Billmon depresses again...

Friends don't send friends to jail -- or smash their presses or abolish their political parties or line them up against the wall and shoot them.

The problem is that the tissue of this particular lie has been eroding ever since the Clinton impeachment, if not before, and is now worn exceedingly thin. It's becoming harder and harder to conceal the ruthlessness of the struggle for power, or ignore the consequences of losing it.

Here's The Link

Stolen from Digby

Are we all clear on how this works now? Lying about fellatio leads to lethal abuse of power by the state. Flatly refusing to obey the laws he signed and lying about national security serves the common good. This is your modern Republican party in a nutshell: A dictatorship of puritanical busybodies.

link here

Re Glenn Greenwald's new book....

>i love the thought that there are going to be thousands of wigged out, right-wing super patriots who buy this book thinking it's their preferred type of reading.<

As well they should. Patriotism is after all about not only loving your country, but participating in its governance and accepting responsibility for its actions. If our country's actions don't reflect our values, then we have a responsibility to try and bring about change.

I think more and more people are realizing this and are waking up to notice that our values are NOT being reflected in our governments actions.

I'm actually holding out hope that more Republicans will also realize that civil liberties are not a partisan issue but rather affect us all and will help to pull us back from the precipice

Today we quote Scott Ritter

Sandy Berger is a liar every bit as much as Condoleezza Rice is. Madeleine Albright’s a liar every bit as much as Donald Rumsfeld is. I mean, they’ve all lied about the same thing, which is that Iraq represented a threat in the form of weapons of weapons of mass destruction that warranted military action.

The article



His Book

Buy this while your at it!

Too short to excerpt

Just follow the link

Re: Iran

So Bush wants to be remembered as the one President who had the "courage" (read - complete lack of accountability) to prevent Iran from aquiring a WMD and he refuses to rule out the first use of an atomic weapon against a country with which we are NOT currently at war.

Tell me again which one is the rougue state?

Stolen from Digby

Pacifism is a respectable philosophy that has been a part of the American (hell, the Christian) experience forever. And it, at least, has some intellectual coherence, unlike this hawkish/centrist mish mash of nothingness you find among the so-called liberal hawks
Full post here

Another excite poll

Testifying before a Senate committee, former Nixon White House counselor John Dean asserted Friday that President Bush's conduct in connection with a domestic spying program exceeds the wrongdoing that toppled President Nixon from power. The Senate, Dean said, should censure or reprimand Bush as proposed in a resolution by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin). (AP)
Do you think the Senate should censure President Bush over conduct related to the domestic wiretapping program?


Yes 49% => 4178 votes

No 48% => 4113 votes

I'm not sure 2% => 224 votes
Current number of voters: 8515

Kool-aid anyone?

President Bush said Wednesday that Saddam Hussein, not continued U.S. involvement in Iraq, is responsible for ongoing sectarian violence that is threatening the formation of a democratic government. In response to critics who say the U.S. presence in the wartorn nation is fueling the insurgency, Bush said that Saddam was a tyrant and used violence to exacerbate sectarian divisions to keep himself in power, and that as a result, deep tensions persist to this day. (AP)
What do you think is the chief cause of ongoing sectarian violence in Iraq - ongoing U.S. involvement in the country, or the legacy of Saddam Hussein?


Saddam's legacy 36% => 2252 votes

U.S. involvement 29% => 1815 votes

Both are equally to blame 30% => 1909 votes

I'm not sure 3% => 224 votes
Current number of voters: 6200

From John at AmericaBlog

You simply can't sit back, hug a tree and sing cumbaya in your Birkenstocks by the campfire and expect the crystal fairy to hand you your civil rights and your country back.


Link

I'm occasionally reassured.

Do you think the U.S. should establish long-term military bases in Iraq?


Yes 25% => 2606 votes

No 69% => 6962 votes

I'm not sure 4% => 484 votes
Current number of voters: 10052

Today's Quote - Joshua Micah Marshall

He's set on a destructive course, laced with corruption and fed by extremism. And he mistakenly believes that stubborness and ignorance constitute a virtue he calls 'leadership'.

Link

I hate to tell Auntie Pinko this

But American audiences are shallow myopic selfish ADD victims!


