Sunday, October 31, 2010

The Rally To Restore Sanity

This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism or to look down our noses at the heartland or passionate argument or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times — not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies.

But unfortunately, one of our main tools in delineating the two broke.

The country’s 24-hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold its magnifying up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen — or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous flaming ant epidemic.

If we amplify everything we hear nothing.

-Jon Stewart

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Thomas Jefferson

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.
In short, Jefferson was assuring the members of the Danbury Baptist association that the government would not interfere in the religious beliefs of the people, only in the actions that people might take. As Jefferson says, religion is a matter between a person and God, and not the domain of government. And while the government has not always lived up to this, there is no mistaking the ideal conveyed here: Religion and Government should not mix. Period.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Terrorists Attack Tennessee Mosque Building Site

A group of terrorists bent on stopping construction of a Mosque in Tennessee torched the building site yesterday. This radical Christian terrorism must be stopped. When the arsonists are caught, they should be charged with terrorism and sent to prison... perhaps on foreign soil since most of them don't believe it's safe to keep terrorists on American soil for some reason.

And every patriotic America should decry these terrorists who are attempting to impose their religious views on others by force. DOWN WITH RELIGIOUS TERRORISM!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Burlington Coat Factory Mosque

It's not at Ground Zero. It's at an old Burlington Coat Factory store. And it's not really a Mosque, either. It's a community center with places for religious services to be held (including non-Muslim ones). But I'm much more comfortable referring to it as the Burlington Coat Factory Mosque than the loaded and incorrect "Ground Zero Mosque".

Sunday, August 15, 2010

"Ground Zero" Mosque

I was appalled when I heard that there were plans to build a Mosque at Ground Zero, seriously, what were they thinking! Then I looked at the facts, realized that the Mosque wasn't a Mosque and the plans called for it to be built several blocks away... and that there was already a Mosque within that area... I stopped caring. It was another big flap about something that should be decided locally.

If someone was building a Mosque on the actual ground of the attack, that would be one thing. But this is completely different, and the only people who should have any say in the matter are the local New Yorkers.

Everyone else who complains about it is just uninformed. That includes Palin and the chorus of people who think that Freedom of Religion only applies to Christians. And, frankly, that includes Obama as well. Let New Yorkers decide this one, since they are the only ones who will even notice the place.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Who Should Vote Republican

If you make over $250,000 a year, hate your fellow humans, think the environment is just fine, and want to make nothing but profits, then you should vote Republican.

If you make under $250,000 a year, voting Republican is totally against your best interests and the best interests of everyone around you who also doesn't bring in a six-digit salary.

People talk about family values and such, but the truth is that government isn't in charge of your morality. It's in charge of the money. And poor people tend to resort to things that most consider to be bad morals when the going gets truly horrible. So if you care about family values, you will vote for the people who try to take care of the poor. And I'll give you a hint, the Republicans are fully owned by corporations and don't give a rat's ass about the poor. The Democrats aren't wonderful, but they are certainly better than the Republicans on that score.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

If You Have a Mexican-Sounding Name...

Racist scumbags in Utah try to start a witch hunt, and include legal citizens on their list. The list itself is a criminal act, as it includes private information, including social security numbers and health information protected under HIPAA.

Interestingly, Obama's policy has been to target employers who hire illegal immigrants, and it's been disturbingly successful.

But racists just want to get rid of the brown people with Mexican-sounding names, not actually solve the problem. And if they accidentally ruin the lives of a few legal brown people, well, they don't care!

You can tell these are scumbag cowards because they didn't sign their illegal and immoral list. Hopefully these criminals will be caught. I'd be inclined to punish them by exile them permanently from the land of the free. I'd rather have an illegal immigrant living next door than a racist scumbag coward.

Sunday, July 04, 2010

1776 - Read It.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Shorter Health Care Debate

Found here:

Democrats: "We need health care reform"

Republicans: "Liberal fascists! Give us a majority and we'll do it better"

Democrats: "Done, you have majority of both houses"

12 years later, health care is irrefutably worse in every respect for every single person in the United States

Democrats: "We need health care reform"

Republicans: "Liberal fascists! Americans are tired of partisan politics!"

Democrats: "OK, let's compromise"

Republicans: "OK, get rid of half your ideas"

Democrats: "Done"

Republicans: "Too liberal, get rid of half your ideas"

Democrats: "Done"

Republicans: "Too liberal, get rid of half your ideas"

Democrats: "Done"

Republicans: "Too liberal, get rid of half your ideas"

Democrats: "Done"

Republicans: "Too liberal, get rid of half your ideas"

Democrats: "Done. Time to end debate"

Republicans: "Too liberal, we need more debate, we will filibuster to prevent you from voting"

Democrats: "OK, we'll vote--sorry guys, debate is ended. It's time to vote on the bill"

Republicans: "Too liberal, we vote no"

Democrats: "OK, it passed anyway--sorry guys."

One month later

Republicans: "Wait--wait, OK, we have less of a minority now so we can filibuster forever."

Democrats: "Sorry, the bill already passed, we need it to pass the House now"

Republicans: "But we have enough to filibuster"

Democrats: "Sorry, the bill already passed, we need it to pass the House now"

Republicans: "Liberal fascists! You haven't listened to our ideas! You've shut us out of this whole process!"

Democrats: "Sorry, show us your proposal"

Republicans: "Smaller government"

Democrats: "That's not very specific"

Republicans: "OK, here's our detailed proposal--It's our common-sense ideas we spent 12 years not enacting"

Democrats: "OK, we'll add a bunch more of your ideas"

Republicans: "Liberal fascists! You included all these back-room deals"

Democrats: "OK, we'll get rid of the back-room deals"

Republicans: "Liberal fascists! You're using obscure procedural tricks to eliminate the back-room deals!"

Democrats: "No, we're using reconciliation, which both parties have used dozens of times for much larger bills"

Republicans: "Liberal fascists! You're pressuring Congressmen to vote for your bill! Scandal!"

Democrats: "It's called 'whipping', it's been done since 1789"

Republicans: "Liberal fascists! Can't you see the American people don't want this?"

Democrats: "This bill is mildly unpopular (40-50%), doing nothing (your proposal) is extraordinarily unpopular (4-6%)"

Republicans: "We need to start over! We need to start over!"

Democrats: "We should really consider voting--"

Republicans: "Liberal fascists! Start over! Clean slate! Common-sense! America!"

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Heavily Annotated "Letter to Conservatives"

Check out this post for a heavily annotated "Letter to Conservatives" that pretty much documents all the folks that the Republican Party needs to push out of leadership and spokesperson positions if they want to become the real Republican Party again.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Friday, February 05, 2010

Republican Chairman: $1Million Isn't A Lot Of Money!

GOP Chairman Steele: 'Trust me, after taxes, a million dollars is not a lot of money'. After taxes, a million dollars is still well over $600,000. I don't know anyone personally that wouldn't be DELIGHTED to have $600,000.

Republicans are so out-of-touch that they actually want to RAISE TAXES on the middle class, those making less than $100,000 a year, to give tax breaks to the folks making that measly $1,000,000! After all, if you are making a million dollars, you clearly deserve to keep your money more than some poor sap making $30,000 a year!

Obstruction

Republication Senator places "blanket hold" to stop 70 nominations, endangering the nation.