Why Ohio Is Oh No No

You may recall that in recent weeks we spent a W/E in the Buckeye State. On the last night, a friend of our friend. well lubricated with Cabernet Savignon, practically pleaded with me to 'move back' to OH. Her insistence eventually led me to make some rather nasty commments about the state of the political power structure - i.e. particularly despicable version of Republican Rotten-ness. Such topics were not to be discussed at this gathering and others rapidly moved the talk in other directions.....but....

Let's look at this from the Local (Columbus) paper. The Fine work of Christians:

Ohio GOP in denial over e-mail questioning Stricklands’ sexuality
Sunday, July 30, 2006
JOE HALLETT

Standing over the body with bloody knife in hand, the Ohio Republican Party pleaded innocent.

It didn’t kill the candidate it had just stabbed to death, the party said. And if it did stab the candidate, it didn’t know it was stabbing him. Most assuredly, the party protested, it would never condone stabbing the candidate it had just stabbed.
Only a political Houdini could rationalize that twisted logic. Still, that was the GOP’s explanation — for a couple of days, anyway.

By Thursday, state Chairman Robert T. Bennett knew the party had been caught red-handed and issued an apology to the victim, U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, the Democratic nominee for governor. But the scurrilous mission had been accomplished: Let the whispering campaign begin.

The attack had nothing to do with records or resumes or policy. It was brutally personal – and a lie. The message the GOP had asked its followers to spread across the Ohioscape is that Strickland and his wife are gay, never mind their nearly 20 years of marriage.

In yet one more perversion of religion, the state party hired a conservative Christian to do the dirty work, using a computer at party headquarters to spread the rumor via e-mail to "profamily" conservatives. Gary Lankford, headmaster of a Christian home school, started in early July as the Ohio GOP’s "social conservative coordinator."

On July 17, Lankford launched an e-mail titled "10 Things to Know About Ted Strickland." The e-mail noted that Strickland married his wife, Frances, at 46, they have no children and they live apart, which, in truth, is the case when Strickland is tending to his congressional duties in Washington. Lankford linked readers to an Internet blog written by Scott Pullins, who questioned the sexual orientation of both Stricklands.

Pullins is best known as the former anti-tax crusading head of the Ohio Taxpayers Association. He lost his credibility around the Statehouse when he gave the green light to corporate-tax increases in a budget-balancing bill and later attacked GOP lawmakers for tax increases.

After appalled recipients of Lankford’s e-mail forwarded it to news organizations, including The Dispatch, and reporters began asking questions, the GOP went into its Houdini act. The party didn’t know about Lankford’s attempt to assassinate Mr. and Mrs. Strickland’s good name, a spokesman said. That is not a strategy the party would ever contemplate. Certainly, the party would never condone Lankford’s tactic.
But emerging details about Lankford’s connections make it difficult for the party to disavow knowing exactly who it was getting when it hired him. Lankford was less than two months removed from serving as a paid "voter contact consultant" for the primary election campaign of Republican gubernatorial nominee J. Kenneth Blackwell.

And before being hired by the GOP, Lankford worked for the Ohio Restoration Project, a conservative religious group that has been accused of violating its tax-exempt status by favoring Blackwell at its meetings. The group is headed by the Rev. Russell Johnson, a staunch Blackwell supporter and pastor of the Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster.

In an interview Thursday, Johnson perpetuated the rumor by suggesting that the Stricklands file a lawsuit and go to court to prove they are heterosexuals. If Lankford’s claim is untrue, Johnson said, "It’s slanderous and they’ve got a case. I’m withholding judgment until the facts are in."

Boxed in by a rash of incoming bad publicity, Bennett did the right thing: He fired Lankford and sent a letter of apology to Strickland, continuing to disavow any prior knowledge by him or his senior staff of Lankford’s e-mail.

Strickland accepted the apology with skepticism, saying it was issued only after "they got caught." Meanwhile, the e-mail is wending its way to "pro-family" homes and echoing in the blogosphere.

"I’m pretty battle-hardened when it comes to politics, and I’m not a novice at this, but I think it’s very unfortunate that they would draw Frances into this," Strickland said.

Sadly, it’s just the start of what portends to be the ugliest governor’s race in state history. By Nov. 7, Ohio voters might be too sickened by it all to go to the polls.
Maybe that’s the goal.

Joe Hallett is senior editor at The Dispatch.

We Will Win

Because, it's ultimately about the Benjamins....

Unions line up to oppose ban on gay marriage, civil unions
RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. - Labor unions are joining forces to fight a proposed ban on gay marriage and civil unions in what could become a powerful force in the Nov. 7 referendum.

The groups, representing employees ranging from teachers to prison workers, say they are worried the amendment will take away their ability to bargain for benefits such as health insurance for the domestic partners of gay and straight employees.
They are making donations, organizing volunteers and educating their members as part of their attempts to make Wisconsin the first state to defeat a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

AFSCME, which represents 44,000 public service and health care workers in Wisconsin, became the latest to join the cause on Monday with a strong denunciation of the ban from its political arm and a vow to get its message out.

(the rest)

GT12 Celebrates

Here at GT12 Central we are preparing for our more or less annual Summer Meeting. Primary Topics: 'Democrats who will be casting their first Republican vote ever in Cook County', 'Sam Adams Summer Lager vs Goose Island Summertime Ale: Which Refreshes The Most?' and 'Today's Music: What The Hell Is This Stuff?'

Doubtful that you'll here more from us until the after session reprt is prepared. 

Dance Like A Monkey

Welcome The Fuck Back!

GT12 predicts a very wild weekend ahead............................. 

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Don't Translate, Don't Know What The Hell Is Going On

Because we don't need translators that much. From WaPo via RawStory:

Army Dismisses Gay Arabic Linguist

By DUNCAN MANSFIELD The Associated PressThursday, July 27, 2006; 7:17 AM

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay and his accuser was never identified.
Bleu Copas, 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.

"I knew the policy going in," Copas said in an interview on the campus of East Tennessee State University, where he is pursuing a master's degree in counseling and working as a student adviser. "I knew it was going to be difficult."

An eight-month Army investigation culminated in Copas' honorable discharge on Jan. 30 _ less than four years after he enlisted, he said, out of a post-Sept. 11 sense of duty to his country....

.... More than 11,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy, including 726 last year _ an 11 percent jump from 2004 and the first increase since 2001.

That's less than a half-percent of the more than 2 million soldiers, sailors and Marines dismissed for all reasons since 1993, according to the General Accountability Office.

But the GAO also noted that nearly 800 dismissed gay or lesbian service members had critical abilities, including 300 with important language skills. Fifty-five were proficient in Arabic, including Copas, a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in California.

Discharging and replacing them has cost the Pentagon nearly $369 million, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

 

Let's Face It, It's All A Crusade

From Bartholomew's Notes on Religion and Jesus' General

Samaritan’s Purse, as is well-known, has been controversial for several years, ever since its President Franklin Graham famously called Islam “a very evil and wicked religion”. Isaacs has wisely avoided this kind of rhetoric, and the organisation’s humanitarian efforts do appear to have been appreciated in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the proselytising agenda remains central:

...in the midst of what is being called a humanitarian crisis of major proportions, Samaritan's Purse has continued to reach out through its partners to the war-devastated people of southern Lebanon. "Right now," Isaacs notes, "we're supporting a network of six pastors and over 20 volunteers who are working out through the schools."

