Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Warren Buffett Slams Obama On A Oil Windfall Profit Tax
Remember that Buffett is a liberal Obama supporter and he even thinks that economically a windfall profits tax specifically for oil is stupid.
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SCOTUS Rules Death Penalty For Child Rapists Unconstitutional
The Associated Press reports that "the Supreme Court declared Wednesday that executions are too severe a punishment for child rape, despite the "years of long anguish" for victims, in a ruling that restricts the death penalty to murder and crimes against the state. The court's 5-4 decision struck down a Louisiana law that allows capital punishment for people convicted of raping children under 12. It spares the only people in the U.S. under sentence of death for that crime — two Louisiana men convicted of raping girls 5 and 8... Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion, 'the death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child.' His four liberal colleagues joined him, while the four more conservative justices dissented."
I personally am not opposed to the idea of capital punishment being a punishment only for murder. On principle I agree with Justice Kennedy that execution should be a unique punishment only for those that take another's life. The famous philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) whose ideas were a precursor to the likes of James Madison, wrote about the death penalty in his "Second Treatise On Government." This excerpt from the treatise is a must-read for those interested in an eloquent and philosophical perspective on the death penalty and proportional punishment:
"Every man, in the state of nature, has a power to kill a murderer, both to deter others from doing the like injury, which no reparation can compensate, by the example of the punishment that attends it from every body, and also to secure men from the attempts of a criminal, who having renounced reason, the common rule and measure God hath given to mankind, hath, by the unjust violence and slaughter he hath committed upon one, declared war against all mankind, and therefore may be destroyed as a lion or a tyger, one of those wild savage beasts, with whom men can have no society nor security: and upon this is grounded that great law of nature, Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. And Cain was so fully convinced, that every one had a right to destroy such a criminal, that after the murder of his brother, he cries out, Every one that findeth me, shall slay me; so plain was it writ in the hearts of all mankind.
"By the same reason may a man in the state of nature punish the lesser breaches of that law. It will perhaps be demanded, with death? I answer, each transgression may be punished to that degree, and with so much severity, as will suffice to make it an ill bargain to the offender, give him cause to repent, and terrify others from doing the like. Every offence, that can be committed in the state of nature, may in the state of nature be also punished equally, and as far forth as it may, in a commonwealth."
John Locke himself only supported the death penalty in cases of murder, as is implied by the treatise. Only murder is a crime for which truly "no reparation can compensate." Murder in society should stand in a category of its own and alone recieve the harshet punishment.
All that being said, I in no way inted to shortchange the depravity and cruelty of child rape. I also understand that because raping a child is such a despicable crime there are those, like the State of Louisiana, that believe it should warrant the death penalty. I have no sympathy for the child rapist or any intention to protect him.
Even though I agree with Justice Kennedy's position politically, that does not mean I believe he is legally right in his majority ruling. This is not the first time I have held this position. I agreed with the liberal majority politically in the infamous Lawrence v. Texas case which ordered that all bans on sodomy be lifted. It is not because I believe people should be engaging in sodomy. Rather I felt that sodomy laws were impossible to enforce and in reality the government is not going to end homosexuality through the force of law. If the sodomy is behind close doors then the state should not be involved. Even so, it was an especially disastrous decision. The court ruling basically implied that when it came to sexuality it was unconstitutional to pass a law. It was patently ridiculous. There have always been laws concerning sexual relationships. Polygamy is illegal in our country and I have not seen the Court devote a ruling to claiming that banning those unions were unconstitutional. Incest is illegal as well and remains illegal. There was little reason why sodomy laws could not be on the books, there were only reasons why they should not be on the books. Furthermore, it laid the foundation for later courts, such as the ones in California and Massuchesetts, to declare that not allowing gays to wed was unconstitutional, which is also ludicrous.
I believe that legally and constitutionally the four conservative justices are correct in their dissent. I do not think the Eighth Amendment which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment" categorically bans the punishment of death in the case of child rape. I agree with Samuel Alito conclusion in his dissent when he writes the following:
"In summary, the Court holds that the Eighth Amendment categorically rules out the death penalty in even the most extreme cases of child rape even though: (1) This holding is not supported by the original meaning of theEighth Amendment; (2) neither Coker nor any other prior precedent commands this result; (3) there are no reliable 'objective indicia' of a 'national consensus' in support ofthe Court’s position; (4) sustaining the constitutionality ofthe state law before us would not 'extend' or 'expand' the death penalty; (5) this Court has previously rejected the proposition that the Eighth Amendment is a one-way ratchet that prohibits legislatures from adopting new capital punishment statutes to meet new problems; (6) the worst child rapists exhibit the epitome of moral depravity; and (7) child rape inflicts grievous injury on victims andon society in general."
