A short guide to the British constitution and electoral system by Febble
March 31, 2005: Draft must be ready within 75 days! by Sherlock Google
Blair knew Bush FIXED pre-war intelligence by LondonYank
Nightmares of Fallujah by the holy handgrenade
Announcing My First Book: Growing Up Red by ColdFusion04
catnip is Bad For Daily Kos by catnip
U.S Military Near Breaking Point ... Draft Update? by gwhayduke
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McCain: He's Constipated and Ready to GO
by Al Rodgers on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:03:35 AM PDT
NetrootNews coming soon!
by ksh01 on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:10:03 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
Chomsky Fever! John McCain sucks.
by miasmo on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:28:03 AM PDT
by mpc 12 on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 10:32:44 AM PDT
Is this not proof enough that democracy is dead?????
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie"
by Little Hamster on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 04:47:33 PM PDT
by greatbasin2 on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:26:58 AM PDT
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." --Dante
by arkdem on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:56:33 AM PDT
Whatever it is, I'm against it! - Marx (Groucho)
John McCain '08 - Stay The Corpse!
by kitebro on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:46:00 AM PDT
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. -- Hamlet Act 1, Scene 5
by LawStudent on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 02:49:48 PM PDT
Scroll down to the post titled "Tutor please?" by RichRandal (at 9:10:44 EST) where he asks how to post a gif (picture). Carnacki and SensibleShoes help him out--you can see the cartoon successfully posted. But keep reading the rest of the replies---cscs and stevej chip in with some more useful information.
If your display preference is set on "Nested" all the answers will come up together. You only have to scroll about one-quarter of the way down the screen--it's not too far down the open thread. I hope this helps, otherwise ask again on an open thread tomorrow--I'm sure you'll get an answer right away.
by hazey on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 10:37:51 PM PDT
The questionnaire tries to determine what income levels are most represented on DKos. There's also a pretty good discussion that follows.
This is where we are most different that the Republicans. We like the concept of fairness, Republicans steal everything they can get.
I was watching a program today on Fox News called "Cashin In." You have to see it at least once to understand just how arrogant the Republicans are. Wayne Rodgers, former Trapper John on the TV version of "Mash" is always on that show and other pretty interesting people who will help you understand what you are fighting for. Today they talked about getting SS Security out of the hands of the government into private accounts. First, I believe they all own or work for brokerage institutions, so they'd only benefit from the trillions of dollars they'd be able to get their hands on if everything went private and out of the Treasury. However, I don't understand how they can talk about total privatization without considering all the people who would have nothing in their private accounts.
I, advocate for privatization because I think the middle class is getting killed and the nation's wealthy are getting off with paying ZERO for all the extremely low paid employees that they and they alone create.
If there were private accounts, inside the Treasury, the wealthy would have to pay large tax increases to fund all those who are paid minimum wage, immigrants here for more than 10 years but less than 40, and all those getting paid off the books.
From the income survey in the link above, most people on DKos should have built up in their SS and Medicare accounts between $600,000 and $1.6 million dollars, after an amount was taken out to pay for special insurance to cover for Disability and Term insurance in case someone dies young. 75% of you would have that kind of account built up after 40 years of working. If you died, your family would get the remainder. Not bad, huh?
So, what about all those with tiny accounts because of low min wage, being here a short time or getting paid off the books.
When the off the books employees find out their retirement would be $200 a month and no Medicare, because they paid-in no withholding, they'd demand all their salaries to be on the books. Isn't that fair?
For those who get minimum wage, the wealthy Americans in this country who make sure the minimum wage remains in the dark ages, their will be large tax increases. Isn't that fair?
For those here for only 10 years or a little more but less than 40, again, tax increases would have to come from those who want increased immigration to keep wages down. It's business that wants low paid workers to keep all wages down so shouldn't business and people who own stock in these businesses pay for the retirement of the people they underpay?
