January 25, 2005

A Testament To Democracy
By Emiliano Antunez

The trash has been swept off the streets of Washington DC (for now at least), the tuxedos have been sent to the cleaners and the tourist are on their way home, George W, Bush’s second Inauguration and freedom are now both officially part of American history. In a speech “honoring” veterans President Bush said that the grand fete surrounding the inauguration was a “testament to democracy.” Reviewing the events surrounding the inauguration and taking a sober look at America today it’s hard to argue with the Presidents assertion (or is it?).

AT&T, Bank of America Corp., Bristol-Myers Squibb, ChevronTexaco and Exxon Mobil Corp. are just some of the “donors” to our Presidents inaugural celebration that coughed up a total of $46 million for the big bash. In reality $46 million is an insignificant amount when compared to the amount these companies spend annually paying for lobbyist and congressional junkets. An overwhelming majority of the “more generous” donors to the Presidents inauguration bash were for profit companies. There is no crime in being a for profit company (in Fact it’s a good thing), but what borders on the criminal is the waste of profits in order to curry favor with the government. Lucrative contracts, lax regulation on themselves, more stringent regulations on competitors and upstarts, or favorable legislation are what these “donors” are really after (and usually get). (Read the rest here)

Taking Oaths and Stealing Freedoms
By Lady Liberty

Over the past weeks, there's been much talk of the inauguration ceremony and parties for the second term of President George W. Bush. Some people think that far too much money is spent on such festivities (it is, but the donations are private and what people choose to spend their money on is their own business). Others worry that their First Amendment right to express their opinion along the parade route is being infringed (security is understandably very tight, and some groups are disgrunted they're not getting the preferred seating they think they ought to have, while others are upset at some of the things the Secret Service is prohibiting within certain boundaries). And then we have one man from California who thinks that some portions of the inauguration are a violation of the separation of church and state.

Michael Newdow is a self-professed atheist who became a nationally known figure when he sued to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. It is his opinion that including those words is a violation of the separation between church and state (as it happens, I agree with him, but I've discussed that before and that's not what this particular column is about). That suit was dismissed by the US Supreme Court which ruled Mr. Newdow didn't have the standing to bring such a suit. He's since re-filed the suit including other plaintiffs, and the matter is once again making its way through the court system. (Read the rest here)

Libertarian Commentary on The News
By Nathan A. Barton © 2004

These views and comments are those of the author, and not necessarily those of TPoL, FND, RRND, or anyone else! If you want to challenge them, choose your weapons and drop us a line! Many of the news items today do not have a commentary, due to continuing problems - I hope you will all bear with me. Mama's Note: Not to worry, I'll probably think of something to say about them.

Pentagon denies report of new spy unit
USA Today
"The Pentagon acknowledged Sunday that it is trying to improve its network of spies abroad but denied a published report that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had reinterpreted U.S. law to create an espionage unit under his control. ... The [Washington[ Post said the organization was designed to operate without detection and under Rumsfeld's direct control. It has operated for two years in deploying small teams of caseworkers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists to work alongside special operations forces, the newspaper said." (-1/23/05)

When I first heard this report, my immediate thought was, “aha! That is why they didn’t object to an intelligence czar - they already had a workaround. This reminds me of the Soviet model, which isn’t necessarily a good one for a free nation.

Mama's Note: I wonder how many spies and black op units the Revolutionary army had in 1776. How many would we need if we were good neighbors instead of imperial invaders? (Read the rest of the Commentary here)

New Feature At The Price of Liberty
BEWARE - The Idiot Zone
Brought to you by Nathan Barton

IDIOT Zone sightings. (Collected from friends, e-mails, and articles)

IDIOTS In The Neighborhood: I live in a semi-rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the Deer Crossing sign on our road. The reason: "Too many deer were being hit by cars" and he didn't want them to cross there anymore.

IDIOTS In The Airport: A National Guard soldier on security duty got in trouble, when after handing his M-16 (and magazines loaded with ammo) to the screener and walking through the metal detector, he was found to have forgotten his pocket knife in his BDU jacket pocket. (Read the rest here) And send us your IDIOT sightings too.

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