Two new nails in the coffin of our democracy are being driven right now by the Republican government. At stake is the independence of the states, and the freedom of individuals. The important question is this: Do we exist to support the state, or does the state exist to guarantee freedom and justice to individuals?
Pace Comitatus means the central government can't enforce its will in local law enforcement. It means the US government can't go to Boston to arrest people guilty of being gay and married.
DNA Database compulsory on arrest violates the fifth amendment's protection against compulsory testimony on behalf of the state, and violates the fourth amendment's prohibition of unreasonable search and siezure. But this time the item being siezed is the essence of the person being searched.
Strict construction my ass! WHich one of you assholes is voting Republican next time?
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Monday, September 26, 2005
How to improve a fuel economy
A petroleum economy rapidly nearing cataplexy, the United States was last week the scene of a terrible scam. The government found a use for all those black people: Tell them that everyone along the gulf coast has to drive a hundred miles north.
At $4/gallon.
And maybe drive back (You'll have to rent a space to stay while you mop out the new swimming pool where your basement, heater, water heater, winter clothes, tools, packed-up memorobilia used to be. Now all that stuff is a blob. It would have taken about three days to pack it all up and ship it to your brother's house in New York for a few weeks. And it took weeks to arrive.) if the evacuation order is lifted. Can you stay in the city overnight? Luckily, everyone in Louisiana has one of those swamp boats, so you can still commute.
Guess 1 million trucks averaging 20 mpg. That's 5,000,000 gallons, about $20,000,000. And that's 5,000,000 gallons off the top of our national reserve. And back south makes 10,000,000 gallons.
Clinton would have had airlifts assembling DURING the storm.
At $4/gallon.
And maybe drive back (You'll have to rent a space to stay while you mop out the new swimming pool where your basement, heater, water heater, winter clothes, tools, packed-up memorobilia used to be. Now all that stuff is a blob. It would have taken about three days to pack it all up and ship it to your brother's house in New York for a few weeks. And it took weeks to arrive.) if the evacuation order is lifted. Can you stay in the city overnight? Luckily, everyone in Louisiana has one of those swamp boats, so you can still commute.
Guess 1 million trucks averaging 20 mpg. That's 5,000,000 gallons, about $20,000,000. And that's 5,000,000 gallons off the top of our national reserve. And back south makes 10,000,000 gallons.
Clinton would have had airlifts assembling DURING the storm.
But seriously, the Hurricanes
I was in New Orleans once, and it was around 2pm on a Tuesday. I was, oddly, the only one walking around without my very own hurricane. Everyone around me was steeped in the local lore, everybody knows the berms are there to keep reality out.
And we're going to rebuild it on its foundation. Under sea level. Because George Bush is in charge and nothing matters. Decisions are being made by political appointees with less success in their backgrounds than even the failure W.
And we're going to rebuild it on its foundation. Under sea level. Because George Bush is in charge and nothing matters. Decisions are being made by political appointees with less success in their backgrounds than even the failure W.
Old-time religion, modernity, and sea level
Wow, can you imagine what it would have been like a hundred years ago, before doppler radar, satellite tracking and a National Hurricane Center? If a category 4 hurricane would have hit New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi River?
For some reason, it would have been about the same, only with less damage, because George Bush is in charge and he is an asshole and his followers are unprepared, ill-thought out idiots.
For some reason, it would have been about the same, only with less damage, because George Bush is in charge and he is an asshole and his followers are unprepared, ill-thought out idiots.
Friday, September 09, 2005
One more today: The Accountability President
"One report was due April 1. The other was due in early summer. Neither report has been done," he said. Homeland Security officials were not immediately available to comment.
http://go.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=9601266
That was Tom Kean, Republican from NJ, former chair of the 9/11 panel, talking about the HS reports the HS president has so far failed to display, because his minions have failed to product them.
http://go.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=9601266
That was Tom Kean, Republican from NJ, former chair of the 9/11 panel, talking about the HS reports the HS president has so far failed to display, because his minions have failed to product them.
Talk about an arrogant p Rick!
