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You know me, never one to think too highly of the “electorate” am I. No, and with good reason as the good ignorant people of Iowa so amply demonstrated last night. They got a corner on stoopid the likes of which hasn’t been seen since, well, since Minnesota elected Michele and Alaska elected the Wasilla Washerwoman.

Iowa waved a flag and announced to the ENTIRE FRACKIN’ WORLD, that they are both homophobic AND supremely, superbly, stupendously BATSHIT crazy stOOpid.

Iowa, the know-nothing capital of the WORLD, decided in its infinite lack of anything remotely labeled wisdom to un-elect all three of its supreme court justices. Why? FOR DOING THEIR JOBS!!!

Iowa claims, rightly or not, to have one of the best school systems in the country. It claims it educates its young in all the ways that places like Louisiana and Mississippi only dream of. It does not, for the bozos who by wide margins kicked out perfectly competent and conscientious jurists, did so because they fundamentally have no clue what judges are supposed to do.

Armed with no knowledge, they fell for the usual right-wing propaganda. When asked why the judges should be removed they mumbled in lockstep, “Because they shouldn’t be making laws just because they personally like certain things. We are supposed to vote on that stuff, not have them shove it down our throats.”  And. . . “We don’t need activist judges. . .they should follow the law.”

Yeah, moron, shut up, for you make a fool of yourself. Okay, let me explain what you should have learned in civics class in 9th grade.

  1. We have three branches of government, which is called a federal republic. It is not a democracy. You don’t get to vote on everything. You are too freakin’ lazy to vote even every two years–you want to do it every two months?
  2. The bench (that means the judges acting as a “court” are called upon to do two main things:
  3. a. interpret laws passed by the legislature, and b. determining whether a law can be squared with the constitution of the jurisdiction (that would be IOWA here).
  4. To put that in simpler terms (ask someone to read it to you) not all laws are constitutional. Sometimes they violate an amendment or article. The Court MUST strike it down as UN-Con-Sti-Tu-tion-Al, if that happens. I know this is hard for you, but try to keep up.
  5. If you believe in a Constitution, which all of you claim you do, then you don’t want it ignored do you? No, of course you don’t, unless you are StOOpid. In which case, maybe you do.
  6. This is not a new idea. It was decided way way back in our HISTORY. It was a case called Marbury v. Madison. It was when Madison was president. Do you remember him? I won’t bore you or tax your pea brain with the facts of the case, but it established that one of the jobs of the judiciary (that is a big word I know, but it means “the judges together”) is to decide whether a law duly passed is also constitutional.
  7. You might remember them doing that in another case you should have heard of in high school–Brown v. Board of Education. In that case, they said that a law that said that it was okay to have white only schools as long as there were colored schools for colored kids to go to, was UN-Con-Sti-Tu-Tion-Al. They did not say, what do the voters want. Are you following now?
  8. Now we are going to go deep kids, so as I said, find someone who can read and explain if I’m going to fast. The case you are hot about is called Varnum v Brien. I know that probably 97% of you couldn’t have told me that, though you deem yourself wise enough to pass on the justices ruling.
  9. I will guarantee you that less than 99.8% of you has not read the opinion. If you had, you would have found that the people who didn’t want gays to marry in this state were given every opportunity to prove all the wild allegations they made against this. The opinion gives them all, and states all the “evidence” they could muster. They couldn’t provide any studies, and only a couple of “experts” who gave opinion testimony only. The pro-equality side submitted volumes of proof, some of it absolutely proving the other side wrong on key points. Amicus curia (I know, another big word and Latin too!) briefs were filed by all kinds of prestigious organizations across the land. They all sided with the plaintiffs (the ones who wanted equality in marriage).
  10. The justices couldn’t ignore that it was a clear case of one side having all the evidence and the other side none, and that’s why it was a 9-0 decision.
  11. The hate mongers told you that all nine of these justices, appointed by more than three different governors over many years, just happened to hold the same “liberal” opinions and inserted their beliefs into the case. Is this logical? Maybe that’s unfair, since you obviously aren’t logical.

Which all leads me to conclude that something is awfully wrong with our system here. A US Supreme Court Justice, now retired, Sandra Day O’Conner, suggests that all judges should be appointed, realizing that the “folks” are just not qualified to do this. You make here case.

I’m even more cynical. Goodness knows, I know the term “literacy test” raises a lot of ugly memories. It has been used to disenfranchise (you don’t have to read now–this is directed toward intelligent thinking people of which you are not one) demographic groups–African-Americans to name one.

I also recognize that in some races, (judiciary probably excluded) actual knowledge of the facts may not be essential. There is something to be said for correctly identifying a person of good character, and believing they will live up to their integrity. But for all practical purposes, the world is too complex, too dangerous, and to inter-related to allow wildly ignorant and intentionally so people to make important decisions.

People who don’t know that medicare is a government program have zero right to vote on issues involving health care. They have demonstrated such a lack of understanding and worse, wilful ignorance that it is folly to allow their participation.

Yes, I know it’s unworkable. I mean only to express my profound anger, my utter frustration with trying to communicate with children who have not the common sense of a gnat. These are Sarah’s people, this IS the face of Sarah Palin.

A pox on all your house! I am so not proud of Iowa. I am ashamed.

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