TheDailyBanter.com

Ray Brown to Conclude Walk Across America

By Peter Bauer

In June, retired middle school history teacher Ray Brown embarked on a walk across America to raise Consititutional awareness and fulfill a life long dream.  He left Philedelphia this morning, and when I spoke with him he was only 40 miles away from Atlantic City, the conclusion of his voyage.  Brown says his entire trip has been positive; the intensity has been in dodging traffic, not arguing with people. 

As a first time blogger Brown has kept an interesting travel log that can be found at A Son of Liberty's Walk Across America.  His blog chronicles his interactions with everyday Americans and includes several photos of rural America.  Upon his return, look for a comprehensive overview of his trip, as well as his Brown's thoughts on the Consitution and the state of America. 

Where is Our Public Well?

By Peter Bauer

Retired history teacher Ray Brown continues into Idaho on his walk across America to raise Constitutional Awareness.  With an abundance of solitary time, Brown challenges himself and his readers to answer some serious questions.  One such question is the passing notion of a community well- a collective location where people from differing view points come together to engage each other in thought provoking conversation.  Brown writes:

"We seem to sequester ourselves away from others unlike ourselves both intentionally and not. People live in walled communities, belong to private clubs, and watch news networks that support views instead of challenging them. Computers too have allowed people to further alienate for we tend to read and visit sites that agree with our present perspective."

In his journey across America, Brown intends to engage citizens of all different beliefs, using the Bill of Rights and Constitution as a jumping off point.  You can follow his updates on his blog: A Son of Liberty's Walk Across America.

Bipartisan is not a magic word...Pelosi and Hoyer are done

by Ari Rutenberg

I am watching Nancy Pelosi surrender to the Bush administration as we speak.  It is time for her and Steny Hoyer to go.  They have allowed the Republicans to run roughshod over them with threats and fearmongering when almost every legal scholar agrees that a) the new bill basically does nothing to increase the governemnts surveillance ability; and b) retroactive immunity is uncostitutional under the ex post facto clause in article 1, section 9 of the United States Constitution.

She has just said that she doesn't like the immunity provision.  But shes still gonna vote for it.  And appraently the telecoms have gotten punished with a taint.  Is that taint like stain or taint like choade?

Wow it is unbeleiveable to watch how she justifies this absolute betrayal to herself...according to John Amato at C&L earlier Jane Harman said her consituents begged her to vote against it and she was still proud to vote for it. 

Its time for the repub lites to go. This kind of crap belongs in the past.  We have too many serious issues to fail in governing for the next 8 years. But the reality is this is about governeing or intelligence or security. They are covering theyre asses because they know they have consented and failed to properly oversee illegal actions by the Bush administration and given patently bad advice to some of their largest campaign donors.  Everytime they say "its a bipartisan bill" they think that will placate those of us who are concerned about its fairness.  But first of all half way between two positions is not nececarily fair and second this is not half way.  This is a total sell out.  Screw these people.  No amount of placation or cajoling will sweep this massive mistake under the carpet.  They must pay with their jobs, and we must make it happen.

"Wrapped in a Flag, Carrying a Bible"

By Peter Bauer

We've all heard the saying "When fascism comes to America, it will be waving the flag and carrying a Bible."  After seven years of toiling under Bush's pseudo-evangelicalism, Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist Minister, is making claims that are downright scary.

"[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards."

What boggles my mind is how people can be afraid of religious extremists from one country, but not from another.  We have this notion that Islamic Extremists and Evangelical Fundamentalists are on opposite ends of a linear spectrum.  In reality, they are right next to each other on the circle of belief, with rational, free thinkers on the opposite side of the circle. 

For more on Huckabee's position,     

Thomas Jefferson on the role of religion in politics

By Ben Cohen

Last Sunday, I wrote a post in response to a reader who had commented negatively on my assertion that most Americans felt Dick Cheney should be impeached. Claiming that I had 'lost all credibility' on the subject, and that Democrats were all 'socialists and closet communists' that want to create a 'Stalinist type regime', the reader also made the bold claim that the United States was founded on 'Christian principles'. It appears I was not the only one who took exception to the readers comments, and other readers of The Daily Banter promptly joined in the argument.

Here's an interesting comment from Buckler, who quotes one of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson:

"As for America being founded on Christian principles, perhaps we should look at a few quotes from Thomas Jefferson, arguably one of the greatest of our Founding Fathers. These are just a few, extracted from a collection of many, many more:

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
-- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-82 (capitalization of the word god is retained per original; see Positive Atheism's Historical Section)