COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, April 10, 2009

"Chisinau surrounded by troops," a user tweeted. "People are protesting. The US said the elections were OK. Not nice."



It seems as if the communist community organizers rigged an election in Moldova. Of course, our new administration and State Department were fine with it, but the Moldovans were not and decided to let their rulers and masters feel their teeth. Here is what our pathetic State Department had to say:

QUESTION: In Moldova, the opposition is contesting the results of the elections and there are violences. What is the U.S. position on that?

MR. WOOD: Well, we’re obviously concerned about any violence taking part, and we want to see people refrain from further violence. We want calmer heads to prevail. And we’ll just have to see how things develop.

QUESTION: Do you think the elections were free and fair?

MR. WOOD: Well, let me just say that I believe the OSCE, its election monitoring mission, did an assessment which basically said that the – you know, the elections were generally positive, but there were some concerns, I think, about undue administrative influence on the process.
You know, I think – you know, we’re obviously doing our own assessment. You know, we haven’t completed it, but I think we would probably say that it’s – it was generally positive. But again, we haven’t completed our assessment and we share some of those concerns about undue administrative influence. But that, you know, that is – what we don’t want to see is continued violence as a result of these elections because that’s in no one’s interest.

QUESTION: Do you think the opposition is right to contest the victory of the communist party?

MR. WOOD: Well, look, I mean, what we’re for is a free and fair election. And you know, those who win, you know, that’s the result of an election. But again, what’s important here is that there be – that people desist from any type of violent activity. That doesn’t help anything. It only adds more tension to a region that doesn’t need any further tension.
But I’ve given you our – just our general assessment of the elections. And I’m sure we’ll have a, you know, further readout for you once we’ve completed that assessment.
Yes, Nina.

Daily State Department briefing from Robert Wood

________________________________

Facebook, Twitter help Moldova protester organize demonstrations


Social media platforms helped protesters know when to show up where

Even as the Moldovan government refused entry to foreign journalists, new media tools including Twitter and Facebook are playing key roles in organizing protesters at demonstrations in the Moldovan capital.

Protests of around 15,000 people against disputed legislative elections seemingly materialized out of nowhere on Monday and Tuesday in central Chisinau after an SMS campaign initiated by critics of the government.

Sergei Muntian, a 22-year-old protestor, told the AFP news agency that the outpouring began after many people received an SMS that said: "Come fight the Communists in the front of the government building. Pass this message on."

After protests turned violent on Tuesday, cell phone service in the areas surrounding the demonstrations was not available. Whether disruptions were initiated by authorities to stem protesters' ability to communicate or if phone networks were overloaded by the massive crowds gathering in the capital of Chisinau remains unclear.

Unfiltered reports


Twitter users flagged their messages with the label #pman
But outside of the main protest areas protesters were able to access the Internet to post updates on Twitter and Facebook.

Messages on Thursday said NGOs and student groups were planning protests at Avram Iancu Square and linked to YouTube videos of demonstrators reporting cases of abuse by the police.

Using the searchable keyword #pman, named after Chisinau's central square's Romanian name Piata Marii Adunari Nationale, Twitter postings, called tweets, have flooded the online service so much that the protests have been dubbed the "Twitter Revolution."

"Chisinau surrounded by troops," a user named robintel posted Wednesday on the micro-blogging service Twitter. "People are protesting. The US said the elections were OK. Not nice."

Membership at several groups set up on social networking site Facebook have seen membership swell since protests began Monday. One such group titled "Support Moldova" boasted nearly 7,000 on Thursday.

Decentralized organization

Governments have a difficult time controlling information on Facebook and Twitter

The protests were spearheaded by a committee of activists called "I am an Anti-Communist" and their size came as a surprise not just to the government but also to mainstream opposition parties that lost Sunday's election.

"Using the Internet we managed to gather 15,000 people on the square in a few minutes," Natalya Morar, one of the leaders of the committee, told reporters.

