Is the Republican revolution over?

"After controlling both houses of Congress for most of President Bush's time in office, the GOP's governing record has dismayed those who fantasized about what Newt Gingrich and his band of rebels might accomplish. The current crisis arrived with a sex scandal that muddied one of the party's few remaining patches of moral high ground."

I'm with MiddleGirth and the explanation by snipehack. I want a government that works for us, and wards off all these evil corporate enterprises. I don't want these large "campaign contributions". We should abolish all the lobby groups, and start from scratch, without the ability to influence government through money. They need to influence Congress the old fashioned way through action.

While at it, lets start going around the country using the "American Idol" method, and choose our next President. Screw the current method of "who has the most money wins", but a true President loved by the people and who really cares for our values. They would be given the chance to continue through the competition and then given a generous salary once President. 1 year before re-election, we go out and find another one and then see if they want someone else or the same guy again. Choosing the Vice President should fall to some other contestant in the same race.

The way it looks today, this is a fantasy, but we can hope right?

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CBS News Commentary Blames School Shootings On Evolution and Abortion

"Last night, the CBS Evening News turned their broadcast over to a man named Brian Rohrbough, who lost his son during the Columbine massacre. Mr. Rohrbough proceeded to blame recent school shootings on: 1) the teaching of evolution, and 2) abortion."

@WickedDrag0oN dude, totally un-called for. If you haven't read our Constitution yet, it says that we have the Freedom OF Religion, not the Freedom FROM Religion. Therefore, anyone can practice the religion they want, and you don't get a say about it. (as long as that practice doesn't violate the constitution itself)

I get tired of people not understanding that because people have religious viewpoints, that they are wackjobs or lunatics or fanatical. Within our constitution it clearly wants to make the point that people can practice religion freely, and there is to be no state sponsored religion. This simply means the state cannot setup a religion and make its people follow it. This is a radical viewpoint considering many other nations including Iran, Palestine, China, Cuba and others who actively seek out alternate religions and kill people over them.

We have no separation of church and state, it was only a side-bar from the Constitution, but not actually law or in the document itself. The Judicial system made a bad choice a long time ago with the whole "separation" statement, because it could have been handled a lot better than today. Today our schools and government are so freaked out about have religion around that they ban it. That is not the intention of the founding fathers. They just wanted to make sure as a government we didn't force anyone into any religion.

Don't get me started on atheists, since they claim not to follow any religion, then the very mention of anything like the pledge of allegiance is hate speech to them.

I believe we can all get together and figure this stuff out. Its our government getting so big which is actually the problem. It was never supposed to be like this.

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A worrying sign of political brainwashing in schools.

"My concern here is not the anti-bush theme but that it is political at all. Schools should be teaching 123 and abc not who you should be voting for. Malkin seems to be concerned more about the anti-bush theme. Look beyond that because stuff like this was encouraged in nazi-germany as well as the USSR."

Yeah, also agree. Holy crap, I agree with Michelle Malkin on some point? (Well that and illegal immigration). This teachers union stuff is absolute rubbish, and they should be called on it. Politics needs to be left out, parents will get their two cents in enough at home.

Our kids should understand how the government is supposed to work (at least the way the constitution teaches) and how everything has become with the political lobby groups and how campaign "fund raising" allows are leaders to properly guide their efforts into the right places. /sarcasm.

My personal views are that our kids, through high school, need to understand enough in order to better prepare them for college. Once they get to college, they get bombarded with all kinds of political viewpoints, and they need to understand how to fend for themselves and know who is blowing smoke up their backsides.

We don't have a perfect system, so it is up to the parents and teachers to prepare them for the rough road ahead. We have strayed so far from that in our education system it is shameful. All I know is that when my kids are going through school, the policies at school will have a close watch.

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Should We Rethink Birthright Citizenship?

"No other wealthy, western nations grant automatic citizenship to those who simply happen to be born within their borders to non-citizens. These nations recognize that citizenship involves more than the physical location of one's birth; it also involves some measure of cultural connection and allegiance."