He's too important to be approached except under the prescribed methods.
Got this email from Santorum's office:
Thank you for emailing me. I have detected, however, that your email message was not submitted through my website. Therefore, I am unable to process your email request. Please go to www.santorum.senate.gov and click on the "contact information" link and then select "Email Senator Santorum" at the bottom of the page. If you need further assistance, please feel free to contact my office at: 511 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
Telephone: 202-224-6324
Thank you again for contacting me.
I looked at this 'poll' he has posted there, a finger in the wind:
Do you support a reasonable increase to minimum wage?
Yes:
45.3%
No:
54.7%
45827 total votes
Got this email from Santorum's office:
Thank you for emailing me. I have detected, however, that your email message was not submitted through my website. Therefore, I am unable to process your email request. Please go to www.santorum.senate.gov and click on the "contact information" link and then select "Email Senator Santorum" at the bottom of the page. If you need further assistance, please feel free to contact my office at: 511 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
Telephone: 202-224-6324
Thank you again for contacting me.
I looked at this 'poll' he has posted there, a finger in the wind:
Do you support a reasonable increase to minimum wage?
Yes:
45.3%
No:
54.7%
45827 total votes
Investigation, Please
Subject: Someone, please tell us what the government has been doing
Body: When the Bush gang defended themselves against accusations they ignored intelligence and that's why four airliners were hijacked on the morning of 9/11, there was something to it. Even though nobody could actually remember reading the memo called "Osama Bin Laden is goint to Hijack Planes and Fly Them into Things in the US," it was one memo and there are probably dozens of planes and targets in the US. It was nobody else's responsibility, but the President is very busy, in September of 2001 coming back from his month vacation by way of some campaign stops.
But this time, a storm the size of the Caribbean Sea hit three states, wiping a city off the map. It took weeks to get to the coast. I saw it every day on the weather channel. We knew to the minute when to expect landfall. And we've known a long time New Orleans is a death trap. So there was plenty of intelligence available, though maybe not in Crawford.
The President and everyone he knows knew the inlet to our country's fuel supply was right there. The Energy President certainly knew about the pipelines and tankers. The Senate knows this. Congress might even know.
In pre-election 2004 disaster money got to Florida BEFORE the hurricanes. How can we have an entire government- hundreds of professional public servants and their thousands of staff, let the manpower and defenses of this domestic territory be so misapplied? Why wasn't the National Guard mobilized? Why are they in Iraq taking care of Bush's other refugees?
I want an investigation of the Federal Government's response, and an audit of their responsibilites versus their activities over the past ten years, since the Republican Party hijacked our government. And I don't trust the Republican Party to take part in it.
Do we even know whether we understand how bad our condition may actually be? Eight trillion dollars. $8,000,000,000,000 dollars is the federal deficit. Can we trust their numbers? We certainly can't trust their words.
Joe Matthews
Body: When the Bush gang defended themselves against accusations they ignored intelligence and that's why four airliners were hijacked on the morning of 9/11, there was something to it. Even though nobody could actually remember reading the memo called "Osama Bin Laden is goint to Hijack Planes and Fly Them into Things in the US," it was one memo and there are probably dozens of planes and targets in the US. It was nobody else's responsibility, but the President is very busy, in September of 2001 coming back from his month vacation by way of some campaign stops.
But this time, a storm the size of the Caribbean Sea hit three states, wiping a city off the map. It took weeks to get to the coast. I saw it every day on the weather channel. We knew to the minute when to expect landfall. And we've known a long time New Orleans is a death trap. So there was plenty of intelligence available, though maybe not in Crawford.
The President and everyone he knows knew the inlet to our country's fuel supply was right there. The Energy President certainly knew about the pipelines and tankers. The Senate knows this. Congress might even know.
In pre-election 2004 disaster money got to Florida BEFORE the hurricanes. How can we have an entire government- hundreds of professional public servants and their thousands of staff, let the manpower and defenses of this domestic territory be so misapplied? Why wasn't the National Guard mobilized? Why are they in Iraq taking care of Bush's other refugees?
