Day: November 23, 2006

Six Car Bombs Kill 146 in Baghdad – 268 Wounded in Sadr City

Jon Ponder

All hell is breaking loose:

Six car bombs killed 146 people in a Shi’ite stronghold today in the bloodiest attack in Baghdad since the US invasion and the authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on a city fearful of a sectarian civil war.

A further 268 people were wounded in the series of blasts in the capital’s Sadr City slum, a Health Ministry official said.

The blasts came at the same time as gunmen surrounded and fired on the Shi’ite-run Health Ministry in one of the boldest daylight assaults by militants in Baghdad. Mortars later crashed down on a nearby Sunni enclave in an apparent reprisal attack.

Groundwork Laid for Cheney’s Ouster – One Step Closer to V.P. McCain

Jon Ponder

Novak Changes Bush’s Loyalty Meme

The latest Evans-Novak Political Report suggests the way President Bush fired Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld caused considerable friction in the White House. “Even Vice President Dick Cheney is said to be profoundly disturbed by Rumsfeld’s treatment.”

Pres. George W. Bush might never be impeached, but he could be forced to resign as a result of the coming investigations by the Democrats. If he and his co-conspirator, Vice Pres. Cheney, were to resign together, Speaker Pelosi would become president. Any risk of this is intolerable, so Cheney has to go first.

Unhappy with Bush, the GOP establishment will want Sen. John McCain to replace Cheney. If Bush resigns, Pres. McCain would serve out the rest of his term and then enjoy the sublime benefit of barnstorming the country in 2008 on Air Force One. (The fact that McCain and Bush hate each other would be icing on the cake.)

I expected to hear rumors about Cheney after the holidays: his health problems are flaring up, he is bored in his diminished role and wants to return to business — or that he and Bush are having a major spat — but why wait:

The latest Evans-Novak Political Report suggests the way President Bush fired Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld caused considerable friction in the White House. “Even Vice President Dick Cheney is said to be profoundly disturbed by Rumsfeld’s treatment.”

…[Robert] Novak also suggests Bush’s “shrouded decision” came after he declared Rumsfeld would serve out the second term. “It fits a pattern of a President who is secretive and impersonal.”

Wait. I thought Bush was “loyal to a fault?” Did Novak unilaterally change the president’s meme? If so, did it come from Karl?

Will Science Kill Homophia?

Jon Ponder
“Selectively hanging onto these ancient proscriptions for gays and lesbians exclusively is unfair according to anybody’s standard of ethics. We lawyers call it ‘selective enforcement,’ and in civil affairs it’s illegal.”
— “Buzz” Thomas

The rationale for institutional homophobia is based on the belief that sexuality is a choice. It is a central tenent in most religions: people choose to be gay. It’s okay to discriminate against gay people because they are willful sinners.

Sexuality is not a choice, of course. It’s a natural phenomenon that occurs in dozens of species. “Buzz” Thomas — a minister and a lawyer from Tennessee who is described here as an evangelist for the separation of church and state — has a column up at USA Today, in which he warns Christians and others that they may need to re-read the Bible:

[Why] are so many church leaders (not to mention Orthodox Jewish and Muslim leaders) persisting in their view that homosexuality is wrong despite a growing stream of scientific evidence that is likely to become a torrent in the coming years? The answer is found in Leviticus 18. “You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination.”

As a former “the Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it” kind of guy, I am sympathetic with any Christian who accepts the Bible at face value. But here’s the catch. Leviticus is filled with laws imposing the death penalty for everything from eating catfish to sassing your parents. If you accept one as the absolute, unequivocal word of God, you must accept them all.

[…]