Supporting the Separation of Church and State

Archive for May, 2008

RSS Roundup 5-28-08

Wow, it feels good to be back. I took full advantage of the holiday weekend and totally unplugged from news. I really needed it and I have a clearer head now. It’s something I totally recommend everyone doing. Of course I missed some stuff but nothing that I can’t live without knowing. It is good to be back writing again though so here is the RSS Roundup for everything important that happened in the blogosphere yesterday.

Novak Attacks Gov. Sibelius For Supporting Womens Rights

The other day douchebag of liberty Robert Novak wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post praising Kansas Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius for her strong support for women’s rights and reproductive freedom. I wanted to thank Robert Novak as I don’t think that the nation is aware of the many progressive values and accomplishments of our wonderful Governor. Being from Kansas, Sibelius has been branded a moderate Democrat and I think this article was exactly what she needed to help bolster her progressive image. Glad to see I’m not the only one who thinks so either.

The Rest of The News

Video Photo Montage of the Day

Michelle Malkin, who is famous for having a fat ass and a … sorry, thats someone else … has surpassed her previous record for stupidity by making the insane connection between celebrities wearing scarves and supporting terrorists. So as a public service I feel the need to expose the other hidden terrorists lovers hiding in Hollywood.

Thats after just 5 minutes on Google. I shudder to think how many terrorists loving scarf wearers are lurking out there. I’m going to have to subscribe to Malkins RSS Feed so that she can keep me safe.

Photo Credits

I do not think it means what you think it means

One of the words that the Bush Administration likes to throw around when talking about their failing policies is the word PROGRESS. No matter the topic; whether it’s the Iraq War, the economy, jobs, gas prices, you name it and were making “progress” on it. Like any sane and intelligent American I have long wondered what crazy metric they were using to measure this success. Well I have had an epiphany on this and I wanted to share it with you all.

When I first started hearing this I was under the assumption that “progress” was just another insecure platitude to quiet the angry masses. You know, just another way to string out the Iraq war until it becomes the Democrats problem. Now I realize that the conservatives belief that we are making progress is sincere and honest and is exactly the reason why they are unfit for government.

As a liberal and as a fan of facts and reality I tend to define the word progress, in the context used by Republicans, as meaning “the act of moving forward toward a goal”. I naturally measure this progress by how far from the goal we are and by whether or not were getting closer to that goal. I think that this way of looking at the world is not only natural and logical, but its essential for any kind of real success.

As I’m sure you can relate to this definition of progress left me confused and angry whenever conservatives used it. It’s much like accepting the offer of an apple, which you assume to be a red tasty fruit, only to receive a punch in the nose. Now imagine that happening for 7 years. Eventually you figure out that what they call an “apple” isn’t an apple at all and the last thing you want is more of their “apples”.

Understanding the conservative view of progress had me baffled until I realized one thing. For liberals success is dependent on the quantifiable achievement of a set goal. Conservatives seem to accept that success is guaranteed and that all they have to do is wait for it. This assurance of success makes things like timetables, goals, strategy, planning all irrelevant. For America to be successful we simply need to wait.

So when you start with the faith that success is inevitable the definition of progress changes. As their is no goal other than to wait for success the liberal definition of progress makes no sense. The conservative definition of progress is nothing more than the “progress through time”. When conservatives say we are making progress they don’t mean that goals are being achieved or that a sound strategy is being successfully carried out. They simply mean that time is still passing and therefore we are that much closer to our inevitable glorious success.

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With that in mind watch this short clip taken from Keith Olberman’s 5/1/2007 episode. You will see that if you think of the word progress as a rational acceptance that time has not stopped the words of George Bush make sense. See that piece in context here.

This method of government that the conservatives are offering has clearly not worked. I would be interested in hearing a single thing that the Bush Administration has actually made better. If we allow another conservative like John McCain to be elected we can expect 4 more years of Republican “progress”.

Site Comments Fixed, I Hope

Categorized: Politics

A while back I added a spiffy new spam filtering plugin in the hopes of cutting out some of the spam and junk I get every day.  Well apparently this plugin, which will remain nameless to protect the innocent, was preventing unregistered users from commenting.  This should be fixed now, if not please let me know.

Thanks to gmknobl for the heads up!

RSS Roundup 5-22-08

I want to start out today by apologizing for putting this blog on the back burner the past two weeks. I have been really busy getting a large programming job done by this weekend. The good news is that if everything goes well I will have the front end done today and tomorrow everything will be tested. Of course there will be more functionality as always but the core code will be in place. I’m excited.

I know I always say this but todays RSS Roundup is really short. Thanks for putting up with me.

Obama Gets Specific on What Change Is

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From FireDogLake Change is

  • a tax code that rewards work instead of wealth
  • a health care plan that guarantees insurance to every American who wants it
  • an energy policy that doesn’t rely on buddying up to the Saudi Royal Family and then begging them for oil
  • giving every child a world-class education
  • ending a war that we never should’ve started

The Little Thats Left

The Video of the Day

 

I have been saying all along with my McCain vs. McCain series that there are two John McCain’s.  I would have thought that the vast differences between beliefs and positions of the two would have made it obvious.  Well, finally the media is starting to wake up to this fact.  Thanks Crooks and Liars

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For more on the Two McCain’s revelation:

Thats it for today, told you it was a short one.  Hope you all have a great day and I’ll try to get out a real story later this afternoon.  Depends on how well the coding goes.

William ~ WWJV4.com

 

RSS Roundup 5-21-8

Happy hump day everyone. Were half way to a long holiday weekend. After 3 years in corrections when I never had holidays, or even weekends, off I am so looking forward to this summer. Being a month away from finishing up with school I hope to never ever have to do shift work again. Anyhow, lots to cover so lets get to it.

Senator Ted Kennedy Diagnosed with Brain Tumor

Ted Kennedy

I really wanted to write about this yesterday as the news came out but didn’t have time. As you probably know Kennedy was taken to the hospital after having seizures on Monday. Obviously a malignant brain tumor was not the news the nation was hoping to hear. We are all pulling for him and his family.

Kudos to Kathleen Sebelius!

I feel kind of embarrassed that I haven’t been covering this as well as I should. I have a project in the works for a local Kansas news site so I apologize. As a Kansan I am incredibly proud of our Governor. She has consistently made the right choices even when they were not the most politically expedient. Since I have dropped the ball on her recent acts here are links to others who are picking up the slack.

Kathleen Sebelius Vetoes Voter ID Law. Read Think Progress and Crooks and Liars. Everything I said about the SCOTUS ruling on the Indiana law applies here. Reading local news and blogs it is apparent that most Kansans are unaware of the true effect of these kinds of laws. Either that or their a bunch of assholes. The jury is still out on that distinction.

All the Rest of the News thats Important

Video of the Day

Henry Waxman Threatens to Have Rep Issa (R-CA) physically removed from hearing. Awesome.

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Thats all for today folks. I’ll try to have something up over my lunch break. Also Summer finally had a chance to comment on a story yesterday. If you havn’t been reading long it may surprise you to know that this is a multi-author blog.

In fact we accept story submissions from anyone with a progressive viewpoint. Writing for us couldn’t be easier. Just sign up for an account then when you log in you will have the ability to write a story. We will then post it assuming that its appropriate for our viewers.

Have a wonderful day

William ~ WWJV4.com