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Latest Articles: Opinions/Editorials
Getting to a Wisconsin Senate Quorum
Post Date: 2011-02-20 11:39:19 by A K A Stone
20 Comments
Wisconsin Senate rules require a 3/5 quorum in the Senate. There are currently 19 Republican senators, and 14 Democrat senators. The GOP needs one more to get to 20. The Democrat senators have apparently said they will stay away for weeks if necessary. If the GOP majority could replace one Democrat with a Republican, that would give them 20. The remaining Democrat state senators could stay in Illinois watching ESPN and chatting up the waitresses as long as they want. The GOP could proceed without them. If the length of play really is weeks then Article XIII, Sec. 12 of the Wisconsin Constitution, which provides for recall elections, could be used. The qualified electors of the state of ...
Patrick J. Buchanan: A Middle East Without America?
Post Date: 2011-02-19 15:31:28 by Brian S
2 Comments
The fever sweeping the Middle East is now coursing through Libya, Yemen, Iran and Bahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based. In all four nations, state violence is being used to crush the rebels, and regime survival hangs on whether security forces and the army stand behind the government or stand aside. A new Middle East is dawning. What will it look like? Perhaps the nation to study is Turkey, which has already gone through a democratic and dramatic transformation. In 2000, Turkey was a reliable U.S. ally, a friend to Israel, an aspiring candidate for membership in the EU. Since then, Turkey has set a different course, welcomed by her people, that has measurably enhanced her ...
Wisconsin: The First Stop in An American Uprising?
Post Date: 2011-02-19 14:52:57 by Brian S
6 Comments
The uprising that swept Tunisia, Egypt, and parts of Europe is showing signs of blossoming across the United States. In Wisconsin, public employees and their supporters are drawing the line at Governor Scott Walker’s plan to eliminate collective bargaining and unilaterally cut benefits. School teachers, university students, firefighters, and others descended on the capital in the tens of thousands, and even the Superbowl champion Green Bay Packers have weighed in against the bill. Protests against similar anti-union measures are ramping up in Ohio. Meanwhile, another protest movement aimed at protecting the poor and middle class is in the works. Cities around the country are preparing ...
If Protests In Milwaukee Turn Bloody, Who Is to Blame? Most Would Think the Protesters Themselves, But WHO Is Responsible for the Bussing In of Thousands of Potentially Violent Mobs? (My Title)
Post Date: 2011-02-19 14:41:51 by Murron
2 Comments
"You have ZERO idea of how much blood and death and violence the STATE has brought to bear to eliminate Collective Bargaining.~ mcgowanjm If Protests In Milwaukee Turn Bloody, Who Is to Blame? Most Would Think the Protesters Themselves, And They Would Be 'Partly' Right. But WHO Is Responsible for the Bussing In of Tens of Thousands of Potentially Violent Mobs? Obama Announces "Organizing for America" The new group had been long expected within Obama's inner circle and, although no details on how it would be staffed were released by the transition office today, it is expected that longtime Obama loyalists will be placed in charge -- following the blueprint set ...
Why There Should Be A Case Against George W. Bush Under Torture Law
Post Date: 2011-02-19 14:37:15 by Brian S
1 Comments
New York (CNN) -- There was widespread support among scores of human rights groups and many others for recent efforts to have Switzerland open a preliminary investigation for torture against former President George W. Bush during his planned (and now canceled) visit to Geneva. Our belief is that Bush violated U.S. and international law when he authorized torture, including the water boarding of detainees. Torture is a crime under a federal statute, Torture Statute, as well as under the War Crimes Act, and the Convention Against Torture, of which the U.S. was a major proponent. The support for the investigation stems from Bush's open admission that the authorized water boarding, the ...
Milwaukee Teachers Earn More than $100,000 a Year
Post Date: 2011-02-19 12:59:14 by jwpegler
1 Comments
The Wisconsin teacher strike has ignited another debate about America's supposedly underpaid teachers. Let's talk reality here. According to the MacIver Institute total teacher compensation in Milwaukee is $100,005 a year. Salaries average $56,500 and benefits are $43,505. It's a strange salary to benefit ratio, but unions have been pushing benefits over salaries for decades. It was their choice to do this. Teachers work less than 37 weeks a year. They get 10 weeks off in the summer, 1 week at Christmas, 1 week for mid-winter break, 1 week for spring break, and 11 holidays. The leaves 1472 hours for work. $100,005 / 1472 hours is $68 an hour. Over the last couple of years, I ...
