December 2005
12/22/2005: Dick Cheney, who has been fighting throughout his career for expansion of Presidential powers, was quoted in an interview as saying that, "It's Article 2 that specifically indicates, spells out the presence of the Commander in Chief. And he is sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and defend it against all enemies foreign and domestic."
Now, for those of you that don't have a copy of the Constitution handy, let me relate the only portion of Article 2 that Mr. Cheney could possibly be referencing:
"The President shall be the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective office, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment."
Article 2 also covers how the President is elected, his qualifications, Presidential succession, his salary, the Oath of Office, impeachment, etc., but the Commander in Chief designation is clearly what Cheney is talking about. And y'know, I don't see anywhere in there where it says, "And he can throw out this document and write the rules as he goes along if anyone, even a bunch of nut-jobs, attacks American soil." Nope, I've looked it over a few times, and I don't see that anywhere, especially in Article 2.
In addition, Cheney thinks the War Powers Act, which in effect clearly defines and curbs the powers of the President, goes too far and needs to be thrown out. He feels that the President should have near-dictatorial power during wartime. Which, given the nature of terrorism, would be for the rest of our lifetimes.
Cheney, you're a tool. I don't want any President to be able to wield dictatorial power over me, my family, or any other American. Period. Go crawl back under your rock, you freak...
12/22/2005: Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican (surprise!) from Alaska, had tried to attach a rider allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to a bill for defense spending, Hurricane Katrina relief, and heating oil cost relief for the poor. The Democrats -- defenders of all that is good and right in the world for the last 6 years -- as well as a pretty decent number of Republicans who still believed in doing the right thing filibustered the bill, effectively killing it.
Stevens, who could care less whether the beauty of Alaska is preserved for future generations, stomped his feet, pouted, and declared he was taking his ball and going home.
12/22/2005: Jose Padilla, a small time crook turned Muslim turned Al Qaeda trained Islamic terrorist wannabe, was intercepted in Chicago and sent to New York as a material witness in a terrorist probe. He had been incarcerated but not charged. His attorney was going to fight the extended incarceration, but two days before he could have his case heard, Bush zapped him with the label "enemy combatant" and he was suddenly stripped of all his rights as a U.S. citizen and sent to a naval brig in South Carolina.
Now the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked the move of Padilla, who has been detained for more than three years in U.S. military custody, to civilian custody in Florida, where he now faces terrorism conspiracy charges. The ruling questioned Bush's "credibility before the courts." The came in response to a brief filed by Padilla's attorneys in which they held that the Bush administration has consistently "manipulated" courts to evade judicial review of its controversial handling of the case. The court said that the government's actions have left "the impression that Padilla may have been held for these years, even if justifiably, by mistake."
By mistake.
Held in prison for three years "by mistake."
Labeled an enemy combatant by King George and slapped behind bars, all freedoms extinguished at the whim of one man, "by mistake."
Dang.
Bush has to be stopped. He has to be impeached. He simply cannot be trusted witht he powers he has, the powers he thinks he has, and the powers he knows he probably doesn't have but can bully others into pretending he has. This dude's just plain dangerous. We have to get rid of him and his entire administration as soon as possible and start the process of reversing every single thing he did during his term.
12/22/2005: Judge James Robertson left the court overseeing the government's electronic surveillance, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court, in protest over the revelation that Bush had essentially obviated the court with his executive order.
As it turns out, the editors of the New York Post had this story a year ago and were called into the Oval Office where they were sternly encouraged not to run it. That's about the same time that Bush suspended the order. So, when caught, he jerks his hand out of the cookie jar and bullies the kid that saw him into not telling on him. Nice.
Of course, now that the news has hit the fan, he's decided to renew the executive order, as if to say, "Look, I was going to stay the course, but the heat was on. Now that you know anyway, I'm going to start staying the course. Again. After I had stopped. Staying the course, that is. Which I'm going to do now. Again..."
He just doesn't get it. It's America, stupid!"
12/22/2005: The Senate put together a bill to extend the Patriot Act in its entirety for 6 months. The House shot it down and is firing an answering salvo by putting up a bill to extend it for only one month.
Y'know, it was only one week ago that I was dreaming of the Patriot Act being defeated. It seemed possible, if unlikely. And now, the Patriot Act is hanging on by its fingernails because the American public has had an accidental glimpse behind the tapestry of lies. Bush ordered the NSA to spy on domestic call traffic without a warrant, violating the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.