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." Sinclair Lewis
by cpa1 on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:10:23 AM PDT
by estraven on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 05:17:13 PM PDT
by mombadanes on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:22:59 AM PDT
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King Jr.
by wishingwell on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:40:12 AM PDT
by bushisaliar on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:00:19 AM PDT
What a fool I was then. To think that men's lives should be entruted to such fools as myslef"----Julius Caesar in GB Shaw
by gilgamesh on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:33:29 AM PDT
by gilgamesh on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 10:01:34 AM PDT
by bushisaliar on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:01:41 AM PDT
And personally I am outraged every news story takes the easy way of newsgathering and give the repugs talking points instead of telling the facts. Plus they play the same repug soundbites, even when different repugs say the same thing. Can't they do actual investigation? Anyone hear that Bulimia caused the heart attack that caused the brain damage?? But I can't count how many times I have heard that "the estranged husband" may have choked and/or caused the brain injury to begin with. I haven't heard about how he took her to California to get experimental treatment, but numerous times that he has had "lack of treatment." Or I haven't heard of the sanctity of Marriage but that "we need to help these parents." I am so angry about this infringment, and the PROPAGANDA. They aren't just lying about the merrits of the case, they are rewriting it for the court of public opinion to interfer with this private matter. Sorry to rant, but just my feelings. I pray for peace for Terri, Michael Schivo, and her parents for when this whole circus does finally end.
by msayger on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:46:33 AM PDT
by wishingwell on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 10:25:37 AM PDT
by wishingwell on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 10:27:39 AM PDT
He gets a year in jail and 4 months house arrest. I wonder what he'll do when he gets out.
Uff da.
by a517dogg on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:24:05 AM PDT
Fear will keep the local systems in line. -Grand Moff Tarkin -SLB-
by boran2 on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:32:55 AM PDT
by boran2 on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:35:46 AM PDT
by mombadanes on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:48:52 AM PDT
(I already posted this but my comment got eaten. Apologies if it shows up twice.)
by a517dogg on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:14:58 AM PDT
by mombadanes on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:21:18 AM PDT
Am i correct PA lawyers or has this changed in the past 10 years as none of my clients now are in jail and none have been arrested?
by wishingwell on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:45:38 AM PDT
With so much BS swirling around this story, particularly from the Texas branch of the Government Police, I thought this column from the Orlando Sentinal was noteworthy.
Among the many illuminating facts in the column is this chilling tidbit:
" From the report: "Testimony provided by members of the Schindler family included very personal statements about their desire and intention to ensure that Theresa remain alive . . . at any and all costs. Nearly gruesome examples were given, eliciting agreement by family members that in the event Theresa should contract diabetes and subsequent gangrene in each of her limbs, they would agree to amputate each limb and would then, were she to be diagnosed with heart disease, perform open-heart surgery. Within the testimony, as part of the hypothetical presented, Schindler family members stated that even if Theresa had told them of her intention to have artificial nutrition withdrawn, they would not do it."
Wolfson told me that when Michael heard this, he said: "That's it. I'm never going to let that happen to her."
I would have posted this on the earlier thread, but it has grown to over 500 comments. After reading this column I have a new respect for Terri's husband.
It's the Supreme Court, Stupid!
by Radiowalla on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:29:53 AM PDT
Is that disgusting or what? Last time I checked, blatant exploitation of the misery of others wasn't a Christian value.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts aboslutely ProgressiveNation
by mschmidt73 on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:04:03 AM PDT
by wishingwell on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:50:50 AM PDT
"Same shit, Different Nixon." - Driftglass
by roxtar on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:54:46 AM PDT
But I'm so mad today.
Why does the GOP favor the brain dead, the fetus, the dead soldier, and not the dying, the sick, the newborn, and the veteran? Is it that the first group can't talk back? They loved the Iraqis until the Iraqis talked back. They like to refer to God, but heavens help us if God actually spoke as in the time of Prophecy. They'd impugn God Himself. They already do. He's made his will pretty clear. Everything has a season, and deaths must be allowed to occur in their time. The death of a fetus is recompensed at the same rate as the death of a cow. Bury the dead soldier as soon as you can. No man should be made to fight when he has a newborn child. The poor should be allowed to collect up to 10% of your harvest. Penitence requires changing one's actions, and paying restitution. Of course, that's just my book. But the others read pretty similarly. Jesus had nothing to say about fetuses. He had plenty to say about children. Jesus had nothing to say about war. He had plenty to say about peacemaking, chiefly that it would upset people. And Islam also has similar rules about war. Wicca has similar rules about lying. Hinduism has similar rules about balance among all living things. Buddhism teaches well about the folly of claiming to know the mind of the Divine. Secular humanism is based on the principle that even in a universe without God above humans, each person is not his or her own deity. Life happens. You cannot deny it. You cannot change the facts of it. You cannot extinguish it without consequence. You cannot preserve it without cost. Life is about conflict, but it need not be about war. Life is about anger, but it need not be without charity. We work together, or we die. It's that simple. We seek the truth, and we tell it to others without abandon. We do not lie to gain power. We do not gain power for its own end. Education is a means of better serving the greater good ... it is not to be used as a club. These men have MDs, their party has power, and they use their titles as whips. They have no interest in using their training, their eyes, their minds. They believe they know the will of the Divine. I only know how to try harder.
by Ptolemy on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:32:54 AM PDT
by debraz on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:38:02 AM PDT
Either God or millions of years designed the human form. Or both. It has wondrous compensation mechanisms, some of which underlie the causes of disease. We've only been tinkering with medicine for 3000 years, and we're neither omniscient nor omnipotent. So, when we devise a cure ... it will knock something else out of whack. It brings the body out of balance in some other way. It HAS to do so. It is a required consequence of human physical homeostasis. We aim to keep those consequences minimized and in the smallest subset of the population.
