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October
09, 2006
Libertarian
Commentary on the News, 01 - 07 October, 2006
Warning: some sarcasm might be found in this column today. Just a
wee bit, mind you.
Home Front
FBI
worries about Osama-mob link
Raw Story
"The FBI's top counterterrorism official harbors lots of concerns:
weapons of mass destruction, undetected homegrown terrorists and the possibility
that old-fashioned mobsters will team up with al-Qaida for the right price.
Though there is no direct evidence yet of organized crime collaborating
with terrorists, the first hints of a connection surfaced in a recent
undercover FBI operation. Agents stopped a man with alleged mob ties from
selling missiles to an informant posing as a terrorist middleman. That
case and other factors are heightening concerns about a real-life episode
of the Sopranos teaming with Osama bin Laden's followers. 'We are continuing
to look for a nexus,' said Joseph Billy Jr., the FBI's top counterterrorism
official. ... The new strategy involves an analysis of nationwide criminal
investigations, particularly white collar crime, side by side with intelligence
and terrorist activity." (10/01/06)
Sounds
like they are grabbing for straws, to me. Crooks will sell anything to
anyone with the money – look at how Congress sells its integrity
to every (sufficiently large) campaign contributor.
Home Front
TN: Law bars illegal workers on contracts
Tennessean
"Everyone from road builders to food vendors who do business with
the state of Tennessee must pledge starting today that they don't knowingly
hire illegal immigrants on state contracts. The combined effect of a new
state law and an executive order signed by Gov. Phil Bredesen this month
means state contracts starting this week will include anti-illegal immigration
language, a provision that could affect about 2,500 contracts a year and
millions of dollars in state work. Critics say the new rules are nothing
more than election-year politicking -- lots of hot air with little impact.
The state hasn't decided exactly how it will enforce the new rules, leaving
at least one contractors' group wondering what comes next and how invasive
the new rules will be. 'I can't argue that there's any problem with the
state asking people to attest that they aren't knowingly hiring illegal
immigrants,' said Bob Pitts, the senior policy adviser for the Middle
Tennessee chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors Inc." [editor's
note: Well, Bob, if you're looking for problems let's start with the fact
that they're not "asking" - TLK] (10/01/06)
This is
the state version of the law defeated in a small Florida town – and
my question for the contractors is why haven’t they been following
the law on I-9 forms for the past decade anyway? At the same time, the
law may be a dead letter anyway – how do they intend, indeed, to
enforce it?
Home Front
Rice: I don't recall alert about attack
LaPorte Herald-Argus
"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she cannot recall then-CIA
chief George Tenet warning her of an impending al-Qaida attack in the
United States, as a new book claims he did two months before the attacks
on Sept. 11, 2001. 'What I am quite certain of is that I would remember
if I was told, as this account apparently says, that there was about to
be an attack in the United States, and the idea that I would somehow have
ignored that I find incomprehensible,' Rice said." (10/02/06)
I too,
would hope that she could remember this. But who are we to doubt the iconic
Woodward and his book? She must be wrong – or lying!!! Why on earth
would Tenet or Woodward lie about this?
Mama's
Note: Maybe they are ALL lying about it. Pretty much moot at this point,
except if it causes a LOT of people to begin doubting what any of them
say, about anything. Then maybe a few more people will begin to think
for themselves again. What a concept!
Home Front
Prosecutors: Threat notes mentioned
Bush
New Iberia Daily Iberian
"An engineer at a nuclear power plant has been charged with sending
threatening letters containing a powdery substance to a country club where
President Bush is scheduled to appear Tuesday for a Republican campaign
event. Michael Lee Braun, 51, appeared in court Monday on two federal
charges of sending threats through the mail. The FBI said he also is a
suspect in mailing dozens of similar threats since shortly after the 2001
terrorist attacks." (10/02/06)
I do not
understand what goes through the mind of people like this.
