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The great Uniter that never was

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Where was this great uniter Bush over the last 6 years? Where was this great uniter, who’s favorite words were ‘My way, or the Highway’ Great words for a uniter that never was. And never will be.

When will we see the great uniter? Right after he vetoes his first documents from a Democratic Congress. Something, anything, that he doesn’t like, something, anything he can’t control. Then we will see the true colors of this ‘great uniter’, The only thing he knows, is how to divide, he who is really only a great divider?

Soon, very soon, we will see his true colors.

The Code of Hammurabi should still work.

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The code is often pointed to as the first example of the legal concept that some laws are so basic as to be beyond the ability of even a king to change. By writing the laws on stone they were immutable. This concept lives on in most modern legal systems and has given rise to the term written in stone.

One of my favorite laws from this codex goes like this;

If a builder builds a house, and constructs it well, the owner will pay two shekels for each surface of the house.
If, however, he does not succeed, and the house falls in, killing the owner, the builder will be killed.
If the son of the owner dies, the son of the builder shall be killed.

In my previous post the Business community has sought to roll back the commonsense of such laws. Laws incorporated in the U.S. Constitution, the Magna Carte and even the Bible.

Big business has sought for years to create the power and privilege of ‘The Corporate Body’ or the right of the Corporation to have, and exercise, the same rights as a person. Now they are seeking to make that person, that corporate person, greater than a living person. That when they build a building and it kills the owner that they are exempt from punishment. And that when Enron collapsed the Corporate Body is not responsible. Only the maker of the bricks, should be killed.

And the Code that was once written in stone (now on that ‘god dammed piece of paper’ of the U.S. Constitution) president Bush and the GOP, the ‘defenders’ of this document are continuing it’s destruction by agreeing with this mindset. They believe that corporations are godlike, and are above the law. In that case we should not condem the Government, we should condemn the brick-maker, Bush, for the crimes of a collapsing United States?

Sounds good to me!

Who rules Congress

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If you ever had any doubts who controls congress this should make it very clear. Businesses Seek Protection on Legal Front not that you didn’t know it yet. But the little guy the Joe voter on the street is going to get screwed again.

Frustrated with laws and regulations that have made companies and accounting firms more open to lawsuits from investors and the government, corporate America — with the encouragement of the Bush administration — is preparing to fight back.

reads like

Frustrated with Prevented from violating laws and regulations that have made companies and accounting firms more open accountable to lawsuits from investors and the government, corporate America — with the encouragement a payoff to of the Bush administration — is preparing to fight back grant themselves Imunitity from the law.

America, now a Tyranny

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Now that the U.S. is faced with the Death of Habeas Corpus: Freedom is now a distance memory. I am reminded of some favorite quotations


“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy”

and

“Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation”

Both from this man

James Madison, American 4th US President (1809-17), and one of the founding fathers of his country. 1751-1836

Republicans don’t care about your vote.

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Political triage is common as in the GOP Focuses on Best Bets except for the chosen victim, as in this case Mr. DeWine has been pick as a loser by an internal GOP poll. And thereby stands the problem with the GOP, they don’t believe that the vote of the public is important. They have already decided that DeWine has lost already and that you, the public no longer get to choose who wins or loses in any political contest. It’s the Republican arrogance raising it’s head, the elite GOP do not wish the public to express their right to vote for their elected officials. They want to choose for themselves who wields power. And it’s not to be joe citizen, but the moneyed elite in the GOP.

Polls and politicans, Truth is who you trust.

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I find this amazing, when political polls indicate a rise in popularity like when Fianna Fáil soars in poll as Opposition suffers decline. Everyone in the captive press spew hours of dialog about how such results could have happened. But when polls are negative, they spend that same effort trying to demonstrate that the polls were flawed, or biased.

The press can not get it into their heads that the positive poll, while reflecting an unexpected result could be flawed, or even false in it’s results.

Political Deadlines don’t kill anyone

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The problem with deadlines, with regards to political issues, is there is no penalty for flying past them with no results. In fact, in most cases it behooves both parties to do just that, zooming past deadlines is part of the process.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if there were penalties? Not that I advocate violence, I wish ill on no one. But what results would happen if when a politician passed the deadline, they would just drop dead.

It sure would be a motivator to agreement! Isn’t that what is being proposed in Northern Ireland? Agree, or go back to killing each other?

Gay Pedophile Republicans are anti-Gambing

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As for the “must have legislation” in the Republican congress GOP Gay Pedophile Tom Foley is less important than an Internet gambling ban bill in the eyes of the Republican Leadership.

Which do you rate higher, Child molesters, or poker players?

