That's the difference between the 'conservatives' and the Left. If you boil it all down, it is just that, 'taking' vs. 'giving'
The Repubs want to take away our rights.
The Left wants to preserve them.
The Repubs want to take away entitlement programs from the elderly and poor.
The Left wants to preserve them.
The Repubs want to legislate what you do in your bedroom.
The Left wants to preserve your privacy and allow consenting adults to feel love no matter their persuasion.
The Repubs say you must worship a god and a certain one at that.
The Left says you can worship whoever the hell you want, or nothing at all, as long as you don't force others to do the same.
The Repubs do not believe they should help their fellow Americans when a cataclysm leaves them destitute.
The Left believes we are one big family and we should take care of our own.
I think it's easy to tell right from wrong, easy to decide who represents the core values our nation was founded upon. I'd even venture to put forth that Jesus would have a big problem with what the Republican Party has done in His name.
Why would anyone treat our seniors like second-class citizens after they've broke their butts for 40 or 50 years? Especially take advantage of what should be the exalted portion of our society to enrich the millionaires of Big Pharma.
Why would anyone (let's face it, God does as much talking to Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell that he does to me) demand their religion be given a place of distinction over all the others practiced in this nation, going totally contrary to the principles of our foundation?
How can people watch their countrymen dying in the aftermath of a natural disaster and not lift a finger to help?
How can people willingly sacrifice the lives of their children to a war which is ill-considered at best and downright criminal at worst, at the word of leaders whose disdain for the military is legendary? For a war whom the only winners are Halliburton and its subsidiaries? Hint: they have the same disdain for your loved one; the only reason they feign respect for our military now is because it furthers their agenda. Halliburton is the reason for the Iraq War.
How can people willingly abdicate their rights to a man whose penchant for lying is also legendary and believe him when he says 'trust me to do the right thing'? Do you believe he only lied to the Left and to that meddlesome MSM? Do you feel he won't lie to you? Note to non-insider conservatives: You're about as necessary to the big shots as I am. The only difference between you and me is they can count on your vote. Once that goes away, you'll be sharing a cell next to me in Gitmo. The bright side is I can grow dope anywhere and Cuba has an excellent climate. We'll at least be stoned when they shove lightsticks up our asses.
And why would people who consider themselves 'Christian' support this agenda? Either you're that gullible, that hateful, or just that stupid. Word: Jesus preached tolerance and enlightenment. Think about it.
This country was founded by people escaping religious persecution, people escaping government meddling in their personal lives, and what have we become? We show disdain for people who are not white and Protestant. We close our borders and threaten our neighbors, neighbors who are also long-time friends. We kill close to a hundred thousand people whose only crime against us was having a leader who 'tried to kill mah daddy' and the fact they have huge oil reserves. We attempt to plunder natural resources not for our survival but for our profit, using any means possible to drill for oil in the last pristine wilderness in the US. This is what you have done to my country.
One day, many years in the future, when another, more enlightened race visits the dead planet known as Earth and finds the remains of a once great society that thrived here, they will probably attempt to discover what led to our downfall. It would not surprise me if their studies pointed to this time, this age of humanity where our greed and our egos began to get the best of us. On that day, from the depths of Hell, I will stand up and spit in the face of those who enabled it.
So I ask you, whose side is Jesus really on?
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Walkin' Dope
Dope on the Slope's got some good stuff on the NY transit strike. Just scroll down, there are several.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Senate blocks attempt to allow ANWR drilling
CNN via The CultureGhost. Really cool photo of Stevens looking like he's ready to blow a gasket!
Wish in one hand...
It was a stinging defeat for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, one of the Senate's most powerful members, who had hoped to garner more votes by forcing senators to choose between supporting the drilling measure, or risking the political fallout from voting against money for the troops and hurricane victims.
Instead, Stevens found himself a few votes shy of getting his wish.
Wish in one hand...
I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me
Cleek has a good take on Snoopgate.
Those pesky Amendments to that Goddam piece of paper again!
