July 4, 1776

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Well Said

Members of a party abide by primary results. There is no such thing as an “petitioning Democrat.” If there was, [Lieberman] could accept the Republican endorsement and run as a “Republican Democrat.”

Indeed.

UPDATE: Funny comment in the Atrios thread on this topic:

“What the hell is a “petitioning Democrat?”

It’s kinda like a compassionate conservative.

How Do You Talk To The Mirror World?

The guy who got me to start a weblog doesn’t blog all that regularly these days, but he put up a post recently that I liked, not least because purple is one of my favorite colors. His “Can I Choose Purple?” is a rant about his frustration with the whole blue state / red state thing and expressing a wish that people could spend their time looking for the purple areas of agreement instead of the things that divide Americans.

Here’s a sample:

It

Webhost Update

I decided that I have too much else to get done before I head out for Europe to deal with finding a new web host this month.

However, MT-Blacklist is still hosed and at this point I don’t believe that Powweb is either willing or able to help me fix it. So until I have the time to really deal with this issue, I’ve turned off all trackbacks on the site and I am going to be very aggressive about turning off comments after a couple of days. I don’t like doing this, but there’s no other way to keep the blog spam under control for now.

Weekend Cat Blogging

da boyz

A rare shot: all three of Da Boys on my desk hutch. Gimi usually doesn’t go up there.
This time next week I’ll be spending 24 hours in NYC, and after that I’ll head out to Spain. I have a lot to get done before I go.

SCOTUS: 1, Bush: 0

Nice to know that some things are too egregious even for this Supreme Court. Per the WaPo:

The Supreme Court today delivered a stunning rebuke to the Bush administration over its plans to try Guantanamo detainees before military commissions, ruling that the commissions violate U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of war prisoners.

In a 5-3 decision, the court said the trials were not authorized by any act of Congress and that their structure and procedures violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949.

Now comes the fun part. Will the Bush adminsitration actually listen to the Supreme Court?