Category: News

As we move towards becoming a more empathetic society, certain regrettable characteristics must be directly addressed.  The eye for an eye sorts would have us believe that we are opting for weakness, regardless of our efforts to establish fairness and equality.  The paradoxical ferocity of our impulse for justice would seem to belie these fears, but they still remain in the minds of many.  Unless we honestly take stock of how each of us is negatively impacted by a noxious undercurrent of violence, we will only be treating secondary symptoms of a larger disease.  In the end, it doesn’t really matter how many degrees separate our complicity.        

Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government

Freedom of the Press

“I am… for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.”

— Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1799

So Freedom of the Press, protects even the stuff, we disagree with.

You don’t have to like it, what someone says, writes, or legislates … or tactlessly expresses.

But they have a Right to do so none the less, according to our historic icon Thomas Jefferson.  

The pen, should trump, the sword.

Funny how “Money” got all lumped in with Free Speech, though?

Must of been all those Gieco “googley eyes” commercials

Michelle Shephard’s tweet:

#

40 years. Wow. #Khadr looked straight ahead. Widow of soldier he was convicted of killing cheered out in court.

#

#Guantanamo sentence 15 more than even Pentagon prosecutors asked for in #Khadr case.    

# The 40 year #Khadr sentence unexpected. Pentagon lawyers asked for 25. Prosecutor had said, “send a message.” I’d say they sure did that.

Ill try to come back later to add updates and more info.

Sick. Just sick. The widow cheered.

shephardm

#Guantanamo prosecutors, #Khadr lawyers on the way to media hangar for press conferences. #Military jurors have declined to be interviewed.

updates below

I have a ton of things on the desk at the moment, and I don’t have the time to really run out this story before Election Day, but I want to bring to your attention something very strange that I found on the 2008 “Christine O’Donnell for Senate” MySpace page.

What it basically comes down to is that the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army are “Christine O’Donnell for Senate” MySpace friends, or that there are persons who have created United States Army and USMC MySpace pages that purport to be official that have “befriended” her candidacy. There’s also a Navy page that appears to emanate from a US Navy recruiting office in California on her ’08 campaign’s “friends” list.

At a minimum, all of this would seem to be a combination of inappropriate behavior and poor management of social media; at worst, you have activity that is “some kind of unlawful”, either on an administrative or civil level.

I’ll make this fast…but I’ll also make it interesting.

Follow along, and you’ll see what I mean.

When news broke last week about how the United States government funded and carried out syphilis experiments in Guatemala that had absolutely no scientific value whatsoever, the response was swift.  A tone of harsh, unforgiving condemnation characterized nearly every media story, along with a punitive desire to punish those actively involved in the process.  As is often true, we wished to wax indignantly about it and vent our frustration.  What we might not have wanted to contemplate is our own individual role in the entire sordid mess.  

A couple of items I found interesting from “comments” and “letters” sections on the web.

It’s not just an American problem, score big blogospheric points by accurately identifying the nation this letter is about!  And no, it’s not the US, but then, it could be a lot of countries, couldn’t it?

The _____ government has got it wrong again, but the clue to why is not in the “dozy government” line. It is hidden in your quote that “the elite directing the _____ economy is more tightly closed than an oyster shell”. _____ operates like a one-party state and the government is just the political wing of that elite comprising developers, bankers and newspaper owners, with a whole network of vested interests descending into almost every corner of the _____ state and economic life.

Your answer here.

___________________________________________________________________

And a rant about our general system failure by a commenter at Chris Floyd’s blog who offers the forlorn hope that eventually the plunderers will have nobody to plunder but themselves; use of the term ouroboros always worms its way into my heart.

A fatal cancer has spread in the body politic, metastasized to all parts, no organ remains untouched. The corruption of politics and government, of law and the courts, of education and the schools. Warning was given and separation of secular self-direction from self-righteous belief was instituted, a wall was built and accepted as correct for some generations until one generation came along, in glorious, arrogant ignorance, was set upon and dismantled, manipulated by devious politicians to their own ends. Those ends, the access to power that their ideology would not support otherwise. Masters of marketing and mendacity, they gained the keys to the treasury and converted the nation from being a creditor to a debtor, whilst devouring every asset they could set their hands to, depleting the accumulated wealth built for generations, held in trust for those generations to come. All is gone now, only the insurance to ease the aged remains. That will not be intact for long, the appetite of power must be fed.

Absolute power has corrupted absolutely. However, that power, as great as it is cannot sustain itself, it will consume everything in its path until there is nothing left but itself and it will turn on itself in the end, an ouroboros. Like the monkey trap, this creature’s grasp on the fruits of power will not allow its escape from the trap and it becomes prey to greater forces that will destroy it, if it doesn’t eat itself first.

Until this comes to pass, the corruption of power is complete and collapse of power is inevitable. In politics and in government, in law and in the courts there is no place to place the fulcrum required to operate the leaver of change. Power has become the end in and of itself, it can no longer direct the affairs of state or the welfare of citizens.

I thought I’d never find myself even halfway agreeing with Charles Barkley.  Much of what he says is so self-serving and childish that it doesn’t merit a response.  However, after admitting that he took money from agents in college, he then proposed that college athletes be given small stipends to prevent being unduly influenced.  Barkley’s argument confronts the elephant in the room.    

Kendrick Meek; Blast BP and Corporate Irresponsibility

copyright © 2010 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

Whispers whirled around the White House, on The Hill, within the Department of Justice, and finally filtered down to the streets.  In truth, talk could be heard on the avenues, where average Americans roam, long before declarations came from above.   Should BP CEO Tony Hayward Go to Prison?  The public wonders.  What would the Obama Administration do.  Countless clamored; with full knowledge that President Bush’s DOJ Killed a Criminal Probe Into BP.  It was believed that the potential indictments threatened the most senior officials.  More recently, words of warrants have become a distinct possibility.  Criminal charges are being considered against BP in regards to the Gulf oil rig tragedy.

I appreciate the opportunity now laid before the American people to have a long overdue discussion on race.  Prior opportunities like these have come and gone but, pardon my skepticism, I still don’t think many of us are willing to commit to it.  Doing so would explode a variety of myths, particularly ones held by those who enjoy patting themselves on the back for a job well done.  Jobs this complex cannot be undone by one movement alone.

Oh brother. This is just … embarrassing.

from Raw Story:

Senator Levin was on the receiving end of a thrown pie during a question-and-answer session on Monday.

The accused pie thrower is Ahlam Mohsen, a 23-year-old senior at Michigan State University and antiwar activist. She was arrested after the incident while attempting to flee and is charged with assault and battery.

Update: Pie thrower facing felony charge for ‘stalking’ senator

An antiwar activist who hit Senator Levin in the face with a dutch apple pie on Monday is facing a felony charge of stalking in addition to misdemeanor charges of battery and assault.

Dumb.  

At times like these you gotta love the peoples House.

ast Thursday the US House took up the vote on H.R.847 – James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010.

As the name identifies the bill would have provided $3.2 billion over the next 10 years to fund free health care for 9/11 rescue and recovery workers who have fallen ill from toxic smoke and debris they breathed  at the World Trade Center site. The bill would have also provided $4.2 billion in compensation over that same span.

Seems pretty clear enough, who wouldn’t want to compensate those that were involved in responding to the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor? Amazingly enough … the “party of NO!” … Most Republicans refused to back the measure, calling it a “slush fund.”

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), arguing that it would be raided by undeserving scammers with tenuous links to 9/11. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) cast it as a money grab for New York because the bill would pay for care at higher rates than Medicare. “This fund is bloated,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).