08.03.10

We’re in deep voodoo doodoo now

Posted in Economics, neocon crackpots at 10:26 pm by angela

Or why tax cuts won’t pay for themselves.

It’s a great theory. Unfortunately it’s been debunked ever since 1980, when GHWB called Supply-side economics “Voodoo Economics”. Well, yeah, he was right and Reagan was wrong.

08.01.10

The problem with the economy

Posted in Economics, Economy at 9:48 am by angela

Here we are mired in a “jobless recovery”, where more and more people out of work and homeless each week seems not to even be taken into account when determining how “the economy” is doing. The pundits are jumping up and down, celebrating the end of the recession, while at the same time any formula that took into account real unemployment and other human suffering would have us square in the middle of a depression.

How did we get this way? There are many ways to tell the story…

07.28.10

Is the Tea Party racist?

Posted in News, neocon crackpots, racism at 9:54 am by angela

Do ducks quack?

Considering how much effort the Tea Party is putting into PR to counter the charge of racism against them, you would think they might have checked the websites run by the organizations of which they are composed.

Reprinted from Daily Kos. With screenshots.

National Tea Party Federation and Racism

by Rotten Orchard

Tue Jul 27, 2010 at 01:15:17 AM EDT

The National Tea Party Federation’s list of members can be seen here.

Their statement on the NAACP’s criticism and on race in general:

… we emphatically deny that their are existing Tea Party racist leaders based  upon the facts. Those facts being no one inside the Tea Party Movement can identify any person fitting the parameters the NAACP announced. Further, we challenge the NAACP to identify those leaders or those bona fide Tea Party Groups publicly taking a racist position or making racist statements. The Tea Party Groups do not sponsor, support, encourage or even ignore racists.

Where can one go to find out whether the NTPF’s positions are possibly extremist and/or bigoted?

For anyone seeking the mission of these movements one needs to look no further than their websites.

OK, can do.

  1. A MORE PERFECT UNION

Reverse blackface “Bobo The Clown”

Promoting Breitbart

Part of a Grand Jury to accuse Obama of “Fraud and Treason.”

Joke blog posting about Muslims.

Natural Born Citizen … “there is no possible way for BHO to be our president.”

Racial Profiling

Ted Nugent For President … wow.

Guantanamo Bay

  1. AITKEN TEA PARTY

The Aitken Tea Party seems to be connected to The Original Tea Party of Minnesota, which was formed by this guy. His positions are as follows:

Boycotting Best Buy for their Muslim war on Christmas.

“you can’t take the Ghetto out of the organizer”

All people who protest are defacto illegal immigrants?

Islam is on a quest for world domination.

“Islam is taking over the UK – are we next?”

Various comments on whites, blacks, and the lazy and self-centered.

Kagan is a “stealth candidate”… because she supported school desegregation.

Government raids on militias are unconstitutional.

Those who rely on government aid are “parasites.”

Political correctness is being shoved down his throat. (I’d say there’s little evidence of that based on his Internet posts).

Racial profiling isn’t racist… “it is the only way to keep America safe.”

Democrats are the party of racism, and other various comments on race.

“We’ll take away… his dignity at the tea party” (So that’s part of the purpose of the Tea Parties?)

“Will O give up going gangsta”

“Gestapo and SS officers to intimidate US citizens into giving up more freedoms.”

  1. AMARILLO TEA PARTY PATRIOTS

Oath Keeper, militia hero, and co-author with white supremacist “Sheriff Mack a Hit at 4/15 Event!”

  1. APPLE VALLEY TEA PARTY

Led by the head of the Desert Cities Minutemen, a nativist extremist group.

  1. ARKANSAS UNITE

What exactly is their problem with liberals being anti-racism and anti-homophobia?

“When will your Caucasian progressive pals stop using leftie ‘social justice’ minority groups to do your bidding?

Tip: If you can only think of one adjective to describe a black politician, it’s better to remain silent than use “articulate.”

What exactly was it about Lebron James that made you think he wouldn’t be like the rest of “us?”

  1. BAYSHORE TEA PARTY

“Every once in awhile, someone comes along and uses just the right words to describe a situation. This is it.”

“The majority of people coming over now are people we need to be worried about.”

Obama has a “hazy personal background.”