"Even well-intentioned journalists are often betrayed by a relentless focus on playing to a conventional wisdom that depicts American audiences as shallow, myopic, selfish individuals with short attention spans and an appetite for the sensational."

Link here

I comment at AmericaBlog

The exchange between F&L and gorilla is a great example of what's happening among Dems in general. Here we have a pacifist who would refuse to kill on principle ( a position I'm quite sympathetic toward) countered by someone who would actually like to regain control of where the country is headed so we can bring this madness to an end! In order to do that, we need to take a bite out of the center, which of course means a> not appearing weak b> acknowleging that most people in our military feel that they are honestly and morally defending our nation c>not set ourselves up to be caricatured.

Today's Quote - The Green Knight

Personally, I no longer give a crap whether people respect my beliefs or not. If they do, they do, and if they don't there's very little I can do to change their minds. Ultimately, it comes down to personality type, perhaps. Some people don't like the Beatles. What are you gonna do?

My e-mail to Russ Feingold

I, unfortunatly am not a constituent of yours but I do wish to write in support of your censure resolution. The effort our President is exerting to make the executive branch unaccountable to the American people will have ramifications far beyond any one person's term in office. I am grateful for your efforts to bring this to the attention of the American Public.

My stolen quote for today

"People place their hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution; they don't put their hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible," he said.

Jamie Raskin

via Preemptive Karma

Today's Quote from Mark Danner

Military power is good for blowing things up; it's good for destroying things. It's not good for building a new order. It takes a great deal more power, skill, and patience to construct an enduring order in Iraq.

Link

I've always said when your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When your only tool is a bomb everything looks like a target.

Matthew Yglesias pisses me off.

Fundamentally, if invading Iraq had proven to be a good idea I doubt there would be all that much concern about the president's honesty. The basic problem is that the war wasn't a good idea. The lying is sort of icing on the cake

And this guy's supposed to be on my team.

War is NEVER a good idea. Even if it might ever be necessary it is NEVER a "good idea". And the lying is The WHOLE EFFING PROBLEM!

link

George W. Bush 3% - I know I'm impressed!

Happy Presidents' Day!
Who do you think was the greatest U.S. president that served in the last 30 years?


Jimmy Carter 6% => 588 votes

Ronald Reagan 47% => 4614 votes

George H.W. Bush 1% => 112 votes

Bill Clinton 23% => 2269 votes

George W. Bush 3% => 373 votes

None of them were great 17% => 1737 votes

I'm not sure 1% => 105 votes
Current number of voters: 9798

I comment at Glenn Greenwald

The framers of the constitution understood the corrupting influence of power and did everything they could to guard against it. It doesn't matter whose "team" you're on. Can you imagine the howling that would be going on if it were Janet Reno who was claiming the right to wiretap without oversight?

(Actually we don't need to imagine it, we can remember it.) Anyone remember the "clipper chip"?

This battle is of crucial impoortance because whatever the result, it will affect the stucture of power in this country for decades to come.



Link

Posted without comment

Generally speaking, do you approve, disapprove, or have mixed feelings about the way President George W. Bush is handling his job? (Related AP article)

Strongly approve 23% => 2382 votes

Somewhat approve 14% => 1512 votes

Have mixed feelings 9% => 929 votes

Somewhat disapprove 5% => 550 votes

Strongly disapprove 47% => 4922 votes

I'm not sure 0% => 17 votes
Current number of voters: 10312

A comment I posted on Glenn Greenwald's site.

Too many people it seems have forgotten the lessons of Kent State and the 68 democratic convention. Violent action against citizens over their politics is a real possibility, if we can't maintain the rule of law.

Quoting from your post yesterday "the Administration has now baldly stated that whatever it is allowed to do against our enemies in a war, it is equally entitled to exercise all of the same powers against American citizens on American soil."

So what happens when the eavesdropping program discovers someone who's a really bad guy but they can't prosecute him because they've tainted the evidence?

We already know what they do if he happens to be in Pakistan.

I am occasionally encouraged that people are starting to get it.

What do you think should be the single most important priority in the federal budget?