I want an investigation of the Federal Government's response, and an audit of their responsibilites versus their activities over the past ten years, since the Republican Party hijacked our government. And I don't trust the Republican Party to take part in it.
Do we even know whether we understand how bad our condition may actually be? Eight trillion dollars. $8,000,000,000,000 dollars is the federal deficit. Can we trust their numbers? We certainly can't trust their words.
Joe Matthews
The Energy President
Seriously: The Energy President. That's how they billed his candidacy. The first Harvard MBA business executive, coming to execute some brass-tacks business and get this country moving again!
But the price of everything is about double what it was under Clinton. The Obscene Surplus under Clinton's fiscal authority has become nearly $8,000,000,000,000 in Obscene Deficit. The military hawk has failed for almost an entire term to complete a mission in Iraq, and persists in failing to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. And oil now trades at $70 a barrel- it was around $20 for most of my life. An Enronergy Bill got passed: overspent Bush's goal, failed to change anything but the rules for building a nuclear reactor (=stationary BOMB), rewarded the oil industry with an extra $1,000,000,000 in gifts to help them find oil so they can continue to rake in record margins. And I bet that since no one at Enron went to jail, they're right now trading petroleum futures. After they and Anderson bankrolled Bush's 2000 campaign.
And he's a war hawk. Real Defense type. Except his typical failure in the national security arena has spread to our energy security by doing nothing to protect the ports or pipelines.
And now that the hurricane has landed, and the president has no one to blame for it, expect the GOP appointees at the turnstiles to start spending money to make the problem prettier. Lipstick on a Pig.
So when will Cheney have the Obscene Hubris to sell us out again to Halliburton with a no-bid rebuilding contract?
But the price of everything is about double what it was under Clinton. The Obscene Surplus under Clinton's fiscal authority has become nearly $8,000,000,000,000 in Obscene Deficit. The military hawk has failed for almost an entire term to complete a mission in Iraq, and persists in failing to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. And oil now trades at $70 a barrel- it was around $20 for most of my life. An Enronergy Bill got passed: overspent Bush's goal, failed to change anything but the rules for building a nuclear reactor (=stationary BOMB), rewarded the oil industry with an extra $1,000,000,000 in gifts to help them find oil so they can continue to rake in record margins. And I bet that since no one at Enron went to jail, they're right now trading petroleum futures. After they and Anderson bankrolled Bush's 2000 campaign.
And he's a war hawk. Real Defense type. Except his typical failure in the national security arena has spread to our energy security by doing nothing to protect the ports or pipelines.
And now that the hurricane has landed, and the president has no one to blame for it, expect the GOP appointees at the turnstiles to start spending money to make the problem prettier. Lipstick on a Pig.
So when will Cheney have the Obscene Hubris to sell us out again to Halliburton with a no-bid rebuilding contract?
Letter to our Government
I believe you've been pushing an agenda we're starting to see expressed in the calamitous poor response to Katrina. We're unrepresented. The minimalist approach to government works well when its inspiration is an interest in privacy and independent citizens. And the principle of taxing the fruit of American Opportunity is protective of the right to property.
But when it's used to redistribute our nation's wealth upward from lower to higher economic classes, the government simply turns the anti-altruistic Conservative peeve with taxation into a machine to install a new and opressive class system.
Other than that, I agree with PFAW's letter:
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina it is clear that Congress needs to take seriously the role of the federal government in meeting the needs of its people. I am urging you as my representative in Washington to:
1. Fund the health care, housing, nutrition, employment and education needs of the victims of Hurricane Katrina;
2. abandon all plans to extend or grant additional tax breaks to wealthy individuals and corporations; and
3. abandon the budget reconciliation plan to cut health care and nutrition programs for low-income families.
But when it's used to redistribute our nation's wealth upward from lower to higher economic classes, the government simply turns the anti-altruistic Conservative peeve with taxation into a machine to install a new and opressive class system.
