Gebe Martinez and Angela Maria Kelley: Federal lawsuit against Arizona protects people and the Constitution

  It is not often that the federal government files a lawsuit against a state; so when it does, it must have good reason.

  It had plenty of good reasons last week when the Obama administration reasserted the federal government’s responsibility to set and enforce immigration policy by filing a lawsuit challenging the legality of Arizona’s new immigration control law.

  The U.S. Department of Justice was forced to take action because Arizona’s immigration law violates the U.S. Constitution. Allowing Arizona S.B. 1070 to stand would only invite other states and cities to enact their own immigration enforcement laws and usurp the federal responsibility over an issue that must be handled at the national level.

Gary Palmer: Kagan confirmation tests Republicans’ will to fight

  During Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings, it became evident that she does not believe that Americans possess natural rights, rights that our Founding Fathers believed are self-evident, naturally belong to all people and pre-exist government. It was their view that legitimate governments are not created to grant these rights; rather, they are created to protect these rights.

  Among the natural rights that belong to every individual and that the Founding Fathers recognized as existing outside of government are the right to keep and bear arms and the right to speak on any subject or about any policy or politician. The Founding Fathers were careful to craft the Bill of Rights in such a way that it was absolutely clear that the proper role of the government was to protect our pre-existing rights.

Senator Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1205

  It’s powerful to read our history. It’s more powerful to hear our history.  It is most powerful to see our history. During the last week or so, I saw our history with my own eyes.

  For the sake of clarity, let me say up front that I claim all history of Africans as mine since I am of African descent. However, as quiet as it is kept, Egyptian history is also European history for so much of what we attribute to Greece came from Egypt. We are all touched by the history of Egypt.

  Now that this matter is cleared up, I saw our history with my own eyes on a 9-day trip to Egypt, originally known as Kemet. It was an experience I shall never forget.

Joseph O. Patton: Don’t read this while driving.. K? LOL.

  As the city of Prattville enacts its ban on texting while driving and the city of Montgomery considers doing the same - to include cell phone usage while driving - some citizens are lashing out, insisting that they need to be able to text or chat on the phone while driving and that the government should not interfere with these activities, arguing that such issues are a “personal responsibility.” Those dying on our roads as a result of such reckless behavior would likely beg to differ….

  Texting while driving accounted for nearly a third of all traffic accidents in the United States in 2008, so we’re not discussing an isolated problem or merely a handful of people behaving dangerously and jeopardizing the lives of others (NHTSA - National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). Over 80 percent of Americans admit to texting while driving (NHTSA). It’s a certified public hazard.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Countdown to the July 13 runoff election

  The marquee match up in next Tuesday’s upcoming runoff races is the Republican gubernatorial contest between Bradley Byrne and Dr. Robert Bentley. The winner will emerge as the favorite to succeed Gov. Bob Riley. It has been a fun and interesting Republican race with lots of twists and turns.

  The obvious surprise has been the emergence of Dr. Robert Bentley. If he prevails in the runoff Tuesday he will be tough to beat in the fall. His negatives are so low that it appears hardly anyone dislikes him. His campaign mantra declaring Alabama’s economy is so bad that we need a doctor and his promise not to take a salary as governor until the economy recovers are as good a slogan as I have seen since Albert Brewer’s 1970 declaration that Alabama needs a fulltime governor.

Charles C. Haynes: Treatment of Christian campus group doesn’t pass smell test

  When the U.S. Supreme Court decided Christian Legal Society v. Martinez on June 28, was it a victory for nondiscrimination, as one side claims — or an example of religious discrimination, as the other side argues? “Discrimination,” it seems, is in the eyes of the beholder.

  In this case, the eyes that count belong to the five justices who sided with the University of California Hastings College of the Law, ruling that requiring recognized student groups to accept any student as a member or leader — dubbed the “all-comers” policy — is “a reasonable, viewpoint neutral condition.”

Gary Palmer: The Newburgh Conspiracy: The Last Temptation of Washington

  An enthusiastic John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, “The second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”

Michael Josephson: Democracy is about respectful discourse

  On this 4th of July, I hope you will take time to experience pride in and appreciation for the great qualities of our country.

  One quality of our democracy is that every citizen is a public official. Thus, the passionate advocacy of political convictions is not only a right, it’s a patriotic obligation.

  What worries me, however, is the tendency of many basically good people to be overcome with self-righteous certainty that they’re right and that those who disagree with them are wrong.

Joe Bageant: Live from Planet Norte: America's totalitarian democracy and the politics of plunder, or, life is a titty tuck and a Dodge truck

Winchester, Virginia

  Starting with the Homeland Security probe at Washington's Reagan Airport, arrival back in the United States resembles an alien abduction to a planet of bright lights, strange beings and incomprehensible behavior. The featureless mysophobic landscape of DC's Virginia suburbs seems to indicate that homogeneity and sterility are the native religions… especially after spending eight months in Mexico's pungent atmosphere of funky, sensual open air markets, rotting vegetation, smoking street food grills, sweat, agave nectar and ghost orchids.

  The uniformity on Planet Norte is striking. Each person is a unit, installed in life support boxes in the suburbs and cities; all are fed, clothed by the same closed-loop corporate industrial system. Everywhere you look, inhabitants are plugged in at the brainstem to screens downloading their state-approved daily consciousness updates. iPods, Blackberries, notebook computers, monitors in cubicles, and the ubiquitous TV screens in lobbies, bars, waiting rooms, even in taxicabs, mentally knead the public brain and condition its reactions to non-Americaness, which may be defined as anything that does not come from of Washington, DC, Microsoft or Wal-Mart.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Recapping the Republican gubernatorial primary, Part II

  Bradley Byrne’s bold challenging of Paul Hubbert’s omnipotence on Goat Hill was like waving a red flag in front of a raging bull. As we said last week, Hubbert’s fiefdom is to completely control the education budget and policy. That is his sandbox. He does not mind allowing the governor to play in his sandbox because after all he is the governor. However, he thinks it somewhat rude and arrogant if you come to play in his sandbox and kick sand on him.