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~ in the interest of informing georgians of the content and meaning of the proposed amendments to the state constitution, we have swiped the following blockquote in entirety from the atlanta journal and constitution. we have done so to make amendment 2 less baffling for the voter and to point out the discrepancy between the question on the ballot for amendment 1 and the language in section B in the actual amendment - more to the point, the question on the ballot is about marriage, while in truth section b prohibits all types of union between two people (not limited to marriage):
No. 1
This is the wording that will appear on the ballot:
“To define marriage as the union of man and woman. (Senate Resolution No. 595): Shall the Constitution be amended so as to provide that this state shall recognize as marriage only the union of man and woman?”If voters say yes, here’s what will be added to the constitution:
“MARRIAGE
“Paragraph I. Recognition of marriage.
“(a) This state shall recognize as marriage only the union of man and woman. Marriages between persons of the same sex are prohibited in this state.
“(b) No union between persons of the same sex shall be recognized by this state as entitled to the benefits of marriage. This state shall not give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other state or jurisdiction respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other state or jurisdiction. The courts of this state shall have no jurisdiction to grant a divorce or separate maintenance with respect to any such relationship or otherwise to consider or rule on any of the parties’ respective rights arising as a result of or in connection with such relationship.”No. 2
This is the wording that will appear on the ballot:
“To provide the Supreme Court jurisdiction to answer questions of law from federal courts. (House Resolution No. 68): Shall the Constitution be amended so as to provide that the Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction and authority to answer questions of law from any state appellate or federal district or appellate court?”What it means:
The proposed amendment is aimed at improving efficiency in the federal court system.
The Georgia Constitution already allows the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to ask the Georgia Supreme Court to answer an unsettled question about state law that could have an important bearing on the outcome of a federal lawsuit. The proposed amendment expands that authority to the federal court judges in Georgia who sit one level below the federal appeals court.
The proposed amendment, backed by the State Bar of Georgia, would allow litigants in U.S. District Courts the opportunity to find the answer to an important state-law question long before their case is appealed to the 11th Circuit.
~ more on amendment 1: georgiansagainstdiscrimination.com
~ In a further demonstration that the Kerry campaign is keeping its ear to the angry red planet for cues concerning the language and salience of its arguments, we have one of our points, posted on an external website:
“Here’s something [Karen Hughes] said post-debate that bugged me on the bike ride home: I heard her say that Kerry didn’t have any plans, he just had a “litany of complaints”. Wow, it is reassuring to know that the Bushes just consider those of us who don’t have jobs are health care are just a bunch of complainers.”
-ashleyGA, 14 October 2004
We compare this with comments made by Senator Kerry whilst he spoke in Tampa today:
“And what does the President of the United States have to say about these out-of-control health care costs that are killing job creation and hurting middle-class families? In the debate the other night, he called these problems “a litany of complaints.”
There you have it folks. George Bush’s answer to our health care problems is to tell the American people: stop whining.”
-John Kerry, 18 October 2004
we would have taken it to the point of using the term ‘whining’ as well, but we did not think that the vast majority of our readers would have appreciated a Coy Howard/George W Bush double entrendre.
~ we have dropped the service provider for this site in favour of the umbrella which hosts sisyphean, from the ground, and a couple of other great sites. we are not about to publicly damn our old host by name, but if you ever thought ‘damn, the service at the angry red planet is crummy; i wonder why?’, and you are about to move into a new host, feel free to ask us, lest you get caught in the same mess. if you want to join the sisyphean [w] umbrella, and you have reason that would compel the work.group to host you, go ahead and petition them for a site; it would help your case immeasurably if you have ever been hosted by the godless red/born 2 lose house.
tagged language, site-work, wrk.grp
~ cnn.com wants to know what internet users have to say to “Do you think sexual preference is a choice?“. does cnn understand tautology? more to the point, do they know that the word ‘preference’ implies a choice being made? if not, then they must also find that gays ‘prefer’ to eat food and ‘prefer’ to breathe clean air. a question about choice is useful is drawing out the president’s prejudice, but in the abstract, this question is a stupid one.
the question is not stupid because ignorant people at cnn and across america do not understand why some people are different than they are; it is stupid because its construction both reveals the opinions of the questioner and directs a certain answer from the listener. why doesn’t cnn ask “are most blacks are uneducated because they are poor, or poor because they are uneducated?” that is about as sensitive and sensible as ‘is preference a choice?’.
we have read the news quite a bit, and we have spoken to a number of our fellow americans; not one of them has the politics of anyone’s sexuality foremost in his or her mind as we approach what many consider to be an election of paramount importance. where does cnn find the notion that americans are frozen in their thoughts until they discover the foundation for the sexual desires and emotions of heteros and homos?
clearly they are trying to milk a few more days out of the kerry/cheney family controversy, in order to futher the meme that kerry is ‘not a good man’, but we don’t think the underlying reason for this controversy is worth a tinker’s damn. getting sidetracked by this bullshit is exactly what the republicans, who want poor and uneducated people to put aside their economic concerns and rely on bigotry to decide their vote. congratulations cnn, on your steadfast position as a political tool.
