Sunday, May 08, 2005

No Contest Here's some traditional values for ya: Liberals: We got Bacall. Right wingnut McCarthyites: you get this: Any questions? Interview: Larry King Live, May 6, 2005: KING: Wait a minute. Are you a liberal? BACALL: I'm a liberal. The L word! KING: Egads! BACALL: I love it. Being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you're a liberal. You do not have a small mind. Little picayune things. You want to welcome everyone. Liberal, little picayune thing. KING: You're open to... BACALL: You want to welcome everyone. Liberal, I'm a Roosevelt. I'm a -- and I hear anyone say anything about FDR... KING: You're a new dealer, fair dealer. BACALL: I'm a total -- and I was a kid and I'm total, total, total liberal and proud of it. And I think it's outrageous to say the l word. I mean, excuse me. They should be damn lucky that they were liberals here. Liberals gave more to the population of the United States than any other group. KING: Well, Social Security. BACALL: Everything. [...] KING: Very well said. Spoken as a true liberal. BACALL: Don't knock the liberals. KING: I'm not. * - the farmer [corrente] 7:13:25 AM     Alpo Accounts: Rep. Bill Thomas? We remember Rep. Bill Thomas! Apparently, Rep. Bill Thomas is now the Republican pointman on Bush's Social Security phaseout: With President Bush's top domestic priority fading fast, Republicans once again have turned to one of their least liked but most effective colleagues: Rep. Bill Thomas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The California Republican saved President Bush's tax cut in 2003, has never lost a vote on the floor and, despite resistance among other House GOP leaders, is poised once again to try to revive the president's proposal to add personal investment accounts to Social Security. (via WaPo) Yes, we remember Bill Thomas. He's the guy who tried to have the Capitol Police arrest Democrats on the House floor. Thomas was a fruitcake then, and he's a fruitcake now. Hey, good luck to him! I mean, so long as he doesn't try to have Democrats arrested on the House floor again. Too, too '30s Berlin, know what I mean? - Lambert [corrente] 7:12:29 AM     Greatest headlines of our time: "Delay calls for greater humility" I kid you not: "Just think of what we could accomplish if we checked our pride at the door, if collectively we all spent less time taking credit and more time deserving it," [Tom "Bug Man"] DeLay told the 54th annual National Day of Prayer gathering on Capitol Hill. "If we spent less time ducking responsibility and more time welcoming it. If we spent less time on our soapboxes and more time on our knees." (via WaPo ) Heartwarming thought. But Bug Man needs to give his party more credit: There are plenty of Republicans who spend time on their knees... - Lambert  [corrente] 7:04:58 AM     Give the Republicans need a time-out and stop RealID So, the "nuclear option" would shut down the legislative branch. Is that such a bad thing? I mean, the Republicans are going so totally crazy—breaking the rules to change the rules, threatening to assassinate judges, politicizing Schiavo, and don't get me started on fiscal policy—that it would be a blessing for the country if we sent them to the quiet corner for awhile. And isn't "giving the Republicans a time-out" a much more family-friendly framing than "the nuclear option"? And maybe when the time-out is over, the Republicans would remember to use their indoor voices. For a change. One really good reason to shut down the legislative branch is the RealID bill that Congress is about to send to Bush. RealID is, in essence, a system of internal passport controls. Kinda like Russia not under Stalin, but under the Czars. Tim Sparapani, the ACLU's legislative counsel: "If the states aren't ready within three years, citizens of states that haven't made the changes won't be able to board a flight, take a train, enter a federal courthouse or even go to a Social Security building," if they use their state-issued driver's license as identification, Sparapani said. For those states that do comply, he said, "this really does, for the first time, create a national identification card and allows every single American to be tracked by all the states and the federal government." (via Contra Costa Times) Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center spells out what this means for our democracy: "The simple answer is that it gives the government greater ability to control the actions of private individuals. It has generally been the view in this country that one of the core aspects of personal freedom is to be free of government control." "Identification is a form of coercion. It's a way someone says you can't do what you want to do unless you prove who you are." (via Village Voice) The Repubublicans tied the RealID bill onto a military appropriations bill, and sold it as being needed to secure the heimat. Of course, RealID is the mother of all hitchhikers: It has nothing to do with Homeland Security; it's an anti-immigrant provision by the same clowns who brought you the Minuteman: But many of the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attack had student visas and were at one point in the United States legally. The provisions in "RealID" would not have nabbed them. We suspect the true targets