You can trust us, we're the government! Well no, you can't trust us to run a national health care system, that's different. But you can trust us to know everything about everything everybody does, any time we want, with no oversight or public disclosure. And trust us, we'll never mix national security and domestic politics, besides, we're entitled to know all that stuff. It's our country - you just live here.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Those pesky Amendments to that Goddam piece of paper again!
The anti-American president
Vox Day is described as a "Christian libertarian". I never heard of him before, but I like some of the things he says - particularly the phrase "Three Monkey Republicans". He has a thing or two to say about Bush.
I have heard the Snoopgate deal described as "security" versus "liberty". Bullshit. It's much more important than that.
It's "liberty" versus "fascism". So was World War Two, from our perspective. The Free World and the Communist World ganged up on fascism and defeated it, but this time resurgent fascism is being imposed from within, not from without. The Communsts aren't going to be any help.
The rest of the world is watching to see how we, the American people, handle it. They want to see if our brand of lackadaisical civic involvement and lip service to Democracy really works, and Bush is the biggest internal test it has ever faced.
This time, liberty, democracy, and the Constitution are ours to defend. Or lose forever on American soil.
America was founded on the principle that it is right to sacrifice blood for liberty. It is telling that the Bush defenders make precisely the opposite argument, that it is right to sacrifice liberty in order to avoid the shedding of American blood. In this they are, like the Dear Leader, avowedly anti-American.
That George Bush is in open and repeated violation of his oath to uphold and defend the Constitution is no longer debatable. In keeping with his many anti-constitutional actions, he has publicly declared that he has no way of knowing what is, and what is not constitutional.
This attitude, while hardly unique in Washington, should be absolutely anathema to every American of all political stripes. And it appears that Americans are increasingly turning away from the president in rightful disgust. A recent poll here on WorldNetDaily showed that 45 percent of WND readers - who tend to lean strongly Republican - believe that George Bush deserves to be impeached.
I have heard the Snoopgate deal described as "security" versus "liberty". Bullshit. It's much more important than that.
It's "liberty" versus "fascism". So was World War Two, from our perspective. The Free World and the Communist World ganged up on fascism and defeated it, but this time resurgent fascism is being imposed from within, not from without. The Communsts aren't going to be any help.
The rest of the world is watching to see how we, the American people, handle it. They want to see if our brand of lackadaisical civic involvement and lip service to Democracy really works, and Bush is the biggest internal test it has ever faced.
This time, liberty, democracy, and the Constitution are ours to defend. Or lose forever on American soil.
Intolerable. Impeachable.
William Rivers Pitt gets with the program.
Please read the rest.
The breaking strain has been reached, and those ideals we hold so dear are indeed in mortal peril. The President of the United States of America has declared himself fully and completely above the law. The Constitution does not matter to him, nor do the Amendments. Laws passed to safeguard the American people from intrusive governmental invasion have been cast aside and ignored, simply because George W. Bush finds it meet to do so.
The worst part of this whole mess is the simple fact that Mr. Bush does not see anything wrong in this. This administration has steadfastly adhered to the idea that the Executive branch is supreme, beyond the bounds of the justice system and further empowered because we are "at war."
We're talking about getting a court order, he said. We value the Constitution, he said.
Lies.
Calls for the impeachment of George W. Bush must be heeded, and the House must act. This must happen not because it is pragmatic, not because it stands a chance of succeeding. This must happen because the issues at hand demand it. If we as a nation do not impeach a sitting President for such a vast array of blatantly illegal activities, activities directed at the American people themselves, then as a nation of laws we have lost our way. We have no meaning. We are finished, and the ideals for which so many have served and fought and died are ashes.
Please read the rest.
Transit Strike
I just saw a guy on the news, walking across the Brooklyin Bridge. He was heading from Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn to 128th St. in Harlem. A walk I wouldn't want on a warm, sunny day let alone at 5:30 a.m. with a temp of 20 and a wind chill of 11.