Bush is claiming that the process of getting a warrant is too slow, and that his executive order made the process "quicker and faster."
Quicker.
And faster.
Yeah, that's an actual quote.... From an American President... I'm so proud...
What's odd about it is that NSA already has the power to tap phones without a warrant, so long as they get a warrant within 72 hours (3 days, for those bad at math) after the fact. What I think Bush really wanted is to not have to have the fact of the search become public knowledge at all. Combine this with the "sneak and peek" searches enabled by the so-called Patriot Act, and you've got a President that clearly thinks you have no right to privacy at all. Ever.
The really nifty part is, both sides of the aisle are calling for an investigation. I wonder if Pat Roberts is going to do his job right this time?
12/18/2005: Ok, so Bush got in front of the press and called the revelation to the press of the execute order, which allows the NSA to conduct secret wiretaps without a warrant, a "shameful act."
The Fourth Amendment:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons,
house, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,
shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable
cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the
place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
I lot has been written about warrants and due process, but this seems fairly clear to me. My privacy is sacrosanct, and to explore my world, you have to have a warrant. The Prez feels the NSA needs to be able to move with speed. Fine, then make the warrant process as streamlined as possible. But you still better have a warrant, and I better be apprised of the nature of the warrant. If I'm a U.S. citizen, that's my right.
If you really want to do something about terrorism within our borders, then close the borders, impose a law that says you can't get in without a background check, and verify every foreigner inside the borders. It's simple, really.
12/18/2005: President Bush said Sunday night that a premature withdrawal from Iraq would damage U.S. credibility just as insurgents are starting to feel "a tightening noose." He also hailed the Iraqi election as "the beginning of something new."
What noose? He talking about the same insurgents that have invented a remote controlled and disguised, shaped charge propelled projectile bomb that can easily penetrate any armor we have? Are these guys feeling Bush's noose? Really?!
And the "beginning of something new" is really the ending of Bush's country building exercise. We are never going to be able to leave Iraq. Period. We will always have to be there to babysit this place, or we'll have to come to terms with the notion that not everyone likes the concept of democracy, especially the tribal clans in Iraq and Afganistan.
Bush, you're an idiot, and so is every last person that still thinks you aren't completely dangerous in the office you currently hold.
12/18/2005: Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wisconsin, said, "It doesn't matter how many times he talks to members of Congress, it doesn't matter how many times the Justice Department tells him it's ok, if it's not within the law, if we haven't passed a law allowing it, you can't do it. What he's doing is illegal."
Well said, Russ.
In a letter partly authored by Mr. Feingold, Democratic Congressional leaders said, ""We believe that the President must have the best possible intelligence to protect the American people, but that intelligence must be produced in a manner consistent with our Constitution and our laws, and in a manner that reflects our values as a nation."
Values Bush swore he'd uphold. A Constitution he swore he'd protect. Promises he didn't just break -- these were promises he never intended to keep.
12/18/2005: So Bush went on the air last night and basically said, "Yeah, I spied on you. I can do that. I'm the Prez. And you guys knowing about it is against the law."
Again, Bushie, spying on the American people is against the law. Wire taps without a warrant is unConstitutional. And blowing the whistle on you is patriotic. And the NSA didn't need special authority from you -- while they are normally barred from domestic spying, there's a special court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court, that can issue warrants allowing them to spy on U.S. citizens when the need arises.
What Bush basically did last night is say, "I'm the Man, I do what I want, and to whomever it was that told on me: I'm coming to get you!"
Is this the man you wanted for President? Really??!!
But I'm not done yet. This moron wants to drape himself in the horror of 9/11 and chastise the Senate for not passing the Patriot Act, an act that, in parts, directly diminishes your freedoms and protections -- protections -- you enjoy as a citizen of the United States of America. This jackass wants to say that the Patriot Act is the only thing standing between you and terrorists while leaving the borders wide open. His priorities are clearly not national security. They're placed solidly on the side of continuing to allow big business access to cheap labor and compensating for leaving the borders wide open by circumventing the Constitution. His need to catch terrorists only after they've already entered the country does not supercede your right to protect from unwarranted search and seizure. What's laughable is that he defends his actions by saying that the Attorney General and the President's Special Counsel said it was ok. These people are beholden to him, to a man who now has a history of bullying people into giving him, not what's right, but what he wants, even when it clearly conflicts with what's right.