Home Front
Pirate
radio challenges Feds
Wired News
"Part rock star, part Johnny Appleseed and fully the bane of the
Federal Communications Commission, Dunifer has long, gray hair, large,
clear glasses and a deep commitment to what he calls 'Free Radio.' 'We're
not stealing anything. We're claiming something that's rightfully ours,'
he says. His goal is to create FM radio stations faster than the FCC can
shut them down. 'It's always been our position that if enough people go
on the air with their stations, the FCC will be overwhelmed and unable
to respond,' he says. Pirate radio is radio without a license, radio without
government regulations. It's 'America the Criminal' at midnight on Human
Rights Radio in Ringfield, Illinois and pre-dawn erotica on Freak Radio
in Santa Cruz, California. It's an inordinate amount of Frank Zappa at
WFZR in West End, Pennsylvania, (a station dedicated to playing his music)
and the 'Voice of the American Patriot' ('no support for liberals disguised
as wannabe Conservatives') at NLNR in Butte, Montana." (09/24/06)
Good luck
to them all! I may not like what they say, but I’m glad that they
are being able to say it. Now if it were just legal…
Mama's
Note: More like, if free speech was just decriminalized. There are a lot
of people who think they want liberty, but have no problem with "state
ownership" of most of the land and a lot of other things. The fact
that "public property" is counterproductive at best, and becomes
state ownership with the "public" shut out doesn't seem to bother
them - when they even notice that.
Home Front
Bush signs "homeland security"
bill
USA Today
"President Bush on Thursday signed a homeland security bill that
includes an overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $1.2
billion for fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration.
Standing before a mountainous backdrop in Arizona, a state that has been
the center of much debate over secure borders, Bush signed into law a
$35 billion homeland security spending bill that could bring hundreds
of miles of fencing to the busiest illegal entry point on the U.S.-Mexican
border." (10/04/06)
Pork, political
grandstanding, and puking hypocrisy, all rolled into one. Congress and
the President should be proud of themselves.
Home Front
Thousands nationwide protest Bush
Ada Evening News
"Hundreds of people called the Bush administration's policies
a crime and held up yellow police tape along a three-block stretch in
front of the White House on Thursday as part of a nationwide day of protest
against the president. The 500 demonstrators were among many who gathered
for similar events in more than 200 cities to protest Bush on issues ranging
from global warming to the war in Iraq." (10/05/06)
What is
most notable about this news is what isn’t there – thousands
and thousands of people. No, I don’t believe that they are too sacred
of the fedgov to show up – I think that the hatred of Bush is ultimately
not a sufficient motivation for protests on the scale of even the Rodney
King riots, let alone the Vietnam era protests. I suspect that the antiabortion
groups can gather more supporters than the anti-Bush groups can.
Mama's
Note: Maybe a lot of those who oppose the DC criminals have figured out
that these "protests" are a total waste of time and effort anyway...
and are doing other things. Not enough of us yet, but growing. It's got
to go far beyond simply "anti-Bush," because he's only the latest
symbol of the real problem - and probably won't be the last.
Home Front
DC
police: Spycams not helping fight crime much
NBC 4 News
"Many D.C. police said they had hoped that installing dozens of
new surveillance cameras across the city would assist them in cracking
down on crime, but the system does not appear to be working as planned.
It was a very violent weekend across the D.C. area, with 11 people shot,
four of them fatally. One of the shootings in the District was caught
on one of the new cameras, but police said so far, the cameras have not
been much help in any other case. ... The surveillance program has been
in effect for about a month, but police said there has yet to be prosecution
involving evidence used from the cameras. Some residents have mixed feelings
on the cameras. 'Yes and no. Yes, because it's safeguarding the community.
No, because it's like an invasion of privacy to look out your window and
see a camera there,' said a community member." (10/02/06)
Unless
cameras are so ubiquitous and so many watchers are being used that a city
can be blanketed with them, there is little chance that this will change.
Now if the beancounters could just convince the cops of that – or
at least the people that pay for this sort of thing: it is a waste of
money.
Home Front:
FL: City council
rejects immigration measure
BBC News [UK]
"A city council in central Florida has rejected a by-law that
would have been among the strictest local legislation in the US against
illegal immigrants. Members of the Avon Park council voted 3-2 against
the by-law, or ordinance, after a heated five-hour debate. The law would
have made English the official language and penalised people doing business
with illegal immigrants. A Pennsylvania council passed a similar law this
month while other US towns and cities are considering such measures."
(10/04/06)
Although
this one was rejected, many similar measures are passing, as anger with
the fedgov’s lack of action grows. But if people are really wanting
to make a difference, instead of coming up with laws, they need to start
applying economic pressure to those businesses that they wish to influence
and change.
Mama's
Note: Oh, the economic pressure will come as they enforce these things.
Then the good people will begin to complain about rising prices, inability
to hire help, things like that. My guess is that they will then look to
their government again for more answers to their new problems, still blind
to the fact that government was the problem to start with. When will people
wake up?
