With Justice Roberts' misreading of the constitution at yesterday's inauguration, I thought I'd take a moment to discuss constitutional history. Article II Section 1 of the constitution states the following

Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

You'll notice that there are two parts where Justice Roberts misstated the oath (and President Obama followed along.) The first was "I will execute the office of President of the United States faithfully." And the second was "So help me god."

There is argument that George Washington added the words "so help me god" to the end of his oath, but there is little evidence to back that up. Regardless, the person taking the oath has a constitutional right under the first amendment not only to freedom of speech but to freedom of religion and is therefore allowed to add these and any other words to the oath provided the original 35 words are stated in their correct order. The officiant of the swearing-in has no such right as he is acting as an agent of the United States and is injecting religion into a secular ceremony.

This is the basis of a legal action taken against Justice Roberts prior to the event by Michael Newdow and several other individuals and organizations. For more information, listen to the podcast of the Minnesota Atheists' Atheists' Talk radio show from January 4th 2009. In this show, Michael Newdow points out that this is not a case of atheists imposing their religion on the government but a case of keeping the government from imposing their religion on the nation.

When Keith Ellison was elected to the House of Representatives, christian conservatives were up in arms over a Muslim serving the nation along side Christians and Jews. I think they feared that, one day, the Chief Justice might add "so help me Allah" to the oath. It's not rocket science that freedom of religion applies to all religions and removing this tendency to add religion to government will prevent future leaders with different religions from doing the same.

There's a good chance that the oath was given officially a few minutes before the public event and that it was done to the letter of the constitution at that time. But doesn't the rest of the nation diserve to hear the ceremony performed correctly too?

Update: There was a do-over at 19:35 EST, but only a few reporters were present. Audio is available from CBS on Politico.com. The "so help me god" part was still there and I find it interesting that Justice Roberts states it as a question both times.

--photo from emilykreed on flickr.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

We've all done it before.  Gone online, checked prices for some piece of electronics, found the best price at Best Buy, packed up the car, driven the 10 miles to the nearest store and discovered that the price in-store is higher than the price on-line. It happens so often that there are tips all over the Internet for how to get the on-line price instead. You could try to show them the on-line price from one of the computers in the store, but we already know that the in-store network shows higher prices. You could show them a printout of the price from their website, but they'll often complain that having a store costs more than having a website so it makes sense for them to charge more in the store or that pricing is different all over the country so they can't match the website. One clever blogger ordered in-store pickup from the website while actually in the store. She had to wait quite a while for the confirmation emails to all go through but, after 20 minutes, saved $100 on Stargate Atlantis DVDs.

So, what does this tell us about Best Buy? Well for one, they are essentially using bait-and-switch tactics by luring you into the store with one price and then giving you another. But the really sinister part is that they are charging people an extra fee for not having Internet access. You obviously have internet access and can avoid the problem, so who doesn't?

Since 2000, people have been noting that income has a direct relation to Internet access. Over time, this is getting better, but that "digital divide" still exists. Anyone can go into their local library and use the Internet and a lot of people do. But how likely is it that they'll be surfing Lifehacker or Gizmodo or one of the other blogs that talked about this issue? My bet is that most library-based Internet users have a specific task to complete and that's pretty much all they do. More phones are going online, but my G1 cost $200 plus $25/month for service.

What's my point? Capitalism is, in theory, a good system. People who work hard and are successfull get more money and people who work less and are less successfull get less money. But there are other ways than work to be successfull. People who already have more money (some call it "captial") can use it to get more money and people who have less money have to use more money to get by.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

There's a disturbing trend in America these days. The celebration of winter solstice is getting less and less time in main-stream media and people are trying to associate their religions with the lengthening of days.

Everywhere I turn, people are talking about Chanukah, Christmas and even Kwanzaa rather than the return of the all-powerful life-giver The Sun. Christmas is particularly guilty of stealing light from our holiday celebrations.

The US government chose to recognize Christmas as a national holiday 1870 and I see this as the beginning of the political war on Winter Solstice. Since then, there's only been more and more downplay of the real reason for the season.

We must find a way to stop the war on Winter Solstice and take the holiday back from these heathens. Luckily, we have several iconic figures on our side. The Krampus, AKA Sinterklaas, has been biding his time in the guise of Santa Claus and it shouldn't take much to convince him to join our cause. Jack Frost has always been with us, causing Christmas shoppers to break presents and bones on the ice.

