In a post titled Electable, Mannion comes to a conclusion about which he’s decidedly unenthusiastic: Hillary is “the one.”
Dammit to hell; Hillary can’t get us out of The Matrix! But that’s the thing about electability—being electable doesn’t mean you’re necessarily a great leader. See: Bush, George W.
Suffice it to say, I don’t think Mannion’s wrong, although I wish he were. Feingold comes across very well on television to me; Mr. Shakes recently heard some people, who agree with Feingold’s politics, saying he strikes them as a “used car salesman.” This proves (once again), if nothing else, that I experience the world in a minor key, and I’ve never managed to hear the melody everyone else seems to. I always thought Gore was funny and likable, too, so what do I know?
Then again, who knows what catastrophes the bumbling Bush will manage to create in the next two and a half years. The terrain may yet change.
And I don’t think Hillary would be a terrible president, just not the one I’d want. It seems unfair we’d have to settle after eight years of this mess. But no one ever said life was fair, eh?
I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and, doggone it, people like me!
McCain 
Falwell
You know those formulaic romantic comedies where the two protagonists start out hating each other, lobbing invectives and rolling their eyes, storming off in huffs and swearing how much they despise one another, until, eventually, they realize they are perfect complements and then they fall head over heels in love?
This is one of those stories.
It’s about a feisty POW named John and a crackpot preacher named Jerry. When they first met, John called Jerry “an agent of intolerance” who exerts an "evil influence" over the GOP. Jerry sniffed that John was just a Republican in sheep’s clothing. But soon, the passion of their feuding began to fuel the flames of love, and now it’s only a matter of time before John’s sporting a glimmering rock on his left hand. In fact, if a little plot device known as the Surprise Engagement at the Big Event doesn’t play out when John speaks at Jerry’s university’s graduation, this just won’t be the perfect wee drip of romantic treacle it’s been shaping up to be.
[McCain]…will be Liberty University’s graduation speaker on May 13.Ahh, true love. And in the true mold of such familiar confections, there’s going to be one last twist before the Happily Ever After. Jerry says that John has reversed his position and is now willing to support a Federal Marriage Amendment. The issue is, of course, near and dear to their respective constituencies, but what does it mean for their future?! Will they choose service over love? Oh, how will it end?! I can’t wait… Somebody get me some popcorn.
McCain’s visit to the LU campus is, at the very least, an attempt to make peace with conservative Christians prior to the presidential campaign.
While running against then- Gov. George W. Bush in the South Carolina and Virginia primaries in 2000, McCain denounced Falwell and Virginia Beach televangelist Pat Robertson in what was seen as a move to lure more moderate voters to his campaign.
“Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right,” McCain said at the time.
McCain lost the Virginia and South Carolina primaries and Bush won the nomination…
“He is in the process of healing the breech with evangelical groups,” Falwell said…
Aside from their political skirmishes, Falwell said McCain is an authentic American hero.
“On this, everybody agrees,” he said.
(Hat tip to Griffin.)
Card Resigns
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card has resigned. Joshua Bolten, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, will take his place.
Bush described his new chief of staff as a creative thinker and a strong advocate for accountability and effective management in the federal government.Wev, wev, and more wev. If Bolten was genuinely a “strong advocate for accountability and effective management in the federal government,” the last job he’d take is Chief of Staff for Bush.
"He is a man of candor and humor and directness, who is comfortable with responsibility and knows how to lead," Bush said.
More about Bolten from Slate, Nov. 2001 (via Mahablog):
Josh Bolten is the White House’s deputy chief of staff for policy. That makes him the president’s chief domestic policy adviser, and since Sept. 11 he has headed the White House’s new “domestic consequences group” that has developed post-attack legislation such as the airline bailout and the stimulus package. The New Republic’s Ryan Lizza calls him “increasingly powerful” and “the anonymous fourth man in the inner circle of Bush’s staff” (after Andy Card, Karl Rove, and Karen Hughes). U.S. News says he has emerged after the terrorist attacks as Bush’s “chief economic architect,” and the Washington Post says Bolten “has a quiet hand in all domestic policy and international economic policy.”Also from FDL, Bolten has been with Bush since Texas and is cozy with Rove.