Home Front
WA: ELF members plead guilty in 2001
firebombing
Seattle Times
"Lacey Phillabaum was a champion high-school debater who majored
in art history at the University of Oregon. Jennifer Kolar's scientific
bent took her to the University of Colorado, where she pursued a doctorate
degree and attended climate conferences. They were both members of the
elusive underground of the Earth Liberation Front, which early on the
morning of May 21, 2001, set off a firebomb that caused $7 million in
damages at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture.
On Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Phillabaum and Kolar pled
guilty to participating in the UW arson and other crimes." (10/05/06)
Fanatics
make me sick.
Mama's
Note: VIOLENT, aggressive fanatics make me sick. I am one of the other
kind. <G>
Liars and
Scumbags
Congress approves Net gambling ban
CNet
"Most forms of Internet gambling would be banned under a bill
that received final U.S. congressional approval early Saturday. The House
of Representatives and Senate approved the measure and sent it to President
George W. Bush to sign into law. The bill, a compromise between earlier
versions passed by the two chambers, would make it illegal for banks and
credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites. ... 'It's
been over 10 years in the making. The enforcement provisions provided
by this bill will go a long way to stop these illegal online operations,'
said Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican and a chief sponsor of the measure."
[FND editor's note: Yes, folks, that's the same John Kyl that the Republican
Liberty Caucus calls a "libertarian" - TLK] (09/30/06)
This is
a perfect example of why I don’t trust anyone willing to betray their
standards and principles enough to register as a Democrat or a Republican.
This was snuck into the port security bill, courtesy of Frist and others.
“Congress is America’s only native criminal class.”
Mama's
Note: Most people see this as a moral issue, but the ONLY real reason
Congress passed this law is that the internet allows people to avoid paying
the government its "cut" of the take, and they're not going
to tolerate it. It's all about the (stolen) money, nothing else.
Liars and
Scumbags
FBI
opens probe on Foley emails
Buffalo News
"The FBI said Sunday it had opened a preliminary investigation
into the sexually explicit computer messages that then-Rep. Mark Foley
sent to former congressional pages. At the same time, Democrats continued
to hammer Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, R-Clarence, for what they saw as close
connections between him and the disgraced Republican congressman from
Florida. Foley's downfall stems from two sets of computer messages that
Foley sent to former pages, teenagers who act as aides in the House."
(10/02/06)
This is
being touted as a “GOP” scumbag problem, but frankly, these
are just plain old “politician” scumbags – a seemingly
near-eternal problem starting with Nimrod and continuing right on to the
present. Cover-up? Of course, by both parties in the Congress. See more
in the next article on Foley.
Liars and
scumbags
Rumsfeld says he won't resign
USA Today
"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, coming under renewed fire
for his management of the Iraq war, said Sunday he is not considering
resigning and said the president had called him personally in recent days
to express his continued support. Speaking to reporters en route to Nicaragua
for a meeting of defense ministers, Rumsfeld said he was not surprised
by reports in a new book that White House staff had encouraged President
Bush to fire him after the 2004 election." (10/01/06)
Ohh, the
phone call of death – the call where the boss says he still supports
you. Apparently, Powell was sacked after the 2004 election, which
means that Rumsfeld won that little internal battle.
Mama's
Note: Interesting... I wonder just what "national interest"
is served by Rumsfeld going to Nicaragua? Probably working hard on "the
war on drugs," or the good old North American Union. Aren't we glad
we have such upstanding men to work so hard for our interests?
Liars and
Scumbags
Chavez says he has White House informant
Kannapolis Independent Tribune
"Venezuela President Hugo Chavez said Sunday he has received warnings
from within the White House that the Bush administration is plotting to
assassinate him or topple his left-leaning government. Citing what he
said were warnings from an alleged White House informant, Chavez told
thousands of supporters at a campaign rally that President Bush has ordered
him to be killed before he leaves office in 2008." (10/01/06)
Speaking
of scumbag politicos – here is a fine example indeed. I just love
the mainstream media-speak; “left-leaning government.” Today,
the Third Reich would no doubt be described as “right-leaning”
– except that so-called “right-wing extremists” aren’t
given such gentle treatment.
Liars and
Scumbags
Polls: Democrats run strong
in Senate races
MSNBC
"Three new polls of likely voters, conducted by Mason-Dixon, show
Democrats with a real chance to make significant gains in the Senate.