Twitter and Facebook posts, though often not verified by independent sources, are proving to be a major source of information about developing events in Chisinau. Some 18 journalists working for Romanian and international media were prevented from entering Moldova on Wednesday, and other Romanian journalists were sent back from Chisinau airport, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Wide-spread use of mobile phones and text messaging was seen to be a central element in the success of the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine as well as protests in Belarus in 2006. Internet-based media platforms also provided nearly instantaneous reports from terror attacks in Mumbai, the crash landing of a passenger plane in the Hudson River near Manhattan, and an earthquake in China.

But despite the large amount of updates emerging via social media from Chisinau, bloggers in eastern Europe have also complained about the lack of information getting in.

Since (the media) have no facts to report, they published an article about the social networking aspects of the protests," wrote Kyiv-based, American blogger Ann M. Merrill. "Please. Give me some real news!"


-DW

79 comments:

  1. It is difficult to believe that the United States of America is commending the communists for taking over an Eastern European country with a rigged election.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Doctors Fight for Conscience Clause

    Dr. Donald Thompson just retired after 27 years service in the Air Force, often facing danger in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years.

    "Little did I know that the most basic constitutional liberties for which I fought - free exercise of religious expression and freedom of speech - would come under attack by the very same elected leaders who swore, as I did, to protect and defend our Constitution," Thompson said.

    "If my First Amendment rights may be so easily disregarded, I have to wonder 'then whose rights are safe?'" Christiansen said.
    ---
    "The conscience rights of medical professionals is almost an inalienable right, and they believe it is one that should be protected," said Conway, a pollster with the polling company Woman Trend.
    ---
    "Respecting the right of conscience is the basis for all our freedoms. Conscience tells us what we ought to do. If conscience is compromised, freedom becomes a facade...a farce."

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's difficult to believe that ACORN has been given $5B, will be influencing the census, and the country isn't raising holy hell.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "It is difficult to believe that" you give a shit about Moldavia.

    Moldavia, for Christ's sake.

    Should we not be setting an example for policymakers by turning our attention away from such distant, unpromising theaters and rather to our southern and Asian neighbors? I believe the last administration had that idea, at least in one important respect.



    And speaking of such things, could we get Mat to do side-by-side analyses of DOS and DOD? Until a couple of years ago he still wanted to roll the former, along with CIA, into the latter (it was all the rage among the raging) but the latter seems to have since gained prominence in Mat's Big Book of Bile. Can he confirm and expand with a PowerPoint?

    I just want to be able to root for whomever Mat deems the most dastardly.

    I'm quite flexible.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Islamoids in Paris used cell phones and text messages, the Moldova use Twitter and Facebook, more of the same techniques.

    Yhe tools of modern protests.

    As for ACORN, bob, just another keeper of the flame. Managing a few Federally funded points of compassionate light.

    What's to protest, it's just more of the status que. Only now, you're on the outside, looking in.

    ReplyDelete
  6. If Dr. Donald Thompson does not want to fulfill the social responsibilities of being a doctor, doug, he does not have to be one.
    There is no guarentee of lifetime employment for folk that refuse to fulfill the tasks described in the job description.

    ReplyDelete
  7. And BTW, we bought this book some years ago, and it is hilarious:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Molvania-Untouched-Modern-Dentistry-Jetlag/dp/1843542323

    ReplyDelete
  8. There is no guarentee of lifetime employment for folk that refuse to fulfill the tasks described in the job description.

    Since when did the Constitution give the president the right to write a doctor's job description?

    A new poll shows 87 percent of Americans believe health care professionals should not be forced to participate in procedures they are morally against.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Trish:

    It is difficult to believe that you give a shit about Moldavia.

    Moldavia, for Christ's sake.


    I care, Trish.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Since when did the Constitution give the president the right to write a doctor's job description.

    Excellent question.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Moldova is mostly Russian speaking in the north and Romanian speaking in the south. The Russian speaking area is mostly where the communist. The Russians are very active in Moldova.

