Now this is my type of debate. An alleged “bearded Marxist” debating an alleged “former witch” about the 17th amendment. You can imagine me wolfing down popcorn in feverish excitement while watching the debate of Delaware Republican Senate Candidate Christine O’Donnell and Democratic opponent Chris Coons.
O’Donnell was ridiculed for her apparent lack of knowledge of the Constitution last night. Now, hold on to your chair, I am about to defend . . . partially.
The first exchange to produce laughs was when she asked Coons “Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?”
That particular question does not necessary show a lack of understanding of the Constitution. Many conservative activists have argued that the Constitution was never intended to create a “wall of separation” between Church and State. Indeed, the language of a “wall of separation” is not in the Constitution. It came from Thomas Jefferson’s famous letter to the committee of the Danbury Baptist Association that reads:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
O’Donnell may have been thinking of the “wall” debate in asking Coons, “The First Amendment does? . . . Let me just clarify: You’re telling me that the separation of church and state is found in the First Amendment?”
Coons correctly responds with a reference to the establishment clause: “Government shall make no establishment of religion.”
O’Donnell then asks “That’s in the First Amendment…?” Yup.
Coons also correct to again ask O’Donnell about her views on evolution after she appeared to question the separation of church and state. If there is no such separation in her view, it magnifies the importance of her purported view that evolutionary theories are invalid. I have previously written a column about the right of the media to press candidates on their faith when they run in part on faith-based politics.
O’Donnell clearly had trouble on the other amendments. She was asked if she would repeal the 14th, 16th, or 17th Amendments if elected.
“The 17th Amendment I would not repeal” but then asked a person in the audience to explain what the 14th and 16th amendments were, adding “I’m sorry, I didn’t bring my Constitution with me.” I can certainly understand not recalling that the 16th amendment deals with the apportionment of taxes — not exactly a hot button amendment for most people. I can even understand gapping on the 17th on the direct election of Senators. But the 14th is a . . . well . . . a biggy after the whole Civil War thing.
The gap on the 14th was particularly embarrassing after O’Donnell accused Coons of constitutional ignorance by remarking “perhaps they didn’t teach you Constitutional law at Yale Divinity School.”
Now, I want to emphasize that O’Donnell is not expressing hostility to Yale Divinity School because she is a witch. She denies she is a witch. I am still a bit unsure why going to Yale Divinity School is a put down. I would think you would want a suspected bearded Marxist to go to divinity school, particularly after you just criticized him for attacking churches in the same debate. One thing is clear. The Delaware election should never end. For constitutional scholars, this is the best reality show on TV.
Source: CBS
Jonathan Turley
A disturing account regarding Bush’s wars:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/28/headlines#12
Fmr. Argentine President Kirchner Dies of Heart Attack And Argentina has declared three days of national mourning following the death of former President Nestor Kirchner.
The 60-year Kirchner died from a heart attack Wednesday after being hospitalized with chest pains. He had been expected to seek another presidential term to replace his wife, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, next year. Tens of thousands of mourners gathered in front of Argentina’s national palace in Buenos Aires after the news broke. Kirchner headed Argentina from 2003 to 2007 as it struggled to recover from a crippling financial meltdown.
In an interview with the filmmaker Oliver Stone last year, Kirchner recounted a conversation he had with then-President George W. Bush on war and the economy.
Oliver Stone: “Were there any eye-to-eye moments with President Bush that day, that night?”
Nestor Kirchner: [translated] “I say it’s not necessary to kneel before power. Nor do you need to be rude to say the things you have to say to those who oppose our actions. We had a discussion in Monterey. I said that a solution to the problems right now, I told Bush, is a Marshall Plan. And he got angry. He said the Marshall Plan is a crazy idea of the Democrats. He said the best way to revitalize the economy is war and that the United States has grown stronger with war.”
Oliver Stone: “War. He said that?”
Nestor Kirchner: [translated] “He said that. Those were his exact words.”
Oliver Stone: “Was he suggesting that South America go to war?”
Nestor Kirchner: [translated] “Well, he was talking about the United States. The Democrats had been wrong. All of the economic growth of the United States has been encouraged by the various wars. He said it very clearly. President Bush is—well, he’s only got six days left, right?”
Oliver Stone: “Yes.”
Nestor Kirchner: [translated] “Thank God.”