Other than that, I agree with PFAW's letter:
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina it is clear that Congress needs to take seriously the role of the federal government in meeting the needs of its people. I am urging you as my representative in Washington to:
1. Fund the health care, housing, nutrition, employment and education needs of the victims of Hurricane Katrina;
2. abandon all plans to extend or grant additional tax breaks to wealthy individuals and corporations; and
3. abandon the budget reconciliation plan to cut health care and nutrition programs for low-income families.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Yuck
Is anybody besides me nauseated at the Stalinist ceremonial protocol of doom thing they have going on down there, with Roberts carrying the coffin of Rehnquist?
A Pallbearer.
Yuck.
A Pallbearer.
Yuck.
Bush, Florida, and the Republican Failure Machine
Well, at least they did nothing. Everything else they've touched has gone to hell.
This link takes you to an article written about our corporate Federal Government, and the way they look at doing their jobs: gather up all the talented, trained people they can find and ship them a thousand miles to train in a hotel banquet room in Atlanta for rescue work they'll complete In Louisiana and Alabama with colorful brochures and a Toll-Free Number you can call. The appointees here are stupid. The maniacs are running the circus. They have no phones. They have no water. (800) Call-FEMA: Your wait time is ...
...Press 8 if you fear your child's fever and diarrhea may be life-threatening, please consult your pediatrician when you GET THE FREAKIN' PHONES TURNED BACK ON.
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/000246.htm
I hope nothing serious happens in the domestic US requiring some manpower and skill until someone more responsible is president, and until the regime shows something different from the aggressive disregard this one has for us.
Our country has been run for over 20 years by leaders with contempt for government. They've slashed it, shrunk it, gotten rid of paperwork in it. But not until Bush came in with his retarded perspective on his perspective did they actually swell its ranks, maybe in part to absorb the ranks of the disenfranchised & outsourced. And the brochures and interagency falderal. Ineptitude at every level but electioneering, where the real skills are bending the rules, or breaking them under so many moving parts none can be seen as the casus belli. What happened to Valerie Plame?
How much money and free stuff have gone to Bush family members, companies and other non-citizen entities? What did you get? Easier wiretaps and narrower election rights. Protection for Cyanide and Mercury. Easier approval for nuke plants in your neighborhood, less property rights, and oh yeah- Nuclear Waste Cans on wheels bound for Yucca.
It's okay to be a Republican. Just stop doing all this evil bullshit until a purge can get your evil brood away from the tap. Just like, as Santorum says, "It's okay to be a gay, just no good to act like one."
This link takes you to an article written about our corporate Federal Government, and the way they look at doing their jobs: gather up all the talented, trained people they can find and ship them a thousand miles to train in a hotel banquet room in Atlanta for rescue work they'll complete In Louisiana and Alabama with colorful brochures and a Toll-Free Number you can call. The appointees here are stupid. The maniacs are running the circus. They have no phones. They have no water. (800) Call-FEMA: Your wait time is ...
...Press 8 if you fear your child's fever and diarrhea may be life-threatening, please consult your pediatrician when you GET THE FREAKIN' PHONES TURNED BACK ON.
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/000246.htm
I hope nothing serious happens in the domestic US requiring some manpower and skill until someone more responsible is president, and until the regime shows something different from the aggressive disregard this one has for us.
Our country has been run for over 20 years by leaders with contempt for government. They've slashed it, shrunk it, gotten rid of paperwork in it. But not until Bush came in with his retarded perspective on his perspective did they actually swell its ranks, maybe in part to absorb the ranks of the disenfranchised & outsourced. And the brochures and interagency falderal. Ineptitude at every level but electioneering, where the real skills are bending the rules, or breaking them under so many moving parts none can be seen as the casus belli. What happened to Valerie Plame?
How much money and free stuff have gone to Bush family members, companies and other non-citizen entities? What did you get? Easier wiretaps and narrower election rights. Protection for Cyanide and Mercury. Easier approval for nuke plants in your neighborhood, less property rights, and oh yeah- Nuclear Waste Cans on wheels bound for Yucca.
It's okay to be a Republican. Just stop doing all this evil bullshit until a purge can get your evil brood away from the tap. Just like, as Santorum says, "It's okay to be a gay, just no good to act like one."
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