In all three states, Republicans currently hold the seats. The Democrats
need to gain six seats in order to take control of the Senate." (10/01/06)
Add pollsters
to my list of liars this week.
Mama's
Note: Just this week?
Liars and
Scumbags
FBI examining Foley's e-mail to teens
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
"The FBI is examining former Rep. Mark Foley's e-mail exchanges
with teenagers to determine if they violated federal law, an agency spokesman
said Sunday. House Speaker Dennis Hastert asked Sunday for a federal investigation
into the case -- a lurid scandal that has put House Republicans in political
peril. 'I hereby request that the Department of Justice conduct an investigation
of Mr. Foley's conduct with current and former House pages to determine
to what extent any of his actions violated federal law,' Hastert, R-Ill.,
wrote in a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales." (10/10/06)
I dare
say that there are dozens of these little nasty situations hiding in the
halls of Congress. Just waiting for the suitable time to reveal them –
Hitler used this sort of tactic to get votes lined up when the Reichstag
still meant something.
Mama's
Note: Such evil and intrigue has filled the halls of kingdoms and governments
since the dawn of time. There really is nothing new under the sun.
Liars and
Scumbags
NCIS tries
to blame lawyer for Gitmo problems
Reporters Without Borders
"Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today at US military
attempts to threaten and discredit British lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith,
who is defending an Al-Jazeera cameraman, Sudanese citizen Sami Al-Haj,
held at the US navy's Guantanamo Bay base since 13 June 2002. The Naval
Criminal Investigative Service is trying to claim that Stafford-Smith
encouraged three Guantanamo Bay detainees to commit suicide. 'Do the Guantanamo
military authorities think they can escape blame for the inhuman treatment
of their detainees by making such stupid and crass accusations against
Stafford-Smith?' Reporters Without Borders asked. 'Defence rights are
constantly flouted at Guantanamo. Lawyers can barely get access to their
clients. It is hard to see how a lawyer could advise three detainees to
commit suicide when he was not even defending them. This alone is sufficient
grounds to close the camp.'" (09/27/06)
“Reporters
Without Borders” must be a sister organization of “Lawyers without
Borders” and probably has the sort of membership that discredits
the remaining 1% of their profession.
Local
Tyranny
Officers shot suspect 68 times
CNN
"Officers fired 110 rounds of ammunition at the man suspected
of killing a sheriff's deputy, according to an autopsy and records released
by the sheriff's office Saturday. Angilo Freeland -- who was suspected
of fatally shooting the deputy after being pulled over for speeding Thursday
-- was hit 68 times by the SWAT team members' shots, the examination showed.
He also was suspected of wounding a deputy and killing a police dog."
(10/01/06)
How very
typical of SWAT teams – this reads like a comic book plot outline,
doesn’t it? But it is deadly serious – cops keep killing more
and more people in spasms like this.
Local Tyranny
SC official: Sterilize bad parents
Tallahassee Democrat
"A City Council member, reacting to a video store holdup believed
to have been carried out by children, says parents who can't properly
care for their kids should be sterilized. 'We pick up stray animals and
spay them,' Larry Shirley said in a story published Saturday by The Post
and Courier of Charleston. 'These mothers need to be spayed if they can't
take care of theirs. Once they have a child and it's running the street,
to let them continue to have children is totally unacceptable.'"
(10/01/06)
He recanted
his statement later, but he did make a point. If someone keeps making
a hash of things, should not they be fired and prevented from doing the
same thing over and over again. (Except, of course, for politicians and
bureaucrats, who must be promoted instead.) Of course, sterilization is
so messy, expensive, and doesn’t always work – I suggest a visit
by a death squad, instead: killing bad parents is cheaper and simpler.
Taking away parental rights and custody can drag on forever.
Middle
East Tarbabies: Iraq
Iraq: Rice visits as more die
San Francisco Chronicle
"Wearing a helmet and a flak jacket and flanked by machine-gun-toting
bodyguards to defend against insurgents, Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice came here Thursday, insisting that there were new signs of progress
in Iraq and that the Bush administration had never sugarcoated its news
about the American occupation. ... the military transport plane that brought
her to Baghdad was forced to circle the city for about 40 minutes because
of what a State Department spokesman later said was either mortar fire
or rockets at the airport. ... She arrived in the midst of an especially
bloody few days for American troops. At least 21 U.S. soldiers have been
killed in Iraq since Saturday, most in Baghdad. Two car bombings in the
city Thursday left at least four Iraqi civilians dead." (10/06/06)
Characterized
by some as a sneak-in, sneak-out exercise, at least she is visiting the
bloody country, and trying to see at first hand what is going on, and
the impact (or lack thereof) the policies she is administering and promoting
are having.
