SATURDAY
11.06.04 / 8:11
AM / LINK / COMMENT
It was politics infused
with religion that hoisted Jesus up on the cross
Here's
something
Democrats and Progressives have to understand.
Steve Waldman suggests that something beyond specific "moral"
issues is what's so appealing to folks who would vote against
their economic and libertarian interests to make sure the constitution
gets religion.
Democrats and Progressive have to find a way to show and state
in simple terms that Jesus said next to nothing about sexual
issues, but preached
incessantly against the politics of his moment --politics at that time
being fully integrated into religious life. The high priests
in Jerusalem also constituted the high court. It was politics
infused with religion that hoisted Jesus up on the cross and
exposed him to the Roman way of capital punishment.
Unless we want to go there too, we have to adjust the message,
not the principle.
TOP
11.06.04
/ 8:11 AM / LINK
/ COMMENT
Whoever's not for morality, raise your
hand
Columnist
Gary Langer suggest that despite exit polls, "moral issues"
were not at the top of list for voters who chose Bush. He
said
the poll question was misleading.
Langer may be right, but defining "morality" is something
the Democrats are going to have to work on. Framing the question
in a way that more accurately reflects the spectrum of moral
issues will be very important as we slink into a faith-based
Gomorrah -a Gomorrah that has nothing to do with sex or sexual
deviance but can just as perverse. As truth (and scripture) would
have it, this other Gomorrah is famous for the things Jesus really
railed about. Hypocrisy being at the top of his exit pole (sic).
Unfortunately most of the issues facing us are nuanced. But nuance
is something that doesn't play well in political discourse, or
go over as effectively on Fox's Spewing-Heads slimefests.
Saying, "Killing unborn babies is bad" is much less
difficult to wrap your certainty around than saying, "Executing
child
felons who may not have a clue is just as bad". In the second case
you have to use your brain a little --something the Republican
Party doesn't require these days.
But Jesus requires it. In his famous Sermon on the Mount George
Bush's favorite moral philosopher said,
"Judge not, that you be
not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged;
and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
"And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye,
but do not consider the plank in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me remove the speck
from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite!
First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see
clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
|
What planks and specs was the moral carpenter talking about?
Bush Americans should ask themselves this question. And so should
the other 50% of us.
But anti-Bush Americans should listen to Waldman as well. We
might learn something.
Some things Bush Christians (Bushtians) fail to take into account (or intentionally
ignore):
The
Sermon on the Mount & The Beatitudes
The Sequel:
The Sermon
on the Mound & The Bushattitudes
TOP
11.06.04
/ 7:25 AM / LINK / COMMENT
"Right-to-life" and
"death" in the same breath
Now that
elections seem to hinge on religious questions it might be good
to hear from Christians who doubt the convictions of right wing
so-called Christians who preach "right-to-life"
and "death" in the same breath. You know, the one's
who claim Christ brought a "new covenant" then retreat
into the Old Testament of an angry and vengeful God when it suits
their politics.
This article by Karen Horst Cobb
is a good place to start. One of the
things she reminds us of is this warning by rabbi Jesus: "Some
who believe they are fighting evil will cry to the Lord, and
he will say “I never knew you.“ (Matthew 22)."
It doesn't specify if he was talking about Americans or American
presidents or not, but that's probably one of those nuance things
we're expected to fill in... correctly.
TOP
FRIDAY
11.05.04 / 9:31
PM / LINK / COMMENT
Precise flybys in outer
space, lost votes on terra firma
Isn't
it amazing that a nation that worked out the technology to send
men to the moon and dispatch little rovers to mars can't count
votes? Doesn't this seem ...odd?
As
reported by CNN,
"An error with an electronic voting system gave President
Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials
said."
Also, "In one North Carolina county, more than 4,500 votes
were lost because officials mistakenly believed a computer that
stored ballots electronically could hold more data than it did.
And in San Francisco, a malfunction with custom voting software
could delay efforts to declare the winners of four races for
county supervisor."
Cassini
flybys
of Saturn's rings and we're just going round in circles with
the very fundamental of democracy. Why is that?
It's not as important as corporate welfare, that's why.
....or maybe there are other reasons. Like this by Greg Palast.
