the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality

Maine Lighthouse wallpaper 

Blog readership tends to drop off quite a bit over holidays so here’s wishing everyone a happy Independence Day.

For those that might have time to drop by a few links.

What scares right wingers to the bone? 

Convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy “joked” on the air about killing gays by firing them out of torpedo tubes. A typical right winger, Liddy broadcast brags about taking target practice at life-sized images of President Bill Clinton, and advised his listeners how best to kill government agents who might wear protective vests: “Head shots! Use head shots!”

There are some true conservatives whose views remain in line with historical conservatism, but even they often embrace William F. Buckley / Ronald Reagan right wing extremism.

Thanks to Buckley, Reagan, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, most so-called “conservatives” are really nothing of the kind. Right wingers are theocrats and pseudo-libertarian Social Darwinists or even fascists who embrace authority and power over the individual.

Dissent threatens right wingers’ fragile sense of security. They demand that everyone believes whatever they believe — even if that belief changes at the whim of their superiors — because. Well just because! And don’t ask questions!

Right wingers’ reverence for authority makes them believe whatever their superiors tell them to believe. Their fear and insecurity make them shun the unknown and prevents them from questioning tradition or thinking in new ways.

I’d say right wingers demand that everyone think whatever they think but right wingers don’t think. They listen and obey. Free thinking threatens right wingers. It weakens their precarious hold on their make-believe world.

CIA’s Darkest Secret 

Fred Thompson’s Rule of Lawlessness 

Cheney and the Constitution 

Consider as symptom number one Cheney’s claim to be neither lawmaker nor executive–and thus exempt from any scrutiny of his handling of classified documents. In 2003 President Bush signed an Executive Order 12958 requiring agencies and “any other entity” within the executive branch to report to a division of the National Archives on their classification and declassification activities. But since 2003 Cheney’s office has pointed to his position as president of the Senate to justify a refusal to comply. In May 2006 a Cheney spokesperson told Mark Silva of the Chicago Tribune that the legal question had been “thoroughly reviewed.” And that was the end of the matter. Only now has Representative Henry Waxman’s House Oversight Committee begun to examine the Vice President’s failure to comply.

Second, Cheney’s argument makes no sense. The Vice President receives documents due to his executive policy-making role, not his position as Senate president. Not even Cheney has the chutzpah to claim he’s using these documents in his senatorial capacity: Outing covert CIA agents is apparently an executive function.

“America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact – the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality.” – Adlai Stevenson

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The foundation of justice is good faith

Interesting statement released by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s office, Fitz Speaks
The very last paragraph of Bush’s statement reads,

The Constitution gives the President the power of clemency to be used when he deems it to be warranted. It is my judgment that a commutation of the prison term in Mr. Libby’s case is an appropriate exercise of this power.

Libby Guilty On Four Of Five Counts

Scooter Libby has been found guilty on four out of five counts:

Count 1 – Obstruction of Justice: Libby intentionally deceived the grand jury about how he learned, and “disclosed to the media,” information about Valerie Plame Wilson’s employment by the CIA.

Count 2 – Making a False Statement: Libby intentionally gave FBI agents false information about a conversation he had with NBC’s Tim Russert regarding Valerie Plame Wilson, who is married to Joseph Wilson.

Count 4 – Perjury: Libby knowingly provided false testimony in court about a conversation he had with Russert.

Count 5 – Perjury: Libby knowingly provided false testimony in court about his conversation with reporters regarding Valerie Plame Wilson’s CIA employment.

So remember if you deceive a grand jury, disclose classified information to the media, make false statements to the FBI, and give false testimony on at least two occasions then it is only appropriate that the president let you walk free. A little fine that in Libby’s case will be picked up by Republicans whose consciences are not bothered in the least by supporting a traitor.

The Volokh Conspiracy writes a very succinct answer to all the wing-nuts who claim that Libby’s prosecution and conviction was just politics, “Politics” and the Libby Prosecution

Bush political appointee James Comey named Bush political appointee and career prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the Plame leak. Bush political appointee and career prosecutor Fitzgerald filed an indictment and went to trial before Bush political appointee Reggie Walton. A jury convicted Libby, and Bush political appointee Walton sentenced him.

According to the Right these Bush appointees probably didn’t drink enough of the kool-aid. They’re all part of some underground plot of Republicans who are secretly Democratic operatives. Call Agent Scully.

Some interesting background on a former terrorist Takfiri Salafists. Suffer through the definitions of what and who. It is incumbent on the Muslim communities in the west to acknowledge problems, but as I remember the London plot last year was tipped off by a Muslim, Plot Tip-Off Came From British Muslim

An interesting twist to the events yesterday is that the tip-off of the alleged plot did not originally come from Pakistan as first claimed but from a member of the British Muslim community who alerted the police in the aftermath of 7/7 and 21/7. As such MI5, the British security service, had been “playing” the alleged plotters for almost a year, with events coming to a head dramatically on Thursday with the raids and the security clampdown at British airports and especially on the trans-Atlantic routes to the US.

In general we’d all be better off if there were more informants in the world. Apparently not to “rat out” a neighbor or friend is something common to eastern and western culture.

There are civil reasonable arguments to be made in the whole immigration debate – border security, principles of the rule of law, environmental impact, impact on social infrastructure and educational institutions, etc. I can’t help but think that if Republicans continue that debate at their current level of shrillness they’ll end of offending everyone who is not directly descended from George Washington, Clinton Slams GOP Rival’s Cuba Remark

Taking a swipe at a potential GOP presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday criticized Fred Thompson for suggesting illegal Cuban immigrants pose a terrorist threat.

“I was appalled when one of the people running for or about to run for the Republican nomination talked about Cuban refugees as potential terrorists,” Clinton told Hispanic elected officials. “Apparently he doesn’t have a lot of experience in Florida or anywhere else, and doesn’t know a lot of Cuban-Americans.”

Fred sites the possibility of a suitcase bomb. Well Freddie boy you might as well close down all the airports and marine terminals if that is your genuine concern. Unhinged Fred will fit right in with the dead enders and the paranoia as God mantra.

“The foundation of justice is good faith.” – Marcus Cicero