Extending tax cuts 9% => 348 votes

Fighting the war on terrorism 18% => 674 votes

Medicare 7% => 265 votes

Reconstructing the Gulf Coast region 4% => 159 votes

Reducing domestic spending 4% => 170 votes

Reducing the federal deficit 23% => 856 votes

Social Security 9% => 354 votes

Stimulating job growth 11% => 403 votes

None of the above 7% => 250 votes

I'm not sure 2% => 92 votes
Current number of voters: 3571

From Glenn Greenwald

In case anyone wonders why I think this stuff is scary....

"Put another way, the Administration has now baldly stated that whatever it is allowed to do against our enemies in a war, it is equally entitled to exercise all of the same powers against American citizens on American soil. "

Link

From read JDM

I understand that our soldiers are making sacrifices. But I don’t really feel like my freedoms are on the line in Iraq at the moment. Maybe they are. But if so, I’m more concerned with how they got over there in the first place. I mean, they’re my freedoms, aren’t they? Shouldn’t they be over here with the rest of my things? I’m going to need some answers to those questions if “Defending Our Freedom” is going to work as a pro-war argument for me.

Full article here

From the Washington Post

Police escorted Sheehan from the visitors' gallery above the House chamber after causing a disruption, said a Capitol Police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the incident were sketchy. he was lying.


link

First I'll quote Digby quoting Juan Cole

"Democracy depends not just on elections but on a rule of law, on stable institutions, on basic economic security for the population, and on checks and balances that forestall a tyranny of the majority. Elections in the absence of this key societal context can produce authoritarian regimes and abuses as easily as they can produce genuine people power. Bush is on the whole unwilling to invest sufficiently in these key institutions and practices abroad."

Then I'll just mention that it seems rather unwilling to invest in these things at home either.


the Digby Link

The Juan Cole Link

My point exactly!

From the Boston Globe

On a legal level, however, Bush's initiative has deeper implications, analysts said. If the public and the Congress accept Bush's assertion of power, they would clear the way for an increase in presidential power that could last long after Bush leaves office, the analysts said.

''This power will lie around like a loaded weapon for any future incumbent to use when he wants to override a law," said Bruce Fein, a former Justice Department official in the Reagan administration. ''There will be terrorism forever, so it will become a permanent fixture on our legal landscape.


link here

Shamelessly exerpting again

This time from Digby

Notice how Limbaugh and the preachers pander to the depraved imagination? It's not religious values these people are selling. They are selling a brutal, domineering, degenerate culture, making their listeners and viewers wallow in it, plumbing the depths of the subconscious, drawing forth Goyaesque images of bestiality and violence and death. That's a feature of some religions, to be sure, but it's not the nice upright Christian morality everybody's pretending it is.

Yet another reminder that 50% of people have below average intelligence.

Do you think an independent counsel should be appointed to investigate whether the Bush administration’s domestic eavesdropping program violated the law?


Yes 48% => 7797 votes

No 50% => 8176 votes

I'm not sure 1% => 224 votes
Current number of voters: 16197

Quoting ReddHedd who quoted Steve Clemons

Now is the time for true patriots to dig deep and raise their voices against the tyranny of King George. The question is, how many true patriots do we have in Congress and on the judicial bench? This is not a political issue, it is an American issue that crosses political party boundaries. If liberty will not be defended by the people of this nation, then liberty ceases to exist.

Either you are for liberty -- or you are for a King. You choose.

ReddHedd citing Steve Clemons

I can't believe someone actually wrote this sentence without their head exploding.

Bush has the chance to show his respect for what he calls Americans' personal freedoms. Now we'll see if the president rises to the occasion.



link here

Re: John Caroll's colums as link to by David Gans

I - like Jon Carroll have always assumed that this kind of eavesdropping was going on and that data mining technology was being used domestically. That isn't what bothers me. What bothers me is that in the context of the revelation that this has been going on, the president has abruptly declared that he is no longer bound by acts of Congress signed into law. He made the same declaration when he signed the bill that contains the McCain amendement. Not even back when the Chicago Police were beating the heads of photographers outside the Democratic National Convention, did I ever imagine that our nation would descend to the point where the phrases "legalizing torture" and "extraordinary rendition" and "indefinite detention" would enter our ordinary discourse. But here we are!

The original column

David Gans' Post

The most reasonable analysis of the NSA situation that I've encountered to date.

A more nuanced explanation may lie in the physics of the challenges faced by the NSA and the availability of sophisticated technologies not foreseen when the FISA law was passed in 1978.

link here

Every single American citizen needs to read this post.