Bdaman:
“While the upcoming November 2 midterm elections have a significantly lower voter participation than Presidential years, it is likely that weather is more important to voter turnout and election outcome. This type of study is a great way to combine social and physical sciences to model effects of weather and climate on political issues — rather than vice versa.”
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I’ve known intuitively for sometime that Republicans don’t have the sense to come out of the rain, but I always like empirical proof.
Byron,
“The only problem is that if you try to go toe to toe with government intervention you create more problems than you solve.”
I don’t understand what you mean by that? Are you saying we shouldn’t fight to have our government stop granting tax breaks to companies who export American jobs?
Are you suggesting that we wait, do nothing, and presume the market will eventually change for the better? Should we just sit around while our econmy collapses and hope things will improve? Shouldn’t we be proactive–instead of reactive? Where will well-paying jobs for Americans come from if we keep outsourcing? People who are unemployed don’t have the luxury of being able to sit around and wait for the market to “work.” They have bills to pay.
Bdaman is ‘da man after that video!
Good Morning Blouise hang on to your hat.
Swathmore Mom GO GIANTS!!!!!
They’re smoking weed
Reporters from around the country are in San Francisco this week covering the World Series and that means the eyes of the nation are on us.
If the reporter from our sister station in Dallas is any indication, the country thinks we are potheads.
Newy Scruggs from NBCDFW said during his live report that people next to him “are smoking weed.” The anchors then asked, “Is it legal there?” Ask that question again next week.
Video http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/sports/They-Think-Were-Smoking-Weed-105909923.html?dr
Jim:
“You obviously know absolutely nothing about Paul. Paul wrote extensively about the Gentiles and Jews being equal in the eyes of God.”
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Oh, I see, it was just women that Paul (nee Saul) thought were second-class citizens of heaven:
“For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.” (I Corinthians 11:8-9)
“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.” (Ephesians 5:22-24)
“Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (I Timothy 2:11-14)
You see I know quite a bit about Paul and what I read I don’t like. You should try reading that fantasy book sometime.
BTW, have you called all your family to tell them you despise them? (Luke 14:26)
Bdaman,
Thanks … reminded me to check the site
Good morning to you
Jim
1, October 28, 2010 at 9:14 am
Blouise,
No, I am just explaining what scripture teaches. I am positive that God blesses me for my faithfulness and what a Pastor or Evangelist does will also be judged by the same God.
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Since you have studied the scriptures then you are also very aware of the 8th, bearing false witness and the 3rd which commands that no one attribute to God something He has not said i.e He does not want anyone saying “Thus sayeth the Lord” if the Lord had not spoken. (the 3rd is far deeper than just a few swear words and the 8th far deeper than telling tall tales about one’s neighbor)
Study Isaiah 6 …”“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips ….. Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Without the 1st part, the 2nd part becomes a violation of both the 8th and the 3rd.
Come back Hillary they need you.
My latest update can be seen on 911Surfreport.com or ShrimpCreole.com
The current weather forecast for November 2, 2010 looks ugly for the middle Atlantic East Coast with easterly winds and rain chances set up between a Canadian high pressure cell and a developing SE US low. Temperatures there are expected to be in the 40s and 50s. The Pacific Northwest may also see considerable wet weather.
There are some old axioms that certain political parties in the USA should pray for rain or sunshine, but in early November, you never know what you will get in terms of weather. A study a few years back by Florida State University professor Brad Gomez comprehensively analyzed the relationship between Presidential voter turnout and weather using over 20,000 individual weather stations from 1948-2000. In their paper, Gomez et al. found empirical evidence that rain (snow) reduces voter participation by about 1% (0.5%) per inch, and may have affected the electoral outcome of the 1960 and 2000 presidential elections.
While the upcoming November 2 midterm elections have a significantly lower voter participation than Presidential years, it is likely that weather is more important to voter turnout and election outcome. This type of study is a great way to combine social and physical sciences to model effects of weather and climate on political issues — rather than vice versa.
Abstract of paper:
The relationship between bad weather and lower levels of voter turnout is widely espoused by media, political practitioners, and, perhaps, even political scientists. Yet, there is virtually no solid empirical evidence linking weather to voter participation. This paper provides an extensive test of the claim.We examine the effect of weather on voter turnout in 14 U.S. presidential elections. Using GIS interpolations, we employ meteorological data drawn from over 22,000 U.S. weather stations to provide election day estimates of rain and snow for each U.S. county. We find that, when compared to normal conditions, rain significantly reduces voter participation by a rate of just less than 1% per inch, while an inch of snowfall decreases turnout by almost .5%. Poor weather is also shown to benefit the Republican party’s vote share. Indeed, the weather may have contributed to two Electoral College outcomes, the 1960 and 2000 presidential elections.