...Also, Isaacs observes, a number of Muslim families have asked for Bibles. "So, where people are asking us for it, we're making that available -- that's up to them," he asserts. "As I said, it's a very difficult situation, and resources are tight right now."

But Samaritan’s Purse is not just focused on converting Muslims; its website adds that it is “helping provide food parcels to hungry Israelis living in the shelters”, and it suggests that we should pray for “Muslim and Jewish people to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and experience His peace in their hearts and homes”.

Another Southern Option?

Except I've already heard too much about his Baptist upbringing (and how it doesn't resemble the current Baptist Faith at all)......

From the goddess of all journo/pundit goddesses Molly Ivins:

Here's what we do. We run Bill Moyers for president. I am serious as a stroke about this. It's simple, cheap and effective, and it will move the entire spectrum of political discussion in this country. Moyers is the only public figure who can take the entire discussion and shove it toward moral clarity just by being there. [...]

[I]magine, if seven or eight other Democratic candidates, all beautifully coiffed and triangulated and carefully coached to say nothing that will offend anyone, stand on stage with Bill Moyers in front of cameras for a national debate...what would happen? Bill Moyers would win, would walk away with it, just because he doesn't triangulate or calculate or trim or try to straddle the issues. Bill Moyers doesn't have to endorse a constitutional amendment against flag burning or whatever wedge issue du jour Republicans have come up with. He is not afraid of being called "unpatriotic." And besides, he is a wise and a kind man who knows how to talk on TV.

It won't take much money---file for him in a couple of early primaries and just get him into the debates. Think about the potential Democratic candidates. Every single one of them needs SPINE, needs political courage. What Moyers can do is not only show them what it looks like and indeed what it is, but also how people respond to it. I'm damned if I want to go through another presidential primary with everyone trying to figure out who has the best chance to win instead of who's right. I want to vote for somebody who's good and brave and who should win.

To let Moyers know what you think of this idea, write him at PO Box 309, Bernardsville, NJ, 07924.

Nanny To The World

When Blue Staters Go Bad...

...suddenly Paris seems like a place to move. GT12 would also like to point it's finger at a regular reader, a smoker, who none the less was involved in pushing the smoking ban (you know who you are). I suddenly have the strangest desire for goose liver....:

Chicago passes new restrictive ordinances
By DON BABWIN, Associated Press Writer Mon Jul 24, 5:17 PM ET

CHICAGO - If you're a cell phone-using, goose liver-eating, cigarette-smoking, fast food-loving person, Chicago might not be your kind of town.

In this city that once winked at Prohibition, members of the City Council are trying to crack down on things they deem unhealthy, immoral or just plain annoying.

A proposal that would restrict fast-food chains from cooking with artery-clogging trans fat oils got a public airing last week, and in the past year alone aldermen have banned smoking in nearly all public places and the use of cell phones while driving.
In April, Chicago became the first U.S. city to outlaw the sale of foie gras, a goose liver delicacy that is decried by animal-rights activists because it is created by force-feeding birds to fatten up their livers.

The Remaining Scold is Here.

The Definition Of Prescient

From The Onion in January of 2001:

Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'
January 17, 2001 Issue 37•01
WASHINGTON, DC–Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over."

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

...During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.

"You better believe we're going to mix it up with somebody at some point during my administration," said Bush, ....

.... Turning to the subject of the environment, Bush said he will do whatever it takes to undo the tremendous damage not done by the Clinton Administration to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He assured citizens that he will follow through on his campaign promise to open the 1.5 million acre refuge's coastal plain to oil drilling. As a sign of his commitment to bringing about a change in the environment, he pointed to his choice of Gale Norton for Secretary of the Interior. Norton, Bush noted, has "extensive experience" fighting environmental causes, working as a lobbyist for lead-paint manufacturers and as an attorney for loggers and miners, in addition to suing the EPA to overturn clean-air standards.

"[On issues of civil rights and law, Bush said]... John Ashcroft will be invaluable in healing the terrible wedge President Clinton drove between church and state."

The speech was met with overwhelming approval from Republican leaders.

"Finally, the horrific misrule of the Democrats has been brought to a close," House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert (R-IL) told reporters. "Under Bush, we can all look forward to military aggression, deregulation of dangerous, greedy industries, and the defunding of vital domestic social-service programs upon which millions depend. Mercifully, we can now say goodbye to the awful nightmare that was Clinton's America."

"For years, I tirelessly preached the message that Clinton must be stopped," conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh said. "And yet, in 1996, the American public failed to heed my urgent warnings, re-electing Clinton despite the fact that the nation was prosperous and at peace under his regime. But now, thank God, that's all done with. Once again, we will enjoy mounting debt, jingoism, nuclear paranoia, mass deficit, and a massive military build-up."

An overwhelming 49.9 percent of Americans responded enthusiastically to the Bush speech.
"After eight years of relatively sane fiscal policy under the Democrats, we have reached a point where, just a few weeks ago, President Clinton said that the national debt could be paid off by as early as 2012," Rahway, NJ, machinist and father of three Bud Crandall said. "That's not the kind of world I want my children to grow up in."

"You have no idea what it's like to be black and enfranchised," said Marlon Hastings, one of thousands of Miami-Dade County residents whose votes were not counted in the 2000 presidential election. "George W. Bush understands the pain of enfranchisement, and ever since Election Day, he has fought tirelessly to make sure it never happens to my people again."
Bush concluded his speech on a note of healing and redemption.

"We as a people must stand united, banding together to tear this nation in two," Bush said. "Much work lies ahead of us: The gap between the rich and the poor may be wide, be there's much more widening left to do. We must squander our nation's hard-won budget surplus on tax breaks for the wealthiest 15 percent. And, on the foreign front, we must find an enemy and defeat it."

"The insanity is over," Bush said. "After a long, dark night of peace and stability, the sun is finally rising again over America. We look forward to a bright new dawn not seen since the glory days of my dad."

Why George Loves Lebanon

It keeps the country's focus away from this inconvenient truth (via NYT):

In the past two weeks, more Iraqi civilians have been killed than have died in Lebanon and Israel.

All the facts here.

As I Recall, General Lee Never Made It North Of Gettysburg

This tidbit from a little quality time between the press and Don Rumsfeld today. Golly, he's just useless. Really, isn't it about time we explore Negligent Homicide charges against this guy?

Q Is the country closer to a civil war?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, I don't know. You know, I thought about that last night, and just musing over the words, the phrase, and what constitutes it. If you think of our Civil War, this is really very different. If you think of civil wars in other countries, this is really quite different. There is -- there is a good deal of violence in Baghdad and two or three other provinces, and yet in 14 other provinces there's very little violence or numbers of incidents. So it's a -- it's a highly concentrated thing. It clearly is being stimulated by people who would like to have what could be characterized as a civil war and win it, but I'm not going to be the one to decide if, when or at all.

