The Day in Pictures

"Don't worry Barney, I've got my eye out for that crazy bitch, Miss Beazley"


The new version of ABC's "The Bachelor" disturbs me.


No matter how much he tried, Dear Leader could not edge Sharon in the "Turtle-Off"


Not shown, Bush presenting a large tray of Star of David Doughnuts. This just in, the Israeli government has announced that "Splenda" is not Kosher.


Ambassador, could you tell us how many times we have ignored your association with Death Squads?

Quality Media Update

Courtesy of CNN:

I suppose they could try to cover less important news stories, but here we are early in the morning and CNN actually had "Wolf Blitzer" cover the Wisconsin Feral Cat Hunting Bill. Meanwhile, besweatered Carol Costello gave the toughest interview she has ever given to a guy who wants to adopt feral cats.

Jeebus.

"The Paris Hilton Tax Relief Act"

Atrios has linked the Washington Post article which states:

In 1992, when heirs to the Mars Inc. fortune joined a few other wealthy families to hire the law firm Patton Boggs LLP to lobby for estate tax repeal, the joke on K Street was that few Washington sightseers had paid so much for a fruitless tour of the Capitol.

Today, the House is expected to vote to permanently repeal the estate tax, moving the Mars candy, Gallo wine and Campbell soup fortunes one step closer to a goal that once seemed quixotic at best: ending all taxation on inheritances.

Well that explains a few things about Cokie Roberts(!) [soon to be a muscical].

But let me see if we can distill this down to brass "tax":

Thanks to the Bush Administration and the GOP Congress, you are SOL if you ever file for Bankruptcy, as you will never really get out from under your debts.

BUT, if you have done nothing to earn wealth but be born, you and yours will have it sweet in perpetuity.

Gee, and here I thought in this country we shy away from overtly being an Aristocracy.

This day in History and its Relevance to today

Sixty years ago today, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, Europe, Dwight Eisenhower along with fellow generals Patton and Bradley visited Ohrdruf a German Concentration Camp. It was the first such place that Eisenhower visited. Eisenhower who proved to Hitler that not only did the United States have better manufacturing than the Germans, but better Germans than the Germans, was staggered by what he saw. According to historian Steven Ambrose, he uncharacteristically snapped at an officer who nervously laughed at the incredible scene, "Still having trouble hating them?", meaning the Nazis.

Eisenhower quickly had the press and as many third parties as possible (including Congressional Leaders) visit the camp and others so that no one could later deny why they had witnessed (farsighted there).

The evening of April 12th a solemn and reflective Eisenhower retired to his camp and tried to contemplate the depths of the horrors he had scene.

It was at that time that he, Patton and Bradley all discovered that another great blow had occurred that day. The greatest President of the 20th century, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died of a cerebral hemorage. Dying before he could see the conclusion of the war, but long enough to know its probable outcome.

In this era, sixty years, later when the Bush Administration tries to undermine everything that FDR did, remember that with the exception of Washington no person has ever cast a longer reflection on the office. All subsequent Presidents, including, ironically Eisenhower himself, would be measured in the shadow of the great man.

His policies, his stewardship, created modern America. America the land of civil justice, the land of economic opportunity; America where no one should go hungry; America the savior of Western Europe; America the world's greatest military and economic power.

And Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one more thing.

HE WAS A LIBERAL!

Using your Blog for Personal Reasons

Okay,

So Attaturk has to set up a wireless network on a Direcway Satellite system [DW6000](no other broadband being available). Anyone got any suggestions?

Is this easy?

Sorry for inflicting my "exciting" personal life on you all.

Here is a picture caption to make up for it:


The First Lady is getting a tad Scottie-Obsessed...


"Please don't hurt me."

Better Media please

Feel free to Google ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer

Mr. Smith came to Washington again Monday, as an alias for a Central Intelligence Agency officer who works covertly. Senators, however, may have blown his cover.

During questioning on John R. Bolton's nomination to be President Bush's ambassador to the United Nations, Bolton and members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee referred to "Mr. Smith" as one official among several who were involved in a dispute over what Democrats asserted was Bolton's inappropriate treatment of an intelligence analyst who disagreed with him.

