The last time we met in this chamber, the mothers and daughters of Afghanistan were captives in their own homes, forbidden from working or going to school. Today women are free...
--George W. Bush, State of the Union address, January 29, 2002
For More Afghan Women, Immolation Is Escape
JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Waiflike, draped in a pale blue veil, Madina, 20, sits on her hospital bed, bandages covering the terrible, raw burns on her neck and chest. Her hands tremble. She picks nervously at the soles of her feet and confesses that three months earlier she set herself on fire with kerosene.
Beside her, on the next bed, her mother-in-law, Bibi Khanum, and her brother-in-law, Abdul Muhammad, 18, confirm her account but deny her reason, which Madina would explain only outside on a terrace, away from her husband's family. "All the time they beat me," she said. "They broke my arm. But what should I do? This was my home."
Accounts like Madina's are repeated across Afghanistan, doctors and human rights workers say. They are discovering more and more young women who have set themselves on fire, desperate to escape the cruelties of family life and harsh tribal traditions that show no sign of changing despite the end of Taliban rule and the dawn of democracy....
"It is not only in Herat; it is in all of Afghanistan," said Dr. Soraya Rahim, deputy minister of women's affairs, on her return from a government investigative trip to Herat.
"It takes different forms in different provinces," she said in a telephone interview. "Some take tablets. Some cut their wrists. Some hang themselves. Some burn themselves.
"But the reason is very important. The first reason is our very bad tradition of forced marriage. Girls think this is the only way, that there is no other way in life."...
--New York Times, March 8, 2004
Sunday, March 07, 2004
David Kirkpatrick interviewed Judge Roy Moore for today's New York Times. An excerpt:
Q. You have certainly become a hero to many conservative Christians in the country.
A. It's a shame that you can become a hero in the Christian faith by acknowledging God. I mean, that is an absolute slight upon the entire Christian faith that someone can become a hero simply for acknowledging the God upon which the nation and our laws are founded.
And the truth of that, and I do look at it this way, is, it's not unfair to anybody. It's not unfair to the Jewish faith. Indeed, the Jewish faith has so prospered in this country. Why is that? It's because this God does not give that authority to government to dictate how you think. It is absolutely prohibited. That's why we have the First Amendment.
Yeah, Judge, but guess what? There were still quite a few anti-Semitic institutions in this country well into the 1960s -- and if institutionalized anti-Semitism really has withered away, it finally started to disappear just about when the godless, demonic Madalyn Murray O'Hair and some "activist judges" were, as you'd put it, driving religion from the public square. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Q. You have certainly become a hero to many conservative Christians in the country.
A. It's a shame that you can become a hero in the Christian faith by acknowledging God. I mean, that is an absolute slight upon the entire Christian faith that someone can become a hero simply for acknowledging the God upon which the nation and our laws are founded.
And the truth of that, and I do look at it this way, is, it's not unfair to anybody. It's not unfair to the Jewish faith. Indeed, the Jewish faith has so prospered in this country. Why is that? It's because this God does not give that authority to government to dictate how you think. It is absolutely prohibited. That's why we have the First Amendment.
Yeah, Judge, but guess what? There were still quite a few anti-Semitic institutions in this country well into the 1960s -- and if institutionalized anti-Semitism really has withered away, it finally started to disappear just about when the godless, demonic Madalyn Murray O'Hair and some "activist judges" were, as you'd put it, driving religion from the public square. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Maybe I'm wrong to pick on something so small, but here's an annoying passage from an otherwise unobjectionable article by John Burns in the Week in Review in The New York Times:
Mr. Bush's decision to accelerate the turning over of sovereignty to the Iraqis was presented, in November, as a response to pressures from Iraqi leaders.
But officials close to the American civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, say privately that the decision owed at least as much to political pressures in the United States last fall, as Americans were taking the occupation's heaviest losses - 81 killed in November alone.
Since then, casualties have fallen sharply, even as losses among Iraqi civilians and police officers have risen.
What do you mean, "Since then, casualties have fallen sharply"? No -- since then, American casualties have fallen sharply.
Mr. Bush's decision to accelerate the turning over of sovereignty to the Iraqis was presented, in November, as a response to pressures from Iraqi leaders.
But officials close to the American civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, say privately that the decision owed at least as much to political pressures in the United States last fall, as Americans were taking the occupation's heaviest losses - 81 killed in November alone.
Since then, casualties have fallen sharply, even as losses among Iraqi civilians and police officers have risen.
What do you mean, "Since then, casualties have fallen sharply"? No -- since then, American casualties have fallen sharply.
Saturday, March 06, 2004
Interesting lead story in yesterday's New York Sun:
First Whiff of Scandal Hits Iraq Government
An Investigation Is Launched Over Mystery Plane Full of Cash...
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Authorities here are investigating how a plane loaded with almost $20 million worth of new Iraqi dinars managed to take off from Baghdad International Airport and land in Beirut.
The mysterious aircraft and the 1.5 tons of cash landed on January 15 in Lebanon. There, Lebanese customs agents seized the plane and the money and arrested three Lebanese citizens who were aboard the plane....
So, how suspicious is this?
One issue in the investigation is whether a contract from Iraq's new Interior Ministry to purchase electronic anti-jamming equipment and automobiles from a Cyprus-based concern called Laru Ltd. was in fact an intricate scheme to launder money. The contract has never been shown to the Iraqi Governing Council, nor have the goods been delivered to the Interior Ministry.
OK, let's get to the stuff that makes this sound like a bad spy thriller you'd read on a plane. According to the story, Nuri Badran, Iraq's interior minister,
sent an envoy on January 11 to a branch of the Rafidan Bank in northern Baghdad to make sure that a check for 19.836 billion dinars would be cashed when a Lebanese man presented it to the teller the next day....
Then the money was
loaded at 10 a.m. on January 12 into three pick-up trucks guarded by American mercenaries armed with machine guns. On January 14, the Lebanese man ... returned and cashed another check for 164 million dinars.
Here's the cheap-paperback part:
On the evening of January 15, all of the cash was loaded onto a cargo plane flown by Flying Carpet Airlines at Baghdad International Airport....
Unlike Royal Jordanian, which handles regular flights in and out of Baghdad, Flying Carpet's routes are not regularly scheduled. According to one American official who works on logistics at the airport, "they call us when they are coming in and we don't ask any questions."
Airport security people presumably should have known about this -- but
The security contractor in charge of the airport, which is also an American military base, is Custer Battles LLC, a Virginia-based security company whose executive board boasts former members of the American special forces and the CIA. When the Sun asked Don Ritchie, the chief of security for the airport and an employee of Custer Battles, what he knew about the January 15 flight to Beirut, he said, "According to corporate counsel, we should not talk about this at all."
Which was good enough for Paul Bremer's people -- but others, inconveniently, are still asking questions:
One reason why Mr. Ritchie might not be talking is because after a hasty investigation by the Coalition Provisional Authority's inspector general, Robert Dawes, that concluded there was no wrongdoing, a financial task force attached to the Iraq Survey Group is still asking questions. As one senior American official said, "We are looking to make sure the funds were not absconded with; the funds are fleeing in essence. We don't want funds being used by insurgents to kill our soldiers or coalition soldiers. It's worth a second look."
This story is from the print edition of yesterday's Sun, and I've chopped it up a bit. Here's the Sun's maddening Web site if you want to try to read the whole story (you'll have to subscribe first).
First Whiff of Scandal Hits Iraq Government
An Investigation Is Launched Over Mystery Plane Full of Cash...
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Authorities here are investigating how a plane loaded with almost $20 million worth of new Iraqi dinars managed to take off from Baghdad International Airport and land in Beirut.
The mysterious aircraft and the 1.5 tons of cash landed on January 15 in Lebanon. There, Lebanese customs agents seized the plane and the money and arrested three Lebanese citizens who were aboard the plane....
So, how suspicious is this?
One issue in the investigation is whether a contract from Iraq's new Interior Ministry to purchase electronic anti-jamming equipment and automobiles from a Cyprus-based concern called Laru Ltd. was in fact an intricate scheme to launder money. The contract has never been shown to the Iraqi Governing Council, nor have the goods been delivered to the Interior Ministry.
OK, let's get to the stuff that makes this sound like a bad spy thriller you'd read on a plane. According to the story, Nuri Badran, Iraq's interior minister,
sent an envoy on January 11 to a branch of the Rafidan Bank in northern Baghdad to make sure that a check for 19.836 billion dinars would be cashed when a Lebanese man presented it to the teller the next day....
Then the money was
loaded at 10 a.m. on January 12 into three pick-up trucks guarded by American mercenaries armed with machine guns. On January 14, the Lebanese man ... returned and cashed another check for 164 million dinars.
Here's the cheap-paperback part:
On the evening of January 15, all of the cash was loaded onto a cargo plane flown by Flying Carpet Airlines at Baghdad International Airport....
Unlike Royal Jordanian, which handles regular flights in and out of Baghdad, Flying Carpet's routes are not regularly scheduled. According to one American official who works on logistics at the airport, "they call us when they are coming in and we don't ask any questions."
Airport security people presumably should have known about this -- but
The security contractor in charge of the airport, which is also an American military base, is Custer Battles LLC, a Virginia-based security company whose executive board boasts former members of the American special forces and the CIA. When the Sun asked Don Ritchie, the chief of security for the airport and an employee of Custer Battles, what he knew about the January 15 flight to Beirut, he said, "According to corporate counsel, we should not talk about this at all."
Which was good enough for Paul Bremer's people -- but others, inconveniently, are still asking questions:
One reason why Mr. Ritchie might not be talking is because after a hasty investigation by the Coalition Provisional Authority's inspector general, Robert Dawes, that concluded there was no wrongdoing, a financial task force attached to the Iraq Survey Group is still asking questions. As one senior American official said, "We are looking to make sure the funds were not absconded with; the funds are fleeing in essence. We don't want funds being used by insurgents to kill our soldiers or coalition soldiers. It's worth a second look."
This story is from the print edition of yesterday's Sun, and I've chopped it up a bit. Here's the Sun's maddening Web site if you want to try to read the whole story (you'll have to subscribe first).
Friday, March 05, 2004
Problem: People accuse you of exploting 9/11 in a TV ad. Solution: Exploit 9/11 in person!
Bush to visit Sept. 11 memorial next week
President Bush, facing criticism from victims' relatives for using images of the destroyed World Trade Center in campaign ads, will visit a Sept. 11 memorial in New York next week.
Bush plans to tour the memorial Thursday in Long Island's Nassau County, one of the city's suburbs, prior to attending a re-election fund-raiser that night in East Meadow, N.Y. ...
--AP/San Francisco Chronicle
Of course, maybe this won't just be a cheap photo op. Maybe he'll just tour the memorial, excluding photographers and film crews.
Oh, yeah, right.
Bush to visit Sept. 11 memorial next week
President Bush, facing criticism from victims' relatives for using images of the destroyed World Trade Center in campaign ads, will visit a Sept. 11 memorial in New York next week.
Bush plans to tour the memorial Thursday in Long Island's Nassau County, one of the city's suburbs, prior to attending a re-election fund-raiser that night in East Meadow, N.Y. ...
--AP/San Francisco Chronicle
Of course, maybe this won't just be a cheap photo op. Maybe he'll just tour the memorial, excluding photographers and film crews.
Oh, yeah, right.
The Bush recovery:
Americans struggle with credit card bills - survey
Americans, facing a weak labor market, are struggling to pay off their credit card bills, according to an industry survey released on Friday....
Thirty-nine percent of the 1,000-plus people surveyed last week said they paid off their monthly balance in full, down from 43 percent a year ago, according to the survey....
In the latest survey, 49 percent of those who are taking on more debt said they are borrowing more because they do not have the money to pay in full when the credit card bills arrive. That figure is up from 44 percent for the same period in 2003....
--Reuters
The story does note that a big part of the problem is people buying what they can't afford. But what would it do to GDP if they stopped? Until more Americans get jobs, the economy is on shaky ground.
Americans struggle with credit card bills - survey
Americans, facing a weak labor market, are struggling to pay off their credit card bills, according to an industry survey released on Friday....
Thirty-nine percent of the 1,000-plus people surveyed last week said they paid off their monthly balance in full, down from 43 percent a year ago, according to the survey....
In the latest survey, 49 percent of those who are taking on more debt said they are borrowing more because they do not have the money to pay in full when the credit card bills arrive. That figure is up from 44 percent for the same period in 2003....
--Reuters
The story does note that a big part of the problem is people buying what they can't afford. But what would it do to GDP if they stopped? Until more Americans get jobs, the economy is on shaky ground.
Remember this from the Drudge Report this past January?
GORE TO WARN OF 'GLOBAL WARMING' ON NEW YORK CITY'S COLDEST DAY IN DECADES!
In what political watchers are calling possibly the biggest gaffe in years, former Vice President Al Gore is set to give a speech tomorrow on the perils of global warming -- on what is expected to be the coldest day in New England in nearly half a century!
Against the advice of senior advisers, Gore is planning to appear at the historic Beacon Theatre in Manhattan on Thursday to issue an indictment of the Bush administration's "inaction on global warming."
Gore will make the warming case on a day forecasters are predicting the coldest temps in Boston since 1957, with wind chills in parts of New England plunging to 100 degrees below zero!...
Well, now Drudge is linking this AP story:
2003 Likely Europe's Hottest in 500 Years
Last year's deadly summer in Europe probably was the hottest on the continent in at least five centuries, according to researchers who analyzed old records, soil cores and other evidence. More than 19,000 people died.
Researchers at the University of Bern, Switzerland, collected and analyzed temperature data from all over Europe, including such climate measures as tree rings from 1500. They found that the climate has been generally warming and last summer was the most torrid of all.
"When you consider Europe as a whole, it was by far the hottest," said Jurg Luterbacher, climatologist and the first author of a study appearing this week in the journal Science.
Luterbacher said the study showed that European winters are also warmer now. The average winter and annual temperatures during the three decades from 1973 to 2002 were the warmest of the half millennium, he said....
Any idiot knows this, but you can't just look at the weather in one region of one country on one day (or even over a period of one or two weeks) and jump to a conclusion about the overall nature of the global climate.
GORE TO WARN OF 'GLOBAL WARMING' ON NEW YORK CITY'S COLDEST DAY IN DECADES!
In what political watchers are calling possibly the biggest gaffe in years, former Vice President Al Gore is set to give a speech tomorrow on the perils of global warming -- on what is expected to be the coldest day in New England in nearly half a century!
Against the advice of senior advisers, Gore is planning to appear at the historic Beacon Theatre in Manhattan on Thursday to issue an indictment of the Bush administration's "inaction on global warming."
Gore will make the warming case on a day forecasters are predicting the coldest temps in Boston since 1957, with wind chills in parts of New England plunging to 100 degrees below zero!...
Well, now Drudge is linking this AP story:
2003 Likely Europe's Hottest in 500 Years
Last year's deadly summer in Europe probably was the hottest on the continent in at least five centuries, according to researchers who analyzed old records, soil cores and other evidence. More than 19,000 people died.
Researchers at the University of Bern, Switzerland, collected and analyzed temperature data from all over Europe, including such climate measures as tree rings from 1500. They found that the climate has been generally warming and last summer was the most torrid of all.
"When you consider Europe as a whole, it was by far the hottest," said Jurg Luterbacher, climatologist and the first author of a study appearing this week in the journal Science.
Luterbacher said the study showed that European winters are also warmer now. The average winter and annual temperatures during the three decades from 1973 to 2002 were the warmest of the half millennium, he said....
