"It's vile. It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."—Former Florida Rep. Mark Foley, referring to President Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal. (Via Jill.)
ARGH
Puellasolis passes on this new outrage:
With little public attention or even notice, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that undermines enforcement of the First Amendment's separation of church and state. The Public Expression of Religion Act - H.R. 2679 - provides that attorneys who successfully challenge government actions as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment shall not be entitled to recover attorneys fees. The bill has only one purpose: to prevent suits challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing religion.I don’t even know what to say anymore.
Dear Security Moms…
We need to talk.
I know that protecting your children from terrorism, and all the overt and covert warnings issued by the GOP about how America will meet its fiery death if Democrats should seize control of our national security, will be foremost in your minds when you go to the voting booths in a few weeks.
But indulge me for a moment, while I give you something else to consider. Let’s call it our domestic security.
It’s the kind of security that comes from knowing your job is safe, you’ve got good health insurance, your kids are getting the kind of education that will make them competitive and open doors of opportunity in their future, the air you breathe and water you drink isn’t poisoning you, you’ve got enough well-equipped cops and firemen to protect you, and your elected representatives take things like the sexual exploitation of children seriously.
How’s all that working out for you under the GOP leadership?
Jobs: Americans haven’t been doing so well on the job front. A lot of the new jobs being created are temp jobs, part-time jobs, or service-industry jobs that don’t offer decent wages or benefits like health insurance. And there’s that little problem of outsourcing. The Bush administration assures us that “The movement of U.S. factory jobs and white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation.” So, I guess if you’re willing to be one of the families to experience that pain and dislocation for the good of all the rest of us, then no problem. If you aren’t, well, it’s just something to think about.
Healthcare: We’re all hearing about the increasing number of Americans, especially children, who aren’t covered by health insurance these days, which is bad, to be sure, but nothing to worry about if you’ve got coverage, right? Well, let’s talk about the families who are covered for a moment. “The average cost of a family insurance plan that Americans get through their jobs has risen another 7.7 percent this year, to $11,500, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In only seven years, the cost has doubled, while incomes and company revenue, which pay for health insurance, haven’t risen nearly as much.” Ouch. That hurts, but at least you’ll safe should disaster strike. Of course, if you lose that increasingly expensive coverage, not only will you not be safe, but your savings won’t be safe, your house won’t be safe (and less safe than ever, thanks to that bankruptcy bill!), and your kids won’t be safe. Just something to think about.
Education: As it turns out, No Child Left Behind was just another of Bush’s Orwellian-themed policies, as lots of kids are being left behind—because it just doesn’t work. In addition to being an unfunded mandate that subverts a well-rounded education by necessitating “teaching to the test,” there are other problems like a 22% decline in arts instruction, which is pretty sucky when you consider that music helps kids learn. And then there’s the problem with what they’re learning. Your mileage might vary on the appeal of watered-down science taught alongside creationism, based on how much you love GOP Jesus, but America’s future as an economic player is contingent on at least some of our kids having an interest in—and understanding of—real science. Abstinence-only sex education is problematic, too, no matter how nice it might look on paper, because there’s a little thing called human nature that always seems to get in the way. But there I go talking about science again. Anyway, just something to think about.
The Environment: Well, what can I say that Al Gore hasn’t already said? The way things are going, if the Bush administration doesn’t pull its head out of the energy companies' collective ass and do something significant to move us toward alternative energy, your kids are more likely to die from a global climate crisis than a terrorist attack. Just something to think about.
First Responders: Most of us, even in the smallest, sleepiest towns, will have some need to call upon our local police or firefighters sometime during our lives, and we rest easier at night with the knowledge that if a fire starts or someone tries to hurt us, help is always at the other end of 911. The problem is, the Bush administration doesn’t have much interest in making sure cops are well-funded, nor firefighters. And when a job is too big for local law enforcement and firefighters, the reserves usually step in, but most of them are in Iraq. No funding has been provided to help out with replacing the many cops and firefighters who themselves are in the reserves, and therefore policing the streets of Iraq instead of protecting the streets of America. And while crime inevitably climbs due to fewer officers and less funding, Bush also let the federal ban on assault weapons expire. That we’re all less safe from regular old crime and fires, and have fewer resources to deal with a terrorist attack should one occur, is just something to think about.
