Category: Politics

Missed it By That Much

I have some unfortunately news to report, the federal government will not be shutting down:

The US Senate has passed a resolution that provides money to fund the US government and end fears of a shutdown.

I don’t know about you but a government shutdown has never been something I’ve feared. To be honest I welcome such joyous events because it does well to demonstrate the fact that we can survive without our government.

Even though this news is depressing there is a silver lining, they only approved enough money to run through November 18th:

The new funding will last until 18 November once passed by the House.

I’m doubting the Democrats and Republicans will fight hard enough over the next budget proposal to shut everything down but there is always hope.

Freedom of Speech is Dead

Although most of my readers already know this I feel it necessary to state this for the record, the freedom of speech is dead. The freedom of speech has been under attack in this country for a very long time, going back at least as early as the Alien and Sedition Acts. Still the fact that somebody can be punished simply for having an unpopular belief is a bit disconcerting:

An honors student in Fort Worth, Texas, was sent to the principal’s office and punished for telling a classmate that he believes homosexuality is wrong.

[…]

Dakota was in a German class at the high school when the conversation shifted to religion and homosexuality in Germany. At some point during the conversation, he turned to a friend and said that he was a Christian and “being a homosexual is wrong.”

“It wasn’t directed to anyone except my friend who was sitting behind me,” Dakota told Fox. “I guess [the teacher] heard me. He started yelling. He told me he was going to write me an infraction and send me to the office.”

Dakota was sentenced to one day in-school suspension – and two days of full suspension. His mother was flabbergasted, noting that her son had a spotless record, was an honor student, volunteered at his church and played on the school football team.

I’m sure somebody will say I’m anti-gay for writing this article but if you do a little browsing on this blog you’ll know that’s not true. It is my personal belief that all people should enjoy equal rights regardless of your race, religion, or sexual orientation. I also believe everybody has the right to their opinion and should be allowed to express it without fear of punishment. Vengeance shouldn’t be brought against somebody simply because they’re racist, bigoted, etc. While I reserve the right to call such people idiots they reserve the right to call me one and so long as nobody initiates violence it’s all good.

The fact that this kid was given three days of suspension is disgusting. What kind of message do you think that sends the kid? If the teacher was disgusted by the child’s belief maybe he should have had a discussion about it with the kid or the entire class. Punishing somebody for disagreeing with you only generates resentment and will likely strengthen their belief. Reason is the most effective tool for promoting logical ideas. Had the teacher used reasoning to express why he believed the child’s belief to be wrong perhaps he could have helped the kid understand that homosexuality isn’t wrong as it harms nobody.

Instead the teacher went all authoritarian on the child and likely generated resentment which will strengthen the child’s belief that homosexuality is wrong.

Announcing the Next President of Russia

Not surprising anybody, former Russian president and current prime minister Vladimir Putin has announced that he’ll be running for a chance to be the next president of Russia:

Addressing the ruling United Russia party’s annual congress, Mr Putin and current President Dmitry Medvedev backed one another to switch roles.

The announcements end speculation over which man should run for the top job.

I will give the Russian government credit on one thing, they don’t even try to hide the rampent corruption flowing within its veins. While our government in the United States spends a lot of time trying to appear magnanimous and promote the myth that anybody can achieve a position within the government palaces of power, the Russian government all but outright states there is a de facto monarchy.

More Blatant Ignoring of Ron Paul

Whether you love or hate Ron Paul you have to admit that the media has been doing everything they can to screw the man over. For example take the title of this article:

Poll: Romney leads New Hampshire, Huntsman in third, Perry in fourth

So Romney got first, Huntsman third, and Perry fourth… isn’t there a number missing? Who in the hell got second place? Oh yeah, it was Ron Paul which is mentioned only in passing:

The Suffolk University/7News poll found Romney leading with 41 percent of the vote from independents and Republicans. His closest competition is Ron Paul, with 14 percent, followed by Jon Huntsman with an uncharacteristically high 10 percent. Perry, who has topped most national polls since announcing his candidacy, does not even break double digits, getting just 8 percent of the primary vote.

The good doctor is never mentioned again in the article. My friend Jeff summed up Ron Paul perfectly, he’s the 13th floor of the Republican race. The media knows he’s there but they simply ignore his existence and are willing to go so far as to ignore the number two in order to maintain their attempted ignorance.

