One of the principal flaws of Sullivan's book is that it speaks of "political conservatism" in a way that exists only in the abstract but never in reality. The fabled Goldwater/Reagan small-government "conservatism of doubt" which Sullivan hails -- like the purified, magnanimous form of Communism -- exists, for better or worse, only in myth.While it is true that Bush has presided over extraordinary growth in federal spending, so did Reagan. Though Bush's deficit spending exceeds that of Reagan's, it does so only by degree, not level. The pornography-obsessed Ed Meese and the utter lawlessness of the Iran-contra scandal were merely the Reagan precursors to the Bush excesses which Sullivan finds so "anti-conservative." The Bush presidency is an extension, an outgrowth, of the roots of political conservatism in this country, not a betrayal of them.
All of the attributes which have made the Bush presidency so disastrous are not in conflict with political conservatism as it exists in reality. Those attributes -- vast expansions of federal power to implement moralistic agendas and to perpetuate political power, along with authoritarian faith in the Leader -- are not violations of "conservative principles." Those have become the defining attributes of the Conservative Movement in this country.
That is why the warnings from Sullivan and others that the Republican Party was acting in violation of "conservative principles" fell on deaf ears and even prompted such hostility -- until, that is, Bush's popularity collapsed. "Conservative principles" are marketing props used by the Conservative Movement to achieve political power, not actual beliefs. Sullivan's principal argument that the Bush presidency never adhered to conservative principles is true enough, but the same can be said of the entire American conservative political movement. That is why they bred and elevated George Bush for six years, and suddenly "realized" that he was "not a conservative" only once political expediency required it.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
As True And As Pure As Communism
C'mon Down To Shrieking Shack Harry Honey.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
B. O. Fights Fox
In the past week, many of you have read a now thoroughly-debunked story by Insight Magazine, owned by the Washington Times, which cites unnamed sources close to a political campaign that claim Senator Obama was enrolled for “at least four years” in an Indonesian “Madrassa”. The article says the “sources” believe the Madrassa was “espousing Wahhabism,” a form of radical Islam.
Insight Magazine published these allegations without a single named source, and without doing any independent reporting to confirm or deny the allegations. Fox News quickly parroted the charges, and Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy went so far as to ask, “Why didn’t anybody ever mention that that man right there was raised — spent the first decade of his life, raised by his Muslim father — as a Muslim and was educated in a Madrassa?”
All of the claims about Senator Obama raised in the Insight Magazine piece were thoroughly debunked by CNN, which, instead of relying on unnamed sources, sent a reporter to Obama’s former school in Jakarta to check the facts.
If Doocy or the staff at Fox and Friends had taken [time] to check their facts, or simply made a call to his office, they would have learned that Senator Obama was not educated in a Madrassa, was not raised as a Muslim, and was not raised by his father – an atheist Obama met once in his life before he died.
Later in the day, Fox News host John Gibson again discussed the Insight Magazine story without any attempt to independently confirm the charges.
All of the claims about Senator Obama’s faith and education raised in the Insight Magazine story and repeated on Fox News are false. Senator Obama was raised in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother. Obama’s stepfather worked for a U.S. oil company, and sent his stepson to two years of Catholic school, as well as two years of public school. As Obama described it, “Without the money to go to the international school that most expatriate children attended, I went to local Indonesian schools and ran the streets with the children of farmers, servants, tailors, and clerks.” [The Audacity of Hope, p. 274]
To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago. Furthermore, the Indonesian school Obama attended in Jakarta is a public school that is not and never has been a Madrassa.
These malicious, irresponsible charges are precisely the kind of politics the American people have grown tired of, and that Senator Obama is trying to change by focusing on bringing people together to solve our common problems.
Got Me That Time
I should have listened to my gut and not my soul.
Per Andrew:
At the risk of spoiling the illusion, the God Hates Fags video is, when you examine the site more closely, and watch the video more attentively, a brilliant piece of performance art. So brilliant it illuminates what it satirizes more deeply than any argument could.
Yeah Baby Yeah!!!
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) "plans to announce today that he is bowing out of the 2008 presidential race, and will instead remain in Congress and seek reelection to his Senate seat next year," the Boston Globe reports. Kerry will announce his decision in a speech on the Senate floor this afternoon.
Kerry "plans to say he will remain in the Senate to recommit himself to efforts to extricate the United States from the war in Iraq. His decision to stay out of the presidential race reflects a realization that he would have had an uphill climb in capturing the Democratic nomination, given the other party heavyweights who are already in the race, according to the officials, who spoke to the Globe on condition of anonymity."
Fag Bands
One of the most dangerous ways homosexuality invades family life is through popular music. Parents should keep careful watch over their children's listening habits, especially in this Internet Age of MP3 piracy.
The Spores (endorse suicide)
Scissor Sisters
Rufus Wainwright
Merzbau
Ravi Shankar (how I remember raga-ing at Paradise way back in the 80's)
Wilco
Bjork
Tech N9ne
Ghostface Killah
Bobby Conn
Morton Subotnik
Cole Porter
The String Cheese Incident (Nothing says Gay like badly clad jam bands)
Eagles of Death Metal
Polyphonic Spree
The Faint
Interpol
Tegan and Sara
Erasure
Le Tigre
The Gossip
The Doors
Phish
Queen
The Strokes
Sufjan Stevens (isn't he Christian?-GT12)
Morrissey(?questionable?) (questionable how????)
