Punting the Pundits

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

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New York Times Editorial Board: [The Campaign to Outlaw Abortion]

Anti-abortion groups have been trying to re-impose restrictions on abortion rights for 40 years, but the Legislature and governor of North Dakota have taken this attack on women’s reproductive health and freedom to a shocking new low by passing a bill that they must know perfectly well is unconstitutional by any reading of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and others since.

Under those rulings, full abortion bans are allowable only after fetal viability, which the medical community generally considers to be around 24 weeks into pregnancy. But North Dakota joins a growing list of states trying to set that limit earlier, including Arkansas and its unconstitutional ban after 12 weeks, enacted just three weeks ago.

Kristen Breitweiser: Dear Mr Obama: You’re Just Like Dick

Mr. President, what a high bar you have set for yourself in assuring us that you are no Dick Cheney when it comes to drones.

Wow, the country must feel so comfortably numb with your glowing self-assessment.

But actually Mr. President, you are probably worse than Dick Cheney.

Because with Cheney, the Democrats screamed and yelled (ok, more like ineffectively grumbled and mumbled) about Cheney’s unconstitutional power grabs. Yes, with Cheney at least there was a modicum of pushback, a scintilla of oversight — even if it was only due to partisan politics.

With you Mr. Obama, indeed, the halls of Congress, the media, and the provocateurs of the prattle-sphere are mostly silent. And that’s what’s so dangerous.

Auset Marian Lewis: Dr. Ben Carson: Send in the Clowns

Recently I was at a symposium and it was a White man from North Carolina who reminded me of our awkward roots. He pointed out that we are still on the plantation and that most poor Whites are like the plantation overseer: barely a cut above a slave, but faithful caretakers of the Massa’s criminal wealth (his dark human “chattel”). Funny, when he said that, I had a different image of the overseer. Often the cruelest of overseers was the benighted, psychologically engineered Black slave who had been thrown a few extra scraps.

That brings me to Dr. Ben Carson. Dr. Ben Carson loves America, too. He is a celebrated Black neurosurgeon, who made his people proud when he separated those Siamese twins; he did what even the great White hopefuls couldn’t. His brilliance garnered him international fame that spread from the corridors of Johns Hopkins University, a college right in my neighborhood. And wasn’t I proud. Dr. Ben was actually right up the street from me, striking a blow for the dignity of Black people, weary from the stigma of criminal thuggery, suffering from the violence of billy club justice. Dr. Ben…wow, I might even meet him one day, I thought. That was until I realized that Dr. Carson was just another benighted, grasping overseer who, rather than standing respectfully on the shoulders of those who had bravely paved his way, was trampling their memories on his carousel ride to snatch the brass ring.

Robert Reich: Why Politicians Are Sensitive to Public Opinion on Same-Sex Marriage, Immigration and Guns, But Not on the Economy

Who says American politics is gridlocked? A tidal wave of politicians from both sides of the aisle who just a few years ago opposed same-sex marriage are now coming around to support it. Even if the Supreme Court were decide to do nothing about California’s Proposition 8 or DOMA, it would seem only matter of time before both were repealed.

A significant number of elected officials who had been against allowing undocumented immigrants to become American citizens is now talking about “charting a path” for them; a bipartisan group of senators is expected to present a draft bill April 8. [..]

But American democracy has shown itself far less responsive — and our politicians remarkably impervious — to public opinion concerning economic issues that might affect the fates of large fortunes. This is a distressing feature of our democracy, necessitating change.

Frances Beinecke: After Shell Fiasco, It’s Clear: No One Should Drill in the Arctic

Shell Oil announced it will suspend its Arctic Ocean drilling program until at least 2014. But it turns out that after you ground a drilling rig, leak oil into the water, and crush your emergency response equipment, you don’t get to decide when you return.

Then-Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar recently said, “Shell will not be allowed to move forward into the Arctic to do any kind of exploration unless they have this integrated plan in place that’s satisfactory to the Department of the Interior.”

The reasoning behind this firm stance is clear: “Shell screwed up in 2012,” the secretary said.

Indeed, Shell did have an astonishing string of failures and fiascos last year. But the truth is no company will prove a match for the forbidding Arctic environment. Other oil giants have been watching Shell’s misadventures and are starting to second guess their own future in the region.

Eugene Robinson: Maximum Mayhem on His Mind

The gunman in the Newtown massacre fired 154 bullets from his Bushmaster military-style rifle in less than five minutes, killing 20 first-graders and six adults. He brought with him 10 large-capacity magazines, each holding up to 30 rounds, which allowed him to reload quickly. He also carried two semiautomatic handguns, one of which he used to take his own life.

Is this supposed to be the price of the Second Amendment? Is this the kind of America we want?