DeLay slams Supreme Court Justice Kennedy
The Associated Press

Updated: 10:19 p.m. ET April 19, 2005

WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay intensified his criticism of the federal courts on Tuesday, singling out Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s work from the bench as “incredibly outrageous” because he has relied on international law and done research on the Internet.

Delay is really starting to sound as if he’s coming unglued. What an embarrassment.

Election Reformers Bemoan Inadequacies

All the questions about lines and voting machines and other factors that make voting more difficult do not explain why 40 percent of Americans don’t even try to vote. That is one more question that the commission hopes to address.

Um, as a person who has not missed voting since I became able to, and who is now NEVER AGAIN voting in an election until we have a verifiable method of casting and counting votes, I have a guess as to why 40% of voters don’t- they know that their vote doesn’t count, for 2 reasons:

1: Black box voting has made it impossible to assure “one man one vote”.

2: More importantly, we only have one political party in this country. WTF difference does it make who you vote for, when the end result is the same?

Contrast the story above with the comments of Congressman John Conyers. He calls the proceedings “outrageous”.

Poor Marks For Bush, Congress

NEW YORK, April 18, 2005

(CBS) President Bush doesn’t fare very well in the latest CBS News poll with an approval rating of just 44 percent and still limp support for his proposed Social Security overhaul.

But at least he’s doing better than Congress, which earns a thumbs-up from only 35 percent of Americans - nearly as low a rating as it received last month immediately after lawmakers’ unpopular intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.

Why is this worrisome? Because historically, Bush and crew always seem to find a new terror to announce when his numbers tank. Transparent? Yes. Dangerous? You betcha.

O’Connor says religious right hate-speech could spur violence against judges, calls her critics “extreme”
by John in DC - 4/18/2005 04:49:00 PM

From this week’s Newsweek:

In a speech earlier this month at Goucher College, O’Connor herself said she was surprised at all the violent threats she received. “I don’t think the harsh rhetoric helps,” she told the crowd. “I think it energizes people who are a little off base to take actions that maybe they wouldn’t otherwise take.”

Such as stealing elections, flying planes into buildings, and imposing, with your help again, the Patriot Act. You put these people into place when you crowned the twig president in 2000, so quit your bitching now, Miss Supreme Court Justice.

This so perfectly illustrates Bush better than any single thing. Those “W” bumper stickers, that you see every damn place, that have essentially become the symbol for our little shrub? The icon that defines him in your mind, to an extent?

They stole it.

Gossett says he is a loyal Republican and voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004, but has become jaded by his experience.

“The big RNC against little me, there was absolutely no chance to win,” he said.

Hello. Ding ding. Game, set, match. Mr. Gossett has had his “aha” moment. His Kerouacian “brief satori”.

And if a woman showed up dressed like this around my kid in elementary school, I’d be having a discussion with school adminstrators that would include the words “How dare you” and “skank”.

Just a thought.

Editors, Time Magazine:

Your choice to put the right wing hysteric, Ann Coulter, on the cover of your magazine awards her a legitimacy that she surely doesn’t deserve. The tagline on the cover: “Is she serious, or just having fun?” attempts to cast her vile, insulting rhetoric as sane discourse- which it is not. Stating that veteran Max Cleland wasn’t deserving of his Purple Heart, (earned in a combat situation that nearly cost him his life), is the type of speech that deserves no further comment- certainly not the cover of a major magazine.

By covering newsstands with her image you imply a level of professionalism- and frankly- humanity, that Coulter doesn’t deserve. Her words incite our enemies by portraying America as a crusading bully (her famous quote post-9/11 stating we should convert Muslims to Christianity by force), she is factually inaccurate- Ann, Canada didn’t send troops to Vietnam, by the way- not to mention divisive, immature and hateful. Even a cursory reading of her statements would lead one to doubt her sanity, which makes a person wonder why such a figure would warrant being honored on your cover.

Ann Coulter is not only the venomous cheerleader for a false image of America that the majority of Americans don’t endorse, she is a widely refuted “writer” that no one, except for the extreme right wing fundamentalist fringe that is currently in vogue takes seriously. At least until you put her on the cover of your magazine.

Ann Coulter is a female Jim Jones, and you are helping her dispense Kool Aid to the masses that are too dim, or worse, too afraid, to examine the reality of the world in which we live. You should be ashamed to trumpet such vile hate speech simply because it is wrapped in a pretty package. Hatemongering and fascism doesn’t have to wear a hood or a brown shirt. Sometimes it masks itself in dyed hair and cute shoes, thus making its hideous message a tad more palatable. Ann Coulter has long disgusted me, and now I can add Time Magazine to the list.

James Mann
Atlanta, GA

When you had a bad report card, you hid it? As if your parents had no other means of finding out?

Ok, maybe all my smart readers didn’t- you guys just use your imagination. It seems that Bush and his minions have adopted the same tactics that 5 graders have employed: Hide the report card:

Bush administration eliminating 19-year-old international terrorism report
By Jonathan S. Landay

WASHINGTON - The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government’s top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered.

Oh, and as an aside? Doesn’t that picture of Kindasleezy Rice give ya nightmares?

IT’S OUR OIL…OURS I TELL YOU! (insert manical laugh…)

Eek.

Wonder where your money is going on taxday?

Surveillance Works Both Ways

By Kim Zetter

02:00 AM Apr. 14, 2005 PT

SEATTLE — Surveilling the surveillers. It’s an idea that Number 6, the nameless hero of the classic British TV show The Prisoner, would have loved.

In an attempt to establish equity in the world of surveillance, participants at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Seattle this week took to the streets to ferret out surveillance cameras and turn the tables on offensive eyes taking their picture.

Very interesting…