July 2009 archive

Jul 04 2009

Liberty

with liberty and justice for all.

Saturday, July 4, 2009, the Statue of Liberty crown will be open again for the first time since 9/11.

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There are 25 windows in the crown which symbolize gemstones

found on the earth and the heaven’s rays shining over the world.

The seven rays of the Statue’s crown represent the seven seas and continents of the world.

Seven in military become citizens on Liberty Island

Saturday, as the Statue of Liberty crown opens to the public for the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks, seven members of the U.S. armed forces will be sworn in as American citizens during a special naturalization ceremony on Liberty Island.

Jul 04 2009

Overnight Caption Contest

Jul 04 2009

Friday Night at 8: “The Forms to Which They Are Accustomed”

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Title of tonight’s essay is taken from the Declaration of Independence, to-wit:

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.  But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

I imagine the revolutionaries of the 1700s were equally dismayed to see their countrymen willing to accept despotism rather than declare independence.  Human nature, and all, we’ve seen it so many times — and seen it many times in the history of the United States of America.

Jul 04 2009

“The News is a Joke” — it may be Truer than you think

Breaking Non-News Announcement!!! — Listen up consumers!

 Court Jesters

In societies where freedom of speech was not recognized as a right, the court jester — precisely because anything he said was by definition “a jest” and “the uttering of a fool” — could speak frankly on controversial issues in a way in which anyone else would have been severely punished for.

Monarchs understood the usefulness of having such a person at their side.

Jul 04 2009

Friday Philosophy: Pride (a photo journal)

It’s been a long hard work, trying to get back into the swing of teaching.  The course we are teaching only lasts for 5 weeks and is at a very low, introductory level (Computer Literacy), but that is where these students are.  The program is part of the New Jersey Equal Opportunity Fund, an attempt to rescue students who had fewer opportunities for advancement during their time in high school.  Most are from the inner city areas of Jersey.

Last weekend Debbie and I decided to march in the New York Pride Parade for the first time since we moved to the area in 2000.  We are, generally speaking, not designed for marching.  I marched in both the Dyke March and the Pride Parade in Seattle and in the San Francisco Pride Parade once upon a time, but that was back in the 90s.  I was so much younger then;  I’m older than that now.  Debbie is from Los Angeles originally, but never marched there.

Anyway, we gave it a shot this year in The City.  We didn’t make it all the way.  Having to stand in the heat and wait for 3 hours before we could start marching took most of the starch out of us.

But I took plenty of pictures.  The point of these words is to provide some wrapping for those pictures.

Jul 03 2009

Four at Four

  1. The LA Time reports U.S. drone attacks said to kill 17 at Taliban outposts in Pakistan. Missile strikes allegedly launched by U.S. drone aircraft hit a suspected Taliban training center and communications base in South Waziristan supposedly run by Baitullah Mahsud, “one of Pakistan’s most wanted militant leaders, killing 17 people and injuring 27 others.”

    Elsewhere in Pakistan, the NY Times reports a Pakistani army helicopter crash kills 26 soldiers. “The military said the helicopter had technical problems, but Dawn TV reported that local officials said insurgents had shot it down.”

Four at Four continues with Afghanistan update, climate change deal in Moscow, and an update on CIA torture and secret prisons.

Jul 03 2009

Caribou Barbie Cuts and Runs

 

The Anchorage Daily News is reporting Sarah Palin to quit as Alaska governor on July 25.

KTUU adds:

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the Governor’s Picnic at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks on Saturday, July 25, Palin said.

There was no immediate word as to why she will resign, though speculation has been rampant that the former vice presidential candidate is gearing up for a run at the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Jul 03 2009

First Amendment Friday 10 – Hustler V Falwell

Happy Friday and welcome to the 10th in the Dog’s First Amendment Friday series. This series is following the syllabus for the class called The First Amendment and taught at Yale Law School by Professor Jack M. Balkin. As with the Friday Constitutional series this is a layman’s look at the Law, specifically the Supreme Court opinions which have shaped the boundaries of our 1st Amendment Protections. If you are interested in the previous installments you can find them at the links below:

“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“

Jul 03 2009

A Bit of Help, If You Can

With the further suppression of the CIA IG Report, now seeming to move its release in a meaningful and timely fashion into the mythical realm of the return of Pterosaurs to Capistrano….

Combined with….

The Justice Department is declining to release Dick Cheney’s interview with federal investigators looking into the Valerie Plame leak, arguing — as it did under President Bush — that doing so would discourage future high-level officials from cooperating with criminal investigations.

The good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had filed a lawsuit seeking to have the interview released.

CREW points out in a press release that Cheney was never promised confidentiality in the investigation. And its executive director, Melanie Sloan, notes:

 

It is astonishing that a top Department of Justice political appointee is suggesting other high-level appointees are unlikely to cooperate with legitimate law enforcement investigations. What is wrong with this picture?

For more, see DOJ Confirms Cheney’s Key Role in CIA Leak Case, by Avenging Angel

Combined with….

Jul 03 2009

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Jul 03 2009

Gee, wouldn’t a coup overthrowing Obama be swell

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    Apparently, Rush Limbaugh just could not let Michael Sheuer win the worst person of the week award.

    ” If we had any good luck, Honduras would send some people here and help us get our government back. ”

    Why yes, wouldn’t we be lucky if a coup overthrew the American government, disrupting millions of lives and the important issues facing our nation.

    Gee, wouldn’t that be just swell.

    That way, Conservatives who are so unappealing they can not get elected can get their Government back. What were we the people thinking? Didn’t we know that this is a center-right nation?

    I guess the only thing that can even compete with ” The only thing that can save America is a massive attack by al Qaeda. ” is hoping for a coup.

    And what kind of coup would please Herr Limbaugh? A military coup? A bloodless coup? A violent coup? Would it be okay if we deport the President like they did in Honduras? Or maybe we need something a little more drastic?

   When did ” I hope he fails ” become ” I hope he is overthrown ? ”

   And I wonder who would replace Barack Obama as President?

   I’m sure Rush has an idea.

   So, according to Rush, we Americans would be “lucky” if a coup overthrew our Democratically elected Government, throwing our nation into havoc and harming our recovery from the clusterfuck left behind by, that’s right, the Conservatives.

   Is it fuck patriotism week and nobody told me?

   What a way to celebrate our nation’s independance.

   

Jul 03 2009

Goldman Sachs Sucks Our Marrow

“Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough.”



– Jan Willem Van De Wetering

The battle has now been joined by the Great Satan (aka Goldman Sachs) as the brilliant Matt Taibbi piece has fortunatly gone viral thanks to bloggers. When the pigs on Wall Street, their legal armies and on call public relations propagandists turn into pirannhas as they are with this piece the fuckers are on the run. The seige on CNBC’s drooling house baboon Jim ‘Mad Money’ Cramer that was kicked off by comedian Jon Stewart was beaten back with a disinformation laden blitzkrieg and the money changers regained control of the temple. It’s all been the hogwash of the GREEN SHOOTS ever since. And despite the dismal news contained in yesterday’s jobs report the long weekend couldn’t come at a more fortuitous time as the four flushing,gold plated cocksuckers will regroup once again and launch a saturation bombing campaign of more goddammed lies.

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