There's a very cool article about Robert Hunter

Find it here!

Digby earns Quote-of-the-day honors

If I have to kowtow to a bunch of childish Republican panic artists who have deluded themselves into believing that fighting radical Islam requires turning America into a police state, then it's just not worth it.

Read the whole post.

FICA and you

There've been several references to a poll that shows a fair amount of support for what the NSA is supposed to be doing (as opposed to what they ARE doing.)Link here Which bring up the question, if this domestic surveillance program is so popular then why couldn't the FICA have been updated to allow it? It's called the law for a reason after all.

Sent to the author of this story in the Indy Star

Imagine if Einstein while working out the theory of general relativity had abruptly thrown up his hands and said this Tensor Calculus is just too complicated to be understood by mere mortals. I should quit now. That’s precisely what the proponents of ID do. I find it very disappointing that you would provide their viewpoint such sympathetic coverage. All of science is based on the premise that the universe is comprehensible through natural law. As soon as you give up that premise, you are no longer doing science.

Article here

Remember - by definition 50% of all people are below average intelligence.

Do you agree or disagree with the federal judge’s decision to bar teaching of "intelligent design" in a science class?


Agree 45% => 1685 votes

Disagree 47% => 1752 votes

I'm not sure 7% => 263 votes
Current number of voters: 3700

No wonder we're in trouble. We're running out of "reasonable Observers"!

Quoting from the Dover PA decision:

"In elaborating upon this “reasonable observer,” the Third Circuit explained in Modrovich, 385 F.3d at 407, that “the reasonable observer is an informed citizen who is more knowledgeable than the average passerby.” Moreover, in addition to knowing the challenged conduct’s history, the observer is deemed able to “glean other relevant facts” from the face of the policy in light of its context."

What better way to learn about Totalitarianism than to experience it firsthand

"The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said. "

Link

Posted at Firedoglake

If you think it can't happen in America, think again. We have laws in place for a reason, and when you allow the President to start selectively ignoring them, it sets a precedent for every other law enforcement official in the nation. We fought a revolution in this country to prevent just this sort of behavior -- we are a nation of laws, and not of imperial whim.

Link

No Surprise here

I don't know about you but I've always assumed that the NSA scanned every word I've ever typed on the internet.

Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts

Secret Laws

"Your under arrest!"

"What for?"

"Can't tell you, it's a secret"

It feels like America has been kidnapped and replaced with an imposter.

Details here

Link courtesy Red State Diaries

War on Christmas and the war in Iraq

It occurred to me recently that there is a common thread running though Bill O'Reilly's "War on Christmas" rants and the run-up to the war in Iraq. Both are cases of the aggressor feigning victimhood.

Comment I posted at David Gans' site

I have to think that there are fair number of people who are like me. I never was to much into the taping scene and I stopped going to shows altogether in '91. But my interest in the Dead has rekindled of late and I've bought several items of Grateful Dead merchandise including the 2nd boxed set of studio releases.

So when I happened upon archive.org there were two uses I saw for it immediately. The first was to investigate the other jambands on the scene and check out a lot of the music that I'd been missing. (I live in St. Thomas which makes going to shows other than my own a BIG problem) The other was to grab some of those moments that I knew were out there but wouldn't have ready access to. So far, all I had downloaded was the Milkweg 81, the 11-17-78 acoustic set in Chicago (The Uptown show that evening was my first ever Dead show AND my 21st birthday) and I also picked up a Deer Creek '89 because I remember it having a REALLY JUICY Bird Song to close the first set.

The bottom line is that nothing I was doing on archive.org was in any way going to affect my spending with GD marketing other than perhaps keep me paying attention.

So then all this stuff starts going down and by the time I'd even noticed it all seemed to be resolved in what seemed to me to be reasonable compromise.

Then Weir opened his mouth....

I recognize the rights of musicians (well songwriters actually) to control their own creations but WHAT A BONEHEAD!

nuf said...thanks for listening

Today's favorite line from Joshua Micah Marshall

Frist is actually sort of unique in that it's possible he may not be guilty.

Link

Less depressing than the last Excite poll I posted

Has your opinion of the U.S. government's 2003 decision to use military force against Iraq changed over the past two years?

Yes - I supported it, but now I don't 12% => 1336 votes

Yes - I didn't support it, but now I do 1% => 145 votes

No - I supported it, and still do 42% => 4607 votes

No - I never supported it 41% => 4492 votes

I'm not sure 1% => 147 votes
Current number of voters: 10727

From The Crisis Papers on DU.

Welcome to the world of American jurisprudence in the post-9/11 era, the operating Bush & Co. principle of which seems to be that since "they hate us for our freedoms," we'll just eliminate the freedoms.


Link

There are worse things to be called

You are Schroeder!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Kevin Drum uses stronger than usual language.

If conservatives dislike Dick Durbin's comparison of American practices to those of Hitler and Stalin, they should make clear to Dick Cheney that America doesn't condone the practices of Hitler and Stalin. Because apparently, the vice president of the United States does condone them. Vigorously. It's enough to make any decent human being puke.

Link

Real Freedom and Rubber Turkeys

Which side has the greater claim to innocence? Probably neither. The question of who is most to blame is practically beyond resolution. Perhaps a better hope lies in the world beyond the frog ponds, beyond Us and Them, in the world of real freedom where most human beings carry on with their lives as We, if given the half a chance the average government (and God, don’t they tend to be average!) seems so reluctant to encourage.

Who Is 'We'? by David R. Henderson

Collectivism is the ugliest ideology in the world. It has been directly responsible for well over 100 million deaths in the 20th century. Let's do our part by not participating in it, even – maybe especially – in our language. The only hope we have for a peaceful world is to hold guilty people responsible for their actions and to treat the innocent people in all countries as innocent. Let's quit talking about governments whose horrific actions we detest as "we."

Link

DUH......

Democratic pressure to re­open the debate was, he charged, "a concerted effort, following the Scooter Libby indictment, to put a noose around the president's neck and say that he lied to the American people.

Link