The primaries are coming, the primaries are coming.

"Is anybody out there?" -- Roger Waters

So, I've been so deeply disenchanted with the current Administration and the media's ongoing "War on my common sense" that I started to withdraw from caring about any of the issues that need addressing in this nation. Both the conservative and the liberal rhetoric is so extreme, that there's no way that any of it can be taken seriously. I'm not a fan of the current administration and their proclivity to sponsoring an ever larger centralized government, oh and laws that benefit corporations over the rights of the citizen, but I equally (if not just a touch more) dislike a bleeding heart, tree hugging, "feel your way through life" liberal.

Let's face it, at the end of the day they both want the same basic thing. BIG government(police force) to hold your hand(watch you like a hawk) until the day you die. They want you under control, and dependent on the government for your daily existence in at least one way.

Where's my personal liberty? Where's my right to screw up my life as much as I want until I start interfering with someone else's right to do the same? Where's my freedom? I have been certain that it finally died with the end of the Clinton administration. Not that President Clinton's administration was any great shakes, but at least I wasn't in a war (that wasn't a war) that was never declared as such by the legislative branch of the government. At least I wasn't living in a country that thought the Patriot Act (and the dissolving of the checks and balances, and wire-tapping, and labeling someone a combatant was enough to hold me for years with no charges, and habeas corpus can go to hell, and...) was okay because "If you have nothing to hide, then your fine".

I shouldn't have to prove my innocence, and I should be able to say the word bomb in an airport without being held for questioning for 36 months. I'm not saying it's okay to run down the concourse screaming the word, but if I'm in conversation and the word happens to come up, i.e. "I drank like ten Irish car bombs that night.." I shouldn't be worried that I'm going to be dry humped by my government. If you're overheard in this day and age someone will decide they want to be a good "citizen" and report it to some well trained TSA jerk...next thing you know it's Midnight Express, and my life is screwed. Over a bad anecdote! THAT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. Hyperbole? Yes! It's at least as bad as Brokedown Palace, though.

ANYWAY, the only reason I'm writing this now, is I've finally found someone from within the current system that I believe can change the system, or at least get the ship back on the right course.

If you don't have any idea who I'm talking about, Dr. Ron Paul is his name. Although Republican he may be, Dr. Paul is the closest thing to a Constitutionalist/Libertarian that you're going to get in the two party system. His platform makes sense if you believe that the government needs to get back to the basic ideals of our founding fathers. No candidate is perfect, but this man is the closest thing I've seen to a true conservative in my entire voting life. He's a true Republican, and I think in a somewhat fractured GOP, he has a real shot if the conservatives who don't support the current administration (the so called neo-cons) will get in there and vote. People are starting to notice Dr. Paul's campaign and what started as a grassroots type effort has become a real concern for the other Republican candidates.

Am I late to the Ron Paul party? Maybe a little, but I'm right on time for the election. That's the good news right there. Anyone who's read anything I've written (yes, you two) knows it's a good thing that I live in a state where political party registration is unnecessary, as I think the two party system has lived it's out it's useful life. With that said, this may be the best shot to change the system a little from within.

If you don't know about his campaign, or his platform visit his site. It's free and informative. That should appeal to you Socialists.

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

Goodbye Constitution of the US. You served us well.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070717-3.html?1

I now am fully convinced that the "War on Terror" is a tool to keep us in a "State of Emergency". I mean terrorists have NEVER had the capability of hijacking airplanes before 2001 and the George W. Bush administration.

We have lost so many small, but important rights in the past seven years. Now the big guns are coming out. We the people are unimportant at this juncture. That's what we get for a few decades of reliance on the government tit, and (paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson) not tending to our freedoms.

I'll leave you with a few quotes from people who saw this coming a long time before anyone reading this was born:

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin_Franklin

"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves." - Bertrand_de_Jouvenel

How's that?

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/protests%20come%20early%20to%20disneys%20princess_1030749

It seems that even when someone is trying to exercise their politically correct bestness, someone somewhere is going to get all pissy. Now Disney pictures can't call a movie "The Frog Princess" because it might offend the French? The French can bite me. In all likelihood they're going to get offended at something American anyway. Our kids shouldn't get a decent animated flick out if it? How about we call the movie, "The Cheese loving, capitulating, surrender loving princess", that should get their goat. Christ on a crutch why is everyone so sensitive.

Then because the heroine of the movie is going to the first black princess, they can't call her Maddy (which I assume is short for Madeline, or some other name no one uses anymore) because....get this now.....it might be construed as being close to resembling Mammy. Here I thought that Disney having an African American princess would be a good thing that everyone could agree on. Can't be good because it "might be construed" as "close to resembling" something that if you change the spelling, and infer some secret plot to subliminally undermine an entire segment of the American population would be a slap in the face to people.