Find out what's Knowable, What's Unkowable and What we Don't Know is Unknowable here.

We Ain't Ready For Reform

All you need in Illinois is a good haircut, a nice suit and a Democratic Party Membership. from Political Wire:

In Illinois, Blagojevich Winning by 11

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has increased his lead over challenger Judy Baar Topinka (R) by five points since May, according to a new Survey USA poll.

Blagojevich currently tops Topinka 45% to 34%.

A Gay Willy?

I always thought Genifer Flowers looked a bit like a drag Queen......

From 'The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch' via Wonkette.

Ms. COULTER: I think that sort of rampant promiscuity does show some level of latent homosexuality.

DEUTSCH: OK, I think you need to say that again. That Bill Clinton, you think on some level, has — is a latent homosexual, is that what you’re saying?

Ms. COULTER: Yeah

All the well-lube goodies here.

Jesus Wept

It is time to speak of William Donahue. Bill is a ubiquitous presence on the tube whenever the far right of Catholicism finds a movement, person or unpleasant fact of life to be in conflict with Catholic Teachings. To Bill and his organization, the Catholic League For Religious And Civil Rights, a stance in opposition to the Pope is an attack on the Church.

More to the point, the organization has adopted a victim stance that would make most minority groups jealous, if they could get past being wildly offended. Never mind that there are 60 million Catholics, more than any other Christian Denomination (the word majority might be used here) and that that kind of power brings with it criticism.

Bill, firmly in bed now with traditional Catholic Baiters on the Protestant Evangelical Right (and I read their blogs. The Catholic Church is still The Whore Of Babylon to most of these people), is a curious example of my new Authoritarian Understanding. If questioning the murderous way in which our administration has handled the safety of our troops and of our own citizens is ‘traitorous’, the Catholic League’s corollary is “Disagreeing with Catholic Dogma is an attack on the civil rights of Catholics”. To Bill, the most heinous examples of Warriors against the Church are ex-Catholics, who have no right to ever say another thing about the church.

Actually, the problem is that he’s on the screen whenever Catholic issues are discussed.

Yesterday, he was on Colbert, so I know that maybe my readers have now actually experienced Bill in a way that they might remember him. This timeless quote from the beginning of one of his rants:

"Liberals shouldn't feel guilty about what happened to the Indians. That happened hundreds of years ago and they weren't responsible...Talk about "Native Americans" I was born in New York, Indians were born in Asia, they're Asian not American."

His opinions, expressed with a good ol fashioned East Coast Catholic Working Class accent are astonishingly ill informed other than by the deep-seated predjudices and xeno-phobia that his years in the academe could obviously not wipe away.

I can’t imagine that any Jesuit who trained me would be anything other than aghast at Bill’s thoughts and shamed that their faith is represented by such an, well, anti-intellectual idiot.

Some of us remember these quotes:

****
The fact of the matter is the media elite has an aversion to religion. Some of them even have a phobia and some of them are obviously anti-religion. ... They want Tom, Dick, and Harry to get married. They want "under God" out of the pledge of allegiance. They don't want anybody to see The Passion of the Christ. It's all tied together. [MSNBC, Scarborough Country, 2/24/04]

****
After all, 15-year-olds, they go to abortionists. They get their babies killed without parental consent. The new Puritans [those criticizing The Passion of the Christ] don't seem to worry about that. They like gay sex. They like [the film] The Dreamers, a brother and sister who bathe together and stuff like that. The same people in The New York Times who say this movie, I don't think it's not really right for kids; they have no problems when it comes to sodomy. It's smoking they don't like and Catholicism. [MSNBC, Scarborough Country, 2/25/04]

****
Well, first they said it [The Passion of the Christ] was anti-Semitic. That didn't work. Then they said it was too violent. That didn't work. Then they said it was S & M. That didn't work. Then they said it was pornography. That didn't work. Now they're saying it's fascistic queer bashing. That kind of language would ordinarily get somebody taken away in a straitjacket and -- put you in the asylum. I don't know what about -- the queer bashing is all about. I'm pretty good about picking out who queers are and I didn't see any in the movie. I'm usually pretty good at that. [MSNBC, Scarborough Country, 3/12/04]
[ I think we call that 'Gaydar'..... GT12]

****
There's nobody in the United States Senate who has a more radical voting record on abortion than John Kerry. He's never found an abortion that he couldn't justify. ... Well, first of all, the guy [Kerry] is an idiot. He doesn't even know there never was a [Pope] Pius XXIII in the first place. [MSNBC, Scarborough Country, 4/12/04

*****
We've already won. Who really cares what Hollywood thinks? All these hacks come out there. Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It's not a secret, okay? And I'm not afraid to say it. ... Hollywood likes anal sex. [I have Got to see more movies... GT12] They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children. They like abortions. I believe in traditional values and restraint. They believe in libertinism. We have nothing in common. But you know what? The culture war has been ongoing for a long time. Their side has lost. [MSNBC, Scarborough Country, 12/8/04]

****
On Joan Osborne and her song “One Of Us”(written by the Very Really Christian guys from the Hooters): "It is no wonder that Joan Osborne instructs her fans to donate their time and money to Planned Parenthood. It is of a piece with her politics and her prejudices. Her songs and videos offer a curious mix of both, the effect of which is to dance awfully close to the line of Catholic baiting. If even her admirers see something of the sacrilegious in her work, it is hard to maintain that Osborne doesn't have an agenda. It is our hope that she doesn't let her sentiments regarding Catholicism get in the way of whatever artistic abilities she has."

****
Dogma. The year 1999 saw the release of Kevin Smith's controversial film Dogma. Despite the fact that Smith is a practicing Catholic, several religious groups (especially the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights led by William Donohue) claimed that the film was anti-Catholic and blasphemous, and organized protests, including one that took place at the November 12 premiere of the film at Lincoln Center in New York City.
Smith noted that several of the protests occurred before the film was even finished, suggesting that the protests were more about media attention for the groups than for whatever was controversial about the film.


(thanks to Media Matters, Wikipedia)

 

I Think It's The Accent

I have Loved this guy since '83.

McKELLEN'S GAY MILITARY APPOINTMENT


Openly gay actor SIR IAN MCKELLEN has side-stepped the American armed forces "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuals recruits, after being made an honorary lieutenant colonel in the national guard during a recent trip to Atlanta, Georgia.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS actor who has always been very vocal about his sexuality since coming out in the 1980s, was given the title whilst promoting recent movie THE DA VINCI CODE. The 67-year-old hopes the recognition bestowed upon him by the governor of Georgia will encourage more gay men in the military to be open about their sexuality.

He tells the New York Daily News, "I was in Atlanta doing press for The Da Vinci Code - and they wanted to honour me. The governor made me a lieutenant colonel. "So the 'Don't ask, don't tell' rule obviously doesn't apply to me. I have a lovely certificate hanging in my office. So inadvertently, they made me the poster child for having openly gay people in the military."25/07/2006 12:31

Back To Blue

From Political Wire:

In Ohio, Democrats Surge Into Leads

Ted Strickland (D) has taken "a surprising lead of 20 percentage points" over Ken Blackwell (R), 47% to 27%, in the first Columbus Dispatch Poll on Ohio’s race for governor.