And conclusions:
The results of the zero precipitation scenarios reveal only two instances in which a perfectly dry election day would have changed an Electoral College outcome. Dry elections would have led Bill Clinton to win North Carolina in 1992 and Al Gore to win Florida in 2000. This latter change in the allocation of Florida’s electors would have swung the incredibly close 2000 election in Gore’s favor. Of course, the converse is that a rainier day would have increased George W. Bush’s margin and may have reduced the importance of issues with the butterfly ballot, overvotes, etc. Scholars have identified a number of other factors that may have affected the Florida outcome (see Brady et al. 2001; Imai and King 2004; Mebane 2004)—it was, after all, a very close election with only 537 votes separating Bush and Gore—but to our knowledge we are the first to find that something as simple as rainy weather in some of the Florida counties may have played a critical role in determining the outcome of a presidential election.
The partisan bias associated with weather depressed voter turnout can have meaningful repercussions for election outcomes. Our simulation results for the 1960 and 2000 presidential elections are key examples. The closeness of the 1960 race (a scant 118,000 popular votes separated Kennedy and Nixon) made several states pivotal in the Electoral College, including Illinois, where allegations of vote fraud undertaken by Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley followed
Kennedy’s 9,000 vote victory. We cannot say whether Kennedy’s victory benefited from such actions, but we can claim that Kennedy benefited from relatively good weather. In responding to the Florida debacle in the 2000 presidential election, Democrats complained incessantly about a litany of factors that stood as obstacles to a Gore victory: “butterfly ballots,” “hanging chads,” the Florida Secretary of State, the newly elected president’s brother (the Governor of Florida), and, of course, the Republican-appointed Justices on the United States Supreme Court. Yet, our results show that the weather may have hurt their cause just as much. In close elections, the weather becomes one of many factors that can be determinative.
It is clear from our results that Republicans benefit from precipitation on election day. To offset these Republican gains,
Democrats must take action to counteract the increased cost of voting among their supporters. Otherwise, Democrats may wish to “pray for dry weather.”
Ryan Maue Hurricane Expert Florida State University
Elaine:
Let the market work and things will change. The repressive Chinese govt can artificially keep wages low. But eventually they cant as your post seems to indicate.
But I do concede you have a point. The only problem is that if you try to go toe to toe with government intervention you create more problems than you solve. The only way, in my opinion, to increase jobs in this country is to reduce taxes on wages and capital gains and reduce regulations.
Byron,
There are factors to consider when talking about the production/pricing of goods produced in foreign countries. First, many companies are being given tax breaks for outsourcing manufacturing…so that enables them to charge less for foreign-made goods. What about transportation costs? Can corporations write them off? If so, who actually absorbs the transportation costs? Prior to outsourcing, according to one businessman, when his company had a problem with a product, he/someone who worked for his company was able to drive to the factory where the product was made and solve the problem. Now, when a manufacturing problem arises, the company has to put a troubleshooter on a plane and send him/her halfway around the world.
Some foreign workers have already begun demanding higher wages. What do you suppose will happen when foreign-made products are no longer so cheap and most of our American companies’ manufacturing plants are overseas? I think we should begin to consider now what could possibly happen in the future. Things change. We should plan ahead and be ready for what we may be faced with in upcoming years.
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Chinese workers strike at Honda Lock parts supplier
Honda Lock strike and labour unrest suggest era of cheap manufacturing in China coming to end
By Jonathan Watts
guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 June 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/11/honda-china
Excerpt:
Chinese workers marched out on strike at a Honda parts supplier today as the swelling wave of labour unrest in the workshop of the world raised the prospect of fairer wages for local employees and an end to cheap products for western consumers.
Following industrial action this week at foreign-invested plants in Jiangxi and Xian, labourers at Honda Lock in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, demanded a pay rise and improved collective bargaining rights.
About 500 workers demonstrated outside the gates of the Sino-Japanese joint venture and said they wanted to elect their own representatives rather than accept the so-called “enterprise union” imposed on all factories in China by owners and the communist party.
Riot police blocked the road and management representatives used loudhailers to warn of “serious consequences” before the crowd dispersed without a resolution.
Workers want greater negotiating rights and a rise in the base salary from 1,500 yuan (£100) a month to 2,000 yuan, but they say the management has conceded little ground.
