religious thought in his head,really dictate  what Americans don't want?

++I find the case obscene. We resolved this issue of contraceptives before I was a teenager. The employer doesn't have to buy any and maybe his employees won't either. But can an employer on mere whimsy prohibit a benefit from a law to an employee?

++This case is messy and I am dubious that Mike Papantonio will prove correct--that this is too much of a reach? Let's hope SCOTUS does the right thing.

The Days of Our Lives

++Roe vs. Wade marked its 41st anniversary. Only 25,000 braved the cold weather to protest. Ricky Cantor told the crowd that he was going to insure that the government never pays for abortion--which it doesn't. House Republicans passed a bill for the IRS to audit all women who have had abortions to ensure they don't take it off as a tax deduction. Tom Cotton of Arkansas is introducing a bill that would give fertilized eggs constitutional rights. Weirdly,poll numbers today about abortion mirror almost exactly those from 41 years ago. There has been no movement toward the anti-abortion position in all these years.

++Sean Hannity was miffed that Andrew Cuomo said that there was no room in New York state for extreme conservatives. Hannity said he was going to move from New York in protest but later claimed he really couldn't because so many people were dependent on his show. He does say he may run for public office in Florida. He will be attending the State of the Union Address next Tuesday as a guest of American hero, Louie Gohmert.

++The Secret Service visited the Florida Republican who wants to lynch President obama, saying that the situation has moved beyond impeachment.

++Supreme Commander Major General Paul Valley launched his Operation American Spring in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a fitting place to advocate the overthrow of the government since the state was the first to secede from the Union.

++Marco Rubio plans to make Americans pay higher premiums for Obamacare by sponsoring a bill to eliminate the risk pool guarantees for the health insurance industry. He has twelve sponsors.

++Brainwrap has been driving himself crazy trying to reconcile his numbers for Obamacare. The total with Medicaid is now 11.9 million. Medicaid expansion is now 6.3 million.

++Jeffrey Toobin in the latest New Yorker has a iece on the President's Bipartisan Commission on Elections. Yes, it came out and it shows voter fraud is infinitesimal. The suggestions to enlarge the franchise are totally sane so they don't stand a chance of passing. The same I might add to the revised Voting Rights Act written by Senator Leahy and Rep. Sesenbrenner.

++The President's Privacy Board came out today and said the NSA mass collection of phone information was illegal.

++Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife were indicted for corruption in Virginia.

++Virginia Attorney General Herring said today he was joining a suit against the state's anti-same sex marriage law.

++Virginians may escape the bullet this year. Democratic Jennifer Wexton won the special seat for the Senate in a blizzard. The win may put the Democrats in control of that body. Another seat is waiting for a recount. Meanwhile the first poll has come out with Mark Warner holding a fifty point lead over Gillespie. 

++The Cooch called for Chris Christie to step down as head of the Republican Governor's Association.

++The U.S. Attorney told Dawn Zimmer, the Mayor of Hoboken to stop doing media interviews. The FBI has been interviewing her staff and aides about her claims and apparently five people support her version of her meeting with the Lt.Gov.

++Chris Christie has fallen in popularity and now the GOP front-runner is Rand Paul.

++The President is going to focus on income inequality in his State of the Union Address. A stunning report shows that 85 people have more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion combined.