Lieberman Must Go!

I just got this from Philip Baruth. Every time you see something from that POS Lieberman he's more insufferable than he was before. For instance, in an interview with ABC News he parroted the Republicans' Willie Horton line against Obama:

"In fairness we don't know if Rev. Wright said these inflammatory, anti-American, racial comments every Sunday, but I would not continue to go to a synagogue where that kind of rhetoric was spoken," Lieberman said, adding, "I think it did raise questions in people's minds about why did he stay in the church that long," but he said he would "take (Obama) at his word" and move on.

Now there's a new site, with a petition you can sign to go to the Senate leadership:

Demand the Steering Committee remove Joe Lieberman's position within the Democratic Caucus.
34,100 signers

We CANNOT tolerate a leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus who supports George Bush and McCain's War in Iraq. We CANNOT tolerate a Democratic chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee who endorses and stumps for McCain. We call on the Senate Democratic Steering Committee to strip Joe Lieberman of his chairmanship and his leadership role.

I've already signed, and you should go over there and sign too.

Obama: Telecom Immunity Doesn't Override National Security

I was glad to support Barack Obama in the primaries, and I was an Obama delegate to the Vermont Democratic Convention. Still, when I see something like this it really makes me wonder if we can trust this guy to protect our rights.

Barack Obama's Speech on Father's Day

It's not that long, watch the whole thing.

Tonight’s forecast . . . dark, continued mostly dark tonight turning to widely scattered light in the morning.”

George Carlin, 1937-2008.

Another Profile in Rationality

I got this one from PZ last night:

Colleen Leduc has an autistic child named Victoria who is enrolled in a public school. She recently got a terrifying phone call — her daughter was being sexually abused. We parents know well the fear and worry a threat to our children can cause, and Leduc was receiving an urgent, frantic phone call from school officials telling her that her daughter was being victimized in the worst way.

So she rushes in to this little meeting.

"The teacher looked and me and said: 'We have to tell you something. The educational assistant who works with Victoria went to see a psychic last night, and the psychic asked the educational assistant at that particular time if she works with a little girl by the name of "V." And she said 'yes, I do.' And she said, 'well, you need to know that that child is being sexually abused by a man between the ages of 23 and 26.'"

Luckily, the case was promptly dismissed.

The school, ever diligent, has this to say:

"It is highly unusual, I will admit, to have a case called in based upon what a psychic might say," concedes Sue Dale of the Simcoe County CAS.

And what does the admittedly red-faced school board have to say about all this? "I don't have the information yet, but when we proceed with our own investigation we'll know more about that," is all Dr. Lindy Zaretsky, the Simcoe County Superintendent, was willing to allow.

And what does the local board have to say about all this? "I don't have the information yet, but when we proceed with our own investigation we'll know more about that," is all Dr. Lindy Zaretsky, the Simcoe County Superintendent, was willing to allow.

Why do I suspect that the results of their "investigation" may not be as widely disseminated as the original incident?

Help me figure this out

Either God doesn't like gullible 16-year-olds . . .

Or maybe this faith healing stuff is bullshit.

What do you think?

Exporting Democracy

Ha!

Remember when that was Wolfie's idea of the war in Iraq? We could transform the whole Middle East, starting with Iraq, and export our values to the peoples over there? In fact, so impressed were the neocons about the success of this project that they were positively incensed when anyone had the temerity to suggest it might not work out quite that well. What were we, racists to suggest that those swarthy Middle Easterners couldn't appreciate democracy?

Well, maybe it isn't working out that way. This is a story out of Afghanistan, not Iraq, but it shows what happens. In this case, Blackwater, the company that is so patriotic that it makes its employees ("don't call us mercenaries!") swear to preserve, protect, and defend the U.S. Constitution, is being sued for what might be called collateral damage--people who were killed when Blackwater's pilot crashed the plane they were on, purely through their negligence. They're being sued in a United States District Court.

Only it turns out that American law isn't good enough for Blackwater. No, in this case they're asking the federal court to apply Shari'a law. You know, stone adulterers and rape victims to death, behead criminals, cut the hands off thieves--that Shari'a law.

The company argued that the lawsuit must be dismissed; legal doctrine holds that soldiers cannot sue the government, and Blackwater’s aviation wing was acting as an agent of the government.

Last year, a series of federal judges dismissed that argument.

In April, Blackwater asked a federal judge in Florida to apply Islamic law, commonly known as Shari’a, to the case. If the judge agreed, the lawsuit would be dismissed. Shari’a law does not hold a company responsible for the actions of employees performed within the course of their work.

Now I suppose there is a certain sense by which you could call Shari'a the rule of law, but it doesn't embody the legal principles that we in the United States adhere to.

So when we set out to "export democracy", what exactly were we exporting?

VP Choice

I've been saying and writing that Jim Webb seems like the logical choice for Obama's Vice Presidential candidate. He has a military background, he's from the South, he even served in Reagan's cabinet. On the face of it he would seem to bring a lot to the ticket.

Well, maybe not so fast. Tim Noah has a piece in Slate today arguing that Webb would be a terrible choice for the job. He starts out with the fact that his prior sexist writings would likely alienate Clinton's supporters, even though he no longer supports the views he expressed, and goes on from there.

I encourage you to read it.