|
|
Saturday, April 16, 2005
|
|
| |
The Bush Clown Show Continues.
Matthew Yglesias reports: Matthew Yglesias: New Depths Discovered: The
State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on
international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center
concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any
year since 1985, the first year the publication covered. That's
Jonathan Landay reporting for Knight-Ridder. And it really does seem to
be as simple as that. According to Landay's sources, the administration
only wants reports showing that terrorism is going down, and if the
State Department's methods don't produce that result, then their report
just won't be done. Lovely....
[Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal]
10:46:27 PM 
|
|
If This Is Control, I'd Hate To See Chaos!.
Ever since the recent (s)election of the Iraqi government, the drumbeat
from the Right on the 'success' of 'freedom' and 'democracy' has been
unflinching in the face of mounds of evidence to the contrary. Those
who dissent from the party...
[The Left Coaster]
10:45:28 PM
|
|
The Clowns We Sent In.
Isn't we rich?
Are we too fair?
You here at last on the ground,
Me high in air.
Sent in the clowns.
Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing up laws,
One who won't move.
Where...
[The Left Coaster]
11:43:47 AM
|
|
The
Medium Lobster is gladdened to see the House move towards permanently
repealing the estate tax. The estate tax isn't just a wanton infliction
of state violence upon Paris Hilton's God-given right to a tax-free
mountain of money; it does not merely desecrate the solemnity of a
loved one's stock portfolio; it is a dangerous regulation of the cosmic
forces of Life and Death - and one that can only end in apocalyptic
destruction. As all bodhisattvas of the supply side understand,
progressive income tax is an assault against entrepreneurship, taxing
the wealthy at higher rates than the poor and therefore providing a
disincentive to be rich. Indeed, we all remember the day Bill Gates and
Warren Buffet, slouching in their tattered jeans and stained
wife-beaters, announced their decision to quit their jobs and wallow in
poverty rather than pay the terrible price of living in opulence. Even
now America's homeless shelters are filled to bursting with dispirited,
out-of-work billionaires - a humanitarian tragedy that the Democrats
choose to overlook in their slavish subservience to Big Poor. How... [Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal]
6:33:56 AM
|
|
Moderartes: this is your fault 
Let's replace the stars with crosses
Lou
Shelton and the boys have decided to go all in on some crazy TV show
only the dominionists will watch, which equates Senate procedures with
the Sermon on the Mount. Wow, who knewe Satan would demand the
immolation of the GOP as payment for Bush's reeelection.
Now,
everyone is blaming the wingnuts and fundies for this, but not me. It's
like blaming a shark for eating a girl surfer's arm, that's what they do.
These people have played the same game since the 19th Century and
expecting them to act differently is stupid. We're not in Prohibition
territory yet. but we're getting there. Of course, prohibition was a
failure, but why stop at one. We had to beat Germany twice in 25 years
and haven't left in 55. So dealing with the fundies, being shocked that
they want to come up and start their wackjob campaigns, is like being
shocked that a girl is naked and in your bed after a wonderful dinner.
I
don't mean to drag up some old business, but when I said "cultural
elite" was anti-semitic, that didn't come from my ass, even if the
idiot who wrote worked for Joe Lieberman. The folks who agree, well,
they may not hate Jews, but they think they're going straight to hell for not being born again.
Why?
Because Lou Shelton dropped a dose of ugly into this, ugly with a healthy dose of Jew hatred.
"Atheist
billionaire George Soros is funding a number of the organizations that
are attacking DeLay. Soros is a one-world socialist who hates
Christians and seeks a one-world government and legalized drugs. DeLay
is a solid Christian and conservative legislator who is an important
player in the culture war. He understands the issues and the battles
we’re fighting against homosexuality, abortion, pornography, judicial
tyranny, and other issues of concern to traditional values activists
Now,
attacks on Soros is nothing new. But sometimes they let slip their
true, anti-semitic intent. How does someone fight homosexuality, pull
dicks from people's mouths and prevent oral stiumation of the clitoris?
But by setting up Soros as the boogie man of the left, a foriegn
billionaire no less, one who makes money via currency dealings, well,
if Jew doesn't scream out, nothing does.
