On My Way To The Capital

I met a lady who introduced her self as, "Peace". 

She thanked me for asking before taking her photo. 

She took my hand, looked deep in my eyes and told me to have a beautiful day. 

She said nothing more.

First Shot in the Revolution?

The Ron Paul Revolution has been quite interesting to follow. I have loaded pictures from the Ron Paul Boston (Austin) Tea Party fund raising rally in Austin, Texas. There were people from many walks: Businessmen, soldiers, hippies, parents, students, different races and socio-economic backgrounds.

I feel the picture below is the right cover shot for today's event.

Click on the photo below or here to see today's photos.

(Photo by Erik Kuykendall)

You can see the graph of donations as they came in through the day. It appears he broke another record. Actually another record was broken for him as he wasn't involved.

The video was taken by a young man named Jimmy and I thought some might like a video peek at the event, too:

Bush League Justice - Signing Statements

This episode of Dan Abrams' series, "Bush League Justice", takes a brief look at presidential signing statements. Do you follow up to see what happens when the bills reach "The Decider's" desk?

3 Republican Candidates Support Torture!?!

It surprised me when I caught a piece of this at a restaurant last night. I thought I heard these people wrong. I went and looked it up on YouTube today and this is what I found:

During last night's GOP debate, Brit Hume set up a hypothetical situation in which 3 terrorist attacks occur at shopping malls in major cities. A fourth attack is thwarted and that would-be attacker, who we "know" has information about an impending, larger attack is captured and taken to Guantanamo Bay. The candidates were asked if "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", including waterboarding, should be used to get information from the detainee.

All three said torture is acceptable!

McCain said he would use torture in the hypothetical situation presented. He said it would be a "million to one" scenario, but he would authorize and then railed on using torture.

Giuliani said, with no qualms, he would use "enhanced interrogation techniques" including waterboarding (to applause).

Mitt Romney said that he doesn't want them to have access to lawyers. He then said that,

"Some people have said we should close Guantanamo. My view is, we ought to double Guantanamo. (Lots of applause.) There is no question that in a setting like that where you have a ticking bomb and the president, not the C.I.A. interrogator, but the President of the United States has to make the call and enhanced interrogation techniques HAVE to be used, not torture, but enhanced interrogation techniques. Yes."

These people are running for president?

Boston Legal-Gitmo Closing

James Spader in Boston Legal giving his closing statements regarding a Guantanamo Bay detainee. Sound like anyone you know? I know it sounds like people I know. Actually it sounds like every logical American when they slow down enough to think about it and respond.

(courtesy of Crooks & Liars)

Chat with your friends. See what they think. If you all feel like this, see what can you come up with to help put the country back on track.

Spin, the movie.

"SPIN"

Definitely worth a watch. Brian pieced together bits of satellite feeds to give a behind-the scenes look at TV politics and spin

"Using the 1992 presidential election as his springboard, documentary filmmaker Brian Springer captures the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of politicians and newscasters in the early 1990s. Pat Robertson banters about "homos," Al Gore learns how to avoid abortion questions, George Bush talks to Larry King about halcyon -- all presuming they're off camera. Composed of 100% unauthorized satellite footage, Spin is a surreal expose of media-constructed reality."

(~quote from Google poster of this video)

Stop and Frisks

The New York Police Department released new information during the first week of February of 2007. It shows that police officers stopped an amazing number of people this last year. The last time 12 month data was disclosed was in 2002. At that time, there were 97, 296 individuals stopped on NYC streets--many of them searched. That number has jumped by over 500% to 508,540 citizens stopped and/or searched last year. That's an average of 1,393 stops per day. I know I feel safer.

The number of stops and summonses has increased by 5 times and the number of arrests has doubled. If you want to read the entire NYT article, but don't have a subscription, you can view it on the Randomized Geek blog here.

Whitehouse Replacing Confirmed Attorneys with Appointees

A speech given on the floor today, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said the White House has told her it is going to replace between 5 and 10 Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys with its own interim appointees. There are seven that I know of that have resigned in just the past couple of months: Kevin Ryan (San Francisco), Daniel Bogden (Nevada), Carole Lam (San Diego), David Iglesias (New Mexico), Paul Charlton (Arizona), John McKay (Seattle), and Bud Cummins (Little Rock).

All of the attorneys listed above resigned between 12/15/06 and 1/16/07.

Watch the video: