Year: 2006

Iraq Plan Unmitigated Disaster

Trish

Oh yeah. We’re getting closer by the day to being able to hand this thing over to the Iraqis and walk away. Because, you know, their police and security forces have really taken to this whole training thing.

Shiite militiamen doused six Sunni Arabs with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by, and killed 19 other Sunnis in attacks on their mosques Friday, taking revenge for the previous day’s attack on a Sadr City slum…

The bloodshed underlined the impotence of the Iraqi army and police to quell determined sectarian extremists at a time when the United States appears to be considering a move to accelerate the handover of security responsibilities.

New Christian Coalition Head Resigns; Not Whacked-Out Enough

Trish

The leadership of the Christian Coalition, which has apparently not been paying attention lately, missed a rare opportunity to join mainstream America.

What does the Christian Coalition have to do with Jesus, beyond being a syllable in their name, I mean?

The reverend elected to take over as president of the Christian Coalition of America said he will not assume the role because of differences in philosophy.

The Rev. Joel Hunter of Longwood’s Northland, A Church Distributed, said Wednesday that the national group would not let him expand the organization’s agenda beyond opposing abortion and gay marriage…

Hunter, who was scheduled to take over the socially conservative political group Jan. 1, said he had hoped to focus on issues such as poverty and the environment.

“These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about,” Hunter said.

But what does the Christian Coalition have to do with Jesus, beyond being a syllable in their name, I mean?

Oh well. Even though they let this decent-sounding guy walk, maybe there was some softening in the group’s hard stance, or some sign they are open to change.

Not a chance.

A statement issued by the coalition said Hunter resigned because of “differences in philosophy and vision.” The board accepted his decision “unanimously,” it states.

NC 08: One-Time Millworker Still Has a Chance to Topple Heir to Mill Fortune

Jon Ponder
Despite lingering anger over CAFTA, conventional wisdom said Rep. Hayes would skate by Kissell on election night. But the final vote showed Kissell trailing by only 350 votes.

The midterms are not over. In fact, in North Carolina’s 8th District, Larry Kissell, one of my favorite candidates, may still have a chance to topple the Republican incumbent, Rep. Robin Hayes. Kissell is a former textile worker and teacher, and Hayes is an heir to the Cannon Mills textile empire, which employed tens of thousands of people in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in its heyday. (Toward the end of the heyday, I lived in the 8th District during my high school years.)

Cannon Mills is gone now. It has been sold and renamed at least three times. The heirs to the fortune, including Rep. Hayes, sold out long ago. Still, Rep. Hayes caused a stir during the debate on CAFTA in June 2005. Just two years earlier, on July 30, 2003, the last vestige of the Cannon family’s empire, by now called Pillowtext, closed its mills, leaving around 4,000 of Rep. Hayes’ constituents jobless in a single blow. Voting for CAFTA could certainly cause more jobs to move overseas. But Rep. Hayes was apparently strong-armed by then House Majority Leader Tom Delay, on behalf of the White House political office, into voting for the treaty.

Despite lingering anger over CAFTA in his district, conventional wisdom said Rep. Hayes would skate by Kissell on election night. But the final vote showed Kissell trailing by only 350 votes. Two and a half weeks — and a couple of recounts — later, Kissell is still not ready to concde:

Voters in North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District will have to wait for a manual inspection of ballots next week to determine who will represent them in the 110th Congress, with four-term Republican Rep. Robin Hayes holding a mere 329-vote lead over Democratic challenger Larry Kissell.

A count of provisional ballots and a machine recount that ended Wednesday revealed that Hayes’ margin diminished by nearly 150 votes since he declared victory over Kissell on Election Night two weeks ago…

Johnnie McLean, the chief deputy director of North Carolina’s board of elections, said county elections officials will manually inspect ballots in 3 percent of precincts on Nov. 29 and 30. If the sampling reveals a statistical inconsistency, state officials may decide to pursue a districtwide manual recount.

Kissell ran as a populist which offered a stark contrast from Rep. Hayes, who embodies corporatism.

Bush at Camp David for Thanksgiving

Jon Ponder

Bush is at Camp David (with Condi). AmericaBlog suggests he’s at the presidential country retreat hoping to recharge what little presidential mojo he has left.

My first thought was Kitty Kelly’s description in her book about the Bushes, “The Family,” of George W. Bush doing cocaine at Camp David when his father was in office. (The source of this story appears to have been Sharon, Neil’s ex-wife.)

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.

[…]

Breaking: Marine Commandant Says Iraq Is Putting Corps Is At Risk

Trish

ABC News is reporting that the new commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Conway, says that the strain on resources caused by the war in Iraq is jeopardizing the Marines’ worldwide mission.

“There is stress on the individual Marine, and there is stress on the institution,” Conway told reporters today.

Conway expressed concern that the Marines could be hampered from successfully deploying if a significant new crisis were to erupt.