This represents the most blatant executive power grab since Lincoln suspended habeus corpus and no one seems to be noticing.

Glenn Greenwald cross posting at Digby

We don't need no stinking badges!

''Of course the president has the obligation to follow this law, [but] he also has the obligation to defend and protect the country as the commander in chief, and he will have to square those two responsibilities in each case," the official added. ''We are not expecting that those two responsibilities will come into conflict, but it's possible that they will."

Per the Boston Globe

Today's quote is from Glenn Greenwald

Even Americans who agree on nothing else know, even if only on the most submerged and basest levels, that what distinguishes America from other countries and what keeps us safe and secure in our liberty is that nobody, including the President, is above the law. Read the full post

There's a very cool article about Robert Hunter

Find it here!

Digby earns Quote-of-the-day honors

If I have to kowtow to a bunch of childish Republican panic artists who have deluded themselves into believing that fighting radical Islam requires turning America into a police state, then it's just not worth it.

Read the whole post.

FICA and you

There've been several references to a poll that shows a fair amount of support for what the NSA is supposed to be doing (as opposed to what they ARE doing.)Link here Which bring up the question, if this domestic surveillance program is so popular then why couldn't the FICA have been updated to allow it? It's called the law for a reason after all.

Sent to the author of this story in the Indy Star

Imagine if Einstein while working out the theory of general relativity had abruptly thrown up his hands and said this Tensor Calculus is just too complicated to be understood by mere mortals. I should quit now. That’s precisely what the proponents of ID do. I find it very disappointing that you would provide their viewpoint such sympathetic coverage. All of science is based on the premise that the universe is comprehensible through natural law. As soon as you give up that premise, you are no longer doing science.

Article here

Remember - by definition 50% of all people are below average intelligence.

Do you agree or disagree with the federal judge’s decision to bar teaching of "intelligent design" in a science class?


Agree 45% => 1685 votes

Disagree 47% => 1752 votes

I'm not sure 7% => 263 votes
Current number of voters: 3700

No wonder we're in trouble. We're running out of "reasonable Observers"!

Quoting from the Dover PA decision:

"In elaborating upon this “reasonable observer,” the Third Circuit explained in Modrovich, 385 F.3d at 407, that “the reasonable observer is an informed citizen who is more knowledgeable than the average passerby.” Moreover, in addition to knowing the challenged conduct’s history, the observer is deemed able to “glean other relevant facts” from the face of the policy in light of its context."

What better way to learn about Totalitarianism than to experience it firsthand

"The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said. "

Link

Posted at Firedoglake

If you think it can't happen in America, think again. We have laws in place for a reason, and when you allow the President to start selectively ignoring them, it sets a precedent for every other law enforcement official in the nation. We fought a revolution in this country to prevent just this sort of behavior -- we are a nation of laws, and not of imperial whim.

Link

No Surprise here

I don't know about you but I've always assumed that the NSA scanned every word I've ever typed on the internet.

Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts

Secret Laws

"Your under arrest!"

"What for?"

"Can't tell you, it's a secret"

It feels like America has been kidnapped and replaced with an imposter.

Details here

Link courtesy Red State Diaries

War on Christmas and the war in Iraq

It occurred to me recently that there is a common thread running though Bill O'Reilly's "War on Christmas" rants and the run-up to the war in Iraq. Both are cases of the aggressor feigning victimhood.

Comment I posted at David Gans' site

I have to think that there are fair number of people who are like me. I never was to much into the taping scene and I stopped going to shows altogether in '91. But my interest in the Dead has rekindled of late and I've bought several items of Grateful Dead merchandise including the 2nd boxed set of studio releases.

So when I happened upon archive.org there were two uses I saw for it immediately. The first was to investigate the other jambands on the scene and check out a lot of the music that I'd been missing. (I live in St. Thomas which makes going to shows other than my own a BIG problem) The other was to grab some of those moments that I knew were out there but wouldn't have ready access to. So far, all I had downloaded was the Milkweg 81, the 11-17-78 acoustic set in Chicago (The Uptown show that evening was my first ever Dead show AND my 21st birthday) and I also picked up a Deer Creek '89 because I remember it having a REALLY JUICY Bird Song to close the first set.

