Weekend Round-up

So, not much news over the weekend. A little preoccupation with Friday’s antics in the house judiciary committee, where congressman Sensenbrenner unilaterally gaveled the meeting to an end when he didn’t like what he was hearing. (See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, like the monkeys say). I actually had a friend of a friend come over on Saturday, and all she could talk about was "that girl in Aruba." I told her that I was busy watching real news making in America, i.e., the house judiciary committee hearing on the misuses of the Patriot Act. She got quiet after that.

I tell you, if you watch television news, you are bound to get dumber and dumber.

Then there’s all the talk, good and bad, over the DSM, as well as the newest information out about "the other" memo.

And the body count of U.S. soldiers topped 1,700 this weekend.

Of course, the big discussion in the media is DEAN, DEAN, DEAN! I swear, it’s beginning to really crack me up, all this misdirected hate toward this man! When Dickless Cheney starts bringing up "your mutha," you KNOW you’ve gotten under his skin! I’m not a registered democrat, nor a republican. I’ve never registered for any party since I first started voting in my early twenties. But, I have, for the most part, voted primarily a democratic ticket. However, like many, after the first four years of the Bush illegal squatting of the White House, I took up intellectual arms and worked tirelessly to oust that dufus. Alas, thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Noe, Ohio dutifully played the Florida role in the 2004 election, and we are stuck with another four more years. Well, that is, until we get enough nerve to finally impeach the son of a bitch.

I would have voted, in a New York minute, for Howard Dean, but the rethugs were really afraid of him, so they had to demonize him, and reduce him to the "scream." Too bad. The democratic party could have done something far more respectable in the election had they fronted the right man.

As many are beginning to notice, the democratic party, and the elected representatives in Washington, have a number of "corporate heads" just like the rethugs do. The first four years of Bush’s occupation that these democratic congressmen and women voted with the rethugs, was not as well documented as it has now become, thanks to the blogosphere. As an outsider, I can say that the democratic party NEEDS to clean out all those democrats in name only, i.e., the ones beholding to big corporate interests. You know who they are ... the ones that voted WITH the rethugs on the bankruptcy bill, to begin with.

And in other news, the Supreme Court AGAIN handed Texas a defeat in the death penalty game that state plays, claiming "racial discrimination in keeping blacks off the jury." This is the second time the case was before them! The sent it back before in 2003, but Texas just doesn’t GET IT.

"It marked the second time since 2003 the Supreme Court has decided the case. The justices in 2003 sent it back to the appeals court after finding Miller-El had presented substantial evidence of racist practices. But the appeals court reinstated its earlier ruling dismissing his case on the grounds that prosecutors had valid, non-racial explanations for their actions."

The same court denied Jose Padilla’s petition for an immediate decision on his detention instead of waiting for a federal appeals court to rule. Padilla, a U.S. citizen held for three years as a suspected enemy combatant, has an appeal pending at the court of appeals level, but wanted to bypass them. This matter was before the Supreme Court back in June 2003, where it declined to rule on the issue, instead denying the petition on the grounds that the original suit was brought in the wrong jurisdiction. Basically, a lower federal court has issued a ruling that Mr. Padilla CANNOT be held indefinitely, and these appeals are by the Bush administration trying to overturn the "release him or charge him" decision.

Which brings us right back to what started off the weekend, the house judiciary committee hearings on the extension of the provisions of the Patriot Act.


And now, back to our regularly scheduled blogging.