Year: 2005

It’s Over In Dover — No Intelligent Design In Biology Class

Buck Banks

Intelligent decision: A federal judge ruled today in Harrisburg, Penn., that “intelligent design” cannot be mentioned in biology classes in the Dover public school district, in what some are calling one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes “monkey” trial.

According to the Associated Press:

Dover Area School Board members violated the Constitution when they ordered that its biology curriculum must include the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III said.

Several members repeatedly lied to cover their motives even while professing religious beliefs, he said.

The school board policy, adopted in October 2004, was believed to have been the first of its kind in the nation.

“The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy,” Jones wrote.

The board’s attorneys had said members were seeking to improve science education by exposing students to alternatives to Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Intelligent-design proponents argue that it cannot fully explain the existence of complex life forms.

The plaintiffs challenging the policy argued that intelligent design amounts to a secular repackaging of creationism, which the courts have already ruled cannot be taught in public schools.
[…]

Bush Issues Guidelines On Sharing Terror Info

Buck Banks

Share and share alike: In the wake of a speech and press conference wherein our Commander In Chief defended his administration’s ongoing illegal spying on U.S. citizens, George Bush issued guidelines to Congress and government departments about how that ill-gotten info should be shared among government agencies.

In a letter to Congress, Bush explained that the details are part of his effort to build the “information-sharing environment,” or ISE, as required by a 2004 intelligence law.

“The ISE is intended to enable the federal government and our state, local, tribal and private-sector partners to share appropriate information relating to terrorists, their threats, plans, networks, supporters and capabilities while, at the same time, respecting the information privacy and other legal rights of all Americans,” he wrote. “Creating the ISE is a difficult and complex task that will require a sustained effort and strong partnership with the Congress.”

Bush sent the details in the form of “guidelines” and “requirements” to heads of government departments and agencies, and to lawmakers. The guidelines cover the role and scope of the authority of department chiefs and implement common technical standards and architectures to expedite intra-government information sharing.

Isn’t it a comfort to know that the information gathered through illegal spying on citizens by the government will be shared more efficiently among government agencies? At least the former Texas oilman and Kyoto Protocol hater has created one environmental intiative during his rule — building the “information-sharing environment.” Oh, it’s not that kind of environment ….

Works For Me

Trish

You know… Bush doesn’t feel like obeying the government’s laws… neither do I. He is the crux of government power yet doesn’t want to follow the government’s laws, why should I, one who has had no say or motion regarding their establishment, feel compelled to do anything but reciprocate?

I’d consider myself lucky not to enjoy excessively destructive behavior because in my mind, life is nothing but anarchy. I shall no longer let the legal skeleton that beauacracy supposedly creates confine me. I will do what pleases me most at any given moment, and fight whatever force tries to punish me, to death if need be.

– Comment from alert PR reader Matt

Shorter Version of Bush’s Speech

Jon Ponder

In case you missed it – or if you’re like me and the sound of George Bush’s voice induces mild reflux and migraine-like head explosions – here’s a shorter version of Bush’s speech last night:

Bush: “I’m the Merkin prezdent. I went to war in Iraq on wrong grounds and it’s a mess but if you’re not for me you’re for the terrorists. Those who criticize me are to blame if the Iraqi experiment fails.”

Congressional Dems to Issue Sharp Rebuke in Report on Iraq

Jon Ponder

Just in time for Christmas! Which is the only thing I don’t like about this – the timing. The report is being released tomorrow – just as the country is blanking out for the holidays. Whatever impact it might have will likely be forgotten by the time Congress comes back next year:

House Judiciary Committee Democrats, spearheaded by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), are set to release possibly the sharpest congressional critique to date surrounding Iraq, RAW STORY has learned.

The report, titled “The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution and Coverups in the Iraq War,” is slotted to be made available to the public Tuesday. RAW STORY acquired a copy of the book’s cover and some additional information about the document today.

According to Democratic aides, the report will focus on alleged manipulation of pre-war intelligence by the White House, specifically covering such topics as the Downing Street Minutes as well as the White House position on the Geneva Conventions and international law as regards its policies toward prisoners of war. Sources say the report is slated to be published as a book.

The ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Conyers had previously pushed for an inquiry into the Downing Street Minutes, official minutes of a 2002 meeting among British Prime Minister Tony Blair, members of British intelligence MI-6, as well as Bush administration advisers. Most notably, the minutes included a comment from British intelligence director Richard Dearlove, who was quoted in a secret meeting before the war as saying “intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy.”

Deal With It: Xmas Has Been Around Longer than You

Trish

Before anyone writes PR in outrage over Buck’s use of the phrase “Xmas,” read what one Florida historian says about how much “Christ” has historically been in Christmas.

