Time for a laugh...

Those geniuses at JibJab have done it again.
Click below and then click on the "2-0-5" video.


JibJab.com

Good to see our efforts paying off.

By any measure, the US mission in Afghanistan has been handled far superior to the one in Iraq. It's a lot more organized, and planned and successful. The people are in general much happier to have our help and have embraced democracy to a greater degree.

Despite all this, they are still trying and executing people for exercising religious freedom.

If we can't get a generally willing Afghanistan to live western ideals, how on earth do we expect success in Iraq? A country that has resisted external influence for several thousand years. Through Crusades and wars. They have shown that they will die before they will be converted from their political and religious beliefs.
But of course we're special. We'll make them change.
(see definitions of arrogance, and pipe dream)


BBC NEWS | South Asia | Afghan on trial for Christianity

Remember your heritage...

People fought, bled and died to establish a country founded on the principle stated in the Declaration of independence.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men."

In the history of the world, previous governments had usually operated on the principal that people under their control have no rights unless granted by the government.
The founding fathers of the United States of America rejected this evil notion and created a country founded on a completely different and unique premise. That all rights are inherent, granted by God, and unalienable ⁽¹⁾. The government was not set up like those in past to dole out or grant rights. They recognized that they were inherent and not something the government had any right or power to grant. The US Government was instead setup to protect those rights of it's citizens, even (especially) from itself. The founding fathers knew the truth, seemingly lost today, that man is not inherently good, but inherently evil. When given power, mankind will abuse it. The founders built various protections into the Constitution so that Citizens would be protected from themselves or from a government or leaders out of control.

In recent years however the minds of the general population have been poisoned into believing many ugly ideas:
Like the idea that rights are granted by the government.
That the protections of the Constitution are ok to give up, as long as it's "for a good cause".
That the Government has the right to suspend, abridge, circumvent, or repeal these rights.
That it's ok for the government to violate rights to a) stop bad or b) do good
That "I have nothing to hide, it's ok to spy on me"

These kinds of ideas are NOT American. Not what the forefathers and the generations of soldiers have fought, bled and died to protect. They are the ideals of regimes like Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, China, North Korea, Fascist Italy, etc.

To quote Ben Franklin again,
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
THAT is American thinking. Don't forget it.


1. unalienable - a set of human rights that are absolute, not awarded by human power, not transferable to another power, and incapable of repudiation.

Organized healthy dissent...

Lots of good links and references here.
Check it out.

Movement to impeach George W. Bush - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Behold, the sleeper awakes. (maybe)

Well, according to latest polls, a majority of Americans now support
"...the United States Senate passing a resolution censuring President George W. Bush for authorizing wiretaps of Americans within the United States without obtaining court orders."

And 42% of Americans favor
"...the United States House of Representatives voting to impeach President George W. Bush."

American Research Group

Don't abandon your friends...

It's funny how short lived our memories can be.
After 9/11 many countries offered their support and assistance. Many who have been good friends for years.
Countries like Canada, Germany, and even France.

Later, the president pushed for the Iraq war which everyone seems to forget had little support among the American public before it began.
There wasn't enough evidence to support it, and there were other countries that seemed higher up the list for retribution. Like Yemen, or Dubai, or Syria, or even Saudi Arabia who provided the majority of the 9/11 terrorists.
So when these countries, friends, decided not to participate, and even offered alternatives, all of a sudden Americans decided to treat them like enemies.
Real friends don't deny their friends because they disagree with them.

I think it's time to recall what these friends have done.

Canada -
Canada risks lives of it's embassy members everywhere to save Americans in Iran

Canadian Snipers keep enemy troops busy while ambushed US troops retreat to safety, despite drawing artillery fire on themselves. [reference]


German Navy gives unprecedented show of respect and solidarity.

USS Winston S. Churchill

Will update with more examples later...

King Arthur he's not...

In the legend, King Arthur went off to war to protect his kingdom and to save Jerusalem for Christianity.
Many on the Christian right like to imagine the President as a similar figure.
I've said for years that this is very far from the truth. Mr Bush himself however recently made some statements that really reveal him for the non-Christian despot wannabe he really is.

Here's a clip from the article:
"Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act.
Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union had joined forces with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Bob Barr to oppose renewal.
GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.
“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”
“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”
“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

Now the public blasphemy is a pretty strong indicator as to the veracity of his Christian convictions. However even scarier is his atitude toward the Constitution.

Here is a portion of Article II Section I of that so called "G*dd*amned piece of paper" regarding the office of President:
"...on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

The President is NOT the highest law of the land, the Constitution is. He's not even the highest portion of government. He's on equal status with the other two branches of government.

End of the Liberal Media Myth

In their recent checkup on the right-wing bilge pump FOX News, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) found that they are still hugely biased (duh). More interesting is farther down the article where the compared their results from other news outlets. All of the major outlets, even ones assumed to be liberal like NPR, scored as conservative biased.
This is obvious to anyone who watches and evaluates fairly. The problem is that the cult of the conservative right that has replaced real conservatism tolerates no questioning of anything it does. This administration gets away with a LOT as far as the media is concerned, but on the occassion that they can't ignore something, and tell the story, they are attacked as "Liberal Biased". All nonsense.
Telling the truth, even if it hurts is not biased.

Check it out at the link below. Make sure to at least read the paragraph "SIDEBAR: No Balance From “Liberal” Media".

Still Failing the "Fair & Balanced" Test

Trib outs CIA (red herring alert!)

OK, so I wonder who tipped the Trib to the availability of this information online? The CIA, NSA, someone in the administration?
This is just the kind of story that makes the sheep say "boy, this is terrible, we should do something about it".
Next thing you know they are passing the Internet equivalent of the Patriot act. After all, it's the last free place in the world, and it's already under attack. Ask Google. The government has been trying to get Google to spy on you for years.
So now, they get some lacky to do a story like this one and use the emotional response to get people to put aside rational thought and good sense. After all they slipped the Patriot Act under the radar.
And there are actually a lot of citizens out there that think it's a good idea. They even say such stupid things as "I don't care, I don't have anything to hide..."
How can you say this when you don't know what they are looking for?
Everyone has something to hide from someone. Don't think so? Thinking "Only bad people have something to hide"? Time to wake up my friend. Bad people only have something to hide from the good. Good people have something to hide from the bad. The reason that the Constitution firmly setup the protections it did is that you can not control if your government is good or bad. Suppose your naive belief that this government is pure, moral, God appointed, and cares about you is true, so what? If you allow the protections of the Constitution to be removed, you put the tools into the hands of all future administrations too. What if the next administration is evil, or the one after that? Or one cop, or one judge, or one appellate court etc? What will stop them? Not the Constitution, not if you gut it with things like the Patriot Act.
The founding fathers were smarter than you. And more experienced. They had actually seen oppression and tyrannical governments. We are soft and spoiled and think it can never happen to us. They intended those protections to be permanent to protect us even from our own stupidity.

Go read my favourite quotes list below.



Trib outs CIA

Daily Kos: Updated Title: The Dubai-Al Qaeda Connection: Smoking Gun for Bush?/poll

So after 9/11, 'W' says that they'll hunt down anyone that supports, harbors, or does business with terrorists. Apparently he's given himself an exception from this rule so he can give a sweet deal to his Arab oil buddies. The UAE/Dubai have a known connection to Al Qaeda and yet the Prez says he'll veto any law attempting to block to port security sale! This is treasonous. There's more evidence to link the UAE/Dubai than there ever was to link Iraq.

Daily Kos: Updated Title: The Dubai-Al Qaeda Connection: Smoking Gun for Bush?/poll