Are any of us this dedicated? On Friday, after sitting in front of the White House, under yellow tarp and board filled with flyers and posters asking for a peaceful end to American Nuclear Activities, William Thomas has left us. Many of you have seen him, or his ramshackle hut, in front of the White House. He and his wife, Ellen, were there for 27 years. He protested thru peace and non-violence.
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100 comments (Latest Comment: 01/27/2009 07:04:54 by livingonli)

A curious thing happened this past presidential cycle.

Seems that the "Big Three" were all sitting senators.

So....what happens when there's a senate vacancy? The constitution is actually fairly gray in that regard. Article 1 gives a long enumeration of who can be a senator, and what their duties are, but includes the following caveat:



So in the early days of the Republic, our senators were chosen by the state legislature. [Representatives were always selected by general election.]

But somehere along the way, Congress decided to ammend the procedure, and the result was the 17th Ammendment (circa 1913):



So what was initially a gray process became grayer still, as the Constitution now directs that the governor shall appoint a replacement unless the state legislator overturns the local authority and calls for a special election.

What this all means is that like many things in these United States...it's inconsistent. Using a local example, the Governor of this Commonwealth was empowered to appoint a replacement senator, and always had been.

Until 2004. That year, one of our senators almost became president. At the time, we had a Republican governor, and the state was paralyzed by the fear that he would appoint a Republican replacement. The state hurriedly passed legislation calling for a special election, and that's what we'll do the next time a Massachusetts Senator is forced to leave office before his term expires.

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24 comments (Latest Comment: 01/25/2009 03:17:39 by trojanrabbit)

Good Morning, everyone!

With Bob and Raine still on the road, here's a rare Thursday blog from your loyal TriSec.

It's not a fully-worked blog by any stretch of the imagination, but rather some disjointed observations about the weekend from my notes. (I'm very orderly when we travel...I always keep a journal and work it up into a full travelogue that we stash with the pictures. Sure helps with the ol' memory.)

In any case...here we go!


2008 was a rather tough year again financially. We had long planned a trip back to DC during one of the conventions, but wound up not having enough money to do it. So...we cancelled and stayed local.

Sometime around July, Bob had suggested that if we win this thing, let's all go to the inaugural. So, I booked a room right then, months ahead of anyone else. (ah, smart thinking.) Then it was just sit and wait.

November 4 came and went, and the holidays, and suddenly it was January 17!

We had driven down the coast in 2007, and I don't like to drive the same way twice whenever possible. So....we went down the Mass Pike from here to I-84 through Connecticut, finally down to and over the Tappan Zee Bridge. In my travels, I rarely drive down the Garden State Parkway, but we did this trip. Seemed quiet, little traffic...but it felt much longer than going down I-95.

In any case, there was not any problem getting to DC. We saw many cars heading south with Obama things plastered over them, including a compact car with Maine plates, stuffed to the gills with college kids. "DC OR BUST" and "HONK IF YOU LOVE O" scrawled across the rear windows.

South of Baltimore, Maryland was swarming with Cops....so we laid low and crawled into town. We stayed out near the University of Maryland...but right near Greenbelt and College Park stations on the Green Line.

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93 comments (Latest Comment: 01/23/2009 05:59:28 by Raine)

Blog post on the way....be patient (have you heard that before?). You don't have to be patient much longer: Bush is gone, Obama is our President (thank god we have a president again!). More coming soon - turn on your TV and watch the INAUGURATION!!!

Rather than focusing solely on the closing refrain that is so often quoted, “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations,” I instead, on this most auspicious of days, will focus on the following passage from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (a very brief speech by terms of the genre, that being inaugural speeches – which though they varied in length, reflected the man and his times.):
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89 comments (Latest Comment: 01/21/2009 06:13:47 by m-hadley)

Miss Jones, as per your request, here are the excerpts from the books of George W. Bush, Laura Bush and Lynn Cheney. Our company is passing on the Dick Cheney book, as we find it too…. coarse. The Presidents book is going to have to have a complete and total re-write and we have hired several ghost-writers for him. As you can see from his “work” it is completely plagiarized. I’m sure you would expect that, but frankly, we were shocked. He had assured us that he was working hard on his memoirs.

Anywho, I hope this calls us even. I could get into a pile of trouble, should these leak out. I know I said some bad things about you once, but are we all forgiven?

Best,
Jen

Excerpts from “Ponderings of a War President"

I have worked hard all my life and my getting to be the Governator of the great state of Texas was no easy task. Once there, I had to make hard decisions every day. I remember one day when I had to consider a mans life or death. People said he’d raped a white woman and the white girl said so to.

I remember thinking to myself there is one way in the country in which all men are created equal – there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court. I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system – that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up. In the name of God, do your duty.

And so, I had that man put to death.
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27 comments (Latest Comment: 01/19/2009 02:56:22 by trojanrabbit)