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POPSParatrooper To Get Conscientious Objector Status, Discharge. Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
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POPSDiscrimination and the race card While discrimination might well persist, the rules against it provide rich opportunities for minorities should they decide to litigate. Unfortunately, the rich pickings available could well attract less than honest complaints.
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POPSPoor, Poor Buttsore Billary This is an especially sore point for Bill Clinton, people close to him say, because among many grievances he has about the campaign Obama waged against his wife is a belief that the candidate poor-mouthed the political and policy successes of his two terms. One senior Obama supporter said the Clinton associates negotiating on her behalf act like “Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific still fighting after the war is over.” A prominent Obama backer said some of Clinton’s lieutentants negotiating with the Obama team are “bitter enders” who presume that, rather than the Clintons reconciling themselves to Obama’s victory, it is up to Obama to accommodate them.
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POPSTensions Boiling Over Between Obama-Clinton Camps to Obama’s victory, it is up to Obama to accommodate them. In fact, some senior veterans of Clinton’s presidential campaign do believe this. “He has not fully reconciled,” said one political operative close to the Clintons, “and he has not demonstrated that he accepts the Clintons and the Clinton wing of the party.” While the Clintons have a relatively easy job in Denver — to deliver gracious speeches and accept what are likely to be loud cheers from their supporters — it is “Obama who has the heavy lifting” this week, this aide said. This is because large numbers of Clinton backers — 30 percent in a recent ABC/Washington Post poll — are still not backing Obama over McCain. The peevishness on both sides and the volume of behind-the-scenes catcalls are noteworthy because both the Clinton and Obama teams had resolved in pre-convention talks that it was overwhelmingly in the interests of both sides to get along.
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POPSDemocracy? cacophony? Internet poses new questions "If it all sounds like the cacophony of the Internet, or a busy commercial street on rush hour, is creeping into offline media outlets, saysme.tv’s chief executive, Lisa Eisenpresser, pleads guilty, only she prefers other words: democracy, marketplace of ideas." "Of course, there is still the freedom to cover your ears." With all that advancement, what i am missing is a serious question that one should ask himself, what is the worth of what i have to say?
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POPSWe Are At War with Iran Our taxpayer dollars are funding activities that result in Iranians being killed and wounded and Iranian property destroyed.
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POPSWhy Does The Government Keep Protecting People from Their Stupidity These credit rules are just the latest in a long line of our government feeling the need to protect consumers from their own ignorance and stupidity. I'll be the first to admit credit card rules and fees are difficult to understand. But consumers should be smart enough to know this, and not get in situations where they spent more than they can afford on their cards and end up paying these fees. Pay your bills on time and late fees aren't an issue. Don't charge more than you can afford to pay back at the end of the month and finance charges aren't an issue. There's no need for additional government legislation around this. If the gov really wants to spend our taxpayer money wisely, spend it on education programs to teach people how to be smart with their money.
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POPSKenyan children abducted and terrorized- child soldiers and land conflicts ENDING OF ARTICLE: In the meantime, Kenya's land issues remain unresolved. And the powerful politicians that villagers and former fighters say lead the militia remain free. "The conflict in Mount Elgon is but the worst example of the poisonous relationship between Kenyan politics, land grievances and violence," said Ben Rawlence of New York-based Human Rights Watch. If the children are released, some can trace their families. Others have no parents left after murders by either the militia or the military. Peace and justice are far beyond the hopes of most families. Mothers say their ears still strain beyond the drumbeat of rain on a tin roof or wind rustling through cornstalks for the sounds of a vanished child's voice. Some scarred children will eventually limp home along the winding mountain trails. Others never will.
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POPSThanks AP And ABC News For Spinning Liberal Bias My argument is bolstered further by the authors' ridiculous description of the weather as "out-of-control." They would have you believe that until eight years ago, when a certain Republican became President of the United States, the country had never experienced hurricanes, tornadoes, extremely high and low temperatures, and floods. The weather has been calm for the billions of years of the earth's existence and then suddenly, boom! The weather's out of control. AND we can make the weather not be out of control (i.e., if we elect a certain Democrat president .) Really, this article is an absolute embarrassment in every way. A DNC press release couldn't be more biased. There is positively nothing the least bit objective about this article. It's a string of hysterical unsubstantiated Democrat talking points.
