Tag: politics

Arizona governor defends new immigration law

From CNN:

The new immigration law, implemented last month, allows police officers to check the residency status of anyone who is being investigated for a crime or possible legal infraction if there is reasonable suspicion the person is an illegal resident. Critics, including Holder, have said the law will promote racial profiling.

So police officers now can, on suspicion of a crime, and on suspicion that you are not a citizen, request your proof of citizenship.  They should just be made to get a green-card tattoo on the wrist to make them easier to spot, and easier to keep an eye on.

And what, pray tell, is “reasonable suspicion”?  And how does this not lead to racial profiling?

I suppose this is OK if you can prove to me that there are no racist police officers.

But here’s a question: When does repeatedly having to show your green-card to paranoid racist cops become harassment?  What recourse would you have then?

Legalize Pot, or bail out White Collar Criminals?

From Overcompensating:

So Obama laughed at the idea of legalizing pot and taxing the crap out of it. Whatever, man. An economy given a bit of assistance from a thing that makes you kinda weird and mellow (not to mention the medicinal uses) makes a little more sense as an economy based on the “gut feelings” of a few hundred coked-up twentysomethings, that places more value on “speculators” than people who actually do work. But that’s cool, we’ll just keep weed illegal and continue to spend hundreds of billions of dollars keeping people in prison who sold some weed and maybe the Mexican drug cartels will just magically cool out if we ignore the problem. Yup.

Too right. The biggest thing I reckon to come from the financial crisis is that it seems that no-one actually knows what’s going on, or how to fix it. Further, when they talk about “investor sentiment” in the press and how it is so fickle, they tend to not include themselves in that group. Perhaps they should.

The Long Johns had a great skit on it.

Monbiot on the IMF and the current financial crisis

But there was one country – at the time the world’s biggest creditor – in which his proposal was less welcome. The head of the US delegation at Bretton Woods, Harry Dexter White, responded to Lord Keynes’s idea thus: “We have been perfectly adamant on that point. We have taken the position of absolutely no”

Can you guess which country that was? I'll give you a clue: the same country that has veto power in the UN also has veto power in the IMF…

Read the full article here.

Monbiot on US political ignorance

Ignorant politicians are elected by ignorant people. US education, like the US health system, is notorious for its failures. In the most powerful nation on earth, one adult in five believes the sun revolves around the earth; only 26% accept that evolution takes place by means of natural selection; two-thirds of young adults are unable to find Iraq on a map; two-thirds of US voters cannot name the three branches of government; the maths skills of 15 year-olds in the US are ranked 24th out of the 29 countries of the OECD.

Full article here. A very good read.

Gibson on the US Election

To put [ the issue of un-decided voters into ] perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.'

SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

DEAR AMERICAN:

I NEED TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE.

I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED THE NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF 800 BILLION DOLLARS US. IF YOU WOULD ASSIST ME IN THIS TRANSFER, IT WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE TO YOU.

The rest is here.

Shame on us: Residents of a Sydney council appose a Muslim School

Camden Council opposes Islamic school development

Pauline Hanson had this to say:

“Every school in Australia is Christian apart from the Islamic schools. I have no understanding of what they teach in the Islamic school, do you?” Ms Hanson asked.

Are we surprised that she has “no understanding”? I'm not. And as I remember, my public primary school was not Christian, it was secular.

This bigot had the lion share of jaw-dropping quotes from the ABC TV article:
“Our democratic rights are being taken away. We just don't want [muslims] here. Not only in Camden, we dont want them in Australia. [All their countries] are dictatorships, they want to rule our world.”

Some other mind-bogglingly stupid comments.

“We're not bigots, we have the right to express our opinion.”

You have the right to express your opinion, if you are express a bigoted opinion, you are a bigot.

“My kids don't speak Arabic, so they cant go to this church. Next thing you know there'll be a mosque, then a little town … it's not right. It's totally not appropriate for the area.”

I'm not catholic, but I don't have a problem with Catholic churches, even if they continue to fuck young boys.

“I'm not saying all Muslims are bad. They are not all bad, but their teaching is.”

That's like saying: “The people of Camden aren't all bad, but they are all crack-whores”

ABC Reporter: Why are you wearing an Australia flag?
Bigot: Why not? Why shouldn't I? Why is the ABC against Australia?

Google turned up some more depressing bigotry from some small-minded douchebags:

The pigs’ heads, planted on wooden stakes on the Camden site, with the Australian flag draped between them, are believed to be in protest of the Muslim school proposal.

Found here. My response to that

Why is it that alot of people confuse “secular” with “Christian”? Would they appose a Buddhist Temple?