They can't all run fast?

But seriously, good point, DM.

You're giving Madison way too much credit. Madison largely copied the Bill of Rights from the Virginia Declaration of Rights. The Virginia Bill of Rights was ratified by a number of US founder heavyweights.

When Iraq drafted its constitution a few years ago, the Bush Administration allowed it to pass without a clause for religious freedom. Big mistake. Many Christians have been forced to flee the country.

I agree in terms of scale there is no comparison whatsoever. A few years ago, when a play depicting Jesus as gay was playing in London, the Imam of London declared a fatwa on the producers and the play was shut down. Muslims believe Jesus to be a prophet. Ironic that the play was shut down by muslims and not Christians.

Not a mistake by Bush at all. Bush or the United States (or any other country) should not dictate the terms and rights of Iraq's constitution. If we want to promote democratic republics in the region, we have to let them create their constitutions.

A colleague of mine was a colonel in the Reserves, serving in Afghanistan and at the request of the Afghan government he assisteds their legal community in the writing of their constitution. He was careful not to impose his beliefs, but limited his participation as an advisor, rather than framer.

By the way, today is the 225th birthday of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. This document, radical in its time, has served as the blueprint for freedom and equality for blossoming democracies around the world, and will continue to do so.

We've freedom of press and speech in out constitution. Guess what, it doesn't matter, because we have figureheads holier than the constitution.

Don't feel bad, Afs. We Americans have Olivant.

Darn tootin'!, and a good thing we do.

One of the Bush Administration goals of Iraqi invasion (non-existant wmd's aside) was to spread modern democratic values in the middle east. It was an epic fail on the part of the Bush Administration not to ensure freedom (especially religious freedom) in Iraq. The alternative is allow religious persecution, pogroms, ethnic cleansing, genocide etc. This is unacceptable and can only lead to major problems in the future.





Cool!

Bloomberg News: Today, Mitt Romney Lost the Election.

I saw that. If nothing else I was struck by the relaxed tone and passion he showed, which is far from his campaign persona. Conservatives may question his stances on abortion or immigration but on economic issues he is Mr. 1%. Cool contempt for roughly half the electorate though is probably not a winning plan. We'll see...

Fox News is lining up Romney supporters today to claim Romney is a victim of the liberal media.

Romney's been a repeated victim of his own big mouth.

I saw his press conference where he tried to explain away his comments. I've never seen him so uncomfortable.

LOL I know, he walked off stage w/o answering question. Plus, even his hair was a little unkempt (for him). It's usually every hair in place. Then again, it was late at night.


TIS

If I was the Obama campaign, I would scramble to put out a campaign ad exposing this whole Romney thing. Things would really hit the fan after that.

I'm sure they will. However, Mitt's doing a good job of inserting foot in mouth (to put it mildly) all on his own. It's so easy. He seems to unintentionally write campaign ads for Dems.



TIS

What I really want to see is how he is (if he even can) going to explain all this when he gets called out on it during the debates.

And you know, I've heard people on both the right & left say that Mitt is a good debater. Honestly, just from what I've learned/seen about him since he's been in the race, I find it hard to believe. Maybe he'll turn into a totally different person in a debate, BUT, he's use to not answering what he doesn't want to answer. I don't see him as being able to diplomatically avoid answering a question.

I keep saying he is so different than what I had thought he'd be as far as savvy politically.

TIS

Btw, I didn't really count the Republican debates cause that was such a clown show that I assumed it'd be easy for Mitt to win.

Dismissing half the country is a bit of an exclusion, isn't it?? So, half the country doesn't pay taxes? Well, they pay PAYROLL taxes, but not taxes. WTF? And they feel ENTITLED? I really shouldn't be surprised that this is how literally the other half thinks about the poor (80% of this group make less than $33,000 per year), but I guess they do. How dismissive.

I think Mitt is a decent debater, but I thought he got smoked during the GOP debates by Gingrich.

We will find out how he does soon enough.

I'm especially upset by those 5 year olds. They don't work and they don't pay taxes. All they do is consume. When will it end?

I truly believe that the biggest mistake in all of this is that roughly one third of those that "don't pay taxes" are seniors. Seniors vote, and between this and Ryan's privatization plan, he's going to lose a lot of those votes.

Goodness! Wouldn't the debates be just ridiculous after that? Did you read the second part they posted yesterday? I'm in awe of his frankness. His solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, or rather lack thereof was like, we let it be, and we hope it would take care of itself. Like it has all these years. Not that it should be the business responsibility of the US to solve this mess, but to be certain that he has absolutely no plans to do anything is so disheartening. And one thing else, his comment about if he gets elected, the economy would recover to some extent without him actually doing anything is plain ridiculous. Someone must remind him that Bush did the same and the world's economy almost collapsed by the end of his 2nd term. Economy doesn't recover on its own.

BTW, Obama was on Letterman? How was it?

One almost wonders if Romney is running for President not because he wants the job but because he feels a sense of obligation and duty perhaps because of his father's abortive campaign.

He still may win, who knows. But so far his campaign has been run so ineptly I wonder if his heart is really in it.

Thanks Danito, but the reason I asked is because I can't watch it till I get home.

//

So now this is unrelated, but since we talked about it here, now a French paper has published some Muhammad cartoons. It's grand idea, I mean if it was a staring contest, I was all for it. Let's see who gets tired first.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19646748

Fun Fact: SB and Pizzaboy apparently are only voting Democratic because they're welfare bums living on the government dole. It's what some Governor said.

Yeah, Ronnie, where do I get some of that guva'ment cheese?

Kinda egotistical for Romney to think that all moneyed voters (outside of Hollywood) will pull the level for him, no?

I don't see how he recovers from this entire week.

I'll tell ya I could never make it on my SS check alone (especially not here in CA). Tho not huge, thank God I have a pension but not everyone who's worked hard their whole lives does. I understand why no taxes s/b taken from SS checks.

As my parents would say, "Can't squeeze blood out of a turnip."


TIS