State of the Nation ...

From: ThinkFast: May 13, 2011

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee killed an amendment by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) that would have closed the so-called “terror gap” — preventing firearm sales to suspected terrorists. GOP members want to protect the right of people on the FBI’s terrorist watch list to purchase firearms, arguing that preventing sales would “steal the Second Amendment rights of those placed on the list by mistake.”

All Republicans as far as I can tell, and way too many Democrats, appear to have no real problem with the no-fly list.

No problem that is until it's a question of prohibiting someone on the list from buying guns. To a Republican, and apparently to some Democrats, that is just absurd. Prohibit a terrorist from obtaining firearms? That just won't do! It's their Constitutional Right, after all to have weapons. Like many people on this freedom-protecting list, they might not be terrorists anyway, as there's no control of who gets on the list nor any mechanism to get the innocent off the list. In general, the no-fly list appears to be a generalized US Government I-don't-like-you list. The Republicans, of course, highly approve of this means of government control and punishment. Just think of the fun they had putting Senator Kennedy on the list.

Am I giving Republicans too much credit when I assume that they don't think most of the people on the list are terrorists? And that's the reason they don't want the ability to purchase guns to be tied to such an embarrassing fiasco as the US No Fly list?

Until further proof of their perfidy I will assume that the inaccuracy of the list is the reason they don't wish to tie gun purchasing ability to the list and not that they actually want terrorists to have guns.

9/11 First Responders To Be Run Through FBI Terrorism Watch List Before Getting Health Care Benefits

Definitely, let us keep the sick from benefits because the US Government has decided to target them. Who cares what beneficial service they may have provided in the past that earned them such a benefit. They are now on THE list. That's all that matters. No health care but they can still get a gun.

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About the state of our nation: What can I say that I haven't said before? Just notice that all the wrangling is about what membership on this list will effect. Nothing that I've seen addresses the use and abuse of this list. Nothing that I've seen attempts to put some control on how someone gets added to this list. Nothing that I've seen provides a mechanism to get off the list. The draconian nature of this list appears to concern no one in the political sphere nor the justice sphere.

What else can I say about the state of our nation that this example doesn't elucidate?

Today's quote ...

The whole thing is disgusting: Obama sneaking these in in a last-minute classified briefing. Doing so under cover from Jeff Sessions (what? DiFi and Pat Leahy don’t want responsibility for this??). Pat Leahy letting that happen. A voice vote, so no one will ever hold Leahy and DiFi and Whitehouse and Franken and others responsible for doing this.

-- Obama’s Bipartisanship: Hiding Behind Jeff Sessions’ Skirts When Eliminating Privacy Protections by emptywheel, firedoglake.com

Today's quote ...

Over time Americans will learn that in order to maintain their liberty, they must instantly comply with everything those in authority tell them to do. The police will follow the edicts of their civilian leaders, who sanction torture on many different levels "to keep the people safe." The population will learn eventually that they will automatically be shocked with electricity if they fail to comply and over time they will be conditioned to fall in line regardless of their constitutional right to speak or resist unwarranted intrusion. And then we will truly be free.

-- Following Orders by digby, Hullabaloo

The United States legislative bodies act as prosecutor, judge and jury ...

... of Acorn after extensive United States network television trial.

God bless our Corporate Masters for supporting fringe pseudo conservative and religious nutters ...

Trust gone, trust betrayed ...

Dog Day Afternoon: The Militarization Of American Police

Yesterday, as I drove by I saw a policeman handcuffing a woman who was standing by her car which I assume she had pulled off the road onto a side road as part of a traffic stop. It looked quite peaceful, no apparent Tasers or force.

The difference is in me. Even 10 years ago I would have assumed that the policeman was doing his job in a responsible manner. Now I wonder if he was handcuffing her for no reason. Was the stop legitimate? Did it warrant an arrest? Was he bullying her. Did she have to cringe to keep him from Tasing her?

This is Tucson --not Los Angeles which has had an occupying army of cops for decades-- and though I have not had an unpleasant interaction with the police force, I am very aware that it can and will happen to an increasing number of us over time. I was always aware that there are individuals who will abuse their power but I trusted that most police officers were professional and human. Now I know that the majority are no long professional and that as a group they behave more like a gang than protectors of the community.