Again, the NSA can go to a court and get a warrant for domestic surveillance. His executive order was illegal, period.
Don't lose sight of the fact that the man you voted for is evil.
12/16/2005: Early in 2002, in response to the World Trade Center attack of September 11th, 2001, George Bush signed an executive order allowing U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to spy on phone calls without a warrant. The executive order was then immediately designated as classified to prevent news of it from getting out to the American public.
George W. Bush, the man Republicans voted for and have hysterically protected from any and all criticisms, the man who stood before an entire nation and took an oath to protect the Constitution, gave an executive order to directly violate that Constitution.
Refresher: The process of search and seizure by a government agency is controlled by the judicial branch via warrants. A warrant is a mandatory requirement before searching a person or that person's effects, property, communications, etc.
So Gee Dub gave the CIA, NSA, FBI, and just about any other government agency you can name, a blank check for tapping your phone. Let's hope the guy in the middle of your conversations, sitting in the white van parked on the curb with headphones on, can be trusted with the information he's gleaning...
Here's a kicker: Some NSA officials were so concerned about the legality of the program -- y'know, violating the Constitution and all -- that they refused to participate. In fact, the heat coming back caused Bush to temporarily suspend the executive order last year.
So, a little quick math... For 2 years, your right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure was suspended by your President. And what was happening last year? Oh yea! The election. Bush got scared that someone would pop up, frustrated at the violation of Bush's oath, and blow the whistle on him. Of course! That makes sense. Election year? Time to cover your ass, smooth things over. Kind of like when you kick that pizza crust covered dish under the sofa when you see someone at the door. Just a quick little cover up, y'know? Of course, then you forget the dish and a month later you're vacuuming and you find this mummified, moldy, plate that caused the smell you've been enduring, the smell that finally got you to start cleaning up.
I've been saying for about... mmm... 5 years now? That we need to do some major cleaning up. The smell of the NeoCons is getting downright nauseating... The thing we have to keep in mind is that the Constitution provides us with a seriously large vacuum cleaner intended for situations just like this one. It's called impeachment.
This comes at the same time that news breaks that the Pentagon has been keeping a database on American citizens that, while ostensibly used for tracking security threats, in reality contains information on everyone they ever monitored, innocent of terrorist activities or not.
Side note: The Patriot Act also violates the premise of obtaining a warrant prior to search and seizure. And the Republicans are determined to shove that down your throat as well. Just so you know. I just want to be sure you're aware of what your government is doing to your rights.
UPDATE: President George "Monkey Faced Frat Boy" Bush is trying to defend his executive order. While he refuses to confirm or deny this report, he stated to reporters, "After 9/11, I told the American people I would do everything in my power to protect the country, within the law, and that's exactly how I conduct my presidency," implying that he doesn't think the Constitution is part of the law. When pressed for details, he refused, saying, "It would compromise our ability to protect the people." By people, he clearly means himself and his staff. In the mean time, people from both sides of the Congressional aisle are stating categorically that what Bush did was wrong. Period.
What a putz.
Two good things are coming out of this. First, more people than ever before now understand that Bush is a clear and present danger to the citizens of the United States. Second, it's hurting the Patriot Act's chances of being renewed. Senators getting ready to vote on the bill to make portions of the Patriot Act permanent and extend the life of other portions see this report as evidence that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, and his cronies can't be trusted with the broad (unConstitutional) powers laid out in the act.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, was on the fence up until now. Apparently Charley was having difficulty seeing the evil in Bush and naively thought that, surely, the U.S. government wouldn't be subverted by its own President?! Golly gee willickers, no! But now his tune, like other Senators waking from the slumber of politics-as-usual, says, "Today's revelation that the government listened in on thousands of phone conversations without getting a warrant is shocking and has greatly influenced my vote. Today's revelation makes it very clear that we have to be very careful -- very careful."
Hey Charley! They should also be telling you that an investigation into the President and his abuse of his powers is long overdue.
UPDATE: THE PATRIOT ACT GOT SHOT DOWN!! Oh, man, this is the best news I've gotten all week!
