I been around the world
I’ve seen a million birds
Ain’t one of them got
What my birdie she got
She stealin’ the spotlight
Knocks me of my feet
She’s enough to start a landslide
Just a flyin’ down the street
Wearin’ feathers so tight
And lookin’ dynamite
About to blow me out
No doubt about it can’t live without it
The bird’s got rhythm (bird’ss got rhythm)
The bird’s got rhythm (bird’ss got rhythm)
She got the back perch rhythm (back perch rhythm)
The bird’s got rhythm…..
Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, in response to Arlen Specter’s defection from the Republican party due to it’s move further to the right, is wondering if Republicans really are more right wing than they were thirty years ago under Reagan’s tutelage. He states:
…back during the Reagan era, I remember hearing that the Republicans were . . . a bunch of social conservatives. And back then they were pushing the abortion-banning Human Life Amendment — hard — along with a statutory end-run (the Human Life Bill) that simply declared life began at conception. Also school prayer and all sorts of stuff. I’m not actually hearing much along these lines from today’s Republicans…
and posts a few quotes from other blogs:
You are right about this issue. The Republican Party is less socially conservative now than in the past. You don’t hear a lot of support for anti-sodomy laws nowadays, for example, or opposition to civil unions.
The reason for the change in perception is that with fiscal conservatism abandoned, the only distinguishing characteristic of the Republican Party is now social conservatism.
Glenn adds:
So, tepid as that is, it dominates. Also, there has to be some reason to tell college students that Republicans are uncool. . . .
Today’s version of the Republican Party is teppid on social issues compared to the Reaagan era. That is the assertion by some in the bloggisphere. I believe both Glenn and my good friends at Gay Patriot are wrong.
Me and a fellow blogger have been having some good back and forth on the torture dilemma. The pro-torture side is stuck on the definition and procedural aspects of the interrogations. They’re stuck on semantics. Lawyers for the President redefined the techniques as non-torture, so presto, it’s not torture. Yet the same “enhanced methods” we are all talking about are the same ones we have agreed to prosecute other countries for. And just because the torture sessions are supervised, does not make them non-torture. It’s ironic, because those defending the use of torture by trying to call it something different, are the same ones who chastise “pro choice” advocates for trying to avoiding, through semantics, the fact that they are endorsing the killing of babies.
For those who condone harsh interrogations, I have a question. What if Iran decides to use the enhanced methods” on the American journalist Roxana Saberi? She is a convicted spy (at least she had a trial, even though it was for show), and the Iranians need to know who the other operatives are who are working with her to undermine the sovereignty of their country. By our own standards, they could justify it. What if Iran does the exact same procedures, in the same controlled manner, to the reporter? Would we have any right to complain and accuse Iran of torturing her?
Behringer BLX1800A. 180 watts of Bass amp bliss, coupled with a 12′ speaker. Have used it for 1 1/2 year. Great amp. TONS of volume for the size. But since I got my SWR back from San Diego, I have too many amps and am selling this one.
…and it’s back in January. Their assessment – sameas mine – there doesn’t seem to be much to corroborate the alleged seriousness of the “Second Wave” attacks. And remember, the pro-torture advocates themselves have established the “ticking time-bomb” scenario as the metric used to justify torturing detainees, so the pro-torture Republicans have a high burden of proof to live up to. Here is the latest from the WaPo. As I said before, this is probably going flop even harder than the “WMD’s in Iraq” fiasco.
Well, I could (and probably will) go on and on about the tortured logic infecting the GOP, but my computer used to record and store my music is having a nervous breakdown. It’s a Windows XP machine, and has been running problem free for over two years, so I guess I’m overdue. Firefox keeps crashing, the internet connection disconnect without warning, and even the command line has become unstable. If you type “cmd” in the run box, the screen goes blank for a second and then … nothing; I’m back to the desktop.
So it looks like it’s time to reinstall XP. Too bad, because I had this computer tweaked to be a fine DAW. Oh Well. At I don’t have the dreaded “Blue Screen Of Death” to contend with.
I assure you I’m not writing these just to bash Republicans. This YouTube Vid is relevant to my previous post regarding the “Second Wave” plot, supposedly foiled by torturing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. I don’t believe that there was an imminent attack, but if there was something legit that Cheney’s classified documents would show was disrupted, then let’s see them. So how does the Obama administration respond????
OK.
First – Hillary.
You should know by now you don’t do obfuscation very well…. Does the phrase “I don’t recall” ring a bell ????
Second – Cheney. Come on!!! I can’t believe you don’t have a lackey somewhere in the CIA willing to leak a document or two favorable to the cause. It’s not like leaking documents is something so unfathomable or so beyond the realm of possibility for either the Cheneyites or the CIA. So, come on. Get that mole machine working.
Third – This is going to be a land-mine for certain Democrats on the hill. It’s already been revealed that Queen Nanci Pelosi knew about the use of these torture techniques since 2002, as did fellow Dem Jane Harmon. I’ve been saying for a few years now that the Dems, or at least key ones, knew about these policies from their inception. Why do you think Pelosi et. al. have been SO DAMNED RELUCTANT to make any move forward on getting to the bottom of torture policies that she claims to believe are so abhorrent. They were in on it – DUH!!! Many Dems are going to have some ‘splainin’ to do before this is through.
But getting back to my point. There are two likely endings to this particular episode. Either some memo will come out, one way or another, showing some plot was being talked about, money changed hands, but it was no where near a point where the terrorists even had a concrete plan or the resources tocarry it out. Keep in mind that the Bush / Cheney torture faction has proclaimed torture vital in order to prevent an “imminent” 24’ish attack. The little bit of info we do have on the so called “Second Wave” LA plot comes nowhere near that metric, and would be seriously moving the goalposts by the torturistas (fun word, I’m running with it). It will be almost as big a dud as the Super-Dooper Santorum WMD Memo of 2006.
What will more likely happen is that the Obama administration will say there is no document of the kind because… well… there really isn’t. It does not exist. This is a winning strategy, because it’s very hard to prove a negative. Regardless, the torturistas will be up in arms claiming Obama is hiding the truth, and we’ll have to listen to Rush / Hannity / Levin scream in protest about it for years after. And long term, it works too. It plants a shadow of doubt on the Obama administration and will give those prosecuted the chance to claim they were railroaded. It’s sort of the G Gordon Liddy / Ollie North approach. OK, some might end up going to jail for a while but in the end, they’ll get out and start their own radio shows…. Yay. Can’t wait for that.
Birds, Music / Video | Sonicfrog April 30, 2009 | 
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