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Chinese Workers Ramp Up Demand for Better Wages
By Jamila Trindle
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/chinese-workers-push-for-better-wages/19593310
Excerpt:
(Aug.15) — China’s image as a place where workers will meekly put up with long hours, low pay and lousy working conditions might need updating. And as that changes, so too might the legendary low price of Chinese products.
In the latest in a series of developments indicating a shifting balance between labor and Chinese managers, 10 laid-off workers at a Panasonic electronics factory in Shanghai reportedly are negotiating for better severance packages after a strike last week.
Earlier in the summer, in the wake of a dramatic series of suicides among workers at electronics manufacturer Foxconn, workers at suppliers for high-profile foreign companies pressed for and got concessions on shorter hours and more humane treatment. And amid reports of yet another death at Foxconn this month, workers are expected to ratchet up their demands.
“You see wages increasing in companies as well as cities and areas increasing their mandatory minimum wage,” said Mary Gallagher, director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan. “I think that’s an indication that there at least continues to be quiet pressure on companies.”
MESPO,
You obviously know absolutely nothing about Paul. Paul wrote extensively about the Gentiles and Jews being equal in the eyes of God. Read Revelation and look at the world events especially those taking place in Europe and you will see that Bible is true. You don’t need to be a Christian to understand that.
Blouise,
No, I am just explaining what scripture teaches. I am positive that God blesses me for my faithfulness and what a Pastor or Evangelist does will also be judged by the same God.
“Unfortunately, so many Christians are lacking in their tithing that the church can’t do what it is called to do.” (Jim)
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Churches that can not meet their calling can not call themselves churches … social clubs perhaps, but not churches.
“I am southern Baptist. Yes, It is wrong to give to charities to help the poor because when you study tithing in the Old and New Testament, it was to be given to the church and the church would in turn help the poor and needy. (Jim)
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More blasphemy … I suspect Jim is a pastor who enjoys the gravy train upon which he rides …
Mespo:
Does experience count for anything? I am not making a case for his race in regards to his political philosophy. The 2 things are seperate. I am meerly saying as a former Marxist he has a certain perspective on the philosophy someone who has never been a Marxist does not have.
As far as being black, there again he has a different perspective in regards to racism and bigotry than I do. Since I have not experienced any racism (at least none that I know of) I rely on those who have to explain the experience.
A political philosophy has nothing to do with race, but being the ideologue I am, I would sure as hell discriminate against the caucasian current Marxist in favor of the African American capitalist. Which is what companies ought to do, fire the white collectivist and hire minority capitalists.
Byron:
“if steel costs, say, $1 per pound to produce in the United States but say $0.30 to produce in South Korea (I am just using those numbers as examples) then steel is less expensive for the person who makes steel fence posts and he can hire additional workers that he could not at $1 per pound or he can just be competitive with a foreign company making steel fence posts and keep his people employed.”
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Good example Byron of what’s going on. We export our $20-25 an hour jobs overseas and get back $8-10 an hour jobs. That is exactly the plan by much of American’s big business to force down wages in the US because as every fatcat knows Americans are paid too much. See the fatcats only like market principles as applied to corporate profits, and not when market principles are applied to labor markets. It’s really all very simple when greed is the guiding star and you don’t give a damn about the workforce or their standard of living. It’s stupid, of course, as even Henry Ford knew if you raise the wages of workers they can buy your products, but when you live for today like many of our short-sighted leaders of industry and finance you can’t wait to get the Gulf Stream IV ant that palace in the Hamptons. Greed is good for some – and corrosive to everybody else. Even the Romans punished usury by death.
Jim:
“Yes, It is wrong to give to charities to help the poor because when you study tithing in the Old and New Testament, it was to be given to the church and the church would in turn help the poor and needy.”
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Which Church would that be there Jim? Your church? Since Jesus was a devout Jew, I would guess that’d be the Jewish temple, but if I’m wrong and it is your Church why wouldn’t that be an awfully convenient approach for you and the Church.
Byron:
“Do you think all people in business are immoral? Maybe your sample is skewed.”
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I have simply said what Adam Smith did in his critique of capitalism. Ambition is admirable; greed is exploitative. As Enron, Tyco, World-Com, Global Crossing, Imclone, Lehman Brothers, Bank of America, Bear Sterns, etc. have shown, something is seriously wrong. I had no idea a near global depression would be so easily dismissed by you.