Any idiot knows this, but you can't just look at the weather in one region of one country on one day (or even over a period of one or two weeks) and jump to a conclusion about the overall nature of the global climate.
Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts says out loud what a lot of other fans of The Passion of the Christ won't -- that, despite what some of the movie's advocates say about "outreach," it's meant to be exclusionary:
... there's something critics of "The Passion," Jewish and otherwise, are missing. Namely, that this movie -- there's no delicate way to say this -- was not made for them -- or for that matter, for Muslims or atheists. It is deliberately exclusionary to a degree I've seldom seen. You didn't have to be Jewish to get "Schindler's List" or black to get "Roots." Being those things might have deepened your appreciation, but they were not necessary.
To understand "The Passion," though, you need at least familiarity with the four Gospels and ideally, faith in them. The movie does not concern itself with back story; it assumes that you come to it with a certain body of knowledge.
Otherwise, all you will see is a man being hit over and over and over again, such extravagantly brutal torture that you cringe and pray for it to be done. But it never is. There is always another blow, a fresh gout of blood. If you know the Gospels, however, you might see something more than violence. You might see the embodiment of Christ's message. Which was not simply "love and faith" but redemption, ransom, sacrifice, the willingness to take upon himself, upon his body, punishment for all the sins of humankind.
I'll leave it to others to argue whether it makes sense to exclude so many people....
It's interesting to put that together with this passage from a column about The Passion by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of Hitler's Willing Executioners, that was published yesterday in The Forward (subscribers only):
Because the crucifix makes present the story of Jesus' death, it inevitably conjures up the role of those accused of killing him. It is hard to think of the moment of murder without thinking of the murderer. It is hard to lament the unjust death of a beloved without blaming his killer, without feeling anger and the desire for punishment or vengeance.
I'll admit I'm judging just from clips and reviews, but my sense is that the primary purpose of the movie is to stir Christians -- and Christians only -- to anger and a shared sense of victimization and outrage. Outrage just at Jews? Or outrage at anyone, present and past, who isn't Christian, as Gibson defines the term? I can't say, but I think it's possible that the answer is the latter. If I'm right, the evil Jews who demand the torture of Jesus in Gibson's movie stand not just for Jews as a group, but for liberal Christians and liberal secularists. In other words, for you and me.
... there's something critics of "The Passion," Jewish and otherwise, are missing. Namely, that this movie -- there's no delicate way to say this -- was not made for them -- or for that matter, for Muslims or atheists. It is deliberately exclusionary to a degree I've seldom seen. You didn't have to be Jewish to get "Schindler's List" or black to get "Roots." Being those things might have deepened your appreciation, but they were not necessary.
To understand "The Passion," though, you need at least familiarity with the four Gospels and ideally, faith in them. The movie does not concern itself with back story; it assumes that you come to it with a certain body of knowledge.
Otherwise, all you will see is a man being hit over and over and over again, such extravagantly brutal torture that you cringe and pray for it to be done. But it never is. There is always another blow, a fresh gout of blood. If you know the Gospels, however, you might see something more than violence. You might see the embodiment of Christ's message. Which was not simply "love and faith" but redemption, ransom, sacrifice, the willingness to take upon himself, upon his body, punishment for all the sins of humankind.
I'll leave it to others to argue whether it makes sense to exclude so many people....
It's interesting to put that together with this passage from a column about The Passion by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of Hitler's Willing Executioners, that was published yesterday in The Forward (subscribers only):
Because the crucifix makes present the story of Jesus' death, it inevitably conjures up the role of those accused of killing him. It is hard to think of the moment of murder without thinking of the murderer. It is hard to lament the unjust death of a beloved without blaming his killer, without feeling anger and the desire for punishment or vengeance.
I'll admit I'm judging just from clips and reviews, but my sense is that the primary purpose of the movie is to stir Christians -- and Christians only -- to anger and a shared sense of victimization and outrage. Outrage just at Jews? Or outrage at anyone, present and past, who isn't Christian, as Gibson defines the term? I can't say, but I think it's possible that the answer is the latter. If I'm right, the evil Jews who demand the torture of Jesus in Gibson's movie stand not just for Jews as a group, but for liberal Christians and liberal secularists. In other words, for you and me.
My hero:
Teacher of year snubs Bush aide over gaffe
The Massachusetts teacher of the year refused to attend an event in Washington honoring the nation's top educators because US Education Secretary Rodney Paige had called the nation's largest teachers' union a "terrorist organization."
Jeffrey R. Ryan, a history teacher at Reading Memorial High School who lost a friend in the Sept. 11 attacks, said he could not accept Paige's apology for the Feb. 23 remark about the 2.7-million-member National Education Association.
Paige said the reference to terrorism was a "bad joke." But Ryan said: "Nazi death camps aren't funny. Lynching people isn't funny. . . . and terrorism isn't funny. I just couldn't show up and shake that man's hand after he made those remarks."...
--AP
Teacher of year snubs Bush aide over gaffe
The Massachusetts teacher of the year refused to attend an event in Washington honoring the nation's top educators because US Education Secretary Rodney Paige had called the nation's largest teachers' union a "terrorist organization."
Jeffrey R. Ryan, a history teacher at Reading Memorial High School who lost a friend in the Sept. 11 attacks, said he could not accept Paige's apology for the Feb. 23 remark about the 2.7-million-member National Education Association.
Paige said the reference to terrorism was a "bad joke." But Ryan said: "Nazi death camps aren't funny. Lynching people isn't funny. . . . and terrorism isn't funny. I just couldn't show up and shake that man's hand after he made those remarks."...
--AP
Job Growth Surprisingly Slow in February
--current headline at nytimes.com
February Job Growth Surprisingly Weak
--current Reuters/Yahoo News headline
Surprising? To whom? Maybe to Beltway conventional wisdom-mongers, but not to any ordinary American.
*******
Meanwhile, The New York Times has this on the "Bush boom":
Nation's Debt Grew at Rapid Pace in 2003
...The Federal Reserve reported yesterday that the nation's debt, including both household and government borrowing, grew last year at a pace not seen since the late 1980's.
According to the quarterly federal funds report, the total national debt, excluding the obligations of banks and other financial institutions, grew 8.1 percent last year, its fastest pace since 1988.
Households threw caution to the wind, mortgaging and remortgaging their homes and expanding their debt by 10.4 percent, the biggest percentage gain since 1987. Federal government borrowing expanded by 10.9 percent, the fastest rate since 1992. Only businesses held back. Still hobbled by credit overhangs from the investment boom of the late 1990's, corporate borrowing inched ahead by 3 percent....
A deep recession provided a sour end to the 1980's credit bender, when huge federal deficits fueled double-digit annual growth in the federal debt....
"There's a time-bomb issue," said Allen Sinai of Decision Economics, a consulting firm. "There are potential adverse consequences, but we don't know when." ...
--current headline at nytimes.com
February Job Growth Surprisingly Weak
--current Reuters/Yahoo News headline
Surprising? To whom? Maybe to Beltway conventional wisdom-mongers, but not to any ordinary American.
*******
Meanwhile, The New York Times has this on the "Bush boom":
Nation's Debt Grew at Rapid Pace in 2003
...The Federal Reserve reported yesterday that the nation's debt, including both household and government borrowing, grew last year at a pace not seen since the late 1980's.
According to the quarterly federal funds report, the total national debt, excluding the obligations of banks and other financial institutions, grew 8.1 percent last year, its fastest pace since 1988.
Households threw caution to the wind, mortgaging and remortgaging their homes and expanding their debt by 10.4 percent, the biggest percentage gain since 1987. Federal government borrowing expanded by 10.9 percent, the fastest rate since 1992. Only businesses held back. Still hobbled by credit overhangs from the investment boom of the late 1990's, corporate borrowing inched ahead by 3 percent....
A deep recession provided a sour end to the 1980's credit bender, when huge federal deficits fueled double-digit annual growth in the federal debt....
"There's a time-bomb issue," said Allen Sinai of Decision Economics, a consulting firm. "There are potential adverse consequences, but we don't know when." ...
John Glenn, the former senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth, said Thursday that he opposed cutting money from the International Space Station and basic scientific research to pay for President Bush's goal of sending astronauts to the Moon and Mars....
"We have projects that are planned or in the queue now, projects that people, academics and laboratories and companies, have spent millions of dollars to get ready," said Mr. Glenn, a Democrat who represented Ohio in the Senate for 24 years before retiring in 1998. "That pulls the rug out from under our scientists who placed their faith in NASA, and our scientists within NASA who devoted years and years to their work."...
--New York Times
I'm no space nut -- I point this story out because Kerry needs a running mate and, well, why not consider Glenn? Hey, George, you want to wear a flight suit? We've got your flight suit -- right here!
"We have projects that are planned or in the queue now, projects that people, academics and laboratories and companies, have spent millions of dollars to get ready," said Mr. Glenn, a Democrat who represented Ohio in the Senate for 24 years before retiring in 1998. "That pulls the rug out from under our scientists who placed their faith in NASA, and our scientists within NASA who devoted years and years to their work."...
--New York Times
I'm no space nut -- I point this story out because Kerry needs a running mate and, well, why not consider Glenn? Hey, George, you want to wear a flight suit? We've got your flight suit -- right here!
Thursday, March 04, 2004
Ipsos-Reed/AP poll: Bush 46%, Kerry 45% -- and Nader 6%.
Jesus fricking Christ.
If I'm George Soros now, here's my offer: One billion dollars, Ralph, to Public Citizen or any other organization of your choice, or combination thereof, if you get the hell out of the race.
The downside, of course, is that Nader wouldn't take the money. If the choice is between (a) obtaining significant amounts of cash to help groups fight the good fight day in and day out, in off years as well as election years, and (b) continuing his futile ego trip, I'm 99% certain he'd choose the latter.
Jesus fricking Christ.
If I'm George Soros now, here's my offer: One billion dollars, Ralph, to Public Citizen or any other organization of your choice, or combination thereof, if you get the hell out of the race.
The downside, of course, is that Nader wouldn't take the money. If the choice is between (a) obtaining significant amounts of cash to help groups fight the good fight day in and day out, in off years as well as election years, and (b) continuing his futile ego trip, I'm 99% certain he'd choose the latter.
"The one person who ... I think has the potential to really be a powerful voice against Bush's most significant vulnerability [the economy] is Bob Rubin," said John Podesta, President Clinton's former chief of staff.
That's from a Washington Post article on potential Kerry running mates. NPR mentioned Rubin this morning as well.
No -- please, no.
A dour East Coast millionaire -- yeah, that's just what's a ticket headed by Kerry needs.
(And one with even less Elvis in him than Kerry.)
To be fair, of course, all the pundits who deride Kerry as a stiff, effete moneybags would instantly declare Rubin a brilliant pick, so maybe I'm wrong about this.
That's from a Washington Post article on potential Kerry running mates. NPR mentioned Rubin this morning as well.
No -- please, no.
A dour East Coast millionaire -- yeah, that's just what's a ticket headed by Kerry needs.
(And one with even less Elvis in him than Kerry.)
To be fair, of course, all the pundits who deride Kerry as a stiff, effete moneybags would instantly declare Rubin a brilliant pick, so maybe I'm wrong about this.
In The Hill, scorned weasel Dick Morris argues that "Bush can destroy Kerry fast" by attacking the "liberal extremism" of his record. Conventional wisdom says that's just what Bush is going to try to do. There's just one problem: As Timothy Carney points out in National Review Online, citing this list of Kerry votes at GOP.com, Kerry's record isn't a whole lot more liberal than -- well, I'll let Carney tell you for himself:
The RNC website shows that John Kerry has voted to gut the Bush tax cuts, extend "hate crimes" special treatment to homosexuals, keep cloning legal, block tort reform, kill school choice, cut defense spending, oppose parental-notification rules for minors getting abortions and sink the nomination of Judge Robert Bork.
With this catalogue of votes, the RNC makes Kerry look as radical as...well...Arlen Specter.
On all of the above votes, taken from the short list of the lowlights of John Kerry's record, Arlen Specter voted with John Kerry. But the Republican establishment is backing Specter, still.
Of the 26 very worst Kerry votes the RNC could find from 1985 until 2001, Specter voted wrong on 10.
The Republicans keep saying, "Wait till we tell the American people about Kerry's record." If this is what they're planning to tell us, I think I understand why Joshua Micah Marshall wrote this:
Another source of confidence I have stems from a briefing of sorts I heard last week summarizing the White House's outlook and strategy for the coming campaign. After hearing it, I came away thinking that they're in a serious state of denial about how this election is shaping up.
The RNC website shows that John Kerry has voted to gut the Bush tax cuts, extend "hate crimes" special treatment to homosexuals, keep cloning legal, block tort reform, kill school choice, cut defense spending, oppose parental-notification rules for minors getting abortions and sink the nomination of Judge Robert Bork.
With this catalogue of votes, the RNC makes Kerry look as radical as...well...Arlen Specter.
On all of the above votes, taken from the short list of the lowlights of John Kerry's record, Arlen Specter voted with John Kerry. But the Republican establishment is backing Specter, still.
Of the 26 very worst Kerry votes the RNC could find from 1985 until 2001, Specter voted wrong on 10.
The Republicans keep saying, "Wait till we tell the American people about Kerry's record." If this is what they're planning to tell us, I think I understand why Joshua Micah Marshall wrote this:
Another source of confidence I have stems from a briefing of sorts I heard last week summarizing the White House's outlook and strategy for the coming campaign. After hearing it, I came away thinking that they're in a serious state of denial about how this election is shaping up.
Compassionate conservatism = death?
The Bush administration slashed San Francisco's federal AIDS budget by more than $4 million, a 12 percent cut and one of the biggest in the nation, which local health officials fear could land more people in the emergency room....
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson this week announced the new Ryan White CARE grants, which are doled out to the 51 metropolitan areas in the United States hit hardest by the AIDS-HIV epidemic....
In San Francisco, with about 15,000 AIDS and HIV patients -- the largest caseload in the Bay Area -- the funding cuts will affect legal aid, meal programs, transportation subsidies, substance abuse treatment and alternative health care, such as acupuncture and herbal remedies, according to James Loyce Jr., the San Francisco's Department of Public Health deputy director, who oversees the AIDS office.
"The cuts are huge,'' Loyce said. "There's no way in the world I can tell you that the loss will not hurt. These are the kinds of services that keep people out of the hospitals and emergency rooms.'' ...
--San Francisco Chronicle
Cutting AIDS funding to San Francisco? That's sick, nasty, and bizarre.
Not everyone experienced cuts, however:
Only 11 of the 51 targeted metropolitan areas in the nation saw their allocation go up this year. Topping the list was New York City, with a 17.5 percent increase. Closer to home, Sacramento's new grant nears $3 million, an increase of almost 12 percent.
Hmm, let's see: New York has the GOP convention, plus a mayor who's a Republican and is not marrying gay people. And Sacramento has Arnold. But I'm sure none of this had the slightest impact on the allocation of funds....
The Bush administration slashed San Francisco's federal AIDS budget by more than $4 million, a 12 percent cut and one of the biggest in the nation, which local health officials fear could land more people in the emergency room....
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson this week announced the new Ryan White CARE grants, which are doled out to the 51 metropolitan areas in the United States hit hardest by the AIDS-HIV epidemic....
In San Francisco, with about 15,000 AIDS and HIV patients -- the largest caseload in the Bay Area -- the funding cuts will affect legal aid, meal programs, transportation subsidies, substance abuse treatment and alternative health care, such as acupuncture and herbal remedies, according to James Loyce Jr., the San Francisco's Department of Public Health deputy director, who oversees the AIDS office.