    Moldova has about the same population as Israel, around 4.5 million.

    "For a lot of people, it is the first time that this complicated country has entered the modern consciousness. But for many centuries, the Republic of Moldova, to give its full name, has been at the center of numerous power struggles on Europe's eastern fringes.

    Way back in the Middle Ages, the territory which is modern day Moldova was part of the Principality of Moldavia. It was then part of the Russian Empire from 1812 until the Russian Revolution in 1917 before becoming part of Romania. Its stewardship changed hands a number of times during World War II until it was absorbed by the Soviet Union in 1944.

    It remained a part of the USSR until the fall of the Soviet Union and survived a short but bloody civil war before gaining its independence in 1991. Since then, Moldova has struggled to produce a stable economy and is currently one of the poorest nations in Europe. But despite its economic strife and its checkered history, Moldova has been relatively peaceful over the last 18 years.


    Moldova has been caught up in regional power-struggles for centuries

    All of which led to a certain amount of surprise when protesters ransacked Communist President Vladimir Voronin's office and the parliament building during demonstrations over allegedly rigged parliamentary elections on Tuesday.

    The violence seemed to erupt from nowhere, but the protests that rocked Moldova reflected tensions that have long been simmering in a poor corner of Europe perched on the East-West fault line.

    "The deeper causes go back to questions of identity and what Moldova's future is," Samuel Greene, deputy director at the Carnegie Center in Moscow, told Deutsche Welle. "Moldova is still suffering from the aftermath of a civil war and it doesn't have full sovereignty over its territory. In addition, in order to keep the peace Voronin has struck a compromise with Russia by which it promises basically not to move towards unification with Romania, which was being discussed at some point; it promises to really not look that seriously at European Union membership and certainly not to look at NATO membership."

    Compromises hinder Moldovan progress, say critics

    Greene believes that many Moldovans accuse the Communist government's compliance with Russian demands of holding the country back and that has led, to a certain degree, to the violent protests.

    "These compromises have closed off socio-economic prospects for a large part of the Moldovan population that really didn't have a hand in making those compromises and didn't necessarily approve of those compromises," he said. "When the ruling group that had made those compromises and essentially closed that door for Moldova announces that it is trying to stay in power indefinitely and at any cost and any means, it can lead to a certain amount of emotion and maybe even desperation. What we're seeing now is a sort of 'now or never' situation."


    More than 5,000 demonstrators stormed the palace and parliament

    With Voronin's Communist party likely to remain in power despite doubts over the validity of the vote, there is concern that the protests could continue and even escalate. However, Greene believes that Moldova has seen enough violence.

    "I don't think that we would see the return to violence and civil war," he said. "I think most people in Moldova have been fairly shocked by the violence of these protests and have seemed not to have approved of that degree of violence. I think that if there are further protests they are likely to a lot more peaceful."

    ReplyDelete
  12. Good.

    Then you can burn me up an executive fact sheet - ahead of Make Me Care Sunday (coincidentally Easter) - spelling out in neatly bulleted points why it matters. Brief, passionate summary a bonus.

    ReplyDelete
  13. For Whom the Bell Tolls

    "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the
    main.
    If a clod be washed away by the sea,
    Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory
    were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or
    of thine own were: any man's death diminishes
    me, because I am involved in mankind, and
    therefore never send to know for whom the bells
    tolls; it tolls for thee."



    John Donne
    Devotions upon
    Emergent Occasions, no. 17
    (Meditation)
    1624 (published)

    ReplyDelete
  14. John Donne has provided the answer as to why it matters.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I have been to Moldovia, mostly in the south near Romania. I have also spent some time in Chisinau.

    They have some interesting casinos where the local mafia, Russian of course, hang out and run sex trafficking operations with the Albanians to the large cities in Europe.

    ReplyDelete
  16. We don't want the commies running the casinos, that's for sure.

    It ain't Marxist.

