Rally ’round the Flag
The bad news is, the likelihood that we’ll bomb Iran or Syria rises in direct proportion to the President’s sinking poll numbers.
Year: 2005
A Lot Can Happen in Two Years
At least, that’s probably what George W. is thinking.
Reuters is reporting our supreme allied commander has extended by two years the time a government panel can take to release their findings on links between the CIA and the Nazis.
The bill approved by Congress would extend the group’s life through March 2007.
The Nazi war crimes act requires federal agencies to provide the working group with all documents pertaining to Nazi war criminals for possible declassification and release.
The CIA, which has already turned over an estimated 1.25 million pages of documents, refused to release hundreds of thousands more — many dealing with its postwar ties to Nazis who have not been accused of war crimes.
The U.S. spy agency relented this month and agreed in principle to release more documents after Republican Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a prominent backer of the legislation, demanded CIA Director Porter Goss explain the CIA’s position at a public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Let’s see…any Bush relatives likely to be implicated in anything here? Well, W’s grandfather Prescott and great-grandfather Herbert Walker Bush had assests taken under the “Trading with the Enemy Act” for financing Nazis. And then there are the voluminous links between the Bushes and the CIA, most recently George Sr. heading up the agency.
There’s just too much online for me to track down the best and most succinct on this, but if you’re interested and don’t already know about it, I recommend you start searching. If you’re already familiar with the particulars, go ahead and groan now.
13% Approve of GOP Meddling in Schiavo Case
They have really stepped in it this time. Blow back could be huge.
[A new CBS poll found that] just 13 percent of those polled think Congress intervened in the case out of concern for Schiavo, while 74 percent think it was all about politics. Of those polled, 66 percent said the tube should not be inserted compared to 27 percent who want it restored. The issue has generated strong feelings, with 78 percent of those polled — whether for either side of the issue — saying they have strong feelings.
More than two-thirds of people who describe themselves as evangelicals and conservatives disapprove of the intervention by Congress and President Bush in the case of Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the center of a national debate.
Other polls have shown huge majorities casting doubt on efforts to keep the severely brain damaged woman alive.
Bush’s overall approval was at 43 percent, down from 49 percent last month.
Florida Going All Medieval Texas on Your Ass
The folks who proudly faced down the “culture of death” that would have allowed someone in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years to pass into the next world are at it again. This time, they’re protecting your right to kill anyone you feel threatens you.
The Daytona News-Journal reports on a new law that passed the Florida Senate yesterday that says Floridians no longer have to get all bowed up, arm themselves, and then not shoot anybody. Now they can blast away.
The Florida Senate passed a bill 38-0 Wednesday that removes the legal expectation that a person should back down or run away in face of a serious threat. They can open fire without fear of criminal charges or civil liability.
The bill also enshrines the castle doctrine, or the right to defend a home against an intruder, in state law. It extends the castle doctrine to the automobile so drivers can shoot carjackers.
And don’t you just hate it when you want to shoot somebody but you’re in a crowd and you know some do-gooder lawyer will sue you if you miss? In Florida, your worries are over.
The only debate about the bill was whether to continue to require a person to retreat if attacked in public. It is a principle that’s taught in the classes required for carrying a concealed gun permit.
Because it sounded too much like the Wild West, Sen. Steven Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, tried to amend the bill so people still had to retreat. But his amendment was killed on voice vote Tuesday.
The bill does have its limits. While the police will now have to show probable cause before arresting anyone who claims it was self-defense, it’s still not O.K. to shoot the cop who comes to your door with an arrest warrant. And don’t any of you hip-hop looking people go getting any big ideas.
Marion Hammer, a lobbyist with the NRA and United Sportsmen of Florida, said some opponents are exaggerating the possible consequences of the bill. It would not allow gangs to engage in street warfare, she said, nor does it protect “mutual combatants.” A duel in the street is still a crime, she said.
The Republican sponsor of the bill says it’s all about life.
“People who lawfully own firearms don’t shoot to kill,” Baxley said. “They shoot to live.”
One House Democrat wasn’t entirely sold.
During a debate in House Justice Council meeting on Wednesday, State Rep. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, said she fears people will overreact in such tense situations and make bad decisions.
“We’re getting away from the culture of life,” she said.
Ya think?