"The cuts are huge,'' Loyce said. "There's no way in the world I can tell you that the loss will not hurt. These are the kinds of services that keep people out of the hospitals and emergency rooms.'' ...
--San Francisco Chronicle
Cutting AIDS funding to San Francisco? That's sick, nasty, and bizarre.
Not everyone experienced cuts, however:
Only 11 of the 51 targeted metropolitan areas in the nation saw their allocation go up this year. Topping the list was New York City, with a 17.5 percent increase. Closer to home, Sacramento's new grant nears $3 million, an increase of almost 12 percent.
Hmm, let's see: New York has the GOP convention, plus a mayor who's a Republican and is not marrying gay people. And Sacramento has Arnold. But I'm sure none of this had the slightest impact on the allocation of funds....
Stephen Hess, presidential scholar at the "fanatical moderate" Brookings Institution, is in the bag for Bush -- he does a fine job reciting the GOP talking points to the New York Post's Deborah Orin:
..."The ads are particularly good for Bush because they show his temperament and optimism - John Kerry couldn't have done those ads because he's too brittle. Bush seems so much more comfortable in his own skin," said presidential scholar Stephen Hess.
Hess, who's at the Brookings Institution, scoffed at Democratic complaints that Bush is exploiting the 9/11 tragedy by using imagery of a flag flying defiantly at Ground Zero. "It's perfectly appropriate," Hess said....
Stephen Hess, meet the 9/11 victims' relatives and co-workers:
The Bush reelection campaign yesterday unveiled its first three campaign commercials showcasing Ground Zero images, angering some 9/11 families who accused President Bush of exploiting the tragedy for political advantage.
"It's a slap in the face of the murders of 3,000 people," said Monica Gabrielle, whose husband died in the twin tower attacks. "It is unconscionable."
Gabrielle and several other family members said the injury was compounded by Bush's refusal to testify in open session before the 9/11 commission.
"I would be less offended if he showed a picture of himself in front of the Statue of Liberty," said Tom Roger, whose daughter was a flight attendant on doomed American Airlines Flight 11. "But to show the horror of 9/11 in the background, that's just some advertising agency's attempt to grab people by the throat."
Mindy Kleinberg said she was offended because the White House has not cooperated fully with the commission and because of the sight of remains being lifted out of Ground Zero in one of the spots.
"How heinous is that?" Kleinberg asked. "That's somebody's [loved one]."
Firefighter Tommy Fee in Rescue Squad 270 in Queens was appalled.
"It's as sick as people who stole things out of the place. The image of firefighters at Ground Zero should not be used for this stuff, for politics," Fee said....
*****
Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani gets an A+ for successfully memorizing and reciting the #1 Bush talking point:
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani jabbed Democratic candidate John Kerry yesterday, charging the senator has flip-flopped on terrorism. "One thing I admire about [Bush] is his consistency," Giuliani said. "On the other side, we have a lot more inconsistency." ...
I'm not privy to the Bushies' focus groups, but I don't get this line of attack. Iraq is heading deeper and deeper into chaos, U.S. jobs have bought a one-way ticket to India, the deficit gets bigger and bigger ... isn't "consistency" the problem?
I also don't understand this Bush ad script:
Audio: ...[President Bush:] And as the economy grows, the job base grows and somebody who's looking for work will be more likely to find a job.
I know exactly where I want to lead this country; I know what we need to do to make the world more free and more peaceful. I know what we need to do to make sure every person has a chance at realizing the American dream. I know what we need to do to continue economic growth so people can find work, to raise the standards at schools so children can learn, to fulfill the promise to America's seniors....
The message here seems to be: "Your perception that times are tough is just wrong. I'm doing everything right, and I'm 100% certain that I don't need to rethink anything." This is going to get him reelected?
And I'm puzzled by this:
...the Bush team is also making national cable buys on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, ESPN, Fox Sports and others, in an effort to reach a broader audience beyond viewers of news programs. One set of ads will air around a NASCAR event, with an audience that Bush has already targeted by making a guest appearance at the Daytona 500 in Florida last month....
White men -- he's targeting white men. Does he really need to do this? Is he really fighting to retain his base?
..."The ads are particularly good for Bush because they show his temperament and optimism - John Kerry couldn't have done those ads because he's too brittle. Bush seems so much more comfortable in his own skin," said presidential scholar Stephen Hess.
Hess, who's at the Brookings Institution, scoffed at Democratic complaints that Bush is exploiting the 9/11 tragedy by using imagery of a flag flying defiantly at Ground Zero. "It's perfectly appropriate," Hess said....
Stephen Hess, meet the 9/11 victims' relatives and co-workers:
The Bush reelection campaign yesterday unveiled its first three campaign commercials showcasing Ground Zero images, angering some 9/11 families who accused President Bush of exploiting the tragedy for political advantage.
"It's a slap in the face of the murders of 3,000 people," said Monica Gabrielle, whose husband died in the twin tower attacks. "It is unconscionable."
Gabrielle and several other family members said the injury was compounded by Bush's refusal to testify in open session before the 9/11 commission.
"I would be less offended if he showed a picture of himself in front of the Statue of Liberty," said Tom Roger, whose daughter was a flight attendant on doomed American Airlines Flight 11. "But to show the horror of 9/11 in the background, that's just some advertising agency's attempt to grab people by the throat."
Mindy Kleinberg said she was offended because the White House has not cooperated fully with the commission and because of the sight of remains being lifted out of Ground Zero in one of the spots.
"How heinous is that?" Kleinberg asked. "That's somebody's [loved one]."
Firefighter Tommy Fee in Rescue Squad 270 in Queens was appalled.
"It's as sick as people who stole things out of the place. The image of firefighters at Ground Zero should not be used for this stuff, for politics," Fee said....
*****
Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani gets an A+ for successfully memorizing and reciting the #1 Bush talking point:
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani jabbed Democratic candidate John Kerry yesterday, charging the senator has flip-flopped on terrorism. "One thing I admire about [Bush] is his consistency," Giuliani said. "On the other side, we have a lot more inconsistency." ...
I'm not privy to the Bushies' focus groups, but I don't get this line of attack. Iraq is heading deeper and deeper into chaos, U.S. jobs have bought a one-way ticket to India, the deficit gets bigger and bigger ... isn't "consistency" the problem?
I also don't understand this Bush ad script:
Audio: ...[President Bush:] And as the economy grows, the job base grows and somebody who's looking for work will be more likely to find a job.
I know exactly where I want to lead this country; I know what we need to do to make the world more free and more peaceful. I know what we need to do to make sure every person has a chance at realizing the American dream. I know what we need to do to continue economic growth so people can find work, to raise the standards at schools so children can learn, to fulfill the promise to America's seniors....
The message here seems to be: "Your perception that times are tough is just wrong. I'm doing everything right, and I'm 100% certain that I don't need to rethink anything." This is going to get him reelected?
And I'm puzzled by this:
...the Bush team is also making national cable buys on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, ESPN, Fox Sports and others, in an effort to reach a broader audience beyond viewers of news programs. One set of ads will air around a NASCAR event, with an audience that Bush has already targeted by making a guest appearance at the Daytona 500 in Florida last month....
White men -- he's targeting white men. Does he really need to do this? Is he really fighting to retain his base?
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
David Broder of The Washington Post and bloggers Ethan (salto mortale) and Mark Schmitt (The Decembrist) have all suggested recently that Bush might fear debating Kerry, and might try to avoid debates with him altogether. Broder even posits a scenario whereby Bush calls for three-way debates (including Nader), hoping this will motivate Kerry to agree to no debates at all.
Bloody hell, people -- did we learn nothing in 2000?
In the 2000 debates Bush came off as a cocksure boy-man, the captain of the football team; Al Gore sometimes talked in a somewhat monotonous singsong, so it didn't matter that his positions were better or that he was smarter, better informed, and more honest than Bush -- Bush was "cooler," and that was that. If you don't believe me, ask the media, which loved Bush and hated Gore, and wasn't shy about saying so, especially with regard to the debates.
This year? Well, the press doesn't like Kerry -- and, oh yeah, he can slip into singsong too. Bush, by contrast, is an even more cocksure teenage boy than he was four years ago. Bush doesn't have to say smart or logical or decent things in order to win the debates -- he just has to make the press believe that Kerry is a weenie and he's just given him the beating he deserved. The press loves this scenario -- regular American trumps elitist liberal grade-grubber. Admittedly, they may finally be tired of the Bush act. But I wouldn't count on that.
Bloody hell, people -- did we learn nothing in 2000?
In the 2000 debates Bush came off as a cocksure boy-man, the captain of the football team; Al Gore sometimes talked in a somewhat monotonous singsong, so it didn't matter that his positions were better or that he was smarter, better informed, and more honest than Bush -- Bush was "cooler," and that was that. If you don't believe me, ask the media, which loved Bush and hated Gore, and wasn't shy about saying so, especially with regard to the debates.
This year? Well, the press doesn't like Kerry -- and, oh yeah, he can slip into singsong too. Bush, by contrast, is an even more cocksure teenage boy than he was four years ago. Bush doesn't have to say smart or logical or decent things in order to win the debates -- he just has to make the press believe that Kerry is a weenie and he's just given him the beating he deserved. The press loves this scenario -- regular American trumps elitist liberal grade-grubber. Admittedly, they may finally be tired of the Bush act. But I wouldn't count on that.
In his spare time, Chief Justice Rehnquist fancies himself a historian. He's written several books; his latest, just published, is about the disputed election of 1876.
I don't know about you, but to me, Rehnquist writing a book about 1876 is like Scott Peterson going out trick-or-treating as O.J.
I don't know about you, but to me, Rehnquist writing a book about 1876 is like Scott Peterson going out trick-or-treating as O.J.
Alex Schwarzkopf wrote from Temecula, Calif.: "I doubt if your rhetoric would have been so vitriolic ... had the producer been a fat homosexual named "Mel Gibstein'..."
That's from Andy Rooney's column about the response to his anti-Gibson remarks on 60 Minutes. I'm sure the letter to the L.A. Times cited by Atrios wouldn't surprise him a bit.
That's from Andy Rooney's column about the response to his anti-Gibson remarks on 60 Minutes. I'm sure the letter to the L.A. Times cited by Atrios wouldn't surprise him a bit.
Ex-Ambassador Wilson to Name Names
Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson will reveal the name of the person he thinks leaked his wife's identity as an undercover CIA officer in a book due out in May, his publisher said Tuesday....
--AP
Publishers Lunch has more:
Carroll & Graf editor-in-chief Philip Turner tells Lunch that Wilson acts as both a memoirist and reporter in the book. Wilson's theory on the leak draws on his research skills: "He has many sources among journalists who have been covering the story," Turner says. "Many of them would seem to be more comfortable talking to Joe than reporting on the story" directly. Wilson’s postulations also stitch together "a connected-chain-of-events," drawing on personal experiences, other sources, and "things that people in the Administration have said."
As for columnist Robert Novak, who was the one to actually publish Valerie Plame's name last summer (citing two anonymous leaks), Turner says, "There's some damning stuff in the book about Novak that no one knows about, including a story that pulls the whole picture together."...
Interesting. (Preorder here if you like.)
Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson will reveal the name of the person he thinks leaked his wife's identity as an undercover CIA officer in a book due out in May, his publisher said Tuesday....
--AP
Publishers Lunch has more:
Carroll & Graf editor-in-chief Philip Turner tells Lunch that Wilson acts as both a memoirist and reporter in the book. Wilson's theory on the leak draws on his research skills: "He has many sources among journalists who have been covering the story," Turner says. "Many of them would seem to be more comfortable talking to Joe than reporting on the story" directly. Wilson’s postulations also stitch together "a connected-chain-of-events," drawing on personal experiences, other sources, and "things that people in the Administration have said."
As for columnist Robert Novak, who was the one to actually publish Valerie Plame's name last summer (citing two anonymous leaks), Turner says, "There's some damning stuff in the book about Novak that no one knows about, including a story that pulls the whole picture together."...
Interesting. (Preorder here if you like.)
The Passion of the Christ: The Blooper Reel.
Not as funny as the Aramaic translations in The Guardian ("Shbuuq shuukhaaraa deel. Man ethnaggad udamshaa?" -- "Sorry I'm late. Have I missed any scourging?"), but not bad.
(Thanks to Tbogg for the Guardian link.)
Not as funny as the Aramaic translations in The Guardian ("Shbuuq shuukhaaraa deel. Man ethnaggad udamshaa?" -- "Sorry I'm late. Have I missed any scourging?"), but not bad.
(Thanks to Tbogg for the Guardian link.)
Conventional wisdom from CNN last night:
BLITZER: ...Judy Woodruff, John Edwards has nothing to be ashamed about.
WOODRUFF: He sure hasn't, Wolf.... And I think more important than all of that his staying in the race has allowed John Kerry these last several weeks to look like a winner.
That's what she said: If Kerry's success had driven all of his major rivals out of the race before Super Tuesday, he would have looked less like a winner.
Yeah, that makes sense.
BLITZER: ...Judy Woodruff, John Edwards has nothing to be ashamed about.
WOODRUFF: He sure hasn't, Wolf.... And I think more important than all of that his staying in the race has allowed John Kerry these last several weeks to look like a winner.
That's what she said: If Kerry's success had driven all of his major rivals out of the race before Super Tuesday, he would have looked less like a winner.
Yeah, that makes sense.
U.S. executives unloaded a record $4.9 billion worth of their own companies' stock in February, the highest level since May 2001, as insiders sought to lock in gains from a stock market trading near 2-year highs, new data showed....
--Forbes/Reuters
But ... but ... but President Bush says that we're in the first days of a glorious economic recovery, and that we're about be awash in jobs and prosperity! These executives can't possibly be saying Bush is wrong -- can they?
--Forbes/Reuters
But ... but ... but President Bush says that we're in the first days of a glorious economic recovery, and that we're about be awash in jobs and prosperity! These executives can't possibly be saying Bush is wrong -- can they?
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
CNN (and Headline News and CNN.com) are announcing that Edwards is dropping out of the race.
Er, guys -- the polls haven't even closed here in New York, and they're going to be open for some time in California....
Er, guys -- the polls haven't even closed here in New York, and they're going to be open for some time in California....
It just gets better and better....
Duvalier Wants to Return to Haiti Soon
Deposed Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier wants to return as soon as possible to his homeland, where Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned as president after armed rebels took over much of the country.
Duvalier said in a television interview aired late on Monday, a day after Aristide fled Haiti, that he had requested a diplomatic passport several weeks ago, although he does not plan to run for president....
--Reuters
Oh, I'm sure he doesn't -- though it wouldn't be a complete surprise if he were to just happen to find himself Haiti's head of state at some point in the near future.
Duvalier Wants to Return to Haiti Soon
Deposed Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier wants to return as soon as possible to his homeland, where Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned as president after armed rebels took over much of the country.
Duvalier said in a television interview aired late on Monday, a day after Aristide fled Haiti, that he had requested a diplomatic passport several weeks ago, although he does not plan to run for president....
--Reuters
Oh, I'm sure he doesn't -- though it wouldn't be a complete surprise if he were to just happen to find himself Haiti's head of state at some point in the near future.
What the hell?
President Bush is making an unprecedented request to use up to $1 million budgeted for a possible presidential transition to train top officials who would join his administration if he should win a second term.
The proposal, which will require Congress' approval, is the first time a president has sought to use public transition funds to prepare officials to enter a re-elected administration, White House officials and others say....