The news
that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist plans to join a telecast whose
organizing theme is that those who oppose some of President Bush's
judicial nominees are engaged in an assault on "people of faith" is
more than troubling; it is disingenuous, dangerous, and demagogic. We
call on him to reconsider his decision to appear on the telecast and to
forcefully disassociate himself from this outrageous claim.
Senator
Frist must not give legitimacy to those who claim they hold a monopoly
on faith. They do not. They assert, in the words of Tony Perkins,
president of the Family Research Council and organizer of the telecast,
that there is a vast conspiracy by the courts "to rob us of our
Christian heritage and our religious freedoms." There is no such
conspiracy. They have been unable to ram through the most extreme of
the President's nominees, and now they are spinning new claims out of
thin air. [...]
The telecast is scheduled to take place on
the second night of the Passover holiday, when Jews around the world
gather together to celebrate our religious freedom. It was in
part for exactly such freedom that we fled Egypt. It was in part for
exactly such freedom that so many of us came to this great land. And it
is in very large part because of exactly such freedom that we and our
neighbors here have built a nation uniquely welcoming to people of
faith - of all faiths. We believe Senator Frist knows these things as
well. His association with the scheduled telecast is, in a word,
shameful. We call upon to him to disassociate himself from the claim
that the Senate is participating in a filibuster against faith, and to
withdraw his participation from the April 24th event.
-- Rabbi David Saperstein
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
You
know, the Nazis liked to do their round ups at Passover and Yom Kippur.
I'm not saying they act like Nazis, but......it smells familiar.
So who do I blame for this rise of the Christian bund?
Moderates.
It's
nice that Harry Reid denounced the Christian bund rally, but McCain,
Lugar and Spector should have stood right by him in doing so. The old
line conservatives, like McCain, and Lugar and the moderates like Snow,
Chaffee and Collins need to stand with Reid. This isn't about GOP and
Dems any more, but about an attack on our constitution by dominionists.
These folks want a theocracy, maybe not Iranian, but something where
christians are first past the post in all matters.
This merging
of wingnut politicians and religion on TV no less should outrage the
GOP people running in blue and purple states. Shelton and his fellow
wingnuts have one trick, just one, getting people to vote. Their
legislative agenda is a joke and a bad one at that. So it's all GOTV.
But since the GOP has no other way to reach their voters, that's it.
They don't have unions or field ops, they just have churches, so they
have to pander to them.
The problem, as outlined over and
over, is that these people are serious, as serious as Satan when Saddam
tried to take over. It's not a joke and the moderates cannot wish it
away. They should be screaming that these people are shitting on the
Constitution, that the point was to allow ALL religions to flourish,
not have one take over. There were Catholics and Jews in America in
1776 as well as deists. The idea was to make sure that people could
believe what they want without paying for a state church, like they do
in Europe.
The freedom that allows Shelton to have his bund
rally on TV allows us to go about our lives in peace. Where we don't
have people killing each other over God. This special freedom is one
that Shelton wants to toss away for some minor advantage in what?
Telling people what to watch on TV. They want to slaughter the golden
goose and have it with roasted potatoes.
Some guy was on the
Daily Show talking about how moderates are the majority. No shit. The
problem is that moderates left the left carry the ball and the right
have their way. They have no agendas. The moderates on the right do not
get it. These people own the machinery of election. Pure and simple.
They will destroy the GOP because they do not care about anything but
their agenda. The fundies do not care how they get to power, they just
care about power. And Chaffee can bend over and accept lunatics like
John Bolton as UN Ambassador, but the radical right will still sandbag
him. Club for Growth will still field a candidate against him and
people like Santorum will laugh at him behind his back.
The
good thing is that no one saw this coming so fast and so hard. Frist
thinks he can replicate Bush, but he can't. Bush, for all his flaws,
can portray being average and decent. The fact that he's a willfully
ignorant thug goes beyond a lot of people. But Bush plays down his
religion enough to acceptable levels. He can talk about Jesus all he
wants, doesn't bother me. Showing up at the wingnut conference....nope.
That's heavy duty shit. [Steve Gilliard's News Blog]
5:35:20 AM
|
|
|
|
© Copyright
2005
Michael Mussington.
Last update:
5/1/2005; 4:29:07 AM.
|
|
|
