The Ministry of Shadows

Last Five Entries

Gone, But Not Forgotten?
Friday, Jan. 20, 2012

What The Internet Will Look Like Under SOPA
Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012

Fearsgiving Week
Monday, Nov. 21, 2011

Jesus Approves of Waterboarding
Monday, Nov. 14, 2011

Beware of Asteroids
Wednesday, Nov. 09, 2011

Resources

FirstGov Portal

Legislative Database


Recommended Reading

Bindyree

Bruce Schneier

James Hudnall

Glenn Greenwald

D-Day

You Are Dumb


All links are current as of the date of publication. All content created by the author is copyrighted 2005-2010, except where held by the owners/publishers of parent works and/or subject materials. Any infringement of another's work is wholly unintentional. If you see something here that is yours, a polite request for removal or credit will be honored.



Ballistic Bill?

Thursday, Apr. 03, 2008 3:44 AM

Political reporters Phil Matier and Andrew Ross of the San Francisco Chronicle relate the story of former President Bill Clinton 'going ballistic' in a private meeting with California superdelegates during the state Democratic Party Convention this past weekend. Clinton's ire was directed at former candidate Bill Richardson's recent endorsement of Senator Barack Obama.

Apparently, it's a betrayal (qualified by Clinton faithful James Carville as Judas-like) when Richardson changes his mind (though Richardson says he never pledged his support at any point), but it's defending the electorate's right to choose when Hillary Rodham Clinton spins her narrative about committed delegates changing their minds in her favor.

Bill Clinton's outburst was so over-the-top that he later called to apologize to the superdelegate who asked about Richardson's endorsement of Obama.


A Pew Research poll shows that 46% of Americans consider Hillary Rodham Clinton a phony.

Maybe it's her insistence on her sniper-fire story, and then a lame excuse about being sleep deprived or misspeaking when exposed as a lie.

Or perhaps it's the idiocy of her '3AM Crisis' ads, now talking about that crisis being an economic one. It still hasn't occurred to anyone on her team that at 3:00 AM, Wall Street and the nation's banks are closed and dark. Any financial crisis will be dealt with during business hours, and that response will not be with the president leading the way.


Should Hillary Rodham Clinton actually take the Democratic nomination, I'm in the difficult position of voting for her, voting for McCain, or voting for a third-party candidate who hasn't a snowball's chance in hell of winning anything. (Not voting is not an option.)

I understand the stakes in regards to the power of the next president to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court, but this is like asking me if I'd like to be stabbed or shot. I'm not particularly enamored of either choice, and I'm not about to pick one over the other because it hurts less.

Not that anyone at the DNC is listening, but if you nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton, you will not have my vote in November. I submit that it is not the undecided voter you should worry about, but the voter who is losing faith in the party's ability to adequately represent them.


Speaking of liars, we come to the Bush Administration. In releasing the controversial memo by Berkeley law professor John Yoo, which laid the groundwork for the Administration's views on torture, the existence of another memo has been revealed - one that addresses the subject of warrantless wiretaps.

The memo is titled, 'Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States,' and is referred to only in a footnote, explaining that the Administration believed Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure did not apply to 'domestic military applications.'

We are now seeing evidence of a systematic attack upon the Constitution. President Bush's changes to Posse Comitatus (buried within a 2006 Defense Appropriations Act) had nothing to do with speeding federal response to a Hurricane Katrina-scale disaster, but a retroactive covering of their collective, corrupt asses.

Let's recap. They don't think the Fourth Amendment applies to terrorist suspects. They don't believe in Posse Comitatus, or Habeas Corpus. They think we should reserve the right to torture suspects, and that the Geneva Conventions are 'quaint and outmoded.' They've proclaimed dates as 'Loyalty Day' and 'Patriot Day.' Yet they'll wear flag pins on their lapels, denounce others as unpatriotic or disloyal, and loudly proclaim that we're a Christian nation.

Right.


The NATO Council has voted against President Bush's motion to bring the Soviet States of Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance.

Perhaps that's because they're getting the idea Mr. Bush wants NATO as his own personal 'coalition' to underwrite his continued military adventurism. Perhaps it's because they're once bitten, twice shy in regards to more tales of an Islamic menace seeking WMDs with which to threaten the free world.

Or, maybe, they're taking seriously Vladimir Putin's quiet opposition to America's basing a 'missile defense' system on Russia's borders.



The Ministry has received 0 comment(s) on this topic.