TOP
11.05.04 / 5:44 PM /
LINK / COMMENT
A tiger does not change
it's spots
Gird
your loins is what Paul
Krugman says.
Progressives should not give it up, lay back and enjoy it, or
assume the position, we should muster our resolve and not believe
the inevitable loser hype that'll flow from Republican propagandists
everywhere.
And you know Krugman's right.
This was not a big win for George Bush, it was a near miss. If
we scored basketball in percentages it'd be a two point loss
for Kerry. One friggin' basket. I know that and I don't even
follow sports.
A tiger does not change it's spots (to coin a Bushism). The George
Bush of November 1st is the George Bush of November 3rd. His
agenda is set. His illusions appear to be invoilable. His methods
are clear. So must progressives be (except for the illusions
part). Move on. Never say die.
TOP
11.05.04
/ 1:35 AM / LINK
/ COMMENT
Where is that pesky mandate?
Is it over here under the podium? Under the chair? Are Democrats
trying to hide it? Did they put it over here with the WMDs?
OK, you've
had a couple of days to whine. Now quit whining. There's no time
for whining. There's no room or time for being demoralized. The
Republicans are already spinning the election as a national mandate.
Hannity will be gloating for days. Limbaugh will be laughing
and frothing. But there is no mandate. There was only
an election won by a hair's breadth. 51% to 49% is no mandate.
Here are some facts to remember courtesy
of the Daily Kos:
This is the largest number of
people who have ever voted AGAINST a president
1% more than 50% is not a
mandate but a bare, thin, majority.
At 80% approval after 9-11
and guaranteed a landslide election by prognosticators 2 years
ago, only half the country supports him..
And regarding
the electoral vote Kos give us this:
Assuming Bush gets New Mexico
and Iowa, he will have gotten the lowest percentage of electoral
votes (54%) of any incumbent running for reelection since Wilson.
If those two states should swing Kerry's way (NM might), it'll
be even lower.
He will have won with the
lowest percentage of the popular vote (51%) of any incumbent
running for reelection since Truman (well, technically since
Clinton, but he also ran against Perot, who was a more significant
3rd-party candidate than Thurmond and Wallace were in '48)
He will have won by the lowest
margin of the popular vote (3.5M) of any incumbent running for
reelection since Truman (2.1M, and back then only 50M voted).
He will have won the three
states that put him over 270 (OH, NM and IA--assuming the last
two go his way) by only 161,989 (not counting the provisional
ballots, absentee, etc.).
All of this
doesn't change the fact that we'll be forced
to listen to
this corporate, sectarian, arrogant little faux-democrat (small
d) stumble over syntax and say and do unbelievable things for
another four years, but it must remind us that almost half
the nation doesn't want this man as its president. We don't
believe in him or his pinched and dangerous vision.
I'd like to repeat that. You are not alone. Almost half the
nation doesn't want this man as its president.
Republicans will be hot into Rovian thought manipulation
through their media minions. They'll be repeating over and over
that the president has a mandate, the president has a mandate.
They'll be saying it as often as they've said Iraq has been a
catatrophic success, but it ain't true. So we have to keep this
fact out there. Repeat it over and over yourself. There is
no mandate. No mandate.
Because there isn't. There's only a nation divided against
itself, which is bad enough. But George Bush has no mandate for
his broken record.
TOP
11.03.04 / 9:36 PM /
LINK / COMMENT
Going downhill
During
the American revolution Thomas Jefferson wrote,
"From the conclusion of this war we shall be going downhill.
It will not be necessary to resort every moment to the people
for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights
disregarded. They will forget themselves save in the sole
faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting
to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore
. . . will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall
revive or expire in a convulsion.
|
Jefferson predicted these days,
and the ratification yesterday by 51% of us of the end of the
Republic.
Those who voted for George Bush will of course think this is
foolishness. But as they watch this machiavelli machine over
the next three or four years many will come to regret what they've
done.
A list of 20 beliefs just ratified by 51% of voting Americans:
1. That the rejection of international
diplomacy is the best way to create a safer world, and that in
a complex and interlinked world the USA, going it alone, can
be safe and secure.
2. That preemptive wars are not a signal to the rest of the world
to follow suit and will not lead to constant war. 3. That persuing
empire is the path America should follow.