On Clinton: “nobody ever, ever doubted his good-old-boy American bonafides.”

Obam’s distinguished service in Kenya.

  1. CENTRAL WEST VIRGINIA TEA PARTY

“The Democratic Party – The Party of the Four S’s: Slavery, Secession, Segregation, and now Socialism

Obama is anti-semitic.

Obama is implementing a “crazed minority quota.”

“Obama to Correct the “Historic Mistake” of the Creation of Israel”

  1. CHESTER PATRIOTS

FYI: Republican establishment grassroots operative

Obama intends to “lower decorum to a baser level” (than GWB?!? Really?)

“Birth Certificate” will be an epiphany

“Obama is going to Saudi Arabia… The Hadj, perhaps?”

“Obama, what’s up? Wouldn’t mideast envoys with less “Jewish” sounding names be more readily accepted?”

Obama will turn healthcare over to unions, Acorn, Soros… asdf (labor, blacks, jews).

With Macaca Allen.

Note: The NAACP doesn’t owe the Tea Party or anyone else a statement on the New Black Panthers.

Obama a closet muslim? “no prayer and deeeep bow…Hmm”

Color of Change akin to terrorists?

Note: If you want us to believe that you don’t support their signs about slavery, don’t feature them on your website.

“Sotomayor’s confirmation will mark a defining moment… the end of equality for all men!!”

His views on Michael Jackson

  1. CINCINNATI TEA PARTY

“Please listen to the following for the two clips…”

Note: The woman in the video says she’s glad Obama won and it makes her feel as though she won’t have to be so worried about gas and house payments, and they turn it into that.

  1. CONSTITUTIONAL TEA PARTY

Obama admits he is a Muslim

“Our Founding Fathers built this country on 28 powerful principles“

  1. CORUPS CHRISTI TEA PARTY

A little background info about the local leaders and the various fascinating opinions of the head of the national Constitution Party, Chuck Baldwin.

  1. DC WORKS FOR US

Supporters of the healthcare bill are mercenaries.

Protest signs featured in videos produced by the group:

We came unarmed, this time

Taxation proves that slavery was not abolished

Obama is fascist, ACORN is a criminal enterprise

ACORN, bringing prostitution to a neighborhood near you

Is that George Allen again?

They really, really, really, really, really approve of Joe Wilson’s unprecedented behavior.

  1. FIRE THE 219

He demands to see that birth certificate!

  1. FIRST COAST TEA PARTY

Joke blog post: “I’m still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I’m supposed to hire for my building crew.”

Views on the “Gangster Government,” Kenya, and Muslims.

  1. HAMPTON ROADS TEA PARTY

“Islam cannot assimilate or tolerate other faiths in a culture”

  1. HAYWOOD COUNTY TEA PARTY

Leaders went on a “Caribbean cruise” to spread the homophobic anti-science platform of a guy condemned by the ADL.

  1. ILLINOIS TAX DAY TEA PARTY

They’re being put in chains by the first black president.

Blacks need to stop drinking the Koolaid. Democrats destroyed black families.

  1. ILLINOIS TEA PARTY

“Obama’s NASA objectives: New American Sharia Accomodation”

Obama is a “hood” who is “robbin”people.

Still defending the statements Rush made about a black quarterback that got him fired from ESPN. Really? Still?

Promoting Rush’s view that Sotomayor is a racist.

  1. INDEPENDENCE HALL TEA PARTY

Yup, it’s the brother/sister team again.

And they really support the crusade of this guy, and this guy.

  1. JUST LIBERTY, INC

Featuring a John Birch Society video

Featuring the woman who posted this video. Note the discrepancy between what Rubin said and what she claims he said.

  1. KING WILLIAM COUNTY TEA PARTY

Blogger claims recorded audio of their meeting in which they promote racial profiling limited to Spanish speaking countries, Asia, and Africa… and want to deny citizenship to children born in the country to illegal immigrants. Note: this is 2nd hand information.

  1. KNOXVILLE TEA PARTY

Events organized by a member of the National Board of Directors for Oath Keepers.

  1. LAREDO TEA PARTY PATRIOTS

In their official response to the NAACP, they claim the NAACP doesn’t embrace people regardless of color, race, religion, gender, or political affiliation. They do.