The bottom line is that nothing I was doing on archive.org was in any way going to affect my spending with GD marketing other than perhaps keep me paying attention.

So then all this stuff starts going down and by the time I'd even noticed it all seemed to be resolved in what seemed to me to be reasonable compromise.

Then Weir opened his mouth....

I recognize the rights of musicians (well songwriters actually) to control their own creations but WHAT A BONEHEAD!

nuf said...thanks for listening

Today's favorite line from Joshua Micah Marshall

Frist is actually sort of unique in that it's possible he may not be guilty.

Link

Less depressing than the last Excite poll I posted

Has your opinion of the U.S. government's 2003 decision to use military force against Iraq changed over the past two years?

Yes - I supported it, but now I don't 12% => 1336 votes

Yes - I didn't support it, but now I do 1% => 145 votes

No - I supported it, and still do 42% => 4607 votes

No - I never supported it 41% => 4492 votes

I'm not sure 1% => 147 votes
Current number of voters: 10727

From The Crisis Papers on DU.

Welcome to the world of American jurisprudence in the post-9/11 era, the operating Bush & Co. principle of which seems to be that since "they hate us for our freedoms," we'll just eliminate the freedoms.


Link

There are worse things to be called

You are Schroeder!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Kevin Drum uses stronger than usual language.

If conservatives dislike Dick Durbin's comparison of American practices to those of Hitler and Stalin, they should make clear to Dick Cheney that America doesn't condone the practices of Hitler and Stalin. Because apparently, the vice president of the United States does condone them. Vigorously. It's enough to make any decent human being puke.

Link

Real Freedom and Rubber Turkeys

Which side has the greater claim to innocence? Probably neither. The question of who is most to blame is practically beyond resolution. Perhaps a better hope lies in the world beyond the frog ponds, beyond Us and Them, in the world of real freedom where most human beings carry on with their lives as We, if given the half a chance the average government (and God, don’t they tend to be average!) seems so reluctant to encourage.

Who Is 'We'? by David R. Henderson

Collectivism is the ugliest ideology in the world. It has been directly responsible for well over 100 million deaths in the 20th century. Let's do our part by not participating in it, even – maybe especially – in our language. The only hope we have for a peaceful world is to hold guilty people responsible for their actions and to treat the innocent people in all countries as innocent. Let's quit talking about governments whose horrific actions we detest as "we."

Link

DUH......

Democratic pressure to re­open the debate was, he charged, "a concerted effort, following the Scooter Libby indictment, to put a noose around the president's neck and say that he lied to the American people.

Link

I'm sorry - I find this very disturbing

Do you support the Senate amendment that would prohibit the use of cruel or degrading treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody?


Yes 43% => 2923 votes

No 51% => 3409 votes

I'm not sure 5% => 346 votes

Current number of voters: 6678

From David Corn re Global Warming

Popular attitudes about such matters are important to understand. But so is reality. If public beliefs are contradicted or undermined by facts, the Post shouldn't be shy about stating that. The full story, after all, is that many Americans believe what they believe regarding this crucial topic despite the evidence.


Link

Choose your weapon!

Here's the quote from Alan Bock at Antiwar.com.

"I suspect we'll be more effective if we de-emphasize the "America is evil" rhetoric in favor of "America made a mistake we need to correct," but I can't control what others do. Now is the time for those who question this ill-advised war to make their voices heard. I suspect the seeds will fall on more fertile soil than we have had in a long time."

I prefer the "America isn't evil but is in serious danger of becoming so if we don't do something" rhetoric myself.

The Plaid Adder returns!

You can't even say 'blame game' without sounding like a child. "Blame game, blame game, let's play the blame game! La la la la la la!"

This is not a game. The dead do not come back. Suffering cannot be undone. There are no do-overs.

This is not a game. It is a crime. So I do not blame.

I accuse.

Read the whole thing

From Digby

We are in the middle of a great culture war in this country in which liberals are continually accused of being immoral and indecent by people who profess to hold strong religious beliefs. These morals, however, are almost exclusively confined to personal sexual matters and seem only to apply to the conduct of individuals in their private lives. They seem to have nothing to say about our government conducting itself without regard to morality whenever it is convenient. (Indeed, we have just witnessed one of the most prominent religious moralists in the country calling for our government to assassinate the leader of an oil rich country because it would save money.)

