Whose Ox Is Getting Gored Today?

Tags

4th Amendment, Bruce Braley, constitutional rights, freedom, GOP, Health care, Steve King, tea party, teabaggers, Tom Latham, welfare programs

With some folks, freedom and all that fuzzy patriotic stuff can be, shall we say, relative. Much like fundamentalists and their rather astute manner in taking what they like in the Bible quite literally (even when that is not the actual meaning) and ignoring that which they don’t agree with, it seems that our more loudmouthed extremists on the right do the same thing.

You don’t have to watch it. Suffice it to say that our Hannity of Faux News is busy calling Mayor Bloomberg a nanny for his efforts to help his constituents stop ingesting such awful fake food into their bodies.

Now you can agree or not agree with Bloomberg on this. I tend to agree, but I also recognize that it’s very hard to impose such things on people who are addicted to the high sugar, high fat, no nutrient value of a lot of fast food and drink. And there is this other thing–it is an impingement in a sense on one’s right to kill themselves if they so choose.

Note we are not talking about school lunches and the right of school officials to help children develop good eating habits in the first place. That is a laudable goal, and schools provide the opportunity for some children to get the only decent meal they get all day.

But juxtapose Hannity’s silly outrage at Bloomberg’s behavior with that of Nikki Halley’s attempt to limit food stamp usage in her state to only “healthy” food items, meaning that you can’t use them to buy chips and soda and stuff like that I presume. Is she now to be called “nanny” Halley? I’m sure Republicans support her efforts to reduce “obesity” in her state, or is it just possible there is some other motive involved?

I recently had a conversation with a man who hates government programs like food stamps, precisely because he has “stood behind people in line who had food stamps and they weren’t buying good food, but stuff that was unhealthy, and “stuff I wouldn’t be buying if I was allegedly that poor” The real motive being–I want to control charity to others so I can make sure it goes to the “right” people and is used in the “right” way. He had early objected when he offered some leftover pizza to a man who asked for a couple of bucks. When the man reiterated that he’s just like the two bucks, the guy grew incensed, since “he wanted the money, obviously for something other than hunger relief.”

This raises the ugly specter of folks that think they have the right to control those people who they deign to give help to. I you think I’m assuming a bit too much here, I invite you to the case of Florida and Governor Scott’s attempt to impose drug testing on welfare applicants. 

A federal district court ruled Scott’s attempt blatantly unconstitutional, and a Federal appellate court agreed, finding unanimously that the attempt to monitor citizens in this fashion violated their 4th Amendment rights. Note the assumption made here by Scott and Republicans: that welfare recipients necessarily pose a significantly higher threat of drug usage than other citizens. Such is neither warranted by the facts or commons sense, and bespeaks a racist overtone that is apparent to at least me.

Now, I’m told that the conservative seeks to remove government from interfering in the lives of individuals. These examples, serve I think to suggest that that is nothing but balderdash to use a quaint conservative term. It all depends it seems on whose freedoms are at stake–the tiny minority of fellow-traveling extremists, or all those “others” who we don’t really like simply because they ain’t like us.

¥

What to know the ugly truth of why health care costs are so high? It’s because they charge ten times more for stuff and you get stuck with it. They give you a Tylenol and the charge is more than a whole bottle would be at the drugstore. There is a major exposé in Time this week and you can read it here. Thanks to Squatlo Rant for the link up.

¥

Best news of the day? Oh by far it’s that Tom Latham, (R-IA) has determined not to run for Tom Harkin’s senate seat. Latham is a true conservative, but he’s not insane. This leaves the pathway wide open for the one and only truly insane candidate on the extremity of the Republican Right little toe—-our favorite idiot Steve King.

And that means that Bruce Braley, an excellent Democratic candidate who is already “in” for running, is sure to win this seat.

I cannot wait to watch this one. King, who is so famous for not debating his opponent, won’t get away with it this time. It should be fun.

Dear Karl of course was threatening to send in his money against King, which hopefully only will make him want it all the more, and that is all she wrote, said the spider to the fly.

Related articles

• Tom Latham won’t run for Senate in Iowa, clearing path for Steve King (dailykos.com)
• Latham out of U.S. Senate race; King weighing decision (thegazette.com)

 

Which Scares You Most?

Tags

advertizing, bill of rights, Constitution, Election 2012, freedom, God, GOP, heaven and hell, Humor, Newt Gingrich, non-citizens, North Korea, religious fundamentalists

I have to tell you, I’m pretty much stumped here.

Both send shivers down my spine I tell ya.

