Federalism and the Liberal

I found another good article on Slate today, imagine that two in one day.

Submitted for your approval "The New Blue Federalists - The case for liberal federalism."

Long Live Dave!

Dave Berry has announced that he is leaving his syndicated humor column last week, to my great sorrow.

Take a look at this great Elegy I found in Slate.

Make sure to follow the link in this for some of his best work.

I will miss the last great humor column that existed in the print media.

Thanks for the laughs Dave, good luck , and enjoy yourself!

Asshat of the Month

Drum Roll Please......


Is Lt General (Retired) Patrick M. Hughs!



See above with his wife, or is that his daughter? I have no freaking idea, could be his sister, mother, hell guess it could be a TV he picked up right before the picture was taken.

It also appears that some unknown item is being inserted up this arse from the pose he is in and the banal smile on his face. Hmmm... that smile reminds me of another Patrick:



He may look harmless, Lt. General Hughes that is (Patrick the Star Fish IS harmless for the most part), but don't trust him, he's a tricky one, and evil, check out this quote by the smilin' general.

“Set aside what the mass of people think. Some things are so bad for them that you cannot allow them to have them. One of them is war in the context of terrorism in the United States. Therefore, we have to abridge individual rights, change the societal conditions, and act in ways that heretofore were not in accordance with our values and traditions, like giving a police officer or security official the right to search you without a judicial finding of probable cause.”

Can you say the word "Traitor" General? I'll bet you can, and that's good because you are one.

If it were up to me you would be spending a good long time in a good old Federal Pound'em in the Arse Prison, somewhere offshore of course so that his right to a hearing/trial/lawyer could be disregarded.

He is We the Peoples enemy and as such should be labeled one just like folks down at Gitmo in Cuba and sent there, but not in the Schrub administration. G "Wanker" Bush puts this fucker in the job og top intelligence official for the Department of Homeland Security.

Read my last post for more of the generals ideas to keep Americans free, it will become even more clear why he deserves the honor of being my Asshat of the Month.

If this doesn't piss ya off, then nothing will

The following was taken from the Advocates for Self-Government's most recent e-newletter.

Top Homeland Security Official: “We Have To Abridge Individual Rights”

“We have to abridge individual rights, change the societal conditions, and act in ways that heretofore were not in accordance with our values and traditions, like giving a police officer or security official the right to search you without a judicial finding of probable cause.”

No, that’s not King George III speaking. Those are the words of U.S. Army Lt. Gen. (Retired) Patrick M. Hughes -- the top intelligence official of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Gen. Hughes made his anti-Fourth Amendment comments eight months before President Bush appointed him to his DHS post, though they were not reported until a few weeks ago when Congressional Quarterly magazine obtained a transcript. He made them during a March 2003 Harvard University forum on “Future Conditions: The Character and Conduct of War, 2010 and 2020.”

“Things are changing, and this change is happening because things can be brought to us that we cannot afford to absorb,” Hughes also said. “We can’t deal with them, so we’re going to reach out and do something ahead of time to preclude them.

“Is that going to change your lives? It already has.”

At the time of his statement, Gen. Hughes was a private consultant whose clients included the CIA, the FBI, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DIA, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, SRI International, Anteon, Boeing, Rand Corp., and others, according to Congressional Quarterly.

In his current position, Hughes heads up DHS’s intelligence analysis efforts and coordinates with the other members of the intelligence community, as well as with such interagency intelligence efforts as the Terrorist Threat Integration Center.

According to Congressional Quarterly, the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and Gen. Hughes have not responded to questions about these remarks.

(Source: Congressional Quarterly, quoted in Reason magazine:
http://www.cq.com/corp/show.do?page=crawford/20041027_homeland )

Why don't people get it?

Over the weekend I had a conversation with a leftist young acquaintance of mine who was railing about the War in Iraq and the ripoff that is Social Security.

He was very knowledgable and articulate and I was duely impressed at the work he had done in educating himself on these subjects. His biggest concern with the war focused on old white guys sending young people to die in Iraq for their own monetary and social agenda gains. He did not want his tax dollars being spent on funding war, but would rather his portion go to social and arts programs which he felt would enrich society.

As for Social Security he found it "repugnant" that he was being made to pay money into a system that he most likely will never see a dime from.

I explained how in a more Libertarian society he would be free to send "His" money to whatever program, group or person he cared to, to fund whatever he cared to fund.

I was in agreement with him and all his points until we somehow drifting into talking about what he called the "Right to Healthcare".

Well if you've read many of my entries here, you will know how the idea of "Wants" being labeled rights drives me crazy, so I did a bit of educating myself. I explained the difference between true "Rights" and his "Wants" which he seemed to understand. He then totally then ignored all this to tell me how much better off we'd all be as a society with "free" healthcare, and that he would rather see a portion of his tax dollars go to that then anything else, and that is was the caring/humain "right thing to do".


He didn't seem to grasp the idea that if you take money from others to fund your "right thing to do" programs, then the political tides turn, your money will be used for "whatever the current regime wants to do".

We're hopeless as a species!