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Jewish Boy Beaten Into Coma In Paris
Israel Today reports that a 17-year-old Jewish boy was severely beaten in Paris on Saturday evening in an anti-Semitic attack. The teenager was surrounded by some 15 people while walking home in a largely Jewish neighborhood and was easily identifiable as a Jew as he was wearing a kippa. The gang proceeded to beat the youth - some reports said with iron rods - until he was unconscious. He later slipped into a coma from which he woke on Tuesday.
The fact that a young Jewish boy can literally be lynched in Paris by a wild-eyed hate filled mob should send a chill down your spine. Europe is becoming Eurabia as every day passes. Reuters reported that the lynch mob was made up of "youths of African origin," which for the PC media is code word for Muslim.
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Gallup: Obama And McCain Tied At %45
Click the image to enlarge:
Gallup is reporting that "the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update on the presidential election finds John McCain and Barack Obama exactly tied at 45% among registered voters nationwide." Gallup is a pretty good polling group. This is pretty impressive for John McCain. The fact is that McCain has been fighting an uphill battle against the media attention and bias toward Barack Obama. Futhermore, the current Republican President has disapproval ratings hovering around %70 which is an obvious disadvantage for the Republican candidate. Yet the polls put them as tied.
I would like to point out, however, that I personally distrust polling and media predictions. My recent memory reminds me of how the media and polls told us for an entire year that the candidates were going to be Rudy Guilianni and Hillary Clinton. But in the end everybody was wrong. McCain came in from behind despite a immigration bill highly unpopular with the Republican base that summer, and Obama swooped in to defeat the Clinton machine. So all these polls need to be taken with a grain of salt. Furthermore, the election is not until November and a lot of people are not paying attention yet. It is far too early to tell. Zogby, Gallup, and the rest of that crew should get back to us at the end of October.
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Antonin Scalia Is A "Sex And The City" Fan?!
In light of most of the posts that deal with serious issues this is pretty unimportant but interesting nonetheless. New York Magazine reported a couple weeks back that none other than Antonin Scalia is a fan of "Sex and the City." Sarah Jessica Parker left the Bloomberg building in New York City after having finished an interview with Charlie Rose on May 29. She stopped to have a cigarette in the courtyard when the Supreme Court justice emerged from his town car and, according to NY Mag, he "rushed over to praise her." A witness said that Scalia was “absolutely gushing, telling her how much he loved her show and how excited he was to see the movie."
All I have to say is that this is of those few times where I am disappointed with Antonin Scalia. Say it ain't so!
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Political Cartoonist Michael Ramirez On Unwillingness To Drill For Oil
Michael Ramirez is a political cartoonist for Investor's Business Daily. He is perhaps the best political cartoonist out there. If I happen to catch any others I think are worth posting then I will do just that. The following cartoon says more than most well written editorials (click the image to enlarge):
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Anbar Province Security To Be Taken Over By Iraqi Forces
Reuters reports that the U.S. military is transfering control of security in Anbar Province to Iraqi forces as of this week. The governor of the region Mamun Sami Rasheed pointed out that this was a remarkable turnaround given that the region was considered lost to insurgents less than two years ago and said that Iraqis "have been dreaming of this event since 2003." Since the beginning of the invasion Anbar will become the 10th of 18 Iraqi provinces to return to Iraqi control. Major General John Kelly of the Marines who is the U.S. commander of forces in western Iraq called the Anbar Province turnover "an important milestone" that "changes the nature of our security relationship here." Kelly said it "it represents is the improving capability of Iraqi security forces to deal with the threat" and that "one of the significant aspects of this turnover is that it occurs in a province that was all but written off." Tribal leaders began siding with U.S. in late 2006 and what Al-Qaeda once considered its main base of operations in Iraq has since been done away with. Anbar was the scene of the most bloody battles of the war, including the assualt on Fallujah in 2004. What was once called the "Triangle of Death," a nickname for the Sunni Triangle, is becoming more secure as Iraqis begin to control their own areas. This amazing upcoming success has not yet been reported by our media to any large extent. It should be.