~ debate three is all about the moderator. let’s thank him for the great questions he conjured. thank you for not wasting time with questions about the environment, cutting of funds for national parks, failing infrastructure, superfunds, poverty in our cities and rural suburbs, the social detachment of the suburbs and exurbs, fuel prices, energy deficiency, voting fraud, corporate power and influence of the gov’t, and the fucked up electoral college. thanks instead of asking about prayer and abortion and about who loves their wife and kids more.
~ in the past we have stated our skepticism of the usefulness of the electoral process in our representative democracy. we give one of the corporations a chance that it can overcome a more dangerous corporation. if there is any doubt that the corrupt thugs in the republican party will relinquish power honourably, quietly, or peacefully, take a look at voter fraud, silver state style:
Clark County Election Dept.
(Oct. 12) — Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.
Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.
“We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage and she tells her assistant to get those from me,” said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee. klas-tv.com
the ‘Voters Outreach of America’ is currently working in oregon, so any of our readers there should find their voter drives and encourage people to find someplace more trustworthy to register to vote and to watch ‘Voters Outreach’ to make sure that their windows aren’t smashed and their vans do not somehow burst into flames.
~ similar bullshit in minnesota: “Hundreds of completed voter registration cards found stashed in car”[w]
tagged hypocrisy
~ a couple of more terms to add to the list of those that annoy us:
~ for those who were unable to peep out the finale of the vote for change tour finale last night, read the following then follow it with a blistering rendition of ‘born to run’
“We remain a land of great promise, but I think we need to move America towards the fulfillment of promises she has made to her citizens; economic justice, civil rights, protection of the environment, a living wage, respect for others and humility in exercising our power at home and around the world.
These are not impossible ideals, they are achievable goals, with strong leadership and the will of a vigilant and informed American people. These core issues of America’s identity are what’s at stake when we vote on November 2nd . And I believe, that Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards understand these important issues and are prepared to help our country move forward. I think they understand America is not always right, that’s a fairy tale for children. As John Edwards said, struggle and heartbreak will always be with us.
But one thing America should be is true, and it’s in seeking her truth, both the good and the bad that we find a deeper patriotism, that we find a more authentic experience as citizens. And we find the power that is embedded only in the truth to change our world for the better. And that’s how our soul as a nation as a people will be revealed and it is what we are fighting for on November 2nd.
The country we carry in our hearts is waiting” - bruce springsteen
~ bush flop [w]
~ we all like to talk about how stupid bush is, but is it really fair? what if the man is suffering from a degenerative disease? obviously, his drug use and alcoholism might be to blame for his mental decline. regardless, it doesn’t change the fact that he is not qualified to serve as president or drive a car, but we wouldn’t want to make fun one someone whose incompetence arises from a disease or handicap, would we? see his acuity disappear in quicktime [mov]!
~ is it really necessary to petition the new york times to confess that its obituary of derrida [w] is unkind? firstly, we all know that the paper has lost its credibility in the past couple of years. secondly, if you are getting a 2200 word obituary in a dandy paper like the new york times, can you really complain? if we get that much press when we are killed, it ain’t likely that we’ll bitch about the particulars of being called ‘frauds’ or ‘talentless hacks’. that’s better than a 3 word epitaph, such as ‘they lived here’.
update: if you want a lesson in the best way to be disrespectfully deferential, see the london times [w] “is derrida dead?…We know only two things. We do not know. And M Derrida is in no position to enlighten us.”
