] Emboldened by their role in re-electing President Bush,
] conservatives are making Mr. Specter - whose brusque
] independence has earned him the nickname Snarlin' Arlen
] on Capitol Hill - a test case of their political power.
] As they try to keep Mr. Specter, a centrist Pennsylvania
] Republican who supports abortion rights, from heading the
] Senate Judiciary Committee, they are demanding a steep
] concession: support for changing a century-old Senate
] rule that permits judicial nominations to be blocked by
] filibuster.

Republicans continue to unravel the checks and balances.

The New York Times - Bork Hearings Resurface as Impediment to Specter

Government responds to EFFs request for information about why Indymedia's servers where taken down.

The Government argues that the servers belong to Rackspace and so Indymedia has no right to ask what happened!! They they say:

] As further grounds for the denial of the Motion to
] Unseal, without waving the forgoing, the U.S. would show
] that the sealed documents pertain to an ongoing criminal
] terrorism investigation.

People seem fairly sure that this "Criminal Terrorism" investigation is ongoing because the website published some photos of some undercover cops who were hanging out at one of their meetings. That seems like quite a stretch.

Indymedia Subject of Secret 'Terrorism Investigation'

] I personally know - very closely - at least four persons,
] one elderly, who suffer from debilitating chronic
] diseases, which, without adequate treatment, will prove
] fatal. In each case their income = ZERO. Private-sector
] (commercial) health insurance is unavailable at ANY
] price.
]
] A recent study published by TIAA-CREF's latest View
] listed individual tax burden per $1,000 of income for
] each of the 50 states. TENNESSEE WAS 50th - THE LOWEST IN
] THE NATION! (New York was the highest.) Given this fact
] alone makes it ludicrous to argue that the State of
] Tennessee cannot afford to keep its poorest and its
] uninsurable citizens healthy!
]

11/10/2004 - Torpedoing TennCare Signs Some Death Warrants - Opinion - Chattanoogan.com

This is a post election article from Tennessee. The title was:

] Bredesen sees no significant effect of shift in power
]
] Tennesseans elected the first state senate majority in
] 140 years.
]
] On the issue of TennCare, Bredesen said, "We've always
] known there were two options for controlling TennCare
] costs so it doesn't take all the resources of state
] government."

Five days later, he kills the program.

My mother is on Tenncare. She has a condition which in general does not contribute much to her healthcare costs. However, no insurance company will provide her with general health coverage because of it. Tenncare was really her only option. She pays more for Tenncare then most people do for their health insurance, and she doesn't get much out of it. She is often stuck going to ghetto Tenncare doctors who primary treat people who are too poor to pay. We have insurance so that in the event of something catastropic we're able to pay.

My mother now joins the growing ranks of the uninsured in this country, not because she is a leech on the system, as rock stupid Republican fucking commentators consistantly claim everyone on Tenncare is, but because actuaries have decided that they will not cover her at any price.

YEAH FU@#$ING REPUBLICANS!!@!@!@!#$

bucy wrote:
] ] WASHINGTON - With a hug and words of high praise,
] ] President Bush (news - web sites) named Alberto Gonzales
] ] as attorney general on Wednesday, elevating the
] ] administration's most prominent Hispanic to a highly
] ] visible post in the war on terror.
]
] He isn't great but better than Ashcroft, probably.

The problem with Ashcroft was his abuse of the Patriot act for investigations unrelated to Terrorism. I have serious doubts that the guy who created the administration's weasly policies on enemy combatants and torture, and who ended 50 years of American Bar Association vetting of federal judges because the radical wing of the Republican party doesn't like the constitution, is going to be a super great AG. The only blessing here is that they didn't put him on the Supreme Court bench.

See the story I'm linking:

RE: Bush Picks Gonzales to Succeed Ashcroft

] "Bogus "Whois Problem Reports" are increasingly going
] from being an annoyance to being a real security risk.
] Some recent incidents I've experienced due to Whois
] Problem Reports *merely* being filed:
]
] * Dotster, about two weeks ago, threatened to delete a
] domain if I didn't respond.
]
] * BulkRegister, just yesterday, threatened to suspend a
] domain if I didn't respond within 5 calendar days.

Anyone can go to ICANN's webform and submit a complaint about any website. There is no human intervention because ICANN felt that there were few abuses of the system back when no body knew about it. You registrar will automatically generate an email and send it to you. If you don't respond within a very short period of time you loose the domain. The time to switch to registrars who protect anonymnity is now.

ICANN destroys internet anonymnity

] The purpose of this website is to advocate that the State
] of Georgia compile and distribute a Voter Information
] Guide to voters in the State prior to each election and
] primary. This website will explain the concept, why its
] important, and what individuals can do to help make it a
] reality. This website will also act as a clearing house
] for information about efforts to improve voter education
] in the State of Georgia.

I said I'd do something about this, and I am. This website is the first step. Let me know if you have any comments or criticisms. Tell your friends.