If we can get enough Christians to drink themselves into oblivion in the name of Jesus, I think we can take over, so go out there, distract them with a Jul Log and spike some Egg Nog!

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

Remember way back in 2007 when we found out that Walter Reed Army Medical Center was in disrepair? That was pretty appalling wasn't it? I remember being mad at my government for not taking care of the troops and mad at the workers who waited so long to say anything.

It turns out there's a new reason to be mad at my government for not taking care of the troops. Back in March, in an effort to give special recognition to military personnell who were injured in combat rather than in other military duties, such as training, the armed services sub-committee narrowed the definition of "combat related" disabilities. The Pentagon has interpereted things a little differently.

Army Sgt. Lori Meshell shattered a hip and crushed her back and knees while diving for cover during a mortar attack in Iraq. She has undergone a hip replacement and knee reconstruction and needs at least three more surgeries. ... [T]he Pentagon ruled that [her] disabilities were not combat-related.

 

--LA Times

How, you might wonder does a mortar attack in Iraq not count as "combat related?" Well, that seems to be the fault of congress, but that's not the problem. In my opinion, and in the opinion of the vet I am IMing with right now, that's really not the point. An injury incurred while in the military, in a situation you wouldn't have been in if you were not in the military, should be taken care of by the military.

Go read the article, get pissed off, write your representatives, senators and president.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

More evidence was released this week that Barack Obama is truely my president (elect). Following more than a little in the footsteps of FDR, he has released the first of his weekly YouTube addresses. How fitting for the internet generation to get a president (elect) who communicates with us directly, in our native environment. How refreshing to finally have a president (elect) who communicates with us at all. We will be spending brain-cycles hoping that deception and dodging won't come any time soon but, in the mean time, we can just sit back and relax, knowing that our president (elect) is truely our president (elect).

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

The 2008 election takes place on Tuesday, November 4.  Minnesota Statute
204C.04, Employees Time Off to Vote, provides that:

"Every employee who is eligible to vote in an election has the right to
be absent from work for the purpose of voting during the morning of the
day of that election, without penalty or deduction from salary or wages
because of the absence."

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

Unlike the candidates, I'm not going to campaign for anyone on November 4th. Now go out and vote or I'll send this guy to get you.

-- via Gizmodo.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

While listening to NPR this morning, I heard a strange and surprising thing. Rush Limbaugh said

"We're going to have to drag Sen. McCain over the finish line, and then we're going to have to deal with what he does in the Oval Office ourselves,...That's how this is going to have to work. We have to save the country from Obama and then save it and the Republican Party from whoever McCain puts in his Cabinet. We have to do this one step at a time. Do not throw in the towel."

So, basically, what I hear him saying is that it's better to have a bad Republican in office than a good Democrat; that whatever damage McCain does to the country and the Party is a problem to deal with later because having a Democrat in office is worse.

I'm sure that Rush isn't the only pundit saying this type of thing and he's certainly not the only Republican who's not too happy about a McCain presidency. Some Republicans have turned to voting for McCain in hopes that he'll die and Palin will become president, which is a scary thought to me, and some have turned to voting for Obama or, even worse, not voting at all. This concept of voting for the Republican because he's a Republican baffles me.

Maybe it's because I'm from Minnesota and, while, since Franklin Rosevelt, we have voted for the Republican only when Richard Nixon was on the ticket, we have a very independed spirit as far as elections go. Maybe it's because I'm a pretty independent thinker in general. Whatever the cause, my belief is that I should vote for the candidate I believe will do the best job of representing my beliefs no matter what their party affiliation. What Limbaugh and others (I assume) are saying is just like saying that a heart surgeon who failed out of Harvard is better than one who graduated with a 4.0 from the University of Illinois.

I know that "logic" and comparisons to other, easier-to-relate-to situations rarely convince people with outlandish notions to rethink their positions, but that's the way I think. I also find that most people understand things when explained this way. I know that nobody of any significance reads my blog, but I hope that other people think about what Rush says from a position where they can't see the bottom of his boots.

-Illustration by Rex Lameray, published by Belltown Messenger on flickr.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

I may have shown bias in the past, but I have not been to blatant about endorsing a specific candidate or anything. Okay, maybe I have. Anyway, I was watching the debate last night and came out with some impressions.