~ on the topic of our declaration that ‘liberal doesn’t mean anything’, one can look at the particular point that bush was trying to make that kerry is the most liberal senator, as determined by the ‘national journal’ [w]. the journal itself mentioned that this repeated point is inaccurate; they wrote that the theme is “…Disconcerting because the shorthand used to describe our ratings of Kerry and Edwards is sometimes misleading — or just plain wrong.” the rating is based on the percentage of ‘liberal votes’ that are cast by the senators; as kerry has been campaigning and therefore has missed some votes, his rating is unfairly skewed. regardless of this fine point, our overall contention that the generalization is meaningless is also backed with regards to how one determines which is a ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ vote, as the national journal declares that within its methodology “..identifying ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ votes is subjective. National Journal has never claimed otherwise.” furthermore, in the big picture, the reversal of excessive spenders from the reagans to the clintons to the bushes exhibits the topsy turvy world in which we live; the proposed spending of the ‘conservative’ candidate is $3 trillion, while the ‘liberal’ is only $2 trillion. maybe the fact that kerry’s spending, though less, includes health care is what earns it the damning label ‘liberal’. we presume everyone knows about bush’s squandering of the $5.6 trillion surplus that left. how did these republican dudes run corporations?
tagged politics
~ when debates equal comedy gold, who knows what dipshit comment from bush will be a website next week?
tagged kudos
~ the discussion over the debates is overwhelming; something can always be added, but we find that interest is already saturated. so, avoiding the post-debate debates on policy and style, we will mention a couple of personal points/grievances here, so that one might get a sense of what made us grin and/or hammer the arm rest with a clenched fist:
here is the aforementioned quote concerning the supreme court, to save you the trouble of rereading the transcript.
john kerry: A few years ago, when he came to office, the president said, these are his words: What we need are some good conservative judges on the courts. And he said also that his two favorite justices are Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas. So you get a pretty good sense of where he’s heading if he were to appoint somebody.
Now, here’s what I believe. I don’t believe we need a good conservative judge and I don’t believe we need a good liberal judge. I don’t believe we need a good judge of that kind of definition on either side. I subscribe to the Justice Potter Stewart standard. He was a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. And he said the mark of a good judge, a good justice, is that when you’re reading their decision, their opinion, you can’t tell if it’s written by a man or woman, a liberal or a conservative, a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian. You just know you’re reading a good judicial decision.
What I want to find if I am privileged to have the opportunity to do it and the Supreme Court of the United States is at stake in this race, ladies and gentlemen, the future of things that matter to you in terms of civil rights: what kind of Justice Department you’ll have, whether we’ll enforce the law. Will we have equal opportunity? Will women’s rights be protected? Will we have equal pay for women, which is going backwards? Will a woman’s right to choose be protected? These are our constitutional rights.
And I want to make sure we have judges who interpret the Constitution of the United States according to the law.
for the sake of equal time, we have included bush’s quote regarding the supreme court and personal opinion. the fact that that the Pledge of Allegiance is not mentioned in the constitution, and is therefore not above being destroyed by the supreme court, not withstanding, it is baffling to us how bush is able to state that he is opposed to personal opinion entering judicial decisions then give his personal opinion on the pledge as a test for who may be a justice, without actually having the lobes of his brain move in opposite directions. in any event, as stated, you can not strictly interpret the constitution concerning the pledge, because the pledge ain’t in there! the issue is about the trappings of a state religion, not about the pledge. as bush might say when someone says they will spend responsibly: ‘it doesn’t make any sense’.
george w bush: I would pick somebody who would not allow their personal opinion to get in the way of the law. I would pick somebody who would strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States.
Uh, let me give you a couple of examples I guess of the kind of person I wouldn’t pick. I wouldn’t pick a judge who said that the Pledge of Allegiance couldn’t be said in a school because it had the words ‘under God” in it. I think that’s an example of a judge allowing personal opinion to enter into the decision-making process, as opposed to strict interpretation of the Constitution.
~ brilliant:
The Pentagon said yesterday it was investigating cockpit video footage that shows American pilots attacking and killing a group of apparently unarmed Iraqi civilians. - independent
~ we are skeptical about the feasibility of the ‘boycott for equality’ [w] plan and about the reliability of amercians when it comes to remembering not to purchase things, but we do like gays and we do like reduction of consumption, so we figure we’ll take part. all you have to do is refrain from buying crap and/or take all your money from an atm (deposit it the next day). there are more particulars at the site.
our skepticism arises when we acknowledge that we will still be buying the same amount of goods for our debate-party vegan dip; we will just have to do so on thursday night.
~ we also acknowledge that it is lame and otherwise disappointing that john barrow has declared his support for federal jurisdiction over marriage. again georgia has a choice between a piece of shit republican and a piece of shit democrat. yet people still wonder why the angry red planet votes for nader.