Mrs. F talked to her cousin who lives on the Upper West Side and their entertainment yesterday was hanging out at 96th St. (There are no cars allowed south of 96th without 4 people in them), watching people try to talk the cops into letting them pass with less (yes, we have roadblocks up all over the place). This is the NYPD, ladies and germs, they've heard every bullshit line you can think of. You ain't getting downtown without a full load.
And I was correct yesterday when I said I thought most people who would have driven into the city took the day off. Watching the traffic report this morning, I see I'm gonna have to leave the house a bit early.
This is getting ugly.
Update:
Stupid shit on the road this morning. They shouldn't let people who've taken the train since the last strike (1980) suddenly drive. A normal 30-35 minute trip took me an hour.
Mrs. F talked to her cousin who lives on the Upper West Side and their entertainment yesterday was hanging out at 96th St. (There are no cars allowed south of 96th without 4 people in them), watching people try to talk the cops into letting them pass with less (yes, we have roadblocks up all over the place). This is the NYPD, ladies and germs, they've heard every bullshit line you can think of. You ain't getting downtown without a full load.
And I was correct yesterday when I said I thought most people who would have driven into the city took the day off. Watching the traffic report this morning, I see I'm gonna have to leave the house a bit early.
This is getting ugly.
Update:
Stupid shit on the road this morning. They shouldn't let people who've taken the train since the last strike (1980) suddenly drive. A normal 30-35 minute trip took me an hour.
I'm not the only one
Who's got a problem with Barack Obama. And for the same reasons as Matt.
In fairness, it's not just Barack. It's also the other Dems who fancy themselves 'Centrists'. The thing that pisses me off about Obama is that he was the Golden Boy. He had the platform and the audience, and he's wasted it. Because of his race, he would have been able to stand up and call things as he saw them and the racist Repubs would have been handcuffed, unable to direct their hate-filled vitriol toward him for fear of being stuck with the label they so appropriately deserve. And what does Ol' Barack say?
Well, that's a big fucking help. Note to Barack, and to Dems in general. This pussy ass talk isn't helpful. You're a black man, goddammit, stand up for your people who've been fucked over the most by the Chimp and his criminal enterprise.
...
Why not? Many reasons. Go back to Peter's report, and read it. Powerful actors, like the top-down media, will not attack the President unless they think he's weak. But to make the case that he is weak, he must be treated with contempt, and that cannot happen when party leaders like Barack Obama simply refuse to act creatively and risk driving up their disapproval ratings. I ask, for instance, why in speeches is Obama saying that Bush is not a bad man? Why is he saying that Bush loves his country? How does that help us make the case that Bush is a liar and a fraud? It doesn't. It in fact undercuts our case, and the fact is, we are right and he is wrong, and it is important that our case base be made. I know I'm going to get pushback in the comments, but let me ask you this. What in the world is the difference between Tweety saying that "Everybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs" and Senator Obama saying that Bush isn't a bad man and loves his country? They are both echoes of the same conventional wisdom line that those who dislike the President are bitter angry vicious crazy partisans consumed by hatred, instead of Nobel prize winning scientists and professionals fed up with the systematic looting of the country by a gang of right-wing white collar criminals. Politics is about character, and George W. Bush and the right-wingers who support him simply don't have much. It's that, and not policy differences, that separates the two parties.
...
In fairness, it's not just Barack. It's also the other Dems who fancy themselves 'Centrists'. The thing that pisses me off about Obama is that he was the Golden Boy. He had the platform and the audience, and he's wasted it. Because of his race, he would have been able to stand up and call things as he saw them and the racist Repubs would have been handcuffed, unable to direct their hate-filled vitriol toward him for fear of being stuck with the label they so appropriately deserve. And what does Ol' Barack say?
...Let me say this - I don't think that George Bush is a bad man. I think he loves his country...
Well, that's a big fucking help. Note to Barack, and to Dems in general. This pussy ass talk isn't helpful. You're a black man, goddammit, stand up for your people who've been fucked over the most by the Chimp and his criminal enterprise.
