Politics
clock | October 3, 2006These three are best read together, one right after another: Amanda, Dave and Pam.
pharyngula | October 3, 2006The Commissar is voting Democratic this fall.
On the one hand, I'm not too impressed. It's taken him long enough to realized that the Spoiled Child Presidency of GW Bush has been a catastrophe—the signs have all been there since before the 2000 election, and we moonbats have been called "Bush-haters" rather than perceptive.
On the other hand, I sympathize with something: the reluctance to support the Democratic party. While my contempt for Bush and the modern Republican agenda has grown, so has my disgust with the gutless, unprincipled Lords of the DNC. It's hard to blame the Commissar for…
j7uy5 | October 3, 2006"College Town 'Poverty' Exposed:" Exposé or Rant?
The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a story a couple of weeks ago, which
dealt with the issue of Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) going
to college towns. The article ran in Sunday's Ann Arbor News,
which is where I saw it. The article itself is available on
the
Internet,
href="http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/koff091806.html">here.
The gist of the story is this: the CDGB program is a federal program
that provides block grants to communities based upon their poverty
rates. College towns tend to have a high proportion of
college…
pharyngula | October 2, 2006If you're looking for something seditious to wear, try out the classic designs by Chris Clarke and Tim Murtaugh. We are all enemy combatants and terrorists now, so we might as well advertise the fact.
oracknows | October 2, 2006Although I think Bora is being overly alarmist when he declares that we are now officially living in a fascist state, that doesn't mean that I don't find the passing of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which authorizes military tribunals for "enemy combatants," a category that, given the murky language of the act, is not clearly limited to noncitizens, to be a deeply disturbing turn of events. What I find the most strange about the whole exercise is how little Republicans seem to have thought this whole law through. Do they realize what they've done? Sure, they trust President Bush to…
pharyngula | October 2, 2006Jim Macdonald offers some excellent advice to military personnel over at Making Light.
Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions is straightforward and clear. Under Article VI of the Constitution, it forms part of the supreme law of the land.
You personally will be held responsible for all of your actions, in all countries, at all times and places, for the rest of your life. “I was only following orders” is not a defense.
What all this is leading to:
If you are ordered to violate Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, it is your duty to disobey that order. No “clarification,” whether passed by…
stcynic | October 2, 2006Let the scrambling begin. The AP reports:
Rep. Thomas Reynolds (news, bio, voting record), head of the House Republican election effort, said Saturday he told Speaker Dennis Hastert months ago about concerns that a fellow GOP lawmaker had sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy. Hastert's office said aides referred the matter to the proper authorities last fall but they were only told the messages were "over-friendly."
So naturally, they undertook a thorough investigation, right? Wrong.
After the issue was referred to the clerk, it was passed along to the congressman who oversees the…
j7uy5 | October 2, 2006Except I think it was a different DeVos. As linked by
href="http://markmaynard.com/index.php/2006/09/27/devos_the_domionist"
rel="tag">Mark
Maynard, the irascibly analytical frontman for the
href="http://www.monkeypowertrio.com/" rel="tag">Monkey
Power Trio, Rolling Stone has
href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/7235393/the_crusaders/">an
article that states:
...The godfather of the Dominionists is
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._James_Kennedy">D.
James Kennedy [link added], the most influential evangelical
you've never heard of...
...While the…
drorzel | October 2, 2006The Editors, in a stunning revelation, provide the innocent explanation for the Mark Foley instant-message transcripts: Foley's lines were real, but he was actually IM'ing the Editors about non-sexual topics. Sample passage, with the real responses restored:
Maf54 (7:46:01 PM): well I better let you go do oyur thing
Editorz (7:46:11 PM): yes I have to go do some hand modeling
Editorz (7:46:18 PM): because I am trying to break into the hand modeklling game
Editorz (7:46:22 PM): but it's hard
Editorz (7:46:27 PM): I have to go audition for the girls who give out the hand model jobs
Maf54 (7:46:…
pharyngula | October 2, 2006
Don't you just love how Tom Tomorrow can find the silver lining in every cloud?
evolvingthoughts | October 1, 2006I can't think of anything right now, but these lyrics by the prophetic Roger Waters:
The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more.
And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.
There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark.
pharyngula | October 1, 2006As promised…
My yard has become DFL Central in my neighborhood, with a swarm of political signs proudly displayed; if I'd taken a picture aiming south, you'd see even more. Can you see the difference now?
BEFORE
AFTER
The red and blue sign in the first was for Collin Peterson, our far too conservative Democratic representative. I'm not going to endorse him any more; I'll be watching his record carefully in the next month to determine whether I'll actually vote for him in the election.
razib | October 1, 2006Since Noah Millman posts so infrequently he should really install an RSS feed! In any case, Noah lays out a pragmatic case for why we shouldn't invade Iran, which prompted a response with this denouement:
We lack only the will, not the power, to destroy the threat that Iran presents -- and we lack that will partly because people like you delude yourself and others into believing we can't defeat these savages militarily. How sad to see the greatest nation on earth brought to its knees by its own people. How sad to see these dark-ages barbarians, who are bent on the elimination of all freedom…
pharyngula | October 1, 2006Before you read further, browse the Carnival of the Godless. It'll salve the pain when you read about the new conservative perfidy.
Our Republican overlords have taken one more step on the road to theocracy with the approval of H.R. 2679, the Public Expression of Religion Act. You can read the full text of the bill, but here's the gist:
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a court shall not award reasonable fees and expenses of attorneys to the prevailing party on a claim of injury consisting of the violation of a prohibition in the Constitution against the establishment of religion…
drorzel | October 1, 2006I've been trying hard to resist commenting on the spectacular meltdown of Mark Foley over inappropriate contacts with a Congressional page. The Editors pretty well have the schadenfreude angle covered (including a link to the deeply creepy IM transcripts), so I don't have much to add there.
Much has been made of the fact that Foley was on the committee drafting legislation to protect kids from creepy guys on the Internet. "Set a thief to catch a thief," I suppose. The absolute best comment on the matter that I've seen, though, comes from this post at the Corpuscle:
I think it's great that…
evolvingthoughts | September 30, 2006
The Australian Attorney General, Phillip Ruddock, has said that he thinks the US was too hasty in rejecting torture (which it hasn't, really). And sleep deprivation isn't really torture anyway. Never mind that the North Koreans used sleep deprivation as torture in the Korean police action, and that Australia decried their use of torture when it ratified the current conventions in 1950. Never mind that torture is incredibly unreliable as a way of gathering information. Never mind that it's uncivilised!
As always, the present government follows along wagging its tail after the increasingly…
clock | September 30, 2006Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
Kip Hawley is an idiot
...Just sayin'....
pharyngula | September 30, 2006Don't you dare diss Kip Hawley! He's head of the Transportation Security Administration, and he's awfully touchy, you see. His minions also take it personally when you say unkind things about him.
P.S. Kip Hawley is an idiot. Spread the word. Let's see that phrase spread all across the blogosphere.
jlynch | September 30, 2006Sullivan on the MCA bill:
Whatever else this is, it is not a constitutional democracy. It is a thinly-veiled military dictatorship, subject to only one control: the will of the Great Decider. And the war that justifies this astonishing attack on American liberty is permanent, without end. ... All I know is that al Qaeda is winning battles every week now. And they are winning them because their aim of gutting Western liberty is shared by the president of the United States.