  1. LAS CRUCES TEA PARTY

Sponsored an event featuring NumbersUSA, a group denounced by the SPLC. LULAC, the oldest Latino civil rights organization in America, protested the event and forced the university hosting it to drop NumbersUSA from the schedule.

Also, “The Kenyan Has to Go!”

  1. LYNCHBURG TEA PARTY

Yup, that guy.

Tip: If you’re organizing a protest of the first black president’s administration and you come from a place called Lynchburg, don’t start a drive to send ropes to elected officials as a symbol of your anger: Got Rope?

  1. MEDINA COUNTY FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS

It was the media’s fault George Allen is a racist.

“it is time for corporate America to wake up and give a good, hard tug on the leash.”

Cities (with large black populations) are “rat holes.”

Obama is championing “reparations” for blacks.

  1. MIDDLETOWN OHIO TEA PARTY

What happened to America? “One word- “diversity.”

Concerned ACORN will skew the census.

  1. MONTANA SHRUGGED

“Obama is threatening to have Black Panthers and OFA use force to stop tea party movement. Chicago goon tactics abound.”

“Racism is being promoted by Obama and his black pawns. Wakeup”

“Obama should be impeached for sowing seeds of racism”

Tells Obama to go back to Africa.

America should thank British Petroleum

  1. MOORE TEA CITIZENS

The “soon to be mayor” calls John “the leader” in the video.

Obama’s “questionable heritage.” I strong recommend everyone follow the link and read his entire rant. I would also recommend everyone visit John’s LinkedIn page (he’s a big-whig) and go watch the 2nd half of the video mentioned above. It gives a very clear picture of how elites in the Republican party are really running the show, and how cynically they’re using the base with their rhetoric.

  1. MT PLEASANT TEA PARTY

“I say term limit and age limit to even run! We don’t need the dumb young candidates… and we sure as hell don’t need these dotey old…”

Posting comments on white supremacist-connected biker gang websites.

“Ummm… what about the white guys?”

Support Rand Paul’s position on the Civil Rights Act.

  1. NEW JERSEY TEA PARTY COALITION

Gay marriage is a slippery slope to pedophilia

Tip: When you realize you may be spouting hate speech and bigotry, your response shouldn’t be “that’s too bad.”

Taxes are slavery. Tip: No, slavery is slavery.

Promoting the statement that Islam is arrogant and insensitive.

Breitbart operative

  1. NEW LIBERTY DEMOCRATS

Led by a stealth candidate for the Democratic primary in a largely black district who is attempting to infiltrate the party and who claims he’s “no Democrat.”

Refers to the children of illegal immigrants as “anchor babies.”

Campaign platform is to make English the official language and to make Islamic laws illegal.

  1. NEW MEXICO PATRIOTS

Illegal immigrants are “criminal invaders.”

Obama is the “Enemy within” even if he puts up the Christmas tree at the White House. BEWARE!!!

“we have to overcome Political correctness” (Note: I think you already did)

Not being racist is predicated on minorities assimilating to “American” culture.

“Are you ready  to get the rifle out, clean it up, and get ready to go to war?”

No foreign flags should be flown in America. Love it or leave it.

“It is time for the noose to come out and justice to prevail!”

  1. NORTHEAST ARKANSAS TEA PARTY

Promoting bizarre fears of Islamic plans for New York

Promoting the idea that Muslims are good citizens in public but not in private.

  1. NORTHERN VIRGINIA 912

Mel Gibson is less racist than Eric Holder and Obama, the most concerning racial incidents are those that affect whites, and the most dangerous examples of racism are by a “powerful subset of blacks against whites.” Oh, and that’s their official “position” on the NAACP resolution.

  1. ORLANDO TEA PARTY

Americans are being enslaved by taxes.

MLK is “100% in alignment with the Tea Party Movement.”

  1. OSAGE COUNTY TEA PARTY

disambiguation required

  1. PALOS LIBERTY TREE PARTY

Sovereign citizen and slavery, trained by this guy.

Comparing illegals to whites, promoting mass deportation, sex crimes.

  1. PENINSULA PATRIOTS

disambiguation required

  1. PITTSBURGH TEA PARTY

disambiguation required

  1. PUNTA GORDA TEA PARTY

Shares Rand Paul’s views on the Civil Rights Act.