Keeping Kids Safe from Predators: This is a complicated problem, to be sure, with no readily available perfect solutions. But the Bush administration Justice Department has failed miserably on several occasions to effectively address this issue, including most notably their utter failure to follow-up on evidence against 1,500 pedophiles offered by a sexually exploited minor. Something else worth noting is the way that the GOP deals with sexual predators in its own ranks. (And why are there so many perverts in the GOP’s ranks, anyway?) Take, for instance, erstwhile Florida Congressman Mark Foley, who resigned after it was revealed that he’d been sending inappropriate emails and sexually graphic IMs to underage former Congressional pages. It turns out that the GOP (including Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, House Majority Leader John Boehner, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds, and others) knew about his odious shenanigans for months, but did absolutely nothing about it. They even let him continue to co-chair the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. Does that sound like a party more keen on protecting children, or on protecting themselves? Just something to think about.
There’s a lot more where all that came from, Security Moms, but I’ve already given you a lot to consider, so I’ll leave it there for now.
Next time, we’ll talk about how safe little Johnny, who prefers his sister’s Barbies to the G.I. Joes you keep buying him, will be in his future.
Best regards,
Shakespeare’s Sister
(Crossposted at Ezra's place.)
Faith-Based Initiative
Who knew being a priest could be so lucrative?
Two Roman Catholic priests allegedly misappropriated more than $8 million from their church and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on real estate, travel, rare coins and girlfriends, police in Florida said on Friday.One of the priests has been arrested. The other is currently on an Australian cruise.
The retired priests were accused of skimming cash from collection plates and bequests to the St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach, Florida, over a period of years and channeling the money into secret "slush funds" they used to pay personal bills, Delray Beach police said.
…A forensic accounting firm hired by the Diocese found that $8,690,593 was misappropriated during the tenures of Skehan and Guinan, the police affidavit said.
They’re No Angels.
Moral Values
Would you be surprised to hear that the GOP, party of moral values, protectors of families, defenders of traditional America, knew about disgraced pedophilic former Congressman Mark Foley’s email dalliances with underage boys for months, and did absolutely nothing about it?
Of course you wouldn’t.
The Virtual Bar Is Open
<—— This is a just-opened bottle of pinot grigio. And I'm gonna drink it!
I don't know about you guys, but I was ready for an early Virtual Bar tonight. New posts will fall below.
So...what's on your mind? As always: Have a drink. Leave a link. Tell us what you think.
And then have another drink. I know you need it.
Smoke 'em if you've got 'em.
Caption This Photo
and nobody likes me.
Vice President Dick Cheney … listens as President Bush makes remarks to the media … Friday, Sept. 29, 2006. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A Little Clarification
Something I failed to make clear in my earlier post is that the Dems’ complete failure on the torture vote—silence the week before; no filibuster; split voting; general timidity against this astounding rubbish—makes me loathe to accept the premise that, even if the Dems win one House of Congress, they’ll deliver on the gossamer promise to stop this madness in its tracks.
The argument for tactical voting is predicated on the assumption that the Dems will do what we hope—block outrageous SCOTUS appointments, restore the rule of law, guarantee fair elections, etc.—but what if they don’t? That question is haunting me today in a way it hasn’t before, explicitly because of their performance regarding the torture bill.
If you totally believe that the Democrats will deliver, as I did before now, then of course voting Dem is the only principled option. But if you have concerns, as I do now, that voting for the Dems could mean tacitly voting for the Bush agenda, then voting Dem could mean complicity in what’s happening (which is what I’m referencing when I talk about my principles).
And that’s what I’m really thinking about today. Do I believe that the Democrats are still willing to mount a vociferous opposition, given the majority?
It’s taken as read by many people that they are. I’m not so willing, after the torture vote, to give them that benefit of the doubt. Not today, anyway. Which is why I said I need time and distance to consider the question from a different perspective.
