Politics

Pledge of Allegiance

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9th Circuit Court Judges Ban Pledge of Allegiance From Schools, Citing ‘Under God’

A federal appeals court here declared today that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because the phrase ”one nation under God” violates the separation of church and state.

In a decision that drew protest across the political spectrum, a three-member panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the pledge, as it exists in federal law, could not be recited in schools because it violates the First Amendment’s prohibition against a state endorsement of religion.

In addition, the ruling, which will certainly be appealed, turned on the phrase ”under God” which Congress added in 1954 to one of the most hallowed patriotic traditions in the nation.

From a constitutional standpoint, those two words, Judge Alfred T. Goodwin wrote in the 2-to-1 decision, were just as objectionable as a statement that ”we are a nation ‘under Jesus,’ a nation ‘under Vishnu,’ a nation ‘under Zeus,’ or a nation ‘under no god,’ because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion.”

I plead alignment to the flakes, of the untitled snakes of a merry cow. And to the Republicans for which they scam, one nacho, underpants, with licorice and jugs of wine for owls.

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Squelching Dissent Is Unpatriotic

Democrats are being unjustly browbeaten by the rightwingers over their questions about intelligence reports surrounding the 9/11 attacks. I’ve seen all the democratic comments and not one of them is attacking the White House — they are merely asking questions.

Suggesting that asking questions is unpatriotic, or that it shouldn’t be done in time of war is not only ridiculous, it’s disgusting. Asking questions about how our government is being run is the most patriotic thing any citizen could do. It’s part of the freedom we enjoy as Americans–a freedom that few countries are lucky enough to share with us.

You can bet that if Clinton were in office, the right-wingers would be asking questions, and they certainly wouldn’t be as respectful as the Democrats have been. They’d be viciously attacking Clinton, as they did throughout his term. Funny how they howl when the shoe is on the other foot.

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President Bush speaking about Cuba

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President Bush speaking about Cuba:

“All elections in Castro’s Cuba have been a fraud. The voices of the Cuban people have been suppressed, and their votes have been meaningless. That’s the truth.”

And how, exactly is that different than here in the United States, where the man in the White House is not the one who was elected by the American people? Note to “President” Bush: The entire world is laughing heartily at your speech.

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Relationships and the Importance of Gay Marriage

This article in the New York Times, in a nutshell, explains what I’ve been saying for 15 years about why it is important for gay and lesbian people to be allowed to get married.

“Marriage, for instance, isn’t just about the relationship of two people. Other people have to recognize the couple as a couple. What it means to be married is that other people treat you like you’re married,” Professor Chwe says, noting that two people who never see each other may still be regarded by others as married. (Conversely, two people who consider themselves a couple may be denied recognition by others.)

The need for common knowledge means a wedding is more than the exchange of vows by two individuals. “When you go to a wedding, it’s not just about you seeing the two people getting married. It’s also very important that you know that other people know,” Professor Chwe says. That’s why the vows themselves matter less than the ceremony.

“You might have a New Age reading or you can have a very traditional Catholic wedding. But having everyone being together in a wedding is extremely important, regardless of what is said,” Professor Chwe notes. “You’d never have a wedding by just sending a fax to everybody.”

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Enron Republicans

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Fascinating…. proof that the the Enron scandal was not just caused by greed corporate leaders, but was literally caused by the Republican party:

If it wasn’t for the fact that the Republican Congress was bought off by Enron, most of this wouldn’t have happened. If they’d have passed [former SEC chair Arthur] Levitt’s reforms, separating accounting from consulting, they’d have never gotten away with it; if they’d have passed [Commodity Futures Trading Commission head] Brooksley Born’s proposal to disclose all these derivatives, then people would have known about this. If they’d done Sen. Boxer’s thing to limit the holdings in one company people could have in a 401K, then people wouldn’t have gotten burned like this.
Why aren’t Democrats standing up and saying Republicans caused it? Will the Washington Post write some mealy-mouthed story saying, “Well, you shouldn’t really say that!” Of course, but who cares? Will cocktail parties decry the return of partisanship in Washington? Of course they will, but what difference does it make? None! You’ll get your message out. But Democrats in Washington are completely mortified that somebody’s gonna say something bad about them at a dinner party in Cleveland Park on a Saturday night. You tell them there’s an Op-Ed piece coming out, with somebody saying they’re being divisive, and they’ll fall apart. But that’s what Republicans do. Look at the way they talk about ‘Clinton caused Sept. 11.’ They don’t have any facts — we have facts to prove otherwise — but they just do it anyway.

James Carville, interviewed by Salon magazine.

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Bush waves at Stevie Wonder

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From the Washington Post:

Here’s a vignette we’re dying to see on the ABC broadcast of Sunday’s Ford’s Theatre Presidential Gala: When Stevie Wonder sat down at the keyboard center stage, President Bush in the front row got very excited. He smiled and started waving at Wonder, who understandably did not respond. After a moment Bush realized his mistake and slowly dropped the errant hand back to his lap. “I know I shouldn’t have,” a witness told us yesterday, “but I started laughing.”

There was an attempted Republican spin job after this that claimed it wasn’t true, but then a half dozen other witnesses came forward and said that it was.

Debunked, according to Snopes.com

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Invading Iraq

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Maybe Daschle will get crucified for stating the truth, but there’s nothing you can do to me for saying it: If we don’t get Osama bin Laden, there’s no way in hell we should be considering taking action against other countries like Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. All this “axis of evil” is just bull-shit to cover the fact that our “war on terror” is stuck in the mud and not going anywhere.

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