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Christopher's rantings and ravings |
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Welcome to Christopher's website...
"Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin "A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward." - FDR
"Rules are not necessarily sacred; principles are." - FDR
"Give me 64 Sammy Davis years over 128 Ken Starr years any day" - Bill Maher
"The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God." - Susan B. Anthony
"Wacky, waving, inflatable, arm-flailing tubemen." - Seth MacFarlane
"It's one thing to die for your beliefs; it's quite another to die of your beliefs."
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Well, I have never been so happy to be wrong! My optimism did grow as we approached the election, so in the end I believed we would pick up closer 22 seats in the House, though I still believed we would come up well short in the Senate. The result was, of course, far better: closer to 30 seats and a new (albeit razor-thin) majority in the Senate. Unfortunately, my concerns remain: I believe, as I said below, that we won by default, not as a result of our values. We have yet to put forth a coherent policy agenda. Still, we have seen improvements and something like a platform seems to be taking shape now. We'll see how the next few months go....
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My final prediction for the mid-terms as of House: 223 Republican, 212 Democrat Senate: 51 Republican, 47 Democrat, 2 Independent Governors: 28 Democrat, 22 Republican Sadly, as you can see, I do not share my fellow Democrats' optimism regarding our chances for taking back even one
house of Congress. There's been too much gerrymandering in recent years, so there is no competition anymore. We can win back
Congress, but it will have to be over two or three election cycles, a few seats at a time. Sadder still is the fact that my projection is based not just on the lack of competition, but also the lack of clear
direction of our party. Even with the gerrymandering, this could have been the year if we had outlined clear goals for Another factor is what I call the 'Kerry factor': I truly hope I am wrong and that we sweep to victory in November. Indeed, I can imagine a best-case scenario in which
we squeak in with a one-seat majority in the House and get as high as even in the Senate (if both Inds. caucus with us), forcing
Cheney to show up regularly to get Republican bills passed. But even if that happens, these underlying issues with our party
will remain, because we will have won by default, not by values. ...................................................................................................................... No, sir, it is most certainly not legal The Republican spin machine has kicked into overdrive, trying not just to convince us that warrantless domestic spying
is not only legal, but that we should be grateful for it and that anyone who isn't is 'soft on terrorism'. They even take
it one step further by falsely claiming that the Democrats are against all monitoring of Al Qaeda calls where on
party is in the U.S. (Not one single Democrat has objected to such monitoring when a warrant is legally obtained.) But let's skip all this bickering and cut to the chase: Amendment IV to the Constitution
of the The right of the people
to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,
and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation,
and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. (emphasis added) ...................................................................................................................... The Firestone/Bridgestone 21 hour 40 minute workday According to a recent report, Firestone employee worker contracts in .............................................................................................. YOU GET WHAT YOU VOTE FOR American Problem: Thousands of handgun-related deaths a year, killing far more people than any 9/11-style attack. Glaring
gun-show loop-holes helping to put weapons in the hands of criminals. Lapse of the popular assault-weapons ban. Republican Solution: Pass laws to protect the gun industry from lawsuits. American Problem: Aggressive marketing by credit-card issuers and other lenders to push credit on any- and everyone,
with all the ethics of a schoolyard crack dealer. Excessive consumer debt amid huge creditor profits. Republican Solution: Help out the creditors by making bankruptcy even harder, pushing more burden onto consumers while
increasing credit-issuers' already huge profits. American Problem: Over-reliance on middle-east oil, scarce prospects for new oil sources, high consumption of
destructive fossil fuels, lack of sufficient investment in alternative energy, all against a backdrop of record-high profits
for the oil industry and soaring fuel prices. Republican Solution: Tax-breaks for the oil industry. American Problem: A Republican Congress whose sole constituents are its corporate masters. American Solution: A new Congress. .............................................................................................. WHY NOT HERE? Why don't we see military crackdowns in It hasn't always been easy for us, but in a country whose very desire for independence was in part based on British
use of Redcoats as tools of suppression, we have a natural, healthy suspicion of the role of troops on home soil. In
the wake of the Civil War, during Reconstruction, the military was sometimes used in very dangerous ways by local authorities
in the still-chaotic South, prompting Congress to pass the Posse Comitatus Act. This act prohibits use of the military for
domestic law enforcement. Now Congress is rethinking that act after Katrina. It certainly would have been useful to have active-duty troops moving
in quickly to help with evacuations, police the abandoned areas and prevent looting. In that light, it may indeed be wise
to revise Posse Comitatus, but we should be very careful about just how far we go. I for one would support a provision allowing
the executive to waive Posse Comitatus, but only in times and places of natural disasters, and with specific prohibitions
regarding any other use. At a time when .............................................................................................. FAIR'S FAIR My goodness, Bush took responsibility for a mistake over the Katrina fiasco. Well, you can't criticize if you're not
willing to point out the good stuff, too. In Bush's case, that's not a rule I have to recall very often. But I have to give
him credit: he finally found some humility and admitted a mistake. I don't suppose he'll admit all the lies, corruption and
mistakes with .............................................................................................. DIRTY POOL What's the great thing about terrifying events like 9/11 and Katrina? People who thrive on fear get away with murder.