are illegal immigrants, who won't be deterred from coming across the Mexican border as long as American companies keep hiring them with a wink and a nod. (our own Inky) But even if RealID starts as "just" an anti-immigration bill, it won't end that way ("First they came for my Nanny..."). After all, the Czars and Stalin only had paper to work with; but we have digital technology! If only it were some dystopian fiction, but the Senate is slated to pass the Real ID Act next week, which specifies that by 2008 all Americans who want to enjoy privileges such as bank accounts and air travel will be issued what will most likely be RFID-enabled ID cards (Homeland Security hasn’t completely decided which machine readable technology they’ll use, but they’re leaning heavily towards RFID since the chips are already going to be used in our passports). The card will likely take the place of your driver’s license and will store at the very minimum your name, birthdate, sex, ID number, a digital photograph and address, with the possibility of additional data such as a fingerprint or retinal scan. State DMVs will be receiving federal funds to hand over their databases, with the goal of making each state’s data available to all other states. (Engadget) And I'm sure after all that data somehow escaped from the highly secure ChoicePoint and LexisNexis systems, we've learned from our mistakes, and the system will be completely secure. And of course, there's no chance, no chance at all, that all the RealID identities will never, never be exchanged with the likes of MBNA for enforcing debt peonage. Wouldn't that synergy be nice? The Bankruptcy Bill and RealID making beautiful music together? As a final bonus, the bill also give the unelected head of of the Department of Homeland Security the power to set aside all law: Finally, just for fun, the bill includes a cheery little fascist measure granting the Secretary of Homeland Security “the authority to waive…all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary’s sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads” claimed to be vital to national security. No courts are allowed “to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security” in this process, nor to order any relief for damages incurred by the exercise of the Almighty Secretary’s unchecked authority. You don’t have to be a tree-hugger to feel wary of giving the non-elected Secretary such singular power to alter the landscape—especially if those roads cut through your back yard. (via University of Chicago) And I just know the Republicans would never abuse the law or the Constitution by expanding "expeditious construction of the barriers and roads" to mean, well, whatever the hell they want it to mean. The only consolation I can see is that bill requires four pieces of ID to get a driver's license. I'd be happy to see long lines at the DMV hung round the neck of the Republican Party... If, by 2008, we have any shreds of Constitutional government and the rule of law left. NOTE Donate to the ACLU. - Lambert [corrente] 7:01:01 AM     Vindication! "Personally, I like underdogs. If they lose, it's not a terrible surprise, but if they win, it makes you feel so damned good, like finally somehow, somewhere, somebody got some justice." --Riggsveda Huzzah!! - Riggsveda [corrente] 6:59:34 AM     More sighing over the media . Adam Nagourney in The New York Times yesterday trying to explain why Tony Blair was "punished" by voters for Iraq, but Bush (allegedly) wasn't: The reason for the divergence was plainly the gulf between the United States and Europe when it comes to Iraq. There has been no recent terrorist attack in Britain, so the visceral argument that Mr. Bush made to American audiences for invading Iraq has far less potency here. "Britain wasn't attacked in September of 2001," said Daniel Finkelstein, associate editor of The Times of London and a former Conservative Party official. "It has a different attitude to the war on terror." Well, there is also the fact that Britain has been facing up to terrorism for a lot longer than the US has, and learned a long time ago that massive overreaction doesn't actually do any good. But American Stranger has the rest of the story over at Blah3: The answer, however, is simple. While the UK media told the truth about the situation, the US media backed away from the story - preferring to parrot the government's happy-talk spin on how great things were in Iraq. I'm not one to sing the praises of the British media, but this is essentially correct. Though successive governments have certainly tried to intimidate the BBC, it still manages to hold enough ground to make questioning the leadership a normal part of the news - the broadcast news. And politicians have to be prepared to fight their corner instead of skating by on softball questions. Of course, much of this analysis relies on the belief that American voters did not, in fact, punish Bush at the polls - an assumption that cannot be tested, and clearly won't be. But that, too, is a problem that can be laid at the feet of our media. [The Sideshow] 6:09:48 AM     And Remember Mother Earth, Too Happy Mothers' Day --- Courtesy of Helga Fremlin [ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES] 5:15:43 AM     An American Outrage No Demoncrats need apply Dems