(And, bear in mind, I’m coming at this from the perspective of someone who would be voting for an unchallenged Democratic Representative, so my vote is basically symbolic. The Dems have given me no alternative to my Republican Senator, who is also running unchallenged; obviously I won’t be voting for him. I might feel differently, even right this moment, if my vote would actually make a difference.)
Foley Resigns
(Background here.)
Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress today after “ABC News questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former congressional pages under the age of 18.” In addition to the questionable emails sent to a 16-year-old former page, the IM messages, which “made repeated references to sexual organs and acts,” were also found.
The GOP will have to appoint a new chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, which Foley will vacate with his departure. You can’t make this shit up.
(Thanks to Constant Comment for the link.)
Damn Dems
Part whatever in an ongoing series.
Greg at The Talent Show takes a lookat the 5 ½ Democrats up for reelection who voted for the torture bill. I’ll just give you a taste:
Graduating from the ranks of "Who's the hell is that guy?" is Thomas Carper of Delaware, who's in a tough reelection battle against Republican Jan Ting. How tough? Well, with little more than a month before election day, he's only got a 40-point lead over his challenger. That must explain why he was so quick to jump on the anti-habeas corpus bandwagon. Those wedge issues can be a bitch.Uh huh. Who couldn’t forgive someone for saving his ass by selling out America in such a tight race, eh? Cripes.
Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald argues (and Maha agrees) that we still need to support the Damn Dems, because taking over at least one House of Congress is really our only conceivable option to “restore the rule of law to our country and to put an immediate end to the unlimited reign of the increasingly sociopathic Bush movement.”
I found his argument regarding the Supreme Court most compelling: “One of the five pro-Constitution Justices, John Paul Stevens, is 86 years old. If George Bush has free reign to replace Stevens, it will mean that the Supreme Court will be composed of a very young five-Justice majority of absolute worshippers of Executive Power—Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Alito and New Justice—which will control the Court and endorse unlimited executive abuses for decades to come.”
That said, I must frankly admit that, in the wake of the stunning bipartisan passage of this historical and devastating legislation, I am feeling very torn between the dispassionate reasonableness such pragmatism demands and the passion of my own beliefs, which has left me reeling at the betrayal by the Dems who voted for this legislation and at the entire party who managed only to unite in their decision to stretch out and wait during the run-up to this vote—united in utter silence, until the very last moment, once the charade of Republican dissent had yielded nothing (again). Beautifully unanimous in their decision to do precisely nothing before the vote, and fractured during it, they should be truly, deeply ashamed of themselves, and there’s a part of me (a big part) that feels I would betray my own principles, that I would be ashamed of myself, to support them in the future, no matter how practical, how logical, how reasonable it may be.
There are plenty of people who use the excuse that no party really represents their interests to justify a lack of political participation, but many of these people just don’t care about politics, anyway. I do. I desperately want to vote for people I admire, people I respect. I want my vote to be for someone specific, rather than against an agenda. I want to proud of my vote. I want to vote my principles.
All I know today is that it is not the day to make my decision. I need distance and time from this moment to reflect on what it means to me to support or not support the Democrats—which, in my state, means not supporting anyone at all this election. I need to consider whether stubbornly holding onto my principles necessitates not supporting the Democrats, and, if it does, whether doing so is really worth it. Or whether a country that forces a choice between its salvation and my integrity even has a place for me in it anymore.
Mad as Hell, Not Taking Any More
I think the Democrats, in particular, these award-winning immoral cowards, haven't the slightest idea how large the response to their complacency towards Bush's mad power grabs is going to be.
Thunder on the Mountain: The Murderers of Democracy
Who are these people? Who are these useless hanks of bone and fat that call themselves Senators of the United States? Let’s call them what they really are, let’s speak the truth about what they’ve done today with their votes on the bill to enshrine Bush's gulag of torture and endless detention into American law.More at the link, including an audio file of the author (Chris Floyd) reading his post.
Who are they? The murderers of democracy.
Sold our liberty to keep their coddled, corrupt backsides squatting in the Beltway gravy a little longer.
Who are they? The murderers of democracy.
