According To The Constitution Giuliani Cannot Be President

According to The Constitution (last time I checked, still 'the law of the land'), as a Knight Commander, Order of the British Empire (KBE), Rudy Giuliani is forbidden to be President per Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8:

"No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State."

Not that I think he has any chance of being elected, but by law he should not be allowed to be part of the election process in the first place.

Get him out of the election.

Digg Dream Headline Checklist

Rumsfeld Resigns: Check ... 11/08/2006
Rove Resigns: Check ... 08/13/2007
Gonzales Resigns: Check ... 08/27/2007
Cheney Resigns: Check ... 09/11/2007
Bush Resigns: Check ... 09/11/2007

Let the National Nightmare end completely.

Abortion and Gay Marriage Are Red Herring Issues – Time To Move On

How long have politicians been arguing about abortion and gay marriage? Too long in my opinion. I personally am tired of it. They use these two issues to avoid real discussion of all the other issues they need to be talking about and acting on.

Politicians need to take a dose of reality, and here it is. Women will never allow the US to reverse course and start banning decisions they make about their own body. If abortion was banned we would see a revolution is this country, headed by women. Politicians know this. They need to publicly accept it and move on. Late stage abortion is a separate topic and seems barbaric to me unless the woman’s life is in danger. Let’s get a consensus on a cut-off time and move on.

Gays should be able to have civil unions nationwide, with all the entitlements of marriage. As the old joke goes, “Let them be miserable like the rest of us.” If they want to commit to a domestic partnership they should have the legal entitlements that go along with that. Sooner or later they’ll have it anyway. Let’s accept the facts, stay out of other people’s sexuality and move on.

For those who think the above two matters of discussion are a “sin,” that’s fine. I have one thing to say to you, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Case closed. It’s between them and God, just like it is with all the rest of us. Time to move on.

It’s time to move beyond these two issues of endless debate and get to the other issues at hand. They are legion. We need to move on them.

Portrait of a Digg Spook

They label, divert, spin, confuse, slander, throw-off, wear out, brow beat, feign superior intelligence and logical reasoning abilities, spread disinformation, lie, berate, scold, question one’s patriotism, falsely claim to have direct information or “know actual witnesses,” misquote, manage, threaten, cajole, mislead, skew, engage in overzealous nasty rhetoric, monitor threads, and otherwise do things that give a strong indication they aren’t regular old Diggers …

And of course, if all else fails, they Bury the post.

In my opinion that has become an obvious problem on Digg.

There are certain topics which aren’t even “allowed to be discussed” on the Front page, even though it’s obvious by the number of Diggs before burial there’s demand to discuss. Even questions regarding said topics are off limits. We all know what those topics are.

Spin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations#Spin

In public relations, spin is a sometimes pejorative term signifying a heavily biased portrayal in one's own favor of an event or situation. While traditional public relations may also rely on creative presentation of the facts, "spin" often, though not always, implies disingenuous, deceptive and/or highly manipulative tactics. Politicians are often accused of spin by commentators and political opponents, when they produce a counter argument or position.

The term is borrowed from ball sports such as cricket, where a spin bowler may impart spin on the ball during a delivery so that it will curve through the air or bounce in an advantageous manner.

The techniques of "spin" include:

* Selectively presenting facts and quotes that support one's position (cherry picking)

* Non-denial denial

* Phrasing in a way that assumes unproven truths

* Euphemisms to disguise or promote one's agenda

* Ambiguity

* Skirting

* Rejecting the validity of hypotheticals

* Appealing to internal policies

Another spin technique involves careful choice of timing in the release of certain news so it can take advantage of prominent events in the news. A famous reference to this practice occurred when British Government press officer Jo Moore used the phrase It's now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury, (widely paraphrased or misquoted as "It's a good day to bury bad news"), in an email sent on September 11, 2001. The furor caused when this email was reported in the press eventually caused her to resign.

Summer Digg Tour?

I haven’t been over to FARK much lately but Drew Curtis used to have “FARK Parties” all over the place. I’m not sure if he still does or not. I’m sure I’ll be informed in this post.

Anyway, I think Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht should do a “Summer Tour” of “Digg Parties!”

Come on Kevin and Alex. What do you say? It would be a blast! You could do a Diggnation episode from each city!

You could bring Digg Apparel along to sell. It would go like Hotcakes.

I personally would pay to attend.

Question For Democratic Candidates ...

Do you plan to lead the country in restoring Constitutional Liberties by pushing to actually rewrite the following Bush Laws that deprived them?

I speak of the following:

The Military Commissions Act,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Commissions_Act ;

The Domestic Security Enhancement Act,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_Security_Enhancement_Act_of_2003 ;

The "Patriot" Acts I and II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Patriot_Act ;

Abuse of "Signing Statements,"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signing_Statements .

ALL give Dictatorial powers to the Executive Branch of the US Government. Obviously this was never intended in the Constitution. Actually it is expressly forbidden.

Are you going to change these laws or keep them and keep the power?

Why Can’t We Talk About 911?

Why can’t we talk about 911 in this country without being labeled “Truthers,” or “Moonbats,” or “Conspiracy Theorists,” or “Unpatriotic,” ad infinitum?

Why can’t we talk about it? Just talk about it. Why is that bad?

Why is it bad if we have questions? Why is it bad if we want some more answers? Why is it bad if we don’t agree on exactly what happened? Why is it bad that even if “we don’t have the evidence” we have intuitive thought on some of the issues for which little is known.

911 happened to us all. It was a tragedy to us all. When did meaningful discussion die in this country? What are the motivations of the people who try to stifle it?

I don’t know exactly what happened on 911. Why is it a thought crime to say that? Why is it taboo?

“Just don’t talk about it,” seems to be the societal norm around 911. I recognize that as one of the signs of the grief process -- Denial.

Isn’t it time we move to the next phase of grief? We’re stuck.