The question is not whether breast implants are unhealthy. It is how, and to what degree. And liability has to do with whether the company knew, when they knew, and what they did. Tom Coburn is an ass. The modern GOP is built on several assumptions, the most seductive of which is that sacrifice need not be something other than an abstract concept. In reality, of course, this is continuous hogwash. Medicine is built on the concept that every decision requires a sacrifice on the part of the patient. Financial, autonomy-related, or side effects. Coburn and Frist are snake-oil salesmen.
by Ptolemy on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:49:24 AM PDT
Following his logic, God failed when He chose not to augment breast tissue with silicone.
by debraz on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:56:40 AM PDT
by Ptolemy on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:00:50 AM PDT
(PC: -5.75, -6.56) Good men through the ages, tryin' to find the sun, still I wonder, still I wonder, who'll stop the rain? -J. Fogerty
by RichRandal on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:42:03 AM PDT
Inform patients of the possible risks, let them determine whether or not they want a boob job. It can be helpful, for mental health, to stimulate a marriage, whatever--it can also cause harm either psychologically or physically. Teach people these things, and then let a woman choose for herself.
Is that so hard?
What am I doing on DailyKos? I'm Running for the Right...
by RFTR on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:28:38 AM PDT
McCain: Less jobs, more war.
by Unstable Isotope on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 10:02:38 AM PDT
We'll see what happens if I move to a different district when I graduate soon.
And as far as abortion goes, that's got different implications to it because of my position that a fetus is a human life. In that case it's not a private, personal decision, because the fetus, in my mind, is not merely an extension of the pregnant woman's body—and the state is entitled to intervene between individuals.
by RFTR on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 10:13:30 AM PDT
Bye Bye Blackwell!
by BlueGoo on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 05:03:42 PM PDT
by UbuRoi on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:38:48 AM PDT
1. If there is an insentient being with human DNA, take every measure available to keep them alive. Amendment a) Especially if there are political points to be gained. Amendment b) But ignore my ruling in 1999 when I signed a law which allowed hospitals to withdraw life support from patients, over the objections of the family, if they consider the treatment to be nonbeneficial.
2. If there is a sentient being with human DNA, let them fend for themselves, especially if they are poor. Amendment a) If they are poor, non-white and non-Kristian, always consider invading their country and shortening their sentient status.
by roonie on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:40:12 AM PDT
The Pubs and the corporations want to take life sovereignty away from everyone else.
Your ultimate personal liberty, the right to either life or die, belongs in corporate hands, as far as the Bushies are concerned...and the more Republican those hands, the better.
Very scary stuff.
What kind of traitor puts the Constitution first and the candidate second? :)
by cskendrick on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:44:15 AM PDT
by debraz on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:51:07 AM PDT
Life Sovereignty
by cskendrick on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:06:09 AM PDT
In the case of patients whose funds (or insurance) have run out, or who never had any, artificial prolongation of life functions is not appropriate.
blog updated 6-1 one man's conspiracy is another man's business plan
by DuctapeFatwa on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:54:33 AM PDT
Hospitals. . who'll decide our fate by how much Medicaid or Insurance we have left.
Too many people aren't seeing the big picture here: This isn't about one woman anymore, this is about government- corporate sovereignty over individual lives. It's about their right to intervene in our most personal decisions whenever they deem appropriate, regardless of the law.
How can this not, in the end, boil down to money? The middle class and the poor are losing yet another battle and they don't even know it, yet.
by bella on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:31:32 AM PDT
by roxtar on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:40:48 AM PDT
by mombadanes on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:50:43 AM PDT
by mombadanes on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:50:59 AM PDT
Your only choice at that point is to move.
This stinks to high heaven, but we aren't getting any other choices.