    ReplyDelete
  17. (This is why I no long longer take conservatives seriously.)

    ReplyDelete
  18. I think this spells it out:

    "Chisinau, Moldova -- After parliamentary elections, violent protests tore through Moldova's capital, Chisinau. Reading Western media, one gets the impression that the people are simply upset about voter fraud. With the Communists winning a 50% margin, and the second place with only 13%, why does it matter?

    The West paint Moldova as a country leaning away from Russia and towards Europe. When interviewing the current president Vladimir Voronin, all articles show him in a nice light. Voronin claims that the other parties are planning a revolution. However, none of them paint the picture as it really is.

    The people aren't upset that the Communists have won once more, they are more upset how the Communists won and what the Communists do while in power. There is no guarantee that the other parties are better, but this election was so fraudulent that even the blind could see. Voronin's Communists miraculously received votes from crippled who were confined to their beds, from many who had long ago deceased, many supporters voted for them numerous times, and all military were forced to vote for Communists. If this is not voter fraud, what is?

    The students, as in most revolutions, are the ones leading the charge. They have not declared a revolution, but are simply asking for a fair government. They would like to see an end to this voter fraud. They would like to see an end to the extreme corruption that is plaguing the country.

    Voronin and his henchmen run Moldova with an iron fist, much like other former Communist countries. While they do have support of most of the villages, they have lost support from all the students and much of the progressive thinkers. Seeing how the country has been run for the last 15 years has brought shame to many Moldovans.

    These protests are wrong because they turned violent. However, this violence has drawn attention to their cause. If instead of painting this as a meaningless protest, the West would point out why they students were protesting by asking the actual students, the Media would be doing their job. Instead, they paint it like they would like so that the West believes what is wished.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Sorry, i have a blind spot deep seated hatred of the communists.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I have a blind spot, deep-seated hatred of the director of Deadwood for choosing to end that series after three seasons.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Sounds like they had some ACORN help in those 'elections'.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Good.

    Then you can burn me up an executive fact sheet - ahead of Make Me Care Sunday (coincidentally Easter) - spelling out in neatly bulleted points why it matters. Brief, passionate summary a bonus.


    I don't recall implying you should care.

    Have you been drinking?

    I care for reasons enumerated by Bob's note.

    And also because I cherish fond memories of a Jewish refugee from Romania, an Israeli expatriot who's now a neighbor of mat in Toronto, or was when we parted, having trysted among the Mayan ruins at Palenque. If Moldova is a close neighbor of Romania, then there might be Moldovan women as passionate as my acquaintance from many years ago. A good enough reason to care, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I'm sure you do. Don't we all.

    We're trying to think ahead here, right?

    Were we to make a country I misspelled an issue, you'd go Buchanan on me.

    It's rather a lose-lose.

    ReplyDelete
  24. "I don't recall implying you should care."

    I want to know why you do. I figure if you do, you can tell me why.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I care about people who really love freedom and are prepared to assault the buildings that house the politicians who will take freedom from them. I respect and admire that. I am sure you do as well.

    That is Jeffersonian.

    I am disappointed that today, the American press and most Americans do not seem to care.

    ReplyDelete
  26. It's difficult to believe that ACORN has been given $5B, will be influencing the census, and the country isn't raising holy hell.

    A Civil Disobedience Idea

    A Civil Disobedience Idea

    ReplyDelete
  27. It matters because--

    Hermes Trismegistus, “thrice-great Hermes” “God is an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.” Book of the 24 Philosophers.

    Alain of Lille “God is an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere.”


    Everywhere is the center of the universe.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Everywhere is the center of the universe.

    Fri Apr 10, 04:43:00 AM EDT

    Fine. It doesn't work as foreign and defense policy.

    ReplyDelete
  29. I want to know why you do. I figure if you do, you can tell me why.

    I thought I had.

    Fine. It doesn't work as foreign and defense policy.

    Neither does Obama's kowtowing.