Advocating a Voter Information Guide for Georgia

Elonka wrote:
] It pains me when I hear liberals refer to the
] religious right as "evil".

Hrm. I feel like I ought to respond to this again. Because it came up in our early discussion. And here it is again. And its not directed at me anymore, but when first presented you were twisting a position that I had expressed, and you still seem to be twisting that position.

Let me try to be as clear as possible about this. References that I make to Conservative Christians are a misnomer. I'm not actually referring to Conservative Christians. I am referring to the Conservative Christian political movement. To the extent that Conservative Christians feel that they want to practice their beleifs, and express their beliefs, and advocate their beleifs, without forcing others to conform to said beleifs against their will, they are not evil, and in fact I strongly defend their right to do these things.

However, this does not characterize the Conservative Christian political movement. When people talk about the "religious right" they aren't talking about Amish people. They're talking about the politically active religious right.

And when I say that this movement is evil, I am quite confident, and what I mean is not that it's intentions are bad. However, I'm quite confident that Al'Q beleives that its intentions are good as well. What I will say is that the radical fringes of this movement have blood on their hands, and that the political leadership of this movement is engaged in widespread deception, and that the ultimate goal of this movement is an outcome which has been proven, over and over again in history, to result in tremendous human suffering, and there can be no clearer definition of evil then that.

One can look directly to organizations, connected to this movement, which advocate and participate in terrorist attacks, such as in the 1996 Summer Olympics, in murders of physicians and lyncings of homosexuals, but it is not approriate to look at a political movement based on on the actions of it's radical fringe.

One must also look to the leadership, and see the deception that leadership engages in. At its heart that deception is the attitude that when someone engages in a behavior which you disapprove, they are forcing their beliefs on you, and that legislation is required to stop that behavior, so that you can be protected from it.

It is quite a straight forward matter of common sense that if someone is engaged in behavior that you don't like, but which has absolutely no effect on you in any way, that the beliefs of said people cannot be said to be forced upon you through such an action. It is quite a straight forward matter of common sense that by banning such behavior you are not protecting yourself from anything, in the case where such behavior has no effect on you, but rather you are forcing your beleifs upon others. To consider this otherwise is to engage in deception.

Bu... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

RE: MSNBC - Rove tells conservatives to chill out

] An extreme geomagnetic storm was taking place over our
] planet for the last 48 hours or so -- and that caused a
] rare wave of Northern Lights displays as far south as
] Oklahoma, Virginia, Maryland, Alabama and California in
] the USA.

How did I miss this!!

Boing Boing: Aurora Borealis light show unusually far south in USA

w1ld wrote:
] ] The Skeptics contend that Bush's foreign policy in his
] ] second term will turn out to be more cautious and less
] ] belligerent than his first, if not by choice, then by
] ] compulsion.

I strongly agree with this conclusion.

I've heard Syria and Iran tossed around on several occasions in the past week by people who are cock sure that they know what they are talking about. I think both suggestions are outlandish. Syria? Who cares about Syria! And Iran? The Iranian nuke question was resolved by Bush's election. There is no need for further action.

The constraints are immense. The danger in Iraq has put tremendous pressure on Military recruiting. They are going to have to increase salaries and benefits, and costs.

We have a perfect economic storm brewing. Our entitlement programs are totally unsustainable. Our private sector debts are tremendous and they are coming due, and as the Baby Boomers mature they are going to being pulling money out of the market. Our diplomatic strategy on Iraq has loped a huge amount of federal debt onto the pile. The expense of our healthcare system is impacting our international competitiveness. Meanwhile, all Al'Q could muster for this election was a video tape.

Bold action is required domestically, not internationally. I'm glad that Bush is focusing first on Social Security. That is one of our most critical problems. My opinion is that we need both the right and left solutions applied here and I hope we see them.

The reds are right: We need to create more incentives for people to save money. People can earn interest as individuals more effectively then the government can, as the government cannot invest the retirement savings without controlling the economy. Getting this money out of a dead weight trust fund and into the economy will stimulate growth both of the economy and the fund.

But the blues are also right: We cannot continue to operate a wealth redistribution system that redistributes wealth from poor people to rich people. It makes sense to increase the retirement age. And if there are no safeguards to prevent investment losses from crushing people, then there is no point. Its social security, not central retirement planning.

After thats done Bush promises to tackle taxes. I'm not convinced that the complexity of the tax system is truly the pox on America that these people claim, and this isn't an attempt to shift the tax burden. They've already shifted it some towards the middle. Its also not as pressing as healthcare and medicade. I wish they've tackle that, but as yet they don't seem to have a proposal. (I agree that tort law needs fixing, but I also agree that this won't fix the healthcare problem.)

In general, I don't feel like round 2 is going to result in a lot of new military adventures. We've got quite enough on the plate as things stand.

RE: Foreign Policy: Four More Years