Framing the Dialogue

Posts Tagged ‘senate’

Executive Power

The framers wrote the Constitution to provide for a separation of powers, or three separate branches of government. Each has its own responsibilities and at the same time they work together to make the country run smoothly and to assure that the rights of citizens are not ignored or disallowed. This is done through checks and balances. A branch may use its powers to check the powers of the other two in order to maintain a balance of power among the three branches of government. The three branches of the U.S. Government are: Legislative, Executive, Judicial

Read more…

News Briefs – Volume XXV

News briefs are a collection of interesting news stories…

Brief 1: Never content to accept a win, special interest groups (perhaps the bane of our society) have already begun to dissect America’s victory when a team of soldiers killed Osama. The Onondaga Indian tribe released a statement criticizing the use of the code name “Geronimo” for bin Laden,

“Think of the outcry if they had used any other ethnic group’s hero. Geronimo bravely and heroically defended his homeland and his people, eventually surrendering and living out the rest of his days peacefully, if in captivity…Geronimo is arguably the most recognized Native American name in the world and this comparison only serves to perpetuate negative stereotypes about our people…Why would that be honorable to us? All they know is just cowboys and Indians, the stuff they saw on TV.”

Read more…

Separated At Birth – Brannigan/Schumer

Captain Zapp Brannigan:  Zapp is a character on the comedy show Futurama and senior member of the military of the Democratic Order of Planets (D.O.O.P.) though his title varies; he has been referred to as a “25 star General”, Captain, Rear Brigadier, “General Major Webelo”, Christopher Rossi, and Commodore 64.  He is arrogant, incompetent, chauvinistic, cocky, vain, and painfully stupid.  Although he claims to be a strategic genius, Zapp Brannigan is actually an imbecile and a coward whose plans are always absurd.  Zapp is inexplicably well-respected throughout the universe, appearing as a Miss Universe Judge and often (ineffectively) defending Earth from attacks.  Most battles are lost with Zapp in charge, due to his stupidity and incompetence; however sometimes the army is lucky. Zapp doesn’t care about casualties and cheerfully sends wave after wave of his own men to die in battle: it is implied that most of his ‘tactical’ victories have been pyrrhic, achieved only through high death tolls. 

Read more…

Separated At Birth – Geri/Reid

Geri:  Geri is a popular Pixar character thrust on the international scene after his appearance after the blockbuster Toy Story movie.  The elderly Geri plays a game of chess against himself becoming each of the players by moving to the other side of board.  He seems to change personalities depending on which side he sits.  At a point late in the game the “nice” Geri feigns a heart attack to distract the “bad” Geri and literally turns the board on his opponent.  Realizing that he is beaten the bad Geri hands over the prize – his false teeth.  Sadly there is only one Geri and he has been playing alone at the chess board.

Read more…

Are the Czars Out Tonight

Much has been written about Obama’s use of “Czars” by his administration.  These extra-Constitutional advisors had been used by other presidents, but never before had so many had so much power in our government.  That is the trouble that many of us have with the Obama czar explosion when he took office. He appointed around thirty highly paid advisors, gave them big budgets, gave them staff, and in some cases gave them lots of power…unchecked power.  None of Obama’s czars were confirmed by the Senate.  Their power was not balanced by any other branch of government.  They enjoy nearly cabinet level status in this White House.  Quite a few of them are controversial because of their views and/or statements.  Perhaps the most infamous was Green Jobs Czar Van Jones who had to “resign” because of some of his views.

Read more…

Hey There Georgie Boy

One of the keystone techniques of “journalists” (I use quotes as I believe that most news readers do not deserve this title and by enclosing it in quotes it becomes a sort of derisive label) is the loaded question.  They love to thinly veil their viewpoint or deepest wishes by asking loaded questions; questions that are often longer than the answers.  “Journalist” George Stephanopoulos’ “thought-provoking” (there are those quotation marks again) questions are often funny, but in a sad way.  Is there any doubt that Georgie Boy is anything but a progressive shill? 

Enjoy this little sampling of Georie’s questions:

Read more…

Obama Appoints Warren to Shape New Consumer Agency

In this series I choose a current news article and you decide via a multiple choice format which terms were used and whether others would have been more accurate…….

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama named Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren a(n) __________ (adviser, czar, czarina, non-vetted adviser) to help  __________ (control, shape, subvert, empower) the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, calling her __________ (“one of the country’s fiercest advocates for the lower class,” “one of the country’s fiercest advocates for the middle class,”  “an elitist from academia with no business experience who will further my socialist agenda,”  “an awesome sista and you’re a racist if you oppose her nomination…wait there was no nomination process as she is just another one of my extra-Constitutional appointees with unlimited power and answers only to me…snap!”)

Read more…

ABRACADABRA

A number of years ago illusionist, David Copperfield, made the Statue of Liberty vanish.  Makine a 300+ feet tall statue that weighs 225 tons made his earlier feats pale in comparison.  Unfortunately for Copperfield and his fellow illusionists one of their kind had a popular television show exposing their secrets.  Obviously Copperfield was not able to make Lady Liberty disappear, however, the main stream media has taken illusion to a whole new level.

Read more…

Whores and Prostitutes (as a metaphor)

Ben Nelson moneyThe health care legislation speeding train has been getting Americans upset for the last few weeks.  Neither the left or the right are happy as the left wants so much more from the legislation and the right just wants you to die (at least according to Florida’s Rep. Grayson).  The story over the last week centered around Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson who was holding out, allegedly, over issues in the legislation relating to federal funding of abortions.  The lame stream media often cast him as a man under extreme pressure and most photographs illustrated this vision.

Read more…