LIst of heroes, including Neal Boortz, who said that Katrina washed out a lot of “human debris.”

  1. RAINY DAY PATRIOTS

“we must end birthright citizenship by constitutional amendment” (amend the Constitution?!?)

Against marking “race” on the census.

Rand Paul fan.

Agrees with Rand’s position on “rights.”

  1. RICHMOND TEA PARTY

Share the wealth, giveaway programs, Muslim nation.

She has her own website, where she states that:

Obama is the Muslim world’s “bitch” and holds a grudge against white people.

Is upset about the Obama admin giving gay teens access to books with narratives written by other gay teens (via Breitbart).

Obama Bin Laden

Ode to Sonia (white men)

  1. SANTEE TEA PARTY

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were singularly responsible for the housing and banking meltdown”

Wants more Bush

Has a problem with diversity

  1. SONG OF TRUTH

Has a weekly radio show with this guy.

Says their position on race can be understood by reading Ayn Rand’s essay “Racism.”

In it we learn that:

Those who are proud of their diversity have no other virtues to be proud of.

The demands of “Negro leaders” are irrational, outrageous, cynical, shortsighted, and have a contempt for principles.

Racial quotes are one of the worst evils of racist regimes.

Racial quotes demand that white men be penalized for the sins of their ancestors.

You can’t forbid racism by law.

“Negroes” are in the vanguard of destroying individual rights.

  1. STATEN ISLAND TEA PARTY

Entitlements are enslavement

Americans should be able to keep what they earn without apology or guilt.

un-hyphenated American

“They are Voting Us Into Slavery.”

Obama’s Muslim faith

Fans of H.L. Mencken who said Jews were an “unpleasant race.”

Illegal immigrants are our enemies.

Liberalism is designed to create dependents who will in turn vote for them.

  1. TAKE THE TOWN HALLS TO WASHINGTON

Michael Moore  is a welfare queen?

Higher government wages are slavery for taxpayers.

H.L. Mencken again

“There were more than 10 Jewish legislators only in New York (24), Florida (17), and Maryland (13).”

Want to eliminate racial consciousness.

Thomas Sowell on Apologies and Tiger Woods.

Doesn’t like hate crime laws.

  1. TEAPARTY365

“A false charge of racism is itself, racist” -David Webb  (That’s setting a pretty tough standard for your fellow Tea Partiers, but mainstream Americans appreciate it).

  1. THE HEART OF TEXAS TEA PARTY

see Waco Tea Party below

  1. THE MEMPHIS TEA PARTY

Disagrees with Boehner about non-violence

Reverse blackface Joker Obama

Wants gratitude and good manners from people on welfare

The great lesson from Avatar is that the American is the “chosen one” and still “fucks” the natives’ princess

Environmentalists are worse than Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. It’s “not even close.”

Draw Mohammed Day!

“Censor this, assholes”

  1. THE MISSISSIPPI TEA PARTY

Against public education?

Relying on Uncle Sam is a “crack pipe dream.”

Another leader wants Obama to prove his “Constitutional Eligibility to Be Commander-in-Chief” and may be intoJ Edgar Hoover.

  1. THE PENNSYLVANIA TEA PARTY

They support the AZ law and to make it perfectly clear…

No habla?

Will use “any and all means possible”

Wants to see the birther cases go forward.

They will never be silenced. I guess that includes hate speech?

“I am not a racist… as proof, here’s a video” of Alan Keyes at the even I coordinated.

  1. TUPELO TEA PARTY

Dems are “baby killing” wolves

As a youth pastor, has helped gay teens “come out” of that lifestyle

Qualifies the victimhood of minorities as a “perception.”

Tip: If you want to argue that the Tea Party Express wasn’t the center of your movement, try having more links on your website.

  1. VENICE, FL 912 GROUP

CNBC asks for anger, they target the congressman who had a swastika painted on his office and promise a “riot.”

John Birch Society member

Glenn Beck loves em

Member of American Militia web group

  1. WACO TEA PARTY

Misinforms about Americans being arrested for violating Sharia Law in America.

Tip: Avoid comparing border-crossers to hordes. They aren’t Mongols.

Obama’s “gay” “wrist flipping.”

“CNN blames white folks for BHO lack of oil spill response.” (No, they didn’t “blame” white folks – they said Obama was hesitant to appear angry because historically Americans don’t respond well to angry black men).

