Category: United States

Everyone should have heard about the Save The Internet movement and the proposed law that has all technologists in fear.

Congress is now pushing a law that would end the free and open Internet as we know it. Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet’s First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. So Amazon doesn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

Many members of Congress take campaign contributions from these companies, and they don’t think the public are paying attention to this issue. Let’s show them we care – please sign this petition today.

MoveOn.org has put up an online petition. Here is MoveOn’s privacy policy:

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FreePress.net also has a petition.

I’d like to emphasize that these petitions are great but nothing communicates to a politican as much as a handwritten letter, email, fax or phone call directly from you! Contact your representative today!

You know, I get the impression the new trend is going to be to impeach every president. I read an interesting comment over the weekend that the state of affairs with our government at this moment is similar (albeit worse) than just before Nixon’s leaving the office. Now, the Illinois State Legislature is preparing to impeach Bush and California is right on their tail.

a little known and never utlitized rule of the US House of Representatives, Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature. From there, Illinois House Joint Resolution 125 (hereafter to be referred to as HJR0125) was born.

…five specific charges against President Bush including one that is specified to be a felony…

Should HJR0125 be passed by the Illinois General Assembly, the US House will be forced by House Rules to take up the issue of impeachment as a privileged bill, meaning it will take precedence over other House business.

An ABC News/Washington Post Poll Conducted April 6-9 showed that 33% of Americans currently support Impeaching President Bush, coincidentally, only a similar amount supported impeaching Nixon at the start of the Watergate investigation.

And California:

Joining Illinois, California has become the second state in which a proposal to impeach President Bush has been introduced in the state legislature. And this one includes Cheney as well.

Koretz said, “we will be paying for the Bush Administration’s illegal actions and terrible lack of judgment and competence for decades—not only in the billions of dollars wasted on the war and welfare for the rich, but in the worldwide loss of respect for America and Americans. Bush and Cheney must be impeached and removed from office before they undertake even deadlier misdeeds, such as the use of nuclear weapons. There are no bounds to their willingness to ignore the Constitution and world opinion—we can’t afford to wait for the next disaster and hope that we can survive it.”

Expect to see Vermont, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada and North Carolina be next to follow suit.

Americans making move to hybrids and driving less. Bush’s approval ratings directly parallel gas prices. (larger image here) Note that they’ve charted the recipocal of the gas price (ie. higher is cheaper). Graph by Professor Pollkatz.

I came into this world shortly after Richard Nixon took office. I can’t say much on his presidency but he proved to be a fantastic politican in his post-presidency.

Of Gerald Ford, what can I say other than Chevy Chase. Of his presidency, I knew only that one day I could grow up to be president, and that meant something.

I understand the distaste some people have for Jimmy Carter. I’ve read the information that relates today’s Iranian issues to his presidency while others say he laid ground work to avoid today’s problems; let’s not forget the 1953 CIA-engineered coup to oust Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. We have fiddled with Iran for a long time but the U.S. betrayal of the shah in 1978 was bad. I liked Carter as a president. I think his post-presidency has been amongst the best with his involvement in human rights and Habitat for Humanity.

Personally, Ronald Reagan has been a favorite of mine. I don’t understand why some people still talk down of his 8 years but that could simply be my ignorance of politics. And, if anything, we got the pleasure of Land of Confusion from his presidency!

George Bush, Sr. I liked, had respect for, and trusted as a president.

Bill Clinton comes in second as my favorite president during my lifetime (pre-me I like the Roosevelts quite a bit). Clinton made a huge mistake with the sex scandal. We as a society made a larger mistake by making an issue of the sex scandal instead of letting it quietly go away. Politically, he did great things!

George W Bush, Jr remains the only president I cannot respect. I feel he represents his own interests and not those of the people. I feel he has worked to damage democracy and has laid the groundwork to see the United States as a facist government. Although I support my president, despite these views, I cannot wait to see him leave office.

The following video is an artistic and well edited depiction of George W Bush, Jr that captures his attitudes and pompousness that so rubs me wrong. Nice work D. Ledonne! Warning! The video contains imagery that some may find upsetting or disturbing. Also, the word "nigga" is repeated frequently.

Music video of DJ RX’s “Who’s the Nigga” from his album ‘The Party Party.’ President George W. Bush shares his grand vision for the future for the USA–creating a united America with justice and democratic representation for all.

A member of GW’s audience in NC gave him his mind.

“While I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water,” real estate broker Harry Taylor told Bush at a town hall meeting. “I have never felt more ashamed of nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington.”

GW’s approval ratings shown graphically.

Special thanks to Tim for the link.

Anyone remember GW’s finger flipping video?

BOSTON, March 27 (UPI) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by flipping a middle finger to his critics. …making the obscene gesture and explaining “That’s Sicilian.”

Sicilian for what? "I have no sense of propriety"?! [Source]

And I’m reminded that Cheney told a senator to "F*&k yourself."

Our current administration gives me the feeling that our forefathers worked hard to establish this country and now its just the polticians playground…not very different than a man working hard to build wealth for his family only to have his children squander and not appreciate the wealth.

Bah. I was going to upload a patriotic image and after getting it all prep’d I realized that whatever $5/hour artist made it put the flag up backwards.

For all you government workers, enjoy your day off.

I can’t hold back any longer! I was in tears when I heard this on NPR yesterday. My thoughts on Cheney’s hunting accident:

• US VP Can’t Shoot Dick
• Cheney takes lawyer joke too far

There. I’m done.

Looks like the House overstepped its bounds.

The staff of U.S. Rep Marty Meehan wiped out references to his broken term-limits pledge as well as information about his huge campaign war chest in an independent biography of the Lowell Democrat on [Wikipedia]…

Matt Vogel, Meehan’s chief of staff, said he authorized an intern in July to replace existing Wikipedia content with a staff-written biography of the lawmaker.

Looks like it becomes a question of ethics particularly considering that the logs show vandalic changes to other political profiles coming from the House ip addresses.

the sheer breadth of changes emanating from the House reflects an abuse of public time and equipment, said Stephen Potts, former director of the federal Office of Government Ethics, now chairman of the Ethics Resource Center.

When will integrity return to politics?

Here’s a must read article by Tennessee Guerilla Women discussing Bush’s censorship of NASA’s leading climate scientist.

In several interviews with The New York Times in recent days, Dr. Hansen said it would be irresponsible not to speak out, particularly because NASA’s mission statement includes the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet.”

After speaking that significant cuts in emissions, particulars motor vehicles must be made or “climate change would eventually leave the earth ‘a different planet.'” Dr. Hansen received phone calls warning that there would be “dire consequences” if such statements continued. So this is what it was like under McCarthy!

UPDATE: MSNBC reports “Some scientist worry it’s too late to reverse climate change.“