The United States Senate will convene with all 100 members on Tuesday, December 7th for the final arguments in the impeachment of Judge G. Thomas Porteous. Our weekend crew of contributors has agreed to keep the shop going until after the final vote — likely on Wednesday, December 8th.
Continue reading “THE PORTEOUS IMPEACHMENT: THE CLOSING ARGUMENTS TO BE HEARD ON TUESDAY”
Category: Politics
Judson Phillips, president of Tea Party Nation, thinks that it makes sense that voting rights in the United States should be restricted to those who own property. He believes that property owners have more of a “vested stake” in a community than do people who do not own property. That’s what he claimed on a weekly program hosted by Tea Party Nation recently.
Visitors to the State Capitol here in Richmond are invariably drawn to Virginia’s cascading marble and bronze tribute to her greatest native sons, the George Washington Equestrian Monument. High atop rides George Washington pointing the way– first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen. Just below and in a rather pensive mood, stands the “Sage of Monticello,” Thomas Jefferson, flanked by Chief Justice John Marshall, orator Patrick Henry, and the rest of Virginia’s intelligentsia of the Revolution and Founders of the Republic. Oh, Virginia doesn’t forget its allegorical figures either — Justice, Independence, Bill of Rights, Revolution, and even Finance, all have their own bronze embodiments just one tier below. The monument stands for all the Commonwealth values and aspires to be.
Even by Kentucky standards, it was stunning. Democratic Governor Steve Beshear standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Evangelical Right to announce a $37 Million tithe in tax incentives to finance a creationist theme park named “Ark Encounter.”
Continue reading “It’s Not Job – It’s Jobs, You Ninny: KY Taxpayers “Jobbed” By Governor/Religion”
In Hayden, Idaho, one family has a unique way of spreading the holiday cheer . . . or fear. A family has displayed a Klansman snowman with a dangling noose in front of their home and neighbors are calling for action to remove the offensive display.
A day after Amazon was forced to block Wikileaks, the site is again offline in an alleged campaign by the United States to prevent the public from seeing the whistleblower material. This includes a disclosure, discussed last night on Countdown, that the Obama Administration has been misleading the public and actually moved to force Spain to drop its prosecution of American officials for war crimes and torture.
Continue reading “Is the United States Engaging In Unlawful Cyber Attacks Against Carriers of Wikileaks?”
One of the little reported details from the latest batch of Wikileaks material are cables showing that the Obama Administration worked hard behind the scenes not only to prevent any investigation of torture in the United States but shutdown efforts abroad to enforce the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture. This includes threatening the Spanish that, if they did not derail a judicial investigation, it would have serious consequences in bilateral relations. I discussed these cables on Countdown.
Continue reading “Wikileaks: Obama Administration Secretly Worked To Prevent Prosecution of War Crimes By The Bush Administration”
There is an intriguing lawsuit filed in Washington where Greenpeace has alleged that Dow Chemical, Sasol North America and their contractors engaged in a two-year campaign of illegal espionage against it, including taping telephones and stealing documents.
Continue reading “Greenpeace Sues Dow for Unlawful Espionage”
It is time for another entry in the series “Things That Tick Me Off” where I mindless vent my anger or frustration in a theraputic rage. The winner this time is Versailles and its director, Jean-Jacques Aillagon. I recently visited Versailles for the first time and was shocked to find that the director had placed the art of Takashi Murakami through the palace. I will not hide my general dislike of Murakami’s art which seems a mix of Disney and Pez art, but the placement of the large pieces entirely destroyed the historical context and experience for visitors at Versailles.
Continue reading “Things That Tick Me Off: Versailles”
Televangelist Rev. Marcus Lamb has become the latest preacher to publicly admit to having an affair. However, this disclosure came with an allegation of extortion. Lamb appeared with his wife, Joni Lamb, to admit to an affair on this show “Celebration” and alleged that three people had demanded $7.5 million or they would reveal the affair.
Continue reading “Now Behold the Lamb: Televangelist Marcus Lamb Admits Adultery And Alleges Extortion”
Recently, we have following laws targeting homeless persons — laws that could apply to a wide range of conduct but enforced only against this one group. San Francisco has now joined this group with a law barring people from sitting or lying on public sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. This is why the two men on the San Francisco seal are shown standing. There were three but one made the mistake of sitting down.
Continue reading “San Francisco Passes Law Criminalizing Sitting or Lying on Public Streets”
The D.C. Council has unanimously approved a law that makes it a crime to wear a mask while protesting outside of a resident. This bizarre law was passed because animal rights activists have been protesting outside of residences in Washington. The problem is that the law could be used to curtail free speech and gives the police another arbitrary basis to arrest protesters.
Continue reading “D.C. Council Unanimously Criminalizes Wearing Masks During Residential Protests Over Objections of Civil Libertarians”
While democracy appears on the skids in Russia as Putin expands his power, there is one sliver of good news coming out of Moscow. The Duma has finally acknowledged that it was Josef Stalin himself who ordered the murder of roughly 20,000 Polish officers, intellectuals, and leaders in the forests of Katyn.
Continue reading “Russian Duma Acknowledges That Stalin Personally Ordered Katyn Massacre”
We have another witch burning in Africa. Madam Hemmah, 72, is a grandmother who was burned to death — allegedly at the instigation of an evangelist preacher, Pastor Samuel Fletcher Sagoe, 55. Many evangelists in Africa believe in witches. Indeed, one of Sarah Palin’s favorite ministers described himself as a witchhunter from Kenya.
Continue reading “Grandmother Tortured and Burned To Death in Ghana as Witch”
Two German vultures have found themselves on the front lines of gay rights after zookeepers discovered their same-sex relationship and proceeded to force them to go straight with female vultures. After the two male partners (Guido and Detlef) were forced to nest with females rather than each other, gay activists mounted a campaign alleging zoological homophobia.
Continue reading “Birds of a Feather: Gay Activists Protest Decision to Force Two Male Vultures To Nest With Females”