"We referred to this other analyst at the CIA, whom I'll try and call Mr. Smith here, I hope I can keep that straight," Bolton said at one point.

Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., both mentioned a name, Fulton Armstrong, that had not previously come up in public accounts of the intelligence flap.

It is not clear whether Armstrong is the undercover officer, but an exchange between Kerry and Bolton suggests that he may be.


In questioning Bolton, Kerry read from a transcript of closed-door interviews that committee staffers conducted with State Department officials prior to Monday's hearing.

"Did Otto Reich share his belief that Fulton Armstrong should be removed from his position? The answer is yes," Kerry said, characterizing one interview. "Did John Bolton share that view?" Kerry said, and then said the answer again was yes.

"As I said, I had lost confidence in Mr. Smith, and I conveyed that," Bolton replied evenly. "I thought that was the honest thing to do."

You mean the Fulton Armstrong that was National Intelligence Officer for Latin America? Because that's what he's called here at a Council for Foreign Relations Seminar in October 2001.

The same Fulton Armstrong who's public bio is here?

Care to consider that the National Intelligence office is part of the CIA?

The same Fulton Armstrong who was publicly criticized by the Bush Administration back in January 2004?

That is ONE fucking minute and ONE google search.

Nice reporting there Anne.

Blowed 'em Up Real Good

Cardinals Billy Saul Hurok and Big Jim McBob had them a fine time in Rome doing their version of the blowed 'em up real good routine by snubbing Cardinal Bernard Law's mass given during the official period of mourning Il Popo's death.

VATICAN CITY — The scandal over sex abuse by American priests intruded on the mourning for Pope John Paul II here Monday as all but one U.S.-based cardinal avoided a Mass led by Boston's disgraced former archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law.

Three of the seven cardinals — Edward M. Egan of New York, Francis George of Chicago and Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles — snubbed the Mass in St. Peter's Basilica out of concern over Law's notoriety, three American church sources said.

"There was a general feeling it was best not to be there," said a source familiar with one cardinal's thinking. He said there had been an understanding among at least some of the cardinals to stay away.

Another source said the absence of most U.S. cardinals sent a message of protest. "You'd have to be blind not to see that," he said. "The fact is, they voted with their feet." A third source said the no-shows were part of a "pattern."

All three sources spoke on condition of anonymity two days after the Vatican announced a gag order on the 115 cardinals who are to meet Monday to elect John Paul's successor. None of the American cardinals would comment.

Law's role in the requiem Mass infuriated sexual abuse victims and their advocates in the United States and prompted two of them to stage a brief protest Monday in St. Peter's Square.

Justin Rigali of Philadelphia was the only U.S. resident cardinal present at the Mass with Law. The other American-based cardinals — William Keeler of Baltimore, Adam Maida of Detroit and Theodore McCarrick of Washington — had scheduling conflicts or decided not to attend after being informed that their presence was not mandatory, their aides said.

A general feeling it was best not to be there. Somebody is listening. Hmmm. Now that is a good sign for a change. It is too early to know what it means but credit where credit is due. And why couldn't Rigali come up with a "scheduling conflict"?

Kosher Ranch

I did not know that Bush's tax-dodge gift from political underwriters had been dubbed "Prairie Chapel Ranch". But there are other suggestions, as you'll see in this stream of consciousness post.


When the belly starts a rumbling and I'm jonesing for a treat,
I close my eyes for a big surprise the tender crisp bacon cheddar ranch


I love tender crisp bacon cheddar ranch - the breasts they grown on trees


and streams of bacon ranch dressing flow right up to your knees
there's tumbleweeds of bacon and cheddar paves the streets


folks don't fudge it cause you got the juice


there's a train of ladies coming with a nice caboose


never get in trouble, never need an excuse


that's the tender crisp bacon cheddar ranch


I love the tender crisp bacon cheddar ranch no one tells you to behave


your wildest fantasies come true - Dallas Andover cheerleaders give you shaves


where onions make you laugh instead and french fries grow like weeds


You get to veg all day,


all the lotto tickets paid,


there's a king that wants you to have it your way,


that's the tender crisp bacon cheddar ranch.