Winds Of Change Blowing Through The Suez Canal
Post Date: 2011-02-18 20:34:07 by Brian S
1 Comments
Cairo, 18 February – To the dismay of Israel Egypt's Foreign and Defence Ministries approved Iran's request to permit the passage of two of its warships through the Suez Canal. Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman described the move as a provocation of his country. The Suez Canal Authority has yet to receive the approval by the Defence Ministry in Cairo, but Tehran, which asserts the ships are not carrying weapons nor nuclear material, expects a smooth processing of its request. The Iranian ships are heading to a Syrian port, where they are awaited by the Syrian Navy to help in training naval forces. It is the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran ...
Shirley Jackson Thinks Murdering Babies Is A Right. !
Post Date: 2011-02-18 19:01:10 by A K A Stone
0 Comments
Re "Ohio considers abortion limits. "Fed 13: This article was very troubling to me because it was all about how abortion will be more difficult in Ohio because of the conservative Reputlicans who are now in office.
I remember what it was like before Roe V. Wade in Ohio. Illegal abortions were gotten by many women and some died as a result.
It is important that abortions are available in Ohio and elsewhere. Restrictions proposed by conservative Republicans-who are mostly men, by the way-will put Ohio women at risk.
Do you remember how it was to get an abortion before Roe V. Wade? I do and it wasn't a pretty site.
Poster Comment:
This wack job talks about it being troubling if ...
Bill Moy, The Moron
Post Date: 2011-02-18 18:51:49 by A K A Stone
0 Comments
Re Abortion limits: Thank you, pro-life politicians for making sure every fetus has a chance.
Since most of these unwanted babies are born to desperately poor single moms and will never know a father, please remember to fully fund family services, food stamps, hot lunches, after-school programs, scholarships, welfare, adoption agencies, foster care, drug and alcohol programs, juvenile hall, prison, Medicaid and the Ohio HIV Drug Assistance Program when you pass your bill.
I think your sincerity would be greatly enhance if you step up and adopt a crack or meth addicted, deformed or poverty-born orphan at the same time you sign your bill.
Poster Comment:
So this moron thinks if you ...
Haley Barbour's silence speaks volumes
Post Date: 2011-02-18 09:39:26 by go65
32 Comments
Does Haley Barbour really have a warped and offensive view of America's racial history? Or is he just playing a dangerous game? Perhaps both. The Mississippi governor, considered a potential Republican candidate for president in 2012, keeps displaying what appears to be an astonishing level of ignorance about our nearly 400-year struggle with issues of race. At this point, it's more than a pattern. It's either a pathology or a plan. The latest outrage - and I don't use that word lightly - came Tuesday, when Barbour was asked to comment on a proposal for a state license plate honoring one of the most notorious figures of the Civil War era, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford ...
Overcoming Israel's Attempts To Discredit Protest
Post Date: 2011-02-16 17:40:38 by Brian S
1 Comments
Instead of addressing human rights concerns, Israel seeks to delegitimize those leveling the charges. (ActiveStills) In recent months, Israel's tactics to discredit legitimate protestors have become increasingly Orwellian as it steps up its campaign against human rights activists within the country and abroad, especially in the United Kingdom. Human rights groups in Israel will now face scrutiny following the formation of a government-approved parliamentary committee to investigate Israeli organizations which criticize Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Thus, instead of tackling legitimate human rights concerns, Israel seeks to delegitimize those leveling the ...
The Toxic Residue Of Colonialism
Post Date: 2011-02-16 16:58:07 by Brian S
4 Comments
The overt age of grand empires gave way to the age of covert imperial hegemony, but now the edifice is crumbling. Richard Falk Last Modified: 14 Feb 2011 15:44 GMT Email Article Print ArticleShare Article Send Feedback As traffic returns to Tahrir Square, Egyptians are left to wonder if they've been sold out - like so many revolutionaries before them - and if the demands of the revolution will survive the perils of governance [GALLO/GETTY] At least, overtly, there has been no talk from either Washington or Tel Aviv - the governments with most to lose as the Egyptian revolution unfolds - of military intervention. Such restraint is more expressive of ...
Ann Coulter: Parasitical Wretch Or Clueless Idiot?