Mama's
Note: All the while with nobody even talking about the fact that a woman
(of any race) isn't going to be effective at any kind of negotiation or
policy setting in that part of the world. Could we have just a tiny speck
of reality here?
Middle
East Tarbabies: Iraq
Clark: Hanging Saddam would cause chaos
Porterville Recorder
"Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a member of Saddam
Hussein's defense team, predicted on Thursday that a bloodbath would follow
should an Iraqi court trying the former president have him executed. At
a news conference, Clark said he feared that should Saddam and the others
be hanged, 'catastrophic violence' would follow that would lead to 'the
end of civilization as we know it in the birthplace of civilization, Mesopotamia.
Total, unmitigated chaos.'" (10/05/06)
Clark must
teach the media how to exaggerate and create panic: his hyperbole in this
statement is insane, and smells to some degree of trying to create a self-fulfilling
prophesy.
MT-Afghanistan
Bush
hails occupation of Afghanistan as "great achievement"
Mercury News
"Amid signs that the Taliban insurgency is regaining strength, President
Bush on Friday defended his efforts to stabilize war-savaged Afghanistan
and blasted critics who charge that his policies there are failing. Afghanistan
is reeling from its worst bloodshed since the 2001 U.S.-led intervention
as the Taliban and allied warlords tie down 42,000 American and NATO-led
troops and President Hamid Karzai struggles with colossal corruption,
record opium production and nose-diving popularity. In his most extensive
remarks on Afghanistan recently, Bush sought to accentuate the positive."
(09/29/06)
I don’t
argue with him – just with the implication that it is doing what
needs to be done. Karzai’s inept government is not what is needed
to bring liberty to Afghans.
Mama's
Note: The only people who can bring liberty to the Afghans are the Afghans
themselves. Nobody can do it for them, no matter what or who is sacrificed
in the process. Killing more of them - and being killed - certainly isn't
going to do it.
Middle
East Tarbabies –Iraq
Iraq: At least 50 Iraqis, four occupiers
killed
New Straits Times [Malaysia]
"Iraqi police have reported finding 50 bodies in the streets of
Baghdad as parliament renewed the government's emergency powers. The capital's
dire security was further highlighted Monday by a mass kidnapping carried
out by gunmen dressed in military-style fatigues -- the second in as many
days. At the same time, the British and US governments announced the deaths
of three US marines and a British soldier, as violence continued across
the country." (10/02/06)
Blood and
more blood. This week was bad both for the occupying soldiers and for
the general population.
MIDDLE
EAST TARBABIES -Iraq
Iraq government facing sectarian rift
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
"Shiite politicians demanded changes in the Iraqi government Sunday,
accusing a Sunni Arab party in the coalition of ties to terrorism after
a bodyguard of its leader was arrested on suspicion of planning bomb attacks.
The dispute threatened a sectarian crisis within the national unity government
of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which is struggling to contain spiraling
Shiite-Sunni killings that the U.S. ambassador said have surpassed Sunni
insurgent attacks in deadliness." (10/01/06)
Early reports
made it clear that the bodyguard’s ties were not an implication that
his charge was involved in terrorism (at least not anything but state-sponsored,
everyday terrorism). But that doesn’t keep politicos in the US or
Iraq from stabbing anyway, either with real knives or with lies and innuendo.
Julius Caesar got off easy, I think.
MIDDLE
EAST TARBABIES-Israel
Gaza:
Eight killed in Hamas-Fatah fighting
ABC News
"Heavily armed Hamas militiamen's efforts to break up antigovernment
protests on Sunday sparked gunbattles across the Gaza Strip that killed
eight people in the worst internal Palestinian violence since Hamas took
power. Militants from the opposition Fatah group retaliated by torching
the Palestinian Cabinet building in Ramallah, attacking Hamas offices
throughout the West Bank, kidnapping a Hamas minister and threatening
a mass strike. The spasm of violence dampened already fading hopes for
the creation of a national unity government between the two groups that
could end crippling economic sanctions." (10/02/06)
Blood and
more blood here, too. Why fight the Israelis when it is more convenient
to fight your own brethren?