The Pet Shop Boys
Metallica
Judas Priest
The Village People
The Secret Handshake
The Rolling Stones
David Bowie
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Man or Astroman
Richard Cheese
Jay-Z
Depeche Mode
Kansas
Ani DiFranco
Fischerspooner
John Mayer
The Indigo Girls
Velvet Underground
Madonna
Elton John
Barry Manilow
Indigo Girls
Melissa Etheridge
Eminmen
Nirvana
Boy George
The Killers
Lou Reed
Lil' Wayne
Motorhead (Lemmy Kilmeister: Gay Icon)
Jill Sobule
Wilson Phillips
DMX
Lisa Loeb
Dogstar
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Lil' Kim
kd lang
Frank Sinatra (Ring-A-Ding-Ding!!!)
Hinder
Nickleback
Justus Kohncke
Bob Mould
Clay Aiken
Arcade Fire
Bright Eyes
Corinne Bailey Rae
Audioslave
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Panic at the Disco
Elton John(really gay)
"God Hates Fags"
After much soul searching I've decided that the makers of this music video are not joking.
YOU MUST WATCH THIS. Here
The songwriter tells us this on his webpage:
About themselves and their inspiration, the band notes:A lot of people have been asking me, "Where are you coming from, Donnie?"
Well, I was hoping that in my song The Bible Says that I had made myself clear, but there is only so much you can say in a 3 minute song.
I am in fact a Reformed Homosexual and I'm trying to let people know that there is an escape from being Gay. By letting people know that "God hates a Fag" I am doing Gods work, I'm preaching.
When I was in highschool I kept having feelings for the boys I was in school with. Often I would let these feelings take over. I got into lots of trouble when I was Gay.
I stopped listening to secular music and started going to my fathers church
services. I was so miserable, being gay, something had to happen. I found Jesus!
I found Jesus and He showed me the way. The right way to live that is. Loving,
Gods Way!
If you have any more questions about me, please ask. I'm happy to share
more with you and give testimony.Peace Donnie Davies
We live [in Houston TX] not too far from the chemical plants in Baytown and sometimes being so close to that kind of industry creates intense self-reflection, which is what we are all about.
No Family Values
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
F.Y.I.: Oh! B.O. Bio
Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (born in Alego, a village in Nyanza Province, Kenya) and Ann Dunham (born in Wichita, Kansas). His parents met while both were attending the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was enrolled as a foreign student.[5]
When Obama was two years old, his parents separated and later divorced; his father went to Harvard to pursue PhD studies, eventually returning to Kenya.[6] His mother was remarried to an Indonesian foreign student, Lolo Soetoro, with whom she had one daughter. The family moved to Jakarta where Obama attended parochial schools from ages 6 to 10.[7] He then returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents.[8] He was enrolled in the fifth grade at Punahou School, a large, private college preparatory school in Honolulu, which he attended through 12th grade, graduating in 1979.[9][10] His father died in a car accident in Kenya when Obama was 21 years old.[11] Obama's mother died of cancer a few months after the publication of his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father.[12]
In Dreams from My Father, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's white American middle class family. His knowledge about his absent black Kenyan father came mainly through family stories and photographs. Of his early childhood, Obama wrote: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind."[13] As a young adult, he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. Obama writes about using marijuana and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind," later noting "I inhaled, frequently, that was the point."[14]
After high school, Obama studied for two years at Occidental College in California and then transferred to Columbia University where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. After receiving his Bachelors of Arts degree in 1983, Obama worked for one year at Business International Corporation.[15] In 1985, he moved to Chicago to direct a non-profit project assisting local churches to organize job training programs for residents of poor neighborhoods.[16][17]
Obama entered Harvard Law School in 1988. In February 1990, he gained national recognition for becoming the first African American to be elected president of the Harvard Law Review.[18] He obtained his Juris Doctor degree magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991.[17] On returning to Chicago, Obama directed a voter registration drive, then worked for the civil rights law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.[17]
Sunday, January 21, 2007
What Th................????!!!!
The Bears Are Going To The Superbowl! Party at GT12 Central two weeks from today.
Her Inevitableness - The Early Lines
Andrew Sullivan: It's hard to hate entirely reasonable Hillary
Among my many guilty pleasures — bad reality television, solitary nose excavation, the Fox News Channel — hating Hillary Clinton was once near the top of the list. The senator from New York somehow managed to arouse every one of my love-to-hate zones.Kevin Drum:
... Even her allies loathe her...
.... Why am I having a hard time keeping the wave afloat? The answer is relatively simple. Clinton has been an almost painfully reasonable, centrist, sensible senator. I’d like to hate her but she’s foiling me every time.
Here she is explaining her foreign policy philosophy to The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Goldberg: “We can critique the idealists, who have an almost faith-based idealism without adequate understanding or evidence-based decision making, and we can critique the realists for rejecting the importance of aspiration and values in foreign policy. You know, I find myself, as I often do, in the somewhat lonely middle.”
There are two things to say about that. The first is that she shouldn’t use “critique” as a verb. The second is that it’s very hard to disagree with her. The question in American foreign policy should never be whether one is a realist or an idealist. It should always be which blend of each is appropriate in the face of any specific challenge. I have no doubt, for example, that the first Bush administration in 1988-92 was too realist; and that the second one, which we are currently enduring, is too idealist. But who do we trust to get the balance right in the future? Hillary is essentially saying that we should trust her. She is giving us a clear signal of what a second Clinton administration would be like: all the centrism and responsibility of her husband’s eight years but without any of the charm.