Senators on both sides of the aisle argued that some of the act's provisions infringe on civil rights. So I guess Congress is starting to remember that one of their duties is to function within the scope of the Constitution. A bipartisan group was also proposing a three-month extension to continue debate and amend certain provisions, but that got shot down, too.
BOOM, BABY! I think I'm going to take my kids out to eat to celebrate. Their future just got a tad bit rosier...
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Click the microphone to listen to Central California NetCast (CCNC) episodes and hear Todd and his guests discuss the topics that are driving them to the crack pipe. |
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There are no WMDs in Iraq.
Never were.
No chemical weapons.
No biological weapons.
No nuclear weapons.
No possible "mushroom clouds."
Bush lied to you.
Cheney lied to you.
Condoleeza Rice lied to you.
Colin Powell lied to you.
Donald Rumsfeld lied to you.
I told you Bush was lying.
And you didn't listen.
You believed his lies.
You focused on his propoganda.
You allowed yourself to be fooled.
You re-elected him.
You elected a liar and a murderer by proxy.
1. Close the borders. Immediately. Put the National Guard on border patrol until further notice. Allow migrant workers and international travel only with background checks and permits.
2. Pull as many people as we can afford to out of Iraq and put them back in the arms of their families. Quick rotation to get everyone out for a time.
3. Drop Iraq as quick as we can without destabilizing it again. "Victory" will be defined as getting everyone out of harm's way without the new Iraq government falling apart.
4. Put the troops back in Afghanistan to catch Bin Laden. Pressure Pakistan to fully assist us in the effort and to allow our troops to go into Pakistan, mixed with Pakistani troops, to search for Bin Laden until he's found, hog-tied, and flown to U.S. soil to stand trial.
5. Tender a formal apology to the U.N. for the behaviour of the Bush administration. In the next breath, I'd submit three proposals. The first would outlaw preemptive war. The second would define a set of measures every country in the U.N. would be required to put into place that would minimize terrorist activity in their countries. That second proposal would also provide for collective monitoring of terrorist levels in each country and penalties for not keeping terrorism below acceptable levels. The third proposal would tightly coordinate information from all law enforcement agencies around the world to help identify and track suspected terrorists.
6. Sign the Kyoto Protocol.
7. Hand Congress a stack of bills to pass that essentially roll back the Bush administration's damage.
8. Start the ball rolling on areas that the Bush administration just flat-out ignored.
12/16/2005: My old Logitech keyboard died today. In the literature that came with my new keyboard, my old one looks a lot like the Cordless MX Duo, although the picture on their website of the MX Duo isn't the same. And the area in which they're different is what I'm griping about.
Who's the moron at Logitech that decided to take the 6 key block of navigation keys away, move the insert key up into the function key row, make the delete key HUGE, and move the Home, End, PgUp and PgDn keys around? What jerkweed rearranged a perfectly good, high-speed-typing keyboard? Now every time I reach for the insert or home keys, I end up hitting either the irritatingly massive delete key or the backslash key, and when I reach for the insert key -- which I do frequently when pasting with Shift-Insert -- I hit the backspace key instead.
Well, whoever it was, someone tell him he's an ass. I'd hunt him down online and write him a nasty-gram, but every time I try to type anything more complicated than a simple sentence with this stupid keyboard, it takes me 5 times as long because I keep hitting the wrong damn navigation keys........ GGGRRRRR!!!
12/16/2005: Hillary, burning a flag is Constitutionally protected free speech. Period. You won't ever catch me doing it, but even so, don't touch my Constitutional rights. Bush has done that more than enough. Don't be like him, ok?
12/15/2005: The House passed House Bill 3199 which extends portions of the Patriot Act and makes other parts permanent. The vote went like this:
| Yea | Nay | Not Voting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rep. | 208 | 17 | 6 |
| Dem. | 43 | 154 | 5 |
| Other | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 251 | 172 | 11 |
So let's juggle the numbers a bit, shall we? Let's say that all the Democrats voted, and that none of them forgot to protect the Constitution. Then the numbers look like this:
| Yea | Nay | Not Voting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rep. | 208 | 17 | 6 |
| Dem. | 0 | 202 | 0 |
| Other | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 208 | 219 | 6 |
Well, look at that! The greatest threat to the Constitution since the country was founded would have been defeated! That's just amazing, isn't it? A little solidarity in the face of a critical threat to the country's foundation would have won the day. Hm.