Meanwhile, Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) "holds an 8-point edge in his bid to unseat" Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH), 45% to 37%.

Iraq 'as a political project is finished'

The Wages Of Hubris and Incompetence.

"Iraq as a political project is finished," a top [Iraqi]government official told Reuters -- anonymously because the coalition of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki remains committed in public to a U.S.-sponsored constitution preserving Iraq's unity.

"The parties have moved to Plan B," the official said, saying Sunni, ethnic Kurdish and majority Shi'ite blocs were looking at ways to divide power and resources and to solve the conundrum of Baghdad's mixed population of seven million.

"There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into east and west," said the official, who has long been a proponent of the present government's objectives. "We are extremely worried."
READ THE FULL REUTERS STORY HERE.

New Means Of Enforcing 'Don't Ask Don't Tell'

 

Pasta and Pirates!

You know that Keith will be just around the corner 

 

We've Come A Long Way Baby

"And I don't mean gay fag, I just mean the way when you're a sophomore, juvenile, in grammar school and somebody would say you're like a sissy boy fag. I don’t mean gay fag. I mean like sissy boy. He’s a little sissy boy. Wife wears the pants."

-- the wit and wisdom of WRKO (Boston) wannabe shock jock wannabe John DePetro, referring to Big Dig honcho Matt Amorello, who he called "Fag Matt" on the air.

Warm Fuzzy

GT12 Congratulates our Austin Friends!

DeLay fundraising group fined, to shut down
By SUZANNE GAMBOAAssociated Press

WASHINGTON — The fundraising organization that helped vault former Rep. Tom DeLay to Republican leadership ranks in the House and distributed election money to numerous Republicans has been fined for campaign finance violations and is shutting down.

Under an agreement with the Federal Election Commission, Americans for a Republican Majority's political action committee agreed to pay a $115,000 fine and close. The agreement, reached July 7, was made public late Wednesday.

The agreement resulted from an audit by the FEC of the committee's records from Jan. 1, 2001, to Dec. 31, 2002. The audit found DeLay's committee had not properly reported contributions, disbursements and cash on hand.

It also found the committee failed to properly report outstanding debts and obligations and did not follow federal rules for paying for shared federal and nonfederal activities.

The audit was conducted last August. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group, had filed a complaint calling for enforcement action against the committee.

Read The Rest Here.

 

What Hurricane?

Authoritarians do not like, uh, opinions.

From AP via The First Amendment Center:

FEMA muzzling La. Trailer-park residents

By The Associated Press 07.20.06
MORGAN CITY, La. Residents of trailer parks set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house hurricane victims in Louisiana aren't allowed to talk to the press without an official escort, The (Baton Rouge) Advocate reported.

In one instance, a security guard ordered an Advocate reporter out of a trailer during an interview in Morgan City. Similar FEMA rules were enforced in Davant, in Plaquemines Parish.

FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Rodi wouldn't say whether the security guards' actions complied with FEMA policy, saying the matter was being reviewed. But she confirmed that FEMA does not allow the news media to speak alone to residents in their trailers.

"If a resident invites the media to the trailer, they have to be escorted by a FEMA representative who sits in on the interview," Rodi told the newspaper for its July 15 report. "That's just a policy."

The Rest Here. Don't click on it if you live in a FEMA Trailer. Or You Die.

Honey Can't Moo

Which means that her Dads can't be gay....

From HuffPost

James Dobson's Colorado Springs-based ministry stands firmly against same-sex marriage, gay rights initiatives and, now, mooing puppies.

On Tuesday, Focus unveiled its new "straight" puppy Web site, www.no-moo-lies.com, featuring a basset hound named Sherman, who barks as biology intended. During a news conference, a Focus employee dressed in a dog suit, who serves as a mascot at the group's visitors center, made a brief appearance.

"Dogs aren't born mooing, and people aren't born gay," a Focus news release stated.

See Sherman bark here.

Pardon Me Up!

Ark. Gov. to Pardon Keith Richards' Ticket
- - - - - - - - - - - -
July 19,2006 LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The state of Arkansas is prepared to pardon Keith Richards for being a reckless driver, 31 years later.

The state Parole Board on July 3 approved an application for clemency submitted on behalf of Richards, the 62-year-old guitarist for the Rolling Stones, by Gov. Mike Huckabee.

The board posted the official notice Tuesday, and the pardon will be forwarded to Huckabee within 30 days. When the governor signs it, it will clear Richards' record in Arkansas.

Richards was arrested July 5, 1975, as he, bandmate Ron Wood, a security guard and a fan traveled from Memphis, Tenn., to Dallas. The group had stopped in Fordyce for lunch, then got back on the road with Richards driving.

A Fordyce officer saw the car swerve -- Richards said later he bent to adjust the radio -- and stopped the vehicle. Police said they smelled marijuana and took the four to City Hall.

Richards was charged with reckless driving and possession of a concealed knife, and the fan was charged with possession of a controlled substance. The knife charge was dropped, and Richards pleaded guilty to reckless driving and paid a $162.50 fine.

Fran Curtis, a Stones publicist, said she knew nothing about the application for clemency. Messages left for Richards' manager, Jane Rose, weren't returned.

Huckabee plays bass guitar in a band called Capitol Offense that performed for the Republican National Convention in 2004 in New York City.

The governor said he got the idea for a pardon when he realized that Richards' impression of Arkansas "was marred by a misdemeanor traffic stop."

During a Stones concert in Little Rock in March, Richards asked whether anyone in the audience was from Fordyce, adding, "I used to know the chief of police there."

One More Time!

I just love this picture so much. Beautiful, wasn't he? 

You Think I'm Overreacting?

If you do.... read on. Then, read the constitution. And some bios of Jefferson, Madison, Franklin etc. Then join me in my new movement to allow the South the secede.

The Man Upstairs Is in the House
By Dana MilbankWednesday, July 19, 2006; A02

The House of Representatives could not have been any more obvious if the sergeant-at-arms had wheeled an equine carcass into the well and the speaker had pummeled it with his gavel.

Yesterday's House debate on same-sex marriage was pure dead horse: The Senate last month rejected -- emphatically -- a constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to ban same-sex marriage, so there was zero chance the amendment could be approved this year. But members of the House were answering to a Higher Authority.

"It's part of God's plan for the future of mankind," explained Rep. John Carter (R-Tex.).

Rep. Bob Beauprez (R- Colo.) also found "the very hand of God" at work. "We best not be messing with His plan."

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) agreed that "it wasn't our idea, it was God's."

"I think God has spoken very clearly on this issue," said Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), a mustachioed gynecologist who served as one of the floor leaders yesterday. When somebody quarreled with this notion, Gingrey replied: "I refer the gentleman to the Holy Scriptures."

Sweet Jesus! The rest here.

Choose Totalitarianism!

Recently I came to realize that, since 'they hate us because of our freedom' we have decided to battle terrorists by extinguishing those freedoms which they hate so much.

