William Bragg

Under state law, God is Kentucky’s first line of defense against terrorism.

The 2006 law organizing the state Office of Homeland Security lists its initial duty as “stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth.”

Specifically, Homeland Security is ordered to publicize God’s benevolent protection in its reports, and it must post a plaque at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center with an 88-word statement that begins, “The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.”

(via Clayton Cubitt )

You’ll have to believe me, but I answered question 33 wrong on purpose. Take the quiz and you can probably guess my answer.

Are You Smarter Than a Politician?

Of the 2,508 People surveyed, 164 say they have held an elected government office at least once in their life. Their average score on the civic literacy test is 44%, compared to 49% for those who have not held an elected office. Officeholders are less likely than other respondents to correctly answer 29 of the 33 test questions.

Take the Civics Quiz.

US Supreme Court to test Obama’s talents.

From Patrick Moberg:

ummm… that would be the son of William F. Buckley, you know… the founder of National Review:

So, I have been effectively fatwahed (is that how you spell it?) by the conservative movement, and the magazine that my father founded must now distance itself from me. But then, conservatives have always had a bit of trouble with the concept of diversity. The GOP likes to say it’s a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.

While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

So, to paraphrase a real conservative, Ronald Reagan: I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me.

Buckley Bows Out of National Review - The Daily Beast.

Zoe Strauss’ experience of censorship by the printer, not the publisher. Given all the blatant phallic symbols around the world, it never ceases to amaze me how irrationally insecure and sensitive men are when presented with an image of another man’s penis.

Vote for Obama: MCCAIN LACKS THE CHARACTER AND TEMPERAMENT TO BE PRESIDENT. AND PALIN IS SIMPLY A DISGRACE.

Of course, this was dumb. Banks didn’t really care (because they weren’t holding the bad paper) but the people investing in those “mortgage-backed securities” were slowly getting wise to the fact that many of the borrowers were in over their heads. What to do? The credit industry went ahead and lobbied Washington to change the bankruptcy laws. While corporations could claim bankruptcy and stop paying for their retirees’ health coverage, individuals would no longer be able to claim bankruptcy, and even if they did, they would still owe their creditors the money they borrowed, forever. The credit industry spent over $100 million lobbying lawmakers for the new provisions.

(my emphasis)

Calculated Risk: Bailout Proposal.

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

(my emphasis)

The complete (though ever-changing) elite consensus over the financial collapse - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com.

Some of his commentary follows:

What is more intrinsically corrupt than allowing people to engage in high-reward/no-risk capitalism — where they reap tens of millions of dollars and more every year while their reckless gambles are paying off only to then have the Government shift their losses to the citizenry at large once their schemes collapse? We've retroactively created a win-only system where the wealthiest corporations and their shareholders are free to gamble for as long as they win and then force others who have no upside to pay for their losses. Watching Wall St. erupt with an orgy of celebration on Friday after it became clear the Government (i.e., you) would pay for their disaster was literally nauseating, as the very people who wreaked this havoc are now being rewarded.

…

What’s most vital to underscore is that the beneficiaries of this week’s extraordinary Government schemes aren’t just the coincidental recipients of largesse due to some random stroke of good luck. The people on whose behalf these schemes are being implemented — the true beneficiaries — are the very same people who have been running and owning our Government — both parties — for decades, which is why they have been able to do what they’ve been doing without interference. They were able to gamble without limit because they control the Government, and now they’re having others bear the brunt of their collapse for the same reason — because the Government is largely run for their benefit.

…

Can anyone point to any discussion of what the implications are for having the Federal Government seize control of the largest and most powerful insurance company in the country, as well as virtually the entire mortgage industry and other key swaths of financial services? Haven’t we heard all these years that national health care was an extremely risky and dangerous undertaking because of what happens when the Federal Government gets too involved in an industry? What happened in the last month dwarfs all of that by many magnitudes.

(my emphasis)

**I can hear the bleats of the sheep right now**

I know it’s a long quote, but it’s just a piece of the whole:

To stave off the complete collapse of A.I.G., we, the American taxpayers, have generously loaned the insurance behemoth $85 billion of our national treasure. We refuse to finance universal health coverage for all of us, but we certainly don’t mind bailing out greedy scumbags who willingly gambled their investor’s money in stupidly risky ventures knowing that Uncle Sam would socialize their risk.

And may I remind you that the biggest supporters of free market economics are now the ones on their knees begging to be saved from themselves by the evil and inefficient government they’ve been badmouthing for thirty years. That’s right: these Wall Street Welfare Queens have been the champions of free market economics and deregulation for the last 30 years, but now these government haters are gladly going on the government dole to save their asses.

May I also remind you that three years ago George W. Bush thought it was a brilliant idea to privatize Social Security and let these high-stakes gamblers on Wall Street manage this public trust. Wouldn’t that have been a recklessly stupid venture in light of today’s horrific news about the state of our financial markets?

Go read the whole thing - Wall Street Welfare Queens | The Journal of Doubt.

In addition to the previous post.

Let’s not fool ourselves here. They are speaking to their believers, and the Democratic convention was speaking to theirs. There’s no way I’m going to vote for McCain, and there’s no way some of my friends are going to vote for Obama. The rhetoric of the other side’s candidate and campaign will always piss you off. You really have to make the conscious choice, ‘Am I going to let myself get unnecessarily aggravated?’

According to the Bush administration's definition of torture, McCain was therefore not tortured.

Cheney denies that McCain was tortured; as does Bush. So do John Yoo and David Addington and George Tenet.

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.

Sorry for the straight link re-post. I’m wicked busy, but I should have something to talk about/announce tomorrow.

The NYT has a video discussing the conflicts that have arisen at the Labrang Monastery in Gansu Province, China. This is such disheartening news. It just leaves me with such a sense of dread. Most of my friends will be familiar with the photo below from my own visit to this monastery in the summer of 1998. I landed in Beijing on my 30th birthday, and backpacked throughout Northern China following one of the Silk Routes with my one major detour to visit the Labrang Monastery.

(Click on photo for larger version)

This makes me very sad.

As some of you know, and is apparent in the sidebar, I’ve had one of my photos published in JPG mag. I don’t think that I’m interested in having any others published though. (of course, I may never create another photo that would have been published by JPG mag anyways.)

Some of you are also aware that I’m publishing a local ‘art journal’, The Salem Project. This project in no way approaches the level and access of a publication such as JPG Mag, but I like to think that it shared a common sensibility and goal - mainly to share the wonderful creative output of wonderfully creative peoples. JPG Mag stretched digitally to encompass those in the world lucky enough to have internet access, whereas my focus is so much more local. But they were/are both about community & sharing.

I don’t begrudge JPG Mag any further success at all. And there’s no question that Derek Powazek is going to be extremely successful in all that he does, but I don’t think that I will be participating other than as a recipient of the remaining issues in my subscription awarded to me for publication of one of my photos. (wow, run-on sentences, anyone?).

And, hell, let me use this last bit of this post to let everyone know that the next issue of The Salem Project will be out in June.