Of course, you COULD RUN YOURSELF for Congress, eh?
by Ptolemy on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:51:21 AM PDT
by debraz on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:51:56 AM PDT
WHAT: "Arlington Northwest": The Cost of Security - an interfaith memorial service, procession and installation of a temporary "Arlington" memorial for those who have died in Iraq held on the second anniversary of the War in Iraq,
WHEN: Sunday, March 20, beginning at 2 p.m.
WHERE: First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1137 SW Broadway, Portland.
WHY: The memorial service will give those in attendance the opportunity to honor and grieve the lives that have been lost in the war in Iraq. Following the memorial, a solemn procession will proceed north on Broadway to the area of the Park blocks north on Market Street. Those in the procession will carry symbolic grave markers with the name of each service person whose life has been lost. A temporary memorial will be set up, accompanied by a tolling bell and the reading of names. The Rev. Dr. LeRoy Haynes, Jr., pastor of Allen Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and Congressman Earl Blumenauer have been invited to speak.
WHO: Sponsored by Veterans for Peace Chapter 72, NW Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Oregon Peace Works. Participating faith communities including Christ the Healer UCC, First Congregational UCC in Portland, St. Luke Lutheran Church, Metanoia Peace Community UMC, First Unitarian Church, West Hills Unitarian Fellowship--Social Action Community, Portland Catholic Worker, Milwaukie Presbyterian Church, Portland Churches of Scientology, Bridgeport UCC, Tikkun Olam of P'nai Or, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, First Congregational UCC in Vancouver, Forest Grove UCC and Damascus-Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church.
The reason people don't learn from the past, is because the past was a repetitious lie to begin with. Mike Hastie U.S. Army Medic Vietnam 1970-71
by BOHICA on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:45:09 AM PDT
Mother Nature bats last.
by pigpaste on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:24:21 AM PDT
http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/3/19/1548/95518
red state taxes big box stores (walmart, etc) to offset cost of their low-wage, no-benefits hiring policies
by bluesteel on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:45:40 AM PDT
I attempted to embed some images in a new diary to share this morning, but that did not go over so well.
So I did the next best thing -- I opened up a shop at cafepress.com
Really, I'm just trying to show the toons, but webshots.com, my other venue, wasn't very cooperative. :(
by cskendrick on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:46:36 AM PDT
by goplies on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:51:48 AM PDT
According to the thesis the US is ramping up for a military buildup that will intimidate any other country (or Europe) from trying to compete.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8303.htm
Policies not Politics --- Daily Landscape
by robertdfeinman on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:52:08 AM PDT
by Ptolemy on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:54:56 AM PDT
Wingnuts would go ballistic if they knew that dumbya is selling out the US. What dumbfounds me is how he continues to threaten these countries and the UN when it looks more and more like we are going to need all the goodwill we can get.
by arkdem on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:05:31 AM PDT
Let us take a closer look at that last stunt shall we? Now you may object to that term. Stunt. How cynical. It isn't really a stunt is it? I mean, perhaps it is a deeply held belief that an unborn child is a human being. A sacred gift from God. And therefore, anyone who would knowingly endanger that sacred gift of god would be guilty of an offense against not just man but God Himself? Well, yes you could believe that. But these people don't. How do I know that? because if they truly did believe that, they would be just as eager to prevent power plant operators from damaging unborn children by emitting mercury from the smokestacks of their power plants. Do you see these people demanding that any power plant operator who knowingly emits mercury from their power plant be put in jail? Sorry, I didn't catch that on the news. No, you don't see that because these people aren't serious about protecting unborn children, they are only serious about gaining perceived political advantage.
by SW on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:53:46 AM PDT
They believe in sucking the public dry like ticks. Our money. Our children. Our energy. It's all there for the looting.
We'll be prosecuted for the slightest infraction as citizens, unless shielded by a corporation. They want the hospitals and universities to further corporatize. They want freedom to be abstract, and sacrifice to mean whatever they need.
by Ptolemy on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 06:59:02 AM PDT
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. -Emerson
by fitzov rules on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:06:48 AM PDT
As for Mrs. Schiavo's life support, I'm all for it but I wonder whether Mrs. Schiavo's case will create a legal precedent for many others to follow. In that case, the States will face another financial burden. If the Federal government imposes life support, it should be paid for by federal dollars. Any federal mandate that does not provide necessary funds, is dishonest.