.............................................................................................. TIME LINE O' GREATNESS 27 August: Katrina forms and starts its course for the 28 August: Katrina heading for the coast; Dubya still enjoying week five of his vacation. 29 August: Katrina hits; Dubya goes to 30 August: The levees break, disaster consumes the 1 September: 2 September: Ah, now that's leadership. .............................................................................................. THE LYING GAME Everyone from the Homeland Security Secretary to military and emergency officials is trying to cover his ass by saying
no one could have known about or expected a hurricane like Katrina. Bullshit. Scientists and engineers have been warning of
EXACTLY the kind of hurricane that has devastated the And as the city drowned, the Bush administration did what it knows best: it lied. It lied about feeding the refugees
in the Superdome. (Hey, maybe they'll cover for us and tell everyone they really are getting two meals a day!) It lied
about the ability to get into the city. (Yeah, Wal-mart and Harry Connick, Jr. can get in, but the military and relief
workers can't.) It lied about, well, pretty much everything. How can a government expect people to believe such easily discovered lies? Simple: they're used to it. There were plenty
of fools around to believe the fabrications about .............................................................................................. HMMM... Hmmm.... By the way, what's ex-director Allbaugh up to these days? Maybe FEMA couldn't get into .............................................................................................. LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE REAL VICTIM I think the real victim of Katrina is George Bush. After all, this president has only had a paltry ELEVEN MONTHS OF
VACATION since taking office and the thousands of deaths and billions in destruction in the American south-east forced the
poor guy to cut short his latest holiday. We can at least be thankful that it didn't inconvenience him too much: for the first
few days of the disaster, he stuck to his schedule of political stumping and photo ops. .............................................................................................. SPEAKS FOR ITSELF "That footage depicts something very different from a vegetative state." - Republican Sen. Frist, Senate floor, "I never made the diagnosis, never said that she was not [in a persistent vegetative state]." - Sen. Frist, "Good Morning
America" (ABC), "[Sen. Byrd's comments comparing Republican tactics to Hitler's tactics] lessen the credibility of the senator and
the decorum of the Senate." - Republican Sen. Santorum, March 2005. "How dare
you break this rule, it is the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying: I’m in No comment needed... .............................................................................................. FREE TRADE....EXCEPT WHEN IT INCONVENIENCES US Free trade for all! Well, not in agriculture because our big agribusiness buddies can't do without all those yummy
subsidies. Oh, and not in textiles, because it's one of the few areas in which developing countries have a real advantage.
And, umm...well, free trade as long as it makes us rich countries richer. Unlike a lot of my colleagues on the left, I believe free trade is not only good, but inevitable.....but only when
tempered by a sense for fair trade. If we continue with our hypocrisy (and
in this case by 'our' I mean that of all the Western countries, not just the .............................................................................................. BUSH TO ROGUE NATIONS: WANT TO AVOID INVASION? BUILD WMDs. NK's got 'em. The dictatorship in .............................................................................................. UMM, HUH? Referring to his threat to veto a stem-cell research bill, Bush said on .............................................................................................. SLACKTIVISM Not sure where I first heard this expression, 'slacktivism', but it's the perfect word to describe what so many
people are doing these days. Let's get something straight, people: signing a bunch of online petitions and holding up
the occasional placard accomplishes precisely one thing: making you feel better about yourself. It doesn't change the world.
It doesn't feed a single child, save a single acre of a rainforest or spare us a single milligram of pollution.