This is the National Journal's report on the latest proof that Authoritarianism is the new Democracy.

Bush Blocked Justice Department Investigation
By Murray Waas, National Journal© National Journal Group Inc.Tuesday, July 18, 2006 Updated at 8:40 a.m. Wednesday

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee today that President Bush personally halted an internal Justice Department investigation into whether Gonzales and other senior department officials acted within the law in approving and overseeing the administration's domestic surveillance program.
President Bush made the decision to deny the security clearances for the investigators, Alberto Gonzales said in his testimony before the Senate.

The investigation, by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, was halted when lawyers who were going to conduct the investigation were denied the security clearances that would have allowed them to view classified documents related to the surveillance program. President Bush made the decision to deny the security clearances for the investigators, Gonzales said in his testimony today.
"The president of the United States makes the decision," Gonzales said in response to a question by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who wanted to know who denied the clearances to the investigators.

The statement by Gonzales stunned some senior Justice Department officials, who were led to believe that Gonzales himself had made the decision to deny the clearances after consulting with intelligence agencies whose activities would be scrutinized, a senior federal law enforcement official said in an interview.

Go to the library and read the rest of the link (because who knows who is following what you do on your own computer) here.

Then, check out Froomkin in the WaPo:

Bush's move -- denying the requisite security clearances to attorneys from the department's ethics office -- is unprecedented in that office's history. It also comes in stark contrast to the enthusiastic way in which security clearances were dished out to a different group of attorneys: Those charged with finding out who leaked information about the program to the press.

It is not common for a president to personally intervene to stop an investigation of his own administration. The most notorious case, of course, was the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973, during which President Richard Nixon ordered the firing of Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor who had been appointed to investigate the Watergate scandal. Among the many major differences, however: In that case, Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus resigned rather than follow Nixon's order.

Bush's action is also another example of what I have previously noted is a consistent White House modus operandi: That time and time again, Bush and his aides have selectively leaked or declassified secret intelligence findings that served their political agenda -- while aggressively asserting the need to keep secret the information that would tend to discredit them.

Choose Death!

The American Theocrat-In-Chief learns a new technique in his on-going war against science and saving existing, breathing, tax-paying life: The Veto. One hopes that the extra seven votes needed to override the veto will be elected in November.

I'm sure that the fundies are pleased. Is there, in the history of science, an attack on progress that did not originate from a religious community? Back to your room, Gallileo!

Praise Buddha!

Reed Concedes Defeat Ga. Lt. Gov Primary
By SHANNON McCAFFREY Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) -- Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, unable to overcome his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, conceded defeat Tuesday in Georgia's Republican race for lieutenant governor.

It was a stunning turnaround for Reed, who was making his first bid for elective office after working for years as a behind-the-scenes campaign strategist and leading the Christian Coalition and the state Republican Party. He vied with state Sen. Casey Cagle for the GOP nomination in a primary race that appeared closer than expected in recent months because of Reed's work with Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to fraud and corruption earlier this year.

In attack ads and televised debates, Cagle hammered away at Reed's connections to Abramoff, and asked whether Reed could face criminal charges for accepting more than $5.3 million from two Indian tribes.

Now It Can Be Told

Gee, didn't see this one coming. But, if anyone would have this scoop, it would be the Irish. Thanks to Ginger Baker for the tip. From The Irish Examiner:

Richards 'drunk' during tree fall

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was allegedly drunk when he fell out of a tree while on holiday in Fiji in April.After the fall Richards had to be flown to New Zealand for a brain operation.A friend of the legendary rocker's wife, Patti Hansen, says: "He was legless and showing off to his bandmates.

"He feels like an idiot. But he sees the funny side now - he is the first man to have brain surgery for a hangover."

A Catch-Up For Those Confused by What's Happening In Lebanon

Friends were over last night and we all realized that we are woefully free of understanding about what the hell is going on over in the MidEast this week.

I don't really know what to think about any of this but I found this in the NYT this AM and it offered a more detailed perpsective on the dynamics of the situation. I'm going to post the whole thing b/c unless you subscribe, you can't access the Link.

Feeding the Enemy

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: July 18, 2006
One of the broader tragedies in the Middle East is “the boomerang syndrome.”

Impatient Arabs backed violence and thus put Ariel Sharon and now Ehud Olmert into power, while utterly discrediting Israeli doves. Some Arabs seethed at their daily discomforts, and so they backed provocations that are now vastly multiplying the suffering in Gaza and Lebanon alike.

I’m afraid that impatient Israelis may now be falling into the same trap. Israelis, outraged by attacks and kidnappings, have escalated the conflict by launching an assault on Lebanon that may make life in Israel far more dangerous for many years to come.

It’s easy to sympathize with Israeli outrage, particularly since the attacks on it follow its withdrawals first from Lebanon and then from Gaza. But the winners in this conflict, in the medium to long term, are likely to be hard-liners throughout the Islamic world.

The Iranian and Syrian regimes are illegitimate, incompetent and unpopular, but they may be able to exploit anger at the television images from Lebanon into a longer lease on life for themselves. Pakistani extremists will be strengthened in their calls for jihad. In Sudan, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir will rally popular anger to resist U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur. In Iraq, sympathy for Lebanese Shiites may strengthen Iraq’s own extremist Shiite militias.

Meanwhile, it’s not clear what Israel can achieve militarily in Lebanon. The 12,000 missiles controlled by Hezbollah are not kept in arsenals, but in unmarked homes and garages, so it’s uncertain that Israel will be able to destroy very many. If Israel continues with a limited air war for a couple of weeks, it will produce enough television footage of bleeding Lebanese to anger the world, but not enough to achieve any substantial shift in power on the ground.

Until this month, Hezbollah had been on the defensive in Lebanon. It was under pressure to disarm and was resented as a pawn of Syria and Iran. Al Qaeda had even tried to assassinate its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

But now Sheik Nasrallah, one of the canniest politicians in the region, has kidnapped not only Israeli soldiers but the Middle East conflict. He may well emerge with more credibility than ever among Sunnis as well as Shiites.

A rule of thumb in the Middle East is that anyone who makes confident predictions is too dogmatic to be worth listening to. Maybe I’m wrong and Israel will achieve its short-term security goals, for it’s conceivable that the warfare will galvanize the U.N. Security Council — and Lebanon itself — to disarm Hezbollah. But there’s also the longer term to worry about, and the fury at Israel will be much harder to dismantle than Katyusha rockets.

I hitchhiked through Lebanon and the region while a student in 1982, shortly after the Israeli invasion. Though Syria had recently massacred some 10,000 to 20,000 of its people in Hama — the center of town was rubble — most Arabs weren’t exercised about Syrians killing Syrians, they were enraged by Israelis killing Arabs. That may not be fair, but that’s reality: Sheik Nasrallah’s power today arises in part from Israeli bombing back in 1982.

Likewise, the sheik’s radical successor in 2030 will be empowered in part because of Israeli bombings in 2006.

“It is simple to join emotionally in George Bush’s culture war against the axis of evil,” editorialized Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, “but it must be remembered that, at the end of the day, it is the citizens of Israel and not the Americans who have to continue living in the Middle East. Therefore, we have to think of ways that will make it possible for us to coexist, even with those we do not enjoy being with.”