This is a powerful amendment, and one which should be given thought. Ron Paul is one of the good guys in Congress. We should listen to him, and hear him out. Down below read "PowerCow's" argument. It would make more sense that if the parents are in the country long enough to get citizenship and are contributing to society, that children are therefore citizens. We should have a set of rules and law surrounding this, not simply carte-blanche citizenship.

I would want Congress to come up with some good plans, and then we should have a serious discussion.

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Is it unacceptable to think in the United States?

"Some have called Keith Olberman the new Edward R. Murrow of our times. Here, Keith asks the pertinent question "Is it EVER unacceptable to think in this country?" And continues on to compare the actions of the Bush presidency to the words of a previous holder of that title: Thomas Jefferson."

If today, we need to take instruction from a French author 236 years ago, then we best get moving. The very rights by which this country was founded were stricken out of history and to paper by such great people as Voltaire and Locke.

Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.

Voltaire, letter to M. le Riche, February 6, 1770
French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)

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Parents want to ban "Fahrenheit 451". Can you smell the irony?

""The book had a bunch of very bad language in it," Diana Verm said. "It shouldn't be in there because it's offending people. If they can't find a book that uses clean words, they shouldn't have a book at all." Alton Verm filed a "Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials" Thursday."

I believe our kids should get the best education available as possible. This unfortunately means that if you send kids to public school, you will also have to do some home-schooling. Kids get taught all kinds of things like Evolution, sex education, and bad words as well. They will learn this stuff through friends and school curriculum as well.

Information should not be filtered, it should be available to our kids. We should teach them our values (as parents), and make sure NOT to make school a daycare. Take an active role with them and make sure you know you as parents care about their education. My parents did this, and I have benefited from it.

Fahrenheit 451 is a very important book, and the movie is an important visual aid as well. I highly recommend this book for children above 15 or so. The ideas and concepts in this book are not something children should be shielded from, especially in high school.

Banning books is NOT the answer. Book selection in schools should come from a combination of local factors, parental insight, and school administration practices. This way everyone gets a say in which books are available in the school libraries. Public libraries should not ban books at all. There will be some books which are targeted for adults, and they should be labeled or even checked out only to age levels for which they represent. Public access to knowledge should never be limited, because there are far greater consequences otherwise.

You ban one thing now, you ban more things later, then all of a sudden you have China many years down the road.

Some time in the future, you may have the opportunity to serve as a juror (or speak) in a so-called obscenity or moral case. It would be wise to remember that the same people who would stop you from viewing adult material may be back next year to complain about a book, or even a TV program. If you can be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you can be told what to say or think. Defend your constitutionally-protected rights. No one else will do it for you. -- adapted from Boards of Canada

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"The Constitution is just a g**d**n piece of paper" - G.W. Bush

"The same man who admits he doesn't know what "outrages upon human dignity" actually means. The same man who's war in Iraq, an intelligence estimate found, has made the threat of terrorism worse. Watch this interview with Keith Olbermann."

I wouldn't be voting down @jdb252 however it wasn't just Diebold but a couple other vendors as well. The software is designed to vote rig elections. They are 100% proprietary and the vendors aggressively disavow any problem, and never allow constituents, or voting officials to question the accuracy of the machines.

http://hackedelections.com/
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/

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Official in S.C.: Sterilize Bad Parents

"A City Council member, reacting to a video store holdup believed to have been carried out by children, says parents who can't properly care for their kids should be sterilized."

How about we simply not have transfer programs like public assistance, no federal income tax, and treat our citizens like they actually run the country. Wow, an incredible idea, did anyone ever think of this? Wait, the founding fathers? What you say? Small government, a people run democratic republic, naw, can't be? Sure enough, look up the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, they can shed some light on what we are supposed to be following here.

By the way, if ANY government official starts talking about sterilizing the population, no matter who it is, be very scared. I doubt he was being serious here though.

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Lawmakers discuss securing phone records

WASHINGTON - Executives from the nation's largest wireless telephone companies told lawmakers Friday they should outlaw the practice of lying to get access to someone else's phone records -- also known as pretexting. -- I am hesitant to say that whatever these execs want is good, but I don't want someone else in my records.