Is that what Americans want? It seems that what they want is a form of escapism (in the form of Edwards), charisma (in the shape of Barack Obama), or integrity (in the guise of John McCain). But when the decision nears and the stakes, especially abroad, begin to seep in, might Hillary be right? Might they actually be yearning for dullness, competence and responsibility? Americans historically elect presidents who are an antidote to the flaws of the previous one. Nixon begat Carter who begat Reagan. When you think of George W Bush, the word “reckless” springs to mind. And what is the antidote to reckless? “I am cursed with the responsibility gene,” said a candidate last week. She may be revealing extremely good political instincts. Or she may, of course, be calculating again.
She has nowhere to go but up. Seriously. Every nasty thing that can possibly be said about her has already been said. Her negatives may be high, but that's mostly among Republicans who won't influence her primary chances and wouldn't vote for a Democrat in the general election anyway. Rush Limbaugh will spew his usual swill to the dittoheads, but for the most part all the old attacks will seem, well, old. (And this is one area where the iron laws of the press corps will work in her favor. Old scandals are almost never deemed worthy of revival in a presidential campaign. You have to dig up fresh dirt to get their attention.)
Bull Moose, at Political Insider:
Yes, the danger is that Hillary comes across as cold and Thatcher-like. But that's a much smaller risk than looking fake by going to great pains to show her softer side, and in the process reinforcing the narrative that she's a cipher who has no core convictions.
Will the campaign go this route, or will they be so afraid of fueling the hateful meme that she's a scorned robo-woman -- and providing more fodder for those who spit venom at stuff like the "mean tossed salad" comment -- that they'll have her end almost every statement with, "P.S., I'm an actual woman"?
Gallop Nationwide Pole 1/17
Clinton 29
Obama 18
Edwards 13
WaPo Nationwide Today
Clinton 41
Obama 17
Edwards 11
Zogby New Hampshire 1/18
Obama 23
Clinton 19
Edwards 19
Zogby Iowa
Edwards 27
Obama 17
Vilsack 16
Clinton 16In a 2008 presidential poll, Newsweek finds a generic Democratic presidential candidate "has a 21-point lead over an unnamed GOP challenger. The race becomes much closer, however, when voters are asked to choose among actual names." Among named hypothetical matchups only John Edwards wins all pairings:
Edwards 48%, McCain 43%
Clinton 48%, McCain 47%
Obama 46%, McCain 44%
Edwards 48%, Giuliani 45%
Giuliani 48%, Clinton 47%
Giuliani 47%, Obama 45%
Another President Bill?
Read the rest here.WASHINGTON (AP) -- Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., took the first step Sunday toward an expected White House run in 2008, a high-profile state chief who promoted his extensive experience in Washington and the world stage as he seeks to become the first Hispanic president.
In a video posted on his Web site, he spoke of ''a clear intention of declaring my candidacy for president in the very near future.''
''I am taking this step because we have to repair the damage that's been done to our country over the last six years,'' said Richardson, a former congressman, U.N.
ambassador and Energy Department secretary.''Our reputation in the world is diminished, our economy has languished, and civility and common decency in government has perished,'' he said in a statement.
He said he had set up an exploratory committee that will allow him to begin raising money and assembling his campaign organization.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
The Last Throes
Bush administration = Lucy
Bush administration defenders = Charlie Brown
Michelle Malkin. When they can't even keep Malkin in their corner, the Bushies are really losing it.
Friday, January 19, 2007
No Guarantees
Specter: Now wait a minute, wait a minute. The Constitution says you can't take [habeas corpus] away except in the case of invasion or rebellion. Doesn't that mean you have the right of habeas corpus?Gonzales: I meant by that comment that the Constitution doesn't say that every individual in the United States or every citizen has or is assured the right of habeas corpus. It doesn't say that. It simply says that the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Blog-aloguing Religion And Faith
For those of you who stop by to get my take on things, this is some essential discussing. I urge you to take the time to read all that both Harris and Sullivan offer.
You should start reading here, at Beliefnet with Sam's opening gentlemanly letter.
Where I think we disagree is on the nature of faith itself. I think that faith is, in principle, in conflict with reason (and, therefore, that religion is necessarily in conflict with science), while you do not. Perhaps I should acknowledge at the outset that people use the term "faith" in a variety of ways. My use of the word is meant to capture belief in specific religious propositions without sufficient evidence—prayer can heal the sick, there is a supreme Being listening to our thoughts, we will be reunited with our loved ones after death, etc. I am not criticizing faith as a positive attitude in the face of uncertainty, of the sort indicated by phrases like, "have faith in yourself." There’s nothing wrong with that type of "faith."
Given my view of faith, I think that religious "moderation" is basically an elaborate exercise in self-deception, while you seem to think it is a legitimate and intellectually defensible alternative to fundamentalism.
Andrew's response is highlighted there and can be found in full here.
...But just because that Truth may be beyond our human understanding does not mean it is therefore in a cosmic sense unreasonable. As John's Gospel proclaims, in the beginning was the Word - logos - and it is reasonable. At some point faith has to abandon reason for mystery - but that does not mean - and need never mean - abandoning reason altogether. They key is with Pascal: "l'usage et soumission de la raison." Or do you believe that Pascal, one of the great mathematicians of his time, was deluded into the faith he so passionately and simultaneously held?
Following the highlights of Sullivan's response is posted Harris's second letter, where his gloves come off .