~ let’s not shit ourselves, but more on the aforementioned possibility that georgia might bring it, backed up with numbers, is written up in creative loafing [w]
~ the vice presidential debate makes our brains hurt. it seems contradictory that cheney says that marriage is an issue for the states, then immediately criticizes massachusetts, a state, for advancing marriage in that state. anyway, cheney did not say much that we agreed with, but there was one thing in which we can’t find fault:
CHENEY: They know that if you go, for example, to factcheck.com, an independent Web site sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, you can get the specific details with respect to Halliburton.
we agree that you should peep out the site he recommends. trust us: http://www.factcheck.com
also, we hope that ms. ifill is forced to forfeit what they paid her for moderating; whatever it was, it was too much.
tagged politics
~ we hain’t even heard the vice presidential debates yet, but the bush campaign expects its followers to run around the internet and talk radio tonight , giving a positive assessment of whatever they haven’t heard, as evidenced by a letter [w] they have just sent. it should be expected that the kerry campaign is doing the same thing; if not, their followers are getting ready to do it on their own. in fact, the mere mention of this strategy and of a link [w] to a list of sites, could lead one to believe that the angry red planet encourages the petty involvement in exchanges on online forums and flooding of online polls.
~ “The people who told us That two and two is ten Are now trying to tell us That two and two is five” -bbragg.
thanks to paul bremer for informing us that there were not enough troops in iraq to keep the peace and to prevent looting and the ensuing insurgency. even if john kerry hadn’t told us this last week, most of us could tell there were not enough troops after the invasion because we noticed that the peace was not kept whilst looting and insurgency ensued. the low number of troops was donald rumsfeld’s great idea; he spent a lot of time admonishing retired generals and armchair napoleons who said that the forces were insufficient. perhaps he will now admit that he screwed up by trashing the powell doctrine?
well, for rumsfeld’s part, he decided instead to throw in his information that “[he has] not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two” concerning Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. is not this pretty much what we learned from the new yorker and alternet and the nation and common dreams over two years ago? even teenagers in silver body paint on the streets of new york seemed to have this knowledge years before these old men in ties and jackets.
why do security moms still think that this party is competent to either pursue the war on terror or unravel the quagmire in iraq? the republicans are more interested in micromanaging the conflict with an eye on defense contractors profit margins (see bush’s debate comment that it is too expensive to inspect cargo on planes and ships for bombs or nuclear material) than in achieving victory.
~ could georgia be getting ready to bring it? it’s unlikely, as this is the home of newt gingrich and bob barr, where even our democrats give speeches at the republican national convention. nonetheless, we have atlanta’s large gay community pouring out to vote against the proposed anti-marriage amendment, and many blacks are turning out, excited to support denise majette, inhabitant of our native stone mountain and georgia’s first chance for a black woman in the senate. fortunately, georgia’s registration forms do not have affiliation indicators, and so they can not be easily trashed based on the party of the voter like they are in states such as florida.
“If you walk into our mail room, we have stacks and stacks of new forms coming in,” said Kara Sinkule, spokeswoman for Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox, who oversees elections. “It’s a great problem to have.”
Her state is on pace to see a 50 percent increase in new voters for this presidential election compared to 2000. In the past year, 371,376 new voters registered, with 87,110 new voters in September alone. And the surge grew even bigger in the first few days of October.
-msnbc
regardless of what happens next, the anecdotal evidence collected by the angry red planet during our forays into metro atlanta neighborhoods for the sake of registering voters includes many thrilling conversations concerning issues such as free trade, immigration, and the overextension of our military, which leads us to believe that folks out there are really listening in numbers great enough to allay our fears. thankfully, it seems that they haven’t fallen victim to the proven falsehoods on fox [w].
~ red state or pink state, we learned during the above mentioned forays that jehovah’s witnesses do not vote in earthly elections.
tagged politics
~ happy birthday to jimmy carter, georgia state senator, founder of the carter center, and author of ‘The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer’. you can break off a greeting to him at his website [w].
~ y’all know how non-partisan we are here at the angry red planet and how much contempt we have for the contrivances of electoral campaigns such as the highly orchestrated presidential debates, but how tight was the line about the cuban missle crisis and current u.s. credibility?
…We can remember when President Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis sent his secretary of state to Paris to meet with DeGaulle.
And in the middle of the discussion, to tell them about the missiles in Cuba, he said, “Here, let me show you the photos.”
And DeGaulle waved them off and said, “No, no, no, no. The word of the president of the United States is good enough for me.”
How many leaders in the world today would respond to us, as a result of what we’ve done, in that way?
-john kerry
that is the broad view of the nation as something more than a playing field for political teams which we appreciate more - though only slightly - than localized swipes such as Kerry’s “…today, there are four to seven nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea. That happened on this president’s watch.”
admittedly, it was nice to hear kerry acknowledge that he visits the angry red planet, as evidenced by his mention of our najaf policy.
30 October 2004 _ 19h49m42 EDT