During the 2000 campaign, Bolten was Bush’s policy director, and during the Florida recount he was a top lieutenant to James Baker. He worked as a lawyer in the Reagan administration’s State Department, and he served as a staff attorney for the Senate Finance Committee from 1985 to 1989. In the first Bush administration, he worked as general counsel for the U.S. trade representative and as the White House’s deputy assistant for legislative affairs.
So, in other words, Enter the Crony. Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.
Keeping up with the Joneses
Jealous of the fanfare over the spate of recent appearances made by Jesus and Mary, Allah and Mohammed have decided to get in on the action.
Two fish purchased at an English pet shop by Ali AlWaqedi, 23, appear to have Arabic inscriptions on their scales.Arabic inscriptions aren’t quite as showy as burning one’s face through cheese, but, being a good Muslim, Mohammed probably can’t show a picture of his own face either. It’s an interesting bit of oneupmanship, though, since The Big Guy made an appearance, too. Come on Christian God—are you going to let Allah get away with that? I expect to hear about the sighting of a bearded old man on a tree trunk ASAP. Heck, maybe just to be sure the message gets through, he ought to bring back the burning bush. (Insert your own presidential pun here.)
One Oscar fish bearing the name Allah and the other Mohammed are living in a fish tank in Liverpool while drawing crowds of the faithful to witness the "miracle."
Ali said: "This is a message from Allah to me, a reminder, and now my faith is stronger. Everyone is so excited by the discovery," reported the Liverpool Echo.
Leaders at the nearby Al-Rahma mosque in Hatherley Street, are in no doubt about the authenticity.
Sheikh Sadek Kassem, the mosque's Imam, said, "This is a proof and a sign not just to Liverpool's Muslims, but for everyone."
Via Agitprop.
Charming
Government investigators smuggled radioactive materials into U.S.
Two teams of government investigators using fake documents were able to enter the United States with enough radioactive sources to make two dirty bombs, according to a federal report made available Monday.Prediction: Although this is a searing indictment of the administration’s apathy toward genuine security issues, and underlines its criminal incompetence in failing to protect the country against nuclear terrorism, the Rightwing Noise Machine will in no time be spinning this as highlighting the urgency with which we must past the president’s proposed immigration reform, even though one has absolutely nothing to do with the other.
The investigators purchased a "small quantity" of radioactive materials from a commercial source, according to a Government Accountability Office report prepared for Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican.
The investigators posed as employees of a fictitious company and brought the materials into the United States through checkpoints on the northern and southern borders, the report stated.
George and Dick and Jim and David
After writing that last post, all I could think was, “Man, I really, really don’t like Dick Cheney. And I’m not so fond of Bush, either.”
Sometimes I try to imagine meeting George Bush and Dick Cheney, if they’d never been president/VP and were just some dudes. I’m certain I wouldn’t like either of them, but for totally different reasons…
I worked at a design firm in Chicago for about six years, during which time I recommended several friends for various positions (including Mr. Furious), and it was at this job that I met my oft-mentioned girlfriend Miller. Every time any of us get together, we rehash stories about the bizarre parade of incredibly strange coworkers who passed through that place, but there are two in particular about whom we have lots and lots of stories: Jim and David.
Jim was, at first blush, a pleasant enough sort of fellow, if kind of an annoying doofus. Not someone you’d want to hang out with, but seemingly pretty inoffensive. But after working with him awhile, all the rest of us realized he was a total scam artist; he never did a lick of work, always blamed other people for his mistakes (and he made plenty of mistakes), tried to take credit for others’ successes, and was basically an incompetent turd. None of which ever stopped him from being condescending, even though he was constantly proved wrong. And he was sneaky—I busted him reading my email and he got caught fudging his billable hours, charging clients for work he didn’t do. He made stupid excuses for being constantly late or unprepared. He looked at women’s tits when he spoke to them, instead of making eye contact. He drank during the day and compulsively played with his balls. In the end, he was a totally pathetic character, but such a horse’s ass that he didn’t earn an ounce of pity from anyone.
