diplomacy

The right to petition is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the federal constitution…

In the United States the right to petition is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the federal constitution, which specifically prohibits Congress from abridging “the right of the people…to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Although often overlooked in favor of other more famous freedoms, and sometimes taken for granted,^[1] many other civil liberties are enforceable against the government only by exercising this basic right.^[2] The right to petition is a fundamental in a Constitutional Republic, such as the United States, as a means of protecting public participation in government.^{[1](Wikipedia)}

Way Up North  (and now Tam) brought to our attention (in demure fanfare, as is their tradition) a movement regarding individual States of these United States petitioning for peaceful secession from the same!

I went to the All Petitions/whitehouse.gov website, and was amazed!  First, that such a group of petitions existed and second, that ‘the government’ had allowed such behavior, given their track record on such things!

By my count, there 24 States, including mine, with listed petitions!

Is this treasonous, or simply the right to petition?

Hurray for Captain Spaulding!

Captain Geoffrey Spaulding (Groucho Marx)

Shall Not Be Questioned brings up an embarrassing diplomatic faux-pax.
Kazakhstan’s shooting team has been left stunned after a comedy national anthem from the film Borat was played at a medal ceremony at championships in Kuwait instead of the real one. …
The song was produced by UK comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for the film, which shows Kazakhs as backward and bigoted.

What is it with our diplomatic culture?  The President says we can solve most of our problems through diplomacy, but then gives the wrong kind of CD to the British Queen, and has the Israeli Prime Minister leaving the White House next to the garbage pails?  Is the Executive no longer getting sound advice regarding how to properly behave in the diplomatic arena?

Now this?  This is tantamount to playing Hurray for Captain Spaulding to honor one of our military heroes.

Get a clue, people!

h/t Bitter