Sign all the petitions you want - I've been known to sign one or two myself - but don't delude yourself into thinking it will
accomplish much. You want to accomplish something? Drive less, give to the charity of your choice, conserve/reuse/recycle
resources, help your neighbor, vote in every election. In short, be a good citizen. .............................................................................................. CONGRESS TO WOMEN: YOU ARE INFERIOR I've always considered myself a 'realistic feminist'. I reject the non-sense of extremists who demean women by pretending
they are the same as men (how insulting!), as well as the equally inane non-sense of sexists who maintain that the differences
mean women are inferior. Women and men are different and anyone who can't see that is delusional. But these differences make
us both stronger. Congress has decided to send the message that these differences actually make us weaker. They are set to approve a
bill that would make it illegal for women in the armed forces to serve in combat positions. Our nation's security will see
its potential pool of defenders cut in half. And why? To stroke the egos of male soldiers and kow-tow once again to the
extreme right. As I said above, I am a realist in these matters. Ceteris paribus, females are smaller and weaker than males. But what
is true on the aggregate clearly does not hold for all individual comparisons. You can easily assemble a group of women
and men and find cases where a given female is stronger than a given male. In other words, if you had to choose between an
all-male army and an all-female army, you'd be wise to choose the former; but if you had to choose between two individual
soldiers, one a 5'8", overweight, male desk-jockey and the other a 5'10", physically-fit, athletic female,
do you really want the former? I say hold all combat positions to the exact same criteria for strength, endurance and fitness
for both sexes and let's get the best soldiers we can. Biology and common sense tell you that such a fighting force will remain
mostly male, but why shut the door to qualified females just to make some insecure men and bible-thumpers happy? It is irrational
and foolish and it reduces our security. Give the poor guys SUVs...that always seems to help them feel compensated for their
frail egos! .............................................................................................. HUBRIS AND HISTORY The Republicans are threatening the so-called 'nuclear option', changing Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster,
a mechanism that allows a minority (40 senators) to block voting on an issue. This will be remembered as the point at which
Republicans finally forgot that holding a majority is not a permanent state of affairs...not to mention the point at which
they seem to have been struck with amnesia. From Nixon to .............................................................................................. WELCOME TO Welcome to the .............................................................................................. LIBERAL HERESY This is the ultimate liberal heresy: agreeing with Bush. I have looked at all the alternatives and all the futuristic
possibilities and have come to the conclusion that nuclear power might be a smart idea in the medium term. Yes, that's right:
a liberal in favor of nuke plants. We are fighting wars and damaging our economy for oil while hydrogen, wind and solar are
still at least two decades away from being practical for large-scale energy generation. Meanwhile, we have nuclear energy,
which is arguably the safest, cleanest alternative in the foreseeable future. I say build 'em. .............................................................................................. STOP KIDDING OUR KIDS What is a gateway drug? Marijuana? More likely to be tobacco or alcohol. Track 'hard' drug (heroin, coke, etc) users
and ask them what they have used. You are more likely to find they have smoked cigarettes or drunk than that they have used
pot. Marijuana, unlike alcohol, has proven medicinal purposes. Chemo patients using pot are less likely to feel nausea and
loss of appetite as a result of their treatment, for example. This has been proven in studies dating back to the early '70s....unlike
the 'proven' benefits of alcohol, which are negligible even in the most optimistic studies. According to JAMA (2000): 435,000=estimated number of people dying each year from tobacco in the The money we spend in the In 1978, the 700,000=number of pot-smokers arrested every year. These are non-violent offenders. Our last two presidents are the
lucky ones, never arrested and sentenced for this crime. We spend over a billion a year imprisoning these people, people who
have done less harm to themselves and others than drinkers and smokers. .............................................................................................. Everything seems so black and white, but international relations are anything but. Mean ol' .............................................................................................. VOTERS Interesting new survey, albeit not a surprising one. Least likely Republican voter: black woman, union-member, aged
18-29, single, no significant private investments. Most likely: Southern, married, white male, income 50-75k, considers himself
a member of the 'investor class', over 30. (Ironic...I fit that profile myself, except being married and the income bracket,
the latter being close enough.) Less obvious detail: we need to rebuild ourselves among Hispanics. We are losing ground there, mostly for reasons of
social issues. Wouldn't hurt, too, for Fidel to die and resolve The most important issue that comes out of this survey is turn-out. Until we get blacks and the under-30 crowd to come
out in stronger numbers, we're doomed. Perhaps it's time to stop pandering to the Grey Panthers and look to our real base,
which means addressing education, drug decriminalization, prison reform, a fairer and more humane welfare system and healthcare. .............................................................................................. Pope John Paul II Just a quick note to mark the passing of a great man. As both an atheist and a liberal, I would be hard pressed to
come up with many things on which I could agree with the pope and many of his pronouncements I found down right offensive.
But he was a man of peace, a man who loved all humans and a man of conviction, and that must always be respected and
honored. ................................................................................. Ends and Means If I had to boil down the Bush administration to a single aphorism, it would be, 'The ends justify the means'. It's
OK to lie about or conceal past drug use, because if you don't, Timmy might make the incredible leap that he should use drugs,
too. (I wonder if Timmy will be better off as a drug-free but amoral liar.) It's OK to invade a country based on lies, half-truths
and shoddy intelligence as long as the end, democracy, is good. It's fine to corrupt the Fourth Estate as long as you believe
the end, promoting your agenda, is virtuous. Is this the new American morality? .............................................................................................. Damn Yankees Report from the culture wars: I am a rare breed: a liberal white Southern male. Other liberals would therefore do well
to heed my advice. Stop panning the 'red states' as redneck wastelands of ignorance and backwardness. It is a self-defeating,
arrogant stance that is pushing more and more people to the right. If we want to win back places like the South, we need to
get off our high-horses and show a little humility. .............................................................................................. NO! Why is that in the last few years all we can say on the left is, 'No!'? No to free trade, no to insurance companies, no to SS reform of
any kind, no to, well, everything! We will not regain political power by just saying, 'no'! We must have a positive agenda
of our own. Few people vote for an opposition that only knows how to oppose. They seek alternative LEADERSHIP. What happened
to ideas? What happened to creating alternatives? I am sick of the whining and bitching on the left. If all you can say is
'no', then remain silent. PROPOSE AN ALTERNATIVE! I have a very clear vision for my country. Is it the right one? Maybe,
maybe not. But if you object, then propose something else. Don't just whine about others'! |
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