    ReplyDelete
  30. You did.

    And now I know. Thanks.




    Neither does Obama's kowtowing.

    Fri Apr 10, 04:52:00 AM EDT

    Amazingly, he hasn't chosen to kowtow down here. Amazingly, he hasn't chosen to kowtow in South Asia. And Iraq: They'll be awhile in leaving.

    Could be worse, indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Could be worse, indeed.

    I'll drink to that.

    Good night. And have a Happy Easter!

    ReplyDelete
  32. I care about people who really love freedom and are prepared to assault the buildings that house the politicians who will take freedom from them. I respect and admire that. I am sure you do as well.

    - dear host

    You are going to have to figure out how to square your sentimentality with notions you have expressed regarding the need for a conservative foreign policy.

    I'm tired of the hot and cold.

    ReplyDelete
  33. desert rat said...
    "If Dr. Donald Thompson does not want to fulfill the social responsibilities of being a doctor, doug, he does not have to be one.
    There is no guarentee of lifetime employment for folk that refuse to fulfill the tasks described in the job description.
    "
    ---
    You kid, of course?

    ReplyDelete
  34. Ingraham had a sound byte of Reagan refering to 4,000 a day being extinguished in the abortion mills.
    Never heard it put that way:
    Our death toll in Iraq, matched 365 times a year.
    Something a good Marxist like BHO is proud to promote, not to mention have another way to discriminate against Christians while lauding Muslims as our equals even as that Youtube of the 17 year old circulates thru the net.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Why not eliminate all docs that choose not to do penis transplants, or male vagina constructions?
    Good to have central control of every professional's choice of specialty.
    ...and every citizen's choice of transportation.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Trish,
    What is the cost of a Pro-Freedom Stance from the State Dept?

    Far as I know, Reagan denouncing the Evil Empire cost no more nor no less than BHO apologizing to the Euros, for us not being more appreciative.

    ReplyDelete
  37. What is the cost of a Pro-Freedom Stance from the State Dept?

    - Doug

    The What Department?

    Sorry I'm going to bed.

    ReplyDelete
  38. The Federals, amigos, are in charge of health care system that employees the Doctors. The Commerce Clause gives the Federals the power, now they are claiming the glory.
    People are born in hospitals, people then, subsequently, can cross State lines, effecting Commerce.

    Obviously no doctor should be empowered to deny a citizen, or resident, a Federally approved medical procedure based upon their own personal FEELINGS.

    If the doctors or pharmacists do not want to fulfill their job descriptions they should find new lines of work. If you object, work to change the job descriptions or the interpretation of the Commerce Clause.

    No one that supports the Federal position om marijuana has any cause for ideological opposition.

    ReplyDelete
  39. If you do not object to the Federals planting mole food on bob's private land, then there is no ideological objection to defining what procedures hospitals and doctors are required to perform, or how GM is managed, for that matter.

    All are within the Federals power embrace, through the Commerce Clause.

    Learn it, live it, love it.

    ReplyDelete
  40. The Ann Rand solution is for the Doctors to leave the hospials.

    Which is the only legal remedy that they'll have. The Doctors should embrace the Federal medical policy, and do their jobs, as described, or leave those jobs.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Trish,
    You missed this:
    - Guyana vs Deadwood -
    ---
    'Rat,
    Agent of, and spokesman for, Submission.

    ReplyDelete
  42. And that makes you what, the Agent of Anarchy, doug?

    ReplyDelete
  43. What is your action plan, to stop the Federalization of the Health Care system, doug?

    If the Doctors "go along" then it'll be Federalized, if the Doctors walk off, it may not be.

    Doctors being a tad harder to replace than air traffic controllers.

    ReplyDelete
  44. well, we all know who's the agent of obama at this site

    pathetic

    ReplyDelete
  45. Pirates Can Claim UK Asylum

    Once I wanted to be a pirate. Always a good failback profession.

