The War Is Coming

My buddy over at Adventures of a Bellinghammer is dragging back into the blogosphere. He has introduced me, and I will likely be posting politically oriented material there. I’ll link to my posts here.

The senate approved the latest surveillance bill by 69-28.

AP immediately accuses Senate of “bowing” to Bush, conveniently leaving the fact that Obama supported the bill to the very end of the article.

Obama’s political direction recently is a bit confusing. What is he supposed to believe in, again? All I can figure is: large over-invasive government with the ability to control and observe all possible aspects of your life… of course in this respect, McCain is no different.

Options please?

Dr. John Lott points out this petition by a British citizen for the UK government to again allow conceal carry: http://johnrlott.blogspot.com/2008/07/petition-to-allow-concealed-handguns-in.html

The petition cites the following statistics:

England Murder Rate
1987 - 1.19 per 100,000 people.
2002 - 2.03 per 100,000 people.
(70.5 percent increase)

United States Murder Rate
1991 - 9.80 per 100,000 people
2006 - 5.70 per 100,000 people
(41.8 percent decrease )

England Violent Crime Rate
1988 - 410 per 100,000 people
2006 - 1400 per 100,000 people
(241.4 percent increase)

United States Violent Crime Rate
1991 - 758.2 per 100,000 people
2006 - 473.5 per 100,000 people
(37.5 percent decrease)

United States Burglary Rate
1991 - 1335.7 per 100,000 people
2006 - 729.4 per 100,000 people
(45.3 percent decrease)

“It’s harmful to give a worker less than he deserves, it’s also harmful to give him what he doesn’t deserve,” says Granma Mr Mateu, vice-minister for labour in Cuba.

(Link found on John Lott’s blog.)

“We need to protect ourselves from government tyranny.”

“No you don’t! That’s an irrelevant argument in the modern world - our world is too civilized for that to happen.”

OH REALLY?

According to this article, the Obama campaign is paying female non-intern staffers significantly less than male non-intern staffers:

On average, women working in Obama’s Senate office were paid at least $6,000 below the average man working for the Illinois senator. That’s according to data calculated from the Report of the Secretary of the Senate, which covered the six-month period ending Sept. 30, 2007. Of the five people in Obama’s Senate office who were paid $100,000 or more on an annual basis, only one — Obama’s administrative manager — was a woman.

The average pay for the 33 men on Obama’s staff (who earned more than $23,000, the lowest annual salary paid for non-intern employees) was $59,207. The average pay for the 31 women on Obama’s staff who earned more than $23,000 per year was $48,729.91. (The average pay for all 36 male employees on Obama’s staff was $55,962; and the average pay for all 31 female employees was $48,729. The report indicated that Obama had only one paid intern during the period, who was a male.)

McCain’s campaign:

McCain, an Arizona senator, employed a total of 69 people during the reporting period ending in the fall of 2007, but 23 of them were interns. Of his non-intern employees, 30 were women and 16 were men. After excluding interns, the average pay for the 30 women on McCain’s staff was $59,104.51. The 16 non-intern males in McCain’s office, by comparison, were paid an average of $56,628.83.

The Obama campaign did not respond to questions on this issue.

Now, let’s be fair: CNS hasn’t been known for being the most accurate news source available, but this data isn’t terribly hard to come by. If this story is true, it sure sounds like some “sweetie”s at Obama’s campaign are about to get a raise! Oh, shnap!

This story talks about Obama paying women less than the McCain and Hillary campaigns, too.

I haven’t posted because I’ve been sick… Sorry all (to my 2 or 3 readers ^_^). I bought a LG Voyager though, right before I got sick, and this thing is awesome. I’ll have to write up a little review for it.

Yuniesky Betancourt, Mariners shortstop.

Maykel Galindo, star soccer player in U.S. Major League Soccer.

They were friends as kids, and both fled from Cuba and came to America to become stars in their respective sports. When Maykel came to Seattle after seeking asylum in the US, he had no family or friends in America… until was reading a newspaper one day in the summer of 2005.

Wonderful story, read it!

Here. Emphases added.

Public perceptions of the Supreme Court are falling as its session nears the end and a number of significant rulings have been released. Just 26% of voters now say the Supreme Court is doing a good or an excellent job. That’s down from 31% two weeks ago and 41% a month ago.

These results were obtained from polling conducted before the Supreme Court issued a much anticipated decision on gun control and the Second Amendment. While voters are evenly divided on the need for stricter gun control, most believe that cities do not have the right to ban handgun ownership.

The article goes on to point out that the ratings are similar on both “sides” of the “fence”, referring to Obama supporters vs. McCain supporters.

However, the following is most telling:

Republicans overwhelmingly believe that Justices should be guided by what’s written in the Constitution and precedent. However, a plurality (42%) of GOP voters believe the Justices typically act on their own individual notions of fairness and justice.

For Democrats, the opposite dynamic is in play. Fifty-two percent (52%) want the Court guided by individual notions of fairness and justice. However, by a two-to one margin, Barack Obama’s party believe the Court is guided primarily by the written words of the Constitution.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of unaffiliated voters want Justices who will strictly interpret the law but a plurality believe that the Court typically operates in the opposite manner.

What, Democrats not supporting the constitution? Oh, go figure. Sounds like the dems just want a Politburo. (Ie. an absolute rule of a council, rather than a constitutional democracy.)