Cooooome aaaaand get it!

All Hail the Police State

I wasn't in New York last Summer during the RNC, but there are more than enough stories of the ill manner in which the Bloomberg Administration and the Polic treated those who were. These included a makeshift gulag that held people without charge (and generally without cause) for several days.

And now there is this:

Dennis Kyne put up such a fight at a political protest last summer, the arresting officer recalled, it took four police officers to haul him down the steps of the New York Public Library and across Fifth Avenue.

"We picked him up and we carried him while he squirmed and screamed," the officer, Matthew Wohl, testified in December. "I had one of his legs because he was kicking and refusing to walk on his own."

Accused of inciting a riot and resisting arrest, Mr. Kyne was the first of the 1,806 people arrested in New York last summer during the Republican National Convention to take his case to a jury. But one day after Officer Wohl testified, and before the defense called a single witness, the prosecutor abruptly dropped all charges.

During a recess, the defense had brought new information to the prosecutor. A videotape shot by a documentary filmmaker showed Mr. Kyne agitated but plainly walking under his own power down the library steps, contradicting the vivid account of Officer Wohl, who was nowhere to be seen in the pictures. Nor was the officer seen taking part in the arrests of four other people at the library against whom he signed complaints.

A sprawling body of visual evidence, made possible by inexpensive, lightweight cameras in the hands of private citizens, volunteer observers and the police themselves, has shifted the debate over precisely what happened on the streets during the week of the convention.

For Mr. Kyne and 400 others arrested that week, video recordings provided evidence that they had not committed a crime or that the charges against them could not be proved, according to defense lawyers and prosecutors.

Among them was Alexander Dunlop, who said he was arrested while going to pick up sushi.

Last week, he discovered that there were two versions of the same police tape: the one that was to be used as evidence in his trial had been edited at two spots, removing images that showed Mr. Dunlop behaving peacefully. When a volunteer film archivist found a more complete version of the tape and gave it to Mr. Dunlop's lawyer, prosecutors immediately dropped the charges and said that a technician had cut the material by mistake.

Seven months after the convention at Madison Square Garden, criminal charges have fallen against all but a handful of people arrested that week. Of the 1,670 cases that have run their full course, 91 percent ended with the charges dismissed or with a verdict of not guilty after trial. Many were dropped without any finding of wrongdoing, but also without any serious inquiry into the circumstances of the arrests, with the Manhattan district attorney's office agreeing that the cases should be "adjourned in contemplation of dismissal."

Could there be a bigger indication that the American ideal most all of us espouse and love is widely ignored?

Unfortunately, it is all too common a habit that those who people disagree with or disliked are tarred with all sorts of evils because we figure they must have done something wrong anyway.

How else could bug-eyed Nancy Grace have a chance to hyperventillate every evening on television. I seriously doubt Ms. Grace has ever considered any charged individual to have been wrongly accused. Yet here are hundreds, perhaps thousands of examples of injustice. Will her program touch upon it? Of course not, there is a celebrity freak to convict.

But it is more pernicious than just a dyed-blond bobblehead. This sort of behavior is seen in court rooms across the country from more police officers than just Mr. Wohl. They focus their recollection of events to justify their actions, to justify imprisoning or punishing those they dislike or disagree with...and when you can do it with a badge it is especially pernicious.

New York in the Summer of 2004 was hardly the most oppressive event that ever happened in this country, or in New York for that matter...not even close. But it was still shameful and there should be a glaring media light shown upon this.

But there probably will not be.

Today in History and its Relevance to today

April 11, 1865, Lee surrenders at Appomatux.

Being a northerner, I have a less romantic perspective on the Civil War. I find it heinously gruesome, badly fought tactically...criminally so. I find few heros arising from the conflict, but there are obvious ones. Lincoln, of course; Frederick Douglas; Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, and thousands of soldiers of higher and lesser virtue. Yes, most for me are affiliated with the North. Lee and other Southern figures had some good qualities, some more than others. But you know, there were folks like Rommel in the Second World War and they had their good points too.