“Truth is the New Hate Speech”

  1. WASHINGTON DC TEA PARTY

See Chester Patriots above

  1. WE THE PEOPLE AIKEN

“We want to out them and stand up for people like you, Joe” (Joe Wilson)

Tip: Whenever you preface a feature on race on your website by saying “Rush says it perfectly,” you’re in trouble.

  1. YORK TEA PARTY

Obsessed with making “descendents” of welfare recipients pay, and then stealing from them.

Those people near Bobby Scott’s office lack humanity

Rape, brainwashing, Stockholm syndrome… etc. Wow.

Massive race statement fail

Fascist America

“O’s Fascist Army”

Final Note: Far be it from me to draw any conclusions from all this. I think that’s a job for the NAACP, our national media, decent mainstream Americans, and David Webb at TEAPARTY365. If he applied the same standard to the rest of the federation that he did to the Tea Party Express, then I think he’s got some very difficult decisions to make in the near future.

07.26.10

Shocking video shows Breitbart’s true colors

Posted in Accountability, Bad boys, Blogging, MoveOn.org, Propaganda, Republican party, neocon crackpots, racism at 10:56 pm by angela

Or does it?

After last week’s propaganda debacle, MoveOn.org has released an amateurishly-edited video of Andrew Breitbart talking about his allegiance to al-Qaeda, proving that with video editing anything can be proven.

Breitbart and embattled RNC Chairman Michael Steele will be appearing side by side at an upcoming Republican event, just in case you’ve forgotten who works for whom.

07.09.10

Why Republicans hate kids

Posted in Classism, Hypocrisy at 10:36 am by angela

A nice rant on Daily Kos.

When you look at Republican policies as ‘neglectful’ because you can’t imagine anyone really doing things intentionally to hurt kids, you miss the point that they really do hate children. They think they are lazy parasites on society, something they inherited from their parents, 90% of whom are are insufficiently wealthy for their existence to be tolerated.

They think that in a fair society, the children of the poor, working class, and middle class would not be going to public schools where tax dollars are wasted trying to teach them how to think question authority. They would be working long hours at dangerous jobs in factories, sweatshops or on farms for pennies an hour, like their parents, who would be required to teach them to read, write, and do arithmetic without any help from the government. The government would quit coddling them and give them a kick in their lazy asses straight into the “real world”.

They think that most people don’t deserve the jobs they have already. Certainly not any “liberals” out there. If they’re making more than minimum wage, they should get a pay cut. And minimum wage should be reduced or eliminated as well.

They are rich enough to buy their children out of the public school system. They can afford to pay for medical care when needed. They fully expect that their kids will inherit not only wealth but power.

They figure if they were to eliminate unemployment benefits and food stamps that the wrong people would stop having kids and the ones they have would stop existing.

Remember this? He may have been the only one who came out and said it, but he wasn’t the only one thinking it. And at the time he got a lot of support from people who tried to excuse it by saying that he worded it carelessly.

How is talking about changing government policy so that people become so malnourished that they can no longer reproduce anything but genocide?

No. They hate kids and want them to die. It’s not an accident of policy priorities. This is not something we can address with logic, reason, and facts. We cannot deal with it without recognizing that fact and addressing it. It’s time to stop being polite because we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings by saying something mean.

They really have declared war on kids.

06.24.10

Backtracks, pingbacks, and winguts

Posted in Blogging, Spam at 2:19 pm by angela

WordPress is designed with the capability of notifying you when someone has quoted from your blog. These notifications come mixed in with spam or comments.

My guess from reading comments is that most people, like me, delete these rather than having them show up in their comments.

Maybe they don’t want clutter, but there’s a good reason not to okay them.

There are a lot of sites out there scraping blog posts and creating exerpts based on the title and first sentence of your post, then printing it, hoping to get a link back from you.

It’s called “link bait”. While occasionally a real blog will quote you, most often is is a fake blog scraped from random posts trying to get people to click through their ads.

Today I followed one of those links and found it went to a wingnut secessionist anti-Constitutionalist site, you know the kind where they think that getting rid of free elections and installing an insane television entertainer as our fascist dictator would be the pinnacle of democracy.