How does one “integrate doubt” into one’s faith? By acknowledging just how dubious many of the claims of scripture are, and thereafter reading it selectively, bowdlerizing it if need be, and allowing its assertions about reality to be continually trumped by fresh insights—scientific (“You mean the world isn’t 6000 years old? Yikes…”), mathematical (“pi doesn’t actually equal 3? All right, so what?”), and moral (“You mean, I shouldn’t beat my slaves? I can’t even keep slaves? Hmm…”). Religious moderation is the result of not taking scripture all that seriously. So why not take these books less seriously still? Why not admit that they are just books, written by fallible human beings like ourselves? They were not, as your friend the pope would have it, “written wholly and entirely, with all their parts, at the dictation of the Holy Ghost.” Needless to say, I believe you have given the Supreme Pontiff far too much credit as a champion of reason. The man believes that he is in possession of a magic book, entirely free from error. Here is the Vatican’s position (from the Vatican website), in the words of Pope Leo XIII in Providentissimus Deus (his 1893 encyclical on the Study of Holy Scripture):
[I]t is absolutely wrong and forbidden, either to narrow inspiration to certain parts only of Holy Scripture, or to admit that the sacred writer has erred. For the system of those who, in order to rid themselves of these difficulties, do not hesitate to concede that divine inspiration regards the things of faith and morals, and nothing beyond, because (as they wrongly think) in a question of the truth or falsehood of a passage, we should consider not so much what God has said as the reason and purpose which He had in mind in saying it-this system cannot be tolerated. For all the books which the Church receives as sacred and canonical, are written wholly and entirely, with all their parts, at the dictation of the Holy Ghost; and so far is it from being possible that any error can co-exist with inspiration, that inspiration not only is essentially incompatible with error, but excludes and rejects it as absolutely and necessarily as it is impossible that God Himself, the supreme Truth, can utter that which is not true. This is the ancient and unchanging faith of the Church, solemnly defined in the Councils of Florence and of Trent, and finally confirmed and more expressly formulated by the Council of the Vatican. These are the words of the last: "The Books of the Old and New Testament, whole and entire, with all their parts, as enumerated in the decree of the same Council (Trent) and in the ancient Latin Vulgate, are to be received as sacred and canonical. And the Church holds them as sacred and canonical, not because, having been composed by human industry, they were afterwards approved by her authority; nor only because they contain revelation without error; but because, having been written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author." "
“This is the ancient and unchanging faith of the Church”—of course it does change a little from time to time. Being bogus to a remarkable degree, it has to. The fact that the current pope freely uses terms like “reason” and “truth” does not at all guarantee that he is on good terms with the former, or would recognize the latter if it bit him. Starting with the (utterly unjustified) premise that one of your books is an infallible guide to reality is not a particularly promising approach to inquiry—be it physical, ethical, or spiritual.
And further
... Religious moderates—by refusing to question the legitimacy of raising children to believe that they are Christians, Muslims, and Jews—tacitly support the religious divisions in our world. They also perpetuate the myth that a person must believe things on insufficient evidence in order to have an ethical and spiritual life. While religious moderates don’t fly planes into buildings, or organize their lives around apocalyptic prophecy, they refuse to deeply question the preposterous ideas of those who do. Moderates neither submit to the real demands of scripture nor draw fully honest inferences from the growing testimony of science. In attempting to find a middle ground between religious dogmatism and intellectual honesty, it seems to me that religious moderates betray faith and reason equally.
Sullivan, "Sufficiently provoked, even irritated," will respond, he says, on Friday.
As always with Sully, I love his honesty, general decency and commitment to his beliefs, while simultaneously shaking my head at how unfounded and foolish so many of those beliefs are.
Sam, although a bit mean maybe, is brilliant.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Spend The Morning With Me!
Most mornings find yours truly in GT12 Central's Basement Studio drinking coffee, smoking cigarrettes, reading the NY Times and watching Imus In The Morning on MSNBC.
Today liberal darling and accused ruiner of all-that-was-once-Broadway Frank Rich spent some quality time with Imus this AM.
Raw Story reports on Rich's comments:
Warning that "politics is not predictable," New York Times columnist Frank Rich read the tea leaves for Senator Hillary Clinton's (NY-D) presidential bid in 2008 in an appearance on Don Imus's MSNBC talk show this morning.
Noting that Senator Barack Obama (IL-D) is the one candidate who does not need to "back away" from an earlier endorsement of the Iraq War, Rich argued that the recently reelected Clinton had made a quick change in her proposed policy on Iraq this morning due to Obama's entry into the presidential field."He anounced yesterday," Rich says of Obama, "and today Clinton goes on the Today Show and changes her Iraq policy."
"How's that for impact in twenty-four hours?" Rich asked Imus.
Rich warned that current US policy, which relies heavily on the dysfunctional Maliki government in Iraq, is an "Alice in Wonderland" fantasy.
No More Nancy-Boys In The Pews!
The strobe lights pulse and the air vibrates to a killer rock beat. Giant screens show mayhem and gross-out pranks: a car wreck, a sucker punch, a flabby (and naked) rear end, sealed with duct tape.Brad Stine runs onstage in ripped blue jeans, his shirt untucked, his long hair shaggy. He's a stand-up comic by trade, but he's here today as an evangelist, on a mission to build up a new Christian man -- one profanity at a time. "It's the wuss-ification of America that's getting us!" screeches Stine, 46.
A moment later he adds a fervent: "Thank you, Lord, for our testosterone!"
It's an apt anthem for a contrarian movement gaining momentum on the fringes of Christianity. In daybreak fraternity meetings and weekend paintball wars, in wilderness retreats and X-rated chats about lust, thousands of Christian men are reaching for more forceful, more rugged expressions of their faith.
Stine's daylong revival meeting, which he calls "GodMen," is cruder than most. But it's built around the same theory as the other experimental forums: Traditional church worship is emasculating.
