Politics June 2005
6/30/2005 Poltics / Lifestyles. Spain yesterday legalised gay marriage" ... and granted same-sex couples the right to adopt children and inherit property from each other, despite protests from conservative groups and the Roman Catholic church." - ft
Pretty big news. Sure, why not. The planet is overpopulated. Let lovers love. Gayness isn't catching. Not my thing, but let people be who they are. Party on.
6/30/2005 Poltics / Impeach Bush. Novak: 'I will reveal all' / Time Will Tell"Time Inc. announced Thursday it will turn over the subpoenaed records from journalist Matt Cooper regarding the leak of a CIA operative's name, following a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear an appeal in the case." - cnn
Good. Assuming there is no "accident" between now and then, this means we get to find out which senior official in the Bush cabinet approved revenge by outting Plame as a CIA agent. Possible authors of the leak: Lewis Libby and/or Karl Rove. This is very interesting because the leak may have been approved by vice president Cheney or George W. Bush himself. If Bush, that may finally be the last straw needed to impeach.
If Bush really wanted to find out who leaked, as he said, it would have been easy: just have all of his senior officals sign a statement under penalty of jail time for lying, stating that they were not the leak. Bush obviously uses fear and intimidation to control his underlings and it is really amazing he has stayed in power for so long after making so many enemies outside and inside the US. Well, it is most likely that someone will have to take the fall, that some relatively unknown person will get a slap on the wrist to deflect the heat from the real perps. Time will tell. (Pun intended).
6/29/2005 Politics. Bush Approves CIA Operations to Abduct and Torture Suspects.
REUTERS: "... CIA agents charged with kidnapping a Muslim cleric in Milan appear to have bungled their way into an international incident by ignoring the most basic rules of the spy trade, experts say ... The abduction of Nasr, who court documents say was flown to Egypt and tortured there, threatens to rattle U.S.-Italian relations three months after U.S. troops shot dead an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq without facing disciplinary action.. ... The CIA has broad powers to abduct terrorism suspects overseas and transfer them to third countries under a classified directive signed by President Bush days after the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. officials have said. "
This cruelty in our name is unacceptable. The CIA is above the law and it should not be. There are no checks and balances that I can see. The point of the CIA is to protect the USA, but not at the cost of our humanity. Hey, Bush, stop permitting torture with our tax dollars. Vile monsters.
6/22/2005 Politics / Freedom (npr) Supreme Court: Property Can Be Seized by Government for Private Development
"... As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue."
Ha ha. Do you believe in ghosts?
This "phantom of lost liberty" is distrubingly real. Governments can now sieze private property! In other words, this Land Is NOT Your Land!
Would Bush supporters now stand up and admit they were tricked by conservative BS media?
Will they finally "get it" when someone forces them out of their home thanks to Bush's "conservative" supreme court that in truth supports the rights of corporations over individuals?
You should have listened to your better informed liberal friends. They told you the Patriot Act is evil and that Bush and his control freak neocon cult were out to destroy your rights and bleed this country dry. We tried to warn you, but you didn't listen. Almost too late now.
You have the right to vote to give all of your rights away. Problem is, if you give away little rights like the freedom to burn flags you soon get to a slippery slope where serious freedoms are taken so fast you won't know what hit you. This Supreme Court decision is one example. Expect more. If you won't fight for democracy, you will lose it. Each new generation must work hard to put down tyrants that spring up to take more than their fair share of control. Impeach Bush! Impeach the Supreme Court! If you won't fight for your rights, at least fight for your homes!
6/22/2005 Politics / Freedom Control Freaks in House Passes Anti-Flag Burning Amendment
"A constitutional amendment to outlaw flag burning cleared the House Wednesday but faced an uphill battle in the Senate. An informal survey by The Associated Press suggested the measure doesn't have enough Senate votes to pass." - guardianuk
Waste of our tax dollars.
Want more flag burning? Make it a crime and you'll get more. Read this timeline of flag protection legislation. People love to do things that are forbidden by control freaks.
Good for the Senate. We don't need more dumb laws telling people what they can't do. We need better behavior.
Want less flag burning? Start by listening to people. Ask why people are burning flags and address the concerns, ignorance and misperceptions.
I can't believe I have to say that! I can't believe that there are 286 adults who somehow made it into the US House of Representatives without a basic understanding of conflict resolution, human nature, etc.
Yes, burning flags is dumb. People do a lot of dumb things. Communication, respect and education are the fix. Control freaks need to chill. Flag burners should find more constructive ways to be heard.