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Why I'm Banned in the USA

"For more than two years now, the U.S. government has barred me from entering the United States to pursue an academic career. The reasons have changed over time, and have evolved from defamatory to absurd, but the effect has remained the same: I've been kept out"

@maklershed "* Along with nearly all Islamists, Mr. Ramadan has denied that there is "any certain proof" that Bin Laden was behind 9/11." Yeah, except the FBI themselves say there is no evidence linking OBL to the 9/11 attacks. They have not listed any evidence on their website (or wanted information) in the OBL folder, and they have publicly commented that there is no evidence pointing at OBL responsible for that attacks.

The "war on terror" is pretty much lets russle up some Muslims, and see if they fire at us. If they do, they are terrorists. Lets go over to these remote lands (who we really don't understand the politics anyway) and kill a few of them, that should stir up a few eyebrows. The "insurgents" that start-a-coming after us must be the terrorists.

Then Senator Trent Lott said: “Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me.” Do I need to say more here? I bet that 1/2 or more of Congress agrees with Lott, either complicitly, or just because they are ignorant.

I encourage everyone to take a look at the governments own documents called P2OG and the Gullivers Travails. And a down the rabbit hole we go...

http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/monographs/A-F/a-f-3.htm
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DK05Ak02.html
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/dsbbrief.ppt

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US Citizens Can Now Be Deemed "Enemy Combatants" and Stripped of All Rights

""A federal appeals court Wednesday ruled President Bush has the authority to designate U.S. citizens as "enemy combatants" and detain them in military custody if they are deemed a threat to national security." Everyone get scared and submit."

"Because it is undisputed that Hamdi was captured in a zone of active combat in a foreign theater of conflict, we hold that the submitted declaration is a sufficient basis upon which to conclude that the commander-in-chief has constitutionally detained Hamdi pursuant to the war powers entrusted to him by the United States Constitution,"

I do not agree with many of the news articles coming out about "Enemy Combatants" to the extent that I have not found anything in the text of the cases, or bills like H.R. 6166 which includes American Citizens. In this particular case Hamdi was caught in a "foreign theater of conflict" in combat with his own country. This is treason in my book.

Don't get me wrong, I am 99.99% against torture, and 100% of these draconian laws being passed by Congress. I just think we all need to step back and make sure we are all fighting with correct information. We need to make it clear to our government we DON'T give the President the freedom to simply grab anyone he wants, or make his own rules up when he sees fit because of his "war powers". Power corrupts, and I see as time goes on here, it will corrupt completely.

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4 students wear the same outfit, then suspended

"4 girls who wore the same outfit on the same day were all suspended for violating school rules. The principle has declined to say which rules were broken."

JoJo you have a good point, and I respect your answer. Except, we DONT have to "deal with it". What we need to do is become activists for the right way. We need to turn our schools around and not allow crap like this to happen. If you have known gang members at your schools, then throw them out. If I were a headmaster, I would be tough. Yeah, I know it is most likely harder than it sounds. But look at it this way, if we don't get tough and force crime out of the schools, then nothing good will ever come from our educational system.

I for one am not willing to sit back and allow this to happen. If there are problems at the school, then we need to meet them head on. We need to really re-visit the whole "zero-tolerance" policies also. We need to start looking hard at intent, and rehabilitation. These are kids growing up, we can't throw the book at them on the first offenses they commit.

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Congress gives Bush the right to torture and detain people forever

"Say goodbye to your freedoms, America... they're slipping down the drain. If you are suspected of being a terrorist, you can be detained and tortured by the U.S. for the rest of your life."

I have also read a good portion of this H.R. 6166 bill (and done text searches). In all places except for one, it is clear this bill pertains only to "Alien Unlawful Combatants". The section which doesn't have "alien" next to it is "948d. Jurisdiction of military commissions". It says:

17 ‘‘(c) DETERMINATION OF UNLAWFUL ENEMY COM
18 BATANT STATUS DISPOSITIVE.—A finding, whether be-
19 fore, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military
20 Commissions Act of 2006, by a Combatant Status Review
21 Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under
22 the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense
23 that a person is an unlawful enemy combatant is disposi-
24 tive for purposes of jurisdiction for trial by military com-
25 mission under this chapter."