Plenty of experience shows that Israel can’t deter private terror networks, but that it can deter states. Syria, for example, despises Israel but doesn’t launch rockets or kidnap soldiers. So Israel might benefit from firmer states in Lebanon and Gaza that actually control their territories. Instead, the latest Israeli offensives foster anarchy to both the north and the south, potentially nurturing militant groups that are not subject to classical deterrence.

If Israel is ever to achieve real security, we have a pretty good idea how it will be achieved: the kind of two-state solution reached in the private Geneva accord of 2003 between Arab and Israeli peaceniks. The fighting in Lebanon pushes that possibility even farther away — and in that sense, each bombing mission harms Israel’s future as well as Lebanon’s.

Over For Another Two Years

House rejects gay marriage ban amendment

WASHINGTON - The House on Tuesday rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, ending for another year a congressional debate that supporters of the ban hope will still reverberate in this fall's election.

The 236-187 vote for the proposal to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman was 47 short of the two-thirds majority needed to advance a constitutional amendment. It followed six weeks after the Senate also decisively defeated the amendment, a top priority of social conservatives.

But supporters said the vote will make a difference when people got to the polls in November.

"The overwhelming majority of the American people support traditional marriage," said Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (news, bio, voting record), R-Colo., sponsor of the amendment. "And the people have a right to know whether their elected representatives agree with them."

And She's a twisted nut...here's the rest

I Wonder When We Here In Chi-Town Are Going to Have To Pay for All Those Sunny Pride Days?

And Let's not even think about this week's Gay Games will cost us in divine retribution.

Maybe there is a God.... Who else would offer so many challenges to my commitment to at least try to understand the Christian Right (boy, is that a lefty weakness of mine). Perhaps I'll become a conservative, cause I am sick of these people.

Anyway....Why all the trouble in Lebanon? Gay Pride.

Read On:

...Following on from yesterday’s entry, here’s some compassionate insight from prominent Christian Zionist Christine Darg, at Exploits Ministry (ellipsis in original)(Color highlightings: GT12):

Military events in Israel are now likely to force the cancellation of the World Pride homosexual desecration of Jerusalem next month.

Believers in Israel and all over the world have been bombarding Heaven for God to intervene. . ..But sometimes God answers in ways that nobody wants. War is never pleasant, but its security demands take precedence over something as frivolous as a gay parade.

Thanks to Jesus' General

Warner Watch

John Dickerson has a nice piece on Mark Warner in Slate. we get to see a bit of Clinton (Bill) mixed w/a little, uh, 'W'...but in a good way. For Example:

But then Warner stops his tour guide and short-circuits my [GW Bush 2000] flashback. I expect the perfunctory question or two that Bush asks at such events. Bush uses these appearances not to gain information but to create a scenic backdrop for his programmed message of the day. But Warner starts quizzing his host about advance-placement testing, articulation agreements for credit sharing, and how to educate different student populations. What's he doing? Shouldn't someone step in and save him before he makes a flub?

And this key point that He must sell and the Dems must buy:

Democrats won't take back the White House unless they appeal to a broader constituency. "Democrats started to be more advocates for certain groups than for America writ large," he tells me. As a very popular Democrat in a state that voted twice for George Bush, he has the record and skills to reach out to independents and moderate Republicans. It's an appealing pitch made all the more so when Warner speaks the truth about his own party. "People are not going to take a look at a Democratic Party that is us against them, class warfare, '70s populism."

Rapturous

I'm going to Let Andrew Sullivan do this post (i.e. I'm lifting it entirely from him):

It has entered a more intense phase in the Middle East. Worried? Terrified? Fear not. Just drop by "Rapture Ready" website and you'll feel cheered up. The Christianists can't wait for the bombs to go off.

Money quote:
"Is it time to get excited? I can't help the way I feel. For the first time in my Christian walk, I have no doubts that the day of the Lords appearing is upon us. I have never felt this way before, I have a joy that bubbles up every-time I think of him, for I know this is truly the time I have waited for so long. Am I alone in feeling guilty about the human suffering like my joy at his appearing somehow fuels the evil I see everywhere. If it were not for the souls that hang in the balance and the horror that stalks man daily on this earth, my joy would be complete. For those of us who await his arrival know, somehow we just know it won't be long now, the Bridegroom cometh rather man is ready are not."
That poster's name is "ohappyday".

Tom Lehrer, alas, is retired. Blogger Jonathan Swift comments here.

 

Weekend Devotional

OK, We Lost. I'm Leaving The Country ASAP

Goddamn Weinies. Is Maureen Dowd the only person on the left with Testicles?

Democrats Pull Ad With Flag-Draped Coffins

ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) - Democrats pulled an Internet ad that showed flag-draped coffins Friday after Republicans and at least two Democrats demanded it be taken down on grounds the image was insensitive and not fit for a political commercial.

The ad by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called for a "new direction" and displayed a staccato of images, including war scenes, pollution and breached levees as well as a photograph of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay doctored to look like a police mug shot.

Here's the rest. Sell your House now.

Goldwater Democrats?

New Poll Says:

The AP-Ipsos survey asked 789 registered voters if the election for the House were held today, would they vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate in their district. Democrats were favored 51 percent to 40 percent.

Not surprisingly, 81 percent of self-described liberals said they would vote for the Democrat. Among moderates, though, 56 percent backed a Democrat in their district and almost a quarter of conservatives - 24 percent - said they will vote Democratic

Read More Here.

Sondheim Blogging

The Gay Games open here tomorrow. Tonight we at the
amazing Frank Gehry designed Pritzker Pavillion.
Outside. Listening to some of Broadways Best - Hearn
Darcy-James Calloway - sing Sondheim. All is good.

Speaking of Southern Democratic Governors...

Going To The Next level

A friend noted the other week that my man Warner hasn't made a dent yet. 'Yet' is the word here. All the others will fall away, history has shown, for a popular Southern Democratic Governor.

This from Policial Wire:

Warner Ramps Up Activity

Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D) has "ramped up his fundraising for congressional Democratic incumbents and challengers, signaling a national organizing strategy to position the centrist Southerner for a White House bid in 2008," reports The Hill."Since Warner began raising money after the 2005 November election," his political action committee "has raked in $8.2 million and contributed $860,500 to 108 candidates and political committees. He has hired several top Democratic political consultants, including longtime Democratic operative Monica Dixon, pollster Peter Hart and New Democrat political guru and speechwriter Kenneth Baer."

Mean As They Wanna Be

I don't think its too over the top given the history of the opposition but why don't you check out the now famous internet only ad at the Democratic conressional Campaign Committee's site (here) and see for yourself.

As long as we don't apologize for it today, I think it bodes well for a good leaderly take-no-prisoners approach.

More Authority!

If it wasn't obvious, one of the best parts of a blog is the avenue it allows for one to pat one's self on the back.

Earlier, I posted:

I think we can see that these people are also the members of the faith community who I often call ‘The Fearful’, people whose faith is actually about controlling there own frightening impulses.