Our Imperial
Courts
SCOTUS won't hear free speech case
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
"The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an Alaska antiabortion
group's challenge that state campaign finance laws violate its constitutional
right to free speech. That means the Alaska Right to Life Committee will
have to register with the state and disclose its income and expenditures
if it wants to conduct telephone campaigns within 30 days of elections."
(10/02/06)
Wonder
why we even have a first amendment? Me too, after decisions like this.
Our Imperial
Courts
SCOTUS:
Rise of a new centrist
Christian Science Monitor
"Abortion regulations and race-based public school enrollment
plans are among major national issues at the US Supreme Court this year
in a term that offers the first real insight into the constitutional vision
of the high court under Chief Justice John Roberts. Constitutional scholars
and other analysts are watching closely to see if respect for legal precedent
-- the principle of stare decisis -- emerges as a defining approach, or
whether the Roberts court will seek to build on the conservative agenda
of the Rehnquist court, with sweeping rulings that erode or erase liberal
precedents." (10/02/06)
Unfortunately,
it is not “conservative” justices and vision that is needed,
but a vision of a Court that is not above the Constitution, and a vision
of liberty for all – not lip service.
Our Imperial
Courts:
Court says illegal NSA spying can continue
CNN
"The Bush administration can continue its program of surveillance
without a court warrant while it appeals a judge's ruling that the program
is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The president
has said the program is needed in the war on terrorism; opponents say
it oversteps constitutional boundaries on free speech, privacy and executive
powers. The unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals gave little explanation for the decision. In
the three-paragraph ruling, the judges said that they balanced the likelihood
an appeal would succeed, the potential damage to both sides and the public
interest." (10/04/06)
Should
we have expected anything else?
Mama's
Note: Ah, the good old "public interest" ploy. I sure wish they
would spend a few moments telling us exactly what that "public interest"
is supposed to be. We now have all kinds of torture and destruction of
our lives under this banner. It is certainly not in MY best interest for
government to have this kind of deadly power, and I can't imagine anyone
else who really benefits from it EXCEPT those in government!
Our Imperial
Courts:
AZ: Appeals court blocks voter ID law
Charlotte Observer
"A federal appellate court has blocked the enforcement of an Arizona
law that requires voters to show identification before casting a ballot
and submit proof of citizenship when registering to vote. The ruling from
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday came a month before
the Nov. 7 general election, and just before Monday's deadline to register.
The law had already been used for the Sept. 12 primary and in some municipal
elections." (10/05/06)
This decision
is just the latest of the bizarre actions of the 9th Circuit – the
idea that it is wrong to determine if someone is a citizen before letting
them vote is both insane and has been the law (and enforced) in dozens
of states for many years.
The 2006
Political Campaign
Florida GOP names replacement candidate
Dekalb Daily Chronicle
"Disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley sought treatment for alcoholism
and 'other behavioral problems' as Republicans on Monday picked a new
candidate to salvage the seat Foley abandoned after disclosure of lurid
online messages he exchanged with teenage boys. State party leaders chose
state Rep. Joe Negron to replace Foley in next month's election. Negron
will receive votes cast for Foley, although Foley's name will remain on
the ballot in the West Palm Beach district, which is largely Republican."
(10/02/06)
Whatever
happens on this, the Dems have clearly gotten the results they wanted.
Expect more of this kind of thing both this year and in the future.
Mama's
Note: I guess I'll simply never understand why anyone would want someone
else - especially those most open to corruption and vice - to "represent"
them and control their lives. It just doesn't make any sense.
Culture
Wars
CA: Court upholds homosexual marriage
law
San Francisco Chronicle
"Gays and lesbians have no constitutional right to marry in California,
and any change giving them that right must come from state lawmakers or
the voters rather than the legal system, a state appeals court declared
Thursday. The 2-1 decision reversed a lower-court ruling in favor of plaintiffs
who were among the thousands of gays and lesbians who married at San Francisco
City Hall in 2004. It cleared the way for both sides to argue their case
before the state Supreme Court, which will have the final say on whether
the courts can give same-sex couples the right to marry." (10/06/06)
Wrongly
characterized by many as an “anti-marriage” law – for once
a court did not try to exercise some bizarre judicial supremacy. This
is not, of course, the end of the story by any means. However, this court
still failed to recognize that government has no more power to define
marriage than it does to change the equation from “E= m x c squared”
to “E = m x c cubed.” Voters cannot repeal or change natural
law, and calling a dog’s tail a leg does not give the dog five legs.