So although I disagree with the bill, and quite frankly we have worse documents to worry about (like the Patriot Act II), I cannot see anything in this working document saying they can grab American Citizens and treat them like unlawful combatants. The Patriot Act Section 802 can determine an American Citizen as a "terrorist", but this bill would not apply to them. Once you are an American Citizen they cannot strip you of that. They can take Habeas Corpus away (suspend your ability to combat the charges) but they cannot strip away your citizenship.

Then there is the matter of torturing children. As far as I can tell, this only came up in a press conference with John Yoo in which he said the President could authorize anything he deemed necessary. When asked about torturing children, he responded "No treaty...I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that".

I also do not condone the actions, or statement of this crazy person Yoo, but there is nothing written into law saying you can torture children. I think this new act also draws out what torture is, and who is subject to it. No children are mentioned.

Can someone please reply to this with any other information I might be missing? Is there anything in this bill, or something that refers to/from it which involves American Citizens, or children even by inference? Besides the Patriot Act I, and the Detainee Treatment Act 2005 I cannot find much. rhawk301-at-gmail-dot-com

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Lott On Iraq: "Why Do Sunnis Kill Shiites? They All Look The Same To Me"

"It's hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what's wrong with these people, Sen. Trent Lott said. Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me.""

Please, whomever is in this Senators state, just vote him out of office please. Someone else has to do a better job. He has totally lost touch with reality.

They sit on capitol hill and don't understand we live in a big world. We can't just simply force other nations to accept our ways. We may also want to look at the reasons that such a hard ass like Sadaam was running the country. Maybe it takes a relentless dictator who runs with an iron fist to keep the country in line. Maybe not. All I know, is that American/US citizens can never understand their world.

Let that country deal with their own problems, and we deal with ours. If they want to trade, heh great. We should be able to work out some pretty killer energy deals since we are one of the largest consumers of oil on the planet. I say they need to get Shell, and Chevron, and Exxon out of there, nationalize the oil fields, and then sell to the open market. Screw OPEC. Oh wait, this is what Iran was going to do before the CIA overthrew Mohammad Mossadeq and placed the Shaw in power.

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Ground Zero Hero David Miller

Ground Zero Hero David Miller Sep 27, 2006

David Miller was a first responder in his as part of a national guard unit that helped the victims of the September 11 attack. Miller now has to permanently wear a respirator over his shoulder as a result of his poisoned lungs from breathing the toxic air that ground zero heroes were knowingly exposed to by the EPA on the orders of Condoleeza Rice.

Miller gives a moving speech about how he and his friends are dying as a result of being abandoned by the "scumbags" that posed at the saviors after 9/11. Miller also slams Popular Mechanics and other government mouthpieces as sheep being used to marginalizes the 9/11 truth movement.

"We were also killed on 9/11 - avenge us."David Miller

Why Do We Need A New Congress? They forgot they work for We the People

"Fed officials & the US military take an oath to uphold and defend the US Constitution and the laws of this great land. But that promise to fidelity seems to have been forgotten or ignored by many in the Govt today, particularly in the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. The goal is boot them all out of office, except for Rep. Ron Paul..."

I don't think the rest of the country should pay for these transfer programs. I fell on hard times once too, but without the government I just would have found another way. You have to realize that without Federal taxes and other Unapportioned tax, the country would be better off. Sure, it seems like government sponsored programs are great, but that is because the government structures everything to need them.

We need to be independent of our government. We need a better free market society, one which the government stays out of. This includes medical, insurance, oil, etc. Infrastructure like our power lines, phone lines, roads and other basic services should be regulated only to a point which makes sense to keep them in place.

