LowerCaseRepublican

You said that putting a person's personal life under a microscope was wrong. So, would you say that the GOP witch hunt of Clinton was wrong? (Witch hunt being Troopergate, Broadderick, etc. which have been discounted by many including former right wing writer David Brock who wrote a lot of the Troopergate and Arkansas Project stories) And hey, Juggs...America was never meant to be a democracy. Read the Federalist Papers. It clearly states that the goal of government is to "protect the minority of the opulent against the majority." And calling the argument bulls*** instead of refuting the points. Nice job there. Methinks I've won this argument.

Juggs, your terrorist query. The US Constitution affords all people in the US due process under the law. So take it up with the framers if you don't like it. I'm not keen with having secret tribunals where one does not get a defense lawyer and they can administer the death penalty without telling anybody. It's like a secret gulag. And if the VICTORY Act passes in Congress, cops will have subpoena power and you when arrested you can be put into a tribunal because the VICTORY Act greatly opens up the number of crimes that tribunals can apply. You could, theoretically be picked up, arrested, shipped off to a camp, tribunal, and killed without anybody knowing what happened to you. As for the "majority wants this!"...the majority didn't want integration in the 1950s and 1960s. The majority is not always right and the design of the US government is to protect minority rights from the insane ramblings of the majority because often times the majority is a bunch of knee jerk reactionaries.

So, Juggs...the Scaife subsidized Arkansas Project to dig up everything about Clinton i.e. Troopergate, Broadderick, etc. was wrong then too? Are you ready to admit that then if I am to take your statements for what they say? I think a person's background matters if they are a hypocrite like Newt Gingrich or Bob Barr etc. You know, saying they are for the sanctity of marriage and sex etc. yet doing the exact opposite behind closed doors.

A great day for freedom of speech! I'm sure Thomas voted to block this porn law so he could continue to discuss pornography while at the office. If there is a bedrock principle of the 1st amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable. -- Justice Brennan, TX vs Johnson 1989

Juggs, unsealing certain court records is different than your big jump to everything else you stated. First off, terrorists haven't bombed the s*** out of us. (assuming you mean a ton of times) and in the few instances they have, they have been convicted. See Ramzi Yousef, Tim McVeigh, etc. etc. Secondly, legalization of drugs. Throwing non-violent drug offenders in prison for incredibly long sentences is insane. 90% of people busted for drug possession are small time offenders with no intent to sell and have a personal amount. Before 9/11 Bush and Clinton had 2x the amount of FBI agents fighting the drug war rather than focusing on terrorism. The costs of housing non-violent offenders are astronomical. In certain states they are releasing violent murderers and rapists in order to make room for more drug war offenders. Also, gay sex is legal. Supreme Court ruled that. What I'm worried about is how the state of Texas, when they were legislating the anti-sodomy law, they were attempting to legalize beastiality. And prostitution is legal as well in certain states. Morality police didn't work in prohibition and it will not work in the drug war or sexuality. As long as somebody is not infinging on your rights and not harming another person, they should be free from government interference to do as they please. As for the references about God, most cultures before Christianity had law codes. The idea that Christianity was the first law code is preposterous. Also the fact that even George Washington stated in the Treaty of Tripoli in 1793 that the United States was not founded in any sense on the Christian religion. The US is not a theocracy, no matter how much the Christian Right tries to make it so.

As Yoda stated: Now, this is an interesting precedent. 1988 use of chemical weapons and the launching of the Iran-Iraq war were both instances where the US armed & funded the efforts. If Saddam is found guilty for war crimes, do you think that the court would also attempt to punish US interests for assisting him and being an accessory? Yes, Saddam was/is a sick bastard. It's telling that we did so much business with him (including Cheney wanting Iraq taken off the list of terrorist nations in 2000 so Halliburton could do more extensive business dealings than they were already doing)

Shall I get you a rattle and a fresh change of diapers, CK?

Zero is warming right now.

That's racist!

Well, at least he's honest about it.

Fielder's choice for Uribe. Runner on 1st and 1 out.

