Fleeting Thoughts

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I see Feingold as one of only three or four people that could possibly beat Clinton in the Democratic primary(also Gore, Warner, Obama). And one of the things that sets him apart is that he has consistently spoke his mind and was one of only a handful of senators who voted against authorizing Bush to use force in Iraq, as well as one of the to call for the withdrawal of troops. He also called for the censure of President Bush for his illegal wire-tapping of U.S. citizens.

Feingold has garnered a lot of praise andsupport from the internet community because of his core liberal beliefs and his outspoken, attention getting style. So today’s scolding of the Administration for manipulating Americans and continuing to spew lies about the war only makes me want to vote for him even more.

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“The American people expect this government to protect our constitutional liberties…,” Bush said.

That’s exactly right and thanks to the NY Times piece we can see that you clearly couldn’t care less about our constitutional liberties. This is only one small part of the many ways the Bush Administration claims to be protecting American lives and undermining them at exactly the same time. And in each case they have hidden their actions from us to avoid having to follow the rules and guidelines set in place to protect us from this outrageous abuse of Executive Power.

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When Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) finishes his day at the office, he hops into the back seat of his state provided Town Car so he can be driven across the street to the governor’s mansion. Total distance: a few hundred yards.

Yeah our current Governor has many, many problems most, if not all, worse then this. Not only is he currently embroiled in a huge hiring scandal, he has also been largely criticized in the past days for blocking access to political blogs that criticize him, though the official stance is all politically aimed blogs are blocked, in spite of the fact that most right leaning blogs tend to still work according to some staffers. But all of his problems are a result of a lack of foresight on his and his administration’s part. Consistently throughout his tenor he has shown that he is incapable of grasping the consequences of his actions.

I also find it ironic that before his time as Governor Fletcher served in the House of Representatives and was a student of the Delay school of politics. Delay has also has been indicted for “allegedly accepted an illegal political contribution of $100,000 from the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, and the Texas Association of Business on four charges, including unlawful political advertising, unlawful contributions to a political committee and unlawful expenditures such as those to a graphics company and political candidates.”(Link)

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::UPDATE::

Kos has even more coverage of the story at his site as well as some good comments.

    I think the reason I am always on the side of the immigrants in debates that involve them is because I believe in the American Dream. My dad who himself is and Irish immigrant has fulfilled this American Dream like may Irish immigrants who came before him.
     Back in the early 1900's at the height of Irish immigration, when millions to the states there was resentment towards them because they were good cheap labor that were taking jobs from US citizens that were already here. But over time the Irish immigrants integrated into American society and are now one of the most loved American cultural groups, as is evident by the amount of people who proudly boast how there relatives came to America from Ireland every March 17. This group of people overcame the resentment and adapted to America and became Americans. Another example of poorly received immigrant would be the Japanese in the 1940's who we went as far as rounding up and sending off to camps since they were from our enemy the Japanese even if they were part of American society in every other way. They too are now a proud cultural group in America that is highly respected for there contribution to America.
    The Hispanic immigrants are in a very similar situation the that of the Irish. They are good, cheap, hard working labor that has come at a time when existing American need all the jobs then can. If we start turning away immigrants especially ones from Mexico and other Hispanic nations we deny them of the American dream the reason they want to come here for in the first place. The greatest aspect of America is the multitude of ethnic and cultural groups that makes this country so diverse and so wonderful. And I would even go as far to say that building a wall between us and Mexico whether physical or metaphorical is unpatriotic. That's not to say we should not secure the borders by set more money aside to increase the number of border security and to more heavily invest in unmanned aircraft to patrol the border. By securing the border and allowing Mexican immigrants to receive guest worker passes that allow them to work legally  and to be taxed will end up benefiting America in the end. We will also be able to better secure the country since the amount of white noise immigrants trying to sneak into the country will be gone, our border security will be better able to block those that which to cause America harm or to smuggle illegal drugs in the states.

In a time when Christian Conservatives are ever encroaching on our rights as Americans to live our lives the way we see fit, we must take action and not sit idly by. The 2006 elections are a chance for Americans to show what they stand for and it's our responsibility as Democrats to show them that our party, unlike the Republican one, is the one that truly represents them.
South Dakota recently passed laws banning all forms of abortion even in cases of rape and incest. This is at a time when a majority of Americans are Pro-choice and do not support a outright ban on abortion like the religious right want to impose.
In the 2004 elections the religious right ran on a gay bashing campaign trying to put a end to what few rights are given to gays now. They preached how gays are ruining american values and that gay rights would spell and end to the sanctity of marriage.
The religious right preach the word of God one moment and then support a President who wages senseless war that is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people as well as the lives of those most precious to this country, those who defend it. The President has betray those who defend this nation by sending them to were they do not belong, and even worst sending unprepared. He sent them with not the best that America has but with second rate armor of a bygone era. This is a blatant disregard for those amaricans that saccrefice the most for the good of this country.
These are the same people that claim to base their beliefs in Jesus. Jesus never had a good word for intolerance, or war, or tax cuts for the rich, or raping the earth for oil and by supporting these lunatics this country will never progress.

Recently immigration has come to thhe forefront of the news again with the new proposed laws from each side of the issue and the protests against the proposed laws. I personally am pro-immigration. And for once agree with Bush that America’s best option is a guest worker program that enables our goverment to track and tax those immigrants to benifit America and to secure our borders.

Over the next week I will be outlining my plan for immigration and detailing how I believe a guest worker program will actually improve border security. So stay tuned.

Patrick

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, the creater of one of the most popular political blogs The Daily Kos, was interviewed by Newsweek and it’s really interesting. He talk about the right wing nut Santorum and his ever slimmer growing chances of being relected, even with all his fundraising money from the religous conservatives. He also touches on the Abramoff scandel and potential dager he is to another Senator up for re-election, Tom Delay.
Kos brings up a very good point about Hilary Clinton and her chances to win the ‘08 election, that quite frankly no one knows where she stands on some key issues such as the big one, Iraq. And that is one hell of a problem seeing as thats the same reason Kerry failed to win his election.

Everyone right now is posting their predictions for the coming year, so I decided to mix it up and post some items that I hope will happen next year.

• Apple will release their Intel products quickly with little to no trouble and Rosetta will be a dream come true. They will also continue to grow thanks to the exposure the iPod has given them and there market share will top 8%+.
• Broadband proliferation will continue with greater rural penetration, so that America will be able to catch up with the rest of the civilized world. And bandwidth will rise as well as stabilize in price (5-10mbs for $20/m or 15-20mbs for $40).
• 3G wireless services will continue to grow and expand as well as a price drop that will greatly increase the rate of adoption.
• The Xbox 360 will finally get a killer app (Halo 3) and will trounce the newly released PS3.
• Schools will encourage students to use laptops and other technologies such as RSS to further help students learn better, hopefully with less stress and anxiety.
• WoW will top 10 million subscribers and will finally bury SWG.
• Podcasting will continue to grow at a rapid rate and slowly but surely kill satellite radio.
• Democrats will sweep elections and reclaim their rightful places in Washington.
• Bush will make a fool of himself (Both a hope and prediction really).

Welcome to Fleeting thoughts.