After the last election I read many pieces in which religious people advised that Democrats had to begin speaking in religious terms and appeal to voters on a moral basis. It was immediately assumed that this should be done in exactly the same way that the Republicans do, using their definition of morality. But I would suggest that we should make our own case for moral values --- as a government and a nation. It is there that we will find common ground among truly religious people and non-religious people of all stripes. And it is there that politics and morality are appropriately and necessarily linked in a free and democratic society.

If I had been polled after the last election I might very well have said that moral values were a primary reason for my vote. I found the conduct of this war deeply immoral. And I also believe that this immorality makes us less safe. If Democratic politicians want to run on restoring moral values in government they can count me in. I'm a proud member of that moral values crowd and I'll happily hold hands with any religious person who wants to join me.

Link

File under "Poor choice of words"

The latest good news from Iraq

"A 'car-buying boom'"

Yikes. I personally hate it when cars go "Boom".

Via Justin Raimondo

Yea - What he said.....

And while the religions may be different, the core of them is not -- opposition to rival faiths, hostility to science, interference in people's private lives, control over women's bodies, an irrational belief in the supremacy of the male over female, militancy, anti-intellectualism and a rejection of logic, an unassailable belief in their own righrousness, and the deifying of certain unelectable, unaccountable individuals as "spokesmen for god", be it Pat Robertson or the Ayatollahs.

Link From Kos

Blessing the Bombs by George Zabelka

For the last 1700 years the Church has not only been making war respectable: it has been inducing people to believe it is an honorable profession, an honorable Christian profession. This is not true. We have been brainwashed. This is a lie.

War is now, always has been, and always will be bad, bad news. I was there. I saw real war. Those who have seen real war will bear me out. I assure you, it is not of Christ. It is not Christ's way. There is no way to conduct real war in conformity with the teachings of Jesus. There is no way to train people for real war in conformity with the teachings of Jesus.

The morality of the balance of terrorism is a morality that Christ never taught. The ethics of mass butchery cannot be found in the teachings of Jesus. In Just War ethics, Jesus Christ, who is supposed to be all in the Christian life, is irrelevant. He might as well never have existed. In Just War ethics, no appeal is made to him or his teaching, because no appeal can be made to him or his teaching, for neither he nor his teaching gives standards for Christians to follow in order to determine what level of slaughter is acceptable.



As posted on Lew Rockwell

From Billmon

At this point, to call the Commander in Chief detached from reality would be an insult to paranoid schizophrenics everywhere.

Link

Strangly familiar

This quote from Atrios-

It's pretty damn easy to be moral when all it requires is worrying about the morality of other people and not actually adjusting one's own behavior.
Link

Now where I have seen that before?....Oh Yeah!

Matt 7:3-5
7:3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 7:4 Or how can you say to your neighbor, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' while the log is in your own eye? 7:5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye.

Other Link

LA Times headline

Bush says, leaving, "Iraq would be a mistake"

Its all in how you say it!

Nothing says "freedom" quite like passing through the metal detectors on the way to the rally!

Q: Where do I check in for the America Supports You Freedom Walk?
R: Participants are encouraged to arrive at the Pentagon South parking lot between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. for screening to avoid long lines. The first 1,000 to arrive for screening at the Pentagon on September 11, will receive the official America Supports You campaign lapel pin.

Link

Great post from The Green Knight

Well, the crucial element in the right-wing attack is that the modern American right doesn't live in the real world. For them, you can't change your mind about a real-world politician or policy, because for them, the real world doesn't exist. All that exists for them is a set of unchanging, idealized fictions. If you change your mind about one of those, well, it must be because you're weak or perverse: you've lost the faith and become evil.


Link

From Anthony Gregory

The American right has long dedicated itself to the promotion of limited government – limited to its key functions of cracking skulls, caging sinners and leveling cities. Helpful to this program of state violence is the fact that most people, left, right, center and libertarian, believe that protecting people’s rights to life, liberty and property against foreign and domestic threats is the one unquestionable purpose of government. People tend to consider organized force a legitimate means to defend the innocent against violent criminals, terrorists, and the like.

