Cynical Nation

Happy Memorial Day!

That is the flag that Bush and other neocons want to reduce to a Corporate logo, once they have finished off the rest of the rights that all soldiers died for, starting with the Revolutary War.

"That is the flag that Bush and other neocons want to reduce to a Corporate logo, once they have finished off the rest of the rights that all soldiers died for, starting with the Revolutary War." (Barely Hanging)


I KNOW! Isn't it a beautiful flag though?

I want the "rights" the original Founders bequeathed us too - the kind of government that stood on the principle that "government has no right to benefit one at another's expense," the same principle that had Alexander Hamilton 9the most federalist and my least favorite Founder) to write a letter explaining why the government could offer no aid to a New England town destroyed by a hurricane, because even he (a federalist) believed 9rightly so) that it was wrong for government to take from some to benefit others...under ANY circumstances).

Now THAT'S Liberty.

It's interesting to ponder such things around Memorial Day and the 4th of July.

I agree. My government should stop stealing my money and giving it to other people (like Halliburton) against my will.

My understanding is that the reason government MUST contract with private industry like Halliburton and Bechtel is because government CANNOT mimic industry.

I know there are those who'll point to the fact that the world's top 10 oil producing "companies" are government-owned and that "NASA does pretty good business," but the fact is that the private sector is always far more efficient.

That's why socialism has never worked!

OK, it came close in Italy under Mussolinni (Mussolinni was the head of Italy's Socialist Party before coming to power) and in Germany under Hitler, but close ultimately means "not close enough."

Moreover, and this is the real kicker, lots of liberals are heavilly invested in companies like Halliburton, etc.

Here's an accounting about John Kerry (you don't get more liberal than that) and his holdings, made public during his 2004 election run; "Personal financial disclosure forms filed with the Senate show that on December 11, 1995, the marital trust held by Kerry and his wife purchased Enron stock valued anywhere from $250,001 to $500,000. (The Senate requires only rough valuations for assets and liabilities.) The stock returned between $5,000 and $15,000 in dividends in 1996, and another $5,001 to $15,000 in 1997. Capital gains realized from the sale of Enron stock that year totaled anywhere from $15,001 to $50,000. All in all, the Kerrys made between $25,003 and $80,000 off their Enron buy....Likewise, financial forms on file with the Senate show the Kerrys made money off of Halliburton. On May 13, 1996, the marital trust purchased between $250,001 and $500,000 of stock in the company. Just seven weeks later, the stock was sold. The trust reported earning $1,001 and $2,500 in dividends and $5,001 and $15,000 in capital gains. Add it up and the gains were anywhere from $6,002 to $17,500."

John Kerry, like Barbra Streisand, who simultaneously bashed Halliburton while profiting from its success, seemed to want to have it both ways.

Hey! I don't blame Kerry and Steisand and all the rest....Haliburton is a hell of an investment!

Again JMK, you prove that you are not a true Conservative but just a neocon corporatist puppet.

You believe that the government should steal my money and give it to Halliburton to deliver cooking oil at $2,000 a quart (wow! private sector efficiency!).

You are really just a liberal who favors the redistribution of wealth from the middle to the rich, instead of from the middle to the poor.

Your redistribution of wealth scheme makes you a liberal, no matter whose hands you want to fill with my money.

Our government is DIFFERENT, as it exists ONLY for ONE reason and one reason only - to protect the Liberties of the most productive from the ravages of the rabble and from pillage and oppression by their own government.

So, even IF other governments CAN build their own tanks and planes via the command economy, our private enterpise-based one CAN'T.

Ergo our government rightfully BUYS its weaponry from the likes of private sector defense contractors like Boeing, Northrop Grumman, etc. and it contracts out with other companies like Halliburton and lately Black Water to assist in joint foreign ventures with our military.

While on occassion, I'm sure there are some overages and over-charges, I'm also certain that it's nothing that can't be accounted for.

And by the way, ONCE AGAIN, it's Congress (NOT the Executive Branch) that sets up those contracts, as it's Congress that controls the budget/the "purse strings." And Congress has contracted with Halliburton going back to the 1980s...and rightly so, those Congressional stooges aren't exactly idiots, you know.

Ironic, isn't it, that *our* government just stripped us of the very liberties they "exist on to protect", via the unconstitutinal Patriot Act, illegal torture, and illegal wiretaps with no judicial oversight.

I don't give a crap whether it is congress or the president, Democrat or Republican -- they are traitors who should be hanged.

Next to government the greatest threat to individual Liberty is violent criminal behavior.

NOTHING in the Constitution was designed to make it difficult to convict the accused of criminal acts, in fact, right up until the turn of the last century, and the birth of fingerprinting, an eyewitness ID was all that was needed for most convictions.

As criminal investigative techniques have become more sophisticated, there is no "RIGHTFUL" move to counter such techniques with added protections for the accused....not at all.

By the middle of the 20th Century all state, local and federal employees and most private sector employees had their fingerprints on file....that hurt NO ONE and violated NO RIGHTS and actually kept some innocent people from being wrongly convicted.

Today we have DNA evidence that has evolved incredibly even over the last ten years!

For the government to seek a DNA database that would ultimately store everyone's DNA is also NO VIOLATION of LIBERTY!

In fact, it too, will keep some innocent people from being wrongly convicted and rightfully convict many who might have gotten away with various crimes.

Today, surveillance cameras are ubiqitous (mostly private, though some public) and random stops for DWI, along with online pedophile stings make us all safer than we were less than a decade ago!

Conservative Dems have supported the passagge of the FIA Act WITH the protections built in for the telecom companies that cooperate with government investigations....that's because Conservatives (both Democrat & Republican) support such basic security measures.

I go slightly further. I believe that when any private enterprise complies with and cooperates with a government investigation they automatically do so under a blanket of "implied immunity," shielding them from any possible lawsuits over wrongful prosecution, etc.

That implied immunity should be codified into law.