Archive for July, 2014

Joint Base Fort America (July 28, 2014)

Posted in Bush, Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Freedom / Liberty, Military, Military Commissions Act, National Defense Authorization Act / FY 2012, O'Bama, Security State, USA PATRIOT Act, War on July 28, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

5          “America is now one gigantic fortified military base.”

7          “Joint Base Bush O’Bama.  JBBO.”

5          “Or Joint Base O’Bama Bush.  JBOB.  What’s the difference.”

7          “We are in the fourth term of the Bush Administration.  Or during the first term of the O’Bama Administration, President Cheney and Vice President Bush invaded Iraq without provocation or plan based on lies and deception.”

. . .

5          “A locked compound on lock down.  And too many Americans are not locked on to this development.  The government is locked and loaded and ready to lock up dissidents or the downtrodden.”

7          “The authorities have us locked with stock and barrel.  The new USSA – the United Security State of America – is not much different than the old USSR.”

5          “The area along a nation’s border has always been a region where liberty is more constricted and civil liberties are constrained.  The band of land, however, was narrow and circumscribed the border.  The heart of the country was free. Today, the southern border of America is moving north while the northern border is moving south while the western border is moving east while the eastern border is moving east west.”

7          “The only free area may be the geographic center of the contiguous United States.  The town of Lebanon, Kansas or thereabouts, but that may only be the last place to be enveloped.  The plate tectonics of the security state are shifting ominously.  A big collision is in the works.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

I wasn’t using my civil liberties anyway

 

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Distrust But Verify (July 21, 2014)

Posted in Afghanistan, Foreign Policy, Iran, Journalism, Middle East, Military, Newspapers, Press/Media, Russia on July 21, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1          “Somewhat ironic that it is a rhyme from a Russian proverb made famous by Reagan.”

2          “Is it irenic?  I phrase it ‘distrust and verify’ because we have a civic duty to do our own research.”

1          “America is demonizing Putin, ostracizing Russia, antagonizing unknown forces, and militarizing the world.  Triggering World War III on the hundredth anniversary of World War I is not a righteous aspiration.”

2          “The phrase does not apply just to the misrepresentations of Putin and Russia foisted on the public today by those in power in the West.  When it comes to the Middle East and most matters of international affairs, it is also ‘reader beware’ in a world of pap, pablum and propaganda.”

1          “Who knows what is really going on in the Middle East or Gaza.  The ‘One Hundred Plus Years War’ is going strong and may go on until one people is wiped out.  And the apologists and propagandists pass themselves off as analysts and pundits.  Too many newspaper columnists and television personalities are just ideological blowhards.”

2          “So many graduates of the Edward L. Bernays School of Disinformation.  The truth is so elusive, because advancing the untruth is so often in the economic interests of the wealthy and the well connected.”

. . .

1          “Those who want America to go to war today are the ones who started the failed and failing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan yesterday.”

2          “The only thing you can say with a high degree of confidence is that those who want America to go to war are clearly not seeking to advance America’s best interests.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Distrust But Verify

Distrust And Verify

“All Governments Lie” I. F. Stone

Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb [pick a place, any place], bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb [insert the place].

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The “Free Rider” Challenge (July 14, 2014)

Posted in Community, Pogo Plight on July 14, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C1          “Sounds like an endurance bicycle race or some such sporting event.”

C2          “Does it cost to play?”

. . .

C1          “Before this year, they did not list the names of all the unsuccessful applicants publicly in addition to the names of those who were drawn for the group permits.  Revealing.”

C2          “They rarely draw from those who don’t apply.”

. . .

C1          “Fables guide many of life’s choices.  When I first heard the story of ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper,’ I was certain that we would be told that the diligent ants invited the profligate grasshopper inside for a cold beer and a warm meal.  And then she announced that . . . the ants booted the grasshopper off the island if you will.”

C2          “Sort of an O. Henry twist for a young impressionable mind.  We were inculcated with the tale told to folks about ‘The Little Red Hen’ who sought without success to enlist others to assist her sow the field and then declined their entreaties to join in her bounty.”

C1          “At this time, we are all fat, not too smart and somewhat blissfully clueless.  And we are so profoundly unprepared.  Before things get even more squirrely, we need to get in touch with our inner ant.”

. . .

[Bastille Day]

[See the e-commentary titled On Community (June 3, 2013).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Be prepared.

Look out for bicycles.

 

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Law Is Politics ; Politics Is Law (July 7, 2014)

Posted in Congress, Courts, Judges, Presidency, Supreme Court on July 7, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L1          “Based on tradition, Justices are seated by seniority from the center outward on both sides.  Based on current practice, Justices should sit on each side of the political aisle.  The five Republicans should sit on the right wing and the four Democrats should sit on the left wing.”

. . .

L1          “The right wing majority of the Supreme Court reinvigorated its campaign to undermine abortion rights, fox hole by fox hole.”

L2          “They are sly as a fox about it.  When notes are later released, someone may discover that the left wing minority was either intimidated by the right wing or made a concession to the abortion opponents to avoid an even more dishonest opinion by logrolling their votes for less damaging language.”

L1          “Logrolling.  You have got to love it.  Politicians behaving like politicians.”

. . .

L1          “The right wing of the Supreme Court reaffirmed the two-part First Amendment test:  ‘1) Who is making the expression? and 2) What is being expressed?’  That is not what the Founding Fathers intended.”

L2          “The left wing may have used ‘Substantive Due Process’ to shape policy in the past.  The right wing is using the First Amendment to advance its political agenda and silence its critics.”

. . .

L2          “In some cultures, hypocrisy is the greatest crime.  The Supreme Court strikes down a reasonable 35-foot barrier between abortion protesters and those going into a facility after imposing a more than 200-foot buffer around the Court and enforcing it with the Court’s own private army paid for with public funds.”

L1          “What if protestors stood outside Scalia’s house and shouted that he is a ‘fibber’?”

. . .

L1          “The right wing of the Supreme Court underpins its decision on recess appointments on separation of powers doctrines and yet undermines the most fundamental separation of powers.  The Supreme Court – the judicial branch – defined and delineated legislative activities to undermine executive power.”

L2          “Would the Court have reached that decision if the President were a Republican.”

L1          “Maybe not.  Look in the footnotes of the decision for an exception for a Republican President.”

L2          “Look at Bush v. Gore for precedent.  Law is all politics today.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Do gay corporations have the constitutional right to engage in mergers and acquisitions or merely civil unions?

There is no law; there is only ideology.

The Supreme Court – The Legislature on the east side of First Street

 

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