Cowards and slaves, giving up our most ancient freedoms to a dull-eyed, dim-witted pipsqueak and his cohort of bagmen, cranks and degenerate toadies. For make no mistake: despite all the lies and distorted media soundbites, the draconian strictures of this bill apply to American citizens as well as to all them devilish foreigners.
Who are they? The murderers of democracy.
Traitors to the nation, filthy time-servers and bootlickers, turning America into a rogue state, an open champion of torture, repression and terror.
Who are they? The murderers of democracy.
Threw our freedom on the ground and raped it, beat it, shot it, stuck their knives into it and set it on fire.
Shakes and I have often discussed the "straw" moment, where the camel's back of Bush's plunder would finally be broken, and how amazed we were that this had not yet happened. We thought it would be the Downing Street Memo. Then, it had to be Katrina, for sure. Then, it had to be the wiretapping. None of these apparently were enough motivation. Sure, people were furious, and there's always been plenty of anger directed at the Democrats for their spinelessness, but this... this looks like a powderkeg.
I've never seen this much anger directed at the Democrats. People are enraged and feeling betrayed. Their attempts to lie low and appear "tough on terror" has backfired on these cowards.
Greg:
Is it just me or is every major Democratic defeat in the Senate always preceded by barn-burner speeches from Senators Kerry, Feingold, Dodd, Obama, Kennedy, Biden, and others? I'm getting tired of this shit. It's not enough to say the right things, you need to do the right things.It's time to get the talkers out of office.
This will not be forgotten in November.
More here and here.
Tip 'o the Energy Dome to This Modern World.
(I've had all I can stans, I can't stans no more!)
Shocker
Book Says Bush Ignored Urgent Warning on Iraq. Whoopty-shit. I’ve reached my threshold as regards getting my panties in a bunch over some fresh horror in the never-ending string of Bush Administration Fuck-Up revelations. When I know there’s no one who’s going to do a goddamn thing about it, it just doesn’t seem like there’s any point to getting angry.
When someone, anyone, holds these miscreants accountable for anything, that’ll be a headline to which I’ll have some kind of emotional reaction, other than disappointingly hollow resignation. I don’t care if it’s the GOP, or the Dems, or the American voters on election day, but until I see the merest suggestion that this fuck-up won’t be buried in a forgotten grave with all the rest, that the day might come when Bush can’t get away with anything and everything, I’m just going to report it without so much as a exclamation point.
I'm a Cool Nerd, Baby
78 % Nerd, 60% Geek, 47% Dork
Me? A nerd? I never would have believed it.
For The Record:A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd.
Nerds didn't use to be cool, but in the 90's that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn't quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and "geek is chic." The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)!
Congratulations!
And The Threats Begin
Get this (bolds mine):
Gonzales Cautions Judges on Interfering
WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is defending
President Bush's anti-terrorism tactics in multiple court battles, said Friday that federal judges should not substitute their personal views for the president's judgments in wartime.
He said the Constitution makes the president commander in chief and the Supreme Court has long recognized the president's pre-eminent role in foreign affairs. "The Constitution, by contrast, provides the courts with relatively few tools to superintend military and foreign policy decisions, especially during wartime," the attorney general told a conference on the judiciary at Georgetown University Law Center.
"Judges must resist the temptation to supplement those tools based on their own personal views about the wisdom of the policies under review," Gonzales said.
And he said the independence of federal judges, who are appointed for life, "has never meant, and should never mean, that judges or their decisions should be immune" from public criticism.
"Respectfully, when courts issue decisions that overturn long-standing traditions or policies without proper support in text or precedent, they cannot — and should not — be shielded from criticism," Gonzales said. "A proper sense of judicial humility requires judges to keep in mind the institutional limitations of the judiciary and the duties expressly assigned by the Constitution to the more politically accountable branches.
So.
The Constitution does not apply when pushing through a bill that many are calling unconstitutional. However, the Constitution does make the President all-powerful. He's the Decider.
Judges are not immune from public criticism. However, under this bill, the President is.
"Humility" applies to judges. However, it does not apply to the President.
These men have done nothing but spit on the Constitution since they came into power, and yet, they wave it in the Supreme Court's face when their power may be threatened in the slightest.
I'm living in a cuckoo clock.
