R. I. P.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I just don't see how it could be any more clear. Any and all American citizens were potentially subjected to phone tapping of international calls.

Was there a threat. Yes. Is this exactly the sort of abuse in the name of safety that inspired the authoring this amendment in the first place? Absolutely.

What's next?

Some Minneapolis Workers May Soon See Living Wage

Yay Minneapolis.
http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2592

2000

"We talk about honoring the troops. How about we honor them by giving a damn when their killed? Our kids are dying over there and this country, the people, the media, we all chug along like nothing is wrong. We'll spend a month obsessing about Terry Shivo, but dare we show a body of a fallen soldier. The most watched cable news station will spend an hour a night on a missing girl in Aruba, but god forbid we pay any attention when kids are killed in action.

We've had 2000 American trees fall in that forest over there and we don't even know it, not really. But, maybe we don't want to know about our children dying so, lucky for us this war isn't really being televised. We're not seeing images of soldiers dying in the arms of their comrades, being blown apart in the streets of Bagdad. But they are, by the thousands and all the American public wants to concern itself with is weather Brad and Angelina really are a couple. At least with Vietnam we all watched and we all got angry.

We have a people and a goverment in denial. We currently have no strategy to fight this war, no time table for gettting out, some of the troops could be extended 20+ years. Their mothers and fathers have to spring for body armor because the Army doesn't and their getting killed. And we as a nation in denial are letting them. We simply don't seem to care."

This was quoted from a monalog in an episode of Boston Legal, Nov. 1, 2005. It just occured to me that not only do I agree with everything he said, but I was guilty of the same denial of which he spoke. Something to think about.

America, land of the free. Well, not so much.

I cut most of the article cuz its quite long, but I think the first paragraphs give you an idea of what it says.
There is a link to the full text. I did leave the contact information for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom incase you feel compelled to do something.

So the current administration, on their crusade against the evil of sex, is cracking down on pornography. Well, hey, the sounds and styles of the 80's are coming back as a retro trend, why not the war against naked pictures too? (its even more shocking to realize that this is the perogrative of the guy who REPLACED Ashcroft. Who knew it could get worse!)

This time, however, its all about those little deviant folks who spank and pee on each other. They deserve extra punishment.

Even if I accepted local community standards as a legitimate judge of obscenity -- how the HELL do they expect to set a "local community standard" on the web??? What's ok to the people of say, San Francisco and New York is not always ok with the folks in Topeka, Kansas. So, if Jo Bob logs on to a website housed in Cali and doesn't like the look of a chick tied up and being spanked, the San Francisco people should be prosecuted based on Kansas standards?

The real joke is, it won't make a bit of difference, really, because they cannot prosecute Canadians or Germans or the Japanese for hosting sites of this same type. It will still be out there, people will still look at it. They will have to start invading the lives of viewers, not providers and well, then I do hope they are prepared to prosecute their brothers, wives, cousins, uncles and children....

Of kids, age, submission, theology, and whatnot: "Friday, October 21, 2005
Why dont they just stand in the corner with a cross and a sword?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - National Coalition for Sexual Freedom

October 20, 2005 - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has announced that his office will specifically target 'bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior' in pursuing new obscenity prosecutions. The Department of Justice began recruiting in late July for a new anti-obscenity squad to pursue obscenity prosecutions, and the FBI announced in September that it was forming an anti-obscenity task force to crack down on pornography.

Any website that has content containing 'bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior' should be forewarned that prosecution is possible. Additionally, Federal sentencing guidelines state that any obscenity-related punishment should be 'enhanced for sadomasochistic material.'
To contribute to the appeal of the CDA lawsuit, go to:
www.ncsfreedom.org/donations.htm

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom - www.ncsfreedom.org
Barbara Nitke - www.barbaranitke.com

###

Contact:
Susan Wright, NCSF Spokesperson
(917) 848-6544

A project of NCSF

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is a national organization committed to creating a political, legal, and social environment in the United States that advances equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms of alternative sexual expression. NCSF is primarily focused on the rights of consenting adults in the SM-leather-fetish, swing, and polyamory communities, who often face discrimination because of their sexual expression.

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
822 Guilford Avenue, Box 127
Baltimore, MD 21202-3707
410-539-4824
media@ncsfreedom.org
www.ncsfreedom.org"

More news that comes as a surprise to no one.

The Senate today voted 78-22 to confirm Judge John Roberts as the nation's 17th chief justice. Senate approval capped a two-month process surprisingly free of the partisan rancor widely expected when President Bush nominated Roberts in July. All of the Senate's Republicans, and about half of the Democrats, voted for Roberts. Roberts is the successor to William Rehnquist, who died earlier this month.

More important things to fight for

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A federal judge declared Wednesday that the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional, a decision that could potentially put the divisive issue back before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ok, there might be a case for this. You shouldn't compel children to recite it, God shouldn't be a part of it, etc. etc.

But really, come ON! Don't we have more important things to worry about? I realize its rather un-liberal of me to take this stance. Wait no, I don't think it is. I would much rather these people spend their time and money making sure poor children are fed, homeless are housed, and real violations of civil rights are fought.

This is tantamount to the woman who files a sexual harassment claim because she sees a married man hug a single woman in the office. It gets in the way real issues people are going through, it taints the credibility of the fight against religious rights violations as a whole.

Why can't we step back and see the big picture? Will this bring meaningful change? No. Will it change the minds of people who believe this sort of language belongs in our government, that God has a place in government? No. It only irritates them. Because at the end of the day, its a small, petty cause and shows nobody how religious oppression can really affect someone's life.

Crimes against us all.

United States of Shame - New York Times

In June 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, fretted to The Times-Picayune in New Orleans: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

Not only was the money depleted by the Bush folly in Iraq; 30 percent of the National Guard and about half its equipment are in Iraq.

Ron Fournier of The Associated Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans last year. The White House carved it to about $40 million. But President Bush and Congress agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-filled highway bill with 6,000 pet projects, including a $231 million bridge for a small, uninhabited Alaskan island.

Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained for by running something called the International Arabian Horse Association - admitted he didn't know until Thursday that there were 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in the New Orleans Convention Center.

Was he sacked instantly? No, our tone-deaf president hailed him in Mobile, Ala., yesterday: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Pat Roberts: have you been sniffing glue?

Or are you just full of shit? Not that I actually expected you to provide lucid spirital leadership, given your track record.
Someone, please correct me if I am wrong, but did this man, who professes to respect life, God and the ten commandments publicly advocate for the assassination of the president of Venezuela? And did he NOT use as a justification for murder, a "huge pool of oil," among other things?

So, am I to understand that it's Thou Shall Not Kill unless it's for an assload of money?

Decisions are made by those who show up...and Karl Rove.

One of my favorite quotes and here I find myself not even coming close to living by it. After last fall I, like many, said to hell with it. What is the point. Well I suppose the point is: Decisions are made by those who show up.

And Karl Rove.

I find myself again completely disgusted with our current adminstration and mouth agape with disblief as they arrogantly blather on as if they have done nothing wrong.
First it was a moral crime just to have been associated with the leak of a cia operative identity. Now, well it's all ok as long as no crime was committed and you can be sure they checked on that before announcing it to the world.

Are we really to believe that a man with a documented history of underhanded tactics and spiteful rhetoric didn't leak this woman's identity out of spite against her husband for publicly stating what we all now know to be the truth? Come ON! The man is a rat, we all know it and we all know he is good at his job. Is this NOT exacty the kind of thing he would do and isn't his ego just exactly big enough to believe he can get away with it.

I hate to say it...you don't know how MUCH i hate to say it, but he will.
Even I cannot muster the amount of idealistic naivete it takes to believe that we are not being set up to accept that he should sail through without a scratch because "no crime has been committed."

My singular hope is that in doing so, he will damage his boss and his bosses friends enough to make a difference in 2006..


Something I didn't know about Karl.

Rove's first mentor in politics was Don Segretti? Oh the irony!
(for those of you who don't know who Don Segretti is, Google Don Segretti and Watergate)

oh be still my beating heart

The text below is copied and pasted from the link below. I would love to be here, on this earth, when something like this actually happens. The monumental changes in our society would be thrilling to watch. I have always been a strong believer that the right to earn a living and support yourself in a decent manner far exceeds the right for a business to earn a profit. Call me a communist if you must, but it's just right.

Memoirs of a Non-Mechanical Man


How the Progressives can win next election, and not even feel that bad about voting for Democrats.
When it shall be said in any country in the world, my poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive;... when these things can be said, then may that country boast of its constitution and its government.

--Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, are you burnt out and depressed about the Bush win?

Sad that bigotry won the presidency?

Think we're all doomed?

That the whole Democratic party is just as bad, and a bunch of spineless weasles to boot?

Don't fret, I have a surefire solution. A counter-zeitgeist for the anti-gay agenda and pure banality that won the last election: A Constitutional Ammendment Guaranteeing a Right to a Job at a Living Wage.

This is not only a surefire win for the democrats, if they adopted it as their platform, it's a surefire win for everyone who's fed up with them. Quite certainly going more rightward hasn't won them anymore elections, because even republicans don't want republican light. Fuck, Kerry's platform was more or less "Same Flavor, half the carbs."

So, this a really sneaky, and guaranteed to be successful way to inject progressive ideals back into the mainstream dialogue. Don't worry about a "Republican New Deal", they can't offer it. Honestly the only reasons the democrats can actually offer another "New Deal" is because they still have members that don't totally bend over to their large financing interests.

So, why is this a sure win?

One, because the Republican party can't come up with anything better. Which would you vote for if you were those reclusive undecided voters: Privatizing Social Security? Or... A constitutional right to a job at a wage you can live off of? Considering that 1 in 4 Americans falls below the ridiculously low federal poverty guidelines for their household, that's 1 in 4 Americans who're likely to vote their goddamn economic self-interest. "Gee, should I vote for privatizing social security and slashing social programs, all to benefit growth for the kleptocrats.... or should I vote for the immediate pay raise?" You figure that one out.

But wait, it gets better...

Two, A 2001 poll showed that 8 in 10 Americans support creating temporary government work programs for the unemployed. That's 82% of Republicans, 90% of Democrats, and 83% of Independants.

Three, A right to a job at a living wage cuts across both Progressive, and Conservative ethic. Thus the great neo-con fear: that someone would appeal to the inherent populism and nativism of the old-right, to take it to its actual logical conclusion --shafting the kleptocrats. Consider this, conservatives are allways those bitching about people on welfare not working and all of that bullshit, right? So, we as a nation put a high value on work, conservatives perhaps more so. But, 7 out of 10 poor people in our country actually work for a living. So successful has this political distraction been, that while we've moved millions off of welfare rolls, we've done nothing to actually improve wage conditions. And with wages falling across the board, for those who actually work for a living, (as opposed to those living off of rents and interest), along with jobs getting sent overseas, the time is now right to awaken that sleeping giant. Lets face it, you have to be nuts to politically oppose a guarantee that everyone whom is able to work shall have a job, and it shall be decent, and pay a wage you can live off.

Four, this is having your cake and eating it too. It's a progressive ideal, but also a staple of old-right populism, it appeals to the middle class, the lower class, the working class, the poor, the unemployed, the retired, pretty much everyone who isn't a CEO. You can vote your concience, because honestly, what better ticket is there at the moment that has a snowball's chance in hell of winning, and still vote for a party that will actually win. Sorry, hate to tell you, I love the Green Party, but It won't be next election, or the next 20, that they win a Presidency unless they stop running a national candidate and start pushing harder and harder into local candidates.

Five, This will get the momentum going. A giant, lambastic progressive win. People will forget the fucking New Deal, and instead be saying "Kids, when I was young, we pushed hard and got a guaranteed right to a job and and end to poverty, I wept when it happened."

Six, you'll be able to rub it in the faces of neo-conservatives and the DNC, and every other soulless bureaucrat for the next 20 elections.

So, in conclusion, while this is the cure to the Gay Marriage Ammendment, we must also take care that it doesn't end up like the Gay Marriage Ammendment, in the dustbin of History.

So, say "Fuck you, I won't vote for you." To your Congressman, unless they immidiately support this.

Hey, that's kind of catchy. I'm calling this the "Fuck you, I won't vote for you." Campaign.

And she's back

I have been scolded about not adding to my blog in months (who knew, I have a reader!). I have a good excuse, I got a real job! I have to actually get dressed and go into an office every day, but I get paid more than I did when I was working in my pajamas and bunny slippers, so ok.
Another job perk, as it turns out, I have actually run into a Democratic activist. In North Dakota. I'm still in shock. He is, of course, equally thrilled to find me, being kinda-sorta, just a little bit liberal. (ha) He even assures me there are more like me, lurking in the shadows and promises to call me when they decide to meet.

I have been thinking more about my current state of residence and its bizarre red/blue status. ND consistantly votes red for president (speaking of the pres. he is invading Fargo today to bore everyone with his SS privitization plans) but all 3 of our representatives in Washington are blue, and fairly effective I must say, considering they only respresent about 600,000 people. But come on, what is with us? Can't we make up our minds? Actually, I heard someone break it down recently and it makes sense. But ultimately it seems to be more acceptable to be outwardly conservative here.

Anyway, I don't really have a point today, sorry, just jumping back in and warming up.