Then I found this quote from a very recent interview of Rev. Franklin Graham (Billy's successor as well as his son). I think you can see the danger:

One of our goals is we want the government of North Korea to know and to understand that as Christians we're not enemy my [sic] and that Christians are good citizens. We're commanded by the scriptures to obey those that are in authority over us whoever they may be. We want the North Koreans to know that.

Cold Feelings May Save Us

I continue to believe (in part because I must) that no amount of money will ever cure the voters of an innate aversion to Hillary Clinton actually runnning for President. Once people get to know her and her opponents, she will sink.

Of Course, that was the theory with Kerry too.

From WaPo via Raw Story :

Beyond the Poll Numbers, Voter Doubts About Clinton
By Lois Romano Washington Post Staff WriterThursday, July 13, 2006;

Anna Shelley, a mother of three from Utah, says she is ready for a female president, and she is sure that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has what it takes.

But Shelley, a Democrat, is not sure she could ever pull a lever for Clinton. Her reservations are vague but unmistakable: Something about Clinton leaves her cold.

"I want to see her as a human being -- I can read a newspaper and see her agenda," said Shelley, 27, whose husband did a tour in Iraq and who is appreciative of Clinton's support of the military.

"I think she's a little hard," she said. "She may be strong, but at the same time, if you're driven sometimes you're perceived as not having sympathy. And perception is reality for most of us."

It is a reality that Clinton's advisers are confronting as they seek to position the former first lady for a possible 2008 presidential run. They expect that any campaign would begin after this fall's election, in which Clinton, a Democrat, is running for a second Senate term from New York.

Never has a politician stepped onto a presidential stage before an audience of voters who already have so many strong and personal opinions about her, or amid arguments that revolve around the intangibles of personality and the ways people react to it.

The Heartfelt Whole Is Here.

Maybe Those Four Years Of German Can Help

I need to consider vacations to Germany:

Smokers Airline Set To Light Up Next Year
July 12, 2006 10:08 AM
Maddy Sauer Reports:
More legroom, an upper deck lounge and the freedom to smoke to one's heart's content are the promises of the new SMINTAIR which hopes to make a maiden voyage from Dusseldorf to Tokyo in March 2007.

Alexander Schoppman, Managing Director at SMINTAIR, assures his future flyers that smoking in airline cabins is safe, and he says that airlines only stopped allowing their passengers to smoke in order to save money on fuel and air conditioner filters. On SMINTAIR's website, Schoppman also denies that second-hand smoke is a health threat and compares today's anti-smoking campaigns to those of the Nazis.

Cont'd.

Smart Or Not?

Any ideas about the advisibility of this move by Mark Warner?

Warner Hires Jordan

Mark Warner's leadership PAC hired former John Kerry campaign manager Jim Jordan, according to Hotline On Call. "He will serve as a part-time senior adviser, and a Warner aide said Jordan will primarily consult on the '06 elections.

"When asked if he'll work for Warner in a 2008 presidential bid, Jordan said, "Neither of us has made plans past this November."Kerry fired Jordan in a staff shake up about a year before the 2004 presidential election.

I Like My Representative A Lot, Too

Rahm Emanuel yesterday:

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the President said we continue to be wise about how we spend the people's money.

"Then why are we paying over $100,000 for a 'White House Director of Lessons Learned'?

"Maybe I can save the taxpayers $100,000 by running through a few of the lessons this White House should have learned by now.

"Lesson 1: When the Army Chief of Staff and the Secretary of State say you are going to war without enough troops, you're going to war without enough troops.

"Lesson 2: When 8.8 billion dollars of reconstruction funding disappears from Iraq, and 2 billion dollars disappears from Katrina relief, it's time to demand a little accountability.

"Lesson 3: When you've 'turned the corner' in Iraq more times than Danica Patrick at the Indy 500, it means you are going in circles.

"Lesson 4: When the national weather service tells you a category 5 hurricane is heading for New Orleans, a category 5 hurricane is heading to New Orleans.

"I would also ask the President why we're paying for two 'Ethics Advisors' and a 'Director of Fact Checking.'

"They must be the only people in Washington who get more vacation time than the President.

"Maybe the White House could consolidate these positions into a Director of Irony."

"I bashed my head and went to the garage and came out,"
"I realise now it was a little more serious than that."

Justice Department Lawyer To Congress: ‘The President Is Always Right’

Like I was saying below....

From ThinkProgress:

The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday heard testimony from Steven Bradbury, head of the Justice Department’s office of legal counsel. When questioned by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on whether the President’s interpretation of the Hamdan case was right or wrong, Bradbury replied, “The President is always right.”

Watch it

Full transcript below:

LEAHY: The president has said very specifically, and he’s said it to our European allies, he’s waiting for the Supreme Court decision to tell him whether or not he was supposed to close Guantanamo or not. After, he said it upheld his position on Guantanamo, and in fact it said neither. Where did he get that impression? The President’s not a lawyer, you are, the Justice Department advised him. Did you give him such a cockamamie idea or what?

BRADBURY: Well, I try not to give anybody cockamamie ideas.

LEAHY: Well, where’d he get the idea?

BRADBURY: The Hamdan decision, senator, does implicitly recognize we’re in a war, that the President’s war powers were triggered by the attacks on the country, and that law of war paradigm applies. That’s what the whole case —

LEAHY: I don’t think the President was talking about the nuances of the law of war paradigm, he was saying this was going to tell him that he could keep Guantanamo open or not, after it said he could.

BRADBURY: Well, it’s not —

LEAHY: Was the President right or was he wrong?

BRABURY: It’s under the law of war –

LEAHY: Was the President right or was he wrong?

BRADBURY: The President is always right.

Warner Watch

What It Takes? You know He won't be kissing no Drunken Texas Frat-Boy Presidents...... From Des Moines via Political Wire:

Warner Stresses His Appeal to Republicans

While visiting Iowa for the fourth time in two years, Mark Warner (D) said that "the $8 million he has raised while exploring a run for president demonstrates that he has broad appeal, even among Republicans," the Des Moines Register reports.

"But the former Virginia governor's pitch for Democrats to transcend conventional partisanship underscores a rift developing in the early race for the nomination... Warner said some Democrats may have to accept a candidate with views that differ from theirs on some issues.

"When someone noted that a quarter of the people attending a recent Warner fundraiser were Republicans, Warner said, "That goes to the appeal we are trying to make. This country can't afford further polarization."

I Heart My Senator

Even if this could've been said several years ago and every day since:

"The Department of Defense's own investigation concluded that this technique migrated from Guantánamo to Iraq and Abu Ghraib. At least two members of the armed forces have now been convicted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for using dogs to frighten detainees. It is striking that as these soldiers were prosecuted, you were being promoted. What message are we sending our troops? And what message are we sending the world, in light of your role in promulgating abusive interrogation techniques, like the use of dogs, stress positions and forced nudity. What message are we sending if we promote you to the second highest court in the land? ... 'Well, we're going to dispatch a few privates, a few corporals, a sergeant, maybe it will get to a lieutenant, but it'll never get upstairs.' ... Apparently, upstairs there's a promotion party. Downstairs people are being sent to prison," -

Dick Durbin, finally telling it like it is about the way the Bush administration has protected politicians, commanders, and White House lawyers from accountability for abandoning Geneva and endorsing torture, while scapegoating a few grunts.