    ReplyDelete
  46. BC:

    The Times Online reports that the “Royal Navy, once the scourge of brigands on the high seas, has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights.”

    Beat me to it this morning, Bob.

    ReplyDelete
  47. The pirates are escalating the proceedings--


    Pirate ships converge on US hostage at sea


    Apr 10, 7:26 AM (ET)

    By KATHARINE HOURELD and MALKHADIR M. MUHUMED


    NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Escalating a dramatic Indian Ocean standoff, more U.S. warships - as well as pirate reinforcements with an international gallery of hostages - rushed Friday toward the spot where four Somali bandits are holding a U.S. sea captain aboard a drifting lifeboat.

    The pirates apparently fear being shot or arrested if they hand over Capt. Richard Phillips - captured in a failed effort to seize the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday - and hope to link up with their colleagues who are using Russian, German, Filipino and other hostages captured in recent days as human shields.

    U.S. Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus said U.S. warships also are headed to the area, more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) off Somalia's Indian Ocean coast.

    "We want to ensure that we have all the capability that might be needed over the course of the coming days," he said.

    Pirates have been holding Phillips hostage aboard the lifeboat since his crew thwarted the attack Wednesday on the 17,000-ton U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama.

    Mohamed Samaw, a Somali resident of the pirate stronghold in central Eyl town, who claims to have a "share" in a British-owned ship hijacked Monday, said four foreign ships previously captured by pirates are heading toward the lifeboat. A total of 54 hostages are on two of the ships, citizens of China, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, the Philippines, Tuvalu, Indonesia and Taiwan.

    "The pirates have summoned assistance - skiffs and motherships are heading towards the area from the coast," said a Nairobi-based diplomat, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. "We knew they were gathering yesterday."


    Bet we pay the Danegeld, and watch them recede into the sunset.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Goodmorning, LT. Got to run. Happy Easter weekend to you, and everyone else.

    ReplyDelete
  49. My solution avoids the crisis of conscience that faces the Royal Navy.

    Dead pirates cannot seek asylum.

    ReplyDelete
  50. That’s the problem: EVERYTHING is “an annoying distraction for Obama.” ‘Tis hard to be a Floating Faerie King when such mundane matters keeping pulling one down to earth.

    MarkJ @ 5:20 am, 4-10-09, BC

    ReplyDelete
  51. Obama's so worried about "global wamning, and stuff" that he flew a guy FROM ST LOUIS, MO TO MAKE HIM A "PIZZA."

    What an ASSHOLE.

    ReplyDelete
  52. THIS is fucking sweet.

    Russia to buy ISRAELI SPY DRONES!!

    I'm so sick of the fucking jews I can't throw up any more.

    Is there ANY fucking thing a jew won't do for money?

    ReplyDelete
  53. You can bet your sweet fucking bippy our troops will be facing these things in Afghanistan.

    ReplyDelete
  54. We oughta pull our "missile defense" systems out of that stinking little shithole so fast the cocksuckers wouldn't see anything but a blur as they go by.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Come on elijah, tell us how to stop the Federalization of the Health Care industry.

    The legal precedents are set.

    The Federals have total control of whatever they choose to, under the Commerce Clause. There has been but one case that I know of where they were turned back, the "No Gun Zone" around public schools was ruled a reach to far.
    Beyond that I know of no other case where the Commerce Clause was not found to be supreme, by the Supremes.

    Alinsky's Rules, you gotta have an alternate plan.
    I say the Docs walk out if their conscience is bothered by the new job description.

    What's yours?

    ReplyDelete
  56. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  57. All Jews, rufus, are not Israeli and all Israeli are not Jews.

    If you are going to have disdain for Israel and Israeli, that is perfectly understandable, as they are one of the few Nations in the world that have attacked a US Naval vessel on the high seas, post WWII.

    They steal US secrets with an entire network of spies, working in DC. Then tell US we should release those that have been caught and convicted.