I'm going to look for a list of the jerks that flaunted your basic rights as U.S. citizens, and I'm going to post it here, and when election time comes around, I'm going to urge you to vote against these individuals. This can't be tolerated. As Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, "He who would give up Liberty in exchange for temporary security, deserves neither Liberty nor security."
Did you ever notice that the founding fathers frequently -- more often than not -- capitalized the word "Liberty?" It was that important to them. Something of that sentiment has been lost since then, as reflected in the cavalier attitudes of our government today.
12/15/2005: Bush seems to have difficulty defining "victory" as it applies to Iraq. See, to claim victory, you first have to review your goals. So let's consult the ancient texts and read what the original goal was.... hmmmm... Ah! Here it is:
To Eliminate Iraq's Weapons Of Mass Destruction.
But there weren't any, and while we knew that before we went in, it was the (over)stated purpose for spending billions of dollars and thousands of lives. You remember, "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." Yeah, right....
Ok, so then we restated it to something easy, something we'd already done:
To Eliminate An Evil Tyrant.
Which we did. Already. Before we readjusted our stated goals. Y'know, I wish I could do that. When I fail to make a deadline, I wish I could just restate what the objective is to something I've already completed.
My boss:"Todd, the hardware interface in version 9.1 isn't done yet."
Me: I think for a moment, pull out a piece of paper, scribble furiously, and hand it to my boss.
My boss:"You scratched out 'Hardware Interface' and wrote in 'Plug-In API'. But you finished that 6 months ago..."
Me: "Victory!! Mission Accomplished! Woo! I'm #1, I'm #1!"
Fortunately for the company, my boss is smarter than 59 million people in the U.S. (actually, it's a safe bet that she's smarter than 99% of the U.S.), and she'd probably fire my sorry butt if I seriously tried to pull that. And frankly, I'd expect it. Who wouldn't?
Oh, wait...
12/15/2005: Today it was reported that Bob Novak told a Raleigh, NC, newspaper that he would "be amazed" if Bush didn't know the identity of the Novak's other, as-yet secret, informant in the highest echelons of our government. And since he's already admitted that Karl Rove was one source, who else would be standing right next to the President, muttering darkly in his ear, growling profanities at all who oppose the NeoCon world domination plan? Why... let's see....
Hmmmm.....
Wait! I've got it! Dick Cheney, the evil emperor himself!
Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer urged Bush to identify Novak's source or to say that he does not know who it is. In other words, "Hey Bushie! Tell us who it is, or go on record that you don't know! That way we either have your evil henchman, or we have yet another lie upon which to impale you and your party of uber-rich elitists!"
Of course, Bush had no comment. Because that's the only way to preserve himself at any cost nowadays, by just keeping his big dumb trap shut.
12/15/2005: Yesterday, Bush accepted responsibility for the fact that we went to war based on bad intelligence. What he didn't admit to was knowing the intelligence was bad before he made his case for war to the United States Congress. It's kind of like saying you feel bad that someone died without admitting that you pulled the trigger. It's a useless statement. Of course, such an admission would be a federal offense and grounds for impeachment, so don't expect Bush to confirm the statements of dozens of people that were in a position to either validate the intelligence or hear the arguments first hand against using bad intelligence to make the case for invading a sovereign nation that didn't pose a threat to the United States or its interests. Because that would just be stupid, now wouldn't it? Best to hold on as long as possible, wreaking as much damage as possible. He's a butt-rich elitist; did you expect anything less that complete, to-the-last-drop self preservation?
12/10/2005: Zell Miller has done badly by Georgia, his home state for over 25 years. As its Governor and as a Senator, he has kissed up to big business for his entire career, supporting tax breaks for the rich, tax increases for the middle class, slashed programs for the poor and disabled. With Presidents, he kisses up to whomever he thinks will win. He supported Clinton, then he supported Bush, Jr. He has voted against environmental protections, even for drilling in ANWR on multiple occasions. He outright slammed the party that put him in power, the Democrats, when he supported Bush in 2004, by alleging that he could no longer trust the Democrats to protect his most cherished treasure, his family. Of course, by then, Bush had lied to get us into a war that has killed 2100+ U.S. servicemen to date, killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, and created the greatest breeding ground for future terrorists this world now knows.
