Eugene McKinnon, in the comments section on connexions, has a rather good paraphrase of what the prophet Amos might have to say about the United States today:

For the three sins of America and for four,
I will not revoke the punishment.
Because they sell the blacks and poor into the military
To fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They who trample the Iraqi in the dust
And torture the prisoner in Abu Ghraib.

Father and son tinker with their muscle cars.
And cry foul over gas prices.
They blaspheme my name on Saturdays
And in the house of God they eat and drink punishment upon themselves

Yet I led them to the New World
I gave them a haven to freely worship me.
I gave them a vast land
Also I brought you out of oppressed lands
And removed the oppressor from your land.

And I raised up some of your sons and daughters
To advocate for freedom
Is it not indeed so America?

But you keep the blacks down with drugs
And their daughters with prostitution.
And you say to those who stand up for justice
“Shut up!”

So I will put you in your place.
As a mother puts her child in a corner.
Those who claim to be fighting in my name
will perish.
Those who give orders will have deaf ears.

Says the LORD.

The Supreme Court has decided to hear a case on the constitutionality of lethal injection as a form of execution:

Clarence Hill was to be executed on Wednesday for the 1982 murder of a Pensacola police officer.

But the court wants to consider if the chemicals used in the execution cause pain - thus violating a Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

I don’t hold out much hope that the court will overturn the constitutionality of the death penalty. I have even less hope that a court with Sam Alito replacing Sandra Day O’Connor would make the same decision. But I certainly hope that I am wrong.

But this case shows why there is so much more at stake in Alito’s confirmation than simply the abortion issue. In confirming a judge who is arguably on the right side of the abortion issue, you also confirm a judge who is emphatically on the wrong side of issues such as the death penalty, the power of the presidency, civil liberties and civil rights, and the constitutional underpinnings of our social safety net.

Dave Winer makes a key connection on this Martin Luther King holiday:

Aside from that, the Vietnam War was a civil rights issue, because it sucked resources away from the War on Poverty, much the same way Iraq is a race issue in the US because it sucks resources from the recovery of New Orleans.

Who’s rebuilding New Orleans? And more importantly, who in the administration and the Republican congressional leadership cares? It sure does seem that the Republicans are far more concerned about launching ideologically-based, morally-bankrupt, unjust and unwinnable wars than they are in doing anything to help the poor get themselves out of poverty.

Some estimates say this war will cost us $2 trillion either directly or indirectly. What could $2 trillion have done in the global war on poverty? We’ll never know, since we have long since made a separate peace in that war.

Once again, Pat Robertson opened his pie hole and set the gospel back by several years in so doing (this time by suggesting that Ariel Sharon’s stroke was God’s judgement on him):

God considers this land to be his,” Robertson said on his TV program “The 700 Club.” “You read the Bible and he says ‘This is my land,’ and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, ‘No, this is mine.’”

I have a much more simple explanation: The man is 77 years old.

Mr. Robertson might want to take simple biology into consideration before he resorts to his faulty interpretations of scripture for an answer. Occam’s Razor comes into play in this instance. But barring that, he might want to take the entirety of the teachings of Jesus into account before he bring’s the wrath of God into the picture.

When is a ban on torture NOT a ban on torture? When our President believes that he is above the law:

“After approving the bill last Friday, Bush issued a ‘’signing statement’ — an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law — declaring that he will view the interrogation limits in the context of his broader powers to protect national security. This means Bush believes he can waive the restrictions.”

I sure hope we impeach this guy before he sweeps away the last vestiges of the Old Republic.

Today, hopefully, is the beginning of the end to our corrupt congressional leadership:

US lobbyist Jack Abramoff has pleaded guilty to fraud, paving the way for him to co-operate in an inquiry into corruption in Congress.

For those of you keeping score at home, lying, cheating, and stealing are not “family values.” Unfortunately, many of our Republican elected officials who talk the talk of “family values” seem to have misplaced their own.

…from one of the last places in the world to get into 2006, the West Coast of the United States!