Voted Out of Church Weigh Options By PAUL NOWELL, Associated Press Writer Sat May 7, 7:51 PM ET WAYNESVILLE, N.C. - A pastor who led a charge to kick out nine church members who refused to support President Bush was the talk of the town Saturday in this mountain hamlet, with ousted congregants considering hiring a lawyer. Pastor Chan Chandler greeted people at the door of tiny East Waynesville Baptist Church on Saturday evening as the church choir practiced and even welcomed them to attend services Sunday morning — if there's room inside. But he was not prepared to talk about his mixing of religion and politics. "On the advice of counsel, I've been advised not to have any comment at this time," Chandler told The Associated Press. "We will have a statement later." .................... "This is very disturbing," said Pastor Robert Prince III, who leads the congregation at the nearby First Baptist Church. "I've been a pastor for more than 25 years, and I have never seen church members voted out for something like this." Those who are still members did not know if the church would be open for services Sunday, or if Chandler would be in the pulpit to preach. The 100-member East Waynesville Baptist Church sits on a bluff a short distance from downtown Waynesville, a mountain town about 125 miles northwest of Charlotte. A white steeple and stain glass windows adorn the simple brick structure, built in 1965, with a view of the mountains from the front steps. ................ "I've been going to this church for 25 years and I've never had a problem," Sutton's wife, Lorene, told The Associated Press on Friday. "He's young and he thinks he knows everything." Other former members of the church declined to speak with a reporter Saturday, citing the advice of their attorney. But the furor over politics at the church was the talk of Waynesville, a community of about 9,200 residents. "It's just an outrage for something like this to happen in America," said Heidi Jenkins, 52, as she held a garage sale at her home down the street from the church. Prince said he noticed during the presidential campaign that more pastors made endorsements — although not from the pulpit — than in past years. "It used to be that pastors would speak about the issues and not specific candidates," he said. "I think that line is being crossed. We tend to think only we care about our rights. Well, these people care too. The fundies forget one thing, and we need to remember it. People like to be left alone. They have a boss and a spouse to tell them what to do, they don't need a preacher in that mix as well. [Steve Gilliard's News Blog] 5:14:33 AM     Extreme Religious Right Ally of DeLay Pressures Frist on Nuclear Option. Who is holding a gun to Frist's head on his "nuclear option"? A close friend of Tom DeLay, among other extreme Religious Right wingnuts: Baptist minister Rick Scarborough was tireless in promoting his conservative Christian way of thinking. ... He crisscrossed the country to protest the ousting of Roy S. Moore, former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, for installing a Ten Commandments tablet at his courthouse. And Scarborough created a network of "Patriot Pastors" to lead evangelicals to the polls in 2004. Now he has set his sights on bigger stakes: pushing Senate Republicans to change the rules so that Democrats cannot block President Bush's judicial nominees. The fight over the judgeships was once a largely academic argument over the constitutionality of the filibuster. But now it provides a fiery new front in the culture war. And Scarborough is emblematic of the Christian right leaders who have been drawn to the fray. ... Scarborough is a potent force with close ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and influential Senate conservatives. In just the past two weeks, Scarborough has recruited 2,000 more Christian ministers for his Patriot Pastor network, boosting total membership of the three-year-old alliance to about 5,000 members. The Senate returns tomorrow from a one-week recess, and the showdown over judges could come sometime in the next few weeks. It is a key test of the Christian right's political clout since last year's election, when Bush won a second term and Republicans strengthened their hold on Congress -- thanks in part to a record turnout of so-called "values voters." Anytime Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) or other GOP leaders appear to be backing away from a showdown with the Democrats over the filibuster, Scarborough and his backers are there to give them a shove. This helps to explain the protracted nature of the dispute and the challenge to GOP leaders to work out a compromise. "One of my goals in life is to give the Republican Party courage," Scarborough said in a recent interview. "We have a lot of gutless wonders who wear the tag conservative Republican. Anytime there's any amount of fire, they crater." These guys run the Republican Party. [Daily Kos] 5:11:46 AM     Bush's Iraq Debacle. Today I woke to the news of more violence in Iraq with yet another car bomb killing 22 people. Every day this week the news from Iraq has been bleak -- more than enough death to break into the self-absorbed... [The Left Coaster] 5:08:35 AM

© Copyright 2005 Michael Mussington. Last update: 6/1/2005; 1:34:11 AM.