Friday, January 27, 2006

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Bruce Bartlett, top Reagan advisor and vituperative critic of Democrats and liberals, has a new book out. What is the title?

(A) “The Bush Presidency: a Study of Triumph”

(B) “The Terror Years: How the Right Won Freedom”

(C) “Treason: How Liberals Sold Out America”

(D) "Reagan, Quayle, Bush and Cheney: The Rushmore of Our Time”

(E) “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy”


Answer: E
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NAME THAT SPEAKER!

What organization made this statement this week?

"Intelligent design does not belong to science and there is no justification
for the demand it be taught as a scientific theory alongside the Darwinian explanation."


(A) Atheists of America

(B) The Communist Party of Massachusetts

(C) Americans for Separation of Church and State

(D) People for Religious Intolerance

(E) The Vatican



Answer: E


Damm godless liberals.

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Thursday, January 26, 2006

CORRUPTION IS IRRELEVANT. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

"Photos With Disgraced Lobbyist
Are 'Not Relevant,' Bush Says"

"President Bush responded somewhat indirectly when asked if he was
afraid to release the pictures of him and Jack Abramoff."

– The New York Times


But what has he got to hide?

To paraphrase the President:

"If you're meeting with a known criminal who
bribes politicians, we want to know about it."


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Monday, January 23, 2006

Three Questions for General Hayden

General Hayden:

The FISA Court of Review wrote in 2002 that:

"The Supreme Court has interpreted the warrant clause of the Fourth Amendment to require three elements:

First, warrants must be issued by neutral, disinterested magistrates.

Second, those seeking the warrant must demonstrate to the magistrate their probable cause to believe that “the evidence sought will aid in a particular apprehension or conviction” for a particular offense.

Finally, “warrants must particularly describe the ‘things to be seized,’” as well as the place to be searched. (Dalia v. United States, 441 U.S. 238, 255 (1979) (citations omitted)."

(See United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, In re: Sealed Case No. 02-001, Argued September 9, 2002 Decided November 18, 2002)

THREE QUESTIONS

General Hayden, would you please describe the "neutral, disinterested magistrates," who oversaw the surveillance program, how "probable cause" was demonstrated to those magistrates, and what the application for warrants looked like?

Friday, January 20, 2006

BIN LADEN QUIZ OF THE DAY

Complete this sentence:

Osama Bin Laden, mass murderer of thousands, releases
a new tape.

Your first reaction is to __________________


(A) Condemn the soulless monster

(B) Curse him and mourn the many who died

(C) Pray that the U.S. will soon capture him

(D) Look for clues to the next attack

(E) Use the opportunity bin Laden
has given you to attack fellow Americans,
even though it means demeaning
the deaths of 3,000 people and
giving him what he wants.


Answer: If you’re a right wing nut -- (E)

“That's the basis for bin Laden's truce offer. He is
talking to America's far left and saying, "You know
what. We're on the same side. So why don't you work on
that hardhead George W. Bush?"

Bin Laden told us Thursday that our far left has been
working for him. It's their poll results he quotes.

Bin Laden told us that our secret wiretapping program
is something we should keep up. He's got people here
already and he's got more coming and they are planning
to blow us up.

In the War on Terror, a bin Laden tape is the far
left's worst nightmare because it reminds Americans
the war is real."

-- John Gibson, FOX News

“Osama bin Laden "sounds like an over the top Michael
Moore here, if not a Michael Moore."

-- Hardball host Chris Matthews

Thrilling to clips interposing statements by John
Kerry, Howard Dean, John Murtha, and Ted Kennedy with
Osama bin Laden.

--Joe Scarborough & Tucker Carlson

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The idea of Republicans reforming themselves is like
asking John Gotti to clean up organized crime. I
thought I’d seen the last of corruption when I helped
clean up Las Vegas thirty years ago. But, while its
not quite the mafia of Las Vegas in the 1970s, what is
happening today in Washington is every bit as corrupt
and the consequences for our country have been just as
severe.”

-- Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid.

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THAT’S WHAT I CALL REFORM

Speaker Dennis Hastert’s reform proposal would finally
ban corrupt lobbying of Congress excerpt for what?

(A) Members could still get gifts from family members

(B) Members could still share a cab with a lobbyist

(C) Members could still accept small gifts at
Christmas

(D) Members could accept campaign contributions, but
not personal gifts.

(E) All members of Congress and their staffs members
of Congress and their staffs could still travel the
world on private jets and eat on a lobbyist's account
at the priciest restaurants in Washington.

Answer: (E)

The only limitation would be that whenever a lobbyist
pays the bill, he or she must also hand the lawmaker a
campaign contribution. Then the transaction would be
legal.

"That's a big hole if they don't address campaign
finance," said Joel Jankowsky, the lobbying chief of
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.


You think?

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K SREET? NEVER HEARD OF IT

"The K Street project is purely to make sure we have
qualified applicants for positions that are in town.
From my perspective, it's a good government thing."

–– Rick Santorum, November, 2005.

"Well, I don't know what you mean by Senate liaison to
the, quote, 'K Street Project.' I'm not aware of any
Senate liaison job that I do for the K Street
Project."

–– Rick Santorum, January, 2006

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THE LAW WAS BROKEN. ALL CLEAR NOW?

A legal analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional
Research Service concludes that the Bush
administration’s limited briefings for Congress on the
National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping
without warrants are “inconsistent with the law.”

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CNN HIRES ONLY THE BEST

"CNN's Headline News has signed
conservative radio host Glenn Beck
for an hourlong talkshow "


Who is Glenn Beck?

"And that's all we're hearing about, are the people in
New Orleans. Those are the only ones that we're seeing
on television are the scumbags -- This is horrible to
say, and I wonder if I'm alone in this -- you know, it
took me about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims'
families? "

-- Glenn Beck

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Quote of the Day

"We like reality TV, and we decided it would bring awareness to brain tumors."

– A patient whose surgery will be featured on the new tv show "Miracle Workers."

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Quote of the Day

"I thought they were wrong."

– Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., on ABC's "This Week", speaking about Bush administration arguments
that they have the legal authority to wiretap Americans without a warrant.

Lower Court to Reconsider Abortion Law

New York Times

NEWS ALERT | 10:13 AM ET

"Supreme Court Orders Lower Court to Reconsider Abortion Law"


Updates to follow......

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

It's about individual liberty

If I recall correctly, all the cases Senator Sam Brownback cited, and there were quite a few, as wrongly decided, were cases where the took away individual rights in favor of government control over that individual and majority rule.

Dred Scott. Plessy. Korematsu. Roe v. Wade.

Which of these is not like the other?

It was the decisions overturning these cases (except for Korematsu, which was not) which, like Roe, affirmed indivudal autonomy and choice against societal control.


Roe v. Wade is self-evidently more like "Brown v. Board of Education" that it is like Plessy.

When the Supreme Court has gotten it "wrong" in the past, it has been because they deferred to majority rule, and not in favor of individual civil constitutional rights.

A decision to overturn Roe v. Wade would be remembered with the decisions we regard in retrospect as "wrong," even using the standards a Senator like Sam Brownback.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Hey, Vince: Come Play for the Jets

Well I saw Mister Young play USC

Well, I saw ole Vince put them down

Well, I hope Vince Young will remember

A Southern man don't need to stay around


(from "Sweet Home Alabama")

Pat Robertson Hates America

“And I would say, Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the E.U., the United Nations or the United States of America."

-- Pat Robertson


It's bad enough he denigrates Christianity, but now he officially despises the United States of America.