    But those are the Israeli which, regardless what their propagandists tell US, are not synonomous with Jews or Semitics.

    ReplyDelete
  58. The truth be known, elijah, I toss the amigos Obama softballs, hoping that someone knocks one out of the park, but lo and behold, the Obama basics strike out the counter arguments, then the name calling ensues.

    I understand the frustration.

    ReplyDelete
  59. You're right, Rat; but I have a hard time differentiating. All "Muslims" aren't "Jihadists," either; but there does seem to be an awful lot of "enabling" going on, there.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Now bob, yesterday I think, mentioned that John Shadegg, R, AZ had introduced legislation to require referencing each proposal with the Constitutional authority for the legislation.

    We all know that the proposal is going no where. But it is one I fully support, that my own Representitive introduced.

    But it is all show, no go.
    Pure propaganda, in that regard.

    I'd call my Congressman to support it, but he introduced it.

    My candidate amongst the GOP for President, Ron Paul, not only defeated but excluded from the Party process towards the end.

    My candidate for President, in the General Election, an exCongressman from GA, whose name I cannot recall.

    My senior Senator, John "Maverick" McCain, the GOP standard bearer. A candidate that recieved almost 60 million votes, last November, and is irrealavent today.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Now, AZ is an interesting case, our 2 Senators are Republican, one embodies in core principles, as the standard bearer of the Party, in 2008.

    Of the 8 Congressmen, 5 are Democrats. If you are working on a project involving Federal lands, than the Democrats have the juice and the propensity to use it. Call Raul Grijalva if you need a thoughtful response from the Forest Service.

    Senator John McCain (R- AZ)
    Senator Jon Kyl (R- AZ)
    Representative Ann Kirkpatrick (D - 01)
    Representative Trent Franks (R - 02)
    Representative John B. Shadegg (R - 03)
    Representative Ed Pastor (D - 04)
    Representative Harry Mitchell (D - 05)
    Representative Jeff Flake (R - 06)
    Representative Raul Grijalva (D - 07)
    Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D - 08)


    Of our entire Congressional delegation, McCain and Flake spend more time self-promoting themselves nationally than they do working for their constituents.

    Shadegg is moving that way, maybe into a Minority Leadership position. But to what real end? Like the GOP itself he may be making himself inconsequental to the process. His proposal to require a Constitutional reference maybe an example of that. If it is not part of a larger package of proposals, to become the basis of a national campaign, another "Contract with America". If there is no campaign in the offing, than my own Congressman is wasting his time and my share of representation.

    While the Democratic Congressmen seem to be fully engaged in day to day governing. More so now, than before the election, but even prior to Nov '08, the Dems provided much better constituent service. While all of the offices will write back, it was the Dems that worked the bureaucrats, best.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Now I'm all for folks standing in the Public Square with placards. But if a person needed the Forest Service to admit to the existence of a micro-climate and subsequent exemption from policy, the placards will get you zilch.

    The GOP Congressman, the one that represented the District, at the time, under indictment for influence peddling and land fraud. Dozens of counts. His mind was elsewhere.

    The Congressman that would work the problem, a Democrat.
    Time and again, for folks all across the State.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Now 48% of AZ is Federally owned and operated. If a citizen choses not to "Hunker Down" than what course should be charted, so as to not become political flotsam, forelorn and lost.

    You have to admit that President Obama was credited, here at the Bar, for the drop in the Dow after his election. Why some even offered that he was responsible, far back as July or August.

    So the recent rise in the Dow, to over 8083 or +246.27‎ for the day, is his doing, as well?

    A 22% rise in such a short time, an indication of hysteria, either on the way down, or now.

    That there are still systematic challenges seems to be agreed upon, all around. The solutions are now being implempented. Those are derived from the percieved wisdom of the alumni of Goldman Sachs, to the benefit of whom, it is still not clear.
    Transparency not often obtained from the bankers of the Federal Socialists.

