Political Games - Where the fuck’s the reset button?

So a couple of weeks ago I went on a tirade about being called a traitor and a terrorist, saying that if I really was, then they should have me arrested. Little did I know that the Bush Administration has been treating me like a terrorist for the past 4 years.

First up, we learn that the FBI has been investigating Greenpeace, PETA, and the Catholic Workers for terrorist activities. Now before you go off about “eco-terrorism”… that would be the Earth Liberation Front and its buddy, the Animal Liberation Front. They’re nuts. And they do occasionally engage in violent crimes to “spread their message” or whatever bullshit they come up with. Whatever. This isn’t want the FBI investigated. They were looking into GREENPEACE [which is a nonviolent organization] and PETA [ok, so I think they’re misguided on a lot of issues, and wacky from time to time, but they are not violent] as if they were the next Osamas. You may be wondering, “but why the hell are they investigationg Catholics?!” Well the article provides an answer: the FBI considers the Catholic Workers to have a “semi-communistic ideology”. Ok FBI, sure… I’ve got a list of 120 Communists in the State Department I’d be willing to sell you if you believe that load of horseshit.

And this brings us to our next group of “terrorists”. I’ll give you three guesses. No, it’s not Neo-Nazis and other fascists in the Militia Movement who caused rioting in Toledo a few months ago or who are threatening acts of vigilanteism against brown people along the U.S.-Mexico border. No, it’s not people who advocate the assassination of national leaders and then conversion of whole nations to their religion. And no, it’s not people who advocate “getting rid” of almost all the liberals, but leaving a few on campuses, like a living museum.*

Naturally, it’s gay people! I’m not even close to kidding. I seriously suggest reading the whole thing, but here’s the line that stands out to me:

A UC-Santa Cruz “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” protest, which included a gay kiss-in, was labeled as a “credible threat” of terrorism.

Just in case you missed it, here it is again. The PENTAGON considered A GAY KISS-IN to be a “credible threat” of TERRORISM.

What. The. Fuck.

This is ridiculous. Uh… just… what?! You would have to be on an insanely high number of drugs [as in large number of drugs and high doses!] to even remotely think that. I mean, what, are they going to attack us with their Kisses of Mass Gayness?

Is this what America stands for now? Peaceful environmental, animal rights, workers rights, and gay rights groups are now considered terrorists?

When are the grown-ups taking charge? I’m tired of having these immature, paranoid megalomaniacs make me and my fellow citizens look like a bunch of… of… douchealouches! How can anyone continue to vote Republican? I don’t even understand the mindset anymore…

If you’re against privacy, the environment, cute furry animals, workers, Catholics, and gays, and you’re pro-torture, pro-martial law, and pro-theocracy, then please keep voting Republican.

If not, stop. now.

*The second guess was a combination of Pat Robertson and Ann Coulter. The third was Rush Limbaugh. “joking” my ass.

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So says the judge on the Dover case. It’s about time this faux-science got tossed out. Here’s the best part.

To be sure, Darwin’s theory of evolution is imperfect. However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions.

[snip]

Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on ID, who in combination drove the Board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy. The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources. [emphasis mine]

Pwn3d!

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No, that Tom Delay quote wasn’t about this lovely story, but it might as well have been. House Republicans invoke “martial law”, do away with rules for a day to pass 700-page bill in 4 hours.

The House leadership is using a parliamentary gambit to evade a longstanding House rule that is supposed to ensure that this kind of obfuscation does not occur. That House rule (Rule XIII(6)(a)) provides that a resolution (called a rule) reported by the Rules Committee cannot be considered by the House on the same legislative day that the rule is reported (except by a two-thirds vote of the House). This is supposed to ensure that Members of the House and the public have at least one day to examine and analyze what is in the legislation to be considered before they have to debate and vote on it.

To maneuver around this House rule and rush the revised reconciliation bill and defense appropriation bill to a vote before they have been fully examined, the Rules Committee reported a rule (H.Res. 632) on the legislative day of Saturday, December 17, that would waive the application of Rule XIII(6)(a). Instead, it would allow the Rules Committee to wait until the last minute — and not to report the rules governing consideration of the reconciliation and defense appropriations conference reports, or to release the conference reports themselves, until immediately before debate and votes on the rules and the legislation commences. This despite the fact that the budget legislation is expected to be hundreds of pages long.

This extraordinary procedure is known as a “martial law� rule because it suspends the normal procedures and safeguards and allows the House Leadership to operate in a more authoritarian fashion. It enables the Leadership to seek to ram a bill or conference report through before the Members have the opportunity to fully understand what they are voting on.

Legislation that has far-reaching implications for millions of Americans deserves to be considered under a more democratic process. Waiting until the last minute to reveal what is in these two bills, and then “spinning� or potentially mischaracterizing changes to the reconciliation bill without Members of the House or the public having an opportunity to obtain a more objective review of what the legislation does, would be unfair to Members of the House. It also would be unfair to the millions of Americans whose lives could be altered by this legislation. It would represent a step toward reducing the degree of transparency and democracy in how this country is governed and how decisions are made.

This was posted before the vote… and after:

As predicted in this statement, the House Republican leadership did use the “martial law� gambit to rush the House to a vote on the spending cut reconciliation bill before Members (much less the press or the public) had a reasonable chance to examine the legislation and understand what it would do.

* Just before midnight on Sunday, December 18, the House adopted the “martial law rule� that allowed the leadership to bring up the conference report on the reconciliation bill shortly after the conference report was finalized, without waiting until the next legislative day as required by House rules.

* At 1:12 a.m. on Monday, December 19, the 774 page conference report on the reconciliation spending cut bill was filed in the House.

* At 5:43 a.m. Monday morning, after less than 40 minutes of debate on the measure, the House began the final vote on the reconciliation spending cut bill.

This isn’t democracy, this isn’t freedom, this isn’t liberty. This isn’t what America is supposed to stand for; what any nation should want to stand for!

Tired of it? Don’t support this? Then for the last fucking time, stop voting Republican.

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