Yeah, they scraped a bunch of blogs. Under their definition of “social justice” (something about forcible removal of property and redistribution to the undeserving masses), there were some comments by other left wing bloggers it had happened too. And then they closed the comments.

They linked to my “Glenn Beck is a bald-faced liar” post. How dumb is that?

Slow jamming the Gulf Oil Spill

Posted in News, humor at 1:37 pm by angela

Nobody does it like Jimmy Fallon and Brian Williams.

06.23.10

Glenn Beck is a liar

Posted in Glenn Beck at 4:45 pm by angela

But you knew that, well, to some extent. You knew he wasn’t telling the truth. But to a great extent, you have no way of knowing what the truth is.

This is about his repeated claim that Thomas Jefferson signed papers with “In the year of our Lord Christ” as part of the date. He didn’t. See what a real historian has to say about his claims.

Click through the link to watch the video version.

Chris Rodda’s diary

For the third installment of my little series debunking the American history lies being told on Glenn Beck, I’m going to take on another of pseudo-historian David Barton’s favorite lies: that Thomas Jefferson dated his presidential documents not just “In the Year of Our Lord,” but that he went even further than any of our other early presidents, dating his documents “In the Year of Our Lord Christ.” Barton told this lie twice on Glenn Beck, first when he was on in March with the other speakers who were going to be appearing with Beck on his American Revival Tour, and then again when Beck had him back on for a whole show.

(Click the link above to find Parts one and two of this series.)

(When I posted my last installment, which was mainly just a video, I got some comments from people who were unable to watch videos at work, or didn’t have fast enough connections, asking me to post text versions along with the videos. So, in this installment, I’m including a transcript of what I said in the video.)

Barton has been using this lie for a very long time. In an ten year old article on his WallBuilders website, he wrote: “While President, Jefferson closed his presidential documents with the phrase, ‘In the year of our Lord Christ; by the President; Thomas Jefferson.’” In that article, Barton’s footnote for this claim is: “For example, his presidential act of October 18, 1804, from an original document in our possession.” A typical revisionist tactic, which Barton used in this footnote, is to take their claim, which isn’t even true in the first place, and word it in a way that makes it sound like something happened multiple times or was the regular practice of whoever they’re lying about. In his footnote, Barton does this by beginning with the words “for example.” On Beck’s show, he kept referring to Jefferson’s documents (plural), as if the document he was showing was just one example of many.

A few years later after Barton started using this lie about Jefferson, the late D. James Kennedy, in his 2003 book What If America Were a Christian Nation Again?, repeated the lie, writing: “I have a photocopy of the conclusion of one of the many documents that he signed as president, and it says, ‘In the year of our Lord Christ 1804.’ He was the first president, and to my knowledge, the only president who did that. Jefferson, the anti-Christian, the irreligious infidel, said that it is Christ who is our Lord, and no one else.”

At the time that I was working on my book, which I started writing around the same time that D. James Kennedy’s book came out, I had no idea what this mystery document that Barton claimed to possess might be. I knew it had to be some kind of document that already had the date on it, and was simply signed by Jefferson, because the claim that Jefferson personally dated any of his documents “In the year of our Lord,” let alone “In the year of our Lord Christ,” was just too ridiculous. In fact, Jefferson sometimes went out of his way to make it clear to everybody that he wasn’t just overlooking using the phrase “In the year of our Lord,” but was deliberately omitting it, particularly in documents that he was writing to abolish something religious, using phrases like “in the Christian computation,” and “of the Christian epoch.” Anyway, my best guess at the time as to what Barton’s mystery document might be was a pardon, since there was, in fact, a pardon signed by Jefferson that would have coincided with the date cited by Barton in his footnote. It didn’t occur to me at the time that it might just be a routine preprinted form, which, as I’ll explain in a minute, is exactly what this document is. So, I might have been off when I took a stab at guessing what Barton’s mystery document might be, but, as I had suspected, it is not a document that Jefferson personally wrote and dated, but an already written document that he merely signed.