I wish Georgia would pull its collective head out of the sand and fire this numbskull, ASAP, before he screws up the future of my children and well as his any more than he already has.
12/10/2005: Montreal hosted a two-week U.N. conference on global warming, a follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol meetings. The U.S. sent delegates, and Bill Clinton was invited to attend as well as a sort of independent ambassador from the U.S. After this past week was up, the positions taken could be summed up as follows:
Bush: We'll cut greenhouse gas emissions when we feel like it. We're not signing anything. In the future, we can talk about it all you like, and we might even cut a deal now and then with neigboring countries if the politics are right, but we're not going to do anything, and you can't make us.
Clinton: Bush is just flat wrong. Al Gore championed this cause because it's the right thing to do. We have a responsibility to the world, to our children, and to the generations that follow to set the stage for mature management of our planet. As the biggest greenhouse gas emitter, and with the consensus of the scientific community, we must take responsibility for our actions and join the efforts to reduce the harmful effect we're having on the environment.
Bush: These accords will hurt our economy, and scientists say all this muck about global warming is hooey.
Clinton: The handful of unqualified pseudo-scientists that you pay to say what you want said don't count against the thousands of qualified scientists in all related fields that are sounding the alarm about the effects that we're just beginning to see due to global warming. As for the economy, inventing and manufacturing technology for reducing emissions has enormous commercial potential, and "carbon marketing" will reduce the effect of the controls as industries that don't need their carbon allotment sell it to industries that need more than their carbon allotment. Y'know, with your dumb, bully attitude, it's no wonder the U.S. has been awarded more "Fossil Awards" (awards given for silliest and most backward comments at these conferences) than all other nations combined.
Bush: Shut up, fat boy!
Clinton: Bite my butt, frat monkey!
Bush: Why I'll --
Clinton: Yeah? Bring it. The biggest thing in Texas will be the sound of me cracking your head like a walnut...
Ok, I'm off on a tangent now...
12/9/2005: The Patriot Act chaps my hide. It's a knee-jerk slash at the Constitution in response to the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attack on the WTC. It rips at the very heart of our freedoms in a way that makes it no easier to address the problem of terrorists within our borders.
If the government was really interested in stopping terrorists, they'd have closed the borders by now and tightly regulated immigration.
Since a complete review of the Patriot Act would put you into a coman, let's just cover the parts that are holding up Congress right now:
National Security Letters: These allow the FBI to print out a form letter, sign it, and force a business to divulge all your records. No proof, no reason, no warrant, no notification, no check and balance, this is a complete violation of your privacy. House: no change. Senate: require a judge's signature.
Degree of suspicion: This is the burden of proof placed on the FBI that they must meet before a warrant for a record search must be approved. House: subject need only be "relevant" to a terrorism case, a term that is loosely defined at best in the Patriot Act. Senate: the search must pertain to information that directly relates to the terrorist or spy in question.
Gag orders and searches: House: the subject of a record search cannot discuss or disclose the search to anyone except his/her attorney. Senate: subject can publicly object to the search. For me this is a First Amendment issue, and the Patriot Act is in direct violation of that amendment on this point.
Sneak and Peek warrants: These allow authorities to search your house and belongings without notifying you. Can you say, "Due process?" Another Constitutional violation of the most egregious type. House: Authorities must notify you within 30 days, but can obtain any number of 90 day extensions from a judge. Senate: Authorities have 7 days to notify you that a search took place, no extensions. Neither one sits well with me -- by the Constitution, authorities can arrest and hold you for 72 hours without charges, but after that they must state the nature of the arrest or let you go. This is no different: If a search is conducted, I think you should be notified within 72 hours that the search took place.
All in all, the Senate appears to be upholding its pledge to protect the Constitution better than the House. I'll be reviewing the voting record for the Patriot Act and targeting those that didn't vote against it when I go to the polls next year.
12/9/2005: Howard Dean in the press a lot. He has held court over the Iraq war for months, and recently announced a plan for "strategic redeployment" of troops out of Iraq that the Democratic Party can coalesce around.
Dean sounds like he really wants to be President.