Hold hands with strangers? Sing love songs to Jesus? No wonder pews across America hold far more women than men, Stine says. Factor in the pressure to be a "Christian nice guy" -- no cussing, no confrontation, in tune with the wife's emotions -- and it's amazing men keep the faith at all.
"We know men are uncomfortable in church," says the Rev. Kraig Wall, 52, who pastors a small church in Franklin, Tenn. -- and is at GodMen to research ways to reach the husbands of his congregation. His conclusion: "The syrup and the sticky stuff is holding us down." John Eldredge, a seminal writer for the movement, goes further in "Wild At Heart," his bestselling book. "Christianity, as it currently exists, has done some terrible things to men," he writes. Men "believe that God put them on earth to be a good boy."
Says Christian radio host Paul Coughlin, author of "No More Christian Nice Guy": "The idea of Jesus as meek and mild is as fictitious as anything in Dan Brown's 'Da Vinci Code.'"
Hillary: the New Muskie?
Rasmussen Reports has been polling the Democratic field, and today they measure the strength of Hillary Clinton's presidential bid: She's down to 22 percent support in the primary and fading fast. That's one poll with a sizable (5 percent) margin of error, but it's an incredibly weak showing for Clinton.
Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D) formally announced his plans to run for President and instantly finds himself near the top of the heap. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of 401 Likely Democratic Primary Voters finds that 22% favor New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) while 21% prefer Obama. Obama has consistently been in second place in several Rasmussen Reports polls, but this is the first time he has been in a virtual tie with the former First Lady.
John Edwards polls at 15 percent; he's up 6 since the last poll, Obama's up 4. Hillary is down 12 points from the last poll in early December.
How sad is this for Clinton? In 1999 we (blessedly) didn't start the presidential race this early, but Texas Gov. George Bush was coming in around 40 percent support in Republican primary polls. A poll taken by Opinion Research Corporation (CNN's pollster, now that Gallup's split off from the network) in Jan 6-11, 1999, had Bush at 40 percent, Elizabeth Dole at 22 percent, Jack Kemp at 8, and a bunch of single-digiters including Dan Quayle and some guy named John McCain. Most Republicans had heard of Bush (or thought he was his dad) and kind of liked him. Every Democrat knows who Hillary Clinton is, and almost 4/5 of them are looking for another candidate. It's a blow to the vaunted "support the war, don't support Grand Theft Auto" playbook.
The punchline: This poll was taken before Obama announced he was in the race.
Catching Up On My Other Favorite War
• A member of the Kuwaiti royal family has been sentenced to death for drug trafficking.• The Atlanta Journal Constitution delves into the culture of the city's narcotics policing, and finds a system rife with perverse incentives. The paper finds that the raid that led to the shooting death of Kathryn Johnston promised a kilo of cocaine -- a one in 1,000 bust. The paper found that pressure to make arrests and the lure of the professional esteem that comes with a big bust encourage police to take shortcuts and manipulate the facts to secure a search warrant. None of this is new or unique to Atlanta, of course.
• GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has hired Mel Sembler as a top money man for his campaign. Sembler, you may remember, is a fierce drug warrior, and in the 1980s and 90s ran Straight, Inc., the string of "tough love" teen rehab centers frequently accused of child abuse.
• Outstanding piece attacking the drug war in the NY Times over the weekend from guest columnist Orlando Patterson.
• A new report comes to the striking conclusion that -- surprise! -- Canada's war on drugs is an "utter failure."
Kicking Ass and Taking Names
Democratic leaders "are launching a broad counteroffensive on issues ranging from Iraq to energy policy in advance of President Bush’s State of the Union address next week, hoping to separate the president from the typical popularity boost that comes with the nationally televised speech," Roll Call reports.
The new House and Senate leaders "are orchestrating a 'strong push-back' beginning today on some of Bush’s major proposals... and "will hold numerous events on both sides of the Capitol to try to ensure they go into Tuesday night’s speech with an upper hand on the issues they believe Bush is set to address, including the Iraq War, balancing the budget, global warming and energy independence. Democrats already are fanning out to the rank-and-file Members, urging them to set expectations high, so that the onus is on Bush to measure up."
Aliens Attack?
'60s Rocker Loses Mich. Home to Fire
VIENNA TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Community support has poured in since a fire destroyed the home of rocker Question Mark, who with his band, the Mysterians, had a No. 1 hit in 1966 with "96 Tears."The singer lost 40 years worth of memorabilia, including a gold record award and an organ believed to have belonged to Pink Floyd.
Four Yorkshire terriers [Yorkies????!!!! - GT12]and a cockatoo also died in last week's blaze at the Flint-area home in which Question Mark had lived for nearly four decades. He didn't have insurance.
Members of the community have pledged their support, offering money and talking about a possible benefit concert. He's taken a slew of calls from fans and fellow musicians.
"The phone's been ringing off the hook," Question Mark told The Flint Journal for a recent story.
He's gained the support of a local radio station and has been booked to perform with the Mysterians on Feb. 9 at Detroit's Winter Blast outdoor festival.
Question Mark welcomed the idea of headlining a benefit concert and proposed cameos from other Michigan musical luminaries.
"Why don't we do a fundraiser at The Palace (of Auburn Hills) so people can see our group?" he said. "Maybe we can get Bob (Seger) to take a break from his (tour) and have Mark (Farner) come in, Kid Rock, Uncle Kracker, Eminem, whoever's available."
Farner's representative said the former Grand Funk Railroad musician might be willing to appear if his schedule allowed.