When the fox preaches The Passion, farmer watch your geese.
by reform dem on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:52:35 AM PDT
by ejpoeta on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:48:06 AM PDT
by reform dem on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:48:02 AM PDT
Anyway, my point here is that if we support Dems like Reid and the potential Dem senatorial candidate from PA, the extremely pro-life Robert Casey, we should expect more of this pandering, braindead behavior in the future. If you can live with these issues/laws as a minor distraction from a progressive agenda, well fine stick with the strategy. However, if you see this religious driven intrusion into politics and laws and rights as the most dangerous element/challenge to the future of freedom in America, then elevate pro-choice, which is really pro-choice on freedom of body control and pro-choice on religious beliefs, to the highest litmus test level for those you support.
I truly am getting sick of life in this country under the current developing theocracy!
by truthbetold on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:58:34 AM PDT
by wishingwell on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:58:40 AM PDT
I reserve the right to revise and extend my remarks in Sozadee CA.
by The Messenger on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:08:54 AM PDT
Is there any evidence that Google tampers with their search mechanism?
by reform dem on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:56:33 AM PDT
by The Messenger on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:14:29 AM PDT
And is your research published anywhere?
by RFTR on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:32:44 AM PDT
I guess according the Government, when my father was dying of cancer, we should have continued the TPN feeding despite doctors warnings that he was bloating and his death would be more painful if feedings were continued? In the end, he died peacefully with no pain in those last weeks and he was only getting fluids he could drink in sips when requested. The hospice told us if we had continued the feedings, his death would not have been so painless and peaceful! As they have seen the opposite and it is not pretty.
Do you have any misgivings that people are being endangered in neighborhoods with a poor environment due to the loosening of environmental standards? As many are contracting cancer and children are born with birth defects due to environmental factors. In fact, both of my parents had cancer and never smoke, did not drink and were health nuts but it was attributed to unclean water and air standards where they lived and worked.
by wishingwell on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:05:57 AM PDT
by wishingwell on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:06:52 AM PDT
That being said, I'll do my best to answer.
I have addressed the Schiavo issue several times on this site over the past 24 hours+. I have made it abundantly clear, I think, that I do not agree with Congressional intercession on this issue, despite the fact that I wish the courts had decided differently.
My understanding of the Reagan situation, and this seems to be the case for your father as well, is that the dying had already made it very clear that their wish was to refuse treatment at a certain point—I have no problem with that. That is a way to allow death to take its natural course, chosen by the person in question.
The question that has been at the root of the Schiavo case from the beginning, as far as I'm concerned, is whether or not Terri really wanted to refuse treatment in a situation like this. That she did has not been satisfied for me—and so I must come down with the benefit of the doubt in favor of life. Still, the courts decided otherwise, and with legal options exhausted the right course is not to change the law—this case is passed, and it's time to change the debate to what should be done in future, similar cases. We should mourn the passing of this woman under such a cloud, but do everything we can to sort out what will happen when these issues are raised again in the future.
I do regret that so many are caused to suffer by their living situations, whether it be cancer caused by the environment, or the danger and downfall of impoverished neighborhoods. As to the specifics you mention, that's as much as I can say—I'm just not well-educated enough on the issue to say any more than that.
by RFTR on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:32:45 AM PDT
by Unstable Isotope on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 10:05:12 AM PDT
I do not believe the courts made the right decision—a right to which I am entitled by the universal laws of free will, and the American protection of free thought and free speech. Courts also decided again and again that segregation was ok--should we just have accepted that and been done with it, never discussing it again? Of course not. A court decision, while final in legal terms, should NEVER silence dissent.
So why do I think it's unclear whether or not she wanted to die? Because the courts' decisions are shaped on current law, which states that her husband's word (because he is the legal guardian in these circumstances) is all that matters. I don't trust the husband, but that's not a factor according to current law.
Does that mean we have a right to rush to bad law because this is a hard case? No, of course not.
Does that mean I can be saddened by and disappointed with the outcome? Absolutely.
by RFTR on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 10:19:22 AM PDT
by wishingwell on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 10:19:07 AM PDT
The heart of the Schiavo dispute, however, rests on a disagreement about what Terri wanted for herself under these circumstances. And in a case like that, my gut tells me that we should choose in favor of sustaining life.
Again, since it seems absolutely necessary whenever posting on this topic: I still do not support Congressional intervention, and I think that we have to abide by the decisions of the courts.
by RFTR on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 10:22:50 AM PDT
by wishingwell on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 03:17:02 PM PDT
In this case, yes, the courts are the only option—unless of course you like johnny-come-latelys who are going to write terrible law. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't have a serious national debate about the ins and outs of this issue, and maybe come up with some new laws.
Of course, I also think those laws should be left up to the states, not the feds.
by RFTR on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 03:49:14 PM PDT
Superstition sets the whole World in flames; philosophy quenches them: Voltaire
by jennywren on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:39:43 AM PDT
Some are: Title Description URL Links to the page keywords/phrases text on page etc.