When I consider how I’d regard George Bush, were I to have met him as an ordinary man, I think of Jim—a guy you try to be nice to, in spite of the fact you instantly peg him as a dope, who exploits any good will he receives to his own benefit, until you’d rather gouge out your own eyes with a dull butter knife than extend him a modicum more.
David was a different kind of character altogether. He wasn’t an objectively ugly man, although his countenance, constantly sour unless marred with a forced grin that cut across his face like a jagged wound, was distinctly unpleasant. He grimaced more than grinned when he tried to ingratiate himself after assertions of superiority, or deviousness, had failed to get him what he wanted. Utterly lacking in social graces, he was avoided at all costs. His office was on the direct route between my desk and Miller’s; we would walk around the entire office in the opposite direction just to evade him. The most notable thing about David, however, was not any particular personality trait or habit, but his aura. I have never known another person whose presence was so repulsive, by which I mean not nauseating, but actually having the quality of repelling anyone who drew near. The air around him seemed to pulsate with an odorless stench; within three feet of him, your skin would crawl and a visceral flight urge would well up within—it was quite literally unbearable to be near him. Every last person in the office felt the same way. There was something creepy about him, something just not right.
It’s David of whom I think when I consider meeting Dick Cheney, not as our vice president, but as some random guy, a coworker or client or something. I imagine his severe mug being simply unappealing from a distance, but the same air of repulse, the same unforgiving sensation of creepiness, clinging to him and raising the hairs on the back of one’s neck in close range.
The thing about Jim and David is that they were just two schlubs working at a crappy corporate job—not running the country. And, eventually, they got shitcanned. Two farts in the wind. Now they’re just a collection of funny anecdotes. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be laughing about George and Dick’s dirty deeds anytime soon.
Turd Blossom Gives Up the Goods
In case you hadn’t already heard, Karl Rove is cooperating with Fitzy in his CIA leak inquiry. I must admit, it doesn’t surprise me too much—a rat rats—but some of what he’s providing to prosecutors is certainly interesting in that it reveals just how dirty this administration actually is. Again, no surprise, but it’s odd nonetheless to have it confirmed. (Raw Story’s information was confirmed by The Washington Note.)
According to several Pentagon sources close to Rove and others familiar with the inquiry, Bush's senior adviser tipped off Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to information that led to the recent "discovery" of 250 pages of missing email from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney…I hope that office’s scumbag of a resident gets exactly what’s coming to him.
Rove is providing information on deleted emails, erased hard drives and other types of obstruction by staff and other officials in the Vice President's office. Pentagon sources close to Rove confirmed this account.
None would name the staffers and/or officials whom Rove is providing information about. They did, however, explain that the White House computer system has "real time backup" servers and that while emails were deleted from computers, they were still retrievable from the backup system. By providing the dates and recipient information of the deleted emails, sources say, Rove was able to chart a path for Fitzgerald directly into the office of the Vice President.
Question of the Day
Favorite poet?
If preventing from offering my obvious choice (cough*the Bard*cough), I'd probably offer up Omar Khayyam for consideration, whose Rubaiyat is astoundingly beautiful.
Campaign Advice from the Newtster
Are you listening, Dems?
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who masterminded the 1994 elections that brought Republicans to power on promises of revolutionizing the way Washington is run, told Time that his party has so bungled the job of governing that the best campaign slogan for Democrats today could be boiled down to just two words: “Had enough?”It beats the shit out of “Together, America can do better.”
Hat tip to The Heretik.
A Meager Request
US President George W. Bush(C) delivers a speech during a naturalization ceremony at the Daughters of the American Revolution administration building in Washington, DC. (AFP/Mandel Ngan)
Can you numbskulls spend 1/8—that’s all I’m asking; just 1/8—of the amount of energy you expend on friggin’ signage on actually trying to do something of value for the American people?
