Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Sen. Specter: Newest Nail In GOP Coffin

Today's renunciation of the GOP by Pennsylvania's senior senator shows just how wing-nutty the Republicans have become. Sen. Specter can be said to occupy a center-right position and usually went along with his former party. However, there has just been so much bile and out-right lies out there for him to swallow that he has finally given up. Maybe Maine's two Republican senators will follow suit soon. Yes, the Republican Party has indeed jumped into the dust bin of history.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Katharine Parr -- Who Knew?

You scored as Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth and last wife. You also have the distinction of being the most married Queen of England. Before you caught Henry's eye in court, you'd already been married and widowed twice. You were being courted by Thomas Seymour (Queen Jane's brother) when Henry decided that he wanted you as his wife. Ever practical, you accepted the King's proposal. You were a wonderful stepmother for all three of Henry's children, and you helped bring the two princesses closer to their father. You worked hard for various causes that interested you, mostly education and the arts. But your usual luck with husbands remained the same, and just a few years later King Henry VIII died. You probably would have served as a guardian for the newly-crowned Edward VI (who was not yet ten years of age), except that once widowed you decided to secretly marry your old love Thomas Seymour. When this was discovered, it sent a wave of scandal throughout England and you were forced to move away from your position of power. You and your new husband obtained wardship of Henry's cousin, the Lady Jane Grey, whom you treated as your own daughter. You also took guardianship of Princess Elizabeth for a short period of time before she was sent to another household. A year later you finally gave birth to your first and only child and then died a few weeks later

http://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/the-which-wife-of-henry-viii-are-you-test

Thursday, April 23, 2009

War Crimes And Why History Matters

Yes, agents of the government of the United States committed war cimes. I believe that the major fact that not enough of them stood up to those illegal and immoral orders was that they were ignorant of the history of war crimes perpetrated against us and by us in the past.

The excuse "I was just following orders" was negated after World War II during the Nuremberg and Japanese War Tribunals. Germans and Japanese military and civilians were hung because of what they did to various civilian populations (Jews & Chinese(Nanking Massacre) in particular) as well as prisoners-of-war. In addition, American soldiers were also courts martialed for water-boarding Japanese prisoners and were jailed as a result.

Treating prisoners and "other natives" has never been approved by the military and the offices if the Judge Advocate General. Lt. Calley was justly convicted by court martial of ordering the deaths of an entire villiage of South Vietnamese civilians. And, to this very day, this type of behaviour by our forces has been rightly condemned for what it is.

The problem, though, is the fact that it was not the military that ordered these acts. It was our civilian government. Therefore, the government at the time that these acts were committed should be prosecuted for their acts. At the very least , the lawyers in the Department of Justice who authored the memos, the former Vice President and the Secretary of Defense should all be indited. Federal Court Judge Bybee should also be impeached by the House of Representatives and brought to trial in the US Senate. Only by doing these things can we, as a nation, hold our heads high and resume the moral leadership of the world that we claimed be had before these horrific events.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Governor Rell IS Herbert Hoover

Right now politics is really occupying most of my thoughts. The main reason for this post is the recent "give-backs" by Connecticut state employees, which will eventually result in less employees to do the jobs required for the state to operate efficiently. The term, straight out of "1984" Newspeak, "right-sizing," is anything but. In addition, salary and benefit give-backs will additionally not put money into the economy, which is grossly needed right now. Of course, ignorant people who don't realize this like to abuse those who do have fairly stable jobs in this environment. No one should have to worry that much about making ends meet or losing a job. Of course, Connecticut has had the additional problem of a too high cost of living which was falsely inflated by the very rich minority who live here. The so-called middle class in this state can barely afford to buy a house without being put into severe financial straights. Paul Krugman, the economist who recently was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, has stated that if the governors of the states behave like Herbert Hoover it will continue to prolong the economic depression in spite of the incentives being promulgated by the Obama administration. Governor Rell is acting like Hoover to the total detriment of this state.

Friday, April 17, 2009

GOP Going the Way of the Whigs

I admit that I hardly ever vote for a Republican candidate anymore because I do believe in voting for the best person to fill an elective office. The quality of candidates over the last 25+ years has been so-so to out-right poor. This can be seen in a number of current holders of elective office as well as their various pundits. It seems as though none of them has learned any American history and their knowledge of the Constitution is minimal, at best.
The main reason that I am writing this today are the recent calls to treason to our nation from various governors, pundits, and elected representatives of this party. I believe that the Department of Justice should be investigating these people and, when determined, should arrest them. This country lost over 500,000 lives during a Civil War which was over SLAVERY and the supposed "states' right" to determine that individuals could, in fact, own other human beings. The states only get whatever so-called rights that the federal government decides that it does not want for itself. Therefore, these "rights" can change over the course of years since the federal government should be looking out for the well-being of all our citizens which states do ignore on many occasions.
In the decade before the Civil War the Whig Party disappeared from the political scene to be ultimately replaced by the Republican Party. The Republican Party, at that time, was more socially progressive than the Democratic Party. I believe that two Presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, would now roll over in their graves to see what has happened to it.
However, as the Law of Entropy has shown, things do die. And the Republican Party is dying a long, painful death. I can foresee the probability that two political parties will arise from its ashes: one, a middle-of-the-road fiscally conservative party and another which is far-right/libertarian fiscally and far-right socially. There may well be a few people elected from this extreme wing; but, they will finally be put into a proper context in that they truly are just a very vehement, vocal, and occasionally violent minority.