When I made my first YouTube videos in March of last year, (in response to Barton bashing me on his radio show), I still didn’t know what the document was, even though he had showed a corner of it on the video screen during his presentation that I had attended a few months earlier. But, about a week after I put my videos up on YouTube, Barton suddenly posted the document on his website — well, sort of. The document that Barton posted was not dated October 18, 1804, as the footnote in his earlier website article stated, but September 24, 1807. But, this doesn’t really matter. Both documents, the 1804 one that Barton shows a corner of in his presentation, and the 1807 one now posted on his website are the same thing. They’re ship’s papers. These documents, carried by all American ships leaving the United States, were a fill-in-the-blanks form with columns translated into several languages. Each president signed hundreds of these forms, leaving all the other information blank, and then the blank signed forms were sent in bulk to the customs officials at all the ports, where they were filled out as needed for departing ships.

Not to digress from the story too much, but I did wonder why Barton didn’t just post and image of the 1804 ship’s papers that he had been claiming for a decade to have in his possession. The only reason I could think of is that he never did actually have the original 1804 document that he claimed to have. The image of it that he showed video screen could be a photocopy and nobody would know the difference since he never pulls out and waves around the original document like he does with other documents he’s showing on the screen. He probably just looked for an original after the fact, and bought the 1807 one. If this is the case, Mr. Barton should know that there is currently one up for auction that’s only one day off from the date of that 1804 one he claims to own. He could buy that one and easily get away with claiming that he just had a typo in the date in his old article. But, like I said, it really doesn’t matter whether it was an 1804 or 1807 ship’s papers. They’re exactly the same because they were a preprinted form. So, let’s get back to the story.

The primary purpose of a ship’s papers, sometimes called sea letters or passports, was to provide proof of the nationality of the ship’s owner if the ship was stopped by a foreign power. This became enormously important in 1793 when George Washington proclaimed the neutrality of the United States in the war between France and England, as I’ll explain in a minute when I get to who really chose the language of this form.

Now, Barton claims in his description of the form on his website that “this is the explicitly Christian language that President Thomas Jefferson chose to use in official public presidential documents,” and said on Glenn Beck that “Jefferson added in the year of our lord Christ.” This is a flat out lie. Actually, it’s two lies. Jefferson absolutely did not choose the language on this form, and he was not the only president who signed these forms that were dated that way. So did Washington and Adams before him, and Madison and Monroe after him. While the ship’s papers form remained virtually the same from 1793 until well into the late 1800s, the name Christ was eventually dropped from the date on it, that didn’t happen but that didn’t happen until somewhere in the 1820s or 1830s.

The reason Barton lies about Jefferson being the only president to sign these documents is pretty obvious. As he claims in his presentations, other early presidents only dated things “in the year of our Lord,” but Jefferson — the least religious of them all — the man who coined the phrase “separation between church and state” — well, he went even further and added the name Christ! And his audience, of course, believes him.

So, if it wasn’t Jefferson, who actually did choose the language of these ship’s papers? Well, that would be the High and Mighty Lords of the States-General of the United Netherlands. The language to be used on ships’ papers was annexed to the 1782 Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the Netherlands, and the the twenty-fifth article of the treaty itself stipulated that this was the wording that would be used. At the time this treaty was made, the Netherlands was still the Republic of the United Netherlands, which was a Christian republic where every public official had to be a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, and their official documents were full of religious language. Now, John Adams did sign this treaty and agree to this wording, but as the foreign minister of a country that hadn’t even officially gained its independence yet, who was having a hell of a time even getting the powers of Europe to recognize the United States and make treaties with this brand new country, he would hardly have been in a position to argue with the eight High and Mighty Lords negotiating the treaty over the way they dated their ships’ papers, and an inconsequential detail like this would obviously been the furthest thing from his mind anyway.

Now, between 1782 and 1793, the United States wasn’t really all that diligent about keeping to the precise ship’s papers wording from the 1782 Netherlands treaty, or even making sure that all ships were carrying papers. In fact, some of the ships’ papers from George Washington’s first term were even dated A.D. instead of “in the year of our Lord Christ.” But this changed when Washington proclaimed the neutrality of the United States in the war between France and England. Now the identification of ships was a high priority matter of national security. American merchants needed to be able to prove to the ships and officials of the “belligerent powers,” as they were called, that they were from a neutral country, and the United States government needed to prevent foreign ships from fraudulently obtaining American papers. So, in a May 1793 Treasury Department circular to all the customs officials, Alexander Hamilton made it clear that everything was immediately going to start being done by the book.

