A Nation of Purple

Ive been catching up on some of my politics as distasteful as it may be - but necessary to not be one of the sheeple. And distasteful it is when you hear some questions these candidates pander to and agree with. The one that prompted this latest posting was from one participant in a town hall who spoke of the "anger the average European Christian, native-born American feels when they see their country turning into a multicultural chaos Tower of Babel."
WOW! People believe that this is their nation? A European Christian nation? What about the Native Americans who were here before us? All the African Americans that were FORCIBLY brought here by all those "European Christians"? The Asians (and Irish) upon whose this nations railroads were built by? All the Hispanics we annexed (& bought) from Spain via Texas, California, New Mexico & Arizona? All the Creole people who make Louisiana such a unique State? The Inuit? etc. et. al......

We are lucky that sometimes the candidates sometimes have common sense and this particular questioner was quickly silenced by Mr. McCain with as sound "(he was) grateful to live in a nation that has been enriched by people coming to our nation from around the world." Can we get a great big Howard Dean "YEEEEHAAAAAH!" for standing up to that idiot and not pander! We are a not a nation made up of red states, blue states - but a combination of much more - both together and so much more - A nation of purple with a hue of every color in there!

So thus I continue to go about the ardours duty of going through each of the candidates stances on the issues, or lack thereof - as many just have blurbs with no real policy or details behind them. And yes, this is for both parties as unfortunately no one else has signed onto the WHIG party.
My ranking of the candidates on the issues is below - with one candidate on each side getting a slight boost due to some aspect that makes him stand out (personality and other intangibles)

Reps: 1- Huckabee; 2- McCain; 3- Guliani; 4- Hunter; 5- Romney; 6- Paul; 7- Thompson; 8- Tancredo
Dems- 1- Richardson; 2- Obama; 3- Gravel; 4- Biden; 5- Kucinich; 6- Edwards; 7- Clinton

My rankings on both sides actually came as a surprise, mind you I don't agree with all the issues of my top picks, and it was semi unscientific using this: http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm and of course the candidates sites themselves.

OK now onto the scary part: In one of the latest Defense bills passed I discovered this passage in the Defense Appropriation Act for Fiscal Year 2007 ; H.R. 5122 [109th Congress]:

Subtitle E - Defense Against Terrorism and Related Security Matters Section 1042 -
"Revises federal provisions allowing the President to utilize the Armed Forces in connection with interference with federal and state law to allow the President to employ the Armed Forces and National Guard in federal service to restore public order in cases of natural disaster, epidemic or other public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or domestic violence. "

WAIT!!!!!!!! This - if I understand it correctly (and I do) effectively makes the Posse Comitatus Act invalid!!! I'm fed up at this point at the growing powers of the Executive Branch - where is the backbone of Congress? Our voice - our freedoms don't mean a thing if we elect people who are just going to go with the flow and be walked all over. OK I'm not trying to sound all Conspiracy theory and all, but still its too much of a trend, the politics of fear are some of the worst ever..... (minor update: This is even better explained under the Insurrection Act of 1807 entry)


All I can think of is a quote by one of our founding fathers :


They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. — Benjamin Franklin