Meanwhile, Question Mark has been sifting through the rubble of his home while trying to stay upbeat.
"No matter how tragic it is, if you know who you are and know what you have to offer, don't let those tragedies bring you down," he said.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Why I'll Never Be Called "Conservative'
This is from The National Review in 1959. To TNR's credit, they posted this on the Online site. At least I think it's to their credit. I mean, I figure they know this makes them look bad.
But I never conceived that Bushie Jr. would become president.
Peabody and his pet boy Sherman take us through the time machine, back to watch National Review in 1959:
The soberly-dressed "clerky" little man... seemed oddly unsuited to his unmentioned but implicit role of propagandist.... Let me say at once, for the benefit of the wicked, fearful South, that Martin Luther King wil never rouse a rabble; in fact, I doubt very much if he could keep a rabble awake... past its bedtime... lecture... delivered with all the force and fervor of the five-year-old who nightly recites: "Our Father, Who art in New Haven, Harold be Thy name."...
The history of Negro freedom in the United States... according to Dr. King, is actually a history of Supreme Court decisions... in each of these decisions "the Supreme Court gave validity to the prevailing mores of the times." (That's how they decide, you see? They look up the prevailing mores--probably in the Sunday New York Times.)...
In the future, [according to King] the reactionary white south will try.... Nevertheless, victory is inevitable for the Good Guys.... The Negro must... expect suffering and sacrifice, which he must resist without sacrifice, for this kind of resistance will leqve the violent segregationist "glutted with his own barbarity. Forced to stand before the world and his God splattered with the blood and reeking with the stench of his Negro brother, he will call an end to his self-defeating massacre." (I don't think [King had] really examined that one, do you?)...
In the words of an editorial from next morning's Yale Daily News, "a bearded white listener rose, then a whole row, and then a standing ovation." Did you ever see a standing ovation rise? It's most interesting! Anyway, I rose and applauded heartily. I was applauding Dr. King for not saying "the trusth shall make you free," because actually it took the Supreme Court, in this case, didn't it?...
[A] discussion period for undergraduates followed the lecture.... Here was no trace of the sing-song "culluh'd preachuh" chant, the incongruously gaudy phrases.... Martin Luther King... relies almost entirely on force of one kind or another to accomplish integration.... [I]t seems curiously inconsistent to hear him, time after time, suggest power, or force--the force of labor, of legislation, of federal strength--as the solution....
Doh!!!!
Ingrates! Pt. 2
BAGHDAD, Jan. 16 — More than 80 people died in a trio of bomb attacks around the capital today, as United Nations officials released a report estimating that more than 34,000 civilians were killed across Iraq last year and warning that the violence was “likely to continue” in the absence of a functioning justice system.
Two of the bombs exploded in quick succession at Baghdad University as students were leaving classes, killing at least 60 people and wounding at least 110, Interior Ministry officials said. One was detonated by a suicide bomber and one was placed in a car, but it was not clear in which order they were detonated.
At least 15 other people died and 70 were wounded by another pair of bombs in central Baghdad in a market devoted to motorcycle and stereo shops, not far from a Sunni mosque, officials said. The mosque was not believed to be the target. And two members of an elite police bomb disposal unit and two civilians were killed when the second of a pair of bombs the officers were working to defuse exploded.
Today’s violence and the U.N. report’s chilling portrait on civilian deaths underscored the depth of the security problem facing American military officials as they prepare to deploy more troops there as part of a new strategy that for the first time makes the protection of civilians the war effort’s highest priority.
Go Chicago!
Illinois' junior Senator throws his hat in the ring:As many of you know, over the last few months I have been thinking hard about my plans for 2008. Running for the presidency is a profound decision - a decision no one should make on the basis of media hype or personal ambition alone - and so before I committed myself and my family to this race, I wanted to be sure that this was right for us and, more importantly, right for the country.
I certainly didn't expect to find myself in this position a year ago. But as I've spoken to many of you in my travels across the states these past months; as I've read your emails and read your letters; I've been struck by how hungry we all are for a different kind of politics.
So I've spent some time thinking about how I could best advance the cause of change and progress that we so desperately need.
The decisions that have been made in Washington these past six years, and the problems that have been ignored, have put our country in a precarious place. Our economy is changing rapidly, and that means profound changes for working people. Many of you have shared with me your stories about skyrocketing health care bills, the pensions you've lost and your struggles to pay for college for your kids. Our continued dependence on oil has put our security and our very planet at risk. And we're still mired in a tragic and costly war that should have never been waged.
But challenging as they are, it's not the magnitude of our problems that concerns me the most. It's the smallness of our politics. America's faced big problems before. But today, our leaders in Washington seem incapable of working together in a practical, common sense way. Politics has become so bitter and partisan, so gummed up by money and influence, that we can't tackle the big problems that demand solutions.
And that's what we have to change first.
We have to change our politics, and come together around our common interests and concerns as Americans.
This won't happen by itself. A change in our politics can only come from you; from people across our country who believe there's a better way and are willing to work for it.
Years ago, as a community organizer in Chicago, I learned that meaningful change always begins at the grassroots, and that engaged citizens working together can accomplish extraordinary things.
So even in the midst of the enormous challenges we face today, I have great faith and hope about the future - because I believe in you.
And that's why I wanted to tell you first that I'll be filing papers today to create a presidential exploratory committee. For the next several weeks, I am going to talk with people from around the country, listening and learning more about the challenges we face as a nation, the opportunities that lie before us, and the role that a presidential campaign might play in bringing our country together. And on February 10th, at the end of these decisions and in my home state of Illinois, I'll share my plans with my friends, neighbors and fellow Americans.