Mr. Dean, please don't try. Don't muddy the waters. Don't put the Democratic Party at such a disadvantage. I realize that now everyone feels you were unjustly muddied by the "Yeehaw!" incident, but you would be much more effective at righting the wrongs of the current administration if you were Hillary's VP. An active and forceful VP that would be a natural successor when she finishes her eight year tenure, a VP that not only would be a shoo-in, but in all likelihood, an eight year President as well. That's a game plan any Dem can get behind after the NeoCon disaster that is President George W. Bush.
12/9/2005: Bill Clinton, who as president championed the Kyoto Protocol clamping controls on "greenhouse gases," was scheduled to speak at the conference Friday afternoon -- in an unofficial capacity but potentially at a critical point in backroom talks involving the U.S. delegation.
And boy, is Bush mad. More accurately, the U.S. envoys were "displeased." "They haven't protested formally, but they're annoyed," a source in the Canadian government, conference host, said of the U.S. delegates. "They're not infuriated, but they're not thrilled."
(Hee hee!)
Clinton was invited by the City of Montreal to speak in the main conference hall between the official morning and afternoon plenary sessions, a speech that is being eagerly anticipated by hundreds of delegates from 180 countries.
It must suck when the smart kid stands up in class and makes you look really stupid. I wouldn't know -- I was always that smart kid -- but Bush is probably grinding his teeth and kicking his dog right about now. "Gosh-durned Rhodes Scholar momma's boy, always tryin' to make me look dumb!" Yup, 'fraid so, Bushie. And with all due respect to Mrs. Clinton, he gets all the babes, too.
It sucks to be Bush.
12/9/2005: I am sick to death of hearing the phrase, "Happy Holidays." My family has decided that we will not be shopping at stores that advertise "Holiday Sales" or avoid the use of the word "Christmas", and the only time we're going to give money to charity collectors at store doorways is if they wish us a Merry Christmas rather than a "Happy Holiday."
Look, folks, this particular holiday is about the birth of Christ. I don't have to be a religious nutcase to want the reason for this time of year preserved. In the spirit of Christ, I want to share this time with people of all religious persuasions, and I want us to remember that, even if you think conservative whack jobs need their mouths duct-taped shut for life, we would all do well to model our lives after the example that Jesus created. As with all things, parts of that example and what they meant are open to interpretation, but the Golden Rule is pretty straightforward, and it's the best law to live by I've ever come across.
So don't go over the deep end patronizing people who get offended at stupid crap. Advertise Christmas or just shut up. Anything else makes you look like a marketing pansy.
12/9/2005: Following the announcement that the University Of Kansas has declared war on the Kansas Board of Education for ruling that intelligent design must be taught opposite evolution as a competing and scientifically valid theory, Paul Mirecki, who you'll recall is the chairman of the religious studies department at KU, said in a private email that somehow got leaked: "The fundies want it all taught in a science class, but this will be a nice slap in their big fat face by teaching it as a religious-studies class under the category 'myth'".
Beautiful.
12/9/2005: In response to being booed off-stage at a university, Ann Coulter, the arrogant, racist, sexist, jingoist, foaming at the mouth Rabid Chihauhau of the Right, said, "I love to engage in repartee with people who are stupider than I am."
A handy guideline which, when applied, keeps her audiences small enough to fit in the car with her while she's commuting.
She even said that Bill Clinton was an "executive buffoon" who won the presidency only because Ross Perot took 19 percent of the vote. She declined to explain the overwhelming reelection of Clinton. Sounds like sour grapes to me. The next time we have a President that is unfaithful, he'd better sleep with Ms. Coulter so she can feel included. Seems she feels slighted or something...
But even so, I have to take exception. Clearly she has been visiting my site and has paraphrased my slogan here, adopted since the fiasco in 2004 that has been mislabeled in the self-deluded conservative-dominated press as (making quotation marks in the air with my fingers) The Presidential Election (HA!), "Because I'm smarter than you are." No, I don't actually think that I'm automatically smarter than every single reader that comes through this site. Just the Republicans.
Clearly Ms. Coulter (it just occurred to me that you could puke and recognizably pronounce her name at the same time) lacks the creativity to come up with her own insults, and the President, with snappy quips like, "Nah nah," and "I know you are but what am I," is not providing sufficient inspiration.
I once considered creating a "Todd's Opinions Of the Month B-Otch Award" for Ms. Coulter, but realized I'd have to immediately retire it.....