4. That the Bill of Rights is not sacrosanct but can be unilaterally
ammended by presidents.
5. That governmental secrecy is not anti-democratic.
6. That eliminating abortion trumps all other considerations
when voting.
7. That the rights of corporations and business in general supercede
the rights of individuals, especially workers.
8. That government's first responsibility is to assure that corporations
thrive no matter how it affects workers.
9. That religious sects may form a forth branch of government
(but not necessarily your sect).
10. That faith trumps reason as a basis for action.
11. That patriotism means backing the leader no matter what.
12. That dissent is automatically unpatriotic.
13. That taxation is fundamentally bad and that we have little
responsibility to contribute financially to our governance.
14. That the wealthy deserve special consideration, while the
poor deserve as little consideration as possible.
15. That the environment is not worth a president's focused attention.
16. That a corporation's profit trumps a society's right to a
life sustaining environment.
17. That we have no responsibility to our children (and their's)
in leaving them with huge debt, reduced political rights, and
a compromised environment.
18. That, despite Enron, the privatization of Social Security
is a good idea.
19. That corporate monopolization of news outlets trumps a free
press and should not be regulated.
20. That we should just shut up and let oligarchs govern.
TOP
11.03.04
/ 6:54 PM / LINK
/ COMMENT
Where to now?
Where
to now? In the president's face is where. Right back at him.
Already he talks of a "broad nationwide victory". One
percentage point over 50/50 and he's suggesting a mandate. He
acknowledges nothing of his opposition (a full 49% of the nation).
He starts his second term off with a lie. He begins with divisiveness
without even taking a breath. How can you respect a man like
that?
As Josh Marshall puts
it, "he
plans to use this narrow victory as though it were a broad mandate,
starting right back with the same strategy that has already come
near to tearing this country apart."
But why should we expect something different? This is not a uniter
we have here, this is a beligerant man, a polarizing figure.
A smug fomenter, not a peacemaker. By his own choice not a blessed
one.
As Rabbi Jesus said, those with ears to hear will surely hear.
The rest will drown it out with patriotic songs and talk of empire.
Atrios says
it well.
"The people who voted
George Bush and the Republicans into office this year didn't
do so because they were conned by a right wing asshole posing
as a compassionate centrist. They did so precisely because he
is a right wing asshole. Yes, the modern Republican party consists
of nasty bigots and liars and the media rarely bothers to point
out just how nasty they are (all the talking heads talking about
the role of "moral values" in the election know that
what that really means is "fag hating," but they won't
say it). But, don't be fooled - people know what they voted for."
Remember,
the religious and selectively moral among us are usually first
and foremost sectarians. And when their sects eventaully
clash it won't be pretty. As Abdullah ibn Abdullah said, "The clash
of fierce nations leads to great tribulation. But the clash of
religions beats all."
Watch out for flying crucifixes and the pious thumping heads
with bibles. Lookout for religious litmus tests --ring kissings
and such. Stay tuned for priests flicking holy water at inaugurations.
All of these and sanctified military bombardments as well.
TOP
11.03.04
/ 5:59 AM / LINK / COMMENT
Inertia, a skid, and a
deep ditch
Right
now I feel like we're in the middle of a bad skid. I'm seeing
it in slow-mo. We're heading helplessly into a deep ditch.
I feel this way because I woke up to the news that, although
it's not absolutely certain yet, the 50% of us with lousy imaginations
are inching out the 50% who envision well what's at the end of
the skid at the bottom of the ditch once intertia's had it's
way with us.
This election proves it. If the nation was any more evenly divided
we'd be called an equation. Yet you know this president and this
congress, and the coming court will govern as if they had a mandate
from God. Literally.
Right now we're at the point in the skid where we're still on
the road, but we're doing languid pirouettes on asphalt sliding
toward the shoulder in what seems like a democratic ballet. It's
not though. It's a black comedy without the comedy. But all of
us won't understand this until after we come out of our coma
and realize how much has been broken.
I'm in the mood for a miracle. Is there a faith healer in the
house?
TOP
TUESDAY
11.02.04
/ 6:43 AM / LINK
/ COMMENT
Validating slimeballs
Unable
to control themselves, Rovian slimeballs manning auto-phones
lobbed some last minute slime grenades at potential voters.