A Slight Victory Against the PATRIOT Act

United States District Judge Ann Aiken has proven herself to have some competence and has ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is an amendment to the PATRIOT Act, is unconstitutional:

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, “now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment.”

This is only a minor victor since, I believe, there are still several levels of appeals courts the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) can take to overrule this decision if they so choose. I would be utterly shocked if the FBI didn’t attempt to fight this decision as they seem to find constitutional restrictions an inconvenience to their mission of arresting anybody and everybody to get their numbers up and make themselves sound impressive.

This court case also exemplifies the need for protections against illegal search and seizures. The target of the FBI’s wrath this time was an innocent man who should have never been accused in the first place as the FBI’s evidence was flimsy at best:

Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield sought the ruling in a lawsuit against the federal government after he was mistakenly linked by the FBI to the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in 2004.

The federal government apologized and settled part of the lawsuit for $2 million after admitting a fingerprint was misread. But as part of the settlement, Mayfield retained the right to challenge parts of the Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the authority of law enforcers to investigate suspected acts of terrorism.

How magnanimous of the government to allow Mr. Mayfield the right to challenge the PATRIOT Act. It’s a good thing this ability to challenge was allowed because, as pointed out by judge Aiken, dismissal of this case would have been akin to a constitutional convention:

“For over 200 years, this Nation has adhered to the rule of law — with unparalleled success. A shift to a Nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill-advised,” she wrote.

By asking her to dismiss Mayfield’s lawsuit, the judge said, the U.S. attorney general’s office was “asking this court to, in essence, amend the Bill of Rights, by giving it an interpretation that would deprive it of any real meaning. This court declines to do so.”

What many people fail to realize is the fact that our courts can act as de facto constitutional conventions by interpreting the bylaws expressed in the Constitution. For example if the Supreme Court had ruled that the second amendment only applied to the federal government they would have basically stripped the right to keep and bear arms from the people as the states would be allowed to make any laws they pleased in regards to firearms. Had judge Aikens ruled that FISA was within the scope of the fourth amendment then the FBI would be allowed to continue secret searches of homes with flimsy evidence (which they may still be able to do if they appeal this decision).

The power to write law is obviously open for abuse but the true power lies in the ability to interpret law.

Patents on Methods to Keep Your Money no Longer Being Accepted

Seldom can any good news be found in a bill with the word reform in the title but alas I’ve found some. Among clauses that will bail out fraudsters there is one decent point in the recent America Invents Act that disallow patents on methods to keep what is rightfully yours:

Under a provision in the far-reaching patent reform bill, it’s no longer possible to get a patent on a strategy for reducing, avoiding or postponing taxes. (See Section 14 of the law, which downloads here as a pdf.) By the time the bill, known as the America Invents Act, was signed into law, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had issued more than 161 tax patents, and another 167 tax patent applications were pending.

The patent system in this country is completely broken and the American Invents Act does nothing to fix the real problems but it’s nice to see a company can no longer sue you for violating a patent on using the complex tax code to your advantage. I know the reason this was slipped into the bill is because the government wants to discourage the practice of using the tax code to your advantage but this may backfire on them. Now when a clever accountant finds a point in the tax code overlooked by the revenuers he can’t file a patent and claim exclusive rights over the practice. This is good news as it may allow more people and companies to avoid a little bit of the theft perpetrated by the government.

We Should Really Get Obama a Crown

I’m a bit conflicted here because I realize getting Obama a crown could further perpetuate his delusions of grandeur I also believe it would better indicate to people his opinion about himself. It’s more apparent every day that Obama believe himself to be an emperor. He’s been making a lot of statements as of late about wanting to get around Congress including one expressing a desire to have a magic wand that would cast of spell of bypassing the legislature:

Facing growing opposition to his economic proposals and dimming prospects that Congress will pass other parts of his agenda, President Obama told a Hispanic group in Washington Wednesday that when it comes to the issue of immigration, “I’d like to work my way around Congress.”

“As I mentioned when I was at La Raza a few weeks back, I wish I had a magic wand and could make this all happen on my own,” Obama told a meeting of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “There are times where — until Nancy Pelosi is speaker again — I’d like to work my way around Congress.”