Dr. Susan Parker of St. Augustine (aka, the nation’s oldest city) said the recent controversy is not only just that – recent – but didn’t exist for people with their hearts in the right place.

People writing letters and reports written centuries ago in Spanish colonial St. Augustine as well as many other parts of the world used the “X” substitute all the time.

Documents conserved in Spain, Cuba, Mexico and the United States reveal this practice.

It was just one more abbreviation in a time when almost everything was hand written. Fingers wearied as the pages of writing piled up and any way to shorten the task was welcome. Certainly the Franciscan friars, writing in their small rooms…did not think of using the X as taking Christ out of the word.

That would have been unthinkable. Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, the missionary friars shortened the Spanish word “Cristianos” as they wrote about the “indios Xianos” (Christian Indians) in Florida.

The X showed up also in the name Cristobal (Spanish for Christopher), too. We do not know if someone of that name felt slighted when it appeared as Xobal (that is, if Xobal could read).

Taking the Christ out of the word for Christmas was no concern, for the Spanish word for the holy day is “Navidad.”

So happy holidays and merry Xmas. Yeah, I said it.

Bush to Wiretap Critics: Bite Me!

Buck Banks

Bellicose and belligerent: George Bush came on strong in a hastily called press conference this morning that was aimed not so much at justifying the secret wiretaps as at critics of the practice. Sounding more imperial than ever, Bush basically said that since he’s the president, he can damned well do what he wants and to hell with anybody who says otherwise (the traitors!). Oh yeah, and the only justification he needs? Trusty old 9/11, the admin’s mantra.

I also pledged to the American people to do everything within my power to prevent this [9/11] from happening again.

Bush obviously will also do everything outside his power to prevent another terrorist attack too, like ride roughshod over personal liberties. In his opening statement he claimed the Consitution gives him this power:

As president and commander in chief, I have the constitutional responsibility and the constitutional authority to protect our country. Article 2 of the Constitution gives me that responsibility and the authority necessary to fulfill it.

I think he means the U.S. Constitution, but for the life of me I couldn’t find the carte blanche he referred to. Here’s what I think might be the pertinent excerpt from Article II, Section 2:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
[…]

Iraqi Democracy Sullied by Bush

Trish

Having George W. Bush explain democracy to the Iraqis is a lot like a man writing a book about pregnancy, which has itself been equated to taking your car to a mechanic who doesn’t drive. In each case, basic facts and concepts are not in dispute. What is lost, however, is a deeper understanding of the spirit of the thing, a knowledge that the costs along the way make reaching the final goal even sweeter.

What we have here are not the wrong students, we have the wrong teacher.

For George Bush, democracy requires no sacrifices, no trade-offs.

True democracy requires leaders who refrain from tyranny, but Bush has given himself a free pass. True democracy requires a marketplace of ideas, but the only members of the public Bush meets have been screened and validated to agree with him. True democracy requires the consent of the governed but Bush neither asks our permission nor heeds our protests.

If I were an Iraqi and was taking my view of democracy from what I’ve seen so far, I would think that in a democracy, the government uses propaganda to lie about the news and distort public opinion. I would think elections are rigged so that the right people can vote and the right people can win office. I would think torture is used on the state’s enemies. I would think democracy is exactly the same as dictatorship. And for George Bush, it probably is.

What we have here are not the wrong students, we have the wrong teacher. George Bush can no more be the instrument for spreading democracy than a cat can spread understanding of fish – and all the cat knows about fish is how to get fat off them.

Cheney Admits Role in Apparently Illegal Domestic Spying

Jon Ponder

Constitution in the shredder: No one could seriously believe that President Bush thought up the idea of trashing the Constitution and spying on U.S. citizens himself. This anti-democratic move has Cheney’s fingerprints all over it – but the only thing that would cause him to admit is his need to score political points against former Sen. Bob Graham:

Vice President Dick Cheney separately disclosed that he played a direct role in the controversial surveillance program.

In an interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC’s “Nightline,” Cheney denied charges by former Sen. Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat, that the White House did not disclose the scope of the secret program when administration officials briefed Graham, then head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in 2002.

“He knew,” Cheney said.

“I sat in my office” with Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who was then head of the National Security Agency and is now deputy director of national intelligence, to brief Graham at the time, Cheney said.

He said the program was reviewed every 45 days by the president, the attorney general, the CIA director, the president’s legal counsel and the office of legal counsel in the Justice Department.

But key members of the Republican Party expressed doubts Sunday about the legality of Bush’s action. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would conduct hearings on the monitoring of international phone calls, faxes and e-mails of as many as 500 U.S. citizens or residents since 2002, all done without warrants.