Post Date: 2011-02-16 12:20:15 by Brian S
2 Comments
Ann Coulter has had her day. Unfortunately that day ended with the exit of Bill Clinton from the White House. Her schtick back then was criticism of Clinton for the various torts that almost got him impeached. After Clinton left office, she became just another brainless Bushite, a blind follower of the most profoundly un-conservative president in recent history. Our girl didn't have the experience in politics needed to see through the neocon agenda of open borders and liberal internationalism. And any presumptively conservative pundit who failed to see through Bush lost all credibility. Of ocurse that disqualifies just about all the wannabe conservatives who occupy the ...
Obama Isn't Trying to 'Weaken America'
Post Date: 2011-02-15 20:09:09 by Skip Intro
0 Comments
Some conservatives call the president the political equivalent of a suicide bomber: so consumed with hatred that he's willing to blow himself up in order to inflict casualties on a society he loathes. Some conservative commentators may feel inclined to spend Presidents Day ruminating over Barack Obama's evil intentions, or denouncing the chief executive as an alien interloper and ideologue perversely determined to damage the republic. Instead, they should consider the history of John Adams's White House prayer and develop a more effective focus for their criticism. On Nov. 2, 1800, a day after he became the first president to occupy the newly constructed executive mansion, ...
7 Non-Political Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives
Post Date: 2011-02-14 21:06:17 by A K A Stone
10 Comments
People who don't follow politics tend to believe that conservatives and liberals are just flip sides of the same coin. In other words, conservatives are pro-life, pro-gun, and fiscally conservative while liberals are pro-choice, anti-gun, and want to tax and spend, but otherwise, there are no real differences. However, if you follow politics closely, you'll find that there's a gulf as wide as the ocean between the average politically active conservative and the average politically active liberal. We don't just have political differences; we view the world through very different eyes. Of course, I don't want to oversell this because as Americans, conservatives and ...
What Egypt Can Teach America
Post Date: 2011-02-14 15:54:26 by Brian S
2 Comments
It’s a new day in the Arab world — and, let’s hope, in American relations to the Arab world The truth is that the United States has been behind the curve not only in Tunisia and Egypt for the last few weeks, but in the entire Middle East for decades. We supported corrupt autocrats as long as they kept oil flowing and weren’t too aggressive toward Israel. Even in the last month, we sometimes seemed as out of touch with the region’s youth as a Ben Ali or a Mubarak. Recognizing that crafting foreign policy is 1,000 times harder than it looks, let me suggest four lessons to draw from our mistakes: 1.) Stop treating Islamic fundamentalism as a bogyman and allowing it ...
Tea-Party Traitors
Post Date: 2011-02-14 13:45:32 by Brian S
0 Comments
Unlike many right-wing commentators, I did not endorse the tea-party movement when it erupted. Nor, like a few unusually shameless media whores, did I rush to leap in front of the parade and claim that I was leading it. I did not even think of doing either because I concluded from the start that the tea party is a useless and incoherent political mirage that is unlikely to accomplish anything of substance. It is not elections but the subsequent actions of the officials elected that matter. This is why, despite the Republican landslide of 2010 that saw an amazing 40 tea party-backed Republicans elected to the House of Representatives, I see absolutely no reason to change my mind about it. ...
Roubini’s Next Crisis Is Scary Food for Thought
Post Date: 2011-02-14 12:45:45 by Brian S
0 Comments
Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Forget Egypt for a moment. Skip the water crisis in China. Look past angst on the streets of Bangladesh. If you want to see how extreme the effects of surging food prices are becoming, look to wealthy Japan. So big are the increases that economists are buzzing about them pushing deflationary Japan toward inflation. Yes, rising costs for commodities such as wheat, corn and coffee might do what trillions of dollars of central-bank liquidity couldn’t. Yet the economic consequences of food prices pale in comparison with the social ones. Nowhere could the fallout be greater than Asia, where a critical mass of those living on less than $2 a day reside. It might ...
Mubarak's Departure Thwarted Israeli Strike On Iran
Post Date: 2011-02-13 18:35:02 by Brian S
1 Comments
Most Israelis were either born or immigrated to this country during the period in which Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt. This is the reality they know. And this is the significance of the stability that Mubarak provided them with. In all the upheavals that took place in the Middle East over the past three decades, the Egyptian regime appeared to be a powerful rock. The leaders of Israel knew that their left flank was secure as they went out to war, built settlements and negotiated peace on the other fronts. The friction in relations between Jerusalem and Cairo, however frustrating it was at times, did not undermine the foundations of the strategic alliance created by the Israeli-Egyptian peace ...
