Hobby Lobby’s Legal Claim Is Based on Lies

Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby does not require any legal determination about the religious rights of for-profit corporations.

This case can, and should, be decided on the facts, which are that the birth control methods Hobby Lobby objects to (Plan B, Ella and IUD’s) are contraceptives, not abortifacients.

The religious right, willfully in my view, continues to confuse Plan B with RU-486, which is an abortifacient and is not covered under Obamacare.

This is just another infuriating example of religious nuts refusing to accept non-controversial medical and scientific facts and trying to impose their ignorant views on the rest of us.

Listening to Hobby Lobby’s lawyers and the conservative justices today, I was reminded of Galileo and the Catholic Church or the Scopes trial.

It’s going to take more than the re-make of Cosmos to turn this country around.

So I Guess Rubio Smoked Pot

Marco Rubio is declining to say whether he’s ever smoked marijuana.  I take that as a yes.

If you haven’t, you say you haven’t.

A-Rod to Eat at Kids’ Table

If A-Rod makes good on his promise threat to show up at spring training, like the bad fairy in a Brothers Grimm tale, the Yankees don’t have to let him into their major league camp.

Since he’s not on their 40-man roster because of his suspension, they can send him to minor-league camp.

Constitution 1, Rick Scott 0

A federal court has struck down Florida’s law requiring that those applying for welfare benefits take a drug test.  The judge found that the 2011 law violates the Fourth Amendment (Duh!).

GOP Gov. Rick Scott has said he will appeal.  Good luck with that.

A Good Day for the Constitution

The Justice Department is changing its charging policies so that those who commit low-level, non-violent drug crimes will not face harsh mandatory minimum sentences.

And in Floyd v. New York, a federal judge has found New York City’s minority-heavy stop-and-frisk policies unconstitutional (Duh!).  The judge noted that 88% of those targeted by the NYPD are released without being charged with anything, which told her that there wasn’t sufficient suspicion to stop them in the first place.

MLB Suspensions By End of the Week

MLB will suspend A-Rod and eight other players for their connection with the Biogenesis clinic by the end of the week.

Most of the suspensions will be for 50 games, but A-Rod’s will be longer.

Bartolo Colon and Melky Cabrera will not be suspended because they have already been punished for their connection to the now-closed clinic.

More players were involved than these, but MLB didn’t have enough evidence to suspend them.

Lie of the Day

Today’s lie of the day comes from Congressman Paul Ryan in his address to the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

He said that Obamacare forces churches to offer employee health care that covers abortion-inducing drugs.

Not true.

A-Rod Facing 100 Game Suspension

Even if his hip heals, it doesn’t look as if A-Rod will be on the field this season.  The MLB is seeking to suspend him (and 19 other players, including Yanks’ catcher Francisco Cervelli) 100 games for their connection to a clinic in Florida that provided them performance-enhancing drugs.

As I’ve said before, A-Rod will never play again for the Yanks.

Please Help!

Please go to Change.org and sign the petition to get Austin McNary the drug Eteplirsen for his Duchene muscular dystrophy.

Austin’s brother Max, 11, has been in a clinical trial for the drug for almost two years and is doing great.  Meanwhile Austin, 14, is dying.

This is the petition site:  http://www.change.org/petitions/fda-please-approve-the-medicine-my-boys-need-to-survive-both-of-my-sons-deserve-to-live.

If this link doesn’t work, if you Google “McNary petition,” it will come up.

I sign these petitions all the time and don’t blog about them, but this one just grabbed me by the throat.

Setting Him Up to Fail

“Republicans have held the administration to about one-third of the money [to implement the Affordable Care Act] that the Bush administration received from a Republican-led Congress for the lesser challenge of starting up the Medicare drug program.”

From “G.O.P Is Readying a New Offensive Over Health Law,” Jackie Calmes, NYT