If you knocked on your neighbor’s door and looked upon either of these alternatives, I think you might start digging that bunker about now.

While I applaud devices that tend to bring families together, I kinda draw the line at footed jammies complete with hoodies and fingerless mittens, all to enjoy the frigid environs of one’s own family room.

Oh, and you can get your name on yours so you never have to be concerned about getting into somebody else’s stinky jammie.

I understand that next year’s fashion mavens are already calling for an embedded microwave and poo bag attachment, all to eliminate those troublesome trots to the pee-room.

On the other hand, nukes in the hands of the spawn of an idiot is not a pleasant thought either.

I hear tell the spawn-apparent, Kim Jong-un has already set off a couple of missiles that fell into the ocean, in celebration of his ascension to the top of the nut-tree.

So, it’s a toss-up in my view.

♦

Meanwhile, back in our own circus tent, Newty seems to have begun to fall already. Paul is now in the lead in Iowa, which proves something, I’m just not sure what. Mostly I think it means that Iowan’s are just bored as hell this time of year. Fallow fields, and a general color of grey-brown, is after all, boring.

But don’t get your hopes up Ricky S., the bell tolls, but not for thee. See, Ricky, we here in Iowa, just dad-gum-it, don’t like you. It’s just that simple. Go home.

Newty, ya barely kept the lead for two weeks! We thought you had better staying power than that. But you just can’t do it can ya? You just can’t keep your mouth in check. Talking about having judges arrested to justify decisions you don’t like, well, good grief Oh Slimy One, that was just not gonna catch on. Not even here in Iowa. And we like to punish judges here as good as the next guy. But REALLY.

You did not think that one through Gangsta Gingrich. You can’t ignore and intimidate judges and then talk about how you’re a constitutionalist. See they have courts in Iran my grifter friend, and they do quality stamp the state’s decision there. And if we do that here, well, it really screws up the argument that we gotta get ready to force  regime change there, cuz of their Mullah-dictatorships.

Getting my drift, NG? Well, it’s probably too late now. So it’s probably best you high tail it down to Callista’s next kiddie book signing, cuz my buddy, that is your future.

We could have had lots more fun, but your mouth got in the way. I guess we always knew it would.

♦

Well, we understand that the President (whom we rather like most all of the time) has agreed to sign a bill that allows for the detention of enemy combatants arrested on American soil, for virtually as long as forever given that a war on a thing, (terrorism) is not likely to ever end.

Now we understand that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed with the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals that “undocumented aliens” are not entitled provisions under our Constitution, such as freedom from search and seizure and so forth. Such provisions are, in the Constitution, “reserved to the people.” Both courts now claim that “people” refer to “political community” and that “illegals” are not part of that.

My question, (or comment) is this: If we think these concepts are “human rights” and we are always trying to export them, sometimes with force, around the world, then how do we justify in not applying them to what I would term “inconvenient” subsets of humanity in our own land?

I just don’t get that. Not at all. Maybe this scares me more than hoodie-footies.

♦

If you go grocery shopping this week, don’t expect to find any cayenne powder around. It’s all be sold out. I gigantic order was placed by North Korea, and sprayed liberally over crowds ordered to appear in the streets to show their sorrow at the passing of Kim Jong-il. If you hadn’t noticed, people are crying all over the place there.  And they have the pictures to prove it.

♦

The Contrarian argues that God was too busy weeping over the Packer loss yesterday to pay his customary attention to Tim Tebow’s Denver Broncos. Well, he can’t be everywhere!

♦

Bryan Fischer, all around equal-opportunity hater of huge chunks of humanity, just had to speak up on the death of Christopher Hitchens. In a brilliant tour-de-force of logic, Fischer assures us all that Hitchens is in hell.

Now you might say, well, what would you expect Fischer to say? And I agree, but his logic, now that’s the real sweet spot here. He claims that God sent him there out of His perfect love. Hitchens asks for it, and he got it.

So, God, hey, I would like to move to New Mexico, and find a $5 million dollar house, on a foreclosure sale for only $25,000. It’s what I am really asking for.

♦

Is it just me, or didn’t the GOP jackasses in Congress swear that with their ascendency in the House there would be no more bills with riders that have zero to do with the major portion of the bill? Okay, leaving that aside, once again The House GOP has found itself caught between its own stupidity and the TeaNutz®. Or in other words, it’s caught between itself and itself.