As reported today in the Detroit
Free Press,
"Some voters on Monday complained of getting misleading
automated phone calls over the weekend telling them either that
their polling place had changed or that a vote for Democratic
presidential candidate John Kerry was a vote to legalize gay
marriage." What they failed to mention was that a vote for
George Bush was a vote to validate Rovian slimeballs and a general
disrespect for the truth.
The calls were made in Detroit, Flint and Pontiac and the Democratic-leaning
city of Grand Rapids.
TOP
11.02.04 / 6:10 AM / LINK / COMMENT
A small man, not a large
In a
very succint way E.J. Dionne sums
up the
failure of George Bush's presidency in today's Washington Post.
Dionne says, "It's a shame, really. Bush could have been
a great president... He chose instead to be the leader of a party
and a faction. However this election turns out, that's what he'll
still be on Nov. 3."
The leader of a party and a faction... not of a nation. A small
man not a large.
TOP
11.02.04 / 5:35 AM /
LINK / COMMENT
Vote. Don't be intimdated
and don't walk away
With
the stakes being as high as they are Americans, taking advantage
of early voting opportunities, have patiently waited in 2, 3,
and 4 hour lines. This is a good sign for our democracy. Democracy
doesn't work if you're not willing to be inconvenienced a little
to cast a ballot.
Paul Krugman
has some good things to say about this in his column
today.
He also quotes something that's pretty inspiring which I also
ran across at Josh Marshall's blog. He writes, "Here's what
a correspondent from Florida wrote to Joshua Marshall, of talkingpointsmemo.com:
'To see people coming out - elderly, disabled, blind, poor; people
who have to hitch rides, take buses, etc. - and then staying
in line for hours and hours and hours ... Well, it's humbling.
And it's awesome. And it's kind of beautiful.' "
At least at the beginning of this election day we can hope this
process bears good and beautiful fruit. So vote. Don't be intimidated
by Republican challengers. Stand your ground and don't walk away
no matter how long you might have to wait. If the wrong people
win you may have to wait a lot longer to get a similar chance
again.
TOP
MONDAY
11.01.04
/ 8:21 AM / LINK / COMMENT
It ain't easy to love
an empire
With
the drip, drip, drip repression, along with surges of imperial
inclinations one of the things disappearing from the globe is
love for America.
In an article by Ian Baruma in the Christian Science Monitor
he tells us, "There is such a thing as Americophilia. It
doesn't have the rich pedigree of Anglophilia or Francophilia,
or even Germanophilia. In fact, it's not always recognized as
a bona fide "philia" at all. But it exists. It existed
in Europe during the Jazz Age, and in Europe, Japan, and pretty
much everywhere during the 1950s. Even the Vietnam War didn't
really kill it, for the center of protest was still in the US.
Americans had the best lines, and tunes, against the war. It
still exists, although it's in danger of going the way of Germanophilia,
into the fog of nostalgia, the land of what might have been."
When a nation turns from hope to fear and starts hunkering down
it's days of glory are over, you can count on it. Hope always
drove America, but now it's leaders have turned to fear-mongering.
Oh, they may get what they want, political power, but what will
be lost to the rest of the world will be iredeemable.
Buruma says that despite the fact that, "(American) rhetoric
of freedom, fighting tyranny, and liberating the enslaved speaks
louder than ever, ...too often it's laced with fear of foreigners,
a nasty edge of chauvinism, and surly belligerence. The US has
always had mood swings from active intervention abroad to sour
isolation. What appears to be the current mood in Washington
is a peculiar mixture of both: a desire to fix the world alone,
whether the world likes it or not."
Fear is a useful tool for vote gathering and power accrual, but
it can be more deadly to a nation's health than a shortfall of
flu vaccine.
More on empire.
TOP
10.30.04 / 8:21 AM /
LINK / COMMENT
Why is this guy still
taping?
Remember
Osama and how George Bush made him the focus of our rage? Notice
how your never hear him mentioned by the president anymore?
Well, OBL has just released a new
show
and the question on everyone's lips should not be speculative:
will John Kerry keep us safe from Osama? It should be positive:
how come, after two years and billions of bucks, and the deployment
of the best military in the world, this guy is still breathing
and making tapes?