It's gotten so bad that we have to police ourselves for things that aren't offensive, but may be if someone can't spell so good.

Wow. Just wow. Where's the bar?

Wait... I'm of Irish/Scottish ancestry...I think I just offended myself.

Atlas is beginning his shrug

http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/01/news/international/bc.venezuela.nationalization.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes


So Chavez is privatizing everything he can get his hands on. Of course, he's doing it "for the people". I suppose there's no gain in it for him or his party at all is there? Isn't that how Castro started? Isn't that how the Socialist Republic of Russia started, or the Communist Party of China started? Bolivia? Peru? This should be more familiar [read: CLEAR WARNING] to people in Central and South America than to anyone else. Has it ever worked? EVER? This is the moment we'll be able to look back on and say, "That's when".

I'm aware poverty and difficult living conditions are hard to swallow, especially for an extended period of time. I also realize that sometimes it takes extreme measures to pull a country out of a deep hole. [The New Deal springs to mind. That was thisclose to Socialism, and we're still paying for that little project in some ways.] However, the answer cannot be to have everyone live off the backs of those who are producing. There has to be some level of personal responsibility and reward. At least in a free market there are reasons for people to have ambition. That doesn't happen when someone knows that no matter how hard they work, they get the same as everyone else. YAY socialism!!

This lack of ambition will turn most into drones. The ones it pisses off will look for away to get over. This will lead to two classes. The ruling party and everyone else. Say what you will about socialism and it's model, there will be a ruling party. There's simply no utopia where we can all join hands and live on the commune. People need leaders. Leaders will see themselves as entitled to more than the "common man". Inevitably that leads to a ruling class. It can be a singular entity; be it a dictator, or a monarch or an emperor, or it can be as it is in China or the former Soviet Republic where the party became the old boys network.

Pure socialism is just as pie in the sky as pure Democracy. The only place either of these ideals would hold up is a place where the population is small and easily controlled. Call me crazy, but the evils of a Republic Democracy aren't as vile as the evils of socialism turned to communism anywhere. I mean honestly, who doesn't want their voice heard? Only the apathetic, or the robots.

Read the book...Atlas Shrugged. It seems almost a road map. It's gonna be a bumpy ride

No. This is not freedom

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003681580_essay26.html

How can you arrest an 18 year old for writing an assignment?  They arrested this young man because his paper made the teacher uncomfortable!  This is what a politically correct, over reactionary, police state will harvest.  This is what the seeds of "Let's not offend anyone ever" will grow.  This is the path we've been set upon for at least a decade.  Keep in mind this is a CREATIVE WRITING class.  I sure hope nothing in my blogs ever offends or disturbs anyone.  I could be arrested for it.  The thought police are a reality.  Fascist bastards.

Did anyone else hear that?  It was the sound of the Constitution being erased, and burned.  That noise you'll hear next is the forefathers rolling over in their graves to cry.

"Let's ban 'em".

I was reading an article in a New Hampshire regional newspaper (their
on-line edition) about a small airplane that had to make an emergency
landing on a golf course.  You know how you can post comments about stories on a lot of newspaper sites now?  Well this site had the ability, and there was one response... this response was so ludicrous I HAD to respond.  I mean register on the site and everything.  It was maddening in it's absolute lack of thought and rationality. Keep in mind that the story ends as well as could ever be hoped for, with the pilot landing with no damage to the plane, or anyone.

I give you this:
"It seems that every day now I read about some small airplane crashing
somewhere. This one ended safely by[sic] it would be a different story if
someone had been hit. I really don't understand why people are allowed to
fly these deathtraps anymore. The danger is not acceptable in the post-9/11
world. The sooner we ban them, the safer we'll be"

Christ. on. a. crutch.

And my reply:
Banning small aircraft because of a few equipment failures would be like
banning automobiles for one fatal traffic accident.  If you looked at the
number of flights vs. the number of accidents, it's the stellar safety
records which makes an incident so newsworthy.
Also your reference to 9/11 was absolutely ridiculous.  HIJACKED commercial
airliners were the cause of those horrible events not equipment failure.
Are you keen to take away another freedom from Americans?  Live free or die
indeed*.

Am I wrong?

*In case you weren't aware, "Live Free or Die" is New Hampshire's state motto, and they take it very, VERY seriously.  

Wow. Mr. Buchanan making a rational, reasonable argument.

I generally do not agree with Mr. Buchanan. He has a tendency to let his very narrow vision of things slant his views very heavily. I guess we all do, but he's an abrasive tool about it. This however, I agree with.

Link obtained from http://www.drudgereport.com

Shocked? Me too.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NATIONAL_SECURITY_LETTERS?SITE=VANOV&SECTION=HOME

I am shocked....SHOCKED..that the Patriot Act would be misused this way!!! Wait. No I'm not. I actually am surprised that it was reported though. I figured it would be swept under the rug, at least until a Democrat took office.

