Monday, July 30, 2007
Iraqi Government Goes on Break
The Iraqi "Government" is on break, perhaps our troops should go on break until the Iraqis get back to work.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Links
Utterly sickening. An oral surgeon is sued for a disgusting practical joke, and gets $1 million out of it. Sick. No insurer should have to pay for an idiot scumbag pulling an immature joke.
Iraq by the Numbers. Some examples: "$1.4 billion: Overcharges by Halliburton." "$9 billion: Taxpayer money that disappeared in Iraq." "6,000-10,000: Estimated number of U.S. troops whose injuries have included brain trauma."
We're living in a golden age, and it's coming to an end.
Iraq celebrates victory in football (soccer).
Iraq by the Numbers. Some examples: "$1.4 billion: Overcharges by Halliburton." "$9 billion: Taxpayer money that disappeared in Iraq." "6,000-10,000: Estimated number of U.S. troops whose injuries have included brain trauma."
We're living in a golden age, and it's coming to an end.
Iraq celebrates victory in football (soccer).
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Linkages
Speeding Insurance. Huh.
W's Grandfather Planned Fascist Coup of USA.
Cheney Criticizer Arrested for Verbal Assault. Apparently, free speech is illegal in Cheney's United States.
Paying people to sign up voters leads to stupid stuff.
The drug war is insane and needs to stop.
Obama doesn't get it either.
Michael Moore served subpoena.
W's Grandfather Planned Fascist Coup of USA.
Cheney Criticizer Arrested for Verbal Assault. Apparently, free speech is illegal in Cheney's United States.
Paying people to sign up voters leads to stupid stuff.
The drug war is insane and needs to stop.
Obama doesn't get it either.
Michael Moore served subpoena.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Links
There should be limits on presidential pardon powers.
Idiot who failed his bar exam blames Gay Marriage for his personal stupidity.
Patriot Act Abuses Abound.
Death threats for teaching evolution. Are we living in the dark ages?
Speaking of, Evolution is Not Just a Theory.
Conversations with Neocons.
Umbridge.
Anger over sex crimes builds.
Idiot who failed his bar exam blames Gay Marriage for his personal stupidity.
Patriot Act Abuses Abound.
Death threats for teaching evolution. Are we living in the dark ages?
Speaking of, Evolution is Not Just a Theory.
Conversations with Neocons.
Umbridge.
Anger over sex crimes builds.
Was Pat Tillman Murdered?
The AP has some evidence that indicates it wasn't "friendly fire", it may have been intentional fire.
More here.
More here.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Links
Don't take your citizenship for granted. Zoila Meyer thought she was a citizen, but learned she wasn't after she won an election and became an active citizen.
Bob Harris recommends a 1987 movie set in 1856 Nicaragua to explain 2007 US foreign policy.
50 High School Presidential Scholars give Bush and Anti-Torture Letter. No report on how soon the kids will be sent to Gitmo.
Girl sues for the right to wear a purity ring to a school with a strict "no jewelry" rule. She eventually lost the fight, because the ring is not integral to her faith.
Still no liberty.
Asterism sums up Iraqi blogs early July and later July.
Shift freight to trains, spare the roads, air, and money. Not to mention shorten commutes.
Bob Harris recommends a 1987 movie set in 1856 Nicaragua to explain 2007 US foreign policy.
50 High School Presidential Scholars give Bush and Anti-Torture Letter. No report on how soon the kids will be sent to Gitmo.
Girl sues for the right to wear a purity ring to a school with a strict "no jewelry" rule. She eventually lost the fight, because the ring is not integral to her faith.
Still no liberty.
Asterism sums up Iraqi blogs early July and later July.
Shift freight to trains, spare the roads, air, and money. Not to mention shorten commutes.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Links
Why Bush is a Loser. A rebuttal to Kristol's "everything is wonderful" column.
Quote of the month: "Imagine putting drug war money towards healthcare. Its not hard if you try." - damn dirty ape at MetaFilter.
Crud. King County has passed a stupid restaurant menu law like New York's, in which nutrition information has to be ON THE MENU boards, with the prices and such, instead of just easily available. There are far more intelligent ways to make the information available and easy to read than forcing it onto the menus. This is a poorly written law, and ought to be altered substantially before it goes into effect next year.
Quote of the month: "Imagine putting drug war money towards healthcare. Its not hard if you try." - damn dirty ape at MetaFilter.