Basically he’s saying, “Congress are mean and won’t do exactly as I say! If they won’t do what I say then I’ll just ignore them!” The idea behind having the legislature and executive branch being separate entities was to prevent assholes with desires to rule from being able to accomplish their goals. This separation of power hasn’t work that well in this country because the Congress is made up of spineless cowards who refuse to enforce it. The first time a president used an executive order to create law members of Congress should have started impeachment hearings. Instead they let it slide and continued to let violations of presidential power slide because it’s a convenient way for Congress to avoid having to take responsibility.

Now we have a president who brazenly states that he’s going to find any way to bypass the Congress he can. The presidency is now a de facto dictatorship and each president realizes this a bit more than his predecessor. Even Bush went to Congress for their rubber stamp approval before sending our military off to blow up brown people; meanwhile Obama couldn’t be bothered to do even that.

Presidential Newspeak

It’s good to see Obama’s campaign going all Orwellian before things have even started to really heat up. The Obama campaign as started AttackWatch to suppress any criticism of the president:

Join Attack Wire—and help stop the attacks on the President before they start.

When another unfounded attack surfaces, we’ll arm you with the truth so you can share the facts with your friends and family.

Are those mean grumpy old Republicans saying nasty things about your precious Obama? Never fear! Attack Wire will send you reassuring e-mails filled with doublespeak the facts that will explain how Obama was actually in the right. Instead of having to critically think and come to your own conclusions you’ll be able to mindlessly parrot sound bytes sent to you by Obama’s campaign.

This should make it much easier for those supporting another four years of hope and change without actually having any evidence demonstrating Obama ever brought hope or change to the country during his presidency.

On a side note if you’re looking for some comedy gold I suggest you go to Twitter and do a search on #attackwatch. Thanks to that hash tag I’m learning that there are some extremely funny people on the Internet. I’m also learning that this AttackWatch idea may not have been the most well thought out plan.

The American Jobs Act

Obama has revealed his plan for America in the form of the American Jobs Act. Although he’s urging Congress to pass the legislation without reading it I believe the American people would like a chance to actually see what’s in the bill. Finding a copy of the bill has been a bit of a pain since it hasn’t been uploaded to any of the usual websites as far as I can see. Thankfully somebody uploaded a copy to Scribd. Although you can download a PDF of the document from Scribd they require that you sign up for an account first. I decided to save you the trouble and have a straight PDF version of the document [PDF] for you to download and read.

I haven’t had time to read through the bill as it’s rather long (as are most of Obama’s initiatives) but I’ll carouse it when I get a chance and report on anything interesting I find.

Perry’s Ties to Merck

During CNN’s Tea Party debate Bachmann called Perry out for his use of an executive order to force the Gardasil vaccination on 12 year-old girls living in Texas. She pointed out the fact that the executive order followed some rather expensive lobbying to which Perry claimed he only received a $5,000.00 campaign contribution and then feigned offense at the accusation that he could be bought so cheaply. As anybody with a brain was able to figure out Pertty wasn’t being honest:

But campaign disclosure records portray a much deeper financial connection with Merck than Perry’s remarks would suggest.

Perry’s gubernatorial campaign, for example, received nearly $30,000 from the drugmaker since 2000, most of it prior to his decision in 2007 to order young girls to obtain Merck’s vaccine against the human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Merck has also given more than $355,000 in donations to the Republican Governors Association since 2006, which was the year that Perry began to play a prominent role in the Washington-based group, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

Perry served as chairman of the RGA in 2008 and again this year until he decided to run for president. The group also ranks among Perry’s biggest donors, giving the Texas governor’s campaign at least $4 million over the past five years, according to Texans for Public Justice.

Although politicians pass laws putting apparent caps on the number of dollars that can be donated to their campaigns what they know is such laws only shift money around. If somebody wants to donate $300,000 to your campaign but can only legally donate $2,500 then that person will donate $2,500 to the campaign and $297,500 to some affiliated organization. It’s actually a great method for the two major parties to stay in power since most third parties lack any sizable affiliate organizations which can receive larger than legally allowed campaign contributions that will go to specific candidates.

So while Perry’s statement was technically correct it was a lie through omission as much of Merck’s money went to affiliate organizations that helped power Perry’s campaign. Finally I wish to close this post by leaving you with the following:

No that’s not a serious political criticism, the picture just makes me laugh.