In the meantime, I want to thank all of you for your time, your suggestions, your encouragement and your prayers. And I look forward to continuing our conversation in the weeks and months to come.
Sincerely,
U.S. Senator Barack Obama
No Excuse
"There is little systematic knowledge available to tell us 'what works' in interrogation," wrote Robert Coulam, a research professor at the Simmons School for Health Studies in Boston. Coulam also wrote that interrogation practices that offend ethical concerns and "skirt the rule of law" may be narrowly useful, if at all, because such practices could undermine the legitimacy of government action and support for the fight against terrorism...The new study finds that there may be no value to coercive techniques.
"The scientific community has never established that coercive interrogation methods are an effective means of obtaining reliable intelligence information," wrote Col. Steven M. Kleinman, who has served as the Pentagon's senior intelligence officer for special survival training.
Kleinman wrote that intelligence gathered with coercion is sometimes inaccurate or false, noting that isolation, a tactic U.S. officials have used regularly, causes "profound emotional, psychological, and physical discomfort" and can "significantly and negatively impact the ability of the source to recall information accurately."
Let's Call This Proof That We Won, And Then Go Home
Like Abu Omar before him, Abu Aisha, a mid-level Sunni commander, had come to understand that the threat from the Shia was perhaps greater than his need to fight the occupying Americans. Abu Aisha fought in Baghdad's western Sunni suburbs, he was a former NCO in the Iraqi army and followed an extreme form of Islam known as Salafism ...On his mobile phone he proudly showed me grainy images of dead bodies lying in the street, their hands tied behind their backs . He claimed they were Shia agents and that he had killed them. "There is a new jihad now," he said, echoing Abu Omar's warning. "The jihad now is against the Shia, not the Americans."
Monday, January 15, 2007
On Lying
You know better than I do that many Americans feel that your administration has not been straight with the country, has not been honest. To those people you say what?" Pelley asks.
"On what issue?" the president replies. "Like the weapons of mass destruction?""No weapons of mass destruction," Pelley says.
"Yeah," Bush says."No credible connection between 9/11 and Iraq," Pelley says.“Yeah,” the president replies.
“The Office of Management and Budget said this war would cost somewhere between $50 billion and $60 billion and now we're over 400,” Pelley says.
“I gotcha. I gotcha. I gotcha,” Bush replies.
“The perception, Sir, more than any one of those points, is that the administration has not been straight with…,” Pelley says.
“Well, I strongly disagree with that, of course,” Bush says. “So I strongly reject that this administration hasn’t been straight with the American people. The minute we found out they didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, I was the first to say so.”
Ingrates!
From the 60 Minute interview with dear leader
SCOTT PELLEY: Do you think you owe the Iraqi people an apology for not doing a better job?
BUSH: That we didn't do a better job or they didn't do a better job?
PELLEY: Well, that the United States did not do a better job in providing security after the invasion.
BUSH: Not at all. I am proud of the efforts we did. We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude, and I believe most Iraqis express that. I mean, the people understand that we've endured great sacrifice to help them. That's the problem here in America. They wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that's significant enough in Iraq.
PELLEY: Americans wonder whether . . .
BUSH: Yeah, they wonder whether or not the Iraqis are willing to do hard work.
Historical Quote For The Day
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
By Rev. Martin Luther King 4 April 1967
...I am as deeply concerned about our troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell for the poor.
Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.
This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words:
"Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."
[...]
The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways.
In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Where's Jenna and the Other One?
From CNN
Prince Harry trains for possible Iraq duty
LONDON, England (AP) -- A British newspaper reported Sunday that Prince Harry was scheduled to begin final training for deployment to Iraq with his Army regiment -- but the defense ministry said no decision had been made on whether his regiment would be deployed.
The News of The World said the prince, who is third in line to the throne, would take part in a two-day pre-deployment course which includes instruction in basic Arabic phrases.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Pete Kleinow, 1934 -2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 12, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 11 (AP) — Pete Kleinow, a renowned steel guitarist and member of the country-rock band the Flying Burrito Brothers in the late 1960s and early ’70s, died on Saturday in Petaluma, Calif. He was 72.
The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, his daughter Anita Kleinow said.
Mr. Kleinow, who was known as Sneaky Pete, went on to work in film as an award-winning animator and special-effects artist. But he first achieved fame in 1968 as a member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, joining Chris Hillman of the Byrds, Chris Ethridge and Gram Parsons. The band helped define the country-rock genre in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Mr. Kleinow’s skill with the pedal steel guitar is said to have influenced bands like the Eagles, the Steve Miller Band and Poco. As a session musician, he recorded with John Lennon, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell and Sly and the Family Stone.
"Sin City"
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
A Good Sign
Gates to push Boykin out of Pentagon.
“[W]ord around the Pentagon” is that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is pushing controversial Lt. Gen. William Boykin out of his Pentagon role overseeing anti-terror special operations. A devout evangelical Christian, Boykin was infamously videotaped “telling a church audience that the god of a Muslim warlord was ‘an idol’ and that ‘my God was a real God.’”
Anything to Help The Home Town Honey
Can Ya Help Us With The Lying, Jesus?
Capital Prayer Alert
The winds of change are blowing in Washington. The new year brings with it the Democrat Party takeover of the reins of leadership in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. President Bush's constitutional role of commander in chief in a time of war will be challenged by a Congress eager to make its mark as a lead-up to the next presidential election cycle. There are many Democrat presidential hopefuls--some now holding leadership positions in the Senate--who are seeking to distinguish themselves from others in the pack. There will be the lure of expounding the most clever, hard-hitting sound bite so as to assure an appearance on the nightly news.
