Chris Magazine

God, I can't take it anymore. These whiny little right wing nuts. Should the New York Times be leaking classified information in a time of war?
Nope.
Should the Bush administration be repeatedly breaking the law with their policies to defend this country?
Nope.
Who's going to tell us if not the media?
No one.

Therefore....tell us fucking everything.

I'm sick of these hacks asserting over and over again that because we're at "war" the administration is off limits....it's not. It's debatable whether we're in a real war situation to begin with. The activity in Iraq is a police action, no longer a war and the so-called war on terror is ethereal.

Not only that. The things the New York Times has revealed weren't surprising. You mean the feds are following the finances to try to track terrorists? Shocking. As if they wouldn't have guessed that. Like they don't suppose that their phone calls are already being tapped. These are not morons we're dealing with here. This, of course, is all beside the point.

These programs are all illegal. If they weren't, every time the administration gets caught they wouldn't be negotiating with members of congress to get legislation passed to make what they were doing legal. Wouldn't have to do that if it was already the case.

What really pushed me over the edge today was the decision handed down by the Supreme Court saying that the Guantanamo plan to hold military tribunals was illegal and violated the Geneva Conventions.

Now, the Bush Administration has been saying they don't need to follow the conventions because we're either not at war or we're in a different kind of war, but that's a dangerous and erroneous assertion.

You are either at war or you are not. If someone is captured, determined to be an enemy and held, he's a POW. Enemy Combatant is a nuanced way that the administration asserts allows them to skirt international agreements. It shouldn't. At the very least it puts our own soldiers at risk in future engagements.

That said, the thing that really pissed me off wasn't the court's decision, which I clearly agree with, but rather the minority opinion written by Clarence Thomas. Thomas said in his dissent that the majority ruling meant that terrorists needed to be caught "red handed" before they could be tried under the laws of war. "It would sorely hamper the President's ability to confront and defeat a deadly enemy."

You know what, that's too bad. It's illegal. Republican have for years now applied the term "activist judges" to left leaning members of the bench who interpreted the law differently than they liked. They claim that the job of a judge is the take the law as it's written and not impress his own personal perspectives on any decision. Maybe the law as it exists would hinder the President, but that's not the point.

That's not the job of the judiciary to worry about how the President's getting by in the daily execution of his job. Their job is to look at the law and make sure it's not being misused or misinterpreted as it's clearly been in this case and in the case of the NSA phone debacle.

To the New Dashboard Confessional....it's ok....the lead singer's voice which does so well when accompanied by just an acoustic guitar or the crowd sounds a bit weak up against a full rock band sound...but if you're a fan, you'll sing along as usual.

Twilight Singers-Powder Burns-- Greg Dulli kicks some serious ass with the album. Might be the best album he's ever put together including all that Afghan Whigs stuff...check it out.

The New Amsterdams
The Futureheads
The Nines
The latter two are ripping off XTC to some extent, but sound good anyway. The first is the lead singer from The Get Up Kids...used to be his side project, but since they doesn't exist any longer I don't know if it should be called that.

I need a name for my third party. I don't want to be affiliated with any existing group. We need to be something that people can come to witha clean slate.

What do you do when you know you aren't wanted?

Yet another reason to jump on my bandwagon for a third party....
Saw where a couple of democrats in the House this weekend were talking about how they plan to run for majority leader come November. Then there was a nice article in USA Today talking about how Democrats are slipping in the polls.
Little hint for the Dems...buy some chickens....then wait until they are in your possession to count them to ensure that you have them all...then tell your friends.
Morons.

As it turns out...I did some research and gays are truly a threat to marriage....gay marriage. In fact, nearly 97 percent of marriages broken up by a third party was the result of interference by someone of the same sex. Of course that was a study of gay marriages, but I'm certain it works that way for regular marriages too. This shocking revelation has forced me to adjust my views so they're in line with the nice, right thinking folks over at the Family Research Council. Damn those gays. Destroying everything they touch. You should see how they destroyed my property values....they moved into the neighborhood....now I couldn't afford my own house if I wanted to buy it again. And the landscaping they've done....I've had to cut my grass twice already this year. It sickens me.

Watched two movies this weekened that, despite their age, remain very relevant. The first was Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It's a great condemnation of Washington and what goes on there and the idealistic views that Smith stands by are just as, or even more, relevant today. Washington is such a bastion of cynicism where nothing seems to get done unless it puts lots of money in someone's pocket and rarely for the good of all.

The second was The Devil and Ms. Jones. This is not to be confused with the porn film. Though I'm sure the themes in that movie speaks to people today much as it did when it was made in the 70s. The movie I'm speaking of was made in the 40s and was a comedy about a labor uprising at a large department store. The owner goes under cover to try to weed out the agitators and ends up finding out just how his store is run. Ultimately the works just want some security for their years of devotion and then store is essentially firing the older workers because it's cheaper to hire in new ones at a lower rate. Luckily in the last 60 years we've taken care of that problem and companies these days are all about great customer service and tremendous loyalty to their employees.

Go. Watch. Learn....get angry....the third party is coming*.


*Isn't that exciting? Sounds like a revolution.