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Jon Stewart Lampoons Obama Over Seal And Public Financing
Jon Stewart has strong liberal tendencies and does not attempt to hide them on his comedy central program, "The Daily Show." But in this recent clip he veered off message for a bit and made fun of Barack Obama for a change:
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Great McCain Ad Blasts Barack Obama For Breaking Public Financing Pledge
Really drives home the point that Barack is a typical politician who says and does what he needs to get elected:
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Nancy Pelosi: "Victim Of Sexism"
"I’m a victim of sexism myself all the time,” said Nancy Pelosi while discussing Tuesday morning whether sexism played a significant role in the defeat Clinton to Obama.
Correct me if I am wrong, but is Nancy Pelosi not the House Speaker? Is she not the first women to hold that position? Is Nancy Pelosi a "victim" of anything at all, or a succesful uber-liberal female politician from San Francisco that has made it very far and appears to have broken the so called glass ceiling? Why do liberals always think they are a "victim" of something or other? I could keep asking questions but I'd rather take a moment and chuckle at Pelosi's stupidity.
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"Six Month Truce" Already Broken By Palestinian Terrorists
The so called "truce" between Israel and Gaza that was supposed to last six months has already been broken by what the Associated Press calls "Palestinian militants" but what I call Palestinian Islamoterrorists. Three rockets and a mortar shell fell on southern Israel yesterday only days after this supposed truce took effect. The rockets wounded two Israelis. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.
This truce is pure madness. The only reason Hamas would ever agree to a truce is to prepare for the next assualt, to strengthen themselves for the next round of fighting. This has happened every time in the past and now is no exception. There is no expectation of actual peace arising out of this truce. The truce has already been broken. The truce is only meant to create temporary calm before fighting resumes once more. This is not in Israel's interest, it is in Hamas's interest. It allows Hamas to regain strength, build its bombs, recruit its suicide bombers, and stockpile its rockets. Israel should use this rocket attack as an excuse to call off what was an idiotic "truce" to begin with and start doing what whatever it needs to crush Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and all the Islamoterrorists.
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John Bolton: Israel "Will Attack Iran" Before Inaugaration Day
Former Ambassador to the United Nations (and author of "Surrender Is Not An Option") John Bolton recently spoke with the London Telegraph. He said he thinks the Bush administration will not carry out an attack against Iran's nuclear facilities. He said that "it's clear that the administration has essentially given up that possibility. I don't think it's serious any more. If you had asked me a year ago I would have said I thought it was a real possibility. I just don't think it's in the cards." Conversely he thinks that Israel will do what may be necessary after the U.S. presidential election but before the next president is sworn in. "The Israelis have one eye on the calendar because of the pace at which the Iranians are proceeding both to develop their nuclear weapons capability and to do things like increase their defences by buying new Russian anti-aircraft systems and further harden the nuclear installations. They're also obviously looking at the American election calendar. My judgement is they would not want to do anything before our election because there's no telling what impact it could have on the election," says Bolton. He points out that "an Obama victory would rule out military action by the Israelis because they would fear the consequences given the approach Obama has taken to foreign policy" and even "with McCain they might still be looking at a delay. Given that time is on Iran's side, I think the argument for military action is sooner rather than later absent some other development." Though Bolton also believes that McCain's approach to Iran was "much more realistic than the Bush administration's stance." Bolton also disputed IAEA head Mohammed Al-Baradei's assertion that an Israeli attack would create a "fireball" in the region arguing that "the key point would be for the Israelis to break Iran's control over the nuclear fuel cycle and that could be accomplished for example by destroying the uranium conversion facility at Esfahan or the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. That doesn't end the problem but it buys time during which a more permanent solution might be found.... How long? That would be hard to say. Depends on the extent of the destruction."
Meanwhile Bill Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard, argued that Bush might be willing to attack Iran if Barack Obama were elected to become the next president.