From the article: The 6-foot-3, 290-pound Goliath, the guy who benches 475 pounds, squats 695 pounds, steamed. "Yeah?" the former pro wrestler said, his voice growing louder, his eyes getting bigger. "Well you tell that ..." To print what Brock Lesnar said might make even John Rocker blush. But after his curse-laden outburst, he turned to a nearby reporter and explained, "I don't like gays. Write that down in your little notebook. I don't like gays." --Well it's good to know that he'll go into a sport with men slapping each other on the ass and a bunch of men naked in showers, etc. etc. This is after he left a "sport" where he pranced around in tights that would make Richard "I slapped a cage fighter" Simmons proud. And another piece of the article: Instead, he's his own man. A man who loves contact. Aggression. And people telling him he can't do something. --How about he writes a doctoral dissertation on the status of the democracy in regards to the International Monetary Fund. I don't think he can do it.

I was reading an article published by Edward Said before his death and it had a really interesting part about the NPI in Palestine. I thought it looked promising because it's not into accessorizing with dynamite and is garnering more and more electoral support as a more moderate movement of co-existance rather than Fatah and Hamas... Here's a snip about the NPI: Even though they are mostly unorganised and in some cases lead miserable lives of exile and statelessness, diaspora Palestinians are still energetically engaged by the problems of their collective destiny, and everyone that I know is always trying somehow to advance the cause. Only a miniscule fraction of this energy has ever found its way into the Palestinian Authority, which except for the highly ambivalent figure of Arafat has remained strangely marginal to the common fate. According to recent polls, Fatah and Hamas between them have the support of roughly 45 per cent of the Palestinian electorate, with the remaining 55 per cent evolving quite different, much more hopeful-looking political formations. One in particular has struck me as significant (and I have attached myself to it) inasmuch as it now provides the only genuine grassroots formation that steers clear both of the religious parties and their fundamentally sectarian politics, and of the traditional nationalism offered up by Arafat's old (rather than young) Fatah activists. It's been called the National Political Initiative (NPI) and its main figure is Mustafa Barghouti, a Moscow- trained physician, whose main work has been as director of the impressive Village Medical Relief Committee, which has brought health care to more than 100,000 rural Palestinians. A former Communist Party stalwart, Barghouti is a quiet- spoken organiser and leader who has overcome the hundreds of physical obstacles impeding Palestinian movement or travel abroad to rally nearly every independent individual and organisation of note behind a political programme that promises social reform as well as liberation across doctrinal lines. Singularly free of conventional rhetoric, Barghouti has worked with Israelis, Europeans, Americans, Africans, Asians, Arabs to build an enviably well-run solidarity movement that practices the pluralism and co-existence it preaches. NPI does not throw up its hands at the directionless militarisation of the Intifada. It offers training programmes for the unemployed and social services for the destitute on the grounds that this answers to present circumstances and Israeli pressure. Above all, NPI which is about to become a recognised political party, seeks to mobilise Palestinian society at home and in exile for free elections -- authentic elections which will represent Palestinian, rather than Israeli or US, interests. This sense of authenticity is what seems so lacking in the path cut out for Abu Mazen. The vision here isn't a manufactured provisional state on 40 per cent of the land, with the refugees abandoned and Jerusalem kept by Israel, but a sovereign territory liberated from military occupation by mass action involving Arabs and Jews wherever possible.

Ah, Protest Warriors, the neo-conservatives who support TWAT (The War on Terror) I was on Fark yesterday and saw that a Utah school passed a ban on anti-war t-shirts because of "real threats of physical violence from pro-war students." If this student actually got permission to put up the signs, he does have a right to since free speech does not end at the school door as he says citing the case of Tinker v. Des Moines. However, throwing them up randomly isn't the best way to do things. And calling his teacher a socialist? Does he have proof that she's a socialist? It's more sensationalistic because he knew that this unapproved signs would be taken down and then he could take compromising photos. And if he's saying that she reads Chomsky but then loves Communism then the kid is again somebody who has not read Chomsky. Chomsky tears apart Soviet Russia and its satellites' policies just as often as he critiques capitalist regimes like the US in his books and lectures. The signs are too simplistic and leave no room for actual debate (i.e. US weapons being sold to Saddam that allowed him to perpetrate his mass murder spree etc.) I also found it mildly amusing that they had a Thomas Paine quote on the page when he was against entangling foreign affairs and quite not Christian. I have no problem with him putting up his signs, except his ones for the Greens. The Green party is not what he states and is not into socialism. It is into creating greater responsibility for organizations like the WTO etc. It's deception in that sense. However, it could have led to a fruitful debate re: crony capitalism and other topics related to TWAT.

