Monday, July 04, 2005

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, on the occasion of the Spanish parliament's historic vote legalizing both gay marriage and adoption of children by gay couples. I hope that soon we will have a leader who believes in the words freedom and liberty as resolutely as he is willing to use them for political gain. Keep up the fight, my fellow liberal patriots. Those words will mean something once again in America. By noemail@noemail.org (Shakespeare's Sister). [Shakespeare's Sister] 8:59:12 PM     Hey, don't you think he'd like to be in Law Scho...   Hey, don't you think he'd like to be in Law School? Sheryl McCarthy Ship young Pataki straight to Iraq June 30, 2005 I'm sure Teddy Pataki is a nice young man. And the fact that he signed up for the Marine Corps' officers training program while he was still an undergraduate at Yale suggests a willingness to serve his country. But I would be really mad if 22-year-old Pataki, whose father is Gov. George Pataki, got to skate through the next three years of the Iraq conflict in law school. The governor, who proudly announced last week that his son has been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marines, also noted that Teddy Pataki hopes to defer his military service for three years until he finishes law school. Coming only days after 20-year-old Marine Cpl. Ramona Valdez of the Bronx was killed by a suicide bomber in Fallujah, to suggest that Lt. Pataki be allowed to pass the next three years studying torts and contracts seemed positively obscene. It was another example of how politicians wage war but expect other people's children to fight them. .......................... Rangel said the public revelation of Teddy Pataki's request for a law school deferment must be "very embarrassing for him." In his ringing "we must stay the course because things are getting better in Iraq" speech the other night, Bush made no enthusiastic appeal to young people to join the military, because to do so at this time, with the situation in Iraq as it is, would have been ridiculous. Instead, he assured those who might be considering a military career that there is "no higher calling." But if that's the case, then newly minted young 2nd Lt. Teddy Pataki ought to be shipped straight to Iraq. Why wait? Give him the chance to serve his country the way Ramona Valdez did. The Marines need infantry platoon leaders more than lawyers. Let him do a tour or two of Iraq, then law school. Let him complete the Baisc Course and AIT and then get that man an infantry platoon and let him see the sites of Afghanistan or Iraq. He wanted to be part of the best, well, that means doing his job, law school can wait.I'm sure he'll be a fine lawyer. I think he needs to lead some riflemen first. Every Marine a rifleman, right? Well, Teddy should be proving that. Once upon a time, such a request in wartime would have been shameful. Now, no big deal. Whiole other die, some study? Nope. He chose the Marines, let him be a Marine. A Marine rifleman. It was good enough for my father and hundreds of thousands of other men, why not him? [The News Blog] 8:14:38 AM     Cheers and Jeers: Mutton and Hard Cider MONDAY!. From the MASSACHUSETTS-ANNEXED FRONTIER TERRITORY OF MAINE... [On] July 4, 1776...the Founding Fathers celebrated the Fourth of July by signing the Declaration of Independence. ... We cherish the Declaration because it expresses, in the timeless prose of its author, Francis "Scott" Key, the ideals upon which this great nation was founded: Whereas in the course of human events it behooves us, the people, not to ask, What can our country do for us, anyway? but rather whether we have anything to fear except fear itself, so that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, may be one nation under God, who art in heaven, as we forgive those who trespass against us and solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth until death do us part as long as we both shall live or 75,000 miles, whichever comes first, amen. Even today, when we read these words, we are struck physically in the head by how meaningful they are. What the Founding Fathers were saying, basically, was: "Why should we let people over in England saddle us with an unresponsive government and stupid laws? We can create our own!" But first they had to finish fighting the Revolutionary War, a long, bitter, and complex struggle that we will not discuss in detail here because that would require research. The important thing is that when the British finally surrendered in 1781 following the Battle of Gettysburg, the colonists were at last free to form a new nation, which they decided to name "The United States of America," in recognition of the fact that "Luxembourg" was taken. From `Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway' (Ballantine) Happy 229th Birthday, America. Cheers and Jeers starts in the Commonwealth of There's Moreville... [Washington's sword: Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Liberty Bell: Gong!!] [Daily Kos] 8:12:43 AM     Shooting Rhinos. With the G-8 Summit coming up next week, Tony Blair has expended a lot of energy and political capital to make Africa a major focus of the meeting. Of course, Bush has cobbled together enough token gestures (including a...  [BAGnewsNotes] 8:10:53 AM

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