Letters to the Editor
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"What's going on?"
ondelette:
Could it be another set up? And, if so, exactly who is being set up?
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@RBL
True, some states are more liberal. Some states are more libertarian
Every state has everything. Arizona has a William Timberman, God bless him, but he's not the norm, or in the majority there.
I have to break down my computer for some long delayed maintenance so I won't be back until later. I'll leave you with this:
http://in.integralinstitute.org/live/view_integralpolitics.aspx
I should have posted this the other day during the discussion about evolution speeding up. Consider the complexity there really is in the multiples of political dimensions. These concepts have been explored by all the world leaders from Blair to Bush to Clinton. They've all read Wilber. It's better for them to avoid the complexity and make our choices binary. Better for them. Worse for us.
A Summary of Integral Politics
(...)
In this synopsis, Ken focuses on three items that all political theories have attempted to address but none have managed to fully integrate. These are the tension between (1) the individual and the collective; (2) the source of the cause of human suffering: is the individual primarily to blame or is the society primarily to blame?; and (3) the different levels of development that the different political parties tend to represent: any truly integral politics would include and represent all of them, and yet how on earth do you do that?
Due to time considerations, Ken did not discuss two other equally important ingredients in any integral politics. One. In representational democracies, people have a right to be at whatever stage of development they are at, and generally speaking, within free speech, a right to express the values of whatever stage they are at. Traditional-fundamentalist (blue) has a right to be traditional, modernist (orange) has a right to be modernist, postmodernist (green) has a right to be postmodernist, and so on. This is generally modified in practice, to the extent that the center of gravity of a culture will tend to impose its values on others, especially if they are first-tier (or less-than-integral) values. Nonetheless, in democratic societies, there’s a general background understanding that people have a right to be, and a right to express, whatever stage they are or whatever belief system they possess.
Two. They do not, however, have a right to act on those beliefs. This is generally handled in representative democracies by a separation of public and private, and by a similar if more specific principle of the separation of church and state. This means that, for example, in the privacy of my blue-meme mind, I am free to believe that Jesus Christ is my personal savior and that nobody achieves salvation without a belief in Jesus. In public behavior, however, I am not allowed to burn at the stake somebody who disagrees with me. In terms of integral psychology, this means in the interior of an individual (i.e., the upper left), the person can believe whatever they like; but in their public behavior (i.e., the upper right), they must behave according to laws drawn from a worldcentric or higher level of development (lower left), or else they are charged with civil or criminal behavior and removed from society if necessary (lower right).
This separation of church and state, or more generally what Max Weber called the differentiation of the values spheres, is one of the great and enduring contributions of the Western enlightenment, a contribution almost entirely misunderstood by extreme postmodernists, who in fact are operating under its protection while bitterly condemning it.
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ondelette
I don't know what's going on. I'm working my way through scarecrow's thread at FDL to see who else might be calling and what they were told. So far, indications are others received responses similar to mine.
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This n' That
If Dodd takes the floor of the Senate to throw a filibuster in Harry's face, the MSM will act as though the filibuster has already been abolished, as some Republicans want to do. Dodd will also be branded a "grandstander" since he's a presidential candidate.
About another Connecticut pol, now out of office, Lowell Weicker last served as an independent governor in Nutmeg-o-rama. Last year, he made some noise about taking on Joe Lieberman, but didn't.
He was on the Senate Select Committee, the Nixon impeachment panel chaired by Sam Ervin. He was as colorful as Fred Thompson, who served as Republican counsel. Weicker was a standard New England liberal Republican then, and he has done some amateur opera from time to time. Thankfully he didn't go professional as Fred did.
But I remember thinking, when I lived in Texas, that Sen.Weicker would not have able to run as a Republican there.
Looks like the president is going to veto the House bill on torture and force the military to go by his standards rather than those set out in the new Army Field Manual.
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Airport? You should take a CIA charter flight
Why are you flying commercial? You should see if the CIA has any spots on their Torture jets. You might be a little uncomfortable while you are in the air but at least you won't be getting felt up by the TSA and you'd probably have a good chance at scoring some yay off of one the spooks:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/12/19210/608/933/420107
CIA AIR: S&M, blow, and no TSA all the way to Egypt, sounds like it could be competitive with the elites.
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And while you are on board
say hello to Gary Webb for meh.
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FISA? What FISA?
I just got off the phone with someone in Reid’s office. She said that no decision had been made regarding either which version of the bill would be brought forward nor when it would be debated.
I got the impression that nobody in that office was going to have any idea about either of these things until the bill hit the floor. Makes sense really, that why his staff does not have to actually deal with any objections until it’s un fait accompli.
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Update from Reid's office.
Selise at FDL has contacted Reid's office for confirmation:
ust confirmed by a aide in reid’s office (who’s been very helpful in the past):
I’m told that this afternoon Reid intends to bring a motion to proceed under regular order for the Intelligence committee’s FISA bill. The Judicary bill is pending legislation. Since Senator Dodd has a hold on the intelligence committee version of the bill, there will be a motion to invoke cloture. The cloture vote is expected to be held one hour after the Senate begins on Monday (since Saturday will be a work day for the Senate, and there is a 2 day wait after filing for cloture). 60 votes will be required for the cloture vote on the Intelligence bill Monday. If it passes, then amendments will be considered (Senator Specter’s bill, the Judiciary Bill, and/or others). Controversial amendments will require 60 votes to pass. 30 hours later, on Wednesday, the final vote will be taken.
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important note: nothing is for sure until it actually happens. let’s get those calls in!
reply
See http://firedoglake.com/2007/12/14/fisa-maneuvering/#comment-1147337