Let's make a deal!
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 - Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist under criminal investigation, has been discussing with prosecutors a deal that would grant him a reduced sentence in exchange for testimony against former political and business associates, people with detailed knowledge of the case say.
Mr. Abramoff is believed to have extensive knowledge of what prosecutors suspect is a wider pattern of corruption among lawmakers and Congressional staff members. One participant in the case who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations described him as a "unique resource."
...
When Jack sings, Repubs swing.
Thanks: Atrios
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
It can happen here
We've traveled far down the road. Via Susie:
Read it.
...
What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if [t]he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.
...
Read it.
Please Oh Please...
I'm with Wolcott:
No shit! Me too!
Dear Santa,
Please oh please let this be true, and I won't bug you for anything else this Christmas.
--Jimmy, a kid at heart
No shit! Me too!
Conyers, of course!
Stolen fully and completely from Shakes.
Ask your Congress Member to support Congressman Conyers' efforts to investigate the administration and possible impeachable offenses, and to censure Bush and Cheney.
Read House Resolution 635, which would create a select committee to investigate the administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, and retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.
Read HR 636 and HR 637, which would, respectively, censure Bush and Cheney for failing to respond to requests for information concerning allegations that they and others in the administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq, misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for the war, countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of persons in Iraq, and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of the Administration, for failing to adequately account for certain misstatements they made regarding the war, and-in the case of President Bush-for failing to comply with Executive Order 12958.
More at AfterDowningStreet.org / CensureBush.org here.
Failing the science test
Fundies can teach their kids to be dumber'n a bag o' hammers, or they can send 'em to college, but they can't do both, at least in the University of California system. They don't like this.
They can be as dumb as they want, and raise their kids in their own image, but don't contaminate the smart kids and ask us to help pay for it. If they're stupid enough to believe this shit, they're plenty smart enough to go to some phony college like Bob Jones.
STUDENTS WHO HEAD OFF TO COLLEGE knowing nothing about evolution except that they shouldn't believe in it, and thinking that dinosaurs and people lived together, are not ready for university-level science courses. That is why the University of California is justified in rejecting a Christian school's creationism-based science course as college-prep material.
The course relies on textbooks that openly say they put religion before science. Yet Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murietta, along with a nationwide group of Christian schools, filed suit against the UC system, seeking to force its approval of this and other courses that baldly lack the required academic muscle.
It's one thing to supplement the teaching of science in private schools with religious beliefs, or to give arguments against evolution as well as for it. It's another to leave teenagers ignorant of the most basic scientific knowledge and still declare them fit for entry into a top mainstream university.
The six students in whose names the suit is filed are supposedly shocked that these courses aren't accepted by UC. But it's up to parents and students to pick coursework, both in private and public schools, that meets the requirements for UC admissions. People can teach and learn what they want on their own dime, but that doesn't give them the right to push publicly supported schools into doing the same.
They can be as dumb as they want, and raise their kids in their own image, but don't contaminate the smart kids and ask us to help pay for it. If they're stupid enough to believe this shit, they're plenty smart enough to go to some phony college like Bob Jones.
Some Life Lessons on a Mountain Trail
A really long article in the LATimes
I'm glad my mountains are being used for something more worthwhile than skiing.
Tensions flare during a Sierra trek by at-risk urban teens. In 10 days, they learn about lakes, lichen -- and, most important, themselves.
I'm glad my mountains are being used for something more worthwhile than skiing.
An Intelligent Judge
AlterNet, and some comment as well.
Thank you, Your Honor. We now have a legal precedent.
Update:
The LATimes has a longer article, datelined 20 minutes ago! Damn, I'm good!
A federal judge has ruled "intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district.
The Dover Area School Board violated the Constitution when it ordered that its biology curriculum must include "intelligent design," the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III ruled Tuesday.
Thank you, Your Honor. We now have a legal precedent.
Update:
The LATimes has a longer article, datelined 20 minutes ago! Damn, I'm good!
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