Read The Whole Thing

Inspiration

This inspired me to give my quarterly contribution to antiwar.com even though the original is from Daily Kos Link here

A less discussed reason the war in Iraq is misguided.

"The Bush administration has decided to topple the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein despite the fact that the war against al Qaeda is unfinished because the White House has concluded that a successful campaign against Iraq would "shatter the psychological advantage within the Islamist movement and demonstrate U.S. power,"
Link

What effect do you suppose a failed campaign will have?

Digby on libertarians.

Instead, the Republicans are creating a national government that seeks to intrude in the most personal of ways, interfering with people's religious and moral choices. That wasn't what the independent, individualistic western style libertarian signed on for. They are ours for the taking if we have the nerve to say what Paul Hackett said up there.

Someone actually GETS IT!

The tragedy of September 11th shook our sense of security and made us realize that we, too, are vulnerable to acts of terrorism. Unfortunately, some believe that this threat renders our Constitution obsolete. This is a Constitution for which men and women have died and continue to die and which has made us a model among nations. If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won.

It is my sworn duty, and as long as there is breath in my body I'll perform it, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

We will be in recess.
Link

Whooda thunk

Who would have thought as I was growing up in the Sixties that at some time in a future political conflict, my sympathies would come down squarely on the side of the CIA!

An excellent Plame case summary here

via e-mail

I get a lot of spam but I must say that today was my first ever opportunity to "Authorizate my PayPal account"

Van Jones on the Huffington Post

Somewhere, in all of these stirrings, I see the seeds of a wisdom-based, Earth-honoring, pro-democracy movement – one that affirms and applauds religious and spiritual impulses, while opposing fundamentalism, chauvinism and theocracy. Over time, that kind of progressive movement has the potential to win – and win big – in the United States. To be honest: it is probably the ONLY type of progressive movement that stands a chance in a country as religious as ours.

link

from Mark Morford

Rove, with his meager education and porcine sheen and this-one's-for-all-the-girls-who-shunned-me-in-high-school revenge demeanor, essentially reinvented American politics, created a new language of hate and fear, rewrote the GOP rule book to include the notion that actual facts don't matter and a politician can get away with absolutely anything if the denials are orchestrated just right and if the accusers are immediately counterattacked and mistakes are admitted absolutely never.

Link

Billmon on Coulter

I know Ilse's just trying to stand out in a crowd here, which isn't as easy as it used to be, now that nuking Mecca has gone mainstream.
Link

From The Green Knight

Jesus once upon a time threw the money-changers out of the temple. The problem is, in America today, the money-changers have built their own.
Link

From Paul Krugman

"Ultimately, this isn't just about Mr. Rove. It's also about Mr. Bush, who has always known that his trusted political adviser - a disciple of the late Lee Atwater, whose smear tactics helped President Bush's father win the 1988 election - is a thug, and obviously made no attempt to find out if he was the leaker."

Losing all the modifiers and extracting the meat of the sentence yields -

"Mr. Rove is a thug."

It's about time someone said it out loud.

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From Kevin Drum

Who would have thought that one day the White House would be run by someone who made Richard Nixon look responsible and forbearing?

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Just a Thought

Any enterprise that depends on the stupidity of its customers for its success is inherently evil. (Think lottery tickets and infomercials)

Now consider the Bush administration.

Anthony Gregory goes to the heart of the matter.

Conscription is slavery, and if it returns, any arguments over whether America is a free country become obsolete.
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From Riverbend

Don’t Americans know that this vast wasteland of terror and terrorists otherwise known as ‘Abroad’ was home to the first civilizations and is home now to some of the most sophisticated, educated people in the region?

Don’t Americans realize that ‘abroad’ is a country full of people- men, women and children who are dying hourly? ‘Abroad’ is home for millions of us. It’s the place we were raised and the place we hope to raise our children- your field of war and terror.

The war was brought to us here, and now we have to watch the country disintegrate before our very eyes. We watch as towns are bombed and gunned down and evacuated of their people. We watch as friends and loved ones are detained, or killed or pressured out of the country with fear and intimidation.
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Recent Riverbend

The Green Zone is a source of consternation and aggravation for the typical Iraqi. It makes us anxious because it symbolises the heart of the occupation and if fortifications and barricades are any indicator- the occupation is going to be here for a long time. It is a provocation because no matter how anyone tries to explain or justify it, it is like a slap in the face. It tells us that while we are citizens in our own country, our comings and goings are restricted because portions of the country no longer belong to its people. They belong to the people living in the Green Republic.
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I suppose its close.