1549, I believe your answer is the Greens and Libertarians.

Wow his 1st post on SoxTalk and he's more sane than a lot of the whiners that have been lamenting the loss of Olivo. Garcia is a 2 time all star with a lot of credentials. Here's to him kicking ass and taking names for the rest of this season. The guy is a beast and he'll get the run support from the Sox compared to the last place in offense in the AL Mariners. Plus if the M's wanna resign him, they're gonna have to spend money on bats rather than arms so there's a distinct possibility that Garcia stays out of their price range. Plus we have Freddy's best friend as our manager. Methinks there was a reason KW made this trade and it's to get Garcia for the long term. I'll give up Olivo and two prospects for a proven ace. Pitching wins championships.

Variety is the spice of life.

I'd love to see WHERE THE f*** all the people who are certain Freddy Garcia won't resign and his ERA will skyrocker to way over 5 are getting their goddamned information. For f***'s sake, the man has yet to take one pitch in a Sox uni. Give him a goddamned chance before you rip into the trade. And lemme guess, if he pitches fantastically, you'll let me make a thread for you, Jeckle, like you did to Aboz demanding that you eat crow for being incorrect, right?

I gotta agree with SuperSteve here. I'm f***ing excited as Hell for Freddy Garcia. Look at this kid's numbers. 3.20 ERA 107 IP 96 H 39 R 38 ER 32 BB 82 K .236 BAA He's 28 years old and he is very close friends with our manager. There's no reason to think that he will not keep up pitching as well as he has done. We also have a shot at signing him again for the next year and he's got a close friend in Ozzie so if he likes Chicago, we've got a damn good rotation for a while. Everybody hauls out the KW f***up like getting Richie and Koch. However he's also gotten us Marte, Uribe (who's been an absolute beast early in the season) etc. I miss Olivo but the old saying says, "Pitching wins championships and good pitching beats good hitting." We needed the ace and we got it. Time to win some games and take care of business. We've got the offense taken care of for the most part (although some more lefty power would be nice) and now we've gotten the ace we've needed for so damn long. Yes the argument can be made that he could have gotten it in the offseason or a month ago but many teams were not dealing at the time (that not dealing comment meaning a month ago) and the cost could have been higher that it ultimately was. We saved money dumping Colon and now we can use that to deal with Freddy. Here's to riding his arm to a Sox World Series title.

Jeckle, I found something that reminded me of what SuperSteve's said to you and my reaction to what SuperSteve had remarked. Jeckle, you've been...

I'm not going to defend Kerry because I think he is a softheaded tit as well. Since we're in a safe state in IL that is automatically going to go to Kerry anyway, I'm thinking of voting Cobb for the Greens since they finally have gotten away from Ralph Nader. I think the reason there is not more outcry from the people that advocated force is one simple reason: partisan advantage. Either party seizes on those and uses them. Nobody wants to be painted as somebody who was had to their constituency. You know as well as I that changing a decision can be used by the opposition (look at Dubya's attacks on Kerry's flip-flopping or the Dem attacks at Dean for his constant change of position in the primaries) To take a line from Full Metal Jacket "It's a big s*** sandwich." and nobody wants to take a bite. Kerry in my eyes is Bush lite because he voted for damn near everything that Bush wanted to get through legislation-wise.

Kap and IlliniBob, Google W199I. I've posted details about this a lot. Bush's executive order stopping any investigation into AQ and a bunch of FBI agents are now coming out saying that the Bush admin. handcuffed their investigations. As for the CIA evidence, would that be the CIA intelligence used in the State of the Union address or the UN speech that was shown to be plagiarized from grad school work done in 1991. Even Hussein Kamal, the Iraqi weapons program director (whose testimony most hawks in the admin. use to justify the war) said that Iraq had dismantled any production and possession of chemical/biological weapons by 1995. And nowhere did anybody say that Iraq was going to attack the US except for Bush and Blair and both their statements were disproven. Read Ralph McGehee's book about the CIA (It's called "Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA". He spent 25 years working for them as an agent and said that the CIA is not an intelligence gathering agency but rather an agency that is told to find any evidence to make a White House course of action that has been pre-determined look respectible.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=2891 This is a Libertarian right wing review of F 9/11. I'm going to see the film tonight. This review seems pretty interesting.

Timo with the nice impersonation of Sammy. Woo!

Timo!