Hurricane Response Both Sucks and Blows
Everyone in Florida has been scratching their heads since last summer’s hurricanes at the news that Miami-Dade was getting such a large share of FEMA recovery funds. All four hurricanes pretty much missed that area by miles.
A story in the South Florida Sun Sentinel, headlined, “State records show Bush re-election concerns played part in FEMA aid” sheds some light on the subject.
Culture of Lies
Like other Republican lawmakers championing Schiavo’s bill, DeLay often suggests she is alert and potentially treatable.
“She talks and she laughs and she expresses likes and discomforts,” he said Sunday evening. “It won’t take a miracle to help Terri Schiavo. It will only take the medical care and therapy that patients require.”
After years of review, a Florida circuit court judge found that Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state, and any emotions she appears to express are simply reflexive. Based largely on the testimony of her husband and friends, a judge ruled she would not want to be kept alive, and ordered her feeding tube removed Friday.
More Politics Than Usual
Americablog has two related articles on the Schiavo travesty. For both horror and amusement, check out DC’s Inside Scoop, which has the GOP talking points on Schiavo that were leaked. The Scoop says rumor has it that these gem were the handiwork of folks at the office of Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA).
Here are three of the GOP message points:
* This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue.
* This is a great political issue, because Senator Nelson of Florida – has already refused to become a cosponsor and this is a tough issue for Democrats.
* This legislation ensures that individuals like Teri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy.
The second AmericaBlog article points to an ABC News poll that indicates that Americans support removing Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube 63-28.
The politics propelling this tragic tomfoolery are no surprise to anyone reading this, I’m sure. Nor are the Gops’ syrupy denials of political motivation. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” I heard one of them purr, on CNN.
If there’s anything to the ABC poll, it would seem to indicate that the Gops may have gotten ahead of the public on this. Amazingly, Tom DeLay and crew even got Bush involved, meaning Karl and Karen approved it. It’s hard to believe those geniuses didn’t know they only had 28 percent of the public – basically their base – in their pockets when they flew George in early from his weekend in Crawford to sign the bill. Talk about believing your own press!
Unlike with the Gannon scandal, the media has all guns trained on this one. We’d like to think that such brazen political trampling into a woman’s tragic life – not to mention the sanctity of her heterosexual marriage – would raise a stink among the voters, but Americans seems to have endless tolerance for the shenanigans of George Bush and his crowd of Republicans in the Capitol these days.
Still, if the wind shifts in the way the ABC poll indicates, the Gops are going to have trouble blaming this one on 9/11 – or even the Democrats.
Hix Nix Science Flix at Imax
In this article in today’s New York Times, Carol Murray, director of marketing for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, which operates the local Imax theatre, explains why she decided not to show the documentary film, “Volcanoes.”
“If it’s not going to draw a crowd and it is going to create controversy,” Murray said, “from a marketing standpoint I cannot make a recommendation” to show it.
This is just flat wrong. Controversy sells movie tickets. If you want to put butts in the seats at local cineplex, there really is no such thing as bad publicity. Just ask Mel Gibson or Michael Moore.
Amazingly, the Fort Worth science theatre is not the only Imax operator to self-censor this science film because it presents science. The Times says, “‘Volcanoes,’ released in 2003 and sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation and Rutgers University, has been turned down at about a dozen science centers, mostly in the South … because of its brief references to evolution, in particular to the possibility that life on Earth originated at the undersea vents.”
Apparently, panic erupted in the museum’s marketing department after a test screening of “Volcanoes” for 134 local residents. Reading through the viewer comments, a whiff of controversy arose – and it seems to have set Murray’s hair on fire. She told the Times that “while some thought [the film] was well done, ‘some people said it was blasphemous.’ In their written comments, she explained, they made statements like ‘I really hate it when the theory of evolution is presented as fact,’ or ‘I don’t agree with their presentation of human existence.'”
That this happened in a museum dedicated to science is as scary as it is sad. I suppose you could argue that avoiding controversy is mission-critical in marketing departments at a public institutions. But when avoidance of controversy leads to censorship, a line has been crossed.
Christian Radio Host Held on Child Porn Charges
Apparently someone reported Nashville Christian radio personality Chris Ruleman to the authorities, claiming he possessed child porn. According to WSMV- Nashville Channel 4 News, Ruleman was arrested after the FBI received information that he was in possession of the contraband materials.
Ironically, the station where Ruleman works – 94FM The Fish – bills itself as ” Safe for the Whole Family.”
