Clavin's Corner

If you look over on the right side of the page and scroll down a little, you will notice the new addition of Clavin's Corner to "Wide Awake in America". I decided to add a little history for this week's entry.

On July 1, 1984, the Motion Picture Association of America split the PG category into two groupings, PG and PG-13. The two movies that are widely credited with causing the new ratings category were Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Many parents complained after their children suffered nightmares after watching the two movies. It is believed that had Steven Spielberg's name not been on both movies, they may have received an R rating. This often equates to a lower box office receipt due to the loss of revenue from children.

Previous Poll Results

Most Overblown News Story This Year

Terri Schiavo 67% (10)
Runaway Bride 13% (2)
Michael Jackson 13% (2)
Steroids 7% (1)

15 votes total

Random News

- A Colorado high school put the caption "Most Likely to Assassinate George W. Bush" under a student's photograph. Mesa Ridge High School officials recalled about 100 yearbooks earlier this month and had staffers use markers to obscure the words.

- Jerry Rice is a Bronco. Rice stated that he wants to play another season for the fun of the game. It could be good to have his leadership and experience on the team to teach the younger receivers a thing or two. However, I am glad that Shanahan is making him try out for the team and not guaranteeing him a spot on the roster. I think he will likely end up as the team's #4 receiver.

- Grinch Award: Scottish children were told that Santa did not exist. The 20 by 10 foot outdoor billboard contains slogans including "Stop Lying To Your Children About Santa Claus" and "Santa Gives More To Rich Kids Than Poor Kids". Darren Cullen, a 22-year-old student at the Glasgow School of Art designed the poster that was initially banned, but later allowed to be put up on a billboard.

- Organizers of a memorial for Hunter S. Thompson plan to erect a 150-foot structure — courtesy of actor Johnny Depp — to shoot the gonzo journalist's ashes onto his ranch near Woody Creek, Colorado. Classic.

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Caption Contest

This picture of Saddam was put on the front page of the Sun in Britain, and there has been a great deal of discussion about it.



I kind of stole this idea from a local radio station, but I decided to run with it. Drop me a comment with a caption for the photograph. The best caption wins a prize!

Freedom of the Press

There has been a lot of talk about the Newsweek article stating that US guards flushed the Koran down the toilet in front of prisoners. Protest have occured throughout the Muslim world because of the article, and people have been killed. Reports claim that Newsweek has backed off of the article with their tails between their legs. I think that it would be prudent for those of you who are running around blaming Newsweek for the protests to read this first. Also, this has been reported by more than 10 other newspapers around the world. Even the Denver Post reported this on January 9th of this year:

HEADLINE: Nightmare of Guantanamo.... U.S. prison camp in Cuba has become legal black hole, reporter says:
"They were punched, slapped, denied sleep, had seen other prisoners sexually humiliated, hooded and forced to watch copies of the Koran being flushed down toilets. Eventually the pressure proved too much - they gave false confessions that the British intelligence service, MI5, later showed to be untrue. Upon their return to the United Kingdom they were released without being charged."

That was well before the Newsweek article, which by the way, was approved by the Pentagon. Now, could the Neo-Cons be using this incident as a tool to control the media? CBS anyone?

Nuclear Waste

Senator Frist is getting closer to pulling off the nuclear option in the Senate. If you want more info on the nuclear option, read my previous post, Filibustin'. Despite the fact that Senate rules state that 67 votes are needed to change Senate rules, Frist is pushing for a vote to change the rules on filibusters. The Republicans want to change Senate Rule XXII, which requires 60 votes to invoke cloture (end debate) on legislation or nominations. The new rules would require a majority vote to end a filibuster. This would then make judicial nominees only require a straight up and down vote for confirmation.

Here is how they will do it. If the filibuster is evoked on one of the nominees, the Chair of the Senate (most likely Vice President Cheney) will make a ruling that filibusters on judicial nominees are unconstitutional. Presumably, one of the Senate Democrats would object to this ruling, and the full Senate would hold a simple majority vote (only 51 votes needed) to uphold the ruling of the chair. Thus ending filibusters. A sneaky way of breaking the rules by breaking a rule. Still, the filibuster is not unconstitutional, and has been part of our government for 217 years. Specifically, Article I, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution authorizes the Senate to determine its own rules of procedure, which includes the filibuster. In fact, when Jefferson and the other founders set up this country, they made certain to put longer terms and rules of unlimited debate in the Senate.