Also read my other blog entry to these matters
http://rhawk301.blogspot.com/2006/09/lets-wake-up-and-take-back-america.html

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Harman to Negroponte: Release the Iraq Intel Report Before November

"Think Progress has the text of the letter, which blasts the administration for claiming it can't release the report until after the elections."

I kind of agree with @Dewhead Something very critical like the NIE should be government read only (intel departments, oversight, whitehouse, etc) at first, however as with any material is should be subject to public scrutiny at some point. I feel that even the most valuable intelligence should be released at some point. Pick a point in the future of which all relevant people have read the report and had time to digest the data. Then do the standard redactions for super-classified stuff like if people's lives (agents, etc) are affected.

However, the whole political thing should not be considered. If we are so petty as a people, then it is our own downfall. Let the cards fall where they may, but we should be able to see the report at some point.

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PlameOut: An Emily Litella Moment

"Mr. Wilson diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush's closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It's unfortunate that so many people took him seriously."

The reports that Wilson is a "liar" are still misguided. The YellowCake incident and subsequent findings shows that there was no Iraq program to buy Uranium (even the British found the forged documents after the Butler Report). Wilson’s original claims of "I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat." are most likely still accurate. President Bush in fact used a small portion of this “spin” in his 2003 SOTU speech.

Further, George Tenet never circulated the report to the President, but classified it as a routine intelligence report because [the report] "was sent in a routine intelligence paper that had wide circulation in the White House and the rest of the intelligence community but had little impact because it supported other, earlier refutations of the Niger intelligence". Lets keep in mind Tenet himself urged the President not use this information in the speech.

Wilson did make many allegations about the insider information coming from the White House. Since Armitage was outed, where exactly are these claims now? Even Libby is known to have been a "weasel" in this case, and lied under oath. Karl Rove is still a "thug" for the Presidency. I am not sure what has changed. His wife is still out of a job.

To suggest that Wilson is to blame for his wife’s secret job status, because of his report to the White House, is ridiculous. Of all the problems with this whole “PlameGate” business, this is of the least notice.

“From a WaPo editorial that should be framed and hung in the Newseum for posterity”, is yet another piece of hot air from Michelle. Get real, do research, report facts.

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Pre-edit clips of ABC's "Path to 9/11"

"Much controversy surrounds ABC's drama, "the Path to 9/11" - representatives from the Clinton administration have threatened legal action, Democrats in Congress are crying foul. See the clips in question - from a pre-edit version of the film scheduled to air tomorrow."

@PAeZ I will give you my impression of Fahrenheit 9-11. I think the movie had a lot of good facts in it. I also think the movie had a lot of Michael Moore non-sense editing, sound clips, and un-necessary sound bytes. If you digest only the facts which were researched, and leave alone all of Michael Moore's Bush bashing you will find some good information. For instance the parts about James Bath, the CIA, the Carlyle Group, Bush Jr. Military records, Arbusto Energy, etc.

Just because Michael Moore made a film, does not discount the actual facts and information presented. You must read between those fluff parts. President Bush does have connections to the Bin Laden Construction Company, Salem Bin Laden, Carlye Group, and has CIA connections through his dad. The current cabal in power has tremendously deep ties to our Corporate slave state, and the power lobby elite. Google "Rumsfeld+G.d. searle" crazy stuff about Aspartame. Google "Rumsfeld+Gilead Research" more crazy stuff. Then of course the information about Halliburton and Cheney are legion.

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Transcript of Cheney Interview

"Cheney blatantly lies about everything from Pakistan's support for the Taliban to once again claiming there was a link between Saddam & Al Qaeda. When asked about Iraq, he said that even though it was never the central front in the war on terror "it is now." Which is actually a lie in itself. Unbelievable. Tricky Dick Cheney does it again."

yeah, lets not forget the $20mil severence. This was a pretty good pay-off to make sure he was Halliburton's good buddy during the administration. $20mil goes a long way, and can be renewed once out of office, you just wait. Once they get voted out of office, Cheney, Bush, and Rumsfeld will all go off working for the lobby companies again. Wolfowitz will most likely continue his neo-con work at the PNAC with Libby.

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