The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Apparently someone was just arrested in the JonBenet Ramsey murder. Interesting.

Yeah, and the guy is already in jail in Bangkok for some kind of sex crime.

What, exactly, do you have to do to go to jail for a sex crime in Thailand?

[SacTown Chronic]

What kind of theocracy do we live in when the president claims land for the feds for the expressed purpose of keeping a cross on display?

Link

President Bush on Monday signed into law a plan to transfer San Diego's Mount Soledad cross to federal control in an effort to avoid its court-ordered removal.
In an Oval office ceremony, the Republican president signed a bill by three San Diego-area congressmen that immediately transfers the memorial land to the U.S. Defense Department in an effort to avoid a court-ordered removal of the cross that has towered over La Jolla on-and-off for nearly a century.

Effing activist presidents.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by SacTown Chronic

What kind of theocracy do we live in when the president claims land for the feds for the expressed purpose of keeping a cross on display?

Well God did choose him to be President.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by SacTown Chronic

What kind of theocracy do we live in when the president claims land for the feds for the expressed purpose of keeping a cross on display?

Effing activist presidents.

Wikipedia has an interesting and thorough timeline of the controversy.

Some interesting points. The law the president signed passed the House 349-74 and the Senate passed it unanimously. So this really can't be laid at the feet of the president or even the Republican Party. Though he certainly endorses it as well.

In 2004 residents of San Diego passed Proposition A by with a 76% yes vote. The text of Proposition A was "Shall the City of San Diego donate to the federal government all of the City's rights, title, and interest in the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial property for the federal government's use of the property as a national memorial honoring veterans of the United States Armed Forces?"

So this plan fulfills the desire of the people of San Diego. Proposition A was later ruled contrary to the California state constitution. That the city couldn't give the land to the federal government under these conditions.

So they just turned it around and had the government take the land.

And now the process starts all over in federal courts and will probably see the same result. The whole thing is stupid on both sides.