Congress routinely provides money every four years for office expenses, briefings and other potential costs incurred by a president-elect and his or her aides waiting to move into the White House and other federal offices.
Bush has proposed $7.7 million for a possible transition. He also asked Congress to amend the Presidential Transition Act to allow using up to $1 million from that amount "for training and briefings for incoming appointees associated with the second term of an incumbent president."...
--AP
Who's providing the training and briefings? Halliburton?
(Link via INTL-News.)
President Bush is making an unprecedented request to use up to $1 million budgeted for a possible presidential transition to train top officials who would join his administration if he should win a second term.
The proposal, which will require Congress' approval, is the first time a president has sought to use public transition funds to prepare officials to enter a re-elected administration, White House officials and others say....
Congress routinely provides money every four years for office expenses, briefings and other potential costs incurred by a president-elect and his or her aides waiting to move into the White House and other federal offices.
Bush has proposed $7.7 million for a possible transition. He also asked Congress to amend the Presidential Transition Act to allow using up to $1 million from that amount "for training and briefings for incoming appointees associated with the second term of an incumbent president."...
--AP
Who's providing the training and briefings? Halliburton?
(Link via INTL-News.)
In a New York Review of Books article on theories of repressed memory, Frederick Crews takes us back to a more civilized era, when people had respect for the president of the United States:
In 1995, ... [Alan] Scheflin had delivered a warmly received address to a Texas conference held by the Society for the Investigation, Treatment and Prevention of Ritual and Cult Abuse, whose other speakers asserted, inter alia, that there were 500 Satanic cults in New York City alone, committing 4000 human sacrifices per year, [and] that Bill Clinton was serving as the Antichrist in the worldwide Satanic fraternity of the Illuminati....
Hey -- it's not as if somebody compared Clinton to Hitler!
In 1995, ... [Alan] Scheflin had delivered a warmly received address to a Texas conference held by the Society for the Investigation, Treatment and Prevention of Ritual and Cult Abuse, whose other speakers asserted, inter alia, that there were 500 Satanic cults in New York City alone, committing 4000 human sacrifices per year, [and] that Bill Clinton was serving as the Antichrist in the worldwide Satanic fraternity of the Illuminati....
Hey -- it's not as if somebody compared Clinton to Hitler!
The Bush Administration has denied allegations by Jean-Bertrand Aristide that US agents coerced him into resigning as Haiti's president and spirited him out of the country at gunpoint.
"He was not kidnapped. We did not force him onto the airplane," Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters. "He went onto the airplane willingly. And that's the truth."
--The Age (Australia)
Really, Colin? And if force were used, what makes you think the rest of the administration would tell you?
"He was not kidnapped. We did not force him onto the airplane," Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters. "He went onto the airplane willingly. And that's the truth."
--The Age (Australia)
Really, Colin? And if force were used, what makes you think the rest of the administration would tell you?
Monday, March 01, 2004
More deviants from conservatively correct thinking have been purged by the Bushies, as Eugene Volokh reports:
The Bush administration has removed two members of the bioethics advisory council-- two who favored stem cell research.
The two were a medical ethicist and a biologist. They've been replaced by a neurosurgery specialist; a political theorist with a University of Chicago connection who writes about Montesquieu; and a political theorist who has started to do some work on biotechnology.
Volokh suspects the replacements are followers of Leo Strauss, widely regarded as a major intellectual inspiration to foreign-policy neocons:
Both of the political theorists have institutional affiliations that identify them as Straussian with a high degree of confidence, and both are established critics of biotech in general or stem cell research in particular-- giving us some ex ante reason to think they were chosen by Straussian Leon Kass, my colleague at Chicago and the chair of the council. I'm all in favor of political theorists with University of Chicago connections who write about Montesquieu, really I am. But these changes have the clear intent and effect of making the advisory council more intellectually homogenous and less likely to air any dissent from Kass' essentially religious and anti-science views....
Volokh's source is this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, which you can read if you're a subscriber (I'm not). (Thanks to Pandagon for the link.)
The Bush administration has removed two members of the bioethics advisory council-- two who favored stem cell research.
The two were a medical ethicist and a biologist. They've been replaced by a neurosurgery specialist; a political theorist with a University of Chicago connection who writes about Montesquieu; and a political theorist who has started to do some work on biotechnology.
Volokh suspects the replacements are followers of Leo Strauss, widely regarded as a major intellectual inspiration to foreign-policy neocons:
Both of the political theorists have institutional affiliations that identify them as Straussian with a high degree of confidence, and both are established critics of biotech in general or stem cell research in particular-- giving us some ex ante reason to think they were chosen by Straussian Leon Kass, my colleague at Chicago and the chair of the council. I'm all in favor of political theorists with University of Chicago connections who write about Montesquieu, really I am. But these changes have the clear intent and effect of making the advisory council more intellectually homogenous and less likely to air any dissent from Kass' essentially religious and anti-science views....
Volokh's source is this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, which you can read if you're a subscriber (I'm not). (Thanks to Pandagon for the link.)
I nearly missed this story, which ran in Saturday's New York Times. What is wrong with these people?
...Anyone who publishes material from a country under a trade embargo is forbidden to reorder paragraphs or sentences, correct syntax or grammar, or replace "inappropriate words," according to several advisory letters from the Treasury Department in recent months.
Adding illustrations is prohibited, too. To the baffled dismay of publishers, editors and translators who have been briefed about the policy, only publication of "camera-ready copies of manuscripts" is allowed.
The Treasury letters concerned Iran. But the logic, experts said, would seem to extend to Cuba, Libya, North Korea and other nations with which most trade is banned without a government license....
Nahid Mozaffari, a scholar and editor specializing in literature from Iran, called the implications staggering. "A story, a poem, an article on history, archaeology, linguistics, engineering, physics, mathematics, or any other area of knowledge cannot be translated, and even if submitted in English, cannot be edited in the U.S.," she said.
"This means that the publication of the PEN Anthology of Contemporary Persian Literature that I have been editing for the last three years," she said, "would constitute aiding and abetting the enemy."...
Tara Bradshaw, a Treasury Department spokeswoman, confirmed the restrictions on manuscripts from Iran in a statement. Banned activities include, she wrote, "collaboration on and editing of the manuscripts, the selection of reviewers, and facilitation of a review resulting in substantive enhancements or alterations to the manuscripts."...
Kenneth R. Foster, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, said the government had grown insistent on the editing ban. "Since 9/11 and since the Bush administration took office," he said, "the Treasury Department has been ramping up enforcement."...
I can't fathom the thought processes of people who would actually spend time scouring the federal statute books, or order underlings to do so, on the American taxpayer's dime in the hopes of finding a way to do something like this (something that won't have the slightest effect on the rule of Castro or the Iranian mullahs). You would only do a thing like this if you were utterly un-American -- if you didn't give a damn about free speech or the free exchange of ideas.
(Thanks to Ellen for spotting this.)
...Anyone who publishes material from a country under a trade embargo is forbidden to reorder paragraphs or sentences, correct syntax or grammar, or replace "inappropriate words," according to several advisory letters from the Treasury Department in recent months.
Adding illustrations is prohibited, too. To the baffled dismay of publishers, editors and translators who have been briefed about the policy, only publication of "camera-ready copies of manuscripts" is allowed.
The Treasury letters concerned Iran. But the logic, experts said, would seem to extend to Cuba, Libya, North Korea and other nations with which most trade is banned without a government license....
Nahid Mozaffari, a scholar and editor specializing in literature from Iran, called the implications staggering. "A story, a poem, an article on history, archaeology, linguistics, engineering, physics, mathematics, or any other area of knowledge cannot be translated, and even if submitted in English, cannot be edited in the U.S.," she said.
"This means that the publication of the PEN Anthology of Contemporary Persian Literature that I have been editing for the last three years," she said, "would constitute aiding and abetting the enemy."...
Tara Bradshaw, a Treasury Department spokeswoman, confirmed the restrictions on manuscripts from Iran in a statement. Banned activities include, she wrote, "collaboration on and editing of the manuscripts, the selection of reviewers, and facilitation of a review resulting in substantive enhancements or alterations to the manuscripts."...
Kenneth R. Foster, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, said the government had grown insistent on the editing ban. "Since 9/11 and since the Bush administration took office," he said, "the Treasury Department has been ramping up enforcement."...
I can't fathom the thought processes of people who would actually spend time scouring the federal statute books, or order underlings to do so, on the American taxpayer's dime in the hopes of finding a way to do something like this (something that won't have the slightest effect on the rule of Castro or the Iranian mullahs). You would only do a thing like this if you were utterly un-American -- if you didn't give a damn about free speech or the free exchange of ideas.
(Thanks to Ellen for spotting this.)
Springsteen torture at Camp X-Ray
A TERROR suspect freed from Guantanamo Bay has told of cruel and unusual punishment.
Hamed Abderrahman Ahmad, a Spaniard who denies any links with terrorism, said he had to wrap his head in a damp towel to try to muffle loud tapes of Born in the USA.
Mr Ahmad said he was confined to a small cell where the lights were always on and he was forced to listen endlessly to Bruce Springsteen.
"First I spent a month in a cell two metres square that had a roof of sheet iron, with unbearable heat," he said.
"All day they blared patriotic American music. It was Born in the USA. We had to put wet towels on our heads to be able to bear the heat and not hear the music . . .
"Later they put us in even smaller cells."
--News.com.au (Australia)
The idiots blasting this music, of course, don't even have a clue what's in the lyrics to "Born in the U.S.A."
(Main link via INTL-News.)
A TERROR suspect freed from Guantanamo Bay has told of cruel and unusual punishment.
Hamed Abderrahman Ahmad, a Spaniard who denies any links with terrorism, said he had to wrap his head in a damp towel to try to muffle loud tapes of Born in the USA.
Mr Ahmad said he was confined to a small cell where the lights were always on and he was forced to listen endlessly to Bruce Springsteen.
"First I spent a month in a cell two metres square that had a roof of sheet iron, with unbearable heat," he said.
"All day they blared patriotic American music. It was Born in the USA. We had to put wet towels on our heads to be able to bear the heat and not hear the music . . .
"Later they put us in even smaller cells."
--News.com.au (Australia)
The idiots blasting this music, of course, don't even have a clue what's in the lyrics to "Born in the U.S.A."
(Main link via INTL-News.)
After panning The Passion of the Christ, Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News got a big dose of muscular Christianity:
Most of the hundreds of people who wrote in didn't wait to see the movie for themselves before giving me a piece of their mind....
Many of these E-mails were nasty and unprintable.
Some attacked me personally, dismissing my looks and assuming that if I didn't like the movie, I must be Jewish, thus betraying their own prejudices.
Just as religious leaders of all stripes have feared, the movie has become a lightning rod for the anti-Semitic undercurrent that runs through society - many of the letters I received dragged out old canards about Jews running Hollywood, the media, and having too much money.
A few of them referred to my weight, because I've been chronicling my effort to shed pounds in another section of the newspaper. "Eat a donut!" read the printable part of one missive.
Other critics who reviewed "The Passion" received similar hate mail, although Gene Seymour of Newsday told me he has yet to be called a "ho."
"Unprintable" is such a silly word in this day and age, and reproducing just the "printable" parts of hate letters and e-mails gives a distorted view of the writers' rage. Maybe the hate mail doesn't belong in the Daily News, but Jami Bernard (and Gene Seymour, and probably David Denby and a lot of other critics) should do what Margaret Cho did and show us all precisely what goes on in the brains of bigots. Find (or create) a place to post the letters, warn the parents to set the kiddies' Web filters on stun, then start uploading.
Most of the hundreds of people who wrote in didn't wait to see the movie for themselves before giving me a piece of their mind....
Many of these E-mails were nasty and unprintable.
Some attacked me personally, dismissing my looks and assuming that if I didn't like the movie, I must be Jewish, thus betraying their own prejudices.
Just as religious leaders of all stripes have feared, the movie has become a lightning rod for the anti-Semitic undercurrent that runs through society - many of the letters I received dragged out old canards about Jews running Hollywood, the media, and having too much money.
A few of them referred to my weight, because I've been chronicling my effort to shed pounds in another section of the newspaper. "Eat a donut!" read the printable part of one missive.
Other critics who reviewed "The Passion" received similar hate mail, although Gene Seymour of Newsday told me he has yet to be called a "ho."
"Unprintable" is such a silly word in this day and age, and reproducing just the "printable" parts of hate letters and e-mails gives a distorted view of the writers' rage. Maybe the hate mail doesn't belong in the Daily News, but Jami Bernard (and Gene Seymour, and probably David Denby and a lot of other critics) should do what Margaret Cho did and show us all precisely what goes on in the brains of bigots. Find (or create) a place to post the letters, warn the parents to set the kiddies' Web filters on stun, then start uploading.
Apparently, while John Debney was writing the music for The Passion of the Christ, he chatted with Satan and wanted to get into a street brawl with him (Satan, being a man of wealth and taste, demurred):
"I had all these computers and synthesizers in my studio and the hard drives would go down and the digital picture that lives on the computer with the music would just freeze on his [Satan's] face. Then the volume would go to ten and it would happen all the time.
"The first time it happened, it scared me," Debney said. "Once I got over the initial shock of that, I learned to work around it and learned to reboot the computers and so I would start talking to him.
"There was one day when I had been on the movie for about four months when it really became bad that day and a lot of things that were causing doubt in me and I had had enough. The computers froze for about the tenth time that day and it was about nine o'clock at night and so I got really mad, and I told Satan to manifest himself and I said, 'Let's go out into the parking lot and let's go.' It was a sea change in me. I knew that this was war. I am not a physical person, but I was really angry on this occasion.
"I am up on the second floor, and on the bottom floor of my building there are therapists, and they see patients until midnight, and their windows are right at the parking lot, and I was coming down the stairs, and I had had it. I had booted everything down and saved it and I was walking down the stairs and I was verbalizing and saying to Satan, 'Manifest yourself right now.' As I am walking out and saying, 'Come on, let's go now,' I looked over and I could see someone looking at me and I realized how silly I must have looked. He didn't manifest himself, but I wished he would have...."
I bet this never happened to Debney on Welcome to Mooseport, Elf, The Hot Chick, or A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
"I had all these computers and synthesizers in my studio and the hard drives would go down and the digital picture that lives on the computer with the music would just freeze on his [Satan's] face. Then the volume would go to ten and it would happen all the time.
"The first time it happened, it scared me," Debney said. "Once I got over the initial shock of that, I learned to work around it and learned to reboot the computers and so I would start talking to him.
"There was one day when I had been on the movie for about four months when it really became bad that day and a lot of things that were causing doubt in me and I had had enough. The computers froze for about the tenth time that day and it was about nine o'clock at night and so I got really mad, and I told Satan to manifest himself and I said, 'Let's go out into the parking lot and let's go.' It was a sea change in me. I knew that this was war. I am not a physical person, but I was really angry on this occasion.
"I am up on the second floor, and on the bottom floor of my building there are therapists, and they see patients until midnight, and their windows are right at the parking lot, and I was coming down the stairs, and I had had it. I had booted everything down and saved it and I was walking down the stairs and I was verbalizing and saying to Satan, 'Manifest yourself right now.' As I am walking out and saying, 'Come on, let's go now,' I looked over and I could see someone looking at me and I realized how silly I must have looked. He didn't manifest himself, but I wished he would have...."
I bet this never happened to Debney on Welcome to Mooseport, Elf, The Hot Chick, or A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
Sunday, February 29, 2004
Kerry will pick Gephardt — and he'll be glad he did.
