Month: May 2008

Don’t Want to Be Gay? Come to Daddy

Trish

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.

The Bush-Rove Legacy: Voting Like Adolescents

Trish

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.

Thousands in Indiana County That was Home to Jackson Five are Disenfranchised

Trish
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.

Pres. Obama Would Respond to Iranian Nuke Attack on Israel As an ‘Attack on the U.S.’

Jon Ponder

Massive retaliation: Susan Rice, Barack Obama’s chief spokesperson on foreign policy, confirmed today that if Obama is elected president, he would treat a nuclear attack by Iran on Israel as if it were an attack on the United States. Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” broadcast, Rice made it clear that Obama would continue the United States’ longstanding pledge to protect the state of Israel from aggressors.
For 50 years it has been the policy of the U.S. to respond to a nuclear attack on Israel with “massive retaliation,” also known as “obliteration.”
On Jan. 12, 1954, John Foster Dulles, secretary of state for Pres. Dwight Eisenhower, warned the Soviet Union that the United States would respond to a nuclear attack on Israel with what has come to be known as “massive retaliation”:

Dulles stated that the U.S. would respond to military provocation “at places and with means of our own choosing.” This was interpreted to mean that the U.S. could respond to any foreign challenge with nuclear weapons. Dulles also said that “Local defense must be reinforced by the further deterrent of massive retaliatory power.” This quote forms the basis for the term massive retaliation, which would back up any conventional defense against conventional attacks with a possible massive retaliatory attack involving nuclear weapons.

A similar formulation of U.S. policy regarding nuclear attacks on its allies is “mutually assured destruction.”

It was this policy that Hillary Clinton was referring to when she said recently that if Iran launched a nuclear attack on Israel, her administration would “obliterate” Iran.

Despite the fact the massive-retaliation policy regarding Israel has been operative under presidents ranging from Kennedy to Nixon to Carter, Obama characterized Clinton’s threat against Iran as George Bush-style “cowboy diplomacy.”

Apparently Obama’s response caused agita among national security experts and supporters of Israel, so Rice was sent out today to confirm that if Iran vaporized Israel, Pres. Obama would, indeed, respond with massive retaliation.

House Panel Investigating Torture Issues Subpoena to Cheney’s Top Aide

Jon Ponder

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.

Should Obama be Thanking Hillary Clinton?

Trish

There’s no question that Hillary Clinton’s win at any cost strategy is drawing some blood from Barack Obama. But could there be an up side to that? Maybe.

It’s better to get the Hillary-level crap out of the way now than later

GOP operatives are intently watching the Democratic primary fight to see how to push Obama’s buttons. They also hope Obama’s missteps and losses have alienated key general election constituencies – or at least planted negative impressions with them that will last into the fall…

Already, Republicans are testing a theory that Obama could be a liability for Democrats down-ballot, running ads in special congressional races that linked the Democratic candidate to Obama in hopes of helping the Republican candidate.

It didn’t work in Louisiana. The Democrat, Don Cazayoux, won Saturday anyway. Underscoring the GOP’s challenge this year, Democrats won the seat that Republicans have held since 1974.

If being associated with Obama didn’t sink a candidate’s ship, and even helps, then how much trouble was Obama really in? And as the article also points out, it would be unrealistic to expect someone’s first run for president to be flawless. Better to get the Hillary-level crap out of the way now than later.

“It hasn’t been a great couple weeks, but some of these problems were going to emerge anyway, and it’s better that it happened now than in the fall,” said Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster who worked for Kerry’s campaign and is unaligned in the primary. He said Obama has gone through a “learning period” and that will benefit him in fall if he is the nominee.

Added Erik Smith, a Democrat and former aide to Dick Gephardt: “There’s something to be said for getting this stuff behind him, and not having any October surprises.”

I guess we have something to thank Hillary for after all.

Dem Senate Candidates Debate in N.C. – Winner in Tomorrow’s Primary Will Take on Sen. Liddy Dole

Jon Ponder

Sen. Elizabeth Dole is up for reelection this year, and the combination of her underwhelming performance over the past six years and the general bad odor emanating from the Republican Party of late makes her particularly vulnerable. (A longtime resident of the Watergate apartments in Washington, D.C., Dole has also irked many of her constituents by failing to spend much time on the ground in North Carolina. She grew up in Salisbury but has not been a full-time resident of the state since the 1960s.)
Dole has also irked many of her constituents by failing to spend much time on the ground in North Carolina. She grew up in Salisbury but has not been a full-time resident of the state since the 1960s.
After a lot of debating about holding a debate, the five Democrats running to square off against Dole met in Greensboro last week. The candidate with the lead in the polls is Kay Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro. Her most competitive challenger is Jim Neal, a corporate financial adviser from Chapel Hill.

