Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Fuck Christmas

This is brilliant - if you don't like essays generously sprinkled with the F-word, skip it, but if you're an adult, go ahead and read it.

Two things - first, let me say that I don't watch any news programs, let alone Fox News. I have nothing in particular against Fox News, just all newscasts.

Second, as for profanity, there's a paraphrase of Lewis Carroll I like - are you the master of your language, or your language the master of you? I believe I am the master of my language(s), and so I use whatever words I feel like.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Bush (tries to) Defend Domestic Spying

An AP Report in a WV newspaper site...

The CATO Institute said it best - I'm paraphrasing here. If the President can, by some extraordinary stretch of interpretation and imagination, defend any action he takes in the War on Terror as Commander in Chief, then 1) the Patriot Act is unnecessary, and 2) the doctrine of separation of powers is a joke.

Bush can claim he's not a dictator - I'm sure Castro and Stalin denied it to their people as well. When he took the Oath of Office (both of them), he pledged to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. This most recent news, IMHO, is just the most recent example that he does no such thing. If the Constitution was so important to him (ignoring the rumours reported last week), he'd petition Congress for a true Act of War, then act within that declaration to win it. There has been no formal Congressional Act of War against Iraq; the War on Terror, like the War on Drugs or the War on Poverty, are not wars in any traditional sense, but merely declarations of resolve to remove the planet of scourges both real and imagined; therefore any powers Bush has exercised under the guise of "Commander in Chief" are patently illegal. His actions are traitorous and more than deserving a vote of impeachment.

Friday, December 16, 2005

The lone non-voting senator

The results are in at http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00358.

Seems the lone non-voting senator wasn't Cantwell as I had previously thought - somehow, she cast an absentee vote of Nay from Iraq (perhaps I need to learn a bit more about how the Senate votes). The senator who didn't vote was Chris Dodd (D-CT). Why not? Nothing I can find - no statement on his website about it, just a Not Voting on the record. I used to live in Connecticut, Dodd was there when I was in the early 80's, although I think he was in the House at the time.

I'm still not happy she wasn't in D.C. when the vote was cast, but am a bit chastened by the fact that she did vote Nay. I still don't think it was her job to oversee foreign elections, though.

Maria Cantwell: Gross Negligence?

That's Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA).

Let me preface this by saying that I didn't vote for her, don't like her, and don't support her. That said, she is one of my representatives in the Senate, so I accept she won the election and deal with her when necessary.

Yesterday, however, my patience broke. You see, there's a bill going before the Senate to reauthorize the Patriot Act, with a bunch of extra crap thrown in for good measure. George "Its just a god damn piece of paper" Bush wants this bill - and why not? It gives him dictatorial powers by keeping us in a constant state of war, therefore making his role as commander and chief supreme to just about everything else.

The reauthorization bill passed the House, narrowly I hear, and is on it's way to the Senate. Some key senators are trying to fight with a filibuster, while others are fighting back pushing for a cloture vote, which would kill the filibuster and push the bill through the Senate.

Being a concerned citizen and unable to cast my own vote on this issue, I sent e-mails to both Patty Murray (my other Senator) and Maria Cantwell, urging them to vote against cloture and not to pass this bill. You can read about that on the ACLU web site.

Then, watching the news last night, I caught a story on the Iraqi elections going on. Who do I see in the background, acting as an observer but Senator Maria Cantwell. She's not in Washington to cast a vote - she's in Iraq making sure the votes cast there are fair.

In other words, instead of being in Washington protecting the rights of American citizens, she's in a foreign country making sure their rights are being protected.

The job description for a U.S. Senator is listed in the Constitution, and nowhere does it say, "Uphold and protect the rights of citizens of foreign lands on other sovereign nations".

I don't know how the Senate votes, but if she cannot cast a vote from Iraq, then she has abandoned her post. Should the new Patriot Act make it through the Senate while she's away and she doesn't cast a vote, I think she should be allowed to be away from Washington D.C. as much as possible after the next election by voting for someone who will be around when the shit hits the fan.

LATE UPDATE:

Just checked MSNBC (at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10485860/) - the Senate did their duty, by god, and rejected cloture, killing the bill until they could work some more civili liberty protections into it. Of course, the best protection they could add would be absolutely nothing - let the damn things sunset in a few weeks, and let's go back to the way things were before. Won't happen, but a boy can dream, can't he...

As an interesting aside, the vote was 52-47 - that adds up to 99. There are 100 Senators, 2 from each state. Whose was the vote that didn't get cast? The vote lists aren't up on the www.senate.gov website yet - once I see who didn't cast a vote, I'll post it here.

Patty Murray did vote against the bill - marks for her. She also has a statement about it on her website at http://murray.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=249858. Cantwell's last blurb on her site? Some socialist crap about oil exec's not being honest with Congress about fuel oil prices - apparently, she didn't like the answers she got before, so she asked, and asked again. The press release was about her asking again. Maybe while she's in Iraq, she can bring back some oil for the poor folk - isn't that why our troops are there, to get the oil?

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Capitol Hill Blue: Bush on the Constitution: 'It's just a goddamned piece of paper'

Not sure how accurate this is, but I've been seeing this story, or reports of it, all over my news feeds.

If it's true, Bush needs to be impeached, then tried for treason.

If it's not, then it's a sad attempt to discredit him.

Let's figure out which it is, then take the proper action.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Rigoberto, Requiesce in Pace by Becky Akers

You know, my wife and I were talking about this story last week - I had my usual knee-jerk reaction (yes, I have them too, although I try to control them before I do something I can't undo), but she was more sympathetic to the marshals, as the reports had the victim shouting about a bomb on the plane.

Now, however, it appears the reports (which were given to news reporters by government agents) were wrong. Why should we be surprised

I had planned to take my wife on a trip to Vegas sometime soon, flying down and staying a week. Now, however, this story and the subsequent reporting by Ms. Akers, has reinforced my own principles (for which I am thankful) - I will NEVER fly again.