Dicky's Doodles &Scribbles

Cartoons,editorials and comment about current events and more.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Merry Christmas!


A merry Christmas and a happy new year to all! This blogger thing is still giving me trouble. I don't know what is wrong but I am no longer able to post comments on other blogspot blogs! So to those I used to comment to I am still reading but not commenting! Best wishes for peace on earth and good will towards men.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Augusto Pinochet and Jeanne Kirkpatrick Pass On


Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and former UN ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick both died recently.
Pinochet was a brutal ruler and Kirkpatrick was a lover of right wing authoritarian governments, as long as they were sufficiently anti-communist.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Still Stay The Course?


Though he may no longer use the expression President G.W.Bush still seems to want to basically "stay the course."
Though his ship of state is headed for Niagara Bush is thus far un-willing to face reality. In so doing he gets more American military and civilain personnel killed everyday, Iraqis are dying at an incredibly high rate and the country is no closer to stability, true self government and any degree of publich safety.
The report released by the Iraq Study Group yesterday paints some stark choices for the future of Itaq policy. There is no easy course.
This is a big mess and G.W. Bush and his advisors caused it, unneccessarily so, and we will be suffering from the effects of this for a long time.
This administration has ignored the many other serious problems in the Middle East, content to operate as though the unfounded assumptions about being welcomed by dancing in the streets and the establishment of "a new wave of democracy" in the region were actually true.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

No Santa's Butt For Christmas?


There will be no “Santa’s Butt” beer in Maine this holiday season!
The Bureau of Liquor Enforcement has denied applications for
labels for Santa’s Butt Winter Porter and two other beers Shelton Brothers wants to sell in Maine. Apparently some of the state governments in New England still cling to their Puritan roots!
Last year the state of Connecticut found fault with the labels for
Another product Shelton Brothers wanted to distribute, Seriously Bad Elf ale.
“Last year it was elves. This year it’s Santa. Maybe next year it’ll be reindeer,” said Daniel Shelton, owner of the company in Belchertown, Mass.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, contends the state’s action violates the
First Amendment by censoring artistic expression.
Maine State Police Lt. Patrick Fleming says the label with Santa might appeal to children. The other two labels are considered inappropriate because they show bare-breasted women.
“We stand by our decision and at some point it’ll go through the court system and somebody will make the decision on whether we are right or wrong,” he said.
The lawsuit was brought by the Maine Civil Liberties Union, which says the beer labels are entitled to First Amendment protection.
“There is no good reason for the state to censor art, even art found on a beer label,” said Zachary Heiden, staff attorney for the MCLU.
The label for the English-made Santa’s Butt Winter Porter features a rear view of a beer-drinking Santa Claus sitting atop a barrel. The beer’s name refers not only to Santa’s ample backside, but also to the barrel. In England, brewers once used a large barrel called a “butt” to store beer.
Maine also denied label applications for Les Sans Culottes, a French ale, and Rose de Gambrinus, a Belgian fruit beer.
Les Sans Culottes’ label is illustrated with detail from Eugene
Delacroix’s 1830 painting “Liberty Leading the People,” which hangs in the Louvre and once appeared on the 100-franc bill. Rose de Gambrinus shows a bare-breasted woman in a watercolor painting commissioned by the brewery.
In a letter to Shelton Brothers, the state denied the applications for the labels because they contained “undignified or improper illustration.”
The state reviews between 10,000 and 12,000 applications a year for beer and wine labels. It typically denies about a dozen a year because they contain inappropriate language or nudity, or might appeal to children, Fleming said.
“Basically, the standard we use is what are people going to see walking up and down a store aisle,” he said.
Shelton said his company filed a lawsuit against the New York State Liquor Authority last month after it denied his applications for six holiday-themed beer labels, including Santa’s Butt Winter Porter. The state changed its mind but the lawsuit is going forward, he said.
In years past, the company has had labels challenged in a few states, including Ohio, North Carolina and Missouri, he said.
States have the power to regulate alcohol through the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition in 1933. “But I don’t know where they get the idea they can ignore the rest of the Constitution,” Shelton said.

Links:
http://midlifemutations.blogspot.com/
http://www.ostroyreport.blogspot.com/
http://fuzzyandblue.blogspot.com/
http://orwellsgrave.blogspot.com/
http://jcdesigns.blogspot.com/
http://majikthise.typepad.com/
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
http://www.slate.com/
http://www.dailykos.com/

Friday, December 01, 2006

Gingrich Advocates "New Rules" Concerning Freedom of Speech


Former Speaker of the House and arch Clinton nemesis, the far right gad fly Newt Gingrich, shocked even the staid observers hosting him at an awards dinner given, ostensibly, to honor free speech.
Gingrich was one of the speakers at the annual Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment award dinner in Manchester, N.H. The Loeb family operates the far right Manchester Union Leader newspaper.
Gingrich told the assembly that a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.
Those are murky waters the former speaker is swimming in. Does he really support weakening the first amendment in order to make it easier to prosecute people the government may suspect as being terrorists?
Gingrich was the driving force behind the great conservative wave of 1994. He left the house under a cloud and now is apparently ready to resurrect his career in order to run for the GOP nomination for President in 2008. Now is the time to declare "No Newts is good Newts!