--John J. Miller in National Review
Kerry will surely want a running mate eager to eviscerate the opposition, particularly in the debate against Vice President Cheney (or, failing that, a Vice President who will bring his home state along -- and Dick Gephardt has a better chance of doing both than Edwards).
--Joe Klein in Time
Please tell me this is just the same sort of pundit idiocy that gave us so many stories four years ago about how Tom Ridge was a lock for Bush's #2 slot. I just don't think I could bear the mealy-mouthed fossil Gephardt in the #2 slot. Don't do it, John.
--John J. Miller in National Review
Kerry will surely want a running mate eager to eviscerate the opposition, particularly in the debate against Vice President Cheney (or, failing that, a Vice President who will bring his home state along -- and Dick Gephardt has a better chance of doing both than Edwards).
--Joe Klein in Time
Please tell me this is just the same sort of pundit idiocy that gave us so many stories four years ago about how Tom Ridge was a lock for Bush's #2 slot. I just don't think I could bear the mealy-mouthed fossil Gephardt in the #2 slot. Don't do it, John.
I know that David Shipley has said that he and his fellow New York Times op-ed page editors "tend to look for articles that ... make arguments that have not been articulated elsewhere in the editorial space." But does that mean it's necessary to publish a pro-gay-marriage article that takes seriously the most ill-supported, preposterous aguments of gay-marriage opponents?
The power of "marriage" lies in its symbolic authority to reinforce monogamy and stability when temptation calls. The hope is that, having taken vows before family and friends, people will think twice before breaking them. It is this shared meaning of marriage that is central to the success of so many individual unions.
Yet it is precisely this shared definition that causes many Americans to worry that legalizing gay marriages would undermine straight ones. By sharing the institution with couples whose union they don't trust or respect, they fear, the sanctity of their own bonds could be compromised.
Oh, please. People who oppose gay marriage do so because they think gay people are icky (or simply immoral by definition) and thus don't deserve the same institutional validation as straights.
And if Shipley does think this is an appropriately thought-provoking pro-gay-marriage piece, why pair it with this utterly conventional anti-gay-marriage piece by Lisa Schiffren (author of Dan Quayle's Murphy Brown speech), which is entirely consistent with the Bush position on gay rights?
To ex-New Republic editor Shipley, liberalism that isn't ashamed of liberal argumentsis an embarrassment, but full-throated conservatism is okey-dokey.
The power of "marriage" lies in its symbolic authority to reinforce monogamy and stability when temptation calls. The hope is that, having taken vows before family and friends, people will think twice before breaking them. It is this shared meaning of marriage that is central to the success of so many individual unions.
Yet it is precisely this shared definition that causes many Americans to worry that legalizing gay marriages would undermine straight ones. By sharing the institution with couples whose union they don't trust or respect, they fear, the sanctity of their own bonds could be compromised.
Oh, please. People who oppose gay marriage do so because they think gay people are icky (or simply immoral by definition) and thus don't deserve the same institutional validation as straights.
And if Shipley does think this is an appropriately thought-provoking pro-gay-marriage piece, why pair it with this utterly conventional anti-gay-marriage piece by Lisa Schiffren (author of Dan Quayle's Murphy Brown speech), which is entirely consistent with the Bush position on gay rights?
To ex-New Republic editor Shipley, liberalism that isn't ashamed of liberal argumentsis an embarrassment, but full-throated conservatism is okey-dokey.
Saturday, February 28, 2004
The New York Post says Jason West, the mayor of New Paltz, New York, who's been marrying gay couples, has a "history of flakery":
When he was just 6, West boycotted McDonald's because the fast-food giant used Styrofoam containers.
"I've been an environmentalist all my life," he said recently.
"I refused to let [my] family eat at McDonald's when I learned about Styrofoam and how it's not biodegradable. So, we couldn't go to McDonald's for a while, which my sister forgave me for, I think, last summer." ...
West's platform, like his approach to life, was offbeat to say the least, and heavy on environmental issues.
He talked about solar panels for the village hall roof and soy-based fuel for municipal trucks....
What's so flaky about either of these things? I'm impressed.
Oh -- this, I guess, is the flaky part:
As for his puppeteering, West works with a group called Arm-of-the-Sea theater, which performs throughout the Hudson Valley.
Hey, Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie is going to win a mess of Oscars tomorrow night? Didn't he used to make puppet movies?
When he was just 6, West boycotted McDonald's because the fast-food giant used Styrofoam containers.
"I've been an environmentalist all my life," he said recently.
"I refused to let [my] family eat at McDonald's when I learned about Styrofoam and how it's not biodegradable. So, we couldn't go to McDonald's for a while, which my sister forgave me for, I think, last summer." ...
West's platform, like his approach to life, was offbeat to say the least, and heavy on environmental issues.
He talked about solar panels for the village hall roof and soy-based fuel for municipal trucks....
What's so flaky about either of these things? I'm impressed.
Oh -- this, I guess, is the flaky part:
As for his puppeteering, West works with a group called Arm-of-the-Sea theater, which performs throughout the Hudson Valley.
Hey, Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie is going to win a mess of Oscars tomorrow night? Didn't he used to make puppet movies?
The lead of Joe Klein's Time column this week is a bit obnoxious:
The 2004 Democratic primary campaign has produced one of the more depressing political phenomena in memory: the rise of the citizen pundit. With Howard Dean gone from the race, the last traces of passion -- and, I fear, conviction -- have been leached from the electorate. Instead of voters, we have handicappers. Ask a civilian why she likes Kerry or Edwards, and more often than not, you get dime-store Capital Gang: "Kerry can match up with Bush on national security," or "Edwards can win in the South." This is a form of pragmatism, I suppose. Democrats are desperate to beat George W. Bush. But it is also fresh evidence of television's ability to lobotomize democracy. With serious issues of war and prosperity at stake, horse-race punditry seems particularly vacant right now....
Excusez-frickin'-moi, Joe -- on behalf of my fellow ordinary-scum political mavens, I apologize for not realizeingthat you pros have the exclusive right to second-guess ordinary voters. Even though, unlike you, we proles actually know (and, in fact, are) ordinary voters.
The 2004 Democratic primary campaign has produced one of the more depressing political phenomena in memory: the rise of the citizen pundit. With Howard Dean gone from the race, the last traces of passion -- and, I fear, conviction -- have been leached from the electorate. Instead of voters, we have handicappers. Ask a civilian why she likes Kerry or Edwards, and more often than not, you get dime-store Capital Gang: "Kerry can match up with Bush on national security," or "Edwards can win in the South." This is a form of pragmatism, I suppose. Democrats are desperate to beat George W. Bush. But it is also fresh evidence of television's ability to lobotomize democracy. With serious issues of war and prosperity at stake, horse-race punditry seems particularly vacant right now....
Excusez-frickin'-moi, Joe -- on behalf of my fellow ordinary-scum political mavens, I apologize for not realizeingthat you pros have the exclusive right to second-guess ordinary voters. Even though, unlike you, we proles actually know (and, in fact, are) ordinary voters.
...the real [Republican] energy will be spent proving that Kerry isn't solid or strong, that he is, in fact, effete and unreliable.... the Republican National Committee gave a sneak preview last week, e-mailing to reporters a quote from Teresa Heinz Kerry about her husband: "You know, I say he's like a good wine. You know, it takes time to mature, and then it gets really good and you can sip it. I think he's at that stage now."
Why, you might ask, would the Republicans distribute something so innocuous? Because it implies the Heinz Kerrys are wine drinkers. They probably eat quiche too. Early in the campaign, Kerry committed the abomination of ordering Swiss cheese instead of Cheez Whiz for his Philly cheesesteak -- that's almost as grievous as asking for a "splash" of coffee, as Bush the Elder once did. (Bush the Younger has been careful to let us know that he favors bologna sandwiches.) Furthermore, John Kerry speaks fluent French. It is no accident that a White House staffer once said, "He looks French." The Heinz Kerrys hang out on Nantucket and in Sun Valley, Idaho. They don't own a ranch or cut scrub with a chainsaw. He often shows up at Davos. He went to a fancy private school in Switzerland. He and Teresa met at a global-warming conference, for God's sake! He wears pastel Hermes ties — a pink one at his Wisconsin victory celebration. And this guy calls himself an American!
--Joe Klein in this week's Time
Like the gold-encrusted doors to his Fifth Avenue apartment, everything Donald Trump says is over the top, outrageous and in desperate need of being toned down by 20 percent.... The funny thing is, people are buying every morsel he has to sell. "The Apprentice" is the most addictive new show on television, with more than 18 million viewers tuning in every week to watch Trump conduct his own master class in megasuccess.
--cover story of the current Newsweek
Bizarre -- Democratic voters embrace a candidate who is -- like the party's two most beloved presidents of the twentieth century, JFK and FDR -- a patrician, in a year when even Trump's bling-blig is hip again, and the Republicans think they're going to win with -- let's call it what is -- class warfare.
Almost in passing, Klein notes that
In Wisconsin [Kerry] won the blue-collar vote—as he has throughout his career.
Uh-huh. Americans don't hate the rich. Aren't you non-liberals always telling us that?
Why, you might ask, would the Republicans distribute something so innocuous? Because it implies the Heinz Kerrys are wine drinkers. They probably eat quiche too. Early in the campaign, Kerry committed the abomination of ordering Swiss cheese instead of Cheez Whiz for his Philly cheesesteak -- that's almost as grievous as asking for a "splash" of coffee, as Bush the Elder once did. (Bush the Younger has been careful to let us know that he favors bologna sandwiches.) Furthermore, John Kerry speaks fluent French. It is no accident that a White House staffer once said, "He looks French." The Heinz Kerrys hang out on Nantucket and in Sun Valley, Idaho. They don't own a ranch or cut scrub with a chainsaw. He often shows up at Davos. He went to a fancy private school in Switzerland. He and Teresa met at a global-warming conference, for God's sake! He wears pastel Hermes ties — a pink one at his Wisconsin victory celebration. And this guy calls himself an American!
--Joe Klein in this week's Time
Like the gold-encrusted doors to his Fifth Avenue apartment, everything Donald Trump says is over the top, outrageous and in desperate need of being toned down by 20 percent.... The funny thing is, people are buying every morsel he has to sell. "The Apprentice" is the most addictive new show on television, with more than 18 million viewers tuning in every week to watch Trump conduct his own master class in megasuccess.
--cover story of the current Newsweek
Bizarre -- Democratic voters embrace a candidate who is -- like the party's two most beloved presidents of the twentieth century, JFK and FDR -- a patrician, in a year when even Trump's bling-blig is hip again, and the Republicans think they're going to win with -- let's call it what is -- class warfare.
Almost in passing, Klein notes that
In Wisconsin [Kerry] won the blue-collar vote—as he has throughout his career.
Uh-huh. Americans don't hate the rich. Aren't you non-liberals always telling us that?
Friday, February 27, 2004
They never rest, do they?
The Oklahoma House passed a bill Monday that would require public school textbooks that discuss evolution to include a disclaimer stating that it is a controversial theory and not fact.
...“I think so many of the textbooks make it appear that evolution is a scientific fact and it’s not,” said [Representative Bill] Graves, R-Oklahoma City. “Even the U.S. Supreme Court says it’s a theory, so I was just trying to make that clear.
“I think it’s very important for children to know,” Graves said. “If they just believe that they came from some slime in a swamp that’s a whole lot different from being created in the image of God.” ...
The bill passed on a 96-0 vote and now heads to the Senate....
--Claremore (Okla.) Daily Progress
My favorite detail:
Rep. Bill Graves successfully included the language in House Bill 2194, a measure that originally changed the format for Braille versions of instructional materials.
Yeah, that's courageous -- just sneak this nonsense onto a completely unrelated bill. For the blind.
The Oklahoma House passed a bill Monday that would require public school textbooks that discuss evolution to include a disclaimer stating that it is a controversial theory and not fact.
...“I think so many of the textbooks make it appear that evolution is a scientific fact and it’s not,” said [Representative Bill] Graves, R-Oklahoma City. “Even the U.S. Supreme Court says it’s a theory, so I was just trying to make that clear.
“I think it’s very important for children to know,” Graves said. “If they just believe that they came from some slime in a swamp that’s a whole lot different from being created in the image of God.” ...
The bill passed on a 96-0 vote and now heads to the Senate....
--Claremore (Okla.) Daily Progress
My favorite detail:
Rep. Bill Graves successfully included the language in House Bill 2194, a measure that originally changed the format for Braille versions of instructional materials.
Yeah, that's courageous -- just sneak this nonsense onto a completely unrelated bill. For the blind.
The Taliban is dead as a movement or a military factor in Afghanistan, the country's president said here Feb. 26....
President Hamid Karzai held a joint news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld after they met in Afghanistan's presidential palace....
"We strongly believe, with evidence, that they are defeated. They're gone," Karzai said, referring to the Taliban....
Rumsfeld echoed Karzai's assessment of the Taliban. "I've not seen any indication that the Taliban pose a military threat to Afghanistan," he said.
"We don't see a resurgence of the Taliban," Karzai said. "The Taliban as a movement does not exist anymore...."
--Armed Forces Press Service, 2/27/04
"I will say emphatically that there is no Mafia in this country and no national crime syndicate. Why don't those who talk about the Mafia name its leader or leaders? There has been no Mafia in this country for at least forty years. Now about a national crime syndicate: I say there is no such thing, and I say it not simply as a personal judgment but on the basis of talks with other enforcement officials."
--U.E. Baughman, chief of the U.S. Secret Service, quoted in The Washington Post, 9/2/61
President Hamid Karzai held a joint news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld after they met in Afghanistan's presidential palace....
"We strongly believe, with evidence, that they are defeated. They're gone," Karzai said, referring to the Taliban....
Rumsfeld echoed Karzai's assessment of the Taliban. "I've not seen any indication that the Taliban pose a military threat to Afghanistan," he said.
"We don't see a resurgence of the Taliban," Karzai said. "The Taliban as a movement does not exist anymore...."
--Armed Forces Press Service, 2/27/04
"I will say emphatically that there is no Mafia in this country and no national crime syndicate. Why don't those who talk about the Mafia name its leader or leaders? There has been no Mafia in this country for at least forty years. Now about a national crime syndicate: I say there is no such thing, and I say it not simply as a personal judgment but on the basis of talks with other enforcement officials."
--U.E. Baughman, chief of the U.S. Secret Service, quoted in The Washington Post, 9/2/61
Interesting: A few days after Bush backed a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage, the British Conservative Party held a gay summit meeting, with the full backing of party leader Michael Howard, who has expressed his support for civil unions in Britain. (I learned this from John O'Farrell's Guardian column, which gleefully bashes homophobia while simultaneously using every gay stereotype known to humankind. Oh, that British humor....)
The UN bugging row has escalated with fresh allegations that former chief weapons inspector Hans Blix had his mobile phone tapped in Iraq.
Another senior UN inspector, Richard Butler, has also revealed that he knew he was being bugged....
An Australian intelligence source claimed Blix's mobile phone was monitored and his conversations recorded while he was in Iraq before the war.
"The transcripts were then made available to the United States, Australia, Canada, the UK and also New Zealand," said Andrew Fowler, an ABC investigative reporter.
He did not say who tapped Blix's phone....
--Sky News
Another senior UN inspector, Richard Butler, has also revealed that he knew he was being bugged....
An Australian intelligence source claimed Blix's mobile phone was monitored and his conversations recorded while he was in Iraq before the war.