Ultimately, the CAUSE you fight for determines the prism in which I, at least, view a figure. Lee fought for the side that he knew at the time was morally wrong on slavery for another cramped principal of fighting for his home. It's all very chivalrous...and morally bankrupt. I give some slack to Lee, as I give to any person trapped within their time, but ultimately, how much slack can you really give a man that chooses to fight for the side advocating the maintenance of human bondage?

Do we really have to consider the consequences of history to wonder how we are in danger of being viewed in 140 years for our current actions?

Steve Gilliard it turns out has a wonderful post on this very topic.

Doggy Style

Via CapitalBuzz comes this insight into how "Pennsylvania Nuts" Ricky Santorum found a way to extract a cool quarter-mill in donations by going to Florida to show just how very, very much he exploited cared about Terry Schiavo.

On Wednesday March 30 Santorum said on national TV, "We canceled it on Monday."

Why? According to the Tampa Tribune, "out of respect" for Schiavo's family.

A spokesperson for the event said, "We just didn't think it was appropriate to go into the region and do a big policy event at this time."

Apparently, though, it was appropriate for a politician seeking re-election to go into the region and do political events at this time. Even if he didn't talk about them.

Santorum told MSNBC-TV, according to the March 30 "Hardball" transcript, he was in Florida because, "I had other plans to - and other meetings." (Schiavo died March 31.) What he didn't say was the plans and "meetings" were fund-raisers for his '06 re-election effort.

There was a luncheon in Orlando and a dinner in Miami on March 29 with Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, a luncheon in Tampa March 30 hosted by Outback Steakhouse, which is headquartered there, and a dinner that night in Palm Beach hosted by execs from Revlon.

The trip was made on a Wal-Mart jet paid for by Santorum's campaign fund.

Total take, according to Santorum finance director Rob Bickhart, was about $250,000 (en route to an April 15 FEC filing expected to show the senator with close to $3 million already).

So he's against humping a dog, but not against humping the severely brain-damaged?

Slump Buster

I'm back...apparently, there's a copyright problem with a bunch of Goyim doing a Jewish Musical.

Meanwhile An email from Holden at First Draft notifies me of this at the Intersection of Gastric Bypass Street & Poor Body Image Avenue:

DUNKIN' DONUTS... [K. J. Lopez ]
...should be advertising on NRO. (Maybe these guys can get on it.)
Posted at 09:00 AM

Some people are just born to walk right into the joke.

Secretly recorded audiotape of K-Lo demanding Stanley Kurtz bring her donuts. (Sorry, simply cannot post this sound enough).

A tad Busy

Attaturk must prepare for his role as Perchik in the Unitarian Church's non-denominational version of "Violinist on the Roof". Play should be interesting with such show stopping numbers as:

...Habitual Behavior
...Match.com
...If I ran a Profitable Enterprise

So posting may well be light the next day or too from me at least. Which is unfortunate because I would really like to blog the moment we find out what the hell is with John Bolton's milk mustache. Though I've already spent all my "carpet matching curtains" jokes on the guy.

Plus there were many goofy pictures of the last few days too, such as Bush meeting the Italian President:


"Sorry 'bout that shootin' there Shortstuff."

And the Powerline Boys don't like their old monikers, so Rox Populi helps us out for new inspiration:


In the name of obvious humor, might I suggest:

"Oh, wise guys."

And don't forget, "Shemp"


In the meantime, I am sure that DeDurkheim and Champollion can pick up some slack.

A Must Read

Culture of Death not life...

No Academic Freedom in Florida

If all goes as planned in the Florida House and Senate, academic freedom ends July 1, 2005. A current bill circulating in the Florida House will shred academic freedom.

The so-called Academic Bill of Rights-Bill 837, brainchild of David Horowitz and sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, under the guise of protecting academic freedom, is headed at sonic speed into our classrooms. If this bill passes, and it is sure looks like it will pass unless we do something to prevent it!

