Day: May 6, 2008

Looks like Rush’s followers know how to do as they’re told. CNN:

How big of an impact did Rush Limbaugh’s ‘Operation Chaos’ have in Indiana? Did GOP voters really cross over to create havoc in the Democratic primary by voting for Hillary Clinton, as he’d asked his listeners to do?

Roughly one in ten of the state’s Democratic primary voters were Republican — and that group did vote for Hillary Clinton, 53 to 47 percent over Barack Obama. But hold on: registered Democrats, who made up two-thirds of Tuesday’s primary voters, gave roughly the same edge to Clinton, 53 to 45 percent. Only Independents — who made up about a quarter of the electorate — voted for Obama, 53 to 47 percent.

For whatever reason, self-identified conservative voters did overwhelmingly support Clinton – two out of three cast their votes for the New York senator.

Now this is the funniest thing we’ve seen all day. First, the guy’s name is David Pickup. Seriously. And he wants to help men struggling with homosexuality, or “SSA” (same-sex attraction, we’re guessing) to “go deeper.” Excuse me? And his advice for someone who is stressed and tired and feeling all SSA?

…it might help you to gather your courage and do something for yourself that would put you “in your body.” This could be anything from athletics of some kind of an activity in which you feel an authentic visceral emotion. If this works for you, you might ask yourself why you find it hard to “be in” your God-given body.* Also, you can never go wrong in connecting emotionally with another guy in whom you have some trust and who will not judge you no matter what you are feeling.

Yeah, that’ll help.

For only a small monthly fee ($250) Dave will show you how to be the manly man you were meant to be, with a fully developed sense of manhood and male identity and masculine manliness and OMIGOD, come HERE you big hunky thing!

Dave has a passion for helping men be men. He wants to help as many guys as possible and invites men who have the same desire to join with him.

I bet he does.

He can also teach you to love women. Yes, it can be done. Say what?? Thanks a lot, Dave.

To be clear, I am not poking (so to speak) fun at homosexuals, nor even at people who are unhappy that they are gay. In our society, I’m know it’s no picnic. I am ribbing idiots like this who hold out false promises and prey on others’ insecurities to make a buck.

Big ol’ hat tip to Jacksonville Confidential for this one.

* Or why you are questioning your other God-given attributes.

There’s a basic problem in mixing religion with politics, says The Nation’s Katha Pollitt: religious leaders. No matter what brand of faithfulness the heavyweights offer, they are all “out there.”

For years, Democrats have been trying to shed their secular image in order to appeal to voters who think Jesus is a Republican. As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for, because now, thanks to Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the Democrats have got religion and everything that comes with it—weirdness, wrath, insult, blowhardiness, vanity, paranoia, divisiveness and trouble.

Of course, Wright is not alone.

McCain still welcomes the endorsement of the televangelist John Hagee, who has famously attributed Hurricane Katrina to God’s wrath at homosexuals, calls the Catholic Church “the great whore,” claims the Quran commands Muslims to kill Jews and Christians and condemns the Harry Potter books as witchcraft.

I hope the days of choosing elected officials based on bowling scores or religious zealotry or who you’d rather drink a beer with pass with the Bush administration.

…Wright and Hagee have a lot in common. Both believe that chickens come home to roost—in New Orleans and on Sept. 11, 2001—and that God sends them. Both think America is sinful. Both have bizarre ideas with terrible, real-world implications: Hagee wants the U.S. and Israel to attack Iran; Wright claims the U.S. government invented the HIV virus “as a means of genocide against people of color.”

The fact is, if Wright were a white wing-nut, the news media—and the voters—would give him the pass they give Hagee—and Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and the other radical-right preachers, who say vicious, bigoted, nutty things that violate common sense and common decency all the time.

Religion is inherently irrational. No one can empirically prove that Jesus is the son of God, or that God engraved stone tablets for Moses, or any other tenets of Christianity or Judaism or Islam or you name it. So any argument about public policy that begins with what you believe God wants or God said or God does is invalid.

I sometimes wonder if, after eight years of Bush, we will ever find our way back as a country. We’ve been talked to like adolescents who are being ordered to their rooms for so long that we’ve begun to act like that’s what we are. When Obama or Edwards or Biden any other candidate tries to talk to us like adults, we pout. When they expect us to be reasoned and fair and to eschew quick fixes or hate talk or dumb ideas that we want to hear but that don’t solve problems, we call them names. “Elitist! Intellectual! Snob! You think you’re better than us? Huh? You’re not even wearing our team’s pin on your lapel!”

