To Comfort The Afflicted
And Afflict The Comfortable

To Comfort The Afflicted And Afflict The Comfortable

Friday, April 26, 2024

Observercast

Fallin: Pounding The Table

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BY JAMES NIMMO

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin’s ignorant stand in trying to defy the Department of Defense’s order to allow National Guard legally-married same-gender couples to apply for the same benefits as opposite-gender couples has put the governor’s knickers in a twist. Law-and-order Fallin refuses to abide by the law-and-order U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA].

This Tulsa World story suggests she’s working with Attorney General Scott Pruitt to devise a way to ensure her homo-hating voter-magnet agenda continues to mislead Oklahoma’s citizens about the meaning of civil rights in a constitutional republic.

In short, that means majority voters’ ignorance does not trump the civil rights of the minority. Constitutional rights are not raffle prizes that go to the victors.

There is already plenty of legal precedent that the feds trump the states when it comes to the Guard. Anybody – including Fallin’s spokesperson Alex Weintz and Attorney General Pruitt – ever hear of Eisenhower federalizing the Arkansas Guard to ensure the Little Rock Nine were able to go to Central High School?

Anybody ever read about Kennedy federalizing the Alabama Guard to force Gov. George Wallace to admit two students to the University of Alabama?

Both of those states had laws forbidden integration, yet those laws were overruled by federal court rulings that in turn were based on the federal Constitution.

Fallin and Pruitt have neither the law nor the facts on their side and are pounding the table hoping the noise will distract from the truth.

[If the facts are on your side, Alan Dershowitz says, pound the facts into the table. If the law is on your side, pound the law into the table. If neither the facts nor the law are on your side, pound the table.

Perhaps Fallin, Texas’ Rick Perry, and the other six governors will do the rest of the country a favor and remove themselves from the Union as Perry has toyed with before. But they don’t need to go that far.

They can just remove themselves from the National Guard Armory door.

Give it up, Fallin, go party with another uniform.

James Nimmo lives in Oklahoma City and is an occasional contributor to The Oklahoma Observer

 

3 COMMENTS

  1. I really like what Alan Dershowitz says “If the facts are on your side, pound the facts into the table. If the law is on your side, pound the law into the table. If neither the facts nor the law are on your side, pound the table.”
    Gov. Mary Fallin basically is pounding the table, making some noise. She cannot use the law and does not have any facts to pound into the table.
    According to the Constitution, the National Guards who are legally married to thier same-gender partner have the right to obtain those same benefits as those who legally married to their opposite-gender partner.
    I think that Gov. Mary Fallin refusing to abide by the law is because of her own beliefs. I think she just wants to make some noise. She figures if she can make enough noise, she can find more people whom she can gather to help her have a big uproar about it.

  2. Governor Mary Fallin’s opinion of homosexual military families should not be a deciding factor in applying for the same benefits given to heterosexual military families.

    First off lets define the word homosexual. Homo meaning the same and sexual meaning gender or sex. Now let’s look at the word erectus meaning to stand upright. Finally the word sapiens meaning of or pertaining to modern human. We are all homo sapiens meaning same modern humans as apposed to the extinct homo erectus meaning same standing.

    Maybe Gov. Fallin should stop defining homosexual families as being different and begin to see we are all the same with the same human rights as the homo sapiens that we all are. Gov. Fallin should I as an American be given less homo sapien rights? If Governor Fallin wasn’t so busy pounding the table making noise she maybe able to hear our needs and our rights as Americans.

    Homo erectus stood upright; just as Americans stand upright for their country. Gov. Fallin should stand upright for all Americans who have fought for, defended, and died for this great country whether they are homosexuals or heterosexuals. We equally fight, and equally die on the battle field; do we not deserve equal rights and equal benefits as well?

Arnold Hamilton
Arnold Hamilton
Arnold Hamilton became editor of The Observer in September 2006. Previously, he served nearly two decades as the Dallas Morning News’ Oklahoma Bureau chief. He also covered government and politics for the San Jose Mercury News, the Dallas Times Herald, the Tulsa Tribune and the Oklahoma Journal.
Mark Krawczyk
Mark Krawczyk
March 9, 2023
Exceptional reporting about goings on in my home state as well as informative opinion pieces that makes people think about issues of the day...........get a SUBSCRIPTION FOLKS!!!!!!!
Brette Pruitt
Brette Pruitt
September 5, 2022
The Observer carries on the "give 'em hell" tradition of its founder, the late Frosty Troy. I read it from cover to cover. A progressive wouldn't be able to live in a red state without it.