This bill gives students the right to sue their instructors if they aren't happy with what they are taught or the grade they receive. Take a look!

If this bill succeeds, no one will have time to teach or publish or do anything productive, all teachers will be calling lawyers to make sure that they didn't offend anyone with a controversial "idea." How long before this goes further?

Some nice rants

Attaturk is busy grinding out a last place finish at the Masters this weekend, so I'll just steal from the nice folks over at First Draft, where there is a great post from Tena.

Does the radical right really believe that our system of jurisprudence sprang full blown and unique from the foreheads of the founding fathers? Our legal system is based squarely on British jurisprudence. British jurisprudence is based upon European jurisprudence. How in the world can it possibly be considered problematic for judges to look to international precedent when that is where our legal system originated?

This is a major bee up the radical right's collective ass. I've heard it from wingnuts personally - activist judges using precedent from other countries - how dare they? Well, until the United States of America has its own planet, this nation will be a nation among others. If the courts of another country have solved a problem for which our courts have no solution, can someone please tell me what the hell is so wrong with adapting their good ideas to our system? I can promise you that no American court ever considers precedent from another country over precedent from this one. Don't believe me? Get your own fucking copy of the Harvard Blue Book and look at the hierarchy of precedent for yourself. It isn't a secret, folks.

Things you learn reading blogs...

Professor Suave and Debonair is always worth a read. Today he shows us that as big and wish-washy an ass as many assume Tom Friedman to be, there is always room to up your negative appraisal:

I don't know Tom Friedman well. I once had dinner with him and Lee Bollinger, just after September 11, at the university president's house here at the University of Michigan, so I can say I've met him. I remember some of our conversation at that time. I argued, at a time when it seemed clear that the US would go to war with Afghanistan, that simply bombing the Taliban and al-Qaeda would not be enough. I said that the US had a responsibility to do nation-building in Afghanistan. Not only did we owe the country for helping devastate it by using it in as a proxy in our war with the Soviets, but if we did not help it out, it might well fall back into chaos and generate forces that might hit us again. Tom absolutely disagreed and, on free market grounds, argued that no attempt at government state building should ever be undertaken. I explained why I thought it was not only desirable but inevitable. He said, "Well, someone would have to show me how it could be done." I am glad to say that I clearly won this argument after the fact, and Tom seemed rather more enthusiastic about US nation-building a year later, when considering Iraq. Indeed, he now seems to want the US government to engage in vast social-engineering projects throughout the Middle East. Tom, I was just talking about Afghanistan. Even if I convinced you, I didn't mean you to go quite this far.

There is more, it is quite a take down of the tenor in the barbershop quartet.

Evangelista!

I missed its first run last night, and hell, I normally miss all its runs. But after catching the stylistic, but ultimately empty 'Sin City' last night, I managed to catch the 'Capital Catholic Gang' last night on the Christianity News Network.

Holy crap. What a fucking odious smug-fest to Opus "DIE" advocate Douchebag Novak. I mean just speechless. If that show had been broadcast a quarter-century ago and Attaturk had watched it, I'd be suing for being the victim of virtual pederasty because I felt duly diddled.

James Wolcott describes it well (of course):

The Capital Gang went full metal Catholic in this week's edition, using the Pope's death as an altar to celebrate Novak's Catholic conversion as the fellow panelists reminisced about the great day he received his first communion. The centerpiece of the show was a segment devoted to Novak's embrace of the cross, tracing his spiritual development through a visual montage that showed a young Jewish boy from the Midwest evolving into a political reporter aging into a smug man in a banker's vest staring thoughtfully at church statuary and appearing on Crossfire with ashes smudged on his angry brow. He was even interviewed by Judy Woodruff (Hunt's wife) about his newfound faith! It was bad enough when pundits started fancying themselves as political players, now we're supposed to take them seriously as religious pilgrims too.

As many of you probably know, Frank Rich wrote a brilliant column on a similar topic in the NY Times, well worth reading.

