“Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.”
Fuck you Karl Rove.
-TPP
Tag: US
Senator Barack Obama’s Knox College Commencement Address
Barack Obama, once again, delivered an awe inspiring speech during his Commencement Address at the Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.
Audio and video replays of the webcast as well as a transcript of the address can be found at the Knox College website.
The speech touches on the unique challenges the global economy imposes on Americans, what can we do about it and what we should not do about it. In particular he very eloquently dismantles and exposes the problems of the Ownership Society currently championed by our puppet leaders.
-TPP
Made a $250 donation to Kerry? Blacklisted from industry events
Time Magazine is reporting The White House has excluded at least 4 of the two dozen US delegates for this week’s The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meeting in Guatemala City, because they have made campaign donations to the Kerry Campaign. Individuals barred from entering the meeting by The White House include people from Nokia and Qualcomm, arguably the two most important companies in the telecommunications industry in the US.
It’s unclear from the article under which authority The White House has barred these people from entering the meeting. The White House spokesperson had the audacity to comment on the issue by saying The White House thinks people that made campaign donations to John Kerry “..would not represent the administration favorably”. I guess telecommunications industry innovation and standards are now a partisan effort as well. What next? The Republican GSM spec?
Looks like Nokia’s and Qualcomm’s competitors’ campaign donations to George W. Bush are REALLY paying off now.
-TPP
Spin City
Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) comments on the Democrats opposition of some of the judicial nominees by the Republicans with “…judges deserve respect, not retaliation…”.
The Republican House majority leader Tom Delay (R-TX), however, has been spewing hate against “liberal” judges for months, most recently against Judge Anthony Kennedy.
If you didn’t know better, you could take Mr. Frist’s comments as a swipe against Tom Delay. That would be most welcome, but that isn’t the case here. Instead Republicans are engaging in pandering of the most basic kind.
-TPP
Immigrants Against Immigration 2005
Mr. Schwarzenegger, a first generation immigrant in the United States, has spoken, again, for stricter immigration policies. While what he said could be interpreted as blatant bigotry, it appears he meant to advocate for stricter border controls to curb illegal immigration.
Let’s see how many more times he manages to shoot himself in the foot with his mom and apple pie speeches.
-TPP
Republicans – God’s Chosen People – according to Republicans
Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) is joining prominent Christian conservatives in an April 24th telecast and use the telecast to declare Democrats as acting “against people of faith” for their efforts to block some of the more conservative judicial nominees.
Given that the Pope also was a great friend of the Republicans and George W. Bush especially [1], well, according to the Republicans and George W. Bush, this political move is sure to guarantee God himself will vote for Republicans for now and forever.
We heathens will be doomed to eternal political minority, as well as an afterlife in hell. According to the Republicans.
-TPP
1. Apart from that little thing about the death penalty, of course
Of Living Wills
Makes more sense than all the “Culture of Life” bullshit spewed upon the masses by “well meaning” congress critters nearing the end of their current term, for sure.
Link via Kim.
-TPP
International Law and the US Army
The United States has long declined to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) claiming it would trump the US Constitution. In addition to the United States, the following six countries also have declined: China, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Qatar and Israel. What a distinguished group.
Foreigners have long suspected the real reason is that the US just wants to do whatever the hell they please around the world, including within the borders of other sovereign states, without having to be accountable for their possible illegal actions to anyone but to themselves. How convenient.
Given this week’s news about two “minor” screwups in the war of terror, one has to wonder if those foreigners are right.
The first piece of news is regarding the murder of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. An army investigation recommended 17 American soldiers to be charged for murder, conspiracy and negligent homicide of 3 prisoners. Well, the army commanders took the recommendations to heart and decided not to charge ANY of the 17 soldiers. One received a letter of reprimand and one was discharged.
The second piece of news is regarding a German national detained in Guantanamo Bay since 2001. A military tribunal concluded in 2004 that he was in fact a member of Al Qaeda. The decision cited classified intelligence sources. Those classified documents were recently declassified and not only did they not indicate Mr. Kurnaz as a member of Al Qaeda, they pretty much said the exact opposite. So the United States has held this man in custody for close to 4 years now and has known he’s innocent of the charges of being an Al Qaeda member for at least 2 years, but yet somehow he’s still detained at Guantanamo Bay.
Do as we say, not as we do?
As an aside, it appears to be a rather bad thing to be a foreigner accused of crimes in the US or against the US. You have no rights, you’re assumed guilty until proven innocent and if you find yourself wronged by the US, you have no right to appeal or no recourse to get just compensation for being wrongfully imprisoned. What a great “justice” system the US has.
-TPP
The Schiavo Sceptic
So now that the parents have tried, retried (three times) and had politicians make their campaign start speeches, I just keep wondering how many more times are they trying to circumvent the judicial system.
It’s good to be a lawyer, or a journalist covering the story.
-TPP
Do as we say, not as we do
Washington Post is reporting on how the Republicans are relaxing the ethics rules so that it would be harder to report ethics complaints against House representatives. Last month they changed the ethics rules so that their majority leader, Tom DeLay, could remain the majority leader even if indicted of accepting illegal campaign donations.
The ethics rules are, in part, designed to ensure the legislators are not unduly influenced by outsiders with which the legislators might have vested interests in. This is why state government officials and judges are supposed to recuse themselves when deciding on issues they have personal involvement in.
According to the Washington Post article the Clinton administration legislated that administration officials could not hold a lobbying position until five years after resigning from their administration position. Well, on his second term, just before his people started leaving the government, he overturned that law. How convenient.
The article outlines several high profile instances of vested interests, for example Bill Tauzin negotiating himself a lucrative lobbying position within the industry he was supposed to be regulating at the same time.
One has to wonder how these fine and upstanding politicians are supposed to reconcile relaxing ethics rules on themselves while trying to impose tougher penalties on questionable business practises in the insurance and financial services industry.
And they wonder why people are turned off by politics. It seems that they only have to look in the mirror. They’d see a person more interested in serving his/her own interests, increasingly often, at the expense of the interest of the people s/he is supposed to represent.
-TPP