"The transcripts were then made available to the United States, Australia, Canada, the UK and also New Zealand," said Andrew Fowler, an ABC investigative reporter.
He did not say who tapped Blix's phone....
--Sky News
Back in March, Ann Clwyd, a Labour MP from Wales, wrote in The Times of London about reports that one of Saddam's sons regularly had prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison thrown into a machine intended for the shredding of plastic. Horrible -- and a rebuke to those of us who opposed war. Right? Well, yes -- except for the fact that it seems rather difficult to confirm that the shredder ever existed, as Brendan O'Neill now reports:
An Iraqi who worked as a doctor in the hospital attached to Abu Ghraib prison tells me there was no shredding machine in the prison. The Iraqi, who wishes to remain anonymous, describes the prison as "horrific". Part of his job was to attend to those who had been executed. Did he ever attend to, or hear of, prisoners who had been shredded? "No." Did any of the other doctors at Abu Ghraib speak of a shredding machine used to execute prisoners? "No, never. As far as I know [hanging] was the only form of execution used there."
Clwyd insists that corroboration of the shredder story came when she was shown a dossier by a reporter from Fox TV. On June 18, Clwyd wrote a second article for the Times, citing a "record book" from Abu Ghraib, which described one of the methods of execution as "mincing". Can she say who compiled this book? "No, I can't." Where is it now? "I don't know." What was the name of the Fox reporter who showed it to her? "I have no idea." Did Clwyd read the entire thing? "No, it was in Arabic! I only saw it briefly." Curiously, there is no mention of the book or of "mincing" as a method of execution on the Fox News website, nor does its foreign editor recall it.
Other groups have no recorded accounts of a human shredder. An Amnesty International spokesman tells me that his inquiries into the shredder "drew a blank". Widney Brown, the deputy programme director of Human Rights Watch, says: "We have not heard of that particular form of execution or torture."
The story was front-page, opinion-altering news in Britain; the alleged shredding was cited by Paul Wolfowitz and Australian prime minister John Howard. Yet the only evidence of the shredding, O'Neill notes, was one uncorroborated witness statement.
An Iraqi who worked as a doctor in the hospital attached to Abu Ghraib prison tells me there was no shredding machine in the prison. The Iraqi, who wishes to remain anonymous, describes the prison as "horrific". Part of his job was to attend to those who had been executed. Did he ever attend to, or hear of, prisoners who had been shredded? "No." Did any of the other doctors at Abu Ghraib speak of a shredding machine used to execute prisoners? "No, never. As far as I know [hanging] was the only form of execution used there."
Clwyd insists that corroboration of the shredder story came when she was shown a dossier by a reporter from Fox TV. On June 18, Clwyd wrote a second article for the Times, citing a "record book" from Abu Ghraib, which described one of the methods of execution as "mincing". Can she say who compiled this book? "No, I can't." Where is it now? "I don't know." What was the name of the Fox reporter who showed it to her? "I have no idea." Did Clwyd read the entire thing? "No, it was in Arabic! I only saw it briefly." Curiously, there is no mention of the book or of "mincing" as a method of execution on the Fox News website, nor does its foreign editor recall it.
Other groups have no recorded accounts of a human shredder. An Amnesty International spokesman tells me that his inquiries into the shredder "drew a blank". Widney Brown, the deputy programme director of Human Rights Watch, says: "We have not heard of that particular form of execution or torture."
The story was front-page, opinion-altering news in Britain; the alleged shredding was cited by Paul Wolfowitz and Australian prime minister John Howard. Yet the only evidence of the shredding, O'Neill notes, was one uncorroborated witness statement.
This morning the NPR correspondent who was reporting on former cabinet minister Clare Short's revelation of U.K. bugging of Kofi Annan wondered whether the U.S. might have done something similar. Well, remember this, from England's Observer in early March '03?
The United States is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq.
...The disclosures were made in a memorandum written by a top official at the National Security Agency - the US body which intercepts communications around the world - and circulated to both senior agents in his organisation and to a friendly foreign intelligence agency asking for its input.
The memo describes orders to staff at the agency, whose work is clouded in secrecy, to step up its surveillance operations 'particularly directed at... UN Security Council Members (minus US and GBR, of course)' to provide up-to-the-minute intelligence for Bush officials on the voting intentions of UN members regarding the issue of Iraq.
The leaked memorandum makes clear that the target of the heightened surveillance efforts are the delegations from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea and Pakistan at the UN headquarters in New York - the so-called 'Middle Six' delegations whose votes are being fought over by the pro-war party, led by the US and Britain, and the party arguing for more time for UN inspections, led by France, China and Russia.
The memo is directed at senior NSA officials and advises them that the agency is 'mounting a surge' aimed at gleaning information not only on how delegations on the Security Council will vote on any second resolution on Iraq, but also 'policies', 'negotiating positions', 'alliances' and 'dependencies' - the 'whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises'....
If the U.S. was spying on other nations' delegations, would it refrain from spying on Annan?
The United States is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq.
...The disclosures were made in a memorandum written by a top official at the National Security Agency - the US body which intercepts communications around the world - and circulated to both senior agents in his organisation and to a friendly foreign intelligence agency asking for its input.
The memo describes orders to staff at the agency, whose work is clouded in secrecy, to step up its surveillance operations 'particularly directed at... UN Security Council Members (minus US and GBR, of course)' to provide up-to-the-minute intelligence for Bush officials on the voting intentions of UN members regarding the issue of Iraq.
The leaked memorandum makes clear that the target of the heightened surveillance efforts are the delegations from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea and Pakistan at the UN headquarters in New York - the so-called 'Middle Six' delegations whose votes are being fought over by the pro-war party, led by the US and Britain, and the party arguing for more time for UN inspections, led by France, China and Russia.
The memo is directed at senior NSA officials and advises them that the agency is 'mounting a surge' aimed at gleaning information not only on how delegations on the Security Council will vote on any second resolution on Iraq, but also 'policies', 'negotiating positions', 'alliances' and 'dependencies' - the 'whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises'....
If the U.S. was spying on other nations' delegations, would it refrain from spying on Annan?
Thursday, February 26, 2004
Back in June, The New York Times reported that the GOP was hoping the cornerstone of the new World Trade Center could be laid during the Republican convention. I thought maybe I was being a tad hyperbolic when I said at the time, "I put nothing past these people. A Bush acceptance speech at Ground Zero, delivered via bullhorn?" Then in December a New York Times story about the Republicans' plans to have a lot of razzle-dazzle at the convention referred to their "intention of not holding events at ground zero." So it seemed that even the GOP has limits.
Or do they? Today The Hill quotes a source who's also talking about convention razzle-dazzle:
The source, a veteran official of past GOP conventions, said the 50,000 delegates, dignitaries and guests would watch off-site events on giant TV screens. "Now, we'll go to the deck of the USS Intrepid as the U.S. Marine Corps Band plays the national anthem," he said, pretending that he was playing the part of the convention chairman.
"Or, and this is a real possibility, we could see President Bush giving his acceptance speech at Ground Zero," he added. "It's clearly a venue they're considering."
So what do you think? Bullhorn or no bullhorn? Not for the whole speech, of course -- just for the inevitable climactic moment when he moves the crowd to paroxysms of ecstasy by declaring, "I can hear you."
(Hill link via Pandagon.)
Or do they? Today The Hill quotes a source who's also talking about convention razzle-dazzle:
The source, a veteran official of past GOP conventions, said the 50,000 delegates, dignitaries and guests would watch off-site events on giant TV screens. "Now, we'll go to the deck of the USS Intrepid as the U.S. Marine Corps Band plays the national anthem," he said, pretending that he was playing the part of the convention chairman.
"Or, and this is a real possibility, we could see President Bush giving his acceptance speech at Ground Zero," he added. "It's clearly a venue they're considering."
So what do you think? Bullhorn or no bullhorn? Not for the whole speech, of course -- just for the inevitable climactic moment when he moves the crowd to paroxysms of ecstasy by declaring, "I can hear you."
(Hill link via Pandagon.)
Average annual out-of-pocket health-care costs for low-income uninsured families (in 2001 dollars)?
$463.
Average annual cost under the Bush health-care proposal, which recommends that these families use tax credits to buy their own coverage?
$2,511.
Nice, huh?
For more information, see this Reuters story and this news release from the Center for Studying Health System Change, which conducted the study.
(Thanks to Skimble for the Reuters link.)
$463.
Average annual cost under the Bush health-care proposal, which recommends that these families use tax credits to buy their own coverage?
$2,511.
Nice, huh?
For more information, see this Reuters story and this news release from the Center for Studying Health System Change, which conducted the study.
(Thanks to Skimble for the Reuters link.)
...the movie was to me deeply disturbing. In a word, it is pornography. By pornography, I mean the reduction of all human thought and feeling and personhood to mere flesh. The center-piece of the movie is an absolutely disgusting and despicable piece of sadism that has no real basis in any of the Gospels....We see blood spattering on the torturers' faces. We see muscled thugs exhausted from shredding every inch of this man's body. And then they turn him over and do it all again. It goes on for ever....Toward the end, unsatisfied with showing a man flayed alive, nailed gruesomely to a cross, one eye shut from being smashed in, blood covering his entire body, Gibson has a large crow perch on the neighboring cross and peck another man's eyes out. Why? Because the porn needed yet another money shot....
The first scene in which Caiphas appears has him relaying to Judas how much money he has agreed to hand over in return for Jesus. The Jew - fussing over money again! There are a few actors in those scenes who look like classic hook-nosed Jews of Nazi imagery, hissing and plotting and fulminating against the Christ. For good measure, Gibson has the Jewish priestly elite beat Jesus up as well, before they hand him over to the Romans; and he has Jesus telling Pilate that he is not responsible - the Jewish elite is....Gibson does nothing to mitigate the dangerous anti-Semitic elements of the story and goes some way toward exaggerating and highlighting them. To my mind, that is categorically unforgivable.
Frank Rich? David Denby? No --Andrew Sullivan, of all people. I know he's deeply disillusioned these days with the conservative institutions he's championed for years -- the Catholic Church, the Bush White House -- but I wasn't expecting this.
The first scene in which Caiphas appears has him relaying to Judas how much money he has agreed to hand over in return for Jesus. The Jew - fussing over money again! There are a few actors in those scenes who look like classic hook-nosed Jews of Nazi imagery, hissing and plotting and fulminating against the Christ. For good measure, Gibson has the Jewish priestly elite beat Jesus up as well, before they hand him over to the Romans; and he has Jesus telling Pilate that he is not responsible - the Jewish elite is....Gibson does nothing to mitigate the dangerous anti-Semitic elements of the story and goes some way toward exaggerating and highlighting them. To my mind, that is categorically unforgivable.
Frank Rich? David Denby? No --Andrew Sullivan, of all people. I know he's deeply disillusioned these days with the conservative institutions he's championed for years -- the Catholic Church, the Bush White House -- but I wasn't expecting this.
Hey, I told you back in November that Roy Moore, the Ten Commandments judge, has big plans for himself, and might even want to run for president -- now Timothy Noah in Slate is predicting that Moore might run for president this year, as the candidate of the Constitution Party. Dare we hope that Noah's prediction comes true -- that the GOP will have its own Nader?
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Dave Louthan, the guy who killed the mad cow in Washington State, has been insisting it wasn't a "downer." A UPI story from a couple of days ago says he might be right -- and that means our detection systems may not be working very well:
U.S. Department of Agriculture documents uncovered by United Press International provide new evidence the cow that tested positive for mad cow disease in Washington last December was healthy and not a "downer," as the agency has maintained.
...Last week, the House Committee on Government Reform sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, asking her to respond to the accounts of three eyewitnesses present at Vern's Moses Lake Meats in Moses Lake, Wash., where the cow was slaughtered Dec. 9, and other documents it uncovered indicating the cow was not a downer.
UPI has uncovered additional documents that provide further support the cow was walking at the time of inspection.
The documents indicate that a test for illegal antibiotics and a temperature reading are required to be performed on all downer animals. However, neither test was conducted, suggesting the animal was not a downer.
The adequacy of USDA's mad cow surveillance program hinges on resolving the downer dispute. The agency's program tests only downer cattle and those showing signs of central nervous system problems because these are the most likely to be infected. However, European inspectors have found hundreds of infected cows that did not display any symptoms....
Read the story. What the Department of Agriculture wants you to believesure doesn't seem to be the whole truth.
(Thanks to INTL-News for the link.)
U.S. Department of Agriculture documents uncovered by United Press International provide new evidence the cow that tested positive for mad cow disease in Washington last December was healthy and not a "downer," as the agency has maintained.
...Last week, the House Committee on Government Reform sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, asking her to respond to the accounts of three eyewitnesses present at Vern's Moses Lake Meats in Moses Lake, Wash., where the cow was slaughtered Dec. 9, and other documents it uncovered indicating the cow was not a downer.
UPI has uncovered additional documents that provide further support the cow was walking at the time of inspection.
The documents indicate that a test for illegal antibiotics and a temperature reading are required to be performed on all downer animals. However, neither test was conducted, suggesting the animal was not a downer.
The adequacy of USDA's mad cow surveillance program hinges on resolving the downer dispute. The agency's program tests only downer cattle and those showing signs of central nervous system problems because these are the most likely to be infected. However, European inspectors have found hundreds of infected cows that did not display any symptoms....
Read the story. What the Department of Agriculture wants you to believesure doesn't seem to be the whole truth.
(Thanks to INTL-News for the link.)
More sweet nothings from the Right:
Planned Parenthood CEO Demanding Public Apology From Idaho Senator
"I am absolutely outraged," said Rebecca Poedy. She's been the "Planned Parenthood of Idaho" CEO for four years. She's participated in many legislative debates, but says what she experienced this week, was a first. According to Poedy, "He said, 'Ah, it's the pro-aborts, kill 'em all.'"
Poedy said when she heard it, she wasn't sure how to respond, "My initial response was to turn around to Senator Sweet and tell him how ridiculous that statement was. Today, I have filed a formal complaint with the Senate leadership."
...We did contact Senator Sweet for comment, but when we spoke with him over the phone we asked him about the statement, and he didn't deny making it. But he did say, he wanted to see the letter first. We also offered to bring him a copy of it, he declined that, as well. Sweet's attorney, Brian Chavez-Ochoa, called us a short time later, he did deny that the senator made the statement saying, "It's absolutely false... an egregious fabrication."
But Poedy is demanding not only an apology from the senator, but an explanation, as to what "kill 'em all" may have meant. She said in her profession, she doesn't take threats, or even the possibility of them, lightly....
--KBCI TV, Boise
Planned Parenthood CEO Demanding Public Apology From Idaho Senator
"I am absolutely outraged," said Rebecca Poedy. She's been the "Planned Parenthood of Idaho" CEO for four years. She's participated in many legislative debates, but says what she experienced this week, was a first. According to Poedy, "He said, 'Ah, it's the pro-aborts, kill 'em all.'"
Poedy said when she heard it, she wasn't sure how to respond, "My initial response was to turn around to Senator Sweet and tell him how ridiculous that statement was. Today, I have filed a formal complaint with the Senate leadership."
...We did contact Senator Sweet for comment, but when we spoke with him over the phone we asked him about the statement, and he didn't deny making it. But he did say, he wanted to see the letter first. We also offered to bring him a copy of it, he declined that, as well. Sweet's attorney, Brian Chavez-Ochoa, called us a short time later, he did deny that the senator made the statement saying, "It's absolutely false... an egregious fabrication."