So much for the Sunset

Does this mean that a vaguely defined perpetual war mean that we will have vaguely defined perpetual civil rights violations?

Opponents of Patriot Act Push to Change Parts of Law

March 22 (Bloomberg) -- An unusual coalition of conservative groups and the liberal American Civil Liberties Union opened a public campaign today to scale back the enhanced surveillance powers granted to law enforcement after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The alliance, Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, urged Congress to modify what it called ``extreme provisions'' of the USA Patriot Act that expanded police power to conduct secret searches and broadened the definition of terrorism. Because 16 provisions related to surveillance powers will ``sunset'' on Dec. 31 unless Congress extends them, lawmakers are under pressure to take action on the law this year.

The group, headed by former Republican Representative Bob Barr of
Georgia, also urged President George W. Bush in a letter to reconsider his support for full renewal of the Patriot Act.

``We agree that much of the Patriot Act is necessary to provide law
enforcement with the resources they need to defeat terrorism, but we remain very concerned that some of its provisions go beyond that mission and infringe on the rights of law-abiding Americans,'' the group said in its letter to Bush, dated today.

Members of the coalition include the American Conservative Union,
Americans for Tax Reform, the Citizens' Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the Eagle Forum and the American Association of
Physicians and Surgeons.

Renew the Act

``Given the number of folks in this room wearing elephant lapel pins, I don't think the administration can easily discount our message,'' Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU's Washington office, said at a press
conference today.

Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have called on Congress to renew the Patriot Act in full. Gonzales said on Feb. 28 that, while he would welcome a debate in Congress on the topic, ``What I will not support are changes in law that would make America more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.''

Drafted and enacted in just 45 days following the Sept. 11 attacks, the Patriot Act broadened the power of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and police agencies to intercept communications and allowed intelligence officials to share information from foreign surveillance investigations with law enforcement.

`Tangible Things'

David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union,estimated that 95 percent of the law is ``non-controversial.'' Among the provisions that have drawn criticism is one that codified so-called
``delayed-notice'' searches, in which the target isn't immediately
notified.

The law also authorizes the FBI to demand ``any tangible things,''
including books and records, after telling a judge the material is
needed for a terrorism or foreign intelligence investigation. Before the Patriot Act, the FBI could demand only travel or storage-facility records in an espionage or terror investigation and had to meet a higher standard of proof before the judge.

Barr's group said Congress should make changes to the ``delayed-notice'' search provision, which expires at the end of this year, and to the FBI's power to obtain ``any tangible things,'' which doesn't expire.

It also urged changes to a non-expiring provision that broadly defines domestic terrorism as activity that appears to be intended ``to intimidate or coerce'' the public or the U.S. government.

``Terrorism laws must target terrorists, not critics of government
policy,'' Murphy said.

Second Term Priority

Renewing the Patriot Act is one of Bush's second-term domestic
priorities. Gonzales, in remarks to the National Association of Counties on March 7, said the Patriot Act is a compilation of ``common-sense measures'' that have been mischaracterized by ``a small but vocal minority'' of critics.

``We can point to solid results, saved lives, and a nation that is
safer,'' Gonzales said. ``For more than three years, there has not been one verified civil rights abuse under the Patriot Act.''

Gonzales has been attorney general for less than two months. ``I am
hopeful that he will take a more reasonable approach to the Patriot Act than did his predecessor,'' said Paul Weyrich, chief executive of the Free Congress Foundation. ``John Ashcroft's position was that, if you opposed any section of the Patriot Act, you were aiding and abetting terrorists.''

In a report released to Congress last July, Ashcroft said the Patriot Act had contributed to the filing of criminal charges against 310 people and 179 convictions or guilty pleas as of May 5.

The provisions credited with helping law enforcement in many of those cases aren't among those due to expire. Also, while some of those cases targeted people accused of aiding terrorist groups, others involved more traditional criminal cases such as computer hacking and child pornography.