They have, in their infinite dumbness, stopped the implementation of regulations designed to put in place the energy-efficient light bulbs. Now they have done this for a couple of reasons. First, their insane drooling miniscule crazies in the trailer-parks they pander to, think having “light bulbs of choice” is a “freedom” that must be fought to be retained. And second, the word “regulation” makes then salivate and lose their ability to hear.

Well, industry folks, you know, GE, Phillips, Osram Sylvania, you know, the JOB CREATORS WHO MAKE BULBS, are livid. Since they have all retooled and are busy about the business of making the new bulbs, they WANT THE FREAKIN’ RULES TO CHANGE. The  moronic TeaNutz® sit and scratch their nether regions, all the while shrugging and wondering what they did wrong.

♦

Okay. Now get the shovel and start digging that bunker.

 

 

 

Related articles

• American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer: God Sent Hitchens to Hell Because He Loved Him (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• God Sent Christopher Hitchens to Hell Because He Loved Him – Bryan Fischer – Focal Point (richarddawkins.net)

You Got It All Wrong

Tags

Amendments, checks and balances, citizenship, Constititution, democracy, federalism, freedom, government, liberty, theocracy, tyranny

It has been my considered opinion for many years, that democracy requires a certain political maturity to pull off. I came to that conclusion as we wasted so many thousands of lives in Vietnam, all in pursuit of exporting democracy.

The neo-cons cannot “get” this. So we have continued to go about the business of “nation building” over the years, with little success.

Texas is busily trying to rewrite history to suit its collective religious notions. So out goes Jefferson as part of the Enlightenment, and out goes the Enlightenment in favor of “other ideas.” Caesar Chavez is dropped. What is in, is that the Founding Fathers were all Christians and their purpose was to establish the “City of God.”

Bunk, but what can you do against such mindsets? In fact, our Founding Fathers, (FF) knew quite a bit about government and had a pretty clear idea of what they did not want. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is one of the truest phrases ever spoken.

Democracy comes after all the other forms have been tried. I’m not sure if we ever gave Aristotle’s “philosopher king” much of a chance, but then such persons are mighty hard to come by. So we ended up with a strange seemingly unworkable structure that was based on the premise of “trust no one.” We established three branches, and were careful to give no one branch too much power, and plenty of veto power over the others. (Yes, before you start, I know the difference between democracy and federalism–we can treat them the same for this analysis.)

Yet, even then, we knew it was risky. Complicity still paced along the horizon. I mean the in’s in Washington could agree that at least they WERE the powerful rulers and could AGREE to at least protect themselves against the great hordes of ordinary citizenry. And of course that is pretty much what has happened today. Almost nobody in Washington gives a hoot about the American “people.” Remaining in their little fiefdom is the point today.

I contend that the FF actually saw this as a possibility and that the Amendments to the Constitution were really the last ditch defense against the return of tyranny. Seen in this way, we can I submit make a better choice as to how to break apart this log jam of inaction on crucial social issues we find today.

Freedoms of speech, assemble, and press insure that citizens can gather, discuss, organize and plan the ouster of those who are not doing the public good. No jail for dissidents. Freedom of religion is a direct response to the legitimacy that a “national” church can lend to a corrupt regime, and the tit for tat forced legitimacy of a particular faith interpretation. (Look to Latin America as a perfect example of a tyrannical government working hand in hand with a church to keep the status quo alive and well.)

Seen in this light the right to bear arms has zero to do with people having the right to amass personal arsenals. Rather it has to do with the fact that the people, thwarted by a government who enlists its personal army to defeat dissidents, don’t have to show up with pitchforks and shovels to war against tanks and machine guns. It is our final and most dangerous alternative to a government run amok.

Such an alternative is usually not necessary when trial rights, peers, and so forth are protected constitutionally. We can’t be jailed for opposing our government. We used to think we couldn’t be tortured into telling on ourselves (now open to wonder). We realized the importance here of liberty from tyranny, devoting half of our amendments to protecting the opposition.

None of this sounds very like the idea of creating a City of God. It seems more a sober reflection of how dangerous power is, and that we must remain ever vigilant to its excesses. Those who try to pervert the amendments into something else, either singularly or in groups are dangerous and must be watched carefully. Those who would suspend them even temporarily, even for “security’s” sake, must be opposed.

Texas is so appallingly wrong. It already has about the worst record in terms of graduating kids in the country. It has avoided what 48 other states have agreed is proper–minimum national standards of learning–and it’s increasingly at the beck and call of religious bigots who are determined to establish what the FF abhorred–a theocracy. Sadly, no doubt it will prevail at least within its borders and continue to turn out ill-educated backward and bigoted new adults ready to enter the voting booth.