What we're really seeing with this report is a commentary on the depths of how unpopular President Bush and his administration has become. There was no way this would have come out two years ago, or maybe even one year ago. While it's nice to see some oversight and some disclosure, I'm willing to bet a great deal on the fact that the report suppresses a lot more violations of civil liberties than it exposes. Don't get me wrong, Americans have no need to know everything that government does. In fact, most people couldn't "handle the truth".

The difference here is that the erosion of our constitutional rights is happening at a disturbingly rapid rate. This administration has used terrorism as a platform to bully America into accepting things that have been "against democracy norms". The Patriot Act (which no patriot would accept sight unseen, and even fewer would accept as written when seen), Wiretapping, circumventing the War Powers Act (linking Iraq to 9/11), no warrant for search and seizure, declaring citizens "enemy combatants" on American soil effectively stripping any hope of due process, Habeas corpus (only considered a hallmark of democracy), etc.

Maybe this can be a call to people to stop rolling over every time another constitutional right of a law abiding citizen is stomped on.

Martyrdom for the goose....

This article I read had a couple of passages that struck me:

"(Muqtada) Al-Sadr said in an interview with an Italian newspaper published Friday that the crackdown had already begun and that 400 of his men had been arrested. La Repubblica also quoted him as saying he fears for his life and stays constantly on the move"

Fear for his life? Why should he, the most faithful and submissive servant to Islam, fear for his life. Why wouldn't he stand and welcome martyrdom? Why wouldn't he "fight until his last breath for the glory of Islam" (gotta love the rhetoric that these guys are able to improvise right off the cuff.) while awaiting his reward in paradise?

He goes on to say, "Let them kill us. For a true believer there is no better moment than this to die: Heaven is ensured...after Muharram, we'll see."

So you move to make sure you cannot be killed, yet you puff out your chest and spout this false bravado. What you really meant to say was, "Let them kill my men. They can rest assured they'll be going to heaven.....I think, I mean um, yes....they'll be in heaven."

He doesn't believe the things he preaches enough to face his enemy. Yet to the young men he brainwashes to fight for him, he assures eternal paradise. This is no different than Bush sending our young men and women over there to face the dangers of war. He is his enemy.

Islam has been twisted by these "holy men" and terrorists into something that is a reason for constant violence and hatred of fellow man. Islam was created out of both Judaism and Christianity. It is a religion of peace, and tolerance. These fundamentalists' cause has little to do with Islam, and everything to do with hatred, and envy. These men hate the western culture while at the same time envying it. The hypocrisy of the above statements, and the way they live their lives hiding and ducking the danger while sending young men into certain death with bombs strapped to them, will hopefully open those militiamen and hopeful martyrs eyes who believe they are fighting for a just cause. Make no mistake, most of the rank and file of these militias and organized militant groups believe they're fighting against injustice from America and the "other" Muslims (Shiite vs. Sunni). Others believe that they are fighting for their independence. They see themselves much in the same way early Americans saw themselves when they joined the minutemen during the American revolution.

Truth is, they are fighting for their "leaders" greed. The clerics want the power in Iraq, and they'll send in their followers as cannon fodder to get it. It's a fight that can't be won. These clerics will go on to blame America and the west.

And as far as the running and hiding, I guess they don't have proverbs in Arabic that equate to "Practice what you preach".

Now be nice to the "pursuit of happiness" guy.

This is in response to Renegade Eye's post about Chavez calling for a united socialist party in Venezuela (linky). Scares the shit out of me, but I'm a crazy democracy lover. I tried to leave a message on his blog, but I'm not sure if it posted because of this crazy new blogger/google baby (bloogler?). Anyway, if it didn't post, here it is again:

This is the first step towards communism. It won't end well, never does. I cannot stand two party politics, but if there's anything I dislike more, it's one party "politics".

I still can't understand how someone can support socialism in practice. If socialism worked the way it was intended, it'd be utopia. But we all know it can't work in it's purest form. Somewhere, someone is looking to get over and "beat the system", or to do as little as possible and still reap the benefits of others work, while someone else still looks to rise above the rest and hold the power. That is the ugly truth in everything from pure democracy to sharia.

The beautiful truth is that there are people who will rebel against being a "cog in the machine" no matter where you go. There are those with ambition and a desire to be the best at what they do that cannot sit back and watch their lives pass them by for the promise of the government taking care of their basic needs (and history shows that communist states usually fail at that to a large degree). Sometimes the artist needs to starve.

Happy New Year

2007. The year of the spy?? Maybe someone can put out a decent "Bond" film this year. Let me tell ya, it's been a long while since I've seen one I've liked. Then again , I haven't seen Casino Royale. Probably doesn't matter...



Anyway. Welcome to a new calendar. Hope you picked one you like.