This trend started before Bush, but the downward spiral from community service to gang behavior accelerated during his disastrous reign.

Now here are some scary stories of US immigration gone mad ...

ICE locked up citizen, threw away key — unions say enough is enough!

U.S. citizens like Hector Veloz, a 37-year-old Los Angeles resident, are among tens of thousands languishing in immigration detention facilities without having received a hearing to determine whether their detention is warranted.

“My case was so ironic,” said Veloz. “I am a U.S. citizen, but was held for 13 months and placed on deportation procedure. Because the prison is in Arizona and my family lives in California, I didn’t see my son Geronimo even once in those 13 months.”

The horrible details of his story are included in a report issued last month by Amnesty International.

Even Veloz’s father is a U.S. citizen, a Vietnam veteran who won a Purple Heart. His mother, an immigrant from Mexico, met his dad in the U.S. before he shipped out to war.

Veloz was picked up in Los Angeles by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and flown straight to the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, where he remained from June 2007 to July 2008. The private detention center is one of several operated by the profitable Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private corrections company in the U.S.

“I showed them my birth certificate and that of my father and my parents’ marriage certificate. But they wanted more proof and kept processing me for deportation, even if none of my documentation was ever contested,” said Veloz.

The snakes in the grass ...

LDS Documents Reveal Eleven Year Collaboration with RCC on Marriage Equality

The media in Salt Lake City have discovered the documents revealed prior to Election Day that show a long-time collaboration between the Mormons and the Catholics to destroy what they call "Homosexual Legal Marriage."

[...]

Americans need to understand that these two powerful church hierarchies have been working closely together to deny us civil rights, for a long time.

And that's not right.

It sure aint! It also should disqualify them for tax exempt status. What is the IRS doing about this? What is the Congress doing about this. If they are going to be active political organizations then they need to be out in the open, not hidden and secret. One would think these two religious entities have something to hide.
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Added: Really this is becoming ridiculous. Now the Catholic Church attacks Congress and Obama by claiming that certain policy actions they may take will be an attack on the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is making what I think is called a preemptive strike (sound like they are starting the 'war' to me).

The nation's Catholic bishops Tuesday approved a statement declaring that if the Democratic-controlled Congress and the incoming Obama administration enact proposed abortion rights legislation, they would see it as an attack on the church.

Obviously I had a different idea of what religion was supposed to be in the US. But it's obvious the Catholic Church and the Mormon Church are trying to control our laws to force their rigid views of what's right and wrong (instead of teaching their beliefs to the adherents of their faiths and administering to the needs of their congregations). They have decided that the Constitution and rights of US citizens must be set aside for their beliefs. Our beliefs don't matter. Again, their freedom to choose and follow their religious beliefs is not enough. They must make us all follow them also.

No thank you. I am definitely being radicalized by the action of these two organizations. I will look askance at everything they do from now on. And I assume I'm not the only one.

I wondered about this ...

A Silver Lining in Prop. 8?

Since the passage of California’s Proposition 8, there have been protests across California. ...

At least the passing of Proposition 8, which was on its way to oblivion until the Mormons and the Catholics poured tons of money into lies and fear mongering (religiously impressive, no?), has energized many in addition to gays. It didn't seem so generally important until it became clear that organized religion, in the form of Catholics and Mormons, were going to go all out to require that everyone should follow their religious dictates. Not being able to manage their own flocks, evidently, they wish to make their religious beliefs the law of the land. Not satisfied with their FREEDOM to worship and follow the rules they choose to believe in, they have gotten so arrogant and superior that they believe they have the right to dictate, through the law, how the rest of us will live.

The Catholic Church is quite amorphous, but the Mormon Church is, I think, already aware of a backlash. Of course, even if these two churches were able to change all our laws to fit their most rigid desires then they would have to turn the fight onto each other. Somehow these two churches just don't exude brotherly love, do they? Hate, control, rigidity seems to what they stand for at present.

Hypocrisy, stupidity or ignorance?

Or all of the above?