And no—protecting the “sanctity of marriage,” gutting social programs, filling the coffers of corporate cronies through legislation that pretends to benefit the American people, leading us to war on false pretenses, threatening women’s autonomy, fixing elections, outing covert CIA operatives, and decorating the Oval Office with fancy rugs don’t count.
How do you solve a problem like Scalia?
(Part ten gazillion in an ongoing series : Scalia Knows Obscenity When He Does It Edition.)
Oddjob tipped me off to this post at AMERICAblog which reports that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was busted making an obscene gesture to a reporter's question right after leaving church.
When a reporter asked him "if he faces much questioning over impartiality when it comes to issues separating church and state," Scalia replied, "You know what I say to those people?" then made the gesture and added, "That's Sicilian."
John Aravosis notes, "If a 'gay activist' had done this, it would be the headlines around the world and the gay community would be apologizing for it for the next 20 years." Too true.
But it's certainly reassuring to know that, in the face of such a double-standard, at least we can find comfort in knowing one of the justices on the nation's highest court has no compunction about publicly airing his disregard for Constitutional guarantees. I mean, if we're going to let pharmacists invoke conscience clauses so they don't have to do the parts of their job they find morally objectionable, surely we should extend the same nicety to the hardworking members of our Supreme Court.
(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)
Why does this not surprise me?
Ron Luce is going to be speaking at The War on Christians conference. Hat tip to Mike Doughney.
The people getting ever more unhinged—and vocal—about this whole “war” thing are really beginning to freak me out. ("Reports from the Frontlines?" And one of the panelists is a Navy chaplain? Yeesh.) I’d love to chalk it up to some fringe element not worth paying attention to, but when one of our Senators is a keynote speaker at this conference, and he’s not the only elected official attending, that ain’t fringe anymore.
Mendacious Bastards
This is, perhaps, one of the most disingenuous pieces of horseshit across which I have stumbled lately, and a brief glace down the page ought to suggest that’s no small thing.
An anti-choice organization calling itself the American Life League—which sells some of the most ridiculous clothing items upon which I have ever laid eyes, including t-shirts that announce a new crusade and the wearer’s status as a “former embryo”…
…has decided to take on Planned Parenthood with a series of adverts as part of their campaign to petition “an end to taxpayer support for the likes of Planned Parenthood.”
The first phase of the ad campaign consists of a series of full-page ads, beginning in today's edition of the Washington Times. The first ad is headlined, "Reason No. 72 to stop Planned Parenthood from getting over $265 million in your tax dollars: Racism." The ad outlines the racist philosophies of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, and points out that although African-Americans make up about 11 percent of the U.S. population, more than 30 percent of all abortions involve black babies.Let’s stop right there for a moment. If more than 30% of all abortions involve black mothers, is that because Planned Parenthood is racist? Or is it because Planned Parenthood is providing a service to a population which is disproportionately affected—because of racism—by poverty, one of the main reasons cited by women for seeking abortions? If the American Life League is so concerned that black women are seeking abortions, perhaps they’d do well to petition legislators to pay attention to improving the lives of the already-born.
Other ads in the series will focus on Planned Parenthood's effort to conceal information about potential cases of statutory rape, the higher incidence of suicide among teenagers who have had abortions, and the pornographic material Planned Parenthood distributes to children under the guise of sex education.Some unbelievable nerve coming from a Catholic-affiliated group, since, the last time I checked, the Catholic Church quite literally conspired to conceal evidence of rampant pedophilia and forbids the use of birth control which is a key component in preventing unwanted pregnancies.
Seriously, just give me a fucking break with this shit already. Sometimes I swear to the fates that they’re deliberately trying to incite me into fulfilling the role of the strawliberal they love to fight against, because I’m about thisclose to losing my bloody mind and starting a petition to throw every last one of these people into a giant cage with rabid crocodiles and lose the key down a well.
