Why I'll Never Be Called "Conservative'

Because Conservatives are always on the wrong side of Human Rights.

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!!!!

Historical Quote of the Day

"If you get involved in a major ground war in the Saudi desert, I think support will erode significantly. Nor should it be supported. We cannot even contemplate, in my view, trading American blood for Iraqi blood."-- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), quoted by the New York Times in 1990. (Hat tip: Think Progress).

Ingrates! Pt. 2

From NYTimes

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

Brokeback Dream Boy

Jake Gyllenhall plays to his base

No Excuse

Just like the Death Penalty, torture serves only to satisfy vengeance.

The government's own study into "coercive interrogation techniques" deployed by the Bush administration, and approved by president Bush and defense secretary Rumsfeld. There's no evidence it works, and considerable evidence that it is actually helping us lose the war on terror. Read the full Intelligence Science Board report (PDF) here. Money quote:

"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

From a Guardian article looking into the Sunni Insurgency:

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."

OK. they're fighting themselves over there... Our job is done.

On Lying

From the Master of Mendacity, Dear Leader on 60 Minutes:

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!

And after all that we done for them.....

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

A less well-known speech from Dr. King.

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

Where's Jenna and the Other One?

Even The Windsors are ready to stand behind their policies. What about our own in-bred princessess?

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.

Pete Kleinow, 1934 -2007

Pete Kleinow, 72, Guitarist for Flying Burrito Brothers, Dies
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"

A Good Sign

From ThinkProgress:

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

According to Capitol Fax, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan proposed moving the 2008 Illinois primary to Feb. 5 to help Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) presidential candidacy.

Can Ya Help Us With The Lying, Jesus?

From a monthly prayer e-mail sent recently by the wife of former Family Research Council President and former Republican Presidential candidate Gary Bauer (emphasis in the original)

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 issues

COLUMBIA, 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.

Faux News Fo Reel

NEW YORK - It may feel like looking into the mirror for Bill O'Reilly and
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.

On "The Colbert Report," Colbert portrays a self-involved talk-show host who has tried to bring "truthiness" to the world. His character owes an obvious debt to O'Reilly, who holds court in the "no-spin zone" each evening.

On "The O'Reilly Factor," O'Reilly portrays a ... um, he hosts the top-rated program in cable news.

"I look forward to the evening," Colbert said. "It is an honor to speak face-to-face with a broadcasting legend, and I feel the same way about Mr. O'Reilly."

Goddam Goddam Goddam Liar

From ThinkProgress:

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.”

Another Test

I wind up "Libertarian-Leaning Liberal."

How 'bout you?

Take The Test Here

Hope

From Andrew Sullivan:

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.