Category — politics

Secret Laws: “

Almost 2000 years BC, Hammurabi put Babylon’s laws in writing for the first time ever “so that all men might read and know what was required of them.” 4000 years later, the U.S. government is making public laws passé, according to an excellent article by Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. When former Representative Helen Chenoweth-Hage (R-Idaho) faced a security guard pat-down before flying, she demanded to see the regulation authorizing the search. One government official responded “That is called ’sensitive security information.’ She’s not allowed to see it, nor is anyone else.”

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(Via The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog.)

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there can’t be secret laws in a free society. there cannot.

Moyers: Democracy in the Balance: “Bill Moyers has an excellent essay Democracy in the Balance

How do we nurture the healing side of religion over the killing side? How do we protect the soul of democracy against bad theology in service of an imperial state?
by Bill Moyers”

(Via Greater Democracy.)

THAT’S THE SHAME of politics today. The consequences: “When powerful interests shower Washington with millions in campaign contributions, they often get what they want. But it is ordinary citizens and firms that pay the price, and most of them never see it coming,” according to Time magazine. Time concludes that America now has “government for the few at the expense of the many.”

What has been happening to the middle and working classes is not the result of Adam Smith’s invisible hand but the direct consequence of corporate activism, intellectual collusion, the rise of a religious orthodoxy that has made an idol of wealth and power, and a host of political decisions favoring the powerful monied interests who were determined to get back the privileges they had lost with the Depression and the New Deal. They set out to trash the social contract; to cut workforces and their wages; to scour the globe in search of cheap labor; and to shred the social safety net that was supposed to protect people from hardships beyond their control. Business Week put it bluntly: “Some people will obviously have to do with less….It will be a bitter pill for many Americans to swallow the idea of doing with less so that big business can have more.”

Our times cry out for a new politics of justice. This is no partisan issue. It doesn’t matter if you’re a liberal or a conservative, Jesus is both and neither. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican, Jesus is both and neither. We need a faith that takes on the corruption of both parties. We need a faith that challenges complacency of all power. If you’re a Democrat, shake them up. If you’re a Republican, shame them. Jesus drove the money changers from the temple. We must drive them from the temples of democracy. Let’s get Jesus back.

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yep…. there is no saving it….

GOP seeks suspension of RU-486 – The Washington Times: Nation/Politics – November 18, 2004: “”

(Via .)

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this is not surprising, they want to remove all choice…..

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Politics (H. L. Mencken): “The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

(Via .)

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mob politics, that makes sense….

At such times, in place of the voice of duty which no longer peaks in men’s hearts, the cheifs are forced to substitute the cry of terror or the lure of some apparent interest by which they deceive their creatures. At such times one has to have recoruse to all the petty and contemptible ruses they call maxims of state and secrets of the cabinet. Rousseau Discourses on Political Economy….

White House Officials: It’s Condi Rice: “White House officials are telling Fox News that Bush has decided on Condi Rice to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State….”

(Via TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime.)

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talk about your major bad news………..

Moral Values I’d Like to Revive:

Clean Air and Water

Home Cooked Meals

Reading Out Loud

Minding Your Own Business

Humility

Spending Time Together With The Ones You Love

Growing Your Own

Taffy Pulls

Original Music

Family Doctors

Public Schooling

Rapid Transit

Poetry

Tree Climbing

Natural Breasts

Sex Without Advertising

Orgasms Without Explanations

Life Without Pharmaceuticals

Growing Old Gracefully

Modest Amounts

Giving Your Word

Lights at the End of Tunnels

What’s your list?…

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i would add anti-oppression, liberty, democracy, equality, shared social costs, care of the self, reading, writing, critical thought, patriotism over fascism/nationalism, the pursuit of knowledge, curiosity, experimentation, social justice, and likely some others that i can’t think of without coffee, which i’m going to get now.

oh and here is another…..

TOLERANCE

Axis of Eve:

http://www.axisofeve.org/

i suppose that this is one way to approach the problem presented by the current administration….

Guide To Recovery 11/10/04:

http://www.markfiore.com/animation/depressed.html

what barry says:

http://www.knife-party.net/flash/barry.html

interesting video