"Americans should demand an end to taxpayer support for the likes of Planned Parenthood." said Brown. "That is why American Life League is stepping up its petition campaign to encourage lawmakers at the federal, state and local levels to cut off every penny of taxpayer assistance to Planned Parenthood, which operates the country's deadliest chain of abortion facilities. We simply cannot tolerate the idea of our tax money being used to subsidize these offensive activities."“Americans should demand an end to the tax-exempt status conferred upon the Catholic Church,” said Shakespeare’s Sister. “That is why Shakespeare’s Sister is stepping up its petition campaign to encourage lawmakers at the federal, state and local levels to cut off every penny of tax-exempt assistance to the Catholic Church, which operates the country’s deadliest chain of pedophilia and abortion enablers. We simply cannot tolerate the idea of tax exemption used to subsidize these offensive activities.”
Makes about as much sense. Except, you know, I’m just being intolerant of religion. The American Life League, on the other hand, is on a moral crusade.
What the Sam Hill?, or Mark Trail fights eminent domain
In the March 13 CQ Weekly (paid subscription required for most mortals), Chris Wilson relates the delightful story of the latest opponent of land-grabbing developers: Mark Trail! The heroic but usually boring and damned-near-ageless fictional naturalist finds himself facing the wanton use of eminent domain:
The trouble starts when an unscrupulous gambling magnate, Sam Hill, sets out to build a new road to his casino in Trail's beloved Lost Forest. After conferring with an area road commissioner, Hill contrives to claim eminent domain privileges on bogus grounds and seize the land outright.
Reading this prompts tears of nostalgia. Damned if this doesn't remind me of my recently-ousted alderman.
More - and funnier - on the Trail tilt against rampant development at the Reason staff's Hit and Run. Use the SF Chronicle's site to catch up on all the frantic four-color action.
(Why did the blogger cross-post the road?)
In case you needed more evidence…
…that our president is either an idiot, a liar, totally disconnected from reality, or all of the above, comes this from the BBC:
At least 40 people have been killed by a suicide bomb inside a military base housing US and Iraqi forces near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.We haven’t turned a corner. Freedom is not on the march. There is a civil war brewing, if not already underway. And Talafar isn’t a success story.
The attacker struck at an Iraqi police recruitment centre at the base in Kisk. No Americans died, the US said…
The village of Kisk, which houses the military base, lies between Mosul and Talafar.
Both towns have been the scene of much anti-US violence and unrest in the three years since the US-led invasion of Iraq.
US President George W Bush singled out Talafar in a recent speech as a success story in the campaign to quell the insurgency.
The administration likes to moan about how the media doesn’t report the good news, but a new school, or a town finally—after three years—getting permanent electricity back, just isn’t as newsworthy as 40 people being killed by a suicide bomber. It doesn’t (or shouldn’t) matter whether you support the war or not; the loss of 40 Iraqi lives is an important news story that gives more insight into what’s happening with the war than a new school. You want something for reopening a hospital that was only shut because we invaded? Fine—I’ll get you a cookie.
Rice opens door to talk show host rehiring...but host remains fired (correction)
Some of what should have happened regarding the dismissal of KTRS on-air personality Dave Lenihan actually did happen: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accepted Lenihan's profuse apology for inadvertently using the word 'coon' while discussing her, and station chief Tim Dorsey took advantage of the reprieve from on high to rescind his firing of the embattled host - a firing that should never have happened in the first place and which helped inflate a verbal accident into a nationally-reported incident. NOTE: Lenihan was not rehired by Dorsey, as I erroneously posted earlier. Lenihan's slot has been filled by McGraw Milhaven, another previously fired KTRS announcer.
"My understanding is that he apologized, said he didn't mean it," Rice told "Fox News Sunday." "I accept that because we all say things from time to time that we
shouldn't say or didn't mean to say."
The statement - made on the Bush administration's favorite news outlet, FOX - was very gracious of Dr. Rice, even if she rather shamelessly used the occasion to equate a verbal gaffe with bloody violence and political stumbling in Iraq and Afghanistan. As for Lenihan, he now gets to walk the rocky trail of public redemption starting with a trip to the woodshed: a "visit" with Harold Crumpton, president of St. Louis' NAACP chapter. He may find himself onstage on Oprah Winfrey's show before it's all said and done (and if he does, remember that you read it here first), but it is to be hoped that the grace demonstrated by Rice will guide future discussions of Lenihan's slip of the lip.