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POPSPhilosophy of Seinfeld:Wit and Wisdom This clip shows just a few of a very long list of great quotes from the TV show Seinfeld from Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, and George. Funny stuff from a classic show! At the end of the site is the video of Elaine dancing her "little kicks and thumbs out" dance. Hysterical!
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POPSSometimes Unrelated Events Tell A Coherent Story We don't need people like either Jeremiah Wright or Barack Obama to take us backward. People on the far left like to flatter themselves that they are for the poor and the downtrodden. But what is most likely to lift people out of poverty-- telling them that the world has done them wrong or promoting the work ethic. Will they have the skills of science, technology or medicine? Or will they have only the resentments that have been whipped up by the likes of Jeremiah Wright or the sense of entitlement from the government that has been Barack Obama's stock in trade?
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POPSThe Future of Europe is at Play "The unprecedented nature of Europe's situation also renders a forecast exceedingly difficult. Never in history has a major civilization peaceably dissolved, nor has a people ever risen to reclaim its patrimony. Europe's unique circumstances make them difficult to comprehend, tempting to overlook, and virtually impossible to predict. With Europe, we all enter into terra incognita."
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POPSThe Liberty Bell Among the more historically important occasions, it tolled when Benjamin Franklin was sent to England to address Colonial grievances, it tolled when King George III ascended to the throne in 1761, and it tolled to call together the people of Philadelphia to discuss the Sugar Act in 1764 and the Stamp Act in 1765. On every Fourth of July, at 2pm Eastern time, children who are descendants of Declaration signers symbolically tap the Liberty Bell 13 times while bells across the nation also ring 13 times in honor of the patriots from the original 13 states.
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POPSThe Rise of Fascism in the 21st Century Jim Yardley is a very astute China observer, and this article hits the nail on the head. Surging Chinese nationalism is reaching frightening proportions. We seem to have forgotten that communism hardened by nationalism turns into fascism. I believe the current political climate in China of frustration, insecurity and aggressive racial pride is very very similar to the agitation for Fascism that took place in Europe and Asia in the 1930s.
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POPSRev. Jeremiah Wright isn't the problem It's not surprising that the right is using Wright to paint Barack Obama as a closet Farrakhan, trying to let the air out of his trans-racial balloon by insinuating that he's a dogmatic race man. But beyond the fake shock and the all-too-familiar racial politics, what the whole episode reveals is how narrow the range of acceptable discourse remains in this country. This is especially true of anything having to do with patriotism or 9/11 -- which have become virtually interchangeable. Wright's unforgivable sin was that he violated our rigid code of national etiquette. Instead of the requisite "God bless America," he said "God damn America." He said 9/11 was a case of chickens coming home to roost. Now we must all furrow our brows and agree that such dreadful words are anathema and that no presidential candidate can ever have been within earshot of them.
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POPSNYT op-ed piece on Obama's speech on race I thought, this is a pretty good op-ed piece about Obama's speech on Tuesday. I thought he spoke about things that people are afraid to really acknowledge & discuss. As a society we tend to forget about the perspectives of others, because everyone is so caught up in their own experiences (of course). But maybe this will open up passionate and heated discussions on the American experience, which is varied & as diverse as the people who make up this country.
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POPSYesterday’s Baggage By “investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations.” The path for blacks, Obama insists, requires “binding our particular grievances — for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs — to the larger aspirations of all Americans — the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who’s been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family.” There’s not much that is actually new here. This was largely a restatement of Jeremiah Wright’s indictment of America, delivered in University of Chicago parlance instead of South Side Chicago diatribe. The old baggage has been replaced with shinier suitcases, but the contents are the same as ever. Black America’s problems can be solved by spending more money on the same old Great Society programs
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POPSWhen Rape is OK: Female Contractors in Iraq
Women like -- as you may remember -- Jamie Leigh Jones, 23, a former employee of military contractor KBR who has been unable to get her charges of gang rape heard in court; women like Mary Beth Kineston, who was fired after complained about harassment and groping incidents. "I felt safer on the convoys with the Army than I ever did working for KBR," Kineston told the Times. "At least if you got in trouble on a convoy, you could radio the Army and they would come and help you out. But when I complained to KBR, they didn't do anything. I still have nightmares. They changed my life forever, and they got away with it." Jones testified in Congress in December -- and yesterday -- in order to draw attention to such cases and urge lawmakers to change regulations governing private arbitration. Emboldened by Jones, more women have begun to step forward, talking about mysteriously disappearing complaints and about being given, for their grievances, an 800 number and a pat on the head.