Opposing the Law

The use of the Patriot Act in what he calls ``garden-variety criminal investigations'' is among the objections voiced by Barr, who joined most congressional Republicans in voting for the law in 2001. After losing his bid for a fifth term in 2002, he became a consultant to the American Civil Liberties Union in its attempt to modify the law.

In a statement on the coalition's Web site, Barr said the debate over the law's expiring provisions should be just the beginning of a broader discussion of ``the growth of domestic surveillance and the simultaneous erosion of judicial review'' and of ``how the government is increasingly treating every American as a potential suspect.''

Religious right attacks the Supremes

The religious right have been keeping very busy lately. Now, they are trying to shut out the supreme court.

`Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Supreme Court shall not have jurisdiction to review, by appeal, writ of certiorari, or otherwise, any matter to the extent that relief is sought against an entity of Federal, State, or local government, or against an officer or agent of Federal, State, or local government (whether or not acting in official or personal capacity), concerning that entity's, officer's, or agent's acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government.'.

In interpreting and applying the Constitution of the United States, a court of the United States may not rely upon any constitution, law, administrative rule, Executive order, directive, policy, judicial decision, or any other action of any foreign state or international organization or agency, other than English constitutional and common law up to the time of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.

Wolf Blitzer's Bad versus Good Catholics

Since he styles himself an expert:




Good Catholics:

Cardinal Torquemada: Originated the Order "Opus DIE".

Pope Alexander VI (Borgia): Had a real appetite for life.

Pius XII: Knew the importance of ignoring the Jews (ah, wait a minute...)

Tony Scalia: Most just.

Bob Novak: More than just a lovely smile.



Bad Catholics:

Francis of Assisi: Try "a sissy".

Augustine: Not Arch-Bishop of Hippo for nothin'.

Thomas Moore: No fun at parties.

Joan of Arc: Glory-Hound.

Two Years Later

Remember the live coverage of the deconstruction of the Saddam statuary and the allegedly "MASSIVE CROWD" a celebratin' his downfall?

A live crowd shot

Well, two years later...same square on the proposition, "U.S. get the fuck out of here NOW!"


Little different angle, little closer, but I think the message is pretty clear just the same.

Quality News Coverage

Fresh off of accomplishing the mathematical impossibility of crunching not six, but SEVEN consecutive showings of the 4-hour Popapalooza within a 24 hour period, I see that CNN has decided to give us not one, not two, no not even three, but FOUR hours of coverage of the civil marriage ceremony of the not even yet nominal Head of State of the United Kingdom.

Champollion will be so excited.

Dental Casualty, Kate "Orgasms are Overrated" O'Beirne will be on Press the Meat this weekend.

Meanwhile, Kathryn Lopez will also be on the prowl.

Proof That My Church Doesn't Get It

I've confessed to here, due in part to my itinerant Catholicism, to a passing interest in what brother Attaturk has referred to as Cirque de Il Popo, complete with fancy hats, ornate vestments, and acrobats on high wires. Persusing the news sites today I find proof that the church just doesn't get it.

VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston who became a focal point of the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal in the United States, won a coveted role Thursday to preside at one of a handful of funeral Masses for Pope John Paul II.

The appointment, announced by Archbishop Piero Marini, the Vatican's master of liturgical celebrations, appeared to catch other U.S. cardinals by surprise. It stunned sexual abuse victims' advocates.

****

Law, 73, was appointed last year to the largely administrative post at the architecturally stunning St. Mary Major, which attracts many tourists. He remains a cardinal and is eligible to vote for a new pope.

Custom notwithstanding, Law's role in the ceremonies was seen by some Americans, particularly in Boston, as being blind to the toll of the abuse scandal.

Given the chance to say the right thing, Law's fellow Cardinals had some enlightening things to say.

"I've great regard for Cardinal Law. He's a friend. He's a good man. He's gone through a difficult time. I think there are many who feel he is responsible for the difficult time, but who knows?" McCarrick said.

Several cardinals refused to comment Thursday. "The selection is not for me to comment on," Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia said. Cardinal Edward Egan of New York also demurred. "I won't get into that one, eh?" Tod Tamberg, an aide to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, said, "Cardinal Mahony's not got anything to say."

