¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Cesar!

Today is Cesar Chavez's Birthday. "On August 8, 1994, at a White House ceremony, Helen Chavez, Cesar's widow, accepted the Medal of Freedom for her late husband from President Clinton. In the citation accompanying America's highest civilian honor which was awarded posthumously, the President lauded Chavez for having 'faced formidable, often violent opposition with dignity and nonviolence."

Love Me, I'm a Liberal

Thanks to TPM for this link on the privatization debate.

Standard & Poor's said Personal (privatized) Social Security accounts would "bring more risk than reward to investors".

Ok, well if one of the house organs of the American investment community says so.

And in the Love Me, I'm a Liberal category, this from Scripting News:
So on Saturday night at dinner, when one of our companions, a man who considers himself a conservative, in the mold of Limbaugh, DeLay or Hannity, a death penalty proponent who feels deeply for the parents of Terri Schiavo, used the L-word in an argument, I said "Wait a minute, that's a code-word that means, weak effeminate, etc." I told him if he's going to talk about that, I'm going to expose him for what he is, an emulator of loutish, idiotic talk show hosts who say they're conservatives, but come on, they're not conservative, they're idiots who got a gig that pays them for being idiotic. The stupider they are the more they make.

Andrew Sullivan recommends Bill Buckley

: "SANITY FROM BUCKLEY: Another calm and decent column from William F. Buckley Jr. When you read him - an unimpeachable source for what was once the conservative movement - you begin to realize what a crew of zealots and charlatans now occupy the conservative pedestal. But they will fall soon enough. And the hysteria they are now creating will only accelerate their collapse."

Hopefully the Mujahideen of the American Religious Right are imploding. Or rather, the American public might take a step back and realize what they're being spoon-fed.

Or not. Also found on Sullivan's site is this link to a piece written by Diamond Bill Bennett basically suggesting that the separation of powers is only binding until the mullahs have spoken.

In Marbury vs Madison the Supreme Court first established its supremacy in determining the constitutionality of legislation.

Courts rule, legislators drool.

Opiniatrety.

John has a daily calendar of Forgotten English. Yesterday's word was Opiniatrety. It is defined in the calendar as "Unreasonable attachment to one's own notions".

I can't imagine why that word has fallen from favor.

And while I'm waxing on all things grammatical, should one say "Yesterday's word was ..." or "Yesterday's word is...". Because it refers to an entry on a calendar, the word for March 22 is Opiniatrety, but March 22 was yesterday. Hmmmm.