As for Dorsey: I'm no media expert, so I'm not sure how much weight to give to suggestions that the KTRS chief used this incident as cheap publicity for his station. It's clear enough, however, that his shoot-from-the-hip dismissal of Lenihan before the mic was even cold did a lot to aggravate the situation, and showed fairly poor judgment. Lenihan's not the only one who needs to learn a lesson here.
And will everyone at KTRS please practice using the delay button? That's what they do at the grown-up stations.
(Cross-post your heart and hope to die...)
Is it really "news" if it's not new?
So the New York Times is running a big story headlined Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Says, as if it's news. The only real news here is that they're treating it like it's news. As it happens, The Guardian covered the story in February, as did a whole lot of bloggers, many of whom had been covering a little thing known as The Downing Street Memos for, ahem, quite some time. Suffice it to say, the reaction to the Times' piece is a bit, uh, jaded in some quarters.
Cernig at NewsHog:
The New York Times is finally playing catch-up.Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast:
Today their leader deals with one of the Downing Street documents already familiar to every Briton - and to American readers of progressive blogs…
Bravo for finally catching up, chaps.
The information about the Downing Street Memos has been out for almost a year, but only now that George W. Bush's approval ratings are in the toilet does the New York Times see fit to cover them.Elsewhere, we find more expressions of frustration about the Right's enablement and when, at long last, enough will be enough.
Maha:
When The Guardian reported last February about another Downing Street memo in which President Bush suggested luring Saddam Hussein into war by “flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours,” there was much scoffing and hoo-hawing from the Right.Susie at Suburban Guerrilla:
But today the New York Times reveals that the memo is real.
We are losing our country before our very eyes. The press is gingerly climbing on board but it may be too late. The paycheck economy (the one that affects most of us) has been devastated; we live in constant uncertainty. Most countries hate us. The world climate is rapidly decomposing while the administration still plays semantic games.And, finally, contemptuous exasperation.
They are smash-and-grab thugs whose mantra is greed and whose weapons are ballpoint pens and electronic voting machines.
Sometimes it’s so frustrating, I feel as if every major organ in my body will explode. What, exactly, is that will finally let people know enough is enough? When the Pentagon calls in airstrikes on their own suburban development?
Drum at Washington Monthly, responding to the contents of the memo:
Yes, that's the president of the United States talking about deliberately faking a UN overflight in order to provoke a phony confrontation with Saddam—or if that didn't work, trotting out a defector to lie about Iraqi WMD. Honor and dignity, baby, honor and dignity.(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)
Onward Christian Soldiers, Marching as to Virtue War
Via Memeorandum, I see that San Francisco became the newest front in the culture war this weekend, as 25,000 evangelical teens blew into town to rally against the "virtue terrorism" of pop culture. The teens are part of a movement called "Battle Cry for a Generation," led by Teen Mania organizer Ron Luce—a Texas-based activist, author, and host of the "Acquire the Fire TV" cable program, who also happens to be a Bush appointee to a federal anti-drug-abuse commission. The two-day rally in San Francisco was the first stop in a three-city "reverse rebellion" that will move on to Detroit and Philadelphia and be followed by what Luce describes as the unleashing of a blitz of youth pastors into the communities to use the power of "'God's instruction book' to guide young people away from the corrupting influence of popular culture."
If the movement's verbiage—virtue terrorism, battle cry, acquire the fire, rebellion, blitz—all sounds a bit disconcertingly warlike to you, well, it's no mistake. Luce is a believer that Christians are at war in America.