Enclosed with each of Hamilton’s circulars were copies of latest version of the Dutch and English translations, with instructions on exactly how they were to be filled out, specifying that “the following instruction to fill the Dutch copy is to be precisely followed.” The language of this new version was word for word from the 1782 treaty with the Netherlands, which was suddenly important because Holland was one of the belligerent powers. The new ships’ papers being printed had translations of the Netherlands treaty wording in three languages — Dutch, French, and English. Treaties with France and England also required that ships carry papers, but only the Netherlands treaty stipulated that the specific wording had to be used. A few years later, there was a treaty with Spain that also required American ships to carry papers, so a fourth column with the Spanish translation was added. What Barton has is a piece of one of these four language ship’s papers, showing two of the columns.

But here’s the most interesting part of the story. Every president and secretary of state, whose signature was also required on these forms, was falsely swearing an oath when they signed them! Why? Because the “in the year of our Lord Christ” line was actually part of the oath section of the form. What the presidents and secretaries of state were actually signing was an oath that they were witness to the administering of the oath taken by the captain of the ship, where the captain was swearing that the ship was American owned. They were also swearing that they had signed the document and affixed the Seal of the United States to it on the date that that was filled in on it by the customs official. Now, since the president and secretary of state were just signing hundreds of these forms ahead of time to be sent to all the ports, they never witnessed the ship captains taking their oaths, and obviously weren’t signing the forms on the date that they were swearing they had signed them on. I even found one dated in July 1794 that was signed by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. What’s wrong with that? Well, Jefferson had resigned as secretary of state seven months earlier in 1793. And there’s another by James Madison that’s actually signed the day before his inauguration, so Madison signed them before he was sworn in and sent them ahead of time to the ports and they started using them before Madison was actually inaugurated. So, apparently, none of our early presidents or secretaries of state had any problem whatsoever falsely swearing they had witnessed something they didn’t witness and swearing they had signed a document on a date that they didn’t really sign it on, even when that document was dated “in the year of our lord Christ.”

06.15.10

Rand Paul, “board-certified opthalmologist”

Posted in Accountability, Fraud, Health care, irrational thought at 9:28 am by angela

Okay. Didn’t we discuss this before?

Salon has a lovely article this morning updating us on Rand Paul’s current position on his board certification for opthalmology. You remember how he started his own certification board because he thought having to pay money to that other board was wasted, and he didn’t want to have to spend his time getting training or continuing education or taking tests when he could just jump in there and start operating, the free market at work.

His own certification board has no website and apparently no paper documentation. It is nothing but a PO Box in Bowling Green, KY. He did recently claim to be certified by that “other” board, which is nothing but a lie.

He’d like to get rid of government programs. But he thinks doctors are different. They should be guaranteed a comfortable standard of living by the government.

Does he inform his patients when examining them that his “board certification” is by himself, so they can make those “informed decisions” that lead to success or failure at the hands of the free market?

I wouldn’t want a doctor who had no need of certification and was unwilling to discuss his qualifications cutting open my eyes. Would you?

The guy is a liar, a creep, a fake, and a douchebag. Medicare ought to stop paying for surgery he does.

05.31.10

Israeli navy attacks supply ships, 19 massacred

Posted in Accountability, International relations, Terrorism, war crimes at 10:53 am by angela

Showing their true colors

The flotilla of ships carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in blockaded Gaza was attacked last night by the Israeli navy. Commandos boarded the ships, which had put up no resistance, and massacred 19 unarmed civilians. The ships had been waiting in international water for months.

Story

Prime Minister Netanyahu has called off Tuesday’s scheduled meeting with Obama, voicing full support for the navy’s actions – probably to prevent Obama from canceling first.

The White House said in a written statement that the United States “deeply regrets” the loss of life and injuries and was working to understand the circumstances surrounding this “tragedy.” Huffpo story

In other words, Obama is scratching his head, asking Rahm, “WTF were they thinking?”

The Israeli justification for murdering all those people is that they were attacked after they stormed the ship without justification. They did indeed seize the other ships uneventfully, and all have been towed to port.

So why did they seize the ships, which were moored in international waters? They wanted the goods and the ships. It was an official act of piracy.

How will the mainstream media manage to suppress this? Do you suppose this will show up on Fox News?

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