My views on the subject are quite consistent. I don’t believe in War.
I protested Viet Nam, and Iraq, although I supported limited intervention into Afghanistan (and look where THAT got us).
I think it’s always better to try to work things out.
So as a public service, I am reposting this picture. Because almost regardless of the details of the deal being worked out with Iran, compromises are better than war.
Deal or No Deal? (Image courtesy of the White House, but I found it at CrooksandLiars.com)
Sometime last year I started getting emails from the Washington Times. For those of you not currently or previously drowning in politics (lucky you!), the Washington Times is a right wing rag — Fox News in black and white (and read all over) by conservatives in Washington (and probably nowhere else — it’s a really rag and not in a good way).
Since I didn’t unsubscribe for a while (the emails are hilarious in a frightening way), I am also on a bunch of other lists. And just yesterday, I got this:
(My photo of Ted’s email — eat your heart out, Google Images)
Ooh Boy Howdy! I can work long and hard to support a crazy man from Texas! Yee-Haw!
OK, back to reality. You won’t be surprised that I didn’t send Ted my hard earned money, unless you have just clicked on this blog for the first time.
But I did respond to Ted. With this:
Because I’m pretty sure that this one picture is worth a thousand words. Or dollars — Confederate or U.S.
I clipped the photo montage from my friend, Father Kane, at The Last of the Millenniums, where I get so many great pictures.
We all thought it would be different, didn’t we. After Columbine. After Aurora. After Sandy Hook.
But no. Nope. Nada. Didn’t happen
We’ve all gotten used to thinking the unthinkable: Not a chance for change. Not with the money the NRA has behind them. Not with the gun folks getting progressively crazier.
So some creative thinking was called for.
BAM!
Right to the Heart!
Naturally, the gun nuts are going, well, nuts. As reported in the Huffington Post where I found the video:
The National Rifle Association’s New York affiliate immediately condemned the stunt and called for an investigation into whether the organizers violated New York’s gun laws.
“[It is a] felony violation of the Sullivan Act for a person to possess a handgun anywhere in New York without a license. The video clearly shows individual ‘customers’ handling various handguns and doing so in an unsafe manner,” New York State Rifle and Pistol Association President Thomas King said in a press release.
Because, you see, it’s not OK to “handle” a gun, but the 2nd Amendment gives us all the right to own them. And use them.
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Timiny Cricket, a commenter, said that he’d
like to hear about some of the positive examples where a gun scared away someone about to commit a crime or even was used in self defense and saved the owner’s life.
A group of 47 Republican Senators are trying to thwart international negotiations with Iran! What fun! You know, the ones where we are trying to prevent them from developing and holding on to nuclear weapons?
“It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system … Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement,” the senators wrote. “The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.”
Among the signers of this letter were three GOP Senators who are running or are expected to run for president in 2016: Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. And naturally, former GOP Presidential nominee John McCain signed it as did his shadow, Lindsay Graham.
Because, as you know, we can’t have peace. And we can’t have anything positive come out of the evil Obama Administration, now can we.
But more importantly to voters of this country, this group of Senators has no real idea of how either international agreements work. They don’t they quite have the details of the Constitution down, either. It’s kind of like when you sneak the keys to the car from your parents and take the car out on the road before you know what you’re doing.
It was a good thing that somebody else understood how American international agreements work, though. And what powers the Executive Branch of the U.S. Guv’ment has under the Constitution. And what ones are given to the Legislative Branch. Yup. It’s a damn good thing. Here is the schooling these boys received from a source that likely sits in their craw (as it should):
Asked about the open letter of 47 US Senators to Iranian leaders, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Dr. Javad Zarif, responded that “in our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy. It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history. This indicates that like Netanyahu, who considers peace as an existential threat, some are opposed to any agreement, regardless of its content.
Zarif expressed astonishment that some members of US Congress find it appropriate to write to leaders of another country against their own President and administration. He pointed out that from reading the open letter, it seems that the authors not only do not understand international law, but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy.
Foreign Minister Zarif added that “I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the United States, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfil the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.
The Iranian Foreign Minister added that “change of administration does not in any way relieve the next administration from international obligations undertaken by its predecessor in a possible agreement about Irans peaceful nuclear program.” He continued “I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with the stroke of a pen, as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law.
I would say that these Senators were “caught with their pants down,” because we haven’t had a good sex scandal in a while. Penis problems however, don’t start wars. Stupid actions by traitors do.
And that what this is. Members of the Senate, including some who have or who plan to run for the highest office in the United States, try to interfere with international agreements to stop wars. These folks don’t even know how our government works, and have to learn about it from the very folks they are trying to threaten. And they want to be in charge. Hell, they are in charge of too much already.
Which song do you prefer?
Or this one:
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I would like to write good things about the current crop of Republicans. Really I would. Feel free to send me links to anything good they have done. Anything that helps people. Anything that helps our country.
Sometimes, even a die-hard Democrat and respecter of smart people everywhere like me can’t believe what I hear Republicans say. But, of course, with YouTube, I get to See and Hear all kinds of things. I can replay them in case I missed something. I can marvel that, yup, they did, in fact say something as stupid as that. Or this. Yup. There’s proof.
Oregon State Representative Bill Post eulogized the passing of Leonard Nimoy on the floor of the legislature.
Of course, neither Spock nor Nimoy were Republicans. Star Trek is pro-science and about a big government in search of a utopian society. Its themes were equality (although the original Star Trek was sexist) and peace. There was no money on the Starship Enterprise. There were no rich or poor. All basic needs were provided for, including health care.
One of Spock’s most famous quotes was, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
Don’t these folks ever listen to themselves?
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I learned about this through Dailykos.com which directed me to Wonkette and ultimately to Addicting Info.