Listen to Coturnix
He knows that of which he speaks:
Many of my friends and neighbors have not experienced, like I did in Yugoslavia of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the gradual transformation from a nice, sweet, prosperous, freedom-loving country into a bunch of thugs duking it out over land and religion. Tito was dead for ten years. Prime Minister was Ante Markovic. Thousands of small businesses were starting up every week. Small people were getting rich. There was ebullience in the air.Go read the whole thing.
Then, in a manner eerily reminiscent of BuchCo, thugs like Milosevic, Tudjman and Izetbegovic hijacked the government and started a civil war...
Rude and Crude in the Grand Old Party
Puellasolis passed on this link, which details not one, not two, but four incidents of George Allen spitting tobacco at women’s feet.
And the AP reports that Conrad Burns—who wasn’t content to simply call Arabs “rag heads” and challenge the legal status of the “nice little Guatemalan man” who does his house painting—is now laying in on Italians and mocking Swedes.
The Montana senator, facing a tough re-election fight against Democrat Jon Tester, was heading an aviation subcommittee hearing of the Commerce Committee when two FAA officials, Michael Cirillo and Nicholas Sabatini, introduced themselves as witnesses.Certainly not the worst things that Burns has ever said, but they reiterate the point that he just can’t see people as anything but their ethnicity. His office’s defense is that Burns doesn’t take offense to Robin Williams’ routine about Scotsmen. Yeah, well, neither do most Scottish-Americans—because he’s a comedian, not a sitting Senator.
"I'm wondering if that's all they're hiring," Burns said of the federal agency.
…Also during Thursday's hearing, Burns asked witness Matt Andersson, senior aviation consultant for CRA International, about the spelling of his name. Andersson said it's the Swedish spelling.
"Oh, ja," Burns replied in a mock Swedish accent.
Happy Xmas (Race War is Over)
The much-touted and widely-criticized "race war" portion of Survivor: Cook Islands has been abruptly halted. "Mixed-race" teams now the norm. If only the United States had abandoned segregation as quickly.
(Cross-posted.)
The Most Unpopular Kid on the Playground
Here's something to cheer you up... how is the rest of the world looking at us, now that we've embraced torture as an American value?
Finland:
Finland President Criticizes Proposed Terror Legislation
President Tarja Halonen says that it is a mistake for the US administration to try to redefine Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention banning cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners. She feels that in the war against terror, it is important not to become like those who do ignore international treaties.France:
"Non-democracy and violations of human rights are a contagious disease."
"I believe that results that have been achieved should not be broken. We must see the risks to security from a different angle", Halonen said in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat during the UN General Assembly.
Congress 'Capitulates' to Bush on Torture
The pressure exerted over the past few weeks by George Bush, to obtain a law from the Congress to validate decisions he made in the name of his "war on terror," is about to bear fruit.Colombia:
Republican senators who had resisted the White House say that they have reached a compromise that respects human rights. But the truth is that this apparent victory hides a capitulation on a vital point: the President of the United States sees himself as having the right to authorize the CIA to employ methods of interrogation that respect neither American law nor international law codified under the Geneva Conventions. It is quite clear, that the agency will still resort to torture, as it has very likely done for the last four or five years, in detention centers located outside of the United States and kept secret.
[...]
At a time when an "intelligence community" report, divulged by The New York Times, estimates that the Iraq occupation has not lessened the terrorist threat, but has, on the contrary, made it worse, Mr. Bush is using his usual card: to play on the fear of terrorism before thinking of ways to counter it. If the United States passes a law authorizing the use of torture, their enemies will have won a victory.
Bush as Bad as bin Laden? In Some Ways, Worse
Of course there are differences between Osama bin Laden, ringleader of a theocratic terrorist movement and George Bush, a popularly elected president of the most powerful democracy in the world. Nevertheless, the two have done comparable damage to the United States and the rest of the world: bin Laden with his insane and merciless crusade, Bush with his policy of illegal war and combat methods rejected under universal legal norms: illegal detentions, torture and kangaroo courts ...
Gee, and most of this was written before Bush got exactly what he wanted.
So much for good will.
(It's the end of the cross-post as we know it...)