Bush has had 95% of his judicial nominees approved, and the noiminees that will likely get filibustered are activist judges who are far removed from the mainstream. They have often ruled against workers' rights and civil rights. (Just to give a couple examples of the rulings of these judges, one ruled that women are subservient to men and another ruled that zoning was the equivalent of theft. I don't know about you, but if I own a house in a nice neighborhood, I don't want someone opening up a porn shop or 7-11 next door). These nominees have often ignored the law and put their own personal views in their rulings.

And here is an example of Frist's own hypocrisy. Cloture votes were necessary to obtain floor votes on Clinton judicial nominees Richard A. Paez and Marsha L. Berzon in 2000, and Republicans attempted to filibuster the nomination of U.S. District Judge H. Lee Sarokin to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1994. Senator Frist voted against cloture for the Paez nomination.

Previous Poll Results

Best Show on Network Television

Lost – 35%
24 – 29%
OC – 18%
CSI – 12%
Other – 6%
Desperate Housewives – 0%

Jesus drives a bus?

I had to post this article from the AFP simply for the last line.

"Jesus Christ Battling for his Name in US"

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Jesus Christ is having trouble convincing US courts to let him keep his name.

It's not the Messiah who is facing this problem, of course, but an American small business owner who, some 15 years ago, adopted the name of the Christian God's son.

The man, born Peter Robert Phillips Jr., started his legal battle in 2003 when authorities in West Virginia refuses to put his godly name on the property he bought in the southern state.

While his new name was on his passport, driver's license and social security card, the local authorities asked him for official proof of his name change.

So Jesus went to a district court in Washington, where he currently lives and where he has now been fighting a two-year battle to use his Biblical name.

"The judge wrote a lengthy opinion citing scriptures, the Bible and so on, to show that taking the name of Jesus Christ is blasphemy and therefore by extrapolation will cause violent reaction," Jesus Christ's attorney, Afshin Pishewar, said Tuesday.

The US capital "permits a common law name change at will. You can change your name as long as it's not for a fraudulent purpose," Pishewar said.

An appeals court overturned the judge in late April, and a new hearing should take place in the next two months, the attorney said.

"We've been remanded for a second coming," he said. "We look forward to the hearing so we can have redemption."

Jesus Christ, described by his attorney as a "devout" Christian, adopted the name to "express his respect and love for his religion."

But the white haired man in his 50s, who drives a bus for mentally handicapped people, is a "private man" and would not speak with reporters, Pishewar said.

"Jesus is not speaking to the press at this time," he said.

Another Problem with the Energy Bill

According to bushgreenwatch.org, the energy bill on the floor of the Senate has some flaws. One of which is that exempts industry from water contamination clean-up. They state;

A provision that halted the energy bill in the Senate last year has again spurred controversy. Aggressively supported by Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex), the provision exempts the oil and gas industry from lawsuits over liability for water contamination caused by the gasoline additive, methyl-tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).

The bill includes a liability waiver that protects producers, distributors, and users of MTBE from cleaning up their own contamination. Instead the burden is shifted onto the American taxpayer.

The oil and gas industries claim it is unfair that they be penalized for using the additive because the government mandated that companies use it to comply with the Clean Air Act. But oil companies knew that MTBE was a threat to water supplies years before the government found out.

The energy bill also exempts the oil and gas industries from liability for water contamination caused by an extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing. The procedure, invented by Halliburton Co., eases natural gas extraction by injecting highly pressurized chemical fluids beneath the ground, often contaminating ground water in the process. Outraged by the effect on their water, communities across the nation have sued oil companies. The proposed energy bill however, will bar communities from being able to sue.

Old Iraq news

I thought I would also bring this story to everyone's attention again, as the news has barely covered the story (big surprise). Nearly $9 billion of money spent on Iraqi reconstruction is unaccounted for because of inefficiencies and bad management by the Coalition Provisional Authority. This is sepearate from the money that I wrote about in yesterday's post. We are talking about $9 billion. It is hard to believe that the public isn't in more of an uproar about issues such as this. But hey, we have exciting news stories like Michael Jackson, Paula Abdul, and the Runaway Bride to keep us distracted from the important news in the world.

More Iraq Cockups

Hmm....I seem to have misplaced a few million dollars. Anyone seen it around? Here's another story on the corruption and incompetence associated with the reconstruction of Iraq. Unlike previously, it sounds as though they didn't lose or steal US tax dollars. This time, it was from the people of Iraq. Pillaging and plundering come to mind.

Wise Words

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."

Theodore Roosevelt
Kansas City Star
May 7, 1918

Polls

In case you hadn't noticed, there is a new feature on this blog. Check out the sidebar to the right for the weekly poll. This week's poll is about the Nuggets/Spurs series, which unfortunately hasn't looked to good since I put the poll up. Still, please make your vote in the poll.