Princes of the church indeed. I guess we're not going to get that enlightened Pope after all.

PROFESSIONAL Writer

Allegedly paid for prose like this:

LAW PROMINENCE [K. J. Lopez]
This is infuriating--the kinda thing I hope the next pope gets cannot be.
Posted at 08:12 AM

She typa da engrish.


Furthermore, she also apparently has stock in the Funeral Home Industry...

...Today, he showed us how a funeral should be...

In Honor of the Papacy

You know I think there is a good chance that Bush may convert and go "old school Christian" today...I can just see him now..."Say this Jesus Cracker is tasty! I enjoy this transmutilation thingy. Laura, these people got a nice place here, we're convertin'"

And so, with considerable help from Dear Leader and others...

I salute my favorite parody of ridiculous dogma:

There are Jews in the world.
There are Buddhists.
There are Hindus and Mormons, and then
There are those that follow Mohammed, BUT!

I've never been one of them!

I'm a Roman Catholic,
And have been since before I was born,
And the one thing they say about Catholics is:

They'll take you as soon as you're warm.


You don't have to be a six-footer.


You don't have to have a great brain.


You don't have to have any clothes on. You're


A Catholic the moment Dad came,

Because


Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,

God gets quite irate.


Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.


Let the heathen spill theirs
On the dusty ground.

God shall make them pay for
Each sperm that can't be found.

Every sperm is wanted.
Every sperm is good.
Every sperm is needed

In your neighbourhood.

Hindu, Taoist, Mormon,
Spill theirs just anywhere,

But God loves those who treat their
Semen with more care.

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is good.
Every sperm is needed
In your neighbourhood!

Every sperm is useful.
Every sperm is fine.
God needs everybody's.

Mine! And mine! And mine!

Let the Pagan spill theirs

O'er mountain, hill, and plain.

God shall strike them down for

Each sperm that's spilt in vain.

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is good.

Every sperm is needed
In your neighbourhood.

Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,

God gets quite iraaaaate!

Friday Miscellaneous Life From Blogging (Doubleheader)

Continuing our look at the relative strength of religion, I ask you which appears stronger:


The Angel Fish?


or



The Devilfish?

Think about it.

The Majesty

I have to admit, between the perpetual papal funerial rite and the Masters, I'm going to be "Traditioned" out this weekend.

Play-by-Play

I have to say, as prolonged as the television coverage seems of what can be best described as "The Eternal Internment", on my drive to work today the BBC World Service was doing it on the radio.

You cannot imagine how splendiferous hearing American accented Latin translated into Oxford accented English is. Well, if you heard it as well perhaps you can.

Of Pies and Them

Alright, I admit in a fashion there is a sense of satisfaction that the reprehensible Coulter, Bill Kristol, Pat Buchanan and now David Horowitz have had pies and or other non harmful foodstuffs tossed at them.

I don't know if this is a trend.

But I do know that as funny as it is, it can easily be turned against the left with the broadbrush of we are all babies.

But mostly it reminds me that nothing will be both as humorous and self-defeating to me as when in my college years in Minnesota I watched the antics of anti-CIA protestors calling themselves the REVOLUTIONARY ANARCHIST BOWLING LEAGUE, their modus operandi was to toss bowling balls into the buildings in which the CIA was recruiting. They predated the dates Wikipedia gave them, they were around in the early 1980s.

And in the end that really did not accomplish much other than to let me tell this story.

Anyhoo, their method of protest, while novel, didn't change much. I don't think a pastry in the beak will do much either.

But then again, I post a lot of juvenile stuff on this blog - without it accomplishing much beyond entertainment value (which has its own value), so YMMV.

I think there is a suspect

Sherman was 141 Years Too Early

Well, at the Intersection of Nonsense Street & Fleecing you of your Cash Avenue, across from IDOWHATIWANTTODO BLVD (aka the Corner...) someone we all know is going to ATLANTA and touting the PIAs as a money making operation incessently; perhaps his Bushness wanted to be in Sherman's army?