I would guess that the Right wing sites may be better at this.
John McCain is anti-choice
by stevej on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:01:13 AM PDT
by scottp on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:55:39 AM PDT
by Rob NC on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:25:08 AM PDT
Anybody got a good link?
2) Same with acronyms. I used to have a great link but lost it when my computer crashed (first time ever!) and my hard drive went bye bye.
3)yesterday some genius on some thread (when will I learn to write these things down at the mo', ran a google code which went-- word::word-- what is that???
I've been saving all these questions up until I had a handful, so's not to be a pest.
thanking you all in advance
by Tulip on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:37:04 AM PDT
All later meanings have obscure origins.
by robertdfeinman on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:53:32 AM PDT
I'll be honest. When I was first putting this site together, I had a laundry list of things to call it, because I expected all the simple names to be gone. The leader, I'm sorry to say, was "stripping-the-web," off of Bloom County's term for cartoonist: stripper. I knew I'd get traffic I didn't want, but I assumed it would be available. When I finally sat down to register the site, on a whim I plugged 'websnark' in first, thinking that it would perfectly describe what I did -- a computer disaster on the web, often with sarcasm -- but that there was no chance in Hell it would be available. Which shows what I know, and here we are.
I don't review here. I don't do number ratings or critiques or recommendations. I pretty much just blather on about whatever's caught my attention, express my opinions, and move on. So when I use 'snarking,' I mean 'posting about stuff that interests me.' An individual snark is therefore an individual post on something that interests me.
Why not just use "post" then? Because "snark" gives people some preconception of what I'm doing -- and if they read the site, they know that they're not going to agree with everything. But that it's possible it'll entertain them.
Besides, I like the word. Snark-snarkity-snark snark snark."
Taken from the blogger running this site: http://www.websnark.com/archives/2004/09/faq_lexicon_1.html
Contribute your ideas to ePLURIBUS MEDIA
by Welshman on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:57:38 AM PDT
sfgate.com :
Ok, maybe the "over 100,000" Iraqi civilian deaths is overblown (I really don't know), but this figure must be understated. Sheesh. And this is a "liberal" newspaper.
by ksh01 on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:40:15 AM PDT
I grow more cynical every day, but it's still hard to keep up. -- Lily Tomlin
The Cost of Energy
by loudGizmo on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:52:30 AM PDT
by wishingwell on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:10:32 AM PDT
by stevej on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:04:46 AM PDT
by ksh01 on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 09:17:17 AM PDT
DailyKos for 50 States -- Let's Build It!
by DavidW in SF on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 10:34:19 AM PDT
If we add the REAL cost of the war in Iraq to the REAL cost of the Bush Medicare "improvements," we have a bill for our children and grandchildren they'll be hard pressed to pay.
by greatbasin2 on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 07:46:03 AM PDT
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead
by jenhoward on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:00:51 AM PDT
Our Man in Redmond is now Omir the Storyteller
by Our Man In Redmond on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:06:46 AM PDT
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THERE IT IS: IF YOU NEEDED A CLEAR ILLUSTRATION OF THE ACTUAL PROBLEM IN OUR NATION, THE SCHIAVO SITUATION SAYS IT ALL PERFECTLY
If You Don't Understand How TV-Addiction Is The Single Most Powerful Force In Our Nation, Just Take At Look At What Is Occurring In This Case
by Thomas J. Bico
MARCH 20, 2005 - What was the news on Friday? What was the news on Saturday?
Rest of the article here: http://www.moderateindependent.com/v3i6distract.htm
by MT Democrat for Kerry on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:15:08 AM PDT
by hopscotch1997 on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 08:33:31 AM PDT
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If you watched TV or looked at the internet, you saw endless nonsensical ranting about a story that affects none of us: the Terri Schiavo nonsense. Many of you allowed yourselves to take time to discuss this or listen to the coverage, allowed yourselves to get angry about this or that aspect of it, the various arguments for or against.
On Friday, the budget for the year was passed. Do you know what was in it? Do you know about, in the middle of war and record deficits, the additional $134 million in additional tax cuts that are in the bill right alongside massive cuts for education, elimination of community hunger programs, a cutting nearly in half of funding for police - by $1 billion - and cuts for firefighter funding in the middle of a War on Terror?
Many people spent a lot of time watching TV "news" or reading internet "news" or even the newspapers this week and weekend. How many of you who did that can name five line items in the budget that was passed?