Isn't it always the way that when bigots are confronted with their actions they claim they are being discriminated against.

It's called hypocrisy, but it's unlikely that the people who involve themselves in the persecution of gays have the capacity to understand such issues. They just know they want to enshrine their beliefs in the law. Being free to follow their beliefs is not enough. They want everyone to suffer their hatred.

The Mormon Church deserved this ad ...

[via C&L]

I don't know why LDS'ers decided to make enemies of those of us who don't agree with them on important life style issues, but they have. As the video makes clear if the LDS'ers will go after gays like this they will go after the rest of us also.

If they should succeed in trampling on the rights of gays then women will be next. After that what would they choose to do? Turn themselves into the FLDS?

I used to respectfully disagree with Mormons, even admired some aspects of their community. But now they have chosen to be an enemy of my rights as an individual and therefore of me. It was their choice, not mine.

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

Under the PATRIOT Act, Americans' rights of privacy, including their reading habits, could be scrutinized by the FBI. Protestors—even peaceful ones—can be charged with terrorism. Dissenters are often denied the right to fly on commercial airlines. In Bush's target have been Greenpeace and the Quakers. Like China's leaders, America's leaders say these restrictive measures only exist to protect the nation.

On John McCain's 'Tech Plan': ... This isn’t vision. It’s more like a wistful memoir about times gone by.

... The US has shown that its volunteer military, while valiant, is undermanned and overstretched, its intelligence services are willing servants of political manipulators and its leadership is dishonest, immoral and incompetent. It's understandable that somebody out there would think that now is the time to make a move. That it would be Bush's soul brother Pooty-poot was entirely predictable.”

The bottom line on all of these arguments is that men’s feelings are more important than women’s rights.

Now that's a surprise: ... What shocked her, she says, was Americans' ignorance of foreign affairs, obsession with money, and willingness to make long-haul commutes.

Per the top 'law' enforcement officer in the United States of America, formerly a nation of laws, Attorney General Michael Mukasey: ... But not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime.”

I guess I just don't think it's fear mongering or divide-and-conquer to tell the truth, which is that the Republicans have screwed things up royally and that the Democrats have a better idea. ...

ACLU, and others, suing Sheriff Joe ...

The Feathered Bastard gets to the heart of the class action suit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office [MCSO] by the Arizona ACLU, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, (MALDEF) and the Phoenix law firm Steptoe and Johnson with this terse paraphrase: " ... all Latinos targeted by the MCSO because their skin is brown."

Some of Sheriff Joe's accomplishments:

... A Mexican national in the country legally and with the papers to prove it is arrested and held for nine hours, before finally being released. Hispanic Americans are stopped and subjected to the sort of interrogation and humiliating treatment that their Anglo counterparts escape. In perhaps the most egregious example, a Hispanic American man is arrested and handcuffed in front of his family's auto repair shop, all because his sister was singing along to some Spanish music. A swarm of vindictive Sheriff's deputies surrounded the man with their weapons drawn, even though he's done absolutely nothing wrong. Ultimately, he's released without being cited.

What am I missing?

Schools are searching kids for ibuprofen?

Has ibuprofen become part of the war on drugs? Is this country nuts?

Even worse than the fact that this girl was forced to strip in front of three adults and have her clothes and her person inspected is the fact that 5 of the 11 judges thought that a 13 year old being stripped and inspected for possible ibuprofen capsules was just OK with them. Were they sorry they weren't invited?

ACLU Challenges Unlawful Strip Search Over Ibuprofen Allegation In School (3/3/2008)

The School Crotch Inspector --Fighting the Advil menace, one strip search at a time by Jacob Sullum, April 2, 2008

Federal Court Rules Strip Search Of 13-Year-Old Student For Ibuprofen Unconstitutional (7/11/2008)

Self defense does not mean one can hear a noise, go outside and start shooting ...

This post at Firedoglake is absolute bunk. Not in the fact that Americans may kill Iraqi families and not in the fact that US police may raid the homes of US Citizens in the manner that we once thought more attuned to the tactics of the Gestapo. Unfortunately these events are already happening.