But Poedy is demanding not only an apology from the senator, but an explanation, as to what "kill 'em all" may have meant. She said in her profession, she doesn't take threats, or even the possibility of them, lightly....
--KBCI TV, Boise
The new New York Times bestseller list just got sent out via e-mail (you can see it online next Sunday). Alas, Sean Hannity's new book snagged #1, and righties are at #4 (John Stossel), #5 (a photo book on The Passion), and #15 (Bill O'Reilly). But don't worry: The good guys are at #2 (Kevin Phillips), #3 (Ron Suskind), #7 (Al Franken), #9 (David Cay Johnston's tax scam expose Perfectly Legal), #10 (Michael Moore), and #13 (David Shipler's The Working Poor).
A couple of conservatives boldly free themselves from the shackles of totalitarian political correctness:
DENVER -- A billboard unveiled on Ash Wednesday, the same day that a controversial movie depicting the last hours of Jesus Christ premiered, is sparking criticism from people of all faiths.
The large-size outdoor marquee, which sits on the property of the Lovingway United Pentecostal Church at Colorado and Mississippi, says, "Jews Killed The Lord Jesus" and the word "Settled!"
The Anti-Defamation League asked for the marquee to be changed because it is anti-Semitic, but the church only amended the billboard slightly by removing the word "settled" and attributing the line to biblical Scriptures....
--Channel 7, Denver
Immigrant rights advocates are ripping a pair of provocative campaign ads from Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim Oberweis as racist and fallacious.
In his ads, Oberweis warns the nation is being overrun by illegal immigrants.
"Illegal aliens are coming here to take American workers' jobs, drive down wages and take advantage of government benefits such as free health care, and you pay," the wealthy dairy operator says in one of the spots.
"How many? Ten thousand illegal aliens a day. Enough to fill Soldier Field every single week." (Soldier Field is the stadium where the Chicago Bears play.)...
--UPI
The pastor of the Denver church is being repudiated by the state's Council of Churches. The Senate candidate is trailing a wealthy rival for the GOP nomination, though he was leading a few months ago.
DENVER -- A billboard unveiled on Ash Wednesday, the same day that a controversial movie depicting the last hours of Jesus Christ premiered, is sparking criticism from people of all faiths.
The large-size outdoor marquee, which sits on the property of the Lovingway United Pentecostal Church at Colorado and Mississippi, says, "Jews Killed The Lord Jesus" and the word "Settled!"
The Anti-Defamation League asked for the marquee to be changed because it is anti-Semitic, but the church only amended the billboard slightly by removing the word "settled" and attributing the line to biblical Scriptures....
--Channel 7, Denver
Immigrant rights advocates are ripping a pair of provocative campaign ads from Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim Oberweis as racist and fallacious.
In his ads, Oberweis warns the nation is being overrun by illegal immigrants.
"Illegal aliens are coming here to take American workers' jobs, drive down wages and take advantage of government benefits such as free health care, and you pay," the wealthy dairy operator says in one of the spots.
"How many? Ten thousand illegal aliens a day. Enough to fill Soldier Field every single week." (Soldier Field is the stadium where the Chicago Bears play.)...
--UPI
The pastor of the Denver church is being repudiated by the state's Council of Churches. The Senate candidate is trailing a wealthy rival for the GOP nomination, though he was leading a few months ago.
So as long as we're doing all this outsourcing (the latest is that some U.S. tax returns are being prepared overseas), I just thought I'd point out that a member of the parliament of India makes about 3% of the salary of a member of the U.S. Congress (or at least that was the case as of four years ago). The salary of China's premier is less than 2% of the U.S. president's. Oh, and a Chinese CEO makes less than 1% of what a typical U.S. CEO makes.
Just FYI.
Just FYI.
I see that there's now a book on the lower rungs of the New York Times bestseller list called God and Ronald Reagan: A Spiritual Life. The publisher is Regan Books, a small, select imprint of Rupert Murdoch's HarperCollins that's run by sometime Fox talk-show host Judith Regan. It's good to see God and Ronald Reagan at Regan Books -- Regan, after all, is responsible for such deeply reverent works of inspiration as Howard Stern's Miss America, Dan Anderson's Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man, and Jenna Jameson's How to Make Love Like a Porn Star (forthcoming).
If you saw the online version of yesterday's USA Today article about the marketing of ancillary Passion products, you unfortunately missed one of the photos that appeared in the print edition -- a photo of Bobby Labonte's NASCAR auto with a big Passion of the Christ ad on it. Well, a NewsMax article has a similar photo. My question is -- um, what's that ad just below the Passion ad? Is that an ad for, er, the kind of pill they make in Eurosocialist countries for weak, whiny city people who think they're unhappy -- the kind of pill you get a 'script for from a bearded New York Christ-denying doctor?
...Oh yeah, I guess it can help you quit smoking, too. Well, hell -- I don't know about Mel Gibson, but the fundies think Jesus can cure homosexuality. They need a pill for smoking?
Another thought: The online USA Today story has a picture of the little nail pendants that are apparently all the rage among people who think The Passion is the greatest movie ever made even though they haven't been able to see it yet. It's cool with me if people want to waer these -- hey, I grew up Catholic, surrounded by crucifixes -- but I was reading the USA Today story at the airport, and if somebody in front of me in a security line someday holds the rest of us up because he or she was dumb enough to try to get on a flight wearing a nail, I am going to be pissed off.
...Oh yeah, I guess it can help you quit smoking, too. Well, hell -- I don't know about Mel Gibson, but the fundies think Jesus can cure homosexuality. They need a pill for smoking?
Another thought: The online USA Today story has a picture of the little nail pendants that are apparently all the rage among people who think The Passion is the greatest movie ever made even though they haven't been able to see it yet. It's cool with me if people want to waer these -- hey, I grew up Catholic, surrounded by crucifixes -- but I was reading the USA Today story at the airport, and if somebody in front of me in a security line someday holds the rest of us up because he or she was dumb enough to try to get on a flight wearing a nail, I am going to be pissed off.
Hey, I'm back. I'm still catching up -- what'd I miss?
Nader. Feh.
I gather it was a front-page story, even though it was no surprise -- he's been teasing us with trial balloons for months. You want a real news flash? Not only is he running this year, he's running four years from now. You read it here first. He'll do it every four years until he physically can't. I think he craves the abuse. It makes him feel he's right.
Nader supporters and I have differing views about the purpose of elections. They tend to describe voting in terms of themselves: "I've been burned by the Democrats too many times before." "The Democrats think I owe them my vote." Now me, I think elections are about, y'know, who gets to hold a particular office. In 2000 that meant: Did you want Bush, and thus a federal government with all three branches controlled by the GOP's far right wing, or didn't you?
The most important thing that needs to be done in American politics is to break the grip of Reaganism. I made that word up -- you can call it what you want: Limbaughism, Gingrichism, Norquistism, Coulterism, Bushism. Reaganism has controlled American politics virtually nonstop for a generation. That's the sucking chest wound. That's what the patient is going to flatline from.
Reaganism could have been in at least some trouble if a Democrat had reached the White House for the third straight election cycle -- three straight losses might have made the GOP's leadership wonder whether it's such a great idea to have the party's national message crafted exclusively by the religious right and far-right think tanks. But we missed that chance, didn't we?
Some Nader supporters, of course, still think the two major parties are Tweedledum and Tweedledee. And I'm sure some of you are planning to e-mail me laundry lists of issues on which the parties are indistinguishable. Look -- I know, I know. But spare me your lists. I also know that Al Gore would not have concocted an Iraq war out of whole cloth. I know that his attorney general would have been significantly to the left of John Ashcroft. I know his judicial appointments would be far to the left of William Pryor and Charles Pickering. For chrissakes, isn't that enough? It was obvious well before election day 2000 that Bush was no moderate. The religious right and far-right opinion elite were just fine with Bush. Bush made it clear that he was their boy when he wouldn't even put his good buddy Tom Ridge on the ticket, just because Ridge is pro-choice. What more did you need to know?
Now, let's talk about 2004. Nader says he has to run to bring up issues the major parties won't. But what is Dennis Kucinich -- chopped liver? What is Nader going to bring up that Kucinich isn't bringing up now? And whether we like it or not, Kucinich isn't winning votes. At a certain point, you just have to say: Well, bravo for, say, single payer, but if the voters aren't voting for single payer candidates, and if this is a democracy, then maybe we can't just instantly tip the balance in favor of single payer in one election.
I don't get Nader. He doesn't lead demonstrations or hold rallies or call for huge e-mail campaigns on the eve of critical congressional votes, and his supporters say, well, yeah, he's not really that kind of popular leader. And then every four years he runs for president -- he goes out and tries to become just that kind of popular leader. If he's willing to trudge from city to city rallying the faithful, why not do it to defeat the Patriot Act or the resolution that led us to the Iraq War -- or, say, to rally grassroots support for single payer? Why not be an agitator all the time instead of a politician running futile campaigns every four years?
OK, I've ranted enough about this. I will say this: I oppose any anti-Nader activity that's anti-democratic (with a small d). I'm not going to deface Nader petitions. And when I read that the Democrats are going to challenge Nader's ballot status in court, I just want to shout, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TERRY, DON'T DO IT. Please, Democrats -- don't stir up the very anger that could hand Nader votes in the states where his petitions do manage to go through, because even those votes could be enough to hand Bush yet another term. Let the man get on the damn ballots if he can manage it, then compete with him fair and square.
Nader. Feh.
I gather it was a front-page story, even though it was no surprise -- he's been teasing us with trial balloons for months. You want a real news flash? Not only is he running this year, he's running four years from now. You read it here first. He'll do it every four years until he physically can't. I think he craves the abuse. It makes him feel he's right.
Nader supporters and I have differing views about the purpose of elections. They tend to describe voting in terms of themselves: "I've been burned by the Democrats too many times before." "The Democrats think I owe them my vote." Now me, I think elections are about, y'know, who gets to hold a particular office. In 2000 that meant: Did you want Bush, and thus a federal government with all three branches controlled by the GOP's far right wing, or didn't you?
The most important thing that needs to be done in American politics is to break the grip of Reaganism. I made that word up -- you can call it what you want: Limbaughism, Gingrichism, Norquistism, Coulterism, Bushism. Reaganism has controlled American politics virtually nonstop for a generation. That's the sucking chest wound. That's what the patient is going to flatline from.
Reaganism could have been in at least some trouble if a Democrat had reached the White House for the third straight election cycle -- three straight losses might have made the GOP's leadership wonder whether it's such a great idea to have the party's national message crafted exclusively by the religious right and far-right think tanks. But we missed that chance, didn't we?
Some Nader supporters, of course, still think the two major parties are Tweedledum and Tweedledee. And I'm sure some of you are planning to e-mail me laundry lists of issues on which the parties are indistinguishable. Look -- I know, I know. But spare me your lists. I also know that Al Gore would not have concocted an Iraq war out of whole cloth. I know that his attorney general would have been significantly to the left of John Ashcroft. I know his judicial appointments would be far to the left of William Pryor and Charles Pickering. For chrissakes, isn't that enough? It was obvious well before election day 2000 that Bush was no moderate. The religious right and far-right opinion elite were just fine with Bush. Bush made it clear that he was their boy when he wouldn't even put his good buddy Tom Ridge on the ticket, just because Ridge is pro-choice. What more did you need to know?
Now, let's talk about 2004. Nader says he has to run to bring up issues the major parties won't. But what is Dennis Kucinich -- chopped liver? What is Nader going to bring up that Kucinich isn't bringing up now? And whether we like it or not, Kucinich isn't winning votes. At a certain point, you just have to say: Well, bravo for, say, single payer, but if the voters aren't voting for single payer candidates, and if this is a democracy, then maybe we can't just instantly tip the balance in favor of single payer in one election.
I don't get Nader. He doesn't lead demonstrations or hold rallies or call for huge e-mail campaigns on the eve of critical congressional votes, and his supporters say, well, yeah, he's not really that kind of popular leader. And then every four years he runs for president -- he goes out and tries to become just that kind of popular leader. If he's willing to trudge from city to city rallying the faithful, why not do it to defeat the Patriot Act or the resolution that led us to the Iraq War -- or, say, to rally grassroots support for single payer? Why not be an agitator all the time instead of a politician running futile campaigns every four years?
OK, I've ranted enough about this. I will say this: I oppose any anti-Nader activity that's anti-democratic (with a small d). I'm not going to deface Nader petitions. And when I read that the Democrats are going to challenge Nader's ballot status in court, I just want to shout, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TERRY, DON'T DO IT. Please, Democrats -- don't stir up the very anger that could hand Nader votes in the states where his petitions do manage to go through, because even those votes could be enough to hand Bush yet another term. Let the man get on the damn ballots if he can manage it, then compete with him fair and square.
Sunday, February 15, 2004
So Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest, no longer utters the "blood libel" against Jews in Mel Gibson's Jesus movie -- right? You know: "His blood be on us, and on our children" -- Mel cut that out, didn't he?
The cover story in this week's Entertainment Weekly (subscription only) says maybe, maybe not:
Last fall, Gibson reportedly cut the line; in fact, at the [November] screening attended by [Jim] Caviezel [the star of the film] and [actress Rene] Russo, it wasn't there. But in recent weeks, Gibson showed thousands of Christians a version that retained the line. Word got out. Controversy erupted. The press pounced. Gibson was heard to suggest that dark forces were moving against him. And again, interest was piqued. The capper: In February, The New York Times, whose coverage of The Passion Gibson has deplored, was allowed to see the film, and broke the news that the "blood libel" reference had been deleted.
The magazine thinks this is just a clever way to garner publicity. I doubt it. I think when the movie opens, the line will be gone -- at least on the West Coast and in the Northeast. Now, maybe it would be too risky for Gibson to retain the line in the prints that are distributed in the red states. Maybe he'll just wait and restore it in the DVD ("UNCUT CHRISTIAN EDITION!"). Maybe the line will be absent in American prints, but will show up in prints distributed in, oh, I don't know ... Indonesia and the Middle East? Or maybe, in the future, when church groups ask for copies to help in proselytizing, the line will slip in.
The cover story in this week's Entertainment Weekly (subscription only) says maybe, maybe not:
Last fall, Gibson reportedly cut the line; in fact, at the [November] screening attended by [Jim] Caviezel [the star of the film] and [actress Rene] Russo, it wasn't there. But in recent weeks, Gibson showed thousands of Christians a version that retained the line. Word got out. Controversy erupted. The press pounced. Gibson was heard to suggest that dark forces were moving against him. And again, interest was piqued. The capper: In February, The New York Times, whose coverage of The Passion Gibson has deplored, was allowed to see the film, and broke the news that the "blood libel" reference had been deleted.
The magazine thinks this is just a clever way to garner publicity. I doubt it. I think when the movie opens, the line will be gone -- at least on the West Coast and in the Northeast. Now, maybe it would be too risky for Gibson to retain the line in the prints that are distributed in the red states. Maybe he'll just wait and restore it in the DVD ("UNCUT CHRISTIAN EDITION!"). Maybe the line will be absent in American prints, but will show up in prints distributed in, oh, I don't know ... Indonesia and the Middle East? Or maybe, in the future, when church groups ask for copies to help in proselytizing, the line will slip in.
These guys will say anything, won't they?
"This idea that's developed that we're going to run against Kerry like he is Mike Dukakis is a bunch of baloney," said [Matthew] Dowd, [Bush's chief campaign stategist]....
"Mike Dukakis was an outsider, and compared to John Kerry, Mike Dukakis is mainstream. Michael Dukakis was a governor who balanced a budget. I don't remember Michael Dukakis ever advocating defense cuts, and I don't remember Michael Dukakis ever advocating against cuts in taxes."