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Monday, June 23, 2008
McCain's New Ad About Oil And Gov. Palin On Drilling In ANWR
The ad is not very substantive but it does make a few good points and shows that McCain is getting out front and center on the oil and gas price issues. Follow the following link for a more in-depth look by Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska in her letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. She specifically smashes the liberal arguments that any drilling from ANWR or elsewhere would not be used for years and would not affect gas prices at all:
http://www.gov.state.ak.us/pdf/ANWRlettertoCongress_June23-2008.pdf
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Women At McCain's Closed Door Hispanic Meeting Says McCain Was Supporting "Comprehensive Immigration Reform"
Rosanna Pulido is a Hispanic Republican who attended a closed door meeting that the Republican nominee had with Hispanics. She claims that in the meeting McCain promised to pass "comprehensive immigration reform." She believes in enforcement first. "Comprehenisive immigration reform" was the word used for the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill from last summer that provided a path to citizenship for illegal aliens. The Republican candidate should not be having closed door meetings with Hispanics where he promises to pass legislation that the Republican party and American people as a whole strongly opposed and rejected the bill. McCain has since promised that he would work on enforcing our borders before anything else. To hear that he is still playing the same tune and pandering in front of Latino audiences is not acceptable. I do not expect McCain to completely reject his own bill, that would be flip flopping, but he should not be promising to pass it before he fulfills his promise to protect our borders. If McCain actually plugged the holes in our border then talk of "immigration reform" would be understandable. But before the border is secure it is pure madness to offer more incentive for illegal immigration.
See Rosanna Pulido here:
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=8478969
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The Case For Keeping The Bush Tax Cuts
Martin Regalia is Vice President for Economic and Tax Policy and Chief Economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He wrote this article making the case for keeping the Bush tax cuts: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11259.html
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The John McCain $300 Million Challenge
John McCain is offering $300 million dollars when he becomes president to anyone that can develope a car battery that is more efficient than current technology. It is called the Clean Car Challenge. McCain said that "in the quest for alternatives to oil, our government has thrown around enough money subsidizing special interests and excusing failure. From now on, we will encourage heroic efforts in engineering, and we will reward the greatest success."
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Sunday, June 22, 2008
Anniversary Of Kilo Decision
Three years ago on June 23 the Supreme Court made a hideous ruling. The majority of justices ruled in the Kilo Case on eminent domain saying that the government can strip a person of his property even if it is for something like allowing a private developer to build on what was once yours to raise tax revenue. The same liberal justices that were searching for rights for terrorists at Gitmo had no problem infringing on one of the most basic rights that our country was founded upon. It showed a utter and complete disregard for constitutional property rights. It showed that the liberal justices cared more about giving government power than the regular folks and their property. Since the decision there have been many miscarriages of justice as governments have taken away property from citizens to hand it to developers. It is a reminder of why the next justices appointed to the Supreme Court cannot be from the Ruth Bader Ginsburg mold of "jurisprudence" but must be from the Alito, Scalia, Roberts, and Thomas mold. Voting Obama means appointed liberal justices. It is another important issue in this election as a few of the justices get really old and another reason why Obama does not belong in the White House. Remember the Kilo Decision and this November vote accordingly.
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George Carlin Dies At 71
Famous comedian George Carlin died in St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica, California today at the age of 71. His most famous routine was the "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television." He often blended foul language with his unique wit.
Here are some clips of George Carlin. Warning: Graphic Language Content. Here is the "Seven Words" routine:
Here are some more recent clips. Here is his bit lampooning the 10 commandments:
George Carlin on airlines, one of his really funny ones:
Here he is on "saving the planet":
Here he is on euphemisms:
I could post more, but that is enough for now. Search youtube or google video for more if you so desire.
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Olmert Meets With Osirak Attack Planner
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with Colonel (res.) Aviam Sela, who is said to have been the architect behind Israel's attack against Iraq's nuclear reactor, Ma'ariv reported on Sunday. The paper reported that Sela was the brains behind "Operation Opera," which when carried out in 1981 resulted in the destruction of the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq.
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Barack Obama Says Republicans Will Point Out He Is Black
This is disgusting rhetoric from the uniter, the man of hope, the new kind of politician, the great Barack Obama. Republicans have not made any issue out of his race and to play the race card and claim you will be the victim of the vast right wing conspiracy to come is moronic.
And I am just wondering. Why would the Republicans have to point out that he is black? For the courtesy of the blind bigoted Republicans?
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