I cannot imagine any judge or jury accepting a claim that anyone has the right to hear something outside their house, take a gun, go outside and start shooting into the dark. That is not self defense. Random shooting without even knowing what one is shooting at is not self defense.

From what I've been reading on various law blogs is while the Supreme Court has decided the 2nd Amendment establishes a right to defend oneself with a gun (or other weapon), the ownership, possession, use etc can still be regulated as long as such regulation is not in effect an arbitrary prohibition from gun ownership. So it may still be established that felons cannot own guns, that training is required, etc. I'm sure the specifics will still vary from state to state the same as they currently do.

Nothing here, move along ...

Long before today's debate over the need for a federal task force to probe the FLDS Church, a federal civil rights investigation concluded the polygamous sect was doing nothing worth prosecuting.

• "This is not a denial of housing because of the victims' religion per se, but rather because the victims were supposedly unfaithful to the church's requirements," he wrote.

Yeah, kicking people out of their homes, denying them the ability to work, forcing marriages ... nothing to see, move along.

Heil Chief Justice John Roberts ...

... who thinks the Bush Administration (which represents the United States of America to the world, by the way) has been just so generous in their treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

In dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts criticized his colleagues for striking down what he called “the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants.”

There are still a few somewhat more rational homo sapiens on the court who decided

that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

Will this attempt to uphold a little, but quite important, piece of the constitution be a hit or the third strike?

The court has ruled twice previously that people held at Guantanamo without charges can go into civilian courts to ask that the government justify their continued detention. Each time, the administration and Congress, then controlled by Republicans, changed the law to try to close the courthouse doors to the detainees.

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

Uh oh ... Obama Supporter Jesse Jackson, Jr [says] Black Super-Delegates Who Back Hillary Could Face Primary Challenge ... I'm sure that's not what it sounds like? Like bringing race (and retaliation based on race) into the Democratic primary? But, perhaps, it's OK because Jackson is black? Just imagine a Clinton surrogate saying this to either black or non-black delegates!
Quote from blurb in Science Magazine (www.sciencemag.org) about the demise of the Sunshine Project:
The news may come as a relief to microbiologists and university officials who have been subjected to Hammond's relentless probing. But even some of those scientists say Hammond has had a positive influence. Virologist C. J. Peters of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston says that although Hammond was a "pest" who often exaggerated risks to the public, his work has "made the community more careful" about biosafety. "I think the country works best with watchdogs," he says. "I am, strangely, sad to see him go."
My two cents: The reckless, the careless, the arrogant and the fraudulent may breath easier now. I suppose this is the price 'we' pay for a society based on greed (and corruption, though it really pains me to admit the pervasiveness of corruption in our country).
... the CIA is free to violate your civil rights with impunity, so long as it doesn't publicly admit to doing so. -- Well, that's the same as having NO rights. I'm so glad a US Court swept away another shred of Constitution and Law. All those rights just get in the way of the US fascistic personae elected, appointed and hired (and sworn by oath) to represent the American people and defend the US Constitution ...



Happy Valentines, if somewhat late in the day ...



The problem with Rowan Williams’s lecture lies behind the actual text. The problem is that he has contributed to the debate about national identity in a disturbing rather than reassuring way. He has signalled that he doesn’t want to hold Christianity and liberalism together. Instead, he wants to oppose secular liberalism, and to defend the rights of all faith communities to resist it. This is what has shocked so many commentators: Williams has shown that he rejects the vague liberal Protestantism of the majority of the British people: the idea that Christianity and secularism are pretty much compatible. No, he says, his role is not to prop up this dated ideology, but to fight the corner of faith communities, and to cast doubt on the very idea of liberalism.

Maybe Sheriff Dupnik wants to be Bush's successor ...

... now that Guiliani appears to be out of the running.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik is advising us to watch our neighbors in case they may be terrorists. Those who require special watching are eco-friendly, abortion-rights and animal-rights activists.

Notice its abortion-rights advocates and not their keep em barefoot n pregnant counterparts who shoot doctors in the name of life who bear watching.

Source: Sheriff says terrorists abound in our midst by Ernesto Portillo Jr.