Thursday, June 28, 2007

The Full Monty


1. Last night on The Daily Show, comedian and UNC-Chapel Hill alum Lewis Black brought up Conservapedia, saying it was created by conservatives to rival Wikipedia and bring "conservative values" to the forefront. He wasn’t joking. Here’s a sample from Conservapedia’s article on G.W. Bush:

“Though the liberal media continues to disparage Bush’s handling of the economy, they often neglect to report the many aspects of the economy that Bush has improved. For example, during his term Exxon Mobile has posted the largest profit of any company in a single year, and executive salaries have greatly increased as well.”

Good God, how stupid can they be?* In any case, check it out if you dare. Satire can't beat the actual. Neither could a Marxist. However, I’m not putting a live link here for the simple reason that I don’t want to be directly linked to such a thing as this -- created by home schooled mutants (i.e. the Conservative base).


2. Prisons in the USA: There are now (according to a recent Associated Press report) approximately 1.6 million American prisoners in the USA. About 60% of them are black or Hispanic/Latino.

There are 191,080 federal prisoners -- a larger number than the entire US military contingent occupying Iraq, even with the "Surge." What is wrong with this country? Land of the free, home of the brave?


3. Thanks to the majority of robed wonders on the Supreme Court, Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) is in tatters. Rollback to before Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896): separate and unequal is the American way, apparently -- and somebody must be pleased about it. Four soulless ghouls carried the day -- Alito, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas. Kennedy moderated their opinion slightly. Berger, Ginsburg, Souter and Stevens (with help from Breyer) opposed the rollback.

*One can hope this segment is a hoax. Could anyone really be that naive?

Today’s Rune: The Mystery Rune.

Birthdays: Henry VIII, Giovanni della Casa, Peter Paul Rubens, John Wesley, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A. E. Hotchner, Mel Brooks (Melvin Kaminsky), Hans Blix, John Inman, Muhammad Yunus, Gilda Radner (Detroit), Anny Duperey (Legras), Kathy Bates, John Cusack, Mary Stuart Masterson.

Fight the Power! March to the sound of the guns!


3 comments:

JR's Thumbprints said...

I'm sick and tired of this administration and how every thing trickles down to the middle class. In Michigan, the latest assault on my well being comes from the Lansing State Journal--as if my wages are part of the cause for our states budget crisis. It seems as if a majority of citizens have become "anti-union." Sad, very sad, indeed.

Johnny Yen said...

Souter increasingly fascinates me. He was supposed to be the conservatives' ace-in-the-hole-- he was nominated because it was thought that he would help overturn Roe v. Wade. Yet, it turned out that he was, ironically, a true conservative, in the classical sense-- that you don't change current laws and interpretations without having a compelling reason to. This was his rationale for his vote-- the swing vote-- in not overturning Roe v. Wade.

There's a long history of justices becoming more liberal as they sit on the bench. Earl Warren was a staunch conservative, yet it was under his court that many of the important civil rights and civil liberties rulings-- Brown v. Bd or Education, the Miranda ruling, the Escobedo ruling, for example.

Unfortunately, it does not appear we are going to be so lucky with Scalia and Roberts.

Erik Donald France said...

Dudes, thanks for the comments. I concur.