Common Sense Democracy

Via The Huffington Post

And so, scared Democrats vote away our rights: fearing attack ads showing them as soft on terror, not recognizing that a posture of supine submission wins far fewer votes than a principled stand, even for a position voters might personally not hold.

Throughout the drug war, throughout the war on terror, inch by inch, we have given up our compassion and our freedom. Now we’re standing not on a slippery slope, but at the mouth of the abyss. The law President Bush will sign today legalizes torture and detention without appeal. Are Americans still American enough to recognize that we have become unrecognizable?

The Blog | Maia Szalavitz: How Torture Became Law, How Outrage Dies | The Huffington Post

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The film is shot as if it were a conventional television documentary, even though the events are fictional.

Range, who also co-wrote the film, uses footage taken of Bush during three visits to Chicago to create the scenes that lead up top the president being shot.

He also uses special digital effects to superimpose the head of the president on that of an actor pretending to be shot, and he creates a flowery eulogy delivered by President Dick Cheney at the funeral of his predecessor.

The movie opens with demonstrations against Bush as he visits Chicago in 2007. As he leaves a hotel after delivering a speech, he is shot by a sniper in a nearby building.

The distribution rights were purchased for $1 million by Newmarket Films, the same company who distributed Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” The film is set to have a wide release throughout the US.

Of course there are those who only want to be surrounded by the things they agree with and by only those who share their same beliefs. They couldn’t possibly see the film as fictional entertainment.

The 93-minute film’s subject matter has led to protests in the United States, especially from conservatives. Range said he has received five or six death threats.

I find it interesting that people who are protesting this portrayal of the assassination or death of President Bush are also threatening to kill the film’s producer/director/creator. How perfectly ridiculous and hypocritical is that? “We don’t approve of this whole… killing the President drama… so we’re going to kill you”. Very South Park’esque.

Link to Bush assassination film set for U.S. release - via Yahoo! News

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I just ran across an interesting tidbit of information at Wikipedia.org. Wikipedia is one of those sites where you can just get lost for hours. Each page links to a bunch of new pages and you can follow link to link to link through an entire history of definitions and explanations.

One such link I ended up on today was about the Pledge of Allegiance. I was surprised to learn that the original pledge, written by Francis Bellamy in 1892, also included a salute with it. Today we commonly place our right hand over our heart but this is the modified version of the original salute, which required the reciter to fully extend the arm toward the flag much like the Nazi salute. After World War II the outstretched hand salute was changed to the current version.

Guess you learn something new everyday!

Technorati Tags: Pledge+of+Allegiance, flag, Nazi, Francis+Bellamy, pledge

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Growing up as a kid, I’d always been tought that God was forgiving and merciful and loving. Apparently, however, with the advent of television and democratic elections, he has become mad, vengeful and quite politcal.

In Dover, Pennsylvannia, all eight school board members up for re-election lost their seats Tuesday after trying to introduce “intelligent design” to high school science students as an alternative to the theory of evolution. Pat Robertson on his television show, “The 700 Club”, stated, “I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city,” Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, “The 700 Club.”

“And don’t wonder why He hasn’t helped you when problemsbegin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do,just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And ifthat’s the case, don’t ask for His help because he might not bethere,” he said.

I don’t think God cares half as much about “intelligent design” in the school’s curriculum as he does about national religious leaders, such as Robertson, spewing hate and vengence. Church isn’t about voting for the right candidate, it’s about faith, forgiveness and tolerance.

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I’m just passing on an open letter Michael Moore (the film director) wrote today to all those who voted for George Bush. Regardless of what your personal feelings are for Michael Moore or for George Bush for that matter, his thoughts and comments are valid. His perspective may be one sided but his statements are still true and accurate none-the-less.

Take a few minutes and read the letter A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush from Michael Moore.

Technorati Tags: Michael+Moore, George+Bush, President+Bush, 9-11, FEMA, terrorism

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The Political Animal at The Washington Monthly has posted an update on life at Camp Casey, the encampment of Cindy Sheehan and other supporters outside the Texas ranch of President Bush.

a lot of the guys there were Vietnam vets, while the rest were pretty middle-aged and wholesome, middle-class and earnest.