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  64. frustration no, entertainment yes

    the bar's very own eugene robinson or e.j. dionne,

    keep carrying that water

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  65. Doug asked, "What would it cost" to make noises on Moldova.

    I'm thinkin' we've got an embassy staff in Chinisau small enough to fit in a freight elevator - including your national hires. And if there's someplace to be sucked into another controversial, deeply unpopular episode of dirty-rotten-commie vs. just-plain-decent-freedom-craving-salt-o'-the-earth-folk (like the Albanians, maybe, only with better manners)...Moldova isn't it.

    So someone has to do the spin-down...so that CNN isn't tempted to run a CRISISCRISISCRISISINMOLDOVA segment...because we can't pencil in anymore shitstorms, ya know?

    It always costs something to say something. And it often behooves us to say the thing that costs the least.

    If the election is, in fact, in legal question, there may be ways to address that without further encouraging your mob - righteous young people though they are - in running amok and being hauled off to the pokey, or worse, by disapproving state authorities.

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  66. What's the real world option, elijah?

    If the Federals force the issue, than to leave the business. The Christian Doctors, those surveyed anyway, have thrown down their gauntlet.

    They will be exempt from the full Federally mandated job description, or they will leave medicine.

    "Ninety percent of doctors...of those surveyed...said they will quit their practices before violating their conscience," said Dr. David Stevens, Christian Medical Association.

    Dr. Sandy Christiansen, a Care Net National medical consultant, agrees.

    "If I am faced with the choice between losing my job or being forced to perform an abortion, I will leave the practice of medicine. And I have to wonder, if we are chased out of medicine, who will step into the gap?" she said.


    Their concerns as to the gap filling are real, I'm sure, even though they do not mention the size of the survey's sample.
    That concern about the loss of practitioners is their only weapon, just as it was for the air traffic controllers.

    Reagan fired all the controllers that would not cross the picket line. They failed to perform to the specifications of their job description.

    The Federals, as representitives of the people, cannot allow Doctors to ration Health Care, that's going to be the Government's prerogative.

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  67. The truth be known, elijah, I toss the amigos Obama softballs, hoping that someone knocks one out of the park...

    I suspected that.

    ...but lo and behold, the Obama basics strike out the counter arguments, then the name calling ensues.

    I understand the frustration.


    LOL

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  68. In the "old days" at BC the comparisons were to Mark Steyn, now it's EJ.

    Not sure either were meant as compliments.

    Since you're engaged, elijah, come on, tell US how to deal with the revocation of the 'Conscience Clause', where should we assemble with placards?

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  69. The very fact that the Bush Administration had to implement it, as a HHS regulation and not as Law is an indication of the Federal's imposing work place exemptions on the job floor, in the Health Care industry.

    Commerce Clause. When Team Obama proposes dropping the HHS regulations, is it the folk that support free markets that wail?

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  70. So, pre Obama the Federals were micro-managing the work schedules of untold numbers of doctors and pharmasists, by exempting those that did not want to particpate in legal abortions or sales of contraceptives from doing so.

    Creating another "special class" of employees that had to be catered to. Causing, I'm sure, others on the staff to complain about the "unfairness" of the burdens that the Federal regulation put upon their workloads and schedules, being Team Players at their hospitals, instead of slackers.

    Hurting morale and efficent delivery of service at the hospitals.

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  71. Just part of the regulatory forces driving health care costs ever upward, to cover the lost productivity that those 'Conscience Clause' workplace exemptions necessitated.

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  73. I'm a firm believer in "At Will Employment".

    The employer provides the job, with complete and full description. The employer and employee agree to the terms of employment, and either can terminate the work agreement at will. Without notice or cause.

    If any worker refused to perform to the job description, it'd be the employer's option to allow the exemption.

    As it was under Team43 there was an unfunded mandate forced upon the medical industry, from DC.

    I think it is not the proper realm of the Federals, to impose such control upon private business, but my side's lost, at the polls and in the Courts, for decades now.

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