Patrick Kennedy went ballistic the other day calling up the national media to stop its insane laziness and start to focus on real news. He was utterly right. If the press cannot or will not do it’s job, then it is up to us. It’s up to you. And me. Or we can kiss this find experiment goodbye.

Just what I’m thinkin’ about today.

Qualifying for Civil Rights

Tags

Christianity, civil rights, crime, evangelical right, freedom, Gitmo, GOP, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Muslims, Neo-cons, trials

One thing you can surely count on these days, is that the great slavering beast that is the ultra right, will turn on a dime to attack the latest media subject favorite of the day. The dripping canines are all too happy to release their hold on health care reform rhetoric in favor of biting into the new kid on the block–Gitmo trials and Muslims in general!

We spoke about the ugly backlash against Muslim Americans and Muslims in general just a few days ago, and we’re sobered to report that the rhetoric of hate is alive and well. One Willie Kristol of Foxy Noise and the Weekly Standard, is  wont to argue that the Muslim psychiatrist charged in the murders at Fort Hood, hardly needs a trial.

” They should just go ahead and convict him and put him to death.” Yes, we all know the outcome Kristol reasons, why waste the time and money over rights and trials and all that stuff? It’s oh so understandable why such people favor torture and other suspension of rights for those they deem unworthy, opines blogger Andrew Sullivan.

Get into the Gitmo uproar and as they say, let the games begin. The wingnuttery right is aghast and shocked at the idea that we are going to try some of those long incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay in courts in the USA. Yep, treat them like the criminals we believe them to be. Try them. What’s to be upset about?

Well, the wacko right is plenty upset. It even got on Sarah’s radar as she posted on Facebook. Course, she has little if any idea what it is all about, but some of her handlers told it was the side to be on. So she is suitably “appalled.”

Now, me, I’m the proverbial average person who wonders, “how can this be?” What is all the hoopla here? Why are we not wanting people charged with crimes tried in our civilian court system? Is there something wrong with it? If so, why aren’t these same patriots calling for the system to be shut down against all persons charged with criminal offenses?

No, you don’t hear that. You do hear that such trials pose a clear and present danger to the public. Can’t have shackled men shuffling from cell to courtroom and back again. The danger is palpable. So many wreak havoc under similar circumstances.

And prison! If they are convicted and end up in state or federal prison! Why how can we let that happen. I mean, everyone knows they are a sieve. How many times now has Charles Manson escaped his custody?

No the real issue here is stated quite freely by the brainless right. If they are tried in civil courts, why they will have “RIGHTS.” CIVIL RIGHTS. And whoa, that is wrong. Civil rights are those reserved for red blooded Americans, not unChristian foreigners. I think it actually says that in the Constitution doesn’t it? Reserved for citizens?

Everyone knows that all kinds of illegal crap was done at Gitmo. And in civilian court, Lord have mercy, such evidence will be suppressed. They won’t be able to use all those “confessions” obtained by waterboarding. To think of such a turn of events! UNFAIR! Cheating! Consequences to actions? How can you have that?

You see, we are always talking about exporting our wonderful system of democracy. We cherish our “freedoms” as “God given” and as “human” rights. But hey, terrorists, that’s another story entirely. They ain’t human apparently. We don’t share our freedoms even when a foreigner is tried in this country. Or at least we don’t want to.

Again, what do we claim when one of ours is caught in some country doing wrong? Do we validate their system of justice or not? Does it depend on whether their system upholds our “freedoms” and protections? Most certainly. Yet, when we flip the coin?

Oh, yeah, you Muslims are not entitled to them. Nope, not even if you have that piece of paper that proves that you too carry American citizenship. Doesn’t matter. Rights are reserved for. . . could it be CHRISTIANS? After all, they are God given, and as these a-wipes would have it, are reserved for the tried and true.

I mean this is not hard to discern. Plenty of the conservative GOP is more than willing to state that this is exactly the reason for not trying them on American soil. They will have rights and we can’t allow that.

If you are having trouble wrapping your perfectly normal brain around that, well, welcome to the club. While most of the noise about this comes from the conservative right, no doubt the evangelical right supports the argument.  None other than Sarah has already stated it is wrong. And nobody is more holier than thou than Sarah with her faith-healing, demon extracting Wasilla pastors by her side. Just another example of the perversion to which Christianity can be put by those who use it to serve their own agenda of protecting moi.

Pretty disgusting if you ask me. ( And the Contrarian says that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed could be best punished by subjecting him to a full body wax once a month. Now that would be torture indeed!)