Read more at Political Animal.

Technorati Tags: Cindy+Sheehan, Camp+Casey, Anti-war+Protests

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I’ve been following along with the Cindy Sheehan story for a few weeks now. Cindy Sheehan is the mother of a solider killed in Iraq and she is camped outside President Bush’s Texas ranch waiting for a chance to speak with the President about the war and about what her son died for. She just wants to sit down and talk about it; to understand the cause and the mission. Wednesday night 1,627 vigils were held nationwide to support Cindy Sheehan and to protest the Iraq war. The events were organized by MoveOn.org.

One such event took place in Market Square, Exeter, New Hampshire. Today when I woke up, my email contained a link to the front page of The Portsmouth Herald where low-and-behold the main photograph was of my mother, sister and her two daughers carrying signs at the Exeter, NH vigil.

My mother is very passionate and outspoken about politics and appeared on the front page of the NH newspapers once before this past year when she was out sign-waving in support for Howard Dean.

You just gotta love New Hampshire politics!

Read the full story at Portsmouth Herald Local News: 140 gather in Market Square, Exeter to speak out against war.

Technorati Tags: NH, Cindy+Sheehan, Anti-war, protests, Exeter, New+Hampshire, Portsmouth+Herald, Crawford+Texas

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Via Moveon.org.

On April 4th last year, 24-year-old Army Specialist Casey Sheehan died in Iraq. This week, while President Bush vacations in Texas, Casey’s mother, Cindy Sheehan, sits vigil outside the president’s ranch. Cindy says that she won’t leave until President Bush meets with her to discuss the war—even if it means spending all of August there.

Cindy Sheehan was not an anti-war activist, but the loss of her son and the mounting evidence of deception by the Bush administration pushed her to speak out. While Cindy camps roadside in Texas, dozens of other military moms are flying to Texas to join her. Her story is starting to grab national attention, but Cindy needs our support.

Cindy simply wants to meet with the president to ask him to tell the truth about why her son died—and to stop using Casey’s and other soldiers’ deaths to justify continuing the war. But Cindy’s reflections on the war are also a reminder to all of us about the importance of getting involved:

“I shamefully and regretfully admit that before Casey was killed in Iraq I didn’t publicly speak out against the war. I didn’t shout out and say, “Stop. Stop this insane rush to an invasion that has no basis in reality. Don’t invade a country based on cherry-picked intelligence and despicable scare tactics. You don’t use our country’s precious lifeblood unless its absolutely necessary to defend America.” If I had broken the bonds of my slavery to silence sooner, would Casey still be alive? I don’t know.”

Cindy’s story is starting to grab national and international attention, creating a public relations problem for the White House. If we can help Cindy capture the focus of the country for even a couple of days we will sear into the memory of the public the image of the grieving mother—a morally pure reminder of the ultimate reason to end the war: the lost sons and daughters of moms everywhere.

Cindy has appeared on ABC, CNN, and FOX, and yesterday the lead editorial in The New York Times entitled “One Mother in Crawford” noted that “many Americans are with her, at least figuratively, at that dusty roadside in Crawford, expecting better answers.” With the White House press corps camped just a short distance away at Bush’s ranch, our newspaper ad will help prod them to pay attention to her.

Read more at:
Moveon.org

“One Mother in Crawford” Editorial, The New York Times, August 9, 2005.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/opinion/09tue1.html

Video Testimonial by Cindy Sheehan from our friends at TrueMajority.
http://www.truemajority.org/GoldStar_web.mov

Technorati Tags: Moveon.org, President+Bush, Crawford+Texas, Army, Anti-war, protests, activists, peace+activists, white+house

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Via MSNBC.com.

Judith Miller, a reporter with the New York Times, has been ordered to jail by a judge for refusing to name her confidential source in the investigation of the leak of an undercover CIA officer’s name.

“Judy Miller has not been accused of a crime or convicted of a crime,” Abrams said. “She has been held in civil contempt of court.”