How do you like the Moral GOP pushing their morality on the american people?

UPDATE: Looks like the Republican morals are intack, they really only needed to be bribed with enought money or; How horse racing avoided new US internet betting law

UPDATE: If you need more reading look here THE LAW IS DOOMED – ONLY QUESTION IS HOW LONG IT TAKES!

Honest exceptions are rare political events

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The Irish are exceptionally generous people, and as such are particularly forgiving of their politicians. They often boast about who has been talking more brown envelopes than another, down at the Pub. I can only think that the general public here expect that taking bribes and ‘wink and a handshake’ deals are the norm for all politicians, and that to get anything done, it’s who you know, not how honestly you deal with people.

The worst thing is, these things are almost the first thing I ever hear about Irish politicians, and that hasn’t changed in the 4+ years I’ve been here. When the general population believe that they live in a third world banana republic, then truly they don’t show much faith in their current government to make things better. And their lack of motivation to change this government reminds me of a passage in the Declaration of Independence of the United States.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

This may be the situation here, that they believe they can do no better, but this sure sets the bar very low as regards to the implied social contract of the people with their government. The Irish should expect better from their elected officials, they should expect to be treated as generously by their government, as they treat their own neighbors and the odd tourist that cross their paths.

Aer Lingus expectations falling

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If you haven’t noticed, the government has been busy lowering expectations on the value of their, and the Irish publics 80% share in the privatization’s efforts of Aer Lingus. They have been so busy that “Mr Ahern has taken a defamation action against Mr O’Brien arising from his claim that he had given the Fianna Fáil leader £50,000 on behalf of a property developer” as a red herring.

Or maybe not, in any case the Irish Elections are starting to get interesting.

Why don’t the Americans riot against Bush

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If the Hungarians can riot about a government that lies to win an election as here:

The violence erupted at the state TV building following a largely peaceful rally calling on Mr Gyurcsany to quit.

In a leaked tape, Mr Gyurcsany admitted his government had lied to the public.

His comments, which were recorded just after a general election in April, have prompted calls for his resignation from opposition parties.


Why won’t the American’s riot against Bush, a master at lying to the americans? Mr. Gyurcsany only lied about the economy, Bush has been caught flatfooted in more lies than you can count. Why is he still in power, because the truth in the U.S. died a long time ago, that’s why. And the press have failed in their responsibility to report the facts to the american people.

technorati.com is censoring blogs

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I’m not sure but I feel discriminated against, technorati.com claims I have not posted in 97 days. Not true, but even when I force ping it at it’s own website, it does not update me. The real question is this, is technorati.com censoring political blog sites? Though I’m not much of a threat, but did someone blacklist me? Feedster Interesting!

Ring Forts and Nuclear Weapons

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The wife and I have been exploring Ring Forts in Cork, and I’m of the conclusion that we as a people must spend a majority of our time on this planet being afraid. When I look at the effort that primitive (100BC – 500AD) man and women have spent building ring defenses and fortifications against their neighbors or some other invader. It’s staggering how powerful fear is. Mind you I have often wondered how violent the past times these forts were built in, what terror forced them to expend so much time and energy on their construction.

And I wonder how much was real and how much was the effort by some leadership to condense power and control. What was the frequency of Viking attacks, or land grabbing by neighbors, or worse yet livestock rustling (and you thought this was a cowboy story)

How do you build a defense that will make people feel safe? What does it take to make safety tangible. It was quite apparent that these ring forts were evidence. The efforts of the entire community were applied to their construction, and maintenance.

What makes a community feel safe in the Nuclear age? What tangible artifact can you construct that will make you feel safe? Not much is seems, much of the control for the defense is outside of the control of the community that fears it most. In hands that seem unable to place restraints on their threat and their use AS a threat. In trust that people have for their leadership that such weapons will neither strike them, or cause others to strike at them with such weapons. So while ancient man built forts, forts were made obsolete by better weapons, but made unnecessary as trade made social interactions between people more profitable than war.

But now we have oil, and while we have been trading in oil for ages, we have come to an impasse of a diminishing resource. Much like the cattle thief’s we try and steal what is not ours. We wage war on issues that on the surface make sense, but only mask what we have failed to learn from our past. That our ring forts no longer act as a deterrent to theft. That there is no defense, except social interactions, of cooperation, of diplomacy, of fair trade. Because as sure as one side strikes a blow, there will be a counter-strike. And all reason goes out the window, pandora’s box is open and the only hope is reason.

(originally posted May 2, 2006)

UPDATE: it seems like there is no difference between the past and the present, ring forts still have their purposes Iraqis Plan to Ring Baghdad With Trenches