This is what was meant when The Moderate Independent described in earlier articles that the news is not liberal nor conservative: it is simply Vaseline. It does not intend to inform you with any slant or none - it is there to distract you, to get you to accept them slipping things in that would be too painful if you weren't coated for protection.
This weekend: the budget was passed (with additional tax cuts included,) oil hit another record high and the first station had $3 a gallon gas, and it is the second anniversary of the Iraq War (with no end in sight.)
The Bush administration and the Congress that just passed this awful budget and yet more tax cuts doesn't want you to notice that, and they certainly don't want a big deal made about it being the second anniversary of the Iraq War, nor do they want proper attention paid to the oil crisis.
And so, as always, the entire media - not just Fox, every single station - falls in line and does not cover the stories that actually affect our lives but instead gives endless top story coverage to something that affects none of us.
If anyone wonders if the Bush administration would really calculate so coldly to try and slip things by people that they wouldn't accept if they were given proper coverage, there is indisputable, clear evidence that they choose willingly to do exactly that: they won't allow photos of the coffins of our dead soldiers returning home, and they won't allow body counts of those we kill.
They know if we see the corpses returning or hear how many innocent people we are killing, we would realize what is happening is bad. So they don't change the actions, they simply provide cover, make sure the story doesn't get aired, eliminate the body count number and the coffins, allowing them to continue getting Americans killed and killing Iraqis without Americans getting too worked up about it.
This is what happens in the media constantly. It is constant. Every week there is some cover story: Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, Robert Blake, Schiavo. And this has been for years. It doesn't matter what it is, whether it's Jon Benet or OJ Simpson or the Menedez brothers. Remember when Paine Stewart's plane crashed? Where I worked in Chicago, everyone would talk around the lunch table knowing all the details, what sort of plane, what the equipment of the plane was supposed to be able to handle, etc., etc.
Paine Stewart - most people didn't even know who he was or ever speak of him prior to the media making him the weekly cover story.
But they were loyal news watchers thinking they were being informed and having intelligent discussions about the important topics of the day. Yet when, a short while later, the WTO riots occurred in Seattle, they were at a complete loss. "What is the WTO they are rioting about?"
Every week there is a cover story that means nothing to our lives that distracts the entire nation from the coffins and corpses, so to speak; in this week's case, the budget, oil prices, and war anniversary.
The issue of Schiavo is nonsensical, of course. As WRKO-Boston radio host Jay Diamond put it, these people are claiming to be so upset about one life, but 100,000 innocent people have been killed by us in Iraq and they don't protest that, they support it. People who weren't brain dead, were fully healthy, who did nothing to us.
In addition, thousands of Americans who could live and be healthy are dying because these people supported rolling back pollution standards. Children are being born retarded because they support rolling back emissions standards for mercury.
This is not about arguments over life and killing, this is about distracting the nation.
Witness the lengths the President and Republicans will go to create this distraction: in order to make this happen, they summarily declared our nation a theocratic dictatorship. Regardless of the law, they are acting as if we are in living in a monarchy: the King sees something he doesn't like, he has an edict drawn up and signs it. The laws that exist don't matter. The King declares something unchristian, declares a person's actions unchristian, and he has the power above all existent laws to issue an edict to intervene. In this case, a man is making a decision for his wife, he has done it through the proper legal channels, the proper courts have decided; and now the President is stepping in like a dictator and, not liking the the law, acting to have the law effectively discarded and ignored, his will be the de facto law of the land.
This is not how America works, this is not how democracy works.
And remember, this clearly has nothing to do with actually pushing a godly agenda to save lives, because this President is knowingly killing tens of thousands of innocents entirely without conscience. This is just about distraction. Don't notice the destruction of your nation, the President is saying, let me abuse God's name to distract you so I can continue to bankrupt the nation, destroy its infrastructure with more tax cuts and horrible program cuts, and don't notice that for two years now we have been slaughtering 10's of 10's of thousands of people entirely without justification.
To abuse God's name and good word like that is a sin beyond others. The people may be distracted, but God certainly isn't. He notices every child given asthma, every wife and mother given lung cancer, every Iraqi mother and son and father slaughtered. He knows we have killed over a hundred in our custody, killed using torture. He is not tricked to thinking there is godly concern by this one publicity stunt meant to distract.
And he knows what his Commandments say. And, in the end, he holds all people accountable for their actions.
What is occurring here is the central problem in our nation. It has been going on since long before Bush took office, and it serves both parties, whoever is in charge. People have wondered how people accept the record debts, bankruptcies, oil prices, etc., etc. It's the Vaseline.
