Liberty Smackdown

A float in the Rose Monday carnival parade in Mainz, western Germany - Monday, Feb. 19, 2007. (AP Photo/Bernd Kammerer)

Har de har har de har

According to The New American:

"The President and Mrs. Reagan extend to you their best wishes for a joyous Christmas and a peaceful New Year."

In 1982, that was the message appearing on President Reagan's Christmas card to thousands of GOP faithful.

In 1983, the "greeting" changed: "The President and Mrs. Reagan extend to you their warmest wishes for happiness at the holidays and throughout the new year."

Thus did the Reagan White House stop sending Christmas cards and start sending "holiday greetings."

Give us hearts to understand;
Never to take from creation's beauty more than we give;
never to destroy wantonly for the furtherance of greed;

Never to deny to give our hands for the building of earth's beauty;
never to take from her what we cannot use.

Give us hearts to understand
That to destroy earth's music is to create confusion;
that to wreck her appearance is to blind us to beauty;

That to callously pollute her fragrance is to make a house of stench;
that as we care for her she will care for us.

We have forgotten who we are.
We have sought only our own security.
We have exploited simply for our own ends.
We have distorted our knowledge.
We have abused our power.

Great Spirit, whose dry lands thirst,
Help us to find the way to refresh your lands.
Great Spirit, whose waters are choked with debris and pollution,
help us to find the way to cleanse your waters.

Great Spirit, whose beautiful earth grows ugly with misuse,
help us to find the way to restore beauty to your handiwork.
Great Spirit, whose creatures are being destroyed, help us to find a way to replenish them.

Great Spirit, whose gifts to us are being lost in selfishness and corruption,
help us to find the way to restore our humanity.

Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind, whose breath gives life to the world,
hear me; I need your strength and wisdom. May I walk in Beauty.

~Bedagi, Wabanaki Algonquin, late 19th century

Thank you.

Liar, liar, pants on fire

The 10th plank of the Contract with America, which was signed by every single non-incumbent Republican Congressional candidate, is the Citizen Legislature Act. This was a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would have limited every member of the U.S. Congress (both houses) to twelve consecutive years of service.

30 current House members are Republicans first elected in 1994. Only 5 of them are on CQ Politics's list of 8. That leaves 25 more who signed the Contract, which would have stopped them from seeking re-election. At last count, every single one of them was running!

Check the list to see if your favoritie politician a liar.

The immediately guilty

Barbara Cubin, WY-AL
Phil English, PA-03
Frank LoBiondo, NJ-02
Mark Souder, IN-03
Zach Wamp, TN-3
Mike DeWine, OH
Jon Kyl, AZ
Rick Santorum, PA
Olympia Snowe, ME
Craig Thomas, WY

Others to watch:

Charles Bass, NH-02
Steve Chabot, OH-01
Tom Davis, VA-11
Mark Foley, FL-16
Rodney Frelinghuysen, NJ-11
Doc Hastings, WA-04
J.D. Hayworth, AZ-08
John Hostettler, IN-09
Walter Jones, NC-03
Sue Kelly, NY-19
Ray LaHood, IL-18
Tom Latham, IA-04
Steven LaTourette, OH-14
Sue Myrick, NC-09
Robert Ney, OH-18
Charlie Norwood, GA-09
George Radanovich, CA-19
John Shadegg, AZ-03
Mac Thornberry, TX-13
Todd Tiahrt, KS-04
Dave Weldon, FL-15
Jerry Weller, IL-11
Ed Whitfield, KY-01
Roger Wicker, MS-01

Full story here.

This says it all.



TIME Magazine proves once again that a picture's worth a thousand words.

Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift

Christy Hardin Smith writes at Firedoglake of a true American patriot, Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift.

As a reward for doing his job well, for upholding and defending the Constitution and the rule of law, and for diligently representing his client, Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift has been denied promotion by the US Navy, effectively ending his career in the military.

It's just too bad that in George Bush and Don Rumsfeld's Pentagon, doing your job superbly and being committed to truth and the Constitution over political expediency gets you cashiered out of the service. The Navy and the JAG corps will be the lesser for it. For shame.

Jeb Bush Finally Comes Out Of The Closet

The president's brother encountered protesters on their way to join a demonstration outside the exclusive Duquesne Club, where Sen. Rick Santorum, a Republican, was holding a fundraiser Friday.

Bush, accompanied by a security guard and an aide, retreated into a nearby subway station and was followed by about 50 picketers, said Bob Grove, a Port Authority spokesman.

"(Bush) was quickly getting out of the way and not wanting to engage us," said Jon Vandenburgh, a protester and a researcher for the United Steelworkers.

As a precaution, Bush was ushered into a station supply closet and stayed there until the crowd left.

Florida's Norma Desmond

While watching the sun set on her political boulevard, Republican Katherine Harris continues to scramble for attention with every beat of her little silicone heart.

Recently, she appointed herself the head of the Christian police by branding Democratic challenger, Bill Nelson, as unChristian.

Stay tuned! Any day now she'll turn to the press cameras to announce "I'm ready for my close-up, Max."

Christian Fellowship

Well, it looks like if you're Christian politician, you can get a whizbang of a room rate in Washington.

For the cost of a one night stay at a cushy D.C. hotel ($600), you can have a room in a tony boarding house for an entire month.

The three-story townhouse is "maintained by a secretive religious organization known alternately as the 'Fellowship' or the 'Foundation.' The stately, red-brick house located two blocks from the Capitol is owned by the C Street Center, a sister organization of the 'Fellowship.'"

However, the tenants of the rooming house remain "tightlipped" about their living arrangements, and no word yet on who shares a room.

The article cites six of the eight roomies as Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.); Jim DeMint (R-S.C.;) Mike Doyle (D-Pa.); Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.); Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.); and Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.). One former tenant is Rep. Steve Largent (R-Okla.). "Wamp said two other members of Congress lived there, but declined to identify them."

"Few current and former lawmakers who have lived in the C Street house want to comment on the arrangement."

The buildings owners, and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, had no comment.

"When one resident leaves, the remaining members choose a replacement with whom they are comfortable, he [Wamp] said."

kunlangeta

It appears of late that some Republicans might soon be exposed as being kunlangeta.

From The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout, Ph.D.:

As an illustration, psychiatric anthropologist, Jane M. Murphy describes the Inuit concept of kunlangeta, which refers to a person whose "mind knows what to do but does not do it." Murphy writes that in Northwest Alaska, kunlangeta "might be applied to a man who, for example, repeatedly lies and cheats and steals things and does not go hunting, and, when the other men are out of the village, takes sexual advantage of many women." The Inuits tacitly assume that kunlangeta is irremediable. And so, according to Murphy, the traditional Inuit approach to such a man was to insist that he go hunting, and then, in the absence of witnesses, push him off the edge of the ice. [pp. 135-136]

McCamy Taylor Rocks!

McCamy Taylor says "Mr. Cheney, You Can Take the President's Agenda and ...."

After you've cheered while reading that, make time for a visit to Grand Theft Election Ohio where you'll find Taylor's artistic political commentary. Each and every one is inspirationally delicious.

Maf54 (8:08:31 PM): Get a ruler and measure it for me