I have lately come to believe that what will happen next in the Whitehouse has been written already. By Shakespeare in Julius Caesar;
Et tu Dick
Et tu Karl
The watching of this new play, will be interesting.
Conspiracies
The ‘Liberal’ Press?
I have been bothered by a recent study the claims to document the ‘Liberal’ bias of the press. And it struck me that the problem here is that word, Liberal. The has been another propaganda word. Spun to mean something bad.
Liberal
broad: showing or characterized by broad-mindedness; “a broad political stance”; “generous and broad sympathies”; “tolerant of his opponent’s opinions”
This is clearly a definition of real America Values like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion In America, to be a good citizen you need to be ‘Liberal’, period! To respect the fact that someone might hold an opinion other than your own. If not for the ‘Liberal’ Press who would represent any opposing view point. The press, were it not Liberal, would be required to represent only one viewpoint. And that wouldn’t be Freedom of the Press
But for most, this is a hard job. But no one said U.S. citizenship was supposed to be easy. To allow someone to shout at the top of their lungs, that which you would oppose at the top of your lungs, takes real effort, real citizenship.
This citizenship seems to be sadly lacking in the Right-Wing blogsphere, and the Republican propaganda machine.
Strict Constitutional Constructs
I have been thinking about Republicans and their belief that Judges who uphold a strict constitutional interpretation of the law is their Ideal. In truth, this would be the antithesis of the current Republican or rather Neo-Con perspective. Their current belief that ‘Activist’ Judges are the cause of all social Ills in the U.S. are misplaced. Mostly due to the sad truth that most Congressmen and Senators, not to mention the current President, Vice-President and most of their staff’s have never read the constitution, or the Bill-of-Rights.
If the current nominee to the Supreme court, Samuel Alito, was telling the truth. That he is of a strict constitutional mindset, the first thing to be struck down, wouldn’t be Roe-vs-Wade, but the Patriot-Act, Illegal Wiretaps, and any other attack on the foundations of the Separation of Church and State, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of assembly and Due Process.
This can be illustrated by the results of the Dover case and the ruling made by U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III. Judge Jones is a Strict Constructionist, and the reading of his ruling demonstrates that not only is this not the results of and ‘Activist’ judge, but a truly strict interpretation of U.S. Constitution. And contrary to the current Republican agenda being pushed by the current administration.
So I am really wonders if this is not just another Republican spin on the english language. When the Republicans ask for Strict Constructionist in the courts. Their true meaning is Neo-Con ‘Activists’.
So here’s hoping for a real Strict Constructionist nominee to the Supreme Court. A defeat for the Neo-Con’s and truly Merry Christmas for the rest of us.
Fear and the Press
The recent news that Bush illegally spied on americans and suppressed the release of the facts by instilling fear of loss of national security. A national security the is in no way guarantee by Bush and his policies. The media and the general public have become so reluctant to speak out that the actions necessary to truly resolve the issues of civil rights and true national security in the nation’s best interest are never taken. Even discussions amongst the public have been repressed by fear of negative reactions of their fellow citizens. Bush has so divided the country that the public have artificially held the country together by not arguing over the opposing viewpoints. Everywhere there is a reluctance to talk about politics, fear of open debate has created a atmosphere of distrust between people.
The nature of a truly free press is to stimulate discussions. Something that has been missing since the so called free press has been controlled by commercial interests. Commercial interests that believe that the current administration is better for business than it’s alternative. And so long at the free press fails in it’s responsibility to inform the public. There will be no freedom to discuss the issues in public. And the american people will not really feel a ‘Freedom of Speach’ really rings true.
They came for the internet pornography
I read this article today Keeping kids from nasties on the net and remembered the old recant of They came for the Communist (read Pornographers here)
But then the article about politicians in Australia, continues. “…and other inappropriate material …. This vague and broad inclusion can only mean, well just about everything that they don’t like. The word is Censorship.
This is again going back to the what the right wing of every country is trying to push. No freedom from the ‘Majority’ view, ‘The righteous view’ . It’s ‘Democracy’ at it’s worst, a right wing republican ‘Taliban’ point of view.
If you can’t control the message, control the messenger.
And this leads back to articles I have posted here before, when ICANN halted the ‘xxx’ domain, this would have made filtration of the porn domains easy. But if it was made this easy, it would mean that more sophisticated filters would NOT have to filter all the content on the internet, only the ‘xxx’ domains. If it were that easy, you would not have the ability to block “…other inappropriate material … as deemed by the right wing conservative morally correct politicians.
Traffic Lights in a Democratic Republic
Having read again that the U.S. isn’t really a true democracy, but a republic. A republic that has at it roots, protections of the rights of the minority. It brings to light more of the ‘Republican’ goals, to replace the Republic with a democracy, where the majority requires the conformance of the minority. To reflect in everything they profess, no Gay rights, no Evolution, no Abortion, NO PERSONAL CHOICE only the majority chooses what it right, and correct for everyone. And only what is commercially correct. Everyone must believe in Christmas, Christmas is good for business.
I prefer the protection of the Republic for the rights of the individual and minority groups. Like freedom of speech, and religion.
I have often often wonder how ‘founded’ this ideal is, in the real world. And it came to me, traffic lights. (I know very strange)
Have you ever sat a traffic light, where no cars were crossing. Or where you are in a main traffic way, and the lights stop you, and hundreds of other car to allow only one car to cross or enter your traffic? That is the republic in action, protecting the single car from the majority of others from entering or crossing the lane.