"This is more than a spiritual war," Luce said. "It's a culture war."The San Francisco Board of Supervisors officially condemned the rally, which is openly anti-choice and anti-gay, and counter-protestors deemed the "Battle Cry" event a "fascist mega-pep rally," which has drawn the ire of some conservative bloggers, who are pointing to it as proof of the Left's intolerance. To which I can only say, Guilty as charged. As a card-carrying progressive, I don't find the merest shred of obligation to be tolerant of people who have declared a war on me and my ideals, not the tiniest compulsion to accommodate hatemongering cast in a branded offensive, not an infinitesimal responsibility to engage in the semantic contortions required for me to pretend that progressives who seek to protect women's rights of autonomy and ensure equality for the LGBT community are of the same tenor as a group of asinine teens too foolish to question what, if advertisers are terrorists, does that make the man who sends them into the streets with identical signs marketing his website?
Military metaphors abound in Luce's descriptions of the struggle. He tells young people of how "an enemy has launched a brutal attack on them." At a pre-Battle Cry rally Friday afternoon on the steps of City Hall, Luce told his mostly teenage audience that "terrorists of a different kind" -- advertisers -- were targeting them and that they were "caught in the middle of the battle."
"Are you ready to go to battle for your generation?" he asked, and the young people roared "yes!" and some waved triangular red flags flown from long, medieval-looking poles.
Being tolerant doesn't require that we demur to a group of people who "declare war" on us—something around which one would think the proponents of a doctrine of preemption would be able to wrap their minds.
Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who authored the condemnation resolution, said of the rally and its objectives, "Even if it is done by a Barnum & Bailey crowd with a tent and some snake oil, I think we need to pay attention to it. We should not fall asleep at the wheel." I couldn't agree more.
(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)
“Liberalism Kills Kids”
Recently, a bunch of Dominionists who call themselves Vision America announced an upcoming convention they like to call The War on Christians and I like to call MartyrCom. In order to design their best defenses against our devious machinations to throw Christians in jail, forcibly abort their fetuses, and compel them to engage in sexual acts with members of the same sex in accordance with our radical gay agenda, these delusional nutzoids will congregate at such panels as “The Gay Agenda: America Won’t Be Happy, “The Judiciary: Overruling God,” “The Media: Megaphone For Anti-Faith Values,” and other colon-separated subject matter.
Today, I read that Dr. Rick Scarborough, founder and president of Vision America, acting chairman of The Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, and conference keynote speaker along with U.S. Senator John Cornyn, will also unveil his new book at MartyrCom: Liberalism Kills Kids.
"Liberalism Kills Kids" is a groundbreaking work which documents the devastating failure of America's 40-year experiment with liberal statism. From the deaths of 44 million unborn children, to skyrocketing rates of out-of-wedlock births, to the divorce epidemic, to the destructive demands of the movement to normalize homosexuality -- the book exposes a cultural coup d'etat that has left our families gasping for air.Although claiming that abortions kill children isn’t exactly groundbreaking in its irritating yet tiresomely familiar mendacity, the assertion that children born out of wedlock, witness their parents’ divorces, or come out of the closet apparently drop dead is, I admit, some admirable trailblazing lunacy. Then again, maybe Dr. Scarborough isn’t suggesting that those things quite literally kill kids, but Liberalism Provides for Nontraditional Family Structures I Don’t Like isn’t quite as catchy a title.
"Liberalism Kills Kids" indicts many of the same forces to be discussed at the War On Christians conference -- Hollywood, the news media, the judiciary and organizations like the ACLU, which -- in the guise of promoting civil liberties -- are demolishing the social order.Oh, I see. Demolishing the social order. That isn’t really the same as killing kids, is it? There are plenty of things that have the capacity to actually kill kids in America—endemic poverty leading to malnutrition/starvation, lack of access to affordable healthcare (including cutting-edge treatments and drugs), corporate irresponsibility and lax environmental regulations, guns, the kind of opportunistic hatemongering that plays on prejudices and can spiral into hate crimes which leave gay teenagers hanging dead on fences, just for a start. Curiously, what all those things have in common is that they wouldn’t make a good fit with the title Liberalism Kills Kids. I’m sure there’s a more appropriate title, but, gosh, it’s just escaping me at the moment.
(Crossposted at Ezra’s place.)