I saw a political cartoon the other day that showed a man in a voting booth. He was pursing his lip and staring down at his ballot. “Hmmm,” he said. “I don’t know. He bowled a 37.” The caption read, “How America picks the leader of the free world.” I hope not. I hope the days of choosing elected officials based on bowling scores or religious zealotry or who you’d rather drink a beer with pass with the Bush administration. So far, it looks like they might be here to stay.

Just call their name…but they won’t be there

A huge voting roll purge has been under way in Indiana, lowering the number of eligible voters even without the recent Supreme Court ruling on an Indiana case that people at polls must present government-issued I.D.s.

BlackBoxVoting says 1.1 million registrations were canceled. A disproportionate number — about 125,000 — of them were in just two counties. Strangely, these counties are in the only area of the state with which I’m familiar, having spent a few weeks with an aunt who taught at Purdue University.

Lake County, the home of Gary, Indiana, has spawned the Jackson Five and a great old musical (The Music Man) and and has been referred to as “the second most liberal county in America.” Lake County has one of the heaviest concentrations of African-American voters that you’ll find anywhere in the USA.

Nearby Porter County, the home of Valparaiso, is 95% white and went solidly for Bush in the 2004 election. It also has a lot of college kids.

For whatever reason, these two counties had … what … massive data entry problems? Exceptionally messy records? Lots of dead people who climbed back into their graves? Or will we see a lot of disappointed voters on Tuesday, when they perhaps learn that they were among the lucky million people who got purged?

HERE’S WHERE THE HEAVIEST PURGES ARE:

Lake 137,164 — 48 percent (Gary)
Porter 124,958 — 115 percent (Valparaiso)
Marion 68,120 — 10 percent (Indianapolis)
Monroe 66,009 — 85 percent (Bloomington)
Tippecanoe 53,456 — 58 percent
Madison 42,952 — 47 percent (Anderson)
Hamilton 42,325 — 26 percent

The counties are just this side of the Illinois state line, a stone’s throw from Chicago (yes, I visited while I was there). We also went to Bloomington, where my aunt’s former employer, Indiana University, is located. With IU, Purdue, Valparaiso, Marian College, Anderson University, Calumet, and Ivy Tech, the population of college students in these areas is disproportionately high. I think it was the very late ’70s when I was there but I do remember being assured it was full of enlightened folks. Too bad they can’t vote.

Update: This came in an email tonight from Steven Rosenfeld, Election Reporter, AlterNet.org — FYI. Bev Harris’ report that 1.13 million Indiana voters have been purged that you posted on Pensito Review and AlterNet’s PEEK is incorrect, and even she posted a correction on her website. That is why I told the AlterNet managing editors to take it down as a PEEK post a few minutes ago.

I did the independent research yesterday – as well as sending her info late Sunday from other sources, ie, the Federal Election Assistance Commission, which showed she was misinterpreting a page on the Indiana Secy of State Website for ‘cancellations.’ In an arcane bureaucratic way, that meant changes in the voter file that ‘cancelled the previous registration record,’ not removed voters. It could to correct typos, addresses, etc.

I also got figures a from the IN SOS this morning that showed the figure was closer to 620,000 voters purged since June 2006,. If you consider that the purging process mostly is a 4 year process and that 620k figure is 12.5% of the state’s voter rolls, then this is alarmist news.

I am not in the business of defending Republican secretaries of state, but being wrong is being wrong.

Moreover, in the news reporting today, there has not been wide spread reports of people showing up at the polls and being told they were not on voter lists because of purges. Are there other issues? Yes, but not that one.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have voted to authorize issuing a subpoena to David Addington, the top aide to Dick Cheney:

David Addington had refused to testify without a subpoena. He’s one of several lawyers believed to have played a role in crafting the administration’s interrogation policies shortly after the September 11th attacks. Some say those policies amount to torture.

House investigators may also get to learn more about interrogations from John Yoo, the former Justice Department attorney who wrote a 2003 memo justifying harsh tactics against al-Qaida and Taliban detainees overseas. The memo said such practices were legal as long as they did not specifically intend torture.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith (fyth) are also set to testify at a future hearing. Former CIA Director George Tenet is apparently still negotiating with the panel.

Addington took the place of Cheney’s former top staffer, Scooter Libby, after Libby was convicted of perjury last year.