In Ireland and other European countries, the ’roundabout’ is common, a truly democratic traffic condition, a single car cannot enter or cross until there is a break in the majority lane. I can not count the times when I have heard ’roundabouts’ equated with ‘chaos’ and they are. The term ‘Fate favors the Foolish’ can be attributed to roundabouts. But here in Ireland, and I’m sure in other places as well, traffic lights have been instituted at roundabouts, because in high traffic periods, roundabouts (ie. democracies) cannot cope. The republic rules, to correct the inadequacy of the democratic chaos created by the roundabout.
Here’s hoping.
History upon a media floats.
Watching a documentary about underage British soldiers in WWI. They presented many cases of mail, not email but letters, from the soldier to parents and loved ones, and from parents to their children. And it struck me that much of the domestic history we view is wrapped up in letters. Paper letters, written most often longhand, and delivered by whatever postal method existed at the time.
One of the most important archeological artifacts of our time is called The Rosetta Stone. which is really only a set of decrees. Not some piece of literature in a library, but a plain bit of government ‘paperwork’ . It provided a vital key in cross translation that was missing in ancient Egyptian language.
Moving forward, to current times, I look at the way my wife and I treat our emails. I have always kept my in folders in my email system. My wife will always print any important email, then delete everything else in the inbox. She never keeps email electronically. Bill Gates mentioned that the Blu-Ray, HD DVD media will be the last physical media ever produced. And while I doubt this, it brings up an important issue. Who will document us as a people in the future, and with what? If all future media, literature, emails, communications will be stored in ephemeral media electronically or otherwise. What will tell of our stories in the future?
If the electronic history is anything, it is a story of change. Changing protocols formats, (ASCII, Unicode) different document formats, and storage media. If say, I had keep my resume on 8 inch Floppies, who in the future would be able to read my CV on a IBM-3740 format encoded in BCD and what “Rosetta Stone” would they be using?
When is the last time you watched a movie about a lost or misdirected email in a romantic setting. Letters, yes, email not a chance. What if Shakespeare, had written his works in WordStar version 1? Would anyone value a newly discovered e-manuscript? Or even be able to read it? Not a chance. Physical media, substance, printed materials, BOOKS, will survive. They are our future for history.
Massachusetts may have hit upon a weak link in this electronic history when it attempted to standardize on an open document for future government documents. These may prove to be the future Rosetta stone for the historians. A method to remember the meaning of all language translations, or not.
But for now, I think I’m going to stop saving my important documents in PDF. and start printing them on good low acid paper and black ink. (and who said computers would make a paperless office ;-))
The story never changes, only the stage upon which it is played.
I am not a reader of the Nuremberg Trials documents, but this one was posted at AMERICAblog and the quote brings to light that we as humans are still governed like cattle.
“Naturally, the common people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”
Hermann Goering, Hitler’s Reich-Marshall at the Nuremberg Trials
So the actors have changed, but the plot remains the same.
World Wide Thanksgiving
It looks like the entire Blogspace and most of the RSS feeds I read have dried up for American Thanksgiving.
I’m not sure if I’m that grateful. But I’ll get by. If the Republicans are stuffing themselves with turkey, they they won’t be causing any disasters today. Unless excessive flatulence increases global warming or something.
I’m just glad my wife made a pumpkin pie.
The spoils of war = The mission of the War
I wrote about this issue here: Follow the Money
And maybe someone listened, but now the facts are really coming out.
The postmortem of war is this, “The Ends, Justify the Means!” and hence the motivations as well. The Iraq war was never about terrorism, it was about American and British Oil companies wanting control of Iraqi oil.
and you can read more here, Iraq’s oil: The spoils of war
Radio Free America – for Americans
I was reading about A Unified Field Theory of Supine Media and realized that the article was missing the point. Or rather obscuring the real value of Journalism. And that’s the “Truth”.
If there was a truly professional press, there would be only one truth. Not a Liberal bias, or a Right-wing view. Just one view, an unbiased reporting of the facts, and only of the facts. No spin, no insider mis-leaks. Documental facts. Also known as the “Truth”!
What the U.S. needs is a Radio Free America beamed at the U.S. from outside telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Saving the Net, and maybe saving freedom of speech also.
I just read a great article here: Saving the Net
But it only grazes an issue I mentioned about Internet Censorship. The subject of why politics and Government are moving to control the net, isn’t just a profit motive, it’s about information control. Everyone was fearing that the recent move to U.N control of the Internet was going to amount to turning over control to governments that would censor the information. But failed to realize that the Republican, and hence far Right-wing, have been attempting to control the information on the internet every bit as, say China or North Korea. They may have been correct, but putting it into a larger venue, particularly a bigger political venue would have delayed any consensus about ‘control’, generations into the future.
White House keeps dossiers
This article is more than interesting, White House keeps dossiers I wonder if I’m on it. This could be a better rating system for a Blog than Technorati. I’m on the White House Enemies List Sounds like the Nixon day’s all over again.
Selling the President like a used Car salesman
Somehow this is just wrong. An Unwavering Bush Ally shouldn’t be require to sell Bush issues like a Used Car salesperson. If the Bush can’t sell his Ideas on their own merits, Then they shouldn’t be sold at all.
If Bush wanted to sell broken down Ideas, He should be required to print a disclaimer on the Home Page.
Believing anything on these pages, could be hazardous to your Health, Welfare, Finances, Personal Freedoms, Family and friends.
And it should be a click through requiring you to be 18 years of age or older like a Porn site.
US used chemical weapons in Iraq
Very interesting, US used chemical weapons in Iraq
Who is the tyrant now?
Update: I may have jumped on this Idea too early. The worst part of this is that it was so easy to believe the worst here. I am not surprised with any disaster that the Bush administration may produce. And that is unfair to the generally good folks that work in the government.
Update 2: It’s True US used white phosphorus in Iraq