I’m not sure where this fits into the realm of common sense democracy. Reporters are usually protected from this sort of thing while performing their job but regardless of the whether her source should or should not be named, when a judge or court orders a specific action, then that’s the law. The question is, is the naming of this source a critical component of the investigation into serious wrong-doing and in the best interest of society at large? The reporter’s commitment to her source aside, crimes cannot go unpunished in lieu of getting a news story. Is it the principle of confidentiality at stake here or the supreme rule of law?

Read the full story at MSNBC.com.

Technorati Tags: Judith+Miller, New+York+Times, CIA, Federal+Court, Journalism

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The “Spirit of Justice” and the “Majesty of Justice,” which loom over the stage in the Great Hall, were blocked from view by curtains installed by the department in January 2002, when former Attorney General John Ashcroft was in office.

…

The curtains were quietly removed on Friday after a decision by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Justice Department spokesman Kevin Madden said.

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Blogwatch Via Proceed at your own risk: WHILE ROME BURNS….

“If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents.”

Technorati Tags: flag+burning, american+flag, congress, constitutional+amendment

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Via CNN.com.

The House on Wednesday approved a constitutional amendment that would give Congress the power to ban desecration of the American flag, a measure that for the first time stands a chance of passing the Senate as well.

I’m an Army veteran and loyal patriot so I am, of course opposed to burning the American flag. I was in the Military Police company in our Corps of Cadets in college and my unit was responsible for raising and lowering the flags on campus 365 days a year. We were the guardians of the flag and flag etiquette. That being said, however, I have also found myself on the side of the argument that allows people to freely express themselves however they choose, which includes their right to burn the flag in opposition to the people who wave it. The whole reason I served in our military was to protect free speech, our democracy and the rights of all Americans. We can’t have a culture where you are free to support the institutions of America all you want but it’s illegal to protest them. That’s called Communism.

Something about the image of seeing police officers wrestle an American citizen to the ground as he burns a flag in protest just makes me think of the Middle East.

We all practice our freedom individually.

Read the entire article at CNN.com.

Technorati Tags: flag+burning, constitutional+amendment, flag, American+flag, patriotism, Congress

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Via CNN.com.

“The House voted Wednesday to block the FBI and the Justice Department from using the Patriot Act to search library and book store records.”

Members voted 238 to 187 to block part of the law.

Read more at Via CNN.com.

Technorati Tags: Patriot Act, Anti-terrorism, Veto, terrorism, Congress, FBI, Justic Department, library records

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Via CNN.com

Bloggers in China using the new blogging service, MSN Spaces, by Microsoft are being censored by the Chinese government.

Users of the MSN Spaces section of Microsoft Corp.’s new China-based Web portal get a scolding message each time they input words deemed taboo by the communist authorities — such as democracy, freedom and human rights.

“Prohibited language in text, please delete,” the message says.

I find it both strange and amazing that companies like Microsoft can conduct business operations in countries that are so oppressive. I’m not blaming Microsoft, I just think that it’s strange in this day and age to have governments such as China trying to advance it’s culture through technology and capitalism and yet behave so primitively. It’s like building a 2 million dollar house, furnishing it with the best furniture money can buy but not allowing anyone to sit on it or use it.

As if not allowing people to say “democracy” will somehow make it not exist or make them less eager to have it.

Via CNN.com

Technorati Tags: China, democracy, MSN spaces, Microsoft, blogs, censorship, human rights, Chinese Government

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Blogs and Google Adsense go hand-in-hand. In case you’re not familiar with Google Adsense, it’s the advertising program sponsored by Google that allows site owners to put those little ad boxes along the margins, headers and footers of websites. Webmasters earn revenue from the clicks on the ad links. The type of ads that appear on a site depend on the content of the page and Google’s technology serves up ads that it thinks are relevant to the topic of the page based on various keywords and phrases. Most site owners use Adsense as a way to defer costs of maintaining the site (as is the case with Common Sense Democracy). One of things I find quite amusing is to watch the types of ads that are being served to my sites change based on what I’m blogging about that week. This brings me to the point of this post. This week the story broke on the Watergate’s “Deep Throat” and I posted several references to the news with various links to other sources. Shortly after, the Google Adsense ads stopped appearing on the home page of this site. This is not unusual, as occassionally the druids over at Google play with the algorithms that cause blips across the universe. What is unusual is the lengh of time the ads have not appeared. Digging deeping into other pages, I realized that the ads are showing in other areas, which rules out the argument that Common Sense Democracy was being somehow blocked or reindexed in it’s entirety. One conclusion I came up with was that Google just simply didn’t like the term “Deep Throat”. Perhaps their engines have determined this term to be profanity and so the ads are filtered on any page referencing this content.