--New York Times
Here's the restrained, high-minded way Bush the Elder and his surrogates talked about the "mainstream" Michael Dukakis:
"It’s time to talk issues, to use the dreaded 'L' word. Liberal, liberal, liberal!"
--Ronald Reagan taunting Dukakis, 8/14/88
"The liberal governor of Massachusetts -- I love calling him that!"
--Bush campaigning in Albuquerque, 10/4/88
"He did not go to Canada, he did not burn his draft card and he damn sure didn't burn the American flag!"
--George Bush favorably contrasting Dan Quayle with Dukakis and his backers (and making a gutter-level allusion to an utterly unsupported rumor that Kitty Dukakis once burned an American flag), 8/22/88
"There's a lot of things we can refer to the man from Massachusetts as. We can call him 'Mr. Tax Increase.' ... We can call him 'Mr. Weak on National Defense.' But let me tell you something. Come November 8th, there's one thing we'll never call the governor of Massachusetts, and that is 'Mr. President.'"
--Dan Quayle, 9/17/88
"Want to hear a sad story about the Dukakis campaign? The governor of Massachusetts, he lost his top naval adviser last week. The rubber duck drowned in his bathtub."
--Dan Quayle, 9/13/88
(All quotes from Paul Slansky's 1989 book The Clothes Have No Emperor.)
Incidentally, the absurdity of the Dowd quote is acknowledged in the online version of the Times story: Dowd is said to be "offering a view of Mr. Dukakis that no doubt would have turned the head of Lee Atwater, the mastermind of George H.W. Bush's 1988 campaign." This coment does not appear in my copy of the print Times, however -- which means that someone actually had to point this out to Times editors.
"This idea that's developed that we're going to run against Kerry like he is Mike Dukakis is a bunch of baloney," said [Matthew] Dowd, [Bush's chief campaign stategist]....
"Mike Dukakis was an outsider, and compared to John Kerry, Mike Dukakis is mainstream. Michael Dukakis was a governor who balanced a budget. I don't remember Michael Dukakis ever advocating defense cuts, and I don't remember Michael Dukakis ever advocating against cuts in taxes."
--New York Times
Here's the restrained, high-minded way Bush the Elder and his surrogates talked about the "mainstream" Michael Dukakis:
"It’s time to talk issues, to use the dreaded 'L' word. Liberal, liberal, liberal!"
--Ronald Reagan taunting Dukakis, 8/14/88
"The liberal governor of Massachusetts -- I love calling him that!"
--Bush campaigning in Albuquerque, 10/4/88
"He did not go to Canada, he did not burn his draft card and he damn sure didn't burn the American flag!"
--George Bush favorably contrasting Dan Quayle with Dukakis and his backers (and making a gutter-level allusion to an utterly unsupported rumor that Kitty Dukakis once burned an American flag), 8/22/88
"There's a lot of things we can refer to the man from Massachusetts as. We can call him 'Mr. Tax Increase.' ... We can call him 'Mr. Weak on National Defense.' But let me tell you something. Come November 8th, there's one thing we'll never call the governor of Massachusetts, and that is 'Mr. President.'"
--Dan Quayle, 9/17/88
"Want to hear a sad story about the Dukakis campaign? The governor of Massachusetts, he lost his top naval adviser last week. The rubber duck drowned in his bathtub."
--Dan Quayle, 9/13/88
(All quotes from Paul Slansky's 1989 book The Clothes Have No Emperor.)
Incidentally, the absurdity of the Dowd quote is acknowledged in the online version of the Times story: Dowd is said to be "offering a view of Mr. Dukakis that no doubt would have turned the head of Lee Atwater, the mastermind of George H.W. Bush's 1988 campaign." This coment does not appear in my copy of the print Times, however -- which means that someone actually had to point this out to Times editors.
Saturday, February 14, 2004
OK -- this is a cheap shot, but I can't resist:
First Daughter Barbara Bush's dirty-dancing partner has been hot-footing it from the law.
Gotham gadabout Fabian Basabe - pictured in a hip-lock with Babs on the front page of the Daily News yesterday - is wanted on three warrants in California.
The social climber has been busted for speeding, driving under the influence and trespassing. He even jumped bail in one case, court records show.
Other court files show a string of infractions - but no open warrants - in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, including two collisions.
... His first warrant dates back to an Oct. 22, 1999, bust for driving more than 100 mph and without a license in Riverside, a city in Southern California.
...Three months later, Basabe was nabbed for trespassing on the Malibu campus of Pepperdine University at 6:30 a.m. and driving with a suspended license....
...On May 21, 2000, he was stopped for driving under the influence at the wheel of a friend's 1996 Volkswagen Jetta....
I guess she's looking for a guy like Dad.
Oh, and while I'm here in the gutter, I see that TBogg has linked this report on the evening Babs spent with Basabe ("Commenting on the trays of margaritas and Veuve Clicquot champagne delivered to Bush's table before her gutsy performance, one wag quipped, 'I hope the Secret Service is driving her home'").
******
OK, I know: a lot of you think this stuff ought to be be off limits.
I understand. I'd rather it stayd off limits too. But you know what? For years, Republicans have been attacking the character not only of Democratic politicians but of everyone who isn't a God-fearing Republican conservative. Here's Newt Gingrich back in the '90s:
"Woody Allen having non-incest with a non-daughter to whom he was a non-father because they were a non-family fits the Democratic platform perfectly."
And here's Gingrich talking about child-killer Susan Smith:
"I think the mother killing her two children in South Carolina vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much we have to have change. I think people want to change and the only way you get change is to vote Republican. Thats the message for the last three days."
(Smith's stepfather, of course, was a prominent South Carolina Republican and Christian Coalition member who molested her.)
And Republicans talk a hell of a lot about "the family." They don't think you can be a good person, or a good parent, if you don't accept their definition of family and if you don't raise your kids the way they do. And the flip side of that is the implication that if you do what they do, you are automatically a good person and your family is automatically a good family. A weird result of this is what Paul Krugman alluded to yesterday -- the fact that George W. Bush is seen as a man of "character" and "integrity, " as a good, decent man, no matter how dishonest or reckless or irresponsible or mean-spirited or rude he is. It's as if a large percentage of the country agrees with Pat Robertson's assertion about Bush: "It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him.''
If there's going to be a gutter GOP campaign that paints not only the Democratic nominee but all Democrats as moral decadents and threats to "the family," then at some point it really might not be out of line to talk about just what kind of family George and Laura Bush have.
(First link via INTL News.)
First Daughter Barbara Bush's dirty-dancing partner has been hot-footing it from the law.
Gotham gadabout Fabian Basabe - pictured in a hip-lock with Babs on the front page of the Daily News yesterday - is wanted on three warrants in California.
The social climber has been busted for speeding, driving under the influence and trespassing. He even jumped bail in one case, court records show.
Other court files show a string of infractions - but no open warrants - in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, including two collisions.
... His first warrant dates back to an Oct. 22, 1999, bust for driving more than 100 mph and without a license in Riverside, a city in Southern California.
...Three months later, Basabe was nabbed for trespassing on the Malibu campus of Pepperdine University at 6:30 a.m. and driving with a suspended license....
...On May 21, 2000, he was stopped for driving under the influence at the wheel of a friend's 1996 Volkswagen Jetta....
I guess she's looking for a guy like Dad.
Oh, and while I'm here in the gutter, I see that TBogg has linked this report on the evening Babs spent with Basabe ("Commenting on the trays of margaritas and Veuve Clicquot champagne delivered to Bush's table before her gutsy performance, one wag quipped, 'I hope the Secret Service is driving her home'").
******
OK, I know: a lot of you think this stuff ought to be be off limits.
I understand. I'd rather it stayd off limits too. But you know what? For years, Republicans have been attacking the character not only of Democratic politicians but of everyone who isn't a God-fearing Republican conservative. Here's Newt Gingrich back in the '90s:
"Woody Allen having non-incest with a non-daughter to whom he was a non-father because they were a non-family fits the Democratic platform perfectly."
And here's Gingrich talking about child-killer Susan Smith:
"I think the mother killing her two children in South Carolina vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much we have to have change. I think people want to change and the only way you get change is to vote Republican. Thats the message for the last three days."
(Smith's stepfather, of course, was a prominent South Carolina Republican and Christian Coalition member who molested her.)
And Republicans talk a hell of a lot about "the family." They don't think you can be a good person, or a good parent, if you don't accept their definition of family and if you don't raise your kids the way they do. And the flip side of that is the implication that if you do what they do, you are automatically a good person and your family is automatically a good family. A weird result of this is what Paul Krugman alluded to yesterday -- the fact that George W. Bush is seen as a man of "character" and "integrity, " as a good, decent man, no matter how dishonest or reckless or irresponsible or mean-spirited or rude he is. It's as if a large percentage of the country agrees with Pat Robertson's assertion about Bush: "It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him.''
If there's going to be a gutter GOP campaign that paints not only the Democratic nominee but all Democrats as moral decadents and threats to "the family," then at some point it really might not be out of line to talk about just what kind of family George and Laura Bush have.
(First link via INTL News.)
By the way, they love playing this game of reveal-and-withhold, don't they?
The White House distributed the two-inch stack of papers, and allowed reporters a brief look through another several dozen pages of medical records that were not allowed out of a briefing room....
--AP on yesterday's "release" of Bush's Guard file
The document was made available to The New York Times on Sunday, with an accompanying translation made by the military. A reporter was allowed to see the Arabic and English versions and to write down large parts of the translation.
--Dexter Filkins on the request for al-Qaeda aid allegedly written by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, The New York Times, 2/9/04
Responding to earlier threats of a subpoena, the White House agreed last year to allow three members of the 10-member commission and the panel's Republican staff director to review portions of the President's Daily Brief from before the Sept. 11 attacks....
In recent weeks, however, the White House has refused to give permission for the four members of the delegation to share with the full commission their handwritten and computerized notes, which are retained by the White House under the agreement....
--Philip Shenon, New York Times, 2/10/04
The White House distributed the two-inch stack of papers, and allowed reporters a brief look through another several dozen pages of medical records that were not allowed out of a briefing room....
--AP on yesterday's "release" of Bush's Guard file
The document was made available to The New York Times on Sunday, with an accompanying translation made by the military. A reporter was allowed to see the Arabic and English versions and to write down large parts of the translation.
--Dexter Filkins on the request for al-Qaeda aid allegedly written by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, The New York Times, 2/9/04
Responding to earlier threats of a subpoena, the White House agreed last year to allow three members of the 10-member commission and the panel's Republican staff director to review portions of the President's Daily Brief from before the Sept. 11 attacks....
In recent weeks, however, the White House has refused to give permission for the four members of the delegation to share with the full commission their handwritten and computerized notes, which are retained by the White House under the agreement....
--Philip Shenon, New York Times, 2/10/04
Why is every news story saying that there's been a release of Bush National Guard documents? It's not a release:
The White House distributed the two-inch stack of papers, and allowed reporters a brief look through another several dozen pages of medical records that were not allowed out of a briefing room...
In any case, it didn't work:
Hundreds of pages of documents that the White House said comprise President Bush's entire military record offer no new answers to the election-year questions that have swirled around his Vietnam-era service. Democrats who have led the criticism greeted Friday's release of documents with skepticism.
The White House distributed the two-inch stack of papers, and allowed reporters a brief look through another several dozen pages of medical records that were not allowed out of a briefing room...
In any case, it didn't work:
Hundreds of pages of documents that the White House said comprise President Bush's entire military record offer no new answers to the election-year questions that have swirled around his Vietnam-era service. Democrats who have led the criticism greeted Friday's release of documents with skepticism.
Did the FDA cave in to Christian Right pressure on the morning-after pill? Sure looks that way -- and it looks as if the agency did it at the time most cowardly acts are done in Washington, on a Friday afternoon:
...On Dec. 16, two expert advisory committees to the F.D.A. recommended, by votes of 23 to 4, that the drug [the morning-after pill] be sold over the counter.
But that did not stop the lobbying for and against the drug.
On Jan. 9, some 35 members of Congress wrote to President Bush asking him to urge the F.D.A. to deny the over-the-counter application....
And then, late this afternoon...
The Food and Drug Administration has told Barr Laboratories, the marketer of a so-called morning-after pill, that it is delaying its decision on whether to allow the drug to be sold over the counter.
The company's president and chief operating officer, Dr. Carole Ben-Maimon, said the F.D.A. called about 2 p.m. today and then faxed the company a letter saying it was extending its Feb. 20 deadline by 90 days.
The agency wants Barr Laboratories to provide more information about the use of the emergency contraceptive, especially among teenagers, according to the company....
If there were a betting pool for approval of over-the-counter sales of this drug in the U.S., I'd put money on "never" -- or at least on "never as long as Republicans control the federal government."
...On Dec. 16, two expert advisory committees to the F.D.A. recommended, by votes of 23 to 4, that the drug [the morning-after pill] be sold over the counter.
But that did not stop the lobbying for and against the drug.
On Jan. 9, some 35 members of Congress wrote to President Bush asking him to urge the F.D.A. to deny the over-the-counter application....
And then, late this afternoon...
The Food and Drug Administration has told Barr Laboratories, the marketer of a so-called morning-after pill, that it is delaying its decision on whether to allow the drug to be sold over the counter.
The company's president and chief operating officer, Dr. Carole Ben-Maimon, said the F.D.A. called about 2 p.m. today and then faxed the company a letter saying it was extending its Feb. 20 deadline by 90 days.
The agency wants Barr Laboratories to provide more information about the use of the emergency contraceptive, especially among teenagers, according to the company....
If there were a betting pool for approval of over-the-counter sales of this drug in the U.S., I'd put money on "never" -- or at least on "never as long as Republicans control the federal government."
Friday, February 13, 2004
From faith-based prison to faith-based courts in Jeb Bush's Florida?
The Miami Daily Business Review reported Jan. 8 that Broward Judicial Nomination Commission (JNC) member O’Neal Dozier has asked several candidates for Broward County judgeships inappropriate questions about their religious beliefs, such as whether they attend church and are “God-fearing.” ...
Dozier has repeatedly expressed an intolerant and theocratic approach to government. According to a report in the New Times Broward-Palm Beach late last year, Dozier told a Religious Right gathering, “We as Christians must take control of the government. We should be the ones in charge of the government.”
New Times said Dozier also observed that homosexuality is “something so nasty and disgusting that it makes God want to vomit.”
According to the more recent Miami Business Review article, Dozier said, “There is no such animal as separation of church and state in the Constitution.”
Dozier was appointed to the judicial nomination commission by Gov. Bush....
--Americans United for Separation of Church and State
The Miami Daily Business Review reported Jan. 8 that Broward Judicial Nomination Commission (JNC) member O’Neal Dozier has asked several candidates for Broward County judgeships inappropriate questions about their religious beliefs, such as whether they attend church and are “God-fearing.” ...
Dozier has repeatedly expressed an intolerant and theocratic approach to government. According to a report in the New Times Broward-Palm Beach late last year, Dozier told a Religious Right gathering, “We as Christians must take control of the government. We should be the ones in charge of the government.”
New Times said Dozier also observed that homosexuality is “something so nasty and disgusting that it makes God want to vomit.”
According to the more recent Miami Business Review article, Dozier said, “There is no such animal as separation of church and state in the Constitution.”
Dozier was appointed to the judicial nomination commission by Gov. Bush....
--Americans United for Separation of Church and State
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