It's Beginning To Come Together

John Dean has a new book,Conservatives Without Conscience, and in he examines what kind of people we have running the country today. This from Booklist’s review:

… Dean takes a sincere, well-considered look at how conservative politics in the U.S. is veering dangerously close to authoritarianism, offering a penetrating and highly disturbing portrait of many of the major players in Republican politics and power. Looking back on the development of conservative politics in the U.S., Dean notes that conservatism is regressing to its authoritarian roots. Dean draws on five decades of social science research that details the personality traits of what are called "double high authoritarians": self-righteous, mean-spirited, amoral, manipulative, bullying. He concludes that Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, and Tom DeLay are all textbook examples. Dean calls Vice-President Cheney "the architect of Bush's authoritarian policies," and deems Bush "a mental lightweight with a strong right-wing authoritarian personality." Dean maintains that conservatives without conscience have produced such a hostile, noncollegial environment in Congress that threats of resistance through filibusters have been met with threats of a "nuclear option" and that conservatives have used fearmongering about terrorist attacks to the point where the nation faces a greater threat of relinquishing its ideals of democracy. Dean appeals to conservatives to find their consciences and to all Americans to take serious heed of what is going on in the nation. Readers of all political perspectives will find this book riveting. Vanessa BushCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Dean, interviewed by Olberman today, spoke of psychological and sociological research identifying a fairly constant 25-30% of the population who fall into authoritarian classification. These people are, as it were, wired to vote and identify themselves as conservative. Very few ever align with ‘liberals’. Those that do are currently trying to unseat Joe Lieberman.

In times of stress and cultural vulnerability (post 9-11, post-WW I) these people and their views, can and often do, become more influential.

I think we can see that these people are also the members of the faith community who I often call ‘The Fearful’, people whose faith is actually about controlling there own frightening impulses.

Now, let’s go look at what our old friend Andrew Sullivan has been enduring lately. Remember (or learn now) my first contact with Sullivan’s writing was his promo blurb in a piece of junkmail offering a subscription to The New Republic. He proudly identified himself as a Gay Conservative Irishman editing one of America’s most established Liberal magazines. How could I refuse such a provocative opportunity? To this day I have the issue in which he first outlined his belief that the only two things that matter in the movement bringing Gay people full franchise with American Life were Marriage and Membership in the Armed Services. Nothing was important as these two things because nothing else in America is open to everyone regardless of class gender or race and nothing else unites so many in common experience.

Andrew’s conservatism is of the Goldwaterian small government, strong defense and limited social involvement type. This traditional (can you say Edmund Burke? Do you know who he is? Find out) sense of conservatism is quite different from what is now called conservatism.

In Aspen last week at a Conference on Ideas many leading ‘lights’ (not all of which are very bright) of today’s conservatism seemed committed to excommunicating him from their club.

“I was also told by someone present at the Ramesh Ponnuru/Laura Ingraham discussion at Aspen that two other conservatives are now regarded as suspect by the ruling Republican intelligentsia: George Will and David Brooks. I imagine William F Buckley Jr, who has pronounced the Iraq war a failure, is also no longer a conservative in good standing. The attitude of people like Ponnuru and Ingraham and Levin is indeed Stalinist in form, if not content. But when you have to defend a massive increase in government spending and power in the name of conservatism, this kind of newspeak is necessary.”

They also don’t like Andrew’s aversion to torture (authoritarians really fear and attack signs of ‘weakness’)

“We have two competing narratives of the Bush administration out there. We have the court stenographer, Bob Woodward, and we have the dissident chronicler, Ron Suskind. His book, "The One Percent Doctrine," really is a must-read. Two things in particular stuck out for me. Suskind has CIA sources saying that, as part of the torture devised by Bush and Rumsfeld for Khalid Sheik Muhammed, they threatened to harm his wife and children if he did not talk. KSM told the interrogators to go ahead and kill his family, if necessary. I find it telling that the president, in this instance, became the moral equivalent of a mafia boss, committing what is clearly a violation of the Geneva Conventions, even if his motives were good ones. KSM is a disgusting, evil, Jihadist mass murderer. But he gave up no useful intelligence under this sort of tactic and succeeded in reducing the president of the United States to an evil thug, threatening violence against innocent children.

One recalls the following exchange between John Yoo and Doug Cassel at Notre Dame law school:

"Cassel: If the president deems that he's got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person's child, there is no law that can stop him?

Yoo: No treaty

Cassel: Also no law by Congress -- that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo...

Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that..."

Suddenly you see that Yoo's endorsement of evil had real life effect.

The second fascinating and completely convincing narrative is about the remarkable decision of Muammar Ghadafi to give up his entire WMD program. At the time, the president credited it to the psychological impact of the war to depose Saddam. He claimed it scared Ghadafi into compliance. Back in the days when I trusted president Bush's words, I echoed this analysis. It was a lie. I apologize to my readers for echoing it. It turns out Ghadafi had been entrapped by careful intelligence work long before the Iraq war was launched. The timing of the announcement was choreographed coincidence.

In the last few years, I have gone from lionizing this president's courage and fortitude to being dismayed at his incompetence and now to being resigned to mistrusting every word he speaks. I have never hated him. But now I can see, at least, that he is a liar on some of the gravest issues before the country. He doesn't trust us with the truth. Some lies, to be sure, are inevitable - even necessary - in wartime. But when you're lying not to keep the enemy off-balance, but to maximize your own political fortunes at home, you forfeit the respect of people who would otherwise support you - and the important battle you have been tasked to wage.

Friends, I am beginning to see how all this connects and our current state of affairs just begins to seem much more frightening. Those who know me know that I scoff at conspiracy theories and other hysterical or hyperbolic assertions. But, I suggest that we all look at post Weimar Germany. I suggest that we remember that after Pearl Harbor Americans placed Japanese immigrants (regardless of citizenship status) into internment camps. That during the war ignited by Pearl Harbor our enemies were depicted as simian and/or ursine rather than human. I ask that we think about the fact that congress has refused to actual check or balance any part of the administration’s security agenda, even the parts that have led to needless American death from thoughtless, no criminal, failure to plan and manage an actual war. Remember that we are a country born of revolution but unable to conceive even the slightest possibility that another people might not appreciate us occupying and running their homeland. We are a country where blood vengeance still guides our policy towards murderers (at least the black and brown ones) and sex-offenders and this blood-vengeance trumps any concerns about miscarriages of justice even as it drives the system to create those miscarriages. Remember that we are a country founded by deists shaped by The Enlightenment, not any of the numerous Great Awakenings that have followed eras of social growth with it’s concurrent upheavals.

We must remember these things. Then we must take responsibility that our fellow citizens remember. We must each pass these reminders on to others. We must commit to this duty, commit to passing this on to no less than ten people and that we must also pass on the commitment to educating others.

Progress can never be truly stopped, but the damage being done now to our country may possibly not be undone during our lives if we don’t act and get others to join.