The biggest thing I noticed is that McCain lies a lot. I know that all politicians lie, especially if you take into account things they promised they'd do and didn't or couldn't get done. But McCain lies about things that have already happened and are verifiable.

Examples: (Update 10/29 - math and fact-checking)

Oil Imports: John McCain continuously states that we send $700 billion to countries that "don't like us very much."

According to the DOE the US imports about 13,000 13 million barrels of petroleum per day. Assuming a cost per barrel of $100, which is probably fair for this year since we started high and are currently in the $40/barrel range, the cost of that petroleum is around $474 billion per year. So already he's a little off in saying that we send more money for oil to countries that "don't like us very much" than we actually spend on oil. It's only 47% more though, so lets call that hyperbole.

Also according to the DOE, the two countries of the top 15 from which we import petroleum that you could say we have uneasy relations with are Iraq and Russia. Since McCain would also say that Iraq is our friend, I'll give him the benefit of counting Iraq as our friend who "doesn't like us very much". That means that we import about 1200 1.1 million barrels per day from countries that "don't like us very much" for an annual cost of $42 million $41 billion. I don't know anyone who thinks that $42 million $41 billion is anywhere close to $700 billion.

(note: even after these corrections due to my mis-reading of the numbers as barrels/day rather than 1000s of barrels/day, McCain is off by a factor of 20. Not as bad as 20,000, but quite far from the mark.)

Taxes: We also heard about a guy named Joe the Plumber, AKA Joe Wurzelbacher. According to McCain, he's got a double doozey coming. Apparently he wants to buy the plumbing business he's been working for and that will put him over the $250,000 per year income level, meaning that, under Obaba's plan, he'll see an increase in his tax rates. And he's also supposed to be in for a fine for not providing health insurance for his new employees.

As it turns out, that part of Obama's plan is for personal income tax, so if he incorporated, the argument becomes completely different. So let's say Joe doesn't incorporate. He would need a gross adjusted income of over $250,000 per year in order to end up with higher taxes. That means that after paying his employees and buying the extremely expensive copper pipe he probably uses, he'd need to have a quarter of a million dollars left over. If I had that kind of income, I'd be happy to pay higher taxes. As Oliver Wendel Holmes said "I like paying taxes. With them, I buy civilization."

Joe would also get additional tax breaks under Obama's plan in the form of the elimination of capital gains taxes for small businesses and credits for creating new jobs if he decides to hire more people. So, while we haven't seen the results of Obama's plan, it really looks like Joe would have to be in pretty good shape before his taxes would go up. Actually, if he has enough money to buy a plumbing business, he probably makes over $250,000 per year already.

As for the fine for not providing health insurance. That's a little backwards. The Obama-Biden plan gives a tax credit to small businesses that do provide health insurance. So, if Joe decided not to provide health insurance to his employees, he wouldn't be fined, he just wouldn't get a tax credit. Talk about "mis-representation."

Overhead Projectors: Dang, have you seen this thing? It is totally not an overhead projector. Except that it projects things over people's heads. Do you remember going to the planetarium? Do you remember the giant, death-star-like thing in the middle of the room that shot beams of light everywhere? That's what McCain is talking about when he says "overhead projector." I haven't been to a planetarium since I was in grade school, but I'm honestly thinking about finding one and checking it out now. Here in downtown Minneapolis, we don't get to see much of the sky. I'd guess that it's worse in downtown Chicago.

So basically, McCain's point is that earmarks are bad. Well, it's hard not to agree with that in principal. On the other hand, Minneapolis wouldn't have light-rail without earmarks. There are thousands of projects in states all across the US that have been funded by federal earmarks. The Zeiss Universarium Model IX that was for Illinois (which didn't get funding by the way) is one. Alaskas Gravina Island bridge (which Palin got funding for but didn't get built) is another. One of the benefits of statehood and representation is getting funding from the Federal Government for local projects. Huh, I guess it isn't hard not to agree. Earmarks aren't inherrently bad, we just don't all agree how the money should be spent.

Anyway, I know polititians lie. They just shouldn't lie so obviously.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble

I don't know about you, but I'm watching the smackdown tonight.

While Biden, who has been in the US senate since 1972, has to beware of his tendency to lapse into confusing verbosity, the event is being seen as particularly critical for Palin, the Alaska governor, whose knowledge of national and global issues has come under question in recent days.

"Come under question in recent days"... Yeah, that about sums it up.

Facebook | Twitter | Reddit | Stumble