When Will Obama Start Talking To Hamas And Hezbollah?
Post Date: 2011-02-13 18:27:29 by Brian S
2 Comments
It is often said that in the Middle East, anything is possible; judging by America's behavior toward Egypt, one can say the same thing about U.S. policy. By Zvi Bar'el Under other circumstances, that is, were our prime minister known for his foresight and for his planning and analytical capabilities, one might even suspect him of being behind the "provocation" in Cairo, which, of course, serves the "Zionist interest." How pleasant to see the United States digging itself a deeper hole every day with its declarations and suggestions to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak: Yes to resigning now; no to resigning now; lift the state of emergency; dissolve parliament, ...
The Hypocrisy Of Zionism; The terrorism is real—but who are the real terrorists?
Post Date: 2011-02-13 18:21:49 by Brian S
0 Comments
By Sarah Carlson February 12, 2011 Seattle bus ad censored due to Zionist pressure On Jan. 27, a group of Israeli settlers opened fire on the West Bank village of Beit Ommar. Yousef Fakhri Ikhlayl, 17-years-old, was shot in the head while standing in his family's vineyard. Two days later, Israeli “security” forces opened fire on Ikhlayl’s funeral procession—first with sound grenades and teargas canisters and then with rubber bullets and live ammunition. Less than two weeks earlier and nearly 7,500 miles away, a group called “Stand With Us” launched an ad campaign in six San Francisco Bay Area BART stations. This was in response to ads placed in three of ...
What "Original Intent" Would Look Like
Post Date: 2011-02-13 13:19:56 by Brian S
0 Comments
Tea Partiers would be surprised how little freedom they'd have if we read the Constitution literally By David Schultz Salon/iStockphoto With reverence and awe, Michele Bachmann and the Tea Party pay homage to the original Constitution and framers who drafted the document in 1787. The House of Representatives, in a nod to them, began its session this year by reading it. Bachmann even brought Antonin Scalia to a seminar on the Constitution for members of Congress, where the Supreme Court justice instructed members to read the Federalist Papers and follow the framers' original intent. Moreover, many of the Tea Party's political positions, such as opposition to ...
10 Historical 'Facts' Only a Right-Winger Could Believe
Post Date: 2011-02-12 19:25:38 by Brian S
4 Comments
LIKE THIS ARTICLE ? Join our mailing list: Sign up to stay up to date on the latest headlines via email. Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition 33; As you may have noticed by following their writings, conservatives are not sticklers for historical accuracy, especially when they have a point to defend and not a lot of evidence to support it. Get a load, for example, of John Podhoretz explaining how the pro-choice Rudy Giuliani reduced abortions in New York City (though, um, not really) because he cut crime, which is one of "the spiritual causes of abortion." Yeah, deadline pressure's a bitch. But there are some bizarre notions of American history in which ...
Buchanan: Bush's New 'Axis of Evil'
Post Date: 2011-02-11 12:25:33 by Brian S
0 Comments
George W. Bush must have been the despair of the history department of every school his daddy managed to get him into. Consider his latest excursion into the history of the republic, at Southern Methodist, where the Great Man's papers are to be housed. "What's interesting about our country, if you study history, is that there are some 'isms' that occasionally pop up. One is isolationism and its evil twin protectionism and its evil triplet nativism. So if you study the '20s, for example, there was an American-first policy that said, 'Who cares what happens in Europe?' ... And there was an immigration policy that I think during this period argued we had too ...
Obama's Meddling: A Mess or a Mission?
Post Date: 2011-02-11 08:26:07 by A K A Stone
11 Comments
Barry Rubin, editorialist for the Jerusalem Post, opined today at American Thinker that Barack Obama has so utterly failed in his Middle East diplomacy that no ME nation can now trust either his judgment or his promise. The following is a portion of his thoughts. Here are some implications: --Israel will not take risks or make concessions based on this administration's promises because it doesn't keep its promises or its commitments. The Administration is only proving the ineptness that Israelis already expected. --But, of course, the same applies to the Palestinian Authority. Do you think it believes the U.S. government is going to protect it from Hamas? --Do you think the Saudis ...
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