Anyway, it’s just a theory. I’d be interested to hear from anyone else who has experienced this phenomenon.

Technorati Tags: Google, adsense, Google Adsense, deep throat, blog, profanity, search engine marketing

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Via Yahoo! News.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is angry at NBC for airing a recent episode of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”, that made a reference to his name.

DeLay’s name surfaced on Wednesday night on the show’s season finale, which centered on the fictional slayings of two judges by suspected right-wing extremists.

In the episode, police are frustrated by a lack of clues, leading one officer to quip, “Maybe we should put out an APB (all-points-bulletin) for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt.”

DeLay sent a letter to NBC President accusing the network of manipulating his name and trivializing the issues of judicial security.

It’s ironic that the whole reason NBC used the reference to DeLay was because of DeLay’s inflammatory statement during the Terri Schiavo case. DeLay said, “The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.”

The Producer and creator of “Law & Order”, Dick Wolf, responded to DeLay’s accusations by saying, “I … congratulate Congressman DeLay for switching the spotlight from his own problems to an episode of a TV show.”

Honestly, how can DeLay get angry at this? NBC was just following his lead. If it weren’t for his violent rhetoric and outspoken position on rouge judges, then NBC would never have had anything to talk about in the first place.

You reap what you sew.

Read more at Yahoo! News.
Technorati Tags: Tom DeLay, Judiciary, NBC, Law & Order, Terri Schiavo, Majority Leader

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Via Boston.com.

The pastor of a Baptist church has kicked out members of the church because they did not support President Bush.

Pastor Chan Chandler had told the congregation before last year’s presidential election that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry should either leave the church or repent, said Lorene Sutton, who said she and her husband were voted out of the church this week.

Is God a Republican or a Democrat? This is a hot topic with me. I’m a fervent believer in the separation of church and state and I just don’t have one ounce of respect for any religion that uses the bible to promote hate.

As North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek stated, the pastor, “jeopardized his church’s tax-free status by openly supporting a candidate for president.”

When is the hammer going to drop on this issue? Religious organizations are only provided with a tax exempt status if they do not endorse a political candidate. There’s going to be a point when the political lobbying of the religious right converges with the separation of church and state. I’m guessing we have yet to see the full and complete reach of the church’s vengeance.

And Moses said, “Thou shall not vote Democrat”.
Technorati Tags: separation of church and state, religion, republican, democrat

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I just wanted to add a noteworthy parting thought for the end of the day. May 4th marks the anniversary of the Kent State University shootings by the National Guard. On May 4th, 1970, 4 students were killed and 9 were wounded when the National Guard opened fire during a student protest.

As we discuss, debate and celebrate our democracy and our freedom of speech, we must not forget the rocky road we have walked along the way to get here.

Read more on Kent State shootings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Technorati Tags: Kent State, freedom of speech, Democracy, National Guard, Vietnam, 1970

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Via towleroad .

A guy was kicked off a Delta Airlines flight by a stewardess for wearing a profane t-shirt. The guy posted an entry on his blog about the event and is now working on a draft letter to Delta to get the flight attendent reprimanded or fired. It is quite aggrevating to read the story and it really makes you wonder about free speech and censorship. The comments on his blog that follow the post are also very thought provoking. As many pointed out, the t-shirt may have been inappropriate but censorship in the name of religion is a whole different issue.

Read the post at Boozhy: a blog: An Open Letter to the Ignorant Wench that was my Stewardess on the Delta Shuttle
Technorati Tags: censorship, Delta Airlines, free speech, religion

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