But, the cloak of congressional leadership must come with the realization that the world and our enemies are watching for signs of division in foreign and defense policy that they can exploit. With the right to lead the Congress comes the responsibility to do more than just critique the status quo. The U.S. cannot afford to appear divided and leaderless at a time when Islamofascists are making inroads in the Middle East, Europe and Southeast Asia.
[...]
Pray that President Bush will make wise decisions as he fleshes out the details of our foreign policy in this volatile part of the world. Ask God to grant him the ability to express the threat we face today, tomorrow and in the decades to come in terms that will resonate with the American people. Ask our Heavenly Father to walk alongside President Bush as he lays out the stark, scary realities of the enemy we face -- an enemy in no uniform, with no respect for innocent life. Prepare him and strengthen him for the criticism that is sure to come. May his tone be measured and decisive and the context of the speech be laced with the consequences of pulling back. Ask God to impart to an impatient nation a new understanding of the threat we face and a desire to meet the challenge now when it is more manageable than it would be years from now.
Can't A Man Get Some Rest?
Brown not buried as family tackles estate issuesCOLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- The body of soul singer James Brown has yet to be buried as attorneys and his children work to settle issues surrounding his estate, including where he will be laid to rest.
For now, his body lies in a sealed casket in his home on Beech Island, said Charles Reid, manager of the C.A. Reid Funeral Home in Augusta, Georgia, which handled the services.
Brown died of heart failure December 25 at age 73.
His will has yet to be filed, said Buddy Dallas, an attorney for the singer.
The room where Brown's body lies is being kept at a controlled temperature, and security guards keep watch, Reid said.
The funeral home delivered Brown's body after services December 30, Reid said.
Brown's home has been locked since hours after his death to protect his memorabilia, furnishing, clothes and other personal items, Dallas said."Just imagine what would have happened," Dallas said. "Items of James Brown would have left there like items off the shelves of Macy's in an after-Christmas sale."
The trustees for his will, along with Brown's children, will determine the burial site, Dallas said.
Tomi Rae Hynie, Brown's partner, said shortly after his death that she encountered locked gates as she tried to get into the home she says she shared with the singer and their 5-year-old son.
She wouldn't discuss the incident Tuesday, but her lawyer said Hynie should be granted access to the home. The attorney would not say whether Hynie would take legal action.
"The hope is that all parties can sit down and figure out what the problem is and what the challenges are," attorney Thornton Morris said. "And once we figure out what the challenges are we'll see if we can't resolve something that's a win for everybody."
Meanwhile, a woman who claims Brown raped her nearly 20 years ago said Tuesday she will continue her lawsuit.
Jacque Hollander has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her sexual harassment suit, which a lower court ruled last year she had waited too long to file.
A Supreme Court decision on whether to hear the case is pending.
She argues that the two-year statute of limitations in such cases does not provide equal protection to women.
"This has been a long road that ended tragically Christmas morning," Hollander said in a phone interview with the Associated Press.
"As a rape victim, I will never get to face him in court, and it hurts," she said. "But we are moving forward. We filed against his organization, as well as him. So now his organization stands in front of him."
In her lawsuit, Hollander said Brown raped her at gunpoint in 1988 while she was his publicist. She seeks $106 million in damages.
A federal appeals court tossed out Hollander's lawsuit in August.
"There was nothing to it 20 years ago and nothing to it 20 years later," Dallas said.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Faux News Fo Reel
Stephen Colbert next week. The Fox News Channel host and Colbert, who has essentially based his comic character every evening on Comedy Central on him, will trade appearances on each other's programs Jan. 18.
"I'm really looking forward to speaking to a man who owes his entire career to me," O'Reilly said.
Goddam Goddam Goddam Liar
In today’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow tried to distance President Bush from his infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech, claiming that Bush said “just the opposite” of “Mission Accomplished”:
"I think the public ought to just listen to what the president has to say. You know that the mission accomplished banner was put up by members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, and the president, on that very speech, said just the opposite, didn’t he?"
For that May 1, 2003, Bush stood in front of a large banner that read, “Mission Accomplished.” In the opening of his speech, he declared, “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” He called the “battle of Iraq” a “victory.” In his radio address shortly after the speech, he boasted, “I delivered good news to the men and women who fought in the cause of freedom: their mission is complete and major combat operations in Iraq have ended.”Additionally, as Bob Woodward reported in October, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had to pressure the White House to take out of the speech the actual phrase “Mission Accomplished,” but he couldn’t “get the sign down.”
In Oct. 2003, then-White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan admitted that the White House — not members of USS Lincoln — had “take[n] care of the production of the banner.”
Hope
Generation Next
The Pew Research Center has just done their latest survey (PDF) of attitudes among the young. They are markedly less religious than their elders - and previous generations. The percentage claiming they are agnostic or atheist has doubled in twenty years to one in five today; they regard heavy drinking as worse than smoking pot; they have become much less Republican than they once were. George W. Bush has persuaded most of the younger generation to vote Democratic, reversing Reagan's gains among the young. They are much more pro-immigrant than their elders and 74 percent favor some privatizing of social security (yay!); but they're dovish on the use of military force. They are divided equally on gay marriage (47 - 46 in favor, compared to 64 - 30 against among those over 25) but overwhelmingly support gay adoption. I find myself sympathetic to most of their views. Maybe my views are getting younger as my beard gets grayer.