Fox News is Vaseline. Rush Limbaugh is Vaseline. Indeed, what we call the non-Moderate Independent media and others call the mainstream media should - and will from now on by us - be referred to as the Vaseline media. They all serve to get people to accept the most violating, painful things without a whimper. They provide a special brand of advanced Vaseline, one with a massively powerful anesthetic; the powerfully narcotic pain-killing lube known as TV.
As we have said, TV is a highly addictive drug. Among the things it causes is detachment from reality bordering on insanity, along with obesity, lethargy, and anti-social behavior.
People will accept the distractions like the Schiavo nonsense because they just don't want to be disturbed from their using; they have plans to sit on their asses and watch March Madness, and they don't want the raping of the nation's finances or the killing of 100,000 innocent people by us to ruin that plan.
So the media feeds them the Schiavo story. It is, indeed, what TV-addicted Americans on both sides of the political aisle want and by now expect. Both sides can get angry, make an argument that let's them feel they are participating in some moral cause actively. One side feels they are applying energy toward the will of God, the other that they are defending freedom. Both are really sitting on their asses watching a lot of TV and being distracted from the reality that is destroying them both - and their nation - rapidly.
I have personally had a situation in my life where we had to make the "do not resuscitate" or "resuscitate"-type decision. There is a great movie out about that now called "Million Dollar Baby," won some awards this year.
That is where topics like that belong.
The Terri Schiavo situation is not a discussion about the subject of right-to-die, nor is it a debate about the subject. It is the President and Republicans in Congress - with the Democrats accomplices by inaction - going even so far as to declare America a theocratic dictatorship with their actions just to keep up the distracting of the American public, just to keep Americans from being able to see the coffins and the corpse counts, the cuts and the continuation of debt-increasing tax cuts, the complete failure of the President to develop alternative energy which has left us still fully dependent on oil.
Americans everywhere will be discussing all this week every detail and perspective about something that affects nothing, while basically none will be able to name 5 items in the budget that was just passed by Congress that affects everything in the nation.
People used to ask me when I said I didn't watch TV, they'd ask how do I stay informed if I never watch the news? I would ask them if they watched the news, they'd invariably say yes, and some news magazine type programs. Then I would ask them to name five things Congress had voted on in the previous year. Silence. Literally hundreds of hours of watching and watching news on TV and they knew nothing about anything.
"Tell me," I would say, "are you really being informed, or being distracted?"
Almost all Americans are TV addicts, and this plague is destroying our nation. This week you will hear the hordes of these drug-induced insanity-suffering addicts talking about a brain dead woman name Terri Schiavo and her personal family matters, which affect none of us in any way. Realize, anyone you hear taking time to discuss this case is a drug addict, has allowed the media to control their brain to talk about something that affects them in no way; absolute mind control. When you hear the talk, realize, they are very, very sick and in need of help.
To help them out, don't respond with any input to the story - to do that is to be a part of the problem. Instead, trying asking them if they know that on Friday, $1 billion dollars was cut from police funding, community hunger programs were completely eliminated, numerous education programs were slashed, and firefighter funding was slashed, while another $134 million in tax cuts was passed in the middle of a war and record deficits. And then just walk away, knowing there is no helping addicts until they can see the problem themselves - and by not participating in their insanity but, instead, helping to point out how insane they are being, you have taken an important step in reclaiming our nation from the drug-induced malaise it is in.
UPDATE: In case any more evidence was needed, ABC News even finds a smoking gun in this case: "ABC News obtained talking points circulated among Senate Republicans explaining why they should vote to intervene in the Schiavo case. Among them... the "pro-life base will be excited," and that it is a "great political issue -- this is a tough issue for Democrats."
Yet they still have given it hours and hours of coverage instead of things like the budget.
From the husband via CBS News: "Tom DeLay should be ashamed of himself," Michael Schiavo said in a broadcast interview. "... He's found a cause to hide behind, to lighten the load of his other problems."
And yet look where the quote comes from, within one of their many hours of coverage of this non-story, which forced this man to leave his dying wife's bedside.
by MT Democrat for Kerry on Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 11:49:08 AM PDT
I can't have sympathy for the parents. They have had plenty of time to get used to the idea that this might occur and to understand just why it is happening. Still, I saw the father on television the other night claiming that there is nothing wrong with Terri. May seem kindof cold, but the parents have been doing this for 15 years. Yes, sometimes we have to let go. Everybody has to let their children, parents, brothers, and sisters go at some time. And we don't have 15 years to deal with it.
On MSNBC this morning Re
