XPost: alt.politics.socialism, alt.politics.economics, alt.politics.media   
   From: efreem2@alumni.umbc.edu   
      
   A guy walks into a bar and sees a gorgeous woman nursing a drink.   
   Walking up behind her he says, "Hi there good lookin'. How's   
   it going?"   
      
   Having already downed a few power drinks, she turns around,   
   faces him, looks him straight in the eye and says, "Listen up,   
   buddy. I screw anybody, anytime, anywhere, your place, my place,   
   in the car, front door, back door, on the ground, standing up,   
   sitting down, naked or with clothes on, dirty, clean ... it   
   doesn't matter to me, I've been doing it ever since I got out   
   of college and I just flat-ass love it."   
      
   Eyes now wide with interest, he responds, "No kidding. I'm a   
   lawyer, too. What firm are you with?   
      
   *.*   
      
   A lawyer sent an overdue bill to his client   
   and attached a note that read,   
   "This bill is one year old."   
      
   In the return mail, the lawyer received his bill back.   
   To it was clipped another note: "Happy Birthday"   
      
      
   I'm forty and single. Don't you think it's a generalization   
   that you should be married at forty?   
   That's like looking at somebody who's seventy and saying,   
   "Hey, when are you gonna break your hip?   
   All your friends are breaking their hips,   
   what are you waiting for?"   
      
   *.*   
      
   "... one of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that,   
   lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of   
   their C programs."   
      
   *.*   
      
   My wife and I were watching a track and field (athletics) meet recently.   
   As the women's pole vault was being shown, my wife turned to me, and in   
   her best voice of disapproval, said, "Their outfits are way too   
   revealing, don't you think?"   
      
   "Their outfits? You mean the outfits of the athletic young women who,   
   using large poles, thrust themselves into the air only to acrobatically   
   land on their backs with their legs in the air? Hadn't noticed them."   
      
   *.*   
      
   Oneliners:   
      
   The golden years . . . when actions creak louder than words   
      
   Born Free... Taxed to Death.   
      
   Sign in the Men's Room: "We aim to please. You aim too, Please."   
      
   Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome.   
      
   Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see   
      
   Life is full of uncertainties. Of course, I could be wrong about that   
      
   We need old friends to help us grow old and new friends to help us stay   
   young.   
      
   Change is good as long as I don't have to do anything differently.   
      
   Without geometry, life is pointless.   
      
   Issue of the Times;   
   The late, great American nation   
      
   We live in a fundamentally different country since 9/11. Not only do many   
   Americans view their government with suspicion, but how their government   
   views them has drastically changed.   
      
   A perfect example of this took place last fall. Prior to the elections   
   that   
   transformed the makeup of Congress, the Bush Administration pushed for the   
   inclusion of two stealth provisions into a mammoth defense budget bill.   
   The   
   additions made it easier for the government to declare martial law and   
   establish a dictatorship.   
      
   Since the days of our Founding Fathers, when King George III used his   
   armies   
   to terrorize and tyrannize the colonies, the American people have   
   understandably distrusted the use of a national military force to   
   intervene   
   in civilian affairs, except in instances of extreme emergency and limited   
   duration.   
      
   Hence, as a sign of the Founders' concern that the people not be under the   
   power of a military government, control of the military was vested in a   
   civilian government, with a civilian commander-in-chief. And the Posse   
   Comitatus Act of 1878 furthered those safeguards against military law,   
   making it a crime for the government to use the military to carry out   
   arrests, searches, seizure of evidence and other activities normally   
   handled   
   by a civilian police force.   
      
   However, with the inclusion of a seemingly insignificant rider into the   
   massive defense bill (the martial law section of the 591- page Defense   
   Appropriations Act takes up just a few paragraphs), the Bush   
   Administration   
   has managed to weaken what the New York Times refers to as "two obscure   
   but   
   important bulwarks of liberty." One is posse comitatus. The other is the   
   Insurrection Act of 1807, which limits a president's domestic use of the   
   military to putting down lawlessness, insurrection and rebellion where a   
   state is violating federal law or depriving the people of their   
   constitutional rights.   
      
   Under these new provisions, the president can now use the military as a   
   domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, disease outbreak,   
   terrorist attack or to any "other condition." According to the new law,   
   Bush   
   doesn't even have to notify Congress of his intent to use military force   
   against the American people- he just has to notify them once he has done   
   so.   
   The defense budget provision's vague language leaves the doors wide open   
   for   
   rampant abuse. As writer Jane Smiley noted, "the introduction of these   
   changes amounts, not to an attack on the Congress and the balance of   
   power,   
   but to a particular and concerted attack on the citizens of the nation.   
   Bush   
   is laying the legal groundwork to repeal even the appearance of   
   democracy."   
      
   The main reason we do not want the military patrolling our streets is that   
   under martial law, the Bill of Rights becomes null and void. A standing   
   army- something that propelled the early colonists into revolution- strips   
   the American people of any vestige of freedom. Thus, if we were subject to   
   martial law, there would be no rules, no protections, no judicial   
   oversight   
   and no elections. And unless these provisions are repealed, the   
   president's   
   new power will be set in stone for future administrations to use- and   
   abuse.   
      
   A fundamental principle of American government is to not trust public   
   officials. But modern Americans, primed by television pablum and ignorant   
   of   
   their history, have a tendency to trust people in office simply because   
   they   
   appear to share a common faith, say the right things or come from a   
   certain   
   region of the country. But lest we forget, power has a tendency to   
   corrupt;   
   absolute power corrupts absolutely.   
      
   Furthermore, the way this was handled proves that we cannot trust   
   government   
   officials. By sneaking this provision in as a rider to a larger bill,   
   public   
   debate and media attention were avoided. Had the provision been openly   
   discussed and debated, there would have been opposition and outcry. And it   
   most likely would have been soundly rejected. Instead, it was rushed   
   through   
   the Republican-controlled Congress prior to the elections and enacted into   
   law.   
      
   The Founding Fathers would have literally been up in arms over Bush's   
   actions. They understood the dangers inherent in vesting power in a single   
   person, which is exactly what this legislation purports to do. There's no   
   limit to what the president can now do: the "any condition" language opens   
   the door for total power, a dictatorship. The people are left with no   
   defense.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)