You scored as Classical Liberal. You are a classical liberal. You are sceptical about much of the historicity of the Bible, and the most important thing Jesus has done is to set us a good moral example that we are to follow. Doctrines like the trinity and the incarnation are speculative and not really important, and in the face of science and philosophy the surest way we can be certain about God is by our inner awareness of him. Discipleship is expressed by good moral behaviour, but inward religious feeling is most important.

Classical Liberal		93%
Emergent/Postmodern		89%
Modern Liberal		82%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan		36%
Neo orthodox		32%
Charismatic/Pentecostal		14%
Roman Catholic		11%
Reformed Evangelical		7%
Fundamentalist		0%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

From Berkowitz (Couldn't resist)

Elsewhere, after White House adviser Karl Rove created a furor with his remarks about liberals and 9/11 last week, the White House demoted Mr. Rove from Bush’s Brain to Bush’s Ass.

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I've been thinking about history lately.

If the history of the 20th century teaches us anything, it's that these extreme cases are relevant. They do happen. And they not only can be part of a rational conversation about political principles, I would argue that they should be.

quote pulled from

In Defense of Referencing Hitler
by B.K. Marcus


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Don't laugh, they'll be coming for you next!

Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes

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This from the "Freedom Fries" guy.

I can always tell you that my daddy, who served for 26 years in the United States House of Representatives, always told me to vote my conscience first, my constituency second, and my party third."

Quoted by Justin Raimondo

This just in......

In an effort to prevent the desecration of the US flag, Congress today voted to desecrate the Constitution.

Ernest Partridge of The Crisis Papers via DU

It is most unlikely that Dana Milbank will every recover the reputation that he relinquished with this attack on John Conyer's hearing. I can testify that I will never again take seriously anything he writes.


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Butler Shaffer from Lew Rockwell

Our lives are haunted by "dark side" influences within our collective unconscious that cause us more anguish than do "terrorists" from the external world. Such inner "shadow" forces represent all the shortcomings, doubts, fears, temptations, anger, and other discomforting qualities we have about ourselves; but about which we may be induced to part by projecting such traits onto others. Political systems thrive on the unresolved conflicts we have within ourselves, by convincing us that our inner turmoil is really the fault of others; others who need to be punished and/or controlled in order to make our lives more orderly. Those selected as recipients of our projections (i.e., the "scapegoats") can be comprised of any number of interchangeable persons or groups. Depending upon circumstances, the "scapegoat" can be either "Jewish" or "Palestinian," "secularist" or "evangelical," "manufacturer" or "consumer," or any seemingly endless mix useful for the moment
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The Plaid Adder on Fred Phelps

Consciously or not, he identified the one form of bigotry that is still socially acceptable (not the only one that still exists, but the only one that a politician can still profess openly and lustily without fear of electoral consequences)

Read the Whole Thing
She's always insightful.

Karen Kwiatkowski even spunkier than usual

I haven’t thought about her in years. Michael Rubin and Anthony Gancarski, and others of their ilk, remind me of my friend all those years ago.

Now, I’m not calling them whores of the anti-freedom, pro-fascist, lying neoconservative hijacking team, or sluts of the far right wing. I’m not calling them apologists for falsely advertised preemptive war and facilitators for the obstruction of the Constitution. I’m not calling them chickenhawks who would sooner run from a military uniform that don one. I’m not even calling them lying sacks of crap.

OK, I can’t lie, and never could. I am calling them that. Oh and I almost forgot! They also like to beat up girls.



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I actually write something.

My comment to a Green Knight post re: the cluelessness of the MSM.

Link to original post.

It is totally market driven. There's only so much bad news people will digest before their attention shuts down. Especially if the bad news is "by the way, the Americans are the bad guys in this movie".

The real tragedy is the self-fufilling nature of it. With the media only telling people what they want to hear, there's no room to actually LEARN anything.

Justin Raimondo is particularly sensible today.

The reason is simple: the means contradict the ends. It is like holding a gun to someone's head and saying: Be free, dammit – or I'll blow your head off! That's some "freedom"!

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