6/15/2005 Politics / 9-11 (washingtontimes). Ex-Bush Labor Chief & Criminal Justice Center Director: collapse of the WTC is "bogus", controlled demolition shows case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America."A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Former chief economist for the
Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is "bogus" and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7. Reynolds, who also served as director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas and is now professor emeritus at Texas A&M University said, "If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America would be compelling." Reynolds commented from his Texas A&M office, "It is hard to exaggerate the importance of a scientific debate over the cause of the collapse of the twin towers and building 7. If the official wisdom on the collapses is wrong, as I believe it is, then policy based on such erroneous engineering analysis is not likely to be correct either. The government's collapse theory is highly vulnerable on its own terms. Only professional demolition appears to account for the full range of facts associated with the collapse of the three buildings." - washingtontimes
This is in the Washington Times ... and on blogs for years now. Firemen heard and saw a series of explosions one floor after another as in a controlled demolition. There was also Larry Silverstein's "pull it" comment. We also know that burning jet fuel can't soften steel in a matter of minutes. According to Underwriters Laboratories (UL), the steel was only heated to about 500F (250C). To soften steel for the purposes of forging, temperatures need pass 2012F (1100C). Un-fireproofed steel will not melt until reaching red-hot temperatures of nearly 3000F (1648C). Thermite bombs fit the facts best. Believe Bush, deny reality? See Popular Mechanics for how far people go. PM shows a distant picture of the Pentagon hole and asks us to believe that "What was left of the plane flowed into the structure in a state closer to a liquid than a solid mass." If true, where are the large wings?
As one clear thinking person put it, "When airplanes crash in other locations, every piece of the plane can be found, even if it is in small pieces. Pieces of the passengers and their luggage can also be found. How is it that when a plane hits the Pentagon, everything suddenly changes and the plane is liquefied?"
Makes you wonder... More than that, it should make you scream, "Impeach! Impeach!"
6/13/2005 Politics. Sacramento: Stop Vote Fraud, Demand a Paper Trail!
If you can, be at the the Voting Systems and Procedures Panel (VSPP) meeting at the Secretary of State's office on Thursday, June 16th at 10 AM to support democracy.
Thursday, June 16th, starting at 10 AM
Office of the Secretary of State
1500 11th Street 1st Floor – Auditorium
Sacramento, California 95814
Much more info and a map are here: sacramentofordemocracy.org/?q=node/view/3018
You can also read this editorial from the Sacramento News & Review by Sacramento's own, Jim March of www.BlackBoxVoting.org
Democracy, not Dieboldocracy sacramentofordemocracy.org/?q=node/view/3032
6/13/2005 Politics / Education. Expanding supply of high-quality science, math teachers
Much needed!! I might not like everything our Govenator is up to, but this is great."On May 31, UC announced a new partnership with Governor Schwarzenegger, corporate supporters, and the California State University system to expand the number of high-quality
science and math teachers for California's public schools.
Under the program, UC will quadruple its annual production of science and math teachers. In addition, UC undergraduates will be able to achieve, in four years including one summer, both a bachelor's degree in science, mathematics, or engineering and the preparation needed to become a secondary-school science or math teacher."
"... In 2002-03, nearly 1,500 mathematics and 800 science classes in California high schools were taught
by teachers with no teaching credential."More information is at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/academics/1000teachers/.
6/10/2005 Politics. Sign This Petition to Get Bush to Answer Questions.
Do it and tell a friend. This is a nice first step on a long overdue impeachment of Bush and co. Read about the "Downing Street Memo" which seems to prove intelligence was manipulated to get the US into a war with Iraq on false pretenses.
6/16/2005 Politics (wishtv) Lawmakers Push for Iraq Withdrawal.
"Start getting US troops out of Iraq: That's the message from a bipartisan group of congressmen to President Bush. But the White House doesn't seem to be listening.
"After 1,700 deaths, over 12,000 wounded, and $200 billion spent, we believe it is time to have this debate and discussion on this resolution," said Rep. Walter Jones (Republican-North Carolina). ... "This is the proposal that will be the beginning of the end of the war in Iraq," said [former presidential candidate] Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).
But the Bush administration insists the mission will not be cut short. "It would be absolutely the wrong message to send to set some sort of artificial timetable. That would be the wrong message to send to the terrorists," said Scott McClellan, White House spokesman.
6/16/2005 Politics / Iraq. Real US Death Toll in Iraq Over 7,000?
One web site contends that soldiers about to die in Iraq are quickly flown out of the country so they won't be counted as combat deaths in the war. The tbrnews.org site's anonymous author states that the actual US death toll in Iraq is " in excess of 7,000. Given the officially acknowledged number of over 15,000 seriously wounded, this elevated death toll is far more realistic." The author asks you to write if you've lost someone in the war not on the official death list. Others maintain that the DoD numbers are accurate or very close and that this site is just propaganda. I have to admit that I don't see any names coming out that are not on the official list yet. Even so, the number of officially acknoledged seriously wounded is appalling as is the offically uncounted number of civilain casualties that have resulted from this lopsided bloody war. The site Iraqbodycount says this war has resulted in 22,000 to 25,000 people dead.
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