February 23rd, 2006 §
Illegal wiretapping. Selling operational control of six major ports to the UAE. Valerie Plame. Tom DeLay. Abramoff. Isn’t this enough to deal with?
Apparently not, as about five hours ago South Dakota’s state senate passed a bill banning abortion. The House will too (they already passed one last week with slightly different wording) and the Governor will shock me if he vetoes it, which may not matter. If you want an abortion you’d better go out and get one, like, tonight.
With the ports, I find it hard to believe that no american companies or workers are capable of handling that job. I know plenty of guys who would work out at the docks if that was what there was to do. With the rampant corruption, well, we did that to ourselves. With the abortion issue, I will say this: I’ve been talking about the slow, slight decline for a couple fo years now and tonight the dropoff began in earnest. Its going to get a hell of a lot worse before it gets better.
The punchline? Justice John Paul Stevens has been kicking the old peanut around about retiring.
June 14th, 2005 §
On February 17th, Sensenbrenner and a few of his pals introduced this legislation:
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. J. RES. 24
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 17, 2005
Mr. HOYER (for himself, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. SENSENBRENNER, Mr. SABO, and Mr. PALLONE) introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
JOINT RESOLUTION
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:
`Article --
`The twenty-second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is repealed.'.
Despite what I think about how the 2006 midterms will turn out, if the GOP gets anything CLOSE to a 2/3 majority in both houses, hello Glorious General George.
This is real – its made it through at least one committee. Its in the Library of Congress Congressional Record, and it hasn’t been killed yet.
I’m not usually one to run off to the Panic Barn and freak out about little things. Legislation like this gets proposed all the time – balanced budget amendments, to repeal the 22nd amendment, etc. Clinton got a party similar to this one started during his time in office.
I wouldn’t normally be worried about something like this, if not for the GOP making so many moves to consolidate power lately, chief among those being the nuclear option. I’m not saying the sky is falling, I’m just saying that this bears watching.
June 3rd, 2005 §
I was out at my mother’s place last weekend to celebrate my brother’s birthday, and my uncles were there too. They are an excellent set of guys (and I mean set – when all are represented, the number is nine) but they like to rag on me hardcore for my politics. When they found out I was working for the Democratic Party, it was like party time.
They told me about how great it was to listen to Rush Limbaugh and how smart he is. They were just kidding. Later on, they were not just kidding when they asked me about John Kerry’s tax return.
“Hey Josh,” said Uncle Scott, “how come Kerry makes a bunch of money but he only paid like 7 million dollars in taxes over the last few years, and his wife paid not much more even though she’s like a billionaire?”
“Well,” I said, “why do you think the rich people pay less taxes proportionately than regular people do?”
Uncle Joe says “Because those liberals find ways around it!”
I said “No, rich people have a way around it and just pay less taxes to begin with because of Bush’s tax cuts, because of years of pro-business, pro-rich Republican economic policy.”
Quiet for a minute, and then “Pssshhh! Come on, really! Tell us the real reason!”
Me: ::Sighs::
May 11th, 2005 §
Well! Tacked on to a war-spending bill no one in their right mind would be able to vote against, the Senate passed the unfunded, National ID mandate 100-0. I called it wrong. I said that it would have serious trouble as an amendment in the Senate.
If this doesn’t freak you out, the distance between you and the dork who says ‘This will be the best prom ever’ just got a little shorter.
March 23rd, 2005 §
So NOW the states are good enough for the Pro-LifeWarriors, now that the Federal courts have “failed”. The Federal courts, mind you, that were forced to intervene by Congress’ recent special private bill powergrab that undermined the judiciary, threw out due process, and busted up Federalism.
The Lifers are staging protests to try and force the Florida state legislators to replace Schiavo’s feeding tube. Staging protests which are so pointed, they are HAVING THEIR OWN KIDS ARRESTED. You already know this if you’re unfortunate enough to be watching the news.
Yes, they are sending their children to try and deliver food and water to Schiavo, knowing full well that this will get their children arrested.
This isn’t any better than the kids that the God Hates Fags crowd drags around with them. I’m all for protesting and civil disobedience and going to jail to prove a point. But your kids? Seriously? How irresponsible can you possibly be?