Saturday, July 26, 2008

Police in Maryland need some schooling on the law

Here's a story on a big old 1st Amendment violation by the police.

Regardless of their opinion on the death penalty, the police are in serious violation of the 1st Amendment when they infiltrate an activist group that either supports the death penalty, or in this case, opposes it.

It doesn't pass the smell test for the police to claim their actions were designed to thwart violence by the group...a group that has shown little propensity for violence in its protests.

The police were really targeting a group that advocates views adverse to law enforcement. All I have to say is: "WELCOME TO AMERICA FOLKS!"

Unfortunately for the poor police, the 1st Amendment entitles U.S. citizens to freely hate the police, just so long as they don't resort to violence to vindicate their feelings.

The police in Maryland need an education in the oath they took as police officers, that oath being: To Uphold The Constitution of the United States.

I'm available to teach them the finer points of American government and Constitutional law.

Friday, July 25, 2008

South shows its stupidity, yet again.

Well this is a dubious distinction.

Apparently my home state of Tennessee is one of a triumvirate of Southern states leading the nation in obesity.

Kind of fits the attitude common in the South, viz., full of followers and sheep. How else do you explain the greater efficacy of junk food advertising there.

The South is also notorious for jumping on the stupid bandwagon when it comes to politicians too. This explains why the South overwhelmingly supported Bush.

Bush Adminstration should be prosecuted for war crimes.

Here's a fun little tidbit.

It's an interactive guide that uses Venn diagrams to show who is subject to prosecution in the Bush administration for crimes.

If you're a Bush supporter, chances are you'll call this liberal bullshit. Unfortunately, you cannot call yourself a died in the wool conservative if you don't advocate strong and immediate enforcement of the law.

My hope is that the next administration will go to great lengths to examine and publicly flog those in Bushco who deserve it. Until something happens to bring these bozos to justice, we, as a nation, have little credibility with the world when we try to paint ourselves as a paragon of moral virtue.

My thoughts on strategy: Wait until Bush leaves office so he cannot pardon any of these guys.

There's a reason we have a system of checks and balances. Unfortunately, the Republicans in Congress were so drunk with power that they failed in their job when the President encouraged and allowed all these shenanigans.


Thursday, July 24, 2008

We need socialized health insurance

Slate reports on the economic incentives that hospitals have to shaft the poor.

The current problem with our health care system is thus: The system is designed around profitability. There's no profit in treating people who have little to no money.

Our system is also designed to reward doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies.

This begs the question: At whose expense?

Well, at the expense of those least capable of paying.

Our system is in dire need of overhaul. The doctors will fight it along with insurance companies and hospitals.

We have a moral obligation to treat everyone fairly instead of just those with the means to afford insurance or health care.

Personally, I think we should have a system that provides basic coverage for all, funded by government run insurance. This would allow better preventative care and reduce reliance of E.R. care by those without coverage or means.

The cost-benefit analysis bears this out when you compare the actual cost of care in countries with some form of socialized health insurance (not the same as socialized medicine).

The final dilemma is this: Is it moral to reward doctors, hospitals and insurance companies at the expense of the poor? Or, is it moral to treat everyone fairly?

1st Amendment is doing its job of encouraging homophobes into the open.

And yet another story from the Washington Post that underscores why we need Free Speech.

When we protect free speech, we encourage the open discussion of whacky notions and outright stupidity, like the one displayed before Congress by a homophobe. Now that everyone knows who she is and what she believes, we can exercise our 1st Amendment right to not associate with her and her kind.

It's only by encouraging wing nuts to express their idiotic ideas that we get to do what America does best---ridicule them for the morons they truly are.

Thank God for the 1st Amendment! It gives us such entertainment.

Voters are blockheads

This recent story from the Washington Post reports on a study that shows Americans are dumbasses when it comes to politics and voting.

Unfortunately, the results are nothing more than a "No shit" moment for me.

I've suspected for a long time that people vote for whomever offers the pithy slogan or manages to give the best "rah rah" speech.

It's too bad. The founding fathers would be saddened at our state of willful ignorance. The founders noted that an educated public was the best bulwark against tyranny.

Our own inability to engage in civic responsibility could destroy us...it's given us the past 8 years of rights erosion and fear.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Bushco at it yet again with an incompetent attempt to protect their corporate constituents.

This story printed in the Washington Post underscores why the Bush administration is nothing but incompetent and in the back pocket of corporate interests.

Not only can't they do things properly by submitting the proposed rule-making for public comment AS REQUIRED BY LAW, but they are trying to pull a fast one that benefits corporate America AT THE EXPENSE of individual workers.

When Bushco acts like this I am completely dumbfounded as to why they garnered so much support from the very people that will suffer if this attempt to shaft the U.S. worker.

Explain to me why people voted to support an incompetent boob whose only interest is the well-heeled and powerful?

This attempt is just another sign of the damage wrought by incompetence married to opportunism with an added dose of deceit.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Obama is the foreign policy realist while McCain has his head in the air

Here's a good piece by Fareed Zakaria in Obama's foreign policy.

Zakaria makes the point that Obama is not really at all like his Republican and Conservative detractors assume.

Instead, Obama is actually a realist when it comes to foreign policy....more like George H. Bush. McCain is really the one out in left field.

I suppose this piece points to the real issue when dealing with presidential politics: You can either stick your head in the sand and believe what your chosen party tells you about the opponent OR you can look at the facts.

Unfortunately, many people make up their minds without any intrusion of facts.

I, for one, think it incumbent upon each of us as a citizen to explore and evaluate the candidates critically. That's probably too much to ask of the electorate, viz., that they use their brains instead of their ideologies.