Culture
Wars
MA: Rhode Island couple wins marriage
ruling
Boston Globe
"A Suffolk Superior Court judge ruled yesterday that a lesbian
couple from Rhode Island may get married in Massachusetts, finding that
Rhode Island's laws do not explicitly prohibit same-sex marriages. Rhode
Island officials responded that gay marriages by the state's residents
would not be recognized unless the courts or lawmakers there say so. The
ruling by Judge Thomas E. Connolly, a significant victory for gay rights
advocates, is the first to find that same-sex couples from outside Massachusetts
can marry under the Supreme Judicial Court's 2003 ruling that legalized
same-sex weddings in the Bay State." (09/30/06)
Yet another
skirmish in the marriage battle. This appears one of the few victories
of the “five-legs” bunch this week. I dare say that Rhode Island’s
laws do not explicitly prohibit someone calculating that 2+2=5, but that
doesn’t make the equation right.
Culture
Wars
TN: Voters could cement ban on homosexual
marriage
Tennessean
"Next month, Tennessee voters will decide whether to define marriage
in the state's constitution as the union of a man and woman. What's at
stake depends on who is asked. To gay-rights advocates, the amendment
would represent discrimination in the very document meant to preserve
freedoms. To opponents of same-sex marriage, it's a necessary step to
preserve the historical identity of marriage and ensure that the people,
not the courts, decide what marriage should mean in Tennessee. The first
question on November's ballot will ask voters to approve or reject an
addition to the state's governing document that would say marriage can
exist only between a man and a woman. A similar statute has been approved
twice by the state legislature, and gay marriage has been banned for a
decade. An amendment would extend the ban, making it harder to reverse."
(10/02/06)
Again,
who said it is the people that have the right to decide? At the same time,
I can at least sympathize with the promoters of this ban, who are tired
of having activists tear down yet another part of society. But if they
were really believers in the “sanctity of marriage,” maybe fewer
of them would be divorced, eh?
Mama's
Note: And maybe more of them would accept their God given responsibility
for their own lives and families in every other way as well.
Culture
Wars
PA:
Westboro reprobates won't picket Amish funeral
Biloxi Sun Herald
"Members of a radical Baptist church based in Kansas Wednesday
dropped its plan to picket at the funerals of five Amish girls slain in
Lancaster County on Monday. Westboro Baptist Church said it had planned
to appear at the Amish services to protest Gov. Edward G. Rendell's signing
of legislation this summer restricting its picketing at funerals of American
soldiers and for what it said were 'blasphemous' comments he made about
the group. Church leaders, in a statement Wednesday, announced that they
had dropped those plans and instead would appear on a nationally syndicated
radio talk show. The Web site of show host Mike Gallagher indicated that
the group was offered an hour of airtime Thursday morning in exchange
for scrapping the demonstration." (10/05/06)
Good. Mike
Gallagher, thank you. As I will say again, I really don’t like fanatics.
Mama's
Note: I'm having a really hard time understanding just why any so-called
"church" group would want to disturb the funeral of Amish children.
What in the world do they have to do with homosexuals in the military
anyway? The idea of giving these cretins air time for their fantasies
is almost as repugnant as their actions. They have the right to say whatever
they want, and Mike can put on whatever trash he wants, but we don't have
to listen to them.
Culture
Wars
Ms. unveils abortion petition
Arizona Republic
"At a pivotal time in the abortion debate, Ms. magazine is releasing
its fall issue next week with a cover story titled 'We Had Abortions,'
accompanied by the names of thousands of women nationwide who signed a
petition making that declaration. The publication coincides with what
the abortion rights movement considers a watershed moment for its cause.
Abortion access in many states is being curtailed, activists are uncertain
about the stance of the U.S. Supreme Court, and South Dakotans vote Nov.
7 on a measure that would ban virtually all abortions in their state,
even in cases of rape and incest. 'All this seems very dire,' said Eleanor
Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, which publishes
Ms. 'We have to get away from what the politicians are saying,' she said,
'and get women's lives back in the picture.'" (10/04/06)
Funny how
these groups can ignore what many women do say – dismissing them
as “politicians” and how they can claim to believe in liberty
and freedom while taking liberty and life itself away from so many children
in the cause of “rights.”