Hagan … said she believes any Democrat has a good chance of defeating Dole in the November election. But she vowed to be that candidate, contrasting herself with Dole on issues such as the minimum wage, financial aid for students and veterans benefits.

Neal repeatedly tried to engage Hagan during the hour-long debate moderated by students on the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Spartan TV. And while Hagan tried to focus her responses on Dole, she also contrasted herself with her Democratic competitors, including Lumber-ton attorney Marcus Williams and Moncure podiatrist Howard Staley. [Duskin Lassiter, a Lexington trucker, did not participate.]

Hagan, contrary to the other three candidates on stage, would not dismiss the possibility of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a way to soften soaring gas prices — an idea often proposed by Republicans but rejected by congressional Democrats.

“I think that’s an issue of a cost-benefit ratio,” Hagan said. “You’ve got to look at how much oil is there, how long it will last and what is the risk from an environmental standpoint. I will really study the cost-benefit analysis.”

The veteran lawmaker said the more urgent priority was finding alternative sources of energy. She also advocated eliminating incentives for oil companies.

Neal … immediately said he opposes drilling in Alaska, suggesting the nation should tap into the nation’s large strategic petroleum reserve first. President Bush favors continuing pumping oil into the reserve in case of an international disruption in oil markets.

“I don’t believe we can begin talking about plundering our natural environment in order to generate more oil on the marketplace,” said Neal, an entrepreneur.

Williams cited data indicating the oil in the wildlife refuge would take years to develop and do little to influence gas prices. Staley said drilling for oil and would only continue a cycle of President Bush’s energy policy, which he dubbed “Drill until you’re sick. Get all the oil out of the earth you can.”

“It’s only led to more consumption and more pollution,” Staley said.

But do the Democrats have a chance of taking Dole’s seat this year? Despite the fact that Dole occupies the seat once held by Sen. Jesse Helms, and Republican Richard Burr won the other seat when Democrat John Edwards decided not to run for reelection in 2004 when he was John Kerry’s running mate, the answer is yes.

While North Carolina has been a reliable red state in every presidential elections since 1976, Democrats have historically done well in state races. North Carolina has had a Democratic governor in six out of the last eight terms, and Democrats control both houses of the legislature.

Polls: N.C. Voters Trend toward Clinton, But It’s Unlikely She’ll Close the Gap – Indiana Looks Tight

Jon Ponder

The punditosphere is correct that even if Hillary Clinton wins every primary between now and June 3, she won’t accrue enough delegates to win the nomination. Still, in the unlikely event she were to win both the North Carolina and Indiana primaries tomorrow, it could shake up the race again:

A new USA Today poll out Monday suggested that Obama, vowing to become America’s first black president, had been damaged by the fallout of racially tinged remarks by his former pastor Jeremiah Wright.

For the first time in three months, the former first lady led her rival in the survey of national Democrats, by seven percentage points. Two weeks ago before the latest storm over Wright hit, Obama was up 10 points.

A new CBS/New York Times poll on Sunday however suggested Obama had started to recover from the Wright furor, giving him an 11-point lead over Republican candidate McCain, 51-40.

Last Tuesday, that hypothetical matchup had been tied. Clinton led McCain in the same poll by 12 points.

Another poll, by Suffolk University in Indiana, showed the New York senator leading Obama in the state by six points 49 percent to 43 percent…

Obama still led in another battleground, North Carolina, where Clinton and her husband former president Bill Clinton have been campaigning feverishly.

A Zogby tracking survey had the Illinois senator up by eight in the state, much lower than the 20 point lead he had enjoyed in some polls just weeks ago. Zogby had the race in Indiana a mathematical tie.

Another source reports that the Zogby poll gives Obama a sizable lead in North Carolina but shows his numbers wobbling, along with a 5 point uptick for Clinton:

  • Apr 30 – May 1: Obama – 50 percent, Clinton – 34 percent
  • May 1 – May 2: Obama – 46 percent, Clinton – 37 percent
  • May 2 – May 3: Obama – 48 percent, Clinton – 39 percent

The Zogby numbers show roughly 10 percent of N.C. voters are undecided. In recent primaries, undecided voters have mostly broken for Clinton.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

Free speech is about as good a cause as the world has ever known. But, like the poor, it is always with us and gets shoved aside in favor of things which seem at some given moment more vital. Everybody favors free speech in the slack moments when no axes are being ground.

— Heywood Broun (1888-1939), American sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor