The Rev. Markle has an update on the loony Big L Libertarian that we discussed last week.
The verdict- he may not be completely loony, but he is a charlatan.
This post is in: General Stupidity
The Rev. Markle has an update on the loony Big L Libertarian that we discussed last week.
The verdict- he may not be completely loony, but he is a charlatan.
by John Cole| 71 Comments
This post is in: Politics
You can stop emailing me this Abraham Lincoln quote explaining to me that I am wrong for thinking censure for Durbin is a bit much:
“Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged.”
Now, I take the War on Terror seriously, which is part of the reason I think we should have a coherent policy towards the detainees, as I think the current situation is doing us little good. But unless I missed out on the slavery, the secession thing, the brothers shooting each other bit, and the whole Atlanta on fire escapade, this isn’t the Civil War. Things are just a touch different now, and a touch different in this little Dick Durbin flare-up:
Of course, Lincoln defined a “saboteur” as virtually anyone who disagreed with his politics and policies and subsequently ordered the military to arrest literally tens of thousands of Northern political opponents, including dozens of opposition newspaper editors.
Both “Lincoln scholars” and neocon political activists typically take Lincoln at his word and seek no other definitions of treason or sabotage. To Lincoln, criticizing him or his administration amounted to “warring upon the military.” And according to Waller, these words “apply to some lawmakers today,” even though these lawmakers insist that they are opposing the Bush war policy “to support the troops.”
Exhibit A in the neocon case for imprisoning political opponents is Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio, who was forcefully taken from his Dayton, Ohio home in the middle of the night by 67 armed federal soldiers, thrown into a military prison without due process, convicted by a military tribunal, and deported. One place to read about Vallandigham is in Lincoln
by John Cole| 9 Comments
This post is in: General Stupidity
It really is true- in the future, everyone will be Hitler. Today’s Hitler invocation comes in opposition to a bill allowing gay marriage in Spain:
“Marriage can only be between man and a woman,” said Agustin Cruz, 41. “It’s a divine and natural law. Marriage of homosexuals is a lie. You have to call things by their name. The first lie begins when you start calling queers ‘gays.’ They’re queers, it’s not an insult, it’s the definition of that race of people.”
Banners reading “Family=Man+Woman” and “A mother and father for every child” could be seen up and down the demonstration, which was attended by families and individuals of all ages. Handfuls of priests and nuns mixed with lay protesters.
Chants for Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to resign resounded continuously.
“This demonstration is the people’s response to the government’s provocations,” said Fr. Jose Ramon Velasco. We’re not against homosexuals but allowing them to marry degrades matrimony.
“And they shouldn’t have the right to adopt because if those children turn out to be homosexual, who will be to blame, the government?”
Velasco compared the bill to the beginnings of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
“Back then the majority of people also backed Hitler just like the majority back this law,” he said. “I’m serious, give it time and it will destroy the moral fiber of Spain and the West.”
Because, as Bill McCabe notes– “Gay marriage, gassing Jews…what’s the difference?”
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: Humorous
Angry? I got your anger right here.
by John Cole| 3 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics
Here is something you don’t see every day- an ode (well, not really an ode) to WalMart.
Because curiosity got the better of me while I was writing this and because google rules, here is an actual Ode to Walmart:
Ode to Wal Mart
isles and isles
of bargins piled
high–
as eye can
see
triumphant consumers
generals and colonels
march down battlements
armies
clutch toy cars
plastic princess barrettes
ride to battle in plastic baby seats
babies learn to seek
cheapest deals
before they can talk
It goes on. The internets is great.
by John Cole| 61 Comments
This post is in: Republican Stupidity
Look- I think is is stupid to invoke images of Nazi’s when what you are talking about is anything other than the systematic internment and murder of millions of people. We have talked about this at length, and I think many of us agree on that point.
Ok?
But this is just damned idiotic:
In a letter sent to United States Senators on Saturday, June 18, 2005, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called on the Senate to censure Senator Richard Durbin for his speech comparing U.S. servicemen serving in Guantanamo Bay to those of the Nazi Gestapo, Soviet KGB, and Pol Pot
by John Cole| 6 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics
This is pretty bizarre:
Hostettler has been concerned about a court case in his community called Russelburg v. Gibson County, which deals with a controversy surrounding a state-sponsored Ten Commandments display in front of the Gibson County Courthouse in Princeton, Indiana. Local citizens challenged the constitutionality of the local government promoting one faith’s holy text at the courthouse, and, as is usually the case, a federal judge agreed that the display is unconstitutional.
Hostettler, perhaps a little concerned about his re-election prospects, has latched onto the case. In February, he wrote a letter to the president, urging Bush, as head of the executive branch of government, to refuse to enforce the court order. The White House ignored the request.
So Hostettler, this week, took matters into his own hands and introduced an amendment to a spending bill that would “prohibit funds in the Act from being used to enforce the judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in the case of Russelburg v. Gibson County.” In other words, Hostettler would prevent the federal judiciary from enforcing its own court order. Gibson County could refuse to comply with the law and the judge couldn’t send marshals to resolve the problem.
And as if that weren’t insane enough, Hostettler’s amendment passed, 242-182.
So now Congress is writing laws that forbids enforcement of court orders? Is this a first? Even the attorney who repesented the city, fighting to keep the display, thinks he is nuts:
U.S. Rep. John Hostettler’s attempt to defy a federal order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from a southern Indiana courthouse lawn has bewildered even those who want the monument to stay.
Gibson County officials have distanced themselves from Hostettler, saying there was never any intent to defy the federal court order, which could prompt U.S. marshals to descend on the city to remove it instead.
“We’re law-abiding people,” said Jerry Stilwell, the Princeton attorney who defended the county in a lawsuit seeking the monument’s removal. “Whether we like the ruling or not is irrelevant.”
Hostettler’s amendment, which passed though the House on Wednesday, would prohibit federal money from funding marshals in any effort to remove the monument. Hostettler sponsored a similar amendment regarding a Ten Commandments monument in Alabama in 2003 that passed the House but was rejected in the Senate.
Why not wait for the SCOUTS ruling:
Gibson County Attorney Jerry Stilwell says, “The judge in his order never ordered the U.S. Marshals to do anything.” Stilwell defended the county’s efforts to keep the monument in place and says the federal ruling made no mention of US Marshals. “He ordered Gibson County to remove the monument within 60 days of his order, and we initiated the appeal and that is stayed at this point, and we’ll wait for the final decision.”
The final decision now rests with the US Supreme Court, which is looking over two cases that could affect the fate of Gibson County’s monument. Stilwell tells us, “One’s a Kentucky case and one’s a Texas case and if, in other words, depending on what that decision is in those two cases by the United States Supreme Court, will depend on what happens here.” Stilwell says Gibson County residents are law abiding and will follow any judge’s ruling.
The whole thing is just weird.