Mama's
Note: I don't have this discussion often, but I always ask just how the
death penalty can be levied against the most helpless victim of rape or
incest... but we can debate endlessly on a little pain that might possibly
be caused for the rapist if he is sentenced to death. To use this rare
event as an excuse for wholesale murder of the unborn is truly evil. The
hypocrisy is mind boggling.
Culture
Wars
Brain-Injury
Patients Should be Used for Medical Experiments, Suggest Bioethicists
LifeSiteNews.com (Australia)
Severely brain-injured patients should be declared “dead,”
some say. Patients designated as in a “persistent vegetative state
(PVS)” should be used for medical experiments, according to several
top bioethicists, regardless of whether or not prior consent was obtained.
Several articles published in the recent issue of the Journal of Medical
debated the potential use of patients with non-responsive brain function
for such medical experiments as animal organ transplants—to bypass
ethic prohibitions against using a living human being for medical experimentation,
some even suggested designating such patients as “dead,” saying
their cognitive impairments justified treating them as cadavers.
Dr.
John Shea, medical advisor to Campaign Life Coalition, told LifeSiteNews.com
it would never be ethically or morally acceptable to use a living human
being for medical research without their permission, regardless of their
level of cognitive function.
Another
step in the dehumanization process – together with the unborn, “substandard”
babies, the elderly, and the terminally ill.
Mama's
Note: Ah, Dr.
Sigmund Rascher and Heinrich Himmler would be so proud of these "physicians"...
The Coming
Fall of Europe
UK:
Prisons fail to tackle terror recruitment
Guardian [UK]
"The prison service has no strategy to tackle al-Qaida operatives
radicalising and recruiting young African-Caribbean and other ethnic minority
prisoners in British jails, according to prison officers. Britain now
houses more suspected terrorist prisoners -- the number is in the high
hundreds -- than any other European country, with many housed on normal
wings alongside ordinary offenders. The Prison Officers' Association says
some of these terrorist prisoners are targeting for radicalisation and
recruitment other alienated ethnic minority groups, as well as the smaller
number of younger Muslim prisoners, and they are providing 'rich pickings.'"
(10/02/06)
Now, a
Christian organization trying to convert prisoners to Christianity would
be condemned out of hand, but these Islamists have a free hand.
Govt-Run,
Theft Funded Schools:
CO: Offer of "free"
tutoring ignored by families
Denver Post
"Last year, when students at Skyline Vista and Baker elementary schools
missed federal math and reading goals for a third consecutive year, officials
in the Adams 50 School District did what the law required. They sent letters
to parents in English and Spanish, notifying them that under the federal
No Child Left Behind act of 2001, their children were eligible for free
tutoring. ... More than 650 families were eligible. A few parents called
with questions, but when the sign-up period concluded, 'none of our families
took us up on that,' said Cynthia Davis, a district coordinator. ... In
Colorado, where 72 schools were required to offer supplemental services,
just less than 11 percent of the 28,420 students eligible took part last
year, according to the Colorado Department of Education. Participation
is so low that state officials plan this month to assemble a group of
parents to find out why more families are not using the free tutoring."
(10/01/06)
Maybe they
don’t trust the schools to tutor any better than they teach. Without
the ability to pay for their own child’s education (thanks mostly
to the amount of money that government steals from them, and the spiraling
cost of education services and supplies driven by that same government’s
throwing money at the schools), these parents may feel that having their
children spend more time in school, even one-on-one is not desirable .
More
News and Commentary Page 2 -- Our right to defend ourselves
and other good stuff.
Nathan
Barton is writing this from a wonderful place in the West, which might
be in the Black Hills of South Dakota or Wyoming, or might be in one of
the Four Corners States. Exactly where it is, the breezes blow with the
scent of liberty, and the sound of the pines or the pinions is the sound
of freedom. For thousands of years, people have fought and died for the
liberty that Americans in the great spaces of the West enjoy, and he writes
these commentaries in the hopes that continued generations will be able
to do so, until the end of Time.
Be sure
to visit my blog, Liberty's
Outpost.
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Feature! Add your signature to the NEW
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By Robert Greenslade
Several
people have asked about buying Gadsden Flags (the rattlesnake "Don't
Tread on Me flags used by the June 23d Movement and other Property Rights
Organizations: you
can get them for $10.00 plus shipping here.
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