The answer my friend is blowin' in an ineffectual wind.
This might also remind us of the limits of military power under
present world conditions. What we really need is world diplomacy
and cooperation to corner all Osamas, existing and in production.
And we won't get that from George the Almighty.
FRIDAY
10.29.04 / 6:30
AM / LINK
/ COMMENT
Only the stupefied won't
care
Al Qaqaa
is just one last wakeup call to the credulous to abandon the
incredible. But it won't happen. The strangely self-destructive
50% are going down with their Capt'n and are bound to take all
of us with them. Tons and tons of unguarded explosives, now being
used to kill our troops, have disappeared in Iraq --looted by
anyone who could get their hands on a truck-- because the Bush
war team has cornered the market on incompetence; and still they
support their man.
Is it really unreasonable to presume that any responsible person
who has the power to start a war would have had a plan to win
it beyond the sayso of his neocon resonating ensemble?
But as Paul Krugman points
out today,
Al QaQaa is only the tip of the sandberg. Here's a quick summary
of the fruits of supporting Mr. Maladroit in his mad misadventures.
1. Oops, there goes Osama: Bushteam let's him get away
at Tora Bora. Gen. Tommy Franks says that's not what happened,
"But multiple reports from 2001 and early 2002 confirm (it)."
And as Peter Bergen, a terrorism expert, writes, it's "an
accurate reflection of the historical record."
But the 50% say it doesn't faze them.
2. Oops, there goes Zarqawi: the military had a chance
to blow him away in 2002, but Bushteam, not wanting to make waves
and capsize their plans to sink Saddam, let him slip away to
behead any hapless civilians who might mislead into George's
quagmire.
But the 50% say, He's still
our chief --and hail to the chief, while you're at it.
3. Cheney touts the "remarkable success" of Iraq:
at the same moment though, Ayad Allawi accused coalition forces
of "gross negligence" after 49 Iraqi National Guard
recruits were killed, execution style.
But the 50% say, lets stay with Bushteam, they pray.
4. $70,000,000,000 more to be dumped into Bushteam's "cakewalk":
the news will come as a shock to many people who still don't
realize how deep a quagmire Mr. Bush has gotten us into.
Yes the 50% still say, "Who's counting? -- we rid the world
of Saddam. Who cares if now we have close to chaos? ...it's an
improvement. And, besides, at least Bush is not a Liberal."
I think the 50% probably agree with Rudi Giuliani that the Al
Qaqaa incident, like every other Mesopotamian screw-up of the
last 2 years, is not the president's fault. Giuliani says it's
the troops fault!
There you have a pure nugget of Republican thinking: The troops
are always expendable, whether they're of the military or the
middle class. It's all the same to Bush Giuliani.
The troops were responsible for Abu Ghraib, the troops are responsible
for the heist at Al Qaqaa, the middle class can go pound salt
re: health insurance, the worker will just have to be laid off,
it's a dog eat dog world out there... "Now let's play
some golf."
Dear U.S. Keep-Me-Safe-At-All-Costs 50%,
Can't you see the way this thing is heading?
Sincerely,
Concerned Citizen
|
We're not being led by brilliant men. But if they've gotten to
where they gotten because we've been sidetracked by Britney Spears,
or Hummers, or some other bottomless capitalist fantasy, how
brilliant must we,ourselves, be?
TOP
10.26.04
/6:22 AM / LINK
/ COMMENT
Has anyone seen 377 tons
of high explosives?
Reprise of
the unfunny Bush routine on missing WMDs: Has anyone seen 377 tons of high explosives? Are
they under this table here? Are they over here behind the podium?
Under the dais? Hmmmm... just like those pesky WMDs, all gone.
For an missionary incompetent
like president Bush a few tons of high grade bomb material being
looted by the enemy, like the absence of the stated rationale
for war might be something to joke about, but not for the folks
who will be personally affected by his incredible obtuseness.
This would first be our troops.
Will four more year of incompetence covered up by official secrecy
founded upon religious fundamentalism, make us safer?
Paul Krugman's NY Times column
today speaks to secrecy and the way the Bush administration
approaches national security:
Where are all those major problems confronting the U.S.A.? Are
they under this table here....
TOP