Crud. King County has passed a stupid restaurant menu law like New York's, in which nutrition information has to be ON THE MENU boards, with the prices and such, instead of just easily available. There are far more intelligent ways to make the information available and easy to read than forcing it onto the menus. This is a poorly written law, and ought to be altered substantially before it goes into effect next year.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Links
Sicko inspires. Whether anything will come of it remains to be seen.
Kamal Jalil Uthman the twice-killed.
Defense Department screws up again. Does anyone there actually care about our soldiers?
Is nothing real?
Kamal Jalil Uthman the twice-killed.
Defense Department screws up again. Does anyone there actually care about our soldiers?
Is nothing real?
Thursday, July 12, 2007
More Outrage
Once again, Republicans prove they hate the troops by not allowing them sufficient time to rest between deployments.
Along the same lines, the military is so stressed that it's trying to send a RESERVIST on his fifth deployment.
Weekly Summary of Iraqi Blogs: Early June, Mid June. Late June/Early July. If you want a summary without reading all the Iraqi blogs, bookmark Asterism.
Here's an odd one... the International Boundary Commission (IBC) was created to oversee the boundary between the US and Canada, and when the commissioner, Dennis Schornack, asked for help from the US government to deal with an illegal wall built on the US side of the border, various agencies refused to assist, as the IBC is outside the US government. Now Bush has attempted to fire the commissioner, who responded that Bush has no authority over him because according to the 1908 treaty that created the IBC, a vacancy can only be created by "the death, resignation or other disability" of a commissioner. The response by Schornack to Bush is knee-slappingly funny:
Along the same lines, the military is so stressed that it's trying to send a RESERVIST on his fifth deployment.
Weekly Summary of Iraqi Blogs: Early June, Mid June. Late June/Early July. If you want a summary without reading all the Iraqi blogs, bookmark Asterism.
Here's an odd one... the International Boundary Commission (IBC) was created to oversee the boundary between the US and Canada, and when the commissioner, Dennis Schornack, asked for help from the US government to deal with an illegal wall built on the US side of the border, various agencies refused to assist, as the IBC is outside the US government. Now Bush has attempted to fire the commissioner, who responded that Bush has no authority over him because according to the 1908 treaty that created the IBC, a vacancy can only be created by "the death, resignation or other disability" of a commissioner. The response by Schornack to Bush is knee-slappingly funny:
"I am unable to recognize the authority of this communication because I don't believe that you would knowingly act beyond your authority, outside the law or to otherwise jeopardize the national security of the United States," Schornack wrote.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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 shown, 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 of Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 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 benefits 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 of 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 attention to our Brittish 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 the 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.
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lunch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
John Hancock
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
Matthew Thornton
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 shown, 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 of Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 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 benefits 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 of 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 attention to our Brittish 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 the 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.
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lunch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
John Hancock
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
Matthew Thornton
Monday, July 02, 2007
Worse Than Watergate
Washington Post:
Bush has once again proved that he's a liar and a scumbag. He swore that the people behind the outing of Plame as a covert CIA agent would be punished, and now he's just spit on his own words by commuting the sentence of one of the men responsible. Why is Bush still in office? He and the rest of his criminal war-profiteering scumbag groupies should be in prison, preferably in solitary, for the rest of their worthless lives. They've murdered thousands of American soldiers to make sure Halliburton had a good few fiscal years. They all deserve life in prison, even though it will never make up for the lives they've taken.
...George Mason argued that the President might use his pardoning power to "pardon crimes which were advised by himself" or, before indictment or conviction, "to stop inquiry and prevent detection." James Madison responded:In short, our only choice now is to impeach the President and Vice President, who are busily commuting the sentences of people who were justly convicted of crimes that the Pres and VP were also involved in.[I]f the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty...
Madison went on to any contrary to his position in the Philadelphia convention, that the President could be suspended when suspected, and his powers would devolve on the Vice President, who could likewise be suspended until impeached and convicted, if he were also suspected.
Bush has once again proved that he's a liar and a scumbag. He swore that the people behind the outing of Plame as a covert CIA agent would be punished, and now he's just spit on his own words by commuting the sentence of one of the men responsible. Why is Bush still in office? He and the rest of his criminal war-profiteering scumbag groupies should be in prison, preferably in solitary, for the rest of their worthless lives. They've murdered thousands of American soldiers to make sure Halliburton had a good few fiscal years. They all deserve life in prison, even though it will never make up for the lives they've taken.
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