Liberal Serving

Bernie Sanders Stands Up to the Patriot Act

Independent Vermont Representative Bernie Sanders pushed a measure through the house that defies fundamentalist Republican big-brother surveillance tactics (yup, the "Patriot" Act) by making it harder for the feds to monitor the books you get from the library or bookstore.  Said Mr. Sanders, via Reuters:

"We can fight terrorism without undermining basic constitutional rights. That's what the message of today is about,"

This seems like a simple correction - who would support throughcrime bookstore-monitoring.  Well, Assistant Attorney General William Moschella, that's who.  In a letter to Congress, he said bookstores:

"should not be carved out as safe havens for terrorists and spies, who have, in fact, used public libraries to do research and communicate with their co-conspirators."

Call me a commie terrorist-lover, but that seems like a weak argument - how much of a safe haven can Buns and Noodles (TM Alison Bechdel) possibly be?.  Is commonly accessible information really dangerous?  Researching and/or communicating are not crimes - killing people, spying and funding terrorists - those are  crimes.  I assume that the communications he's talking about are via library computers - well, any terrorist who can't afford a cell phone or a computer of their own, can't be well positioned to threaten the country, can they?  I'm not encouraging their use of public facilities, but the cost to the privacy of the greater population does not justify the surveillance.  Monitoring books is just Orwellian, and any defense of the practice is just hopelessly reactionary.

F Dubya

Wonkette reports on the appearance on ebay of "An actual government issued Anti Bush item" that the owner claims "changed his life."  The Washington Department of Licensing felt otherwise:

The Department of Licensing has received several complaints regarding your license plate FDUBYA. The personalized license plate committee reviewed all the documentation and decided to cancel your plate because the message is offensive to good taste and decency.

Feds After Granny's Doobie

Call in the Feds!  Granny's doobie-smoking for her glaucoma is now a federal crime.  Pesky activist judges ruled this morning (oh, yeah, the supreme court's all conservatives, so this would be justice rather than activism) that all those state laws allowing medicinal use of marijuana are worth less than the paranoid federal ban on pot.  States' rights used to be a conservative "value," but lately they are just hubris pulled out to back up bigoted backwards state laws. 

Absolute republican power means they get to have their cake and eat it too.   Coke-snorting presidents can wag their fingers at pot smoking grannies in a world that doesn't know the meaning of "hypocrite" and paranoia equates relatively harmless marijuana with serious drugs like heroin and crystal meth.  Is it any wonder pot is a "gateway" to harder drugs?  Kids are bombarded with disinformation that all drugs are equally dangerous - that they are all addictive and mind-obliterating.  Once they discover that pot has tamer side effects than a beer buzz, they ignore all anti-drug messages - even the ones that aren't lies - and step on up to the "glamor" of truly life-altering drugs.

Some sanity after the jump.

Book Burning Hit List

Blogs are buzzing over Human Events Online's absolutely ridiculous "top ten most harmful books of the 19th and 20th centuries" and with good reason.  Lumping together Feminism and sexual liberation with Hitler and Communism?  Really?  Women working outside the home and sexual honesty are as bad as fascist dictatorships?  That's generously allowing an "evil" read of the communist manifesto, which is definitely debatable.  I'm going to run out and buy Kinsey and the Feminine Mystique, but not through Human Events, which Greg Beato caught working an inspiring American angle on Wonkette:

Human Events links the titles to Amazon.com, which means, despite the evil of Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler, and Ralph Nader, Human Events is eager to profit from their labor. Wily capitalists!

Gay-Baiting Telemarketing

Demonstrating new depths of cynicism and shamelessness, Oklahoma-based United American Technologies has managed to simultaneously pimp jesus and bait gay bashers - and in the name of that most American of values, greed.  In a truly awesome display, Eugene Mirman camps it up with their clueless - and effervescent - hate spewing telemarketers while they enthusiastically describe MCI's kiddie porn ring.  It must be heard to be believed.  Especially this call.  Their site proudly promotes "filtered internet" and then goes into detail:

United American Technologies is a nationwide filtered Internet service provider and long distance phone carrier. We recognize that the Internet is a very dangerous place for you and your family. Our filtering technology is state-of-the-art and unique. Our servers filter web browsing and email BEFORE it reaches your computer at home or work.

Yes, keep all those scary IDEAS away from me and my family.  I'm scared my children will learn break out of their bell jars and learn about the world!!  Save me big christian brother!

via wonkette

damned vegan extremists

Insane news leak from yahoo this morning:

A recent internal Homeland Security document lists the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front with a few Islamic groups that could potentially support al-Qaida as domestic terror threats.

I'm feeling safe indeed - Homeland Security is all over the war on terror - earning every penny I pay them.  It's obvious to me that the next massive terror attack is going to come from a vegan tree hugger.  Vegans are an especially violent group...

ALF and ELF are accused by the FBI of committing hundreds of acts of arson or other attacks on property in the United States, causing millions of dollars in damages. None of their attacks, however, have caused human deaths.  (I added links to the ALF & ELF websites - funny that the "liberal" media chose to link only to the FBI.)

Oh, yeah, that's right, vegans & animal rights activists aren't violent.  I think they might be upset about violent treatment of animal.  Yes, yes, that's the whole point of their efforts.  The ELF caused millions in damages to a rich Colorado ski resort - and put a lot of people in potential danger, but again, they aren't out to hurt people, but corporations.  The logic of both groups is to attack corporations where feel pain - causing expensive damage.  Extend the logic, and the hope is that corporations will shy away from exploiting animals or the environment because of this additional financial risk.  I would rather see activism stick to tried and true nonviolence, but I can appreciate the impatience that might compromise one's better judgment.

The document does not address threats posed by white supremacists, violent militiamen, anti-abortion bombers and other extremists that Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (news, bio, voting record), D-Miss., called "right-wing hate groups."

Yes, stay away from those groups that have histories of actual violence.  Past violent behavior couldn't possibly indicate future violence.  Really, is homeland security a dozen monkeys in cubicles eating donuts?  I get the funny feeling this incompetence is calculated and contrived.  So much for that safe feeling...

via america blog