political spew
Jul. 30th, 2008 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdChicago is out of its freaking mind in asserting that the Supreme Court's Second Amendment decision somehow doesn't apply to them, but hey, once you've got the whole "the law is whatever we want to say it is" thing going, why not? The Chicago Tribune, while wrong about the preamble, is honest in saying that they think the Second Amendment needs to be repealed, and while I disagree, I respect the honesty.
There were rump hearings on the Articles of Impeachment a few days ago. Watch in gory detail as the Washington Post follows the political class's standard in mocking those involved as crazies. See the same thing here, by different people, with regards to the Iraq War, the idea of Constitutional restraints on government, the rule of law, not voting for people whose positions you despise (not doing so being Stalinist), and the idea that primary challengers are anti-democratic. Daniel Larison over at The Atlantic has similar commentary with regards to the GOP.
Oh, and last week, I was floating (in person) the suspicion that the Democratic Party's "reformist" embrace-and-extension of Bush/GOP authoritarian executive powers of unlimited detention would be a special pseudocourt, similar to the FISA pseudocourt, to rubber-stamp essentially all Executive requests, in secret. The Washington Post editorialised for that over the weekend, calling for exactly that kind of secret court, with bonus points for "relaxed" rules, such as defendants having no fifth amendment rights. Constitutional issues with that? Fuck you, says the political class.
Meanwhile, over in reality, Great Britain has concluded, correctly, that United States assurances about its human rights behaviours can no longer be trusted. (Parliament's report here, in PDF.) In particular, US assurances about torture cannot be considered legitimate, and must be disregarded.
Greenwald also points out the stunning hypocrisy in condemning China over surveillance and voting for things like FISA and the PAA, and the insanity of the same with regards to other foreign countries about rule of law and privacy.
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Oh, finally, in filthy sack news, get a load of this Limbaugh transcript bemoaning how much smarter China is being by consuming lots more gas, buying more SUVs, and deciding pollution so thick you can't see through it is not actually harmful, and calling caring about such things returning to the "stone age." "Fuck the planet" is now a religion, I guess. Or, at very least, a political calling. He seems to be calling for gasoline subsidies - he lauds theirs:
Here, have a trivia quiz:
There were rump hearings on the Articles of Impeachment a few days ago. Watch in gory detail as the Washington Post follows the political class's standard in mocking those involved as crazies. See the same thing here, by different people, with regards to the Iraq War, the idea of Constitutional restraints on government, the rule of law, not voting for people whose positions you despise (not doing so being Stalinist), and the idea that primary challengers are anti-democratic. Daniel Larison over at The Atlantic has similar commentary with regards to the GOP.
Oh, and last week, I was floating (in person) the suspicion that the Democratic Party's "reformist" embrace-and-extension of Bush/GOP authoritarian executive powers of unlimited detention would be a special pseudocourt, similar to the FISA pseudocourt, to rubber-stamp essentially all Executive requests, in secret. The Washington Post editorialised for that over the weekend, calling for exactly that kind of secret court, with bonus points for "relaxed" rules, such as defendants having no fifth amendment rights. Constitutional issues with that? Fuck you, says the political class.
Meanwhile, over in reality, Great Britain has concluded, correctly, that United States assurances about its human rights behaviours can no longer be trusted. (Parliament's report here, in PDF.) In particular, US assurances about torture cannot be considered legitimate, and must be disregarded.
Greenwald also points out the stunning hypocrisy in condemning China over surveillance and voting for things like FISA and the PAA, and the insanity of the same with regards to other foreign countries about rule of law and privacy.
Pledge Now
Oh, finally, in filthy sack news, get a load of this Limbaugh transcript bemoaning how much smarter China is being by consuming lots more gas, buying more SUVs, and deciding pollution so thick you can't see through it is not actually harmful, and calling caring about such things returning to the "stone age." "Fuck the planet" is now a religion, I guess. Or, at very least, a political calling. He seems to be calling for gasoline subsidies - he lauds theirs:
See, the ChiComs need their economy growing. They need people driving around, moving around. They need people to be able to afford fuel, so they're subsidizing fuel... They're buying their gasoline for them, because they need an economy. Know what energy means to this, the whole subject of economic growth. So meanwhile, the ChiComs, a country certainly growing, certainly on the rise, but it ain't the United States of America. How does it make you feel that Zhang Linsen has a big Hummer with nine speakers blaring as he pulls out into a four-lane road with so much smog he basically can't see the car in front of him, and you are trading in all of your cars and trying to go out and find basically a lawn mower.Personally - I dunno about you, but personally - I feel pretty fucking good that there's not so much crap in the air that I can't see.
Here, have a trivia quiz:
Congratulations! You scored 20 correct out of 21!
Average score: 12 |
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 11:15 pm (UTC)Congratulations! You scored 18 correct out of 21!
18 - 21: Wow! First Amendment Scholar
14 - 17: Congratulations! Better informed than most Americans
10 - 13: Passing Grade
6 - 9: Did you attend a parochial school? Try test again.
0 - 5: Are you sure you are not a member of the Religious Right?
You are the 28,090th person to take this test since October 12, 2000.
Average score: 12
Now, how I'm BEHIND you on taking the test, I have no idea.
I missed the origin of the seperation of church and state, the "Who made the following comment", and the religious convictions of who was in the Supreme Court case re: prayer in schools.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 11:18 pm (UTC)Also, while everything else is correct, I didn't get a proper counter number, so I just added some to the person who took it before me. Strangely, the person who took it before me (and did get a number) had 28090 as well, so clearly that part's just broken.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-31 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 11:38 pm (UTC)Cathy